A Discussion of Temporal Mechanics from Multiple Points of View That is Hopefully not as Longwinded as the Chapter Title
“So what now?”
The question was on everypony’s minds, but Twilight was the one who voiced it. Starlight looked down in defeat – Twilight had only just managed to drag her out of bed for this. Midnight shrugged helplessly and looked to the two professional time travelers in the room. Ditzy sensed the impending monologue and sighed while she made her way over to the filly sitting at one end of the room.
The Doctor had never been one to pass up a dramatic moment in any form. “What now?” He grabbed an apple from a fruit bowl as he levered himself up onto the table. “Well, see, that’s the thing.” His momentum carried him along the edge of the table until he fell off and landed sitting in one of the thrones sideways. “Now it’s whatever you want.” He took a bite from the apple.
Twilight blinked at him. “What?”
The earth pony pulled a small metal cylinder out of his mane and waved it at the filly while it hummed. “Yeah…” He looked at the device and nodded. “Yup, doesn’t matter. Won’t make a difference what we do now, she’s a self-contained stable paradox.”
The filly’s head snapped up at that. “You mean I’m going to…”
“What disappear? Nah, if that were the case it’d have happened already. No, you’re too far gone for that. No origin point to erase you from.”
Twilight nodded. “So how do we help her keep from creating more paradoxes?”
“Oh, that’s easy: You can’t.”
Starlight stiffened and looked up slowly. “You mean… She’s going to destroy the universe unless…”
“What? No! Well, maybe, but still! No!”
“But you said she’s a paradox!” The earliest signs of panic were edging into Twilight’s voice and mannerisms. “That she has no origin point! That means everything she does will affect the timeline, and when we get to when she should have been born it’ll snowball, everything will keep getting bigger and bigger until time rips to pieces and the universe blows up, and Celestia will be disappointed enough to banish us for letting it happen only there won’t be any place to banish us to, so we’ll have to make someplace for her to banish us to, and–”
An apple held in Midnight’s dark blue magic forced its way into her mouth. “This is the point where I’m supposed to let you know I’m under explicit instructions to inhibit your magic and mobility in order to avoid another ‘lesson zero’ if you don’t get a handle on yourself.”
Twilight’s eyes narrowed and her nostrils flared slightly as she stared down the other alicorn. “Instructions from whom?”
“Each of the other princesses, Spike, all the other elements except Fluttershy, and your mother.”
Twilight snorted indignantly. “At least Fluttershy still believes in me.”
The Doctor, Ditzy, and Starlight all exchanged glances before the stallion of the three spoke up, “Can you add us to that list?”
Midnight nodded politely to the soundtrack of Twilight’s cries. “Traitors! Traitors the lot of you! There will be a reckoning for this!”
Starlight grimaced. “Twilight’s neurosis aside, she’s right. If this filly’s a paradox, then everything she does is just going to create more and more paradoxes until time collapses under the strain.”
Ditzy giggled quietly, politely hiding her snickers behind a hoof. Her husband on the other hoof laughed loud and clear. “Is that… is that actually how you think it works?”
“But everything she does will change time!” Twilight’s OCD was starting to show again.
“Everything anypony does changes time Twilight Sparkle.” The Doctor’s joviality had drained in an instant. “Every action has a consequence, and the bill always comes due. Just look at this situation; Starlight’s having to face this the hard way.”
“But… but we fixed it.”
“By erasing exactly how many alternate timelines?” Midnight quietly asked, “We don’t even know which one she’s from yet.”
Twilight blanched. “So you’re saying…”
“It’s entirely possible Starlight’s the reason she exists and you’re the one who killed her timeline, yes.”
“N-no… I didn’t… I never meant to…”
“That’s not the point right now.” The Doctor really wasn’t feeling up to helping walk Twilight through recovering from committing genocide… besides, he doubted jumping in the TARDIS with her and running from the problem for a few hundred years would go over well with Ditzy. “The point is; she’s from a dead timeline. We need to figure out which one, why, how, and if we should be expecting any more surprises.”
“Y’know, you could try asking.”
The entire room turned to look at the filly; each trying to figure out how to gently mention that they were trying to avoid making her relive painful memories. Well, most of them anyway.
Twilight restated what she considered the most pressing issue, “Still, her very presence is going to disrupt the natural flow of time, how do we limit or stop that?”
The Doctor gave a sigh as he set his half-eaten apple on the table. “It doesn’t work that way.” He looked at the three highly curious academics and sighed again. “Look, ponies assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly... timey wimey... stuff.”
“A lot like a soap bubble actually, it’s this big ball of time with other stuff inside it… although sometimes that other stuff can also be time, but still, soap bubble’s probably the best way you’ll understand.”
The Doctor blinked. “Actually Ditzy, that’s pretty much spot-on, how did… you…” He facehooved. “How did it take me twenty years to realize that?”
Starlight cleared her throat. “So,” She turned to the filly in a rather blatant attempt to change the subject, “What’s your name?”
“Silver. Silver Sapphire.”
“Any idea which timeline you’re from?”
“One pretty much like this one I’d guess. Alicorns of Magic and Hope running Ponyville, Alicorn of Tartarus trying to escape and getting stopped by Black Diamond, Elements of Harmony always having to save the day, but a few others showing up to help around now…” She locked eyes with her questioner, “No idea who you are though.”
Midnight perked at that statement. “No Starlight? But with Twilight and her friends…” He looked at the unicorn, “Of course, given parentage… Of course. Given parentage, it would have had to have been in the ‘past,’ which would have created a temporal distortion that needed endpoints, which means…” He looked up at the filly. “You’re from the original timeline. The original original timeline. The one that never existed now.”
“What do you mean, we put it all back, we made it right!”
Midnight shook his head. “Time doesn’t work that way Starlight. Once you change something… it can never be put back exactly the same again.” He locked eyes with the filly. “Who sacrificed themselves?”
Both purple spellcasters erupted with twin cries of “What!?”
The unicorn filly sighed. “Black Diamond. She said she was erasing herself from Time and Possibility so that things would be normal.”
Midnight paused. “That… should have made it so that there was never a Black Diamond, but… wait… do you know when she put on the armor first?”
“Nightmare Nyx.”
Midnight began rubbing his eyes. “And now I know why the Darkness was so desperate to have her. Many ancient and primordial powers exist at least partially outside of time, the deepest parts of the Darkness knew what she could become if they left her unchecked… Still doesn’t explain how she exists though, that shouldn’t be possible.”
“Meh, probably just in her nature.” Midnight looked at her, his eyes widening briefly before narrowing slightly in thought. “She’s the only mare I’ve ever met who’s literally too stubborn to die. Heck, it’s right there in her cutie mark, a diamond never breaks, never gives in, always defies.”
Midnight closed his eyes and took a steadying breath. Somepony was going to pay for this at some point. Dearly.
The Doctor recognized one of those moments he needed to interrupt before those with shorter lifespans and narrower worldviews started asking the wrong questions. “Still doesn’t explain how you’re here though.”
There was a half beat before Twilight, Starlight, Midnight, and Ditzy all spoke in unison and dawning realization. “Tempus Temporis.”
The Doctor blinked. “Huh, so that’s how this feels. Gotta say, like the other side better. Anyway, anypony care to explain?”
There was some glancing around before Midnight motioned to Ditzy. “You’re the one with the time talent…”
Ditzy smiled. “Tempus Temporis is the foundation of all Chronomancy. With it, a powerful or talented caster isolates themselves in a single instant of time. They then transfer that instant – and themselves – into a… bubble would be the best word I guess. A small bit of artificial time outside of time that they create. Then they can move that instant freely through time until they reach their destination… to balance things… out…” She turned wide-eyed to Midnight. “That’s what you meant by original original.”
He nodded solemnly. After a brief pause, Twilight and Starlight began paling.
“What?” Silver’s curiosity saved the Doctor from asking. “What balances things out?”
Ditzy took a deep breath. “With traditional chronomancy as you’ll find it in present Equestria, a trigger is built into the spell to limit paradox damage. When the desired outcome is achieved or another outcome is found acceptable and the spell ends, the traveler is… erased. Sort of. More like rewritten, so that they fit the new timeline. All of their memories except the memory of the trip itself are altered. This also helps avoid temporal alignment issues with them not remembering details of the new timeline and creating problems because of it.”
Midnight nodded as Ditzy’s resolve flagged. “Which is why not even Twilight and Starlight remember the way things went the first time around.” He turned to the young filly “In your case though, I’m guessing that part was deliberately left out. That turned your little bit of temporary time into an escape pod, and when our present caught up to you, we picked you up.” He smiled. “So no worries about disappearing in a puff of logic.” His smile fell, “Though that still leaves us the question of what to do with you.”
“We keep her.”
The entire group turned to face the filly they hadn’t heard come in. Diamond Tiara gazed back, her expression just a hair shy of defiant.
How long have you been there?
The entire time. You’re not the only one who’s supposed to keep Twilight from panicking. Besides, “She’s my daughter, right? Well then, I’m keeping her, and I’ll make sure she’s taken care of. And if the future wants her, then they can just come get her!”
There was no “almost,” the vortex that opened had to be a direct response to that. A scroll fell out, bounced on the table, and unfurled.
Please take care of her for a little while. We will come for her, but some stuff has to happen first. And Midnight, no badgering her about who her father is.
-Diamond
Twilight was the first to react. “I need Ice Cream.” She walked out with a flat expression that was the epitome of nope.
“I don’t think we’re needed anymore either.” The Doctor pointed out. He and Ditzy turned to leave before Starlight spoke up.
“I’ll teleport you back to town.”
“While you’re at it, do you think you could grab Diamond Tiara’s parents? They’ll need to approve anything.”
“Nope.”
All eyes turned to the pink filly that had already curled up in a chair with her not-future daughter. “What do you mean?” Diamond, what are you doing? A few know now, but that’s no reason to go completely public.
Nope, not that. “The unfoals; I heard that their parents can override their own parents decision regarding their foals. I’m claiming that right.”
“…Diamond… that’s not exactly…”
“Good luck explaining the difference, especially with how close the arrivals were.”
When Midnight turned to Starlight for support, the mare just grinned and teleported out with her passengers. The stallion sighed, “I just can’t believe you’re teaming up with yourself against me across time. There has to be a limit somewhere, right?”
Diamond snorted. “Like you can talk Mr. Rebellion.”
Silver nodded sagely. “Neither of you really cared much about the concept of reality. Just be glad she didn’t get Luna involved.”
“Aaaand that’s it, I’m going to go bury my headache in ice cream with Twilight.” Midnight opened the door and almost walked straight into Fluttershy.
“Oh, Midnight! I was just looking for you!”
“Oh?” The stallion cocked an eyebrow as his gaze passed over her and the hall behind her. “What can I help you with?”
“Well, it’s just, I just saw Twilight, and she was looking a little stressed, and I’m sure you’ve heard how when she gets stressed, she can get a little…”
“Obsessive.”
Fluttershy squeaked before nodding sheepishly. “Spike was helping her dish up some ice cream, and he can usually calm her down, but if, you know, he can’t one time, then, could you, maybe, possibly, um…”
Midnight’s lip twitched but he clamped down firmly on his mirth. “Take measures to ensure she doesn’t hurt herself, anypony around, or the next few dimensions over?”
“Umm, yes. Exactly that actually, I just knew you’d understand.” Fluttershy’s hug stiffened when she realized what the strangled sound behind her was. Slowly she turned to see her friend standing there. “Oh, um, Twilight, we were just…”
Were it any other name attached, anypony hearing would think the volume and tone meant the speaker had been stabbed.
“ET TU FLUTTERSHY!?”
Author's Note
Yeah, I debated putting in a dark tag for that bit where Twilight and Starlight realize that they sorta committed genocide... then again I also debated putting on the AU tag as a convoluted joke, so I guess don’t take me seriously on that.
I didn’t plan on going into this much depth with Silver’s entrance story at this point in the timeline, but then I noticed some... unexplained jumps in Starlight’s character development. This is going to be a bit of a catalyst for some of that.
It’s also going to awaken Diamond’s maternal instincts and strengthen her protective streak, which is going to lead up to something I really hope surprises you all. The rug will be getting pulled out from under you at the end of the civil war... or about halfway through Ghosts of the Past, whichever the narrative gets to first.
Anyway, thanks for reading,
~NPP6
