Rainbow Dash slowly opened one eye, and regretted it. Her head exploded in pain, feeling like it was trying to rip itself apart. There was a horrific humming noise, and a sound like somepony smashing something with a hammer nearby. Plus, everywhere she looked everything was purple or pink. It took a few seconds for her to recognise the inside of Rarity's house, then she gathered that she had a nasty hangover, which explained the pain, and why everything felt so wrong, and the odd humming noise, which sounded more and more like... she gingerly moved a fration. Sitting on her stomach was a small ball of fluff looking at Rainbow Dash with a look of utter disdain. The slow thundershocks had stopped. Rainbow Dash could hear the beginning of Rarity muttering.
"-homeless shelter, very amusing I don't think."
"-isit to Canterlot, we'll see who's washed up then!"
And if Rarity was muttering angry that noise was probably just her making tea. Rainbow Dash tried to get to her hooves, not easy when she was weighed down by a stubborn cat or the very warm blanket Rarity had placed over her. After a few moments struggling, Rainbow Dash got to her hooves.
And then fell over.
"Opal! What are you up to n- Oh, Rainbow Dash, you're awake?" Rarity said, upon seeing the crumpled pile of wings and legs Rainbow Dash had become.
The pegasus tried to speak, only for a series of inarticulate grunts to come out of her mouth.
"Oh, my." Rarity said, before rushing back into the kitchen. A few moments later she returned with a strange flash and a small spoon. She poured out the contents of the flash onto the spoon and motioned it towards Rainbow Dash's mouth. With great difficulty the pegasus managed to drink it. The difficulty came from the fact that it tasted like the drink equivalent of getting hit over the head with a sack of bricks.
"What is that?" Rainbow Dash demanded once she could speak again.
"An anti-hangover cure. I apologise for the taste, Rainbow Dash, but I don't have much experience with hangovers. Except when I've had far too much wine."
Rainbow Dash unsteadily got to her feet.
"Thanks anyway." She shuffled her feet.
"I didn't... do anything stupid last night did I?"
"I honestly wouldn't know. You appeared at my doorstep quite inebriated. You couldn't even fly."
"I couldn't?"
"You seemed upset." Rainbow Dash hung her head.
"Yeah, I think I remember why I'd been drinking." She muttered.
"Do you wish to talk about it?"
Rainbow Dash shrugged.
"Nah. I'm cool." There was a moment of silence. Rainbow Dash flapped her wings.
"Very well then." Rarity said, before turning and heading towards her kitchen.
"If you'll excuse me, I currently have a serious need to relax."
"Problem with one of your dresses?" Rainbow Dash smirked.
"No." Was all Rarity said in response.
"You sure?" Rainbow Dash said. Rarity turned to look at Rainbow Dash. In an instant she cracked.
"Oh, it's that ghastly Embrace. She wandered in here to gloat at me, and she... she suggested I turn my store into a homeless shelter. I'm so fed up of her ghastly behaviour, her smug laugh, her gloating!" She sighed. Her horn glowed and a kettle and a tiny cup appeared next to her, at which point Rarity began drinking.
Rainbow Dash frowned. "Was this because I was here?"
"Only a bit."
"Y'know, if you want some help dealing with her-" Rarity waved a hoof at her.
"No, Rainbow Dash. This is an entirely private matter between us. Besides, she wouldn't dare raise a hoof against me directly right now. Not until after my visit to Canterlot next week, at any rate."
"Gotcha." Rainbow Dash looked around the room.
"Well, this was fun but I'm gonna head out before I end up wearing a frilly dress. Thanks for letting me sleep here."
"Of course" Rarity said, ignoring the 'frilly dress' remark.
*****
Fluttershy rushed through the steets, hooves pounding along the ground.
"Must find Twilight!"
*****
"So, what are you up to today, Twilight?" Midday asked.
"Oh, I'm just going over some of my notes. I was thinking of working on teleportation today."
"Same as always."
"Well, it's either that or go through my notes on Star Swirl the Bearded again, and that's incredibly stressful."
Midday instantly lost all interest in the conversation.
"Do tell."
"Well" Twilight said, her inability to notice sarcasm going strong, "The problem is that when one is studying Star-Swirl the Bearded one must be prepared to diseminate rumour and fiction, a difficult notion since (obviously) there are no living witnesses to most of his exploits, many of which have doubtless been lost to time."
"Not listening."
"And of course there is his unusually long life-span, dating from pre-Heart Warming times to the arrival of the Princesses."
"Don't care."
"And he played a part in the developement of so many important ponies in history. It's actually somewhat strange. Did he know the ponies he talked to would be important?"
"WHO CARES?!" Midday snapped.
"He was a manipulator, and a braggart, and a coward. Oh, yes he never carried weapons, but he didn't need to! He turned everypony around him into weapons. And he always moved around, didn't you notice? And trouble always followed him. Never made attachments, never cared about the devestation he brought and always running, never looking back. Acting without consideration for the damage he brought to so many lives."
There was a moment of awkward silence.
"Guessing you don't like him?" Twilight said.
Midday sat down, her eyes focused on a floorboard so intensely it was a wonder the thing didn't burst into flames.
"My mother went on about him any chance she got. 'Oh, he did this, and that, and all of those and he was so wonderful and helped so many'. After a while I began to wonder whether he was that brilliant. So I checked. He had a tendency to disappear just as situations became heated, and never stuck around to help with the messes he made. How heroic."
"He saw beyond race, in a time when the world was torn apart by divides."
"He saw only tools to be used and disposed of. Funny how he was never documented as talking to the elderly. Seems the old stallion preferred the companionship of the young"
"He was a teacher, he saw potential and nourished it. He was there when they needed him through their entire life."
"True. Every pony he taught became a genius or brilliant and utterly indifferent. Princess Platinum, Clover the Clever, Luna, Celestia. The four most prominent names I can think of. Each one of them either a skilled manipulator or prominent and powerful and totally detached from the average pony. Well, except Clover the Clever. And Luna's not detached by choice."
"Celestia's not a manipulator." Twilight said, her voice stern and sure. Midday just gave Twilight a Look.
"We're not all her beloved student" was all the lilac unicorn said. There was a moment of silence in the library, when Fluttershy burst in. She yelled something at an unbelievably fast rate.
"What?" Said Twilight. Fluttershy repeated herself, still ridiculously fast.
"There's a pony at my house going on about the end of the world" The pegasus said.
*****
"Did I say the end of the world? Sorry, bit distracted, what with having crashed and everything."
"Oh, so the world... isn't going to end?" Twilight said to the smiling pony in front of her. She was trying not to stare at his chin. It was an impressive chin.
"Well, there was a lot of strange temporal energy building up, a nasty paradox of some sort. But no, your world is in no immediate danger."
There was a sigh from Fluttershy.
"Then... why are you here?" Twilight asked.
The earth pony pondered for a second.
"Imagine... a sweater, nice sweater, well-made, won't fall apart that quickly, but it gets caught on a nail, or something and it starts to unravel."
"Okay."
"Now, imagine all of time, everything that ever was and will be. Every moment and second and burnt cupcake and stubbed toe and every moment you wished could have been different."
Twilight nodded slowly, "... Right."
"So, you're saying time is like a damaged sweater?"
He stared at her. "No. But if it helps, yes. (but it isn't)"
"So what is time like?" Twinkle asked, "A huge non-linear mess of nonsense?"
"A bit."
"So, what is the danger of this paradox?" Twilight asked, "Will it do anything serious?"
"Shouldn't think so. Nothing spectacularly bad, like time falling to pieces. Just the odd random change in personality or voice here and there, but they probably won't be permanent. Unless you hit a fixed point."
"Fixed point?" asked Twilight.
"A point in space and time that cannot be changed, or otherwise..." He trailed off.
"Yes?"
"Bad things would happen."
"You sound like you're speaking from experience." Midday said.
"Only once or twice. I don't make a habit of breaking them."
"Well," Twilight smiled "I think that solves everything here, if there's no problem." And she left, Midday slowly following after. Though after a few seconds she slunk away to talk to the strange stallion. She found him in Fluttershy's garden staring at the strange, and familiar looking, blue box.
"Excuse me" She said. He turned to look at her.
"Yes?"
"You say you're called 'the Doctor', right?"
"I did."
"So, are you the same individual who stopped me from going insane?"
"Same pony." She stared at him. He had the exact same brown fur, same dark brown mane and tail, same hourglass cutie mark, but he was slightly different in proportions.
"So... how'd that happen?" For a moment he looked miserable, as if recalling something soul-shattering.
"Long story. Bad day, bad things happened." He said, quietly.
"So, what, you can change your appearance? Do you do it at will? Or is it a last-move sort of thing?" He simply smiled at her. Strangely enough he looked rather similar to a teacher she'd seen once who'd declared math to be 'the most boring thing ever', which had been the wrong thing to say in a math class to an impressionable youth.
"What was your name again?"
"Midday. Midday Eclipse." She shuffled slightly. And here she'd been hoping she'd have gotten used to that name by now.
"Right, Midday Eclipse." He smiled.
"Want to see something impressive?"
"Always." He winked, and rushed into the box. There was a deep thumping noise, followed by a loud straining noise. After a few seconds the door opened and he rushed out again, huge plumes of smoke following.
"Right, okay. That wasn't supposed to happen." He said. He looked concerned.
"The paradox is too strong, she can't take off." Midday strained. Half of what this pony said made almost no sense, and the rest of it made absolutely no sense whatsoever. Although from his panicked tone she gathered one thing.
"You're trapped here."
"Yes." He gulped, "I'm trapped. Again."
"Welcome to every moment of my life" Midday said dryly. The stallion proved unresponsive, and after a while she left him to his own devices, whatever they were.
*****
Rarity was torn. She had a choice between what she would take to Canterlot, and there was only so much she could choose.
"Oh" she wailed, "Opal, why is this so difficult? Why must I be so torn?" Opal made no response, simply licking her front paw.
"I suppose..." She murmured. There was a knock on the door. Rainbow Dash then burst through.
"Rarity!" She yelled. The pegasus landed calmly, giving suspicious glances at the hat boxes and folded sweaters surrounding her.
"I remembered!" She said.
"Remember what, Rainbow Dash?" Rarity said, paying more attention to which sweater would be more fitting for a mid-tuesday afternoon stroll than Rainbow Dash.
"What I came here for last night!" Rainbow Dash said. She motioned for Rarity to come closer. The unicorn did.
"It's Midday. I don't trust her."
Rarity stared at Rainbow Dash.
"Really?"
"Hear me out. She shows up out of nowhere, she really looks like Twilight Sparkle, and whatever was going on with her going all blue made her look even more like Twilight Sparkle."
"Rainbow, really? Remember when you thought Twilight was a spy? Remember how that turned out?" The pegasus looked chastened.
"Yeah, yeah. I remember how that turned out. But I'm serious. I think we need to keep an eye on her. I mean, she's an accountant, right? So how come she's been sent here?"
Rarity paused.
"That doesn't make much sense, now that you mention it. I had just assumed Celestia had sent her here to study friendship, the same as Twilight. That is a bit troubling. Perhaps I could ask Celestia when I visit Canterlot."
Rainbow Dash smiled just a fraction.
"Thanks. Who knows what she's really up to?"
*****
"And of course we previously discussed, Star Swirl also was also know for-"
As Twilight Sparkle continued on her long-winded discussion of the contributions of Star Swirl (the bearded) to Equestria and its history, Midday cursed her inability to teleport. And her deeply hidden fondess for detailed explanations.