Timeless

Rainbow Dash's immediate reaction to this sudden attack was to grab Applejack and fly her out of the room in the quickest way possible. Unfortunately, this plan had two major flaws. Firstly, Applejack was an Earth pony, and thus did not take kindly to being picked up and carried in to the air.

Secondly, the quickest way out of the room was through the glass ceiling.

"Rainbow, Ah am not lettin' you drag me through that window! Put me down, fer the love'a Celestia!" Applejack screamed, closing her eyes and preparing for the inevitable crash.

"Sorry AJ, but there's no stopping on the Dash Express! Prepare for impact in 3..."

"No, no, nononono! Ah will buckin' kill ye Dash!"

"2.."

"When Ah'm done with ye yer wings'll be in yer flank!"

"1..."

"Oh sweet Celestia!" Applejack shouted, letting out a loud scream when Dash impacted with the glass ceiling, shattering it completely. None of the shards fell out of place, and the only way anypony could tell that the ceiling had been broken were the audible sounds of glass breaking, and the large Rainbow Dash shaped hole in the ceiling.

"Whoah, we survived! Awesome!" Rainbow let out a small shout of glee, and did a small loop in the air, prompting an angry shout from Applejack.

"Ya mean ya didn't know if we'd survive? And ya just went ahead and dragged me through that thing anyway? Ah hate you Dash!"

"Heh, I've been hearing that a lot today. Besides, I was like, seventy-five percent sure that we'd survive!" Rainbow smirked, looking down at Applejack with a smug grin on her face. She promptly stopped grinning when a bolt of shadow grazed her right flank, forcing her in to a sharp dive.

"You think you can escape just like that? Hah! Nothing escapes Chronus!" Applejack looked behind her to see Chronus charging through the air towards them on a carpet of shadow, firing beams of darkness at Rainbow Dash.

"Why the hay is Chronus talkin' bout himself in the third pony? Applejack thinks that's pretty darn stupid and obno... arrog... cocky!"

"Yeah, like 'the great and stupid Trixie!'"

"Well Chronus thinks Rainbow Dash and Applejack should just! Shut! Up!" Chronus punctuated the last three words with attacks, the third of which hit Rainbow's right wing, causing her to lose control and veer off course slightly.

"Whoah there Rainbow, Applejack's gettin' a bit sick! If Rainbow wouldn't mind puttin' Applejack on the ground, that'd be great!"

"Would Applejack stop talking about herself in the third pony as well? Rainbow Dash finds it a bit distracting!"

"Well now Rainbow Dash is doin' it, so why shouldn't Applejack?" Applejack shouted, her voice breaking slightly mid-sentence as Rainbow Dash banked up sharply to dodge a bolt of shadow.

"WOULD BOTH OF YOU JUST STOP IT? CHRONUS IS TRYING TO BE EVIL HERE!" Chronus roared, launching a barrage of dark magic, clipping both of Rainbow's wings, sending her tumbling to the ground. He laughed loudly, and chased after her, a devious smile on his face.

Discord's immediate reaction to this sudden attack had been to stare up at Chronus, and indulge in the chaos. He smiled at Chronus as he split in to two smaller forms (Chronus? Chronuses? Chronii? he thought), and as one of them turned and flew after Applejack and Rainbow Dash. The grin disappeared from his face when a blast of purple fire came rushing towards him. He let out a small 'meep' - while he had a higher resistance to things like this than normal ponies, the idea of being burned alive by dark magic did not appeal to him - and ran away, grabbing a startled Octavia and holding her above his head as he did so.

"Shoot her, not me! I'm too chaotic and handsome to die!" Octavia let out a small yelp of indignation as Discord continued to run through the halls of Canterlot Castle.

She sighed, this was what she got for remaining behind with the Lord of Chaos, she supposed. "Oh, and here I thought you were going to rescue me or something kind and considerate like that. How silly of me to trust one of my allies, right?"

Discord ran gracefully through the halls of Canterlot Castle, or as gracefully as a creature with two mismatched legs could. He switly dodged the incoming attacks from Chronus, moving Octavia around from arm to arm in order to keep his balance. They came to a set of stairs, and rather than being weighed down by her, Discord decided to throw Octavia up the stairs and catch her at the top. She shouted indignantly, obviously unable to appreciate the pure genius of Discord's idea.

"Oh, stop crying. It was a brilliant idea and you know it!" Discord ducked round a corner suddenly to dodge a sudden blast of shadow from behind. Octavia let out a small yelp when Discord threw her in to his claw while turning.

Discord giggled maniacally at Octavia's outburst. "What in Equestria is so funny?" Octavia asked, shouting to be heard over the sound of explosions of dark magic fired out by Chronus.

"This!" Discord shouted, before turning around and throwing Octavia at their pursuer. She spun gracefully in the air, before crashing in to Chronus with a 'thud', and sending the two of them to the ground. He looked like he was about to disappear, but Discord ran over and grabbed him by his armour, in an attempt to prevent him from teleporting away. Octavia covered the rest of his body with hers, as she was unable to get up.

"I didn't sign up for this! I did not want to be dragged on an adventure to restore time! I didn't want to be forced to spend time with that stupid rainbow-maned pegasus! And I most certainly did not want to be thrown at the lord of time by the embodiment of chaos!" Octavia was far past her breaking point by now, and she was most certainly not going to put up with this anymore. She raised a hoof, and punched Chronus as hard as she could in the face.

"You seriously thought you could hurt a being of shadow covered in armour by punching him? Well, you really aren't hero material, are you?" Chronus smirked after he moved his head back in to position. Octavia growled, and hit him again. And again, and again, and - surprisingly enough - again. After a few hundred or so punches, her flurry of attacks slowed as she panted for breath.

"My my, you are a feisty one, aren't you?" Discord smirked - having discretely stood up during the attack, fearing for his life - standing over the furious mare.

Octavia glared at Discord lightly, before a small smile crept on to her lips, her anger having been vented and replaced by a strange sense of calm. The smile vanished when Chronus coughed gently, bringing Octavia's attention to him. "...That almost hurt. But I've tired of letting you have your fun, so I suppose I'll finish this up now,"

"Wait, wait. Are you saying that you can just teleport away at any time?"

"But of course. What, you really thought that you could pin down a creature made of time itself by grabbing him by the armour? You're more stupid than you look, if that's even possible," He laughed maniacally. Octavia jumped up and attempted to run away, but before she could Chronus teleported away, taking her with him.

"Discord!" She screamed before dissipating in a puff of grey and purple smoke.

"Well... serves her right for being stupid enough not to get up, I suppose," Discord attempted to look nonchalant by standing with his arms behind his head while humming a small tune to himself. After a few seconds he paused, sighed, and started walking forwards slowly.

I'm going to rescue her, aren't I? Fantastic, this is Fluttershy all over again! Stupid friendship magic...

"Incoming!"

Funny, I don't recall thinking that,,, Discord looked around, confused, before he saw a blur of cyan and orange crashing down towards him, followed by a familiar purple haze. He threw himself to the ground just in time, narrowly dodging the three of them, who crashed unceremoniously on the ground in small pile, with Chronus sitting smugly on top.

"Ouch,... my wings..."

"Ah'm gonna kill ye Rainbow..."

"Chronus... um, I was victorious! Haha, you cannot escape my grasp now!"

"If ye wanted te win so badly, couldn't ye just freeze us and blast us with some of yer magics?"

"That would be boring. Villains live for smug gloating, and you can't really brag to somepony who's frozen in time. Honestly, you;d make a frankly awful villain," Chronus stepped off the two disgruntled ponies, and smirked at Discord. "And speaking of awful villains, it appears that Discord's here. But of course, I already knew that, considering I'm the one you were running from. Your friend is fine, by the way. She's just in another time, nothing special. A thousand or so years ago, to be precise."

Applejack stood up with a small groan, followed by Rainbow Dash. The two stood facing Chronus; Applejack panting tiredly, and Rainbow rubbing her sore wing with a hoof.

"Oh, I suppose all of you want to fight me now? Fine, I suppose I shall stick around and engage in a little combat with you. You won't win, I'm sure of that,"

He stood on his hind hooves, a cluster of dark magic behind him, ready to fire. Discord frowned and curled up his claw in to a makeshift fist, Applejack pushed down on her forehooves, ready to leap in to action, and Rainbow Dash put her hooves up, preparing to punch Chronus. He laughed quietly, and then shouted as he leapt in to action.

"Allons-y!"

He paused mid-attack. Funny, he wasn't expecting to say that.

He also wasn't expecting a blue police box to come crashing through the ceiling.