Chapter 1: The Liturgy of the Minute
“Saturday 14th January, 748th year of the reign of the two Pony Sisters.
Today temperatures fell to the lowest level this winter. The Order continues in our duty to monitor the passage of time and record the events of history. We have plenty of fuel, yet every member looks forward to the spring, with the exception of the Treasurer who appears quite indifferent to the climate. Preparations for tomorrow's feast, marking the five hundredth anniversary of the defeat of the draconequus and the end of Reign of Chaos, are almost complete. We have brought in ample supplies of food and drink. The princesses have accepted our invitations.”
The Abbess of the Order of the Time Turners, Prime Meridian, finished writing her daily entry in the log book and wiped the excess ink off her quill. As the daylight was fading she needed the light of her horn to read her script. Glancing at the level of sand in the hourglass on her desk, she saw that she still had ten minutes before she had to leave for the evening ceremony. She walked across the stone floor of her chamber and stood to stare out of the south window. As the head of the Order, she had personal quarters in a prime position, with windows looking over the abbey complex on one side, and on the other, directly above the cliff face, she could look out across the vast expanse of the densely forested central Equestrian plain. As there was no need for heavy rain until spring, the pegasi had cleared the sky of clouds to reduce the risk of winter storms. But the clear skies led to cold nights this high up in the mountain.
In the distance, surrounded by the dark Everfree forest, she could just make out the castle of the pony sisters. Once the home of the two alicorns crowned Princesses of Equestria, the castle had been uninhabited for over twenty years since Celestia and Luna had chosen to live apart. Celestia had a tower in the mountains to the east of Everfree, while Luna had raised a citadel in the range to the west.
The relationship of the two sisters had swung back and forth, from good to bad, over the centuries. For centuries they had been best of friends, living in the same castle. Then they had argued and parted. In due course becoming lonely, and eventually coming back together to live as best friends for another century or so. This cycle had repeated several times since the start of their reign.
“But why did Celestia and Luna fall out?” asked Sweetie Belle.
“They loved pranking one another. But occasionally a prank went too far and hurt one of their feelings. They had many arguments over the years and there were times when they stopped talking to one another. If you remember, that eventually drove Luna to turn into Nightmare Moon.”
“Like you and Rarity,” said Apple Bloom.
“That was different! That was just because Rarity started being a totally stuck-up, snooty unsister who wouldn’t do anything fun. But she made up for it in the end.”
“Exactly, I bet Celestia was just the same.”
“Let the Doctor continue the story,” said Twilight.
The Abbess knew this as it was all documented in the annals of the abbey. The duties of the Order, beyond measuring time, included keeping records of historical events and mediating between the princesses. When Starswirl had founded the Order, shortly after Celestia and Luna had gained their cutie marks and taken on their roles as guardians of the sun and moon, he had rightly guessed that regulating the length of the day and night was best undertaken by an independent body. He had also foreseen—maybe as a consequence of his dabbling in time travel, or maybe just because he knew what sisters can be like—that while they were at the time the best of friends, this would not always be true. At the present moment the princesses’ feelings towards one another were as cold as the weather. However they both respected the Order, and would meet at the abbey twice a day to participate in the ceremonies of sunrise and sunset.
Five hundred years previously, the two sisters had stood together and wielded the elements of harmony to defeat Discord, the Master of Chaos. A triumph of friendship and a great relief for the Order[1]. The Abbess had hoped that the anniversary of this event would provide an occasion for the princesses to come back together. But this hope had faded as she had counted down the days and saw no sign of a thawing of their feelings to one another.
[1] During the Reign of Chaos, the terrified members of the Order had dutifully kept to their station, counting the passage of the minutes while the sun and moon flittered overhead at random, chocolate milk rained down upon them, and the rocks beneath their feet turned to jelly. It was said by a historian of wit, long after the defeat of Discord, that the princesses had fought the monster, while the Order held the stopwatch. But the Order saw no shame in this division of labour. Holding the stopwatch was their mission. They were proud to have kept track of time such that, when the chaos had passed, they could tell Celestia and Luna where to position the sun and moon, and the cycle of day and night could continue exactly as it should.
Staring across the landscape, the Abbess noted a small dot move away from the castle. At first she took this to be a raven, but as it grew larger, she realised it was a winged pony, and a minute later she could see that it was Princess Celestia flying towards the mountain. The princess had been visiting the old castle. That was noteworthy.
A bell rang out from a tower on the other side of the plaza, signalling to the ponies of the Order that sunset would be in eight minutes. The Abbess threw her black hooded gown—which marked her as a Fellow of the Order—over her cream coat and curly orange mane, and left her chamber, closing the heavy oak door behind her. She walked down the spiral staircase, down four floors, and then into the great hall. The kitchen ponies were busy lighting candles and laying out plates along the long wooden tables, which ran the length of the hall, in preparation for dinner. The walls were covered with portraits of the previous ponies who had held her office as head of the abbey and the Order. With the largest portrait of all, hung above the high table at the end of the hall, depicting Canonical Hours—the first abbot of the Order, and the inventor of the hourglass.
“Did he have an hourglass cutie mark like yours?” said Apple Bloom.
“He did,” replied the Doctor. “But when he got his cutie mark, he thought his special talent was in making abstract glass sculptures. He only later found that it was one of the greatest inventions in Equestria.”
“We should try to get our cutie marks in glass sculpture,”
“If you let the Doctor finish the story, you might learn how to get your cutie mark,” said Twilight.
Life in the abbey ran to a rigid schedule, befitting a community of ponies united by their common special talent in keeping time. The day and night were divided up into the eight three-hour periods of: nocturn, matins, prime, terce, sext, none, vespers and compline. The precise times of the ceremonies of daybreak and nightfall were changed throughout the year to set the seasons. All the Order would rise before dawn and assemble at the scheduled time to watch Celestia raise the sun, after her sister had withdrawn the moon to mark the end of the night. They would then eat breakfast together in the great hall before setting about their own work or studies.
The duties of the Order were divided into different categories. Their primary task, which the Abbess administered as her personal responsibility, was to keep time: to maintain the ancient water mechanism which defined the minute, and ensure the spindles, cogs, and other mechanics driving the clocks were in full working order. She would then direct Celestia and Luna as to when they should move the heavens accordingly.
But the abbey had secondary functions. It was, at the time, the greatest centre of learning in Equestria. The library held records going back to the dawn of pony literacy, and grew larger every year. A small herd of scholars collected stories of happenings from around the kingdom, and beyond, and copied these into the great bound volumes which made up the ever growing History of Equestria. There were also many talented artists who produced beautifully illuminated manuscripts, with strips of comics depicting the better stories. Other scholars wrote treatises on every topic under the sun and moon: natural philosophy, magic, legal codes, medicine, botany, astronomy and many more. The library collected books from far afield, and had many volumes in exotic languages such as Camel, Griffon, and Llama, which only a few of the senior scholars could read. There were also extensive workshops, where craftsponies assembled the precision instruments and timepieces for which the order was famous. Glass-blowers, metal workers, carpenters and others were all hard at work somewhere within the walls.
All in all, the abbey housed several hundred ponies. Who all required regular meals. Hence the third, and in the opinion of most members of the Order, the most important role of the abbey was its culinary function. Tunnels into the mountain led to extensive cellars, stocked with the produce of the abbey's terraced gardens, and with more exotic foodstuffs imported from around the world. Barrels of the best wine, beer, mead—
“And cider?” said Apple Bloom.
“Plenty of cider,” said the Doctor.
Twilight stared at Apple Bloom.
“Let the Doctor—”
“Yeah, okay, I was just askin’.”
—the best cider, brandy and exotic liqueurs; jars of honey, jam, chutneys and other preserves; nuts, berries, cheeses, cakes. The kitchen ponies took great pride in preparing daily feasts, and their skill in making sweet pastries, baking cakes, and mixing salads was known throughout the kingdom.
The education of the next generation was vital to the continuity of the Order. Any pony with a special talent for keeping time could join their community, and most arrived as young fillies or colts. They filled the ranks of the novices, and spent five years studying all aspects of time keeping, including mathematics, physics, history, metrology, as well as more practical skills such as glass blowing, metal working and cider making. Once they graduated as full members of the Order, many would leave the abbey and travel throughout Equestria, using their knowledge and skills to help other ponies and ensure the country ran to order. Some, however, would stay to run the abbey, rising up the hierarchy to the rank of Fellows of the Order, which included the Abbess, the Dean—who oversaw the education of the novices, the Practical Scholar—who took charge of the workshops, the Librarian, the Treasurer, and the Steward and Cellarer—who together had the all-important job of maintaining the stocks of food and drink, and providing meals for everypony.
The Abbess walked out of the hall and along the short passageway which led to the outside doorway. A steady stream of young novices, clad in brown hoods, were running outside. Among them she caught sight of the fire-like red mane and green wings of her friend Median Measure—the Dean—descending another staircase. They exchanged smiles and walked through the ornate stone doorway together and out onto the plaza. A porter, clad in the grey hood that marked him as a full member, but not a Fellow, of the Order held the wooden door ajar with a hoof.
Most of the ponies were now assembled. Braziers, filled with burning charcoals, had been positioned across the courtyard to provide warmth against the winter chill. But the ponies still huddled together with their hoods firmly wrapped around their ears. The full members of the Order were standing in lines on the north wall, either side of the clock tower. The novices were assembled on the south side, in two groups on either side of the straight water channel which carried the water flowing from the Minute, the zero longitude of Equestria, which cut the plaza into two halves. The Dean walked along the line of assembled novices, inspecting them with a critical eye.
“Peony Poset—take that silly pink thing out of your mane. It makes you look ridiculous—like you're some sort of children's toy. Pumpkin Strudel—Look at those shoes—fancy coming before the princesses with such dirty hooves. Stand up tall everypony.”
Raised podia in the eastern and western hemispheres were set up for the princesses. The Fellows stood on a stone platform at the south, straddling the meridian. From this point, which jutted out over the cliff edge, the Abbess had a wider angle of view than the rest of the congregation, and thus she was the first to see Princess Luna approaching from the west, a silhouette in front of the red sun just above the horizon.
Luna flew around the western side of the mountain, accompanied by a small guard of bat ponies. In recent years, the princess of the night had formed a strong friendship with the nocturnal tribe of winged ponies, who now made up the greater part of her retinue. She landed on her platform and bowed to the Abbess. All eyes then turned to the south-east, to watch Princess Celestia approach, with her guard of gleaming white pegasus stallions, illuminated by the evening rays of her sun.
Celestia landed on the eastern platform as the clock face indicated another three minutes before the given time for sunset. All the assembly watched in solemn silence as the bucket filled with water, the lever arm fell, and the mechanism moved the clock hand once, twice, and finally reached the awaited minute. A moment before this, unseen by the audience who were looking at the clock, the Abbess withdrew a tuning fork from her robe—
“What’s a tuning fork?” said Scootaloo.
“It’s from the kitchen. It’s what you need to turn over hot apple fritters in the pan,” said Apple Bloom.
“That’s a turning fork,” said Sweetie Belle. “You use a tuning fork to tune a piano.”
“How can you tune a piano with a fork?”
“Do you need a knife and spoon too?”
“Hey—we never tried getting our cutie marks in piano tuning.”
“Will you let the Doctor continue the story?”
The Abbess took her tuning fork from her robes, hit it against a hoof and raised it to her ear. Then, in perfect tune, she sang out the words to start the ceremony.
“By the authority vested in me as the head of the Order of the Time Turners I hereby ask Her Royal Highness Princess Celestia to lower the sun—”
She hung onto the final note, as Celestia lit up her horn and bowed to direct the sun below the mountains to the west. The twilight faded to darkness and the stars appeared in the sky above. The congregation waited, in the light of the burning braziers. The Abbess turned her head to the princess of the night.
“Now that the day has finished and the night is begun I hereby ask Her Royal Highness Princess Luna to lift the moon—”
Luna raised her head, horn aglow, and the moon rose steadily above the eastern horizon, shedding a soft light onto the snow-capped mountains.
“We thank you the Royal Pony Sisters in the name of the Unicorns and the Pegasi and the Earth Ponies.”
Upon completing the liturgy, the chorus of novices intoned, “Amen.” Thus marking the end of the short ceremony.
The daily ceremony was an impressive spectacle to behold—at least the first time you saw it. After a week in the Order, it was a tedium. Occasionally one of the more uninhibited novices would ask the Abbess why it was necessary to go through the rites every day. Was it really necessary for the entire Order to assemble every day at sunrise and sunset?
The Abbess would reply that it was a tradition that had been followed for over six hundred years. Most novices would accept that. Occasionally one would ask why it was necessary to continue with a tradition just because it had been done for over six hundred years. At which the Abbess would admit that it was not strictly necessary to continue with any tradition, but one should certainly be wary of changing one which had served them well for six hundred years. Very occasionally an exceptionally pert novice would suggest that maybe it wasn't really necessary for them to get out of bed before dawn every single day. At this the Abbess would sternly explain that the ceremonies of daybreak and nightfall was what brought order to Equestria. That it ensured the proper movement of the sun and moon. Without it, chaos would come to their world. The many other abbeys around Equestria—satellites of the Order, who set their clocks by the sun and moon—would be unable to keep accurate time. Farmers would not know when to plant their crops. Sailors would be unable to navigate the oceans. And while it may be that time would continue to pass without their presence each morning, did they really want to risk the consequences of being absent and failing their duty as novice members of the Order?
The brighter novices just pretended not to hear the bell, pulled their blankets over their heads, stayed in bed and didn't ask questions.
“They didn’t have Applejack as a sister. That never works. If there’s chores to be done—”
“Let the Doctor continue the story.”
What was not generally revealed to the junior members was that the most important audience for the ceremony was not them but the princesses. Regular routine was important in the training of alicorns. Celestia and Luna, while over seven centuries old, were still young by alicorn standards. Nopony questioned the sincerity of their promises to serve and protect Equestria. But they did sometimes have trouble getting up in the morning (or evening), and the Fellows of the Order knew well that the best way to ensure their timely arrival was to make sure that there would be over a hundred ponies looking at them if they turned up late.
The evening ceremony now over, the rows of hooded ponies made their way towards the hall, already thinking about dinner. The two princesses walked towards the Abbess, as it was the custom for them to exchange a few words.
“We thank thee Abbess for presiding over the ceremony,” said Luna, in the traditional Royal Canterlot Voice. She was facing the Abbess and ignoring her sister. “Thy voice is in perfect tune as usual.”
The Abbess nodded to acknowledge the formality. She noticed that Celestia was watching Luna. Was this a sign that she wanted to make peace with her younger sister? Had her evening visit to the old castle made her miss her old friend?
“We also extend our thanks Abbess, to you and your Order,” said Celestia. “And we greet thee, younger sister.”
It was hardly an expression of friendship. But it was the first time Celestia had directly addressed Luna in over two years. Both the Abbess and Luna realised the significance of this gesture. However if Celestia had been hoping for a warm reply, she was to be disappointed. Luna seemed more surprised than touched by the direct address. Unsure how to reply for a moment, she quickly rallied.
“A cold day to greet us, in this most bitter of winters. Canst thou not return thy sun to its earlier power?”
Celestia's face instantly hardened at this comment. “The sun shines as hot today as it did ten, twenty and indeed a hundred years past.”
“Then why is the weather so much colder? Thy sun is the source of the energy to heat the world, and what else has changed over the centuries? Thou art shirking thy duty sister.” Luna stared into her sister’s eyes. It seemed that this brought back bitter memories.
“Just as you did in times past,” she said, dropping the Royal Canterlot Voice. “When you let that fiend of a phoenix set fire to my favourite poetry notebook.”
Celestia thrust her head forwards towards her sister until their horns were touching.
“Am I to blame if Philomena dislikes bad verse? And you accuse me of not controlling my pet? You who left a dozen moon frogs in my bed!”
“They were just searching for somewhere warm to hibernate. It was cruel of you to throw them in the moat.”
“They’re frogs! They’re supposed to like water.”
“There is no water on the moon! Of course you would not know—you never paid it any attention.”
At this point small sparks were flying between the two alicorns’ horns. The Abbess coughed nervously. The princesses suddenly remembered she was present and each took a step back. There was an awkward silence for a few seconds as the three ponies looked at each other, then Celestia turned and flew off to the east without saying another word, leaving Luna and the Abbess.
“Until dawn,” said Luna, bowing slightly to the Abbess, then she turned and took flight back towards her home.
Standing alone on the podium, the Abbess turned first to the east, then west, watching the two princesses fly apart. She would gladly give half the gold in the abbey treasury to see the two sisters on friendly terms again, as they had been in her youth[2]. But friendship could not be bought. She could only wait. A reunion would come at some point in the future. She could only hope that it would be within her lifetime. And, she reminded herself, the important thing was that they continued to respect the Order, and perform their duties in raising and lowering the sun and moon at the required time.
[2] Although the Treasurer would not agree to such a transaction.
She walked alone, across the now empty plaza, into the main hall where the Order were waiting for her to begin the evening dinner.
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Funny, clever, informative, and excellent world-building. Am very much "in" the story, would read more about this, perhaps a spin off where the CMC get sent back in time to the battle between the Order and Discord, with ensuing shenanigans (I am very much a fan of shenanigans). Meeting of Celestia and Luna surprisingly well-done, believable, comical. Poor moonfrogs. Would like to read Luna's terrible poetry.
Your footnotes are prettier than mine.
This is delightful.
Don't lie to the fillies, Twilight.
"Wielded," presumably.
I notice that you use Saturday and January. I always imagine the ponies having their own Calendar. Since the ponies have complete control of the sun and moon, their calendar can be completely regular. It might have 360 days because that is an highly composite number with 24 factors or 420 days because that is the least common multiple of all natural numbers upto 7 which also has 24 factors. It could be something else for some other reason.
5573936
Thanks. See this forum for discussion about footnotes.
5574434
Well Tuesday, at least, is cannon, as that is when Future Twilight came from. Nothing wrong with inventing a pony calendar of course, just that my game has always been using the pony world to parody our own.
I believe that one of those Deans is the Abbess.
Aside from that, a wonderful story so far. Is it a good or a bad sign that those interruptions are starting to get slightly annoying already?
5576339
Thanks
I really love the real, actual reason for the big, twice-daily ceremony.
The rest of the story too, that bit just stuck out as extra fun.
This makes me admire the Order perhaps more than anything else could. Through chaos and who-knows-what torments of Discord, they held steadfast to their duty, so that when Harmony was restored, the calendar would have been faithfully kept. Amen.
6601444
Thanks
An interesting story thus far. I see you've carefully outlined your historical timeline. Far too few fics do that, even when the scope and tone of the plot demand diligent attention to such details.
OK - I'm a bit late to the party here, but:
The Abbess took her tuning fork from her robes, hit it against a hoof and raised it to her ear. Then, in perfect tune, she sang out the words to start the ceremony.
....
The daily ceremony was an impressive spectacle to behold—at least the first time you saw it. After a week in the Order, it was a tedium.
A sung liturgy followed by a reference to Te Deium - sounds like a take on a High Church ceremony to me?
7477983
Eeyup. This scene took shape in my head while listening to a Choral Evensong service.
5574434
I wonder if any of the botany treatises written by the Order involve cannabis...
11319801
I see what you did there:
420, as well as being the least common multiple of all numbers upto 7 is also the criminal code for cannabis in the USA.
Seriously, a superior highly composite number (an highly composite number with no number with more factors than it less than twice itself) anre extremely efficient because the have to many factors and do not have a juicier highly composite number just a little larger (many European Nations used the highly composite number of 240 in their currency, but the superior highly composite number of 360 is just a little bit larger). 360 would be an excellent choice. We could have 12 30-day months with 6 5-day weeks with 3 work-days and 2-weekend-days —— ¡40% of the week would be weekend!