"Objective complete."

One bullet left his gun. One bullet that ended this entire adventure in a single second. Silence filled the area as the man who had caused this hell was finally gone forever. He sighed in relief as he heard the AI's words, looking down at the now deceased Krone.

"Whoever you are, soldier, thank you."

He looked over as the militia commander that he had worked with, Mason Cooke, waved at him. He nodded back.

"Auto return function repaired. Initiating jump."

The user looked down at the display on his wrist. He then felt himself thrust backwards as his suit activated the time jump, knocking him unconcious for a moment.

"Where is Shining Armor?"

"He reported that he was going into the tundra, your highness. We wanted to go with him, but he refused. He said something about a yeti being too close to the city."

Princess Cadance, the ruler of the Crystal Empire, sighed to herself in mild frustration and concern. "Why does he always have to be so reckless?" She nodded at the guard, thanking him as she walked away.

"I need to get to him. If he gets himself hurt..."

She trotted as fast as she could towards the city walls. She needed to get past the barrier and fast. On her way, she brought some guards with her. She'd need the extra help if it really was a yeti. Those things could be incredibly dangerous. Big, towering monsters of snow that could break a pony in half. As she and her guards reached the barrier, they took a deep breathe and stepped outside into the freezing cold.

"Time jump successful. Original destination altered. Auto return function unavailable"

The user looked down at the wrist pad, slamming it with his fist. He growled in anger. What did the damn thing mean original destination changed? And what was that about the auto return function not working? If he couldn't get back to his own timeline, he couldn't save...

He punched the ground. As he did, he felt cold. Snow. He didn't even realise immediately. He still had his weapons with him from the alternate reality. A karbine, a shattergun and an echo rifle. He wasn't sure how he still had those, considering they were from a different timeline, but he wasn't about to question it. He sighed behind his visor, walking forward, looking around. There was nothing but snow for miles, it seemed. Just a snow storm that never seemed to end. Where even was he?

He heard something ahead of him. Sounded like...wildlife? Some sort of creature was battling...something. It sounded a bit like a gorilla. He readied his karbine and pushed forward.

"Threat detected."

He heard the AI speak throughout his suit as he ran, trying not to fall onto the snow. He looked around, wondering what sort of mess he'd gotten himself into this time. Suddenly, he saw something in the distance. Looked like two figures. One had the shadow of...a equine like creature? And the other one looked like some sort of hairy ape from what he could make out of it. It had...horns?

Okay, so not an ape. He was pretty sure that apes didn't have horns.

With the sight of the two figures came the sound of voices. Two, to be exact. One was certainly male and he could make out what the words coming from its mouth and the other was just a set of untangible growls.

"Back off you vile beast!"

He deducted that the English talking voice was coming from the figure on the left, which was the horse like figure. He closed in on them both and he could make them out much better now. One was indeed a horse, with what appeared to be a protective cloak on. Probably to protect itself from the ice cold storm. But that wasn't what shocked the user. No, what shocked him was the fact that this horse had a horn on its head.

Like a unicorn from mythology?

He looked at the other figure, which currently had hold of the horse. It looked a bit like a yeti from old folklore. The yeti threw the horse into the snow, causing the horse to groan in agony as it slumped into the snow. It appeared unconcious. The yeti looked towads the user, growling as it charged at him.

"Evasive action required."

He slowed down time and managed to just dodge out of the way of the creature's charge. He rolled to the side and recovered near immediately. He took aim and pumped a few rounds into the creature's back, causing it to growl in pain. It turned around, blood coming out of its mouth now as it tried to charge him again. He stopped time and walked up to it, jumping on its back and shooting about 10 rounds into the back of its skull. Time resumed, the bullets connected and the creature fell to the floor as it screamed out in agony. It stopped moving after a few seconds, letting him know that the creature was slain. He looked to his left, seeing the unconcious horse. What should he do? The thing could talk. Maybe he could question it, get some info as to where he was. He walked up to it, but heard S.S.A.M speak again.

"Concealed threat detected. Time slowing threat detected."

A time slowing threat? He turned around, readying his weapon once again. He saw at least 6 new figures in the distance, clearly walking towards his position. They walked into his sight and they appeared to be...more horses? 5 of them were adorning some type of primitive armor and the other one was pink, with no armor on apart from some regalia on its hooves and its head. They looked at the slain yeti, some of the guards nearly puking. The pink one just looked at it, a stoic expression on its face. It then looked towards the unconcious horse that the yeti had thrown earlier and then to the user. Its eyes hardened when they met him. It then trotted towards the unconcious one, trying to wake him. He could hear it speak.

"Shiny, wake up!"

The guards came towards me, spears raised. I heard one of them speak.

"Don't even think of moving. Whatever you are, stay there."

"Manual timeshift available."

As he heard the computer's voice echo through his ears, he narrowed his eyes behind his visor. He reversed time to the point where they were still in the distance. He laid in the snow, camoflauging himself. The ponies looked around and went through the exact same actions as they did a minute ago. The only difference is that they didn't notice him this time. He had his plan. He was going to follow them back to wherever they came from. See if he could get some info of this place. Questioning the unicorn was out of question at the moment anyway. He was already being carried away by the guards. As they were walking away, the pink one turned around, narrowing her eyes and searching the area. Did she see him? Impossible. He was completely encased in the snow. It eventually turned back around, following the guards. He sighed in relief, standing up once he had made sure that they were far enough that they wouldn't hear him, but not too far away. He still needed to follow them. He held his weapon tight and quietly followed them, making sure they couldn't see him if they turned around.

The user followed them for about an hour before ariving at the nearest city. What he saw baffled him. A city made out of crystals, the inhabitants themselves were coating in a shiny, crystal like coat and he saw a heart what seemed to be made out of wood.

He was joking. It was crystal.

Was there a crystal fetish here?

He was currently hidden behind a local stall what was being managed by a citizen. He managed to get in pretty easily, using his time powers when the time called for it.

The user wasn't great at humour, if you didn't already notice.

The pink one, along with the others, brought the unconcious unicorn back into the giant castle in front of him. He hummed to himself in thought. How was he going to get in there?

"Manual timeshift available."

S.S.A.M's voice came through to him for the first time since he had started following them. He looked at the door and looked in the suit's HUD to see what time power the AI had recommened. Stop time was selected. He nodded to himself and stopped time, walking slowly past the now completely still crowd of ponies. He managed to just make it inside the castle in time before his suit ran out of energy, the guards at the door being non the wiser. He spotted the pink one up ahead. The guards were still towing behind her. He crouched and stalked them, seeing where they'd go. The pink one went to a massive, crystal door and opened it, taking the unconcious male with her. The guards saluted and went their own way. He hid behind a table just before the guards noticed. He breathed out softly. Checking to make sure that the guards had dispersed, he slowly went up to the massive door. He let his suit energy refill itself before he opened the door and stopped time just as it was wide enough to let him in. He walked in, noticing that the pink one was in the process of turning her head towards the door. He hid behind a wardrobe at the back of the room, there being just enough space to fit. When time resumed, the female looked at the door, confused. She then shrugged and went back to caring for the still unconcious one. She then did something that confused him.

Her horn started glowing again and she searched around the room. Had she picked up on the time interferance? If so, how?

"Come on out, I know something is there."

"Time slowing threat detected."

He narrowed his eyes towards the thing. That warning again. So this thing had the power to slow time as well? How? Surely it was to do with the glow coming from the horn on its head. It then turned its head towards the wardrobe and walked towards it. He stopped time and managed to get out from behind the wardrobe and hide underneath the bed. The pony looked behind where he just was, him sighing in relief. He checked to make sure that his weapons were all in check. Good, all of them were accounted for.

"I see you, you know. Come out."

He gulped. Shit. He looked up to see the pony now staring at him, an unamused look on its face. He pointed his gun at it, causing it to back off slightly. He got out from under the bed, still pointing his karbine at it. It looked at him, now narrowing its eyes.

"Listen, I don't know what you are and I can only assume what you're holding is a weapon with how you're pointing it directly at me. If that's the case, lower it. I do not wish to cause you harm unless you try to cause me harm."

He wasn't buying it. What if it tried to get the better of him as soon as he complied?

It then did something that he wasn't expecting. It smiled.

"You're scared, aren't you? Please, lower the weapon. I won't hurt you. I swear on my life."

Its voice seemed...genuine. He couldn't pick up on any malice or dishonesty. And he was quite good at reading people. He sighed and lowered the gun, keeping his distance. He had his time powers on standby if this turned out bad.

Its smile widened, sitting down on the bed. "Thank you, I appreciate it. Can you speak?"

He nodded.

"In that case, do you mind telling me why you were under my bed and how you got here?"

Its voice seemed...similar. But he couldn't place his finger on it. Then, it hit him. It couldn't be...

"Initiating neural stimili."

Before he could question the response from S.S.A.M, he saw his love. He felt a heavy weight in his chest. That's why her voice sounded so similar.

It sounded like hers. Near identical.

His mind came back to reality. The pony was now staring at him, concern spread across its face.

"Hello? Are you okay?"

It waved its hoof, trying to get his attention. He nodded. He then slowly took his helmet off for the first time ever since he put the beta suit on. He breathed in deeply, the pony staring in awe and intrigue.

"The name is Michael Swift. Prepare yourself, because this explanation is going to be very strange for you."

Author's Note

Had this idea when I was playing through Timeshift again. An underrated gem in my eyes. Really fun. This story might not get updated super fast, but I will stick to it. If any of you guys have read my Vanquish story, please know that I do plan to continue it eventually. It isn't dead yet. I've just not had the energy to write more for that particular story and I don't want to just rush a chapter out for the sake of updating it. I'd feel wrong if I rushed it. But I will try my best to update it in the near future.

Criticsm is welcome. Hope you enjoyed this first chapter and we'll see where this goes.