The Wat Chronicles: Álru for an Eai

One day, at the end of winter, a unicorn living at the library was escorted royally to Canterlot. I did not know why, and I did not know what would happen. But she was never the same again. The next time I saw her, she was an alicorn. "Princess Twilight Sparkle". Though she had barely gotten her wings, she appeared to master flight perfectly, to my envy and amusement. I usually turned my mind away from royal affairs like these, and this was no different. I went home, said hi to my good neighbours, and went to sleep as usual, though it seemed like the dusk lasted for an abnormally long time.

The next morning, I awoke early. As the sun rose I was walking outside, something I only did after an hour of tea, breakfast and relaxing. To my surprise I saw many ponies around, acting just like it was the middle of day. Maybe the time had gone wrong somehow? I galloped to the Ponyville clock tower, to check on a good friend of mine and also my cousin, Doctor Whooves. And so I met him outside. "Hello, cuz," he greeted me, and I replied with the same words. "Do you know why the town is so alive at sunrise?" I asked him. He insisted on instead showing me the clock tower and what the time was. "Because it is noon, cousin." "Wha-" "Our time stream is lagging behind, Wat. You noticed the twilight times, right?" "It lasted a long time yesterday, yes." "The Opal and the Amethyst. Wat, the poem! Cousin, you need to remember what the poem said!" "The poem..." I looked for it in my memories. Sure enough, I remembered it. "It was in the language... Let me see. *The Opal and the Amethyst, the gems of day and night, are gifted to the two that have both magic force and flight. Two sisters and their family will rule the modern land, and never will evil drive it out of the family's hand. But the rules of all the world, however much they are sublime, will get broken once, collapsing kingdoms and slowing the flow of time.* That one?" "That's the poem alright. Nice memory, Wat. The rules are broken, cuz. A unicorn has become an alicorn. The stream is screwing up." "So the new princess is not royal." "And we know what the only way to become royal is?" And we said it at the same time: "Get coronated by a wizard of the Elder Order."

"Oh bother," I said, "what can we do to better the situation?" "You forgot the second part of the poem," Whooves replied. "I cannot recite it perfectly, but it says something like 'When the time stream rips, the álru returns. And the elder wizard with it. And he coronates the Queen of Time, maintainer of the stream.' Something like that." "The queen of time?" "That's a bit weird... wait. You think?" "Huh. We're the last two timeponies, and you're a stallion. Maybe." "Hey, I still get to be a prince though." "Sure, Prince Whooves. Let's see if the poem is correct first."

I went down from the tower and back out to the town square. I looked at the sun, which appeared to be slightly elliptic, like something was holding its rear end back. The day went very slowly, and there was growing concern amongst the ponies trotting around. As the clock tower rang one o'clock, two o'clock, three... The sun came to its peak at nine in the evening, looking a bit like an egg. And when it hit its peak, the ground rumbled under Equestria. Hundreds of ponies jumped in shock, looked at the egg-shaped sun, and then panicked. And I could hear a deep laughter from Canterlot. A draconequus' laughter. But a mocking laughter, one from a bystander's point of view. It wasn't him. As I found out soon enough, when Discord was sent flying from Canterlot and landed in front of my hooves. All he did was say "This actually isn't my fault" before teleporting away. And fifteen other ponies who had witnessed his innocence looked at each other, surprised and dumbfounded. They had thought it was him, but now they were out of ideas.

Throughout what was supposed to be night-time the afternoon sun started to look like a squinting eye. And when it set, it completely disappeared, sending Equestria into a moonless night. The moon was just as gone, and the only things in the sky were starlight and clouds. And it stayed like this. It stayed like it for what the clock tower said was four days. On the fourth day, I once again visited Whooves in the tower. He was not happy, but he was calm. "Hello, Wat," he said at my entrance. "Status report, Whooves?" I said. "We've entered the time of the prophecy. He'll return soon." "I hope he will. It is our only chance." "That or kill the non-royal alicorn." "We're timeponies, Whooves; we don't kill other ponies like that unless there is no other option. Give it two weeks. Then kill her, if it becomes a necessity." "Seems like a plan to me. And now, we wait."