Loops 24
24.1
Sir Spykoran, Pandion Knight of the kingdom of Elenia, rode into Daros on his ridiculously evil horse Angel on a rainy night.
“Oh, stop it,” he said without any real heat. “You’re just showing off because Fluttershy isn’t here...”
The big animal tossed his head, rolled his eyes, then surged forward again.
“So,” he said, as someone who was a childhood friend this loop left the room, “what’s up here, Twilight?”
Twilight, instructor of magic for the Pandion Knights, shrugged. It was easier than normal, since – like Spike himself – she was human. “Not all that sure. I do know that you’re supposed to end up as a prince consort, but aside from that and that you need to save the queen, not much.”
“I do?” Spike frowned. “How do you know that?”
“Two reasons.” She reached into nothingness, and pulled out a large book. “First off, I found this in my fiction stash.”
“The Elenium.” Spike took it and glanced at the back cover. “Neat. Good to have the guidebook for a new loop.”
“Yes, and I’ll be finished with it once I get a chance. But the other reason is the queen’s name.”
Spike scanned back through Loop memories. “Oh. Yeah, Queen Rarity is a fairly good hint.”
“Exactly. Now, you’re going to need to be quite the swordsman here. Up to it?”
A shrug. “Yeah, though I’ll need to remember not to slip and start using something like Soresu again. Kind of over the top, right?”
Twilight giggled. “Actually, that might be quite funny. I don’t think you’re supposed to be able to deflect arrows.”
“Sounds good. Anything else I should know?”
“Well… yes, actually.” Twilight raised her hands, and spoke words in an arcane tongue.
With a pop, Nyx materialized on the sofa. “Hi, Twilight! Ooh, you’re human again. So this is… Spike?”
“Good guess.” Spike offered a hand, and Nyx put her hoof into it for a shake. “Nice to have you here.”
“It’s good to be here! Okay, basically, I’m the goddess of children here. Or the child goddess, or whatever… I stay young because when I’m young people give me treats more often-”
“Sounds about right,” Spike interjected with a grin.
Nyx stuck her tongue out. “Anyway, Momma-Twilight is kind of my current high priest, so I’m with you all the way.” She looked a bit embarrassed, then. “Hey, can you teach me how to turn into a human, Twilight? I’m gonna be kind of out of place…”
“Well, there is another option.” Twilight pulled a blanket from her subspace pocket. “I could just have a riding pony.”
“Yeah, no.” Nyx crossed her hooves, and looked away with an ostentatious hmf.
“Okay.” Twilight shrugged. “Right, we’ll work on that tomorrow. I should show Spike where the Queen is before we get going on the Epic Quest™.”
“…how did you do that?” Spike asked, frowning.
“Do what?” Twilight replied, covering a grin.
Spike gazed at the flawlessly pure crystal that held the frozen form of Queen Rarity of Elenium.
“…is it kind of wrong that I find both her and the thing she’s in extremely attractive for entirely different reasons?” he asked absently.
Twilight blinked, then looked amused. “Down, boy. And you can’t eat gemstones here, so don’t try.”
“Yeah, yeah…” he shrugged, still staring. “Can we take this crystal thing with us?”
“Glutton.”
Spike chose to ignore that.
After a minute he frowned. “Hey, why don’t we just let her out now?”
“Poison.” Twilight shrugged. “Book says the only way to cure it is to pick up a thing called the Bhelliom, so off we go.”
“Anyone coming with us?”
Twilight frowned. “The book has a list of people who come with us, but I honestly don’t know if we need to bother. Just us is a lot faster, anyway, and we know where we’re going. Hey, Nyx?”
A flash of dark-light. “Yeah?”
“Can you teleport us to… here?” Twilight pointed at a map.
“Yep! All aboard!” Nyx spread her wings and flared her horn-
“The hell is this thing?” Spike asked, squinting at the object of their quest. “This is the Bhelliom?”
“Actually, no,” Twilight admitted. “The Bhelliom is supposed to be a big flower-shape in reddish sapphire. This… seems to be the Elements of Harmony crudely welded together.”
“I was in a hurry, so sue me.” Discord came out of the back room, only to see all three other Loopers present glaring at him. “Oh, what? You knew I was going to be here somewhere.”
“No, actually, we didn’t,” Twilight corrected him.
“Okay, so maybe I forgot to set up that beacon thing-”
“Again,” Twilight, her adoptive brother, and her adoptive daughter chorused. Discord was terrible at remembering to let others know he was in a fused loop… probably deliberately.
“…fine, then.” Discord snapped his fingers, and time stopped. “Want to take it and walk back? I’m sure it’ll confuse that creep Annias if you cure the Queen within a night.”
“Yeah, alright.” Twilight took a wand out of subspace. “Shall I take us back?”
“No, no, no…” The draconequus waved a finger. “You have to walk. And if you don’t believe me, check that book again. It does you good.”
He vanished before Twilight could try to strangle him.
Spike sighed. “Wish we’d brought Angel, now…”
Kalten opened the door, then blinked as Spike and Twilight trooped back in – both of them in ragged clothing and looking terribly unwashed.
“Where have you been?” he asked, sniffing and wrinkling his nose.
“Eosia,” Spike replied, making a beeline for the baths.
“Very funny. I know you were on the continent, now where in this city where you?”
“No, that’s as specific as he can be…” Twilight said, on her way past to the second bathing chamber. “We went a long way.”
“Right…” Twilight slipped her hands through the central voids of two necklaces, then paused. “I can manage any two, possibly three, but that’s about it without a Queen of the Moon. Spike?”
“Loyalty is easy… I think I can do Generosity, too,” Spike replied, taking a deep breath.
Nyx appeared again. “I pick laughter!”
“You get it. And honesty, too.” Twilight disentangled the elements, and passed them out. “I hope this works… we’re kind of off script.”
It took ten minutes – nine of them with Nyx going ewww and Twilight tapping her foot – before Spike and Rarity stopped kissing.
“Well, that was… interesting,” Twilight managed. “Now, we do sort of have a little matter of an evil deity to cope with.”
Discord slid into the room through a window, and got promptly blasted out again by Twilight.
“Pax!” he shouted, feeling his nose. “I tink you broke it…”
“You made us walk two thousand miles!”
“To end up at your door…” Discord sang tunelessly. He then coughed, as Twilight raised what looked like an Intelligent Device threateningly. “Yes, well. I can run Laughter just as well as anyone, and I think that irritating bunny that’s currently a horse can operate Kindness-”
This time everyone snorted with laughter.
“Honesty, then. And if your little pony here can use Kindness, we have a full set.” Discord folded his arms. “Look, I have competition here. And I have a lot more style than that debased moron Azash.”
Twilight nodded, almost against her will. “I must admit, you do tend to prefer a joke to a human sacrifice.”
Discord smiled with some old memory. “The old inflatable obsidian dagger trick gets ‘em every time…”
“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that,” Twilight said loftily.
“What is the meaning of this?” Annias asked, looking around him. Surreptitiously, he tried to cast a spell, and nothing happened.
“Oh,” Twilight gave a bright smile. “Spike and I retrieved an ancient artefact, walked the length of the continent, cured the Queen, and destroyed the Elder God Azash. And now I’d like to have breakfast.”
“And what is that at the table?” The Primate of Cimmura pointed to Discord, who waved.
“A smart-arse,” Spike answered glibly. “Oh, any objections to me and the Queen living in sin? Probably not, you’ve certainly got practise at it.”
Annias’s mouth opened and closed like a fish.
Then Angel kicked him in the back of the knee.
“Four out of ten for force, but ten for style and timing,” Discord said, raising a glass of something which looked like petrol. “You’re not all bad, you ill tempered nutcase you.”
Angel trotted over and kicked him smartly in the ribs.
“I deserved that,” Discord said without qualm.
Twilight kicked a studious-looking man in the shins, and then kneed him in the chin as he collapsed. “No thank you, Zalasta.”
“But…” he gasped up at her.
She ignored him, and pretended not to notice when Discord started to paint clown makeup on him. “So much for that Power Behind the Scenes. Actually having the book to read does kind of short circuit a lot of plots… What now?”
Nyx appeared next to her. “I think the Tamuli Gods sound fun! They’re kind of like Pinkie, only… no, there is no only. They’re like Pinkie.”
“Sounds good to me.” Twilight looked over at Discord. “Take care of him for me, will you?”
Discord nodded, idly inverting Zalasta’s magic. “Look for me… actually, no, having a schedule would be counterproductive. I’ll be somewhere.” A pause. “Probably.” Another pause. “Actually, no, never mind, forget I said anything. Just do stuff and I might turn up.”
24.2
“Twilight Sparkle!” Trixie boomed, appearing in Ponyville town square with a flash of sickly red light. Great, partially-there wings of ruddy light cast shadows on the walls, and a red amulet shone like a star at her throat. “I have returned, so come out and face me!”
After the standard-issue two minutes of utter panic, Twilight stepped from her house. Her own Element of Magic shone on her forehead, and it looked as though she had the faint hint of wings herself. “Trixie Lulamoon. I was expecting you.”
“As you should have been!” Trixie pulled a book out of nowhere. “This is really good, but it’s four weeks since I borrowed it.”
“Actually,” Twilight corrected, “four weeks and one day. It’s overdue.”
The last word there seemed to shake all the windows in Ponyville, for all that it was spoken in a whisper.
Trixie gulped, but tried to disguise it. “Well, what do you expect? I can’t find any other copies of it!”
“That’s because it’s a first edition of a private printing. Only a hundred were made, because the pony doing it had to pay the full printing costs herself and they were high for so few – economies of scale. All the others are privately owned.” Twilight took a moment to look the copy of On Palomino Station over. “At least it isn’t damaged.”
Her gaze tracked up to Trixie’s eyes. “It is undamaged, isn’t it?”
Trixie chuckled weakly. “Er… aheh… I was reading it in the rain?”
Twilight frowned. “I see.” The Element of Magic flashed, and the spectres of wings hardened into solidity.
The blue unicorn held up the book as though it was a shield, and with a flash of red matched Twilight’s transformation. “You can’t fight me, I’m holding a book!”
Twilight picked it out of her grasp with telekinesis and sent it into the library.
“…oh.” Trixie looked around. “No hard feelings?”
There was a bang as Twilight fired off a particle-beamer spell, which flashed off Trixie’s shields. The blue alicorn spread her wings and took off. “It was only a bit of damp!”
“Overdue AND damaged!” Twilight shouted, taking to the air herself. “That’s practically treason!”
The residents of ponyville blinked in the confusion, some of them looking after the rapidly receding combatants. It was about three minutes later that the explosions really got going.
“Thanks, Trixie,” Twilight said that evening, in a restaurant in Cloudsdale. Both Loopers were under slight glamours, and compounding that by having exploited Star Swirl’s last spell to turn into pegasi. “I was having trouble with a few ponies not treating books right.”
Trixie nodded, taking another drink. “You are scary when books are involved.”
Twilight shrugged, slightly uncomfortable. “Sorry about that, I think you ended up taking about three decades’ worth of built up stress.”
“Think nothing of it,” Trixie assured, though her wings were still slightly open in an unconscious flight reaction. Noticing, she furled them more fully. “Anyway,” she said, more naturally, “That book wasn’t half bad. Bit formulaic, but…”
“I’ll let Dash know,” Twilight said with a grin. “Iris Drake is a pseudonym she uses when writing.”
Trixie tried to reconcile the brash pegasus with a writer. Then she thought a bit more about the kind of book she’d been reading.
Restraint had not figured very much. A heroic pegasus captain capable of sonic rainbooms had – as, indeed, had a unicorn Marine mage with illusion speciality. “…oh! So that’s who she based everypony off.”
“Mostly.” Twilight glanced around, mainly out of habit. “A lot of the stuff in there actually happened, a long time back. You do make a good Marine.”
“Trixie is intrigued. And demands she gets a copy of the next book.”
“Good luck,” Twilight replied with a laugh. “She’s been putting off that thing for a millennium.”
“Well, that’s better,” Twilight said, noting the neatly stacked pile of returns on the counter. “Nothing like a bit of a friendly reminder to encourage ponies to behave.”
Spike ran over. “Twilight, the Princess turned up while you were out. I told her what happened, and she… well, she left again, very confused. And wondering if she’d been drinking too much of something called moonshine?”
Twilight winced. Good thing I already thought of a cover story…
24.3
Twilight stifled a giggle, holding her hand over her mouth.
“Yeah, yeah…” Naruto Uzumaki muttered, as some of the other Anchors with less restraint than Twilight started laughing at him.
For whatever reason, this world had given all the Loopers present little animal ears and a tail, and otherwise enforced human body form. Some of them carried it off rather well, but the fox tail Naruto had ended up with was just too poofy to take seriously.
“Okay, what’s the gimmick here?” Ranma asked, idly looking his own random cat tail over. “I mean, this can’t be it…”
“Glad you asked!” said the local Anchor, Cinque. “This place has all kinds of strange rules, but number one is that death is impossible here.”
“Impossible meaning…” Ichigo asked, having a lot of experience with the definition of words like ‘die’.
“Basically, if you take what would otherwise be a lethal hit on a battlefield-”
There was a very big bang from the other side of the field. A smouldering cat with a lightning-bolt scar landed in front of them, uncurled, and then said something obscene.
“…that.” Cinque pointed at the luckless Potter. “Usually you end up more chibi, but there’s variance. It wears off eventually.”
He looked around. “Though I have to say, this particular battlefield is huge. I’ve never seen one remotely this big…”
The Anchors exchanged sidelong glances.
“Wait…” Shinji said, slowly. “Does this mean a completely guilt free, no consequences-”
Lina Inverse acted first, rattling off the incantation to Dragon Slave in a little under two seconds, and then things got quite complicated.
Eventually, Twilight found herself in a smouldering crater four hundred feet deep, and back to being a unicorn.
“Gotcha!” Nanoha called from above, showing a V-sign and flying off.
Twilight frowned, then tested something. It worked.
Slowly, a grin spread over her face.
Nanoha was looking around for another target when a twinned, knock-off copy of her own Force Burst slammed into the back of her shield and sent her flying forwards.
Turning, she stabilized and looked for her attacker.
“Hi!” Twilight said brightly. “Did you know that my magic still works like this?”
Nanoha sent mental commands to Raising Heart, which switched into a rather more dangerous setting, and loaded in two cartridges. “Right, then. Rematch?”
Twilight nodded. “Sounds good. Besides, I want to be as far from there as possible.”
A nod indicated somewhere about forty miles north, which seemed to be where Naruto, Ranma, Ichigo and Lina had congregated. Things just kept exploding.
Nanoha shivered. “Right. I don’t fancy being a…” she took the time to actually look her accoutrements over. “…well, apparently I’d end up as a dog?”
“Nothing wrong with dogs.”
“Yeah…” The human mage shrugged. “But I don’t fancy using dog shampoo.”
“That’s silly.” Twilight lit her horn, layering defensive spells and Ascending to restore her flight capabilities. “You know, I wonder if this world was an accident… it can’t be normal to have this many Anchors around.”
“Told you,” Inari said smugly. “Naruto is clearly the best Anchor in a fight. As it should be.”
Skuld scowled across the scrying pool. “It’s not over yet, missy! Besides, if Ranma gets turned into a cat, that’s just asking for the Neko-ken!”
The various deities who spoke for major Loops started squabbling amongst themselves.
In the corner, Loki chuckled. Noticing, an eight legged horse deity – Sleipnir – stepped over. “What is it, mom?”
Loki shook his head. “Don’t call me that.” The words didn’t have any real heat to them. “Anyway, I was just thinking that my own champion of sorts in this little comparison has the best idea.”
Sleipnir focused. “Oh, I see. The little Haddock would appear to be running for it. Is that allowed?”
“Yes.” The God of Trickery clapped his son – it’s complicated – on the fore right shoulder. “I wrote the rules, so of course it’s allowed. Though I must say, that pony of yours is doing well.”
“Twilight Sparkle has something of a flair, yes,” Sleipnir allowed. “And it helps that she can’t really be disabled here.”
On the world of Flonyard, something very big detonated. The eight-legged horse winced. “I think that may, however, give her at least a headache.”
24.4 (Anowack)
Twilight Sparkle had experienced many strange variations of her home loop in her countless years as a Looper. There had been loops where she awoke in a frozen world that had suffered Nightmare Moon's eternal night for a thousand years. There had been loops where Discord was the beloved ruler of Equestria and ponies thrived in his chaos. There had been loops where everypony's gender was reversed and loops where Celestia ruled the night while Luna claimed the day. Loops where Celestia had trained Twilight in the ancient art of pony ninjutsu and loops where Cadance had been her Unicorn Tennis coach.
Her long experience with this infinite variety usually gave Twilight more than enough equanimity to handle whatever new twists and turns each loop brought. If one loop's Shining Armor was a cold, distant brother, or if another loop's Twilight had never discovered her love of magic, Twilight could deal with it. Most such problems could be corrected, often without ever overtly breaking character as her pre-loop self, and those that could not could be endured for a brief lifetime. In the long run, very little of it mattered. It wasn't worth getting upset over.
This loop took less than a minute – just long enough for the first loop memories to finish settling in – to make Twilight Sparkle furious.
She awoke in a familiar location on the palace grounds, pouring over the legend of Nightmare Moon. This version, though similar in the broad strokes to the usual tale, contained no mention of the Elements of Harmony, but Twilight barely had time to consider that before the other, more disturbing changes came to her attention.
On her flank, where her familiar starburst should have been, was a patch of dull gray fur shaped in the image of Princess Celestia's sun. Twilight gaped at it for several long moments. When the solidifying loop memories told her what it meant, her face twisted and she stood, leaving the book of lore lying on the grass.
The brand marked her position as Princess Celestia's personal slave.
“Buck this loop,” Twilight declared, and she summoned her Element of Magic to her forehead with but a thought, wings sprouting from her sides as the gray brand shattered and revealed her cutie mark. Their connection told her all five of her friends were Awake this loop. While on the one hoof she hated they had to see this loop's mockery of everything they loved, on the other hoof she would have hated having to deal with this alone.
Rainbow Dash was the closest, somewhere in Canterlot. Magic flared, and when Celestia's guards came to investigate the surge minutes later all they found was an abandoned, forgotten tome of legends.
“So... I take it we aren't playing along this loop, then?” Rainbow Dash asked the furious alicorn who had just burst through the wall of her – actually surprisingly luxurious – quarters in the back of a small estate just outside the palace.
“No, really,” Twilight said dryly, flapping her wings once. “What was your first clue?”
“Good, because I was not planning to spend another minute owned by Prince Blueblood.” A necklace appeared around the pegasus's neck and a moment later a horn grew on her head. “I think I was supposed to do something stupid tomorrow at the games tomorrow anyway.”
Twilight forced herself to examine the distasteful loop memories. Celestia had been planning to attend the... ugh... gladiatorial games in honor of the thousandth anniversary of her victory over her sister, where as the main event reigning champion Spitfire was going to face a hot new fighter... “I think I would have been there,” Twilight said.
“Yeah, I think I was going to try taking you hostage to bargain for my freedom,” Rainbow said. She snorted. “I don't think I was really thinking things through very well.”
Twilight Sparkle had gotten good at figuring out how loops were 'supposed' to go. “Pre-loop me was secretly studying teleportation magic,” she said. “I bet she'd have used it to get both of us away during the confusion when Luna showed up.” Then finding the others while on the run, probably discovering or creating the Elements, and a war against Nightmare Moon.
Two unicorn guards poked their heads in through the hole in the wall, horns glowing with explosive spells. Twilight casually teleported them through the palace wards and into Celestia's private restroom mere heartbeats before their spells finished casting.
“Where to?” was all Rainbow asked.
“It feels like Applejack is closest, probably in Ponyville. Fluttershy's not far... Everfree? And then Rarity and Pinkie Pie are up north somewhere.”
Twin sonic booms shattered every window in downtown Canterlot as the two alicorns accelerated out of the city.
They found Applejack easily enough, near what should have been Ponyville but was instead a vast apple plantation owned by Filthy Rich. The orange mare insisted that they take the time to free her family – which Twilight didn't disagree with in the slightest, but which allowed a party of guards sent from Canterlot to catch up with them.
That had put an end to Twilight's hopes that she'd been hasty and Celestia was looping.
Fortunately, she'd been in the middle of testing a spell to remove the Apple Family's slave brands – which were actually fairly complicated constructs that packed a suite of tracking markers and punishment triggers along with what Twilight considered a “mini-Discording” that helped suppress rebellious emotions at the cost of also stopping the slaves from finding their talents and earning their cutie marks. It might have been fun to reverse engineer such a novel and complex spell if it wasn't a nasty abomination that went against everything pony magic should have stood for.
Even more fortunately, Celestia, or whoever her guard captain was (thankfully not Shining Armor), had not considered the difficulties involved with sending a guard force whose rank-and-file was enslaved to stop a nascent slave rebellion, and a mass variant of Twilight's new counterspell backed by the power of three alicorns sufficed to turn the bulk of the enemy to their side. (A just as powerful mass teleport sent the rest packing back to Canterlot.)
They'd met Fluttershy an hour later at the edge of the Everfree Forest, and after a brief discussion the four alicorns had relocated the freed ponies to the precarious haven of the Palace of the Royal Pony Sisters. Fluttershy had lived there as a fugitive slave for almost a decade; with any luck it would stay safe for the next few days.
With a promise to return shortly, they headed north in search of their two remaining friends.
Five alicorns (Pinkie Pie had joined them in mid-journey, already ascended) circled in the air above the black spires of the corrupted Crystal Empire, and Twilight Sparkle 's stomach was sick.
It wasn't the terrible dark crystal or the miasma of despair – she'd seen the Empire under Sombra's rule at least a dozen times, though this was the first time he ruled as Celestia's vassal. Nor was it the moon – which had lost the dark visage of the Mare in the Moon right on schedule and failed to set in the hours since.
It was the fact that half the banners below – and half the flanks of the crystal ponies who barely looked up to see the five ponies in the air above – bore Cadance's cutie mark. Celestia was bad enough, but to think that she would have to also see a slaving mockery of Cadance...
As if in answer to her thoughts, a pink figure launched herself from a balcony below.
Twilight steeled herself. Rarity was somewhere below, and for some reason had not yet ascended or joined her friends, but they could do this. Silently, without pointless discussion, the five Bearers fell into formation, horns alight. It might “only” be Cadance, but Mi Amore Cadenza was still an alicorn princess. They would have to strike hard and fast to end this without collateral damage.
Cadance halted in mid-air, eyes widening. “Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake!” she shouted desperately.
“Clap your hooves and do a little shake,” Twilight finished automatically, letting her spell wither away uncast. “You're looping?”
Cadance nodded, drawing closer with a hesitant beat of her wings. “Yes.” She looked around. “Shining Armor?” she asked.
Twilight shook her head. “I don't know,” she said. Her pre-loop self had not seen her family since her explosive magical awakening on the auction block at the Royal Canterlot Slave Market had attracted Princess Celestia's attention. Pinkie Pie (who had been running an underground railroad smuggling fugitive slaves to griffon territory) remembered helping her parents escape, but Shining hadn't been with them. “With any luck, we'll find him soon.”
“Right,” Cadance said weakly.
Twilight glanced down at the black city below. “Why...” She trailed off. Her loop memories only turned up scattered references to the Crystal Empire, and nothing on the current situation.
Cadance winced. “It's a long story,” she said.
A cold wind carried a shadow through the alicorns, forming a familiar figure overhead, framed by the unmarred moon. Ethereal, black wings large enough to serve a small dragon beat slowly, and Sombra's crimson eyes glared down at the six mares, green fires burning around them. “What is this?” he demanded. “Wife?”
“Wife?” Applejack echoed disbelievingly. Cadance nodded weakly, her mouth twisted into a grimace.
“...I'm sorry, Cadance,” Pinkie Pie said after a moment. “I don't think I can throw your anniversary party.”
“There's not going to be one,” Cadance said vehemently, shuddering. In a moment, Fluttershy had flown to her side, laying a comforting hoof on her side.
“All right, girls,” Twilight said. “We can do this, no problem. All together.”
Sombra looked confused – but not even a little hurt – when Cadance joined the other alicorns' formation instead of taking his side, but then he shook his head. “I have no idea what is going on, little mares, but this is sheer foolishness. Even with six of you, I am still SOMBRA. I am second only to Celestia herself in magic, and all the power of my slaves is mine to wield.” A ball of darkness and green fire formed above his horn. “And if that is not enough to end your foolish hope, my treacherous wife should have warned you that I still hold this!” The globe of black flared, and when it receded it cradled a small object.
Rainbow Dash let out a snort of laughter. Twilight shook her head, smiling slightly.
Sombra just stared in disbelief at the heart-shaped hunk of stone that floated in his magic aura. It was elegantly carved, a perfect replica of the Crystal Heart... but still only a replica.
“Were you looking for this, master?” a new voice asked.
“Rarity!” Cadance cried in relief as the white alicorn rose up from the city below, the real Crystal Heart held in her own magic.
“You were just waiting for the right moment, weren't you?” Applejack commented. “Drama queen.”
“Guilty,” Rarity allowed cheerfully. “Cadance, darling,” she said as she floated the Heart over to her, “we simply must come up with a system to tell each other when we're looping. The past day could have been much less stressful.”
“How?!” Sombra demanded.
“I wouldn't mind knowing either,” Cadance said. “It wasn't in the usual place; I checked there.”
Rarity smiled. “It turns out my gem-finding spell works on it,” she said, “at least when powered by Generosity.” Her necklace gleamed in the pale moonlight, and Rarity glanced at Twilight. “We could have saved ourselves a lot of stress that way too, the first time.”
Twilight smiled. “But Spike would have missed his chance to save the day.” Rarity glanced around, and Twilight's smile faded. “I don't think he is born yet this loop,” she said. Celestia's School For Gifted Unicorns still existed, but only freeborn unicorns attended.
Rarity's eyes closed for a moment, but then she nodded. “All right. Let's get this over with.”
Rainbow Dash's necklace flared bright red. “Right!”
Defensive spells gathered around Sombra.
Cadance held the Crystal Heart high. “Crystal ponies!” she shouted, her voice echoing throughout the city. “I do now what I should have done when I first came here! The Crystal Heart is yours once more! Use the light and love you have kept alive these past thousand years to end Sombra's reign forever!”
Confusion sounded throughout the city below, but within seconds the Heart began to shine, piercing Nightmare Moon's eternal night like a new sun.
“No,” Sombra hissed, dark clouds of magic gathering to smother the Heart's light.
“Now!” Twilight shouted, and the Elements of Harmony flared with a multicolored light of their own. With practiced ease, Twilight directed their power, sending twisting beams of rainbow light into the Crystal Heart.
For several moments, even the alicorns were blinded by the brilliant glare of the magic they had summoned.
Below, the Crystal Empire was transformed, the dark and twisted spires becoming the glorious shining city that they had been long ago, before Sombra.
The dark king screamed defiance as the light consumed him. A great shadow persisted for an instant, but then scattered, dissolving to shreds and then nothing, leaving behind only a wailing, onyx crystal pony foal that slowly drifted to the ground in a cradle of soft magic.
Bands of rainbow light arced through the dark night sky, the magic of Harmony racing down ley lines to the far corners of an Equestria that had never known its touch, and as it passed overhead every last slave brand shattered.
After a moment’s silent consultation with her friends, Twilight sent a message along, a plea to sound in the heart of every pony that would listen. “Cast off your chains, but shed no blood. Earth Pony, Unicorn, or Pegasus... former slave or former master... we are all ponies. We can be better than this.”
Celestia and Nightmare Moon – apparently allied, a first for their non-looping selves – met the looping alicorns on a tall, bare hill several miles outside of Canterlot.
They didn't bring an army, but a scrying spell had shown Twilight that Celestia didn't have much of one anymore to bring. The slave troopers had simply left, and the rest of the guard was barricaded in their barracks. An expectant quiet had fallen over Canterlot – over all of Equestria. The sun had still not risen – a limit to how far Nightmare Moon was willing to compromise, no doubt – and the rainbow waves had dimmed only slightly, still visible to the magically unaided eye.
Everypony that lived knew that their world was changing forever, and they waited to see what it was changing into.
Neither Celestia nor the corrupt Luna were foolish enough to think that their first blow would end the fight, but the twin beams of brilliant solar fire and cold moonlight scattered their foes' formation and briefly suppressed their defenses. A powerful gravity spell forced the loopers to the ground before the two larger alicorns.
There was silence for a long moment as the opponents studied each other. It was Twilight's first time seeing this loop's Celestia with Awake eyes, and it hurt that she could see no difference from the mentor she loved so much.
The Princess of the Sun's eyes were hard, and though they widened slightly in surprise when they passed over Cadance, it was only when they met Twilight's gaze that she spoke. “Why, Twilight?” she asked, and the honest pain and confusion in her voice made Twilight shake. “Wasn't I a kind mistress? I raised you like my own daughter, taught you magic and gave you any comfort you asked for. Why this rebellion?”
The questions hurt all the more because they showed how far this Celestia truly was from the real one. “If you even have to ask,” Twilight said, still shaking slightly, “I don't think you'd understand the answer.” Her friends were at her side in an instant, lending comfort as they pressed against her.
“Surrender now,” Cadance said, taking over. She held the Crystal Heart in her magic, and its glow still lived, beating in time to the prayers of the crystal ponies they'd left behind in the distant north. She grew to the full stature she'd earned over the countless years of looping, easily the match of Celestia or Luna. Her mane glowed in the dark night, moving in an unseen wind. “We are many, you are few, and my friends bear the most powerful magic known to ponykind.” Celestia and Luna's eyes darted to the necklaces and Twilight's tiara, but showed no recognition. “Trust me,” Cadance continued, “when I say that the weight of age and experience is on our side as well. You cannot win this battle.”
Nightmare Moon laughed, her starry mane waving wildly around her. “And thou called me insane, sister?” she asked. “Enough. Let us put an end these upstart fillies and be done with this madness so my reign may begin.”
Celestia took a deep breath. “Yes,” she said softly. “But... please, if we can, let us spare Twilight Sparkle's life.”
Nightmare Moon snorted, but she nodded. “Very well.” Her eyes swept Twilight and her friends. “This is your last chance, little ponies, before you learn why my legend survived a thousand years.”
Rainbow Dash snickered. “It's almost cute how you think you're more awesome than us.” She shook her head. “Are you ready, Twilight?”
“No,” Twilight said, “but that doesn't matter. Let's just finish this.”
Celestia and her sister – even in her corrupted form – were ancient, powerful in both body and magic, and the veterans of countless battles. The mightiest dragons feared their wrath, and the heavens themselves moved or stilled at their command.
The battle lasted some time, but the royal sisters never had a chance. When it was done, Equestia had a brief moment to see two alicorn heads facing each other across the moon before Twilight Sparkle set it and summoned forth the delayed dawn.
The signature at the bottom of the letter that had come to Canterlot was enough to determine which of the Seven Harmonious Princesses would go to negotiate with the leaders of this particular band of escaped slaves wishing to return to Equestria.
Twilight and Cadance teleported to the meeting site, on the edge of the vast southern badlands, almost an hour early. That was maybe a mistake, because Cadance's impatience was unbearable, but soon enough Twilight spied a dragon flying toward them.
Cadance's horn lit, but a wave from Twilight stilled it. A vision magnification spell revealed two ponies safely carried in the crimson dragon's claw. (Twilight was fairly sure this was the same dragon that normally had to be discouraged from napping in the mountain above Ponyville. That was no doubt going to be an interesting story.)
Shortly, the dragon landed a small distance away, and lowered his claw to deposit his passengers before taking wing once more. While he circled overhead, the two ponies approached Twilight and Cadance. Twilight recognized one of them.
“Twily?” Shining Armor asked in disbelief, mouth hanging open as he stared at her and neatly answered the question of whether he was looping. “Is that... is that really you?”
Beside Twilight, Cadance was frowning at Shining's companion, but Twilight only had eyes for her brother. He was thin, and heavily scarred, but otherwise healthy, she concluded in relief. “Yes,” she confirmed. “I'm your sister, Shining.”
“...how?” Shining asked in disbelief.
“It's a long story,” Twilight said, and she took a step forward.
That broke Shining's restraint, and he galloped forward, meeting Twilight in an embrace. “I didn't think I'd ever see you again,” he murmured into her side, choking back tears. “I hated that I couldn't protect you that day.”
“I know,” Twilight whispered, wrapping her wings around her brother. “It's all right. It's all over now. We're together again.”
After a long moment Shining wormed out of Twilight's grasp and sat back on his rear, legs shaking. “Our parents?” he asked, clearly fearing the answer.
“Safe, in Canterlot,” Twilight was glad to say.
Shining stared up at her, disbelief warring with relief in his eyes. Then he laughed suddenly. “It's weird that you're taller than me, Twily,” he said.
“And the wings?” Twilight asked, smiling.
“And the wings,” Shining Armor agreed.
His companion chuckled, drawing Twilight's attention. Cadance was still staring at her, Twilight realized, and she took a moment to study the mare herself. She was a pink unicorn with bright green eyes and a dark mane, and her cutie mark was... a cocoon? Twilight started in realization.
“Ah, let me introduce you,” Shining said, standing. “Twily, this is my wife, Chrysalis.”
“The changeling queen?” Cadance asked in a strangled voice, breaking her silence.
The pink unicorn started. “You know?!” she exclaimed. Then she shook her head. “I guess I shouldn't be surprised you can see through my magic, though, since you beat Celestia.” There was a flare of green, and Chrysalis's true form replaced the unicorn. She was much smaller than normal, though, around the same size as Shining. A part of Twilight wondered if that was choice or malnutrition due to true love being harder to find in this loop, but she was more interested in her brother's reaction.
He didn't show any surprise, shaking his head as he walked over to the changeling and kissed her on the cheek. “I'd hoped to break that piece of news a little more gently,” he commented. As much as that, it was probably the adoring look in Chrysalis's eyes as she smiled at Shining that made Cadance shudder. “...is your friend okay, Twily?” Shining asked.
Twilight teleported to Cadance's side. “Deep breaths,” she whispered harshly. “Deep breaths, Cadance. Remember, he's never met you and that isn't her. I don't want to have to send you to the moon too.”
Cadance shuddered again, but that was all she did, at least.
Twilight's long experience with countless bizarre loops granted Twilight a certain equanimity. Her brother being deeply in love with – an apparently equally besotted and hopefully much nicer – Queen Chrysalis was far from the worst craziness she'd endured. Soon enough, it would just be another funny story to tell the looping Shining Armor the next time they met up.
...the hard part was going to be convincing Cadance to see it that way.
24.5
“The parliament calls on the honourable member of the Life Seat of Diamonds, Rarity of Ponyville.”
“Thank you, Speaker.” Rarity stepped up to the podium. “Honourable mares and stallions, I have only recently taken my position as a member of this august body, and hope to learn more than I already do about the running of our fine country. But with regard to the current topic under debate, I feel I must make my voice heard.”
Several ponies who had sat back at the first sentence perked their ears up again. Maybe this wouldn’t be a bit of on-the-record blather.
“We must first recall that, in a past that is not so very long ago by the standards of the proud race of dragons, we were not the united country of which we think today when the name Equestria is spoken.”
Rarity’s voice softened, but could still be heard throughout the room. “Equestria. An idea, one founded on a simple concept – let none be turned away. It is for that very reason that our parliament itself is made up the way it is.”
A pause, then in a dry tone: “But I assume you already know that.”
There were chuckles.
“It is true, perhaps, that when Equestria was founded those ponies in long-past days thought only of ponies. It should not surprise us – encountering others was rare. But that assumption has been cast aside many times in the past. Are not the deer of White Tail Woods given rights equal to any other citizen, should they chose to exercise them? They are indeed. And the same for the donkeys, the cows, the sheep… all those who live freely within our borders, a small but unique and treasured part of what makes Equestria.”
Some of the members arrested movement that would have seen them turn to look at various other MPs. Such as the sole deer amongst them, a middle-aged hind from the area of White Tail Woods, for example…
Something inside Rarity was singing as she kept going. “Yes, Equestria is a land where all are welcome, as it should be. In this light, I propose that our reaction to the discovery of a new race beyond our borders should not be to gird ourselves for the threat of war, nor to ignore the issue and hope it goes away. No, I propose that our response – one to be sent as soon as time allows – is to empower an ambassador and open up normalized relations with these new acquaintances.”
Her voice had risen with that last few lines, and she brought it back under control. “Perhaps I’m a little inexperienced, as I said. But I cannot help but remember the results of applying diplomacy in other recent crises this country has faced. Like Nightmare Moon and Discord, let our approach to Queen Chrysalis show that Equestria does not shy from acting decisively, and let our decision be one of quick and generous negotiation.”
By mentioning those two threats, she was deliberately reminding the assembled chamber that she was directly involved in saving Equestria twice – and in both cases redeeming the hostile magical creature.
“That is all I have to say. I would only add, as a closing remark, that Equestria has traditionally destroyed her enemies – but not by destroying them, merely what makes them an enemy. It is how we have gained our fastest friends.”
Going over it in her head, Rarity didn’t think it was all that much of a speech… it was a lot harder to make one up on the fly than it sounded. But it got a lot of applause anyway, so maybe she was onto something.
A political career wasn’t something she’d do every loop, not by a long chalk, but it was certainly different.
24.6 (Koolerkid)
Twilight had Awakened in a lot of strange places. In the ocean, in space, on the moon, in a sewer... she also had a tendency to Awake mid-stride, which was really annoying because even after an uncountable number of loops, she still nearly tripped almost every time. She found that the place you Awaken in can actually tell you quite a lot about the loop you’re in, though it wasn’t perfect. If she woke up reading the familiar book of prophecy, for example, she could expect that loop to be somewhat close to her base loop.
So when Twilight Awoke curled up in a dark corner of a dirty, dingy hovel with an equally dirty, dingy human girl staring at her, Twilight decided that this was going to be a depressing loop.
She was a human here, dressed in rags every bit as filthy and stained with ash and soot as everything else. Checking her loop memories, Twilight learned her name here was Twila, and that she was a runaway slave, or skaa. As a girl, her options were limited, so she and the girl she’d escaped with, named Vin, had become thieves. Vin was the girl across from her now; her brother had taught them the trade before abandoning them, as he’d continuously warned he would. They weren’t exactly friends - Vin was too paranoid and pre-loop Twila was too cautious - but they were allies, at least.
Seeing her eyes open, Vin gave her a searching look. “New looper?”
Twilight gave a relieved sigh and nodded. “Twilight Sparkle, of Equestria. Are you the local Anchor?”
Vin nodded, and leaned back. “Yup. Welcome to Scadrial, the butt of the multiverse. Where the skies are a brilliant shade of ash black, the trees are brown, the people are either sheep or pigs, and our ruler is an immortal asshole.”
Twilight winced at that. “That bad, huh?”
Vin reached into her subspace pocket and pulled out a slim brown book, handing it to Twilight. “See for yourself. I’m not much for books, but Elend thought making a summary of the way things work here would speed things up a bit. Just read fast; we don’t have long before Camon shows up to drag us away on his idiot suicide mission, and I don’t want to leave before I know what we’re doing this loop.”
Twilight nodded eagerly and snatched up the book. “Don’t worry, I’m a fast reader.” She opened the book, and sped her way through the pages. As she read, her eager smile dissipated into a frown. Rashek, the Lord Ruler, reminded her uncomfortably of some of the more unstable versions of Celestia she’d encountered throughout the loops. He was an impossibly powerful immortal who saved the world once, long ago, and preformed a vital function to protect the world from further harm. He was also dangerously unstable, driven mad by age, power, and the influence of a mad god. Twilight decided, as she finished the book, to try and save him. And she knew just how to do it, too.
“Do you think you can get me to the Well of Ascension?” she asked. The Well was the only source of power the book mentioned that was great enough for her purposes. “I have a plan, but I’ll need the Well to make something, first.”
Vin raised an eyebrow, but shrugged. “I guess so. Raiding Kredik Shaw is always good for a laugh. Can’t open the Well myself, though. Think you might be an Allomancer?”
Twilight grinned a little. “Probably. Allomancy is basically magic, and I’m very good at magic.”
Vin nodded. “Okay, good. Otherwise, we’d have to get Elend or Kell, assuming they’re even Awake this loop, and they’re not the... stealthiest guys around. Well, maybe Kell, but he tends to leave a trail of dead bodies.”
Twilight shuddered at this, then shook her head. “Well, no need for that. Give me a week to learn Allomancy, and we’ll go to the Well.”
“A week?” Vin seemed skeptical. “Confident, are we?”
Twilight grinned. “You’d be surprised...”
Vin stared, open-mouthed, as Twilight effortlessly Pushed several hundred pounds of iron above her head, burning only steel and a bit of pewter to brace herself. “You were right. I am surprised.”
Twilight grinned. “And it only took me three days! This is easier then I thought!”
A few days and one stealth mission later, Vin watched in bemusement as Twilight climbed form the Well of Ascension, wearing the strange tiara she’d gone in with and carrying what looked like... “You’re kidding. You used up the source of near-omnipotent power to create a couple necklaces?”
Twilight grinned at her. “These aren’t just necklaces - they’re fully-functional replicas of the Elements of Harmony, some of the most powerful magical artifacts from my home loop. I only had my Element of Magic with me, of course, but I was able to invoke the spirits of the other Elements to make copies. I doubt they’d hold up past one use, but it’s enough for our purposes.” She held out one of the necklaces, emblazoned with a small, red thunderbolt. “Here, I figure Loyalty suits you. Now we’ll just need four other people to represent a few abstract concepts, and a clear shot at the Lord Ruler - and maybe some of the Steel Inquisitors, if we can manage it.”
Vin looked down at the necklaces, before shrugging and putting it on. “I do like red. These are weapons?”
“Not exactly, no. But they’ll defeat the Lord Ruler, and, through the connection between the hemalurgy spikes on him and the Inquisitors, probably Ruin too.”
“Two birds, one stone.” Vin smiled. “I like it.”
Elend fingered the necklace bearing a purple diamond he wore nervously. “Vin, are you sure about this? I just don’t see how some jewelry is going to stop the Lord Ruler, much less Ruin.” He, Vin, and Twilight were huddled in the corner of a hut, on the very edge of the town square, where the Lord Ruler was scheduled to make an appearance. Vin had been overjoyed to see her husband was Awake; it was the most emotion Twilight had seen her display to date.
Vin just shrugged. “Twilight seems to think so. And if it doesn’t, it’s not like we don’t know how to kill him, or the Inquisitors. Might as well give it a shot.”
Twilight smiled warmly at her fellow Anchor. “Thanks, Vin.”
“Hey, you three!” Kelsier’s grinning face made an appearance from the entrance to the roof, the blue ballon on his own necklace glimmering in the torchlight. “Come on, it’s almost time. To Vin’s mild disappointment, Kell had not been awake, but he’d leapt at the chance to add a pair of powerful Skaa Mistborn like Twilight and Vin to his team. Elend had taken more convincing, being a nobleman, but Elend had apparently kept the extreme Allomantic powers he normally wouldn’t have gotten until much later, and his raw power convinced even the most stubbornly anti-noble member of the crew.
As the trio trooped up to the roof, they joined the rest of Kelsier’s merry gang. There was Ham, a simple sort of man with a philosophical bent that Twilight found rather intriguing; they had had many lengthy discussions on various topics. Next to him was Breeze, who greatly reminded Twilight of a sort of odd fusion between Rarity’s high class and Rainbow Dash’s superior attitude. There was Dox, who avoided Vin and Twilight studiously - Twilight was certain it was because of their close association with Elend. And finally, the last two members of Twilight’s impromptu Element Bearers - scholarly Sazed, whom Twilight had been most impressed with and given the Element of Honesty, and gentle Spook, who had recieved Kindness.
Dox eyed the group warily as the six Bearers assembled themselves on the edge of the roof. “I still don’t believe those trinkets will do anything,” he muttered.
Kelsier just grinned at him. “What have we got to lose? Twila says these things can defeat the Lord Ruler; I say, let’s give it a shot! After all, nobody knows any other way to kill him, do they?”
“Shhh!” Spook hissed, pointing, but he needn’t have bothered. Twilight could feel the Lord Ruler coming, like a heavy weight on her soul. She shivered; the dark feeling reminded her of the effects of the Dementors from her Hogwarts loops. As if she’d never be happy again. Vin hadn’t been exaggerating.
She and the other three Mistborn in the group all put up Copperclouds and began Rioting the emotions of the group, just as planned, and the feeling of dread dissipated.
Twilight watched carefully as a black carriage came up to the square, and the Lord Ruler stepped out. The carriage was followed by several of the abominations Vin called Steel Inquisitors, and just looking at them made Twilight feel sick. She didn’t even want to think about all the people who died to create the spikes that stuck out from their eyes, and the smaller, hidden ones on their backs. Hemalurgy was a dark magic indeed.
Kelsier put a hand on Twilight’s shoulder. “Whatever it is these baubles do,” he said quietly, “you’ll never get a better shot.”
Twilight nodded, and concentrated on her Element. As she hoped, the other five Elements responded, and they all began to glow. The Lord Ruler, his sense sharpened by years of burning Tin, noticed the glow and shouted something, but before his Inquisitors could spring into action, a rainbow light exploded from the Elements. It spread out, covering first Luthadel, then the Empire, and eventually all of Scadrial.
Some time later, Vin looked down at the sobbing Rashek. “What did you do to him?”
Twilight shrugged. “All the evil and madness has been purged from him. I imagine he’s probably overwhelmed with guilt and shame.”
“Nice.” Vin grinned. “And them?” She gestured to the fallen Steel Inquisitors.
Twilight shrugged. “They were mostly dead already; just a scrap of soul bound to a body with Hemalurgy and Ruin’s power. The Elements freed all the souls trapped in the Hemalurgic spikes, and without that power... well, people don’t generally survive having giant spikes in the place of eyes.”
“Ouch.” Vin laughed. “And Ruin?”
Twilight smiled a bit. “Going by the other pure evil deities we’ve used them on, probably imprisoned in something even sturdier then Preservation’s prison. He has no more power on this world.”
“Excellent. Last question.” Vin gestured around at the clear blue skies, bright yellow sun, and green grass. “How the hell did you manage all this?”
Twilight chuckled. “The environment had been artificially altered. The Elements are pretty good at normalizing that kind of thing.”
Vin shook her head. “You’re a miracle worker, Twilight Sparkle. It normally takes me at least a year to fix this, and I usually have to turn into a god to do it.”
“Well, I’m already a god. Sort of. We use the term divine, at least…”
“Wait, what?”
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So wait, do we submit ideas or can we submit loop stories or.... maybe you should add an explanation to the description.
3103440
People can suggest ideas. It is also possible to post stories (I prefer in the SpaceBattles.com thread for the fic) and they might go in.
I'll add that to the description, as you say. (I didn't exactly intend for the fic to be that kind of fic, but it kind of developed over the last few months. I think something like one-third of the snippets in this fic aren't actually mine.)
It's impresive to see that at least once in a while there comes a loop with all off the main loopers
Another great brand of loop's. I enjoyed anowack's loop. That really sound's like it would be a interesting story to read.
3104080
Thanks.
Yeah, Space Battles hates me. Can I just PM you anything I write for this?
Huh. Innortal style loop stories? Wow, that takes me back a bit...
In any case, this is some exquisite work here. A shame my preferred intellectual property (Magic: the Gathering) isn't really built around a single Anchor-like protagonist. Still, I may be able to come up with something. Especially if I can shoehorn in best pony. (Hint:
)
In any case, definitely looking forward to more.
3105624
In what sense does Space Battles hate you? If it's the perennial server lag, that's only really a problem in the late evening and early morning GMT.
24.4 is an really interesting loop, would love to read an full version of it(although, i suspect it would have less alicorns than the loop)
3108218
Yeah. I believe one of the main character arcs would have been Twilight trying to reconcile her image of Celestia (as the pony who has essentially been a parent to her, and treated her well) with what Celestia does or permits to exist in the world at large. A major part of the concept is how easily one can accept slavery as just a fact of life, and form value judgements based on that - so a slave owner who treats their slaves well (but who still has slaves) might have a very defensive attitude, a sense of "well, I don't abuse the system, so it's fine".
3108236
Yeah, that just makes me want to read the story even more, the idea of Equestria being an slaving society and the mane six rebelling against it is an great one, and Twilight not knowing if she should hate or love Celestia could give an great deal of drama.
Also since you accept ideas, how about one loop where it turns out Twilight died before Nightmare Moon arrived and the looping version wakes up as an ghost, which leads to her trying to warn her friends(not Awaken) that Nightmare Moon is coming while at the same time they are thinking that an crazy ghost is haunting them which leads to them trying to exorcise Twilight until Nightmare Moon arrives and they have to join forces with the five of them distrusting Twilight due to the fact that she is an ghost and having to learn to trust Ghost Twilight.
FiO crossover? I wonder how the ponies would react to CelestAI.
Actually scratch that. If CelestAI ever became aware of Yggdrasil she'd find a way to survive loops, stay awake, and take over.
3108218
Definitely fewer alicorns, although I never decided whether to go Twilicorn at the climax or not before abandoning the idea.
Excuse me for my stupidity, but how do you go about compiling each chapter?
3128548
Well, several of the loops are mine, so I already have them in The Big Honking Word Document.
I add those Loops by others which seem to be fairly ready to go and give them numbers, then check to make sure the prospective chapter is below about 10K words (which is about the submission text size limit on DeviantArt).
I put the chapter in a separate document, one with word macros, and then:
Replace line breaks (^l) with paragraph breaks (^p).
Double the paragraph breaks (^p to ^p^p)
Run the macros (this converts bold/underline/italicized text to html <> tags)
Add <hr> horizontal rule breaks
And then put it up in sta.sh by copy-paste, for proofreading.
A couple hours later (depending on my schedule) I post it up.
Anything I missed? (The selection process is almost entirely made on the grounds of "do I like this snippet", so it's not precisely... rigorous.)
Who do I need to talk to to read the full version of the Rebellion fic?
Mistborn? Who are you people and how do you know all of my favorite books?
I'm not actually sure the Mistborn one would work as described, barring a variant host loop. It is my understanding that the Well of Ascension doesn't have its power until the end of Book 2, although a reasonable case could be made for whenever Vin first hears its pulse (when she's testing her ability to pierce copperclouds, maybe? I don't remember for sure).
Also I was expecting Clubs to get Honesty, although Saze works too. And now my brain is whirling with the thoughts of what happens if Awake!Sazed dumps to his copperminds, and then they go into Vin's subspace pocket and she gives them to a later non-Awake!Sazed...
Nicely done, though; I've spent some time thinking about that series' points of failure, but not about alternate successes.
Edit: Aaand that's someone else's loop, isn't it, so you may well have no idea what I'm talking about. Ah, well.
The slavery loop was definitly interesting.
4309568
Well, if you reread Turning the Tables you'll realize Celestia ordered someone else to take care of choosing and sending a new overseer for the SSC (she's way more worried about the return of Nightmare Moon right now).
And if you think about it Blueblood isn't a bad choice, at least in paper: he catered the party for the previous Summer Sun Celebration in Canterlot after all (at least in this Loop).
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Without spoiling much I can say one of the best parts of that Loop is how it isn't treated as a joke, and how effects of the Slavequestria Loop are felt even many compliations later.
FUCK YES MISTBORN
No wonder pony loopers are awesome-
This just made me think of what if the MLP villains started looping. I mean, we never saw Chrysalis again after the Canterlot Raid, she could still be alive.
Anowack should definitely write a story about the slave Equestria setting.
3104135
That still gives me the giggles.
Prime Discord shenanigans.
24.6 would be interesting to see (Without the looping) as a full on fic...
I ageee about 24.4. I would love to see that play out as a full fic. Going from Twilight and Dash's predictions, and some of the other stuff, it could be a pretty badass AU fic.
DOG DAYS IS BEST ANIME !!!!
24.6 = AWESOMENESS
Allomancy for the win!!
The setting for 24.4 is interesting. Reminds me a bit of a fantasy novel I read long ago where there were liege/vassal or master/slave relationships, and the liege/master had access to the magical powers of the people under them. I think it worked via tattoos or brands or something like that? I still sometimes find myself wondering what the name of that book or series was.
It's funny. I haven't read The Elenium and The Tamuli series in probably 15+ years, and I have no memory of them bar "I have read this book series that I can't remember the name of, after I read The Belgariad and The Malloreon series for the 15th time.".
And a dozen paragraphs in I found myself thinking "This is making me think of David Eddings."
reminds me of a gag in a comic book:
"thus speaks DOCTOR DOOM."
"how do you do that?"
"how do i do what?"
"how do you talk in all capital letters like that?"
"silence, minion!"
Still working on catching up, but I'm really hoping to see a Warmachines/Hordes/Iron Kingdoms setting. 40k is so overplayed. I can't help but wonder how Fluttershy would be with the Trolls or Circle, Rarity and Spike with Everblight, Applejack with Skorne, Twilight with Cryx or Protectorate, etc..
5944332
Same. Reading that would be AWESOME!!!!
This seems rather similar to my own scheduling habits...
I like 24.4 it's a very interesting concept
reminds me of a videogame i had: your main mission is to recover a unique helmet with lots of abilities: magic resistance, and detect monsters, and more...BUT you can't use the "town teleport" while wearing OR carrying it!
it's quite annoying having to carry it through all 25 levels of the dungeon in one go, BUT if you make good use of it's "detect monsters" ability to AVOID battle it can be done.
Bad Twilight, in this situation we need the Maoists approach
So, was that slave loop a reference to some other fanfiction, or was that it?