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It was well after midnight in my Equestria dreamscape when Princess Celestia descended into the bowels of the Royal Palace. Usually she'd be in bed by now but tonight there was something important enough to keep her up late.

Her final destination was a large, heavily warded door with two unicorn guard sergeants standing to either side of it. The Co-ruler of Equestria stopped in front of the door and the guards bowed to her butthey didn't open the door. Once they'd returned to attention she addressed them.

"Good evening! I wish to enter the chamber. Would you please inform them."

One of the two guards nodded her head. "Of course your Highness." The mare turned to a device next the door. It look something engine order telegraph with the following phrases printed on it:

Personnel Entering.

Personnel Departing.

Incoming Materials.

Outgoing Materials.

Emergency.

The device also had dial with names on it that could be selected. The guard selected Personnel Entering and Celestia's name. Then she pulled the lever. There was a sharp ding from the device informing the sergeant that the message had been sent. A few seconds later a different bell rang out twice informing the guards that message had been received and that the princess could enter.

The two guards then turned to the door and each removed a key from around their necks and inserted them into a ward encrusted lockbox. From the box they extracted a two ornately carved keys which inserted into locks in the wall. Turning the keys resulted in a series clicks, clunks, and shimmering of lights as wards and mechanical locks disengaged. Like a giant cog the door rolled to one side.

"Please step inside your highness." Said the other guard. "Once you're inside we'll secure the door from here." She'd been here dozens of times, but this was all part of the protocol.

The alicorn nodded her head. "Thank you sergeant and good night." She then passed through the door. She entered into a room about 12ft wide and about 24ft long. Directly in front of her was a door similar to the one she'd passed through. Once in the room the guards in the hallway closed the door behind her. As the locks engaged and the wards reactivated the princess could feel a very odd sensation fill the room. It was not a pleasant one and it always made her shiver a little.

It was the feeling of absolutely no magic in the room.

After a couple of seconds the other door disengaged and swung open. An earth pony mare wearing a simple harness stepped into the room. The door closed behind her. At the prescribed distance bowed to her and then rose. "Good evening your Highness. Thank you for joining us. The operation has not begun yet, but we're ready to monitor it."

The mare removed a small clipboard and pencil from the front pocket of her harness. Placing pencil in one corner of her mouth she spoke out of the other corner.

"So you're highness what spells or magic have you done in the last 24 hours?"

"I've raised and lowered the sun on schedule."

The mare noted this on a form attached to the clipboard. "I assume you've used levitation repeatedly?"

"Yes."

"Have you used your sending talent or performed any transmutations in the last 24 hours?"

"No. I have not."

The mare made more marks on a form. "Have you teleported or been within 10ft of the operative in the last 24 hours?"

"I have done neither."

The mare finished her checklist. "Very well. Please follow me your Highness. Once in the chamber please do not step into the isolated area, and do not perform any magic please."

"Understood." Said the pale alicorn. She knew the procedure, but part of the procedure was this. Nothing was taken for granted in the room she was about to enter.

The mare went over and stuck a key in a lock nearby the door and turned it. A second later one could hear another key turning on the other side. Slowly the door rolled aside. The mare bowed to the princess again. Celestia and the mare stepped into a smaller room where an earth pony stallion was standing to one side of the door. He bowed as the princess entered. The room was oppressively quiet. On on the opposite side of the room was a heavy, airlock looking door Once all parties were in the room the two earth ponies secured the door that Celestia had passed through. Then the stallion turned the knob on a timer mounted in the wall. With this accomplished he addressed the Princess.

"Please pardon the wait your Highness. We have to wait for any residual emissions of magic to subside before opening the final door. It will only be a minute."

Celestia nodded her head.

Finally the mechanical timer rang out. The mare step forward and pulled the lever and with the assistance of her stallion assistant pushed open the heavy door. Then both bowed again to her.

"You may enter the chamber now your Highness." The two earth ponies said in unison.

Upon entering the main chamber the princess was once again made aware of how silent the rooms she'd just left had been. Ponies were speaking in normal conversational voices but compared to the last two rooms it felt like a raucous party.

An elderly, pale blue unicorn mare with exceptional long, straight hair and an inhibitor ring on her horn waited for Celestia at the chamber entrance. Around her ponies going about their work monitoring the centerpiece of the chamber. Most were earth ponies and any unicorns present wore inhibitor rings.

"Good evening your Highness." The mare said as she bowed with practiced grace. "We are ready for the operation to commence. We completed our final calibrations 30 minutes ago. All systems are operating within acceptable tolerances."

Celestia smiled and nodded her head "Thank you Evening. So there has been no anomalies this evening?"

"Nothing of note your Highness. We've detected some typical deviations but they are to be expected. Especially in light of the operation that will be conducted tonight."

Celestia stepped forward and gazed upon the whole reason for this chamber and all the precautions. The centerpiece was a large clock mounted on a pair of pillars. Beneath it was another device that at first glance looked like clock as well. However it had two sets of hands. One set perfectly matched the movements of the clock above. The other set of hand more or less followed in sequence, but even to the casual observer one could see them shiver and skip forward and back ever so slightly. Whenever a skip occurred a recording device noted the change on a punch card.

Beneath those two faces were two additional faces. They were both still at the moment. One looked like a large stopwatch. The other looked vaguely like a compass. Numerous smaller dials and gauges encrusted the device. The entire construct was encircled in a series of wards that prevented accidental interference. This and magic of the main device was the only magic permitted in the chamber during operations.

Here in this room was the most sophisticated timepiece in Equestria. This device was important in providing exact timekeeping for various scientific, commercial, astronomical, and meteorological management throughout the realm, but it also had a much more personal reason for existing.

To keep one pony from being lost to the currents of time. This was an anchor; a lifeline that kept a particular pony's life from being a living hell. This was Last Thing's primary time anchor. This device, this room, permitted her to transform her curse into a talent that she used to protect the realm.

Even with this device and the assistance of other ponies Last Thing's connection to the chronological continuity was tenuous at times. As noted by shivering set of hands on the clock face, and if she used her ability too much her connection to the current timeline could become even more fragile. Therefore Last Thing was rarely permitted to conduct operations like the one happening tonight in Manehattan, and afterwards she would require down time to assure she was recalibrated to the timeline.

Suddenly one of second hands on the second face jumped back several seconds. A bell chimed and various dials started moving and the punch card device started working in earnest. Evening called out to her team.

"Okay everypony it's showtime! I want to be informed in any anomalies immediately! As of now no magic from anypony! Let's do our job so she can do hers!"

Celestia looked around as ponies started calling out data from their stations then she looked back at the spinning dials.

"Please come back to us safe." She whispered.

To be continued.

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Posted previously at: 2018-12-19T21:56:48