Twilight Sparkle had finally figured it out. It was so obvious, she couldn’t believe she hadn’t seen it before. Time travel was so SIMPLE.
She thought about the gnarled mass she had made out of the timeline... Okay, so simple was the wrong word. But still, Twilight couldn’t help but feel like a foal for not realizing the obvious truth so much earlier. The Sonic Rainboom generated almost exactly half of the energy needed. Why had she never thought to use two? Twilight Sparkle would cast the spell on Rainbow Dash, and Twilight Sparkle would cast the spell on Rainbow Dash. Then Rainbow Dash would perform a Sonic Rainboom, and Rainbow Dash would perform a Sonic Rainboom. The spells would gather the energy from both sides, and what was essentially a portal through time would open.
The Dashes would trade places. The numbers worked. Everything made sense. It explained why a pony wouldn’t necessarily appear in the same place they had left from. They would appear wherever the other side was. But something tugged at the back of the purple mare’s mind. She was overlooking something. There was no way it was really that simple. There had to be a catch of some sort. If the only tricky part was gathering the energy, then all it would take would be a large group of gifted unicorns. Time travel would have been mastered long ago, and anypony could pop into or out of any era they pleased.
That thought only stopped Twilight for a few moments, before the feeling returned. No, there was something else wrong. A much deeper flaw was hiding in her theory… but what?
---------------------------------------------------
The little orange pegasus had an unusual smile on her face. This was not the wide, beaming smile of a child basking in the attention of her idol. “Hi Rainbow Dash! Do you have time for a race?”
Rainbow Dash looked around the streets of Ponyville, searching for herself. She was pretty sure she was nowhere near here right now, and she had nowhere else to be at the moment. “Sure, Scoots.”
“Awesome! OnyourmarkgetsetGO!”
Dash had to admit, the speed the orange blur disappeared with was pretty impressive. But she was the fastest flier in Equestria, and she wasn’t about to let somepony else win a race.
She stopped cold when she saw Scootaloo standing off in the distance, letting off an exaggerated yawn. Slowly, she turned around and looked behind her. There was nopony there. Turning forward again, she sucked in a deep breath and closed the remaining distance in a fraction of a second.
Scootaloo snickered. “What took you so long?”
“How did you… I… but you’re just… you were right behind…” Dash turned around again to point a hoof. She stopped. Something caught her eye. Something orange. Again blasting off at an incredible speed, Rainbow Dash was staring down at Scootaloo before the little filly had a chance to move an inch. She had been trying to hide in an alleyway, but couldn’t resist peeking her head out to get a look at the action.
“What in the hay… but you’re over there!” Dash turned back to other orange pegasus. “How are you…” The gears in the cyan pegasus head started turning again.
“Did you see me do any Sonic Rainbooms today?”
“YEAH! It was amazing!”
An orange blur shot across the streets “WHAT? NO FAIR! HOW COME YOU GOT TO SEE IT AND I DIDN’T?” Scootaloo was breathing heavily in her own face.
Rainbow Dash turned toward the outraged filly and put on a very serious expression. “Scootaloo, you need to go home. Right now. You need to stay away from me for a while.”
The filly’s eyes started quivering. “I’m sorry… did… did I do something wrong?”
“No Scoots, it’s okay. But I need you to promise me you won’t follow me for a few days. I’ll come get you and show you a Sonic Rainboom after this is all over. Right now I need to go and find Twilight.”
“Isn’t she at the library, like always?”
“… It’s complicated.” Dash turned to face the other orange pegasus. “Come on, Scoots. Twilight is going to fix everything and send you home… I hope.”
“WHAT? I thought you said I needed to stay away from you! How come SHE gets to go find Twilight with you? THAT’S NOT FAIR!”
Scootaloo blew a raspberry at herself. “Come on Rainbow Dash! Let’s go find Twilight!”
“NO! That isn’t fair! Why does she get to see a Sonic Rainboom AND go do more stuff with you while I have to sit at home and not see you at all? I thought you were finally starting to think I was cool! We were hanging out and doing cool stuff and we were both having fun! What did I do wrong? Am I not cool enough?”
Rainbow Dash turned away from the angry filly and sighed. “I’m no good at explaining this crud. Just trust me, everything’s gonna be fine and you’ll get to do all the things you’re doing right now.”
“Huh?”
“Um… okay, how about this. Scootaloo, do you remember being over there getting mad that you wouldn’t get to hang out with me?”
“Yeah! It sucked.”
“But now you’re coming with me to find Twilight. Before, I told you that you couldn’t, but now you can! Isn’t that awesome?”
“Yeah!”
“So now Scootaloo, listen to yourself here. You remember that you were here getting mad, but then later you came back and now you get to go with me So right now you're here getting mad, but later you get to come with me!”
Both Scootaloos tilted their heads to the side and made confused faces.
Dash sighed again. “Okay, how about HEYLOOKOVERTHERE!”
Scootaloo turned her head back. “There’s nothing there!”
And there was nothing in front of her anymore either.
---------------------------------------------------
Of course! The problem was one of targeting! How would any two Rainbow Dashes be able to trade places with each other when there were so many others? There was no way to pick which two would be linked by the spell. Any time she sent Dash back, she could end up trading places with of any number of other Dashes. There wasn’t even any way to ensure the Dash she was working on was the one going backward and not forward!
She would have to add some kind of seeking to the spell, so that the right connection would be made. That wouldn’t be too hard, but now it was a question of finding something unique to seek. Just seeking Dash or some residue from Twilight’s magic wouldn’t work, because ALL of them were Dash and ALL of them would have the same magic residue on them from the spell. Maybe if she just designed a pile of throwaway spells with different magical signatures and used a different one on each Dash… That could work, but then how would she know which one to seek? Any Dash that needed to go forward would need to have her spell tweaked to seek the right signature from the future, but the magical signature was in the FUTURE and there was no way Twilight could know what it was before she placed it herself.
Even if THAT problem were resolved, that would just add one more variable to track in her notes. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, it was getting to be too much for her to handle. She would need a simple solution that didn’t require any extra information…
Lost in the invigorating buzz of solving a new puzzle, Twilight Sparkle lost track of the light tugging in the back of her head. It had weakened, but not disappeared. Somewhere deep in her subconscious, Twilight continued to pull on a loose thread that was begging to come unraveled.
Good god my brain.
How you managed to keep track of all this in order to write boggles the mind.
ow, my brain
SO many Ponies!
I don't understand all the loops and which Dash is going back half the time but I like it still, it's somehow making a strange amount of sense
Ooh my BRAIN.
I wish there were more like this. I think it'd be good for my brain to stretch it every once in a while. It would SUCK to be out of shape brain-wise.
The Autor is evil and keeps the notes to him/herself and will propably only post them at the end. I love how confusing Time Travel can be.
Wow, suddenly, "Primer" is a lot less confusing... But that was awesome! I can't wait to read the rest.
good lord above this is brilliant! you were not fuckin with us when you said convoluted story was ahead! how did you keep track of all this in your head? I can barely keep track of it! Oh man, I just can NOT wait for the next chapter. and the bit where three of each of them were all standing around the chalk board? AJ snuck off with AJ into a corner? all the twi's freak... oh heavens I just can't stop smiling!
I applaud your obvious skill, because this is a truly impressive story to even attempt, let alone actually be pulling off to such an amazing extent. seriously. I wish i had a medal for you.
keep up the great work, as I eagerly await more
My brain... what have you done to my brain...
This is far more intriguing than a convoluted mess of a timeline reasonable ought to be... of course there is always that simple solution in the background. Twilight... have you thought about simply not f*ing inventing time travel? Hunh?! (course... where would the fun in that be...)
Wait if Rainbow Dash is over there and that's Rainbow Dash over there who am I? Who's making this post?
I am on Chapter 10. I have no idea what is going on or where this is going. I am a damned man if I can concoct an explanation for why Scoots is now time-traveling too. That scene with the three Twi's is giving me a headache. How could all the Rainbow Dashes have timelines that flow continuously? I am afraid that there is no explanation, but I bet the author's notes explain it pretty well if they actually exist.
This comment is coming from somepony who understands the plot of Inception, and can explain it to other people.
Scratch that.
This comment is coming from somepony who understands the plot of Donny Darko and is able to explain it to other people.
No, scratch that too.
This comment is coming from somepony who understands the plot of Neon Genesis Evangelion, and is able to explain it to other people. Not only that, but synchronize it with all the movies and the mangas that I have read of it.
Dear god, what have you done?! I am so confused?!?
I'll admit, I think I know what that thing in the back of Twilight's mind is. She is approaching the revelation that if she doesn't invent time travel, she won't, and then everything will return to normal. Unless, it doesn't. In which case, I'm scared.
Can't wait for Chapter 11!
Good gravy.... my brain just craped itself
This is like the time travel of TimeSplitters: Future Perfect, but taken to stratosphere levels of complexity
Well, no. Exosphere level
Nah. Further than that. To the heliopause
Deneb's heliopause
5945
It's too late: Not inventing time travel would mean she never gets the information that leads her to not invent time travel.
That's the problem with non-causal events and objects. Once they show up you are committed to performing the actions required for them.
You sir, must be either a genius or a Time Lord (being a Time Lord pretty much makes you a genius anyway, I suppose).
okay.... so.....
This shit would have Doctor Who scratching his head
i23.lulzimg.com/i/0575ad.jpg
6036 Wow someone else who loved Time Splitters :D MAN
But, if i understand correctly... in this story, the point is to stop the loops of time travel (no?)
To me, this seems impossible? Maybe it really is, but the story / author just "makes physics or logic up" and makes it seem logical, while it really isn't? Cuz in my head, as long as one time loop has started, there can never be an end to it? The only way to end it would be if the loops stopped, but that too would be impossible, since then there would never be any loop in the first place (and no one from any loop could stop the loop, since the loop didn't exist), and thereby the world would not exist (which is sorta what they're afraid of here, but they also wanna stop the loops?) Ah well, i'll have to see where the story takes me. But, i can't see any logic ending to this, other than anything involving that they can't stop it.
While in Time Splitters, the point is to keep up the loops. Every single Cortez has to do everything he ever sees any other Cortez do (whenever we play him in the early stages of the story and see future-Cortez do something, we eventually end up doing that ourselves). And then every of those Cortez' in the end stop the loops (but he really doesn't, but that version of Cortez feels like he does) and lives a happy life ever after, never seeing any other Cortez again (ofc, every single Cortez does this, forever infinite, and that's why the forever loops).
And i'm pretty sure i got all that. And to me, that seems logical. But this stuff here is just total. mind. fuck. :D And sorry if i screw'd up with the parentheses, used quite a few haha.
6036 Wow someone else who loved Time Splitters :D MAN
But, if i understand correctly... in this story, the point is to stop the loops of time travel (no?)
To me, this seems impossible? Maybe it really is, but the story / author just "makes physics or logic up" and makes it seem logical, while it really isn't? Cuz in my head, as long as one time loop has started, there can never be an end to it? That's why it's called a "loop" (never stops)? The only way to end it would be if the loops stopped (because someone in one loop made it stop), but that too would be impossible, since then there would never be any loop in the first place (and no one from any loop could stop the loop, since the loop didn't exist), and thereby the world would not exist (which is sorta what they're afraid of here, but they also wanna stop the loops?) Ah well, i'll have to see where the story takes me. But, i can't see any logic ending to this, other than anything involving that they can't stop it.
While in Time Splitters, the point is to keep up the loops. Every single Cortez has to do everything he ever sees any other Cortez do (whenever we play him in the early stages of the story and see future-Cortez do something, we eventually end up doing that ourselves). And then every of those Cortez' in the end stop the loops (but he really doesn't, but that version of Cortez feels like he does) and lives a happy life ever after, never seeing any other Cortez again (ofc, every single Cortez does this, forever infinite, and that's why the forever loops).
And i'm pretty sure i got all that. And to me, that seems logical. But this stuff here is just total. mind. fuck. :D And sorry if i screw'd up with the parentheses, used quite a few haha.
Oh my gosh im horribly sorry, PLEASE disregard that first comment, cant find how to delete D:
my brain... it hurts.... what does your cutie mark look like???? Seriously!
12723 I'm with this dude.
Somehow, I understand this. Vaguely, yet clearly. Anypony else?
Twilight Sparkle seems to 8e missing something really o8vious: how would R8n8ow Dash get 8ack, to do a Sonic R8n8oom, to swap with R8n8ow Dash, let alone R8n8ow Dash, R8n8ow Dash, R8n8ow Dash, R8n8ow Dash, R8n8ow Dash, R8n8ow Dash, R8n8ow Dash...?
~Vriska Serket
All I have to say is this: wibbly wobbly timey wimey.