Chapter 1, part 1: A matter of time.
Breeze hated Thursdays, he didn't know why, probably some ancestral hatred of the day before Friday, it didn't help that he couldn't sleep, tomorrow was too important a day to be tired on, but, for some reason, either nerves or sheer excitement, he just couldn't sleep.
After a long few hours of tossing and turning, he decided that he would go out for some air, maybe the cool night wind would calm him down.
Breeze followed his memory downstairs, when he opened the door, he felt a wave of icy air rush through his feathers, while he liked the cold, it would do little to calm his nerves, so he put on his coat and headed off into the night.
Breeze had planned to go down into the village, but he had lost track of this and turned back, in his garden, he noticed an object from the window, he squinted, but the foreign object was just too far away too see from his window, he sighed and walked back outside "somepony has been fly tipping again," this had been increasingly common in the last few weeks, somepony flashes a light, leaves something, then gallops of. Last time, they left a Gryphonian sword, replica obviously, too new to be real, but a high-quality replica at that, all the right metals and shape, oh well, jokes on them, he's made a small fortune selling those things.. This looked bigger, however, not just some random obscenely expensive junk, just a big, brown, box, big enough to be a small shed, or a big crate, as he got closer, he noticed a door, it was closed, but when he tried it, it swung open smoothly.
The inside of the box was mostly unremarkable, aside from a few doors on each wall and a hatch on the roof, Breeze stepped inside, watching for wires and keeping an eye on the door, he pulled the hatch down, revealing a panel, covered in lights, gauges, levers and a few small clocks, each showing different times, Breeze cautiously pulled a lever, a whirring was heard, the gauges began to twitch and the door slammed shut, Breeze frantically tried to open the door, but to no avail.
"Very funny," he called "I think my sides are splitting, now open the door!" when he realized the door wasn't going to open, he turned back to the control panel and grabbed another lever, as he pulled, the dial labeled 'back' shot up, and the box roared into life, the clocks began to spin wildly, some slower than others, the whole box shook for a few minutes as Breeze tried to regain his footing, he pushed the lever up, the box stopped shaking, then started again, he pulled it again, placing the lever in the middle of its track, the box calmed down.
Breeze pushed the first lever back up, and the door swung open. Breeze looked upon a field, where his house used to be, an endless, green field, there was a heat in the air and, most noticeably, it was daytime here.
Breeze stepped out into the environment the grass was unattended, and came halfway up his legs, large-leaved trees were dotted around the field, and behind him, a forest was eclipsed by the box he had arrived in.
"Strange, I would assume I would remember something like that," he said to the wet air, "also, where's my house!?"
A loud roar echoed back from the trees branches, Breeze could see the canopy trembling.
"Ok, we'll pretend I never asked!" he called back.
The roar again, this time, the shaking canopy was accompanied by a loud crash.
Breeze began to back away from the forest slowly, when a huge, green mass burst from the trees, the creature was huge, it's head bowed, so that it's beady eyes focused on Breeze, even more worrying to Breeze, was its massive teeth, which were about the size of an end table, each.
Breeze found his beak had drooped and was stopping just short of falling off his face he began to creep towards the box "uh, hi?"
The creature seemed to only just notice him, its head dropped low, but it was still about another Breeze higher than him, it growled, spraying thick sloppy mucus everywhere in a spray of chunks, coating Breeze in it.
"oh good, thanks," he sighed, shifting further towards the box "i'll just be, going, now."
The beast retracted, as if it understood, it stepped backwards, head lowered, it nudged a large stick towards Breeze.
"What do I do with the stick? Throw it?" Breeze reclined "you wanna play, fetch?"
It seemed to nod, it hopped excitedly between its feet, causing Breeze to be knocked off his feet.
"Ok," he approached when it had stopped bouncing, when he grabbed the stick, he saw its tail wagging furiously and its tongue hanging out "it's just a big Dog, or rather, a huge green bipedal I-could-fit-in-one-of-its-teeth, Dog," he muttered, sensing an opportunity and throwing the stick as best he could, creating an earthquake as the beast ran excitedly after the stick.
"I just played fetch with a dinosaur," he laughed, before darting back to his box "that means, this, ha!" he turned back to see the dinosaur staring at him its eyes drooped, and tail still, standing above the stick expectantly "sorry, rexy, I've got a time machine!" he exclaimed, before closing the door, pulling a few levers and flying off to explore time and space.
***
Breeze was getting the hang of this, mostly, he had tried many times to get back home, to no avail, but he figured that if he could time travel, he could just drop back once he figured out how, and never have to sit through another Thursday again. To put it simply, he had literally all the time in the world.
His thoughts were interrupted by a loud bang and the box shaking violently, the force sent him flying into the panel, he knocked a lever and sent the box flying violently around space and time, before he was thrown through the door.
His head landed first, causing him to land sprawled on a cold flaw, he heard a few gasps, followed by a deep voice shouting "assassin!"
He moaned and writhed onto his belly, his attempts to stand were interrupted by a sudden pain to his back.
"stay down intruder," the voice snarled "your majesty, what should we do with him?"
A mares voice answered, "leave him to rot in the dungeon, with the other one," she sang cheerfully.
"but, your Majesty, you ordered us to execute the other one," the stallion replied.
"did I?" she asked, before giggling joyously "oh yes, well, execute him too."
Breeze's eyes shot open "wait what?" he exclaimed "for what?" he saw the two ponies that were having the conversation, both the ponies were unicorns, both with grey coats, one, the stallion wore a suit of Armour and levitated a spear before him, surrounded in blue magic. The mare hovvever, wore a dress, and sat on an ornate throne, she was obviously a queen.
"hm?" the queen looked at him "yes, for what? Blade? For what?"
Breeze smiled at Blade, he saw the guard's face become pale and afraid "yeah Blade, why?" he muttered.
Blade snarled "for trying to kill your majesty," he looked at Breeze, a smirk growing on his face.
"Not good enough, Lance!" she looked past Blade "you've just been promoted, execute Blade!"
Blade's smile faded "but, what about the intruder?"
"Oh yes, execute them both," she said gleefully.
Lance stepped forward with some other guards and grabbed Breeze and Blade, before dragging them off to their fates, meanwhile, Breeze's box doors had closed, probably a good thing.
Blade was pleading with Lance while they were walked to their cell, usually getting no response, aside from the occasional grunt.
"it's no use Blade, Lance is too scared of that weak, feeble mare, to let you go," Breeze smiled, his words, rolling into the air like snakes.
Lance stopped, he turned to Breeze "how dare you! that is treasonous talk!" he shouted.
"yeah blah blah, right now, I'll be as treasonous as I want, what are you going to do about it? Hm? Execute me?" he snarled back.
Lance grunted and turned back to his path "here we are, then," a guard opened the door. The two were thrown into the cell.
"good, roommates," a stallion stepped out of the shadow in the corner, his grey coat mimicked that of all the other ponies Breeze had seen, the pony had blue eyes, a small beard and bushy eyebrows, he smiled "Blade? Decide to throw you away too huh? Anyway, who, are you?" he looked at Breeze
"What does it matter? We'll all be dead tomorrow." he sighed "mostly thanks to Blade here,"
"hey, if you hadn't have asked why, you could have saved a life," Blade interrupted
"how was I to know your queen is a psychopath!?" Breeze turned to him.
"well maybe," the stallion butted in, "if you stopped arguing, mr genius could think of a plan to get us out?" he gestured to himself.
Breeze glared at Blade, but turned to the stallion "go on then, mr genius."
"if I knew your name it would help, so, who are you?"
"Breeze, if it's really so important," he grumbled.
The stallion extended a hoof "Discord, nice to meet you."
Breeze took his hoof reluctantly "now what, Discord?"
Blade stepped in "what about that box? what's that?"
Discord cocked his head "what box? what are you on about?"
"When Breeze arrived, a box appeared, and he flew out," the two ponies looked at Breeze.
"Yeah, but I don't have that, think of a plan to escape the cell, before escaping the castle," Breeze said, defensively.
Blade sighed "I'm doomed, doomed as the Dodo."
"not quite," Discord smiled "because I have a cunning plan."
Breeze looked up "go on."
Discord sat down "our queen may be a psycho, but she will honor your last wishes, yours, you could ask for your box, we'll go with you, and escape in that"
Blade looked suspiciously "you're relying on the queen being consistent? I see a tiny flaw in your plan."
Discord laughed "no, I'm relying on her inconsistency, you see. There's three of us, she'll hopefully grant one of us their wish."
"if that's me, bonus points," Breeze muttered, he lay down on the bunk, kicking Blade away. Before trying his best to go to sleep.
"hopefully being the operative word there," Discord said, smiling.
The morning of the execution.
Breeze was woken by the door opening hard, the pony who walked in wore a black executioners mask, he was followed by some guards wearing the same Armour Blade had been, three of them broke of, and one seized each stallion.
"well, let's go then," the executioners voice was deep and grating, as if metal plates slid across each other in his throat "say your last goodbyes," he smiled under the mask.
"hold on," Breeze perked up "first, I want to see the box," he had seen an air around this pony.
"hm?" the executioner cocked his head, before pulling a small box out of his pocket "this one?"
Breeze could pull the strings here "take me, and these two, to the throne room," a couple guards looked at him, but they were led by the executioner "we'll just be a second, and the queens not there, is she?"
The executioner grumbled "no, fine, come on,"
They were led down the halls they had come through the day before, Discord was smiling the whole way "that was genius, it really was."
Breeze chuckled, what he had done was talk, that's all, but if somepony wants to call him a genius, who is he to complain "yep, yep it was," he praised himself.
When the group reached the throne room, they noticed the long, thin banquet tables, on one of witch, sat Breeze's box, impossibly balanced on the edge, more to their dismay, however, was the grey mare, at the far side of the room.
"oh?" the queen stood "what's this?"
Breeze adopted a worried stare "ah, decided not to watch the execution, your majesty? Those ponies are guaranteed to put up a good show, I can see it in their eyes," he said, with the deepest voice he could muster.
Discord burst in to laughter, but was quickly silenced by a glare from Blade "sorry."
Breeze smiled "see, he's laughing just thinking about it," the soldiers glared at Breeze, but seemed to afraid to say anything.
"ooh, that sounds fun," she smiled childishly "thank you..." she waited for his name.
"ah, Chrome, ma'am," he used the name of a friend.
The queen smiled "well, Chrome, if this is as good as you say it is, I might just marry you," she hopped a little "otherwise, I'll execute you," she walked past, blowing a kiss as she ducked out of sight, followed by the executioner and guards.
"Can I just say, your system is very strange," Breeze trotted
over to his box.
"I know," Blade sighed "but anyway, what's with the box?"
"Oh? This little thing?" Breeze smiled as best as a Gryphon could "nothing much, just a-"
"A time machine?" Discord finished for him.
This caught Breeze off guard, he hadn't come to a time where these were common? Had he? "Uh, yes, how did you know?"
Discord, dispite his smile, seemed surprised "well, actually I was being sarcastic, but ok."
Breeze pushed the door to reveal the room inside, the doors on the edges seemed more prominent upon pushing them, Breeze discovered that the box seemed to hold two large mansions, despite his thoughts, all he could mutter was: "that's new."
He turned to the two "so, when do you want to go?"
"Right now," Blade glared.
"No, uh, I meant, to what time? Are we going? It was, a little, joke? Kinda."
"Any, time?" Discord grinned "any time at all?"
"Indeed."
"Take me to the future of the past, assuming you come from the future."
"The future of the- the present?"
"That's a boring way to say it, I make things interesting."
"You want to go to the present? And I'm the boring one?"
"If I'm from your past, then your present is my future."
"Fine! I'll try, but I can't promise anything."
"Oh yeah," Blade muttered "he did kinda, crash."
"I didn't crash! I, I, made an entrance."
"You certainly did..."
Breeze turned to the control panel, and they set out on another adventure, this one with a little more company than before.