Chapters The lush plains of Ponyville spread out for the world to see as banners hung with care gently blew in the wind, welcoming the human ambassadors for the meeting of peace between the two worlds that would unfold. Equestria had come far since its wars and struggles against both griffon and zebra, finally breaking down their barriers and accepting each other with open arms. The sight was grand as more of the town slowly shown itself, smooth stone buildings with glass windows reaching for the sky, artificial light poles dimming and shutting off as the sun began to rise in the horizon, many homes and apartments splashed across the city.
The beauty of it all from further away made the earth pony, Gauge Blackwood, smile as he watched the town he loved from the sky above. As if from nowhere, a sudden explosion went off, destroying Ponyville and blinding Gauge as he began to fall down into a dark pit. His mouth opened up to scream as his eyes shot open.
Shocked and sitting upright in his bed, his breath came in short bursts as he attempted to calm down. He was still here, in his bed, in his apartment, in Ponyville. His hooves pressed into his eyes as he brushed away some of the crumbs that had gathered before seeing his bedside video-phone was going off. Pressing the button to accept the call, the dull grey screen lit up the dark room further and made Gauge shield his eyes for a moment.
"Hey, Gauge, you going to wake up at any time?" he heard a rather chipper female voice say.
Lowering his hooves, his eyes were greeted to see Agent 7 on the line, a fine female unicorn that could show off her curves as well as her deadly spells and athletics. "Do I have to?" Gauge grumbled, still trying to force himself from falling back onto his pillow.
Agent 7 looked over Gauge in worry, "You look terrible, another one of those nightmares?"
Gauge placed hooves on both sides of his head and twisted gently, waiting for his neck to pop. "I blame, GUH, Luna." With his neck popped, he breathed in the stale air of his bedroom. He kept the bedroom cleaned... relatively. The occasional tossed book or crumpled can remained on the floor, but he would get to those in time. "What's with the call?"
Agent 7 gave a surprised and angry huff, "You don't remember? You're supposed to be relieving me from guard duty!"
Gauge got up from his bed and flipped a switch in the room. Additional light came in and blinded him again, making him audibly moan as his eyes continued to adjust. "I thought we had the peace conference to go to."
Agent 7 continued watching Gauge as he rummaged through some of his clothing. "We do, but not you. You were the unlucky one that drew the short straw."
Gauge found his neuro-ocular prosthesis and put it on, covering his right eye. The eyepiece suddenly lit up as it went through a mandatory boot-up sequence. "The game was rigged, I saw the look on 19," Gauge continued, now trying to find a decent shirt.
"You suggested the game, its your own fault for losing it," Agent 7 flatly responded. "You're going to be late again, aren't you?"
"I'm not going to be late!" Gauge yelled out from behind his shirt prison, struggling to find where he needed to stick his head in. "I'll be right on time!"
Agent 7 looked away from the screen to her right and gave a pout, "You'd better, what would this make it, 5th time?"
Gauge finally popped his head out of the shirt, "4th, that last one was unwarranted."
Agent 7 looked back into the screen at Gauge, "Just, please, don't waste any time before getting here, Chief is already on edge as it is."
Gauge got in front of the video-phone and grinned, "Not a problem, see you at 0700."
Gauge shut the video-phone off and quickly went to his bathroom mirror and checked to see if he needed a shave. Gauge was a rather nondescript pony in his mind, a blue-green coat with bright orange eyes, a cutie mark of a tic-tac-toe game with the winning move being a third circle outside of the traditional square. His eyepiece finally booted up, his AI facing him as it spoke.
"Good morning, Gauge, your neuro-ocular prosthesis has recently received an update to its security protocol, forcing a mandatory systems check." The AI calmly spoke.
Gauge groaned as the eyepiece continued, gripping onto his card keyring which included his transport card, debit card, and a miniature flashlight, before walking out. The energy gauge and warning lights went off as Gauge walked through the apartment hallways on the fourth floor.
"The energy warning light is operational," The AI flatly spoke. "The energy level counter is at 100 percent." The AI opened up a window, showing what Gauge was carrying with him. "You have, one card keyring, in your inventory." The AI continued as Gauge pressed the button to summon the elevator.
"Scrolling through the biochip display panel," the AI continued as the hum of the elevator was heard. "You have the AI biochip installed."
Gauge tapped a hoof as the elevator rose up, its on-board system systematically counting upwards. "Second Floor... Third Floor... Fourth Floor" Gauge prepared to step forward when the elevator reached his floor, but saw it continue up with a passenger. "Roof Access."
"Initiating self-diagnosis of on-board Artificial Intelligence," the AI continued on in Gauge's ear, only adding to his impatience as he heard the elevator above him open and then close. "AI unit is fully operational. Agent 5, you are due for your shift at the Temporal Security Annex, recommend departure, soon."
The elevator finally came down to his floor as he stepped in and pressed the button to go to the lobby. He leaned against the elevator wall and sighed, still feeling tired, despite his efforts to remain awake. "Another grain bar and coffee for breakfast," he mumbled. "I really need to get a food dispenser one of these days..."
The elevator reached the lobby floor and opened its doors. Gauge walked out, seeing no one else around, obviously either still asleep or all crowding into transports of their own to attend the peace conference. He meekly pulled his debit card out and swiped it at the snack stand, waiting for the green light to let him know that he can purchase food. The green light went off and Gauge picked a sweetened Grain Bar, watching the device give a minor hum before plopping the treat in front of him. Taking the bar and biting into it, Gauge then made a swipe at the drink stand with his card and got a simple black coffee, only hoping that it would let his eyelids open up a little more.
The quick breakfast eaten and his coffee downed, Gauge finally approached the Global Transport pod as it opened up and revealed a seat for him to sit down on. Getting as comfortable as he could, the chair moved back and the pod closed, a screen revealing itself as a deep voice asked him "Please enter your Global Transport card, now."
Gauge brought up his inventory screen and summoned his card keyring to his hoof. With a flip, the keycard came out and Gauge swiped it into the card reader.
"Choose a destination," the pod asked politely. The screen gave him a few options of viable choices; Manehattan, Griffon Kingdom, Baltimare, Las Pegasus, and finally his workplace, the TSA. With little hesitation, Gauge chose TSA and waited for the pod to do its thing.
"Preparing destination transporter," the pod began. "Recording passenger's organic substratum, prepare for molecular disintegration."
The feeling was still unnerving as could be for Gauge, even if the process had been tested and proven to not to cause errors, the fact that he could still feel his body go entirely numb and then feel it again after appearing in an entirely different area was still creepy.
"I don't get how unicorns are able to be so comfortable with that," he thought to himself as the transport pod opened up, showing the entrance to the Temporal Security Annex. Stepping out of the pod and onto the active walkway, a red laser wall began swirling around him, scanning for anything out of the ordinary with him. Reaching the door with the TSA symbol on it, Gauge pressed the top circle, revealing a hidden screen.
Gauge put his face up to the screen as it began scanning his face. "Please hold for ID check," the door AI asked. "Scanning, verification of central cortex. Scanning for Biotech implant. Identification confirmed, welcome Agent 5. Your 4th late arrival has been verified and logged."
The screen shut off and the door opened, revealing Agent 7 on the other side, an upset look on her face. Agent 7 looked serious in her TSA uniform, covered in black with her name tag just saying 'Agent 7' on the front. Her light purple face and hazel eyes would only look better if she was smiling. "If I miss the first Equestrian encounter with an alien race, I'm going to throttle you"
She pushed past Gauge toward the Global Transport pod as Gauge looked back. "But I wasn't late!"
"Not according to this thing we call a clock!" Agent 7 yelled back before she entered the pod and shut it.
Gauge gave a weak sigh as he stepped into the TSA building.
"Welcome, Agent 5," one of the security robots called out. The robots were much larger than average pony size and were equipped with weapons that would wipe you off the face of the planet forever.
"Don't welcome him, stay focused on the entrance," the second robot snipped at his partner.
"I am," the first robot stated. "Can't I welcome somepony to work without being rudely yelled at?"
The robots continued their bickering at the entrance way as Gauge made his way to the Command Center and entered. In the room sat the hub of the TSA, surrounded by screens and at its center a surprisingly comfy chair. Moving around the computers and sitting in the chair, a message from Chief came up.
"So, you finally decided to make it into work," Chief gruffly criticized. The earth pony, Chief, was much older than Gauge, but had him beat in height and muscle. His once brown coat was turning lighter in color, but his steel-grey eyes remained just as cold as his young years. "Only 32 minutes late, this time."
"Chief, I'm not that-" Gauge began speaking before looking over to the clock beside him and seeing it reading 7:32. "Apparently I am that late."
"Obviously you think TSA rules don't apply to you," Chief continued as Gauge looked back at him. "Well, you are WRONG!" Chief bashed a hoof into his desk in the video and began snorting loudly. "AS. OF. NOW. YOU ARE GROUNDED! One week of reviewing data cleanup work in the Command Center! You can start by reviewing TSA agent procedures!" Another pound of the hoof and more snorting followed before he continued, "Get to work, you lazy sack of sh-!"
The message cut out as Gauge leaned back into his chair. He really did it this time. With that, Gauge had no choice but to look over the TSA Operations Review fully, something he hadn't done since he began working here.
***
"No wonder why I didn't watch these again, they're duuuuuulllllll!" Gauge moaned, listening to the AI go through everything he was already aware of. If an event in the past is changed, it causes a time shift throughout the time line. If he is seen in the past or is interacted with, he could also affect the time line as well. Whatever you do, don't acknowledge the princesses or their enemies. "They could do with some visual graphics instead of this dumb AI face."
His review was cut short as a loud blaring noise and blinking orange lights went off around him, causing him to jump back and tumble out of the chair. "Warning! Warning! Temporal rip has been detected! The alert status is now set to Alpha."
Uprighting the chair and getting back on, a call from the Chief came up. Gauge answered it to see Chief trying his best to maintain composure. "My... Celestia, its finally happened. And you... YOU on duty!" Chief brought his hoof up and over his mane, trying to straighten it as he began hyperventilating. "Everything depends on you, Ponyville, Equestria, the entire world, all on you!"
"Wait, why can't any of the other agents get here?" Gauge asked. "There has to be someone who isn't... grounded."
"DON'T-!" Chief exclaimed before stopping himself. "Don't try this with me, Agent 5. Just, get to the Ready Room and grab your gear."
Gauge gave a nod and rushed out of the Command Center, barely hitting the opposite wall as he attempted to gain traction again. He passed by the two robot guards at the entrance way, both still bickering with each other.
"-and now he's feeling rushed and anxious, all because you snipped at me!" he heard one robot explain.
"It's the Alpha alert that's causing that, not-" he heard from the other robot before he was too far ahead.
Another slide on the floor and Gauge reached the Ready Room door. The room opened and revealed a small room, with a section for assigned mission biochips and another section for suiting up. Gauge opened the biochip section and quickly inserted both chips into his eyepiece, a mapping biochip to help find his way around areas he had explored before, and a Pegasus chip, granting him access to the time machine that he now had to use.
Gauge moved to the biosuit generator and stepped inside, allowing the system to scan his body for correct measurements. With only a few more scans later, he was encapsulated in a biosuit that would keep his body from being aged in any form during time travel and would help with keeping away any sicknesses that may be around when he traveled.
Pressing a button in the biosuit generator, the platform he stood on began to descend to Pegasus. Pegasus looked unlike other time machines. It didn't travel with you, instead it physically sent you out into the past and tethered you to the present. His first mission was to go back in time to where the TSA hid the historical log, a time that could never be affected by pony presence or time distortions, the age of the dragons.
It was common knowledge that dragons practically ruled the world for the longest time, until a freak incident with a crashing meteor eliminated most of them, leaving the world to redevelop itself. In turn, this same meteor in regards for the time line would eliminate the historical log, never being revealed for the later generations of ponydom. Gauge approached Pegasus with respect, he had only seen it from above, looking down at it from the railing of the compound, but now he stood in front of the door that would let him go to whatever time he wanted. Such power had to be respected and admired, even if it came from a machine.
Gauge entered Pegasus and stood at the ready as the door shut behind him. Lights and multiple screens revealing information about the time rip revealed themselves as a compartment opened nearby, revealing the Journeymare Key. Taking the key and placing it into his inventory, Gauge felt the rumble of Pegasus warming up as the Chief appeared onscreen.
"Gauge," Chief began, still attempting to remain calm. "I need to remind you that the world has only one hope, its you." His eyes shut as he took a breath to calm himself. "I can only hope that the TSA building will remain here when you come back with the historical log." Gauge watched as Chief raised a hoof in salute to him, "Good luck, Agent 5."
The feed ended as Pegasus was ready to send Gauge back in time. Gauge set the machine for 200 million B.C and hovered a hoof over the button which would send him hurdling through space and time. With a gulp, Gauge pressed the button and felt everything began spinning, faster and faster as the pull began to occur. Gauge had found a worse way of traveling than by Global Transport as he felt energy crackle around him, the sight of multiple colors from events in the beyond making him nearly gag. His hooves found ground again as he looked around.
The wild life of the plants and noises of the animals told Gauge that he definitely wasn't at home here. He walked the straight path that was set for him and the other agents when they would arrive and quickly ducked into a rock when he heard a loud call from above. Keeping in his cover, he watched a beaked dragon with large wings, but very small body and legs, soar over him.
"Warning, you are currently in an area with multiple carnivorous creatures, please exercise caution." Gauge's AI mentioned as he moved from his hiding spot.
"Like I wasn't aware," Gauge mumbled now moving slower to make sure nothing would catch him off guard like that again. After a moment of searching around the large gorge, he found the symbol of the TSA and pressed it, activating a system of gears that made the symbol push back and move aside, revealing the lock for the historical log. For the longest time, Equestria relied on books and paper for storing information, but the scientific genius of many ponies led to the creation of storing data on disks that could easily hold millions upon millions of books.
Placing the Journeymare Key into its slot and twisting the knob, Gauge stepped back as the key began spinning and twisting around for a moment before it stopped. Taking the key out of its position, the steel wall was easily moved with a slide. Gauge carefully pulled the disk from its spot and placed it into his inventory. "Time to head back and see what changed," Gauge said to himself as he activated his Pegasus chip, sending him forward in time, back to his present time of 2318.
The pullback was just as bad as being shot through time, only serving to upset Gauge's stomach and make him dizzy before his hooves touched back on Pegasus' platform. A brief moment to collect himself was interrupted by an incoming call from Chief.
"Agent 5, what are you doing joyriding in the Pegasus?"
Gauge focused his eyes on Chief and regretted the decision, Chief looked so much older, despite being the same year Gauge had seen him before. His coat was entirely white and wrinkles could be seen in his eyes. "Chief?" Gauge whispered to himself, almost in disbelief.
Chief looked at him with further confusion himself, "Your research reconnaissance was not scheduled until 1200. That uniform is not the TSA standard, either. You have plenty to answer for soldier! Log your report at Command Center and come to my office immediately!"
The call ended and Gauge gave a nervous gulp, he now resided in an alternate timeline and began nervously thinking over how he could explain that he wasn't the Agent 5 of this timeline at all! "Well, you see sir," Gauge said to Chief in the hypothetical situation in his head. "I'm not your Agent 5, who you say should be coming in at 1200, I'm from another timeline that had something mess up really bad to it and now I have to fix it. Technically this means you are going to be undone, but you'll still be alive... technically."
Gauge had only half realized he was going in the direction of the Command Center when he passed by the guard robots, who remained stone silent. He moved on, even as the sound of the entryway was opened. His focus solely on the Command Center and the disk that resided in his inventory. "The moment I put the disk in... what's Chief going to say?"
Entering the Command Center and going to the center console, he put his hooves through his mane and gave a deep sigh. "Just follow procedure, quit thinking about it, this isn't your timeline, this isn't your TSA, this isn't your Chief, just... just breathe."
After a few calming breaths with his eyes shut, Gauge relaxed himself. Opening his eyes however added a new panic. What was before him was most certainly Discord, but the form suggested that he was feminine. It was well known that Discord had continuously been on the border when it came to allegiances, and during the Great War, he sat back and watched from the sidelines, only interfering when one side was ready to lose.
The womanly Discord laid on her side on top of the computer monitors, crossed legs and put her lion arm up to hold her head. She remained still as her half-open eyes lazily eyed Gauge as he cautiously pulled out the Historical Log. "Don't mind me, I'm just visiting."
Gauge quickly opened the disk compartment and put the Historical Log into it, prompting the system to begin its scan of historical inconsistencies through time. "TSA Protocol suggests that interaction with intruders in the main building shall be kept civil, but stern. Three warnings should be given before defensive action should be taken."
The female draconequus let out a raspberry and subsequently had her cheeks filled with something. Reaching into her mouth, she brought out a dripping raspberry and shrugged, shoving it back in and swallowing. "Come now, you don't need to be strict with me, I'm a changed creature of chaos after all."
The scan of the disk was finished as the computer now ran through each article made in order to find a more direct time to the event and its occurrence. "Chaos is still chaos, and this is your second warning," Gauge continued, becoming more annoyed at this unconventional beast.
"Is it because I'm a female instead of a male like you've seen before?" The female Discord smoothly said, a grin on her face as she ended her sentence.
Gauge's body froze as the scan finally finished and three incidents came up.
Stretching out and moving to her back, the lady draconequus briefly lifted her body up with her tail before settling down again. "Yep, I know a time anomaly when I see one." She inhaled through her nose and gave a slow breath out through her mouth, letting out a perfume. "Eris, is what you can call me. Can I still call you partner?"
Gauge felt his heart stop, there could be no way that this female draconequus was in any way a part of the TSA, let alone his partner. His heart reset as Eris began laughing loudly, letting him know that she was messing with him.
"This is your third and final warning," Gauge angrily spouted. "Any further action will be met with force."
Eris tapped the eyepiece of Gauge's, letting out a spark. "Can't have that."
Her form began to dissipate as Gauge's AI immediately came up. "Warning, unauthorized access o- o- of AI bi- i- i- i-ochip has occurred -d -d -d." The AI continuously skipped and changed pitch as the face began distorting. "Shutdown im- m- m-"
The AI shut off along with Gauge's neuroprothesis, temporarily leaving Gauge blind in one eye before it began booting up again. Unlike before, the load up was short as the AI appeared. Gauge shot back as Eris face now took the place of his helpful AI. "Boot up, complete."
"Get out of there!" Gauge grit through his teeth, feeling violated of his property being taken over.
Eris face gave a dramatic frown, "But if I do that, you'll use physical force to hurt me." Her face went back to normal as she chuckled. "What better way to travel than by biochip?"
Gauge knew he had little time for this and instead focused his efforts on the three separate times of history that were affected.
15 May 2112 - Altered
Today, amid the worldwide peace treaty between all kingdoms a megaspell was launched by Equestria toward the Griffon Kingdom. The megaspell, despite its launch, was self-destructed before it could touch down. The fear caused by this event on all sides has now given the peace treaty little to no chance of being passed by any side.
Gauge carefully looked through the information and came up with the area that allowed the launch to take place, an underwater base that Equestria used in their own fights on the sea.
"There was never a spell launch during the treaty signings," Gauge murmured to himself.
Eris gave a tap on her chin, "No, I didn't have thoughts on a change of looks until later." A grin came on her face, "Although, I did enjoy seeing everyone in that conference freak out. You'd never see so many stuffy shirts puff out in anger in your life."
15 May 2112 - Unaltered
The Griffon Kingdom finally appears ready to sign the worldwide peace treaty, effectively ending fights on all sides and in turn also allowing all creatures to throw down their arms and accept every race and creature without threat of harm. One terrorist faction had sent notice of their disagreement of this treaty and have taken several hostages. Regardless of these threats, it appears that all sides are willing to sign and bring about a new era of peace and love for everyone, not just everypony.
Eris stuck out her tongue, "Bleh, happy endings are always the worst."
Gauge gave a smile at the sight of an infamous picture of Celestia wrapping her wings and hooves around the former ruler of the Griffon Kingdom. "All the books I read about this moment, and that picture is the only thing I ever wanted to remember."
Eris pursed her lips and turned down from the picture, "Stupid Celestia, looking so happy..."
02 August 2185 - Altered
The Samurai Corporation Moon Colony suddenly went offline last night, moments after the sighting of an unidentified spacecraft in the area. While it is still unclear as to the cause of this sudden event, many believe the cause is tied to this same ship. The only information about the ship that is confirmed is the scan which detected forms of life as the ship traveled through space. The sighting of the craft, along with its sudden rapid departure and an explosion reported moments after, only adds more fuel to the theory that whatever was in the craft, it is malevolent and dangerous.
Gauge watched sadly as the moon colony faded from sight, "That colony was meant to be successful, it was only a few years after that scientists were talking about options on colonizing other planets."
Eris made no comment, her fingers pushed together and in front of her lips as she concentrated on the Unaltered history.
02 August 2185 - Unaltered
Early today, a cargo ship in transit to the Samurai Moon Colony caught a ship in its long range sensors that was hovering over the colony. Landing scanners confirmed these scans of the unidentified spacecraft and sent notice immediately to Equestria. Soon after, the spacecraft sped off toward the outer reaches of the solar system. This is the first verified alien spacecraft by the governement, which has sparked emergancy closed door meetings on this momentous event and the implications that must now be addressed.
"It was right here," Eris calmly spoke. "When Celestia had heard of this attack done by the aliens, she threw into a rage and promptly secluded herself in the sun."
Gauge watched Eris as her face fell in sadness, making him curious as to what other things caused by these changes have altered the world.
"She left Luna in charge and said she wouldn't return until all the world called for her return, not just her little ponies," Eris softly said, her eyes slowly getting wet with tears. "I was about to propose to her on that day..."
Eris went quiet as Gauge moved on, not wanting to pry further into what had to have been a painful past for Eris. Though not on the list of changed events, he made a search for the day that the aliens returned and sent a message throughout the world about them.
06 November 2308 - Altered
Today, one hundred twenty three years after the first official UFO encounter, an alien spacecraft entered into earth's orbit. Several hours of silence and mounting tension later, the spacecraft sent a message which resonated through every concievable transmitter. This was the message.
"We will return when you are ready."
No pony is sure as to the meaning behind this message, however, many leaders have voiced concern over interacting with these powerful and potentially dangerous aliens.
Gauge once again found himself stunned, but slowly began to understand the pattern behind the attacks. "Someone doesn't want the world to acknowledge the human race... but why?"
Eris' ears twitched at the name of human, "That's what they were called! I knew that they had a name and Celestia had knowledge of them before, but I couldn't remember their names! I love those guys and gals! The potential of chaos they brought to the table in their early years, mwah, magnifique."
"A lot like the pony race in that regard, huh?" Gauge asked.
"Well, yeah, but that race had difficulty understanding the concept of a round earth for over two thousand years," Eris scoffed. "It didn't take long for your race to figure out the basics in comparison to those suckers."
06 November 2308 - Unaltered
More than a century after the first confirmed sighting of a UFO, aliens have finally made contact with Earth. Early this morning, a huge triangular shaped vehicle entered into Earth's orbit. After three hours, the spacecraft went through the atomosphere and hovered over Ponyville. Moments later, the following message was transmitted over all communication frequencies.
"We are the human race, please, do not be alarmed. We have come because we feel that you are ready for the acceptance of additional races and their traditions from beyond the dimensional plane. You are no longer dangerous to yourselves or to others, which is why we wish to invite you to join us in the Symbiotry of Peaceful Beings, which includes more than just ourselves, but other alien races and technologies. We are an alliance of sentient beings with the objective to benefit from the sharing of knowledge and culture."
"We understand that there may need to be some time for you to process and comprehend the significance of this encounter, so we will leave you for now and return ten years from now on this same day. Human delegates will touch down and extend this formal invitation to you, but until then, we will look forward to this meeting with every one of you in person."
As suddenly as they appeared, they humans departed, leaving Earth to ponder and delegate over the implications of their existance and of the proposal that was set before them.
Gauge nodded, remembering that moment as he was caught up in a virtual reality game that was suddenly cut off and the voice of this new being reached his ears, making him nervous. In his mind, he had thought that the game was broken or he had found a hidden easter egg, as the games usually would, but the moment the voice ended, the game resumed as if nothing happened. His parents held him close as they also felt the sudden weight of this new development and hoped that their fears would be over nothing.
Eris smiled, "They are slow to start, but humans can go when they put their minds to it." She suddenly had a sense of realization, "But, it didn't happen here... only in the proper time line from where you are." Her face became serious as she looked into Gauge, "It's settled, I'm sticking with you and going back to your timeline! This one stunk anyway."
"One last entry," Gauge said, attempting to ignore the zealous of Eris.
17 January 2310 - Altered
Doctor Castiwho, well known biologist and advocate for establishing alien relations has been murdered.
Gauge's attention finally was turned away from the tragedy that had befallen these time lines and began feeling ill. Who? Who was responsible for these horrific acts? From world peace being absolutely decimated, to entire colonies of lives destroyed, to finally the keystone of establishing relations with humans being wiped from the earth, all because someone planned it to happen.
During his speech at the World Science Center, a single shot was fired at Castiwho from an unknown assailant. He was pronounced dead on arrival at the medical complex. The murderer still remains at large, and the tragedy of this outspoken supporter of establishing contact and relations with the aliens will be sorely missed and lost forever to the few that stood by his belief.
Gauge couldn't get himself to move to activate the unaltered section as he felt his heart break.
"Agent 5?" Eris cautiously spoke up, tapping on the screen of Gauge's eyepiece. "You, uh... You wanna show me what happened in your timeline?"
Gauge remained quiet as he leaned forward onto the Command Center desk, holding his head and trying to find the urge to yell or cry or scream or display some kind of emotion. "I never followed the news," he choked out. "I have always had the firm belief that we could all do the right thing, and what was going to happen today..." Gauge swallowed, trying to wet his throat. "Today we were going to be rewarded for doing the right thing after all these years, for every war, every plague, every struggle, we were going to reach our pinnacle."
Eris established a wireless connection to the Historical Log and began the Unaltered segment.
17 January 2310 - Unaltered
The Symposium on Alien Contact began today at the World Science Center in Horsetrailia. The debates are centered on whether the Equestrian race is ready for interaction with alien races. One speaker, Doctor Castiwho, had a moving speech on the subject and embarrassed neighsayers by effectively handling their arguments and shooting them down. His thoughts have thrilled the scientifc community with the prospect of further advanced medical and technological advances which could be gained with the relationship with these alien species. Although both sides had strong keynote speeches, most in attendance appear to be in favor of establishing alien contact.
Gauge's eyes looked up and saw a fleeting image of a pony and promptly moved the playback a little back to see the image. It was Time Turner, the inventor of the first time machine.
Before Gauge could get information as to why Time Turner was there or what he was doing, his feed was immediately cut by Chief.
"Chief!" Gauge nervously yelped. "D-don't worry, I was going to go to your office and-"
"Save it, Agent 5," Chief tiredly waved off the nervousness. "I've been alerted that you have the historical log."
Gauge gave a nod, "I'm sorry I couldn't tell you, part of the protocol and all that."
Chief continued to look sadly at Gauge, "I have the information about the temporal distortions that you've just looked into and part of me still believes that this event still couldn't have happened." His face began to look guilty as Gauge heard a hiss at the Command Center door as it locked. "I can't send you back to change things now."
"What?!" Gauge yelled, forcibly moving from his chair to the door and attempting to unlock it in some way. After a few moments and banging at the metal, Gauge looked back at Chief. "You can't do this, Chief! You and I both know that what is happening now should not BE happening!"
Chief banged a hoof on his desk, "This is the only life and world I've ever known! Damn the regulations, I won't let you go back and erase everything that I am!"
It was Gauge's turn to bang a hoof as he smacked the Command Center door again, "I don't care if you think the regulations are for better or for worse! The Chief I know if he was faced in a situation like this wouldn't act like a sniveling coward about how his entire life and career were now for naught! Let me out this instant!"
Chief remained still as Gauge continued smacking the door, even throwing the Command Center chair to try and dent it perhaps, but it was all in vain. "As of right now, you are a hostile enemy of the state. The robots One and Two are being sent to guard the Command Center door until I figure out how to dispose of you."
Gauge collapsed at the door, his head resting against the metal as he began shaking. "Why, Chief? Why are you doing this?"
"I'm sorry, Agent 5," Chief solumnly said. "Once I destroy the Historical Log, the only memories of your world will be in your head." Chief swallowed and attempted to puff his chest out. "And that's where they are going to stay."
Gauge began crying, knowing that his only way out was now taken from him. "You son of a diamond dog." His body slumped away from the door as he sat looking at his only way out remain shut.
"Ahem, excuse me, gentlemen?"
Gauge looked back to the monitors and saw Eris now take control of the call. "Yes, I've been reading here in this book of protocols on time travel that Gauge has in his AI library. Says here, Chief that what you're doing is against contingency 13 which states that, ahem, pardon me."
Eris pulled out a pair of reading glasses and began speaking in a proper English accent, "Any attempt to obstruct a TSA agent while on a mission is a direct violation of TSA regulation 11." She wiped the glasses off with an arm and chucked the book over her shoulder. "Fact is, I'm now running this show, so your robots are going to safely guard the entryway and out of sight of my boy over there, mmkay, old pony?"
Gauge could hear outside the door a shuffling of clanking hoofsteps go away and the door hiss again, signaling that it had unlocked.
"Y-You can't-!" Chief was about to object when Eris ripped the mouth off of the Chief and stapled it shut.
"Excuse me, I have a date with a TSA agent's eyepiece," Eris slyly said before disappearing from the Command Center monitor and back on Gauge's neuroprothesis. "Come on, secret time agent pony, let's ride on the Pegasus!"
Gauge made no response, but bolted to the Ready Room and back into the chute down to the time machine. Entering inside, Eris made a whistle as the machine's screens began showing up. "It looks so much bigger on the inside than on the outside, isn't that weird?"
The screen immediately came on with a call from Chief as Gauge went to activate Pegasus. "Gauge! Wait! Please, don't do this! We can talk this over! I- I can get you whatever you want! Promotion, blank checks, your own country, just don't-!"
Eris immediately shut off the communication as Gauge gave a smile. "Thanks, I couldn't stand another second of that guy."
"Me either," Eris cheekily smiled. "Now, time traveler, where are we going?"
"We got three choices," Gauge said, pointing to the three times and locations. "So..."
"Eenie."
"Meenie."
"Miney."
"Mo."
Gauge's vision returned to the sight of a departing spacecraft, leaving the base as it went into starry space. The sight alone made Gauge pause, taking in the vastness of space and remembering his first moments of learning just how far that the world had reached out into space and its planets.
"Shuttle One has just departed from the east gantry," a male voice announced over the intercom, snapping Gauge back into focus as to why he was here.
"Good first choice," Eris cooed. "We go a little bit into the past, head up on the moon, maybe take a few photos of where Nightmare Moon may have rolled around in boredom before she came back, save an entire colony of ponies, zebras, griffons, diamond dogs, and whatever else is up here, and then-" Her lengthy speech was cut short as Gauge moved forward toward the colony entrance and the doors opened, showing a large bipedal robot start coming their way. It stood above him as it spun its four-pronged left claw, the right arm consisting of a high-powered plasma rifle.
The robot kept moving forward toward Gauge, its one optical lens focused solely on him. Gauge could barely react as the robot gripped Gauge by the throat and lifted him up, making Gauge gasp for air. With one scan of the robot's lens, it pulled back and then sent Gauge flying backwards back down the hallway, eventually skidding to a halt.
Gauge groaned as he felt the impact slowly subside before he got up, seeing his attacker go down a separate hallway.
"Not very much of a talker in that one," Eris commented as Gauge checked his energy levels, seeing no effect caused.
"I'll garner a guess and say that robot is what we're looking for," Gauge determinedly said, a fire in his eyes.
"Tunnel pod has just departed off the transport sector," the friendly male voice announced over the intercom.
With little prompt, Gauge went after to where the robot had went to, passing the sliding doors that read 'Maintenance Transport'. Entering the dark room, Gauge could only see dull orange lights in a tunnel that seemed to indicate where the robot had run off to. Carefully attempting to not trip over something, Gauge checked around to see if there was a way to call back the transport pod, but found nothing.
"Well, this isn't going to get us anywhere," Eris mentioned as Gauge gave a sigh.
"Maybe if I can get into the mainframe, I could get a few more clues and maybe another way in," Gauge mumbled to himself, already moving to the exit back to the main hallway.
Gauge went back to the hallway and stepped into the crossroads he was at previously. Looking at the four directions, he saw the colony main entrance, the shuttle pod section, a door reading 'Restricted Area', and then back to where the maintenance doors were.
Approaching the main entrance, Gauge stopped and pressed a button on his prosthesis, activating a scan that would detect lifeforms roughly fifty feet around him. "No detection, good start."
Entering the main entrance, Gauge noticed the area where he would check in was completely barren, puzzling him. "I would've thought that someone would be here, a guard, receptionist, maybe even just a simple check-in computer."
Eris chuckled, "Maybe we caught them during a lunch break and that's why that robot wasn't being chased after by anyone."
Gauge gave a nod and peeked over the counter, noticing a chair was knocked over. Even stranger was the fact that a keycard was left behind, giving maximum permissions to different areas of the colony. Picking up the card, Gauge gave a scan to it, only noting that it was just recently printed. Stashing the card into his inventory, Gauge moved to a computer. "Alright, time to learn some more about this colony."
With little more than a few quick keystrokes, Gauge had brought up and stored various pieces of information about the colony. "Let's see, Tourist information, not really. Sights of the moon, no. This looks like what I want, Colonial History."
Gauge waited patiently as the program talked about the fascination of the moon, early build designs, and finally what he had been looking for, information on the maintenance section and restricted areas.
"The generator of this colony's atmospheric shield lies far beneath the moon's surface, leaving a legacy behind of the miner's caverns that have been made underneath. While construction of the colony still remains incomplete, the project should be finally completed by the end of this year. The maintenance tunnels and restricted areas are the only places on the colony which are inaccessible for the moment as many of the tunnels and supports are still being worked on. However, life can still be made capable and eventually the entirety of the Samurai Moon Colony will be opened for the public."
With one final pull of information, Gauge placed map information into his mapping biochip so he would figure out where he was; should he become lost.
"Aaaaand, we should be able to ride the tunnel pod," Eris finally spoke up. "Sent a message out to have the pod come right back, so we should be able to chase after that robot." She went quiet as Gauge left to go back to the maintenance tunnel. "What exactly are you going to do with that robot, anyway? I did notice that you don't really have anything to protect yourself with, like, you know, a gun or something."
Gauge entered through the sliding doors of the maintenance tunnel again, seeing the lights of the approaching pod come. "It would be too risky to bring weapons of any kind across time," he began explaining. "If for some reason I was disarmed, or worse, someone else could hear my shots, the risk of the timeline being altered in a different way would be there. The gun would show technology that would have yet to be perfected and perhaps in a worst case scenario, we would undergo another Great War if someone had the bright idea to use it for themselves."
Eris only seemed to slightly understand, just nodding the entire time Gauge spoke.
The pod finally docked at its station as the lights of the room came up, letting Gauge get a better view of what was around him. It was a small room, but there was really nothing of value that was being stored. Curiously, Gauge set around the room, peeking around barrels and boxes to see if he could find something. "There has to be at least something around here that may have been left behind, hand drill, welding tool, something."
Entering the pod, Gauge opened a compartment door, revealing a collapsible power crowbar. Taking it out and putting it to its full length, Gauge could hear the power crystal inside the tool hum as the tool revealed its ultrasonic nature. "It'll at least do if I get jumped by that giant again, but I don't think I can take it out with just this."
Gauge whipped the crowbar back into its collapsed state and put it into his inventory as Eris called out, "All aboard! Next stop, erm, the... place this pod was last. I thought I had something."
Gage turned to the controls and noted the screen asking for his identification card. Out of habit, Gauge reached for his own personal keycard before pausing and instead grabbing the Samurai keycard he had grabbed a few moments ago. Placing in the card, Gauge pushed the lever forward on the pod. The pod warmed up momentarily before running forward on its rails, letting out a bright light in front of it to let Gauge see in front of him. The trip was not of any spectacular nature, but Gauge let his thoughts focus once again at the issue at hoof.
"Any guesses as to why anyone would not want us to interact with the aliens?" Gauge shouted over the loud rumble of the wheels.
Eris thought over the question for a moment. "Best answer I could think of would be over a personal dispute, whoever it is that's causing this doesn't like humans, period."
Gauge's face contorted in anger and confusion of his own, "It has to be more complicated than that."
The pod finally rested at its terminal and Gauge stepped out. A quick look at the map told him that he was further into the moon's core, but the map was having difficulty receiving information from the main computer of the colony.
Passing through the maintenance transport doors, Gauge found himself looking into a much darker area, with lights only spaced just enough to light a single section of the area going to a crosswalk.
Eris gave a noise as she shuddered. "Whoa! Major temporal flux nearby."
Gauge checked around him to see if something was off, but all he saw was a lone oxygen mask station, a door leading to the Shield Generator that kept the atmosphere in check for the colony, keeping the oxygen in and blocking the outside atmosphere. The other door was an air lock leading to... well, Gauge wasn't sure. Bringing up the mapping biochip again, he grunted, now getting no signal from the mainframe. Setting the map biochip into manual mode, Gauge could only hope that if he was lost down here, he'd know where he was before at least.
Before he could make a move, the Shield Generator doors opened, showing the same bipedal robot from before. Gauge took a defensive pose and began thinking of any way he could perhaps disorient or confuse the colossus.
It again got close to him, staring down with its optical lens before an unearthly low toned voice came from it.
"Out of my way, pony, or die."
Gauge gave a quick look around him before ducking into the small section where the oxygen mask station was. Looking back at the robot, he watched it enter the room of the Maintence Transport.
The male voice on the intercom confirmed the worst case scenario that Gauge could face as it said, "Tunnel pod has just departed from lower transport sector."
"Yeeuh-oh," Eris quietly gulped. "I have no way to tell the transport to come back from this far away."
"That's fine," Gauge said, gritting his teeth. "Let's see what that robot was doing in that generator room."
Having the doors opened, Gauge had to blink a few times because of the brightness that came from within. A column of pure white energy rested at the center of the room, no doubt the generator that kept the shield up.
"That's some heavy magic energy in there," Eris said before giving a sniff. "And it's the really nasty kind, like the roast you like a turkey kind, if its not checked."
Gauge paused, still not wanting to pass through the doors just yet. "My biosuit can protect me from a lot of the elements around me, including magical energies to an extent. See if you can't alter the suit to compensate for what is in there."
Eris hummed and gave her tongue a few clicks before she gave a huff. "It'll hold captain," she said in a Scottish accent. "But if ya stay in there too long, the ship canna handle it."
"In general terms," Gauge said with annoyance.
"If you stay in there for more than five minutes, your entire body is going to fry," Eris responded.
Gauge remained still for a moment before stepping onto the platform in front of him. The platform's glass screen lit up, showing Gauge that this was a diagnostic and repair platform which could spin around the area of the shield generator. Pressing the arrow to begin moving, Gauge kept an eye out for something out of place. He stopped the platform when he saw a panel ripped from the generator and pressed another button to move forward towards it.
Approaching the torn panel, Gauge didn't need to wait for the system to tell him something was wrong as he stared down a blinking device that was jammed into a card reader.
"Warning, foreign object detected in access card slot, analyze object or attempt removal?" The platform read back to him.
Not taking a chance, Gauge let the platform scan the object, unsure of what would happen if it was suddenly tampered with. Sure enough, the scan checked the object and confirmed it to be a timed detonation device connected to an explosive charge. His only hope in disarming the bomb was to try and get a disarm signal sent to it.
"Can you hook up a link to the bomb, Eris?" Gauge hoarsely gasped, not wanting to make a move so close to something so deadly.
"Do I look like an expert bomb handler?!" Eris screamed at him. "I don't know about you, but I'd much rather let a professional handle it besides me."
"You're not going to handle it, I will," Gauge quickly said, knowing that time was against him both with the radiation and now this bomb. "Just link up to the bomb and bring up the electrosynaptic connections on the platform screen. If my gut is right, all I need to do is make sure the right nodes are in the right place and this explosive can be shut off."
Eris gave a noise of uncertainty before Gauge saw the platform screen present the screen, but what he expected was something entirely different. Instead of a simple logistic code, it was a puzzle asking to fill in the connections with colored nodes.
"What is this?" Gauge said, already knowing who was the cause behind it.
"I did what you asked," Eris whined. "Don't blame me if I wanted to make disarming a bomb a bit of a challenge by making it a puzzle."
Gauge began placing the three colored nodes he was given as a choice into the three connection slots. On his first run, the system let him know he had only placed one node in the right place. The second time around was simple as he just swapped colors on the second and third connection and the puzzle was completed.
"Now accessing level 2."
Gauge watched as the screen presented the same three connection slots but now a fourth node had become available. Ignoring every urge to groan in frustration, Gauge pressed on. After two failed attempts to get any of the combinations right, Gauge continued down the line of possibilities. "1,2,3 didn't work. 2,3,4 was also a bust, so let's try 4,1,2."
"Zero nodes correct."
Gauge gave a grin, knowing there was only one possible outcome remaining as he put in nodes 3, 4, 1 and watched the screen move into the next level, only adding an additional node.
"Damn you, Eris!" Gauge screamed as he saw a fifth node now available for the choosing. Gauge could already feel his suit warming up considerably, his time was running out to get out before he would suddenly burn up by the magical radiation emanating from the generator.
"5, 4, 3," Gauge quickly began tapping. "Damn! 1, 2, 4! Bucking hell!" His attempts were being rushed as his head tried to keep in control to figure out the combinations remaining. "4, 5, 1! Not it!" His heart began racing as his eyes kept searching for something remaining he wasn't aware of. "3, 1, 2!"
Expecting the bomb to go off, Gauge braced himself, but heard the machine give a whir and a click as the bomb came out and landed on the platform Gauge was on.
Eris began applauding, "You did it! This must have been what caused the explosion of the colony! But, the time anomaly is still hanging around... It's the robot! See if you can find it and put a stop to whatever else it may be planning to do!"
Gauge had little time to celebrate as he hurriedly retracted the platform from the generator and moved back to the door. Upon reaching the door, Gauge swept up the card bomb and leaped from the room as the doors shut behind him. His biosuit smoked as it began cooling off from the outside air of the underground hallway.
"Nice moves," Eris commented as Gauge picked himself up from the floor. "However, we still have the problem of us not being able to get out of here."
Gauge looked to his Pegasus chip and contemplated jumping back and then forward back where he was. "It won't work," Gauge mumbled to himself. "The Pegasus is only meant to store one moment of time in its jump. If I jump back to the present and then back again, all my efforts will be moot."
Eris groaned in annoyance, "So many rules you agents have to follow, no wonder you don't want to let the world know of your existance. You're all a bunch of dull office workers disguised under a neat suit."
Gauge stood in the hall and thought of his options when he looked back at the oxygen station and then the air lock.
"We're going to be stuck in these mines for a long time, aren't we?" Eris asked before Gauge removed an oxygen mask from its place.
"I have a thought," Gauge quietly spoke. Sticking the mask in the air refilling station, Gauge heard a low hiss and a red light appear.
"Warning! This air station has just run out of viable oxygen. Please make requests for refills of the air station as soon as possible."
Gauge removed the oxygen mask and scanned it for a moment. "Only three minutes of air."
Eris gave a look of concern to Gauge, "What are you planning in that head of yours?"
Gauge approached the air lock and watched the doors spin open. "Call it a hunch, but if this is a mine, then we can get out."
"How?" Eris questioned. "You wander around aimlessly in a dark shaft before you pass out due to oxygen deprevation?"
Gauge smiled as the doors swung shut behind him and he pressurized the air lock. "No, we find where they're dumping the rocks and ride up and out... hopefully." As he finished saying this, he latched the oxygen mask to his muzzle and spun the air lock to the opposite side.
Stepping out of the air lock, Gauge knew he had little time to focus on the carved walls of the mine he found himself in and began making his way around the area. He continuously checked his Mapping biochip to see where he had been and was seeing that he was in a rather large and extensive area. Occasionally, Gauge would see a working mining bot as it ate through the moon's walls, but his focus was solely on finding where the dumping ground was.
Eris kept her eye on Gauge's timer and barely reacted to anything around when suddenly her ears gave a twitch. "Gauge, we're getting closer to the mainframe again, keep moving forward and I'll try to get a viable map of this place."
Gauge remained quiet, not wanting to waste what little air he had.
Further and further in, Gauge kept getting close to being eaten alive by the mining bots and was pelted with occasional welding sparks by dromes programmed to keep the mine shaft from falling apart. It was becoming clearer as time went on that his breaths were also becoming few and far between as he started to become light-headed.
Stumbling down a hallway, Gauge tried to focus his eyes on something moving and noticed multiple carts of rocks lifting upwards to an unknown destination. He went to turn back when Eris gave a "YES!"
"Get on the cart, Gauge! It's a one-way ticket to the ore processing room!" Eris excitedly screamed.
Gauge nearly collapsed into the cart as it rose, his motor functions now being hindered. He tried to remain awake as he tilted forward on the cart and toppled into a room filled with gears and an air lock on the other side.
"Almost there!" Eris cried. "C'mon, secret time agent pony, get up!"
Gauge struggled forward as the timer of the mask ticked down to the final seconds. The spinning doors of the air lock opened up as Gauge crawled inside. With a final push of effort, Gauge hit the pressurize button and hit the floor. The mask coming off of him as a rush of fresh air entered the air lock.
Eris briefly took consideration of leaving Gauge's AI biochip to try and wake him when Gauge began gasping loudly, his eyes nearly bulging out of his head. Gauge used the air lock's walls to support him and pressed his head against the window to see the same hallway he had entered from the beginning. His moment of rest was halted as he watched the robot that forced him to take this desperate action, strut across from him toward the shuttle bay.
"You're not getting away that easy," Gauge scowled as he pushed the spin button and faced the door.
The doors opened as Gauge sprinted forward toward the direction of the bot. He watched it as from the far end it entered a shuttle pod and prepared to rocket off. With little thought, Gauge rushed toward the last remaining pod and entered in it, preparing to give chase.
As the computer went through its systems check, a series of communications from the colony began to come up.
"Shuttle 2 has just departed, but according to scans there's no one inside. Do we have permissions to bring back the shuttle due to faulty launch?"
"Roger that, Shuttle 3 has just been approved for... uh, hold on a moment. Shuttle 3 is preparing for launch this instant.
"Who is it? None of the security team is scheduled for drop launch!
"We're unsure, but we are reading a lifesign in the shuttle. As it is, its too late to stop its launch sequence."
"Very well, then we're going to try to establish communications between shuttles 3 and 2, perhaps see if we can understand what's going on."
Eris shut off communications and gave an innocent face, "Ooops."
Gauge rolled his eyes as the shuttle shot forward, the computer was on auto-pilot as Gauge noted the shuttle ahead of him and waited until both of them were beyond the moon's gravitational pull to activate the weapons system.
"Ohohoho," Eris laughed, "We're going to blow that bot to smitherens!"
"I've got a better idea," Guage said as he activated the energy dampening beam. "It's clear that bot has information on why its here, and I'm going to pull whatever info he has out of its head."
Gauge took a couple of shots at the ship ahead and watched as it began to struggle to maintain its speed.
"Alright, time to haul this ship back," Gauge grinned as he activated the tractor beam.
At first, it seemed the beam wasn't working, but Gauge was shocked when he saw the thrusters on the other ship blow up.
"What'd you do?!" Eris yelled.
"Scans of the ship indicate damage caused in attempts to break away from tractor beam. All onboard electrical systems have been overloaded. It is safe to transport within ship at this time."
Gauge let his shuttle teleport him to the opposing ship. He stood behind the chair of the bot and brought out his sonic crowbar, not taking chances on what was going to come next.
The robot spun around as the electrical systems sparked all around him, it wasn't going to last for too long.
"Alright," Gauge yelled out. "Robot, state your name and purpose!"
The robot recieved a large bolt of electricity from the console as it spoke its final words. "The alien ship... must... be... dessssttttrrrrrooooooyyyyyeeeeedddd." The robot bent forward, exposing the top of its head to Gauge.
Gauge eased back and put the crowbar back in his inventory. Carefully pulling back a panel on its head, Gauge looked down at the biochips that rested inside. Besides a mapping biochip that gave Gauge proof of where the robot was, Gauge recieved a Shield biochip and an Optical Memory biochip.
With satisfaction, Gauge closed the panel and watched as the robot suddenly vanished from sight.
"Let's go home, time agent," Eris said with determinism. "We've got two more times and places to go."
World Science Center - 2310
Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter. Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter. Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter. 