Discord looked around at all the ponies. "What should I do first?"
Pinkie Pie's party cannon launched a pie at Discord. The pie hit him in the face.
"Ok, who threw that?" Discord licked his face clean. "Hey, razzleberry."
The ponies all looked at Pinkie Pie.
"It was an accident!" Pinkie Pie said.
Discord snapped a party balloon and a pin in front of Pinkie Pie. The pin popped the balloon, and the air tossed Pinkie back to a wall.
"Hey, you can't do that!" Without her wings, Rainbow Dash jumped off the cloud and charged Discord.
"I'm so afraid," Discord mocked.
He snapped and turned the ground where Rainbow Dash was into quicksand. Rainbow Dash was swallowed up to her chest. The ground then returned to normal.
Discord asked, "Does any other pony want to try?"
I asked, "Princess Luna, what are we going to do?"
Luna replied, "I don't know."
Discord laughed and said, "Oh, I'm so happy I decided to come back and take over again. Oh, this is far easier than I ever expected it would... hold on, who are you?"
Vinyl Scratch pulled up a giant mechanical speaker. "Alright, everypony, take a seat. I got this."
Discord laughed. "And what, pray tell, is that?"
Vinyl Scratch responded, "Ah, its nothin' special, it's just my BASS CANNON!!"
Viny pressed the red button on top. The speaker opened up. Music poured out as a giant beam of light shot out towards Discord. Discord screamed at the sight of it.
Rainbow Dash stared at the light. "So awesome."
Discord crystallized into stone.
Pinkie Pie jumped over to Vinyl and said, "That was amazing!"
Vinyl said, "Aw shucks, it was nothing."
Applejack said, "Where did you get such a crazy contraption?"
"I built it myself. I am an engineer afterall."
Twilight Sparkle meandored over and asked "How did you know we would be needing it?"
Another pony walked up and said, "I believe I can answer that."
"Doctor Whooves?" I asked.
Doctor Whooves took out a scroll. "First I need to give you this, Twilight."
He handed the scroll to Twilight. She unrolled the scroll and looked over it.
Twilight said, "This is a scroll to restore magic!"
Doctor Whooves said, "Use the scroll on Moonlight and Princess Luna. I'm going to need them at full strength."
Twilight used her magic on Princess Luna and me. As soon as our strength returned, we stood up.
Luna said, "Thanks. I really needed that."
Doctor Whooves said, "Now that you are standing again, you may want to sit back down. I have an urge to tell you my story."
I asked, "Why? What happened?"
Doctor Whooves explained, "Perhaps I should began when I first arrived in Ponyville. It was such an unusual place filled with ponies who cared about each other. To help me out, I enrolled a pegasus as my assistant. She was a bit ditzy, but very good at keeping her eyes open from the sky.
"It was the day of the Summer Sun Celebration, and Nightmare Moon crashed the party. I thought for sure I would have to intervene, but Twilight and her friends did a marvelous job breaking her spell with the Elements of Harmony. Instead of moving onto the next place, I found Ponyville captivating. There was a rare form of essence that flowed through the ponies that you couldn't find anywhere else.
"Of course, not all the ponies respected my privacy. There was one time I traveled through the marketplace and was confronted by the cutest little pony. I had to buy some apples just to get her to leave me alone. Another time, Pinkie Pie pushed up a welcome wagon and began singing to me."
Pinkie Pie said, "A welcome wagon? Why didn't I think of that?"
DING! Doctor Whooves looked around. DING! "Oh, where did I put that thing."
Vinyl pulled off the back of the speaker. "Oh hey, you left your device in my speaker." Vinyl handed the device to Doctor Whooves.
I asked, "What is that?"
"This is my timey-wimey detector. It goes ding when there's stuff. I used it to trail after the anomalies in Ponyville. I just had to make sure to keep it away from Fluttershy's place."
I asked, "Timey-what?"
Doctor Whooves said, "It was a better name than wibbly-wobbly detector. Doesn't quite describe it well enough."
Twilight asked, "What anomalies?"
"Rifts in space and time. They are all over the place. You just can't see them. It was as if giant space worms tore holes in the fourth dimension. That must be where they got the name wormhole. In fact, I wonder if anyone has actually seen a wormhole."
Vinyl said, "You doing it again."
"Right. The rifts. The first one I discovered was at a cider competition. The ponies were feuding over some trivial thing, and the mayor needed a pony to start the event. To get close enough to the device, I volunteered. I turned the hourglass. And then it happened. Nothing. I waited and waited and waited. Nothing. They removed the hourglass after the competition, but the rift was still in place."
I asked, "Was that in Sweet Apple Acres?"
Doctor Whooves said, "That sounds about right."
I said, "I bumped into that hourglass earlier. It had me cross over to another timeline for a few seconds. Same thing when I bumped into the hourglass in the library."
"Interesting... I found a rift there too. It was the same frequency. Very much like the one left by the pegasus."
I asked, "Pegasus? Was she gray with a green mane?"
"Yes. My assistant was the one that stumbled upon her. They ran right into each other. She got up and walked away from me. That was when my detector went off. I wasn't about to have her get away. I trailed her, but the closer I got to her, the faster she ran. Then she disappeared. The rift was still there, but there wasn't much I could do about it. All that running and she just suddenly vanished into thin air. Got my hooves all muddy too."
I asked, "How did you find out about the time scroll?"
"I guessed."
"What?"
"Oh it was when Twilight Sparkle was going on about a huge catastrophe. She said she met her future self. I followed her to the Canterlot Archives. My detector went off, and I saw an explosion. Time. Unicorn. Place with a bunch of books and scrolls. Stuff."
I said, "But that doesn't explain how you knew I was going to be at Wrek's place."
"I can explain that. After the explosion in the Canterlot Archives, I decided to build the Time Refractor. Kept that thing on me at all times."
I asked, "You mean that brace around your leg is the device?"
"Yep. Such a cozy fit too. Sure glad I had it on when that big explosion hit. Why, it was the same time I was tracking down that rift. I followed it to a house and knocked on the door. That nice fellow let me in. We had a nice discussion. Feels like it was just yesterday."
I said, "That was today."
"I must be getting old. Or would that mean I'm getting younger? Anyways, when I brought up the Elements of Harmony, he seemed surprised. His recollection of past events was different than mine. It was when I discovered that explosion must have been some temporal displacement. I asked him for a scroll and wrote a note in case you happen to come by his place."
I asked, "You mean you didn't know I was going to be there."
"Temporal displacement. Elements of Harmony. A pony with connections. It was enough for me. If not, I had planned to write out a couple more letters."
I asked, "And when did you meet up with Vinyl?"
"The shockwave fried my timey-wimey detector. I had to find a replacement part. Wrek was kind enough to direct me to an engineer he knew, Vinyl. He also told me that in order to get on the train, I would simply ask for Shining Armor. That would get me into the city.
"I found Vinyl at her place down in the basement. She was working on a super weapon. She directed me to where the replacement part was in the room. I took a look at Vinyl's speaker and recalibrated the sonic frequency. That must have been when I put down my detector."
"Shortly after, we heard a large noise outside. We went to investigate."
Vinyl said, "That was when I decided to test this bad boy out."
I asked, "I still don't understand how Princess Luna and I dodged the effects of the shockwave. Ordain too."
"Best way to explain it is with a coin. Every decision, every action we take gives off two separate results - either something happens or it doesn't. Lay the coin flat and it only reveals one side. One side of the coin shows the results if it did happen, while the other side of the coin shows if it didn't. Princess Luna and you contain a rare gift that sets you on the outer border of that coin. No matter how the coin lands, you retain your very presence. Ordain simply flipped the coin. The essence of the coin is still intact, but only one side is shown.
I asked, "Is that why it is still night and Princess Celestia didn't show up when Princess Luna transferred over?"
Doctor Whooves said, "Precisely. Although you two might have retained your memory, the effects of the world around you still remained the same, including what was left by Nightmare Moon. Its a little tricky. She is Nightmare Moon but she retains her memory. You will still need the Elements of Harmony to break the spell."
Twilight asked, "Why did you have me use that scroll on Princess Luna and Moonlight?"
"I need your help. I compiled the data of all the rifts in Equestra, and they all gravitate close to a single point. The hourglasses act as relay stations. When I used the three hourglasses and triangulate them, I was able to find the place where all the rifts originated, theoretically of course.
"I would have fixed the timeline myself, but I needed a point in time. That was why I sent you the letter Moonlight. Did you happen to find the right time?"
I replied, "Yes I did."
Luna asked, "Did you need me too?"
Doctor Whooves said, "Yes. When I used my device to find the origin, the device pointed me upward into the sky. I need you to fly me up."
Rainbow Dash asked, "How does this restore us back to normal?"
Doctor Whooves said, "When Moonlight restores the timeline, everything should go back to normal."
I said, "I've done it once before in the caves. I should be able to replicate the procedure again."
Twilight said, "Does this mean we won't remember any of this?"
Doctor Whooves said, "Exactly. Only Princess Luna, Moonlight, and I will be able to retain our memory of the experience."
Applejack asked, "So this means goodbye?"
I said, "Oh Applejack, don't fret. I'll still see you all afterwards. I'll tell you all about it." I looked at Ordain's book. "What about Ordain?"
Doctor Whooves reached down and picked up the book. "I'll make sure he doesn't change the timeline again."
I asked, "Wait, where were you when Ordain first striked Equestria?"
Doctor Whooves said, "You don't want to know."
Luna grabbed one of the nearby chariots, and Doctor Whooves and I got on. We took off into the air. Luna said, "Tell me where I need to go."
"It seems the rift is that way." He triangulated the centroid of the three points and pointed the device. "They seem to be coming from that giant cloud."
I said, "It's coming from Cloudsdale."
It was inside one of the buildings. We entered in and Doctor Whooves pinpointed the spot. With conjuction with his sonic screwdriver, I was able to form a portal.
Doctor Whooves said, "You know what to do."
I went through the portal and found Sumica putting on a uniform.
"Sumica!" I said.
"You can't be here," she replied.
"Sumica, stop this."
"I can't."
She started to wobble around. "I don't feel well."
I responded, "It's ok. Come back with me."
With a flash she was gone and so was the rest of Cloudsdale. The entire world around me transformed into Luna's place. I
was standing alone with Princess Luna.
"Where am I? What happened?"
Luna responded, "Slow down. I think it worked."
She opened the door, and we could see the sun shining out.
I said, "I think it worked too. You think that was the last time we heard of Ordain?"
Princess Luna replied, "Maybe. I'm sure Doctor Whooves would make sure of that."
I asked Luna, "Should we tell the others what happened?"
Luna asked, "Do you think any of them will believe us?"
I smiled. "Maybe we will tell them in time."