"The Royal Order of Timekeepers has received word that your daughter’s cutie mark makes her a member of our society. Enclosed is one ticket for the Friendship Express, which will take her this coming Tuesday to Canterlot, where we will begin her training. We assure you that she will study under the best chronomasters, and all expenses will be paid from the royal treasury. As you are undoubtedly aware of the importance of accurate timekeeping in Equestria, you must be very proud."
Chronomistress: Out of Time
is a (regrettably) one-shot My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic adventure fic by DGD Davidson.
Minuette receives her cutie mark! It is a hourglass—which means that she's fated (or doomed, as most ponies would put it) to become one of Equestria's chronomasters, an order of sacred timekeepers. Years of exhausting studies later, she comes back to Ponyville for her apprenticeship with the local chronomaster, Time Turner.
And they will need every ounce of their abilities when Queen Chrysalis of the changelings makes a move.
The story features the following tropes:
- Badass Longcoat: "...the dark green, double-breasted coat of a timekeeper's apprentice."
- Clock King: The chronomasters, who practically treat every millisecond as a sacred treasure in its own right. Not villains though, unlike the usual representatives of this trope. They are, in fact, responsible for making sure that time in Equestria adds up—something necessary in a land where the passage of nights and days must be regulated by hand.
- The Final Temptation: Chrysalis does this to Minuette by tempting her with happy dreams in a Lotus-Eater Machine.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Minuette, as well as Time Turner, and perhaps most chronomasters.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: Chrysalis's victims are stuck in euphoric dreams of love... the better they may feed her and her swarm.
- Mama Bear: Derpy.
- The One That Got Away: Daisy Chain, for Time Turner.
- Schedule Fanatic: Time Turner, and possibly other chronomasters as well.
- Strategy, Schmategy: Derpy, as opposed to the chronomasters, as Time Turner points out.
- Super Serum: The chronoserum. It's actually just concentrated sassafrass, and ordinary ponies just get intoxicated on it (which is why Berry Punch wants to try it) whereas Timekeepers have trained themselves to unlock its true potential.
