The Time

Ohio River Valley
November 25, 1508

A wooden hook covered in bait floated calmly in the quiet smooth lake until a fish came up and swallowed it. It was soon pulled up out of the water and into a dugout canoe. On the canoe, a man with a large bushy graying beard and long hair grabbed a rock and smashed the newly caught fish. He added the now dead fish into a water filled bucket with the other fish he caught inside it, and promptly paddled over to shore.

Once he beached his canoe to the shore near his wooden cabin home, a young native woman looked on at the sight with a smile. "I see you are doing well Achak." smiled the woman, happy to see the lone man again.

"You finally settled nearby to winter over I'm guessing?" he chuckled. "Good to see you again Nadie." he smiled back as he then walked over to his small cabin with his recent catch. Nadie walked along beside him.

"I hope these last six months haven't been too lonely for you." she began. "I'm guessing you still haven't encountered your kind yet?"

"You get used to being mostly alone after nine years, and no, I've scoured this entire river valley, and nothing, just more of your kind and the occasional Cherokee." he explained as he opened the animal hide covered entrance and lets Nadie in first.

Achak followed her inside and took off his hide coat and placed the fish by the fire pit in the middle. "My tribe is holding a celebration tonight, and you are always free to come visit us, if you want." Nadie began as she sat by the fire pit across from the man.

"You know I usually say no to such invitations, I have interfered in your culture enough already." he sighed as he stoked the fire with a stick.

"But it would mean a lot to not only me, but my father, to see you." she explained.

"What do you mean?" Achak asked with slight concern.

"His health is starting to fail him." she revealed with slight pain in her voice.

He looked at her with stunned silence. "Then I will go and visit him and your tribe tonight." he nodded.

With a smile, Nadie got up and wrapped the man in a hug. "Thank you." she whispered happily to him. He awkwardly hugged her back in response.

That night, in a flash of light, five yeti creatures landed on the leaf covered ground of the broad-leaf forest. They looked around at their surroundings before they went off to fulfill their mission, find humans.

Nadie happily lead her friend back to where her set up camp, there was about thirty or so people at the camp, all the wigwams in varying stages of construction, but everyone in a joyous mood as all of the food was being gathered for tonight's celebration.

As soon as Nadie and Achak set foot in the camp, everyone happily greeted the pair and embraced them with open arms. An older woman was first to come up to the pair. "Glad you managed to convince him to join us for the night, your father wanted to see him anyways." she explained to the young woman.

"What for?" Nadie was a bit suspicious of the news.

"He demands to speak with him privately." was all the older woman stated.

Inside one of the wigwams, the tribe's chief was in bed as he coughed violently. His skin paler than usual. He looked over at the entrance to see Achak walk in. "You wanted to see me Chief Mingan?" he asked as he kneeled beside him.

"So good to see you again Achak." he smiled at the mysterious man. He reached out and grabbed his hand. "Glad to see that you are doing okay for yourself." he chuckled before he suddenly coughed intensely. He lurched over and hacked loudly, only for some blood to spray all over the floor.

Achak knew what was going on. "How long have you been this ill?" he asked with concern as he took the chief and laid him down on his back again.

"Never mind that, don't worry about me, my time has been destined for me long ago." he croaked as he wiped his lips with his hand. "I asked you here for a favor." he said as he got right down to business.

"And what is that?" the visitor asked with concern.

"I want you to take my daughter's hand." he told Achak. He looked on stunned at the news. "Please, you've always been there to protect her whenever I couldn't, I know she'll be safe under your care." he pleaded.

"I can't, you know that, I don't want to interfere." he explained to the chief. "Why not have her marry Pannoowau, he's the war chief and of her age."

"He may be a great warrior, but I don't trust him around my only child." he rolled his eyes. "Please, as a favor, take her, care for her, protect her." he continued to plead.

Achak signed as he knew that it was hopeless to change his mind. "I'll think about it." he tried his best to give the chief a reassuring smile before he got up to leave as the celebration began outside.

As soon as he stepped out, he found himself face-to-face with Pannoowau himself, who looked at him with contempt. He did not say a word to the bearded stranger as he shoved past him and entered the chief's wigwam.

"You are seriously going to give that outsider your daughter instead of me?!" Pannoowau snarled with frustration at the bedridden chief.

"I don't want my daughter to marry a warrior." he responded as he explained his reasoning. "Plus I know you only want her to strengthen your claim as tribal chief."

"Can't you see your interest in this outsider is clouding your judgement?" he told him. "He's going to lead this tribe astray with his strange ways."

"That's enough!" he exclaimed. "As long as I am on this mortal realm, I have the final say in this!" he said before he went into another coughing fit.

The young warrior could not help but look at his chief with contempt. He found it shameful to see his chief in such a state. He shook his head and stormed outside as the chief was left alone in his coughing fit.

Everyone was gathered around the communal fire as they ate, talked and danced. Achak quietly watched the proceedings as he ate his venison stew that was provided for him. Nadie sat next to him. "So what did my father wanted to talk to you about?" she whispered to him as she did not want anyone else to know about a personal subject. Before Achak could answer, a blood curdling scream emanated from the distance. "That sounded like your sentry." she muttered as a severed head landed in the wire that sent embers and cooked food flying, much to everyone's horror.

All of the tribe's able-bodied men went off and quickly grabbed their spears, arrows and tomahawks to neutralize the threat. Pannoowau lead the group only to suddenly have the way blocked by three massive yeti creatures who carried their own spears. The native humans stood back at the sight of such creatures, not sure what to do. One of the creatures grabbed Pannoowau's spear and crushed the wooden object in its hand.

Meanwhile, Achak and Nadie ran into the chief's hut only to be met by the sight of a creature as it plunged its metal spear into the chief's stomach. "Father! No!" Nadie screamed out in horror, only to result in the creature to turn to them and charge. Achak grabbed Nadie and quickly dragged her out of the hut just before the yeti creature could get them.

The entire village erupted in panic as everyone dispersed into the surrounding forest, while the tribe's warriors get mercilessly crushed by the massive and strong creatures. Pannoowau managed to escape the massacre with a gashed side and a broken ankle as he cowardly limped away into the forest.

At the same time, Achak lead Nadie by the hand into the dark woods. "What are those things?!" exclaimed a panicked Nadie.

"I have no idea, and I'd rather not find out." was all Achak could muster as he focused on escaping back to his camp before he suddenly slammed against something hard. Achak looked up to see another creature as it towered before him, metal spear at the ready.

Before the creature could plunge his spear at his target, a glass flask was suddenly hit him and he abruptly burst into flames and gave out a loud blood curdling scream as it quickly turned into dust before the pair, dead.

"I call that a 'dragon breath' cocktail." mused a female figure who wore a poncho and nothing else. To Achak this figure was familiar as it reached out her hand for him. Being thankful for the help, he gladly accepted the hand, but at the exact moment of contact, new memories flooded before him.

In a fit of panic, he shoved the stranger away from him and stood back. "No, no, no, you have got to be kidding." he exclaimed in shocked.

"What's going on Achak, you know her?" Nadie asked with confusion.

"Unfortunately, I do." he tried to calm himself. "She's the one that left me here for dead."

A second female figure who also wore nothing but a poncho ran in. "Adam?" the second figure asked, stunned. "Is that you?"

"Who's this 'Adam'?" asked Nadie, even more confused as she squeezed Achak's hand tightly.

"That would be me." Achak revealed. "My name is Adam Gray, and these two women were my old friends, Starlight and Twilight." Nadie was in complete shock at the turn of events.

Sometime later, Adam lead the three women over towards his cabin by the lake. Twilight, now in human form, did her best to keep up on two legs and walked next to her old friend. "You don't seem to be that happy to see us." Twilight began.

"Well, how can I? SHE knocked me unconscious and then abandoned me in this time period." he snarled back as he looked over at Starlight. "And let me guess, she never told you that fact?"

"How long have you been here?" she asked with concern.

"Nine years." he answered bluntly. "Nine long years."

Twilight was stunned by the answer. "I thought we were more accurate than that." she turned to Starlight. "You said that we should only be off by a year."

"So my accuracy isn't the best, but the fact that I had over a million years to work with, I think I was damn close considering." Starlight rolled her eyes.

Twilight turned back to Adam. "Look, Adam, we came here because Equestria is in danger and you're the only one that can save it." she revealed as the group navigated through the woods. "Those creatures are minions of the Storm King who is harvesting human adrenaline to make himself magic proof." Twilight continued. "That way, he can conquer Equestria with relative ease."

Adam shook his head. "Great, I've been gone for who knows how long from your perspective and already things fall apart." he snarled. Soon, the group reached Adam's makeshift home and got inside. All three of Adam's guests made themselves comfortable before Adam threw spare furs and clothes at Starlight and Twilight. "Here, put these on, can't have you two running around in the cold woods in the nude." he instructed.

Adam went to the other side of the one-roomed shelter and changed shirts. Twilight noticed that he was older than she remembered. She sighed and began to put on her new clothes.

Tempest stoically overlooked the carnage and destruction that the storm creatures caused to the village. "Don't bother chasing after the ones who ran away, we need humans who will fight when endangered, they have the best and most potent adrenaline." she told three of the four surviving storm creatures. The fourth creature marched up as he dragged a wounded prisoner and then shoved him over to the unicorn mare. The creature grabbed the man by his long black hair and pulled hard. "And who is this?" she asked with suspicion to her storm creatures.

One of them grunted and growled to her. "What are you...?" the human asked, stunned at the sight of a talking horse-like creature.

"You know of someone that might be of interest to us?" Tempest went right down to business. The creature that held the human captive suddenly placed a spear tip against his neck.

"Yes." he gulped nervously. "His name is Achak, and he's an outsider just like all of you." he explained. "I know where he lives."

"An outsider?" she was intrigued. "In what way?"

"He just showed up injured to us nine years ago, pale skinned, wearing strange clothing, speaking a strange language." he explained.

Tempest turned to her creatures. "Let him go, this human has now become useful in our schemes." she ordered. The yeti forcibly let the native human go. "And what's your name human?" she asked out of curiosity.

"Pannoowau." he revealed.

"Well, Pannoowau, your help will be highly appreciated." she smirked.

Shortly before dawn, Adam tended to the fire in his cabin as Nadie sat down next to him. He looked over at her with curiosity. "Couldn't sleep?" he asked.

"What are you, really?" Nadie asked as she demanded answers.

Adam sighed. "Well, believe it or not, I can travel through time." he revealed.

Nadie smirked in response. "Considering what happened today, I could believe that." she looked over at Adam. "I knew since the moment I saw you wake up from your long sleep, that you were out of place here." she explained as she placed her hand on his cheek.

"Nadie, there's something you must know, it's about what your father said to me." he began as he held her hand as nuzzled his face against it.

"What did he want from you?" she was curious.

"He wanted me to marry you." he revealed. "Because he wanted you safe, and he trusts me to take good care of you."

She let go of Adam in response, stunned. "I'd love for you to marry me, it's been one of my dreams actually, but I can't." she revealed as she looked away. "You don't belong here, and marrying me will just tie you down here, and I don't want to feel like a burden."

Adam placed his hand underneath her chin so she could look at him. "You are never a burden to me." he revealed. Nadie just grabbed him and held him close. Both did not say a word and just enjoyed each other's warmth as they slowly fell asleep in their embrace.

Just minutes after dawn, Adam stood by the lake as he urinated in it to relieve himself. He then heard footsteps that sneaked up from behind him. Instinctively, he turned around, grabbed the stalker by the neck and push them down on the ground. He looked to see that it was Starlight that he had his hands on. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't strangle you for what you did." he growled.

"Because I'm the only one that can take you back to Equestria." she muttered out as she felt his hands start to squeeze. She could see the anger in his eyes as some guilt flowed through her. She probably did deserve this fate.

"You manipulated me, you used me, you made me kill my wife, you abandoned me and took away nine years of my life!" he said in a low piercing voice.

"Adam, no!" exclaimed Twilight as she ran up to the pair. "We have more important things to deal with at the moment, we need her." she pleaded. "Now let her go!"

He looked at Twilight before he reluctantly let his grip go. "I want her punished when we get back." he said before he went over to inspect his canoe. "There's a Cherokee village down river from here, we should go there to get reinforcements." he said to the pair.

Starlight got up from the ground as Twilight noticed red hand marks around her neck. "The only reason I abandoned you here was because I made a deal with Celestia." she suddenly admitted as she tried to catch her breath.

Both Adam and Twilight looked at her with confusion. "What?!" they exclaimed in disbelief simultaneously.

"After I was shot, I wasn't in a coma, I was DEAD." she began. "I was dead and ready to accept my fate before Celestia just showed up out of nowhere and offered me a deal." she revealed to the pair.

"And what was that deal?" asked Adam incredulously.

"I get to live with a new ability, but in exchange, Adam dies." she revealed. "I didn't just abandon you Adam, I abandoned you and left you for dead, but I guess I was wrong because you managed to not only survive, but thrive here."

"Celestia wanted Adam dead?" Twilight was confused.

"Makes sense, since I was the one that killed her." Adam revealed.

"Our Grandmother is demanding a sacrifice in order to bring the world into balance again." Nadie suddenly showed up. "She demands that someone take Starlight's place in the afterlife." she told the group.

"Look, Nadie, no one is going to die, not on my wa-" all of the sudden, Adam's cabin exploded from being hit by a massive bolt that sent shrapnel everywhere and knocked Nadie down from the force of the blast. Adam turned to see Tempest and three of her guards march up to them as they dragged Pannoowau with them.

What was left of Tempest's horn began to spark. "Well, not expecting to see Miss Glimmer so soon, you should be dead." she said to Starlight. She then looked at Twilight. "And you must be Twilight Sparkle, one of Equestria's legendary Elements of Harmony, glad we could finally meet." she snarled with disgust.

"You leave them out of it, this is between you and me." Adam said to the unicorn. "I know you came all the way here to get me." he went and stood between Tempest and the girls.

Nadie looked up from the ground to see Pannoowau with Tempest and her guards. "And you call yourself a warrior." she snarled with disgust at him.

"Guards, please reward the prisoner for leading us to Mr. Adam." Tempest ordered. One of the storm creatures nodded before he suddenly grabbed the native man by the head and swiftly snapped his neck. His body collapsed on the ground much to everyone's horror. "He was too much of a coward to be of any good for us, we prefer adrenaline from a human that would fight in the face of danger, more potent." she explained as she eyed Adam. "And that would be you."

Adam looked back at the girls before he looked back at the unicorn. He then placed his hands in the air. "If that's what you want, then I'll give you what you want, so long as no harm comes to Starlight, Twilight or Nadie." he bargained as he slowly walked up to Tempest.

"Adam, what are you doing?" exclaimed Twilight in disbelief, but then she remembered that back in Equestria, the Storm King already got himself an anti-magic serum. The timeline began to come together.

"If Celestia wants someone to die, then who better than me." Adam explained. "A life for a life, only fair." Tempest motioned to her guards as the giant pair grabbed Adam and then tied his wrists up with rope.

"It was pleasure doing business with you all, but now I must go and help the Storm King fulfill his goal in conquering Equestria. Your human friend here will be remembered for his contributions to the cause, rest assured." Tempest smirked.

Nadie saw the entire thing unfold in disbelief, she could not allow the thing that killed her father and destroyed her village get away with this. While the unicorn and her guards were distracted, she crawled over to the body of Pannoowau and searched him for anything useful, and found a sharp stone arrowhead. "And what do you think you are doing?" said Tempest who suddenly stood over the woman. She was caught. Nadie slowly got up. "Trying to come up with a way to save your friend here?" Tempest asked incredulously.

"You killed my father." she growled at the hornless unicorn.

"Well, he got in the way, so what did you expect?" Tempest answered without remorse. "Now kindly step away or else I'll zap you out of the way." her horn began to threateningly spark.

Nadie suddenly placed the arrowhead between her fingers and then swiftly slashed it across Tempest's cheek, which caused a deep gash across it.

In a fit of rage, the unicorn fired a bolt at the woman and blasted her clear across the shore to a nearby tree. The two storm creatures, in a panic, began to drag Adam away from them, but he elbowed one in the stomach and stomped on its foot to get himself free. "Get the weapons from the canoe!" he yelled at Starlight and Twilight as he ran over to them.

At the same time, Tempest calmly walked over to a barely conscious Nadie who had the entire top right side of her torso burnt. "A fighter, impressive." she nodded to herself. "If I can't have Mr. Gray, then you will have to do." Starlight grabbed a tomahawk from the canoe while Twilight had a spear. Adam used his teeth to untie his wrists as the two storm creatures charged up at them. The creatures got ready to attack when they suddenly heard Tempest whistle at them. "Guards, pull out!" she ordered as the creatures obediently did as told and went back to her.

Adam to his horror saw an unconscious Nadie draped on Tempest's back. "NO!" he yelled out as he grabbed a spear and chucked it at the unicorn. Tempest and her guards quickly used their crystals to teleport out of there, the spear which would have it Tempest right between the eyes, instead went through her as she disappeared and embedded itself in a tree.

"Get this human into one of the airships, we'll extract it en route!" Tempest yelled angrily at her guards the moment they found themselves back in their castle. The guards quickly took their prisoner away and dragged her out of the room.

"What about Adam?" asked Grubber who was in the room as she appeared. "What happened?"

"What do you think?" she growled at the hedgehog, her patience wore thin. "I knew we should've killed her instead of letting her go, but the Storm King had to be an idiot!" she vented as she went over to a mirror to check her cheek wound. "I want medical in my chambers." she ordered before she stomped away to her chambers.

Once in her chambers, she stripped out of her armor and then proceeded to smash everything in within reach to vent out her anger at the unexpected turn of events. "That unicorn and that human has been a thorn to our sides for far too long, next time I see them, I will not hesitate to kill them myself." she growled to herself.

Back in the past, Adam sat on the ground, dejected, as he looked out towards the lake. Starlight and Twilight stood by near him. "How long until you turn back into unicorns?" he asked them.

"Tomorrow night, roughly." Starlight answered.

"Then we leave for Equestria first thing the morning after." he said as he got up, gathered everything he packed out of the canoe and began to walk away into the forest. The girls had no choice but to follow him.

"Where are we going?" asked Twilight.

"Something important." Adam answered cryptically.

After a hike, the three return back to what was left of the village. Adam went over to what was left of the chief's hut and looked around wreckage to eventually find what he looked for; a cloth bundle.

"What's that?" Starlight asked as she looked on.

"The tribe's sacred bundle, it contains items the tribe finds sacred or important, passed down through the generations, the most important item a tribe or clan can have." Adam explained as he took the bundle and carefully placed it in his bag. "We camp here tonight and the next night, let's get a shelter built." he told the pair.

Later that night, Adam sat in front of the fire in his own shelter as he looked through the items inside the bundle, to his surprise, one of the items was a silver Star of David necklace. "I'll save you Nadie, don't worry." he mumbled to himself with determination. He then turned his attention to the entrance as he saw Starlight walk in. "What do you want?" he asked with suspicion, to say that he did not trust her was an understatement.

"Just wanted to check up on you is all." she explained as she sat down across from him by the fire. "What's that in your hand?" she asked, referring to the necklace.

"It belonged to that crazy guy we fought, the people here assumed he was a friend, so they gave him a full traditional burial." Adam said. "I don't know why they decided to keep this." he then saw Starlight's hand on his and looked at her with confusion.

"Look, I know our relationship has been rocky to say the least, and will probably never get fixed because of my actions, but I support you and respect you, and yes, if you didn't betray me to stop me, I would've happily started a relationship with you and-" she was suddenly silenced by a finger on her lips.

"How about we get back to Equestria and defeat the Storm King before we talk about this okay?" he stated. Starlight quickly nodded in agreement to the idea before she went over and gave Adam a hug.

He wrapped his arms around her and returned the hug as he held her close to him.

Once Tempest's cheek was stitched up, she was summoned to the Storm King's quarters in his air ship as it awaited launch for its journey to Equestria. She calmly walked into the cold dark room. "You wanted to see me sir?" she asked with slight nervousness in her voice but a stoic demeanor.

"Where's Adam Gray? You promised me that you'll capture him." he said as he looked out his window without looking at her general direction.

"An unexpected change of plans sir, you see-"

"I would rather not hear your excuses!" he snarled as he turned to face his second-in-command. "I expected a lot more from you Tempest, and yet you do me a sloppy job on an important mission." he scolded.

"I know you expected nothing but near perfection from me." she tried her best to hide her shame for such a botched job. "But I can assure you, the serum we made from that other human will be just as good."

"It better or else you can find yourself in a sweatshop manacled to a textile mill working 16 hour days!" the Storm King warned her. "Spending the rest of your life as a hornless freak with no hope!"

Those words stung the mare as she felt like she disappointed a father-figure rather than a ruler. "Please sir, anything but that, I do not want to lose favor with you, I promise to never let you down for as long as I live. I will gladly die fighting for you." she pleaded.

"Then help me finally conquer Equestria, and I'll gladly help you regain your horn." the Storm King offered.

Tempest quickly went down to the floor and prostrated herself before the Storm King. She was willing to do anything to become a normal unicorn again. "As you wish your majesty, I will happily do whatever it takes to see Equestria under your powerful rule."

The king just chuckled at the sight. "Now go out there and do not let me down." he ordered.

"Yes, sir." Tempest nodded before she got up and quickly trotted out of the room.

The Storm King then looked back out his window. "A very loyal supporter, such a shame that I'll be getting rid of her once Equestria is mine." he chuckled to himself.

As the airship lifted off to its destination, a group of guards strapped Nadie face down on a table. They ripped open her clothes to expose her back as medical professionals loyal to the Storm King get ready to perform the procedure. Anesthetic was not needed since she already was drifting in and out of consciousness. "The adrenal glands should be about here." said one cat doctor to his rat colleague.

After the surgery, they removed one of the adrenal glands and placed it in a small cooler. "Take this to the lab to get it processed, we only have ten hours before we arrive to our destination." ordered one of the doctors to a nurse.

With two hours to spare before the deadline, Grubber entered the Storm King's quarters on the airship. "Is it ready?" was all the Storm King asked as he looked out the window.

"Nice and freshly extracted." smirked the hedgehog as he carried a cooler filled with some vials and placed it on his boss' desk.

"Good," began the Storm King. "let's get this invasion started." he nodded, satisfied that months of planning has finally came together.

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...