Sabre and Derpy aren't back in the middleworld. The surrounding area is a mixture of places both have been to at some point in their lives. They are standing inside a delivery carriage. The carriage has a black circle, and a completely white shape of a pony with a parcel on their back, on either side. At the back inside is just completely white.
"What is this place? This isn't the middleworld..." Sabre wondered.
"This looks like... evweywhair we have bean to... all meshed together," Derpy guessed. They hear dark chuckling behind them. Sabre and Derpy turn around, a sees Shadow Sabre and the Pony of Shadows.
"Things are quite a mess... Sabre. Maybe if you joined the darkness, none of this would be happening now, would it?" Shadow Sabre chuckled. He then gets put a similar looking sword that has Madness Steve's essence. Upon seeing that, Sabre notices he's missing it.
"The Shadow Sword! How!?"
"With reality being broken down has freed us from imprisonment, and we took the sword off you as you teleported! Now we'll have our fun with the pair of you! We're in possession of the Shadow Sword, meaning you can no longer tell us what to do! Madness Steve isn't taking us down before we take you all down with us!" The Pony of Shadows shouted. Derpy tries to hover to them to attack, but her wings aren't generating lift.
"Uh... Sabre... this... may be the time to... RRRUUUNNN!" Derpy screamed as she ran and jumps out the carriage, onto an area onto a large floating piece of stone, Sabre following close with her.
"Stay away from us!" Sabre yelled at the 2 figures of darkness chasing close behind him and Derpy.
"Sabre, hop onto my back!" Derpy yelled as she lightly taps her left forehoof and she grows slightly in size, and a saddle appears on her back. Without hesitation, Sabre hops onto the saddle, and immediately the grey pegasus trots away, her eyes pointing in the same direction. She is clumsy, but she knows she can't afford any clumsiness, especially not right now. Derpy jumps onto a floating long dark oak table with red in the middle. Meanwhile, Shadow Sabre and the Pony of Shadows are chasing Sabre and Derpy. Whatever is happening is also affecting their abilities.
"Pony of Shadows, give me a boost!" Shadow Sabre yelled. Out of the Pony of Shadow's body, a black tentacle wraps around Shadow Sabre. The black tentacle extends, holding Shadow Sabre closer to Sabre and Derpy. With the Shadow Sword, Shadow Sabre tries summoning lightning, but where they are at, everything is completely broken, so he then tries summoning fireballs, which he is able to, but only a single one every few seconds due to everything breaking down. Derpy reaches the end of the long dark oak table and is running, and now running on a thin 3 by 3 path of polished blackstone, with blue fire on the edge of each side and then into a circle arena of sorts that's also made of blackstone materials.
"The arena I fought Void in the world below- This must be the ramifications of everything. I still see Madness' affects," Sabre thought to himself. It also reminds him of after the fight, his shadow betrayed him, Shadow Sabre, only helping to get trust, and now he's out again, physically present, but it all doesn't matter. Madness Steve is by far the main problem. Then out of nowhere, screeches could be heard, and beings mostly see through with dark blue particles emitting from them began attacking not just Sabre and Derpy, but also Shadow Sabre and the Pony of Shadows, punching mostly Derpy and the Pony of Shadows, doing nothing to neither, pushing neither. Derpy continues running, the Pony of Shadows continues pursuing. Sabre then remembers he still has the Dark Shard. He turns his head around and summons a fireball at the tentacle holding Shadow Sabre, making the Pony of Shadows drop him, halting them, letting Sabre and Derpy gather distance. Now, they are heading to the right, and they are on a path made of red nether bricks, with trees on either side, mixed with trees from the swamp where the First Curse lived, and trees from the Everfree Forest.
"Do you think getting out of here will stop them!?" Derpy exclaimed.
"Maybe- Oh no! They're catching up! Faster Derpy! Faster!" Sabre exclaimed back, with Derpy trotting faster. The grey pegasus then makes a left turn and now running through the Canterlot Castle throne room, except the pillars holding the roof above them are made of cobblestone and bedrock, and the throne is the same as Void Steve's throne that was in his volcano lair. Derpy notices a hole in the throne, and jumps down it, down into a house that is spruce on the inside. It has a crafting table, a furnace and a blue bed to the left, a chest on the right, a blue carpet down below and smooth stone slabs above.
"Wait a minute, this is Blue Steve's house," Sabre thought to himself. Derpy's hooves then out of nowhere randomly gave way, collapsing to the floor.
"You okay- Woah!" As Sabre was about to get off to help Derpy up, the grey pegasus got up all on her on with him still on her back, and continues on trotting.
"They can't get through... we just have to keep going... and we should be good..." Derpy panted, beginning to trot slower.
"You got this Derpy! We have to keep going! If we stop here, it's not over for just me and you, but for everyone! You got this I believe in you!" Sabre cheered on, the cheering actually doing more bad than good as it's making the grey pegasus notice more and more she's pushing herself to her limits. She is now trotting on top of the Town Hall which is sidewards, running across it. Then ahead is the Indigo Tower, where there is a 5 block jump between it and the sidewards Town Hall, which Derpy easily makes the jump. She kicks Sabre off her back, lightly taps her left forehoof and removes the saddle and shrinks back to her normal size, panting, gasping for air.
"You okay?" Sabre asked. Derpy nodded, her trotting robbing her of her ability to speak at the moment.
"Yeah... phew... that was... exhausting..." Derpy eventually replied with an actual verbal answer, still panting. Ahead, the 2 notice Shadow Sabre, who is mounted on the Pony of Shadows, are heading towards them.
"Down there must be the way out-" Hearing this, Derpy grabs Sabre with her forehooves and pushes herself and him with her back hooves, jumping down the hole of the Indigo Tower. Both Sabre and Derpy screamed as they fell whilst being teleported, which they didn't know as they thought they were falling forever.
Sabre and Derpy are now where they're meant to be, the middleworld with Time Steve. Sabre also notices he has the Shadow Sword back in his hand, and then looks to Derpy.
"How you say we keep that between us to huh?" Derpy nodded in agreement with Sabre.
"Hey, where were you two?" Time Steve asked as he walks up to Sabre and Derpy.
"Eh- It's not important- Where's Indigo and Blue Leader?" Sabre asked back.
"Oh, they're with the other leaders, at Twilight's," Time Steve replied.
"Okay cool, Time, take back to where Elemental, M and Discord are," Sabre ordered. Time Steve summons lightning, teleporting himself, Sabre and Derpy.
The 3 are back with the other 3, still outside by the kingdom, and Discord no longer being a portal.
"Hey you three," Said M.
"Okay, that should be- What's... going on?" Sabre notices the terrain here and there have slowly began to disappear, becoming the same tone of colours like the sky.
"Here we are... the overworld," Time Steve dully said.
"Time, what is all of this?" Sabre asked.
"He was right... he was right- He was right!" Derpy exclaimed to herself.
"Derpy, what- *looks back at Time Steve* Listen, Time, take everyone else to Twilight's castle with you. We'll come once we're done," Sabre requested as he turns to walk over to Derpy, lightning summoning behind him. He looks behind once the lightning died away, noticing Time Steve, Elemental Steve, M and Discord are gone. Sabre turns around and looks back at Derpy, who is starring at the patches in the ground that looks just like the sky, only not crying as she's not letting herself to.
"Derpy, what's going on-"
"The steve with that single red eye... Hypno Steve was it?" Derpy dully spoke, interrupting Sabre.
"Yeah, what about him, Derpy?" Sabre asked.
"He... talled me... that so much would happen... up to this moment. Evwething that's happening... he told me of this- I- I- I'm just a mailmare. I'm nothing special, not a hewo, just a... clumsy mailmare who just happened to get caught in all this... I never asked to have this magic..." Derpy sighed as she looks away, but as Sabre began speaking, she looks back at him.
"I've had moments... where I wanted to just give up where... the situation was so overwhelming. If you need, I'm here Derpy. Whatever happens, we have to keep going. Whether things will end regardless, we have to keep trying until the very end. Since meeting you ponies, friendship... it's got a whole new meaning. Everypony fights for what I and the steves fight for, peace, prosperity and harmony. We can't... we can't lose everything we've worked for, not like this. Everything lays in our hands, and hooves," Sabre replied to Derpy.
"Incase evwething goes terwibly wrong... I'm glad to of met you, and the steves," Derpy wept as she extends her left forehoof and pulls Sabre in for a hug.
"It's okay... it's okay," Sabre whispered as he puts his right arm around Derpy. Sabre stays for as long as the grey pegasus needed the hug. After a minute, Sabre feels Derpy's left forehoof slowly loosens around him, so he slowly pulls away.
"You good now, Derpy?" Sabre asked. Derpy nodded.
"Maybe you should teleport us, just incase... y'know. Take us to Twilight's castle, where everyone else is," Sabre suggested. Derpy nodded as she closes her eyes and thinks of the mane 6 before lightly tapping her left forehoof down.
(Sabre's POV)
Wait a minute... this isn't Twilight's castle- I'm in the darkness- Why?
"Be careful Sabre next time when you teleport," A voice chuckled behind me.
"Shadow..." I growled as I turn around. I knew my shadow was only trying to earn my trust again- He almost did for a bit, but now, he's never getting my trust ever again.
"What do you want? What was all that about- And where's the Pony of Shadows?"
"Reality- Every reality out there is falling apart. It freed us, letting us take control. You think that reforming Madness will fix all of this? No. What you don't understand is you were in a loop, and it's been broken," My shadow replied.
"What do you mean?"
"If a time loop is broken, everything that happened will fall apart, ceasing to of ever happened. The only reason it hasn't yet is because of Madness. Reforming him back to Calmness... you may never know, he'll just let the timeline correct itself naturally. This will also mean that you will of never met any of the-" Shadow is trying to scare me again, the only thing he is good at. Surely things don't just cease to of happened if a loop- That would technically mean if we reform Calmness, it'd never happened and he'd just be Madness again, it don't make sense- Maybe I should talk to Time about it as he knows his... time stuff, or Derpy, as apparently Hypno Steve told her some stuff as well- Maybe Time, actually, Derpy is still... pretty messed up from everything that happened, and she needs her space. Maybe talking to Twilight may help as well.
"I've heard enough from you. All you're doing is trying to scare me. I'm not gonna let you do it, not again."
"You won't need to, as technically this will all cease to of ever happened." I've heard enough of him. He's actually scaring me, and he knows it. Will I forget, or never know these ponies existed after all this? No- But they're so kind- I- I don't want to forget about them! It's all too much to think about, I need to get out of here.
(No longer in Sabre's POV)
"Sabre, you there?" Twilight asked, poking him with her left forehoof. Sabre notices everyone else in the castle, in the room with the round table and 6 chairs with the image of the mane 6's Cutie makrs. The leaders of all the coloured Steve's are there as well as Time Steve, Elemental Steve, Dark Steve, the mane 6, the CMC, Spike, Starlight, Discord, Dinky.
"Oh uh- Yes, just dozed off," Sabre replied.
"May I speak to you, and Time, outside the castle? It's something important," Sabre requested.
"Yeah sure," Twilight replied. Sabre walks out with Twilight and Time Steve, to the front outside the castle, walking out the gold yellow door.
Sabre looks at the sky, and just like in the reality he had lived in for so long now, the sky is the same, and probably is the same everywhere, in every reality.
"Sabre you wanted to talk about something. What is it?" Time Steve asked.
"Shadow spoke to me again. He said that I was part of some... time loop or something. He said that it's been broken, everything that happened will cease to of happened. Is this true?" Sabre asked, sighing afterwards.
"He was talking about a bootstrap paradox," Time Steve replied.
"Oh- OH! I know what you're talking about Sabre," Twilight replied.
"I remember before I was even an alicorn, my future self was warning me about something. At the time, I didn't think much of it. But then, I later discovered it was actually me who went to the past to warn my past self about said thing," Twilight explained.
"Wait- The First Curse- Twilight, remember when the First Curse said his existence was thanks to me, even though I myself never met him?" Sabre asked.
"Yes- Oh... you must've went back and created him... or you created Origin Steve and he in turn created him and the steves and so on. If the Unnamed slash First Curse existed for so long, you must of of aged before uh...- Oh... that example of the paradox is complicated, and I don't know what would happen if that type of loop was to be broken," Twilight replied.
"The said loop was created at some point in an original timeline. From there, the loop's origin becomes unknown, and said to be self-created, with no beginning or end. If the loop was to be broken, then..."
"Then what, Time?" Sabre questioned Time Steve.
"If no one does something about it, your shadow could be correct. Everything could just cease to of ever happened, and time would correct itself. There is also a chance since you from the original timeline must of went back, if the loop was to be broken, time could just correct itself onto that, creating a separate timeline, connected to the original," Time Steve replied.
"Regardless, whether we'd cease to ever know each other or not, we still must stop all this," Sabre stated.
"Twilight, incase if this does happen- You said you travelled to the past- Could you take me back, all the way back to the beginning?" Sabre asked.
"The furthest I ever travelled back to in time to when me and my friends were just fillies and before we even met each other. Starlight went back and altered the timeline- That's a complicated one in itself, and it's for Starlight to explain is all I will say. But if it does come down to that, I could try and send you back all the way to the beginning. The spell I used to go back in time was also be temporary. So once you've done what you needed to do, you should come back. But I don't know what it'd do to me if I was to send you so far back though Sabre," Twilight replied.
"We're steering off track, and I'm sure we'd figure something out when we cross that bridge, don't you all think?" Sabre responded. Time Steve and Twilight nodded in agreement.
Twilight, can you get the others please?" Sabre asked. Twilight nodded as she went back inside the castle, to go and get everyone.
"I don't want to forget them Sabre..." Time Steve murmured.
"Me neither Time, but we have to do this either way. Reforming Madness back to Calmness is the only way we can fix all of this," Sabre responded back in the same tone. The thought of potentially them ceasing to ever know everypony made them so distraught. They've grown close to the ponies over the days. They want to see a future where steves and ponies work together for a great future. All of that could potentially never to be. This is a very massive catch 22.
Note:
Sorry for a short chapter. But since the last episode of Rainbow Quest came out, Sabre went back in time to create Origin Steve to restart the loop. I thought I'd just make this chapter about there was a loop, because it is important to the story of Rainbow Quest. As for what actually happens next, you'll just have to wait and keep reading ;).