Crescent stood before a house shaped like an hourglass. It even had an hourglass-shaped door! It was like Celestia was begging for time puns. Crescent could almost hear them being made in her head. The grand mare of time? Would she live in an egg timer? If there was a secret moon room, it'd be hidden behind a clock. Crescent shook her head gently, trying to loose those silly thoughts.

"Minuette?" She knocked lightly on the door. "Are you home?" She didn't hear any hoofsteps from within, but did hear something being dragged over to the door, so she waited patiently, standing on her hind hooves as she swayed, being good. The door opened and there was Minuette, staring down at her with amusement.

Well, she would have been staring down, if Crescent hadn't been reared up, which made her look up a little at the foal. "Hey, what are you doing standing like that?" She casually bumped the filly in her exposed belly. "Boop! Hiya."

Crescent flailed her hooves, falling backwards on her rear with a pained grunt, not that she was really hurt. It'd take a lot more than that to truly harm her. "Um, Minuette? I came over to see you." She rolled over onto her haunches with a smile. "Your house is cool! I like it."

"Aw, thanks." Minuette stepped out of it, her horn glowing as she willed the door shut behind her. "How'd you even find it?"

"Asked around." Crescent swayed, hoof pointing in one direction. "A pony named Morning Glory helped me. She told me this was your place."

Minuette arched an eyebrow. "Oh? Morning Glory said that?" She snickered softly. "I should have a word with her. Can't have ponies just giving away my secrets." The smirk on her face implied she wasn't being very serious about that. "Now, how can I help my newest, smallest, friend today." She captured Crescent's cheeks between her hooves, rubbing them gently.

Crescent enjoyed the rub, closing her eyes and letting out a happy little sound of delight. "Well, you already helped me. Thanks for that!" She laughed as she was released from Minuette's grasp, bouncing away from her new friend. "You visited me at the castle. It felt fair I should visit you here. Friends do that, and we are that now."

Minuette bounced with glee, always a good sign. "That they do. Do you like it here?" She waved a hoof around, gesturing at the bustling neighborhood. "We're in Canterlot City, which is the capital of Equestria as a whole. Pretty sweet, if I do say so myself." She waggled her brows. "All kinds of fancy-dancy things to see and do around here."

Crescent wrapped herself up in her wings with delight. "This city is amazing! All kinds of ponies live here, and some of them aren't even ponies." She laughed with glee at the idea. "I've met some of them." She pointed at Minuette. "Like you. And a lot more. They're so nice!"

Minuette threw an arm around Crescent's shoulders, yanking her in tight to her side. "Hey, nice isn't that impressive. I mean, most ponies are nice, right?" She smirked down at Crescent. "I like to think so." She snickered at her weak pun, easily amused. "Now, we have choices, important choices. We have to decide what to do with this brilliant day!"

Crescent weighed the options. "The sky is clear, so maybe something outside?"

Minuette tossed up her hooves. "Trees it is! I know a great park around here, with plenty of places to explore." She trotted away from her home with a soft whistling tune.

Crescent rushed after her new friend, glancing around at all the shops they passed, marveling at the wide variety of places there were to go and things to do. Canterlot was certainly not lacking for amenities. Everywhere she looked, ponies were milling about, shopping or dining or spending time with friends. "Have you been there?" She pointed at Canterlot Boutique as they wandered past. "They have all kinds of pretty dresses and things."

Minuette let out a weak laugh at that. "That's something I'm not much into. Sure, some of the dresses are nice, but I'm more about trying to learn time magic than that sort of thing." She reached back to ruffle Crescent's mane. "There's always time to look good for the proper event." She snickered gently. "I mean, really, I showed up for a wedding like this." She waved over her current, nude, self. "I don't do the dress up thing often."

Crescent spread her hooves wide as she pouted. "But there's nothing wrong with looking nice!" She fluffed up her mane, then ruffled it back down into its usual mess. "It's fun."

Minuette slowly began trotting backwards, glancing about as they went. The odd part was that she was going backwards, but the way she had been going in the first place, just going backwards like that was a normal thing to do. As Crescent continued towards her, Minuette maintained a slow pace to allow them to keep talking.

"Is there a reason you're doing that?" Crescent started. "Oh, time magic"

"Me? Never!" She was suddenly on Crescent's other side, walking the proper way. "Now, this park, I meet up here with my other friends all the time. We play ball and other things, whatever's on our minds that day. Usually ball." She nodded to herself. "There's something satisfying about it."

Crescent chirped in agreement, following after Minuette, being pulled along by the older mare's larger hoof around her neck. They soon arrived at a wide park, which looked quite nice and cozy, though it was mostly empty at the moment. Crescent scanned around at its bright flowers and a few tall trees. "This is nice! Maybe we can have a picnic here."

"That'd be nice." Minuette halted by a ball and bat that had been left there, eyes squinting as she inspected them. "Heh, I was just telling you about that." She floated the ball up in her magic and let it fall on her rump, which she thumped against it, sending it bouncing along the grass.

Crescent followed after it, eyes locked on its rolling path. "So, what are we playing?"

Minuette scratched her chin with a hoof. "Whatever's on our minds, maybe? Right now, I'm wondering about time." She clapped her hooves. "You really want to know about it? Well, so do I! But you're a dream, right? You should already have a headstart on the idea."

Crescent smirked at that, one hoof pointing to herself as she tugged her tail around to fluff up. "Um, in a way, I do? It's hard to explain. Being a dream comes with lots of strange things." She chased after the ball and pounced on it, rolling forward with the balls motion she just gave it and ending up upside down with the ball atop her. "While you're in a dream, time is very subjective."

"How so?" Minuette wandered over to collect the ball, holding it in her magic as she leaned down to peer at Crescent. "Are you ready for some hoofball?"

Crescent wiggled herself upright. "Sure!" She hopped up at the ball, but Minuette lifted it even higher. "Hey!"

"There are rules, c'mon." Minuette led Crescent towards the center of the clearing and put the ball down. "Now, let's talk while we play." She gestured at the ball. "While you're awake, time is, what?"

"Harder. Stiffer." Crescent dived at the ball, kicking it past Minuette.

Minuette raced after it, laughing as she did. "Nice kick, little one!" She quickly bounced the ball back and went after it, passing by Crescent as she did. "I think this is harder on you. We both want to get to the ball, so we have to pass it, but I'm bigger." So she wasn't putting her all into it, letting Crescent get chances to kick the ball about. "Does that bother you, being in stiff time?"

Crescent stopped hoofballing around to consider that question. "I never thought about it. Um, if I were stuck like this all the time, it might bother me, but..." She gave a tiny shrug. "But, this is how you're supposed to be?" Crescent hopped on the ball, as if trying to balance on it with only limited success. "It's full of ponies worth being here for, and things worth doing. It also has my mom. Worth it."

Minuette ruffled Crescent's mane. "Good answer. I still can't get over how cute you are. How does one get that cute?" She cocked her head. "Anyway, you're welcome to play around with my time magic, learn more about it."

Crescent flopped off the ball. "I wanna! But how do I play with somepony else's magic? It's your magic, not mine. Are you going to teach me some time magic?"

Minuette ruffled Crescent's little tail gently. "No promises. The thing is, I don't think this is exactly a good idea, since you're made of dreams, and I'm trying to control time." She shook her head. "If you, little miss flexible time, learn how to bend stiff time around, you might break something, and it'd be my fault!"

Crescent followed Minuette with her hoof as she moved around to point at the ball. "Because everything breaks eventually?"

"Exactly." Minuette booped Crescent on the nose. "You're bright. Now, hoofball!"

They paused their time chat to energetically bat that ball around. If there were points to be scored, neither seemed that interested in them, simply kicking the ball back and forth between them and having fun spending the time together. There was no point to it, beyond spending time together, but sometimes, that's all that matters.

As the sun went down, and the stars began to rise, the two grew quieter, worn out by their hoofball.

Crescent casually scaled Minuette, flopping on her back. "Mom's getting up soon. I should go say hello to her." She giggled softly. "Um, can we play hoofball again?"

"Tomorrow." Minuette lay there for a bit, letting Crescent rest before she stood back up. "I'd like that. How about noon?" She floated Crescent to the ground and offered a hoof.

Crescent met the hoof with one of her own in a loud clop. "Noon!"

With the two in agreement, they departed with Crescent dashing and Minuette casually ceasing to be there as if she'd never gone to the park in the first place.

Author's Note

This feels like a natural pause, so I paused.

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