Inspired by Eakin's Time Loop series.
In an alternate timeline where Star Swirl's Chronomantic works were never published and time magic was hushed into non-existence, the stallion learns a bitter reality about his Princesses, and the nature of the truth they guard.
One thousand years later ponies go about their daily lives, and Twilight Sparkle has never questioned the standards set by her mentor. When an unknown entity begins to stalk her from the shadows, attempting to manipulate her to their own ends, forcing that same truth onto her, will that faith stand?
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Cover Art is AI generated.
Chapters (27)
> The higher up you go, the heavier the effects of atmospheric pressure on a given liquid
I think you meant to light “lighter the effects”.
> I didn’t say anything, but after studying Pinkie’s pinkie sense, I’ve found picking up on ponies’ other social gives
Social cues.
> only occasionally interrupted by ponies coming in to rent out or return a book or two.
… rent? Does this version of Equestria rent books like movies (remember that?) instead of just loaning them like libraries normally do?
> It’s not too uncommon for earth ponies to get curious about magical theory, glancing over the pages of rune matrices and trying to visualize the process, or more commonly they’re renting out a book in their name for a unicorn friend as a favor.
“Not too uncommon” and “commonly” are close to the same thing but they’re separated here, making the meaning confusing. Perhaps you mean “it’s not too common”? The unaltered meaning suggests earth ponies would borrow unicorn magic books just for fun, which is contradicted by what you later say about the 80/20 of who borrows, and what they borrow.
> bedside, but he’s ready in moments on the drop of a dime,
Unnecessary duplication of metaphor, only one of these is needed to convey the idea.
> Papers Please
I love this name for a pony. For extra fun, give him a background working the border-control office for the Equestrian government.
> advanced temporal logistics
… logistics? They have a branch of magic that has to do with time-travel *and* the flow of goods or materials?
11443962
All good shouts, danke
not too uncommon was meant to read "Not too uncommon" but the italics got lost in conversion to BBcode.
Very good and interesting story so far!
11447112
Thank you :)
Amazing work. I. LOVE. THIS.
The hard reset story is the first story I have ever read on this site, and I loved it. The extremely grimdark prospect, mental challenges, endless potential and the mystery created a nigh-perfect story. To see it being recreated is a dream come true. I will be keeping an eye on you, my dear word-smith!
So, is goldfish a time-traveler themselves? Because I do not see how else their actions are possible.
Well then, we have the antagonists for the story revealed already I guess. Good job as always.
11444596
What AI program art did you use?
If I may so kindly ask madame
11450285
NovelAI, I generated a half-decent image with a lot of tags like 'Cosmic, space, Twilight Sparkle casting Time Magic, Asleep,' etc, then fed that image into it to fine-tune details until it looked half decent.
Costs $10 a month, but it's a fun toy to mess around with.
11451020
Ah gotcha thanks for the info
There is a distinct lack of time travel here. Or so it seems. Maybe we have already traveled through time, and just haven`t noticed.
11452033
Chapter 7 introduces the first applications of Tempomancy
Everybody gangsta till the child starts spittin facts.
Did Twilight somehow overwrite the respawn gem Luna gave her with Goldfish's data?
I would call all of this the work of a shadow government if it wasn`t for the fact everyone knew who the princesses were.
This whole bit is just wonderfully done. Finally, we get the time travel. I was so excited by its appearance, in fact, that I am going back to reading hard reset. See ya in a bit.
11453229
🤷
keep up the good work.
Suprisingly good story that need more attention.
Beautiful realationship between Twilight and Celestia! I hope Star Swirl doesnt spoil them very much!
Rip goldfish
I wonder if this means anything...
Is this story going to go on forever?
11513577
I expect it to hit a quarter million words if that's what you mean.
So much “I”
11521614
perils of first person init
I think. Is real Luna looks like Nightmare Moon?
11542237
In Star Swirl’s mind, Nightmare Moon is the real, ‘untamed’ Luna
Great, let's find out what happening already! Can always rely on good old T. Sparks to get to get right on to getting information...
The bed ain't running either, let's get on to talking with this mysterious Goldfish.
Oh for fuck's sake, one of these. Fine, he can come along too and help interrogate Goldfish, just so long as he doesn't obstruct our intrepid heroes.
All good questions, let's go get some answers!
Oh come on, not the old "scary angry matron who can stare down world-saving heroes" bit again, it's so dumb and tired. 🙄
SHE'S. A. NURSE! Tell her to bite a lemon!
Whatever, Goldfish can be brought to Twilight, right? Right?
Yeah, come on, let's get some answers already!
NO GODDAMNIT FUCKING BITCH CUNT WHORE-!
Yes, please just fucking do so already.
Yeah, okay great, whatever.
Man, fuck your fucking feelings, go cry some other time, just tell us what's going on already...
Just get on with it...
Oh, so this whole "not going to interrogate Goldfish was just a big useless waste... yeah, who could have thought...
GET ON WITH IT!
Great, maybe there's something in them about what's going on!
...
And it's fucking
nothing.
Oh. Oh she looks pissed?
WELL SHE CAN FUCKING JOIN THE CLUB OF APOPLECTIC ASS-MAD BRAIN BURSTING SCREAMING BERSERKERGANG, BUT NOT BEFORE WAITING IN LINE, BECAUSE I AM THE PRESIDENT, THE TREASURER AND THE WHOLE REST OF THE CLUBHOUSE AND THE NEXT FIFTY IN LINE FOR MEMBERSHIP!
FUCK SPIKE. FUCK GOLDEN NIPPLEPIERCING, AND ESPECIALLY
FUCK
REDHEART
WITH A GODDAMN SPIKED CROWBAR
Okay, I'm good. I'm good now.
... fuck!
Alrighty. I'm very confused by the first part, but hopefully it'll make sense later.
Amazing keep up the good work dude <3
This is going to lead to so much complication. I'm assuming it takes more energy to power the spell then can be sent back through it, or that the future or past object can't leave while it's active, since otherwise I feel like this just leads to infinite armies instantly for anything.
smack
Thank you so much for writing this i was always really sad that soft/hard reset ended early and this seems like/is a really good spiritual successer with some really cool spins
11593858
Glad you enjoy it, it’s been a fun side project to have :)
This is going to be on pause for a couple months, focusing on a D&D campaign I'm running. Not a dead story :)
I'm calling it now, Goldfish is Future Twilight once she finished the spell and is basically doing something similar to the episode "It's about time". She is doing a causality loop like in the episode which may fix the Thermal problem, since it always was going to happen anyways.
so, im out. but i wonder if she gets the point of 'everybody is the asshole' that this could be leading to.
Why did you update then immediately cancel it.
Author says at the beginning of the chapter...
11789966
It's an unfinished chapter from months ago.
11790040
thanks for publishing that, dont be shy to update this a couple of years down the line just becouse of the delay though :p