Imperatives

by Sharp Quill

24. T-Minus Zero

The old castle in the Everfree had been in poor shape the first time Meg had visited it, and the passage of time had only made it poorer. Their destination was the cave underneath it, the cave in which the Tree of Harmony resided. That all looked essentially the same, somehow eternal.

Discord touched down in front of the faintly iridescent tree. Meg and Twilight did likewise.

“We could’ve teleported, you know,” Twilight grumbled. Flying all the way from Canterlot had been annoying.

Discord waved the complaint away. “It’s more dramatic this way.”

“Whatever.” Meg walked up to the crystalline tree. It had been decades since she’d been here last. The Elements were still embedded in its branches. That sense of harmony, that she had experienced undiluted upon being blasted by those Elements, could still be faintly felt here. “You once told me it was a tree of few words, Discord. You were being generous.” It had never uttered a word to her knowledge.

The draconequus pointedly tapped the trunk, sending ripples of illumination from the point of contact. “That’s about to change. Right, sis?”

---

Nothing happened.

This time, Twilight had used an enchanted time travel helper gemstone, just in case all the other attempts had failed due to the anomaly creation being too far in the past for her usual unaided spell. That was unlikely, but it didn’t hurt to check.

No, Meg’s presence was required. She had hoped to spare her the trouble. It was possible, of course, that something else was the cause of the apparent paradox, but not likely. Purely random numbers, quantum mechanically generated, had effectively spelled out “free Tirek” and they had done that. Unlikely indeed that there could be another cause.

But how would Meg’s absence cause a paradox? It was bad enough that not freeing Tirek first would cause a paradox. It just didn’t make any sense.

Twilight sighed. Nothing to do but wait for Meg to arrive.

She return to the main cavern. It was still early; no humans were around yet. It wasn’t a long wait before Meg arrived. Twilight let her in.

The pegasus looked at her. “Something wrong?”

“Huh? No, just pondering something.” Nothing to do but go through with it and hope whatever happened would clarify the nature of the potential paradox.

Meg came over to her. Twilight noticed she had her phone with her this time. “I put it in airplane mode,” Meg said. “No confusing the network with multiple copies of it. It might prove useful to take pictures or video or something.”

“We’ll see. We’re there to intervene, not document, don’t forget.”

Meg shrugged. “Couldn’t hurt.”

Twilight led the way to their time travel side tunnel of choice. Once there, she double-checked the contents of her saddlebag. Everything was there. “Casting time travel spell now.”

Nothing changed around them, but that was to be expected. She breathed a sigh of relief. “This time it worked.” Again, proving that Meg’s absence would cause a paradox—but no wiser as to why. No need to burden her with it. She got out the two plaid pills. “Let’s go for the corner opposite the workbenches. It should be far enough away for our magic bubbles to make us invisible, but even if it isn’t nopony should be paying attention to that corner.”

“Sounds good to me.”

They swallowed their plaid pills.

Twilight couldn’t believe her eyes. Half of the observers from her next trip to the past were there. Two guns were pointed at them, by the same two who had interfered with the return of Meg’s stolen computer to the warehouse. Three others were about the machinery that would cast the anomaly-creating spell.

“How could this be happening,” Meg muttered.

It was a bucking good question. Twilight had to assume her future self was outside the building, along with Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rarity—possibly Pinkie Pie. Why hadn’t they prevented this?

She face-hoofed. Because her future self remembered seeing this; the past—her future self’s past—could not be changed.

Meg must’ve been thinking the same thing. “Any chance of asking your future self outside how this goes down?”

It was tempting; she couldn’t deny it. “Better we don’t.”

“So what do we do? And how much time left do we have in which to do it?”

No clock was visible, and no way could they get close enough to a computer to see its clock—not without themselves becoming visible and being seen. “There will be enough time.” Was the need for Meg’s presence somehow connected to this latest complication?

“Because it’d be a paradox if there wasn’t, yeah I know. But do what?”

Indeed, what? They were already planning on intervening. The obvious place to start was with the ones with the guns. “I’ll start by taking care of those two—again.”

Twilight first prepared a sleep spell, ready to fire. She then trotted over to the gunmen. The instant any of them noticed her presence, indicating that her magic bubble had collapsed due to the ambient field of the local magic generators, she would fire the spell at them.

It took surprisingly long. The captors were focused on the observers, and the observers on their captors.

In the shock of recognition, one of the gunmen started re-aiming his gun at her. He collapsed in slumber before he could finish. Then the other one collapsed. “Everyone leave this building now!” She glared at the three operating the machinery. “That includes you.”

Most of the observers hurried for the exit. Three did not: the Russian, Egor; Serrell’s pick, Austin; and Routledge’s pick, Kimberly. Nor did any of the three operators. Of course not; who would operate the machinery? It’s a fact that no one escaped the building prior to its demise—excepting those from the future, ideally.

“We here to observe,” Egor said. “We leave with you.”

“I stay so long as she stays,” Austin said, pointing at Kimberly.

The operators were still operating. There will be sufficient time, she reminded herself. She looked expectantly at Routledge’s pick, who was clearly agitated, undecided. If she was going to make her move…

“Destroy everything!”

The operators preceded to do just that—with sledgehammers? Twilight zapped them all with sleep spells and then turned and zapped Kimberly.

Meg came to a landing beside her. “I got that all on video, for what it’s worth.”

Was that why Meg was needed? To create that video? Its impact would be powerful, no question. But then, there were the other three observers still there.

Meg walked over to a monitor that was still connected to a functioning computer. “We have three minutes thirteen seconds.” She went over to the computer that controlled the spell caster. The keyboard was smashed; Twilight had zapped them before anything more could be done to that contraption. “Idiots. Don’t even need a keyboard for this. But…” She suddenly looked sick.

“But what?”

“Somepony will have to stay behind to click that mouse button to start the spell.”

Twilight feared she was beginning to understand why Meg’s absence would have caused a paradox—but she still had no idea what the connection was to Tirek’s jailbreak. She turned to the two remaining observers. “Go outside. Now. Please.” She got the anomaly-modifying gem out of her saddlebag.

“We leave with you,” Egor declared.

“You can’t.” Twilight put her ring-shaped gem into position around the anomaly-creating gem. “I’m not the Twilight outside. I cannot return you to your proper time.” Or rather, herself visiting the future was not the best idea in the world.

“Does outside Twilight know about you?” he asked.

“I should hope so.” She started to gather up the slumbering humans. Kimberly would have to come back with her, proper time be bucked. Might as well save the others too. None will be returned to their realm anytime soon. “She’s my future self.”

“You should save as much equipment and records as you can,” Austin said.

A good idea. “Time?” she asked Meg.

Meg checked the monitor. “Two minutes, seven seconds.”

Twilight got busy. She started sweeping up whatever she could and dumped it all in a pile near the sleepers.

“One minute.”

More stuff over there. Twilight galloped to it and swept that up too, forming another pile.

“I… I have to stay,” Meg said like death warmed over. “I don’t know how, but nothing can happen to me.”

The last of the obvious stuff was added to yet another pile. “Because paradox, I know.” She moved the three piles close to each other, then her magic spread out to encompass both sleepers and piles.

A cough.

They were still here?! “Get over here,” she commanded, “and get down on your knees right there—just do it if you want to survive this.” There was no time for arguing. Nor was there time left for them to escape the building on foot. Nor was teleporting an option, not when the magic field didn’t extend to the exterior.

“Twenty seconds.”

Twilight stared helplessly at Meg. Logically, she knew there wasn’t sufficient time to invoke the return spell after clicking that button. Logically, she knew nothing could happen to Meg, because it’d be a paradox if something did happen to her. Logically, she knew nothing could survive what was about to happen.

“Fifteen seconds.”

There had to be something she could arrange that would click that bucking button after they’d departed. Maybe have an object drop onto that mouse? But it’d have to be high to buy sufficient time, and thus heavy enough to fall straight, but that may smash the mouse instead… if it didn’t miss.

“Ten seconds. What are you waiting for? Leave!”

The ventilation system quietly rumbled.

Her mind was blank. Maybe her future self would suddenly appear with the solution?

“F-five seconds. Leave already!”

Twilight invoked the return spell.

Comments

[Powerdrainer]

11785429
Not to be that guy, but didn't Tirek also call Sunset by her name? Back when Meg first met him in Tartarus he did mention Sunset wasn't with her.

“For centuries I’ve wasted away here. Even when allowed to stretch my legs… out there… there is no sunlight, no moonlight, no sky. Even something as simple as filling my lungs with air…” He gave her a surprisingly warm smile. “I shall forever be in your debt for breaking me out of this prison—”

What?!

He turned around. “Sunset Shimmer is not with you.”

So... yeah

[Sharp Quill]

11788166
Serves me right for rushing out a quick fix. Anyway, the fix to the fix has been applied.

Then it came to her: “You may call me Common Ground.” Meg looked aside to her companion. He had referred to her by her actual name. “And this is Sunset Shimmer.”

[TwilightPB]

shit's getting real.