Threads of Time

Chapters

Learning his Threads
The Equestrian Nightmare
Challenges of a Nightmare
Final Judgement
Entropy
Shadows of Fear

Learning his Threads

Day one, Chrono thought. The first of several times that his encounters with his friends in Ponyville would be remembered, and on a rather beautiful day, despite his having seen the day three times already. The only thing he really counted as could be wrong with such a great morning was in fact nothing he found wrong at all, per se. Rather, his present company's disagreement with his opinion of the matter stood out farther than he found to appreciate.

"But you can't go to the Gala without something fabulous to wear!" Rarity protested, as she took several measurements of Chrono's body against his will. "And with an invitation from princess Luna herself, how could you even think without attire?"

Chrono had by this point given up on the debate; he knew there were certain times when his arguments not only held little to no chance of coming through, let alone being seriously considered. On top of that the simple fact was, he didn't quite mind being made an overcoat; he simply felt guilty after being both invited freely to the Grand Galloping Gala and being made an overcoat by Rarity in the same day.

Still after nearly half an hour of negotiation and compromise, he managed to sort out with the mare, a remarkable yet somewhat humble attire; black with light blue trim at all four sleeves, with a design on the back that in and of itself looked like a smaller coat's silhouette at first glance.

"There you are, darling." Rarity said, looking satisfied, "I do hope it is alright?"

Chrono nodded, trying the overcoat on and finding it surprisingly comfortable for the level of formality he knew he would be undertaking. "Alright hardly cuts it," he remarked, "this is a marvel. No wonder everypony here comes to you for dresses."

The mare beamed with pride. "Think nothing of it. Necessities only, Chrono."

"Regardless, thank you."

The remainder of the morning - as well as the train ride to Canterlot - was quite monotonous for the chronomancer, his thoughts resting on the night before - or what would have been, in any event as he realized. His encounters with Entropy and either princess had left the young stallion quite confused several times over, and he could hardly help but wonder if there was some connection with each of them that he was unaware of.

"Oh, there you are!" His thoughts were torn away by the sound of Pinkie's ever-enthusiastic voice from the doorway on his right. "I wanted to ask you something."

Chrono turned to regard the mare, his attention momentarily diverted by the incredibly bright and elaborately-decorated dress she wore. Still he quickly slid his eyes back to her own, with a curious glance in his face. "Yes, Pinkie?"

"This is your first Gala, isn't it?"

Chrono nodded.

"I had a little something special planned for a while in, but I can't tell you right now 'cause it's a surprise. I just wanted to know if you'd be interested in helping at all." She smiled, as blindly cheerful as could be.

"Well I can't quite say I'd be helping if it was something I couldn't do," Chrono remarked, "how come you can't tell?"

"Well I don't want to spoil it for everypony," Pinkie went on, "but I think between you and Rainbow Dash this could work really well!"

Chrono sighed. "You're sure it's something I can actually pull off? I don't want to wind up messing everything up for you."

"Oh, you'll be fine. You in?"

Chrono thought for several seconds, before nodding slightly.

"Yay!" The mare exclaimed. "I knew you could do it!"

As she turned to walk on out, her tail twitched oddly, and before anypony in the car even knew to react the overhead hatch swung open and none other than Fluttershy dropped down right on Chrono's head, dropping him to the floor immediately.

"Oh, s-sorry Chrono..." she whispered, standing to the side almost immediately.

"It's no trouble," Chrono remarked. "I can hardly say I didn't see it coming."

"Are you alright?" the pegasus asked, offering a hoof to help him up, which he took with a grateful nod.

"I think so anyway. It's you I'm worried about." Chrono remarked. Pinkie took a brief look around, before departing.

Any semblance of Chrono's unease with the mild ache in his head resulting from the collision faded from his mind in an instant though. As he looked briefly at Fluttershy's attire, the first thought he considered was that there was no better way to portray a sense of perpetual calm than the perfect flow of her dress. The second maintained that it probably wouldn't have come off so well if the familiarity Rarity had with all her friends was any less.

"I-I'm alright. Oh, have you seen Twilight?"

Chrono indicated the door ahead of him. "She was in her room last I heard. Can't say I've seen her much though."

"Oh, okay. Thank you." Fluttershy made to leave the hall shortly thereafter.

The Gala went about as well as Chrono's various overhearings led him to suspect. Incredibly formal and official, but altogether seemed rather lifeless. The dining and dance hall kept exclusively to formal music and dances; the selection of foods left for little surviving taste for sugar - which led poor Pinkie's hair to fall several times, despite how often it sprang right back up; princess Celestia seemed all but smothered by her hundreds of guests; altogether it lacked any sense of occasion, anything to stand out aside from the extraordinarily business-like approach the whole ordeal took. So in an effort not to drown himself in worry over the surrounding events, Chrono isolated himself in the dining room and contented himself with watching the musical performers while contemplating the potential possibilities of Pinkie's alleged surprise. A small series of taps on his shoulder caught his attention undeniably quickly, and as he turned he nearly fell over in surprise by who he saw.

Almost a perfect compliment to all things Chrono; white coat, bright yellow mane and tail, and with a well-grown pair of wings that altogether marked the appearance of one of Chrono's older friends, Aero Slide. "You really are easy to surprise, Chrono!" He said with a chuckle, "I haven't seen you in a while, where've you been?"

Chrono laughed for a moment, motioning his friend to the nearest stool for a seat. "Princess Luna has had me out and about lately. Judging by the look of things, I may be staying out in Ponyville for a while."

"Ponyville, huh?"

"Sure enough. I've actually been looking forward to the chance for a while now."

Aero raised an eyebrow. "You gonna be coming back?"

"Don't see why I wouldn't. It's not like princess Luna will be able to find an everyday chronomancer to investigate things beyond spatial dimensions."

"Yeah, good point. So what're the orders this time?"

Chrono smiled. "Nothing at all. I've had it requested I simply enjoy some time to my preference. Look where it landed me."

Aero smiled, prodding his friend lightly. "Lighten up Chrono. Relax a little, this is supposed to be a party remember?"

"Chrono!"

Chrono's gaze averted to the source of the unexpected voice, but when only a faint linear mirage caught his eye, he suspected well enough both who it was and some semblance of what it was about. "Yes, Rainbow Dash?" He asked, not bothering to turn around.

"Aww, you caught me!" Rainbow pouted, "Eh, whatever. Pinkie says we're up, come on!"

Aero nearly fell over backwards laughing. "Well who'd have thought it! Chrono Spark, friends with the infamous Rainbow Dash and the rest?"

"Who you callin' infamous?"

Chrono's face hit the desk. "It's a compliment, Rainbow," he remarked in what could only be heard as a mumble.

"Whatever, come on!" Rainbow insisted, "No need to be late to the dance floor!"

Chrono's blood stilled. What would he be doing on a dance floor in the first place? Even then he had no time to contemplate; he found himself dragged away forcibly by none other than the mare without much choice in the matter.

He was taken quickly behind a closed curtain, where to his immense surprise he caught sight of a DJ stand run by Vinyl Scratch, and Pinkie Pie waiting for his and Rainbow's return. "Okay," Pinkie began, "sorry I couldn't fill you in on the details earlier Chrono, but I didn't have anypony else to turn to and it was already kind of late for second thoughts."

"I've dealt with worse," Chrono said reassuredly. "I don't know if you'd remember or not, but believe me I have."

It was true enough. Suffering death could easily be considered worse than an elaborate party surprise. At least as far as the stallion knew.

"You might want to tell him exactly what you had in mind, Pinkie." Rainbow interjected.

"Oh, right!" Pinkie bounced, "You'll be dancing with us!"

"Dancing?" Chrono asked.

"Dancing!"

"Oh, you'll be fine," Rainbow said with a nudge on the stallion's shoulders, "just loosen up and let it go."

"All set up here," Vinyl said from her stand, "You all ready?"

Rainbow and Pinkie both looked to Chrono expectantly. He could only do what he could to suppress his sigh. "Ready as ever."

The classical music group reached their finale, and however slowly, the curtain around the DJ stand rose to reveal the four conspirants. With the sudden change of pace, style and intonation of Vinyl's music, Chrono had to struggle briefly to adjust to the flow through what differences he had to face. Foremost among them, he found it particularly easy to figure potential steps in the patterns to which he could accommodate what little practice he had in dancing. For the third time in two nights, he was under the firm belief that it would be a long night.

Each beat, each step. Pinkie started expanding upon it first, seeing as she was positioned virtually at the head of the conspiracy. One tap into the next, she worked her hooves with as much precision as she did spontaneity, creating a sort of counterbeat to the music's given tempo which furthered both the feel of the dance and the music. Despite his every belief in the matter, Chrono caught on before long at all.

Rainbow Dash followed suit only very shortly after Pinkie had begun, hooves tapping away at the floor below. Without much difference in timing, Chrono began to move in tandem with the others, slowly gaining a feel for moving in such a manner at all. In the distance as he set a fairly long pattern to his steps, he could see a familiar - if discreet - alicorn isolated from the crowd. If her crimson coat and black mane weren't enough to give her away, the black glow on her horn finished the job, and Chrono heard echoing in his mind, the voice of Entropy. "I'd like to speak with you once you're finished, if you don't mind. You look like you're enjoying yourself for now though."

The music finished, but was only the first round of such that he suspected would be coming. Most of the other ponies attending seemed lightly upset by the eruption of more spontaneous music and dancing, but none offered any complaints right away.

Again the music began, the introduction to a tune Chrono was in fact very familiar with and enjoyed quite a lot. The introduction built quickly, and almost by instinct Chrono found himself moving forward to match Pinkie's positioning before erupting into another dance. To this, even Pinkie seemed caught off guard for a moment, but she and Rainbow Dash very quickly followed up and recreated the entertainment for the others. It wasn't long however, before among the tapping of hooves at either side, Chrono heard syncronized taps behind and further around. It only held one indication; other ponies had joined in the activity, and one by one seemed to be enjoying themselves - of the ones who had yet to stand and dance with them, anyway.

"You're pretty good at this!" Pinkie said with a giggle. "We should have a contest!"

Chrono barely managed to fit his thoughts into audible words through his focus on each of his own movements, "A contest?"

"Yeah! A contest!"

"Aren't you going a bit far with this, Pinkie?"

"Nah, you'll do just fine!"

Ten minutes passed, Chrono slowly growing better-accustomed to improvising his moves in a manner that he noticed grew quickly on the others with him. Then, upon request, a pair of stands were set up - one for himself, and one for Pinkie.

Twilight Sparkle agreed to judge the two in their comparatively informal contest. The tune was mutually agreed on by both of the contestants, and Vinyl as well. With several moments' preparation, the dance began.

Both ponies took turns taking the dance floor, notified only by lighting provided by Twilight just prior to their turn. To say the least, while he had his pauses Chrono had to admit that Pinkie was a superb dancer. Beyond any shadow of a doubt in his mind, she was a natural party pony. Still, he did everything he could to keep up to her standards, and as the finale resolved, results were announced. Pinkie had risen victorious, and although Chrono felt slightly defeated by his loss in spite of Pinkie's earlier praise of his talent, he smiled warmly and bowed to the crowd anyway.

Spotting Entropy slowly leaving the floor though, he didn't take long in giving chase. She paused at the garden, taking a few moments to navigate a small bit of the labyrinth so as not to draw attention to herself. Again Chrono followed without any hesitation. "Something the matter?" He asked, concerned.

"Not really, no." Entropy said with a faint smile. "It just seems so strange to me still. You look like you get along so well with everypony else. So casual, so easy-going. Nothing like you were at would-be last night."

Would-be? The same exact term he often used to reference taken-back events across time caught him slightly off guard, as did the slight smile Entropy gave him just after he reacted.

"Don't be alarmed. Everypony has their talents, you know." Entropy shifted slightly to reveal her cutie mark; an ovular mirror. "Mine just so happens to be directly related to everypony else."

"I don't understand. A mirror?"

"My talent, Chrono Spark..." Again Chrono was caught off guard by the mention of the name he had not given, "Is to reflect the qualities of another's mind that they do not so much wish to acknowledge. You might remember the confrontation during would-be last night's events with princess Celestia?"

Chrono nodded.

"It's a second nature to me. I know most everypony else better than they themselves do, but it's as if they all fear me still."

"Well..." Chrono thought for a second, "I might know why."

Entropy raised an eyebrow.

"You reflect the negative qualities of those you encounter, yes?" Chrono asked, to which the mare nodded. "What about your own?"

"What do you mean?"

"Nopony should have to be negative all the time. The way you make it sound seems like you rely solely on your interactions to define who you are."

"Well, yes, but -"

Chrono shook his head. "But that's not who you are. There's more to me than my excessive guilt and low opinions of my capabilities and my knowledge. I'm sure you've figured that out by now."

"But how do you get along with everypony you hardly even know?"

Chrono chuckled. "What are you doing right now, Entropy?"

"What?"

"You're doing the same thing I usually do when I'm not just watching. Ask questions, let the ponies explain themselves to you."

Entropy tilted her head, just as Aero poked his head around the corner. "Ah, it seems you have a visitor." She said with an indicative nod of her head.

Chrono turned with a laugh once he saw who it was. "Perfect timing, Aero! Come here, could you?"

Aero gave a slight tilt of his head to Entropy, indicating his complete lack of knowledge as to who this pony was. But, as requested he sat down at his friend's side. "Hey there miss." He said simply, still curious as to why Chrono had requested.

"Oh, right..." Chrono caught himself. "Entropy, this is my friend Aero Slide. He and I met about four years ago, been friends for most of that time."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Aero Slide."

"Please," Aero chuckled, "call me Aero. No need to be formal, at least with me."

Chrono smiled. "Aero's not the best with questions either. Every now and then he can jump to conclusions but he doesn't really have much trouble getting along. I think maybe the two of you can relate on a few points. Anyway, I should probably be getting back. Do enjoy yourselves, please?"

After a moment, Chrono got up and trotted back to the Gala, rejoining the more semi-formal continuum of activity that had dominated in contrast to the explosive burst of activities that he had helped introduce for the evening. Long or not, it was quite the interesting evening for the young stallion. One he was almost tempted to relive a few times before calling it a night for his own rest...

Just as he was about to act on such thoughts however, Luna's hoof on his shoulder gave him pause.

"There will always be next year," she reminded him. "Not all things can be taken as a first again."

Chrono smiled, turning to look up at his mentor. "I suppose you're right." He said with a humble bow. "Thank you for the invitation, by the way."

"It is our pleasure, Chrono Spark. Although, we are curious. Hast thou learned anything of thine own through the evening?"

Chrono stifled a laugh. The familiar question that he had documented time and again now rang in his ears for him alone, and no subject of recording. "Well firstly, that unexpected occasions aren't necessarily all bad. Sometimes it's just easier to let the flow of events drive you, and not simply the course of duties."

Luna waited a moment before asking, "And secondly?"

Chrono's smile twisted slightly into a grin. "I need to start getting some writing materials."

For the first time in his life, the sight of princess Luna laughing with genuine mirth came to witness of her student.

"Chrono! Get up, will you?"

The voice was a familiar one to the black unicorn. After recent events he had nearly tired himself to a breaking point, and although he could hardly move, he didn't have to either. As he opened his eyes, the maroon eyes of his friend Deuce hovered right above him. Of course having expected his residence to be somewhat secure in practicality it was a surprise for him to be in any company, but all the same despite his sudden jumping out of his bed, he only tossed a more playful glare towards his friend. "There really is no stopping you, is there?" He asked.

"Not a chance!" Deuce replied, tossing a hoof forward through his red mane as if to show his confidence in his skill. "So what brought you all the way out here? I didn't even hear you left until after the Gala."

Chrono blinked, caught off guard by the sheer fact that after his visit from Aero Slide he had managed not to inform Deuce about his departure. He frowned at his own foolery as he looked away from the gray-coated earth pony and into his mirror and own reflection. "I didn't think I'd be staying as long as I have," he admitted, "I'm sorry I didn't let you know sooner."

In the reflection, he could see Deuce stepping up to him and felt the tap of his hoof on his shoulder. "Hey, no sweat. Now I know where you are, so at least I can find you when I need you, right?"

"Fair enough," Chrono submitted, "but why break in?"

"Well how else was I supposed to come and wake you up?"

"You don't usually wake somepony up, Deuce." Chrono said bluntly, looking back to him. "What's going on, really?"

The sound of his door flying wide caught his attention, and as quickly as could be, his question was answered. Aero, in his full bright appearance, stood in the open doorway, as proud as ever. "You didn't think he'd come alone now, did you?" He asked with a wink.

Chrono's face fell just short of the floor as he realized how simple it was. It made him recall his life in Canterlot while all three of them would enjoy a number of times together. Often enough it was rumored that where one of them was, the others were already there one way or the other. Usually by Aero's taking to the skies, Chrono watching from outside the logical timespace or Deuce's eptitude at not being seen. Any combination of two, rather. "I guess not." Chrono confessed, "Well you certainly got me. But that doesn't answer why you came."

"Are you kidding?" Aero's face flew forward for a moment in disbelief, "I get that you see a lot of things differently but this is something I'd expect you to know upside-down and backwards!"

"Care to share?"

Deuce laughed. "It's Hearth's Warming Eve, Chrono. You really have a hard time waking up, don't you?"

Chrono sighed. "I usually wake up and go back through the night to relive it wide awake."

Deuce raised an eyebrow. "Overkill, much?"

Aero blinked, and Chrono could see that the young stallion was already piecing the facts together by the sheer puzzlement on his face.

"Not at all," the unicorn explained, "I am not as bound to time as most might be. Anything that happens to me - in this particular case, sleep - will still have happened when I finish going back. So, I can make it seem like I never sleep at all. It's actually rather interesting to see some of the faces when I step out wide awake in the middle of the night."

Deuce nodded. Aero tilted his head, quite confused. Chrono chuckled as he watched the two.

"Did I ever tell you how confusing you make things sound?" Aero remarked.

"No, but I promise you I know somepony who does it better than I do."

"That's got to be difficult." Aero said simply, taking flight and hovering for a moment. "Anyway, come on! No point in being late now!" He was out the door before he was even finished.

Deuce watched with a raised eyebrow. "Did he just fly out... backwards?"

"I have no idea." Chrono said, before stepping out a moment later.

It was a marvelous day. Between the birds' chirping and the pleasant skies overhead, Chrono could take in what he felt as a perfect morning. Mayor Mare and several other ponies were busy setting up the performance stage as might have been expected, and in the distance a trio of little fillies could be seen running here and there with each other. The sight made him chuckle. For the three collectively immortalized as the "Cutie Mark Crusaders", he could feel more sympathy than he suspected most other ponies could. His own talent in time was a certainly interesting occurrence, and one that he would never want to relive.

In any event, he took to a pleasant stride as he went about to see how everypony was doing. Deuce of course tagged along, and while at first Chrono could spot no particular sign of Aero's pursuit, there were a number of clouds overhead. He was being followed, he was certain of it.

"So how long do you think you'll be staying?" Deuce asked, starting some semblance of conversation.

"Until called back, I imagine. Princess Luna has me under orders for vacation as it seems."

"Orders for vacation? You trying to tell me you're overworked?"

Chrono shook his head. "No, that's what the princesses have been telling me these past few weeks."

"Seriously?"

"They can see through my time-travels; they know what I've been doing better than anypony else. Not to mention Entropy..."

"Who?"

A cough from the side alerted Chrono to who ultimately would prove to be the answer to Deuce's question. As they both turned to see the crimson alicorn, Deuce immediately took a step back in surprise. Chrono on the other hand held a leg out to cut off his friend from backing away too much.

"What brings you here?" He asked rather simply.

"Nothing of consequence," Entropy replied, her indigo eyes boring into the two stallions. Deuce of course shrank slightly even though he masked it perfectly in his face.

Chrono glanced over and down at his friend. "Pardon him; he's a little timid when caught off guard."

"I know." Entropy said with a chuckle. "Remember Chrono, I know these things quite well."

Chrono's eyes shut briefly as he chided himself for having not thought of the most obvious of truths. "Apologies, then." he said simply, "but still, I can't help but wonder from time to time why you stick around here so much. Don't you have someplace you can stay?"

"Are you saying you'd rather I leave?" She asked.

A slight twitch of movement to Chrono's periphery was the only indication he had; even as he looked to the source, he realized that Deuce had taken to hiding. Timid, indeed... "Not at all," he remarked, "I'm just concerned, is all."

Entropy laughed, "Don't be worried about me. I can handle myself well enough."

Chrono's face betrayed how clearly that wasn't what he was trying to ask about, but he knew her response was true enough; he may as well have been worrying over nothing special. "If you say so." He said with a sigh. "Just take care, alright? I'd hate for anything bad to happen to you."

Entropy merely smiled and trotted away. Chrono watched her go, mildly puzzled by what she was off to do.

Preparations finished soon after, with help from all of Chrono's friends and himself. To his pleasant surprise it took significantly less long than expected, and a brief party courtesy of Pinkie Pie was thrown soon after. At the party itself Chrono elected to keep nearer to a wall and watch Aero and Deuce getting to know the other ponies from Ponyville. After all, he had much longer than either of them to get his bearings.

A resounding boom sounded from outside and shook the house after some time, alerting everyone within only seconds later. Chrono of course sped outside with everypony else, only to see an expanding ring of red from the stage area and several ponies sprawled about the area, evidently caught by surprise from the evident burst. As they got up though, his surprise amplified tenfold as each pony began taking a rather accusatory investigation into the matter.

Unnaturally accusatory, as he came to realize. The only evidence held was a ring of red and a sudden explosion of sound.

"Is that?" Rainbow Dash asked disbelievingly, "A red sonic rainboom? And right on the stand too! Who would do a thing like that?"

Chrono sighed. "Well the red's the only lead we've got. I can't say I know too many possibilities."

He took a brief survey of who all was around, but it seemed that Twilight was the only one to have not run off in any particular direction. "This doesn't make any sense. Who would want to ruin Hearth's Warming Eve?" She asked.

"I can't say I'm certain." Chrono said with a sigh. "But it looks as if we're on yet another case."

"There's no need to search." A voice from above and behind called down. "I'll confess, but I did it with a purpose."

"Entropy?" Chrono and Twilight asked together, turning and looking up to the crimson alicorn.

"But why?" Chrono asked, genuinely confused.

Entropy hopped down, causing both Chrono and Twilight to hop back a step reflexively. "Because Equestria's foundation, while clear, is not a stable one. Look at some of the cities and towns for example. Canterlot, with its undying population of almost exclusively unicorns. Cloudsdale and Las Pegasus, where no pony except for the pegasus ponies can even walk. And might I mention among other towns in the countryside, Ponyville's particular choice of the earth ponies? You call this unity? It's an outrage!"

Chrono and Twilight looked to each other, both in a mutual understanding of their roots in Canterlot, but all the same both also well aware that as residents of Ponyville - however temporary as it were - the alicorn's point was not entirely valid.

"But why ruin the celebration?" Twilight asked after a tense silence. "That just defeats the whole purpose!"

"I need proof." Entropy declared, "Proof that when things go poorly, not every pony will rush to blame. And as it appears, I was right. I will find no such proof."

Chrono shook his head. "I'm not about to say you're entirely wrong, but it seems a little selfish to be trampling Equestria's foundation like that, don't you think?"

"And it's not like everypony can be perfect," Twilight added, "it took all sorts of ponies to even get that stand put up."

"And now look at them." Entropy retorted, holding a hoof in the direction of the rabble still going on about the wrecked stand. "They prattle about, blaming every pony besides themselves and complaining of a ruined day."

"But in all fairness, they have the right to complain; you did just blast the entire stand to splinters." Chrono remarked.

"That I did," Entropy replied without losing a beat, "but even for as harmonized a town as Ponyville, every pony rushes to assume."

"Have we?" Twilight asked.

Entropy laughed, "What are two going to do to finish preparations for a day that doesn't even hold meaning for itself anymore?"

Twilight's horn began to shine in her anger, but Entropy vanished before she could even finish a spell and Chrono held a hoof in her way to prevent any further thought of the matter. "To be honest though, she's right in a way." He said quietly, turning to look at the rabble. "If every pony could put aside their differences and not blame each other, we'd be able to pick things up in time for the ceremony and re-enactment."

"You have a plan?"

"Hardly." Chrono confessed, "And I can't just go back and make Entropy not tear down the stand; she'd just go right around even with me cutting time off."

"Well then we'll just have to start from scratch." Twilight said proudly.

"You have a plan?"

Twilight smiled.

Entropy watched the two from the skies, perched on a cloud and laying with her head over the rim enough to see the progression of events from above. Although faint, she could hear the discussions between either of them and everypony else. Not once was she mentioned.

"But how are we supposed to find out who did it if we just ignore it?" One pony asked Twilight.

"Who cares who did it? It happened, but if we don't pull together and all work together to piece this whole thing back together the entire day is going to be ruined!" She responded.

"And what happens if it just happens again? We need to take this to whoever's responsible and bring them in!" Another pony mentioned to Chrono.

"If it happens again, I can take measures to be sure nopony's aware it would ever happen. Then you can put the blame on me for being wrong. But, it won't happen again, that much I can promise."

"Then why not just undo the last time?"

Chrono paused with a slight smile. "Because then it wouldn't have any sentimental value. Look at everypony; venting rage at culprits they don't even know with little to no evidence supporting their claims. Is this what Hearth's Warming Eve is supposed to be? I should think not."

Through this, Entropy managed a faint smile. Although she knew well enough her lessons were hard to learn, she always knew best how to teach them. As she sprung away from the cloud she had perched on, a resounding boom sounded as another red ring expanded on the horizon.

Chrono watched from the distance and frowned. "Come on everypony," he said calmly but upset all the same. "We should get to fixing things. Anypony mind helping before it's too late?"

The stand was put up for the second time that day, and in record time no less. As might have been expected as a result, the ceremony progressed with more devotion in its actresses than had been seen before in a good many years. Through it all however, one pony in the audience could not get past his ponderings about the reasoning behind the events of the day. So once the ceremony had finished, Chrono retired to his home and locked the door behind him. As he walked over to his journal by the mirror he noticed it was gone, replaced by a note written in vaguely familiar writing.

I've got to say Chrono. If every day is even near as eventful as today was I need to come by more often! Don't forget to send word every now and then, we'd both love to hear from you! Or if you want to drop by, you know that would be great too. On another note altogether, you might want to be careful of this Entropy mare. She seems a little over the top. I know I don't have much to go by but I can't help but notice her face here and there. She's good at hiding a lot of things, but I've got a bad feeling she's no good at all. Just don't want anything bad happening to you, to put it in your own words.

-Deuce

Chrono raised an eyebrow once he saw the name at the bottom. The letter was written in Aero's style of writing, but signed Deuce - and signed in the same way Aero would have signed otherwise. He sighed and glanced around. The stallion sure was talented in his works, even if not always for the most practical purposes. "It would help if I had my j-"

The sound of a book dropping to the floor beside him startled the unicorn, and once he got over his immediate fright at the situation he realized it was in fact his journal. Glancing up to the ceiling, he heard his door fly open but as he looked its way, whoever it had been was already gone. Again he raised an eyebrow. "Well," he said with a slight frown, "That's definitely been the most interesting good-bye I've ever seen."

As bright a day as ever, Chrono thought to himself as he glanced through his window at the morning activities going throughout Ponyville. And a day that he had plenty of reason to look forward to. As much as he could pride himself on his talents in the magic of time, it was almost the only thing he could use magic in, aside from the sheer basics - which even still he had rather low limits with.

But, he had a great deal of faith that today would change that. Even if planning had been somewhat rushed, his agreement with Twilight to swap notes on magic had been laid out plainly enough, and today was the day he could appreciate magic for what it was supposed to be in the first place.

A knocking on his door caught his attention and he shook his head to regain his focus. He quickly went to the door and opened it, not terribly surprised to see Twilight there waiting for him. "You really are a late sleeper, aren't you?" She asked with a quick laugh.

"Usually you wouldn't even know," Chrono answered with a smile, "taking back the time of sleep itself while you're still rested is a nice feat."

"I'm sure!" She responded, closing her eyes briefly in such a way that put a greater accent on her smile. "Come on, I was thinking you'd forgotten!"

"How could I?" Chrono chuckled, stepping out and closing the door behind him, "I've been looking forward to this for weeks!"

Twilight stopped in her tracks to give him an inquisitive look. "Well why didn't you say so?"

"I know you usually have something planned."

Twilight paused for several seconds. "Good point..."

Chrono chuckled, "Relax, it's not that hard to be patient when you've got something to do or can otherwise pass the time."

"True, I usually -" Twilight paused for a single moment, "Oh, you meant that literally didn't you."

They both shared a quick laugh as they reached Twilight's library. "So did you have anything in mind for what to do first or-?" Chrono asked.

"No, but I did want to talk about a few things while we were here."

"Such as?"

"Well I'm hoping it's nothing too serious." Twilight opened the door as they both stepped into the hollowed tree-library, "A few things in Predictions and Prophecies that looked a little suspicious with this Entropy floating around."

Chrono raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?" He asked.

"Well it mentioned events that would never occur, and ever since we met and I found out about you knowing time magic, I've been looking back over my notes and well..."

"Yes?"

"I didn't come up with much yet, but I'll let you know if anything turns out."

Chrono sighed for a brief moment, but nodded. "Alright, so what's first on the list?"

Twilight giggled. "Well you of course. Do you have any idea how much I've wanted to figure time travel out?"

Chrono nodded. "I believe your exact words were; I have so many questions."

Twilight paused for a moment, not having remembered saying such while uninterrupted. "When did I say that?"

"You didn't. At least not in any timespace you'd remember."

"Right..."

"It was taken back."

"Oh yeah!"

Chrono raised an eyebrow again.

"Anyway, come on! How do you do it?"

"Well I can't exactly show you, but think of a moment in time real quick. Either by memory of an event or just sheer knowledge of what time you want. Let me know when you have one in mind - and tell me what it is so I can follow you back."

Twilight paused for a long moment before blinking with a smile. "Got it. The morning you arrived."

"Okay," Chrono shrugged. "Now, still holding that time in mind try and put your magic to it. Focus on the time itself, not necessarily the -"

His words were interrupted however by the sudden glow of Twilight's horn and an immediate light-headedness that quickly erupted through his entire body. Within seconds, he was no longer conscious.

After finally opening his eyes again, Chrono lifted himself to his feet and glanced around. His surroundings were not familiar to him; a simple, black void marked only by several connecting dull gray lines which as he approached and inspected, appeared to be intersections between walls. He glanced around at the area, determining distance only by visual measurement now, and leaned against the wall. Nopony else was around, but it didn't seem as if the area was as small as he could see. "Hello?" He called.

No answer, not even his own echo.

After several seconds of thought through his confusion he began wandering between what walls he could determine, each time putting a hoof through any openings to ensure it was an opening and not the spanning between two of such. The dull surroundings sent a constant shudder down his spine; something was definitely not right here.

As the thought occurred to him that he could simply revert back to the meeting with Twilight, his first effort at doing so caught him entirely off-guard as his magic burst into a small explosion that landed him against a nearby wall, crumbling to all fours.

"Okay..." he grumbled, thoroughly dissatisfied that his magic didn't seem to work at all, "That's a first."

"Hardly," A voice behind him sounded, "but for you yes, a first."

Chrono turned to see who had spoken, and as he realized just what he saw in front of him, he stumbled back again into the wall. Turquoise mane and tail, with slightly grayed-out eyes and the silhouette of a grown, black unicorn stallion. Himself, aged somewhat more than his own knowledge.

"I-I don't understand," he said, unsure of himself, "how's this possible? Temporal reversions replace, not double."

"That they do," his elder responded, "but I didn't use a reversion spell."

"Then...?"

"Listen closely, there is something you need to know that I would not want to have gone through."

Chrono blinked, again unsure of anything by this point but he nodded moments later.

"You are going to have to prepare yourself for the worst. All your friends are going to come and go, and for all eternity you're going to be left behind."

"What do you mean?"

The elder sighed. "You and you alone are by nature free from the threads of time. As it is, you therefore can't suffer by its passing. After a while, you'll probably notice you just don't age anymore, while everypony around you carries through their natural flow of their own lifespan."

Chrono blinked several times, having substantial difficulty believing what he was being told. Still, the matter made sense to him, even if he would rather it not be the case. "So, why tell me? Why not go back and relive your own life now that you know?"

"Because I would be too tempted to spend eternity reliving life with your friends."

"My, friends? They're your friends too, you know!"

The elder shook his head with a brief glare towards the younger Chrono. "You don't understand." He said sternly, "Princess Luna won't even last forever, and to be honest I'm tired of taking my life and chipping it away in the company of others who'll never manage to stay around with me."

Chrono stopped for several seconds, hardly able even to breathe through the rush of thoughts and emotions in his mind. After several seconds more he sat down with a sigh. "Why me then? Why you?"

"Why what? Give fair warning? You know as well as anyone that anything less than a fair warning isn't very accommodating."

"Then why not enjoy what comes?"

"Because there's no point in it!" The elder nearly shouted, and the younger Chrono sprang upright.

"Don't tell me you believe that." He breathed, "Don't tell me that the passing of time is going to bring me to this. I may have all time to my name and life, but how could you ever think that I would leave my friends behind just to accommodate that?"

"What would you do?"

"I'd move as it were!" Chrono rose to his hooves again. "My friends are just that; my friends. They aren't a means to an end, there doesn't need to be point or purpose in having them! How could you have forgotten that?"

The elder Chrono tilted his head back a moment and blinked in mild surprise. "Don't tell me you believe that."

Chrono stamped a hoof on the ground, surprised at the lack of sound in his doing so. "You'd better believe I do. Now if you'd be so kind as to let me go -"

"Let you go?" The elder chuckled, "I'm not holding you down. I'm not even holding you here, this was just convenient."

"What?" Chrono blinked in shock, "Then how'd I get here?"

A tap on his back caught his attention and he spun around immediately. As much to his dismay as anything else, a familiar crimson-maned alicorn stood quite tall over him, and he took a step back to give himself a measure of space.

"So, what was it you were after?" Entropy asked, her eyes meeting with the elder Chrono's.

"Passing a message back to relieve myself of idiocy." He replied, but suddenly there was nothing but silence.

Chrono looked back; there was no figure where he had stood either.

"It's probably not the best idea to stress over it," Entropy said with a sigh. "Besides, even if you turn out to be Equestria's timeless watcher, I've been t-"

"What?" Chrono asked, somewhat more loudly than he had expected - but still without an echo.

"Oh, he didn't tell you?" Entropy sighed again, "I guess I have a lot to tell you then, don't I?"

Chrono nodded, stepping back again.

"There's no reason to be afraid. I can only confer with you here, and it isn't as if I'd want to harm you anyway. After all, I was asked to keep an eye on your development."

"Development?" Chrono's confusion rose yet again.

Entropy sat down and raised a hoof to silence the young stallion. "Yes, development. As I'm guessing you figured out, Twilight and her friends aren't going to last forever, but contrary to all natural evidence, you are. As a result, well you already have a keen interest in documenting events throughout time, and believe it or not... Celestia has asked me to overlook your studies of all things related to Equestria's safekeeping."

"You can't be serious." Chrono said dryly, "Then why cause all the trouble lately?"

"Because only you can stand up to me." Entropy reasoned, "Only you can keep up with a time-keeper's pace, and only I can keep pace with a reversion."

"How can you do that, anyway?"

"The same way I can do everything else." The mare said simply, "When I say I can mirror other ponies, that doesn't exclude a whole lot. For instance, my manipulatin of time was originally yours alone, but once we'd met that all changed."

Chrono thought back to his first meeting with Entropy, and shook his head. "But you were already using time by the time we m-" His sudden silence betrayed that he in fact realized what had transpired.

"By the time you remember, of us meeting." Entropy corrected him. "But I shouldn't have to tell you that."

"But..."

Entropy shook her head. "It isn't quite that simple either. I wasn't asked to watch over you until about forty years from now, so the initial incident with Celestia and the dopplers was excluded from what I mentioned regarding your development."

"So then why did my older self come and lecture me on all that?"

"Because that's exactly what both Celestia and Luna were afraid to see happen. On its own and without you knowing, you'd have every reason to lose hope, like I had." Entropy shook her head and closed her eyes for a moment. "That's about where I came in."

"And his disappearance?"

"He no longer existed. I'm guessing between your defiance and you now knowing what you do, you're not going to turn out like he would have. But even so, going forward is something you'll have to do on your own. I can't make your decisions for you."

Chrono remained silent, lost in thought.

"Do you understand?"

Chrono nodded. For a brief moment, his entire vision blinked in white.

As his vision settled, he noticed Twilight standing over him, pacing back and forth in a fevered worry. That, and an unexplained ache in his back explained his face's proximity to her library floor.

"Chrono, you're awake!" Twilight exclaimed, "I didn't think I'd knock you out, I'm so-"

Her voice trailed off as she noticed the look in the stallion's eyes.

"You alright?"

"I will be, I think."

"Wanna talk about it?" Twilight tilted her head at him.

Chrono shook his head as he glanced around. "Not now. I've got one too many things to think about at this point."

"Okay." Twilight said faintly as she noted Chrono's approach to her door - which she promptly opened from afar.

"Oh, and by the way. There won't be any need to do any more research on the predictions revolving around time and Entropy. I just found out, and it's a little disconcerting." Chrono said, making his way slowly to a nearby hill.

He sat down with his head resting on his front hooves, staring blankly into the distance. He must have been unconscious for quite some time; it was already late afternoon.

He wasn't quite sure where to start, but he had a lot to think about...

The Equestrian Nightmare

Chrono woke from his dream in tears. A revisitation of his growing out of colthood, the earning of his cutie mark. The worst moment in his life, in retrospect. Sheer rage at his own parents had brought on a desire to be anywhere away from them. Without him even realizing it, fifty years had passed and the trail of Shimmer and Gale Spark had gone cold. Now, knowing he had a way to prevent it all, he couldn't. Not knowing that doing so might ultimately undo everything he had stood for since he came under Luna's tutelage. He had accepted it as a pain he would bear for life, but the memory returning to him through his dream was in no way any help.

A knocking at his door caught his attention, despite the still-late hour. He sprang up from his bed and checked the door before opening it. To his surprise, none other than Violet Shadow stood opposite, watching him calmly if doubtfully. "What in the-"

"I can explain." Violet said simply, gesturing with a hoof into Chrono's residence.

The stallion reluctantly let her in and closed the door behind him. "You've got more than a little to; I hope it holds merit." He said bluntly.

Violet took the hint, sitting down in the wake of the stream of purple following her movement. "After everything I've done, I doubt I'll be allowed to live much longer. Manehattan's population is pretty sparse now and no pony there even knows why. Everywhere else, well."

"Cut to the chase, Violet. Where did everypony go?"

"That's what I'd like to figure out." Violet said, to which Chrono's heart sank. "I distinctly remember hiding them underground, directly under Las Pegasus, but... When I went to retrieve them, they were gone without a trace!"

"You can't be serious." Chrono sighed. "Nightmare?"

Violet shook her head. "No, she was dealt with pretty thoroughly. I could feel it all the way here in Canterlot. She's definitely gone."

"Forgive me if I'm not convinced," Chrono said dryly, "but even so, what in Equestria could I even do about it - and let's not even mention why?"

"Look, I get that you don't trust me." Violet said determinedly, standing again. "You don't have to keep mentioning that. I've lost everything I had under the dominion of Nightmare Moon, so I can't go back and figure out what happened to them. You on the other hoof, can. I already have enough hanging over my head without half of Equestria vanishing on my watch, or don't you get that?"

Chrono scowled. Of all things he could remain patient through, a sob story and plea for help from one who had on several occasions very nearly killed him was not among them. "To what point? Odds are Nightmare Moon took one of them and moved the rest elsewhere. What would I-"

"And what's the harm in finding out when you wouldn't even exist in the time?" Violet countered, holding her resolve. "I'm not asking you to do this for me. If I could do what you can, I would. Entropy's outright cleared out of Canterlot, so I can't ask her either. All I've got is what I was good with from the start, which isn't what I'd call detective work. And now look at you, Equestria's hero on more than one occasion, letting half of it go forgotten?"

Despite his growing irritation, Chrono had to admit she had a valid point. It wasn't about her, for the first time since they'd met. Of course, it also occurred to him that it was not the first time she had seemed sincere about something that ultimately she could easily drive wrong. He had no evidence to suggest she was genuine in her argument.

"Look, Chrono." Violet started, staring into his eyes in such a manner he felt they pierced through him. "I've gotten off on the wrong hoof. That can't get much more obvious, but I don't want to be thinking I started something that isn't done. You've already proven you've got more talent than just bending time around. Me, I can't even come close."

Curiosity piqued on the stallion's part. "What exactly do you do, anyway?"

Violet's face lowered slightly. "Is that really important now?"

Chrono raised an eyebrow, as if to remind her they were speaking on his terms.

She sighed. "I can communicate with and see extraterrestrial entities. That talent branded me a unique target for Nightmare Moon, considering how weak she was at the time to not even manifest a physical image. The dead, the doubling of certain scrying spells... I even come across an otherworlder every now and then."

Chrono glanced out through his window. Not necessarily something he could fully understand from Violet's angle, but it sounded legitimate.

"Hey, what are you doing poking your head in there?" Violet asked, seemingly random.

"Huh?" Chrono asked, glancing around. No one else was in the room.

Violet sighed, her horn glowing magenta as Chrono's view of the situation forced into image a small white filly earth pony only the size of his hoof. With her sky blue mane and tail, it was difficult to see much else from that against his window, especially since the image of her was faded and translucent in nature. "W-what - who is -" Chrono started.

"Meep!" The little filly squeaked, outright levitating herself impossibly off the windowsill. "You can see me?"

Violet laughed. "Course he can. I helped."

"Meep!" The filly squeaked again, her voice irregularly high. "Um h-hi mister! I'm Okiku!"

Chrono glanced back to Violet briefly as if to ask reassurance that this was even real. "I-it's a pleasure." he said after noticing the mare's quizzical stare back at him. He held out a hoof which the ghostly filly simply perched on with a small smile. "What brings you here?"

"Oh, I've been going around for a long, long time." Okiku said with a downright heart-melting smile. "Miss Violet wanted to help me find some friends, so I started going around with her to pass the time! I hear you do that really well too!"

Again Chrono looked to Violet as though asking confirmation. She merely laughed. "I suppose I do." He said, defeated in his reality check. "I can't say it's ordinary seeing a ghost around though."

"Oh, it's not so bad. I can still get around, I'm fine!" Okiku said elatedly, hovering now halfway up the window itself.

"There have been a couple others that I've tried to introduce, but most aren't all that comfortable accepting the idea of befriending a ghost. I was hoping you'd prove different." Violet remarked.

Chrono sighed, defeated. "I guess it's a little early to pass judgement. After all, the same happened with Entr-"

His observation came to a screeching halt as a resounding roar of explosion outright shook his vision, blurring everything in view. Hurriedly, the stallion looked out through the window only to find entire buildings vanishing in the distance, landscape mutilated by...

The destruction wasn't mundane; everything simply dissipated into a seeming nothing! In all his years this had happened only once before, thanks to his own history of being more than a little rambunxious. Time itself had changed the course of history, but who-knows how far back.

With a quick strain of focus Chrono's horn surged silver, light cascading in every direction as he erected a temporal stasis field about his home, shielding it momentarily from the chaos. "What's going on?" He asked, looking over to Violet.

Violet remained silent for an uncomfortably long time before answering. "Only two ponies in Equestria can cause something like this, Chrono. You and Entropy. From your reaction I'd guess it's the latter..."

"But why would she do this? She's been working for -"

"Using." Violet corrected. "Just like she used Nightmare Moon and I."

"Meep!!" Okiku squealed, immediately darting into hiding.

"What do you mean?" Chrono asked, his field holding. "Entropy used you? But she -"

"Is much more of a con artist than you give her credit for." Violet interrupted. "I know you probably can't trust me, but I think the evidence is clear enough. She's going to stop at nothing, and I imagine that's where she's starting right now. The one point in time where no pony can even stand up to her."

"The dawn of time?" Chrono guessed, biting his lower lip at Violet's nod. "You can't be serious."

"Would you have put it past her two months ago when you two first met?"

Okiku let out a squeal of fright which nearly deafened the two adult ponies, but from her sudden darting away from the window she had seen something outside. Chrono stepped to the window to investigate. Outside, with a body wrapped in majestic if immensely fearsome flames, bore two frighteningly familiar solid purple eyes. Entropy.

The stasis field broke, and the last thing Chrono thought to recall was his own home, disintegrating upwards around him in that sinister stare...

Sometime later, Chrono managed to stir again, and he opened his eyes to find himself blinded by an immense white light marred only by faint flickers of flames in the distance. Entropy's voice echoed through both his hearing and his mind; "This is where it ends, Chrono. No elements of harmony, no friends. You and me this time, let's see how well you can really take the fate of Equestria."

The world came into focus around him, and for a moment he scowled. The entire situation reeked of a well-laid trap, one that had used absolutely everypony in his own time just to have it never happen. And now he could only consider himself the one responsible that it had struck such a devastating note with...

With who? In the devastation he had witnessed, time itself had fluxed beyond his ability to maintain. For all he knew, no pony from the time he knew had even existed yet, let alone in any place he could recognize. The landscape was roughly familiar - enough such that he could guess it was in fact Equestria. "Where are you?" He asked on the wind, addressing Entropy as though she were nearby.

"Not far." Her voice sounded again, "And believe me, I'm not getting any farther. If you want the truth, the answer to the question you've been harboring for almost your entire life now, come and get it."

In the distance, a remarkable replica of Canterlot Castle sprang up straight from the ground. Not identical however; where princess Celestia's castle shone bright white in the sunlight and rose gracefully over Canterlot, this building stood made of solid black stone, solitary and threatening against the landscape.

Symbolic, Chrono realized. Entropy's initial conflict resulted from her utter lack of friends and any sense of purpose but to rule. Nothing had changed; the unicorn's heart sank in the realization that he had been played along just like everypony else.

The castle gate was heavy enough to open that it took Chrono a full seven minutes of pushing to force it open, despite its sheer lack of anything else to keep it secure besides its massive weight. He realized then that this was either an augmented castle or the guards in what he still hoped to call modern Canterlot were immensely strong.

"Hey Tia, can I keep the moon overhead?"

Chrono froze, chills rupturing through his entire frame. There was no real mistaking the voice; it was that of princess Luna, albeit probably much younger. While the voice did not pierce through his mind, it echoed all the same through the entrance hallway. He made his way forward, his memory having mapped Canterlot Castle well enough that he could hope to navigate. Still, he could not help but listen in on the conversation being replayed from beyond the bounds of time.

"Absolutely not, Luna. Haven't we been through this before?"

"But Tia, everypony loves the daytime; they aren't even awake to see the night time! Just one day's worth? Please?"

"You know that the balance in Equestria can't be disturbed. You remember what happened when Discord ruled?"

"That was different! This isn't a lawless Equestria, it's only one day!"

"...I'm truly sorry, Luna. I cannot shirk my duties like this."

Only a soft sigh resonated through the hall. Chrono made his ascent up one of the many spiral staircases of the castle. Fortunately, the layout was the same as he'd remembered.

"Tia, why do they never even notice me...?" Luna's disembodied voice sounded almost in tears.

A full minute had passed, and the words themselves brought the young unicorn to a halt.

"What do you mean, little sister? Of course the ponies notice you."

"But they don't. I work every night to bring out the moon and let everypony see the beauty of the night, but they just sleep through it like I shouldn't even try. Why can't they appreciate me like they do you?"

"It isn't our place to dictate the actions of everypony in Equestria. We can only give them the sun, the moon, the harmony and stability that they need to carry on their own lives."

"Why even bother then?"

"I'm sorry?"

"The moon! No pony even cares about it, so what's the point in even raising it anymore?"

"Luna, that's not t-"

"It's not fair! Why can't they understand?"

For a long moment, silence continued. Chrono slowly resumed his ascent.

"Luna, please. You've been like this for weeks, what's going on?"

"What does it matter? Even you sleep through the night, how do you think I feel?!"

"Would it please you if I were to stay awake and enjoy the evening with you, then?"

"I... I guess, but what about everypony else?"

Again a long silence. Slowly, Chrono sped his movements. He had to reach Entropy soon, before his sympathy for the modern ruling sisters made his heart give out. Already he felt weak from his emotions welling in him.

This gave him pause. In a moment of flared anger, he cursed that Entropy had continued to manipulate him even through this chase. Yes he had been questioning the origin of Luna's alleged betrayal of Equestria, but just prior to a confrontation was not the best time to be revealing that. So of course, Entropy had to choose that exact time. Just his luck.

Or so he thought. The silence continued through the rest of his ascent.

"So, this is what it's come to, is it?" Chrono froze. The voice was vaguely familiar. Similar to princess Luna's, but darker in an almost alluring sense. A voice that he could only identify as herself taken by Nightmare Moon.

"You've given me no choice, Luna. I've done everything I can to help and console you."

"Don't lie to me, Celestia. You don't care any more than the rest! But you will see just the same as they will. The night will last forever!"

"No. If I have to stop you by force I will."

"You think you're going to stand up to your own sister?"

"If I could believe you were my little sister Luna, perhaps not. But you are not my sister!"

Chrono burst through the door only to see the magnificent telltale burst of every chromatic color imagineable tear through the throne room. Each of the elements of harmony hovered shortly behind the translucent figure of princess Celestia, each releasing in their own color a terrifying force that the unicorn could only begin to comprehend, if even that. Then as quickly as it had come, the image subsided. All that remained in the room was Entropy's silhouette, sitting against the wall...

"That's a little cruel, don't you think?" Chrono asked, stepping into the room with a frown.

"You're telling me." Entropy countered. "Who was in the right here? Luna never meant any harm, but look at Celestia's stubborn pride at work."

"That wasn't what I meant," Chrono stated bluntly.

"But that's what you so wanted to know; I was doing you a favor!"

"At the worst time possible!"

"What, now you've gotten bitter over the reality of your position? Don't tell me you actually stand by Celestia's decision after your mentorship with Luna for how long now?"

Chrono paused. "Doesn't matter anymore. It'll never have happened, will it?"

Entropy laughed, standing tall. "I always admired your ability to come to conclusions. I was always around, just waiting for the moment when I could set things straight on a permanent record. Thanks to you and Violet, I can do that now."

"What did Violet even have to do with it?"

"Oh, you didn't know? Ahaha, how naive!"

Chrono's stare didn't lessen in the slightest.

"I was here before either Luna or Celestia. I was here before Equestria. Thanks to you, I was here before the dawn of time, and without dear Violet I couldn't have made my plan utterly failsafe!"

"You do realize you're being grossly vague, right?"

"The elements, Chrono." Entropy clarified. "They don't exist in material bounds yet, in this time. I've already found them thanks to Violet's ability to see the unreal. And now, they are sealed away so that they can never be found, let alone used against me."

Chrono took a half-step back. He was loathe to admit, but she had managed to see things through remarkably well. Without the elements, according to the span of time and Equestria's would-be history, even if Celestia and Luna managed to overthrow Entropy - which he had very few doubts of - Discord would ultimately rule out. Nothing he was particularly fond of thinking about.

"Then why Nightmare Moon's intervention? You could have just gone to Violet directly."

"Nightmare Moon was my intervention."

"What?"

"A mare of the night suddenly driven mad by her every so-called negative trait at once? Those same traits that before that no pony had even seen? You don't really think that's just coincidence, do you?"

Chrono gasped. "You can't be serious!"

In a brief moment, Entropy's figure warped into that of Nightmare Moon, except that her mane and tail instead sprang to life in wildfire.

"No..." He breathed, sheer disbelief governing his words now. "You couldn't have!"

"Couldn't I?" Entropy asked. "Of course that didn't stop her from rebelling against me, but that doesn't change the fact that I was Nightmare Moon before Nightmare Moon was Nightmare Moon."

The unicorn bristled. "So, let me get this straight. If I stop you here and now, Equestria will have one less black mark in its history."

Entropy laughed, her figure returning to her own. "And do you think you will be able to handle the consequences?"

"I don't care about the consequences! Equestria doesn't deserve this!"

Immediately, Entropy's eyes flared and the room burst into a perimeter of flames. "Equestria deserves much worse than what I will administer to it. Come and stop me, if you think you can!"

Chrono rushed forward, horn already glowing to slow the flow of time and give him an edge in the battle. To his surprise, even slowed Entropy was remarkably fast, taking flight overhead quickly enough to give him pause. "Remember, I can do that too." She chuckled, her own horn glowing black.

Two red discs of energy spun out at the unicorn, deft hoofwork at work shortly after to bring him forward through them. To his credit, he heard them erupt into flames behind him. One more thing he would have to be careful of. Still he doubted he'd ever be able to do anything worth mention to the alicorn with his rather meager offensive magic, and she had to have been as cunning as he was, perhaps more so. It was going to be uphill from here, especially with her out of reach.

Wings. His first priority had to be to ground her. Hopping back from a barrage of linear bolts - each of which themselves also burst into flame a moment after striking the floor - he pivoted over a hoof and fired for her left wing. Only a thin, measly silver ray fired, but it struck true.

Entropy took a brief look at her wing and laughed. "You think you're going to defeat me with that?!"

Chrono didn't have an answer. That plan was still forming, and even then he wasn't going to share his tactics. "Maybe." He said simply, firing again.

Entropy took it in stride, spiraling into a dive in the unicorn's direction. To her chagrin, Chrono had already learned his lesson about being impaled. However he didn't learn his lesson about being incredibly reckless; he rushed forward and jumped up past her, kicking a hoof out at her in a vague attempt to mangle her wing more than his magic could.

The alicorn's flight path twitched, herself righting a second later with a glare. Her wings snapped wide as her horn glowed darkly, full pillars of flame dropping down around the room while Chrono struggled to evade them.

For a moment, Chrono managed to lighten his own mood; Twilight would have loved to see this display. At least if it were used in a less volatile manner. The unicorn's horn sparked and time slowed to a crawl faster than he imagined Entropy had time to react for. He sprang up and reached out, barely managing to crash a hoof into the base of her right wing before he just bounced right off her. With the sudden lack of concentration on it, his slowing spell broke.

Fortunately for him, it was enough. Entropy let out a shriek and dropped to the floor, glaring fiercely now as a relentless assault of the same red discs from before hurdled through the air at Chrono. One of them impacted, not only hurling him back quite a ways but also sending a searing pain through his entire body. For a moment he wondered if that's what being cooked alive felt, as the saying went. Then again, being cooked alive isn't usually done with the sole intent to kill you.

Entropy stamped a hoof down, and immediately Chrono recognized the resulting wave of power hurled through the air around her. With hardly a moment to spare, he ducked under the not-entirely-horizontal wave of destruction, not quite surprised when it rippled through the air again above him in reflection from the walls.

And he still had yet to form an effective plan to finish things. He was outdueled in every manner; she was naturally faster, could probably recover her wing's health, and he didn't even think to hold a candle to her power.

That would have to be next then. Assuming the best, he had already crippled her maneuverability. Without her horn she would be stuck going mundane which he would have a much easier time dealing with.

In that moment though, time seemed to halt without either of their intervention. How could he consider such a thing? There was nothing more frightening to a unicorn - not to mention nothing more painful - than losing one's horn.

He considered for a brief moment; it can't have been any easier for a pegasus to lose their wings. He twitched in spite of himself. This wasn't who he was, and he knew it.

Entropy charged, following up from her radial assault. It was the only thing Chrono needed, as his improvised plan took into account already-raging magic.

With careful precision and a little tinkering in time, Entropy's rush became too fast for her to recognize time had sped about her, forcing the elder mare to crash right into the wall and her own flames.

The spectacle was nothing less than horrifying even to see her ablaze as she was. Between horror, the guilt of him having to have forced her into practical suicide - assuming she didn't survive - and the stern belief that even she deserved better, he turned away. His shock fully doubled when a massive flaming mass crashed down on him from behind.

His vision went black, and for all he knew - or at that point cared - he would never see again.

"Chrono Spark. I know you can hear me, and I know what you've been through."

The voice belonged to princess Luna, beyond any doubt. Chrono opened his eyes. Still black, but a fair distance away he could see a familiar blue silhouette with a starry mane, watching him calmly.

"Princess Luna?"

"I'm sorry to intrude on your rest. But, as I said I know what you've been through. If you have any questions for me, I have nothing to hide."

Chrono looked around. Whatever this subconscious world was, it evidently showed things - or ponies, rather - as they were. His condition was nothing short of terrifying.

"Chrono?"

"Is that why you took such an interest in me?" He asked, genuinely concerned.

"What do you mean?"

"It's no particular secret that I revert the flow of time every time I sleep at all, so I can see the wonders of the night more often than anypony else. You had to have had some appreciation for that, no?"

"My longing for the ponies of Equestria to hold endearment for the night is past. The annual celebration of Nightmare Night and the Grand Galloping Gala, for instance. Both are held during nightfall, and I allow both to serve as examples to me that not all is as it seemed before I was sent into exile on the moon."

Chrono nodded, doing his best to understand. However difficult it was, he managed through the haze of his head.

"And Entropy?" He asked after a long moment. "Did you realize her involvement in all of this?"

Luna shook her head. "She is definitely adept at the art of trickery. Unfortunately without her existence as it were, many things will not be the same as you remember. I get the feeling she was targeting you specifically though. Do you have any idea why?"

"I'm afraid not." Chrono answered. "I'm nothing special."

Luna laughed. "I'm glad to see you still carry your humble enthusiasm. I give you warning, not everypony who you know is likely to remember you. If you ever need anything, my sister and I will understand."

Chrono nodded. "Thank you, princess Luna."

"Don't thank me." Luna said simply. "Not yet."

"Hey!" Twilight said as she opened the door to her library. "Uh, what are you doing here?"

Chrono raised an eyebrow. "Thought I'd drop by and visit a friend."

"I think you might have the wrong house." Twilight said after a moment. "Have we met before?"

Chrono's answer came in the form of his horn glowing, and a retreat through the course of time. Even as the silver glowing threads of time slung past him, his heart sank lower and lower. After princess Luna's warning, his highest hope of being remembered rested with none other than Twilight, but with only the one visit, his answer came in stunning view; he had clearly never existed in the lives of everypony he knew. The same feeling that he had in the midst of his investigation on the Canterlot attack when he first met Entropy now flooded him again, and as his temporal reversion finished, he collapsed against the side of his bed as tears flowed freely from both eyes.

His door opened several minutes later, and with a brief gasp and a mostly-failed attempt to breathe normally again, he bore witness to a tear-blurred silhouette of princess Celestia entering his cottage. "I heard from Luna that you may be having some troubles, Chrono." She said with a calmness in her voice that almost unnerved the young stallion. "I see she was not mistaken. Is there some way I might help?"

Chrono struggled for several seconds to regain his breath. After nearly a minute, he forced himself to regain some semblance of calm and wiped away his tears. "Why is it," he asked with another brief sob, "that every time something happens for the greater good, is the best in the situation is caught in regret?"

"What do you mean?"

Chrono glanced up at the princess, knowing full well that she knew the answer but felt as though she would not ask without reason. Not bothering to figure it out and letting the course present itself, he answered; "None of my friends remember me. In all honesty I'm surprised you do."

Celestia nodded thoughtfully, "And you were right to suspect. Everything I know of you in this timeframe comes from what my sister has told me and shown me. It appears you have more courage in you than anypony I know. What is it that makes you believe this merits regret?"

Chrono mulled over the question for a moment, the answer seeming bluntly obvious. "No pony recognizes me anymore. Well, almost no pony..."

"Might I share with you a small secret of mine?"

Chrono nodded, fearful of what might come but in no position to refuse.

"A thousand years ago, I was given no choice but to exile my own sister to the moon for eternity. From what I hear, you know well about me, so it would stand to reason that mine was not a decision made lightly. Even still, once the deed was done I faced a number of faults that I could never have guessed. Not only did the sun and the moon govern my every waking moment, but for several years I was seen as a traitor to my family and my subjects for taking away half of Equestria's leadership. I tried of course to help everypony understand, but it took several generations to convince them, and even then it had struck me that their allegations were true. I had abandoned reason for a single moment and lived a thousand years of regret for my actions."

Chrono felt small indeed. His troubles had so far only spanned a day and yet here he was, ultimately shown his place by the sheer truth of the matter.

But the princess' voice caught his attention again. "You on the other hoof, saved Equestria from destruction before it was founded. Had it not been for your intervention with Entropy, none of Equestria would even be here, and Luna and I would only be figments of a dream. Do not be so discouraged by your decision to fight for what you believe in."

"But, my friends..."

"Your friends can be made still to be your friends. I cannot quite imagine it being easy to do more than once, but if you can stand in the face of death and prevail, can you not also stand to your friends in the position you find yourself in?"

Chrono thought on this for a moment.

"Do you believe they would not accept you as they had in another timeframe?"

Chrono raised an eyebrow, his breathing finally stabilized. "I suppose not."

"Then why do you fret over this?"

Chrono shook his head. "Perhaps princess Luna may not have mentioned this, but I am pretty prone to worry."

Celestia rested a hoof on Chrono's shoulder. "There is also somepony I believe you already know, that might recognize you easier than the rest. Her name is Violet Shadow, do you know of her?"

Chrono spent the next two hours deciding on his plans for the day. He still had no particular idea where he would find Violet's home - if of course she stayed in one place for long anyway - so he elected to revisit Ponyville. Of course, despite the eight hours of stilled time he kept getting chilled feelings that crept down his spine that he could not quite explain. Dismissed as aftereffects of his depression, he continued on regardless.

When he arrived, he decided to make a visit to Sugarcube corner first. Aside from the fact that he had been famished - not entirely due to nearly being burned to death - it was a pleasant place for ponies to meet, and he could have used a pleasant change of pace anyway.

He heard an elongated gasp from the right. Turning to see who it was, he managed to catch nothing more than a glimpse of pink darting at near sonic-rainboom speeds away. He managed a faint chuckle. "Pinkie." He muttered, "Always the first to act on a newcomer."

As he trotted into the bakery itself, the thought occurred to him that it was ultimately a place for everypony to gather, and especially for those he had considered his friends. With the sole exceptions of Pinkie and Twilight - the former of which could have only been delayed by the surprise of his alleged newcoming, and the latter more likely to arrive precisely on time in between reading - every one of them were sitting at a table in the corner, conversing cheerfully.

"I'm not through with you yet."

Chrono froze at the familiarity of the voice. It sounded ghostly at best, but in no way could he mistake the sharpness of tone that depicted Entropy's voice in every word, let alone her exact choice of words. Without even any time to figure out what had happened, the stallion fell to the floor, his vision black.

He sprang to his hooves as quickly as he could, only to find that he had been somehow bound to the floor by something he had yet to place. His vision remained blackened, but he could hear steps circling him. "I thought you died?" He said curiously.

"I did." Entropy answered him, her voice far more clear now. "But you should know as well as anypony that I don't keep to one state of being for very long. You're a persistent little pest though, I'll grant you that."

Chrono, ironically enough without much regard for anything his own, decided to be more witty about the matter. "I should hope so. I know how to die almost as well as you do."

His vision sprang to life in a sea of fire, and almost as quickly, every single nerve in his body screamed with the pain of multiple burns. The flames subsided, leaving a swarm of various colors blurring his vision against the black surroundings. He fell to the floor, unable to hold himself up any further than the bindings that bound him down. "You'll learn quickly if you keep that up." Entropy reassured him. "But for everything you've done I want to see you suffer first."

Chrono focused briefly on the flow of time, his horn glowing along its border only to reveal nothing. Not a single strand of time flowed through this impossible place. "Where are we?" He asked, his fears mounting.

"In the memory of a nonexistent time." Entropy chuckled. "But in a memorial of a very real place."

Outlines flooded into view, white edges of walls bending every which way in every possible direction away from Chrono. He had seen such a design only once before, and he could not possibly escape the reality of the situation. "So you've imprisoned me in a nonexistent replica of the Canterlot Labyrinth? Why?"

"You'll see. Here's a tip, Chrono. This place only has one wall. Find your own way back to proper time. I'll deal with you then."

The stallion felt a slight relief around his hooves, presumably his bindings lifting from him. Without any hesitation he started to trot off through one of the hallways, but the weakness in his legs from being burned to a crisp left him crumbling to the floor in a momentarily blinding surge of pain. This would be a long trip indeed.

The young stallion had managed to lose track of how much time had passed, but finally managed to recover well enough that he could move about without fear of dropping right down out of weakness again. As he entered into the hallway though, he already knew something was amiss. A popular trait he knew well of with many unicorns was their ability to tell certain spikes of power in the vicinity. His was hardly an exception; he had enough trouble seeing with his own two eyes what power was unless it struck him clear in the face. That his horn throbbed against his head was in no way a pleasant sign for him.

Still he trudged on, having to put a hoof in front of himself from time to time to ensure he did not accidentally run into a wall with only an outline to see. With his own navigation as poor as it was, he had more than a little trouble placing whether or not this was the same labyrinth that Twilight and her friends had gone through in the Discord incident. At that particular point in time, he did not particularly think so.

If it was the one thing he was grateful for, it was that no pony was pestering him during his search for an exit. This of course gave him plenty of time to consider the events unfolding around him. Entropy of all ponies was precise enough to make sure everything happened to her advantage, and with this in mind he had to wonder if he hadn't just passed out at Sugarcube Corner for some seven hours so far. Knowing who he knew that was already there, if that were the case he imagined he would be waking up in Fluttershy's care. Even if she didn't know him, he would never put it past her to aid a fallen pony.

But even then, Entropy had brought him to this labyrinth just in time to disrupt his rebuilding of bridges with his friends. Perhaps to instill doubt or fear in them, but at the same time he had little to fear of that; none other than princess Celestia had reassured him of the possibility to re-establish contact. He would not be allowed to fail in rebuilding his friendships, or so it seemed.

What troubled him most though, as he turned a corner was the reality of the fact that Entropy still existed in some form or another. The same mare who at least twice now had been faulted for the near-destruction of Equestria. While he had to credit her for being able to not back into a corner, his worries mounted that at the same time, she wasn't at any loss for tactical approaches and he highly doubted he would lure her into her own spells again.

A change in color off to his left caught his attention. The walls' borders down the hall were no longer white, but rather a duller gray. Already having followed the left wall, he turned down the hall and stopped as an outline of a familiar three-apple cutie mark in orange came into view in the distance. This gave the unicorn pause. This had happened before, he knew it. Only one name came to mind now; Discord. Entropy planning something with Discord though? He hardly thought it feasible.

He approached the outline, passing through it only to see a familiar outline of pink-and-blue balloons in the distance. He continued along, less and less surprised when he found butterflies and diamond gemstones followed by the descending bolt of multi-colored lightning from the cloud.

Once he passed Rainbow Dash's cutie mark though, he paused. The hall was exceptionally long, even still. Yet, he saw no sign of Twilight's starshine mark in the distance. Going somewhat slower now, he continued on. A shudder ran along his legs as the soreness rose into sharper pain again. He paused for a few minutes to take a rest and continue his ponderings. From his field research, Discord knew how best to convince ponies of how their greatest traits no longer matter in a world of chaos. The signs were clear already.

The surge of power he felt was not Entropy's. Judging that only the power of the elements had defeated him before, and then after plenty of difficulty, Chrono could only place Discord as being present here.

A silver glow caught his eye. In the distance, just at the end of the hallway, the outline of a silver pocketwatch brought all thoughts to a screeching halt within Chrono's mind. Not only was it Discord; his heart sank again in the realization that just like she had with Violet and Nightmare Moon, Entropy was likely using Discord to bring him down so that he would no longer stand in her way with his magic of time on hoof.

Rising to his hooves again, the young stallion ignored the raging pain streaking through his bones. Nothing else mattered to him now that he knew he was targeted here; he had to get to the bottom of it. Out of sheer curiosity, he turned back as he reached his floating cutie mark suspended in the hallway. To his mild surprise, the purple star that he normally saw sported proudly on Twilight Sparkle's side now hung in line with the rest of them.

Turning again, he pressed on, his thoughts as silent as his muzzle.

Chrono crept along the ever-dark hallway, its twists and turns resulting in a surprisingly linear path. There were no more branches off from the path, and although he felt he was about to reach its end, he was in no physical shape still to move much faster. A sound to his side caught his attention, and with a flinch he jumped away from the noise, immediately regretting it in the wave of pain that rushed along his legs as he landed.

"Chrono Spark, the natural embodiment of intelligence." The figure whom had just appeared announced with seeming glee. "How wonderful to meet you at last."

Two unlike horns. A pony's head, familiar deathly yellow eyes, bear's paw, eagle's claw all the way to the serpentine body and tail. "Discord." Chrono said simply. "I'm surprised to see you of all possible options are after me."

"Am I?" Discord reasoned with a clap of his paw to his chest. "I'm owing of a favor for my release, and unlike some ponies you know, I do not forget what I owe."

Chrono took a step back, surprised again that his plight had been remembered as well. "What gives? My friends may not remember me, but that's not cause to say they owe me anything."

"Oh, but I think they do." Discord said smugly, vanishing only to reappear leaning against Chrono's side. "All those troubles you've faced for their sake, with or without. Entropy, Violet. And now they don't remember a thing, nor do they care to."

Chrono shuddered and spun away, glaring now at the draconequus. "Forget it, Discord. They weren't given any choice in the matter, it's not my place to force them."

"But look at you!" Discord said praisingly, both hands rushed out to indicate the black unicorn. "The hero of Equestria, that even time cannot bring to a halt! You deserve to be known by everypony through all the ages!"

"So what if I do?" Chrono countered. "I didn't do anything to be some hero. I did this for my friends."

Discord chuckled. "And look how they repaid you."

He snapped his claw, and a familiar vision of Twilight's clearly not recognizing Chrono flashed through his mind.

"Face it, Chrono. You don't need them holding you back."

As much as the stallion hated to admit it, he had been fighting this reality the whole time, vainly hoping it would never have to be undone only for it to fire back in his face. With a brief wave of guilt, he stumbled to his knees, hardly able to stand and now shaking with a cold sweat. "No..." he whimpered, "there has to be a way for them to remember..."

"Only one, that you're easily capable of." Discord said simply. "Make them remember."

Chrono awoke suddenly in his bed, in his cottage in Canterlot. Everything was all too clear; princess Luna had kept a spell on him so that she could never forget anything that had happened with him. It was a promising theory too, one that kept his tutelage under her quite safe. From the fact that she managed to visit him reassuringly after his latest struggle with Entropy meant that it hadn't been lost completely.

But if she hadn't bothered to do anything to help his friends remember him, ultimately it could only mean that she too no longer cared for his happiness. He really would have to go alone from here.

The unicorn glanced out through his window, the night sky as beautiful as could be through his eyes, but with an unfamiliar red glint nearby the waning moon. His eyes widened further than ever to see what it had sported.

On the dark side of the moon, imposed in a familiar crimson red shade, the contemptuous glare of Entropy stared down over Equestria. "Was it just a dream?" Chrono wondered, looking down to his foreleg for any sign of a burn. He didn't appear to have sustained anything if it had been real. He didn't even feel any remnant of the pain.

In the distance, a shooting streak of sparks caught his attention. It seemed similar to the trail of a wonderbolt, but without the massive turbulence of smoke. After a moment and a long sigh, he turned to his cabinet and retrieved his journal. He had a lot to write about.

To remember, before he abandoned everypony in the same way they had left him.

A knock on his door stopped him, and with a curious stare he went to the door and opened it. Standing with a blank stare was an all-too familiar yellow-maned pegasus. Aero Slide, of all ponies. Maybe he hadn't been forgotten after all. He wouldn't put it past him to play so cruel a prank anyway.

"By the order of princess Celestia, you're under arrest, Chrono Spark."

No, definitely not a prank. Chrono slid back, narrowing his eyes fiercely. "Forget it, Aero. Everypony's left me behind, and obviously for good reason. Leave me be."

"Can't do that I'm afraid." Aero said, stepping in and blocking off Chrono's only route of escape. "There's no going directly against her orders. Now are you going to come or what?"

Chrono flared, rushing straight through the window and darting off through the streets into the dead of night. "Never." He muttered.

Aero was not far behind, immediately taking flight. With a single snap of his wing, a massive trail of sparks rushed out Chrono's way, paralyzing him right in mid-step and knocking the unicorn prone. The pegasus landed nearby with a hoof on Chrono's heaving chest. He looked down with a curious level of concern but overwhelming authority. "You're under arrest."

Unable to flee any longer, vision darkening from the pain and utter suddenness of defeat at the hooves of a once-friend, Chrono's head dropped to the ground with a dulling thud.

"A-are you okay?" He heard a voice. At first the quiet tone of the voice itself reminded him of Fluttershy, but it was definitely not even that of a mare upon inspection.

He opened his eyes, but against the sheer white he saw he immediately closed them. "Been better," he grumbled, stirring slightly, "what's going on?"

"Don't panic... my name's Autumnshy, and I'm trying to help you. Another pegasus brought you in about four hours ago, he looked really worried."

Chrono's eyes snapped open again, and he winced not only by the blinding light but also in mild guilt of what had just happened. "What... what happened?"

"He said something about a Discord, and then flew off. I don't know anything else... are you sure you're alright? You look a little pale."

The only way the unicorn could think of to figure out his own condition struck him just then. "I'm curious... pale, or grey?"

"Oh, it's definitely pale. You look anything but grey. Why, is something wrong?"

Chrono eased slightly, vision slowly colorizing against the massive white. Certainly not enough to garner any detail. "Not anymore. Thank you Autumnshy."

"U-um... Chrono?" Autumnshy's voice woke the unicorn, which surprised him as he hadn't remembered falling asleep. "You h-have some visitors."

The unicorn's eyes snapped open, finally able to see the maroon-maned green earth pony standing beside him. He could only guess it was Autumnshy, but he also wouldn't judge so quickly. He knew already what a mess that was. "Who? And who would even re-"

Even as he was about to say remember, he noticed among others was Violet Shadow standing just inside the doorway. Two more earth ponies, two pegasi.

On her left stood the two earth ponies. The first was a dark green, muscular figure wearing forward mane that only reached as far as his nose. Beside him away from Violet a dark olive mare with light brown mane tossed lightly over her side watched him with a small smile.

To Violet's right, the only pegasus Chrono had ever seen to rival Rainbow Dash's exceptionally showy appearance was not easy to miss. A grey pegasus sporting a mane and tail that even standing as he were, made him appear like an arrow from about any angle. And beside him a delicate-looking pegasus mare, with a coat almost identical to Rainbow's but a modest indigo mane and tail to contrast.

"Wait a moment, who are all these?" Chrono asked Violet, an eye raised.

"I've made a few friends lately." Violet said simply with a shrug and a sly wink. "I thought you of all ponies might be able to appreciate that."

She laughed slightly and stepped forward to nudge the unicorn before adding. "And if it's any consolation, I might not remember you but I've seen enough to think I know you a little bit."

She pointed behind her to the two earth ponies. "Anyway, this is Sledge Hammer" The brawny earth pony gave a playful salute, "and Maple Fall. The olive mare nodded in greeting.

She lowered her hoof and pointed to the others. "And this is Gale Storm and Rayne Cloud." The grey pegasus and demure one both saluted, the first with much higher enthusiasm than the second - although Chrono could hardly help a chuckle at her honest effort.

"I-it's a pleasure." Chrono said tentatively. "But to what do I owe the occasion?"

Sledge tilted his head towards Violet. "Violet's been tellin' us about a lot of things goin' on around Equestria. She seemed awfully concerned about you, too."

"The way she puts it makes it sound like you enjoy getting yourself in a bind anyway," Gale added, "we thought maybe we could help."

Maple giggled at Gale's remark, but didn't seem at all for any loss. "Everypony needs a helping hoof here and there. If everything Violet's said is true, you need and deserve more than one."

"I-I don't really. I'd like to think I can handle things on my own."

"But look where it's gotten you." Rayne countered, jumping up and prodding the unicorn stallion in the chest. "Do you think it's right to be sacrificing your time and your life for all of Equestria just for no pony to appreciate it and return the favor? You need some friends with you if you're going to get through this."

"Face it Chrono." Violet said with a smile. "I'm not asking you to like it, but I'm certain you will eventually. I'm asking you to accept friendship. That's not so hard, is it?"

Chrono glanced back to Autumnshy. To his surprise, he had opened a window and darted through in perfect silence. "Okay then, I give up." Chrono confessed, turning back to Violet, "But what do you suggest?"

"Well for one," Gale said simply, pointing out through the door to Canterlot in the distance. "There's been a report from Canterlot saying the statue of Discord's gone missing."

"And I know exactly why." Chrono responded.

"Holdin' out on us?" Sledge asked.

"No, just haven't had reason to bring it up until now." Chrono answered with a chuckle. "Either way, any of you heard of a mare by the name of Entropy?"

"Of who?" Rayne asked, but everypony else with the exception of Violet simply shook their heads.

"She's been ringleading a lot of trouble lately. Seems to me as if she's specifically trying to go after me, but that may have something to do with the fact that I'm a chronomancer."

"A huh?" Sledge asked.

"I study the magic of time." Chrono explained.

"Gotcha."

"If we can isolate Entropy, I'm pretty sure we can keep her away for good."

"That may be easier said than done." Violet said with a sigh. "Entropy has been engaged in a dual-art for a few days now. I think she's created a shadow of herself."

Chrono's eyes widened in sheer terror of the prospects of having two Entropy's running around. Or worse. "Okay, we really need to plan this."

"We could start with Discord." Maple suggested thoughtfully. "The statue is something that everypony knows about to some extent or the other. Maybe we can get some information from the princesses?"

"I'm not sure." Violet said with a frown. "Chrono and I both have a few poor odds and ends to work out."

"Just us, then." Chrono said simply. "If anything happens, we know we'll still have each other to support us, and besides I think I've gotten over the Manehattan incident."

Violet nodded. "Deal."

"You sure you'll be safe?" Sledge offered, "I don't really like the idea of you two gettin' in any trouble without a backup crew."

Gale burst out laughing. "I wasn't going to leave you alone anyway! We're a team, remember? It's how we do things in Equestria!"

"As opposed to where else?" Chrono inquired.

Gale paused for a moment. "I've done a few things out in the Griffon Lands. No fun. I'll leave it at that."

Chrono looked to Maple and Rayne. They both nodded their agreement. Violet sighed. "Alright you win. Let's go."

The day was not what anypony could have called pleasant, per se. Storms stretching in every direction, rain pelting hard against Chrono and his newfound friends. Even still he trotted ahead, his sense of urgency compelling him forward even more so, but in remembering he was no longer alone, he remained simply at the head of the group.

"You've been awfully quiet," Violet observed, trotting up next to him, "something on your mind?"

Chrono shook his head. "Nothing that hasn't been on my mind for about a month now."

"Well troubles aren't going to solve themselves unspoken, you know that right?"

Chrono paused, nearly losing his pace in the process. "Equestria's grown dark. Lately it's been as if one troublesome event just falls right into the next one and so forth. Now we're not only dealing with Entropy, but Discord too? How in the hoof are we supposed to be able to tackle that?"

Violet raised a hoof in front of herself with a sigh. "Entropy isn't somepony I'd take lightly, but I'm not one to lose faith in what we have to our name."

"Who is this Entropy, anyway?" Rayne asked, hovering up to pace with the unicorns.

"Bad news." Chrono answered bluntly. "If what she told me is true, then she's the mastermind behind Nightmare Moon, among other pretty severe troubles."

"Really?" Rayne wondered aloud, "Then, wait. What's all this about unwritten history then?"

"Maybe you're better explaining, Chrono." Violet sighed. "I only see so much."

Chrono nodded. "Entropy has the unique ability to take on the abilities and talents of ponies she comes across. In this particular case, she used mine to create a change in history starting at the dawn of time. After that I'm not too sure what happened, but I thought she'd died."

"Oh my. And she didn't?"

"I think she did." Violet interjected. "Just, not overall. She's more elusive than I can really credit her for."

"How would you know?" Chrono asked, genuinely curious.

"I see things of an unwritten past too, Chrono." Violet assured him. "And I'm not about to repeat those same mistakes."

The halls and rooms of Canterlot Castle were surprisingly emptied, giving the glorious structure an oddly eerie feeling to it. Even with Chrono's reassurance of it only being nerves, he could not help but catch Violet glancing various ways at seemingly random intervals. In no way was it any help.

"They're everywhere," Violet whispered. "Ghosts of the guards, even one or two of the common ponies in here. But they're all so quiet, I can't even..."

"Wait a second!" Gale called out. Everypony turned to see him pointing down a hallway. "That's not supposed to be there, is it?"

Among others, Chrono turned to look at the pegasus' direction of pointing. True enough, Chrono's familiarity with the castle didn't allow much room for the additional hallway, especially since at its end rested a frighteningly familiar purple-mounted mirror.

"Looks like we have a welcome mat set out for us," Violet observed. "Any volunteers?"

Chrono was first to step up to it, poking at the mirror as if expecting something to happen. It wasn't until with a shrug and a look back to his friends that he realized something had in fact happened. He let out a slight gasp of surprise.

The hallways, once white with bright red carpeting, were now the same obsidian, indigo-decorated castle that he had found at the dawn of time. He swallowed his fears, and took another step forward. He glanced back, surprised that the mirror no longer seemed to reside at the end of the odd hallway, but again shook his head, certain that he would not be alone for long. He turned his head back forward and took a few steps to the window when his heart stopped outright.

Beyond the window lay a massive view of storms and fire. Equestria itself seemed a violet nightmare of its known beauty and glory. Of what he could see through the terrors, even then various formations seemed to erupt from nowhere.

He heard hoofbeats behind him, a few at first then several more. He turned back to see his comrades facing a bout of confusion much like he had. He glanced back out the window. He could not draw his eyes away from this horror for any length of time, as it seemed.

Sledge didn't take long to trot up beside the black unicorn, frowning at the spectacle. "You weren't kidding when you said Equestria was gettin' dark, did you?" He asked.

"I wasn't kidding, but I wasn't this serious about it either." Chrono answered him. "Just what is going on here?"

"Looks like there's only one way to find out," Gale remarked, "forward!"

Chrono shrugged and followed along, keeping eyes wary.

After several minutes of trekking through suddenly unfamiliar layout, the walls seemed to come alive with a flowing magma-esque red between the bricks. Before long it had also seeped into the floor and ceiling, creating a thoroughly alive appearance to the castle itself. A frighteningly familiar chuckle sounded behind the group, and Chrono was the first to turn and see Entropy, staring at them and looking quite amused. "Well, I knew this would be enough to draw some attention, but this is quite an interesting turn!" She called with glee.

"What are you on about, Entropy?" Chrono demanded, bracing immediately. "What is this place?"

Entropy chuckled, straightening. "Everything the ponies of Equestria have ever feared, have ever longed to be away from. Disharmony and disorder, the perfect nightmare reality for its populace!"

"You think we're just going to stand here and let it happen?" Gale challenged. "Think again!"

Entropy sighed, inciting a pillar of flame directly in front of the stallion pegasus such that he quickly found himself almost collided with the wall just to get away. "You're on my grounds now. How well do you think you can do when you're dealing with everything coming down at once?"

"Won't be too difficult." Chrono said simply. "I think you'd realize how helpful a stasis field is."

The alicorn burst out laughing. "I would, in fact! But have you forgotten how easily I can close your loopholes?"

"Cut to the chase." Maple said sternly, brushing a hoof aggresively against the floor. "We're not here for a monologue. What are you up to?"

"You'll see. It's going to be a long search for each of you, I'm sure. Have fun with the nightmare everypony. Try to make it back in one piece, too. I'd hate for everything to come to such an anticlimactic close."

"You -!" Chrono's word hung for the longest moment as Entropy vanished into thin air. "What is this to her, some sort of game?"

Violet tapped his shoulder with her hoof, before lowering it. "She's been after you for a while, Chrono. I wouldn't expect her to be very hesitant about her approach."

"And what's about this disorder thing?" Gale asked, hovering down to the floor again and folding his wings down. "Disharmony I've heard of, but disorder?"

"We'll see, I guess." Chrono answered, unsure exactly if this was even the case.

"Entropy herself, I would imagine." Maple suggested. "Everypony knows Discord is the spirit of disharmony in Equestria. It sounds like the two are working together, so by process of elimination Entropy represents disorder."

"She's got a point," Sledge said with a shrug, "but does that mean we're faced with two elemental crises?"

Chrono watched out through the window again, thoughts darkening substantially in his mind. If Entropy wanted him to suffer beyond his scope of pain, and she had constructed this entire nightmare Equestria, it only stood to reason that he would have to travel it sooner or later for something. Sledge's notion didn't give him much rest in the thought that he would have to be searching for something.

Or considering the six of them, six somethings. However, just as the thought surfaced while he stared on at the landscape, six pillars of white light shot up from the ground. At least they were being pointed somewhere, even if that meant outside in the Equestrian Nightmare.

"She really needs to get out of my head," Chrono remarked dryly, "looks like we're being led by the nose."

"Or by something anyway." Sledge said with a point of his hoof. "They seem a little scattered though. Aren't these supposed to be collectively organized?"

"I wouldn't underestimate the plans at work here." Violet observed. "It's not hard to tell which is for whom."

Everypony looked to her with a look of surprise, to which she added. "What, you can't see it?"

"See what?" Chrono asked, answering her question.

Violet glanced through the window, nodding in understanding. "Each of the pillars has an outward glow that I guess only I can see. It's a little hard to see yours from this angle, Chrono but that one over there -" she pointed to one of the pillars rising from a small mountain range, "- is probably yours. Rayne, if you notice that one there -" she pointed to a pillar streaking upwards from the nearest lake "-pierces through the cloud holding above it. That's yours, but I'm not sure if it's up or down, so just be careful with it."

"Of course." Rayne replied with a small smile. "I'm usually pretty careful anyway."

"Maple, the woods out that way. About the same place as Everfree should be... looks like yours." Violet continued. Maple nodded and glanced out in the indicated direction.

"Sledge, I hope you like the heat."

The green stallion's face lowered into a slight frown, but he stood tall regardless. "Got it. I'm not afraid of a little volc-" The volcano from which one of the pillars rose erupted, and Sledge suddenly silenced.

Violet's face dropped slightly, worry creasing her eyes. "Anyway... Gale, I can't even see what it's in the middle of but there's a little grey glow around the farthest pillar. Probably yours."

"You got it!"

"Which leaves me in the middle of... oh, I hate caves." Violet said drearily. "Plan of action?"

"I say we split up and get each to our own," Gale suggested.

"I agree, for now." Chrono nodded. "If anything happens I can force a reversion and cut the idea short."

"You sure you're not going to get in trouble yourself?" Sledge asked.

Chrono smiled. "I've dealt with Entropy's traps a few times before. I think I know what to look for."

"So it's settled?" Rayne asked, slowly rising to a hover.

"Seems so," Violet agreed, "be careful everypony."

Challenges of a Nightmare

Violet trotted carefully along the path to the cave that she had noted as her trial grounds, stopping with a lean against the mouth of the cave itself to collect her thoughts. Even as a streak of lightning flashed across the skyline, she remained calm. Her worries would only be self-inflicted, this much she could pride herself on. Entropy's words echoed in her mind, a sort of audible miasma of confusion tearing at her thoughts, but conclusively drawing them to the same reality. The Equestrian Nightmare was a reality that she once saught to bring about too, and had nearly succeeded, but at the same time she held no firsthoof recollection of it.

Only the visions of her unvisited past told her anything, and the image of herself in sheer black did her no comfort at all. She looked down at the ground, raising a hoof and momentarily admiring the flow of lavender that followed her motions.

"Come on Violet," she chided herself, "what would everypony think of you if you just broke down here?"

Firming her resolve, she set her horn aglow and continued along into the cave itself. Immediately she was met with the sight of dozens of pony ghosts scattered around, some terrified, others terrifying. She shuddered at the sight but shook her head to clear her worries. "Can you hear me?" She asked to any that might be able to affirm it.

One of the more frightened ghosts turned her head, nodding between sobs.

"What's happened here?" Violet asked.

The ghostly mare merely pointed Violet's way. A brief vision of her corrupted figure, followed by the masses that she had captured for her shadow revelation, flitted through her view and she stumbled back a step. "I-I'm sorry." She whispered. "I never wanted to go so far..."

The ghosts turned to her, one at a time. The first alone seemed to understand what she had said, and nodded as she pointed deeper into the cave.

"Can you speak?" The ghost shook her head. "Can you tell me anything about this place?"

Again the ghost of a mare pointed directly at Violet, but then disintegrated on the spot. Violet let out a brief cry, unwilling to accept that even the unrestful could be destroyed by...

By what? Was that her answer? It's meant to be her demise? Hardly reassuring.

Tentatively, she took a few steps further in, steadying herself yet again for what must have been coming. She could almost feel the eyes of the departed following her.

"Any of them seem familiar, Violet?" A voice called from an echo through the cave.

Violet froze in her steps. The voice was not a familiar one to her, but seemed to hold such a sinister grace to it that it simply commanded halt. That and despite unfamiliarity, something seemed right about it. Somehow, but she couldn't hope to explain it. "Who are you?" She asked, hoping to at least figure something out.

"Oh, you'll know soon enough." The voice reassurred her, "After all, you're responsible for everypony here."

"What?" Violet gasped, unable to believe what she had just heard.

"The Manehattan shadow run, are you not familiar with it?"

"So it has a name now." Violet remarked with a roll of her eyes. "How do you know these things?"

"Because like somepony you know, I am not necessarily limited to the threads of time. My name is Nightmare Moon, perhaps you have heard of -"

"You!" Violet screamed. "You were the one who made me the enemy of Manehattan before all this!"

Only an eerie laughter answered her. Violet scowled, but out of irritated habit, knocked a hoof against her forehead and snapped to focus. "Seriously." She said as much to herself as anypony else. "How's that for unfair?"

The ghostly mare from earlier appeared through the cave wall, gesturing for the unicorn to continue forward. Violet nodded and began her descent through the cave. An occasional red or yellow patch in the floor she avoided, prematurely aware of several otherwise unseen pitfalls concealed by an array of devices that evidently were not cut out for her talent in detection. Still more ghosts lingered as she hopped down a number of niches in a cliff face.

The descent continued, and Violet quickly found herself wondering how deep this cave in particular would go before she reached her goal. The walls had gotten significantly more mossy, grime mixing in with many of the more jutted surfaces. After a long moment, she caught sight of a curious ghost unlike the others she saw. She stood fully twice as tall as herself, a deathly pale alicorn with alarmingly soft eyes and a face that cried out in sadness even to a first look.

"You can hear me, Violet." The ghost stated simply. "It is good to see you again after all these years."

Violet took a step back, shocked. "Who are you?" She asked, surprised not only that an alicorn could ever be seen in the afterlife, much less recognize her.

"My name is Hollow Shadow, Violet." Violet's eyes widened in disbelief. "Some time ago, you would have recognized me as your mother."

"B-but that's impossible..." Violet shuddered. "My mother was a pegasus."

"No, Violet. I'm sorry to have to bring you this news but your identity lies elsewhere. Your father knew the truth, and while I am hesitant to admit it, he did well to hide the truth from you."

"What do you mean?"

"Look at you, Violet." Hollow said with a gentle stare. "You hold yourself back from what you're capable of, what you could be."

Violet's vision betrayed her. A crystalline image of a blue miasma revolving around her darkened, sinister figure sent a shudder coursing through her spine and a wave of terror over her face. She took a step back, shaking visibly now. "Why?" She asked, "What good would it do?"

"You see everything, Violet. A talent that no pony can possess and yet you do not use it for the greater good."

"I don't care." Violet said shakily, forcing her nerves to calm as she straightened her legs. "I'm not a monster. No pony's going to force me to be either. I know what happened, I'm not going to make the same mistake!"

"Then you really are lost, Violet. Only a shadow of your potential." Hollow whispered.

"I hate to disappoint you, mother." Violet said sternly, "But if I rise to your expectations then I betray the hopes and trust of all Equestria for a second time. Even if I didn't do anything myself, I learned my lesson. I may not be happy with everything the princesses do, but that is by no means cause to trample on their rule. So, unless you have something better to say about your own daughter I think I may just disown myself."

"So be it." Hollow said quietly. "You are forever defective even to your own dreams..."

The silhouette faded, and almost immediately Violet fell to the ground, ignoring the muck flocking at either side. To her surprise a small tap on her right side caught her attention, and she raised her head through tears to see the silent mare from the entrance staring into her eyes with a small smile. She tilted her head towards the continuum of the cave before walking slowly along.

After a brief struggle to her hooves, Violet followed. They walked along through the hallway which the ghostly mare deftly navigated for what seemed an eternity before they reached a small room with a shining white chest against the back wall. "What is this?" Violet asked the mare.

In response, the ghost raised a hoof to indicate the chest then to reach for Violet herself. Although confused, Violet took it as some manner of suggestion for her to open the chest itself. She approached the container tentatively, releasing the hold with a quick levitation spell and lifting it open to reveal a golden anklet sporting a red gemstone along its front. After a moment of inspection the white unicorn donned it, when a strange sound in the ghost's direction caught her attention. The ghost had solidified into a very much living earth pony, who continued to smile peacefully at her.

"Thank you." The mare said finally, her voice seeming to sound as a ghost itself, heard from every direction with such quiet that it seemed ethereal. "I wish I could have introduced myself to you sooner. My name is Hope. It is a pleasure to finally meet my successor. Violet Shadow, I believe?"

Violet nodded. "Yes, that's me... but why are you here?"

Hope indicated the anklet now on Violet's hoof. "Because you hold the very gift that I have been so fond of while I was still alive in this perpetual nightmare. The gift I gave my life to protect; the element of Hope. It stands as one of a set - are you familiar with the legends?"

Violet shook her head.

"Then perhaps you have heard of the mare called Entropy?"

"I know of her. Ringleading all of Equestria into chaos and destruction."

"Disorder." Hope corrected. "Entropy embodies the power of disorder. She has been bent on the annihilation of everything outside of her vision for centuries now, and I have been able to do nothing more than watch and wait for somepony to come and challenge her. Unfortunately, you only have one of the elements. The other five are still out there."

"Don't worry, Hope." Violet said reassuringly with a gentle smile. "I have some friends already on their way to the others. There is a legend in a parallel Equestria telling of the elements of Harmony. Six ponies to six elements, and it seems like this isn't all too different."

"You're from the mirror?" Hope asked, eyes flying wide. "Oh, thank the stars! No wonder this all seemed so new to you!"

"What's the matter?"

Hope outright tackled Violet with hooves wrapped around her neck, just short of strangling her in her embrace. "Thank you so much."

"For what?" Violet insisted, prying herself away a step. "What did I do?"

"Ever since Entropy took over the Nightmare, everything has gotten steadily worse and every connection we have had with the mirror has gone under. Now it's becoming clear why. They must have reappeared in the parallel!"

"Can you explain this in a bit simpler terms, please?"

"How did you get here?"

"There was a..." The thought registered with the unicorn at last. "A mirror. That's the gateway to and from, isn't it?"

"Entropy's signature is to leave through a bi-dimensional portal and out of existence, as it would seem. With the power of the elements, my friends and I manged to keep her here in this world, but you can guess how well that went over."

Violet nodded, not particularly dismissing that she had first seen hope as a long-dead ghost. "I think I understand. I hate to excuse myself, but I should probably be heading back to the castle. Will you be alright?"

Hope laughed. "You'll never reach the mouth of the cave if you head out without a helping hoof. There's a lot more than a few winding tunnels through here. Here, let me help."

"Course I got this." Gale muttered again and again as he flew off into the distance, headed for the pillar of light that Violet had singled out for him. "I got this in a wingbeat."

He kept up his monologue in order to relieve the boredom of a solo flight, aside from his sheer need for a diversion of thought from the defiled atmosphere of the Equestrian Nightmare. He noticed a slight change in the drift as he kept along, his flying coming more easily though he couldn't quite explain why.

"Gale Storm..." A voice called from above and to the side. "We've been waiting."

Gale stopped, rearing in mid-flight to face whomever had spoken. The mare he saw stood on a cloud in uniform that at first resembled that of the Wonderbolts, but which design featured darker colors; black against crimson detail. "And, you are?" He asked, watching as two others appeared beside her.

"You haven't heard of me?" The mare in the center inquired. Gale shook his head. "Eva Nightshade, captain of the Nighthawks."

"And you've been waiting for me why, exactly?"

"Because you're looking for something of ours."

Gale raised an eyebrow, not certain what she meant.

"Your element. Your highest raw virtue." Eva went on.

"Let me guess. I have to do something to earn it, right?" Eva laughed but nodded. "What?"

"You're familiar with the flight test of Cloudsdale, yes?"

Gale paused, not intimately familiar but certainly having heard of the less-than-friendly course of action performed in Cloudsdale's testing. Clearing the skies, flying through the obstacles and rings in course, falling for a few seconds into a recovery without any landing. Any further he didn't know too certain of. Himself being from Las Pegasus, he had never performed the tasks himself. "Somewhat," he said with a shrug, "What about it?"

All three of the Nighthawks indicated a course high overhead. "Your turn. But after your recovery you had better keep pace with my colleagues and I or you won't find what you're after."

Gale narrowed his eyes. "Bring it on." He said defiantly.

In response, Eva and the other two simply raised hooves to the course above.

Gale took only a few seconds to figure his course of action. The clouds were scattered in such a way as to create a painfully difficult path of choice but held enough circular patterning to allow a sort of back-and-forth maneuver to clear them. Ring flying was simple enough, even with the rough angles of a lot of them. Recovery, well... he could do it, he was sure.

In the blink of an eye he was off, tearing through cloud after cloud in a blinding spree of speed, though each burst through he felt a bit of static shock on his wings, growing slowly into a dulling pain. He had still managed to clear the clouds in under a minute, sailing through each of the rings after with little to no trouble at all. Once he reached the last one though, he folded his wings down and dropped, keeping an eye up to the Nighthawks quickly rising above him.

The instant he took back off, they were off into the skies as well. Now it was just a game of keeping up. Behind Eva flowed a dynamic twin ray of red, stretching out behind the tips of both wings. Both of her wingmares were not far behind, and Gale had some catching up to do with a rising start.

He didn't take long to level with the others, and they seemed to be going on a pretty straight path. Gale came prepared for a straight run. With his wings folding halfway down, he barreled to the side and spun relentlessly through the air, forcing himself forward with a small tornado-esque gale cresting just in front of him with a burst of speed. It wasn't until he wound up kicked in the face by one of Eva's wingmates that he regulated his pace again - and realized this was no simple game of catch.

They were out to stop him. Eva flew a reverse-angle down, flipping over and letting her forward weight plummet with a drastic increase in her velocity as she dove down, the others close behind. Gale barreled to the side of one as he passed, but outright flew into the other as she moved to intercept him. No simple game of catch at all.

Now once again in the last, he noticed the three take to a climb again, which he moved quickly to follow. He watched carefully for an opening to spring ahead, keeping in mind where he flew best. If at any point they took to a pure horizontal curve, he would have them done and overwith. They seemed intent on keeping dual-angles going though, so he kept at the rear of an arrowhead formation.

Slowly, as he flew along, the numbness in his wings faded out of his senses. Even when it had cracked between his feathers, he didn't care. He had his objective, he would not fail.

Eva took a turn to the left, the two behind her close behind and crossing behind her such to keep Gale from rushing ahead like he almost had with the initial dive. He chuckled as he went into a spin anyway, struggling to keep his eyes on the wingmares and shooting straight between them just after they crossed each other. He was playing their game alright, but they were playing his as well. He never lost at his own game.

Again Eva took off into a dive, and Gale grinned as he went down right beside her, pulling around her front as she angled for another climb and wincing as she crashed into his side painfully. She fell, the others went after her.

A small blue shimmer caught his eye down near the ground, probably something worth interest. Especially since at the same time the Nighthawks simply vanished from his view again, making him wonder if they had even been real for a moment. With another shrug, he flew down towards the source of the blue shimmer, surprised to see a white-maned, blue earth pony standing beside a white box with a broad smile on her face.

"Nice going." She congratulated. "I never thought I'd see the day when I was outmatched."

"Huh?" Gale asked, "What are you talking about?"

The other pony pointed a hoof his way. "Congrats, bud. You're the new carrier of my element."

"What do you mean? How'd you just appear out of -"

"My own grave?" The mare chuckled. "Well you helped. Entropy stationed a few of her tricks and ploys out to safeguard the elements of Order from being acquired again after she killed all my friends and myself. Looks like we've got some ponies to look up to after all."

"And you are...?"

"Confidence." The mare said with a wink. "At least that's what I've gone by for a while now. It's all that matters to me anymore, is my element. One that you," she added with a poke to Gale's chest, "seem to have mastered beyond a doubt."

"I don't get it," Gale said after a while. "What's going on anyway?"

"Depends. You want the long story or the short one?"

Gale moved over to the box and opened it. "I'll take the abridged version." He said as he took a look inside. There, right in the box was a silver anklet inlaid with a large sky blue gemstone.

"Entropy tries to destroy Equestria, winds up exiled to an infinite nothing. She creates the Equestrian Nightmare, winds up defeated again for a thousand years, comes back to kill the six who beat her the second time, left our strengths guarded so they wouldn't be used against her again, the end."

"Got it." Gale chuckled. "Except, not the end is it?"

"I never got your name..."

"Gale." The stallion said proudly. "Gale Storm, pleasure to meet you."

"Same here," Confidence laughed. "Come on, let's take a walk. I can probably only go so far, but at least some company will be better than an eternal nothing and no pony to keep in touch with at all."

Maple trotted up to the edge of the forest, several brief reminders of the Everfree Forest cascading through her mind. No pony coming out, needless to mention of the various creatures that would do anypony who so dared to venture in some pretty substantial harm. After a moment to swallow her fears, she took a step forward. She couldn't fail now, not when all her friends were already depending on her.

The woods themselves didn't frighten her so much, although every few steps some sound or other caught her attention and froze her still for several seconds. Looking around as she continued along she took further note of the details.

Each and every tree seemed to have been already long-dead, trunks well into decay and dried leaves scattered about. For the woodland pony, it was in no way a pleasant sight. Among some of the leaves were decayed maple leaves, which in itself nibbled at her thoughts. Entropy had mentioned the culmination of everypony's fears in Equestria. Could it be made in this case, specifically to drive her off?

One hoof in front of the next, she reminded herself. Secretly she took note that in all likelihood if something went wrong then she wouldn't even be here to remember it, thanks to Chrono's apparent talent in time travel. He would have stopped her, so since he hadn't, she found it safe to assume it would turn out alright.

Another step, and for a moment she looked back only to see she was no longer anywhere near the border. Her inner dialogue had kept her going beyond her awareness for a while, by all appearances. "No room for doubt now," she whispered, "just keep going forward."

Another sound from the side caught her attention, but it wasn't the sound of anything natural. It sounded like an electric hum, but that didn't make any sense either.

Of course, the sudden visual of sparks traversing every tree in sight didn't make sense to the mare, but that was when she decided to momentarily abandon the thought. She took a step back, bracing should something happen. It came as much less of a surprise then when the nearest trees began to fall straight in her direction.

The first she slid back from, but not quite quickly enough to avoid being trapped between several of the branches, needless to mention the several now-throbbing cuts along her coat from the fall. She squinted her eyes closed and dropped down, fearful in case another tree trunk should land atop her and silence her forever. The sound of a snapping branch overhead with a mind-dulling thud reassured her that at the very least, she had survived.

Nearly a minute passed before Maple dared to move again, picking at her way out of the fallen trees. Only the two had fallen, but every other tree in sight seemed poised to fall right on top of her.

For a mare who had always thought of herself as the strong, silent type, she began wondering how strong that really made her. "Stop, Maple," she said to herself a little sternly, "you have to have expected something. Least you're alive, right?"

And she would keep it that way so long as she could. Her pure caution had led her almost to her death though; she needed a new approach. Looking around, she noticed the two trees that had uprooted were the two closest to her in proximity. A well-laid trap to be sure, but not without its drawbacks. They might not fall over until she gets close enough to, which if she took off in a dead run, they would have a little difficulty reaching her.

So, with a plan of action decided, she rushed forward. Surely enough, the sounds of dozens of collapsing trees behind her marked the path she took, and the occasional scratch in the ear reminded her that she could not hesitate.

Then the trees started falling in front of her. Still in her direction, but two had fallen while she was already well behind, both angled to intercept each other at about the point where she would be at the time. Mixed with the trees from behind, she couldn't slow down.

Closing her eyes with a single leap, she tripped a hoof over the still-falling tree and landed roughly on her back just as a tree snapped to her left, causing a blunt strike on her right from it falling over. Out of pure reflex, she rolled to the left. The snapped trunk wasn't far behind either.

Two minutes passed whereupon she finally recovered her nerves, and she stood once again and briefly surveyed the situation. She must have fallen over the trunk of one tree and... her eyes widened; her reflexes were probably the one reason she was alive at this point. The tree trunk that had snapped would have been enough force to crush her chest beyond any hope of breathing. Not a good way to go.

Her breaths came slow, her alarm dimming to a wary caution again. She took a look back. Dozens of trees had fallen in a vain attempt to strike her down, but she had not only stood her ground; she had advanced through the lot of them. Further retrospect brought on the fact that standing her ground would definitely be a lethal mistake.

A rustling of leaves from above and to her left caught her attention again. With significantly much less fear than before, she glanced in its direction. No surprise when she only saw a few rotten leaves falling, but their momentum wasn't straight down either. As if something had swept them forward just before prying them from their branches.

Ready for anything, the young mare continued on. It wasn't until an outright earth-shaking rumble caught her attention when she realized that almost every tree that could have reached her at all now conspired against her. One right into the next, they uprooted and fell her way. Her eyes narrowed, and although it sent a chill down her spine, her heart seemed to have stopped beating for a moment.

She hopped back a step as one tree crashed down in front of her, but her recovery was nothing less than expertise as she jumped up onto the fallen trunk as another snapped behind her. Favoring the opportunity to keep moving she continued to climb the most recent fall, bounding from one wooden tree trunk to the next just as they collapsed against the last. After almost a dozen such leaps the remaining trees still falling never even landed in such a place to threaten her.

A curious white glow caught her attention just past the ironic clearing that had been made, just as a streak of lightning crashed into the tree just behind her and lit the stack ablaze. Between the sudden scare and the force of thunder, Maple didn't need any help getting away from the ensuing bonfire.

She landed hard against the base of a tree, and for a brief moment she felt her consciousness slipping from her...

Several pokes from the side finally gave the young mare reason to stir again, and she opened her eyes to see an unfamiliar green pegasus hovering over her, prodding her awake. "Thank heavens, you're alive!" She said with obvious cheer. "I was afraid you wouldn't make it!"

"Make what?" Maple asked, eyes darting around for any others who might have been nearby.

The pegasus pointed to the chest that the hurl of thunder had forced Maple over. "It's yours, I think you've definitely earned it."

"What is it?"

"You'll see sure enough. It's a long story, but I'm hoping you'll help it come out with a good ending."

Maple only raised an eyebrow.

"My name's Calm. Or at least it might as well be, for how often I've gone by the name. In that chest over there is the element of Order I created a long time ago. Took a lot out of me, but so long as I don't need it anymore I'm happy seeing it in good hooves."

Maple looked back through the forest, alarmed slightly that the trees were already on their way back to straightening. "Yours and five others, I guess?" She asked.

"Yeah..." Calm mentioned distantly, "How'd you know?"

"My friends and I noticed a set of six pillars throughout the landscape." Maple replied, "Seems to one of them that each of them were tailored to us."

After a few moments longer Maple opened the box. Inside was a golden anklet sporting a beautiful green gemstone along its front. She donned it hesitantly, feeling at once a little guilty for practical robbery. "You're sure you won't be needing this?" She asked again, glancing over to the pegasus.

"Of course not." Calm said cheerfully. "I may have been its creator but ever since this whole place went under, I haven't had it in me to hope for anything more than to pass it along."

Maple's face dropped a little, saddened. "What do you mean? You don't have purpose for yourself anymore?"

"After she killed us all, Entropy wanted to keep us confined where we wouldn't be able to do much of anything. So she trapped us all pretty close to our elements and forced our spirits into a sort of ghosthood. I can't even get too far without it hurting like... well sort of like how you look about now, no offense."

Maple looked down at herself curiously. Sure enough, she was quite a mess. Scratches and small cuts built up quickly after a while. Seeing herself so injured made her feel suddenly weak, and she dropped to the ground, shaking.

Again, a poke to her shoulder caused her to stir slightly. "Don't worry. I can help you out of here, but I'd like something in return."

"Anything," Maple promised.

"What's your name? It'd be a shame to see somepony come so far without due commendation."

Rayne was last to leave the castle, taking in a more deep perspective of her surroundings. Even if she kept telling herself there wasn't anything to see, it was still more than she would have liked to admit. Every possible negative landscape came into view; mountains blending into massive volcanoes, woodlands that openly defied her belief that there was nothing more frightening than Everfree, and even what would have been an open field in Equestria stood a barren desert. There was no beauty here, not even in its perpetually storm-lit sky. She wondered vainly for a moment if the Equestrian Nightmare's oceans held any semblance of peace.

With a shake of her head, she reminded herself that she didn't have time to explore either. Ahead of her rose a pillar of what she had seen as pure white, although Violet of course had noticed differently. This was hers, a marker probably created for her, but that didn't answer why any mastermind would lead her and her friends in the right direction.

Deciding to take to familiar territory first, Rayne took off for the skies, heading upwards for the cloud cover near to the pillar itself.

The air chilled as she ascended, causing shudders to run continually up the pegasus' spine. Still her wings did not waver, her aim true enough. In the distance she could see an odd spire of clouds, arranged with an inward spiral going upwards, all centered around another cloud that curiously enough, held a shimmering white chest atop it. "It's too simple." Rayne muttered, redirecting for the chest just as she noticed a flicker of red to her left. As she angled around to catch a better look, her eyes widened.

"Too simple, is it?" Entropy chuckled, wings snapping wide.

Rayne grunted, about to take off in the alicorn's direction when at the first flap of her wings she realized they would no longer carry her. Desperate and on poor momentum, she reached for the nearest cloud and clung to it for dear life. "Well then," she remarked as she pulled herself atop the cloud itself, panting, "I won't ask what the catch is."

But Entropy was already gone. Curious of her window of opportunity, Rayne made to extend her wings again, but they clung to her sides like no tomorrow. As she looked to them directly, she found out why; every feather tip had melded in with the side of her body. If she were to take flight, it would be on skeletal wings and enough of a numbing pain to render them helpless anyway.

She looked over to the spiral rotation of clouds, noting their shifting to a largely circular pattern. Several of the clouds were dark and threatened to shock the living daylights out of anypony daring enough to lay hoof on it, others outright sending jolts of lightning to other such clouds, which left her in a situation of how she'd ever reach that chest alive.

It wasn't hopeless, however. Several, perhaps a few over half of the clouds remained peacefully white, with no real chance of danger outside of an outward shock passing by. Taking more notice of the storm clouds, she frowned in the realization that they were arranged to shoot through at such a height above each white cloud as to pierce right through a pony of her height. "Alright..." she whispered, eyes narrowing, "Let's go."

She already had a course mapped out in her mind. She would have to reach the top of the spire in order to make a safe jump to the center, but beyond that was simple. Carefully timing her movements, she leapt from cloud to cloud, very often just above or under another streak of lightning. It wasn't until she had hopped five of the platforming clouds that she felt her balance sway a little. They were moving faster now. This changed everything quite suddenly.

She needed to take a moment to regain her bearings, having to juggle herself over a bolt of lightning that she had quickly memorized the timing of, but her ascent became almost direct. At the speeds she was already going, she couldn't afford to risk an angular jump anymore.

One, two, three more clouds jumped with a narrow miss of lightning on the fourth. And then a sudden change in direction caught the pegasus completely off guard, leaving her holding again for her life on the side of a small cloud perch. With the reversed movement, she felt static run along her wings as some of the darker clouds passed on either side, creating a rippling pain once they finally collected and sparked within the folds of her own wings. Even still she would not be distracted; nothing existed but these clouds and her target.

After she finally pulled herself up again, Rayne surveyed the clouds' movements again for only a brief moment before she took note of the simplicity of it all. She could wait for a second pass as she had, but higher up the number of safe clouds became impossibly small. It was a straight run from there if she didn't want to be fried alive.

With a rush of hope and more than one leap of faith, her ascent quickened until she vaulted just over the last cloud, catching on and holding to its inner side, but not bothering to pick herself up quite yet. She was safe where she was, and she needed to get her facts straight for her descent down onto the central cloud. Missing it would do her no good at all.

It was still quite a jump horizontally, not to mention the ground-breaking speed she would be attaining in the fall. She decided not to jump at all. To get as far out as she needed she'd have to kick off from the side as it were. Pulling herself halfway up with a deep, steadying breath, she forced herself away from the cloud with both hind hooves, disippating the cloud itself in the process as she turned to watch the central cloud and the ground below rise against her plummeting downward. Assuming the worst that she would pierce through the cloud itself, she reached for the chest as she came down.

The chest itself vanished, and Rayne felt an immense rush of wind down upon her as she realized the cloud itself was a well-laid trap for her. Without her wings and going at near sonic-rainboom speeds, she found herself face to face with the lake below, and what ultimately would be her death sentence.

She landed on what she could only recognize by the feel of a cloud, very suddenly felt on all sides save her back. She of course didn't want to see the end as it happened, so she had closed her eyes, but she no longer felt the wind opposing her descent. Only the cotton comfort of the cloud. Opening her eyes, she realized it was in fact, a cloud - but just beyond it was the rim of a valley, presumably over the lake. A sharp whistling from the side caught her attention, and she glanced over to see a yellow unicorn mare tossing her a wink.

"Nice landing!" She called out to Rayne. "Glad to see you could make it!"

Rayne narrowed her eyes slightly, pointing a hoof at the cloud she had miraculously landed on. "Did you...?"

The unicorn nodded with a smile. "Come on down, I've got something to show you."

Reluctantly, Rayne dropped off from the cloud and into the valley below, landing deftly and taking a trot to the other mare. "I hate to say, but I'm a little busy as it were." She confessed.

"Oh yeah? Anything exciting?" The unicorn asked, her gaze confident.

Rayne sighed, but decided it better to explain anyway. "Some friends and I are going after a mare by the name of-"

"Entropy." The unicorn finished for her. "Can't say I'm a fan after what she did to me and mine either. You're exactly where you need to be, don't worry."

"Then who are you?" Rayne asked, "I mean, how'd you get here?"

"Well one of those I can answer for certain, the other you'll have to live with only half an answer. Entropy created this entire place, but for all her efforts she couldn't hide the sparks of virtue that hold in everypony's hearts. My friends and I created some artifacts about two hundred years ago to that extent, but that's when Entropy decided to do away with us and our legacy. Lo and behold, you show up and outdo one of her favorite traps just like that."

"Okay... but who are you?" Rayne had to admit, she was confused more by the fact that it would merit a half-answer for a name than by the unicorn's explanation of things.

"Lost my name about when I lost my life, so I adopted my values and strengths as my name in its place."

"I need something to call you though." Rayne said quietly, not particularly wanting to argue about it.

"You can call me Focus. It's what I call myself anyway, so it'll work. Anyway, you coming or not? I've got something for you."

Rayne nodded, following behind a fair distance. Focus crested a hill before pointing a hoof at a familiar white chest. "There's the real one. Oh, and let me fix you up real quick..."

Her horn glowed, and one by one Rayne felt her feathers pull free of her sides, the sudden freedom causing an urge to flex her wings again, which she promptly stretched. Not once in her life had she appreciated her wings so much. With a nod of appreciation she moved over to the chest and opened it. Inside, a golden anklet featuring a bright blue opaque gemstone caught her eye immediately. After a moment of hesitation, she looked up to Focus herself. "But it's yours." She offered weakly.

Focus laughed. "I can't jump clouds when half of them are threatening my life and make two recoveries without my horn. You've got far more in this than I do, plus I owe you my life."

"I-I do?"

"You beat Entropy's challenge that grounded my element. I can live again because of its reawakening. It's most definitely yours."

"If you insist." Rayne reached for the anklet. A yellow telekinesis field moved it to her hoof and donned it in her place. Surprised, the pegasus looked over to Focus, who smiled in turn.

"Come on, let's take a hike," Focus offered, leading the way back to the castle. "So, tell me about yourself. I still don't even know your name!"

"Oh, right." Rayne managed a light giggle. "My name's Rayne."

"I'll bet anything it's sittin' at the bottom of this thing." Sledge muttered again and again as he climbed the outward surface of the volcano that Violet had designated as his target. He kept reassuring himself that it wasn't fear that was slowing him down. Caution was a necessary thing when face-to-face with an explosive demise, right?

Maybe not so much. The ground beneath him fell right away under his hoof, dropping him onto a ledge overlooking a massive riverbed of flowing magma, from which he immediately backed away from into the wall behind him. The heat was intense enough without his now-heavy breathing added to his passive reactions. He looked over the edge of the face of the ledge to find to his surprise, a hallway branching off near the bottom and ascending beyond his view.

A rumble left him standing back. All around him almost immediately, waves of flame rushed up from the cracks in the floor, threatening to burn right through the stallion and causing intensity in his muscles unlike anything he'd hoped to be put through. Stumbling, he fell to the ground gasping for breath.

And this was only the beginning. Taking care to keep both eyes on the floor, he made his way down, keeping away from any potential blasts of heat coming upwards either through the flames or the magma flow. Still he reached far enough that a direct jump would render him under the cover of the tunnel below, which as far as he knew seemed the only way forward, so to speak. Not much else gave him any sense of direction other than the notion of down.

He took a glance back, and suddenly came aware with a realization; he could go down. He could not climb back out though, at least not the way he came.

Abandoning thought of escape, he leapt down and crashed chest-first into the tunnel, the radiating heat of the stone surface leaving a small burn across his coat. Fortunately, Sledge Hammer was single-hoofedly the most sturdy pony he knew. And would most likely be forever the most sturdy pony he would ever meet.

Forcing himself into a gallop, he plowed through the tunnel only to come to a skidding halt at its mouth. By the hair of his legs, he had missed falling into the magma pit. There was no floor for him to reach, and both ways were pretty much a death trap now, with the sole exception of the double walls this way out.

Taking measure of them both, he sighed as he came to a resolution. Half a minute of reassuring himself later, he began ricocheting himself from one wall to the other and back again, fully aware of his dying upwards momentum.

Even then with a crude grunt, he slammed a forehoof into the wall, burying his leg into its grip. He had never been so sorry to have saved his own life before; the moment he kicked away from the wall again to finish his climb, he could see the scars already forming along his leg. He decided against paying attention to the massive throbbing going down his entire right side to match.

He crested the cliff face in enough time to avoid the eruption behind him, burning off a small bit of his tail and causing the bitterly fierce earth pony to cringe for the first time in weeks. Be it luck, skill or divine intervention, he had barely survived that.

"Hey, you down there!" A voice from above called down. A mare's, although...

Sledge looked up. Standing along another ledge high above him stood a dark brown unicorn mare, watching intently with keen interest. "There should be a lever down there somewhere, you think you can trigger it?"

Sledge looked around, for the first time noticing the number of contraptions built into the walls around him. For a volcano, this place was remarkably engineered. As much as he hated her, he had to give Entropy some props for imagination in this Nightmare of hers.

He flicked a hoof across a lever-like panel in the wall, jumping back slightly in alarm of the dozens of hoofholds that sported out from several surfaces along each and every wall he could see. "Okay, now what?" He asked, looking up.

The mare was nowhere to be seen. Only her voice echoed. "Keep to the right, and make sure you pause where there's a floor below!"

Sledge looked along the wall to his right, just as another burst of magma shot up in front of his view. No point in questioning why the floor below, anyway. As the magma settled back down he proceeded to jump up along the hoofholds in the wall, noting below a larger floor beneath one such hold. He paused to catch his breath at the hold above the floor. To his immense surprise, the magma flared up all around him again, but far enough away to grant him a little space to breathe.

Breathing. His lungs hurt just thinking the word. He had to continue forward; his friends, not to mention all of Equestria, were depending on him. Let alone this mare.

"Okay, there!" She called from an unseen point again. "To your left is a bridge. Cross it quickly, and don't look back whatever you do!"

Sledge did just that, not even bothering to care that just as he stepped onto the bridge the magma blew up on either side. He was still ascending though, but that didn't stop the volcano from threatening his life just from his endurace failing.

Another tunnel, surprisingly cooler. The mare stood a few dozen paces inside, watching the earth pony with even keener interest. She gave an approving and acknowledging nod to him. "I guess I have a bit to answer, don't I?" She said as much as asked.

"You could start with who you are." Sledge answered politely - for his already-gruff tone.

"Call me Courage. It's as much of a name as I'll ever have anymore." The mare said with a shrug, turning and walking down the hall.

"Not much of a name," Sledge remarked in tow, "How'd you survive in here?"

Courage laughed. "I didn't. No pony can outlast the heat of an active volcano trapped in an antimagic field and a caved-in roof."

Seemed absolute enough. "Then how are you here?"

"I had some help from my successor."

"Who would be...?"

Courage's horn lit a bright shade of red, and in the distance a small clicking sound alerted Sledge. "Yours truly. I've been waiting a while to see somepony daring enough to venture through this deathly mountain. Beyond here is a chest containing my element, that of Courage. It's one of six, but I'm pretty sure you won't be able to get them all by your lonesome."

"Don't worry about them." Sledge offered. "There were six coming. We should be pretty clear."

"There are six of you?" Courage raised an eyebrow, surprised. "Now that's interesting."

"What is?"

Courage sighed. "Here's probably not the best place to discuss it."

A silver anklet imbued with a massive green gemstone floated onto Sledge's hoof and bound to it. Courage smirked as her horn erupted into a massive red glow.

Suddenly the volcano vanished, replaced by the still-unpleasant - but nonlethal - scenery of the Equestrian Nightmare. "Alright, let me explain this to you." Courage began.

"Two hundred years ago, Entropy began her reformation of the Nightmare to suit her own desires. My friends and I came up to stop her, but we only half-succeeded. We managed to keep her bound to the Nightmare and unable to leave, but in the process she also managed to create in herself a sort of absolute power over the land, which she proceeded to mercilessly destroy each of us through. We were left to our own fates though, and with a little help I managed to communicate with everypony else that could make this work. We devised a plan to create the Elements of Order, the ultimate countermeasure to Entropy's rule that wasn't us directly. Then, we bound ourselves to them shortly before we each died in our own right."

"And, two hundred years later, we arrived and now you're alive again?"

"Half-alive," Courage corrected him, "We're still definitely bound, but we won't last long after the awakening. Probably not long enough even to regroup, but that's not important anymore. You and your friends seem to have some connection to the Elements, so it's not up to us anymore. I hate to ask, but can you help us?"

"You'd better believe it." Sledge said proudly. "That's why we came. Entropy's been driving Equestria into enough pain and suffering as it is. Can't expect a good pony to just sit back and do nothin', can you?"

Courage giggled and pointed a hoof Sledge's way. "See, that's the type of pony I can get behind! Why couldn't all my friends be more like you?"

Sledge shrugged. "Everypony's got their own preferences, I guess."

"True. Here, at least let me fix you up."

Again, a red glow about Courage's horn, and a massive feeling of relief through Sledge's entire frame, his every burn and injury visibly healing dramatically more quickly than he could have ever hoped. "Thanks." He offered weakly. "Name's Sledge, by the way."

"Fits you well. After slamming a hole in a volcanic wall, I'm convinced."

Chrono's movement into the valley took all of half a second as per anyone else's perception, his manipulation of time allowing himself a window of opportunity to move on ahead. Still he found himself climbing over hilltops to find at the source of his pillar a frighteningly familiar grey-coated, red-maned earth pony.

Deuce Wylde, arguably his best friend throughout his life, was waiting for him. Perhaps an illusion or shadow, but a further inspection led him to believe otherwise; his face was as calm and unreadable as he had ever known his friend's to be. "Deuce?" Chrono asked disbelievingly, releasing his hold of time as he did so.

Deuce's face hardly even moved as he noticed the unicorn's seemingly impossible appearance. "Chrono Spark, I believe?" He replied.

Same tone of voice, same face. Not a whole lot of mistaking him; this was the genuine article, as far as Chrono could tell. But what would he be doing in the Equestrian Nightmare unless he were explicitly sent by Luna?

"Yeah, that's me..." Chrono said hesitantly. "What are you doing here?"

Deuce lifted a hoof Chrono's way. "I could ask you the same. You were working with Entropy, why?"

Chrono's eyes lifted in alarm. He remembered the Manehattan incident? "Misunderstanding. I didn't know her goals at the time." He explained.

"Her goals have been evident since forever, how can you not know them?"

Chrono took a step back, curious as to how of all ponies', Deuce's memory could have been selective in this case. "What do you know?" He asked calmly, not getting offensive in the matter.

Deuce, however sprang to hold the unicorn down. Chrono made no move to stop him, only winced at the dulling thud of his back against the side of the hill. "You're not asking the questions," Deuce said in a reminding tone, "I am. What's your involvement with Entropy?"

"I'm trying to stop her." Chrono said simply, having nothing to hide.

"Right. Then why was it my best friend had to have you arrested only for you to escape custody?"

Chrono paused. Aero wasn't wrong to arrest him at the time, but at the same time he couldn't figure out for the life of him how this had scaled to a cross-world conflict. "I didn't escape. I was in a poor state of mind, the source of which I'm trying to prevent h-"

He was interrupted by a jab from the earth pony sending riveting jolts of pain through Chrono's chest. "Don't lie to me." He said threateningly.

"I'm not, Deuce. I have nothing to hide, and if you remembered the friendship we had before Entropy dragged me to the dawn of time then you'd believe me."

Deuce took a single step back, still looking quite unamused. "What are you on about?" He asked casually, his face still impossibly still.

Chrono slowly pulled himself back to his hooves. "You and Aero Slide, no matter how well you won't remember me, remain my best friends. The only reason you don't remember me is because I was forced through time to a point before we'd met, and what am I to do when no pony remembers who you are?"

"Likely story."

Chrono sighed. "No, it's not. Chronomancers are so few and far between that even to meet one is a pretty rare occurrence. Entropy being the exception since she makes herself known in every time frame she jumps into."

"So what's your side of all this?" Deuce asked, his visage finally giving way to a less hostile look.

"She's been after me for long enough that she's resorting to everything she can to make what's left of my life miserable. Evidently that includes one of my best friends' interrogation."

"Then explain this." Deuce said with a small measure of finality. "Princess Luna recalls perfectly that you had in another timespace gone to Manehattan under the orders of Entropy. What was that all about?"

"You and Aero were both with me. Entropy had convinced both princesses, Aero and myself of her supposed good will. You alone had your doubts, and it goes to show your insights are absolute. Now she's been trying to kill me ever since. I came here because a few friends of mine and I were on our way to report to princess Celestia about Discord being on the loose again, but a quick side-tracking landed us all here at the heart of this idiot nightmare."

Deuce nodded through several bits of Chrono's explanation, but still didn't seem fully convinced. "Then if you're a chronomancer like you say, why didn't you just go back to before the Manehattan mission and stand up to Entropy then?"

Chrono paused for a moment, but shook his head. "I never got the chance, even if it had come to mind. Entropy proceeded to the dawn of time and changed enough to significantly alter the would-be present, leaving me in a temporal vortex back to the dawn of creation."

"Then how are you even alive? You'd have died of old age centuries ago."

"I don't age. That and springing forward two thousand years left me at present while no pony remembers me. Yourself included, evidently."

Deuce nodded, glancing around him. "Fine. I guess your story checks out, but you probably ought to know that you're not going to have any luck finding Discord here. He's been running a riot in Equestria-actual for a few weeks now."

"Weeks?" Chrono asked, voice raised in alarm. "We haven't even been here a day!"

"Oh, that's not good." Deuce muttered, before he took off over the horizon at his fastest gallop.

Chrono blinked, his attention turning from his once-friend to the pillar at the base of the valley. "Weeks?" He asked. Talk about a flux of temporal mechanics...

The sound of a light landing behind him caught his attention. After turning for a moment he tilted his head in confusion. Standing on the hilltop was a curious blue pegasus mare, watching him with the highest interest he had ever seen in a gaze his way. "He must have been a good friend." She reasoned quietly, only barely heard. "I'm sorry you had to go through that."

"I do what I have to; doesn't matter how hard it hurts me in the end, as long as it pans out." Chrono answered with a shrug.

"And it doesn't stop you to see your history dragging at your heart like that?" She asked, her eyes almost glistening with wonder.

"What good would it do for me to slow down at all?"

"Pardon me for asking, but what position are you in to help others if you need help, yourself?"

Chrono's line of thought dropped right there. "I have my friends. I get help even when I don't want or think I need it. Every now and then I feel more like I need them to back down, but I'm proven wrong every time."

"Certainly trustworthy friends. Might I ask your name, sir?"

"Chrono Spark. Yours?"

The mare sighed, coming down to a seat and looking over the horizon. "I never really had one. Ages ago I identified by the name of Kera Nightwing, but it doesn't mean anything but a historic label anymore. Something I've long since gotten rid of."

Chrono began to climb the hill to sit across from the pegasus, his curiosity getting the better of him.

"It wasn't until I met a group of five friends that I decided to call myself by Faith instead. I felt like it was a standing reminder of what I believe most in. That no matter how awful things get here in the Nightmare, they will still get better. Seems like we have a few things in common, mister Spark."

"Please, call me Chrono."

"Chrono, then." Faith corrected herself. "So what's your story?"

"Pretty long. Overlaps itself in a few places."

Faith shrugged, "I'm not going anywhere."

Chrono sighed, but recounted his adventures throughout Equestria, taking several minutes in his explanations before factoring interruptions. Almost an hour later he reached to his latest encounter with Deuce, and he finished with a sudden realization that not once had Faith shown anything less than genuine absolute interest.

"She had everypony fooled, didn't she?" She asked at last.

"So it seems. I figure things aren't going to get better on their own though. I had to step in."

"You don't have much regard for your own safety, do you?"

Chrono shook his head. "If my life is the cost for everypony's well-being, then it's a cost I'm willing to pay."

"You're quite the outstanding stallion, Chrono." Faith congratulated him. "I wish I could have been more like you. Everything might have meant so much more."

"Then what's your tale?" Chrono asked, himself gaining some interest in this mare.

"The reason you're here I'm assuming. Two thousand years ago, Entropy was allegedly killed in Equestria proper, but her spirit forged a mirror that led into the recess of her mind and soul, which she formed into a parallel reality. She of course shaped it to her every whim and reckless desire, creating the Equestrian Nightmare out of it. Fortunately my friends and I managed to escape her notice long enough to get in her way, and we did just that. We were beaten pretty soundly though, even with our combined efforts and our very best at that. She banished us individually to what would inevitably kill us all, but we had enough time to create something to hold onto afterwards. Collectively, they were entitled the elements of Order, the last standing opposition to Entropy's perfect creation of disorder. Then, once we died, we waited for someone to come along and pick up where we left off. Looks like the wait's finally over."

Chrono blinked, realizing he had literally just met the creator of an element. "Then, where's yours now?" He inquired. Faith lifted a wing to reveal the silver anklet studded with a red gemstone.

"Here. It's yours now. Please take good care of it?"

Chrono nodded, extending his hoof to recieve the anklet, but his eyes widened when he found himself instead buried in a hug.

"Thank you so much." Faith sobbed. "If there's anything I can do to help, let me know."

Chrono slowly slipped the element onto his hoof, taking a brief moment to get back to his hooves again. "I appreciate the offer, I really do. But I think you deserve a bit of a rest as it is."

"Don't say that..." Faith said shakily. "You need all the help you can get, and it sounds like you know it."

"Even so, you said yourself it wouldn't do for somepony to offer help they aren't in a position to give."

Faith stomped a hoof, but glanced down at herself in slight alarm. "I... I guess you're right." She whispered. "Stay here a bit longer, could you? I won't be around long anyway."

"How come?"

"One of my friends, who had adopted the name Hope, bound all of our lives to our elements, but now that they're not really ours anymore, well it won't be long before I get to see what the afterlife is like. Not this eyesore of a land, I hope."

"What?" Chrono asked, wide-eyed. "You mean to say that my friends and I are responsible for you and yours dropping right out of existence?"

Faith giggled. "It's not that bad. A welcome relief, really. Can you imagine the heartbreak of watching this outpost of nightmares for two thousand years?"

Chrono silenced immediately, realizing the truth of the situation. He wouldn't have been too fond of it either, and however grudgingly, he accepted the truth. "I think I understand. Thank you."

"You can thank me when the element of Faith has done you some good. Then I'll be satisfied." Her appearance had already started to shift gradually into nothing. "Be careful, Chrono. I will be watching, but keep your friends close. You look like you'll need them every step of the way."

She finished fading into the air about her, and Chrono forced back his tears. He found himself questioning time and again how low Entropy had gotten. Looking down to his hoof, he nodded. "You have my word." He promised the pony who no doubt was already watching from beyond her grave.

Steadying his resolution, he turned back to the castle and set a pace back. His thoughts turned to his effective affiliation with princess Luna; he had been her agent for years that were now not remembered. He decided right then and there; when he returned to Equestria, he would set himself about going rogue. There was no need for his workings to be tied to anypony else anymore. His loyalties were unchanged, but no pony besides himself needed to take any falls for his actions and mistakes.

The castle loomed threateningly ahead of him. Everything hinged on this next few hours, he guessed. It would have to be worth it.

Entropy glanced out again through her window on the top tier of her castle, watching as one by one the pillars of light in the distance faded. Everything was going along perfectly, and she almost had it down to a routine without any repetition.

"Oh Entropy!" Discord's voice called from her doorway. "Everything's finished. Now if you don't mind I'll be taking what I'm due as per our deal."

Entropy turned to face the draconequus with an emotionless stare. "You don't catch on as fast as I thought you would have, Discord. The Nightmare is mine. You have no rights here."

"Don't play high and mighty with me, Entropy. You wouldn't have come half this far without my help."

"And I appreciate it, so I'll try and make this easy on you."

Discord raised an eyebrow in curiosity just in time for his entirety to be set ablaze in black flames.

"Equestria's better off without you. Don't come back."

A few crippled screams down the hallway preceeded the inevitable flutter of ashes to the floor. Entropy returned her gaze back to the window, staring on at her ultimate project.

"Was that really necessary?" A voice asked from her doorway.

Entropy turned to see none other than a greenish gold alicorn staring calmly at her, whiteless teal eyes watching her every shift in expression. With a slight decadence of darker green in her mane and tail, she had nearly the same magnificence and glory to her figure as Celestia, but this was somepony she could far more easily recognize.

Her twin sister, Harmony.

"What are you doing up here?" Entropy asked, tilting her head slightly.

"I can't say I'm much a fan of Discord, myself - but did you have to kill him?"

Entropy shook her head and looked back out through the window as a volcano erupted in the distance. "It was that or the alternative." She reasoned. "Besides, he's already met his match once already. Going any further wouldn't do him any good, it's time for him to go."

"How long do you plan to keep this going, Entropy?" Harmony asked, drawing closer. "Even you're bound to break at some point."

Entropy shot a glare at her sister. "I'm going to go until I meet the same fate as Discord. Only then will I have some faith that Equestria can be salvaged from its own idiocy."

Harmony sighed. "You remember your expedition to the dawn of time. You already died once, and you still don't think it's enough?"

"The work of a lone stallion doesn't compensate for Equestria's failure. Even the wielders of your elements have plenty to drive them apart. I know what I'm doing."

"Then why play the wicked mare of everypony's nightmares?"

Entropy's gaze shifted to the skies where she left Rayne. She gave a small chuckle. "Because that's who I am. I'm the worst of everypony. Unlike you, who I still can't find anything to work with."

"Work with!" Harmony glowered, "Entropy, we both know how hard you have it finding somepony's best traits. I'm not about to doubt your brilliance, but I still think you're taking this too far!"

"And what do you suggest?" Entropy fired back, growing frustrated with the conversation.

"Why can't you tell them what you're up to, give them a reason besides their own lives to do this?" Harmony suggested.

Entropy chuckled. "No, I'm surprised you haven't seen it already. They aren't doing all this for their own sake. They wouldn't have come if they thought of this as about them."

"You're saying you knew?"

"Of course I knew." A streak of lightning just outside her window gave her pause. "Not a one of them seems intent on gaining anything out of all this. Chrono isn't the only one I've been following."

Harmony sighed. "You're certain about this? I don't want anything bad to happen."

"You're not going to stop something terrible by avoiding risks. The way she's headed, Celestia is going to be faulted for Equestria's entire downfall and there's going to be no pony that will rise in her place. What we need is for not one pony to rule the entire land."

"You've explained this to me already, Entropy."

"Not in this detail." Entropy objected. "Celestia has plenty of noble intentions, but she's gone and done nothing ever since the banishment of Nightmare Moon. With that lax of a ruler, Equestria has been free to do as they so please for so long, and need I say it's landed everypony in a bit of a bind?"

Harmony dropped her head. She was beginning to catch on that her arguments were leading nowhere. "I understand, but still... why not just go to her about it?"

"I did. Of course it wound up being more about the night lasting forever than her taking a change in course, so that didn't go over too well. I have to step in myself, and that's exactly what I plan on doing."

"But nothing terrible's happened to merit this drastic an action!"

"You expect me to wait?" Entropy asked with a turn of her head, an utter calm in her face stilling her twin sister's every movement. "I think Equestria deserves better."

She turned to look out through the window. The sixth pillar finally faded into nothing. Each of the others had survived at least. No doubt now they would be regrouping at the entrance to her castle, certainly ready to brave the dangers throughout. "Harmony." She said simply with a turn of her head. "Leave. You don't need to be seeing any of this either."

Harmony took a single step back, clearly hesitant to leave her sister in such a state. Still with a nod, she vanished into thin air.

Entropy returned her gaze to the window. If even at the cost of everything she knew and held close about herself, her enmity with everypony that could have been so great a friend to her was the price she had already paid for the betterment of Equestria.

She knew what to do though. She wouldn't fail. If by some chance any of the six didn't make it, it was a simple matter of finding another that could fulfill the necessities.

Everything was already going perfectly. Silently she hoped it would continue to do so. She had to admit she needed a rest.

Even at first glance, the castle that Chrono returned to was not the same castle they had exited to reach their respective elements. Even peering inside the raised opening, the walls themselves seemed made of flame, smoke everywhere but oddly enough not directly pervasive to the hallway itself. To the unicorn stallion, it triggered an immediate recognition of the two forces at work together; Entropy's choice of decor, and Discord's uncanny physics at work. Not what he would ever dare call friendly.

"How could they have done this much so quickly?" Maple asked, taking a careful step inside. "It just doesn't make any sense, that type of thing's impossible!"

"Discord doesn't make any sense either," Violet reminded her, "And I wouldn't put it above Entropy to be able to do this either."

Chrono started forward, testing various distances from the walls only to find that each flame had a small field around it blocking motion into the flame itself, creating a rather solid-like wall. "No sense spinning our wheels," he remarked, "the Nightmare isn't going to undo itself."

Five of them moved on ahead quickly. Violet blinked in surprise by the chronomancer's tone, but followed only slightly behind.

The flaming walls gave way to a bricklike material, only dimly lit and carrying a sense of dread to it that Chrono couldn't quite place right away. He slowed quickly, just in time to fall short of the walls crashing together in front of him, with enough speed and force that he had no doubt whatsoever it would have crushed the life right out of him.

"Smashing welcome," Rayne said dryly, "not even going to say hello, just straight to business."

Gale nudged past Chrono and hopped back as again the walls flattened against each other, a small grin growing on his face. "Leave this to me." He volunteered, taking flight and darting ahead with a small tornado forming behind his spiraling thrust forward. The resulting central force brought the walls together without any viable trigger.

From the other side, Gale then stepped down on a slightly raised brick in the floor and watched with a chuckle as the walls proceeded to tear each other apart in a further collision leaving room enough for everypony else to squeeze through.

"Clever!" Sledge remarked, "How'd you know about that?"

Gale simply pointed a hoof at the raised brick. "I saw it, took a wild guess. I actually wasn't expecting it to be pacified without a triggering force though, so I guess the trail did the trick. Anyway let's keep going."

Slower now, but surely enough, the six of them continued down the hallway. Not long though, after a single flight of stairs they were met with a simple brick wall. "Really." Violet sighed. "She really didn't bother to get creative, did she?"

With a snort, Sledge crashed headlong into the wall, tearing a hole right through it and...

"Sledge?" Chrono asked, looking past as he saw his friend fall into the linear pit of the following hallway.

"I'm alright." Sledge called back up. "Only way forward, and I've definitely felt worse. Come on down."

One by one, they continued and fell into the hallway pit. It wasn't until Rayne took up the rear and landed that the walls on either side erupted in screeching metal tones, whereupon Violet immediately set off a light spell. The walls had sported hundreds of spikes on either side and, upon brief inspection, had begun to move towards each other.

Chrono didn't hesitate. His first lay of movement was to keep the hallway itself in temporal stasis, before stopping time itself at the same time, causing a layer of overglow to form around his horn. "Go!" He shouted, "I can only hold this for so long!"

With a sudden rush, the other five moved on to the proceeding hallway, each stopping at the edge of his stasis field. Needing a moment to breathe, he cut off the field and stop only to find the wall slamming down behind his friends, leaving him alone in a hallway full of death.

A voice, similar to Entropy's but not identifiable as genuinely hers, called out of thin air, echoing through the hallway. "There's a way through at the top of the end. If you act quickly, you can still make it."

Chrono glanced up at the voice's indication, seeing nothing more than a stone wall as the walls around him continued to proceed in his direction.

Considering the alternative was to drop unconscious from a sustained time forcing or otherwise to wait for a no doubt painfull death, he took off in a sprint for the wall. Some fancy hoofwork later, he had ricocheted off the collapsed wall and levitated a packet of air so tightly to serve as a temporary leaping platform. Having no time to question his capabilities in that regard, he bounded up along thin air and flipped over the spiked wall onto an evident floor behind. By this point, he stood panting from effort, vision blurring from such intense magical focus. "Who... who are you?" He asked, hoping whoever had so at least helped him up could hear him.

"In time, you will know." The voice answered. "Know that I am not your enemy, Chrono Spark. The wall ahead of you is illusory, you can proceed without any trouble."

Chrono took another look at the wall, testing the voiced theory with a hoof and almost losing his balance when he found it had gone right through. Still he stepped on after a momentary recovery, surprised by the blackened walls. "What reason do I have to trust you then?" He asked, moving along the winding path.

"Your dedication to the history of Equestria has left you in a state of further suffering than I would ever permit, had I been given any say in the matter. You deserve far better than to be here in the Equestrian Nightmare."

"You know me?"

"I know Entropy perhaps better than she does. She has followed you for long enough that I would call her interest obsessive at least."

Chrono stopped for a moment. "Then why would she try to kill me?"

"She wants you to succeed. Her determination rivals that of your friend, Twilight Sparkle. To that end, she has decided that among your trials will be her own ultimate demise, as a final test to see if you are capable."

"She's already died once though," Chrono reasoned, still not moving. "That doesn't count?"

"Not to her. She has determined that you are quick-thinking as a result, but she is unwilling to accept that your friendships are stable enough to meet this final test of hers."

Chrono silenced, beginning again to move along. In several places he noticed abnormal cracks in the floor, which he promptly avoided and was not incredibly surprised to find searing flames leaping up as he passed. Finally he reached a room, littered with pillars of varying heights and lit by a massive bonfire below. He stood for several seconds, looking over the architectural integrity of the pillars.

In no way was he pleased with what he found. Cracks everywhere, crumbling visibly going on along several tops. Carefully moving now, he jumped from one to the next, taking no time to regain balance as every last one gave way beneath him. Climbing along one, two, three, fully twenty pillars it was a small miracle he had even managed to get a hoof's grip on the ledge for the proceeding hallway.

"Here, let me help you." The voice from earlier said calmly as he felt himself levitate into the hallway.

Before him stood a fully-grown pale golden alicorn sporting massive teal eyes that almost perfectly matched Entropy's, save that they were much softer than that of Entropy's.

"Who...?" Chrono began to ask.

"Not now." The alicorn said quietly, a single tear forming in her eye. "I can explain everything when you've done what you have to."

Chrono winced slightly, but carried on nonetheless, now with an alicorn by his side. "You were the one who helped me out of the hallway?"

"That was me, yes."

"Why?"

"Because you need to succeed as well. Your faith in your friends is astounding, I must say. A true holder of the element of Faith."

"You know about those?"

The alicorn laughed lightly, pointing a booted hoof at Chrono's anklet. "How couldn't I? You're wearing it on your sleeve, so to speak."

Chrono rolled his eyes but continued on without skipping a single beat. "You're not being very open about this, are you?"

The alicorn tossed a hoof in Chrono's path, keeping him still momentarily. "Do you have any reason not to believe me, Chrono Spark?" She asked.

Chrono shook his head, weighing the facts briefly in his mind.

"I have only one reason to be hesitant to speak with regards to Entropy, but it is enough of one that I will not stray from my decision. I believe however, that I should refrain from going any further. Just know that in the name of all that is still good and right in Equestria, I wish you well."

Chrono glanced over to her, confused. She had vanished before he had even set eye contact.

Taking a moment to regain his calm, the unicorn continued along. The hallway was longer than he could ever hope to appreciate with his simple passing chuckle, and marred in a few places with smoldering black soot that upon further inspection was in fact, once living flesh, among other things. While confused, he continued on, unwilling to ask anypony who would likely not hear him.

He turned the corner to see Entropy staring through a window, hardly seeming to notice his arrival. "I was hoping you would arrive first." She said calmly, turning to look at him through her fearsome indigo eyes.

Chrono swallowed his fear immediately and stepped forward, meeting her eyes with his own. "What's with you, Entropy?" He asked with a slight glare. "I had just begun to hope you could turn out a better pony like you yourself told me!"

"I don't expect you to understand my intentions, Chrono." Entropy said, her calm stilling every bit of blood in the young unicorn. "Everything I've done has had the same purpose, despite the means of doing so. With your help, I've been able to realize every flaw in ponies throughout all time and come down to a single solution that involves you directly."

"You call this a solution?" Chrono screamed, holding a hoof at the window depicting the Nightmare beyond. "This is the farthest thing from justice!"

"This is what Equestria will be in four thousand years, without intervention." Entropy countered, her calm so absolute that it now rooted Chrono to the floor from his sheer break of nerves.

"What...?"

"Equestria stands on the threshold of its own demise, Chrono. I've been searching for an eternity to find ponies capable of keeping it in some state of security."

"And you accomplish this by killing everypony?"

Entropy's mane flared briefly, catching fire in many places. "Do not judge by the failures of others." She warned, "You know as well as I do that you have had your share of them as well."

Chrono took a step back, desperately trying to understand the alicorn ahead of him. "What do I have to do with al this then? Why me, and more to the point why wasn't this settled when you dragged me back to the dawn of time?"

"Because despite your performance in having me killed by my own devices, you then immediately lost faith in yourself and your friends alike. And by the look of things, you've done a fine job in reversing the loss. Now if only your new friends would bother to catch up."

"And then what?"

Entropy chuckled. "And then we see if you have it in you to do what's necessary."

Twenty minutes passed, and only Violet's gasp of relief at seeing Chrono again brought the stallion out of his near-daze. "You're alive!" She exclaimed, almost immediately halted by the sight of Entropy across the room. "What's she doing just standing there?"

"What I've wanted to all along," Entropy replied, "watching as the world finally takes a step to resolving its own idiocy."

"Huh?" Gale asked. "But you've gone all this way to kill us and -"

"I know what I've done!" Entropy shouted, her eyes flaring slightly as she glared at all six of them. "Do you think I had much of a choice? You have your purpose here, what's holding you back?"

Chrono held out a hoof to the side, keeping his friends from advancing any further. Everything made sense to him, with very few exceptions. "This isn't necessary, Entropy." He said, shakily but with a calm that even then sounded forced. "You can still make amends."

"You of all ponies know what has to be done. If you can't do it then you'll never leave; all the mirrors have disintegrated." Entropy countered. "This is the end of everything, my last effort at all of you."

Violet's mane bristled slightly, but Chrono stood his ground. "Are you insane, Chrono?"

"Don't tell me you've given up now..." Gale said with a roll of his eyes.

"No." Chrono said simply. "I think I just know what's really going on here."

"You've thought so before, and look how that turned out!" Violet objected.

"She has a point." Rayne added.

"I didn't take you for the sort of guy to give up so easily." Sledge noted with a raise of his eyebrow.

"I haven't given up. I've been taking the wrong angle."

Entropy raised an eyebrow, a genuinely interested gleam coming to her eye.

"What are you on about?" Maple inquired, tilting her head slightly.

Chrono stepped forward and turned to face his friends, putting himself between them and Entropy. "I know what Entropy's wanted ever since she and I first met. This whole time I've been treating her as either friend or foe, but in the long run she's neither."

"Says the pony who she killed how many times now?" Violet interjected.

"That was my own fault." Chrono countered. "Let me finish."

The other five slowly nodded.

"Violet, you know as well as anypony that princess Celestia has managed to overlook a number of things that are fairly important to Equestria. You're not the only one under that impression. And as it seems to me, all of you have some connection to virtues of your own that I'm guessing -" Chrono looked back to Entropy, who nodded her agreement with his unspoken thoughts, "-collectively make up for what the princesses are lacking in. The elements of Harmony do a fine job of keeping some threats from Equestria, but eventually they're going to pass along and then what?"

"I need your help." Entropy said after a long silence. "I may have been somewhat extreme in my approach, and I know I'll have to pay for it anyway, but I did everything for a reason. This world has parallelled Equestria for ages, and become the haven for the elements of Order, but because of the landscape and dangers no pony was ever willing to find them. You six on the other hand, practically rushed in. The only thing left to judge is whether you can each do what's necessary to be sure nothing happens further."

"And that is?" Rayne asked.

Entropy pointed a hoof to herself, her eyes narrowing. "To eliminate the source of the trouble."

"To what now?" Sledge asked, eyes wide.

"To kill her..." Maple said simply. "Test of willpower I would imagine. You've gone this far just to see yourself die?"

"A necessary evil." Entropy explained. "Equestria is better off without me causing nightmares for its fillies and colts."

"Normally by now you'd have put up some resistance aside from the structure." Chrono recalled. "You're really going to make it this easy?"

"I could have killed you long ago had I wanted to, Chrono." Entropy answered him. "I let you live."

"Rub it in, why don't ya?" Gale remarked.

"Well?" Entropy asked. "Do you have what it takes?"

Everypony had only barely managed to get out of the building before it collapsed behind them, Maple's tail even tearing from the wreckage and leaving her caughing through a long stretch of dust and debris.

"I don't understand..." Violet said in just over a whisper. "Why would she want us to kill her?"

A vaguely familiar pale golden alicorn appeared on the horizon, carrying on her back the broken body of Entropy. "Because she had to test your resolve." She said, tears gathering on each side of her face.

Chrono's eyes widened immediately as one question answered itself, but he needed to ask anyway. "How do you know Entropy?"

"By blood." The alicorn replied. "She's my twin sister."

"What?" Five voices rose in unison.

"But then... who are you?" Sledge asked.

"My name is Harmony. Some might consider me Entropy's better half, but after her sacrifice I'm beginning to wonder if that's really the case. I'm sorry you all had to go through so much and come so far through the troubles only to find that it isn't over though."

"What do you mean?" Violet inquired.

"Equestria will always need ponies who are able to brave whatever comes their way in order to secure betterment of society. The six of you, along with six others that I am sure you have all at least heard of, prove the highest possibilities for its safety."

"But what about you?" Maple wondered aloud.

Harmony let the body of her sister down to the ground as a tear fell over the corpse, vaporizing immediately upon contact. "I've done what I needed to. Harmony is still prevalent in Equestria through the use of the elements, so I am no longer needed. So I will remain here to watch through the mirror in case a need should ever arise for me to take action again."

"Why don't you come with us then?" Gale offered her, "It sounds like Equestria needs you more than you think."

"But so does Entropy." Harmony answered just over a whisper. "I sincerely hope none of you will ever have to witness the death of family, and above that that you never have to issue such a final judgement again. I can see so clearly now, how difficult it can be."

Rayne braved a step forward, touching a hoof to Harmony's side and gazing into her eyes as the alicorn turned a slightly startled look her way. "If you ever change your mind, you'll always have friends in us, alright?" She said with a small smile. "I know it can't be easy. I'm sorry we had to put you through this too. I don't know if you'll be able to forgive us, but..."

Her voice trailed off as she realized the look in Harmony's eyes betrayed forgiveness that seemed boundless in itself.

"You all deserve a rest." Harmony observed as her horn glowed gold for a moment. "Best wishes to you all."

Chrono blinked from the sudden brightness, but immediately found himself waking atop a hill in the middle of nowhere with only Canterlot in the distance as a point of navigation.

"Be careful..." He answered Harmony, "both of you."

Slowly, he began his trot back to Canterlot, back to the place he had bothered to accept as his home again. Ponyville would forever hold his fondest memories, so he had decided. But he would not burn through his emotions defending friendships that evidently were not necessarily meant to be.

As he continued his approach, his ears snapped up at a sudden crashing roar towards the grand city. He looked up to see an expanding ring of rainbow colors announcing the forming rainbow contrasting the nightfall's skyline. Evidently something had happened of some significance. It wasn't every day you saw a sonic rainboom that no doubt had Rainbow Dash to credit for it.

As he reached his cottage, he went for a pen and some paper first. His decision regarding affiliation with princess Luna was in fact, final. He was still going rogue, although at this point his reasons for doing so were not necessarily the same.

That, and he had a lot of documenting to do. So long as Twilight and her friends were as adept as they were, he had faith that he would have time to engage in writing the history of Equestria like he had before everything began.

Except now he had a whole new set of events to record.

Final Judgement

Entropy's deceased body lay still at peace along the valley preceding her fallen castle, through which Harmony made a routine walk to see her departed sister. Two months had passed in strenuous silence for the alicorn, time that seemed to grow longer with every passing hour of her only family having been lost to her. Thunder boomed overhead, but even its sudden resounding roar did not so much as startle Harmony. Not here, on the one place through the entire Equestrian Nightmare that she could still call sacred.

After a moment to collect herself she sat down beside the fallen frame, running a hoof along her sister's still daringly beautiful if threatening mane, provoking from herself a sigh. Looking away, a tear gathered in her eye as she pondered how things must be going in Equestria proper.

Her thoughts silenced in a wave of dread, however. As dark as the landscape was around her, her surprise came in that it had darkened further, while her horn tingled mercilessly in resonance to a power suddenly occurring nearby. She rose to her hooves and looked around, only to take a sudden step back when she saw the entity now hovering over her sister.

What she saw somehow did not completely shatter her resolve. Above Entropy hovered an enormous sphere of the most absolute black, perhaps four feet wide, surrounded by revolving ovular shapes of black in two belt-like formations about it. Cautiously, Harmony proceeded backwards, unsure what to make of the situation. "Who... what are you?" She asked, deciding it best to get simplicities out of the way first.

"You have not heard of me?" The figure's speech was low, even in its curiosity screaming demise through its thorough resonance and accompanied screech, however hollow. "It will do you well to remember, Harmony. Have you forgotten the troubles of your own dear sister's youth?"

"What is the meaning of this?" Harmony insisted, "Why are you here?"

"So you remember nothing..." The figure let out a chuckle. "Very well, I will enlighten you. I am Ruin, the ancient spirit of destruction. Does that ring any bells?"

"But... how? Entropy and I-"

"Seven thousand years ago, once you count the twists and turns of dear Entropy's manipulation of temporal mechanics, yes I remember you deciding my fate. Or better yet, the mare who now lies dead for your inaction."

"How dare you!"

"And what have you to say in your defense?" Ruin remarked, "You have done nothing for her, done nothing to aid her designs for a better world and now nothing either to save nor redeem her loss of life."

Harmony shuddered, her steps back growing slower but still consistent.

"And now, for your punishment. You shall suffer!"

"Harmony!" Violet screamed as she awoke, momentarily held still by what felt like muck along her coat from her sheet. Even opening her eyes stung as she realized its exact source. She had been restless the entire night, and with what a dream.

Rubbing her forehead, she paused to wonder for a moment. Even her visions of Harmony occurring throughout the couple months since the Nightmare incident had been peaceful if a little saddening, not alarming as this dream. She looked out of the window in her home, overlooking Manehattan for what seemed the millionth time as it occurred to her.

By the sheer consistency of its length and activity, it wasn't just a dream. The night was still going strong, the moon delicately hovering high overhead and shining a beautiful light over the urban city. She at least could appreciate the beauty in all things, even those considered outright evil by many if not all. In remembering that she herself had in a way been much the same, she denied herself any excuse to forget reason behind all things.

"You saw it too, didn't you?" A vaguely familiar voice asked from the far wall.

Violet spun on her hooves only to see a ghostly apparition of none other than Entropy sitting and staring at her, surrounded by six ponies of which one she recognized immediately as Hope. "What happened?" She asked, very nearly breathless from combined fright of the dream and its potential reality - let alone seeing Entropy so suddenly after two months.

"Long before anything of my troubles began, Harmony and I were both seen as benevolent in society. It so happens that Ruin refused to be defeated, no matter how hard we tried to stand up to him. At one point when we thought we had him finished, everything changed, at least for me."

"But then, if you and Harmony both couldn't defeat him -"

Entropy held up a hoof. "Calm down, I'm not done yet. We thought we had Ruin defeated without a trace, but it turns out I discovered a year later that he had instead occupied my soul and over the course of a few more years, replaced it with his own intentions that I've had to cope with for quite a long time. That's a lot of why I could fool everypony into believeing I honestly meant them harm... I've had some inward experience for that, and at what a cost."

Violet shuddered, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to -"

"You did nothing wrong, Violet." Entropy said calmly. "But like I said, there will come a time when you and your friends are going to have to do what's necessary."

"Why not tell Chrono? He's headed the whole charade since before I've even met him though."

"How would I speak with him?" Entropy pointed a hoof to herself. "Remember, without your help no pony can even see me. I'm just a ghost now, a wandering afterlife without a soul to rest with."

"What?" Violet's eyes flew wide.

"Ruin's devices are more than what I could hope for you to expect. I know I'm probably never going to outlast this, but I need your help - and yours especially, Violet. Do you remember what I showed you on your way to meeting with Hope here?"

Violet nodded, not wanting to remember the occurrence. "Why?"

"Because Hollow can do what a great many ponies have yet to accomplish. The Equestrian Nightmare was created through the use of her talent in trans-dimensional creation, made as something of a hollow image of the country we all see here and now. And I imagine you know where she can be found."

Violet hung her head and sighed. "How'd you know?"

"I've been watching you since before you knew who I was, Violet. I knew you had the potential to be whatever you so desired, which was why I sent Nightmare Moon to you in the first place, as a test of that potential."

"Cruel, much?"

Entropy nodded sadly. "I know I've surpassed that boundary quite some time ago, let there be no mistake of it. As it is however, some of that same power may be needed now, and with me gone, there stands only one source of a mirror to the Nightmare."

"My mother." Violet reasoned, "But why not just leave Ruin to rot in the Nightmare anyway? If he can't come here, then -"

"If my sister suffers into her final fate, then the Nightmare will collapse and in doing so, merge onto Equestria itself. So many of the cities in Equestria will be suddenly immersed in lava, villages torn through by trees previously not there at all. I don't want that to happen, and every last hint of life here hinges on Harmony's survival."

Violet stood there, terror-struck by the bluntness of Entropy's design. Looking out through the window again, she saw the correlation of Equestria's outcome at the abandonment of virtue, but for it to happen so suddenly seemed an immensely cruel hoof of fate. Looking back to Entropy, the hard-eyed stare she recieved only furthered the reality; so far as anyone knew, the hoof of judgement was Entropy's to own.

"How long do we have?" She finally asked, her voice slightly shaky.

"Harmony is adept in the arts of survival. She will be hard-pressed after a few months, but I suspect you will have as long as a year to find her."

No amount of running would save her, this much she knew. Harmony's every thought turned to evasion as she tore through the valley aloft on her wings. Explosions of black burst all around her, rocking her every movement but doing her no direct harm as she wove between the mountains guided by a forced wind parting for her and closing just behind.

"Doom awaits you!" Ruin shrieked from behind, launching an orbital sphere of darkness directly in front of Harmony and sent her vaulting over the cliff edge she had nearly angled over.

Still Harmony was exceptionally quick to recover, spiraling down to build her momentum before snapping her wings out yet again. Still Ruin had no such relenting windows of opportunity to grant. A massive blast pelted at Harmony's right wing, instantly crippling it with an electrifying jolt of pain resounding through her entire frame.

Suddenly helpless, she fell, eyes turned toward the ground below having nothing left to hope for but a last-second self-levitation to spare her.

"Entropy," she whispered as she plummeted down with a single tear in her wake, "I'm sorry."

It was an entertaining evening for Chrono that night, watching impassively as the performers took the floor of the dance studio. Among the seven now occupying the floor, one stood out with her impossibly night-party styled appearance; black coat and bright blue and pink dominating her mane and tail. Skilled to the extreme, the fabled raver pony Neon Glow.

She lived up to her reputation, beyond any doubt. Where the others performed admirably, against the flawless flow of Neon's precise movements, they paled. Music was of course provided by Vinyl Scratch herself, and the crowd was as lively as could be. There was a lot to learn by observation on Chrono's part, but that would never have given him relief from the sudden wave of unease assaulting his mind.

Curious, he glanced around and found nothing visibly out of place. Everything sounded normal, but suddenly the young stallion could no longer enjoy the show itself simply due to the creeping unease flooding his mind. It hadn't been the first time either. No doubt just subconscious flashbacks from Entropy's defeat and the struggles before that, existent and otherwise.

With a sigh, he rose to his hooves from his perch and trotted out the door. He had hardly cleared the walkway when his spot had been taken by somepony else. "Well that's what I get for being in the seat half a second after the door opens," he chuckled halfheartedly to himself.

As he stepped outside, the only thing he could consider as out of place was a familiar lavender-maned unicorn mare standing opposite the street watching him. "Violet?" He asked, slightly alarmed, "What are you doing here?"

"You remember two months ago, when Entropy said we'd be needed again?" Violet answered, eyes boring into Chrono's and leaving him slightly numb.

"Let me guess."

Violet nodded. "Time's up. And with luck we'll have about a year but I'm not putting anything up to chance. Especially where we're going."

"Which would be?"

Violet sighed, shyly glancing away down the street in the dead of night, her signature backshadow complimenting against the darkness. "I'm not really a Manehattan pony. I was born in the northeast reaches of Equestria, just west of the mountains." With a drop of her head and flattening of her ears, she continued. "Tramplevania."

Chrono's eyes widened slightly. "You can't be serious."

"Well where else do you think somepony with above-average powers in shadows and darkness would come from?" Violet countered, "And besides, I have a few connections there that need to be sorted out, they may wind up helpful."

Chrono tilted his head. "I think this calls for an explanation." He remarked.

Violet paused for a moment but nodded all the same. "I didn't remember any of it for the longest time. Until we turned up in the Nightmare, I always thought I was raised by a pegasus, but... as it turns out my mother was pretty ambitious and sent me off on the thought of being the herald of domination. And look how well that turned out."

Chrono nodded, "I can remember it pretty well. So who is your mother?"

"Hollow Shadow."

Chrono thought for a moment, pulling through his extensive memories for any affiliation with the name. "The self-proclaimed empress of Tramplevania? Same one?"

Violet nodded. "Alicorn, too. In case you didn't already know."

Chrono's eyes winced shut. Having lived so long under the rule of two alicorns only to find not only two but now three more entering his span of life - and having heard rumor of yet another princess - had begun to wear on his nerves. "Alright, so what about the others? Have you met up with them?"

"Not yet. I'm worried though..."

"Why, what's wrong?"

"I've focused the outcomes of my visions on the Nightmare, been paying close attention to Harmony's activity. She's... not doing well."

"What do you mean?"

Violet sighed, tilting her head in towards an alley off to the side, her horn glowing faintly. Chrono followed.

"I can't guarantee what you'll see, but I'll be watching the same thing." Violet said quietly, her horn amplifying its glow briefly before all went black.

Harmony woke and lifted her head to find she had been encased within a magical prison inscribed in a circle on an obsidian floor. The lighting throughout the room faded in and out at fixed intervals, allowing her only momentary glimpses of her captor, which hovered just beyond the circle itself and the field rising above it. "You haven't killed me..." she observed. "What are you planning, Ruin?"

"You haven't figured it out yet?" A low chuckle resounded from Ruin's figure. "Can you imagine the pains of your sister who you so mercilessly abandoned to her fate with me?"

Harmony stepped back, eyes narrowing slightly. "Answer the question, Ruin. What do you want with me?"

Another rumbling chuckle. "You will beg for death long before I am through with you. That Entropy sacrificed herself to save your precious world from collapsing only to leave you responsible for its very fall..."

"What?" Harmony gasped, "But you can't! I remember her telling me about her final dealings all those years a-"

"I bound myself to her soul, you ignorant whelp." Ruin interrupted her, causing her a frightened step back. "Without any soul left to maintain, my obligations reclined."

"So..." Harmony's voice trailed off at even the word as she realized what stood in her future.

Entropy had given her life and so much more to keep Ruin contained. Without any means to do so, naturally she could not retain Ruin after her death, since every trace of her life no longer held to her. So not only was her sister bound to the mortal worlds forever wandering as a ghost, but the very reason for her sacrifice had been contradicted, and now Ruin hovered over her, malice echoing in his every word. She was next.

Ruin's resounding chuckle unnerved the alicorn completely. "Congratulations, you understand now."

Harmony's backside collided with a transparent force at the far end of the circle she was held in. Slowly, Ruin made his approach, his entirety pulsing with intent as the revolutions of his outer thinnings slowed their movements.

The lights dimmed, and almost immediately Harmony's chest erupted in a sickening feeling, leaving her weak enough and collapsing to the floor below. Without any hesitation her mind wavered, every fiber of her being aching with objection to the coming doom.

Slowly, as the history of Ruin flooded through her mind, she began to understand her sister's enmity for the blissfully ignorant ponies of Equestria. They did not deserve ill, she held firm to this belief. However, the blunt truths that held firm in the Nightmare were not without cause, and yet not even the princesses of Equestria knew of them.

And in all likelihood, they would never know until it was too late. Try though she might, Harmony knew she was doomed. Her only hope held still however; so long as she survived in the Nightmare, her objective would remain intact. Equestria would still be safe...

In this last thought, she passed out, feeling only the thump of the floor before her every sense failed her.

"How does it feel?" Ruin's voice echoed now within Harmony's mind, furthering her torment even as she woke up. "How do you like becoming the very reason for Equestria's inevitable fall?"

Harmony struggled to stand, her entire body aching as she opened her eyes to the slowly flickering light of the room she had been in. "I've seen worse..." she breathed, "and I know better."

"Than what?" Ruin's chuckle echoed throughout the room. "You think you are still able to oppose me, after you already gave in?"

Harmony's horn gave off a soft glow, and a small smile lit her face. "I'm still alive, aren't I?"

Within the next instant, the room had flashed a brilliant green and Ruin had been forced to reform across the way from Harmony, and she stood defiantly with her horn aglow, a bright green encompassing her entire frame. "The Nightmare is my responsibility, Ruin. You do not belong here, now be gone!"

The entire room erupted in blackened explosions, throughout which Harmony stubbornly held her ground. Ruin's form flickered for a brief moment, whereupon Harmony saw her window of opportunity and cast a translocation spell through the wall. Immediately once outside, ignoring that her vision had clouded significantly through the spell's inhibitions of several blocking fields, she took flight aimlessly up and forward. Her vision would clear, but if she didn't move now, Ruin would catch her far too quickly again.

With her face set stern as stone and a tear burning back through her mane, she tore through the skies yet again, alighting several blades of greenish force behind her to deter direct following. She would not make this easy for her pursuer.

With a last hope, she lit her horn in a distress call. With luck, somepony in particular would hear her cry for help...

Celestia's head turned at the sound of a massive shimmering behind the seals of Harmony. Curious, she approached the door which she had so delicatedly protected so thoroughly and ignited the seals with her horn, stepping back as the doorway opened and she found a glow emitting from the lid of the chest in which she had kept the elements of Harmony.

Carefully, she opened the lid only to find the source was of the elements themselves, and upon further investigation she could hear a faint cry...

"I hoped I would never need to send a call through the elements. Celestia, hear me. My name is Harmony, the spirit of peace. A parallel existence is threatened by an entity named Ruin, and I alone cannot hope to contain him forever. By what means there may be, your discovery of my parting gifts to Equestria were not without merit, but I must ask they be used once again. If I am to fail in this last line of defense, Equestria will be submerged in undue destruction and all of our beloved creation will be lost. I beg you, when you can, come."

With a look of wide-eyed alarm, the princess of the day immediately departed for her chambers, pen going to paper even before she came through the door.

"Another one." Violet said distantly, "Harmony's sent a call for Celestia. Still, even with the elements of Harmony with us there's nothing we can do without a way through, and I'm not about to take any risks."

Chrono nodded, turning to look along the surroundings. "I'll get everypony sorted out then meet you at the railway in Tramplevania. Be careful, Violet. I've got more than a little of a bad feeling about this."

Violet nodded, immediately taking off.

Chrono took a brief moment to collect himself. A soft landing from the side caught his attention as he glanced over to see Neon dropping out from a window. "Got a lot going on, it sounds like." She said with a casual flair. "So, what's your story?"

Chrono glanced down the alley, surprised to see in fact that Violet had halted in her tracks to glance back his way. "At this particular moment? A global threat consisting of pretty absolute destruction."

"Seems pretty severe," Neon remarked, "how come no pony else knows about it?"

"Because from all perspectives about, the origins of concern don't even exist."

"Huh?"

Violet had turned around and trotted back by this point with a curious stare to Chrono. "There's a parallel existence to Equestria known as the Equestrian Nightmare, which is a perfectly volatile landscape that is poised to impose itself on Equestria proper. If it's not held intact, then everything will merge onto Equestria and we're going to be in for a cruel ride."

Neon glanced from Chrono to Violet, tilting her head slightly. "Think I could help at all?"

"No more than anypony el-" Chrono started.

Violet cut him off, immediately drawing Neon's attention to the lavender afterimage of herself moving to do so. "We need all the help we can get. Think you could come with me then? Who are you anyway?"

"Neon Glow." Neon said with a small smile. "I'll help if I can."

Violet nodded. "Come on then. Chrono, if you can find any other ponies that might be willing to help, it would do a lot of good."

Chrono thought for a few moments before nodding. "I know of a couple. I'll see what I can do."

Even before Violet could nod, Chrono was gone. She gave a light giggle as she looked over to the black earth pony. "So, how do you know Chrono?" She asked, growing curious.

"He's a regular at the Nightlight." Neon pointed to the building she had been in a few minutes ago. "Can't say I actually know him, but he seems pretty cool from what I've seen of him."

Violet laughed. "In plenty of ways, yes. Come on, it'll be nice to have some company on the ride."

"Violet?" A voice sounded from outside the train as Violet hopped off.

She did not immediately recognize the soft voice which had addressed her, but even a passing glance at the unicorn mare who had been her friend for years before her departure for Manehattan could not be mistaken. "Rose!" She cried in delight. "It's been so long! How have you been?"

The mare's luminescent grey face twisted downwards in a sad frown, her eyes quickly following suit. "Tramplevania has seen many dark times these past years. Your mother has become... frightening, to speak of among the populace."

"I can imagine." Violet remarked, "I wish I could say otherwise but I have a little business with her. I'm guessing it's not going to be as easy done as said?"

Rose's white mane rustled in the breeze as she shook her head. "I fear I may yet be the only pony here to trust you, Violet. The name of Shadow has become one of dread, and many prophecies speak of an ill omen of your return here."

Violet took a step back. "What do you mean?"

"Have you not heard the legends, Violet?"

"N-no... should I have?"

Rose's attention shifted briefly to a car of the train further along the tracks, where several ponies poured out seemingly aimlessly. "Your mother wishes to control Equestria from her throne here in Tramplevania. As I recall you left to ready yourself to be her herald, but how could you not know?"

Violet froze. Beyond all manner of logic, she found the possibilities to be inconceivable at best. "And for a time I had, but a friend... well now a friend, of mine had stopped me and since taken back the events in time to that extent. How can it still remain? I want nothing to do with my mother!"

"Then... what business do you have with her?"

"I can explain everything, but... I think for the safety of everypony here, I probably shouldn't. Just, what's going on with my mother?"

Rose shook her head again sadly. "I am not at liberty to say, Violet. Rule has become very strict of late, and I have begun planning for an escape of my own when I may find an opportunity."

Neon hopped out from the train behind Violet, smiling. "I have just the window for you then." She turned to Violet. "Go on ahead, I'll regroup here with Chrono and everyone else."

Violet nodded, her attention turning back to Rose. "Rose, this is my friend Neon Glow. I'm afraid this is a little urgent, so I really should be on my way. I'll see you soon, assuming my guesses are correct."

"Very well, then." Rose said even as Violet sprinted off. "My, she is in a hurry..."

A full escort of four armed and armored unicorns brought Violet to the throne room of Hollow Shadow. The room itself had its own splendors, but nothing to Violet's taste in fashion. A crimson-carpeted walkway with black walls and gold-and-crimson decor hung all over the walls. Elegantly put together, but with a theme so foreboding that it reminded her of her initial beliefs of Entropy.

And her standing beliefs of her own mother.

"You have been gone for twenty years..." Hollow said, standing from her seat. "You have not only failed in your clandestine mission, but gone and defiled my every work, and now you dare return? What is your business here, Violet!"

Had it even been possible for her to, Violet would have literally shrunk in fear. However as it were, she stood shaking uncontrollably, forcing herself to maintain an even breathing. "I have an offer for you." She said simply at last. "And no, I am not coming empty-hooved."

"Speak, then."

"Guards." Violet said slightly more sternly. "In accordance with the laws of confidence in her majesty's audience, I must ask you leave us alone for the time being."

"The law does not apply to outsiders." Hollow said in return, "The guards will stay."

Violet grumbled slightly. "Outsiders..." She muttered, "As maternally cruel as ever then. Fine, if you insist."

With that her horn glowed for a moment, but as the anklet belonging to her materialized upon her hoof the glow turned red, much like the ruby hue of the element of Hope, and gradually her figure grew dark and soon, entirely black, leaving only her bright lavender eyes bearing any color and staring straight ahead at her mother. "I didn't fail." She said boldly. "But that doesn't mean I'm proud to have done so."

Hollow's eyes stirred with amusement. "Your taste for flair is apalling, Violet. What is this, a j-"

Violet stamped a hoof to the ground, her horn glowing as a wave of red rushed from the point of collision and knocking all four guards away from her. "Order them off, mother." She called out, "this is between you and me. No pony else needs to be involved in this."

Slowly, yet surely Hollow smiled. With a nod, each of the guards filed out of the throne room. Violet's figure gradually reclined to its normal coloring. "Have it your way, Violet. What is it you want? And what is it you are offering?"

Violet paused for a moment, mulling over her careful choice of words. "Parallel to the world here is another called the Equestrian Nightmare. I have business with its holder that could potentially spill it over onto this same world, which might I say would make it nearly impossible for you not to achieve what I hear you're after."

"Go on..."

"As it is, there are several ponies that I know of that are willing to help me in this endeavor of mine, but we're all at a loss for a means to come through to the Nightmare itself."

"And you need me to open a portal to this Equestrian Nightmare. What is there to say that your business there will be successful?"

"If -" Violet paused. "If I fail, then naturally I am subject to your punishment. I am willing to pay for my mistakes."

"And what are you expecting to gain out of this?"

"In all honesty?" Violet chuckled. "To be able to get away and go back home with some semblance of peace."

Hollow's glare could have stilled lava for ages. "Where are these cohorts of yours?"

Violet smiled. She had always prided herself on being a gifted negotiator.

"A-are you sure about this?" Autumnshy asked, glancing around the castle with looks of sheer dread.

"Positive." Chrono said simply. "There's no way this is going to work well at all without everypony helping."

"Yeah, but you don't think you could have arranged a meeting somewhere a little less dull?" Aero protested.

"Hey, we're under the princesses' orders," Deuce interjected, "I wouldn't be questioning that, Aero."

"It's not that bad if you think about good design," Neon remarked, "Put in a few blacklights and this place is perfect!"

Rose merely blinked at the earth pony's comment.

"Guys!" Everypony stopped to see none other than Twilight Sparkle rushing along the hall in their direction, accompanied by all of her closest friends. "Were you coming on princess Celestia's calling too?"

"Something like that," Aero nodded, "I'm surprised it's taking as much as it has."

Gale chuckled, perching briefly on the hammer slung along Sledge's back. "We've got ourselves a little army, huh?"

Sledge simply shrugged the pegasus off with a chuckle. "If Chrono's half as serious as he sounds, we're going to need it."

Rayne remained silent. Maple giggled slightly. "We're not going to get anywhere losing our nerve at something that isn't even moving, come on!"

The door at the end of the hallway opened, revealing the silhouette of Violet Shadow within. "Come on everypony..." she said distractedly, "Chrono, I need to talk to you for a bit."

"What's the matter, Violet?"

"Once we're through with Ruin, the odds are that you're not going to see me again, so I had to say a few things before final farewells."

"What do you mean?"

Violet sighed. "Arrangements with my mother are far less than kind. The way she sees it, I'm trying to make Ruin succeed. Failure will have to result in whatever she so chooses to happen to me, which after she finds out my assault on Manehattan never actually happened... well I doubt I'll survive."

"No." Chrono said bluntly. "I'm not letting you go through any more than you already have."

Violet prodded the stallion's chest with a forcefully rough hoof. "I'm not letting you stop me, Chrono. You were the one to stop me from bringing Equestria into a shadow of its beauty, you were the one to discover everything there was ever needed to be known about Entropy. Equestria doesn't need me, Chrono, it needs you."

"It needs virtue," Chrono countered. "Yours is one of those virtues, and I don't care if you can give up in the hopes that it will redeem you. What never happened, never happened. Equestria doesn't know about that, and to be honest neither should you. I'm not letting you meet your fate here, be it now or later."

"Which brings me to my next point."

"Huh?" Chrono took a step back.

Violet hung her head, her sad expression forming into a tearful smile. "Ever since I found out about what you've been doing through a vision or two, I always wanted to know more about you. To be honest, after I'd gotten to know you for a bit I never wanted to let go. I didn't want to go back to Manehattan because well... I wanted to stay with you, Chrono. You mean the world to me, for everything you've done."

Chrono took another step back, freezing from there in place. "But why me? I'm just one of-"

"But you were the only one that could forgive me for what I've done wrong. That's why." Violet stepped forward and embraced the young stallion in a hug sending a few tears sailing down his neck. "Don't ever doubt yourself, alright? I guess we can deal with the aftermath once it comes, but you know it all now."

Chrono bit back a tear. For being about to deal with a fate-altering course of life-threatening actions, he felt strangely happy.

And suddenly quite alarmed when he heard Pinkie Pie lose her balance quite audibly in the doorway ahead of him.

Entropy

Chrono woke with a start, the sun already shining through his bedside window, but as he looked through it to the streets of Canterlot, the sight that greeted him wasn't one he had expected in the least. The city was running rampant, ponies scattered every which way in a chaotic manner. The young unicorn blinked in surprise at the sight, and quickly rushed outside through his door, making to ask anyone what exactly had happened, but no response at all was given - only frantic running by. With a sigh, Chrono stepped back into his house and looked over his journal, magically flipping through pages in search of any related topics. Only two caught his eye; Harmony, and Discord.

He blinked again, reading through both entries even as a massive crash sounded from outside, causing him a momentary loss of concentration, but as he found soon enough, the only two times in Equestria's history for Canterlot to be in such a state of panic both had to do with either one or both of its princesses. He looked again through his window and sighed. "It's a wonder I age at all.." he breathed, even as he started focusing on the chrono-spatial magic he commanded.

Through the upper periphery of the unicorn's vision, against the silver shimmer surrounding his horn he could see a mass of white threadlike energies wrapping around him. He focused harder, watching as it gradually took form into himself and went through what activities he had done for the morning backwards. For a moment he glanced out through the window, watching everypony else's movements in reverse. The silver of his horn flickered for a moment, and realizing he had nearly lost his focus, Chrono forced his spell on, speeding time along its backward way until he saw the white image of himself drop tiredly onto his bed.

He cut off his spell, and his vision quickly whitened, the entirety of his senses reverting to the exact moment in time he had returned to, and his eyes closed. He opened them again to find he had actually landed on his bed, but was not nearly as tired as he had been at that moment in time prior to his reversion. He glanced back at his wall clock. 11:48 PM. With a casual stare out of his window, he noted the peace and calm of Canterlot's evening, with the scattered lights of late-night formal parties along its cityscape. Whatever had happened, it must have been a shock. "Will be, anyway." Chrono remarked, as he went through his doorway again, heading for Celestia's castle.

"Hey, you there!" A gruff voice sounded from the side of the street as Chrono skidded to a halt, "What's got you in such a rush?"

Chrono looked over in the direction of the voice, gritting his teeth slightly at the realization that it was one of Canterlot's guard patrol. He sighed, regaining his composure after a second. "I think the princess may be in danger, sir." He explained, but was cut short all the same.

"Princess Celestia is away on other business. She said she was going to see Twilight Sparkle and her friends." The guard said, to which Chrono narrowed his eyes in thought and concern.

"And princess Luna?"

The guard indicated the castle. "Princess Luna is performing her nightly duties, of course. Now why don't you head on to bed, you look exhausted."

"I just woke up, sir. I can't explain right now - good evening." Chrono said, before darting off again despite the patrolman's objection.

He continued on to the castle itself and outright fell on his face from what he saw. Dull and gray for appearance, but he couldn't for a second guess again by who it was. Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack and Fluttershy, each looking far more fierce than Chrono could have recognized from the friends he had heard them to be. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me..." He breathed, fearful of the answer.

"Oh, this is no joke." Pinkie said bluntly, "You won't get your laugh on me this time."

Twilight's horn glowed its indigo shade, and for a moment she chuckled. "Now, why don't you just go."

Chrono made to step forward, but he realized he had been held in place through Twilight's spell, which as he found out only an instant later was the same she often used to drag other ponies around. To his dismay though, it flung him through the doorway and halfway across the outside street, quite bruised along the way. He struggled to get to his hooves, and looked back to the patrolman he had encountered earlier, who had by then rushed over to him. "I told you you're better getting some rest," he remarked, "now you're going to have to replace the princess' door."

"With all due respect, sir..." Chrono said, his strength finally returning, "you should be worried more about the princess herself."

"Oh?"

"When you were told about princess Celestia's departure, was it mentioned where?"

"Ponyville, of course. What are you on ab-"

Chrono held a hoof to the castle's doorway, and to the hole he had been hurled through. "I would tell you to see for yourself, but it's not the most comfortable experience, now if you'll excuse me." With that, he sprinted towards the city gates but paused just outside of them with a look to the night sky. It must have been midnight by then, but the moon still seemed to only have just come out. Again Chrono narrowed his eyes; things were not turning out well at all.

With a determined grunt and a focus onto time itself again, everything about the unicorn slowed to a crawl, reaching steadily to a full stop and emergence of the strings of time. Through this, he made his way quickly to Ponyville, despite having literally all time to do so.

Four hours in the blink of an eye passed for the restless Chrono Spark, but his arrival to Ponyville in the dead of night was a relaxing change of pace in itself. The surroundings seemed a little quaint to the unicorn at first, but he reminded himself that as a citizen of Canterlot, he was already used to the finest cityscape in Equestria, which in turn must have made him look a little eccentric in the eyes of everyone outside Canterlot - and Ponyville certainly didn't look like its residents had too much sense of design, with its scattering of buildings and whatnot. Still, not only did Chrono make an effort not to judge by the mere appearance, let alone the fact that he was definitely not merely on tour.

The miasma of white clouding his vision faded out, and again Chrono could feel the breeze of the chill night, but something seemed out of place. The guard at Canterlot had mentioned that princess Celestia had come here, but there was no sign whatsoever of her arrival. The appearance of Twilight and the others at the royal castle didn't do too much to console him either, especially since there was no sign whatsoever of the chaos he had seen eight hours ahead at Canterlot, here. For all he could see, it was just another night in Ponyville, with the sole exception of an immobilized moon.

The unicorn shook his head, again returning his attention to the matter at hand. He had already heard plenty about the particular six he was looking for, but the matter of where to start in the dead of night was a problem in and of itself, let alone the distinct possibility that any of them would be in Ponyville at all. Still, it didn't seem as if they were as unfamiliar and hostile with each other at the castle, which only led him to suspect they weren't the genuine articles, but a creation of some sort. The thought occurred to him that by sheer fact of the night being comparatively quiet, his best choice would be to check Twilight's library-home first, given her choice of study habits. With a passive sigh and a steadying of his pace, he trotted off towards the multi-leveled tree that he knew to be his immediate destination.

After a couple knocks and a few seconds of wait, Chrono was relieved to hear the distinctive clop-clop of another pony's hooves on wood inside, and the door opened to reveal none other that Twilight Sparkle, whose face shifted in slight confusion at the sight of the black unicorn. "Can I help you?" She asked, genuinely curious if slightly disgruntled.

"I'd imagine so." Chrono replied, "To put it bluntly, you just threw me through the Canterlot Castle door."

"What?" Twilight raised an eyebrow, easily more confused. "I've been in here for hours, how could I have gone all the way to Canterlot and back?"

Chrono shook his head. "Not you, per se. Just remarkably similar.... Do you remember Discord, by any chance?"

"Yeah...?"

"And I take it you remember what he did to you and your friends, yes?"

"Yeah, and?"

"It looks to me like there are two of each of you now."

Twilight's face dropped for a moment, her ears flattening against her head. After several seconds, she tilted her head into her library. "Come on in." She said, with an edge to her calm that made Chrono a little fearful.

Still he followed her in, glancing around at the ingrained bookshelves and silently noting the practicality of the structure itself. Twilight spun as she reached the desk at the center of the room, to face him. "So, who are you anyway?" She asked.

"Oh!" Chrono tilted his head down in a slight bow. "My name's Chrono Spark. I'm a resident of Canterlot, and a-"

"Wait a second. How'd you even get here? You said I... well, the other me, threw you out of Canterlot Castle just a bit ago, right?"

Chrono nodded. "I'm a chronomancer. I ran here, literally took no time at all."

Twilight's eyes widened at the mention of him being a chronomancer, but she vigorously shook her head and appeared as though she were trying to put her focus back on him. "Okay, so what's going on? Why'd you come all the way here?"

"I ran into one of the guard patrol on my way to the castle; he said princess Celestia was on her way here to visit with you and your friends. And, judging by the fact that the moon hasn't moved for several hours I'm guessing that both princesses are in danger."

"You can't be serious..." Twilight remarked, more worriedly than skeptically.

Chrono held a hoof in indication of Twilight's east-facing window. "It's past midnight, Twilight. The moon should be almost directly overhead right now, not over there."

She looked over and gasped. "You're right... what happened?"

Again, Chrono shook his head. "I wish I knew, but it seems like the other you and her friends are at the cause of it. I figured seeing as you've dealt with this before, you might know more than I would. All I know for certain is that I would have woken up about seven and a half hours from now, but the streets of Canterlot would've been more than a little hectic, and when I reversed time to about.. half an hour ago, maybe a little longer, it was as quiet as can be."

"You're from the future?!" Twilight asked, suddenly excited.

"In a sense. Everything I would have been later on is taken back with me on a reversion, so technically I'm from the present." Chrono answered hesitantly.

"I have so many questions! Oh my gosh, does it h-"

"Twilight!" Chrono yelled, a little exasperated. "I can answer questions later - we've got a lot to figure out and in all honesty... probably as much to stop."

As the evening progressed, Chrono steadily made note of the fact that neither sun nor moon seemed to be handled in the perpetually-still night sky. Still, the clocks all continued working well enough, so he knew it wasn't a matter of a paradox in time. After deciding to take a walk through Ponyville and give his silent concerns some more thought. Besides, as far as he figured it would be odd enough for Twilight to deliver the news of each of their alternate selves' realities to her friends without him in the mix, and he simply resigned himself to his own ponderings to what could have caused the alternates to appear again, let alone in their own bodies.

It hadn't been much more than three months when Discord himself was dispatched by the use of the elements of harmony, which in and of itself begged to question why the whole ordeal hadn't happened sooner. The possibilities seemed endless as it was. One theory merged with another in his mind and before long at all, his thoughts blurred into nonsense. He snapped back to reality though, and realized that ultimately he couldn't determine a root cause for what had happened, at least not insofar as to what he'd witnessed. He glanced up to the sky and frowned, remembering that he had no way to tell the time by sun and moon. Still, he had plenty of options there.

With a brief focusing, and the telltale shimmer of silver at the top of his vision, the image of a pocketwatch opening imposed on his vision, depicting the time as it was. 6:39, just about time for everypony to wake up - and to his surprise, for some to already be out and about. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Pinkie Pie already bouncing along the street. She seemed only slightly less cheerful than he'd heard from what tales ran wild in Canterlot, but on the same note he realized the lack of sunrise could have unsettled anypony, and it struck him as ironic that even as carefree a pony as Pinkie Pie seemed caught off guard.

She stopped with a curious glance towards Chrono, and in an instant had rushed up to him with a curious smile. "Oh! Hello, are you new here? My name is Pinkie Pie, what's yours?" She asked, in her perpetually high-pitched voice.

Chrono's head dropped almost to the ground beneath him. "My name's Chrono Spark. I'm new, but not unfamiliar - let's put it that way. I think Twilight needed to see you an the o-"

"Oh, you know Twilight already?! Cool! I have so many friends I just have to introduce you to!"

"Pinkie."

"Have you met Mr. and Mrs. Cake? How about Applejack and her family?"

"Pinkie..."

"And Rainbow Dash? Oh, she's the coolest! And -"

"Pinkie, please!"

She finally silenced, her look of glee replaced with one of doubt and a slight worry.

"I'm sorry, but I can't take a tour right now. I'd love to be your friend and everypony else's as well, but you really need to know what's been going on lately first."

"Oh, you mean about the moon not moving and the sun not coming up? I was wondering about that too!"

Chrono sighed, "That's exactly what I mean, and if the past is any indication, I'm going to need your help fixing it."

"Okidokey loki!" She said, before bouncing off towards Twilight's library.

Twilight, on the other hand outright bowled over her on her own way out, and while Chrono could not hear the resulting conversation he could only guess that Twilight had arranged for a meeting at her place. After a few moments Twilight glanced over to Chrono and nodded appreciatively, which he returned in kind. Perhaps ten minutes later, he saw her again with Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity and Applejack in tow. "Chrono!" She called, "Can you get Pinkie?"

Chrono nodded and picked himself up, heading over to Twilight's door and moving to open it, but to his immense surprise Pinkie had in fact beaten him to the door and ran right into him at the mention of her name. "Oh, I'm sorry!" She said, before looking over to the others and hopping up and down, "Ooh! Everypony's here already!"

With speed that Chrono admittedly had not seen in the entirety of his years at Canterlot, Pinkie had gotten over to her other friends and for a brief moment, the thought occurred to him that they really had more of a positive impact on her than he had even dreamed.

Twilight took a few steps forward, eyes on Chrono the entire time. "So why don't you tell us all exactly what happened?"

Chrono nodded, taking only a few seconds to figure how best to start, before recounting his entire venture from his would-be waking to then.

"So, lemme get this straight," Applejack said after a moment's stunned silence, "Princess Celestia's gone, princess Luna's gone, we got no way to the elements of harmony, an' we're still s'pposed to handle settin' things right with all these 'other us'es?"

Chrono frowned slightly, but nodded all the same. "Seems like it. All of Equestria is threatened if things don't come to a close, and there's no telling what could happen if the same thing happened to the princesses..."

Twilight's face dimmed in a grim tone. "You don't think they'd actually do that, right?"

Chrono's answer was certainly not one he wanted to voice, so in as little affirmation as he could, he bit his lip.

"Well what are we waiting for!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she took into a low hover, "We've done this before, haven't we?"

"No we haven't!" Twilight interjected, before Chrono cut in.

"Not directly. Your encounter with Nightmare Moon would probably call a close shot though."

"We're not... going to have to do any fighting..." Fluttershy whispered, "are we?"

Again, Chrono barely knew how to answer. He hoped not, himself, but judging from the alternative Pinkie and Twilight's reactions to his arrival, the odds were slim at best.

"You seem awfully vexed about something, darling." Rarity remarked, "It completely ruins your face."

Chrono raised an eyebrow in slight confusion but sighed, defeated. "If my past research is anything to go off of, this may turn out to be the worst day..." He looked up at the moon, "and worst night, of each of your lives. I don't know what's going on, who's behind it and worst yet Applejack's right; none of you have the elements themselves on you, so they're probably out of reach."

Twilight took a long look at each of her friends and Chrono, noting his change in carriage. She stepped over to him and put a hoof on his shoulder, which she lowered after being promptly shrugged off. "I may not know exactly how we can do it, but like you said we didn't have the elements of harmony on us when we defeated Nightmare Moon either. Who says we can't do what we all did then, now?"

"Who knows?" Chrono said moreso than asked, "But I do know this; if anypony can do it, it's you guys. I just came to relay the news before it happened."

"Well what do you suggest?" Pinkie asked, her abnormal cheer still unbroken.

"I think we should go to Canterlot and see this for ourselves," Twilight stated, to a string of nods and 'mhm's.

"Better catch the train then." Applejack said simply, "Ah'd hate t'be late to our own party."

"Party?! I didn't know we were throwing a party!" Pinkie squealed excitedly.

"It's a figure o' speech, sugarcube." Applejack retorted.

"Train's not gonna wait all day, guys, let's go!" Rainbow Dash cut in, to which each of them made their way to the station.

As might have been expected, Rainbow Dash was the first to get off the train bound for Canterlot, and it was largely sheer luck that the crowds trying to stuff into the train left any room for the rest to make their way out, but despite the mess of ponies they all managed to regroup in a smaller avenue. "Gosh, haven't these ponies ever heard of breathing room?" Rarity said with her typical flair, "It's a wonder they didn't ruin my beautiful mane!"

Twilight sighed, but said nothing and in fact moved to silence Applejack before she made any complaints. "We still have to find a way in. I bet the guards would be in a riot if our other selves took over the castle overnight."

"Agreed," Chrono said passively, "The whole place would be locked down, but that doesn't mean we can't get in. My guess is it's going to be a long way up though."

"Leave it to me!" Rainbow dash called, about to fly off but held back by Applejack's relentlessly strong maw.

"Now jus' hold it there, sugarcube," she said, releasing the disheartened Rainbow Dash with a stare, "We can't jus' go runnin' off one at a time, we gotta stick together."

"Oh, alright..." Rainbow Dash sighed.

Fluttershy took a timid glance around the corner of the intersection, before quickly retreating back out of sight of all but her friends. "Um... are the guards supposed to look all gray?"

Chrono's mane may as well have stood on end for that moment as he looked around to see for himself. The resulting sight of several patrolmen completely devoid of color was the last thing he had hoped to see. "No, no they're not." He said bluntly, "But that really complicates things. Whatever it is that's gotten all the others of you all evidently has some power over the rest, too. That's just swell..."

"Well that answers one question." Twilight said with a touch of finality, "We still have to find a way in now, with all the guards going berserk. Anypony got any ideas?"

The unanimous shaking of heads with the sole exception of Chrono's look of being lost in thought answered the question easily enough.

"I can help." Came an older-sounding voice from off to the side.

As Twilight, Chrono and the others turned, they almost immediately fell to a knee. Standing just ahead of them was none other than princess Luna.

"P-princess Luna!" Chrono stammered, forcing his calm back shortly thereafter, "I feared the worst... what's going on here?"

"We had to leave our home, and duties to find thou all," Luna said, gesturing to Twilight and the others, "but thou were already gone from Ponyville. How didst thou knowest this would occur?"

Chrono stood slowly. "I gave them warning ahead of time, princess Luna." He said calmly, "But, what about you? Where's princess Celestia?"

Luna frowned, "Thou hast done well, Chrono Spark, but we fear our sister Celestia has joined with the enemy."

"The en-n-n-nemy?" Fluttershy stuttered, "W-w-what do you m-mean?"

"We have no time to explain," Luna declared, magically materializing several carriages, one for each of the other ponies, "Come, quickly."

With a little reluctance, each of the others got into a carriage of their own and simultaneously vanished.

With Luna reappearing close behind, Chrono, Twilight and her friends arrived at princess Celestia's throne room - which oddly enough found itself occupied by the alternatives of all Twilight's friends, and no Celestia in sight. The grayed-out Twilight caught a glimpse of Chrono and scowled. "I thought I told you to go. You don't take advice very well, do you?"

Chrono took a step back and blinked in surprise. He glanced around to the ponies about him, each looking to him quizically. Still he managed a faint smile. "Not very well, no. But, for the record I did go. Might be your turn to do the same."

Even as the others turned to face their respective selves, they were each individually startled by the sudden appearance of princess Celestia just in front of the throne, as grayed-out as all the rest of the alternative ponies, but still looking as regal and majestic as could be. Luna stepped forward, horn already glowing as the alicorn readied herself for anything that could come.

"You're going to stand against your older sister, Luna?" Celestia laughed, her own horn glowing as brightly as her eyes, "Come on then, I've taken you once before, I can do it again."

Looking around to his comrades, Chrono could hardly help feeling somewhat discouraged by each of their reactions. Twilight had broken into tears, Pinkie had a look of complete confusion on her face, Rarity and Rainbow Dash both stood back with eyes darting to every other pony in the room, Fluttershy had all but shrunk into the floor and even Applejack seemed intimidated.

Still, he had a vague idea how this could be resolved. Putting up a front of determination he set his magic into place, suspecting that at least most of the opposition had some form of paradox working in their favor. To his relief - and slight confusion - they each had strings of time shrouded all around them, which upon further inspection only went as far as midnight the night before.

He knew a solution, even if he had no idea how he could pull it off with any intensity.

"Well, what are you guys waiting on?!" The alternative Rainbow Dash shouted, "Get on outta here!"

"You think we're just going to leave Equestria to you phonies?!" Rainbow Dash countered.

"An' ah s'ppose you think yer gonna stop us, huh?" Alternative Applejack remarked.

"No." Chrono said simply, to the surprise of everyone around - Luna notwithstanding. "I think I am."

"Chrono?" Twilight asked, "Are you insane?"

Chrono smiled, giving a slight chuckle. "You could say that. I never said I could do it alone though."

"Then let's go already!" Alternative Rainbow Dash yelled, as the entirety of both halves collided in a nearly-blinding crash of smoke.

Chrono, glad at least to have a chance, focused as much as he could on the area surrounding himself and the other ponies, forcing each into a full ten hour reversion as he simultaneously focused time into a temporary halt. Just as he slid it to a stop he saw Celestia rushing at him, but she fell short of him by only a hair. With all motion halted Chrono took a moment to sort through the strands of time and see what had become of everypony else.

Both Twilights had been hurled outright into the walls, presumably from spells bursting in each others' faces. Either Rarity's mane had been magically removed or torn apart by her alternative, and both were looking fairly beaten. Applejack had engaged in a rather cruel hoof-to-hoof battle, with no apparent leader in the fighting. Pinkie was about to get herself kicked square in the flank by her alternative. Fluttershy had been all but flattened by her counterpart, with both wings pinned to the floor. Rainbow Dash had managed to keep herself out of reach of everyone else, but in no way did her expression indicate she was having a good time doing so. And as Chrono looked past the charging Celestia to princess Luna, he found her unconscious and burnt in several places on her coat...

Imprinted in his vision he forced himself to count time back fully eleven hours, whereupon a massive pocketwatch-like visual appeared on the floor in the throne room, and another circling each pony inside - himself included. After his spell finally finished, his vision whitened and he realized quite suddenly, he had just spiraled everypony there into a paradox of its own. There was no real telling what could happen.

As his vision steadied though, he could see princess Luna slowly stepping up to him, still marred in more places than he had initially seen but looking as though she didn't mind. "W-what just happened?" He asked her, unsure himself of the answer.

"We knew thou wouldst be able to pass through the bindings, Chrono Spark." She answered, "What thou hast just done and witnessed is something that only thou and we shall remember. When Twilight Sparkle, and her friends, triumphed over Discord a year ago this very night, a lingering wisp of chaos remained and manifested into the representatives of harmony. What thou hast done parted time for everypony in our sister's throne room and brought each of us back to the time before they could manifest, but we have succeeded in imprisoning them to their current location."

"So, it's going to happen again?"

"No, Chrono Spark." Luna smiled, "As we have said, we succeeded in isolating the Discord remnants to their singular location, but thou hast forced them through time into an impossibility from which they cannot manifest again. As it happens, thou hast also brought yourself and our sister back through time as well as Twilight Sparkle and her friends."

"Eleven hours, exactly..." Chrono said absently, "So I should be asleep now, but I'm not. Where are we, anyway?"

"In thine dream, of course." Luna laughed slightly, "Thou art asleep, but that thou doubt our power is an insult."

"I-I mean no offense, princess." Chrono said, lowering his head in apology and slight shame. "I didn't understand, please forgive me."

"No offense has been taken, but we must warn thou." Luna declared, "Thine rest is well-deserved, but should thou revisit a time before now again this crisis will not have been averted any longer."

"I understand. What about Twilight and the rest? Will they remember anything?"

"Nothing."

Chrono's ears flattened.

Luna tilted her head slightly. "Why dost thou seem so sad by this news?" She asked.

"Because I can't help but feel like I've just gone and abandoned them now, even if in theory we hadn't met het."

"Hast thou lost thine sense?" Chrono raised an eyebrow, confused. "Thou art not limited solely to thine aspirations, Chrono Spark. Thou hast been most helpful as a pupil of ours for years, thou deserve a change of pace."

"But... I can't just neglect my duties."

Luna sighed. "Then we have a command for thou."

Again Chrono raised an eyebrow.

"When thou wakest up, thou are to vacation to Ponyville to meet with thine friends."

Chrono's ears perked, and although he found himself slightly confused by the reality of it, he had little time to express his thanks, as again his vision whitened, blotting the princess from his view.

Chrono woke several minutes later, the warm light of the sun shining through his window, along with the everyday bustle of Canterlot's citizens going to and from on regular business. He shook his head slightly, realizing in fact he had been in bed for the past eight hours as far as the current span of time was concerned, but for the first time not daring to step back and live through the night. Instead he glanced at his wall clock. 8:00 in the morning.

And everything was calm. The black unicorn could hardly suppress his smile's widening.

"Chrono Spark?"

The name spoken in a faintly familiar yet commanding tone halted the young stallion in his trot to Ponyville. As he stopped and turned, the sight of none other than Princess Celestia greeted him, and he quickly dropped to a knee in reverence.

"There is no need for such formality," Celestia laughed softly, "would you mind if I accompanied you?"

The unicorn stood slowly, pausing for a moment to meet the alicorn's eyes before nodding. "What place would I have to refuse?"

"As much as I have in asking, of course."

Chrono remained still. "What do you mean? I'm just on a travel..."

Celestia closed her eyes for a moment. "Luna told me about what happened last night."

The black unicorn took a step back, unsure what to make of the news. His encounters with the various ponies that had made themselves famous all over Equestria, let alone the princess herself, had been frightening at best.

"I wanted to apologize."

Chrono froze. Apologies from what few friends he had in Canterlot he had a hard enough time dealing with, but from princess Celestia? To say he had no idea whatsoever how to respond would have done him more credit than he showed. "You've done nothing wrong. I doubt you even had any choice in the matter, and besides it hasn't even happened by this point, right?"

"I can't be certain." Celestia tilted her head towards the stallion's destination, and after a moment's pause the two walked on. "There is no explanation I know of that could explain the appearance of a double, much less six at once."

Again Chrono nearly reeled, caught off guard by Celestia's apparent lack of knowledge on the past events. This was a first, evidently... "So whatever caused all this wasn't dealt with, was it?"

Celestia shook her head.

"Is there some way I can help?"

As the two reached the peak of a hill overlooking Ponyville in the distance, Celestia brought herself to a seat. Chrono promptly followed suit. "After last night, it would be wrong of me to ask you to do anything further. Seeing as you were already on your way to Ponyville though, would it be alright if you could report anything suspicious to my sister?"

Chrono's ethereal sapphire eyes shone for a moment until he closed them, glinting in the rising sunlight. "I can do that, certainly. In all honesty I wish there was a way I could do more though."

"You may yet, Chrono Spark."

For a moment, a dark silhouette darted across the sunlight, for a moment blocking its rays. Chrono stood to his feet, alarmed. Celestia was already soaring in the skies, chasing whomever had moved in front of her sun.

Chrono sighed, picking up and continuing on his way. As eager as he was to help, he hoped that it didn't intrude on the chance to meet his friends for a chance they would remember.

Twilight nearly fell over backward at the sound of knocking at her library door, but Spike promptly answered in her temporary lack of mobility. As the green-scaled dragon opened the door though, he looked curiously at the visitor. A unicorn, easily enough. Black coat, bright cyan mane and almost ghostly blue eyes. "Hey!" He said after a moment, "Uh, I haven't seen you before, who are-"

A violet hoof pushing him out of the way soon followed as Twilight answered in his place. Even then she took a brief moment to take in the peculiar view of the chronomancer. Still she smiled, "Well hi!" She greeted him enthusiastically, "Is there something I can help you with?"

"Not particularly," Chrono answered with a chuckle. "I've just heard a lot about you, thought it might be fitting for me to meet you face-to-face." He raised a hoof in indication of the library. "Mind if I come in?"

"Oh, sure!" Twilight stood to the side, opening the door with a brief look of confusion crossing her face. "Heard of me, though? By who?"

Chrono chuckled. "It's a long story. Started with my mentor, princess Luna, but-"

Twilight's eyes flew wide. "You study magic with princess Luna?"

Chrono paused, "Not exactly. I have in the past, yes - but not anymore. These days I'm usually off on some adventure or another. Believe it or not I'm under her orders to come and meet you and your friends."

"Really?"

Chrono nodded. "Again, it's a long story."

"Well I've got time."

Chrono blinked, surprised by how poorly-prepared he had been, but altogether relieved that it wasn't a matter of such importance as past events had been. Still he opened his mouth to speak but noticed that Spike's fidgeting slowed rather suddenly, as did everything else around him. Quickly, drastically all things came to a stop. Threads of the timespace made their way into Chrono's view as a slightly familiar figure appeared behind the young mare.

It stood fully two and a half times as tall as the stallion, not even counting the horn protruding quite a ways from its head. With a crimson coat and black mane, its wings alone inspired a fair bit of fear in young Chrono Spark.

For a moment he thought to test his mobility, being a chronomancer and generally unbound by the fetters of time. To his relief and mild amazement, he did not find much trouble.

The great alicorn opened its eyes. Massive indigo spheres, not even with their pupils - a sight which sent a shudder down the chronomancer's spine and caused him to step back slightly. "Who are you?" He asked, his fear creeping through his voice.

The massive figure reared onto its hind legs, wings spread wide and horn glowing briefly in a translucent black glow. Chrono's question would clearly have to wait; his entire vision blackened as a sharp pain seared in his back, complete with the sound of splintering wood and glass.

When he woke again, the blurry sight of a wooded shelter and a familiar yellow-coated mare loomed over him, pink hair falling just onto his face. "Oh, good..." Fluttershy said quietly as ever, "you're awake."

Chrono got to a seat, slowly recovering from the ache in his head. As again he had to clear his vision, he was greeted not merely by the sight of the timid pegasus, but the full compliment of everypony among her closest friends. Twilight's curiosity again showed in her face. "What happened to you? One second you and I were talking, and the next my door was in shreds."

Chrono took a nibble on his lower lip. "We've met before," he started, making to stand beside the bed he found himself on, but quickly changing his mind as the change of air pressure blurred his vision and senses again. "Or would have, rather."

With a little hesitance, he recounted the events of the night before, in which his initial meet of Twilight and all her friends was cut short by a crisis solved through the reversion of time. One by one, the notion seemed to make sense to the other ponies that it made enough sense that they wouldn't remember something that technically hadn't happened to anypony more than Chrono.

"But that doesn't explain why Twilight's door is in pieces." Pinkie interjected.

"Well that's what confuses me," Chrono explained, "As I was talking with Twilight, I noticed Spike had sort of stopped moving in mid-step. Then before I even knew it this giant red alicorn's hurling me through the door. I'm just glad he didn't toss me through the wall instead."

"What?!" Twilight's confusion, alarm and immense curiosity showed all clearly in her voice. "But who could have done that?"

Chrono didn't have much of an answer. "I've been asked by princess Celestia, on my way here, to report anything unusual. Last night's events seemed pretty centered around the six of you - I have a feeling you might be involved again."

"Ah don't know if tha's such a good idea, mister." Applejack said simply, before Rainbow cut her off.

"Are you kidding? This has our names written all over it!"

"No, Rainbow - it doesn't." Twilight said bluntly.

Chrono shook his head sadly. "It might. I know pretty well what the implications are for somepony else using chronomancy and having some hostile intent."

"But how do we deal with this mystery mare if she's in and out for five hours in no time at all?" Rarity inquired.

Twilight simply looked to Chrono, who nodded after a moment. "By cutting her off, I would imagine."

"You have a plan?" Rainbow asked.

"It will be quite a while, I suspect. The trouble is, as long as any of us is isolated, we'll have no idea what's going on." Chrono slowly got to his hooves and stood again. "It just doesn't make any sense. I don't even know if this is the same pony behind last night's incident."

"Well why stress it?" Pinkie asked, clearly moving to lighten the mood as she began bouncing about, "Just wait until the time comes, you know?"

"I guess you're right." Chrono said, before looking over to Fluttershy again with a grateful nod. "Thank you for the hospitality."

"Oh, um... it's no trouble." Fluttershy whispered, as the stallion made his way out.

"Chrono Spark?"

The voice wasn't Celestia's, to be certain. This sounded more familiar, less commanding but in retrospect more royal. Chrono lifted his head from where he sat in the dim light of evening, looking around for his mentor. She stepped into view from around a building shortly after. "Princess Luna? What brings you here?"

Luna frowned, "It appears we failed to isolate the six who had assaulted Canterlot last night. Thou didn't return to the time, did thou?"

Chrono shook his head. "Not at all. It seems I'm not the only one capable of using chronomancy though.... Is princess Celestia alright?"

Luna nodded, indicating the hill from which Celestia and Chrono had conferred earlier. Atop it the stallion could make out the faint telltale decadence of Celestia's mane. "She will be fine, do not worry for her. Our concern is with thou and thine friends, however."

Chrono looked back to Luna, curious. "Do you know who is behind all this?"

"We know nothing, nor can we interact with this creature. It appears that only thine magic will allow any communication."

Chrono sighed, dropping his head despite the reassuring hoof on his shoulder. "It won't end, will it? For the culprit to be free of time, it will only cycle through. As if tomorrow won't even come..."

"Is this what thy beliefs are?"

"It's certainly looking that way."

The sound of several hooves flitting through the grass caught his attention, as when he lifted his head he saw Twilight and her friends stepping up behind Luna. "I think there's a way we can help." Twilight announced with a smile.

Chrono merely raised an eyebrow, utterly confused. "What did you have in mind?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Twilight indicated Celestia in the distance, her eyes on Chrono. "Last time, our alternates were all after princess Celestia, right? I can't speak for the mastermind of all this, but as long as she's not in the same position as she was last time, she's in jeopardy, right?"

Chrono nodded, thinking he had caught on. "So what do you suggest? It's not like I can follow her around everywhere she goes."

"But you won't have to!" Pinkie said excitedly. "Just check on her every now and then, and if she's not doing well you can step back and make it all better!"

"That's a pretty cruel method though, don't you think?" Chrono asked.

"Not at all!" Rarity cut in, "It wouldn't do to have the princess followed around, like you said. With you going back before the crisis, that should cut out the risk of anything bad happening to her, right?"

Chrono thought for a moment, as Luna took off for her sister. After several long seconds - perhaps minutes, he nodded. "It's the best we've got right now, anyway."

He glanced over to the two princesses, seated beside each other in the night sky. The thought didn't sit well with him at all, but all the same there wasn't much else he could do. It was going to be quite a long night...

For a moment Chrono thought his mind was tricking him. The strands of time again wove into his vision, as did a figure much smaller than the alicorn he had seen before. A unicorn...

Himself. Dull and gray, much like he had seen of Twilight and her friends, but it was him! He willed himself free of the evident halt in time and sprinted up to his alternative, eyes narrow. "Who's responsible for all this?" He asked, his voice menacingly low.

The other chuckled, taking a hopping step back and looking as though quite ready for a fight. "I am." He answered, his voice much deeper than Chrono would have expected. After a moment the image dulled even further and reshaped into a larger, more prominent figure. The same alicorn he had seen before.

Chrono stepped back, again frightful but altogether not about to let the opportunity for information slip past him. "Okay then, who are you?"

The horn on the alicorn's head glowed again, each and every strand of time locked in a crimson hold through which Chrono could not even force himself into movement, however keenly aware of his surroundings. "I am called Entropy. My purpose here is nothing to deal with your so-called friends or either of Equestria's rulers. Equestria as a whole has taken a drastic turn for the worse before you could even imagine. I am going to remake it anew."

Chrono felt mobility return faintly to his limbs, only to find himself hurled back again but he caught himself on a patch of grass and slid to a stop, scowling. "There isn't anything wrong with Equestria; how can you say that?!" He demanded.

Entropy smiled. "A foal like you cannot even fully comprehend the workings of time. How could you ever hope to understand the distant history of Equestria's grand failure?"

The unicorn did not seem at all amused by the pittance made of his talent. "Just indulge me." He said, hardly up to argue any further than he had to.

"And if I said no?"

"Then you give me evidence to say you are in fact what is wrong with Equestria."

He focused, quickly pouring his will to restore time's flow through his horn, into the reality around him. The silver shine of his horn very nearly matched Entropy's blackened glow, as by all appearances for the two that all visibility shattered as glass around them. It took no longer than four seconds for everypony else to align behind the chronomancer. Celestia and Luna, at either side, with the full compliment of Twilight, Rainbow and Pinkie beside Celestia, and Rarity, Fluttershy and Applejack to Luna's. None of them looked pleased with what they saw.

"Oh, so the little stallion thinks he and his friends are going to make a stand, is that it? That the Elements of Harmony unite again to rid Equestria of the evil Entropy, right? What foals the lot of you are." Entropy laughed, taking a single bold step forward. "I was there long before Discord sowed disharmony over Equestria. I watched as the cold sister's wrath bound our very own Luna to the moon for a millenium!"

Celestia stepped forward, a brief snort betraying just how upset she had gotten. "And what have you done?" She asked, commandingly.

"I've watched, I've travelled across the ages looking for an exact moment to make everything right. To make everypony who they want to be, to eliminate the problems of Equestria! You can't see this?!"

"It's a little hard not to." Chrono remarked, "But that's really what binds us together. If we were all perfect it wouldn't make much sense for there to even be harmony - we'd all live our own little lives and be content with that. Don't judge based on what you yourself don't know."

"How dare you!" Entropy charged the stallion, and although both Luna and Celestia moved to block her way, Chrono cut them both short of necessary time and in fact jumped on each of their legs and met Entropy head-on, tossed aside quite effortlessly but rolling to his hooves all the same.

"Don't you get it?" He asked, "Get to know some ponies, and maybe you won't be so bitter!"

"I have." Entropy breathed, her every movement tense as she ground a hoof against the dirt and grass, again preparing to charge. "And they've all gone. They were all worthless, they were all pathetic!"

"Guess that makes me next then. As you've got any intentions for Equestria's future you're going to have to get past me."

His words didn't go unheeded, but as Entropy rushed forward again, she froze in mid-step as Chrono forced a complete halt in her chrono-spatial movements. His eyes shone in his own horn's glow as he stepped forward, silver glistening on all the nearer threads of time. "Now as long as you're just standing there, I'd recommend paying attention. It's rather obvious that you've honed every talent and capability you've come across to its limit, but what's it gotten you? You must hate everypony for wasting their lives in being less than perfectly productive. Less than perfect, needing each other's support to grow and learn. But that's what makes our shorter lives that much more worth it; we don't get let down so much. Now, if you'll excuse me I have a point to be sure of."

Again the visual of time's distortion around him broke, and although he suspected the worst was still coming, he stood his ground. Again his vision blackened, with a sharp pain searing through his chest and fully half his back as he lost consciousness again.

"Why?" A peculiar echo resonated through Chrono's hearing and through his mind. "Why did you sacrifice yourself for them?"

Chrono lay on his side, one hoof covering a massive hole in his chest, but although he felt intensely weak he could still move. He opened his eyes to find a large, crimson-coated alicorn mare staring at him from her seat. "E-Entropy...?"

"Yes, it's me. Nothing you haven't seen before."

Chrono made to set his hooves beneath him, but the pain in his chest gave him pause enough to stop. "I'm dead, aren't I..." He said as much as asked.

Entropy nodded. "If you have anypony to blame, it would be me. I can explain our meeting later. Right now I need to know why you so willingly let yourself be the first to fall."

"Because..." Chrono breathed out a faint effort at a chuckle, "they're my friends, and the ponies I look up to. They're the ones that made my life worth living in the first place."

The mare raised an eyebrow. "It seems a little counterproductive though."

"Doesn't matter." Chrono smiled. "They deserve to live on. I'm fine putting myself aside for the rest."

"But you could have moved. Why didn't you?"

"Not too sure, actually. The thought hadn't occurred to me, but it's a little late for me to take that back."

Chrono took a brief look about him. The same valley that he had died in, but it seemed whiter, as if Equestria in itself had become as a ghost. "If you could take it back though, would you?" Entropy asked.

"Well, that all depends. I maintain that Equestria doesn't need a new start, that ponies' differences do more good for each other than they do harm. So, if taking it back leaves you along the same ambitions, then no. I wouldn't sacrifice Equestria just for my life."

Entropy stood from her seat, horn glowing black yet again. Chrono watched, confused and a little wary. "And if it didn't affect who I am now? If all that was involved would be that my actions on Canterlot and Ponyville were never done?"

Chrono nodded, feeling his strength slowly return to him. "I suppose so. Why ask?"

He got no answer, only a whitening in his vision. He blinked several times, his vision clearing as he lay in the field beside Ponyville. Entropy stood beside him, nudging at his side occasionally.

"Why?" He asked after several seconds. "Why go so far out of your way?"

"Because I'm not as perfect as I thought. Does that sound fair?"

Chrono had no answer. Only questions. "So, what did you do?"

"I bound you to time. Well, what was left of you. Then I simply went back a day."

Chrono's heart sank. For the second time in a row, the meeting with his friends had not happened, even if both crises he had been involved in were no longer any threat. He closed his eyes, wondering if he would ever meet them all in a memorable experience.

"You look troubled. Is something the matter?"

Chrono sighed. "I've met those same friends for about three first times now. I'm just hoping they can remember me after some point."

"Oh, well why didn't you say so, you silly colt?"

Entropy's horn glowed briefly again, and Chrono immediately found himself dropped in the middle of Ponyville. He looked around for Entropy, but she was nowhere to be seen. "I'm not a colt." He remarked into the thin air. "Not that I really age much through percieved time."

It was late in the afternoon, and everypony appeared as though they were returning home from the day's activities. As he got his bearings and stood to his hooves, he noticed a familiar figure figure flitting from cloud to cloud before emerging with several other familiar individuals close behind.

"See?!" Rainbow called back, holding a hoof out to the black unicorn. "I told you he was real!"

Shadows of Fear

Chrono Spark;

I need to speak with you, immediately if not sooner. Come to the throne room in Canterlot Castle as soon as you recieve this message, as this is a matter beyond my ability to deal with. I apologize for the inconvenience of such an urgency.

Chrono blinked as he looked over the note on his desk several times over. There was no seal, no signature. Nothing to indicate this was at all genuine. Still he glanced outside and took a guess at the time. Mid-morning at the latest, much closer to dawn. "Well," he said to himself with a shrug of his shoulders, "looks like I have work today."

The moment he stepped through his door, all activity about him ceased as his magic brought the threads of time glowing silver to a halt in his vision. Taking off to the north, he made his way quickly from Ponyville to whatever so called his attention. Something irked him about the possibilities; no pony besides Celestia or Luna had much say as to a meeting in the Canterlot throne room, and yet there was no evidence of either having sent the letter. Only one word echoed in his mind.

Trap or otherwise though, it bore investigation.

Eight hours in the blink of an eye, and Chrono tapped on the massive metal door barring entrance to the throne room. The guards standing on either side seemed to be only mildly surprised by his arrival despite all evidence pointing to him having simply appeared from nowhere. "You have an appointment?" One of them asked.

"I'm not certain. I got an anonymous letter," Chrono panted, "asked me to arrive here."

Both guards looked to each other for a moment, then as one nodded, the other opened the door amid a bright yellow glow. "Go on in." The first said with a nod.

Chrono peeked inside. To his surprise, not only were both Celestia and Luna standing there, but to Celestia's side opposite Luna, stood none other than Entropy. The young stallion entered and came to a knee for a moment, bowing his head.

"I'm glad you came," Entropy said after a short moment, as Celestia gestured for Chrono to rise. "I need your help."

Chrono narrowed his eyes slightly. As mysterious as she may be, he had yet to really trust her with much significance.

"Rest easy, Chrono Spark," Luna interjected in seeing his tension, "I'm releasing you from my tutelage. Entropy will be guiding you from this point forward."

"What?" Chrono's head snapped up and his eyes open, "Please tell me you're not serious."

Entropy gave a slight chuckle. "If you knew my position in matters, your reaction might be different. Aero, Deuce, why the need to hide?"

Again to the unicorn's surprise, to his right and behind dropped the white-coated pegasus that had been among his best friends for the majority of his life and to the same on his left sprang the red-maned earth pony that managed to rival him in his own art of all things skillful.

"What's this all about?" Chrono asked, looking from his friends to the three alicorns ahead of him.

"Ah, so you didn't know." Deuce said with a chuckle. "Princess Luna has been helping me learn some things for quite some time now. I don't think I could really credit myself with being as skillful as yourself and Aero without her help, but I never thought to ask about the catch."

"The catch?" Chrono asked, looking to Luna now.

"Conscription, you could say. I wanted to tell you for a while but I was obligated not to. Princess Celestia herself arranged for me to take a position as one of the guard while at the same time, teaching me a few things of her own. I never officially made guard status, since only unicorns get in on the duties." Aero stated, "But, she did hint at there being something bigger she had in mind for me. I guess today's the day each of us finds out, isn't it?"

Celestia nodded to the pegasus, but looked over to Chrono. "For some time now, rumors of strange ponies and entities appearing across Equestria have reached my ears, and I've done all I can to investigate, but they are more elusive than it appears I can watch unnoticed." She explained, "After some deliberation my sister and I agreed to find some who would be able to look into the matter without raising so much attention as us in royalty."

Deuce tilted his head slightly. "Then why not send some of the guard?"

"The guard is directly affiliated with Princess Celestia," Aero remarked, "so while it wouldn't bring as much attention, the idea was to bring no attention. So it looks like each of us went under cover for a while."

Deuce looked over to Luna. Luna nodded grimly. "It appears even Entropy incites more worry than would do for this task in particular."

"So you need somepony that no one else really knows?" Chrono reasoned. "Seems like a fair plan, but what if someone finds out?"

Entropy tossed the unicorn a wink. "You of all ponies should know they won't have time, to find out."

Chrono blinked in slight surprise, but in noticing Entropy's accent on the word 'time' he understood and nodded. "So, what's the plan?" He asked.

Celestia nodded again. "I need you three to take a train to Manehattan. It's far enough that involvement would not be too indicative of my investigation on your part, but I hear odd things have been happening there recently. I wish you luck, my little ponies."

Chrono nodded, turning to Aero with a slight smile. "Guess you'll be leading us then, Aero?"

"What are you talking about?" Aero shot back with a raised eyebrow. "I'm not in this any more than the two of you, I say we go as equals and friends, like we always have!"

"That was the intent," Luna interjected, "there is no need to feel authority over one another. The less organized this appears, may be to your own benefit."

Deuce and Chrono both nodded, before the three young stallions took off through the door.

"So, what do you think's going on?" Deuce inquired once the train bound for Manehattan was well on its way.

"I can't say. With as vague a beginning as that I'm not sure what to expect." Chrono remarked, "Just, nothing good."

"Oh, cheer up Chrono," Aero put in, "isn't this what we always wanted? To do something big and important with each other?"

"Well yes but those were colt dreams, Aero." Chrono replied, "We've grown since then, and we have no idea what we're even looking for."

"Of course we do." Deuce remarked, glancing to the unicorn. "We're looking for everything. If something strange is going on then we have to get a feel for the norm before we can even judge anything as out of place."

"You have a plan?" Aero asked.

Deuce nodded. "Fit in. If our first arrival even looks like we're looking for something, someone's going to be tipped off. For the time being, I don't think we should particularly look for anything. Rather, just look around, don't even keep an eye out."

"You can't be serious." Chrono said dryly, "Who knows what dangers could be written in this?"

"Who knows it's dangerous?" Deuce countered, "Don't read too far into this yet Chrono. Odd and suspicious aren't inherently dangerous."

"True," Aero said, "I think we're all reading into this a bit much. It's not like we can't report to princess Celestia in the blink of an eye, right?"

"You're referring to me?" Chrono asked, "This is definitely true. I don't take long to get place to place on a conventional watch."

"See?" Aero smiled, "No problem at all."

Deuce looked out through the window, and for a moment Chrono could see a flicker of doubt in his reflection.

"Hey," he said, "what's wrong?"

"Nothing," Deuce said simply, maintaining his stare through the glass, "I'm just enjoying the view."

"The view?" Aero popped a hoof on the gray stallion's shoulder, "Don't lie to us, Deuce. Something's up, and you look like you're not liking it."

Deuce glanced back to the pegasus. "They're sending us to Manehattan. Halfway across Equestria from Canterlot, and meanwhile the single focus of half of Chrono's worries is well-acquainted with princess Celestia."

"Entropy?" Chrono asked with a raised eyebrow. "I don't think she'd be up to anything suspicious that wasn't bluntly so, at least not that would last."

"That's just it though," Deuce countered. "Who's to say you haven't been involved in something only for her to send herself back in time and leave you to be without a clue? She seems to know everything about everything going on, and she's been exclusively following you."

The earth pony gave Chrono a brief push with a hoof, to which he stepped back in slight alarm. As if asking for help, he glanced to Aero, but the pegasus only nodded slightly.

"It does seem a bit strange. I remember you telling me about Entropy's fights with you and the princesses back at the Gala." Aero said quietly, "I wouldn't rule her out as a suspect quite yet."

Chrono glanced out the window next to Deuce, his face taking on the same grim tone as Deuce's. "What are the odds?" He asked, his voice only just over a whisper.

"I wish I could tell you." Deuce murmured. "All I can say is it's going to be hard to trust anyone outside the three of us."

The resulting silence was unpleasant, to say the least.

The train finally came to a stop. Seventeen hours of travel without stop had gotten all three of the group into as much stress as the worries of their collective duty, and by all appearances Deuce had called it right; Manehattan seemed quite normal, without any particular dangers to be seen. Buildings reaching halfway to the sky, architecture that rivaled Canterlot for detail and featuring a contrasting modern design. The city was a haven for business ponies worldwide, and it showed in every inch.

Aero was the only one not to take much of a look around as he exited the train however. Chrono tossed a glance his way in curiosity and shook his head, continuing on his way.

"It's home," Aero said simply, "I was born here, spent almost two thirds of my life living in Manehattan before I went to Canterlot."

Deuce raised an eyebrow at the pegasus. "Why didn't you tell us sooner?"

"I didn't think you would be interested." Aero answered.

"Guys." Chrono said with a tone of finality, "There's no point in having a fuss over it. But seeing as you know the lay of the land, maybe you could point us to a good hotel?"

Aero nodded with a smile. "Come on, I know just the one!"

It took a fair bit of effort for Chrono and Deuce to keep up with the pegasus' speed, but they kept a positive outlook for the time being. Once they arrived, Deuce set about reservations while Chrono and Aero simply stood off to the side. A quick flicker in the unicorn's periphery caught his interest though, but as he turned to look it seemed nothing happened in the first place. "Huh..." He muttered.

"Something up?" Aero asked.

"Seeing things I guess." Chrono said dismissively while shaking his head.

Still, despite his every logical reasoning the clerk behind the counter seemed to flicker, her entirety appearing black with the exclusion of her eyes, which flashed gray in what area otherwise would have been her natural eye color and shape. Neither she nor Deuce seemed to notice anything though, as they continued their transaction.

The room was, as could be expected, luxurious. Three beds each fitted and sized for two and a half of any one pony that would be taking temporary residence in them, a desk and small wardrobe for each with a small number of paintings on every wall being the most notable expenses taken on the room's behalf. As the door closed, Deuce's face finally broke and doubt crossed his eyes. "You weren't seeing things Chrono," He said grimly, "that was real."

The evening was restless enough without Chrono's worries mounting on him as he stared through the window at the moon. Even during the nighttime, he was surprised by the relative business of Manehattan's streets. Both Aero and Deuce were asleep, naturally - but the unicorn had taken to the idea of reverting once he'd rested to watch what he could. Nothing seemed unordinary for the city life, but the thoughts of the train ride hadn't kept well with him - let alone that only the three of them seemed to notice anything at all out of the ordinary. Looking over to the room's door, he found the only realistic answer would be to find answers the hard way. With a little reluctance, he made his way downstairs and out from the Seven-Tail Suites.

"You alright there, sir?" Called an older stallion pegasus strolling through the street.

Chrono stopped in his pacing and looked over to the one who had addressed him. He nodded with a sort of grim smile that indicated he wasn't as alright as he'd like to say. "Just getting a view. It's my first night here; it's only natural I take the time to understand the lay of the land."

"Your first night here, you say? Where'd you come from?"

"Ponyville. I'm here visiting with a couple friends of mine."

"Where are they?"

Chrono chuckled, keeping to his story. "Asleep. I'm not very well-known for being caught asleep."

The pegasus tilted his head back in curiosity, "What do you mean?"

"I'm a chronomancer. I can sleep through the night and step back through time as well-rested as ever. Comes in handy quite a bit."

"I imagine so."

The voice was not the pegasus', despite it having been visibly said by the stallion. Rather a young mare's, however low and curious in nature. Chrono raised an eyebrow, but outright jumped back as he noticed a brief flash of indigo and the appearance of an otherwise all-black unicorn mare with two dark magenta eyes, staring at him with a curiosity in her gaze that sent a shudder riveting down the male's spine.

"Surprised?" She asked. "You should see your face. I don't usually get so much attention from a single pony all at once."

"I don't usually see a unicorn magically disguised as a pegasus either," Chrono remarked, "what was with that?"

"Disguised?" The mare laughed, "No, not disguised. Replaced."

Chrono's silence was absolute, as was his confusion.

"You haven't figured it out yet? Some prodigy you are!"

"You know me?" Chrono asked, as curious as he was fearful by this point.

"Of course I do, Chrono. And now that we've met, I can do the same for you."

"Huh?"

Chrono's blunt curiosity was answered in another flash, and to his immense surprise he found himself staring right into his own face.

"You can't be serious! Who are you?" A single bead of cold sweat ran down the side of his face.

As the image reverted to the mare's frame, she smiled. "For now, I'm the entire population of Manehattan. Now that I've got your help, it won't be long before I become all of Equestria!"

"Let's try this again..." Chrono muttered, "what's your name?"

"Violet Shadow. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"So I see." Chrono said blankly, piecing together a few possibilities in his mind. "You do realize that even with time at your command you can't take an entire population without the time involved, right?"

"Oh, I beg to differ." Violet said smugly, shifting again to Chrono's appearance and forcing time back before halting it. Through what threads he could see, Chrono could distinguish his pacing figure in front of the hotel. "I'll see you in a moment."

His vision whitened, and his movements in pacing as would have been came to an abrupt halt as he glanced down the road. Much to his dismay, he found none other than himself striding up to him. "Okay I get it. Changes keep with you all the same, but what's with everypony else and a case of the flickers?"

Violet laughed, returning to the form of the elder pegasus she otherwise would have been. "It's simple. They've been marked as taken. Look around you, Chrono Spark. Everypony in Manehattan doesn't even react to the signs around them, and they understand it even less than you do, but I also know what you're up to. You might as well go back home to Canterlot and report your failure, along with your friends. Oh and send dear Entropy my regards, would you?"

Chrono scowled, making to charge Violet but a spherical weave of lightning send him hurdling back against a support pillar, momentarily stunning him as he fell helpless to the ground below.

"Oh, don't tell me you're still going to try and stop me?" Violet laughed, returning to her normal appearance. "Well you certainly know how to gain a lady's interest. Fine, I'll play your game, but I'm going to play on my terms, so listen closely."

Chrono struggled and failed to stand, shaking in every limb as all four legs fell weak under the resonating cracks of electricity. His ability to listen was strained all the same however, and without much else to do he kept an open ear.

"Every pony I've marked and taken I am free to replicate as I so choose. Thanks to a few unicorns I've already come across, I can have as many as I need as well to mass an army and take Equestria by force. But, for only the week, I'm going to keep all my shadows here in Manehattan and wait for you and your friends to come find me. After a week's passed, you can say good-bye to everyone and everything you've cared for, and quite a bit more."

Chrono managed to get to standing again, but quickly found himself leaning against the pillar for his own support. "Why bother?" He asked, "You aren't obligated to hold your end of the bargain."

Violet smirked, "You're playing on my terms. You'll have to figure that out for yourself. Oh and by the way, I'm going to count time the same way you do, so be careful where you step back. Have a good week!"

Chrono made to step forward, but before his hoof even met the ground Violet was gone, simply vanished from sight. For the sake of keeping track of time as it were, he cast a quick spell to set an unconventional counter spanning a week for quick reference. Before much longer, he crumpled to the ground and his vision blackened into unconsciousness.

"Chrono, wake up will you?"

Chrono's eyes opened slowly, the blinding light of day causing him to stumble about in dizziness as he got to his hooves again. After a steadying breath, he shook his head and glanced around. Besides Aero and Deuce clearly standing in front of him, everything seemed as normal as could be expected for a Manehattan morning. "This is bad." The unicorn said simply.

"I've noticed." Deuce replied bluntly, holding a hoof to Chrono. "It's not every day that shade of cyan goes black for a moment."

Chrono blinked and stepped back slowly, realizing in sheer terror that it was a simple matter of adverse effects from Violet's replication. "I'm guessing you don't trust me." he stated with a sigh.

"You're our friend, Chrono. It's just going to be difficult to accept you've fallen into the same web overnight." Aero said half-reassuringly.

Chrono nodded, feeling the need to explain anyway. "After I woke up, I set time back to a little bit after I'd laid down so I didn't wake either of you up in the meantime. I do it all the time, but I figured I'd do some investigation in the open. As it turns out there's a unicorn taking on the identities of everypony in Manehattan, and she had me fooled for a while before well, I was added to the list. I can't be sure of the implications, but it seems we only have a week to fix things."

"A week?" Deuce chuckled, "Won't be a problem with you around."

"Sure it will." Chrono remarked, "She's giving me a week specifically. Unconventionally, rather - every takeback and such will count against it."

Aero raised a hoof to his chin, blinking several times as the news sunk in. "Alright so everypony here is normal, just flickering as a sign of being an unwitting part of this whole ordeal?"

Chrono nodded, "With the exception of the ones Violet's informed."

"Violet?" Deuce asked.

"Violet Shadow, the mastermind here."

"What's her goal?" Aero inquired.

Chrono's silence didn't help the tension in the immediate vicinity. "Conquest."

"Seriously?" Aero asked somewhat dramatically. "What gives? She got a problem with the princess?"

"Doesn't matter," Deuce reasoned, "her motives are going to be what they are, and it's really looking like we're on our own for a week. It's just a matter of searching the city for a hideout."

"Any ideas?" Chrono asked.

In answer, Deuce simply looked over to Aero, who nodded after a moment.

"Got it. Can you give me any more of a description than just a black unicorn mare though?"

"Dark eyes, magenta. She's got a short mane, but enough of a tail to make up for it. Horn's as sharp as can be, too. She won't be easy to miss though, since everything but her eyes are black." Chrono said. "That do well enough?"

"Got anything else to add?" Aero asked with a tilt of his head.

"Not really, unless you want to count her smirking half the time and laughing at you the other half."

"Then I'm off!" Aero declared, darting away even as he said it.

"We should probably split up too." Deuce remarked, "Covers more ground. I'll check around the industrial district - meet back in the room by nightfall?"

Chrono nodded. "Sounds like a plan. If you need to find me I'll be checking the residences. Odds are Aero's going to be flying over commerce all day."

"Right." Deuce said, "Good luck - and Chrono..."

Chrono had nearly taken off before he spun back around.

"Next time, let us know ahead of time when you're going solo, could you?"

Chrono nodded. "I'll do that. I'm sorry to have worried you."

Chrono's search through the residential district of Manehattan went along monotonously, his dotted inquisitions on its citizens turning out inconsequential at best. Still as he surveyed the landscape there was nothing to indicate anything out of the ordinary. At a point though, he spotted a unicorn presumably returning home, but casting him a slight glance as she stepped up to her door. She paused, turning to regard the black stallion more carefully. "You're new here, aren't you?" She asked.

Chrono nodded, stepping forward at a slow pace. The mare tilted her head towards the door as she went in. Chrono followed reluctantly.

The door closed behind him, and the mare gave him a quizzical look. "You probably have a lot of questions about what you've seen."

Chrono nodded, still not sure if he could trust her.

"There's no need to keep a steady silence. I may live here, but I'm not in any mood to be the only one talking." she said, "But you don't look like you're here for anything simple, especially with..."

She took a glance to Chrono's side, checking the door. "You must be Chrono Spark."

Chrono blinked in surprise and took a step back. "What gives? Everyone seems to know me now."

"Relax. I'm not in with the rest, but I do know what you're up to."

"How?"

"I'm a diviner. It's my job to find things that most others would overlook such as yourself. You came alone?"

"No, my two best friends came with me."

"And where are they now?"

"To the best of my knowledge, scattered around Manehattan looking for anything that would lead us forward."

The mare shook her head. "Forward isn't where you're going, and you're being led nowhere by looking through the streets."

"You know something?"

"Of course I know something." The mare laughed, "But that doesn't make my line of work easy. I can't interfere in the course of fate directly, even for a span of time that doesn't exist. What I can tell you however, is that you're going about this in a conventional manner with a target that is even more abnormal than yourself and hoping to get away with it."

Chrono thought on this for several moments. "Then what do you suggest?"

"Your friends. Are either of them pegasi by chance?"

"One, yes. Why?"

The mare's horn glowed white for a moment as an illusory map of Manehattan appeared between the two with an dots of three colors - red, yellow and blue - blinking throughout. By the landscape Chrono immediately figured they indicated locations of himself, Aero and Deuce.

"This is a full, true map of Manehattan," the other unicorn explained, "of which there are several things other maps will not bring to light."

"Such as?"

The mare held a hoof through the image to the replication of a tower standing on the outskirts of the industrial district. "This building here."

"Why wouldn't it be marked on other maps then?"

"Because it isn't there."

"What do you mean?"

"You can't see the structure from without. Its existence is tied exclusively to your target, so she has virtual dominion over its every aspect."

"I don't understand."

"You're not meant to. Keep to the skies, that's the only way you can find an entrance. Once you're inside, everything should be clear. That is all I can say on the matter."

Chrono bit his lip but nodded all the same. "Thank you, ma'am."

"I've done nothing." she replied, "Only guided the inevitable course. I wish you and yours well, Chrono Spark."

Chrono didn't take long at all to leave, the door closing quickly behind him.

Sixteen hours, Chrono thought as he paced the room he and his friends had reserved. As he had expected, Aero was first to return - and through the window at that. Still as he glanced to the pegasus, he could help but notice he looked somewhat beaten. "You alright there?" Chrono asked.

"Physically? Yeah, but I can't figure this out." Aero stated just as Deuce came in through the doorway.

"So, I see I'm late," the earth pony remarked, "I managed to come up blank for the day, but don't tell me I'm not the only one."

Chrono shook his head. "Doesn't seem that way. I ran into a diviner while I was roaming around and she mentioned a tower that no pony can see from the outside."

Aero blinked in surprise. "Well that answers that question."

"You found it?" Deuce asked before Chrono had the chance to.

Aero nodded with a slight shrug. "I guess so. I certainly couldn't see anything, but it felt like steel all the way down and I couldn't find an entrance either."

"You've got to be kidding," Deuce sighed, "a tower with no entrance?"

"Not necessarily." Chrono reasoned. "Let's assume the worst for a moment, that this invisible tower is Violet's hideout. She's obviously got some serious magic to her name, and I wouldn't quite put it past her to change the structure of a building just to make it exceptionally hard to drop into."

Aero skipped a breath. "Wait, say that again?"

"I wouldn't put it past her to make it hard to get into."

"That's not what you said," Aero countered, "you said drop into, and I have a funny feeling that might just be the case."

"You're serious, aren't you?" Deuce asked, skeptical. "You'd be taking this alone if that's the case."

The pegasus backed away a step. "Maybe not. I'll have to take a look around though. In the morning, in any case. Right now I-"

He didn't even finish his sentence before he collapsed onto the bed. Deuce nodded his agreement; it had been a long and unusually stressful day for all three of them.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Chrono said simply, "Besides, it's all we've got right now and I doubt it's coincidence."

He glanced over to Deuce to see his reaction. It wasn't long before he realized they had placed enough importance on the next day's tasks to rest until then. With very little reluctance, the unicorn followed suit.

The following morning came far too quickly for Chrono's liking, his countdown indicating twenty-two hours passed. Aero was already awake and keeping his wings in shape for the day's activities.

"So I had an idea while I was waking up," Aero said, "if you can't go in through a door, I'm pretty sure you can go in from above. If Violet can turn into a pegasus I'm pretty sure it would be convenient for her to do that, right?"

Chrono nodded, "Unless of course she's melding through the walls themselves."

Deuce blinked a couple times before springing to his feet at the side of the bed.

Aero looked out through the window, "I'll check it out. If anything happens to the point where you can't see me anymore Chrono, cut back and stop me from leaving, alright?"

Chrono nodded. "Can do."

"Alright, here I go." Aero announced before springing out the window.

His flight was short-lived, soaring through the air and briefly vanishing in mid-flight, only to return as quickly as he had come and barely avoid crashing right into the unicorn on his way back in.

"News?" Deuce asked.

"Top's got a way in, but the place is crawling with these black ponies that attacked me as soon as they saw me!" Aero answered, his voice slightly strained.

"Well that makes things simple." Chrono said with a sigh. "How should we do this?"

Deuce tapped his chin, "Aero, drop me in and get Chrono as soon after as you can. I think I can hold out until then. Sound fair?"

Chrono nodded, "Just don't do anything rash."

It was only moments more Aero and Deuce were off, and only moments more before Chrono felt very nearly crushed in Aero's unfailing grip as he went through the upper view of Manehattan and dropped into the tower itself.

As Aero landed however, the unified expression of sheer disbelief swept over them. Standing opposite them were none other than exact appropriate appearances of Twilight and all her best friends.

"Hey, what gives!" Pinkie called out, "You were the ones we were sent after?"

"What are you talking about, Pinkie?" Chrono asked, "Why are you six even here?"

"Don't play ignorant, dear." Rarity scoffed, "You've been tricked, just like the population here."

Chrono blinked in sheer horror and surprise. He knew his friends well enough to tell the likelihood, but the thought of them turning against him, much less in unison, did not sit well with him. "You can't be serious! Violet's behind this, not us!"

Not even enough time to blink had passed before Rainbow had collided into the stallion and pinned him to the floor. "And where's the evidence, huh?" She demanded, glaring into his frightened eyes.

"Pretty clear," Deuce answered, pushing Rainbow off from his friend with an equal glare in his own eyes. "Violet must have found you six and created shadows. No friend of Chrono's would deliver false allegations like this."

"You catch on pretty quick," Twilight huffed, "almost as if you'd known this whole time!"

Chrono narrowed his eyes. "The same could be said of you six, but the difference is we're not throwing accusations."

"Come on, y'all!" Applejack shouted, "They ain't gonna give us the truth until they cain't give us anythin' else!"

Chrono flipped up to his hooves, quickly weighing the odds with a passing glance over the others. In no way were they in favor of success. Still, he knew his friends, and he doubted these were them. As he could have expected, Twilight's first action was to fire a streak of magic his way, causing him to jump to the side and clear out of the way, but Aero hovered just in front of him, barring any further potential harm to the unicorn.

"Go on ahead, Chrono." He said firmly, even as he strafed a rush from Fluttershy. "Don't worry about us. There's probably worse on downstairs but I don't want to hold you up."

Chrono looked to Deuce, who kept himself busy evading and countering an onslaught from Rarity and Applejack both. "Just go!" He called back, "We can take care of this, but you're the only one who can take on time as an obstacle - and who's to say she won't use it to her advantage?"

Chrono jumped back just in time to avoid being pummeled by Rainbow, and Twilight remained opposite him, staring hard and focused in his direction.

"Guess you're right." He said reluctantly, as he pulled time to a stop. "Good luck."

The doorway ahead led to a dimly-lit tunnel spiraling down around the tower. About as far as one rotation of Chrono's estimate, another doorway led back in, through a room loosely littered with boxes and boards. With a brief glance around, the young stallion could see dozens of completely-black pony silhouettes in various places. His friends were right; it would take far longer to reach Violet through this.

Two, three... fifteen stories of new terrain and obstacles before Chrono found himself in a large circular room with a small series of rounded walls within, arranging into a split double-circular pattern. Chrono stepped forward, not terribly surprised to see Violet standing at its center, waiting for him.

"Oh good, you've arrived." She said with a smirk. "And without your friends for company either. I gave you a week, and still it's not enough for you to keep to your own friends?"

"We'd never have made it if we'd kept things as they were, Violet. I've seen the traps you set up for us, and with a broken morale at even that first setup? How low can you go?"

"Perhaps you'd like to answer that for me." Violet countered, "Of the two of us, I'm not working with somepony who's tried to kill me, tried to destroy all of Equestria and has managed to ruin my life on more than three occasions. Can you say the same?"

Chrono narrowed his eyes. It should have been clearer to him; Violet wasn't after him, she had to be after Entropy. The only other pony - at least that he knew of - that could arguably top her ability to manipulate others. "Entropy's the one you're after, isn't she?"

Violet giggled. "Guess why I came to you first?"

"Because in using me, you could get to her, directly or otherwise. Am I right?"

"You do catch on fast!" Violet laughed, "but what are you going to do now? Do you really think you can stop me with what you've got?"

Chrono shook his head. "I don't care to say I do. What I do think though, is that I wouldn't be worth the air I'm breathing now if I didn't try."

"Oooh, monologues. Please, Chrono - don't bore me now."

A quick flash of silver following an aggressive ray from Chrono's horn was enough of his answer. Violet on the other hand, vanished and reappeared fully four times in seemingly random places before the line even struck the wall. Again, Chrono blinked in surprise.

"And you've even made the first strike." Violet congratulated him, "Commendable."

"And yet you've managed not to show any aggression, yourself." Chrono said bluntly, straightening some. "Why's that?"

"Hm?" Violet asked simply with a wink, before her horn ignited purple and a shockwave of energy threw the stallion against the wall, falling shakily down to his hooves. "Oh, sorry - you were saying?"

"I take it back." Chrono grunted.

A streak of indigo caught his attention, a ray of energy flashing his direction. In the same moment he jumped over to the side. He returned with a ray of his own, caught by sheer surprise to see it intercepted head-on by another of Violet's own. However, as he stared on his terror magnified as he found the resulting thread of energy binding him to the wall. Violet laughed.

"You can't take me alone, Chrono Spark." She said with a smirk, "no pony can. I'll give you the time I promised, but you're going nowhere until your friends arrive. And that's going to be a good long time from now. Good-bye, so-called 'Guardian of Equestria'. With any luck on your part, we won't be meeting again."

"You -!" Chrono cried out, but into nothing more than thin air. Violet was gone, he was alone with very little hope of timely rescue. Fifteen floors, and with the layouts he had seen he could roughly guess it would take the others an hour each to clear one. Not too difficult, he reasoned. Violet had promised a week along his perception to keep him from stepping back. In no way did that hamper him jumping forward.

As he tried the spell though, a surge of electricity shot over his coat, singing his mane and causing him enough pain within and without to convince him not to make the effort again. His would be a long wait, and evidently a lesson hard-learned.

And still, time fell away right through his grasp...

"Chrono, wake up."

The voice was neither Aero's nor Deuce's, and did not seem to belong to any stallion in the first place and yet it was familiar to the unicorn. The pains through his coat as he opened his eyes lessened somewhat, surprised to see the blackless purple eyes of Entropy staring back at him.

"Thank heavens you're alright," she said, magically undoing the bonds that held Chrono to the wall as he fell to the floor, "You look as if you'd just died."

Chrono struggled to get his hooves beneath him, but slipped and fell flat anyway. Still he managed to turn his head enough to guage his surroundings. Aero and Deuce had not come as he'd predicted before falling unconscious, and Entropy's presence there suggested something had gone wrong. "What happened?" He managed to breathe, his vision blurring by even the effort of speech.

"Deuce and Aero were forced back halfway down," Entropy explained, "and once I realized exactly what was going on I came to find you."

"You shouldn't have." Chrono gasped, "Violet -"

Entropy raised a hoof to silence the stallion. "I know she's taken an interest in my abilities. I can't say I'm fond of the possibilities, but it's unlikely that I've evaded her this long. But I'm not about to leave you here either. You're in my charge, remember. I have responsibilities to you just the same as you do to me."

Chrono let his head drop onto his front legs in defeat. "I appreciate it," he said breathlessly, "How long has passed?"

"What do you mean?"

Chrono tried to answer, but his strength of voice failed him in the moment as his vision darkened slightly. Entropy instead placed a hoof lightly on his shoulder.

"Don't worry about it for now. Your health is paramount."

Entropy's horn glowed briefly in a dark red, and Chrono's vision again darkened, his consciousness slipping away once again.

He woke what felt like only moments later, his eyes snapping open and his position coming bolt-upright in only a manner of seconds. Princess Celestia stood alone on the other side of the ward, watching him with an eye covered by the decadence of her mane. "This past evening must have been difficult for you." She said, turning to face him. "Do you remember anything?"

Chrono nodded. "I'm pretty sure we've found the culprit. A unicorn mare by the name of 'Violet Shadow'. Dreadfully powerful too. Evidently she can recreate other ponies in the image of anyone she's encountered before, which I'm hoping was the case when I saw Twilight and the others at the top of her tower."

"They were aggressive?"

Chrono nodded.

"Strange."

"You know something?"

"Rarity said she had heard something about you and your friends betraying Canterlot. I left it to them to see into the matter but they haven't returned. I'm beginning to wonder if this Violet Shadow has replicas of them all at her bidding."

Chrono frowned. "With all due respect, I don't see any legitimate reason to believe Rarity would doubt us."

"I understand," Celestia nodded, "but at this rate we can no longer afford to make assumptions."

Chrono's horn lit with a brief spell to check how much time he had remaining. His eyes widened quickly as a result.

"Numerous reports have come of other cities outside of Manehattan being overtaken by hordes of purely-black ponies. Earth ponies, unicorns and pegasi alike but all black."

"My time's up," Chrono reasoned, "How long ago did Entropy find me?"

"Nearly half a day."

"And... how long ago did we leave for Manehattan?"

Celestia raised an eyebrow. "Nine days. Is something the matter?"

"I'm guessing it was yesterday when these reports were made."

"Is there something I should know, Chrono Spark?"

Chrono nodded. "The night we arrived in Manehattan, Violet confronted me and gave me a week of unconventional time to put all this to a close. Finding out that I've been unconscious for six days of that, well... Defeats the purpose."

Celestia looked out through a window, prompting Chrono to do the same. He was not long to follow.

The streets of Canterlot were flooded with guards, the skies above active with a consistent patrol. Chrono bit his lower lip, anticipating the cause. "Has there been an attack?"

"Not yet." Celestia pointed a hoof through the window at a small encampment in the distance. "There are eleven such camps located around Canterlot alone."

Chrono cringed. He didn't like fighting as it was, but this looked to be an outright declaration of war. "And..." The question caused a slight shudder to traverse the young stallion's spine, "everywhere else?"

Celestia turned to face him with her head alone, the cold stare in her eye stopping Chrono's heart cold. "The only good news anypony has delivered is Violet's new base out in Fillydelphia. Somehow or another though, a lot of the smaller towns have reported nothing."

Chrono nodded. "Anything from Ponyville? I'm sure of all ponies Twilight would have found something out."

"Oh, that reminds me!" Celestia said, her tone lightening suddenly. "She wanted to see you about a day ago. She said it was urgent."

Chrono nodded, not letting the pain in his sides slow him down as he made his way out through Canterlot Castle's architecture.

"There you are!" Twilight said with some slight alarm as she opened the door to the library. She almost had him choked with a hug before long. "We were so worried about you, why didn't you tell us you were going?"

"Immediately if not sooner," Chrono explained once he got some room to breathe. "I didn't have much of a choice. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you all in time."

"Ouch. Well come on, I've heard about what you're up to and decided to do some research. I think you'll find this interesting."

Twilight levitated a book near to Chrono, opened up to the details on Nightmare Moon.

"Wait a second." Chrono blinked, "Didn't you and the others already dispatch her?"

"We defeated Nightmare Moon a few years ago yes, but she herself wasn't actually defeated. Only her hold on princess Luna was cut off."

"Then what are you getting at?"

"Wait until you see this." Twilight levitated an armful of scrolls and dumped them in front of Chrono. "There's a lot more to this Violet Shadow pony than just her recent acts. After going through some history records it turns out she's responsible for some of the best acts in Equestrian history!"

Chrono's skepticism must have showed, as Twilight's expression twisted into one of disbelief. "You're sure we've got the same Violet Shadow here?"

"Positive. Especially since there have been some rumors floating out of Manehattan that say she's changed completely. That doesn't happen to just anypony, Chrono."

"And what makes you think it was Nightmare Moon?"

"Princess Luna's appearance was altered just the same as Violet's was. Violet Shadow isn't really a black pony at all."

Chrono tilted his head, curious now that his doubts had been put to question. "So, the only way out of this is in using the elements of harmony, right?"

"Not exactly." Twilight shook her head, "We need something more lasting. When Princess Celestia used the elements a thousand years ago and banished Nightmare Moon to the moon, it didn't last. She just retook princess Luna from there and used her to make her way back. When my friends and I used the elements on her a few years ago she obviously just made her way to somepony else who had potential to cause mass worry. Turns out she chose Violet."

"So, what do you suggest?"

Twilight's horn glowed as she smiled eerily. For the first time in his life, Chrono grew afraid of his own friend, if only slightly.

"You won't have to go far," a familiar voice sounded from shortly behind Chrono. "I've been following you this whole time."

As he spun, Chrono's familiarity with the voice of Violet Shadow was lost in what he saw. The entirely-black unicorn from before as he had expected, was not the image he saw before him now. White, with a bright lavender mane and tail, granted identical in physical shape to the ambitious mare he had met before, but there seemed a faint magenta glow about her. As she began to walk in a circling pattern about him and Twilight, he realized it was less a glow and more an aftermirage. Strangely fitting for her name, perhaps the origin thereof. He wasn't about to query though.

"Why?" He asked.

"Because you were the one to make my plan perfect. The one to give me free reign over all time itself, and yet you're still as persistent as ever. I had to find out why."

"What, you've never heard of friends before? Support for the ponies you care about?" Twilight asked, clearly edged with a touch of sarcasm.

"And you've only taken twenty years to figure out for yourself what they were. Why point hooves at me?" Violet countered, smiling. "Although I have to say, your skills in research are exceptional for your age."

Chrono narrowed his eyes. "Cut to the chase. What do you want?"

"Explanations." Violet answered simply. "From all sides of this confrontation."

"I hardly have much to explain. You're pitting yourself and your ambitions against all of Equestria with an even chance of succeeding through purely amoral means. That naturally puts you up against me."

"Especially dealing with your affiliations to Entropy, hmm? Seems odd that you can stand up for one potential destroyer of Equestria and stand against the next at the same time." Violet smirked, but it was quickly lost in Chrono's glare.

"Entropy made amends. You have not. And, I'm guessing by your remark about Twilight's studies that her account for Nightmare Moon is -" Chrono's inquisition was cut short just as a brief image of the fabled Mare in the Moon hovered over Violet's frame. "...Accurate."

"Sure enough," Violet said with a simple shrug. "I wanted to oppose the judgement and means of Celestia's rule, and I was given a way to. Nothing unusual, simple business."

"I'd hardly call stealing everypony's identity to be simple business." Twilight remarked, "Besides, what has princess Celestia done so wrong anyway?"

Violet turned, for the first time granting Chrono a view of her cutie mark; a black eye with a violet pupil. He could only guess as to what it may have signified. "The same thing you have, obviously. You both never really solve a problem. You simply delay it for the next to be troubled by. The banishment of Nightmare Moon coincided with the banishment of the innocent princess, Luna for example."

Chrono had no answer in particular. Looking over, he could see Twilight fighting to keep from lashing out right then and there.

"What gives? Everypony makes mistakes. Even the self-proclaimed perfect ones like Entropy." Chrono fired finally. "What makes you think you're any different?"

"Oh, I don't." Violet replied calmly, "I'm no different from the rest. Equestria needs a leader that can understand other ponies' imperfections."

"And you intend to accomplish this by force?" Twilight interjected, "Some leadership material you are!"

Chrono glanced over at the sound of a slight screech in Twilight's direction. To his surprise a familiar golden crown adorned with a six-sided amethyst star lay on her head. The element of Magic.

Glancing back to Violet, her stance revealed that this was no longer up for debate. She would stop at nothing less, and it was not going to be resolved peacefully.

"Come on then. Show me you can do better, Twilight Sparkle. See if you're capable of filling in where I can't."

At first Twilight was caught somewhat off guard, before the surrounding shifting into what appeared a spiraling indigo vortex caught Chrono by surprise as well. A trap, obviously but for what purpose he could not hope to tell.

Moments later, the vaguely familiar sight of dull white walls and a blue energy weave reminded Chrono of his last experience with Violet. He braced, horn glowing slightly as he reached out to detect any spikes in magic throughout the room. As he glanced back though, he realized something was different. This room had no doorway...

"Violet!" Twilight shouted, "Show yourself!"

She did as told, appearing simply to glide across the floor without any movement of her legs. As she appeared and disappeared throughout various places, Violet made it far more of a scene than it felt like, and incidentally Chrono knew already this was going to be an evasive contest.

"Come on." Violet said simply, coming to a halt with her casually unnerving smirk resting on her face. "Let's see what you both are really capable of."

The same four walls that were in the initial room sprang up from the floor, and behind one the visual of Violet vanished. Throughout the room several repeating streaks of dark purple light caught Chrono's attention, his passive identification spell alerting him to nothing he could consider pleasant. They appeared to strike at random, but at a predictable interval. As he paused to consider any potential pattern, he had to skip ahead a step to avoid being shot through by one in the first place. "Coward..." he whispered.

A more intense and wide beam of purple caught his attention then, sourced at Violet herself. Twilight had already jumped out of sight in pursuit, but a second beam intercepting the first gave Chrono time to react and move out of the way before Violet persisted in breaking through Twilight's defensive move.

Still Twilight was catching on quickly, almost dancing for how quickly and frequently she had to move in order not to be skewered by any particular magical onslaught. Violet vanished again, and while Chrono could see out of his periphery her charge at him, he showed no sign of interest until he could see the strands of time about him, slowing immensely with his opponent's movements.

For all Twilight could tell, he had simply moved quickly to the side and flipped into a crashing strike of his hoof into Violet's back all within a quarter of a second. For Chrono it took significantly longer.

Violet's response sent the young stallion flying back though, as a small field of disruptive magic converted Chrono's passive identification spell into an explosion centered on his own horn. The pain momentarily blinded him, and his horn shook relentlessly under the force of its own evident burst. Raising a hoof to his head to calm the resulting headache, the thought occurred to him to check if his horn was even there anymore. To his slight relief, it was.

Violet vanished again, reappearing in time for her own blow to catch in her mind as she stumbled slightly backwards. "Catching on?" She asked, still smirking.

Chrono had to agree with the assumptions the question gave him. This was likely to be an uphill battle.

The entire room erupted in bright purple rays, and while Chrono glanced to find the source, his suspicions were proven wrong when he found Twilight hard at work manipulating the field to force Violet on the run. She slid back, catching less crossfire than she could have but still clearly more than she would have liked. Without seeing much point in assisting with his meager magic and fearful for the consequence of Violet's cruel countermeasure again, he rushed ahead. A ray from Violet later, and he elected to force his weight back, instead sliding along his back and side, kicking out and forcing Violet to the floor.

Except that as soon as she would have impacted, she vanished. "Impressive! See how you can take some wrath though..." Violet's voice sounded from the open past two of the walls.

Chrono could see her horn glowing fiercely. The same spell that had sent him flying into the wall in their first encounter, probably again seeing its destructive power. Twilight teleported to a wall for cover. Chrono stopped time to find his.

Both of them were caught by the secondary reflection that bounced through the room.

Chrono could barely hold himself up anymore, let alone coordinate himself into a viable offensive. Clouds of black flitted through his vision, and before he knew it, only the deep resounding thuds of magic impacting around him existed, for all he could tell.

"Chrono!" Twilight cried out, still keeping her wits about her.

Violet appeared again, in front of her. Her smirk it seemed, had not faded in the least. "You I've got something special planned for, Twilight." She said with a low laugh.

"What do you want, Violet? You think I'm going to cooperate with you after everything you've done?"

"Not at all. You have something I want, right there on your forehead."

Twilight teleported away, holding fast to her ground. "Not in a million years!"

"That can be arranged."

"You know what I meant!"

"And what about your friend Chrono? He's still alive, but that can be easily rectified."

Twilight's answer came in a powerful levitation field around the white unicorn. Her glare and her scowl would have instilled panic in any normal pony. "You lay so much as a hoof on him and I'm going to use you to tear down this entire room, am I clear?"

Chrono's consciousness slowly returned to him, and he forced his head to the side to see what was going on. Violet lay thoroughly beaten on the inner wall, still held by a levitation spell. Again the young stallion's fear of Twilight rose to meet his admiration of her.

"Did you think I'd... make it this simple?" Violet asked, panting for breath. "I'm just a shadow. You'll never find me anyway. Have fun blundering around."

Twilight's rage got the better of her, and Violet was sent hurdling hard into the far wall, vanishing into a small cloud of black mist. "I will find you, Violet!" Twilight screamed.

"Twilight." Chrono managed to say. "It's no use. She can't hear you."

"Chrono!" Twilight's relief shone clearly in her otherwise abnormally stressed tone. "Are you alright?"

"I-I've been better," he confessed, "but I'm having trouble finding out if I've been worse or not."

A reassuring hoof on his shoulder granted him the security he needed to believe he would live through the day. "Come on, we should probably get back..."

Even for Chrono's impaired vision, he could see a definite change in scenery. The familiar sight of a brown floor rather than a miasmic energy flow clued him into exactly where he was.

"Home?" Twilight's voice sounded.

"Chrono."

The voice was familiar, but for the moment Chrono could not quite place a name to the calling over his irritation of waking up to the sound of his name spoken by somepony or another every time he passed out. As he opened his eyes though, only white greeted his vision, blurred slightly by a severely-unfocused spot of light purple. After blinking several times, he could see more clearly in the distance standing in the same white void, Violet Shadow, much the same as the shadow he and Twilight had defeated.

Or, to his admission, moreover that Twilight had defeated.

"What is it this time?" He asked, but Violet only sighed as he asked.

"Relax," she said simply, "I'm not here for confrontations. I told you I wanted explanations from both sides, and now I have yours and Twilight's. I'm a mare of my word, or haven't you noticed this already?"

Chrono nodded, his glare holding steady.

"Celestia and I differ on a lot of theories and practical applications. Secretly I've wanted to see how somepony else would do in her place for a pretty long time, but after hearing that Nightmare Moon was defeated for a second time, let alone the resulting string of events that the so-called heroes of Ponyville have been involved in, I began to realize that so many keep with her out of fear as much as anything else. Is this what Equestria is meant to stand for? I should hope not!"

"Get to the point. How is this any better?"

Violet remained silent, her eyes glistening somewhat as though Chrono's words had struck an unnerving chord within her. "It's not. Truth is, it's worse and I don't have a choice anymore."

"Of course you d-"

"You don't understand!" Violet shouted, tensing slightly. "I've given my future to reshaping Equestria. Nightmare Moon offered a means to do so in exchange for well, me as a median between herself and reality. At the time, who was I to refuse a practically guaranteed success?"

Chrono paused. "Wait a moment, you accepted the help from a known enemy of Equestria without question?"

"A known enemy of Celestia." Violet corrected.

"Without question."

Violet stared for several long seconds before finally nodding. "A foalish mistake, I know. And now I have to pay for the crimes, or whenever you and everypony else finally catch up to me."

"Why are you telling me this? You've proven tight-lipped so far, what could you possibly have to gain in telling me more than a simple minimum?"

Violet raised an eyebrow with an enlightened laugh. "Because you're the only one who can stand up to everypony else combined and have any chance of coming out in one piece. I realize my actions especially recently have been awful, and the truth is... I want it to end. I don't care about what happens after anymore, I just want it all to stop. I wanted to be the bringer of change for Equestria, not destruction. I was tricked much the same as your Luna was."

"How can I believe you then? What evidence is there that this is even you talking to me and not some shadow like before?"

"You're welcome to test any theories you have, but at this particular moment neither of us exist."

"Huh?"

"Something I picked up along the way. The point is, you have no hard evidence. Only confessions and wishes for the future. Strange thing is, if you keep going the way you are you'll never succeed. Take it back where it started, back to where you first even learned about activities in Manehattan."

"...Canterlot?"

"Celestia's been gone for quite some time. You of all ponies should know I can make an impressive act when I want to."

"You!" Chrono's mane bristled, "Then where's the princess?"

"The roles are reversed, Chrono. Nightmare Moon now holds the throne of Equestria in the guise of Celestia herself. Celestia, however, has taken to some time on the moon to contemplate the fate she left her sister to. Once I'm gone, that will probably change but until then things aren't going to get any better. Be careful who follows you though. Nopony's likely to believe that Equestria is in the leadership of a rogue alicorn princess. Farewell for now, and..."

"And?" Chrono raised an eyebrow.

"...I wanted to thank you."

"What? What for?"

"What in the hay, Chrono." The voice was definitely not Violet's. The accent and particular influxion of voice led him to believe it was that of Applejack, and the pricking of needle-like surfaces at his back led him to believe he was on a haystack somewhere in Sweet Apple Acres. As he opened his eyes and regained focus, he realized both were correct. Not only Applejack though, but everypony else too. Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Rainbow... even Aero and Deuce had come to lend a hoof for him after all the troubles. It did the young unicorn stallion good to see them all at least relatively unharmed.

"H-hey guys..." Chrono managed to say weakly. "How long was I out?"

"Only a few hours," Fluttershy whispered, "but you looked just awful, I was afraid you might not make i-"

"Fluttershy, this ain't no time to be tellin' him how bad he looks!" Applejack protested.

"But who do you think you're kidding? He looks -"

"Rarity!" The combined voices of Twilight and Rainbow collided uniquely into a harmonic mess. Rarity got the idea, and subsequently silenced.

"I doubt I look any better than I feel, at least. I've definitely felt worse." Chrono observed. "But either way, I think I may have just found the last step in all this."

"Yeah?" Rainbow asked. "What'cha got?"

Chrono glanced around to everypony else in the room. "Twilight, you summoned the element of magic just before our confrontation with Violet, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Think you can do it for all six?"

It took several attempts, the minor majority of which were unsuccessful, but alongside a few pendant-sized icons similar to their cutie marks, the six elements of harmony appeared.

"Can you explain to me why we couldn't just get these from princess Celestia?" Twilight asked after a moment's thought.

"You'd have better luck taking a conventional timeshift spell back and not causing paradoxes." Chrono said simply. "Princess Celestia is on the moon."

A chorus of gasps rose up around him. Aero looked immensely puzzled. "That can't be right. I saw her just a few hours ago!"

"No you didn't. Violet can reshape herself into anypony she's encountered before. I'd be willing to bet there isn't a single stallion, mare or foal in all Equestria she couldn't imitate by now. Princess Celestia, in this particular case, is ultimately a Nightmare Moon-held Violet Shadow."

A squeak from the side caught Chrono's attention. Fluttershy was already hiding behind the nearest desk for shelter, presumably from his mere news of the fact. "As it were... I'm going to need everypony's help getting there."

"Count me in, partner!" Applejack said before he was even done saying 'there'.

"You got it!" Pinkie chimed in.

"You don't have to tell me twice. A crime against fabulosity is one thing, but a crime against royal titles? Unthinkable!" Rarity announced.

"I'd gladly help." Twilight said, smiling.

"Anypony dealing with the princesses has to go through me anyway!" Rainbow shouted, "Come on!"

Fluttershy merely squeaked, but nodded fearfully.

Deuce glanced out the window along the expanses of corn beyond the barn. "I've been with you from the start, Chrono. If you're sure about this, I'll be there right with you."

"Same here." Aero said, casting a glance at all those around. "Looks like we got ourselves a small army here too!"

"We've definitely got the numbers to do something worth mention. The trouble is there are as likely to be Canterlot guards coming against us as Violet's shadow ponies." Chrono thought out loud. "We need to come up with a plan."

"Leave the guards to us," Twilight said with a grin. "I'm pretty sure we can handle a tight situation if we keep together and focused."

"Guess that leaves us," Chrono looked to Aero and Deuce. "Think we can handle it?"

"They'll have to see us coming for us not to." Deuce remarked. Chrono conceded the point.

"Alright, let's g-" Chrono moved to get up, before quickly realizing he was in worse shape than he had thought. His back refused to budge.

"Ah don't think yer goin' anywhere jus' yet." Applejack said sternly. "Relax, give it a day or two."

Reluctantly, Chrono dropped his head back into the hay and allowed himself time to recover.

"Chrono Spark?" Celestia turned with surprise at the sudden entrance of the unicorn and his friends. All eight of his friends, as security had become surprisingly low throughout Canterlot Castle. "What's going on here?"

"Don't try to bluff me." Chrono said with steel resolve. "Where are all the guards? Why in all Equestria would you bother not ordering a stop to all nine of us rather aggressively making our way through the city? Show yourself, will you? It's not like names matter now."

A familiar high-pitched giggle sounded throughout the room as Celestia's figure melted down into the blackened Violet Shadow, smirk resting on her face. "Haven't had enough yet, have you?"

"I'm not talking about you, Violet. Nightmare Moon is the one I'm after." Chrono declared.

"Well isn't that too bad?" Violet smiled a little more thinly. "You've got a long way to go before you convince me to give up that easily."

A multitude of sounds from behind him caught Chrono's attention immediately, although by the time he managed to look back to the sources, his visibility became nothing more than a massive rainbow pouring out from the elements. His surprise was immense; his horn usually felt charged slightly in the presence of powerful magic, but his entire coat felt as if it could stand on end from this!

As it settled though, neither Twilight nor her friends could be seen. The throne room faded into what seemed an eternal hallway of stone, lined with dark blue designs. Ahead of himself, Aero and Deuce, was none other than the full-fledged figure and presumably entity of Nightmare Moon herself. Chrono could hardly help but cringe in his wonders of what fate had befallen the others if any.

"So, you three think to challenge me?" Nightmare Moon asked. "Brave, however foolish. Do you even know who I am?"

"How can I forget?" Deuce asked, appalled. "It's your fault princess Luna was driven to madness over a thousand years ago! And it was your fault that one of the formerly most respected mares in Manehattan has become the target of every single well-meaning faction in Equestria!"

Chrono raised an eyebrow. He knew Deuce could get overexcited in somepony else's defense, but he had yet to see the stallion so furious. Still to his immense surprise a small golden anklet formed about Deuce's hoof, bearing at its point a red streak of lightning.

The element of loyalty? But, that belonged to Rainbow Dash!

Chrono glanced back to Nightmare Moon, dismissing the thought for now. He still had yet to make any form of plan for dealing with the mare of darkness herself, without simply putting disaster on hold as had been done several times past.

"He's right, you know." Aero remarked. "And for what? What do you have to prove?"

Nightmare Moon's mane flared, as did her eyes. "I don't have to answer to you!" She screamed.

"You're right, you don't." Aero said with a shrug. "Sort of like we don't have to confront you, but we chose to anyway. We all have something we believe in, something worth fighting for."

Another shimmer from Aero's direction. A familiar golden anklet, laden with an orange apple.

Chrono's confusion grew. Were his friends summoning the elements of harmony beyond the reaches of Equestrian timespace? Already honesty and loyalty had been brought out.

"Enough!" Nightmare Moon screeched, the sheer power of her voice causing the friends to slide back several steps as the hallway shattered into an endless starry expanse. No visible floor, but it was easy enough to tell it was there by sheer fact they weren't all floating. "To the void of space with you!"

Several eerie black silhouettes floated out from Nightmare Moon's ever-flowing mane, moving to and from on inevitable intercepting paths for Chrono and friends. None of them seemed to have much difficulty slipping past the first set, but when they started compounding each began moving quickly and constantly enough to be forced onto the defensive.

Then Chrono heard a chuckle as Aero's wings began to spark oddly. Chrono had seen this before, of course; Aero's unique talent was to take the charge from storm clouds and hold them between the feathers of his wings in such a way to be mostly harmless to him. By all evidence, he had just done so, but without a cloud in sight. "How's that for funny?" He chuckled. "These things are electric!"

"What?" Nightmare called, clearly upset and confused by this revelation. "How can you even survive that?"

"Kind of like this!" Aero answered, his wing snapping forward as the stored charge dispersed in front of him, showering Nightmare moon with dozens of darkened sparks. Around his other forehoof now shone another element; a familiar pink balloon representing the element of laughter.

Again Chrono could hardly help his confusion. Nightmare Moon was taken aback slightly by the sudden turn of events, and her fears began to mount on her face. However, she quickly resorted to balefire, the green flames searing out in snakelike spins at the others. They were cut off at the source though, by a projectile Deuce had always been known to keep somewhere on him.

Most theories of the storage of his single playing card resided with the answer being his tail, but nothing was confirmed. A single card, the Two of Diamonds to be exact, and the material being nothing less than diamond as well. It intercepted Nightmare Moon's horn in time to cut off the flow of balefire prior to it devouring himself and the others.

"Forgetting something? There are three of us, we can stick up for each other pretty well Nightmare Moon." Deuce remarked, even as against all odds the element of kindness materialized on his forehoof.

Chrono realized then exactly why Entropy had taken such an interest in him and his friends. Initially, she had mentioned him being the only one to be able to stand up to her, and his more recent discovery of his relative immortality had given him enough insight as to the potential he no doubt carried. Potential that he would not necessarily have preferred to bear, but his life was full of duties. Duties that he would be willing to perform until some fateful day when he could no longer perform them in his own demise.

Nightmare Moon's mane flared again, streaks of sheer energy ripping through the space around them. Each fell short however, as did time itself. Chrono stood, staring her eye-to-eye despite the obvious change in height. "Leave them be. I'm the one who came after you; they don't need to be harmed."

Nightmare Moon did not answer, but her eyes dilated inward in such a way that she evidently heard him. A sudden shift of weight on his left forehoof caught his attention. Nothing more, nothing less; the element of generosity...

"This isn't their fight, and you know it. You've been tracking me for a week and a half now, and it's me you're going to get. The funny thing is, I come with friends. It's a real shame you can't understand that too well."

Time resumed, Aero and Deuce both dove to the side in the nick of time. Chrono didn't particularly need to look down to see what had dropped on his right forehoof. The tables had leveled; the same fight that had started with inevitable loss had turned right around into a potential victory.

"Stop, all of you."

Entropy's voice was stern to an absolute as she appeared behind Chrono and his friends. She moved past him, giving him a faint smile as she went. "Thank you all." she said quietly. "If it hadn't been for you I'd never have gotten this chance."

Chrono's confusion was at its peak, as clearly were those of his friends. "What's going on?" Deuce bothered to query.

"Deuce Wylde. Aero Slide... Chrono Spark. I wish I could explain, but right now I don't have much choice in front of me. Chrono, consider yourself relieved of my authority. You are of course, free to do as you will, never forget that."

"Entropy, what's going on here?" Chrono asked, somewhat more urgently than Deuce had.

"You foal..." Nightmare Moon grumbled. "You spent how long setting everything up, just for this?"

Entropy nodded. "It was worth seeing through. It's taken me a long time to realize just how wrong I was, Nightmare. Now I have to take it all back. And there's only one way to keep a pony pinned down forever."

"You wouldn't!" Nightmare Moon cried out.

"I've done it once before. I'm not afraid to do it for the good of Equestria."

Entropy's horn glowed immediately at a shine that very nearly blinded Chrono and the others, but as quickly as it had come, it was gone. Entropy and Nightmare Moon both fell to the invisible floor, and as Chrono began a quick detection spell for any vitals, he realized she had siphoned the life out of both herself and Nightmare Moon simultaneously, ultimately killing them both.

He took a step forward, crouching down on all fours beside Entropy, watching as Nightmare Moon's mane and tail subverted to a mundane flowing mane and tail. "I still have a debt to repay you Entropy. I guess now's the only time I can."

The surroundings broadened briefly before shaping to the throne room once again, where princess Celestia stood watching somberly out through a window. Entropy lay there, beside Nightmare Moon. At a glance, Chrono could tell it was evening out. Celestia turned her head to see him and the others, looking slightly surprised by their holding of the elements. Chrono however, focused solely on Entropy. One spell put her in a temporal stasis field. Another manipulated the timespace of the field itself back through to before she had sacrificed herself. A third released her, and she fell a short inch or two to the floor, looking mildly confused.

"What happened?" She asked, looking from Chrono to Celestia.

"Do you remember when we first met?" Chrono asked her.

Entropy nodded.

"Consider this a token of thanks, and a debt repaid."

He moved to the window beside Celestia, not daring to speak a word more concerning the situation. Looking up to the night sky, he noticed a vaguely familiar face embedded in its surface, which now shone red.

"What about Violet? Where are Twilight and the others?" Aero asked.

Celestia turned after several moments. "Violet has been taken into custody. Twilight Sparkle and her friends are all in Ponyville. Thank you all for what you have done."

"O-of course." Chrono stammered.

Entropy slowly began to walk out through the doorway, motioning for Chrono to follow.

"What should I do now, Chrono? I don't have much of anywhere to go, now that my business is finished."

"You're asking me for advice? I'm only a single unicorn. You've got more than I could even dream of at your disposal, why in all Equestria would you be lacking for something to do?"

"It's not that I lack anything to do, Chrono. It's that I don't know what to do, and more to the point... how to do it."

"...Make some friends, Entropy. I know it's not easy recognizing everypony's flaws despite them not even showing it, but there's nopony in Equestria better at fixing a flaw than somepony who can see it. You might be surprised how appreciated you might actually be once everyone gets over their shame."

"You think so?"

"You remember the discussion we had between when I died and when you resurrected me?"

"As if it were yesterday."

"I know your flaws too, Entropy. I know what makes your life difficult, and while I don't know them for my own experience I can help in that aspect. I'm trying to do that now."

"But then where would I start? The odds of somepony casually taking friendship from a known villain alicorn are-"

"I can clear your name. Just, leave that to me."

"You'd do that?"

"For a friend."

"And your life?"

"No, that I've repaid. I'll clear your name, but I'd like to be able to see you as a friend now. Does that sound fair?"

"...I suppose so. You have a deal, Chrono Spark."