Times of the Essence

by Raidium

Rating: everyone
Tags: Twilight Sparkle, Random, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Doctor Whooves
Length: 2016

Twilight has quite the day when her schedule doesn't go quite as planned...

Today the Pegasus ponies have scheduled a thunderstorm and Twilight must complete her busy to-do list if she has any hope in getting home and relaxing in her nice warm bed before the rain comes. However, moments after waking up, it's already proving to be quite the task. Having made plans for Rainbow Dash and Applejack, she can't help but make sure to get things done on time. If she doesn't hurry, she will get caught in the storm.

Published 2012-05-26 12:54:01 UTC
Last updated 2012-05-26 12:54:01 UTC

Times of the Essence

The day started as a typical summer day. The sun was shining bright, the birds were singing happily, and a busy purple mare was just waking up to start her day. It seemed like everypony had a lot to do and Twilight was no exception. She had the day all planned out just like every other day but this day was a little more hectic then usual. The Pegasus ponies scheduled a thunderstorm to start at 6pm on the dot to help make up for putting the storm off for the entire weekend for one of Pinkie Pie's summer celebrations and this meant that she had to cut her schedule to just fit the necessities in order to ensure she would be at home, lying in bed before the storm even hit. Even after trimming her usual Monday schedule, she still had a lot to get done before 6pm and it didn't help that she overslept!

Twilight quickly hopped out of bed and with a quick swipe of her horn, she threw the blankets back on in perfect order before grabbing her nicely folded to-do list off the night stand.

“Alright, first I have to head over to City Hall and give Rainbow Dash the formation presentation, then quickly head to Sweet Apple AcrWAAAAAAA....”, Twilight screamed as she tripped over a misplaced book lying precariously at the top of the stairs. She lied at the bottom surrounded by books that she had knocked off the shelves in her frantic flailing to try and grab hold of something to slow her decent. “Spike! I thought I told you to.. Oh wait..” Twilight remembered that Spike had left last night to go with Rarity to Canterlot. Rarity had heard there was a new fabric store that had opened up and she was dying to have a look. Spike volunteered to go along to keep her company and help in any way.

“When that dragon gets home, I'm gonna give him a lecture about leaving things out!” Twilight said under her breathe as she starting to pick the books up and place them back on the shelves where they belonged. She couldn't just leave them there for her to possibly trip over when she got home, could she?

Before she knew it, 30 minutes had passed and that meant less time she had to finish her errands! She quickly grabbed her bag and ran out the door, nearly forgetting to shut it in the process. Her first stop was City Hall where all the Pegasus Ponies were meeting before the scheduled storm and Rainbow Dash had asked her to plan the formation so there wouldn't be any mistakes. She had told Dash that she would be there at 2:00 but looking at the time, it was already 2:30!

“Well it's about time you decided to show up!”, Dash said not looking too amused. “I was beginning to think something happened to you! You of all ponies are NEVER late!”

“I'm very sorry Rainbow Dash, you wouldn't believe the morning I'm having. I got here as quick as I could!”, choked the frantic, out of breath Twilight. “Here's the presentation you asked for. If you follow these guidelines, you and the other Pegasus ponies should have a storm brewing in no time!” Twilight handed the blue pony a few pieces of graph sheets with some lines scribbled on them similar to a sports play.

“Wow, thanks! This is way better then that 78 page notebook you wrote last time...” Rainbow Dash laughed as she scanned over the sheets.

“Sorry I can't stick around, I have a few more things to do and I'm already running late as it is!” Twilight hurried away before Dash was able to get out another word. Her next stop was Sweet Apple Acres to help Applejack with her farms finances and she had stayed up late working on a simple budget that should solve all her problems. She began to slow down to catch her breath from running non stop when a wagon came barreling down the hill!

“RUN AWAY WAGON”, screamed somepony as the wagon headed full speed down the hill right in her direction. She was safely out of the wagons path but with a quick glance to her right, she noticed a Brown Pony with an Hourglass cutie mark walking across the road, reading a book, completely unaware of the oncoming wagon!

“LOOK OUT!” Twilight yelled towards the pony but with another glance had noticed that the pony had headphones in and couldn't hear her cry of warning. Twilight had no other choice. She ran full speed at the pony, wrapping her front hooves around him, and with a flash of light, the pony and her vanished and appeared on the side of the road just missing getting hit by the wagon!

“Oh my goodness!” exclaimed the now attentive pony. He looked around in shock, away from the wagon that was now being slowed by a couple of Pegasus ponies until his eyes met Twilights. “I... I could have been seriously hurt! Or worse! I can't thank you enough for saving me! How could I ever repay you?!” The Brown Pony was incredibly grateful for Twilight saving him and looked at her in the utmost glee.

“Oh don't worry, it was nothing! Just try to be more careful next time.” Twilight said in reply as she smiled at the grateful pony before noticing the time. She had lost even more time and had to hurry now more then ever! “I'm very sorry but I am in a real hurry” Twilight said before turning around and heading off, quick as lightning. The Brown Pony just stood in shock before shaking his head and continuing reading his book.

“Finally, Sweet Apple Acres, I thought I would never get here.” said Twilight to herself as she approached the farm. She could see Applejack standing just outside the barn, tying down her Apple wagon to make sure it wouldn't get blown away in the upcoming storm.

“Well hey there Sugarcube!”, spoke a very enthusiastic Applejack as Twilight walked up to her.

“I'm very sorry I'm late Applejack. Based on how my day has been so far, I'm surprised I even made it here.”, laughed a very uneasy Twilight. She pulled out the papers she had written the budget down on and handed them over to Applejack.

“Shoot, it aint nothing to be worried about Twi! Somedays you just can't help it.”, reassured Applejack. She stood next to Twilight and placed a hoof on her shoulder.

“But that's just it. I had everything planned out! It should have gone according to plan...”, Twilight sat with her head down. She was getting tired from all her running around.

“Well, we don't have to get this done today sweetie. I can swing by sometime later on this weekend and you can give me a quick run down! Besides, I'ma need some time to scratch my head over these here notes you gave me. You go on home and get some rest before the storm comes, you here?”, Applejack smiled at Twilight as she helped her up.

“Thanks Applejack. I promise to make sure to leave some time open!”, Twilight laughed.

“Aw shucks, don't worry about it. I'll be seeing ya soon.” Applejack turned and started to head inside. The wind was starting to pick up, which meant that the Pegasus ponies were starting to set the storm up.

Twilight began to walk a little faster as she headed back into town. She had one more stop to grab her order of quills so she could get started on tomorrow's schedule. She got to the store just in time and threw some bits on the counter before heading out being short of words so she could get home before the rain.

The moment Twilight stepped outside and the store had closed their doors, it started to rain. Twilight looked up at the darkened sky, having given up. After all her rushing to make sure she would be home before the storm, she still ended up getting caught in the rain. She slowly walked a few buildings down before approaching her library and walked inside. She closed the door behind her and placed her bag on the rack next to the table before grabbing a towel and drying off.

“Wow, you look like you just lost your favorite book!”, said Spike while standing behind the soaking wet pony. He had gotten home roughly an hour ago and patiently awaited Twilights return.

“Not now Spike... I had a long day and all I wanna do is just lay down...” Twilight started to slowly ascend the staircase when she was interrupted by a large CRASH!

It seemed that a tree next to the library had been hit by lightning sending one of its branches through the wall of the library and straight into Twilights bed, destroying it completely! Twilight just stopped and stared at the wreckage. All she wanted to do was lay down and she can't even do that. At first the troubled pony was angry but then started to realize what could have happened if she was already in her bed. If she hadn't been late getting home, she could have been seriously hurt, or worse!

“Twilight, are you just going to stand there or are you going to help?!”, yelled Spike, snapping Twilight out of her trance. He was trying to push the branch back out of the hole that it had made in the wall.

“Go down stairs and grab something to cover that hole, I'll take care of the branch.”, Twilight said calmly as her horn started to glow. The branch slowly lifted off of the mangled bed and pushed back out the hole just as Spike was coming up the stairs with a board he had taken off of one of the spare shelves in the back room. Spike began to board up the hole while Twilight sat down and began to think to herself. What if the day went off perfectly and everything went according to plan? She would have been home, warm, and snuggly in her bed, reading a book. The thought nearly brought the bewildered pony to tears.

“Hey Twilight?”, Spike came up behind the sad looking pony and placed his hand on her shoulder. “I know it's not much but I made you a bed out of all the spare pillows and blankets we had downstairs. Lets try to get some rest and worry about fixing everything tomorrow, ok?”

Twilight looked past the baby dragon and saw the bed he has made which made her smile. She quickly trotted over and snuggled up next to a pillow and Spike joined her, laying down a few feet away from her.

“So, how was your day?”, Spike asked.

Twilight rolled her eyes and started to smile wide, “My day you ask? You wouldn't believe!”

They both began to laugh happily knowing that when the sun rises in the morning, it will bring a whole new day. A day in which Twilight had planned to not schedule for once. Who knows, maybe it would be a nice day to not be pressed for time...

. . . . . . . . . .

The night was beautiful. Calm, quiet, and everypony was sleeping soundly including Twilight who was fast asleep in her bed. With a sudden flash, a Brown Pony with an Hourglass cutie mark, seemingly out of nowhere, stood beside her. He smiled as he looked around the library before walking over to the top of the stairs.

“I must apologize for the bad day you are about to have.”, whispered the pony, carefully as to not wake the sleeping purple mare, as he precariously placed a book at the top of the stairs. “But I believe I owe you thanks for saving me and though you may never know, I hope this makes us even.” And with a flash, the Brown Pony vanished as quick as he came...