> Temporal Disequilibrium > by Wild Wire > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter 1: The Start (Refreshed) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- What if you had the ability to control time? So much so that you're basically able to do anything? I ponder questions like these all the time, especially when I'm supposed to be asleep. I just ask myself hey, what if I could do this or that? That'd be neat! And with how much time I have to think, I just explore the possibilities. Most of the time I just fantasize about messing with people, or saving the day, but at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter. I just think for fun, to see what I can come up with. I thought about what if I could teleport, or if I had super speed, or if I could fly, or if I had super intelligence, or if I was actually great in any capacity. Well, I'm kind of smart I guess, but just thinking that makes me feel like I'm being narcissistic. I'm not strong, I'm not very attractive, and I'm not the nicest person. I'm not mean, just not very nice either. I was so lost in thought, I almost didn't even notice I was suddenly sitting with my legs crossed in the middle of a forest. Almost. "The f- heck?" I don't like swearing aloud, but in my head. The fuck just happened? Thud. "Ow! fucking shit!" Well, getting hit in the head will also do it. I grumble and turn towards the object that hit me. It was a simple cardboard box, about the size of a brick, with a folded piece of lined paper taped to the side. I look around to see who threw it, and see nothing but forest. Shrugging once, I take the paper off the box and unfold it. "Hello Turner Youth! I'm your future self! Or present, depending on how you look at it. Long story short, you have time powers, POWERFUL time powers, like, some overpowered bullshit time powers.-" I raise an eyebrow. "-HEY! put that eyebrow down! I'm not done yet!-" My other eyebrow raises "-So now that I have your attention, I can give you some information. Inside this box is a list of a few different things you can do with your time powers, including some limits to it, a map of your surroundings, and the closest thing to a Snickers bar I could find. Sorry this is so abrupt, but it's kind of not my fault. Be ya soon!" Well, if this is a prank, whoever's behind it definitely knows me well, and also had a pun! I set down the note, open the box and unfold the map. Another note is blocking it. I read that as well. "P.S. You're in Equestria, so try to make some friends, like I know you will." "Oh." A pause. "Oh, shit." I sat there for a moment, before mindlessly reaching for the Snickers bar. "Well, you're not you when you're hungry!" I laugh. After eating the bar, I look at the map, and sure enough, a little drawing of me, in my art style, is standing near the edge of the Everfree forest, with a small sentence saying that Ponyville is in the direction my legs are facing, making me realize I'm still sitting cross legged. I go back to the box, and pick up the list of abilities. "1. You can rewind time back and can travel back in time as well, the difference being one rewinds like a VHS tape, and even rewinds you, but the other sends you back immediately and you can interact with your past self. It's much easier to send small items through time." "2. You can freeze time completely, and while in this frozen state everything but you will be weightless. Fatty. You can move objects while time is frozen but they freeze as soon as you let go. No, objects don't gain hyper speed momentum if you throw it in frozen time and unfreeze it, unless you only SLOWED time, in which case, yeah that works." "3. You can slow down time or fast forward time. This is much more obvious so I wont be explaining it." "4. You can steal events. That doesn't make much sense does it? Let me describe it this way, imagine a bullet is shot at your friend. Oh no! Just activate the ability before your friend is hit, and deactivate it once the bullet has passed. Congrats! You stole the event of them being hit by the bullet. Now they wont be hit, and you grow in power by stealing the event. You can also steal previous events that just recently happened, just in case you missed your chance, but that takes a little more energy." "5. You can reuse events you stole. Let's say your friend suddenly turned evil! You can simply place the event back in current time, and BAM, it'll be like they were just shot by a bullet, because they WERE! This makes you lose a bit of your power again. No, you can't just hit yourself and erase it to gain infinite power... well, you CAN, but that would take forever." "6. You don't age anymore. You can still die, probably, but you won't age. Ever. Have fun! Also, stealing events makes the world look like it froze for a moment, and no one remembers what you stole. Stealing a bullet's event DOESN'T make the bullet move differently, it makes it pass through still, just without the whole hitting it's target part. Like it phased through. If you jump at a wall, and steal the part where you hit it, you can actually lag your way through the wall if it's thin enough. If its not, you'll just end up next to the wall on the same side you were on." I read the whole thing. This really IS some overpowered bullshit time powers! This entire thing is just one giant mess! At least I understand this though. About time to head to Ponyville I suppose! > Chapter 2: The Ponyville Welcome > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- After heading out of the forest, surprisingly with no trouble from timberwolves or anything, I march onward towards the not so distant town of Ponyville. Already though, I can predict that something is probably going to go badly. Ever since I started to near the town, I would keep seeing a flash of rainbow in the corner of my peripheral vision. It's obviously Rainbow Dash spying on me because I'm an unknown creature, but I decide to ignore it and continue onward. As long as I'm not attacked, I'll be fine. It's at this point that I've actually entered the town, and, as expected, it looks empty. Everypony is hiding. Nope, wait, there's Applejack, running towards me with a lasso. I chose to stop and see where this goes. Applejack throws the lasso, and I think this is the perfect opportunity to test my new abilities. Let's see if I can steal this. Right before the lasso makes contact with me, I try to take the event. My vision freezes, before quickly jutting forward. It really does look like the world lagged I mentally note. I look down. The lasso is on the ground now, under my feet. I look back forward to see a befuddled Applejack. Just smile and wave, boys. Just smile and wave. I jokingly think as I do so. It seems to have just make her more confused though. Oh well. My focus it lost as from the distance I hear a strange noise. What is that? Is that- oh, that's what it is. I think, recognizing the silly descending tone of something falling. I slow time to a quarter of normal speed, just to gather a quick look at who it probably is. The color of the world desaturates, that must be a way of telling if it worked or not. I look back down at myself and see myself still in full color. I do a quick spin and turn towards the now even slower, deeper noise. To my surprise, it's not Rainbow Dash, but actually Pinkie Pie, with her arms forward, having just shot herself out of her party cannon. She's also a lot closer than I thought she would be. My first instinct is do dodge, but I instead get a better idea. I open my arms. You better prepare for the hug of your life, Pinkie. I think as I speed time up back to normal. I close my arms around her as she slams into my chest, pulling her into the tightest hug I can. And she bites me. "GAH!" I cry from the pain. Note to self, don't underestimate Pinkie! Holy shit that hurts! I throw her off of me, and jumping backwards, I accidentally but very luckily dodge a purple magic laser beam from the left. I turn to see Twilight Sparkle glaring at me from quite a distance. No wings yet I quickly note. I decide to try freezing time, to see if I can find Rarity in this mess. This time, all color fades, leaving the world in black and white. I double check myself. Yep, still full color! I look around for Rarity, and I can't seem to find her anywhere. Not caring to search too long, I move time forward just a little bit, changing time from frozen, to very slow. Then I run. Why didn't I just run while time was frozen? It's because I don't want them to think I can basically teleport, that's why! This way, they'll just think I'm really fast. I decide to run back to the forest, to see if Zecora is more accepting of me. Three of the main six tried to attack me, I'm not taking my chances and having them ALL gang up on me. Since the other ponies are hiding from me as well, I assume that the whole don't judge a book by it's cover lesson hasn't happened yet. Damn, how early am I in the show!? Jeez! I turn around as I run, and see an incoming Rainbow Dash. I slow time farther to out run her. Wait a minute, why am I running? I can just slow time even more and walk the rest of the way. I do that, and it seems to work just fine. From their perspective, I haven't changed speed all that much, but for me it's MUCH easier on my legs. Continuing to out pace Rainbow by taking a light stroll, I begin to near the forest again. Rainbow stops right at the edge of the forest, as I continue to walk through. Taking the map I was given out of my pocket, I check to see if I can find Zecora's hut. It's marked on the map, but I don't really have much of a frame of reference with a map that has so little detail. I have a rough estimate though, and that's good enough for me. If I get lost, I can always just rewind myself to a point I know where I am. So going to Ponyville was a bad idea, so let's make a mental list of where else I could go. First, Zecora. Already heading there. Next is... hmm. Maybe the changelings? I know they're kind of evil right now but maybe I could make some sort of alliance with them, at least maybe a visit? I don't know. I could try to go to Canterlot and befriend Celestia. Then she could tell everyone else I'm nice, but how would I go about doing that? I don't want to walk that far! Besides, if Ponyville was quick to judge, who says Celestia wont be? Hell, maybe I could find a way to travel faster and go to Starlight's village. Maybe. I don't know. Let's just hope Zecora can help me. And I continued forward on a vague path to find a tree hut in the middle of a deadly forest. Oh boy. This will definitely take a very long time. > Chapter 3: The Perfectly Normal Meeting > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- My slow mode stopped working on it’s own a while ago, so it seems that there’s a time limit to it. I experimented with the ability a bit and it seems like when I hold time to be one tenth of normal speed, I can only hold it for about a minute, Freezing time I can hold for half a minute, and I can rewind time at full reverse speed about fifteen seconds. The list said stealing events makes me more powerful, and being more powerful should probably increase the time limits. I also double check the first note and it said it had a list of a few of my abilities. A few. I might have more that I don’t know of. Since I don’t know yet, I decide to check the box one more time. Searching through, I find some blank paper and a pencil. I copy down the contents of the first note so I don’t have to do it later, until I realize I can’t send it back in time until I find a box identical to the one I was given. If I just send back the box I was given, over time it will eventually decay from age and that would mean a future past me wouldn’t receive a box and that would change the timeline. I have to find a brick sized cardboard box exactly like the one I already have in my hands. These powers are becoming damn annoying much quicker than I originally thought they would. Although I guess I don’t have to worry too much. If I received this box from my future self, then I will also inevitably become him because it has already happened, so I also am inevitably going to find a box to send back like he did. Man, time travel can be kind of complicated. I lose my focus as I hear a rustle in the nearby bushes. I turned toward the bush, ready for a manticore to pounce or something. Everything stays still for what felt like minutes, before I get tired and decide to try something else. I freeze time, and check behind the bushes. Huh, guess I’m gonna meet a changeling first. Neat. If that didn’t give it away, there was a changeling spying on me from behind the bush. I grin. Walking behind the changeling, I unfreeze time and wait for his or her reaction. “Huh? Where’d it go?” The changeling whispered to itself, not knowing I was close enough to hear it. Female I note from her voice. “Hi!” I say, making sure I say it LOUDLY. “GAH!” She jumps, flies straight up right into a branch, and falls limp. “Damn, now I have to help you.” I sigh at myself, and check my map to see if there’s anything nearby that can help. Pacing around in large circles, I scan the Everfree forest, and I see a little note and a drawing of a cave. “As soon as you look up from pacing, there’s a cave straight ahead. Bring them there.” I read out loud. I look up from pacing, and blink. “Oh, that way then.” I say to myself. I lift up the changeling, and, surprised at how light they were, I decide to hold her up with just my left arm, her neck reaching over my shoulder. It’s now I also realize just how tall I am, compared to everypony here at least. If I had to guess, I’m probably just above eye level with Celestia herself. That’s kind of cool. I march into the direction I was looking at before, and sure enough, after a few minutes, I found an empty cave. I metaphorically pat myself on the back for my future self’s good work. I set the changeling down on a flattish part of the cave floor, and set my belongings, that being pretty much just the box, nearby. I sit myself down on the floor as well. Now quite some time has passed, nearly night, an I realized I wasn’t tired, or hungry, or thirsty, or anything really. Might be a part of the whole not aging thing. I had already copied the note, so no matter what I’m going to have to send it back without that information. I sigh again in boredom. But then I remember I can also fast forward time. I speed up time to be five times faster for just a few minutes, and already the changeling can be seen slowly awakening. I cut off my power, and wait for her to wake up fully. “Mnugh, what happened?” She mumbles. “You hit yourself on the head with a tree branch.” She shot up at my voice. “Whuh!? Where am I!?” Her head was looking around frantically. “Some cave I found.” I simply reply, hoping things don’t turn south here. Her eyes finally settle on me though, and her gaze toughens slightly. “Who are you?” She asks, her voice much more calm. “My name is Turner Youth, but you can just call me Ty for short.” I say, trying to sound as nice as possible. “What’s your name?” “Uhhuh, ‘Ty’-” I could hear those air quotes and the suspicion in her voice. “Why should I trust you?” “Well, you don’t have to trust me, in fact, you can leave whenever. I just brought you here because you were knocked out, and maybe I could make a friend.” I say calmly. “Why, why would you want to be friends with a changeling?” She asks me. Her voice was suspicious still, but her face was just oozing with confusion and curiosity. “Well, you see, I don’t have many friends. Actually, remove that M, I don’t have ANY friends. I’m kind of lonely. Also ponies are afraid of me, so I can’t make friends with them. Plus you look really cool.” I explain. She just stares at me for a few moments, before she sits back down and sighs. “I can’t sense any deception from you, so I’ll stay for now.” “Great!” I say. ... Now what? “Now what?” She asks. “I don’t actually know.” I pause. “Do you need anything? I kind of just found this random cave and I don’t really have much, but if you need something I could probably find a way to get it.” “Well, I am kind of hungry.” She says. “Wait, you eat love right?” I quickly ask, as if I wasn’t certain. “Yeah, but I doubt I’d find any love here.” “Do hugs work? I can give hugs if that works.” I say awkwardly. She just slowly nods, so I quickly open my arms and pull her in before she actually expects me to. Her eyes widen and I chuckle. “Oh my gosh, just how much love do you have?” She asks in surprise? “What do you mean? I’m not exactly a very loving person, I can actually be pretty rude without realizing it sometimes. Although with the way emotions work, I should have infinite love in me. That or it’s a side effect of my, uh, condition.” “Condition?” “Basically, I have some strange abilities. I’ll keep a few of them a secret for now, because that’s my ‘I win’ card, but I don’t age at all, and so far I haven’t had to sleep, eat, or drink anything.” “I’ve seen you disappear, can you turn invisible?” “It’s not invisibility, nor is it teleportation, but what it IS, is useful.” “Huh.” ... “You full yet?” I ask. “Changelings are never full.” She replies. “Uh, yeah, because you don’t have friends... Wait, is that rude? Are you changelings friends with each other?” “Yes, that’s a little rude, and no, we changeling aren’t exactly the friendliest with each other.” “Huh, that’s a little sad.” “...Maybe.” “But I guess we’re friends now!” “Pssh, no.” “We are literally hugging right now.” “Fine, we’re friends, but only on two conditions. One, you tell me how you got behind me, and two, you come with me to the hive.” I thought about it for a moment. “Deal.” “Okay, how did you do it.” “I froze time.” She went silent after that, and I had no idea what she was thinking. Was she scared? Did she even believe me? What happens now? “Show me.” Oh. “Well, I could try. Never even thought if I could share my power, but I guess I could try. I’m gonna fast forward time a bunch instead though.” “Okay, prove it.” “Look outside the cave.” I had already started speeding up time, and I was mentally telling myself to pull her along. I could tell it worked because her speech was normal. Looking outside, the grass was moving much faster, and it was already nearing a new day. Her jaw dropped and I chuckled as I shut down my power. “You weren’t lying.” “Alright, now show me the way to the hive.” “Y-yes, I’ll do that now.” She stuttered. “Awesome.” > Chapter 4: The Hive > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- We walked in total silence for a very long time. So long in fact, that I was bored. Not that making me bored is a difficult thing to do, but this was ridiculous. You want to know how long we've been walking? TWO HOURS. Two whole hours in complete silence. We've left the forest long ago, and I believed we were getting close. I decide to say something. "So wait, why am I coming to the hive again?" I ask. "Because you have a nearly infinite stream of love emitting from you. You know how useful that would be to the hive?" She replies after a moment "Not very much, because you could just try giving love instead." I say factually. "Ha! Giving love away? That would never happen! Why would that even help?" She asks. "Oh, you'd be surprised what the future holds for you changelings. You'd be surprised. Unless my being here interferes with the timeline. That would probably be bad." I say, more to myself at the end there. "So, are we nearly there?" I ask her. "Not even close." "W-What!? but it's been like two hours!" I shout. "Yep, and unless you have a way to get there faster, I suggest you don't ask again." She says threateningly. "Was that a threat?" "Maybe." A pause. "Actually, I might have an idea." I think after a moment. If I can control time, then maybe I could localize it? "Go for it." I grin. I lift her up off the ground in a quick scoop, and hug her close to my chest, her body actually facing away from me. Then I pump as much speed as I can into just my legs. "WOOOAHHHHOLY SHIT! THAT'S FASTER THAN I WANTED!" I shouted as I zoom past everything, our surroundings just a blur. Since I apparently don't get tired, physical exhaustion is nothing to me, meaning I could have kept running from Rainbow Dash without slowing time down more. But now, I'm fast as fuck, boy! The changeling in my arms was also screaming. "ARE WE GETTING CLOSER TO THE HIVE NOW!?" I shout at her over the noisy wind. She shuts her mouth as tightly as she can and nods frantically. "YOU KNOW, I NEVER ACTUALLY GOT YOUR NAME! WHAT IS IT!?" I yell. "ITS CLAIRE!" She shouts back. "THAT'S A SURPRISINGLY NORMAL NAME FOR SOMEONE, AND THAT'S COMING FROM AN ALIEN." "YOU'RE AN ALIEN!?" "BASICALLY!" "WAIT, STOP!" "I KNOW, ITS UNBELIEVABLE, BUT IT'S TRUE." "NO I MEAN STOP, WE'RE GONNA CRASH!" "OH SHIT!" Seeing the black wall up ahead, I do the only logical thing. Jump at it. "WAAAAAAAIT!" Claire shouts. I begin to steal time right before I hit it, and stop as soon as I think I've reached the other side. I also try to steal my own speed, and suddenly all momentum from me is completely halted, and as such, the ride ends. Claire was hyperventilating, but I felt fine. "Let me go! Put me down! I want off!" She cries, worming her way out of my grasp. "Sorry! I actually didn't mean to go that fast but I didn't want to slow down either!" I apologize. She looked like she was going to throw up. "I-I-I-I need to sit down for a little bit." She stutters, slowly placing herself on the floor. "Alright, sorry again." I say, leaning down to rub her back. "J-Jerk." "Hey, I didn't do it on purpose, and I apologized, and it's over now, and we can take a moment to calm down after that whole situation. Just, take it easy, okay?" I try to calm her further, but I can't really tell if it's working. "What is the meaning of this!?" A familiar voice calls out. I turn to the voice and find Chrysalis herself siting on her throne. Wait, wasn't the throne closer to the top of the hive? Did I really jump that high when I jumped at the wall? Holy shit! Wait, right, Chrysalis. "Uhhhhhhhhhhh." Is the first thing that comes out of my mouth, for a solid five seconds, and it doesn't really seem like Chrysalis is pleased with that at all. In fact, she looks absolutely livid. Oh, wait! An Idea! I begin to rewind time a few seconds and think of something to say. "?!siht fo gninaem eht si tahW" The reversed words poured out of her mouth, before I stop rewinding. "What is the meaning of this!?" She shouts once more. "Apologies, I do believe I've frightened this one with a high speed lift. My name is Turner Youth, I was requested to come by this changeling here. She believes I could be... beneficial to the hive." I explain in a quick but calmly manner. This time, Chrysalis just frowns softly at me, before turning her head to Claire. "Is this true, Claire?" "Y-yes, my queen, I also apologize, I was caught by surprise when he picked me up and started running at mach two. I would have had him stop outside, but instead he jumped really high and... through the wall?" She turns her head to the wall, completely confused. I realize I was still rubbing her back, so I stop and stand up to full height. Despite how Chrysalis was in the future when it came to taking over Equestria and all that, both times could possibly be explained by it being a desperate act. The second time when she Ironically denied change, it could have been just that she was scared, and then pissed for losing everything. Then she went crazy after that. For all I know, she could actually be a nice-ish ruler scared of changing how she does things, and slowly going mad, she did what she did. Season 9 might of shown something, but I got sucked here instead of seeing the premiere. I decide to stand straight instead of casually, Chrysalis is technically royalty after all. "So, did she say why you could be useful to the hive?" Chrysalis asks me. "Yes, she explained that I seem to have a nearly limitless supply of love emitting from my being." "Really now?" She eyed me in interest. "Yes." Claire replies for me. "Now this I want to see." She gets up from her throne and walks her way towards me, not a smile nor a frown adorned her face, probably because she's a changeling and they should be good at hiding their real emotions. She stops some distance away, and opens her mouth. A very large amount of pink mist begins to flow out of me, and I begin to feel... well, not any different. I could tell it was a metric fuck ton though when Chrysalis' eyes widened. She absorbed some of the mist, and the rest flew back into my body. "W-well, I believe that settles that, I'll allow you to continue to visit the hive." "Just visit? I was hoping for a place to stay, I don't really have anywhere to go after all. I suddenly arrived in this world about yesterday." I admit. "Really n- wait, you mean you're an alien?" She asked, her blank face dropping for just a moment. "Yes, and now I have no home to go to." Chrysalis seemed to think about it for a moment, before sighing. "Sorry, but physical food is very scarce here, we wouldn't be able to feed you." "I don't need to eat. I possibly could, but it's not a requirement for me." "Hmm, what about water?" "Not a requirement either, nor do I feel physical exhaustion." "What would you gain from being here? You don't require food or water, and if you can really run as swiftly as Claire described, you should have no trouble finding a place to stay." "I would gain company, and a bed to rest in." I swiftly reply, before quickly stumbling to correct myself. "Not- not both at the same time, of course! Just, I mean, um?" And she actually laughed at that, like an actual, full blown, non evil laugh. We both quickly composed ourselves, and she cleared her throat. "Well, why would you need a bed, if you have no feel of exhaustion?" She asked. "I don't feel physically or mentally tired, but I do believe I still feel mental exhaustion, and that could be a whole 'nother head ache if I don't find a remedy for it." I simply reply. "Was that a pun?" "Yes." "...You can stay." Mission one: complete! > Chapter 5: The Adjustment And The Visit > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It's been about a week since the hive welcomed me, and not much has actually happened. I made a few friends with some of changelings, but most of them are still wary of me. One of them even said that my infinite love was too good to be true. Didn't stop them from getting a taste though. Claire has been trying to teach me the difference between everyone so I don't mess up any of their names, but it's been very difficult, so I've been practicing telling who's who by voice only. Well, I've been trying to do that, and I really have been getting better, but if I get it wrong, I actually just rewind and try again till I get it right. Probably not the best way to do things, but it works, and my small group of friends actually seem to enjoy my company, so that's great! It seems that changeling naming structure is completely random. The names we've seen in the show, Chrysalis, Thorax, Pharynx and Ocellus, are all, like, parts of the body or something? But some changelings have completely normal human names, and some even have pony names! I don't know why, but they ARE shape shifters, so maybe I shouldn't question it. Hell, there's a changeling here named Jolliest Banjo! I call him JoJo. If you're asking yourself a certain question, the answer is absolutely. Anyways, I told Claire not to tell anyone about my abilities, and she actually kind of just nodded. I was honestly expecting her to argue with me about how the hive members don't keep secrets from each other or some other made up scenario, but nope, just a nod. I've been practicing my other powers in secret, and I've found out I can localize my powers into different areas Quantum Break style. I can freeze time either completely, or just in a bubble. I can even control the size! I also found out I can basically teleport. Like, actually not freeze time and just walk there. I call it fast travel. Apparently, Magical teleporting is like removing distance between to points, but the way I do it is a kind of backwards process. Instead of removing the distance, I use my stealing ability to steal the time it takes to travel that distance. It has to be somewhere I can actually reach though, I can't just fast travel to an inaccessible area. I started to mess with some of my friends using this, just getting to places impossibly quickly, and when they ask I just say I "found a shortcut." They don't think I'm teleporting, because Chrysalis' throne blocks all non changeling magic. I wonder why my powers still work here? Do my abilities not count as magic? Just in case, I should still stay away from Tirek. Lastly, since I now know how to fast travel, I decided its about time to visit one Starlight Glimmer. I haven't left yet though, I gotta let Chrysalis know I'm leaving for a bit. Chrysalis is actually kind of nice when you get to know her a bit. A little rough around the edges but overall, I think most of everything that happened to her was stress induced madness. Now though, with an infinite supply of love in her hive, she seems very relaxed. Leaving my room, I fast travel to near the throne and freeze time simultaneously, just to make sure no one is looking at where I warped too. Nodding to myself, I unfreeze time and make myself known. "Hello Chrysalis." She quietly jolted slightly, but was able to mostly keep her composure. "Hello Turner, what do you need?" She asks politely. "I just wanted to let you know I'll be heading out of the hive for a bit, maybe a day at most. I'm going to try to make some friends outside the hive today." "Oh, well, if you're going to leave, make sure you let your friend know, and promise to come back safely." Did I mention Chrysalis could totally win an award for totally being a mom? She cares a lot, but she's also very stern. "I promise to come back safely, Chrysalis." I decide to actually walk this time, to Claire's room, obviously. Shes my first friend in this world, after all. "Hey, Claire? I'm heading out of the hive for a bit, Chrysalis wanted me to let you know." I say as I lean through the... hole thingy that I'm just gonna call a door. "Alright, that's fine." She says. "Great, be back tomorrow, maybe earlier." "Okay, bye." "Bye!" And like that, I fast traveled to Our Town. Already there's some differences from the show. Most notably, the smaller number of houses, as in, the town is still being built. That's neat I guess. There's only four complete houses, and the rest aren't done yet. Wait. Did Starlight BUILD the town? I thought she just kind of took over with her magic or something. Weird. Anyways, I look around, making sure to freeze time first, and notice that the only pony outside is Starlight Glimmer herself. I unfreeze time some distance behind, and just wait for her to notice me as she builds a house. Quite efficiently, might I add. Magic sure is something. She seems very focused, so I decide to call out. "Hello?" "Eep!" A startled Starlight cries, spinning towards me. "Wh-who are you!?" She stands her ground. "I'm Turner Youth, but I prefer to be called Ty." I reply with a smile. She groans. "I don't have time for this right now." She says, lowering and lighting her horn. A large beam shoots out, and she just looks away without seeing if she even hit me. I freeze time and walk beside her, just outside of her vision, then unfreeze. "Look's like you're trying to build a town, would you like some assistance with that?" I say, her head suddenly whirling in my direction. Then she looks back to where I was standing before, seeing a large hole in the ground from her beam. "Oh boy, here we go. Listen, I don't have time to entertain a... whatever the heck you are." She glares. I just ignore her and decide to keep talking, as if she never even said that. I look over and see some wood in a pile. A small amount I note. "You seem to be running low on wood, I could get some more for ya." I say. She opens her mouth, but then pauses for a moment. After another moment of thought, she speaks. "Fine, go get some wood, the nearest forest is that way, maybe that'll get you to leave." She says, pointing. "Alrighty then!" I say, before using the super speed running trick I've used before. My surroundings suddenly a blur, I arrive in a forest not a moment later. Then I realize I don't have a tool to use, and I run back. "Hey, I don't have an ax or anything to cut down the trees, would you happen to have one?" I ask her, completely blowing her mind as she just watched me nearly break the sound barrier. "Uh, ah, uh, in that house over there." She says wide eyed. "Great!" I casually stroll over to the house she pointed to, and walk right inside. Seeing a poorly organized pile of tools on the ground, I decide to slow down time and at least make it look nice, using the hammer to put nails in the wall and hang up the tools. I take the ax, and walk back outside. "Okay, time to cut some trees!" I say as I walk outside. I rush back over to the forest in a blur again, this time I stop right before a tree, and push my speed up abilities into my arms. I slice straight through the tree in one blurred swing. "Holy shit!" I shout, not knowing I could do that. I knock the tree over, and slow time to make it lighter, while also speeding up my legs again to bring it back to Starlight. I do so, this time taking a little bit longer from my perspective, and slam down the entire tree behind Starlight, making a loud noise and thus startling her again, in less than a minute. "Ah! Who's there- what? wait, how did you get the tree so fast!? Better yet, how did you even lift it!?" She yells. "I picked it up and ran." I know I was being cheeky but I just had to do it. The situation called for it after all. "W-what are you?" "What, never heard of a human before?" I rhetorically ask. "Uhhhhhh." "I'm joking, of course." "R-right, well, you can go now, and I'll just keep building. Haha." It was obvious she was scared of me now, so I decided it was time to go somewhere else. "Alright, uh, I'm gonna go somewhere else then, you're acting weird." I say, running off til I was out of sight. As soon as I was, I fast traveled to my next location and froze time. So this is Canterlot, huh? > Chapter 6: The Day Princess Gets Pranked > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Canterlot is beautiful. That's really all I can say about it. I know I've seen it before through a screen, but that really doesn't do it much justice. It's not the most fantastical amazing thing ever, but it's IS very beautiful. It's like VR, nearly every youtuber on the internet always freaks the fuck out when using the HTC Vive, but once you get one of your own, it's not as good as it seemed. Yeah, it's still super fucking awesome, and much better than normal gaming, but not quite to expectation either. Anyways, with time frozen, I immediately march my way to the castle. All the time stealing I've been doing with my fast travel trick has upped the time limits a bit. Not too much, but quite a bit. I can completely freeze time for a while now, nearly half an hour, and it recharges quickly. I can hold time frozen in a bubble for almost a full hour, but it takes a bit more focus to keep my time energy condensed in one spot like that. I wonder if I can get those Quantum Break visions where I can gaze into past events? That's something to look into. Thud. "Gah! Fucking, OW! The hell are these doors made of?" I ask, having just bumped into the castle doors. I decide to try stealing an event that's already happened, something I haven't done yet. Instantly, I was on the other side of the door, the pain having numbed and faded away. I must of stolen the collision instead of the pain of that collision. Neat. I snatch a map from a nearby guard, because for some reason they all have maps. Do they get lost in the castle too? I thought that only happened to the main character in the fanfics. The whole this castle is a maze thing happens way too often in those stories, but I guess it makes sense. If this guard here actually needs this map, then tough luck buddy, it's mine now. Following the map, I head straight to the throne room, to see if I can mess with Celestia. Probably not the best idea, but I can always rewind time. That time limit has increased too actually! I can rewind back about fifteen minutes. That's a lot of time. Entering the throne room, I take a moment to look at the windows. Nothing we haven't all seen before, but it looks pretty with the light coming through. Too bad the world is currently in black and white. Maybe that's dampening the beauty of this city. I think of a prank for Celestia as I pace around the throne room, before getting a simple idea. I walk around the throne and hide behind it, unfreezing time. "Hello, Princess Celery!" I smoothly say, putting on my best Discord impression. "Who's there!?" She asks, getting up and walking around to look behind her throne. I warp to behind a random pillar. "My my, it seems I've been forgotten, huh? That's quite rude of you, especially after all that fun you've had! You know, putting me in stone and all that. But alas, it's my turn to have fun once again." I freeze time to check her expression, and see her eyes widening in realization, with the nearby guards I didn't even notice also searching the room for me. Walking behind another pillar, I unfreeze time. "Show yourself, Discord!" She demands. "Oh, but why would I do that? Could it be you want to see my beautiful face once again?" My Discord impression seemed to be working, despite it not being all that great. Maybe she realizes I'm not really Discord and is tricking me into thinking that I'm tricking her, so I get an idea. "And I must say, this new vessel is quite a nice one! A unique body for the lord of chaos, how fitting, but its not mishmashy enough for my taste." "Discord, what did you do!?" She yelled, the guards still trying to find me. I decide it was time to reveal myself, so I froze time once again, stole all the guards weapons, and lounged myself onto the throne. When I unfroze time, I was already looking at a spear with boredom. "This spear looks so bland, not even a simple design on it! I would like to speak with whoever designed these, I have some choice words for them." I say, ignoring her question. "Discord." She turned around, seeing my new form. I'm gonna see how long I can keep this going. "Bah, never mind! I think I'll just get rid of it." I ignore her again, and I bite down on the part connecting the wood to the tip of the spear. Freezing time again, I quickly break off the piece and store it in my back pocket. I get back into position and unfreeze time once more. The guards all look completely confused, and Celestia looks... oh shit, she looks angry. I fake an innocent smile to mask the intimidation I'm feeling. "Discord, you cannot rule Equestria again, I will stop you from spreading your chaos." "You and what army?" Celestia turns around to see all of her guards gone. What I did is I froze time and placed them in the hedge maze. When she looked back, I was also wearing her crown and necklace thingy, spinning one of her fancy shoes on my finger like a basketball. I was really getting into this. "Discord!" "Would you NOT tire out my name, please? Even I'm getting tired of it, maybe a new one is in not order, new body new name after all." I blink. "Oooh I think I like Disorder, that sounds like the opposite of what you want after all." Celestia frowned. This frown though, looked more sad than angry. Now I just feel bad. I think I've had enough fun anyways. "Hey, don't frown too much, your face'll freeze that way." I say in my natural voice. Celestia turned to me in surprise. "Yeah, not actually Discord, Just decided to play a small... well, large prank actually but never mind that. Was that a good impression though?" I ask. I like to do impressions, but it would be nice to get some honest feedback for one. "You're not Discord?" She asked. "Nope." "But you have chaos magic?" "Bleh, no, chaos magic sounds gross." I joke. She just looks at me quizzically. "Well, since I'm done here, you can have your crown back, and all the guards that were in here are in the hedge maze now." I inform her, tossing the crown back to her. SMASH! "Oh." I frown at the floor. Maybe I shouldn't have tossed that. Celestia glares at me. "UhIcanfixit!" I quickly shout, and try to isolate my time rewinding powers on the now shattered crown. It forms back together and slides through the air, back into my hand. "See? Good as new!" I jazz my hands with a nervous smile, still holding the crown. Celestia levitates it out of my hand to look at it, and turns back to me. "How did you do that?" She asks sternly. "Maaaaaaagiiiiiiiiiiiic." ... "I have time powers." I give in at her unamused gaze. As I said that though, a certain six ponies barge into the room. You can probably guess who they all are. "Stop right there, Discord!" Twilight shouts, all of them wearing their elements. "I turns out it wasn't Discord, Twilight." Celestia tiredly sighed. "What?" Twilight asked. "Wait, did you send them a letter when I wasn't looking?" I ask, confused at how they knew. "Yes, I did." Celestia says. "Huh, nice, now I can get back at the pink one for biting me." I freeze time, walk up to Pinkie Pie, and bite her arm, before walking behind them all, in the open doorway. I unfreeze time again, and chuckle at the quiet ow. "Well, this has been fun, but I gotta get going, so bye!" I say, simply rewinding the entire prank and everything that happened. I freeze time at the end... wait, maybe it's beginning? Back to before I even entered the throne room. I freeze time at that point, and after a few moments of thought, I decide to leave Celestia wither memories. I don't know if that will work, but I try to steal the event of me rewinding time, but isolate that in her mind. Then I warped home. Celestia was confused. No time had passed from a moment ago, but she suddenly remembered something strange, something that didn't happen, yet it did? A strange being pretended to be Discord, smashed and un-smashed her crown, then it told her it has time powers, and... what did it do? She was back where she was before? Did it send everypony back? She decided to check. Lifting a scroll, she sent a quick message to her student Twilight, asking if she remembers anything regarding a strange bipedal creature with clothing and strange abilities. She got a response quite quickly, as expected from her student. "There was an incident about a week ago, when a creature like the one you described tried to walk into Ponyville. Me and the girls tried to capture it, but it somehow avoided Applejack's lasso without even moving, and then it outran Rainbow Dash. Spike, make sure you put emphasis on outran. Spike, cross that out. It ran into the Everfree forest after that, and we haven't seen it since. Do we need to go find it? Was there an incident at the castle? Your now worried student, Twilight Sparkle." Celestia sat for a moment, simply thinking. So the creature decided to only leave her with memories of what happened. Why? Maybe she was immune to it's abilities? She doubted it. Maybe the creature isn't all bad, and wanted her to remember the interaction? She doubted that too. All she knows is she remembers, and that she has to make a choice now. Levitating another scroll, she wrote her next message. "No my student, there wasn't an incident, I was simply curious is all. I only now heard about this being when I overheard a pony from Ponyville earlier today, and decided to ask you if you've seen it. You don't need to find it though. Your teacher, Celestia." She chose to trust it. > Chapter 7: The Other Princess Gets Pranked (No Not That One) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Realizing that I still had a full day before I had to come back, I warped back out of the hive and took some time to think of what to do next. I could just fast forward time and wait for something to happen, but that would be boring. Trust me, you don't know boredom until you don't sleep for a week. I know I don't have a need for sleep, but I think I can still sleep if I wanted to. I kept myself from doing that though because of a certain dream princess. Not that I have anything against Luna! I'm just worried I would be vulnerable in my sleep. And what if I dream of future events? Luna could find out what's going to happen! I cant exactly have that happening, now can I? Unless I get lucid dreams, I don't want Luna in my head. After all this thought, I decide to prank Luna... later. She's probably asleep or something right now. But who else could I prank? ... Cadence. I warp to her, and see her walking up a spiral staircase. I have no idea where we are, but the set up is too perfect. Cadence was just on her way to visit Celestia after receiving a pretty vague letter from her. Usually, Celestia is more specific when she sends letters to her, but all it said was that she was requested to be at the castle, and preferably sooner than later. That was the short of it at least, the letter was actually longer than that. Speaking of longer, this staircase just seemed to keep going! She was already annoyed walking up it. She leaned inward to the staircase railing, and saw the top was pretty far up, far enough that she couldn't tell how close she was. She looked back, and- Wait, I'm at the bottom? She asked herself in her mind, completely befuddled. Maybe I zoned out? She started walking again, looking up the staircase, deciding to put what just happened under mystery in her mind. She walked, and walked, and walked, and looked back down. She hasn't progressed at all. What is going on here? She thought, more annoyed than before. She began to walk faster. Once again, once she thought she made decent distance, she looked back down and again, no distance was made. She felt like she was going mad already. That creepy looping song in the distance definitely wasn't helping. She started to walk up faster, and faster, until she was almost running. She counted her steps carefully as she did so. She turned around. "That's it! No more games!" She lit her horn, preparing to teleport. She wasn't the most experienced at it, but she decided she needed the practice. In a flash, she was at the top, looking near the edge to the bottom. "Yes!" She said, victorious. She turned around and started walking up the other staircase-Wait a minute. This was a singular tower, it didn't have two staircases. She forced herself to turn around. She was at the bottom. "Why!?" She cried in annoyance. Her mane was frazzled, and she was nearly out of breath from running. "Because it's funny, now if you'll excuse me, I have somewhere to be now." An unfamiliar voice said, just outside of her vision. She turned around, but she was at the top of the stairs. That was hilarious, I had to stop myself from laughing the whole time! Well, the whole time time was moving anyways. I also got a little bit curious and found a letter in her bags. Celestia wanted Cadence to visit her for a vague reason. Now I was definitely intrigued. It might even be about me! I decided to stealthily follow Cadence, see what this was about. Cadence walked through the door at the top of the staircase, and closed it behind her. I walked up to the door and kept walking, using the same trick I've used before to basically phase through, before I froze time again and made sure she wasn't looking at the door when I did that. She wasn't. It seemed like I was in a sort of meeting room, at the top of the tower we were in. Celestia and a very tired Luna were sitting side by side at a small-ish table, waiting for Cadence to sit down opposite of them. Luckily, the didn't seem to see me enter either, my body was obscured by Cadence's body, and I had already frozen time before I moved. Hiding behind a nearby plant, behind Celestia and Luna, I unfroze time and waited. "Did you have any trouble getting here? I was so sure you were going to be here a minute earlier." Celestia asked, sliding Luna two bits with this sort of look on her face that looked like a disguised I'll be getting those back real soon. "I would have been, if somepony didn't prank me with the staircase." She stated, almost making me reveal myself with a laugh. Good thing I can freeze time, huh? "Oh? What did they do?" Celestia asked with a new look in her eye. "Somehow, they kept putting me at the bottom of the stairs. I even teleported to the top, turned around, and I was back at the bottom again. There wasn't any teleportation flash from the staircase, so I have no idea how they did it." "Did you catch who it was?" Luna asked in interest, before yawning. "Nope, just their voice. When I tried to turn around, I was at the top of the stairs." "Well, I do believe I might know who it is." Celestia commented. Oh please don't do the thing where you go in fact, he's right here. I'm begging you! "Earlier today, I was pranked as well." Celestia continued. "He fooled me by pretending he was Discord in a new body, and even had a few tricks to pull off the strangeness. Putting all my guards in the throne room into the hedge maze, having his voice come from different places when he spoke, and even eating a spear!" "Why were we not told of this, sister?" Luna asked. "If the guards were really misplaced, then why are we just hearing this now?" "Because he put everything back." "That doesn't mean he's out of the clear, the guards must have been so confused, going to the hedge maze and back." "I said he put everything back." Celestia added, confusing both Luna and Cadence. "I didn't catch his name, but he is not a pony. He's something I've never even seen before. His face is very flat, he's bipedal and he was wearing clothes. I just called this meeting to let you know to keep and eye out for him." "Yeah, keep an eye out for the one that's not naked all the time." I said with a grin, casually walking out of my hiding spot and startling everyone. "You all have fur, which must be very hot all the time." I added. "Oh, you're here!" Celestia said after quickly composing herself. "Yep, and also, speaking of hot, you look nice Luna." I say, adding a little wink at the end towards her. "We do not understand what temperature has do with appearance, but thank you for the compliment?" Luna said, electing a chuckle from both me and Celestia. Cadence just looked at me like I was an alien though. Oh, wait. "I happened to overhear, or read actually, that this meeting was happening and I got curious, thinking it was about me. I know that sounds narcissistic, but I was actually narcissistic and right! So it all worked out." I say, trying to get another laugh. Luna actually chuckled this time, but the Cadence was still staring and Celestia just went ahem. "So, since you're here, we have some questions." Celestia says. "Sure, I'm up for a Q&A, nothing too personal though please." I was amazed that they weren't all overreacting at my appearance. "Alright, so what's your first question?" I asked. > Chapter 8: The Questioning > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "So, what are you?" Cadence asked, tilting her head in a child-like fashion. "Human." I answer as nonchalantly as possible. "And most might find it quite rude to be asked what they are, before who they are. Luckily, I'm not most." "What is your name?" Celestia asked next. I'm just gonna be completely honest with them, my name, my abilities, all of it. I'm here to make friends, not make lies. "Turner Youth, but I prefer to be called Ty." I say with a smile. "What are your weaknesses?" Luna asked, gaining herself a look from Celestia. I actually had to think about this one. "I don't know, anything that can catch me off guard? Like a poisoned cupcake, or hitting me in the back of the head with a large wooden plank. Anything that could knock me out in one hit. I can't really use my powers if I'm out like a light. Although if you DO poison me and I find out before I pass out, I could probably undo it." I shrug. "That's really all I can think of." Luna looked at me very intensely for a few moments, before backing off and nodding. "He's being honest." She said. Must have been a test or something. "I've never seen your kind before, what region of Equus are you from?" Cadence asked, and now I gotta tell them I'm an alien. Let's get this over with. "None, I'm not from this planet, or even universe! Next." I say, trying to keep the normal questions going. "What?" They all simultaneously ask. I groan. "I'm an alien, and I don't feel like staying on that one subject, can we move this along?" "An alien? If you're an alien, how did you get here?" Celestia asked next. "No idea, I just woke up in the Everfree forest with nothing but the clothes on my back and small box of stuff from my future self." I state. "Future self?" Luna asked. At this point it's just going in a circle. "Yeah, I have time powers." "What can you do with them?" Cadence spoke. "I can rewind time, go back or forward in time, freeze time, slow time, fast forward time, steal time and events, place stolen events, and use my own brand of close-enough-to-teleportation." I list off. "What does teleportation have to do with time? Would that be more space than time?" Celestia asks. "Actually, I read somewhere that you guys teleport by basically removing distance. I do it by stealing the time it takes to travel that distance. It has to be somewhere I can reach though. Also, time and space are linked, why do you think its called a time-space continuum?" "Hmmm, what is the difference between rewinding time and going back in time?" Luna asks. "Travelling back in time allows you to instantly go to a past event and even interact with your past self, while rewinding time just makes everything go backwards." I explain. "Can you show us, like, proof of your powers?" Cadence asked. I was already behind her, but I was also still standing where I was. My other self grinned. "Omae wa Mou Shindeiru." "What!?" They all turned and saw him. I pieced together how he was here, then used my time travel ability to go back to the past, and I warped behind Cadence simultaneously. I was already behind her, but I was also still standing where I was. I grinned. "Omae wa Mou Shindeiru." "What!?" They all turned and saw me. My other self pieced together how I was here, then used his time travel ability to go back to the past, and he warped behind Cadence simultaneously. I laughed. "Man, time travel sure is great!" I said. They all relaxed a bit, still a bit shaken at the surprise. "What did you say?" Celestia asked. "It translates to you are already dead." I said. "It's just a reference though, so don't worry." They sighed. "So, any more questions?" "Yes, in your universe, do you have any advanced future magic?" Luna asks. "My universe doesn't have magic, at least, not that anyone knows of, anyway." "Wh-Then who moves the sun and moon?" Cadence asked. "A little thing called Gravity. The laws of physics work differently there, so does the solar system. The sun stays in the middle, Earth, my home planet, orbits around it, and the moon around Earth. The sun is a giant ball of gas that's really really really far away, and also counts as a star." I explain. Luna just looks at Celestia. "Anything else?" "We've run out of questions." Luna said. Cadence just frowned and nodded, while Celestia looked like she had one more, but didn't say anything and nodded as well. "Good, because I have a question of my own." They sat and waited. "Can I be royalty?" I ask. They all just raised their eyebrows. "I mean, Celestia, you rule the day, Luna rules the night, Cadence is the princess of love, Twilight Spar- wait, no that hasn't happened yet." I subtly add on purpose, and Cadence eyes widened. "Anyways, can I just be the ruler of time? A timelord, if you will, even though I don't watch that show." "No." Celestia and Luna said together. "But-But Discord gets to be the lord of chaos! Why cant I be the lord of time?" "Because we said so." Celestia added. "...What if I said please?" "No." "Fine." I say. "Now is that finally the end of these questions?" "Twilight becomes a princess!?" Cadence shouts, Celestia and Luna finally noticing I added that bit in her presence. "Yep! Princess of Friendship! She even gets a giant crystal castle from the Tree of Harmony, and opens a school! But don't tell anyone I said that." Celestia looks like she's about to let out some tears of joy, while Luna just hmmms in thought. "Well, I think I'm gonna go now." I say, walking to the door with my hands in my pockets. "Wait, how do we contact you if we need your help?" Luna asks. "Trust me, you wont." "But-" Warp to random location. That wasn't even that many questions, but it felt like it took forever. Landing myself in the Everfree forest once more, buy complete accident, I hear a cry. Not one of fear or pain, but an angry war cry. Suddenly, a bunch of timberwolves jump out of the bushes, running past me and whimpering. I turn to the direction of the voice. "And stay back, birches!" A familiar voice calls, walking out of the bushes. No way. No fucking way in hell. "Wait, Turner?" "...Daniel?" > Chapter 9: The Old Friend > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Turner!" He said, running towards me. "Daniel!" I shout as well, pulling him into the tightest hug I could muster. "It's great to see you!" "Great to see you too!" I say, releasing him from my grip. "How have you been!? I missed you dude!" "I've been good! How about you!?" "I'm great!" "Why are we yelling!?" "I don't know!" We both laughed. So much so I almost fell over. This, was my good friend Daniel Lake. Best friend actually, we've been pals for seven years in fact! For a guy like me, that's a good thing, as I didn't have many other friends at first. I've been really outgoing since I arrived in Equestria, but that might be because I'm more confident as I have my powers. Before that, I was actually kind of shy. Well, not shy shy, but I wasn't going out of my way to make friends either. I mostly stayed indoors and played video games, but when I met Daniel, I became a bit more active. I'm surprised I lasted as long as I did here in Equestria without him. I didn't really realize how much I missed him until now. I was nearly crying. Oh wait, I am crying. "Woah, dude, you alright?" He pulled me into the hug this time. "Yeah, s-sorry, I just, it's great to see you." "Yeah, you too, buddy." He said reassuringly, with that slight pitch in his voice, the one that meant he might start crying soon too. We sat there for a moment, before we heard someone in the distance calling my name. I heard someone come out of the bushes behind me. "AaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Daniel started screaming in panic, backing up into a tree. "Woah! Hey, calm down Daniel, calm down!" I try to calm him, but he just points behind him and continues yelling. I look to where he's pointing, and sigh a breath of relief. "Daniel, calm down. Okay?" I try again, this time working a little bit as his mouth suddenly shuts and he nods frantically. I pause for a moment and wait for him to stop shaking. "You calm?" I ask. He nodded, a little slower this time. "Okay, I believe introductions are in order. Daniel, this is my changeling friend Claire. Claire, this is my best friend Daniel." I say, turning to Claire. "Hi." Claire says simply, just standing by. "H-hello, C-Claire." He says, nodding once more before turning back to me. "Wait, if there's changelings here, how do I know if you're really you?" He says, more aggressive now. "Remember when we were playing modded Smash Bros Brawl, and I whooped your ass with Pepsi-Man?" I grin. "Hey! That just confirmed that Pepsi-Man is OP, I beat you every time until you brought him out." He shouted, visibly relaxing, but talking louder. "Paper Mario and Phantom Ganon would call you out on that." I say. He could only grumble at this point. I turned to Claire. "So why were you calling my name, did you need something?" I ask. "Chrysalis told me to keep an eye on you, but you're hard to keep track of. Fortunately, someling gave me a note saying you'd be here. No idea who wrote it or how they knew you were going to be here, but I decided to check here anyways." Claire explained, giving me the note. I checked it, and guess what? It was my hand writing. I sigh. "Thanks, Claire. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some catching up to do with Daniel." I say, turning to him. He just mouths Chrysalis with a confused look. I grin again. "And you have LOTS of catching up to do." I say, throwing my arm over his shoulder and around his neck. "Lets walk while we talk." We all started walking forward, not in any specific direction. "So, If you haven't already figured it out from the timberwolves or Claire, we're in Equestria." I told him. "Yeah, the timberwolves were kind of a dead giveaway." He said. "I've also made friends with the changelings. Well, most of them anyways. I have an infinite supply of love for some reason, so they've been letting me stay. Don't know if it's a human thing or a super power thing." "I noticed the changelings don't look, well, you know, changed?" He said quietly, quickly glancing towards Claire. "Yeah, we're somewhere in the past, I'm pretty sure we're sometime before the season one finale." I whisper back. "Got it." He nodded. "Wait, what do you mean super power thing?" He said after a moment. "I got super powers when I appeared here in this forest. I wonder if you got any?" I say, mostly to myself. He steps away for a moment. "Wait, I might have super powers?" He asks, slightly worriedly, but also excitedly. "Yeah, go ahead, try something." He turns toward a large rock, and holds his hand out. "Use the force, Lake." He says jokingly, moving his hand up a bit. The rock moves up off the ground, and sits there. "Oh, well shit then." His says with wide eyes, mine are wide as well. What kind of powers does he have? I can't do that, but he can? I need to make a list of what he can do, and figure out why his powers are different than mine. "Well, I can't do that." I say, whistling. "Wait, how are you so calm!?" He asks, completely freaked out. "Dude, I've been here in Equestria for a week with my own powers to deal with." "Ah, that makes sense." He says, calmed a bit more. "Anyways, keep trying to do different things with your powers, your abilities have already shown to be different than mine, and I'm curious to what you can do." "Okay then, what are your powers?" He asks, finally dropping the rock. "ZA WARUDO!" I shout, throwing my arms out and letting it sink in for a brief moment before I actually freeze time. I then walk some distance behind him and unfreeze time again. I fake an evil laugh. He jumps and turns around, before he puts on his most serious expression. "Dio." He calls intimidatingly "Jotaro." I say, even trying to do the voice. A brief, menacing pause falls before us. We started laughing. "I don't get it." Claire finally spoke, causing both of us to lose our composure more and start laughing louder. > Chapter 10: The Hive Again > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- After I explained to Daniel I could do more than just freeze time, he kind of just stared at me for a moment before getting really excited. That was a while ago but he seems to have stopped saying so awesome over and over again, so he's probably calmed down now. He started to experiment with his own powers as well. We haven't found anything past levitation yet, but Daniel is still very excited about it. He even lifted up an entire tree without too much effort. We found out he couldn't freeze time like I could, nor could he rewind it or fast forward it. It seems time is just my thing. "Hey Daniel, wanna see the hive?" I ask him, trying my best to hide my grin. "Uh, sure!" He responds. "How long will it take?" "Come with me, I know a shortcut." I say with a wink, finally letting the grin out. His eyes lit up. "There aren't any shortcuts to the hive." Claire said, frowning. "Then how did we get here so fast?" "What?" We were already standing at the entrance to the hive, surrounded by its walls. "Come on Daniel, let's go meet Chrysalis." "Alright." Claire just kind of walked away from us. Kind of quickly too. Wonder what that's about? I'll ask her about it later. Some of the nearby changelings that saw us skittered off somewhere, probably to tell Chrysalis about Daniel. I was gonna get there first though. "Can I do that!?" Daniel said excitedly. "Can I!? can I!? can I!?" "Hmm, maybe? The way I do it is stealing the time it takes to travel wherever I'm going. Maybe you can try that?" He furrows his eyebrows, as if in a very deep focus, and then took a single step. That's all that happened. "Damn it." He sighed. "Well, maybe you can levitate yourself for transportation instead?" I suggest, seriously curious if he could fly. "Maybe." He said, focusing his power once again. "Woah. I feel lighter, this might be working!" He continues. Slowly his feet lifted off the ground. A grin spread across his face. "Awesome!" He shouted, quickly getting control and floating in a circle around me. "I can fly!" "That's great, Daniel!" I say. "But we should probably head to Chrysalis now." I say, taking a hold of his wrist and fast traveling to the throne room. Already, I could tell Chrysalis had questions, and Daniel placed himself on the ground. "Hi Chrysalis." "Hello, Turner." She said softly, before turning to Daniel. "And who might you be?" "I'm Daniel Lake, Turner's friend." He said. "Hello Daniel, welcome to the hive. I'm assuming you don't have a place to stay either?" Chrysalis guessed. "Not really, no. I just arrived here like two hours ago." He replied "He can stay with me, right?" I asked. "Of course." "Thank you." Daniel and I said in sync. I turned to him and smiled. He smiled back. "Alright, lets go!" I say, pulling my friend to the side. As soon as I was out of sight from Chrysalis, I warped to my room. "Okay Daniel. Lets experiment with your powers." I say as I turn towards him. He grins again. We've made quite a bit of progress. Daniel can levitate multiple objects in many ways with nothing but a thought, and he can levitate himself with the ease of Discord, as we found when he wiggled his way through the air like a snake. Once he did that, he tried to create a glass of chocolate milk by snapping, hoping he had chaos magic. It didn't work. We tried to think of other powers he could possibly use, so we could test them, but nothing came to mind. In the end, he just got some practice with his levitation. "Turner?" He asked, snapping me out of my thoughts. "Yeah- woah." I froze. There was a hole in the wall, not like the ones that the changelings use as doors. It was weird looking, completely round, and on the other side was... the other side of the room? I could see myself through it. I turned around and saw another hole, showing the other side. They were portals. Portals? How can he do that? What kind of powers is levitation and portals? It doesn't make any sense! But then it clicked. "Dude." I said. "Yeah?" "You're space." "What?" "I'm time, and you're space!" I laughed, seeing his eyes light up in realization. Then he laughed too. This is gonna be fun. Claire was sitting in her room alone. Simply thinking. Thinking about the wild week she had with one of the strangest beings she's ever met. And now there was two of them. She groaned, pushing back a few thoughts before they could surface. She thought about something else. Turner's powers. She was kind of intimidated by his abilities. To be able to just toy with time itself on a whim. She wondered what she would do with those kinds of powers. Probably not making friends and playing pranks like Turner does. If she had that power, she would probably be trying to rule the world right now. But she doesn't have those powers, and Turner does. She has no idea how Turner hasn't gone mad with power yet. Maybe he's just that nice? She thought. He IS an alien after all, so of course he'll be strange and different. Then there was Daniel. What powers could he possibly have? She's seen his levitation, but what else can he do? She didn't know, and she didn't like that very much. It kind of scared her. At least she knew what Turner's powers were. And she knew that he wouldn't hurt anyone with them. But she didn't know Daniel very well. Turner talks like they've been friends for a very long time, and they probably have been. She thought about it. Turner was a nice guy. Strange and mischievous, but nice. And kind of cute. She blushed at the sudden thought she was avoiding. "Oh dear." > Chapter 11: The Night Princess Gets Pranked > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Daniel? Daniel where are you?" I asked, trying to find him in the hive the day after. I entered the room that was given to him, but it was completely empty, aside from a yellow sticky note. I don't know where he got the sticky note from, but he was probably thinking with portals. Lifting up the note, I read it's contents. "Your game ends." Immediately, a translucent box surrounds me, the walls distorting like water and shining white with power. I didn't even stop to think why this looked familiar, I could be in danger. Daniel could be in danger! I hear a familiar noise behind me, but when I turn and don't see anything I start to freak out a bit. "And so here I am! Making attention to myself like an elephant in a room!" I instantly knew what was going on. "Daniel, cut it out, I know your impressions." "Damn." With another familiar noise, Daniel spins into view... wait... "Did you just-?" "Yep! I got a few of Dimentio's powers, including but probably not limited to, invisibility, teleporting, and the box trap thing he does!" He exclaimed, very clearly enjoying himself. "But I thought you couldn't teleport?" I ask, remembering the test from before. "That was just because I was thinking about it wrong, I was trying to erase the time it takes to travel the distance, instead of just folding space to close the distance." He explained. That makes sense- WAIT, IDEA TIME. "Do you remember that one room in Castle Bleck?" I asked, thinking of how amazing this'll be. Daniel's eyes lit up. "Yesss." "If you can recreate that, then I think I finally know a prank for Princess Luna." Luna had just awoke for another meeting to figure out how to contact Turner. They had been unable to trace his location after he left the Everfree forest, so they must be in a location that's either too far away or blocks magic, maybe even both. Walking down the hall, Luna stops at a mirror that definitely wasn't there last time she walked here, and when she looked into it, she couldn't see her own reflection. Almost like it was a window to another, identical hallway. Curious, she scanned it for any dangerous magic, but didn't detect any. She deemed it more important to investigate this strange occurrence than go to the meeting just yet. Walking up to the mirror, she placed her hoof on it- no, it went through it. Luna proceeded to walk through the mirror-like hole in the wall, and stopped when she found herself in a different hallway. "CHARGE!" An unfamiliar voice shouted. Luna went into defense mode and ran backwards as fast as she can back through the mirror when she heard the castle rumbling. Out of the mirror hall, hundreds of the same looking human started to pool out, like water does through a hole in the side of a bucket. Luna continued to run backwards until she hit the wall behind her, and even more humans poured in front of her, all shouting completely different things, drowning each other out with their own noise. She found that she was unable to move in her shock. Then they all stopped. When Luna blinked, there was no mirror, and no humans. She was back to walking down the hall that held the mirror, but there was no mirror. She did heard two voices laughing though, The unfamiliar one that yelled, and Turner. It finally hit her exactly what had just happened. "Turner Youth! How dare thou prank us!" "Sorry! Sorry, it was just too good to pass up, and you should have seen this coming! I pranked the other two princesses after all!" I say, me and Daniel walking around the corner. "We-! You-! Agh! Thou are right!" Luna somewhat fumed, but I'm sure she'll look back on this tonight and laugh. "Anyways, this here is my best friend, Daniel Lake. He arrived, like, yesterday, and he has space powers." "Hello." Daniel lazily waved. "Charmed." Luna deadpanned. "Well, now that introductions are done, what are you doing?" I ask Luna as she begins to walk down the hall. "We are going to a meeting to discuss about you." She answered. "Oh really? Why?" Daniel asked, just as confused as me. "Because we have no way of contacting Turner, should we need him." "Well, I've seen the future, remember? At no point do you guys need my help, because I wasn't there when I saw everything." I try to explain. "And how far into the future did you see?" Luna asked, pointing at me. "Pretty far, but there wasn't any specific dates." "Well, you should give us a way to contact you, even if we don't need you to arrive." Luna said, stopping at a door in the castle hallway. "And we are here." "So what you're saying is, you WANT me to be here? Wow, a bunch of princesses want to hang out with me! And here I thought my ego couldn't get any bigger!" I laugh as Luna opens the door and walks in. Me and Daniel walk in as well. "Oh? Who is this?" Celestia asks as we both walk in. Seems like Cadence isn't here this time, or she's just late. "Daniel Lake, nice to meet you." Daniel said this time, waving once again. After a long meeting about Daniel and how they could possibly contact me when needed, I decided to take a walk inside the forest. It was a casual stroll with no goal in mind, just to clear my head a bit. I have everything I wanted. I have cool powers, I live in Equestria, I can pull large pranks with basically no repercussions, and I have my best friend with me. What more could I possibly want? I couldn't really figure out why I felt like I was missing something. Maybe I should ask Claire? She eats emotions after all, maybe she could help me figure out mine.