The Time Ponies and the Cutie Mark Thief Vs. the Queen of Hearts

by My name is R

1 Troubling Time Tidbits and Disturbing Discoveries

>> Time.

What is time? Is it a dimension, like left and right, up and down? Or is it like a cloth, draped under all of reality, constantly stretched by any sufficiently massive object? Is it like a piece of thread, a river, or a fork? In truth, it is all of these things, and none. In the end, the most important thing about time... is that it's complicated. But don't worry, you have me! I'll help you understand the weave of time as we journey from the beginning to the end.

Even if those don't line up like normal. <<

---

One day Starlight was sitting in Twilight's library, studying magic. At this point you can probably discern that day was after Twilight took her on as a pupil. (Which is a wonderful time story, but that is a tale for another day.) In fact, this day was shortly after Starlight had reunited with her old friend, Sunburst. On this fine afternoon she was studying the leading theories on time travel when she came to a disturbing passage.

“Hold on, that can't be right,” Starlight said. She looked over the passage again.

‘It has been theorized that within the confines of one universe time travel can never alter the past substantially, as any change large enough to alter the reasons for the initial travel would cause a paradox. In order to avoid this the universe has multiple defenses. One way is to always have the travel, and the original reason for travel is misguided, possibly even caused by time travel. This is known as a closed loop, or stable loop. How the first travel occurred, or if it does indeed have a beginning, is as yet unknown.

‘Another possible defense is known as the duplication defense. This is when the timeline is so irreconcilable that the universe splits in two, with the time traveler coming from the original universe - the unaltered one - and passing into the new altered universe.’

“If that's true, then that timeline Twilight showed me, and all the others she saw…” Starlight stood up. “I need to check these theories.” Starlight trotted out of the library. She went along until she got to Twilight's room and knocked. But when the door opened she saw it was Spike's bedroom.

“Oh, hi Starlight!" Spike said cheerily. "What's up?”

“Oh, well I was actually trying to tell Twilight I'm going on a trip into town, but I still can't seem to find my way around. Heh heh heh…”

“No problem! I'll tell her for you,” Spike offered.

“Thanks Spike, and I think I can find my way to the exit. Bye!” Starlight headed through the castle, finding the large front doors without any trouble. At least they were distinct from all the other doors. Starlight decided to start her search at the post office. She had discovered a secret society based around time travel, known as the Time Ponies, back when she was planning her revenge on Twilight, and she thought they might be able to help with her concerns. All she had to do was find a member to talk to. Fortunately she had the identity of one, Dr. Time. All she had to do was see if he had a mailing address.

Once she had made her way to the post office she walked in and saw a gray pony with a blond mane standing at the counter. "Hello!" called the pony cheerfully. “How can I help?”

“I was wondering if you could help me find somepony called Dr. Time? I don't know where he lives.”

“If you have a letter, I can take it for you,” the mare answered with a smile.

“Actually, I kind of wanted to see him in person,” said Starlight. “Could you look up where he lives for me?”

The mare frowned. “I'm sorry, but the Ponyville Post has a strict policy not to share anypony's address. Sorry.”

“Oh. Sorry to bother you then.” Starlight laughed sheepishly and turned away. But then an idea hit her and she turned back. “Say, do you know who I should ask?”

“Hmm. You could try asking Miss Derpy Hooves. I know she could tell you,” the mare answered, smiling once more.

“Alright, where can I find her?” Starlight asked.

“Oh, I'm Derpy!” Derpy smiled broadly.

Starlight blinked. “So, can you tell me where to find him? Please?”

The mare frowned. “I'm sorry, but the Ponyville Post has a strict policy not to share anypony's address. Sorry.”

Starlight sighed. “Can you take me to see him when your shift is over?”

“Who?” asked Derpy, causing Starlight's eye to start twitching. Then Derpy shook her head. “Oh, you must mean Time Turner! Sure, I can take you as soon as my shift is over at five.”

Starlight took a deep breath, then let it out. “Thank you. I'll see you then.”

“Bye!”

---

At five o'clock Starlight was once more walking up to the post office. As she began crossing the street Derpy stepped outside. “Hello again!” she called out.

“So, can you please take me to see Time Turner?”

“Sure, I live right next door to him so it's on my way.” And at this Derpy began trotting off with Starlight following behind her. “So why do you want to see Doc anyway? Are you looking for an invention? He doesn't normally take requests.”

“Actually, I am curious about his work, and wanted to discuss it with him. I'm a bit of a natural with time spells. Thought maybe we could swap notes?” By the end Starlight was grinning nervously and avoiding eye contact.

“I bet he'll love that. He likes to talk about time whenever he gets the chance. I think you two will get along just great! Hey, we're here!” said Derpy, pointing at a large brown house with peeling paint. It sat between a smaller house with a cheerful yellow paint job and another larger house with lots of flowers. “Would you like me to introduce you?”

“No thank you, I'll just introduce myself.”

“Ok! Goodbye!” Derpy waved and walked into the little yellow house.

Starlight knocked on the door of the brown house and waited. And waited. “Hello? Is anypony home?" She knocked harder and the door popped open. “Hello!”

“What was that?” a voice called from the back of the house. “Derpy, is that you?” A light brown stallion with a dark brown mane walked into view. “Hello, do I know you?”

“No, I wanted to discuss the duplication defense theory, and I knew you were an expert in the field.”

“Ah, yes. Certainly, would you like a seat?” He gestured to three seats around a circular table with various mechanical bits scattered across the surface. “Sorry about the mess, I wasn't expecting company today.”

“Thank you,” said Starlight, taking a seat. "I'm sorry to drop in unexpectedly, I only realized I had a problem this afternoon.”

“Oh, what sort of problem?”

“I may have done, a tiny bit, of rewriting time and causing the desolation of Equestria.”

“Great whickering stallions! That does sound like a serious problem. Did you fix it?”

“See, that's the problem. I think that all that is over, but then I ran across that theory and I'm worried I may have left a big mess of things.”

“That theory?” said Time Turner, before shaking his head vigorously. “Oh right, the duplication defense theory! Yes, I'm not sure of that one, but it is certainly possible. Perhaps we could try to establish a connection with the other worlds that have been theoretically created through time travel.”

“Of course! Then if they are there we'll find them. I've heard that Starswirl did some work on finding other worlds. If we combine that with seeking the magical signature of my time spell…”

“Then we can make sure to find the right worlds! Brilliant! I'll send a letter to Minuette and ask for the relevant works from Starswirl, and one to Pace to help me build the machine!”

“Hold on, you know Minuette? And what machine? I thought we would just design a spell,” said Starlight.

“Minuette is one of the members of a... club I put together. As for the machine, while we will need a spell, the machine will focus it with greater precision than a unicorn. It will also help stabilize the spell. We wouldn't want any power fluctuations during spellwork this intense.”

“That's a good point. So, you put together the Time Ponies?”

“Oh, you've heard of us? Wonderful. I didn't think anypony other than friends of members knew.”

“Wait, it's not a secret?”

“Secret? No, it's just not a big group. I think we have about a dozen members at the moment.”

“Oh. Silly me, I thought it was this big secret organization. Controlling all sorts of time things from the shadows and stuff. Heh heh.”

“Not really. It's more of a club for ponies who like to discuss time's many intricacies. As far as I know I'm the only member who's actually tried to perform time travel. I was close, but I ended up scrapping that project. It was too temperamental, and I wasn't willing to risk destroying the planet.”

“De-destroying the planet?” asked Starlight, with shock written all over her face.

“Fortunately that project never made it past the blueprints. Otherwise we might not be here now.”

“Oh. Okay. So, I'll come see you again next week?”

“I'll send you a letter when we're ready to begin work.” Turner began rummaging through his cupboards.

“Right, I guess I'll wait for your letter then. It was nice meeting you.”

“Hmm? Oh yes, likewise. Cheerio!”

Starlight walked out of Turner's house and began heading toward Twilight's castle. “Well, that was an interesting outing.”

Author's Note:

And so our journey begins. If you are interested in proofreading and either have a British accent or watch Doctor Who PM me. I already have a wonderful editor, but neither of us are very familiar with David Tennant. I am drawing from other Dr. Who/MLP crossovers for now.

I used an edited version of the cover picture for The Worst of All Possible Worlds. The author was cool with it.

I took inspiration from the video featured below. I've changed a few things though, like when she discovered the other worlds.
Channel went down, so no more video. Unfortunate. Let’s see how well I remember it.
Twilight and/or Starswirl realize that every time starilight traveled into the past it split the timeline, rather than overwriting it. Together they develop a spell to travel between the timelines and try to patch them up. But since it’s such a big job, they end up forming a task force, identified by their hourglass cutie marks. I think there was some explanation about how the group had retroactively always been there, but I’m not sure. Anyway, this obviously doesn’t use all of those pieces, that was just the start of the idea.

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[Chrome Masquerade]

“Sorry about the mess, I wasn't expecting company today.”

My mother hates it when people say that.
And will go on about it at length, sometimes.