Twilight Sparkle knocks heads with the Doctor. A minor adventure follows.
While attempting a memory spell, Twilight Sparkle collides with the Doctor. Now possessing new knowledge, she turns her library into an ARCHIVE and takes her friends on a trip to Barcelona. The planet Barcelona. Don't blink.
Short story that resulted from wondering about Time Lord telepathy and unicorn magic interacting. Probably will be overhauled and edited more thoroughly at some later point.
"Where is it?" Twilight Sparkle rummaged through her saddlebag for the third time. Books, quill, spare quill, ink, spare ink, juice box, miniature abacus, but no checklist. "Where is it?" she repeated, exasperated. She shook the bag out, but no absurdly extensive scroll fell out with the rest of its contents. Her other saddlebag was empty, reminding her that there was a reason she'd needed such a large list today: grocery day. "Maybe if I just run back to the library…" Her gaze fell on the clock tower. No, that wouldn't do. Even if she blinked back to retrieve her list, it would throw off her whole schedule. The delay to check her bag had already set her back.
She increased her pace, approaching the market as she frantically thought about how to solve this. Maybe a scrying spell to see the list? Only, she didn't remember where she'd left it. A calligraphy recall spell on her quill? But she didn't know which one had been used to write the list. Wait…recall. “A self-applied memory spell should work!” She kept walking and concentrated. Magic swirled around her horn, and she closed her eyes for the brief moment she'd need to complete the spell. She could almost see the list. The first item was-
"Alright, Derpy, we've got to-oof!" A brown earth pony wearing a tie careened around a corner and knocked heads with the unicorn just as the spell completed. The grey pegasus who rounded the corner next found the two sprawled on the ground.
"Doctor!" Derpy helped the earth pony back to his feet, then gasped as she noticed who the stallion had collided with. "Twilight! You okay?"
"Wha…" Twilight forced her eyes to stop spinning in their orbits. "Oh, I'm fine, Derpy. I should have been paying attention."
"Completely my fault, I'm afraid," the brown stallion apologized. Twilight noted his accent. Trottingham? "I'm always running around like that. Never know who or what you'll bump into."
"Oh, no harm done, Doctor…" The unicorn frowned. "You know, I've seen you around before, but I don't know your name."
"John Sm-er, Time Turner," the stallion answered. "Sorry, we've really got to be going. Come on Derpy!" He galloped off, the grey pegasus at his heels.
"It was nice meeting you!" Twilight called after them as they rounded the next corner. She frowned. That Doctor's cutie mark seemed strangely familiar…
The chime of the clock tower brought her back to the matters at hoof. "Focus, Twilight. You can work on remembering that after you've used what you've just remembered.” She consulted her refreshed memory as she trotted towards a market stall. Now, the first thing on the list was…
***
"Bananas?" Spike asked, surprised.
"Well, yeah," Twilight said, telekinetically supporting a bunch of bananas and several grocery bags. "It was first on the list."
"Oh, right. The list," Spike said sheepishly. "I just found it in the fridge. Otherwise, I would've run it out to you."
"The fridge? Why was it there?"
"I dunno. But here it is if you want to check everything." The dragon unrolled the scroll. He blinked, confused. "Weird. The first thing on the list is pears, not bananas."
"What? I hate pears!" Twilight suppressed a shudder at the mention of the hated fruit. "Spike, why'd you put them on the list?"
"Uh, Twilight, you made the shopping list, remember?"
"Oh." Twilight was puzzled. "Why'd I…never mind, I must have meant a pair of bananas."
"Then why'd you buy a bunch?"
"Bananas are good." The unicorn plucked one from the bunch and peeled it for a quick snack as she trotted over to her desk. "Can you put the groceries away, please, Spike?"
"Sure thing." The dragon carried the bags and the bunch of bananas into the kitchen. He opened the fridge to put away the perishables and blinked at one food item on the middle shelf. "Huh." He pulled the half-eaten pear pie out and looked at it closely. "She really liked it yesterday. Maybe she ate a bad slice?"
***
Twilight meanwhile was still trying to remember why that mark looked familiar. It wasn't that an hourglass was too uncommon, it was just she was sure she'd seen the same stallion with the same mark, only different somehow…but where? No, not where, when. Or maybe both?
The time and place rushed back to her: Cloudsdale! She could have sworn one of the junior fliers had been that same stallion. But that was impossible; he was an earth pony, and the competitor, obviously, had been a pegasus. There was no way they could be the same pony. She sighed in frustration. If she hadn't used that time travel spell to warn herself for nothing, she could have used it to verify if her memory was accurate. Wait, why had she thought about the time spell? She could just use the memory spell...except memory could be inaccurate, obviously. Take that shopping list: She was sure she'd written bananas, but instead she'd written pears! Blech!
A small sand timer on her desk caught her eye. On a whim, she flipped it over. The grains began to run out. She flipped it back. The few that had fallen returned. "It's almost like you're suspended in time, able to go forwards or backwards at will…"
An idea sprang into her mind. She concentrated, recalling the spell she'd used all those Tuesdays ago. Then, as the magic grew, instead of trying (and doubtless failing) to use it on herself, she redirected the spell onto the timer, flipping it as she did so. The arcane whirling surrounded the tiny item, and it vanished in a bright flash, only to reappear less than a second later with a similar flash. It seemed as if the miniature hourglass had gone nowhere, except the sands inside showed that slightly more than a full minute had passed for it, a minute that had not passed for her. She tried to repeat the spell, but this time the hourglass just sat there, unmoving save for the last few grains of sand. "Okay, so definitely not repeatable…unless…" She thought over it. "If whatever I send back has a minute in the past, and 1 second to dematerialize and rematerialize now…"
A sudden wind whipped through the room, and magical energy began spouting from a spot on her desk. Twilight's eyes widened, and she flipped the spent timer back over as a bubble of magic materialized. The magic grew and finally burst, and a quill appeared on her desk, slightly smoking but undamaged. "Okay…so there's also time to materialize on the receiving end."
Twilight watched for about a minute, until magical sparks began to run along the length of the quill, and it vanished. Twilight quickly picked up a quill from her desk and cast the time spell on it, retrieving the (original?) quill for examination a second later. "That was close. Could've caused a paradox." Still… if she sent an object back in time the amount of time from the timer, plus the time needed to materialize, plus the second for the object to return to the caster…
A fresh arcane wind began, and she waited until the bubble appeared and started to collapse before casting the spell on what she'd intended to the whole time; a pencil. A second later, the pencil was gone and back…or had it ever left? She cast the spell on it again, this time redirecting it to a different location. The pencil blinked in and out, just as Spike burst out of the kitchen.
"Twilight! I found a pencil in the freezer, and I was using it to write a new shopping list when it just exploded only it didn't wreck anything, but there was smoke and then…" He trailed off as he saw the pencil on the desk. "Um…is this that time spell again?"
"Yes, Spike, sorry about that." Twilight tried casting the spell on the pencil again, only for it to fail, as she expected. But why did it work twice before? Unless… "Spike, do we have any other hourglasses?"
"Well, we've got that big one the Mayor uses to time public events."
"Perfect! Now help me move this table, we've got work to do!"
The next morning came and went, and by afternoon, five pets along with five mildly confused ponies were gathered in the park.
"Okay, something's weird," Rainbow Dash said. She scratched her head as Tank hovered next to her. "Where's Twilight?"
"Yes, where is Twilight?" Rarity asked. "She and Owloysius are usually the first ones here for our weekly Pony Pet Playdate."
"And where's Spike?" Applejack added. "He and Peewee ain't here either."
"Maybe she's working on something important and couldn't make it," Fluttershy suggested.
"But Twilight never ever misses anything on her schedule!" Pinkie exclaimed. "Even when she went all loco in the coco about being tardy, she still made it to the picnic!"
"Well, maybe she's just runnin' late." Applejack grabbed her hat to keep it from blowing away in a sudden breeze "Let's just wait and see."
The five ponies glanced around as their pets began to frolic, hoping that Twilight would show up soon. They weren't disappointed.
"Woah!" Pinkie suddenly started as her ears flopped, her eyelids fluttered, and her front knees shivered. The gathered ponies' confusion deepened.
"Pinkie, that is the sign for opening doors, is it not?" Rarity asked.
"Yeah, but I don't understand! There aren't any doors here!"
Rainbow suddenly pointed out something up on the hill. "Look!"
Five pairs of pony eyes watched as a full grown pony in a paper hat and swinging a glowing wooden sword through the air galloped down the hill. A full grown, purple pony. "Twilight?!"
The librarian-turned-pirate skidded to a halt next to them and raised her eyepatch. "Told ye so!" she announced with a grin. Then she turned and galloped back over the hill, leaving her friends in a state of shock and consternation.
"What in tarnation was that all about?" Applejack asked as another breeze rippled over the field.
"I dunno," Pinkie said. "But I bet it has something to do with that opening door!"
***
The next door they encountered after dropping all of their pets safely at home proved to be far less mysterious. A few knocks on the entrance to Golden Oaks library were answered by Spike. "Oh, hi guys. Sorry we didn't make it to the playdate, but Twilight's been busy with something."
"We guessed as much, Spike, but-" Applejack blinked as what Spike had just said registered. "Wait, you said 'we'."
"Well, yeah. We've both been working on Twilight's…uh…whatever it is."
"But we just saw Twilight over in the park!" Pinkie exclaimed. "And she had an eyepatch and a hat and a sword and there was this spooky door that nopony could see and-"
A gasp from inside the library interrupted Pinkie's monologue. "What?!" Twilight narrowly missed crashing into Spike as she sprinted to the door and began peppering them with questions. "You saw me in the park? What did I say? What did I do? Did you see the-"
"Whoa there!" Applejack said, getting the manic unicorn to stop talking for a moment. "Could you maybe just tell us slowly what exactly is going on around here?"
"Well, I was going to wait until I'd tested it, but since it looks like I already did test it…" Twilight swung door wide. "Welcome, everypony, to the ARCHIVE!"
The five ponies peered inside. Where there normally was a table graced with a wooden pony's head, Twilight had installed a large hourglass, surrounded by a bank of gadgets. Every second, the entire hourglass flashed pale purple.
"Welcome to the what?" Rainbow asked as she and the others stepped inside.
"The Amalgam Readery/Chronodynamo Hidden Inside Vegetative Enclosure," Twilight said proudly.
"The what?" The blue pegasus repeated, still mystified.
"The ARCHIVE," the unicorn simplified. "It sounds neat, doesn't it?"
"But what does it do?"
"It's a time traveling library!" Twilight exclaimed.
"Ooh! Like that time spell you used!" Pinkie said. "And it works on the whole library?"
"It's actually almost the same spell," Twilight said.
"Aw…" Pinkie frowned. "So you only can use it once?"
"Nope!" The unicorn trotted over to the hourglass. "See how it's flashing every second? It's constantly time traveling." She flipped a few switches on the equipment around the flashing timepiece. "It took me all night to figure out exactly how to do this, but now that the hourglass is chronomantically suspended, I can harness it to pull the entire library anywhere or when I want it to go!"
"Look, Twilight, I've seen you do a whole buncha crazy things with magic," Applejack said. "But draggin' a whole buildin' through time? Heck, I've only heard of one pony draggin' a whole building, just through town, and I still ain't sure I believe it happened."
"I had a feeling you'd say that!" Twilight said. "So, if you'd all just step outside for a second…" She herded her friends out of the library and closed the door. Moments later, the entire building vanished in a flash of magic and a gust of wind. Even as the five ponies gasped at the suddenly absent tree, another flash brought it back. Twilight stepped out, wearing a paper hat and her eye patch. "Sorry to say it again, but-" The unicorn cleared her throat before continuing, in a piratical tone "I told ye so!" She coughed before resuming her normal voice. "Any questions?"
"Now just a minute!" Rarity said. "I can certainly understand now why we saw you in the park, but did you have to wear that ridiculous outfit?"
"Oh…that's one of the limitations," Twilight admitted. "You can't cross your own timeline unless it's for cheap tricks." Pinkie Pie nodded in agreement as the others pondered this.
"Um…why is that?" Fluttershy asked.
"Well…" The others steeled themselves for a lengthy lecture. "Timey wimey, wibbly wobbly stuff, it'd be bad." Twilight finished abruptly. Everypony else, including Spike, stared at her in disbelief. Twilight ignored the shocked looks and trotted back inside, discarding the hat and patch as she made her way back to the console. She spun around to face them as they cautiously reentered the library. “So! Any times, places or both that you want to see?" She suddenly gasped as an idea struck her. "Wait! I've got it! Barcelona!"
"Barcelona!" Rarity exclaimed. "Why, that's half a world away! And Spain! We simply must go!"
"Um, Rarity, Barcelona's not in Spain." Twilight corrected.
"Well, I suppose it's really Cattleonia. No matter! I, for one, think we should all go to Barcelona! Why, they have such lovely spas there, and the cuisine is supposed to be splendid. Also, I have been wanting some inspiration. The local attire should give me a few new fashion ideas."
"What's everypony else think?" Twilight asked.
"Barcelona sounds just fine," Applejack seconded.
"Okay…" Rainbow allowed. "Though count me out on the whole spa thing."
"It sounds nice," Fluttershy agreed quietly.
"Sure!" Pinkie said. "And then I can meet a whole bunch of new ponies! I've been learning how to read the closed captions so I can understand what they say, too!"
"Um…okay," Spike finished.
"Alright then, Barcelona!" Twilight reached out a hoof and spun the hourglass. The whole library lurched violently as she started flipping switches, spinning dials, and punching in numbers. "Allons-y!"
The library appeared exactly where and when Twilight had intended it too, on the edge of a city. Five ponies and one dragon stepped out, marveling at their sudden change in location. Twilight followed and locked the door behind her. "Just a second," she said. She cast a quick spell over the whole building.
"What was that spell?" Spike asked.
"Just a Somepony Else's Problem Spell," Twilight said. "It'll make sure nopony bothers the ARCHIVE while we're away."
"What a marvelous place!" Rarity exclaimed, taking in the view of the city. "Just look at it! Isn't it lovely?"
"Something's not right," Rainbow said. "Look at the sky!" The others turned their eyes to follow the pegasus' pointing hoof. Above them, the clouds swirled in the breeze, with not a pegasus in sight.
"Maybe they have weather like the Everfree?" Twilight suggested. "I mean, it's not Equestria."
"Well, at least some things are the same everywhere," Applejack said. "Look at Fluttershy!"
A number of small animals had gathered around the yellow pegasus, who was talking to them happily. One of them, tail wagging, had raised its head and perked its ears when Applejack spoke.
"Well, hey there, little doggy," the farmer said. She trotted over and held out a hoof to the critter. "What's your name?" The animal turned around and gave the earth pony's hoof an affectionate lick, but Applejack recoiled. "Yah! What the hay is that thing?"
"It's a dog, Applejack," Twilight informed her.
"It's got no nose!"
"Barcelona dogs don't have noses."
"Whaddya mean, they don't have noses? Who ever heard of a dog with no nose?"
"That's what Barcelona's known for: it's the planet where dogs don't have noses."
Everyone but Twilight gaped at that. "PLANET?!"
"Well, yeah," Twilight said, puzzled. "I mean, what did you expect?"
"So what you mean is that when you said Barcelona," Rarity began, "You thought we all expected a different planet?"
"Well…this is the Barcelona that popped into my head."
"How in Equestria did you know about a whole planet named Barcelona?" Applejack demanded. "Shoot, I didn't know there was even a city called Barcelona till about five minutes ago."
A loud gasp interrupted the argument. “A whole planet where I haven't met anypony!” Pinkie Pie leapt forward into the city. “I've got to meet everypony I can!”
“We'd better follow her.” Twilight suggested, trotting after Pinkie.
“Alright,” Applejack said. “But you're gonna have to explain how you knew about this place sometime soon.” The group trailed after the bouncing pink pony.
***
Ten minutes later, Pinkie's increasingly slow bounces finally stopped. “I don't understand,” she said, frowning. “I still haven't met anypony new!”
“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash agreed. “Where is everypony?”
“I don't know, but something's not right.” Twilight raised her voice and called into the empty streets. “Hello-o?” Echoes were the only answer.
“Can we go home now?” Fluttershy asked.
Twilight glanced over at her. “Maybe we-” She stopped suddenly. “Fluttershy? What happened to all the animals?”
“They ran away,” the pegasus answered nervously. “Something scared them.”
“Oh, my!” Rarity exclaimed. “I've never seen such a detailed statue! Why, you can almost see the individual hairs of this pegasus' coat.”
“A pegasus statue?” Twilight trotted over to where Rarity had stopped to admire the art. A grey marble pegasus was placed in an alcove, it's hooves over its eyes. A shiver ran down the purple unicorn's spine.
“Yes, isn't it just the most elaborate masterpiece you've ever laid eyes on?” Rarity continued. “Though it's strange that they had it placed in the middle of the entryway.”
“Entryway?” Twilight looked past the statue, and saw the hall beyond. A hall decorated by several other statues of similar appearance, all posed slightly differently.
“Oh, look!” Rarity had noticed the other statues as well. “Why, they're all unique!” She started to trot past the lone statue to get a better look at its fellows.
“No!” Twilight exclaimed. “Rarity, come back here!”
“But Twilight, whatever for? They're just statues.”
“No, they're not. And I know what happened to whoever lived here.”
“Oh my goodness!” Fluttershy leapt forward, having drawn her own conclusions. “Oh, I'm so sorry for you,” she said to the statue. “Don't worry, I'll find the nasty cockatrice that did this to you.”
“No, Fluttershy,” Twilight said, keeping her eyes fixed on the statue. “It wasn't a cockatrice.”
“But how can it not be?” the yellow pegasus asked. “What else could turn all these ponies to stone?”
“Think about it. If it was a cockatrice, they wouldn't have been able to cover their eyes. These aren't ponies.”
“Then...what are they?”
“Something bad. Now get away from it!” Twilight waited until Fluttershy was away from the statue, then cast a force field around it, blocking the door as well. “I'm not one hundred percent sure, though. Everypony, form up on me. Keep looking outwards, but not at this statue. Don't close your eyes if you can help it.”
“Ooh! Like a staring contest!” Pinkie said.
“Sort of,” Twilight agreed. Only if they lost this one... “Okay, everypony circled up?”
A chorus of affirmations came from the group. “Alright...” Twilight kept staring at the statue, and then, slowly, she deliberately blinked. Almost immediately, she felt something slam against her field. Her eyes snapped open, and she saw the snarling visage of the 'pegasus', frozen with a hoof raised to strike the field again. “Oh no...oh no no no no no...”
“What?” Applejack asked. “What is it?”
“They must've already gotten everypony here,” Twilight muttered. She lowered her field, then cast a new one around the group. “Okay, it should be safe to look away for a moment. But keep an eye out. I doubt that these are the only ones.”
“The only what?” Applejack turned towards Twilight to demand an explanation, only to see the twisted face of the 'statue'. “Yah!”
The others turned to see it as well. All of them screamed as they saw it, except for Pinkie, who bounced over to peer smilingly at the statue. “Wow! Hi there, I'm Pinkie Pie! I've never met a statue that could move before, only I guess you only can move when we're not looking at you. Are you made of rock? I used to live on a rock farm, and I never saw a rock that could move, well except for Rocky, but that was kinda in my head, and-”
“Pinkie, cut it out! And don't look at its eyes!”
“What are they?” Applejack demanded. “Are they the ponies who live here?”
“No,” Twilight said. “They're why nopony lives here now. Weeping Angels.” She furrowed her brow, confused. “Though why do I remember them as looking different than this?”
“Forget that!” Rainbow said. “How do we stop them?”
“We can't,” Twilight told her. “It's too late for this town. We need to get back to the ARCHIVE.” The now slightly orange sky drew her eyes to the sinking sun. “And soon. Once it's dark, they'll have the advantage as they hunt.”
“Hunt? How? It's a statue!”
“No. They're only statues when you're looking at them. But when you're not, they move incredibly fast. Like this one just did.” Twilight started to move, and the others followed her. “If they touch you, they send you backwards in time and then use the time you would have lived from the present on as food.”
“Oh, is that it? Well, that's a relief,” Rarity said. “If one of us happens to be taken, then you can just use your time machine to find us again.”
“No, I can't,” Twilight replied. “Remember, no crossing your own timeline for important things. Once you're sent back, you're part of the events that led to now. I can't bring you back without causing a paradox.”
“Silly Twilight, what's a pair of socks have to do with time travel?” Pinkie said.
“Simple: if I cause a paradox, then I don't. Things reset so that it's how it was before I caused it. It's impossible to sustain a paradox...or at least really, really difficult. More than the ARCHIVE can handle without a temporal implosion.”
“Ooh...that sounds bad.” Rainbow said.
“It would be.” Twilight glanced back. “Any of them following us?”
“A few,” Applejack said. “Two on the rooftops, one on the road. Still cryin', though.” She scratched her head, pondering. “Why are they doin' that?”
“To make sure they don't look at each other,” Twilight said.
“Why?”
“Because then nopony would win the staring contest!” Pinkie interjected.
“Exactly, Pinkie. They'd be stuck. Forever. Or until something blocked their views.” Twilight looked up. Several more Angels were peeking over the rooftops ahead too. But over a low building, she could see the branches of the library. “There it is! We're almost-” She stopped suddenly as they came around the corner. “Here...” The base of the library was surrounded by Angels.
“Why aren't they looking at us?” Spike asked quietly. Sure enough, the Angels were all focused on the library.
“It looks like they're trying to get in,” Twilight whispered back. “But the Somepony Else's Problem spell means they can't see the ARCHIVE.”
“Then why are they trying to get inside?” Applejack asked.
“The chronodynamo.”
“The what?”
“The hourglass, that's what they're after. It emits time energy, and it must be seeping out through the walls.”
“Well, at least they haven't found their way inside,” Rarity said. “Now we just have to walk past them and-”
“It's not that easy,” Twilight interrupted. “The moment we touch the outside of the ARCHIVE, it won't be Somepony Else's Problem anymore, it'll be our problem, and the spell will be broken. Then there's nothing to stop them from breaking through the windows and door to get at the Chronodynamo.”
“So just teleport us inside the library!” Rainbow said. “Then we won't interrupt the spell.”
“I'm not sure I can,” Twilight admitted. “Normally when I teleport, both end and start are temporally and spatially fixed. Right now, the ARCHIVE is neither. If I tried to teleport inside it now, I'd be trying to teleport to where I'm used to it being, and I know I don't have the energy to teleport any of us all the way back to Equestria.”
“What again?”
“It's too wibbly-wobbly to teleport to right now.” Twilight realized something else. “Also, the time to dematerialize at the end of a time spell is a lot longer than the time it lasts in the user's original time. Once we're back, we'll only have been gone for a second, but when we're leaving, it takes 8 seconds for the ARCHIVE to vanish, during which time it can still be affected what's outside it. So when we leave, they have 8 seconds to smash in.”
“So even if we get inside, we can't just leave,” Applejack summed up.
Twilight nodded. “And I can't just cast a force field; the bubble would surround the angels too...” She hit the top of her head. “There's got to be something...think!”
“I must admit, it seems dreadful that they can't look at themselves,” Rarity said. “I mean, not being able to look at anypony else is terrible, yes, but not even being able to use a mirror yourself?”
“Mirror...That's it!” Twilight exclaimed. “Rarity, you're a genius!”
“Why, thank you, Twilight. But how does a mirror help us?”
“I can use a transformation spell to make the outside of the ARCHIVE mirrored! Then any of the Angels that try to get in will wind up looking at themselves!”
“Well, go on then,” Rarity urged.
“There's just one problem...” Twilight admitted.
“What?” everyone else asked.
The purple unicorn gulped nervously. “I have to drop the force field before I cast the spell.”
“Whatever for, dear?” Rarity asked.
“Yeah Twilight,” Spike added. “The one you cast around the library a few weeks ago only needed recharging every hour, and Shining Armor's shield only needed to be refreshed once a day!”
“The smaller the shield, the quicker it dissipates without energy,” Twilight explained. “And I can't make it bigger, because...” She nodded towards an Angel that had somehow gotten close enough to be right next to the protective barrier. “As long as the field is down, you need to keep looking at the Angels.” She waited as the others took up positions around her. “Ready?” Everyone nodded. “Okay, here goes...”
Twilight closed her eyes and dispelled the force field. The protective bubble burst, and she turned her attention to the library. Her horn glowed as she concentrated on the thought of mirrors. She cast the spell, and the entire exterior of the oak tree became reflective. Satisfied, she turned around.
“Okay, let's-Gah!” The stony visage of a snarling Angel was right in front of her, frozen just as it was about to attack. Quickly, Twilight conjured a full length mirror in front of the creature, trapping it. A glance over her shoulder showed that while some of the Angels were already trapped by the mirrored ARCHIVE, the rest had turned their attention towards the group. “Who's looking at the Angels by the ARCHIVE?”
“Me!” Pinkie sang out.
“So am I,” Applejack said. “But there's too many of them for us to risk walking through.”
“I've got another idea...but we need to stop looking at the Angels near the library for it to work.” Twilight did some rapid mental calculations. Average equine eyelid speed, distance a Weeping Angel could move in that time...it'd be close, but it should be fine... “Applejack, Pinkie, when I tell you to, blink once.”
“That's suicide, Twi!” Applejack protested.
“No, it's not! Trust me, I'm...” Twilight paused. It felt like she was supposed to say something different. “I'm sure it'll work,” she finished. “Ready?”
“Okie dokie!”
“If you say so...”
“Alright...blink!” Twilight closed her own eyes for a split second, then opened them. All the Angels that she'd been looking at that had moved forward almost ten feet...leaving a clearing on the other side of them large enough for six ponies and one dragon. “Everypony, keep your eyes open!” She concentrated again, the magic surging and surrounding all of them. A moment later, they were on the other side of the Angel horde; the teleport had put them right at the door of the library. “Get inside!” She unlocked the door with a burst of magic and flung it open. One by one, her friends backed into the library. Twilight was last in. She slammed the door closed again and sighed in relief, then trotted over to the console. “Well...where to next?”
***
“Where to next?” Applejack repeated in disbelief. “Are you outta your mind?!”
“Yeah, Twilight!” Rainbow agreed. “We almost got killed on this trip, and you want to go on another one?”
“Ooh! Can we go to the moon next?” Pinkie asked. “Or space! I've always wanted to go to space, well, not always, but it just sounds so spacey and big and amazing and-”
“Twilight, We appreciate that you thought we'd enjoy Barcelona,” Rarity said diplomatically, ignoring Pinkie's continuing yammering. “But we hardly expected it to be so...”
“Scary?” Fluttershy suggested.
“Yes, quite. So, if you'd be so kind as to just take us home?”
“Alright then,” Twilight said. She flipped a few switches and gave the hourglass a spin. The glow intensified for a few seconds before dimming to normal. “Here we are, home.”
Applejack trotted over to the door and opened it. Sure enough, Ponyville stood outside. “Alright, Twilight,” she said, closing the door again. “Thank you kindly. Now, do you mind explainin' how exactly you knew about Barcelona and those statues?”
“Well...” Twilight stopped, thinking. “I don't know...maybe it was some book I read?”
“A book about other planets?” Rainbow asked incredulously. “And about statues that move when you're not looking? Sheesh, Twilight, that's like something out of a Daring Do novel, but you acted like you knew they were real!”
“I did!” Twilight insisted. “Just like I know that the inhabitants of Raxacoricofallapatorius are calcium based, and-” She stopped talking, shocked at what she'd just said. “How in the hoof did I know that?”
“How can you not know how you know something?” Rainbow questioned.
“I don't know!” Twilight began frantically pulling books off the shelves. “It must be somewhere, it has to be- Ah ha!” She triumphantly clapped her hooves. “I've got it! I only realized I knew these things today, so I just have to check the books I've read today! Spike, what books have I read today?”
“Um...Twilight, you haven't read any books today.”
“Then how...why...what...” The unicorn was rapidly approaching a mental break down. She fell back on her rump, still muttering. “It doesn't make sense! I can't know these things, but I do, but I don't know how I do, it isn't possible, I'm not possible, but I can't be impossible-”
“Maybe we should get help?” Fluttershy suggested as she hovered over to give the still-ranting Twilight a reassuring hug. “Somepony should go and find a-”
A knock on the door interrupted the pegasus' suggestion. Applejack opened the door again, revealing a brown earth pony wearing a tie and followed by a familiar grey pegasus. The earth pony had a device hanging on a strap around his neck that beeped and gave off an occasional 'ding'.
“Hello, I'm the Doctor. Anyone seen anything timey wimey?”
“A doctor! Just what we need!” Applejack exclaimed gratefully.
“Well, perfect timing!” The brown pony stepped inside the library, followed by the pegasus. “Now, what's seems to be the problem-” He noticed the glowing hourglass. “Oh! Brilliant!” He produced a device with a light on the end and began waving it around the hourglass with his teeth. He mumbled a few question that was incoherent to everypony. Well, almost everypony.
“It's a chronodynamo,” Twilight answered.
The Doctor dropped the device as he looked towards the familiar voice. “Oh, it's you again!” he said, pleasantly surprised. “Hold on, how'd you make this?”
“I just cast a time spell on that hourglass so that it went back in time the exact amount needed to appear at the moment I cast the spell on it,” Twilight explained as the Doctor picked up the device again. “And then I kept doing that about forty times, until it just started glowing like that.”
“Sr yr mn-” The Doctor paused to spit out the device. “So you mean you created a fixed point in time! Oh, that is fantastic! You ponies are full of surprises!”
“Um...thanks?”
“So this is what's been setting off my Timey Wimey Detector!” The Doctor tapped the 'dinging' device around his neck. “And this whole setup...you've turned the library into a TARDIS!”
“ARCHIVE, actually,” Twilight corrected.
“Oh, very nice!”
“Hold on,” Applejack butted in. “Can you help Twilight?”
“Oh, right, sorry, got a bit distracted.” The Doctor shut off the detector then moved over to Twilight and began scanning her with the other device. “Nw, wus wrog?”
“She knows things that she doesn't know how she knows,” Pinkie Pie said as the Doctor finished the scan and consulted the device. “Kinda like my Pinkie Sense!”
“No, it's not like that, Pinkie,” Twilight said, calmer now. “I think that what's wrong is that I have memories that aren't mine.”
“How'd that happen?”
“Well-” Twilight and the Doctor both spoke at the same time, only to stop awkwardly.
“Go on,” the Doctor prompted.
“Well,” the unicorn resumed, “When I was going grocery shopping the other day, I forgot my list, and I didn't want to waste time, so I just used my memory spell to refresh my memory. Only as I was finishing the spell-”
“I ran round the corner and crashed headfirst into her,” the Doctor finished. “So she's got some of my memories now.”
“Can you fix it?” Applejack asked.
“Course I can.” The Doctor sat down in front of Twilight. “May I?”
“Go ahead.”
The brown pony raised both front hooves to the sides of the unicorn's head. “Alright, just close your eyes...” He closed his eyes in concentration as Twilight did the same. Presently, he opened them and lowered his hooves. “Right then, that should do it. Have to be sure, though...what's Convention 15 of the Shadow Proclamation?”
“I don't know.”
“Good!” The Doctor's brow furrowed. “Now, what was all that about Weeping Angels on Barcelona?”
***
Twilight finished explaining the events on Barcelona. “Well, that's interesting. Weeping Pegasi?” The Doctor thought for a second. “Anyways, I'll have to sort that out somehow. Good to know.” He turned his attention back to the hourglass. “Now, about this...”
“I know, I know,” Twilight sighed. “You can't let me keep it.”
“Well, you did make it using my memories. Inspired bit with the forty two repetitions of the spell, certainly, but this is a fixed point in time, and that should never happen.”
“I understand, Doctor. And this whole time travel thing's getting out of hoof again.” Twilight focused briefly. A breeze filled the library as the hourglass winked out and then reappeared. It had stopped glowing. “There, the spell's broken.”
“Thank you.” The Doctor tapped the side of the hourglass again. “Nice thing, though. Where'd you get it?”
“Don't you remember it?” Applejack asked. “It's the same one you used to start off the cider makin' competition.”
“Cider making?” Comprehension dawned on the Doctor's face. “Oh...wibbly wobbly, timey wimey...I probably should borrow this for a bit, then.”
“Go ahead,” Twilight told him. “Just make sure the Mayor gets it when you're done.”
“Thanks.” The Doctor paused. “You know, you lot never did get to Barcelona. Well, not the Barcelona most of you wanted to go to.” He looked around the group. “Fancy a lift?”
“Well, sure, if you're offerin',” Applejack said.
“Oh, I am. Back in a tick.” The Doctor galloped out of the door, holding onto the hourglass..
“Well, we've got a few minutes to wait, then,” Applejack said. “Now, if somepony could explain how this Doctor fella knows all that stuff?”
“Um, Applejack,” Derpy said, “We kinda don't.”
“What do you mean?”
A loud grinding murmur filled the air. Everypony looked around for the source, but found nothing. There was a loud thump, and then relative silence. The sound of hooves trotting up stairs was followed by the basement door swinging open. “Hello everyone,” the Doctor said. “Did say a tick, didn't I?”
“How'd you get in there?” Applejack asked.
“Come and see!” The stallion trotted back down the stairs, followed by everyone else. At the bottom of the stairs, where Twilight had originally kept the console equipment, was a blue box with a light on top. “The TARDIS! Time and Relative Dimension In Space!”
“Your time machine, right?” Twilight asked.
“Yes, and spaceship.”
Applejack tapped a hoof on the side. “Is there some kinda rule that all time machines have to be made of wood?”
“Oh, no. She just likes that.” The Doctor swung the door inward and stepped inside. “Come on!” Everypony else trotted after him. The Doctor looked at them expectantly as they looked around the TARDIS's much larger interior. “Well?” He asked. “I love this bit,” he whispered conspiratorially to Derpy.
“Awesome!” Rainbow Dash said. She hovered up to the top of the room. “You can fly in here!”
“It's just lovely,” Rarity agreed. “The lighting complements the center piece perfectly.”
“It's...nice.” Fluttershy finished.
“Yes, but what else? I mean, what do you think about all this?” The Doctor waved a hoof around at the Console Room. “Don't you notice anything?”
“Ooh! I know!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed. “It's bigger on the inside!”
“Yes! It's bigger on the inside!” the Doctor affirmed. He looked at them oddly. “And yet...none of you seem very surprised.”
“Well, yeah,” Twilight said. “'Relative Dimension'; what else would that mean? I mean, you wouldn't make it smaller on the inside.”
“Oh, is that what it is?” Applejack asked. “Shoot, I thought it was like how I got shrunk down by that Poison Joke.”
The Doctor sighed in disappointment. “Magic...right.” He broke out of his revery and sprang to the console. “Right, first, don't touch that,” he told Pinkie, who was about to press a button. “And now, just let me get things set, and...” He adjusted some dials, then threw a switch. The time rotor began moving as the TARDIS echoed with the sound of her engines. “Next stop, Barcelona, the city!”
***
They spent the rest of the day in Barcelona. Pinkie met several dozen new folks, Fluttershy made several animal friends, Applejack met a dog with a nose, Rarity spent several hours observing the Cattleonian attire, and everypony (except Rainbow) spent the last few hours of the day at a spa. By the time the TARDIS reappeared in front of the library that evening, they had all thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Each of them thanked the Doctor as they left. Five ponies went home, Derpy flew into town to pick up some muffins, and Spike went inside to tidy up. That left Twilight and the Doctor, standing outside the TARDIS, looking at the stars.
“Look at them; there's billions,” the stallion commented. “And millions of planets, all with histories and futures. Anytime, anyplace, all of them different.” He looked at the unicorn meaningfully. “Don't suppose you'd want to come along, one more trip?” He pointed at a star. “If I'm right, there's a library, somewhere over there, that covers a whole planet.”
“Sorry, but I think my own library's enough for now,” Twilight replied. “Though, thank you. If you hadn't run into me, this whole day wouldn't have happened.”
“True, I suppose,” the Doctor admitted. “Still, things could have gone pretty badly on Barcelona, if you lot hadn't been quick on your feet.”
“Yes, but we had your help, indirectly.” Twilight glanced at the Doctor. “You know, I might not have your memories, but I still have mine of what those memories were. I know where you're from.”
“It's hardly a secret, is it?” the Doctor said, laughing. He stopped when he saw the sadness in Twilight's eyes, the same kind of sadness he saw so often in the mirror.
“Doctor, I'm sorry you can't go back to your universe.”
For a moment, the silence deepened. Then the Doctor grinned. “Who says I can't go back, Twilight Sparkle? Maybe I don't want to go, just yet.” He stepped back inside the TARDIS. “Now, I'll just pop ahead and meet Derpy at Sugarcube Corner. Till next time!” He closed the door, and the roar of the time rotor swallowed the blue box once more.
Twilight stood, watching the empty spot for a moment. Then she trotted into the library. Everything had been put back in its place; the only proof that this building had ever moved from where it stood was in her and her friends' memories. She walked upstairs to her desk, unrolled a fresh scroll, and started writing.
Dear Princess Celestia,
Yesterday, I learned that sometimes, strange things happen without anypony planning for them to. A silly accident can lead to a big adventure, and it's not always certain it will end well. But just stick with your friends, and they will still stick by you.
Your Faithful Student,
Twilight Sparkle.
She prepared the scroll for sending, tomorrow. Then, she trotted downstairs for a snack. If she remembered correctly, there was still half a pear pie in the fridge.