The Timepony’s Journal

by Penny_Shavins109

Chapter 1 - Seasonal Limbo

Twilight Sparkle was once again, completely exhausted. Flopping down into her bed, she groaned as she’d spent all of her energy during the fight with Tirek. She hadn’t even had the energy to take a simple shower, her mane a complete mess that stuck out in several different directions.

"It's been a crazy day, Spike," she said through a yawn, rolling around to get more comfortable..

Spike followed behind her, equally as fatigued. It had also been a long day for him, even though he was just on the sidelines for most of the ordeal.

"That's the understatement of the century, but I'm gonna miss the old library."

Looking around at the sparkling room, something just felt off about the place. The Golden Oaks library was a home to him, small, cosy, and humble. This place was as far as you could get from that.

"I agree. But don't worry, I'm sure we'll get used to it eventually."

She turned out the lights as she cuddled up into her new bed, the fresh new blankets drifting over her, soft and warm as it should be.

"I hope I will..." she thought to herself before drifting into a peaceful slumber.

For hours everything was peaceful. The relaxing whistle of the midnight wind, accompanied by the gentle ticking of the alarm clock, created the perfect environment for pure comfort. Unfortunately, Twilight wasn't able to finish her ideal nap. As if the air were cut with a hot knife, the wheezing and groaning noise of a particular blue box left a long-winding stain of dread in the no longer perfect night. Twilight just groaned and turned over, dismissing the sound as some early risers starting some loud work. She looked over at Spike, still snoring loudly, before looking back at the clock.

"Three AM? Nopony in their right mind should be up this early. Wait, then why am I awake?"

If she were like everypony else, she'd put a pillow over her head to clog out the noise. But this is Twilight Sparkle; her curiosity always got the better of her. So she got up and went straight to the nearest window, peering out into the night. She was shocked by what she saw, striking so many old memories. She hadn't seen the TARDIS since the fiasco in the Canterlot Public School. That sound she heard earlier, it just didn't match up with how she remembered it. Something about the TARDIS just seemed so unhealthy, and that was never a good sign.

Looking back, she saw that Spike was thankfully still asleep, undisturbed by the commotion. He was always grumpy when it came to being disturbed during his naps. She tip-hoofed around him silently before galloping out of his earshot. She approached her boxes of miscellaneous items salvaged from the wreckage of her old home, stored in the main living area to be unpacked later. It had been there, packed away for so long, a small alien object looking as if it hadn't been touched by a single flame. Placing the key chain around her neck for the first time in ages, she went outside and approached the wooden capsule.

There was a glimmer of hope that he'd be in there with a warm welcome, but there was nothing but a dim old coral console room. The round dome that once beamed with life, giving off a warm orange and green glow, had been silenced. The tan pillars were coated with a light layer of dust and the grated flooring slightly creaked when her hooves touched it. There was an eerie vibe in the air that wasn't around the last time she'd stepped inside. The only source of light came from the crystalline component within The Time Rotor. When she placed a hoof on the console it felt cold to the touch, almost bringing a tear to her eye.

The room itself was a contrast to the original stark white room with the many roundels. So bright and beautiful, everything you could imagine out of a science fiction novel. Instead, it felt old, it looked old, like half of the controls were held on with sticky tape and a prayer. It wasn't long before she stumbled upon something small on the console room floor. Picking up the item and dusting it off, Twilight observed the mysterious object. It was an old brown book with the words 900 Year Diary embroidered onto the cover in gold thread. She staggered back in surprise as a holographic projection snapped into existence.

“Protocol 1B has been activated, TARDIS relocation to the next trusted and most qualified pilot. If this protocol has been activated it means that I’m in danger, big danger. This is something that even I might not be able to survive. The nature of the beast is beyond average comprehension, existing simultaneously across one microspan forwards and backwards within its own timestream. The beast is currently under quarantine, but quarantine has been compromised. I’ve recorded the information within my diary, so as to keep it safe from the wrong hooves. I’m counting on you, molto bene.”

Just like that, the hologram snapped back out of existence. There was a short pause as Twilight began to process all of the new information. He was in trouble again, which was just his typical behavior. Always getting in and out of scrapes was seemingly his forte after having it happen so many times. You could never find the Doctor without trouble looming not far behind. Though he sent for her help specifically so it must be too much for him to handle. This was serious, he hadn’t called out for help before.

She turned around quickly when a mallet fell on the ground from off the console. The hammer was either poorly placed or it was something else entirely. Either way, she didn't want to find out which option it was. She dashed straight back to her bedroom inside and opened the book to the last entry for any sort of clues or answers. It was almost all jumbled or nonsensical in any form or fashion, completely illegible. It was like a book that told a different story depending whether you turned the page from the top or bottom but with every single word. It had to be a purely simple enchantment, but this book was as alien as its author. There had to be more in-depth explanation to it than just a simple incantation, it was complete and utter madness. So many lists, names, and dates on every page, Peladon, Earth, Nimon, Ycranos, and so many more scattered across several pages.

All she knew for sure at the moment was that there had to be a possible way to bypass the scrambler and that the instructions were in there somewhere. There was no way of telling how, though. Trying the typical reorganisation spells didn’t work, so one after another she tried the classic to the slightly more advanced spells from her memory to decode it. Still no luck at all. She closed the book and just stared at the front cover in sorrow, letting out a final sigh. There wasn’t anything she could do at the moment, it’d have to wait until morning.

"I'll figure out a way to save you, Doctor... somehow."

---

Later in the day, Spike awoke to a small amount of Twilight induced commotion. He thought that he should be used to it by now, but could you really get used to Twilight? He sat up and looked at her, sighing with annoyance as she paced around the room. A distressed Twilight Sparkle was never a good sign, and from the look of it, she hadn’t gotten much more sleep eithert. Nothing but tossing and turning, the fear of something dreadful happening to the Doctor still fresh in her mind.

"Is everything alright?" he said while rubbing his eyes, preparing for another long rant.

"No, an old friend of ours is in serious trouble, and the information on what he’s facing is currently in this book. Unfortunately, it's all scrambled, and even my indexing spells are going crazy on it! It's crossed and knotted so many times there’s no consistency. No context, no control, I’m not even sure if it’s a spell anymore."

Twilight collapsed on the bed, growling in either frustration or a mild form of annoyance. Now may have not been the best time to be frustrated but it certainly made her feel better. That noise in the console room could’ve been it. The thing could’ve latched onto the TARDIS and hitched a ride along with the vortex. It was all too much to process even though there was so little to go off of. That may have been the most worrisome part of all, how little she knew.

Spike pulled himself up onto the bed and gave her a comforting pat on the back. It didn’t help much but it was good to know he was still by her side. He might not even understand any of it considering how little of the Doctor Spike had actually seen. He was still young when Twilight went on her first adventure, taking a report on the happenings in a certain military base her brother helped to oversee.

"It's alright, and I'm sure there's some magical friendship solution to this."

Twilight gave him a blank and sarcastic stare.

"That's not how it works, Spike."

"Well, forgive me for trying to lighten the mood. But still, if you can't flip to a certain part, then why not just read all of it? Y'know, start on page one and work upwards?"

"But that's his diary! I can't just read through every page like that. It could work. Using a basis of knowledge to establish psychic connections with the book’s index does have a high probability of succeeding."

"Okay, okay, start from the beginning and in actual Ponish. I need a little more to go on here without the science gobbledygook."

She then went on a ten-minute explanation about the old Doctor, the TARDIS, and numerous other things. It really was a lot to take in. Despite all the magical beasts they’d faced, adventures in time and space were clearly foreign to him. Thankfully, Spike was able to stop her before it went on any longer.

"Sorry, mostly, he left me instructions on what to do, and he just said 'I have faith in you.'"

"So he expected there to be a way to go around this blocking thingy. Do you have anything that could work for this? I dunno, some advanced Princess magic?"

"I'm trying my best but it's going in circles. It should be just basic magic, an old foals’ trick from back at school. But whoever made this thing sure wasn’t fooling around."

She weighed out the odds of finding an excellent spell compared to how long it'd take her to read the book. Both had equally treacherous risks that she had a hard time bearing. There was no way of knowing how long she had. Even with the TARDIS, a time and space machine, there were specific rules on how it could be used. For all she knew, the events the Doctor was in ran parallel to her own, meaning there was no possible way to travel less than the exact amount of time she experienced after receiving the note.

Nothing was solid and nothing was set in stone quite yet, but it soon could be. The seconds ticked by one after another and such decisions had to be made now. If there wasn't a quicker solution, then reading might be the best choice. Twilight then picked up the book in her hooves and turned to page one. It had been a long time since it had been open to that point as the pages had nearly yellowed with age. It was her easiest option in the long run. All the information she needed was right here somewhere, all she had to do was find it. With a short sigh, she began to read the ancient text from an era of time almost forgotten.

Comments

[IllusionedDrawer64]

Correction: Time Ponies since it’s Gallopfrey