> Celestia Trigger
>  by Thadius0
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1 - My story begins...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It's funny, really, the things you look back on.  If you do something remarkably stupid, five years later, your brain will pick the most random time to recall it, and it'll make you wince in remembered embarrassment.  I mention this because five years ago, I was a normal kid.  School, home, games, friends, the whole shebang.  Look at me now, ma.  Saving a land of ponies.

Of course, it wouldn't have happened if Fred hadn't had the bright idea to attend a costume party and insisted our entire clique go as members of Chrono Trigger.  He, naturally, chose Magus, because he thought he was the best fit.  Christine became Marle, Wendy went as Lucca, Greg became Frog slash Glenn, Hector went as Robo, I got stuck as Crono, and Nadine...

Let's just say my main duty was making sure our Ayla lookalike didn't become too swarmed that night.  And while everyone else had gone with just their costumes and mock-up equipment, I went a step further.

On Ebay, I found someone selling a replica Gate Key, and I only thought of one thing.  That we needed that thing for the party.  I bid on it, and my friends told me when I'd been outbid.  It ended up costing me a pretty penny, but fortunately my uncle is a cool guy and told me I could pay him back later.  He's...always been looking out for me.

So we attended the party, got several pictures taken, and even won first place in the contest the owner of the place was running...that Fred hadn't told us about.  Still, a good portion of the prize money went to me once I told them about paying my uncle back for the Key, and the rest was split between them.

It was when Fred had dropped me off at home that weird shit started happening.  I'd been halfway across the yard when there was a sudden stinging sensation in my left hand.  The left hand that was holding the Gate Key.  The Gate Key that was suddenly glowing.

The world around me turned black, then red, then shifted up the color spectrum until a sphere of white, blinding light surrounded me.  By that point, I had passed right out due to the feeling of being pulled in so many different directions.  The pain...the searing pain!





When I awoke, I noticed a few things right off.  The first was that it was noon or thereabouts.  I raised a hand to keep the sun out of my eyes, and noticed that something was wrong.

Something was dreadfully, dreadfully wrong.

Because I was pretty sure I didn't live in the middle of a forest.  My first thought was that I'd simply gotten drunk and done something stupid while under the influence, but I quickly dismissed that.  While there had been alcohol available at the party, I'd not partaken.  I slowly picked myself up, wincing at the pain, and then I realized something.

The pain had been real.  The last thing I remembered must therefor have also been real.  Which meant that I didn't know what in the world had happened or was happening.

The fact that I was suddenly carrying extra weight on my person confirmed that for me.  It felt like the costume...wasn't much of a costume anymore.  More like it had been changed.  I grabbed the hilt of my wooden sword only to realize that it, too, was different.  It felt like someone or something had changed out my costume for the real thing.

Upon thinking that, I noticed that the Gate Key was nearby, shining in the sunlight.  I picked it up and turned it over a few times before shoving it in my waistband.  It was the last thing I recalled, so it was my key to getting home.  As was this location.  With that thought in mind, I turned around the glade and drew my apparently now real sword and made several crude markings on the nearby trees.  Ones that, if you knew what you were looking for, would resemble the Gate Key.  Or, perhaps, just seven lines drawn together to look vaguely like a star.

The reason I did this was simple: I wasn't going to just hang around here for any length of time.  I mean, I'd waved my Key at the glade, and nothing happened.  And there was no food, or water, or shelter here.  So staying wasn't a option, but neither was leaving without making sure that I knew where this place was.

It was when I was looking for something, anything that would tell me where I was, that I realized I was not where I thought I'd been.  Namely, Earth.

After all, Earth doesn't have great big serpents living in its rivers.  Ones that could talk, apparently.

"Oh hello!" the purple mustached river serpent said, and I immediately placed its voice.  "My word, you're rather different-looking!  Might I ask not only who but also what you are?"

That was the second time I blacked out in a twenty-four hour period.





So uh, yeah.  My Little Pony.  I recognized where I was.  Go on, laugh it up.  I was a geek, nerd, egghead, call me what you will.  I was both vastly interested in the underlying mysteries of the cosmos, while at the same time, I watched a show about ponies.  Mainly because I needed something to make me smile, and that show did a damn fine job.

I came to to see Stephen Magnet and his unmolested mustache looking down at me, which gave me an idea as to when I'd entered the timeline of the show.  "Goodness gracious, are you all right?"

I slowly nodded a few times and cleared my throat.  "I'm sorry, I...I'm not from around here, and the shock from realizing that threw me for a loop."

The serpent nodded and smiled.  "Perfectly all right, good sir.  I might faint too, were I suddenly confronted with unfamiliar scenery."

I picked myself up for the second time that day and looked to the sky, noticing it was now late afternoon.  "Dang, I was out for a bit..."

Stephen nodded.  "Quite.  But once again, I don't blame you.  Ah, but where are my manners?"  He bowed a bit at that.  "Stephen Magnet.  And you?"

I bowed as well.  "Crono."  No sense giving out my actual name, and if I look like him, then why not borrow his name?  "Might I ask what today's date is?  I seem to have forgotten."

The serpent nodded.  "Quite all right, good sir.  Today marks year nine-hundred and ninety-nine since the defeat of Nightmare Moon.  I hear word through the pony grapevine that the Princess is hosting the Summer Sun Celebration in Manehatten this year."

I hummed at that.  I was a year early.  Which meant contacting Twilight and, subsequently, Celestia about this mess would be that much harder for an entire year.  Then I decided to wing it.  "A few more questions, good sir."

Stephen nodded before pointing at me.  "As long as I get to ask some in kind."

I laughed at that.  "Fair enough, an information exchange game it is.  What would you like to know?"

He hummed a bit.  "Well, while I know who you are, the question of what remains unanswered..."

I nodded.  "Human, scientifically categorized as Homo sapiens sapiens.  Think of an ape, then take away most of its hair, and give a few million years in a harsh and unforgiving world.  It'll evolve into something that looks vaguely like me."

Stephen nodded as I explained, quite vaguely, as to what a human was.  I then proceeded to ask my question.  "Any idea where the nearest settlement is?  I'm quite lost and need to find my way back, or failing that, some help or shelter for the night."

The serpent brightened at that.  "Well if it's just shelter you're after, there's a set of ruins in the forest, just across this river and down the pathway.  But if you follow the stream, it should eventually lead you to this delightful little town of ponies.  I occasionally visit them and share stories about the goings-on with those brave enough to approach me."

I nodded at that and looked across the river at the path he'd mentioned.  Seemed easy enough to me.  I made to jump across, and Stephen just put his hand at the edge of the riverbank while raising an eyebrow.  I laughed a bit sheepishly and stepped on, and he obliged in ferrying me across.

"Many thanks, my good serpent," I told him.  "And if you can think of a way for me to repay you, do let me know."

He merely waved me off.  "Just take care to not get ambushed on your way to the ruins.  The forest is home to far nastier things than me."

I nodded, recalling the various beasties that the show had featured.  If I ran into any of them, I'd be glad for my sword...





By the time I arrived at the castle ruins, night was falling.  I'd not run into anything other than a few berry bushes.  I watched the bushes carefully, and when I saw a few rabbits run up and eat from the things, I determined that they weren't poisonous, and stuffed myself until I wasn't hungry anymore.

Yeah, apparently the last time I actually ate was a while ago, which I took the opportunity to rectify.

The rope bridge was still intact when I arrived, which was a blessing.  Though it creaked a little under my weight, I took the chance to rush along and arrive at the castle proper.  If Stephen's words weren't enough to cement the fact that I'd arrived early, the spheres sitting on top of the monument of slash to the Elements of Harmony was.  I walked into the main hall, closed the door behind me, and leaned up against a wall while I ran through everything in my head.

Went to costume party, check.  Come home, nearly done.  Got sucked into some sort of Gate thanks to the incredibly realistic Key, yup, that happened.  Woke up in Equestria a year before the things on the show happened, yeah, that also was something that occurred.  Shelter?  Found in the ruins.  Water?  I could always hit up Stephen's river.  Food?  I'd probably have to start a garden.  My stuff?  Probably very real equipment that I should learn how to properly use.

I decided to poke around the castle a bit, which turned out to be a big, big, big mistake.  Once I got a ways past the monument slash receptacle for the Elements, my Gate Key glowed, and the air in front of me rippled before changing color.

A huge sphere of purple-blue-black opened up in front of me, and the Gate sucked me in before closing.

The transition, this time, was painless, but not without noise.  I could hear the sound of wind rushing all around me, even in the inky void that was a Gate.  I reappeared in a similar set of ruins, with nothing appearing to have changed, save for one very, very important fact.

There was a unicorn in front of me, wearing traditional archeologist's equipment, even down to the pith helmet.  We stared at each other for a moment before he screamed and fell unconscious.

Great, my one lead to determine when I was, and he'd gone and gotten freaked out over the human appearing in the middle of the ruins.  At least, I think it was a he.  That scream was awfully girly.  Fortunately, he'd set up a sort of camp nearby, and that included a fire pit and a pony-sized sleeping bag.  I ended up having to drag him over, but the prospect of warmth for the both of us wasn't something I was going to turn down.





It was morning when the stallion awoke.  I knew because I'd dozed off at some point, and his renewed screaming woke me up.  I was up in a flash, then I remembered where I was and what happened before groaning.  "Ugh...can...can you not, please?"

"Who are you?  What are you?  How did you appear out of nowhere like that?!"

Nope, apparently, I'd gotten a panicky pony.  I looked him over a bit more.  His coat was turquoise while his mane and tail were yellow and his eyes were sapphire blue.  His mark was of a pickaxe over a pith helmet, probably indicating his love of excavating ancient ruins.  I stared at him while he continued to blather, and eventually got fed up with it.  I reached out one hand and clasped his mouth shut, which not only shut him up, but made him stop when he saw that not only did I have a good hold on him, but I also had a sword.

"I'm going to go over some basic things," I said in a strained voice, "And when I'm done, I'm going to want you to answer one question for me.  My name is Crono," No it isn't, "I'm what you can call a human, and I don't have any ill wishes to you at this time.  However, your ceaseless accusations of 'monster' or 'creature' are slightly offensive to me, so if you would be so kind as to tone them down, that'd be great.  I'm going to let you go now, and when I do, you're going to tell me when I am."

The pony was released from my grasp, and he gulped a few times.  "Ah, terribly sorry, Sir Crono.  My name is Ancient Lore, and I was looking into the ruins of the Castle of the Two Sisters.  I always make an expedition here during the Summer Sun Celebration.  Which, by the way, it is currently five hundred and ninety-nine years after Princess Celestia defeated Nightmare Moon.  Why is that something you require to know?"

I groaned a bit.  Apparently, I'd gone backwards.  "Because for one like me, knowing when you are becomes slightly tedious."

Lore cocked his head to one side before causing his horn to glow.  From one of his bags, what I would call a pocket-watch drifted out and floated towards me, coated in a blue aura similar to the one his horn had covering it.  I snagged it out of the air and looked at both it, then him.  The clock showed it was approximately seven AM, at least, if the emerging sun was anything to go by.

"Keep it," he said.  "I have a spare back home.  But...how, and why, are you here?"

I sighed and reclined a bit.  "That...is a long story."

Lore shrugged and sat on his rump before gesturing at his supplies.  "I brought enough for days, I think I can hear you out."

I smiled a bit at that and rubbed my chin.  "Where to start...I suppose I should begin by saying I'm not quite of this world..."
> Chapter 2 - Party like it's 599
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So wait," Ancient Lore said while eying the Gate Key.  "That device is not only responsible for dragging you from your homeworld, but from the time you landed in as well?"

I nodded while running one finger down the aforementioned device carefully.  "Yeah.  I mean, I probably could go back through whatever Gate exists to the year 999, but there, I don't have much.  Here at least there is company and food."

Ancient Lore chuckled at that.  "A fair point.  But still, someone from four-hundred years in the future.  What is different there?  Do you know?"

I shook my head at the unicorn's question.  "No idea.  This is technically only my second day in Equestria.  I made the ruins my first stop, and the Gate sorta just...opened.  I'm either going to need to be careful around this place, or I'm going to need to accept that I'll shift four hundred years every time I enter the ruins."

Ancient Lore hummed a bit at that.  "I think there are several openings in the outer walls that you could use to leave and enter besides the main one.  Thus averting the problem entire."

I blinked at the logic of the unicorn before sighing.  "I need to wait a year anyways, so why not do it here?"

He tilted his head at that.  "Why do you need to wait a year?"

I waved a hand around while looking for the right words.  "In the year 1000, a student of Celestia will move to Ponyville.  From there, she will have many adventures while learning several important lessons, but most importantly, she will be highly talented in magic and have a direct line to the Princess.  If the unicorn mare in question cannot aid me in returning to my own place, then the Princess herself will be able to."

Lore hummed and then asked a very pertinent question.  "Why don't you ask her now?"

I thought about the best way to explain it to him, then snapped my fingers and pointed at the discarded apple cores from our breakfast.  "Can you yank the seeds out of those for me?"

With a burst of blue magic, the assorted apple seeds were hovering in front of me.  I snatched them out of the air and walked out of the castle in such a way to not hit the Gate.  I then motioned for Ancient to wait near the castle while I crossed a bridge and looked around the other side for a glade I hadn't seen yet.  It took me all of two minutes to locate one, and I buried the seeds quite carefully.

"Okay," I told the unicorn upon my return.  "Assuming those took, then I'll be able to show you why I don't want to talk to the Celestia of this day and age."

With that, I pulled out the Key, walked around the monument to the Elements, and came across a shining blue sphere with a spark in the middle.  Only slightly perturbed that I could now see the Gate, I shrugged and touched the end of the Key to the sphere, and transported myself four hundred years forward.

Reappearing in the slightly-older ruins, I then turned around and set out for the same glade that I'd just been to.  I'd gotten most of the way there when I found that the clearing had been overrun by wild apple trees.  Wild apple trees that I was sure hadn't existed until I planted the seeds.  Grabbing an armful of the fruits, I turned around, walked back to the ruin, and tapped the Gate with my Key again.

I only stumbled slightly upon returning to the younger ruins, but Ancient Lore was there to see me return and gasped.  "Did you just?"

I nodded and held my armful of apples out towards the unicorn, and he grabbed them in his magic before floating them over to his supplies.  "I just visited the same glade where I planted those seeds...four-hundred years later.  I just altered the future from the past by doing one simple thing.  And think about it.  How many things did I change by planting some seeds in 599?  How many things are different now in 999?"

Ancient blinked a few times and rubbed his head.  "By Celestia, but time travel does introduce a world of complications to the world."

I nodded at that.  "Now think.  Celestia is an, at the very least, ageless alicorn.  If I introduce myself to her now, she'll remember me four hundred years later.  Who's to say she won't pay me a visit?  Who's to say she won't trample all over my time-line?"

Ancient slowly nodded at that.  "True...you'd have to take your own self into account with that.  So avoiding her and Canterlot is something you'd be interested in, then?"

I nodded a few times, quite vigorously.  "Do you know of anywhere I could go?"

Ancient merely smiled and gestured to his gear.  "I don't live here, you know.  I have a place in Trottingham, one that I'd be willing to share with you as long as you'd be willing to share your story with me and help out."

I shrugged at that.  "As long as we come back here in a year and change.  I'd rather not come back here directly one year afterwards, because of reasons, but shortly after or before would be perfect for me."

"Ah yes," the turquoise unicorn commented as he began to pack up his things.  "That mysterious mare you said would arrive at some point in the future."

"Yeah," I chuckled as I grabbed a hold of one of his bags.  "Let's just say, she'll also be here in one year's time, at least, relative to my timeline, and it won't be for the same reason we, or rather, you, were."

Lore sighed as we made our way out of the ruins and I carefully skirted the Gate.  "Why do the young not have any appreciation for history?"

I shrugged as I followed the unicorn out of the ruins and out of the forest entire.  "Those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.  You're lucky, though."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, you'll get to learn from the future as well."

And we both laughed as we made our way to Trottingham.





Okay, so, something I learned once we arrived at the pony city.  Apparently, bringing in a strange creature you found in the Everfree Forest that was not only armed but also sapient was something that would be odd for any other pony.  Any other pony being the operative phrasing.  Apparently, this was not the first time Lore had done something like this.  Or even the tenth.  The guards at the gate of the city looked at me with one raised eyebrow before letting us both in, with merely a few words given to the unicorn I'd been traveling with.  Words along the lines of 'watch this one this time will you?'

"So, uh, that happened," I pointed out.  Lore waved off my observation.

"I go exploring a lot, and when I bring some new creature or thing back to study, the guards know that I don't intend for any mayhem to erupt.  The fact that it sometimes does is a terrible shame."

I rolled my eyes at his flippant attitude.  "I find it even more fascinating that the other ponies also aren't batting an eyelash at the strange creature walking into town with you."

Lore looked around with wide eyes.  "Strange creature?  Where?"  He then looked at me and shook his head.  "Nope, no strange creatures here.  Just my friend Crono the so-very-far-from-home human."

And at that, I merely smiled at the pony.  Maybe my year here wouldn't be so bad after all.

Looking back, I really shouldn't have thought that line.  Like, at all.





It had barely been a week in Lore's home.  I helped out around the place, went out to market to fetch him new supplies, and generally made myself useful while we swapped stories.  Mine about my home, and Lore about all the things he'd seen across Equestria.  Some were amusing, some were daring, and some I wondered just what he'd been thinking before going on these trips.

"So you not only went directly to an encampment of Diamond Dogs, with a load of your archeology tools, but you also brought along gems?  And you were surprised when they started to make you work?"

Lore shrugged.  "I tried to make my intentions clear.  Gems to barter my way in with, tools to work with, and food for myself.  It wasn't my fault they took me to be some sort of gem-digging expert and put me to work in their mines for trespassing on their lands."

I sighed at that.  "Dogs are highly territorial.  Going anywhere near them could probably be seen as an act of aggression.  As well, you were carrying around a load of their favorite food.  I'm honestly surprised you got out of there alive."

Lore smiled at that.  "Magic.  They may have wanted me to use it to dig up gems.  I dug up gems, all right, and then harassed them with the nice hard shiny rocks until they agreed to let me go.  Amazing what constant head trauma will make a Dog agree to."

We shared a laugh at that, and that was when there was a knocking at the front door.  Turning to it with a look of horror on his face, Lore then quickly whipped his head around to me and motioned to the stairs to the basement.  "Quick!  Hide!"

I moved to the door and turned back to the unicorn with a puzzled expression on my face.  "What-"

"No time!"  He quickly shoved me through and shut it with his magic.  "Just get down there and don't make a sound!"

I hesitated for a moment to try and listen in on what was going on.  "Open up in there!  Lore, we need to talk to you!"

I heard the sounds of the door opening and Lore talking to the ponies on the other side.  "Oh?  What seems to be the issue, officers?"

"Lore, that thing you came back with.  You know there's a time limit on how long you can keep creatures in town limits."

I sucked in a breath at that and carefully made my way down the stairs.  I looked around to see...well, not much, it was dark.  Fortunately, I'd made it a habit to carry candles and matches around in his place, and pulled out the magical, auto-igniting match that responded to a simple 'light' command and lit up the first candle I grabbed a hold of.  The basement wasn't a room I'd frequented before, and it seemed that down here was where Lore stored the memorabilia that most ponies might find a wee bit...disturbing.

Like entire pony skeletons.  Or weapons coated in what looked like ancient rust.  Dear god I hoped that was ancient rust.

However, what got my attention was the shining blue sphere in the middle of the room.  The one with a small spark at the center.  The inactive Gate sitting underneath the pony I'd been rooming with for the past six days.  I pondered it for a moment longer before I heard the door rattle.

"You won't mind if we check your basement, right Lore?"

With that, my mind was made up.  I pulled out the Key and all but thrust it at the Gate.  It proceeded to swallow me up, and I heard and felt the winds howl around me as I was temporally displaced again.

And the place I ended up...

Well, it was a goddamn nightmare.
> Chapter 3 - Welcome to Hell
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The first thing that I saw was that I was now in a room made of metal.  There was a door in the back, but no visible doorknob on it anywhere.  Looking around showed me that it appeared to be roughly the same dimensions as the room I'd been in not too long ago.  And then I noticed the rust and age and wear on everything.  As though whoever owned this place...couldn't be bothered or simply wasn't around to take care of it anymore.  A sinking feeling started to coalesce in my gut at that notion...

I carefully made my way up the stairs and out of the metallic house to find my worse nightmare had come true.

The city of Trottingham had been upgraded, but also destroyed.  Everything that was standing appeared to be made of metal, and there was a huge, glass-like dome that had been put in place some time prior.  However, it was riddled with holes and appeared to be so very, very destroyed.  Even then, though, I didn't jump to conclusions.  Not even seeing the constant cloud cover made me think of the most obvious reason.

I slowly made my way down the street, taking note of how the city had expanded and grown in however far the Gate had taken me.  It was pretty much a done deal that I'd been brought forward at this point, so I decided to extrapolate on what, besides the thing I would not think of, could possibly have done this, in multiple senses of the word.  First I wondered what could possess the ponies to build such marvels, and then I wondered what could have destroyed them.

I had just reached the edge of the city, where the dome met the ground, when I finally saw life.  Thin, ragged, and downright filthy life, but life all the same.  It was a pony, and when it saw me, it gave a gasp and ran into the service area for the dome before slamming the door shut.

I walked over to the door and knocked a few times, not really expecting an answer.  I got one, though.

"Go away!  No monsters allowed!"

I sighed at that and moved my mouth close to the crack of the door.  "I'm not a monster!"

There was silence for a moment before the pony responded.  "Yeah right!  That's exactly what a monster would say!"

I grinned; my friends and myself had gotten into several such arguments.  "And what would something that's not a monster say?"

Silence reigned for a good ten seconds before I got a response.  "Um...I dunno.  I didn't know monsters could talk."

"If you don't know what something that wasn't a monster would say to gain entry," I pressed, "then how do you know that I'm not saying it right now in all my not-monster-ness?"

I swear I heard the brain of the pony rebooting as it considered what I was saying seriously.  "My brain hurts," I heard moaned out from the other side of the door.

"And how about my feelings?" I countered.  "C'mon, it's freezing out here."  It was, actually.  Even through my clothes, I felt the chill in the air.  "And I don't have a coat of fur like ponies.  I really, really need to come in."

Silence was once more the master of the area before the door slowly ground open.  "All right," the pony said, "You can come in, but I've got my eye on you."

Walking in and taking in the pony revealed that it was an Earth Pony, or at the very least not a Unicorn, somewhere between a filly and a mare.  Her coat was a dirty orange, and she was wearing filthy, tattered robes over much of her body.  Seeing as how I not only saw no wings, but no bulges for the wings, I felt a little more confident that the pony wasn't a Pegasus.  Her mane was short and spiky and very green, and her tail was long and unkempt.  What was very interesting was that she didn't have a mark on her flank, at least, as far as I could see.

As I was taking in her, she was taking in me, and she snorted when we caught each others' eyes again.  "Well," she said, "You're right.  You're not a monster, or if you are, you're not a usual monster."

"I'd like to think I'm as unusual as possible," I fired back.  "Though if you'd like my name, I'll tell you I go by Crono."

The mare blinked a few times before shrugging.  "I'm called Copper, when others bother to call me a name at all.  C'mon, I'll show you to the rest of the ponies."





The rest of the ponies, as it turned out, barely numbered a dozen, and none of them responded to my prodding, either verbal or physical.  They'd mostly gathered around a large, pod-shaped device.  I walked up to it and stuck my head in, noticing that the interior seemed to glow a slight green.  "Um.  What's this?"

Copper shrugged.  "We call 'em Energizers.  They can restore your body, but they can't fill your stomach.  Run off some sort of Magi-tech.  Last bits of magic left in the world, really."

I declined to go inside, but turned to the mare and shrugged.  "Okay, so...what is this place?  When am I?"

The mare blinked at that but shrugged.  "You're in Trott Dome.  As for when, who knows?  It's the end of the world.  Robots and mutants run rampant around here."

I sighed at that.  Something had happened, and I would need to find out what.  "Any records in this place?"

Copper shrugged.  "Who knows?  Robots roam through a good bit of the dome.  They let us be here, but we can't get at anything.  No controls, no records, no food."

I pulled out a candle and a magic match before lighting the former with the latter.  The eyes of Copper widened at the sight of magic and light being pulled out in this desolate age, and I smiled at the sight.  Apparently, something could break their shell of pessimism.  With my left hand holding the candle, I put the match away and pulled on the handle of my katana.  It glinted crimson in the candlelight, and I recognized that particular shade.  I smirked and looked around, noticing a set of stairs nearby with a sign that, while worn, still had the letters MAIN on the left half of it.  Figuring it was part of the word maintenance, I turned and walked towards them.  Once I was at the stairs, I paused and looked over my shoulder.

"You coming?"

Copper seemed to struggle with the idea for a minute before nodding and following.  "Just so we're clear.  If I die, I'm haunting you, and if you die, I'm running."

"Let's try not to die then, eh?" I quipped.





Not dying was becoming a chore.  The robots were all vaguely pony-shaped but, thankfully, had no wings or horns.  They were, however, capable of delivering one hell of a punch.  Stamped on each one, in raised metal, were the letters MD-05.  And every time I took one down with a quick slice of my Crimson Katana, there would be another one about ten feet away, who'd heard the noise.

I'd barely taken one out the first time before being forced to flee back upstairs and use the Energizer.  I then noticed that I was able to do progressively more and more.  I was learning the basics of swordplay by beating up robots in the basement of this Trott Dome.

And despite the lack of food, I enjoyed the learning experience.  Time, however, began to blur.  It was an endless task of go down stairs, bash robots until I can hardly move anymore, and then go up to the Energizer to restore myself before starting the cycle anew.  Copper, on the other hand, had shown some interest in the scraps of the robots, and pulled out a wrench from within her tattered robes.  Occasionally, I would see her dragging a robotic body upstairs before proceeding to take it apart.

"What are you doing?" she asked one day.  "You know they won't stop."

"Yeah?  Well neither will I.  There has to be a finite number of the things, and when they run out, I'll finally be able to see what's down there.  And what about you?  What are you up to?"

She shrugged before proceeding to unscrew something from the latest robot head that she'd dragged upstairs.  "Learning.  Mom's mom was a mechanic, or so she said.  Passed on what she could to me.  I don't remember all of it, but it's coming back."

It eventually came to pass that when I went downstairs, there were no robots to attack me.  I kept my blade at the ready and looked around, expecting anything to come at me from the shadows.  And while something did come at me from the shadows, it wasn't from the direction I'd thought it would be, nor was it what I thought it would be.

The clip-clop of hooves came down the stairs after me and I turned to see Copper wearing a sort of metallic harness and helmet.  Atop the harness was something that looked like a flamethrower, with controls that extended in front of Copper's mouth.  The helmet had a set of goggles with green lenses in them.  I tilted my head at her, and she kept looking around, expecting something but getting nothing.  "Did you...beat up all the robots?"

I looked around as well and noticed a distinct lack of anything coming at me.  By now there was typically at least one greeter.  "I...maybe?  Funny what being persistent will do.  Why'd you come down here?  I thought you didn't much care for my antics."

She looked down at the ground at that before sighing.  "Yeah...I don't care.  I don't see the point."

And then she looked up at me and glared.  "But you're the best damn thing to have happened in Trott Dome for as long as anyone can remember.  And I'll be damned if I let you go off and get yourself killed before I understand you and why you do the things you do."

I smiled and crouched before setting one hand on her withers.  "Because I have hope.  I remember a time when this wasn't the state of the world.  When the sky was clear, and ponies roamed the streets.  When robots didn't attack ponies."

Copper's mouth gaped slightly at that.  "How?  How can you remember those sorts of things?"

I pulled the Gate Key out and waved it at her.  "Time traveler."

She blinked a few times before actually smiling.  "That's perfect!  All you have to do is go back and fix the problem!"

I shook my head and stuck the Gate Key back in my waistband before securing it.  "Not that easy.  First I need to know what and when the problem happened.  As well, I'm stuck to very specific times.  Unless I find a way to refine my traveling powers, then I'm stuck to very specific points in time and space that I can travel between.  Without a Gate that leads directly to the problem, when and wherever it happened, then I might end up being powerless."

Copper slumped a bit at that, and I lifted her head so that we were looking at each other again.  "But that doesn't mean I'll give up."

She blinked at that and tilted her head.  "What?  Why not?"

I stood up and turned to look down a hallway.  I had no idea if this was the right hallway to be going down, but most of my robotic opponents had come from this hall.  "Because if I don't try, and you don't try, then nothing will get done, will it?"

There was silence for a moment before Copper snorted.  "That 'hope' stuff sounds potent.  Maybe I should give it a try."
> Chapter 4 - Things've changed since you've been gone...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Our combined pluming of the depths of Trott Dome revealed that yes, the robot population had been severely depleted but by no means exhausted.  Fortunately, a single robot patrol at a time wasn't much to me, and was easily handled.  Copper kept saving the scraps from the robots for...some reason.  I only found what the reason was once we found the door to what appeared to be the maintenance systems.  At least, judging by all the cords coming out of that particular door.  I leaned up against the wall while looking at the keypad next to it, and Copper cleared her throat.  I turned to look at her, and she had a crude, metallic helmet being held by one hoof.  It looked like it would fit over my head.

"For me?"

She nodded at that, and I plucked it from her and put it on over my cranium.  A little loose here or there, but it was protection for my head, so I'd take it.  After a moment to catch my breath, I stood up and looked at the keypad.  It looked to have space for five digits and judging by the lack of a doorknob, operated the door.  I sighed as I looked at the keypad and ran the idea through my head.  "Five digits.  Ten to the fifth power. One hundred thousand combinations it could be."

"Seven six five seven seven."

I turned to Copper, bemused about the string she'd rattled off.  She shrugged before explaining.  "An old string that's been passed down through the line.  Mum said it was important.  Seems to fit."

I punched the string in, and the keypad beeped a few times before the door gave off a clunk and swung inwards a bit.  Giving it a push revealed that the code had been correct, and that this place had a terminal within.  "Okay, so your family somehow knew the access code to the things in Trott Dome.  Along with your family being skilled in mechanical things.  Starting to think you might be descended from someone highly important in this Dome...when it still worked."

Copper laughed once.  "Anything is possible.  So what are you looking for here?"

I walked up to the terminal and pushed the big, obvious POWER button.  A screen on the far wall flickered into life, and I was presented with a simple > .

"Well," I said while typing in a query, "I'm hoping this computer has access to whatever records exist about what happened."

>Search: Major Historical Events from year 1004 to present date.

The computer beeped once before spitting a message back at me.

ARCHIVES NOT ACCESSIBLE.  CABLE BROKEN.

"Well," Copper said.  "That was a bust."

"Not quite," I said.  "After all, just because I can't find out what I'm looking for here..."

>Search: Archive Location.

The computer beeped again before it spat another message at me.

ARCHIVES LOCATED IN VILLE DOME.

"...Doesn't mean I can't find it at all."

Copper nodded at the thought.  "Yeah...Okay, fair enough, you know where they are.  But going there would be silly and dangerous.  The surface is home to all sorts of monsters.  Plus, you don't know where it is in relation to us."

I smiled and typed in a new query.

>Search: Route to Ville Dome from Trott Dome.

The screen displayed a map, showing a new Dome, and labeled it as Ville Dome.  It panned to the north a ways, following a steel rail, before displaying another Dome, and it labeled that one as Trott Dome.  I turned to Copper and smiled.

"And now we know.  Just follow the railway south."

At that moment, the familiar clanking sound came from doorway, and before I could so much as draw my katana, Copper turned to face the door, and the flamethrower on her back followed.  With a flick of a control, the device came to life and...melted the head of the incoming robot, causing the rest of its body to fall to the ground.

I stared at both it, then her, and pointed at the robot while trying to work my mouth.  Copper looked at me and bashfully scraped the ground.  "I...wasn't sure that was going to work, honestly..."

"You just melted a robot with things you scavenged from other robots.  You take credit for that, missy.  And then tell me how you did it."

She coughed a bit while walking over to the fresh carcass.  "Well, turns out, all these robots have a small magi-tech cube in them.  They also run on some sort of oil or something like it.  All you have to do is drain it out of them, create an ignition system with the magi-tech cubes, along with a way to spray the fluid in a more-or-less straight line, such as re-purposing their pneumatics and motors, and you've got an industrial flamethrower."

She pulled what looked like a gas tank from the flank area of the robot and filled up a similar tank on her harness.  "And...how do you aim the thing?"

She picked up one of the legs of the robot, which whirred slightly.  "These things are made of gears and servos and the like.  Wasn't hard to rig up a system that would aim the thing based on my body movements."

I smiled and patted her on the head.  "You seem to have really taken to hope."

She snorted and made to leave the room.  "You keep pushing it on me.  May as well give it a fair shake."





The walk along the rail was long, cold, and the eternal twilight provided by the constant cloud cover made it hard to tell how long we'd been walking.  Only the occasional break in the scenery gave me any clue that we were making progress instead of walking in a very large circle.

The mutants, at least the ones that had more physical bodies, I dealt with.  But when we encountered our first slime...

It took me a good minute of hacking before I shook my head and backed off.  The darn thing just kept reconstituting itself from any damage I could dish out.  I took a moment, along with a deep breath, and the gelatinous thing oozed closer.

That was when Copper dished out a lance of fire, causing the slime to squeal once before falling silent and immobile.  I turned to her with a raised eyebrow.  She raised an eyebrow at me in turn.  "What?" she asked.  "Your fancy sword moves weren't working, so I figured fire might help."

I snorted at that before quipping, "Fire solves everything."

She nodded once before replying.  "And if it doesn't, use more fire."

The further we walked, the more keen the pain in my stomach became.  It'd been who knows how long since I actually ate anything.  The Energizers could keep me going beyond that pain, but...my body knew.  The blasted wasteland around us only served to remind me of the things that had been here.  Namely, edibles, like the apples I'd had with Ancient Lore.

Eventually, we saw the sight of the Dome we were looking for, and walked in the maintenance door.  The ponies within were much like the ones back in Trott Dome, but their eyes lit up when they saw Copper in her battle harness.  I walked into their Energizer, and in a few seconds, the aches and pains I'd worked up walking here and fighting off the mutants with bodies vanished.  Walking out revealed Copper near an unmarked spout, holding a fuel tank from one of the robots under it and getting her flamethrower fuel.

"Aaah," I said.  "These aren't just for the fleshy beings, I see."

She nodded before filling up her fuel compartment and refilling the spare tank again.  "I put a hoof under one of them once.  The smell didn't leave me for a week."

She then walked into the main compartment of the Energizer, and once she trotted out, I pointed to the nearby stairs down.  It would seem the Domes had similar if not downright identical constructions.  "Shall we, then?  We need to learn where our targets are within the Dome."

She nodded once, and we made our way into the depths, only to be confronted with a familiar sight: a swarm of robots working on maintaining the depths and keeping them clear of any intrusion.  And while this blacklist unfortunately included us, we were ready for them.  I drew my katana and Copper fired up her flamethrower.

Two beings with nothing to lose pitted against this robotic assault squad.

I almost pitied the robots.





Once enough of the horde was downed, we looked around for the typical cables that would lead us to the maintenance computer.  My hope was that once we were there, we'd be able to search for wherever the Archives were.  However, we'd found that the keypad keeping the door to the room with the terminal in it didn't accept the 76577 code that Copper knew.  I puzzled on the situation for a moment before laughing.

"Of course," I said.  "It's so simple, now that I think about it."

Copper raised an eyebrow, and I dug around in my pockets before producing a piece of chalk from my time with Ancient Lore.  I then walked to the nearest wall and wrote down two lines.  One numbers, one letters.

ABC DEF GHI JKL MNO PQR STU VWX YZ
1      2       3     4        5       6       7       8       9

"Trott Dome had the key of 76577 because that's the numbers the letters that spelled Trott would correspond to," I explained while drawing little lines between the letters and numbers.  "Whereas this Ville Dome, if it follows the same pattern..."

"Would be 83442," Copper finished, her eyes dancing between the numbers and letters.  Sure enough, when the new string was plugged into the keypad, the door gave off a ker-chunk, and swung inwards.  The terminal we were looking for was beyond, and I turned it on, once again greeted by a > on the screen that took up the far wall.

"Okay," I said while typing in my query.  "Let's see if this terminal has access."

>Search: Major Historic Events from year 1004+.

The computer beeped once before it spat a similar string at me.

ARCHIVES NOT ACCESSIBLE.  CABLE BROKEN.

"Damn," I swore before typing the same follow-up query.  "Well then, where are they?"

>Search: Location of Archives within Ville Dome.

The computer beeped again before showing a map of the Ville Dome.  Apparently, I was looking for a structure right in the center of the place.  I nodded once and turned back to Copper, who was also nodding.

"Right," she said.  "Get in, learn, and get out."

I shook my head at that before turning back to the computer.  "Not quite.  There's something else I want to learn while I'm here."

>Search: Location of fluctuations in local chronosphere.

SEARCHING...

The screen beyond flickered into a map of the world and seemed to zoom around before fixing itself on a Dome and labeling it as Trott Dome.

ONE MATCH FOUND, CONTINUING SEARCH...

"That's where I came from," I pointed out.  "The fluctuation there.  I know that on the other side is 599, and both it and 999 are intact.  So neither of those Gates will help me."

The map zoomed over to another Dome and labelled it as well, this one as Aerie Dome.

TWO MATCHES FOUND, CONTINUING SEARCH...

It took the computer another minute before it beeped again.  NO ADDITIONAL MATCHES FOUND.

I began typing in another query automatically before I realized that there was another, greater answer that I needed after this current question was done.

>Search: Route to Aerie Dome from Ville Dome.

This time, the map zoomed out.  Ville Dome was on the left side, and Aerie was on the right.  Between the two, a red line flashed once, twice, and then the screen returned to normal as the computer explained itself.

BEST ROUTE: USE VILLE DOME STATION TO TRAVEL TO AERIE DOME.  ONE TRAIN REMAINS IN THE STATION.

I shrugged at that and typed in the final query I would have of this terminal.

>Query: Current date.

The answer would come as a shock to me.

CURRENT DATE: SEPTEMBER 5TH, 2299.

I choked up at that.  Thirteen-hundred years?  That's all it would take for ponies to both rise and fall?  A few deep breaths saw me under control again, and I looked over to Copper to see her nearly in tears as well.

"Funny, isn't it?" she whispered.  "I thought knowing would make me happy.  But if you say 999 is fine, that means...somewhere in the last thirteen-hundred years...we both became capable of making...and destroying, these Domes.  And nopony knows why or how."

I nodded once and slowly made for the door, patting her on the withers on the way.  "That's why we're here.  To find out."





Our trip to the Archives of Ville Dome was unmolested, but arriving there revealed a huge skeleton coiled around the structure.  It was only when we drew close enough to the thing that I saw the draconic shape and purple scales and then immediately connected the dragon-shaped dots.

Ville Dome.  Purple scales.  A dragon-sized skeleton.  Spike.

Oh dear gods, but this was PonyVille.

Suddenly I wanted nothing more than to leave this ghost town as fast as possible.  Seeing the massive corpse of what used to be Spike the Dragon...

It left me feeling ill.  Especially when we had to crawl through his ribcage to get at the door to the Archives, which appeared to be housed in a huge, crystalline tree.  A terminal greeted us in the lobby, and I walked up to it and turned it on.  Upon being greeted with another command prompt, I searched, for the third time, as to what the bloody hell had happened to the world.

>Search: Major Historical Events from year 1004 to 2299.

The computer beeped once before it began spewing out a list of answers.

1022 - RAINBOW DASH DIES IN FLIGHT-RELATED ACCIDENT
1072 - FLUTTERSHY PASSES AWAY, ANIMALS MOURN FOR A WEEK STRAIGHT
1082 - PINKIE PIE'S LAST HURRAH
1092 - APPLE CLAN MATRIARCH APPLEJACK'S LAST HARVEST
1102 - RARITY PASSES ON IN HER SLEEP, FASHION INDUSTRY WILL NEVER BE THE SAME
1250 - PRINCESS TWILIGHT SPARKLE COMES OUT OF SELF-IMPOSED SECLUSION, BEGINS HER WORK WITH MAGI-TECH
1400 - FIRST DOME GOES UP AROUND CANTERLOT
1600 - ALL EQUESTRIAN CITIES DOMED
1800 - CIVILIZED WORLD ADOPTS THE DOME
1999 - END OF WORLD, SEE VIDEO THE_END
NO FURTHER MATCHES DETECTED.

I gulped at the foreknowledge I'd been granted into the possible deaths of the Bearers before I typed a new query into the computer.  Copper looked at the first five listings while frowning.  "Why...are those significant?"

"I might tell you or show you later," I replied.

>Play THE_END.

Instantly, the screen went black, then shifted to look at a Dome it labeled as Canter.  It then panned to the south a ways before shaking.  My stomach plummeted as a mound of earth suddenly appeared.  My feeling of dread only increased as it split apart, showing the glowing, molten core of the planet.  And when something emerged from it, I cried out in shock.

A gigantic, porcupine-looking thing, easily as large as one of the Domes, crawled out from the earth and let out a familiar cry before it began shooting its glowing spines into the air.  The camera tracked over to Canter Dome and displayed several spines landing on it, destroying it instantly.

MAGICAL SIGNATURE OF ALICORN CELESTIA VANISHES
MAGICAL SIGNATURE OF ALICORN LUNA VANISHES
MAGICAL SIGNATURE OF CELESTIAL CLOCK - INTACT

It then panned over to Ville Dome and displayed the same spines hitting this Dome.  A purple streak erupted from it and went directly towards the giant.  A moment later...

MAGICAL SIGNATURE OF ALICORN TWILIGHT VANISHES

The camera panned up, towards the Crystal Empire, and displayed quite a few spines hitting it.  I already knew what the screen would say, and even intoned it as the text played.

MAGICAL SIGNATURE OF ALICORN CADENCE VANISHES

I beat the desk with one hand and sobbed softly.  Copper came up and gawped at the movie playing as it panned back over to the porcupine creature.  "What...is that?"

I took a deep breath as the movie cut out and named the thing that had ended the world.  "Lavos.  Destroyer of worlds.  How it got here, I don't know.  But I promise you this."

I turned and looked Copper right in the eyes.  "I'm going to find a way to kill that damn thing if it's the last thing I do."
> Chapter 5 - Hurry back now to the land of the living...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Okay, it's like this," I said while Copper and I walked to Ville Dome's rail station.  "Once, thirteen hundred years ago, there lived six mares.  Six very special mares.  Mares that were said to embody aspects of Harmony Itself.  As such, they were chosen by the physical manifestation of this land's most potent magic, the Elements of Harmony, to Bear them."

"Okay," Copper said.  "So...use them?"

I shook my head as we arrived at the station and noticed that there was, indeed, a train still in the station.  "First of all, if you didn't notice, that...thing destroyed the Alicorns without much of a second thought.  And while the Elements of Harmony are said to be able to set things right...who knows how Lavos would take it.  If they would work at all."

Copper slowly nodded at the notion.  "A fair point...but how do you intend to stand up to him?"

"It's called finding out how he got here, and then stopping it from happening.  Time will be rewritten.  Meaning...this future, this you, won't have happened..."

The mare snorted and shook her head at the notion.  "Buck that," she said.  "My parents got together even in the apocalypse.  I'm pretty sure they'd manage to do so in whatever new future you intend to make as well."

I sighed and one hand through my hair while looking for a control terminal for the trains.  "Yes, but it'll be a different version of you.  One that won't remember me or any of the things we intend to do."

The notion slowly dawned on her that this could be very, very bad.  "Okay.  So I either help you and cause a massive..."

"Paradox," I supplied.

"Yeah, that," the budding inventor said.  "Or...I sit around in 2300 waiting for everything to be rewritten.  Well...yeah, no contest."

"I under-"

"I'm bucking helping, you clod."

I was stunned for a moment with my finger hovering over the button that would turn on the terminal I'd found.  "Pardon?"

"I said I'm helping.  It's not just about me.  It's about all of them.  All the ponies.  The ones that died that day, and the ones that live on...if you can call it living."

I turned and got down on one knee in front of her before hugging the mare, making sure to take care around the controls for the flamethrower.  "Thank you.  I'll make sure nobody forgets you."

She coughed a few times before pushing me off.  "Yeah, well, I'm not doing it for you, y'know.  I'm doing it for them, so they better remember!"

I smirked at that and turned the train terminal on.  A nearby screen flickered, and my fingers flew across the keyboard.

>Test: Available Routes.

TESTING...

There was a grinding sound from the rail yard, and lights flicked on to illuminate more platforms than the one we'd seen a train at.  After a few more seconds, the screen printed more words again.

ROUTE FROM VILLE DOME TO CANTER DOME: ONLINE, WORKING.  CAUTION: BLOCKAGE DETECTED AT CANTER STATION
ROUTE FROM VILLE DOME TO TROTT DOME: ONLINE, WORKING.
ROUTE FROM VILLE DOME TO MANE DOME: ONLINE, WORKING.  CAUTION, BLOCKAGE DETECTED ON RAIL.
ROUTE FROM VILLE DOME TO AERIE DOME: ONLINE, WORKING.
ROUTE FROM VILLE DOME TO BALTI DOME: ONLINE, WORKING.  CAUTION: MINOR BREAK DETECTED IN ONE RAIL.  CONSULT WITH A SPECIALIST ABOUT USING THIS LINE.
OTHER ROUTES OFFLINE.

I smiled at that; it would appear we'd be able to use this system to get around easily.  "Well," I said, "It would seem luck is on our side today.  Let's just punch in this command..."

>Run: Route from Ville Dome to Aerie Dome.

USE AVAILABLE TRAIN?

>Yes.

BEGINNING SEQUENCE.  T-30 SECONDS TO DEPARTURE.

My skin paled at that and I turned to Copper before pointing at the train.  "MOVE!"  I shouted.  "That thing is about to go without us!"

To her credit, for a starved, post-apocalyptic mare, she could move when she wanted or needed to.  I was right behind her, and we both managed to get on the train scant seconds before the doors closed.   The entire thing gave off an almighty jerk, and we saw the scenery starting to shift past us.  The both of us settled down into the closest available seats, and we looked at one another before laughing.

"Well," I said, "I've heard about trains taking their schedules seriously, but that was ridiculous."

Copper only laughed harder, and I pulled out a final joke.  "Seriously, that was nearly off the rails, it was so crazy."

At that, she laughed a little more before peeking up and out a nearby window to ensure that we were still on the rails.  "Ah.  Was worried for a moment.  So, how long do you think it'll take before we reach Aerie Dome, then?"

I shrugged and looked at one door leading out of the compartment we were in, then the other.  "We can check in a minute."

After enough time to catch our breath, we moved to one door and pulled it open.  Another compartment was revealed, but the door on the far side had the words ENGINEER'S COMPARTMENT written on it in big block letters, so I took it as a good sign.  A bit of work saw us in a compartment that had so many levers, buttons, switches, and knobs, and all the labeling had worn off over the years.  A screen in the middle was displaying a countdown, and once I read it properly, it sent a wave of fear through me.

PASSENGERS MUST NOW FASTEN THEIR SEATBELTS.  MAGI-TECH BOOST ENGAGING IN T-15.

Copper and I shared a glance before bolting back into the previous compartment and finding seats with intact seatbelts.  A quick click on both our parts saw us secured before the train carrying us jerked, hard, once.

Then again.

Then on the third jerk, there was this...sound.  The sound of wind rushing past and rattling the windows.  The pressure on my body was intense, as though I was being dragged both down by gravity and back into my seat.  A green glow lit up the world outside the window.

And then I blacked out.





When I came to, Copper was in front of me, her front hooves on my lap, staring at my face.  After blinking a few times, she backed up and returned to all fours.  "Ah, good.  You were out for a while.  Was wondering if you were going to wake up."

I slowly started to move again, feeling dizzy still from what had happened.  "Too much...too fast.  If we take another train, I'm going to see about disabling that boosting option."

Copper actually sniggered at my discomfort and motioned towards the open door on the side of the compartment.  "Well, we're here.  Wanna go looking for your Gate?"

I nodded and staggered to my feet.  After a moment of being quite disoriented, I finally managed to hold myself upright without the need of an aid.  Walking out of the train revealed that the inside of this Aerie Dome, whatever that stood for, seemed to be radically different.  It looked as though it had been built with pegasi in mind, at least, judging by the height of all the buildings.  Then again, the doors and windows seemed to be wider as well...

"So I've been thinking," I said.  "The first thing to do, really, is see if I can get any information, in any age, about Lavos.  I'm hoping, hoping, that its situation is similar to mine.  In that it was pulled from wherever it was and brought here by unknown forces."

"Because if you can find and destroy its entry point," Copper pointed out, "then a lot of things won't have happened.  Including the end of the world."

I nodded as we made steady progress towards the edge of the Dome, where an open door awaited us.  "It might take a lot of work.  I doubt anyone in Equestria in the year 999 has any information on it."

"Why?"

I flinched a bit and thought of a reasonable response.  "Because if they knew about Lavos coming, then Twilight wouldn't have sat on her flanks for so long before starting her work on Magi-tech.  She'd have looked into defenses and finding new ponies to bear the Elements of Harmony in an attempt to deal with it."

The interior was devoid of life.  Absolutely empty.  Even once we walked downstairs, there was nothing to meet us.  This was not only odd, this was downright eerie.  Even our path to the maintenance hub was unimpeded save for the locked door.  I smelled a trap, but walked over to the keypad anyways.

"Right, Aerie...A, 1, E, 2,...R, 6, I, 3, and E again, so 2 again.  12632."

The keypad flashed once and the door swung inwards a touch.  Pushing the door open the rest of the way revealed that familiar terminal and screen setup.  I put in my question, hoping this dome's computers would be able to answer my questions.

>Search: Location of chronosphere disturbance within Aerie Dome

SEARCHING...

The map twirled around before centering on some sort of government building, one that it quickly labeled as the courthouse.  It flashed twice.

DISTURBANCE LOCATED WITHIN COURTHOUSE.

"Well that works," I said.  "Now to just plot a route to the courthouse and get through that Gate, see where and when we end up."

Copper and I made our way back out of the Dome's maintenance levels and began walking to the building we'd been shown.  Upon arriving on its steps, we were greeted with two things.

The first was the fact that the door to the inside of the courthouse was closed, with a massive gate of steel or some other metal barring the way inside.  There was a keypad, but I wasn't all that focused on using it.

Because the second thing we saw was a robot.

It was just standing there, mid-trot, in the shelter that a few fallen pillars had provided.  It looked remarkably like an Earth Pony, and unlike the other robots, had a new set of numbers and letters painted onto its exterior.

JD-24.

I slowly approached it with my katana drawn and poked the robot with the point of my sword.  When I failed to get a reaction, I poked it a bit more insistently, and then made to cut its head off, only stopping at the last second because it failed to move yet again.

I then turned to Copper and sheathed my sword.  "It's inactive," I said.  "Likely has been for a while."  I then turned to the door to the courthouse and began punching in the string.  The keypad flashed red, twice, angrily, and I read the message that scrolled past.

"Biologicals no longer permitted within courthouse...huh..."

I then turned around and looked at both the robot, then at Copper, then at the robot again.  She must have caught on to what I was about to say, because she shook her head.  "Uh-uh.  No way, no how."

"At the moment," I said, "It's our only option.  Would it make you feel better if I stood nearby, ready to deal with it if it got out of control?"

Copper sighed once and pulled a wrench out of her harness.  "Fine.  But if I die, I'm haunting you."





The first thing Copper noticed was that several internal systems were hit by the destruction that had visited the world.  However, thanks to her recently-awakened pack-rat tenancies, she had more than enough parts to fix the robot.  It took her a good bit of time to do so, but eventually she felt confident enough to stand back and nod at me.

"Right," I said.  "Show me the on switch, and stand back."

Copper snorted and pulled out a small, green, glowing cube, then pointed at a square hole right between the robot's ears.

"Just give him a fresh cube," she stated.  "Should fix him right up.  And for the record, I think this is a stupid idea."

I took the cube and noticed the slight warmth it gave off before carefully placing it over the hole in the top of the robot's head.  I then gingerly pushed it in with one finger before grabbing a hold of my katana again.  The robot gave off several whirring noises, followed by a few beeps, clunks, and the sound of a screen turning on.

"Loading," it suddenly said.  Copper and I readied ourselves.

"Loading..."

"Loading complete.  Begin sequence."

The tension mounted as the robot's eyes turned on, green against the gunmetal grey of its coat.  The mane and tail were black and stiff, seeming to exist merely to make it more pony-like.  It 'blinked' a few times, taking in the sight of both me and Copper before looking around.  "What...what happened here?"

I eased up a little bit but didn't let go of the handle of my katana.  "Hello?"

The robot's gaze snapped to me and looked me up and down before nodding curtly at me.  "Greetings.  Do you possess knowledge of what transpired here?"

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair.  "Yeah...long story short, there's this thing called Lavos, it's a world-destroyer.  It killed nearly everything in 1999."

The robot blinked once at that news.  "I see.  And the current date?"

I waved a hand in a so-so fashion.  "Eh, 2299 or thereabouts."

The robot fell silent while it contemplated the news.  "Is this Lavos immortal?"

I blinked while considering the question.  "Uh, unless killed, yes.  Why?"

"Because there is no statute of limitations on crimes committed by an immortal."  Electricity arced across the robot's frame.  "I am a Punishment Drone.  My line was the twenty-fourth one in production.  I was sent to the griffons to work in their Departments of Justice.  All the crimes and punishments of the world are imprinted into my circuits.  But there is not one for killing an entire world.  That is a hole in my database I seek to rectify."

I smirked at that and tisked while waving a finger back and forth.  "Naughty drone, jumping to the front of the line like that.  Copper and I already called dibs."

The drone ceased making electricity arc around his body before looking at both me and Copper.  "Fascinating.  She appears to be a survivor of the end of the world, whereas you are something completely different.  How did this happen?"

I tapped the Gate Key, still snug in my belt, and the eyes of the robot followed the motion.  "Time traveler.  It's mostly useless, except for now.  Now, there's a inactive Gate in the courthouse.  However, for some reason, fleshy beings aren't allowed in."

The robot turned to the door and did his best to narrow his eyes and frown.  "One moment."

His green eyes turned blue, and he seemed to be muttering to himself.  "Who would do something like this?...that permission is all wrong...well without any supervisors, I AM the ranking officer...yes...yes...no, it better not happen again...yes, that works...and there we go."

The keypad flashed once before the door slid open, the gate barring the way retracting into the ceiling, and Copper and I inched towards the opened entrance.  We gave the interior the once over before we slowly slipped through and started walking into the lobby itself.  We'd gotten five feet when an alarm started to blare.

ALERT!  BIOLOGICAL UNITS WITHIN THE COURTHOUSE!  ALERT!  BIOLOGICAL UNITS WITHIN THE COURTHOUSE!

After that, another, more gruff voice came on.

"What?  What what?  Someone in Aerie Dome?  Someone alive?  We took care of the Griffons, I'm sure of it!  Send a squad to investigate!  Who or whatever it is, I'll have their guts for garters!"

The both of us looked back at the robot on the steps, who, if it can be said, was acting sheepish.  "Apologies.  I did not check the security very thoroughly.  Merely the set stopping you from entering the courthouse.  Although, that being said, I feel it prudent to advise you to run.  And I wish to query you about something."

I looked up to where the sounds of the alarm were coming from before looking back to the robot.  "Better hurry!"

"Would you take me with you?"

Copper and I froze at that, Copper actually turned to look at the robot with a dropped jaw.  "What?" she questioned right back.

"Please.  Take me with you.  Punishing Lavos for what it did is the first, true purpose I think I have had in three hundred years.  While I may have been inactive for them, the feeling of not fulfilling my job, and not being able to now..."  It let out a sigh, or as best as it could imitate one.  "I might as well deactivate myself if I cannot."

Copper and I looked at one another and nodded.  He shared our goal, so we could trust him.  Probably.  I turned back and waved a hand at him.  "C'mon Justice.  We've got a ways to go, then."

He blinked twice at that before nodding.  "I...I am Justice, now.  It is...fitting.  And I shall aid you in looking for the disturbance."  He walked forward and his eyes bathed my Gate Key in a green glow.  "Calibrating...calibration complete.  The disturbance this Key is linked with is located within the main courtroom.  Follow me."

A few short minutes worth of a walk, another quick burst of work on Justice's part, and the main court's doors opened enough to display the courtroom.  Prosecution, defense, audience, jury, witness stand, judge, court stenographer, all those had their spots.

What wasn't normal was the Gate sitting in the middle of the courtroom.  At least, it didn't look like it.  I pulled out my Gate Key and looked at Copper and Justice.  "Last chance.  You accompany me on this crazy trip, I can't promise you'll ever be able to come back.  We will literally be rewriting this future, including your places in it.  Hell, I don't even know what's going to happen to me.  I only set foot here, but if we rewrite it, I never will have.  A paradox to the nth degree!"

"Like I said," Copper stated while checking her gear.  "Buck this future."

"Indeed," Justice stated.  "This is a future that I desire to have never had happen."

I shrugged and tapped the Gate with the Key, causing the rift in time and space to open.  Justice and Copper walked into the hole in reality with me, and while I expected to pop back out in the same space, but a different time...

...That wasn't what I got.
> Chapter 6 - Take a deep breath, Time goes on...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The first thing I noticed was the complete lack of anything.  I looked around to notice a few floating platforms in this emptiness, and an idea of where and when we were came to me.  Justice and Copper looked around, perturbed, and I kept my eyes focused on one platform in particular.  Slowly, a lonely lamppost came into being, and beneath it...

Beneath it was a crystal unicorn.  Colored sky blue in its body, and deep emerald green in its mane and tail, it appeared to be sitting on its haunches under the lamppost, snoozing.  I motioned to the unicorn, and Justice and Copper nodded.  We made our way over, and I gently nudged the crystalline pony.  It woke up and looked at us before speaking.

"Oh!  Visitors!"  Thus identified as a male, he then looked at me.  "And a repeat visitor as well."

"I'm...sorry?"  I was confused.  "Have we...met?"

"Mm, yes," he replied almost absently.  "I do remember you.  You just popped in one day, passed out in pain.  I fixed you up as well as I could, but healing was never my specialty.  You might notice a few things wrong here or there, but I did the best I could."

I blinked a few more times at that.  "Like?"

"Well," he said, "If you had come in like you were going to, you'd have been unable to speak, without any decent gear, and who knows when or where you'd have shown up.  I did what I could to circumvent some of those issues, but there's likely to be new ones.  However, coming to me to fix them isn't the best idea."

"Yeah," I dryly replied.  "I'm getting that sense."

"Sooo," Copper pitched in.  "I'm guessing this isn't an earlier version of Aerie Dome."

The unicorn actually chuckled at that.  "Indeed not!  Welcome to the End!  The End of Time, that is.  Although that's not, strictly speaking, accurate."

Justice beeped a few times as he looked around.  "I am detecting a vast amount of nothing at all here."

The unicorn nodded a few times at that.  "True, true.  The most accurate way to describe this place is to say that it's a pocket dimension attached to Equus as a whole.  Those 'Gates' you were using on your lonesome, they zipped you right past here before you could stop.  However, that was just you.  Now that you've taken on companions..."

"Oh please don't tell me there's an arbitrary party limit," I groaned.

The unicorn chuckled at that and waved a hoof at me.  "Nonsense!  But when it's more than just you using a Gate, it'll only have the energy to bring you and whoever else you're bringing with you here.  A blessing, if you think about it, because all Gates lead here, and from here, you can access all Gates that you know of."

I nodded while looking back at the original platform we'd come from.  "Okay...so that over there?"

The stallion pointed at the Key on my belt.  "Just hold up that fantastic device of yours and imagine where and when you'd like to show up!  It'll tug you in the right direction, if there's a Gate to those particular space-time co-ordinates, of course.  Oh!  I nearly forgot!"

A spark jumped from his horn, split, and impacted both Justice and Copper.  They yelped for a moment, and I looked over at him.  "What...was that?"

"Standard package as a time-traveler.  Now you should be immune to casual paradoxes and be able to remember both the before and after of your meddlings.  I did it to you when you arrived here before shoving you as close as I could to what you could identify as 'present day' Equestria.  You learn to do these things when you've been stuck at the End of Time for as long as I have.  Assuming that such an interval could be measured, that is."

"What without Time and all," I quipped.  The unicorn laughed, and we both smiled at each other.

"So do you have a name?"  I prompted.

"Hmm..."  The crystalline unicorn rubbed his chin with a hoof before nodding once.  "Yes, I have a name you can use.  Call me Hora.  Short and sweet."

I nodded and motioned to my two companions, who stepped a bit closer to me.  "Copper and Justice.  From the year 2299, or thereabouts.  I assume you know what happens?"

Hora nodded once, grimly, and a bucket materialized behind the lamppost.  "Yes, I do.  When you're stuck here, you either find a way to look in on the world, or go mad.  That bucket back there?  It's a product of my work here.  I made a Gate that would always link to the day when Lavos broke free.  The day when the world, essentially, kicked the bucket, as it were.  And while it pains me to think of it, you are the ones best suited to taking him down...eventually.  You're going to need to work at it."

"Against something that can end the world," Justice observed, "What hope do we have?"

Hora smiled.  "Yes, it killed the world.  True, it ended the Alicorns.  But there is something you have that they didn't.  The ability to zip back and forth across the timeline like it isn't anyone's business."

Here he made vast, sweeping motions with his hooves as he explained the plan.  "Lavos is straddling the timeline from when it first entered to 1999, when it ended the world.  All you have to do is find every instance of it being fed any more energy, and deal with that situation.  Every creature that claimed to serve it or want to help it, you must defeat.  And in so doing, it won't be you getting stronger, it'll be Lavos being forced into being weaker.  Just a touch, but every bit helps.  It'll be a long, hard road, but I have every faith you'll be able to stop the end from happening."

"Ah," I said.  "And what about stopping the beginning from happening?"

Hora blinked a few times before shaking his head.  "No...some things can be changed and must be, whereas other things...other things are always going to happen, one way or another."

I sighed, but nodded at him.  "Still.  Knowing would be helpful."

Hora shook his head.  "If you truly wish to find Lavos' entry point, then you must search for it yourself."

He then straightened and pointed in a direction that was not towards the platform we'd come from.  "Ah, but listen to me ramble!  Just over there, beyond that door," and indeed, a door slowly faded into view now, "lies someone who would very much like to meet you!  She wanted to meet you earlier, but I told her no, that you had things to learn and do before you'd be ready for her, and look at you!  Now you are!"

The three of us looked at one another before we turned to the door and slowly opened it.  A path appeared, leading to another platform.  And sitting on the platform was a cute little alicorn filly.  Though it wasn't of any alicorn I recognized.  It was blood red in coat, and rust-red in mane and tail, which behaved normally enough.  She looked up at us with big, green eyes, and smiled.  Once we walked over, the path behind us vanished.  She spoke to us next, and her voice was of something far too innocent to be real.

"Oh hi!  You must be the time-travelers!  I'm Bellum, mistress of war!"

She then trotted over and looked at both me and Copper with her eyes that seemed to see far more than any child her age should be capable of seeing.  "Oooh, yes.  You have potential..."

Justice chose to speak up then.  "Potential for what?"

The little alicorn filly turned to look at the robot and smiled.  "Why, the potential for magic!  Raw, unfettered magic!  The unicorns claim that magic is their domain, but beyond light and telekinesis and their 'talents,' they rarely utilize it!  What I'm talking about is real, elemental power!  A force of nature!  The sort of thing you can feel thrumming in your veins as you use it!"

She then walked in front of me and poked me in the leg with one of her hooves.  "You're the act-first, think-later type.  You make commitments without really realizing what all goes into filling them, but that's okay.  You get a lot done anyways!  A guy like you deserves Lightning."

The filly walked over to Copper and hummed.  "Mmm, difficult.  Until this one lit a fire under you, you had no ambitions.  But now that you do, you can see the wheels turning, what it takes to build or unmake something, hope burns in your heart again.  Even though you came from an era more advanced than most, you want to improve things, and improve them constantly!  The Fire of progress is your call sign, and Fire is what you're most attuned to."

Bellum then walked over to Justice and frowned.  "Eeesh, even more bothersome.  I mean, technically, you have a personality, which means you have hopes, dreams, desires...but even in 2299, souls couldn't be manufactured.  And without a soul, I can't gauge your inner strength, so I can't give you any powers..."

Justice nodded once.  "I understand."

The alicorn of war raised a hoof up and waved it at the robot.  "Not so fast!  I can't give you any powers, true.  But there's a workaround!  The reason dark magics are a thing ponies don't meddle in is because it eats away at their soul, a little every time, until they fall completely into shadow.  Something like you that doesn't have a soul?  Perfect for dark magics!  All I have to do is a small binding to your weapons...like, say, your currently inactive lasers, and you'll be capable of using Shadow magic."

I looked at Copper, who was looking away from me and whistling.  "He has inactive weapons?"

She sat on her rump and raised her front hooves as though she were attempting to defend herself from me.  "Hey, in my defense, we knew nothing about him before we turned him on.  I wanted every chance against him if he went rogue against us, and disabling his long-range weapons was the surest thing I could think of."

"Understood, Copper, although, for reference, tampering with department of justice property, which I am, and modifying it to the degree you did typically carries a three-day imprisonment, followed by fifty hours of community service.  Along with either the guilty party either repairing or paying for the repairs of the damaged or modified property."

Silence reigned for a minute, and then Justice spoke again.  "That was a joke."

We both sighed.  "Justice," I said, "Your definition of a joke needs work."

"Acknowledged.  Also, long-range weapons are now in the process of being reactivated.  It may take time for the bug-checking to return a positive answer."

"And now!"  Bellum said while sitting in the middle of the 'room' and raising her front hooves to the 'sky', "We begin the show!  Meeny miney, ipso facto...MAGICO!"

A bolt of fire rushed from the space above the tiny alicorn's hooves and slammed into Copper, who gained a fearsome, flaming aura.  A sphere of what could only be described as darkness incarnate appeared next, and it...I think the most accurate phrase would be oozed its way over to Justice, who seemed to suck it into his inner systems.  And then the alicorn pointed a hoof at me, and a bolt of electricity bridged the gap between us.

Power seemed to flood my very being.  It was like having the pins-and-needles sensation from a sleeping arm that just woke up, only all over myself.  A word imprinted itself in my mind, and I knew that if I focused, I could now use Lightning.

Copper, Justice, and I shared a look, and we all nodded.  The powers Bellum had granted us were mighty indeed.  That was when the little warmistress spoke up.

"So...wanna give it a try?"

I drew myself up to my full height and shook my head at her.  "Not...at this time.  Maybe later."

She pouted at that.  "Aww...well, if you're sure, then you're sure.  Make sure to bring anyone you pick up here!  I might be able to help 'em unlock their potential as well!"

The three of us left the little alicorn via the suddenly reappearing path and door, and found ourselves confronted by the crystal unicorn under the lamppost again.  "So, question," I began.  "If we left Aerie Dome in 2299, where was the other end of that particular Gate connected to?"

Hora nodded once.  "High Aerie, the Griffon capitol, circa 999, I believe.  And it would also be a good place to begin your search."

I stiffened once at that before turning to my friends and motioning them to the first platform.  Once they were far enough away, I crouched and stared the crystal unicorn in the eyes.  He stared right back.

"All the friends I pick up on this travel.  They're going to wind up coming back here without me one day, aren't they?"

Hora shook his head.  "I can't tell.  It's likely.  But things around certain points are unclear.  However, if you try.  Really try.  Then they won't need my greatest work.  But if they're your friends, they'll end up coming here for it anyways."

I nodded once before standing up and turning around.  The crystal unicorn had a question for me, though.  "Will you tell them?"

I pondered for a moment before shaking my head.  "I won't need to.  I have every faith that someone will figure it out."

I then walked over to Justice and Copper before pulling out the Gate Key and thinking of two things.  High Aerie and 999.  I felt a tugging, followed it, and with the sound of roaring wind, the three of us were off again.
> Chapter 7 - Order in the court!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Thankfully, it was the middle of the night, or close enough, when we emerged in the 'present day' High Aerie's courthouse.  I pulled out my pocketwatch to see that, if it was right, it was approximately 2:30 in the morning.  I didn't precisely trust it, but I was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt for now.  Copper and Justice stumbled out next to me and looked around, one visibly in awe at the sight of a world not destroyed, and one merely recording the information.

"Okay," I whispered, "All in favor of sneaking out and looking for information here come sunrise?"

"Yeah," Copper agreed.  "Seeing a place like this, you know, in working order, with nopony around...it gives me the creeps."

Justice did his best impression of a nod as well.  "It would be best to leave before we are accused of trespassing on government property."

The three of us slowly made our way out of the courtroom and towards the entryway, which thankfully had far fewer security measures than its future version ended up with.  The front door was slowly cracked open, and Copper and I peeked out to see that there were no guards on duty.  Justice whirred a bit before putting in his two bits as well.  "From what I can tell, there is a patrol just going around the south corner.  We should be fine if we sneak out within the next minute, considering their walking speed."

We both turned to look at him for a moment before looking at each other and shrugging.  Taking the robot's advice, we left the courthouse and made our way south as well.

"Well," I said, "Hora said this would be a good place to start looking, but I'll admit to coming up with nothing.  How about for those of us that actually need it, we sleep until morning?"

Copper nodded enthusiastically a few times.  "Yes, please!  A time when there's actual food and beds?  I'll take that!"

Justice did his best impersonation of a shrug and followed along behind us.

I will admit, I probably should have taken in the sights of the Griffon capitol a bit more than I did, but seeing as how it was the wee hours of the morn, I was more concerned with getting a proper place to rest than sightseeing.  Along with the thought of waking up in the morning and getting actual food.

Gods, how long had it been since I last ate?!  Time really blurred in the future, what with the Energizers taking out much of the time I would spend sleeping, and endless bleak landscape not offering a clue as to how long it was between Domes, and the nigh-endless hordes of robots that I dispatched almost as mechanically as they themselves were.  Fortunately, we found an inn relatively quickly, and the keeper answered the bell with impressive speed.  I mean, it was the wee hours of the morn, I wasn't going to begrudge him for being a little slow to respond.

"Yeah, yeah, whaddya wan-"  The griffon's eyes bulged as he took in my form, and he scowled a little at the sight of Copper and Justice.  "Room?"

I nodded at the blunt question.  "How much?"  Meanwhile, Copper muttered to herself about how similar griffons and pegasi seemed to be.

"Te-" here he seemed to reconsider while looking at Copper and Justice.  "Twenty bits."

I blinked at that and put one hand on my katana hilt.  "Did you just jack the price up because of my companions?"

Huh, whaddya know, griffons can pale when confronted with threats of violence.  He swallowed at that but shook his head.  "Nah, me, do something like that?  Never!"

At this, Justice beeped.  "Records indicate that price gouging of equine life-forms, while officially abolished in 800 CR, still continued to be practiced until much later."

"Interesting," I mused while fingering the pommel of my blade.  "And what was typically the penalty for those that were caught doing as such, Justice?"

He beeped a few more times before doing as much of a nod as he could.  "Reimbursement of the difference between normal prices and the one that shopkeepers would make the equines pay.  Typically, these sorts of cases were only held once in a blue moon and succeeded when overwhelming evidence was brought forth, and the shopkeepers did not stop their practices until, again, much later."

I nodded and put my hands on the desk between me and the griffon before leaning forward until our faces were almost touching.  "Okay, let me make one thing perfectly clear.  I cannot recall the last time I actually slept in a bed.  That mare never has.  And the stallion, as you probably figured out by now, isn't something you have to worry about.  And when we wake up in the morning, you'd better believe we'll be hungry.  At least, those of us who eat.  So you're either going to provide us with food or directions to it, and do so with a wonderfully cheap price and a smile, or when I wake up, you're going to be the menu."

Here I smiled wide, making sure to flash my pointed teeth at the griffon, who seemed to get the message that this was a carnivore, a bigger, badder one than you.  He then gulped and nodded a few times before saying, quite squeakily, "Ten bits, sir."

Copper seemed to rummage in her battle harness before withdrawing a sack and pulling out a silver coin.  The gryphon nodded, took the coin, and pointed up the stairs.  "First door will have two beds, and your...golem can wait in there with you."

"Many thanks.  And while we will pay for food in the morning, that's if you bring any.  I don't fancy your chances if you fail to show up without at least something for the lady, you know."

Copper grinned at the gryphon as well, and while it was probably expected behavior for something like me with the proper teeth to threaten him to eat him, from a pony, it was just unnatural.  At least, to anyone else.  The innkeeper blinked a few times before stating, quite simply, "You lot are crazy."

"Buddy, we're on a quest to stop the world from ending.  Sanity checked out a while ago."





Morning, or far past it, actually, brought a plate of assorted fruits and vegetables just outside the door.  Copper and I dug into the thing with gutso, and were thankful we did so before washing up.  It took me a minute to demonstrate the workings of an actual bathtub to the post-apocalyptic mare, but she caught on soon enough, and let me just say this:

She cleaned up well.

Her coat had gone from a dirty orange to a bright, sunset amber.  Her mane and tail, once spiky and unkempt, now flowed with a bright green reminiscent of the grass in springtime.  Her mark was a flame burning behind a crossed hammer and screwdriver over a wrench.  And her eyes, previously dull like all the other from 2299, were now amethyst gems, sparkling with hope.  Once she noticed I was not only looking, but looking at her, she waved a hoof at me to regain my attention.

"Oy!  Bathtub's free, but you may wanna change out that water.  I think it turned black by the time I was done in there."

I chuckled a bit at that.  "Yeah, figured as much.  Also, you may want to clean up your harness as well.  It'd be a shame if you got dirty because of your equipment."

She scowled at me for that one.  "Okay, one, where was all this attraction the other day?  And two...I just realized refueling the flamethrower is gonna be hard in a time without robots or Energizers."

I ruffled her mane as I slipped past.  "One, it's not attraction, thank you very much, just fact: It would be a shame if you got clean only to get dirty again, or if your flamethrower stopped working due to gummed-up gears or what have you because it was improperly maintained in the middle of a fight.  And two, don't worry, we have magic now...though I'm getting the sense that it won't be long before we find someone who can help us with that little 'dilemma' of yours."

A good ten minutes worth of work later, and I was clean as well.  It was a bit startling for my hair to dry quickly and spring into position, but I wrote it off as 'being Crono' for the time being and got redressed.  Walking back into the room revealed Copper polishing the harness to the point where it gleamed.  I smiled at the sight of her taking pride in her work and decided it was time we started looking for information in this day and age.

Who knew?  Maybe we'd get lucky.





Okay, for future reference: Never, ever think that phrase!  We had barely left the inn when we saw a small flock of gryphons heading towards the Courthouse.  Being the inquisitive type, I followed along to see a very horrifying sight.

A crowd of gryphons had gathered outside the courthouse, and in the square in front of it, an executioner's block had been dragged out.  One gryphon was wielding a huge axe and wearing the stereotypical black hood over its face, and crouched in front of the block, a zebra awaited its fate.

I'm not about to watch this had been my initial line of thought.  However, when one gryphon stepped forward and jabbed the Zebra with a talon and asked a simple question, my line of thinking changed.

"What did you do to our princess, you striped freak?!"

It was the answer that cinched it for me, though.

"Though I tell you time and again, at my hooves she did not meet an end, never more will you believe me, until from my shoulders my head rolls free."

I'm not about to let this happen.

As the headsman raised his axe, I raised my hand and gathered my thoughts, my power.  With a quick burst of sound, the Lightning attack ripped free of me and impacted the gryphon.  A small explosion took place, flinging the flying feline into the courthouse's wall.  The crowd silenced itself as I strode forward to stand next to the zebra and turned to a member of the crowd.

"What is this zebra's crimes?"

Someone in the crowd had the good sense or lack thereof to speak up.  "Being a zebra!"

"Yeah!"  Someone else decided to chip in, "Being a zebra on palace grounds while the princess goes missing!"

I hummed and pointed to where I'd come from in the crowd.  "Justice, come forward!"

With a whirring of gears, the robot came forward and nodded as much as he could.  "Here, sir."

"Justice, from when the nation of..."

"Griffenheim," he supplied.

"Griffenheim was founded to the current day..."  I trailed off while looking at a gryphon.

"September 7th, 999," the gryphon supplied.

"From when the nation of Griffenheim was founded to September 7th, 999, was there ever a law against being a zebra?"

He beeped a few times and shook his head.  "No.  There never was a law against being a zebra.  In fact, a law against such discrimination was passed in 800 CR, but it would appear that no gryphon actually obeyed it."

"Is this zebra guilty of any crimes according to the laws of the gryphons?"

The robot scanned the zebra with his glowing green eyes for a moment before shaking his head.  "No.  In fact, by the wounds that are present on him, he could press a case against the gryphons for assault and battery, and likely win against them."

Quite a few gulped at that, and I noticed that the zebra was more than just black and white, especially if you knew where to look.  "Okay then!  One more.  Just one.  Is there any law against repaying them in kind for what they've done to this zebra?"

Someone spoke up at that.  "You?  Fight us?  For a zebra?  Oh please, give us a laugh!"

The gryphons chuckled at that, while Copper moved forward to stand next to me.  I merely smiled at their laughter and grabbed a hold of my katana's hilt with my right hand while gathering power in my left.  "You're not the first ones I've fought, you know."

They shut up at that, but someone was feeling cocky today, as I heard a jeer.  "Yeah right!  You don't look like you could last five minutes with one of us!"

I smiled all the wider and drew my blade.  "Newsflash, I'm not of your world.  I'm from a place where my kind are the dominate species with a vengeance.  I found myself here and found a place and time to train and refine my skills, and recently, gained more power than I should ever have.  I waded into combat with two separate hordes of enemies, walked across a blasted wasteland, and met scores of foes that only wanted my demise.  And the thing you've got to ask yourself is...what happened to them?"

Realization slowly dawned on their faces as they realized that I was standing here, but none of the ones I'd talked about had done me in.  After a moment, I moved my left hand to also grip the handle of my katana, sending the power channeling down the length of the blade.  It made for an interesting spectacle, an electrified katana.  I made the motions I'd practiced a thousand times before, the same moves that had aided me in the destruction of so many robots.  Justice turned to the crowd and opened his side panels, revealing glowing points of light within, and Copper gently nudged one control on her harness, setting the flamethrower atop it to 'standby' mode.

The gryphons sucked in their breaths so quickly and in unison I thought for a second that they were one being.

"Hello," I greeted the shocked crowd.  "I'm Crono."

Silence reigned for a minute longer before I spoke again.  "Basically?  Run."

After a moment, the gryphons did just that, and I sheathed my blade before turning to the zebra, who was staring at me in something that was a mix between awe and fear.  Meh, I'd take it for one day.
> Chapter 8 - Learning of the past
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The zebra looked from Justice, to me, to Copper, to the finer details of both Justice and Copper's harness, back to me, and then shook his head.  "You lot are crazy."

I raised an eyebrow at his sudden change in speaking patterns.  "No more rhyming?"

He shook his head again before replying.  "No, zebras typically only do that with those they don't trust...though shamans and mystics do it all the time, helps keep their wits sharp for whatever situation they may find themselves in.  And I'd say saving me from a public beheading for a crime I didn't commit is a pretty big earner of trust."

I smiled at that, but frowned as my eyes ran over his wounds.  "Shame I don't have any medical supplies," I mused.

In response, the zebra merely smiled and closed his eyes before humming slightly.  If there were words to whatever he was humming, I couldn't hear them.  A slight sheen coated his form, and the wounds on his body seemed to lessen in severity.  The process, however, was weird to watch.  It wasn't the wound healing that was off to my senses, it was watching the wounds and bruises being unmade, as though they'd never happened, that sent chills down my spine.  After a moment, the last injury vanished, and the zebra opened his eyes before nodding.

"Good as new," he proclaimed.

Justice's eyes 'blinked' a few times before he replied in his usual flat voice.  "Interesting.  It would appear this zebra is capable of manipulating his natural life-force into healing injuries he has sustained.  Though this does raise the question as to why he did not do so earlier."

At this, the zebra smirked before replying.  "Probably because it takes concentration and effort to pull off?"

"Ah," I said while nodding.  "And I'd assume they were giving you trouble in holding such concentration for very long?"

"Plus," Copper pitched in while motioning to her neck, "I'd be willing to bet that there are some things it just doesn't heal."

The zebra nodded while wincing slightly.  I raised an eyebrow and waved at the courthouse and the square before returning my attention to the zebra.  "Well, I assume there's an underlying story behind this whole griffon-zebra thing that almost happened.  One larger than you being in the wrong place at the wrong time."

He sighed before replying to my query.  "Griffons and zebras don't get along because of a series of border skirmishes perpetuated by one zebra shaman from four hundred years ago.  He summoned dark spirits to do his bidding and cursed quite a few of the royal knights sent to deal with him.  He styled himself as the 'Fiendlord,' and even though he's gone, the Griffons blame us all for doing nothing to stop him or his army.  More than a few can point out a great-uncle or other distant relation that was lost due to his...summonings."

"As well," Justice pitched in, "More than a few survived to this day."

A chill went down my spine at the mention of such foes, and I looked at the zebra with a bit of fear.  "So...why did they arrest you, again?"

"Because their precious heiress to the throne was taken by means most fiendish, and in the minds of the griffons, that typically indicates that there was some sort of monster behind it.  Which means that clearly, it must have been a zebra behind the whole thing.  Despite the fact that only one zebra was ever in control of the fiends, and that it was four hundred years ago, or that the fiends attack zebras just as often as they do griffons."

I nodded at the information and looked the zebra over a bit more carefully.  He'd been bound with simple rope, and I drew my katana again before placing it between his forelegs.  "Don't move," I said before bringing my blade down with a swift motion.  The rope cut near instantly, and I walked around to his rear side before repeating the motions.

The newly freed zebra rotated his joints, which brought forth a cacophony of cracking noises as joints were popped all over his body.  "Oooh, that's better," he stated.  "Now if only I had my staff, I'd be back in business."

The zebra turned to me as I sheathed my blade and stuck a hoof in my direction.  "The name's Zehan," he stated.

I nodded and took a hold of the proffered hoof, shaking it once before letting go and pointing out my companions.  "That there is Copper and Justice.  I'm Crono, as you probably already heard.  So I have a proposition for you, Zehan."

He arched an eyebrow at that.  "What sort of proposition?"

"Care to help find a missing princess?"

He snorted at that, actually snorted.  "Why bother?  The gryphons will storm into zebra land eventually and find the latest fiend nest, thus saving us the trouble of dealing with them.  All I'd have to do is bring back word that they're coming to the zebras likely to be in their way, and it'll all sort itself out eventually."

I smirked at that and gestured towards the portion of the courthouse where the griffon who'd been wearing the shroud and wielding the halberd had impacted the wall.  "If I thought along similar lines, you'd be about ten pounds lighter right about now."

To his credit, Zehan flinched at the thought and brought a hoof up to his own neck.  "Yikes...yeah, okay, fair enough.  But why should I help bring back a griffon princess?  They'll not thank me for it, you know."

"Because it's the right thing to do?" I replied while shrugging.

Zehan opened his mouth to reply when a loud cawing sound came from behind me.  I turned to see no less than five griffons in highly reflective armor, wielding fine blades, and glaring at us with such stern expressions that I had no problem believing that they were members of the guard.  One of them stepped forward and eyed me warily before opening his beak.

"Are you the one that threatened the citizens with fire and brimstone if they would not leave this zebra be?"

"Fire and brimstone?" I replied while mimicking a severe level of 'offended'.  "Good lords, no!  Does it look like fire is my specialty?"

I swear I heard a cross between a laugh and a snort at that.  "I don't know, is it?"

"No, it isn't," I replied, causing the guards to relax for a second.  Only a second, though, as I picked up the line again not long after.  "Fire is Copper's field of expertise, and Justice...we don't get into what Justice does.  My field is Lightning," I finished while drawing my katana and letting a charge dance up and down the blade.  "So.  While I did assault the executioner, I call it a win since he's likely alive, and so is the zebra."

The guards were silent for a moment longer before the one that had spoken before opened his beak again.  "You chose to stand with this criminal rather than the crowd, that doesn't speak highly of your character."

Justice interjected then, his green eyes turned red.  "A criminal convicted by which court, guardsman?"

The griffons opened and closed their beaks a few times in rapid succession, trying and failing to put to word what they thought was right, but being stopped by the sheer weight of the realization they were abruptly forced into:

Discrimination of this sort was wrong, and they were all guilty of it.

However, that didn't seem to stop the lead guard, as he shook it off a moment later.  "Regardless of whether or not he was convicted of being a criminal, he was on the grounds of the palace during the time in which the princess is projected to have gone missing.  Highly suspicious."

I snorted at that and smiled as a thought occurred to me.  "And what of any other griffon that was also on the palace grounds during such a time?"

"You aren't suggesting that any of their servants or subjects had anything to do with it?"  An eyebrow was arched in my direction, and I arched one back as I fired off my reply.

"Why is it such a novel idea to you that your own kind could have had something to do with this tragic event?"

Because there's a zebra nearby we can blame was the unspoken response, and I fired off my reply to it before the lead guard could open his beak again to give voice to such words.  "Narrowing your search only delays the chance that you'll find your precious princess before something happens to her.  After all, I don't see anyone else on the chopping block, when in reality, anyone who was there, not just this soul, is a suspect.  You just don't want to act like it."

Thus stunned, I turned back to Zehan and motioned for him to fall in line.  "Come on, we could use your help."

The zebra took a few steps forward and tilted his head towards me in curiosity.  "Help with what?"

I turned back again and gave the lead griffon the stink-eye something fierce before sheathing my blade and letting the charge in my hands die off.  "We're going to find and rescue their precious princess before them, to prove to them that their racism is unfounded, and that more than just griffons are capable of being noble."

...Had I known then just who the princess in question actually was, I might not have been so quick to make that claim.





On our way out of the city towards the southern gate, we ran into an interesting sight.

A very interesting sight.

A particular pony walking down the street.  Ponies walking down the street weren't exactly common, but not rare either.  The griffons were mostly civilized with their hatred towards equine life-forms, except where zebras were concerned, or anything that seemed to resemble a zebra.  I'd caught more than one dirty look shot our way, and I returned all the ones I caught.  Quite a few citizens had quite quickly gone on their way.

No, the pony that caught my eye was no normal pony.  It had an orange coat, red mane, yellow eyes.  But everything about it sparkled in direct sunlight.  In other words, it was a crystal pony, and judging from looks alone, it was a stallion.  And the really weird thing?

The griffons nodded their heads at him as he passed by.  I came to a stop and pointed him out to my companions with a simple set of phrases.  "See that shining pony?"

The others nodded, and I continued on my line of thought.  "Think we should talk to him?"

A round of thoughtful humming came from my friends at that, before Zehan spoke up.  "We probably could, but why would you want to?"

I smirked at the question.  "He's early.  There shouldn't be any crystal ponies out and about for a few years yet.  I want to know his story, how he came to be here, and why the griffons seem to treat him with respect when they only seem to begrudgingly accept the ponies."

Of course, catching his eye was easier than I thought it would be, as once he caught sight of me, his eyebrows raised and he walked over.  "Hello, who might you be?"

I pointed at him, then clapped softly, slowly.  "You, sir, have earned my respect.  Because you asked who, not what, I am."

The others were shocked at that for a moment before realizing that they, too, had never asked 'what' I was.  I smiled and gave a semi-bow towards him.  "The name is Crono, good sir.  Traveling swords-arm.  And might I have yours?"

The stallion smiled at me before inclining his head.  "The name is Anima, master smith by trade."

"Ah," Zehan spoke up.  "That would explain why the griffons respect you.  If there's one thing they respect, it's someone who knows how to work a forge."

Anima nodded his head and looked over Copper and Justice.  "My word, you seem to have found a fair bit of equipment.  However, were we to exchange notes, I'm sure we could come up with something truly remarkable."

"Well," I said to the crystal pony, "Lead the way to your forge, O Master, and we shall see about improving our gear."
> Chapter 9 - Modern day fiends
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Anima's forge was something to behold, all right.  In the sense that it seemed to use magic for a good bit of its functions.  For everything from getting and keeping metal hot to determining how much coal to add to the fires.  The magic seemed to flow along specific channels engraved into the metal, and I recognized a few symbols from my time with Ancient Lore's books.  The really weird thing, beyond it glowing the same shade of green as the cubes that the robots from 2299 ran on, was the fact that there was one small area set away from the others.  I raised an eyebrow as I looked it over, and Anima briefly turned to see what I was looking at before chuckling.

"Ah, I have that station set aside for when I want to get my hooves dirty doing all the work myself.  My forge is good for smithing a wide variety of metals into so many shapes, true.  Especially the ones that are downright dangerous to even try to do with your bare hooves!  But sometimes..."  Here he drew closer to the forge and laid a hoof down on top of it.  "Sometimes you just can't beat doing things yourself."

I nodded at that; I knew the feeling.  Sometimes you could take a shortcut, get something already done far easier, but sometimes, you just had to do it yourself.  It felt better that way.  "So," I said.  "Think you could help us?"

The crystal stallion turned and nodded at us.  "So, you use a sword.  What of you, mister zebra?"

"I use a staff in my martial art," Zehan stated.  "The welts it leaves do more than smart."

Copper had shrugged off her harness and started to take a few covers off, and Anima turned to look at Justice, who merely stared back at him.  I shook my head before trying to figure out a way to phrase it.  "He's...different."

"He looks like a highly advanced golem," the crystal stallion said.

"That's one way of putting it," Copper quipped as she unscrewed a few covers.  "I'm pretty sure I'll be able to help him when the time comes for him to upgrade, though."

"You and Crono both," Justice replied, before going to stand in a corner, to better observe the proceedings.

Anima shrugged before turning back to Zehan.  "So, what were you thinking of, mister zebra?  Something light, or something with a bit more kick to it?"

"A weight is not uncommon, true, but the makeup I shall leave to you," Zehan replied.  "A smith is not my part, I would more than likely muddy your art."

Anima blinked a few times before chuckling.  "Well," the stallion said.  "I can already tell I'm going to enjoy my work for you immensely."  The crystal pony then turned to me with a cocked head.  "And you?"

I hummed as I drew my Crimson Katana and lay it in front of him.  "Think you can copy the style of this blade?"  I asked.

Anima, to his credit, did examine the blade as best he could with his eyes before picking it up and running the same examination again.  He nodded once and put it back down.  "I reckon I could make a fine example of that, if I had some time," the stallion replied.  "As for the staff...I think I have one in stock now, and can have another made in...well, about the same time it'd take me to make your blade.  I'll even work on them both."

I looked to Zehan with a raised eyebrow, and he nodded, prompting me to look back at the smith.  "We'll take the staff, and if you can have such weapons made ready when we next return...whenever that is, then we'll take those as well," I informed him.

Anima nodded and went to one wall, where a long pole lay across two pegs.  He reached up and pulled it down before passing it over to Zehan.  The zebra took it, bowed his head to the smith, and went through several motions to familiarize himself with the weapon, before nodding and holding it in one hoof.

"This staff is a fine work indeed, my part as a warrior is now freed," the zebra rhymed to Anima.

"Such lofty praises coming from one of the stripes," the crystal stallion said.  "Two hundred and fifty bits for that, though."

Copper passed me the sack that she'd apparently stashed all our money in, and I withdrew two golden bits and five silver ones, passing them over to the smith.  He nodded and put them on his desk.

"Well, I'll try to remember to swing by here at some point during our next stay here," I quipped to the smith.  "Hopefully by then you'll be done with what I'm sure will be impressive works."

"Oh, count on it, lad," the smith said, chuckling again.  "And I hope you put my work to work saving as many lives as you can."  He frowned a bit before continuing that thought.  "My weapons shouldn't be made solely to take lives.  Saving them is far more important."

The quote twinged with me, and I nodded stiffly at the stallion before gathering my companions up.

Hello there, Guru of Life... I thought to myself.  I had my suspicions, but now I know for certain...

Once the four of us were on the street again, and Zehan had put his new staff in a sheathe on his back that I hadn't even noticed was there, I turned to the zebra and made a 'go on' gesture with my hands.  "Bring us as close to the scene of the crime as we can get, maybe we'll find a trail they overlooked," I told the striped equine life-form.

The zebra blinked a few times, but nodded, apparently not having a rhyme for this, before he began to lead us towards the large, imposing palace in the distance...





So hey, fun fact.  Gryphons are apparently more security-conscious than you might think.

There was a nice, for-show, iron fence around the castle.  Followed by an old, stone wall from, presumably, time immemorial.  And the castle itself had yet another wall around it, big and thick and, again, made of stone, only this one was either newer or more well-maintained.

Apparently, when gryphons put in the effort to make a castle for their ruling body, they damn well want to keep landborn threats out.  It didn't take a genius to connect the dots as to which landborn things they considered threats.

Especially when two griffons in guard uniforms flew down out of the sky in front of us and crossed their halberds, denying us any further access to the castle.  When I moved around them, they let me by with nary a glance.  But when the others tried, the griffons employed a variety of blocking tactics.

Yeah, totally not racist at all.  I looked at my adventuring party and sighed.  "Well, I'll go ahead and see what I can see, guys.  But I promise to come back and get you once I've found something at least."

Copper and Justice nodded, while Zehan merely drew his staff and held it with one end in the dirt, giving the guards the same stink-eye they were giving him.  With the staring contest of the century underway, I walked closer to the castle.  I actually managed to get past the first wall, and the second, before I acquired my own, personal guard-block.  Trying to get around him earned me the same reaction from the others that were blocking my allies, and I sighed.

"Well," I said to the stoic griffon.  "At least you're taking your job seriously."

The griffon said nothing.

"Look," I said, holding up my empty hands to show how unwilling to resort to violence I was.  "I'm here to try and help.  Believe it or not, I have a small interest in these affairs being wrapped up with all parties getting what they want."

The griffon still said nothing, though he did at least cock his head at me out of, I presume, curiosity.

"Could you help me see where the abduction took place?" I pleaded.  "Anything I can do is better than nothing."

The griffon gave off a short nod, so short you could almost miss it, before he began walking in one direction.  I followed after, being careful not to try and get around him, before we stood outside a large tower that had a smashed window.

"Thank you," I told him, before beginning to comb the area with my eyes.  I walked from one side of the tower to another, taking a good twenty minutes before I found the one thing I needed.

What looked like a disturbance in the grass, along with a variety of footprints in the dirt.  The trail indicated that something had...landed, or at the very least, impacted the ground nearby, before it dragged along the ground, facing a new heading, and then it was gone again.

Recalling the direction the sun had risen, I saw this clue ended up pointing me west.  I had no idea what was west, beyond, hopefully, our missing princess, but I now had a heading, which was better than before.  "My thanks," I told the guard before I turned around, going to retrieve my allies.  "Hopefully, I'll be back with good news," I called over my shoulder.

...If I had known, I would have never made that promise.





"C'mon," I said to the threesome as I rejoined them.  "I got us a heading."

"Oh good," Copper said as she finally looked at me instead of the guards.  "Zehan and the gruesome twosome have been staring for way too long."

At that moment, one of the griffons blinked, and Zehan smiled before closing his own eyes.  Presumably to hide the effects of healing the dehydration rapidly.

Justice beeped once before asking his question.  "What is our heading?"

"Not in front of others," I said, before I began to lead them around the palace, seeing that we wouldn't be able to make any progress as long as they were intent on blocking us.  I had a plan too.  We'd head north first, then once we lost sight of them, go west.  We'd walk until we left the city if we had to, in order to lose them.

I was intent that we would complete our first quest, without outside forces intervening if at all possible.  Others claiming credit for our work would remove the underlying message.  That of all of us getting along and accomplishing what others thought impossible, despite what they thought.

In fact, we did end up leaving the city, and then walking a good way down the road north, before we could safely turn south-west and begin a trek that way.  "Okay," I finally told my companions.  "The mark I found outside the castle indicated that whatever it was, ended up going west once it got out of the castle.  It was a big mark too.  Easily griffon-sized.  I'll be surprised if we end up finding the princess before they do, it was so obvious."

"Ah," Zehan said with a nod.  "And once we do find the princess, we bring her back without any of the guard knowing which way we went, thus earning us all the credit.  And maybe, finally, making them see hooved quadrupeds in a better light."

Justice beeped.  "Records indicate that of the settlements of this time, the first one we will likely run across if we head west of the capitol is...Truceburg.  A city where ponies and griffons live in harmony.  And indeed, the first of its kind ever since the accord with Princess Celestia."

Hmm, I thought to myself as we trudged onwards through the wilderness.  Wasn't there a city named like that back in Chrono Trigger?...I thought there was...
> Chapter 10 - Not two ducks, a paraDOX!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I was continually surprised with how peaceful 999 was.  Nary a random encounter or monster in sight on our path to Truceburg.  It might have been because we eventually intersected the path west out of the city, and traveled along it, or perhaps it had something to do with the fact that we were in the griffon's country, and they dealt with such things a bit more permanently than ponies did.

Whatever the case, I certainly wasn't complaining.  Peace gave us time to talk along the road.

"So tell me," Zehan started.  "What does a biped, a mechanic, and a golem the likes of which the world has never seen before have in common?"

"A foe," I replied.  "A mighty foe that we seek to undo at every possible juncture."

Justice merely nodded, content with my answer.  Zehan hummed a bit at the reply he'd gotten before he asked a new question.

"And what sort of foe warrants the three of you going after him, armed as you are?  I doubt that my case is in any way relevant."

"You'd be surprised," I quipped, not divulging what I knew as to how this all might interweave.  Ponyland had also done things differently to the game so far.  I'd not place any major bets on minor details.  "Regardless, it doesn't hurt to help others when you can."

"True," Copper nodded.  "I'd have remained where I was, hopeless, if it wasn't for you kicking me into gear."

"And I gained two allies out of it, so clearly my line of thinking has value," I said, earning a small chuckle from the mare and the zebra.

"True enough," Zehan finally conceded.  "Ah, I doubt we will make Truceburg tonight, though.  Shall we make camp once it begins to turn to dusk?"

Looking up saw the sun approaching the west horizon, and I nodded as we neared a bend in the road.  "Just off the beaten path, then, so we don't draw too much attention to ourselves and invite looters."

My fleshy companions nodded, while Justice just beeped.  One of these days, I hoped to understand that robot.

Setting up camp was easy enough for the four of us, it wasn't too hard to find an adequate clearing in the forest, and a nearby stream would serve for water.  The three of us that needed food foraged for it in the forest, running across a few fruit trees and berry bushes nearby.  We gorged on our bounty before taking up separate positions around the glade for our slumber.

It was still relatively warm in the griffon kingdom, so I figured I'd be able to sleep as I was and not be too uncomfortable.  Plus we had Justice to keep watch.

Imagine my surprise when I woke up to Copper lying next to me.  I made a note of it, then gingerly removed myself and headed to the river.  We lacked soap, but I still wanted to wash up.  And process what had just happened.

By the time I returned to the site of our impromptu camp, Copper and Zehan had also awoken and were stretching in the early morning light.  Copper didn't mention what she'd done, so I didn't either.  Zehan did raise an eyebrow at seeing where the mare had been, but also held his tongue.

"Well, once you two are ready, we'll keep going on to Truceburg," I said.  Zehan nodded and made his way towards the river, where I'd just come from, while Copper just shrugged her combat harness on.

It never hurt to be too careful, after all.  Zehan eventually returned from the stream and the four of us resumed our journey.





When we arrived in Truceburg, I could already tell that there was something dreadfully, dreadfully wrong.

It was far too quiet, after all.  I didn't see so much as one other being in the area, pony or griffon.  The only thing to indicate that we were on a right course was that same set of tracks I'd seen back at the castle.

"I don't like this," Copper hissed.  "It reminds me way too much of home."

"What, you get unnatural silences there often?" Zehan quipped as he readied his staff, eyes darting from one house to another.

"Something like that," I said, taking note of one important fact.

All the front doors were ajar, and I couldn't see anyone inside.  Something had transformed this town into a ghost town.  And done so very quickly.  I both did and didn't want to meet whoever had done this.

Did, because it would be a chance to repay whoever did it.  And didn't, because they might try whatever they'd done on us.  It was a toss up as to which one was winning out at the moment.

Then I saw that the tracks were leading us to the local inn, also known as the one building in town that had its door closed.  Motioning towards it with one hand while my other gripped the hilt of my katana, the four of us neared the building.  I gingerly reached out with one hand and tapped the door, before pushing on it, forcing it to open wider.

The hinges creaked, but that wasn't the only thing we heard once the door was open.  There was a fluttering, like there was something winged inside the room...

Before the four of us were assaulted with flying monkeys.  A whole pack of them, screeching and howling and flying around us.  And I don't care what anyone from home might have thought about monkeys.  Winged flying ones were not cute or cool to watch.  Especially when they were trying to go for your eyes.

"Winged monkeys!" Zehan said as he pulled his staff out and beat a few away.  "Fiends from so long ago!  I know not what they are doing here and now, but show no mercy!  They have none for those that are not holding their leash!"

That stirred me into more firm action than just trying to bat them away with my hands.  I drew my katana then, and began slicing wildly at the air around me.  Pained shrieks erupted from the creatures, and after a minute of my slicing, Copper's flamethrower, and Zehan's staff, the monkeys flew off and let us be.

All Justice had to do was stand there and let them hit him, lucky robot.  They stopped soon after realizing he was harder than they were.

"Well," I said, putting my katana back in its sheathe for the moment.  "Do you think a flock of monkeys that large could have kidnapped the local princess?"

Zehan nodded as he re-secured his staff.  "Properly directed, yes, they very well could carry off a pony or two, or even a griffon.  They would merely have to make sure their captive could not fight back, possibly by clinging so that they could not bring their claws or wings to bear..."

"Then this abode contains the missing princess, along with her abductor," Justice commented.  "Let us liberate the one and punish the other."

Searching the upper floors of the inn proved fruitless, sadly.  It was only when we looked in the basement that we found our quarry.

A zebra mare, a bound griffon, a circle with more than a few runes drawn around it, and a dark sphere with a spark in the center hovering over everything.  I didn't know what was happening, but I knew what was likely about to happen, what with a Timegate hanging overhead.  The zebra mare turned to us and, I kid you not, tutted.  Like we were schoolchildren she was scolding.

"So you're the ones that let loose my monkeys," she said, shaking her head.  "Do you have any idea how hard they were to find, much less tame in this day and age?"

"Be on your guard," Zehan said as he drew his staff.  "This one is strong in the ways of zebra magic."

"It's no use warning them," the mare said, smiling wickedly.  "My plan is nearly complete as it is.  With this captive, I can change the world."

I drew my katana then, sending electricity down the blade and causing her eyes to widen.  "And who said you were going to get to do that?" I asked.  "First and final offer.  You let her go, I don't see how many volts it'd take to cause you to lose control of your muscles."

Internally, I really, really didn't want to fight her.  I didn't want it to come to blows.  I didn't want to kill anyone.  So I was slightly relieved when she gulped and nodded, before she backed up and turned to the griffon in the circle.

Those hopes were dashed when she started chanting something, causing the Gate above us to ripple before it slowly started expanding.

"Oh no you don't!" I said, leaping forward and hitting her with the flat of my still-charged sword, causing her to spasm and stop in her intonation.  Far too late, though.

With a roar, the Gate expanded even more before it sucked the griffon in, then started to shrink.

"Oh hell no," I said, sheathing my blade and yelling over my shoulder at my companions.  "Get close to me!  We're only going to get one shot at this!"

Copper and Justice were by my side in an instant, whereas Zehan took a little longer to join our formation.  "And what is this?" he asked.

By that point in time, I'd already drawn the Gate Key from my belt and was thrusting it at the shrinking Gate.  "We're going after her, whenever she ended up!"

The Gate paused in its retreat, before it accepted the fact that I was trying to open it again.  With a howl of wind, the thing consumed the four of us, right after Zehan asked, "Whenever?!"

The world faded around me...





When I next opened my eyes, I was surprised to see that we weren't at the End of Time for this one.  I decided to chalk it up to the zebra meddling with the Gate beforehand and gathered up my other allies from around the glade I found us in.  Justice, apparently, had the same idea, and walked over to make sure Zehan was okay.  I gently roused Copper from her brief spell of unconsciousness, and found the griffon we'd come here to rescue not too far away.  It was a good thing indeed that there weren't any other ponies or griffons around, because then I'd have to explain where we all came from.  And when.

"Oh, my aching head," Zehan moaned as he stood up.  "What...happened?  I recall you saying something about...whenever the princess had ended up, but that's crazy..."

"No more crazy than any other day with me," I quipped before I dragged the still bound griffon over to the others.  She'd apparently tumbled quite a ways away when she landed, and wasn't too happy I wasn't cutting her loose.  If her struggles were any indication, that is.

"Hey!" I said, looking the lion-bird-hybrid in the eyes.  She returned my look with a glare that would kill, if looks could.  "I'm not letting you go just yet.  For all I know, once I do, you'll run off and get in trouble right away.  I'd rather you hear this explanation first, before I untie anything of yours.  You're in strange territory, miss, and I'd prefer it if you stay put for the talking."

After a few more seconds of glaring, she sighed and rolled her eyes.  Figuring that was about as much as I was gonna get out of her, at least until I untied her beak, I decided to roll with it and turned to Zehan.  "Okay, so the others already know, so you're the only one that needs to be brought up to speed."  I paused for a moment before continuing.  "Hi, I'm Crono, I'm a time-traveler.  These are my friends from the future, Copper and Justice.  And if I had to guess, I'd say we're currently at about, oh, 599 or so.  Justice?"

Zehan's jaw went slack as we all turned to the robot, who beeped a few times before nodding.  "Records indicate that the truce that Truceburg was named for was not signed until late 599 AD, while the town would be built at 600 AD.  That is the latest we could have been transported to."

"This is absolutely crazy," Zehan muttered.  "You know how mental this all sounds?  A way to travel through and across time itself?"

"Just another day in my life," I said, holding up the Gate Key.  "This is the key, and those things," I then pointed upwards, indicating the sphere that hung over us all.  "Are the gate.  Put the two together and hey presto, we can journey through time.  It's a limited form of time travel, but it's still time travel."

"Still crazy," the zebra muttered.

"Oh?" I said, indicating the lack of any buildings around us.  "Care to explain just how we lost an entire village without using the phrase 'time-travel' then?"

The zebra opened his mouth a few times, working up a word or two before falling into silence.  "Fine," he eventually muttered.  "So, what's the plan?"

"The plan," I said, before doing something that was probably very ill-advised.

I took the Gate Key and gave it to Justice, who blinked.

"The plan is, send Justice back through the Gate with the princess here, so that we avoid any paradoxes forming because of her being here.  Then we can explore around here, see what's going on.  Oh, and Justice?"

"Yes?" the robot asked.

"If that zebra is still moving on the other side of the portal, feel free to paralyze her a little before you let the princess go," I said as I dragged the griffon to be directly below the Gate.

The robot let out a chuckle, an actual chuckle, before nodding.  "Understood.  I shall make sure this scenario does not repeat itself before releasing the princess."

The robot put one hoof on the bound griffon before waving the other one around in the air, eventually contacting the Gate with the Key.  With a roar of wind, the thing grew into existence and swallowed the pair of them up, before shrinking again.

"And now we wait," I said, getting comfy.
> Chapter 11 - Saving the past
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Less than an hour had passed before the Gate opened again, depositing one robot holding one Gate Key back in the clearing.  He turned to me and presented the Key, which I gratefully took and stuck back in my belt.

"What took so long?" Copper asked.

"The princess desired some form of proof beyond being transported between two points in time that what happened happened," Justice said.  "My weapon demonstration satisfied her."

"I bet it would," I said, looking around.  "Okay, so we're in 599, in the nation of Griffenheim.  Why would that zebra think that sending that princess back to here would be a good way to disrupt anything?"

Justice beeped and whirred before replying.  And when he did, it wasn't something that gave me much hope.  "Records indicate that around this time in the kingdom's history, the Queen was briefly abducted by a party of fiends seeking to disrupt and demoralize the citizens of Griffenheim.  Were the princess to appear back here-"

"Oh great," I moaned as I put a hand to my forehead.  "A grandfather paradox.  She was hoping to make a grandfather paradox."

"A what paradox?" Copper and Zehan asked.

"Okay, put it like this," I said, lowering that hand.  "Let's say I were to figure out your ancestors, Zehan, then go around here and look for one of them.  And discreetly kill them before they have any kids.  That introduces a grandfather paradox, because how did I learn about them from you to kill them if you didn't exist?  Which means I couldn't have gone back, which means that never happened, which means you do exist...so on and so forth.  An infinite loop of time travel madness."

"My head hurts just thinking about it," Copper muttered.  I declined to tell them about alternative futures and parallel universes just then.  When it became more relevant to the topic at hand, we could go into multiversal theory and how the grandfather paradox could be solved.

"So!" I said, clapping my hands and shocking them out of their deep contemplation.  I swore I heard Justice grinding as he considered all the infinite loops.  "Who wants to go save royalty again?  We could probably help rescue the queen of this era."

The three of them thought on it, though it was Justice who nodded first.  "Affirmative.  It was a near thing in my records that the queen was returned.  Let us make it a sure thing."

"Fine," Zehan muttered.  "I suppose I can tag along.  And if this doesn't sway their minds that not all zebras are bad, I don't know what will."

"Sure, I'll come with," Copper added.  And with that, the four of us were on our way to High Aerie, circa 599.





The first thing I noticed was that both the stone walls around the palace were in remarkably good condition.  Probably the best indicator that we were in an earlier age was how new everything around us looked, even though there was less of it.  The guards were no less vigilant, though they were at least more vocal.

Two griffons swooped down in front of us and crossed their halberds once we'd apparently drawn 'too close' to the palace.  "State your name and reason for being here!" one barked at me.

I smiled and did a slight bow to the guards, before I introduced myself and my companions.  "I'm Crono, this is Copper, he's Zehan, and this is Justice," I said, indicating the proper party with my hands at each name.  "We heard about your missing monarch problem, and would be glad to lend our aid."

The second guard laughed before replying to that.  "And what are you, that you all think you could help in the least with our problems?"

In response to that, I casually drew my sword and went through a few motions I had learned to show off my skill to them.  "A traveling swords-arm, one willing to work for free," I said.  "Surely, any help is better than none?"

The two seemed to consider this for a moment before having a hushed conversation.  Eventually, they turned back to me and nodded.  "We'll escort you around the grounds," one said.  "But don't expect to see the palace itself."

"Fine by me," I said, sheathing my katana.  "That'll give us time to ask us questions related to the disappearance."  My companions nodded their assent to my plan as we followed after the guards.  "Why don't you show us where the queen was taken from?"

"Her tower is this way," one said as they began to lead us around the exterior of the castle.  "One night, she went to bed, and the next morn, she was gone."

The tower didn't look vandalized or broken into, but there was only so much one could do in assessing a situation from the outside.  "Did the queen ever make any routine visits outside the palace?"

The two guards looked at one another before one of them answered my question.  "Yes, she was often fond of visiting a village of ponies to the east, to see how our neighbors were getting on.  Why?"

"Just a theory I'm spinning at the moment," I replied.  "Anyone ever go with her?"

"The Chancellor, to observe the proceedings," one said.  "And her bodyguard, Gregor."

"Hmm," I said aloud, turning the situation over in my head.  The bodyguard would likely learn the same things we did, or was already there...meaning we should probably head to the east and lend our aid already.  "My thanks for your assistance," I complimented the guards, before turning to the east and starting to walk around the palace.  "But now we have somewhere we should be heading."

And ignoring their questions as to what I could possibly be thinking, the four of us began our trek to the last good lead as to the location of the griffon's queen.





"Okay," Copper said as she looked around this village.  "I'm not sure what was creepier.  The empty village, or this one."

This particular village was filled with ponies, all of them nice and welcoming.

Just...a touch too nice and welcoming.  And they wouldn't stop staring at us.  The hair on the back of my neck was probably standing on end from all their staring.  This village seriously gave me the creeps.  And if there was one thing the hero should trust, its his instincts.  And seeing as how I was the hero now, I didn't mind too much that my hand kept twitching near my sword's hilt every time one of these ponies said 'Hello' to us.

"I do not like this," Zehan muttered as his eyes flitted from pony to pony.  "The feeling of zebra magic hangs thick in the air."

"Yeah, I'm getting the creeps too," I muttered as I flinched from another enthusiastic 'Hello!'.  "Can you be a little more specific than that, though?"

"It feels like when we were in Truceburg, outside the inn," Zehan said as he looked at another pony.  "Only, charged with tension.  Like a string pulled taut waiting to snap."

"So essentially a trap," I summarized.  "This whole town is a trap."

"A trap?" a new voice said from directly in front of us.  "Whatever gave you that idea?"

What came out was the only griffon I'd seen in this town yet, which was a rather large alarm siren to my mind.  Unique foes happen rarely, and when they do, it's often indicative of a boss fight.  I was already starting to think of everyone around me, minus my allies, as a foe.

"Let's just say I have a sense for these sorts of things," I told the griffon as I looked away for a second to look at some other pony that had gotten close.  In fact, quite a few of them were drawing closer now.  I almost pitied them.

They thought they had trapped us, but they clearly didn't know what they were trapping.

"Unfortunately, this is where your journey ends," I heard the griffon say, prompting me to turn back and grip the handle of my katana.  The griffon raised one claw and started to say something else-

"GET TH-"

-When he was rudely interrupted by another griffon jumping on him from behind, this one wielding a large sword in one claw.  "Fiends!" the second griffon yelled.  "Fiends and monster alike!  I will rend you limb from limb if you have harmed so much as one feather of the Queen's!"

The only thought running through my head at that juncture?  Well, let's just hope he doesn't lump us in with them.  Other thoughts were quickly dispelled as I saw the forms of the ponies around us start to...

Well, for lack of a better word, melt.  Then twist and reveal a far more hostile shape.  Those of giant snakes, each one baring their fangs at us.

I drew my sword and stood with Zehan, Copper, and Justice, who had all drawn/activated their weapons as well.  "I don't know who you are," I said to the griffon.  The one he'd attacked had fled, and we were rapidly being surrounded with more snakes.  "But if you want to get out of this alive like we do, then we'd appreciate a helping hand."

"Or don't, I'm pretty sure we could handle this whole thing," Copper quipped as she blasted a snake with her flamethrower.  "Heck, I'm pretty sure I could handle this whole thing."

The griffon pulled his sword up and took up a position near us, near me as a matter of fact, and eyed the snakes just as much as he did me.  "When this is over," he said.  "You are going to explain yourselves."

"We can worry about that when the time comes," I said as I let the lightning flow through me and down my blade.  "We have a horde of fiends to deal with!"

And with that, the melee began.





"Truly, these foes were powerless before us," the griffon said as he wiped his blade clean.  I did the best I could to follow suit, before sheathing my blade.  "I might have prevailed alone, but with you four here, it was a sure thing."

"The battle hasn't been won yet," I quipped, before turning to Justice.  "Did you see where that other griffon went to?"

The robot beeped a few times before nodding and pointing a hoof at a nearby store.  "The culprit ran into there once the fighting started.  We should follow and apprehend him."

"Introductions later," I told our mysterious ally.  "We have a member of royalty to save."

The warrior nodded as he drew his blade again, a motion I followed suit with.  And out of the corner of my eye, I saw my allies doing the same.  Whatever this thing was, we weren't going to let it do anything to the griffon's queen.  Not if we could help it.

We burst into the store, seeing nothing on the first floor.  Justice whirred a little before informing us where our quarry was.  "There are two life-signs below us."

I saw a door leading to a set of stairs in back, and vaulted the counter that would normally divide shopkeeper from shopper before making for the stairs down.  I heard the sounds of my allies following after me, and took them two at a time.

Note to self: Pony staircases are sometimes hard to navigate.  I nearly took the steps three at a time, and almost tripped once.

By the time I finally arrived in the basement, I saw the first griffon standing over a second, with his claws bared.  His hostage was bound and gagged on the floor, and there was a murderous glint in his eyes.  "Prepare yourself, Queen Hilda," he said, drawing back for the strike that would surely end her life.

I held up a hand and channeled my Lightning, pointing at the griffon standing over the queen.  The bolt erupted from me and crossed the distance at the speed of, well, not light, but electricity.  He screamed even as he was blasted across the room, and I hurried to untie the hostage.

"Go," I told her once I got her claws free.  "Get outta here.  Leave him to us."

"Us?" she questioned, just as my friends and allies arrived behind me.

"Yeah, us," I said as I saw the guy get up.  "It's you he wants, it's us he'll have to deal with."

The queen nodded her understanding and made to flee, but not before giving some choice words to her bodyguard.  "Destroy him for me, Gregory."

"With enthusiasm, your majesty, as always," our griffon friend said as he readied his broadsword.

That was about when the other griffon got up and, I kid you not, hissed at us.  "You fools," he said, drawing out the s far longer than necessary.  "You've undone a plan long in the making!"

Here his form started to melt as well, even as he kept talking.  Somehow.  I don't even want to think about how that worked.  "I hope you enjoy the taste of poison, because that's what I'm going to be giving you all a dose of!"

Guess what?  Another giant snake, only this one reached up to the top of the basement and had a good bit of himself coiled up besides.

"How handy are you with that blade, Gregory?" I asked of our griffon ally as I held my katana in front of me.

"Skilled enough to be proclaimed the queen's protector," he said as he fell in on my left side.  On my right, Copper and Justice stood ready, and I could see the top of Zehan's staff poking up from the other side of Gregory's form.

"Well, let's see how hard it is to wrangle this snake," I quipped.  The thing hissed at us, and I could see some sort of fluid dripping down its fangs.

This promised to be an interesting boss fight indeed.
> Chapter 12 - Get up on the snake's back!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The first thing we learned was that, giant or no, the snake could be quick when he wanted to be.  As evidenced by the fact that he was suddenly in my face, trying to bite it.  I retaliated with a quick slash to get him to pull back, and Copper followed it up with a lance of fire from her flamethrower.  The snake hissed again and tried to bite her, but was rebuffed by Justice opening up his panels and firing some sort of laser at the massive reptile.

The thing hissed again and refocused its attentions once more, this time trying to bite Justice.  And nearly breaking his fangs in the attempt.  The snake whimpered and settled for slapping the robot with part of its tail, sending him back across the room a ways.  The distraction did open up a window for Zehan and Gregory to run in and assault the thing.  Zehan beat him across the face with his staff, while Gregory did his best to cut through his scales with his blade.

The massive snake recoiled in pain, and that was when I got a very, very stupid idea.  One that I couldn't help but act on.

I ran forward, jumped onto the snake, and, holding myself in place on its back with my knees, I began both riding and slicing the snake up like there was no tomorrow.

It did not appreciate this, as evidenced by the fact that it kept trying to shake me off.  Fortunately, my allies kept it distracted enough.  Between Zehan and Gregory assaulting it with their weapons, along with Justice's arsenal of lasers being brought to bear and Copper's fire, he didn't have time to think about better ways to get rid of me.

Perfectly fine by me, as I ran an electrical charge down my katana and stabbed the damn thing.

...Probably not the wisest move to pull while I was riding the snake, but he needed to drop.  Fortunately, I seemed to be...resistant to my own electricity.  Though it did tingle a bit when the attack trickled by me.

"Burn!" Copper said as she pointed a hoof at the snake dramatically.  And then I saw fire leap from her outstretched hoof to roast the snake.  She'd apparently busted out the big guns for this guy, using her own magic on him to roast him.  He was still going after taking that blast to the face, but it was a weak thing.  Gregory stepped up to the plate next, and did so in a big way.

With a mighty cry, the griffon swung his broadsword around and...

...decapitated the massive snake, in a spray of blood.  The body went limp under me, and everyone got a splash of red on them.  Some more than others.  I would need to find somewhere to wash myself and my clothes once we got out of here.

"Well," I said, still in a state of semi-shock.  "I think that did it."

"Aye," Gregory said as he sheathed his blade for the moment.  "The beast has been dealt with, and the queen is saved.  I thank you, warriors, for lending me aid in our darkest hour."

"It was nothin'," Copper said, brushing off the praise and a bit of blood from her fur.  "We couldn't just stand by and let this happen."

"Would that more were as noble as you," the griffon said as he looked at me.  "Are you well?"

"Oh yeah," I said.  "Just peachy.  Snakes get their heads cut off in front of me all the time."

"A factual inaccuracy," Justice said.  "Are you attempting the art of sarcasm, Crono?"

"However did you guess?" Zehan asked with a roll of his eyes.  "Come on, let us see to the queen's well-being, then we can wash up."

I dumbly nodded as I finally stood up, sheathing my own blade as well.





The six of us made our way along the road to the city of High Aerie, but like when Zehan, Copper, Justice, and I went to Truceburg in 999, it seemed like getting back to the city would be more than a one-day affair.  So we found a stream and set up camp close by.

Copper and Justice went to the stream first, because they'd take the longest to clean up, both the robot and the gear.  I trusted her to get it done eventually, though.  Once the pair of them came back, Gregory and Zehan went off to remove the blood on them from the snake's rather...exuberant death.  After they both got back, I went to the stream, finally getting rid of my red coating.  In retrospect, I probably could have asked to go first, and nobody would have begrudged me.

I wasn't that sort of guy, though.  And when I got back, I had a very pertinent question for our zebra friend.

"So," I said as I sat in the clearing, as Copper lit up our gathered kindling for a small fire.  Fortunately, I'd had the foresight to ring it with stones, so that it couldn't escape.  "You said something about the smell of zebra magic hanging thick in the air or some such before we were jumped by a horde of snakes.  Care to explain?"

Zehan nodded and hummed, seeming to think it over for a moment before he explained.  "Zebras are...connected to the earth in a way that can seem mysterious, even to Earth Ponies.  It differs from zebra to zebra, but seeing and hearing and knowing things about the natural world that others cannot is part and parcel of our magic.  I can smell different sorts of magic and differentiate between them very easily, and the manipulation of water is something I excel in.  Which helps explain a bit as to how I can heal the wounds of others and myself so easily.  I merely manipulate their or my body into a state of hyper-healing through the water present in us all."

"That sounds like a very useful talent to have," Gregory pitched in.  Queen Hilda had a more...shrewd query to ask, though.

"And for someone like you, if you tried to manipulate someone else unnaturally?"

Zehan sighed.  "Then it would be an easy matter to influence them.  Or twist them into being my servant.  Or any number of things, were I more talented in the art.  But doing so would require time, concentration, and no small supply of magic to pull off.  A zebra with a dark heart and the mana reserves to make their will a reality comes about but once in a millennium.  Others normally intervene before said zebra can get too far along a dark path."

"So where were the others when this Fiendlord arose?" the queen questioned.

"Slain by her own hooves," Zehan bitterly answered.  "I do not know what her goals are.  But those that sought to stop her failed because she slew them all.  I know not what can stop her now...if indeed, anything can."

Gregory seemed to go silent at that, and with that cheerful thought hanging over all our heads, I drifted off.





When we arrived at the city of High Aerie early in the morn, we were received with a hero's welcome.  Eventually.  It took time to build up, but we just kept accruing more and more cheering townsfolk the closer we walked to the palace.  We were even greeted by an older male griffon when we got there, one with black feathers instead of white.

"My queen!" he said, holding his front legs wide open, as she returned the embrace.

"My dear king," she responded.  "It has been too long since I last saw you."

"I am so sorry it took me so long to reunite you both, your majesties," Gregory said as he bowed his head to the royal couple.  "I have failed you."

"Nonsense!" Hilda said as she turned to her bodyguard.  "It was because of you and these fine warriors that I am returned home!"

"Were it not for my bumbling, I would have found you far sooner," Gregory said before looking up and shaking his head.  "I have no other choice.  I must leave in disgrace for allowing this to have occurred."

"Gregory!" she said, even as he turned and looked at the four of us.

"Crono," he said to me, placing a claw on my shoulder.  I merely nodded at him to signify that I had heard him.

"You have the makings of a fine warrior.  No small amount of skill, and courage enough for ten soldiers.  Hone yourself, and I will be glad to meet you again."

"Till we meet again, Gregory," I said to him, before he walked off through the crowd.

"So," the king said as he looked us over.  "Ponies, a zebra, and a strange biped assisted my queen's bodyguard in retrieving her."  He drew closer to us all and looked directly at Zehan.  "Why should I believe that you would have aided us at a time like this, when one of your own assaults us with fiends nigh-constantly?"

"Because the Fiendlord is an affront to those that would study Zebra magic, and had I the means and the power, I would strike her down myself," Zehan replied.  "As it stands, I will settle for dealing with her minions and plots, until the day comes that I find myself facing her.  And should that day come, I will remind the whole of Griffenhiem just how noble Zebras can truly be."

There was silence for a minute, before the king started laughing.  It was a good, strong belly-laugh.  "I had nearly forgotten how impassioned a zebra can be, when they aren't rhyming at you," the king said, a faint chuckle underlying his words.  "Rest assured, I remember how noble and upstanding our zebra friends used to be.  They've stopped talking to us because of the Fiendlord that now assails us, I assume, but because of your efforts, I will try to open communications with them once more."

He then turned to Copper and Justice, and nodded again.  "Ponies may seem soft, but I of all griffons know that they can do remarkable things when pressed."

Justice just shrugged, while Copper seemed to snicker and nod.  The king continued with his little speech after he turned to look at me.  "And I don't know what you are, but I will tell you that you are welcome here for having helped rescue my queen, especially if Gregory praises you so highly."

"It is my honor to have worked with him, your majesty," I said, doing a bow at the waist.  "A finer swords-arm I have never fought with.  I doubt the battle would have gone nearly as well without him there."

"He seemed to think the same of you," the king said with a small snicker.  "So for the part you played in returning her to me, I tell you all that you are welcome in High Aerie as one of us.  Stay as long as you desire."

"In that case," I said, finally standing up straight again.  "We shall stay the night, but then must be going again in the morning.  We have places to be, even now.  A lifetime of adventure awaits us, and we must ever meet it head-on."

"Well-said," Hilda spoke up.  "A disappointing answer, but a good one nonetheless."

And that was how we got treated like heroes in High Aerie, 599.  And that was the first alteration to the timeline we did.  It would only become evident once we returned to the modern day just how bad it was, but we had a pit stop to make before that...





"So," I said as we neared the plain that would house Truceburg in the near future.  "I'm just going to warn you right now, Zehan.  If this Gate functions like it should this time, you're going to see something that may cause you to think you're going crazy.  Crazier, at any rate."

"I've traveled through time, fought giant snakes, and helped alter a nation's perception on zebras from four hundred years ago," Zehan quipped.  "What could be worse than this?"

"You asked," I said, drawing the Gate Key from my belt.  "Everyone ready?"

Copper and Justice drew up next to me, and Zehan stood behind me.  I reached out and tapped the Gate with the Key, and the thing opened with a roar of wind, sucking us up and depositing us back at the End of Time.

"You're right," Zehan said as he looked around.  "This is worse.  Where did everything go?"

"Who knows?" I asked as we walked along the pathway to the lamp-post with the crystal unicorn under it.  "Hello there Hora.  How goes it?"

"Oh, it's been quite entertaining, watching the results of your meddling," he said, as a spark jumped off his horn and impacted Zehan.  "Griffenheim making peace with zebras and being as accepting of equines as they would themselves.  And the bodyguard lived this time!  Quite impressive, last time he died getting Hilda out to safety.  Of course, the biggest change will be in little princess Gilda, but she doesn't know that.  All in all, things unfolded quite differently, as compared to how you experienced them, but that's part and parcel of being time-travelers.  Making a better world that you can't remember having ever existed in the first place."

"Wait," Zehan said as he raised a hoof.  "Are you saying that in this new present we have made...I wouldn't have been accused of kidnapping the princess in the first place?"  When the crystal unicorn nodded, the zebra continued his question.  "So how would me and Crono have met then?"

"You likely wouldn't have!" Hora said with a smile.  "If you did, it would have been because they asked you, as a local zebra, to lend your expertise in finding the culprit of the kidnapping because you would have been the best suited to do so!  And then Crono here would have stumbled across you while you were conducting your investigation, while he conducted his!  Isn't time-travel fascinating?"

"Does Anima remember our orders, at least?" I asked, wanting to get my weapon upgraded as soon as possible.  And hoping it was still possible.

"Oh yes, he does.  You still visited him in this new present for the same reasons," Hora said with a nod.  "But first, don't you think there's somebody your new friend should go visit?"

I remembered Bellum, and her promise that she might be able to help any new friends we got on this journey.  I turned to the pathway where the door was last time, and sure enough, the thing faded back into view.  "C'mon," I said to the zebra, who was still trying to wrap his brain around the new present we'd created.  "Let's go see the other inhabitant of the End of Time."

A short walk saw us back in Bellum's room, and she was happy to see us.  "Hello again!" she chirped at us, now looking a little more grown up than last time.  She looked at Zehan and positively squealed.  "Oooh, a new friend!"  She drew close and walked around him, judging his worth while he attempted to follow her movements.

"Uhh, what is she doing?" he asked, causing the little red filly to giggle before she sat right in front of him.

"You didn't tell him?" she asked me.

"I figured you'd want to introduce yourself to him," I replied with a shake of my head.  She giggled again, before turning her head back to face Zehan.

"So, since you didn't get the run-down from the others, hi!" she chirped to him.  "I'm Bellum, Mistress of War."

"Greetings, Lady Bellum," the zebra said, now apparently realizing that this was an alicorn he was talking to and bowing to her.  She giggled again and waved a hoof at him imperiously.

"Up you get, I wasn't done," she commanded the zebra, who slowly complied.  "As I was about to say, I inhabit the End of Time with Hora, only I look over all the battles that have been fought from right here.  And when I get new visitors, I judge whether or not they're worthy of the secrets I can pass on.  And you pass for one specific element."

"Element of what?" Zehan asked with a tilted head.

"Element of magic!" she said with a smile.  "You like to flow around and fill many roles, being support or healing or even assault.  But when an enemy gets in your way, your heart turns cold and you have no mercy for it.  Somezebra like you deserves to have Water, in Ice-flavor, for their magic."

"Wait, what?" Zehan asked, but the filly had already sat back and raised her front hooves.  From the space above her head, a jet of water bridged the gap between them, before it froze into a solid stream.  Then it vanished as quickly as it came, leaving Zehan with a burning blue aura for a moment longer.  He gasped as it faded, before looking at nothing in particular.

"Ice..." he muttered to himself.  "I...I can call on Ice now...how do I know that?"

"It's what Bellum does," I said, steering the zebra out of the room.  "Thank you for your time, Mistress Bellum.  I'm sure that sooner or later, we'll take you up on your option to fight."

"Anytime, friends!" she said, waving a hoof at us.  "Just remember to make your fights entertaining for me!  I need something to watch, after all!"
> Chapter 13 - Everyone likes a weapon upgrade
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Our return to the still-quiet town of Truceburg seemed to finally snap Zehan out of his slight daze.  "So we not only succeeded in altering time and perception itself from four-hundred years in the past," the zebra said.  "But we traveled to the end of time itself?"

"It's normal for a Gate to deposit us there en route to where we want to go," I told the zebra.  Our party of four made its way out of the inn's basement and back into the outside air.  "Something about them not having the energy to take more than one zooming past it.  Why don't we go back to Anima, see if we can't pick up our weapons?"

"A sound plan," Justice affirmed.  "Perhaps afterwards, we can see about Copper and myself getting some upgrades."

"Maybe," I said as we started the walk back to High Aerie.  "It's just, upgrading either of your weapons would involve more than a few hours spent in a hostile land."

"Fair enough," Copper said.  "Still, I'm getting ideas that I would like to try out."

"We'll see how Zehan and I take to our new weapons, and how our new friend takes to his new magic, before we make a decision to go after an upgrade for the pair of you," I offered.  A sound of agreement rang out from my party members then, and we lapsed into silence for the rest of our trip to High Aerie.





It was just a little bit...eerie to walk the streets of the capitol and not have the griffons glaring at our zebra companion.  Apparently when we did work, we did good work.  Not a one of them had any problems with our striped friend.

"This feels odd, not feeling any hostility directed at me," Zehan muttered.  "It feels like a different city entire compared to the one I walked through not a week ago."

"Because of what we did, that's an entirely apt description," I said as we made our way to Anima's forge.  "Remember, in this new present, they're friendly with zebras, and ponies too I would imagine."

"...It will take some getting used to, this method of rewriting time to suit us," Zehan eventually said.  "How much of what I know has changed, because of our actions yesterday?"

"Likely?  Quite a bit," I said as we finally found the building we were looking for.  I knocked on the door a few times, hoping to gain the smith's attention.  There was a shout as the sounds of forging from within slowly came to a halt.  The sound of hoofsteps grew closer and closer, until the crystal stallion opened the door and beckoned us inside.

"In, in, I was just about to finish honing this new sword's edge!" he said, and I smiled at the thought.  The four of us piled into his home/workspace, and the stallion closed the door before walking back over to his...interesting forge setup.

"Here," the smith said, before all but tossing a gleaming metal staff at Zehan.  "Steel exterior for the durability.  Made the interior of weightier stuff, to help it pack a kick when you hit something with it."

The zebra hefted the staff a few times, seemingly taking in the weight of the thing, before he nodded and took his older staff off his back and placed it on the floor.  "A better staff I now have, true, so this one I shall return to you."

The master of the forge nodded once, before turning back to his forge, to work on a gleaming hot piece of metal.  "Your sword will take a little longer, though.  Feel free to wait as long as you don't say anything."  Without waiting for our reply, he touched some sort of button and caused the entire setup to flare into life again.

With a quick look at Zehan and Copper, the three of us agreed silently to wait for the forgemaster to complete his work.





It took him what felt like hours of honing the edge of the blade, but eventually he pulled back and touched the same control he had again, to deactivate the forge.  "And finished," he proclaimed as the setup sputtered back into inactivity.  The smith presented me with my new sword, and I took it, swinging it around a few times to gauge how it felt.

Mostly, it felt lighter than my Crimson Katana.  I would have to test it on a few targets to be able to gauge its actual strength, but I had high hopes for it.  Especially when I saw a gleam running down the length of it, one that shimmered in the light.  "A crystal core?" I asked as I thought about running a charge through the blade.

"For strength, activated crystals are some of the best things," the smith said with a nod.  "Plus it should be a bit more magically permeable than your old blade."

I found that out easily when the charge I tried to run down the length of the sword lit the thing up in record time.  "I can see that," I said with a nod.  I took my old blade out and laid it next to Zehan's old staff, placing the both of them on the pile to be sold.  "How much do we owe you?" I asked the stallion.

"It would be a thousand bits, but with these two to add to my collection...750," Anima said.  Copper passed me our bit-bag, and I counted out the coins.  One of these days, I would have to count our money myself.  And then ask how she kept getting it all.

"Pleasure doing business with you," I said as I passed the coins over.  "We may come back with another request in the future, seeing as how you did so well with this one."

"Not a problem, just don't ask for an upgrade to those weapons right away," the stallion said with a wave of his hoof.  "It'd take something legendary for me to improve on those weapons."

The idea twinged with me again, as I recalled the other reason for visiting the Guru of Life.  Surely he wasn't implying?...

"Thanks again," I said to him, before we continued on our way.  "C'mon guys, let's head back to Truceburg."

With that cheery thought hanging over my head, the four of us attempted to leave High Aerie as quietly as we'd come.

Attempted, because we were accosted the moment we got out of the forge, by a platoon of armed griffons in armor.  One stepped forward and looked at all four of us before focusing on me.  "Are you the one known as Crono?" he asked.

I nodded as one hand inched closer to my new katana, wondering just how much trouble we could possibly be in.

As it turned out, not a whole lot.  The guards merely surrounded us and the one that had addressed me motioned for me to follow after him.  "The king and princess would have words with you.  Please follow us to the palace."

"Only if you all agree to stop pointing at us with the weapons," I said, not liking that situation at all.

Clearly, some of my nervousness transferred over to my words, as the guards jolted at the thought of me being skittish around them.  The lead guard, as I called him, chuckled before shaking his head.  "Stand down," he told the others.  "There's no reason to act like they're criminals."

Slowly, the griffons relaxed and stopped gripping their halberds so hard, causing me to relax and not grip the handle of my katana either.  "Better?" the head guard asked me.

"Much," I said as I finally took a free breath again.  "If they only want words with us, so be it.  But sending armed guards to retrieve us sends a bit of a mixed message..."

"The princess didn't want to take any chances with your safety," the guard replied as we started to make our way to the castle.  "We have low crime, but not none."

"Yeah, alright, fair enough," Copper said as she visibly untensed as well.

"A regrettable statistic," Justice said.

"For a moment I did fear for my life, I am thankful that there was no strife," Zehan rhymed as he lowered the hoof reaching for his staff.  The party of griffons didn't exactly surround us then, and I was grateful for the difference.  They weren't there to take us in forcibly, there were there to make sure we made it to the palace in the first place.

This was their equivalent of a police escort, so I could get behind it.  Especially now that they weren't so twitchy around us.  It wasn't too long a walk to the palace, and once we reached the main door, the majority of the escort dispersed from around us.  Only the guard that had talked to us and a guard behind us stayed to usher us through the halls of the palace.

And I'm thankful they did, because that place would probably have been very confusing to walk through otherwise.  It looked like at the time they built it, they designed the castle to confuse any invaders so that there would be little to no danger to the royalty.

After what felt like a long enough time winding the maze that was the hallways, we were presented with a set of double doors.  "Enter and be sure to mind your manners," the guard said.  "They are the king and princess of Griffenhiem after all."

I nodded my head, settled my stomach, and pushed the doors open so the four of us could walk in.  Sitting on a slightly raised dais, in a not-too-ostentatious throne, was a griffon wearing a crown and a cape, with the black feathers I could recall his ancestor from 599 having.  His daughter, on the other hoof...had white feathers with a pale violet edge, though it was most notable around her eyes.

Yup, this was Gilda alright.  Same griffon we'd rescued from the threat of temporal displacement, and apparently, she remembered us as well.

"So," the king said.  "You four are the ones that rescued my daughter from the fiends that took her from me, and dealt with their master?"

I waved my hand in a so-so fashion.  "All we did was fend them off and release them into the wild.  Without her minions, the master wasn't as powerful, and it wasn't that hard to rescue the princess with the zebra mare responsible taken out of any further interfering."

"I see," the king said with a claw to his chin.  "And this mare, she was dealt with?"

"She was not present when we passed through Truceburg a second time, nor were any of the inhabitants," Justice informed the king.  "It is likely as not she did away with the inhabitants of the town to secure a base of operations and test out her powers."

"A sad loss indeed, but I will be certain to inform Princess Celestia it was circumstances beyond our control that led to the disappearance of a town.  I will even mention your efforts in apprehending the culprit."

"I would rather prefer you didn't," I said, barely daring to contradict his word.  "Or at the very least, downplay our role.  We didn't even catch her, just stopped her."

The king hummed a bit before shrugging.  "If you insist," he said, before looking at Gilda.  "My daughter, was there something you wished to say to these brave warriors?"

The griffoness nodded before taking a few steps forward, looking us all over before returning her attention to me.  And when she spoke, she did so in a whisper that still chilled me because of what she was saying.

"I know what you all are," she said softly.  "Don't worry, it's a pretty big secret, right?"  I slowly nodded, prompting her to smile.  "Then I can keep it for you, as long as you promise to swing by again so I can look at the robot's weapons again."

"That's...doable," I whispered back.  "Just not...right away.  We'll...send a message when we're next in town."

"Fine by me," the griffoness nodded as she returned to standing next to her father.  Who was now holding a broadsword.  And coming closer.  Oh...

"Kneel, if you would," he asked of us, and I gulped, but complied, even bowing my head, not daring to look up.  There was a tap on both of my shoulders as the older griffon kept talking.

"By the power vested in me, in honor of your accomplishments in defense of the crown, I name you Sir Crono, knight of the Griffon Kingdom.  Rise, Sir Crono."

I did, shakily, and the old griffon was smiling at me.  "Thank you for saving my daughter.  May you always fight for the brave and true, and your sword never dull."

I bowed my head to the griffon, still shaking a little but managing to control it.  "Thank you for this honor, your majesty."

"It is the least I could do for you," the griffon replied.  "Do you have some pressing business to attend to?"

"A prior commitment best seen to sooner rather than later," I answered.  "Else I would surely stay for a little while longer."

"A pity," the king said.  "But understandable.  I wish you well then, and hope for your eventual return."
> Chapter 14 - Nobody likes the future
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The four of us made for the still empty town of Truceburg, and warped back to the End of Time with little fuss.  Next came the hard part, picking a point in the future we thought we could visit for Copper and Justice.

"Hmm," I muttered, twirling the Gate Key as I thought about our options.  "Copper, how about the Trott dome?  We could start there, see what lines are open if we can find the train station."

"Sounds like a plan," she agreed.  "Plus it'll give me a chance to refuel."

I nodded and turned to Zehan, before getting down on one knee and looking him in the eye.  "Where we're about to go, when we're about to go, it is a terrible, blighted wasteland.  A future we are trying to alter.  I would not blame you if you decided not to go, or wanted to come back as soon as we arrived.  I go for the sake of Copper and Justice getting their upgrades.  I will not force you into following me."

Zehan swallowed thickly before nodding once, resolutely.  "Wherever you go, I go," he said firmly.  "I don't expect any coddling or special treatment."

"You say that now," I said, getting back on my feet and raising the Key high.  "I promise you, you'll change your tune in the first ten seconds of being there."

I was nearly proven right when we materialized in Trott dome, circa 2299.  Zehan's breath hitched and he staggered, nearly falling over.  I was at his side in an instant, wondering what was wrong and doing my best to keep him on his hooves.  Eventually, the zebra spoke to me.

"The...the very earth is dead...the magic is gone...what...happened here?"

"Remember that mighty foe I talked about?" I asked, causing him to nod once.  "He did this.  His name is Lavos, and we're gonna find a way for him to grow weaker at any cost.  And then when he's at his weakest, we'll take him down before he does this."

"Against a foe that can do this...what hope have we?" Zehan asked as he finally stood on his own power.

"Wrong question," I said, letting go and standing up.  "Against a party of adventurers that can skip across the time-stream and will not stop until their goal is accomplished, what hope has he?"

"I find the second question far more agreeable to our current mission statement," Justice commented.  "Question, how do you intend to procure upgrades for myself and Copper?"

"The good old fashioned way," I said as I drew my katana.  Copper finished the sentiment.

"We're gonna bust some robot heads," she said.  Justice whirred a little bit, and I was afraid he would condemn our current course of action for a moment...before he nodded.

"That is the most efficient way to go about procuring the supplies I require for an upgrade," the robot agreed.  "Where will we be doing this?"

"Well, let's hit up the train station first and call the train here from Trott dome, then we'll see where we can go," I said, leading the party out of the basement we were in.  It was a bit of a search, finding the rail station, but once we did, I activated the terminal and called the train from Aerie dome.  The terminal promised that the train would be here in an hour, so we waited for it to arrive.  There was an occasional mutated creature roaming the ruins, and I prompted Zehan to use his new magic to try dealing with the monstrosities.

It was funny, watching his reaction to the fact that he could call up chunks of ice around foes.  Against the larger ones, the rest of us would chip in what we could, but he dealt well with the wandering foes.

Eventually the train pulled in, and everybody else piled on while I pulled up a list of destinations we could travel to.  Surprisingly, one option that had been previously blocked off wasn't anymore.

Canter dome.  I punched in that destination, then jumped into the train before making my way to the engineer's compartment.  Quickly entering the command to disable the boosting technology, I was rewarded with a screen telling me that at normal speed, it would take us an hour to get to our destination.

"I can deal with an hour long wait," I said aloud, before rejoining the group.  I got general sounds of agreement from my companions, and settled in for a quick nap.





I woke up to the sound of squealing brakes as the train pulled into Canter dome.  Canterlot, the capitol of Equestria.  I had had vague hopes about seeing it in one day, but I had rather hoped that day would not be this one.  Where the city had been rent asunder and the population destroyed.

Still, we'd be able to give the citizens of this dome hope and freedom from one sort of menace at least.  The four of us made our way to the part of the service area for the dome that was still intact, and found the ponies there to be much like the rest we'd encountered.  Dreary, hopeless.  Seeing us did briefly bring a light to their eyes, but it faded just as fast.

Copper used the Energizer to fill up her fuel tanks for her flamethrower, and the four of us descended into the depths of the dome's tunnels.  We were instantly set upon by a small troop of robots, causing Zehan to look from Justice to the 'bots, then back at Justice.  "Is there some relation here?" he asked.

"Only in the sense that we are both robotic life-forms, yes," Justice said as he warmed up his weapons.  "Try not to damage them too badly.  I may require some of their components for my up-grades."

"Got it," I said as a charge ran down my blade.

"No sweat," Copper said as her flamethrower kicked on.  "I need their parts too, you know."

"I shall try," Zehan said as he drew his staff, a shimmer of his ice magic dancing along the weapon.

And together, the four of us went to work depopulating the robots of Canter dome.  Every time we needed to recharge, one of us would dart upstairs, hit up the Energizer, then dart back down and take their spot in the melee again.  At least, once we told Zehan how to use the thing.

Between fire, ice, lightning, and lasers, we dominated the robots utterly on the field of combat.  They just hadn't been prepared for something like us.  And while time blurred and hunger gnawed at us, at least, those of us that ate, the pile of scrapped robots kept growing.

Eventually there wasn't another robot for us to fight.  The silence reigned for about a minute as we kept looking down the tunnels.  Eventually Zehan, Copper, and I sighed and lowered our weapons, while Justice merely powered his down.

"Copper, please assist me in locating the requisite parts from the slain drones," Justice said as they walked over to the largest pile of scrap.

"Yeah, and you can help me find some parts for my plans as well.  I got a few ideas I want to run past you..."

I sheathed my blade and leaned up against a wall while I watched the two of them go to work.





After a length of time I didn't care to mention, the pair of post-apocalyptic beings had finished checking each individual scrapped bot for supplies and were working on their upgraded gear.  That was when we heard a clanking noise from down the hall, and Zehan and I snapped out of our near-stupors and got ready to defend our inventors.  Fortunately, it faded away before it drew too much closer, and we breathed a sigh of relief.

What felt like thirty minutes passed before Copper shrugged her new harness on, Justice helping her hook everything up that needed to be.

"Okay, so now what can you do?" I asked.

"Oughta be able to shoot beams of energy with the push of this dial," Copper demonstrated, flicking a dial near her mouth, causing the turret on her back to stop emitting flames, and start glowing instead.  "We hooked up a few cubes together, so it should last me quite a while as long as I don't push it too far."  That demonstration done, they took off one of Justice's covers before she carefully inserted pieces into him as per his directions.

"Installing new hardware," the robot said.  "Calibrating.  Optimizing.  Installation complete.  Use of electric based attacks now possible."

"Neat," I said.  "Anything else?"

"Yes.  Use of long-range 'Hoof of Justice' technique now available."

I blinked a little at that one before raising an eyebrow.  "Show me," I told the robot.

Justice turned to one wall, raised a forehoof, and there was a hiss of air before his hoof exploded off and hit the wall, giving it a nasty dent.  The hoof was retracted back to his leg via a chain, and there was a click as it connected again.  "Demonstration complete," the robot informed us.

"Remind me to never get on the wrong side of that," I said, suitably impressed.

"Noted," Justice commented.  "When shall we return?"

"How about...yeah, how about we go back now, to High Aerie of the past?" I asked my companions.  "I wanna check up on Gregory."

The ride back was nearly uneventful, except I forgot to disable the boost, causing me to black out again...





When I came to, I found the other three on the train platform, making a game out of dealing with the mutant creatures of the day before they got too close to my unconscious self.

"Justice," I groaned.  "Remind me to either get better at dealing with that boost, or disable it every time we enter a train."

"Logged," the robot said as I groggily got off the train.  "Shall we be off then, sir?"

"Yes, let's," I said as I led the group back to the basement, and from there, to the End of Time.
> Chapter 15 - When history comes alive
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Reappearing in the empty valley that Truceburg would one day be built in was starting to become old hat.  Heh, funny, zipping around the time-line was starting to become normal to me.  I still looked forward to the day when I could stop, though.  That would mean my job had finally been done.

Of course, all the steps between then and now were likely to keep us busy for a long time yet.  Thankfully, I had nothing but time to spare.

The four of us made our way to the capitol, High Aerie, and received a friendly nod from the populace as we passed them by.  Apparently they still remembered us, which made walking through the place a lot easier.

"Hmm," I said, thinking aloud.  "Where should we go to learn about the things that have happened since we left?"

"A good place to overhear gossip is the bar, or in this era, the tavern," Justice commented.

"As good a start as any," I agreed.  Just as a platoon of soldiers started marching down the street, and we scurried out of their way.  "Although...Justice, do you have any information as to what would be going on in this era?"

The robot whirred before nodding.  "Circa 599, due to the death of the queen's latest bodyguard, the king would send out the army to find and deal with the Fiendlord.  Though, since we have changed history..."

"Yeah, Gregory's alive, but she still poses a threat," I quipped.  "Especially if she made those fiends that kidnapped the queen."

"Then now would be a good time to ask how we can help," Zehan pointed out.  "We should do our best to stop her before more are put into danger."

I then saw something that I knew we could use.  Something that would provide us an easy access line to the front lines.  A wagon with food piled into it.

"An army marches on its stomach," I pointed out to the others even as I pointed out the wagon.  "We can offer our services as guards for the food, and then we'll be one step closer to finding and putting the Fiendlord down for good."

"Works for me," Copper said as we made our way over to the wagon.

"A logical plan," Justice agreed.





Fortunately, the food convoy was glad to have us as guards, as long as we didn't try to eat any of the food on the wagon.  The forces of Griffenhiem were currently engaged in a pitched battle to the south, in a mountain pass through which fiends tended to come through.  Neither side was gaining any ground, though this couldn't hold true forever.  Something would have to give, and the food would help see to it that the soldiers still had the strength to fight.

It took us a day to arrive at the pass, and when we did, it wasn't an encouraging sight.  The soldiers were barely holding on at holding back the fiends.  A quick display from both Zehan and Copper, combining their Fire and Ice magics together into a freezing-burning technique, saw the fiends scared off for a moment.

"We'll handle things from here!" I shouted as I drew my katana and pushed past the front lines.  My allies followed along behind me, and I heard a few whispers along the lines of 'was that magic from non-unicorns?'

"Weapons system on-line," I heard from Justice.  "Begin dispensing of punishments."

"I couldn't agree more," Zehan said as he drew his staff.  Copper said nothing, just flicked her turret to energy mode as I ran electricity down my blade.

Lighting was all I was seeing then.  Electricity erupted from me to strike the fiends assembled before us, and when I felt like I couldn't reliably do it anymore, I switched to simple swordplay, cleaving my foes with my new katana.

Note to self, next time we see Anima, tip him well for this blade.  It was like a dream sword for me.  Out of the corners of my eyes, I saw Copper lighting her foes up with energy and fire, and Zehan dishing out more than a few hits with his staff as he froze some other beings solid.  Justice just kept lighting foes up with his lasers, or punching them with his hoof when they got too close.

All our training in the future had paid off, it would seem.  Because it wasn't long before we had cut the innumerable horde down to nothing more than a few stragglers, who were fleeing when they saw the situation was no longer in their favor.

There was cheering from behind us, and we realized that we had put on a show for the army that was supposed to have done this in our stead.  I sheathed my blade and turned to see the guards we had been defending cheering and clapping for us.

"Thank you," I said, taking an unsteady step as I felt my exhaustion rush into me.  "But now I need to rest..."

I didn't get to finish that sentence, as I felt myself falling towards the ground next.





When I next awoke, it was in a tent with a griffon standing watch over me.  The moment I stirred, he moved to leave, and I woke up mostly alone, wondering what had happened.  I remembered the fight...but not what came after to put me in the tent.

I quickly got some sort of answer as Copper barreled into the tent and tackle-hugged me.  "You stupid, stupid stallion!" she berated me.  "Using your powers to the point of passing out!  What were you thinking?!"

"...That we had an army we had to deal with?" I replied.  "Look, I'm sorry I worried you, all right?  But what's done is done.  And now with the fiends out of the way, we can easily try to locate Gregory and see how he's doing."

She just sniffed, and I sighed before pushing her back and standing up.  "C'mon, I'm fine," I told her.  "See?  Walking, talking.  I can do this.  We can still do what we meant to do.  Finding Gregory and putting a stop to the zebra that thinks herself so powerful."

Copper just sniffed again, but nodded and followed me out of the tent.  I was met with a griffon in much shinier armor than the others had been wearing, who was scrutinizing me.  Zehan and Justice were just behind him, and Copper quickly followed me out of the tent.  "Are you the Crono that these three have been on about, that risked his life to see us all safe?" the likely griffon commander asked of me.

"I did what I could to see as many fiends destroyed as possible," I answered.  "It was just my luck that with my friends, the answer turned out to be 'all of them.'"

"I see," the commander mused.  "What were those strange powers you all used?"

"Magic," I answered.  "We're still coming into our powers, but what we have, we can use well against the fiends that would bar our path."

"Yes, we saw that," the griffon answered.  "For what reason did you fight?"

"Because somebody had to," I replied.  "Somebody had to help out, and we had the power to do so."

"A sound answer.  What is this I hear about you looking for the Queen's Guard, Gregory?"

"He is a friend of mine," I said.  "One I hope to meet again.  Do you know where he lives?"

The griffon nodded and turned to the pass before pointing at it.  "Within the southern half of the empire, there is a forest.  It is there, in a place plagued by snakes, that Gregory makes his home.  He 'finds the challenge' exhilarating."

I nodded in thanks, before gathering up my allies.  We had a friend to check up on.
> Chapter 16 - The hunt for a legend
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Our journey through the pass was unmolested, now that we'd dealt with the Fiendlord's apparent army.  Or most of it anyway.  I couldn't imagine that she'd be able to mount any serious offensives against the griffons in the near future.

On the other side of the pass, all I saw to indicate that we'd gone the right way at all was the lack of a castle on the horizon.  It was mostly the same beautiful countryside.  It was hard to imagine that a zebra lived somewhere in here, in some sort of base, and was wreaking havoc from it.  Then again, we had just dealt with her army...

"I have no idea how this zebra got to be so powerful," I said as I looked around.  "Nor do I know why she's after the griffons, of all peoples.  But I do know that should we find a way to, we should stop her."

"History dictates that the Fiendlord was trying to summon a mighty monster to the field of battle...and then disappeared," Zehan supplied.  "It is thought she reached too far, and was slain by her creation."

"Let's see if Gregory is around," I said.  "Like as not, thanks to the fact that he lives here, he'll be able to discern the Fiendlord's whereabouts.  He is the reason we're visiting in the first place, after all."

"We're probably gonna have quite the walk until we find the forest he lives in," Copper pointed out.

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step," I quipped, taking that step and leading my friends to the south.





The very first town we ran across was so ecstatic that we'd dealt with the army of the Fiendlord, they threw us a party.  Apparently that army had swept through the town not so long ago and sent the townsfolk into their homes due to fear for their lives.  The fact that we'd dealt with them all was cause for celebration in their eyes.  Granted, it was a small celebration, but the feeling was there nonetheless.

We did eventually have to press on, but managed to hear an important bit of trivia before we left the villagers to their merriment.  Apparently a small cub had found some sort of medal of heroes, and had taken it upon himself to try and reclaim the sword of heroes as well.  Putting a pin in that for later, the four of us pressed on further south, to where Gregory was said to reside.

A second, more sedate village was what greeted us the next day.  When we asked the townsfolk about Gregory, they pointed us in the direction of a forest to the west.  Of course, we did have to ask around in the local tavern, and overheard more than a little about some mountain to the north holding a shrine to heroes in it.  Mainly because this was where the little cub had come from, so of course they would talk about where he was going.

"It seems a little...off, that that's all they'd talk about, before you asked them where Gregory was," Copper mused as we trekked to the west.

"They're just proud that somebody is doing something, and doubly so that it's one of their own," I replied, now seeing the forest come into view a bit more.  Though calling it a forest was a bit generous.  It was no Everfree, that was for sure.  Still, for some reason our wayward friend resided here.

It wasn't twenty feet before we were assaulted by large snake creatures again, though these at least didn't start off trying to trick us.  I absently cut them down with a few well-placed slashes and sighed.  "And here I was thinking this would be a problem."

"Maybe it was, when their snakes weren't all already dealt with," Zehan pointed out as he froze another solid.  "This magic feels...odd, still, but I am getting used to it all the more the more I use it."

"Yeah, I felt that way too, the first few times I used mine," Copper said as she put her turret to use zapping a few snakes.

"Elemental magic is definitely useful, though I suppose it would feel odd to a pony that isn't a unicorn to use," I mused.  Eventually we found the center of the forest and looked around.  "Where the heck is Gregory's home?"

Justice clicked and whirred for a moment before looking upwards.  "There is a life-form detected above us that is not similar to these snakes," the robot informed us.  I looked around and found something...encouraging.

A rope ladder.  Though why a griffon would need one was beyond me.  He probably had it for his more ground-bound guests.  And when I looked up to where it led to, I saw the mother of all tree houses hanging out in the foliage above us.

"Well, now I feel like a moron," I said flatly, causing Zehan and Copper to laugh.  "You two go up first, I'll climb up after, and...I don't think you can follow us, Justice."

"That construction likely would snap under my weight, yes," the robot said with a nod.  After watching the zebra and pony ascend the ladder (somehow), I clambered up myself.

Within, it seemed rather oddly silent.  I could see a bed in one corner of the large room, along with documents strewn about.  But of our friend, I saw no sign.  I did spot a rather conspicuous chest near the bed, though.  Moving towards it got me the sign I wanted.

"Who goes there!" I heard from above, before a large form dropped in front of us.  Instinctively, I grabbed my katana and prepared to fight...only to see that it was Gregory, who had been doing something similar with the sword strapped to his back.

"Ah, 'tis only you, Crono," he said, lowering his claw.  I slowly removed my hand from my katana's hilt and nodded at him.

"We thought to check up on you after we managed to get through the pass," I said.

"The pass?" Gregory asked with a furrowed brow.  "But I have heard the Fiendlord sent an army of monsters there..."

"Yeah, that was us," Copper said with a smile.  "We managed to beat them so badly, the survivors ran from us."

The griffon was suitably impressed.  "You truly are fine warriors," he praised us.  "Would that I could have joined you..."  He sighed and shook his head.  "But the only blade that could stand against the Fiendlord's foul magics and put an end to her and the threat she poses forever, I have not the right to wield."

Sensing where this was going, I nodded my head and motioned for my allies to descend the ladder behind me.  "I wouldn't give in to despair just yet," I told the griffon before I left.  "Sometimes, you can even surprise yourself with what you can be capable of."

My only reply was a noncommittal grunt as I left the griffon to his musings.





It took us yet another day to locate one specific mountain in the empire of Griffienhiem.  When the thing has myths and legends surrounding it, you normally wouldn't expect it to take so long.

Turns out, the empire is ringed with the things, and the ones that crop up inside it aren't so special in most griffon's eyes.  It took three griffons to actually point out the one where the young cub had run off to.

"A question," Justice asked.  "Why do we seek the mountain known as the Hero's Rest?"

"Because," I said as we made our way to the base.  "That small griffon cub came here after hearing so many tales of valor associated with this place, and there's supposed to be some sort of sword here as well, yes?"

"There is a legend associated with the mountain about a blade capable of defeating nearly any foe when wielded by the proper bearer," the robot mused.

"And where do you think an impulsive young cub would dart off to when he heard of such things?" I pressed.

"To where all the legends originated from," Zehan supplied.  "Meaning, hopefully we will find the cub-"

There was a scream from in front of us, and a monster that reminded me a lot of a really, really fat goblin appeared from further up the mountain.  With a quick flurry of attacks from all four of us, the beast was slain in moments.

That was when a small griffon cub darted from higher up the mountain and hid behind us, just in time for another one of the creatures to show up.  Only this one was armed with a wooden hammer.  I attempted to slice into it, but the creature blocked me with its massive hammer.  Zehan tried as well, to a similar non-effective result.

And then Copper set it on fire with her flamethrower, and that got the creature to toss the implement away.  Afterwards, it was quickly dispatched.  The griffon cub behind us was still shaking slightly.

"Hey, kid?" I said as I sheathed my sword.  "We're not gonna hurt you-"

"You guys were so heroic!" he practically screamed.  "I ran into trouble almost right away and tried to sneak around it, but you guys...you dealt with it right away!"

"Yeah, that's what we do," Copper said, smiling at the praise.  The young cub reached into a pouch he was carrying before pulling out a small disc of metal and handing it to us.

"Guys like you deserve this Hero's Medal.  I bet you could even get the sword that's supposed to be here," he said.  "I'm just gonna go home now and tell my folks that I got it from some knight in the inn when he was drunk one night."

With that, the cub was off.  I gave the medal to Copper and turned to the climb ahead of us.

We had a sword to claim.
> Chapter 17 - A broken blade
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The path up to the actual shrine where the sword was said to rest wasn't an easy one to walk.  It was a long and winding path that had more than its fair share of goblinoid foes.  Both of the armed and unarmed variety.  Copper's magic and flamethrower were invaluable in dealing with them.  There were also a fair assortment of fiends armed with swords, who thought themselves the masters of ambushing others.

Our combined forces and robot swiftly disabused them of that notion.  The terrain was uneven and perfect for them to try ambushing us, but we were simply too strong as a team for them to get much traction against us.

The road to the shrine was so erratic we even had to walk down a stream and carefully find a way down the waterfall in order to progress at one point.  Fortunately, there was a nearby path worn into the cliffside that we could walk down with relative ease.  And once we did that, it wasn't long before we found ourselves facing the cave the sword was said to reside in.

"I wonder if it was the path or the monsters that made it a supposed challenge for others," I mused as we walked into the cave.

"Likely the monsters," Zehan supplied.  "They're griffons, after all.  They could fly."

"Sound reasoning," Justice pointed out.  There seemed to be nothing in the room, something that set my nerves on edge.  Wasn't there supposed to be something here?

Just then, a beam of light fell from above after having worked its way through a few rocks and illuminated the cave, showing us that there was an upper level as compared to the one we were on, where a sword was embedded into the rock.  Then we heard the voice.

"Whoosh!" it said, before a pale yellow pegasus pony flew down in front of us, doing a few stunts in the small cave.  "I'm the wind!" he proclaimed, before doing a few more stunts.

"I don't like this," Copper muttered as she watched the pegasus colt.  I had only just noticed it was a colt myself, not a full-grown stallion.  "How did this kid beat us here?"

"Scans are showing an abnormal amount of energy around the colt," Justice agreed.  "I recommend caution."

Seeing that the kid hadn't paid any attention to us, I decided to edge my way up to the platform where the sword rested.  Hoping that maybe, perhaps, I could grab ahold of it and get out.

It was not to be.

As I ascended towards the sword, the pegasus colt screamed out "Wait!" and landed in front of me.  "Did you come here for the sword?  The Masamune?" he asked.

"Yes," I said, already knowing where this would be going and gripping the hilt of my katana.

"Not another one," the colt groaned before looking at the sword.  "Hey, big brother Masa!"

Another voice spoke up then, and from behind the sword, somehow, a lanky pale yellow unicorn colt appeared, rubbing his eyes.  "What is it Mune?"

"Alert," Justice said.  "These two are more than they seem to be.  And their names are likely not a coincidence either."

"I figured that out," I said to the robot as I slowly backed up.  The unicorn took in our appearance before sighing.

"More heroes, again?" he groaned.  "They just want to make a name for themselves by grabbing the Masamune.  They don't know that it's not the sword that matters, it's how you use it.  That's why they all failed."

"So what do we do with these ones, Masa?" the pegasus colt asked.

"The same thing we do with all of them, of course.  Test them," the unicorn said, and then, the pair of them changed.  From the colts that they had been into full-fledged stallions in a blink of an eye.  Masa flared his magic for a moment, while Mune flared his wings.

"Well then," Copper said as she fired up her turret again.  "Time to dance with these two."

Before I could attempt to strike the stallions, Mune came at me with a speed the likes of which I hadn't seen before, and punched me several times before ending with a buck.  Which hurt, a lot.  I staggered a little before getting back into my fighting pose and returning fire with a quick blast of my favorite Lightning Slash.

The reply I got for that was both stallions charging at me and nearly trampling me, which also hurt a fair bit.  I gasped and managed to pick myself back up, to see Zehan and Justice trying to lay into the two ponies we'd been confronted with.  Before I could warn them not to, the stallions had already counterattacked.

"Use...your magic," I gasped out.  "They counter all physical moves."

Copper got the memo, thankfully, and instead of blasting the duo, began lighting them up with her fire magic.  I sheathed my blade and began calling on the Lightning while Zehan and Justice recuperated from the beating they'd just been given.  Eventually they added their own magic to the fight.  Zehan calling upon ice while Justice used his lasers as a medium to deliver darkness.

We still had a few more blows to take from them, unfortunately, but with our combined might, it wasn't long before the duo were the ones calling off the assault instead of us.

"They're good, Masa," the pegasus said as he backed up a touch.  "Only Cedric ever got this far before."

"That just means we can open up phase two, Mune," the unicorn said as his horn shone.

"Right you are!" Mune said as his whole body started to glow.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," I managed to say, before the two stallions ran right at one another, their forms glowing all the while.  A small distortion rippled through the air before clearing and showing that where before there were two, now there was one.  One alicorn stallion, who flared his wings and lit up his horn.

"The true spirit of the Masamune," I said, drawing my blade.  "Prepare yourselves anew, for we'll find no quarter here."

"Wasn't planning on giving any," Copper grunted as she turned her battle harness back on, the turret glowing green.  Justice hissed once, the hiss of escaping steam, and Zehan drew his staff.

This promised to be a long fight.  I ran a current down my blade, and Copper and Zehan started us off with a bang.  Namely, their freezing and frying technique.  The alicorn grunted, but returned fire with a beam of magic that sent Zehan flying into a cave wall.  I helped the stallion up, and Justice kept the spirit busy with a barrage of rapid-fire hooves.  That was when Zehan hummed, and I noticed my sword glowing, though not in a fashion where I was familiar with it.

"Now Crono!" Zehan said.  "Swing your sword and disperse my power among us!"  Catching on, I whirled my katana around, causing a shimmering field to surround my friends and myself.  Instantly, I felt better, as though the aches and pains I had picked up during the fight had been healed.

Then the winds started to blow and howl, just before Copper fired off another shot.  I saw the alicorn sitting there with his horn aglow, and I recalled what not to do when whirlwinds blew.  "No!" I told her.  "If you attack now, he'll counter for far more than you could withstand!"

Copper hesitated for long enough, and when I got my wind back, I filled my katana with as much power as I could, without it being of the lightning element.  If I did this right...

I slashed at the alicorn, and a burst of wind erupted from my swing, impacting his form and staggering him.  The winds died down, and Copper nodded before wreathing Justice's form in flames.  The robot took it very well, all things considered, and used his newfound 'on-fire' power to punch the merged spirits with as much gusto as he could muster.

It was a battle of attrition, and between helping Zehan keep everyone healed up and disturbing the alicorn when he called on the winds for his counter move, I was nearly run ragged.  But just when I felt myself about to drop...

The alicorn flashed once, twice, and then erupted in a glorious lightshow, before the unicorn and pegasus colts we had seen to begin with were back.

"Wow," the pegasus said.  "They're tough, Masa."

"Yes, they are," the unicorn said with a nod.

"Will they find our proper bearer?" the pegasus asked the unicorn.  "Will they...can they fix us?"

"Yes, it'll be all right," the unicorn said, before the two ran up to the sword.  Their forms glowed, as did the sword...

And when the glow subsided, all that remained was the blade.

"Judging by the break and my scans, the blade has been broken for some time," Justice said.  "We should look for the hilt next."

I nodded and sheathed my blade, already knowing where we'd likely find it.  Now the question was, would Gregory welcome us a second time?
> Chapter 18 - Pay a visit to Ponyville
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Our return trip to Gregory was a mostly silent affair.  We had hope that if we showed him half of the blade that apparently every griffon was talking about, he might know where the other half was.  A camp made in the wilderness between the shrine and the village near where he lived served to shelter us for the night.  By mid-morning on the next day, we were standing under Gregory's tree house once more.  Justice once more remained below, while the three of us ascended the ladder.

The griffon was home this time, reading a book.  "Hello Gregory," I greeted him.

"Good morrow, Crono," he replied, turning a page.  "A pleasure to see you again.  For what reason have you come?"

Copper pulled out the broken blade of the Masamune and placed it on the ground.  Gregory closed his book and sighed.

"I see you've found the blade," he said.  "It is a shame there are none alive who could mend such a mighty weapon.  And you would need the hilt, besides."

"Do you know where it is?" I questioned the griffon.  He paused before nodding, and looking away.  Without even looking at either us or the chest in the room, he pointed at said container.  The three of us walked over to the chest and pulled it open, to reveal a large, red hilt and bits of a broken blade attached to the guard.

"You had it all this time?" Zehan asked.

"Even if the blade were to be found and somehow fixed, I have not the right to wield it," Gregory said.  "The least I could do is safeguard the part of it I have until I found a worthy bearer."  He then walked over to me and clapped my shoulder with his clawed hand.  "I believe that bearer to be you, Crono.  You at least found the blade, and are more worthy than I could be."

I picked the hilt up out of the chest and looked at Gregory sadly.  He...didn't believe in himself at all.  That was...

I would have to fix this.  Both Gregory's perceptions of himself, and this blade.  I turned the hilt around, and read lettering in the pommel of the sword.

I-M-A-A-N.  Or, deciphered properly.  Anima.

It would seem we would be taking a trip back to modern times.





The four of us walked back into the griffon city and made directly for Anima's forge.  Once we arrived, the crystal stallion looked over to see who it was before turning off his forge.  "Ah, the brave adventurers that saved the princess," he greeted us.  "Come to see my..."

That was when Copper pulled out the broken pieces of the Masamune and laid them before the smith.  He fell quiet as he looked at the blade, before looking up at us.  "Where did you get that?" he asked us.

"Why is your name on it?" I countered.  That caused the smith to sigh.

"That...is a long story," he said.  "Are you sure you want to hear it?"

I merely shook my head before gesturing to the blade again.  "Can you fix it?  A friend of ours needs it, because I think he's meant to wield it."

Anima whistled.  "A master for the mighty Masamune?  A good friend you have indeed.  But alas, I cannot mend the blade without some of the ore from which it was forged."  He looked at his forge and shook his head.  "And that ore vanished a long, long time ago.  The last time I heard of any being found was in Discord's time.  Arcanite, it was called."

"You underestimate me," I told the stallion.  "Would you watch the blade while we do our best to find some?"

Anima nodded, and the four of us left High Aerie, walking again to the Gate at the empty town of Truceburg.  "We really need to find a closer gate than this one," I quipped.  "But first, we have a pony to visit."

Our party arrived at the End of Time and walked up to Hora underneath his lamppost.  "Ah," he said, greeting us warmly.  "And what do you need of this old stallion?"

"We need to find a way to the Era of Discord," I told him.  "We're looking for some Arcanite to repair the Masamune."

The crystal unicorn hummed as he put a hoof to his chin.  "Era of Discord...Era of Discord...yes, there should be a portal to that era somewhere in the world...I think I saw it in...Ponyville, that was it!  The library's basement!"

I groaned.  The new year was about to roll over, though, so that gave us a good chance at getting into the library.  When all the ponies were out like a light from the boozing, we would sneak in and activate the Gate, thus giving us a conduit to Discord's time.

Now all we would need to do is hope the crazy bastard wasn't in charge when we arrived, and that we also didn't run into two very important ponies while we were there.





The op went off with only one hitch.  Namely, that once we saw the state the rope bridge was in, I turned around and escorted Justice back to the End of Time until he figured out how to fly.  He claimed that it would be his next upgrade.  Zehan, Copper, and I made our way through the Everfree until we reached Stephen Magnet's river, at which point we followed it to Ponyville.  By that point in time, the sun was setting.  I sat just within the border of the Everfree and waited, motioning for my friends to do the same.

When the moon was at its highest point in the night sky, that was when I motioned for my friends to follow me.  We had a tree-house to find, and I preferred to do this now rather than when the building was...occupied.  The three of us made our way into the town and started making our way to the tallest tree that we saw that was distinctly inside the town's borders.  With any luck, that would be the library we were looking for.  How many tree-buildings could there be in Ponyville anyways?

The answer turned out to be just the one.  And thanks to the late hour, we managed to find a way to discreetly force the door open.  Needed to leave it in good enough condition that a certain purple unicorn could move into the place, after all.  A quick use of my sword as a prybar got us into the building, with another seeing us to the basement.  Once we were there, the glow of the Gate was unmistakable.  Zehan and Copper grouped up and I tapped the thing with the Key, whisking us back to the End of Time, where Justice awaited us.

"You have completed your mission?" he asked us.  I nodded, and he walked a little closer.  "Then let us travel to a new time."

I held the key up and focused my mind on the other end of the Ponyville Gate.  The Era of Discord.  Around us, the wind started to howl again...





When we came to again, it was to a world that just...didn't have a Ponyville.  No buildings, no houses.  Not a one.  It was a small clearing on the edge of the Everfree Forest.  Though that didn't stop there from being people nearby.  Or, a pony and something else.

The pony was simple enough, an elderly unicorn dressed in a blue cape with a hat that had, in my opinion, too many bells on it.  He had a decent sized beard and mustache as well.  The other thing...well, the first thing I thought of was a flying ape, though that was proved wrong when it spoke.

"Star Swirl," It, no, he, rumbled to the pony.  "Where did these ones come from?"

"I don't know," the pony replied enthusiastically.  "But I'm willing to find out!"

My thought at the time was something along the lines of Well this is going to be difficult to explain, isn't it?
> Chapter 19 - Finding the stone
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I had had no plans to interrupt what was likely a very important meeting between pony and...Well I didn't have a name for the other creature.  I would have to rectify that politely.  He seemed to regard me and my friends with caution at least, and I couldn't blame him.  The four of us did just arrive out of nowhere.  The pony...not so much.

"Absolutely fascinating!" he said, circling us as he kept up his examination.  "The four of you arrived out of thin air!  Was it a long-range teleportation spell?  Or an artifact that transported you from far away?  And what are you?"

Three guesses as to who he directed the last question to.  I sighed and shook my head, not really looking forward to the explanations I would have to give to get through the introduction alone.  "It's a long story, and you two looked like you were doing something," I said, trying to deflect the attention for now.  "Why don't you finish up that before we get into us?  We'll just be...observers."

"Ah, quite right," the pony said before turning back to the other...creature.  "Scorpan, if you wish to be a part of this land, it's simple enough.  All you have to do is be willing to be friends with the ponies here."

"Friends," Scorpan grumbled.  "What is friends?"

"Oh, I know we just said we wouldn't intervene," I said, raising my hand.  "But I think I can answer this one."

The elderly pony turned to me and nodded.  "By all means.  I'm not as knowledgeable about friendship as I could be."

"Friends," I said, before indicating Zehan, Copper, and Justice.  "Are ponies you trust to treat you right.  They're ponies that you believe will always be true to you.  They'll be kind when you need it, help you laugh when you're down.  And whenever either of you have an excess of something, they're ponies you'll share it with.  Friendship can be just like magic, if you're friends with the right ponies."

"I know I wouldn't have come as far if Crono here hadn't given me hope," Copper said.

Zehan nodded before adding his two bits.  "And I know that if Crono had not come into my life, it would have been ended because of strife."

"Crono gave me a purpose again," Justice pitched in.  "It is my honor to serve with him on our mission."

"This is what a friend is?" Scorpan asked.  I merely nodded once, and the creature rumbled as it thought over what we'd presented to it.  There was silence in the clearing for a moment that stretched into an uncomfortable one, before he spoke again.

"I...would very much like to be your friend then, Starswirl."

"Fantastic!" the stallion said, before turning his eyes back to me and my friends.  "Now, in regards to you four..."

"We actually came here for a reason," I said, cutting off the stallion.  "We're looking for a piece of Arcanite, to repair a sword made from the stuff."

"Arcanite?" Starswirl asked as he rubbed his bearded chin.  "Hmm, yes.  I believe I have some of the stuff back in my tower.  But a sword made from it?  That doesn't seem likely, I've not heard of such a blade."

"It's complicated," I said, trying to sum up everything in two words.  Starswirl wasn't biting, though.

"And where do you come from that you have stories of such a blade, and I do not?" he pressed.  "Surely I would have found it by now if it existed!"

I sighed as I tried to figure out the best way to explain it to the mage.  "How about...way after the day after tomorrow?"

Whoops, looks like I broke both of them with that statement.  Starswirl recovered first though.  "Time travel?  Impossible!  To be able to travel through time for such a long time, without any of you being unicorns...It's just impossible!"

"Believe it," I said.  "We've traveled back and forth across Time itself.  We could even go to the distant future and tell you tales of Starswirl, the greatest unicorn of the Pre-Classical Era, once we looked you up."

"Stop!" the unicorn said, holding up a hoof.  "If you are capable of traveling across time like most travel across a pathway, then I don't want to hear about the future.  You'd either create a paradox, or give me some sort of standard to live up to.  I'd rather live my own life free of the implications of knowing what my life will lead to."

"A wise sentiment," I said, before turning to Scorpan.  "And what will you do now?"

The creature blinked a few times at being addressed so suddenly before looking at Starswirl.  "I want to understand friendship better.  Will the ponies here help me?"

"Naturally," Starswirl said.  "They're quite welcoming and nice, they'll help you understand what it means to be friends with others."

The creature nodded again before walking off, though not before casting us another look.  "Thank you," he said, before walking off into the distance.  Starswirl coughed to get our attention, before pointing at the forest.

"My tower lies just a short distance within the Everfree," he said.  "It won't take long at all to find the Arcanite you require."

The four of us followed after the magus, eager to get this portion of our journey over with.





"And here we are," Starswirl said as he showed us the door of his tower that barely peeked through the canopy around us.  "Home sweet home.  As thanks for helping me with Scorpan, I would be happy to show you around and give you the Arcanite I possess."

"Really?" I asked.  "Just like that?"

"Of course!" Starswirl said as he opened the door.  "You need it, and I finished studying it a long time ago."

The five of us walked into the tower, where we were met by all manner of...confusing apparatuses.  I didn't know the function of half of them and was afraid to ask.  On the far wall I could see a set of stairs going both upwards and down.

"Come along, follow me," he said, trotting down the stairs.  Our group followed after him, ending up in a laboratory looking place.  Beakers and flasks and vials and all manner of tubing and burners.  I wondered if he was practicing Alchemy or Mad Science down here.  Or if there was a distinction anymore.  The bearded unicorn walked over to one of the cabinets and pushed some things around, before emerging with a grayish stone clutched in his hooves.

"Careful," he said, before passing it over to me.  "You don't want to expose this to too much magic.  It tends to react in explosive ways."

I nodded and held onto the stone with one hand, making a note to not use any Lightning while I held the stone.  I quite liked my hands.

"So," Starswirl said with an eager gleam in his eyes.  "I have so many questions!"

"Wasn't it you that said you didn't want to taint yourself with too much future knowledge?" Copper pointed out, causing Starswirl to frown slightly.

"True," he said.  "If the future is known by those that are destined to live through even a portion of it, then the knowledge becomes invalidated.  Maybe just...one question then.  How does it turn out?"

"Badly," I said.  "That's why we've all banded together, to change it if we can."

"I see," Starswirl said, stroking that beard of his again.  "And this stone will help you?"

"If we can repair the sword made from that mineral, then yes," Justice said.  "Then we will be capable of revitalizing a warrior's spirit and bringing an end to evil in one age."

"Then take it with my blessing," Starswirl said, bowing to us.  "You have helped bridge the gap between myself and Scorpan, and you seek to undo evil wherever and whenever you may be.  Heroes you are, and I would help you however possible."

"Thank you for your blessing," I said, bowing in turn, before leading my friends out of the tower.

We had a smith to return to.





Once we returned to the clearing with the Gate, we found something we hadn't been expecting.

Namely, Scorpan.  He stayed behind waiting for us, apparently.  That, or had returned in the time that Starswirl had led us to his tower.  Or in the interim when we were walking back.  He stood up upon seeing us and nodded.

"I'd hoped to see you again," Scorpan said.  "Being friends with the ponies was...sometimes easy, sometimes not.  But you, you didn't run at all when you saw me.  Why?"

"Another important lesson of friendship, Scorpan," I said.  "It's not the outside that matters.  What matters most is what's on the inside."

"Inside?" the creature questioned with a tilt of his head.  "What do you mean?"

"For example," I said, pointing at Copper.  "Inside this mare is a drive to create, to understand, to know, to make things work better.  It's part of who she is."  I then turned to Zehan.  "And this zebra conceals a core as cold as ice.  Because when he is crossed, he fights back with all his fury."  After that, I turned to Justice.  "And this pony...has a desire to set things right, no matter how old the wrong might be."

"Then what do you see...when you look at me?" Scorpan questioned, and I turned to look at him.

"I see a heart of gold, because you just want to love others and be loved in turn, even if you don't quite know how to do that just yet," I said to him.  "Go out and find a way, Scorpan, and become better for it.  Friends are the best path to finding what you seek."

Scorpan nodded once, twice, and took off again.  And yet I felt that this would not be the last time we met the creature.
> Chapter 20 - A blade remade
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The four of us walked back into High Aerie, hoping that Anima could use the Arcanite we'd gathered to fix the blade.  Hopefully, he didn't need more than what we'd gathered.

We managed to get to the forge in what felt like record time.  The pieces of the sword had been moved to the forge and lay waiting in the 'manual input' section, where Anima did work he felt needed a more personal touch.  Upon seeing the stone still in my grasp, he gasped.

"Where...in the world did you get both Arcanite and the Masamune?" he asked with a bewildered tone.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," I said before passing the stone over to the smith.  "Is this enough to fix the blade?"

"Easily, yes," the smith said as he took the stone gently.  "Just give me a day, and I should have the blade back in order."

The four of us nodded and left the smith to his work, seeking an inn to stay at while we waited.  It was easy enough to secure a room for all of us, and the rest of the day passed uneventfully.  I was about to suggest we go around and sightsee a little bit, but my heart wasn't in it.  I was too worried about what might happen once the sword was reforged.

Bright and early the next morning, we woke up and gathered in the inn, waiting for it to be an appropriate hour before we went off to check on the smith.  Once my pocketwatch read 11:00, we all stood up and made for the forge again.

Once we arrived, it was to the sound of nothing going on, which could only mean one thing.  He'd finished.  I knocked on the door and held my breath.  The door slowly opened, to reveal Anima behind it with a grim expression.

"It's done," he said, standing to one side.  The four of us entered to see the blade, whole once more, laying on the anvil to his forge.  The thing seemed to glow and radiate some sort of power.  I gently approached the blade with one hand extended before pausing and looking at Anima again.  He nodded and gestured to the blade, and I picked it up gingerly.

The first thing I could tell was that it was far too heavy for me to wield properly.  Broadswords weren't really my thing anyways.  The second thing I felt was that tingle of power running down my arm once I picked it up.  And the third thing I felt was a voice in my head.  Two voices, actually.

He brought us here to be fixed, brother, and found the things Anima needed to fix us.

Yes, but he's not our proper owner, brother.

Can he...find our owner as well?

Maybe.  We'll have to see.

I picked up the sheath for the blade that Anima had made and hung the thing off my belt for the time being.  It would do until we returned to Gregory and presented him with the reforged Masamune.  I turned to the smith and bowed my head in thanks for his hard work.  "You have my thanks for fixing this," I said to him.  "I will ensure that it gets to the one meant to use it."

"Just take care with that sword, alright?" the crystal stallion said.  "It's no ordinary blade.  Has a will of its own."

Ain't that the truth, I thought to myself as I remembered the fight that it took to get this blade.  "You have my word that we'll take the utmost of care with this sword," I told the stallion before the four of us left him again.





The walk back to Gregory's was a long affair, it took us until the next day before we reached the village just near his place.  It was easy enough to get another room before we went to see him.  I'd rather see him when we were well-rested than on the bring of exhaustion.

Once the next day dawned, we were on our way to see our griffon friend.  We had a sword to deliver, and a spirit to revitalize.  Once more it was me, Copper, and Zehan who climbed up the rope ladder and visited Gregory, who was in the middle of maintaining his current sword when we arrived.  "Ah, you return," he greeted us.

We didn't say anything, I just pulled the sword off from my belt and lay it before the Griffon.  He gently tugged the blade loose of its sheathe and swung it around a few times, before returning it to the sheathe.  "And you have repaired the sword," he said with a nod.  "So you go to the Fiendlord's lair?"

"Yes," I said simply as I put the Hero Badge atop the sword.  "But I'm not the one meant to wield it.  I would take you with me, Gregory, if you thought you could."

The griffon stared at the pair of objects on his table before sighing.  "Go to the village and wait for a day, then return.  I need to...think about this."

We did as he asked, hoping, praying, that he would believe in himself again.

"Do you think he'll come around?" Copper asked as we made ourselves comfortable in our room again.

"His is the way of the warrior," Zehan said with a nod.  "At this chance to strike down a great evil, it is likely he will join us on our path to stop this zebra."

Justice merely beeped, and I raised an eyebrow at him.  Catching sight of my gesture, the robot elaborated.  "The information in my memory banks no longer matches up with the path we are carving.  We are, as you would say, off the map.  I do not know if Gregory can defeat the Fiendlord...though I do possess information regarding his life.  Specifically, a few notable facts come to the fore."

"Elaborate," I said.  "The more information we posses, the more informed our guesses can be."

"Gregory trained under Cedric, the King's knight, at an early age.  Around a year ago, Cedric departed on a quest to reclaim the Masamune and put an end to the Fiendlord."

"Well," I said as I lay back on my bed.  "We can guess how that worked out.  Cedric isn't here, the blade was broken, and the Fiendlord is still kicking.  I'm willing to bet that Cedric wasn't up to the task."

"We are running the same experiment with only one changed variable," the robot pointed out.  "What is the proof that Gregory will be any better than Cedric at stopping the Fiendlord?"

"Believe me," I said as I closed my eyes.  "Cedric may have wielded the blade, but I feel it in my bones that Gregory is meant to be its true master."





When we next arrived at the forest, Gregory was waiting for us under his treehouse.  He handed me the blade and badge, saying only one thing.

"Though we may fail, we should at least try.  Let us proceed to the east, where the Fiendlord lurks."

The walk to where the zebra shamaness was said to make her lair was a long and silent affair.  The rolling hills between the mountains of the kingdom of Griffonia eventually gave way to plains, which grew more and more soggy the further we walked.  Eventually we reached a wall of mist that stopped our further progress.

"This is more than it appears," Zehan said as he poked it with a hoof.  "Zebra magic runs through this, seeking to keep us out."

"The barrier of mist," Gregory said with a nod.  "It keeps the dangerous out, while luring the foolish glory-seekers in, so the Fiendlord has an abundance of corpses at her disposal."  He then turned to me and gingerly took the badge back from me.  He affixed it to the strap running across his chest, before taking a deep breath and letting out a heavy sigh.

"Hold out the blade," he said, and I leveled the thing so the hilt was pointing towards him.  Gregory backed up for a moment and looked down, obviously deep in thought.  After a minute of this, he turned around and faced the wall again.

"My name is Gregory!" he bellowed.  "The protector of the Queen!  My hopes and dreams, those of my dear friend Cedric as well, and now the Masamune...it all comes to this."

He walked forward and gripped the blade, and I could see the thing flash as he did.  "Henceforth, I swear I shall slay the Fiendlord and restore honor to those that have died by her hooves!"

Gregory pulled the blade free of its scabbard and held it up to the sky, letting it let off a beam of power to the heavens as the blade was wielded by its true master.  Undeterred by the phenomena, the griffon dashed forward and slashed at the wall of mist with his glowing blade.  The mists howled as if they were a wounded beast, before they started to thin and drift away.

Gregory flourished the blade and nodded, before taking the scabbard from me and unhooking his old blade from his back.  Tossing it to the side, the griffon secured the Masamune to his back and led the charge into the den of the Fiendlord.

A charge we were quick to follow up on.
> Chapter 21 - Making history
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The five of us kept going, though Gregory was quickly supplanted by Zehan leading the charge.  He always had a new direction to give us, or something new to avoid.  I didn't question it, as I knew that he and the Fiendlord were probably fighting on some level already.  Gregory, though, was eager to just search the entire bog for the mare.

"Why do you keep directing us, sir Zehan?" the griffon asked.

"Because the mare we are here to stop," Zehan said even as he adjusted his course, "Is strong in the ways of Zebra magic, and it is twisted and corrupted from what it should be.  I can easily tell where her newest traps are, thanks to how her magic feels."

"In that case, lead on, Zehan," Gregory said as he fell back into silence.  It didn't take us very long before Zehan stopped altogether.

"Something is wrong," the zebra muttered.  "I felt several spikes of activity around us, but I see no new traps."

We got our answer soon enough, as corpses started to rise around us before closing in.  "No rest for the wicked," I quipped as I pulled my blade and began running lightning through it.  Copper nodded and switched her turret to flamethrower mode, Zehan readied his staff, and Justice opened up his panels.  Gregory had been about ready to attack with his blade...

When the four of us just ripped into the shambling corpses of what used to be griffons with our magic and skill.  Zehan froze them solid before shattering them, Copper set them on fire.  Justice's lasers ripped through their rotting flesh, and I zapped several at once with my Lightning.  In fact, it was only after I'd finished that I realized what I'd just done.  Lightning 2, also known as an area of effect attack that I could do on my own.

I couldn't wait until I got Luminare.  I could think of more than a few things that would be made easier by having the power to blow things up with lightning.

The foursome of empowered people that we made up sheathed our various weapons before turning to Gregory.  The griffon had his beak hanging open as he stared at us.  "Was that...magic?" he asked.  "True, elemental magic?  Done by you and not the things you wield?"

"Yup," I said as I lowered my hands as well.

"Few save some of the more...ambitious creations of the Fiendlord can use it," the gryphon mused.

"Hey, if you come with us after this whole thing is seen to, you might be able to learn as well," I said as I turned to Zehan.  "Lead on."

The zebra nodded and kept leading us into the swamp.  Several more times, we had to deal with either fiends or shambling corpses coming at us, but unlike the first time, Gregory did his best to contribute.  Whenever we missed one, the gryphon did his best to pick up the slack and turn the monster into so many pieces.

It was a long, slow slog through the bog at this pace, but every time we stopped to catch our breath, more fiends would appear.  I was starting to wonder if her supply was inexhaustible.  They certainly didn't tire, unlike us.  If she had an army of creatures and corpses at her disposal, then sooner or later, we would have to be overcome.

About when we found a tree to rest against, and heard the telltale signs of more fiends lurking in the distance, Zehan snorted, reared up on his hind legs, and came back down to earth with a flash of light.  The light rapidly enveloped us before spreading outwards in a circular manner, beating back the oppressive atmosphere.  To my astonishment, the fiends and corpses couldn't get past it.

"A skill I was taught, to purify corruption," Zehan said with a smug smile.  "This should buy us the time we need to recover from her relentless assault."

"How long will it last for?" I asked my companion.  Zehan hummed as he thought it over.

"Under normal circumstances, I would say for quite a while," he eventually said.  "But thanks to the fiends and corpses trying to get in, I would say no more than a few hours."

"Still plenty of time for us to catch our breath," I said as I leaned up against the tree.  The others agreed and joined me, and we made small talk as we recovered our strength.  Eventually though, the talk turned to Gregory's reason for aiding us against the Fiendlord.  Then he fell silent for a moment.  Copper, having been the one to ask, began to apologize, but...

"I once was a knight, and a good one at that," Gregory said.  "My friend and mentor, Cedric, was much greater than myself.  The king even named him his champion.  Then this business with the Fiendlord started, with knights and guards and soldiers going missing by the day.  Cedric said he'd put a stop to that, and go on a quest.  He'd reclaim the Hero Medal, and with that proof, claim the legendary sword, the Masamune, and with it, stop the Fiendlord."

Here we all looked at the sword on Gregory's back, and the half-bird nodded.  "The same.  I accompanied him to the forest I now live in, and he confronted the beasts there that had taken possession of the medal.  That done, we ascended the mountain where the sword lay, and he proved himself worthy to wield it by sheer stubbornness alone.  However, we didn't get ten feet out of the cave before...she found us."

Gregory's claws dug deep furrows in the earth at the memories he was reliving.  "She taunted him.  Goaded him into attacking her.  Said that if his heart was pure and his blade was true, then she should easily fall before his skill.  Cedric made to strike her down, and put an end to her evil once and for all...but she caught his blade with a hoof.  And the other one came up and broke the blade in twain."

So that was how it went down, I thought but didn't say.  I always did wonder.  It had to have been because Cedric wasn't the true master of the blade that she was able to break it, much less deflect it.  I decided to wait before voicing my question to the griffon.

He continued with his story.  "Then she used her powers to kill my dearest friend, right in front of me.  The last thing he said to me was to run and protect the queen, but I was too scared to move from the spot.  The mare taunted me and decided to let me go, but with a terrible curse attached.  The spell took root, and then she brushed me aside, along with the Hero Medal.  The blade...I kept ahold of the hilt, but the blade itself remained behind.  I tried my best to overcome our failings, but the fiends just grew more numerous and powerful as the days went by.  They grew so bold as to abduct my charge, the queen..."

"Gregory," I decided to ask him.  "When Cedric grasped the blade...did anything like what happened back at the wall of mist, happen then?"

The griffon shook his head.  "No.  Why?"

"I have a feeling that you were always meant to be the true master of the blade," I said to him.  "In a more perfect world, you two would have had time to come to terms with that.  But we don't live in the best of all possible worlds."

"Nay," the griffon said with a shake of his head.  "We must forge a more perfect world out of what we are given.  And the path before us would have us destroy the Fiendlord to help the world."

"Then who are we, to disappoint the world?"





A few hours later, the shield fell, and the five of us were fighting for our lives against the monsters that had massed.  Between our magical powers and skill in combat, the fiends stood no chance.  And then, when we started moving again, Zehan reported something different.

"I don't sense her power going to anything anymore," he informed us.  "I think...I think we've run her out of monsters."

"Unlikely," I said as we progressed further into the bog once more.  "If I were her, I would keep at least one monster back to protect me from would-be heroes..."

No sooner had I spoken than we came across a massive flower in our path, sitting in our way.  Instinctively not trusting it, I asked Zehan to lead us around it.

That was when the vines came out and lashed at us.  It wouldn't have been so bad if there hadn't been thorns.  It ripped and tore at my flesh, before withdrawing for another strike.  One that Copper didn't give it.

With all the fury of a mare possessed, she held out her hoof and streams of fire leaped from her to the plant, causing it to writhe about in agony before the thing collapsed in a heap.

"Y'know," Copper said conversationally.  "I'm not growing too fond of plants when they're used against us."

"I can hardly blame you," I replied as we kept moving forward, eventually coming across another tree.  One that Zehan informed us had the touch of the Fiendlord's magic on it.  I carefully pried the door set into it open before looking through the small house.  All sorts of gruesome knick-knacks and what I could only assume could be ingredients for some of her darker rituals lay around the place, but none of them were indicative of where she was.  Because she certainly wasn't here.

"Well," I said as I walked out.  "She's not here.  Zehan, any clues?"

The zebra closed his eyes and hummed a bit before nodding and pointing further in.  The five of us picked up the walk and continued to search for the master of all the trouble the Griffons had been facing.

Not too much longer into our trek, we found a massive flat stone, with a zebra mare making some sort of markings around it.  We stepped up to face her, and she looked up to us before grinning.  "And done," she said, tossing her chalk away.  "Once I invoke this, I shall call the mightiest of fiends to myself to deal with you meddling heroes.  Then I shall conquer the Griffon Kingdom, then all of Equestria!"

"Over our dead bodies," I said as I drew my blade, running electricity down it.

"That was sort of the plan," the mare said before her eyes fell on Gregory.  "Aww, is the little chicken back to try his luck again?"

"I am not a chicken," Gregory growled.  "I am a mighty griffon warrior, here to avenge the death of my dear friend at your hooves!"

"Come then, chicken," the mare taunted again.  "Let us see if you have succeeded where your friend failed!  He was not the true master of the sword, and fell before me!"

"True words, but for all those that have fallen by your hooves, for my queen and country and dear friend, I will prove you wrong!" the griffon yelled back, and the blade glowed again.  The mare's eyes widened at that and called up some sort of barrier of mist to shield herself, but Gregory dispelled it with a clean slash, causing her to cry out and fall back.

"How...the power of that blade...it cut through my barrier!" the Fiendlord said in shock.  "Who...who are you?!"

"We're the ones out to save the world," I said before holding one hand out to face her.  "By any means necessary."

Lightning bridged the gap between us, and she gasped again, before returning fire with pure orbs of darkness.  I did my best to dodge around them, and succeeded in evading her attack.  Copper tried setting the mare on fire, but she'd already called up her barrier again.  Thus prompting Gregory to slash away once more when he saw that.  Zehan coated his pole in a thick layer of ice and hammered into the mare with all the force he could muster, catching her in the side and causing her to tumble a fair distance.  Justice even got a shot in while she was down, causing her to cry out again.

For a third time the barrier came up, and for a third time the barrier was broken by Gregory.  This time, Copper did get her shot to set her on fire, and I followed it up with a quick slash of my lightning sword.  This time, though, the barrier didn't come back, but a sphere of darkness appeared over her head...and began to grow.

"Quickly!" I said to the others.  "Bring her down before she finishes that spell!"

Zehan and Copper combined their powers again, causing the mare to freeze, then burn.  Justice did his best with his lasers once more, and I followed it up with the best Lightning I could bring to bear.  Gregory, on the other hand...did something different.

He let out a war cry and swung the blade down through the sphere of darkness before smiting the mare as well, causing it to burst and release all its stored magic over her.  With another, final cry, the mare fell before us.  Gregory moved to kill her, and I grabbed his claws and held him back.

"Crono," he growled.  "Let me avenge those that have fallen."

"And what good will that do?" I asked him.  "Will it bring them back?  Will it turn back the clock to when Cedric was still alive?  You can't change the past."  Once I was certain he wasn't going to kill the mare, I let him go.  "You can only learn from it, and punish the wicked.  We can bring her back to the King and Queen, and let them decide how she is to be handled."

While I didn't want her blood on my hands...This turned out to be a mistake.

With a cough, the mare extended one hoof towards us...and then spoke a simple word.  "Conjuro."

The diagram on the stone flared into life, and a dark hole began to appear over it.  I immediately began to sense a massive, evil power on the other side of that hole, and the mare laughed.

"Fools that you are for sparing me!" she said.  "Now the greatest fiend of all time shall come and do away with you-"

That was about as far as she got before she was pulled into the hole, screaming all the way.  History, it seemed, would not be denied.  I was still worried though, and it turned out to be for a good reason.

Because after her, we were next.  The five of us were pulled in one by one.  Copper and Justice, then Zehan, and then Gregory.  I was the last to be pulled in...

And after that, everything went black.
> Chapter 22 - Centaur Relations
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The dream that I had between waking periods was...strange.

It involved me seeing myself disappear from my home, and appearing in Equestria.  But after I left the glade that I showed up in, it showed that a dark orb with a red spark within it rested there.

I would have to see if that was true for myself.  If it were true, then I'd have a route home, once all this craziness was over with.  But...

The Red Gates could only be used once.  So I would have to take care that I left nothing undone before I used it, if it even existed.





When I came to, it was to an unfamiliar room.  One that had my allies spread around on various comfy-looking and not so comfy looking surfaces.  I commanded a bed, while Justice was propped up against the wall.  Copper and Zehan were lying on a rug together, and Gregory was sitting at a desk with his head slumped onto the writing surface.  Not long after I started to stir, I noticed a staircase set in one wall.  I had a pretty good idea where we were now, and my suspicions were confirmed when I saw a familiar bearded form enter the room.

"Oh good, you've come to," Starswirl said as he came over to look me over.  "I was out exploring and I felt a vast magical disturbance in the direction of the clearing where you first came from.  When I went over to look, I found all of you, plus that griffon.  I assumed he was a friend and brought you all back here, one by one, to rest and recover."

"You have my thanks," I told the wizened wizard.  "How have you been?"

"Concerned about Scorpan," the unicorn replied.  "I've not seen hide nor hair of him for the past few days in Equestria.  He said he was thinking of bringing his brother here to learn of friendship, but that was some days ago."

My mind flashed to the end of season four, and I gulped before slowly pushing myself up.  "Let me rouse my allies, and then we'll see about helping you find your friend," I told Starswirl.

This was bad news.  This was seriously bad news.  Scorpan was supposed to tell Tirek that friendship was the way, and his brother would reject that path.  Then he'd return and inform the royal sisters of an impending attack by his centaur brother, and they'd stop the quadruped of the two.

Either time wasn't lining up this far back, or this was just the prelude to something worse.  Or both.  It could always be both.  I hoped it wasn't both.  I decided to wake up Zehan first, followed by Copper, and then Gregory.  Copper could work out turning Justice on again once everyone else was woken up.  At least, I hoped so.

I put a hand on Zehan's body and shook him gently, and he responded by jolting awake and screaming a warcry for a moment, before calming down noticeably and taking stock of the situation.  "We are not where we were," he said, before his eyes fell on Starswirl.  "Or when, either."

"Indeed not," I quipped.  "The foe we were fighting summoned something too mighty for herself to control, and it ripped open a massive Gate.  We came out...here, for the most part."

"In the glade to be precise, but I carried you all here when I saw you were in no state to walk here yourself," Starswirl added.  Zehan merely nodded and looked around the room, as if looking for something.  I found out what he was searching for rather quickly.

"And she did not come with us?" the zebra asked.

"The only 'she' that was in the glade was your friend there," the wizard said while pointing at Copper.  "If there were anypony else, I would have seen them."

Zehan nodded again and slowly started to stand up.  His yelling had stirred the others into alertness, and Copper and Gregory began waking up and looking around the room.  Copper saw Starswirl and calmed down, whereas Gregory...not so much.

"And what new locale are we in now?  Where did that fool Fiendlord run to?" he began asking before seeing the pony whose tower we were in.  "What?  Crono, tell me, where are we?"

"Less a question of where, more a question of when," I reply as Copper begins walking over to Justice.  "I probably should have told you this to begin with, but...Hi, I'm Crono, I'm a time-traveller."

"I beg your pardon?" Gregory said with a tilted head.  "Time-Traveller?  Please, enlighten me."

"Like you would walk down a path, I can, at certain points in certain eras, travel through time," I said to the bird.  "I have been to the past, the present, the future, and the distant future, as compared to where you stand on the timeline.  It is because of what I saw in the distant future that I traverse the time-stream, seeking a way to undo the terrible future I have seen.  We are currently in the Era of Discord, or just after it.  I am sorry to tell you that you have come along for the ride with me thanks to the Fiendlord, but I would welcome your aid in saving the world."

Whoops.  Why is it that everyone I tell the truth to breaks for a little bit?  Maybe it's that whole 'I'm a time-traveller and now so are you' shtick.  I really should see about finding a way to make my companions more hardy.  Or maybe I should find a gentler way to break it to them.  One of the two.

By this point in time, Copper had reactivated Justice, and the robot's eyes flashed a few times as he came back on-line.  He seemed to roll through a series of systems checks, opening certain panels and displaying his weaponry, before a hiss of escaping steam came from his chassis and he nodded.  "Justice back on-line," he said.  "What was the cause of the latest malfunction?"

"The Fiendlord meddling in things she shouldn't have, resulting in a Gate that sent us back to here," I said to the robot.  He seemed to take notice of Starswirl and nodded once in comprehension.  Then Gregory spoke up again.

"I would have doubted your words, until I saw...that display.  He's not just some sort of metal golem with magical weaponry, is he?" the griffon asked.

"Nope," I replied.  "Automaton from the year 2300, and the mare that maintains him is also from that era.  Zehan and I are from 1000.  Like I said, time travel.  We're out to stop the disaster from the year 2000 from happening at all."

"Tricky," Starswirl said with a hum.  "Especially considering two of you are from beyond that era."

"Hey," Copper said as she turned to face the unicorn.  "I decided to go along with this venture willingly.  Because anything is preferable to the world that will be."

"And Crono is the reason I am active at all," Justice said with another nod.  "I determined that this course was the best course of action from a very small list of possible choices."

"But still, the potential paradoxes you are introducing-" the wizard started to say, before I held up a hand to cut him off.

"We're already seen to," I said, indicating Zehan, Copper, Justice, and myself.  "Though I will have to take Gregory to the pony that did it to us when the time comes.  Assuming, of course, that he wants to come with us in the first place."

"How mighty is the foe, how terrible is his deed?" the griffon said as he pulled his blade out of his sheathe and ran one claw down it.

"If we don't stop him," I said to the griffon, "Then the powerful Lavos will see to it that all life on this world dies."

"That strong?" Starswirl whispered.  I merely nodded once.

"Then I shall lend you my blade for as long as you have need of it," Gregory said as he returned the Masamune to its sheathe.  "You have helped me restore the honor that was lost, avenge the fallen thanks to the Fiendlord.  It would not be kind of me to not return the favor."

"Excellent," I said, before turning to Starswirl.  "In that case, good sir wizard.  Please escort us back to the glade where you found us.  There is a Gate there that we must go through in order to bring our friend up to speed with ourselves."

"Are you certain you are recovered enough to travel?" the wizard asks us.  I respond by rolling my arms and cracking my neck, grinning at him all the time.

"Never surer," I say to him.  He sighs before beginning the trek downstairs, a trek that eventually leads outside.  One we all follow him on.





Of course, it could never be that simple or easy for us.  When we arrived at the clearing where the Gate was, it was to see Scorpan trying desperately to talk to his brother.  "Please," the younger said.  "Brother, I have walked among the ponies.  They are welcoming and kind.  Friendship truly is magic, they are perfect as they are.  Do not do this, I beg of you."

"Friendship, a type of magic?" the red-skinned centaur scoffed.  "Pah!  As though that could sustain us more than just taking magic directly!  As the stronger beings, we are deserving of everything we take from them!  We shall become mighty on their magic, and we shall lead when we return home!  None shall stand before us then!"

Scorpan closed his eyes, shook his head, breathed deeply...and when he opened them again, they had a glint of steel to them.  "No," the creature said.

"What?" Tirek replied, dumbfounded.

"No," Scorpan repeated.  "I will not allow you to do this.  They do not deserve this.  I will stop you, here and now."

Tirek roared at that and, with one mighty swing, backhanded Scorpan out of the way, leading to the creature landing at my feet in a heap.  When the centaur turned to look at his brother, he saw us as well and snorted.

"And what are you?  Some pet ape of the ponies, here to protect them?"

"If there's one thing I don't like," I said to the centaur as I drew my blade.  "It's being called an ape!"

Justice made to attack first, with his rocket-powered detachable hooves.  They struck true, but when they were pulled back, I could barely see a mark on our foe.

"He's...powerful, as long as he can guard," Scorpan said.  "If he sees it coming..."

Well then, I thought as I began charging up my latest and greatest Lightning spell.  Let's try a little shock treatment.  I feigned a slash, which caused Tirek to try and catch my blade, only to see it stop short with my grin the only traitor that I had something else planned.  I jumped back and pointed my hand at him, before lightning erupted from my form and coated the glade.  It only actually hit Tirek, causing him to cry out and spasm as his muscles temporarily didn't obey his commands.

"Now!" I called out, and my friends responded.  Copper blasted him with her energy blaster, Zehan gave him more than a few lumps with his staff, and Gregory got in more than a few decent cuts with the Masamune.  By then, though, Tirek got up and growled, before his wounds started closing.

"Oh come on," I moaned.  "Regeneration?"

"His power isn't unlimited," Scorpan said as he stood next to me.  "If you can weaken him enough..."

"Then I should be able to banish him to Tartarus," Starswirl said from the other side.  "But like Scorpan said.  If he sees it coming..."

"Got it," I replied as I gripped my blade again, wondering what should be next.  "Hmm...hey, Zehan!  Your turn!  Hit him with your best shot!"

The zebra nodded and closed his eyes, focusing on his magic.  Tirek, instinctively sensing that this was not going to be good, attempted to brace for what he thought was going to happen.

If he thought it was going to be more lightning, he was sorely mistaken.  Zehan opened his eyes, pointed a hoof at the centaur, and then there was ice.  As in, a massive chunk of it, encasing our foe's form.  With a cry, the zebra ran forward and shattered the prison with his staff, revealing the chilly centaur to all the world.  Justice followed it up with a hooves-on approach, while Gregory once more sliced away.  And that was when I noticed something that we could abuse.

The wounds and marks we were making on him disappeared faster than the ones Gregory left.  The Masamune must have had some special property that negated his healing a touch more than the other means of attack we were throwing at him.

"Okay guys, take a breather for a bit," I told them.  "I've got a plan now."

Unfortunately, that opened me up to the centaur charging up a ball of fire between his horns and throwing it at me.  Thankfully, he telegraphed his move so much, I was able to dodge it, but now I knew that this was not the fight we had signed up for.  Once I stopped needing to move, I saw that Gregory had caught his next wind and had to think of something.  "Justice, your turn!  Light him up!"

Once again, Tirek must have been expecting the worst, only to be met with even worse.  The robot beeped and opened up his panels before firing all his lasers at the creature before us.  As Tirek roared in pain, I enacted the next phase of my plan.  "Now, Zehan, Gregory!  Hit him!"

Zehan, having already blown his surprise round, took advantage of Tirek's distraction to lay down a few easy hits.  And Gregory's sword was the crux of my plan.  If it took more time and, crucially, more effort, for Tirek to regenerate from those wounds, then we could end this faster just by having the griffon land as many hits as possible.

As I thought, the centaur recovered from Zehan's blows with little effort, but from the slashes provided by the Masamune, he took at least five seconds to fully heal.  Tirek roared and charged at me, and I fell back, still trying my best to dodge the hits that I knew would more than sting should they connect.  I quite nearly did dodge all of it, but one punch out of the flurry he threw at me connected.  And just from that one punch, I knew we had to end this, and end this quickly.

"Copper, go!  Fire it up!" I told her.  Tirek had time to look surprised before the mare unleashed a torrent of flame all around the glade.  The flames condensed on his body, burning him horribly.  At least, judging by the screams.  I took the chance to slash at him, as well as my fellow party members beating on him.  Gregory was last to the party, though, and just as he inflicted the last few blows, the red-skinned centaur had time to heal from the rest.  Still, he was panting heavily and shaking where he stood once he recovered from the blows the griffon had inflicted.  I judged now to be our best chance to both imprison the creature and still not badly affect the timeline.

"Starswirl, NOW!" I yelled at the unicorn.  He nodded, and there was a blinding flash of light...

That, once it cleared, revealed that the spell had done its job and sent Tirek away.  "He is gone, sent to Tartarus for what he would have done," the mage proclaimed.  "I am sorry I had to do that, Scorpan.  But he could not be permitted to take magic from the ponies."

"You are forgiven," the creature said with his head bowed.  "I only wish that he had listened to reason and not attacked even me in his greed for more power."  Scorpan then looked at us with a curious expression.  "I wonder," he said aloud.  "What will you do now that you have bested my brother?"

"Continue to adventure," I said automatically.  "There are so many things that we need to do yet before we will be done.  I'm certain that we just don't know them yet."

Scorpan nodded before he said words I never expected him to say.  "Take me with you."

The five of our adventuring party stood there, nonplussed by the statement.  It was Starswirl who spoke up first.  "Scorpan?  Did you just tell them to-"

"Yes, friend Starswirl," Scorpan said without looking at him.  "I did tell them to take me with them.  With my brother gone...I have no more reason to remain here save for the ponies.  I would like to learn from them, how to properly stand up for myself.  How to fight.  And what it really means to be a friend to another.  They, I think, can teach me more than the ponies here."

"Fair warning," I said to Scorpan, having recovered.  "You come with us, there's no turning back.  Once you start down this path, you can't quit halfway.  And who knows where we'll be going?  Not us, not yet.  Still sure you want to come with me?"

Scorpan thought about it for all of a second before nodding again and stepping closer.  I offered him my hand, he met it with his own, and we shook on it.

And that was how we went from four to six in the span of a single day.  I drew my Gate Key from my belt and looked at Starswirl, smiling at him as I did.  "Take care, mighty mage," I said to him.

"Just as long as you all do the same," he said, still watching us.  I obliged his curiosity and put Key to Gate, sending us all to the End of Time...
> Chapter 23 - A ripple can become a wave
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The six of us reappeared at the End of Time, and I could tell Scorpan and Gregory were confused at the very least.  Having a minor breakdown was probably the right way to describe it.  Still, the four of us who had been here before acting like nothing was wrong slowly reassured them that in fact, nothing was.

How wrong we were.

Our party approached Hora, who, for the first time since we saw him, appeared panicked.  "Quick, quick, bring them over!" he said to me.  The four of us parted so that the unicorn had a clear line of sight to Scorpan and Gregory.  The crystal stallion lit his horn up and two sparks jumped from it, impacting the pair and causing them to glow, briefly.

And then the End of Time shook.  Like a miniature earthquake was ripping through it.  We all lunged for the lamp-post, which seemed to be the only thing to hang on to in this empty dimension.  It was a little crowded for a while, but eventually the shaking stopped.

"What...was that?" I asked the unicorn.

"A Timequake," he replied.  "There were small ones as you started changing some things here and there, but Tirek was a major event, and you got involved.  This was the first time you were here for one, and I don't like thinking about what would have happened if you'd fallen off.  I'm going to have to install railings here..."

"So the more events we change, the more Time gets upset?" I questioned Hora.

"Something like that," he replied with a nod.  "Fluctuations in Time's flow come about as a result of a time-traveller getting involved with major events."

"Can we use these fluctuations against our ultimate foe?" Gregory asked.  I was surprised he was keeping up with this conversation.  My head was spinning slightly at the thought.

"Hmm, tricky," the unicorn replied.  "You're trying to alter the timeline from what Lavos has it set as.  Cause enough fluctuations, though, and you might create an opening.  The question then becomes...will you be strong enough to exploit it?"

"So long as we stand together, we are strong enough to exploit any weakness," Scorpan affirmed with a nod.  Hey, good to see those friendship lessons took hold!

"So when is the next major event that we should be getting involved with?" Copper asked.

Hora hummed as he looked at nothing in particular for a moment.  "Hmm...ah yes!" he eventually said.  "Back in the era you came from, there is a empire to the far north.  They're getting reacquainted with somepony they thought they'd never see.  You ought to get involved in that, help him come to his senses before some ponies get involved before you."

Ah yes.  Sombra.  The Crystal Empire.  I suppose we should get involved then.  While it might be true that the sisters celestial defeated him and turned him to shadow...

We had...other options.

"But first," I said to everybody.  "There's somebody I think Scorpan and Gregory should meet with."  With that, I led my friends to the only door in the End of Time, and to the room beyond.

This time, the Mistress of War was about as big as Luna.  She was growing at an alarming rate.  Though, I suppose that meant that we were getting stronger as well.  "Oh, hello there friends!" she said, waving a hoof at us.  "I saw your battle with Tirek and the Fiendlord!  Rather ingenious, both of them!  Well done on devising a strategy that would see you to victory both times, Crono!"

"Yes, well, I suppose you know why we're here this time," I said, as Scorpan and Gregory walked in at the tail end of our party.  The alicorn of war tutted and shook her head.

"There's only so much I can do for Gregory here," she said, walking forward and examining him.  "He's got a bit of pony in his family tree, apparently one of his ancestors was a hippogriff that fell in love with a griffon.  Still, it's enough for my purposes.  His is the spirit of a raging river, one that will wear down all opposition in time.  He never stops trying to achieve his goals, just like water never stops trying to flow.  As such, I think that Water for his flavor of magic would be most appropriate."

"Are you saying you can give me magic?" the griffon asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Not just can, am going to," the red alicorn said with a nod before turning to Scorpan and frowning.  "But as to you, I'm sorry to say that I can't do anything.  There's no primal magic to awaken in you."

"I understand," the gargoyle said with a sigh.

"Ap!" the alicorn said with a raised hoof.  "What I can do, though, is give you an enchantment.  Or two, or three.  To help your physical abilities keep up with the others.  Once you learn how to master it, you should be as much of contributing member to this little group as they are."

"So, you're saying that there's very little you can't do," I said with a grin.  The alicorn nodded and walked back to the center of the room, before raising her front hooves over her head.  Her horn glowed, and then the magic happened.

A jet of water shot out from between her hooves and impacted Gregory, giving him a light blue aura that blazed around his form.  A lance of red magic shot from her horn, hit Scorpan, and caused him to glow red for a moment or three.  Eventually their magical auras died down, and they bowed to the Mistress of War in thanks.

"So, you're all fortified with magic," the alicorn said with a mischievous grin.  "Feel like testing it out now?"

"Not...quite yet," I told her.  "Maybe when we're stronger, we can take that challenge on."

"Aww, okay then.  Just be sure to fight some entertaining fights!  I am the Mistress of War!"

With a final wave, the six of us left the red alicorn to her perusing of the battles of Equus.  I went back to where the platform that we used when we came in, and held the Key up, thinking of the Gate we'd just used to come here.

With a roar of wind, the six of us were whisked away again...





The party of one pony, one zebra, one griffon, one robot, one gargoyle, and one human appeared in the clearing again, to find one old unicorn mage still nearby.  He started a bit when we appeared, before chuckling.  "Something you forgot?" he asked us.

"Something like that," I said, before pulling out my watch and looking at it.  "Assuming it is still three in the afternoon, that gives us a few good hours to travel north today."

Starswirl hummed and lit his horn up, before the same glow of his magic encompassed my watch.  I saw a new hand spring into being, with new numbers and letters appearing on my watch to match.  The time advanced by about twenty minutes before stopping, and Starswirl nodded.

"Let me know if that works," Starswirl said.  "It should react to your time-jumps and tell you when you are, and still keep accurate time.  Though, this is just a prototype spell."

"More than I could have hoped for," I told the mage, noting that the 'Age' hand, as I dubbed it, pointed firmly at the 'Discordian' era marking.  "Take care of yourself Starswirl."

"And you as well," he told me.  I looked to the sun, before turning and heading north, my companions following after me.

We had an Empire to investigate.





The travel through Equestria was long, but thankfully we only had the wild creatures to worry about.  And Scorpan and Gregory did most of the fighting.  At first they were loathe to use any of their new powers, but slowly they started to get a better feel for them.  Gregory used a water spell to attack a Manticore, and Scorpan used his enhanced strength to break a Timberwolf to pieces.

We passed through several pony settlements on our way north, and the temperature slowly began to drop.  Eventually we reached a village where we could see the frozen cold we were about to march into, and got directions to a 'magical city made of crystals deep within the snow, that no cold touched.'  One of the ponies had apparently visited it once, and come back with a load of trade goods.  Apparently the directions were as simple as 'walk north until you see the magical light of their shield, then head for it.'

Thankfully, it didn't even take us a day to reach the point when we saw the light of the shield, and the six of us headed for it with as much enthusiasm as we could muster.  There's only so much you can bring to bear when the cold of the tundra saps your energy.

The six of us made it through the barrier without any problems, and most of us sighed thankfully at the warmth that filled the area.

Right before the shield was brought down, bringing the cold back with a vengeance.

It would appear that we got here just in time to deal with Sombra's little usurpation of the throne of the Crystal Empire.

Joy.
> Chapter 24 - A Sombra occasion
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The first thing we did upon entering the Empire proper was to seek shelter for the time being.  With the shield being out for whatever reason, the cold could and did make a return.  We apologized to the pony whose home we were invading, but as I succinctly told the crystal mare, "We really, really need to be out of the cold.  Seeing as how we just walked through the tundra to get here and all."

She was a little perturbed by the makeup of our group, but permitted us to rest in her house.  And then something happened that didn't bode well at all.

The shield came back.  But where before it was a bright blue shield that repelled the cold, this time, it was an oppressive orange, in a shade I recognized.  I now knew exactly when we'd arrived.  Sombra had probably just overthrown the rulership here, and was about to force these ponies to experience hell under him.

We would have to move quickly, if we were to get involved.  And quite frankly, I sort of wanted to.  If we could stop Sombra before things got too out of control, imagine the good we could do.

The six of us exited the home and made our way to the large, now-black crystal palace on the horizon.  We could see the dark nature of the palace begin to spread out to the houses around it.  Our time was growing shorter at an alarming rate.  We'd almost made it to the palace when we found we would have to cross into the corrupted zone.  With a slight bit of trepidation, I was the first one to cross that line.  When nothing happened to me, my friends quickly joined me, and we resumed our previously-frantic pace towards the palace.

We reached the base of the spire, to find a grey unicorn, with a red-tipped horn and a black mane and tail staring at the spot where the Crystal Heart used to be.  He seemed to be muttering something to himself, though, and only turned to face us when we approached.  "What?" he said, before he took in our appearances.  "Bah!  Like I have time to waste with would-be heroes!  I have a spell to enact!"

That...didn't sound good.  I pulled my sword loose, and Sombra lit his horn up.  He probably planned something gruesome for us...

And then I ran lightning down my blade, which shocked the dark unicorn.  Probably because I could use magic.  My allies readied their weapons as well, and Justice beeped as he identified the unicorn before us.  "King Sombra.  Overthrower of the Crystal Empire, proficient in dark magics."

"One and only chance, Sombra," I said.  "Release your hold on the ponies and empire, or we'll make you?"

"You honestly think you could?" he said, before laughing.  "Ahahahah!  Fools!  My dominance is nearly complete!  And when it is, the power of this 'empire' shall fuel my greatest spell!"

"Well then," I said.  "We'll just have to take you out before you get the chance to do that."

"Like I said," Sombra said as his horn lit up again.  "The fact that you think you can amuses me."

Then he paused, and one ear flicked as he listened to...something.  "The black winds howl," he said eventually.  "Very well then.  Come, if it is death you seek!"

Well, that told me volumes.  However, we had a plan to make, and very little time to make it in.  Assuming he had a similar battle strategy as Magus...we would have to wait for his first spell.  The easiest way to make him cast one would be...

"Gregory!  Show him the strength of your blade!" I shouted, and the griffon charged, slashing away like a mad bird.  I could see Sombra attempting to shield himself, but under the assault of the Masamune, his magics were worthless.  He instead opted to push Gregory back with a new barrier spell.  One that scorched and felt of heat.

"Copper!  You and Justice!  Combine your strengths!" I shouted out as Zehan and I worked on distributing a wave of healing power to everyone.  The robot and mare got the memo, and in a second, the dark unicorn was eating flaming hooves.  This prompted him to change his barrier again, and this time it chilled to the very bone.

"Heal beam online," Justice beeped.

"Good!" I replied.  "Justice, keep us healthy!  Zehan, Gregory, use your magic!  Freeze him right back!"

Griffon and Zebra combined their magics to suspend a chunk of ice in the air above Sombra's head.  The bubble carrying the huge chunk hovered for a moment or three longer after it was created, before splashing down and drenching Sombra with ice-cold water and large pieces of ice.  Then Justice unleashed a hail of green lasers from his body, coating us all and making us feel...better, somehow.  That was about when Sombra unleashed his latest change of barriers, and this time, it shocked us.  Quite literally, I could feel the familiar sting of electricity dancing across my skin.

Time to return fire with fire then.  I held out my hand and focused my power, causing a storm of lightning to erupt from me and strike the tyrant unicorn king.  He howled in agony and panted, clearly not having expected the magnitude of power I possessed.  Then the king got up again, and plunged the area into darkness so deep, I couldn't see my hand in front of my face.

We still had a weapon for this, though.  "Justice!  Fire your lasers at the source of this darkness!"

There was a beeping noise from beside me, and then the unicorn howled again as the robot connected with his form.  The dark veil dropped, and Zehan and I distributed more healing aura around the area, to keep us all topped up on health.  That was when I noticed something alarming.

The city's conversion into its corrupted form was accelerating.  I could only assume that this would fuel Sombra's dark magic to the point where he would be able to cast truly terrifying spells at us.  "Gregory, show him the might of a griffon knight!" I yelled, readying my own blade as well.

It turned out to not be needed.  With a mighty cry, the griffon unleashed the Masamune upon the dark mage, and I saw a wonderful thing happen as he did.  For every blow landed, the corruption receded.  The half-lion, half-eagle let out another war cry and let out a flurry of blows, before drawing back for one final mighty one.  Something I aided him in, adding my own mighty blow to his, mimicking the X-Strike from the game.

Sombra panted, collapsed, and his horn's glow died as the corruption on the entire city receded back to just the palace.  That was when I noticed something on his back, under his cloak.  A large, heart-shaped object.  Apparently, we'd gotten here so quickly, he hadn't had time to hide it yet.  I snatched the thing from him, causing him to hiss and charge one final spell.  "The magic I have accrued will have to do!" he shouted.  "I will deal with you all, here and now!  Wrongs will be set right!  My vengeance will be had!"

Then I replaced the crystal heart in the spire, banishing the last of the corruption and destabilizing his spell.  And a familiar sense of Deja Vu overtook me as I saw a dark hole appear over Sombra's head.  One that began to grow...and grow...and grow.  It sucked the unicorn in before rapidly expanding, and we all tried to grip onto the base of the castle to anchor ourselves.

But one by one, we all lost our hold on that time, that era.  And we were lost to another hole in time itself...





When I came to next time, the first thing I noted was the cold.

The ever-present, constant cold.

The winds whipped around us, carrying snow past our faces and sending ice-cold down into our very cores.

"We need to find shelter!" I shouted, even as I took notice of the Gate that had formed behind me.

"There is a structure approximately one hundred feet in this direction," Justice informed us as he began walking into the eternal blizzard.  All of us followed after him, and it wasn't long until we found a small building just sitting in the middle of nowhere.  I heaved open the massive doors and everybody rushed inside.  I then slipped into the building myself and pulled the door shut after me, which closed with a loud, booming noise.

Inside this small building, it was bleak and bare.  The only thing of real note was a large, rune-covered circle in the middle of the room.  The six of us drew close, before Justice walked across the border.  The circle of runes lit up with a purple light, and the robot vanished.

All of us were slightly panicked at that, and wondered what we could do to bring him back, before the circle lit up again and Justice returned.  "Most fascinating," he said.  "This would appear to be a system of translocation gates."

"...Did you just say this is a teleporter?" I asked the robot.  He merely nodded, and I asked my other question then.  "Well, where does the other end come out, then?"

"I am...uncertain if my systems are functioning properly," the robot said.  "But it is safe.  Perhaps with exterior input I can come to a correct conclusion."

Thus prompted, the rest of us joined him in the circle, and for the briefest of moments, my entire world was bathed in purple light.

And when the light cleared, we saw floating islands in the sky, with gleaming cities of shining crystal refracting the sunlight into all the colors of the rainbow.

Oh, fuck.

This world had a version of Zeal.
> Chapter 25 - More than a head in the clouds
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I looked around at the floating islands, each one glittering in the sunlight thanks to the makeup of the cities on them.  The scenery was breathtaking, and I stood there for a moment, simply taking it it.

Then I recalled what happened in Zeal in the games, and sighed.  This...was not going to end well.  "Come on," I said, turning around and looking at the island we'd arrived on.  There was a building nearby, not quite a city, but still decently sized enough for there to be somebody there.  "We should at least explore this place while it's still here."

"While it's still here?" Copper asked.  Justice beeped before adding his two bits.

"There are no records of there being such a place within my memory banks."

"And what does that tell you this place's fate will likely end up being?" I quipped as I led them towards the crystalline structure.  The crystal ponies there were all surprised by our appearance, but let us pass into the building itself so that we could explore it nonetheless.  Inside, everything was made of crystals as well.  There wasn't a single non-reflective surface to be had.

"Fascinating," Justice said as he looked around.  "If my scans are to be believed, this entire structure is growing."

"Your golem is right," A crystal pony said with a nod.  "We of Vis grow our structures from a single crystal seed.  It can take decades for a city to be ready, and we have to watch over them carefully to make sure nothing disturbs their growth."

"Out of curiosity," I said.  "Is there a way we could see more of Vis?  We've only just arrived to that teleportation device, and we're eager to see more of this place."

"Well if the Skyways work for you," the pony said, "Then you can use them to get around easily.  Odd, though.  They're supposed to respond to only those with magic, and you certainly don't resemble those of Vis."

In response, I channeled lightning through my hands, and the pony nodded once.  "Raw, elemental strength?  Curious. Battle-magic, that is.  But it's enough for the skyways to respond to your power.  Sadly, the only ones here go down to the surface, but you should be able to find another link from there to another section of Vis.  There once was a project to get them all linked up, but it was abandoned some time ago."

I shrugged at that, and made to leave, but something caught the corner of my eyes.  Something the world below wouldn't properly have for some time yet.

A draconequus.  A female one, actually, holding a smaller one up and giving it a bottle.  It caught sight of us and smiled, before floating over.  "Oh, hello there," she said.  "Visitors to the nascent city of Quies?  The facilities here are lacking, I'm afraid..."

"That's fine," I said simply.  "Might I ask your name?"

"I'm Eris," she said, before tickling the smaller version of herself in her arms.  "And this little bundle of mischief is my son, Discord."  The tiny draconequus giggled at the treatment.  "Don't think I didn't notice you turning all your milk into chocolate milk, little scamp."

"Something tells me he's going to grow up to be trouble," I said.

"Oh he'd better be," the mother said.  "Draconequi are meant to be the counter to all this order the ponies have set up.  We introduce a little chaos into their lives, and they get to react to things they never thought would happen.  Keeps things fresh and interesting!"

"I'm sure you've got your work cut out for you," I said.  "But if you don't mind, we'd like to examine the rest of Vis..."

"Oh, please do," the chaotic entity said as she slid to one side.  "Something big is brewing, and I can tell you're going to stir things up nicely."

Yeah, I bet, I thought.  It wasn't long before we found another skyway circle, and the six of us braced ourselves before stepping into it and being transported to the frigid cold below again.  Justice beeped and began walking off in one direction.  "There is another Skyway platform approximately one hundred yards in this direction," he said.

I was thankful for the short distance.  My clothes weren't all that good at keeping out the cold.  Even those hundred yards felt like agony to my body.  We came across the next Skyway building and piled into the circle, which flashed purple before we were once again, above the clouds.  This time, the closest city was a ways across the new floating island we found ourselves on.  This one had a mountain and even a lake on it, for goodness sake.

"There is quite the disparity between the two locales," Justice observed.  "Above, magic is used to create all sorts of wonders.  Whereas below, it is deathly cold.  Could they not try to bring life to the world below?"

"I haven't noticed any pegasi yet," I informed the robot.  "If there even are any crystal pegasi.  Trying such a feat with magic alone would be probably more intensive than they'd care to invest in."

Of course, I was soon proven wrong about there not being other variants of the crystal ponies.  Pegasi and unicorns walked the streets of the closest city, and spared more than a few curious glances our way.  I found a stall, where a pony practically gave away some mechanical components for Copper to use later in the upgrading of her battle harness, and managed to get a few pieces of information from him.  This new city was the city of Doctrina, where the Guru of Life had lived until recently.  They hadn't seen him around as of late, but it was probably nothing to worry about.

Yeah, right.  And I belonged here.

Apparently the Palace of Vis was just up the mountain, and to gain access, all you had to do was find the teleporter in the mountain.  There was even a path to make it easy to locate.

That was about when a draconequus floated down the street and snapped its claws, turning the stand into jelly and cackling madly as some pegasi chased it off.

"Come on," I said to my friends.  "Let's go investigate the palace as well."

"Do we have to?" Gregory asked.  "I'm a bit...unused to heights."

"But you're a griffon," Zehan pointed out.  Gregory huffed and looked away before muttering something.

"Didn't quite catch that," I said, causing the griffon to sigh and speak up.

"The Fiendlord cursed me to be unable to fly.  I haven't had time to see if I can yet.  Heights still give me a scare, as I don't know that I'll be able to stop any fall I might experience."

The five of us reassured him with words that we understood, before setting off for the palace of Vis.

Because I knew that after this...things wouldn't be anywhere near normal for a long time.





The only real difference between going up to the palace and the Skyways was that this teleporter was green in nature.  After we reappeared, we walked out of the small glade it was set in and noticed that we were right near the top of the mountain now.  It was only a short walk up to the palace above us, the doors of which opened at the slightest touch.

The inhabitants were just as shocked to see us as we had been to see this place.  Apparently they couldn't imagine that beings like us could wield the sort of power that would get their systems to respond.  Frankly I was surprised it worked as well.  Still, we poked around before coming across a small, only slightly-shiny colt.  He was grey in coloration, with a black mane and tail and a horn to his form.  He walked by us on his way to somewhere, before stopping and looking at us all.

"The black winds howl," he said simply.  "One among you will shortly die."

Yup.  Knowing my luck, that would indeed come to pass.  The others were weirded out by that statement, and Justice even beeped.  By the time the robot thought to speak up, the colt had vanished, running off somewhere.

"Crono, was that who I think it was?" he asked.

"How likely is that?" I asked.  I even held my watch up and looked at it, seeing that the Era hand had moved even further back.  And new letters had sprung into being.  "We're in a new era, one before the one we'd been in.  This is apparently the Era of Vis.  How could that colt be related to the one we just bested?  It's probably just an inherited trait."

"Still, we should observe the colt," the robot said, and I agreed.  I knew that plot would be involved, so we made to investigate the rest of the Palace, before coming across a closed door.  I motioned for my allies to stand nearby, and I listened in at the keyhole, wondering if this was where our little scamp had run off to.

"Come now Umbra," I heard a female voice say.  "Don't you want to wield your magic properly?"

"Magic's stupid," I heard that voice from earlier say.  "We could use it to do more than we are, but nopony thinks to even try."

"I know, Umbra, I know.  But look at it this way.  If you used your magic, then you'd stop getting picked on at school."

"I don't care about them, Lumina.  I just...I just want things to go back to how they used to be."

"Mother won't-"

"She's not our mother!  She may look the same, but inside, she's different.  I can tell.  Our real mother wouldn't do the things she did."

Silence fell at that proclamation, and then I heard a pony clear her throat behind me.  I stood up and out of the way, and she walked into the room.  A moment later, she walked out as a crystal mare, white in color with a blonde mane and tail, followed her out.  Though she stopped and stared at us for a bit.

"Travelers?  With magic?" she asked.  "Pray tell, where do you hail from?"

I had been about to answer, but the pony that had walked in turned to her.  "Princess Lumina, please.  If I don't return with you, your mother..."

The mare sighed and nodded her head, following after the servant.  We tailed them at a distance, and then we saw something...well, even for this place, it was inexplicable.

Lumina bowed her head towards a massive door, and a pendant around her neck glowed with a red light.  The door shared that glow and opened, all but flowing out of the way.  She stood up and walked through, and the door flowed shut again.

"How...did she do that?" Scorpan asked.  "That seems like a strange sort of magic, even for a pony."

"There is only one thing that glows with that same radiance," the servant explained.  "The Malum machine."





Well, seeing the Mammon machine in the game was one thing.

Seeing the equivalent here, was something else.

It...glowed, was the only way to put it.  It just radiated power, even though it looked like it belonged on the other end of a sledgehammer.

...Okay, it was actually an impressive piece of work.  But still.  The thought that this thing was taking energy from the most powerful, most vile and wicked creature in all of existence, just so these ponies could continue with their idyllic lifestyle?

I knew what this thing would end up doing, and I wanted it broken now.

Still, we would need to treat something with the same sort of energy as the Malum machine in order to pass through the door we'd seen, and only one thing came to mind.

Wordlessly, I pulled the Gate Key from my belt and held it up to the machine that drained Lavos.  I hoped this would work.  If it didn't work, that would suck so badly.  I was pretty sure we didn't have a pendant like Marle's hanging around...

The Key floated in the air, and I could feel, somehow, the machine looking at it for the longest moment...

Before it caused the Key to glow a bright red and sending it back to me.  I breathed again as I stuck the Gate Key back in my belt.  "Looks like we have our way in, guys," I said to them.

Just in time for the heavy plot to start rolling in.
> Chapter 26 - Being exiled from an Era
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	This time, when I held the Gate Key up to the solid door that blocked our path to the throne room, the thing melted out of our way, and we were permitted entrance.  It was only a short walk up to the ruling body of Vis, and what we saw...was not encouraging.

Sitting on a massive throne was a blueish crystal unicorn mare, dressed in what looked like very fine robes indeed.  Sitting near her was Lumina, and standing at her other side was a pony wearing heavy, form-concealing robes.  And nearby was a orange unicorn stallion, his mark was one of a brown pony.

"Interlopers!" the figure on the throne barked.  "How dare you trespass here!  For what reason and how did you come by this place?"

Then the figure next to her whispered something, and her expression hardened.  "I see.  Praefectus, deal with them!"

"At once, your majesty!" he said, raising a hoof and...the next thing that happened was twofold.

First, all the crystal ponies there were somehow wisked away.

Second, a massive brown pony was in the room, glaring at us with angry red eyes.

Oh yeah, Dalton from the game was a thing.  And he loved golems.  There was a trick to fighting them, I recalled...

I didn't get the chance to recall it before a brown hoof smashed me into the side of the room, winding me and doing what felt like serious damage.  Zehan was on me in an instant, trying to heal the damage I'd sustained, while Gregory pulled out his sword and slashed at the massive creation.

Only to receive a similar hoof to the face once his attack was over.  Now I recalled it!  They mimicked your attacks and threw them back at you.  All their magic took time to charge, but their physical counter was instant.

"Justice, see to Gregory!" I shouted as I picked myself up.  "Copper, light him up!"

The mare responded with a wave of fire erupting from her form.  One that eventually focused on setting the golem alight, causing it to stumble back a few paces.  Already though, I could see the cracks in its form glowing red, presumably as it prepared a fire-based tech for us.  I held out my hands and unleashed the lightning next, the stuff crackling through the air and striking his form over and over.

The golem recoiled once again, and this time the cracks in its form were glowing yellow.  "Zehan, use your ice now!" I bellowed.  "We have to keep using different magic on him, keep him unbalanced!"

The Zebra nodded and bowed his head as he focused.  Without any fanfare, the golem was encased in ice, and the warrior jumped forward and shattered it with a single blow.  This time, the golem let out an actual roar as its glow changed to blue.

"Justice, your turn," I said.  The robot beeped and unleashed the lasers once again, striking the golem over and over with the shadowy beams.  It stumbled back as it started to glow black, somehow.  Or maybe it just dulled to black between the cracks.

"And now we keep this up so that it can't focus on any of us," I said.  "Gregory, your water spell.  Bring it to bear on this golem and we'll continue beating it down until it can't function anymore."

Scorpan seemed a little put out that he wouldn't get to take part in this fight, but he understood that he'd just incur a counter, due to his attacks all being physical in nature.  The magical destruction of the golem proceeded apace, and bit by bit, we destroyed the golem that this pony had conjured up to attack us.  Though there was a final surprise at the end.

The cracks in the golem flashed white rapidly, before it exploded and knocked us all back.  That was when the ponies from earlier reappeared, and the orange crystal unicorn seemed irate.  He then held up another hoof, and several fireballs flew from his form and knocked us all down to the ground.  I could feel my strength being sapped thanks to his magic.

"Fools that you were to come here!" the mare atop the throne laughed.  "I have a most gruesome fate in mind for you!  For those that would stop Vis from its destiny shall suffer for all eternity!"

The world faded to black...





The next thing I knew, the six of us were floating in the room that previously held the Malus machine.  It took me a moment to piece together that this was that room, but once I did, I realized things must have escalated.  After all, if we were here...

Where was the machine that drained Lavos for the betterment of Vis?

If this world had a version of the Ocean Palace as well, then that was where we'd find it now...and that just meant that things were going to get so very much worse so very much sooner.

The door opened up, and Umbra and Lumina walked into the room.  "Silly fools," Umbra scoffed.  "What will you do sister?"

"Free them, of course," Lumina said, her horn lighting up.  "They might even be able to free the Guru of Life."

There was a gentle, soothing sensation across my body, and we were one by one levitated out of the chamber that once held the Malus machine.  "Please," Lumina said.  "You must go to the Floating Mountain down below, and free the trapped Guru!  He was imprisoned there for daring to cross mother."  Then she looked sad for a moment.  "And if at all possible...please, don't hate mother or our kingdom."

"I'm afraid I can't allow that," a semi-familiar voice spoke up as that same robed figure from the throne room walked in.  "They've already stirred things up.  So now I must destroy them, before they interfere further."

"You can't!" Lumina said, blocking the figure's path.  Umbra quickly joined her in stopping this pony from getting at us.  The figure stiffened before sighing.

"Fine, but in return, you will cooperate with me, Lumina."  He then turned his attention to us, to me.  "Now, you will show me how you got here."





It was a long trek back to the Gate, but once we arrived, the robed figure nodded and turned to Lumina.  "I will pry this portal open and throw them back through it.  And then you will seal it shut."

"No!" the princess of Vis responded.

"You will obey me Lumina!" he shouted back.  "Their very lives are at stake!"

She was silent for a moment before nodding and the howl of winds picked up again.  A glow of magic encased my form, and the six of us were thrown into the open Gate behind us.

We arrived at the End of Time once more, to find Hora waiting for us.  And railings.  We managed to get about five feet away from him before the platforms were rocked with a minor quake.

"Ah, you found the kingdom of magic," he said.  "And got involved again.  If only the queen could see how far she's fallen..."

"I think we've been exiled from the era itself," I replied.  "Is there a way back?"

"Hmm," the crystal unicorn replied.  "Perhaps.  I think there's somepony waiting for you in Canter Dome.  He might have invented something to help you by now.  He's only had so long to work on it of course, and all the resources of the future to work with."

One step closer then.  After this, it wouldn't be long...





The six of us appeared in Trott dome, and Scorpan and Gregory appeared to be the most shocked by the state of the world we had found ourselves in.  Fortunately, we hadn't run across any monsters while we made our short trip over to the train station and asked for the train to return to us.  It wasn't ten minutes before the train pulled into the station.  The six of us got onto the train, and I walked into the front compartment and made my request for us to be transported to Canter Dome.

This time, I didn't forget to turn the bloody boost off, as I wasn't a fan of going that fast.  I was told the transit would take far longer this way, and confirmed that I wanted it to take that long.  We had things to discuss on the way that would keep us occupied.  Like bringing Sorpan and Gregory up to speed with all the mechanics behind how we did what we did.

By the time we pulled into Canter Dome, the gargoyle and the griffon were all caught up on what was going on and even past that shell-shocked state that tended to happen with that whole 'Hi, we're fellow time-travelers' thing.  "So who are we here to see?" Scorpan asked.

"Somepony that can help us get around the seal on the era of Vis," I replied.  "I'm not sure if they're still here or not...I don't even know where to find them."

Then I saw a small, minature dome rising out amongst the other buildings of the destroyed city.  "That looks like a good place to look," Copper quipped.

"I am detecting a life-sign within the building," Justice added.  The six of us approached the building and walked through the entryway, to see something quite startling.

A draconequus carrying a crystal pegasus out of it.

"Oh hello!" he said happily.  "I know how this looks, but it wasn't me!"
> Chapter 27 - Transcending Time
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The six of us were on our guard, but the draconequus didn't seem...interested, in us.  Or at least, not overtly so.  "If you'll excuse me," he said, "I have a pony to bury."

We slowly parted for him, and the spirit of Chaos whistled as he left.  As he slowly left sight, the six of us turned to the building itself, wondering what could lay within.  I pushed the door open and held it there for my friends.

The inside revealed a highly advanced laboratory, littered with notes and diagrams and flickering screens.  At the far end, there was a space that reminded me of the door we'd seen in Vis.  Once we'd looked around the main room enough, I held up the Gate Key to the door, and it melted away.  What was revealed beyond it was a simple book and a path leading deeper into the building.

I picked the book up and began to read aloud.

To you that has opened this door...

If you are here, then you are this world's last chance.  I arrived in this desolate future and began to learn what happened to cause such devastation.  The answer surprised me.

Lavos, that great and powerful parasite that feeds on the earth itself to grow strong.  That same being we of Vis used as a power source.  It is he that has destroyed the world.

In the year 2000, he was ready, and decimated this planet.  Even now, he rules from atop Mount Canterhorn, and his spawn flood this world.  They grow to massive size, then leave, to start the cycle anew.

So to you, you that has opened the door, I leave you my greatest invention.  There is only a small chance that you can stop Lavos, but it is still a chance.  Only if you bring together all the hopes and dreams of the world, from all people that have been and are yet to be, will you stand a chance against the great parasite.  So I leave you the means to transcend time itself.

My greatest invention.

The Wings of Time...

The six of us neared the door at the other end of the hallway, and once we arrived at the other end, we saw the invention that the inventor had spoken of.

The first thing that came to my mind was that he'd made most of an airplane.  At least, it looked like it.  I walked into the back and noticed that there was a pilot seat, and six passenger seats.  And the pilot seat had a steering wheel and all manner of dials, but I couldn't imagine how it would move.

My friends marveled at the creation, each one taking a seat in the passenger section and looking out the closest window.  "This certainly is something," Copper said.  "I didn't know ponies could still make something like this in this era."

"He wasn't exactly from this era," I quipped before sitting in the pilot seat.  None of the gauges were lit up, and I dared not push any of the buttons.  I didn't know how it worked, after all.

"Oh hello!" I heard from in front of us.  Looking out the window showed me that the draconequus from earlier had returned.  "I see you've managed to find his invention!  Just let me up, and I'll tell you how it all works."

The spirit walked up the ramp in the back and stood next to me.  "Right, so this switch," he said, flipping it, "raises and lowers the ramp."  The whirring noise from in back signified that the ramp was now in the upright and locked position.  "Never, ever jump with the ramp open.  You could lose somepony to Time Itself."

"Got it," I said.

"Now over here," the draconequus said, pointing next to the wheel.  "Is where you need to insert some sort of object that will help pry open the barriers between different eras."

Already, my hand had pulled out the Gate Key and inserted the item into the appropriate slot.  The machine whirred, and several dials started to come to life, displaying readouts about the Key...and what looked like images of the Gates it was linked to.

"Fantastic!" the spirit said.  "Now all you need to do is use the wheel here to choose where and when you'd like to go.  It can take you to any weakness in the fabric of Time easily.  But first of all, everypony buckle up!"

There was the sound of five sets of seat belts clicking closed from behind me, and I found my own set and strapped myself in as well.  The draconequus nodded and opened the ramp up again, before pointing at a big, red, obvious button, as well as a smaller, green one.

"Now, once you've selected your destination, push the green button to lock your position in.  A gauge will appear, telling you when you'll be clear to jump.  And once you are, push the red button, and you'll jump through time and space to arrive at your destination.  And with that, you are now the proud owner of your very own time machine!"

"Thank you Discord," I said to him reflexively.  He stiffened before sighing.

"That...was my name.  Once.  So very long ago, when I had friends that mattered...when there was life to call me by my name."  The draconequus looked at me and actually glared.  "All I ask of you is that you do your best...to make my name matter again."

I nodded, and he pat me on my shoulder a few times before leaving the machine.  I closed the ramp again, before turning the wheel to select the sealed gate back in the era of Vis.  Pushing the green button showed me the gauge Discord had spoken of, and it wasn't a minute before it was filled up.

I gave the spirit in front of me a salute before pushing the red button labeled JUMP, and the world around us...

Dissolved.  Into streams of light and fire.  Sounds of amazement and disbelief came from my comrades as we traveled through Time and Space, to reach the era we'd been so unceremoniously ejected from...





Once we arrived, after a time that was both far too long, yet seeming to be short as well, the six of us disembarked from the machine.  Justice beeped before turning in a direction.  "The Skyway is in this direction," he informed us.

"Look for signs of life down here," I said.  "I get the feeling the Floating Mountain Lumina was talking about is down here somewhere."

The robot whirred, before turning in the opposite direction.  "There are signs of life over here," he said, leading us into the raging blizzard.  The five of us followed him into the storm, wondering what he would show us next.

It didn't take us long before we reached an opening in the earth, one that Justice fearlessly walked down into.  I quickly followed, glad to be out of the storm, and was amazed at what there was to see within this cave.

Torches illuminating the darkness, revealing an underground city, filled to the brim with non-sparkly ponies.  The amount of civilization in this place, despite the raging cold outside, was astonishing.  There was even a pony to greet us at the entrance to the cave.

"Welcome," she said.  "To Terram, home of the earthbound ones.  Here, all are equal, all are loved."

"This place," I said, nearly lost for words.  "This place is where all of you...live?"

"Yes," she said simply.  "We may not have the same sort of magic as those of Vis, but we have our own powers, and can scratch out a living here.  It is not easy, but it is something we can do."

Once again, I was a little lost for words.  Gregory covered for me, though.  "We are looking for the Floating Mountain," he said.  "We seek the Guru of Life, we were informed he was being held there against his will."

"Ah yes," the mare said.  "I know the place.  There is an entrance at the back of the village, through the den of monsters meant to dissuade us from going there.  It is a prison designed by those of Vis.  Those who go there...do not return."

"Well, we fully intend to," I quipped before leading my friends through the village.  All these ponies...laughing, playing, and enjoying themselves here...

Soon, I remembered.  Soon they would have to retake center stage once again.
> Chapter 28 - Climbing a floating mountain
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	There was a small den of beasts at the back of this underground village of ponies.  They seemed to be loitering around a single, massive stairwell.  Most of them were yellow in color, though there was a pair of massive beasts sitting right next to the stairwell that were different.

Once again, my instincts told me that those two would be boss monsters, and we'd have to deal with them last.  Probably at great expense.  "Take care when dealing with these beasts," I told my friends.  "I get the feeling they're not just going to let us walk through."

Scorpan took point and gave one of the beasts a massive punch, before turning to the next and giving it a...I can only describe it as a flying roundhouse kick.  Whatever it was, it was effective, as both beasts didn't get back up again.  "They seem easy enough to dispatch," he rumbled.

That was when one of the creatures roared and charged him, causing him to fall back before he got hit.  "Aye, easy enough to dispatch," Gregory chuckled, before drawing his blade.  "Right up until they fight back."

"As it is with all things," I said, drawing mine.  "Together?"

"Together," the pair of them echoed.  Gregory and I singled out a new beast and dashed at it at the same time, slicing into it with our blades.  Then I saw it go flying into a cave wall after Scorpan delivered his uppercut.  The three of us were a powerful physical force to be reckoned with.

Of course, Zehan and Copper weren't idle either.  He froze a pair of beasts into place, after which she focused her flames on them, causing their new prisons to melt rapidly.  Probably the only time they would ever have both frostbite and blisters.

Justice, meanwhile, jumped into the middle of a set of creatures and beeped.  Then a storm of electricity erupted from his form, striking the beasts around him and causing them to spasm and fall to the ground.  The robot then strode back to us and nodded stiffly.  "Full-body taser fully repaired and upgraded," he informed us.  "Targets neutralized."

"I see that," I said.  Between all of us, we'd taken care of every beast between us and the two guarding the massive stairwell.  "Justice, do a scan of these two," I said, leveling my sword at them.  "I'd rather not get into a fight before knowing how to win."

The robot turned and bathed the both of the creatures in green light from his eyes before beeping and nodding.  "The blue creature has a much lower body temperature than the others of its kind, while the red one is running hot."

"Then we have our party," I said, stepping back.  "Copper, light up the blue one.  Zehan, Gregory, work on bringing the red one back down.  The rest of us will run interference and absorb their counters."

"Might use you to get a stronger blow in on the blue one, Justice," Copper said. 

"That is acceptable," the robot replied.  Scorpan walked over to stand in front of Copper with Justice, while I guarded Zehan and Gregory while they charged their magic up.  The zebra and griffon unleashed a stream of ice-cold water at the red beast over my head, causing it to roar in pain before charging me.  I used my blade to defend myself and dissuade the beast from charging past me, and received a gut-punch for my efforts.  I bent over in pain, and while I recovered from the blow, I saw Copper execute her attack.

She lit Justice on fire, and the aflame robot charged forward and assaulted the blue creature with fervor.  The beast let out a low roar before drawing back and licking its wounds.  Justice himself also fell back as the flames left his form.  After which I felt a soothing wave of magic wash over my form.  It would seem Zehan had taken an interest in my well-being and decided to act on my pain.  Meanwhile, Gregory launched a stream of water at the red creature, causing it to roar again before it also fell back to the stairway.

"We need them moved," I said as I got back up.  "The only way up is past them."

Copper nodded and switched her battle harness to Flamethrower mode.  I had an idea then.  "Justice, switch!"

The robot got the idea and the pair of us rapidly switched places, before I held my blade up in front of the mare.  "Copper, aim for the sword!"

I felt the blade grow warmer in my hands, and then I executed the strongest sword move I knew, slashing the blue beast multiple times and letting it feel the flames that now wreathed my blade.  It roared, and as the flames faded, I fell back to guarding Copper.  The beast made to follow me, and Scorpan gave it a quick uppercut, before punching it so hard it hit the far cave wall and fell atop a few other knocked-out beasts.  Gregory and Zehan let loose with a spell that actually chilled the air before it impacted Justice, turning him into a moving ice sculpture...that then charged forward and slammed his new form into the red beast.  It flew back to join its brother on the far side of the room, and I sheathed my blade when I saw that none of the beasts we'd beaten back were getting up again.

"I think we're good," I muttered.  "Quickly, let us ascend the floating mountain.  Supposedly our guru lies on it somewhere."

The ramp up to the heavens was long, and the winds howled around us.  Fortunately, they didn't actually blow us off the thing, though they weren't any warmer.  Once we got up to the first piece of actual land, we saw the makeup of this mountain.

Several chunks of rock, all chained together, with ramps connecting each piece to another.  The winds howled and made the most interesting of noises between the rocks, and I could see, barely, off in the distance, our goal.  One large chunk of rock separate from the others, far higher up than any of the rest.  Of course, as we made our way to the other end of the piece of land we were on...

I could see a rock, moving, in front of us.  I pointed at it before drawing my sword.  My allies caught on, and I walked over and tapped the thing with the flat of my blade.

It shrieked and exuded a violet mist, and I coughed before reaching for my Lightning.

It wouldn't come.  I was dumbfounded that something could negate my powers, even temporarily.  Then again, these creatures with this sort of defense would be the perfect defense for a prisoner of the magical kingdom.  With that in mind, I decided to use my sword as a fallback plan and took to slashing the creature repeatedly.

My allies joined in, and soon, the rock-creature had been bested.  I felt...refreshed, renewed by the experience.  I held up a hand and conjured a little lightning into it, to reassure myself that I still could, and was relieved to find the spark dancing over my palm.  "I have no idea what that thing was," I said aloud.  "But if they think that's going to stop us from our goal, then I say we dismantle all of those things."

My party members voiced their approval and we made our way onto the next part of the Floating Mountain.  Once more, we found more of the moving rock monsters, and once more we dealt with them with blade and brute force.  The miasma they exuded upon being contacted was fast-acting and inhibiting to all our magical spells, but pure force was a good counter to that.  Plus it wore off quickly as well.  Though, any threat of magic and they were quick to reapply it to us.

The process of climbing up every single floating bit of land was a long, arduous one, but we left nothing but broken rocks in our wake as we made our ascent.  Eventually, nothing remained for us to climb save the last, long ramp.  Here the winds were their strongest, and we all decided to wait for even so much as a slight lull in the storm before we ascended again.

With nothing else to do, the six of us hunkered down and rested on the mountain as we listened for a break in the eternal storm...
> Chapter 29 - Breaking the prison
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	There finally was a lull in the wind, and the six of us took advantage of it.  It seemed to grow darker the further up the mountain we climbed, until we finally reached the peak we had been looking for.  Atop the Floating Mountain, atop a single podium, lay a large hunk of crystal.  Around it was a massive, massive pit.  I had just been about to see if we could do anything to break the crystal and free whoever was trapped inside...

When there was a huge grinding noise from the pit.  The podium began to recede into the depths, and a massive golem began to rise from it.  One central body, two arms, and a ridiculously tiny head marked this as the guardian of the Floating Mountain's prison.  All made of stone, seemingly, and the two hands clenched and unclenched as if the thing was psyching itself up to destroy us.  I drew my sword and thought again.  How did the party from the game beat the Guardian of the Floating Mountain?...

"The hands!" I said suddenly.  "Take out its ability to attack us first, then we'll attack it directly!"

Copper and Zehan teamed up to take one hand out with their usual frost-fire combo, while Justice lit the other one up with his lasers.  Gregory added in his magic, causing a jet of water to leap from himself to the hand that Justice had targeted.  Both hands reeled back, but came back to the fore, ready to attack.

Something I wasn't going to let happen.  I focused my thoughts and held out my hands, intent on calling forth lightning to bear...

Only to see a green spark blossom right in front of the golem.  One that sputtered, fizzed...

And expanded into a dome that became filled with power, lightning crackling through the dome and striking the beast multiple times in quick succession.  The dome slowly evaporated, though not without blasting out another wave of lightning as it disintegrated.  The golem roared again as its hands fell limp and it slumped slightly.

Scorpan took the opening and delivered an uppercut, flying closer with his wings and smacking the creature right in the face.  I panted from exhaustion after having used Luminare for the first time.  I wasn't even aware that I could do it just yet.  I would have to experiment with that again some day.  When we weren't being attacked by a giant golem.

The thing roared in pain and straightened up as Zehan and Copper blasted it with magic again, this time aiming for the face.  It roared again, just as Justice was...bubbled up to it.

I had no words for the spectacle of seeing a robot encased in a bubble.  Even less words for the sight of that somehow adding to the pain he brought down on the creature once the bubble popped.  Apparently, Justice and Gregory had worked out a combo attack.  One revolving around bubbles, and dropping robots onto monsters.

The creature roared in defiance, and the arms glowed as he sent power through them, before bringing his hands up again.  This...would not stand.

"Zehan, Copper, on me!" I shouted.  "Let's bring our powers to bear together!"

The zebra and mare stood next to me and began to glow, and I focused on bringing forth just Lightning 2 this time.  Zehan glowed bright blue, and Copper gained a fiery red aura.  And then the three of us unleashed our powers.

First, I brought down the lightning on the golem and its hands.  While it was recovering from that, Copper let loose the fire, roasting it handily.  Then Zehan froze it in place, the ice only cracking after it exerted a mighty effort to free its hands.  Not long after it had, though, the hands fell limp again.  Apparently, our Delta Attack had been too much for it to continue to use its hands.

"Justice, Gregory, use your attack!  Scorpan, hit the damn thing!"

Griffon and robot complied readily, as Justice was once again bubbled up above the golem, only to drop down and deliver a world of pain.  Scorpan hit it with a roundhouse kick, doing his best to hit the golem as hard as he could.  Once I recovered, I looked to Zehan and Copper again and nodded, and the three of us hit it with another Delta Attack.

This time the golem actually reeled back, before firing up its arms again.  "Justice, Copper, take one!  Zehan, Gregory, take another!  I'll finish it all off, then Scorpan, you can hit it again!"

The plan unfolded perfectly, with a flaming robot taking on one hand and a stream of ice water impacting another.  I followed it up with another Luminare out of pure accident, finishing off both hands and sending the golem reeling once more.  Scorpan hit it with another roundhouse kick, and the thing roared as it fell back into the pit from whence it came.

"Is it over?" Copper asked.  "Did we beat it?"

There was a grinding noise as the platform from before was returned from the depths, crystal prison still intact.  Then with a flash of light, the prison vanished, revealing a form that was so familiar, those of us who had met him had a reflex action.

"Anima?" Copper, Zehan, Justice, and myself asked.

"Indeed," the stallion said.  "I am Anima, the guru of Life.  I don't believe I know you all, though."  He stretched a little bit before asking a question.  "More importantly, what of the underground palace that the queen is constructing?  How close is it to completion?"

"I don't know," I replied honestly.  Then there was a jolt from the stone beneath us.

"We must flee!" the crystal stallion said.  "With the destruction of the guardian, the seals keeping this entire mountain afloat are failing!"

The seven of us fled down the mountain as the rumbling just grew behind us.  We'd barely made it to the next stage down when I saw cracks starting to appear in the ground beneath us.

"We'll never make it!" I bemoaned as we kept running anyways.  It wasn't like we had another choice.

"We need to try!" Scorpan bellowed.  "I'm sure we can do it!"

Thankfully, each section seemed to be on a slight delay, giving us just enough time to cross it and get to the next one before they started to break up.  This mad dash back down the floating mountain ended with us landing back in the den of beasts, panting and out of breath as the ramp upwards crumbled behind us.  There was a thunderous, sonorous crash as the entire mountain fell behind us, becoming reunited with the earth it had been separated from.

"That," Anima said, "Was nearly too close for comfort.  I'm getting too old for mad dashes like that."

"So am I, and that's technically what I do these days," I said.





An hour or so later, once we'd all recuperated from our frantic dash down the mountain, the Guru of Life had led us to a small room in the underground village of ponies and started pacing back and forth.

"Lavos dwells deep within the earth, absorbing its energy for himself," the stallion said.  "The Queen envisioned a palace underground to house the Malus machine, so that she could drain even more energy from him.  Brought so near to him, though, Lavos may very well awaken..."

"Then we shut it down," Copper said.  "There has to be a way."

"As it is right now," we heard from outside the room, "the machine is inactive, and I shan't be turning it on ever again."

The seven of us turned to look at Lumina and Umbra arriving in the doorway.  "Lumina!" Anima said.

"When the mountain fell, I knew I'd find you here," Lumina said.

"But what of your mother?" the guru asked the crystal mare.

"It does not matter anymore, for the Underground Palace is complete!" the white mare informed us.

"Then all is lost!" Anima moaned.

"Not quite," the mare said.  "For my mother needs me to activate that machine, and I've washed my hooves of it and left the skyway open."  She then looked to me and my friends.  "Please," she begged us.  "If anyone can stop my mother, it is you.  You saved Anima, I'm certain you can stop the Malus machine and end this nightmare."

"That would be a travesty," a familiar voice said from behind Lumina.  The familiar orange form of Praefectus held a small dagger to Lumina's neck as our eyes fell on him.  "It would be such a shame if you weren't there to turn on the machine, little Lumina."

"You-!" I said, going for my sword.  In response, the stallion drew the dagger tighter against her neck, causing a thin line of red to bead up against his blade and run down her neck.

"Ah ah ah, don't be too hasty," he said.  "I would have no compunctions against killing her.  I don't fear the queen.  Plus, I'm sure we could find someone to turn the machine on.  In some way or another."

I growled as he showed that he didn't fear us or for the life of his hostage.  "Now then Lumina, let's go see the queen, shall we?"  With that, his horn flashed, and the pair of them vanished from sight.

"Dammit!" I said.

"Indeed," Anima replied.  "With her in their grasp, the machine is all but ready.  Soon, all will truly be lost."

"Not as long as there's one pony willing to fight for it," Copper said.

Anima seemed taken aback for words.  All he said when he looked at the mare was "You..."

"That's right," Zehan nodded.  "Even if the odds are impossible and the world is against you, so long as you are willing to fight for what you believe in, you can achieve anything."

"You all would...fight against such odds?" the guru asked.

"And more besides," Gregory pitched in.  "Armies could not keep us from our goal, once we have set our eyes on it."

"It's suicide, madness, to go into that place to try and stop whatever is about to happen," the stallion said.

Justice beeped and nodded.  "The odds of success are point zero five percent.  However, this party excels in beating the odds and crafting bright, shining futures from the most unlikely of situations."

"How, how can you possibly be okay with marching off to your deaths like this?" Anima asked.

"Because together, true friends can accomplish anything," Scorpan rumbled.  "Even the impossible."

The line seemed to finally break through to Anima that we were intent on going, and he sighed before pulling something out from his mane.  "Take this, then," he said, holding out a small, grey knife to us.  "It's made of the same sort of stone as the Malus Machine.  With it, you can put an end to the plans of the queen, I'm sure of it."

I gingerly took the small blade and tucked it into my belt.  We had a world to try and save.  And now...

Now things were rapidly approaching their climax...
> Chapter 30 - The Underground Palace
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The trip back up to the kingdom of Vis wasn't all that hard.  Cold still, yes, but Lumina appeared to have been telling the truth.  The Skyways were working.  I could only assume that they'd been closed off after we were booted from the era.  We passed the still-growing city of Quies and made our way to the next island, where the city of Doctrina and the palace awaited us with none of the ponies trying to stop us.  Apparently, word hadn't gotten around from the queen yet that she wanted us stopped.  Something I would take advantage of.

However, once we arrived in the throne room once more, we encountered an old friend.  And by that I mean somebody I wouldn't mind taking down a few pegs.  Praefactus was sitting on the throne and fuming as we walked in.  "Reduced to guard duty while that prophet gets to go on, what is the queen thinking!"

Then he saw us and grinned.  "Aha, you again!  Just what I needed to relieve some stress!"  With that, the orange crystal unicorn stallion jumped off the throne and fired up his horn.

"Stay strong," I said to my friends.  "Treat him like that golem."  Which was to say, no physical moves.  Magic only.  Scorpan nodded and stepped back, and the remaining five of us brought our magic to bear on the pony.  Gregory opened with a coating of water, that Zehan quickly froze into a solid block.  Praefactus broke through it easily enough, though.

Then Justice brought his lasers to bear, striking the pony repeatedly with the dark beams.  The golem-master growled before summoning up a large iron sphere and tossing it at the robot.  The sphere dissipated once its job was done, and Justice looked a fair bit more dinged than he had been before.

"Self-repair functions will take some time to complete," the robot said.  "Please give this unit time to get back to optimal functioning conditions."

I brought Lightning 2 to bear on the orange pony next, and he growled once again.  Then Copper stepped in and said a simple word.

"Burn."

And everything in the room did, except us.  Apparently, like I had unlocked Luminare, she had mastered Flare.  A fact the room paid tribute to, as everything turned to fire in an instant.  Praefactus fell back to the middle of the room and panted heavily after that attack.

"Fools!" he shouted.  "None can stop the true glory and destiny that belongs to Vis!"  With that, a back hoof of his connected with a strange device, and he glowed brightly before vanishing.

I sheathed my blade for the time being and motioned for the others to join me in gathering around this device.  "I think this is going to be our way to the Underground Palace," I said.  "I can hardly picture him running anywhere else."

With a round of agreement from the others, Copper pushed the same switch that the stallion had, and the six of us were transported from the Palace of Vis to somewhere far beneath the earth's surface.

A small room, with only a similar device within it and a door to lead us further into the structure, greeted us upon our teleportation having finished.  I looked into the room and saw no small amount of imps running around, and sighed before drawing my sword once again.

"It would appear," I mused, "That we did not show up in the same place as Praefactus.  And that we might have quite a walk through this place before we find the Malus Machine we are here to stop."

The only response from my friends was them readying their weapons once again as the six of us made to clear the room.





Once we'd gotten rid of every imp that stood between us and the other side of the room, we found that the last being in the room, besides us, was no imp.  Rather, it was a small, yellow unicorn colt, who was looking at us all.  Or rather, he was looking at me.  To be even more specific, he was looking at the knife on my hip that Anima had given us.

"This is the Underground Palace," he said.  "A dark magic is brewing here.  The queen has taken the Malus Machine to the core of this place, and plans to drain Lavos to gain immortality.  You must hurry if you are to stop her."

Then with a cracking noise, he vanished into thin air.  The six of us looked at one another and nodded.

No expenses would be spared, now.  We passed through the hallway beyond where the colt had been standing, to find a platform with a few buttons on it.  Once we were all on the platform, I pushed one button, only for nothing to happen.  I shrugged and pushed the opposite one, and with a jolt, the platform started to descend.

Of course, there were monsters that fell from above to accost us, but between the magical might of all the party, nothing lived for very long.  I decided against bringing out Luminare for mere imps and two-headed snakes, and Copper also kept herself to her simple fire techniques.

Once we stopped being lowered, we found ourselves in a room with a teleporter in it, and each of us stepped into the beam.  When we reappeared again, it was to a room that had more than a few raised pathways over what looked a lot like molten rock.  I didn't even question how they were keeping it down here.  The answer would probably be magic.

Still, there had to be a way onwards.  A quick exploration by us all revealed another door, though it was inaccessible.  Further exploration revealed branching pathways, though.  I shrugged before deciding we might find another way on there, or at the very least, answers.

It turned out, down one pathway, there was a big, obvious, glowing button.  A press of it relinquished nothing but a clicking noise as it changed from blue to green.  Of course, we also incurred a trio of imps attacking us, but those were easily dealt with.  We continued down the path, to find that the 'two' paths were just a loop...and that there was another button on the other side.  Another trio of imps were dealt with once we pushed the second button, and we returned to the main room to find that two platforms had risen out of the lava to give us a way to the door we'd seen earlier.

"Well, onwards it is, then," I quipped.  The six of us entered a small room, with hardly more than a small yellow pegasus colt in front of us.  We approached, and he nodded to us.

"A shining stone that has watched over ponykind for as long as they have both existed," the colt said.  "Granting them magic as they interacted with it.  Now, two great things have been made from some of the last vestiges of Arcanite in this world.  The Malus Machine and that knife."  He pointed at it with a hoof before finishing.  "We embody Anima's hopes and dreams, sealed within the knife.  It is not quite ready...but it soon will be."  With that, there was another crack of noise, and the colt vanished.

The door beyond him revealed a massive staircase, infested with creatures.  I sighed and raised my hand, and a spark of green exploded into a dome that wiped the room clean.  "We don't have time for this," I said.  "We have madness to go and stop."

The Luminare faded and we hurried onwards.  Another room with a similar switch puzzle as the first one we'd entered actually parted the lava for us once both were flipped and a third was pressed, revealing a door onwards beyond it.

Though, once we were through that door, another problem made itself evident.  Namely, a familiar orange unicorn stallion stood between us and the next pathway onwards.  "You've done well to come this far," he said.  "But your journey ends here.  I cannot permit you to interfere any further."

With that, he raised a hoof, ignited his horn, and faded from view...as two massive golems touched down in front of us.

"Great," I said.  "Just what I always wanted.  More test subjects for our powers."





A brutal battle later, the two golems were broken before us, and Praefactus reappeared.  "Hmm, the twins as well?" he mused.  "I might have to break out the last option..."

Then there was this...pulse of power that washed over me.  Something everyone felt, apparently, as the others blinked and stumbled back.  I did as well, and the unicorn in front of us turned to look at the door he'd been guarding.  "What is this?" he questioned aloud.

Another pulse, then another, and another, came washing over us.  It was getting easier to stand up to them, but there was still something off about the way they felt.  The stallion felt it too and shook his head.  "Is this...the true nature of Lavos' power?"

He paused for a moment as more waves of power washed over us, and I could finally stand up normally again.  It was too late, though.  I wouldn't be able to deal with this stallion, as he'd already made up his mind.  "This won't do.  It would be all for naught if I died before I became immortal."  With that, he turned back to us and dramatically raised a hoof into the sky.  "This is your lucky day!" he proclaimed before vanishing.

The six of us slowly stumbled into the door beyond, as the pulses settled into a rhythm.  Beyond, a draconequus waited, staring ahead.  I grunted as the next wave of power slammed into me, and he turned.  "Ahead is the altar of the Malus Machine," he informed us.  "Now is the time if you wish to turn back.  I'm going to go tell my fellow spirits of chaos that it might be time we left this world, for now.  I cannot imagine that this power would end in anything except ruin."  With that, he snapped two claws together and disappeared.

It...it was time.

The six of us pushed onwards, through the pain and the dark power, to arrive at a room with the Malus Machine at the very back, dominating the view.  In front of it stood the mad queen of Vis, and to the side was Lumina, in as much pain as we were.  On the opposite side stood that robed pony again.  And the queen was not happy to see us.

"You!  You all dare to come here, at the height of my power!  When I am just about to achieve immortality?"

With no further words, I pulled the grey dagger from my belt and held it in the palm of my hand.

"Now, Masa!" I heard.

"Together, Mune!"

The dagger practically flew from my hand across the room. It even positioned itself mid-flight so that when it arrived at the only opening in the machine, it did so point first, and sunk in to the hilt.  And instantly it changed.  From a small dagger, to a sword we knew all too well.

It was only on Gregory's back, after all.

The Masamune had been forged.

"R-Run," Lumina croaked out.  "That sword alone...won't be enough...to stop it..."

"It is too late," the robed pony said.  "He comes."

And then the world around us faded away, to be replaced with a chamber that I could only assume was near the core of the earth.  The walls were glowing for some reason, illuminating what could only be our deaths.

The great parasite Lavos itself.

And before we could even move, massive spines detached themselves from its back and were shot at us, with force.  And once they landed, they exploded around us, causing me more pain than I'd ever been in on this adventure before.  I fought for every last bit, but I dragged myself up to look at the damn thing that would kill everything.

Soon, another being appeared in the chamber.  The robed pony from before, who chuckled and spoke.  "I've been waiting for this day," he said, before casting his robes aside and revealing himself to be Sombra.

"The day when I could finally pay you back for all the torment and pain you put me through, Lavos," he said.  Above his horn, a massive ball of shadowy magic appeared, and was slammed into the beast's head.

Only for nothing to happen.

"What?" Sombra asked.  "My strongest attack?  Brushed off like it was nothing?"

"Fool!" the queen said as she appeared.  "You really thought to take on the mighty Lavos with nothing but your powers?  Experience the consequences, False Prophet!"

A wave of power burst from Lavos, and Sombra fell, grunting.  Then, like me, he fought, only he managed to stand up again and break free of whatever Lavos had done to him, before roaring and firing a blast of even darker magic at the creature.

One that Lavos returned, causing Sombra to hit the cave wall and fall unconscious.

Lumina appeared next, and she turned to the queen sitting atop the giant monster.  "Mother, please, stop this!" she begged.

"The great Lavos is a part of us all," the queen returned.  "It is only through rejoining him that we can achieve immortality.  Accept your fate, my daughter."

I groaned as I pulled myself up and dragged my sword into the proper position.  The queen took notice and laughed.  "And what do you think to do, with that battered and broken body of yours?  Challenge the mighty Lavos?"

"It'd be better than just standing around with my hands in my pockets," I retorted.  "I'm certainly not going to do nothing now that I'm here.  I've seen the future he'll make, and I'll be damned if I'll just stand aside.  Even if it costs me everything, I will not just let him do as he will."

"Lavos is far mightier than you," the queen pointed out.  "You would die for nothing."

"I would die for my friends," I said, even as I heard gasps from behind me.  "I would die for the world that could be.  I would die so that others can live.  That is true nobility, sacrificing what you have for the greater good of others."

Lumina looked over and shook her head.  "Please don't.  Give me time, and I can see you all to safety.  I just need a moment."

"And I'll buy you that moment," I said, focusing my thoughts.  A spark of green appeared between me and Lavos, and the Luminare tore into the beast, causing it to let out an unearthly scream as the power ripped through it.

"That's right, Lavos!" I said.  "I'm not out yet!  And I refuse to let you at anyone here!  I can keep going for a long time yet!  You can beat me down, but you will never break me!  So long as there is breath in my body, I will stand between you and the world!"

Then the creature opened its maw...

And everything went white.
> Chapter 31 - The show must go on...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Crono!" Copper called out as the beam ripped through the chamber, leaving only the Gate Key behind.  It fell to the floor and tinged a few times, before rolling to a stop in front of her.  She cried as she pulled it close to her, knowing what it meant.  That her friend...was gone.

"You...you monster," Zehan said, trying his best to get up and failing miserably.

Then the world around them glowed and faded, to be replaced with that same scene of the Malus Machine they had seen not five minutes ago.  Only this time, the remaining party members, and Sombra, were joined by Lumina, who panted and hung her head.

"The last of the power in my pendant will see you all to safety," she said, tapping the glowing stone.  "Please...please don't hate my mother, or our kingdom," she said.

"But if you spend the last of your power," Sombra said, and Lumina smiled softly.

"I made my peace with this situation already," she said.  "There is no hope for me.  But for you...you must live.  Live, and try to stop him."

The six only had time to start their protests before they glowed and vanished from the room.  Just in time, as it started to rumble ominously.  Lumina sighed again and looked at the machine.

"I will not go quietly into the darkness," she said.





After a short delay, the remaining party members appeared within the underground village of ponies, looking around at their new surroundings.  Once they realized where they were, Copper started crying again.  "He's...he's gone," she said.  "Killed by...by that thing."

"This can't be the end of his adventure," Zehan added.  "He's done so much, changed time itself in some areas..."

Then the mare gasped.  "That's it," she said.  "He's changed time before.  What if we found a way to change that moment?  Stop him from dying?"

Then there was a mighty rumble and crash, similar to when the Floating Mountain came down from its seal.  Only far louder, because something far more massive had fallen.

"What is this?" a pony near them asked.  "Is everything going to fall out of the sky today?"

The five looked at one another and all but dragged themselves to the entrance of the cave that housed the underground village.  What they saw was stunning, and not in a good way.

A short ways away, there was a massive rift in the earth.  From it, periodically, beams of light would be emitted, to strike at the floating continents of Vis above.  They knew this because they saw one falling through the sky, like a wounded beast would fall to the ground.  An island with a small city impacted not too far away, and they all barely managed to get back underground before the shockwave hit.

"That...was Quietus," Gregory softly said.  "Is...Is Lavos destroying Vis, now that it is awake?"

"It looks like it," Scorpan rumbled.  "It has no more use for them, now that it has the queen of that land as its vassal."

For some time, the lands above continued to just fall and crash back to the earth below.  Each one caused a shockwave as they impacted the earth, throwing up dust and dirt for some time and over some area.  It was only when no other lances of light came from the rift that the five knew that Lavos had stopped.  The rumbling continued for a little while yet, before that too gave out, signalling the end of the era of Vis.

"Now what?" Gregory asked.

"We take our time-machine," Copper said, brandishing the Gate Key.  "And we go back to the End of Time, and we ask, no, demand that Hora help us fix this," the mare said, with more than a hint of steel in her eyes.  "We get Crono back."

Of course, that plan was delayed by an old foe showing up once again.  With a monstrously loud din, a massive metal machine landed nearby, resembling a bird with its wings outstretched.  From a hatch in the side, three crystal ponies emerged.  One of them was far too familiar.

Praefactus.

"Behold, the end of the age of Vis!" he said.  "Now begins the reign of Praefactus!  Bow before your new lord!"

The five of them were thoroughly unamused.

"Seriously?" Copper said.  "I could set you on fire with my mind."

"And I still have my golems as well," Praefactus retorted.  "I'm only here for two things.  That machine over yonder that looks like work of Ratio, guru of reason.  And this small village of ponies, so that I have subjects to lord over."

Gregory drew his blade and growled at the would-be tyrant.  "You'll get both over my dead body," he vowed.

"A pity," the stallion said, before his horn glowed and he fired a fireball at the lot of them.  Something the griffon easily deflected with his blade.  "Wait, what?" the orange stallion said, looking bemused.

"Is that all you've got?" Zehan asked with a smirk.  "We can hit harder than that."

"Grrrr," the stallion actually growled, before looking behind them and slowly looking shocked and horrified.  "Wh...what is that?!" he asked them.  Foolishly, the five time-travellers actually turned to look, to see nothing at all back there.

That was when they were knocked out by a second, stronger volley of fireballs from the orange crystal stallion.





When the five of them next came to, it was to an unpleasant surprise for three of them.

Gregory, Copper, and Zehan had had their equipment removed from their bodies.

They were also in an unfamiliar location, that of a small metal room.

It took them all of a minute to burst the door down via a combination of their magic, which hadn't been taken from them, and Scorpan and Justice's sheer strength.  The crew of the ship that had been holding them suddenly realized what a foolish error it had been to try and hold a party of adventurers against their will.

"BURN!" Copper bellowed as fire raced through the halls.  A combination of grief and fury drove her actions.  She was still suffering from the loss of one that had given her so much hope, and these fools delaying her from finding out if it could be fixed did not help her emotions any.

Each one fell with a cry as magic and a combination of sheer brute force from either Scorpan or Justice found their marks.  "Protocol engaged - disable all hostiles," Justice beeped as his hooves rocketed out to touch ponies at high velocities.

"Those that stand in our way shall be tossed aside," Scorpan agreed.

"Or frozen and stuck to the walls," Zehan added as he did just that with one pony.

"I'll settle for washing them away," Gregory added as he did just that to a set guarding a door, before his eyes widened.  "Look!"

Above the door was the sign 'ARMORY,' and the five quickly rushed inside to find the missing armaments of Gregory, Copper, and Zehan.

Now they were fully dangerous once more, and searching for the one that had taken them away from their goal of returning to the End of Time.  They rampaged through the metal interior, brushing aside all the soldiers that dared to stand in their way, before finding a rather large door.

And a rather large golem standing in front of it.

"Stay strong," Copper barked.  "Scorpan, you'll have to sit this one out.  Everypony else, we'll stagger our magic.  Justice, you're first."

The robot beeped and fired off his most powerful attack, the one where he physically tackled the offending creature and fired up his wide-range taser systems.  The golem howled as it took the brunt of the electrical attack, and started to softly glow yellow.

"Gregory!" Copper barked out, and the griffon pointed his sword at the construct blocking their way, causing a massive, torrential downpour to appear and attempt to wash the golem away.  It growled as it started to glow blue now, switching out the magic it had been charging to mimic the magic it had been hit with.

"My turn," the mare said, before the golem was forced to face the full fury of the mare's magic.  Fire erupted around them, before it condensed onto its form and burned it horribly.  The golem howled again, now glowing red as its innate defense system changed it from Water to Fire magic.

"And now your turn, Zehan," Copper said.  The zebra nodded and pointed his staff at the creature, before a blue spark jumped between them.  Once it impacted the massive construct, the golem froze solid inside a huge chunk of ice.  Then the zebra shattered it with a single blow, and the golem roared again once it was free, glowing bright blue as it prepared its own ice magic.

From there, the battle fell into a pattern, as their foe was never allowed to charge up any magic whatsoever.  The tactics that Crono had them use for the past few golems really came into use here against this supposedly mighty, strong guard.  Surely, Praefactus would be behind this door.

Once the golem was destroyed and washed away, literally thanks to Gregory landing the last blow with his water magic, the five of them entered the door and were...stunned.

The far wall was open, revealing the sky out of it and the ground far below, revealing to the group that they were in fact in the air.  That fact took second fiddle to something they found far more important.  Namely, Praefactus sitting in what had been their time-machine, but it had clearly been...altered.

After all, it didn't have wings before.  The stallion was sitting in the captain's chair, clearly trying his hardest to work out how to work their machine.  "Launch, damn you!" he cursed out the machine.

"It won't work without the key," Copper said, oddly calm.  "And I have it.  So if you'd kindly get out of that chair, I won't have to toss you off this machine."

The stallion merely turned to them and growled.  "I will not relinquish the likes of this to you!" he said.  "I spent far too much time making it capable of flight!  It will be my personal throne!  It will be-"

Praefactus didn't get the chance to finish that declaration, as Scorpan walked up to him, ripped him out of the seat, and threw the crystal stallion out of the machine.  "You talk too much," he said simply, as the stallion now realized he was dealing with five powerful individuals.

"Fine," the stallion said, before lighting his horn up.  "Come, Golem Boss!  Destroy these fools!"

A dark void appeared above the stallion, and he slowly realized something terrible.

His spell called out his golems from where they were to where he was, swapping their locations.  And if these adventurers had truly bested the Golem Boss...

Then there was nothing left to call...

And he was about to be...

"No!" the stallion said, trying to hold onto the deck.  A futile endeavor.

The void would have its due.

It howled as it pulled him into itself, before closing up and leaving the five alone with their new flying machine.  Copper walked up to it first and sat in the pilot's chair, pulling the Gate Key out and inserting it to the hole that could only be for it.  There were a few...interesting controls now, and the wheel had been replaced with a massive stick.

"We're in for a learning experience," she muttered.  "I think we're about to learn more about flying than most Pegasi."

The other four, wisely, buckled up at that statement.
> Chapter 32 - The start of a new quest.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	If one looked at the massive metal airplane from the side, they would see a smaller, winged vehicle exiting it from the back.  The smaller vehicle would fly around as though it were being piloted by a drunkard for a good few minutes, bobbing and weaving madly, before finally leveling out, just in time to land.  Once it did, the ramp in back opened up, and the time-traveling fivesome emerged, four of them highly thankful for the ground under their feet again.  The fifth one, though shaky, tried to lift their spirits.

"It wasn't that bad," Copper said.

"You performed loops," Gregory replied.  "And then had the gall to ask why the ground was above you."

"We landed, that's the important bit," the mare said.  "And look, we're right near the Time...Gate..."

Her trailing off was understandable.  After all, something had crashed down near the Gate.  A piece of earth with a single, solitary seed atop it.

The central structure of the city of Quietus, the palace itself, young as it was, had landed near the Gate.  Somehow, it had survived the end of Vis and had planted itself near the Gate.

"Is this how the Crystal Empire started?" Copper quietly questioned.  "A relic of an age long past that survived the end of Vis?"

"Indeed it is," a familiar voice spoke up from behind them.  The five of them turned to see a familiar stallion nearby.  One with a grey coat and red eyes, and a black mane and tail.

"You," Scorpan growled.

"Yes, me," Sombra said.  "Behold, all that will remain of Vis.  It will survive and grow here, over a thousand years, to become a crystalline city.  One that I will come to a thousand years from now, and attempt to subjugate to my whims, so that I may harness its power to try and summon and best Lavos."

The stallion walked through them to the small palace and put a hoof on it, sighing softly.  "Once, I lived in that floating land above the skies...but I was different then."

"It was you," Zehan suddenly deduced.  "You were that colt.  You were...Umbra, was it?"

"You're the one that told Crono he would die," Copper growled.

"For as long as I have lived, I have heard the bitter, black winds, that signal the coming of the Reaper," the stallion said, not even looking at them.  "It wasn't until I grew up a little that I realized why other ponies didn't want me around.  If I wasn't there...I couldn't tell them if they were about to die.  Your friend was a brave fool, trying to take on Lavos as he did, but Lavos is the all-consuming fire at the end of time.  Mess with him, and you shall wind up as ashes."

Copper breathed deeply for a moment, her harness already pointing at the dark-coated stallion, ready to attack him for that comment...

When Gregory, of all beings, stood between the two parties.  "Stop," he said to them.  "Attacking him will not change the truth in his words, nor will besting him bring back Crono."

Copper looked at the others to see they had been about to join her in her assault on Sombra.  Slowly, she breathed in and out to calm herself down, realizing the truth in the griffon's words.  Attacking Sombra would only make her feel better for a moment.  It wouldn't address the core issue.

"Stand aside," she told the stallion.  "We're going through that Gate."

"Take me with you," Sombra said.  "With the destruction of Vis and the likely death of my sister...I have no reason to remain in this era."

"Aren't you the one that just called Crono a fool?" Scorpan asked.  "What reason could you have to remain?"

"I said he was dead," Sombra returned.  "I did not say his death could not be undone."

At that statement, Sombra had the attention of all five of the party.

"Though," he said, "Doing so would require the Guru of Time, Hora.  Only he would know how to repair a broken time-stream, and the Gurus and I were torn from Vis and tossed to the time-stream itself.  I wouldn't know where he is."

Copper grinned.  "Then I have a treat for you," she said as she brandished the Gate Key.





"Hmm, you seem, familiar," the crystal unicorn said to Sombra.  "Have we met before?"

"Doubtful," Sombra returned as he looked around the End of Time.  "I've never been here before.  Though, I am starting to think that you're a little familiar to me as well..."

"Say," Hora said to the party.  "Where's Crono?  I would have thought he would have been with you."

"He...the machine turned on..." Copper choked out.  "And he distracted...but it..."

"Hmm, I see," the crystal unicorn said.  "I wish I could help, truly I do.  But all I can offer you at this moment is this."  His horn lit up, and the area was filled with a sad melody that made them all think of their friend.  One that had Copper in tears.

"Please," she begged once it was over.  "You're...you're Hora."  At this, Sombra started before looking at the stallion with a bit more scrutiny.  "You...you have to know.  Something, anything..."

"The power to return ones we hold dear from death's embrace is something we all wish we had," the stallion said.  "I wish I could offer you more..."

The silence filled the air, before he pulled something out from a secret compartment in the base of the lamppost.  "This, though...call it the Chrono Trigger.  It represents unlimited potential."

"It...looks like an egg," Scorpan observed.

"And eggs themselves are filled with potential as well," the stallion returned.  "This egg can help you, but not alone.  The amount of effort you put into it shall determine if it will or won't hatch.  And if it does, you may very well find that you have the power...to save your dear friend."

Copper picked the egg up and stared at it for a moment, before passing it off to Sombra, of all ponies.  "Keep it safe," she told him.

"Of course," he said, before tucking it into his mane and securing it there with a spell.

"If you would like a place to start, I'd say speaking with the last draconequus in Canter Dome might put you on the right track," Hora said.  "My old friend Ratio gave him a little bit of knowledge before he passed.  I'd say the spirit is well-prepared."





It wasn't a long walk or wait before the six party members arrived back in Canter Dome.  Though, seeing as how Copper didn't know what Crono did to disable the boost systems, a majority of the time was spent recovering from the sudden excess of speed they were forced to experience.

Eventually they walked up to the laboratory and walked in, to find the Draconequus pouring over a large screen.  Upon seeing them, he sighed.  "Ratio thought this might happen," he said.  "A task as mighty as this one, and having nobody die in its fulfillment would be too easy."

Then the spirit got up from his chair and cleared his throat.  "Mount Canterhorn houses the power to revive your fallen comrade, but two things are required first.  The Chrono Trigger that Hora was working on-"

At this point, Sombra pulled the egg out of his mane and held it there for a few seconds.  Discord nodded at the display before continuing.  "And you will also need a doll, a copy of the individual in question, exactly like them."

"...It's going to be hard to copy somebody who was vaporized," Copper quietly said.

"Yes, it would be," the spirit of chaos replied.  "But have no fear.  There is a pony out there in the time-stream that you can find that will surely be able to help you.  If you don't know who to talk to, then I suggest that you travel back to when this city was still standing and seek help from the ruling body.  They would have records.  You could easily find the pony you're looking for."

"Does that mean that Copper will have to fly our Wings of Time again?" Zehan asked.

"Most likely," Discord replied.  Four beings shuddered, one shrugged, and one was curious as to why his newfound comrades were so afraid of this mare.

He would soon find out.
> Chapter 33 - This wasn't in the prediction...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	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.
> Chapter 34 - Undoing that which has been done
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The world around the six was dim and faded, but they couldn't mistake it for anything else.  This...was the moment right before Crono had been vaporized.  The cave, the massive beast, their friend standing with his sword drawn and facing Lavos.

There were even copies of them scattered around the cave.  This could only be the moment when Crono died...and they had somehow come back to it precisely.  Nobody was moving, it was as though...

"A Time-Freeze," Sombra said.  "I did not think it possible..."

"Time itself has been frozen?" Justice said.

"It would appear so," Sombra said.  "Quick. Let us exchange the doll for the one we came to save and be done with it."

Slowly, the mare nodded and made to move, before finding out a terrible truth.

She couldn't.  It was impossible to move at all during this event.  The one thing she had tried to do, save Crono...she couldn't.

"No..." she whispered.  "This...can't be.  After all he's done for me...I can't do this?"

The others also tried and found themselves similarly stuck in place.  "If we cannot move," Gregory observed.  "Then we cannot save Crono from his fate..."

You did not put in the effort to climb the mountain properly, they heard from around them all.  This is your punishment.  You will never save him.

"...Screw...that...noise..." Copper said, slowly, painstakingly, moving one hoof forward.  "Crono's done so much for us all, for the world.  He sacrificed himself to save us.  I would return the favor if I could, and if I need to, I will."

Impossible...you are moving?

"I'm not just moving," Copper grunted as she pushed forward towards where Crono was standing.  "I'm going to do what we came here to do.  I'm going to save Crono.  And once we have him with us again, we're going to save this whole entire world!"

If you had put in the effort to climb the mountain, this would be explainable, but you are moving even after having not done that?  What...what is the meaning of this?

"I don't play by your rules, or anyone's!" Copper shouted as she continued her slow trek forwards.  "If something's in my way, I go around or through!  If something's going on, I see it through!  If I put my mind to something, I don't stop until it's done!  I owe everything to Crono, and I'm not gonna stop until he's safe again!"

Remarkably, the mare had nearly reached the frozen human, and strained to touch him, to move him.  After what seemed like an eternity of her hoof straining to move through the air...she touched him, grabbed him, and pulled him back.  She panted afterwards, as though she'd just run a marathon, before grabbing the doll on her back and pulling it off.  With a little positioning and work, the doll took up a stance similar to the one Crono had been holding.  Thinking quickly, the mare pulled Crono's Gate Key off his belt and stuck it in the belt the doll was wearing, to avoid possible paradoxes.  With that accomplished, she pulled Crono onto her back and grunted at the weight.

No...this cannot be.  You should not be capable of doing this!  Who are you?!

"I'm the mare that's going to help save the world," she said.  "You think this little time-freeze trick is going to be enough to keep me in place?  I've got more determination than that!"

The world around them faded slowly, to be replaced with the peak of Mount Canterhorn, with its dead tree and lone rock...

And the party that had finally been reunited.  Crono blinked a few times before looking around at the ones who had saved him, before realizing where and who he was on.  "You all, saved me?" he asked.  "The last thing I recall is Lavos..."

"It was more Copper saving you than us," Zehan admitted.

"She did most of the work, especially at the end," Gregory agreed.

"We were all frozen in time," Sombra said.  "And she was the only one with the sheer determination to see you saved."

The human slowly slid off of the mare and walked to in front of her, before kneeling down and looking her in the eyes.  "Then I thank you," he said to her.  "For saving me when I was certain I was about to die."

"Just don't die again, alright?" Copper asked him.  "We're fresh out of ways to bring someone back from death."

"I'll try not to," the human said before hugging her in thanks.

And in that moment, everything was good.





"Ah, I see you have brought him back," Hora said as he leaned against his lamppost at the End of Time.

"And it's good to be back," I said, rotating one arm before cracking my neck.  "Last thing I knew I was facing down Lavos."

"Something you still have to do," the stallion said.  "You may have given the beast pause, wounded him, but there remains a battle to be fought.  Loose ends yet to tie up.  Things to do that will get you stronger for the fight ahead."

"Then we'll do them," I said.  "We'll get every scrap of power we can before we go back to fight that thing."

"A wise answer indeed," Hora chuckled.  "Well then, the first that I have seen...is a factory that remains operational in the future, churning out robot after robot in Baltimare's ruins.  Why not go there and see what remains to be done?"

"That shouldn't take us long at all," I said aloud, as the seven of us then proceeded to go back to the far future, where the Wings of Time were parked.  It would probably take a little time before I got familiar with the new controls for the machine, but I was willing to take it slow until I learned how to fly it.

It was only then that I realized that I had no idea where Baltimare even was.  Oh well.

That just gave us more time to explore the world and look for it ourselves.
> Chapter 35 - Bringing hope to the future
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Eventually, the sight of a mostly-intact city on the coast caught our eyes.  Of course, the fact that it was a city of metal was also of note, and I took a wild guess that it might be Baltimare.  We parked the Wings of Time nearby and climbed out, to find that the population of the city was made up of robots.  Nothing but metal, stationary and moving, met our eyes as we looked at this city.

It didn't hurt that when we took a step closer to the city, the robots beeped, whirred, and displayed their weapons at us.  I took a wild guess that maybe, just maybe, they were protecting the city from us.  I also recalled what had been discovered when this particular quest had been done in the game...

Hopefully we wouldn't find something similar here.

I held up a hand and called forth the lightning, sending it blazing into the city and causing the robots to malfunction for a short time.  The seven of us rushed into the city and found that everything in it had been 'upgraded' to withstand the test of time.  Metal made up everything, thick cords ran everywhere, screens hung off the sides of buildings.  And in the middle of it all, a huge tower loomed over the city.

"Intruders!" we heard echoing around us.  "Stop them, my soldiers!"

Around us came the whirring and clanking of metal as robots filled the streets.  "Sombra, I think now is about the time we start showing off," I said to him as I charged up a Luminare.

"I couldn't agree more," he said as his horn was coated in a red aura.  The both of us unleashed our attacks at the same moment...

And then something...different, happened.

There was no dark attack.  There was no Luminare.

Instead, we seemed to have created a miniature sun above us that struck down our foes with beams of light and shredded them with solid darkness.  The thing lasted for a minute or so, before exploding and blowing all the bits of the robots back.  Sombra and I stared at one another before we spoke up, saying the same thing at the same time.

"We need to do that again."

"Less bonding over explosions, more checking this place out," Copper grunted.  "We need to see why this place is so important.  And maybe figure out who sicced those robots on us and give them a piece of our minds."

"Agreed," Justice beeped.  "This facility should be explored and possibly dismantled."

The library, or what it had become, showed us that there was some sort of 'Mastermind' controlling the city, making it produce more and more robots constantly.  In order to access him, we would need to find two keycards somewhere in the city.  Resigning ourselves to searching and breaking robots, we made our way through the city.

Then Justice had an idea.  A horrible idea.

"We should locate the production facility of this place and shut it down so that we may explore unmolested," he said.

What could I say?  I agreed to go with them, and once we arrived.

"No!" Copper growled as she fired off a beam of pure energy at the robots strapping ponies into the processing machine.  "I don't know what this thing does-"

There was a scream, a grinding noise, and then raw...parts...were moved from one part to another.  Then a robot emerged from the end of the assembly line, before it got a power core inserted into it.  A power core that had been made via pony parts being ground up into one.

"This...thing is nightmarish," Sombra said.  "Can we not shut it off?"

Justice walked up to the machine and put a hoof on it, before the machine sparked and tossed him back.  Once the robot got up again, he shook his head.  "Negatory, it is wired into the main power lines of the city itself.  We would need to take this entire place off-line in order to stop it."

"Whatever we need to do it, we better do it fast," Copper growled.  "They're already making more robots to replace the ones that we've busted up to begin with."

The seven of us began our search anew.  One keycard was found in the hospital, of all places, under heavy guard from the robots.  A quick bit of Scorpan and Gregory bashing them to bits saw us with the card we required.

"These robots seemed of a different make," Justice observed.

"Yeah, when you need something guarded, you typically spring for the best," I agreed.

"Perhaps I shall return here, and assist Copper in upgrading herself with the parts from these ones?" the robot asked.

"Sure, why not, could be useful," the mare agreed.

The second keycard took a bit of work, but I eventually found it in the Police Department, sitting on a desk.  Once I grabbed it, though, I heard the whirring of gears all around me.  I barely got out of the room before I heard the walls crumble as what I could only assume to be robots marched through them in an effort to get at me.  I booked it back out and panted while waiting for my companions to rejoin me.

It took them a few minutes, but eventually they all came out and saw the second card I was clutching in one hand.  "You found it," Zehan observed.  "Does this mean we can open the tower now, and stop this madness from continuing?"

"I bloody hope so," I muttered as I led them all back to the middle of town.  Of course, the robots had returned, but Copper cleaned them all out with a quick Flare.  Upon sighting the door, I took both keys in hand and swiped them through the reader on the side.  There were a set of beeps before the door creaked open.

"Listen well, little mortals.  Three hundred years ago, Lavos erupted from the earth and destroyed all life on this planet.  Even now, his children swarm from Mount Canterhorn, growing larger before launching themselves off into space, to begin the cycle anew.  Once they are all gone, life could return to this planet... if there were no ponies on it.  We robots are the future.  We could see to the needs of this planet far better than you ponies.  We will never tire, never cease...we are superior in every way.  We will make an empire of steel across this world, and it will be glorious."

All while we heard that monologue, we were moving through the tower in search of some sort of main control room.  Surely there, we would find the Mastermind and be able to put a stop to it.  It took us far longer than it should have before we found such a room, and the thing that awaited us there...

Well, it was a holographic display of a pony, talking to thin air as we walked up to him.  "Ah, yes, hello, welcome," he said.  "I don't suppose you've come to surrender, have you?"

The lightning running down my blade answered that question for him.  "Fair enough," he chuckled.  "Very well.  Activate lethal self-defense systems!"

Turrets sprung to life in the walls, and the seven of us gathered our magical power.

I almost pitied this thing.

Almost.





The last screen lay cracked and broken on the floor, the turrets were all sparking and non-functional.  The holographic display set in the floor was sputtering and cutting in and out randomly.  "Wh-why?  We...are the fuuuuuture," the display asked me.

I ignored it and stabbed my sword into the display one last time before firing up a quick Lighting to run down the sword, frying the system at its base.  The display went dead, and with it, the entire city shut down.  I could watch the lights go out from up here thanks to the window that took up one side of the room.  One by one, buildings went dark, robots stopped moving.  This vast metal city was dead now.

"It is done," Justice said simply.  "No more shall this city live and harm ponies for their twisted vision of the future."

"Now all that's left to do," I said as I yanked my sword out, "Is free the ponies in that machine, let you and Copper work on potential upgrades, and then get back to Hora and see what's next on our list of things to take care of."

A process that didn't take longer than a few hours, all told.  And for once, a pony from the future other than Copper showed an emotion.  It was gratitude for all we'd done, and I merely told them I was doing what I had to.
> Chapter 36 - Cleaning up a bit of the past
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So explain to me why we're here again?" Gregory asked as he ducked under a massive vine, before swinging his sword above his head and cutting the thing in half.

"Simple," I replied.  "The griffoness we talked to said she thought the bog could be saved, turned back to the lush forest it used to be.  Yet every time she tried, a leftover fiend from the Fiendlord's army fought her back and undid her efforts.  If we take care of this creature, then she and her kind can move in to restore this place to its former glory."

Copper turned her turret to flamethrower mode and blasted the massive plant creature, causing it to roar.  It reminded me a lot of a Marlboro, actually.  Massive body, huge amounts of tentacles, horrible breath coming out of its huge maw.  I declined to get any closer, instead choosing to blast the creature with magic from a distance.

Sombra apparently agreed with my assessment, and fired lances of flame over our heads to set the creature afire.  The beast roared again and spewed a cloud of noxious gas from its mouth.  We all backed up and let the gas dissipate harmlessly, before Justice fired balls of plasma from his weapons systems.  The beast roared once more before Copper let loose with a long blast of her flamethrower, causing it to slump over as the fires consumed it.  I carefully drew close before poking the creature with my sword, and when it didn't get up again, I nodded before turning to Copper.  She nodded as well and set the corpse of the massive plant-like creature on fire again, burning it to ashes.

"Taking no chances," she said.

"A wise policy," I agreed.  "And with this done, that griffoness shall be able to help this land recover from its boglike state.  The forest shall recover once more."

"It may take them some time," Justice observed.  "But it will be possible without the monster inhabiting the bog."

"And with this, the next thing we have to take care of," I said before looking at Gregory.  "Is helping to remove the monsters from the Crypt of Heroes, so that the king can have it repaired."





Of course, the griffon had been divided on stepping foot in here.  Partially because this is where his dearest friend Cedric had been laid to rest once his body had been recovered, and partially because no griffon was supposed to disturb the dead.

However, once he saw that the dead were already being disturbed, he was a little more eager to help out.  The shades and creatures of darkness fell easily to our magic.  We left no survivor, no last imp or shadow, no creature to haunt the crypts anymore.  We supervised the workers once we'd cleared the crypts out of anything to threaten them, and when we were occasionally wrong, we protected them from having harm befall them.

Once the last creature fell before us, I sheathed my blade, before looking at the door at end of the crypt.  A name was written on it.  One Cedric Bravewing.  I looked at Gregory and asked a simple question.

"Do you want to see him?"

The griffon started, before nodding grimly and pushing the door open.  Within lay a simple coffin, that had a simple inscription on it.

CEDRIC BRAVEWING
HE WHO TRIED TO
DESTROY THE
FIENDLORD

Gregory drew the Masamune and lay it down before the stone container.  "Cedric, I have returned," he said.  "I brought that which we fought for."

A misty form rose out of the coffin, that rapidly condensed into a griffon that looked down on Gregory.  "I always knew you would take up my mantle and become a fine knight," he said.

"Cedric," Gregory said.  "I have returned."

"Indeed, and the Fiendlord is slain.  You have done well and come far, Gregory."

"If only I had helped out sooner," our griffon lamented.  "Then we would both be here."

"None of that now," Cedric's spirit said.  "What's done is done.  I died doing what I could to reveal the Masamune to the world.  While I might not have been the proper wielder, I helped you on the path to becoming it.  You have done so very well in helping to keep the kingdom safe.  Promise me, you will never stop, you will remember the things that truly matter."

The misty form began to dissipate, though not before saying one last thing.  "Protect...the queen..."

"Cedric!" Gregory called before bowing his head.  "I will, I promise.  I will never forget what matters most.  May you rest well, my dear friend."

The Masamune began to shine brightly, before it split apart into the two colts we had seen back when we were getting the blade.  "Wow, that was some heavy stuff," Masa said.

"Definitely," Mune agreed.  "Don't you feel a lot better getting it off your chest?"

"It...does feel as though a weight has been lifted," the griffon agreed.

"See, all that stuff was dragging you down," Mune said.

"Mind over matter," Masa agreed.  "But now..."

"Now what?" Gregory questioned.

"Now that you can give it your all," Masa said.

"So can we," Mune finished as the two colts looked at one another.  "Ready Masa?"

"Together Mune!" his brother spirit agreed before they rushed at one another and reformed back into the blade.  Only this time, it seemed to...glow with power.  Gregory gasped as he grabbed ahold of it.

"The Masamune...it brims with power," he said.  "Is this it's true form?"

"More likely than not," I said.  "The heart of a hero is the strongest weapon in his arsenal.  Now that yours is unleashed, you are stronger, and your blade reflects that."

The seven of us looked at the simple inscription on Cedric's coffin.  It had changed.

CEDRIC BRAVEWING
HERO OF THE REALM
LOYAL FRIEND
MAY HE REST IN PEACE

The workers came back and restored the entire tomb to its former glory, before the king showered us with rewards for aiding in the reconstruction of the Crypt of Heroes.  There was even a feast and everything.  Perfect timing as well, as I had been hungry after having slain so many monsters.

Three quests down.  Two to go.  Next up, we would have to find two shining objects.  One that shone across time itself, and the other that shone within the Badlands, at least according to Hora.

The Sunstone should be the easier one to get, though...
> Chapter 37 - Shining across time
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It was a small chamber, highly reminiscent of Vis and its technology, that we found laying in the middle of nowhere in the future.  It was one of the few places that had still been intact, so it drew our attention.  Laying there, near the northern tundra, almost exactly where Vis had once hovered.  It was beautiful, in a way.

Still, we were here for a reason.  I parked the machine nearby, and the seven of us disembarked and entered the ancient chamber.  It didn't take long before we found the foe that protected the Sunstone Hora told us lay here.  The spherical foe hovered before us and summoned flames around itself, which swirled and danced in the air.

Before I could say anything, Sombra had already unleashed a spell of cold at the creature...which didn't seem to effect it at all.  All he had done was incur a counterattack as the creature spat fire at him, causing him to cry out in pain and fall back.

"That won't work," I mused.  "Justice, Gregory, get ready to heal us all.  Copper, switch to plasma mode on your turret.  If we can't attack him directly, there's only five other targets.  The flames themselves.  I'm not certain if he's vulnerable like that, but I'm willing to try."

With that, I pointed my hand at one of the flames and summoned a bolt of lightning to jump between us.  The creature recoiled as if struck, and I grinned.  "Okay, so he's weak when we strike this one.  Let's keep it up."

Copper nodded and fired a bolt of plasma at the same flame, while Zehan attempted to freeze it solid.  Gregory soothed Sombra's wounds, and Justice opened fire again.  However, after he did that, the flames swirled and changed position so quickly I couldn't keep track of them all.  And now we would have to experiment to find the right one again...

Or so I thought, before Scorpan punched one, and the creature recoiled again.  "I have good eyes," he rumbled.  "I will keep track of the flame that he would rather us not hit for you all."

Every now and then, we did get set on fire by the creature as it attempted to fend us off, but soon enough, thanks to Scorpan's eyes, he was retreating deeper into the building.  I pointed my sword down the road he'd run and intoned dramatically.  "After him!" I said.

It was a short chase to a raised platform, where the creature now lay.  With one final gasp, it expired and changed.  From the roundish orange blob it had been, to a smooth, dark stone that held only a glint of power within it.

"Is this the SunStone?" Copper asked.

"Aye," Sombra replied.  "It used to be.  That creature used up most of its power, though.  T'would take an age to recharge it, and it would need a place with plenty of sun."

"I have an idea," I said, holding up the Gate Key.





"See," I said as we appeared back in the Era of Vis near where Canterlot would one day be founded.  "If we place it atop the mountain, then it will surely get all the sun it needs.  And it's such a big landmark as well, we'll be able to find it again in the future."

"I will admit, it sounds workable," Zehan said.  "What about other ponies coming to take it, though?"

"Thought of that," I said before looking at Justice.  "Would you care to write a message in the stone?  Do not touch, or something like that?"

The robot nodded and fired up his lasers, before inscribing just such a message in the very rock itself.  Once he was done and the stone had cooled, I placed the drained SunStone atop the writing and smiled.

"And now, we go back to the future and receive our prize."

Of course, one jump later, we found that the SunStone wasn't there.  Of course not.

"I will resist the urge to say it," the zebra in our party said.

"The sentiment is received nonetheless," I sighed.  "Okay, let's head through time itself.  Good thing it's night, we'll be able to get away with this.  Let's figure out when the SunStone was removed."

A quick check during the Era of Discord showed that the stone was still there.  As it was during 600 AD.  It was only when we arrived at the present day that we found that the stone was missing.  "So," I said, looking around.  "It was removed either in this era, or sometime shortly before it."  A thought occurred to me as to who would take such a stone, and I looked down at the city below.

Sure enough, in one tower of the castle, there was a brief sparkle of light as bright as the sun itself from one of the windows.  And while I doubted that Celestia or Luna would have taken it...

There was a spoiled noble in their house that would have, if he'd heard about it.  We would have to do something about that...





Back in 600 AD, I walked around the city of Canterlot for a short while, before I found a mare that bore a striking resemblance to Blueblood himself.  Though, she seemed to be having a bad day...or life, if the tattered rags she was wearing were any indication.  I wordlessly motioned for Copper to hand me our Bits, and she passed them over without a word of complaint.  I bent down in front of the mare and smiled, before offering her our money.

"Here," I told her.  "We don't need it."

She blinked a few times before opening the bag and gasping.  "There...there is far too much, sir.  You can't possibly give this much to me."

"I can," I told her.  "And I am.  So long as you keep one of the tenets of friendship in your heart always."

"Anything for you, sir!" she promised me.

"Never forget Generosity," I told her.  "Never be greedy with what you have now, because there are those that need help, which you should give if you can."

"Of course!" she said with a firm nod of her head.  "All my children will learn of generosity!  It will be our family watch-word!"

I smiled at her again before standing up and walking off with Copper, back to the city limits.  I kept the machine low until we'd left Canterlot, then fired up the time-travel option and took us back to the present day.

Once again, I took us up to the mountain, and found a certain Prince atop it, placing the SunStone back in its place.  "Oh, hello," he greeted us.  "Are you...lost?"

"In a manner of speaking," I told him.  "What's that you've got there?"

"Oh this?" he said, before putting the Stone where it was supposed to be and stepping back.  "A passing traveler gave me this Stone from atop the mountain.  Even I could sense the magic in it, and I have no need of it.  Plus, he told me of the text that was up here, so I decided to return it from whence it came."

"Good stallion," I said.  "And thank you."

"Welcome," he said with a nod of his head.  "Is it yours?"

"Perhaps, but we'll be by later to pick it up," I told him.  "We won't have need of it for some time, and it needs sunlight to get more powerful."

"I see," he mused.  "Well, I'll leave you to it then."  And with that, Prince Blueblood turned and walked away, though not without passing another comment.  "An excellent flying machine, by the way.  You should see the one I'm having designed for Equestria's non-pegasi some day."

I smiled, happy with how he'd now turned out, before turning the machine back towards the future.

As I thought, the stone remained there, now glowing a bright white, almost brimming with power.  Copper hefted it and stared for a moment, before she smiled.  "I have an idea," she said.  "Let's head back to that city we cleared out, there's labs there I can use."





It only took an hour for Copper to walk back out with her new battle harness.  She pointed the turret at an inactive robot and gently squeezed the trigger.

Instantly, a beam of power as hot as the sun erupted from the turret on her back and started to melt the chassis of the inactive 'bot.  She quickly turned it off and smiled, before handing the SunStone back to me.  "I used the machinery to make a cartridge, and hooked that up to my battle harness," she said.  "It contains a bit of the power of the SunStone in it, and I can use it for a pretty long time before I might have to make another one."

"In the meantime," I said, before pocketing the orb.  "We'll hold onto this.  Don't want it falling into the wrong hands now, do we?"

"Affirmative," Justice nodded.  "Especially not after everything we had to do to get it."

One quest remained.  And I was sure...it was going to be a long one.  Some sort of rainbow shell lay within the Badlands...

We would probably have to cut through more than a few changelings on our way to get it...
> Chapter 38 - The legend of the shell
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Queen Carapace sat on her throne, contemplating the situation of the changelings.  Perhaps another appeal to Equestria would help?  The last one had been poorly timed, all things considered.  It certainly couldn't hurt their position to petition the ruler of the land of ponies for more help...

Then something started to happen.  There was a rumbling sensation in the ceiling above her.  Bits and pieces of it started to fall down and crash into the floor.  She had been about to call for a guard when one of them hit her in the head and knocked her right out.





I added what magic I could to the demolition of the hive where the Rainbow Shell was said to be held.  Yeah, we could have gone in through the boring, normal way, but that way was likely to be guarded.  This one, not so much.  After all, we were in the middle of making it.

Once we burst through, I winced as I saw no small amount of changelings waiting for us, hissing and baring their fangs.  I turned to the others and shook my head.  "Non-lethal only," I told my friends.  "We're trying to avoid causing undue harm during the retrieval of this object."

They nodded, and in the case of Sombra, grumbled, but even he complied with my request as we dropped into the changeling hive and began knocking out each and every 'ling.  Occasionally, one got close to one of us, but with all seven of us working as a team to non-permanently incapacitate them, they really didn't stand a chance.  Especially when their only tactic was 'swarm' and we had magic on our side.

It wasn't long before we were the only ones awake in a room full of knocked-out 'lings.  All of us sheathed our weapons and began looking around for another way out.  There were multiple avenues, but I had a good feeling about the one that led downwards.  We did have to fend off the occasional other changeling that came at us, but it was a simple matter of blasting them out of the way.

After what felt like nearly a mile of tunnels, we came across a large chamber.  Sitting in the center of the room, gleaming thanks to the few magical lights scattered around, was a changeling shell that glowed all the colors of the rainbow.

I hadn't been expecting it to be quite this shape, but it made sense now that I thought about it.  I moved closer to the thing and tried to lift it, only to find that it was incredibly heavy.

"Okay," I huffed.  "I can't move it."

Justice beeped and came over, lifting it for a moment before putting it back down.  "The weight of the object exceeds my safe operating limits," he said.  "I cannot move it."

"Perhaps if we worked together?" Sombra asked.  "Me and the automaton."

"Go for it," I said.  The crimson glow of Sombra's magic surrounded the shell, and together, he and Justice managed, barely, to carry the thing.

"We'll have to defend them on the way out," I mused.  "But I think we can take it now."

"Barely," Justice said.  "But yes, it is possible."

The walk out was fraught with changelings trying to stop us from taking the shell from them, but with a judicious amount of magic and punching from those of us who were free to do so, there wasn't a challenge left, really.  Once we found the tunnel out, it was only a short walk around to where we'd parked the Wings of Time before assaulting the hive.

"Okay," I said as we walked up the ramp and the two carrying the shell dropped it near the back.  "I'm wary of time-traveling with that thing on board.  I don't know what properties it has, but I think I know where it can be stored until we can make use of it."

"Where?" Gregory asked.

"Simply put, High Aerie," I said.  "We're on good terms with Griffenheim.  I'm sure if we asked the king nicely to store this shell until the day came when it was needed, he'd oblige."

"Doesn't hurt that it's shiny as well," Copper pointed out.

"True," I said, strapping myself into the pilot's seat.  The others buckled up as well, and then we were off to the kingdom of griffons.





A quick time-hop after entrusting the Rainbow Shell to the king of Griffenheim later, we parked the time-machine an hour's walk outside of High Aerie and proceeded to walk closer to the capital.  Hopefully, they'd remembered about the Shell...

After securing a quick meeting with the current ruler of Griffenheim, I cashed in a favor from saving Gilda from her kidnapper, and the king nodded.  "It has been an heirloom of the royal family for generations," he said.  "It was said there would come a day when it would be needed to help a band of heroes."

"And so we need it now," I replied.  "A mighty smith lives in your city, and perhaps with such a material as this, he will be able to make something truly worthy of legends being sung about it."

"And you would put this item or items he makes to the best use?" the king questioned as two of his loyal servants pulled the cart that was carrying all the pieces of the Rainbow Carapace into the room.

"Our mission is no less than the continued well-being of the entire world," I answered him.

"A fine answer," the king said with a nod.  "Just do take care.  We have had more than one fiend try to infiltrate the palace in recent years for this shell."

Justice hooked himself up to the cart and we all fell into a guarding formation around him as we slowly left the palace, in search of Anima's forge.  We still had the SunStone as well.  With both those things in hand, Anima would be able to make truly wonderful things.

The crystal smith was doubly surprised when we showed up and knocked at his door.  "Crono?  And Umb-"

"I don't go by that name anymore," Sombra said as he saw who we were talking to.  "I haven't for a long time, Anima, Guru of Life."

"And I haven't done that job for a while either," Anima said, before looking past us at what we were hauling around.  "My word.  The Rainbow Shell.  I'd heard rumors about such a fine material existing, of course, but I never dreamed I would get to work with it."

"Two stipulations," I said, holding up two fingers.  "I want a better sword, and we'll need some better armor for the fight to come.  Preferably helmets."

"The armor I can do, but I would need a better forge to make a sword out of that," Anima said.  "Some sort of high-powered fuel source."

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the SunStone, once again stunning the smith.  "Will this do?" I asked him.

"Where do you keep getting these things?" he questioned me, before shaking his head.  "It doesn't matter.  Yes, that'll do.  Leave them here.  I'll have your things ready tomorrow."

Justice unhooked himself from the cart, and the seven of us went to find an inn that could house us for an entire day.

"The final battle approaches," Sombra said later that night.  "I can feel it.  Hear it.  We draw closer and closer to the time when all things shall be resolved."

"Yes, but you have a bit of business to attend to first," I said to him.  "Back in the era of Discord, you have an entire empire to apologize to."

He looked a little put out by my statement, before he sighed and nodded.  "That is but fair.  We cannot leave the ponies of that era thinking I was a true monster.  I did what I did to try and have enough power to summon and best Lavos."

"And I'm sure if you are truthful, they will no longer hate and fear you," I told him.

"I rather doubt that, but if you all agree to stand by me, I can make the attempt," the grey unicorn said.





The next day brought a wonderful, beautiful thing into the world.  At around noon, we all returned to Anima's forge.  After I knocked on the door, we waited for a few minutes, before the crystal stallion opened it and ushered us all into his place of work and business.

Sitting on a bench were half a dozen prismatic helms, glimmering in the light and giving off a faint sheen of colors.  Also lying on that same bench was a pair of glasses, giving off a similar sheen.  But it was the glowing sword on the anvil that drew my attention.  Anima walked over to it and gave it a half-dozen more strikes with a hammer, before thrusting it into a trough of water to quench the heated sword.  He withdrew it and passed it over to me, and I unstrapped my sword with the core of crystal before swapping the two.

The moment I gripped the sword that Anima had freshly made, I could feel the power in it.  It was somehow so light as well, despite the material it had come from.  Either he'd worked some magic into the making of this blade and made it feel lighter, or I'd just grown used to swinging around heavy swords on this journey.  Or it could have been a combination of the two.

"It wasn't hard, working with that stuff," the smith mused.  "At least, not with the SunStone powering my forge.  Speaking of," he said, before handing the glowing stone back to me.  "Here, it's yours.  Keep it."

"Thank you," I said, pocketing the sphere again, before looking over at the helmets.  "Okay, somebody's going without one," I said aloud.

"It would only get in the way of my horn," Sombra said.  "You all may take one if you wish."  The others grabbed a helmet each, and I took the helmet and the spectacles.

"And these are?" I asked Anima.

"Enchanted glasses," he said.  "They should help you see where a foe's weak point lies and help you end a combat quicker.  I use something similar in my line of work to help me determine where a sword or piece of armor needed improving.  I made you a better set with the materials you brought me."

I slipped them on and saw quite clearly all my allies with slight glowing red spots on them.  Anima had some as well.  Even the building had some structural weaknesses to it.  I slipped them off and pondered the situation, before slipping them around Justice's eyes.

"Affirmative," the robot beeped.  "I shall provide more instantaneous support to the group with these magical glasses."

I smiled before turning to Sombra and nodding once.  He nodded back, and I took it to mean he knew where we were going next and accepted it.

It was time to bring the would-have-been tyrant back to his kingdom, so he could repair what nearly broke.
> Chapter 39 - Repairing relations
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The ponies of the Crystal Empire had been curious about us all, at first.  Then they noticed Sombra walking with us, and fled inside their homes.  Apparently, he was infamous around here for what he'd nearly done.  And actually done.  Understandable, really, but this wasn't going to get done without both parties.

"I told you this would happen," the unicorn sighed.  "My moment was too strong, too powerful.  They remember and fear me."

"We just have to meet with the right pony," I said to him as we neared the palace.  "Who's the ruler here?"

"That would be me," we heard as a unicorn made itself known between us and the Crystal Heart.  Her eyes were a shade of gold, while her coat was creamy in color.  Her long and flowing mane and tail started pink, but turned sky-blue towards the ends.  She was wearing a set of regalia that was blue in color, with golden hearts embedded within it here and there.

"Princess Amore," Sombra said, dipping his head.

"Sombra," she returned, not doing the same.  "I told you that you could change at any point in time.  Yet still you pressed on your path of darkness."

"I know," the stallion sighed.  "Had you heard my story, you might have understood why I did what I did...yet now I know, it was a futile path.  No matter how strong I got on my own, there was nothing I could have done to avenge my home, my sister..."  He then looked at all of us and I swore he smiled for a moment.  "At least, not alone."

"Nothing could balance out what you almost did to this city," the princess retorted.  "You cast dark magic on us all.  You corrupted this entire place of safety and security in the frozen north, for you own-"

"He's not from this time," I interrupted the mare.  "He's from about a thousand years before you."

She fell silent, her mouth agape, and I plowed on.  "He was from the civilization of Vis, the ponies that created this city of yours in the first place.  Until they tangled with a dark entity and ended up destroying themselves."

"What few survivors there are," Sombra said, "Have been scattered to the winds of time itself.  No one survivor is likely to meet another on their own.  I have had the good fortune to meet three, thanks to my association with Crono here, and I have come to learn that friendship and teamwork are more powerful than my own means."

At this, the mare finally regained her voice and looked at Sombra.  "Have you come to apologize then?  Make amends?"

"Yes," the stallion said, bowing his head to her.  "I will do whatever it takes.  I even know of a simple spell my sister taught me to purge oneself of darkness.  You could use it to clean up what I did to the city."

At the mention of his sister, Amore fell silent again.  "Is she one of the survivors of what happened to your home?" she softly asked.

"No," Sombra returned.  "She...was too close to the center of what transpired to have survived."

At this, she looked to me.  "And you trust him?" she questioned me.

"At the beginning, no, I did not," I said.  "But I can understand his motives.  Being ripped away from his home when he was young, cast through time itself, wanting nothing more than to avenge his home, his family.  That would have set him down a very dark path, one where all he desired was the ability to face the fiend that did it to him."  I looked at the palace as I said my next few lines.  "Where I'm from, men have killed for less.  A quest of revenge is not unheard of to my people.  I can comprehend his motives.  I can't agree with his methods, but I can understand why he did it."

"As can I, now," Amore sighed.  "Losing everything you hold dear...I'm surprised you did not go mad."

"I think, right there when I nearly had everything, and had it all ripped away, I might have," Sombra admitted.  "Still, it would have been far worse if I had succeeded on my own, to reach the same conclusions that I already have.  That creature is...relentless and merciless.  It would have slain me if I had faced it alone."

"Yup," Copper agreed.  "We know that much already."

The princess of the empire sighed and looked around.  "If you teach me the spell you know," she said, looking directly at Sombra.  "Then I will use it to clean up any remnants of what remains of your dark magic in this city.  Then I will confer with the council, telling them everything you told me.  We will decide then on the terms of your return."

Sombra nodded and walked forward to the mare, upon which they crossed horns, briefly causing them to glow.  "That is how it's done," he said once they uncrossed.  "May you use it well."

"And hopefully, I will only need it the once," the mare said.  "I would offer you lodgings, but..."

"I understand," I told her.  "We'll be fine."

With that, the seven of us returned to a more comfortable era for the night.





Upon our return to the Crystal Empire that existed during the Era of Discord the next morning, we found Princess Amore waiting for us near the border of the barrier.  We all slipped inside and were thankful for the shield.  She let us get acclimated to the climate shift before she spoke to us.

"Sombra, after conferring with the Council, it has been decided.  You may not return..." she left it there for a moment, and the stallion seemed to accept her words as he turned around.

"Until."

The gray unicorn turned back to her with a raised eyebrow.  He probably thought along the same lines I did.  The word 'until' could change things.  "Until?" he questioned.

"Until your quest for revenge has been completed.  There must be no chance that the city will ever be subjected to that level of dark magic ever again."

Sombra nodded at her.  "I hadn't been planning to return for some time after we were done anyways.  I want to slay the thing that took everything from me, then search for Lumina.  She's strong, she might have pulled through."

"Then once that is done," the cream-colored mare said.  "You may return.  Until that time, they have voted to restrict you from coming back to this place."  Her horn glowed, and several things were floating in the air behind her.  "They also voted to return your effects to you, in case you had need of them."

"My..." Sombra's horn glowed as he took the cape and helmet from her grasp, gently putting them on himself.  "My armor.  I made it myself over many moons.  And..."  He held up a scythe in his crimson aura, giving it a few test swings.  "My scythe.  I had nearly forgotten I had made these.  Once I learned that magic that would lead to the city being in my grasp, I studied it relentlessly..."

"How strong are they?" I questioned him.

"I made them with Lavos in mind," the stallion returned.  "They are as strong as I could make them."

"So pretty darn, then," I quipped.  "Thank you for returning his things, your highness."

"Not at all," the mare said, bowing towards us.  "Just take care that you do not fall on this mission of yours.  I...would very much like to talk to Sombra again, when he is not as driven towards darker desires as he is now."

"We'll do our best," Gregory said with a bow.  Taking his cue, the rest of us also bowed towards the current ruler of the Empire, before turning to board our ship once again.

We'd put it off for long enough.  It was time to return to the distant past, and see if there was any way to access Lavos left back then.





Once we arrived back in the era of what used to be Vis, we could see that something was not right.  Something had distinctly happened in the mountain range on the horizon.  Flying the ship closer revealed what it was.

One of the peaks had been...replaced.  That was the only word I could come up with.  Instead of a simple mountain, it now looked metallic and intimidating.  Artificial.  It was only when I saw the landing dock at the top that I realized what this was.

Instead of the Black Omen, we had a fake mountain.  I landed the Wings of Time on the strip provided, and the seven of us disembarked.  There were no howling winds at the peak of this construct, but there was a form that I'd hoped never to see again.

The Mad Queen of Vis.  She saw us and laughed.

"Fools!" she said.  "In a mere three thousand years, Lavos will awaken and claim the surface for his own!  You who seek to defy your fates shall perish here!"

Her form faded out as an alarming beeping came from the wall behind her, where the door deeper into this thing was situated.  Round bumps on the wall whirred and clicked, revealing turrets to deter us from continuing.

I merely lit up my hands with lightning as we prepared to enter this device, ready to reach the bottom and put an end to Lavos, once and for all.  I could hear my allies getting ready as well.

Everything had been leading up to this moment.  I wasn't about to stop now.
> Chapter 40 - Heroes: Apply directly to the problem
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The first room of the false mountain yielded nothing except more turrets to shoot at us.  Turrets which Sombra efficiently destroyed with a single spell.  Somehow, he created a shadowy version of my Lightning 2 spell and used it to bathe the room in electricity.

I wasn't questioning how it worked, merely admiring that it did.  Around the room, the turrets sparked before blowing up, showering the room in debris.  Once the room was clear, I turned to the unicorn and nodded approvingly.  "A fine opener," I praised him.

"That's not my only trick," he said with a grin.  "Combat magic is simple to grasp.  I should be capable of replicating Copper's fire and Zehan's ice."

"Albeit with a darker tint," Gregory observed.

"Dark magic is what I excel in," Sombra said.  "Others would have to worry about keeping themselves safe.  I am perfectly capable of using it without any repercussions."

"The best blade is one that does not cut you, and all that," I added.

"Quite true," the unicorn said with a nod of his head.  "We should proceed deeper into this structure.  I cannot help but feel as though it is through this place that we shall finally meet Lavos once more."

"And I have some pent-up pain and torment I wish to deliver straight to that overgrown tick," Copper muttered.  At that I snickered at the comparison.  It was...quite apt.

The next room held more mechanical monstrosities for us to fight off against, only these were robots eerily similar to Justice.  Either they'd been constructed in this day and age by the power of whatever was left of the empire of Vis, or this place didn't care about when it pulled its foes from.

Once we'd scrapped the bots, we found the elevator down, surprisingly free of foes this time.  However, the room that greeted us in this all-metal interior of the mountain held new foes for us to face off against, proving the second part of my earlier assumption true.

After all, I couldn't imagine the freaks of nature that we now were facing off against to have come from anywhere but the distant and dim future that Lavos would create on this planet.  Once we'd bested them, we found the way onwards beyond.

Of course, in the next room, we found significantly stronger creatures that looked like they'd belonged in the Fiendlord's army.  Or could have been.  Each one fell before our blades and magic, though, and it was after that that I made the simple decision to conserve resources.  Namely, our magic, until we found a foe worth spending it on.  Sombra looked a little upset by my sensible choice, but eventually agreed with the idea of not wearing himself out right away.

That only opened the door to him showing off his fine control skills with levitation, the sharpness of his scythe, and how easy it was for him to cleave apart the next batch of monsters.  What few were left alive, Gregory destroyed with gusto, dashing to each one and slicing it in half with the Masamune.

"I am starting to get the idea that those two are highly skilled," Zehan said.  "And more than a little enthusiastic."

"Oh you think you've seen enthusiasm have you?" I asked.  Nothing appeared to greet us as we moved into the room where there was a teleporter at the back, before the very wall panels themselves opened up and fired upon us.  I drew my blade and felt the power flow through me, before I dashed at each panel and sliced it into ribbons.  I returned to where I'd been with a heavy breath, and behind me I could hear the machinery breaking apart.  I sheathed my blade and raised an eyebrow at my allies.

"We can all contribute," I said.  "Just nothing that involves magic.  We're going to want to save our strength."

Scorpan nodded at that and we all went deeper into the belly of this machine.  The next batch of monsters had a round body and a single eye each, and upon seeing us, exuded that same miasma that the creatures from the Floating Mountain had used to block our magic.  That made adhering to the no-magic rule a simple one for this chamber at least.

What was unexpected was the gargoyle dashing forward, picking up two of the smaller creatures, bashing them together a few times, before flinging them at a third.  Something he then followed up with a leap into the air and a piledriver onto the whole pile.

Brutal.  But effective.  The rest of us simply sat back and let the master of physical combat do his thing to clear the room.  It was an entertaining prospect.  Something I wish I'd brought popcorn for.

In a matter of minutes, the room was clear and free of foes.  Scorpan walked over to us, and I applauded him.  "Well done," I said.  "I doubt I could have matched that at all."

The gargoyle chuckled and bowed to me, before falling back in line as we proceeded through this place.  Something that I found disturbing, though, was how there were no alternative branching paths.  No puzzles.  Just a path filled with monsters lying between us and our target.

Had it been made with us in mind?  This twisted place that seemed at once familiar to the Underground Palace and at the same time, not?  It wasn't like there were many who could beat all these creatures back, nor many that could want to.

It was almost like it had been waiting for us, and us alone...

Soon enough, we found a room that was...highly disturbing.  A raised platform over a pit, and beneath us lay the sight of each of us.  Save for Sombra, and myself.  All my other friends, though, they were down there, in the middle of various actions.  Most of them involving fighting, but there were a few scenes of the lot of them sharing a moment of peace and tranquility.

Up ahead, I could see the twisted remains of the Malus Machine, and a familiar mare stood in front of them.  One that we'd seen at the entrance to this place.  The Mad Queen of Vis, Lavos' puppet.  She cackled as we approached.

"Behold," she said, sweeping a hoof out to the room we'd just passed through.  "Your time has been observed, recorded, captured here.  Your future and past as one.  And I have studied you all, extensively.  You cannot hope to best me as I am now."

I raised my sword by way of response, not bothering to give her the satisfaction of an answer to that.  She laughed.  "Fool.  You think you can best me, you think you can best Lavos?  You are nothing compared to him!  You always have been and will be, even if you are from somewhere foreign to this world!"

"No matter Crono's origins," Gregory said as he unsheathed the Masamune.  "He has been a true and loyal friend to us all.  He has led us and guided us truly on our journey to best he that would threaten this world."

"He helped teach me the meaning of friendship and loyalty," Scorpan rumbled.

"He saved me from certain death, and helped heal old divides that kept two races apart," Zehan added.

"And traveling with him has brought me hope, where there once was none," Sombra added.

"It is out of a desire to improve the future in which I found myself that I travel with him," Justice continued.

"So in short, buck you, you crazy mare," Copper said.  "We're standing by our friend, and putting you and your master down once and for all."

The Mad Queen grit her teeth before lighting up her horn.  "Fine!  I'll destroy you all myself!" she shrieked, as a pulse of power ripped through us.  I was driven to my knees, gasping as I felt the effects of her attack.

Then a wave of strength invigorated me, and I looked to the side to see Gregory, Justice, and Zehan focusing their powers on us all, bringing us back from the brink of being defeated.  I got back up and brandished my sword, before looking at the others.  "And that is why we save our magic," I quipped.  "For situations where we need it."

"Agreed," Copper said as she turned on her turret, the soft glow indicating she'd prepared the laser mode.  "Let's show this prehistoric bitch how we do things in the twenty-fourth century."

"Could not agree more," I said as Sombra fell in next to me, his scythe raised.  Scorpan cracked his knuckles, and the queen, for one brief moment, seemed to understand just how absolutely fucked she was.

Something we demonstrated with aplomb.





"Fools," the queen rasped as she fell back.  "If I can't destroy you here, then I'll just activate the Malus-"

Gregory swung his sword at the wrecked hunk of metal, and a wave of power rippled through the air, before splitting the device in two.  "You were saying?" he asked cheekily.

She fumed at us, before some sort of...unearthly energy seeped up from the ground and filled her with new vigor.

Apparently, Lavos either really liked this puppet, or didn't want us getting to him just yet.  She cackled as she rose into the air, before vanishing into nothingness.  What appeared next was a massive image of her head, followed by two hooves, one to either side of it.

"Ignore the hooves!" I shouted to my allies.  "Focus all your attacks on her head, do everything possible to just bring her down!"

With not a word of complaint, the second round began.  Our three healers still stood off to the side, ready to pick us all up if we needed it.  Something I was grateful for, as one of the hooves let rip with a massive burst of power like the queen had used before.  The effects of it lasted for all of a second before we were re-invigorated, and the four of us who were on the front lines of fighting brought the pain to the madmare.  Sombra's scythe bit into the massive face, while Copper fired up her laser and brought the full power of the sun to bear.

Scorpan waited for the fire to stop, and once it was clear, he raced forward and punched the massive face multiple times, before backing off.  Everyone looked at him, then at the face.  I had just been about to ask him a question...

When the mare screamed in agony.  Scorpan just looked smug as it was now my turn to add to the pain she was feeling.  My sword danced across the massive face, crisscrossing it and leaving gouges behind.

"Behold the last ruler of a shattered empire!" Sombra bellowed as he readied himself for another round.  "Behold the mad queen, the failure of Vis!  For it was by her hoof that we turned to Lavos in the first place!  We could have turned to anything else for a power source!  We could have tried to make the world below more livable, and ended our long seclusion above the clouds!  Instead she went to the world-destroyer, the creature that devours all, and sought to make his power hers!  And in the end, he claimed her soul!"

"Silence, False prophet!" she screeched as she tried, unsuccessfully, to shield her face with a hoof.  The scythe danced around her defenses and bit into her face instead.  "I have so much pain ready for you and the role you played, the way you tried to sneak your way into my court just so you could strike at Lavos!"

"How far have you fallen," I shouted at her, "To not recognize your own son?  To have sacrificed your daughter to the beast that took everything else from you?"

There was another flicker.  A moment, when I could have sworn she recognized what she was doing.

Then it was gone, and the Mad Queen was back, charging up another blast of power to strike us with.

One she didn't get to use, as Copper blasted her instead.  The mare howled in pain and fell back, returning to her original form as she lay against the far wall.

"Oh mighty Lavos," she gasped out.  "Avenge me!"

And all around us, the mountain rumbled as he heard her.
> Chapter 41 - The great parasite
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Once more we were at the great cave Lavos had carved out near the core of the world.  The massive thing let out its unearthly cry as we appeared and drew our weapons.  I noticed some of the spines on its back start to detach, and braced myself...

Only to find none of them impacting us.  They'd all been stopped short by some sort of glowing field.  I looked around to see Justice glowing brightly, additional cubes hanging off his form.  "Aegis defense system online," he said.  "I shall shield you all from his attacks.  Please return fire."

"You don't have to tell me twice," Zehan said as he channeled his magic.  "Gregory, together.  Let us show this creature how cold we can be."

"A wise sentiment," the gryphon returned as his claws glowed blue.  The chamber started to grow colder, and it was only when I noticed the ice forming on Lavos that I realized what was happening.

The pair of them were pulling off a dual Ice-Tech.  One that froze the entire cave, apart from us.  The beast roared in pain and tried to blast us again, but the shield Justice was emitting dispersed the impact.  "Alert," he pinged.  "I cannot protect us forever.  Do what you can to make sure I do not have to."

That was fine, though.  I had a plan.  I looked at Sombra and Copper, and nodded once, before raising one hand up and gathering the spark for a Luminare above me.

The spark changed and shifted, as Copper added the magic for a Flare to the mix, and then it became some sort of...dark star when Sombra added his dark magic.  I gently pulled the thing down and looked at it, before looking to Scorpan.  "Your brother got stronger the more magic he absorbed, right?" I asked him.

"Yes," the gargoyle replied.  "Why?"

"Would you be able to do something similar then?"

He blinked a few times before nodding.  "Yes," he slowly said.  Then I held up the dark star to him, and he grinned.  "Oh, I see what you mean.  Yes, that could work."

Scorpan gently took the dark orb from me, looking it over...before opening his mouth and inhaling the entire thing.  Once he was done, his body started to...shift.  He became larger, more fierce looking.  His muscles fairly bulged out of his body comically.  I was half expecting his hair to spike upwards and for him to gain an aura of power, but thankfully he stopped short of that.  Still, once he was done with his sudden growth spurt, the new and improved Scorpan delivered the best right hook to the face of Lavos that I could ever ask for, followed by a series of punches that I was sure would leave bruises if he had been human.

The parasite roared in pain again as it unleashed a humongous blast of power at us, and Justice collapsed after shielding us from that one.  "Aegis defense system...offline.  I will be able to restore it after some time, but he will not give it to you.  You must end the fight now."

I nodded and had an idea.  It was time to combine all our powers into one last blow.  It was all or nothing now.  "All of us!" I said.  "Focus your magic on my spark!"  I held up my hand again, conjuring forth another Luminare.

Gregory was first, his magic slipping and sliding around the electricity I'd conjured.  Copper added hers next, the flames mixing with the water like, well, water and oil.  Sombra's dark magic slipped in and changed the entire coloration of it, and the entire thing became a bomb encased in ice once Zehan had added the final layer.  I nodded as it finished before turning to Lavos.

"You want our world, our power, for yourself?" I asked him.  "Here, have a taste!"  With that, I all but threw the bomb of magical power at the creature's head.  It exploded in a brilliant flash of sound and light, rumbling through the cavern and causing a few minor rockfalls.  Once I could see again, I could determine one important fact.

We had, in fact, succeeded in blowing Lavos the hell up.  His head was gone, leaving a hole deeper into his body via what looked like the neck.

The job was only half done, though.  I panted as I recovered from all the exertion we'd gone through, before drawing my sword and stalking closer to the massive body.

"Crono?" Copper asked.  "We did it.  We stopped him."

"Not yet we haven't," I said.  "I won't be satisfied until I stick my sword in his heart and watch it stop beating."

"A grim view, but one I can agree with," Sombra said.  "I shall join you, if no others will."

"Of course we'll go with you," Gregory said.  "If this is what you need to be satisfied that you've saved the world, then we'll go through with you."





I was right, of course.

Why could I not be wrong once in a while?

When we arrived at the core of Lavos, we could hear what passed for a heart still beating, and we saw that there was a massive form connected to the walls via tendrils.  It let out its usual cry as we arrived, and the seven of us saw that the fight had only just begun.

"Aegis defense field online," Justice said.  "Begin phase two."

Lavos didn't take kindly to that, and blasted at us with a wave of magic.  Something that was handily deflected by the shield, though I saw it flicker.

"Sombra," I said.  "You help Justice, keep that shield of his up so we don't get hit during this!  We need all the defense we can get!  In this battle of attrition, we cannot take any ourselves!"

The unicorn nodded and moved to stand next to the robot, the shield flaring back into full life as I called forth another Luminare.  I felt Copper and Zehan's magic mingle around my own, and the Delta Force attack was unleashed, causing massive pain to the creature's core.  Gregory opted to use his sword, slashing away like a mad griffon.  Something the still-highly-powerful Scorpan joined in on, the pair of them just wailing on the core.

It unleashed lasers from its chest in an attempt to destroy us, and I was ever so thankful for the shield holding up.  I had already died once, apparently.  I wasn't eager to repeat the experience.  Nor would I stop until Lavos was dead.  I drew my sword and slashed away, doing my best to add to the damage we were racking up on it.

The beast roared again, and Zehan and Copper did their flash-freeze trick, causing it to howl in pain.  Gregory and I performed an X-Strike, both of us charging at the creature and catching it in the middle of our charges.  Scorpan added another barrage of punches to the pain we were heaping on it, and the beast roared once more, this time unleashing a pulse of debilitating power.

The shield failed instantly, and I was driven to my knees, but I was satisfied with what I heard next.  The hissing sound of the tubes retracting and the armor falling off.

We'd done it, we'd damaged the core enough to advance to the true, final fight.

From within the once-armored form, a pony-esque form emerged.  And of course, it was arrogant enough to assume an alicorn form.

"This...is Lavos?" Copper asked.  Justice beeped as he scanned the thing.

"I am detecting high energy signatures...and DNA from all the creatures of this world," he said.

"This thing," I said as I pulled myself up, "Has existed here since this world was young.  Guiding it, shaping it, feeding from it to better itself.  On this planet, it is the culmination of all species.  All your art and history.  Your culture and magic.  Everything you were and are."

"Has͟ ̨ju͢s̷t̷ e͠xist̕ed b̷ec͏au͘s͡e ̡Ì p͠e̡r̵mit͟t͜ed ̶it t̶o̕.͞"

...Okay, that was a new one.  Lavos...never spoke in the game.  Even if his voice was composed of what sounded like a thousand other voices that grated on my ears and brain to listen to, he never spoke before.  I shook my head and focused on the words, rather than the sound.

"Bu͡t̛ ̡y̴ou ̧s͡even. ͢ ̀Y̸ou ̀ha̶v̷e ̷d͞one w̧ha͢t̀ nòne̷ befo̧r͞e̷ ̸h̷ave̷ dar̨ed͡ t̀o̡ ̢do̷. ̛Y͞ou hàve҉ ͡t҉r̡an̸sc̶e͘n͏de҉ḑ ti͞me it͝şelf ̴in ̢an ͞eff̶or͏t͟ ̢to s͟t̵o͘p ̀wha͠t҉ I ̕wo͞ul͟d̸ ҉d̛o to̶ th͡is ̵w͘or̸ld ̵wh̶en I a̕m ̵ḑone̡ wit͠h it͢.̡"͢  He walked forward, each step sounding far more menacing than any simple step should have.  "Ą fùtil͜e ̸g͏est̡u҉r̛e͡, but̛ ͠one̸ Ì c̛ań apṕrèc͡įat͝e͘ none̡theles̵s͏."

"How?" Copper asked.  "How did you know?"

"T҉hȩ L̨̕á̕v͢҉̛ó̶҉͝ş̀͘͝ a̶re͏ bein̨gs̛ ̷th̸at͡ ҉str̕addl̶é ͞the̴ ̸ti͜me-st̶rea͢ḿ.͢ ̨ ͟I̸ ẁa̧s ͟a̵w̢a̕re ̵of͟ wh͞at̢ yo̵u̕ ͞we̸re d̨o͏ing͘ ͜a̶s ̷y͠ou̢ ͝w͟e̶r͏e d͏oing ìt҉.̢"́  He charged his horn and summoned two orbs that floated nearby.  "҉I͘ wa҉s͘ ͟merely͟ w̸a҉it̴i̕n͜g͟ t̸o̧ ͠s̢e̡e ͞ho̶w̡ fa̴r y̵ou ͜wou̶l҉d̛ c̡om̢e. ͏I ͟w̢i̛l͢l̷ re͜p͜air͠ ͝t́he ̨dama̢g͟e t͏o ̨my҉ ̷sh̡e͏l̨l̛ a͏nd c͝o̴r͟e, in ti͠m͏e. ̧ B̛u̡t now̕ ̷that͟ y̧ou͘ ̛háve co̷ḿe ̨all ҉this ͠w͞ay̴, ͞yo̵u w͢ill̶ ̡see h͢ow ͠fu͡ti͢l͜e̢ ́y͠ou҉r ͟a̡c͡ti̢óns ̢w͢er͏e.̵"

"Fuck that noise," I said as Gregory, Zehan, and Justice put their power to use, setting us all on our feet again.  "I did not come all this way just to fall at the last gate.  You will pay for everything you've done and would do.  This world will be free of you.  The cycle will stop here."

"Ỳo͟u͏ ͡in̨ten̴d ͢t͘o̕ c̷h̛a̡l̸len͘ge ͡m̸è ҉w͡i͟th ̀you̵r ̢batter̨e͘d͏ a͟nd w͏éa͝ry sȩl͟f,̶ ̕w͞i̵t̕h̷ ņo͘ p͞owèr̕ ͢in y̛o̷ur͞ ͠r͡eser҉ve͞s?̕ ͜ ͟I͘t̡ will̴ b͜e a ̧s͟ļa͟u̷ghte͏r.̧"̶

"Maybe," I said as I drew my blade.  "But I am not going to make it easy for you either."

"For the future," Copper said as she charged her turret and stood by me.

"For the past," Sombra agreed as stood on my other side.

"For the times in between," Scorpan rumbled as he cracked his neck.

"For the fallen heroes," Gregory said as he drew the shining Masamune.

"For all the races of this world," Zehan said as ice coated his staff.

"We will make you pay for your crimes," Justice finished.

And with that, the final battle was joined.
> Chapter 42 - It's all uphill from here
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The final battle with Lavos was, by definition, the hardest we would ever fight.  I knew better than to open with a Luminare right off the bat, as the bit we needed to kill would be shielded until the other two had fallen.

Copper was not so reserved.  "Burn!" she commanded as she let loose with a Flare.  Two-thirds of our targets did just that, the main body and the left pod-like creation suffering her wrath.  The right one, however, merely flashed as a protective sphere was made obvious.  Shields were just all the rage these days.

"Perhaps my magic will be more effective," Sombra said as the shadows began to...deepen.  "Gaze into the maw of oblivion!" he cried as he unleashed his strongest dark magic attack, lances of darkness being summoned from the shadow and attempting to pierce Lavos.  Once again, two of the targets were effected, but the third didn't register the attack at all.

"The target on the right has some sort of energy defense system and quite high energy reserves," Justice informed us.  "It will likely take considerable effort to break through the shielding system.  Recommend we leave it until last."

"I can agree with that," I said.  "Gregory, Scorpan, together!"

The three of us pulled off a move of considerable power, the two major sword-wielders and the one that could only really focus on physical combat combining forces to lay a massive hurting on the main portion of Lavos' true core.  Zehan froze Justice, adding a frosty coating to him so that he could put a serious dent into the creature's health with a ice-coated hoof propelling at rocket speeds into what would be a face on a pony.

The central bit let out a cry and fell to the ground, even as the bit on the left took aim and fired a barrage of lasers at us.  And let me say this, they hurt.  They tore through me, causing pain the likes of which I hadn't felt before.

I was forced to my knees as I waited for Gregory and Zehan to get together with Justice once more, and restore our health.  I got up and looked at the pair of pod-like devices before asking a question of Justice.  "Is the pod on the right still shielded?"

"Affirmative," he said.   "The pod on the left is completely vulnerable."

"Then let's take it out," I snarled as I drew my blade.  "I'm not eager to be blasted again."

"A sentiment I can agree with," Sombra said as he all but flung his scythe into the fray, using it to cleave at the pod.  The thing let out a cry, then another as Scorpan and I added to the physical punishment we were heaping onto it.  Then Copper stepped up and turned her turret to face it.

"Die," she commanded that bit of Lavos, before it was blasted with the full power of her laser.

And die it did, falling to the ground to join the main bit we had already knocked out.  Justice beeped as he looked at the right pod.

"Alert," he said.  "The pod has lowered its shields and is redirecting its energy to form some sort of spell.  I am already seeing traces of energy bridging the gap between it and the other two pieces we have taken out."

"...So that's what that's one for," I muttered.  "A failsafe to make sure that it never dies.  Except that now, we can attack it."

"Agreed," Gregory said as he and Zehan began freezing the right pod solid, before the both of them added their own physical punishment to the mix.

"I desire nothing more than to see Lavos dead," Sombra snarled.  "I don't care what back up plans it has!  I will destroy it!"

"Then let's finish this thing off together, before it revives the other portions!" I cried as I charged up the last Luminare I thought I could manage.  I felt more than saw the others add their magics to the mix, and once I knew it was ready, I passed our combined magic-bomb off to Scorpan.  He held the solidified attack in one mighty fist before rushing at the pod of Lavos and punching it so hard, the attack in his fist went off and blasted the thing.

Just a little too late, however.  Oh yes, he destroyed the pod.  But already, the portions we'd taken out were stirring again.  "No," I said.  "No no no.  Quickly, before they attack again!  Put them back down!  End this!  Stop him before he summons another healer pod!"

We all needed to catch our breath, though, after that massive attack.  And I could swear the main portion of Lavos knew it and was smirking at us.  One of his forelegs began to raise...

...before it was blasted off by the power of the sun.  All of us looked at Copper and her smoking turret.  "More where that came from," she said.  "And I have had it with you making this fight longer than it needs to be.  We've won.  Accept it."

"̨I͝ wil̡l̡ n̨o͡t҉!̵" the creature screamed.  "T͞h̸iś ͢world ́i͞s ̶m̛ine͜!"

"You really love to hear yourself talk, don't you?" she said before adjusting her aim only slightly and blasting him again, this time full-on.  When the beam subsided, the middle portion, the main portion, had been obliterated.  The small pod didn't seem to know what to do, and Gregory and I took advantage of that and performed an X-Strike on it.  It was quickly followed up with Sombra performing a dark spell and the shadows impaling the remaining animate bit of Lavos, causing it to fall still.

It had been done at last.  The great beast had been defeated.

There was a great wrenching sensation, as though something had grabbed ahold of my insides and pulled, and I found myself passing out as it felt like I was pulled somewhere...





When I woke up, we were in the clearing that would become Truceburg in Griffenheim.  I could tell by the lack of a village that we were in the year 600, and I looked around, wondering how we'd gotten here.  My allies were all knocked out around me, and I had a moment to wonder if we were victorious in the end, before that question was answered for me.

"You were successful," I heard from behind me, and I turned to see the Wings of Time, Hora leaning up against it as he smiled at us.  "You stopped Lavos three thousand years before he would have destroyed the entire world.  The shock of such a thing happening freed the timeline from the constraints he had it under.  Now, we are no longer doomed, and all of time is freed from his grasp.  Indeed, it is nearly like he never was at all, save for the destruction he has already wrought."

"So...now what?" I asked the sage of time.

"Now?  Now I settle down here in the land of griffins, and you all go your separate ways," he said.  "This place shall be peaceful enough for some time, and I still have the ability to look beyond the present.  Perhaps I shall even get the job of royal adviser."

"And the End of Time?" I asked.

"Dissolved under the onslaught of so much changing about the timeline at once," the guru said.  "Bellum survived, though.  She's upset you never took her up on her offer, but in her words, 'I'll fight him one day, and it will be so satisfying.'  I don't know when she ended up, but I saw her vanish in a way similar to a Gate.  She's probably waiting for you to find her."

"Yeah, well, when it's not a life or death situation, maybe I'll take her up on that," I quipped.  "You're sure you want to stop here?  We could take you anywhere, anywhen."

"Thank you, but no.  I would like to avoid the reminders of the past, and this era shall serve that purpose," the guru said.  "The three of us have been scattered to the winds of time itself, but at least now, we all survived our trials.  The future is far brighter for this world."

"A thought occurs," I said.  "While we may have destroyed the parasite infecting this planet, who's to say that one won't find its way here sometime in the future?"

"If one does show up in the future, then the world will be ready for it by then," the guru said as he looked in one direction, his eyes turning misty as he did.  "Yes, some may try to come here to take over where this one failed, but by then, thanks to being warned and having had time to develop it, the planet will fend them off before they get close."

"Well that's good," I sighed.  "It wouldn't do to remove one only to pave the way for another."

"Indeed not," the guru said.  "And if you'll excuse me, I shall be off for now.  I have a city to settle down in.  Take care, all of you...and thank you for all you've done, even if most won't know of the magnitude of it."

"I did what anyone would have done," I said.  "I couldn't just stand by and leave this world to die."

"Oh, but you could have," the guru said.  "The option was open to you to just...leave, not long after you helped defeat the Fiendlord.  Yet you chose to stay.  And for that, the world thanks you."  And with that, the crystal unicorn was off, walking towards the capitol city of the griffons on the horizon.

Just as he got out of sight, my companions started to stir.  One by one, my friends awoke from their shock-induced nap, finding themselves not where they had been and probably wondering about how this had come to pass.

"We did it," I said to them.  "We defeated Lavos and saved the world."

At this, they all let out a cheer, save for Sombra, who looked...pensive.  And Justice, who merely nodded once.

"So," I said once the celebrations had died down.  "I'm assuming most of you would like to return to your proper times?"

There was a unified sense of agreement, and I swept my hand around to indicate where and when we were.  "Well then Gregory, you're already home, so...thank you for fighting with us, my friend.  And if I may make a suggestion, I do believe that Equestria in the future would be a fine place for the Masamune to find itself.  I can think of two alicorns that would look after such a fine blade."

"Aye, if only for the spirits within, and the form they can take when they truly join," the griffon agreed.  "Perhaps the ladies would enjoy having a stallion around?"

"That they very well might," I said with a chuckle.  "Still, take care of yourself.  No rush to see to it that it happens right away."

"No rush at all," Gregory agreed.  "And...thank you all for helping me avenge my mentor.  I would likely never have done it alone."

With that, the half-lion, half-eagle took wing and actually flew off into the distance, towards the city.

"As for you, Zehan," I said, before holding up the Key and motioning towards the inactive Gate.  "I likely could set you back near to where we found you in an instant."

"That you could," the zebra agreed.  "In fact, that sounds like a fine choice.  I would be most grateful if you did so."

I walked towards the Gate and tapped it with my Key, before backing up as it hung there in its activated state, ready to whisk the next thing to touch it to the year 1000.  I heard Zehan say something to the others before he walked up close to me and sighed.  "Thank you, Crono, for saving my life back then.  If it hadn't been for you interfering, I likely would have wound up dead.  Because of you, so many things have changed in Griffenheim.  I'll be able to have an actual life there now."

I turned to the zebra and smiled.  "All in the name of a more peaceful world," I told him.  "Take care of yourself where you're going."

"And you as well," he rejoined before stepping through the Gate.  I walked back to the rest of my allies and smiled.

"I guess we have a few more stops to make?" I asked them.

"Indeed," Scorpan rumbled.  "I wish to spread the message of friendship and harmony among my people back in my age."

"And I desire to return to the Crystal Empire," Sombra said.  "If I arrived there, then it is most likely that Lumina, if she survived at all, will arrive there as well.  And if not, then I can always do worse than living in a city where I try to make amends for what I did."

"One transport to the era of Discord, coming right up," I said as I held up the Gate Key and pointed at the Wings of Time.  "Let's get this over with."





It hadn't been hard, dropping Scorpan and Sombra off in that era.  What was hard was what I was doing now.

I stood in the glen I'd arrived in, Copper on one side, Justice on the other.  They'd turned down the offer of being set down in the future.  Said it wasn't their future anymore.  I could agree to that.

But now...I had a choice to make.  The red sphere hung in the air, waiting for me to decide what to do with it.  I'd already been gone a year.  Assuming time between here and home flowed at a 1:1 ratio, at least.  And if it did, then I would be lucky to not be declared legally dead.

Was there even a point to returning home?  I'd changed so much around here, and I had magic here as well.  I hadn't had much to my name either.  Earth...I would miss it, and if anyone missed me...

Well, I hadn't come unprepared.  I held a hand out, and Justice put the scroll I'd written beforehand into it.  I gave it a once over, nodding at the end, before I rolled it back up.  Then I held out my hand again, and a diamond the size of an egg was put in my hand this time.

I'd literally tripped over it coming here, and it was going to be my insurance that my message was spotted.  I stuck the gemstone into the middle of the scroll and tied it tightly, making sure it didn't shift at all, before I moved the set-up to my right hand.

My left carefully reached out with the Key and I quickly tapped the Gate, before I backed up as it opened up.  Not wanting to get sucked into the one-use device, I nodded as it reached the maximum size, before it slowly started shrinking.

Before it closed up entirely, I threw the scroll with the gem in it through the portal, and it snapped shut afterwards, the sphere not reappearing.

It was done.

I'd shut myself away from Earth, forever.  Though not without a parting word to anyone that might still have cared enough to have been looking for me.

I looked to the robot and mare next to me before smiling.  "So, I hear there's a town just beyond the border of the forest that is welcoming and kind to all newcomers..."
> Epilogue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The small house that existed on the border of Ponyville and the Everfree Forest hadn't just appeared one day.  Though it did seem like it at times.

It had appeared over the course of a few days, two pony-like figures and a strange biped working to build a nice, serviceable house.  The three of them were rarely seen in Ponyville after that, though Pinkie did make her usual token attempt to welcome them all with a party.

She was politely but firmly rebuffed with the inhabitants thanking her for her time, but informing her that they didn't need a party, thank you very much.

In fact, they didn't seem to come to town often at all.  It took Ponyville being thrust into disarray before they did something other than work around their home.





"My oh my," the voice of the Chaos Spirit, Discord, said as he observed the simple little house.  "But what do we have here?  I think this place is in need of a little...redecorating."

That was when three forms came out of the house.  A pony, a robot, and a human.  And the spirit blanched.

He knew those forms from ages ago.  He'd been a younger draconequues then, but they...they'd barely changed at all.

"Discord?" the biped of the three asked.  "I'm going to ask you this once, nicely.  Leave us alone during your little redecorating spree."

"You don't get to ask me things," the spirit said with false bravado.  "I'm the master of chaos!  I choose what-"

That was when he noticed the small, green spark hovering over the hands of the human.  And he could feel the power thrumming there.

Something like that could very well hurt him seriously for quite a bit.  And that was when he looked at the mare, who'd apparently donned some sort of metallic harness with a laser on it, glowing like Celly's horn did.  The robot of the three merely opened his side panels and beeped once.

"Like I said," the human said softly.  "Leave us alone, Discord.  Or we'll make you regret it."

That was when the spirit decided to pick his battles a little more wisely and chose to flee.  Those three had magic, true magic, and it wouldn't do to mess with them.

The trio of retired adventurers sighed and went back into their home, glad that they'd managed to eke out another peaceful day in the chaos that Ponyville regularly churned out.

"So, you going to go over to the town after this one?" Copper asked.

"Maybe, maybe not," Crono replied.  "It all depends on how it's resolved.  But perhaps Pinkie will be getting that party she's been looking for at long last."





Ah, but that...

Is a story for another day.