Five Minute Difference

by carefreedude

The secrets of time

"Spike!" Called out Twilight from her study. The young alicorn had spent days looming over one of Starswirl's books. She held a particular interest in the piece due to the cryptic fashion it was written in. The book in question was resting open on her desk, revealing several characters of the alphabet arranged in a seemingly random order. All around her were various notes and drawings, most of which were scratched out, crumpled up, laying within a nearby trash bin, or some combination of the three.

"Spike!" She called out again, obviously trying to pull the small dragon's attention from whatever it was he was already doing. Twilight was obviously excited. After all the time spent reading and rereading that book, she had finally revealed the truth it was concealing.

"I'm here!" The purple dragon said through gasping breaths, tired after apparently bolting up the castle stairs. He was wearing an apron and was holding a large green bowl in his claws. The bowl was filled with copious amounts of cookie dough. Aparently, the young dragon was about ready to begin baking before Twilight interrupted him. Twilight gave Spike a moment to catch his breath before she spoke to him.

"You know, Twilight." He spoke again, still trying to breathe. "I like this castle and all... But couldn't we install an elevator or something?"

Twilight smiled and rolled her eyes a bit at the dragon's request. "If you have working knowlege of how to construct an elevator in a tree made entirely of crystal, then be my guest."

"Ha ha." Responded spike with an unamused frown. Having finally regained his composure, the small creature approached the princess, setting the bowl down in the process. "So, what was so important, Twilight?"

"Well, as you know Spike, I have been trying to decipher this book for several days now and I finally learned it's secrets!" She was so giddy, Spike was afraid she was going to start jumping around uncontrollably like Pinky Pie before a party. "Starswirl may be a genius, but his tricks can't stop me from solving a puzzle."

"Uh huh?" Spike said. "And what exactly was it that he was hiding?"

Twilight was in the dragon's face before he could even blink. "What was he hiding?! He was hiding one of the greatest discoveries in the history of ponykind!"

"Really?! What is it?! Space travel?! Immortality?! The ability to shoot lasers out of their eyes?!" He seemed to get more excited with each suggestion.

"No. Already been done. And you apparently need to lay off those comic books."

Spike responded mearly by crossing his arms and turning his head. "I'll have you know that those are a rich tapestry of art and enjoyment. Why wouldn't anypony want to try having laser eye beams?"

"Because this pony found something even more exciting." Beamed Twilight.

"Well don't keep me waiting, what is it?"

"Time travel!" Exclaimed Twilight with obvious excitement in her voice.

"Time travel?" Responded Spike

"That's right! Time travel!"

"Uh... Didn't you already do that?" Asked the dragon, scratching the back of his head in the process.

"What do you mean Spike?"

"Well, I mean when you went back in time a couple of years ago. Remember, you went back to tell yourself not to freak out about the future and ended up causing yourself to freak out about the future anyways."

Twilight giggled a bit before responding. "Of course I do, but this is completely different from that experience."

Spike tilted his head a bit. "How so?"

"Well for starters, how about being able to travel through time longer than just over a minute as well as being able to do it as many times as you want?"

"Really?!" Shouted Spike, bringing his claws to his mouth as he thought all the things he would do with that. But as he thought of it more, he realized a problem with this concept. "But wouldn't going back in time be apart of what happened in the time line anyways, just like how you caused your own freak out by time traveling?"

"That's the thing Spike, the concept behind this method of time travel will be drastically different from that other method. You see Spike," She began, grasping one of her notes from the desk with her magic. The note consisted of two parallel lines with a half circle on one line and perpendicular line connecting the two lines. "What I did the first time would be considered an ontological paradox."

Spike looked upon Twilight in the same manner as a lobster being taught calculus. "Uh... Onto-what?"

"And this is why I made the drawing. You see Spike, imagine that this line here was our current timeline." She pointed a hoof at the line with a half circle. "What I did the first time would be indicative of this half-circle here. I can loop as many times as I want on that circle, but the time line will still continue forward regardless."

"O...K?" Responded Spike, still not quite following her.

"Now imagine if I were to actually change something in the past that wasn't meant to be interfered with via time travel. We would then be sent on this perpendicular here onto the other timeline." She followed the motion with her hoof across the lines in the drawing. "The result of which would be an entirely new reality based on the change we made."

"I think I get what you are saying, and if I am, that sounds awesome. So, how do you do it? Is it like a spell or something?"

Twilight set the first note down and levitated another sketch from the desk. This one seemed to depict the components of a machine of some kind. "It will involve magic yes, but it also requires a bit of engineering as well. If this theory and diagram are correct, we should be able to get a working time machine up and running in no time at all."

"Wait. You said you figured this out by decoding Starswirl's notes right?" Twilight nodded in response. "So how come Starswirl didn't just make this thing himself?"

"That thought crossed my mind as well, and the only conclusion I can think of is that he didn't have the technology to make such a machine. I mean, it can be easy to come up with the theory, it's another story trying to actually make it happen."

"Well when you put it together, can I be the first one to use it? I wanna get back at Rainbow Dash after she put super glue on the door handle. Having two of me will be a good way to get the job done." Spike squinted and started maniacally rub his claws together.

Spike's evil contemplation was interrupted by Twilight levitating the bowl in front of his face. "Sorry, but even if I did allow you to use it for such a purpose, it doesn't work that way." She then started to lead the way down the stairs with Spike close behind.

"But I thought you said this would be time travel, as in there would be a past and future me meeting each other."

"I never said anything of the sort, Spike. I only said that it would be different from what I did before." They were about half way down the stairs and Twilight could hear her loyal assistant beginning to huff and puff from exhaustion. Out of kindness, she levitated him onto her back for the rest of the trip. "I think this means you need to lay off the sweets Spike."

Although grateful for the help, Spike rolled his eyes in response. "Or that we need to get that elevator installed." Twilight only giggled in response. "So how does this different time travel thing work exactly?"

"Well, we need to experiment to be sure, but the concept is that the physical body does not actually go through time, but the mind does."

"I... don't follow." They were now rounding the way into the castle kitchen. Spike jumped off to finish the cookies he was preparing.

"Think of it like this, it's pretty much taking your brain from now and placing it in your body in the past. All your memories and thoughts will be implanted into your past self."

"So at any moment, future Spike could show up and eat all the cookies before I get a chance to eat them? I don't like the sound of that."

"Well theoretically, if this does work differently from the other method of time travel, then it would have happened already. Meaning that if future Spike were to go and do that, then it would be the present version you who ate them after you became future Spike." Explained Twilight.

Spike tilted his head again. "You lost me again."

Twilight smiled and rolled her eyes again. "Just trust me when I say that there is absolutely nothing to worry about. I will make sure everything runs smoothly."