Timeless

Rainbow Dash was enjoying her day less and less by the second. It was fine when she had awoken to see that time had stopped, and had gone along with Applejack to find the source of the problem. It was slightly worse when Discord had arrived, but still tolerable. Octavia tagging along wasn't great, but it was still okay. But being kicked through a magical force field in to the streets of Canterlot and having to walk behind the smug mare who kicked her? That was unacceptable! And now she was being dragged by her rear hooves towards Canterlot Castle by some evil shadow thing, as was Octavia.

"I hate you, Rainbow Dash." Octavia sighed, a frown on her face.

"What? How the hay is it my fault? You're the one that threw me through the stupid shield in the first place!" Rainbow cried, and she would have waved her hooved angrily if they weren't currently being held by Chronus.

"Yes, but you and your friends woke me this morning and dragged me along on your ridiculous adventure! If it weren't for you I'd still be at home, nice and relaxed with no idea that all of this nonsense ever happened!"

"You were hanging on to that stupid instrument of yours! If it weren't for us your hooves probably would've fallen off!"

"That can't even happen! At worst I would fall and mildly bruise myself!"

"It so can happen!"

"No, it can't! Science has proven that it can't, and you can't argue with science!"

"Who are you, Twilight?"

"I wish I was, so I could blast your stupid face off with magic!"

While the two engaged in a heated argument, Chronus merely frowned and continued on, his dark tendrils trailing behind him, the two ponies in their grasps. He didn't sign up for this. They were meant to be fighting him, not each other! He was finding it quite difficult not to take this personally. Applejack wasn't scared of him, Discord made fun of his techniques, and these two were just flat out ignoring him! Was he not evil enough for them? Well, they would fear him when they reached his destination, he was sure of that.

"Your mum's a stupid magic!"

"That makes no sense whatsoever!"

"You make no sense whatsoever!"

He hoped to Celestia that they would fear him, and stop the stupid insults!

"Your mum's a stupid insult!"

Rainbow Dash's eyes fluttered open slowly, and she attempted to bring a hoof up to them to rub them, only to find that her hooves were being held together by something.

Oh right, evil dark monster thingie, Rainbow Dash thought to herself, before groaning and looking around for Octavia. The grey earth pony snored softly in her sleep, and muttered something about bees and cellos. Rainbow didn't want to know what she was dreaming about.

Rainbow nearly jumped out of her fur when she heard someone shouting. "Wake up, you foal! I shall not be bested by sleep! If I am to destroy you then you shall be awake!" A quick glance around the room showed Rainbow that their captor was the one shouting.

She yawned loudly and glared at the offender. "Dude, what's with the shouting? C'mon, I'm tired, at least let me wake up first..."

Chronus sighed, and released his grasp on the two ponies. Octavia was still asleep, and fell to the floor with a thud. Rainbow managed to right herself in time and stood looking angrily at Chronus.

Rainbow pointed a hoof at Chronus accusingly. "You!"

"Uh... me? I mean... Yes, it is I, the great destroyer of time itself, Chronus! I have come from the darkness to destroy you and all of Equestria, and I shall not be stopped! Fear me, for I shall be your demise!" He began to laugh, but he was interrupted by a long and tired yawn from Octavia.

"What did I miss? Did you summon any more evil shadow monsters, Rainbow Dash?"

"Seriously? You just woke up and the first thing you ask is 'did you summon any more evil shadow monsters'? No, I didn't, and also the current one is standing right in front of you! Why do you hate me so much?"

"Ahem," Chronus coughed as politely as he could to get the two ponies attention.

"Yeah yeah, gimme a minute here. Why are you so stuck up, Octavia? Why don't you get that stick out of your flank and come join us regular ponies here in Equestria?"

"You're a pegasus! How about you get your head out of the clouds long enough to think one rational thought?"

As the two mares argued, Chronus brought a hoof to his face slowly, and sighed. He was finding it quite difficult to be villainous when his victims were more afraid of each other than they were of him. With a small groan, he decided that the best course of action would be to wait the argument out.

"You wouldn't know intelligent if it jumped up and hit you in the face with your stupid cello!" Rainbow shouted, prompting Octavia to let out a small gasp.

"Oh no she didn't!" Chronus blurted out before he could stop himself. Rainbow and Octavia turned to face him, a look of confusion on Octavia's face, and a small smirk on Rainbow's. "Um... I mean... fear me?"

"When did you get here?" Octavia asked.

"Oh c'mon, I just told you that he was here, but you didn't freakin' listen! You're impossible!"

And just as soon as Chronus' moment of peace from the constant bickering had started, it ended again as the two mares resumed the arguing. Chronus decided to resort to more simple tactics. With a stomp of his hoof, and a flash of purple light, Rainbow and Octavia were frozen in time, and Chronus let out a sigh of relief.

"Time to get to my destination. I'm going to enjoy this!" Chronus smiled, before grabbing the two mares and teleporting away.

Canterlot Royal Throne Room

"Oh Princess Luna, whatever am I, the stupid, ugly and incredibly fat Princess Celestia, to do about this problem?"

"Oh Princess Celestia, I, the monumentally idiotic Princess Luna, doth not... knoweth-eth, for thou ameth to stupideth,"

"If only the incredibly handsome and brilliantly charming Discord were here to save us!"

"DISCORD! STOP PLAYIN' DOLLS WITH THE PRINCESSES!" Applejack shouted, before grabbing Discord and dragging him away from Celestia and Luna.

Discord frowned and attempted to escape from Applejack's grip. "But...but they're frozen! And you can't tell me you weren't considering doing it!"

Applejack and Discord had arrived in Canterlot after a short walk, and had gone straight towards Canterlot Castle. Now they were in the throne room, and any hope of getting the princesses to help was dashed when they saw that they, too, had been frozen. Discord had found this wildly entertaining, Applejack not so much.

"Where exactly are you dragging me off to anyway? Are you just going to leave the poor princesses alone and helpless?" Discord asked, attempting to look sympathetic. This attempt was completely runed by his mad giggling and broad smile.

"We're goin' te the Library. If there's anywhere that we can find a book te help us, it'll sure as hay be there. They gotta have somethin' on this 'Chronus' guy," Applejack explained, while Discord pretended he cared.

"Well, be sure to wake me up when you get there. I think I'll take a nice nap," Discord pretended to yawn loudly, before going in to a fit of exaggerated snoring.

"We're here," Applejack said, with a small laugh. She pushed Discord out of her hooves, sending him tumbling in to the centre of the library with a loud 'thud'.

Discord groaned and picked himself up from the floor, before dusting himself off with his paw. He knew this library quite well, much like he knew the entirety of Canterlot Castle. It consisted of two floors, the bottom floor being a lounge area filled with chairs and tables, and the first floor being filled with rows upon rows of bookshelves which towered to the glass ceiling. In the centre of the first floor stood a small golden hourglass which was held up by an ornately decorated golden stand.

"We'll head on up to the first floor and look fer a book on this Chronus guy. Gimme a holler if ya find anythin', okay?" Applejack said, before walking off with Discord trailing closely behind her.

When they reached the top of the staircase, they both walked towards the hourglass, Applejack having moved instinctively towards the centre of the room in awe of the amount of books, and Discord out of boredom.

"You stupid fat-faced jerk! Go back to Canterlot where you belong!" Discord and Applejack turned to face each other, and simultaneously shook their heads to indicate that they had no idea what was going on.

"We're in Canterlot, you plebian pegasus!" The shouts of the two ponies echoed throughout the library, and it didn't take too much of a guess to figure out who they came from. As the argument escalated, Discord and Applejack heard the shouts getting closer and closer, until they were at the top of the stairs.

"At least I can do something important. 'Ooh look at me, I'm Octavia and I can put a stick on some strings, la-de-da!'" A familiar polychromatic mane appeared, followed by a dark grey mane, and then a cyan pegasus and a grey earth pony.

Rainbow Dash let out a shout of frustration, before running ahead of Octavia. A frown marred her face, and her right eye was twitching slightly. Applejack ran forward and enveloped her in a hug before Rainbow noticed her, causing her to jump backwards.

"Argh, I'm being attacked, help me!" Rainbow screamed, before she noticed who her 'attacker' was.

"Rainbow! Y'aint bein' attacked! Ah'm just checkin' yer real!"

"By hugging me?"

"...Ah missed ya. Ah was stuck with... him!" She pointed a hoof at Discord, who was next to Octavia by the hourglass.

"You think you had it bad? Try being stuck with Octavia!" Rainbow shuddered slightly.

"Heh, Ah heard ya and her goin' at it like a pair o' little fillies. Honestly, what did she do ta make ya so mad?"

Rainbow went in to a long rant about Octavia while the mare in question spoke with Discord.

"So, you were attacked by a lovecraftian beast, you say?" Octavia asked, and Discord nodded. "Well, I must say I loved Lovecraft's works. A little on the unique side, but still very interesting reads.

"Seriously? That's what you took from this? You aren't bothered by the fact that I was attacked by a bouncing, laser shooting, tentacled beast, but you care about the fact that it's similar to a writer?" Discord put on a look of mock hurt, before laughing. "You really are the kind of mare I can understand!"

"For the lord of chaos, you're not so bad yourself. At least you're not as bad as that Rainbow Dash. That mare is impossible!" Octavia groaned, a grimace on her face. Discord went to speak, but stopped when he heard a small tapping sound.

"Do you hear that?" He asked Octavia, who shook her head.

"Hear what?" She asked, before pausing. "You mean that tapping?" Discord nodded while looking for the source of the noise.

"Either of you hear that?" He shouted over to Applejack and Rainbow, who turned to face him before walking towards him.

Rainbow listened intently for a few seconds before responding. "The 'tap tap tap'?"

"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 shooting a barrage of darkness at the group.