Four – Time And Time Again
Right next to Ponyville’s town center was a humble blue house. Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Spike came up to the front door; Spike was constantly checking the street just to be sure they weren’t being watched.
Twilight had been put back into the foal carrier, which Pinkie Pie now wore. She was dizzy from all the bouncing that Pinkie did when she walked, but at least nopony could tell it was Twilight when she was in public. Nopony in town would bat an eye at the sight of a cheerful pink pony escorting one or more fillies.
Fluttershy knocked on the door three times. It immediately opened and a light voice called out, “Oh, hello! Come on in! Be with you in a second…!” Something crashed in the background. “Possibly longer than that!”
With a collective shrug, the ponies and Spike entered.
Being a timekeeper’s home, the halls and living room were filled with clocks. Grandfather clocks, alarm clocks, pocket watches, hourglasses, sundials, and even a few magical clocks contained inside crystal balls. But despite all the time-keeping devices taking up space on the walls, it wasn’t that noisy. Instead of a loud cacophony of tick-tocks, there was just a hiss of sand pouring through an hourglass and a very quiet ticking that always in the background.
For some reason, Twilight always liked visiting Time Turner and got along well with him. They shared a common love for organization and punctuality, even if Time Turner was a little odd about it. Twilight put everything in order for the sake of her studies and helping her friends. He seemed to love timekeeping for its own sake.
They had just arrived in the living room when Time Turner came in, holding a wrench in his mouth. He spat it out onto a side table already littered with tools and smiled.
“Hello, everypony!” His eyes narrowed when she noticed Twilight. “And… Princess. Oh, dear. I don’t think I know one addresses a royal filly.”
“Age spell, long story.” Twilight squirmed out of the foal carrier, almost dropping onto the floor if not for a last-minute catch by Fluttershy. “We wrote to Princess Celestia. We’re going to Canterlot tonight, but first we had to come here.”
Time Turner smiled and bowed his head. “Ah! Well, I’m flattered you wanted to visit, but I’m afraid magic isn’t my specialty. I just keep the clocks in perfect time.”
“The Princess said you could help us,” Fluttershy insisted. “She said you could build us something called a circadian—”
“A circadian hourglass?” Time Turner’s smile disappeared in a flash. He looked back over his shoulder, then turned to everypony. “Well, well. Not a moment to lose then. Follow me.”
Next to Time Turner’s bedroom was a small locked room. The timekeeper knelt down beside an innocuous umbrella stand and nudged a panel open at the base with his hoof. He retrieved a skeleton key and held it in his mouth to open the door.
The room was a miniature library, full of books and scrolls. In the center of the room, atop a small pillar, was a crystal orb filled with swirling violet light. Twilight’s ears perked when she looked past the bookshelves and noticed a red banner hanging on the wall. It was emblazoned with the royal crest and the picture of an hourglass below it.
Underneath the sigil were the words Protege Diem. Old Equestrian for Protect The Day.
“Ooh, what’s all this?” Pinkie Pie danced around the crystal orb, prodding it with her hoof. “Is it part of some secret awesome tradition stretching back to the dawn of time?”
“No—well, not exactly.” Time Turner quickly put himself between Pinkie Pie and the orb. “You might not realize it, but all timekeepers in Equestria have another duty besides making sure all the clocks are wound and running. We’re charged with protecting the flow of Time itself!”
Twilight stared at him, feeling skeptical. “But isn’t that a job for the Princess?”
Time Turner smiled. “Yes, but she’s busy, what with managing the Sun and running the whole country. So that’s why she created the Royal Society of Chronometry. I’m sure you know about the spells for time travel, Princess. The ones that Star-Swirl the Bearded developed?”
“Don’t remind me.” Twilight touched her cheek where she’d once had a scar. “That was a miserable week.”
Pinkie Pie reached down and ruffled her mane. “Well, I thought it was fun!”
“You think everything’s fun.” Twilight looked back at Time Turner. “So your Royal Society travels through time?”
“Well, actually, no.” Time Turner pointed his hoof to the crystal orb. “We make sure nopony tries to mess around with time. Breaking the chain of cause-and-effect, that sort of thing. If something were changed, the timekeepers would be the first to know about it.”
“But, last year, when I said I’d just met myself from the future—”
“Not very serious, I’m afraid. You ended up becoming the cause for your own anxiety.” He glanced at the swirling light inside the crystal and nodded. “A bit of a paradox, but nothing the universe can’t handle. If you’d tried to go back and do something worse like stop Discord from ever being born, that’d be serious meddling.”
Fluttershy lifted a hoof to her face. “Why would anypony want to do that?”
“He was just using him as an example,” Spike said and patted her on the wing.
Twilight looked down at her small body and frowned. “So, about this hourglass—”
“The circadian hourglass measures a pony’s biology,” Time Turner explained. While he spoke, he began to rummage through a pile of scrolls in the back of the room. “There’s a difference between the internal clock of a foal’s body and the body of a full-grown pony.” He picked up Twilight and prodded her in the stomach, just above her diaper. “For example, your need for food and sleep is much, much larger than you’re used to.”
Fluttershy smiled. “See? I told you a nap would be good for you.”
“So if the hourglass does its job,” Twilight asked, “we can tell if I’m getting better or…” She swallowed nervously. “Or regressing further?”
“That’s the idea. Your timeline’s just out of sorts. Your mind is still in the present, but your body is sliding back into fillyhood. The hourglass will give us a way to check your progress while we look for a spell to fix it.”
Twilight smiled. This was going better than expected, although she didn’t like the idea of being in a race against time. She’d hate to think what might happen if they weren’t fast enough.
It’d worse than being sent back to magic kindergarten. She’d lose her mind, too. All her memories of Ponyville. All her friends—!
“Twilight, you okay?”
Spike’s voice snapped her out of it. “Right! Canterlot! Hourglass! Let’s go!”
Time Turner blinked. Then he smiled and said, “Of course, Princess. It shouldn’t take me long. I’ll see you at the station tonight.” He pulled out a pocket watch from behind a stack of books and added, “Say, at a quarter to eight? Just in time to board the last train to Canterlot.”
“That’ll do nicely. Thank you, Time Turner.”
“Think nothing of it, Your Highness.” He bowed. “The Royal Society is here to serve.”