//------------------------------// // Chapter 16 - Time // Story: My Family and Other Equestrians // by Blade Star //------------------------------// I woke up the next day, early as always. While a boat load of stuff may have happened over the last few days, it was still Applebuck Season. In my absence Big Mac and AJ had completed another two sections of the apple orchards. There were now two left. If we could do one each day, which was a reasonable estimate and workload, we would be able to finish up by the end of tomorrow, though weather schedules could force a change to that. After that, it would be a case of making up the cider and then preparing for winter. As I left my room, I met Applejack in the hall. I wished her a good morning, which she returned. I wondered if before long, my southern accent would become the norm and my old way of speaking the anomaly. I wouldn’t mind that; I was a new pony after all. As soon as we reached the breakfast table, I was set upon by little Apple Bloom. The young filly had so many questions, as children always do. In a rapid fire quiz round, she asked me about my family, myself, what I knew about her and the Crusaders, what my old world was like and about a dozen other things before Granny Smith interrupted her and quietened her down. “Now, now Apple Bloom, at least give him a chance to answer some of those questions ‘fore ya ask him all the rest of ‘em,” she chided kindly. Apple Bloom thought for a moment about which question she wanted answered first. The result, in hindsight, was inevitable. “What’s yer cutie mark mean, Blade Star?” she asked. If it was still possible, I would have pinched the bridge of my nose. As it was, lacking fingers, I simply rolled my eyes. “Well Apple Bloom, Ah had my cutie mark when Ah got here. My OC, which is what Ah look like now, got it ‘cause he’s really good at protectin’ folks.” I paused; I had done that to an extent while I was here. When we arrived at the Everfree Forest, I had guided my family through all its perils and got them safely to Ponyville. And when Twilight had had her little lab disaster, I had immediately gone to help then too. Maybe that really was my special talent. I hadn’t really considered such a concept back on Earth. “What about yer family? Do they have cutie marks too?” Apple Bloom offered another cutie mark based question. I partially regretted telling her, as she would undoubtedly offer my family membership to her organisation. “Before I tell you, Apple Bloom, you should know that humans don’t actually get cutie marks, ever.” I waited for this to sink in. “So technically, all three of my family members are blank flanks.” While this key phrase triggered Apple Bloom’s interest, she did not begin planning to incorporate my family into the Crusaders, I breathed a sigh of relief as she headed off to pack her things for school. “Oh Apple Bloom,” Applejack said. “I swear, one of these days she’ll recruit every colt and filly without a cutie mark into that club.” “Hey at least it’s somethin’ constructive and pretty safe,” I replied, pretty being the operative word. “Back on Earth, kids would form gangs just as an excuse to steal stuff and fight each other.” I didn’t go on to discuss what those gangs evolved into later on. “Ah suppose, Ah just wonder what they’ll all do when they finally succeed. They’ve been huntin’ for their cutie marks for so long, Ah can’t imagine ‘em not doin’ it,” Applejack replied. She finished off her breakfast and stood up. “C’mon then you two, time’s a’wastin’.” “Right behind ya, Applejack,” I replied. “Eeyup,” added Big Mac. The penultimate day of Applebuck Season saw us in the eastern orchard. Here, apples were not the only thing hiding in the trees. Apparently, since Winter Wrap Up this year, a colony of Fruit Bats, not the vampiric variety, praise Celestia, which had been forced out of another orchard, had taken up residence in the trees. When struck then, the trees would release both apples and these multi-coloured bats, which would be no doubt irritated at having their rest interrupted. AJ gave me some quick instruction on how to handle these creatures. “Now, when ya buck the trees,” she said. “These critters’ll come buzzin’ out. Best thing to do when ya set ‘em off, is to wait and let ‘em settle down again in the cleared tree. When they’re back to sleep, move on to the next.” Not all the trees had bats in them, so it really was the luck of the draw. It might be that you could clear a whole row and find none, or find a colony in every tree. It would certainly throw out our usual rhythm. By about ten o’clock in the morning, we were spread out all over the orchard. Applejack so far, was in the lead, having encountered the least fruit bats. Big Mac had had his fair share of them but was coping well. I on the other hand, well, let’s just say Discord wasn’t lying when he said he could sense my species chaotic nature. For the last three rows, every single tree had had bats in it. More than once I heard the pair snigger slightly at my misfortune. An hour later though the situation was reversed. I was ploughing through trees and working up quite a sweat, whilst Big Mac had been forced to a snail’s pace. Applejack seemed to be blessed with continuous good luck and merrily worked her way through her section without trouble. Big Mac however, was getting sick of the brightly coloured, and fantastically noisy Fruit Bats. “Consarn it! Will ya’ll just shut the hay up!” he bellowed angrily, rearing up to take a swipe at the pests. “Now, now, Big Mac,” I cautioned jokingly. “Ya gotta respect the local wildlife. Got just as much right to be here as you.” Big Mac snorted again and muttered something about the stupidity of wildlife protection laws. After all, we were lucky that we could even harvest these trees at all, since the bats were endangered, we could not move them. At midday, as usual, Applejack called a halt to the work. One of these days I would have to stay with them for lunch, which I had not done since I had arrived. Today though, I had to go meet a fellow alien I left Applejack to prepare the lunch with Granny Smith, while Big Mac continued to grumble about the Fruit Bat infestation. So, once again, I found myself trotting into Ponyville. I still can’t get over that expression, it still sounds weird to me. Time Turner’s shop was not too far from Quills and Sofas. Unlike the latter’s unusual business model, his clock shop was a relatively common sight. The windows were filled on both sides of the door with wall clocks of several designs and even a huge grandfather clock possibly taller than Celestia. In the foreground, were a variety of ornate watches. One of these was a silver pocket watch, on the cover, was carved a number of High Gallifrayan markings which I could not hope to decipher. This was more evidence of Time Turner’s credentials. I considered on the walk over there what I would say to him. I couldn’t very well greet him as The Doctor now could I? Since he had his fob watch, he might have repressed his Time Lord characteristics. Perhaps that was why he was a pony. In the end I decided to begin by dropping subtle hints, and if I got a reaction, I would become more obvious as to my knowledge of his true nature. I stepped through the shops front door, the bell suspended above the frame chimed happily. Almost instantly, my ears were assaulted with a symphony of ticks and tocks and thousands of clocks counted off the hours, minutes and seconds of the day. I looked to the front of the store. The counter was empty, but I could see a way to some sort of back room. “Hello? Anypony here?” I called out. From the back, I heard a variety of crashing sounds, as if somepony had dropped something, this was accompanied by the odd curse. “Be right with you, my friend,” a voice not too dissimilar to my own called out. “Just give me a minute. Oh and you might want to cover your ears.” “Why’s that?” The question had barely left my mouth before I was cut off. All at once a variety of gongs, chimes, calls and melodies erupted as every single clock in the store struck the hour. Luckily, as it was only one o’clock, the noise was brief. As things settled, Time Turner emerged. His brown mane an unkempt mess and a wild look in his eye that showed both brilliance and madness. The earth pony laughed. “That’s why, lad. Just be thankful you didn’t come an hour earlier. I recall once when a Pegasus shot out of here in a flash when they all struck twelve.” He smiled kindly, wiping his brow with a foreleg. “At least it wasn’t a cloister bell. I’ve heard one of those before too, fantastically loud thing when you’re trying to concentrate,” I replied, hoping this first reference would be picked up. For a moment, he started, before quickly recovering and brushing off my comment. “I wouldn’t know about that I’m afraid. Now what can I do for you. Blade Star was it? I take it you’re one of our extra-terrestrial visitors?” “I just wanted to ask you a couple of physics questions. Twilight tells me you’re quite the scientist.” I readied another reference. “I imagine ponies like yourself would love to see some of the technology we’ve come up with over the years. You probably could do with your own spacecraft.” Again he started, but remained unruffled. “Oh no thank you, I’d much rather keep my hooves on the ground. I’m no Wonderbolt. So what do you want to know?” “I just need to work out the composition of a metal I found near where we all landed.” Time for a big reference. “I think it’s Dalekanium.” This got a reaction, of sorts. “Why don’t you just stop beating around the bush and tell me what you really want, dear boy?” He said his voice serious now compared to his tone a moment ago. “Fine, I’ll be blunt. I have need of your ship to get my family home.” In vain he tried to throw me off. “A ship? Dear boy, in case you haven’t noticed, we’re about as far from the coast as you can get,” he replied. “You know what I mean,” I countered. “Don’t play dumb.” “Now you listen to me you little…” I cut him off. “Doctor.” Instantly, he fell silent. He seemed to fall into deep thought. “It’s been such a long time since anyone called me that,” he said, after a long pause. “I take it you are a human then, and you are aware of this world from that children’s show?” I nodded “Then it seems we’re both victims of circumstance.” “What do you mean?” I asked. “I take it your travelling here was not your doing? I can’t leave here because of this dimension’s time vortex. At best the TARDIS is able to travel to a point in the past, and only materialise for about a minute. Hence how I am here now. The TARDIS is about twenty years hence, so I have to sit and wait. But, I have got enough to do for the moment.” He paused, thinking. “The trouble is that even when I do ‘catch up’ with the TARDIS, I still can’t leave this dimension. And it seems, neither can you.” So that was that. The Doctor himself was stuck here, unable to leave. That seemed to put a dent in any hopes of sending my family home. Was it wrong of me to be happy with this arrangement? I thanked the old Time Lord, giving my word that I would tell no one, especially my own family, of his origins. It did surprise me though that neither of my parents picked up the reference Twilight inadvertently made that day at the library. Maybe they just saw it as another strange part of this world. I walked back toward Sweet Apple Acres. Strangely enough, I encountered all three members of my human family on the road there, heading the same way. “What are you three doing out this way?” I asked. “Still house hunting?” Back on Earth, my parents had been heavily into renting out houses and took the expression ‘right time to buy’ way too far. The current count was seven, not including our home. “No, we’re heading up your way actually,” my mother replied. “Twilight told us to head to the barn at Applejack’s and we met your sister on the way.” Nopony was with them, and Ponyville did seem quieter than usual. I guessed that Pinkie was finally making her move. She had had to put off the party for over a week after all. When we reached the entrance to Sweet Apple Acres, we found Apple Bloom waiting for us. She was grinning like a Cheshire cat and making no attempt to hide it. “Howdy, AB. What’s with the smile?” I asked. My parents looked toward me, as did Lizzie at my sudden change of accent. “Oh, ‘s nothin’, Blade Star,” she answered. “Applejack just told me to tell ya that she’s cancellin’ work for the day and wants ya to come on back to the barn.” This was definitely our party, and the little filly promptly shot off in the direction of the barn. My inner brony once again made itself known at the prospect of attending a genuine Pinkie Pie party. I decided not to tell my family, who seemed completely mystified at this turn of events. We neared the huge red barn that marked the dead centre of the Apple family’s property. I briefly considered the number of possibilities that lay behind the door. Pinkie might have readied her Party Cannon, she might literally roll out her Welcome Wagon, hopefully putting the cake and streamers in the right place this time, or she might have used the barn’s size to create a huge three figure attendance, town wide party for us. With that, I opened the door. “SURPRISE!”