When Cadence entered the pastry shop, all the ponies inside the store bowed when they recognized the third Princess. She walked through the line, for once grateful that she had space to pass through as the ponies had stepped aside. She walked over to the counter, greeting everypony as she passed by. A unicorn filly, with her long orange mane tied with a black bow greeted her with a smile.
"Hello, Cadence," said Pumpkin Cake, with a voice that was beginning to see itself affected by puberty, as she occasionally squeaked. Nopony reacted at all to the familiarity with which the unicorn referred to the Princess, who had taken on the role of her foalsitter on a couple of occassions, just as she had foalsat Twilight Sparkle so many years before now, and in every one of her journeys, Cadence made sure to pay a visit to the Cake siblings. The princess smiled back to the younger Cake.
"How have you been, Pumpkin? Is your apprenticeship going well?"
"Yup, Pinkie's the coolest teacher I could have! She gets way too crazy sometimes, though... She's on the back with my parents, but I think she can spare a few minutes, if you need her."
Cadence nodded. "That'd be lovely, if she could."
Pumpkin turned her head and shouted loudly to the back room. "Pinkie, Cadence is here to see you!"
A big thump was heard, followed by the rattle of pans and cooking instruments, a pair of screams, a string of apologies and another thump, when finally Pinkie Pie came bouncing out of the door before all of the stunned ponies looking at her. She smiled widely upon seeing Cadence and, in a single bound, landed next to her.
"Hi, Candy!" Pinkie called her by the nickname inspired by Cadence's first visit to Ponyville, in which Pinkie had managed to somehow leave the Princess covered head to hooves in cotton candy. The pink earth pony claimed she hadn't changed that much and from that point onwards referred to her by that moniker. Cadence smiled and both mares hugged each other strongly; the alicorn appreciated the happiness Pinkie Pie always managed to instill on her and pretty much almost everyone she met, pony or otherwise.
Unsurprisingly, Pinkie pulled a cake out of her hair, which came out as clean as if it had come straight from the oven and, with a knife procured from somewhere, she cut a slice and offered it to Cadence, who accepted it.
"Thank you, Pinkie! It's as delicious as ever," said Cadence after giving it a small bite; tasting a really sweet flavor from it. Pumpkin coughed from behind the counter.
"Actually, that one is my work. I'm glad you liked it!" The baker apprentice beamed and Cadence waved to her.
"Good job, Pumpkin, I'm sure you'll overtake Pinkie in no time."
"You're just saying that, Cadence."
"No!" Pinkie jumped in her place, with a smile that would've ripped apart any normal place. "I hope you do, Pumpkin, so we can both make superextrafantastic sweets and make everypony and dragon and mule and all the others enjoy them and have great parties!"
After Pinkie let out the last word, which somehow was punctuated by streamers falling from somewhere, there was a small cough. Pinkie and Cadence turned to its origin to look at one of the customers that had been tracing lines with her hoof, covering her mouth and looking at them.
"Oh, I'm sorry, continue please. Pinkie, can you come outside with me for a bit?"
"Okie dokie lokie!" The alicorn and the earth pony exited the pastry shop, choosing to stand a little distance from the door. Pinkie began chewing on a muffin that came out from nowhere and offered one to the princess. Cadence shook her head and opened her mouth, when she heard a munching sound coming from the other side. Turning her head she found a blonde pegasus eating a muffin enthusiastically.
"Derpy? What are you doing here?!" asked Cadence, almost screaming. The mailmare smiled and swallowed before answering.
"Muffin!" Then she embraced the princess of love and took off flying, a letter falling from her mailbag as she left. "Gotta deliver these ones!"
"Wait, Derpy, you dropped... a letter..." The bubble-flanked pegasus had already disappeared from her view by the time Cadence called out to her. Cadence looked at the envelope held in her hooves. It was addressed to one Time Turner, and it was a pink color with hearts, claiming as sender 'Wingheart Dating Agency'. She turned to Pinkie and showed the envelope to her.
"Do you know this pony?"
Pinkie finished the pastry and nodded eagerly; Cadence thought her head would fall off. "I know everypony in this town! Old Turner is the clock engineer of Ponyville, he maintains every clock in the village. Some ponies say he has secrets, but nopony knows what those would be..." Pinkie scratched her chin in deep thought. Cadence looked at the envelope again, looking at the name and the address. She then smiled widely, making the letter disappear with a flare of her magic.
"I think I've got a delivery to do. But first, Pinkie, are we going to do that party?"
"Of course! I've already got most of it planned, I was just waiting for you to come and see it, Candy!" She then presented Cadence with a stack of papers, which the princess received without even asking.
"Let's see this, then."
Cadence waved goodbye to Pinkie and trotted off. It was already mid-afternoon; she knew Winter would be fine at the Apple farm and so asked around for the pony relevant to her search. She was then pointed towards a shop not too far from Twilight's Library, and so she peeked around, careful of the mare or her assistant. When it was clear they weren't in the vicinity or looking out of the windows, she approached the one story house, which bore a wooden sign depicting an hourglass. She knocked on the door.
"Open, come in!" called a male, soft voice from the interior of the house. She pushed the door opened and went inside. After closing the door, she turned to look at a room full of time measuring devices. Sundials, hourglasses and clocks of all forms and sizes hung from the walls, stood on shelves or on tables around the dimly lit room. The brightest light came from a lantern that sat on one of the tables, next to a stallion with his forehooves resting on the table, examining a mechanical alarm clock. Cadence walked over to him. He was an earth pony with a light brown hide and a darker brown mane; he sported an hourglass-shaped cutie mark.
"You're Time Turner, aren't you?" asked she from behind him.
"That's me all right. Just the best name I could pick for this strange world. I love it, though, it's a cool name." He didn't even turn to look at her; she however noticed a thick accent when he spoke. He was busy dismantling the clock, from which several parts came apart, including what seemed to be a miniature dragon. She stood by his side, peering over, squinting her eyes.
"How can you work with such a poor lighting? There're so many better options for light."
He dismissed her with the waving of a hoof. "This works quite enough for me. Romantic, don't you think? Though I've lost many small pieces now, it's so hard to pick them up with the mouth... Maybe I should consider it."
He finally broke apart from his work. "So, what can I do for you, lady?" He looked at her with a grin on his face, which fell as he got a good look at her, to be replaced by a curious look. He walked around her, to the displeasure of Cadence.
"Um, excuse me?"
He giggled unexpectedly, beaming at her. "You're one of them!"
She then tilted her head to one side, looking at him. "One of them?"
"Yes, one of those princesses, with both the wings and the horn... I've seen you several times, but only from afar. You're... Princess Cadence, right? I've done quite a bit of reading about you from the library though. The librarian wouldn't shut up about it, either. Lovely mare, I've learned so many things from her... "
Cadence blinked. "What kind of pony are you?"
"Oh, I'm not a pony. I come from far, far away..." He looked at his body and blinked as well. "Well, I suppose I'm a pony."
She looked at him for a long time, while he just smiled. "Yes, Princess?"
She shook her head. "Excuse me..." She lit her horn and a moment later, wrapped by the same hue, an envelope appeared in front of them both.
"I've found this letter, the mailmare dropped it from her saddles."
"Ohh, Derpy. She's quite a nice pony, I often hang out with her and her daughters, but she's quite the scatter brain."
He then looked at the envelop on the table and fell silent for a few seconds.
"This is-" began the stallion
"A brochure from a dating agency," finished Cadence. He went quiet again. She approached him. "You're lonely."
For the first time, his brown eyes were locked into hers. And she backed down a couple of steps, seeing the kind of ageless look she had only ever found in two ponies; a look that spoke of countless ages passed by, of all that had come and go with them. It spoke of an emptiness. She gasped.
"What kind of pony are you?" repeated Cadence, as the stallion only gazed at her.
"A very old one," said he simply.
The sound of the clocks, which Cadence had so far dismissed as background noise, now ticked louder than ever, filling her eardrums with their incessant hammering. She had to cover her ears and close her eyes, taking regular breaths. Finally, she uncovered her ears and opened her eyes slowly to find him still standing there.
"Let me help you," said the Princess of love, with her eyes on the verge of watering. She didn't cry, though.