"Twiiiiiiiiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiight! I absolutely must have you come over later today, it's imperative that I get somepony to pose for my newest design 'Fashionably Focused'. Pllleeeeeeeaaaaaase?" begged the white unicorn.
"Rarity, don't you see how important this could be? Who knows what horrible and dangerous events may transpire in the next few days! I must warn the Princesses to prepare ponies for mass evacuation to...I don't know where! I also have to learn a series of high-level spells AND rework all I know about science and time theory, all before next Tuesday! I can't possibly pose for posters of ponies purposely posing." Twilight said sternly.
"Twilight! I can't believe you would simply dismiss my life's work with a casual wave of the hoof for some fantastic potential future that won't even happen!"
"And you can't just simply dismiss my future self's warning as a figment of my imagination or some deluded ravings of some crazed future pony! This is serious, and could have dire consequ--" Twilight said until she was cut off by a hoof to the face.
"Take hold of yourself Twilight! It was obviously a bad dream, at worst some prank someone played on you."
"GHA! STOP IGNORING MY CONCERNS!" she screamed. Spinning around she crashed through the door, pain flaring from her left jaw from a cut.
* * *
"APPLEJACK!" Twilight screamed, reaching Sweet Apple Acres. Running up to Big Mac she blocked his path. "Where's Applejack! We have to get ready for an evacuation!"
"She went off to Hoofington last week to drum up business." Big Mac replied with infuriating calmness. "What's this about evacuation?"
"My future self came back in time even though that is technically impossible to warn me of a terrific calamity that is about to occur between now and next Tuesday but disappeared in a flash before she could say what." Twilight gulped air, trying to regain some composure. "Will you help me?"
"Eeeyup. I'll go speak with the Mayor, keep calm we'll get this sorted," the red stallion said.
"I can't wait, I have to warn the Princesses and get to Canterlot as soon as possible to find out about time travel!" With a flash, Twilight winked out of existence and appeared at the grove that Spike liked to take his naps.
"Spike! Take a message."
"Zurglesnerf--what?" came a sleepy voice.
"A message! To the Princesses, both of them! Now!" Twilight shouted.
"All right, all right. Keep your mane on," grumbled Spike wearily.
"Dear Princesses Celestia and Luna, I write you of a matter of grave urgency. I was contacted by my future self who warned of perilous events on the horizon. While we didn't have much time to speak, I did manage to get that whatever is going to happen is between now and next Tuesday.
I will be coming directly to Canterlot as soon as possible to do some research on a hint I picked up from our conversation.
Your faithful subject and student,
Twilight Sparkle"
Running to try and round up a chariot, she didn't notice Spike standing there, mouth agape and page blank.
* * *
Looking for Rainbow Dash to see if she could arrange for transportation to Canterlot, Twilight passed by Sugarcube Corner.
"Hi Twilight! Can I offer you some delicious treats, so warm and tasty!"
"Not now Pinkie, I'm looking for Rainbow Dash."
"Oooh! Oooh! Like in hide and seek? I love that game! Can I play too?" Pinkie said, bouncing in place.
"No Pinkie, not like a game. I need to get to Canterlot RIGHT NOW or else what my future self said would come true!"
"Oooh! Causality conflict crisis! I know all about that! I'll help!"
"How would you know about advanced philosophy?"
"DUH! Twilight, I grew up on a rock farm. I know all about Plateau, Aristrotle and Starswirl the Bearded. There's not much to do there except read." Pinkie said, giggling.
"Oh...Well, we have to stop something really bad from happening and it will be soon!"
"Okie dokie lokie! Where is this big bad going to happen?"
"I...I don't know. We didn't get into that much detail." Twilight said hesitantly.
"Silly Twilight, you always bring up the main point before getting into side discussions." Pinkie said sternly. "It's part of the Standard Protocols of Time Travel established by Starswirl the Bearded."
"I...I shouldn't be surprised you know that at this point," the purple unicorn said, ears flattened.
"Nope! Now, I'll help you, but you have to Pinkie Pie Promise that you don't tell anyone else about what you learn about Time Travel without following all the rules, except your current past self you tell in the future."
Eyes crossing slightly from the spaghetti time sentence Twilight mimed the Pinkie Pie swear, inevitably punching herself in the eye. Unlike the last time at the spa, her hoof was covered in dirt from all her running. "OOOUUUCH!"
* * *
"Now Twilight, we've flushed the dirt out of the eye but it's still very sensitive. You'll have to wear this eyepatch until it heals. Come back Wednesday and we'll check it again," Nurse Redheart said sternly.
As Twilight left the clinic she saw Pinkie Pie trotting up with Rainbow Dash in tow.
* * *
"Hi Twilight! I told Rainbow Dash that there was a secret mission we had to go on and that we had to get to Canterlot as soon as possible. She got a few of her Cloudsdale weather pony friends to fly us there," the bubbly pink pony said.
"Thanks Rainbow Dash! I really need to get there as soon as possible," Twilight said with a grateful nod.
"Hey, anything that could impress the Wonderbolts is top priority. Secret missions to Equestria's capitol with emergency flights at top speed are an awesome way to do it. I should thank you!" the multicoloured mare said excitedly. "Come on you lot! We need to get hitched up to the wagon! I'll take the point."
With an almost vertical takeoff, Rainbow Dash set an almost breakneck pace, flying far faster than Twilight had ever seen a chariot go. Pinkie turned to Twilight and said "So, Twilight. We're going to the capital of Equestria? I know where it is, know why?"
Sensing a horrible joke on it's way but unable to disappoint her friend Twilight said "No, why?"
Barely able to get the answer out through the giggles that racked her slightly insane pink friend, she finally managed "Because...it was under 'E'!"
"Uuugh." Twilight almost facehoofed until she remembered her eye and just settled for shaking her head.
* * *
Reaching Canterlot, Rainbow Dash guided them down to a free landing pad. Jumping off, Twilight thanked her friend and companions. The pegasi Rainbow had roped in were too tired to do anything else but nod. Pinkie, being Pinkie offered them all some cupcakes. Approaching the nearest guard, Twilight cleared her throat and said "Excuse me sir, could you please tell me where Princess Celestia or Princess Luna are?"
"Your business?" the guard asked.
"I have some urgent news and it is imperative I speak with the Princesses immediately! It concerns the fate of possibly all of Equestria!"
Suitably unimpressed at the sight of an obviously brain damaged purple pony with an eyepatch and her pink friend the guard showed them to a waiting room. Twilight knew this room had the nickname of "Hoofcooling room", since no one was ever brought directly from her to the Princesses. Usually they would meet some minor official when the particular peculiar pony calmed down.
"We don't have time for this!" Twilight said, pacing the room.
Pinkie looked around and said "Well, we could creep downstairs to the Canterlot Archives, go research time travel, and go back in time and warn ourselves, and if we time it just right, we should be back before they know we are gone!"
"Okay! But how will we get out of here undetected?" Twilight asked.
"That's silly. I always bring stealth outfits on any secret mission," Pinkie said, pulling out two charcoal pony outfits.
"Wow, this one just fits me perfectly!" Twilight said, slipping on the outfit.
"Rarity made them to measure," the bouncy pony said, removing the grating on the air vent. "She also said they look very stylish." Slithering into the vent her voice came back slightly muffled and tinny. "Coming, Twilight?"
"Uuuh, yeah."
* * *
Reaching the archive rooms, Pinkie pulled off her mask and tossed it aside. "Okie, dokie, lokie! We're heeeeeeeeeeere."
Muffled cries echoed from behind her in the shaft as Twilight crawled along. "Ow! They OW! don't Ugh! make it sound so OOOF! hard in the bo---" With a bonk and tearing sound, Twilight slipped out of the shaft, and onto the ground below. Dusty, dirty, clothes ripped in various places and mane out of place, with one ear bleeding slightly from falling on it, she woozily tried to stand. "Whaa...when did the change to a rotating shelf system?"
Shaking her head to clear it, she followed Pinkie's sure steps, blood plashing on the cool stones below from the wound on her ear. Grabbing a cloth covering one of the candelabras from dust she used her magic to form a quick bandage she pressed on. The fate of Equestria was in the balance!
* * *
Reaching the Starswirl the Bearded wing of the Archives, the two furtive ponies subtly moved amongst the stacks, searching for the tome containing information on time travel. "Here it is!" Pinkie Pie said happily.
"How did you...And if you say 'it was under E', I'll kick you."
"Silly Twi, it was under 115. The archives uses the Donkey Decimal System."
"...Oh." Twilight picked up the book and flipped through the pages looking for a Time Teleportation spell. For all his genius, or perhaps because of it, Starswirl the Bearded was anything but concise. Finally she found the pages that pointed to the necessary information to make a spell.
"Found it! Okay Pinkie, let's go." Looking up, Twilight saw Pinkie was staring at something over her shoulder. Turning slowly she saw three very irritated guards.
"You're coming with us," the first one said, stepping forward imposingly.
"To see Princess Celestia?" Twilight said hopefully.
"Eventually." The other two guards began to flank the two mares. "Right now you are going to put that back where you found it and follow us to a detaining facility until we figure out what to charge you with."
"But you don't understand, we need to---"
"Enough. Let's go," the guard said.
With a flash Twilight and Pinkie disappeared. Growling, they turned and raced up to the main complex. "I hate unicorns."
* * *
Appearing in the throne room with a flash, Twilight and Pinkie were quite a sight. Slightly singed from the emergency teleportation, hair standing on end they looked like demented pirates who had just come from battle. At least Twilight did. Pinkie looked some she had been playing with fire a little too closely.
Still, they looked quite disreputable so it really isn't anypony's fault that what happened next happened. The guards in the throne room converged on the intruders raising the alarm. Celestia and Luna were nowhere to be seen, possibly just in another part of the castle, possibly somewhere else entirely. Regardless, there was no one there to which they could appeal to. With a sigh, Twilight summoned another burst of magic and transported them to the landing pad they had so recently left. The guard they had spoken to before saw them and started toward them.
Running toward the chariot, Twilight shouted "Get us out of here Rainbow!" Rainbow looked back to see what seemed to be an army of angry guards pouring out of each doorway started hauling the chariot toward the edge as Twilight and Pinkie ran to catch it. Reaching it they jumped on, just before it went over the e
d
g
e.
"A
a
a
a
a
aaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" screamed Twilight and Pinkie as they plummeted straight down. Levelling off, the five pegasi pulling the chariot flew as fast as they could. The drag of the chariot was slowing the team down, but the confusion of most of the guards kept them from catching up with them for now. Once they realized what was going on, it would only be a matter of time before they caught up.
Rainbow Dash turned her head and saw them following. "Team! Up and to the right. Follow my lead!"
Speeding forward with the guards now firmly in chase, Rainbow angled them toward a rolling mass of black clouds. "Passengers are advised to keep all hooves inside the chariot at all times and to hold on for their dear lives, this is going to be a bumpy riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide!" With this warning they hit the cloud mass. Once inside, you could barely see more than three pony lengths in any direction and the cloud closed up behind them almost as soon as they passed through. Rainbow Dash put them into a steep ascent then switch to a spiral that almost made Twilight feel like she had cast a levitation spell on her mane. Curving up and changing to a level course the ponies flew through the cloud for about twenty minutes more. Conversation was impossible due to the buffeting winds, though it would probably be wise to not speak at all, lest they attract unwanted attention.
Finally breaking the clouds they felt the warmth of the sun once more. "Whoooiieeee! That was a fun ride there Dashie! What was that?" Pinkie asked excitedly.
"Just one of Cloudsdale's cloud storage bases. We keep about seven or eight good sized storms handy at strategic locations all over Equestria. Only an idiot would follow us in there." Rainbow Dash said over her shoulder.
"Only an idiot would fly us into there in the first place," one of the pegasi flying with them muttered. Rainbow Dash pretended not to hear.
* * *
On the way back to Ponyville Pinkie asked Twilight what she planned to do. "Well, I figure that they won't really know who I am or where I come from, so I'll spend my time studying the book until I get a reply from one of the Princesses. Then I can just clear it up. As long as no one knows who I am or where I'm from, they can't exactly track me down."
"Yeah...about that." Rainbow Dash said hesitantly. "I might have possibly let it slip who I was and that I was from Ponyville, bringing someone important to meet the Princesses."
"WHAT?!?" both Pinkie and Twilight said.
"I didn't name you, but they will know to come to Ponyville. Anyway, the chariot has this district's colours. Any pegasi worth his wings would be able to get a general idea where we came from."
"Aaarrrrgh! Can't anything be simple!" Twilight said, frustrated. "Okay, okay. Rainbow, thanks for all the help. Just drop me off at the edge of the forest and I'll find my way home. Maybe if they don't see the chariot come to my door, ponies won't point to me so quickly and I'll find a way out of this, before it's too late."
"The edge of the Everfree forest?! Twilight, are you insane? You know what lives in there, it's too dangerous!" Rainbow Dash said vehemently.
"Look, I don't have much choice here. Anyway, I'll be fine, I've taken care of myself thus far." Looking herself over with her one good eye she amended, "Well, mostly."
Sighing Rainbow said "Fine, but we go as close as we can. And no shortcuts through the forest, just skirt around it. And I'm going to pass by later to check up on you." She angled the chariot down.
"Don't worry so Rainbow. See you around!" Jumping off the landed vehicle, Twilight and Pinkie waved them goodbye.
Turning into the forest Twilight felt a hoof on her shoulder. "Nuh-uh Twilight! No shortcuts! You promised!"
"Pinkie, I'm not going home. I'm going over to Zecora's to stay there for a few days. You probably should come too, just so when they come they won't drag you off to some prison cell."
"Twilight, I wore a disguise, they won't know it was me!" Pinkie said brightly.
"You mean the one you took the head off when we got into the library and didn't have when we popped into the throne room and when we ran away from the Palace Guard? That one?"
"Oooh...yeah. That one. Okie dokie lokie! Let's go! It will be like a sleepover, except we are hiding out from the Royal Guard and are probably wanted for treason! Do we still get to eat cupcakes? Or do we need to eat hardtack? Or is that only for pirates? We aren't pirates, though you look like one. Arrrr! Maybe we should just have bread and water so we get used to prison food? Or do---"
"Pinkie."
"---prisoners now get milk too? Maybe we could have milk toast! That's like bread and milk, but it tastes sooooooooooooo good if done right. My Granny Pie once said---"
"Pinkie."
"---that if you can't have pie or cupcakes, milk toast is the next best thing. Though she was grinning at the time, so that could mean she was joking, though who would joke about milk toa---"
"PINKIE!" Twilight shouted.
"Yes, Twilight?" Pinkie said politely.
"I...can't really think about food right now, I need to think." Twilight said.
"That's okay, you think. I know a great thinking song. I call it 'Think think think about how to wink'. It goes like this---"
"No Pinkie. I can't take a song right now. I'd like some silence right now."
"Well, can I hum it?"
"Fine."
HMMMHMMHummmhMMMhmmmhHHHuuuM..
"You know what Pinkie?"
"No, what?"
"I think I preferred your singing."
"Okie Dokie Lokie!"
* * *
Reaching Zecora's cottage, the unlikely desperado duo slowly approached the hut. Raising a hoof to knock on the door Twilight jumped when it swung in, seemingly of its own accord.
"Come in Twilight, and end your flight," came the soothing voice of Zecora. "I know of your plight and believe you to be in the right."
"Thanks Zecora. We've been running for what feels like days. I just need some time to study this then figure out what to do."
"Shhh, rest your tired head, feel free to borrow my bed. I must fetch an herb, but first listen to this rhyming proverb: She who reads while tired, will need to reread to glean what is required."
“I guess you’re right.” Twilight yawned mightily and almost collapsed on the bed. The rest of the day passed in blissful ignorance.
* * *
The new day dawned bright and fresh. Waking up, Twilight felt refreshed and optimistic. Opening her eye she looked around the room. Pinkie sad in one corner, reading from a book and talking in hushed tones to Zecora. Gathering her hooves under her, Twilight rose to meet the day.
“Hi Pinkie. How did you sleep?”
“Oh, I didn’t sleep! I just ate a few cupcakes I had left over and read the book. It’s quite fascinating really. I never read this book before, and I thought I had read all of Starswirl the Bearded’s books. I guess this one never made it to mass circulation for some reason. Probably because of the impact even the simplest of these spells could have on all of causality.”
“Okay, so what do I need to know? You seem to be pretty well versed in time travel theory.”
“Okay, exposition time! First of all, you can never tell your past self of future events, or else you risk causing a temporal paradox in which you need to go back in time to tell yourself something else so you can go back in the first place. In theory, if this happens the universe will explode and rearrange itself to a point in time prior to where any of this happened and hope it doesn’t happen again. Of course, things can get pretty messy when this happens, like breaking one of the four walls of reality. Right now the fourth wall is the weakest because of your time travelling, so I almost could converse with people who don’t exist in this reality. Any more and I would probably start doing fan service or something. It gets pretty silly pretty quick. Still, since it happened and the universe hasn’t blow up, at least this time, we’ll go with it and hope it works.”
“So, I just go to the past and tell myself what I said before?” Twilight asked.
“No, you keep going forward until you have to go back. You’ll know when.”
“Okay. I’ll study up on it now anyway. Have you heard anything about any crisis that’s going on around here or in Equestria?”
Pinkie Pie and Zecora both shook their heads.
“The town of Ponyville has been evacuated by Big Mac. Most of the residents have moved on to Hoofington, though a few had family in Coltsville and went there instead.” Pinkie Pie related.
“Young Twilight I must warn, the Royal Guards to capture you they have sworn,” Zecora intoned. “While the streets are bare of kinsfolk, their ire you did invoke. Walking openly around the city would be rather nitty.”
“Thank you Zecora for the use of your hut. I don’t want you to get into any more trouble, so we’ll be on our way. You probably move out as well.”
“No little filly, stay I will, even if it be silly. This is my home, and from it I shall not roam. Should you need a place to rest your head, feel free to visit my homestead.”
With a wave goodbye, the two fillies headed back toward Ponyville.
* * *
Next couple sections written by drbrony who asked to have a hand at the story.
* * *
As the pair walked through the forest, they began to notice something was amiss. Tiny bubbles were popping into existance out of nowhere, then vanishing soon after they appeared.
Pinkie Pie giggled. “It’s like a party with all these bubbles floating around! Well, except for the fact that they’re temporal disturbances. You don’t want to pop one of those.”
As if to prove her point, a passing fly wandered into a bubble. As it flew in, Twilight could see the flapping of its wings slow to a halt. The fly was frozen in time.
“We have to get out of here!” Twilight cried. She and Pinkie galloped as fast as their hooves could carry them out of the forest.
Outside the tree line, they found their other friends waiting.
“It’s about time y’all showed up, Sugarcube.” Applejack called out. “We’re all here to help however we can.”
“I have made a simply faaabulous disguise for you, Twilight, dear.”
Rarity held out a blue bodysuit toward Twilight. “Now, go ahead, put it on!” she begged.
Twilight donned the costume, which had been made to imitate a pony’s skin as closely as possible. Thanks to some clever padding and some magic, Twilight looked like an old mare just on her way back from the market.
“And the finishing touch!” Rarity cried out. “A terrible monstrosity of a hat.”
With that, the white unicorn plopped a stained, tattered straw hat on Twilight’s head. From a distance, the disguise was perfect. Twilight used a voice spell to complete the effect.
“Well, what do you think?” the old pony asked.
“You look as far from awesome as can be.” Rainbow Dash replied. “So, under the circumstances, good.”
Her friends following at a distance, Twilight made her way towards town. She feigned a limp as she walked, which wasn’t all that difficult after the chariot ride. As they got closer to Ponyville, the bubbles grew bigger and longer lasting. One could see that not all had the same effect. Some, like the one they saw in the forest, stopped time entirely. Others sped it up. One of the latter floated into a lamppost. Like termites stripping a tree the time bubble rusted away the iron to nothing.
Twilight shivered. She hoped Pinkie had given the others the same warning about the bubbles.
Behind them, the pink pony hadn’t stopped talking. “And then we came here! Oh, and by the way, don’t touch the bubbles.”
“Wwwww...Why not, Pinkie?” Fluttershy asked timidly.
“Because then you’ll be caught up in all manners of timey-wimey-limey-mimey-brimey stuff! You could get older or younger or even move slantways through time!”
Suddenly, Pinkie stopped and exclaimed: “You guys keep going. I’ll be right behind you.”
And with that, she jumped headfirst into a bubble and disappeared.
* * *
Hey, guys! I finally did it! I broke through the fourth wall! I always knew there were ponies out there watching what me and my friends did. Wow. You are the wierdest bunch of ponies I have ever seen. Where’s your tails, your hooves? You have hands and feet like Spike, but you’re not dragons! What can I call you ponies. Wait, I know. I’ll call you Bronies! That works. Anyway, I just had to pop out and say hello. It’s not that often I find a break in the fourth wall big enough to fit through. Have fun and eat cake!
* * *
Fluttershy began to weep. Then, as suddenly as she had disappeared, Pinkie popped back into the universe.
“Don’t cry, Fluttershy. Remember, I’m an expert in advanced temporal physics. I teach a class at the Ponyville learning annex.”
Up ahead, Twilight was within a few blocks of the library. The bubbles had stopped appearing and disappearing, they were just there, and the borders were growing fainter. Her friends had followed her this far, but this was her doing and her responsibility. She had to go on alone.
* * *
Before she could explain to her friends what she was planning, a massive time bubble flew out from the front of the library and enveloped her. Twilight vaguely heard her friends screaming behind her, or maybe it was her screaming...
The world faded out from around her. Looking up she saw the stars twinkling in and out, spinning up high. Then the sun came flying out of the corner of her vision and seared across the sky, blotting out the stars with it's brilliance. Just as it set again and the moon came out, Twilight felt something painfully tugging on her mane.
Tensing herself, she reared back, suddenly feeling whatever had it’s hold on drag her up into the sky. Reaching a certain height, the pair started to suddenly drop down. With a crash, the two entities collided, hitting the ground to the side of the temporal bubble. Blinded by a mass of pink, she raised a hoof to remove the mane covering her face and froze. “Ffff---Fluttershy? What...what are you doing here?”
“Oh, um...well...I saw the temporal bubble closing in on you and Pinkie Pie said you needed to be elevated so I went in and dragged you up,” the yellow pegasus said, pawing the ground with her hoof.
“Oh, well, thanks Fluttershy. Wait,” Twilight said, looking about. “What day are we?”
“Um...I don’t know. Maybe Monday or Tuesday?” Fluttershy guessed.
“We have to find out!” Looking about she saw a pegasus Guard flying high. “Can you ask him what day it is?”
“M-mm-mmeee? Fly up th-th-th-there and ask him what day it is? Oh, nooooo,” the shy pony said. “I couldn’t.”
“It’s okay Fluttershy, I’ll get his attention.” Twilight said gently. Doing her best imitation of Granny Smith she called out “Young pegasus! Could you please come down? I need to ask you something.”
The guard remained impassive and stayed in place. Squinting up at the pegasus, Twilight noticed something she hadn’t seen before. The Guard was motionless, including his wings. He wasn’t even hovering, he was completely frozen. Turning to her right, she saw Fluttershy barely moving. Reaching a hoof to her, Fluttershy suddenly started. “You startled me! How did you move so fast!”
“I didn’t move fast at all, you were moving very slow.” Looking around, Twilight noticed that there was no wind, or birdsong at all. In fact, everything except what was near them appeared frozen. “Stay close Fluttershy. I think time only works near me for some reason. Come on, let’s see if we can find the rest of the gang.”
“O-okay Twilight.”
* * *
Going through the frozen town of Ponyville was very eery. You don’t notice how much sound the world holds until you hear nothing, absolute silence. Every sound you make seems abrupt and harsh. Going over to Sugarcube Corner, Twilight noticed that all the cotton candies on the outside were rearranged into a rough arrow. Following the direction it pointed, Fluttershy and Twilight came across another cotton candy. Following the trail, they finally reached Rarity’s Boutique. Going up to the door, Twilight pushed it open to find her frozen friends and Pinkie Pie slowly moving across the room. Turning her head at the sound of the door opening, Pinkie Pie’s eye’s light up. “Ttttttttttttttwwwwwwwiiiiiiilllliiiggggghhhhht! Iiiiiitttt’sss aaabbbooouuuttt ttiimmee yyoou got here.” she said, finally coming back to full speed. “I was almost out of time! And I carry a lot with me.”
“Sorry, we just got out of the temporal bubble. What happened?” Twilight asked as her friends slowly started to come out of stasis.
“Oh, the time paradox you made a feedback loop that caused time to start going haywire here. The Princesses had to place this whole area in emergency stasis until someone could resolve the loop. Sadly, some of the Guards were still in when the stasis field went up, but most of the residents had been moved out. Great thinking evacuating the town when you did Twi. Since you are the originator of the paradox, you are technically outside of time stream so are unaffected by any of this.”
“Oh. Then how did you...?”
“I carry spare time with me at all times. Useful for that extra few minutes when you want to finish a game or you need a few minutes more to finish something up.”
“Okay. But after this is all over, we’re going to have to talk about how you do all this.” Twilight said sternly.
“Silly, you won’t remember any of this if we resolve the paradox correctly.”
* * *
“What do you mean?” Twilight asked.
“If you remember it, then that will mean that there are still too many traces of it left behind. It would start all over again. We can’t have that happening.” Pinkie Pie said in a reasonable tone.
“Oh, right.”
“So, now we need to find a way to end the loop. Of course, we need to do it soon, or else the Princesses will initiate the full timeline shutdown procedures. We have a little time since we have the book that carries the spell, but it shouldn’t take them long to get another copy or have someone figure out how to recreate it.”
“Hm, well, okay. What are we going to do?”
“First, you take off that disguise. With time frozen, there’s not much point to it. Second, you should go back in time to warn your past self about the dangers of time travel and to not investigate it.”
“Wait, won’t that make the paradox worse?” Twilight asked.
“No, no. Changing Clothes Is a Free Action.” Pinkie Pie said with a giggle.
“The time travel warning, not the costume change.” Twilight said with an eye roll.
“Oh! I’m so silly,” Pinkie said with a hoof wave. “No, it won’t because your former self that you will contact already is in the paradox, and you are already out of it. So all we are doing is fulfilling causality and creating a time anchor at the same time. If we don’t, we could start floating in the time stream and end up in the Paleopony Period.”
“Oh...Okay. So, how do I go back in time?” Twilight asked herself as she leafed through the pages of the book. “Here it is. Wait...WHAT!”
“What’s wrong Twilight?” Pinkie asked.
“The amount of magic needed, it’s almost impossibly high! Here, see for yourself.” Twilight said, moving the book over.
“1.21 GIGASWIRLS?!“ Pinkie said, jaw dropping. Flailing backward she crashed into Rainbow Dash, waking her from her stasis. “1.21 Gigaswirls! Great Trots!!” she said, rushing out of the room.
With a confused look, Rainbow Dash turned to Twilight. “What the hay is a Gigaswirl?”
* * *
Twilight and Rainbow Dash rushed after Pinkie to find her lying on Rarity’s Fainting Couch, speaking to a picture of her friend Rocky. “How could I have been so careless! 1.21 Gigaswirls! Rocky, how am I going to generate that kind of power! It can’t be done! It can’t!”
Twilight and Rainbow ran in.
“Pinkie, look, all we need is a little lightning strike!” Twilight said.
“Haah, I’m sure that by Tuesday there will be lighting bolts sold in every corner store, but today, Monday, it’s a little hard to come by!”
“Relax Pinkie! If it’s a lighting strike you need, I can get one, I’ll just fly up and kick a few clouds!” Rainbow Dash said confidently.
“Oh, yeah. You’re right!” Jumping off the couch, Pinkie Pie tossed the picture away. Oblivious to the sound of the crash or tinkling of glass she continued. “Of course, you’ll have to use your time wisely. With the time freeze in effect, you’ll have to get the lightning strike setup before you run out of time and freeze like Guardy McGuard up there.”
Waking up the rest of their friends, they quickly explained the plan to them.
“What Ah don’t understand is why we can’t just get Twilight to wake everyone up, move ‘em up and head ‘em out of here and let the Princesses do that time freeze thing.” Applejack said.
“We could, if we wanted to leave Twilight behind. If she leaves, they would have to just recreate a new time freeze wherever she goes to counteract her portable paradox.” Pinkie chirped.
“When did you become an expert in advanced mathematics?” asked Applejack.
“You don’t want to know,” Twilight said.
“Hmmm, fair enough.”
* * *
Rainbow Dash pointed her head up to the nearest cloud. Reaching it as quickly as fast as she could she pushed into three over to the others nearby, making a fair sized storm cloud.
Rolling away, she felt the time she had trickling away, she only had seconds left.
Aiming for the cloud again she charged forward, trying to speed up enough to buck a lighting bolt out of it, she felt the time reach the last second just as she hit it. Her last thought before oblivion set in was “Ten.........seconds.....fl..”
* * *
Twilight looked up at the storm cloud above her and not for the first time worried slightly about getting hit by lightning so she could save the day. Still, you do what you have to when the whole of Equestria is in the balance. She saw a flash and ducked down, covering her face with her hooves.
Looking around, she saw herself...
“Aaaaaaaaah!” she screamed.
“Twilight, you’ve got to listen to me!” Tuesday Twilight said urgently.
“Who are you? I mean, you’re me, but I’m me too. How can there be two mes? It’s not scientifically. You” she said, poking herself on the chest “you are not scientifically possible!”
“Twilight, please! I have a very important message for you from the future!” Tuesday Twilight said to herself.
“You’re from the future?”
“That’s right, now listen---”
“What happened to you? The future must be awful,” she said, circling herself.
“Please, I don’t have much time,” Tuesday Twilight said urgently.
“Is there some sort of epic pony war going on in the distant future or something?” she guessed.
“Actually, I’m from next Tuesday morning. But that’s not important right now!”
“I can’t believe time travel is really possible! How did you, I mean, I, figure it out?”
“The time spells are in the Canterlot Archives. But that’s not---”
“Really? Where? I’ve never seen them!” she said.
“They are in the Starswirl the Bearded wing. Now you have to listen to m---.” Tuesday Twilight tried to say.
“Is time travel fun? Or does it hurt? I have so many questions to mrugluxfrgleump,” she said, purple hoof firmly in her mouth.
“I have something extremely important to tell you about the future,” Tuesday Twilight said, noticing the flickering of electricity around herself. ‘Oh, no, I’m running out of Temporal displacement time!’, she thought. “and I only have a few seconds so you’ve got to listen! Whatever you do, don’t---”
“---use time travel....” she finished, too late. “GHA!!!!!”
* * *
Her friends were waiting for her.
Pinkie Pie walked up and asked “How did it go?”
“Like last time, I didn’t get to say the warning.” Twilight said with a grimace.
“Good! Now with the anchor in place, we can revert to the original phase. You’ll have to do a time fold to just before you saw yourself. Try to overlap the time streams a bit so things are a bit different than before. We don’t want this to start up again.”
“Yeah...” Twilight said, somewhat sadly.
“What’s wrong Twilight? We did all we needed to, saved the town, and everything is going to be fine.”
“Yeah, that’s true. It’s just...all these last few days, I’ve learnt so much of each of you, and now we’re going to lose all that.”
Putting a hoof around her neck, Pinkie Pie said comfortingly “Twilight, we are friends and good ponies all, right? And we were all friends before?”
“Yeah.”
“So if we go back, we’ll have prevented all this bad stuff from happening, and we’ll learn all this about each other in time. Sure Rainbow Dash might not get to fly to Canterlot on a secret mission and guide us through a raging storm cloud anytime soon, but we’ll still have fun. And in time we’ll learn all we need about each other. And, if there’s one thing I know is that we each will have plenty of time.”
“You’re right Pinkie.” Twilight said sadly.
“Anyway, right now, you are the only one keeping us going. It wouldn’t be fair to make everyone here stay locked in this time bubble, waiting for you to give them just a bit more time to live,” Pinkie said, gesturing to their other friends who were already slowing down to a crawl.
With a determined look on her face, Twilight stood up. “Goodbye, Tuesday Pinkie Pie.”
“Goodbye, Tuesday Twilight. See you past next Tuesday. And Saturday too, I hope,” Pinkie said with a smile.
Twilight’s horn began to glow with a purple aura. Turning almost blindingly white, Twilight disappeared with a flash. Looking about her, Pinkie sat for a minute before clapping her hooves together, breaking the silence and time bubble holding them all in place. The world around her started to swim and blend together like wet paint (or cookie dough!).
* * *
Waking up in Sugarcube Corner, Pinkie Pie looked around for a second. Trotting up to Mrs Cake she requested the afternoon off. It being a quiet day, she got the day off. Going over to the Ponyville Library she passed Rarity heading the same way. Picking up speed she made it there ahead of her, with time to spare. “Heeeey Twilight! I wanted to borrow a book on Temporal Physics! What do you have?”
“Hi Pinkie! Temporal physics? Since when are you interested in that?” Twilight said, someone confused.
“Oh, a while. I did grow up on a rock farm after all. All you could do was read and dig holes. And throw parties! But that came later. Do you take an interest in causality and temporal physics?”
“Just dabbling. I find it fascinating, but of course absolutely impractical and impossible.” Twilight said.
“Hm, possibly but...say, want to continue this discussion over lunch? I’m starved. How does Haute Clover and a daffodil and daisy sandwich sound? My treat!”
“I don’t know...besides, I have a lot of work I have to get done today...” Twilight said hesitantly.
“I also heard Rarity is coming over to see you. Something about getting you to pose for ‘Fashionably Focused’ or something like that?”
“SPIKE! You’re in charge of the library until I get back!” Twilight said.
“Sweeet!” came the reply from the back bedroom, followed by a crash. “I’m okay!”
The two mares headed off to lunch, neither of them noticing a slight flash from the upper floors of the library where a confused purple unicorn mare stood for a moment before fading away.
