Brony Recon: Eyes of Chronos

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As soon as Cereal threw the switch, I found myself wrenched off my hooves and flung into nothingness. At once, I found myself hurtling through some kind of reddish tunnel thing. I felt nothing around me; no air, nor wind... not even sound. Cereal’s last warning still echoed in my mind: “Try not to breathe.”

But I didn’t heed it fast enough, and I had just finished an exhale before being shot into the void. My empty lungs burned, still waiting for that next breath of oxygen. Holding fast, I tried to keep myself from breathing for as long as I could. At first, it seemed as if the tunnel would never end, as if I would never be able to take that breath. For what felt like several minutes, I held on to my limit. Perhaps even past it.

It was a valiant effort, but it was in vain. Giving in to the vacuum swirling around me, I relaxed my muscles and opened my mouth, preparing to take in whatever I could. I remember wondering if I was going to live.

Then something happened. In the red, there was a bright flash of vibrant yellow light, appearing as soon as I inhaled. To my shock, I found my lungs filling with cool, relieving air. My head stopped swimming and I was filled with gratitude that I had avoided harm somehow.

Suddenly, it was over. I lurched as my hooves hit something solid, falling over onto a planty ground. Still a little disoriented from my trip through the barriers of the universe- and from being transformed into a quadrupedal pegasus -it took me a while to regain my senses. It appeared as if I had landed in some kind of garden with a ton of statues placed randomly around it.

One such statue was very familiar to me. I chuckled to myself as I stared up at Discord’s despairing stone visage. It suddenly came to me then. “Holy schist...” I breathed, staring around at everything. “I’m in Equestria!”

“But it’s wrong.” A deep, echoing voice from behind made me jump and spin on the spot. Somehow, I wasn’t in the gardens anymore. Everything around me was black and empty, the air became tight and noxious, and the black closed in around me. The only other thing besides myself was a large, pale stallion, maybe three times my height. More surprising were his massive wings and spear-like horn, marking him as an alicorn of some kind. "This is not how it is meant to be."

Skyblaze’s POV

“Sky! ‘Ey, Skyblaze! Wake yerself up, lad!”

I groaned as the heavily-accented voice invaded my sleep and pulled me from my dreams. Rolling over, I tried to snuggle deeper under my covers. As much as I enjoyed Lucky Shot’s company as a buddy and comrade, the white-maned, green-coated, red-eyed unicorn could get very annoying with how punctual he was at waking everypony an hour before sunset. He was like an alarm clock: useful, but that use constantly irritates you to no end.

Lucky growled and yanked the sheets from my bed. Great, now it was going to take even more time to tidy my bed. “Up an at ‘em Sky!” Lucky Shot chirped. “Ye canneh sleep the night away, ye lazy mule. Sarge’ll be right cross fer sure.”

“Just watch me,” I groaned back, shivering at the absence of my blankets. He was right though; Sargent Sure Hoof would have the hide off my flanks if I missed role. I had to get up sooner than later if I wanted to continue living. “I’m getting up,” I assured Lucky as he inhaled for another scolding. “Just gimme a sec and I‘ll be down for coffee.”

“I’ve already got me famed Galloping Grind a’ brewing for ye. I know how much ye like it!” Lucky quickly trotted down the row of other cots in the Night Guard barracks.

With a mighty heave, I managed to push myself off the floor and follow Lucky’s hoofsteps, grumbling to myself about how unnecessary it was to remind me that his secret coffee blend from his hometown was apparently ‘famed.’ I haven’t heard one inkling of it being known anywhere outside our garrison, much less anywhere else in Equestria.

I paused for a moment. Wow, I’m really pissy today... I wondered to myself. Maybe I should take something for my dreams if they keep waking me up in the night. Or talk to Luna about it, if she isn’t busy.

Probably against my better judgement, my dreams were something I kept to myself. They always made me wake up in the middle of the day, usually breathing heavily or sweating. Of course, I began to lose a lot of sleep because of that, and my mental health was starting to feel the strain more and more. The funny thing is, I didn’t start having them until I first arrived in Equestria.

One more thing I could complain about my dreams was that they never change. Ever. It’s always about that fateful day when Cereal activated the portal and sent us all through to Equestria. But then it warped into something else: that pale alicorn, telling me that something was wrong. But what? What could have possibly been wrong about our arrival? It couldn’t have gone smoother, in my opinion. Then again, Shift did suffer a bit of a gash, but that was caused by him breathing in the time-space tunnel.

Still, there was nothing about my personal arrival that was off. After all, I had arrived safe and sound, just like I should have.

<<

“Private Truestrike Swordswing!”

“Aye, Sargent!”

“Corporal Lucky Shot!”

“Aye, Sarge!”

“Corporal-Bard Skyblaze Freescript!”

“Aye, Sargent!” I called out as the role continued down the line. A few times, Sure Hoof would call out a name and get no response, at which point he would make a note to check if they were incapacitated or slept in. I felt bad for any that did the latter. Sure Hoof was always swift to punish lazy Night Guards with the most gruelling of chores. I remembered the first time I had to clean out the privvy... that was hard, even with Bardic songs to help get the sides clean, and don’t even get me started on how bad that schist stains.

“Alright!” Sure Hoof bellowed once he was done with role. “As you may have heard, it is a Saturday until midnight, and as you all might know, that means those of you that are not on the patrol schedule have an open timeslot between breakfast and earlymorn exercises. You’re all on your own for fourthmeal. Any questions.”

Silence. Through the quiet, I could feel the anticipation of those that had most of the night off, myself included.

“Then you are dismissed to the mess for your oatmeal. Be back here promptly at earlymorn!”

Our garrison gave the Sargent one last synchronized salute before the majority of the congregation rushed off for the mess hall. Lucky shot tapped my shoulder as we were trotting along and moved up beside me. “Ye seemed a wee bit tense a’morn, lad,” he observed. “How’s about ye join meself and the comp’ny fer a few ales down at the pub? It’ll set ya right as rain.”

“That sounds great, Lucky,” I replied. “But you know I don’t drink.”

“Did I say ye was going t’ be the one drinkin’, Sky?” he laughed.

I smiled, but still shook my head. “I’m gonna go visit Luna,” I told him. “There’s something I need to ask her about. That, and I haven’t seen her in a bit, so I’d like to catch up with her.”

Lucky rolled his eyes. “Aye... ye an’ the Princess,” he grumbled. “I might be a’ spittin’ blasphemy, but if ye spend so much time with the lass, ye should at least be tryin’ to court her. There be a right small number o’ stallions that can shimmy up that coleen’s shamrock like ye have.”

“What!? No way man!” I laughed at him. “Luna’s just my friend! Besides, there’s no way in Tartarus that she would go for a guy like me!”