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THYME AFTER TIME - part 19

Twilight Sparkle was the first to speak up after the guards had surrounded Cyanide. "Your majesty... I think there's been some kind of misunderstanding."

"A misunderstanding?" Celestia replied. Her manner towards the lavender unicorn was more patient, though her tone remained imperial. "Look at him yourself, Twilight. There have been less than a handful of alicorns in all the history of Equestria and the lands beyond, and not one has ever been male. The only possible explanation for this involves magic of the darkest kind; like that of Sombra, or Chrysalis."

"Or possibly even Nightmare Moon!" Princess Luna finished.

"Or..." Twilight insisted' "the explanation could involve something other than magic."

"Something outside of magic?" Princess Celestia asked. "Do you mean alchemy?"

"At its heart, maybe something even beyond that... Something that relates not just to the manipulation of the world around us, but its basic fabric. Something that Starswirl the Bearded called science."

"Actually, the correct name is Physics," the Professor said, stepping forward to stand at the unicorn's side; "though there are all manner of approaches and sub-specialties to its study. I, myself, am a student of thaumaturgical physics."

Celestia eyes the blue-gray unicorn cautiously. "And you are...?"

Twilight smiled hoping to lighten the princess's mood. "This is the Professor," she offered. "He and his companions came to Equestria from beyond our world. They helped us defeat the metal machines."

"Can thou offer proof of this claim?" asked Luna.

"As a matter of fact, yes." The Professor responded reaching into his saddlebag for his wallet.

"Oh frack!' Cinnamon muttered to her sisters. "Again with the baby pictures?"

Displaying his driver's license photo and several pictures of his 'family' taken during their last vacation peovided convincing evidence.

"This one here..." Celestia pointed out. "It shows your companions looking like ponies but standing on two legs... and they have paws where their front hooves should be."

"Those are called hands, your highness," said Cassia. "When we came to your world its magic changed us to the pony-like forms you see now. Well, all except Cymbalaria here. She stayed a robot."

"Cyborg," the metallic pony hissed under her breath. It always annoyed her to be stereotyped and lumped together with less rational machines.

"We see," said Luna after examining the evidence. She looked at the Professor. "We must admit that thy pony form is much more appealing that the furless anthropoid one you have shown us."

"Uh... thank you?"

"As you can see," Twilight said, presenting her thoughts as would a teacher to a class of students. "The one called Cyanide already wore something close to his current form even before arriving in Equestria."

"Upon closer examination, we notice hid horn is not spiraled as ours," Luna pointed out. She looked up at Celestia. "Mayhaps thou were indeed mistaken, sister."

The Sun Princess considered what Luna and her protégé had said. "So you are not, truly an alicorn?" she asked, addressing the black and white furred pony.

"If it helps avoid confusion, your majesty, you can refer to me as a chimera." Cyanide offered.

"Yes," the princess admitted. "Perhaps I shall. Guards... put up your spears. He is released." The armored ponies surrounding Cyanide immediately returned to their normal formation. Celestia turned and faced the Professor.

"You have my sincerest apologies for the confusion. I, my sister and all the citizens of Equestria are in your debt for the help you rendered this day. Is there any way in which we may return the service?"

"We came here in search of a dimensional traveler known as Maestro Thyme, or just the Maestro," the Professor explained.

"Do you consider this individual a threat?" Celestia asked.

"Definitely!" explained Cinnamon. "She's the ?*^$%#*&&#@ one who brought all these war machines in to attack Ponyville."

"Uh... yes, I see," the princess responded, trying to ignore the green unicorn's rather obvious faux pas. "If she is indeed the one who attacked my subjects, then she will be dealt with according to our laws. In the meantime I would like to consult with you, your friends and the Elements of Harmony in the library."

"The Elements of Harmony?" whispered Clover. "What are those?"

"We are," said Twilight replied quietly. "My friends and I each represent one of the six Elements of Harmony that help maintain peace in Equestria. Generosity, Magic, Kindness, Loyalty, Honesty and Laughter."

"Sounds kind of girly to me," said Cyanide.

"Maybe," Cassia responded. "But I don't think I'd want to be on the receiving end of anything that involves magic."

Several minutes later the Power Puff Ponies found themselves in the library in the middle of what was essentially a council of war, minus Fluttershy who was busy helping to patch the hole in her new dragon-friend's wing.

The Professor quickly briefed the princesses and their friends on what he and his family knew of the Maestro.

"Doth this Maestro know anything at all about magic?" asked Luna.

"Not as far as we've seen," said Cymbalaria. "But the distinction between magic and technology blurs somewhat when that technology is sufficiently advanced."

The Princess of the Night looked at the Professor in awe. "We did not realize thy iron golem could speak."

"I am not a GOLEM!"

The blue-gray unicorn chuckled. "Cymbalaria isn't made of iron and she isn't a golem. She's a living machine, but I think your mistake does illustrate her point quite well."

"Our sincerest apologies. So thy foe may indeed have access to this magic... tek-knoll-a-gee?"

"The honest answer is, we don't know," the Professor said. "What troubles me is that somehow, within only a matter of a week at most, she was able to cobble something together that allowed her to bring those Martian war machines into Equestria from another world."

"Why in tarnation would she want to do that in the first place?" asked Applejack.

"Conquest, most likely," Cyanide offered.

"That doesn't make much sense," said Rarity.

"Look at it from her point of view. She's stranded in a strange world without her normal means of instrumentation. If she wants to get back to the Chronosphere she would either have access to a transportation device that was capable of traveling between worlds, or utilize the resources of an entire world in order to build such a device."

Everyone except Cymbalaria, Twilight, the Professor and Celestia looked at him blankly.

"I think you have something of a paradox here," said the Sun Princess. "If this Maestro needs the resources of an entire world to build the device she requires, how did she open a portal and bring those monstrous machines here in the first place? And if she had such a device, why would she need the resources of our world?"

"THAT is an EXCELLENT QUESTION!"

Everypony turned and looked as a medium brown pony with a black mane and tail, piercing blue eyes and a red bow tie entered the room. On his flank he bore a gold hourglass cutie mark.

"Who art thou?" demanded Luna; "and how did thee get past the guards?"

"Oh, it wasn't difficult, really. They were already rather tired and it was easy to convince them to take a nap."

"That still doesn't answer who you are," said Celestia.

"Precisely! You got it on the first guess. No wonder they made you the reigning princess around here."

"This is a private meeting. You have been asked a question," stated Cymbalaria, rising from her seat and approaching the pony. "If you do not answer it I will physically remove you from the room."

Without warning the stallion suddenly whipped something out and pointed it at the android. She abruptly stiffened then sat down in the middle of the library floor and began singing in a child-like voice.

"I'm a little teapot short and stout... This is my handle and this is my spout." She twisted her arms to illustrate the song, then abruptly keeled over and lay on her back, legs crossed.

The other Power Puff Ponies started to jump to their hooves, but were stopped by the Professor. The brown stallion looked at them and grinned.

"Oh, don't get your knickers in a bunch... Your friend is perfectly fine. She'll just have a short nap and wake up in a few minutes feeling quite refreshed."

"That still doesn't tell us who you are," said Celestia.

"His name is Tic-Tock," Rarity informed everyone. "He owns a small clock repair and tinker shop across the town square from my boutique."

"Tic-Tock, yes, that's me...or at least that's what I tell everyone since I'm on an extended holiday." He looked over at the princesses. "You know your majesties, you really do have a charming little nation-state here. It's very peaceful, despite the occasional power mad despot and inter-dimensional invasions. Did you know Equestria has four stars in the Hitchhiker's Guide?"

"BE SILENT AND CEASE THY PRATTLING!" ordered Luna in her best Canterlot voice.

"Prattling... Was I prattling? Oh I'm so sorry, I didn't really mean to. At least it's better than monologing ... but then I wouldn't do that because I'm not an arch-fiend. Though there are some who consider me an arch-foe."

"Please... Mister Tic-Tock," asked Celestia in a firm but much calmer tone than he sister. "Why are you here?"

The pony began pacing back and forth energetically as he explained. "Well, after watching that debacle earlier today and realizing that there was some sort of temporal trans-dimensional phase induction being employed, I thought I might offer my help, since I am more or less the local expert on time."

"I thought you were a clock-maker," Rainbow Dash deadpanned.

"I am... among other things."

The Professor leaned back in his chair and looked at the stallion. "Why exactly do you think you can help us with our 'time' problem?

He stopped at looked at the blue-gray unicorn. "Why? Well, the reason is because I'm the Doctor."

"The Doctor? Doctor of what?" asked Cassia.

"Wrong relative pronoun, young lady... or filly... whatever. Most people would ask who."

"Doctor who?" asked Luna

"Wonderful... just as smart as your sibling, though under current circumstances I tend to go by Whooves," he said, pausing to clop his left front fore-hoof on the floor. "Sort of an inside joke."

"Sister," Luna whispered fiercely, "May I have thy leave to punt this annoying scalawag to the moon?"

"Let's wait a bit and hear him out," Celestia said.

"But he's a lunatic," she hissed. "Clearly the moon would be an ideal place for him."

"Undoubtedly, he is crazy. But it appears to be the kind of madness that also accompanies genius. He may have something of value to offer," she whispered.

"Indeed I do," the Doctor replied. "I call it the Time and Relative Dimension in Space vehicle, or TARDIS."

"Are you talking about a time machine?" asked the Professor.

"Oh, it's all that and much more," the brown furred stallion explained. "In addition to being my means of jaunting around the universe, I believe it is the immediate source of your current conundrum."

"Our conundrum?" asked Cinnamon.

"Your paradox, or more precisely, his," the Doctor said, pointing a hoof at Cyanide.

"How would this TARDIS be the source of our problems?" asked Twilight Sparkle.

The Doctor fixed a steady eye on her and his face flushed slightly. "Well, actually that's a bit of an embarrassment."

"An embarrassment?" asked Applejack

"Well, you see... I really hate to admit it, but somepony has stolen the TARDIS."