YESTERDAY'S ENTROPY
by NorrisThePony
Twilight Sparkle let out a gleeful shout and dashed from her study into the main section of her castle's library, where Spike was idly flipping through the latest issue of Power Ponies with his feet on a newly polished glass table
"I did it!" She screamed with delight, grabbing the startled baby dragon and spinning him around her in a magical aura. "It took me weeks, but I finally did it!"
"That...that's great, Twi." Spike managed once the overjoyed alicorn finally set him back down, his head spinning. "Did what, exactly?"
Much to Spike's annoyance, Twilight didn't answer him directly and instead grabbed him in another magical aura and began dashing back to her study.
Twilight's private study was a smaller section of the main library, the walls lined to the roof with spells, scrolls, and history books. Nestled in one corner was a lit fireplace, with two large armchairs facing the roaring flame. Spike groaned in frustration at the sight of dozens of books thrown carelessly throughout the room, and the large mountain of crumbled parchment paper next to an overflowing trash can. Twilight herself was in a similar state of disarray, her mane wild and disheveled, and deep bags under her bloodshot eyes.
"Have you been in here all night?" Spike asked, glancing at one of at least fifty clocks mounted on a wooden desk.
"Oh, much longer than that!" Twilight said matter-of-factually, while sifting through a sea of paper sloppily tacked to a cork-board. Finding what she was looking for, she thrust the page towards Spike wearing a massive grin which, coupled with her twitching blood-shot eyes and wild hair, was quite intimidating.
"This is what you've been doing all week?" Spike questioned, not even bothering to take the page being handed to him. From a quick glance, he saw nothing but scribbled numbers and equations, and he really didn't care enough to try and figure out what they meant. "Twilight, half of Ponyville thinks you've gone missing. What can possibly be this important?"
"I was hoping you'd ask me that!" Twilight laughed hysterically, whipping around, nearly tripping over an overturned coffee table, and grabbing a ruled notebook. Spike saw more complicated calculations as Twilight leafed through the notebook while explaining in a voice that seemed to be growing higher in pitch by the second.
"You might remember about a month ago when Celestia gave me this." Twilight sprinted across her study, grabbing a framed parchment from the floor and placing it on the desk in front of Spike and herself. "Would you like some coffee, Spike?"
Spike looked at the kettle of boiling water atop the fireplace and the dozens of paper cups strewn around the room and shook his head.
"Isn't this...the time travel scroll from the Starswirl the Bearded Wing, at the Royal Canterlot Archives?" He asked, grabbing the framed parchment and inspecting it closer.
"No..." Twilight replied. "Although it looks just like it, I agree. This is a different scroll altogether, but it's still a creation of Starswirl the Bearded. And it's purpose is...similar...to say the least."
"Oh no..." Spike muttered, clearly seeing what Twilight was suggesting. "You don't mean..."
"It's a time travel spell! But, unlike the one in the Canterlot Archives, this one is untethered."
"Untethered? What does that mean?"
"It means, when a pony uses it to send themselves back in time, they won't be pulled back to whatever time they came from after a few seconds. They'll be stuck in whatever time they chose to travel to."
"And where does all this come in?" Spike motioned to what was once an organized study room.
"It was one of Starswirl the Bearded's unfinished spells, dating back to 267 After Luna. Most ponies doubted it even existed, because nopony could ever find it. Starswirl himself claims that it vanished, and he knew precisely where, but he refused to ever tell anypony. Most ponies concluded he made the whole thing up to give himself more credibility, and the scroll was forgotten. That is, until a few months ago, when Celestia found it amongst her paperwork and letters. Despite its random appearance, Celestia wasted no time in sending it to me to complete...and, Spike, I think I have!"
"You....you WHAT?"
"It's all pretty hard to explain, and I'm not sure how to test it per-say. Like I said, its untethered, which means you need a time travel spell to bring you back to whatever time you came from. I'm working on reversing the polarity of this particular spell so that we can travel into the future as well as the past...Spike, this just might be the most important scientific discovery in Equestrian history!"
"I'm happy for you, Twi." Spike said, and despite his skepticism, he truly meant it. "But I think you really need to come out of the library. Everypony is worried sick about you, the kitchen is completely empty, there's a pile of paperwork from Canterlot you need to sign, the Mayor needs your approval for repair work on the Ponyville-Canterlot express train..."
"Yes, yes!" Twilight seethed impatiently. "Tell her yes. I haven't forgotten my duties as a Princess, you know! But I'm still a student of magic, and a student of magic sees matters like these through to the end!"
"Just...don't do anything crazy, Twilight."
ONE WEEK LATER
"So...what exactly is it Twilight wants us here for?" Rainbow Dash groaned, tapping a hoof against her chair impatiently. All five of Twilight Sparkle's closest friends were seated in a circle in the main throne room of Twilight's Castle. Spike and Twilight's thrones were the only unoccupied spots, and they had been for the entirety of the thirty minutes they had been there.
"She didn't say, specifically." Rarity replied, glaring at Rainbow's atrocious etiquette but choosing not to criticize it. "Although she made it sound quite urgent in her letter."
"Well, if its so urgent, why is it taking her FOREVER to come out of that library? Why invite us for diner, not actually eat diner, and instead stay locked in her library for the whole night?"
"What if something happened?" Fluttershy asked, casting a suspicious glance down the hall towards the library. "M...maybe we should go check to make sure she's alright. I haven't seen her all week, maybe something really bad happened..."
"Fluttershy does have a point. I'm going to ask what the hay is going on." Rainbow declared, rising from her seat and stretching.
"Rainbow, it is simply rude to—"
"Ah'm with Rainbow and Fluttershy on this one," Applejack said, rising to her own hooves and following Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy down the hall. Pinkie Pie took one glimpse at her departing friends and quite literally bounced into action, following close behind. With a mighty sigh, Rarity gave up and pursued the rest of her friends.
As the five ponies approached the library of the castle, the faint sound of small objects being thrown around recklessly rung out from beyond a half-closed door.
"What the..." Rainbow muttered, slowing her pace and glancing back at her equally bewildered friends. Twilight's ranting voice could be heard even through the loud banging of objects against the wooden floors. Although her words were indecipherable, it was clear to everypony in the hall that she was extremely upset about something.
The creaking of the library door caused nearly every pony but Rainbow Dash to jump in fright, and Spike regarded the gathered ponies first with surprise, and then relief. Carried in his arms were piles of scrolls and broken quills, all worn down due to what must have been some seriously intense writing.
"Oh, thank Celestia." He said, using his tail to close the door behind him, slightly muffling Twilight's inane rambling.
"What the hay is goin' on?" Applejack questioned, raising an eyebrow as a particularly loud crashing noise echoed through the hall.
"Twilight's completely lost it, that's whats going on." Spike sighed, setting the scrolls down gently. "I was just about to ask you girls to go in and talk to her, but she said to wait until 'precisely 7:37 PM.' I'm not joking...I don't think I've ever seen her get this worked up about anything."
Rainbow Dash took a cautious step towards the library door, taking a deep breath before pushing the door open.
Twilight Sparkle was still muttering to herself, a dozen scrolls and quills hovering around her while she wrote interchangeably on every single one. Several abacuses were also caught up in the hurricane of writing utensils. She stopped immediately as she saw Rainbow standing in the doorway, and allowed all the materials floating around her to tumble to the floor of the library, which was once wood but now was comprised of paper and books.
"Uhh...heya, Twi..." Rainbow started nervously.
"You're here! But...but, of course you're here, I invited you. I did, right?"
"Y...yeah?"
"But that was..how long ago? Rainbow, tell me how long ago I asked you to come to the library."
"I don't know...about an hour ago? Maybe a little longer?"
"Have you noticed anything? Anything at all about how long its felt as opposed to how long the clocks say its been?"
Rarity cleared her throat gently stepped further into the library, Twilight for the first time noticing her other friends and giving them a curt nod.
"Twilight, darling. What ever are you talking about?"
"Entropy!" Twilight seethed, and in an instant she was again pacing, the tornado of supplies instantly coming back to life around her. "That's what I'm talking about! I...I've made a big mistake...I need to fix this before it's too late."
"Fix what?" All five of Twilight's friends cried out in unison.
"Entropy. The arrow of time." Twilight replied, once again letting her supplies fall and instead teleporting a black board across the room towards her. In a frenzy, she grabbed a piece of chalk and drew a straight arrow down the middle of the black board. "This is time, right? This is how it flows? Forwards. Its always flowed forwards. Even now, its flowing forwards." Twilight pointed to one of a dozen clocks placed on a slanted table. "Look at them. Pay attention to them. Remember EXACTLY what time each one of them reads."
"Twilight!" Rainbow practically shouted. "Snap out of it! This is 'Smarty Pants' all over again!"
"In her defense..." Fluttershy whispered in Rainbow's ear. "We were sort of ignoring a big problem that time."
"This is bigger than big!" Pinkie Pie said urgently from across the library, peering at one of Twilight's notebooks on the floor. "This is, like, the biggest problem ever!"
"How did she hear..." Rainbow gawked, and Fluttershy shrugged her shoulders. "Ergh, never mind. Pinkie, you know what Twilight's talking about?"
"Well duh, it's obvious, isn't it?"
"Umm, not really." Fluttershy replied, walking further into the library but deliberately keeping her distance from Twilight and the articles orbiting around her. Twilight's ears perked up at Pinkie's last statement, but she made no move to acknowledge the discord unfolding amongst her friends.
"Twilight is worried because the flow of time is all wibbly-wobbly!"
"Exactly!" Twilight screamed in relief, dashing over the Pinkie Pie and catching her in a violent hug which Pinkie gladly returned. "So you HAVE noticed! Good, good. Now then—"
A sudden, loud ringing cut Twilight off mid sentence, and the panicking alicorn dropped everything she was doing to sprint over to the table of clocks, motioning for every pony to look as well.
"What is it, Twilight?" Fluttershy asked, leaning forward to analyze the clocks further. "What are you—"
"Shh, shh! Not me, the clocks! Look at the clocks, remember the times on the clocks!"
With an exasperated sigh, Rainbow turned away and started back towards the door while everypony else stood transfixed at the clocks in front of them.
"Amazing." Twilight muttered, jotting something down onto a nearby notepad. "Exactly one minute and four seconds behind."
No pony spoke except for Twilight, who continued to speak aloud as she wrote more and more meaningless numbers onto random scrolls and notebooks. Rainbow turned back and was perplexed to see her four other friends still staring at the clocks. Rarity's mouth was open slightly in disbelief, while Applejack whispered something into Fluttershy's ear which caused the pegasus to let out a quiet exclamation of surprise.
"I see you've noticed." Twilight said apathetically, without even looking at her friends. Rainbow felt her frustration growing, until she felt like she was about to explode.
"Noticed what?!"
"How long until it happens again?" Pinkie Pie finally asked, breaking her silence and joining Twilight's panicked pacing.
"What haven't I noticed?!" Rainbow Dash practically screamed.
"An entire minute. Actually, a little more than a minute. It just...it just repeated. You...well, technically, everypony, just traveled back in time one minute and six seconds. It's been happening at such short time intervals that nopony, not even me, noticed. But I'm certainly noticing now."
Seeing the speechlessly confused expression on the cyan pegasi's face, Twilight facehoofed and motioned once again at the black board with the arrow.
"This is time, right? Time is like an arrow, it flies in one straight, linear, progressive line. This is how it's supposed to be."
"Yeah...?"
"Well, it isn't an arrow anymore. Time is still...well, it's still flowing forwards, but it's also skipping backwards. Like a scratched record, jumping back a bit, but then continuing forward. It's been happening every half hour. Time flows ordinarily for half an hour, and then jumps back..."
"A minute." Rarity cut in, pointing at the slow clock in front of her. "But...why are you so...frazzled about this, Twilight? I mean, surely there is no harm in simply repeating a singular minute for a few hours until we fix this?"
"I would agree with you, Rarity." Twilight said gloomily, slumping onto the ground in defeat. "But it isn't just a minute. It started as just one second. And then, every half hour, it multiplied. After an hour, we were going back four seconds. After two hours, a minute. The next jump will be four minutes and sixteen seconds."
"O...OK." Rarity stuttered, internally running the calculations through her head. "So, the jumps are multiplying by four..."
"I'm sorry." Fluttershy said. "But I still don't see why it's such a big deal...can't we just go to Canterlot tomorrow and—"
"Because there won't be a tomorrow! We're going forwards a half hour and only back a minute now, but that time will keep multiplying. So what will happen when that time is more than half an hour?"
"We..."
"We'll be going backwards!" Pinkie screamed in Fluttershy's ear, somehow directly beside her despite being with Twilight a fraction of a second ago.
"Exactly." Twilight sighed, pacing back to her black board and erasing the arrow with a burst of magic. "In only an hour, we'll be jumping back seventeen minutes and four seconds. In two, we'll be going back four hours and thirty three minutes. In ten..." Twilight consulted one of her notebooks and immediately closed it again. "In ten hours, we'll be going backwards at more than two million years per half hour."
Twilight's statement was immediately followed by yet another set of dumbfounded glares from her friends, as everypony thought of some way to respond to such preposterous news.
"...but...Twilight..." Applejack piped up finally. "How old is Equus..."
"A little more than one million."
"Then what would happen if..."
"What do you think I'm trying to prevent?!" Twilight huffed, motioning around her at the insane disorganization that suddenly didn't seem so insane. "If we don't correct time, then we're going to completely overshoot the creation of...well, everything!"
Once again, dumbfounded silence met Twilight's grim predictions, as seconds ticked into minutes of wasted time. Twilight Sparkle would not allow herself to become too distraught with her own dark knowledge of their eventual outcome...no, she would stop this before it ever had a chance to happen. A simple reversal of the spell was all she needed...except...
"Couldn't you just reverse the spell?" Rainbow inquired. "That...that is possible, right?"
"Theoretically, yes. Practically...no."
"Why not?"
"Because I destroyed the spell!" Twilight snapped, her eyes beginning to water and her voice cracking slightly. "I...it was an accident. I wasn't trying to reverse time or anything. And I definitely underestimated the power of that stupid box!"
"Box?"
"Yeah, box! The one that this whole castle grew from! I've been using it to power this place for months...free electricity is free electricity. So when I used it to help me rewrite that scroll, I really should have known—"
"Wait, wait." Rainbow Dash groaned. "You used ELECTRICITY to rewrite a scroll? Are you telling me that this sucker is electrical?"
"No, no, no. This sucker is magical. But I needed to use the electricity to reverse the direction of the time scroll. You see, it's great being able to time travel backwards into the past, but I needed to find a way to allow for the user to return to their own time when they were done. I thought it would be a simple case of just duplicating the spell and using the electricity to negatively charge the scroll. I...may have overloaded it. It was an honest mistake!"
"You negatively charged the universe," Rainbow said, chuckling without much humor. "I think that gives the word 'mistake' a whole new definition. So what do we have to do to fix this mess?"
"Step One! We need to remain calm! Panic and confusion isn't going to help under any situation, unless that situation is a problem that can only be solved by panicking and being confused. Step Two...I honestly don't know. The time travel scroll was set on fire as soon as I started my experiment, and without it, I just don't know what to do."
Time Elapsed: 2hrs 17min
Next Temporal Displacement: 4m16s per ½h
A loud rumbling was the only sound as a colorful train sped towards Canterlot, trees and small farmhouses darting past the windows. A few stray stars were already cutting through the deep blue expanse of the cloudless darkling sky.
The train was moving much swifter than it normally would have been allowed to travel, let alone what was standard recommended safety procedure, but it was difficult to argue with the Princess of Friendship's very own instructions, which were that she and her friends arrive in Canterlot within exactly half an hour.
Mostly all of the carriages had been full of business ponies returning home from Canterlot, but now they were completely void of life as the train returned home on its final evening voyage. Not a single pony could be seen in any of the carriages, with the exception of the rear-most caboose, which housed six mares sitting in deathly silence.
"How long till we jump back again, Twilight?" Rainbow asked, staring at the trees darting by.
"Thirteen minutes. That...that isn't going to be enough time, is it?"
"You tell me, Princess of Calculations. I can safely tell you that we're moving preeeety slow by my standards, but that doesn't necessarily help you earthbound slow-pokes, does it?"
"At least half of us can fly, Rainbow. It doesn't take a Princess of Calculations to figure that out."
"Um...Twilight?" Fluttershy inquired, shuddering noticeably with every hard bump the swiftly moving train hit. "Can I ask a question..."
"Of course. Go ahead."
"What happens to us when we start going back in time?"
"Well, we already sort of have, technically, even now..." Twilight began, but trailed off when Fluttershy began shaking her head.
"I mean...what happens to us? Will we start...forgetting each other?" Fluttershy was hiding behind her mane now, and her last words were almost lost under the rumbling of the train.
"Ah, I see. You're afraid that every time we jump back in time we're going to start forgetting about each other, getting younger and younger until we jump past our birth dates and cease to exist."
"That's one way of putting it. So...will we?" Every pony was looking at Twilight with the same intense gaze as Fluttershy, and Twilight could have sworn she saw traces of fear and anger in their eyes, as well as what looked like...blame.
"No. Certainly not. We've already gone back a total of almost six minutes, and we all remember that time perfectly well. We should age properly, too, since we're directly in the eye of a complete temporal hurricane. I caused this mess, so I'm pretty much the exception to the rule. Along with all of you, since we're all still directly connected by the Elements of Harmony. Everypony else though...even Celestia, Luna and Discord...yeah, they're going to age backwards and eventually cease to exist."
"This is heavy duty." Rainbow muttered, and was met with agreeing sighs and Applejack's instinctively inherited quoting of 'Eeyup.'
"That's all a worst case scenario, girls! Because Celestia will have a solution, and we'll be back in Ponyville before morning."
"I must agree with Twilight. You are all overreacting." Rarity scoffed, looking out the window at the blur of shapes rushing past. "What indication do we have that this is a problem Celestia herself can't deal with?"
"Of course, us being exempted to the rules of time has its ups and downs." Twilight continued. "Yes, we will be able to stay alive and aware even after we've skipped before our birth dates, but in the event that we fail then we will be trapped in limbo for all eternity without the possibility of ever being freed by anything or anyone."
"We'll have each other, at least!" Pinkie Pie said in an attempt to brighten the growing looks of despair on her friends faces. "A whole eternity to talk and talk and talk..."
"Oh Merciful Celestia..." Rarity whispered to herself, traumatic flashbacks arising from the hellish handcar ride in Dodge Junction.
In time, the sound of the train wheels screaming against the rails changed in pitch and Twilight dashed to the window. With a frustrated sigh, she watched as the blur of trees began to slow until the train was moving at its normal speed, which given the situation at hand, felt to Twilight like a snails pace. She knew the conductor must have been reducing speed for a reason, but nevertheless she found herself storming out of the carriage towards the engine.
One of the train workers made a move to stop her from entering but ceased when he saw just who he would be denying permission to. Instead, he bowed in acknowledgment and Twilight responded with an embarrassed nod.
"Good evening, again." Twilight greeted the conductor, who turned around to look at her the second he heard the door open. He looked at her from beyond thick, round goggles, and was completely covered in coal dust and grime.
"Princess Twilight! Surely you must be wondering why we are slowing, given your orders! I can explain!"
"Of course you can. Please, go ahead."
"You see, we're approaching Saddle Lake Pass...we must reduce speed or we risk derailing on one of the many sharp turns. I am very, very sorry..."
"This isn't the usual route to Canterlot..." Twilight observed for the first time, raising an eyebrow at the thick red x on a typical route map tacked to the wall. "You never told me we would be switching routes."
"I thought you knew. Did you not approve the construction work on Bridle Canyon Bridge?"
"I...I did..." Twilight facehoofed at her own forgetfulness. Of course she had! How had she forgotten this all ready? No wonder there had been so few ponies on the train this evening, and so many departing taxi chariots. On this route, they would be an extra twenty minutes getting into Canterlot, even longer given the fact that they had reduced speed. "I'm...I'm sorry to interfere with your work here."
"Not a problem, Princess. We'll get you and your friends to Canterlot as swiftly as we can, but I can't guarantee we'll get there in half an hour as requested."
Twilight nodded in understanding and thanked the conductor, before turning and trotting through the half-dozen carriages and exploding through the door into the caboose.
"Rainbow, Fluttershy, come on! We need to get to Canterlot ourselves!"
"Oh...my..." Fluttershy reluctantly said, stretching out her wings and trying her best to keep her flight camp memories at bay.
"Fly to Canterlot Twi? From here? At full speed?" Rainbow let out a loud chuckle and shook her head. "I don't think even I can do that, let alone Fluttershy and you! You'd have to have the endurance of a griffin to expect to fly that distance at that speed!"
"But...but...we need to try! We need to get to Canterlot on our own!"
"Alrighty then, let's try. But don't say I didn't warn you." Rainbow led the way to the back of the caboose and opened the door to the outside gangway, her hair immediately exploding in a frenzy of rushing wind. Twilight readily unfurled her wings while Fluttershy looked desperately at Rainbow Dash.
"I'm sorry." Rainbow mouthed in response, seeing the terror in her timid friends expression. Even she didn't feel particularly fond of leaping out of the caboose and taking part in a sudden marathon flight led by a pony who had lived 90% of her life without the faintest idea of how flight even worked. Twilight was currently stretching her legs, logic which perplexed Rainbow Dash considering she would not be using them at all. "And yeah, if you want to stay here, she most certainly won't notice."
Fluttershy looked back and forth from the supportive looks of Rarity, AJ, and Pinkie Pie, and the determined expression of Twilight, and shook her head. She couldn't just back out because she was scared when there was so much at stake.
Time Elapsed: 2hrs 29min
Next Temporal Displacement : 4m16s per ½h
"Thirty seconds." Rarity announced, causing both Applejack and Pinkie Pie to halt in the middle of their conversation and join Rarity in staring at a double-bell alarm clock Twilight had left behind. Along with the clock was a notebook detailing all the future time travel intervals they would be jumping over, a communication spell intended for Rarity, and a newly purchased biography of Starswirl the Bearded that Twilight had grabbed while waiting for the train. Rarity handed these items to Applejack who placed them into her large saddle-pack which still smelled of freshly picked apples.
All three ponies silently anticipated the upcoming time-leap, watching out the window for the tell-tale signs of the previous landmarks once again rushing past exactly as they had been a minute prior. Pinkie Pie was staring directly ahead at the unfurling tracks, while Rarity and Applejack were focused on the trees rushing by. On one side of the tracks was a rock cliff which separated the tracks from the trees high above, on the other was a huge gorge which ended in a roaring river hundreds of feet down.
"Hey! Look!" Pinkie Pie called out. "Those ponies in the dirt look just like—"
Suddenly, the double-bell alarm rung out loudly from within the saddle-pack, interrupting Pinkie Pie and causing everypony to brace themselves for the next skip.
However, what they had NOT been expecting was to be thrown inexplicably into empty space and into the dirt at the side of the train tracks. The three mares crashed into the ground at an alarmingly swift velocity, three separate skid marks trailing several feet behind them.
"My...my MANE!" Rarity seethed, her formally perfect mane and tail now a mess of dirt and sticks that looked more akin to a robins nest than a fashion designers pride and joy. "That seems to be the extent of my injuries, however. Pinkie, are you alright?"
"Ship-shape!" Pinkie said happily, her mane and coat almost completely free of dirt, a fact which Rarity did not understand but envied greatly. "Where's AJ though? Applejack!"
"Oh my..." Rarity said urgently, looking around frantically. "Applejack, where are you!"
"Right here." Applejack's voice rung out, as an exasperated grunt. Rarity and Pinkie Pie still were looking around frantically as Applejack dragged herself up from the edge of the tracks, her hindlegs still dragging precariously over the gorge.
"My goodness, Applejack!" Rarity gasped, noticing her friend and darting over, offering a hoof and helping to drag Applejack back onto the tracks. Once everypony was safe, the three of them all collapsed onto the ground once again, ignoring the rocks and boards that made it up.
"So...does anyone have a clue what in tarnation just happened?" Applejack sighed, breaking about two minutes silence.
"Your guess is as good as mine. Although I imagine that when we everything was hurled through time, we simply did not. Which is why we were so rudely thrown into the mud and dirt!"
"Wait...ya mean we're back in time...on the train tracks..."
"I knew I recognized the ponies on the tracks!" Pinkie Pie giggled, rising to her feet. "Because they were US! How cool is that?!"
Slowly, reluctantly, Applejack and Rarity met each others similarly petrified gazes and turned back to face down the tracks, which had started to vibrate lightly signalling the approaching train.
"Woah nelly..."
"Which way do we go?" Rarity hissed, looking frantically back and forth from the tall rock cliff to the deep gorge and the water far below.
Ahead, the Ponyville-Canterlot express train tore around the corner roughly a hundred feet down the track and bounded down upon the three terrified mares, getting closer by the second.
No Time Like The Present (II)
No Time Like The Present (II)
Time Elapsed: 3hrs 4min
Next Temporal Displacement: 17m4s per ½h
The Ponyville-Canterlot Express engineer let out a great yawn and checked his wristwatch, blinking in surprise to see that it was only eight o'clock. The summer sky was already growing dark with the hints of sunset in less than an hour. A few stray drops of rain streaked across the trains windshield, while the headlights illuminated the sharp curve that they were about to tear through. He didn't exactly feel extremely comfortable traveling so close to the edge of Saddle Lake Gorge at such speeds, although the chance of derailment wasn't what concerned him. What was more troubling were the actual curves themselves, and how they concealed whatever lay beyond.
So then, it came as quite the surprise to the engineer when, upon looking up from his wristwatch, he was met with the sight of three mares in the middle of the train tracks. The orange one appeared to be arguing with the white one, and the pink one was simply staring directly ahead at the approaching train with a blank expression.
In a frenzy, the engineer threw on the brakes, knowing full well he did not nearly have enough distance to stop.
"Whaddaya mean ya can't TELEPORT? Twilight can!"
"Well, I am not Twilight! Do I even look like Twilight?"
"So...are we just going to sit here and argue?" Pinkie Pie called backwards. "Because, like, the train is right there...and it's moving pretty fast..."
"No." Applejack said in response. "We're jumpin' into the gorge. I reckon it's our only chance."
"Well it's a quite slim chance." Rarity mused, looking down at the river far, far below. Much of her sentence was drowned out by the screeching of the train's breaks, forcing her to almost scream her last "But I suppose 'quite slim' is superior to certain death."
"That's the spirit, Rarity!" Pinkie Pie said cheerfully, before leaping over the edge of the tracks into the gorge. "Geronimo!"
Applejack reluctantly followed suit, while Rarity stood peering over the edge in complete shock. Suddenly, the piercing sound of the train horn split through her thoughts and she turned to see the steam engine mere feet in front of her, before her world exploded into white.
A dull, ringing sound followed, and Rarity realized with a start that this was the only sound she was capable of hearing, and all she could see was the same unfiltered whiteness. She had just enough time to wonder if she had just been hit, when Twilight's screaming voice jerked her back to her senses.
"Are you three INSANE? Have you absolutely lost it?"
"Twilight dear, is that you? What in Celestia's name..."
"Why were you three in the middle of the train tracks? Or, maybe a better question...HOW did you three end up in front of the train—" Twilight stopped abruptly as she realized what the answer was, and facehoofed so hard she had to check to make sure she hadn't injured herself. "Of course! Oh, how could I have been so stupid! I totally should have seen this coming!"
"Yeah, ya really should've." Applejack muttered irritably, picking herself up from the dirt ground that she and Pinkie Pie had slammed into immediately after being teleported to safety.
"Oh...my, are you okay?" Fluttershy asked, helping Applejack to her feet while Rainbow Dash did the same with Pinkie Pie. "Are any of you hurt? You hit the ground pretty hard..."
"We're fine!" Pinkie Pie assured. "So, did you girls already make it to Canterlot? Can we fix this crazy problem now?"
"Are you kidding?" Rainbow scoffed, folding her unfurled wings which were missing quite a large amount of feathers. "I tried to warn Twilight we wouldn't make it, and sure enough we had to turn back after less than ten minutes of flying before one us croaked from exhaustion."
"Are you alright, Fluttershy?" Pinkie Pie asked immediately.
"Umm, well, actually..."
"Pfft, are you kidding?" Rainbow Dash intervened. "Fluttershy was great. It was this earthbound egghead who we had to turn back for!"
"I...I was being too impulsive." Twilight sheepishly admitted. "I didn't mean to put anypony in danger. I'm really sorry..."
"Well, as much as I did not appreciate getting hurled into the dirt and nearly killed by the Ponyville Express, all seems to be well now, with no harm done." Rarity consoled. "Which, considering your timing, is quite miraculous."
"I'd say." Pinkie Pie agreed, watching the thin plumes of smoke rise from the slowing train someways down the track. "So, do we have another way to get to Canterlot?"
"Well, we can take the train for another thirty minutes before this situation happens again, that should be enough time to make it to Canterlot. If not, I can compensate the distance by teleporting us backwards."
"Alrighty." Rainbow was once again rising to her feet, and letting out a great yawn. She appeared to be the only mare not completely exhausted. "Say, Twilight...since we're probably going to be facing this problem eventually....what would happen if, when we jumped back in time, there was, like, a tree or something that was only there in the past, and we end up in the same place?"
"Into the same place as the tree? Well, unless you're Fluttershy...I wouldn't recommend it."
"...Ew..." Was Rainbow Dash's disgusted response as she processed exactly what this meant.
"Yep. So let's hope that doesn't happen. Now, we need to get moving! Our next jump will be...uhh..." Twilight paused for a split-second. "Seventeen minutes and four seconds. And after that, we'll be going backwards. We can't let that happen."
With that, Twilight unfurled her wings and glided down to the train tracks below, followed closely by Rainbow and Fluttershy, and teleporting Rarity, Applejack and Pinkie Pie down the cliff. The six mares sprinted down the tracks towards the halted train, which to everyponies horror had already started inching forwards as the crew saw that they had, in fact, not hit the three mares on the track.
"Wait!" Pinkie Pie screamed after the departing train, which was quickly speeding up. Pinkie's cry was instantly followed by five other voices, but they were all easily drowned out by the sound of the screeching wheels and thunderous steam engine.
"We can't loose that train!" Twilight panted, watching the distance between them and the caboose quickly increasing. "Rainbow!"
"Already on it, Twi!"
In a flash, Rainbow Dash was off, easily closing in on the departing train. Within seconds she was at the engine car, staring at the engineer who looked at her with shock and fear.
"Hey, buddy!" She screamed into the open side window. "You mind slowing down for me and my friends?"
"Sorry, lady!" He shook his head firmly. "We don't exactly take hitchhikers. Besides, I'm under strict instructions from Princess Twilight Sparkle that we're not to stop for anything unless it's an emergency."
"I...know that!" Rainbow replied impatiently, her voice slightly wavering as she gasped for breath. Under any normal circumstance, she probably could have kept up with the train for miles, but given the fact that she had just flown for half an hour straight at a significantly swift speed and taken less than a five minute break to recover, she was not totally surprised she was already short of breath. "Look, Princess Twilight herself wants you to stop the train! I should know, she told me to chase after you. Those ponies on the track are her friends!"
Rainbow Dash immediately took a deep gasp of air upon finishing her sentence, and continued panting heavily as she struggled to keep up with the speeding train.
"I'm very sorry." The engineer again shook his head. "But Princess Twilight and her friends are here, riding in the caboose. Besides, those ponies were in front of the train, not behind it...so even if they fell out or something, your story still doesn't make sense."
"Argh! No! You don't under—"
Without giving her a chance to respond, the engineer reached over and, after giving Rainbow Dash a genuinely sympathetic stare, shut the open side-window, muffling the pursuing pegasi's furious protests. Rainbow continued pounding on the glass and flying after the train, but it was evident even to her that she was slowly but surely sagging behind it. After some time, the train engine was now far ahead of her and the empty caboose only a few cars behind.
"Alright then...different tact." Rainbow huffed, cutting back on her speed just enough to get herself oriented directly beside the caboose, carefully planning how she would board the speeding train. "If you're not going to stop for us, then I'll have to make you—"
The loud blaring of the train horn tore her from her concentration, and with a start Rainbow broke her gaze at the side of the train and instead faced forwards.
Ahead, the engine of the train tore into a narrow tunnel dug into the side of a mountain, definitely too narrow for her to fly alongside it. In a panic, Rainbow did the only thing she could think of to avoid crashing into the mountain and tore straight into the air at a ninety degree angle.
"That...that was close..." She wheezed, hovering back down to the tunnel. The red lights of the departing train disappeared into the darkness of the tunnel, and Rainbow collapsed to the earth, too exhausted to worry about her pride at the moment. From within the tunnel, the train horn once again sounded, the mocking blare echoing off the stone walls until it reached Rainbow Dash's ears as dozens of separate tones. She groaned with disappointment and frustration at the sound, and groggily rose to her feet and started walking the opposite direction down the track, back to where her friends would undoubtedly be waiting.
When she finally caught sight of them down the track, they were running towards her at a light sprint, enough to conserve their energy but still swift enough that it took only a few minutes for them to regroup with Rainbow.
"What...happened..." Fluttershy said, gasping for breath. "Did you catch up with it?"
"That wasn't the problem." Rainbow replied dejectedly. "He refused to stop for us. He didn't believe me when I said I was friends with Twilight, and I couldn't exactly use 'time-travel' as a way to prove I was telling the truth."
"He didn't recognize you as the Element of Loyalty?" Twilight's ears perked up in curiosity. Ever since the Tirek incident, it seemed like they couldn't go anywhere without somepony recognizing them. Then again, she had been the one featured on the majority of the newspapers, despite her frequent insistence that Equestria would have fallen without her friends. "That's odd..."
"Twilight...do you think this is a matter of importance?" Rarity inquired, clearly detecting the wariness in Twilight's voice.
"Oh...no, I don't think so. No, it's probably nothing...So, you lost the train?"
"Geez, Twi, I'm really sorry. It's that tunnel that did it in the end. I sort of freaked out when I noticed it, I was paying more attention to the train than where I was heading."
"Well, I imagine it's at least an hour walk to Canterlot from here." Twilight sighed, looking ahead at the winding tracks and dark tunnel ahead. The sun was just beginning to paint the sky orange, and it looked like in less than thirty minutes it would be well below the horizon. "We should get moving."
Time Elapsed: 3hrs 53min
Next Temporal Displacement: 4h33m per ½h
When Twilight and her friends finally tore into Canterlot City, the sun had already set, and night had begun to fall. Twice. At this point, they had all grown quite used to the ruptures in time, and could almost feel them approaching without any aid from the double-bell alarm clock or any of Twilight's notes.
Oddly enough, the feeling was unanimous amongst all six mares, even though Twilight had been the only one aware of the skips to begin with. Now though, it seemed like they could all agree on when they were about to skip backwards a full minute before it actually happened. Try as they might, nopony could think of any logical reason why this was.
Immediately upon entering the city through the main gates, Twilight began sprinting through the shopping district of Canterlot, occasionally knocking some poor pony down as she raced towards the Royal Quarter of Canterlot city with one specific task in mind. Her friends followed closely behind, and together the six of them had crossed Canterlot in roughly five minutes.
In front of them lay the large, wooden door that led to where Celestia (or, more than likely at this hour, Luna) would be hosting the Royal Court, hearing out both the trivial and severe problems that the citizens of Equestria had concerns about. Twilight wished desperately for the court to be deserted, as it usually was in the evening, as she pushed open the large door to the main hall of Canterlot Castle.
"Oh my." Luna said with a light chuckle as she watched the six mares fly into the room and skid to a halt on the floor in front of her.
"Princess Luna!" Twilight gasped, ducking into a bow, her friends following suit. The Night Court was indeed deserted, the only other ponies in the room being four royal guards, two at the entrance they had come in from, and the other two beside Princess Luna's throne. "What a relief it is to finally be here!"
"Ah. I take it you ponies have traveled far?" Luna said, noting the dirt and mud caked on each pony, and the sticks protruding from Rarity's once-fabulous mane. Her tone, albeit welcoming, contained the tell-tale traces of unfamiliarity which caused Twilight to become more than worried as Luna continued. "And what might your names be? And...my...are those..."
Luna had stopped speaking all together now, and had stepped down from her throne and started stepping towards Twilight Sparkle. Her alert and shocked eyes were scanning her guests thoroughly, before settling on Twilight's wings and remaining fixated there.
"But...but that's impossible." She finally whispered. "How can you be...surely Celestia would have..."
"Princess Luna, surely you recognize us! I'm Twilight Sparkle! Celestia's prodigy, and the Princess of Friendship!"
"I haven't the faintest clue who you, or any of your friends, are." Luna said bluntly, her voice now having escalated from suspicion to full on hostility.
Twilight turned around to look at her friends, who were all looking just as confused as she was at Luna's unfamiliarity at seeing them. Luna was not exactly the most social of the Equestrian Princesses, and, in truth, she had only directly interacted with the Elements of Harmony several times, but the thought of her being completely oblivious to their existence was simply too ludicrous to be considered the truth. And yet...
"Wait here." Luna commanded sternly, before turning and storming back to her throne, where two bat-ponies in the Royal Guard uniform were standing on each side. They looked at their leader with anticipation as Luna whispered instructions to them, casting the occasional backwards look at Twilight and her friends.
"What's going on?" Fluttershy whispered.
"I...I don't know! I think we might be...under some sort of scrutiny—"
"Silence!" Luna screamed from her throne. "Actually, wait. Twilight Sparkle, was it?"
"Y..yes, Princess? Have I done something wrong?"
"Why do you take me for a fool? I believe it is quite obvious what is wrong! It isn't everyday I have an unknown alicorn Princess show up to my Night Court claiming to be in relation with myself and my sister when in fact I am quite certain neither of us have ever seen you in our substantially long lives. Now then, I want to hear an explanation, right now, as to where you obtained such power."
Twilight blinked several times in sheer disbelief, opened her mouth to explain, promptly closed it again, and racked her mind desperately for some sort of logical reason why Luna shouldn't know herself.
"Psst, Twi!" Pinkie Pie said, doing her best to ignore the evident flare in Luna's temper. "My Pinkie-Senses are going crazy. I think we're about to jump back again—"
Luna rose suddenly from her throne once again, obviously furious at being interrupted in her own Night Court. Just as she was about to speak, however, a brilliant flash suddenly exploded where Twilight Sparkle and her friends had been standing.Just as suddenly as it had appeared, the flash vanished from existence completely, leaving nothing in its place.
