Professor Layton and the Equestrian Silence

by Crystal Blue

Chapter 14: A Matter of Time

Chapter 14: A Matter of Time

Sugarcube Corner was a luxuriously designed building, decorated on the outside to look like a cake. Even the white icing styling that decorated the roof had been delicately applied. It was certainly an impressive landmark, somewhat different from the thatched houses that surrounded it.

“This is where another of my friends lives and works,” Twilight explained. “It’s strange that I haven’t seen her around anywhere. Is it possible that she...?” The saddened unicorn couldn’t bring herself to finish the sentence.

“Unfortunately, the probability is quite high that your friend has been taken.” Layton couldn’t lie. “You have my word, Miss Sparkle. We will find her. That is a gentleman’s promise.”

“I hope she’s okay. I really do.” The three of them entered the door into the bakery. The interior was decorated with numerous baked treats. There were rounded tables and stools laid so that any customers could sit and eat, all whilst having a conversation. However, the shop was empty, save for a couple sitting behind the counter. It was immediately apparent that the couple were deeply upset.

“Mr and Mrs Cake! Are you alright?” Twilight enquired, worry overcoming her face.

“Oh, Twilight,” sobbed Mrs Cake, looking up. She was a female earth pony, her two-tone mane manipulated into a tall bouffant. Tears streamed down her blue face. Sat beside her was a slender yellow earth stallion, freckle-faced with a mane of vivid orange. His green eyes were welling up, fighting a losing battle against crying. “It’s awful!”

“Pinkie hasn’t shown up to work for a couple of days,” Mr Cake explained through plaintive sobs, “and now the twins have gone missing too! Just this morning!”

“What shall we do?”

“Would you know where the twins would’ve gone?”

“Well,” Mrs Cake spoke through sniffles, “Pumpkin Cake tends to prefer the city, and Pound Cake seems to go wherever Pinkie Pie does. But Ponyville’s a big place for a baby pony, and we don’t even know where Pinkie has gone!” Twilight’s mind lit up like a light bulb.

“Of course!” Without hesitation or explanation, the lavender mare dashed upstairs, before returning with a chest in control of her magic. Luke stared open-mouthed.

“Hey! What are you doing?”

“Of course!” Mr Cake cottoned on quickly to Twilight’s actions. “Pumpkin likes to chew on things she shouldn’t, especially her toys. If only she were more accepting of food...”

“Exactly!” The magical mare was bubbling with confidence. “We can lure Pumpkin back to Sugarcube Corner with her toys! Leave this to me, Professor!” She darted away.

Puzzle 037

“Pumpkin has 8 toys in her toy chest. I would bet my horn that she’s trying to get into the toy shop to the north of the area. If she’s something directly left, right or straight ahead that she wants to chew, she will crawl to it. Thankfully, I’ve been keeping an eye on her magic surges for the Cakes for a while, and she’s not due for another one for a few days. But if I get too close then she may use her magic to get away, so just picking her up is out of the question.

“Now if I place her toys in the right places, I can lead Pumpkin right back to Sugarcube Corner.”

The humans sat down in the bakery, awaiting Twilight’s presence. Mr and Mrs Cake were huddled together over two cups of Cherry Boost tea, feeling their moods a little more uplifted. Luke was twitching restlessly on his stool.

“Come on, Professor! We have to hurry!”

“Be patient, Luke,” the professor advised calmly. “We still do not know Ponyville well enough. It would be to no-one’s advantage to venture out again without her.” An uncomfortable sigh echoed from the lad’s mouth.

“Alright...”

Five minutes later, Twilight dashed in through the door.

“She’s coming!” she hissed excitedly, placing one final toy in the middle of the shop floor. Surely enough, a tiny filly in a nappy crawled through the entrance, her beady blue eyes fixated on the dragonfly plush doll awaiting her gummy mouth. The youngster was an off-yellow, with a light orange mane and tail, with a small bow taking pride of place on the point of her mane.

“Ah, excellent work, Miss Sparkle,” the professor commended the prodigy on her expedient thinking.

“Ooh, my baby Pumpkin! There you are!” Mrs Cake scooped up the innocent pony from the floor. “You gave us a dreadful shock, dearie!” Mr Cake was happy, but the absence of the second twin bore heavily on his mind.

“Let’s find Pound and Pinkie before we celebrate too much, dear.”

“Oh... yes, you’re right. Will you three find them for us?”

“Of course, Mrs Cake,” the man in the hat stood tall. “It is the duty of every gentleman to help those in need. We shall find them.”

“Thank you, Professor...” Twilight led the charge again, but the gallop was immediately halted by the sound of something fast approaching. A rogue shadow on the ground grew larger and larger, until a blue telephone box slammed onto the road, shattering a couple of windows upon impact. An old stallion’s yell piped from past a window frame.

“Hey! Will ya keep it down? Some of us are on nightshift here!”

“My apologies, sir,” Layton raised his voice within his gentlemanly demeanour, before turning his attention to this strange object. Along with being a blue box, it bore a single caged light on its roof. A sign above the double doors read ‘Police Public Call Box’, and a sticker on the right door read in a circle ‘St. John’s Ambulance’.

“What is that?” Luke was shocked at its appearance.

“It appears to be a police call box. They were seen across London in the 1950’s.” Twilight chipped in.

“It’s more than that, Professor. I know who this is!” At this point, one particular mailmare drift past the small gathering, stopping to take in this unfamiliar structure.

“Ooh...” Derpy enthused. “It’s so pretty... I wanna touch it.” Too late. The doors swung inwards, revealing four ponies.

“Don’t blame me for following my curiosity!” The first male accent was reminiscent of Middle English, with particular words punctuated by pitch raises. The pony matching the voice stepped from the shadows, a brown earth pony with a darker brown mane, swept back and spiky, and a golden hourglass on his flanks. He wore a dark blue neck tie.

“Well, I’m blaming you for not raising your shields properly! This has happened before, remember?” The second male voice was slightly more controlled. If it weren’t for the bubbling annoyance in it, Layton could tell that it would be a more calming voice. The second stallion stepped out, another earth pony with beige, a brown mane with a fringe framing one side of his face, and another hourglass cutie mark.

“Neither did you raise your shields!”

“I know that! It happened in my past so I already know! Hang on a moment.” The second stallion poked his head back into the box. “Derpy!”

“Yes, Doctor!” a pair of voices rang out in almost perfect harmony. Lo and behold, out from the box flew two Derpy Hooves. The first thing they saw was Derpy the mailmare.

“Hi, Derpy!” The three Derpys chorused.

“Oh, dear...” Layton could sense what had happened.

“Well, this is a new one on me,” Twilight spoke quizzically, looking backwards and forwards between the two Doctors. Let me guess, trouble with the TARDIS?”

“Well, yes and no,” the first of the Doctors began. “You see...”

“We both came across a peculiar energy signal,” the second jumped in, “from the Everfree Forest.”

“Yes, and he crashed into me...”

“No, you hit me!”

“No, I didn’t!”

“Yes, you did! For all things that are, was I really that arrogant?”

“Will I really end up being that thick?”

“Jumped-up, scrawny urchin!”

“Pompous, baby-faced clothes-horse!”

Twilight had had just about enough.

“DOCTORS!” she yelled at the top of her lungs. Another growl came from the same broken window.

“WILL YA SHUT UP DOWN THERE? I’m trying to sleep!”

“Sorry!”

“Excuse me, gentlecolts,” Layton stepped in to make sense of the chaos. “We’re you able to discern the source of the energy?”

“From what we could tell,” Doctor No. 2 replied, exasperated, “It was no bigger than an average pony. It came from some sort of structure, as far as we could tell.” The three Derpys circled each other, giggling at each other making silly faces and staring in wonderment at the miracle that was the street lamp.

“Funny thing was, though,” No. 1 continued, “when the energy readings spiked; the needle flung itself from the TARDIS console and embedded itself in the nearest pillar.”

“Mine ended up in the swimming pool.”

“You have a swimming pool?” No.1 asked in awe. Doctor No. 2 wore a smug grin.

“I’m not such a clothes-horse now, am I?”

“Don’t get cocky, I’ll get that soon too.”

“Yes, you will. Now, then, on the way down here we developed a device to separate our TARDISes. Made it out of an old LCD game, a couple of laser lights and some crisp packets. This is some of my- I mean, our finest work.”

“Yeah, but it’s a tiny bit difficult to operate. Care to lend a hand to a time-traveller, you sharp-suited man?”

“Hold on, Professor. I want to give this one a shot.” Luke stepped up to the peculiar device.

“By all means, Luke.”

Puzzle 038

“Right, so here’s our device. It’s a little complicated, but that’s how it goes with all things timey-wimey. You’ve got to get that metal ball down to connect those wires together.

“Problem is with that laser array. If you cross any laser lines, the thing shuts down and we’re stuck here. If you break any of the bulbs with the ball, the device short-circuits and we’re stuck here. Bit of good news, the laser array only points beams parallel with the walls of this contraption from all of the bulbs. No diagonals.

“At the moment, it’s impossible. Don’t try it, just trust me. Now, I can disable 2 bulbs without the array noticing, but no more than 2, else we’re stuck here. Which 2 bulbs need to be disabled?”

“What a weird device!” Luke exclaimed.

“Oi!” the two Doctors chorused, quite offended by the boy’s outburst. The youngster figured out the device, showing it to the two stallions. The second of the Doctors pulled out a strange electronic wand, clad in black, white and gold, gripping it in his teeth to point it at one of the bulbs.

Whirr... Click! The first bulb was out. Whirr... Click! The second bulb followed suit. Luke pushed the bearing through the maze, careful not to trip the array. He let go of the metal ball, allowing gravity to take it to the end and connect the wires. In an instant, the TARDIS split into two, one TARDIS with the sticker on the right door and one without.

“Right, then,” Doctor No. 1 started, not even breaking a sweat. “Off we go! Luke, thanks for your help.”

“Mr... Whoever you are, thanks for stopping by,” No. 2 continued. “Twilight, look after yourself. We’ll meet again, I’m sure.”

“Thank you, Doctor” was Twilight’s answer. The two Doctors nodded to each other, before turning to their TARDISes and stepping inside, closing the doors behind them. Twilight looked on with half-closed eyes. “Just give ‘em a moment.” Twilight called it perfectly. The Doctors stepped out their doors, passed by each other and stepped into the other TARDIS they were each supposed to enter.

“Come along, Hooves!” Doctor No. 2 shouted.

“Coming, Doctor!” One of the Derpys broke from the group. “See you later, Derpy! See you later, Derpy!” She waved, not realising as she crashed into the side of her TARDIS. “Oops. Heehee.” She chuckled, realigning herself with the door before flying through. It clicked closed behind her, before the TARDIS made an outrageous thrumming noise. After a little while, it vanished into time.

“Can’t believe I’ll be that daft,” The remaining Doctor sighed to himself. “Derpy! Time to go!” Another Derpy broke formation and headed for the last TARDIS. She was about to drift straight past the entrance when the Doctor caught her with a hoof and helped her inside. The door clicked, followed by the same metallic sound. The TARDIS eventually dissipated from view.

“That was... strange,” Luke noted, wide-eyed at the exchange.

“Indeed, it was quite peculiar.” Something was on Layton’s mind. He turned to the slightly dazed unicorn. “Your friend, Miss Pie, what is her personality?”

“She is quite nutty, really,” Twilight, ever the realist, started off strong. “She really enjoys throwing parties, wants everypony to smile, you can’t keep her down, even if you try.”

“Well, then,” the professor smiled. “I think we have our next destination.”

"Bye-bye!" Derpy waved over-enthusiastically, as the glow swallowed them again.

A little while later, the three investigators arrived at the other end of Twilight’s teleportation trick, just outside Fluttershy’s cottage. Luke landed precariously close to the edge of the stream, Layton catching his arm just in time.

“What are we doing here, Professor?” the apprentice felt the need to enquire.

“When the Doctors spoke of an energy signal originating from a source no larger than a pony, I formed a hypothesis that Miss Pie would be the source. One piece of advice from Twilight here confirmed my suspicion: That Miss Pie couldn’t be kept down. Would you say that Miss Pie was unbridled in her activity level, Twilight?” Twilight guffawed slightly.

“’Unbridled is an understatement, Professor. Anyway, let’s see how Fluttershy is doing.” Layton, Luke and Twilight rounded the corner. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle’s attention was drawn towards the mild pegasus and her animal friends. Apple Bloom was dashing around, putting finishing touches to the hutches and the chicken coop. Rarity had also arrived, presumably to comfort her friend through the rebuild. Also present were Spike and Cranky Doodle. Spike was first to notice his adoptive sister’s arrival.

“Hey, Twilight!” Spike dashed over, smelling faintly of paint.

“Hey, Spike. What are you doing here?”

“Well, Cranky stopped by the library and said that Fluttershy needed help. I thought it best to tell Rarity, of course.”

“Of course you did...” Twilight’s dry response was enough to elicit a weak chuckle from the baby dragon.

“Well, as Fluttershy and Rarity get along better than most, I thought that would help the situation.” Spike forcibly grinned, before gulping to address his drying throat. Layton came across Apple Bloom first. The earth filly had worked up a sweat in reconstructing the buildings.

“Howdy, Mr Layton, sir!”

“Hello, Miss Apple Bloom. I see you have made tremendous progress. Your family will be pleased to see your efforts.”

“Aw, shucks, Mr Layton, yer embarrassin’ me! Ah, if only ah could fix that darn bridge.”

“What seems to be the problem?”

“Ah think ah’ve got all the materials ah need, but it’s a case a’ figurin’ out how it all goes together. Ah could use yer brain on this.”

Puzzle 039

“I firmly believe that you do have the correct materials for the bridge, Apple Bloom. What’s more, as they are laid out here, they do not even need to be rotated or flipped.”

“I think this arrangement should work. What do you think?” The young female looked at the layout.

“Uh, yeah! That’ll work! Thank ya kindly, sir!”

“The pleasure is all mine, Miss Apple Bloom.” Layton tipped his hat, before making his way over to the other ponies, particularly Twilight.

“I think it might be time to split our efforts, Miss Sparkle.”

“Oh?” The unicorn was taken by surprise. “Well, if you think that’s best. Rainbow Dash is still unaccounted for, after all.”

“Where would Miss Dash have gone?”

“The city of Cloudsdale. Unfortunately, anypony who’s not a pegasus normally can’t get there. Lucky for me, I’ve got a hot air balloon and a spell for walking on clouds.”

“Excellent. I suggest that Luke accompany Fluttershy for this.”

“Just Luke? Fluttershy might do a little better with somepony more... familiar to her.”

“Who do you suggest?” Hershel’s question put the smart pony into thought.

“Hmmm... How about Spike?”

“That is a good idea. Let’s prepare.” With that, the professor and Twilight Sparkle set about organising the parties, ready to bring back Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash.