Arcana Magna, the World of Order. An unique place in the entire universe, created long ago by a Spirit of Order whose name has been lost to the tides of time. More akin to a machine that runs on magic, it's a hotspot of powerful energies, coveted by many that lurk in the inmense vastness of space.

Chaos was accepted in this world only because it could help protect it. And from that queasy alliance, wonderful things were born: Harmony, Nature, and their mixes. It forever derailed the plans the Spirit of Order had crafted, so they were forced to adapt.

And so, Arcana Magna flourished in a way it was never meant to, but somehow managed to grow instead of collapsing.

Magic is a double-edged sword, though, so others decided to intervene for the sake of everyone.

Time Turner wasn't what you'd call a normal stallion; not in the place he was born, nor in Ponyville, whose normal was already a rarity in Equestria.

An inventor and researcher, he loved nothing more than creating something new. Though his job tended to take a lot of his free time to enjoy hobbies. And the scroll that materialized in the middle of his lab was a clear example of it... even if he was too busy fixing a radio to notice it.

The scroll buzzed, but he was oblivious to its attempts.

The scroll shone while whistling, but Time Turner was like Twilight when really focused into something; the world could be ending and they wouldn't realize it unless it was bothering them. All it got was a flick of his ear.

Tired of waiting, the scroll floated over the pony and hit him on the back of the head.

"Ow!" rubbing the sore spot, Turner looked around, startled; his eyes finally fell on the floating piece of paper. "You didn't have to do that, you know."

If scrolls could give looks, and if looks could kill, Time Turner would have had to finish his testament. Ignoring the urge to hit him again, the scroll unraveled to reveal the message within.

"'Chrono-thief... track down... ask for reinforcements... good luck.' This sounds like a job for a Chronos Warrior, you know," he said to the scroll after he finished reading. It did the closest approximation it could to a shrug before rolling up and vanishing in a flash.

The stallion sighed and put his tools away. Waves of yellow energy surged through him for a second as he called upon his power, ready to use it at a moment's notice.

"Well, duty calls."

Time was an ocean of temporal energy, through which the timelines flowed like rivers while beings of temporal energy swam between them. Chronos was such a being, and long ago he found the Order to protect the timelines from idiots, conquerors, monsters and ignorant travelers that put them in danger.

The Order of Chronos recruited living beings from the timelines to have better understanding of those that tried to mess with time, and to better communicate with their inhabitans; only a few like the Guardian of the Timeline could speak their languages, after all.

As a Chronos Watcher, Time Turner was on the lowest rank of the Order, and his job was to observe and report on important and/or delicate events of history, with confrontation as a last resort in case things went wrong and he didn't deem necessary to call for reinforcements. He was currently keeping an occasional eye on Discord, though now he had to add the search of a chrono-thief to his to-do list.

Walking through Ponyville in the most nonchalant manner he could, the earth pony looked for any suspicious behaviour. But there was nothing out of place: ponies talked or made errands, three little fillies were running around carrying a worrisome amount of fireworks-Not my problem.-a trail of letters zigzagging through from one extreme of Ponyville to another, Rainbow Dash napping on the only cloud in the sky, if the streak of rainbow hanging from the side was any indication...

Turner slowed to a halt, his mind going back to the letters.

That's strange. Curious, he walked to the nearest patch. Muffins never loses so many letters at once.

He looked along the road; no one was paying attention to the trail; not even a curious glance before ignoring it. It was like it wasn't even there. The earth pony extended a hoof to grab one of the letters, and as soon as he made contact a faint yellow glow enveloped it, and the object flickered in and out of existence.

Turner took a step back, worried. The letter felt old. As if it's time had passed.

Because it had, he realized with a start. This is not a trail, this is an echo! The chrono-thief has Muffins!

Ten minutes ago

The time stream was like a violent ocean, but she'd finally manage to reach a timeline, diving without caring to check if it was a dangerous one or not.

Luckily, she hit the ground in a seemingly peaceful place and era. The impact had left her like a puddle of golden liquid, so she struggled to reform herself, with little result.

Sighing, she left herself fall down as a puddle. Right, forgot about this part. I just need to find someone to borrow... She looked around, not seeing any particularly sapient species around. C'mon, please tell me there's a city, a village, even a farm around! I don't want to be a squirrel again! She whined as she reached that last thought.

A shadow passed over her; it was a pegasus. The thief lifted an extremity of golden particles, brought it close to a part of the puddle and whistled. Somehow.

The pegasus stopped and looked around, confused. She then noticed the shining puddle of strange liquid on the ground. Muffins decided to investigate, curious.

Landing besides it, she leaned over the puddle to study better. The liquid swirled, the majestic spirals within seemingly showing her a glimpse of time itself.

"Ooooohhh; pretty..." she mumbled, slightly hypnotized by the movement.

In the blink of an eye, the puddle shot forward, splashing her right in the face. Muffins staggered back, sneezing and blinking rapidly. Everything turned golden and blurry, reality falling apart in a blink. A frantic Muffins found herself floating aimlessly, her memories, thoughts and dreams fading in and out of existence around her... and to her growing worry, they looked blurrier every time they appeared.

Across Equestria, echoes of her and of her past flickered into existence, invisible to most.

Meanwhile, the thief stood up, taking her first breath in what felt like an eon. Stretching her new pony form, she went over it. If the outfit was any indication, this pegasus was a mailmare.

"Not the ideal body, but it'll do. But first..."

She covered her hoof with golden energy and slapped herself, blinking several times before revealing her eyes were now staring in the same direction.

"Much better; I was starting to get a headache." "he turned towards the village a minute away by flight. "Now, let's see where I am."

With hesitant moves, she extended her new wings and flew in a clumsy manner towards Ponyville, crashing against every tree in the way and then some.

Note to self: next time, try to get a wingless body...

Twilight Sparkle tended to fret about something at least once a month. This time, she was pacing back and forth in front of her house/library, impatiently waiting for the mailmare to arrive.

She'd ordered a new tome on the study of arcane portals and the theoretical alternate dimensions they could connect to; though if her thorough analysis of old fables and stories was accurate, more than once ponykind had managed to connect their world with others.

But she'd placed her order weeks ago, and after two delays she was out of patience. What is taking so long?!

There was a flash of energy, and reality ripped apart, a portal to another dimension opening right beside her.

Twilight, gifted as she was with magic and her arcane senses unknowingly amplified by her Element when it chose her, felt what was coming through: a storm of possibilities, raw power that could become anything.

It was beautiful; it was dangerous, breathtaking...

It was ominous. It was-

Discord then crossed through the portal, and the feeling coalesced into him. Did I-did I just feel his magic?!

Twilight wasn't sure what to think; part of her was cowed at the sheer bizarreness she'd perceived on the Spirit. Another part was disappointed that the incredible, deadly enigma had been none other than Discord.

... Wait, Discord!

Missing for weeks, leaving Fluttershy worried about him and putting Equestria in high alert as they suspected he was planning either a hostile takeover or his revenge. And he just stepped out of a portal in the middle of Ponyville, whistling as he walked over giant keyboards that played different notes and sounds when stepped on.

"Greetings, Flutters! How have you-" he greeted before looking up and realizing he wasn't in the cottage. His gaze fell upon Twilight. "Fluttershy, did you get a good disguise of Sparky, or I'm at the wrong place and you're actually Celestia's pretty attack pony?"

Her annoyed glare was all the answer he needed.

A grey blur leaving a golden trail zoomed between them, a frantic Time Turner running after them.

"HiTwilightheyDiscordsorryI'mbusystoppingachrono-thiefseeyoulater!" he screamed as he panted, trying to keep up with her.

The pair watched the chase for a few seconds before Discord's mind caught up with what the pony had said.

"Waiiiiiiiiitaminute. Did he just say chrono-thief?"

"He sure did, dear."

Meridian perked up. "It's been a while since we've come across one."

"What's a chrono-thief?"

Discord looked at Twilight, having momentarily forgotten she was there.

"An echo of someone who was erased from the timeline, by their own meddling with the past or someone else's actions."

"Wha-But..." Twilight was trying to understand his answer when she remembered something. "You said time no one could change time!"

"I lied." He admitted unashamedly. "I do that occasionally. Anyway, the echo possess someone and take over their body, slowly erasing them from the timeline to create a void they can fill to fully exist again."

Twilight was left dumbstruck, trying to comprehend what Discord had just revealed to her. It was hard to believe. She then came to the terrifying conclusion.

"Wait, then someone's been attacked by this thief?"

"And got their body snatched? Yeah, it's very likely. If you knew whoever was targeted, you've probably forgotten them by now."

As Discord floated around the unicorn, Twilight stared at him in horror as he continued in a nonchalant manner that, unknowingly to her, hid his worry at the situation.

"Isn't there a nagging thought at the back of your mind, something that calls at you without words but you can't grasp it?" he stopped and emitted a wave of chaos magic, making the echoes of letters and packages around the library visible for a few seconds. "These echoes of things manifests as a life unravels across time and space; they are being erased from existence, and soon you'll have forgotten completely about this pony and every impact and relation they had in your life, with you none the wiser."

Twilight's horror grew as she realized he was right: there was something like that in her mind, and only now she was aware of it. The unicorn then teleported, in an attempt to find the thief. She couldn't let someone suffer such a terrible fate!

The thief cursed her luck; she just had to end in a place with a member of the Order of Chronos!

As soon as she'd stepped into the village, the earth pony had seen her, let out a wordless battlecry and threw himself at her. The thief's new body was fast, but he was almost relentless. Stupid equine stamina! Couldn't I be chased by a tiger or something similar? They would be tired by now!

And unused as she was to her wings, she forced herself to run; at least she had been cuadrupedal in her previous life.

A flash of light blinded her for a second, and the thief found herself floating in midair, a curious Discord looking at her with a finger raised.

"Are you the chrono-thief?" the pegasus' eyed widened as she struggled to free herself of the invisible force that kept her floating like a balloon. "I'll take that as a yes."

Gasping for breath, Time Turner managed to catch up to the pair, his eyes going back and forth between the pegasus and the draconequus.

Said mismatched being lifted an eyebrow at the brown pony. Now he had a nagging feeling at the back of his mind.

"Have we met before?"

Twilight materialized at his side before the earth pony could respond; the unicorn looking between the three of them. Now that Discord was further distracted, the thief quickly concentrated energy around her and released a golden wave, freeing herself and pushing the ponies and draconequus back.

Not wasting time she shot forward, making sure she stepped on Discord's head as she escaped. The draconequus sat up, muttering a couple of insults as he glared at the retreating pegasus. Turner got up and chased after her, the other two joining him.

"Was that the thief?" Twilight asked as they run.

"Yeah, and judging by the uniform, they've taken possession of the mailmare," Discord answered as he flew beside them, conjuring a toy ball.

Turner turned around corner in pursuit, ponies taking cover at the sight of the draconequus rushing behind him.

"We have to save Muffins before she stops existing!"

"Any chance she's new and I haven't met her yet?" Twilight asked anxiously.

"Pretty sure she's delivered your mail for years!" Turner answered frantically. That didn't bode well.

"Then I've already forgotten her!" Twilight screamed in desperation, causing the two ponies to run faster.

"I don't feel any tingle in my mind, so I probably never met her before," Discord commented before Twilight realized something as she looked at Turner.

"Wait, how do you know what's going on?! And you still remeber her?!"

"I'll explain later, now we need to stop the thief!"

"I've got this!" Discord aimed and threw the ball at the thief as she turned around a corner; catching sight of something shooting right at her, she shot a glowing hoof forward. The ball stopped, frozen in front of her.

"I wouldn't be so sure," she mocked the draconequus before the ground below her shot upwards, trapping her in a facsimile of a paw. Caught by surprise, her power faded and the ball hit her right in the face, bouncing off her muzzle.

"Made you stop, didn't I?" the draconequus said with an arrogant smirk.

The thief's body was consumed in a golden glow before she broke herself free in an instant, sending dust everywhere as she shot down the street at a speed rivaling Rainbow's in a good day.

Discord snorted and snapped his fingers; everything around them seemed to slow down as he proceeded to teleport the group in front of the thief; startled, she squeaked before stumbling down and getting trapped in Discord's elongated tail, the extremity coiling firmly around her.

"Did you just slow down time all around us?" Twilight asked, confused as to what had just happened.

"No; I sped us up."Discord repiled smugly. "We are moving as fast as her."

Turner then hit the ground with his own glowing hoof, and everything was back to normal. Both unicorn and draconequus were staring at him, utterly perplexed. Well, Twilight more than Discord.

"And you just put us back to normal speed." the draconequus said, staring at Time Turner with wary eyes. "Who are you?"

"A member of the Order of Chronos, that's for sure," Zero Morpheus said, watching the current events with interest.

Turner looked at Discord in confusion.

"Wha-haven't we met yet?"

Discord then screamed in pain as the thief struggled, temporal energy attacking every scale in contact with her body.

The ponies took a step back in alarm, the thief taking the chance to try and release herself. She was assaulting Discord with centuries of aging, trying to force the draconequus to grow too old he'd turn into dust.

But Discord was immortal and couldn't die of old age, nor would his body deteriorate from his prime; the only thing the attack did was making him feel the pain of forcefully aging centuries in mere seconds.

"Owowowowow! Stop that!" He snapped, hitting her in the head with his paw. But his tail loosened slightly due to the pain.

Powering through her own pain, she increased her attack and managed to get free, taking to the skies in an unsteady manner. Discord grabbed one of her hindlegs, stopping her ascent before slamming the pegasus back on the ground.

Desperate, the thief threw beams of temporal energy at the group, forcing them to dodge. Twilight charged her magic, ready to immobilize the pegasus before being hit in the face by the mailmare's bag.

Dizzy from the hard hit, her magic dissipated as she fell to the ground. As the other two evaded the continuous barrage Twilight noticed a book had came out from the bag, lying right in front of ther.

The book she had been waiting for... got impacted by a shot of temporal energy.

Right in front of her, the pages fell off and turned into dust, the knowledge escaping her grasp even after all the delays she went through.

For Twilight, books were important; and adding to that what had just transpired, this cruelty made to someone that may even be her friend, someone who could vanish forever and get their life stolen... it lit a fire inside her.

Twilight's magic gripped the chrono-thief's neck and dragged her right in front of the unicorn, who glared at the pegasus with furious, blazing eyes. Her mane and tail unknowingly lit up with fire, crackling in anger.

Wide eyed, the thief whimpered as a fireball formed in the point of Twilight's horn, growing in size and rising in temperature before she was thrown into the air. The pegasus barely managed to stop herself from hitting a building before the fireball hit her; she didn't even notice it coming before crashing through the house's wall.

Discord blinked. That wasn't a spell of any kind of magic Twilight should be able to use. Was that-

"Nature magic? Yeah," Silver answered, bemused.

Twilight wobbled, feeling dizzy as the flames faded. Time Turner caught her, also bemused as to what he'd just seen.

"Does that mean what I think it means?" Nidhogg wondered. "Hey look, the thief is up again!"

Shaking the ashes off her, the only damage the thief sported was a singed mane.

Meridian pushed Nidhogg aside, ignoring the dragon's annoyed growl."Discord, let me take care of this."

Now that was the worst idea Discord had heard in a long time. Nu-uh; no way. You are not getting control, Meridian.

"Time is my specialty! I'm the best one for this."

"He may be right, Discord," Silver admitted. "Meridian holds the biggest chances of solving this."

An explosion of temporal energy launched Discord into a house, leaving a hole shaped like him in the wall. Ugh, fine! But I swear, if you cause a disaster I'll rip you out of my head and turn you into Twilight's paperweight.

Discord faded into purple magic, the red and light blue morphing into sand brown. Green scales covered the power as a two-tailed crocodile smiled with a mouth filled with way too many teeth.

Twilight looked at Discord, wondering what he had turned himself into while Turner paled.

The chrono-thief stood up; but when she looked at Meridian, she trembled.

"N-no! That's impossible! It can't be you!" she cried.

"Unfortunately for you, it's me." the Spirit said idly, teleporting behind her. His tails grew in length and snared her in an instant.

Now even more trapped than before, the chrono-thief stared in terror as Meridian worked his magic on her. Gripping her very essence, the Spirit pulled with all his mental might as his tails tugged in the opposite direction.

As the golden liquid was being pulled from Muffins' body, the thief screamed, struggling to stay inside. A lavender aura surrounded her as Twilight grabbed the pegasus in her magic and pulled the body in the same direction Meridian's tails were doing it, having deduced what he was trying to do.

Meridian growled from the effort; this thief was particularly stubborn and clingly. Ugh! A little help here!

The other seven Spirits joined on the mental pull. Between the nine of them, the thief was extracted.

Her hold in the stolen body lost, there was no more resistance and Muffins' body was catapulted through the air, out of Twilight's and Meridian's grip; speeding himself up, Turner run and jumped, catching the pegasus and using his body to cushion their fall. Immediately, he send all of his power into her, hoping to restore Muffins. As Twilight run to his side to check on the pegasus, the thief was sent flying across from Meridian.

The Spirit dissolved into magic, brown warring with red and light blue before succumbing to them.

"Hey! What are you doing!"

Eris held him, dragging the crocodile back into Discord's mind. "What Discord asked of me. Mind helping me, Nidhogg?"

"With pleasure." The dragon grabbed both Spirits and held Meridian back as Discord reasserted himself.

Not taking risks with you; who knows what you will do if I let you in control a second more than necessary.

"True as it may be: screw you!"

Teleporting at the side of the thief currently trembling with rage, Discord conjured a bottle and trapped her in there, making sure the cap was secured.

Meanwhile, the golden glow around Muffins receeded back into Turner as the pegasus tiredly opened her eyes, once again watching in two different directions.

"Muffins, are you ok? " He asked, worried. The pegasus held her head with a hoof.

"My head feels like it hit every tree in a forest..."

As Twilight felt her memories of Muffins come back, she breathed out in relief. It seemed like she wasn't going to fade into oblivion.

Turned chuckled in relief and slowly help her to get up. Discord then appeared at their side, holding a bottle.

"Thief contained!" he proclaimed proudly. "Now, what do we do with her?"

"I'll take care of it," Turner answered, taking the bottle.

Turner accompanied Muffins back home, saying she'd only need a day's rest to recover from the ordeal. Twilight managed to held her questions, the earth pony having promised to answer what he could tomorrow.

As they walked away and all the ponies came out of their hiding places, wondering what just had transpired, Discord held Twilight up in a side hug.

"So, did you miss me, dear Twilight?"

The unicorn groaned as she teleported out of his grasp.

"I'm in no mood to deal with you, Discord. I lost the book I've been waiting for weeks."

"So a book is more important to you than catching up with your good friend Discord?" He said with a paw over his heart, acting offended and hurt.

Twilight didn't buy it. Discord snorted in a mix of annoyance and amusement.

"I suppose I couldn't expect another thing from a bookworm like you. So go ahead and marry this tome if you think it's better company than The Magnificent Discord."

With that said, the draconequus threw a book at Twilight, who could barely catch it in her magical grasp. It was the book she had been waiting for. Surprised, she looked up, only to notice that Discord was gone.

Did he just- Opening the tome, a pie hit her right in the face. ...I swear, if there's even a smudge of food in this book, I'll make you pay.

Twilight couldn't know, but her eyes flashed red and her cutie mark briefly faded before reasserting itself again.

Author's Note

I'm my own worst enemy.

Self-hatred aside, here I come with a new chapter. Hope you like it.

If I missed any mistake, let me know.