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The following is a work of fiction copyright Radical Gopher. This story contains adult themes and situations and should not be read by anyone under the age of 18.

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THYME AFTER TIME - part 08

Cyanide stepped through the portal, quickly followed by Cinnamon, Clover and Cassia. All four ponies found themselves in a large, oval room. Lining the walls were a series of eleven plexiglas cylinders, each connected to a single, massive machine that occupied every visible inch of wall and ceiling space. Conduits, wires and tubes stretched across the room, making it rather cramped. Examining the cylinders, the ponies found all but three of them contained variations of the Maestro, all with different hairstyles, clothing and accoutrements, but all essentially the same anthropomorphic border collie.

"Well, this explains a lot," muttered Cinnamon.

"What are these things?" asked Clover. "Clones? Robots?"

"Replicants," replied Cassia. "Simulacrums intended to fill in for the original host."

"What host?" the green-furred unicorn asked.

"Her... I think," said the pink pegasus, pointing to a large rectangular chamber in the center of the room. It sat on a dais and was connected with the room's machinery both at the top and bottom. Inside, through a thick mist, they could all see the form of a humanoid female. She stood about six foot two, had copper hued skin, long, iridescent, silver hair, large, pointed ears and a pair of flexible antenna sprouting from the top of her head just behind her hairline. A number of electronic leads and tubes connected her to various devices within the chamber.

"Hookay," muttered Cinnamon. "I am now officially wierded out. Are you saying THIS is the real Chrono-Maestro?"

"It's possible," replied the chimera.

"How do we find out?" asked Cassia.

"Maybe we could wake her up and ask her," Clover offered.

"I suppose we could," replied Cyanide. With that, he raised the control device, aimed it at the chamber and pressed both the reset and off buttons. A series of indicator lights on the dais shifted from green to yellow and the mist within the chamber was sucked out.

"Wait... What happens if she turns out to be evil?" asked the blue-furred pony.

"She's a time-traveler, isn't she?" Cinnamon asked.

Clover nodded.

"Well then, we just kick her butt into next Tuesday." The other three ponies just looked at the green unicorn without comment.

A soft glow began radiating from the rectangular chamber, slowly becoming brighter as the seconds past. Eventually it became so bright the ponies had to look away.

"What's happening?" asked Cassia as she and the others squinted against the brilliance.

"I don't know, but I don't hear any kind of alarm," Cyanide replied. "This has to be part of a normal activation routine."

"One would hope," muttered Clover.

There was a sudden buzzing from one of the nearby instrument panels that lasted for about three seconds, followed by a series of loud clicks as latches all along the sides of the chamber suddenly snapped open. The device hissed as air pressure equalized and the lid was slowly pushed open from within. The ponies stood quietly watching as the light dimmed to normal and the copper-skinned female stepped out into the room. She looked around briefly, orienting herself, then focused on the nearest pony, which happened to be Cyanide.

"?to Bbi?"

The chimera looked at the others, then shrugged his shoulders in helpless ignorance

"Wer sind Sie?" Emerald green eyes watched him for some kind of response. "Quem são você?" She pursed her lips, a look of frustration framing her eyes. "Chi sono voi?"

"I'm sorry," Cassia interjected, "but we only speak English."

Understanding finally lit up her face. "American-English or English-English?"

"Uh, American-English, I suppose."

The woman's face softened and she politely smiled. "Good!" she responded, her voice like velvet. "Would you be kind enough to tell me who the $*&#()%@## you are and what the !*(#*)&%$^&#@ you're doing on my ship?"

Cyanide glanced at Cassia. "Sounds more like Cinnamon-English than American," he muttered

"I *%^#%&%%@+$@# HEARD THAT!" snapped the green-furred unicorn.

The pegasus crossed her arms and faced the alien woman, annoyed by her attitude. "My name is Cassia," she announced, "and my friends and I are known as the Powerpuff Ponies. We're here because we were shanghaied by one of these Maestros," she explained, pointing to the cylinders lining the room.

"Maestros?" the woman said. She looked toward where Cassia was pointing. Upon seeing the sleeping collies her eyebrows shot up and the antenna quivered. She went over to one of them and laid her hand on the plexiglas. "My babies!" she exclaimed.

The ponies looked at each other then back at the copper-skinned alien. "Let me get this straight," Cassia said. "These anthropomorphic collies are your... babies?"

"Not genetically... no," the woman responded, "but they are my creations, my 'family' so to speak." She looked up at the pegasus. "You said they brought you here?"

"Well, at least one of them did," Cyanide responded, "the one with the Scottish brogue."

"That would be Mora." The woman stood and went over to a wall panel, which she pushed. The panel slid back and a clothes rack rolled out from the wall. Reaching up, the alien removed what looked like a very baggy, gray jump suit and put it on. Once it was zipped up she pressed a button on the lapel. The suit immediately responded by contracting until it had molded itself to her form.

"That's cool," said Clover... How'd you do that?"

"Memory fabric, keyed to my genetic structure," she replied.

"Awesome. Where can I get one?"

"Clover!" Cinnamon and Cassia said in unison.

"Okay... It's obvious something is going on here I don't fully understand," the copper-skinned alien said as she slid into a pair of calf-length black boots. "Tell me what you know."

"Why should we?" said Cinnamon. "We're the ones who got jacked into your crazy chrono-spheroid. Why not start by telling us who the frack you are?"

She looked at them for a moment, noting that one was armed with a large bazooka type weapon and another had a cricket bat. She nodded to herself. "Alright then, my name is Jatee Rekooh and I am a Continuity Operations Prefect. It's my job to monitor cross-dimensional travel, arrest or warn away potential paradox perpetrators and repair temporal rifts and other such anomalies."

"Could you say that again with a few less marbles in your mouth?"

"Cinnamon!" the other ponies chided her.

"Feisty, aren't you?" she said, a thin smile curling her lip. "I like that. Alright, simply put, I'm a time cop and the girls here," she said pointing to the cylinders. " are my deputies."

"Well, something's not kosher here," Cyanide observed, "because the deputy you call Mora brought us here and claimed to be a Chrono-Maestro named Rosemary Thyme. She even arranged to trap three of us in these specially designed pocket-dimensions."

"Why in the name of the Seven Pillars of Gulu would she do that?" asked Rekooh"

"I thought you might be able to tell us," the chimera replied.

"To do that I'd have to question her first. You wouldn't happen to know where she is right now?"

"We left her and two of your other deputies tied up a couple of monoliths back," Cyanide explained.

"Tied up!" Rekooh said. "How did you manage that?"

"Stealth, guile and a solid left jab," Cinnamon proclaimed.

"Actually, one of them is just outside this chamber," Clover chimed in. "You could probably question her first, if you can wake her up that is."

The blue-furred pony led the way back through the monolith, followed by Rekooh and the others who watched the time-cop very closely. The third Maestro was still lying on the floor where they had left her. Gently kneeling over the collie, Rekooh quickly checked her pulse, eyes and breathing. Touching a button on her suit, the Prefect passed her hands over the sleeping figure before rolling her gently on her side and looking at the back of her neck.

"Who the Hell's been mucking around with Eliza's implant?"

The ponies looked at her blankly. "Don't ask us... We're just visiting," replied Cyanide.

Rolling the collie gently on her back, Rekooh brushed a few strands of hair out of the anthrop's eyes and pressed another button on her sleeve. "Suit... How long have I been in hibernation mode?"

"Unknown, but it has been twenty-seven cycles since you last utilized my systems," a soft voice answered.

"Twenty-seven... What the hell happened to my automatic wake-up call?"

"Unknown. Hibernation protocols are not part of my program."

"Excuse me," Cassia interjected, "but just how long is a cycle?"

"One Olympiad," Rekooh answered.

"Well, that's as fracking clear as mud," complained Cinnamon.

"It's four years," Cyanide said. He looked back at the Prefect. "If your suit's right, that would be one hundred and eight years, as measured by Earth's calendar. Just how old are you?"

"Physically, about 29; chronologically, 491; not counting hibernation and rejuvenation time."

"Naturally you wouldn't count those," muttered Clover.

Rekooh took a deep, calming breath. "It would really help if you stopped fixating on my age and allowed me to figure out what's going on here."

As if on cue the collie's eyes flew open and she looked up at the Prefect. "What's... going... on... 'ere... is... that... you... are... no... longer... in... charge." As she spoke, five more 'deputies' stepped out of the monolith, each armed with what looked like a heavy blaster weapon. These were immediately leveled at Rekooh and the ponies.

"Prease,... not... to... move... or... consequence... not... preasant," threatened a collie with short, curly blonde hair, a ruffled shirt, large dark-brown bow tie, black trousers and a medium brown jacket with a waist length cape. The others simply stood in silent agreement. Miss Ruffled shirt then nodded towards Cassia and Clover. "Your... weapons... are... to... be... praced... on... froor..., now."

The two ponies moved carefully to comply. Cyanide palmed the control device so it couldn't be seen by any of the Maestros.

"Hands... over... heads," the blonde collie directed.

"Mariko... I want you and your sisters to put the weapons down, now!" Rekooh ordered. All five of the girls simply shook their heads.

"You... not... boss! Maestro... Ess... boss... now." One of the collies carefully reached down and pulled Eliza to her feet. She immediately bent down to retrieve her cricket bat.

"AGAIN with the Maestro bit," complained Cinnamon. "Just who the $(@)&& is this guy?"

"I don't know," replied Cassia turning towards Miss Ruffled shirt, "but it's important we get a message to him. Would you be willing to deliver it?"

"What... message?"

"My guitar wants to kill your mama."

"Wha..." The collie didn't even finish the first word as all four ponies simultaneously exploded into action. Two of them were nailed by a sonic blast from Cinnamon's horn. A third had her weapon blasted out of her hands by twin force beams erupting from Cassia's eyes. Both she and Miss Ruffled shirt were instantly frozen in an icy blast of air courtesy of Clover's polar breath. The last armed collie was sent flying back by one of Cyanide's lightning bolts. The only figure left standing was Eliza

She looked at her sisters then up at the ponies. "Oh Bugger!"

Any further conversation was cut short when Rekooh landed a right cross in the collie's left eye. She dropped like a sack of flour. The ponies stared at Eliza, then at the Prefect.

"I thought she was one of your 'babies?'" Clover asked.

"It's called tough love," Rekooh replied matter-of-factly. "Besides, someone's been messing around with their implants and I don't want whoever it is to use the girls as a listening device."

"Is it just me, or did Mariko's speech pattern seemed a little stilted?" asked Cyanide.

"I'll say it was," Cinnamon commented. "She almost sounded like William Shatner reading poetry,"

"Sounded more like a time lag," observed Cassia. "The kind you get when you tie too many computer workstations onto the same system."

"Like someone controlling them remotely, but unable to link effectively with more than one or two at a time," continued Cyanide. He stopped and looked at the others. "Like a computer!"

The other pony's eyes went wide. "Not Maestro Ess!" said Cassia, " Maestro S!"

"SHERMAN!" they all said together.

TO BE CONTINUED...