All Is Relative

By The Midnight Stalker

It All Seemed Simple Right? At Least That's What I Thought. Now I Know Time Is A Poorly Understood Concept, Yet We Experience It Daily. Then We Tried To Manipulate It And That Didn't Work. So Now We Just Travel On Through As Tourists. The Trade Is Good Too, But Much More Tricky.

Were To Start. At The Beginning I Suppose

Year 981 Celestia's Rein: First Timeline

I had a simple life. Not much To say about it. So I wont go into details. You do need to know that I was a Clocksmith, and that's what led to everything that followed. You see I wasn't content on simply making clocks, I wanted to understand time itself. So I delved into all the books I could find. Then I started to take courses at The University of Canterlot. Thankfully my folks were willing to fork over cash needed to go.

Long story short I wound up getting a Bachelors in Temporal Science. Turns out I was better at that than Clock Making.

______________________________________________________

Year 1006 Celestia's Rein: First Timeline

I Had Done It.

Nopony had thought it was possible. That and the fact I was the only one working on it. You see Temporal Science tends to focus on the 'what' of time, not the 'how'. And That's how my research differed from that of my colleges. Anyway I had done it. I had created a sustainable form of time travel. Sure there were spells and what not that you could use, A rather famous incident involving Twilight Sparkle a few years back comes to mind, But they aren't practical for non unicorns and they are short lived. No, mine was better. Anypony could use it, and you could stay as long as you wished, if you have enough batteries that is. It runs on 6 AA batteries. It's economical as well.

All the preliminary testing was done, now all I had to do was just to turn it on. I threw the switch and FLASH!!!!

_______________________________________________________

Year ? : Second Timeline

I wake up. Looking around I realize that I'm still in my lab. That was a big wast of time. Oh well, back to the drawing board. I look at the clock.

" I think I'll go get lunch" I say to myself.

There is a diner just down the road from the University that most of the Faculty likes. I normally don't like crowds, but I'll brave anything for some of their cider and fries. Hell I'd even take on a dragon just to get there. Okay Maybe not a dragon, but you get my point. As I walk down the road I notice things aren't quite the same. Nothing major, just small things. They aren't wrong, just different some how. Then I get to the restaurant. Or where it use to be.

I looked around for somepony to ask. I spotted a dark brown earth pony with a rather interesting mane color ( Hint it was puck green).

" Hey where did the resturaunt go?"

" Um excuse me sir?" He just stares at me.

" Yeh there was a pretty good diner here yesterday"

" Sir there wasn't any diner, just this designer's shop."

" Oh."

At that he gets up and trots away. I then begin to panic, not sure what to think. I ran all the way back to the lab.

Once there I study the device looking for a sign that something happened. Then I notice that the batteries are drained. So it did do something. I run over to my equations and check them, sure enough in the third line I spot a mistake. Then it hits me. I didn't travel through time, I traveled into another Time stream!!!

___________________________________________________________________

Present: Second Timeline.

So I freaked out some. Then I collected myself and popped in another set of batteries. By reversing the magnetic field produced by the Device I hoped to return home, but things are rarely that simple. Instead I wound up in yet another Timeline. I stayed just Long enough to see what was different. Not much.

____________________________________________________________________

Now I've been hopping, that's what I call it, for going on 10 years now. I'm still trying to get home, but I doubt I'll ever see it again. I've met some interesting characters and Seen some interesting places. Did you know that There even a Timeline where everything is reversed, not just genders or or physical traits; personalities, loyalties, etc. It was still odd seeing a female Discord in charge of everything. I asked her about the Princesses ( or Princes), but she didn't go into details. It was also kinda odd being a Mare. You know I have never met myself either.