Arriving once more in the throne room of Canterlot, Blue passed a disgruntled glance to all the various glass windows. A lot of them featured a purple unicorn, who was obviously Twilight. He wondered if she had done all the things depicted here, or they were just there for show. Turning to look at the legendary, he paused and stood beside Red, Lyra, and Green.
“Welcome back, I trust you enjoyed looking around our fine city?” Celestia watched them nod, a small smile falling on her face. Considering she hadn’t heard of an major problems in town, and there had been no pony-wide panic, she was inclined to believe them.
“Well, with the pleasantries out of the way, I will move onto why I called you here.” Celestia stood up, and motioned to some guards to bring over a scroll, which she quickly skimmed before turning back to them. Giving a nod to dismiss the guard, she opened her mouth to speak.
“After hearing your story, I searched recent news about any strange individuals seen recently, and we might have found your human.” Watching them Celestia saw all four share a glance, before looking back.
“Ok, where is he?” Blue glanced to one of the windows, decrypting a heart of some kind, and the dragon holding it. It looked like a powerful artefact, maybe an old evolution stone? An exp share? He turned back to the legendary, he wasn’t that interested, and he doubted it would ever become important.
“We believe he is near a cave that houses a special pool that can copy a pony-er-person’s image that is inside the Everfree forest. I have already sent soldiers to apprehend them, a zebra who lives there has agreed to escort them.” Celestia stepped down from her throne and walked toward the group.
“That’s great, we’ll head there right now.” Blue turned to the others, who gave a nod, and reached for his Pokémon.
“I’m afraid I have to request you stay here.” Watching the humans turn, Celestia saw them all narrow their eyes at her. If she wasn’t careful, she might be seen as the enemy.
“What? Why?” Lyra was the first to speak, earning a glance from Blue before he returned his gaze to Celestia. They watched her take one more step toward them.
“Because we don’t want you to be seen by your past selves, and there is no need to. My soldiers are perfectly capable of-“ Celestia closed her mouth as Blue pulled out a Pokéball, releasing a large yellow dragon. With a motion of his hand, he pointed to it.
“Capable of what exactly.” Blue looked at her as a matter of factly, returning his Dragonite a moment later. If this legendary thought ponies could beat trained Pokémon, they were fooling themselves.
“Capable of leading a sneak attack and apprehending the humans before they can release their monsters.” Celestia looked at Blue, and frowned as she saw a very subtle twitch of the eye.
“Even so, we’re going. You don’t understand how far Giovanni plans ahead.” Blue nodded in time to the other three, preparing to leave.
“You mustn’t! If you are seen by your past selves you’ll change the timeline.” Celestia flared her wings, and straightened up to try and loom over the humans. To her annoyance, it didn’t work.
“If that happened, we would be aware of it because it would have already happened.” Blue rolled his eyes and glanced to Red, sharing a look. They hadn’t forgotten what had transpired during their last visit.
“No it wouldn’t because you haven’t made the decision that changed it yet. Until you do and it becomes irreversible it won’t come true. And you wouldn’t be aware of it changing either!” Celestia leaned in, and snorted, expelling a small burst of air in Blue’s face. How could this human not understand the entire point of paradox aversion.
“You don’t get it! Red saw his future self a few days after we arrived here! If we weren’t already there how would he have seen us?” Blue leaned in as well, his forehead touching Celestia’s own just below the horn. He didn’t understand why the legendary was so worked up about them going, they weren’t her kids.
“Then in a few days, you can go and do your paradox, but not right now.” Celestia turned around and began heading back towards her throne, considering the argument solved.
“In a few days it will be too late to stop Giovanni!” Blue stepped forward and tried to grab the ethereal mane, and gently tugged at the hair.
“And how do you know that?” Celestia turned, pulling her hair out of Blue’s grasp, narrowing her eyes.
“I don’t, but I know that we are leaving.” Blue took a step back, and turned to leave. The other three paused, but began to follow.
“At the risk of tearing the fabric of reality and changing everything without realising it?” Celestia grabbed Blue with her magic, gently stopping him from leaving before letting go. He turned, and stormed back to glare at her directly in the eyes.
“If it was going to be changed, it would have already done so and will be exactly the same as right now because it is right now.” Blue poked Celestia in the chest with each word, emphasising his point.
“But it isn’t right now, it’s your past. And if you change your past you’ll affect your future because you changed the past.” Celestia ignored his poking, flaring her wings and causing a gust of air to blow off his cap.
“But the past would have already been changed because I would have already changed it in my past so there would be no change.” Blue picked up his cap, and raised his arms to emphasise his point, almost growling his words.
“But you won’t know if it had changed because the change would only happen if you chose not to do it!” Celestia leaned in, and once more their faces met. Both were growling their words, barely containing their loud voices in the large room.
"Why is it so complex for your flashy mane to understand! We won't because we didn't and we can't because I will is...uh." Blue blinked, and scratched his head before screaming to the roof.
“ARRRGH!” Turning, he headed toward the door. Celestia watched the other three follow him.
“Screw it my head hurts."