The Time

"Do you think Shy will be okay Princess?" asked Twilight with concern to Princess Luna.

"Give her time, that's all we can do right now." Luna explained as she looked over at a catatonic yellow pegasus mare who just stared blankly at the horizon from the balcony.

Twilight felt bad for her friend, Adam was gone, sacrificed his life to save his fellow humans, or at least that is what Starlight told everyone when she came back from the past. Something about the story made Twilight suspicious, but she had no other choice but to take her word for it.

Starlight listened in as she pretended to sleep, she for one was glad that Adam was stranded back in whatever distant year she left behind, that meant one less thing to worry about as she slowly began to plan out her vengeance, but before she could begin, she needed to regain everyone's trust, especially Twilight's, but she was a patient mare and she would wait for however long it took.

Month one...

In a desolate mountainous and snowy wasteland, in a castle on top of a mountain, the Storm King stood in his balcony as he surveyed the landscape before him. He smirked as everything he could see for miles around was his, all of the lands, all of the riches, all of the power, his. But there was one crown jewel that alluded him, one prized land that waited to be claimed.

His peaceful observation and thoughts were interrupted when someone joined him on the balcony. "We found something..." said a red unicorn mare with a broken off horn.

The Storm King turned to his second-in-command. "It better be good." he said with some annoyance, still upset that his plan to invade the land of Equestria has been postponed indefinitely every since the human he wanted was no longer around.

"What if I told you that there's a way we can get what we wanted without that human?" she began cryptically. The satyr looked at her with suspicion. "Another human has left us a gift." she clarified.

In the Storm King's throne room, a time machine stood proudly in the center, surrounded by his guards as everyone marveled at it. The satyr walked in and laid his eyes on it. "So, this is how the human got here in the first place, time travel, where did you find it?" he asked his second-in-command Tempest.

"Several lengths outside of Klugetown, abandoned, and unfortunately, the human that rode it here had the foresight to disable it to prevent others from taking it." she explained. "But it is salvageable, don't worry." she assured her boss.

The Storm King paced around the machine. "Why have one human, when we can use it to get many of them, and extract as much of their adrenaline as we want?" he asked his group rhetorically. "I want the best scientists my kingdom has to offer summoned here to try to work this out, understood?" he ordered everyone. All of the guards nodded and marched off to do as told, the king then turned to Tempest. "And I want you to find me a unicorn who can time travel, just in case." he smirked.

Tempest nodded. "It'll be difficult to find, but I will do my best sir." she bowed before she trotted out of the room to fulfill her king's orders.

Autumn leaves fell across Equestria, Twilight walked into Zuberi's apothecary shop for her weekly supplies only to see the zebra stallion himself pack everything up. "Beri...?" the mare began as she looked around the room filled with boxes.

"Your order is all wrapped up on the counter." Zuberi said as he packed up a box.

"You're leaving?" Twilight began, stunned.

The zebra sighed. "The human is gone, so there is no point in staying here, I no longer have purpose." he explained.

"So what? You're just going to pack up and go back to Zebrafrica?" she said with concern. "What about our friendship?"

The stallion walked up to the mare as he glared at her with annoyance. "This isn't about you Twilight, and I am sorry we couldn't be more than friends like you wanted." he said coldly before he turned around to resume the packing.

"Trying to kiss you was the stupidest thing I could've ever done to be honest." she mumbled with embarrassment.

"And why is that?" he asked as he packed, he did not bother to look at the mare.

"I don't know, I guess because of how awkward it was and because it was just too, well, impulsive of me, I just wished I had confessed my growing feelings for you before blindly doing that." she explained, unsure of herself.

Zuberi turned around and walked over to the mare. "You are a wonderful mare Twilight, and it would've been an honor to be with you, but it can never work out between us."

"You don't know that..." Twilight mumbled as she tried to look away in shame.

"You're right, I don't." he said before he placed a hoof underneath Twilight's chin and then suddenly kissed her passionately on the lips. Twilight was stunned at first but soon responded back with a kiss of equal passion. The mare felt herself slowly melt away as the world around them dissolved, but that was soon swiftly shattered as the stallion broke the kiss with a pained look of remorse. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that..." he mumbled as he stepped away from the mare.

Twilight looked at him with a look of hurt in her eyes. "But I love you..." she confessed with pain in her voice.

"Take your order and leave." he stated flatly as he turned to resume his packing.

"But-"

"JUST GO!" Zuberi suddenly snorted threateningly.

A stunned Twilight took the hint that she has overstayed his welcome, and quickly took her order and left. Zuberi watched her with annoyance every step of the way.

Later that evening, Twilight walked into the local bar and sat down at the counter. She ordered her drink and just quietly drank to herself as she thought back to her recent string of bad luck when it came to love. "What's the point of putting up the effort when it'll just end badly...?" she sighed. Her ears perked up when she heard a loud slap, she looked over to see a mare angrily walked away while a unicorn stallion rubbed his bruise cheek.

Twilight knew who that stallion was, months earlier she used her magic to painfully squeeze his orbs for sexually harassing her, but tonight she did not seem to care. She walked over to the stallion and sat down on the stool next to him. "What did you do this time?" Twilight began incredulously.

"Well, if it isn't the librarian who couldn't take a compliment." snarled the stallion. "Came here to needlessly torture me because I had the GAUL to compliment you?"

Twilight was stunned at how the stallion failed to see the severity of what he did to her, but she decided not to bring that up since she knew it would be pointless. Normally she would scold and remind the stallion of how he harassed her but after everything that went on around her, she could care less, maybe she did deserve to be harassed she thought. Maybe she was never suited for lasting love in the first place. "Look, I have been going through a tough time lately, and I apologize for lashing out at you." she then took a deep breath to mentally prepare herself for what she would say next. "But I want to take you up on that offer."

The stallion perked up when he heard the sexy librarian say that. "Oh, really?" he smirked as he could not believe the sudden change of luck.

"Let's just get this night over with please." Twilight rolled her eyes. She did not wanted do this because she genuinely wanted to, she wanted to do this because it felt like an appropriate punishment for her. Maybe her string of bad luck with relationships was her fault?

"Then lead the way sexy." he grinned as he used his magic to spank the mare's rump. Twilight just reluctantly accepted the unwanted contact and lead the stallion back to her home.

Month two...

It was the week before Hearths Warming, and Starlight and Spike cooked breakfast in the kitchen. They both heard hoofsteps walk down the wooden stairs and both turned to see a strange random stallion strut by with a grin, that was the fifth one this month. Once he left out of the front door, Twilight appeared and walked into the kitchen and sat down at the breakfast table without uttering a single word.

"So...who was that?" asked Spike with concern as he went over and served the mare some orange juice.

Twilight pushed the juice away. "Peanut butter and banana smoothies please." was all she said, her face distant. Spike noticed that her eyes were bloodshot, her mane and tail a frazzled mess, she even smelled like sweat and musk.

"Hey Spike, how about you go for a bit, me and Twilight are going to have some mare-talk." Starlight said as she walked up to Twilight with her requested smoothie.

Spike rolled his eyes and walked away, but he was still deeply concerned for the well-being of his surrogate sister.

Starlight sat down next to Twilight at the table. "So, how was last night?" she began.

Twilight leered at her as she chugged down her smoothie. "If you came here to slut shame me, go ahead, if not, then please be quiet and get your snout out of my business, I'm a grown mare and it's my body, I can do whatever I want to it." she snapped.

"Oh no, I'm not here to shame you, in fact, I'm glad for you, you're putting my lessons into practice." Starlight assured, although it was obvious that this is what Starlight wanted all long, Starlight knew she did not do it because she liked it, she did it as a form of punishment.

"It's all I'm good for right? If I can't have love, then I guess this is the next best thing." Twilight shrugged without care.

Starlight placed her hoof on Twilight's hoof. "Whatever makes you satisfied Twi, I won't stop you." she smirked.

Twilight pulled away from her roommate and walked over to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of alcohol and chugged it down, as she did that, Starlight noticed how red and bruised her rump was, but said nothing.

Month three...

It was the new year, and Starlight along with a random stallion blindly stumbled into a darkened library as they tipsily made-out with each other. "Mmm, let's take this upstairs..." Starlight said between lustful kisses. The stallion happily agreed, but then the lights were suddenly turned on and the couple found themselves with an audience that consisted of two armored yeti-like creatures, plus a red unicorn, also in armor, but with a broken off horn.

"If you wanted a gang-bang you could've told me earlier..." said a confused stallion. The two guards suddenly grabbed the stallion and shoved him out the front door before they locked it shut, they then grabbed a nearby chair.

"Sit down Miss Glimmer." began the red unicorn mare without care.

Starlight, still slightly tipsy, decided to see where this was headed towards, so cooperated and sat down on the chair provided by her. The mare looked at the armor that the yeti creatures wore and instantly recognized them. "You work for the Storm King don't you?"

"We've come here to tie up some loose ends." the unwanted visitor began. "Where's Miss Sparkle?".

"Celebrating the new year in Canterlot, why do you ask?"

"Where's the human?" she said as she did not waste any more time.

"He's dead, now please tell me what's the point behind these questions?" Starlight said annoyed.

"Are you sure he's dead?" she asked bluntly. "Because I don't take too kindly to liars."

"Just tell me what this is all about." Starlight snarled as her patience wore thin.

"Have you ever wondered how the human was able to break free from your magical control?" the guest began. "Why he became immune to your magic all of the sudden?" Starlight was stunned to silence, that was indeed something she would occasionally wonder about. "Glad to know that got your attention."

"I just thought that it was because of me, because my magic wasn't as powerful as I thought." Starlight explained.

"No, it wasn't your magic, we believe it's because humans, specifically their adrenaline, may have anti-magic properties, and we really wanted to test that out for ourselves." she told. "So where's the human?"

Starlight looked at the mysterious hornless unicorn. "Haven't you heard? He died, I was there, he died while being the big damn hero that he usually is." she said incredulously. "Sorry." The mysterious unicorn looked at her guards and then back at Starlight. The red unicorn raised her eyebrow before she nodded to her guards. The guards suddenly rushed over to Starlight and grabbed her. "Hey! What gives?! Let me go!" she snarled.

"You think lying is going to get you far Miss Glimmer?" she began. "You think that lying is going to protect your precious human forever?" she continued. "When and where is that human Miss Glimmer?" she snarled.

"All that human will bring you is trouble!" Starlight spat defiantly. "Trust me, it's better for both of us if he's gone and out of the way!"

"You and I share a lot in common you know?" began the intruder. "We had difficult foalhoods, we both lost loved ones, we both dislike friendship, and we both are willing to do whatever it takes to get what we want, so why fight again me when you can work with me?" she offered.

"Like I would ever work with a hornless FREAK!" Starlight spat.

The unicorn's eyes turned red with anger, clearly enraged. "Throw her down the stairs." Starlight's eyes went wide at the order as the guards dragged her over to the basement door. Starlight tried to struggle free as she was forced to the top of the long stairwell to the basement.

"Okay, okay, okay, he's alive!" she finally admitted as she pleaded for her captures to let her go. "I don't know when exactly, but I abandoned him several centuries before the home year of that other human who came here." she spilled all in an attempt to get out of physical harm.

The other unicorn chuckled at how easy it was. "Now that wasn't so hard wasn't?" she smirked. "Your cooperation will be rewarded handsomely by the king." she then walked off. "Oh, and guards, you can take her away now." she ordered.

"Wait! No!" she was about to protest, but a rag covered her mouth and snout. She tried to struggle but soon found herself and her surroundings fade into darkness.

Month four...

Grubber and a squad of Storm Guards march into their master's domain as they pulled along a cart filled with the latest plunder of artifacts from their latest conquest. The Storm King sat on his throne as he awaited their arrival, Tempest stood patiently by the throne while the group bowed before their master.

"Did you find it?" began the Storm King to his smallest servant.

Grubber smirked and motioned for one of the guards to give him the mythical item his master longed to find for the longest time. One of the guards gave the hedgehog a black case before he presented it to the Storm King himself. "Courtesy of Grogar himself sir." bowed Grubber.

The conqueror got up and personally took the case. "With this, all of our dreams can finally come true." The king chuckled to himself as he carefully opened it to reveal an ancient staff with a crystal at the end of it. The king grew giddy with excitement at his new toy and weapon. "The Staff of Sacanas, it's finally mine to wield." he chuckled as he took the staff out of its case. "With this, I can finally conquer the only real threat to my ultimate goal...Equestria and its magic."

"The staff and the obsidian orbs will be useful in that goal, but we're still be at the mercy of their magic." Tempest explained.

"Right of course." the Storm King nodded in agreement. "How's the work in restoring the old time machine going along Tempest?"

"Slowly sir," Tempest explained. "We just don't have the technology and human knowledge available to restore it."

"Well, there's no need now." he chuckled as he was fixated upon the staff. "Take me to her." he ordered.

Tempest lead her master down to the dungeons where those who try to usurp and undermine the Storm King are kept. The unicorn lead the king over to the dungeon at the end of a long corridor. The storm creature guards unlocked the door to reveal their prisoner inside, both her back legs chained up to the floor, her body covered in bruises and lashes from the hard work she was put through, her ribs showing from under her skin from lack of food.

The prisoner looked up with worry, intimidated at the sight of the Storm King himself who smirked at her as he held his new staff. "Today is your lucky day Miss Glimmer." he growled. "You are free to go."

Starlight looked on with a mixture of relief and suspicion as the guards walk in and unchain her legs from the wall. "W-what is that staff for...sir...?" she stuttered weakly, she could barely stand straight without risking passing out.

The Storm King look at Starlight with an evil grin before she slammed the end of the staff down on the stone floor and it began to glow. The satyr soon began to laugh manically with pure joy as it glowed brighter by the second. Starlight and everyone else in the room reflexively stood back as the room was soon enveloped by a bright white light.

In another room, Grubber passed some of the magic held in the staff's crystal over to a set of other crystals and gave each of them to a group of storm creature soldiers. "You're job is to travel back in time and find the human Adam Gray." The Storm King began to give his orders to his troops. "If you find him, come back and report back to either me or Tempest so we can extract his adrenaline, you all have four months to complete this task, if not, we'll just go ahead and invade Equestria regardless." Everyone quietly nodded. "You all know when to go, good luck." he said before turned around and left.

Then, one by one, each of the storm creatures activated their crystal and disappeared. "And what of Miss Glimmer?" asked Tempest to her master.

"She's useless and no longer a threat without her magic, you are free to dump her somewhere outside my domain and leave her to die." he said coldly as he continued to walk away with his new staff.

Month nine...

It was a bright, sunny and cloudless day in Canterlot as the entire capital city bustled with activity. Today was the first annual Friendship Festival, as decreed by Princess Luna, who wanted an alternative celebration to replace the old Summer Sun Celebration now that Celestia was no longer around.

At the Canterlot fairgrounds, Twilight studiously oversaw the festival preparations as ponies from all over Equestria began to gather and set up their booths and tents. She wanted this festival to be a success, all to make Luna proud and to bring back some normality to her life.

"All the vendors are here and accounted for Twi." announced Spike. "All is going according to schedule." he assured his surrogate sister.

"Hopefully this event will go uneventfully, unlike the last one." she sighed, the last such celebration was nine months ago, last time she ever saw Adam.

"You okay Twi?" asked Spike with concern as he sensed that something was wrong.

"I just feel like what's the point of it all, Pinkie moved away, Adam dies, then Fluttershy disappeared, and then Starlight ran away...all of my friends are disappearing one-by-one." she sighed.

Spike patted Twilight's side. "I know it's hard going through all of that, but we're all here for you Twi." he assured.

"Yeah? But for how long?" she said as she walked off and refocused herself on her assigned task. As Twilight walked along the festival grounds, she saw Applejack ready to sell some cider, Rarity as she decorated the main stage, and Rainbow Dash with her now one-year-old son as they tried out some of the carnival games. Twilight just shook her head, she had not seen or heard from Pinkie Pie for nearly a year, and Fluttershy has been gone since Adam's death. Plus, she felt like she had grown more distant from her three remaining friends.

"Hey Twi, want some cider, ya look like ya need to take the edge off." suddenly offered Applejack from her stand. She already had a mug ready to serve her.

The mare looked like she had no other choice and walked over to the stand and grabbed the mug with her magic. She looked at her drink to see her reflection, she did no longer recognize the pony in the reflection. "I want to be happy...but I don't know who I am anymore..."

"Well, yer one of my best friends Twi." Applejack began. "That ah am certain." she assured with a warm smile.

The unicorn could not help but smile in return at the orange mare, but she still looked troubled. "Why do we even have friends and loved ones if we will eventually lose them?" she asked.

"Because as my Granny used to say, it ain't about makin' it last, it's about enjoyin' it while it lasts an' not bein' afraid to make new friends and lovers along the way." she answered as she shared some folksy wisdom.

"I guess I've been squandering our time together these past few months have I?" Twilight chugged down her mug of cider.

"Just go and enjoy yerself, we'll always be there fo' ya." Applejack nodded.

The unicorn nodded in return and trotted off to resume her organizational duties.

A few hours into the festival, and Songbird Serenade was into the third song of her live performance, the rest of the festival went by smoothly, but Twilight oversaw the entire event from a nearby hill just outside the city. She felt like she needed some time to think to clear her head. As she scanned the city skyline and landscape, she soon noticed something in the distance, a dark storm ominous cloud approaching. "That's odd...we're not supposed to have any clouds period for the duration of the festival." she said to herself with confusion as the cloud grew closer.

What she could not see was the fact that the dark cloud shielded a massive airship. On the airship, the Storm King stood on the top deck as he injected himself with a freshly harvested batch of magic resistant serum. Everything has gone almost according to plan at this point for him as his ship approached the capital.

It was not long before everyone at the festival started to noticed the approaching storm cloud shroud the sky in darkness. Suddenly, out of the clouds emerged a single large airship as it landed over a clearing next to the concert stage. Everyone in the audience grew nervous as the ship landed and a single passenger disembarked, a small hedgehog. He calmly walked to the stage to oversee the crowd. He promptly swiped a spare microphone and addressed the crowd. "Greetings citizens of Equestria, we have come on behalf of the great Storm King to meet with Princess Luna herself." he stated. At the same time, Tempest, flanked by a few storm creatures disembarked the ship.

From the distance, Twilight was stunned at the sight and was ready to run down there, but was quickly grabbed and dragged into the bushes by someone. "Hey! What gives!" she turned to the stranger only to see who it really was. "Starlight?"

Down at the festival, everyone was nervous as Luna suddenly teleported on to the stage in a blue light. Tempest and Gruber waited for her. "You demanded an audience with me?" Luna began with suspicion. "Who are you and what do you want?" she asked in a serious tone, ready for any surprises.

"The immediate surrender of your kingdom and your magic." Tempest answered, sternly and cold as usual. Luna thought they were joking, but they were serious.

"I demand to see the Storm King himself." Luna snarled.

"Okay, suit yourself." Tempest shrugged without much care as soon, more airships appeared out of the clouds, several dozen of them as they all floated over Canterlot and the fairgrounds, they entire crowd soon dispersed in panic.

"My word..." the alicorn princess was stunned as she did not see this invasion force coming. Then, another airship landed nearby and out came the Storm King himself in full armor. "You..." she at least knew who he was. "...you finally got bored with what you conquered and came for the top prize didn't you?"

"You know it." he smirked. "So just try to stop me, I dare you." he laughed as he approached the princess without worry or care.

Luna took that challenge and fired a magic beam at the satyr, which caused him to be pushed back, but otherwise unhurt. The alicorn was stunned. "But that should've burned a hole into your chest..." she stepped back. "...h-how?"

"That's for me to know, and you to find out." he laughed as Tempest used the distraction to grab an orb and turn Luna into a statue. Luna's stunned face forever petrified. The king turned to his second-in-command. "Find me the elements of harmony, get them before they try to stop us." he ordered.

"But what about him?" Tempest asked.

"Keep an eye out for him." he said cryptically before he ordered his storm creatures to conquer and raid the city.

"Starlight, what the buck is going on here?" demanded Twilight as a cloaked Starlight lead her to a same location away from the invasion in progress underneath a tall bridge. "You disappear for six months, and now you're leading me away somewhere?"

"Saving us all." was all Starlight said as she took out of her bag two peach colored potions, the same one that Twilight saw her take before she time traveled back to the human era. Starlight gave the other mare the other bottle. "You need to drink this if you want to blend in." she instructed.

"We can't just leave Equestria to be conquered, what about Luna? What about my friends?" she exclaimed with worry.

"I can't believe I'm saying this but..." Starlight sighed with annoyance. "...you need to trust on me on this, now drink that potion" Starlight soon chugged down her bottle of potion.

"Just please tell me what we're doing exactly." Twilight demanded, still suspicious.

"Assuring that Equestria has a future." she said as her horn started to glow. Twilight, feeling like she had no other choice, quickly chugged down the potion as they were suddenly enveloped in a blue orb and promptly disappear.

It was pandemonium in the festival grounds, as Applejack, Rarity, Dash and her foal all try to find a way to escape without encountering the menacing storm creatures. The three soon spot an exist and run towards it, only for the way to be quickly blocked by a large storm creature. They tried to turn back to run, but were suddenly blocked and soon surrounded by three storm creatures. The three mares quickly braced themselves to face their fate, but then, a strange yet familiar creature in animal skins and a hairy face painted red, jumped down, and using its clubs and axes, began to fight off and make quick work of the three storm creatures, knocking them out or cutting a vital artery.

Once all three storm creatures were dealt with, the creature turned to the three mares, the creature may have a large bushy beard and long wild hair, but they all still recognized who it is much to their surprise.

"Adam?" asked a stunned Rarity.

To be continued...

Night in the middle of the foggy bayou, and Vitrine gleefully crushed some bones into powder in her mortar and pestle in her candlelit cottage, when a sudden gust of wind temporarily caused the flames to get extinguished. Once the wind settled down and the room was once again fully lit, the mare turned around to see an unexpected guest. "Neva expecting yuh suh soon." she smirked at her visitor.

The guest's cloven hooves loudly tapped the wooden floor with each step as he approached her. "I gave him the staff as you ordered Vitrine." he said in an old gravelly voice. "Now where's the artifact you promised me?" he demanded.

"Now Grogar yuh need fi memba dat mi di one dat makes di rules round here." she said as she seductively approached her guest. "Mi did di one dat give yuh life an mi a di one dat cya tek it away." she warned him as she then placed a hoof on his cheek, which much to Grogar's horror, caused his cheek to start to desiccate. He reflexively jumped away from her touch as his cheek began to slowly repair itself.

"You promised me the bell." he said with annoyance.

"Ongle afta yuh kill di human dat kill mi ongle child!" she said sternly as she walked back to resume her task before she was interrupted. "Yuh ave 100 days fi get it dun or else it back tuh being bone an dust." she warned.

"You do know that I can't do this alone Vitrine, he has the princess and the Elements of Harmony behind him." he explained.

"Yuh relax an mek yuhself comfortable inna dis time period mi wi handle all di rest." she gave him a smile that showed off her bad teeth. "Wid Adam an fi him friends outta di way yuh cya finally once again be di rightful rula of Equestria."

Grogar chuckled at that idea. "Thank you for the second lease on life." he nodded gratefully. "So when can we start?" he asked.

He was only met by a large grin from the mare.