A Thousand Seconds to Save the World

Twilight Sparkle vanished in a flash of light and soft 'poof!' of teleportation. Less than a second later she reappeared, clutching a pink alicorn princess whose mane and tail were covered in soapsuds.

Twelve seconds later, Twilight's rapid teleportation from and back into the room had deposited Princess Luna, Princess Celestia, Twilight's brother Shining Armor, the official Crystal Empire crystaller Sunburst, Starlight Glimmer, and vagabond magician Trixie Lulamoon.

Seven ponies, gathered into the Castle of Friendship's throne room, stared and blinked in confusion.

Princess Celestia recovered first. "Twilight? I hope you have an explanation--"

"Hello, everypony!" Twilight said with a slightly manic looking smile. "I'm sure you're wondering why I've gathered you here today."

"Indeed," Luna remarked.

"The Grrrreat and Powwwerful Trixie DEMANDS--"

Twilight interrupted, "We have less than seventeen minutes to answer your questions, AND implement an effective solution, before the end of the world."

"Oh," Shining said. "Is this about that 'tachyonic communications project' of yours?"

"Not just mine! Physicists, engineers, even the Equestrian Space Program, everypony has done their part."

Sunburst's eyebrows quirked. "'The Equestrian Space Program?'"

Luna explained, "A secret project. A few scientists thought ponies should investigate outer space...more closely than through a telescope. So naturally, they asked the one alicorn princess whose magical connection to moon, stars, and similarly distant objects enables her to banish anypony to the moon...or even farther."

Trixie's jaw dropped. "You can DO that?"

"Naturally I don't talk about it much, because I don't want ponies to...worry unduly, about what I could do. But yes. Not only can I banish ponies to the moon, but I can bring them BACK."

Celestia sighed. "Bringing them BACK promptly always eluded me."

"Forgiven, sister." Luna's turquoise eyes transfixed Twilight. "If time be precious, Twilight, explain FORTHWITH."

Twilight blushed slightly. "Ahem. Yes." She cleared her throat. "An astronaut on the Moon can look down and see what's happening on Equus."

Trixie snorted. "So what? We already know what's happening on Equus. We're right here."

"But an astronaut on the Moon can view much of Equus all at once." Twilight cleared her throat again. "Also, tachyons travel faster than light, so they go BACKWARDS in time. When an astronaut on the Moon sends a tachyonic signal to our relay on Planet Mares, which then sends the message back to us...based on the planets' current orbital locations, we can find out what was happening on Equus nearly seventeen minutes ago."

Shining pursed his lips. "You know time travel magic can be...tricky."

"It's time travel SCIENCE!" Twilight replied.

Shining sighed. "Close enough."

Celestia said, "To avert a disaster, we need to know what the disaster IS. About that, you've told us very little."

Twilight levitated a slip of paper. "This is the message." She read aloud:

EQUESTRIA, EQUUS DESTROYED. PLEASE SAVE EVERYPONY. SENDER S FLARE MOONBASE. WORLD ENDED 11.14 CANTERLOT TIME

Luna grimaced. "How...vague. Knowing naught of what ended the world, how are we to save it?"

"Truly," Celestia agreed. "This astronaut didn't even tell us what part of the world to look at for the source of our disaster, let alone what or who might cause it."

Starlight asked, "How much longer do we have left, Twilight? To talk and plan and bicker, before disaster strikes?"

As Twilight mentally calculated, the tip of her tongue barely protruded between her lips. "I estimate we have time for about a thousand words of 'talk, plan, and bicker,' before the end of the world. If we're lucky."

Sunburst said, "So time is of the essence."

Trixie harrumphed. "What a useless meeting. A bunch of ponies who know nothing about the problem, pretending to try to solve it. Just a waste of time."

Twilight blinked. "That."

"Excuse you?" Trixie replied.

"That's the answer! It's a matter of TIME! I KNEW that gathering all of Equestria's alicorn strength mages would be helpful!" Twilight's horn glowed, telekinetically ripping the capes from Trixie's and Sunburst's backs. "Sorry to expose you two as secret alicorns, but we don't have TIME for me to try to be tactful."

Trixie and Sunburst stared at each other. "You're an alicorn?" Sunburst said weakly.

"YOU!" Trixie shouted. "You're like ME."

"Well, yes," Sunburst cleared his throat. "Any unicorn who's always wearing a cape...isn't that at least a LITTLE bit suspicious? I mean, if you're looking for secret alicorns, what could even BE a more obvious clue?"

Twilight asked, "Does everypony here remember the time bubble spell some unicorn students use, to get extra time to cram before a test?"

A blue alicorn mare snorted. "Trixie was expelled for it."

"If we all cast it together, we in this room can have as many extra minutes or hours or days as we need."

Celestia nodded. "This seems our best plan."

The alicorn's horn glowed brightly, and other hornglows joined hers.