Chapter 1
Princess Cadance stretched her wings wide as the door to her throne room thudded shut once more. The Crystal Court was interesting, sure, and she was proud to serve her nation wholeheartedly, but it had the unfortunate side effect of being a very passive event. Hours upon hours of listening to bureaucrats and entrepreneurs talk her ears off always left an uncomfortable crick in her spine, and she itched for a flight to just get some fresh air. She spied the sun hanging low in the sky outside, a clear indication of just how long she had endured sitting on that blasted throne.
Cadance gave a wistful sigh, knowing that this week was going to be a long one for the Court. It was to be expected, of course, after the announcement she had made to her people a scant few days ago. The thunderous applause and intrigued faces of the crowd had elevated her spirits at the time, but she should have known that it would be a long and arduous process before her creation could be provided to the public. There would have to be testing, ethics committees, council meetings, and no doubt several long-winded rants from stuffy idealists before any steps could be made toward production.
“Still,” she said to herself as she idly preened a couple of feathers that had become misplaced as she sat. “I have a chance to revolutionize Equestria. To think of all the good that could be done for the ponies of this land… It’s well worth the headache getting there. Someday, I’ll be able to introduce everypony to–”
The door swung halfway open as one of her crystal guards entered. The pegasus saluted. “Apologies for bothering Your Highness during your daily monologue, but Princess Twilight Sparkle is here for your appointment.”
Cadance straightened herself, glancing regally at the guard. “Thank you, Private Cuttjoff. Please send her in at once. Then, head down to Research and Development and inform them that we shall be arriving within the hour. Also, if it’s not too much trouble, could you stop by the barracks and–”
“Alert the prince of your meeting with Princess Twilight?” He saluted once more as the princess nodded the affirmative. “Of course, Your Highness.”
As he left the doorway, Cadance relaxed her pose and smiled to herself. If anyone would be willing to help pursue her project, it would be her sister-in-law. Cadance knew for a fact that Twilight’s predilection for learning about new things was undoubtedly matched only by her love of her studies in friendship.
It was the latter point in particular that convinced her that Twilight would be cooperative.
“Cadance!” Twilight Sparkle’s cheerful voice rang out from across the room as she pushed the hefty stone door swung shut behind her. Cadance stood, glad to give her rump and back a bit of reprieve from the seat. She kept telling herself that she would get more comfortable cushions one of these days, but there were more important matters to tend to right now.
“Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake!” The duo went through the well-rehearsed greeting step by step. “Clap your hooves and do a little sha–whoa!” Twilight gasped as Cadance changed up their formula with a quick twirl. She let out a giggle as she wobbled a bit on her hooves.
Cadance stifled a giggle with a hoof. “Sorry. Sometimes you just get the urge to be a little spontaneous, you know?” She held out a leg to steady the other mare before she toppled over.
Twilight shook her head to clear it as her vision returned. “We’ve been doing that same dance for fifteen years! Who are you and what have you done with Cadance?” Her hearty laughing was stopped abruptly. “Wait…”
A feathered limb flicked her in the back of the head before her theory could go any further. “I’m going to stop you right there before you start looking for my doppelganger in the castle dungeons.” They shared another laugh at the absurd situation. “Besides,” Cadance continued, “I think you’ll enjoy what I’ve been working on even mo–”
She stopped dead in her tracks as a low growl echoed through the high ceiling of the room. Cadance scoffed, "You know, this is at least the third time I've been interrupted. Maybe the universe is trying to tell me something."
"Yeah, or maybe it's your stomach." Twilight gave the pink belly a cautionary poke. "When's the last time you ate, string bean?"
"Hey, you're one to talk!" Cadence rolled her eyes. Twilight stuck her tongue out; there was no use arguing, after all. It was true that she herself hadn't had a bite to eat since before she hopped on the train to the Crystal Empire. "What do you say to some daisy sandwiches? I've instructed our chef to make them just how you like."
"Four flowers, no crust, cut diagonally, toasted for precisely 40 seconds, and with a dab of honey mustard on top?"
“But of course. What, you thought I forgot your favourite lunch as a filly? Puh-lease.” Cadance laughed and beckoned Twilight to follow as they left the grand throne room. “I had it down by the end of the first week.”
Twilight folded her ears back with an embarrassed chuckle. “Come on, I didn’t have them that often,” she said.
Cadance said nothing but whistled innocently as they trotted down the hall.
Twilight felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise. That was never a good sign. “Cadance?”
The tuneless whistle carried on, its musician maintaining her course wordlessly. They rounded a corner down another carpeted hallway. Two pegasus guards further down the hall noticed their approach and saluted the princesses as they passed. Twilight gave a wave of acknowledgement in return.
“Come on Cadance,” she whispered pleadingly as they passed through another tall archway on their journey to the kitchens. “Please tell me I wasn’t that bad.”
“Three words, Twilight,” Cadance replied, not bothering to lower her voice in the slightest or to hide the mirth from her curling lips. “Bulk order daisies.”
Two distinctly stallion-sounding snorts came from behind them, and Twilight whipped her head around. The guards remained as still as always, the perfect picture of professionalism, and she let out a huff of annoyance as her cheeks lit up. She trotted up to Cadance’s side once more, pointedly ignoring the resumed snickers.
“Oh, don’t give me that look,” Cadance said as she bumped Twilight’s flank. “I think I owe you some teasing after I had to spend a week as ‘Princess Crystal Blueberry’ after my shower water somehow got mixed up with the royal blue mane dye!”
“How awful!” Twilight cried in mock horror, putting a noble air in her tone. “What miscreant would dare to defile the royal shower? Why, I’ll bet it was that ruffian Rainbow Dash. Her inborn pegasi magic must have been put to nefarious purpose!” She stuck her nose in the air indignantly.
“It’s a mystery, all right.” Cadance threw a deadpan glance toward her guest. “I even had this crazy notion that it took a unicorn’s magic touch. Perhaps even a joint effort! Crazy, right?”
"Eh heh heh." Twilight gulped. "Yep, that's crazy alright. Crazy, crazy, crazy! Hahaha, oh look, the kitchen! I'm starving, race ya there!" She bolted ahead of the other princess, dashing through the doors and instantly falling victim to the delicious, wafting odour of her favourite sandwich. She wasted no time in levitating the nearest sandwich to her waiting hooves, taking a voracious bite. Whether her taste buds hadn't evolved or daisies were simply Celestia's gift to palates, Twilight didn't know nor did she care. All that mattered at that time was the fluffy, tangy taste blossoming in her mouth, putting to rest her own grumbling tummy.
"Same old Twilight Sparkle. You may have grown up, but your appetite sure didn’t." Cadence chuckled as she made her way to the counter and took her own seat.
"Tho," Twilight sputtered before giving a mighty swallow to clear her mouth. "Care to tell me about this special project you've been working on? From your letter, you made it sound downright revolutionary. Have you been working on it long? What are the research teams like? Do they–"
"Patience, Twilight," Cadance said as she laid a hoof on Twilight's own. "All in due time. For now, I'd much rather hear about how you and your friends have been doing."
"Oh. Uh, well, they're all doing fine. Fall is right around the corner, so I know Applejack’s getting ready for applebuck season." Twilight took a much more manageable second bite of her lunch. "I meant to ask, but you're not still mad at Rainbow for that prank, are you? I mean, it was just as much my fault as hers and I don't want her to be the sole blame. I think she might be nervous of coming back here in case you toss her in the dungeons."
Cadance waved a hoof reassuringly, dabbing her mouth with a napkin. "I got over it ages ago. In fact, some of the crystal ponies dyed their own manes out of some twisted form of respect. I rather enjoyed the additional attention, even with the nicknames. Besides, we don't even use the dungeons in the castle." She paused. "Much."
Not sure I like the sound of that… Twilight thought as she swallowed another bite. “Much?”
“Well, once a month Shining and I get the fancy saddles and riding crops, we go down to the dungeons and–”
“Nope, nope!” Twilight threw her sandwich at Cadance, pressing her hooves tight to her ears. “Nope, I didn’t hear that, nope! Not getting those images in my brain, absolutely not!”
“Not getting what images?” As if by some cruel prank by Celestia, Shining Armor chose that moment to enter the kitchen, levitating his own half-eaten granola bar. Oh no, now she was imagining him with a well-worn whip made of gooey, malleable granola, lashing it back before... argh!
He leaned in to give Cadance a peck on the lips, casually picking a stray daisy petal off of her nose. “Hello, honey. What did I miss?”
“Not much, dear,” Cadance chuckled as she glanced at Twilight. The purple princess had chosen this moment to regally hide beneath the counter, shuddering and gibbering incoherently. “Twilight’s just learned that you don’t mess with the Crystal Princess.”
After much coaxing and some lighthearted, girlish giggling at the expense of the perplexed stallion, Twilight rejoined her family at the table to finish the last remnants of their lunch. Shining explained that he had just come from an exercise session, training with the royal guards of the Empire. Twilight vehemently berated her mind before it could dwell any longer on that thought, distracting herself with another bite.
"Jeez, Twily, you must have been starving to eat all of those. What, don't they feed princesses on the trains these days?"
"I wasn't really that hungry at the time," she admitted. "I spent the trip preparing notes about the Crystal Heart after you mentioned it in your letter. I checked out every iota of useful information!"
"I'm glad you're so excited," Cadance said as she sipped the last of her tea. "And I think the wait was probably torture enough for today. Shall we go, Shiny?"
He nodded and the group stood to leave. Twilight thanked the ponies working in the back of the kitchen before they headed out and down a nearby staircase. Obviously, the Research and Development lab must have resided somewhere secure and underground. Shining turned to face them as he led the way, saying, "You're going to love it, Twilight. We have the brightest minds in the Empire working on Cadance's project, and I'm sure they would love to show a scholar like you exactly what's going on."
"I certainly hope it's worth the wait!" Twilight said, practically bouncing her way toward the steel door ahead of them. "I feel positively bubbly right now! I think Pinkie Pie might be rubbing off on me a bit.”
As they neared the door, Shining’s horn lit up. He fired a series of quick bursts of magic, hitting the door in specific spots that seemed random to Twilight. Sure enough, after he finished his barrage, a green light lit above the steel door and it slid open with a dramatic whoosh after a few seconds. Twilight gasped as they passed into the expansive area. The entire room glowed brilliantly as light bounced off the walls, refracted by the large crystals embedded throughout the room. The lab was populated by fewer than two dozen crystal ponies, all dressed in the same lab coats and goggles, but the equipment spread from wall to wall. Beakers, hot plates, monitors, and so many more instruments dotted each of the tables across the room. In the very center sat a glass cylinder protecting the magnificent Crystal Heart gem, and this was also where the bulk of the scientists were gathered. A lab assistant noticed their entry and made his way over to the group. He raised his goggles, letting them rest in the crest of his mane.
"Welcome, Your Highnesses. We ask that you kindly put on the proper attire before we begin our demonstration," he said as he pointed to a nearby receptacle of coats and goggles. "The lab coat is enchanted and will protect you from any and all magical outbursts that may occur in this room. It's reinforced with state of the art protection spells and woven from minotaur hair."
"I see." Twilight did as she was told and slipped the coat over her back. She grabbed a pair of fluorescent yellow goggles. "And what do the goggles do?"
The assistant grinned. "They complete the nerdy scientist look, you know? We have an image to keep up, after all." The group gave a hearty laugh at that. They all snapped their goggles into place and made their way to a nearby desk.
Twilight glanced toward the center of the room where the Crystal Heart lay suspended on its pedestal. "So why is the heart here? Shouldn't it be, you know," she said as she gestured above them, "up in the city like normal?"
"We've had to relocate the heart after a few vandals tried to make off with it in the dead of night," Shining explained with a frown. "We put it in the city during festivals and events, but otherwise it's down here in the lab."
"Which works out well for our research teams, as a matter of fact. With the Crystal Heart down here constantly, we've been able to study its inherent magical signature.” Cadance gestured toward the glass cylinder. “Imagine the secrets it holds, Twilight, and the secrets we've already managed to uncover!"
Twilight noted that her tone was proud, but not quite arrogant. She leaned on the desk, trying to get a closer look as to what the gaggle of ponies at the main table were fawning over.
Cadance cleared her throat. "Excuse me, doctors. Is the presentation ready?"
An older mare hissed a few more commands at her colleagues before she separated and she made her way toward the newcomers. She carried herself well, with an auburn brown mane tied into a tight bun and a coat that Twilight would call a warm foamy vanilla. She stood confidently as she approached. "Good afternoon, Your Highnesses. We’re thrilled you were able to join us to learn about the project."
"I'm Twilight Sparkle. Or, well... I guess it's Princess Twilight now. Or Princess Sparkle. But really, please just call me Twilight." She stood there silently before thrusting a hoof forward. "I'd love to hear about your work, Doctor...?"
"Juniper Culpepper. Call me Dr. Pepper," she answered, shaking Twilight's outstretched hoof. Her shake felt firm, but almost calming. "Celestia knows that the rest of these knuckleheads are more than happy to do so."
“We’re ready when you are, Doc,” said the same stallion who had greeted them at the door.
“Right, then.” Dr. Pepper stepped toward the center table, beckoning the rest of the group to follow. “Let me start with a simple question, Twilight. Do you know who created the Crystal Heart?”
“It was Starswirl the Bearded, the esteemed unicorn magician,” Twilight answered confidently. “He created the Crystal Heart not long after the unification of the three pony tribes.”
“That’s correct.” The doctor sat back on her haunches, straightening up and clearing her throat audibly. It was a pose Twilight recognized from her many classes as a filly, and one that she had dubbed ‘lecture mode’. “Shortly after the founding of Equestria and the unification of the tribes, Clover the Clever had returned to the unicorn homeland to share stories of her adventures with Starswirl. He took a particular interest in what she described as ‘the fire of friendship’, which had ignited and warmed the hearts of the tribe leaders enough to put aside their differences and come together in harmony.”
Twilight had raised her hoof, patiently waiting for a break in the tale. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to interrupt, but doesn’t that assume that the Hearth’s Warming Eve story is true?”
“Spot on, Twilight,” Dr. Pepper said. “The solid fact is that Starswirl created the Crystal Heart after visiting the cave that Clover had mentioned, but whether the fire of friendship had actually occurred is a question for another day. For the sake of the story, we will assume that the traditional tale is true.”
She began trotting around the room, glancing occasionally at the scattered experiments on each table. “Much like all of us, Starswirl was devoted to bettering the lives of his fellow ponies. When he and a small team of researchers reached the cave that Clover had mentioned, they set up a basic laboratory and began their research. Day and night, they toiled over energy readings and equations... until one day, they had a breakthrough. The Crystal Heart was a result of that: an artifact that harnessed the latent but powerful magic of the area into tangible form.”
“And I’m sure you remember what happened with King Sombra,” Cadance chimed in. “When he took the heart and hid it away, he robbed the Empire of its inherent magic.”
Twilight nodded thoughtfully. She noticed the team of scientists shifting uncomfortably; clearly, they were still disturbed by the memory of the tyrant king. “But all of that’s in the past. We saved the Crystal Empire and returned its magic to everypony!”
“Yes,” the doctor replied with a smile and a thankful hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “And it’s thanks to you and your friends that we are able to continue our research today. That’s why we’re eager to share our discovery with you. Think of it as thanks for everything you’ve done for us.”
“O-oh, really, it was nothing.” Twilight waved her off with an embarrassed blush. “We did what anypony would have done.”
“Modest to a fault. That’s my Twily, all right.” Shining ruffled her mane playfully.
Dr. Pepper grinned before stepping over to the center table. She grabbed an edge of a cloth laid over the experiments. “Quite. In any case, are you ready?”
“Oh, yes!” Twilight nodded vigorously, leaning close to the table. An anxious silence fell over the lab, disrupted only by the occasional beeps and whirrings of nearby machinery. Her eyes remained glued to the cloth as the doctor quickly whipped it out of the way, revealing…
“It’s…” she began before stopping herself. Before her on the table lay an identical set of metal devices, devoid of colour and lacking the small noises emitted by the rest of the lab. Each one was so small, much smaller than she was expecting, and there was nothing entirely remarkable about them other than what appeared to be two small indentations on either end of the device. In fact, the best she could come up with at a glance was, “It looks like just a metal hair clip.”
A small spattering of laughter came from the rest of the team. Dr. Pepper hushed them quickly before turning back to the curious princess. “Its appearance may be simple Twilight, but I can assure you that they’re so much more than that. Here,” she said as she gingerly lifted one of the devices, flipping it over. “Take a look.”
On the other side, Twilight noticed it had a plastic screen covering what looked like a tiny clock display. “It kind of reminds me of a digital clock. Only… not quite the same.” Whereas Twilight had seen a hoofful of digital clocks in Time Turner’s shop in Ponyville, this device was different. “Where the time of day would usually be displayed, it just has a series of zeroes and letters on the clock face. There’s no indication of morning or afternoon. You wouldn’t be able to tell the the time with this, which leads me to believe that this is not a clock at all.”
“Very astute.” Dr. Pepper passed the one she held carefully to Cadance and Shining Armor, and lifted another from the table into Twilight’s hooves. “There’s a reason I brought up the Crystal Heart when you first arrived. You see, back when you and the other bearers of the Elements found the heart and restored it to its proper place in the Crystal Empire, you sort of… activated it, you could say.”
“I remember,” Twilight murmured, turning the device over in her hooves a few more times. “When the heart was returned and the crystal ponies focused their love on it, I felt a wave of energy wash over me; it was like going under a waterfall, only without getting wet. And I saw the energy destroy Sombra and cast that rainbow of lights into the sky!”
“Well, it turns out that wave of energy wasn’t the only one.” The doctor gazed upon the Crystal Heart in the middle of the glass tube. “Every day since then, we’ve witnessed the heart giving off energy spikes. By moving it down here, we thought it might stop affecting the crystal ponies up on the surface, but no dice. Sometimes the waves are powerful, and sometimes they’re weaker, but we’ve noticed a consistent trend in how it affects ponies.”
Twilight looked up at that. “If the heart is affecting ponies, then does this device counteract whatever happens? I mean, I understand that we can’t have the heart causing daily problems for the crystal ponies.”
“Not exactly. In fact,” Dr. Pepper said as a smile made its way back onto her face, “perhaps you can see for yourself. Take a look at the Crystal Heart.”
Twilight turned her head, following the gaze of every other pony in the room. The Crystal Heart had begun to glow, and the machine attached to it hummed louder than it had been moments ago. She hoped it wasn't overheating, though nobody in the room seemed particularly worried about what was going on. Before she could ponder this further, the heart flashed a brilliant blue and a familiar wave of energy pulsed outward from the gem. Twilight flinched instinctively, but as the magic washed over her fur, tickled her wings, and passed across everyone else in the room, she couldn't help but feel a sense of... euphoria. It wasn't a lethargic bliss, but more of a tickly giddiness that spread from her ears down to her hooves. "Wow. I feel... good."
"That, my dear princess, was a wave of pure positive energy. It triggers some of the body's pleasure sensors and, in every case we've observed, leaves the targets in a better mood overall. Plus," she said with a wink, "it's done wonders for morale around here." Dr. Pepper and the rest of her team seemed to have felt something similar to herself, as they all sported giddy grins, faces awash with elation, and one was even performing an impromptu dance by herself. Shining Armor and Cadance held each other close, whispering sweet nothings and trading breathy kisses. Twilight would normally have stuck her tongue out in mock disgust at the mushy display, but she was too excited about the device to care.
"You see, the Crystal Heart doesn't just boost feelings of happiness, Twilight. It amplifies feelings of love in ponies, much like our Princess Cadance can with her magic." Dr. Pepper took the device back from Twilight and placed it on the table with the display facing up. "And we believe we've found a way to harness those feelings into these devices that we like to call timekeepers."
"I still don't understand the importance for the timer. What’s it counting down to?"
"That's the beauty of it, my dear. We've spent months fine tuning and modifying the frequency that the timekeepers run on, and we believe that our research has paid off. These devices, when attached to a pony's forehoof, will calibrate and begin a countdown to a very important moment."
Twilight was taken aback. "It calibrates itself? What, to that specific pony who's wearing it?"
"Exactly," the doctor affirmed with a nod. "It will determine the moment in time that the pony will meet his or her soul mate."
“Soul mate?” Twilight repeated with a giggle. “What, like in a fairy tale? Your one true love? Maybe you should have called my friend Rarity up here instead. She’d go nuts over something like this.”
“I know it may sound a little farfetched, Twilight.” Cadance approached her side, still smiling warmly from the effects of the magic. “But the research team here has been working on this for a very long time and this is a huge breakthrough for them. I wouldn’t have called you here if I didn’t think it was important.”
Twilight blushed as she realized what she had said. “I’m sorry, Dr. Pepper. I didn’t mean how that came out. I wasn’t making fun of your work.”
“Oh, think nothing of it, Your Highness. If I didn’t have thick enough skin for a little skepticism, then working with this team would have driven me bananas ages ago!”
“But… why me, anyway?”
“Well, in truth, we were actually hoping that you would help us test them.”
A pause. “W-what?!”
“It’s perfectly safe, I assure you, Twilight,” Dr. Pepper said quickly. “I personally guarantee that absolutely no physical harm will come to you if you do choose to participate.”
“But- I don’t- Why me?!” Twilight blurted out. “Why not Cadance, or Shining, or anyone else? Surely there would be better candidates for this!”
Shining Armor chuckled. “Nice try, Twily, but we’ve already tried doing it with ourselves. Doesn’t quite work with us. Watch.” He and Cadance each levitated a timekeeper from the table, extended a foreleg, and pressed the device near their fetlocks. Twilight heard a muffled click as the latches held tight to their forelegs.
“You see, Twilight, even connecting the device to yourself is without pain,” Dr. Pepper pointed out. “When the timekeeper registers a connection with a pony, it will begin a calibration phase. It’s during this time that it will tap into the user’s magical signature by using the unique energy given off by the Crystal Heart.”
As if on cue, the screens on both Shining and Cadance’s timekeepers lit up and began flickering through numbers. Cadance sat beside Twilight to give her a better view. “This step usually takes a minute or two.” They both watched as the numbers stopped flicking around randomly and began spinning down. Before Twilight could blink, 1300 days had plummeted to 700, and the number just kept falling. As it rocketed through the final days, Twilight wasn’t sure whether she expected it to stop or to somehow fizz out. The timer struck zero across the display and emitted a triple beep, which it repeated every few seconds. A few feet away, she heard the same beeps coming from Shining’s timekeeper, signalling that his had reached the limit too.
“As you can see,” the doctor cut in, “the counter will drop to zero if the pony using it has already met their soul mate at some point in time. After all, if they’ve already met, then there isn’t much point in counting down to a first meeting.”
“I guess that makes sense,” Twilight admitted, “but then what’s the point of the timekeeper in those cases? If, like Cadance and Shining, the pony has already met their soul mate, then there would be no point to wear it at all.”
“An excellent observation. You know, I could really use somepony so perceptive on my team!” She winked at Twilight. “You’re absolutely right. A device that counts down to first meeting your soul mate would be useless for somepony who has already met their own without knowing so. It was a huge problem for us early on, after we discovered the primary function. How could we help as many ponies as possible if the timekeepers could only affect a specific demographic, and even then were limited in scope?”
“And that’s when I thought of you, Twilight,” Cadance said with a smile.
“Me?”
“I’m sure it’s no surprise to you now that Cadance and I were friends long before we started dating, Twily,” Shining chimed in over the sounds of his device. “Although I always had a feeling that you knew what we were up to back then. You always were a sharp little filly.”
Cadance continued, “It got me thinking about your studies in the magic of friendship in Ponyville. The love we share between friends isn’t all that unlike the love we share as partners, after all. Shining is - and has always been - my best friend in life. So I came to the lab one day to share my thoughts with the research team.”
“Together, we were able to come up with a brilliant solution!” Dr. Pepper exclaimed as she gestured toward the devices still attached to the two royals. “I’m sure by now that you’ve noticed that those marvelous little gadgets have stopped beeping.”
Twilight was suddenly and acutely aware of the silence left by the absence of the beeping. She quickly glanced at Cadance’s wrist again, face gleefully alight. “It’s counting down again!” she cried as she spotted the numbers once again sliding along the display.
Dr. Pepper gave a wistful smile, looking at the rest of her team proudly as they tended to other experiments. “It’s really quite remarkable that all those centuries ago, Starswirl lay the foundation of our research project almost entirely as he studied the cave where the fire of friendship had ignited. He infused the Crystal Heart with the traits of friendship, and now, more than a thousand years later, we are able to put his work to use for the good of ponykind.”
“Think of it this way, Twilight,” Cadance said as she wrapped a comforting wing over Twilight’s shoulder. “I’m sure you’d agree that two ponies who have just met for the first time wouldn’t already be falling head over heels in love with each other. The primary countdown is to incite this meeting between what we’ve been calling soul mates, but it doesn’t create love on its own. In that sense, I think of it as the first countdown being responsible for finding the friendship.”
Twilight mulled this over. It made sense, of course - Cadance’s plans usually did - and the timekeeper would then have a secondary function. “Then what you’re saying, and correct me if I’m way off the mark, is that there’s another countdown that will determine when the ponies actually fall in love?”
“Close, but you’re definitely on the right track. Like I said, the timekeeper can’t create love any more than my own spell can,” Cadance explained patiently. “But much like the way my spell works, it will work on feelings that are already there. Things that the target might not remember or fully realize yet.”
Twilight wrinkled her nose. “I’m not sure I follow. Wouldn’t that be the same thing?”
“Well… yes and no.”
A sharp and familiar tone of three beeps sounded from both devices. The numbers had once again reached zero, flickering on and off the screen repeatedly. "So," Twilight said with a huff. "They didn't start a countdown because you two are already meant to be together."
“Thank Celestia for that,” Shining Armor said with a grin, leaning into Cadance's other side as he lifted his timekeeper off. "And believe me when I say that I wouldn't have it any other way."
“You charmer,” Cadance teased, jabbing him with a wing tip. She grabbed her timekeeper in her aura, removing it from her foreleg and levitating it back to the table. “We’re still putting the device through its paces. As you saw, the countdown doesn’t start for Shining and I.”
“We’re wary to test them on ourselves,” Dr. Pepper admitted. “The last thing we want at this point is to debase our project with personal bias from somepony on the team. Our end goal is to be able to offer the timekeepers to every Equestrian citizen, and there will be a long process between then and now.”
Twilight felt another hoof on her shoulder as Shining moved to sit on her left. With Cadance still to her right, a smile washed over her face at being surrounded by her family. “I’m glad you invited me here today. The timekeepers are fascinating; I can’t wait to see what Princess Celestia thinks about them! Ooh, and my friends will love to hear about it too!”
Cadance hesitated a moment, chewing her lip. “I’m glad you think so, Twilight, because we actually have a question to ask you.”
“Oh? What is it?”
Dr. Pepper stepped forward, holding another timekeeper in her hoof. She passed it to Twilight, who looked at it for a moment before looking up quizzically. “We would like you to test a timekeeper for yourself when you go back to Ponyville.”
“W-What?!”
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*first chapter read* This looks like it will be interesting. Like and a fav.
*takes deep breath*
SUCH AWESOMENESS
You just went there . . . insta fave and like!
Now to be serious: I liked this very much.
This is the first story I've seen in the New Stories box that managed to capture my interest in a while. After reading just the first chapter, I can proudly say I wasn't disappointed (my OCD is irritated by some spelling/grammar errors, but it's nothing severe). I will get to the second chapter ASAP and make sure to read this every time there's a new update.
Keep up the good work!
what? how is this specific enough?
at what temperature? 50, 100,1000?(assumed Celsius). Also, what type of bread does she want? any time range for it to have been baked in?
Twilight you disappoint me with your lack of pedanticness.
That dialogue is comedy gold.
Chrysalis ruined that joke for them forever.
That totally needs to be in the show now.
I see what you did there
I died.
Hm, weird name. Dr. Pepper. Sounds familiar...
Dr. Pepper...
Dr. Pepper...
Dr. Pepp- Oh you son of a bitch, I see what you did there.
I see what you did there.
This movie was awesome. It's on Netflix, called 'Timer'.
Private Cutjoff
Private Cutoff
Cuto-
*puts on*
2 minutes later...
*screen reads "N/A"*
Already I love this premise.
"Juniper Culpepper. Call me Dr. Pepper,"
Damn that clever, that made my day
I need this...
The scene with this guard was funny...
I have a feeling I know how this will end.
What do you mean, Coke or Pepsi? Dr. Pepper is where it's at.
And I didn't quite catch its functions. It determines first meeting and what now? And what happens if you've met your soul mate before, but neither of you noticed? So it'd just be at 0 and you'd assume that the soul mate is someone who's not.
Ooo! What an interesting device! Personally, I'm not sure whether I'd want to know when. It might kill the surprise.
Also, what if it hit zero in a crowded room where you meet a bunch of people at the same time?
I want to know if any of the team members have made any jokes about tastes and Juniper...
That would be a great way to combat depression. Instead, they use it to make wristwatches that count down to when you meet your "true love."
Meh.
This would totally be my reaction. 'Cause, you know, there are some freaky potentials there...
For example, what if your soul mate isn't a pony?
I was drinking Dr. Pepper while reading this and nearly spit it all over my phone when I read it.
Wow. You have me liking this... And this is only the first chapter. Well done!
One of my least favourite sodas.
i imagine that -having both horns and wings- Alicorns have a faster metabolism than the more standard types. However, Twilight has been known to go for long stretches ignoring her hunger and just devouring books instead.
i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/444/561/751.png
Okay, that is funny!
just for that.
1 extra
love au's like this !