There was another knock at the door. Twilight Sparkle groaned as she magically opened the door, not bothering to look up from her notes.
“Dash, I don’t know how you ever expect me to figure this out if I keep getting interrupted like this.”
“You can’t. That’s why I’m here.”
Twilight craned her neck to get a good luck at herself. “I’m sorry, run that by me again?”
Rainbow Dash stepped in through the still open door. “You’re going to switch places with yourself. You already know how this works, and I need to start heading back. There are getting to be way too many of me hanging around here.”
The lavender unicorn who wasn’t confused looked at herself. “It’s simple. I’m going to send you with Dash here to the future – to a time when there’s only ONE of everypony. You get peace and quiet so you can think, and I get started sending all the Rainbows forward to where they need to be next. THIS Rainbow Dash needs to get back to a few minutes after she left so I can send her back again to stop herself from stopping herself so they can all go find her and get her turned around so she doesn’t run into herself.”
Twilight Sparkle blinked.
“Nevermind, you don’t have to worry about this part yet. NONE of them ever end up talking to Applejack. They’re all just loose ends that need to be tied up. I’ll be dealing with all the leftover Rainbows. YOU worry about their relationship and getting time travel up and running. That should just leave a few extra Applejacks to deal with before everpony involved in this mess has been tended to. Rainbow Dash, could you please escort me back to the future? I haven’t got a lot of time right now. Well, I guess I do, but you know what I mean.”
---------------------------------------------------
Twilight Sparkle, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Applejack, Applejack, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Rainbow Dash, and Rainbow Dash all stood around the chalkboard in the middle of the library.
“Are ya’ COMPLETELY sure ya’ve got this all under control? I know y’all’re mighty smart, but this seems like a bit much ta handle, even fer you. Even fer three of ya.”
Nopony said anything for a few moments. Twilight Sparkle seemed to be calm, but Twilight Sparkle’s left eye was twitching slightly. Twilight Sparkle finally broke the silence. “As difficult as this is, bringing in more help will only make it worse. I’m already regretting deciding to get my help.”
Twilight’s ears fell slightly. She knew she didn’t mean it like that, but still… Twilight didn’t seem to notice, still mentally looking over her charts and graphs. Rainbow Dash spoke.
“Maybe we should ask the Princess for help. Maybe somepony before has messed around with time travel, and the Princess knows something about it?”
“Are you CRAZY? We can’t tell Celestia about all the trouble we’ve caused! She would probably banish us! Or throw us in a dungeon! Or…”
“Yeah yeah, banishment AND a dungeon, we’ve heard. But come ON Twilight, you know the Princess wouldn’t do that! Fluttershy birdnapped her pet, and she didn’t get punished at all!”
“There’s a pretty big difference between taking a phoenix and putting it in no real danger, and jeopardizing the whole of Equestria by juggling a few dozen ponies back and forth across time!”
“So what do ya recommend we do? Just keep quiet about the whole thing forever, and if anypony asks just lie and say we was havin’ a party? The Princess is gonna find out sooner er later.”
The argument was interrupted by Rainbow Dash bursting through the door. “Everypony calm down, there’s no point in arguing anymore. I just took Twilight to Canterlot. She’s going to explain everything.”
“What? No! I have to stop me! “ Shouted one of the lavender mares. She turned to face Rainbow Dash. “You have to go bring me back!”
“Don’t be ridiculous, if she could do that, then it already would have happened! She’s obviously thought this through and taken precautions to stop you from stopping her.”
“But I AM her! I’ll be able to figure out a way around whatever I’ve set up to stop me from stopping me!”
“But you ARE her, eventually. Which means you chose to do this after more thought than you’ve given it yet. You eventually come to the conclusion that it’s the right answer.”
“Why are you on HER side? I can’t believe I’ve gone so crazy that I think telling the Princess is a good idea!”
“Well I can’t believe that I was so crazy that I thought I could thwart a plan set into motion by my FUTURE SELF. Don’t you realize that you know everything you’re going to try to do? You’ve already tried it! You can see every move you make before you even make it!”
Three Rainbow Dashes had decided to ignore the spectacle and discuss getting some food. Rainbow Dash couldn’t stop thinking about what she could do with THREE Applejacks - not that she’d get the chance. Rainbow Dash had snuck off to a corner with Applejack.
---------------------------------------------------
Applebloom and Sweetie Belle had dismissed it as impossible, but Scootaloo was sure that Dash had been in two places at once. She followed Rainbow Dash as stealthily as she could. The rainbow maned pegasus must have been quite distracted, because Scootaloo was not particularly stealthy. Attempts at becoming Cutie Mark Crusader Ninjas went very poorly.
The little orange pegasus wasn’t watching where she was going, and tripped over herself. No really, she tripped over HERSELF.
“What the hay?”
“What the hay?”
“Who are you?”
“Who are you?”
“I asked you first!”
“I asked you first!”
“Nuh-uh, I asked you first!”
“Nuh-uh, I asked you first!”
“…”
“…”
“RAINBOWDASHISTHEGREATEST!”
“RAINBOWDASHISTHEGREATEST!”
The two Scootaloos sat in silence, staring at each other for several minutes before simultaneously starting to grin mischievously. It didn’t matter how or why there had come to be two of her, but she knew herself well enough to know she wouldn’t want to waste a chance like this. This was going to be good.
Celestia help us all
and that, children, is why time travel will be outlawed less than a second after the first successful demonstration.
also, I hope we will have some Time Travel Tense Trouble soon ("we will meet five minutes ago" "actually, no. we already have been met in ten minutes").
finaly, I agree with 5406 . Sun and Moon help us all indeed.
I just... yeah, I've completely given up any hope of following all the loops. Please do provide charts at some point.
Where's the Doctor when ya need him?
Given the way this is going, I'm pretty sure he'd be the only one able to figure out this temporal causality/casualty loop/paradox/whatever... since we've got at least three of half the mane cast, plus another dozen Dashes, then Scoot's come back as well... this thing is a completely paradoxical quantum mess.
Oh, Celestia DAMNIT, Scootaloo.
Buh... You know, it would be easier if the first RBD was Rainbow Dash 1, the second was Rainbow Dash 2, so on and so forth.
Okay, I finally managed to understand everything. If only my ears would stop bleeding.
Don't understand too many ponies ... what would happen of all the Pinkie's met up? Other than Equestria exploding, I mean. Awesome story, just felt like I needed to comment somewhere before reading more.
JESUS DFUKYASEGKURGVWEUR CELESTIA! DOCTOR WHOOVES! ANYPONY!
This is hilarious in different and unusual ways!
YOU, BUT I, BUT YOU!
EQUESTRIAISFUCKEDNOWBECAUSETHEYHAVEINCEPTIONTYPESHITGOINGONTHATWILLMOSTLIKELYCAUSEATEARINTHESPACETIMECONTINUUMANDDESTROYALLLIFEINEQUESTRIA
At first I was like
But now I'm all
i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv25/drakmorg/PinkiePie_Brainfulloffuck.jpg
Ah time travel stories, they utterly confuse me, but are entirely worth it just because of lines like “What? No! I have to stop me!“
Oh hey, I ask for more Scootaloo, and voila.
Hmmm....Scootadeux?
Why would you do this! :D
I don't really know how but I understand everything that has gone on I think time travel is at work and if not cool. time travel is awesome because no matter what you do nothing different will happen because you already did it.
Scene 2, Sentence 1
Mind explosion. I have no idea what's going on, but I'm smiling the entire time.
LMAO WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!?!?!?!?
This story just keeps getting crazier and crazier.
and that's awesome.
images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110803004139/mlp/images/f/f3/Spike_Confused.png
me too spike... me too
"Twilight Sparkle, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Applejack, Applejack, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Rainbow Dash, and Rainbow Dash all stood around the chalkboard in the middle of the library." - I nearly broke my lungs laughing so hard.
Oh fuckin snap...
I don't even. This is so deliciously confusing and hilarious to boot.
How can this not even be halfway through yet?...