7 - A Time for Something Bigger...
The sun shone brightly over Ponyville with barely any clouds to hold back its radiant light. If some creature were to wander onto the market street of Ponyville today, they would find a veritable river of eager creatures flowing in and around each other. Each one eagerly moved between different stalls and dived headfirst into different conversations with the ponies behind them.
However, instead of bargaining for produce and valuable goods, every creature present was gathering information from the Ponyville Job Faire.
While it is true that most ponies pursued a career, or leveraged the talents of their cutie marks to make their fortune. Some ponies were not blessed with talents that were marketable. Not to mention that non-ponies didn't receive the blessing of an innate talent. So once a year employers from all over Equestria would visit towns and cities, advertising their trades and businesses to attempt to attract new employees. Whether some creature was looking for a more accessible way of making a living or simply wanted a change of pace.
So it was that trade ponies, entrepreneurs, caterers, medical ponies, police ponies, fire ponies, enchanters, jewelers, ghost hunters, farmers, mane stylists, accountants, show ponies, and hundreds of other eager employers were barking out their trades. In amongst it all strode a trio of fillies, all of them looking every which way as they chatted amongst themselves. Their flanks recently stamped with the symbols of their talents.
"So why are we here again?" Asked Scootaloo. "We already know what our special talents are!"
"Because helpin' colts and fillies find their cutie marks ain't exactly profitable, Scoots," replied Applebloom, Sweetie Belle leaning forward to look over at Scootaloo.
"And it's a really narrow demographic to appeal to," Scootaloo and Applebloom both looked at her, Sweetie Belle rolling her eyes. "We can only help colts and fillies, non-ponies and adults aren't going to need us."
"Yeah, that," Applebloom gestured to the crowds around them. "Come on girls, we gotta at least have a look around and see what's what. We could find somethin' we really like!"
"Yeah! Hey, maybe there's a buncha stunt ponies looking for new recruits. That would be totally awesome."
"Maybe there's some musicians looking for ponies who can sing? I might be able to get an audition."
"Eh, Ah think some of those booths might be a bit crowded..." Applebloom pointed to the booths nearest to them. Most of the more appealing career options were inundated with interested passers-by.
"Shoot," Scootaloo kicked a stone across the market floor. "How are we gonna find anything out with all these ponies in the way?"
"We should probably look at some of the less busy stalls. We can at least learn something about what kind of jobs there are." Sweetie Belle took the lead, heading toward a less crowded part of the market.
The three fillies wandered between the different stalls. Making polite and eager conversation with anyone who would give them the time; although Applebloom insisted that they avoided a stall for a pest extermination company. By the time mid-day had rolled around, the Cutie Mark Crusaders had managed to walk away with enough information to make Twilight Sparkle proud.
"Hey, what about that booth over there?" Scootaloo jabbed her hoof to whatever booth had caught her interest. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle followed the direction of her hoof. The three of them saw an empty stall, save for the earth pony sat behind it. It was made of wood with a very simple construction. It reminded them of their Cutie Mark Crusader's Lemonade Sellers (Yay!) stand; only if it had been made by somepony who was actually half-competent at building. The sign along the top bore the words "Equis Time Agency (E.T.A)".
The trio of fillies walked toward the stall, it had not a single visitor. In fact, every creature seemed to be actively avoiding it, some looking back and smirking at their friends as they passed. The stallion sat behind the stall was leaning back in a chair, his rear hooves resting on the stall desk. His muzzle was buried in a copy of Equestria Daily, the paper obscuring his features. However, the three fillies could at least make out his deep oak brown mane and his gentle yellow coat. The Cutie Mark Crusaders looked between each other as it became clear he wasn't going to notice them.
"Ahem-" Applebloom cleared her throat "-excuse me?"
The stallion dropped his paper and glanced over at the empty space in front of him. He sat up quickly with a puzzled frown. Setting aside his paper he looked about before glancing down. His expression broke into a friendly smile.
"Scootaloo, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle! How are you three doing?"
"How do you know our names!?" Scootaloo pointed an accusing hoof at him, the stallion rolling his eyes in response.
"Well duh, you're the Cutie Mark Crusaders! Everypony in Ponyville knows you three," he leaned on the desk with a smirk, resting his head on one hoof. "So what can I do for you girls?" The three fillies looked between each other, still a little unnerved. Applebloom spoke up though.
"We were wondering what the "Equis Time Agency" was?" She looked up at him with a frown, the words sounding ridiculous even just saying them casually.
"Oh, right!" He rubbed the back of his head with a smirk. "It's been so long since anypony actually came over and asked.
"Well, the Equis Time Agency, or the E.T.A for short, is a group of creatures that work together to safeguard the flow of time and relative causality around Equis. I'm Feather Touch and I'll be happy to answer all of your questions!" He beamed at them, ignoring their unimpressed looks.
"That sounds made up," Scootaloo frowned.
"No offense, but Feather Touch doesn't really sound like a time pony name," Applebloom observed.
"Are you playing a prank?" Sweetie Belle asked, tilting her head to the side. Feather Touch only smirked and looked at each of them in turn.
"Yes, it does sound made up," he agreed, turning toward Applebloom. "My cutie mark and talent aren't related to time in any way. That's the great thing about the E.T.A, any creature can work there," he smirked as the three of them perked up at that little tidbit. "And no, this isn't a prank."
"Prove it!" Scootaloo reared up, planting both hooves on the booth. "If you're some kind of "Time Patroller" then do some kind of fancy time magic or something!" She met his eyes with a challenging stare, smirking as Feather Touch leaned back and put his hoof to his chin.
"Hmmm... Oh! I know, Applebloom-" he turned and reached down underneath the stall, he pulled out an apple and placed it on the stall in front of them "-I believe you have an apple that is incredibly similar to this one in your saddlebags?" Applebloom blinked at the apple in front of her. As odd as it was to say, the fruit did look vaguely familiar.
"Ah... Ah think so. Well, Ah have an apple at least," she turned to rummage in her saddlebags. She pulled an apple from it and set it on the stall next to Feather Touch's apple. Feather Touch reached out and took up Applebloom's apple in his hoof. Before anypony could object he lifted it to his mouth and took a massive bite out of it.
"Hey!" Feather Touch raised his free hoof to forestall Applebloom's complaint, before using it to point down at the apple on the stall. The fillies all turned to see that the apple was now sporting a massive chunk taken out of it, ringed with teeth marks. Feather Touch chewed and swallowed the apple. He chuckled at the sight of their wide eyes.
"Keep an eye on that apple," he raised his hoof back to his mouth and chomped down on the rest of the apple in one bite. The Cutie Mark Crusaders gasped loudly as the half-eaten apple in front of them simply winked out of existence. One moment it was there, and the next it wasn't.
"Whoa!" Scootaloo stared up at Feather Touch, mouth agape.
"How did you DO that!?" yelled out Sweetie Belle.
"...That was mah lunch," whimpered Applebloom. Feather Touch lowered his hoof down to where the apple had been, and a light blue runic pattern appeared on the stall. He raised his hoof and the half-eaten apple blinked back into existence. A moment later and the bite mark vanished, the apple whole and untouched one more. Feather Touch pushed it back toward Applebloom with a kind smile.
"Yeah, that was pretty awesome," he smirked at Scootaloo, flicking his gaze over to Sweetie Belle. "But how do you think I did it?" He watched as the little unicorn's brain went into overdrive.
"Well... If you ate mah apple... And the one you had disappeared... Does that mean it was mah apple from the future?" Applebloom didn't want to believe a word of it, but she had seen it all transpire with her own eyes. Then again, despite being an earth pony, Feather Touch evidently had access to some kind of magic.
"Bingo! And if-"
"Hold on! None of this makes any sense!" Everypony turned their attention to Sweetie Belle, she was rubbing her hooves on her temples. "If you had Applebloom's future apple, then you ate that apple; then the apple wouldn't have existed for you to go and get it in the future! That's a paradox!"
"Very good, Sweetie Belle," Feather Touch clapped his hooves together with a genuine smile. "That would absolutely be a paradox, except that I reversed the apple's timeline, so now I can just give it back to her. I didn't need to have messed around with causality to resolve a paradox," he grinned at the other two Crusaders. "Don't worry, I've been doing this a while."
"Wait, so if you're still gonna grab that- I mean this apple from the future, does that mean Ah'm still gonna lose mah lunch!?" Applebloom glared at Feather Touch, he shook his head.
"Don't worry, I already will have taken care of that," he waved off her concern with a smirk, chuckling at their perplexed expressions. "Sorry, little time-travel tense humour, you learn to appreciate it.
"So, now that you girls know that I'm not pulling your legs, do you wanna learn a little bit more about the E.T.A?" He leaned toward them with a hopeful grin.
"Yeah! That was amazing!" cheered Scootaloo. "You say anypony can do this?"
"Yup!" replied Feather Touch. "But I'll have to tell you more about it in a little bit, alright?"
"How come you can't tell us now?" Applebloom asked with a small frown.
"Because..." Feather Touch trailed off, reclining in his seat once more. He gave them a small smirk and started to mouth silently.
Three... Two... One...
"Hi girls! Are you out exploring the Job Faire?" the three fillies looked up to see the smiling face of Twilight Sparkle.
"Hi, Twilight," they chanted in response. Feather Touch chuckled at the scene before inclining his head toward the Princess.
"Afternoon, Twilight." Twilight gave a nonplussed blink, her expression morphing into a warm smile.
"Usually I have to tell ponies to drop the Princess title," she bowed her head toward Feather Touch before glancing up at the board, her expression shifting yet again.
"Equis Time Agency? What's that?" she glanced back down at Feather Touch, who fixed her with his best welcoming smile.
"The Equis Time Agency, or the E.T.A for short, is a group of creatures that work together to safeguard the flow of time and relative causality around Equis," he said with nary a hint of practiced repetition.
"That sounds made up," Twilight frowned.
"Yeah, it does," Feather Touch shrugged in agreement. He reached underneath the stall with practiced ease, producing a slip of paper and holding it out to Twilight. "Pamphlet?" he could see her skepticism arguing with her love of literature.
"No, thank you," replied Twilight with an unnatural stiffness. She turned her attention back to Scootaloo, Applebloom, and Sweetie Belle. Feather Touch went to stow the pamphlet, only to have it gently tugged out of his grip by Sweetie Belle's magic.
"Have you girls found anything that piques your interest? Applebloom, there are some engineers from the Manehatten Mechanics Institute. Their booth just opened up," Twilight smiled as Applebloom's ears twitched forward.
"Oh, they're really good. I studied there," Feather Touch sat up a little straighter. "My cutie mark is for repairing small devices and complex machines, but the Institute really helped me up my game. You should totally check them out if you get a chance," Twilight glanced over at him with a favorable smile.
"The nice stallion is right, you girls should definitely make the most of the Job Faire," she glanced up at the E.T.A sign with a small frown. "I have to go, I promised Fluttershy I'd lend a hoof with some of her animals. You girls take care," with a friendly wave of her wing and a nod to Feather Touch, one that the stallion politely returned, Twilight departed the booth and headed toward the edge of the Everfree.
"She's nice," said Feather Touch with a sincere smile, once again turning his attention to the three fillies in front of his booth. "So, would you like to know more?" Feather Touch leaned forward with a massive salespony grin.
"Well... It sounds interestin', I don't think yer lyin' and you clearly know some kinda fancy time-magic. But Twilight's right, we should try and get as much out of the Faire as we can."
Feather Touch frowned, glancing up at the sky, looking back down as Applebloom finally took her apple and stowed it in her saddlebags. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo seemed to share her sentiments.
"Alright! Tell you what, since time is no issue; how about I come and see you all sometime in the week? I'll take each of you onto an actual job and you can see for yourselves whether the E.T.A is for you or not.
"Nothing dangerous or time-breaking, promise. I don't want to imagine what three of the Elements of Harmony would do to me if any of you got hurt. Or what Eternia would do to me if I let three fillies run rampant in the timeline."
"Eternia?" asked Sweetie Belle.
"Read the pamphlet," replied Feather Touch with a knowing smirk. With a small stretch, Feather Touch leaned back in his chair, once again scooping up his paper.
"You girls go enjoy the rest of the Faire, I'll catch you later. Have fun!"
"Bye, Feather Touch!" the fillies replied, the three of them setting off in unison, Sweetie Belle's muzzle buried in her newly acquired literature.
"Do yah think he's fer real?" Applebloom asked her two friends, Scootaloo shrugging in response.
"I dunno, but let's worry about that later. We've still got a load of stalls to visit before the Faire ends."
"Yeah, but it's a two-day event, we can always come back tomorrow," Applebloom noted, but her attention was quickly drawn to the Manehatten Mechanics Institute booth. "Alright, how about we get back to explorin' and we'll worry about everythin' else later?"
Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, dragging herself away from the pamphlet in her magic, both nodded in agreement.
"Cutie Mark Crusaders job seekers! Yay!" The three fillies collapsed into giggles before parting ways, each going to investigate the different stalls and careers on offer. They whiled away the afternoon, occasionally meeting up and investigating a few potential careers that they had a shared interest in.
By five o'clock, shortly before the Faire was due to pack up for the day. The Cutie Mark Crusaders headed out of the market row, just about to split up for their individual homes.
"Alright, I thought a day looking at different jobs was gonna be a drag, but that was actually kinda awesome," Scootaloo declared with a buzz of her wings. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom nodded their agreement.
"I didn't know that there was a Canterlot Academy certified music tutor based right here in Ponyville!" Sweetie Belle gushed.
"Or that the MMI offered mail-in courses!" Applebloom added with a twinkle of excitement, her happy step was interrupted when she almost ran into a stallion, pulling up just short of colliding with him.
"Heh, sorry about that. Enjoy the Faire, girls?" Feather Touch was smirking down at them, an apple balanced on one hoof. The three fillies stared up at him with wide eyes.
"Erm, Scootaloo?" Applebloom didn't take her eyes off of Feather Touch.
"Yeah?"
"Is Feather Touch still sat at the E.T.A booth?" She didn't turn to look, but she heard Scootaloo shuffle as she looked over her shoulder.
"...Eeyup."
"Could be a changeling?" Sweetie Belle looked nervously between the three of them. Feather Touch chucked, if he was annoyed his expression didn't show it.
"Sure, I could be a shapeshifting rainbow bug-moose. But what would we have to gain by pranking you like this?" he countered, the three fillies remaining silent.
"Anyway, I believe you have something I need. Trade ya?" he held out the apple to Applebloom. She stared back at it before shrugging and taking her forgotten lunch out of her saddlebags. She took the apple from Feather Touch before replacing it with her own.
"Thank you, honestly, you have no idea how much time this is going to save me," he blinked before giving a small groan. "Can't believe I just said that."
"So now you're going to go back to the past and give yourself the apple so he-" Sweetie Belle pointed her hoof over her shoulder "-can use it to demonstrate time magic to us?"
"Well, I might do that," Feather Touch smirked. "But if you want to work that out, you need to ask yourself: Am I his future, or his past?" Feather Touch couldn't help but giggle as he saw Sweetie Belle's brain start to break in real-time.
"Anyway, disjointed time streams aren't going to complete themselves. I'll see you girls next week. Toodles!" Without another word he turned on his hoof and walked away, a bright white doorway of swirling energy appearing in front of him. Feather Touch quickly walked into it and the portal vanished behind him. Leaving two startled and (one very stressed out) fillies in his wake.
The second day of the Ponyville Job Faire was in full swing. The commandeered market row was just as busy as the previous day, albeit filled with a mostly different sea of faces making up the crowds.
Feather Touch once again sat behind his humble booth, reclined in his chair and reading a copy of tomorrow's paper. Occasionally when some creature drew close he would flick down the paper and glance in their direction. But they always either passed on by, laughed at the sign, or just ultimately ignored him. Feather Touch didn't mind this in the slightest.
Any other pony might have been bored with nothing to do all day but sit and read. However, Feather Touch was always able to appreciate a nice change of pace.
Well, at least I won't have to water the plants...
"Excuse me, sir."
Feather Touch blinked at the familiar voice. Slowly folding down his paper for dramatic effect, Feather Touch leveled a wide-eyed stare at Twilight.
"Good afternoon, Twilight! What can I do for you today?" he was sat up in his seat in an instant, the perfect image of a helpful receptionist.
"I'd like to ask what you're doing here," Twilight met his gaze with an unamused frown.
"Recruiting! It's kind of what we do at the Faire," Feather Touch spread his hoof wide, gesturing to the crowds that were completely ignoring them.
"And how do you recruit for a made-up organisation, exactly?" Twilight raised an eyebrow, Feather Touch was impressed at how easily his mind conjured an image of a certain white alicorn.
"Just because it sounds made up doesn't mean it is made up," replied Feather Touch with a good-natured eye roll. "Well, I suppose it is. Technically everything was made up at some point, although if you want to be tech- Sorry, I'm rambling," he rested his head in his hooves. Twilight gave an exasperated sigh.
"Look, I can appreciate a good joke as much as the next mare, I'm friends with Pinkie Pie after all. But you're taking up a booth location that an actual employer could be using to help others. Have you considered how many creature's futures you could be affecting?" Twilight stepped back quickly, not prepared for the other pony's thousand-yard stare.
Every day of my life...
"Every day of my life!" Feather Touch beamed happily, Twilight couldn't help but grimace at his sudden shift in demeanour. She only had a moment to consider it though as he quickly pointed to her saddlebags. "What's with the broken watch?"
"Oh?" Twilight looked down at the object in question, hanging out of her saddlebags so she wouldn't forget it was there. "It's my friend Rarity's, she asked if I could take it to the repair shop for her."
Feather Touch reached over the booth and took the watch from the bag, placing it delicately on the booth in front of him.
"Forget that, old Cogsworth will take a week to fix it and it'll probably break again in six months. Lemme fix it for you," before Twilight could object, Feather Touch reached beneath the booth and pulled out a small sheathe of leather, unfurling it to reveal a surprising number of tools.
"Let me guess, the "Time Pony" can't bear to see a broken watch?" she asked with a good-natured smirk. "How did you know it was broken anyway?" Feather Touch tilted his gaze upwards without moving his head.
"It wasn't ticking," he looked back down at the watch, taking up a small hook and using it to pry off the back of the watch. "And no, it's not a "Time Pony" thing. It's an engineer thing," he gestured down toward his obscured cutie mark.
"If it's small or delicate, I can fix it, no questions asked," he smirked as he quickly located the source of the problem. He swapped out a number of tools and rapidly made adjustments to the inside of the watch.
"If this were an emergency or we were in a hurry, I could just use magic to revert it back to how it was," he explained far too matter-of-factly for Twilight's liking. "But doing that doesn't let you know why it broke in the first place, then it's only a matter of time before it happens again in the exact same way." With a swish, a smirk, and a flick he closed the watch. Picking it up in a hoof he flicked it open and adjusted the dial on top.
"There! Fixed, set, and correct." He held the watch out for Twilight to take back. "Cogs came misaligned. I reset them and tightened up the assembly. And set the time for you," he offered her a wide smile, one that Twilight couldn't help but return.
"Thank you, mister...?"
"Feather Touch," he replied.
"What do I owe you?" she reached toward her saddlebags before Feather Touch laughed.
"Forget about that, I'll fix anything for fun. Or for the challenge," he smirked, adjusting himself in his seat with a stretch.
"But, back to crushing her highness' original point. Do you really think that Mayor Mare would have let me set up a Job Faire booth without the proper documentation?" Feather Touch rested his chin on his hoof, his free hoof packing away his tools with a far too massive grin.
Twilight blanched, having a passing knowledge of how the town organised events told her that Job Fair attendees could only set up at the Faire with a thorough background check; including proof of least two years as a legitimate business.
"What information could you have possibly provided to convince the Mayor that the "Equis Time Agency" is real?" she met his smug gaze with one of equal incredulity.
"Why don't you go and find out? I'm sure the Mayor's office would hoof over the applications to the Princess," Feather Touch shrugged, reclining back in his chair once again.
"I am going to get to the bottom of this," her eyes narrowed suspiciously, Twilight turned away from the booth and headed toward the Mayor's office. Feather Touch let loose a good-natured chuckle.
"I'm sure you will! Hey, make sure you take an umbrella with you tomorrow!" he called after her. Once the Princess of Friendship had departed, Feather Touch moved his hoof to his neck and extracted a necklace with a tiny jewel from the depths of his fur.
He held it up and focused on the jewel, as he did the jewel glowed with a soft blue light. Feather Touch's eyes lit up with the same glow. Suddenly the shadows of hundreds of ponies and a few other creatures blinked past him. Their arcane outlines went every which way, yet none approached his booth. Eventually, the number of passing shadows dwindled to zero and Feather Touch ended the spell. He smoothed the necklace back into his fur, concealing it once more.
"Welp, I guess I'm done for the day," he stood up and whacked one of the support beams of the booth with his hoof. The sign at the top came loose and Feather Touch stretched upwards to take it down, starting the long process of disassembling the booth.
The door to Sugarcube Corner opened quickly, Twilight Sparkle trotting inside and wiping her hooves down on the welcome mat.
"Oooh, Twilight! You're here early! What can I getcha? A breakfast bagel? A breakfast doughnut? A breakfast muffin with extra breakfast sprinkles? A break-"
"Just a bagel, thanks, Pinkie," replied Twilight with a wide smile, her friend's antics never failing to set her at ease.
"So whatcha up so early for? Is it a friendship mission-" Pinkie gave a loud gasp "-do we have a friendship mission!? Wait, my cutie mark isn't glowing. Phooey!"
"It's not a friendship mission, Pinkie. The Princesses have asked me to go to Canterlot to meet with them. It's a little bit unexpected, but they insisted that it's not an emergency," Twilight pulled back slightly, suddenly finding a paper bag under her nose.
"Well here's one breakfast bagel with daisy, hay, and topped with cream cheese! Good luck with your not an emergency princess meeting!" Pinkie beamed, Twilight chuckling at her friend's infectiously good nature. She slid a few bits over the counter and wrapped a hoof around Pinkie, getting a full-fledged hug in return.
"Let us know how it all went when you get back!" Pinkie waved after her. Twilight returned the gesture with her wing, levitating her breakfast bag up onto her back. She pulled open the door once more and took a moment to recast her rain shield. Stepping underneath the purple disc she made a beeline for the train station.
A short walk, a purchased ticket, a brief argument, and a reluctant seat in a private VIP carriage later; Princess Twilight settled into the plush, comfortable seat of the carriage. She levitated the package from her back and placed it on the small table in front of her seat.
Twilight flipped open her saddlebags and once more pulled out a slightly creased envelope. She opened it quickly and took out the letter inside. Using her magic to hold both letter and bagel, she laid down on the carriage bench and started to re-read the letter.
Dear Twilight,
I hope this letter finds you well, we have much to discuss that cannot be properly conveyed here.
As such I must request that you come to Canterlot immediately, whilst I assure you that there is no significant threat to Equestria; it is-
"Anything for breakfast, your highness?"
Twilight jerked her head up, turning around to come face to face with a mare pushing a large cart; laden with a variety of food, snacks, and drinks. Including a small fridge and a hot water dispenser for tea and coffee.
Twilight gave a flat look at her breakfast bagel, before returning her attention to the mare.
"A tea with two sugars, and please, just Twilight will do."
The mare nodded and set about making Twilight's tea. Twilight turned her attention back to the letter in front of her, taking a bite out of her bagel.
-imperative that you come to Canterlot. Please can you meet with us at the palace at ten o'clock tomorrow; I will be happy to arrange transport if you require it.
Luna and I are very much looking forward to seeing you again.
Celestia
Twilight refolded the letter and placed it back into its envelope. What could possibly be so important as to require an urgent audience, yet not be a threat to Equestria? Twilight accepted her tea with a grateful smile and her thanks. At least she would be able to ponder this latest concern in comfort and with a full belly.
Twilight sighed and pulled a heavy book out of her saddlebags, flipping it open and finding the spot she had left off. She spent the remainder of the train journey trying to take in the text in front of her; however, the thought of her impending meeting was always lurking at the edge of her mind.
With a slight lurch, Twilight was jerked back to reality. She glanced out of the window to see that the train was slowing down to pull into Canterlot station. Twilight quickly sat up and stowed her reading material back into her saddlebags. Grabbing a hold of her cup and empty wrapper, she headed to the end of the carriage, hurling the wrapper into a bin and placing the cup down for the cleaners to find. With a flourish of magic, she teleported directly onto the platform.
Twilight looked around a moment to gather her bearings, she found the nearest exit in the sea of ponies and trotted toward it.
"Princess Twilight!" Twilight turned her head toward the familiar voice, smiling as a grey-furred pegasus in royal guard armour approached her. She nodded her head as he bowed.
"Zephyr, it's good to see you again."
"Likewise, your highness," Zephyr allowed himself a small smile before straightening up, assuming his royal guard demeanour once more.
"Princess Celestia asked us to escort you to the castle, we have a carriage waiting," Zephyr stood to the side and gestured toward a quiet exit. Twilight fell into step beside him.
"How is little Soaring Star?" she asked, Zephyr's expression morphed into a small grin.
"She's amazing, she's going to turn two in a few weeks," Twilight let loose a happy chuckle.
"It sounds like fatherhood really suits you," Twilight moved around to the back of the royal carriage, stepping up onto it and settling into the seat.
"Thank you, your highness," Zephyr called back, moving to the front and harnessing himself next to his fellow guard. After a brief moment, they took off at a quick pace, double-timing it to the castle. Twilight jerked backward at the unexpected momentum. She used her magic to fix her crown back into place and pulled her wings in tight so that they wouldn't accidentally catch the breeze.
The carriage rolled up to Canterlot Castle in record time, not counting Twilight's own teleportation. She stepped down from the carriage and offered her thanks to the royal guards. Zephyr and his companion snapped smartly to a salute. Twilight turned and made her way toward the palace. Approaching the towering, white stone structure with a smile as familiarity set in.
Twilight trotted into the castle foyer amidst a sea of salutes and bows. Her tension at the stiff formality melted at the sight of a familiar white unicorn.
"Raven! It's so good to see you!" Twilight moved toward Princess Celestia's personal secretary, who greeted her with a short bow.
"Hello, Princess Twilight," Raven offered a welcoming smile. "The Princesses are expecting you," Raven started walking toward one of the foyer stairs, Twilight moving to follow her.
"Do you know what this meeting is about?" she asked, hoping to have her curiosity sated, Raven, however, simply shook her head.
"I'm afraid I don't, your highness. Nopony seems to know apart from the Princesses. I'm sorry."
"It's alright-" Twilight shook her head "-no need to apologise. It's just so unusual for Princess Celestia to ask for me so abruptly."
"I'm sure she will explain everything momentarily. They're in here," Raven nodded toward a door that Twilight knew led to one of the castle's function rooms. Raven used her magic to open the door and let Twilight walk through it, the door closing behind her.
Twilight stepped into the room and spared it a brief glance, it was similar to many of the other such rooms in the castle. Sporting some simple (if high quality) furniture and commanding a nice view of Canterlot. The main difference was that this room was occupied by Princess Luna, Princess Celestia, and-
"Cadance!" Twilight exclaimed, a smile gracing her muzzle as she approached her old foal sitter.
"Twilight!" Cadance trotted forward to meet Twilight halfway.
"Sunshine sunshine,
ladybugs awake!
Clap your hooves,
and do a little shake!"
The two princesses shared their laughter, bringing each other into a close embrace. Behind them, Luna smirked into her hoof as Celestia gave a lighthearted chuckle.
"Sister, why do we not have a ritual greeting? It seems most enjoyable," Luna asked with a smirk. Celestia shook her head.
"Because we see each other all the time, Luna. And such a thing is hardly suitable, save for in our own privacy," Celestia smirked as Luna huffed, folding her hooves over her chest.
"Hmph! Well, I shall devise one forthwith, and I fully expect you to co-operate."
"Princess Luna, Princess Celestia," Twilight stepped forward, offering the two a small bow.
"Welcome, Twilight." Celestia inclined her head toward her former student. "It's wonderful to see you again."
"You too, but why are we all here? Is something the matter?" Celestia shook her head as Luna stood once more, she moved closer to Twilight.
"We have been summoned."
Twilight blinked.
Summoned?
"Erm... Not to sound like an arrogant, stuck-up pony; but we're the Princesses of Equestria, who summons us?" Twilight looked between the two of them, Celestia clearing her throat.
"Summoned might be too strong of a word, our presence has been requested by Princess Eternia."
...
"Who?"
"Princess Eternia is the Alicorn of Time," said Luna, her wings fluttering briefly. "I cannot remember the last time she stepped into Equestria proper. But she is powerful, wise and both she and her subjects safeguard the flow of time throughout Equis; so we afford her the respect she deserves," Luna smirked as she could see the gears turning in Twilight's head.
"Alicorn of Time!? How have I never heard of her!?" Twilight glanced between the three other Princesses. Cadance placed a hoof on her shoulder, Cadance brought her free hoof to her chest and pushed it outward; encouraging Twilight to do the same.
"Princess Eternia's existence is a secret known only to the four of us and her subjects. I've only met her once," Cadance explained, lowering her hoof once Twilight had gotten over her shock enough to start paying attention again. "She calls the Princesses together every once in a while to share her understanding and what she's learned about events past and what is yet to come. We often play bigger parts than we realise, for obvious reasons," Cadance fluttered her wings and flared her horn. "And now that you're a Princess, she's asked to meet you too."
Celestia turned her gaze up to the room's clock, the seconds ticking away.
"And unless I am mistaken, our escort should be appearing any moment now."
The clock struck ten and a large, shimmering, white portal spiraled into existence. The four Princesses turned to it and watched as a light pink furred pony stepped through. She had a two-toned light purple and blue mane, soft, light blue eyes, and had both wings and a horn.
The newcomer stepped through the portal and stood up straight, her eyes fell on the ponies before her and immediately shrunk into pinpricks. She made a small squeaking noise as her wings tensed against her sides.
"Oh no," she gave a soft whisper, her eyes darting rapidly between the four princesses; who looked back in concern as the latest alicorn in the mix started to sweat. Several tense moments of silence slipped by before Celestia decided to voice her concern.
"Are you alright, miss...?" Celestia graced her with the most reassuring smile she could muster.
"Y-yes! Fine, thank you! J-just questioning the wisdom of my seniors, quietly, in my head..." the nervous mare took a deep breath, raising a hoof to her chest before thrusting it outwards, repeating the gesture several times.
"Do... I know you...?" Cadance stepped forward, only to flinch back as the mare's attention snapped to her.
"Nope! Never met you! No idea why Princess Eternia would ask me to come escort you all to the Convergence of Time- I mean what could possibly go wrong with that? We should go, these portals are expensive after all! Please- come, come! Adventure awaits!" she stepped to the side of the portal, gesturing to it with her hoof grandly; an effect that would have been far more impressive were it not for her hyperventilation.
There was a collective decision not to delay further if only to spare this newcomer from whatever was distressing her. The four Princesses walked past her and stepped into the portal one after the other. Once Twilight had stepped through, the mare brought her hooves to her head and let out a shuddering gasp of anguish.
What the buck was she thinking!? "Oh, by the way, could you go and pick up four important ponies for me?" I thought she was some kind of mythical genius!
Deciding to pick up a brown paper bag once she got home, the mare stepped quickly into the portal. The gateway swirled into nothingness and left the room still once more.
Twilight gasped as she stepped out of the portal. She had walked into what looked to her to be an endless void, a white horizon spreading as far as she could see. Rather than being completely empty, there were several buildings dotted here and there. Dominating the scene was a large palace, a series of connected spires and towers reaching into the void.
The centerpiece of this new plane of reality was a large, swirling, shifting path beneath her hooves. A maelstrom of colours swirling and competing with each other, collapsing on top of one another. The whole path surrounded and held in place by solid borders of golden light.
She heard the sound of hooves behind her, the light pink alicorn stepping through the portal. She glanced nervously at Twilight before averting her gaze, she stepped quickly toward the front of the group.
"T-this way, please! Princess Eternia is just up ahead," she practically scurried ahead, the four Princesses following behind.
"What is this place?" Twilight asked, looking around in every direction. Now that she wasn't so distracted by the sheer magnitude of the place, she could see any number of various creatures moving around. Some going their way, others back the way they came, while others flittered and flew between buildings without discernible rhyme or reason.
"All will become clear in time, Twilight Sparkle. Princess Eternia will see that you are properly informed, I am sure," Luna too was looking about, although far more calmly than Twilight. "Truly this place never ceases to amaze."
"Indeed," Celestia nodded in agreement. "Sister, do you think Princess Eternia might be working on her sense of humour?"
"It would appear so, Celestia, though why she has chosen to torture the poor dear I cannot fathom," Luna smirked as the sisters watched the alicorn in front of them. Any further considerations were put on hold as they approached the foot of the palace.
Before the group could draw any closer, their path was crossed by an earth pony mare with a wine-red coat and a dark grey mane. She glanced over at the Princesses, about to wave her hoof in greeting when she froze. She gave a strangled gasp and flung herself to the floor. Instead of flattening against it, she phased right through it and vanished out of sight.
Twilight had several questions, and she opted to address the most readily available for discussion.
"Is nopony else concerned by how every creature here seems to be so on edge?" she asked, turning toward her fellow alicorns.
"It is most unusual," Celestia looked about with a small tilt of her head before turning to Twilight. "Normally those who pass through here are friendly and welcoming. I hope nothing sinister awaits us," the group fell silent as they finally reached the base of the stairs.
"Thank you, Loftwing, as you go would you please deliver this missive to Ms. Belle?"
A gryphon bowed low to an alicorn at the palace steps, taking the furled scroll offered in her magic. With a quick salute and a flap of his wings, he soared toward one of the smaller buildings.
As Twilight and her company approached, she could see the new alicorn, Princess Eternia, turn to greet them. She stood as tall as Celestia, her fur a shining silver, her large mane was heavy and seemed as substantial as Twilight's and Cadance's; however, the very tips of it seemed to swirl and vanish, the light yellow-brown colour seeming to travel down her mane like rivulets of falling sand. Her eyes were deep, shining gold. Around her neck hung a heavy bronze peytral, set with three gems; a ruby, an emerald, and a sapphire. Save for that she wore no other regalia. She stood tall and proud, but as the small group approached, her expression shifted to a warm smile, her wings fanning out in greeting.
"Welcome, my dear Celestia, Luna, Cadance," She bowed to each of them in turn, the Princesses returning the gesture. Eternia turned to Twilight, a twinkle in her eye.
"And welcome to you, Princess Twilight. It is a pleasure to finally meet you," Eternia bowed once more, Twilight bowed in kind. Despite Celestia's insistence that the Princesses were equals, Twilight couldn't help but return such a gracious greeting.
Eternia straightened, her eyes narrowed and her smile became a playful smirk. They travelled over to the fifth and final alicorn.
"Thank you for indulging me and collecting my esteemed guests; I am most grateful to you, Flurry Heart," Eternia's smirk widened as the alicorn in question tensed to the point of becoming statuesque. Her head slowly turned toward the four who stood next to her, Twilight and Cadance both stared back with mouths agape.
"Flurry Heart!?" they both cried in unison.
Flurry didn't respond, instead, she turned her head back toward Princess Eternia, her voice strained and squeaky.
"No problem, Princess," there was the first lie. "Happy to do it," and there was the second.
"Will you still be visiting for lunch in a week's time?" Eternia smiled warmly, enjoyment written across her face.
"Oh yes," Flurry laughed. "Of course, then maybe you can explain to me why you decided to ask me to go and pick up my aunts and my mother from a time during which I was a baby!" Flurry's smile was strained and manic.
"That which doesn't kill you makes you stronger, my dear," Eternia bowed her head. "Sincerely, thank you, you may take your leave if you wish."
Flurry Heart didn't need to be told twice, all but bolting over to the swirling path of colours, surprising every visitor when she dived into it as seamlessly as diving into a pool.
"That was my daughter!?" Cadance gave an exasperated cry, Eternia nodding in response.
"Yes, I assure you she is most helpful to my work here, and a cherished friend," Eternia gave Cadance a reassuring smile. One that was not returned.
"Will I see her again...?" a dark blue wing fell over Cadance as she spoke, offering a little comfort to the distressed mare.
"I can guarantee that you will see her this evening when you return to the Crystal Empire; where you will play together, then you will tuck her into her crib," Eternia's focus shifted as Celestia stepped forward.
"Perhaps we should move on to why we are here, is everything alright, Eternia? You don't normally call us again so soon."
"Yes, all is well," Eternia spread a wing to gesture to her realm. "I simply thought it better to meet with Twilight sooner, rather than later. It also never hurts to keep all of you up to date on the ebb and flow of time."
Eternia stepped politely around Celestia and moved toward Cadance, extending her wing and stroking it along Cadance's barrel.
"Please forgive my impishness, dear Cadance. I meant you no harm, truthfully there was little to be done for the situation. Remember that you live in the normal flow of time, your foal is still at home. And you will see her again as well, in the natural flow of time or should you return here sooner."
Cadance took a slow breath, raising her hoof and using it to gently lower Eternia's wing.
"Truthfully, I was more shocked than anything. It's not every day you get to see your foal as a grown mare," she tilted her gaze up at Eternia, her expression becoming a small smirk. "I am absolutely getting you back for that though."
"Fair is fair," Eternia chuckled, turning back to the assembly at large.
"I believe we should adjourn for refreshments and discussion," however, she turned back to Cadance with a sheepish grin.
"Cadance, unfortunately, I have need of you. Your presence is necessary elsewhere-" she flushed as Cadance blanched "-nothing strenuous, I promise. But things could unravel if you aren't there." Cadance sighed but nodded her acquiescence.
"Thank you. Bruford! Would you be so kind as to show Princess Cadance to the Grand Dining Hall?" Eternia called across the void, despite the ethereal nature of the place, the ground still shook as a yak stomped over to them.
"Bruford is happy to escort pretty pony princess! Yaks make best tour guides!" Bruford stopped and turned to Cadance, his face completely obscured by his hair. "Bruford is honored to meet pony princess, only pony princess Bruford has met is Princess Eternia."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Bruford," Cadance offered her hoof, receiving a hefty bump in return.
"This way, pony princess! E.T.A food best food in world," he leaned toward Cadance, speaking to her in what would be historically recorded as the world's loudest stage whisper. "Tell no one, but is even better than yak food!"
The colour slowly drained from Twilight's face.
E.T.A?
Cadance managed to stifle a small giggle, she bade her fellow princesses farewell and followed Bruford across the path. The other princesses watched them go; another white portal spiraled into existence and Cadance stepped out of it. She blinked at them in quiet surprise.
"Oh, you're all still here? Are you done already?" she looked between them quizically. Eternia smirked to herself as Twilight raised a hoof.
"Cadance, you're still leaving," said Twilight, Cadance turned her head to look behind her, seeing her retreating form walking alongside Bruford.
"Oh, that is weird..." she groaned, rubbing at her temple with a hoof.
"You get used to it," Eternia chuckled, she moved over to Twilight, looking down at her kindly.
"Forgive me, Twilight. I am not excluding you, however, there will be little point in sitting in on these discussions if you do not have a thorough understanding of how the Convergence works and what we do here. Feather Touch?"
"Yes, Princess Eter-"
"GAH!" Twilight jumped, staggering away from the pegasus that was stood next to her. "How long have you been there!?" Feather Touch sat down, raising his hooves in a shrug.
"I'm not sure, I wasn't really keeping track. I saw Flurry Heart leave," he smiled widely at her. "Nice to see you again, Twilight."
"Pleasure," came the deadpan response, Twilight trying to steady her breathing and keep her heart in her chest.
"Feather Touch, would you be so kind as to show Princess Twilight around the Convergence, and explain how the E.T.A works and operates?" Eternia was still smiling, however, Feather Touch flushed at her tone.
"Of course, Princess Eternia. But Twilight doesn't like to be called "Princess", I guess it goes with the whole "Princess of Friendship" thing. Hard to be friends with some creature if they're always dancing around titles," Feather Touch scratched at the back of his head.
"Well, who am I to argue with the Princess of Friendship? Now if you would be so kind?" she stretched out a wing to gesture to Twilight, Feather Touch nodded and moved over to Twilight. He offered her his wing, she gave an exasperated sigh and slipped under it, Feather Touch leading her back toward the massive path that dominated the floor.
Twilight glanced over to Feather Touch, seeing him sporting the largest, smuggest grin she had ever seen. She sighed as she gave him a level glare.
"Go ahead, say it."
Feather Touch's smirk only grew wider, he opened his mouth slowly and dramatically.
"How about I show you around?" his expression collapsed into a warm smile, he gestured toward the path with his hoof. Twilight couldn't help but return his smile.
"I'm sorry if I was a bit of a- wait..." something finally clicked in Twilight's brain.
"You were an earth pony yesterday!"
Feather Touch blinked in confusion before looking down at the wing he had draped around her.
"Oh, right, yeah-" he lifted his hoof to his neck, pulling a small necklace out of his fur. He took it in his hoof and moved it slowly in front of him from left to right. As he did his wings shimmered out of existence.
"How... How did you do that?" Twilight stammered, a small part of her regretted the absence of warm feathers held around her. Even though Feather Touch was effectively a stranger, she could still appreciate the gesture.
"I'll explain it, I promise. Foundations first, advanced stuff later; gotta crawl before you can fly, right?" Twilight gave a reluctant nod, her hunger for knowledge threatening to take a chunk out of her if it wasn't soon satiated.
"I am an earth pony though. Baltimare born and bred, both my parents were earth ponies too." Feather Touch walked a little taller, smiling proudly. He leapt in front of Twilight, turning to face her.
"But enough about me! Welcome, Twilight Sparkle, to the Convergence of Time!"
He reared up onto his hooves, striking a dramatic pose as his shout echoed through the void. A pony on the other side of the path looked over and rolled his eyes.
"At least that's what it's actually called, or what Eternia told us it was called. However, we in the E.T.A call it The Path, with a capital P."
"The Path?" Twilight tilted her head.
"The Path!" he smirked, stepping next to her and gesturing with his hoof to the floor beneath them. The swirling road of colour stretched off into the distance beyond seeing.
"To put it simply, the Path. Is. Time. All of it," he spread his hooves to the floor, looking down at it. "Every moment of the history of our world, from start to finish, beneath our hooves."
"Everything?" asked Twilight in a hushed whisper.
"Everything," Feather Touch raised his hoof and pointed off into the distance. "This is what we call 'The Path Once Tread.' It's the past, everything that ever was; all the way back to the beginning, lies along the way."
"The beginning!? The beginning of time!?" Twilight gawked at him, getting only a calm nod in response.
"Yes, but it is a very long way to walk," he raised his hoof, showing Twilight the underside of it. "Trust me, I've tried. Only Princess Eternia has ever been there."
"All of time!?" Twilight gestured to the floor beneath them. "Do you have any idea what this means? The things we could learn, the history we could record!" Feather Touch raised a hoof to calm her.
"Yes, Twilight, we're well aware. However, it is a little difficult to record something that is constantly trying to change itself."
"Change itself?" Twilight blinked.
"Yes, which brings us neatly to what the E.T.A actually does," he sat down and gestured toward the scant few buildings surrounding the Path.
"The Equis Time Agency, that's what we call ourselves; sounds official and important. Eternia just calls us her dear friends, or her little minions if she's being a jerk," he smirked as he winked at Twilight. "I'm joking, she's lovely.
"Now the E.T.A is a group of creatures that fixes mistakes in the timeline, correcting things that go wrong and making sure things are as they should be.
"Why they go wrong is a complete mystery. In theory, the past is written, but every so often something disrupts it. And it's up to us to set it right. Although if we can't, we need to get it back on track as best we can."
"And how often does that happen?" Twilight asked, glancing down at the swirling colours as though they might scatter at that very moment.
"Oh, all the time," Feather Touch waved a hoof as though commenting on the weather. "Why just the other day I met a mare who had to go into the Everfree Forest and cut a rope bridge."
"Cut a rope bridge... Why?" Twilight asked, getting a knowing smirk in return.
"Because if that bridge was never cut, then Rainbow Dash wouldn't have needed to fly across a ravine and re-tie it. She never would have encountered the Shadowbolts, never would have proven herself to be the element of Loyalty, and you would have drawn a blank when trying to assemble the Elements of Harmony," he took a moment to drink in Twilight's shocked expression.
"Amazing, what one tiny change can do, isn't it?"
"How- how do you know what would have happened?" Twilight sat on her haunches, putting a hoof to her chin. "If you go back and change time to correct things that have gone wrong, surely you would never see the results of what went wrong?"
"All things in time, Twilight," Feather Touch hid behind his hoof, failing to stifle a laugh. "Sorry, time joke. You'll run into a lot of those here. Now, if you'll follow me..." he turned about and started to lead her along the Path.
"Oh, wait- One very important thing," Feather Touch stopped and turned to face her, fixing her with the most serious face Twilight had ever seen from him. "If you run into yourself in the Convergence of Time, or any time at all. Do NOT talk to her, at least not without knowing what you're doing. Just ignore past or future you and carry on with whatever you're doing."
"Is-is meeting yourself that bad?" Twilight gulped, a memory of a lavender unicorn in a sneaking suit and an eyepatch rising unbidden.
"Potentially, if you have any kind of conversation with yourself, you will need to remember it. Because messing up that conversation could have dire ramifications that will take a long time to fix, and it could be decades before you find yourself on the other side of that conversation, understand?"
Twilight nodded and Feather Touch breathed a sigh of relief. He started to lead her once more along the path. As they walked, Feather Touch pointed out the various buildings of the Convergence. Twilight drinking in every detail with rapt attention.
"You know, when you called it the Equis Time Agency, I imagined an office building. Desks, cubicles, filing cabinets..."
"Oh, we have those. The Hall of Records," Feather Touch pointed to a long, flat building; shaped like a literal hall. "The archivists there keep records of various things, it also doubles as the CR department."
"The CR department? You get paid to do this?" Twilight asked, Feather Touch nodded in response.
"Of course, well, we get compensated. Some creatures do make their lives and livings here. But some creatures only do a few bits here and there, or work in the Convergence itself," Feather Touch shrugged. "Can't live in the timestream if you're too busy to hold down a job, right?"
Twilight nodded quietly.
"This is a lot to take in."
"Yeah, it can be a bit much," Feather Touch placed a comforting hoof on her shoulder. "Do you want to take a break?"
"No, I'll be fine. Please continue, this is all very fascinating," Twilight watched with a smirk as Feather Touch started to trot with a little more pep in his step.
"Well, we're here," he pointed down at the path once more. Twilight looked down to see little difference then from where they had started.
"And where is here, exactly?" Feather Touch shook with restrained laughter, leaning closer to her.
"Don't you mean when is here?"
Twilight groaned.
"Haha! Alright, alright. It is a pertinent question though.
"This is the 'Path We Walk.' Or as you might know it, the present. Everything going on in Equestria right now is spread before us. You can go anywhere from here."
"Anywhere in Equestria?" Twilight glanced down at the Path, how did the E.T.A use it?
"Anywhere on Equis," Feather Touch corrected. "We picked you up from here," he jabbed to a point between the two of them, a singular point at the tip of his hoof froze within the Path.
"So we could go anywhere from here? And we'd arrive there at this exact moment?"
"Well... Yes and no," Feather Touch rolled his hoof. "Technically speaking the present is only one exact, fleeting moment, precisely here," he slid his hoof a bit further along. Twilight followed it, but as she did, a glint of golden light in the path to her right caught her eye.
"Wait, what's that?" she pointed over to the small thread, Feather Touch followed her hoof before turning back to her with an accusatory smirk.
"THAT is when a certain unicorn decided to travel back in time from a week next Tuesday," he laughed at Twilight's expression, looking like she had been caught with her hoof in the cookie jar. "Relax, Twilight, it's fine. The whole thing was meant to happen and it was entirely self-contained. Honestly, Eternia wouldn't have noticed it if Fido hadn't said 'Hey, Eternia! Get a load of this!'" Feather Touch decided to take pity on the poor alicorn, pointing his hoof back down to the Path.
"Now, where were we at?" he readjusted his hoof slightly. "Anything ahead of this point is the future, anything behind is the past. But for the sake of making the lives of every creature at the E.T.A easier, we consider the "present" to be the day around this point. Give or take a day, it can get confusing otherwise.
"Actually, part of the induction for new recruits is how to effectively communicate when you're coming from, when you want to go to, and establishing easy points of reference if you're working in different periods."
Twilight sat down on her haunches, she raised her hooves to rub at her temples.
"I never could have imagined there was such a hidden world behind the one I know. It's almost enough to make me want to join the E.T.A just so I can learn about it," she looked as though she were going to ask about exactly that, however, Feather Touch only saw her eyes widen.
"Wait a minute- Is that Discord?"
Feather Touch's ears perked upward, turning his head to see where Twilight was looking. His eyes fell on a draconequus, floating along lazily above the ground, moving through it like an eel through the water. It looked strikingly like Discord, only far lither and with many more matching parts. A wild shock of a pink and white mane ran along its neck.
"Oh, her," he shook his head as he looked back at Twilight, his warm smile gone for the first time. "No, that's Discord's daughter, she's not from around here."
"Discord's daughter!? D-Discord has a daughter in the future!?"
"He could have had a daughter in the past, like I said, that pain in the flank isn't from around here. She's from a different timeline," Twilight opened her mouth and Feather Touch raised a hoof to stop the inevitable question.
"In a moment, we're almost there," Feather Touch took a deep, soothing breath. His agitation melted away as his easy-going smile settled once more.
"So, can you guess what comes next?"
Twilight shook her head, recovering from the shock of what she'd just heard. She tapped her hoof to her chin.
"Well if I had to guess... I'd say we're about to walk 'The Path Yet to Come'?" she turned her head to the left. "Although, it doesn't look much like a path," Feather Touch let loose a short laugh.
"Close, but we refer to the future as 'The Path Ahead'. And you're right. This is where things get really interesting."
Feather Touch spread his hoof wide, Twilight seeing the Path spread out ahead. However, instead of the long, endless mass of writhing colour; the further the Path went from the present, the more it divided. The solid mass splitting into multiple strings of colour, surrounded by golden light.
The further it went the more numerous and frequent the strings became, each one splintering and growing; the new branches splintering themselves. Stretching further into the distance until they became a new carpet of their very own.
"Care to hazard a guess about what you're looking at?" Feather Touch looked at her with an encouraging smile. Twilight, ever the humble scholar, shook her head.
"As much as it pains me, I couldn't even begin to guess," she splayed out her wing toward the Path Ahead, inviting him to continue.
"The future is nothing like the past, in fact, it's the exact opposite. The future is uncertainty, filled with endless possibilities. Literally, anything is possible.
"But, as the march of time goes on, and the future draws nearer; the possibilities narrow, the future is dependent on the past and present. As certain events do or do not happen, the pre-requisites for the future are eliminated one by one. Until only a few possibilities remain, as the list of possible events narrows; uncertainty becomes certainty. Until eventually you're left only with the moment, a hoof full of choices; and those choices become the present."
Twilight stared out at the Path Ahead, seeing the branches of time spread out before her like an eternal tree. She narrowed her eyes, she could see the threads of time getting pulled inexorably closer to the present. As they slowly came toward her feet, she could see the closest branches shrinking and condensing; the lines becoming stronger and brighter.
"The... The timelines that don't come to be. What happens to them? Could the ponies from the future simply cease to exist? What about Flurry Heart?"
Feather Touch looked away from Twilight, scratching the back of his head with his hoof.
"Well... There always is the possibility that her future could be averted in the course of time. I'm not sure why or how it works; but Eternia says the more a creature wanders the time stream, the more they 'assert' themselves on the timeline. It makes it more likely that their futures will come to be.
"The Flurry Heart you met is from a future not yet certain," he pointed out into the Path Ahead, Twilight spotted for the first time several ethereal patches of light. Feather Touch's hoof pointed toward a branch of time that weaved between them, stretching off into infinity.
"But like Eternia said, she's constantly making use of that version of Flurry Heart. By now she must practically be a part of history."
"But what actually happens to timelines that don't manifest? Do they just fade away?"
"Oh! That is quite literally my favourite part, let me show you!" Feather Touch offered Twilight his hoof, seeming far too excited about the topic; she reached out and took it. Feather Touch pointed down at the floor with his free hoof.
"Follow me, we're going down. Deep breath."
Like Flurry Heart and the red mare before them, Feather Touch and Twilight sank down into the floor. Twilight took a large gulp of air and held her breath. They passed into the stream of colours, all sense of weight and direction leaving her.
This close to the swirl of colours she could see that they were images, moments held in strings, hundreds of thousands of different creatures, and places all dancing among each other before her eyes.
She felt a tug on her hoof and found herself rising toward something. She breached the surface as though emerging from a pool of water. Feather Touch took both of her hooves and pulled her up, helping Twilight to her hooves.
"And here we are! The other side of the path," Feather Touch made another grand gesture, like when he had first shown her the Path. Twilight however was focused on the endless fields of golden threads surrounding her. They were all different heights, some as tall as houses, others brushing against her hooves.
"What is this...?" Twilight walked forward, the threads of time parting around her like a field of grass.
"This is the underside of the Path. It's where all the timelines that never come to fruition come to be. They don't affect the established timeline at all, but we can still view them, and some powerful entities can even leave their timelines and come to the Convergence of Time," Feather Touch moved closer to Twilight and slashed his hoof in front of them, the stands of time parting and giving them a clearer view; Twilight now able to see the strands were as infinite in number as the Path was long.
"I love coming down here to see what could have been, it's like storytime for grown-ups."
"Really?" Twilight gave him a flat look, Feather Touch unaffected by her admonishment.
"Yeah! Take this one for example," Feather Touch pulled on a particular thread of time, it flowed around his hoof as he smiled at it fondly. "In this one, you end up adopting and raising a reborn Nightmare Moon! Isn't that crazy!?"
"I what!?" Twilight's wings spread wide, yanking her head back as she raised her hoof reflexively.
"Right?!" Feather Touch laughed, glee sparkling in his eyes. "Or this one, where Rainbow Dash is a mercenary and you're a witch in the woods."
"Should you be telling me all of this?"
"It's fine, these timelines are the past, your knowledge of them won't affect what's up there," he pointed at the floor. "Ooh, what about the one where Sunset Shimmer comes back to Equestria as an alicorn? Or the like, twenty other timelines where that happens."
"Wait, all of these things could have happened?"
"Yup! Ooh, this one's always fun. Everything is more or less exactly the same, except every creature's gender is reversed," Feather Touch smirked. "I look pretty good as a mare, not to brag or anything."
"There are timelines where I'm a stallion!?"
"Oh yeah, his name is usually Dusk Shine," Feather Touch suddenly pointed off into the distance. "Oh, a little ways back, there's one where Princess Celestia had three children and the middle one turned evil!"
"You are really enjoying this, aren't you?"
Evidently, he was, as the excited stallion continued to build up steam.
"Oh, there's also the one where the original Hearths Warming flame burns under a mountain or the one where you're a royal guard instead of your brother or the one where a soldier gets banished with Nightmare Moon and returns a thousand years later-"
"-are you related to Pinkie Pie-"
"-or the one where Fluttershy marries Sombra and they head north to leave Equestria or the one where all of the Elements of Harmony marry Celestia and Luna; that one is crazy! There's the one where Applejack is a Changeling Queen or the one where you become a Changeling Queen, there's that one where Luna upgrades the Tanatbus, there's the one where a Changeling convinces everyone that he's a zepplin, that one's odd but it always makes me laugh-"
Twilight ignored the rambling stallion, instead trying to observe and learn what she could about the underside of the Path; something waving just out of sight caught her attention.
"-there's that one where Celestia and Chrysalis are soul mates, it's super sweet," Feather Touch paused for breath, taking a shorter thread between his hooves. "Ah, this one is my absolute favourite. Rainbow Dash meets a deaf-blind orphan, it makes my heart melt every time; I hope it ends well-" Feather Touch finally snapped out of his monologue when Twilight put a firm hoof on his shoulder.
"Feather Touch, what's that one up there?" Twilight pointed above them, Feather Touch followed her hoof to observe a single golden thread. It towered above the rest, stretching into eternity, so far that they could no longer make out its golden light. Twilight turned her gaze back to Feather Touch, his expression softening into a dejected frown.
"You don't want to know about that one. Trust me, I mean it when I say that every creature in the E.T.A would give that one a hard reset if we could."
"It's that bad?"
Feather Touch blinked, pointedly looking away from the endless thread.
"Anyway, to come back to an earlier point," Feather Touch rubbed his hoof over his neck, pulling out his necklace, a tiny jewel hanging from it. "This is where we get a few of our unique abilities from," he moved the necklace in front of himself, the jewel glowing brightly. As he moved it a horn materialised on top of his head. He smirked at Twilight's wide-eyed expression, using his newly acquired magic to take off his necklace and levitate it around them in his magical aura.
"There are many alternate timelines, and in a lot of them, every pony was born as either an earth pony, a pegasus, or a unicorn. Using these necklaces we can tap into these alternate timelines and temporarily utilise those versions of ourselves." Twilight watched as he levitated the necklace back around his neck and his horn vanished again.
"So, why not just turn into an alicorn? Surely that would make your jobs a lot easier?" Feather Touch shook his head slowly.
"Even in a universe of infinite possibilities, alicorns are exceedingly rare-" he spoke quickly, cutting off Twilight's interruption "-I know! I know! That doesn't make sense, but Harmony must permeate these alternate timelines. And it must be very picky with whom it chooses for ascension. In all my time with the E.T.A I've only met two ponies that could become alicorns, and I certainly can't do it," he chuckled, raising a hoof and waving it awkwardly. "I guess I'm just not as special as you."
"Hey! Don't say things like that!" Twilight moved in front of Feather Touch and placed a hoof on his shoulder. "Everypony is special and has something valuable to offer, you shouldn't put yourself down like that," Feather Touch blinked at her.
"Thanks, Twilight," said Feather Touch, definitely without a small quaver to his voice.
"Come on, we should get back up top," Feather Touch offered her his hoof once more. She slid her hoof from his shoulder and took a hold of it. Feather Touch grinned as he lunged down into the swirling timelines, dragging Twilight with him.
The return trip was a little smoother, Twilight finding that if she kicked her rear hooves she actually moved forward through... Whatever timelines were actually made of.
Once again she re-emerged, Feather Touch pulling her up and back onto her hooves.
"Well as far as the bare basics go, that more or less covers it, any questions?" Feather Touch leaned forward, unaware he had just won the award for "Equestria's Stupidest Question".
"So many! But I think I understand enough. All of you here in the E.T.A work to keep our world safe from diverging timelines and make the world a better place; and you use some very impressive magic to do so."
Feather Touch looked away from Twilight, glancing down at the floor.
"Well... More or less correct, but we don't really 'make the world a better place', we keep things the way they are supposed to be..." Feather Touch frowned, struggling to meet her gaze.
"Sometimes, that means doing some pretty awful things," Twilight tilted her head, frowning as she tried to get a better look at him.
"What do you mean?" asked Twilight, Feather Touch took a quick breath and looked up at her.
"Alright, but first you need to know when we need to keep the timeline on track we only do things that are absolutely necessary. Especially when it comes to making sure that history takes a turn for the worse," he flinched at Twilight's small gasp. "We have an unspoken rule here at the E.T.A, we never judge each other for some of the things we've had to do. We'd probably tear ourselves apart if we did."
"Is... Is it really that bad?" Twilight felt her stomach drop as Feather Touch nodded.
"How do you think Princess Luna would feel if she found out that the mare who made her vulnerable to the Nightmare walked past her today? How does that make you feel?"
Twilight did not have an answer to that question.
"Are all of these things really necessary?" she asked, dread creeping into her mind as nausea crept into her stomach.
"Well, you wouldn't be here if it weren't for Nightmare Moon."
Twilight frowned as she looked down at the Path in silence.
"I... I suppose, it still doesn't feel right though..." she glanced up at Feather Touch, just catching the shake of his head. "Have... Have you ever done anything like that?" Twilight blanched as Feather Touch's expression crumbled. "I-I'm sorry! That was a really stupid-"
"It's alright, I get it," he straightened up slightly. "I've done a few bad things in my time here, things I felt awful about. Still feel awful about. But I think the worst one was when I tripped a colt."
Twilight blinked.
"That... Doesn't sound so bad?"
"Off of a mountain, into a snowdrift."
Twilight felt the colour drain from her face.
"Did he... Survive?" she didn't feel any better when Feather Touch nodded.
"Oh yes, he survived," Feather Touch looked toward the Path Once Tread, glancing at an unseen point. "The thing is that he survived to murder an empress, enslave an empire, and banish it for a millennia."
"Oh..."
"Yeah."
Twilight took a moment to gather her thoughts, finally deciding to sit next to Feather Touch and place a comforting hoof around him.
"I'm... Sorry you had to go through that, it must have been very hard for you," she received only silence in response. Feather Touch stood up quickly.
"Well enough about all that nasty stuff, let's find something else to talk about," he sprang back to life, his smile just a little too wide. Pinkie wouldn't have liked it. Twilight decided to indulge her companion.
"Alright, well what are those things?" Twilight pointed with her hoof toward the patches of light further down the Path Ahead. Feather Touch followed her hoof.
"Oh, I really should explain those," he led her toward the lights. As they drew closer Twilight could see each one was a swirling patch of ethereal light, mesmerising and inviting. There were four in total, each one of a different appearance, three of them had strands of possible futures connected to them.
"These are four very distinct possible futures of the timeline as a whole, they all have a 'theme', if you will," he pointed toward the nearest one. It was a welcoming bloom of golden light, swirling like clouds.
"We call this one the Path of Light, it's exactly what you would imagine it to be. Happy endings, everypony lives, villains never happen, heroes always win. Real fairy-tale stuff," he looked at her pointedly. "We try our best to steer the timeline toward this one, but it's very difficult. It is almost imperceptibly bending in that direction though," he pointed down toward a shift that Twilight couldn't see.
"This one-" here he pointed toward what looked like a swirl of timelines tangling into each other, the images of each fighting for dominance. "-is what we call the Paths Most Likely, these are the futures that are most likely to occur, not guaranteed, but highly probable," Feather Touch furrowed his brow as something caught his attention, before smiling widely.
"Look! There's Flurry Heart!" he pointed toward a timeline starting to emerge from the wrestling images, Twilight looked closer and she could make out the young princess crouched in what seemed to be a broom cupboard in the Crystal Empire. She smiled, even if Flurry Heart was distressed, it seemed she had a fighting chance at least.
"Aaaannnd this one-" Feather Touch once more directed her toward the next patch of light, this one like a roiling storm cloud. "-we call the Dark Path, again, it's what you would imagine. Pain, suffering, torment, Nightmare Moon wins, Discord wins, Chrysalis wins, Sombra wins, Daybreaker wins. You get the idea, generally every creature's nightmare, apocalypse, end of the world scenario. We really, really try to avoid this one."
Twilight nodded her understanding as Feather Touch continued to extoll the virtues and horrors of the future. But her attention was drawn toward the last patch of light.
It seemed to spread like an abyss, trying to impose itself on a line of futures not connected to it. It was completely, utterly black. She felt her skin grow cold as she stared into the void, it called to her. Everything about it dug deeply into her primal instincts to run, hide, scream.
She could feel something watching her from within the void, inviting her inside.
Twilight felt a harsh thump across her chest, knocking the breath out of her. She looked down with a scowl to see a yellow hoof pressed against her, however, she froze when she saw her own one beneath it; half-raised in a step she hadn't realised she had taken. She looked up with concern only to be met with Feather Touch's frightening gaze. It was devoid of any of the stallion's usual cheery demeanour, carrying only a deathly seriousness.
"That is the path not meant to be. We do not speak of it."
Twilight let out an involuntary shudder as Feather Touch put his hoof around her, he led Twilight away from the void and she felt warmth wash over her once more. She didn't even realise when she had started to sweat.
Feather Touch steered her back toward the Path, once more he turned to face Twilight.
"Well, now you should know enough about the who, what, when, where, why, and how of the E.T.A, at least for one day, do you need anything? Drink? Snack?" Twilight shook her head in response.
"Alright, well at least let me make you a portal back to the palace, it's been a long tour," Feather Touch turned to the side and took out his necklace. He moved it in a small circle and a white, swirling portal appeared in front of them. Twilight stepped toward it.
"Thank you, Feather Touch. Will I see you again?" she turned to ask him.
"I'm sure we'll meet again, I'll try and stop by Ponyville sometime!" he beamed in response, Twilight returned it and stepped through the portal. As she emerged she found Celestia, Luna, Cadance, and Eternia on the other side.
"Oh, are you all done already?" Twilight blinked as Eternia buried her muzzle in her hoof, covering herself with her wing for good measure as she tried to stifle her laughter. Cadance couldn't help but chuckle quietly as she pointed behind Twilight.
"Erm-actually, Twilight. You've only just left."
Twilight turned her head to look behind her, seeing herself and Feather Touch walking down the Path Once Tread.
"Oh, that is weird."
Princess Eternia coughed, straightening up and folding away her wing.
"You get used to it, now, shall we?" she turned and started to lead her fellow princesses up the stairs of the palace.
"I'll be honest, I thought I was going to get left out of this meeting," Twilight started to ascend the steps, Eternia glancing back over her shoulder at her.
"Twilight, I wouldn't do that to you," she graced Twilight with a small smile.
Feather Touch let out a very long, strained breath. He raised his hoof and had to resist the urge to pound out his presence on the farmhouse door. After a few moments the door opened to reveal Applejack, she frowned at him as her eyes narrowed.
"Ah don't remember buckin' you in the face."
"Yeah, well, you did-" he gave a strained smile, beautifully framing the black eye he was sporting. "-my name is Feather Touch. I represent the Equis Time Agency, we're an organisation that safeguards the flow of time and causality throughout Equis. Applebloom visited our booth at the Ponyville Job Faire last week and expressed an interest in our work. I'm here because I promised I would visit and show her some experience of the work we do; to see if she would be interested in making a career with us, is she available?"
There was a long, tense, silence.
"Applebloom!"
"Wait! THAT'S the one you believed!?" Feather Touch threw out his hooves, his eye twitching as he stared at her. Applejack merely shrugged.
"Eh, whether ya crazy or not, yer tellin' the truth," thankfully Applebloom came bounding around the corner, Applejack looking down at her.
"You know this fella?" she waved a hoof at Feather Touch, Applebloom looking up at him and smiling.
"Hey mister Feather Touch, what happened to yer eye?"
"It's a short and boring story," he smirked, not noticing Applejack's frown. "So, you still want to learn about the E.T.A?"
"Sure Ah do! The MMI still haven't got back to me after a week, but ya'll came all the way over here," Applebloom made to step out the door, only to be stopped by Applejack's hoof.
"Hold up there, lil filly! Ya really think Ah'm about to let ya go runnin' around with some varmint whose a couple of apples short of a bushel?"
"But you said you believed me!"
"Ah believe that ya think yer are tellin' the truth. Ah also think that truth is crazier than that time Twilight went back in time from a week next Tuesday."
Feather Touch slammed his hoof over his face, wincing as it impacted his already injured eye. So close.
"You know what, I can't be bothered going through this again," Feather Touch reached up and grabbed his necklace, it glowed a bright white before everything vanished in a flash of light.
Applebloom found herself standing by the front door of her farmhouse, quite alone. An impatient knock came from the other side. She quickly pried the door open to see Feather Touch stood there, black eye still intact.
"What just happened?"
"I may have given causality a poke and Applejack is currently out doing her farmwork; sorry but I've already been through this about seven times," he gave a snort and shook his head, taking a moment to school his features into a more relaxed smile. "You ready to go?"
"Alright, but ya'll should probably be more honest with Applejack, ain't no good gonna come of lyin'."
"Duly noted," Feather Touch reached his hoof up to his necklace, a swirling white portal shimmering into existence. "Let's get going, we do have a job to do after all."
Feather Touch walked into the portal, and Applebloom bounded along behind him. They both emerged onto the other side, into what was clearly a back alley. Applebloom couldn't quite place it but it looked very familiar.
"So where are we? Some big fancy city? Somewhere on the outskirts of Equestria? Some-oh..."
They stepped out of the alley onto the streets of Ponyville, which was just outside one of the local cafes. Applebloom could see some of Sweet Apple Acre's apple trees from here.
"I'm sure you recognise it," Feather Touch smirked, he sauntered over toward an outdoor table and pulled up a seat, gesturing for Applebloom to do the same.
"So we jus' magiced our way to town? What for?" Feather Touch smirked.
"The 'why' will become clear in a moment. But what questions do you think you should be asking?"
Applebloom looked around, wracking her brain. Everything just looked perfectly ordinary, ponies she knew and recognised going about their days. The only thing out of place was Feather Touch sat across from her, the older stallion sliding a newspaper over to her.
"Ah'm sorry, I'm none too sure. This is all still new to me..." Feather Touch graced her with a kind smile.
"That's alright my lil junior time patroller. The most important questions to ask of any situation are who, what, when, where, why, and how. Depending on the situation some of these questions may be more important than others."
Applebloom scrunched up her muzzle, what would be the most important thing for a junior time patroller to ask?
"When are we?" Feather Touch beamed with genuine pride.
"We are are exactly one week into the future, from the day we left," he quickly turned his head, turning back to Applebloom. "Newspaper up."
He demonstrated by unfolding his copy of the Foal Free Press and holding it up directly in front of him, Applebloom quickly did the same, the large news spread completely obscuring her vision. What it didn't do was stop the familiar sound of buzzing and two screaming fillies reaching her ears.
As they whizzed past, Applebloom quickly turned her head to follow the sight of the Cutie Mark Crusaders being dragged along behind Scootaloo's scooter. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle whooping and hollering as they sped down the road; however, in the back of the cart was herself, staring back at her with a wide-eyed but otherwise calm expression. Applebloom lowered her paper again when she heard Feather Touch do the same.
"That was me!"
"Future you, to be precise. That's what you're going to be doing in a weeks time."
"But she knew Ah was here! Why didn't she do anything?" Feather Touch reached out a hoof to calm the little filly.
"Because she remembers being you, here, in this moment. And how important it was that she didn't interfere with what we're about to do. That's also why she didn't let Sweetie and Scoots know what was going on," he quickly glanced about, frowning gently. "As much as I'd love to let you work all this out for yourself, time is against us," he gave a small smirk.
"So I'm afraid I'm going to have to hold your hoof from here on out," he pointed over the road to a shop opposite them. "Any moment now, Rarity is going to come around the corner and walk down the street. The instant you see her, you need to go over the road, get her attention, then come back here."
"What should Ah say?" Feather Touch paused for a moment.
"Ask her if she's seen Sweetie and Scoots. She knows that Sweetie went out to meet you so she'll think you just missed each other; remember, as soon as you've stopped her you need to get back here as soon as possible. Think you can handle that?" Applebloom looked across the street, she turned back to Feather Touch and gave a hesitant nod.
"Ah think so," Feather Touch gave her an encouraging smile.
"Good, now get ready, and keep an eye on the street corner."
Applebloom waited quietly, her heart started to beat a little faster. She turned on her chair to have a better chance to dash across the street at a moment's notice. She blinked as the seconds started to tick by, sweat starting to form on her brow. Just when she thought the tension was going to be too much to bear, she spotted a white unicorn with an unmistakable purple mane.
Applebloom shot out of her chair and bounded across the road, looking both ways as she rushed across.
"Miss Rarity! Miss Rarity!"
Rarity stopped and turned sharply, seeing the little filly coming over to her; Applebloom skidded to a halt in front of her, blocking her path.
"Miss Rarity! Ah'm really sorry to bother ya, but have ya seen Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo around?"
"Oh, Applebloom, dear. I'm afraid I haven't, I'm sure they're just out lo-"
SMASH!
Applebloom jumped as the sound of shattering glass rang out behind her, giving a startled yell. Rarity gasped as Applebloom turned around. She saw one of the shop windows with a large sign poking out of it, dangling limply from the broken chain of a sign fixture. Shattered glass was littered all over the street. Applebloom felt a hoof push her away from the incident.
"Applebloom, stay right here, dear!" Rarity trotted forward, heading toward the smashed window, carefully stepping around the shards of glass. "Is everypony alright in there?" she looked into the smashed storefront window, trying to get a better look inside.
A sharp whistle drew Applebloom's attention, Feather Touch waving at her from the cafe. Applebloom dashed back across the road, every pony's attention focused firmly on the shopfront.
As soon as she made her way over, Feather Touch got up and started heading back toward the alley, newspapers in tow.
"Good job, junior time patroller," he smirked.
"What was that!? Somepony could've gotten really hurt!" Applebloom trotted quickly to keep up with him, Feather Touch nodding in agreement.
"Somepony would have gotten hurt. Luckily, you were there to stop that from happening."
Applebloom stopped in her tracks, Feather Touch stopping to watch her.
"Wait a moment... If Ah hadn't gone and talked to Miss Rarity-" she paused, trying to imagine how fast the unicorn was walking, then covered her mouth with her hooves "-she woulda got hit by that sign!"
"Eeyup! Congrats, Applebloom, you saved somepony's life today. Cutie Mark Crusaders Life Savers! Right?" he frowned as the little filly didn't respond, going over to her and stroking a hoof down her back.
"You alright there, Applebloom? It's ok if you need to take a moment," Applebloom looked up at him, her hooves still shaking. "Come on, let's get you back home. We can talk it out there," he gently guided Applebloom back to her hooves, leading her down into the alley. A white portal swirled into existence and Feather Touch quickly walked them through it.
On the other side, the portal closed quickly, Feather Touch lead Applebloom to sit down on the farmhouse porch; he laid down in front of her to look at the little filly directly.
"You alright, Applebloom? Everything's alright now, it's all over. You did a really good thing today," he reached out with a hoof to stroke her back, the poor dear was still quivering.
"D-do ya'll do that kinda thing all the time?" asked Applebloom quietly. Feather Touch nodded.
"Yeah, we can get up to anything and everything."
"M-miss Rarity, she coulda... Coulda..." Applebloom's breath caught in her throat, tears starting to well in her eyes. Feather Touch quickly pulled her into a warm embrace.
"But she didn't, you stopped that from happening. She's safe, sound, and alive because of you," he held Applebloom close as she hiccoughed into his shoulder, though thankfully her trembling had started to slow.
"Well, if this is how you're taking it, then I am really glad I didn't bring Sweetie Belle along."
That got a little chuckle out of Applebloom, she pulled back from Feather Touch and wiped at her eyes.
"There we go!" Feather Touch raised his head slightly, looking around before leaning in conspiratorially. "Wanna know a secret? I had to be carried back to the E.T.A HQ after my first job, I was so shaken up! But don't tell anyone that, yeah?" he breathed a sigh of relief as Applebloom nodded, unable to keep a small smile off of her face. She wiped her eyes again and took a short breath.
"Can we go an' help somepony else?" Feather Touch smirked and shook his head.
"I think that's enough for one day, you deserve a nice break after all that. How about this though?" Feather Touch sat up, raising a hoof to his necklace, and a very small white portal opened next to them. He reached in with a hoof and pulled out two small objects.
"Every E.T.A agent gets a service badge when they complete their first job, and you get a second one for saving somepony," he gently took Applebloom's hoof and pressed the badges into it. She looked down at them, holding them closer to better inspect them. One was in the shape of an hourglass with a tiny 'one' emblazoned on it; the other was a diamond with a red cross in the middle of it.
"Applebloom!" a familiar shout rang out across the farmyard, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle charged toward them.
"I'll leave you in their capable hooves, take care Applebloom. I'll see you around," Feather Touch summoned one last portal, waved a hoof at the incoming Crusaders, and stepped through; leaving Applebloom to the company of her best friends.
Feather Touch trotted along the busy streets of Baltimare, taking in the sweet, familiar air of his hometown. As was his wont, he trotted toward his favourite cafe, swung himself into his favourite outdoor chair, and pulled out tomorrow's copy of the Yakyakistan Bugle. He heaved a relaxed sigh and let the mid-day sun warm his fur.
His ears perked forward as he heard the chair across from him scraping away from the table, the harsh shift of it suggesting that a grown pony was sitting across from him.
"That you, babe?"
"Babe? You've never called me that before!" a raspy, yet familiar voice smirked at him. Feather Touch lowered his paper.
"Well look at what the-dear sweet Celestia! What happened to you, Scoots!?" Feather Touch had to grab onto the table to stop himself from falling backward.
Across from him was Scootaloo, she sat tall, proud, and smug. Her wild purple mane was styled in the same vein as a famous Wonderbolt. Her prosthetic wings folded in against her sides, and a harsh trail of blood ran down her face.
"Oh, this?" she raised a hoof to point at the large cut over her left eye. "Oh, just had a run-in with a timberwolf! Guess where I just came from."
Feather Touch stared at her in shock before what she said ticked over in his brain. He raised a hoof to stifle a guilty laugh.
"Well, it's about time!"
Thirty minutes earlier, twenty-one years ago...
Scootaloo hurled herself out of a time portal, she barely took a moment to confirm her surroundings before sprinting into the trees.
Normally she would have taken a little more time to prepare for such an urgent job. However, when you were given a red missive from Princess Eternia herself, you made that job your top priority.
Scootaloo raised a hoof to her necklace, tapping against it to summon its magic; she watched carefully as she continued to sprint. Eventually, she caught sight of what she was looking for, an outline of a foal walking through the forest.
She redoubled her efforts, resisting the urge to spread her wings. The metal appendages scraped against themselves as she galloped. The dense trees and low-hanging branches worked together to keep her grounded.
Scootaloo skidded to a halt, her ears strained as she listened.
A distant scream.
Scootaloo hurled herself off to her right, sprinting with renewed effort.
The cries of distress grew louder as she got closer, as did the harsh sounds of wood scraping against wood. She pushed herself to her limit, leaping into the air and soaring into a small clearing.
She skidded into the clearing, having just a moment to take in the sight of a timberwolf attempting to climb a tree, a young colt huddled in one of its upper branches, screaming for help that wasn't going to come.
Scootaloo activated her necklace once more, looking into the timberwolf's timeline. She saw a busy, yet dull life of slow meandering and territorial pride, nothing of any significance.
Expendable.
The only impactful action this timberwolf would ever take would be when it ate a small foal that had strayed too far from the path.
Yeah, that wasn't happening.
Scootaloo charged the magic of her gem, a horn shimmering into existence atop her head, she grit her teeth and charged at the timberwolf.
The beast had but a moment to react, it turned to face the approaching stamp of hooves; an orange blur had already leapt into the air, and the timberwolf felt only a slash of metal cleave at its face.
"Hey, pick on somepony your own size!" Scootaloo charged her horn, sending a bolt of magic screaming into the beast's side.
The timberwolf roared in pain, and with a rabid snarl it lashed out to the side. Aiming to take a chunk out of its next meal. Scootaloo dodged the gaping maw and slid beneath the beast, carving into its belly with her wing and blasting it with her magic.
She jumped a swipe of its claw, only to be met with the beast's branchy tail on the way down.
Scootaloo cried out in pain as the branch struck her, catching her in the face. She was knocked to the side and slid along the forest floor. Scootaloo quickly stood, only to find her vision tinted red.
Dammit! I have to end this quick!
The beast charged once more, Scootaloo leapt forward and landed in the middle of the clearing. Death bore down on her in the form of a dumb, charging animal.
Emphasis on dumb!
Scootaloo leapt up into the air, the timberwolf landing heavily where she had just been; she charged a bolt of spellfire and launched it straight downwards before she pinned the beast to the floor with her magic.
The timberwolf howled and screamed in agony, unable to escape the flames engulfing it as Scootaloo pinned it down. The purple fire consumed the creature.
The timberwolf thrashed in her magic, but Scootaloo held it firm, not allowing it even an inch to crawl toward the trees and allow the fire to spread. Eventually, the howls stopped and the creature fell still.
Scootaloo watched as the former timberwolf started to burn down to ash, she formed a shield around the remains to smother the fire. She wiped her eye with a hoof, accomplishing little except a bloody hoof and a fresh bloom of pain. Scootaloo stretched out her back before turning toward the tree, looking up at the colt she held out her hooves.
"Jump down, I'll catch you!" the young foal remained still.
"It's safe now, I promise. Be brave, squirt, you can do it!"
After a few moments, the colt fell into her waiting hooves. She smirked as she held out the yellow coated colt and used her magic to smooth out his oak brown mane; checking him over for any injuries.
"Good job, kid. You're not hurt are you?" Scootaloo set him down on the forest floor, the small colt looking up at her, trembling.
"Y-you're bleeding!" Scootaloo scoffed and waved off his concern.
"Hah! I've had worse; come on, let's get you back to your parents," she used her magic to levitate him onto her back, discreetly tapping her necklace to reverse-engineer his path through the forest.
"Ya know, you really shouldn't be out here all alone at night, kid. Dangerous, don't ya know?" Scootaloo chided, feeling him curl up on her back.
"I'm sorry, miss..." Scootaloo frowned. Great, now she felt bad.
"It's alright, you know better now, right? Right. What's your name anyway?"
"Feather Touch."
Scootaloo froze midstep, her uninjured eye twitching.
"Are you alright, miss?" she felt Feather Touch shift on her back, a note of worry to his voice.
"I'm fine, musta got hit a little harder than I thought; say, I'm gonna teleport us out of here before anything worse finds us. Hold on tight." she charged her horn; since she wouldn't be able to get rid of it while he was still with her, she may as well get some mileage out of it.
With a flash and a squeeze through the space between, Scootaloo and Feather Touch reappeared on the edge of the forest, she had no idea where they were, but she knew where they weren't, and that was good enough for now.
"Know where we are, kid?" She glanced back over her right shoulder, Feather Touch nodding in response, he pointed over her shoulder. Scootaloo smiled and started trotting up the path.
Her efforts to find directions were for naught however as two ponies came charging down the path.
"Feather Touch! Feather Touch! Where are you!?"
"Mom and Dad sound maaaaad," Scootaloo couldn't help but tease the poor colt as he shrunk on her back. She started moving toward the two ponies.
"This what you're looking for?" the mare and stallion looked over to her, Scootaloo turning to let Feather Touch clamber down off of her back. She took a small step backward as two relieved parents galloped over and embraced their foal.
"Feather Touch, where were you? What happened?" the stallion asked as the mare turned to Scootaloo.
"He got a little lost in the forest, I got him out for you," she smirked, but the mare only gasped as she caught sight of Scootaloo's face.
"What happened to you!? Are you alright!?" she reached out to examine the injury, but Scootaloo simply stepped back out of reach.
"I'm fine, I've had worse," she smirked as the mare looked conflicted, but taking Scootaloo at her word, she turned back to her foal.
"How can we ever repay you?" Feather Touch's father asked, still clasping his son closely against him.
"You really wanna thank me? Keep a closer eye on that colt," Scootaloo smirked. "He needs a telling off, but don't be too rough on him. I think he's learned his lesson." Her work completed, Scootaloo turned tail and started to trot down the path.
"Wait! What's your name?"
"Awesome 'Danger' McCoolName!" she replied, just quiet enough to not really be heard, without another glance back she trotted away from the reunited family.
Feather Touch held up his necklace above Scootaloo's eye, he frowned as he pulled it back, seeing no change in his work.
"I'm sorry, Scoots, looks like that's the best I can do."
Scootaloo picked up a discarded spoon from the table, holding it close as she peered into it.
"Awesome!" she laughed. "This is gonna make me look like a total badass!" she put the spoon down, looking back up at Feather Touch with a massive grin, a healed scar now running down over her left eye.
"It does look pretty cool, I have to admit," Feather Touch smirked before avoiding her gaze. "Sorry..."
"Ah, don't worry about it. These things happen, besides, I've had worse!" she puffed her chest out proudly, jabbing it with a hoof.
"You want anything to eat? Least I can do really..."
"Nah, I gotta get back to the Convergence. Report back to Eternia, somepony-" she jabbed a hoof at Feather Touch "-was worth a red missive from the Princess," Feather Touch's eyes went wide.
"R-really?"
"Why would I lie about that?" Scootaloo shrugged, she stood up; Feather Touch got out of his seat as well.
"Catch you on the flip-side 'babe'," Scootaloo laughed, Feather Touch stepping around the table.
"Hey, Scoots," Scootaloo fixed him with a smirk.
"Yeah?"
Feather Touch wrapped a hoof around her neck, pulling her into a close hug.
"Thanks for saving me."
Scootaloo's cheeks flushed, but she wrapped her hoof around him as well. One way she prided herself on being different from Rainbow Dash was that she wasn't too cool to share public displays of affection.
"Any time, Feather."
A portal opened into the small, crowded room. Flurry Heart flung herself out of it and landed in the corner with a thud. She closed the portal behind her and let out a long groan that quickly grew into a frustrated cry, pounding her hooves on the crystal floor of the broom cupboard. She glanced around quickly, her frustration growing at the distinct lack of a paper bag.
The door slowly opened, and a familiar face poked around the corner; Princess Cadance looked into the cupboard and quickly spotted Flurry Heart in the corner. Her smile quickly turned into a frown of concern.
"Flurry, sweetie? You ok?"
Flurry Heart snapped upwards, giving a loud snort.
"YOU KNEW! You knew for twenty-two years! I've been sneaking around, coming up with all kinds of excuses since I was ten! AND THE WHOLE TIME YOU KNEW!" Flurry panted heavily, her shaking hoof pointed at her mother accusingly.
"Yeah, a little bit."
"Why!? Why didn't you tell me!?" Flurry stood, pleading desperately. Cadance simply stepped into the room, opening her hooves; an offer that Flurry Heart gladly took.
"It's ok, sweetie. I couldn't tell you because it might disrupt things, that's what Eternia said anyway..." she gently pulled back from the embrace, stroking a lock of frazzled mane out of Flurry Heart's eyes.
"You wanna go and get some ice cream?"
It was a silly, simple solution; one that didn't even come close to resolving twelve years of stress and panic.
But it was a start.
Author's Note
Holy heck where did that come from!?
I really considered making this it's own stand-alone story, but I realised I might not actually tack anything on to it. So I just poured myself into it and it RAN away from me!🤣
I might create a 'sequel' just to tie up the one loose end... Maybe expand on Feather Touch just a wee bit as well.
Thank you for joining me on my first venture into a larger peice, hope you enjoyed! As usual any and all feedback will be greatly appreciated! Also my creative well is running just a little bit dry now after this, so feel free to suggest some scenes you would like to see!
Also, there are 23* references in this story! Can you name them all?
*There is one that nobody will be able to get right, but can you spot where it is?
