MLP Loops 156
156.1 (Masterweaver)
"Okay." Cadance grinned. "Twilight and Moondancer."
Chrysalis twisted her lip, bringing a hoof to her muzzle. "I'm... going to say no."
"What? But you've seen how close those two are in baseline. And with help from looping Twi, Moondancer can grow into a ridiculously competent and confident mare--"
"And there's the problem." Chrysalis took a sip from her tea. "See, romance is about give and take, but Moondancer... Moondancer grew attached to Twilight because Twilight had the confidence that Moondancer didn't. I mean, both of them were... well-read, shall we say, but I feel that Twilight's lack of sociability relates more to her insistence on maintaining control alienating her from other ponies, whereas Moondancer seems to be a natural introvert justifying her lack of sociability as other ponies ponies simply not being intelligent enough to understand her. Twilight was basically Moondancer's exploratory social probe growing up, at least on a subconscious level."
"So it'd be perfectly natural for her to develop a crush on Twilight," Cadance pointed out. "After all, not only is the filly an intellectual equal, but the level of trust and admiration necessary to employ Twilight like that could easily develop into infatuation. Admittedly, it might dull for a bit once the two of them gain the crowd of other Canterlot friends, but it could still be there, lingering until re-awakened. While the whole part where Twilight took leave of her party during the Nightmare Moon incident would be problematic, I can see them getting together with a little nudging and the looping Twilight wouldn't even have to worry about that."
"Except that Twilight, looping or not, would not be contributing to this relationship," Chrysalis argued. "She would consider Moondancer a close friend, but the non-looping Twilight would probably be too high-strung to deal with a potential relationship even if outside influences assisted her, and the looping Twilight is pretty decently set into a low-libido low-romance mindset to the point of identifying as asexual. Either way, she would probably shut down any advances. I'm sorry, but bringing Twilight into any romantic venture is almost guaranteed failure." The changeling took another sip of her tea. "Although, they would look cute together, if it happened."
Cadance sighed. "Yeah, I suppose you're right." She flipped another pair of cards. "Alright, Rainbow Dash and... Fancypants."
156.2 (Masterweaver)
Apple Bloom fell over laughing. "Oh sweet birch, ash, an' oak!"
Diamond Tiara blushed, hiding her face. "We're in the middle of an epic battle here, Bloom--"
"Oh come on!" The yellow filly pointed. "Hahaha, just look at him!"
Diamond looked up and groaned. "Daaaaaad! You're embarrassing me!"
Honestly, flying around on a cloud of money…
“I guess money really can do anything,” Apple Bloom sniggered. “Hey, can he make consequences go away?”
156.3 (Evilhumour)
"Here you go Lemon," Fluttershy smiled as she placed the plate of green vegetables in front of the colt. "Now I'd like you eat all of it before you go ou-"
"Done!" The yellow colt smiled, holding the clean plate to her. "I'm off-"
"Did you really eat it?" Fluttershy raised an eyebrow to her son, who was already sweating bullets.
"Ye-yes?" Lemon squeaked out, looking off to the side. Fluttershy raised an eyebrow, looking under the table to check for any tossed veggies. "I really did eat them, see?" Lemon titled his head and bared his teeth to show some green leaves on them. "So can I go-"
Fluttershy leaned in and sniffed his mouth. Wrinkling her nose, she quickly grabbed his ear and dragged him back to his seat. "Next time, don't use your acid spit and toss it into your pocket Lemon." Placing down another plate with even more green vegetables down onto the table, Fluttershy looked at her soon. "Now please, eat your dinner."
Groaning, Lemon Rush stabbed the meal with a fork and began to eat his salad.
156.4 (Masterweaver)
He'd tried to pull the picture off the wall, but Berry had taken one look at it, ascended, and used her magic to bind it to the cabinet while laughing maniacally. And then, of course, these two had waltzed in...
Moon Bunny, as the locals called her, leaned over the bar counter with a broad grin. Luna was right next to her, grinning even wider.
Their hooves were each on their own compacts.
Macintosh, for his part, staunchly ignored them. Never make the first move. That was one of the key things in these situations...
156.5 (Gamerex27)
The door to Mac's bar opened, and a shoggoth proceeded to drag a drooling gryphon into the bar with its tentacles.
Mac glanced at the Cutie Mark both non-ponies inexplicably shared: an eight-pointed star. "Want me to open up a tab, Nurgle?"
"You never charge Loopers," the plague god said, seating the gryphon on a stool and propping him up with a few macroscopic bacteria. "And this is not a time for jokes. My companion need help. Badly."
Mac looked at Tzeentch for a long time. The glazed eyes, the drooling, the occasional whimpers of terror...and the hormones of anti-arousal Mac's trained senses from eons of working with fermenting crops he picked up on. There was only one explanation.
"Who'd he walk in on?"
"Slaanesh and Naoki."
Big Mac winced. Putting aside the Equestrian Loopers' rocky relationship with the so-called "Mad Anchor" (which was sometimes gossiped about in his own bar), that couple did not seem like anything he ever wanted to see. Or think about. Or be in the same Loop in. "Was it a one night stand, or…?"
"Me only knows. No, wait, I don't, and I have no desire to. My dear boy, we need the strongest drink you've got."
The entire bar fell quiet at this request. Twilight and the rest of the Elements of Harmony gazed at each other warily, then dived into their Subspace Pockets in perfect, practiced unison.
Nodding gravely, Mac ducked underneath the bar, and was followed by the sounds of dozens of electronic, bioelectric, arcane, and mundane locks turning and opening. A few minutes later, he popped back up, gingerly holding a small bottle no bigger than a teacup in his hoof.
"Don't. Spill. Any of it," Mac warned, as he slowly and carefully poured it into the mug.
Nurgle glanced at the label on the bottle. "Are you trying to swindle us? That label clearly says it's the second strongest drink in your collection!"
"Strongest stuff is fer Admins only," Mac replied. "A Looper drinks any of it, it automatically crashes the Loop fer safety's sake. An' that's just the stuff from my stock: Oak knows what's in Berry's personal cellar."
"Very well, then." Nurgle tipped the drink into his fellow Chaos God's mouth, then took a sip for himself. "Keep it coming."
156.6 (Filraen)
Starlight Glimmer tried not to groan in frustration. Her humiliation from Twilight Sparkle won't go unpunished! She, however, knew her on limitations: even if she was a unicorn talented and driven enough to create the cutie mark removal spell she wouldn't be good against an alicorn princess like Twilight Sparkle in direct combat. That was the reason for her current plan: learning about Princess Twilight Sparkle, her strong points and weaknesses. While going to Ponyville might be too suspicious, using one her many travels to Canterlot resulted in a good chance to learn about her without being discovered.
That was the reason Starlight Glimmer was at this restaurant today, watching Princess Twilight who seemed to be a meeting of ponies from her time in Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, eating her salad sandwich while not attracting suspicions to herself. Eventually the group left, and Starlight ended eating the delicious sandwich.
"Waiter, check please." Just because Starlight was on a mission doesn't mean she's to be discourteous to those poor ponies who still haven't been taught the Harmony of Equality.
Now Starlight could go home and organize the information she had gathered this week about Twilight Sparkle in Canterlot.
"Excuse me Miss," the waiter said in a baritone tone. "But it seems like your bill has already been paid for."
"What?"
"Here, please have the receipt." and the waiter handed it over. To Starlight's surprise, the receipt was scribbled with a small note.
Be careful, I'll be watching.
Princess Twilight Sparkle
(DrTempo)
From the Journal of Sunset Shimmer:
My next Loop brought me to the world called Spira. When I Awakened, I soon found myself alongside the Blitzball player Tidus. He reminded me a lot of the guy with the same name back on Destiny Islands, right down to his appearance. It was weird to say the least; not half as weird as some of the things I've experienced so far.
The journey to help this Loop's Anchor, a summoner callef Yuna, defeat the monster called Sin, reminded me a lot of the adventures I had back with King Mickey, and the monsters here were kinda interesting challenges.
In the end, we defeated the being called Yu Yevon, and Sin was gone for good. But the 'dream of the fayth', the slumber of the souls which created the summons, had to end to allow such a victory, and since Tidus was from said dream, he had to fade away as well.
I expected the Loop to end there, but was I wrong.
For the next two years, I honed my skills fighting monsters, beating up bad guys....that sort of thing. I met up with Yuna again while I had been exploring ancient ruins atop Mount Gagazet; she had joined a group of treasure hunters called the Gullwings. I found myself traveling alongside Yuna once again, along with another friend from our first adventure- Yuna's cousin Rikku. And no, she's not connected to Riku from the Kingdom Hearts Loop, and yes, the joke has been made a million times. It is weird how similar her voice sounded like you, Twilight. There was also new friend, the aloof swordswoman Paine.
In something that shouldn't have surprised me, we ended up saving Spira AGAIN; the threat this time was from a giant machine called Vegnagun, which a lost soul called Shyuin planned to use to destroy Spira. The resemblance to Tidus was uncanny, right down to the fighting style, but we won in the end.
Thanks to the fayth, Tidus returned shortly after Shyuin was defeated, and peace had returned to Spira.
Having two adventures in one Loop like this was rare, but it was fun. I learned some new spells here, and experienced a lot. I await the next adventure I have, whatever Loop it may be in...
156.7 (HarmonyChaos, Masterweaver)
Celestia rolled her eyes as, once again, the new bearer of generosity started freaking out over her dress. Yes, she was an immortal princess, but honestly it wasn't as though a casual visit required so much primping up. Although it would explain why her faithful student was so late... and she'd been hoping to introduce Philomena to her too--
Ah yes, there was Twilight!
...in a collar.
...on a leash.
...next to a yellow pegasus that was also leashed and collared.
...and followed by a blue pegasus that was holding both of said leashes.
Celestia managed to keep her calm mask on, as centuries of handling Equestrian politics had trained her, but only just. "Twilight! It is so good to see you. And.... I see you're, ah, experimenting?"
The unicorn gave her a flat look. "I lost a bet."
"And I'm just here for moral support," the yellow pegasus added.
"Hey princess!" The blue pegasus waved brightly. "How do you like my new pets? Aren't they just, heh heh, the cutest things ever?!"
Suddenly a white flash flooded the room, and Discord appeared with Pinkie Pie on a leash, and collared.
"Hello everpony!" He said as he grabbed a glass of fruit punch, drinking the glass.
THUD!
Everyone turned to the unconscious Princess.
"Wait, so it's not bring your pony to work day? Huh." Discord said as he snapped his talon, removing the leash and collar from Pinkie and making a chocolate rain cloud appear above her.
"Same time next week?" He asked.
"Yup!" Pinkie said as she practically sang a choir all by herself and ran upstairs with it.
156.8 (Masterweaver)
"Gah! Aaargh--PRINCESS! GET YOUR PURPLE BUTT OUT HERE!"
Twilight rolled her eyes, stepping out to her palace's balcony. "What is it Sunset--?*snnnnnrk*!" She put her hoof over her muzzle.
"She's like me... but with wings?" The purple unicorn latched Sunset Shimmer's rear leg gave her a fraughtful teary look. "I can grow wings senpai! And I'll, I'll stay in this weird horse world if you want me to..."
"Are you, hee, having a little trouble there Sunset?"
Sunset glowered up at the giggling alicorn. "Just... just get down from there and help me."
156.9 (Evilhumour)
Twilight had to admit as she walked through the moonlight while ponies both stabbed each other and waved to her, this was one of the variant loops that she still wasn't sure she really hated or not, despite going through it many times in the past.
It was a variant where Nightmare Moon was the ruler over all in Eternal Night, and everypony had embraced their nightmare selves while still remaining true to their normal personalities. An example was Donut Joe grinding up several ponies for his pastries in the window, before levitating over a specially made doughnut just for her. The ponies in question who were being ground up by Equestria's number one baker popped back into existence and tried to run, when the owner stopped them and gave the teenagers the riot act for trying to dine and dash.
That was another fact that made things hard to really judge this loop; death was pretty much a free choice option which was a benefit as many ponies' talents relied on the temporary murder of their neighbours and friends, and ponies were so friendly and upbeat about it, despite the constant gloom and blood splatter.
As she nibbled on her flesh doughnut, she set out a Ping which had no reply back. Either that meant it she was soloing this loop or someponies were being quiet. Waving to her dracolich assistant, she walked past the vampiric thestral guards who were talking about the best blood bank to take their mares for a double dinner date, and she smiled at her mentor of this loop.
"My dear, precious student," Nightmare Moon boomed, a napkin dabbing the remains of the cockatrice meal away. "I am most proud of your studies and work, my dear Eternal Twilight." Flying over to nuzzle the potential Arch Mage and the number one voted cutest necromancer of the year, the Princess threw a literal blood gem toward Spike. "You have continued to grow and improve by leaps and bounds, with your studies in the relationship of light and dark magic with that wonderful paper arguing the label a type of magic has does not make it evil, but I must confess I have a concern with you." Holding up a letter, Nightmare Moon cleared her throat while wrapping a wing around the mare. "It is a letter about the return of my dear sister Solar Flame... or as she calls herself now, Celestia," Nightmare Moon spat out, shuddering at the lost Princess's mad name. "She is going to make her return shortly; a few days at most and will try to dispose me and then try to change the natural order of life in Equestria- have death be a final action the first time around, use magic to control the seasons permanently, have the sun and moon up every day in a year opposed to a the standard hundred year shift, and so many other poor insane ideas." Sighing, the Princess pulled Twilight closer to her in a tight hug. "Whilst I do appreciate you trying to create several new spells to hold her back, I wish you to travel to the most chaotic town in our fair Empire, Ponyville, for two important details." Nodding at the dracolich who had already got out a scroll and a feather out, Nightmare Moon walked over to her throne.
"Number one; I, Princess Nightmare Moon, entrust Eternal Twilight to oversee that the annual ceremony goes perfectly as possible, and number two; that you make some friends that you did not raise from the dead." Princess Nightmare Moon smirked, watching the young necromancer blush at being reminded of that event several years ago.
As Twilight was ushered out of the throne room, she kept a mental checklist open to see how this loop really stacked up.
As the thestral vampires pulled the carriage into Ponyville, Twilight watched as everypony gave her a look over before going back to their usual business, with very little outside of the normality of her home.
Of course, as soon as she thought that, she noticed that Bon Bon was walking with Lyra, who seemed to be switching between a unicorn, human, seapony, a pegasus, a griffon and other species. Wondering if this was something natural of this Loop or Lyra sending a code to her, Twilight wasn-
“HIYA!” Jumping in surprise, Twilight snapped her head around to see a bouncing and perky Pinkie Pie, dressed exactly like her Cupcake variant self, with her normal grin on her face and a long butcher knife in her hoof. “I’m Pinkamina Diane Pie, but you can call me Pinkie! I’m the number one pastry chef in all of Ponyville, and if that dang hack in Canterlot will finally retire, and all of Equestria! You must be the pony coming here to oversee the festival tomorrow morning as I have never seen you before today and Mayor Ivory Scroll said that the cutest necromancer of the year will be the one in charge and you do match the pony on the cover of Young Heart Stealers unless you are changeling but I doubt that as the changeling queen is looking for her daughter with your brother and the entire hive.”
Spike simply blinked his eyes in confusion. “Uh….nice dress?” He said lamely, blinking his undead eyes again.
“Awww, thank you mister undead dragon!” Pinkie Pie grin grew as she bounced around in place, the cutie mark dress fanning outwards. “It’s made from all my friends so I always have them close to me and I can remember all the fun we had together and I am always looking to add new friends to my dress. If you don’t mind, I would love you add you to my dress!” Leaning in close with the knife, Pinkie Pie gave her puppy eyes.
“But we just met!” Twilight protested, backing up slightly at the odd request.
“Silly filly, a stranger is just somepony you haven’t met yet and a friend is gained whenever you say hello or trade stories with or just talk with about the randomest things like did you know I can lick my whole face as my tongue is super long and I can talk for a very long as I was gifted by a traveling pony with extended lungs that was meant to be a curse and I am able to tell instantly what kind of cupcake a pony will like the best unlike that HACK Donut Joe and I can reach into my mane for all kinds of stuff and I can-”
“Okay Pinkie, okay!” Twilight laughed, hugging the mare tightly who returned the gesture with great enthusiasm. Twilight then snickered and giggled loudly as the mare stabbed her flanks with the long butcher knife and cut her cutie marks off before Pinkie sliced her jugular vein open. As it was part of the free option with death in this Loop, the intent behind the murder determined the pain felt and with a mare like Pinkie Pie, it was like a thousand of feather being run across her entire body. Wiping a tear away with a giggle still in her mouth, Twilight looked down to see a cupcake being offered to her by the number one party pony as Twilight appeared over her own dead body. Using her magic to bring the offered treat to her mouth to take a bite, Twilight had to resist an urge to send out a magical spark from how tasty it was. With a wide grin on her face, Pinkie Pie leaned over to hug her again before bouncing away with the corpse in tow.
Spike turned his head to Twilight and opened his mouth before a cupcake was placed in by a pink hoof. “Sorry about that mister dragon, I almost forgot to give you one too! Bye!”
Spike blinked again and began to chew the muffin with a grin on his face. “Wow this really tasty!” Hopping onto Twilight’s back, the dragon pulled out a list. “I can’t wait to meet more ponies of this town! They seem amazing!”
Smirking, Twilight agreed to that fact as she made her way towards Sweet Apple Acres to meet this Loops Applejack.
156.10 (Gamerex27) (Continuation of 150.12)
"So. Um...how's your Nyx?"
"She's fine," Twilight said, sipping her tea and trying to ignore the Royal Guards sitting at either end of the four-seated table, to the sides of herself and the entity currently controlling Starlight Glimmer's body.
"She's still going steady with Lemon Rush," she continued. "And I think she said something about a hot springs trip with Minato during a gender-switched Loop?"
"Eh, he's a girl about half the time now," Ryoji replied, sipping his own cup with Starlight's hooves, speaking in his own, more masculine voice. "Something to do with the Edit knocking off his gender marker. Even though that...thing...isn't in our Loop, it still did something to our Branch since they're connected. The biggest thing were these Persona users from Tokyo getting glitched by-"
He trailed off, as he nervously glanced at the guards. "C'mon, is this really necessary?" he whined. "I've got her under control!"
"Be that as it may," one of the guards replied, "the pony you are possessing still committed mass violations of equine rights. Although the Princess confirmed she is no longer a threat," he explained, pointing to Twilight with a forehoof briefly, "Princess Celestia still assigned us to watch you until the trial can begin."
"Or until your friend gets you into another body," the other guard added.
"Oh," Ryoji said. "I guess that makes sense. She was being naughty, if you get what I THAT DOESN'T GO THERE!"
He slapped Starlight's hoof to her mouth.
"...um, sorry," he said. "She breaks through sometimes."
"We'll need to call in more backup, just to be sure." One guard took a sending stone out of his saddlebag. "Shining Armor, we'll need two more guards here-"
"That's...not needed," Twilight interrupted, gently pulling the stone out of the guard's hooves with her magic and setting it on the table. "I trust Ryoji enough that he can keep her under control. Though it is a temporary solution."
"Yeah, I wanna get this over with too," the Herald of Nyx agreed. "I feel bad for her. Trapped like an animal, with all her freedom stripped from her, not even allowed to move her face or be herself, and I'm suddenly describing all her victims, aren't I?" Ryoji shrugged, then yanked a roll out of the breadbasket and popped it into Starlight's mouth.
"Ironic, I guess. Or karmic, whatever the right word is. So, when is the THAT'S NOT WHAT HOOFCUFFS ARE USED FOR!"
As Starlight briefly took control of her body back, crumbs of the roll lodged themselves in her throat, and she began choking as Ryoji seized control of their shared form. As the guards gave him the Heimlich Maneuver, Twilight rolled her eyes.
"Still heard worse."
156.11 (Gamerex27)
"Sombra locked in a room, check," Discord said, marking a box on his checklist.
"Crystal?" the dictator asked.
"Rock of some kind, check," he continued, marking that off too.
"It's quartz," Applejack replied.
"Can't say I care," the chaos spirit said, shrugging. "Though I'm grateful that you helped with this."
"The varmit deserves it," the mare said. "So, there's someone else in there too?"
"Bah!" a raspy voice hissed from inside the cage. "Foolish mammal! You think this cage can contain me?! I shall use this CRYSTAL you foolishly left in this box to MAKE MY ESCAPE, and have my rev-"
"Crystal!" Sombra screamed. "MINE!"
"The CRYSTAL belongs to me! Get your own, inferior mammal cloud!"
"They're perfect fer' each other," Applejack said, grinning.
"This is either going to end in them fighting it out Thunderdome style, or with them falling in love and getting married over their mutual love of rocks." Discord produced a large bucket of popcorn from out of nowhere, and popped several kernels into his mouth, as the box began to jump and creak from the massive brawl inside. "Either one works for me."
The box creaked. Several splinters of wood flew into the air (thankfully away from the spectators), and Sombra promptly slammed Doctor Dinosaur against the damaged side of the box.
“Place your bets!” Discord announced, putting a green eyeshade visor over his face, and replacing his popcorn with a pile of gambling chips in the blink of an eye. “The evil tyrant, our old classic Sombra? Or the newcomer, a dinosaur with questionable medical experience (could be an honorary degree, I suppose) and a bias against mammals that’s just sad, Doctor Dinosaur!”
“Eh, Ah’ll put some bits on the Doc,” AJ said, slapping some bits into Discord’s outstretched palm. “It don’t matter much, though. Whoever loses, we win.”
156.12 (Gamerex27)
Twilight Awoke lying on her back.
Not my usual spot to Wake Up, she thought to herself. Alright, checklist.
As she tried to get up, she noted that she was bipedal this Loop, rather than in her usual pony body. Okay, human Loop. Haven't had one of those in a while. She felt at her neck. No Adam's Apple and less bulk means female, which means I don't have to get used to a totally different center of balance, always nice. Clothes...yes. Age...late teens, I think. Body shape...
She looked in the mirror. Other than the fact that her skin was tan and not lavender, she looked exactly like she did on the other side of the Mirror World back home.
Eh, close enough.
"Twilight?" she heard her mother's voice call from outside the door. "Are you up yet?'
"Yeah," she said, as she filtered through her Loop memories. "C'mon, Mom, it's Saturday. Let me sleep in a bit more."
"You can't, dear," Twilight Velvet continued from the other side of the door. "You need to head over to Applejack's for practice!"
"Practice?" Twilight echoed.
"Yes, dear! You have to get more riding hours in before the race!"
"Ri-" Twilight's Loop memories chose that exact moment to kick in. She blinked, then groaned and facepalmed.
"I'll give you a few more minutes to get dressed and ready. If we don't leave by ten, we'll get caught in traffic!"
"On it," she sighed. Slowly, she looked around her room. There was all the usual stuff a middle-upper-class Western teenage human girl had in her room-makeup, a dresser, some posters, an entire wall stacked with books, all of which Twilight had already read at least twice over...
...but there was one thing out of the ordinary. On her bedside table, Twilight glared at the framed photograph of her Unawake self, holding a golden trophy...and standing next to a white-coated mare-not a pony, a horse, complete with a saddle and blinders. She was wearing cowboy boots and a jockey's uniform.
"Celestia," she muttered under her breath, "as my noble mare. In horse racing." She massaged her aching temples with her fingers. "May as well get this over with."
The Equestrian Equestrian Competition
(Gamerex27)
The Equestrian Equestrian Competition, part 2:
"Ah know, Ah know," Applejack said, patting Rainbow Dash on the neck as she refilled her water trough. "It's annoyin' that we can't use our Pockets, so ya can't go back to normal."
The other mar-other female snorted in agreement, rolling her eyes. She began tapping her hoof on the ground.
.- - / .-.. . .- ... - / .. / --. . - / - --- / .-. .- -.-. . (At least I get to race), the clops went.
"Horse Code, huh?" Applejack asked. "Guess that's the best way for us to talk, at least fer' now."
.-.. --- --- -.- ... / - .... .- - / .-- .- -.-- (Looks that way), Rainbow Dash agreed. ... - .. .-.. .-.. --..-- / - .... .. ... / .-.. --- --- .--. / ... ..- -.-. -.- ... (Still, this Loop sucks).
"Glad to see you girls are Awake, too," Twilight said, as she walked into the stable.
"Heya, Twi," Applejack greeted her friend. "You still goin' in the race your Unawake self signed up for?"
"Why not?" the Anchor said, chuckling. "Not like I get the chance for this everyday. Who else is Awake?"
"Me," Sunset Shimmer said, rounding the corner from the last stall in the stable. "Gilda too."
... .... . .----. .-.. .-.. / -... . / .-. .. -.. .. -. --. / -- . / .. -. / - .... . / .-. .- -.-. . (She'll be riding me in the race), Rainbow Dash explained. -.-. --- ..- .-.. -.. / -... . / .-- --- .-. ... . .-.-.- (Could be worse).
"Also, Nyx should be around here somewhere," Sunset continued, counting off on her fingers, "as well as Luna, Fluttershy, and-"
"Me!"
Twilight blinked. She didn't remember hearing that voice before in her home Loop. Was this a foreign Looper, or...no, she did remember. He spoke so rarely that she didn't even remember what his seldom-heard voice sounded like.
"Hi, Angel," she said. "How-"
"And it's about time I get to talk, too!" he said, the white-haired rabbit-turned-human sauntering over to the group. "I never got to finish our conversation the last time I could talk, when I was a dragon that one time. I think...yeah, the Loop crashed when I was getting to the bit about maimmmmmmgghg!"
Whatever he was about to say was cut off by a hoof sticking itself in front of his mouth, jutting out from the closest stall. Which was followed by a whiny of dismay and a dull thud as the horse in question realized that she wasn’t flexible enough in this body to pull that off for long.
"Thanks, Fluttershy," Twilight said, leaning into the stall as Angel Bunny clawed at his tongue to get the dirt and mud from Fluttershy's hoof out of his mouth. "Are you alright?"
The other Looper nodded weakly, pushing herself to her hooves and glaring at the Sith Lord sternly.
"So, which stable is Celestia in?" Twilight continued.
"Um..." Applejack said, twiddling her thumbs, "right over there. But" she continued as Twilight swung the door open and entered the Unawake Princess's stable "...she ain't feelin' too good."
Celestia sniffed, then huffed and dragged at the ground with her hooves. Then the comparatively gigantic horse sniffed again.
"Are you feeling alrigGAAAAAAAH!"
After a earth-shatteringly loud sneeze, Twilight's hand slowly reached out and motioned for a towel, a hose, and copious amounts of soap.
"Alright, I see your point," Twilight finally said once she had cleaned herself of...well, she would like very much never to think of it again. "So who am I going to be racing on?"
"There's this new stallion that we got just last week," Applejack replied. "Pretty cheap, too. 'Bout as big as the Princess, similar muscles 'n leg structure....haven't had the chance to see him for mahself yet, though. Follow me."
"What?" Twilight asked as the pair walked out of the main stables. "Why isn't he here with the others?"
"Ah heard Applebloom said he don't get along well with the others," the farmer explained as they entered the auxiliary stables. "Bit of a kickin' habit, and he don't take too kindly to riders."
"I can handle it," her friend said, shrugging as she opened the stable door and walked into her new mount's section. "It's not like...it's..."
She trailed off as she stared at her ride. Blood-red fur. The "beard" of differently-colored fur around his mouth. And those eyes radiating pure menace.
Twilight stared at Tirek, as he snorted and turned to face the other wall, unimpressed.
Then Twilight walked over to the entrance of the stable, and started to bang her head against the wall in frustration.
156.13 (ThanosCradik)
This Loop was going to give Twilight a headache, she could feel it. Everyone was a muppet; ponies, changelings, griffins, buffalo, dragons, even Discord was made of cloth... felt... whatever muppets were made of.
That wouldn't be so bad by itself, but everyone kept making puns left and right! It was like being in a bad comedy act twenty-four/ seven, with almost no let up.
*CRASH*
"Oh, sorry! You aren't hurt, are you?"
"Don't worry, I barely even felt that!"
She suddenly wanted to go back to the Lego Loop, now.
156.14 (Gamerex27)
The two ponies-for a given definition of the term-glanced around the room awkwardly, not meeting each others gazes.
"Um..." Fluttershy said, creeping up to the bolted door. "Can you let us out now?"
The small hatch in the door opened, and a pale, bleached skull peered through.
"Neigh," it said. "For those who have conquered Death time and time again, it is foalish to remain afraid of mere bonds. Neither of you shall leave this room 'till you make amends."
"Uh...what he said," another skeleton agreed, which could just be seen polishing its bike in the background. "Stop being wimps."
"We already-"
The slit slammed shut, cutting off the Demi-Fiend's protests. Slowly, he sighed, then turned around to face Fluttershy.
"I....so..." he tried to say. "F__k me, I suck at talking. No clue what to say."
"Er...well...let's start with the basics," Fluttershy suggested. "Who...are those demons outside? Are they from-"
"Amala, yeah," Naoki confirmed, trying very hard not to look down at his currently equine body. "And before you ask, no, they aren't from my Branch, because no one else from my Branch can get Activated now. At least, they're not native to any parts of Amala we know."
"Um...what does that mean?"
"All we know is that they're always Loop Aware entities that pop up in any Loop at random, or that the part of Amala they came from is gone from the Event that started this whole mess. Or, their branch is still around, but it's so corrupted Masakado hasn't managed to sort out the files for backups or render anything about it besides keeping it Read Only. Or, they were from Amala as a whole, and when the Loops forced the Admins to split the fragmented universe into different Branches, they never had a home Loop since they were from the multiverse... so they just got shunted from place to place." Naoki tried to shrug, then noticed his current lack of shoulders, and scowled. "That last one's the most likely, I think...but I really am not sure how many of them are Looping or not."
"Oh."
The two of them were silent for a good thirty-ish seconds.
"You know," Fluttershy said timidly, "I could teach you how to shapeshift back to your human form. I-"
"No."
Fluttershy blinked in surprise. "But I thought you were still really uncomfortable seeing us as ponies? Or...being a pony?"
"This...yeah, it's jarring...but it's something I need to get over," Naoki explained. "I said I was going to put everything in the past, and to do that, I need to start with this. A body's just a bunch of meat, Magnetite, Magatsuhi, and a soul pinning it all together, anyways. It shouldn't really matter what it's shaped like."
He paused for a second, seemingly spacing out.
"Wait. The souls were still there after the serum?!" he exclaimed. "Why didn't you tell me that?!"
Another pause.
"'I never asked,' my ass!" he yelled, again to thin air. "Okay, okay, she had to die, I get that, I agree with that, but-wait, razed the planet to the ground?!"
"Um...who are you talking to?" Fluttershy asked.
But Naoki didn't seem to notice. He just kept ranting and raving at a voice only he could hear.
"You just said you destroyed her kingdom!" Naoki roared. "Killed the tyrant?! What about the thousands of brainwashed humans, and, hell, those non-brainwashed, weak-as-hell ponies?!"
Another pause.
"Don't give me, ‘I was willing to do the same in Baseline!' In case you forgot, the world was dead already! And Lucifer never gave me the full story! That manipulative bastard never said we'd break all of reality by trying to-"
He trailed off as he happened to look towards Fluttershy, noticing how she was suddenly standing on the other side of the room.
"...Shit," he exclaimed. "Fine, we'll put this on hold. But it's far from over, dickwad."
Sighing, he pulled out a piece of paper, fumbled at it for several seconds with his hooves, then gave up. "Urgh. There goes making a diagram to explain all this crap. Okay, you deserve an explanation for all that. I didn't...mean to scare you. This time, I mean."
"I wasn't scared," Fluttershy said, her body visibly relaxing. "I just thought you might blow up again, so I was trying to-"
"-Get away from the ticking time bomb," he finished. "...can't say I blame you for that. Okay, here's what happened: remember how I told you in my Baseline that I ended up destroying the multiverse? That's only kind of true. It was me, but it also wasn't.
"Wait, let me go from the top," he said, smacking himself in the face, then grunting as he was unable to balance on only three legs and fell to the floor.
"Basically," Naoki said as he stood back up, "I was tested throughout my journey by those assholes," he said, jerking his head in the direction of the door, "and we fought over candelabras, which opened the door to a giant maze full of the worst traps ever. I pass all the tests, and learn the whole deal about the Great Will's infinite resets of the universe via the Conception, how he was trying again and again to find a world without free will, all that junk. So, Lucifer offers me power to try and break this system. What he didn't tell me was that I wasn't just getting the heart of a demon: I was getting the soul of one, too. He basically broke open my psyche and pumped metaphysical steroids into my id until it gained sapience. Which...uh...killed me."
"But an Anchor needs to survive a Loop in order for it to run, right? Unless...is it like with Toothless and Hiccup?"
"Co-Anchors, yeah," the demon confirmed. "One second Lucifer is throwing a lightning bolt at me, and the next I'm back on the subway near the hospital. Activating the Loop joined us together, since he basically tore his way out of my soul to exist. Took us a while to stop arguing-and by the time we did, we died in the Conception. So in the next Loop, we shut up long enough to learn what I missed in the rest of Baseline. Some stuff I really wanted to stay missed. You know the rest."
Naoki suddenly stopped, his ears twitching.
"What is it?" Fluttershy asked.
"You're...you have a body this time?!" Naoki asked his split personality. "The last time we tried that, you ended up incarnating as a Slime!...How the hell are we still talking if you're not in my mind right now?"
More silence.
"Forget it," he growled. "Guess it doesn't matter. You have any idea where you are?"
Silence again.
"Alright. Just don't kill any tough demons without me," Naoki replied. "A good fight's probably in short supply here."
"Will he be alright by himself?" Fluttershy asked, sensing that the inter-personality conversation was over.
"He punched an avatar of the Great Will so hard, it stopped existing in every reality ever. He'll be fine." Slowly, on unsteady legs, Naoki walked over to the door. "Open the door."
He was met by the sound of a blaring trumpet, blowing him backwards and right onto his flank.
"So, no," Naoki confirmed. "The hell do you want us to do, then? Sit around and talk about our feelings?! I want to get over all this, yeah, but I'm not gonna hold hands with her and whine about how my life is a literal goddamned mess. What the hell with that solve?!"
"And...we kind of already talked about that when we saw each other again through the Mirror," Fluttershy added.
They were met with no response, save the rumbling of an engine starting up and the Hell Biker driving out of wherever the heck Trumpeter had stuck them.
"The gate has been sealed with my strongest of magics," Trumpeter muttered, "as have the walls, ceilings, and floors. There is no escape 'till you commune and overcome the-"
"You want us to fu-no!" Naoki yelled. "Why would you even say that?!"
"Wait." Fluttershy stared at the door. "The doors and walls are all magically reinforced."
"Correct," said the Trumpeter.
"...what about the hinges and locks?"
The Fiend was silent for a few moments.
"Oh, damna-"
It was cut off by an adamantium door crashing right into its face.
Slowly, the vines and tendrils of dark magic withered and faded away from where they had wormed into the door and wrenched its workings apart.
"Oh, no!" Fluttershy gasped, galloping over to where Trumpeter's body was. Was, as in the past tense: it had vanished in a flash of light mere seconds after it was crushed by the door. "I didn't mean to-"
"Relax," Naoki said, bending down to slowly and carefully pull out the dropped Macca from where the other demon was. "Demons never stay dead where I come from. You kill 'em, and they just pop back up in the Expanse and sulk for a while."
"...your universe is strange."
"Never heard that one before," Naoki muttered, slowly pulling the demonic currency into his Pocket. "Though...I guess I owe you for all that's happened. Where's the local equivalent of hell?"
"Tartarus," Fluttershy automatically answered. "But...why are we going there?"
"Figure this is something anyone who spends any time with someone from Amala needs to know. Ye-Fluttershy," he corrected himself, "you're going to learn how to negotiate with demons."
156.15 (masterofgames)
Twilight yawned as she entered Mac's bar with a sleepy stride.
Mac paused in the cleaning of 'that one glass' Twilight would swear he had behind the bar just so he could look busy when someone came in. "Somethin' wrong, Twilight? I thought you were at yer brother's fancy wedding."
Twilight nodded as she slid into a seat. "I was. And I thought it would be a pretty baseline wedding too, since neither Shiny or Cadance are awake, but I was wrong, and I'm honestly a little conflicted on how to feel about it. On one hoof? Awesome blackmail, and funny as all get out. But on the other, I kinda feel bad for my brother. Oh, um, just a water with lime please, I'll be flying back tonight."
Mac nodded and poured her drink. "Since I'm the only one here, but you came all this way anyway, I'm guessin' you just couldn't keep it to yourself?"
Twilight nodded. "Got it in one. Turns out Cadance is a kind of pseudo-alicorn this loop. She started out as a unicorn Grand Sorceress."
Mac blinked. "Now correct me if I'm wrong Miss Twilight, but I thought this loop hasn't appointed one a' those in centuries?"
Twilight shook her head as she sipped her drink. "You aren't wrong, she found a way to emulate alicorn immortality. She kind of fuses her present body with a willing partner, even if the partner doesn't know what they're agreeing to. The pooled magic extends the lifespan."
"... Wait, so yer sayin'..."
Twilight sighed and cast an illusion spell, showing Mac an image of a highly feminine alicorn princess, tall and with a long flowing mane and tail, smiling as she gracefully strode down a castle hallway, greeting the guards with a smile and receiving happy and respectful bows in reply. She also had a white coat, a blue and silver mane, and a starburst shield cutie mark.
"Yep, she only wanted my brother for his body."
Stats
Page generated in 0.179 seconds
Total duration
1,010 users online
436,659 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Yay! More to read!
Welp. So much for sleep.
...this sounds confusing
6275068
It's been going for a while.
6275144 We actually have Arda show up a fair amount.
Heck, Smaug eventually joins the list of loopers, and there's several with him and Bilbo starring over on the Dragons Loops on my ff.net account.
6275193 Lilo is the Anchor, known loopers are Stitch, Nani Pelekai, Jumba Jookiba, Wendy Pleakley, Gantu, Reuben (625)
156.10: Less that Ryoji has different morals and moreso that Starlight Gimmer's trapped in his subconciousness. He's not evil. He just has a dirty, dirty mind. On the Perv-O-Meter (rated on a scale of 1 to Slaanesh), he only scores about a 2, or 3 when his host Minato's had a bad Loop and needs...uh...relief.
Incidentally, while I'm here, I may as well ask those of you who are more versed in FiM lore than me: How does the Equestrian court system work? Is it a trial by jury with peers? A kangeroo court where Celestia makes all the decisions? A Phoenix Wright-esque march of absolute insanity? I ask because I may end up writing that trial come the end of Season 5 when we learn what happens to her.
As opposed to when everyone was a pony, and pony puns were being made left and right.
6275268
Don't think we've seen a court of law in FiM so far. There was something similar in one comic that Celestia did preside over, but that was for a teaching dispute at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, not a criminal case. (It looked like a normal American courtroom.)
6275268 What we've seen is more of an "Petition the Crown" sort of deal. Although appeals for clemency would imply the existence of a lower court. My headcanon is that they have a Common Law system, without heavily codified criminal justice legislation
6275410 They may be too old, but that no longer applies if they're fine with it.
That's actually what Leman/Lemon specifically uses Equestria for, basically, the ability to have a "normal" (ie cliche) childhood. Nyx is similar - she's quite capable of being mature and would ask for them to treat her that way if she wanted... but it's just plain fun to be a kid sometimes.
6275735
Argle.
6276418
Hey, personally, I don't mind Flash, I'm just a bit annoyed he's so bland, so, when given a chance to do something like that to Starlight Glimmer, I am all for it. Come on, wouldn't you respect the guy who tripped Starlight up? Even depowered in the EQG world.
6275947
I know.
Good set of snips, I want to see more of Nyx and Larry as well as the Founders in their new bodies! I have to love Fluttershy's kids defending her from the bullies, pure awesome! And we've got another team of Element Bearers. So, Mane 6, secondary characters and redeemed villains, Crusader Bearers, and now Background Pony bearers.... nice.
156:15
So, wait... are Cadance and Shining having a group-mind thing, where they're both living in the body? Or is Twilight just cool with Cadance possessing/killing her BBBFF?
6278913
I kind of think she's mentally writing all this off as "plain bizarre".
6280136
I do. I REALLY like DBZ Abridged, and Frieza, due to ow much fun LittleKuriboh must have had voicing him, mind you I joined the 'TFS fandom' a bit late, right when there were starting the Android saga, I think it was the episode they introduced Baby Trunks to Goku.
There is always a loop I find that I would either like to write as a story or do a crossover with
6281735
Do tell.
6280306
Oog. Sorry, apparently none of the proofreader swarm saw it.
6283489
May I ask why?
6278023
Hehehe, I have no regrets!
156.6 Unawake…well…anypony against Awake Twilight Sparkle? No chance.
156.8 Let me guess: this is a Loop variant where Human!Twilight actually hails from Japan?
156.9 Disturbing though this Loop is…I strangely want to see more of it.
6283571 .9
I do plan on finishing this, by the way.
6282343 There's definitely a couple. I'd like to see for sure the one where Apple Bloom is observed by the Doctor and she freaks out and Unawake AJ doesn't get it. And also, what would it do to Sweetie's psyche to appear in a world where everypony she knows (or most of them) have been travelling the multiverse much longer than her? That would probably be an April Fools...
6282602 Well, since Freeman's Mind is confirmed to be going through Half-life 2, that ought to do him some good, working with other humans and all.
Of course, FM2 isn't scheduled to start for at least two years or so, since he's got a few other projects that were boiling on the back burner while FM took center stage.
6286641 With a comma before "dear".
Awesome, love the huge update...although I always figured twilight and dash would hook up at least once in the loops...there has definitely been some tension there in previous loops.
So, is there an actual image for what Lemon Rush looks like while a pony? I need to know because reasons.
6291834 Cheetara would not have to be anywhere - she could simply be Replaced for the loop.
And loop length varies considerably.
6291901
http://tanglemorph-wanderer.deviantart.com/art/The-Infinite-Time-Loops-Lemon-Rush-511853368
Short of being able to have Discord like powers and things like cause and effect are optional? NOpe.
Fair enough.
Clever girl.
You know, under any other circumstance, this'd probably be the start of a very amusing Clopfic.
Right.
Is this a reference to how Rainbow said that Twilight would never be her pet in the episode she gets Tank?
... Huh.
You know death may be temporary, but this is still f*cking creepy!
How much do you want to bet that Donut Joe is also a literal hack?
... Right.
Right.
Aggressively?
I got nothing.
6291901
May I ask for what?
6297901
I've read two, maybe three stories with that premise, so between not remembering all the titles and keeping them straight…
Also the story you were thinking of was Dying to Get There. The one I thought of is here.
I feel like there's this really subtle sub-plot going on in the background that advances about once every 12 chapters or so. Almost as if... the story was trying to set up an ending!
Nah.
~TOOWC
6283538
Well, just because he was the one to find the Elements of Harmony in that loop, he gets to just run off with them?
6283577 Cool.
6302182
That's kind of the thing. He decided to filch them, and it's the joke... it's not like anyone's okay with it...
6304194
Sunset Shimmer Journal bits don't get numbers.
.4 I don't get this one.
.6 Another instance of two entries under one number. What's odd is that, in both cases, the second entry is from Sunset Shimmer's diary.6304354 Ah ok, never mind then.
6304354 I guess you have a point there…
6304748 It's based on S5E13: "Do Princesses Dream of Magical Sheep?" During part of it, Mac goes through a transformation into an Alicorn Princess in a Magic Girl style sequence. Both of the Princesses of the Moon, Luna and "Moon Bunny" (Usagi Tsukino, aka Sailor Moon) were likely about to give him a hard time for it.
6307978
Ah, thanks. I couldn't figure out who 'Moon Bunny' was, or what the 'compacts' were. I'm assuming then that the latter are small pictures, correct?
6308215
The compacts are transformation items from Sailor Moon.
http://sailormoon.wikia.com/wiki/Cosmic_Heart_Compact
I want to see Twilight as a Disney Princess and punching/magically blast the daylights out of a villain that tries to capture her.
6313106
Blast the delights out of them? Huh. Never thought of using chronic depression as a weapon before… don't let Pinkie hear about this.
The expression is daylights.
6314354 Fixed.
6318598 Yeah, I realized that, that was the only thing I could link to Munchkin.
Can anyone remember which chapter had the spaceship battle loop? I'm learning how to make video games and a spaceship battle seems like a fun concept.
EDIT: never mind I downloaded the story to find the chapter xD
6321821 Actually it's broken up like this:
Hex-a-ni-tro-
Hex-a-a-za-
I-so-wur-ti-zane.
Because an isowurtizane is a structure, then hexaaza and hexanitro are modifiers to it.
6325098
It's a kingdom named for a man in-story, I believe.
6331132
Damnit man, which chapter was that?!!? I wanna go back and read it again... :(
6333099 Loops 54.
156.1: When you need to know the statistics XD
156.2: Soft crinkly power!
156.3: Definitely
156.4: Good policy, always wait for someone else to act. Glad luna and Serena met up again too.
156.5: I'd say they go off the charts XD
156.6: Twilight really doesn't know subtle....it's a bit painful when she tries.
Yay more Dr Tempo!
156.7: And continues to be amusing!
156.8: but what events...
156.9: Oooh, more of this please!
156.10: Interesting idea, but it was too hard to follow >.<
156.11: Maud will be the best mare
156.12: But what photos she'll get..also bwahahahaha
156.13: ehehehe
156.14: Intriguing but a bit too kinky
156.15: *snerk*