Timeless

Applejack was rather confused. Merely a few hours ago she had awoken with her biggest concern being whether or not she would be able to buck all of the apples in the south orchard. Now she was on a journey to Canterlot with Discord in order to restore the flow of time. If she had a choice, she wouldn't have been alone with him, but Rainbow Dash and Octavia had decided to go round to the other side of Canterlot to check if the princesses were there. This meant they had to diverge quite early on, leaving Applejack alone with Discord.

It would have been fine if he didn't insist on making conversation with Applejack.

"So then, how are things with your marefriend?" Discord smiled sweetly.

"W...what? Ah don't have a marefriend!" Applejack leapt back, confused.

"Oh, really? Not even your little polychromatic friend? You could cut the romantic tension between you two with a blunt knife! Or is it perhaps little Rarity? Imagine the fun you two could have together! She could put you in her fashion shows, and you could drag her around the farm!" Discord laughed loudly at the expression on Applejack's face, which was a cross between fury and horror.

"Hold on, even if ah did have a crush on somepony, which ah don't, why the hay does it gotta be a mare?" Applejack thought about shaking a hoof at Discord angrily, but this would have made walking difficult, so she settled with an angry glare.

"Why, isn't it obvious? The only stallion I've seen in ponyville thus far is that brother of yours, and while I understand you and your family are close, I find it difficult to believe that you could be that close!" He sniggered as Applejack blushed strongly.

"Who ah'm interested in don't matter! Why'd ya even ask?"

"Oh, just taking a general interest. Romance appears to be some sort of popular subject amongst you ponies. Can't say it's ever appealed to me, being the last of my kind and all, bla bla bla," Discord waved his paw in the air nonchalantly. "Most ponies don't seem to have this strong of a reaction. Hmm, what could it possibly be?" He scratched his chin with a claw, pretending to think deeply. "Oh ho ho, I think I've got it! Why, the only pony you could possibly have a crush on, the only one dashingly handsome, intelligent and suave enough to garner your attentions!" Applejack stared at him bluntly.

"Who in the hay are ya talkin' bout?"

"Well, when I say pony..." Discord put an arm around Applejack, grinning smugly. "... I really mean draconequus!" Applejack nearly fainted. She turned a pale shade of orange, and stammered, attempting to speak.

"Oh, but I'm sorry, dear Applejack, for this bachelor is off limits! You just aren't my type, you're far too... normal. I can't say I blame you for experiencing these feelings, as even I can't resist myself sometimes!" Discord giggled madly as Applejack's mouth dropped open, and a faint 'squeaking' sound came out.

After a few moments, she regained her composure, and snapped her jaw back in to it's rightful place. If anypony had been in the fields that the pair were travelling in, they would probably have heard a shout of pure hatred.

"Discord, ah'm gonna buck you so hard!"

"Ooh, but we haven't even had our first date!"

"So, what do you propose we do about it?"

"I dunno... I wasn't expecting this. Not a normal thing, is it?"

"No, it's not like anything I've encountered. You don't tend to see them when you're playing classical music in Canterlot."

"Nothing I've seen in Wonderbolts training..."

The two mares stared at the obstacle preventing them from reaching their goal. Canterlot Castle was right there, barely 100 metres in front of them, but they couldn't reach it. All had seemed okay at a glance, but when Rainbow Dash had attempted to fly the short distance, she found herself crashing to the ground, for what seemed like the hundredth time that day. Her immediate idea was to attempt to buck it down, but Octavia refused to let her do that.

So Rainbow Dash and Octavia tried to work through a few plans in their head. Rainbow Dash's first idea went along the lines of this:

Explosions

"Explosions?" Octavi asked, attempting not to punch Rainbow. Rainbow nodded, grinning widely.

"That's it? Nothing else? Just.. 'explosions'?" Octavia was praying to Celestia that this was some form of joke.

"Yup, great plan right?" Rainbow pumped her hoof, shouting something about awesomeness. Octavia wasn't paying any attention to it, being too busy with her utter fury at Rainbow Dash's stupidity and lack of planning skills. Some ponies might have said that she was going a bit overboard, but Octavia firmly believed that there were times when planning was necessary, and this was one of them.

"Oh, so you don't think it might be missing something?" Rainbow looked at her quizzically.

"Like what?" She shrugged, smiling sheepishly. It was at this point that something inside of Octavia snapped, sending her in to a fit of rage.

"Oh, I don't know? How about EVERYTHING? Where do you intend to get these explosions from? Do we know if the explosions will even work on this barrier? Why me? What to do you know of explosives anyway? How do you think they'll work when time is frozen? How will we activate them remotely? Will they cause any damage to the surrounding area? What would the princess think? Are you insane? What makes you think explosives are the best solution? Where will we get the safety gear to protect ourselves? What the buck is wrong with you?  Why explosives anyway? How big will the explosions be exactly? Is that your natural hair colour? Who was phone? What am I fighting for? C4 or TNT? Dynamite or Grenades? Incendiary or non-incendiary? To be or not to be? Did you think about ANYTHING?" Octavia screamed, unsure if half of the things she just asked were even valid questions. Rainbow backed off slowly, running a hoof through her mane.

"Um, I guess I could come up with another idea..." She scratched her chin with a hoof thoughtfully.

Magic

"...You have five seconds to run away." Octavia growled. Rainbow just giggled, assuming this was a joke.

"Five."

"Four."

"Three."

"Two.

"One."

"Zero." Rainbow was about to burst in to laughter, when she found herself being kicked in the side. Normally she would have been able to balance herself midair and gently fly back down, but she was caught off guard, and so flew straight in to the magical barrier.

And straight through it, to her surprise. It broke apart like a giant pane of glass, and the magical particles gently floated to the ground, before they faded out of existence, leaving Rainbow on the floor of a Canterlot road, her side bruised and her pride damaged.

"Well, that was easier than I expected. All we needed was an Element of Harmony." Octavia giggled.

"Urgh... if I weren't the Element of Loyalty I would be gone! Stupid element..." Rainbow hit the ground with a hoof angrily.

"Such a shame you are, isn't it? Now hurry up, we need to get to the castle," said Octavia.

"I hate you, y'know that?" Rainbow glared at Octavia.

"Don't worry, the feelings mutual," Octavia smiled smugly, and walked down the street, humming 'Beethoofen's fifth' as she did so.

"Stupid loyalty..."

The shadows had converged again, and were gazing intently - well, as intently as something without eyes can gaze anyway - at the hourglass. It appeared that it wouldn't even need to do anything, and that these creatures would kill themselves before it did, and that was unacceptable. Still, it appeared that the shadow had nothing to worry about, as at the rate they were going time would be stopped permanently, which suited the shadow fine.

However, them dying before it destroyed them was not good, and so the shadow felt a little intervention was in order. Two smaller dark blobs split from the main shadow, and flew through the library in the direction of the door, heading for Canterlot. The main shadow remained in place, preparing itself.

He looked forward to seeing how the 'heroes' would deal with this. Perhaps they would pull through. Perhaps, underneath all of the fighting and stupidity, there were truly worthy foes who could perhaps challenge the shadow.

But, then and again, there might not be, thought the shadow as the two pairs of allies argued amongst themselves, and it saw the rainbow maned pegasus go flying through the air after a dazzling display of strength from the grey earth pony.