Aeon Legion: Starlight

Chapters

Prologue: The Black Rose
Chapter I: Exile
Chapter II: Shadow Cohort
Chapter III: Seeing the Hidden
Chapter IV: Saturn City
Chapter V: Aevum Academy

Prologue: The Black Rose

“Who I was, am, or will be, no longer matters. All that matters is that I complete my mission.”
-Kairos

The light from stars of past and future glimmered in the “sky” above and below. The Edge of Time was quiet, just as it usually was. The section that Kairos had chosen to make her home base was far away from the time pirates and Manticores of the Bleak, and even the remnants of the Forgotten Guns had been silenced.

The only thing that permeated this silence was the sound of her singularity AI informing her of a new development in time.

Ever since she created Pandora, the AI had been the only form of companionship she had. Sometimes she wondered if it was a mistake to leave behind the only people who ever truly cared about her.

She pushed the thought aside. There was no mistake. It had to be done.

“Pandora, what is it?” she asked.

Pandora’s artificial female voice came from the shieldwatch she wore on her arm, “A new set of continuums have been registered in the Legion’s database. Would you like me to observe the history of these new continuums and list every temporal criminal sorted by how much damage they caused?”

“Yes, thank you,” Kairos replied.

While Pandora was compiling data, Kairos recalled the events and people that had brought her to this moment.

First was Alya Silverwind, her mentor, the first to truly see her potential. She had been the one to find her, in the underground fight club that she had been participating in to survive. Alya had been impressed by her ability to quickly take down much larger opponents.

Apparently, the one who had been running the club had been bringing in champions across time to fight in the ring. One of the more memorable champions he brought called himself ‘Tirek’. Tirek was a big muscular man with a white beard that should have made him look like Santa Claus, but instead made him look like Krampus. Despite being a head and a half shorter, she still managed to bring home the victory.

Kairos didn’t fully realize the extent of the ringmaster’s temporal crimes until Alya arrived and told her. Together, the two of them shut down the entire operation and arrested the ringmaster.

The next thing she knew, she had been whisked off to the City Beyond Time, registered as a squire, and enrolled in Aevum Academy.

There she met the headmaster, Lycus Cerberus. Lycus always considered himself a monster, a villain. He claimed to have killed a defenseless family in the First Temporal War. That was when he started referring to himself by different names, more so out of shame than anything.

There was Lycus, the Scholar, the one who actually ran the school. There was Cerberus, the Monster, who was the one who enjoyed battle to the point where he had massacred innocents. And then there was the Captain. It was the Captain, not the Scholar or the Monster, who decided who could and couldn’t join the Legion.

Lycus had told Kairos that while others practically worshiped her because she was the squire of a Legendary Blade, he saw her for what she truly was. Because he was one too.

The two of them had fought side-by-side during the Faceless War. Together with Alya, they rallied the other Bleak and post-time nations together to fight against the incoming horde from the End of Time. She had even managed to convince the Manticores and the Sons of Oblivion to join their side, for if the Faceless won, everyone else lost.

After the war, she went in search of answers to what made the Faceless. She knew at the time that she might not return, so she gave her aeon edge to Alya for safekeeping.

It was then she met Ophion, the mad Time King, who had warned her of impending doom. She had heard legends about the Kings and Queens of Time, and how they conquered and ruled over time. She heard how many of them used to be Legendary Blades.

She had also once encountered Endymion, the Last Time King, who had tried to recruit her during her days as a fighter, but she had refused, because he didn’t promise her anything.

Ophion was the last person to travel to the Beginning of Time before Kairos herself. He had apparently gone mad as a result. There were rumors that he was mad even before that, and that he had been using singularity tech to create new life, but Kairos knew it wasn’t possible.

What he had said to Kairos was that something in Saturn City was draining time, and if left unchecked, would spell doom for all of Time. The only thing Kairos could think of that could cause this was the Temporal Singularity contained in the central spire.

It was then she came to the conclusion that Saturn City had to be destroyed, and that she had to be the one to do it.

And then there was Terra, Alya’s new squire.

Terra’s resolve was impressive, to say the least. Even in the face of someone who could easily kill her ten times over, she didn’t back down. She had broken into an enemy stronghold and wiped out the entire fortress. She had single-handedly defeated the Zeitmacht. And before any of her training, caught the attention of Alya, just as Kairos herself had.

She didn’t hate Terra. Why would she? Alya held the right to train another squire. Kairos wasn't the first, nor would she be the last. And it was Alya who had forcibly taken her from her home. Besides, hate was for villains. She wasn’t a villain.

It wasn’t hard to see how she could be perceived as one. She did kill Cerberus, after all. But everything she did was to save Time. Why couldn’t Alya see? She had to kill the worst offenders. She had to save Saturn City from themselves. She had to return the time stolen by the Legendary Blades and other rogue time travelers. Lycus was just the first step.

She was the only one who saw the truth. Alya, Orion, Deucalion, they were fools. Those who used time travel recklessly deserved to die. The danger was just too great.

“I have compiled the list,” Pandora said, interrupting Kairos’s thoughts.

“Thank you,” Kairos said. She tapped on her shieldwatch’s holoface, bringing up a list of names. At the top of the list was someone named Starlight Glimmer.

Just below her were names like Twilight Sparkle, Starswirl, Nightmare Moon, and Spike. She would consider them odd names had she not interacted with hundreds of cultures with different naming conventions. It wasn’t much weirder than “Silverwind”.

She tapped on Starlight’s name, opening a profile on her history, personality, and relationships. She quickly scrolled past the boring parts, like being abandoned by her only friend and the weird equalist cult. Then she arrived at what she was looking for.

The damage was already done. There was no point in killing Starlight before her crimes. The way time worked, someone else would likely take up her actions and make the same mistakes, making more work for her. It had to be after.

A quick analysis of some of the history she skipped over revealed that she was often in the presence of heroes. Ones who were innocent of the crimes Starlight had committed (in fact, some were the victims), yet would protect her with their lives. The nearest point in time she could go was roughly one month after the event known as “The Battle of the Bell”. By sheer luck, all six would be out of town for the confrontation.

The time she had stolen was a mere 84 years, less than Kairos’s own 110. But she was still the worst offender of these new continua and someone had to be an example.

The timecore of her aeon edge sword glowed a soft red. Her mission was simple.

“Pandora, chart a course for Ponyville, section EQ-NF, prime continuum, twenty-fourth day of Shifting Seasons, 1004 CE. We’re going hunting.”

Chapter I: Exile

This is a monumental occasion. You have the chance to map out a continuum previously unknown. However, you must be prepared for every possibility, no matter how unlikely. We cannot let our guard down, even for the most simple of creatures. So be careful. Into the dark.
-Transmission from Captain Deucalion to Cohort 8 strike teams

It was a beautiful morning in Ponyville. The weather ponies were clearing the skies, foals were on their way to school, and several Apple family members were arguing with Grand Pear over the ethics of pineapple on pizza. It was a fairly normal day, all things considered, if one ignored the time-traveling assassin.

Starlight Glimmer didn’t even have time to react before she was already on the ground, a sword pointed at her face.

Starlight instinctively put up a shield to stop her enemy’s attack. Her attacker flipped a switch on her sword. The moment Starlight saw the sword passing through the shield like it wasn’t there, she teleported away.

Starlight appeared atop the Castle of Friendship. Weren’t humans supposed to transform into ponies when they came to Equestria? Her eyes shot towards the spot she was standing earlier. The masked swordswoman was gone.

The Castle began to shift. Starlight saw that a clean cut had been run through the entire Castle. As it fell down towards the School of Friendship, Starlight lifted herself into the air and held the Castle in place.

She risked a glance back and saw her attacker running up the side of the Castle. Starlight dodged the first attack then flew underneath the falling Castle. Her attacker landed just below her. Starlight risked a blast to deter her attacker, which briefly loosened her grip on the Castle. She strained to return the Castle back to its rightful position, but it seemed every time she made one inch of progress, her attacker forced her to lose two.

She needed a distraction.

She created illusory copies of herself. Each copy flew out in a different direction, and some stayed behind to hide Starlight. She saw that her attacker had left to follow some of the copies.

With much effort, the Castle of Friendship was restored. Starlight flew around the perimeter of the Castle, repairing the damage as she went.

As she circled back around to the front, a beam of red light pierced the sky. The beam fragmented into several more. Pegasi fell out of the sky as the light made contact with them. The shield Starlight put up to protect herself decayed into nothing upon contact with the beams. She quickly stopped herself in the air before touching one of the beams.

A burst of red energy tore through the sky towards Starlight. She quickly deflected the blast to the ground. The blast tore through the ground like Pinkie Pie through wrapping paper on Hearth’s Warming Morning.

Before the swordswoman could attack her again, she focused her magic and teleported inside the castle.

Immediately upon Starlight appearing within Trixie’s room, Trixie dove behind a potted plant and screamed, “The fireworks were not Trixie’s fault!”

“Trixie! It’s me!” Starlight quickly said. Trixie poked her head out from behind the plant.

“Oh, phew, I thought–” Trixie was interrupted by the wall exploding.

Starlight teleported out of the room before any of the wall could hit her. She would have to check in on Trixie later, but she couldn’t do that if she died herself.

Trixie’s room exploded. Starlight had made her way down the hall. She cast her invisibility spell on herself and ducked behind a column.

She breathed a sigh of relief. She opened her eyes slightly and glanced down the hall towards where Trixie was. The masked swordswoman there. The strange device on her arm pulsed red.

“Signs of life detected.” The masked swordswoman turned towards Starlight’s hiding spot.

“Aw, crapbaskets,” she muttered.

A red ball of energy tore through the hallway towards Starlight. She ducked underneath and rushed to Trixie. Starlight swore she had cast Accelero on herself, but the swordswoman was still faster.

Starlight Glimmer crashed through the wall into one of the three libraries in the castle.

The Lunar Silver chandelier hanging from the ceiling dropped. Starlight just barely managed to catch the chandelier before it hit the floor. Starlight glanced behind her.

The masked swordswoman had fired a burst at the chandelier. As her sword was lowering to Starlight’s level, Starlight instinctively teleported out.

Searing pain shot through her leg. She glanced at her leg. It was slightly burned, but otherwise usable. She had been hit just before she got away.

A desk sat in the center of the room, covered in various papers from the last thing Twilight was researching. Even though she had moved back to Canterlot about a month ago, Twilight hadn’t brought her research equipment with her yet.

The mirror portal to the human world sat on the back wall, covered in cloth. It gave off a faint pulsating magic signal, revealing that it was open.

The wall behind Starlight exploded.

She turned around. She couldn’t even react. She was pinned to the wall.

Starlight shined a bright light from her horn, temporarily blinding her attacker. She wriggled out of her grip and dashed for the mirror portal.

A bookshelf fell down in front of her. She just barely stopped herself. The masked swordswoman suddenly appeared in front of her.

Thinking quickly, Starlight levitated several books out of the fallen shelf and tore them, scattering the pages in the air. She silently prayed that Twilight wouldn’t kill her for that later.

The pages stopped in the air, blocking her attacker’s field of vision just long enough for Starlight to enter the portal.

Seeing Starlight Glimmer tumbling out of the portal was ranked among the most normal things to happen that school year. The sword-wielding assassin in a black mask who came out a few seconds later, on the other hand, did not.

At first, Sunset Shimmer thought it was some sort of game. She wouldn’t put it past Starlight or Trixie to pull something like this. But when the swordswoman started shooting bursts of red energy, she instantly knew it wasn’t.

Starlight’s arm had a sizable burn on it. It was clear the only reason the pain wasn’t bothering her was the adrenaline.

By now, students were panicking and running away. Some, like Flash, were calmly panicking and guiding others to run away.

A large ring formed around the school. A blue grid appeared inside the ring as the ring passed through the area. Sunset watched as the ring passed harmlessly through her own body. She swore she heard an automated female voice say something along the lines of “Restore state saved”.

“What’s happening?” Pinkie Pie asked, suddenly popping up . The pink-haired girl had a habit of sneaking up on unsuspecting people, but Sunset didn’t have time to be surprised at the moment.

“Dangerous sword lady,” Sunset simply replied while pointing at said dangerous sword lady.

Pinkie nodded in understanding. She pulled a cupcake out of her hair and tossed it at Starlight's attacker.

As the cupcake sailed through the air, a rainbow blur raced past Pinkie and Sunset.

The cupcake exploded harmlessly in the air. A red static field had caught it before it collided with the mysterious swordswoman.

While her vision was obscured by the sugary explosion, Rainbow Dash attacked. No one was fast enough to stop Rainbow Dash, right?

Wrong.

Sunset didn’t even see the masked swordswoman move. Rainbow Dash was already on the ground, unmoving, a gray static in the shape of a stab wound in her abdomen.

By now, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, and Twilight were all ready for a fight. They had been evacuating students earlier, but now they stood around the swordswoman, fully prepared to strike.

“You big mean–” was all Fluttershy managed to get out before she flew into the stairs leading up to school.

By now, thanks to the distraction, Starlight was already there by the stairs. Sunset knelt down and touched Fluttershy’s forehead. When her hand pulled back, there was blood on her fingers.

Pinkie Pie had thrown volley after volley of sugary sweets. Every sprinkle, cupcake, and cookie exploded harmlessly in the same red static field.

The swordswoman slashed her sword at Applejack. Rarity jumped in front of Applejack and put up a diamond shield to defend her.

The sword passed through like it wasn’t there. Momentary panic shot through Sunset. She could tell Rarity and Applejack were feeling the same thing.

When the sword was pointed towards Rarity’s chest, the swordswoman pulled some sort of trigger on the handle, sending a burst of red energy that passed through Rarity and hit Applejack. The area where the burst passed through turned a dull gray. Both collapsed to the ground.

The masked swordswoman turned her attention to Twilight. Sunset shared a glance with Pinkie.

By the time Sunset looked back at the swordswoman, Twilight’s body had been cast aside, and the swordswoman was staring right at Pinkie Pie. Sunset didn’t even manage to blink before Pinkie fell.

The masked swordswoman turned to face Sunset and Starlight. Sunset pushed Starlight into the school.

“This isn’t your fight, Shimmer,” the masked swordswoman said. “I am willing to spare you if you give me Starlight Glimmer.”

“Like you spared my friends?” Sunset spat. She had no hope of winning, and she had no idea what was happening, but she would never give any of her friends to someone like her. “I’ll never give her to you.”

“Very well.” The masked swordswoman pointed her sword at Sunset. The next thing she knew, the entire world went blue.

Author's Note

This chapter is probably the shortest one in the entire story by a long shot. Hell, even the original draft of this chapter was about twice as long and included a brief appearance by Wallflower, a parking lot being trashed, and Rainbow Dash lasting longer than .2 seconds against Kairos, but this was probably the best way to establish her as a character.

By the way, if you skipped the prologue, there was some important information there. Not really stuff that's super crucial to the plot, but stuff that builds into the core theme of the story.

Chapter II: Shadow Cohort

Continuum: Lambda, Subcontinuum EQ-NF-Prime-B (proper name pending)
Continuum Time: 3:46 pm, 24th of Shifting Seasons, 1005 CE (EQ-NF-Prime-A calendar), May 26th, 2015 AD (Continuum Lambda calendar)
Location: Canterlot High School, Canterlot City, Continental United States
Enemy Forces: One rogue legionnaire, designated Exile. Second known offense.
Lethal force is authorized.
Warning: Enemy is a Legendary Blade class threat. It is advised that if possible you are accompanied by a full–
Warning overridden.
Warning: Civilians present. You are advised to evacuate the area before engaging.
Attention Strategos Orion. Consul Prometheus left the following message for you.
“Just a reminder that Alya wants her alive.”
-Combat log of Strategos Orion

Wait, blue? What just happened?

Sunset Shimmer blinked a few times. She was nowhere near Canterlot High. Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, and Starlight were all standing around her. The burn mark on Starlight’s arm was completely gone.

There were two men wearing armor similar in design to the masked swordswoman’s standing over her. They were, however, different in color, being white and blue instead of black and red. And neither wore masks.

“Are you alright?” the shorter one asked.

“She got you pretty good, didn’t she?” the taller one said.

“Yeah, I think I’m okay,” Sunset said. The shorter one held out his hand. Sunset grabbed it and pulled herself up. “What just happened?” she asked.

“Your friend, Starlight, was targeted by the temporal assassin known as Exile,” the shorter one explained. “Exile tends to only go after other temporal criminals, and usually only the ones with serious crimes.”

Starlight’s face went pale.

“Do you know what she did?” the taller one asked. “Minerva doesn’t have much information registered about your continuum and Orion didn’t brief us enough.”

Starlight’s eyes made contact with Sunset’s. Her eyes begged Sunset to stay quiet.

“No,” Sunset replied, “I don’t.”

“Are you some sort of time police?” Rainbow Dash asked.

The shorter one replied, “We do a lot more than police time travel. We map out locations in time, keep post-time threats in check, and–”

“Crashing end, Abhinav, stop boring them with endless explanations,” the taller man interrupted. “All you need to know is that you’re safe and Exile can’t hurt you when our boss is around. He’s one of the Legendary Blades, for Aion’s sake.”

“Arad, I really wish that were true,” Abhinav sighed. “Orion is nowhere near as strong as Cerberus, and look what happened when he fought Exile.”

The device on Abhinav’s wrist made a beeping noise. A voice came out from the device, saying, “I have things under control for now, but just in case, I need you to get those girls as far away from here as possible.”

“Well, you heard the Strategos,” Abhinav said with a shrug.

“How do you join the Legion?” Rainbow asked. Abhinav had continued explaining everything about the Legion, including a quick overview of the Faceless War, and Aevum Academy.

“Simple,” Arad replied. “A legionnaire finds you, and if you impress them enough, they squire you, then you go to Saturn City and attend Aevum Academy.”

“Squire me,” Rainbow Dash said with a look of determination in her eye.

“Why?” Arad asked, raising his eyebrow.

“I want to be awesome and have a cool sword,” Rainbow simply replied. Sunset had to admit, that sword was pretty cool for an attempted murder weapon. To be completely honest, she wanted one for herself, too.

“We first have to talk to your parents and teachers,” Abhinav said. “Also, if you don’t have a military background, it’s pretty damn hard to get in.”

“Didn’t stop me,” Arad said.

“That’s only because you kicked that old west outlaw in the nuts when he tried to rob a bank with a samurai sword.”

“I was gonna rob that bank! He stole my opportunity! It’s not my fault Ezri thought I was being a hero.”

“Hold on,” Twilight said, interrupting Abhinav’s next few words, “How exactly did an old west outlaw learn how to time travel? That’s not even possible by today’s standards!”

“People have been building temporal devices since the age of exploration,” Abhinav explained. “It’s the Temporal Accords that forces everyone to keep it a secret.”

“The Temporal Accords...?”

“They’re like the Geneva Conventions of time travel, I guess. All kinds of rules about time travel, including registering your time travel device with the nearest Post-Time Nation, whether that be Helcia, Kavacha, Saturn City, or any of the other ones that I didn’t bother to learn the names of.”

Saturn City... Post-Time... Some memories stirred deep within Sunset’s mind, but she pushed them aside for the moment.

“And why were these Temporal Accords implemented?” Twilight asked.

“Simple. Before the First Temporal War, time travel was public knowledge across all continua. Then the Kalian Empire bombed Saturn City, we went to war, then made them sign the Accords. Now, everyone has to follow them while time traveling, which includes keeping time travel a secret for as long as possible.”

Starlight Glimmer nervously whistled.

“That sounds like a treaty you made to control and cripple the Kalians,” Twilight noted. “What exactly is in them?”

“For one, you can’t use time travel to change anything big. You can observe events and do research, but you can’t assassinate a world leader, for example. Another thing is that traveling to a nexus event is strictly forbidden. I would tell you what a nexus event is, but just listing a few should tell you enough. The Punic Wars, the Eastern Industrial Revolution, and the Mongol Rebirth are all nexus events.”

“So they’re important moments that changed history forever?”

“Pretty much, yeah,” Abhinav replied. “Traveling to one and changing something can lead to several lifetimes in Tartarus.”

Starlight fiddled with her fingers.

“Are you gonna make me a squire yet or what?” Rainbow Dash asked, tapping her foot impatiently.

“Abhinav, you got us off track again!” Arad said. He turned to Rainbow Dash. “Sure, I’ll be back in a month or two.” Arad tapped something on the hologram projected from the device on his wrist. A glowing ring formed around him, rotating as it moved upward, creating a glowing sphere of blue light. The sphere dissipated.

“A month or two?” Sunset said, mildly confused.

“Time travel,” Abhinav replied. “Watch, he’ll be back in five seconds.” Just as Abhinav said, the glowing ring returned after five seconds. Arad appeared at the center once the sphere vanished.

“I talked to your parents, your teachers, your coach, your principal, your next-door neighbor who had several choice words about your band’s music, your rival school, and your sports teams,” Arad said. “I think this will work. Congratulations, you’re in.”

“Yes!” Rainbow Dash pumped her fist in the air.

Arad then turned towards Sunset. “Abhinav probably wants the benefits that come with finding a squire too. Do you want to join the Legion?”

“... why?”

“Of all your friends, you’re the most qualified! You have almost all the qualities of a good squire! Determination, bravery, leadership, you could graduate as a Tetrarch! You’d be perfect!”

Sunset opened her mouth to reply, but a ring formed around Arad. He continued, “Yes, I did talk to the Princess. She didn’t object, but based on the smile she had I think she’s hiding something.”

Sunset tried again to say something, but this time, Abhinav said, “You can visit any point in history! You can meet Starswirl the Bearded!” Starlight was about to mention the limbo thing when Abhinav interrupted, “Okay, maybe we should have done more research on that guy.”

A glowing sphere formed around Abhinav. Once it dissipated, he spoke, “You once sook immorality? Our shieldwatch can make you immortal!”

“Are you using time travel to win this argument?” Sunset finally said. Never mind the fact that she wasn’t actively seeking alicorn ascension anymore, but shieldwatch immortality seemed to be a very different form from alicorn immortality.

“That’s another benefit! You’ll never lose an argument again, because whenever you find a good point to make, whether it’s ten seconds after they leave or three years later lying in bed at night staring up at the ceiling, you can go back and make that point, whenever you want!” Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Work with me here! I just want my month of paid leave!”

“We will take all eight of you back in time to the founding of Equestria just for our paid leave if we have to,” Arad said.

“Wait, you know about Equestria?” Sunset asked.

“As members of the Shadow Cohort, we know things that most other legionnaires don’t, such as the existence of Equestria,” Abhinav explained. “Also, I thought mentioning the Princess would have clued you in. Or maybe Starswirl.”

“Which princess?”

“There’s multiple princesses?”

Sunset facepalmed. Clearly, though they had done their research, it wasn’t enough.

Arad held up his shieldwatch arm, pointing at something projected from the glass sphere embedded within. “Look at this! Do you not see how overqualified you are?” Sunset couldn’t read a single word on the projection.

“I’m pretty sure you’re a crashing Qadar! If we don’t get to you, then Silverwind will!” Silverwind. Another familiar name. Pegasus. Silver mane, tan coat. Fairly reckless, if Celestia’s stories were to be believed.

“You can avoid crowds by arriving before them!” If needed, Rainbow Dash could always beat the crowds for her.

“You will never need money again!” Being close friends with a princess had its benefits.

“You can get drunk without fear of hangovers!” There’s a spell for that.

“Consequences will no longer apply to you!” That wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

“You can kick ass at ten thousand times your normal speed!” There it was.

“You son of a bitch, I’m in,” Sunset said, pointing finger guns at Arad and Abhinav.

Arad glanced at his shieldwatch holoface. He scrolled down just a little bit. His eyes widened, then became filled with disappointment. “Well, looks like someone else squired her,” Arad said.

“Crash! Now I have to spend an entire month figuring out who else to recruit!” Abhinav pointed at Twilight. “You! Yes or no?” Twilight shook her head.

Abhinav continued with each of the girls. Each of them turned down the offer. Abhinav then pointed to Starlight. “You won a war while severely crippled and with only untrained civilians and former criminals by your side! You’re just as overqualified as she is!”

As Starlight opened her mouth to ask a question, Abhinav interrupted, “Yes, you will be protected from Exile. She wouldn’t dare show up in Saturn City with all of the Legendary Blades there.” Abhinav held out his hand.

“You know what? Sure. I’m in.” Starlight took Abhinav’s outstretched hand.

“Wait,” Sunset said, “I heard you say I’m already registered as a squire?”

“Yeah,” Arad replied. He inspected her information on his holoface. “By... Praetor Corona. I think she was a Legendary Blade. She disappeared a couple hundred years ago.”

How did she already get squired? To her knowledge, this was the first time she had ever encountered the Legion, or anyone from the City Beyond Time, for that matter. Maybe it was a big case of wibbly wobbly timey wimey, as Time Turner put it.

Abhinav shrugged. “We can still bring her to the City. She’s already been squired, they’ll let her in.”

“If she doesn’t consent, that’s called kidnapping,” Arad pointed out.

“Kidnapping girls without consent is tight,” Abhinav said.

“That doesn’t sound any better in context,” Sunset said.

“Are you in?”

“Might as well go to make sure those clowns”—Sunset pointed at Rainbow and Starlight—“don’t blow up the entire city.” Starlight nervously giggled. “Yeah. I know about the time you and Trixie set off fireworks in the newly rebuilt Castle of the Two Sisters.”

“Okay, I get that one, but what did I do?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“You just seem like the type to blow stuff up for shits and giggles,” Sunset replied.

Arad gasped. “You too? We should totally blow stuff up together some time!”

Rainbow Dash squeed.

“Oh Aion now there’s two of them.” Abhinav sighed, putting his hand on his forehead.

“We’ll monitor this point in time to make sure Exile doesn’t come for you again,” Arad said. “After graduation, be ready for us to pick you up.”

The device on Abhinav’s arm beeped. The same voice from before, the Strategos, said, “Kairos has been dealt with. She’s not coming back to this Canterlot for a while. No guarantees on Equestria, though.”

Kairos? Wasn’t the assassin’s name Exile?

“That’s a relief,” Starlight said.

“Oh, and I noticed that you two just registered squires. I’ll give you your month off after you bring them to Saturn City.”

“Yes, Strategos,” Arad and Abhinav simultaneously said. They did some sort of strange salute, placing their right fists over their hearts.

Glowing rings formed around them, and soon, they were gone.

Author's Note

I wonder if I need the profanity tag if the profanity only applies to fictional cultures.

This chapter has around 1k words worth of scrapped scenes. The funniest part?

Arad: I just did what anyone would have done.
Abhinav: I don’t think the bank teller would have smashed the guy’s face in with his shoes.
Arad: Okay, almost anyone.

Chapter III: Seeing the Hidden

Author's Note

This chapter takes place in late July of 2001 (from Terra’s perspective, at least), next chapter picks up in early-mid June of 2015 and also immediately enters the Edge of Time

Chapter III: Seeing the Hidden

To be clear, I hit a guy on the head with a rock because he tried to borrow a book and this makes me qualified to join the time police?
-Terra Mason

Terra Mason had enjoyed a summer of relative peace. She had spent the last few months relaxing at home, reading history books, and occasionally visiting history, including checking in on her old enemy, Hanns.

Every now and then, she would go out into town. She had a chat with her high school history teacher, Mr. Smith, about the causes and effects of the Industrial Revolution. “Learning doesn’t stop when you graduate,” he had always said.

Many of her classmates were also back home for the summer. Hannah in particular was excited to see her. Not because they were friends or anything.

They really weren’t. Hannah for some reason just attached herself to Terra and declared themselves rivals. Terra didn’t really care about competition and so she usually just let Hannah win everything, even valedictorian. Especially valedictorian.

She had even stopped by the quarry a few times. It wasn’t her quarry anymore―she had left it behind when she joined Alya.

All good things had to come to an end, of course.

She was in the middle of reading about the failed Reconquista of Continuum Zeta and the resulting changes that caused it to split from Continuum Theta when the doorbell rang.

Opening the door, she came face to face with her former strike team members, Hikari and Roland.

Sir Roland Delmare was a knight, but that was all Terra knew about his past. Every time he told his origins, he told a different story. He once claimed the actual story was boring, but Terra could always see through his lies. He had told Terra that he always took the path of least resistance, much like a flowing river. His sword skills though were genuine. Overall, he was the least chivalrous knight she had ever met, though he was also the only one.

Hikari Urashima was a Japanese girl who believed honor was for the weak. She was probably the most competitive person Terra had ever met, and she had to deal with Hannah when she was in school. Hikari was beautiful and could easily befriend anyone she wished, yet she chose insults over compliments. The closest thing to a compliment she had ever heard come out of Hikari’s mouth was her admitting that she had met her match. If Roland was a flowing river, Hikari was a raging fire. Terra had no idea where in time Hikari originated from, only that it was a violent time.

Next to them, Terra’s only notable trait was her determination. She was a boring, dull, rock in comparison.

At the moment, both were wearing regular 21st Century clothing.

“Hikari, Roland, what are you two doing here?”

“Blunt as always, I see,” Roland replied.

Terra crossed her arms. “That doesn’t answer my question.”

“I thought that we should find you so you can join us for training,” Roland said. That made some sense.

“I would like to cross blades with you again,” Hikari added. That made more sense. How Hikari considered her a rival, she still wasn’t sure.

“Also, may we come in?”

“What are you, a vampire?” Terra said.

“Jehovah’s Witness, actually,” Roland replied.

“I’m surprised you know what those are.”

“I’m not illiterate, you know.”

“They have little historical significance. There is no reason you should know–”

“Terra!” her dad called as he came up from his workshop in the basement. “Who’s at the door?”

“Greetings,” Roland said with a little bow, “I am Sir Roland Delmare, and this is my comrade Hikari.” Hikari didn’t didn’t even so much as blink.

“Are you two friends of Terra’s?” her father asked.

“Friends? I suppose we are. We met at the Academy.”

“Well, come on in! I’m Fred, Terra’s dad.”

They did. Roland kept flattering her father while Hikari mostly looked around at things. Terra had to explain how some pieces of technology worked. Hikari wasn’t nearly as into reading as Terra was, and she was from before the Meiji Restoration, so it stood to reason that she wouldn’t be up to date on technological advances.

She stopped by the living room to grab her Reconquista books, then she and Hikari joined her dad and Roland in her dad’s workshop.

“…and that's not the only weapon I’ve learned to use. I could show you how to use a mace, if you'd like.”

Terra sighed.

It felt like several hours had passed. Roland was still talking to her father, Hikari had begun bouncing a ball off the wall, and Terra was bored out of her skull.

“I want to get out of here,” Hikari suddenly announced.

“Oh, yes, let’s go somewhere,” Roland agreed, putting down a battle axe he had carved in ten minutes.

“Have fun out there!” Terra’s dad called as the three of them ascended the stairs.

Once they were upstairs, Terra opened and closed the front door.

“Why did you do that?” Hikari asked.

“So he thinks we left out the door,” Terra explained. She went upstairs to grab her things.

Upstairs, she pulled the pieces of her aeon edge out of her duffel bag and reassembled it.

She gave it a few test swings. Perfectly balanced and uncomplicated, just as she remembered it. The pearl white blade was simple and straight, which was in her opinion the best kind.

She quietly descended the stairs, and together with Roland and Hikari, left for Saturn City.

The three arrived just outside of Zone VI, the Convivium, not too far from Delphia.

Delphia was the first friend Terra made in Saturn City. She was about three years older than Terra, and was attending purely academic classes at Aevum. Delphia was with yet another boy. The first few weeks Terra was in Saturn City, Delphia had gone through at least six boyfriends, breaking up with each one for things as minor as a crooked nose.

Terra waved Delphia over. As predicted, Delphia ditched the boy on her way.

“The new squires have begun to arrive,” Delphia said to Terra. “I have seen a multitude of them around Tempus Porta and the Convivium, some have already entered Castra Legionis.”

Terra nodded, exchanged a few words with Delphia about their future living arrangements, then made her way to Zone XI, Castra Legionis.

“So you got yourself a girlfriend,” Roland said, giving Terra a smirk. Hikari raised an eyebrow at her. Terra didn't quite know why, but at that moment, her cheeks turned red.

“She’s just a friend who I’ve made an agreement with to pool our resources to get someplace better than what we could afford by ourselves.”

“So, a girlfriend.”

“Roommate,” Terra corrected.

Roland gasped. “And they were roommates,” he said in a strange voice.

If there was ever a moment Terra wanted to strangle Roland, this would be it.

“What does that even mean?” Terra asked with an annoyed tone. She had a pretty good guess, but she wanted to hear it from Roland himself.

“It’s Twenty-First Century slang from Continuum Lambda,” Roland explained. “You know, the time that you’re from.”

“I’m from the very beginning,” Terra said, crossing her arms.

“It means lesbians,” Roland explained.

“I’m not into girls,” Terra bluntly stated.

For some reason Terra couldn’t understand, Hikari suddenly looked disappointed.

A few moments of silence passed, then Roland said, “If you are from the beginning of the century, then what was your reaction to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001?”

“The what.”

“You know, the time when hijackers flew planes into the twin towers and the Pentagon,” Roland said with the tact of a salamander on Football Sunday.

“The WHAT!?”

“…it made the news?” Roland added with the confidence of a sasquatch in a coffee shop.

She really wanted to smack him. “Roland! Spoilers!”

“I don’t get what rotten food has to do with a terrorist attack,” Hikari said.

“That’s not what that–” Terra sighed. “Never mind. Let’s see if there’s an open salient.”

There was, in fact, an open salient. Or, more accurately, there wasn’t, until one of the legionnaires from Terra’s graduating class (Tacitus, maybe?) recognized Hikari and let them have the one his strike team was using.

The reason Hikari was so competitive was because her father didn’t let her play with the other kids. He had told her that since she helped him in the forge, she was a lot stronger than the other kids and it wouldn’t be fair for them. Since then, Hikari had desired someone to compete with. And strangely enough, that someone was Terra.

With a quick motion of her shieldwatch, Hikari changed their battlefield to the same location they fought at during the Trial of Blades, the top of a building surrounded by lava. The two assumed fighting stances. Terra drew her aeon edge and gave a quick salute. Hikari did the same.

Hikari rushed forward in a blur of movement. Terra did her best to block the oncoming blows. Hikari made an attack that Terra blocked, Terra missed her attack. It was the same as it always was, though Terra could swear that her blows were getting closer to landing.

Hikari moved into the aggressive. Terra was on the back foot, just as every duel with Hikari had ended. Hikari had to reload a clip first, which Terra immediately took advantage of. Terra knew that Hikari would press whatever advantage she had, so Terra would have to do the same.

Of course, Terra’s advantage was immediately lost and she was forced on the defensive again. Her foot almost slipped off the side of the building, but Terra remained standing.

Terra parried another strike from Hikari. Copying something she had seen from Roland, she effortlessly flowed into an attack, forcing Hikari back.

Hikari stumbled on a rock. As she fell back, Terra caught her in a stasis field and pointed her sword at her face.

Hikari smiled, just a little. “Looks like you win.” As she stood up, she added, “I promise I’ll beat you next time.”

Roland, Tacitus, John, and a few others appeared to have been betting with pebbles scattered around the salient. All of the pebbles were in front of Roland.

“Having fun making money off of our fight?” Terra teased, poking Roland in the shoulder.

“Haha,” Roland replied, tossing the pebbles out into the salient as it reset, erasing them.

A few more legionnaires from their graduating class had also gathered around to watch. Terra recognized Javed from the Trial of War.

Javed came up to her. “Impressive,” he said, nodding. “Didn’t think you had it in you.”

“You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?” one of his strike team members agreed.

Terra wasn’t completely sure she liked the spotlight. Hikari, on the other hand, was enjoying every compliment she got from the others. She didn’t make it obvious, of course, but Terra had known her long enough to know what Hikari looked like when she was enjoying herself.

“Excellent showing, both of you,” said a familiar voice. Everyone turned to see Centurion Nikias walking up with a grin. Everyone saluted his arrival, even Tacitus. “I daresay that was better than Geres.”

Ever since the incident last year where Geres tried to take Hikari before she had graduated, Nikias had disliked the other centurion. In fact, he had managed to convince Praetor Lycus to use his influence to prevent Geres’s promotion to Serdar. Not that Lycus needed convincing, since Geres had absolutely no respect for the rights of the Academy to train tiros. Terra of course had seen Geres in action, and she didn’t think either of them were anywhere near his level.

“Maybe you’d like to demonstrate to this year’s tiros,” Nikias jokingly offered.

“No thanks,” Roland quickly replied.

“I’ll think about it,” Terra said.

Hikari said nothing and stared off to the side.

After splitting off from Roland and Hikari, Terra found herself by the Cohort 7 headquarters. Alya still had a little bit of time left to go before she could train Terra herself, so Terra decided to take Captain Chih up on his offer.

Terra walked up to the front desk to check herself in.

“I’m here to see Captain Chih,” she said to the receptionist.

“He’s out right now,” the receptionist replied, not even looking up from his holoface.

“And where is he?” Terra pressed.

“I’m not cleared to know, and even if I was, I wouldn’t be allowed to tell you.”

“Just tell me if he’s on a mission or running an errand.”

“Mission.”

“Let me guess, tracking Praetor Lycus’s killer?”

The receptionist paused what he was doing and looked up. “How did you know?”

Terra shrugged. “He told me a while ago he would try to do that.”

The receptionist nodded. “Strategos Orion came in here not too long ago saying that he just fought the rogue legionnaire while helping Captain Deucalion map out the new continuum. You’ve heard about that, haven’t you?” Without even waiting for an answer, the receptionist continued, “Everyone has. The Seekers have almost mapped out their entire history.”

The receptionist typed something out on his holoface. “Why don’t you take a seat and I’ll tell you when he comes in.”

If Terra hadn’t joined the Aeon Legion, she would have gone into either geology or history. Since she was a little girl, she had always been more interested in rocks than playing with other kids, and that made the other kids think she was weird. Rocks couldn’t hurt your feelings. Val could.

In elementary school, Val made it her life’s mission to torment Terra. She always got some boy to push her into the mud, calling her “Dirt Girl”. One day, she lashed out with a rock, and that was that. She was no longer Dirt Girl, she was Terra the Terror.

Ever since then, everyone besides her parents and teachers (and Hannah, for some reason) avoided Terra like the plague. She didn’t mind. She preferred the company of rocks.

Well, until she met Alya anyway. And Hikari. And Roland. And... Zaid.

She reminded herself that Zaid wasn’t her fault. He had put more effort into training Terra, Hikari, and Roland than himself, which led to him being much weaker when they entered the Trial of the Beast.

Still though, without Zaid, Terra doubted she would have even made it through the Survival Test. And if it wasn’t for Lycus, she probably would have died in 1940s Germany.

Speaking of Germany, Hanns still hadn’t rebuilt the Zeitmacht. He had an unusual amount of honor for a Nazi and recognized that Terra won fair and square, that even though he had come so close to victory, he still failed.

She wondered what happened to the other leader. The Legion’s records showed that before he wound up with the Zeitmacht, he would have ended up in charge of a death camp. But no matter how far she dug into regular historical records, she couldn’t find a single trace of any Brigadeführer Emmerich Klein.

Her best guess was that after their drastic failure in 1940, Himmler erased all records of the Zeitmacht to prevent the Allies from getting any intel time travel (despite the fact that the British Time Service had already existed and registered with Saturn City), including Klein’s involvement, and Klein himself faded into obscurity.

“Legionnaire Mason, Captain Chih will see you now.”

It wasn’t long before she and Chih were standing by the Cohort 7 training salient.

“I recall you telling me that you would be training under the legionnaire who squired you,” Chih said.

“She can’t do it right now since Strategos Orion ordered her to take a break, so I’ve decided to take you up on your offer, even if only temporarily.”

Chih nodded. “So what do you want to do?”

“Teach me to become a better duelist.”

“I heard from Centurion Nikias that you recently won a duel against Hikari,” Chih said, a slight smile appearing on his face.

Terra looked down for a moment, then back up at Chih. “One, that was dumb luck, and two, I can only handle Hikari because I’m used to her style.”

“Well then,” Chih said, drawing his aeon edge, “Show me what you know.”

“Strategos, if you don’t mind me asking, who exactly was Praetor Corona?” Arad asked.

Arad and Orion were in a meeting room in the Cohort 2 headquarters after informing both Consul Prometheus and Captain Chih of the events that unfolded in the new continuum. Knowledge that there was another world attached to that one was kept between Orion, Prometheus, and a few trusted Shadow Cohort members, including Arad and Abhinav. Abhinav had already gone to Zone VI to relax.

“Why exactly are you asking?” Orion asked back while updating the holomap projection of Canterlot High School.

“Well, it says that one of the girls that Kairos was attacking was squired by Praetor Corona. I don’t know that much about her, just that she was one of the Legendary Blades a while ago.”

Orion paused his work for a moment. “Corona was a friend of mine from long ago. We fought together in the Third Temporal War. But after that, during the reign of the Kings and Queens of Time, she told me that she would be leaving Saturn City forever. I haven’t seen her since.” Orion updated the projection of the statue in front of the school, then continued, “Which one of the girls did she squire?”

“Sunset Shimmer,” Arad replied.

Orion pondered the thought for a moment. “Hmm. I’ll have to investigate this.” He opened his shieldwatch holoface and pulled up any file that matched the search “Sunset Shimmer”. “I see.”

“What is it, Strategos?”

“Above your clearance level.”

Arad watched as Orion deleted the energies projecting from the statue from the projection and sent it to Captain Deucalion.

“I still don’t understand why we’re doing that,” Arad said.

“The rest of the Legion isn’t ready for Equestria yet,” Orion replied. “It is better to keep it a secret for now.”

Chapter IV: Saturn City

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter V: Aevum Academy

Lycus’s death has affected us all, but he has taught us enough to keep his vision alive. Let us not undo all of his hard work turning the Academy from a factory of killers to a forge of heroes.
-Message from Acting Praetor Shani to all Academy Centurions and Optios

“We are done for today!” the man in front of the door called.

Sunset Shimmer let out a sigh of relief. She had made her way to the front of the line by this point. She’d already seen several eager recruits tossed out into the fountain by the big intimidating centurion, and she didn’t want that to happen to her.

She had woken up late. Morning always came whether she liked it or not. Both Rainbow and Starlight had made it to the line before her, and if she hadn’t seen so many potential recruits get thrown into the fountain (especially those with full tactical gear or plate armor), she would have assumed that both had already been accepted.

Most of the recruits had some armor they were wearing over their training uniform. She noted the shorter man who looked like he was part of the USMC playing some sort of card game with a Celtic girl.

There was also a girl in black armor. She had a scar over her right eye. The sleek black armor she wore had a few blue highlights, but what really caught Sunset’s eye was the symbol on her shoulders, the symbol of the ancient Storm Sorceress, Sacanas.

“First-timer?” the girl asked Sunset.

“Yeah,” Sunset replied, moving closer to her. “Got any tips that can help?”

“You’re lucky that you missed this part. No first-timer has ever been accepted at this stage. From here on out you just have to impress one of the instructors with something spectacular. Last year, one girl got in by almost winning a fight with the Spartan centurion and someone else saved one of the optios from a vengeful reject, or so I heard.”

“What’s your name?”

“Tempest Shadow.”

“I’m Sunset Shimmer,” Sunset replied.

“So you’re the mythical Sunset Shimmer,” Tempest said with a smirk.

Sunset giggled. “I see my reputation precedes me.”

“Princess Twilight tends to talk about you a lot.”

“What does she say?”

Tempest shrugged. “Not much, just that you could serve as a role model for me and what I can become. Or something like that, she wasn’t entirely clear.”

“She told me about you, too,” Sunset mentioned.

“Really?”

“Oh, you know. She told me you attacked Canterlot, stole her power, then turned some guy to stone so she banished you to the Crystal Empire.”

“She banished me to Abyssinia,” Tempest immediately countered. “I voluntarily went to the Crystal Empire. And that was only because I–”

“Hey, Tempest!” the marine called from the table, interrupting Tempest. “Who do you have your eyes on for your strike team this time?”

Sunset and Tempest turned to the table with the marine and the Celtic girl. “I heard there’s a first-timer who got in on her first try this year,” Tempest replied. “She’s definitely on my list.”

Will opened his mouth to speak, but the Celtic girl interrupted. “Whatever. I’ll show that stupid Hikari this time around.” Sunset recognized the tone the Celtic girl spoke with. She had used it with Princess Celestia many times.

“You do know that she graduated last year, right?” the marine said. “Graduated top of her class in almost everything. Why she picked the bottom-scoring tiro as a rival, no one knows, but it clearly worked since they both graduated, unlike you.”

“You mean the dirt girl? Ha! That weakling couldn’t fight a twig.”

“I’d recommend you hold a healthy respect for Terra,” Tempest said. “At this point she could probably kick your ass from Manehattan to Vanhoover.” Sunset mentally noted this detail about Terra.

“I could still beat her,” the girl grumbled, crossing her arms. Sunset could tell bubbling just under the surface was a familiar temper that could blow at any moment.

The marine turned his head to Sunset. “Hey, my name’s Will,” he said. His tone seemed friendly enough.

“I’m Sunset.”

“Are you a friend of Tempest’s?” he asked with an upward tilt of his head.

“We’ll find out,” she said with a shrug. “Who’s she?” Sunset asked, pointing towards the Celtic girl.

“Her name’s Gaela. She really hates losing. It’s how she got dusted last time. Didn’t even make it through the first week. She really hates me telling anyone more than that.”

Gaela scowled.

Will glanced behind Sunset. “Oh great, newbies.” He looked back at Sunset. “No offense to you, of course, but these guys tend to make us experienced tirones reveal our deepest darkest secrets to get any advantage they can.”

A couple of other hopeful recruits were gathering around behind Sunset. Sunset recognized one as a Spartan hoplite.

“I heard you made it pretty far in the training last time,” the Spartan said to Will. “Tell us what we want to know.”

“Play me in this game first and maybe I will,” Will replied, holding up his cards.

“Fine.” The Spartan sat down next to Gaela, pushing her towards the other end of the table.

Will gestured to Sunset and Tempest to sit down next to him. “The game works better with more people,” he explained.

Will dealt seven cards to each player. He placed the rest face-down in the middle. He pulled one card off the top and placed it next to the stack, face-up. Nine of diamonds.

“You can only play a card if it has the same number or symbol as the card currently in play. The goal is to get rid of all of your cards. There’s also a few extra rules. You’ll find out as you play. I’ll go first, then Tempest.” Will played ten of diamonds.

Tempest grinned. “All hail the King,” she said, playing her card.

Sunset went next. She played her card silently. Will drew a card from the top of the deck and handed it to her. “Penalty for not saying ‘all hail the Jack’.”

The Spartan went next. Will once again drew a card from the top of the deck and gave it to the Spartan. “Penalty for not saying ‘have a nice day’.” Instead of playing her card, Gaela waited patiently. Will gave the Spartan a look.

“Fine. Have a nice day.”

Will drew another card and gave it to the Spartan. “Penalty for talking.”

“What? You’re penalizing me for talking when you said that I had to say something?”

Will drew two more cards and gave them to the Spartan. “Penalty for talking, penalty for arguing with the dealer.” The Spartan remained silent.

Gaela played her card and said, “Thank you.” Will then silently played his card.

“Why didn’t you penalize her for talking?” the Spartan asked, slamming his cards on the table.

“Penalty for talking,” Will said, giving the Spartan another card. “Point of order.” Will set his cards on the table. Tempest and Gaela did the same. “She’s played before. She knows the rules. You’re supposed to learn them as you go along. Point adjourned.” Will drew another card and gave it to Sunset. “Penalty for touching cards.”

Will, Gaela, Tempest, and the Spartan picked up their cards. Tempest looked at her cards for a moment, then drew a card. Sunset played, then it was the Spartan’s turn again. He played his card. Gaela drew a card. Will drew a card. Tempest played four of clubs. Sunset played jack of clubs, and as she placed the card on the pile, she said, “All hail the Jack.” Will nodded.

A few turns passed with nothing notable happening. Sunset picked up that she was supposed to say “All hail the Queen” whenever she played a queen, which thankfully happened before she played one.

The Spartan played queen of spades. “All hail the Queen,” he said.

Tempest tried to hold back a giggle. Gaela burst out laughing. Will smiled as he pulled a card from the top and gave it to the Spartan. “Penalty for not saying Queen of Spades.”

“I’ll penalize you for talking!” the Spartan said, picking up a card and throwing it at Will.

“Penalty for talking, penalty for dealing the dealer,” Will said, giving the Spartan the card that he just threw and another off the pile.

Gaela shrugged and played nine of spades, saying, “Nine of spades.”

“Ten of spades.”

“All hail the Jack, Jack of Spades.”

“All hail the King, King of Spades.”

The Spartan played three of spades. Will glanced at him, then the Spartan reluctantly said, “Three of spades.”

“Point of order,” Will said, putting down his cards. Tempest and Gaela followed suit. Sunset also put her cards down. “Congratulations, you’re learning the rules. Point adjourned.” Will drew a card from the top of the pile and handed it to the Spartan. “Penalty for touching cards.”

“What? This is a card game! Why am I being penalized for touching cards?”

Sunset sniggered.

“Penalty for talking.” The Spartan took the cards from Will and stopped talking.

After Tempest’s turn, Will took the cards that had already been played and shuffled them. Sunset then drew a card.

Several turns passed with nothing notable happening, besides three kings being played in a row. Then Will played seven of clubs and said, “Have a nice day.”

Tempest played her card and replied, “Thank you.” Sunset noted down the interaction for later.

After the Spartan’s turn, Gaela played a card and said, “Mao.” Sunset noted that she only had one card left. On Will’s turn, he did the same. He also only had one card left. Then Tempest played her card, and also had only one card left.

Sunset took her turn, then the Spartan. The Spartan played seven of hearts. Will gave him a look that said, “You know what you have to do.”

“Have a nice day,” he grumbled.

“Thank you,” Gaela said as she drew a card. Will also drew a card, as did Tempest. Sunset played ace of hearts. Tempest played ace of clubs. Sunset noted that aces switched directions. She played her last ace, sending it back to Tempest, who drew a card.

As she was waiting for Will to play, he drew a card and gave it to Sunset. “It is your turn.”

Sunset took the card and played seven of diamonds, saying, “Have a nice day. Mao.”

The Spartan played seven of spades, saying, “Have a nice day.”

Will drew two cards and gave them to the Spartan, saying, “Penalty for not saying ‘thank you’, penalty for not saying ‘seven of spades’.”

“Fine. Thank you.”

“Penalty for talking.”

Gaela chuckled and played ace of spades. “Thank you,” she said after playing her card. Will glanced at her, and then she added, “Ace of spades. Mao.”

A few seconds passed. Sunset looked the Spartan in the eye with a smirk. Will handed the Spartan a card, saying, “It is your turn.”

The Spartan grumbled and played his card. “Eight of spades.”

Gaela played eight of diamonds, ending the game. “Gaela, you’re dealer next time,” Will said, flipping his cards over. “You get to pick the new rule.”

As the Spartan got up to leave, Will said, “All I said was that you had to play the game, not win. What do you want to know?”

A man in a red coat interrupted before the Spartan could say anything. “Give us information on the training and the instructors.”

“What I will say is that everything has a hidden meaning. Not everything is as it seems. Oh, and you really should be prepared for the survival test in week four. A lot of tiros dust out then.” The Redcoat nodded, as did a few others. “The environment changes every single time. Last time was a forest in the Late Cretaceous, this time could be anywhere. I’ve heard rumors of a newly discovered continuum...”

”But how do we get into the training?” a Viking asked.

It takes most first-timers a few weeks to get in. Anyone attempting it again usually gets in without issue, like myself and Tempest.”

The Spartan spoke up. “Thomas said that last year, two first-timers got in on their first try. How did they do that?”

Will shrugged. “Hikari almost defeated Centurion Nikias in a sparring match. Pretty impressive since he’s a Spartan, like you.”

A Viking nodded. “I got in with him last time. He only lets you in if you’re bold and skilled in combat. If you’ve never fought in a war, he won’t even let you talk.”

“What about the other one?” someone asked.

“Roland,” Will said. “I think he cheated. Tricked an instructor into adding his name into the list.”

“He could have gotten in under his own skill like I did, but he’s lazy,” the Redcoat added.

“Really, Thomas? You’re one to talk. You pretended you were the greatest thing since sliced bread then got beaten so hard by Hikari that you lost all your points in the first week.”

The Redcoat—Thomas—slammed his hands on the table. “Watch your tone, colonial.”

“Buddy. My country had to save your country from the Germans, twice.”

“The Prussians are our allies. We certainly would never need saving from them.”

“For now. Just wait, Germany will overtake Britain.”

“I doubt it. It would take a miracle.”

“Oh, is that what we’re calling Bismarck now?”

“Regardless of what Germany does, Royal Britannia will still rule the waves.”

“Until the Second World War where America built a navy so powerful we had boats for the sole purpose of making ice cream. Our navy is so large its aviation wing is larger than your entire air force.”

“What’s an air force?” asked a man in Conquistador armor.

“Doesn’t matter,” Will replied, “Saturn City doesn’t field one unless you count the timeship fleets and Spain won’t have one for a few hundred years from your perspective.”

The conversation continued for another twenty minutes. Different first-timers were asking Will all sorts of questions about the training, and Will, as well as some other recruits, including Thomas, were answering them to the best of their ability. Sometimes Will and Thomas took more jabs at each other.

Sunset took a few mental notes on certain things in the earlier parts of training, where she would need every advantage to stay ahead.

After what felt like an hour, the crowd finally cleared.

Sunset exchanged contact information with Will and Tempest and went on her way.

Something most ponies didn’t know was that Sunset failed her entrance exam. Well, she didn’t either, until she went looking through her school records and found the judges’ notes. She had thought she did pretty well, despite the property damage.

Technically speaking, she didn’t fail the entire exam, only in safety and control, though both failures were waived because Princess Celestia promised to get those under control.

Since the initial application process for Aevum was done, the only way for her to get accepted now was to impress an instructor.

The one big thing she had wanted to learn by coming to Saturn City was what Princess Celestia did while she was here, but the Academy Archives she had heard about while waiting in line to enter the city were closed to anyone who wasn’t either a citizen or currently serving in the Aeon Legion, which meant she would have to get accepted first to dig through the records.

From what she was able to access from the holoreaders outside, she learned that not only was entering the city barred from any who did not have a squireship or a visa, but two years of military service was the only way a non-Saturn City native could obtain citizenship, and only citizens could get residences in Dar al-Salam and above. As the House of the Sun was in Elysium—which was more a collection of mansions than an actual sector of the city—Princess Celestia had been one of the Saturn City elite. Specifically, she had been an elite among elites. To her knowledge, the vast majority of the residents of Elysium were Saturnians who had been in the city since the very beginning.

After mentally annotating as much as she could remember from the conversation at the Academy, Sunset had returned to the House of the Sun. There, in the lounge—she thought it was a lounge, at least—she found Starlight, Rainbow Dash, Cheeto, Terra, Roland, and Hikari.

“What, did you throw a party in here just because I wasn’t here?” she jokingly asked.

“Nah,” Rainbow Dash replied. “I just invited them here so I could figure out how to get into the academy.”

“You couldn’t do that in the city?”

Rainbow Dash shrugged, but didn’t reply.

Roland then spoke up, “A question for Lady Shimmer: does this place truly belong to you?”

Sunset thought for a moment, then replied, “Technically not, but at this point it might as well.”

Roland nodded. “You must be quite important then.”

She then was caught up on what the other six had discussed as she caught them up on what she had discussed at the Academy. Apparently, last year, the head instructor was really strict even for military standards and could even be considered a bully, but his declassified personal logs had revealed that he in fact hated bullies, which Sunset found perfectly understandable (for personal reasons). The only reason he had the bully act was because he wanted the recruits united against a single enemy that he could control.

This would be the first year without him in charge of Aevum.

Centurion Nikias was the bearded centurion who often threw hopeful recruits into the fountain. Terra, Hikari, and Roland had Centurion Nikias as their primary instructor during their time at Aevum, and he wasn’t as intimidating as he looked once you got to know him. He also had a scar that occasionally moved around his face.

Then there was Centurion Isra, the resident swordmaster. Her favorite kind of student was the kind that could push through a tough situation and come through the other side stronger. Centurion Isra was the youngest of the senior instructors at the Academy at 132 years old. She had previously served in the Tenth Cohort during the Faceless War before transferring to Aevum Academy after Praetor Kairos’s disappearance.

The only other major instructor of note was Centurion Shani. She valued intelligence and talent above all else, caring little if you were an unaccomplished talentless idiot. Starlight had been accepted on her first try by Centurion Shani, as she was just as impressed as Abhinav by Starlight’s little escapade to the Changeling Hive (of course, they didn’t mention that detail out loud).

Once all was said and done, Rainbow Dash and Cheeto decided to try their luck with Nikias.

Later that day, Sunset returned to Aevum alongside Rainbow and Cheeto. According to Will, Centurion Nikias was holding a little tournament to find who out of the applicants was the best fighter. Rainbow Dash had eagerly signed up the moment she heard about it.

Sunset had decided to stay out of it because she realized that those trying their luck with Centurion Nikias rarely had any skills outside of combat prowess.

She was sitting off to the side watching Rainbow Dash fight a Hun—during which she was clearly using her geode to gain an edge—when Will sat down beside her.

“Hey, Sunset,” Will said. He gestured to the fights in the area. “Are you joining them?”

Sunset shook her head. “I’m just here to watch. What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to see which first timers I should keep an eye on and which ones are just dead weight,” Will explained. “Of course, if they seem like dead weight but survive to the second week, it’s also worth keeping an eye on them because sheer determination can sometimes make up for a lack of other things.”

“So if they have both talent and determination, you’ll be paying double close attention?”

Will nodded. “Pretty much, yeah.” He pointed toward Cheeto, who had just finished a duel with a Scythian. “You see her? I like her.”

“She has... something,” Sunset agreed. “I don’t know what, but she has it.”

Eventually, both Rainbow Dash and Cheeto had been eliminated, but they had evidently impressed some of the optios who were there, as Rainbow came over to Sunset and Will the exact moment she finished talking to one of the optios.

“Sunset, guess what?” Her body was barely holding in her excitement. It felt as if the excitement contained within Rainbow Dash was leaking out into others.

“You made i–” Sunset began.

“I made it!” Rainbow Dash interrupted, immediately running off to Celestia knows where. Sunset shook her head, smiling.

Will chuckled. “I see you’re in good company, then.”

When Sunset returned to the House of the Sun, Galaxia beckoned her to the back.

The AI had changed form to that of an equine about a head taller than Sunset, which she assumed was around the same height as Princess Celestia—she had no frame of reference between pony and human sizes. Her coat was a pastel pink and her mane glittered like the night sky. Her eyes were the same color as Celestia’s—a light lavender.

“I am assuming you have had no luck,” Galaxia said, looking down slightly at Sunset. “I detect no changes regarding you in Minerva’s database.”

The gardens of the House of the Sun were not restricted to the front. Sunset and Galaxia were at the edge of the back gardens, which Sunset found reminiscent of an untamed forest.

“Yeah, but I know what to do now,” Sunset replied.

“And what would that be?” Galaxia asked.

“The prestige of impressing the big important instructors isn’t worth it and I should just talk to a lower ranking one.”

Galaxia nodded. “Pragmatic, but you lose bragging rights.”

Sunset shrugged. “Bragging rights are overrated.”

“From what I know of you, any advantage over everyone else, no matter how minuscule, is important to you. Even bragging rights.”

“But if you keep chasing a bragging rights reward while ignoring easy ways to get to a similar conclusion, you’ll have wasted time you could have spent doing something productive.”

Galaxia nodded. “Wise words.”

Sunset’s shieldwatch briefly glowed magenta before returning to its normal blue.

“Those are the materials you requested regarding Celestia.”

Sunset gave a quick nod before heading back to the Academy.

The optio that Sunset had approached to convince to accept her had been for some reason unable to access her files, so she was now following him to find a senior instructor.

She knew why her files were locked, of course, but she also knew that it would only be locked to anyone who didn’t absolutely need to know, and whoever the head instructor was probably needed to know.

“This sort of thing happens from time to time,” the optio said. “Almost always with the Second Cohort too. They tend to abuse the fact that they can lock information to clearance levels far above what their rank would normally allow for fun, but all it does is waste our time.” The optio looked back at her. “Was it the Second Cohort that squired you?”

Sunset nodded. It might not have been true, but it was close enough.

“Hm. I thought so. It’s very annoying.”

The optio stopped in front of a wall, making it disappear—these were fadedoors, as Sunset had learned. “Centurion Shani, I have something for you.”

Without looking up, Shani replied, “Praetor Shani. I may only be acting in this rank but you will address me by it as long as I do so.”

“I apologize, Praetor. This potential recruit has herself a locked file, so I brought her to see you.”

Shani looked up at Sunset. “I didn’t see you at the initial application process.”

“Yeah, I woke up late,” Sunset absentmindedly replied. She immediately regretted it upon remembering militaries valued punctuality.

Shani raised an eyebrow.

“I promise it won’t happen again,” Sunset quickly added.

Shani nodded. “If you show up even a second late to any part of training you will be dusted to serve as an example, so you won’t be completely useless.”

Sunset gulped.

Shani touched a few things on her shieldwatch holoface. “Let’s see. Praetor Co– huh. Haven’t heard of her in a while.” She stopped for a moment, a mildly confused look spreading across her face. “Hmm. I wonder if that would be something Lycus knew about.” She closed her holoface and looked directly at Sunset. “Academically, your achievements at your original school are quite impressive, and you certainly have done your fair share of fighting unusual opponents. Physically, there’s nothing wrong with you except for some slight malnutrition, which can very easily be fixed. However, if you turn out to be a fraud, you will be dusted to serve as an example. Am I understood?”

“Yes, Praetor,” Sunset said with a nod.

“Good, you’re already used to addressing me by title, unlike some people.” Shani glared at the optio as she said that last part.

The optio gave a nervous chuckle. “Understood, Praetor.”

Shani returned to what she was doing before Sunset arrived. “Good,” she said. “You are dismissed.”

“Welcome to the acceleration gym,” Will said. “It’s the perfect place for a training montage.”

Will had called Sunset there and asked her to bring her friends, so Starlight, Rainbow, and Cheeto were all there.

“It doesn’t look any different from a regular gym,” Rainbow Dash said, looking around at the equipment. She picked up a stick that seemed to change weight upon contact. “I can tell what most of this stuff is.”

“Well yes, it doesn’t look any different, the difference is in the effects from the accelerator,” Will explained, pointing at a pillar of light in the center of the gym. “Any workout you do here will have its effect multiplied, or accelerated, if you will. Anyway, regular gym equipment is here on the ground floor, fighting dojo is on the second floor, archery range is on the third floor, climbing wall is on the outside, and swimming pool is in the basement.” He pointed towards a map projected from the floor. “Save that to your shieldwatch if you get lost. Me and Tempest will be on the second floor if you need us.”

There was a track around the gym equipment, which is where they started, jogging four laps as a warmup. At first, Sunset was keeping up with Rainbow Dash, but it didn’t take long for her to fall behind. By the time she had finished her second lap, Starlight had almost caught up with her.

“How are you this bad?” Starlight teased as she passed Sunset. “I’m still not used to legs. You’ve had years to work on this.”

Sunset was too focused on getting enough oxygen to reply.

She collapsed before she even made it to the third lap.

“Come on, SunShim!” Rainbow Dash called as she lapped Sunset for the second time. “It’s really not that hard!”

“It is,” Sunset barely managed to say. “An entire freaking mile as a warmup? Really?”

Rainbow knelt down by Sunset. “I only made you jog. It’s not like you were running.” She held out her hand. “Come on, I’ll jog with you for your last lap.”

Sunset wound up walking the final stretch.

“Your endurance is terrible,” Rainbow Dash said as they finished. “You started off fine but you really can’t handle any distance.”

With her hands on her knees, mentally begging for water, Sunset replied, “Still too hard.”

After a quick water break, they moved onto stretches, which Starlight struggled much more with. After that, their training really began on the second floor.

“Roland told me that the actual training in the Academy will be hell compared to this,” Rainbow Dash said as she flipped Starlight on her back.

“I can’t possibly imagine anything worse than this,” Starlight groaned, with a slight hint of sarcasm.

Sunset did much better comparatively. More specifically, she made use of the karate she had learned with Rainbow Dash to take ten times longer to get her ass kicked than Starlight. She wasn’t bad, per se, just not as good as a third degree black belt who dabbled in Muay Thai.

While Rainbow Dash beat up on Starlight again, Cheeto stopped by.

“I was wondering where you disappeared off to,” Sunset said.

Cheeto shrugged. “Will wanted to see how good I am. He beat me a couple of times and gave me a few tips to improve.”

“You should try beating Rainbow Dash,” Sunset suggested.

Cheeto shrugged. “Don’t feel like it.”

Soon enough, Starlight collapsed right next to Sunset and Cheeto. “You girls are working me too hard.”

“Didn’t seem like you had a problem with it earlier when I was struggling,” Sunset replied, poking Starlight in the arm. “Besides, if you want to succeed here, you need to learn to throw a punch.”

Starlight rolled over. “That’s the problem! I don’t want to succeed! I just don’t want to get attacked by that crazy sword woman again!”

“You’re stuck here until one of us can protect you at all times, so you might as well pass the time. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“For starters, I could die.”

Sunset patted Sunset on the back. “Glimmy, if you died, I would learn necromancy.”

Starlight stared at Sunset for a moment. “Really?”

Sunset shook her head, smiling. “Nah. I’d rather not get in any more trouble with the Equestrian government than I already am. Really though, if you complete this training, you won’t need a bodyguard.”

Starlight pouted. “You think I don’t already know that?”

“Come on, Glimmy,” Sunset replied. “It will be fun.”

“Stop calling me Glimmy,” Starlight said.

“Whatever you say, GlimGlam!” Rainbow Dash announced as she plopped down next to them.

Starlight sighed. “Great.”

At the end of the day, Sunset was holed up in her room in the House of the Sun, reading everything she could find on Praetor Corona. She was almost certain that Praetor Corona and Princess Celestia were one and the same, she just needed to match the details with what Galaxia gave her.

Except the details refused to line up.

Praetor Corona had spent several thousand years in the city, at least since the Third Temporal War. Even taking into account the six hundred years that the Princess spent in the city, she couldn’t have arrived much earlier than the capture of the Forgotten Guns.

Celestia didn’t lie. She often danced around the truth, yes, but she never outright told a lie. She had said that she was exactly one thousand seven hundred and fifty four years old. Given the time of the legend of the first time she raised the sun, it lined up with the six hundred years figure.

Sunset stored her shieldwatch holoface away. She would figure things out later.

“Check.”

Caelum had never beaten Time King Endymion in chess before, but that never stopped him. When he wasn’t running a mission or training for the next one, he was sharpening his skills to eventually defeat his master.

“Excellent move,” Endymion said in response, “but you seem to have forgotten my bishop.”

With the bishop moving to block check, it revealed an attack elsewhere.

“Master, about Silverwind’s squire,” Caelum said as he moved his piece out of danger. It was to his own detriment, as unlike Endymion, he was unable to play optimally while talking.

“What about her?” Endymion asked, pushing one of his pawns forward.

“You said she was the key to the Legacy Library.” Caelum moved a knight to threaten Endymion’s bishop. “Do we not need the key?”

Endymion leaned forward, looking directly into Caelum’s eyes. “Using my own singularity AI is both a blessing and a curse. I do not have access to Minerva’s database, and if I try to access it, they will know. I still know nothing about her.”

“I spotted her near the Cohort Seven headquarters,” Caelum replied.

Endymion pondered a thought for a moment. “Captain Chih...”

“What is it, master?”

“He is currently a candidate for the vacancy among the Legendary Blades. Do you believe you can defeat him in a duel?”

Caelum nodded. “You taught me well enough.”

“Good. I will give you five weeks to capture her.” Endymion moved his rook down a few ranks. “Checkmate in six.”

Caelum calculated each move carefully, then pushed himself back from the table.

“You win as always.”

Author's Note

FYI, there was a brief timeskip between this chapter and the previous one.

Anyway, all of the major characters have been introduced now (well, except for Centurion Isra, but she’s been discussed): Sunset, Starlight, Rainbow Dash, Tempest, Will, Cheeto, Terra, Roland, and Hikari

If they remain unnamed for the next three chapters, they’re probably fodder

Anyway I need to stop procrastinating on the sister story… wish me luck

“Really, Thomas? You’re one to talk. You pretended you were the greatest thing since sliced bread then got beaten so hard by Hikari that you lost all your points.”

The Redcoat—Thomas—slammed his hands on the table. “Watch your tone, colonial.”

Also Thomas later that night: The fuck did he mean by “sliced bread”?