Twilight discovers a strange set of bones in the ditch under the Ponyville clock tower. However, she has a conference to prepare - the Thaumic-Arcane Collegium of Academics, a great organization of scholars from around the world, has accepted her into their ranks, and she is to host their annual Grand Meet in Ponyville. She doesn't have time for research!

When the Meet commences, however, one of the Grandmasters has mysteriously gone missing. As the other attendants mold their confusion together, Twilight cannot help but feel something isn't quite right. And when she discovers the missing Grandmaster's carriage, empty and abandoned on the road right by the clock tower where she left the corpse, the hunt is on.

An old, foreign and forbidden existence is on the loose in Equestria, and Twilight is in a race against the clock to stop it. Can she reach it in time? Only time will tell.

But whose time?