Hourglass

"Bye everypony!" Amethyst Star called to her family. "Feel free to visit anytime!"

The Hooves family turned and smiled at their eldest daughter. Dinky ran up to her big Sister, wrapping her hooves around Amethyst's withers. "Bye, Amethyst. Don't forget about us, okay?"

Amethyst lifted her little sister up and placed on her mother, Derpy's back. "Of course DInky. Just because I'm moving out doesn't mean I'll forget about my favorite little sis." Amethyst looked at her mother and father, Time Turner and noticed they had tears welling up in their eyes. "Oh come on, mom and dad. Don't cry!" Amethyst approached her parents and pulled them into a loving embrace. "I'm just moving out! I'm not dying!"

Derpy wiped a few tears from her face. "I know, baby. It's just we're so proud of you!"

Time Turner nodded. "You're mum is absolutely correct, Amethyst. We couldn't be more proud of you if we tried."

The purple mare smiled and pulled away from her parents, who still had tears welling in their eyes. "Well, you three better get going or else you'll miss your train!" Amethyst said.

All three ponies nodded and said their goodbyes, leaving Amethyst and her new home behind them.

About half way to the Canterlot train station, Dinky turned to Derpy and asked, "Mommy? Now that big sis lives alone will she be a mommy like you?"

"She'd better not" Derpy said with a chuckle.

Time Turner laughed at his youngest daughter's antics and pulled her close to his chest. "C'mere, you little scamp!" He giggled.

"Mommy, Daddy, Where do foals come from?" Dinky asked out of the blue.

Derpy opened her mouth, ready to spill how a pony is brought in to the world. "Well, you see Dink-!"

TIme Turner moved quickly and placed a hoof on Derpy's mouth, preventing her from traumatizing Dinky as she had did Amethyst Star. "We'll tell you when you're older." The brown stallion said, bringing his hoof down from his wife's mouth.

Dinky pouted. She hated when adult ponies hid things from her because she was young. Despite being only seven, Dinky was incredibly bright and mature for a filly her age. She had endured so many hardships since she was born, the most recent endeavor was being the first filly to be cured of pony-bola. She could handle knowing how to make a foal... or so she thought.

"Oh come now, Dinky." Time Turner said. " There's no need for a grumpy face."

Dinky merely looked away undignified.

Turner smirked as he readied himself to activate his special voice, the voice that alway made Dinky laugh. Squeezing his nose shut and speaking in the most emotionless voice he could, the clock maker chanted "ERADICATE! ERADICATE!"

Neither Dinky nor Derpy could resist bursting out laughing at Time Turner's goofy "Dalek Voice" as he called it.

The stallion smiled as the three ponies arrived at the train station. "Here we are." Time Turner said as Dinky climbed down from his back. The clock maker looked at the pocket watch he had with him, but the hands on the tiny clock wouldn't move. "Strange..."

"What is it, Timey?" Derpy asked.

Time Turner pointed at his Pocket watch. "It seems my watched stopped."

"How is that weird, Daddy?" Dinky asked innocently.

"Normally, it wouldn't be", Time Turner explained. "But I just bought this watch."

Derpy shrugged. "Probably just defective. We can get a refund for it later."

"Ooh!" Little Dinky cried. "The train's here!"

The two adult ponies looked at the track, and sure enough, the next train to Ponyville was pulling up to the platform. "Alright then, everypony", Time Turner said. "Allons-y!"

Once the train had stopped, Dinky, Derpy and Time Turner all filed onto it and took their seats. The train stayed motionless for about fifteen minutes before the doors closed and the whistle sounded off.

After about half an hour, Dinky began to grow bored. "Uhg!" The little filly moaned. "Are we there yet?"

"Not for about another forty five minutes, Dinky." Derpy answered.

Dinky groaned and crossed her hooves as the train chugged along. Normally, Dinky was fine with long train trips. She was used to them due to being moved back and forth between different hospitals all her life. But all those times, Amethyst had been there. Dinky loved her big sister very much, and Amethyst loved Dinky in the way only two sister can, but now, Amethyst had gone and moved away, so she couldn't keep her little sister occupied.

"Bored?" Time Turner asked his youngest daughter, earning a nod in return. Gently, Time Turner picked Dinky up and placed her on his lap. "Then how about a game?"

"What game?" Dinky asked.

The brown stallion smiled. "First one to blink loses." he said. "Ready?"

Dinky giggled and nodded, closing her eyes as her daddy began the count down. "Alright. Three. Two."

Before Time Turner could finish counting down a loud boom sounded off from the front of the train. Suddenly, Dinky was jarred from her father's grasp and flew into the air as a cacophony of shrieks sounded across the locomotive. In a split second, Derpy and Time Turner joined wailing Dinky in the air. Derpy and Dinky hit their heads on the roof and fell to the floor unconscious.

Eventually, Dinky felt her eyes open up. The poor filly's entire body was wracked with pain, but not too much pain so that she couldn't move. "Mommy?" She called out, earning no response. "Daddy?"

A groan came from nearby and Dinky willed herself up onto her hooves to follow that groan. The little filly pushed a dislodged seat out of her way and gasped in horror at what laid behind it. "DADDY!?"

Time Turner laid on his back with several shards of shattered glass imbedded in his abdomen. His legs were crushed and he was bleeding badly. "Daddy!" Dinky screamed.

With another groan of pain, Time Turner willed himself to look at his horrified daughter. "Dinky... *Cough Cough*"

"Daddy, are you okay? Where does it hurt?" Dinky cried.

The injured stallion forced a smile. "Dinky... I-I'm hurt pretty bad..."

Dinky panicked. How could she not? Her father was laying right in front of her probably on the verge of death.

The little filly felt Time Turner lay a hoof upon her shoulders. "Dinky" he coughed. "Do you know what the word 'chronology' means?"

"Something to do with time, daddy..." She sobbed.

Time Turner nodded and let out a raspy cough. "D-Do you know where the word come from?"

"N-No..."

"In greek mythology", Turner began. "There was this really nasty bloke named Kronos. He was king of a race of ponies called 'the Titans'. Kronos could speed up or slow down time with his scythe, and he ate everything. Even his own children."

Dinky just sat and listened, unsure of where her father was going with this.

"Time also eats away at everything eventually. And it seems time decided to pick today to have me as a snack," Turner explained.

Dinky caught on to what her father was saying. She had been close to death too many times to not see where Time Turner was going with his lecture. Immediately,the little filly scooped up her dying father in her forelegs and wept over his shoulder. "Don't leave me, Daddy! Mommy and I need you!" She begged.

"*Cough* I-I don't want to go, Dinky... But it doesn't seem like I have a choice... Be good to you mummy for me..."

With those words, Time Turner went limp in Dinky's arms. "Daddy?" Dinky cried. "Daddy, please wake up! Please!"

When Derpy came too, she found herself spread over the rests of two seats in a burning train car. What the? She thought to herself. Suddenly, the sound of weeping penetrated Derpy's ears. "Dinky?" The walleyed mare called.

No response.

With all of her might, Derpy forced herself down from her uncomfortable perch and onto the floor. The shards of glass littering the demolished car made Derpy grateful she had hooves.

Slowly, Derpy walked forward and found Dinky sobbing in front of something. "Dinky?"

The filly turned around. An expression upon her face that could make even the coldest pony start to tear up. "Dinky?" Derpy called. "Dinky, what's wrong?"

"D-Daddy... Mommy... D-Daddy's..." Dinky couldn't hold back any more tears. She began wailing pathetically and turned away from her mother as she banged her hoof on the ground.

"Dinky?!" Derpy rushed to the sobbing filly, stopping dead in her tracks when she finally saw why her daughter was weeping.

"T-Timey..."

"He... He's gone mommy..." Dinky sobbed.

Derpy felt her legs give out from under her. Dinky approached her mother and sobbed into her breast. Derpy would have been fine if the fires scattered through out the car engulfed her right then and there, but she'd be damned if she was going to let her little Dinky die in here.

Pushing her sorrow away, Derpy stood back up and put Dinky on her back before she leapt out one of the less damaged windows. The grey mare looked back at the flaming train. It seemed a landslide put a massive boulder on the tracks. When the engine rammed it, the entire train was knocked off the tracks.

The fire department was already there, busying themselves searching the cars for survivors and spraying water at the most heavily damaged cars.

"Mommy..." Dinky sobbed. "Why did daddy have to leave us like that?"

Derpy couldn't find any words to respond with. She was so utterly devastated at the events that had just transpired that she couldn't speak. Time Turner, her loving husband, the one pony who loved her, was taken from her just like that, and there wasn't a damned thing Derpy could do about it.

The grey pegasus cursed at herself. Other ponies probably died in that wreck, you selfish bitch She told herself. At least Dinky's alive.

Derpy and the rest of the survivors were escorted to the Ponyville train station, where the were interrogated to see if the landslide that caused the accident was caused intentionally as an act of terrorism.

When Derpy and Dinky did get home, neither spoke to each other. What could they say? What words were there to describe what they had just experienced?

Derpy didn't talk for nearly two months. She finally began speaking again at Time Turner's funeral, where she was so distraught she couldn't finish her eulogy.

Eventually, things did go back to normal for the Hooves family. Or rather, as normal as it could get, considering the household was short one pony. Derpy experienced a massive pay cut and was forced to start working as a part-time weather mare in addition to her job as a mail mare just so she could keep Dinky fed and sheltered.

A year and a half later

Dinky sat in her seat in class, waiting for the bell to ring. Derpy had given her twenty bits to spend at the new pizza place that had just opened; Freddy Fazgriffon's Pizza. Derpy would take Dinky there as soon as school let out and let her loose until she was done with her mail route for the day.

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