If You Give A Pony A Time Spell

by TCC56

Rating: everyone
Tags: Discord, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Main 6, Trixie, Spike, Comedy, Starlight Glimmer
Length: 5031

After her problems with time travel, Princess Twilight Sparkle hid away all information about Starswirl's spell. Unfortunately she underestimated just how determined and irresponsible her friends would be.

After her problems with time travel, Princess Twilight Sparkle hid away all information about that branch of magic. The spell that Starlight had used was destroyed, but even knowledge of it was too dangerous - no lengths were too much when trying to avoid changing the past or creating paradoxes.

Unfortunately, she underestimated just how determined her friends would be... and just how foolishly they would use it.

Featured 11/1/2022 - 11/3/2022!

Published 2022-11-01 19:50:01 UTC
Last updated 2022-11-01 19:50:01 UTC

Pinkie Pie

It was a beautiful late spring day in Ponyville. Twilight Sparkle was having a wonderful lunch with Pinkie Pie at the Café Hay when Pinkie Pie walked past them with Rainbow Dash.

It took approximately four seconds to sink into Twilight's head that something was wrong. Pinkie Pie was, after all, historically good at doing things that made no sense or seemingly defied logic and Twilight had long since (painfully) understood that questioning it too hard would only go poorly. However, the only other time Pinkie had been in two places at the same time was when she had been messing with the Mirror Pool and so a second one of her around Ponyville was concerning.

"Pinkie," Twilight asked carefully, "Did another you just walk past us?"

Twilight had been expecting a denial. The suggestion of a changeling, maybe. It was not for Pinkie to nod and cheerfully confirm "Yep!"

The unexpectedness of it caused Twilight to hesitate. That hesitation, in turn, gave Pinkie the chance to wave wildly and draw the attention of her duplicate. Waving goodbye to Rainbow and quickly changing course, the double pronked over to the Café and their table.

Twilight opened her mouth to ask the obvious question - and was preempted as the two Pinkies conversed.

"Oh, is it time for this conversation already?" The new arrival seemed as chipper as ever, and undeniably also Pinkie Pie.

The other one nodded. "Yep, just like you said!"

The first sat down beside the second, and Twilight had already lost track of which one was which. One of them addressed her directly. "Hi Twi! You're going to ask if one of us is from the Mirror Pool or is a changeling or a couple of other things, and the answer to all of the questions is no."

"You'll never guess what the answer really is!" One of the Pinkies bounced excitedly.

"And I know that's true, because you get all your guesses wrong!" The other was doing the same.

And together they announced: "Time travel!"

Twilight recoiled at the term.

"One of us is from your future," Pinkie excitedly explained. "But only three days, before you get worried."

"Too late, she started worrying the moment she saw a second us," noted the other.

"Awww."

Twilight interrupted them before things got ~~weirder~~ worse. "What do you mean, time travel? How did you time travel?!"

Both Pinkies rolled their eyes at the same time. "Well duh, Twilight. I used Starlight's spell."

"How?! That scroll was destroyed when Starlight and I returned to the present!" Twilight could feel the hairs in her mane trying to spring out of place.

Pinkie had an answer for that, of course. "I went back in time and grabbed it before it was destroyed," she matter-of-factly stated.

"But how did you time travel to do that?" More of Twilight's mane (and sanity) started to fray.

"With the spell," Pinkie confirmed.

"But that's a paradox!" Twilight stopped before she could rant further as Pinkie put a hoof over her mouth.

The Pinkie hushed her. "Sssssshhhhhh. Remember the Pinkie Sense. Don't try to think about it. You'll only hurt yourself."

It was frustrating, but Twilight knew Pinkie was right. The explanation made no sense and was paradoxical, but it was also Pinkie Pie and past experience had shown how dangerous attempting to solve her could be. So the little purple alicorn relaxed a little.

And then tensed back up.

"Pinkie," she gently asked, "How did you cast the spell? You're an earth pony."

One of the Pinkies smiled broadly. "That was easy! I just went further back in time first and talked to Starlight. Once I convinced her that it wasn't very Equal that only one tribe of ponies could cast spells, she changed it so anypony who said the chant could use it!"

The other Pinkie's eyes went wide. "Oh! That's really smart!"

The first one grinned back at herself. "It is! You'll be really proud of it once you think of it!"

Once more, Twilight opened her mouth to object to another blatant paradox. One of the Pinkies held up her hoof. "Ap-bup-bup!" She batted her eyelashes in her best Rarity impression. "Don't think about it!"

Fuming, Twilight let it go again. Instead, she moved to a different question. "Why are you here? If you went to all this trouble it has to have been for a good reason, right?"

"Of course it is, silly!" The tone immediately made Twilight cringe, because she knew it wasn't. But Pinkie didn't stop. "I had a really, really full schedule today! So since I learned my lesson with the Mirror Pool, the only way to be in several places at once was time travel!"

"PINKIE." This time, there was no shushing Twilight as she shot out of her chair. "Time travel is dangerous! You can't just use it for trivial things like–"

Both Pinkies pouted at Twilight at the same time. "Don't say parties," they spoke in unison.

Those sad faces derailed Twilight. "...like scheduling problems," she more calmly stated, sitting back down. After a slow, calming breath, she began again. "You already did it, so we'll just have to deal with those consequences. Could you please give me the spell scroll so we can make sure nothing else happens?"

A Pinkie Pie shook her head. "Sorry, Twi-Twi. I gave it to Rainbow Dash."

Something inside Twilight's head went sproink. "You what."

"Gave it to Rainbow Dash," Pinkie repeated. "She spotted that there were two of me first, so she asked me first about what was going on." She motioned with a hoof over to where one of them had been walking with Rainbow several minutes before. "So I explained everything to her, then she asked if she could borrow the scroll. Then I called me over, I gave it to Dashie, and then we started this conversation so I could keep you busy long enough for her to cast it!"

Twilight's head rotated on a pivot, just in time to see Rainbow Dash disappear in a flash of light. Then it spun back to Pinkie Pie. "Why?!"

Pinkie Pie rolled her eyes. "Well, duh. Because I knew it already happened from my perspective in the earlier timeline, so it had to happen otherwise there would be a paradox."

"Yeah," the other Pinkie loudly agreed. "I mean, come on Twilight, that's basic temporal mechanics!"

Applejack

The front door of Sweet Apple Acres was kicked open with vengeful force. Applejack stormed in, eye scanning the kitchen for her target. The entire Apple family was there, caught in the middle of breakfast - and sat in stunned silence at the second Applejack in their presence.

Undeterred by the situation, Applejack pointed at Applejack. "You! We gotta talk!"

"Uh, what–"

Applejack cut off her duplicate. "Time travel, ain't important." She trotted over and poked herself in the chest. "You got work ta do."

Applejack shoved the chair back, rising to her hooves and glaring at her other self. "What the hay are you talkin' about?"

"Rainbow Dash asked me out." Applejack paused. "Will ask you out."

The original Applejack blinked. "Now hold on a cotton pickin' minute, Ah'm askin' her out!"

"Awwww!" Apple Bloom practically squeed from her spot at the table. "Does this mean Rainbow Dash is gonna be my sister?"

Both Applejacks turned to their sister. "Not now!"

The intruding one continued her explanation to her other self. "You're gonna, but so's she. And she's gonna beat you to it - because she cheats!"

A gasp went up around the room. "She what?!" Current-time Applejack's face reddened with anger.

"Cheats!" Future Applejack spat the word with venom. "She uses this here magic scroll to time travel and let herself know you're gonna do it! Pleased the dang feather-duster so much she started braggin' about it the week after!"

Grumbling angrily, Applejack looked herself in the eyes. "Thumped her good for it?"

"And how," Applejack confirmed to herself with a satisfied nod. "Then Ah took the scroll, traveled back here, and made sure you know about it so we can ask her first!"

The rest of the Apple family looked at each other in a mixture of confusion and apprehension. "Uh," Big Mac ventured, "Mebbe if you're messin' with time just to beat each other, this ain't such a good idea?"

"It ain't a good idea," Applejack firmly stated. "It's the only idea." She turned to her counterpart. "Let's teach that dang pegasus a thing or two about romance."

While the two Applejacks concocted their plan (and Big Mac tried to minimize the damage,) other trouble was brewing. Because Apple Bloom had started thinking. Mostly about how useful time travel could be, and just what good the Crusaders could do with it. All she had to do was borrow that scroll for a little while…

Spike

Slurping noises echoed off the walls of the crystal castle as Spike finished his drink. Automatically, he rolled out of his hammock to refill it.

But Spike only made it a few steps before Spike - himself from a future date, he had previously explained to himself - stopped him. "Whoa, hey! We talked about this! You're staying right there, buddy."

Spike looked at his empty glass, then back at his future self. "C'mon, it's just a drink. I'll go back to relaxing after I get one."

That wasn't enough, however, and Spike snatched the glass away. "I'll get it. We discussed this: I came back in time so I could do all your work and you could get a day off. And in the future, once you get the scroll, you'll do the same for your past self."

The two broke apart - the future Spike to refill the drink while the present one hopped back into the hammock with a mild grumble. A few minutes later, Spike delivered himself the drink: a root beer float with vanilla ice cream and powdered limestone. He sipped it once before letting out a long, pleased sigh. In the background, his future self puttered around dusting shelves and organizing paperwork.

More minutes passed. Once the dusting was done, the busy Spike diverted over. "Need anything?"

The lounging one considered, then shook his head. "Nah." A pause. "Though, uh. You said Rarity gave you the spell for this?"

Spike nodded. "She did. She said it was only fair after everything I've done to make sure I got a turn, too." His cheeks flushed at the memory of her fluttering eyelashes and divine smile. "She even suggested I use it for this. 'You work so hard, Spikey-wikey,' she said."

In the hammock, Spike got the same dopey smile as his other self. "Yeah. That sounds like Rarity." He shook his head, dispelling the fluffy fog of his crush. "Shouldn't we, you know, tell Twilight about this though? I mean, time travel's pretty bad."

"I thought about that," Spike admitted as he leafed through Twilight's (spare) day planner to check her upcoming schedule. "And we will. But it isn't like this is going to cause any problems. We're only interacting with ourselves, we aren't leaving the castle, and we aren't doing anything weird. So what's the harm?"

Spike mulled that over for a few moments more. "I guess you're right. We can tell her later."

"Besides," Spike commented, "I also promised I'd give it to Fluttershy after I was done. It wouldn't be fair if she didn't get a turn, too."

Fluttershy

Twilight's hoof rapped on the front door of Fluttershy's cottage. The day outside was beautiful - birds singing, sun shining, a gentle breeze coming out of the east. If Twilight had to leave her castle, this was the day for it.

So when Fluttershy answered the door and staunchly did not step outside (and in fact, blocked the door as best she could with her leggy body) it seemed a little odd.

Still, Twilight smiled brightly. "Hi there Fluttershy!" Her magic pulled out the book from her saddlebag: Tragic Finale's Lost Species of Equestria: A Chronicle of Extinction. "I've got the book you requested!"

Another warning sign was the haunted, panicked look on Fluttershy's face. "Oh. Um. Well." Her eyes darted around rapidly. "I thought Spike was going to deliver it."

"He was," Twilight admitted, "But it was such a nice day out I thought I could get some fresh air and–" She paused as a portly flightless bird waddled past behind Fluttershy. It took a second to identify the relevant parts of the taxonomy - though the peculiar hooked beak and long, curved neck were kind of a give-away - before the alicorn's attention went back to the pegasus. "Is that a dodo in your house?"

Fluttershy's wing snapped up, blocking further view into her cottage. "No!" Her answer was too quick, too frightened. "Why Twilight, that's, um, I mean it's–"

"Is that a dodo in your house," Twilight repeated, and it wasn't a question this time.

"...yes," came the meek admission.

"Why– wait, no, how do you have a dodo in your house."

Fluttershy slowly lowered her wing. "Would you believe time travel?"

Twilight stopped dead. "Wait, so this isn't Discord's fault?"

"Oh no," Fluttershy confirmed. "He had nothing to do with this. You see, Spike gave me this scroll–"

Now Twilight's wings popped up. "How did Spike have that scroll? I thought Rainbow Dash had it!"

Instantly, Fluttershy's expression brightened. "Oh, so we are sharing it around? I wasn't sure when Spike said it was my turn, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity!"

"No, we aren't sharing it around! Time travel is dangerous, and I've been trying to get the scroll back ever since…" Twilight's voice trailed away as a thought pushed through her frustration. "Fluttershy. How many dodos do you have in there?"

That question, Fluttershy answered quickly and honestly. "Around six dozen. I needed at least that many to establish a viable base population. More would have been better, but, um, they're kind of hard to wrangle." She scuffed her hoof on the floor. "And I only have so much room."

For a moment, Twilight almost praised Fluttershy for paying attention to the science of it. And then she connected a few more dots - like to the book that she had brought. "New question. Fluttershy, how many previously extinct species do you currently have in your cottage?" She almost immediately modified the question. "And on the grounds around here?"

Shame forced Fluttershy to look away. "Um. Ten-ish?" It was an obvious hedge. "Or so?"

Twilight opened her mouth to press the subject, but was interrupted by a loud bellowing cry. She froze, which is good - if she had moved, she almost certainly would have been run over by the herd of spiny-backed ponysauruses that came jogging around the cottage and through the front yard.

Fluttershy cheerfully waved a wing to them. "Have a good run, Reginald!" She turned her attention back to Twilight. "His name isn't really Reginald, but it's as close as I can get. Their dialect is so archaic!" She giggled.

Twilight did not. In fact, she was downright unamused. "You brought back the dinosaurs."

"Um." Fluttershy's eyes flickered between the alicorn and the herd of dinos. "Kind of? Only the one species for now?"

A headache blossomed behind Twilight's eyes and she rubbed her forehead to try and ward it off for a little while longer. "Give me the scroll, Fluttershy. Please. Before this gets worse."

Panic galloped into the pegasus' eyes again. "I, ah, can't? I was busy trying to get all the new critters settled, and he asked if he could borrow it, so I–"

Fear was Twilight's new expression as she realized who 'he' have to have been. "Oh no."

Trixie

"BEHOLD!" Smoke poured everywhere, filling the room. "The Great and Powerful Trixie blesses you with her presence!"

Silence.

Trixie frowned, scanning the back storage room of Quills & Sofas. "...Trixie will point out that if this is an attempt to arrest her for breaking and entering, anonymous notes count as entrapment and Trixie knows several lawyers."

Around her, the room was dark and silent - unsurprising as it was the middle of the night. But the note had said to come, as well as providing the description of how one of Trixie's favorite magic tricks worked as 'incentive'.

Eyes darting, Trixie tried to spot the one who had lured her here or the trap that was undoubtedly waiting to spring. And after just long enough for her anxiety to spike, one of the sofas shifted.

Instantly Trixie projected a mote of light towards the movement, illuminating a pony in a cloak who had been sitting on a sheet-covered sofa. The pony rose to their hooves but left the cloak on to hide their identity.

"Great and Powerful Trixie," rumbled the obviously disguised voice.

Trixie harumphed. "Trixie knows who she is. And who are you, obviously paranoid pony?"

The cloaked figure shifted. "Call me… The Shadow."

"No, Trixie will not."

"Engima."

"Also no."

"The Mysterious Mare-do–"

"Trixie is leaving." She turned sharply around.

The mysterious figure threw back her hood, revealing herself to also be Trixie. "You are absolutely ruining Trixie's big reveal! Don't you have any respect for show business?"

With a playful smirk, Trixie winked back at herself. "Never let another performer upstage you, even if it's their stage."

The cloaked Trixie pouted and slumped into the sofa. "...Dad didn't have this in mind."

Turning back, Trixie trotted over and sat next to herself. "He probably should have, though. It isn't like this is the first time this has happened."

"It hasn't?"

"It hasn't," confirmed the cloaked one. "I had it happen to me about a week ago when I was you before I time traveled."

Trixie considered that for a moment. "Alright, that makes sense. Starlight does this sort of thing all the time, after all." She glanced over to her cloaked self. "So why the secrecy?"

"So nopony would see me give you this." Trixie pulled a thin envelope out of her cloak and hoofed it over to her past self. "These are the winning lottery numbers for the next week."

Trixie's eyes widened with shock. "You mean that–"

"We are about to be a very rich pony," Trixie confirmed to herself. "Use it wisely, and be sure to share some with Starlight. It's her spell, after all."

Squealing with delight, Trixie hugged herself. "Trixie promises she will."

"Now Trixie must go!" Trixie swept her cloak dramatically. "She shall return to her own time with the amazing magical chant given to her by her awesome friend Starlight Glimmer!"

Holding the scroll high, Trixie repeated the spell's key phrase. “Mecca lecca hi, mecca hiney ho!”

Starlight Glimmer

It somehow did not surprise Starlight to find herself sitting in a chair when she came into her room. There were a number of different reasons this could have happened, but there was one she had always expected would. Disrupting the time stream, nearly shattering the universe, attempting to ruin harmony and destroy Equestria… there would be consequences. It was inevitable.

Twilight had taken mercy on Starlight. She wasn't so sure she would do the same for herself.

So finding an alternate version of herself waiting for her was something Starlight had prepared for. After a momentary startle (which was entirely understandable given the circumstances) she took a deep breath and bowed her head. "I surrender."

"I'm not here to arrest you, dummy, I am you." Starlight paused before clarifying. "I'm not an alternate dimension version here to throw you into prison, I'm you from a week in the future."

Relief flooded through Starlight and she couldn't help but smile.

Then she realized just how much had to have gone wrong for her future self to open up the time travel can of worms again. Grimly setting herself to task, Starlight nodded. "Alright. What happened."

"Pinkie Pie."

The earlier Starlight shuddered. Pinkie Pie had caused something severe enough to need Starlight to change the timeline. This was bad.

"She unlocked time travel."

"Oh no."

Future-Starlight nodded, mouth drawn to a severe line as she rose from the chair and closed the distance between them. "She promptly shared it around all of the girls, who used it for what they decided were important purposes."

"Oh no."

Starlight let out a long sigh. "Then Fluttershy let Discord have it, who gave it to Trixie."

Present-Starlight slumped to the floor. "Oh Celestia. We're all going to die."

"So currently - in my timeline - the dinosaurs are back, Rainbow Dash and Applejack started dating shortly after they were born, there are almost a dozen Rarities running their own production line and possibly sweat shop, and Trixie was arrested for winning every lottery in Equestria simultaneously." Future-Starlight shoved the scroll into her past self's hooves. "Fix it."

Shaking, Starlight looked at her own hornwriting on the spell that had created so much chaos. "I'm not sure we can fix this without creating too many paradoxes. It could rupture the timeline."

"There's already dozens." Starlight's voice quivered with frustration. "You're starting far back enough that you'll be replacing all of them with just one paradox: me giving you the scroll. It's the best we can do." She paused. "And once you're done, I suggest throwing the scroll through the mirror portal. It worked for Starswirl, after all. Let Sunset and her mostly magic-less world deal with it."

Unsteadily, Present-Starlight rose up. Her eyes were fixed on the scroll, still trying to take in everything that had happened. "Right…. right, yes. Gotta fix the world. This is my spell so it's my responsibility. You can do this, Starlight. You have to do this." She unfurled the scroll and began to cast. "And then I have to make sure this never happens again."

As she was sucked into the portal between time, her future self shouted at her. "OR IN THE FIRST PLACE."

Sunset Shimmer

Sunset had been initially confused by the unexpected delivery through the portal - unexpected enough that it had been left in the middle of the school's front walk for two hours and had only gotten to her because the attached note read SUNSET SHIMMER on it in large red letters.

Fortunately, the contents of the note had explained things well enough. Starlight had obviously been under a lot of stress when she wrote it, but she and Sunset were on similar enough wavelengths that the essentials had gotten across.

So sitting at her desk, Sunset looked at the scroll and pondered. Unrestricted time travel had been a myth while Sunset was in Equestria. Holding something that would not only allow it, but could be used almost effortlessly by anyone who wanted to? It was an incredible amount of power.

With something like that, a person was only limited by their imagination. They could change history to gain untold amounts of wealth. Influence. Power. Perhaps even enough to become a Princ–

"Nope." Sunset flicked her lighter, setting a corner of the scroll ablaze. "Absolutely not."

Rainbow Dash

A blinding flash of light interrupted Rainbow Dash's nap. This was not incredibly unusual, as napping on clouds came with the occasional unexpected lightning strike. The whooshing sounds were also relatively normal. Hearing her own voice calling her was, however.

It was unusual enough that she cracked her eye open and confirmed that, in fact, she was hovering next to herself. For a moment, the two stared at each other: one anxious, the other placidly curious. The napping Dash started the conversation. "Changeling?"

The other shook her head. "Time travel. Pinkie Pie gave me a spell-thing." She motioned vaguely at her bags. "That's not important, though!"

Now the first Dash was awake. "How the hay is time travel not important!"

A pause. "Okay, it's important but not the most important!" The hovering Dash landed on the cloud beside her counterpart. "We have, like, a day to plan."

"Plan what?"

The first Dash sighed with frustration. "Right, right. Okay, I'll start from the beginning: tomorrow, you've got a meet-up with Applejack."

A nod from the other Dash. "Yeah, and?"

"And," the first continued, "She's been making a big deal out of it because she's planning to ask you out."

It was like a lightning bolt struck Rainbow Dash - she was up on her hooves instantly, wings flapping excitedly. "Oh my gosh oh my gosh! She is? That's awesome!"

"No!" The other Dash grabbed her counterpart by the shoulders. Then paused with hesitation. "Well, okay, it's super awesome and we're both really happy but that isn't the point! The point is that I've gone backwards through time to help you plan this out so you can ask her out! Then you'll be first!"

Cogs turned in Rainbow Dash's head. (The grinding noise was unmistakable.) Then, abruptly - it clicked! "Oh! Right!" A sly smile crept across her face. "Then we're both still happy and I get to beat her to it!"

"Exactly!" The other Rainbow Dash grinned right back. "Now come on. We've got, like, eighteen hours to plan a date that's gonna knock her hat off."

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes dismissively. "Pft. Plenty of time."

And the other nodded. "Oh yeah, totally. But then we can use the spare time to do a few races. After all, the only way to be sure we've got the best competition–"

"--Is to race against myself," completed the other. "Let's do this!"

Rarity

"You know," Rarity mused as she put another section of fabric through her sewing machine, "It's honestly for the best I found that scroll. I understand Sweetie Belle's intentions, and I must admit that the idea is intriguing…"

Rarity nodded to Rarity as she pinned pieces in place on the ponnequin. "Going back in time to before you got your cutie mark to see if you could change what you got?"

Rarity nodded. "Indeed. It's a fascinating idea, though more of a Twilight question."

A nod in return. "It is," commented Rarity as she stuck her head out from the closet. "And it is also most certainly not something young fillies should be experimenting with."

All three Rarities nodded in agreement.

A fourth Rarity trotted in, carrying a tray of fresh tea and biscuits. "Then it's fortunate that I took the scroll away from her and her friends. Disappointed as they were, it could only have ended poorly."

All four Rarities murmured their agreement as they got their tea.

They drank as one - then as one let out a pleased sigh.

"Perfectly made, Rarity."

"Why thank you, Rarity."

"My pleasure, Rarity."

And then they broke into amused giggles.

After they finished the short breather and started back on their work, there was a pause. Then one of them - the Rarity working on picking out the appropriate accent gems - spoke up. "Speaking of Twilight. Do you think we should have perhaps told her about the scroll?"

"Instead of using it for ourselves?" The one sewing paused to consider it. Then she shook her head. "No, I'm certain Twilight would agree that this is a responsible use of it."

The Rarity at the ponnequin nodded. "Completing these orders ahead of time is important. Hardly a frivolous use of such a powerful tool."

"Indeed," noted the fourth as she cleaned up the tea. "After all–"

"Many hooves make for light work," all four declared. And then laughed an identical laugh.

Discord

Reality bent and twisted, and not in the usual way it did around Discord. Still, it was expected - and in fact desired. He eagerly squirmed in his seat, waiting for the process to finish.

And it quickly did, opening a hole in the universe that a second Discord emerged from. The second looked around for a moment before locking eyes onto himself. They looked for a long moment, each studying the other.

"You know," said one eventually, "Considering how often several of me are in the same place at the same time, this still feels oddly strange."

"It does," agreed the other. "But you'll get used to it by the time that you're me saying this to you."

Both grinned widely. "How wonderfully confusing!" They then latched arms and span around each other, ensuring that no one who was watching (who was nopony) could tell which had been which.

Then one of the Discords handed the other a box. A plain white cardboard box, with no obvious identifying features or unusual aspects to it.

The other Discord shivered the moment he touched it. "Ooooh, that's good."

"Pure paradox," said the other with a smile. "Later on, you're going to get the scroll and bring it back in time to yourself. There's no origin point where you get the box, so it exists only within the time loop."

Opening it up, Discord pulled a cupcake (chocolate with green icing and a yellow wrapper) out. "And this?"

His other self clapped gleefully. "Even more of a paradox! Not only is the box only inside the loop, the cupcake simply appears at the start of each loop despite being eaten! It's quantumly impossible!"

Discord pursed his lips in thought. "I'm fairly certain that isn't how you use the word quantum."

"Do either of us care?"

"Not even slightly!" Both Discords stuck out their tongues in the direction of Twilight's castle. (And, semi-coincidentally, the fourth wall.)

Laughing like unhinged maniacs (which is to say, perfectly normally for him) the two twirled around each other again to mix up which was which.

"Now," stated one after they came out of their spin. "You enjoy the cupcake. I have to go deliver the scroll to a certain somepony."

"Fluttershy?"

Discord shook his head. "No, she was kind enough to let us have it in the first place. There's another pony I have in mind - someone who can show the world real chaos."

He laughed maniacally before reality twisted and writhed, sucking Discord back through time. The other simply leaned back in the air and savored his cupcake.

"Oooh, cherry-lime!"