Time travel is impossible... right? One pony is out to prove them all wrong.
Time Travel - The act of traversing time in a direction other than "Forward". It is widely considered impossible. But that won't stop this pony from unlocking its secrets.
These are the tales of Small Changes, and how they can have large impacts.
I have only just begun my research into this subject, and already one thing has become alarmingly obvious to me. Notes, notes, notes, and more notes. If I do not chronicle my research and discoveries beyond my own memories, I have no hope of mastering the theoretical art/science/headache of time travel.
That’s right, you read that right. I’m researching time travel. There’s a lot of data, but I will be keeping the raw stuff in a separate journal. Security and all that hogwash. This journal is to chronicle big discoveries and events pertaining to my research.
My hoof already hurts...
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Chrono Journal Entry #2,
Time travel. A, currently, theoretical concept. The concept makes a lot of assumptions about time. That it’s a line to be navigated, that it can be traversed in any direction besides “forward”, and that it can be changed.
The theory that time is pliable enough to be altered isn’t a new one, and is in fact very popular in many fictional stories I have encountered during my travels around Equus. That’s just it though. It was considered by most of the world fictional. I have my mind set on proving them wrong on that.
I presented my research on time travel, such as it is, to the Unicorn Council. My goal was to garner funding for further research. After all, money may not be the answer to life, but it certainly makes things easier.
I was laughed out of the castle.
Unicorns believe they know everything there is to know about magic, that they are almighty because of this. The fact that Alicorns exist proves them wrong, but often have I underestimated just how far one can go on ego and hubris alone.
I suppose this shouldn’t surprise me. Unicorns are almost all egotistical in one way or another. It’s just usually focused on magic. I, of course, include myself in that generalization. I’m well aware that I have my moments of being arrogant and egotistical. After all, if I’m going to tackle something like time travel, I have to have at least a large opinion of myself.
Onwards.
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Chrono Journal Entry #9,
Alcohol. Alcohol is a must for this kind of research.
Seriously, I haven’t had a migraine this bad since I ran into that strange albino Pegasus that could bend space in odd ways. Surprise indeed.
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Chrono Journal Entry #10,
So… getting piss drunk and ranting about crazy Pegasi and time and space bending in the middle of town was, in hindsight, a bad idea.
On the plus side, I seem to have caught the attention of a midnight blue Alicorn with my drunken ravings. She approached me as I was sitting in my cell, and inquired if what I spoke of was truly madness from the drink, or something serious. Once she understood that the topic of time travel was something I was heavily invested in researching, she paid my bail.
I showed her my research, and… well, I’m not sure what she did, but suddenly the Unicorn Council was tripping over themselves to offer me a rather generous budget for research.
I turned it down.
Call me a prideful fool, but I don’t want my research in the hooves of a group that would do nothing with it but let it gather dust on a shelf somewhere.
For some reason, that seemed to please the Alicorn.
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Chrono Journal Entry #21,
Ever since I met that Alicorn, Luna she calls herself, she has been keeping tabs on me and my research. She refuses to elaborate on why, only that she finds it interesting and, if nothing else, I am a better conversationalist than the stuffed shirts in the capital.
I, of course, completely agree, but still. Having an Alicorn watching me work over my shoulder is not a comforting thought or feeling.
Oh well, at least she doesn’t just automatically shoot down my theories as “impossible” the moment I speak them. She instead goes out of her way to poke holes in them. I appreciate the help, but her grin every time she does winds me up something fierce.
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Chrono Journal Entry #43,
The latest experiment, sending an apple ten seconds into the past, is going… somewhere. Ten seconds exactly before the timer would activate the spell, the apple explodes. Violently.
I need new lab equipment.
Luna, however, laughed herself sick once I explained to her what was happening. She refuses to say why. She says she’ll tell me if I haven’t solved this conundrum by next week.
On a side note, I have an abundance of applesauce now.
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Chrono Journal Entry #50,
For the past hour I have been smashing my head into the wall. My horn hurts.
Luna revealed to me why the apples keep exploding ten seconds before we send it back. Really, it was very simple. I’m ashamed of myself for not realizing it immediately.
What happens when two objects occupy the same space? Well, suffice to say, I’m glad I led this experiment with apples and not ponies. That would have been unpleasant.
There is good news to be had though! This means we have successfully been sending the apple back in time. This is great! With solid proof that time travel is possible, maybe now we can get somewhere!
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Chrono Journal Entry #...buck it, I don’t know,
Lab was vandalized again today.
Ever since I revealed the proof of time travel to the Unicorn Council, I have had to deal with some unicorns protesting against this research, claiming it as an affront to the laws of nature.
Magic alone is an affront to the laws of nature, you hypocritical little shits.
I’m sorry. I’ve been drinking again to deal with the stress. I really should stop writing while drunk…
Anyways, the lab’s been getting protesters in front of it almost weekly now, and sometimes riots form that lead to the lab being destroyed. Thankfully my research is stored in a magically locked safe, locked by Luna no less. Nothing short of a rampaging Alicorn is getting in there, so the only thing I lost is easily replaced equipment.
Still… It’s upsetting to know that the people, or at least some of them, are so against this research.
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Chrono Journal Entry #80,
Been a while since I last did some research. A lot happened, but I’ll try to summarize.
1. Ponykind damn near came to war with itself due to tribalism. 2. Hate between the three tribes brought the Windigos down on our collective heads. 3. The Alicorns were all but wiped out combating this threat. 4. A group of six ponies, two of each tribe, created a new magic that drove off the Windigos. I’m rather excited about this, for obvious reasons. 5. Windigos are only gone temporarily, so it’s time to move before they return. 6. We arrive at a brand new continent, only to discover it being ravaged by a self-styled god of Chaos. (Between you and me, after seeing him juggle the sun and moon in his hands, I believe it.) 7. The last two Alicorns, Luna and her older sister Celestia, somehow defeat Discord, the god of chaos, and save us all from insanity. 8. Luna and Celestia hailed as Goddesses. 9. Luna and Celestia take up the mantle of leadership for ponykind, becoming Princesses. 10. Continent is named Equestria, and the Princesses made it clear that cooperation and trust is mandatory. We don’t want the Windigos following us here after all. 11. Funding for time travel research was cut due to change in government. Despite that, I could not stop smiling at the thought of how those arrogant foals on the Unicorn Council must feel right now.
So, yeah. Busy. Funding was cut, but I’ve reached the point where I’m not burning through resources in experiments anyways. All I’m doing now is fine-tuning everything for the final experiment.
I’m going to send myself through time.
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Chrono Journal Entry #126,
I’m a man of science. I live my life based on logic, reason, and the scientific method. Even magic falls under the scope of science, though granted it is an entirely different form of science.
So it was admittedly rather difficult for me to pinpoint why I’ve been in such a depressed mood lately. The answer was, of course, simple.
I miss Luna.
Somehow, I’m not entirely certain how, she became my friend during our many talks about time travel. However, with her rise to divinity in the eyes of the people, as well as her responsibility as a Diarch of Equestria, it has been months since I last spoke to her.
It’s surprising how much loneliness hurts after you’ve lived without it for so long.
Maybe I’ll go visit her at that new city they’re constructing on Mt. Canter.
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Chrono Journal Entry #137,
This is it. This will be my final entry. I am about to begin the final experiment; travelling through time.
Initially, I have been unsure where, or rather, when I should aim for. I mean, all of time at my hooves! Think of the possibilities!
But after Nightmare Moon, and the prophecy that came to me, I know exactly when I’m going.
Still, there are some things to consider.
See, even though I’ve figured out how to travel through time, I have yet to figure out the consequences of such an action. There’s a lot to consider. What will happen if I change the past? Can I prevent myself from inventing time travel in the first place, creating a paradox? What happens to the timeline you change? Does it disappear and get replaced by the new one, or do both exist at the same time, separated by points of divergence like a Y?
Am I really travelling through time, or just travelling to other timelines that match my goal?
I suppose I’ll find out. Best to start with Small Changes.
Right. I'm alive, and quite clearly somewhere unfamiliar. The downside is that my fur is now statically charged and floofed up quite badly, and my exit from the jump had been less than graceful.
I seemed to have acquired a great deal of kinetic energy during the jump from one time period to another. I'll need to look into why that happened. Shooting across the landscape only to land with my snout grinding against gravel for a few feet upon landing is not something I want to experience again. And, as I said, I acquired a lot of static electricity during the trip. Another thing to look into.
I have landed in a grassy plane with no one around. I am unsure where I am, or when provided the spell actually worked as intended. I see no buildings or structures nearby...
Oh dear...
That is, undeniably, Mt. Canter. It is also undeniably bare. No Canterlot City on the side of the mountain. I seem to have gone backwards in time. My intention had been to go forward, to the point where Nightmare Moon would return.
Curious... It appears my method of time travel must be refined. At least it works! Huzzah!
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Entry #2
I have just wandered around the countryside for roughly three days. Thankfully I am quite adept at wilderness survival, so food and water has not been an issue, and my magic is powerful enough that constructing a simple shelter almost doesn't even make me break a sweat.
There are no ponies to be found, so this is clearly before the Windigo Disaster. There is also no sign of the Mad God. That does no necessarily bode well. All signs before he was defeated pointed to him ruling this land for hundreds of years. Ancients texts that have been dug up since he was defeated point out that some entity worse than Discord called this place home back then.
I must leave.
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Entry #3
I cast the time travel spell again, this time while having a passive scanning spell attached to me to get a read on what happens during the transfer. Once again I exited the jump as if launched from a cannon, this time far more violently. Thankfully, I didn't go sliding across the ground. No, instead I almost immediately slammed into a smooth vertical surface.
The sound of my body hitting the surface had drawn attention to me, and before I could recover my bearings a ring had been placed on my horn and shining bracelets made of a strange metal similar to polished bronze placed on my forelegs. I instantly lost control of my muscles and went limp.
Then, to my surprise, I was brought before the ruler of the time period I found myself in. An Alicorn, but no Alicorn I knew of. Her fur was lavender in color, her mane two-toned with dark violet and rose colored strands. And, like Celestia and Luna, it waves as if the mane itself was immaterial. She called herself Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship, and current ruler of the country while the rest of the Royal Family was away on diplomatic missions.
I spent the next few hours having a strange conversation with her. Apparently, this was far from the first time she had met me, and had in fact been expecting my arrival at around this time. She told me that the spell I created for time travel was flawed and actually damaged the fabric of time and space in permanent ways, and that I had to recreate and refine it before I would be allowed to leave her time period. That was what the ring was for. It didn't inhibit my magic, but somehow prevented the time travel spell from being used. I can access my magic fully, just not that spell in particular. The ring was, of course, secured by her own magic, which was so much more powerful than mine that I may as well have been trying to move the planet with a spoon.
She was never threatening, and in fact quite kind and generous. She went out of her way to assure me that I was not being held in this time period against my will. I am free to travel and go where I wish, even settle down in what she calls the city of Ponyville. I can even continue time travelling, but only after I fixed my spell, or developed a new and better one.
I inquired as to the condition of Luna, but Twilight became tight lipped here. She said that My future self had made it clear that she could not tell me about Luna or any other future events unless unavoidable.
It seemed I have quite the adventure with time travel ahead of me. I'm actually a little excited at the prospect!
I guess I better get to work on that new spell. Thank the stars I chronicled all of my discoveries and designs in a separate journal I brought with me.
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Entry #4
It has been a week, and I think I've finally figured out why my time travel spell was so dangerous. I designed it to essentially dig a hole from one point in time to another, using nothing more than brute force. Apparently those holes don't just close once the spell ends, leaving the times connected and interacting with each other. No wonder Twilight was so adamant that I fix this.
The problem is that I can't fix it. The spell was designed around this idea. All the variables and formulas are calibrated towards utilizing the hole.
I have burned the journal that held all of my plans on my first time travel spell. If nothing else, it is clear I can never allow this spell to be used again.
Since then I have been discussing time travel with Twilight. While she refuses to give me access to the magical development and technology of the era, she readily tells me whether or not my ideas will work and why. WIth great joy.
She reminds me of Luna.
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Entry #5
I think I've made a breakthrough.
Twilight has, surprisingly, allowed me access to materials if necessary. It appears the materials of this era are open to me, just not the knowledge of how they are made. One material in particular, a Phase Crystal, has been brought to my attention. Phase crystals are apparently uniquely sensitive to time, and are in face connected to it somehow. Twilight has readily admitted that the time machines of her era make use of the crystals. I had immediately realized what she had just revealed to me.
I asked why she didn't just give me one of those time machines. Her response surprised me.
"Your adventures through time are a legendary, Starswirl. Your legend is what motivated ponies to learn the science of time travel. If I gave you a time machine you would one day be the inspiration for, it could lead to an unstable time loop, one that changes with every iteration."
So it's not that she doesn't want to help, but rather that she's acting to protect the timeline. Okay. I asked her if there was anything she could do for me, any help she could give. She got quiet after that, appearing to consider something. Then she used her magic to summon an item to her. It was a pocket-watch, gold and plain, but merrily ticking away.
"I once dabbled in the study of time and how it affected the physical world. As this was before I was inspired by your legend, I think its safe to give you this much."
She had given me the watch. I asked her how it supposedly helped. She smiled. "Time is not a physical thing, as you know, but that doesn't mean it has no connection to the physical world. Time is tied to some objects far more than others, affects some objects more than others." She had pointed at the watch in my magical aura. "Take that for example. Time is tied more strongly to this watch than it is to, say... a tree. Figure out why, and you should be able to go from there."
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Entry #6
It really wasn't hard for me to figure out what Twilight meant by time being tied more to some objects than others. I had begun my journey assuming time was just one big stream that moved at one speed, and everything within that stream also moved at that speed. But no, it's not that at all. Time is a force of nature, and like all forces of nature, it affects different things in different ways.
Take the watch and tree analogy Twilight had given me. Time affects the watch and the tree differently. The tree appears to not be affected, but as time goes on you notice it changing, growing, and dying. Without condensing time into a small space, you cannot perceive the slight influence time has on the tree.
But the watch? The watch was designed specifically to be affected by time. Time can not only be perceived with the watch, but it can be measured.
It has now been a month since Twilight gave me the watch. I have, with the help of some engineers Twilight lent me the aid of, designed a simple magitech time travel device. The device relies on the very watch Twilight gave me to work.
The reason my spell was not depositing me where, or rather when, I wanted to go was because I never gave a stable and unchanging method to measure and calculate time. Using the second, minutes, and hours of the watch, I can jump forward and backward in time by the amount of time I specify into the device.
It is not nearly as refined as the stuff Twilight has. I can only go forward and backward by setting an amount of time I wish to travel. I cannot yet pick a date and come to that. It is, however, enough to get me started. Twilight herself has vouched for the safety of the device and, after extracting a magical oath from me to never willingly use my prototype time travel spell again, the ring on my horn was removed.
Before I left though, Twilight suggested I not head to the time I initially wanted to. Not yet at least. Instead, she set my device to take me to a certain time and told me I would be needed there. Not one to ignore someone potentially in need of help, I agreed.
With the time already set, I simply had to press the dial of the pocket-watch in three times in quick succession. Then I was off.
So, I haven’t actually had much time to do anything since I exited the time jump to the time Twilight Sparkle sent me to. I'm currently shacked up in a fairly simple hut, but it was biggest house in the village. The ponies consider me a hero, though I don't really feel like one. I decided to write this journal after I finished my adventure in this time, and I will be leaving tomorrow.
I suppose I should start with the obvious.
First of all, I’d like to note that the transition from the previous time to this one was very smooth, almost like taking a step.
Of course, I didn’t get to admire that smoothness for long before artillery spells were destroying the ground around me. I… may have panicked… a little.
As in, I instinctively responded with at least four different, far more powerful, artillery spells of my own. I think it was four. Maybe. I may be rounding down... a lot.
Suffice to say, a large chunk of my magical education before focusing my studies on time travel was dominated by learning war spells and having the instincts of a battle-mage ingrained into me. The Kingdom of the Three Tribes, what amounted to the country of the ponies before Equestria was founded, was not a kind place. Ever.
Then artillery from the other side caught me off guard. Whatever hit me knocked me out.
When I woke up, it was to a very painful migraine, a sore body, and three stone brick walls with a single barred wall. On closer inspection I realized the bars were wrought iron. Huh. I must be in some of the really early days. Wrought iron was the go-to method of containing Unicorns before inhibitor rings were invented two hundred years prior to my original time.
I had been imprisoned, though I was not contained. Wrought iron would certainly slow me down… but the sloppy stone work it was built into would not. However, I decided not to escape. While I had a general idea of when I was now, I didn’t know the exact date yet. Also, all of my stuff had been taken from me while I was unconscious, including this journal and my time travel device.
I needed to find out where my stuff was. Considering I was alive, whoever captured me likely wanted something from me, so I knew I just had to wait to get some answers.
It hadn’t taken long for someone to come to me, as I had expected. What I wasn’t expecting was a Dragon to walk in.
Pitch black scales, and grey membranes on their wings. His reddish orange eyes almost looked like fire. He had a single brown satchel over his shoulder and wore a black chain around his neck. A literal chain of command, a tradition dragons had maintained even in my present time period. Black, or onyx, meant a General. If I ever saw a dragon wearing a chain made of rubies, then I knew to steer very clear of them. That would be the Dragon Lord.
I let him question me first without complaint. He asked the basic questions. My name, my age, my home.
Then he asked me to low-ball my average magical output for him. I told him the last test I took to check my average output put me in the range of 2000 units. I didn’t tell him that my last test was shortly after I graduated from school.
He grew silent then, looking contemplative, before sighing. Then he took the satchel and upturned up in front of him, depositing this journal and the time travel device on the stone floor between us. He picked up the journal, leafed through it, then set it down in front of the bars of my cell, open to the entry before this one.
The entry that detailed why I came to this time period, and the fact that I had travelled through time to begin with.
An interesting characteristic of dragons is that their size is nearly directly proportional to their greed. That fact popping up in my mind is the only reason I didn’t immediately begin panicking. This dragon was civil, spoke clearly and with carefully measured words, and most of all… he was only slightly bigger than me. This was a dragon not ruled by greed, but that did not change the fact that I had been imprisoned, likely by his orders.
I asked what he expected of me.
“Do we win?” he asked.
I had to ask what he meant. He explained that he was talking about a war between dragons and ponies that he says had erupted only days before.
Ah. The Skyland War. A war between dragons and ponies that lasted all of a week. Some call it the Seven Day War. My time period didn’t know how the war started, nor do we know how it ended, only that dragons had surrendered.
He asked how dragons were treated after the war. I explained that a tentative peace had been established, but dragons were not allowed into the lands of Equestria for a couple decades. The peace, despite unease between the two races, lasted all the way to my time period.
He seemed contemplative after that, and sat silently for a few minutes. Finally, he asked me a startling question. “We were never meant to win, were we?”
I had been confused. He elaborated with a confession. “I lied about when the war started. What you call the Skyland War happened seven years ago… and dragons won.”
What?
It had been the appearance of a pony who could control fire like no dragon could, the General told me. A pony that claimed to have fled a corrupt Canterlot, and desired to help the Dragon Lord raze the fledgling nation to the ground. This pony was careful to never show their face, and even utilized magic to disguise their voice. Often the Generals received their orders through telegrams that appeared in front of them magically.
This pony somehow changed not only the war, but time itself when they led the dragons to victory.
I asked who the dragons were fighting now if not ponies. He said it was rebel remnants of ponies, a group calling themselves the Blades. They had somehow devised a way to mimic the magic of dragons and turn it against them. While small in numbers, every single one of them had the potential to kill hundreds of dragons if not handled carefully.
I had remarked on how alarming it was for ponies to so quickly adapt to warfare, before recalling my own time in the Unicorn Military. Ponies did not easily go to war, true… but when we finally do, it tends to get ugly.
I eventually decided to answer his previous question. No, dragons were not supposed to win. I told him that ponies would win, through a means lost to the history of my time, and would eventually form a stable, if uneasy, peace. Ponies would also begin research into helping dragons who lacked the natural talent for controlling their greed. Last I had heard before I began my adventures through time, ponies had discovered dragon magic could align itself along a basic moral spectrum and thus their bodies and minds were influenced by their emotions. They were testing methods of locking down that connection between emotions and magic before I left.
The dragon sighed wistfully. “I had always known going to war with you ponies would be our undoing, and now I know it is because we need you if we ever want to overcome our nature.”
Then he shocked me by unlocking the door to my cell and opening it. “Come with me. Quickly. It won’t be long before that accursed pony get here. She had some kind of spell on the lock. She knows I opened it.”
If I had to say with certainty when it was I joined the resistance of this time, it was when I stepped outside the jailhouse and saw the sight of ponies everywhere.
Lifeless… And not even a scratch. They were dead, there was no doubt. But… how they died was a mystery.
What in Tartarus were the dragons doing?!
He shoved my saddlebags onto my back and pointed east. “Do not stop running until the sun sets. Even then, do not stop completely. Keep going until you find Knothole.” Then he turned and breathed a great gout of flame at the jailhouse, igniting it. There must have been explosives inside, because chain detonations began going off. “GO! NOW!!!”
I didn’t look back. I didn’t need to. Not seconds after I cleared the camp and passed the treeline into the surrounding forests, I heard his roars of agony.... And then silence.
I never learned his name. But his face… his face will always be first in the line of faces in my mind that never fades. No matter how much I sometimes wish they would.
