Flowers adorned every wall and window of Canterlot Castle’s throne room. All the candles were lit, though only for the festivity; bright sun shone through the windows.
On the dais at the front, before the hundreds of ponies who crowded the enormous room, a dozen ponies stood. On one side were Luna, Shining Armor, and Spike. On the other, Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie all stood in a line, facing forward but looking toward the center of the stage. There beneath an arched wreath full of roses and tulips stood Fluttershy, wearing an enormous bouquet behind her ears, and Discord, wearing an even more enormous one behind his.
“If there are any objections to this union,” Celestia said, “speak now, or—”
Sparks exploded across the dais, and a burning white glow bloomed in the space between Discord and Fluttershy. A sudden spiralling wind whipped their manes. Wisps of smoke and ozone spun around the vortex.
“Twilight,” Celestia said with a disapproving frown, “what did I tell you about time-travelling?”
“I didn’t do anything!” Twilight said. “I’m right here! … oh.”
The glowing sphere collapsed on itself with a bang and a flash, and a somewhat-older Twilight stood on the dais.
“I object!” she shouted.
A din arose as the throng of ponies standing before the throne began talking excitedly.
“Called it,” Discord said in a bored voice to nopony in particular.
“I’m so sorry about this, Fluttershy!” the original Twilight said. “I don’t know what I’ll be thinking!”
The new, old Twilight turned urgently to Fluttershy. “Don’t do it, Fluttershy! I’m from the future! This marriage will be a disaster!”
“Hello, Twilight,” Discord said to her. “How thoughtful of you to add a little chaos to my wedding.”
She glared at him as she stepped between him and Fluttershy. Bending toward her, she hissed, “He’ll never grow up! He’ll never be reliable! He’ll break every promise he ever makes!”
“Oh, Twilight,” Fluttershy said. “Surely not every promise.”
Discord bowed to Fluttershy. “I promise to break this promise, my dear.”
“You can’t do this!” Twilight insisted, ignoring him.
“You’re just jealous,” Discord said.
“I am not! In fact, I’m already married to…” Twilight looked away and blushed.
“Yes?” Celestia asked with a smile.
“I’d like the answer to that as well,” Discord said. “Wouldn’t you, Present Twilight?”
“What?” The present Twilight half-flew across the dais and pawed at her future self’s shoulder. “Who? Who am I married to?”
“Well, Twilight?” Celestia asked. “Aren’t you going to answer your own question?”
Future Twilight pulled away from her past self. “You were right,” she confided to Celestia. “Time travel can be incredibly awkward.”
Celestia nodded sympathetically. “Now, you’ve had your say. Twilights, I’m afraid I must ask both of you to step back and make some room for the bride and groom.”
“But… but, you’re not going to let them go through with this again, are you?”
Celestia smiled. “Twilight, what do you suppose would happen if I stopped every pony I thought was making a mistake?”
“I don’t think she’s making a mistake. I know she’s making a mistake!”
Celestia shook her head. “No, Twilight. You only know what’s going to happen.”
Present Twilight led a stunned-looking Future Twilight back to join her in the line of bridesmaids. Celestia looked up and cleared her throat. “It is not often that ponies contemplate the union of marriage with foreknowledge of the future. Consider it carefully before you take your vows.” She leaned closer to Fluttershy. “We aren’t in any hurry here. Take as much time as you want. This day is yours.”
Fluttershy nodded back. She took one step closer to Discord and looked into his eyes. “I promise you, Discord, that every day, I’ll be the best mate for you that I can, and hope”—she glanced at the future Twilight for just a moment—”and hope that will always be enough for you.”
Discord reached out and took her hoof in one claw. “And I promise you, Fluttershy, that every day, I’ll be the best mate for you that I can. And I hope that will always be enough for you.”
“I judge these promises spoken in good faith,” Celestia said. “Do you, Fluttershy, take Discord as your mate?”
“I do,” said Fluttershy.
“No!” future Twilight gasped.
“And do you, Discord, take Fluttershy as yours?”
“Absolutely,” Discord said. “Also: unreservedly, unequivocally, indubitably, and indisputably.”
“I pronounce you pony and draconequus,” Celestia said. “You may now kiss the groom.”
The future Twilight fluttered her wings helplessly. “He’s bent in the bone! He’ll break your heart a hundred times! It’ll all end in tears!”
Fluttershy looked up at Discord and smiled. She stretched her head out and kissed him on the cheek, and the angry glare on his face was washed away by a smile of happy confusion. Then Fluttershy turned back toward Twilight, who was already beginning to fade.
“Oh, Twilight,” she said. “I already knew that.”
gotta say, that last line was just wonderfully well said.
Perfect line to end on
I wonder if she was fading because her time was up, or if this foreknowledge gave Fluttershy the strength to make the marriage work...
I had the same idea to do the Twilight Zone
5581922 How can a jar be a fish?
5581474
It's hard to get any hard numbers on how often it happens, but there are many examples of instances where time travel itself is a paradox. This Future Twilight might well have "come from" a future that does not exist. (Or rather, she manifested from Present Twilight.)
5581964
So far, time travel as depicted in-show has been self-consistent (one timeline, no alternate/didn't-happen timelines).
(Of course, the fact that Twilight came back to break up the wedding at all suggests that she doesn't believe that.)
5581964 Well yeah, the existence of time its self is a Boot Strap paradox. So of course time travel is a paradox.
No seriously, Steven Hawking has an entire paper on this. Time and space are two parts of the same thing. Space had a beginning, but time did not because time CAN'T have a beginning. Why? In order for anything to happen there need be two points in time, one before it happened, and one where it happened (Or one before and one after). So time can't have a beginning, but space has one.
Since these two things are in fact the same thing, this is a paradox. Or at least, it seams to be. See space also has an end. Eventually all energy and mater int he universe will be evenly distributed all across it's expanse (see entropy). At this point the universe will be a single point of energy, like before the big bang. This is the end of space, but not the end of time. Logically this new singularity will cause a second bang, a new beginning of space.
By this logic time is not a linear flow, but rather a circle. (Its best visualized as a doughnut, because of relativity but that's another can of worms). Thus, time creates its self along with space. Hence, Time is a bootstrap paradox.
The Twilight Zone
by
Bad Horse
At first, I'm shocked no one came up with the obvious reference to "The Twilight Zone" tv series for an MLP fanfiction ealier. Then I'm sad I didn't think of it first (not that I've written any stories). Then I do a search and find out that there is at least ten stories with "The Twilight Zone" in some form or another as part of the title. Maybe fimfiction needs to have some mechanism so stories must have unique titles?
The Twilight Zone
by
Bad Horse
... and once again I'm saddened that I didn't think of that first...
P.S.
Currently re-watching Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.
Of course, Twilight herself can never get married. She expects perfection, and would be completely unsatisfied by any pony who wasn't "perfect".
She could grow out of that, but chances are she would just rationalize away her loneliness now that she is a Princess.
"Oh, he's not good enough to be Prince..."
"Celestia never got married..."
"I'm already married to Equestria! It's my responsibility to blah blah blah..."
5588825
Obvious solution is for Twilight to have a temporally discontinuous and perpetually catastrophic relationship with herself.
Nice demonstration of the different between knowledge and wisdom and perfectly in character for both of them.
5582072 Except I think Hawking failed to consider that "space" was just infinitely compressed at the start of the universe, just as "time" was. "Space" in some form, may have existed before the Big Bang--we don't have the math to explain that yet.
And the end of the universe billions of trillions of years from now isn't the end of "space" itself, just the stuff that's IN "space"---assuming that part of the current theory is correct....
But a good argument about the Bootstrap Paradox, nonetheless.
This was the story that finally allowed me to understand the appeal and potential behind Fluttercord. Thank you.