“What challenge is accepted?” asked a new female voice that Star Breeze was familiar with, though this was the first time she heard it personally. She whipped her father's head over to gaze to the adjacent room in time to see a new occupant enter this room. This newcomer was a gray pegasus with unkempt, currently bed-head, yellow mane style. Another distinguishing characteristic of her was her wall-eyed look. At that particular moment, she also looked somewhat unsteady. She had to lean against the door frame for a brief moment as if she needed to in order to regather her strength, then she pressed on into the control room of the TARDIS.
“Derpy!” Star Breeze cried out cheerfully at the sight of the gray pegasus mare. She then happily pranced over to the newcomer then stopped before her while happily regarding Derpy. “I'm so glad to see you, and that you are up and feeling better.”
“She's up against my better judgment,” said the next filly who entered the room after Derpy. This one was a mostly white-coated and maned filly who wore entirely black round-rimmed glasses. “I told her that she should remain in bed and get some rest, but as soon as I also told her that we landed in Ponyville, she bolted out of bed. Oh, and,” Vision nodded to Star Breeze, “I also told her who you really are.”
Derpy regarded Star Breeze with a strongly sympathetic look, then unexpectedly gathered Star Breeze's father's head and pulled her close, close enough to hug the disguised filly to Derpy's chest. Derpy also wrapped her right wing around Star Breeze gently.
“You poor, poor thing!” Derpy said in a consoling tone. “You must be so frightened to be here and stuck in somepony else's body, but don't you worry. I won't judge you, nor let anypony harm you.” Derpy pulled Star Breeze's father's head away enough to look at Star Breeze with her wall-eyes as she asked in concern, “Are you hurt? Is Feather Wind hurt? Is he conscious somewhere inside you?”
“Um . . . no,” Star Breeze answered. It wasn't entirely a lie either. The entity who spoke to her while seemingly standing next to her, invisible to anypony else, was actually being telepathically projected from within the Red Crystal. Her real father, who belonged in this timeline, according to Crystal Wind, was asleep within this body.
Derpy tilted her head to the side and shifted it back just a bit. “You don't sense him within you at all?”
“At all?” Star Breeze repeated, then thought about it, then said, “Perhaps a little. Enough to know he's alright. He's just unconscious, is all.”
“You okay there, Miss Hooves?” Time Turner asked while regarding the gray pegasus with concern.
“Well enough to stand . . . Doctor?” Derpy looked in confusion between the Doctor and Time Turner, then she realized something. “Oh, it's actually Time Turner, right? We are in Ponyville, after all.”
“Um, right. I am Time Turner,” Time Turner confirmed as he gestured to himself, then gestured to the Doctor, “and this is my Time Lord counterpart, of whom I'm sure you are much more familiar with. I must say, Miss Hooves, you seemed in much better shape the last time I saw you.”
“Miss Hooves has suffered quite an ordeal recently, and therefore she should be in bed,” the Doctor explained to his counterpart while regarding Derpy, he himself still standing near the TARDIS's controls in the center of the room but leaning on a rail, facing outward towards the crowd around him. “Knowing her as well as I do, however, I'm not at all surprised at her reaction after learning where we landed.” His next statement he said directly to Derpy. “My handsome counterpart has duly accepted the challenge of identifying more information about those Flameless Fireworks that we've kept in storage for quite some time. More specifically, he was hoping to identify how to get them to ignite. Being the ingenious scientist that he is, I figured I'd let him give us a hand with it by offering him the recipe.” The Doctor grinned in amusement has he looked off to his left side at nothing. “You know, it's funny. After all this time we spent with it, and considering the fact that we have a time machine on our hands, it's quite ironic to realize that we've just been too busy to give that thing any attention.”
“I still wish you'd throw that thing out,” Stern Wing grunted in annoyance. “If it really is a potential danger to those aboard this ship, I'd prefer not to deal with the security risk.”
“Scientific discovery shall not be denied or contained!” Time Turner said to Stern Wing enthusiastically. “I'll crack this mystery someday so that you won't have to keep it aboard this ship anymore. I promise. That said,” he looked at the Doctor, “I do not have a time machine as well, or at least not yet. Give me some time to work on the problem and I'll have it all figured out for you all eventually.” Time Turner rubbed the bottom of his jaw as he asked the Doctor, “I don't suppose you could skip ahead in time real quick, find out what my future self has to report about that thing then return back to me in this time to report to me what my future self said?”
“If I did that, what need have you to investigate it?” The Doctor countered to his apparent duplicate. “That's precisely why I haven't done that. The thrill of discovery is a journey we make on our own.” The Doctor waved Time Turner off a bit with a hoof which still rested on the center rail around the controls. “I have run into both my future and past selves before, but usually not on purpose and it tends to occur whenever there is a dire need.”
“That must be strange!” Time Turner exclaimed. “You get along with your time duplicates well, I take it?”
The Doctor shrugged as he said, “Usually, but sometimes we still get into arguments. With time comes change, and with change comes the potential of variable opinions. I still usually have much more in common with either version of myself but if doctors can make the worst patients, then the 'Doctor' doesn't always make the best companion for me, ironically enough. Sometimes it can be a problem when you encounter someone with too much in common, or not enough.”
“We get along, don't we?” Time Turner checked as he gestured between himself and the Doctor.
“Oh, but of course!” the Doctor assured. “You're not nearly as arrogant as some of my other selves are.”
“Coming from you, I'm not sure how I should take that,” Time Turner said in a confused tone.
“With a grain of salt lick, I recommend,” the Doctor advised. “That's still something you equines like to do, right?”
Everypony else seemed confused by the Doctor's question.
“Well . . . anyway,” Derpy brought up after four seconds of awkward silence in the room, “I'm off to explore my hometown. Anypony else care to join me?” She regarded the Doctor. “Will you, Doc?”
“Um,” the Doctor glanced around to assess the others in the room, then looked back at Derpy, “I just might be the only one in the room to say no to that question, at least for the moment. I need to stay here and assess and fix a few things. For one, my sonic screwdriver.”
“What happened to it?” Derpy asked in concern.
“Yeah, I noticed you didn't use it in our last adventure with the Daleks,” Star Breeze observed. “You just said that it needs fixing, and Derpy seems to be unaware of that, so I take it that it broke during your last adventure before I possessed this body?”
The Doctor sighed in annoyance as he gazed forward blankly at nothing. “Apparently my mortal enemies set a booby trap for that, as if anticipating that I'd use the thing on our last adventure. Fortunately for me, I kind of had a backup with Vision's glasses, but I had to seek another way around the door that broke my original device. As usual, the Daleks underestimated my ingenuity.”
“Whatever condition afflicted Miss Hooves, was it contagious?” Time Turner checked as he regarded Derpy with concern for multiple reasons.
“Perhaps, but we had her well contained during the affliction,” Vision assured, “and she's clean of the infection now. I'm quite certain of that. All that is left is to clean up the lingering damage, and bed rest is just what the doctor ordered on that front!” Vision said with an accusing tone at Derpy. In response, Derpy blew a raspberry at Vision.
“This is my hometown, and I don't see it very often anymore,” Derpy declared in her own defense. “With all the dangers we encounter, I have learned to cherish these visits all the more, for I cannot be certain if this will be my last time.”
Derpy turned and started trotting towards the exit of the TARDIS. “I'm going,” Derpy assured. “If anypony is willing to come along with me, you are welcome.”
“That's pretty much why I'm here,” Star Breeze declared as she moved to follow Derpy. “Mind giving me a tour? This is my first and potentially last visit to Ponyville.”
“It would be my pleasure!” Derpy said over her right shoulder at Star Breeze so brightly that her eyes were closed, she wore a big goofy grin, and she made a squee sound.
“I'll accompany her as well, and keep an eye on her,” Time Turner assured his handsome counterpart. “I do hope you'll join us before the end of the day, though. It is the Ponyville Day celebration, after all. It would be quite apropos for you to join us in such a festivity.”
“In a moment. I have a few things I need to look over before I'm ready to join you all, and I will be ready before the end of the day. Trust me,” the Doctor assured the others. “You all go on ahead. I'll join you shortly, as soon as I'm done here.”
“Ooo! Seriously? We arrived in time for Ponyville Day celebration?” Derpy asked in delight. “In that case, who is hosting this year?”
“As I explained to your other friends earlier, I believe it's Miss Rarity that will be hosting this year. From what I have seen and heard, she has some very classy ideas for the ceremony.”
“Huh,” Derpy said as she exited the TARDIS. “That does sound like something she'd do.”
“That actually conflicts with some likely baseless rumors I've heard about her recently, however,” Time Turner went on. “According to those rumors, she tried to dress up as a farm pony for awhile for some odd reason.”
“Um . . . you're right. Those rumors probably are baseless,” Derpy agreed, but Star Breeze couldn't see the gray mare anymore because she lingered behind as a result of something the Doctor said earlier.
After the others were out of earshot, Star Breeze then asked back at the Doctor, “You are going on another mission with Card Shark, aren't you?”
The Doctor passed Star Breeze a cunning, knowing smile. Instead of verbally answering, he just gave her a dismissive wave.
Star Breeze matched his cunning smile right back at him before turning away and leaving.
* * *
Ticking, clicking and creaking surrounded Star Breeze when she exited the TARDIS. It wasn't just the sounds that captured her attention or imagination either. There was motion all around her as well. Some, even, from things she could not identify. Among the things she could identify were giant cog wheels. Notably, most of the construction all around her was made of wood. The smell that surrounded her was also that of wood mixed with maybe grease?
The walls and ceiling above, as well as multiple bars hanging lower from the ceiling, looked rather deadly to touch. It looked too easy to get a hoof caught in between the spinning cogs of the wheels, although most were too high to realistically reach unless one happened to be a pegasus and flew up or into where they clearly do not belong.
It felt surreal to Star Breeze to step from an actual time and space machine which was a tiny blue box that was significantly bigger on the inside, to all of this. As her gaze continued to sweep across all of this, her gaze paused for awhile as she beheld what appeared to be a bed strapped to a wall. It was tucked neatly away. Star Breeze even saw the covers tucked around the edges of the bed. That was either Time Turner's actual bed or a guest bed. Either way, it was easy to imagine that whomever slept here in this dizzying array of sounds and motion probably also dreamt of running clocks all the time.
Time Lord, indeed, Star Breeze thought to herself whimsically. He may be a real pony physically, but his spirit and mind might be something else beyond this world.
Star Breeze's attention continued to be swept across this room. In her eyes, this was clutter, but there was a lot of open space between the clutter. There were piles of this and that spread out throughout the one giant room she could see, but that clutter was tucked neatly into various corners. She also spotted a chalkboard with a dizzying array of numbers on it. That was when it occurred to her that this scenery could make a very curious case study on the Doctor, or at least a sort of reflection of him. Was this some hint on how the Doctor saw the world in his head? Science, ticking, motion, advanced math, and organized chaos?
What a curious mind he must have.
But, upon further reflection, it occurred to Star Breeze that this behavior was actually not too unusual to ponykind in general. Whatever a pony's natural talents were, they usually threw themselves into it with a staggering degree to those viewing such things from the outside. This was why her race was such a marvel. Members of her race could take a concept that might have a very simple base premise and blow it up to unbelievable proportions. This was what the Doctor's life could have turned out if he were born a pure earth pony from the start. It was a mind that solved puzzles and was endlessly fascinated with the thrill of discovery. A mind whose imagination was boundless. Even without a TARDIS, Time Turner likely was trying to explore all of time and space in his own way. That which was written on the chalkboard was very likely proof of that.
“Are you coming?” Time Turner prompted, calling back through a door along the north wall. Star Breeze looked, and was startled to realize that she was the last one in the room besides Time Turner himself. Everypony else had already left. Derpy was probably the first to leave the room. She seemed driven for some reason.
“If the others had not left so soon, I would have been glad to give you a tour,” Time Turner expressed as he looked among his many inventions proudly. It always delighted him to enlighten curious minds. Doing so helped to prove to him that he was not alone in his pursuits. “Alas,” he gazed back at her while still beaming a bit, “the others have left so, curiously enough, we are running out of time here.” He tilted his head at the exit behind him while still gazing back at Star Breeze. “Shall we?”
“Um, yes. Yes, of course,” Star Breeze said a little numbly. She trotted over to him fairly quickly. She always made sure never to overstay her welcome. Whenever somepony told her to leave their place, she considered herself polite enough to leave.
Well, at least he's flattered at my interest.
While trotting out to Time Turner, she looked back for a second at Crystal Wind who, notably, didn't follow. When their eyes met, he gave her a dismissive gesture with a hoof, waving for her to proceed on.
Star Breeze looked back at the exit and proceeded out in the direction Time Turner was indicating. She wasn't worried about her father falling behind. Since he was actually just a mentally projected thought, he could “teleport” around and show up anywhere without warning, but he usually gave plenty of warning since it was rarely his intention to startle her.
Past the door, there was a flight of stairs leading down. She proceeded downward. Her hooves pounded loudly on the wooden stairs. Even if she paused, she could hear more ahead of her because of the others. Without that, there was still the loud ticking all around her. Sometimes, as she continued to descend, she could see more of the gears whirling in the clock tower. They were out of reach and there were wooden beams preventing one from falling off the stairs or getting too close to the other gears. Star Breeze did not feel frightened to behold those gears. Instead, she felt fascinated.
Along her way down, it occurred to her that there probably was a way beyond those wooden beams if it became necessary to maneuver past them in order to repair them. The details as to how was probably left in the minds of other professionals, but it probably had something to do with stopping the clock first before trying. After the repair, the clock could always be fast-forwarded to match the correct time again.
Oh goodness! Star Breeze paused down the stairs as she realized something. Is this one of those clock towers that rings a certain number of bells every hour? If so, how would one sleep through that when they're this close to the source? That sound is most likely meant to be loud enough to be heard across Ponyville. If it were me, I'd be driven nuts in here.
It was a square spiraling staircase that lead down. Every time she reached a corner of the clock tower, she was forced to make another ninety-degree turn. She had to scale down about four stories of this before she finally reached the base. At the base was another room, this one much less cluttered than the one above. There were a few pieces of modest furniture here such as a comfy looking chair, a bookshelf with books along the wall, and two doors. One lead outside the clock tower. The other one she wasn't sure. Kitchen, maybe?
Upon exiting the clock tower, Star Breeze held a hoof above her eyes to shield them from the bright sunny day beyond. Her father's eyes were not adjusted to that yet, so she had to pause a moment while she did that. When her father's eyes started to clear, the details of her surroundings finally sank into her.
The tweet of birds was actually the first thing she acknowledged besides the fact that Time Turner exited the building behind her. Beyond that, the buildings started to take shape and then the closer details like the many colorful ponies trotting about the open streets.
Whoa! This is the future! Star Breeze privately marveled in awe. Amazing! I'm actually standing here, breathing in this air!
Star Breeze continued to look around. The more she did, the more she realized how mundane and quite ordinary her surroundings seemed. Star Breeze had traveled to many places across Equestria before. Honestly, this town did not look all that different from a dozen others she'd seen in the past. Even the architecture seemed familiar, but not exact. Every town was always unique, but certain core elements about it were usually the same, and this was no different. Even as she marveled at the fact that she stood here in the future, the day was pretty ordinary for the other ponies trotting about and going about their daily business.
“Howdy,” spoke a friendly creamy orange pony with brown mane and tail who had a cutie mark of blue crisscrossed horseshoes.
“Ah . . . howdy,” Star Breeze greeted back, then inwardly winced again. It was still so hard hearing and feeling her own father's voice coming out of her mouth, not to mention having to look up at the other stallion from her own diminished height.
“You have a happy Ponyville Day celebration!” the same stallion bid kindly as he continued to trot on.
“You too,” Star Breeze reflected with a bit of a grin. Attitude like that, she knew from experience, was particular to small towns like this. She knew for fair certainty that she was a stranger to this town. Her father had been here a few times before but unlikely enough times for everypony to be familiar with him or her. Instead of that, it was more likely that he greeted everypony like this.
Probing her environment further, Star Breeze noted another finer detail that eluded her earlier. Everypony she saw seemed at least a little happy. Like this other mare that crossed her path, going the opposite way that the other stallion did. This pony, who was light creme and sported a blue and pink mane, simply nodded at Star Breeze instead of speaking to her, but the mare was obviously in a fairly good mood. More than would be typical for an average town citizen.
This phenomenon wasn't exactly unique. Happy towns certainly existed elsewhere too, but the degree and intensity of happiness she observed here did seem a touch unusual, which honestly was very pleasant to observe.
Setting aside everything else she knew, such as what was going to happen to this town later on, at that particular moment, it all boiled down to one fundamental concept; this seemed like a nice place to live. What more could one ask for from a home town?
“Equestria to Star Breeze! Come in, Star Breeze!” Time Turner prompted behind her. She looked back and found him gesturing to his side. Following that gesture, she realized she fell behind her friends again. For a group that said they would escort her through town, Time Turner seemed to be the only one that really held up for her.
Feeling embarrassed, Star Breeze raced ahead to catch up to the rest. Time Turner did too, even going past Star Breeze to talk to Stern Wing further in the lead.
“You know, it's funny,” Vision brought up as she continued her travel along with Derpy, Star Breeze, Time Turner, and Stern Wing. “With the five of us traveling together like this, it seems like nothing has changed from an outsider's perspective. Little would anypony suspect that we are traveling with the Doctor's true pony counterpart, that somepony else has temporarily possessed Feather Wind, or that I'm secretly a changeling who replaced your amazingly awesome and beautiful companion Vision during your brief stay on the space station Zegga V.”
“If that's true, then apparently changelings can be psychic as well. Good to know,” said Stern Wing to “Vision”.
“Nah, we're just really good liars,” Vision jested. “Except when we're honest, which we like to do from time to time, like now, just to confuse those we infiltrated even more.
“But yeah, in all honesty, it's weird how we all look the same from our last visit but a whole lot has changed beneath the surface. Nopony else is likely to suspect a thing.”
Vision's next comment came directly at Star Breeze, and it happened in a very unusual way. There was a low, wavy, sonic pitch that Star Breeze almost couldn't hear while Vision spoke. Also she sounded like she was projecting her voice down a metallic tube. “<By the way, I know you only spoke a half truth to Derpy earlier,>” Vision said to Star Breeze with confidence.
“Huh?” That sounded really weird, so Star Breeze looked over her father's left shoulder at Vision who trotted behind them, dead last in the group. “How are you . . .?” Star Breeze began, but got her explanation as Vision pointed at her sonic screwdriver which was disguised as black glasses. Glasses which, Star Breeze knew, communicated to Vision's brain and gave her a sonic echo-location of everything around her. This was why Vision was able to follow them so confidently despite truly being blind.
“<Deceive others if you wish, but just know that I know the truth,>” Vision went on. “<Feather Wind is indeed unconscious within that body. I can verify that by feeling his unconscious presence within you, but I also sensed your feelings when you spoke a half-truth to Derpy. The full truth is you've been communicating with another aspect of him. An aspect infused within that gem you're wearing around your neck, and he is telepathically projecting himself nearby us. He's right here, in fact.>” For once, Vision pointed directly at Crystal Wind. She did not point in his general vicinity like she usually does, but instead pointed at his exact position even without “looking” at him herself.
“You can see me?” Crystal Wind asked Vision in surprise. His apparent image trotted nearby them, only five feet to Star Breeze's left side.
“No, I can sense you,” Vision mentally projected at Crystal Wind. Oddly, Star Breeze heard that telepathic message as well.
Crystal Wind rolled his eyes. “Of course you can. I don't know why I even bother to wonder about you.” Looking at Star Breeze, he then explained to her, “You heard her telepathic message because I deflected it at you even while I was receiving it,” Crystal Wind explained to his hidden daughter. “In truth, it is actually me sending the message at you.”
“Which thereby gives us yet another secret way to communicate to you two. Interesting,” mentally said Vision. “Well, in that case, I guess I don't have to use these glasses after all. How very resourceful of you, Feather Wind, as usual.
Anyway, that's all I really wanted to say to you both. I'm just letting you both know that I'm aware of your secret, and that I shall not spread this information without your permission.”
“Oh wow! You're amazing, Vision!” Star Breeze complimented the blind seer excitedly. “You were also the first one to identify that I was different from my father. I guess that eye symbol with a triangle around it on your flank is not just for decoration.”
“We all have our talents and quirks,” Vision returned. “Mine just happens to be the ability to see beyond the veil of reality.”
“I wish I could do that! You changelings really are impressive impersonators.”
Vision grinned at Star Breeze from behind as she mentally projected, “You say that now, but wait till you discover your cutie mark. You won't be so jealous of me then.”
“Have you met my future self?” Star Breeze asked Vision without looking back at the white blind filly.
“In a manner of speaking,” Vision answered enigmatically.
“That's a seer for ya,” Crystal Wind said with a chuckle. “What she can't see in the physical plane physically, she can sense the beyond psychically.”
“I have my gifts, and you all have yours. Every creature is unique. That's actually what we have in common,” Vision informed.
“We are all one, despite evidence to the contrary,” Crystal Wind assured. “I felt that and experienced it first hoof.”
“Well, right now, you and I are a little more 'one' then I care for,” Star Breeze telepathically said sadly as she looked at her own reflection in a window beside her as they walked past an adjacent building. Gazing upon her reflection, she tilted her head from side to side a bit to gaze at “her”self from different angles. It was so disturbing to watch the face of her father cooperate with her mental commands perfectly, and to see the face of her father instead of her own.
“How does that make you feel?” Crystal Wind pressed, seeing an opportunity to teach an important lesson right now.
“Empty. Hollow. Fake,” Star Breeze thought in a lamenting mental tone. “I love the face that gazes back at me in this reflection, but it isn't supposed to be my soul gazing back at me through those eyes. I'm . . . me but not me right now at the same time. This feels bitter.”
“Why do you think you feel that way?” Crystal Wind checked.
“I know what you're getting at,” Star Breeze thought at her father while also looking at his phantom image. “You're trying to teach me the importance of being myself. I remember you said something just like that when you spoke about the planet that reversed the genders of everypony who set hoof on it. Back then, you said to me that you'd take me there if you could, if only to teach me the importance of being myself.”
“If you ever doubt that in the future, recall this moment,” Crystal Wind advised. “Recall the time when you were not quite yourself, as well as how and why you felt that way.”
“A planet that reverses the gender of whomever steps hoof on it? That will be interesting,” Vision remarked. “Thanks for the spoiler, guys! Any other surprises you wish to ruin for me today?”
Star Breeze squinted her eyes at her father as she mentally projected, “You know, you don't have to deflect everything I am thinking at you to her as well, or is she picking all of this up on her own? You told me she is empathic, not telepathic.”
Crystal Wind chuckled a bit, then said, “As far as I'm concerned, tipping her off about anything in the future is a moot point. If I don't say it, she'll probably find out some other way anyway.”
“Whoa!” exclaimed somepony very young nearby. Star Breeze and, secretly, Crystal Wind looked to see a young dark brown colt with lighter brown eyes, very light brown mane (almost to the point of being orange) mixed with very light brown, almost to the point of being white. He wore a cap that had intermittent downward stripes of brownish-orange (same color as his mane) and white. There was a spinning propeller on top of his cap. This young colt regarded Star Breeze with wide, stunned eyes, or rather he seemed to. He was actually looking at something Star Breeze's father's body was wearing.
The young colt stood beside another mare with creamy yellow hide, light blue eyes, as well as brown mane and tail. While still regarding Star Breeze in shock, the young colt then pointed at the disguised filly as he said, “Look, Ma! Look at! That cloak is leaking down mist all the time. Is it on fire, Ma?”
At first the mother of this colt rolled her eyes with a sigh, but when she regarded Star Breeze's father's Mist Cloak, she cocked her head as she gave it a curious look too. For a moment she even looked a little concerned that it may indeed be on fire, but apparently there were enough hints to help her ascertain the truth. Then she said, “No, Button. It's just magical . . . I think.”
“Indeed it is,” Star Breeze expressed, wanting to settle this argument and possible excuse for a panic.
In the lead, Stern Wing gazed back at this scene in amusement.
“Whoa! Cool!” the colt whose apparent name was “Button” exclaimed in delight, then looked at his mother excitedly as he begged, “Can you get me one too, Ma? Huh? Can you? Can you?”
The mother squinted mischievously at Button as she said, “I thought you said you wanted ice cream instead.”
“Yeah!” Button confirmed. “I want that too!”
The mother rolled her eyes as she said, “Greedy little boy, aren't you? Come on. Off with us. It isn't polite to stare.” After she said that, she started taking off.
“But it's got cool flashes of lightning in it and everything!” Button pointed out as he raced after his mother. “It would look so cool while I wear that at school!”
“Feather Wind often gets that reaction about the cloak, even when we visit other alien planets,” Stern Wing informed Star Breeze from the lead. “I keep telling him that maybe he should hide it while we visit a new place as it poses a minor security risk due to the attention it draws, but he keeps insisting that it is his 'wings' and that it is a part of him.”
“I know,” Star Breeze said back. “I have seen many others gawk at him on . . .” she almost mentioned her home airship, but Crystal Wind interrupted that one
“Ah-ah-ah! Careful!” Crystal Wind advised and reminded.
“. . . well . . . back where I came from,” Star Breeze diverted. “We get a lot of visitors by doing the things we do. Many of them haven't seen father's Mist Cloak either, so I grew accustomed to other ponies surprised reactions. Some others get used to it if we regularly associate with them. Also, I know how stubborn father can feel about it. He really does feel like it's apart of him, and for good reason.”
“Oh trust me, I know. That's why I no longer put my hoof down on the issue.” Stern Wing shook her head as she looked ahead of her again. “I swear to Celestia, for a guy who claims he doesn't like to be the center of attention, he sure likes to wear fancy things that tends to gather said attention. That's his own fault.”
“Where are we going, anyway?” Star Breeze asked curiously.
“Following Derpy, apparently,” Stern Wing answered ahead of Star Breeze. Of all of them, Derpy was in the furthest lead, and she seemed driven somewhere with utter focus. If Star Breeze didn't know better, she would have said the wall-eyed mare was hypnotized.
“I think I know where, too, but I won't spoil the surprise,” Time Turner said with amusement, but then he looked at Stern Wing in concern. “I've actually seen this expression on her before, but I want to check and make sure that she wasn't also like this while under the infection she suffered recently.”
“That isn't a pleasant memory for me to discuss with you,” Stern Wing warned Time Turner. “That said, I can assure you that she didn't act like this at all while infected. She was getting much more distracted and aggressive in a way that's very unlike her. I'm glad we got that over with. Now this Derpy looks really driven and excited.
“Come to think of it, I think I know where she's going, too.” Realizing where they might be going, Stern Wing regarded Time Turner for a moment. “You got bits?”
“Some, yes,” Time Turner confirmed, “and don't you worry. If need be, I'll treat you all.”
Stern Wing looked over her left shoulder again at her disguised future daughter. At that moment Stern Wing observed Star Breeze regarding the sky with a look of longing that she hadn't seen in her boyfriend's eyes in over a decade. At that point she asked, “You okay back there, Honey?”
“Yeah. It's just . . . the shadow of a pegasus passed over us a few moments ago. I looked up and saw a mint green pegasus fly past us,” Star Breeze said.
“Yeah? So?” Stern Wing probed. She also trotted slower to allow Star Breeze to catch up, then resumed trotting beside the disguised young filly.
“So, it just feels weird and sad to me that I can't just take off and fly along with them,” Star Breeze told her mother.
“Wait, what?!” Stern Wing looked taken aback. “You're a pegasus? But . . . you used that Red Crystal so proficiently earlier. I thought anypony with that much experience with magic would have to be a unicorn, like your father.”
“No.” Star Breeze shook her father's head as she also regarded her mother to her right side. “Just because I learned to attune myself to the Red Crystal doesn't mean I'm a unicorn. Part of me wishes I was, because I do love magic, but my connection to the Red Crystal is a result of training and family connection. If you could learn to attune yourself to this stone, then you could potentially use unicorn magic through this stone.”
“Huh.” Stern Wing stared forward blankly. “I guess that never occurred to me.” She then shifted her look back to her daughter. “That's funny. Here you are, temporarily possessing your own father's body and wishing you could fly off like you are used to. Are you aware how ironic that is while possessing the world's first flying unicorn?”
“This,” Star Breeze gestured to her father's flank, “is my father's cutie mark talent, not mine. If I stayed in his body for years then maybe I could eventually learn to tap into its magical potential, but I'd still have serious doubts. Just because he can fly using this body, doesn't mean I can. I'm used to flying with wings, Mom, same as you. If I had to learn to fly through him, it would take me at least as long as it did for him, if not more.”
Right after Star Breeze said that, she gave a curious look at a familiar looking mare. It was a pale creme earth pony with pink and blue mane and tail. The odd thing was, she was traveling north to south, but the last time Star Breeze saw her, this mare was traveling straight west. Had she already circled around north then headed south?
“And that took him years to learn,” Stern Wing assured. “I know. I was there, helping him to learn it from scratch along with my cousin Sky Dancer.”
The mere mention of “Sky Dancer” brought Star Breeze a flash memory of the book Discord summoned many years ago. Also it brought up her own memories of the flying stallion himself. Star Breeze personally met Sky Dancer far more than once. He was fun and inspirational. Like her father, Sky Dancer also helped inspire Star Breeze to appreciate her gifts for flying. The main difference between herself compared to either her father or Sky Dancer was the fact that Star Breeze's heart was set much higher than the sky, like the very stars themselves.
“Oh, you know him?” Stern Wing guessed, which was based on the familiar look she saw crossing her boyfriend's face, then she blinked as she looked forward. “Wait a second! What am I talking about? Of course you met him! I'd settle for nothing less. Unless I never get back to my home time period or he dies before you were born, I'd make sure you meet my cousin Sky Dancer, even if I have to lock you two in a room together.”
“Trust me, you won't have to fight nearly that hard to get us to talk to each other,” Star Breeze assured her mother. “Not that I personally recall, but both you and him claimed that he met me while I was still a baby, multiple times. To my perspective, I remember him better once I started to learn to speak. Around that time he visited us occasionally, and I always looked up to him like a fun uncle kind of guy. Also, he may look and act like a cool surfer dude, but he's also incredibly wise.”
“Does that imply that cool surfer dudes are normally foolish?” Vision teased.
In response, Star Breeze giggled a little in a very young girlish way which sounded so weird from her father's own throat. She otherwise made no follow-up to that comment.
“You know, if you really wanted to see what Ponyville looks like from above, I can simply pick you up and carry you,” Stern Wing offered. “I'm really strong, and my boyfriend is one of the lightest weight ponies I know. That's kind of the point of his existence. He is named 'Feather Wind', after all, implying being light as a feather enough to be blown in the wind.”
“Hmm.” Star Breeze looked skyward, feeling tempted to accept her mother's offer. She was interrupted from that train of thought by a question asked ahead of her.
“So, my young filly friend, what do you think of Ponyville?” asked Time Turner in the lead, but he soon trotted slower too so Star Breeze and Stern Wing kind of caught up to him.
“What do I think of Ponyville?” Star Breeze reflected. “Well, um,” she paused for awhile as she looked around.
Star Breeze carefully assessed her surroundings again. She observed the simple architecture she usually observed in many other small towns, but there was something “fun” and “uplifting” about this place. Something about it that put a smile on her face. For example, up ahead, she was able to see a building with a smaller building built on top of it, and the second smaller building (more like the size of a single room) was shaped like a cupcake. It was stuff like that that gave the town its own personal charm.
“I like it!” Star Breeze said after a long pause, and by then Time Turner was trotting to Star Breeze's left. Because of that, Crystal Wind diverted himself further left and a bit behind. “This town is happy and cheerful! I feel like it can break out into a spontaneous song at any moment.”
That comment made Time Turner chuckle, for he recalled moments when the town did exactly that. Sometimes he was directly a part of such musical ensembles.
“I look around me and I notice an unusually high percentage of smiles,” Star Breeze went on, “and it looks to me like most ponies are just moving on to their daily business. Nothing special, nor expecting something special. It's as if they are like this all the time.”
“Well, there is the Ponyville Day celebration coming up tonight,” Time Turner reminded. “That's probably a factor that's lifting up the average mood of the town right now. By Celestia, I'm quite looking forward to the festivities myself.”
“Well, yeah. I guess there's that,” Star Breeze conceded. “But it feels like something more than that. Something hidden underneath. Something elusive that makes this place feel special.”
“I concur,” Vision agreed. “I'm quite empathic, and the town itself has a general mood of its own. Almost like it has its own spirit.”
“While growing up with my father and mother's stories about this place which they, in turn, learned from Derpy, as well as their own personal experiences in this town, I've come to think of this place as a nexus of Destiny,” Star Breeze informed. “That said,” she looked around again, “the one thing that feels weird to me about this is the fact that I'm gazing into a reflection of this world from the future of my time. This is a small piece of what the world will look like so many tomorrows ahead of my time. I think of that and I look around me at how ordinary this town physically looks. I've traveled in many similar to it in the past, but nothing exactly like it. Overall it seems very familiar to me on the surface. Single story buildings, a tiny pegasus selling newspaper, a giant white pegasus selling cinnamon nuts and hawking his wares very loudly.” Star Breeze then regarded somepony strangely as she said, “A really familiar looking creme mare with pink and blue mane and tail which I swear we passed her by two times already.”
“Huh?” Time Turner looked around, then spotted the one Star Breeze was likely referring to. “Oh. That's Bon Bon. Yeah, we see her around here a lot, often in the company of one of her very dear friends.”
Star Breeze looked back the way they came, then asked, “Does she have a twin sister or triplets? Because I swear we passed her twice before.”
“Not that I'm aware of, no,” Time Turner answered.
Huh. Maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me. Either that, or this unusual twist on reality is part of Discord's hoofiwork for me. He did say that his powers often have some extra chaotic twist to it somewhere and that maybe even he cannot help it. If it is him, maybe he's also making it so that every other pony here regards that as perfectly normal. Everypony else here seems to accept the fact that there are 'Bon Bon' clones everywhere.
Come to think of it, I think I saw a few other duplicates of other ponies around here as well. If so, that is the most unusual twist I've discovered so far.
“Um, anyway,” Star Breeze shook her head in order to clear it. “Yes. On the surface, this town seems quite ordinary, like many I have seen before. I should know. I travel a lot for my young years. Despite that, although this town looks quite ordinary on the surface, it has a magical sort of feeling to it hidden underneath.
“I once visited a quiet hamlet in the middle of a stinky swamp. I quite callously once asked one of the local residents there, 'How can you stand living in this place along with that constant awful smell?' The one I asked looked at me oddly, and asked in return, 'What smell are you talking about? The air is clean and fresh.'
“After he said that, my father pulled me aside and explained how our noses could grow accustomed to a sensation we experience too much. It grows desensitized to it. In thinking of that, I wonder if the residents of this village are anything like that. That they have grown so accustomed to such a happy atmosphere that they hardly notice it anymore unless they break into spontaneous song and dance.”
“Huh. You know, you might have a point there,” Time Turner acknowledged. “I'm not sure about your era, but in mine most ponies don't travel around too much, so they grow to heavily identify with the place they live. I think I read something about this from a famous pony psychologist by the name of Mind Job who once called this kind of phenomenon 'Group Psychology', which is a kind of mob mentality but it could gravitate towards any potential emotion. If you ever go to a busy sports game, you can see this group psychology in heavy action at such places. It doesn't even matter if you root for a single team or not. It's so easy to be swept up by the mood of the atmosphere.”
“Oh, I know!” Star Breeze heavily agreed. “I've been to all kinds of sports games hosted by the Wonderbolts, particularly some races. My scream of joy seemed to get swept up in the cacophony around me at those times. It was so fun.”
“Yet another note to self for me,” Stern Wing slightly complained. “Now I know I'll have to take you to several Wonderbolts games.”
“Welcome to my world, then, where you are in very good company,” Vision teased. “That said, admit it. You would have taken your foal to a Wonderbolts game anyway. That's just the kind of pony you are.”
“Okay.” Star Breeze raised her father's head high. “I am growing more and more certain that we are heading directly for that building with the cupcake on top of it.”
Stern Wing laughed for a moment, then said, “You obviously haven't met Derpy before, then.”
Derpy burst in through the door pretty forcefully. Fortunately no other pony was in the way of the door, or they could have gotten smacked pretty hard. As it stood, the bell above the door rang pretty hard.
When Star Breeze stepped through the door, the first thing she noticed was the scent of pastries fill her nostrils. Looking about, she noticed that the decor of this store had a pretty homey atmosphere, and there were some pastries being displayed in a display case. Surprisingly the only other ponies she saw in the room, besides her friends, were two very young and very unattended yearling babies. They were playing with letter blocks. By the looks of it, the pegasus one was more content to smash the block on the floor over and over again while his sister watched and clapped her forehooves while giggling in amusement.
Wait a second! Star Breeze thought to herself in alarm, then looked at Time Turner.
“Where are we? What shop is this?” Star Breeze asked Time Turner.
“Why, this would be Sugarcube Corner, my dear,” Time Turner answered eloquently.
Star Breeze widened her eyes, then passed that same expression to Crystal Wind as she thought to him, Shoot! Didn't you once say that this is where Pinkie Pie lives?
“Yes,” Crystal Wind confirmed simply.
Star Breeze tilted her head at Crystal Wind while Derpy smacked a counter bell in the hopes to summon attention soon. While Derpy waited anxiously, Star Breeze mentally asked her father, “Didn't you say to me that Pinkie Pie and her friends haven't met you until the ancient past as time clones? Doesn't that mean I shouldn't be here right now in your body?”
“Okay, first of all, pretty good memory,” Crystal Wind commended his daughter. “Secondly, I only told you that Twilight said she hasn't met me until the ancient past, and thirdly . . .” he trailed off for a moment when he observed Derpy smacking the counter bell repeatedly in extreme impatience. Watching that dazed him for a moment, but then he shook his head and went on with his point. “Thirdly, Pinkie is not here right now anyway. She's outside, helping others to set up for Ponyville Day party.”
“Are you sure?” Star Breeze double checked cautiously.
Crystal Wind looked from Derpy to his daughter as he said in a reassuring voice, “I'm recording everything you are observing right now, and Feather Wind will review those memories when you leave and he gets his body back, and I have his memories of this moment a long time ago, so I am pretty sure. I suppose nothing is set with the likes of Discord being your tour guide, and your own choices could make a new reality, but . . .” again he trailed off as his eyes shifted ahead of him again but his face remained directed at his daughter. What drew his attention was a new occupant entered the room. This was a bit chubby blue hide mare with two shades of pink for her mane and tell which was set in a swirl pattern, and she wore an apron with pink frills on the strap and golden base.
“How are you, dearies?” the mare asked pleasantly upon arrival. She regarded Derpy directly. “My-my, somepony is awfully hungry today. What can I get for you on this happy Ponyville Day?”
Derpy's response was to lift herself up by propping both of her forward hooves on the glass counter between her and the blue baker. After that, Derpy leaned forward silently and very emphatically with an obviously intense look to her otherwise adorable wall-eyes which frightened the innocent baker a bit. The blue mares eyes grew smaller as her face scrunched up. Her eyes darted behind her for a split second to make sure she had room to back off from Derpy, then proceeded to do so when she noticed the coast was clear behind her. After a four second awkward and kind of creepy silent pause, Derpy whispered in a strong, husky voice, “Muh-FIIIIIIIIINNNNNNSSSS!” Derpy intensely demanded.