It's About Time

It's About Time is the twentieth episode of the second season of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and the forty-sixth episode overall. After receiving a warning from her future self, Twilight Sparkle drives herself crazy in an attempt to avoid an unspecified upcoming calamity.

Prologue
The episode begins with Spike in a dream sequence where he is showing Rarity around a mysterious land of ice cream. He then shows her his house, made of ice cream and "extra chocolate fudge". He then wakes up, at 3 in the morning, and sees Twilight pacing downstairs in the library lobby, worrying about herself running out of time in this month's schedule to make a new schedule.

Future Twilight
It then becomes dawn, and Twilight is still awake writing out her schedule. As she finishes, a bright light appears on the other side of the lobby. Another Twilight appears out of this bright light, one with a messy mane, tattered suit with an eyepatch and headband, and a scar on her face. Twilight is shocked as meeting another her is not scientifically possible. The other Twilight explains that she is from the future. She is asked how she figured out how to time travel, and "Future Twilight" says they are in Canterlot Castle, in the Star Swirl the Bearded section. Unfortunately, due to Twilight's ignorance, Future Twilight doesn't have enough time to warn her of what will happen "next Tuesday", which is when she is from, and she vanishes back into the future. The present Twilight becomes worried of the "horrible thing" her future self was going to tell her about, based on how she looked.

"Disaster-proof" Equestria
Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy are then shown carrying party goods through Ponyville. Pinkie is floating with a bunch of balloons whereas Fluttershy is carrying everything else on her back. Twilight slams into Fluttershy as she runs through Ponyville to warn everyone of an incident she believes will happen next Tuesday. Wearing a Groucho Marx disguise she accidentally put on after crashing into Fluttershy, Twilight jumps onto a platform and warns a small group of Ponyville residents of the incident. They proceed to laugh at her twice - once because of her disguise, and again because of her ludicrous story that she saw herself from the future.

Twilight's friends believe her though, so she thinks up a plan to try prevent the disaster. She tells the Pegasi to search all over Equestria from "Fillydelpha to Las Pegasus". She tells the remainder of Ponyville's residents to "disaster-proof Equestria". Twilight oversights the entire operation, ticking off items on her list including fixing the dam, filling a water tower, and reinforcing a bridge.

Suddenly, Cerberus arrives from Tartarus out of nowhere, and scares everyone but Spike and Twilight away. As Twilight prepares to stop Cerberus, Fluttershy suddenly intervenes and soothes Cerberus by rubbing its tummy. Pinkie Pie then pulls a ball out of a tree knot, saying that she stocks balls all over Ponyville in case of a "ball emergency". She gives Twilight the ball, and she then lures Cerberus back to Tartarus with the ball. When Twilight returns the next morning, she's covered in soot, and also has a cut on her cheek. When she sees this cut in the mirror, she realizes that it's the exact same cut on Future Twilight's cheek, and begins to realize that her efforts to "disaster-proof" everything have not worked.

The Signs Appear
Twilight continues to pace around the lobby, gouging a deep, circular groove in the floor in the process. She then comes up with the solution that if she stays still, nothing could possibly happen to her. Spike begins to take advantage of Twilight standing still by taking tubs of ice cream and eating them. Then, Rainbow Dash enters, stating that a Pegasus just came back from "Baltimare" with an all-clear. She asks why Twilight isn't stopping Spike engorging himself in ice cream, to which Spike replies that she won't because she is standing still until next Tuesday. They both begin laughing at Twilight, and then Spike begins tickling her with a feather. This culminates in Twilight using magic to catapult Spike away, but unfortunately when Spike hits the wall, he burps up a flame which hits Twilight. The flame messes up Twilight's mane so it looks exactly like Future Twilight's mane.

Spike then brings Twilight to "Madame Pinkie"'s place. Pinkie takes up the role of a fortune teller, and begins searching in her crystal ball for Twilight's future. She comes up with the prophecy that Twilight will receive "a really cool birthday present next year". Dissatisfied at this, Twilight begs Pinkie to use her Pinkie Sense to predict what will happen. She says she is unable to do this, but after a tail-twitch, a flowerpot lands on Twilight's head, adding injury to insult.

Pinkie Pie then arrives at the library, and inside she finds Twilight manning a variety of telescopes, machines and graphs, and doing calculations. She decides that in order to prevent a disaster, she needs to monitor everything. She uses one of her telescopes to look into the sky, but accidentally aims it at the sun, hurting her eye. Pinkie Pie whips out an eyepatch from the fireplace and puts it on her, saying that she keeps eyepatches around in case of "an eyepatch emergency". So now with the eyepatch, she looks even more like Future Twilight, and in upset exclaims that she has done nothing to stop the catastrophe. Twilight comes up with another conclusion, that she needs to stop time itself.

The Archives
Twilight, Pinkie Pie and Spike arrive at Canterlot to search for a spell to stop time. After avoiding a guard by pretending to be statues, Spike asks Twilight why they need to wear the black bodysuits, and Twilight tells the other two that the time spells are kept in the Star Swirl the Bearded wing of the archives, which is the most secure. They head off, but Twilight rips her suit on a bush, ending up looking just like Future Twilight. They enter the archives and begin to sneak around the guards in order to make their way undetected to the Star Swirl the Bearded wing. They end up going around in a circle and ending up where they started. A guard catches the trio, but recognizes Twilight and opens the door to the wing for her.

Once inside the wing, the trio begin searching frantically for the right spell. Unfortunately, they don't find the spell in time, and the sun rises. Twilight ducks under a windowsill, but nothing happens. Princess Celestia sees Twilight, but just bids her a happy Tuesday and walks off. Twilight, confused, wonders why no one seems surprised that she is sneaking around the place. She doesn't know what Future Twilight was trying to tell her, but she does realize that she looks ridiculous in her current state. Twilight tells Spike that there will be "no more midnight pacing".

Epilogue
While she could not find a spell to stop time, Pinkie finds a spell that allows Twilight to go back in time once for a short while. She does this, and exactly the same sequence plays out that happened earlier when Twilight was first met by Future Twilight. After returning having not being able to finish what she needed to say to Past Twilight, she realizes that she was trying to warn herself to not worry, only to be distracted by her past self's fascination of time travel. Pinkie reassures her that it will be "Past Twilight's" problem now. The episode ends as Twilight puts Spike, now experiencing Future Spike's tummy ache after the ice cream, on her back and begins her way home.

Quotes

 * Future Twilight Sparkle: Twilight, you've got to listen to me!
 * Twilight Sparkle: Who are you? I mean, you're me, but I'm me too. How can there be two 'me's? It's not scientifically possible. You are not scientifically possible!


 * Twilight Sparkle: What happened to you? The future must be awful.
 * Future Twilight Sparkle: Please! I don't have much time!
 * Twilight Sparkle: Is there some sort of epic pony war in the distant future or something?
 * Future Twilight Sparkle: Actually, I'm from next Tuesday morning, but that's not important right now!


 * Twilight Sparkle: My future self tried to warn me about a horrible disaster that's going to occur sometime before next Tuesday morning!
 * Applejack: What kind of disaster?
 * Twilight Sparkle: I don't know! I got sucked back into the future before I could explain!
 * Pinkie Pie: Run for your liiiiiiiife!


 * Pinkie Pie: [screaming] Anypony else wanna panic with me? No? [resumes screaming]


 * Twilight Sparkle: Wow, I knew you were good with animals, but this is amazing.
 * Fluttershy: Aww, he's just a big furry guy who got out of his yard, that's all. Right, Cerberus? Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy?


 * Spike: [yawns] I wish Twilight would go on epic adventures more often. Best night's sleep I've had in weeks.


 * Twilight Sparkle: [through gritted teeth] Spike, stop! Think of the stomach ache!
 * Spike: [chuckles] Stomach ache, huh? That's future Spike's problem.


 * Pinkie Pie: [spookily] Come... enter the chamber of Madame Pinkie Pie... For the answers you seek, let us consult the mystical orb of fate's destiny... [normal] Do you like my mystical orb of fate's destiny? I just got it. Cool, huh?
 * Twilight Sparkle: Yeah, uh... best one I've seen.
 * Pinkie Pie: [spookily] Look deep into the crystal ball... for soon it will reveal all! Ah yes, I see something... It's a vision of the future... I see you, Twilight. You will get a really cool birthday present next year...
 * Twilight Sparkle: Yes, and?
 * Pinkie Pie: That's it.
 * Twilight Sparkle: Are you sure?
 * Pinkie Pie: Yep. Cool birthday present.


 * Twilight Sparkle: Ah! My eye!
 * Pinkie Pie: Don't worry, Twilight, I have eye patches stashed all over Ponyville, in case of eye patch emergency. There! Now you look like a pirate. A sleepy pirate, with a really weird mane cut.


 * Spike: Uh, Twilight?
 * Twilight Sparkle: [hushed] What is it, Spike?
 * Spike: Isn't this where we came in?
 * Pinkie Pie: Cool! Can we climb in the window again? That was super fun!


 * Princess Celestia: Good morning, Twilight, love the new hairstyle. Well, happy Tuesday!


 * Spike: Ohhh... my stomach... I, I think it's all that ice cream... I thought the stomach ache would be future Spike's problem... but now I am future Spike. Ohh...
 * Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle: [giggling]
 * Twilight Sparkle: Come on, future Spike. Let's get you home.

Gallery

 * It's About Time image gallery