Those time experiments were consuming. Not only time-consuming, but consuming attention as well. When Doctor Whooves was experimenting with time, he also forgot about time.
It was a good thing that Derpy Hooves was living with him. He needed her to drag him out of this from time to time, such as on that particular Friday evening.
Doctor Whooves was surrounded by a vast assortment of instruments, many gleaming with brass, at least one third of which only he could identify, when the grey pegasus mare came bursting in. “Doc?”
No reaction.
“Doc!”
The brown Earth pony stallion startled, turned around and saw Derpy standing in the door. “What’s up, Derpy?”
“Doc, your date with Rose!”
“Yes, I have a date with her today. I’m excited, actually. I don’t know what I’m more excited about, the date…”
“Doc, your date is in five minutes!”
“…or my experiment likely being a succ- What?!”
“Make that four.”
Doctor Whooves looked around. He had about three dozen clocks of various types, sizes and shapes in his laboratory, every last one of which was in time with a difference of never more than one minute. This was part of one of his experiments. And yet, all the time he had been busy with his experiment, he hadn’t paid attention to what the clocks actually showed.
“Four minutes?! Great! Whickering! Stallions!”
He jumped out from where he had been conducting his latest experiment and looked around him. Yes, all the clocks told him the same thing that Derpy had just told him, give or take one minute."
“Derpy, my scarf, no time for my suit now!”
“I have it here,” said the grey mare, pulled the scarf out from underneath her wing and tossed it at the Doctor who struggled to wrap it around his neck under the pressure of time.
“Four minutes… almost three… I know that there are places in Equestria where it’s fashionable to be late, but my research has revealed that Ponyville is not one of them! How am I supposed to meet Rose in time? The flower shop is almost all the way across town!”
Derpy suggested, “I could air-drop you!”
“Air-drop?”
She explained, “I pick you up, carry you across town while flying, and I drop you off near the flower shop where Rose won’t see you. Then you can pretend you’ve walked all the way.”
Doctor Whooves headed for the front door, Derpy right behind him. “That sounds like it could save me a minute or two, but it also sounds dangerous. Do you think it’s safe?”
“No idea,” Derpy had to admit, “I’ve never done this before. But as you say, there’s a first time for everything, right?”
Come to think of it, I’ve always wanted to write down my own idea of an Equestrian-style “tea party” with a special emphasis on tea. Part of a traditional Equestrian tea party would be that everyone brings their own tea and shares it with everyone else so that the other participants can get to know new tea flavours. And find out who loves what kinds of tea.
In fact, I’d love to make it a “mass-insert” just to have Kettle Master in it.