Rainbow Dash was flying.

The grassy ground came racing up to meet her. She landed hard, all the breath knocked out of her by the impact. Before she had a chance to recover, a heavy weight landed on top of her, pinning her to the ground by locking one of her forelegs and trapping her wings. She struggled, but every attempt to free herself she made was countered almost before she started moving, leaving her pinned to the ground. She finally gave up with a frustrated sigh.

"All right, you win. Now let me up."

"What's the magic word?"

Rainbow sighed again. "Let me up, please?"

The weight shifted and lifted itself off of her. Rainbow looked up to see Phillip Finder standing over her, offering her a hoof up. She refused for a moment—her pride, like the rest of her body, was already bruised enough from their sparring match—but, realizing that Phillip wasn't mocking her, she gave in and allowed him to help her up. The two were standing out in one of the furthest orchards of Sweet Apple Acres, where Phillip had invited Rainbow for sparring practice.

"Don't feel too bad," Phillip said, pulling his trilby out of his vest, smoothing it out, and placing it back on his head. "You did a great job; actually gave me a run for my money. We should do this more often."

"I'll get you next time," Rainbow said, dusting herself off.

"You'll try, I'll give you that," Phillip said, a small grin crossing his face as he turned to walk back to his house. Rainbow, having nothing better to do, decided to follow.

"I have to admit, those were some pretty cool moves," she said. "Think you could teach me some of them?"

Phillip thought for a moment. "If you're willing to learn."

"Awesome!" Rainbow declared with a little hop before springing into the air and throwing a few fancy punches and kicks. "With those supermoves, I'll be unbeatable!"

"Nopony's unbeatable," Phillip replied flatly.

Rainbow landed as they turned down B Boulevard. "You ever lose a fight?"

"Yes," Phillip replied. "A few. I've always been lucky, though."

"Lucky how?"

"I'm still alive. Oh, look!" Phillip leapt up the front stairs of 221 B Boulevard. "I've had a visitor."

"How can you tell that?"

"The old toothpick trap," Phillip said, retrieving a broken off toothpick from the floor just inside the door. "Place a toothpick in the doorjamb a foot off the floor. Most ponies won't notice it unless they're looking for it. If somepony opens the door, it'll fall out." He took his loupe glasses out of a case in his vest pocket and began to examine the door.

"Wait a minute," Rainbow said, following him inside. "You leave your door unlocked?"

"I find that my best clients come in when I'm not home," Phillip replied. "Besides, this is more fun." Rainbow's face took on an expression of confusion that she normally reserved for Pinkie Pie.

"Opened the door with their right hoof," Phillip said to himself. "And there are tracks leading both all the way up to and away from the door. Earth pony then." Phillip focused on some black substance on the tile floor. "Mechanical grease, still wet. He was here not long ago."

He turned his attention to the living room. There was a notepad on the coffee table next to the chessboard, which he examined. "He wrote something on the top sheet, but then tore it off." He took a pencil in his mouth and gently rubbed it over the paper. The imprint of what the mysterious visitor had written came into view.

Dear Phillip Finder,

I am in trouble. My name is T—

The rest of the message was cut off.

"Very neat, written with their mouth," Phillip observed. "You can tell because of the slight twirl at the end of certain letters. This was somepony who was very well-educated." He squinted at the paper, then at the notebook. "That's odd."

"What is?" Rainbow asked.

"He started writing the message several times, then tore off the page and started over again," Phillip said. Rainbow glanced in a nearby dustbin and found several sheets of balled up notepaper in them. Opening up one of them she found that it had an incomplete introduction written on it as well. When she looked up, Phillip was staring at the chessboard. "What?" she asked, looking at the carved wooden pieces in confusion.

"They rearranged the chess pieces," Phillip said, lowering his head so that his eyes were on the same level as the board. "Look: every piece is centered exactly in the square and they're all facing precisely forward." Rainbow peered closely at the board and saw that he was right. Every piece was centered right in their square, all of them the same distance from the borders and from each other.

"Why would somepony do that?" Rainbow asked.

"Because they couldn't help themselves," Phillip replied, sitting on the sofa and cupping his hooves underneath his chin as he thought. "So, an earth pony, name begins with T, works with mechanical objects, very educated, and obsessive-compulsive. That narrows it down significantly."

Rainbow's mind clicked, reaching the same conclusion as Phillip. Both of them spoke at the same time.

"Time Turner."

Author's Notes:

A mysterious note from Ponyville's resident time keeper sends Phillip and Rainbow Dash heading towards a new, dangerous case.

First part of a new storyline!