Forget not that I am a derp.
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This story is a sequel to Undeliverable
Ten years ago, Ditzy Doo vanished. Ponyville mourned her and sorely felt her absence, but over time, the tragedy lost its sting. Sad as it was, they all accepted Ditzy's disappearance and moved on with their lives.
All but one.
Come Tartarus or tidal surges, Dinky Doo is going to find her mother.
An entry in ocalhoun's Big 250k Contest.
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"I'm going to teach you respect for the space time continuum if it's the last thing I do."
Derpy is shown to be kind and loving, but also not afraid to defend her rights. I love it.
Don't know why, but tales about time travel always give me a headache...That minor inconvenience aside, fantastic story!
6979233
She's the best mother in the world. Of course she's going to punish you if you show a flagrant disrespect for the time/space continuum!
Isnt there another story out there where the whole story is about Dinky and co moving on from Ditzy apparently dying only for Ditzy to be brought back from another dimension after everyone gets closure?
"In this house, young lady, we obey the laws of physics and chronal inertia!"
Chrono and co. would be proud.
Great. Now I know why time travel gave Janeway a headache. Ending up playing "Okay, what happened after I got time-jacked" is NOT what Ditzy planned on that morning ten years previous.
Okay, this was absolutely hilarious! Didn't really serve a purpose beyond that, but still hilarious.
6979233 6979467
It's one of the most important life lessons a parent can teach her children.
6979668
If there is, I'm unfamiliar with it.
6980658
"Who taught you how to do this stuff?"
"You, alright!? I learned it by hearing about you!"
Parents who violate causality have children who violate causality.
A public service announcement from the Equestrian Time-Space Administration Bureau.
6981170
Without access to the helpful stallion standing under a streetlamp at the End of Time and his convenient deus in ovo, Dinky's best option was a causal loop.
6981456
Fortunately, the welcome-back parade gave Ditzy a great way to refamiliarize herself with Ponyville's main thoroughfares... though the ponies who now own her house weren't as understanding as they could've been.
6981840 Oh, swell. She's either going to be living at a friend's house or a Best Western.....or even the charred remains of somepony's once mighty flying cocoon.
...I like it.
...I'm going to mentally censor the words Ditzy Doo and replace with Derpy Hooves now.
Ok, now I LOVE it.
Light Enchantment Dweomer, huh?
I don't get it. How come Dinky and everypony else blame her for what happened to Ditzy? And shouldn't Ditzy be grateful to Dinky for saving her from whatever had happened to her?
6982034 i dont get it either howd she steal her own mother
6981860
Fortunately, the castle has plenty of guest rooms where Ditzy can stay as she gets her hooves back under her. It's where Dinky's been living for the past few years, following the same tradition as her mentor. Before that, Carrot Top had taken her in.
6981956
LEDs work a bit differently when the tech base is so tightly interwoven with magical innovation.
6982034
It's an interesting chronoethical question. It's hard to pin the blame on anyone in a causal loop, which by definition has no clear instigator. However, Dinky did decide to yank her mother ten years into the future without telling anyone, which meant that as far as anyone knew, Ditzy had just vanished without a trace, leading to the events of Undeliverable, Ditzy being presumed dead, and... well, Dinky deciding to yank her mother ten years into the future. Much as Twilight drove herself half-crazy in "It's About Time," Dinky is the closest thing this rigmarole has to a responsible party.
6982067
Dinky's spell sent Ditzy ten years into the future in an instant, while the rest of Equestria had to get there the slow way. Ditzy didn't exist for that decade, which meant that everyone, the younger Dinky included, thought she had vanished forever.
Yeah, time travel is weird.
6982034 It's a paradox, a casual or causality loop, where one event triggers another which triggers the first.
in this Case, Event one in Dinky going back in time to "save" Ditzy, but in doing so makes Ditzy disappear, which lead to Dinky wanting to go back in time to find her.
Ditzy wouldn't disappear if Dinky never went back in time but she figured she needed to
6982034
Because it's a stable time loop. Ditzy vanished ten years ago, because ten year later Dinky would go back in time to see her vanished mother, and ponynap her back to the future she came from.
6982097
I know what causality loop is. My point is, it have to start somewhere. Doctor said he followed Ditzy till the moment she dissipated on that cumulonimbus and there was no Dinky that time. If this theory is true, than it means that by creating a time loop Dinky had actually saved her mother. Anyway all of unspeakable things (including paperwork) Ditzy promised to spill upon her daughter sound ultimately unfair.
6982090
So if Dinky is the closest thing to a responsible party in this story, does that mean that you also don't blame her for what happened?
6982152
Not noticing something doesn't necessarily mean that that thing wasn't ever there. Previous instances of Time Turner were watching Ditzy and the cloud, not random unicorns who happened to be floating about the area.
If I blame anyone, I blame myself for putting the characters in this situation. On a less metanarrative level, again, it's hard to pin blame on any participant in a causal loop, but the time traveler is generally a safe bet.
6982163
True.
Yet my point remains. In order to start the first iteration of this loop Dinky would have to live ten years without her mother, which in turn means that what you showed us in your story was not the beginning of the loop. Ditzy most probably disappeared for some other? completely unrelated reason, or was yanked forward in time by the other Dinky, who had her mother and instead had taken a time journey because of some sort of a teenage-induced mischief, which would make Dinky in your story just a victim of circumstances.
Totally worth it.
6982202
Dinky did live ten years without her mother, because her mother vanished because of Dinky's future actions. The point of a causal loop is that there is no clear beginning. The events cause one another in a self-perpetuating atemporal cycle. Again, look at "It's About Time." Twilight warns her past self, making her panic, sending her to the Star Swirl the Bearded Wing, using a time spell, and warn her past self. The loop is a self-contained, immutable whorl in the flow of time.
One of us is clearly confused here, and I'm fairly sure it isn't me. Break down the story as you understand it and let's see if we can find the misunderstanding.
6982202 It's Fan's story, I'm sure Fan gets to decide how valid the concept of any sort of "first iteration" is in this model of time travel.
What's to say the universe wasn't just always that way, with Dinky pulling her mother into the future?
Something like >this<. (I feel this wikipedia page is unduly technical though so excuse me while I attempt a proportionately poetic explanation)
It's a view of the universe that somewhat depends on things being predetermined. Objects and particles don't move through time, rather, they have predetermined paths that they take through it. It's similar to those stories that like to say things like "objects have 4 dimensions, height, length, width, and duration." The object is not just what you see before you at any point in time, the object exists at every point in time in the future and past. In this model it is less accurate to say that particles and objects interact with each other in certain ways, and more accurate to say that the long strings of these particles and objects stretching through time have certain patterns with which they are tied, knotted, and weaved together. So perhaps the universe sprang into existence with the threads of Dinky and her mother's fate woven as they are in this story. There never was a first iteration. It was just always that way.
tl;dr - time travel is a funny enough concept that you can probably come up with a theory of time travel to explain almost any apparent inconsistency. why expect everyone to follow the particular theory of time travel you subscribe to in their story?
also: awesome story and how does chronoethics even work
6981840 THE FEELS! THEY ARE JOYOUS!
6982202 There was an old Power Rangers fanfic I read years ago. One of the characters mentioned a time loop situation. Yes, the loop must have once had a different beginning, but that beginning became invalid because they're now inside the loop
6982230
)
Ok, ok I got it. I have a concept of time as depicted in this guy's message 6982293 and you concept seems to go with Novikov principle as described here 6982256 (Thank you very much for your extensive explanation, I have learned a lot
I don't see any reason to continue this dispute any longer. I just want to add that this whole tome my main point was "don't be mean to Dinky."
derpicdn.net/img/view/2014/5/15/627004__safe_solo_dinky+hooves_artist-colon-dreamcasterpegasus.png
Somewhere in the universe the doctor is saying what way to many times...
6982261
Even more confusingly than normal ethics.
6982364
I'm glad we could resolve the situation. Sorry if I came off as hostile at times.
As for being mean to Dinky, regardless of how you view the timestream, tampering with it is rarely if ever a good idea. Plus, she did accept responsibility for her actions, even if it could be argued she didn't need to. Sometimes a parent needs to crack down to make sure kids don't make the same mistake again.
6982090 Dang. I was hoping she'd ask somepony why her cocoon was charred and why it was sideways.
The only thing wrong is "laboratort".
I thought it was some strange variation on laboratory, like that and a combo with the retort of a retort and alembic.
6982383
ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RwaYiBSZL._SY300_.jpg
6982682 poker face. no
6981840 Oh...."The Funeral Of Derpy Hooves" by Shortskirtsandexplosions is what the other person meant.
Paperwork plus a good lecture on time travel and the hazards of messing with it?
Totally worth it.
Very lovely.
6982385
The pronouns alone...
Although, knowing Twilight, she might very well have established all that by now.
A cute story, but i have issues with the whole 'fate magic' thing.
Destiny is something you create. And that emphasis of creation is throughout the show itself. Hell, the tree of harmony creates thigns for the mane six, such as the box and the tree castle, rather than having some 'fated' objects lying around.
Hell half of the issue about twilight trying to study or find answers was that she presumed it was some ancient artifact.
Because some punishments is worth it to see a loved one again. Now about Time Turner using magic of some kind...
6983917 Time travel as a part of fate exists in the universes where the God there just shrugs his shoulders and says, "Eh, screw everything!"
6982756 i remember that story. i rather enjoyed it, though if elt they should have made derpy's fate a little more obscure till later on.
eff I hate casual loops, but I love this story
awesome, Ditzy isn't dead... now where is Carrot Top?
6982527
The laboratorte is an example of cutting-edge baking technology. The process is highly complicated and dangerous to both the baker and the surrounding area of the bakery. But one bite, and you'll say it was worth it.
6982756
Ah, so it is! I'd forgotten about it in the intervening time.
6983828
Dr. Streetmentioner would be proud. And much like his book, ponies would probably give up on Twilight's a few pages in.
6983917
Fate magic is normally a very subtle, background-level effect. The hoof of fate guides ponies to their cutie marks, times rainbooms for maximum effect, and ensures that lonely little unicorns find legends about banished sovereigns the day before that banishment ends. It is the magic of apparent coincidence, not necessarily the god in the machine but definitely the lubrication that keeps that machine turning. Starlight Glimmer seems to specialize in more active applications of fate magic, as do the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
tl;dr: Headcanon at work.
6984937
Still sorting out her emotions now that Ditzy is finally back. Especially given how the filly Carrot basically raised as a daughter for the past ten years was responsible for depriving her of the mare she loved.
6985243 This was silly and sweet but... I don't think it fits the Vein of the original. the original story was so Deep and emotional and this one was more comedic. It's not a bad story I just think it would have been better as it's own story rather than a "Sequel". Though I give you credit for trying out for the contest and wish you luck with it.
6985243
I'm pretty sure that the fate that ensured Twilight found about Nightmare Moon just in time is big, white, and would certainly enjoy eating a three-tiered laboratorte.
6985243
"She's YOUR problem now, honey!"
There, emotional confusion realistically resolved.
6985243 sighs. fate magic does not work with mlp. not entirely. because fate is something that is unbendable, inflexible, and unrealistic, because chaos and the unpredictable ursurp it.
besides, as said if FAte was a primary factor, then things would not be Created, simply exist. the tree created the elements, for some purpose. the tree creates the box, then creates the tree. neither were objects to be discovered.
Time Travel. All you want is to slap a hippy. But all's you get is multiple Kowalskis.
Just read this and love it