I was quite busy working on some of the scripts for the time machine, as Entrapta was running biopsies on my Hybrid DNA. I had to make sure that there was some sort of failsafe in the event of a paradox, so I put a limiter on the time machine, limiting the user to 30 minutes in whatever time period that they travel to. Mortals can't handle excess time travel, and if Alicorn Kronos is right, it is a good way to make sure they don't go over necessary boundaries.
I walk over to Entrapta, wondering if she knows anything about the first Hybrids. Before I do that, I hear that infamous ticking sound, the one I have heard for eternity. Usually, when that happens, something is about to go down. I looked at Entrapta's past, and realized that she helped the Rebellion a while ago. Now things get interesting.
"Uh, Entrapta, quick question. You worked WITH the Rebellion? How did that happen?' I ask her suspiciously.
Entrapta looks at me, straight through my soul. "Well, Adora claimed to be able to help me get my kingdom back, but she lied to me, and left me for dead in the Freight Zone around a month before you showed up. Besides, the Horde has much better tech than the Rebellion, by a long shot! Anyways, we even have First Ones Tech reengineered. It's amazing!"
Hold up, this brings another legitimate question to my mind. "I heard rumors as I was skimming the timeline that this Adora person got access to a superweapon. Is this true?" I ask her, remembering that the weapon was a sword.
"Yeah, it's crazy. The First Ones made a superweapon, and selected an avatar to wield it, naming her She-Ra. What's crazy is that the Horde is fucking tame compared to the First Ones, since they actually committed planetary genocide on every planet they conquered, while the Horde just wants to govern properly, you know?" Entrapta says, pulling up something on her tablet, showing the history of the Sword.
"Oh shit, that sounds really bad. Poor Adora. Hold on, could the first She-Ra be the first Hybrid, assuming that Adora is just the latest incarnation?" I ask Entrapta, only to have someone tap me on the shoulder.
"Why, yes, that would be exactly the case, Nathan." I turn around, and see a familiar, but potentially dangerous face.
Its Discord, albeit in human form. Last time I saw him, he sent me to Pearl Harbor, 1941 and made me see Twilight almost die. I don't even know what side he's on.
"What the fuck are you doing here, Discord!?!? How...How did you even get inside the Freight Zone, let alone into top secret clearance?!" I ask, my power level rising dramatically, with energy sparks flying around my body. This causes Entrapta's sensors on her goggles to start beeping like crazy.
"Hey, cut it out, you might short circuit these goggles!" Entrapta says. I quickly lower my power level.
"My apologies, Nathan, I truly meant to test your strength back in Hawaii. Our goals are aligned, although our means to achieve this end differ. As for how I got here, well, you know me. Chaos is my middle name!" Discord says, as he is walking up the wall.
"Uh, Nathan, does this guy usually break physics like this?" Entrapta asks me. Being the woman of science she is, it makes sense that she doesn't understand this strange fellow.
"Why, yes! I was the first successful case of a Hybrid being made with organic DNA, rather than as a Bionic upgrade." Discord says with glee.
Hold on. Robot Hybrids? Where is Discord going with this?
"Wait, robots?" I ask, puzzled by this revelation. Discord looks me straight in the eye and says, "Well, not exactly." Discord jumps off of the wall and snaps his fingers, revealing a floppy disk.
"Damn, that's some old tech you got there, Discord. Lemme pry it open!" Entrapta says, grabbing the floppy disk from the draconequus.
"Before you do anything, please open the file on your device. It will provide much needed context for the time god on your left." Discord says authoritatively. Entrapta quickly rummages through all of her cables, adapters, and accessories, until she finds something that can read a floppy disk. She carefully inserts the drive, showing a document on her tablet:
BRIGHT MOON ROYAL ARCHIVE: NEW METHOD OF CONQUEST
[NAME REDACTED] Light Hope, First Ones' AI System brilliantly hacked by Bright Moon personnel, provided key information to sovereigns of Bright Moon pertaining to the fusion of organic and bionic matter. Further research is needed.
[NAME REDACTED] More information has been discovered. Splicing is only effective on hominid children and adolescents. Adults given treatment die within 72 hours. Possibly related to the Thymus gland.
[NAME REDACTED] Key technology has been successfully fused with a hominid infant named Catra. She is given bionic reflexes, agility, and speed. For her own protection, she will be sent to the Horde, where a coup will happen from the inside out, if everything goes to plan.
[NAME REDACTED] Several more hominid children have been infused with bionic matter, giving them elemental abilities. Under the guise of a cultural exchange program, the sovereigns of Bright Moon infected other monarch's children with Hybrid matter, augmenting their natural states and giving them supernatural abilities, ranging from plant manipulation, cryokinesis, pyrokinesis, etc.
[NAME REDACTED] To further finance the effort of removing the Horde, Bright Moon monarchs sold their newfound technology to other monarchs or warlords in the Local Group, not caring what they would do with the technology. They got their money.
ARCHIVE FINISHED:
The computer screen turns off after the three of us read this information.
Oh my god… This is horrible! I honestly don't know how to react properly. Do I say anything? Do I activate the Destroyer? Do I teleport my sorry ass back to Earth? I don't know anymore.
"Well, it seems I have gotten your attention, Nathan. It was our creator, Luna, who perfected this technology to perfect organic to organic hybridization. Obviously, it didn't work so well for me. I am a chimera for crying out loud! I was the first one, but sadly not the last. I truly pity you, boy. I am not sure how many Hybrids were given immortality, but we both have it, so let's suffer together, no?"
Discord says, chucking, like this was some sort of game that he had played before. I was livid, not at him, but at Bright Moon, for having the audacity to not only make this tech, but sell it.
"Anyways, the reason I came to Etheria in the first place was to let you know one Queen Twilight Sparkle is looking for you, and she is angry. She is bringing company, one "She-Ra." I believe I would suggest that you are your tech savvy comrade get the hell out of here, possibly to Earth." Discord says, patronizingly.
"We can't go to another planet, now! I have to finish my time machine!" Entrapta says, complaining.
"Well, you have an actual time god here, so we can just hide out on Earth or even in the End of Time, and wait it out. They won't know what hit 'em. Besides, whenever you are ready to come back, I can just set the parameters to 20 seconds from now. Nobody would know where we went. I would also probably take Kyle and Catra out, two valuable assets." I comment.
"Well, let me go get them!" Entrapta says, running quickly to get her two friends, alerting them of this potential search and rescue mission. Entrapta was thrilled. She always wanted to time travel.
"So, "Kronos", nice superhero name, if I do say so myself. Based on the Greeks, correct?" Discord asks me, trying to bide his time.
"Yeah. exactly. Original god of time in mythology. Funny thing is, only one of them is real, heh!" I say, jokingly.
"Yes, yes, I know. Anyways, your "Horde" friends are here, ta-ta!" Discord says, snapping his fingers and disappearing, presumably to cause more mischief.
"Alright, what the hell is going on?" Catra says, opening the door of the lab, confused and annoyed that she was pulled out of a war room meeting with Hordak.
"Yeah, what the hell, bro?" Kyle says, annoyed that his sparring match was cancelled.
"Well, some crazy guy that Nathan knows from his past says that Adora and some alicorn goddess are coming here looking for him, pissed off at something. I don't know. We are going time travelling to wait it out. Apparently he's a time god."
"A time what?" Catra says, confused.
Oh boy, I love showing off to the newbies. I pause time, move Catra over to the other side of the lab, and resume the flow of time.
"What. I was just over here. How did I move to the other side of the room?" Catra says, confused. She has excellent (Hybrid) reflexes, so seeing someone move her would have been a cinch for her. Not against frozen time!
"I paused time, and moved you. A small demonstration of my power. Lucky you have me in the Horde, and not for the Rebellion. They are so screwed, although they have a better chance if Twilight and others from Equestria are involved." I say, opening a portal to my hangout in the End of Time.
"Woah, you can do that!" Entrapta and Catra say in unison.
"Yeah, long story. If I was you, I would run in and enjoy my quality mancave at the End of Time." I say, running into the time vortex.
"Well, if he ran in, it must be safe." Kyle says, following me, along with Catra and Entrapta. The portal closes behind us.
"So, who wants to practice for the coming conflict?" I say, snapping my fingers and creating an arena.
"Woah, how did you do that?!!?" Entrapta asks, confused.
"Well, this is the End of Time, a place in spacetime where there is nothing and nobody. I made it my own personal hangout over the years. I have a TV, video games, all the snacks you could ask for, and more. As for creating this arena, since I can manipulate time and space to my will, I can mess with reality, but only in this small pocket of spacetime." I say, spawning a giant bucket of popcorn for my new friends.
"Here you go, eat up! I gotta train." I say, turning into my dragon/Hybrid form.
"The fuck? You look like a blue Rogelio, but with wings!" Kyle says, amazed at me.
"Well, I did say I was a Hybrid. A better, improved version. Some crazy alicorn named Luna experimented on me as a child, giving me powers from an ancient time dragon. I was supposed to be a weapon, but I defected. Anyways, enough of that. Who wants to be my first opponent? I won't kill anyone, I promise!"
CANTERLOT: EQUESTRIA
Veronica Schroeder decided to go back to Equestria for a quick visit, just to see if any of her new friends there have any information on my disappearance. She always hates going through the DC checkpoint, since she gets pulled over every time as a portal risk, because she is a Hybrid. Regardless, after finally making it into Equestria, she makes her way over to her pony counterpart's studio in ponyville. She had never formally introduced herself to Vinyl, and thought talking about music for a while would put her at ease.
She opens the door of the studio, and a white mare with the same music symbol as her, but as a "cutie mark", cocks her head from her DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) and notices the human girl at the front door.
"Can I help you, Earthling?" Vinyl Scratch says, before noticing that the human in front of her looks eerily similar to herself.
"Holy shit! Are you my human counterpart?" Vinyl Scratch asks, before noticing the scar on the young woman's forehead. "Oh dear. A hybrid. I am so sorry for you, human." Veronica uses some of her magic to pull up a chair, and sits at Vinyl's desk.
"My name is Veronica Schroeder, and I was told you are my counterpart by DEA personnel in Washington DC. I wanted to meet you and see what all the fuss is about." Veronica says.
"Well, this is quite odd, indeed. If you are me, I must give you a quick test!" Vinyl Scratch uses her telekinesis to grab a MIDI keyboard from the other side of the studio.
"Ok, Veronica. I want you to close your eyes. I am going to play a note, and you are going to tell me what note this is. If you are me, you will get this without fail." Vinyl Scratch says. Veronica agrees, closing her eyes, and putting her hand over her eyes for good measure. Vinyl Scratch presses the tritone key (assuming we are in a natural key, being C major), the furthest a note can be from any end of an octave.
"Uh, F#, right?" Veronica says, before realizing that it is also enharmonic to G"
"Fuck, it must be true. You are me!" Vinyl Scratch says, looking at her human counterpart from head to toe. The similarities are uncanny, from the color of hair, to the cutie mark being transposed as an arm tattoo, and the headphones around both of their necks.
"Hold on, if you are me, are you dating a human Tavi?" Vinyl Scratch asks, intrigued at the human's potential answer.
"Who the hell is Tavi?" Veronica asks.
"Octavia. My girlfriend. You are me, no? Obviously you know who Tavi is, gifted cellist, awesome all around mare, no?" Vinyl Scratch asks, scratching her head.
"Girlfriend? Honey, I am from Tennessee. We don't do that there. I actually have a crush on the time god, Nathan. We bumped into each other by accident at Sweet Apple Acres, and he gave me this cute look.
"Missouri, never heard of it. Anyways, I thought we would be exactly alike. The time god? Are you nuts! Poor guy is immortal. Even if you get his attention, you will be a blip in his life. At least you have perfect pitch. Hope you like dubstep, though!"
"Like dubstep? I am literally a top artist on SoundCloud! Here! Let me show you!" Veronica says, summoning her laptop from Earth, and showing her pony counterpart her works on SoundCloud.
"Shit, you are good. I take back what I said about you being a poser. You're cool, it's fine." Vinyl Scratch says.