Chapters Time! There's Never Enough of it!
Doctor Whooves was frustrated, not because this was his thousandth attempt on the infernal machine that sat there mocking him. No his frustration was coming from the fact that the machine had sort of worked, he had managed to transport himself ten whole seconds into the past. Sure it was a breakthrough unlike any other, but he had had high hopes and all he had gotten was ten seconds. It was hardly anything to be proud of, especially when one considered that the unicorn Twilight Sparkle had managed a whole week, on her first attempt! Celestia only knows how far she could travel now.
He took a deep breath, "its okay Whooves." He said trying to quell his frustration, "She cheated. She used magic."
He'd told himself those exact words every time he'd failed with his machine. It had become more of a ritual than anything else. But still he had to admit to himself ten hole seconds was pretty cool. It was just enough time for him to wish his younger self good luck.
"Oh well. Back to work." He said pushing his frustration aside.
He walked over to the large wooden box that served as the outer casing of his time machine. He moved around back of it and opened the panel to reveal that, as expected, the internal wiring had been turned into a chard mess.
I wish bringing the past forward was as easy as simply traveling forward was. He thought as he began to pull out the mess of nearly destroyed wires. He had actually managed to skip a whole day once, albeit by accident.
He dragged the mess over to one of his workbenches where a nearly identical chard mess was sitting. He didn't know why this part of his machine always looked like this after each experiment but it always did. He had even tried using different materials and wired it differently, but he always ended up with chard copper wires. He grabbed some spare wires in his mouth and lugged it over to the machine to install them.
After thirty minutes or so he finally finished replacing the components and he moved to the side where he opened another panel where his 'Evercharge Batteries' where and checked that they hadn't become lumps of coal again. Thankfully they hadn't, which meant if the coils were still functional he could try one more time today.
Once everything was checked he prepared himself for traveling. He entered the cavity in the side of the machine meant for transport and set the timer back for three minutes. He took a deep breath the pulled down the small lever to activate the machine.
There was a sudden flash and a flurry of lavender feathers and a large mass hit him like a sack of potatoes.
The next time he opened his eyes he was floating in a vortex of colors. Hundreds of hundreds of colors surrounded him, every color he could imagine and even some he couldn't.
Where am I he wondered. He felt a sense of familiarity that comforted him. All of time and space is unfolding before me and it is beautiful . That was his last conscious thought before the vortex overloaded his senses and he blacked out.
Princess Twilight Sparkle was tired, very tired. She and her friends had gotten home from one of the Map's quest an hour ago and seen her friends off. As she walked into the throne room she looked up at the wooden chandelier with the memory crystals hanging down. She smiled and yawned, and that's when she noticed something. Rainbow Dash had forgotten her saddle bag on here throne. Twilight levitated the bag over to herself and peered inside.
"Just as I thought." She proclaimed to the empty room. "She's going to want this book back as soon as possible."
Just then Spike walked into the room, "I'm going to bed Twilight." He yawned at the end.
Twilight gave a sympathetic yawned and said, "I'll be right there, I'm just going to teleport to Rainbow Dash's reel quick to give this to her."
"You sure that's a good idea? You look pretty tired." Spike asked more alert. He had a bad feeling that something would go wrong if she tried to teleport now.
"Don't worry Spike, I'll just be a minute." She assured him.
"If you say so." He said shrugging, "I'll be in my room." He walked off and Twilight's horn began to glow she imagined her destination and prepared to cast the spell. She got the energy and just as she cast the spell she began to yawn.
Suddenly she was in a brown room falling forward onto what must have been a pony. There was the unpleasant sensation of time travel then blackness utter and complete blackness...
Time! There's Never Enough of it!
When the Blackness that had covered Twilight finally faded she was in a large bed in a lavishly decorated room. There was a small table with some hoof sandwiches set out and a steaming pot of tea. Realizing just how hungry she was she got out from under the magenta covers and walked over to the food. She levitated the little sandwiches to her mouth and poured herself a cup of tea.
Once she had finished her third sandwich she stood up and walked over to the door instinctively opening it with her magic. But as soon as it was a few inches open it slammed shut again and she had to flail open her wings and give a quick beat of them to keep from smacking her face into the door. She tried opening it again to no avail. Finally she used her front hooves to push open the door and she got it all the way open before it slammed back and would have hit her in the face if not for her horn.
As it was, it still hurt but she was more preoccupied with what she had seen on the other side of the door. It had been a stallion wearing full body armor decorated with national colors she was unfamiliar with. More importantly to her he had been the one who slamming the door.
She Decided to call out to him, "Hello, why am I here?"
There was the sound of the armor shifting and then a noble and stoic voice replied, "Forgive me your Holiness, but his Highness has ordered me to not allow you to leave this room." His voice was quivering slightly now, "Please forgive me."
Twilight had only heard the term 'Holiness' as an old term used to address the Princesses thousands of years ago. One of the important things about the term was that it was one meant to be used on those that were above royalty. She could use this, "Tell me why his Highness is keeping me trapped in here?" She asked hoping that pulling rank was the right thing to do.
"I'm sorry your Holiness but it is because of your servant that you are in this position. His Highness is worried that since you appeared to us with a mud pony that you may be here to attack us."
"What servant?" Twilight asked, wondering how she ended up in this position.
When Doctor Whooves woke up he was in a dreary room made out of stone bricks. He was resting on a bed of straw and he could hear the sounds of moaning ponies from the other side of the heavy wooden door. He called out, "Hello! Anypony out there willing to explain the situation?!" He waited a few seconds then said, "I figured not!"
He looked around the cell and found a stray piece of metal on the ground of his cell. It wasn't big, just the size of a pencil. "Well maybe I could use it to lever open the bars of the window." He thought aloud as he moved over to the bared window.
He started by testing each bar with his hoof, once he found out which one was the loosest he placed the metal rod in between two of them and began the work of prying the bar out of its place. It didn't take long for his hooves to slip and he dropped the metal to the ground outside.
"Darn, if only I had one of my inventions with me I could get out of here..."
The door flew open and a guard wearing full body armor walked in, "You will fallow!" He ordered.
Doctor Whooves raised one eyebrow, he recognized the colors and armor. If his time travel had worked then this guard worked for the Great Unicorn King, the one that started the events that would lead up to Hearth's Warming. Based on this Whooves chose a safer course of action. "Yes, Yes, very well." the guard turned and he fallowed.
"Care to tell me where we're going?" Doctor Whooves asked.
"No!" The guard snarled.
"Didn't think so."
Twilight had been brought to a lustrous dining hall where three unicorns were seated at the head of the table. The stallion, was dressed in a purple cloak with a golden crown encrusted with sapphires, he had a short beard and a well-polished horn. The two mares were dressed similarly except where the King had gold they had silver. The King smiled, "Greetings your Holiness, we are the Unicorn royal family may we invite you to supper?"
Twilight knew better then to decline his offer and took a place next to the Queen. "May I ask what you did with my companion?"
"Do you mean the Mud Pony?" The princess asked and got a displeased look from her mother.
"Now Platinum, we are in the presence of an alicorn. Surly you don't mean to imply that our guest is a third mud." At that moment all of Twilight's suspicions were confirmed for certain. She first suspected that she had traveled backwards in time when she remembered the armor and colors from several history textbooks she had read. Then she had seen portraits of this unicorn family in the Palace at Canterlot.
"Sorry mummy, its habit." Princess Platinum said looking down and interrupting Twilight's realization.
"It's not me you should be apologizing to." the queen said still agitated.
Princess Platinum turned towards Twilight and said, "Forgive me your Holiness, I spoke out of turn."
"Don't worry about it." Twilight said trying to give the same warm smile she had seen Celestia give ponies who thought they had messed up a thousand times before. Secretly to herself she thought I'll be returning home soon anyway, she remembered that time travel spells had time limits.
"Good" The King said before the princess could reply, "Now that that's dealt with, I think it would be prudent to answer your question your Holiness. He is being brought here as we speak. I beg your forgiveness but when the two of you appeared the guards had already hauled him off to the dungeon by the time they informed me.
Doctor Whooves was a little worried. In his youth he had traveled all of Equestria and beyond, he had seen many forms of ancient torture. He was especially worried since he appeared to be in a unicorn castle in pre-Hearths Warming times.
They stopped at a very fancy door where the guard pushed it open with his magic. He had expected an imposing throne room where he would get a chance to grovel at the feet of the ruler. What he saw utterly confused him. It was a dining hall where the ancient royal family of the unicorns and the princess of his time.
"Doctor!" Twilight was clearly surprised to see him here.
He however wasn't too surprised to see her here. "Right, I guessed as much." He pointed his hoof at her, "You ruined my experiment miss Sparkle." He accused.
"Bite your tongue!" The guard commanded, "You are in the presence of your betters!"
Doctor Whooves had done this song and dance before with diamond dogs, minotaurs, griffons, buffalo, and even Princess Celestia herself. His outburst was one of frustration and he realized that he probably wasn't doing his race any favors by accusing an alicorn of stupidity.
Before he could apologize for the outburst Twilight asked him, "How exactly did we get here Doctor?"
He had expected that she would be a little confused by it all but he wasn't about to discuss temporal physics in the presence of ponies who still thought Equistotle was right. "Surely we shouldn't speak of such boring things when we are in the presence of the royal family." He said trying to gage the reactions of the three unicorns in the room.
Twilight started to say something then thought better of it and said, "Okay, but can you tell me later?"
"Sure..."
He was going to say more when the king interrupted, "It’s perfectly fine your Holiness if you wish to speak with your servant here."
Whooves and Twilight made eye contact and she replied, "My friend doesn't wish to talk about it." Then wanting to change the subject she said, "Will you invite him to dine with us?"
This got her a distasteful look from the queen and princess Platinum but the king hid his discust behind a kind smile. "Yes I think I will." The turning his attention to Whooves he said, "I heard her Holiness refer to you as 'Doctor', so Doctor would you join us for supper?"
Doctor Whooves smiled slightly and said, "Yes, I'm famished. You didn't leave me anything to eat in that cell." This remark caused Twilight to noticeably cringe. "Where do you want me to sit?" He asked walking up to the table.
"You may sit next to our daughter." The queen said pointing to the spot opposite of Twilight. Whooves understood the power play, and shook his head, "If it's fine with you, I'd much rather sit next to her Holiness." He used the term 'her Holiness' to ensure that these unicorns would see his meaning.
Twilight seemed oblivious to what was going on and allowed Whooves to sit next to her.
Whooves took his seat next to her and he remembered the last time he was in this position. It was at one of the formal balls in Canterlot, he had been invited because he had attended the University of Trottingham with the party hostess. He had been told to sit at the end of the table by the hostess's mother, but had made sure he was sitting next to the hostess by the end of it. He didn't enjoy being told what to do and by ignoring the suggestion it was like saying 'you have no power over me' to the suggester.
"You're a doctor, are you?" The king asked, bringing Whooves back to the present...err...past. "Are you her Holiness's personal physician?"
"I'm not that kind of doctor." Whooves said ready for the question. "Mine is the realm of science, I have doctorates in general physics, biology, alchemy, magical entanglement theory, temporal physics and many more." He said listing off just a hoofful of degrees he had earned because he learned that most ponies loose interest after the first five or so.
"An impressive resume" the queen retorted with the slightest bit of annoyance in her voice.
"I've had a lot of free time ever since I stopped traveling." Doctor Whooves replied as one of the servants set down a plate of vegetables in front of him.
The servant then went over to the king and said, "Forgive me your Highness but He has arrived."
The king gave a weary look then said, "And who is He ?"
"You know your Highness, him ."
"Just tell me who him is!" The king ordered.
He leaned in close and whispered the name into the kings ear. Then the king asked, "Why has he come?"
"He said he felt a disturbance at the palace and rushed here from his tower to see if we needed any help."
"Well then send him away." The king said with a wave of his hoof.
Before the servant could get three steps away a golden glow covered the doors to the hall and they flew open to reveal a grey stallion wearing a cloak of constellations that seemed to move and flow as he walked. The bells on his hat and cloak gave a soothing twinkling sound. His short trimmed beard was slightly unkempt and he appeared to be roughly the same age as Doctor Whooves. He looked over in the direction of Twilight and without taking his eyes off of her he said, "So this is what you were trying to hide. You found one of the ascended."
The king stiffened and said, "Yes we did Star Swirl, and no you can't have her."
Author's Note
Oh, you knew he was going to be in this.
Time! There's Never Enough of it!
Twilight could barely contain her enthusiasm. She was face to face with the Star Swirl the bearded. Doctor Whooves on the other hoof couldn't be less interested in the grey stallion. After all this unicorn was known for great magical power, which was exactly what Doctor Whooves wanted to avoid.
Star Swirl looked at the king with obvious contempt, "That's not your decision to make Goldy."
"You're lucky your powerful." King Gold said annoyed by wizard's nickname for him.
Star Swirl didn't even seem to hear him as he walked up to Twilight and bowed deeply.Tthen taking her hoof he kissed it, "Your Holiness, may I beseech you to teach me your ways."
Twilight clearly didn't expect him to be so formal and before she could respond the Queen said, "Star Swirl, know your place. We are in the middle of dinner, and you come in here, uninvited, and try to whisk away our honored guest. You are not even of the noble class and you keep assuming you can do what ever you want. Guards take this lesser away, and place him under house arrest for his insolence."
"No" Twilight said, "You can't do that. He's too..."
She was stopped by Whooves placing his hoof on her shoulder, "No this is how it's supposed to happen."
"What do you mean?"
"You shouldn't mettle in the political affairs of these ponies" Whooves knew a lot of history, he even knew that Star Swirl would often act out of turn and that if King Gold and Queen Silver didn't put him in time out every once and a while, he could very well cause some big problems. This was often illustrated in the history books by a particular incident where Star Swirl created a flame that could burn stone and it consumed one of the nobles' homes.
"But wait your Holiness, are you really going to let this magically inept earth pony tell you, an alicorn, what to do." Star Swirl said trying desperately not to be hauled away by the guards.
"The Doctor's right, I should not interfere in the affairs of your country." She said.
Star Swirl was shocked, in every myth, every tome, and every wall carving he had read about alicorns they had mentioned their great mercy. And yet here he was not receiving any of this mercy. One of the guards walked up to him and said, "Come on Star, back to your tower."
The rest of dinner was a bit awkward but when it finally finished both Whooves and Twilight were lead to a little two bedroom apartment built within the palace. The servant that lead them explained that these were the best guest quarters in the palace. It was decorated with a mixture of cool colors, with lavender couches, deep blue curtains, and purple rugs. Various tapestries hung on the stone walls, they all seemed to depict unicorns being better then other ponies which disgusted the pair of ponies from a more excepting time.
Before Whooves could retreat to one of the rooms Twilight asked, "Doc, why are we here?"
He turned slowly and looked at her, "Because I didn't account for an alicorn teleporting into my house. A unicorn for sure, Lyra's done it at least three times. But you've been able to ignore the magical interference my house creates so far. So I figure I didn't need to spent the time recalibration the magic buffers reject your power."
"What do you mean 'magical interference'?'"
"My house is magic proof, to an extent. Its walls block out all the background magic that flows through Equestria and my Evercharge Batteries suck up all the magic I and any other pony naturally admit. I hypothesize that when you teleported into my house the magic you released was absorbed by the batteries and over charged my time machine."
"You were building a time machine?"
"Built, sort of. Kind of converted my entire house into a giant vortex manipulator which the machine would would use to amplify its effects allowing for a larger package to be sent back a farther distance."
"But why you cannot change the past. believe me I tried."
He got a mischievous grin, "You can't, I can. You see I know magical theory, and all the time spells have one fatal flaw, there all for observation! You see time isn't just a strait line of cause to effect. From a nonlinear, nonsubjective view its more a big ball of wibily wobly...timey...wimey...stuff." He scratched the back of his head as he said the gibberish. "Anywise, I've discovered through careful testing that you can influence the past and make changes."
"And how did you manage that?" Twilight said finding herself both skeptical and intrigued.
"I sent back an apple." He said as if that was all the explanation he needed to prove his point.
"You sent back an apple?"
"Yup, rather then sending back the orange I had received I sent back the apple."
"Wait you actually changed the past!?! Which means we could change history, we could teach these ponies about friendship."
"Yes and prevent one of the oldest and most treasured holidays in Equestrian history from happening. Why don't you prevent Sombra from seizing power and convince Tirak that ponies are good. And while we're at it while don't you go find Princess Calestia's and Luna's father and seduce him. And we can..."
"I get your point." A thought occurred to Twilight, Tirak's story wasn't something that just anypony was aloud to know. "How do you know about Tirak?"
"One of the times I met with Celestia she told me about all the enemies she had delt with." He said with a smile somewhere between reminiscing and longing.
"When did you meet Princess Celestia?" Twilight was beginning to see just how little she knew about this stallion who she had seen many times in the streets of Ponyville.
"I think the first time was when I discovered an easier way to make steel, or it might have been after I reinvented the light bulb. There was a lot of champagne that night, it's all a haze now. But now I see her at least once a year for drinks."
Twilight looked dumbfounded, "What!? Princess Celestia does not drink!"
Whooves gave a smug look, "She usually doesn't. But I can usually get her to let go for an evening of cider and wine."
Twilight couldn't believe the tan stallion in front of her, "I've never heard about any of this and I see her all the time."
"Let me ask you a question." Whooves said placing his hooves together and trying to give a kind smile that which, to Twilight, looked like a more devious one, "In all the time you've known Celestia how often does she actually say something?"
"She says a lot of things."
"No she talks a a lot, but she hardly ever says anything, especially about herself. Just think about it, she had a sister that literally no pony knew about, she hid a Draconiquus in the royal Canterlot gardens, and she kept the existence of one of the greatest empires of its and our time hidden for a thousand years. Who knows what other secrets she keeps. Besides me of course."
Twilight got his point, she had to admit that a lot of things that happen where kept secret until it was absolutely necessary to tell other ponies. But that doesn't mean that the Doc was her drinking buddy and she told him as much.
He smiled, "Don't worry, just because I know her as an equal doesn't mean she trust you less than me. We just have a different relationship. Yours is more of a paternal relationship and mine is more like we're equals."
"I'm going to bed." She said her view of the stallion thoroughly destroyed.
"Good idea, though you may have a little trouble sleeping. I recommend you drink a little of the poisoned tea. Should nock you right out." He said smiling and pouring himself a cup.
"What!" She said using her magic to stop him from drinking.
"Don't worry princess I had the sprouts for dinner and I mixed in some cinnamon with the tea. And your alicorn body is very resistant to this poison." He said as he downed some of it.
Twilight didn't know what the poison was, but Hooves seemed to and he was fine. She walked over to the pot and poorer herself a little bit. She raised the cup in the air and looked at it.
"Don't worry, it's just Jenip. I've seen princess Celestia eat it raw. And we both had the sprouts, it's a mere sleeping agent now. Just drink it, we need to be rested if we're going to head for the Crystal Empire tomorrow." He said as she began to drink.
Then a thought occurred to her, "Why are...we going to...the empire?" She asked her voice already getting heavy.
"Well we need to get back to the present. I can't do that without a tuning crystal for the time machine I'm going to build." He said as he guided her to her bed. He left her there and made it all the way to his room before falling on the floor. "Guess I underestimated the potency." He said as he fell unconscious.