Rainbow Dash flared her wings and began to slow down. “We’re here.”

Her passenger dropped the short distance to the ground and landed with a small ‘oof’.

“Thank you. Now I know you don’t like to stay still, and this will take a while. Fortunately for you, you happen to show up back at the library pretty soon to tell me that you dropped me here. And as you know, you already picked me up when this was over. So you’re off the hook. Go on back to Ponyville and let me know I’m here.”

“Awesome. Maybe now that you’re calling in the big guns we can get this whole thing taken care of!”

“Not exactly… this isn’t for that. I figured out you and Applejack a while ago. Somewhere around four days from now. This is a much bigger problem that I just don’t have the resources to resolve on my own.”

“You’ve got as many of you and me and any other pony as you need! How can you not have enough to work with?”

“No, I’ve only got one of you and one of me. And one of a few other ponies after I talk to the Princess.”

“Well, yeah right NOW you only have one of each. But you can just make more!”

“While I COULD do that, that’s actually part of the problem. Something… really bad is happening. And I’m fairly certain we’re responsible. Ponies aren’t meant to travel through time, and nothing good can come of it.”

“You saying me and AJ being together isn’t a good thing?”

“No, but SOME ponies have found much easier ways to confess their love for each other than dashing back and forth through time to set it all up. Like maybe just coming out and SAYING IT.”

“It’s… it’s not as easy as you make it sound, Twilight.”

“No, I suppose it probably isn’t. But it can’t possibly be any harder than THIS.”

---------------------------------------------------

Four purple unicorns circled a table and discussed the fate of Equestria, while one more ran through large and complex calculations on a chalkboard off to one side. Rainbow Dash burst in through the door, earning glares from all five of them.

“TWILIGHT…S! WE HAVE A PROBLEM!”

Two Twilight Sparkles groaned while two more questioned in unison, “What is it this time, Dash?”

“THIS!” Dash shouted as she held thrust out a hoof, holding Scootaloo in the air.

“You’re going to need to be a little more specific. Yes, she and the other Crusaders can be a handful, but what exactly did she do that relates to our particular brand of concerns?”

“THERE ARE TWO OF HER! The other one is still in Ponyville as far as I know. Wait, why are there five of you? I thought we had fixed everything!”

“Which Ponyville did you find them in?”

“Wait, WHICH Ponyville? As in… there’s more than one?”

“Okay! Question time is over. We need to focus. Scootaloo is a secondary concern – there are two or more of a lot of things there shouldn’t be two or more of right now.”

“So what do you want me to do with her?”

One Twilight switched to an angry expression. “I don’t know and I don’t CARE. Take her to get ice cream or something! We’re very busy, and every minute we waste is another minute that another timeline collision could happen. For the first time in a long time, we don’t have much time to waste! We can’t risk going forward or back from here to help us fix everything because there’s already too much stress on the fabric of reality and we have NO idea what kind of effect we’ve been having on it. It’s quite probable that we caused this! Now where was I/we? Do any of me have any fresh ideas? We need to figure out what to do as soon as we can, because whatever strain is causing all this in the first place certainly can’t be alleviated by even more of us showing up!” She was breathing heavily, one eye twitching intensely. Another Twilight brushed past Dash and joined the circle of unicorns at the table. Twitchy Twilight began to lose control of her other eye.

Rainbow Dash slunk back and left the library. Just outside the door, she spotted herself. “Hey, any idea what’s going on?”

“Bad time junk that doesn’t involve us.”

“And the twitchy, angry Twilight?”

“Four words. Time. Travelling. Pinkie. Pie.”

Dash’s eye began to twitch.

Another Twilight trotted into the library.

---------------------------------------------------

Somewhere, if the concept of ‘where’ even had any meaning back there, a lavender unicorn smiled. She stared deeply into the spider web of light in front of her, carefully watching each strand of light and each bright point as the thing pulsed gently. Her horn emitted a soft glow and a bright spot in the web dulled as a line stretched outward from it to connect with a nearby bright spot. Soon, if the concept of ‘soon’ even had any meaning back there, her master plan would be complete. The metaphor worked on so many levels. An intricately woven plan, put together by a master predator to catch a hapless fly. A fly that would provide the nourishment necessary for the spider to carry on. The whole thing was just too delicious.

For the first time, if time had any meaning anymore, in quite a while… she felt a swelling of pride. She had been taught well. Here she was, working with magics too deep and arcane for all but the very brightest to even begin to understand, and skillfully playing a chess game of incredible complexity. That metaphor tasted sour. Rainbow Dash’s versatility obviously required her to be considered the queen, while Celestia was awkward and difficult to put into place. She didn’t like the idea of Queen Dash and Knight Celestia, but she let it go. You can’t win them all. If the concept of ‘all’ even had any meaning back there.