Snips in Time
Tuesday afternoon
Celestia's and Luna's reign
Year 0
The library was a total mess, Pinkie's party explosion had done its job. Twilight Sparkle was shocked but not as shocked as Snips, this day would, no doubt, be recorded in history books as the wackiest party that Ponyville had ever seen.
Snips would go home, pick up the nearest history book and it would read: "On that day nurse Red Heart, who was supposed to discover the cure for hoof rot, was too busy partying in a party that was never meant to happen, thanks to an time travelling idiot called Timey, also as a side note: the universe ceased to exist."
Well, maybe that wouldn't happen, there was no way he was getting home after all.
Oblivious of the panicking unicorn stallion Pinkie hopped over with sugar and spice and wrapped her hoof around "Timey".
"Helloooooooo Timey!~ Let me introduce you to some of my pals!" she said "There's Apple Cider, Caramel, Red Gala, Ace, Baritone, Bell Perin, Berry Punch, Cherry Berry, Davenport, Forest Spirit, Red Heart, Ginger Gold, Carrot Top, Mr.Greenhooves, Herald, Icy Drop, Lavenderhoof..." Pinkie went on for hours and hours and hours "...just to name a few!"
"Hello!" said Snips. "My name is: I don't exist, so go away!"
The ponies looked confused.
"Pfft! Don't be so shy Timey! He's just shy everypony!" Said Pinkie.
"Ohh!" said the party ponies and attacked Snips with a barrage of questions like "whats youre name?" or "where did you come from?" or "are you actually a time traveler?", well they didn't ask the last one, but they might as well have, because Snips couldn't take it.
Just when he was about to crack under pressure and tell them absolutely everything tough, Pinkie grabbed him along and introduced him to her closest friends.
"This is Fluttershy!"
Fluttershy blushed and hid behind her mane with an "eep!" Before Snips could say anything however, he was dragged over to a very familiar looking orange mare.
"And heres Applejack, she's a farme..."
"You!" interrupted the orange mare in question.
"Uhh...happy apple cart tossing day?" Snips said sheepishly.
"There aint no such thing as a apple cart tossing day you vermint! You ruined over forty of mah apples! They were worth at least...uhh...something around two thousand bits!" She said angrily.
"You're apples cost fifty bits a piece!?" Snips said in awe.
"Ugh!...I dunno! But you still owe me! You better pony up the dough right now!" said Applejack.
Snips reached out for his wallet and...realized that he didn't have a wallet. "Do you...take credit?" he said sheepishly.
"No!" said Applejack, and in a blink of an eye she lassoed and hogtied Snips. "But I do take some fresh working meat to the farm till you pay your debts!"
Then she threw the helpless stallion on her strong back and trotted away with him. Pinkie, Twilight and Lyra looked after them eyes wide when Pinkie heard somepony ask.
"..does this mean the party is over?"
"Well!" said Twilight "Looks like Timey is busy, so I guess we can't celebrate a destructive party, in my library, without my permission may I add, I think that you shoul..."
"Twilight, catch!" interrupted Pinkie and threw a party hat at Twilight. The hat landed right on Twilight's face
"Twilight caught the party hat party!!" yelled Pinkie and the ponies in the library went "Way to go Twilight!"
And then they celebrated till nightfall.
While he was helplessly bouncing up and down on the orange mares back, Snips realized that Applejack had just saved him from the overly curious ponies of the past!
"Thanks a lot Applejack!" he said. "you really helped me out there."
"Don't you try smooth talking to me! You're going to buck apples till you drop to pay for that cart load o apples!" said Applejack.
"Sure" said Snips, planning to teleport away as soon as Applejack had untied him, but then she simply dropped him on the ground and put a round metal object around Snips' horn with a *click!*
"Hey! Not so rough! What is that?" Snips said while he looked at his horn cross eyed.
"Just something I picked up from Twi's house, a magic lock! And I have the key! It should keep all fancy-smanchy magic blocked till you're done with the job." Applejack answered.
"What?! You can't do that!" Snips said.
"I just did! Now lets get to the farm and get started, and you might be done by next year!" said Applejack angrily, then she picked up her helpless victim again and off to the farm he went towards a life of sweat and hard labor.
So Snips bucked some trees and bucked some trees again, he couldn't even use magic to help with the job! Again he was glad that he had spent so time with The Doc, all that running with him had made his hind legs relatively strong.
Still, the job sucked, all he did was buck and buck and buck and...dear Luna he couldn't take it anymore! But Applejack's guarding eye was ever watchful, not to mention she held the key to his magic lock.
He had met a stallion that went by the name of Big Machintosh working on the orchard with him and thought "at least I have somepony to chat with" but no! That red pony was silent as a rock and had a vocabulary of two words! Applejack didn't provide him with any company either, the images of innocent bruised apples all over the road were still fresh in her mind.
As you can see, Snips time on the orchard was quite miserable, then on one day, he finally got to speak to somepony when he was approached by a yellow filly with a red mane and a cute little bow. She was wearing saddlebags and it looked like she was on her way to school. "Hi! I'm Apple Bloom! You're Timey right?" said the filly.
"Well...hello there Apple Bloom...yeah I guess I go by that name nowadays." Snips said tired.
"Scootaloo told me about you! You're that pony who has a crush on Rainbow Dash? Or was it Twilight? It wasn't Applejack was it?"
"I've been many things nowadays..." said Snips.
"Weird...you're bucking apples for us now?" Apple Bloom asked.
"I've been doing many things nowadays...but its not "nowadays"!! Its...its...uhh...yesterdays!!" Snips said annoyed "Arrgh! What am I doing!? How the hay did I end up here?!"
"You did the unthinkable and tossed Applejack's apples and made her mad." Apple Bloom simply answered.
"Yes, but it was an accident!" Snips said.
"No, I'm pretty sure she told me that you just ran over, took a look at the cart, grabbed the side and flipped it over." Apple Bloom said.
"Well, is there any way of getting out of here!?" Snips said.
"Buck some apple trees?" said Apple Bloom.
"Any way of getting out of here, while still keeping my sanity?" asked Snips while he wiped the sweat from his brow.
"You can always just pay the debt of five thousand bits to Applejack." Apple Bloom answered.
Snips almost fell over in shock.
"Five thousand!?" he coughed. "That mare is awful at math!"
"Yeah, but she's convinced that it was at least five thousand bits, and when Applejack is sure of something, theres no turning her head around." said Apple Bloom knowingly.
"...well thats it then." Snips said defeated.
"Yeah, unless you win the Ponyville lottery, you're not going anywhere." said Apple Bloom.
"...Wait...what did you say?"
"You're not going anywhere" said Apple Bloom "but you probably meant the part about the Ponyville lottery."
"I did" said Snips.
"Sorry, but I sure aint buying you a lottery ticket with the bits I get around here!" Apple Bloom said, then she waved her hoof. "See you later Timey, I'm going to school."
At that moment a wide grin formed on Snips lips, he had a plan! A crazy plan that might just work!
"Wait! Apple Bloom! Can you get me some paper and a pen?" he asked.
Apple Bloom was curious about what Snips was planning so she fetched the items from her saddlebags. Snips wrote on the piece of paper and hoofed it over to her. "Now don't read it!" he said. "Do you know a colt named Snips? A short unicorn, looks, extremely, distantly, just a little bit like me, but don't get any funny ideas?"
"Uhh...well yeah, I do know him." Apple Bloom said.
"Good! Could you pass this note to him in school?" asked Snips.
"...I don't think I can" Apple Bloom said "the other ponies might think I'm passing a love letter to him or something...and he's ugly!" she said shruddering.
Snips sighed and lowered his head in depression.
"Ugh...you think I'm ugly?" he mumbled.
"What? No, you're handsome mister, but Snips is ugly." Apple Bloom said and smiled.
"...Okay...can you do it anyway?...please." Snips said with his head still lowered.
"Fine, I'll dare Scootaloo to do it." Apple Bloom said and with that she was off.
Later that day Apple Bloom returned from school to meet Snips on the orchard again. Apple Bloom couldn't wait to find out what Snips was planning and she told him that the note had made it to colt Snips
Everything had went as planned then, even tough Snips suddenly had weird memories of Scootaloo having a crush on him in school, oh well!
"So? What now Timey?" Apple Bloom asked curiously.
"Hold on..." Snips said, he reached his hoof behind his ear and...
He pulled out an old, folded, yellowed piece of paper, the same piece of paper that Apple Bloom had given him in the morning. He opened the paper and there they were! The lottery winning numbers!
"I can't belive it! I did it! I kept the paper safe for ten years!!" thought Snips.
Apple Bloom stared in awe "Is that the paper I gave you? But how is it all old and yellow now? How'd you do that!?" she asked.
You might be asking the same question as Apple Bloom, but unlike her, you'll get to know what happened. Snips had written a message to his colt self that simply read.
Hello Snips!
Write the winning numbers of tomorrows lottery on this piece of paper!
The Great and Powerful Trixie demands it!
And don't tell anypony about it! It better remain a secret or The Great and Powerful Trixie will rain her revenge on you!
After that make sure to keep this paper behind your ear for as long as I, The Great and Powerful Trixie, come to retrieve it.
Don't you dare lose it before I do!!
Your idol: The Great and Powerful Trixie!
Colt Snips had done as asked, he wrote the winning numbers of tommorows lottery on the paper and hid it behind his ear every day in fear of The Great and Powerful Trixie, and then, ten years later, the present Snips had the paper!
Confusing? Lets just say its all timey-wimey and leave it at that.
"Man, I sure loved that show pony mare as a kid" Snips said to himself.
"What pony? What are you talking about!?" Apple Bloom asked confused.
"Who cares! Lets get a lottery ticket! I'm feeling lucky!" he said and stood up triumphantly.
"We still can't afford that!" Apple Bloom said.
"Don't worry, I always carry some extra bits in my scarf" Said Snips.
And so Apple Bloom convinced Applejack to give Snips a little break, (it wasn't like he wanted to escape with the magic lock still stuck on his horn) and they went to the lottery office. There he confidently smacked some of his scarf hidden bits on the table.
The mare on the desk looked at the bits cross eyed and rolled her eyes.
"Is this some kind of a joke?" she asked.
"What? Whats the matter?" Snips said, his good mood draining away.
"Well, supposedly these bits came out of the mint ten years in the future!" she said. "Nice try pal, next time you make a forgery, try to get the year on the coin right...and whats with the picture on these things? Luna and Celestia are both on the coin?"
"Oh yeah, they didn't make the coins with Luna until year 1 of Celestia's and Luna's reign" Snips remembered.
Then he realized that he was being accused of money forgery and could soon find himself in Ponyville jail.
"Heyy!! I sure got you! Happy Celestia pranking day aahahah." Snips laughed nervously. "How about I take those maneopoly coins back from you and I'll go get the real bits?"
The mare on the desk raised her eyebrow in suspicion, but it seemed that she was simply too bored and uniterested in her job to care, so she let Snips walk off with the future bits.
"Where the hay did you get bits like that anyway?" Apple Bloom asked.
"Forget the bits! We're gonna need some real money, fast!" said Snips.
At that moment Applejack arrived to fetch her worker back to the farm
"OK, time to get back to work.." she said but she was interrupted when Snips threw himself on the ground before and pleaded:
"Applejack! Please! You gotta give me some bits so I can buy a lottery ticket and pay back your debt so I don't ever have to buck anything again!" he said.
"Lottery tickets? Those things are just a bunch of hooey! Nopony ever wins." Applejack huffed.
"No! I have the winning numbers! All I need is the ticket." Snips pleaded.
"You have the winning numbers? How the hay could you have the winning numbers?" said Applejack and picked Snips up from the ground and looked him straight in the eye "you better not be lying to me." she said in a dead serious tone.
Snips looked straight into those emerald eyes.
"Trust me, its the honest truth, I have the numbers." he said.
Applejack was taken aback by this and she let go of Snips.
"You sure?" she asked.
"Absolutely sure." Snips said confidently.
Applejack looked at Apple Bloom, then she looked at Snips and sighed, Snips simply handed over the paper with the numbers. "The prize belongs to you, that should pay off my debts." he said.
Applejack stood there silent for a moment and then she sighed even deeper. "Fine..." she said, and much to the surprise of Snips and Apple Bloom, she pulled out the key and opened the magic lock on Snips' horn, the lock fell off with a cling.
Snips looked at her dumbfounded.
"You're letting me go?" he asked in disbelief.
"Sure, you can go Timey." Applejack said.
"Aww yeah!" Snips cheered and galloped off as fast as he could.
Apple Bloom and Applejack watched him go until he was out of sight.
"Why'd you let him go sis!? He must have lied! He couldn't possibly know what the numbers are going to be!" Apple Bloom said in frustration.
"I dunno...I can tell when a pony is lying, and it seemed like an obvious lie..." Applejack said "...but when he said that he knew the numbers, I couldn't help but feel that he was telling me the honest truth."
"You let him go because you felt he was telling the truth?" Apple Bloom asked.
"Eeyup!" Applejack simply answered.
"Aww..." Apple Bloom said "and I was starting to like him too."
"I'm sure we'll see him again." Applejack snickered "now come on! We got a lottery to win!"
To be continued in:
We just met tomorrow!