//------------------------------//
// Praelocutio 
// Story: Mr Turner and Twilight 
// by TheOldRedHills 
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There was a beautiful celebratory air on the day of Twilight’s Coronation. Ponies were celebrating in the best way they knew how to, throwing hundreds of parties all over the land of Equestria, celebrating the new Princess. Ponies danced in the streets, in their houses, in the sky. There wasn’t a single inhabitant that wasn’t overjoyed over the crowning of Princess Twilight Sparkle.

That is, except for one Earth Pony, Time Turner. He was sat in his little house in Ponyville, drowning out any and all noise from entering his mind, using stuffed balls of Cotton Wool in his ears. Using his two front hooves he appeared to be carving a wooden ornament from a block of wood, to go with a collection he had made for his shelves, which contained musty old books on Science, Time Travel and many other concepts brought up by many great Magic Users and Scientists alike over the past millennia. Time sat his comfy leather chair in almost pitch blackness, looking at all the other Ponies celebrating through closed curtains.

Ugh, he thought, what were they celebrating, another new Princess? Give me a break.

The Pony had a project upon which he was working on, which was far too complex for him or any one Pony to achieve, causing a lot of unnecessary stress. Over time his confidence over this had made the former bubbly, eager, eccentric personality of his dwindle into that of spite and jealousy. This made Time Turner scorn at anything that came his way, but this was multiplied upon hearing of the new Princess.

Out of nowhere, though, came Princess Celestia, teleporting into Time Turner’s house using her powerful Alicorn magic, it gave the Earth Pony a fright as he jumped in his seat. The God-like creature, even though she looked tired after the events of the day, she still carried herself like any good ruler would do, and still looked at Time Turner with the utmost seriousness.

‘Celestia, what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be celebrating Twilight’s coronation?’ Time asked with a shocked tone.

‘Yes, Time Turner. However, there are more pressing issues at hand.’ Celestia intrusively decided to look at all the small ornaments in the Brown Pony’s humble abode, which put him on edge.

‘Like what?’ He asked trying to divert the conversation elsewhere. On second inspection the Princess could smell a hint of alcohol coming from Turner’s breath.

‘I’m just going to cut to the chase. I have heard from an outside source that Queen Chrysalis is reforming her Changeling Army.’ Celestia said with regret.

‘And how does this concern me?’ Time Turner started to get annoyed at the Princess’s presence in his drunken state, which is unlike any other Pony in the kingdom.

‘Well… she’s not rebuilding her empire here,’ Celestia started to explain. ‘Instead, she’s figured out an extremely powerful spell of Dark Magic origin. This spell allows her to go into a universe we know very little of, to any time period as well. It’s very difficult to track her location but we need someone who knows the science and how time works in order to help us capture her. That means we need you, Time Turner.’ 

‘Are you being ridiculous,’ Time Turner scoffed. ‘I’m just the timekeeper. I keep the time, that’s all I was meant for when I got this damn Cutie Mark. All I do is regulate the time in Ponyville so then Ponies don’t freak out when the clocks stop working and they think time has stopped.’ He muttered, pointing to his flank, which showed that his Cutie Mark was an hour glass, an obvious symbol of Timekeeping.

‘I know that, but don’t play dumb with me, Time Turner. I know all about your little “experiments”.’ Celestia gave a smirk that made her appear confident.

Time Turner let out a sigh, got out of his chair and began to lead Celestia someplace else. They ventured down a flight of stairs which appeared to go underground. When they finally reached the bottom and into Time Turner’s basement, Celestia was shocked at the many contraptions there actually were. Different machines of varying sizes all played in a circle, in the middle of said circle, there appeared to be some kind of launch pad or mat, with many different things connected to the pad from the machines. This chaotic mess was a sight to behold, but Time Turner looked at it with resent and embarrassment.

‘Wow,’ Celestia said in awe, looking around the many contraptions. ‘I didn’t think that your progression in time travel was as advanced as this! Was this at all based upon Starswirl’s original blueprints?’’

‘Well, yeah, but I made a few adjustments to adapt to the advanced technology,’ Time Turner said with a hint of pride showing in his tone. ‘It’s only a prototype, and even then I’ve not tested it, it’s far too dangerous.’

‘It does need some polishing,’ the Princess pondered for a second. ‘I’ll discuss with the engineers in Canterlot about this.’

‘What?! You can’t do that, this is my work!’ Turner started to become as rotten as he usually can be, despite speaking to the ruler of Equestria.

‘You didn’t let me finish,’ Celestia still spoke in her calm demeanour to combat the snappy behaviour from Time Turner. ‘I want you to lead the project in readjusting and improving this time machine until it is fully capable of transporting any pony through any dimension to any time.’

‘But Princess, that’s such a difficult job,’ Time began to panic when the news hit him like a ton of bricks. ‘Surely you can’t get someone else in with more experience?’

‘Mr Turner, I have complete confidence you will be fine.’ Celestia placed a hoof onto Time Turner’s shoulder, calming him down.

‘Well I guess if you say so.’ He responded, looking to the ground.





It was 7 o’clock the following morning. Princess Celestia had just raised the sun, and sat on her throne, waiting for a guest she had invited the previous night.

Suddenly, Time Turner came rushing in, he wore a long scarf that wrapped around his neck, he carried a paper cup filled with strong coffee in one of his hooves, and a bag on his back that was filled to the brim with notes and other devices that he felt was necessary, he looked exhausted.

‘I’m sorry I’m late Princess,’ He said, panting like a dog. ‘I missed my alarm and the trains up here from Canterlot were delayed and-’

‘Mr Turner, you’re only 3 minutes late.’ Celestia said with a royal laugh.

‘I know, I just like being on time, considering it’s in my name and all.’ Turner awkwardly said with a chuckle in his voice.

The Princess rolled her eyes and gave another laugh. ‘Anyway, these Gentlecolts would like you to follow them.’ Celestia raised her arm and pointed at a scrawny Colt in a lab coat.

Time Turner wandered with the Pony Engineer until they reached a large hall-like room, where there were about twenty other ponies, all staring at him, which was brought as quite a shock to him.

‘Now, we’ve been ordered by Celestia to build this “Time Machine”,’ the Head Engineer addressed the Earth Pony, rolling his eyes. ‘Do you have any blueprints that we can use as a starting point?’

Time Turner lifted the bag off his back and dropped it on the floor, spilling out the hundreds upon hundreds of notes and prints onto the floor. The team of Engineers began to get curious and excited.

‘Here you are,’ Turner said with a smile. ‘Now let’s get building!’

As the coming months passed, the small team, under the instruction of Time Turner, began to construct a new and improved version of the Time Machine. The production was an on/off process. Especially under certain circumstances such as the Machine almost being completely destroyed by the overgrown roots of the Everfree Forest. Many of the crew failed to turn up during the period where Tirek attacked Equestria, and the production had to be called off for many weeks until everypony was able to work again. But after 9 months of slogging their guts out, through the blood, sweat and tears, the Time Machine had been constructed. The final stage of testing had begun.

Time Turner placed a camera and tripod on the newly constructed transportation pad and pressed record.

‘Right, this is just for the camera, but this is the final non-pony test for the “TT-6102” or it’s Codename: “Mercury”,’ Turner spoke in a professional manner towards the camera. ‘The three tests we are going to do today will be of time travel, dimension jumping and both in unison. I have my assistant here who will cast the spell to activate “Mercury”. Are you ready?’

‘I most certainly am, Mr Turner.’ The eager assistant chirped.

‘Alright, let me just adjust the settings, and we will begin.’ Turner seemed very excited that it was hard to disguise it on camera, despite how overworked and close to falling asleep he was. He went over to the main control panel and began to press several buttons and twisted a few dials. Time Turner then returned to the camera.

‘Our first location will be involving time travel, and I have set the location for last year’s Winter Wrap Up in Ponyville for a 5 second duration,’ He turned to the assistant. ‘On the count of three, fire the spell. One! Two! THREE!’

The young assistant fired a mighty multi-coloured spell from her horn, which sent the Time Machine working. There were many loud noises and flashing lights that made the room seem like an overblown lights show. In a massive explosion, the camera was gone.

Time Turner and the rest of the crew waited in silent anticipation, beads of sweat dripped from Turner’s head, hoping that his machine could actually work.

Finally the Camera returned in another flash of light and a bang, and the Ponies gave a sigh of relief. Time Turner recollected himself and spoke once again after readjusting the controls:

‘Secondly, this Camera shall experience Dimension Hopping, which means going to an alternative universe entirely. I have selected to go to the world which is already assessable by Pony-kind, this being the world that lies upon the portal in the Crystal Empire. Once again on my mark, One! Two! THREE!’

The assistant once again fired the spell, which got the Time Machine working again. As the machines engine revved greatly, the camera once again disappeared and returned successfully, making the crew excited, knowing they only had one more test left to complete, albeit the most difficult.

‘Finally, we shall be trying to transport the camera both through time and through to a different dimension at the same time. For this I have equipped that the camera go forward in time by five years to a world where Nightmare Moon rules instead of Celestia.’ Time Turner said proudly.

‘That’s a very ambitious choice there, Mr Turner.’ His assistant, looking weary from performing the highly difficult and dangerous spell, responded.

‘Thank you, now, for the final time, on my command. One! Two! THREE!!’ 

The final spell from the assistant was cast, and she collapsed in an exhausted state. The machine, also tired from the constant strain it’s had put on it, made a very loud grating noise as the Camera was sent on its journey into a different time and dimension. So loud in fact, all the crew had to cover their ears. That is except for Time Turner, who was determined to see if his magnum opus was in working order.

When the Camera disappeared, there was a much longer silence this time, about fifteen seconds. Whilst this time was still short, many of the Engineers had now thought that there was no recovering the potentially lost recording.

Suddenly, in a blinding burst of light and sound that shook the very room in Canterlot Castle, the Camera returned back into the room. The Machine then shut down completely, exhausted of all the power it had used. All other artificial light sources blinked off as well, leaving the team in mostly darkness.

Time Turner stopped the recording and took a look at the recording. When the machine was first activated, he saw the camera beginning to gather static on the screen, but then it pictured a beautiful snow covered depiction of Ponyville. This was in no doubt a successful transportation to the Winter Wrap Up that Turner had requested, which made him more than excited.

Then when the second phase of the experiment was put into place, the Camera gained the same amount of static as before, which Time decided was a side effect to the device reacting negatively with the transportation. Then he saw a new world, in darkness, but Turner could make out that it was most probably building of some sort, which was shut for the day. This world  was the one beyond the Crystal Empire based off of reports, so Turner nodded his head in satisfaction.

So two of the three experiments had been completed successfully, making Time Turner happy, yet there was still the third, and most difficult of the experiments yet to come. As the Camera made its final journey, the static returned with a vengeance, almost making the video unwatchable. When the grey pixels cleared, however, Turner saw exactly what he wanted. The footage was very dark, with what appeared to be a large amount of Foliage growing, probably from the Everfree Forest. In the last second before the Camera came back, there was a glimpse of a Pony in purple armour, no doubt the signature brand of Nightmare Moon.

Time Turner knew what this meant, the experiments were a success. He ran around the room and hugged every single tired, cranky, yet joy-filled Crew member. His wish had become a reality.





‘Now, we can finally set my plan in motion.’ Celestia said in delight after hearing of the good news.

‘What would that be, Princess?’ Time Turner was still exhilarated and it showed in his voice.

‘Well, I need somepony to go back in time and into this Dimension, find Chrysalis and stop her before she can release her Changeling Army. We have no idea when she can attack.’ Celestia kept her head held high whilst perched on her throne.

‘I have a feeling you were going to ask me to do this.’ Turner said with a hint of worry in his voice.

‘Yes, Mr Turner,’ It was more than apparent that ‘Mr Turner’ was no longer a little nickname used by the Princess, but the only thing the stallion gets called nowadays by every Pony in the castle. He liked it, however. ‘But whilst you may be knowledgeable on the transportation and time in general, we need someone who knows Chysalis well enough to face her in combat.’

‘What about you, can’t you come along?’ Mr Turner asked curiously.

‘Oh, I would, but if I were to dismiss my Princessly Duties, even for a second, the entirety of Equestia may crumble.’ The Monarch said in an upset tone.

‘Well, who could actually do a mission as potentially dangerous as this?’ Turner looked to the ground in dismay. Celestia rubbed her hoof against her jaw to show that she was thinking. All of a sudden her eyes widened and a small smirk grew on her face.

‘I think I know just the Pony to help you out…’