“So,” Lyra said. “Now what?”
The two of them were on their way back to the tower, walking side-by-side as the sun crept down behind the treetops. For the first time in a long time, the sky was clear enough to see it.
Starswirl frowned. “Well, finding out whether or not destroying that artifact worked or not, first of all. If that goes well, giving Clover her birthday present… then, following that, discovering just who it was that began this whole mess, and just what their intentions were. They’ve gotten almost a year’s head start on me, now; I shall have my work cut out for me.”
He glanced over at Lyra. “And getting you home, of course.”
“Thanks for the offer,” Lyra said, “But knowing your track record, I’d probably end up a few thousand years late or something. I’ll just wait for Ditzy to do… whatever she’s doing.”
Starswirl snorted. “As if she has any better of a track record than I do.”
Lyra quirked an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“You must not know Ditzy Doo as well as I do,” Starswirl said. “Do you remember how I told you that Ditzy is an anomaly in the timestream? How things lost in time tend to end up with her?”
“Yeah?”
“That also means that temporal trouble is attracted to her like a drunkard to barley wine. Let me tell you how the two of us met…”
─────
This was many years ago. I was still a strapping young stallion, tireless in his pursuit of mystical advancement, but I hadn’t yet begun to make a name for myself.
I had only just recently begun to take an interest in the then-unexplored realm of time magic. I was making great strides—I remember, I had just come up with a weak version of an age potion—when I had a most peculiar thought:
What if one could travel through time?
Needless to say, I threw everything I had into the task, and after many months of careful study and planning, I believed I had done it! A spell that could move its caster through the timestream, to wherever and whenever they wished! If only for a few moments, that is. Naturally, I immediately cast it upon myself, sending myself several thousand years into the future.
I did not know what to expect. Great flying cities, of metal and finery? A war-torn landscape, the result of some great feud? A race of creatures so far removed from the equine species as to be unrecognizable?
Well, as it turns out, it was none of these things, because the first thing I encountered was a tiny filly whose eyes pointed in different directions.
“Hi!” she said to me, seemingly unfazed by my sudden appearance. “I’m Ditzy Doo! What’s your name, Starswirl?”
“Erm… you seem to know already,” I said. “How…?”
“Magic,” Ditzy said. “When are you from?”
I wasn’t entirely sure what to say to the strange filly at that moment, so I instead turned my attention to my surroundings. Well, I was indoors, but the construction was like nothing I’d seen before. Odd items were strewn about the floor, brightly-coloured. I couldn’t ascertain their purpose.
What I didn’t know, then, was that Ditzy Doo had dragged me hundreds of years and thousands of miles off course.
“Mister Starswirl,” Ditzy said, “you don’t have long. Don’t you want to talk?”
The reminder shook me out of my stupor. “Yes,” I said. “I am from thousands of years in the past. I’ve come here seeking knowledge of your time—”
“I get that a lot,” Ditzy said. “Can I see your spell?”
I frowned. “Erm… I suppose so, yes.” I gave it to her, and she began pouring over it. Surely, I thought, a mere child could never understand the complexities of such a thing.
“Aww,” Ditzy said, pouting. “It’s a one-time use.”
“…A what?”
“A one-time use,” Ditzy said. You can only use it once. See? Here, in the chrono-thaumic-loop…”
She proceeded to point out the flaw in my spell. I was flaberghasted. If a mere child could comprehend my own spellwork better than I could, then what other wonders could the future hold?
It was then that I realized what the flaw meant.
“Wait,” I said, “this means I can never come back!”
“Not with that spell,” the filly said. “It’s sad, I wanted a new friend. Oh well… Hey, did you ever consider growing a beard? I think you’d look really neat with one, mister! Oh, time’s up, bye-bye!”
And then she waved me goodbye, just a second before my spell kicked back in and I was dragged back to my own time to curse the waste of such a grand opportunity.
─────
“And that,” Starswirl said, “is how I met Ditzy Doo.”
“Huh,” Lyra said. It was all she could think to say, really.
They were close to the tower, now; Lyra could just see it through the trees.
“That said,” Starswirl said, “there is no mare I’d trust more to get me out of temporal trouble. For instance…”
─────
This was several years ago; I’d met Ditzy a few times since then. I was working on a potion to cure horn rot using a new herb Clover and I had discovered. Very delicate work, potionmaking. One wrong pinch of just the wrong ingredient, and all of your work is rendered worthless.
As such, when a noise like a thunderclap sounded behind me, startling me during one of the most delicate parts of the brewing process and causing me to nearly burn my beard off, I was rather upset.
Then I saw who had caused the noise.
It was Ditzy Doo, a full-grown mare at this point, standing before a swirling vortex of magic and bent space—a time portal, I assumed. Her eyes were glowing white like the fury of the sun, and she was carrying a foal in her hooves. I was speechless.
“Starswirl,” she said, “I need a favor.”
“That depends on what that favor is,” I said, but on seeing the look in her luminescent eyes, I knew I wasn’t going to deny her.
“Something’s going on in my time period. Something big, and mean, and—”
“Ditzy!” a voice cried out from the other side of the portal. “Hurry! The portal won’t stay stable if the Epoch gets any closer!”
Ditzy sighed. “Look, I don’t have time to explain.” She held out her cargo to me; I took the child, wrapped in a towel, and held her close.
“This,” she said, “is Sparkler. She’s my daughter. I need you to keep her safe until this all blows over. I’d call a sitter, but they’re all busy on account of the world ending. Can you do that?”
Words escaped me; I simply nodded.
“Good. Thanks!” She leaned in, kissed her foal on the forehead, then bid me farewell and leapt back through he portal, which closed behind her.
And I was left standing there with the baby.
…But only for a minute. With a second thunderclap, another portal opened up, in the exact same spot as the first one.
And from it strode Ditzy Doo. Her eyes had stopped glowing, but the natural light in them and her smile more than made up for it.
She also looked like she’d just faced the armies of Tartarus.
“Saved the world again!” she announced. “Nobody eats the timestream on my watch!”
Then, she began to giggle, and little Sparkler began giggling too, and I was left wondering just what the joke was.
─────
“And that,” Starswirl said, “Was the last time I met Ditzy Doo. So, in summary, you are in capable hooves.”
“Well, that’s good to know,” Lyra said. They fell into silence for a few moments.
“You know,” she said, “I actually haven’t heard from Bon Bon in a while. I hope everything is al—”
Abruptly, a loud whine filled the air. Lyra looked around for its source, her ears twitching. Calmly, Starswirl signaled to her and pointed.
Above a patch of dirt just a few feet away, sparks were erupting seemingly from the air itself. As Lyra watched, they grew faster, fizzled, and then, with a sound like a cannonshot, burst into a new shape: a globe, shimmering like mercury, twisting and flowing within itself like more of the same.
And then , leaping out of it like a cat in mid-pounce, came a beast. It landed heavily on its four legs, squat and dog-like, and slumped down to the ground. Its head was also canine, thin and elongated, but hairless.
It was also carrying several ponies on its back.
Ditzy Doo leaned over the side of the beast and looked down at them.
“Hey, Lyra!” she said. “Sorry we’re late. Did you miss us?”