...Tock

[multaekappae]

 Hualpa blinked a few times. "You're a time traveler, how can you not already understand what–"

"Hua..." Atoc frowned.

The gold-furred llama shrugged. "The broken pieces of your sword end up back in the paws of the blacksmith who originally forged the sword." She glanced at her brother who nodded, making a circling motion with his hoof. "...aaand for whatever reason the griff decided to reforge the sword, um, again."

Llamas and griffon blinked. Nobody said anything for several moments. Ako sighed, "And after that?"

"After that, the... uh 'second' incarnation of the sword traveled forward in time the hard way." Hulapa grumbled, her mood souring.

Atoc winced, "What my sister means is that the sword ended up in the possession of someone else, and was handed down from soldier to warrior to sellsword through history. It was delivered to us, with directions, some five or six years ago."

"It had been in Ponyville longer than that, though." Hulapa mentioned, seemingly in spite of herself.

Tick...

[multaekappae]

 The golden unicorn groaned theatrically in frustration, straining to keep a straight face. "Curses." he droned in monotone. "You have clev-er-ly snuck up on us, and we are now completely helpless." He grunted as the navy blue pegasus jabbed a feather in his side, frowning.

Golden Scales rolled his eyes. "Look, we surrender already. Now take us to your leader."

The lead changeling made to speak, but was interrupted.

"No, not your bug-boss, take me to the creep in the leisure suit." The unicorn drawled. "You tell Grubber that you've caught Golden Scales and I guarantee he's going to insist on seeing me, if only to gloat." He spat the words, eyeing the pegasus balefully.

The changeling stared at the ponies for a moment, feeling utterly confused. Eventually he decided this was above his station to decide and gestured for his underlings to tie up and carry the two stallions.

As they were dragged away, Golden Scales gave Jack Harness another hard look, "Are you absolutely sure this is a good idea?"

"Look, I know a guy who does this all the time, and it usually works for him."

"Usually?" Golden felt the first tremors of an ulcer coming on.