Chapter 94: It's About Time 1

Cerberus was the guard dog of Tartarus, The Magical Prison where only the most dangerous threats are held.

Currently, Cerberus was not guarding the Prison of Tartarus. 

Cerberus was running as fast as his paws could take him.

"We Need to Get to the Castle!" His middle head barked over the wind, his large body pushing aside trees and boulders as if they were nothing more than cardboard.

"We need to get the Prince!" His left head barked, His nose working overtime in search of even the faintest scent of the Unicorn that was the Prince.

"He'll know what to do! He's the smart one!" His right head barked as his ears perked, listening to every sound in a vast radius, from the faintest of whispers to the loudest of snores.

Halting his movement as he reached the edge of a cliff, Cerberus looked at the Moon in the sky and let out a howl, hoping the Royal Family could hear him and quickly fix the problem.

"We Can't wait!" All three heads barked simultaneously.

"The Red One has broken his Cell!" The right head barked.

"We Can't give him time to escape!" The left head barked.

"Starswirl said he's the most dangerous one!" The middle head barked.

"We Must Hurry!" And with a mighty flex of his well-trained legs, Cerberus leaped off the cliff he stood on, feeling the wind slap at his faces, and returned to running without a moment of wait the second his paws once again made contact with solid ground.

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Spike the Dragon was having a wonderful dream, One he could almost wish he would never wake up from.

But Wishes are only wishes if they never come true, so Spike groggily opened his eyes and scrunched his face in displeasure at the clopping sound coming from downstairs that woke him up from his wonderful dream.

He rolled out of his bed and looked at the clock, his face scrunching up as if he bit an especially sour lemon.

So he tiredly rubbed his eyes and stood up from his bed, walking down the stairs of the Golden Oak Library to see his Big Sister Twilight Sparkle pacing back and forth, seeing that the sound of her hooves clacking on the wooden flooring of the second floor was what woke him up.

"We should get a carpet for that," He whispered to himself as he yawned, almost tripping over his tail as he made his way to Twilight.

"Twilight," The Dragon said to get the Unicorn's attention.

"Oh, Hi Spike," Twilight nodded at him as she continued pacing back and forth, something troubling on her mind.

"It's the middle of the night," Spike pointed at the window, his eyes briefly marveling at the full moon in the night sky.

If he squinted his eyes, he could almost see the constellation where Jerome and the other Moon Creatures went.

But thoughts of his now-gone friends would have to wait, he had a dream to return to, and he couldn't sleep while Twilight kept clip-clopping her hooves on the floor "Why are you pacing like this?"

"Frankly," Twilight said in her normal volume, not noticing the headache it was causing the tired baby Dragon, "I don't know how you could sleep at a time like this," 

Spike rubbed at his ears before lifting the clock in his hands, showing the time to be "03:00 AM?" before he turned to go back to bed.

Twilight Teleported in front of Spike, stopping him, "It's awful, It's horrible, It's tragic!" She quickly shook her head in despair before she went back to pacing.

"I don't understand, what's wrong?" Spike asked, his eyes slightly widening as he quickly caught the calendar that Twilight threw to him, seeing that the day was now the fourth day of the month.

"There, Now you see what's wrong?" Twilight asked from the other side of the room, still pacing around.

Spike didn't see what was wrong, It was another normal day, so whatever could be wrong had to be a Twilight Sparkle special issue.

"She'll explain it if I act as if nothing's wrong," Spike thought to himself as he shrugged.

"We forgot to celebrate Arbor Day?" Spike asked, knowing Twilight would correct him swiftly.

Twilight stopped pacing in front of one of the many books she took notes in, her horn glowing a raspberry pink as she opened the book and quickly flipped through the pages.

"No, The problem is I just finished planning my schedule for the month, But I forgot to leave time to plan for next month," She said with worry in her voice, as if one of the most horrific events of her life was taking place.

Spike would have groaned if he didn't already expect the reason to be so stupid.

"Don't you see?" She lifted the schedule she created up to show Spike, "There's not enough time in my schedule to put together another schedule!"

Spike moved to sit on a nearby chair, already used to how these things go.

"I could move my meeting with the Ponyville Hay Board to the following Tuesday, But then I have to reschedule my lunch with Pinkie Pie, and you know what a nightmare she is with scheduling. This is an absolute disaster. My whole year could be thrown off!"

Spike shook his head at how his Sister was acting, took a quick look at the clock, and came to a conclusion on how to solve this problem.

"I'm going back to sleep, Don't forget to schedule to buy a rug for the floor," And with those parting words, Spike the Dragon walked back up the stairs and went to bed.

Leaving Twilight Sparkle to pace around as she tried to fix her schedule.

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Cerberus dipped his middle head into a large lake, taking big gulps of the crystal-clear water.

He knows he's a magical creature, He does not require Food or Water to survive, but he still likes to eat.

"Tasty!" The left head exclaimed as he chewed a fish in his mouth, sticky saliva dripping down his maw, carrying with it the knife-like bones of the prey he caught.

"We don't have time! We must reach the Prince!" The right head chastised his fellow heads, earning him a spray of water from the mouth of the middle head and a laugh from the left.

"Hahahaha!" The left and middle heads barked with laughter, enjoying the look on the right head's face.

"Grrrh, How about this then!" The right head barked as Cerberus jumped into the water, clearing away the twigs and dust that caught on his fur after hours of running.

"Hahahaha!" The left head kept laughing as Cerberus swam across the lake, water dripping down his body, as the right head took the steering wheel, earning a yelp from the middle head.

"Hey! I'm the one who's supposed to do the moving!" Middle head barked with widened eyes, laughter no longer leaving his mouth.

"Then move!" Right head barked loudly, "Starswirl entrusted us to make sure that the Red One never escapes! We need to get the Prince to put him back in his cage! Before it's too late!"

"Fine! I'll move!" Middle Head barked loudly, a resolute glare crossing his face as Cerberus stepped out of the lake, flexing his large muscles as he prepared to go back to running.

PFFFT

Only for the Middle and Right heads to scrunch their faces as they turned to look at the Left head.

"I don't think I like fish anymore..." He whimpered in embarrassment, receiving a sigh from his two head brothers.

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The morning sun rose over Ponyville, A rooster cried with wakefulness, and Twilight Sparkle just finished finding a way to make time in her schedule for the month in order to work on the schedule for next month.

And so with bags under her eyes, Twilight Sparkle, Pupil of Princess Celestia, Element of Magic, and resident Librarian, stood up.

"Oh, my gosh, I think I did it! If I can find a way to read "The Art of Invisibility Spells" and "Thornhoof's Brief History of Canterlot" at the same time, that could leave me a half-hour scheduling window!" Twilight spoke to herself excitedly, only to widen her eyes as the wind picked up behind her, the paper notes she took flying away as sparks of magic started popping into existence.

She turned around, her eyes widening in awe as the wind picked up and the spark shone brighter, soon needing Twilight to cover her eyes from the brightness of it all.

"What's going on?" She walked backward, making sure the magical phenomena remained in her sight as she kept a safe distance between her and whatever was going on.

Soon the light was too bright to bear, Twilight closed her eyes and tilted her head away, even her eyelids weren't enough to shield her from the brightness of the magic.

And when the light dimmed again, Twilight opened her eyes to see- Another Twilight?

For it could be nopony else, Those colors on her mane, the purple of her coat, the violet of her eyes.

Not even the black bodysuit, the frazzled mane, the bandaged forehead, the eyepatch covering her right eye, and the cut underneath her left eye, could disguise Twilight Sparkle from herself.

But how was that possible?

Twilight screamed in shock at the sight, The Twilight in the Bodysuit shook her head and turned to look at her, "Twilight, You've got to listen to me!" She said as she ran up and stood before Twilight.

"Who are you? I mean, you're me, but I'm me too, how can there be two me's?" Twilight Sparkle was ignoring the glare on the second Twilight as she spoke, "It's not scientifically possible," She said before she poked her leg forward, "You are not scientifically possible!"

The Second Twilight jumped back, her eyes widening in fear as she kept away from the hoof Twilight almost poked her with, as if touching that could spell the end of the universe itself.

"Don't touch me!" Second Twilight yelled at Regular Twilight before she took a deep breath to steady herself, "Sorry, But I have a very important message for you from the future!" Second Twilight, now identified as Future Twilight, told regular boring Present Twilight.

"Not to touch you? Wait, You're from the future?!" Present Twilight started pacing around Future Twilight, keeping a distance between the two of them.

"That's right, now listen-" Future Twilight was cut off as Present Twilight once again opened her mouth.

"What happened to you? the future must be awful," Twilight noted as she took another look at the frazzled and injured appearance of Future Twilight.

"Please, I don't have much time!" Future Twilight tried to get Twilight to listen, but in regular Twilight fashion, she was too busy thinking of the many implications of what having a future version of herself doing in her home could mean, that she wasn't listening to the reasoning Future Twilight had for coming back in the first place.

"Is there some sort of epic pony war in the distant future of something?" Twilight asked, taking a look at the bandages and bodysuit that covered Future Twilight.

If she wasn't already planning to dress up as Starswirl the Bearded for the fifteenth time in a row for this year's Nightmare Night, she might have just found a new costume.

"Actually, I'm from next Tuesday morning," Future Twilight stated with a no-nonsense attitude, Likely finally understanding how Spike always feels when he has something important to tell her.

"But that's not important right now-" And as Future Twilight was about to get back on track to explaining everything, she was once again cut off by Present Twilight.

"I can't believe Time Travel is really possible, how did you- I mean I- figure that out?" Twilight asked with a cheeky smile on her face, somehow not noticing the serious expression worn by her future self.

"The time spells are in the Canterlot Castle archives, But that's not import-"

"Really? Where? I've never seen them!" Twilight asked with giddy in her voice as she leaned closer to Future Twilight, already excited to learn new magics and spells.

Future Twilight took several steps away from Twilight, "They're in the Starswirl the bearded wing, Now you have to listen to me-" And once again she was cut off.

"Is time travel fun, or does it hurt, I have so many questions I-" Future Twilight seemed to have enough of being interrupted if the pillow being magically shoved over Twilight's mouth in order to shut her up was anything to go by.

"I have something extremely important to tell you about the future!" Future Twilight said, worry starting to creep into her voice as sparks of magic started to move across her bodysuit and mane.

"And I only have a few seconds, so you have to listen!" Her voice grew more harried as the sparks started growing brighter and louder, the volume of her words needing to rise in order to be heard over the sound of the magical sparks and bright light.

"Whatever you do, Don't-!" Future Twilight was cut off as the Sparks reached their full brightness, and in a flash of light, she was gone. 

Disappearing in a shower of bright magical sparks, leaving behind where she stood nothing but a scorched wooden floor.

"Future Twilight?" Twilight looked around, "Oh no, What was she trying to warn me about?" She started to worry, "Her clothes, her mane, that scar... Oh, What a mess she is!" Twilight suddenly had a horrifying epiphany.

"What a mess I am... Or, I will be..."

She gasped in shock, "She must want me to prevent whatever horrible thing happens in the future!"

Twilight Sparkle will not be buying a new rug anytime soon.

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The left head of Cerberus barked loudly as a faint but still recognizable scent entered his nose.

It wasn't of the Prince he was looking for, but it was similar.

The Scent of someone who was close to someone who already had their scent marked on the Prince!

"They'll be able to bring us to the Prince for sure!" The right head barked as the left head kept sniffing.

The Middle head barked in agreement, Cerberus already running towards the location of the scent.

With Senses like his, he could follow a scent from hundreds of Kilometers away, So he better start moving faster if he wished to reach whoever that Scent belonged to before it was too late.

The Red One was not allowed to escape! Even if Cerberus must run across the entire Continent, He will make sure to fulfill his goal!

"Prince Blueblood! We're Coming!" The Right Head howled loudly at the morning sun, scaring away a nearby flock of birds.

"Princess Luna! I want Ribs as a treat!" The Middle Head joined his brother in howling.

"I like Chicken!" The Left Head howled as well.

And soon Cerberus resumed his dash across the wilderness of Equestria.

Cerberus was a Good Boy.

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Deep in the Magical Prison of Tartarus, a certain Centaur was tapping his fingers on his forearms, stretching his legs as he walked around the unguarded Prison.

He could easily escape, and by the time any pony noticed it would have already been too late, He would have been long gone.

But now wasn't the time for escape.

Fate had plans, and Destiny was coming closer.

Everyone had a part to play in the Grand Orchestra, Everything was predetermined before it even began.

It was Destiny.

It was Fate.

Tirek was a Cog in a machine called Fate, The engine that powered it as it lurched towards the end goal of Destiny.

He knew it all. There was little that could escape the mind of one who has accepted his place in the world.

"They will never understand," He whispered to himself as he shook his head again.

"Only I can."

It was his Destiny.

It was his Fate.

He knew how it began, and he knew how it would end.

There was little that could escape his mind.

"Oh Aspect of War, Do you not realize what you are?" He asked aloud, knowing full well that he was alone.

"It is your Destiny to struggle, to Overcome, and to Fight, That is your Fate, the entirety of your being coalesced into a single sentence,"

Was he talking to himself?

Was he talking to someone else?

Lord Tirek was alone, Deep underground, away from the other prisoners of Tartarus.

And perhaps nobody will ever know.

Because after all-

It was his Destiny.

It was his Fate.