Quantum had heard the muffled, hypersonic screech of Dusk Wing mid-thrust.

The scree was cut-off, interrupted, snipped. And it made him halt immediately. Instantly, his attention shifted entirely back to his next actions, his surroundings… a hyper-awareness of readiness to spring into action.

All the sensation of his cock being sucked by a beautiful mare was completely segregated. Set aside as irrelevant.

In less than half a second, his mind raced, running through the possibilities.

He really hadn’t expected the guard to attempt a direct assault. The single point of entry being an elevator shaft made any tactical entry a suicide mission. The fatal funnel of fire, the potential for magical traps and physical explosives… and that was all without hostages thrown into the mix.

His plan had always been to break these two mares completely, then send them up the elevator shaft alone to negotiate their ‘supposed’ co-operative release. It would be a hard sell to convince the guard to let them up to the surface without a horn-restrictor, but with two agents making their case Quantum felt he had a good shot. Then all he would need was just a heartbeat of time above the surface -- a heartbeat to activate his time-spell and make his escape… solo of course.

But he hadn’t expected this. This was foolishness!

The only way the guard would even consider this assault would be if they had a flank-entry. A way to use the distraction of an attack down the main-shaft to draw focus away from the real threat…

Teleporters!

Quantum instantly fired his time-freeze spell, bringing the very fabric of space-time to a screeching halt. The four other ponies, all engaged in debauched, stretching, sweaty sex were snap-frozen in place. All the faces twisted in orgasmic-ecstasy as Trunch and Crunch were captured in the throes of semen-pumping ejaculations.

Quantum turned, pulling his shaft out of Lyra’s maw with a pop. His eyes widened, shocked.

Right behind him, horn charging with some kind of knock-out or capture spell, was the princess of magic herself, Twilight Sparkle.

A shiver ran through his body, as Quantum realized just how close he had come to complete disaster. The air was still rippling with the shudder of a post-teleport distortion. He whistled softly under his breath at the ability of the purple alicorn to not only do such a huge, distant teleport through solid slate.

Teleportation wasn’t just a question of sheer, raw power. The diminishing returns that came into play as a result of distance were exponential: even the most powerful of mages couldn’t handle more than a short hop. This required skill, delicate thaumcraft that warped and played with spacetime like a foal’s toy, able to extend that hop into something more.

And she wasn’t even phased by it: he could see that her horn was already crackling with the energy of a stored knockout spell. If he’d been even a blink’s worth of time slower on his quantum freeze, he’d already be knocked out and in hoofcuffs, he had no doubt.

He grinned, readying his own spell. A potent sleep spell that would put at least the princess out of commission. Then he’d have to slink out of the elevator shaft, maybe even have to make use of the entry team’s ropes to reach the surface, passing all of the frozen tactical soldiers on his way.

He knew his bubble of frozen time could get him at least to the edge of the warehouse, and he still had at least two or even three casts of the spell left. He’d be able to get out of here.

He looked over at his goons, briefly considering their chances for survival and finding them lacking. There was no way for him to haul them all out along with him: the strain would be too great to pull them into the secluded chrono-bubble, and he doubted he could haul even Dusk Wing up that elevator shaft, let alone the two bruisers, Trunch and Crunch.

They’d have to be left behind. Well, he could always hire a fresh batch once he’d escaped.

Chumps.

But they knew their job: keep their trap shut and wait for the family’s attorneys to catch up with them. Taking the fall might land them a stint in prison… maybe even Tartarus… for a few years, but they’d get out, eventually.

And in the meantime, Quantum could corner the market with the Love Poison.

He laughed to himself, trying to shake off the slight tug of dread he’d felt only moments earlier. “Almost, Princess… Almost…” He leaned forward with his charged sleep spell, ready to cast it, “Sweet dreams, Princess.”

“Thank you.”

The voice made Quantum jump. It had been whispered into his ear, just off his left side. With a bucking kick of fright and a twist, he whirled, seeing a second alicorn before him, clad in midnight blue fur, cold blue eyes gleaming with righteous fury.

The Princess of the Night.

Luna.

“Oh, I’m sorry. We thought you were addressing us.” Luna grinned while looking about her, “‘Tis many an age since we saw such mastery of the arcanum chronicum. You must have been a most devilishly tricky opponent to catch for guardsponies of this era.”

Quantum shrieked, instinctively firing his sleep spell at the alicorn. The alicorn who was somehow still moving in his frozen quantum field!

The spell fizzled without even touching her -- the Princess’s natural thaumic presence swatting away the bolt like it was a raindrop landing on a steaming locomotive.

Quantum’s heart was in his throat: he wouldn’t stand a chance against an alicorn, not if she were on the same time-plane as him. “H-how… how did you…”

“Oh, we sensed the time bubble as we phased in. The spell was penned by a student of ours, a few hundred seasons past.” Luna sighed, “Your version is… clumsy. No warding, no disguising. Foal’s play.”

“I… I demand a lawyer!” Quantum stammered, babbling the same plan that he had once considered to be the refuge of ‘chumps’, “I won’t say anything without an attorney present.”

Luna’s brows knitted, a frown forming on her features. “Ah, attorneys. Yes. How boring.” She clicked her tongue, shaking her head. “Our sister gives far too much mercy to criminals, and far too little justice. You have done… and would have done… immeasurable harm to the innocent. And a barrister will see to it you have a comfortable cell and warm meals.” She stepped forward menacingly.

“Don’t come any closer! Stop! It’s the law!” Quantum shielded himself with his hooves.

“The law. For shame.” Luna rolled her eyes, “Trying to use it as a shield for the wicked, instead of a sword of the righteous. In my time we would have vaporized a scoundrel like you on the spot.”

“N-no! Don’t! You can’t!”

“Enough! At least scoundrels of ages past had sufficient honor to take their punishment.” Luna snarled, “Look at you, bawling for your rights like a newborn foal, ridiculously prancing about even as the stiff stallionbits you violated our ponies wag in the air.” Luna gestured at Quantum’s still-erect stallionhood, unchanged in the sphere of frozen time. “Still, we suppose we cannot summarily execute you, there is procedure to follow.”

“H-hah! Yes… YES! A lawyer, I want a lawyer. I’m not saying manure to you freak bat-fucker Princess until I have counsel.”

Luna’s eyes flashed, dark and deep… then glowed with inspiration. “Well, I believe I must… arrest you.”

The alicorn’s horn flicked on and off, a crack as brief and brilliant as a lightning flash. Quantum immediately felt something binding the base of his horn, constricting him, jamming all his spell-work in place permanently: like a horn-restrictor ring… except one that was magically applied.

“Wh-what?”

“Thou art arrested. You have the right to remain silent… any-”

“N-no… wait, I… I can’t stop my time-spell. Let me stop the spell first, how… how did you freeze me with the time bubble still active?”

“Sir,” Luna grinned, shaking her head, “Are you sure do not wish to hear me state your rights? Thou hast the right to remain silent, anything thou doest or say-”

“Shut up!” Quantum scrabbled at his horn, then turned back to Luna, “I can’t stop the time-freeze!”

Luna shrugged. “We saw nothing in this era’s procedures or laws about applying restraints to a pony casting quantum magic.” She looked up at the ceiling, tapping her chin as if musing. “We did consider that technically, you are entitled to a speedy trial… but technically time is not flowing. For the court, you will be presented as quickly as possible… for you on the other hoof.”

“You… you bitch.” Quantum felt a chill wash over him as he realized what she was about to do. “You’re gonna kill me!”

“Come now, despite your feeble use of time-magic, you must know the basics. You know it will have no effect on your body: your metabolism, your thaumic energy, your spirit… all will remain frozen at the same instant as you entered.”

“But not my mind!”

“No,” Luna giggled, her dark eyes glinting, “Not your mind. Perhaps this era can be crueler in its treatment of criminals after all, as long as the circumstances are right.” She grinned, “There truly are fates worse than death, as you shall soon experience for yourself.”

“You bitch! How… how long will you leave me in here?”

“Oh, long enough to reflect on your crimes.” Luna smiled. “Or until the thaumic field collapses, you know when that would be, don’t you?”

Quantum blinked, his mind racing… trying to remember any elements of the spell-work from when he’d discovered it, all those years ago in the dark, restricted areas of the Canterlot Royal Archives.

“Pah, you truly are a dilettante, using a spell haphazardly without respecting the industrious labor taken to create it.” Luna rolled her eyes, then went on, as if lecturing to a student, “...the upper boundary for the quantum limit is theoretical… it is either infinite, or it occurs at a point in which the bound subject’s energy dissipates via localized space-time expansion to a level indistinguishable from zero.” Luna’s grin sharpened, her canines showing. “In laypony’s terms, a few quadrillion years.”

“Please!” Quantum gulped, looking at the bubble edges. He could see them shrinking inwards, coming in from the outer bounds he had set them at, which encompassed the whole warehouse… tighter and tighter… until it was only a few feet around him, encompassing just him and Luna. He would not be able to move beyond that layer. “Please, you can’t do this!”

“Oh, we can. What remains to be seen is if you can learn something from all of this.” Luna let out a little sigh of satisfaction. “I daresay you’ll find plenty of time to reconsider your life. We would know...”

Quantum was shaking with fear, sweat bubbling out of every pore. He couldn’t even comprehend what was about to happen. An infinity of time, stuck in a tiny bubble? He wouldn’t even be able to starve, or die of thirst, or kill himself! Just… chrono-locked… forever! Free to think and think and think and think.

“But we have faith in mercy, like our Sister.” Luna smiled, “We think she might approve of… a thousand years. She seemed to like that number.”

“No! You can’t, you-”

And with that, Luna stepped back through the bubble… joining the rest of the frozen world outside.

Leaving him behind.

Forever.

Author's Note

Believe it or not, this almost ended with Luna fucking the poor devil for a thousand years. I vetoed the idea. I’m sure someone will be disappointed but that someone is not me. Equestria and Thestralslovakia need their protector of dreams. She’s got plenty of better ways to get laid, I say!

Ahh Twilight. She was useless from start to finish in this story. At least she took the time bullet for Best Princess. Would have been pretty tragic is she’d taken an actual bullet in executing this minor-piece sacrifice to checkmate Quantum Freeze.

AJ Aficionado, Editor