Timeless

"Bigger on the inside? Goodness, you seem to have as much of a grasp on chaos as I do!" Discord sniggered as he walked around the interior of the TARDIS, gently poking all of the buttons that he came across, causing The Doctor to run over and push him away from the console.

"Don't touch those! They're very... timey... wimey... okay, I don't know what they do, but it could be serious!" He shouted, frowning as Discord giggled madly. Octavia glared at him, and he put on a look of mock hurt.

"Why, I obviously know what I'm doing, I'm saddened that you think I, Discord, would break anything!" He smiled innocently, but Octavia and The Doctor just stared blankly in return. "Nopony appreciates my humour here I guess. Everyponies a critic!" He raised his arms in to the air and walked off.

The Doctor shrugged and returned to the console, preparing to pilot the TARDIS. Octavia, not willing to sit there and watch The Doctor pretend he knew what he was doing, walked after Discord. It was either talking to him, or joining in on Applejack and Rainbow Dash's conversation, and although her disdain for Rainbow had subsided recently, she would still rather not talk to her if at all possible.

Discord sat at the top of the stairs leading to the second floor of the TARDIS, humming a small tune to himself. Octavia went and sat next to him, smiling when she recognised the song.

"Beethoofen's fifth. Not a bad choice, although I must say it wasn't my favourite of his works. You know, during those two years I met Beethoofen. I even helped him write that particular song." She smiled sadly as she remembered those meetings. She remembered how she nearly fainted when she first met Beethoofen in the past, being unable to believe that she'd met one of her idols.

"Oh, don't tell me you're going to get all sappy on me now!" Discord laughed gently, but stopped when he saw the look on Octavia's face. "...You miss them, don't you?" Octavia close her eyes, then nodded slowly. Discord paused for a few seconds, unsure of how to handle the situation. "Okay, I'm going to be a little boring here for a few seconds, so I apologize in advance. Listen Octavia, I'm immortal, so you might think I can help you deal with things like this, but I can't. I didn't have any friends until I met Fluttershy, and even now I have trouble with this. But you're the only likeable pony I've met since Fluttershy, so let me make you a deal. I'll help you get back there for however long you need; whether through magic or by tracking down this Doctor guy. But in exchange, I want you to promise me that you'll either say goodbye forever to all your friends there, or you'll stay there forever." He stood up and turned to walk back down the stairs, but stopped when Octavia asked him a question.

"...I'll think about the deal. But what in Equestria brought this on? I never had you pinned down as the sappy type," Discord turned and rubbed the back of his head with a paw.

"I suppose all this time being frozen nonsense has made me appreciate the magic of friendship. Urgh," He said, before walking off, leaving Octavia with her thoughts.

The Doctor stood atop the stairs, and looked down at the collection of ponies - and the draconequus - standing before him. In his mouth he held four red scarves, which he threw down to the group.

"I need you to put these on before we do anything else," They looked at him, confused, but shrugged and wrapped the scarves around their necks. "Good. Right, this plan is a little bit complicated, but just bear with me for a second. Okay, so, Chronus is a creature of time itself, and so nothing we can do will hurt him right? Wrong! The only way we can defeat him is by messing with time itself, and that means a time paradox, or something along those lines. We need to make time so angry that it weakens Chronus, letting us capture, or - if worst comes to worst - kill him," Discord giggled with glee, approving of any form of chaos. The other three glared at him, and he put on a sheepish grin.

"When the TARDIS lands, we need to jump out pretty much immediately, we can't afford to waste any time. When you get out, go to your counterpart from that time and whisper to them something only you would know, to gain their trust. Then we need to split up - preferably with your past counterpart in tow - and lead Chronus to the Canterlot Throne Room, where we should be able to defeat him. Then, if everything goes well, we should be returned to our own timeline,"

"And if it doesn't?" Discord asked.

"Then we'll probably explode in a giant ball of painful time energy," The group looked at each other, and shrugged simultaneously. "Everypony ready?" The Doctor asked, and the three ponies and the draconequus nodded. "Good, because the TARDIS is going to land in a few seconds. Get to the doors, and jump out on my command!" He and the others ran to the doors of the TARDIS and prepared themseves to leap out.

"Hold on, Ah think Ah've found it. Come over te the hourglass fer a second," Applejack said, pointing towards the small golden hourglass. The rest of the group moved next to Applejack, and looked inside the glass. Two red dots hung mencaingly in the air, before they disappeared in a purple flash. The sound of laughter echoed through the library, and the three ponies and the draconequus looked up to see a familiar stallion hovering in the air, tendrils of shadow hanging behind him.

"It's so nice to see you all here," Chronus said with a devilish grin, "and now the fun can begin. Prepare for your demise!" He shouted, before preparing to shoot a barrage of darkness at the group. He stopped, however, and looked around curiously.

"What in Equestria is that noise?" He askd, looking at the group assembled before him, who began listening intently.

"Ya mean the whirrin' sound?" Chronus nodded, looking around for the source of the noise. He managed to pinpoint it as coming from outside the ceiling of the library, and he flew up there to investigate. "Hmph, it stopped. Okay, demise time. Bla bla bla, I'm going to kill you, etcetera." He said, before shouting "Allons-y!"

"Wait... that wasn't me," He looked around for the source of the shout, only to be thrown to the floor by a blue box flying in through the ceiling of the library. It landed, and four ponies and a draconequus jumped out, red scarves wrapped around their necks. They jumped out and ran towards the current group who were watching in a mix of confusion and entertainment. They found themselves becoming even more confused when they realised that their mysterious saviours were in fact, them.

Rainbow Dash was the first to reach her counterpart from this timeline, and she promptly whispered something in the other Rainbow Dash's ear which caused her to blush furiously before smiling. "So you're me huh?" Past-Rainbow asked, a lot of ideas running through her head about the possibilities that arose from having two Rainbow Dashes.

"The one and...uh, well, not one and only, but you get the idea..." She hovered in the air and bumped Past-Rainbow's hoof against hers, grinning widely.

Applejack was the second one to reach her other version, and she mumbled something to her counterpart, which made the other Applejack nod, before eyeing up her doppelganger. "Guess we gotta figure out some sorta namin' system huh? How 'bout ah'm Present-Applejack and yer Future-Applejack?" She suggested, and Future-Applejack nodded in response.

"Guess we could shorten it to P-Applejack and F-Applejack if we need te," F-Applejack said, frowning when she heard both Rainbow Dashes laughing hysterically.

"Oh Celestia, Papplejack and Fapplejack? That's priceless!" The two Rainbows nearly dropped to the ground in laughter, and recieved two furious glares from two furious Applejacks.

Octavia then reached her past version. She muttered something, and P-Octavia's eyes widened, before she nodded. "Nice to meet you... uh, me. I suppose it's a little pointless introducing myself, isn't it?" P-Octavia laughed quietly.

"Yes, I suppose it is. I must say, it's nice to meet someone who isn't insane, even if it is me," F-Octavia said, before giggling. P-Octavia soon joined in, having a very similar sense of humour for obvious reasons, and before long the two were grinning widely.

Discord, after a long and casual stroll through Canterlot Library, sauntered up to his counterpart, a devious smile on his face. He shook P-Discord's claw, before calmly explaining that he was from an alternate timeline.

"And you think I'm just going to believe that?" P-Discord asked, his eyebrow raised.

"Oh no, I know so. After all, I am you," F-Discord said, before chuckling lightly.

"Hah, I suppose you know me too well. " P-Discord said, falling in to step beside his future version.

As the two groups met and talked amongst themselves, Chronus got up on to his hooves, clutching his chest in pain. He shouted loudly, and the seven ponies and two draconeeqi stopped talking and stared at him.

"That is it. Playtime is over. I'm done. I'm not letting you win... never. I'm sorry to see it all end, but this is it. This is the day it all ends for you," He panted angrily, before stomping his hooves on the ground, causing a large flash of purple light to fill the library. He smiled as the light subsided, taking in the sight of his nine nemeses.

The nine creatures that had the chance to stop him... frozen in time.