My Little Tactics

Chapter Forty One: Time To Be A Noble.

A bright sun shining down over Ponyville with no sign of any clouds was a good way to know that the growing village next to the dangerous Everfree was experiencing a good day. It was as if the sun shining down upon them was smiling, well more so then normal as the purple unicorn stepped out to greet the day.

“Hello Mr. Sun!” The magister called out happily.

Two fiery arms came out with one giving an enthusiastic wave causing ponies shadows to shift and move. “Good morning Twilight!”

The sun then pulled out a book and went right to reading, as did ever other resident of the town as Twilight came around. They were all so studious and it was clear they were enjoying the topics. As she heard her hooves clopping against they ground she also was complimented on the fact she recommended some light reading to some ponies around town.

“Hey Twilight, thank you for pointing out this ‘Parenting for the less magically inclined’, it’s really helping with our little filly.” Mr. Cakes called out.

Part of unicorn questioned when they had the filly but instead just found herself smiling and waving back “No problem. Just remember to reread chapters two and four as they should really help!”

The pastry maker waved and smiled back before diving right back into the book. Twilight was to be interrupted, though politely, with a cough and excuse me from above.

“Hey Twilight, I’m sorry to bother you.” The raspy voice of her rainbow maned flier friend said. “But I wanted to thank you for the recommendation of ‘A complete aerodynamic flier second revision’ it has changed how I fly and now I am breaking records left and right.”

Giggling a bit out loud at this Twilight waved it off. “Oh that isn’t because of me, that is all because of your hard work and for studying well.”

Slowly the hovering pegasus was turning as she spoke. “Are you kidding? Without you pointing me to this book I would have never known. Thanks again Twi!” By the time the pony said that she was completely upside down, her mane staying as it was as if gravity wasn’t a thing, strange to be sure even as Twilight noted to herself that it should be impossible to fly upside down so casually like that. Oh well.

Her next stop came for some lunch and who better then to check on then her friend who just got her master’s degree! Said pony was next to her cart as well as a large chalk board showing off a formula next to some drawings of apples and apple trees and next to her was an apple the size of a pumpkin! It was amazing to see and to think this wouldn’t have been possible just a couple of years ago.

“So you see my most studious colleagues. By adjusting the substrate that you add to your fertilizer and then adjusting the ph levels in your soil, you too can achieve success.” The orange coated blonde pony said as she adjusted her glasses before her eyes and her scholarly square cap atop her head.

“Professor Apple!” One of the college aged stallions asked though only continued when he was properly given the go ahead with a nod from Applejack. “How did you come to this conclusion?”

The Professor was about to say something when she spotted Twilight and smiled pointing to her. “If my friend here had not told me about the wonderful knowledge I was missing out in a few key books, then I would not have gone on to do what it is I am doing.”

The use of ‘I’ in her friends sentence structure seemed wrong but the complement was so nice she overlooked it. “Aww don’t thank me, thank all the wonderful knowledge and science we got to explore just a few years ago. Without it I don’t think we would be even close to these as we are now. It might have taken another hundred or more years.”

“Indeed, if it wasn’t for this knowledge ponykind would be worse off for sure.” Celestia said, her tall self overshadowing a few buildings in Ponyville, as was normal. “Why, if you had not taken the time to study and learn all you could, we would all be worse off. Isn’t that right dear sister?”

Luna, in all her miniature glory as the little filly stepped out of the shadow of her sister looked around and then down at herself. “Huh, so this is what a pleasant dream is for you Twilight Sparkle?”

“What do you-” Twilight started to ask before looking around, noticing that the scene had frozen. In the distance, Rainbow Dash was in mid flap of her wings and mid turn of the page with a smile on her face. Applejack was using a pointer on the chalkboard to point something out mid blink or possibly mid adjusting her glasses. The sun was licking it’s finger to turn the page, and Celestia had a smile that just didn’t seem to twitch or fade in this frozen moment.

“Look around yourself Twilight. While the dreams intent is well off, you have to ask yourself, do you really wish to change your friends like this or to this degree?” Luna asked of her, still as her tiny filly self as she pointed out various things. “The rash nature of the Element of Loyalty? The blunt speech and accent of your friend the Element of Honesty? What of the others? How have they changed?”

Looking around it was strange, but all of her friends were around to be seen. Rarity was wearing a WONDERFUL costume of Starswirl The Bearded which seemed…familiar? Twilight couldn’t see what she was reading but seemed really nose to the book. She could also spot, not too far away, Fluttershy in a nice dress with a pseudo classroom where she was teaching animals all kinds of things. Dustan was relaxing atop of a pile of books with a sign in front of him that read: ‘I have read all these books more than one hundred times, ask me anything.’ There was a line to talk to him that she couldn’t spot the end of and she could swear she saw Derpy in the line to see him at three different points as well as ponies that she wasn’t even sure lived in Ponyville.

Finally came the last pony, the pink party pony herself with a book that read: ‘Party Basics 101, how to party’ and she was reading that while…walking?

“Oh…I guess I am in a dream. Pinkie wouldn’t be walking like that, she would be…what was the word for it again, Pronking thats it!” There was a flash of light as if somepony had just teleported but now Pinkie was bounding around as normal. “Fluttershy wouldn’t be teaching her animals like that, but instead caring for them and maybe giving them a light talking to if they did something bad.” Another flash and now the cream colored pegasus was escorting a herd of various animals across the road. Flashes here and there all came with ponies returning to normal, Rarity designing lovely dresses whose designs were intricate, Applejack selling her baked goods to a crowd of hungry ponies with her signature hat, Rainbow Dash was flying right side up again but with her forelegs in front of her as she moved quickly in the air doing tricks all while wearing a look of both focus and happiness. Celestia returned to normal size as did Luna, with Dustan the only one staying the same.

Looking around Princess Luna moved towards Twilight and pointed to the human. “Is that how you see him?”

It took a moment before the purple pony could answer. “Kind of? He knows all kinds of things and though he might not have read ALL those books, he must have all kinds of knowledge that he hasn’t shared right? We just need to ask the right questions to unlock it. Plus if we can’t unlock it we can always go back to the human world to retrieve more knowledge right?”

With a flash Dustan changed, no longer quite as he was. There were still books around him but now ordered into bookshelves as he stood before the chalkboard of the room he taught at in the castle. The black Norite flooring of the castle transferring over to the dream as well, though with it still outside there were no walls or roof to be seen. Twilight seemed satisfied with the changes as she looked around.

“I would still like to get more ponies to read. The library just doesn’t seem to get many checking out books at all.” She told Luna who had now grown back to her full size.

The Alicorn looked towards her sister’s student and smiled. “Twilight, everypony learns in their own way. A book might be the best way for some or with some instances, but it’s not the only way to learn.” Gesturing her hoof to the other Elements of Harmony the princess smiled. “Take a look at your friends, had you not experienced and learned of friendship on your own, not just by reading it in a book, I might have won and you wouldn’t have your closest friends with you.”

Sighing a bit Twilight looked up however she had a smile on her face. “You are right. Thank you Luna. May I ask what time it is?”

“It is no trouble at all Twilight.” The pony ruler then made a gesture and the sun moved to just peeking over the horizon. “It is currently dawn. I take it you are about it wake up?”

Giving a big nod she smiled and gestured to Dustan standing on that checker boarded patterned ground. “I wanted to let Dustan know what kind of progress I have made towards refining the cross world teleport Glyph. He or I should be able to go there and back with no problem’s by ourselves. We might even be able to take one or two others with us though we might need to recharge if we do that.”

“Oh really? That sounds wonderful. I take it you want to ask him, when is the next time you can visit his world?” This made the magister turn her head towards the princess and vigorously nod in agreement.

Almost bounding on her hooves Twilight answered her. “Absolutely, I mean I have a lot of the books he has given me and I have been bouncing around from one to the other, not quite finishing any of them off and instead working them bit by bits for the technical and science ones as each one give me a bit of a clue sometimes to the other and-.” Twilight talked for a good solid minute straight before she had to stop as Luna held up a hoof. “Oh sorry.”

“It’s quite alright, though it’s again time for you to wake up. Follow me.” The midnight blue mare told her as she started to walk away towards a doorway that lit up in the middle of the road.

Twilight took one last look at everything and started to walk towards to the princess of dreams except she stopped and looked back examining something. “Huh, must have been my imagination.”

As she resumed the walk heading to the door Luna inquired about that. “What must be?”

She stared chuckling and smiling she gestured with her hoof back the way from which they were walking away from. “I thought the floor to Dustan’s was some kind of checker board pattern for a second, but looking back its clearly that black stone he used for the castle.”

“Dreams can change rapidly in the blink of an eye if you don’t keep an eye on them.” She was informed as they headed through the doorway. The ground below dream Dustan flickering from black to brown and beige a few times before the dream vanished as its owner woke up.

Spring time a perfect time for ponies to go out and enjoy the weather while they can after all, it was only a matter of a couple weeks before Estrus week began. Twilight woke up that day after her visit from Luna and got to work as she had a lot to do for her day. First up, hot spicy coffee, she never understood why this type of drink wasn’t more popular but oh well, more for her to enjoy. Finishing up her chapter of the day from her chosen book, she grabbed a couple of things to put in her saddlebags and made her way towards Luminary Castle.

Today was a busy day it seems as there were individuals from the guard as well as others she didn’t recognize off hoof running around while Dustan himself was busy pointing and shouting orders. “What is the status of plot MR-01?”

A griffon guard saluted towards him as she spoke up. “Sir, it is proceeding on schedule, all will be made ready.”

“And the cages?” The griffon gave another affirmative answer to that and Dustan smiled. “Good…now we just have to fill them.”

“Fill them with what?” Spike asked from Twilight’s back.

Looking over and smiling, the Lord of the Everfree waved them over. “Hey there you two. Hope your morning is going well.”

Both of them nodded though Spike still was looking curious, and the unicorn had to admit, so was she. “What are the cages for and what is plot MR-01?” Rubbing the back of his head it seems this was a situation that might be a bit awkward if she was judging his posture by. Then again she was never sure about human movements like this. ‘Maybe that could be another book I ask for in the future.’

“Well.” That broke her out of her thoughts as she looked to him. “As you know, we have races and species aplenty here in the castle and its little surrounding town.” A nod came from the pony and dragon before he continued. “Well, truth is a lot of them, and me, need meat in our diet to actually stay healthy.” For a moment Dustan’s eyes flicked to look at something but she missed where it went thanks to an involuntary shudder at the thought of eating meat. “We are currently important all our meat from the Griffon kingdom and its starting to get pricy. Especially after a recent price hike, seems word has gotten around that we have no butchers here in Equestria so they are milking me for all I got. This can’t keep going.”

“I don’t see what that has to do with cages.” Spike said but Twilight felt her eyes go wide as she realized what he was getting at.

Her shock must have been obvious as Dustan waved his hands trying to dismiss her thoughts. “It’s nothing bad I promise. Recently I got a letter from a pony from Mareami in the southern part of Equestria. Seems her and her partner are Monster Ranchers. They take what is considered monstrous creatures, raise and domesticate them and we have worked out a deal. If I can capture and provide some creatures from the Everfree for her to raise, she will agree to breed them and supply the castle and its residents with things.”

“Does-” She swallowed trying to wrap her head around this development. “Does Fluttershy know?”

Nodding though it was clear he wasn’t happy. “Yeah, we got into a bit of a fight about that. I asked her if she knew of any trouble makers of the forest from her friends Cockatrices and the like that we could get. She was horrified at the thought of helping me capture creatures to breed and butcher.” Growling a bit in frustration. “So now I have a friend extremely upset at me when I am trying to keep everyone here fed and healthy, I have to spend the next three days helping to hunt down creatures before leaving the teams to carry that out as I have to head to Canterlot to attend some kind of meeting of Nobles. Plus my crops aren’t growing as fast as I would hope so I am not producing excess like I thought meaning I am draining money.”

Feeling a bit of heat come to her cheeks at that, she had forgotten all about that development and had to say something. “About money, actually Dustan I have some-”

His eyes softened and the Human shook his head. “I appreciate the offer Twilight but I can’t accept help for this from you.”

‘He thought I was offering to give him money. I mean he isn’t wrong, but-’ Shaking her head she was about to tell him her thoughts when she heard a guard call for him.

Turning to her she would feel his hand settle on her head and ruffle her mane. “Got to go, sorry we couldn’t talk more but life of a Lord I suppose. I will talk to you in a week.”

Her eyes widened as she had so much to talk to him about ‘quick fire off the first thought from your head!’ Her brain shouted at her. “I wanted to talk to you about that glyph!”

Stopping mid step for a moment seems Dustan was thinking quickly as he called out. “Tell you what, make some Salve and we can ok. See you later, I really got to go!” He ran quickly to the gate.

Giving a Quiet YES to herself, and by quiet that meant Spike on her back and several ponies around her all heard her, she smiled and had a happy little trot back to the treebary. At least until she remembered…she couldn’t make Salve yet. Spike got off her back and went to the shelf to start organizing things as Twilight looked to a nearby table. Determination filled her veins and she was about to proceed with making her first batch when suddenly a crackle snap and a pop was heard and a flash filled the room. Two figures stood in the smoke produced by the magic as there was a tall bipedal creature as well as a quadruped.

As the smoke cleared she could see who they were. It was Dustan, though he looked like he was very tired and worn out whom right away broke from the other figure and went to talk to Spike. Meanwhile the other figure was heading towards her, dressed in black, an eye patch and…was that herself?!

Three days hunting, a train ride, and maybe eleven hours of sleep between all that and he was here in Canterlot. He had opted to start leaving his sword behind as well as most of his more combat ready equipment or at least he had tried but Merlene had reminded him that being a Lord of the Everfree and a hero part of his image was tied to his weapons. He agreed but only because he was tired as he was hoping to one day no longer need to carry those weapons. Merlene was accompanying him today as well as Moonlight Hunter. The pegasus had been excited to be chosen and when asked on the train ride over why, he gave the tom-colt looking pegasus an excuse that it was a bit of a test. Truth was, he was tired and selected the first guard he seen which happened to be her.

They were not the only ones to come along though Dustan didn’t know at the time but Maya rubbed up against his side and he chuckled. “I have no clue how you hid from everyone but I am glad you are here girl.” Seems the Coeurl had missed him and wanted to spend time with him so she had tagged along. She was rubbing her head against his head affectionately as they walked the streets. His little entourage gathered some looks and some unkind words, which he expected, as well as a few darting away from them. He merely rolled his eyes at this and looked a bit bored with it all.

Least he was bored until a squad of guards all surrounded them and pointed their spears at his group. “Surrender the dangerous creature.”

Looking to Merlene and Hunter, whom both gave shrugs of not knowing anything, he turned and asked. “Excuse me?”

The snapping and growl of Maya alerted his sleep deprived brain of what they meant. “That creature, it’s a danger to the ponies of Canterlot. You have ten seconds to comply.”

“Excuse me, this creature is my friend and is with me.” The growl in his voice took on an edge that must have surprised Hunter as she stiffened up a bit while the Falcon patterned griffon tensed up.

“Five seconds!” The guard once more called out this time louder.

“I am too tired for this shit.” Muttered the human before he would move quickly hand flashing red to the guards who all was a bit slow on the reaction but eeped out when they could and backed up. “Don’t threaten me with sticks.”

“These are not sticks, these are bronze spears and you will respect-”

Dustan held out his hand showing a dozen spear heads. “You have sticks.”

The guard looked up from that hand to his spear only to realize that the tip of his spear had been broken off at the shaft removing the head. His gaze was interrupted by the gasps of his fellow guards as it seems they discovered the same thing.

The pony in gold gasp as they felt themselves lifted up and set aside and the spear heads handed over to them. “Now where were we?” Dustan and his crew left the guards standing there all bug eyed as they walked, the only sound from any of them was the satisfied purring of Maya as she was petted as they walked.

“Ok is it me or was that hot?” Hunter asked Merlene making Dustan stumble a bit and go red faced. Merlene wasn’t prepared for that statement either as she also went red faced. “What, it was right?”

“Hunter, just…shut up.” Dustan asked while face-palming.

“Fine.” The short maned pegasus called out though a smile still remained on her face. “Still gonna think it though.” She muttered causing him to groan.

Seems word got around about what they did as a higher ranking guard found them at the entrance to the castle and was apologizing profusely as well as other words but the sleep deprived mind didn’t registered them, Dustan waved it off with him telling the pony. “Sure, just don’t let it happen again. Mind if I get a coffee or something, extra strong?”

The guard saluted and said ‘yes sir’ and ran off, though Merlene looked over at him and asked him. “Don’t you hate coffee?”

“Yeah.” As they walked he saw the falcon griffon give him a look and he sighed. “I am tired Merlene, VERY tired. I spend the last three days hunting creatures with everyone, didn’t sleep too much, and then had a train ride, that you saw me mostly sleep on. I am tired. This meeting is going to start in about an hour. I need something to keep me awake and alert as I have no clue what is going to happen in this meeting. I rather have tea or something but I find tea soothing so it could put me to sleep as much as it wakes me up. I rather not take the gamble and just choke down some coffee.”

Seems that satisfied her as she went back to calmly marching with the two of them as a maid found them and handed off a mug of coffee: Black, extra strong. Dustan hated life at the moment but he could feel the effects working almost right away.

‘Stupid, pony coffee magic.’ Were his only thoughts as his mind woke up protesting the entire way as did his body for what he just drank. “There, I am ready for what may come.”

The doors to his room at the castle were flung open Dustan having rage and fury in his eyes as he came in. “Are you fucking kidding me? Did she REALLY call for funds to be diverted from a charity to invest them in a ‘social gathering to raise spirits?’ She wanted to short a charity for a fucking party!”

Merlene and Hunter had rooms next to his, likely able to hear his complaining as he closed the door and continued ranting. Tossing off his cloak and undressing, trying to get as comfortable as he could for the next couple of days, he knew, or at least suspected, that the rest of his time here was going to be just like this.

Collapsing into his bed he sighed at how nice of a bed this was. He missed his own, but damn was this was a good bed. Sleep claimed him quickly sending him into a black spirally void. The sudden sensation of his body called his attention to this dream as he looked around and couldn’t see anything in the void of blackness, though he had no trouble seeing himself nor the fact that he was standing on…water?

Calling out thinking Luna was trying to get his attention found nothing but an echo. The splash and splatter of his boots hitting this solid wet flooring was the only thing that sounded off in this dark space not counting when he would try again to call for Luna. He felt like he was walking for hours at this pace and it was honestly bugging him

“Luna this isn’t funny. Come on now, I want to get some proper rest please.” There came a glow in response this time, distant and faint. “Ok I can get a hint, I am coming.” Walking towards the glow, it was faint, a colophony of colors were surrounding some kind of boulder as a figure was kneeling in front of it as if resting. The light made it hard to see who it was as he got closer. “Ahh there you are Luna, now what did you want?”

The instant the figure moved Dustan felt the hairs on the back of his neck try to leave his body as the figure stood, bipedal in nature short hair and seemed to be wearing semi-loose clothing. He couldn’t tell their color or even shape completely, he couldn’t even tell if the figure was male or female, all that stood out to him were those silver eyes.

“I can finally see you.” The voice seemed not to come from the throat of the creature, but instead more that it was just…implied in the world.

Regardless the instant the being took a single step towards him Dustan woke up with a start sweat coating his body and pain in his neck as his collision with the floor woke him up. His tossing and turning was something to both thankful for and hate. As it woke him up from that nightmare sure, but now he was fully awake, even if his body wanted more sleep. Looking up at the wall, he had fallen asleep when he got back from the meeting around midnight and now it was four. Four hours sleep, not bad. Not great, not by a long shot but better then the last few days. With nothing to do Dustan made his way to the royal library/archives to do some research into some of the things that were more Final Fantasy in nature, to see if anything popped up that could help him at all.

The noble meetings for the second day were not much better than the first day; Celestia and Luna were at the head of the meeting room, or rather at the Center as the meetings were held in a building that had two floors, those on the rows of the floor. The hall looked like something he had seen in one of those debate rooms, the U.S. senate room maybe? Regardless he was way, way in the back and it was only thanks to this weird little stone on his desk did what the others have to say came to be heard by him. Dustan did seem to notice a pattern…or he hoped it was one. Day one held NOTHING but stupid inane brain melting stupidity in their requests but day two was actually better. The requests still had moronic notes to some of them, but there were actual issues in these.

Sadly nothing he could add to and nothing that pertained to him, so really he was just sitting there doing nothing the whole day. He had to order Merlene and Hunter to jab him in the ribs or pinch him if they saw him dozing off. They did so with more than a bit of enthusiasm as it seems he wasn’t the only one being bored to death by all of it. Maya didn’t seem to care as she had curled up at his feet under the desk, she was at purring away and warming his feet with her body as she lay on them.

His second night ended up the same way as he was in the dark water floored void. Only this time what woke him up was the feeling of being watched and the hairs on the back of his neck standing up again as he turned and saw those silver eyes in the dark. Thus with his night being ruined a second night and morning was spent in the royal archives. He thought he was getting closer to the time period he needed but records from that age were either spotty at best or jumped from year to year without much cohesion to things. Likely a result of the Discordian era

Day three saw him needing another cup of that super strong coffee to see him through things which was good as this time things concerning his people actually came up. Los Pegasus, Manehatten and other places had spoke up in concern as they had seen an increase of meat prices for the local predator species which he spoke up, saying that he had also seen this and was being hit hard. When he had spoken up about the prices Los Pegasus nodded in agreement as many went there to try new things or do things that would stay in the city, Manehatten admitted they were not hit as bad as the other two.

“It seems like this type of price hike is targeted. I will have to send word to Griffonstone to ask why this is. If they are found to be price hiking for the sake of greed then we will levy a fine against them for the lost wages of all those that they have inflicted.” Celestia spoke calmly.

Luna though had a bit of a fire to her eyes. “Sister, with all due respect, you know as well as I that they will make an excuse and that will be the end of it. We will not be able to investigate properly as it would involve crossing borders. By the time permission could be gotten harm may come from those price hikes.”

“Not to mention that it might give those who are doing this for greed to cover their asses.” Dustan had said it almost offhandedly but it was picked up as heads turned towards him.

“Please explain your reasoning behind that Lord of the Everfree.” The rep from Los Pegasus asked him, a bit of a portly mare white in both coat and mane.

“Oh ahem.” Standing up to speak properly and giving another cough to clear his throat. “Well my people are more part of a free market, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t those that would abuse that. In my homelands one could hide behind the red tape of laws to buy enough time to hide evidence manufacture evidence or even make sure they could get things in place to bribe the employee coming to oversee an inspection just to name a few. Because of this those with power tended to be able to hide things easier than others as they had the means to do so. Since this is a border call and it’s clear that the prices are being hiked specifically for certain traders and routes then either this is a personal attack on those this meat is targeting, which I don’t think it is as the quality of meat is still quite good.” The agreement of the other two reps confirmed that. “It means the target of this is money, specifically whom they can get away with it the most with. My castle and its citizens are mixed races from all over; it’s a small community that can’t get meat any other way at the moment, though that is being worked on. As such we HAVE to pay.”

“Manehatten isn’t hit as bad as we have connections to other places like Bitaly.” The representative of the big apple told them.

The city of sin sighed. “That makes sense, my contacts mostly came from the griffon territories and as meat is a popular item to consume during many visitors time in my city then it is a big cash product that we would lose if we stopped. We can pay but if the prices hike much more then the prices are going to become too high to be affordable by the common visitor.” Then the Los Pegasus rep spoke to him directly. “Lord of the Everfree, you said you were working on something, may I care to ask what?”

Dustan was about to answer him except Luna cut in. “While possible trade ideas are interesting, this isn’t the place to air those so as such you may want to discuss those in private. As for the issues that was brought up regarding the delays and possible foul play. I have to admit, it is possible. As such we will send some of our most trustworthy to oversee things.”

“Agreed Sister.” Celestia smiled to her younger sibling. “I couldn’t have put it better myself.”

Sitting back down, not much more was to be had though occasionally he was called to answer a question or two about possible monster activity and if anything like some of the issues brought up might be due to them. From what he heard they all had possible activity but could also be explained as natural things like birds or rodents as well.

The third night of sleep was the worst so far. The figure and the eyes were almost on him as soon as h was aware that he was in the void. He was pushed to the ground and right away used the momentum to get his feet under the figure and push them off with his legs. Flipping to his feet he was ready for their next lunge, but even being ready he was surprised by its speed, it was hard to follow forcing him to throw a punch as well as a knee to make the thing back off. All the while the silver eyes were flashing as if they were lights from a car at night, streaking down a dark road leaving lines of light behind.

Dustan was tired of this, tired of this nightmare ruining his sleep, feeling himself focus up and start to draw upon his abilities he was ready to give this things a beat down it wouldn’t forget…except it stopped and backed away.

“I will be patient. It is only a matter of time.” The eyes would then vanish into the dark making Dustan shiver as now he couldn’t see them but could feel them on him, watching, waiting.

Day three of waking up early as a result of the dreams had his reading come across some passages, the lands of the north were home to a creature baring the resemblance of a graceful female pegasus whose shoes and peytral were made up of ice and who was not bothered by a blizzard raging around them. Another was of a unicorn with a great beard to rival that of Starswirl’s was spotted in a forest calmly reading, but when angered a storm came out of nowhere and lightning struck a tree. When the explorer focused back on where the elderly unicorn was, he had vanished. Dustan was of mixed feelings about those, they sounded like they were similar to things he knew from his world, or rather what he knew of Final Fantasy, but the fact they were ponies had him unsure. However Dustan had enough clues to find he could track these two down if needed with the pegasus being in the north, likely in the area where the Crystal Empire will reappear one day soon. The unicorn was to the west in the midlands of Equestria.

Day four and it seems that the topic that was slightly touched on day three came here full force. Monster sightings and other unusual activity of which nearly all of it was something Dustan could chime in on. Problem was, it wasn’t just Tactics monsters that were making appearances but Final Fantasy monsters in general. Ymir Snails, Goblins of all shapes and sizes, an Antlion, and more all of which Dustan tried to inform about and do his best to give useful information. Seems that was a mistake.

“Of course you would know how to defend against these monster wouldn’t you ‘hero’.” A stallion representative, some noble of some sorts spoke up almost backhandedly.

“Excuse me?” The comment had caught the human off guard and couldn’t help saying that.

The noble just sneered. “You heard me.” The next words he seemed to speak wasn’t just to Dustan but the whole gathering. “Tell me, why is it you are the sole creature in Equestria huh? A person who rose to power by defeating creatures like this that no pony but you knows about? Oh but I am sure it’s also a coincidence that these creatures also started appearing around the same time you were ‘accidently’ sent to Equestria right?” The next words he knew for sure wasn’t for him as it addressed the gathering by name. “My Princesses and fellow nobles. I suspect that the one who is now in control of the Everfree, who has been training soldiers of such caliber they can take on the most elite of royal guard has in fact been sent here by his home country to weaken Equestria for takeover. He knows magic that can be taught to anypony leveling out many nations grievances with our forces right there, he admits to his people using underhooved tactics to get their way just days ago and for some reason has been allowed to carry around a cursed object as he says its ‘safe’.”

That got many to muttering and Dustan was half tempted to move over there and slap the shit out of that noble, but instead it was Celestia who spoke up. “Duke Rampant, I will have you know that I am the one who inspected his sword. I found that the sword is indeed a cursed object but it’s contained making it safe for him to wield. Unless of course you are saying that he bribed me and that I mishandled the inspection.”

The human expected the Duke to flinch and mutter in shame, but he didn’t. “My apologies my Princess I wasn’t implying any fault on your end, I was implying it on his end. He admitted to his people using cover up tactics in other ways, he might have used some of his magic to hide the danger of the artifact from you or in some way.”

Both Luna and Celestia had to call to order the mumbling and discussion that came about from that and though the topics were still important after that, Dustan’s mind just wasn’t into it.

That night no dreams were to be had as Dustan didn’t sleep. Instead the Lord of the Everfree found himself just staring up at the ceiling unable to have sleep claim him. Grabbing his cloak he went to the archives early that day. Finding the book he was reading last time he continued where he left off. He only got one more possible lead that being a large Earth Pony that was said to be able to cause earthquakes with his hoof falls.

Sadly that was where the clues ended and Dustan got up from his table to go grab another book. As he was coming back he heard voices speaking to one another. The first voice sounded almost panicked and rushed while the other was trying to be calm and reassuring. The voices became more and more clear and distinct as he approached and it seems they were at the table he was using just a moment ago.

“Look, the answer has to be somewhere in the Starswirl the Bearded section. So much knowledge is here not just from him but history that couldn’t really be placed in any section thanks to the Discordian Era’s chaotic tampering.” The panicked voice said to the other as the clip clop of hooves were heard, obviously that one was a pony.

“Look I get it. The visit spooked you bad, but if there was some kind of disaster heading our way and was here, wouldn’t Princess Celestia have known about it?” The reassuring voice of the calm one tried to work its magic on the other.

By this point though Dustan had identified the speakers and turned the corner to see them. “Twilight, Spike, what are you two doing here?”

“DUSTAN?!” Both of them called at the same time looking to him curiously.

Spike seemed nervous and remembered something, digging through a bag while Twilight came up to him. “Dustan, do you know if there is a danger coming to Ponyville or maybe Equestria?”

That was a loaded question for sure as he did know about dangerous things coming but nothing he was willing to say. “What is going on Twilight, why are you dressed like a ninja pirate spy?”

Twilight was wearing an eye patch over her eye a black stealth suit, she had a short mane cut now, a cut on her cheek and had the same look he did about not sleeping very well. “It all started with a visit from well…me. She was trying to warn me about something happening in the future, some kind of horrible event or something that was to happen a week from her visit, WHICH IS TODAY!”

‘Ahh that time episode classic. Damn I missed it.’ The future but today unicorn went off ranting about how she and Spike had come there all the events from that day to now which Dustan remembered so fondly. Honestly he was happy to hear about the episode as it was a reminder of things happening and everything going as planned.

“Hey Dustan, I have this for you.” The little green and purple dragon said as he held out a folded up piece of paper. His confusion must have shown as the number one assistant clarified. “You came back with Twilight from the future, you gave me this note and said you would see us again before the week was up and to give this to you. Are you ok? I noticed it when you came back with Twilight the first time that you look like you haven’t slept much and now that I see you again it’s the same as then.”

‘He is a good kid.’ Reaching over and ruffling his little…spine? Fin? He would look into that later. “I am ok Spike. Overworked and overstressed though. So let’s see what future me has to tell me.”

“Oh, he told me that you shouldn’t read it out loud as it’s just for you.” Dustan had halfway opened the note when he was told that, glad to hear it for sure.

‘Dear me. I am writing this from the future, ignore paradoxes like bootstrap and thoughts of grandfather paradoxes for a moment-’ Chuckling at that as he would have thought of that given the chance. ‘In about thirty seconds after reading this note, you are going to hate yourself as you have fucked up the timeline. Don’t beat yourself up over it, it happened, you can’t change what has come to pass, only to make sure that things proceed smoothly from now on. Yourself-Dustan.’

‘I’ve what?! No that can’t be right. I mean nothing has changed at all. Twilight just got done with doing the time episode. But it seems I came back with her this time but I have been in a few episodes now.’ Dustan took a seat and held his chin in his hand thinking. ‘Twilight’s events of the episode are on par for the course as well. The cut, the mane, the suit, eye patch, she even sent Cerberus back to Tartarus where he came from chasing Tirek as he escaped. So now Tirek will hide away at-’ Going wide eyed at that Dustan realized what his past-future self meant. ‘No. No no no. FUCK! The castle was abandoned in the original timeline, a perfect hiding spot, but now its occupied and Tirek can’t use it. Tirek is a major event and if something fucks that up it might change everything!’

The next few hours were spent trying to think of something, anything to turn this around while Twilight and Spike read books around him. However like him they had found nothing to save the situation as the sun was rising. At this point Dustan had read over the note a few times now and went to grab a sheet of paper and something to write with. Making sure he got everything word for word, he burned the original and folded up the new note nicely. He knew what was coming.

“That is it, I will just have to go into the past and warn myself not to worry about any of this, which will fix it.” Not quite the wording of the original Episode, but it kept the spirit of it for sure.

Standing up and palming the note the tired human looked to Twilight. “Guess that means I am coming with you. I did appear in the past with you right?” Nodding she smiled and Spike got to witness the two of them leaving once more with a flash…only to reappear a second later in another flash.

“-don’t over..think…it.” she called out before her lip started to quiver. “I just went back to warn myself to not worry about the upcoming week, but I made it so I will end up losing a week over it.”

“Closed loop paradox.” Dustan called to her tiredly as he sat down yawning. “You go back to stop something from happening only to end up causing it. It is the same with future predictions becoming self fulfilling prophecies where you predict something is going to happen, try to change it from happening, but your efforts to change it are what make it happen in the first place. Many people think these are proof that fate and destiny exists.”

The unicorn looked at him both curiously and in wonder. “Wow, and what do you think?”

“I think-” A yawn interrupted his thoughts. “-that I am dead tired. Hey Spike do me a solid. See if you can send a message to Luna about letting me stay an extra day so I can sleep and if she can do something about some stress induced nightmares I have been having. It’s been keeping me from sleeping well lately.”

“Gotcha. I will do that right now as Twilight and I head back home.” Spike scrambled to get some writing supplies ready.

“Sleep well you two.” He called and grabbed some writing things of his own to try to slip a note to his two guards about the extra time. Hopefully Luna would help him with his sleep.

The breaking and entering duo got back home rather quickly as it just so happened that an express train was about to leave and they had gotten tickets. An hours sleep while not enough, was enough for both of them to get the library in order in prep for some much needed sleep. Spike’s head was dropping rapidly over and over again as he would head up to his basket, but not Twilight.

‘If I go to bed now then my sleep schedule will be disorganized.’ Even as she thought that she was giving a hefty yawn herself.

She needed something to keep her awake something that was easy to do and didn’t require much. Problem was organizing the books after her brief brush with temporal insanity was too big of a job for right now as was cleaning the floors of the library especially after her time travel spell had left her reserves running dry. Studying wouldn’t work as her brain wouldn’t retain any of the information. That left one thing, one thing she had yet to actually succeed in.

Heading over to the mixing bench she would get the various herbs and start to mix them in the bowl crushing them where needed with the mortar. ‘I might as well try this for a while.’ A while…was short lived as she nearly passed out over the bowl of Salve mix before even her organized brain decided that enough was enough. ‘You know what? Buck it. This is a problem for future Twilight. Hehe time pun.’

Heading upstairs she would wish Spike good night, even though it was daytime as she tucked herself in.

Author's Note

So for those that do not read my blog, which I post rarely but when I do its either important or just something random, there is no in between haha. Well in it I basically lost internet and cable for a week. With nothing to do but hear my own thoughts and stare at my half written chapter, I was able to force past my writer's block and am now writing a good bit...or may have written a good bit. Point is, you all should have a chapter a week for the next two months-ish. Enjoy!