Time Spiral and the Continuum Countdown

Chapter Three

Continuum Crisis

As days passed my Cutie Mark shrank more and more into itself. Stark and the Brotherhood were doing their best to teach me all they knew about time travel, which must have been quite difficult seeing as though none of them were Unicorns.

I would always stop and wonder if any of them hoped that I would fail, perhaps they thought one less Unicorn in Equestria was a good thing. I hoped that it wasn't possible but some of them had to feel that way because I was still receiving scathing looks every time I walked out of my study.

Knowing first hand how destructive my initial means of time travel was I knew I had to find another way. The Brotherhood's lessons were helping, I was slowly getting a grasp on my abilities. It wasn't long before I was able to manifest a new way to travel through time, they called it a time portal.

We monitored my Cutie Mark's degeneration daily, somehow it seemed as though the more I practiced forming portals the less degradation was observed. I took this as a good sign and practiced every day.

Often young foals would come and ask me if I could send them through time, I would simply smile and tell them it was too dangerous. But my fears about sending ponies through time portals was short lived, events quickly escalated and my hoof was forced into action.

*

I awoke one day after my first month of training had been completed. Members of the Brotherhood seemed more nervous than usual, and for once they weren't looking at me.

Through all the commotion and noise I recognized Stark on the other side of the great hall. I made my way through the crowd to her as quickly as possible.

"What's going on?" I yelled over the noise.

"Our scouts have warned us of an impending attack," she said.

"Who's attacking us?" I asked.

"The faction controlled by the Centurion," she responded, "they're coming for you."

I felt the blood rush from my head and into my hooves, which felt extremely heavy. I blinked slowly, it was the only thing that kept me from bursting with fear.

"How much time do we have?" I asked, panicking.

"Minutes, hours," she began, "either way its not enough, we can't hope to evacuate three hundred ponies and get them somewhere safe in that amount of time."

Loud bangs thundered and echoed through the great hall.

"THEY'RE HERE!" screamed a pony at the gate. We all stared at the gate, terrified.

Stark turned back to me. "It's up to you to save all of us," she said sternly.

"I can't fight them all off on my own," I responded as I shook my head violently.

A bang louder than all the others crashed through the cathedral and knocked the ponies to the ground. I stood up quickly, I had only one plan.

"Everypony this way!" I yelled.

I concentrated and projected my thoughts back to somewhere I hoped was safe. My horn shone a brilliant red and out of it shot a wide pulsating circle, big enough for ponies to travel through.

"The time portal is open, go now!" I told them.

"Thank you Time Spiral," said Stark.

One by one the ponies trotted through the portal and disappeared. Soon I was the only pony left in the cathedral. At that very moment the walls began to glow bright white and slowly evaporated.

Where the door to the Cathedral had once been the Centurion stood smugly.

"Very clever," said the Centurion, "using a portal to aid in your friends' escape. I bet you feel tired now, transporting three hundred ponies into another time?"

"Tired, yes," I answered, "but I'm not finished yet."

"I think you are," said the Centurion