Terminal woke up to the sound of buzzing wings. He immediately knew that Lyda was returning, so he got off the "bed" and tried to make it look like nothing happened.

"I'm back," she said. "I couldn't get anything unfortunately."

"That's a shame," he responded. "What were you going to get?"

"Nothing of importance." She paused and he stared at her in disapproval. "OK I went out for a stroll, so what?"

"I knew you were doing something else."

"Listen because I'm only going to say it once," she said quickly and he fell silent. "I had dreams again, just like the attack on Canterlot. This time it was about the war." She paused.

"Well," he said, "go on. What's going on in it? Better now than never unlike the wedding."

"I saw a field of grass with changeling bodies. Dead ones. We were the only ones alive in the area. Although, you became the only one alive." she said while tearing up. He ran over to her and embraced her in his hooves. "I don't want to go Terminal. I don't want to."

"Don't worry. We'll figure out a way. At least you told me this time. We'll figure how to avoid this from happening. I don't want you to go as much as you do." Just then, several sparks of lightning came from the floor and the ceiling meeting in the center of the air. As it continued, more came increasing the sound level and it reached the same height as the flames on the changelings disguise. Once it reached the peak, the lightning exploded in the center of the room, leaving a pegasus that beared a striking resemblance to Terminal lying on the ground.

"It's me." he said. "A time travel spell. But I'm not a unicorn or a changeling. This is probably me from the war." He slowly walked towards himself and his future self turned himself to where his face was visible. It was covered in blood and was cut and bruised in several areas. But it wasn't that that surprised the two of them. No, it was the knife that impaled his stomach.

He said something very faintly, but it was too quiet for them to hear. He came in closer, and his future self looked up at him. "What? What's wrong?" he asked. He moved his head up to tell himself what he was trying to say.

"Your plan," he whispered. "Your plan won't work. One of us... dies in the war anyway. Make... a fast decision. You," he paused weakly lifting up a hoof to his chest, "or her." He pulled his hoof from his chest, and pointed at Lyda and they both looked at her. She was upset because she thought she knew what they were talking about. His hoof dropped to the floor with a soft thud. He closed his eyes, and breathed his last breath, and laid still on the floor.

The lightning came back in the same formation, consealing the body, and Terminal back up from his dead corpse. This time it left quicker and took the body with it. He stayed there, his eyes watering at the news of the war. Lyda walked towards him and placed a hoof on his shoulder.

"It's me or you, isn't it?" she asked.

"Yep." he responded with a sob. He turned to her and hugged her and cried. "I'm going. You need to live longer."

"No, I'm going." she responded. "You've been feeding me love this whole time. Without you, I need to find another pony." She started to cry. "No other pony will treat me as well as you did Terminal. And you've also given me large waves of love that no other pony can give me. I'm sorry but I'm going." They both stared at the area where the dead Terminal had been. He walked up to there and stood there.

Time passed by faster than they thought and an alarm clock what off. He still sat in the area of the death in depression. Terminal wasn't crying anymore, although he was still upset that Lyda had decided to die so one of them could live.

"Time for the last night you're going to have with her." he told himself. He assumed it was. His future self never told him what day of the war one of them dies on. He walked over to the bed, he was right the whole time, and crashed on it.

"Ow!"

"Sorry. Didn't know you were there. Too focused on the future I guess."

"Well you better be focused on the war itself. I don't think it will last long though."

"Why do you say that?"

"We have the highest ranking military force of all the hives. Don't ask about Equestria. I don't know who has the ranking force in all that, but that's not important."

"Oh well. Can't blame you for not knowing. I guess you don't care either." She scoffed at him. After a long hour of silence, they drifted off to sleep. And not long after that, Terminal fell on the floor, but he didn't wake up. He just stayed on the floor asleep.

The next day, Terminal walked over to his saddlebags that had his armor. When reached for the armor, he forgot that he had the perception filter on and freaked out when he saw the holes in his leg.

"Calm down. Calm down." he told himself. "It's just the perception filter that you never took off. Calm down." He continued to reach for the armor, and it turned into the type of armor that the changelings wore at the wedding. "Cool."

"What was scream?" asked Lyda half asleep. "I was trying to sleep. You fell on the floor last night too."

"I noticed. And that scream was me forgetting that I forgot that I kept the perception filter on."

"Oh well. Oh yeah, the war starts today." She sluggishly got out of bed. "Ugh. I hate being tired on important days. Especially if it's the war."

"Well I don't like wars anymore than that. But you know, too bad so sad. Now hurry up. I didn't get out of bed and freak out about the fake holes in my leg for nothing." He put his hoof on and off from his armor watching it go back in forth from its normally form and the changeling form. "Hehe. That's really cool."

"Oh grow up."

"Hey!" She shot him a look. "What's the point of growing up if you can't be childish at times?"

"I know how about don't do it? Besides, you're treating me like you just met me aand you never met a changeling before." This struck Terminal really hard. He felt really guilty about treating her before.

"Sorry. I've just... I've been through so much recently. And it was all because of Chrysalis' changelings." He paused. "Now one of us is going to die bcause of the same changelings that attack us. I can't take it! Is it too much to ask for a normal life?!"

"Terminal," she said. "Maybe your life will become normal after the war. We both know mine won't." She walked over towards him and gave him what would be the last hug she would give. "I just don't want to go. But it looks like there's death in that one point in time."

"Until that point, I do my best to keep you alive." He returned the hug to her and they held each other tightly. When they let go of each other, they walked out the door (hole in the wall, whatever) and went to the plaza where all the other changelings were. They waited for several minutes and then the Queen came on stood in the center.

"Greetings my subjects!" she yelld. "Today, we begin our war against the forces of Chrysalis because she has revealed our secret to the princess! For thousands of years our kind has been kept a secret for specific purposes that do not matter at this moment! Because she has revealed us, she must be punished! Other queens are preparing for the same purpose as ours. Although today, it will only be us. After that, the others will begin joining our cause, and hers."

"Don't you think this is a little too harsh?" he whispered to Lyda.

"Hush. It's dangerous to talk during a public speaking."

"Today, we begin our assault on Chrysalis. Onward!" the queen finished. The changelings all roared and went for the gate. All except Terminal, who sat down in the plaza.

"I can't do this."

"Terminal," Lyda said, "we have to. Listen, I'm no time genius, but if you don't, it will create a paradox that could affect the whole world."

"Then maybe it should happen!" he stomped his hoof on the ground. "I don't want to lose you."

"We already went through this. We have to."

"Fine. It was nice knowing you." He got up and walked over to the gate where the others had been.

"The gate's been opened. They left already." she said. "Come on." He trudged behind her. Eventually they started flying to get a better view of where they needed to go. He still wasn't too happy about the upcoming event.

"I don't understand why it has to be… so… far…"

"We're here." she said. "And just in time too. The two armies are just arriving."

"Great. More time to think about the death." They took position in the back where they wouldn't be noticed by many changelings. "I still don't approve of this." he whispered to her. They came to a stop, face-to-face with Chrysalis' army. The two stood there for a long time. Eventually, the two Queens screamed "Charge!" at the same time, and the two armies ran and flew at each other.

Terminal could see a difficult, but distracting difference between the two. Chrysalis' were a darker shade of black that Lyda's so it was easy to tell which one's to hurt, and which one's to leave. There had been many attempts to backstab him, but he countered to attacks with a simple stab under his leg, and into the enemy's chest. One even tried to run at him while charging up a magic blast. Terminal's spear had already made an impact with him and he stopped mid-air.

Slowly, the amount of changelings on the field decreased, and finally, came the moment. A changrling went straight for Lyda with a knife in it's magic. She turned around and pointed her weapon at it, and both of the blades sank into their chests. And both of them dropped to the ground.

"NO!" As Terminal was done with the last one, he ran over to her.

"That's it." she said weakly. "It's over."

"I can't let you go." he said with a sob. "I don't want you to go now."

"It's too bad Terminal. You can't fix it after it's happened." He tried to pull the knife out. "AH!"

"Sorry. I've never done this before." She was breatghing heavily.

"It's alright. I'm going to die anyway. There's no hope."

"Lyda,"

"Yeah?"

"I… I think…"

"Well get on with it."

"I… well there's no simple way of saying this but, I love you." She took a deep breath.

"I love you too. I always have."

"Same here." He knew better than to move closer to her because then that would only move the knife and give more pain that it already has. Her breathing became much more shallow, and eventually stopped.

"Lyda? Lyda?! LYDAAAAA!!" he screamed into the air. He broke into a sob. "Why did this have to happen?" He turned to the dead changeling that stabbed her. "It's all your fault. You and your stupid knife." He pulled the knife out of her and threw it at the body. He dragged her body and dug a hole.

When he looked back at her, she looked like a normal changeling. "Great," he muttered, "More confusion than I already have." He wondered how exactly that happened, until the Queen suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

"You were seeing what your mind wanted to see."

"What?"

"Your subconscious denied her looking like a normal changeling so it made it's own image of her before you even saw her normally." she explained. "When she died, it finally accepted that she looked like any other one because there is no point in seeing one different changeling that's dead when there are many others around that are also dead. So there's no point in it's own image anymore."

"So all this time, I was looking at an illusion?"

"Yes." she continued. "And that perception filter of yourself is also an illusion. Figure out how to make yourself believe that that's not what you really look like." He shrugged and had a stunned look on his face. He thought he was hallucinating and rubbed his eyes. When he pulled them down, she wasn't there anymore.

"OK now i'm really having a mental breakdown." He returned to his hole he dug, and dropped Lyda into it. He dug more in the areas that didn't fit her, and then covered it up. "As if I needed this much disappointment in two days. First a visit from the future, and then her death."

He walked over to a nearby pond and stared at his reflection. He kept trying to figure out what she meant by "figure out how to make yourself believe," and gave himself a few headaches every now and then. Soon, a gray stripe of light swept down his body and changed his appearance from the dark gray changeling, to the average every-day changeling. He pulled off the filter and the white light changed his appearance from the changeling to himself, and he kept it off.

He began his journey back to, not the hive, but his home. He assumed that it wouldn't be too different from when he was last there, for he had only been gone for three days. When he arrived, he was right about its appearance. It really hadn't changed. It was in the exact same condition as he had left it. Inside, it was more spacious as if it was bigger on the inside. The only thing that was different, was a small book on his comfy chair.

On it, was a small sticky note saying, "You're going to need this" for some reason that he did not understand.

He kept that book with him for several days. They continued for days, then weeks, months, and on to years. He hadn't written in it at all. Not even for anything special in his life, or anyone else's life. He had almost forgotten about the changelings. He was quite happy with his life.

One day, he was in his house, sitting on his comfy chair eating a snack of hay strips (the equivalent of bacon :D) and he was pulled into a void taking him from his house to the throne room of the Queen.

"Really?" he asked. "Did you just really pull me back into Tartarus? The one place I did not want to return to after the incident. That entire day, is the reason I never wanted to come back here, ever again!"

"Well guess what?" she responded. "It's almost the end of this stupid, tiring war. Now stop your complaining." He shrugged, and fell back into his chair that had traveled with him. "We could use your ability one more time. Besides, you only fought in this war at the start. Why. Not. End it? Just one more battle. We're down by many, but you fight like many."

"But you could finish it off with what you have. Chrysalis' army is weakened I bet. She should be down by even more. You can finish her off in this war."

"You fight well from your training years ago."

"I was a guard."

"You are a warrior." she interjected. "You are a strong warrior. You can end this." There was a long silence throughout the room. He thought about the idea between ending the war, or going to back to a normal life.

"Fine. I'll fight the final battle in your stupid war." He said at last. He decided to do it for not him or the war's end, but for Ly-. I'm not going to say her name. That upset me even though that stuff always happens. Right. Back to the story. But for her. He wanted to, take revenge. "Just take me back home so I can get my things."

"Did you seriously think you're actually here?" she asked annoyed. "You are there." He was confused when she said this. The world then began to turn into a blur and he lifted his head from his chair with a piece of hay hanging out of his mouth.

"Ok," he said to himself. "That was weird. How did she know I was asleep? I didn't. How did she?" Then he thought about Pinkie. "It must be something like the normality of Pinkie. Yeah. That's it. Pinkie's logic." He grabbed his armor and slid it into his saddlebags and went for the door. He opened it when,

"HI!"

"HOLY SWEET PINKIE!" He exclaimed. "Never EVER scare the daylights out of me!"

"Awwww but want to surprise you!" the pink party pony said.

"Well I would say you surprised and scared me."

"Yay!"

"So why are you here?" He asked.

"To say goodbye and good luck to you."

"How did you- never mind. Well I guess I'll be off. You can throw a party if I come back before a few days."

"Yes!" She whispered quietly. "Oh. BYE!"

"Bye!" He responded. He continued walking off in the direction in which he believed was the hive's location.

When his legs got tired of walking, he resorted to flying. When he was tired of flying, he went back to walking. When he got tired of walking, he went back to flying again. He kept repeating this cycle until he collapsed on the ground and went to crawling. He continued crawling until he reached the hive entrance. He pulled out the perception filter and put it on, then continued crawling until he reached a cliffside.

Although just before he reached one, his ears were swarmed with the sound of buzzing wings, and occasionally, he was trampled over by changelings that were completely oblivious to him lying on the ground. By the time the Queen flew over him, he was on the ground with his hooves covering his ears and hoof prints all over his body. Either she didn't notice him, or she just ignored him, because she didn't stop for him.

"Ugh." he groaned. "Time to crawl in the complete opposite direction from which I came. As if I wasn't tired enough. I think I'll just lay here for a while. Rest my hooves and wings." He laid on the ground for over an hour and then he got up on his hooves and just as he began to walk, he was teleported to the battlefield. "Oh good. Less walking for me."

He wasn't too close or too far from it so he pulled out his armor, and put it on as fast as he possibly could. And that was very fast because he was trained to do it under dire situations. He then proceeded to grab his spear parts and assembled it at the same speed, and ran off into the fray.

He did his normal fighting procedure of avoid, stab, repeat. He avoided several arrows that were fired in his direction, whether to him or if he was in their path.

Soon he started slowing down due to being tired. Thankfully there weren't that many left to get through. The archers got closer because his army's number is down by a lot as well. There were about a hundred left on both sides, but Chrysalis' went down faster than his. He continued slowing down because he was getting more and more tired as time passed. The arrows were getting closer and closer to his body until one hit.

He cried out in pain when the arrow sank into his foreleg. He foreleg was experiencing loads of pain that caused him to slump to the ground. The arrows kept coming and hitting him until one of the shot right through the perception filter and shattered it. The white light revealed none other than the normal Terminal.

"AH!" he screamed! "No no no no no no no! This can't be happening!" He went to pick up the shards of the filter only to see his legs looked like a changeling's. "AH! Why are my legs like this?!" He looked at the rest of his body to find he was a pony-changeling hybrid, becoming more of a changeling. The two races' appearances fused together at points of his body.

The arrows kept coming at him, regardless if he was a hybrid. Soon, his body couldn't take anymore. And he passed out.

Author's Note

This came up extremely late due to 7 WRITERS BLOCK MOMENTS! DAMMIT! This took WAY too long to finish. At least I was able to get this published. This was the worst amount of time of my life because of school, my obssesion with Doctor Who, and new MLP episodes. I HATE MY LIFE! Oh well. Beggars can't be choosers. On to the epilogue. You know, the part of this fanfic that I never stopped thinking about. Thinking about it makes me want to write more of this. That's what kept me going. You guys too. Allons-y! Damn it. I Tenth Doctor'd again.