Time! There's Never Enough of it!

by GrandSpellcaster

Chapter 2: The Bearded

Twilight could barely contain her enthusiasm. She was face to face with the Star Swirl the bearded. Doctor Whooves on the other hoof couldn't be less interested in the grey stallion. After all this unicorn was known for great magical power, which was exactly what Doctor Whooves wanted to avoid.

Star Swirl looked at the king with obvious contempt, "That's not your decision to make Goldy."

"You're lucky your powerful." King Gold said annoyed by wizard's nickname for him.

Star Swirl didn't even seem to hear him as he walked up to Twilight and bowed deeply.Tthen taking her hoof he kissed it, "Your Holiness, may I beseech you to teach me your ways."

Twilight clearly didn't expect him to be so formal and before she could respond the Queen said, "Star Swirl, know your place. We are in the middle of dinner, and you come in here, uninvited, and try to whisk away our honored guest. You are not even of the noble class and you keep assuming you can do what ever you want. Guards take this lesser away, and place him under house arrest for his insolence."

"No" Twilight said, "You can't do that. He's too..."

She was stopped by Whooves placing his hoof on her shoulder, "No this is how it's supposed to happen."

"What do you mean?"

"You shouldn't mettle in the political affairs of these ponies" Whooves knew a lot of history, he even knew that Star Swirl would often act out of turn and that if King Gold and Queen Silver didn't put him in time out every once and a while, he could very well cause some big problems. This was often illustrated in the history books by a particular incident where Star Swirl created a flame that could burn stone and it consumed one of the nobles' homes.

"But wait your Holiness, are you really going to let this magically inept earth pony tell you, an alicorn, what to do." Star Swirl said trying desperately not to be hauled away by the guards.

"The Doctor's right, I should not interfere in the affairs of your country." She said.

Star Swirl was shocked, in every myth, every tome, and every wall carving he had read about alicorns they had mentioned their great mercy. And yet here he was not receiving any of this mercy. One of the guards walked up to him and said, "Come on Star, back to your tower."

The rest of dinner was a bit awkward but when it finally finished both Whooves and Twilight were lead to a little two bedroom apartment built within the palace. The servant that lead them explained that these were the best guest quarters in the palace. It was decorated with a mixture of cool colors, with lavender couches, deep blue curtains, and purple rugs. Various tapestries hung on the stone walls, they all seemed to depict unicorns being better then other ponies which disgusted the pair of ponies from a more excepting time.

Before Whooves could retreat to one of the rooms Twilight asked, "Doc, why are we here?"

He turned slowly and looked at her, "Because I didn't account for an alicorn teleporting into my house. A unicorn for sure, Lyra's done it at least three times. But you've been able to ignore the magical interference my house creates so far. So I figure I didn't need to spent the time recalibration the magic buffers reject your power."

"What do you mean 'magical interference'?'"

"My house is magic proof, to an extent. Its walls block out all the background magic that flows through Equestria and my Evercharge Batteries suck up all the magic I and any other pony naturally admit. I hypothesize that when you teleported into my house the magic you released was absorbed by the batteries and over charged my time machine."

"You were building a time machine?"

"Built, sort of. Kind of converted my entire house into a giant vortex manipulator which the machine would would use to amplify its effects allowing for a larger package to be sent back a farther distance."

"But why you cannot change the past. believe me I tried."

He got a mischievous grin, "You can't, I can. You see I know magical theory, and all the time spells have one fatal flaw, there all for observation! You see time isn't just a strait line of cause to effect. From a nonlinear, nonsubjective view its more a big ball of wibily wobly...timey...wimey...stuff." He scratched the back of his head as he said the gibberish. "Anywise, I've discovered through careful testing that you can influence the past and make changes."

"And how did you manage that?" Twilight said finding herself both skeptical and intrigued.

"I sent back an apple." He said as if that was all the explanation he needed to prove his point.

"You sent back an apple?"

"Yup, rather then sending back the orange I had received I sent back the apple."

"Wait you actually changed the past!?! Which means we could change history, we could teach these ponies about friendship."

"Yes and prevent one of the oldest and most treasured holidays in Equestrian history from happening. Why don't you prevent Sombra from seizing power and convince Tirak that ponies are good. And while we're at it while don't you go find Princess Calestia's and Luna's father and seduce him. And we can..."

"I get your point." A thought occurred to Twilight, Tirak's story wasn't something that just anypony was aloud to know. "How do you know about Tirak?"

"One of the times I met with Celestia she told me about all the enemies she had delt with." He said with a smile somewhere between reminiscing and longing.

"When did you meet Princess Celestia?" Twilight was beginning to see just how little she knew about this stallion who she had seen many times in the streets of Ponyville.

"I think the first time was when I discovered an easier way to make steel, or it might have been after I reinvented the light bulb. There was a lot of champagne that night, it's all a haze now. But now I see her at least once a year for drinks."

Twilight looked dumbfounded, "What!? Princess Celestia does not drink!"

Whooves gave a smug look, "She usually doesn't. But I can usually get her to let go for an evening of cider and wine."

Twilight couldn't believe the tan stallion in front of her, "I've never heard about any of this and I see her all the time."

"Let me ask you a question." Whooves said placing his hooves together and trying to give a kind smile that which, to Twilight, looked like a more devious one, "In all the time you've known Celestia how often does she actually say something?"

"She says a lot of things."

"No she talks a a lot, but she hardly ever says anything, especially about herself. Just think about it, she had a sister that literally no pony knew about, she hid a Draconiquus in the royal Canterlot gardens, and she kept the existence of one of the greatest empires of its and our time hidden for a thousand years. Who knows what other secrets she keeps. Besides me of course."

Twilight got his point, she had to admit that a lot of things that happen where kept secret until it was absolutely necessary to tell other ponies. But that doesn't mean that the Doc was her drinking buddy and she told him as much.

He smiled, "Don't worry, just because I know her as an equal doesn't mean she trust you less than me. We just have a different relationship. Yours is more of a paternal relationship and mine is more like we're equals."

"I'm going to bed." She said her view of the stallion thoroughly destroyed.

"Good idea, though you may have a little trouble sleeping. I recommend you drink a little of the poisoned tea. Should nock you right out." He said smiling and pouring himself a cup.

"What!" She said using her magic to stop him from drinking.

"Don't worry princess I had the sprouts for dinner and I mixed in some cinnamon with the tea. And your alicorn body is very resistant to this poison." He said as he downed some of it.

Twilight didn't know what the poison was, but Hooves seemed to and he was fine. She walked over to the pot and poorer herself a little bit. She raised the cup in the air and looked at it.

"Don't worry, it's just Jenip. I've seen princess Celestia eat it raw. And we both had the sprouts, it's a mere sleeping agent now. Just drink it, we need to be rested if we're going to head for the Crystal Empire tomorrow." He said as she began to drink.

Then a thought occurred to her, "Why are...we going to...the empire?" She asked her voice already getting heavy.

"Well we need to get back to the present. I can't do that without a tuning crystal for the time machine I'm going to build." He said as he guided her to her bed. He left her there and made it all the way to his room before falling on the floor. "Guess I underestimated the potency." He said as he fell unconscious.