A Matter of Time

Noon was drawing close as Twilight watched the last ponies enter the square. She glanced at Mayor Mare, who nodded.

"Whenever you're ready, Miss Sparkle."

She leaned toward the megaphone and addressed the crowd. "Citizens of Ponyville, I'm sure you're all aware of the recent earthquakes. Fortunately, they have been of low magnitude, so there has been relatively little damage. I have written a letter to Princess Celestia, who has told me how we can help prevent any further damage these quakes might cause in the future."

A nervous murmur washed over the crowd. Twilight picked out a few nervous laughs, and ponies here and there shouted in their disbelief that there would even be more quakes.

She continued: "We cannot effectively stop another earthquake from happening. However, I've printed flyers detailing the princess's instructions on how we can all help to minimize damage. The weather team will pass them out when I've finished speaking. In addition to these instructions, the princess has sent me schematics for a device that measures seismic activity. Three have been assembled, and in the event of another earthquake, we can locate the epicenter and send a team to investigate. One of the devices will be placed here, at the town hall. Others will be placed outside the town to aid measurements," She looked over the crowd. Though she had tried to be as concise as possible, most of the audience seemed to not understand. Perhaps it was simply the nature of the subject at hand. "Are there any questions?"

One pony raised a hoof.

"Yes, you there, with the orange mane."

"Did the princess say there would be more quakes?" he asked.

"She didn't say for sure. She only told me what we could do. And... that it might get worse."

The audience was filled with uncertain muttering. Twilight could physically feel the collective unease of the town. She cursed herself for adding that last bit. It was exactly what this skittish town needed to start a panicked frenzy.

"Any more questions?" No hooves raised. "That's all then. Be sure to collect a flyer from one of the weather ponies."

Twilight sighed as she dismounted the podium. Her friends were waiting at the end of the stage. Macintosh nuzzled Fluttershy, and Applejack tried to not pay attention.

"Well, that could have gone better," Rarity remarked.

"I know. Why is this town so prone to disaster?" Twilight asked, rhetorically.

"Wasn't there somethin' you needed us to do, Twi'?" Applejack asked.

"Glad you brought it up. I need someone to place the seismographs for me," she replied. "I'd do it myself, but they need to be placed pretty far away, and I'm not sure I could set them before the next quake hits."

Dash scoffed. "Seems like a pretty big deal to make over the ground shaking."

"Yes, it is a pretty big deal," Twilight sighed. "If we have just one big quake, Ponyville could be leveled. A thousand ponies would be homeless or dead. If we put these seismographs in place, we might be able to find out what's causing these quakes and put a stop to it before that happens."

Dash straightened up. "Alright, so, where are these things?"

"They're here, inside the municipal building. Applejack, Pinkie, I need you two to take one to Sweet Apple Acres."

AJ gave a kind of salute and Pinkie bounced as they voiced their acknowledgement.

"Fluttershy, you and Big Mac take another to your cottage. It's far enough from town that the seismograph will pick up tremors at a significantly later time."

Fluttershy nodded, and Big Mac gave a slow "Eyup."

"Rarity, Dash... I really don't have a job for either of you. I guess you should make sure your own homes are ready for the next quake."

Rainbow Dash looked quite disgruntled. "I live in a cloud."

"Then help Rarity quake-proof the boutique. You know how she tends to nitpick."

Rarity started to argue. "Well, I... no, that's rather accurate. Alright, then,"

"That's that, then," Twilight said. "The clocks inside the machines are supposed to start them at exactly one o' clock, but you'll need to watch them and make sure they activate. Hopefully, they'll be perfectly synchronous."

AJ, Mac, Fluttershy and Pinkie filed past her and into the hall, while Rarity and Dash left for the boutique, a dejected-looking Spike with his bag full of writing stuff in their wake. Twilight would normally have a task in mind for him, but...

"You can go with her, Spike."

He beamed. "You sure, Twi'?"

"I'm sure," she replied. "I can handle this. But first..." She levitated a little... something into his bag.

"What is it?" he asked, pulling the little square package out and examining it.

"No matter what you do, be safe. Okay?" Twilight's face turned a bit red and contained infinite maternal worry in the moment before she turned to follow the others into the municipal building.

Spike stood there a moment, looking at the... something and mulling over what she'd just said. Then he noticed how far Rarity and Dash had already gone, and stuffed it back into his bag, running to catch up with them.

Twilight fidgeted as the clock on the wall ticked. It apparently wasn't satisfied with passing the time at a normal rate, and wanted to force Twilight to endure an immeasurably long twelve minutes before the seismograph would activate. Twilight was wound tight with the anticipation of studying the new machine. Of course, she'd built them, but only by following Celestia's instructions; she didn't fully understand how they worked. She occupied herself mostly by examining and re-examining the schematics, but it would be so much more fun to watch the device in action. As interested as she was in the seismograph, she almost didn't notice when a pony entered the room, breaking her nerdy reverie.

"I take it you're Miss Twilight Sparkle," he said. Twilight quickly examined the stallion. He bore a striking resemblance to the pony Spike had described in the journal: gray stallion, black mane, bowler hat. Possibly Unicorn. A glance at his flank revealed his cutie mark to be a stopwatch.

"Uh, yep! That's me. What brings you here, Mister...?"

"Oh, beg your pardon. The name's Clocksworth, the third," he levitated his hat and dipped his head in a little bow, revealing his horn. "And if you would allow it, I am here to study this apparatus."

Twilight beamed at the prospect of another academic.

"You see, I make my living largely by crafting and repairing clocks, and so it is quite a nice coincidence that I've always had a fascination with machinery. But this," he gestured to the seismograph, "I've never seen anything quite like it. You call this, what, a seismograph?"

"Yes, it's supposed to measure seismic tremors in direct relation to time. I haven't seen it active yet, but I assume this needle would shake when a tremor occurs, leaving ink on the paper."

"Excellent. So, then, this paper reel is wound on these pegs, and the machine pulls it along, right?"

"Right, and since it moves at a constant rate, the length of paper corresponds directly to the time any activity occurs!"

"Does it draw power from standard machine-grade magick crystals?"

"Yes!" Twilight could hardly contain herself.

"You said in your address that there were others, and that together they could be used to locate the earthquake's epicenter. How does that work?"

"Well, if the three devices are far enough apart, the earthquake will reach each one at a slightly different time. Since tremors are sound waves caused by seismic activity..."

"...the tremors will occur at measurably different times at each location, and the three radii the quakes could possibly originate from only intersect at the epicenter!"

Twilight had to bite her lower lip to keep from squealing childishly.

Clocksworth removed his hat. "This is so simple, and so brilliant!"

"I know!" Twilight exclaimed, bouncing on the tips of her hooves. "Isn't it just great?"

"Indeed. But the machines must be perfectly synchronized for it to work. How did you solve that problem?"

"That was actually pretty simple," Twilight said. "To put it simply, I set a few alarm clocks, then stripped what I didn't need and attatched what I did to the power switch. Instead of ringing an alarm, the clocks will turn the seismograph on!" She was overjoyed. For once, a pony shared her love of knowledge, and he was even a stallion!

Clocksworth laughed, amazed at the sheer genius behind the whole scheme. "Just... this... I can't... words. Brilliant!" He grinned ear to pointy ear. "I can't wait to tell Merry Weather about this!"

"Merry Weather?" Did she miss something?

"Yes, she's my companion. She loves tinkering with all kinds of odds and ends."

"She--companion...?" Twilight stammered.

"What? Oh, no. It's entirely platonic, our relationship."

"Right, right." Twilight nodded vigorously.

An awkward silence followed, and was broken by the seismograph slowly whirring to life. Both Unicorns directed their attention toward it.

"Well, this is... fascinating," Clocksworth said.

"Yeah, it sure is fun studying this machine..." Twilight agreed, slightly less than half-heartedly.

Another silence would have followed, were it not for the steady hum of the paper reel turning.

Clocksworth decided to break the tension. "Would you like to have lunch?"

"I'd love to."