> Aeon Legion: Starlight
>  by NightFlame389
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue: The Black Rose
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Who I was, am, or will be, no longer matters. All that matters is that I complete my mission.”
-Kairos

The light from stars of past and future glimmered in the “sky” above and below. The Edge of Time was quiet, just as it usually was. The section that Kairos had chosen to make her home base was far away from the time pirates and Manticores of the Bleak, and even the remnants of the Forgotten Guns had been silenced.
The only thing that permeated this silence was the sound of her singularity AI informing her of a new development in time.
Ever since she created Pandora, the AI had been the only form of companionship she had. Sometimes she wondered if it was a mistake to leave behind the only people who ever truly cared about her.
She pushed the thought aside. There was no mistake. It had to be done.
“Pandora, what is it?” she asked.
Pandora’s artificial female voice came from the shieldwatch she wore on her arm, “A new set of continuums have been registered in the Legion’s database. Would you like me to observe the history of these new continuums and list every temporal criminal sorted by how much damage they caused?”
“Yes, thank you,” Kairos replied.
While Pandora was compiling data, Kairos recalled the events and people that had brought her to this moment.
First was Alya Silverwind, her mentor, the first to truly see her potential. She had been the one to find her, in the underground fight club that she had been participating in to survive. Alya had been impressed by her ability to quickly take down much larger opponents.
Apparently, the one who had been running the club had been bringing in champions across time to fight in the ring. One of the more memorable champions he brought called himself ‘Tirek’. Tirek was a big muscular man with a white beard that should have made him look like Santa Claus, but instead made him look like Krampus. Despite being a head and a half shorter, she still managed to bring home the victory.
Kairos didn’t fully realize the extent of the ringmaster’s temporal crimes until Alya arrived and told her. Together, the two of them shut down the entire operation and arrested the ringmaster.
The next thing she knew, she had been whisked off to the City Beyond Time, registered as a squire, and enrolled in Aevum Academy.
There she met the headmaster, Lycus Cerberus. Lycus always considered himself a monster, a villain. He claimed to have killed a defenseless family in the First Temporal War. That was when he started referring to himself by different names, more so out of shame than anything.
There was Lycus, the Scholar, the one who actually ran the school. There was Cerberus, the Monster, who was the one who enjoyed battle to the point where he had massacred innocents. And then there was the Captain. It was the Captain, not the Scholar or the Monster, who decided who could and couldn’t join the Legion.
Lycus had told Kairos that while others practically worshiped her because she was the squire of a Legendary Blade, he saw her for what she truly was. Because he was one too.
The two of them had fought side-by-side during the Faceless War. Together with Alya, they rallied the other Bleak and post-time nations together to fight against the incoming horde from the End of Time. She had even managed to convince the Manticores and the Sons of Oblivion to join their side, for if the Faceless won, everyone else lost.
After the war, she went in search of answers to what made the Faceless. She knew at the time that she might not return, so she gave her aeon edge to Alya for safekeeping.
It was then she met Ophion, the mad Time King, who had warned her of impending doom. She had heard legends about the Kings and Queens of Time, and how they conquered and ruled over time. She heard how many of them used to be Legendary Blades.
She had also once encountered Endymion, the Last Time King, who had tried to recruit her during her days as a fighter, but she had refused, because he didn’t promise her anything.
Ophion was the last person to travel to the Beginning of Time before Kairos herself. He had apparently gone mad as a result. There were rumors that he was mad even before that, and that he had been using singularity tech to create new life, but Kairos knew it wasn’t possible.
What he had said to Kairos was that something in Saturn City was draining time, and if left unchecked, would spell doom for all of Time. The only thing Kairos could think of that could cause this was the Temporal Singularity contained in the central spire.
It was then she came to the conclusion that Saturn City had to be destroyed, and that she had to be the one to do it.
And then there was Terra, Alya’s new squire.
Terra’s resolve was impressive, to say the least. Even in the face of someone who could easily kill her ten times over, she didn’t back down. She had broken into an enemy stronghold and wiped out the entire fortress. She had single-handedly defeated the Zeitmacht. And before any of her training, caught the attention of Alya, just as Kairos herself had.
She didn’t hate Terra. Why would she? Alya held the right to train another squire. Kairos wasn't the first, nor would she be the last. And it was Alya who had forcibly taken her from her home. Besides, hate was for villains. She wasn’t a villain.
It wasn’t hard to see how she could be perceived as one. She did kill Cerberus, after all. But everything she did was to save Time. Why couldn’t Alya see? She had to kill the worst offenders. She had to save Saturn City from themselves. She had to return the time stolen by the Legendary Blades and other rogue time travelers. Lycus was just the first step.
She was the only one who saw the truth. Alya, Orion, Deucalion, they were fools. Those who used time travel recklessly deserved to die. The danger was just too great.
“I have compiled the list,” Pandora said, interrupting Kairos’s thoughts.
“Thank you,” Kairos said. She tapped on her shieldwatch’s holoface, bringing up a list of names. At the top of the list was someone named Starlight Glimmer.
Just below her were names like Twilight Sparkle, Starswirl, Nightmare Moon, and Spike. She would consider them odd names had she not interacted with hundreds of cultures with different naming conventions. It wasn’t much weirder than “Silverwind”.
She tapped on Starlight’s name, opening a profile on her history, personality, and relationships. She quickly scrolled past the boring parts, like being abandoned by her only friend and the weird equalist cult. Then she arrived at what she was looking for.
The damage was already done. There was no point in killing Starlight before her crimes. The way time worked, someone else would likely take up her actions and make the same mistakes, making more work for her. It had to be after.
A quick analysis of some of the history she skipped over revealed that she was often in the presence of heroes. Ones who were innocent of the crimes Starlight had committed (in fact, some were the victims), yet would protect her with their lives. The nearest point in time she could go was roughly one month after the event known as “The Battle of the Bell”. By sheer luck, all six would be out of town for the confrontation.
The time she had stolen was a mere 84 years, less than Kairos’s own 110. But she was still the worst offender of these new continua and someone had to be an example.
The timecore of her aeon edge sword glowed a soft red. Her mission was simple.
“Pandora, chart a course for Ponyville, section EQ-NF, prime continuum, twenty-fourth day of Shifting Seasons, 1004 CE. We’re going hunting.”
> Chapter I: Exile
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is a monumental occasion. You have the chance to map out a continuum previously unknown. However, you must be prepared for every possibility, no matter how unlikely. We cannot let our guard down, even for the most simple of creatures. So be careful. Into the dark.
-Transmission from Captain Deucalion to Cohort 8 strike teams

It was a beautiful morning in Ponyville. The weather ponies were clearing the skies, foals were on their way to school, and several Apple family members were arguing with Grand Pear over the ethics of pineapple on pizza. It was a fairly normal day, all things considered, if one ignored the time-traveling assassin.
Starlight Glimmer didn’t even have time to react before she was already on the ground, a sword pointed at her face.
Starlight instinctively put up a shield to stop her enemy’s attack. Her attacker flipped a switch on her sword. The moment Starlight saw the sword passing through the shield like it wasn’t there, she teleported away.
Starlight appeared atop the Castle of Friendship. Weren’t humans supposed to transform into ponies when they came to Equestria? Her eyes shot towards the spot she was standing earlier. The masked swordswoman was gone.
The Castle began to shift. Starlight saw that a clean cut had been run through the entire Castle. As it fell down towards the School of Friendship, Starlight lifted herself into the air and held the Castle in place.
She risked a glance back and saw her attacker running up the side of the Castle. Starlight dodged the first attack then flew underneath the falling Castle. Her attacker landed just below her. Starlight risked a blast to deter her attacker, which briefly loosened her grip on the Castle. She strained to return the Castle back to its rightful position, but it seemed every time she made one inch of progress, her attacker forced her to lose two.
She needed a distraction.
She created illusory copies of herself. Each copy flew out in a different direction, and some stayed behind to hide Starlight. She saw that her attacker had left to follow some of the copies.
With much effort, the Castle of Friendship was restored. Starlight flew around the perimeter of the Castle, repairing the damage as she went.
As she circled back around to the front, a beam of red light pierced the sky. The beam fragmented into several more. Pegasi fell out of the sky as the light made contact with them. The shield Starlight put up to protect herself decayed into nothing upon contact with the beams. She quickly stopped herself in the air before touching one of the beams.
A burst of red energy tore through the sky towards Starlight. She quickly deflected the blast to the ground. The blast tore through the ground like Pinkie Pie through wrapping paper on Hearth’s Warming Morning.
Before the swordswoman could attack her again, she focused her magic and teleported inside the castle.
Immediately upon Starlight appearing within Trixie’s room, Trixie dove behind a potted plant and screamed, “The fireworks were not Trixie’s fault!”
“Trixie! It’s me!” Starlight quickly said. Trixie poked her head out from behind the plant.
“Oh, phew, I thought–” Trixie was interrupted by the wall exploding. 
Starlight teleported out of the room before any of the wall could hit her. She would have to check in on Trixie later, but she couldn’t do that if she died herself.
Trixie’s room exploded. Starlight had made her way down the hall. She cast her invisibility spell on herself and ducked behind a column.
She breathed a sigh of relief. She opened her eyes slightly and glanced down the hall towards where Trixie was. The masked swordswoman there. The strange device on her arm pulsed red.
“Signs of life detected.” The masked swordswoman turned towards Starlight’s hiding spot.
“Aw, crapbaskets,” she muttered.
A red ball of energy tore through the hallway towards Starlight. She ducked underneath and rushed to Trixie. Starlight swore she had cast Accelero on herself, but the swordswoman was still faster.
Starlight Glimmer crashed through the wall into one of the three libraries in the castle.
The Lunar Silver chandelier hanging from the ceiling dropped. Starlight just barely managed to catch the chandelier before it hit the floor. Starlight glanced behind her.
The masked swordswoman had fired a burst at the chandelier. As her sword was lowering to Starlight’s level, Starlight instinctively teleported out.
Searing pain shot through her leg. She glanced at her leg. It was slightly burned, but otherwise usable. She had been hit just before she got away.
A desk sat in the center of the room, covered in various papers from the last thing Twilight was researching. Even though she had moved back to Canterlot about a month ago, Twilight hadn’t brought her research equipment with her yet.
The mirror portal to the human world sat on the back wall, covered in cloth. It gave off a faint pulsating magic signal, revealing that it was open.
The wall behind Starlight exploded.
She turned around. She couldn’t even react. She was pinned to the wall.
Starlight shined a bright light from her horn, temporarily blinding her attacker. She wriggled out of her grip and dashed for the mirror portal.
A bookshelf fell down in front of her. She just barely stopped herself. The masked swordswoman suddenly appeared in front of her.
Thinking quickly, Starlight levitated several books out of the fallen shelf and tore them, scattering the pages in the air. She silently prayed that Twilight wouldn’t kill her for that later.
The pages stopped in the air, blocking her attacker’s field of vision just long enough for Starlight to enter the portal.



Seeing Starlight Glimmer tumbling out of the portal was ranked among the most normal things to happen that school year. The sword-wielding assassin in a black mask who came out a few seconds later, on the other hand, did not.
At first, Sunset Shimmer thought it was some sort of game. She wouldn’t put it past Starlight or Trixie to pull something like this. But when the swordswoman started shooting bursts of red energy, she instantly knew it wasn’t.
Starlight’s arm had a sizable burn on it. It was clear the only reason the pain wasn’t bothering her was the adrenaline.
By now, students were panicking and running away. Some, like Flash, were calmly panicking and guiding others to run away.
A large ring formed around the school. A blue grid appeared inside the ring as the ring passed through the area. Sunset watched as the ring passed harmlessly through her own body. She swore she heard an automated female voice say something along the lines of “Restore state saved”.
“What’s happening?” Pinkie Pie asked, suddenly popping up . The pink-haired girl had a habit of sneaking up on unsuspecting people, but Sunset didn’t have time to be surprised at the moment.
“Dangerous sword lady,” Sunset simply replied while pointing at said dangerous sword lady.
Pinkie nodded in understanding. She pulled a cupcake out of her hair and tossed it at Starlight's attacker.
As the cupcake sailed through the air, a rainbow blur raced past Pinkie and Sunset. 
The cupcake exploded harmlessly in the air. A red static field had caught it before it collided with the mysterious swordswoman.
While her vision was obscured by the sugary explosion, Rainbow Dash attacked. No one was fast enough to stop Rainbow Dash, right?
Wrong.
Sunset didn’t even see the masked swordswoman move. Rainbow Dash was already on the ground, unmoving, a gray static in the shape of a stab wound in her abdomen.
By now, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, and Twilight were all ready for a fight. They had been evacuating students earlier, but now they stood around the swordswoman, fully prepared to strike.
“You big mean–” was all Fluttershy managed to get out before she flew into the stairs leading up to school.
By now, thanks to the distraction, Starlight was already there by the stairs. Sunset knelt down and touched Fluttershy’s forehead. When her hand pulled back, there was blood on her fingers.
Pinkie Pie had thrown volley after volley of sugary sweets. Every sprinkle, cupcake, and cookie exploded harmlessly in the same red static field.
The swordswoman slashed her sword at Applejack. Rarity jumped in front of Applejack and put up a diamond shield to defend her.
The sword passed through like it wasn’t there. Momentary panic shot through Sunset. She could tell Rarity and Applejack were feeling the same thing.
When the sword was pointed towards Rarity’s chest, the swordswoman pulled some sort of trigger on the handle, sending a burst of red energy that passed through Rarity and hit Applejack. The area where the burst passed through turned a dull gray. Both collapsed to the ground.
The masked swordswoman turned her attention to Twilight. Sunset shared a glance with Pinkie.
By the time Sunset looked back at the swordswoman, Twilight’s body had been cast aside, and the swordswoman was staring right at Pinkie Pie. Sunset didn’t even manage to blink before Pinkie fell.
The masked swordswoman turned to face Sunset and Starlight. Sunset pushed Starlight into the school.
“This isn’t your fight, Shimmer,” the masked swordswoman said. “I am willing to spare you if you give me Starlight Glimmer.”
“Like you spared my friends?” Sunset spat. She had no hope of winning, and she had no idea what was happening, but she would never give any of her friends to someone like her. “I’ll never give her to you.”
“Very well.” The masked swordswoman pointed her sword at Sunset. The next thing she knew, the entire world went blue.
> Chapter II: Shadow Cohort
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Continuum: Lambda, Subcontinuum EQ-NF-Prime-B (proper name pending)
Continuum Time: 3:46 pm, 24th of Shifting Seasons, 1005 CE (EQ-NF-Prime-A calendar), May 26th, 2015 AD (Continuum Lambda calendar)
Location: Canterlot High School, Canterlot City, Continental United States
Enemy Forces: One rogue legionnaire, designated Exile. Second known offense.
Lethal force is authorized.
Warning: Enemy is a Legendary Blade class threat. It is advised that if possible you are accompanied by a full–
Warning overridden.
Warning: Civilians present. You are advised to evacuate the area before engaging.
Attention Strategos Orion. Consul Prometheus left the following message for you.
“Just a reminder that Alya wants her alive.”
-Combat log of Strategos Orion

Wait, blue? What just happened?
Sunset Shimmer blinked a few times. She was nowhere near Canterlot High. Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, and Starlight were all standing around her. The burn mark on Starlight’s arm was completely gone.
There were two men wearing armor similar in design to the masked swordswoman’s standing over her. They were, however, different in color, being white and blue instead of black and red. And neither wore masks.
“Are you alright?” the shorter one asked.
“She got you pretty good, didn’t she?” the taller one said.
“Yeah, I think I’m okay,” Sunset said. The shorter one held out his hand. Sunset grabbed it and pulled herself up. “What just happened?” she asked.
“Your friend, Starlight, was targeted by the temporal assassin known as Exile,” the shorter one explained. “Exile tends to only go after other temporal criminals, and usually only the ones with serious crimes.”
Starlight’s face went pale.
“Do you know what she did?” the taller one asked. “Minerva doesn’t have much information registered about your continuum and Orion didn’t brief us enough.”
Starlight’s eyes made contact with Sunset’s. Her eyes begged Sunset to stay quiet.
“No,” Sunset replied, “I don’t.”
“Are you some sort of time police?” Rainbow Dash asked.
The shorter one replied, “We do a lot more than police time travel. We map out locations in time, keep post-time threats in check, and–”
“Crashing end, Abhinav, stop boring them with endless explanations,” the taller man interrupted. “All you need to know is that you’re safe and Exile can’t hurt you when our boss is around. He’s one of the Legendary Blades, for Aion’s sake.”
“Arad, I really wish that were true,” Abhinav sighed. “Orion is nowhere near as strong as Cerberus, and look what happened when he fought Exile.”
The device on Abhinav’s wrist made a beeping noise. A voice came out from the device, saying, “I have things under control for now, but just in case, I need you to get those girls as far away from here as possible.”
“Well, you heard the Strategos,” Abhinav said with a shrug.

“How do you join the Legion?” Rainbow asked. Abhinav had continued explaining everything about the Legion, including a quick overview of the Faceless War, and Aevum Academy.
“Simple,” Arad replied. “A legionnaire finds you, and if you impress them enough, they squire you, then you go to Saturn City and attend Aevum Academy.”
“Squire me,” Rainbow Dash said with a look of determination in her eye.
“Why?” Arad asked, raising his eyebrow.
“I want to be awesome and have a cool sword,” Rainbow simply replied. Sunset had to admit, that sword was pretty cool for an attempted murder weapon. To be completely honest, she wanted one for herself, too.
“We first have to talk to your parents and teachers,” Abhinav said. “Also, if you don’t have a military background, it’s pretty damn hard to get in.”
“Didn’t stop me,” Arad said.
“That’s only because you kicked that old west outlaw in the nuts when he tried to rob a bank with a samurai sword.”
“I was gonna rob that bank! He stole my opportunity! It’s not my fault Ezri thought I was being a hero.”
“Hold on,” Twilight said, interrupting Abhinav’s next few words, “How exactly did an old west outlaw learn how to time travel? That’s not even possible by today’s standards!”
“People have been building temporal devices since the age of exploration,” Abhinav explained. “It’s the Temporal Accords that forces everyone to keep it a secret.”
“The Temporal Accords...?”
“They’re like the Geneva Conventions of time travel, I guess. All kinds of rules about time travel, including registering your time travel device with the nearest Post-Time Nation, whether that be Helcia, Kavacha, Saturn City, or any of the other ones that I didn’t bother to learn the names of.”
Saturn City... Post-Time... Some memories stirred deep within Sunset’s mind, but she pushed them aside for the moment.
“And why were these Temporal Accords implemented?” Twilight asked.
“Simple. Before the First Temporal War, time travel was public knowledge across all continua. Then the Kalian Empire bombed Saturn City, we went to war, then made them sign the Accords. Now, everyone has to follow them while time traveling, which includes keeping time travel a secret for as long as possible.”
Starlight Glimmer nervously whistled.
“That sounds like a treaty you made to control and cripple the Kalians,” Twilight noted. “What exactly is in them?”
“For one, you can’t use time travel to change anything big. You can observe events and do research, but you can’t assassinate a world leader, for example. Another thing is that traveling to a nexus event is strictly forbidden. I would tell you what a nexus event is, but just listing a few should tell you enough. The Punic Wars, the Eastern Industrial Revolution, and the Mongol Rebirth are all nexus events.”
“So they’re important moments that changed history forever?”
“Pretty much, yeah,” Abhinav replied. “Traveling to one and changing something can lead to several lifetimes in Tartarus.”
Starlight fiddled with her fingers.
“Are you gonna make me a squire yet or what?” Rainbow Dash asked, tapping her foot impatiently.
“Abhinav, you got us off track again!” Arad said. He turned to Rainbow Dash. “Sure, I’ll be back in a month or two.” Arad tapped something on the hologram projected from the device on his wrist. A glowing ring formed around him, rotating as it moved upward, creating a glowing sphere of blue light. The sphere dissipated.
“A month or two?” Sunset said, mildly confused.
“Time travel,” Abhinav replied. “Watch, he’ll be back in five seconds.” Just as Abhinav said, the glowing ring returned after five seconds. Arad appeared at the center once the sphere vanished.
“I talked to your parents, your teachers, your coach, your principal, your next-door neighbor who had several choice words about your band’s music, your rival school, and your sports teams,” Arad said. “I think this will work. Congratulations, you’re in.”
“Yes!” Rainbow Dash pumped her fist in the air.
Arad then turned towards Sunset. “Abhinav probably wants the benefits that come with finding a squire too. Do you want to join the Legion?”
“... why?”
“Of all your friends, you’re the most qualified! You have almost all the qualities of a good squire! Determination, bravery, leadership, you could graduate as a Tetrarch! You’d be perfect!”
Sunset opened her mouth to reply, but a ring formed around Arad. He continued, “Yes, I did talk to the Princess. She didn’t object, but based on the smile she had I think she’s hiding something.”
Sunset tried again to say something, but this time, Abhinav said, “You can visit any point in history! You can meet Starswirl the Bearded!” Starlight was about to mention the limbo thing when Abhinav interrupted, “Okay, maybe we should have done more research on that guy.”
A glowing sphere formed around Abhinav. Once it dissipated, he spoke, “You once sook immorality? Our shieldwatch can make you immortal!”
“Are you using time travel to win this argument?” Sunset finally said. Never mind the fact that she wasn’t actively seeking alicorn ascension anymore, but shieldwatch immortality seemed to be a very different form from alicorn immortality.
“That’s another benefit! You’ll never lose an argument again, because whenever you find a good point to make, whether it’s ten seconds after they leave or three years later lying in bed at night staring up at the ceiling, you can go back and make that point, whenever you want!” Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Work with me here! I just want my month of paid leave!”
“We will take all eight of you back in time to the founding of Equestria just for our paid leave if we have to,” Arad said.
“Wait, you know about Equestria?” Sunset asked.
“As members of the Shadow Cohort, we know things that most other legionnaires don’t, such as the existence of Equestria,” Abhinav explained. “Also, I thought mentioning the Princess would have clued you in. Or maybe Starswirl.”
“Which princess?”
“There’s multiple princesses?”
Sunset facepalmed. Clearly, though they had done their research, it wasn’t enough.
Arad held up his shieldwatch arm, pointing at something projected from the glass sphere embedded within. “Look at this! Do you not see how overqualified you are?” Sunset couldn’t read a single word on the projection.
“I’m pretty sure you’re a crashing Qadar! If we don’t get to you, then Silverwind will!” Silverwind. Another familiar name. Pegasus. Silver mane, tan coat. Fairly reckless, if Celestia’s stories were to be believed.
“You can avoid crowds by arriving before them!” If needed, Rainbow Dash could always beat the crowds for her.
“You will never need money again!” Being close friends with a princess had its benefits.
“You can get drunk without fear of hangovers!” There’s a spell for that.
“Consequences will no longer apply to you!” That wasn’t necessarily a good thing.
“You can kick ass at ten thousand times your normal speed!” There it was.
“You son of a bitch, I’m in,” Sunset said, pointing finger guns at Arad and Abhinav.
Arad glanced at his shieldwatch holoface. He scrolled down just a little bit. His eyes widened, then became filled with disappointment. “Well, looks like someone else squired her,” Arad said.
“Crash! Now I have to spend an entire month figuring out who else to recruit!” Abhinav pointed at Twilight. “You! Yes or no?” Twilight shook her head.
Abhinav continued with each of the girls. Each of them turned down the offer. Abhinav then pointed to Starlight. “You won a war while severely crippled and with only untrained civilians and former criminals by your side! You’re just as overqualified as she is!”
As Starlight opened her mouth to ask a question, Abhinav interrupted, “Yes, you will be protected from Exile. She wouldn’t dare show up in Saturn City with all of the Legendary Blades there.” Abhinav held out his hand.
“You know what? Sure. I’m in.” Starlight took Abhinav’s outstretched hand.
“Wait,” Sunset said, “I heard you say I’m already registered as a squire?”
“Yeah,” Arad replied. He inspected her information on his holoface. “By... Praetor Corona. I think she was a Legendary Blade. She disappeared a couple hundred years ago.”
How did she already get squired? To her knowledge, this was the first time she had ever encountered the Legion, or anyone from the City Beyond Time, for that matter. Maybe it was a big case of wibbly wobbly timey wimey, as Time Turner put it.
Abhinav shrugged. “We can still bring her to the City. She’s already been squired, they’ll let her in.”
“If she doesn’t consent, that’s called kidnapping,” Arad pointed out.
“Kidnapping girls without consent is tight,” Abhinav said.
“That doesn’t sound any better in context,” Sunset said.
“Are you in?”
“Might as well go to make sure those clowns”—Sunset pointed at Rainbow and Starlight—“don’t blow up the entire city.” Starlight nervously giggled. “Yeah. I know about the time you and Trixie set off fireworks in the newly rebuilt Castle of the Two Sisters.”
“Okay, I get that one, but what did I do?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“You just seem like the type to blow stuff up for shits and giggles,” Sunset replied.
Arad gasped. “You too? We should totally blow stuff up together some time!”
Rainbow Dash squeed.
“Oh Aion now there’s two of them.” Abhinav sighed, putting his hand on his forehead.
“We’ll monitor this point in time to make sure Exile doesn’t come for you again,” Arad said. “After graduation, be ready for us to pick you up.”
The device on Abhinav’s arm beeped. The same voice from before, the Strategos, said, “Kairos has been dealt with. She’s not coming back to this Canterlot for a while. No guarantees on Equestria, though.”
Kairos? Wasn’t the assassin’s name Exile?
“That’s a relief,” Starlight said.
“Oh, and I noticed that you two just registered squires. I’ll give you your month off after you bring them to Saturn City.”
“Yes, Strategos,” Arad and Abhinav simultaneously said. They did some sort of strange salute, placing their right fists over their hearts.
Glowing rings formed around them, and soon, they were gone.
> Chapter III: Seeing the Hidden
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

To be clear, I hit a guy on the head with a rock because he tried to borrow a book and this makes me qualified to join the time police?
-Terra Mason

Terra Mason had enjoyed a summer of relative peace. She had spent the last few months relaxing at home, reading history books, and occasionally visiting history, including checking in on her old enemy, Hanns.
Every now and then, she would go out into town. She had a chat with her high school history teacher, Mr. Smith, about the causes and effects of the Industrial Revolution. “Learning doesn’t stop when you graduate,” he had always said.
Many of her classmates were also back home for the summer. Hannah in particular was excited to see her. Not because they were friends or anything.
They really weren’t. Hannah for some reason just attached herself to Terra and declared themselves rivals. Terra didn’t really care about competition and so she usually just let Hannah win everything, even valedictorian. Especially valedictorian.
She had even stopped by the quarry a few times. It wasn’t her quarry anymore―she had left it behind when she joined Alya.
All good things had to come to an end, of course.
She was in the middle of reading about the failed Reconquista of Continuum Zeta and the resulting changes that caused it to split from Continuum Theta when the doorbell rang.
Opening the door, she came face to face with her former strike team members, Hikari and Roland.
Sir Roland Delmare was a knight, but that was all Terra knew about his past. Every time he told his origins, he told a different story. He once claimed the actual story was boring, but Terra could always see through his lies. He had told Terra that he always took the path of least resistance, much like a flowing river. His sword skills though were genuine. Overall, he was the least chivalrous knight she had ever met, though he was also the only one.
Urashima Hikari was a Japanese girl who believed honor was for the weak. She was probably the most competitive person Terra had ever met, and she had to deal with Hannah when she was in school. Hikari was beautiful and could easily befriend anyone she wished, yet she chose insults over compliments. The closest thing to a compliment she had ever heard come out of Hikari’s mouth was her admitting that she had met her match. If Roland was a flowing river, Hikari was a raging fire. Terra had no idea where in time Hikari originated from, only that it was a violent time.
Next to them, Terra’s only notable trait was her determination. She was a boring, dull, rock in comparison.
At the moment, both were wearing regular 21st Century clothing.
“Hikari, Roland, what are you two doing here?”
“Blunt as always, I see,” Roland replied.
Terra crossed her arms. “That doesn’t answer my question.”
“I thought that we should find you so you can join us for training,” Roland said. That made some sense.
“I would like to cross blades with you again,” Hikari added. That made more sense. How Hikari considered her a rival, she still wasn’t sure.
“Also, may we come in?”
“What are you, a vampire?” Terra said.
“Jehovah’s Witness, actually,” Roland replied.
“I’m surprised you know what those are.”
“I’m not illiterate, you know.”
“They have little historical significance. There is no reason you should know–”
“Terra!” her dad called as he came up from his workshop in the basement. “Who’s at the door?”
“Greetings,” Roland said with a little bow, “I am Sir Roland Delmare, and this is my comrade Hikari.” Hikari didn’t didn’t even so much as blink.
“Are you two friends of Terra’s?” her father asked.
“Friends? I suppose we are. We met at the Academy.”
“Well, come on in! I’m Fred, Terra’s dad.”
They did. Roland kept flattering her father while Hikari mostly looked around at things. Terra had to explain how some pieces of technology worked. Hikari wasn’t nearly as into reading as Terra was, and she was from before the Meiji Restoration, so it stood to reason that she wouldn’t be up to date on technological advances.
She stopped by the living room to grab her Reconquista books, then she and Hikari joined her dad and Roland in her dad’s workshop.
“…and that's not the only weapon I’ve learned to use. I could show you how to use a mace, if you'd like.”
Terra sighed.

It felt like several hours had passed. Roland was still talking to her father, Hikari had begun bouncing a ball off the wall, and Terra was bored out of her skull.
“I want to get out of here,” Hikari suddenly announced.
“Oh, yes, let’s go somewhere,” Roland agreed, putting down a battle axe he had carved in ten minutes.
“Have fun out there!” Terra’s dad called as the three of them ascended the stairs.
Once they were upstairs, Terra opened and closed the front door.
“Why did you do that?” Hikari asked.
“So he thinks we left out the door,” Terra explained. She went upstairs to grab her things.
Upstairs, she pulled the pieces of her aeon edge out of her duffel bag and reassembled it.
She gave it a few test swings. Perfectly balanced and uncomplicated, just as she remembered it. The pearl white blade was simple and straight, which was in her opinion the best kind.
She quietly descended the stairs, and together with Roland and Hikari, left for Saturn City.
The three arrived just outside of Zone VI, the Convivium, not too far from Delphia.
Delphia was the first friend Terra made in Saturn City. She was about three years older than Terra, and was attending purely academic classes at Aevum. Delphia was with yet another boy. The first few weeks Terra was in Saturn City, Delphia had gone through at least six boyfriends, breaking up with each one for things as minor as a crooked nose.
Terra waved Delphia over. As predicted, Delphia ditched the boy on her way.
“The new squires have begun to arrive,” Delphia said to Terra. “I have seen a multitude of them around Tempus Porta and the Convivium, some have already entered Castra Legionis.”
Terra nodded, exchanged a few words with Delphia about their future living arrangements, then made her way to Zone XI, Castra Legionis.
“So you got yourself a girlfriend,” Roland said, giving Terra a smirk. Hikari raised an eyebrow at her. Terra didn't quite know why, but at that moment, her cheeks turned red.
“She’s just a friend who I’ve made an agreement with to pool our resources to get someplace better than what we could afford by ourselves.”
“So, a girlfriend.”
“Roommate,” Terra corrected.
Roland gasped. “And they were roommates,” he said in a strange voice.
If there was ever a moment Terra wanted to strangle Roland, this would be it.
“What does that even mean?” Terra asked with an annoyed tone. She had a pretty good guess, but she wanted to hear it from Roland himself.
“It’s Twenty-First Century slang from Continuum Lambda,” Roland explained. “You know, the time that you’re from.”
“I’m from the very beginning,” Terra said, crossing her arms.
“It means lesbians,” Roland explained.
“I’m not into girls,” Terra bluntly stated.
For some reason Terra couldn’t understand, Hikari suddenly looked disappointed.
A few moments of silence passed, then Roland said, “If you are from the beginning of the century, then what was your reaction to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001?”
“The what.”
“You know, the time when hijackers flew planes into the twin towers and the Pentagon,” Roland said with the tact of a salamander on Football Sunday.
“The WHAT!?”
“…it made the news?” Roland added with the confidence of a sasquatch in a coffee shop.
She really wanted to smack him. “Roland! Spoilers!”
“I don’t get what rotten food has to do with a terrorist attack,” Hikari said.
“That’s not what that–” Terra sighed. “Never mind. Let’s see if there’s an open salient.”
There was, in fact, an open salient. Or, more accurately, there wasn’t, until one of the legionnaires from Terra’s graduating class (Tacitus, maybe?) recognized Hikari and let them have the one his strike team was using.
The reason Hikari was so competitive was because her father didn’t let her play with the other kids. He had told her that since she helped him in the forge, she was a lot stronger than the other kids and it wouldn’t be fair for them. Since then, Hikari had desired someone to compete with. And strangely enough, that someone was Terra.
With a quick motion of her shieldwatch, Hikari changed their battlefield to the same location they fought at during the Trial of Blades, the top of a building surrounded by lava. The two assumed fighting stances. Terra drew her aeon edge and gave a quick salute. Hikari did the same.
Hikari rushed forward in a blur of movement. Terra did her best to block the oncoming blows. Hikari made an attack that Terra blocked, Terra missed her attack. It was the same as it always was, though Terra could swear that her blows were getting closer to landing.
Hikari moved into the aggressive. Terra was on the back foot, just as every duel with Hikari had ended. Hikari had to reload a clip first, which Terra immediately took advantage of. Terra knew that Hikari would press whatever advantage she had, so Terra would have to do the same.
Of course, Terra’s advantage was immediately lost and she was forced on the defensive again. Her foot almost slipped off the side of the building, but Terra remained standing.
Terra parried another strike from Hikari. Copying something she had seen from Roland, she effortlessly flowed into an attack, forcing Hikari back.
Hikari stumbled on a rock. As she fell back, Terra caught her in a stasis field and pointed her sword at her face.
Hikari smiled, just a little. “Looks like you win.” As she stood up, she added, “I promise I’ll beat you next time.”
Roland, Tacitus, John, and a few others appeared to have been betting with pebbles scattered around the salient. All of the pebbles were in front of Roland.
“Having fun making money off of our fight?” Terra teased, poking Roland in the shoulder.
“Haha,” Roland replied, tossing the pebbles out into the salient as it reset, erasing them.
A few more legionnaires from their graduating class had also gathered around to watch. Terra recognized Javed from the Trial of War.
Javed came up to her. “Impressive,” he said, nodding. “Didn’t think you had it in you.”
“You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?” one of his strike team members agreed.
Terra wasn’t completely sure she liked the spotlight. Hikari, on the other hand, was enjoying every compliment she got from the others. She didn’t make it obvious, of course, but Terra had known her long enough to know what Hikari looked like when she was enjoying herself.
“Excellent showing, both of you,” said a familiar voice. Everyone turned to see Centurion Nikias walking up with a grin. Everyone saluted his arrival, even Tacitus. “I daresay that was better than Geres.”
Ever since the incident last year where Geres tried to take Hikari before she had graduated, Nikias had disliked the other centurion. In fact, he had managed to convince Praetor Lycus to use his influence to prevent Geres’s promotion to Serdar. Not that Lycus needed convincing, since Geres had absolutely no respect for the rights of the Academy to train tiros. Terra of course had seen Geres in action, and she didn’t think either of them were anywhere near his level.
“Maybe you’d like to demonstrate to this year’s tiros,” Nikias jokingly offered.
“No thanks,” Roland quickly replied.
“I’ll think about it,” Terra said.
Hikari said nothing and stared off to the side.



After splitting off from Roland and Hikari, Terra found herself by the Cohort 7 headquarters. Alya still had a little bit of time left to go before she could train Terra herself, so Terra decided to take Captain Chih up on his offer.
Terra walked up to the front desk to check herself in.
“I’m here to see Captain Chih,” she said to the receptionist.
“He’s out right now,” the receptionist replied, not even looking up from his holoface.
“And where is he?” Terra pressed.
“I’m not cleared to know, and even if I was, I wouldn’t be allowed to tell you.”
“Just tell me if he’s on a mission or running an errand.”
“Mission.”
“Let me guess, tracking Praetor Lycus’s killer?”
The receptionist paused what he was doing and looked up. “How did you know?”
Terra shrugged. “He told me a while ago he would try to do that.”
The receptionist nodded. “Strategos Orion came in here not too long ago saying that he just fought the rogue legionnaire while helping Captain Deucalion map out the new continuum. You’ve heard about that, haven’t you?” Without even waiting for an answer, the receptionist continued, “Everyone has. The Seekers have almost mapped out their entire history.”
The receptionist typed something out on his holoface. “Why don’t you take a seat and I’ll tell you when he comes in.”
If Terra hadn’t joined the Aeon Legion, she would have gone into either geology or history. Since she was a little girl, she had always been more interested in rocks than playing with other kids, and that made the other kids think she was weird. Rocks couldn’t hurt your feelings. Val could.
In elementary school, Val made it her life’s mission to torment Terra. She always got some boy to push her into the mud, calling her “Dirt Girl”. One day, she lashed out with a rock, and that was that. She was no longer Dirt Girl, she was Terra the Terror.
Ever since then, everyone besides her parents and teachers (and Hannah, for some reason) avoided Terra like the plague. She didn’t mind. She preferred the company of rocks.
Well, until she met Alya anyway. And Hikari. And Roland. And... Zaid.
She reminded herself that Zaid wasn’t her fault. He had put more effort into training Terra, Hikari, and Roland than himself, which led to him being much weaker when they entered the Trial of the Beast.
Still though, without Zaid, Terra doubted she would have even made it through the Survival Test. And if it wasn’t for Lycus, she probably would have died in 1940s Germany.
Speaking of Germany, Hanns still hadn’t rebuilt the Zeitmacht. He had an unusual amount of honor for a Nazi and recognized that Terra won fair and square, that even though he had come so close to victory, he still failed.
She wondered what happened to the other leader. The Legion’s records showed that before he wound up with the Zeitmacht, he would have ended up in charge of a death camp. But no matter how far she dug into regular historical records, she couldn’t find a single trace of any Brigadeführer Emmerich Klein.
Her best guess was that after their drastic failure in 1940, Himmler erased all records of the Zeitmacht to prevent the Allies from getting any intel time travel (despite the fact that the British Time Service had already existed and registered with Saturn City), including Klein’s involvement, and Klein himself faded into obscurity.
“Legionnaire Mason, Captain Chih will see you now.”
It wasn’t long before she and Chih were standing by the Cohort 7 training salient.
“I recall you telling me that you would be training under the legionnaire who squired you,” Chih said.
“She can’t do it right now since Strategos Orion ordered her to take a break, so I’ve decided to take you up on your offer, even if only temporarily.”
Chih nodded. “So what do you want to do?”
“Teach me to become a better duelist.”
“I heard from Centurion Nikias that you recently won a duel against Hikari,” Chih said, a slight smile appearing on his face.
Terra looked down for a moment, then back up at Chih. “One, that was dumb luck, and two, I can only handle Hikari because I’m used to her style.”
“Well then,” Chih said, drawing his aeon edge, “Show me what you know.”



“Strategos, if you don’t mind me asking, who exactly was Praetor Corona?” Arad asked.
Arad and Orion were in a meeting room in the Cohort 2 headquarters after informing both Consul Prometheus and Captain Chih of the events that unfolded in the new continuum. Knowledge that there was another world attached to that one was kept between Orion, Prometheus, and a few trusted Shadow Cohort members, including Arad and Abhinav. Abhinav had already gone to Zone VI to relax.
“Why exactly are you asking?” Orion asked back while updating the holomap projection of Canterlot High School.
“Well, it says that one of the girls that Kairos was attacking was squired by Praetor Corona. I don’t know that much about her, just that she was one of the Legendary Blades a while ago.”
Orion paused his work for a moment. “Corona was a friend of mine from long ago. We fought together in the Third Temporal War. But after that, during the reign of the Kings and Queens of Time, she told me that she would be leaving Saturn City forever. I haven’t seen her since.” Orion updated the projection of the statue in front of the school, then continued, “Which one of the girls did she squire?”
“Sunset Shimmer,” Arad replied.
Orion pondered the thought for a moment. “Hmm. I’ll have to investigate this.” He opened his shieldwatch holoface and pulled up any file that matched the search “Sunset Shimmer”. “I see.”
“What is it, Strategos?”
“Above your clearance level.”
Arad watched as Orion deleted the energies projecting from the statue from the projection and sent it to Captain Deucalion.
“I still don’t understand why we’re doing that,” Arad said.
“The rest of the Legion isn’t ready for Equestria yet,” Orion replied. “It is better to keep it a secret for now.”
> Chapter IV: Saturn City
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you ever find yourself in the City Beyond Time, follow the Sun and you will find a haven.
-Words given to every pupil of Princess Celestia, last used with Sunset Shimmer

Graduation had come and gone.
For Sunset, it wasn’t a spectacle. It wasn’t special at all. When she applied to join CHS, she saw it as nothing more than a stepping stone to her true goal: alicornhood.
Many would assume she had forgotten about that goal, but that was not the case. She had merely put it on the back burner while she focused on friendship and saving the world from rogue magic. In fact, after her little humiliation at the Fall Formal (probably an understatement but whatever), she had almost completely given up on alicorn ascension and only started thinking about it as a possibility again after the Friendship Games.
But even then, it was just that: a possibility. It wasn’t something she was actively chasing.
Until the incident with the Aeon Legion, she had only ever given three after-CHS possibilities any real thought. The first was returning to Equestria and figuring out what to do next from there. This was the less legally risky option.
Another was attending a human university. Unfortunately, a college would look deeper into her past than Principal Celestia did and all the fake IDs and tax evasion, not to mention technical illegal immigration and probably identity theft as well, assuming they managed to track down her human counterpart, would all come crashing down on her.
The last one was creating an agency to keep track of magic leaking into the human world from the two known portals and track down and dispose of all artifacts and other magical things that Starswirl and Clover had banished over the years.
The last one wasn’t exactly mutually exclusive with the others. With enough help on the human side and support from the Equestrian government, she could easily set something up, even if her friends were too busy.
Speaking of the two portals, Princess Twilight had suggested that they donate a new statue to replace the one destroyed during the Friendship Games, not just for the sake of replacing the statue, but to seal the top of the portal as well, to make sure no magic would leak through the top.
Starlight had remained in the human world for the past week. Abhinav had popped back to say that the Legion didn’t have the capability to monitor Equestria so it was safer for her in the human world. Starlight had begged Abhinav to return to at least check on Trixie, but Abhinav refused to let her. It took Sunset reminding Starlight about the journal for her to back down.
A concussion was the worst of Trixie’s injuries and she would make a full recovery in a few days. The other injured ponies had recovered even faster as none of them had head injuries.
At the moment, most of her friends were gathered at a local diner for lunch. Her friends were talking about their futures.
A future she didn’t have.
Not without highly illegal activities, at least.
Which, to her dismay, she found herself actually considering.
Sunset was barely listening to their chatter. She had already heard everything before: Rarity’s apprenticeship to Prim Hemline, Trixie’s gigs, and Twilight’s seven fully paid scholarships to some of the best schools in the country.
“SunShim, you good over there?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Yeah, just thinking,” Sunset replied, giving her a little smile.
Rainbow Dash slid over to Sunset’s side. “When do you think Arad and Abhinav will be here to pick us up?”
“Speak of the devil and he shall arrive!” Arad announced as he popped up next to the table in a flash of blue light. He looked between the three squires. “Everything all packed up?”
“I forgot,” Starlight whispered to Sunset, leaning over as she did.
“Girls, you’re squishing me in here,” Sunset said, pushing Rainbow Dash and Starlight away. She then said to Starlight, “I’ll tell Twilight to bring your stuff to the portal.”
As she was pulling out the magically linked journal, Abhinav appeared as well, with less flair and presentation than Arad had.
“We have your home addresses so we will pick up your belongings,” he said, just as he vanished again. He soon reappeared with three bags and a potted plant.
“Come on, let’s go!” Arad said, pulling Sunset and Starlight out of the booth. Rainbow Dash had already super-speeded herself next to Arad.
“Bye, Sunny!” Pinkie cheerfully waved.
The group stepped outside. Arad held out his shieldwatch arm. Just above the shieldwatch, six small devices materialized. Arad took two and placed them in Rainbow’s ears. Sunset immediately understood what they were: translators. She took two more and placed them in her ears. Starlight did the same.
“Sonic ciphers will only translate spoken language,” Abhinav explained. “You’ll have to wait until you get your shieldwatches before you can read in every language.”
That didn’t matter to Sunset, as she was already fluent in several languages. Hell, she picked up Japanese just because Flash Sentry made her watch undubbed anime with him when they were dating. She once terrified Twilight with how quickly she managed to pick up a new language.
“Are we ready to move out?” Abhinav asked.
Rainbow Dash gave an enthusiastic thumbs up, while Starlight was more apprehensive, but ultimately gave a confident nod. Sunset gave Abhinav a look that said, “What do you think?
Arad nodded in confirmation, then tapped his shieldwatch.
The world became covered by a grainy blue haze. The world became an azure shadow, almost ghostlike. Then the entire world vanished.
When Sunset looked up, she saw stars. More stars than she had ever seen in her entire lifetime, even if one counted the stars in Equestria and on Earth as separate stars.
Around her, glowing lines stretched out into eternity. Looking back, she saw a bright light, massive enough to make the sun appear like a night light. A large tendril flowed out from the light like a river. When the tendril met spheres of light, it branched out, sometimes into two, sometimes into three. This continued until the entire space was filled with branches and strands of light weaving together. She glanced at the branch they were standing on. She followed it to the beginning. It never connected to the main group, though it did connect to seven others. Sunset noted the one they were on was brighter than the others.
At the opposite end of the bright light was a great darkness. Just before each strand connected, they faded. At the end of many, there were great structures that would be impossible to construct in one lifetime.
Arad motioned for them to move. He pointed to a bright blue beacon in the distance.
They moved towards the bright light. As they passed, Sunset heard many voices emanating from the light. She recognized some of them as famous speeches from history by the greatest speakers of all time, Socrates, Jesus, Celestia, Lincoln, Churchill, Obama, and she swore she heard her own voice as well.
They soon arrived at a circular metal structure. Arad motioned for them to enter.
Around the outer wall of the structure stood twelve tall metal spires. A massive metal ring hovered above, slowly rotating. The entire structure was constructed out of some pearl-white metal. The design reminded Sunset of an ancient Pegasopolis arena.
Arad pointed at the beacon again. “We’re headed there. Just give me a few moments to set up the salient.”
A salient. That’s what the structure was called. If she remembered correctly, it was a type of arena that could change to become anything, but could also act as instantaneous transportation across time.
Arad tapped his shieldwatch holoface. A bright expanding dome of light formed at the center of the salient. Once it encompassed the entirety of the salient, they were suddenly in another location.
It was a small cylindrical room with white walls. The room was just large enough to comfortably fit the five of them.
A blue grid of light formed at the ceiling. Once it passed through them, an automated female voice said, “Biological hazards sweep clear.” Sunset looked around for speakers, but there were none in the room. None visible, at least.
Arad tapped his shieldwatch face again. Half of the wall faded to reveal a busy area filled with people from all across time. Even from outside the gates, Sunset could see a building that looked like it belonged in more Canterlot than in this city. While the rest of the city was pearly white with the occasional dash of color, that building was nothing but Canterlot White and Celestial Gold. At the top of the building was a dome topped by a sculpture of the sun.
The sky above was blue, with a presumably artificial sun giving light to the city. Gone were the stars of the Edge of Time.
Sunset noticed a map off to the side of the chamber they just exited. It was a map of the city, showing twelve sectors. The city itself was almost perfectly circular.
“Nervous?” Arad asked.
“Are you kidding? This place is awesome!” Rainbow Dash grabbed Sunset’s head and turned it towards the sky. “SunShim, look! A UFO!”
In the sky was a fairly large flying metal saucer-shaped object. Rainbow Dash’s grip was so strong Sunset barely managed to nod. “I see it, I see it.”
“That’s a timeship,” Arad explained. “And before you ask, yes, it is our timeships that have caused all those stories about alien spaceships. Especially the conspiracy theorists of Continuum Lambda.”
“Huh?” Rainbow Dash tilted her head slightly to the side. “I thought aliens were actually real for a seco–” She whipped her head towards the side and pointed towards a woman with vaguely avian features. “An actual alien!”
“That is a genetically modified chicken duck woman thing from the bushes of love– I mean, Continuum Xi,” Arad said.
“Are aliens real?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Not that I’m aware of,” Abhinav replied.
“Why are there so many people?” Starlight asked.
“Every time traveler has to check in at the Saturn City Timeport when returning to their home time if they traveled more than fifty years. It’s mostly to check for cross-time diseases and illegal items.”
A wide shadow passed overhead. Sunset, Starlight, and Rainbow Dash looked up to see a long metal object that looked like it stretched on for miles. It connected to a massive mechanical pillar at the center of the city. In the middle of the pillar was a bright blue orb of glowing energy. The pillar also had two other metal objects connected to it near the orb of energy.
Then it struck her. The city was a massive clock. The twelve sectors represented the twelve hours. The three metal objects were the hands of the clock.
The shortest hand was still several miles long. It barely moved. Another hand moved slowly around the city. The third was the fastest, projecting blue lines of energy as it traveled around the entire city in just sixty seconds.
“Come over here, I found a short line,” Arad said, motioning for them to follow.
He brought them to a building with several arched gates, each marked by a Romane numeral. They joined the line to the gate marked with “VII”.
The next person in line walked up to the gatekeeper and said, “I am merely here to access the Academy Archives.”
“That is strictly forbidden. You are not allowed to access information on your continuum’s future, even if that is not your intent. This was detailed in Section 16, Item 5, Subpoint X of the terms of service you agreed to when you registered your time machine.”
“I just want to know what was in the Library of Alexandria before it burned down,” the man explained. “Besides, who reads the terms of service?”
“If you have a time machine, you are allowed to go back in time and see for yourself, as long as you don’t interfere.” The gatekeeper then added under her breath, “It’s not even that impressive. Baghdad was more impressive”
“Fair enough,” the man said, turning around to leave.
The last person in front of them was a viking accompanied by an Aeon legionnaire with several streaks of silver hair. The legionnaire looked about the same age as Arad and Abhinav.
“Ah, Jaku, I see you found a squire,” the gatekeeper said, typing something into the holographic face of her computer.
“Oh, it’s Jaku,” Abhinav grumbled.
“Who?” Starlight asked.
“Just because he’s three times my age doesn’t mean he’s better than me.”
“He looks good for sixty,” Sunset commented.
“Sixty? He’s damn near six hundred!
Sunset counted the streaks in Jaku’s hair. There were six.
“It’s our turn now,” Arad said, turning around to address the group. “After we check in at the Timeport, we’ll get you fitted for shieldwatches, then you’re free to explore the city.”
Arad stepped up to the gate, pulling Sunset and Rainbow Dash with him. Starlight followed just behind them and Abhinav came at the end.
“Arad, Abhinav, it’s been a while,” the gatekeeper said with a little smile. She looked at the three girls and frowned. “Are these your squires? There’s three of them and only two of you.”
Arad placed his arm around Sunset’s shoulder. “This one has already been squired by someone else. We’re just bringing her to the city.”
“Ah, I see.” The gatekeeper typed something on her holographic computer. “Bags, please.” Sunset, Starlight, and Rainbow Dash all handed their bags to the gatekeeper. The gatekeeper froze them in mid-air with a single wave of her shieldwatch hand. “You may pick up your bags in a few hours at processing. Hands, please.”
Sunset held out her hand. The gatekeeper took one of her fingers and touched it to some device she pulled out of her belt. Starlight and Rainbow Dash did the same. 
The same voice from before said, “DNA cataloged. Welcome to Saturn City, Sunset Shimmer, Starlight Glimmer, and Rainbow Dash.”
After checking in, they were fitted for shieldwatches and took a psychological exam, then they were let out into the city.
“Arad will pick up your things,” Abhinav said. “Stick close to each other so we can find you later.”
“I didn’t consent to being an errand boy,” Arad grumbled.
Rainbow Dash immediately ran for the recreational sector, but Arad pulled Sunset and Starlight back. “Just so you know, you two should probably keep the fact that you’re from Equestria secret. Most of them have only just found out Equestria exists, and further details are top secret.” That was fine with Sunset. She was still managing to keep several things secret from both Twilights that she’d rather no one knew.
Just then, Sunset noticed a few men wearing similar armor to Arad and Abhinav, but dark gray and with a crescent moon where Arad and Abhinav had an infinity symbol. She decided to ask who they were.
“Oh, those guys? Those are Time Knights in the service of Time King Endymion.”
“Any relation to Time Queen Ananke?” Sunset asked, before realizing that she probably shouldn’t know that. Oops.
“You know of Time Queen Ananke?”
She really shouldn’t have said that.
“Never mind,” she quickly said. She broke off from the two and followed after Rainbow Dash, dragging Starlight with her as she went.
“Huh, wonder what that was about,” Abhinav said as he watched the girls run off.



Sunset and Starlight followed Rainbow Dash’s path, but by then Rainbow Dash had already gone too fast for them to catch up. So then they wandered around that part of the city.
Eventually, Sunset found herself watching a group of people play some sort of game.
Soon enough, Rainbow Dash and another girl entered the area. Sunset waved Rainbow over.
“Making friends already?” Sunset teased.
“I hate her guts,” Rainbow Dash quickly replied.
“Then why are you hanging out with her?”
“Because you and Starlight ran off without me, Arad and Abhinav haven’t come to give us our stuff yet, and she’s the only person I’m even remotely familiar with.”
“From my perspective, you ran off without us, and we never caught up.”
Rainbow Dash didn’t have anything to counter that.
Sunset pointed at the game field. “They’re clearing out. You wanna play?”
Rainbow Dash grinned. “Do you know me?”



Another victory for Sunset Shimmer.
“Jeez, you’re always so competitive,” Rainbow Dash complained.
“Look who’s talking,” Sunset replied.
“I’m gonna pretend like I understood what was happening so I don’t feel left out,” Starlight said from off to the side.
“Wow, you’re really bad at this,” the other girl said to Rainbow Dash as she came up to them.
“Cheeto, why don’t you go suck a–”
“Language!” someone shouted from several feet away, interrupting Rainbow Dash’s presumably vulgar sentence.
There were three girls and two guys. None had any silver hair.
“My dearest Vince, there was no need to get involved in the quarrels of two strangers who are not known to us,” said the prettiest of the three girls, presumably his girlfriend.
“Eh, I just felt like it,” Vince replied.
The group of five walked over to their group of four.
“Greetings, I am Delphia,” said the pretty one. “This is my companion, Terra,” she said while gesturing to the brown-haired girl in the middle. “This one is my partner, Vince. And those two over there would be Terra’s companions, Hikari and Roland.”
“Hey, beautiful,” Roland said to both Sunset and Starlight in a mildly flirtatious tone. Sunset elected to ignore him. Starlight, on the other hand, decided that moment would be the perfect time to blush.
“Okay, well, I’m Sunset Shimmer, and these are Starlight Glimmer, Rainbow Dash, and Cheeto.”
“It is nice to meet you, Sunset Shimmer,” Delphia said. “Will you be attending Aevum Academy?”
“Yes,” Sunset replied.
“Applications begin in two weeks.”
“Applications? I thought all you needed was a squireship.”
“Squireships are only a prerequisite,” Terra said. “It’s like a letter of recommendation. You have to convince the instructors to let you in if you really want in.”
So something like the CSGU entrance exam. Eh, nothing new.
“Have you already done the training there?” Sunset asked.
“Yeah,” Terra replied.
“So have I,” Roland added, completely unprompted. Sunset looked at Delphia, Vince, and Hikari.
“Oh, we haven’t done that,” Vince said.
“And by we, Vince means the two of us, not Hikari,” Delphia added.
Hikari, for the most part, remained completely silent and just glared at Terra.
If Terra, Hikari, and Roland had all gone through the training, then maybe she could learn something to make it as easy as possible for her so she could focus on what she really wanted.
“What can you tell me about the system of training they use?”
“It’s classified,” Terra replied.
“Tell me something that isn’t classified,” Sunset reiterated.
Terra pondered the thought for a moment, then said, “Most legionnaires take squires just for the benefits. The vast majority of those don’t even train their squires themselves. That’s why these days cohorts end up competing for new legionnaires at the post-graduation party instead of legionnaires joining the cohort of whoever squired them.”
“I guess I shouldn’t expect Praetor Corona to teach me anything then,” Sunset noted. Especially since Arad said she had disappeared a while ago.
“Praetor Corona...” Roland thought for a moment. “Hm. Never heard of them.”
“Neither have I,” Delphia added.
“Since we’re all talking anyway, do you know where we can get something to eat?” Starlight suddenly said. “Our lunch was interrupted and I’m starving.”



Apparently, Saturnians didn’t do restaurants. They just found a nice place to sit and summoned food from across time using their shieldwatches. And littering wasn’t an issue either, since any trash on the ground was Restored away by the giant clock mechanism in the middle of the city.
“Want a beer with that?” Vince offered, holding out a bottle for Rainbow Dash.
“No thanks, I’m not twenty-one yet,” Rainbow Dash said, pushing Vince’s hand away.
“Dhimmi, you can just restore the alcohol out of your system,” Vince said, trying to give Rainbow Dash the bottle.
“New time travelers and their fear of consequences,” Vince said, shaking his head.
What was with Saturnians and their complete disregard for consequences? Consequences were a good thing. If she had never faced consequences for her actions, the entire world would have probably been destroyed.
“I’ll take it,” Starlight suddenly said, snatching the bottle out of Vince’s hand and downing it in one gulp.
“Our relationship has ended,” Delphia announced, completely unprompted.
“I see,” Vince said, standing up to leave. He didn’t seem all that sad or disappointed, even pumping his fist as he left.
After he left, Terra said, “Two days, six hours, fifteen minutes, and thirty-eight seconds.”
“Is that a record?” Roland asked, leaning over to look at Terra’s shieldwatch holoface.
“Not yet,” Terra replied, pushing him away.
“Why, exactly, did you just break up with him?” Sunset asked Delphia.
“I did not like the way he spoke,” Delphia replied. “It was like a soft foam on fire.”
“Did you really time how long her relationship lasted?” Starlight asked.
“Yes,” Terra replied, holding up her shieldwatch arm. The holoface did, in fact, say 2:06:15:38.63.
“He lasted longer than the last one,” Roland noted.
“Really?” Sunset said. “How did that one go?”
“His eyes were the wrong shade,” Terra explained. “It lasted fourteen hours, twelve minutes, and sixteen seconds.”
“We challenge each of her boyfriends to last more than four days,” Roland added. “Terra once said someone lasted an entire week, but I don’t believe her.”
“You weren’t there,” Terra snapped back.
“And you weren’t there when I fought the Fatimids in Anatolia.”
“That’s a lie. You were never a crusader.”
“Wow, you’re good.”
After a few silent moments, Terra turned to Sunset and asked, “Do you have a place to stay?”
“Holy crap, I didn’t think about that,” Rainbow Dash said, setting down her sandwich.
“I have an idea,” Sunset replied, looking over at the golden sun she had noticed earlier.
“Really?” Rainbow asked. “Where?”
Sunset pointed at the sun.
“That’s Elysium, the home of the richest of the rich,” said Delphia. “You can’t get a home there unless someone who already lives there lets you in. The homes there are like palaces. You can have as many friends there as you wish. I would like to live there someday.”
“I have a feeling I’ll be let in,” Sunset said.
“What, are you friends with Endymion or something?” Roland asked, poking Sunset in the shoulder.
“Something like that,” Sunset replied, grabbing Roland’s fingers and dipping them in his (still very hot) soup.
As Roland Restored himself to ease the pain, Delphia continued, “The one with the sun on top belonged to a Legendary Blade. She hasn’t been seen in a long time.”
“So how long have you all known each other?” Terra asked, changing the subject.
“I’ve never met this girl before in my entire life,” Rainbow Dash replied, scooching away from Cheeto.
“We met earlier today,” Cheeto said. “She’s an idiot.”
“That was uncalled for,” Rainbow said.
“I’ve known Rainbow Dash for four years, Starlight Glimmer for one, and like Cheeto said, we’ve only known each other for today,” Sunset answered. “How long have you known your friends?”
Roland let out a fake gasp. “Friends? Are we really friends if you just owe me a favor?”
“Mark my words, Roland, I will save your life two more times and you will owe me again,” Terra replied.
“Terra only met me when she arrived at the City Beyond Time,” Delphia explained. “I believe she met the other two during the training.”
“Oh? En garde, fair lady,” Roland said, jumping up and drawing his sword.
“Are you really about to fight in the middle of the streets?” Hikari said.
“Sit down,” Terra commanded.
“Oh well,” Roland said, sitting down.
Speaking of swords, only Roland had one. Presumably, Terra and Hikari had left theirs wherever they were staying.
“Of your friends, are you the leader? Delphia asked.
Sunset thought about it for a moment. Since the Friendship Games, the girls had been turning to her to lead them, and she had been subconsciously stepping up to leadership roles for a while. “I guess,” she replied.
“I see. You are like a star. Brilliant, but distant. But you have many planets orbiting you, so you are not lonely.”
Was that really true? After the Fall Formal showdown, she had always tried to lower herself to the same level as everyone else. But after the Friendship Games, everyone had unanimously declared her the MVP and started treating her like a princess. She hadn’t noticed at the time because she always had her friends with her. But then, that was the point Delphia was making, wasn’t it?
Did Delphia actually know about her life, or was that just a lucky guess?
...why did Delphia even ask that question?



Arad had returned their bags sometime during their little lunch break. Sunset had asked him about the House of the Sun, and he pointed at the golden sun in Elysium, just as she expected. After asking him to send their bags there, Sunset had left for the Shopping District.
Which was just a teensy bit disappointing, since everything was free.
So then she and Rainbow Dash figured out how to call someone’s phone on a shieldwatch, while Starlight and Cheeto just sat there.
“They didn’t bring your clothes?” Rarity said over the video call.
“There’s a shopping district,” Sunset explained. “I picked out a couple of new outfits there. But even then most people tend to just wear the same thing.”
“They keep wearing it over and over and have to wash it over and over, or they have multiple copies of the same thing?”
“Neither. They just Restore themselves when their clothes get dirty.”
“How awfully convenient.” Rarity then changed the subject slightly. “How expensive were the clothes?”
“Get this, everything is free.”
“How would they maintain the economy if everything is free?” Twilight asked, sliding into view.
“This place is a literal utopia and the thing you’re worried about is the economy?”
Twilight shrugged. “I’m just saying, it’s unsustainable in the long term.”
“They duplicate things and there’s no law against shoplifting,” Sunset explained. “Hell, there aren’t any shopkeepers either. They just dump a pile of things there and let any passersby take them.”
Rainbow Dash lifted a plushie of her pony self up to the holoface. “Look what I found!”
“That… certainly is something,” Rarity commented.
“It is!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, barely registering what Rarity said. “It’s awesome! I love it!”
“Aww, it’s adorable,” Fluttershy said, squeezing between Twilight and Rarity.
“How’s Pinkie doing?” Sunset asked.
“She’s trying to figure out your mailing address so she can send you fresh-baked goods,” Twilight replied, shaking her head.
The conversation shifted gears as Sunset introduced the girls to Cheeto. Cheeto said something along the lines of “you’re a bunch of losers”, which Sunset took as a cue to sit her back down.
Fluttershy held Ray up to the camera to say hi. He seemed a little confused by the concept of screens, but happy to see her nonetheless.
After a bit of catching up, Rarity promised to tell Applejack and Pinkie Pie about some of the things they had done in Saturn City, then they hung up. Sunset sat next to Cheeto.
“Do you have family or anyone you want to call?”
Cheeto stayed silent for a moment, as if she was remembering a time that was gone.
“No,” she replied. Her voice was just a little shaky. Not enough to where the average person would notice, but Sunset knew.
Sunset moved closer to Cheeto.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
Cheeto replied again, more confident this time. “No.”
Sunset elected to sit there with her.
Maybe there was a reason she had been following them around. If she had no family, no friends to call, of course she would be following the only familiar people she knew around the city.
It was a feeling Sunset knew all too well.
When she was a filly, the only pony she ever spent time around was Princess Celestia. She didn’t know any of the castle staff, the guards, or the guests. She didn’t know any of the nobles. Hay, she didn’t even know any of the students at CSGU. The only one whose name she learned through conversation was Potion Nova, that unicorn mare who was really good at brewing potions and the second best student in their year. Everyone else thought she was above them, unreachable and perfect, so none of them ever reached out.
She wound up throwing herself into her studies, even graduating two-and-a-half years early and entering independent study.
For a while, that was who she was. Smart, powerful, independent, beautiful, and lonely. Only one pony was willing to spend time with her, to truly know her.
Was it any wonder that she had wanted to become just like Princess Celestia, through any means necessary?



“Are you sure we’re allowed in here?” Starlight asked.
“Relax,” Sunset replied. “If we’re not allowed here, then why did Princess Celestia tell me to come here?”
The four of them (Cheeto was still following them at a semi-suspicious distance) were standing in front of a long pathway leading to a white and gold mansion with a giant golden sun sculpture on top. The sun hung low in the sky.
What Sunset had quickly learned about Elysium was that visitors were allowed in the sector as long as they stayed on the normal road and didn’t trespass into someone else’s private property. Architecture buffs enjoyed viewing some of the most beautiful architecture in the city, and that was pretty much the only way they were allowed to see the architecture of Elysium.
Even though Sunset had only been there once, she could tell this mansion was based on the Castle of the Two Sisters, but built out of the same marble and gold as Canterlot Castle. However, unlike Canterlot Castle, there was a fair amount of silver and shades of midnight blue.
“If it wasn’t blatantly obvious who built this thing already,” Sunset muttered under her breath.
The path up to the mansion went through a garden that reminded Sunset of paintings of the castle gardens from centuries past. While she and Starlight took in the sight, Rainbow Dash thundered ahead without regard for any of the plants (Cheeto remained at a semi-suspicious distance).
Upon reaching the door, Sunset turned back to Cheeto and said, “Are you coming with us?”
“I have a different place,” Cheeto replied, shrugging. She took off like a bullet and disappeared elsewhere.
Rainbow Dash stared slack-jawed at the sheer speed of Cheeto. “How– how did she– what?”
“What, are you jealous that someone is faster than you?” Starlight teased.
“That’s not– no! Regular humans aren’t supposed to go that fast!”
“...they’re not?”
Sunset sighed. “Starlight, you have a lot to learn.”
“I swear, because Pony Pinkie Pie can run as fast as–”
“That’s because she’s Pinkie Pie,” Sunset replied.
“Wait what?” Rainbow Dash said at the exact same time. “Oh. That makes sense. Besides, Cheeto isn’t faster than me. Just surprised me, that’s all.”
“Suuure,” Starlight said in a teasing tone.
Sunset held her hand in front of the door, which vanished at her touch.
“Wouldn’t that be a security risk?” Starlight wondered.
“If you really think about it, not really,” Sunset replied. “No one’s breaking in to steal anything because you can summon any item from across time with a shieldwatch, and no one’s breaking in to hurt you because there’s no point.”
“Plus I’m pretty sure those tough guys that we snuck by on our way here are there for a reason,” Rainbow Dash added.
Starlight gasped. “Hold on, are we the security risk?”
“Welcome, Sunset Shimmer,” said a female voice from inside the house, dispelling any fears of trespassing.
“Guess not,” Sunset said as she stepped inside.
“Wonder why that took so long,” Rainbow Dash said as she followed Sunset inside.
After all three of them were inside, the door reappeared.
“How does that work?” Starlight wondered, inspecting the door.
“You don’t have to worry about it,” the voice said again.
Sunset, Starlight, and Rainbow turned to see a fair-skinned woman standing in a doorway.
“Principal Celestia? What are you doing here?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Not quite,” the woman replied. “The name Celestia gave me was ‘Galaxia’, though I took her form as I assumed you would be more familiar with it.
“I am an artificial intelligence based on the Minerva system in Saturn City, assigned to the House of the Sun, the home of Princess Celestia here in Saturn City. The House of the Sun was commissioned by Celestia in 2 BCE, six months after her first visit to Saturn City. It was completed three years later, though she rarely visited. The last time she visited was four months after I was installed.
“While she has not visited Saturn City in a long time, she does keep an archive of all of her students who could potentially arrive in Saturn City, as well as a list of hobbies, interests, and other things that may help me in making this as enjoyable as possible for you.
“Please follow me. I will show you to your rooms. Your belongings are already there”
The three of them followed Galaxia down the hall to a set of five doors marked with cutie marks. There was her own yin yang sun, Rainbow Dash’s cloud and lightning bolt, Starlight’s star and glimmer, a burst of fireworks, and a cat’s paw.
“How did you know we were coming?” Starlight asked, looking between the door and Galaxia.
“I was foretold of your arrival long before you arrived,” Galaxia simply explained.
“That doesn’t explain how you knew Rainbow Dash and I would be here.”
“As I said, I was foretold of your arrival,” Galaxia replied, brushing Starlight’s question aside.
The doors vanished.
“I feel like this is a privacy concern,” Starlight noted. She stuck her head into her room and her face immediately turned red. “I am so past that phase,” she said to no one in particular.
“Your rooms have been personalized through Celestia’s knowledge of you, as well as speaking to those who knew you best.”
Rainbow Dash tried to look into Starlight's room but Starlight blocked her. “Wow, you must have been a rebellious teenager,” Rainbow Dash said.
“Please don’t look into that,” Starlight replied, standing in her doorway. “In fact, please don’t ever come into my room, ever.”
“You know we’re not staying here permanently, right?”
“I know that, but it looks exactly like the room I grew up in, therefore it’s my room.”
Sunset decided to look into her own room and immediately regretted it.
Yep. Rebellious teenager phase.
Too much expensive stuff, so much that Princess Celestia was likely the only pony capable of affording all of it. And with a Post-Time “Economy”, it was effectively all worthless.
Sunset turned back around to find Starlight and Rainbow already gone.
Sunset felt a hand on her shoulder. “Sunset Shimmer,” Galaxia said from behind her, “I would like to speak with you tomorrow.”
Sunset nodded and returned to her room.

She would have to figure out how to update her room with her shieldwatch later. For now, she had a letter to write.
She climbed into the bed and leaned back on the golden sun-shaped headboard.
The bed was just as she remembered it. The Somnambulan cotton sheets, the golden bedframe which likely wasn’t any ordinary form of gold, the poster of the Masked Matter-Horn directly opposite to the bed, everything.
Her bags were just to the side of the bed, so it was easy enough for her to reach down and pull out her journal. Summoning a pen with her shieldwatch, she turned to a blank page and wrote, “Dear Princess Twilight…”



The list of temporal criminals in Equestria was even smaller than Orion remembered.
Strategos Orion, Commanding Officer of the Second Cohort, Third Member of the Legendary Blades, and Second-In-Command of the entire Aeon Legion, was encrypting the most dangerous information about Equestria behind Strategos or higher clearance.
Orion, along with Lycus and Prometheus, had long ago crafted a tale about how those continua had fallen under the purview of another post-time organization, one that had bested even the Legion. The fact that the Legion hadn’t lost so much as a single battle since their founding (Tyche and Reva nonwithstanding) gave all the reason for why Saturnians weren’t allowed in those continua.
Head Councilor Vharos, while not privy to the existence of sapient magical talking equines, was allowed to know some of the more sensitive facts about Equestria, so he would be briefed on the situation so he could inform the other post-time nations.
In effect, this made himself and Consul Prometheus the only two people with access to Equestria, not counting the visits Arad and Abhinav made.
“Attention, Strategos Orion,” came Minerva’s voice from his shieldwatch. “You have a call from Legionnaire Annasamudram.”
“Put him through,” Orion said, pulling up the data on the most dangerous temporal criminal from Equestria.
“Strategos, you left a message saying that we need to talk?”
“Yes, Abhinav. Remember when I told you that despite the severe restrictions on time travel past two weeks in Equestria, there are still quite a few temporal criminals?”
“Yes, what about it?”
“Abhinav, your squire, Starlight Glimmer, is the single most dangerous temporal criminal in the history of Equestria, and the only one to have committed a level seven offense.”
There was a brief moment of (presumably stunned) silence from Abhinav.
“Strategos, no one short of the Forgotten Guns have ever committed level seven offenses.”
Orion sighed. “This is precisely why I needed to talk to you. While Starlight Glimmer seems to have turned herself around, if she steps out of line, I will have no choice but to punish you alongside her.”
Abhinav paused in contemplation, then said, “I understand, Strategos.”
“I will have to cut your paid leave short, as well as strip some of your other squireship benefits.”
“What did she do, exactly?” Abhinav asked.
Orion scrolled down through Starlight Glimmer’s temporal file. “Fourteen counts of unregistered time travel, one count of attempted cross-time assassination, seven counts of altering a nexus event, and one count of violating Prometheus’s Second Law of Time Travel, which I don’t understand how she pulled off.”
“... I see.”
“Well then, Abhinav, don’t let me take away your last ten hours of paid leave.”
Abhinav closed the call.
Normally, he would have Abhinav severely punished and Starlight Glimmer thrown in Tartarus, but the revelation that the other girl, Sunset Shimmer, had been squired by Corona reminded him that Corona always believed in second chances. If the citizens of Equestria had given Starlight Glimmer a second chance, then he would too.
Besides, she could provide useful insight into the minds of the most dangerous temporal criminals.
Yes, he could use Abhinav’s mistake to his advantage.
Orion returned to reading through the files until something caught his eye.
Someone had accessed data about Equestria without proper authorization.
“So that’s how you knew about Miss Glimmer,” Orion whispered. “No matter, I know exactly how to track your location from your little incursion into the database. There isn’t a single singularity AI more powerful than Minerva.”