I pulled what was bothering me out of my hair. I had a radish stuck in there. The Doctor and I were sitting in an extremely large bowl mostly full of lettuce and other greens, but there were some flowers and various other salad fixings as well. There was thankfully no dressing.
"Well, I guess it's a good thing the Master only ordered us to be served a salad once captured, this isn't so bad." I said
"Except we can't leave the bowl as long as he's watching."
We turned to see the robot just standing there watching across the locked room. I had wondered if it was really even supposed to be guarding us, but it was now clear how may gashes there were in the metal thing's hide, full of sparking wires and burnt out who knows what. Clearly it was seriously damaged.
"So, I think since we're both stuck in this salad, you have some time to answer a few questions for me. Starting with how?"
"You mean how I'm a time lady?"
He nodded.
"Well mommy won't tell me everything yet but when two ponies love each other very much they can…"
The doctor shook his head. "No I mean…" Then he face hooved. "There are literally dozens of time lords running around, any one of them…" Then he blinked. "Wait, no, that shouldn’t work."
"Magical ponies. It smoothes out lots of genetic incompatibility issues. Also momma is special. She's time locked. She's never said but whatever the accident was probably has something to do with a Tardis. Maybe not yours but…"
"So how much of a time lady are you exactly?"
"Well, I have two hearts. I can regenerate, though only future me has so far and she always looks the same. I think there is more stuff too but I forget."
"And why didn’t' you tell me earlier?"
"Momma said not too. I told you that."
"Just because your mother…" Then he blinked. "Wait, you really aren't any older than you look, are you?"
"A little bit, but not much. I am much smarter than the average foal though."
"Yes, I suppose you would have to be, wouldn’t you?" He then snickered. "Is Time Filly and Time Colt really the proper set of terms?"
"Or Time Foal."
He nodded. I looked over to the mecha-griffin again. It was still just sitting there and watching. I really hope somepony comes and rescues us soon. Because I suddenly realized continuing this conversation was a really bad idea.
"So what are you hiding?" he asked
"Huh?"
"You're clearly hiding something. Something from me, and not anypony else. This has something to do with my future doesn't it?"
"Yes, but it's not about paradox or anything like that. Those are impossible here."
"What? How can a paradox be impossible."
"Give me a second. Moonfire said…"
I saw his eye twitch. "I know that name. It's an entirely different name but I know it and know without a doubt you're talking about…"
"Dream Volt is her husband, and you don't like either of them even if I don't know why. Though I think they aren't technically married here or something, but that doesn't seem to matter at all. They act married."
"So you're saying you think all that nonsense about alternate timelines and the like is accurate? Even though you said you've met your future self multiple times."
"Well sometimes I know she gets my own past wrong so it makes sense. That it's all just alternate futures and pasts and every moment of the present is open to all sorts of possibilities, including somepony suddenly showing up telling you about a seemingly destined future."
The Doctor blinked. "Wait, you know it works this way, don't you? You've seen it work this way. Seen things work according to that red haired mad mare's ramblings, because this universe is just that different. But what would that mean?"
"It means it doesn't matter too much what you do with time travel because you can't mess up the past. That even if you get knowledge from a future self that can't have any origin but being told by a future self that doesn't matter."
"That almost sounds specific."
I nodded. "Oh it is. Twilight Sparkle is my magic teacher and she recently went back in time. Only a week, but we talked about it because she knows I'm good with time magic."
"And she knew something only because of her future self."
"Where to find the time travel spells in the Canterlot archive. But because of the way our universe works that isn't a problem. See Twilight A probably actually looked them up, then went back in time as a test. However this freaked out Twilight B."
"Yes, and since A mentioned time spells she was worried something may happen, and thus went back in time to…" The Doctor blinked. "Hmm, actually I’m right out of options in terms of…"
"Warn herself not to panic. However by the time you get to F Twilight warning G it's a dire emergency and she can't even finish the message before her little spell fades."
"Oh, you mean it's just a brief displacement, then right back?"
I nodded. "Yes. Now G may think she warned her past self with the exact same words, and she may even be right. However she actually warned H because at the very least she can't appear in exactly the same time and place in the same universe as F, since F already did that. Maybe the only difference is F has appeared to herself, but…"
"That variation in and of itself creates H, and so on. I admit it's an elegant enough solution to paradox, no matter how much it complicates things in other ways, but it just doesn't sit right with me."
I sighed. "But it is the way it works here. Infinite possibility from each moment. Countless ways things can end, even if one of those possibilities is always someone from the past or future suddenly showing up."
"I'm still not sure I agree, though I'm thinking I might not have a choice, but I am without a doubt impressed. This is a very complicated idea to consider."
"I don't think so. Also Dream is right that it's easier to just not think to hard about it since as long as it's close enough it doesn't matter if stuff like that is just an illusion, it seems accurate enough. Just as long as you remember anything you know about can always be changed. They both think that's really important and I agree."
"Rulers of your own destiny. I've always believed that too really, just a matter of whether something should or should not be changed."
"But here you don't have to worry about that. Just how you feel about your own actions. You can go anywhere, anywhen, and not worry."
"That…"
Then he was quiet. I smiled. I forgot he told me how I first brought up this idea. That wasn't the only reason I had to smile either. I distracted him. Maybe not well, but he didn't ask. He would eventually, but we'd probably get rescued soon enough, and he wouldn’t ask who my father was. The plan might work this time with Rosey's advice this go around we'd get the result we wanted. I still didn't think it mattered that much, but momma really, really wanted this and I wouldn't let her down.