"... and that's how I nearly accidentally destroyed Equestria! Again!" Pinkie concluded as they finally reached their glass in the Hub. When Discord realized Pinkie was done talking, he removed the plugs from his large donkey-like ears and pretended to be enamored by her long-winded monologue. They placed their hooves, claw and paw against the glass and were immediately welcomed by the colossal panel. They set hoof on Ponyville soil, taking in the surroundings of the town. Literally nothing had changed since they had left. Everypony was in a complete standstill, and it was incredibly eerie with absolutely no sound or smell anywhere. Ponies frozen in time and space, unblinking and unmoving. Discord had a shudder that rattled every bone in his body, as seeing this strange sight reminded him of his imprisonment.
The draconequus turned to the pink pony, his eye brow raising. "I just remembered something Pinkie, something I had meant to ask you for a while now but had forgotten entirely in the mix of all this adventuring."
Pinkie's curly headed mane tilted to the right in confusion, her eyes widening. "What's that, Discord?"
"How is it that you're able to freeze this world and leave it like this without having access to any magic?" He had meant to put his question in a bit more of an eloquent way, but he knew the simple pony wouldn't be able to understand the intricacies of -
"As you've probably noticed, we're all constantly engaged in the act of time travel. At its most basic level, time is the rate of change in the universes - and like it or not, we are constantly undergoing change. We age, Celestias sun moves around our planet, and things fall apart or die. We measure the passage of time in seconds, minutes, hours and years, but this doesn't mean time flows at a constant rate. Just as the water in a river rushes or slows depending on the size of the channel, time flows at different rates in different places. In other words, time is relative. But what causes this fluctuation along our one-way trek from the cradle to the grave? It all comes down to the relationship between time and space. Ponies frolic about in the three spatial dimensions of length, width and depth. Time joins the party as that most crucial fourth dimension. Time can't exist without space, and space can't exist without time. The two exist as one: the space-time continuum. Any event that occurs in the universe has to involve both space and time."
She stopped to inhale, then continued.
"Because of how incredibly balanced the space-time continuum is, most normal Earth Ponies and Pegasi aren't able to control both space and time as equally as they'd like. Some ponies can temporarily stop or slow time just by their natural urge to either stop something from happening in space, or if their adrenal glands cause their minds to overflow with temporal energies and literally stop time for just a few seconds so they can think about something while still being able to move around a bit before things return to normal. They always have a massive headache afterwards, but that's simply the result of that previous temporal anomaly catching up to the spacial adjustment. Some ponies are able to access space by simply interacting with objects when spacial ley lines interlay them. For example, if somepony wants to make a point to somepony else, something may conveniently pop up from the Hub (which is outside both time and space, mind you) like a blackboard or something. After some time, the object then randomly returns from whence it came once the ley line passes through our space. It wasn't meant to truly exist within that spacial node, but it did for a short time before moving on to another dimension."
Inhale.
"Because of how incredibly hyperactive and overly caffeinated I am, I'm able to go way ahead of time and space and can control them before they both know they're being controlled in the first place! It takes the space-time continuum some, well, time before it notices it's already been twisted up a bit by me, but I always make sure to reset it to the way it was before it can undo itself and cause harm. Once I undo the knot of the timeline, everything should proceed as normal as if we were never gone. The only problem would be that everything in time and space would move super-duper quick to catch up with itself. Ponies wouldn't notice we were gone, but things would still be updated and changed based just simply on the fact that space and time have to readjust themselves to make sure that everything that was supposed to happen happens at the exact time and place it was meant to occur."
BOOM! I just explained how Pinkie Pie works! Take that, fandom!
"What was that, Mr. Narrator?", the strange pink pony asked.
Nothing, just gloating a bit.
Pinkie smiled, then noticed Discord standing there with a totally shocked expression on his muzzle.
"Too much to handle?" Pinkie giggled, then started to slowly say "I take time and space and tie them up like a pretty ribbon. When I'm done doing things outside of time and space, I undo the knot and things go very quickly to make themselves they way they're supposed to be."
Discord angrily waved a claw. "I know what it means, you silly mare!" He looked away, somewhat dismissively. "I just didn't expect you to be so... lengthy." Pinkie smiled, then pulled out a strange shape from her mane. They were two ropes tied in a knot; one rope a bright pink, the other a royal blue. They both glowed radiantly, like gems caught in just the proper amount of light and cut in just the perfect way.
Pinkie laid out the bow in front of her, setting it flat on the ground. The knot started to meld with the ground before Pinkie began undoing the knot. Once it was undone, the two ropes finally melded with the ground. The earth around them started to shake, and the sky flickered repeatedly as it changed from night to day, sunrise to moonset. Ponies zipped by as streaks of color, going so fast that they were even physically passing through Discords tall frame as if he didn't exist.
Pinkie winked at Discord as she lept up into the sky with all her might. "You may want to jump!"
"What do you mean I'll want to-"
Suddenly, everything came to an immediate halt and proceeded moving about their normal speeds. Ponies walked or flew around, as if nothing had changed within the past few seconds. The sun was just about to set, revealing small fire flies in the distance that had looked like streaks of pure light before. Pinkie Pie landed on the ground just before the grass stopped moving in the hyper-sped wind. Discord, however, was hopping about in a foalish fashion as the fur on his cloven hoof was set ablaze by the friction of the grass. He summoned a bucket full of water from nowhere, placing his singed hoof inside and sighing happily.
He stopped when he realized something at that moment. He had just brought forth something that wasn't there before, and now it existed in this realm. Did that mean that it had come from another universe? Was it being used for something important before he had snatched it away from it's previous owner? This question raised more questions, and those doubled and tripled and quadrupled in his mind. He sat as he thought and thought, while Pinkie gave him a concerned look.
"What's the matter now, Discord? Still confused by all of this?"
He shook his head. "Not what you explained, no. Well, not exactly." He pointed at the bucket. "This bucket. I summoned it here. There was no... I don't know, bucket-space there before. Now there is, taking up the space of air that existed before it."
Pinkie nodded.
"So, that means that I can also access some small fraction of the space-time continuum."
She shrugged. "Well, yeah. I figured you'd know that by now! You've been alive since... well forever!" She leaned in, curious. "Have you really never thought about all of this before?"
"No, honestly." He held the bucket up with his paw. "I just think of something, it appears, end of story. I never actually cared about where it came from; just as long as I had it, it didn't matter." He stared at the metal tub, pondering hard. "So this bucket. It has ley lines that move it from one space to another?"
"Nope." She said, shaking her curly mane. "See, that's what makes you so unique. You're an exception to the concept of space! You can take whatever, where-ever. Probably even from whenever, too!"
"Okay, that I already sort of know. What I'm still sort of confused on is..."
***
Pinkie and Discord continued their conversation as they walked away from Sugar Cube Corner, not noticing the pair of eyes that was staring beyond The Wall into their world. The two white orbs closed their bottom lids slightly, as if smiling. Oh goody! They're trying to debate how space-time works! the onlooker thought in their strange, twisted mind. I wonder how long it'll be before they get so caught up in their thoughts their HEADS explode!
That's ridisulous. You know heads don't explode from overthinking. If they did, yours would've popped years ago.
Hey! Don't get smarmy with me now, jerk-face!
But you have MY face, so therefore you yourself are a jerk-face.
Not if I rip it off and slap onto your face! HA!
That... makes no sense.
OOH! That sounds fun! Like ripping off a scab from yesterday's skateboarding incident!
Umm... excuse me? Can I continue my story, here?
"Yeah, sure. Don't mind us. I mean me, I mean.... meh." The rather strange, crimson clad colt said.
Is he not going to say our name? I'm pretty sure the fanbase isn't smart enough to know who we are.
No offense, kids! Wait, no, I take that back. ALL OF THE OFFENSE! ALL OF IT!
The bizarre Unicorn turned towards... me? How... whatever. He turned towards me and said, "Ḑ̶̧̜͎̼̬̼̜̼ͯ̍̏̽̀ͣ̇ͬ́ͅe̴̴̢̥͙̝͎̹̯͈̠̰̗͍̘̬͍͕̠ͯͩ͐ͣ̇ͤ̽ͭ̇̒̊̋̂ͯ͟͢a̵̟̹̜͇̺̪ͦͯ̿͆͑̂̾̀̊̏̚͝ḋ̡̟͉̥̖͎̟̭͕̼͙́̍̋ͨ̈̾̉ͥ͂ͨ̍̀̽ͩ̽̋͞͝p̺̲̪̜͍̩̮̼̬̦̮̰̹̞͊̇̀̅ͪͧ̐̽̽͑ͮͦ͂̍ͣ͜͞ͅơͦ̇͊͞͏̡̼͖̩̠̣̠͈̜̙͚̯o̡̥͓͚̘̤̝̳̮̟̝̗̜̗͖͗̑ͨ̏ͤ̾͗ͣͧ͐́ͯ́̀̋̎̑͒̚͠ͅͅļ̸̷͕͇͕̹̲̹͙̪̩̖͙̂̈̎̃̿̑̀ͩ͂̋̆͆̑̽̚͜. Wait a minute, WHAT?! You used a text scrambler on me?!" He fell to his knees, giving me a look of heartbreak. "I thought we were pals! I thought what we had was
SPECIAL
Sorry, I gotta keep it a surprise. Though, people can probably see your name through the Zalgo scrambler anyway.
D͍͇̥̟̣̰̺̠̻̫̭̟̜̝ͭͪ͒̓̏͜͜e̸̪͎̖̬̲̘̘̟͖̹͆̋ͥ̎̔̃͡͠a̧̎̂̈́̄̀̓͗͞͝҉̲̞͉͇̤̟̳̦̯̤d̨̻̭̞̻̳̼̬͖̦̗̱̼̏̏̿ͯͬͭ̍́̿́̕ͅpͣͭͫ͒̑̿ͥ̒҉̷͇͖̖̭̭̭̼͇͜o̧̮̳̺̠͈̩̟ͣ͊ͦ̂̅̀o̵̡̤̜̗̖̝͉͚͇̻̯̩̽ͮ̀̓͛ͮͬ̂̊͛͆ͥͬ̒́̚͘͘l̵̮͔̼͔̩̳͚̟̪̺ͮ͒̅ͫ̃̋ͥ͘ pumped a hoof in victory. "Yes! People will really like..." He stopped and looked down at his hooves. "Why the **** do I have hooves?"
Oh dear...