The next morning came and went, and by afternoon, five pets along with five mildly confused ponies were gathered in the park.
"Okay, something's weird," Rainbow Dash said. She scratched her head as Tank hovered next to her. "Where's Twilight?"
"Yes, where is Twilight?" Rarity asked. "She and Owloysius are usually the first ones here for our weekly Pony Pet Playdate."
"And where's Spike?" Applejack added. "He and Peewee ain't here either."
"Maybe she's working on something important and couldn't make it," Fluttershy suggested.
"But Twilight never ever misses anything on her schedule!" Pinkie exclaimed. "Even when she went all loco in the coco about being tardy, she still made it to the picnic!"
"Well, maybe she's just runnin' late." Applejack grabbed her hat to keep it from blowing away in a sudden breeze "Let's just wait and see."
The five ponies glanced around as their pets began to frolic, hoping that Twilight would show up soon. They weren't disappointed.
"Woah!" Pinkie suddenly started as her ears flopped, her eyelids fluttered, and her front knees shivered. The gathered ponies' confusion deepened.
"Pinkie, that is the sign for opening doors, is it not?" Rarity asked.
"Yeah, but I don't understand! There aren't any doors here!"
Rainbow suddenly pointed out something up on the hill. "Look!"
Five pairs of pony eyes watched as a full grown pony in a paper hat and swinging a glowing wooden sword through the air galloped down the hill. A full grown, purple pony. "Twilight?!"
The librarian-turned-pirate skidded to a halt next to them and raised her eyepatch. "Told ye so!" she announced with a grin. Then she turned and galloped back over the hill, leaving her friends in a state of shock and consternation.
"What in tarnation was that all about?" Applejack asked as another breeze rippled over the field.
"I dunno," Pinkie said. "But I bet it has something to do with that opening door!"
***
The next door they encountered after dropping all of their pets safely at home proved to be far less mysterious. A few knocks on the entrance to Golden Oaks library were answered by Spike. "Oh, hi guys. Sorry we didn't make it to the playdate, but Twilight's been busy with something."
"We guessed as much, Spike, but-" Applejack blinked as what Spike had just said registered. "Wait, you said 'we'."
"Well, yeah. We've both been working on Twilight's…uh…whatever it is."
"But we just saw Twilight over in the park!" Pinkie exclaimed. "And she had an eyepatch and a hat and a sword and there was this spooky door that nopony could see and-"
A gasp from inside the library interrupted Pinkie's monologue. "What?!" Twilight narrowly missed crashing into Spike as she sprinted to the door and began peppering them with questions. "You saw me in the park? What did I say? What did I do? Did you see the-"
"Whoa there!" Applejack said, getting the manic unicorn to stop talking for a moment. "Could you maybe just tell us slowly what exactly is going on around here?"
"Well, I was going to wait until I'd tested it, but since it looks like I already did test it…" Twilight swung door wide. "Welcome, everypony, to the ARCHIVE!"
The five ponies peered inside. Where there normally was a table graced with a wooden pony's head, Twilight had installed a large hourglass, surrounded by a bank of gadgets. Every second, the entire hourglass flashed pale purple.
"Welcome to the what?" Rainbow asked as she and the others stepped inside.
"The Amalgam Readery/Chronodynamo Hidden Inside Vegetative Enclosure," Twilight said proudly.
"The what?" The blue pegasus repeated, still mystified.
"The ARCHIVE," the unicorn simplified. "It sounds neat, doesn't it?"
"But what does it do?"
"It's a time traveling library!" Twilight exclaimed.
"Ooh! Like that time spell you used!" Pinkie said. "And it works on the whole library?"
"It's actually almost the same spell," Twilight said.
"Aw…" Pinkie frowned. "So you only can use it once?"
"Nope!" The unicorn trotted over to the hourglass. "See how it's flashing every second? It's constantly time traveling." She flipped a few switches on the equipment around the flashing timepiece. "It took me all night to figure out exactly how to do this, but now that the hourglass is chronomantically suspended, I can harness it to pull the entire library anywhere or when I want it to go!"
"Look, Twilight, I've seen you do a whole buncha crazy things with magic," Applejack said. "But draggin' a whole buildin' through time? Heck, I've only heard of one pony draggin' a whole building, just through town, and I still ain't sure I believe it happened."
"I had a feeling you'd say that!" Twilight said. "So, if you'd all just step outside for a second…" She herded her friends out of the library and closed the door. Moments later, the entire building vanished in a flash of magic and a gust of wind. Even as the five ponies gasped at the suddenly absent tree, another flash brought it back. Twilight stepped out, wearing a paper hat and her eye patch. "Sorry to say it again, but-" The unicorn cleared her throat before continuing, in a piratical tone "I told ye so!" She coughed before resuming her normal voice. "Any questions?"
"Now just a minute!" Rarity said. "I can certainly understand now why we saw you in the park, but did you have to wear that ridiculous outfit?"
"Oh…that's one of the limitations," Twilight admitted. "You can't cross your own timeline unless it's for cheap tricks." Pinkie Pie nodded in agreement as the others pondered this.
"Um…why is that?" Fluttershy asked.
"Well…" The others steeled themselves for a lengthy lecture. "Timey wimey, wibbly wobbly stuff, it'd be bad." Twilight finished abruptly. Everypony else, including Spike, stared at her in disbelief. Twilight ignored the shocked looks and trotted back inside, discarding the hat and patch as she made her way back to the console. She spun around to face them as they cautiously reentered the library. “So! Any times, places or both that you want to see?" She suddenly gasped as an idea struck her. "Wait! I've got it! Barcelona!"
"Barcelona!" Rarity exclaimed. "Why, that's half a world away! And Spain! We simply must go!"
"Um, Rarity, Barcelona's not in Spain." Twilight corrected.
"Well, I suppose it's really Cattleonia. No matter! I, for one, think we should all go to Barcelona! Why, they have such lovely spas there, and the cuisine is supposed to be splendid. Also, I have been wanting some inspiration. The local attire should give me a few new fashion ideas."
"What's everypony else think?" Twilight asked.
"Barcelona sounds just fine," Applejack seconded.
"Okay…" Rainbow allowed. "Though count me out on the whole spa thing."
"It sounds nice," Fluttershy agreed quietly.
"Sure!" Pinkie said. "And then I can meet a whole bunch of new ponies! I've been learning how to read the closed captions so I can understand what they say, too!"
"Um…okay," Spike finished.
"Alright then, Barcelona!" Twilight reached out a hoof and spun the hourglass. The whole library lurched violently as she started flipping switches, spinning dials, and punching in numbers. "Allons-y!"
***