A/N: I apologize now for the inevitable headaches that may be caused. Isn't time travel fun?


The grassy, suddenly industrial pit in the desert was such a contrast to the sandy, lifeless place I'd walked into that it took me a few moments to actually understand what I was seeing. Eventually, I did what I so often did when presented with something like this.

"Fi," I called. "Tell me you can explain what just happened."

She didn't even need to take a look this time. She just appeared and started talking. "It appears that any impact on these blue stones causes a sustained temporal disruption field in the surrounding area, which subsequently causes a time shift to occur in this space. Readings indicate clearly that this area is in a past time state."

Once again, I stopped to try and make sense of this. Fi's explanations sometimes left more questions than answers. Once I worked my way through my interpretation of it, I said, "So, what you're telling me is... we've gone back in time."

"I do not believe so, Master. The area affected by this stone has been transformed into a prior state within the area of influence of this stone."

"We're here in the moment of 'now' right?" I asked. Fi nodded patiently. "But this stone makes the area around it exist in the moment of 'then'?" She nodded again. "Can I affect 'then'?"

"I believe so Master. The beings here already appear to have noticed our presence."

"And if I change 'then' that'll also change 'now'? Or will it already have been changed now, because it's already happened then, even though I only changed it then now?"

Yeah, I know already. I don't have the knack for dealing in two different times, alright? I can barely manage time zones in one world, let alone two different times in the same world. It gives me a headache.

Fi, to her credit and the relief of my own mind, chose not to try to explain the answer to that if she knew and simply answered, "The only way to answer with any certainty would be to experiment, Master."


"It wouldn't have already happened," Silver explained. "You see you were still now, while the area was then. Because you hadn't come along now to change then, the changes you made then didn't happen until after you changed them now."

"That makes even less sense than usual," Knuckles complained.

"It's actually really simple," Silver insisted. "It's not the same as what I had to go through. Take the Song of Storms. I had to learn the song in the future from the man I taught it to in the past. Now that is a tough one to explain. But for you it's simple."

"I think I get it," Tails said, looking thoughtful. "What happened then, happened then, but it happened one way up until the point of now, when they were changed, so you effectively changed the entire course of history."

"Not the entire course," Silver disagreed. "Just a small part of it. Unless you make a major change, I'm guessing those blue stones carefully limit the effect of what you can actually do."

"Please, just stop trying to explain?" Knuckles said in a pained tone. "I think I can actually feel my head hurting."

"Yeah, that happens with time travel," Silver laughed, then noticed Shad's similarly troubled expression and added, "Don't worry, Shad. I'll try and help you explain it in a more understandable manner."


Since even then – I know, don't even get me started! – I'd just about given up on trying to make any sense of this meddling in time, I just accepted that the area was different and left it at that. One of the white... things had cautiously approached during my dialogue with Fi, and when she disappeared it took the opportunity to talk to me.

"Where did you come from?" it asked in a very robotic voice. In a way, it was like a little piece of home to me. At least these robots weren't attacking me though.

"That's... not an easy question to answer," I said evasively. I wasn't even sure I understood the answer to that. "I'm... sort of just passing through. In more ways than one. What's going on here?"

"We're collecting Timeshift Stones and transporting them to the Lanayru Mining Facility," it answered promptly. "If you see any blue stones, be careful around them – they can be dangerous to humans, and maybe to other creatures too!"

"Like this one here?" I suggested, gesturing to the one that had made the past come to the present. Or possibly the other way round. Or neither. I don't even know, alright? Go poke Silver about it and let him melt your brains with his answers.

"What one where?" the robot sounded puzzled.

"But- It's right-" I broke off. "I think... I think I have an idea of an explanation, but I don't think I want to try explaining it. Just... don't worry about it," I told the robot. It made a fair approximation of a shrug, then went back to work.

There were several more of them around, mining at the rocks. For now, I decided not to bother them. I was having enough trouble with this as it was. So I moved to the door, which tracks clearly went underneath. The door however, was as immobile as ever.

"Cart," one robot told me cryptically before returning to work.

There was of course the hovering cart nearby. I nudged it slightly with one hand and it bobbed, like a boat floating on water rocking slightly, but it didn't move until I warily got in. Then it hummed into life, whirring along above the track which partly circled the area before taking me to a door – not the same one I was beside – which opened automatically. Ah, technology.

This just led to a small room where two more robots were at work and nothing else. They asked me to hold the cart while they put a few stones in, then since they were done I got back in and took the journey back.

The issue of reaching the other door was not going to be so simple. The track for that door led around a different part of the area the Timeshift stone affected, all the while glowing to show it was an activated rail.

Then it passed under the blue line at the edge of the Timeshift area. Up until that point it was glowing as it should have been. Past there, it was the dead, rusty track I'd seen before. It was the same track actually, leading to the mine cart I'd decided I had no need to dig out. Only now I did have a need.

The cart was still inactive though, being in the now, while the activated track was 'then'. Obviously I had to change that. What would happen if the cart crossed the line? Would it activate? Would the 'then' one be moved to match? Or would the 'now' one do nothing? Would it become a new cart in the area? Would it simply vanish?

This is why I had so much trouble with the area. Normally little things are impossibly difficult to answer without actually trying them. In this case, once I dug out the cart and heaved it over the line, it became like new, lit up and hovering expectantly above the rail.

I decided not to try to figure out what exactly had happened, or what the robots in the past had seen and just hopped in to let the cart take me to the door.

On the other side of that door only part of the room was covered by the Timeshift stone. The track ended on one side which was clearly grassy, though bare earth was exposed as outside around where the track had been installed.

The other side of the room was grey, worn and dusty. The thin blue line that marked the border between 'then' and 'now' ran right through the room, creating a strange looking contrast. On the present side of the room there were some old, white remains at the walls – remains that looked like if they were reassembled, or perhaps brought within the affected area, I guessed would turn out to be more of the ancient robots out there.

What startled me was that as I watched, there was a momentary puff of blue at the edge, and a robot appeared carry a rock that was then deposited in the cart I'd just brought in. Since I was on the other side of the blue line, it was clearly completely unaware of me as it went about its business, turning around and heading back – disappearing into another puff of blue!

The explanation was obvious, of course – I was watching what was happening in the past, and it had evidently come from outside the affected area in its time, walked into it in my time without being aware of what it was doing, and then walked back out again.

What had they seen when I'd crossed that line then? I must have just disappeared in a similar way to them! What they'd thought of that, I'd probably never find out.

Just on the edge of the line, there were some blue crystals sticking up out of the ground. The same blue as the Timeshift stone. Striking this one had a strange effect. The blue line retracted through the wall, I could only assume because the first stone I'd struck was de-activating. After a few moments a new blue line burst forth from this stone, covering the room. The two sets of white remains turned into active robots, digging away industriously. The cart and rail, which had both turned inactive and rusty as the first area vanished, reactivated again. And opposite them, what had first been in the present and just looked like some worn stone, was now in the past and looked more like... well actually it just looked like a carved and painted bit of wall with a pot in the front. I climbed up the wall nearby to have a look in, but saw nothing. I could feel a slight breeze coming from around it though.

So I dug away at the walls around it a bit, just enough to give myself a hand-hold, then heaved it back to reveal an opening. And the blue line that told me the currently active Timeshift stones didn't reach far outside this room.

Two more yellow ChuChus awaited here, quickly dealt with now I knew better what I was doing. Past them the rock appeared to drop away, but where to and what was down there was obscured because there was just sand ahead, filling whatever depression was there.

There was another small stone outcropping jutting into the sand ahead, and beyond that two more of the stone carvings. Then nothing, except on the other side of this tunnel there were two more, and then some more rock. Though I was looking from a distance, I couldn't see any sign these two carvings had anything behind them. I did take a closer look, going along the walls to see, but these ones were just built up against the walls with nothing behind.

Since the sand here hissed as it moved, quite rapidly, on it's own, and since I was already on the walls, I stayed there and made my way along there instead, passing more stone in the sand only to have to stop and drop down when the tunnel opened into a massive area, similarly filled with flowing sand.

I could probably have used the walls to get around in here too, but it would have left me a poor view of the room, and I wanted to know what was around me. This time, I took running jumps and glided over the sand from platform to platform instead.

I made my way around to the far side of the room, where a shaft of light came down from above and a yellow ChuChu was waiting for me to send it the same way all its friends had gone. Another old cart and track were here, but this time no Timeshift stones were close enough. Not that I'd found yet, anyway. I did wonder if they really posed any danger to me, and if they didn't, whether I should just carry one around.

Past there an old mined out tunnel led up to where rocks had fallen over more old track and a few Keese had taken up residence. I used a bomb to blow up the rocks on the track and shifted the rubble myself, just in case I came across a Timeshift stone that affected it later. After seeing what had happened with the first one, I wanted to keep the tracks clear – just in case.

There was another door here, but it was of the kind that the carts needed to open, so I couldn't do anything with it in the here and now. So I went left, where more sand flowed and more rocks littered the area. This place had clearly suffered a cave in or two.

From where I stood, this just appeared to be a dead end to me, but as I moved from side to side, trying to make sure of that, I spotted a blue glint hidden in the rocks. I could have gone over there on the walls, but I was feeling a bit lazy instead. Since the sand was flowing the same way, I started bowling bombs over to blow up the rocks, which revealed a Timeshift stone, triggered by one of the explosions.

This transformed the tunnel from sandy to grassy, complete with a Quad Baba – remember them, they're the ones who can open their buds both ways – hanging from the ceiling. It even reached a fair ways into the chamber behind. I didn't concern myself with behind right now though – with the stones cleared and the Timeshift stone triggered, another ancient robot was at work down there beside an opening in the rock I hadn't spotted before – or perhaps in the 'now' it had collapsed.

I sent the Beetle on down to snap the Quad Baba's stem, catching it perfectly this time – practice makes perfect, after all – then I also went down and followed this new route.

Another Quad Baba also hung from the ceiling down this way, which was cut down in the same way. Really, it was like they were just asking for it to happen. Past the second one was the large, sandy cavern again – only like the corridor, where the Timeshift stone affected there was grass instead of sand. It was strange, watching the sand flow across that blue line as if nothing was different, yet seeing it appear to flow straight into grassy earth.