//------------------------------// // 24 - The Spike Method // Story: Soft Reset - A Novice Chronomancer's Guide to Tempomancy // by Foxvolt //------------------------------// THE SPIKE METHOD Dear Princess Celestia, Cyr's Seeing. Recursion, modified. Custom Spell. Major runes: Verita - Oso/Mité (Major)/Epsi(Thermal) - Vici’ t=300 p<=0.02, accounting for a redundant Epsi rune. “Okay, now.” I nod, balancing the delicate spell on the tip of my horn. We’re on the clock now, in exactly five minutes we’ll see if my weeks of theorizing were worth anything, or if it’s going to be back to the drawing board. Rarity nods back with more than a little uncertainty, but begins weaving a subtle everfrost spell into existence, channeling a steady stream of ice and snow particles from the air around her directly into the small singularity suspended in the air between us. If my theory is correct- Or more accurately, Spike’s theory- then with the help of two flow runes it should be as simple as not overloading the matrix to power the spell. We’re standing about half a mile out of town in a clear glade, just northwest of Fluttershy’s cottage. She decided to accompany us on my research expedition quoting a keen interest in the temporal ramifications of Chronomancy. I’d rather as few ponies be in the blast radius as possible just in case the spell backfires, but having her a hundred feet out to help in case it does also wasn’t the worst idea, and she argued as much until I relented. I needed another unicorn to cast Everfrost for this, sending forward the cool air in a level and steady stream to offset the heat generated as a byproduct of the other aspects of the spell. I’m the target of the spell itself, and below me are three interweaving magic circles etched into the ground which form a perfect tri-point venn diagram with my small pocket of space at the center of all three. There’s just enough room to fit my entire body, though next time I’ll probably just use the extra enchanted chalk dust for comfort’s sake. “So… How are things on your end, Twilight?” Rarity asks awkwardly while I stare intently down at the arcane symbols carved into the grass and dirt beneath our hooves. I’ve quadruple checked every aspect of the spell, staring as the mana pulses through the live matrix is just my natural paranoia at work, stressing myself out as if taking my eyes off it would cause it to explode in our face, just waiting for the eventual problem to ruin everything. “Twilight, darling, are you alright?” She asks again, and I blink myself out of my hyper-focused flow state as I realize I forgot to respond. “Uh… Yeah, yep, all great! Eeeeverything’s…” I give her a quick smile of assurance, but every second I look away is a second the universe could pull a fast one on me. I mumble something resembling words to finish the verbal exchange, and then continue to trace the runes with my eyes, making sure not an iota of mana coalesces in the wrong place. I see her shift awkwardly from her left side to her right and back out of the corner of my eye, muttering a quiet “Alright, then. Quiet concentration it is.” It’s been about five minutes by now, hasn’t it? I didn’t think to bring a timer. Why would I not bring a timer? Of all the boneheaded things to space on, this spell requires precise timing if I’m going to get the most out of observing it. “So… How are things on your end, Twilight?” Rarity asks awkwardly while I stare intently down at the arcane symbols carved into the grass and dirt beneath our hooves. I’ve quadruple checked every aspect of the spell, staring as the mana pulses through the live matrix is just my natural paranoia- Wow. Dèjá vu. “Twilight, darling, are you alright?” She asks again, and I blink myself out of my hyper-focused flow state as I realize I forgot to respond. “Uh, yeah. Yeah, I think so?” I say, giving her a quick smile of reassurance that only comes across as nervous. My heart thumps in my chest as the feeling returns, and I’m starting to get the feeling it’s been much longer than five minutes by this point. It can’t have been though, rarity is still feeding the spell with cold air which hasn’t been consumed in exchange for the spell’s function yet. “Well, as long as you’re sure.” She responds, and I can feel her eyes piercing into me as I lose myself in thought again, going back to watching the runes. It’s definitely been more than five minutes. I’m starting to get nervous about continuing this test, I feel like time dilation could be a very unintended consequence of my experiment here. What if every second I spend channeling here, the slower time will pass for me in relation to myself? Would I age normally, or would my body decay at a much more rapid rate as it’s experiencing its’ growth and decay detached from the normal passage of time, temporally disentangled from the timeline? “So… How are things on your end, Twilight?” Rarity asks awkwardly while I stare intently down at the arcane symbols carved into the grass and okay what the bu- “Twilight, darling, are you al-“ “STOP!” I yell out, rearing onto my hind hooves and gathering a blast of unshaped magic to my horn, letting it loose in a wide area around me to quickly disperse the sigils and runic circles containing the spell. Rarity hops backwards as I yell, immediately cutting off the flow of frost to the anomaly. The magical energy dissipates, leaving behind a small pile of stones and soil where the glyphs were etched. She looks over at me, confused. “Why ever would we stop? We were nearly finished!” She whines, but then sees how upset I am and cuts her complaint short. I look up from the drained matrix and just stare at her for a few seconds, lost in contemplative thought. “Twilight?” “How long do you thi- I mean… How long were we casting this spell for?” I ask, turning around and facing away from her so she can’t see my face. “Wh- Well, I couldn’t say for sure, though I had figured we were nearly finished when you yelled out like that.” She responds nervously, almost cautiously. “Why do you ask? Did something go wrong?” “No, I-“ I stutter for a second, considering if that’s a lie or not. ‘Why am I considering hiding this? They know about everything already! I chide myself, followed quickly by ’Stupid secrecy tendencies. “Maybe. But first, did you repeat yourself? At any point while we were casting this.” I turn back around, trying my best to keep a neutral expression so she doesn’t feel pressured into a specific answer. I must be failing, because instead of answering she stares at me with concern. “I- well, I don’t quite remember, uh… Perhaps I might have-?” “Uhm, don’t think she did, Twilight.” Fluttershy’s voice rings out from beside me. I jump a solid foot in the air and my tail whips itself as I whirl to face her. The sudden movement startles her and she, too, jumps with a surprised ‘Eep!’ “Sorry, Twilight, I didn't mean to startle you...” She apologizes, backpedaling towards where she was standing earlier. “No- no, you’re fine, I just didn’t hear you come up is all. Anyways, what were you saying?” With my heart rate settling back into something resembling normal, I tilt my head and wait for her to repeat herself. “I was, uhm… Just saying how Rarity just asked you how it was going, and then if you were alright when you didn’t say anything. She did ask them separately though, so maybe you could say she repeated herself by asking how something was doing, but technically one was you and one was the spell, so I wouldn’t really say that’s repeating yourself personally. Not really, anyway.” I keep looking at her as she recounts what she remembers, but she tilts her head in response. “Sorry, was I rambling? I’ll stop.” “No, not at all! As a matter of fact…” I feel a big grin coming on, and I can’t think of a single reason to hold it back. “I think we might have a breakthrough!” I rush forward with a laugh, embracing her in the biggest hug I can manage. I don't have a proper theory on how it works, or proof that it even did anything yet, but I don’t care! I experienced temporal recursion, perceived or not there’s no way it was coincidental! “Pardon, but… A breakthrough in what? We were meant to channel that spell for five minutes, were we not? What did we achieve, precisely- Oh, alright then-!” Rarity canters up beside us with a curious and confused tilt of her head. So I pull her in too, to make it one big, science-y, progress-driven group hug! “I experienced a localized temporal phenomenon!” I announce to the both of them, much more loudly than I meant to, and right into their ears. They yelp slightly and jump away, startled by the sudden loudness. “That’s great, Twilight!“ Fluttershy beams back at me, catching my infectious smile for a second, but it’s quickly overridden by some deep thought, then by confusion, and thought again before she follows up with “…I think?” “What do you mean? It worked! Oh, I can’t believe for the first time something just worked! No explosions, no unexpected circumstances, no Discord chaos magic, just magic and science operating exactly as intended!” I continue beaming unbridled joy into the open air, rocking from side to side and ignoring the uncomfortable pressure my cheeks are under from my massive, unnaturally wide smile. As soon as I vocalize it the skeptic in my rears its’ ugly head to take the edge off my celebration, reminding my that any of those things could still absolutely happen. I pull myself fully away from the girls and look down at the ruined spell matrix, disheveled glyphs and dirt mixing together beneath my hooves. “Maaaaybe we should clean this up before the universe proves me wrong,” I consider out loud. The other two give each other a confused look, but then shrug and nod their agreement back to me. “So, in laypony’s terms, I experienced dèjá vu.“ I explain as we all begin to carve the magical essence and dust out of the ground, churning the earth up and over itself to scatter the spell’s remnants into unrecognizability. “Oh, I simply hate that feeling. Gives me the heebie jeebies.” Rarity comments with a small shiver. “What does that mean though? Couldn’t that just be a coincidence?” Fluttershy asks. It’s a genuine question, and she’s absolutely right. “Good assertion! Correct, without a repeat with a control group or some other tangible methodology for proving my hypothesis, we have to operate under the assumption it could have just been a one-off coincidence. However,” I continue, standing up fully and beginning to pace in a wide circle around the both of them while I elaborate, “I experienced it not once, but twice. While it’s still possible my head’s not quite on right, I haven’t experienced any similar phenomenon since Princess Luna put me back together again, so I’m fairly confident this could be the real deal.” Flutterhsy looks at her hoof awkwardly, and even Rarity seems unsure how to respond. “That’s a good thing.” I deadpan. “Oh, that’s good.” Fluttershy sighs, and rarity chuckles quietly beside her. “Ah. Well, you could have just said that to begin with darling!” I shake my head, a fond grin spreading across my muzzle. It’s been a while since I had company in my experiments, having somepony to share my enthusiasm for my discoveries with really does make a world of difference. It’s times like this I have to stop to appreciate how great my friends really are. “Let’s get this dismantled for now, then I have an idea for the perfect pony to use as our control group.” - - - - “…Pinkie Pie.” Rainbow deadpans, looking at Fluttershy and Rarity at my side who just shrug, looking back to me. “Yes, Pinkie Pie.” I respond. Rainbow gives me a weird look, as if she’s not quite sure I’m in my right mind. “Yeeeah, I don’t get it.” “Listen, Pinkie is practically incapable of mundane thought, right?” I begin. She tilts her head a bit. Right, no ‘egghead words.’ “She has an active imagination.” I reword the idea, and that seems to track with her. Before she can interrupt me though, I continue. “Sooo, that means she’ll constantly be thinking, saying, or doing unique things the whole time. If we can observe her utilizing information from a localized temporal anomaly- Uh, how do I say that without… Well, anyways, the experiment is that if she can tell me what I’m going to tell her before I tell her, it’s proof that we have something solid!” Rainbow still seems lost, but eventually she just shakes her head, probably resolving to not bother trying to understand. “Yeah, that’s, uh… That’s great, Twilight! Real happy your, uh… your snowglobe locals aren’t flummoxing in the thingamawhatsit or whatever.” “Did you just call a chronomantic anomaly a thingamawhats-“ “ANYWAYS I’ll go find her be right back bye!” And she’s gone, kicking up a tuft of dust in her wake as she darts off towards Sugarcube Corner to track down Pinkie for attempt two. “I really wish Spike were here, I would love to update the Princess on this.” I complain, scuffing at the road with an idle hoof as I turn around and head back towards the library to restock on equipment and spell components. The other two fall in line beside me as we start moving again. “He’s really going to be a lunar guard, then? As in, a real lunar guard?” Rarity asks, thinking back to earlier today when I filled them on on everything. “Not like there’s such a thing as a fake lunar guard.” I huff in response, still a bit frustrated about it. “Sorry, sorry, that was rude. I’m still just trying to work through the idea, honestly. It’s not like it’s an awful role to have, there’s prestige being a royal guard for either of the Princesses and he’ll learn how to stand up for himself, but…” “But he’s still your little dragon?” Fluttershy offers. “I- Well maybe a but of that, but I think I’ve been pretty good about not being too overbearing.” Rarity coughs to my left, interrupting the thought. I see fluttershy give her a look for some reason, but I continue. “It’s more along the lines of, how do I say this objectively? It’s like… He could do anything in Equestria, right? He’s smart, he’s witty, he’s also a dragon, so why would he waste that potential being a guard? I just don’t understand why he’d settle for that.” Rarity looks thoughtful for a moment before answering. “Well, if he wants to become one of the royal guards, that’s his decision, isn’t it? You could rightly be a princess yourself with how often you’ve saved Equestria, but you’ve been quite content with your library here in backwater Ponyville. Don’t you think your parents perhaps thought much the same?“ “That’s-“ I’m about to say ‘that’s different,’ but I stop myself. Both mentally and physically, hooves grinding to a halt as I let the idea bounce around in my head. There’s a logical conflict here: We’re both right. Spike could do anything he set his heart to, anypony would agree that’s a logical assertion. But Rarity’s right in that I need to respect his decision even if I don’t entirely agree with it. I bite at the inside of my lip at the idea of facing the realization beneath it all I’m sure I’ve known all along, and decide to try again. “You’re right. It’s not different. And I need to get over it.” I begrudgingly admit. Rarity lifts a hoof and looks as if she’s got something comforting or moving to say, but I quickly jaunt forward and lead the way to the library. “Just as soon as we get this spell working!” The both of them give me a bit of a side-eye as I trot past them, but nonetheless follow me as I lead the way. On a whim I take a glance towards the open market as we pass the main road leading deeper into town, and I see Papers chatting up Lotus about something or other. Satisfied he’s alright, I take a glance around, looking for Applejack’s cart. “Oh, did you need something, Twilight? Shoot, and we didn’t think to bring any bits with us.” Fluttershy asks while I stare down the road. “Huh? Oh, no, I just forgot Applejack doesn’t post up on Saturdays. I was looking for Mr. Papers.” I explain, quickly working back up to a trot. “Oh. Because of the newspaper issue?” She asks, moving to keep up again. I nod. “Mmhm. I doubt he knows much, so he’s a layer detached from all this, but seeing is believing.” - - - - ’I wonder what would happen if I powered this spell with Celestia’s custom Major Rune.’ It was a simple idea that came to me while Rarity, Fluttershy and I were waiting for Rainbow to track down Pinkie for us.She found Applejack first, who then found Pinkie and dragged the both of them back to the library, reassembling the six of us once more. ‘Oh I remember the rune,’ I thought, ’I’ve powered an Alicorn-tier spell before, I can do it again!’ Man, I’m stupid sometimes. “Oooh, me!” “Oooh, me!” Two Pinkie Pies. Oh Celestia what cataclysmic force of reckoning have I unleashed on this world? The core mechanics of the spell are the same. Every component denotes their function with a Major Rune, but instead of individual metering and thermal Epsi runes, I ran a network of mana-carrying leylines across the entire matrix, all fed directly from the Solaris rune in the very center. It’s not the most graceful spellcasting conduit matrix this library’s ever seen, but it worked perfectly to deliver 2.1 Vis of raw mana across the thermally-insulated anomaly Rarity was kind enough to channel into again for take two, this time featuring Pinkie Pie, the prime pony to pick for observing abnormalities, seeing as she can’t sit still for longer than two seconds. I’d know, I measured. And now there’s two of them. Physically manifested in the central circle mirroring each others’ movements perfectly. “What’n tarnation’s goin’ on?” “Twilight, kindly update me on if I should continue or is this-“ “Woah! This is SO awesome!” “Uhm, is this part of the spell, or is Pinkie just…?” I suck in a large breath through my nose as I remember I’m a living creature on the corporeal plane, and not just a witness to the lesser goddess of Chaos that is Pinkie, who has, once again, managed to shatter my expectations for what should have been a very simple ‘Sit-still-ish-for-five-minutes-then-answer-some-questions’ observational test. I remember I’m also the one powering the spell, and now everypony (sans pinkie) is looking at me expectantly. Rarity is a bit unnerved, but with a glance I confirm she’s still channeling a small stream of frost into the anomaly. I let out the large breath I just took in, clearing my mind to pave the way for rational thought. This is a big development, I can’t waste this opportunity. “Rarity, keep channeling. The plan’s the same, five minutes. Fluttershy, Rainbow, stay as far apart as you can, and keep an eye on those stopwatches. If it seems like it slows down or skips a beat, say something, it could signify a spellbreak or a temporal anomaly. Applejack, make sure both Pinkies stay inside the designated localization runes- The ones in the middle. Careful, try not to step inside of it, we don’t know if the inside of the anomaly experiences time at he same rate as outside of it yet.” I begin barcoding instructions to everypony rapid-fire, taking a quick note of my surroundings. I’m keeping a keen eye out for discoloration and dimming illumination like I experienced in the Kitchen with Pinkie a few weeks ago. Thankfully, that doesn’t seem to be happening. I finally address the Pinkies, who are blowing raspberries at each other. “Pinkie!” “Yeah-huh!” “Yeah-huh!” “Can you see color normally? Does it look like lights are turning off? Is there any burning or irritation on your skin?” I rattle off the prominent effects of whatever time-stoppage spell I cast as they come to me. This spell clearly isn’t stopping time, but I need as much data as I can get. “Yeppers! No ma’am! Actually I’ve been meaning to ask you about that, I get a funny itch on my left thigh whenever I laugh and I laugh a LOT so it happens lots since-“ “Yeppers! No ma’am! Actually I’ve been meaning to ask you about that, I get a funny itch on my left shoulder whenever I laugh and I laugh a LOT so it happens lots since-“ “WAIT!” I shout, interrupting the both of them. Everypony looks up at me again, and rarity gives me a confused look and tilts her head, her magic flittering as if indecisive if it should perpetuate. “No, no, keep going Rarity!” I reassure her. She nods, but shakes her head to and fro viciously with a few wide-eyed blinks as if trying to disbelieve the situation entirely. “Pinkie- Pinkies- You just-“ “Yes Twilight, I come from the future, oooohh~! No idea! I remembered, and you told me to!” The Pinkie on the right interrupts me, bouncing even harder than usual as she rattles off what I can only assume are responses to questions I haven’t asked. “How did you-“ ‘’I come from the future.’ That’s how she did that? She knew I was going to ask? Then that means…’ I shake my head too, and get back to questioning. “Future Pinkie, how did you manifest in the spell? There’s no displacement or projection divination runes, and without illusion magic that means you’re real. And if you’re real…” I trail off. ’No idea!’ Was an answer too, she doesn’t know how she projected herself here, which makes sense, she’s an earth pony. She wouldn’t understand any of this.’ Future Pinkie and Not(?) Future Pinkie turn back to each other and start playing paddy-cake together while I stew on my thoughts. ‘‘She told me to’ was the last thing she said. What would I ask next that would make her say that? Does knowing what she says influence what I ask? Am I supposed to play into it, or is this a paradox unfolding in realtime?’ My head’s in overdrive trying to account for the unknowns and variables. I can’t think of what I could say next that could possibly prompt her to refer to somepony else in a way that would make sense! “Uhm, Pinkies, not to be intrusive or anything, and maybe I’m being a teensie bit rude or implying it when I say this, so I’m sorry if I offend you, but why are you counting upside-down?” Fluttershy asks. Oh. Oh, Celestia bless you Fluttershy that confirms it! “Future Pinkie!” I call out, snapping my head back to attention and taking in a deep breath. I can’t tell which one is Future Pinkie at this point, so I’m just hoping either of them will cooperate right now. “Hey, that’s me!” One of them chimes. Okay, one on the right is future pinkie. I shift a bit and address current-pinkie, who’s currently chewing her own tail. Not her double’s tail, the one attached to her own flank. “Pinkie, when this spell ends in a minute you’re going to be sent back in time. I need you to do everything that future-you just did, okay? Bit for bit, say and do everything just like how she did!” “Ooh, like a game of copypony! I LOVE copypony! It means I get to be somepony else entirely! But what if that pony’s me, does being myself still make me a copypony?” “No, silly, even when you pretend you’re somepony else you’re still yourself, even if you’re yourself pretending to be a copypony who’s pretending to be their self who’s really yourself! I would know, I’m me!” “Ooh, you’re good. Hey, remember when Twilight started this super fun spell, and then you appeared, and then I was there, and we both saw each other and went-“ “Oooh, me! Yeah, that was so funny- hey, where’d I go?” Future-pinkie complains as current pinkie blinks out of existence right in front of everypony. I look to my left and Rarity’s struggling to keep up the stream of frost magic, but before I can give her any encouraging words Rainbow zooms up on my right and practically shoves her stopwatch in my face. “Five minutes, Twi! Now are you gonna explain what in the bu-Woah!” “‘Scusin’ her,” Applejack interjects, biting down on rainbow’s tail and yanking her onto the floor, leaning hard on top of her barrel to keep her down. “Reckon you’ve got some mighty fine reason why’n there were two Pinkie Pies sittin’ in y’er do-thing’a-ma-whatzit?” Rainbow kicks and tries to flare her wings, but even with a light leverage AJ’s got her pinned. “I do, actually. Throughput.” I grin, darting over to the lectern holding the notekeeping book Princess Celestia gave me back in Canterlot, and quickly recording absolutely everything I can while it’s still fresh in my mind. “Actually, one second-“ There’s a low hum from the base of my horn as I gather some of my magic for a low-power memory reinforcement cantrip, committing the entire event to memory. Best case, I can relive this entire ordeal later. Worst case, Princess Luna will know where to look for this one when I go to fill her in on the progress so far. “Put whom through what, darling? And please, if you would be so kind, do be a dear and lend a hoof, would you? I’m afraid I’ve developed a positively horrid hornache.” Rarity takes a step back from the collapsed anomaly, and Pinkie happily hops out of its’ boundary as if absolutely unfazed by the entire ordeal. Which, knowing Pinkie, she's probably already over the novelty of time traveling. “Oh, sure- sorry, let me just… Finish the recursion matrix, aaaand… There!” I let the quill fall out of my magical grasp and spin on my hooves, repurposing the mana still dancing on my horn to cast a low-grade Aville’s Cure-All on Rarity, who’s tenderly pawing at the tip of her horn. Almost immediately she visibly relaxes and gives a content sigh, closing her eyes and smiling. “As for that, there weren’t two Pinkie Pies.” I address Applejack, who’s still leaning more casually on Rainbow, who in turn seems to have given up the struggle and accepted her fate of being pinned beneath the farm pony. “Beggin’ y’er pardon?” She shoots back, raising a brow and giving me a very particular head tilt. “Oh, I could have sworn I saw two Pinkie Pies though! Unless maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me again…” Fluttershy joins the sortie, and now all six of us are formed up in a loose circle. “You saw two, but there was only one. The proof is in the pudding!” I declare triumphantly, raising a hoof and pointing at Pinkie, who then also raises a hoof and points to herself in a serious manner, imitating me. Then she blinks, and the mannerism drops. “Wait, I’m not Pudding, I’m Pinkie! Ooh, or am I? I’m good, I didn’t know I was that good, though!“ “Calm it down some, sugarcube, let her say her piece.” Applejack interrupts Pinkie for me. I hadn’t even noticed that I was already beginning to tap my hoof, eager to explain. I nod her my appreciation and begin to pace in a small circle, bringing forth my best lecturing voice. “The first iteration of this spell had a throughput of just over ninety Vix. It was more than enough for me to send my thoughts back in time even without noticing it. I thought it was just dèjà vu, but it was too coincidental to happen in the way that it did, and right in the middle of a time spell. This Solaris rune, here,” I tap the large marking of Princess Celestia's custom Major rune overlaying the other major runes in the center, connecting them all in a much less elegant string of chalk like the rushed addendum it was. “Thanks to this, the throughput was well over two Vis. It’s why Rarity couldn’t keep up, but it’s why Pinkie Pie appeared in the casting zone. Before you ask, no-“ I stop Rainbow before she can insist that I just admitted there was a second Pinkie Pie, “-There aren’t two Pinkie Pies. The one here with us now is Future Pinkie Pie, now turned present-Pinkie Pie, now that I think about it. Old-present Pinkie Pie is still in the middle of the spell, doing everything old-Future Pinkie Pie did when we saw her then!” I conclude, coming to a full stop and making a grand, sweeping hoof motion to signal the end of my explanation. My wide smile isn’t reciprocated, unfortunately. “Oh, well, uhm… That’s great, Twilight! I… I think?” Fluttershy raises her head a bit, but AJ shakes her head, still just as lost. “Yeah, no, ah’m pretty sure I seen two Pinkie Pies at the same time, present-future-pie whatever nonesensicals aside. I don’t follow.” What’s a way I can simplify traversing backwards in the fourth dimension, in a way Applejack would understand? Something simple, without too many words. This is something Spike would probably be great at, but without him here I’m forced to just try again, but with simpler terms. “So, it’s like this; Because the- I mean, I used a LOT of magic to power that spell, right?” “Yea-huh.” She nods. “So because I used so much mana, the target of the anomaly- Pinkie- I mean the spell- Pinkie being the target, not the anomaly- Ugh, alright let me think.” I look back down at the floor and start pacing again, thinking of a better way to phrase it as I can already tell I’m losing her. “I’ll go, uh, make us some snacks, if that’s okay…” Fluttershy offers. I don’t really hear it, but I must have muttered some affirmation absentmindedly because she turns and steps up the stairs back to the main floor, Pinkie in tow. “Can you like, chill with the pacing? You’re freakin’ me out, Twi.” Rainbow hovers above me, but I tune it out, trying to keep my thought process moving. “Yeah, sure, okay.” I mumble, continuing another lap. She groans and moves somewhere else, but out of the corner of my eye on another pass around I see her land next to AJ while they mutter to each other. Quietly, which I appreciate. I get an idea. “Here, it’s like this!” I proclaim, grabbing a sheet of spare graph paper in my magic, with a quill in the other. Rarity, Applejack, and Dash all step forward and look over it as I start to draw a line with varying levels of interest. “So, imagine this sheet is time. Left is the past, right is the future. Further in either direction, the longer ago it was or will be. So here,” I draw an X on the left end of the line, and I give them all a few seconds to digest the theoretical before continuing, “is the past. Five minutes ago. The other side is the future. The middle is right now. So, right here at the start is when we cast the spell, and that’s when Future Pinkie Pie appeared.” “That’s what ah said, innit?” Applejack retorts, confused. “Not quite, because it was still the same pinkie. Bear with me for a second!” In the middle I draw another X, labeling it “End of Spell.” Then, i draw another line below the first starting from the first X, when the spell began. “When the spell finishes, it sends Pinkie back in time. That means that when it starts, even though this Pinkie, Past Pinkie,” I tap the uninterrupted top line for emphasis, “is already here, the one from the future must be here too. So even though you see two different Pinkies, it’s really the same Pinkie, just five minutes older.” “But if you- hold on just an apple pickin’ minute, if there’s two Pinkies- Or one, two of- The SAME pinkie twice- why ain’t there two of ‘em right now? If she gets sent back when the spell ends, why ain’t there a million of her bouncin’ around?” “You answered your own question! It’s because she gets sent back in the first place!” She stares blankly forward, and I’m not sure how else I could possibly explain it. “Okay, so like, when the spell starts, we get a Pinkie, and when it ends we lose one? So it kinda… Evens out?” Rainbow asks, tentatively poking at the idea. There’s a lot of nuance that it misses, but before I can elaborate on it I hear the other two mutter in some sort of epiphany. “Oh, now that does make a bit more sense.” “Reckon’ that’s how them fancy numbers work, one an’ one then ya’ take one away, still got one.” “I guess if it makes more sense to think of it that way it’s not wrong, it misses some finer points, or all of the finer points, but conceptually that’s about it, yeah.” I give them all a brief nod, especially at Rainbow. “I thought you’d be the most confused by this sort of thing. You know, advanced magical theory and all that.” I let a grin slip through the half-compliment. “Hey, just because I’m not an egghead like you doesn’t mean I’m stupid! Besides, issue 17 of Daring Do is all about this kind of crazy stuff. It’s all they talked about at the fan meets for like two months!” She groans, dragging her hooves across her face and pulling her cheeks down dramatically. “Well, what do you suggest we do now, darling? Your spell was a success, is that all then? Perhaps we try again tomorrow?” Rarity suggests, stifling a yawn. It’s not too late, but she’s expended a lot more mana than she’s used to. It’ll be taxing on her body to recharge, so I definitely don’t want to ask her for any more today. Doubly so with her under minor sedation, her concentration would suffer. “I’m going to write a letter and send it to the Princess, then maybe work out a few kinks in this matrix. It hurts just to look at how unorganized it all is.” I motion to the criss-crossing spell component boundaries, guesswork barrier width thickness, and the Solaris Major Rune that might as well just have been slapped on top of it all as an afterthought. “You girls go on ahead upstairs, I’ll be up in a second.” “If you’re sure, sugarcube.” “Cool, meet you up top!” The three of them mutter affirmatives and travel up the staircase together, making idle chatter about their simplified version of what just happened. I stay behind and stare at the haphazard mess of a spell. It’s messy, it’s unorthodox, I’m using the wrong style of magic without harmonizing to Princess Celestia first, but despite it all it works. I’m proud of myself, and the idea that I really am one of the first unicorns in likely centuries to clobber together a new spell nopony (including the princess) has seen before is a massive ego boost. The joyfuzz in my chest is toned down a bit without Spike or the Princess here to really revel in it with though. Hopefully I can give the Princess a demonstration in person soon, share the potential and get her help tweaking it. It won’t be the same as the first discovery, but hopefully it’ll be more fulfilling talking with a pony who really gets exactly what this means. My stomach grumbles, and I take the cue to start heading up after my friends. Actually, I could totally go for a hay burger after a major scientific discovery like that. I mean, I deserve it, right? Fluttershy doesn’t have to know. With a grin I charge my horn and in a flash I’m outside the library. Before anypony can catch a glimpse of me through a window I break into an open gallop, smirking as the wind blows past me. I’ll be back before they even realize I teleported if there’s no line. Extra hay fries today. Definitely extra hay fries.