Yesterday had been a strange day for Ponyville, and for the inhabitants of the Golden Oaks library in particular. Twilight Sparkle had become convinced, due to a visit from herself from the future (by a few days) that some great disaster awaited Equestria, and had managed to convince everypony to 'future-proof' everything (Or, as it turned out, everything in Ponyville), right before Cerberus, the three-headed underworld guarding dog, had appeared. Not to mention the entire situation with Ditzy and Dinky Doo, and the mysterious madpony (and quite possibly pathological liar) who called himself the Doctor (Or Time Turner, or Star Swirl the not-bearded-anymore-but-nevermind), who apparently had access to time travel. Twilight had managed to spend most of the day returning the giant dog back to his owner (One Princess Luna, she who raised the moon and watched the night), returning the next morning completely unscathed, until Spike had belched up a flyer into her face, giving her a paper cut. The purple unicorn was currently engaged in nervously examining the 'wound' in a mirror.
"Come on, Twilight" Spike said, "You really need to toughen up!" Said the dragon who had stashed poorly written songs and poems about Rarity (He'd had trouble finding something that rhymed with beauty.)
"Just clean it out and you'll be fine."
Midday Eclipse looked at Spike. The little dragon clearly missed the point, which was that Twilight had been convinced she'd prevented the Great Disaster of Next Tuesday and was now back to freaking out.
"The cut's in the exact same spot as the scar on future Twilight's cheek! We haven't changed the future at all! The disaster is still coming!"
*****
Last night, two ponies walked down the scenic Drury Lane of Ponyville. Well, scenic might not have been the best word, considering it was exactly like every other street in Ponyville, save one truly important distinction: It was the home of Ditzy Doo, generally considered to be the best postal worker anywhere, and the best mother anywhere, especially in the eyes of her daughter Dinky, mainly because no-one dared say Dinky was wrong (It was said she could do puppy-dog eyes better than all three of the Cutie Mark Crusaders at once). The mare had spent much of her day trying to make up for the several weeks lost because of time-travel. She had returned to the post office trying to find a way to ask for her job back, only to find her boss had just assumed that after the unfortunate near-levelling of Ponyville's town hall at her hooves (and flank) she'd gone on leave, but had simply forgotten to request it. He had then proceeded to point out Ditzy only ever went off work when she was either too ill to stand, or when Dinky was ill, neither of which were regular occurences. The two entered their house, which felt incredibly strange to Ditzy, even though from her perspective she'd been gone all of a few hours. She looked about, and noticed a small gift-wrapped box in bright colours, the sure sign of a visit from Pinkie. Strangely enough, Ditzy was certain she could guess who had requested Pinkie send the gift. She shook her head, and vowed to have a talk with that pony in the morning. She looked at Dinky, who was still smiling and cheerful, which was good, since the whole reason the odd stallion who called himself the Doctor had offered them one journey through time was because Dinky had thought her mother was going to lose her job because of the incident with the town hall. She wondered about the strange place the Doctor had taken them, with all those odd ponies who looked almost like they were made of, and if the nature of everything else in that place had been any indication probably were, made of crystal. She suddenly felt incredibly tired, but made a note to return the box (which doubtless contained muffins) to the library, and ask Twilight Sparkle if she knew anything about ponies made of minerals.
Somewhere outside Ditzy's house, a pony was running around with a small silver device in his mouth. There was a high-pitched warbling noise as the device did its work. This pony, who was called the Doctor (And the Oncoming Storm, the Bringer of Darkness, and sometimes for expediency's sake 'Hey, You!') was looking for something, something very specific that he alone in the world would recognise. The problem was that it was very dark, and he was ever-so-slightly lost. He'd already ran into several things during the night, including one particularly rude cat.
*****
Twilight Sparkle was not given to unduly panic. She wasn't. She was the student of Princess Celestia, bearer of the Element of Magic (Which, she had noted on several occasions, could probably have chosen a more practical form to manifest in than a giant crown... thingy), the most powerful unicorn alive, and incredibly clever. So her panic was simply the result of her analysing all available evidence and reaching the most satisfactory conclusion. And she'd never had to deal with temporal paradox before. Nopony'd even written a book on it. How was she supposed to deal with one if she didn't know what to expect?
It should be made clear that Twilight Sparkle had gone a whole day without sleep, and therefore her usual calm and logical approach to problems had become... anything but. Midday Eclipse did consider zapping the mare as she paced enough to begin wearing a groove into the floor, but then realised given Twilight's current fear of Next Tuesday, she probably had several spells for magical defense ready, and decided not to risk it, or space and time by preventing Twilight Sparkle from trying to time-travel. Then she noticed Twilight was still theorising.
"If the disaster wasn't cause by Cerberus getting loose, then what could it possibly be?"
Spike just laughed. "I don't know." Then he turned serious. "Maybe you should give the pacing a rest, you've worn a groove into the floor."
Twilight frowned and shook her head. "I don't have time for one of your lectures, Spike! This is serious!"
The dragon and the royal blue unicorn exchanged glances. Midday said nothing, merely raising an eyebrow.
"I did everything I could think of to change the future. But it didn't work." Realisation hit Twilight, "So maybe it's not what I do... maybe it's what I don't do!" She moved over to one of the bookcases.
"If I stand right here and don't move a muscle until Tuesday, I can't possibly do whatever it is Future Twilight warned me not to do."
Midday was slightly sleep-deprived, due to some rather alarming nightmares, so she was also not on her usual form, and so the idea did make sense to her, although since she had heard the tale of the Horror of Next Tuesday when she was younger, she knew that Future Past Twilight was just trying to tell herself to relax, and not worry herself silly about something she had no control over.
Even though worrying herself silly was practically half of Twilight Sparkle's life. Midday almost smiled, before remembering that it was this sort of behaviour that was going to lead to one of the worst days of her life.
'Soon', a part of her said. She ignored it, as she had the last few months whenever it tried to point out she was stuck in the past, and whatever the good qualities of it were it was still not where she was supposed to be. She usually ignored it via cake, and Pinkie Pie. Pinkie Pie was good for blocking things out.
Midday just nodded, then noticed the sly look on Spike's face.
"Really?" the little purple and green dragon said. "So, not matter what happens... you're not gonna move a muscle, huh?" Twilight's eyes darted, and Midday could see the mare was already beginning to regret her decision, and the regret was increasing at a rate even Rainbow Dash would have labelled as 'too fast'.
The little dragon walked towards the door to the kitchen, still smiling. "So you won't mind if I..." He walked through the doors, and Midday sighed a good-humoured sigh. She did view Spike as a brother, and right now the little dragon was working hard to act like a brother. Just not a responsible one.
"Eat an entire tub of ice cream!" the dragon declared, returning with a medium-sized bucket of ice cream (Strawberry flavour, by the looks of it) and a spoon. Twilight was beginning to twitch. Midday watched as Spike took a huge scoop of ice cream and felt the need to act.
"Smaller bites, Spike!" she admonished. The dragon looked at her, which meant he wasn't paying attention to the positioning of the spoon relative to his face. A scoop of ice cream landed on his cheek. For a second both dragon and ponies stared at this, until a long, forked tounge zipped out and dragged the ice cream into Spike's mouth. The dragon stared defiantly at Midday, and took another scoop out. Somehow the dragon was managing to make eating ice cream look like a revolutionary act.
"So good!" Spike said. Twilight was beginning to sweat.
"Spike, stop!" She said, through clenched teeth. Midday admired her literal-minded and stubborn dedication to her vow, which had afflicted all members of the family since eight generations ago, during the twenty-seven minutes where Sparklingshine was head of the house, and before a brave servant beaned her with a bag of mixed vegetables. "Think of the stomach ache!"
"Stomach ache? That's Future Spike's problem." Spike said confidently, looking towards Midday as he said it.
"What?" The royal blue unicorn uttered.
Spike looked confused by the mare's remark. "C'mon, Future Spike's a jerk" He said casually. Midday resisted the urge to facehoof, or kick Spike for that remark. However, the dragon continued eating. Then Midday's horn glowed. The tub of ice cream was wrapped in the reddish purple of her magic, and ripped out of Spike's claws.
"Hey!" The dragon remarked. Midday fixed him with a stare.
"No, Spike." She said, firmly, and without knowing it doing a really good impression of Twilight's best 'mom' voice. The dragon frowned.
"It's my ice cream" he pouted.
"You've had enough ice cream. Have something sensible to eat" she suggested. "Especially since you haven't had any breakfast."
Twilight's eyes moved over to Spike, shocked and appalled. Spike looked at both ponies, and sagged.
"Fine, fine. I'll go eat something." He slouched into the kitchen, and Midday nodded approvingly. Then she realised Spike still had the spoon he'd been carrying.
"SPIKE!"
Twilight Sparkle stood still as she heard commotion and whispered voices bickering through the door, followed by the sound of a plate smashing. Spike came rushing back into the main room, clutching a fresh bucket of ice cream to his chest. Midday suddenly appeared in front of him, and the little dragon quickly swerved to avoid her, which unfortunately meant he slammed into one of the shelves. Fortunately the tub of ice cream largely keep him from harm, it did knock the wind out of him, causing him to fall over, and as he did, he belched. And the flames headed towards Twilight, who did not react in time. Midday rushed through the door, to find Spike staring in horror at Twilight. She looked, and winced at the sight. And then Rainbow Dash just happened to appear.
*****
Ditzy walked calmly along the streets of Ponyville, carrying the box of what was almost assuredly muffins. She wasn't entirely certain as to the reason why the royal blue unicorn had Pinkie Pie deliver them, but if she had to guess it was because the mare felt guilty about what happened to Ditzy for some reason. As she walked, she was aware of a strange noise, a high pitched noise that seemed to get closer to her with each step. She stopped, and waited, noticing as it got louder, and she saw why. A stallion was wandering down the streets, a familiar brown-furred stallion who didn't seem to notice where he was going, and he was walking towards her. She tensed, without even realising it. He waved his strange device over her, frowned, then looked at her.
"Oh." He said. "Hello."
"Doctor." She said calmly, smiling slightly.
"Ditzy, tell me, you haven't seen a Pony-Time Lord Meta-Crisis about, have you?"
She blinked at that, and slowly shook her head.
"No. I don't think so. Would I have noticed?"
"I don't know, how often do you see a pony with all the knowledge and abilities of a Time-Lord?" He frowned, "Yes you would have seen it." He grimmaced. "But why can't I see it? Why, Ditzy? Why?"
An idea occured to Ditzy, despite all common sense telling her it was probably not the best idea.
"Twilight Sparkle might be able to help you. She normally knows all sorts."
"And where's she when she's at home?" He asked.
"Normally in the library." At the word library, his face light up, and a truly adorable smile came across his face. Then it instantly vanished, and he broken into a run. Ditzy stood still for a moment before some previously undiscovered sense of curiosity (and not inconsiderable concern for Twilight) about what the self-proclaimed madpony would do.
*****
Rainbow Dash had only returned to the library because she'd been meaning to report that the last pegasus had returned with the all-clear, and because her bedside lamp was still broken and she wanted to read Daring Do. She had found Spike standing holding a tub of ice cream staring in shock at Twilight Sparkle, and more specifically her mane, which was incredibly badly burnt, and for some reason twisted out of shape. Midday Eclipse and Spike were bickering.
"It was your fault, you chased me!" The dragon said.
"You shouldn't have been eating ice cream!" Midday retorted.
"Why not?!"
"Because it's bad for you, that's why!"
"Says who?"
To Rainbow Dash's mind, it looked really, really like two siblings arguing, but the rational part of her mind (Which was currently the only bit still firing on all cylinders) dismissed this notion (Just because it was rational didn't mean it didn't suffer from the inherent problem of belonging to Rainbow Dash). Twilight just twitched slightly.
"Knock it off!" She yelled, before looking at Spike. "Show me." She hissed. The little dragon scratched his foot against the floor. Rainbow Dash rubbed a hoof against the back of her head and smiled nervously.
"I'm not sure that's such that's a-"
"Show me!" Instantly Spike quickly grabbed the mirror Twilight had been examining the paper-cut with, and pushed it in front of Twilight.
"Oh no!" Twilight said, "This is the same haircut Future Twilight had"
Rainbow Dash, never one to let an awkward situation pass by uncommented on, spoke up.
"Y'know... it really doesn't look too bad" she smiled, nervously.
"Would you have a haircut like that, Rainbow?" Midday asked. Rainbow Dash look at her.
"No way!" Instantly her eyes went wide, "I mean, not that it doesn't suit you Twilight" The mare just glowered.
"I don't care how it looks! It's just another sign that the future hasn't changed!" She sighed, "Not doing anything hasn't changed the future either! I wish there were a way to know what was going to happen so I could stop it!"
Strangely enough, it was Spike who spoke up first. "You wanna see the future? I might know somepony who can help"
*****
Midday remained in the library while Spike led Twilight off to see whoever it was that he claimed could see the future, though Midday could guess who it was quite easily, even without knowing the part Pinkie Pie played in the story. Rainbow Dash had followed after them, but probably wasn't going to stick with them, and Trixie had only recently woken up, before saying she was going out to practice again. Midday had rolled her eyes at that. Trixie was always practicing, never actually putting on a show, just sleeping most of the day away and disappearing for long stretches of time. So Midday found herself slowly falling asleep when the door slammed open and a brown-furred stallion rushed in, holding a strange device in his mouth like a pen, though this sonic screwdriver seemed to be green instead of the traditiona-
'Sonic what now?' She said, as the pony advanced on her. She could see Ditzy slowly walking through the door with a box held in her mouth, a box she knew contained muffins, since she'd asked Pinkie to make some for Ditzy the other day, and if Ditzy was here with a box then it was almost certainly the one she'd asked Pinkie to make. The stallion advanced on her and put his hooves on her head. She stared at him.
"What are you doing?" She asked. He frowned.
"Just checking for something I might have left here last time." He said, absent-mindedly. She suddenly felt like he was going through her mind, with something specific as its target, not caring what memories he uncovered. She could feel old emotions, long bottled up, beginning to return, memories she'd long since ignored. She stared at him, his expression one of what appeared to be concern, but then his expression changed.
"Found you" He said. There was an odd feeling, like something Midday hadn't even been aware of being pulled out of her mind. For a moment she stood there.
"What was that?" She asked. The stallion looked at her, and seemed to consider something.
"When I went through your head, the first time we met, some things of mine may have gotten stuck inside your head. 'Course, on their own they wouldn't have done much, but if there had been the right spark..." He suddenly looked guilty.
"If there had been the right spark, what?"
"Your mind would have become..." His jaw shifted slightly and he looked about the room, "Still, isn't going to happen anymore." He smiled, before turning towards the door. Midday watched as he left, and stared at Ditzy.
"Hi" she said, weakly. The mare gently placed the muffins on one of the desks.
"Thank you for the muffins, but it's really not neccessary." She smiled. Midday stared at the box, not sure what to say.
"Why'd you ask Pinkie to make them for me?" Ditzy asked, walking over to her.
"I just thought..." Midday frowned, and contemplated this, whether it was an idea to tell Ditzy she understood the way the mare was feeling, more or less, but just shrugged. "I thought it was the right thing to do, an apology for the town hall thing."
To her surprise, Ditzy just laughed. "Midday, you aren't responsible for what happened, and you didn't have to hire Pinkie to bake some muffins to make me feel better."
"Yeah, I know, but-" She looked down at the floor, "I just wanted to help."
Ditzy walked over to her, "And that's admirable, wanting to help others, but you aren't responsible for everypony's welfare, and you don't need to be."
Midday opened her mouth to respond to that, and stopped. She looked down at her hooves as she realised she'd been poking about a lot in a lot of affairs lately. "J's trying to help." She said quietly. There was several moments of silence.
"Muffin? Cures what ails you" Ditzy asked. Midday looked at the small box with pastries in it. She nodded and took a bite. She looked at Ditzy, who just looked almost offensively cheerful.
"Y'know, Dinky's really lucky to have a mom like you." She said after a few bites. Ditzy tilted her head.
"I've always seen it as the other way around." She looked around the room, "I've made mistakes. I've done things I'll always be upset with myself for, but Dinky... Dinky makes absolutely everything worthwile. If I didn't have her, I honestly don't know what I'd do." Midday smiled. She tried not to make some unsubtle remark about her own relationsip with her mother.
Then the door to the library swung open again and the brown-furred pony rushed in, a giddy grin on his face.
"Sorry to burst in again, but I couldn't help seeing that somepony's time-travelled here recently."
*****
Twilight Sparkle and Spike walked back from their appointment with the Mysterious Madame Pinkie, who in fact turned out to be Pinkie Pie pretending to be a fortune-teller, meaning all Twilight had gotten for her efforts in trying to discover the disaster awaiting everypony was a nasty concussion, which wasn't helping her sleep-deprived, terror-addled mind. However, she argued (even as she kept finding it difficult to walk in a straight line) that her mind was still as sharp as ever, and already it was rushing away with a plan to, in her own words, monitor everything. Spike had fallen silent at that, wondering whether it was an idea to contact Princess Celestia, or the hospital staff, or the lovely ponies at the Ponyville Home for the Mentally Interesting. However, Twilight didn't look like she was going crazy, like she had during the Smarty-Pants incident.
The pony and the unicorn walked up to the library doors and opened them, to find... Ditzy, calmly reading a book Pinkie Pie had donated named Cooking the Medival Waye, while Midday and the pony who called himself the Doctor were looking at a chalkboard.
"What's going on?" Twilight asked. In an instant the Doctor was waving a strange green light in her face, before humming.
"Okay, the magical signature definetely matches her, so it was her who she met." He looked at Twilight, "You've got a future, isn't that good?"
"What?" Twilight asked.
"He's been like that for the last ten minutes." Midday said, "We're trying to figure out what's going on with the whole 'time-travel' thing. Well, I say 'we', mostly just me while he reads history books and laughs."
"I can't help it!" He exclaimed, "They're just so... wrong."
"What." Twilight Sparkle said. The Doctor just smiled politely, in the way of someone who hasn't realised what they've stepped in isn't mud (Or at least, not exclusively mud).
"Anyway, from the look of it, it looks like one of my old spells that I wrote up when I was young. Was there a big flash of light and some wind?"
"Yes" Twilight Sparkle said. The pony just nodded at this.
"Thought as much. Little temporal loop thing, usually just used for party when you want more drink but couldn't be bothered to go 'round the shops to get some." He tilted his head slightly, "In honesty, not my most brilliant move ever, gotta say, mainly because whoever used it just ended up picking fights with themselves. Or worse." He coughed, and his face went red.
"Worse?" Twilight Sparkle asked, "What could be-... Oh. Oh! Oh!" She started blushing as well, and so did Ditzy when she realised what'd been said. Only Spike remained unafflicted, because he was still a baby dragon, and also still thinking of ice cream.
"And you made this spell?"
"He says he did." Midday said, "But bearing in mind he keeps insisting he's Star Swirl, which is just nonsense." Twilight noticed the Doctor was frowning. Twilight couldn't see it, but from the tone of what she was saying, she could imagine there was a grin on Midday's face as she followed up her statement.
"Why, it's as ludicrous as swapping somepony's Cutie Mark."
"Oh, I was working on a spell for that, got a bit distracted with a-" He didn't finish, since there was the sound of chalk dropping to the ground, followed by utter silence in the library. The next thing the Doctor knew an enraged mare was right in his face, glaring down her nose at him.
"You bastard!" she hissed. "You complete, utter- Do you have any idea what you did? The damage you inflicted?! You couldn't have checked to see whether your diary was still there?!"
"I tried to go back for it. But I never found it."
"Princess. Celestia." Midday hissed through gritted teeth. It wasn't really a full explanation, but she was incredibly angry and far beyond caring about making contextual sense. Occasionaly her eyes darted over to Twilight. Then she felt magic wrapping around her, and she was slowly levitated away from the pony.
"I'm not going to pretend to understand what your issues with Star Swirl are" Twilight Sparkle said, "Not now, not here, not when we've got a disaster staring us straight in the face, okay?" She deposited Midday on the ground, "Now, either you two figure out a way to co-exist, or I put one of you in a time-out, okay?"
Behind her, an impressed Ditzy raised an eyebrow.
"No eyebrows, Ditzy" Twilight said, causing the mare to feel startled.
"How di-" Midday asked, before realising that somepony who was taught by Princess Celestia probably could predict when somepony was going to raise an eyebrow. She looked over at the Doctor.
"Sorry for attacking you." She said, after a few minutes.
"Sorry." He muttered. For a few seconds neither of them said anything, as Twilight started instructing Spike to gather up as much graph paper as he could find.
"Did you really know Princess Platinum?" she asked, her curiosity finally winning out.
"Yes." He said. A grin spread across Midday's face.
"Cool."
*****
The rest of the night, Twilight spend monitoring everything, to which end she converted the bedroom into a makeshift lab, removed the beds (She said she'd put them 'elsewhere'), and somehow managed to get Midday and the Doctor swept up into it. Midday couldn't help but notice that neither she or the time-traveller had put up much objection. But then, she noted, Twilight Sparkle had a strange way of getting ponies to do as she asked. Neither pony put much effort into it, as it turned out, for the same reason, because they both knew it was a temporal loop. Eventually, Twilight stopped observing the Horsehead Nebula (as she proclaimed it to be) to glower at them.
"Why aren't you bothered? Why aren't you two panicking?" She said with what sounded almost like pride - and something else, irritation perhaps. "Why aren't you arguing, or saying what I'm doing is impossible? Why are you just doing whatever I say and taking it so... calmly?"
Midday was the first to react, and she just shrugged. "Because I do. I've always been like this. Maybe it's because my mother tried to raise me to be sensible, maybe it's because after the things I've seen and done I can't really be as afraid of something like this. I don't know. But then, pretty much every story that's ever been written about prophecies and such tells us that trying to run away from something that's going to happen just makes it happen worse."
"Time can be rewritten." The Doctor said from the other side of the room, having moved while nopony was looking at him.
"Says who?" Midday asked. He smiled again.
"Me" he said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Twilight shook her head and went back to monitoring everything, while Midday tried, largely without success, to pry the ice-cream from Spike. At one point she even joined in the ice-cream eating. At one point Spike looked up at her.
"What?" She asked. He looked almost ashamed of him.
"Nothing." He said quickly. Midday frowned.
"Spike, what is it?"
"Well, it's just... have you been sleeping alright?" He asked. She opened her mouth to say something but found herself unable to speak.
"Why do you ask?" She eventually managed to say. Spike looked over to where Twilight appeared to be examining a chart.
"It's just... some nights you've been... saying stuff in your sleep. And sometimes you make the room shake. I think that's when you're having nightmares." He said quietly. "Really bad ones."
Midday looked at him. She hadn't been sleeping properly, that was true, and there had been a lot of nightmares instead of dreams. She had assumed it was a temporary thing, but they'd been getting worse since the visit to Canterlot. And she could guess why. Guilt, her best and oldest friend from how often she encountered it.
She just looked at Spike, trying to think of something reassuring to say, but she couldn't think of anything. Twilight walked past them. "Everything alright?" She asked.
"Yeah." Spike smiled, to which Twilight nodded.
"Good, now could you, Spike, check the graphs, while Midday, can you check the telescope for a moment?" She said as she rushed toward the bathroom.
*****
Some hours later, just as Midday was fighting to stay awake, Pinkie Pie arrived. Midday and Spike waved, while Twilight muttered something to herself. Dinky had gone home, Trixie had taken one look at the remodelled bedroom, shaken her head and walked back out again, and the Doctor had just vanished. The normally jubilant party pony was visibly unnerved by Twilight's current obsession.
"Hey Pinkie." Spike said. The mare walked through the room, which was covered in scattered bits of paper and graphs and diagrams, and for some reason Twilight had bothered writing an equation on time dilation. Midday had examined it and felt a small amount of familial pride that even without sleep it was still accurate, as far as she could determine.
Pinkie 'oohed' as she looked about the room.
"Twilight's really serious about finding out about that cool birthday present, isn't she?" She said.
"Birthday present?" Midday asked.
"Yeah. She went to visit Madame Pinkie to ask her about the future, and Madame Pinkie said she'd get a cool birthday present." Midday just stared at Pinkie as she said all this. She briefly considered asking Pinkie whether she was actually aware she was Madame Pinkie, just to see how Pinkie would react. Then she thought better of it. Pinkie looked over at Twilight, who was writing something down in a book, before walking over and nudging her.
"Are you okay?"
The mare looked up and smiled. "Ah, Pinkie, I'm glad you're here." She dragged the mare over to a telescope, "Could you help me recallibrate the apetures on the nine and quarter catadioptric telescopes?"
Pinkie stared at the telescope, then back to Twilight. "Sure!" She smiled, before turning back to stare at the telescope. Twilight, meanwhile had walked over to one of her diagrams. "So, I was thinking, after I went to see Madame Pinkie and the flowerpot landed on my head" She motioned to the obvious bandage over her forehead, "See the bandage, just like the bandage from the future."
"From Tuesday." Midday pointed out, earning her a glare from Twilight for interrupting.
"I had an epiphany after that flowerpot. Doing things didn't work, not doing things didn't work, and I couldn't predict the future either, so I had only one choice: Monitor everything." Twilight was now leaning on Pinkie's face. The poor mare looked distressed, possibly because Twilight wasn't blinking as much as she should have.
"Because that makes perfect sense." Midday said, mostly to herself.
"Does to me." Pinkie beamed, nervously.
"That way, no matter what happens in the future, I'll be ready!" Twilight said triumphantly, Midday decided not to say anything, especially not related to clones, chaos deities, or switching Cutie Marks. She walked over to the larger telescope, "I thought I saw something last night in the Horsehead Nebula, but after staring at it for three hours I realised I was wrong!"
"Our coffee supply is now dangerously low, by the way." Midday observed, on seeing Pinkie about to say something. "Go on, ask her when she slept."
"When did you sleep?" Pinkie asked. Perhaps because she considered Pinkie a friend, Midday regarded the mare as slightly more sane than the average pony did. Anypony who had the foresight to stash items all over Ponyville was not by any definition insane, but the fact that Pinkie Pie was the one speaking in a calm and slow fashion was still worrying. Especially when Midday noted she'd never actually seen her mother acting anywhere near her current level of caffeine-fueled madness. That had practically annihilated her ability to sleep all on its own.
"Oh, I didn't sleep." Twilight said, casually, "I haven't slept since Future Twilight was here." She hopped onto some books and started scribbling on a piece of paper lying next to them. "There are only three days left until next Tuesday, I can sleep all I want after that!"
Spike, Midday and Pinkie exchanged looks. Spike, who was still eating his ice cream, looked at Twilight.
"You've been awake too long, Twilight." He said, glancing at Midday, who was still unwilling to use her becalming spell until she was sure the temporal loop was closed.
"Yeah" Pinkie said, "Tuesday's not three days from now. Tuesday's tomorrow!"
Twilight gasped and rushed up to the telescope she'd asked Pinkie to calibrate. Midday could already guess what was about to happen, the same way a person who sees a bunch of pebbles bouncing past them on a mountain knows what's about to happen.
Sure enough, there was a scream from Twilight. "My eye!" Midday quickly fought off her fatigue and rushed over to Twilight, examining her eye.
"Okay, it's okay Twilie, no sign of permanent damage, from what I can tell, but I'd recommend giving your eye some rest. And, you know, seeing a trained medical professional when we're done here" Pinkie meanwhile had rushed over to the fireplace.
"Don't worry, Twilight, I have eyepatches kept all over Ponyville, in case of eyepatch emergency." She said, putting the eyepatch over Twilight's damaged eye. "There. Now you look like a pirate! A really sleepy pirate, with a bad haircut." Twilight rushed over to a mirror, and instantly was filled with terror.
"The eye patch...! Another sign! Nearly all the signs have come true!" She rushed over to the chalkboard where she'd drawn a checklist of 'signposts' for Future Twilight. Only the torn outfit she'd been wearing was missing. "I haven't done a thing to prevent the catastrophe! If tuesday's tomorrow, and the disaster happens by Tuesday morning, then there's only one solution."
Midday did not feel any confidence at Twilight's attitude, and the mare's next statement didn't help.
"I'll just have to... stop time!"
There was the sound of the doorbell, and Midday walked downstairs to find the Doctor on the front doorstep.
"Where'd you go off to?" She asked, as he walked past.
"Checking around, got a little bored." He looked serious. "Why are the prices of bananas on this planet so insane?" She stared at him, and he sighed, as if telling the truth was an inconvenience.
"Somepony's messing with time. And time is my business."
"That'd be mom. She wants to destroy time so that it won't be Tuesday."
There was a brief pause as neither pony blinked, and Midday became accutely aware she still needed sleep.
"Anyway... upstairs." Midday said, before smiling awkwardly.
*****
It took some time to convince the Doctor that Twilight was not, in fact trying to blow up time as part of collaboration with a mad scientist. Midday noted that whatever a 'dahleck' was, it sounded vaguely Griffon-y (although she was fairly certain that even the most stereotypical mad Griffin scientist didn't want to blow up all existance), but once he did he tried to explain to Twilight how what she was doing was impossible.
"Don't bother." Spike and Midday suggested. Twilight sighed.
"Look, trying to stop time completely is... it's impossible. Trust me, as the only Time Lord in the room (or anywhere) speaking, completely impossible."
Twilight contemplated. "I'm still going to try." She said. Midday sighed.
"To be fair, if anypony could make a spell to stop time, it is her. Element of Magic, remember? She is magic, for all intents and purposes." She paused. "Future Twilight said she got her spells from the Star Swirl the Bearded wing of the Canterlot library. What would happen if Present Twilight doesn't go there now?"
The Doctor thought about this. "This conversation wouldn't have happened, and we'll all get nasty headaches." He finally said.
"But what's this got to do with Twilight's birthday present?" Pinkie asked.
*****
Twilight decided to get some rest, and managed to return the beds from wherever she'd put them, but Midday didn't feel like sleeping, not after the nightmares she'd been having.
'Or is it just nightmare?' She wondered. She decided to go talk to the Doctor. A question in her mind had been sitting quietly, but now Twilight was asleep it had returned with a vengeance, and she was determined to talk to him. She looked all over town, eventually finding him inside a small blue box screaming abuse at it.
"Something wrong with your box?" She asked. He paused, and swivelled to look at her.
"Yeah, something. She won't take off. I've done everything, but she just... sits here."
Midday raised an eyebrow.
"I thought the meta-crisis was why she wasn't going, but apparently, I was wrong. So now I'm stuck, here. Again. As a pony. Without hands. Or a horn."
"I had something I wanted to ask you about that, by the way." He looked quizically at her.
"Last time we met, you said she wouldn't take off becasue 'the paradox was too strong', what happened with that?" He looked embarrassed.
"Twelve hundred years, flying a barely-working time capsule, I can't be right every time. I went back and tried again." He concluded. He looked and Midday, and back to the box, and frowned.
"Well, I'll figure out why she isn't working sooner or later." He said, smiling slightly. She shuffled her hooves.
"Doctor, about the other day, I'm sorry. About getting angry at you, or Star-Swirl... it's just..." She bit her lip, and looked around. "Celestia used that journal as part of a plan of hers. And it nearly ruined the lives of my mother's friends, and... it ruined my mother's life."
He raised an eyebrow. "How?"
"Well, she's... going to live forever. When I'm fifty, she's going to look like a twenty year old. At her friends funerals, she's going to look like a twenty-year old. At-a..." She stopped, suddenly feeling breathless, "At my funeral, she's going to look like a twenty year old. And, by the way, this isn't some egocentric thing about not wanting to die, it's just... it's a lot of things. The last time we talked, we really didn't get on, and every day I'm here, in the past, I'm worried that the last memory she's going to have of me is just before I got zapped to the past is me trying to apologise, the last memory she'll have of me, forever. And ever. And I can see it in your eyes. You know exactly what that feels like." She said, looking at him. He looked uncertain.
"So, for all this time, I've blamed you, because it's easier than trying to blame Celestia, who was just trying to reward her student, or my mother, who... well, she was a bit clueless with her spellcasting, but... I can't blame her because she's my mother. I blamed you, blamed Star-Swirl the Bearded because you had no involvement in it. You just didn't finish a spell, and now... I have to watch my mother's heart break for me, and everypony she'll meet." She had been expecting tears, but for whatever reason, there weren't. She had been expecting to sound like she was more than just out of breath, but she didn't. She looked at him, his face expressionless.
"Anyway, I'll leave you to your box." She said, walking away. She didn't see or hear the Doctor pointing his screwdriver towards her, or his concerned frown.
She wandered back to the library, and wondered whether she wanted to go back to the library and sit around there again. She remembered what her other-dimensional counterpart had said, about needing to socialise. In her defence, she'd always been terrible at making friends. She stopped walking, and turned to walk towards a different part of town.
****
"Welcome to Carousel Boutique, wh- Oh, Midday, hello" Rarity smiled, as the royal blue mare walked through the door, "I never would've expected you to be here." Midday just smiled back.
"Well, I'm just waiting for Twilight to finish her nap, I thought I'd come talk to you, seeing as we haven't really interacted very much recently. Or, actually, at all" Rarity looked slightly flattered.
"That's... not entirely true, dear." The fashionista said.
"True, I suppose. So, how's business?" A glint came into Rarity's eyes.
"Going quite well, right now, as a matter of fact. Summer is the part season, so everypony wants dresses fixed up, or shirts reseamed, so I've been keeping quite busy, especially... after what 'happened', shall we say, to my esteemed competition, Generous Embrace." Rarity walked over to one of her mannequins, and started placing fabrics on it.
"And of course, there's been these wonderful rumours travelling all over Equestria of an important wedding in Canterlot. Apparently Shining Armor himself is marrying his longtime beau in the summer." Rarity sighed, and Midday could see her staring straight ahead for a moment. "To be young, and in love..."
"Rarity" Midday said, suppressing a chuckle, "You are young."
"It was a figure of speech." She retorted, "And there's apparently a royal wedding. Can you imagine it? A royal wedding, which means Pinkie will doubtless have dozens of street parties planned."
"Street parties?" Midday asked. Rarity looked at her, and nodded.
"Yes, apparently some years ago, back when Applejack's brother was young, there was all manner of street parties, celebrating a coronation of all things. Of course, you'd probably be a bit too young to remember such things." Her polite grin seemed to flicker, "You did say you were eighteen, yes?"
"Yes." Rarity gave no response to this, and just nodded.
"And doubtless, Twilight will get invited to her brother's wedding, if it happens, and she'll need a dress." Midday could see where this conversation was about to go, and Rarity's horn glowed, revealing a purple and green dress.
"What do you think?" Rarity said, her smile now incredibly eager. Midday stared at it for a moment.
"I think she'll like it." Rarity nodded.
"Of course, everypony loves to be married in summer, for the chance of a lovely dance in the cool of evening, with a silvery moon behind you, in the strong, muscular arms of your beloved..."
"Rarity, careful or you'll start drooling." A ball of wool bounced off her head.
"Have a care, Midday Eclipse, or I'll use you as a mannequin."
A slight pause came as Rarity started assembling fabrics.
"So, Rarity, have you designed the dresses for the others yet, or are they still in the works?"
"Still in the-" Rarity stopped speaking and turned to look at Midday, threateningly pointing her sowing needle at her. "Don't get clever with me, young lady. You are in my store, after all."
"Bet you'd love to design a wedding dress" Midday said quickly. Rarity nodded.
"Yes. I would." She shook her head, "I mean, I do, on occasion design wedding dresses, but... not as many as I'd like."
"And not for the ponies you'd like?" Midday asked. Rarity's eyes flickered.
"Yes, actually. I have actually been going over rough designs for each of the girls, but... aside from Pinkie Pie, and perhaps, just perhaps Fluttershy, I honestly doubt I'll ever have a chance to use them."
"Does that include me, or Trixie, by any chance?"
Rarity glanced about nervously, as if hoping for somepony to arrive and distract her. Nopony arrived.
"Actually, Midday, I suppose you wouldn't mind if I tried out one of my designs on you? You're about the right size and colour for testing it out, you see."
"I suppose I could." Midday said.
*****
It was an unusual dress, and a rather lovely shade of blue that was just a few shades off from her mane.
"Midday?" Rarity asked. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah..." She said, staring at herself. It was a really lovely shade of blue, she thought. And it went so well with her. She wondered if Rarity hadn't done that on purpose. She had heard of love-at-first sight, seen its effects, but she didn't know it could work with dresses.
She walked out of the changing rooms. "How much does it cost?" She asked. A light went on in Rarity's eyes.
*****
As it turned out, haggling with Rarity was an unusual experience. She was the Bearer of the Element of Generosity, after all, and therefore didn't have it in her to haggle, while Midday was convinced the dress was worth far more than Rarity claimed it was. They eventually reached a compromise, after half an hour of bickering. Midday walked away from it convinced she still should've paid more, though she asked Rarity to keep the dress, since she didn't have anywhere to put it.
"Perhaps you could wear it for your birthday party." Rarity said, before shaking her head. "No, wait, I forgot, dresses don't tend to survive Pinkie's parties. Silly me."
"If it's any consolation, Rarity, it probably won't get much use. My birthdays usually lean towards unpleasant, and I don't think any amount of Pinkie will change that." She smiled slightly before leaving the dress with Rarity.
*****
She spent much of the day doing similar things, helping Pinkie prepare special 'disaster' cupcakes, along with special 'no-disaster' cupcakes (Just in case, Pinkie said), watching Rainbow Dash perform some interesting tricks alongside Fluttershy, helping Applejack move some of the new apples around, along with keeping some rabbits that didn't belong to Fluttershy out of the garden, talking with Carrot Top, and surprisingly, watching Trixie and Dinky practicing for a performance, which Trixie defensively stated would be 'soon'. At around eight in the evening, Pinkie managed to find her (Apparently without even asking) and told her Twilight was ready for 'the Plan' as Pinkie called it.
*****
The three mares, and one dragon, sat in the darkened library (until Twilight told Spike to turn the lights back on), staring at a picture of the Royal Canterlot Library.
"Pretty" Pinkie observed, as Twilight handed out form-fitting outfits that were the right size for all four of them.
"So, we're doing what now?" Midday asked.
"I'm glad you asked that, Midday" Twilight said, as Spike went back to eating his ice cream. Midday wouldn't have been surprised if he was somehow keeping the whole of the Equestrian ice cream concern afloats with his insatiable appetite.
"We will reached Canterlot at ten P.M, and will, using a combination of cunning and subterfuge, enter the Royal Canterlot Library, and make our way to the highly secretive Star Swirl the Bearded wing."
"That's the whole plan? Walk in there, and find a grand total of one spell?" Midday asked as she struggled her way into the tight-fitting outfit, which seemed to compress her mane entirely.
"Yes." Twilight smiled eagerly at the prospect of reading subject material she'd not seen before. It was one of those infectious bouts of eagerness she had.
"Well, let's get going then." Midday smiled. The group turned, ready to leave.
Only Trixie was standing in the doorway, her eyes wide.
"What in Equestria are you four wearing?"
*****
After a few seconds trying to bluff Trixie, which ultimately failed, the four made their way to the train station, Spike still eating his ice cream, despite numerous suggestions that he stop.
"Three ponies and a dragon, sneaking about in order to forcibly gain entrance to a library, just to get access to a single spell, it's like something out of a book" Midday said. Twilight muttered something about 'quality' that she couldn't catch.
They were most of the way to the train station when they saw a familiar pair of ponies walking about. One had wings, a kind smile and blonde hair, the one had a bowtie.
"And where are you four sneaking off to?" He asked.
"Canterlot" Pinkie smiled.
"And you're dressed like that, why?"
Pinkie frowned. "Hey, Twilight, why are we wearing these things?"
"A) Stealth, B) because otherwise we'll all get 'nasty headaches'" Midday said.
"I thought we were wearing them for fun..." the pink mare said
"And you're bringing her along, why?" Ditzy asked, a tiny smile on her face.
"She livens up the monotony." Midday shrugged. Twilight just moved past them.
"We'll come with you" The Doctor said.
"You and Ditzy are together?" Midday asked, as the now five ponies and one dragon continued moving.
"No, just... we got to talking, about things. About my life, and Dinky, and other things."
"Completely boring and normal things that have nothing to do with going anywhere." The Doctor said quickly. Pinkie cheered at this.
*****
Waiting for the train with Pinkie turned out to be easier than Midday had been expecting, and once they were on the train, it was actually the Doctor who started speaking a mile a minute.
"This is nice. Never been on a train before, not in this body at any rate, but then, I've got a time machine, so why would I need trains, unless I was going to big myself up to people which... it's not very intimidating, is it? 'I travel in time and space, and trains!" He said, derisively.
Midday looked over at Twilight, who was still glancing at the sky, and the moon beginning to move through it.
"You okay, Twilight?" She asked. The mare looked at her.
"I feel a bit better for sleeping" she said, calmly.
"So, you're... not still planning to stop time, then?" Midday said hopefully. Twilight looked at her like she was mad.
"Then how would I prevent Tuesday?" She asked. Midday sighed.
"Well, how about we talk about something else then?"
"Like how Fluttershy managed to tame Cerberus?" Twilight said, "Which I didn't think she could do. She's normally so timid."
Midday found herself thinking back to what she'd said to Fluttershy some days ago, back when Twilight was still organising her schedule.
"Fluttershy's stronger than she thinks" she said quietly. Twilight looked at her.
"Midday, stop implying Fluttershy writes Daring Do. I'm well aware that she does."
Midday suddenly felt like her seat had been kicked out from under her.
"What?"
"When I was young I sent a letter to her when I read the first Daring Do book. I didn't realise it at first when I met her because she was so shy, but after a while, I realised it was her. That, and I remembered her signature."
Midday stared at her. For a moment she tried to think of something to say, but she couldn't.
"I guess Fluttershy asked you to keep this quiet, same as she did to me." Twilight nodded.
"But I would have anyway. She's my friend. And it was after all that nonsense with Photo Finish."
"Who?" Midday asked. Twilight just smiled good-naturedly at her.
"You'd know her when you saw her." She said.
Meanwhile, Pinkie asked the Doctor several questions a minute. Midday turned to see that and something occured to her.
"Ditzy?" The mare looked at her.
"Yes?"
"If you're here, where's Dinky?"
"Don't worry, she's with a friend."
*****
Fluttershy looked at the book. She had mixed feelings on it. She loved it, and disliked it (She couldn't bring herself to hate her own creation), she praised it and she ignored it. Given a choice she would rather have just left it on the bookshelf, but Dinky had asked to read it. And strangely enough, Dinky had been followed about by the three most enthusiastic fillies in all Ponyville, possibly Equestria, who had detailed to Fluttershy how exactly their school had been contacted and told that they were part of a special competition, with the winners getting a prize of attending a 'once-in-a-liftime' event. Fluttershy wasn't sure what that meant, but it sounded innocent enough. She lifted the book, and slowly made her way upstairs to the spare bedroom where the four fillies were lying in bed, looking innocently cheerful. She cleared her throat.
"Daring Do, and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone, chapter one..."
*****
The train slowed to a half, and the five ponies and one dragon alighted onto the station. They began walking, Twilight making an effort to walk casually, which like all attempts to be casual, failed.
"Okay" Twilight said once she was sure they were out of the sight of the Royal Guards, "The Royal Canterlot Library is right over there. Let's move!"
Midday coughed politely. Twilight turned to face her.
"I think perhaps we should split up. Two ponies and a dragon sneaking into the most guarded library in Equestria is one thing, but five ponies and a dragon? We'd stand out like tail extensions." Twilight looked at her.
"Point taken. So, what, how should we do this?"
"Well, I think... you, Pinkie and Spike, and then me, Ditzy and the good Doctor here."
Twilight's brow furrowed as she weighed options.
"Okay" she said, eventually "We'll meet you inside."
"So how are we going to get inside?" Ditzy asked as Twilight, Pinkie and Spike moved away. "Those guards don't look very friendly."
Midday's horn glowed, and the outfit warped and shifted into an smart looking shirt and tie combination.
"Appearances can be deceiving" she smiled.
*****
Getting past the guards proved easy enough, since Midday claimed she was doing some late night research, while the Doctor flashed a piece of paper at them, and they let him in. The three ponies walked through the darkened corridors. Every few moments the Doctor grinned.
"I have a library named after me." He kept repeating. He looked at Midday, then looked away. She noticed this and walked over to him.
"What is it?" She said. He shifted slightly.
"Are you going to tell her?"
She frowned.
"Excuse me?"
He looked at her, and his gaze seemed impossible for her to avoid.
"Are you going to tell Twilight Sparkle?"
She looked away. "How di-"
"Your memories are incredibly strong, I couldn't help but notice the ones about her, I really couldn't. But I didn't look at them, just... noticed. Are you going to tell her?" Midday looked at Ditzy, who was apparently not paying attention to any of their conversation, walking on some way ahead, not really looking at anything.
"I... actually, I was thinking of telling her on my birthday. I mean, my birthdays usually have something horrible happen, so I decided I'd remove some of the guesswork this time."
He said nothing to that. His thoughts were apparently on the fact that he had a library again. They kept walking, walking past the occasional guard who looked at them but said nothing. They eventually found the door to the Star Swirl the Beared wing on the library. The Doctor looked disappointed.
"Bit small." He pouted.
"Where're Twilight and Pinkie Pie?" Ditzy asked.
"Good question." Midday said, "I think most likely is that they're still outside." She looked at the window directly opposite the door. She lifted it open, and looked out into the slightly dark night, where she could just barely see a bright pink blob moving about. She lit up her horn, using it as a flashlight.
"Look, Twilight, Midday found us!" Pinkie cried out, followed by the sound of Twilight trying to shush her. Midday leaned back in, and waited. Some seventeen minutes later, Twilight, Pinkie Pie and Spike entered through the window. Twilight looked triumphant until she saw Midday, Ditzy and the Doctor standing there.
"How did you get in so easily?" She asked.
"The front door." Midday said, rolling her eyes.
"Now all we have to do is find the Star S-"
Midday pointed at the door. "You did actually get some sleep, right Twilight? You weren't double-checking the history of Canterlot architecture or something?"
The mare grinned slightly at that. Midday looked at her.
"Seriously?"
Twilight wasn't paying attention, merely examining the lock. "Now all we have to do i-"
The Doctor pointed his screwdriver at the door. After a few seconds there was a small 'click' and he nudged the door open. Midday stared it the device.
"So, that's a screwdriver?"
"Sonic screwdriver" he said.
"And it opens doors."
"It does other things" he said defensively. "I mean, yeah, it opens doors, but it heals scabs, re-attaches barbed wire, fixes lightbulbs... detects stuff. Doesn't do wood. Or hairdryers." He frowned.
"'Doesn't do wood'? What does that mean?"
"Anythink made of wood, this thing won't have any effect on it. Bit of problem there, been trying to fix it." He said sheepishly.
*****
Twilight looked at all the scrolls, her mind both awed at the sheer volume of material, and astounded at the lack of care in organising them. She fought the urge to get started on organising the shelves. She had other things to do. Then she walked past a conviniently placed mirror. Her first thought was wondering who put a mirror in a library, the second was the realisation of a horrible truth. Her hair was burnt and twisted, she had an eyepath, a bandage across her forehead, and she was wearing an outfit designed for stealth that was torn and scratched
"Look!" She announced, "I look just like Future Twilight... the last sign has come true!" She said grimly.
"And that's bad right?" Pinkie asked.
"No, just means we're acting out the temporal loop. Nothing wrong with that, unless you try to understand the ontological paradox, which..." Midday stopped, "Ignore the paradox!"
"Oh, don't worry 'bout paradox. Worry about the poor filing in this place." The Doctor said from somewhere deep in the library. Another question occured to Midday.
"Hey, whatever happened to 'time can be re-written', by the way?"
"Well, once you know about it, it can't be changed, becomes fixed. So stay away from ominous prophecies."
"Way ahead of you. Way ahead"
"Will you two knock it off?" Twilight said, "It's almost Tuesday morning! The disaster could happen at any moment."
"But, how do we find the time stopping spell?" Asked Spike, "There must be a million scrolls in here."
"Seven hundred thousand, nine hundred and eighty five." Ditzy said immediately. Everypony stared at her.
"I counted." She said, at everypony's astonished looks. Twilight looked about nervously.
"We'll have to search them all."
And so they split up, everypony taking a shelf. Midday noticed Pinkie constantly glancing at whatever scrolls she looked at, before tossing them away. She felt a slight burn of indignation at Pinkie's lax treatment of the books.
"Pinkie, you are reading these things, right?"
"Yeah. I can read really quickly." The mare smiled, looking at one book, and skimming through it.
"What's an angel?" she asked. Midday looked at her.
"It's all through this book, and it keeps saying 'don't blink'. It's the first thing this book says, 'don't blink', followed by all sorts of nonsense about statues." She tossed the book away, "That guy needed a better girlfriend."
Midday paused for a moment, before her mind helpfull came to the rescue with the remind of 'That's just Pinkie'. She went back to reading, and noticed at one point the spell she'd used to age herself by four years. She considered burning it, and thought better of it, just tossing it away. She was still Twilight Sparkle's daughter after all. She was pretty sure she was biologically programmed to be unable to harm any book. Every few seconds she thought she could hear Spike snoring gently, before grunting as he woke up.
Then she heard bird song, and noticed there had been a sudden increase in the amount of sunshine.
"Twilight, it's over!" Spike declared, "It's Tuesday morning!"
"No!" Twilight said. "Tuesday morning, the disaster! Incoming!" Midday watched as the battered mare braced herself.
Then, nothing happened. Or nothing out of the ordinary happened. Birds continued to sing, the trees outside waved in a gentle breeze, clouds wafted lazily overhead.
"I dunno, Twilight." Spike said, looking out the window, "I don't... see any disasters. Looks like a pretty nice day."
The Doctor sniffed slightly. "Might be a bit of wind later." He said, "Temperature stays in the medium all day, some clouds in the evening, perhaps."
It was a nice day, and a very lovely sunrise, althought the view from Canterlot was practically designed to look beautiful. And then, one of the strangest moments in Midday's life happened. Princess Celestia walked past, barely blinking at the sight of five ponies and one dragon, three of which were dressed for infiltration, and two of whom were dressed like librarians.
"Good morning, Twilight" she smiled, "Love the new hairstyle. Well, happy Tuesday!" And then she walked right past them, humming to herself. Twilight just blinked.
"Why isn't anypony surprised to see me here?"
"Because you're always in a library?" Midday suggested.
"Is it possible there never was a disaster?"
"Quite possibly." The Doctor said.
"That I've just been making myself frantic over... nothing?!"
"Well... it would hardly be the first time, would it?" Midday said. Spike looked about.
"I don't get it. If Future Twilight wasn't warning you about a disaster, then what was she trying to tell you?"
"Oh, isn't it obvious?" Midday said. Everypony looked at her. "You was trying to tell yourself to not worry."
Twilight stared at her for a moment. "Yeah, that makes sense." She sighed wearily.
"I can't believe I got all worked up over that. I mean, look at what's happened, I look... ridiculous."
"Well, a bit of sleep, and maybe a visit to Rarity, and you'll be looking like you soon enough." Midday smiled. Twilight nodded.
"And it's all because I couldn't stop worrying and let the future handle itself." She looked determined, "Well, not anymore. From now on, I'm going to solve problems as they come, and stop worrying about every little thing."
Midday shook her head. "I'd love to believe that, I really would."
"That's great!" Spike said. "Does this mean there won't be any late night pacing?"
"No more late night pacing." Twilight smiled. "If only I'd learnt this lesson earlier, we wouldn't have gone through all this."
"At least we got a mildly entertaining story out of it." Midday said. Then Pinkie rushed over to them.
"Twilight, Twilight! I found something! It doesn't stop time, but it lets you go back in time. It says you can go back once, and only for a few moments. Does that help?"
The Doctor looked at it, and smiled. "My handwriting. Or hoofwriting, I should say. Or hornwriting. Goodness, that takes me back."
Twilight took it and looked it over. She seemed to like what she found.
"Pinke, you're a genius!" The mare cheered at this. Everypony looked at Midday.
"What?"
"I just thought you were going to make a sarcastic remark, or something." Twilight said. Midday looked at her in confusion.
"Twilight, Pinkie Pie is probably a genius, I mean, she made a cannon that shoots parties."
"And a cannon that shoots cake!" Pinkie said, thought she wasn't smiling, "Now, if I could build a cannon that shoots cakes that works, that'd be super-duper fun!"
Twilight looked at the scroll. "Now I can go back and tell past Twilight she doesn't need to go berserk with worry about a disaster that's never gonna come!" Her horn glowed, and there was a massive flare of magic, wind whirled dramatically, and after a bright flash, she disappeared.
"Sorry, wasn't listening there, was she trying to change the past?" The Doctor asked. Midday nodded.
"To be fair to her, she hasn't gotten sleep in days, so she's not at the top of her game." She looked about.
"Where'd Ditzy go?"
"I'm over here." The mailmare announced, "Just found an interesting book is all. Tell me, do these sort of things usually happen to you?"
"No." The Doctor said, "I usually have much more fun things happening to me. Gods and monsters and everything inbetween, all of time and space to see, always more to do."
"Sounds interesting." Midday said.
"You could come with me if you like. I've always got space." She looked at him, and shook her head.
"No thanks. I've had enough time travel for one life." She smiled. Any further discussion was interrupted by a roar of wind, and another flash of light as Twilight returned.
"-aste your time..." She looked about the room, and realised where she was, "Worrying... about." She groaned.
"I can't believe I did that."
"Did you tell her about the cool birthday present?" Pinkie smiled.
"Nice try, Twilight, but you can't really complain. It's a temporal loop, you had to go back in time or otherwise you wouldn't go back in time. Or you could've just taken a note or something." Midday paused, wondering whether a note would have survived the trip, although considering her saddlebags had survived, a piece of paper probably would have as well.
"I can't believe past me is going to spend all that time freaking out about a problem that doesn't even exist!" Twilight groaned again. Pinkie just nudged her.
"Don't worry about it!" She smiled, "It's past Twilight's problem now."
Twilight thought about this, and giggled. "I guess you're right Pinkie."
Suddenly, there was a strange groaning noise, as Spike collapsed holding onto his stomach.
"My stomach!" He exclaimed, "I think it's all that ice cream... I thought it would be future Spike's problem, but now I am futue Spike." He groaned. Midday shook her head and lifted him onto her back, as Twilight and Pinkie giggled.
"Let's go home, everypony." Twilight said.
*****
Ditzy watched as everypony walked out, finishing the sentence she was reading, and set down the book. She'd never heard of it before, but it was an interesting one.
'The Song of Stars', she thought, 'What an odd title'. She looked at the stallion who she'd travelled with, and considered what he'd said, and thought about asking him something when they got back to Ponyville.
*****
A few minutes after they were gone, a pony appeared to complain about the noise level, finding several discarded scrolls and books. He'd been camly studying the stars upstairs, but now that morning had come he was just trying to get some sleep. He shook his head, which had no effect on his already dishevelled ginger mane. He looked at the mess, and decided to be helpful and clean up the mess. Comet Chaser may not have been a librarian, but he didn't want anypony to get into trouble for something that wasn't their fault if he could help it.