It's About Time

Dear Princess Luna...

So Spike is really into Rarity, and even dreams about building her an ice cream house apparently. I think he's a little confused there, as that would be something Pinkie Pie would want.

For being so obsessed with Rarity, he doesn't seem to know that some sticky house made of sweets probably isn't what she would like.

Spike's creepy dream is thankfully ended by the sounds of Twilight pacing around downstairs. She is freaking out about not having any room in her schedule to schedule next month's activities. (The calendar Spike held up showed it was only the 4th or 5th of the month)

A big blast of magical energy interrupts Twilight's craziness, and a Twilightinator arrives. The Twilightinator is trying to tell her past self an important message, and Twilight keeps rambling on and interrupting her. Twilightinator tells her she's from next Tuesday morning, and "Whatever you do, don't -" then is cut off as her spell's time runs out and she vanishes in another magical energy blast.

*sigh* "So this is why I got outcast to Ponyville, huh. No wonder...."

Twilight decides Twilightinator must have wanted her to stop some horrible event in the future. Hmm, perhaps you should have stopped asking questions and listened to yourself. I believe this is the next episode after Putting Your Hoof Down, and Fluttershy has already lost all her assertiveness, or is feeling bad for making Pinkie cry, as she is carrying several heavy boxes while Pinkie just has balloons tied around herself.

Perhaps confirming that humanity was destroyed by ponies, Twilight had asked Twilightinator if there was an 'epic pony war' in the future, and now we see her wearing Groucho glasses.

"Ewww, humans!"

Twilight tries to tell the gathered crowd about a crisis, warned to her by herself from the future, and they burst out laughing. They're living in a country that only exists because of magic (story of Hearth's Warming Eve) they are governed by two magical Princesses (Celestia and Luna) and one of the three 'tribes' of ponies is all about magic, but no, time travel must be a bunch of bunkum.

Twilight tries to disaster proof Equestria. They patch up the dam. Fill the water tower? Strengthen a bridge support. Clean up the sidewalk. Patch a crack in the library wall? Cut Pinkie's hair.

Another plus for Unicorns, perfect haircuts.

Twilight's massive disaster proofing checklist is complete, and Rainbow reports all is well from Fillydelphia to Las Pegasus. Despite everything being done, Twilight still thinks Twilightinator was trying to warn her about something more serious. As she says this, an unholy howl is heard, and out jumps Cerberus.

"Ahh, fresh meat!"

I've always suspected there must be some dark underbelly to the Ponyverse, apparently that is confirmed. Cerberus guards the gates to Tartarus (aka Hades, aka Hell) and since he's not at his post, all the evil creatures that have been imprisoned in Tartarus may escape and destroy Equestria.

"Hah! So all these evil things will escape, and I'll get to fight them! Won't it be glorious, Spike?"

Twilight seems very happy about evil potentially trying to destroy the world, and then threatens Cerberus with 'magic obedience training'. Fluttershy comes in and treats Cereberus like an actual dog. Twilight asks Pinkie for a ball to borrow, and somehow, it turns out Pinkie has balls stashed all over Ponyville, for 'ball emergencies.'

What prompted Pinkie to feel the need to stock up just in case of 'ball emergencies' anyway?

Twilight uses magic to levitate the ball and entice Cerberus to follow her back to the gates of Tartarus. The next morning, Spike says he had the best night's sleep he's had in weeks since Twilight was gone, how nice of him. Twilight returns, claiming to have brought back Cerberus before any evil escaped. Spike scroll belches up a lost dog flyer (so, Princess Celestia can magically create these in his gullet apparently) and Twilight is starting at herself in the mirror. She has gained the scar on her face that Twilightinator had.

Twilight is freaking out, since that means they didn't stop whatever future Twilight was warning them about.

Twilight decides Twilightinator but have been trying to tell her not to do something, and to make sure she doesn't, she will just stand in one spot until Tuesday. Spike takes this opportunity to walk behind her and stare at her rear.

Spike decides to further capitalize on the situation by eating an entire tub of ice cream. Twilight's meddlesome nature can't handle the stress, and she looks like she is going to snap. She tells Spike he'll get a stomach ache, but he dismisses it as 'future Spike's problem.'

"Must. Resist. Urge. To. Meddle."

Rainbow Dash arrives, reporting that Baltimare is all-clear. Spike explains what Twilight is doing and they both start messing with her. Spike starts tickling her with her quill and she lashes out at him, grabbing him with magic and hurtling him against the wall. As he strikes, the breath, fire breath, is knocked out of him, and he scorches Twilight's mane, giving her the same look as Twilightinator.

Don't mess with a Unicorn if you value your life.

Twilight freaks out once again about the future, and Spike brings her to see a fortune teller, which is Pinkie for some reason.

Twilight should have known better than to trust Spike, and especially Pinkie, as the only thing Pinkie tells her is she will get a cool birthday present. Then, somehow, a potted plant falls on Twilight's head inside the tent.

Sometime later, Pinkie goes to see Twilight and finds her still freaking out about this whole thing.

"No TV and no beer make Twilight something something."

Spike is still eating tubs of ice cream, so long as the negative results of doing so will be future Spike's problem. Twilight continues to go nuts, saying she hasn't slept for days and has decided to monitor everything until Tuesday. The flower pot hurt her head and she has it bandaged, like Twilightinator, and then she looks through a telescope, into the sun and hurting her eye, so she now has an eyepatch, like Twilightinator. Pinkie also has emergency eye patches stored all over.

She freaks out even more, and decides the only thing left to do is to stop time. Pinkie, Twilight, and Spike dress in sneaking outfits, like Rainbow's in Read it and Weep, and decide to 'break' into the Canterlot archives. Twilight is sneaking around, Spike is casually eating more ice cream, and Pinkie is, well, being Pinkie and bouncing around.

"No one will notice we're not statues! Certainly not the guards that patrol through here all the time."

Twilight rips her suit, making her look even more like Twilightinator. Pinkie and Spike are growing weary of Twilight's constant desire for stealth, shoving her forcefully through the window, and still casually eating ice cream, respectively.

Remember in Read it and Weep, how the hospital staff had to hold flashlights in their mouths? Check this out:

Of course we already knew Unicorns could create their own light, but this one's is so focused he has his own search light.

Spike drops a scoop of ice cream on the ground, eats some, and just leaves a mess. Twilight starts freaking out (again) when she can't seem to find the Starswirl the Bearded area. It ends up being right next tot the window they entered from. A guard approaches and Twilight, you guessed it, freaks out. Instead of ducking out the window, she just cowers on the floor.

Turns out Spike was right and they could have just walked into the place, meaning Twilight wouldn't have ripped her suit. The guard greets Twilight and unlocks the Starswirl area for her. Confirming that Unicorns must be master thieves in the Ponyverse.

Magic/Unicorns have no need for keys.

Twilight freaks out more, seeing her ripped suit in the mirror. They start searching for the time stopping spell (Pinkie is just throwing these priceless scrolls around) and the sun rises, making it officially Tuesday morning. Do I even need to say it? Twilight starts freaking out.

Princess Celestia calmly walks by and compliments Twilight on her hair and wishes her a happy Tuesday. Twilight realizes there may not have ever been any disaster and she was just freaking out over nothing, and that from now on she'll solve problems as they come and stop worrying about every little thing. She wishes she had learned that lesson a week ago.

Pinkie finds a spell that will let you go back in time for a few moments. (Hmm...) Twilight then decides to use it to tell past Twilight not to go 'berserk with worry' about a disaster that never comes. Berserk with worry, yeah that's a pretty good description of what she did.

The same thing happens that occurred at the start of the episode. Past Twilight won't let Twilightinator explain, and she gets cut off. Apparently she was trying to tell herself not to worry so much. Spike finally has a stomach ache from eating all that ice cream, and realizes that Future Spike is actually himself and not some separate entity.

When the sand of Starswirl's Hourglass runs out, the Ponyverse shall end. So sayeth the wise Alaundo.

 What I learned from this episode:

• I can't believe I missed it and only thought of it at the end, but new use for magic: manipulation of time itself. Time travel and time stopping, and who knows what else.
• Twilight definitely deserved her exile to Ponyville, as evidenced by not knowing when to be quiet and listen, especially to your future time traveling self, but at least her experiences away from Canterlot seem to be having a mostly positive effect. She's still prone to psychotic outburts though, like when she slams Spike into a wall for tickling her.
• If Unicorns/Royalty can time travel, why didn't they go back in time and stop the Changeling Queen from stealing Cadence's identity. On the horrible off chance that every pony would act like past Twilight, they could write down whatever it is they are trying to say as clearly and concisely as possible, then leave it with their past self/whoever, presumably. I guess it wasn't really an issue since they won in the end, but still.

Update -  This episode ended up being in my top 10 overall favorites, write-up copied from my Triumphant Return post:

Twilight at her best, or should I say worst? Obsessing over what ends up being nothing, Twilight goes all out to try and prevent some horrible event in the future that she wouldn't let her future self explain.