MLP Loops 168
168.1: (Masterweaver)
"I would not feed those to a chicken!" Svengallop cried, scowling as he slapped the plate of oats out of Pinkie's hoof. "I want top-of-the-line Appleloosan oats! Next, it appears that we are surrounded by apple trees. Bring me five hundred pre-peeled, pre-cored apples, and I want those things in twenty-four hours!"
And then... Pinkie smiled.
"You know what, mister Svengallop? Let's cut to the chase." She waved a hoof, gathering all the scattered oats into a floating sphere. "You want to be treated. You want, oh, the tastiest foods—" The oats took the form of a large cake. "—the rarest of treasures—" Then they morphed into a large diamond. "—the most beautiful of mares, hmm?" A sultry silhouette swayed saucily before the shocked stallion's eyes. "You want to demand the impossible, and have ponies all around scramble to obey. You want to be the most important pony around."
Pinkie's smile only grew as the oats broke formation, slinking around Svengallop's head. "What is this—?"
"I can make it all happen, mister Svengallop." Pinkie grinned. "You know the connections I went through to get Countess Coloratura here? That is only scratching the surface of what I can do. I can be in Prance in a second, and return with fresh scones. I can conjure mountains of gems from midair. I know an entire species of open, ready mares that can look like anything, anyone you want." She let the river of oats trail around his barrel before gathering it all back on the plate. "All I need in return is one eensy, teensy, weensy, small thing."
Svengallop glared at her. "And what would that be?"
"Typical faustian bargain: Your soul. I've got the paperwork ready and everything!" The party pony pulled out a scroll. "And I'm not even going to pull that 'hidden text' thing, that's how you know I'm on the up and up."
"Really." The stallion rose a pink eyebrow. "You're going to try to pull this—?"
"Pinkie, what are ya doin'?" Applejack demanded, walking into the orchard. "Ah thought you were better than this!"
"Oh come on, AJ! It's been ages since I've had a real soul contract!" The pink pony pouted. "It's not like we get many chances in Equestria."
"Ah'd assume that soul contracts would be off the table no matter what," Applejack countered.
Svengallop snorted. "Oh, of course the country pony would believe in this soul business."
"Oh, trust me, Pinkie can deliver. What Ah'm tryin' ta say is that she shouldn't!"
"You really expect me to believe this pink pony is some sort of demon?"
"Goddess," Pinkie corrected. "Chaos goddess. The demons are basically cells, I'm waaaaaaay above them." She shrugged. "I mean, it's not like you're using your soul anyway!"
"Why, I never—!"
Applejack sighed. "Pinkie, it's the principle of the matter. Ah may dislike Svengallop and how he warped my old friend's image into a mockery of her talent, but that don't mean Ah want him to wander about soulless."
"A mockery of—?!"
"Pleeeeeeeeease AJ? It's just, every time I Loop into 40K I have to borrow from the other chaos gods for poker night!"
"Really? That's why you're tryin' ta get Svengallop's soul?"
"That and he's a dick. Karmic justice, you know?"
"I have heard just about enough of this!" Svengallop cried. "I don't care whether or not you can actually pull off what you claim, but I will not tolerate this—this insulting treatment any further! The countess and I are leaving!" He stormed off toward the gaggle of schoolcolts and fillies.
Applejack groaned. "Now look what you did, Pinkie, he's going to—"
"Ut ut ut!" Pinkie held up a hoof. "Wait for it...."
The farm-mare rose an eyebrow, turning to watch Svengallop as he stormed up to Coloratura.
Words were exchanged, with Svengallop starting out angry, Coloratura wincing... and then glaring, standing up and growling right back. Svengallop stamped a hoof, pointing toward her palanquin, but Coloratura shook her head and gestured toward the increasingly confused looking foals. The stallion growled, waving his hoof—the pop star gave him an incredulous face, and he rolled his eyes, speaking calmly but firmly. And the mare... looked at the kids again, and narrowed her eyes, and shook her head. Then Svengallop exploded, pushing into Coloratura's face, but the foals would not stand for his words and gathered around her protectively, shouting their own defiance at him. In the end, he stormed off, stomping toward the stage with angry grumbling.
"...you planned that, didn't ya?"
Pinkie shrugged. "Either I got a free soul, or I got to see Svengallop humiliated in front of foals. With a camera," she added, pointing at Photo Finish. "Maybe it's petty of me, but come on! It's just so satisfying to see him get his just desserts!"
Applejack sighed, rubbing her forehead. "Yeah, Ah getcha there... just... just don't do the soul bargain thing, okay? Ah was really worried there for a second."
"...oh, alright, fine." The pink pony waved toward the foals. "Coloratura seems happy, though."
"Yeah... yeah she does." The farmer gathered herself. "Ah'm gonna have to try to get her away from Svengallop way earlier next Loop. Maybe around the GGG or somesuch..."
168.2: (Evilhumour)
"I understand you are worried about the coming of the Boogie Mare and her funky bat ponies minions, but rest assured Sparkle child, I can handle my wayward sister," the unAwake Celestia bobbed her head, her massive afro glistening with all of its normal colours. "I have a far out, more important task for you to do; I need to go out this fresh town called Ponyville to help with my little get together, you dig?"
The Anchor opened her mouth and closed it a few times before she nodded her head, looking at the large discoball-shaped moon that had the outline of an unicorn on it, flashing across the planet every few seconds in an array of different colours.
"I dig, Princess Sunbeam," Sparkle said, making sure to record this Loop for future blackmail, eager to see how Rarity would look in this disco variant.
"Silly filly, you don't got them Elements of Disco on you, and my party shall last forever without that square P Sunbeam putting the brakes to my moves," the Boogie Mare said with a bark of laughter filling the old Sister Princesses Disco Parlor.
"That's where you're wrong, Boogie Mare," Sparkle said with a grin, looking at her friends doing their best to out boogie the bat ponies that were pushing them into a corner.
"AhahahaJay's got the bongo beat and a feisty act; totally makes her the Bearer of Salsa!" The poncho-wearing farmer grinned as she one-twoed the large bat pony right in a group of encroaching bat pony mares.
"Flutters, raising from terror to blood-pumpin' love, what else could she but the Bearer of Soul?" The yellow filly's peace necklace swirled around her tye-dye shirt as she mesmerized her foes.
"Sparkling D, flashy and to the beat of the new music, can only be the Bearer of Pop!" The bat ponies blinked back as the unicorn wearing a zoot suit drowning in sequins hip bumped their leader away.
"The Pinks is totally flexible and able to move, thus the Bearer of Dance!" With a grin, the tights-wearing pink mare had taken the lead away from several of the bat ponies following her and sent them into a large pile.
"Radical Dashie, moving and swaying to whatever is playing, this makes her the Bearer of Funk!" A pegasus with rainbows painted literally all over her whipped out her sweet musical axe and strummed it challengingly.
"Haha, that's five of the six mighty Elements of Disco, Sparkle child, but without the last one, they're just fine stones hanging in the air!" With a loud laugh, the Boogie Mare flew into the air before lining herself up to knock down Twilight. "You've lost little filly and you cannot even dance. What hope did you ever have to beat the Boogie Mare herself with no rhythm or flow?"
"That's where you're wrong because with my posse together, I've learned how to adapt and move to their beat. With them, I've learned how to Groove, the sixth Element of Disco!" With that, a sixth stone appeared over Sparkle's head. The Boogie Mare tried to pull up but it was too late. A pulsating rainbow swept through the room and hit the Boogie Mare straight on with an explosion of music, leaving Princess Moonbeam on the dance floor.
168.3: (Evilhumour)
"Hmmm..." Vinyl tapped her chin in front of the window, before she was tackled over by several people. "Gah, what the sneezewort girls?!"
"No Vinyl, we've seen what you have done when you 'wubbify' things and we are not having another attack of your stuff when it gets out of control!" Twilight shouted, trying to wrestle the woman's arm down with Rainbow Dash and Lyra's help.
"Oh come on, that's was just because I got bored and wanted to see what would happen if I used the All-Spark on—"
Before Vinyl could say what, exactly, she was going to use the All-Spark on, she was jumped on Applejack—who quickly demonstrated that she still knew how to hogtie people.
"Come on girl, we've got a little meet together with ma sister about proper usage of advanced techno-contraptions," Applejack grumbled, dragging the girl away from the kitchenware store's window.
"But I need to replace the coffee machine before Octy gets back," Vinyl whined loudly as she was lifted up onto the farmer's shoulder and carried out into the streets of Ponyville. "Also, I need to make sure that the toaster didn't gain sapience and try to take over Equestria again."
Twilight blinked and sighed heavily, facepalming before she sprinted down the street to the musicians' house to make sure that there would not be another rampaging toaster attack.
168.4: (Gamerex27)
She hadn't really bothered to question it. It was pretty fun, after all.
Smiling, Pinkie Pie grabbed an oar in her mouth and hopped onto a gondola. Leaning her head towards the side of the boat, she channeled her earth pony strength to row herself across the canals of Ponyville.
The canals that hadn't been there yesterday.
She waved at several tired pegasi running what looked like a water filter through the new lake surrounding Ponyville, then squeaked as she almost fell off the boat due to the sudden imbalance of weight.
Steadying herself, she steered her vehicle over to Twilight's castle. As she tied her boat down to the hastily-created dock, her ears perked up as she heard somepony approach.
"Hiya, Twilight!" she said, spitting out the licorice knot and trotting to the entrance of the castle. "So...we've been Awake for years. Don't you usually do these experiments at the start of a Loop?"
"This...this was an accident," Twilight feebly protested, sighing as she dumped a large pile of sponges into the water to help drain the town. "All I did was do a bit of research, publish a paper, and next thing I know, everypony tries to rewrite every water molecule in the town's water supply, and now we're all flooded."
"...How's that a bad thing?" Pinkie chirped, absentmindedly nibbling a bit of leftover candy as she spoke. "It's fun! I haven't actually been to cities in the water—Venice, Altomare, Soleanna...actually, I was in that last one, but Silver accidentally sent me into space early on, so I spent the rest of the Loop getting a monopoly on Eggmanland's candy stores so I could manipulate him into going out of business and I could buy the place and make it actually fun, but I'm not letting you talk again, am I?" The earth pony giggled nervously. "Whoopsie! So, what happened?"
"...you've seen how there are so many mares in Ponyville and the rest of Equestria, and so few stallions, right?" Twilight asked.
"Um...there's not a shortage, but the number's kinda different, so...yeah?"
"After we learned that Cadence will be pregnant in the future, I did some research-ultrasounds, studies, divining spells to see if we can find what her foal may look like before that comes in the timeline," she continued, "along with some other Loopers last Loop. And we...found this."
She hoofed over several sheets of paper stapled together. Pinkie grabbed it and looked it over.
"Comparison on the Effect of Natural versus Tap Water in Fetal Differentiation," she read aloud. "By T. Sparkle, R. Belle, and Z. Cora."
She flipped rapidly through the paper. Control sample, mean amount of magnetite, p-value, codon, trimester of pregnancy...In spite of what some ponies would think of her, she did have enough of an attention span to pay attention to her friends' work, and she was more than smart enough to understand the basic terminology of the study, if not the nitty-gritty details and scientific jargon. Not that she ever bragged about that: that would be mean.
"So...you were trying to find out if Ponyville's water supply was tainted?"
"Not so much 'tainted' as skewing the gender ratio.' We basically looked into whether there was something in the water doing this," Twilight elaborated. "Turns out, there was. There's some kind of magical compound in the water that, when ingested by pregnant mares, makes the zygote more likely to develop into a filly. No other side effects, but I'm not sure yet if this is in Baseline, or just a glitch in the water's Yggdrasil code or something: we'll do a follow up study next time we're all Awake. We published the paper, and...I think the locals took it the wrong way."
"Water always tasted fine to me," Pinkie commented, watching as the Unawake Cutie Mark Crusaders struggled to pilot their canoe to school, and how Pony Joe's dough shipment was caught in a nasty traffic jam behind a vessel packed with Apple family cider and Filthy Rich's luxury yacht. "Don't you put those things in journals only other scientists read?"
"Yes, but those are sometimes cross-referenced and mentioned in mainstream papers." Twilight dug around in her Pocket, pulled out yet another sponge, and enlarged it with a quick sizeshifting spell, dropping it into the lake. "This one was after that incident with Rainbow Dash and Tank going into hibernation, and I think a lot of ponies misread it to read that the water was poisoned. They tried to put some filters in, and...uh...the dam flooded the town by mistake."
"Oh." Pinkie blinked, and watched as Fluttershy flung out a net to catch some algae for her friends near the sea, and as Spike floated across the water on a pool float, sipping some lemonade. "Well...it looks like fun to me!"
"...yeah," Twilight said, chuckling as she dropped another massive sponge into the lake. "I guess it's harmless enough. Other than the property damage, nopony got hurt, and it's making getting across town interesting, at least...Oh! Your Unawake self made these blueprints for a boat made out of candy this one time. Want to see if it's seaworthy?"
168.5: (Vinylshadow)
Shining Armor Woke up to a steady stream of thwoks coming from the balcony of his bedroom in the Crystal Empire. Sitting up, rubbing his eyes, he blinked himself awake to see Cadence swinging a golf club and seeding the Empire with crystal golf balls.
Dragging himself out of bed, he made his way over to his wife and waited until she had emptied her current bucket of balls.
"Good morning, Cady," he said. She pricked her ears and turned to smile at him.
"Wide Awake?" she asked.
"And Loopy as ever," he replied warmly, sharing a nuzzle with his Crystal Princess of Love. "What are you up to?"
"Practicing," she said.
"You play golf now?" Shining asked curiously.
"It's not exactly complicated. At least not when you're simply smacking balls into the wild blue yonder."
"That 'wild blue yonder' looks an awful lot like our Empire made from crystal," Shining noted.
"They're decorations," Cadence said defensively. "And they usually just bounce off whatever they hit."
"Usually?" Shining asked, arching one eyebrow.
"I...may have broken a few windows...but I've gotten much better," she admitted.
"Behold, Crystal Empire, your Putt-Putt Queen," Shining said with a grin.
Cadence bopped him on the head with her putter and pouted.
168.6: (Masterweaver)
Lyra did a double take. "Wait—that's Countess Coloratura?!"
Twilight shrugged. "I know. Complete contrast to what AJ was talking about. Turns out her manager is an image-manipulating egotist, so—"
"Yeah, yeah, I got that. Uh, do I meet her in baseline?"
"Well, there's a line of fans for 'hoovesies,' which is a little stamp kissing thing, and you usually—"
"Right, I'm getting in." Lyra trotted to the line quickly, schooling her face to that of an eager fanfilly's. Twilight glanced after her suspiciously; even at the best of times, the mysteries of the green mare's thoughts could barely be fathomed. Still, for the moment, Lyra didn't seem intent on causing trouble...
As always, Svengallop pulled Coloratura from AJ. As always, the line of fans went forward. And then, it was Lyra's turn—
"Shoo-be-doo," the green unicorn greeted casually.
"Shoo-shoo-be-doo," the popstar replied without thinking, before her eyes widened in shock. "Uh, um—"
Lyra winked.
"H-Hoovesies!" Coloratura managed, smiling all too wide as she partially smeared the green cheek with her stamp. She watched warily as Lyra trotted cheerfully away, before turning back to the line.
Twilight sighed. "Really? Really?"
"Had to be sure," Lyra explained.
168.7: (Masterweaver)
"....Sooooooooooooooo."
Cadence sighed, putting her book down. "What is it, Chrysalis?"
"...You and Slaanesh collaborated on a publication?"
"Yes, we did." Cadence managed a faint smile. "It was actually quite interesting. We seem to approach the same subject from very different angles, and our discussions were very detailed. Granted, I had to talk hir down from some subjects—"
"No, no, I've read the book," Chrysalis assured her. "I just..."
She paused, rubbing at her holey leg awkwardly. Cadence rose an eyebrow. "What?"
"Well... I know Slaanesh, since shi's a chaos god, has hir devotees and high priests—the people shi grants, shall we say, powers?"
"...don't tell me that you want to become a Slaaneshi cultist!"
"No! No no, not at all, not with hir!" Chrysalis shivered. "There are some things I would not do for all the love of a universe."
"Oh. Well... good."
"I was thinking of becoming a Cadenza cultist, actually."
The pink alicorn blinked. "...come again?"
"Weeeeell, I don't know for sure if you wrote that book in the forty-first millennium," Chrysalis hedged, "but if you did, that implies that maaaaaaaybe you were a warp god—major or minor, I don't know. But as a warp god, you would, possibly, be able to 'bless' some individuals; given how the Loops work, it wouldn't surprise me if you retained that particular ability."
"A Cadenza cultist," Cadence repeated.
"Yes. Somebody devoted to the spread and maintenance of... well, I don't know what form of love you embody, precisely, you seem to dabble in romance and family equally these days... Let's call it familial love of all kinds?" Chrysalis shrugged. "I mean, as a species that literally feeds on love—as a mother over thirty-three-thousand times over, I would be, you know, a devoted worshiper. And if this comes with benefits, saaaaaaay like the ability to generate enough love to feed my whole hive, all for the better."
"I'm sorry," Cadence held up a hoof. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea. I mean, there have been cults in variant Loops, and Shining did that thing back in Oerth, but... have an actual Looping high priest? Being an actual, you know, figure of worship? I... I don't know."
"No, no, I get that. I mean... I don't want this to get in the way of the friendship we... kinda sorta have," Chrysalis allowed. "It's just an idea that's been... in my head."
"Can you let me think about this?"
"Oh, yes, certainly. I'll just... go find Trixie now."
The changeling queen backed out of the room, leaving the princess of love to stare at the golden shoes that adorned her hooves.
"...Cadenza cult. High priestess Chrysalis of Cadenza..."
She glanced at the crystal heart on her flanks.
"Hmmm."
168.8: (Masterweaver)
"WHAT. THE. BUCK."
Coloratura was startled to see a white unicorn stomp onto the stage, pushing past her and snarling at Svengallop. "You monster. You complete. And total. Monster."
"I beg your pardon, miss?"
"You see this?!" The unicorn pointed at the eighth notes on her flank. "THIS represents my talent for remixing. I can take anything, ANYTHING! And make a new tune out of it. I've made a career out of revitalizing songs that others thought outdated, or bringing a singer into a whole new light. I can throw together amazing blends of light, color, and sound on the fly because I understand how they all work! I respect—neigh, adore every sound clip in my library, every song that I reform! And do you know what I just saw?!"
Her hoof pointed at the stunned popstar. "I saw a beautiful voice—an incredible talent—mangled and mocked with magic, gasping beneath glitz and glam, barely recognizable as even a joke! I saw a performance meant to deride and insult the prime actress, so shallow that she doesn't even have to be here for it to work! I saw a pony used as a prop, a plaything, a practical putz! And the worst part, the absolute worst part?! I saw her agree to it! Not out of spite, or sadness, but pure ignorance! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO THIS BEAUTIFUL SOUL?!"
"Look, miss, I am Countess Coloratura's manager—"
"WRONG! You are her OWNER! You imprison her with lies, little tidbits that say you're necessary, and then sit back as she flounces about in whatever pitiful dance you've arranged this time! Well, I for one won't stand for it. I insist, demand, and in fact enforce that you remain away from her! If I find that she is forced to go through another such INSULT of a performance, if I discover that you continue to lock away the true pony behind your pathetic tricks, not only will I not attend your charity show but I will ALSO spread your name! Your face! And word of your sick and depraved treatment of this pony to all the musicians and musical venues I can contact. One way or another, I will not let you torture Coloratura anymore!"
With that dramatic statement, Vinyl Scratch, known as DJ Pon-3, stormed off the stage. Ponies gave her a wide berth, noticing how the very ground beneath her hooves began a dramatic drumbeat. If any looked behind her tinted glasses, they would see it in her eyes: The Goddess of Wubbology was absolutely and utterly livid.
168.9: (Elmagnifico)
Twilight looked out at the herd of strange creatures assembled in Ponyville Square with a mixture of bewilderment and relief. On the one hoof, they were not accosting any of the citizens. On the other, the citizens had retreated into their homes at the things' approach, and Twilight honestly couldn't blame them.
She'd been gearing up to deal with the Plunder Vines, it was about that time of Loop. The specially-bred eggs from Bert Gummer's Branch were just a quick aging spell from reaching maturity. She'd hoped the giant worms' now highly specific diet, calibrated specifically to target the Vines' unique blend of chaos magic, would keep both species from causing too much havoc.
Instead, she now was looking out on a plaza full of trees that had eyeballs instead of leaves. She'd seen something similar once before in what she'd later learned was the Starbound Branch, but those trees had been sessile. This entire forest had apparently uprooted itself and walked into Ponyville. Now she and the other elements of harmony had been assembled to deal with this problem. Discord was in town at this point as well, but he had quite visibly been keeping his claws to himself. By detaching them and placing the lot in a chest that was still tucked under one arm, but it was the thought that counted.
One of the ocular copse's members blinked in their direction and shuffled forward. The other elements tensed, and Twilight found herself wondering absently what the things' abilities were beyond its bizarre appearance. A certain smug-looking spirit of chaos just sort of floated in her peripheral vision.
Before anypony could do anything, the tree creaked and groaned a bit as its bark shifted until what looked like a ligneous mouth opened up. At this stage, Twilight really wasn't surprised when it spoke in a voice with an odd timbre.
“Pardon me, ladies, but would any of you know the way to Appleoosa? It seems my friends and I have gotten lost.”
The Anchor raised an eyebrow for half a second, until a hunch that had been brewing since she'd first saw the creatures coalesced enough to be expressed. She turned to Discord with a look so deadpan that a nearby deceased skillet came down with acute jealousy.
“You wouldn't happen to have something to do with this, would you?”
There was a niggling feeling at the back of her mind that she was going to regret that phrasing as the Spirit of Chaos' mish-mosh face spread in a wide grin.
“My dear Twilight, off-course eye wood!”
168.10: (Gym Quirk)
Cheerilee walked over to stand next to Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon as they watched the magic envelop the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Despite their foreknowledge, the blinding flash still dazzled the teacher and her students for several seconds.
Gasps from the fillies and colts in the schoolyard accompanied the restoration of their vision.
Before the crowd now stood three alicorn fillies.
Three blank-flank alicorn fillies.
"Now that's just a bit cruel," observed the teacher quietly, as astonishment fought disappointment on the faces of the unawake Crusaders.
Diamond Tiara nodded sadly. "I hope it's just a one-time glitch in the Tree's 'Important Event' library or something like that."
"Should I go get 'Queen Mum'?" asked Silver Spoon. "She skipped the baseline ascension crisis this time around, right? I hope that wasn't the reason for this..."
168.11(Evilhumour)
"Twilight, what is that?" Spike pointed to a new book in the reference section of the library.
"Oh, that's a book that Cadence and Slaanesh worked on, the Big Book of Love," Twilight said, looking up from her latest book from Rainbow Dash with a happy smile on her face. "It was really good."
"But Twilight, why are you having a book like that in public and not in the private section?" Spike's claw was reaching out for it but his other one was doing its best to stop it.
"It's not bad at all Spike," Twilight said, shaking her head as she levitated both the drake and book over to her side. "I must admit I was very skeptical about it when I heard it, and saw that it was a pop up book of all things, but trust me, both of them decided to show that they were talking about love and not sex. That's their other book." With a flick of her hoof, she opened to a random page—a section of the ability and strength of True Love's Kiss, with a miniature hologram of Shining Armor and Cadence's wedding day with the room almost to exact detail. There was even a tiny Chrysalis hovering around them. Spike pulled the tag, which got Shining and Cadence to kiss, sending out a ray of light that sent the tiny Chrysalis flying away. "Ahem, 'The power of True Love's Kiss is a mighty weapon between soulmates, and can achieve much to the people's defense and defense only. While many would see this as a weakness, our example here shows how much can be done by defending one's True Love. Sometimes, the shield is mightier—' Spike!" Twilight shouted as Spike kept pulling the tab which sent Chrysalis flying over and over again. "What are you—"
"Look," he pointed with a claw to a corner of the room, and Twilight let a round of giggles. It seemed that Cadence and Slaanesh had planned for Chrysalis to have a soft landing in the form of a blue showmare's hooves.
"Okay, that's really cute," Twilight grinned as she handed the book over to Spike, watching the drake read it from the beginning before she went back to her own book.
168.12: (Masterweaver)
"I'm terribly sorry about this," Sleipnir said without preamble as he stepped into Cadence's room. "She insisted."
"Wha—?"
A buxom human with flowing golden hair shoved the eight-legged stallion aside as she entered. "Heh-LOW horsey sis! It's nice to meet you, at last!" She twirled forward and wrapped the alicorn in a tight embrace, giving her a peck on each cheek before she let go. "I mean, wow, the local love goddess? And a pony to boot, look at you. Of course, you've heard about me already, haven't you?"
Cadence shot a questioning glance toward Sleipnir, who mouthed a single word. "Oh! Aphrodite, right?"
"Yeah, that's me!" The woman sat down on the bed next to the pony, wrapping an arm around her neck. "Best love goddess around, ask anyone."
"Right, yes. I have heard of you..." Cadence mused. "...quite a bit, actually. You admin the Eiken branch, is that right?"
"Well, yes, but that's only to get Skuld off my ass," Aphrodite replied, waving her hand dismissively. "Not that it's a bad place, it's actually pretty great!"
"I see. Is it true you're married to Hephaestus?"
"Ugh." The woman stuck out her tongue. "Yeah, it was a marriage of convenience. He's absolutely hideous."
"So I understand," Cadence said neutrally. "Still, he did a good job raising your kid."
"Eros? Yeah. Had to foist him off on somebody when Ares wouldn't take responsibility. I mean, the guy is hot as hell, don't get me wrong, he's just a bit... short tempered, is all."
"Oh, I can see how that would be."
"Where are my manners, though!" Aphrodite leaned back with a grin. "You know all about me, and I know nothing about you! How are things for you in, uh, Equinia?"
"Equestria."
"Yeah, that!"
"Well..." Cadence took a moment to contemplate. "I have a loving, handsome husband... I've been told I'll get a baby soon, that's fun... and oh! Recently one of the Loopers started worshiping me."
"What?" cried Aphrodite.
"What?!" shouted Sleipnir.
"Yeah, a lover and a mother near countless times," Cadence confirmed with a grin. "I mean I was a little nervous when she started out, but high priestess Chrysalis has been pretty consistent in helping me out."
"Oh, you've got a high priestess!" Aphrodite squealed happily. "I remember my first high priestess... or maybe she was my third...? Well, I had such great fun with her, you know. Oh, Sleipnir!" she cried. "A high priestess! They grow up so fast, right?"
"I... guess they do?" the stallion managed, giving Cadence an odd look. "You're not looking to Ascend, are you—?"
"Oh, nononono, no," Cadence assured him quickly. "All my stuff is here! My family, my castle, my worshippers..." She let out a melodramatic sigh.
Aphrodite cooed, running her fingers through the mare's mane. "Oh, what's wrong horsey sis?"
"It's just... as much as I love Chrysalis worshiping me now, I feel like she doesn't quite know how to do it right," Cadence bemoaned, leaning into Aphrodite with large, wet eyes. "I mean, she preaches about loyalty and selflessness and chastity, you know?"
The woman nodded sympathetically. "I know! It's like the complete antithesis of a love goddess, but they keep insisting!"
"Sometimes I wish, oh, that a chosen one would descend from on high to teach her the error of her ways," the alicorn whined. "But I don't know who I could possibly send!" She surreptitiously winked at Sleipnir, flicking a wing toward Aphrodite.
The trickster's son caught on fast. "You know, in the old days some of us would take on mortal forms to guide others," he mused. "Maybe I could get Aphrodite to manifest in one of Chrysalis's daughters."
"Oh my gosh!" Cadance turned a hopeful beaming smile on the buxom woman. "Would you do that for me, Aphrodite? You're such an experienced love goddess after all..."
"Well..." Aphrodite rubbed her chin. "I'm not sure..."
"You'd probably need to put your full focus on it," Sleipnir pointed out. "Skuld wouldn't be able to reach you at all until the Loop ended."
Realization took root in the woman's eyes. "Yeah, that... well, the Eiken Loop could last without me for a short bit," she admitted. "Okay, why not? Sleipnir, let's head upstairs and work this thing out!" She wrapped her arms around Cadance again. "Just you wait, this time tomorrow Chrysalis will have a brand new daughter to help her become the best pony priestess EVER!"
Both she and the eight legged stallion flashed out of existence. After a moment, Cadance turned to her vanity, opening a drawer and tapping the enchanted mirror within. "Chrysy? Yeah, I have a godly mission for you..."
"Welcome to the world, my dear child."
Aphrodite stared at the ragged-haired, hole-ridden, fanged bug thing staring at her. She looked at the eggshell around her, felt the fin on her bald head, and gasped at her own emaciated form.
Chrysalis, wearing a motherly smile, politely ignored the soul-wrenching scream.
168.13: (Anon e Mouse Jr.)
Twilight raised her eyebrows. "Really? You can predict the future?"
Sitting in front of her, the other unicorn nodded. "And I knew you were going to say that."
"..." Twilight shook her head, and sighed. This new pony had come into town earlier, and proclaimed herself a seer of things to come. Twilight, suspecting a visiting Looper or a weird variant (it wasn't the first time somepony new had shown up in place of Trixie, or even the millionth), had promptly decided to check the newcomer's abilities for herself. Steadying herself, she looked the other pony in the eye. "So, what else can you see in my future?"
The pony pressed her hooves to her forehead. "I'm seeing... I'm seeing... hugs from an Alicorn!"
Then, in one fell swoop, she grabbed Twilight, and pulled her close. And as the illusion fell away to reveal her true form, the now winged pony grinned. "Surprise."
"Princess Celestia!" Twilight smiled and hugged her mentor back.
When the two finally separated, Twilight looked up. "It's so nice to see you again. It's been far too many Loops since the last time, hasn't it?"
"Yes. Yes, it has." Celestia smiled. "And it's always nice to know I can still surprise you."
"You always were good at that," Twilight told her with a smile of her own.
168.14: (Purrs)
"619,324,885,207,346,950,184,030... 619,324,885,207,346,950,184,031... 619,324,885,207,346–" Her count was interrupted by a purple claw tapping on her shoulder. "Spike!"
"Twilight, what are you –"
"Figuring out how many Loops it takes to get to a googleplex. 619,324,885,207,346,950,184,032..."
Spike cocked his head. "That's a lot. How many Loops has it been so far?"
Twilight froze, then facehoofed. "Oh, jacaranda."
168.15: (Evilhumour)
"And make sure that those sardine cupcakes have extra mustard on them, please," Shining said to Pinkie Pie, causing a just-Woken-up Twilight to tilt her head in confusion. After a quick confirmation that he was Awake, she asked about the elephant in the room.
"Eh, Shining, is this one of those macho guy eating contests?" Twilight blinked, looking for the massive ponies that were a part of Fluttershy's brood. Then again, Shining wasn't the most manly of ponies to begin with...
"Uh not really," Shining blushed, looking to the side as Pinkie Pie brought up his order. "Cadence has cravings and this is the second-best place in all of Equestria next to Donut Joe's, but he doesn't take requests."
"Eeeyup," Pinkie Pie said with a forced smile. "That will be twenty five bits because you mentioned that hack of a pony that doesn't even try to be a good cook unlike me!"
Shining rolled his eyes at that, doled out the bits, ascended to alicornhood and flew off to feed his wife.
168.16: (Vinylshadow)
Twilight and Trixie entered Big Mac's bar and took seats at the counter.
"Huh...no Mac tod-AGH!" Twilight yelped, falling back off her stool as Berry Punch popped up in front of them with a wide grin.
Berry leaned over the counter worriedly. "Too much hospitality?" she asked, extending a hoof to help Twilight up.
"No, no, not at all," Twilight assured her. "Cider please."
"Make it two, please," Trixie added. As Berry went to pour their drinks, Apple Bloom and Silver Spoon entered the bar and took a seat beside the older mares.
"How was your last Loop?" Silver Spoon asked Trixie, who exchanged looks with Twilight.
"You tell them," Trixie said. Twilight took a few breaths.
"Alright, so, it started off pretty much Baseline, but with several subtle hints that it wasn't following it to the letter," she began. "Very small things. Nightmare Moon mentioned she had outside help with her escape; someone or thing from Equestria itself broke the seal and let her out," she clarified. "So we nuked her with Rainbows and Luna mentioned someone else had taken up her duties of monitoring dreams, but Celestia wasn't the one who did it. The first huge difference was Trixie showing up wearing the Alicorn Amulet."
Berry arrived with their drinks and looked rather disgruntled at having to go pour more while Twilight talked.
"So instead of having an Ursa Minor amble into town, I had to duel Trixie, who was drawing far too heavily on the Amulet's power. Which nearly cut off her connection to magic; I was able to trick her in removing it and that's when she Woke up."
Trixie sipped her cider and carefully avoided eye contact.
"Nothing out of the ordinary until Discord's return, which ended with him escaping once I'd fixed my friends rather than waiting around to be stoned again," Twilight said with some amusement. "He then turned into your average overarching villain, behind the Problem of the Day. Turned the Wonderbolts into the Shadowbolts, orchestrated the Invasion of Canterlot, brought back the Crystal Empire, that sort of thing. Loop ended shortly after my usual ascension."
"What happened?" Silver Spoon asked.
"Discord tampered with the Elements when I recited Starswirl's spell. I didn't have the knowledge to fix it instantly like I usually do, so I had to deal with the problems that arose from your friends living different destinies. Then I met Celestia who told me she and Luna had been using their power to stall Discord, preventing him from interfering directly, but he simply acted indirectly through proxies. I enjoyed it overall," Twilight declared, taking a deep drink of her cider and set the mug down with a content sigh.
"That sounds a lot better than what really happened," Discord said casually. "I'm much more interesting as a big bad than some boring friend." He drank fruitcake and nibbled on eggnog as the ponies picked themselves off the floor from his abrupt appearance. "You're so much fun to tease."
168.17:(Masterweaver)
Sharp Sylence sat herself down near the entrance of the mine, carefully adjusting her tail. "Perfect Fyre is busy reassessing the protection around Holder's Boulder. We should have roughly half an hour to ourselves."
The pony to her left giggled. "Perfect Fyre! It just fits her, don't you think?"
"As much as Bryllyant Byscuyt fits you."
"You know, my family has an odd obsession with the letter y this Loop," Pynkye Pye pondered. "I'm sure Twilight'd love to study it, if, you know, we weren't hosting guests. How's Equestria been treating you so far anyway?"
The two gray ponies shared a look.
"Well," Bryllyant began, stretching out a bit as she flicked her braided mane back, "I have to admit that it's been... helpful to rebalance my own thoughts on sisterhood. Not that I don't love my sisters, especially after me and Toph found them in the circus, it's just... It's nice not to be a septuplet, but at the same time I wouldn't want to be an only child—having a fraternal twin and older sisters is a good compromise for me." She gave Pynkye a grin. "And you've been a great twin, before and after you Woke up! I know that Mai's enjoyed the sister thing too, she just doesn't emote very often."
"Differently," Pynkye corrected. "She emotes differently. I've had Loops of experience with Maud and Marble, I can read Mai easily." She gave the pony in question a little nudge. "Come on, I'm your little sister this Loop. You can tell me what's eating you."
Mai gave her a flat look. "The hooves. It's hard for me to get my hair right without fingers. And somehow Ty Lee does it without thinking."
"Huh." Ty Lee looked down at her own forelegs. "You know, I never realized that before. How am I braiding my mane without—?"
"Tactile telekinesis," Pynkye replied quickly. "Trust me, questioning any further might crash the Loop. So why don't we talk about what's really bothering you two instead?"
"What?" Ty Lee gave her in-Loop twin a worried look. "Bothering us? What are you talking about—?"
Pynkye gave her a level frown.
Ty Lee let out a small sigh. "Is it really that obvious?"
"It wasn't back before we Woke up," Pynkye admitted. "At least, it wasn't to me. Now though... looking back... you two were terrified of Perfect Fyre weren't you?"
"I do admit, even as a pony she can be pretty... frightening," Mai agreed, her eyes darting upward. "Which is somewhat incredible. I suppose now that I'm Awake I should be less scared of her—especially since you're with us," she mused, nodding toward Pynkye. "But... It's just... even if she's not Looping, even if she doesn't have any bending, even if she's not trained in military manners, she is still Azula."
"Granted, she wasn't as bad as she usually is," Ty Lee pointed out. "Being a peasant, having to do everything herself, has curbed her ego quite a bit. And then of course, there's the fact you never reacted to her manipulations," she added, giving the pink mare an odd look.
"Yeah, I think I don't actually have a fear response." Pynkye shrugged. "I mean, I can tell when something should be terrifying, and I'm really good at faking it, but I've seen how fear affects others and I just don't get that. But this isn't really about me. This is about you two and Azula."
"She's a sociopath with attention-seeking habits who quite literally terrorizes people into following her commands so she can get her way." Mai shrugged. "That's really all there is to is."
There was a moment of silence.
"...she's also one of our few real friends," Ty Lee admitted.
Mai actually frowned at that. "Her? A friend?"
"Well, you know what it was like at finishing school," Ty Lee pointed out. "All those politics and family maneuverings that we were just a touch too young to understand, striving to be the best—she could have brought in any of the other girls. Any of my sisters. And she chose us."
"She chose to ally herself with the talented and wealthy," Mai countered. "That's not really friendship."
"But it's the closest thing we knew at the time. And she didn't just do the usual 'favors' either. I know it varies whether it happens or not, but doesn't she usually visit you when Tom-Tom is born?"
Mai glared. "Yes. She attends the soul rising. She looks at the baby and says... something about a promising child. She gives us a gift—usually a set of training armor or weapons for when he's 'old enough', and then she makes some vague princess excuse and leaves. It's all rote and duty, it's not real."
"I don't know," Ty Lee mused. "You know how uncomfortable she is in normal social situations. Even attending a party in person is... well, it's outside her comfort zone."
"You're usually at Tom-Tom's soul rising. You know how formal it is. It's not really outside her normal—"
"Lu Ten's funeral."
Mai blinked. "What?"
"Lu Ten's funeral," Ty Lee repeated. "The whole royal family is supposed to be stoic at the time, but..." She let out a small breath. "We know Iroh is always... always struck hard by that, but nobody focuses on Zuko and Azula. But almost every time, you and I are there."
"Zuko sends us invitations."
"No. He sends you an invitation. Mine... Mine's from Azula."
Mai blinked, her tail flicking briefly. "...are you... sure that's baseline?"
"It's pretty consistent," Ty Lee confirmed. "And... maybe it's a move, I don't know, but it's not one that makes sense for her. Not in any tactical way."
Mai's gaze lowered. "...I didn't know."
"To be fair, I never really told you." Ty Lee's ears folded back as she shot her an apologetic smile. "Sorry about that."
"Mmm."
Pynkye cleared her throat. "Well, Ty, it sounds like you have conflicting feelings regarding Azula."
"She's really the one who motivated me," Ty Lee explained. "I mean, before the school I just felt like one of the seven, but she... she picked me out of the crowd and devoted attention to me. I mean, yes, it wasn't anything nice but it was... something. It was her drive that... well, it's what convinced me to run away from home. It's how I decided to become who I am. Without her... without her, I wouldn't be me. And somehow I don't think she'd be Azula if... if we weren't there for her in the first place."
"The yang to your yin," Mai suggested.
Ty Lee blushed. "Well, yes. And... well, sometimes I think about baseline, about how she acted around us. She was the leader, sure, but we were... we were a team. Not her soldiers, which is kind of how she treated everyone else. She'd never sacrifice us. I mean, sure, she'd shoot lightning at us, coerce us, intimidate us, make us chase after the Avatar without rest, participate in overthrowing the Earth Kingdom..."
She shook her head.
"But that was just how she was trained to treat people, motivate them. Actually let us die? No—well, not until after Boiling Rock, which is when she started to lose it, and that's kind of our fault anyway..."
Mai gave her a long look. "...you... you want her Looping, don't you?"
"...yes." Ty Lee returned her look staunchly. "Yes, I do. I know there are risks, but... Mai, she's not evil. Not completely. She's just... lost. She doesn't know how to handle love, real love. She's only fourteen when Aang returns, for Agni's sake! And if she does start Looping," she added firmly, "we should be there to help her. Help her adjust to the Loops, and help her... help her heal whatever sickness is in her soul. Because, in the end, maybe we've got Zuko and Sokka and all the other Loopers, but right now all she has is us. She's our friend, Mai. She's a horrible one, but she's still our friend."
After a moment, Mai stood up. "I really don't know. Maybe if she started Looping from a variant—"
"No." Ty Lee shook her head. "That wouldn't be the real her. Mai, please." She stood up, walking over to the other gray pony. "Please, I know it's a lot to ask. Especially with all you go through. But if she starts Looping... can you promise you'll try to help her? Or at least that you'll help me while I'm helping her?"
Mai stared out of the mine.
"...Perfect Fyre's going to be done checking the security measures soon."
"Mai—"
"I'll think about it. That's all I can say right now."
168.18: (Vinylshadow)
Angel Bunny sipped his cup of tea, delicately placed a monocle over his right eye and squinted fiercely at Fluttershy.
"I say, woman, where the devil have you been? It's been twenty minutes since my last carrot and I am starving. Were you off saving Equestria with your...friends or something? What a waste. I didn't hire you to gad about with them all day. I have an important meeting in a few days and I need to look my best."
With a harrumph, he picked up the newspaper and snapped it open.
Fluttershy, having only recently Woken up, could only stare in utter bafflement.
168.19: (Alex Prior)
"Oooh! We have lots of tasty oats, right here in Ponyville!"
Once again, Applejack watched Svengallop belittle an unawake Pinkie. She stepped forward, just as that lousy svengali said he wouldn't feed 'em to a chicken.
"That's mighty pretentious of ya," she commented, "seein' as they're Princess Luna's favourite. We don' rightly advertise that," she added seeing his suddenly shocked expression, "'cause we believe in fair trade an' all, but we all know it."
Applejack stepped up to the svegali. "Now, Ah don' know which corner of Equestria you are from, but here in Ponyville we won't tolerate somepony jest tramplin' over another just because they think they're better than others. An' frankly?" She poked him in the chest. "Those that think so, never are."
Svengallop puffed himself up. "How dare you! Who do you think you are, anyway?"
Applejack simply raised an eyebrow at him. "Ah'm Applejack. Element o' Honesty, meanin' you bein' dishonest to my old friend Rara set off mah alarm bells. Mind ya," she added, "if ya'll need a second opinion, ah jest can go ask Twilight what she thinks."
The stallion seemed conflicted. "E-excuse me. I have some, ahem, business to take care of." He ran off.
Applejack sighed. "Go an' get some rest, Pinkie. Ah'll go make sure he won't go an' fill Rara with any mighty dishonest ideas or somethin'." She trotted off too.
168.20: (Vinylshadow)
Vinyl draped her hooves over the railing on the ship's bow and sighed. Once again stuck on a boat with an icy Octavia. Thankfully, she had Woken up early enough to heal most of the problems with kind words and gestures, even cheerfully giving her entire alcohol supply to Berry Punch.
Vinyl idly wondered how the ship would sink this Loop and briefly entertained the idea of sinking it herself, like she had done once.
Discreetly, of course.
She closed her eyes and let the wind blow over her for a while.
She was startled by a hoof touching her side and she jerked, slamming her barrel against the railing as her hooves slipped.
"SNRRKK! Ow...Wha?!" she flailed, blinking and taking a moment to catch her breath. She turned, rubbing her chest, to see Octavia looking at her with worried eyes.
"Are you alright? When you didn't come to the cabin, I became worried and went looking for you."
Vinyl looked at the sea and perked up. The sun had set, the moon and stars bathing the ocean in a sparkling sea of light.
"Tavi, I—"
Vinyl was interrupted by a loud screech of metal on ice as an iceberg decided to steal the boat's virginity.
"Oh for buck's sake," Vinyl snarled. She first sent up a blinding distress flare, designed to be seen for at least 75 miles in any direction. It formed into an arrow marking the sink site. She then ascended and grabbed Octavia, placing the startled earth pony on her back. Once her precious cargo was secured, she leaped over the railing and wubbed her way across the ocean.
"Er...Vinyl, dear?" Octavia asked a while later. Vinyl looked back at her. "While I appreciate the gesture, you did kinda leave all those ponies behind on a sinking ship..."
"Don't worry, Lyra has everything under control," Vinyl said soothingly.
The horizon lit up with a huge explosion, the shockwave blasting both mares' mane's back.
"...That's perfectly normal," Vinyl said. "The Seaponies don't like wreckage littering their homes so they usually vape it completely."
"Seaponies...yeah, okay," Octavia squeaked, eyes wide as the mushroom cloud blossomed, forming into a caricature of a happy Seapony.
168.21: (Evilhumour)
There was barely constrained laughter, causing the stallion's left ear to twitch.
"Twilight, girls, you have seen me many times in the past," Sleipnir said patiently. "This is simply the first time I've been at your size so I'd hope you'd all be matu—"
"Awww, he's so cute!" Cadence said, leaning over to pinch her Admin's cheek, causing the other Loopers to break out in full laughter. "I'm sorry Epona but I just couldn't help myself and I—"
"No no, it is quite alright," Epona chuckled to herself, patting her daughter's head. "It's one of the reasons I married him, after all."
Sleipnir simply groaned and facehooved with two of his forehooves.
168.22 (Masterweaver)
Epona burst through the door, grinning broadly. "Cadance! Guess what?! You're going to have a baby!"
"I know!" the pink pony replied, waving off the guards peering into her bedroom. "Sleipnir told me a few loops ago!"
The anthropomorphic horse's smile shrunk a bit. "He... did?"
"Yes!" Cadance chuckled. "It's amazing isn't it?"
"Oh... oh of course it is!" Epona gave a couple of weak chuckles of her own. "It's incredible, nobody thought... well, I thought I'd have to... well, it's incredible."
Cadance blinked. "You... don't seem too enthusiastic--"
"No, I am, I am! Really!" Forcing her smile to return, Epona turned back to the pony. "This is incredible. You're very lucky and... yeah. You're..."
She sighed.
"...I just feel a bit... I don't know... out of the loop, these days. I mean, I love my new job, it makes me feel useful, but... My family is very fragmented, widespread. A lot of us are scattered in small secretary or gofer positions, and we rarely ever gather to talk. But Sleipnir, he... well, we're married, obviously, and his family feels more welcoming. And you... well, I like to consider you my friend. But if Sleipnir talked to you without letting me know..."
Epona ran a hand through her mane. "I just... this feels like something I should have known about. That he should have told me. I mean, I'm not that important in the grand scheme of things, but he's my husband and--"
"Stop." Cadance put a hoof on her mouth. "I think I see the problem. Both of you are so overworked and worried that you're not communicating. And that's... not a good thing, but it's not either of your faults. Maybe you should schedule some... together time, or something. Talk to each other. At least once a week--" She tapped her chin. "Do you even have weeks up there, or is time different?"
The horse woman rolled her eyes. "It's... well. It is what it is. But I get your point." She let out a slow breath. "Look, I'm sorry I unloaded all of that on you--"
"No, no, it's fine. Special talent, remember?"
"But with what you're going through right now--"
"Relax, I was captured by changelings once. I can handle this."
Epona blinked. "I... don't see how that relates at all."
Cadance shrugged. "Neither do I. My point is, sometimes we all need to vent. And that's okay. Now, go on, I'm sure you've got a lot of duties over in Hyrule to complete, and the sooner you do that the sooner you can grab Sleipnir, chew him out, then snog him silly."
That got a laugh. "Am I really that predictable?"
The alicorn grinned. "Hey, it's what I would do with Shiny."
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wow, this is so long
Amazing. You know what I want to see? A loop where playing Chaos makes the things on the cards they play actually happen. Also, I would enjoy another loop with Big Mac being the parent of Smarty Pants. I like those loops.
Nice! :-)
So... will the next chapters involve Starlight Glimmer and her ridiculous issues(to me)?
I. Don't. Get. It.
This is getting Discord levels of creepy.
Huh.
Careful there.
Gotcha.
A bit petty, but hey.
She'd gind it hysterical.
Wat.
Wat.
Wat.
Wat.
Wat.
I'm sorry, WHAT?!
HOW?!
Oh dear.
Dare I ask?
Clever mare.
Of course.
... Vinyl is PISSED.
This is Vinyl right now:
MY SIDES!
Oh now that's just CRUEL!
... Aphrodite?
I, have no clue.
You are good at this.
Like a pro.
This is great!
Ah.
Ouch.
Nice.
Wait, if the original Aria and Sonata are here, where's Adagio?
Pinkie, Azula is f*cking scary. As in Adagio levels of scary, if not higher!
Hm.
Go on.
Really?
In a sense.
She's right. Wait, most of Team Avatar if not all is Looping from what I understand, including Zuko, interesting.
...
I always wanted the Mane 6 to pull the EoH card in canon.
... OK then.
Neither do I.
6791830
*tilts head*
Get what?
Pinkie can be kind of terryfying sometimes...
This will be interesting...
Nice work, keep it up.
6791870 I got the idea for Golfing Cadence since people usually have Shining Armor call her "Caddy" instead of "Cady"
A caddy is the person who hauls around the golfing gear and offers advice on which club to use on any given obstacle
6792229
You sir, are a very clever person.
6792158
When did we ever say Loopers are sane? Oh wait, you're still on the first comp...
6791870
The Disco bits are all my fault- turns out that Yggdrasil has a Glitterball command that turned things disco for a lot of loops.
6792311
Because it amuses us.
6792425
I have mixed feelings. I want to smack you and shake your hand at the same time.
6792431
That's perfectly normal when I am around.
Also, there are mos snips to come of this loop because I love you all
6792478
I'm almost scared to think of what the other villains will be like, what, does Chrysalis steal sense of rhythm, Sombra was against all forms of music/dancing, Discord made them the opposite kinds of dance and Tirek, drained them of their abilities? I dunno, guessing here really.
6792489
To quote River Song,
Tiny error in 168.14
Googolplex is a very big number.
Googleplex is Google HQ
6792478
Clearly I'm not a part of this.
6792687yes you are, you feed me ideas!
I don't understand 168.20
Is it referencing a different fic? Is it a Titanic fused loop?
168.2
"Disco is dead, sing Opera instead."
This loop reminds me of Funky Cops. It was a fun show while it lasted.
I don't recall this question being asked in any of the loops but I am curious, what the most awkward thing to Wake up to would be. or if any of them have Woken up mid coitus and their reactions there of
It's neat to glimpses of the other Loops as their stories pass through Equestria. I may not contribute anymore, but I do love how this has grown and spread so much.
A fun batch overall. 168.17 was a nicely poignant cherry on the sweet sundae.
6792206
To replace the internal combustion engine. To quote Doc himself in the third movie: "Mr. Fusion powers the time circuits and the flux capacitor. But the internal combustion engine runs on ordinary gasoline; it always has."
To be honest, I never thought of using Mr. Fusion for the main motor, especially since this version was never meant for time travel (and thus has no Flux Capacitor, or a Mr. Fusion to power it, though I suspect Doc based the recharging method for the batteries on that device). I just came up with a new and easily renewable power source (like Sunset said, those batteries can be recharged with just about anything in the multiverse) that could run both the motor and the hover conversion system.
Until next time...
Anon e Mouse Jr.
Awesome chapter.
Azula may be crazy but you can't help but feel sorry for her.
168.2 Groovy.
6791870
Oh, by the way, it's the entire Avatar team that is looping now
I authorized Auzla to start looping
6794176
I need to find the Avatar loops compilation.
6794387
There isn't one.
Or rather, there isn't a separate Avatar / Korra set of Loops, but they can be found as part of the Cartoon Network / Nickelodeon Loops on Fanfiction.
6794436
I'll take what I can get.
Vinyl threatening Svengallop is awesome. Music Ponies got to stick together!
Cadence and Slaneesh's pop up book sounds awesome.
Tricking Aphrodite into manifesting as a Changeling... AWESOME!!! BITCH TOTALLY DESERVES IT!!! I hope Slepnir got recordings and gives them to Hephaestus as blackmail material.
Got to wonder, can Slepnir and Epona's daughter first get loose in Admin space and accidentally end up ruining Aphrodite's day before Slepnir decides to ask his loopers to babysit???
6791767
There was a thing a while back (Loop 133.7) where Trixie was mentioned as having done the "saw a pony in half" trick for her magic show. Snips and Snails tried to emulate her, not realizing the chainsaw she used for that was fake - it looks and sounds like a real one, but couldn't cut anything sturdier than soft butter. (Fortunately, they asked before actually trying to use a real one.) That's what this is referencing.
Until next time...
Anon e Mouse Jr.
I get the impression that Cadence doesn't think too highly of Aphrodite.
6795033 Aphrodite's irresponsible as an admin, and her portfolio also focuses around sleeping around. Hera is the one whose focus is actual marital devotion.
6794447 It's hasn't been posted to that part...
I'm slow, okay?
6797823
Take your time.
6803869
Say what now?
is there a main forum that we can go to where we can discuss ideas?
6814452 https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/mlp-loops-thread-9.306018/
6816579
The running-into-the-ground thing is because the authors are authors, plural. About four of them each do one when it's fresh in their minds, and... there you go.
It's not an excuse, but it is a reason.
6816579 .8 Drawing from her eating habits in baseline, I made the joke from that.
.14
Fortunately she's effectively just started, so she can try again while keeping better track.
6826592 155.11: Comics reference - "Larry" was one of the antagonists of the second arc (issues 5-8), which revealed that Luna get possessed by the "Nightmare Forces" way back when, merging with them to become Nightmare Moon. In the arc, sometime after the events of season 2 (but before the end of season 3), they return and possess Rarity.
155.16: Another comics reference. Issues 28-29 had a deer kingdom in the Everfree Forest; King Aspen was their ruler, Blackthorn was another deer, and Well-To-Do was a minotaur who was cutting down some of their trees without permission, which prompted them to retaliate.
155.17: The "Awake Tyrannosaurus Rex looper" is Roxanne the T-Rex from the Jurassic Park Loops, where she's become a major player since this past summer.
Until next time...
Anon e Mouse Jr.
6854021 Thanks
6856139
Technically, they do not.
The United Federation of Planets Department of Temporal Investigations is independent from Starfleet, partly to prevent the latest crazed Admiral Of The Week from coming in and taking over.
It's their job to debrief Starfleet officers after any time-travel occurred, and make sure nothing went wrong.
Things like breaking history, causing history, bringing back extinct species, running into dinosaurs / cowboys / nazis / some combination thereof, or making puns.
(They really hate puns.)
Starfleet regards them as a bunch of stiff killjoys, just because they don't like becoming their own grandpas or somethin'.
The DTI regards the average Starfleet officer as a mindless idiot who'd poke a temporal anomaly with a stick just because they could.
These ficlets don't really depict a fair view of the DTI, whose approach is to police time-travel, not to punish people for time-travelling.
But it's not the worst mistake to ever make.
No-one's become their own grandparent or anything.
OK, this is one of my pet peeves so fair warning: RANT INCOMING!
As a dedicated hellenic mythology buff, all the lazyass misinterpretations of hellenic gods that are so firmly welded into the western culture are more than a bit irking, but the idea that Aphrodite was the goddess of love is the worst of the lot.
In no shape, way nor form was that ever true. Not even the tiniest bit. Not even stoned out of ones mind. Nor, for that matter was her son Eros. Aphrodite was the goddess of physical perfection and the enjoyment of bodily beauty, and as such she WAS the patron goddess of courtesans. Most of the misinterpretation stems from Iliad where she offers Pariss the hearth of the fairest woman of them all if he declared her the fairest goddess of all, but, you'll note that that was supposed to showcase Pariss' shallowness, and thus it is reasonable to interpret that part as that what he actually got was not love (which was never in Aphrodite's power to give anyway) but the physical allure and sexual prowess to seduce Helen.
Ancient greeks for the most part treated the idea of love as something fleeting and hardly obtainable. The closest thing Hellenic pantheon had to goddess of love would be either Hera, who was patron of marriage and motherhood (and you'll note she epically sucked at either of those...) or Psyche who was Eros's wife and vaguely had domain over the soul and thus of soulmates.
Other notable mistakes are that Athens was goddess of wisdom and that Ares was god of war. Neither is true. Ares was god of violence and blodshed and Athena was actually goddess of handicrafts, which so happened to include things like strategy and tactics and home economics. The closes thing there ever was to goddess of wisdom would have been Athena's mother the titan Mnemosyne who represented the mind and mental acuity. And yes, Athena was born in Zeus's head, but that happened because Zeus got Mnemosyne pregnant and than devoured her to prevent the prophecy that the son of Mnemosyne would be greater than his father and would cast the aforementioned father down.
6859939 For a so-called "dedicated hellenic mythology buff", you've made at least one critical mistake in all of this: Athena's mother was actually Metis (who was the Titaness of wisdom, and one of the daughters of Oceanus and Tethys). Mnemosyne was one of her aunts, the Titaness of memory and mother of the nine Muses (by Zeus).
Until next time...
Anon e Mouse Jr.
6860822
I can name six prominent works on hellenic mythology, though I'll admit they'll mean little to anyone not conversant in serb, croastian, serbo-croatian. Nonetheless if you so wish, I can and will name my sources.
I am interested into what your sources are.
Mind you this is not meant to be confrontational, I am genuinely interested into your sources to further my own interests into hellenic mythology.
6860945 Hesiod's "Theogeny", which covers both Metis and Mnemosyne and their children, among many others.
Until next time...
Anon e Mouse Jr.
6874177 Eiken's a very... fan-servicy Loop, except nothing ever really happens there. You can find details at "Eiken (manga)" on Wikipedia.
Until next time...
Anon e Mouse Jr.