MLP Loops 118
118.1
“Okay, girls,” Twilight said, nodding. “I think I understand. I'm surprised it hasn't happened sooner, actually.”
Nyx shrugged. “Being a referee is kind of neat, but I want to give it a go myself.”
“And none o' us wanted to be the ref instead,” Applebloom added. “So, we thought we'd ask you.”
“I'm honoured,” Twilight said. “Now – I think I've got a potential extra rule, this time. A fillip, as it were.”
“Go on,” Scootaloo said.
“Well. You always pick the best of everything. So, this time, a new rule. You can only pick ships which were at one time or another seriously considered – and you won't know who's going to drive it.” Twilight held up an envelope. “This has the list of whose ship is going to be commanded by who, and none of you are going to get to see it – so you know that it's going to be better for you if you pick a really, really bad design.”
The CMC exchanged glances.
“Okay, ah've already got like four ideas fer that,” Applebloom agreed. “Nice idea.”
“Thanks.” Twilight shrugged. “Obviously I'll be perfectly willing to be the referee for a more normal game or two in the future, but I thought this might be a nice break from your routine.”
“Right.”
Scootaloo rubbed her hooves together. “Okay, get out the consoles. I've got a real stinker of a design for you guys!”
About a week later, the two earth ponies, one unicorn, one pegasus, two alicorns and one bizarre mutant squirrel-changeling-lion-starbeast-whatever collage reconvened to start their game.
“Okay,” Twilight began. “Let's see what you've got. Applebloom?”
Applebloom pointed behind her at the truly insanely large battleship. “HMS Incomparable, reporting. Twenty inch guns, forty-six thousand tonnes, thirty-five knots, armour like tissue paper. Sure, she packs a punch, but actually too much of a punch – you're going to want ear defenders, it'll rain sheared rivets all over the ship when she fires, and I don't hold out much hope the aiming gear will survive the shock.”
The others gaped.
“Well, it's certainly the biggest one here,” Twilight managed. “Okay, next up – Scootaloo.”
“KMS Graf Zeppelin, with original airgroup.” Scootaloo nodded. “Most of the aircraft she carries are terrible, no torpedo planes, the fighters' undercarriage tends to fall apart on landing and the dive bombers aren't much better.”
“Are those casemate guns?” Twilight asked. “On a carrier?”
“Yep, original design.” Scootaloo shook her head. “And this was the same time they were buildin' Shokakus and Essexes in other parts of the world, too...”
She pointed. “As a final touch, all the AA guns are on the same side. Just because. And yeah, that's original too.”
Twilight facehoofed. “Are you sure this was a real design?”
Scootaloo slapped down a sheaf of papers in front of her. “Got built, too.”
“...huh. Okay...” Twilight sighed. “I feel so depressed... Sweetie?”
“HMS M2.” Sweetie beamed. “A submersible aircraft carrier with one unarmed seaplane!”
“...moving on,” Twilight decided. “Tiara?”
“Well, I feel somehow cheated,” Tiara told her, huffing. “Mine was a production design they made hundreds of.”
“A Wickes-class destroyer,” Twilight read off the cover sheet. “Where is it?”
“Behind Applebloom's mobile mountain, I think.” Tiara sighed. “Well, at least it'll be quick.”
Next up was Nyx, who revealed she had built an Ise-class battlecarrier.
“So, it removed about a third of the heavy guns of a perfectly serviceable – if slow – battleship,” Nyx explained. “And in return, it got the ability to...?”
She tailed off.
“Uh...” Tiara looked the ship over. “Launch planes, I guess?”
“Correct.” Nyx paused. “Floatplanes.”
“...then what was the point?” Scootaloo burst out.
“Exactly,” Nyx agreed. “I fully expect a disastrous aviation fuel fire.”
Twilight coughed. “I see. And Silver?”
“The Tessakonteres.”
Scootaloo facehoofed. “Oh, no...”
“Sorry, what?” Tiara asked. “What's one of-”
“It means forty-handed,” Scootaloo explained. “Basically, she built a Greek battleship from back before Rome, which could probably be outmanoeuvred by an island.”
“...right,” Twilight said. “Well, I must admit I never said it had to be a ship from after the invention of gunpowder... okay, here's the matchups.”
She passed them around.
“What one am I getting?” Sweetie asked. “Hope it's-”
She broke off, staring at the paper.
Sweetie → Sweetie
“Uh... Twilight?” she asked. “Am I supposed to get mine?”
“Yeah, I've got mine too,” Nyx reported.
Twilight nodded. “Exactly. You all do.”
“What!”
“That's-”
“No fair!”
“Wait, wait!” Silver said, hovering slightly. “It works! See, now we all have to use rubbish ships we picked ourselves.”
Applebloom turned an eye on Twilight. “Is this one of them friendship lessons?”
“Well...” Twilight looked slightly embarrassed. “Sort of the opposite, really. 'You don't go to war with the army you want to have.'”
“Ah. Gotcha.” Applebloom sighed. “Well, best go tryin' to square this circle and turn th' ship into an actually useful war machine...”
“You think you've got problems?” Silver asked. “Mine's made of wood!”
“Come on, come on...”
There was a splintering crash.
“Aaaargh!” Scootaloo cantered out onto deck and kicked the Ju87R which had just suffered a landing gear failure. “This is stupid!”
After a session of cursing, she shoved the lost aircraft over the side and replaced it with a Bf109. This one, at least, launched successfully and climbed into the sky.
“Oh, this is giving me a headache...”
Silver Spoon lay back on her blanket, on the top deck of her multi-oared wooden ship.
The way she saw it, she had no hope whatsoever if she was spotted, so she had better just try not to do anything and hope that that worked out.
And it meant she could get in some sunbathing on top of that.
The whole ship shook with a loud clunk-craaash.
“What?” Silver asked, getting up and looking around. Nothing in sight...
The Tessakonteres shook, and started to settle slightly in the water.
“Hello, Sweetie,” Twilight greeted. “What happened?”
“Surfaced under Silver's ship,” Sweetie grumbled. “It knocked the hangar doors open, and I flooded.”
Twilight nodded sympathetically, and looked over the side of her cloud. “Hmmm... Silver's ship seems fine.”
“Well, it's made of wood, isn't it?” Sweetie replied. “Wood floats.”
Silver concluded that her ship wasn't actually going to sink any more, now the hatch to the lowest deck was closed, and slumped.
Then brightened. It looked like she'd achieved a sinking, which was several times better than she was expecting her Tessakonteres to accomplish.
“Huh. Who knew...”
“You've got a huge advantage here, Nyx!” Applebloom shouted into the communication relay over the thunder of her guns.
“Really?” Nyx replied. “How so?”
A rivet bounced off Applebloom's head.
“First, that!” Applebloom gestured, as her ship gradually shredded itself. “My main guns are trying to blow themselves off the ship!”
Nyx stuck her tongue out. “You chose it!”
“Yeah, to be a failure!” Applebloom winced at a loud groaning sound. “Anyway, gotta be quick before somethin' really does fall off. Yours has got air-observed shot!”
BLAM.
“I can't use my superior range, for-”
There was a loud bong, and the whole ship rang like a bell.
Then it shook, and gave a groaning creak.
“I hate Jackie Fisher...” Applebloom sighed. “There goes the backbone, 'cause he didn't include enough armour to work structurally...”
By the time the smoke cleared and Nyx had taken stock, she felt cautiously optimistic. The three 20” hits she had taken had hurt – one had destroyed the fore turret, and another had caused waterline flooding – but the ship could still fight.
Fortunately, as there was a suspicious aircraft buzzing around as she landed her floatplanes and hoisted them up for replenishment.
“Is that you, Scoots?” she asked.
“Well, it sure as sugar isn't Sweetie Belle,” Scootaloo replied. “Hey, that looks kind of beat up. Want an aviation fuel fire?”
“Not especially, no.” Nyx worked her ship up as fast as it could manage – 19 knots – and started up her AA guns. “Right, you came from the east... let's go visit.”
“Never fear!” Scootaloo replied. “I'm faster than you, you know!”
“Yep!” Nyx beamed. “But the wind's coming from my direction. You can't run and launch planes at the same time.”
“...you're quite good at this,” Scootaloo admitted. “Must have been all the stints as ref.”
At that point, the fire on Incomparable reached her magazine.
“Hm, not bad,” Trixie said critically. “Bit too much flying metal, couldn't use it in a show without shields – but the water works with it quite well.”
Twilight blinked. “How did you even-”
Trixie smiled. “There was an explosion due. I have my ways, Twilight.”
“Really?” Twilight considered that. “I... see...”
When Trixie wasn't looking, she wrote a quick note to Spike and sent it off. Then consoled Applebloom on her loss.
“At last!” Tiara cackled. “An easy target!”
Silver waved. “Hi, Diamond. I guess I'm for it?”
“Pretty much,” Tiara agreed. “Sorry, but I have to take what I can get – if I faced Applebloom's monster I'd have a life expectancy of about a tenth of a second, even if the recoil did make her roll upside down.”
“If I had marines, I'd be boarding you right now,” Silver commented absently.
“Yeah, probably.” Diamond shrugged, and opened fire. Specifically, she set Silver's hull on fire.
“Abandon ship!” Silver called. She tapped a hoof on the floor, and the instruments of a complete orchestra appeared, playing my heart will go on. “See? A band, on ship!”
Tiara groaned. “Do Draconequui have a biological need for puns?”
“All signs point to yes, I'm afraid.” Silver shrugged. “Bye – this could take a while.”
“Run away, run away, run away,” Scootaloo chanted. “Running, running, running...”
The AA guns started firing. As did the broadside guns.
“Oh, hi Tiara,” she added. “Sorry, this carrier's kind of not vulnerable to that.”
The gallant little destroyer met a broadside of eight 6” rounds coming the other way, and promptly exploded.
“That sucked,” Tiara said, shaking her head. “Ow.”
She shook Silver's paw. “Thanks for the grace you took your defeat with, by the way. I forgot to mention.”
“It helps keep it all friendly, I think,” Twilight supplied.
Trixie's head went up, and she vanished.
“What just-” Applebloom began.
Twilight cast a time spell. “To the minute. Well, that's vaguely worrying...”
“What?” the fillies pressed.
“Spike just set off a large pile of explosives about ten miles outside Appleloosa. Trixie said she had an explosion sense, and I thought I'd check that... I'm still surprised the answer was yes...”
The fourteen dive bombers, all that was left of Scootaloo's air wing aside from two remaining fighters, straggled down to the deck.
Scootaloo kept one eye on the plotting board. She'd have to recover them quickly to avoid trouble from that battleship...
Land. Land. Crunch. Land. Crunch...
Every time an overstressed landing gear gave way, or an arrestor hook tore out of the aircraft, was like a tiny cut to her chances of winning. Nyx might be down to her secondary armament by now, but that was still more than enough to finish her off in a surface action-
The fifteenth plane in the landing formation dropped something.
Scootaloo had just enough time to notice it before it went through the deck with a crunch, through the armour belt with a clang, initiated, and detonated in the hangar.
“Oh... horsefeathers,” she said softly, as her carrier promptly caught fire.
“Nyx! What did you do?”
“I spent about half an hour before your last attack rigging a seaplane with one of the main gun shells, that's what!” Nyx said, sounding very pleased with herself. “Gotcha!”
“Yeah, yeah...” Scootaloo sighed. “I feel so embarrassed. Sunk by an airstrike from a battleship...”
“I couldn't have done it without you,” Nyx told her with a wink.
“Let's never do that again,” Applebloom said, once they were all gathered together again.
“Agreed,” Sweetie said fervently. “We all hated our ships, I'm pretty sure.”
“Did you learn anything from it?” Twilight asked.
“Yep.” Diamond looked between the other fillies, who nodded, then turned to the Anchor. “Get Spike to be the ref.”
118.2
Sunset Shimmer lay back on the grass, just a few furlongs from Fluttershy's house.
She made a gesture with her hoof, and twenty-four glowing keys shimmered into being over her head. She frowned, shifting them back and forth, then made a decision and tapped one.
Heart of Joke dropped into her hoof as the others vanished like smoke, sticking to it like they were magnetized. She waved it back and forth, feeling the balance, and smiled.
“Afternoon!”
Sunset craned her neck to see who was coming up the hill towards her. “Oh – good afternoon, Lyra.”
“So,” the green unicorn added. “What's with the display?”
“Oh, right.” Sunset reached another hoof to the sky, and her characteristic Shimmering Sunset formed. “Well, I usually use this one, but I was thinking – what's the point of a Keyblade you never use? So I was trying to pick one to get used to, to use next time.”
“Right, right. Cool.” Lyra watched as Sunset stowed Shimmering Sunset, and then selected Super Galaxy Bonds. “What's that one for?”
“Kisaragi Gentarou,” Sunset answered without missing a beat. “A who, not a what. Most of them are. He's one of the guys who anchors the world all the Kamen Riders live.”
“More humans?”
Something in Lyra's tone made Sunset pause weighing the keyblades against one another. She looked over at Lyra, and frowned slightly. “I'm guessing you're the human one?”
“Yep.” Lyra nodded, and knelt down before rolling over onto her back. It was awkward, but she adopted a fair facsimile of a human lounging back on a hillside with one hand on their knee. “Got it in one.”
“To be fair, there's only four choices.” Sunset dismissed them both. “What is it?”
“Well...” Lyra “Heartstrings” Heartson shook her head. “Just... kind of jealous, I guess?”
“Jealous of what?” Sunset asked softly.
“Your first few loops after you awoke... you were a human. You were a human for a lot of them.” Lyra raised an eyebrow, and Sunset nodded confirmation. “And then you came back here, and now you're usually a pony.”
“That's correct.”
“But me... well, every single loop, I get loads of memories from me-as-a-human. Every last time. But just about all the time, I'm living in a world of magical ponies. Who are quadrupeds.”
The human-in-mind-only tapped a hoof on the floor. “So... all this, all this being-four-legged, I never get the chance to get used to it. I get the memories from when Lyra-all-of-us is human, so every five years of experience being a pony gets swamped by hundreds of years of memories-being-a-human. So... so I tend to let the others drive, I guess...”
Sunset nodded sympathetically. “Yeah, I got that a lot, from the other direction. Still do from this one, a little.”
“Really?” Lyra looked dubious. “How?”
“See this?” Sunset materialized Will of Fire. “I got this in Naruto's world – the Elemental Nations. The specific experiences which got me the keychain were a few weeks long, and my memory of them is nearly photographic.”
She smiled fondly. “That's what a keychain is. It's... memories, simple as that, just wrapped in magic and friendship and a shiny shape. And it means I never forget a single one, nor what earned them.”
Will of Fire vanished, replaced by Shimmering Sunset.
“This is the one I got because of my time in Equestria, my very first loop – before I, or, er, technically you... awakened. Me, I mean.”
Pushing past that embarrassing point, Sunset went on. “And it's valid for nearly half the loop. A long one, at that. So, basically, I had perfect recall of several years as a pony all through my time in other worlds... and now, I've got perfect recall of several years of human life as a pony.”
“Huh.” Lyra nodded. “I didn't know that.”
Sunset smiled.
Then there was a flicker of light.
They both looked at the small charm sitting between them, and the golden chain connected to it.
“Is that—”
“I think it is,” Sunset confirmed.
Lyra gaped for a moment before asking, "But why is it—"
Sunset lifted the string of seven pearls in her magic. "I don't know, and I'm kind of afraid to find out. Is Derpy even Awake this Loop?"
118.3 (LordCirce)
Applejack ducked under a low-hanging branch, panting lightly as she struggled to compress her magic as tightly within herself as she could.
'This was such ah good Loop too.' She thought, ruefully, as the old barn at the edge of the orchard came into view. It had been a Stealth Anchor Baseline Run. Only her, Cheerilee, and Gilda were Awake, and so she had spent most of her free time getting their advice on the set-up of a couple of the wings of her museum. Whoever the Anchor was, they hadn't revealed themselves or pinged. Baseline had proceeded as per normal; right up until Tirek broke out early. Applejack still wasn't sure what had happened, as Tirek had shown up stronger than she had seen him in a long time, and he had cast some spell that caused Twilight's Library, with Twilight and all three of the Baseline Alicorn Princesses inside, to vanish into thin air. Applejack could still sense the Princesses' power, but it felt faint and far off. Possibly in a different dimension.
In any case, Tirek had drained Discord, Cheerilee, and Gilda of power, gaining Gilda's ink abilities in the process, and reminding all three of the Loopers why he really was a threat. Applejack had managed to escape with only minor draining, and now she was suppressing her magic as much as possible to keep Tirek from tracking her through that.
Applejack slipped into the barn and shook herself, dislodging leaves and some dirt from when she had Earthbent her way out of town. On the edge of her senses, she felt Tirek approaching, though he didn't appear to be moving straight towards her.
"Ok. Now, let's see if this works." Applejack had been running back to the barn to pack up the wing of the museum that she had been tinkering with, when she had remembered an item she had picked up a couple dozen Loops ago. She dashed into the hall, flaring a bit of magic to break the seal she had put on the door to keep the CMC from poking around. In the distance, she felt Tirek's anger sharpen and he began to approach faster, moving towards her position.
Moving quickly, she pulled several of the more fragile items that were on display into her Pocket, then withdrew a single golden tablet. She placed it against the back wall, pushing a bit of her magic into it, just as the doors, and most of the walls around them, were ripped off, revealing Tirek in his dark majesty.
"Hahahaha, I've found you, pony! You are the last. With you, my conquest of magic will be complete. Now, prepare to lose your magic."
Applejack spun to face him, and then grinned. "Alright. If y'all want mah magic so badly, I'll give it to y'all. But I'll do it mah way." And then she bucked the Tablet of Ahkmenrah (or, as Dash has said is should be called, Jackmenrah). She flooded her magic into the tablet, and a wave of golden light flowed outward. Tirek brought his arms up, grasping at the wave of light, only for it to flow around him and across the building. He blinked, as Applejack began to laugh.
"Ah got two things to tell y'all. One, it's nighttime right now, and will be till we get Celestia back, and two, this is a museum!"
Tirek scowled in confusion, before he noticed motion out of the corner of his eye. All around him, close to two dozen statues were coming to life, wings stretching, as the Hall of Ascension came alive.
Tirek scoffed. "You think to best me with statuary. You've squandered your magic. I shall "*FOOMPH* Whatever Tirek had been planning to accomplish was lost as the statue of Trixie the magnificent decided to lead off with a blast of fireworks spells.
At the moment, Applejack could tell that she was still more powerful than Tirek, though it was a lot closer than she was comfortable with. In the face of that, it seemed somewhat odd that she would split her power with the Tablet and the items in her museum. However, she didn't want Tirek to have the chance to drain her abilities like he had Gilda and Cheerilee, and, while her magic was used as a catalyst for the tablet, it utilized an even greater power.
Applejack wasn't much of a scholar compared to Twilight, or even Trixie, and she hadn't had that long to study the golden tablet, but she had found that it was actually quite similar to the Elements of Harmony. The Elements, in the most basic terms, tapped into the universal energy of Harmony, and not only used it to amplify the powers of the wielder, but also channeled the energy directly. It was this connection to a greater power that allowed six above-average ponies to defeat godlike foes many magnitudes of power above their level in baseline. It was also what allowed them to use the Elements outside of the Equestria Loops, because the concept and energy of Harmony existed across universes.
Similarly, the Tablet of Ahkmenrah called on the power of History. The greater the presence of a given figure in history, the greater the power granted to images of the figure by the Tablet. There were more functions, but most of those were layered over the basic functionality of, quite literally, bringing History to life.
For ordinary museum pieces, such as the figure of Sacajawea that Applejack had replaced when she got the tablet, the figure represented perhaps a handful of centuries impact in history, maybe as much as a millennia or two on the outside, giving them many of the skills and abilities the figure represented had in life, but not too much power overall. The figures in Applejack's museum, and more specifically, in the Ascension Wing that she was currently facing off against Tirek within, represented beings that had had eons of history behind them, that had altered the course and fate of thousands of universes. And now, all of the weight and power of that History was being fully brought to bear against the dark tyrant, Tirek.
"Cutie Mark Crusaders, Alicorn Attack Go!"
The living statues of the CMC led off the charge. Scootaloo and Diamond Tiara approached first, Scoots going low and Tiara aiming high. Scootaloo bent the air around her into a sharp blade, grinding the air against itself, and smashed into Tirek's knees, causing them to buckle, slightly. At the same time, Diamond Tiara built up a telekinetic wall in front of her and rammed it into Tirek's face, synchronizing it with a bolt of telepathic force against his mind. She didn't try to establish a connection, wanting no part of Tirek in her head.
Tirek staggered backwards, a bit dazed, as Nyx and Sweetie Bell followed up on the assault, Nyx with a blast of explosive void magic and Sweetie with a pure note of force, both of which smashed through Tirek's magic draining ability and knocked him spinning into a swamp of fondue and tree sap created by Silver Spoon and the statue of Discord from the Pre-Ascended Section. Tirek struggled, just as Applebloom brought the device she had been constructing with her mane around. It was fairly small, a single polished shaft, which let out a humming buzz as it fired out a thin beam of blue light. Sparks of azure lightning crackled across Tirek as it impacted with no other visible effect. Tirek started to chuckle, before Applebloom's next words cut him off.
"Mordekainen's Disjunction Laser Mk 4.6. He shouldn't be able to drain magic for the next few minutes. Hit him hard!"
And then the pain started.
Applejack stood back next to the statues of the Mane Six, who had all held back at the statue of Twilight's insistence.
The blonde farmer tilted her head slightly. "So, just to get it out of tha way, but are you Awake?"
Twilight frowned, before shaking her head slowly. "No. I am aware of the significance of the term, but I am not truly Awake. It is more like... I am like someone that has read an in-depth biography of the Looping being known as Twilight Sparkle. I know all of the history behind her that you recorded, along with a few other things that bled over from somewhere else. Contingency plans she has made and such. But I am also aware that you built me and that I am truly only a replica of the true Twilight Sparkle, a rather pale copy at that."
Applejack nodded. While the Alicorn (and Changeling Queen, and Dragonequues, and Griffon-bear?, etc.) Statues were holding out rather well against Tirek, Applejack could feel the fact that it wasn't doing much too actually weaken him. His power levels were lowering, but the statues were still in the end just copies, as was shown when one of Tirek's Ink Slashes tore through Gilda's and smashed against a hastily erected barrier by Shining Armor, shattering it as well. Applejack turned back to the group. "We need something stronger. The Elements."
Rarity turned from admiring the one-eight scale size Spikezilla firing a jet of flame into Tirek's rather abused face (it being a favored target of both Celestia and Luna), and shook her head. "It won't work. We don't have access to our Pockets. I tried to pull out a battle dress that I, me, the other me made, and there was nothing."
Twilight nodded. "And we can't call them either. I tried and there was no response."
Applejack frowned. "Huh, interestin'. I have a few in mah pocket, but they're attuned to me, so I don't think you could really use them all that well."
Twilight nodded again. "Or at all. We are still just statuary, they might not react..."
Dash cut in. "Yeah, yeah. Science time later, solution time now. I could fly to the Tree and..."
Twilight cut her off. "No, the gems might not even exist anymore, assuming the box was opened by this Twilight."
Dash huffed. "Well, what do you suggest then?"
Twilight paused, and then smiled. "Give me a minute. I have an idea."
All things told, the battle was going pretty well. Tirek had gotten his second wind, but it wasn't meaning much when faced with the combined experience of the Loopers' Statues. Zecora, one of her wings broken off, stomped on the ground, and a thick wooden vine lashed out to bind Tirek's legs in place, just in time for Shining Armor and Cadance to blast him with a Love-based burst of force.
Lyra Heartstrings darted around, dodging past one of the large inky bombs Tirek had started lobbing about. Princess Luna had been taken out by a single blast from one of them, and the rest of the Statues were being careful to avoid them. Lyra was feeling rather frustrated at the moment, because she was likely the weakest fighter in the entire battle. Most of her abilities were tied up in her split memories, and while she knew about having split memories, she, as a statue, didn't possess either the disparate personalities, or the ability to manifest their abilities. Still, she would use what she could. Focusing intently, her horn glowed as she fired off a globe of force, knocking Tirek's hoof out from under him. His guard dropped, and a haymaker from Spikezilla knocked him off his feet, straight into a quintuple buck, courtesy of the CMC sans Silver Spoon, who was currently trying to put Discord and Luna back together.
Lyra grinned as Tirek crashed to the ground. If she made it through this fight, she intended to tell Applejack to make statues of her other selves, as right now she was limited to her Unicorn body. She couldn't even properly use her thief skills.
"Look out!"
Lyra gasped as she was jerked backwards, moments before a large beam from the broken roof above crashed down where she had been crouched. Lyra shuddered, then turned towards Vinyl Scratch, who'd pulled her out of danger.
"Thanks."
"Don't mention it!" Vinyl belted out. Lyra winced, and Vinyl coughed quickly. "Sorry, been amplifying every sound I make to try and make a difference. Forgot to turn off the reverb."
Lyra shook her head. "Not a problem. Let's see where we can go help."
Vinyl nodded, and both of them returned to the fight, just in time to see Ivory Scroll dash in and slap a Restraining Order onto Tirek's face, locking him in place.
"Got it." The Mane Six Plus One turned to look at Twilight, just as her eyes opened and light flared out, feebly but still visible. A rainbow aura gathered around her body, and Twilight smirked at the looks of comprehension on the others' faces. "Each of us has been a bearer of pure Harmony at least once. I knew what it felt like, and I was able to trace it back. We can call on that power and uuuuu~ss" she swayed suddenly, staggering before catching herself. "Ooogh, that's not good. The powers of the tablet and Harmony aren’t meshing well. The magic of Harmony is trying to take over supporting me, and it's pushing the power of the tablet out. I can balance it, but..."
Applejack nodded. "How long can you hold it?"
"Long enough for one good shot, at least."
Pinkie bounced up, laying one of her wings over Twilight's. Rapidly, her skin and wings began glowing with rainbow energy as well. "Make that six good shots. Heehee, we're like a revolver of Harmony."
Twilight smiled as the others approached, using her aura as a catalyst for their own transformation. "The backlash will probably break our statue forms, so after this it will be up to you." She glanced at Applejack.
Applejack nodded solemnly, the light of Harmony building around her as well, and then the seven of them took off.
Rainbow Dash was the first to reach Tirek, who had been pushed back out of the broken museum and into the orchard proper. She circled, squeezed between Princess Big Mac and Sunset's Crown Demon form from the Accidental Ascension exhibit, and gathered as much speed as she could. It was just shy of a Sonic Rainboom, but the detonation of Harmony still created a large shockwave, knocking Tirek through several rows of trees.
Rarity was the next to strike, flying down from above, helped by a Fastball Special from Spikezilla, who had taken to the sky. One crater later and Tirek was just pulling himself to his feet, when Pinkie and Fluttershy came at him from either side, resulting in a double detonation.
Applejack grinned as she saw raw magic peeling away. The magic Tirek had stolen was breaking free, a sure sign he was weakening. Twilight was just coming around for her attack run, when suddenly she tumbled in mid-air and vanished in a flash of light. Applejack and her counterpart pulled up short, wary of whatever attack Tirek had just pulled out of his pocket, when Applejack felt a slight pressure. Acting on a hunch, she tapped the ground, pulsing out her senses through the earth, towards Ponyville.
Twilight's library was back. Maybe this Loop's Twilight suddenly reappearing disrupted her statue's balance with Harmony? It didn't matter, so Applejack shook it off and nodded towards her duplicate. As Dash had said, science time later, solution time now.
"Let's do this."
"Mmmhmm!"
The twin farmponies charged, building up speed with Earthbending as they charged at Tirek, who was still blinking from the Twilight Statue's flashy exit. He realized they were approaching a moment too late, and both of them rushed into his guard, each executing a perfect turn, and bucked him square in the sternum. Applejack felt the energy rushing out of her statue, and focused on amplifying it with her own power. She could feel Tirek's ability, which had come back moments after Dash impacted him, pulling at the magic, but the pull was feeble, and most of the power went straight into causing Tirek pain.
There was a double crack, the first being the sound of Tirek blasting through what was left of the canopy and into the sky, and the second being the sound of the broken form of Applejack's statue hitting the ground. Applejack winced, her statue was in several pieces, but it should be repairable. Quickly, she scooped all of the pieces into her Pocket, and quickly rose after Tirek.
It was almost anti-climactic. She had just cleared the tree-line when two Twilights and the three Princesses all popped in at once, directly in Tirek's parabolic flight path. One of the Twilights, which Applejack immediately pegged as the real Twilight, lashed out with a beam of Harmonic Magic, which blasted the already leaking magic straight out of Tirek. His unconscious body flew back the way it came, and Applejack caught him out of the air, checking to make sure he really was unconscious.
The statue Twilight flew over. "I sensed them coming back, and I felt Celestia reaching for the sun. I knew I needed to stop her from raising it before we finished with Tirek." Applejack blinked and nodded. She had been too focused on Tirek to even notice.
Speaking of Celestia... "So, dear Applejack, this simulacrum of our newest Princess said you could explain her existence?"
Applejack sighed. "Yeah, let me pull out the pamphlet." This was going to take a while to clean up.
118.4 (Gamer A)
It was the start of another loop, and Rarity was busy sewing the decorations for the Summer Sun festival. Oh, sometimes she would just pull a set out of her Pocket and get to work on something more interesting, but right now, she happened to be in the mood for simple busywork.
She was snapped out of her trance by the sound of the front door, and began to rattle off her usual welcome as she took in the new arrivals: a familiar seeming local shepherd and some of his flock. "Hello, Welcome to Rarity's boutique – ah, if it isn't Dolly and Sweaters coming by for a visit again. I must admit, I wasn't expecting you at this hour, Mr. Bell."
"Hello, Rarity," "Sweaters" the pinkish sheep said, a sigh audible in her tone. "Dolly," with a more purplish tint, was busy squealing over some of the outfits she had on display, while the fourth sheep, whose distinguishing feature was a simple white hat, was standing at the shepherd's side. The shepherd himself was a navy blue stallion with a black hair and mane, and a cutie-mark of a tower with a bell on top.
"Yes, well, I had something I needed to check up on," "Shepherd's Bell" responded, producing something for her to look at. "First, I wanted to get your advice on this."
Playing along for the moment, Rarity looked at the trinket. "Hmm, I haven't seen one of these in a while. Wood, carved and colored into the shape of a mistletoe decoration, attached to a nylon string. And if I'm not mistaken... it was mistletoe wood to begin with." She looked back up at the stallion. "Normally I'd say it was completely the wrong time of year to be showing this off. But you just wanted to see if I recognized it, didn't you, Abel?"
"Thought of you the minute I Awoke," he confirmed, "Alright. We can all speak freely now."
"Finally..." "Sweaters" relaxed, "It's bad enough being called Sweater girl or Yoohoo. It's worse being named that way."
"Yes Yuzu, I remember," Rarity responded. "Now Abel – I may go on calling you that? - What really brings you here? Your world was a trial, with several tricks Atsuro didn't properly prepare me for – but I have endured worse."
"Might as well. I was just seeing whether absorbing several demons had any permanent effects on you," Abel said, smiling off to the side, "That sort of thing can be dangerous in the wrong circumstances, you know."
"Just a drop in the bucket, I assure you. It did however give me some of my own Loop powers back for the lockdown's duration," Rarity answered, "Enduring our siblings was much worse. I wasn't expecting Sweetie Belle to be an unrelated rock star."
"Well, I didn't know she was a singer!" Atsuro defended himself, "...But I guess I should've remembered. Naoya was my idol on top of everything else, and has some big shoes to fill. If I'd thought for a second, I'd have known he was the same as always."
"How did you deal with everything?" Abel asked, "Atsuro wouldn't tell me that part."
"Well, first I fought Beldr on schedule. then I convinced Remiel to let me fight Jezebel early - no point leaving that priestess at risk. But after that...I got into a heated argument with the border guards," Rarity admitted, "Pointing out that they were making that cult look like heroes in comparison drove some of them over the edge. After that... Things escalated quickly. Fortunately after my brief career as an alicorn lightning rod, everyone was more inclined to match wits instead of blades with me."
"Hmm, Maybe I should try something like that next time."
118.5 (Jcogginsa)
When Shining Armor awoke, he noticed three things immediately.
The first was the telltale sensation of a shield dropping. That tended to happen when he woke up with a shield out. The second thing he noticed was that he was a biped this loop. Human, probably. The third thing he noticed was a noticeable weight in his chest area.
'Great. Human and a different gender. Always an annoying combination. Oh well, better check the loop memories. Let's see....Superhero, power's force fields of course...Ooh, I'm Canadian, that'll be fun. Named after the Jedi of the seas, neat...fighting something called Leviathan. Evil Aquaman on steroids, from the sound of it...I use force fields instead of clo-'
Shining immediately blushed, and began to reapply his 'Costume'
Shining Armor watched the battle unfold with distaste. He was a soldier in the baseline, and usually out of it too, so he had much more of a stomach for this that his sister did. That didn't mean he liked seeing people die.
'Okay, I've had enough. Time to start operation Buck this Shit.'
Shining reached inside himself, and ascended. This, since he was human, and female, resulted in a magical girl transformation. Of course it did.
His outfit resembled the traditional sailor fuku, only it was very obviously made of the same energy as the force fields. The wings were real at least. No actual horn though, just the force field horn this person usually had. Not important anyway.
Afterwards, he reached into his subspace pocket, and pulled out a thing of pure beauty. It was a shield personified, to him at least. It was Captain America's mighty shield. Shining Armor still wanted to meet the looping version of the man, but Shining felt even the unawake version was worthy of admiration, and always had time to talk to him.
Grinning, Shining Armor charged the Evil Aquaman Ripoff and shouted "Stars and Stripes!"
Then he proceeded to smash the Endbringer around before banishing it to the moon. Manually of course. No elements this loop, and he didn't have one anyway.
118.6 (fractalman)
Twilight stared at the absolutely massive chocolate syrup swimming pool, then headed back into her library-tree-house to reread a random book.
Pinkie Pie took one look and decided it needed sprinkles, banana slices, fresh strawberries, and a giant cherry.
Rarity took a look at the result. "Shouldn't it have, you know...whipped cream?"
"Not this time!" replied Pinkie.
118.7 (Gamerex27)
Yu Narukami Awoke lying in bed. Something immediately felt off. For one thing, he felt much smaller than usual. He quickly thought that he might have Awoken earlier in his timeline in this particular variant.
He was partially correct: he certainly was younger this Loop. However, as he discovered when he tried to get out of bed, that wasn't the only thing that was different.
His shoulders refused to move the way he wanted them too. Grunting, he struggled to get up, waving his limbs vainly in an attempt to get his numb fingers to push himself up.
And, when he got a glimpse of his limbs, he understood why he couldn't feel his fingers. Because, at the time, he didn't have any. In place of his hand was a gray-furred hoof.
Great, the Seeker of Truth thought to himself. This must be Equestria, then.
He skimmed his Loop memories. Apparently, his name here was True Sight (still not as bad as the Sisterhood Complex Kingpin of Steel), and he was still in grade school; today was the first day. Looking behind him, he saw that he was covered front to back in a dishwasher gray coat. According to his memories, there was supposed to be a symbol on his flank called a "Cutie Mark" (he rolled his eyes at this), but he was too young to have one.
He sent out a Ping, and got back around a dozen responses. At least he wasn't alone this Loop (though, since Igor was the Anchor back home, he didn't have to worry about Lonely Loops like some other Loopers).
"True! You up in there!" That was unmistakably Dojima's voice.
"Yeah," Yu said, in a voice that was too high-pitched for his liking. "I just need to grab my books, and I'll be on my way."
"Big bro!" said another voice, most definitely Nanako's. "Come eat breakfast! Your alfalfa browns are getting cold!"
Yes, this was going to be a strange Loop.
As Yu took his seat in class, he scanned the rest of the classroom. Several of the peo-ponies looked suspiciously familiar. One of them, wearing Naoto's hat, tipped her cap in their usual signal to tell if they were Awake-and, since she took it off afterwards, all of them were. Yu nodded in turn.
"Oh, great," said a voice behind him, "it's a whole herd of blank flanks. As if the three weren't enough."
Considering how his Loop Memories told him that the phrase was a derogatory term, Yu figured that this must be a bully. Turning his head, he saw a pink filly sneering at him, reminding him somewhat of King Moron from her attitude.
While the best way-in his experiences, at least-to deal with jerks was to ignore them, that didn't mean it was the only solution.
Hey, Bro, Yosuke (here called Second Wheel) said, using a private telepathy spell. I'm not looking forwards to spending a whole year with these girls. You want to stop them before they get started?
Sure, Yu replied. But I think we should let everyone else get a turn, too.
Damn right, we will, Kanji (or Steel Weaver this time) added. I want to shut these assholes down before they can get to anyone else.
Behind Yu, Yukiko snorted, desperately trying to hold in her laughter. Considering how nearly everything in this Loop was named after a horse pun of some kind, it was amazing that Yukiko was able to keep her cool for this long without breaking down into another laughing fit.
"That's a lot of books on your desk, blank flank," said another pony condescendingly. She glared at Yukiko, who gave no sign of noticing them.
Diamond Tiara bumped hooves with Silver Spoon, and sneered again. "Too bad you won't be needing them, since you don't even have a Cutie Mark for reading. Or anything. Your head's as blank as your own flank."
That as the final straw for the black pony: she collapsed into helpless laughter, sliding out of her seat and onto the ground.
Diamond and Silver instantly stopped laughing at her expense, and turned to stare at the other filly. "What's... so funny, blankie?" Diamond put on a half-hearted sneer, clearly thrown off of her game when Yukiko reacted in the exact opposite way she expected.
"P..p...Ponyville....heeee.....Steamy Sanctuary.....ho....blank....FLANK! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Yukiko beat her hooves on the ground, her eyes already starting to water up out of sheer mirth.
Diamond Tiara's mask of carefully constructed disdain shattered to pieces, replaced by a look of absolute horror. This blank flank was mocking her! "Stop that! Stop laughing at me!"
Yukiko paid her no heed, and she continued to literally roll around on the floor, laughing.
"STOP LAUGHING AT ME!" Her plans thoroughly dashed, Diamond Tiara screamed in frustration, and stormed out of the classroom, followed by an equally annoyed Silver Spoon.
The room was silent, save for the teacher droning on and on about long division (it was amazing, Yu had thought many times over his countless Loops, how little teachers noticed what was going on in their own classrooms) and Yukiko's laughter. The sound of applause came from nowhere. Yu turned his gaze to see three fillies sitting together, clapping their hooves wildly. The Awake Cutie Mark Crusaders were very impressed.
The next day, the pair of disgruntled bullies decided to try again, this time with the gray-coated blank flank.
"You're staring at nothing an awful lot, aren't you?" Diamond Tiara hissed to Yu. He had been so busy fusing Personas in his mind (a trick he had learned from Igor not too long ago), he hadn't been paying attention to the lesson.
"Keep going," the bully continued, "I'm sure you'll get your Cutie Mark for being a brainless daydreamer soon enough. I'm sure it'll be on your flank annnny second now."
Now.
"So," Yu said slowly, without a trace of emotion of any kind, "you're staring at my flank, then."
The bully froze mid sentence. "What?"
"I'm flattered," he continued, "but I don't think flirting is allowed in school."
Diamond Tiara's face turned red, and Silver Spoon subtly scooted her seat away from her friend to avoid her incoming outburst. "H-How dare you! I wasn't-"
"Miss Cheerilee," Yu said, much louder than he usually spoke, "Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon are staring at my plot. It's making me uncomfortable."
Not even turning around, the Unawake teacher continued writing on her chalkboard. "Miss Tiara, Miss Spoon, could you please stay after class? I need to speak with you about your behavior as of late."
The bullies stuttered in rage and disdain, before finally falling silent and sulking in their seats.
They glared at Yu for the rest of the class. He didn't care at all.
118.8 (Kris Overstreet)
Twilight Sparkle had a plan for this Loop; to introduce Equestria to a magic-based version of the Internet. It took very little time for her to set up; magic-generated electricity was already part of Equestrian infrastructure in baseline, as were typewriters and even primitive arcade games. Crystal balls took a lot of power to become more than fortune-teller props, but a wall plug and booster stations took care of that problem. Programming was the simplest part, since magic-based transistors could go beyond binary and Boolean logic, beyond fuzzy logic, straight into Pinkie Logic if necessary.
Thus, only a few months after the start of the Loop, every home and business in Ponyville and Canterlot was equipped with a shiny new magical terminal, and Twilight Sparkle looked forward to making Ponyville her home world's version of Silicon Valley.
Twilight woke bright and early the morning of Activation Day, when the network went live for the first time. She trotted downstairs to where she'd had her terminal set up, turned it on, and logged in to her account.
You have (1) new message
Twilight grinned. Who would have sent the first message? Apple Bloom (Awake) or Pinkie Pie (not, but still indispensable for programming)? Applejack? Probably not Rainbow Dash or Rarity, who likely weren't up yet, nor Fluttershy, who hated even going to her mailbox. Or maybe Princess Celestia? Surely the Princess would want to send the first message on the new system to all her newly wired subjects!
Eager to find out, she opened the message and read:
DO YOU SUFFER FROM HORN DYSFUNCTION?
Ask your doctor about VIAGIC!
VIAGIC is a little blue pill which can restore horn function on demand, providing longer and stronger magical activity for those with horn dysfunction problems.
WARNING: unicorns with heart or lung conditions should not take VIAGIC. If your spells last longer than four hours, consult your doctor immediately.
Ask if VIAGIC is right for you!
A message from Flim-Flam Industries, Unlimited, Fly-by-night, Griffonia.
Twilight flinched as she began to hear the crashing sounds of one terminal after another being pitched out of windows. I knew this would happen, Twilight sighed, but I was hoping those two wouldn't find out quite yet...
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Didn't that museum have CelestAI in it?
How would a living statue of her even work, anyway?
I'm pretty sure that makes it harder.
5024228
The very definition of magic is that, like Pinkie Logic, you have no idea how it works under the hood but, somehow, it just does.
118.2 was kinda hard to follow.
... is there a reason 118.3 is a repeat of 115.14?
What is 118.6?
118.6- Shining Armor is a magical girl. And uses forcefield clothes.
118.1: Never let it be said war is smart.
118.2: Huh?
118.3: Woo repeats n_n
118.4: *Grins* it'd make guided tours a whole new thing.
118.5: Definitely
118.6: Huh?
118.7: Yummy
118.8: Puns improve everything.
118.9: *Giggles* This is why you need to regulate things.
5024228
Some of us think CelestAI should be declared Quarantined: she's so close to "Friendly, general-purpose AI" that some loopers might pick up a copy without realizing how dangerous she is in the context of the loops. I'll see about writing a snip to make that official.
Oh so much yes! And I was right, that was glorious and it shows how the fact that Tirek can steal any type of magic makes him a very real threat even when unawake. It'd be cool if he's eventually reformed and starts looping. Wonder if he'd find a way to get to his stronger form without stealing everyone's magic, eh eventually I should think. Then Pinkie could host "We've finally reformed every villain in our loop" party. Also, the puns here, were hilarious and I'm totally adding the fact that Draconequui have a biological need for puns into my headcanon!
I was the one with the idea to give Trixie an explosion sense.
5025679 118.6 Worm: Shining armor as Narwheel.
118.2: Okay, I have to ask: What is going on with this one? Beyond the reasonably straight-forward actions of Sunset and Lyra, it's incomprehensible gobbledygook.
118.3: It's like déjà vu all over again.
118.6: Someone hasn't learned the "keep doing whatever you were doing when you awoke, as hard as you possibly can" rule yet.
Though nothing beats the hands-on approach to doing a moon shot.
5025679
118.6:
Shining looped into Worm. Online original superhero story.
It's a great read, I can recommend it. Gets very, VERY dark at points though.
The "Leviathan" Shining casually smashed around is one of three monsters called the Endbringers, pretty much the most powerful creatures in the setting. Having one due to appear results in several cities' worth of heroes and villains teaming up to fight them off. Usual end result: half of the participants dead, Endbringer gets tired of being smashed at and goes off to recuperate.
118.4: ...If subspace pockets are offline, how did she set up the museum in the first place? Or is that somehow an effect of Tirek's?
118.7: ...what.
No, really, what? Is it a reference to something, or just a contributor being Pinkie Pie for a couple dozen words?
5055125
118.4: It was statue!Rarity who actually said she can't access the pocket. And it makes sense, because she isn't really Rarity but an animated copy of her with her personalilty and some of her memories and powers.
118.7 So much yes.
>The three 20” hits she had taken had hurt
>eight 6” rounds
All I see are mismatched quotation marks
>as much as a millennia or two on the outside
Millenia is plural
When are we going to have an actual Worm story?
5027196>>5031843>>5052954 Pretty sure that's 5, not 6
Random idea: FreeFall loop. But then I got thinking. You can't have *just* FreeFall, you've got to have the Cross Time Cafe.
118.3 =
118.8 Dealing with that sort of thing makes me want to learn about programming so that I can build a trace program that will trace back hacks like that and overload their processors with viral bombs and mail bombs.
Anything to make their work a living hell. I despise con men, crackers; pretty much anyone who thinks that it's justified to do that sort of thing because 'we're not killing anyone.' If you're starving, that's one thing; even then, you should only do it to a point where you stop starving. For everything else, if you can't make a buck honestly- or at least legally -then get lost.
118.5 CANADAAAAAA!!!!
that part with the lousy ships reminded me of something i read in a book: battle-cruisers are essentially battleships with no armor. someone thought it would be a good idea because they would be faster, and in his words, "speed IS armor". BIG mistake! one example: the HMS Hood, destroyed with a single lucky hit by the battleship Bismark.
groan...i have NEVER met a teacher who was not absolutely, completely, totally, utterly oblivious to EVERYTHING that EVER happened in their classrooms...
this made me think of "dead drums", a Harry Dresden book: lots of stuff about Necromancy. and it said that Older bodies or skeletons would be more powerful...so when Harry cast a Necromancy spell on a dinosaur skeleton...WOW!
8745787
It's actually a riff on Night at the Museum.
Ah, a mare after my own heart
8223909
Then maybe it's an effect of Yu's world, like how almost all Equestrias have the Elements. Which in fact, Twilight comments at some point that it happens in almost every one of theirs, though I can't seem to find the loop.
822390
Funny, all of my teachers could hear pins drop and spot the pin afterwards. Can we go back in time and switch teachers?
When I first started reading this fic, there were a couple of shorts that I didn't get because I lacked references. Both were tied to Worm, which I can now say that I have had the misfortune to read. Any fic that plays merry hell with that overblown garbage heap of a universe gets a solid like from me. RealityCheck's Warcrafter and Ladybird are both top favorites of mine because of his approach to that 'verse.
I should mention that this is an opinion. If you like said universe, that's your choice. There are all kinds in this world, so I guess there has to be those that think that sort of 'edgy deconstruction' is actually worth something.
5295510
Those first two are caliber markings; 20" means a twenty-inch round. The " means inches.
This is a missed opportunity. No Rickrolls?!
Night at the museum, that’s unexpected.
Ha Hah Hah Hah junk mail
