• Published 17th Jan 2018
  • 2,545 Views, 211 Comments

Hidden Hands - David Silver



Time Turner has a secret that he does his best to hide while keeping time and working on his mechanical wonders. He's not a bad pony. He hasn't broken any laws, at least, none formally written anywhere.

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6 - Operational Corrections

Derpy soared. Flying high was a pleasure she only rarely was allowed to have. As a mailmare, it was her duty to be close to the ground, delivering things to ponies directly. Her quarry was much further than normal, so she'd have nothing to swoop down on for a while. It meant she could rise up above things she might crash into and just go forward.

Beneath her, the rail tracks showed the way she had come, and the way she was going, like a great big line to keep her going straight. It was kind of handy to have, knowing exactly when she was going too far left or right. She kept the track beneath her, and faced forward. It was almost relaxing, letting the wind carry her along after her target.

She would fix her mistake.


Lyra sank back against a wall of their kitchen. With a weary sigh, she looked to a hanging recipe just to the left of the cluttered stovetop. "Aw wow..." She hadn't gotten a chance to chat with Derpy, who had vanished, and instead... "Alright, keep it calm." She clopped her hooves against her cheeks before standing back up, her horn glowing.

"Just follow the recipe," she said to herself in a little grumble, grabbing a fresh pot and putting it on the stove. "Medium heat..." She suddenly yanked the pot free. "After! You put in the water, dummy." She fixed her mistake with a little self-deprecating laugh. "Alright, now stir in..." She brought over some ingredients, held in her magic and began sprinkling and adding them to the pot.

"Piece of cake," she said with a little smile. She paused a moment. "Wait, no. If I end up with a piece of cake, I did it wrong." She snorted at her own joke and stirred the beginnings of her creation. "Can't let Mrs. Cake or Bonnie down. Oh, right, she'll have the piece of cake. I'm catching up with myself."

A sudden loud ringing made her jump and squeal. An egg timer was bouncing left and right, excitedly trying to get her attention. She grabbed it in her magic and forced it to be quiet with a twist before wrenching open the oven. "Time for you guys to come out of there..." She pulled the tray free even as she kept stirring what was in the pot. "How does Bon Bon manage?" She shook her head, sweat running down her brow. She shuddered thinking of managing without her magic, but knew Bon Bon not only 'managed', but made her efforts look like the unskilled efforts they were.


The filly tilted her entire body left and right as if trying to peek around Bon Bon. "Is it stuck? You look stressed. Mom said that can make your mane go grey early, so you really should relax." She took a dramatically deep breath and held it.

Bon Bon sagged with a gust of air.

The filly followed suit. "Yeah! You already know how to relax, good. You just--"

Bon Bon thrust a hoof forward, just short of the filly's little snout. "Thank you!" she blurted out, cutting off the filly. "Thanks... Where is your father?"

She turned in place. "About three towns that way." She pointed off in the vague direction that the tracks had come from.

Bon Bon blinked and crashed to her haunches. "I thought... Who was that stallion you were with before?"

"Just a nice person I met on the train, like you." She bounced in place. "If that makes him my dad, then you're my mom. Hi, Mom!"

Bon Bon raised a hoof to her throbbing head. "Why are you alone?"

"I'm not alone, you're here. Want some help with that?" She pointed at the still closed and locked box. "Let me try!"

Bon Bon raised her forehooves and crossed them into an X. "No, no, you've helped enough... What is your name?"

"I'm... Wait, you go first." Her lids came down in a sly look. "I shouldn't give my name to a stranger."

"But I'm your mother, not a stranger," countered Bon Bon, almost matching the expression.

The two mares, big and small, met one another's looks for a quiet moment before the filly nodded. "Alright, then we'll say it together.

"Agreed."

Their hooves met with a little clop.

"Bon Bon."

"Spring Rain."

Bon Bon nodded. "Nice to meet you, now... why are you here if... Oh, does your mother live here?"

Spring pointed at Bon Bon. "Do you?"

Bon Bon huffed. "Your real mother!"

"Oh... her." Spring Rain turned away. "I don't need her. You're a better mom, Mom. See you later!" Spring suddenly dashed away, scurrying around the corner of the building and out of sight.

Bon Bon shook her head slowly, mentally adding that to her list of things needing fixing. "One thing at a time. One thing..." She turned towards the locked box. "Great..." There was only one solution that came to her mind right away, and it involved waiting.

"On to the next task," she said, trying to lift her spirits with an energetic tone of voice. "Time Turner should be around here..." She turned in the same direction the filly had gone and trotted that way, her eyes roaming over the homey wooden houses that comprised Appleloosa.

She saw a mare with a country-looking hat trotting past and raised a hoof to wave her down. "Excuse me."

The mare stopped and looked at Bon Bon with a curious expression. "Well howdy there. Ya don't look local t'these parts. How can I help?"

Bon Bon felt some tension ease with the expression of what seemed to be genuine warmth. "Thank you, it's been a crazy day. I don't suppose you know where Time Turner might be?"

The mare seemed surprised at the question, but that slipped into an almost shrewd expression. "You a friend of his?"

"You could say that." Bon Bon nodded in easy agreement. She'd spoken to Time Turner a few times, and they knew each other.

"I see." Guilty Pleasure grinned. She had found his marefriend. "Come with me. I know where he's at."

"Thank Celestia," breathed out Bon Bon, falling into line with the mare. "I'm Bon Bon, by the way."

"Guilty," replied Guilty as she turned away from Time Turner's shop and began trotting. "It'll be a pleasure showing the way. We'll get you two reunited in no time at all."

Bon Bon followed with a growing smile. Perhaps that day wouldn't be a complete wash.


A knocking made Lyra flinch before she set down the bowl she was mixing and poked her head out of the kitchen. "Who's there?!"

"It's me," came Mrs. Cake's muffled voice. "Just checking in."

Lyra glanced back at her progress. "Um, it's... maybe half done?" she shouted to the closed door.

"I'm sorry to be a pain," replied Mrs. Cake, still shouting. "If I could have what you've finished, it would be a lifesaver."

Lyra sagged to the side against the wall. Everything was an utter mess, as if a bomb had gone off. She planned to clean it up, afterwards, but that hadn't happened yet. "It's, uh..."

"I can't hear you!" shouted Mrs. Cake. "Can I come in?"

Lyra gave a single strained laugh. "It can't get any worse..." She reached with her magic and opened the door. "Come on in..."

Mrs. Cake blinked as she stepped into the darkened front room. She could see Lyra peeking at her from the lit kitchen and nodded towards her. "Where's Bon Bon? Isn't she doing the cooking?" She closed the door behind herself, sealing her into the gloom.

"Oh, well... some business called her away," replied Lyra in technical truth. "I volunteered to take care of things."

"Lyra, we both know you're not a chef." She didn't sound angry. She looked concerned as she approached. "You look terrible. Poor thing. Thank you for trying so hard for me."

Lyra felt blood rushing to her cheeks. "It's no big deal! Look!" She grabbed a tray in her magic and brought it over for Mrs. Cake to see just as the older mare entered the kitchen proper. The tray had sour candies, but they were not perfectly round. Each one was misshapen in a unique way. Each was its own special lump of sugar.

Mrs. Cake considered the collection with a thoughtful mmm of a sound. "May I try one?"

"Of course," stated Lyra with a generous helping of false bravado. "You'll love it." Or so she hoped silently.

Mrs. Cake took up one of the smaller candies and popped it into her snout. "Ooo, extra sour, but not bad..." She suckled audibly. "Mmm, and sweet where it should be. You can follow a recipe, Lyra, but I can see this is out of your element."

"No! No," insisted Lyra, turning to her mess of a kitchen. "I have it all under control."

Mrs. Cake put a hoof out in front of Lyra. "We have this under control. Come on, let's finish this."

Lyra blinked. "But... you're the one buying them."

Mrs. Cake came around to be directly in front of Lyra. "Bon Bon must have had serious business to call her away in the middle of an order. We've looked after each other before. She would come running if I needed it, and I don't plan to be any less reliable." Her smile softened. "Besides, I really do need these candies, so I'm helping myself too."

Lyra pointed past her sudden helper. "The recipes are hanging just next to the stove, but no memorizing! Bon Bon'd kill me if I let her secrets out."

Mrs. Cake walked with three legs, one hoof busily performing the sacred Pinkie Promise. "I will never use or share these recipes outside of today, barring her permission, of course. Now, let's begin."

Lyra felt her fatigue lessening. It was good to have true friends around town. "Let's make some sweet candy!"


Fluttershy peered into the jar she had on the ground between her forehooves. She was seated on her haunches, and the sky above was growing dark. Inside the jar, the faintest light could be seen, mostly from where it reflected off the glass of the jar. "Hello," she said quietly, but it did not reply. "We were hoping... You and your friends could, if it isn't too much trouble, find somewhere else to nest?"

There was no reply. She couldn't even see what she was speaking to, just the faint reflection of the light it was making. Fluttershy sighed and sagged. She didn't want the ponies trying to attack the lunar moths, if they even could. They'd probably hurt the trees before they hurt the moths, and that wasn't any better, really.

"Surely there's a better place?" She considered a special place for them, but knew that wouldn't work. Lunar moths didn't keep regular territories. They just ate whatever they saw first, and Appleloosa was in the middle of a desert, meaning there was very little to distract them from the apple orchard.

"How did you get here in the first place?" Fluttershy wondered out loud, imagining scenarios that would have introduced them to the isolated town. Maybe they had been carried by some pony who hadn't even realized what was going on. Maybe on the train?

Fluttershy sighed and tipped the jar over, releasing the unseen moth from within. It grew dark.

"I won't give up." She stomped down a hoof before slowly circling in place, taking in the whole of the orchard. "I can't give up." She slowly sank back to her haunches. "But... what do I do?" She hadn't dealt with lunar moths before. She had to get clever.

"That's it!" She bounced up to her hooves and her wings bore her free of gravity's pull. "It's time to approach this logically, and that starts in a book." Did Appleloosa have a library? She was about to find out. With a determined expression, she darted off towards the town she hoped to save.

Hopefully, some of Twilight's skill in research had rubbed off on her. It worked at least once before.

Author's Note:

Threads are starting to come together. Things are solved, and things get harder. There better not be any typos in those textbooks...

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