The Timeless Chronicle

Bright lights blind me. The room. The Throne Room seems to recur. The table is filled. Princess Celestia is standing in the middle of the stairs, stopped. I look around, and see everyone's faces, mouths open, eyes wide. Behind me something flickers.

Someone screams, "Look, the Princess!"

A red flame rises from the ground encircling the Princess. It is this time. I was here already.

I look over the crowd most ponies expressions are those of surprise, or fright, but there are two groups that visibly differ. The guards immediately start evacuating the foreign dignitaries from the tables, and then there are the civilians who don't panic, just rather calmly stand there, blocking the way. Some of the latter group are slowly moving towards the door.

Nigh all the nobles are outside, and the guards start coming for the bigger, common crowd. I see a few robed figures in between the folk, but one in particular catches my eye. A red mane, with a pink streak, is hanging out of it. It... She is moving towards the end of the corwd.

I move closer, and under the hood see the Mistress. She is muttering about treason, and pushing through the crowd, as more and more of it escapes backwards, flowing towards the door. She is holding a needle in her hoof, a syringe with its the safety cap still on.

On the other side of the crowd I hear, through the crowds noise, a muffled voice. I float over there. There are four ponies, strong ones, all of them pressing from four sides on a brown earth pony colt. They tower over him, so it is hard to see him, but having a clear overview, I see the colt to have his mouth plugged with a ball of cloth.

About half of the crowd has already left, when the Mistress arrives at the colt. She slips between the towering ponies, and cuddles to the brown one.

She blinks innocently, and then, in a whisper, asks, "Come on, Spinner. Was all of this really necessary?"

The pony in question begins to violently shake, trying to get out of the oppressive grasp of the ponies around him.

"Nuh-uh," she disapprovingly breathes. "You know you cannot escape. Not after what you have done. And I must say, you've made quite a mess."

His pupils dilated, and his brows shaped an "A".

"Spinner." She shakes her head. "Spinner. Spinner. Spinner. You know the procedure now, don't you. There is nothing I can do. I admire your honesty, but you know, sometimes you have to lie to show the truth—" she gently taps him on the head "—and this was one of these times."

She turns to the ones around her and softly speaks, "Listen to me carefully, we need not more mistakes. The plan should be fine, but we need to dispose of him very delicately. The guards cannot know, until the operation is in action.

"You—" the blue unicorn in question nods "—will take him, after I inject him with this," she points at the syringe in her hoof, "to the hospital. He will puke soon after the injection, and will not be able to speak clearly. Go out with the rest of the crowd, and we will contact you again, when it will be safe to do so."

Another of the four, a grey pegasus, asks, "But what of Spinner. Will he not talk?"

The Mistress just points at the tip of the syringe, cap removed, and hisses, "No loose ends."

She grabs it with her magic, and tries it. The fluid flows. She quickly stabs the colt's flank, and presses the piston. The quiet, silenced whinny looses itself in the noise of a panicked crowd. The guards are close. Two of the towering ponies disappear in the crowd, while the blue one grabs the colt under his foreleg, and starts moving towards the main gate.

After a while of moving through the crowd, I hear a screech from blue's position. I float over, and see that Spinner has vomited over another pony. Blue takes his queue, and yells for passage for the sick. They quickly arrive at the gate, and pass through.

Most panicked ponies have already exited, and the only ones left in the room are the calm ones, and the guards. A few guards seem nervous, fiddling around with their gear, and the tension in the room rises.

A pegasus of the guards comes up to the door and tells the ponies on the other side, "All are evacuated, the door have to remain closed, for security reasons."

He closes the door ad grins.

There is a red glow around them, and as I turn around I see the Mistress'es horn glowing. The door is sealed shut. The guards look up, surprised, and a few ask into the room, what the meaning of this is.

The commander of this unit comes up to the guardspony who closed the door.

"Why did you," she asks, "so this? There are still civilians her—" the sentence is stopped by a buck to her head.

Silence rings.

There is a slight hissing sound, and a missile, established by sorcery, crosses the space over the assembly.

A guard is hit, square in the chest by the projectile and is launched backwards. Similarly, the room is launched into Hades.

The images of ponies, hurting and hurt, surprised and knowing, armored and civilian, all begin to blur.

The lights start rearranging.