Halloween Special part 1
With her usual dexterity, Pinkie Pie opened up her oven and pulled out her latest piping hot creation with her oven-proof hoof mitts.
"Okay, how does this go?" the pink-coated baking pony though to herself, "There was something about chaos and degenerate suns..."
"Eh, I'll just make my own thingy up!" she happily decided, "Oh great bust of Discord, which I have baked out of meringue. Hi! It's me, Pinkie Pie! Um, please make every pony turn into their costumes for this Nightmare Night, oh and also make sure no pony gets really hurt as a result, because I just want this to be a really fun surprise. If you do this, I will make you a tasty cake and other treats when you get freed from your stone prison-y thing. So I speak-eth, so mote it be. Heh, mote. That's a funny word. Moat. Moooote. Oh yeah!"
Pinkie Pie reared up and slammed her front hooves on the table to each side of the meringue statue, channelling as much earth pony magic into the ritual as she could. The sugary bust of Discord started to glow.
Then she suddenly realized something. "Oh no! My costume! There's no time to put on the one I wanted, and I don't have any good ones in my pinkie-storage-space at the moment. I don't want to take my ascendant form because Twilight could probably figure out what was going on. Oh yeah! I do have costumes hidden all over for just this kind of emergency."
Pinkie Pie rushed over to her nearest stash, and then stopped. There were two costumes that she really, really wanted to wear. She whipped her head between them before deciding.
Suddenly, there were two Pinkie Pies. One started struggling to get into the strange crab-like costume while the other one grabbed the various supplies and accessories and ran into the next room.
A liberal, if messy application of temporary coat and mane dye, a fake cutie mark sticker, a bit of magic and willpower to straighten her mane and tail, some cardboard and felt wings, and the last bit... Then there was a brief pulse of magic as the tasty statue activated, and it wasn't Pinkie Pie standing there anymore.
She looked around in confusion, tried to take a step and stumbled. After regaining her balance, she looked at her hooves.
"I.. I have hooves now? I'm a... horse?" The pony looked around at herself. Cream colored coat, although with a few faint pink splotches.
She walked up to a nearby mirror and stopped. She had a straight brown mane and tail, but her gaze continued over to her flared wings and horn and, yep, there was a mark on either side of her.
As she stared at small inkwell and quill, Lauren exclaimed, "I have a cutie mark. I'm a 'my little pony'. Why am I not freaking out.. oh wait, there it goes."
The new alicorn twitched a few times and collapsed into a shivering ball.
Pinkie giggled to herself as she slipped the crablike claws over her front hooves, glancing at her barrel to reassure herself that, yes, the false pair of legs there still clung to her form. It had taken a bit of trickery to figure out how to pull that off; eventually she resorted to a tad of chaos magic in order to keep them from just dangling, which really was rather appropriate. The large pair of thestral wings slumping over her shoulder were counterbalanced by the thick foam tail she'd slipped over her own poofy mange. Of course she had to spraypaint herself and her costume with a special adhesive, before rolling around in coloured powder that was a slightly darker shade of pink then her coat; the end result, though, looked satisfactorily fungal, and she was after all a fun gal to be around.
"And now for the final addition." The party pony reached up to her mane, shaking it forward and all about unto her entire face was obscured in a globe of twisted curls. "Ha! Nightmare Night, here I c--"
Error.
Shift.
Chrksxcin twirled its antennae in confusion. This was not the Graceful Realm. If anything, it looked to be a home of a flincher, though the spectrum coming from the objects were varied. How had this individual come here? A stretch of its antennae confirmed that no other Mi-go were in the area... or at least none scenting.
Something was... disturbing. The idea of something being utterly wrong, of course, was laughable; no Mi-go would ever submit to the idea that something shouldn't exist, because by existing it obviously should. But disturbing was a reasonable translation to the concept now fluttering through Chrksxcin's mind. Being alone, save for flinchers... it could possibly handle a small group, but the surroundings indicated a large number, and the lower vibrations did nothing to reassure it.
With a flick of its wings, Chrksxcin glided to the top of the room, skittering out a convenient window and peering. A mirrorrock was above, although going by the plantlife obviously this world has a flaresphere as well. What confused the Mi-go even more, though, were the flinchers wandering below; more like flincher livestock in form, though obviously as intelligent as the flinchers and with more than a little aetheric manipulation. At the very least they were not looking for it.
Not enough information. Chrksxcin decided to remain unseen for now, listening and watching.
Twilight awoke the day before Nightmare Night. "Well, this is different. Feels like a standard Loop, but why start this late?"
She checked her Loop memories more carefully and, finding nothing amiss, she began replanning her costume. As much as she loved her Starswirl costume, it was time for something more fun... especially if she could pass off an ascension as temporary spell work.
Hopefully, if she was lucky, Rarity was awake and she would be able to get some help with a temporary coat, mane and tail dye. Her own spellwork tended to last longer than she really wanted.
Celestia shook her head in confusion. She recognized the Everfree Forest, but she didn't remember any towns this well-established so near her and ... Luna's ... castle. Additionally, from the pumpkins scattered around, it was harvest time. She frowned as she recognized the silhouettes of Nightmare Moon pinned in the windows.
"We thought We'd told Our little ponies not to slander Luna like that..." She paused as she passed a mirror. What had happened to her mane? It was still its normal, desperately soft pink, but why was it cut so strangely? She looked like a librarian, though it did look pretty good with the stripes her mane was beginning to develop as she overworked her magic, raising both her own sun and Luna's moon...
Wait. Her connection with the Moon was gone. She glanced up at the rising orb and felt a pang of worry. "Lulu's back? I've got to find her before...."
"Sister?"
Celestia spun around, and her heart caught in her throat. Luna was back, and so much taller than... wait, Luna had a full-blown aura in her mane? What?
Luna's gaze showed her own confusion. "Twilight Sparkle? Your Nightmare Night costume is most splendid, but I would have thought you'd have sent us a letter if you'd ascended." She chuckled fondly, much as Celestia herself had when one of her little ponies had done something both amusing and amazing. "Come, now, I'm sure Tia will be flattered when we show her. And so proud that you did it without help!"
"Luna? What's going on? Who's Twilight Sparkle?"
Luna's good cheer evaporated into concern. "Something is amiss...."
Celestia quailed at the changes all around her. All of their little ponies were deeply bowing to her and her sister and the tall form approaching.
"M-mother?" Her heart thrilled, and then stilled as the motherly alicorn approached and she saw her own Cutie Mark.
She began panicking and adjusted the Element of magic on her brow. "I've been thrust into the future? I mean, obviously, I get back where I belong, or there wouldn't be a future to come to..."
"Twilight, my faithful student! What a flattering Nightmare Night cost... are those wings real?"
"All right, who's this Twilight everypony keeps saying I am... my daughter? I mean how, if future-me is that tall... how'd I find both the time and the stallion to have a foal?" She couldn't help noticing the meaningful glance future-Celestia shared with future-Luna.
"Your Highnesses!" A guard strode in, bearing a filly alicorn on his back. "Something is turning ponies into their Nightmare Night costumes!"
Celestia and her older self both turned and sent their magic to examine the filly. Their golden auras commingled, startling her elder self. "Whatever has affected this filly seems to have applied a thaumic cascade resonance via similarity to the paper cone she'd originally had for her costume. More disturbing to me is the fact I can tell her regalia was originally yellow painted cardboard, but it's now orichalcum. The Thaumic energy costs must be immense just for one shoe alone!"
Elder Celestia regained her composure, as Luna was keeping the transformed filly entertained. "Alfalfa monster, Luna, really?" She shook her head regally. "I'm frankly more worried about you though. My initial scan tells me that a similar effect is on you, but only to the degree of coat and mane dye being made real."
Younger Celestia grimaced. "My plan to get away from the nobles would have worked if they hadn't knocked my hat off. Nopony would seriously believe a princess would be that pink!"
Cadance strode in, looking every inch an Empress. "Have I arrived at a bad time?"
Younger Celestia boggled. "Oh come on! I can't believe what made me look ridiculous looks great on her! Who is she anyway?"
Luna looked between the two alicorns of the day, one true and the other ensorcelled. "Tia..."
"Yes, Lulu?" They both replied.
Luna grit her teeth and attempted the calming exercise her 'niece' Cadance had shown her. She raised her hoof to her peytral and took in a deep breath before exhaling and pushing her annoyance away. She then pointed at her actual sister. "For convenience's sake, I think that I'll call you Tia..." She turned her hoof to the younger 'Celestia.' "... and I'll call you 'Celly.' Do not look at me like that, at least I'm not calling you Sunbutt."
“Oh, this will be so much fun.” Letting out a barely audible squeal, Fluttershy finished putting on her wig.
The rabbit beside her made some snuffling noises.
“Oh, don’t be such a spoil-sport, Mister Angel Bunny.” Barely containing her elation – which, in combination with the timid pegasus, meant she smiled openly – Fluttershy pulled a druid’s charm out of her sub-space pocket and affixed it inside a midnight-blue-painted cone. “And with this, I can even make my ‘horn’ seem to glow when I am using a spell.”
Angel gave her a sidelong stare and stamped a foot.
“No, I promise. Only a few half-stares and some fog or creeping vines.” Lifting her mane out of her face with one wing, she fastened the fake horn to her forehead with the other. “It’s not like I-”
For a moment, everything seemed to stop, as if the universe itself was taking a deep breath.
“What is this madness!? Why are we not where we sensed our sister!?” Nightmare Moon whipped her head around to get her bearings. “You there! Tell us where this here place is! NOW!!”
Angel Bunny looked into his friend’s eyes. Never having seen her frenzied like this, he did the only thing he remembered how to do. He ran.
“Humph.” Turning around to the mirror in front of her, Nightmare Moon looked herself over. “It seems not only our magical powers have been diminished by a thousand years of banishment.” And in truth, her midnight blue coat seemed dull, the coloration off, like it was mixed with a bit of yellow, and her mane had lost much of its sparkle. “Well, it is of no consequence. Once we find our ‘dear sister’, we shall be the unchallenged ruler of Equestria. AhahahHAHAHAHAA!!” What animals there had been left in Fluttershy’s cabin made a break for it.
The Mare of the Moon turned up her nose. “Ungrateful boors. Now, where would our sister hide?” Concentrating, she could feel the magic running through her... and then wink out. “What in Tartarus!?” Trying to turn into mist, she charged up, her horn glowing brightly... and then sputtering out. “WE DEMAND THAT THOU WORKEST!!” But again, all that happened was that her horn briefly glowed, after which nothing happened.
Nightmare Moon’s left eye twitched. Then she got a hold of herself and a confident smirk spread across her face. “Impressive, dear Tia, we shall give thee that at least.” Turning to the door of the house she seemed to be in, the Mare of Darkness started cantering forward. “But this shall not save thee!” With a sinister laugh, she left the cabin and started moving toward the illuminated town in the distance.
"Honestly, Dash, I don't see why you're complaining." Rarity swished her cape to the side as she sidestepped a young foal. "You're fashionable and terrifying!"
The pegasus grumbled, her bandaged wings fluttering slightly as she checked the exotic chestplate she wore. "It's just a little bit confining. I thought I'd get looser wrap."
"Ya do pull off th' Cleopatra look pretty well, though." Applejack smirked, her teeth unnaturally sharp. "Ya sure ya didn't have ancestors in the Sphinx Empire or nothing?"
"Eh, it's been a couple of loops since I checked my family tree." Rainbow Dash shrugged. "Maybe I do, maybe I don't. I'll do some research... later... ish."
"Well, I'm sure my dear Spiky-wikey would be happy to help with that."
Spike smiled, nuzzling Rarity affectionately. "Whatever you say, Mistress..."
The unicorn blushed. "Spike! We're in public!"
"Sorry, just getting into character."
Applejack gave a saucy whistle, which set Rainbow off giggling. Rarity shot them an annoyed look before turning back to the dragon. "In that case, I might just have to suck your blood, dear."
That got a smile out of Spike. "Your wish is my command, Mistress." He managed to keep a straight face as Rarity turned red... before suddenly cracking up. "Alright, alright. I'll lay off. Besides, I promised Twilight I'd see who she dressed up as. I'll catch up with you gals later!" With a wave of his shackled claws, the dragon walked away.
"I still, hahaha, can't believe you got him to dress up like that," Rainbow gasped, panting for breath. "I don't, hahahah, don't know what you were thinking..."
"Oh, Ah'm pretty dang sure she was thinking bout how sexy he'd look as a genie," Applejack commented.
"Pfffhahahahahahaha!"
Rarity rolled her eyes, although her face was flushing uncontrollably. "Honestly, Applejack, just because you decided to relive the pet loop doesn't mean you need to be so feral."
The farmpony waved a false paw. "Yer right. Ah shouldn't leap on them sort of comments just cause Ah'm a wild animal." Her smile widened. "But yer just giving me so much opportunity--"
And then the world shifted.
Lady Belle would have recoiled if she'd been a lesser being. As it was, her muzzle merely crinkled in disgust at the foul creature in front of her. "What are you doing in my presence?"
The feral creature growled and raised its hackles, clearly disliking her as much as she disliked it.
Then a third presence made itself known. "يا شباب؟ ما أنت -؟ على عقد، ما هيك أنا أقول؟"
Hey, guys? What are you--? Hold on, what the heck am I saying?
Both of them turned to a rotted, decrepit creature covered in bandages and golden armor. Lady Belle raised an eyebrow. "And what manner of being are you? Dressed as death, yet I feel great power..."
"يا هيا الندرة، كما تعلمون لي! قمت بها هذا الزي! على محمل الجد، ما هيك أنا أقول؟"
Oh come on Rarity, you know me! You made this costume! Seriously, what the heck am I saying?
The strange creature winced as the wolf pony snarled at her. Lady Belle shook her head at the foreign babble. "So long as you do not interfere with me or mine, I have no quarrel with you."
Her eyes narrowed as she turned to the orange beast. "This one, however, is a plague on the night. If it does not submit, I will be forced to teach it... respect."
Derpy donned her costume, all five bags of it. It was, in her opinion, devastatingly clever. By using common household items as garments, she refuted the bourgeoisie preconceptions of what garments could be, forcing ponies to take a hard, unflinching look at the role clothing played in a society of habitual nudists. It transcended the base fright of ghouls and goblins, instead presenting the viewer with a deeper, more existential terror, the kind that only the satirist could inflict.
Dinky was going as a firepony. She'd certainly gotten enough experience when her mom got too high-concept in the kitchen for her own good.
Derpy waved as Dinky joined her friends."Have fun, Muffin! Don't talk to strangers! Momento mori!" A bit grim, perhaps, but nothing kept a filly from Crusader-level foolishness like reminding her of her morality.
As the herd of sugar-seeking foals galloped off, the world twisted for a moment.
After a moment of ontological confusion, Derpy found herself holding the bag she'd perched atop her mane... except she'd never written anything on it. The paper was supposed to be a blank canvas on which onlookers could project their insecurities. Instead, scribbled in what looked like correction fluid and smelled like marzipan, were the words "I don't get it."
"Fillystine." Derpy threw the bag to the ground in disgust. Or tried to. It was a paper bag.
"Excuse me, ma'am."
"Yes?" Derpy looked up from her discarded headgear only to stop halfway. A tiny firepony stood before her. Not a filly in a cheap costume, but one outfitted in half-scale replicas of rescue worker gear, complete with smudges of soot and the smell of smoke.
"Could you tell me where I am?" asked the pint-sized impossibility. "Last I remember, I was getting back to the station, and now everything's huge."
Derpy fainted. She would later argue it was the only rational course of action.
The Cutie-mark Crusaders were making their own arrangements for Nightmare Night. They had gathered in the Treehouse and were getting into their costumes.
“I wish we could have done the three pony leaders, not the advisors...” Sweetie Belle said, adjusting her cloak. “Rarity could have helped me make an awesome Princess Platinum costume.”
“Uh huh, no way I was doing Chancellor Puddinghead,” Apple Bloom shot back, adjusting her hat. “Besides, Diamond Tiara did Princess Platinum last year. And Clover the Clever is pretty cool.”
The unicorn across from her wrinkled her muzzle at the reminder of why she hadn't gone princess.
“Hmph!” Scootaloo looked out from under her crested helmet. “It's okay for you two, Clover the Clever and Smart Cookie are both great characters. I'm stuck being Private Pansy.”
Apple Bloom shook her head. “You do know that Fluttershy was playing her a lot more timidly than most versions? She was Commander Hurricane's bat-pony, and effectively his aide.”
“Mmmm.” Scootaloo's eyes grew distant, re-imagining Private Pansy with a black cloak and cowl, silhouetted against a skyline. “I wonder if it's too late to put together a thestral costume... Wait, Commander Hurricane was a guy?”
“That's what I heard.” Apple Bloom replied. “Twilight was talking with Miss Cheerilee about doing our own Hearth's Warming Eve pageant as a school play and I overheard. Seems doing the play at Canterlot last year got her interested in the story...”
“Well we've got Nightmare Night to get through first!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed. “The fire of friendship may live in our hearts, but I'm more interested in lots of candy living in my stomach!”
There was a ripple of discontinuity, which none of the trio noticed.
“Pansy, Cookie? What just happened?” Clover the Clever shook her head to clear it. “For that matter, how did we get here, wherever here is!”
“Well 'here' looks to be some sort of wood cabin, up in a tree unless I miss my guess. Well used too. I'd have said earth-pony, excepting the fine paper some-pony used for that scrawled map on the wall. And whatever happened turned us into fillies and messed with our memories!
“I remember... stuff, the Fumblewinter, the Exodus, fighting the Windigoes, our meetings to hammer out the Alliance, trying to organise things and get the new towns like Mane Hat and that mining camp in the Canter Lots mountains set up. But when I try to remember how we got here, I draw a blank.”
Lieutenant Pansy was already checking the windows and door, cautiously, as was her nature. She hadn't said anything, just went to work making sure no-pony was eavesdropping. Having completed the circuit, she came over to the other two. “I believe the area is secure, from eavesdroppers at least.”
Clover's horn sparked and spluttered, than glowed feebly. “Argh! Whatever they did affected my magic. It's barely active – whatever effect de-aged us, it altered our abilities to match our new ages. But there aren't any scrying spells in the immediate area, that much I can tell.”
“You thinking what I'm thinking, Pansy?” Smart Cookie asked.
Compared to Commander Hurricane, or as the trio liked to call him in private 'the Great Bag of Wind', Pansy might seem diffident. But that retiring nature concealed a first class brain, skilled in tactics and strategy. Hence the name Pensee, which meant 'thought' in an old dialect. “It's safe to assume that whoever, or whatever did this did not have our best interests at heart.”
“Then we're all in agreement.” Clover nodded. “The 'how' would require a group of unicorns working in concert to cast such a powerful spell. It's possible earth-pony magic could affect our growth, but our memories? Only unicorn magic could do that.”
Smart Cookie gave a deep sigh and started pacing, as she often did when talking through a problem. “Chancellor Puddinghead anticipated some sort of reaction from some of the old guard unicorn nobles when the Council of Tribes put forward the newest proposals, but not this. If only forging the Fire of Friendship had burned away the old enmities along with the Windigoes.
“But it isn't that easy. The great mass of all three tribes look to us as their saviors, and the ones who keep the Windigoes at bay. They are willing to follow our lead and let the Fire of Friendship into their hearts, or at least lay the kindling. But in too many hearts there is only the empty hearth of despair, or a hearth choked with the bitter ashes of hatred, or the bright flames of greed and envy, leaving no fuel for friendship to ignite...”
“Smarty, you're preaching to the choir...” Clover interjected, to stop her friend's familiar rant. Smart Cookie was the politician of the trio, but that sometimes lead to speech-making even when with her friends.
“Take us out of the political equation, and the old power blocks would have a chance to restore their power. Too many of the older, more powerful unicorns and pegasi find the new 'uppity' earth ponies sit ill with them, as well as cordially hating each other. Even some earth ponies would be happy to see us gone, as they don't want equality, they want their own shot at being top of the pile, at vengeance for the generations of serfdom to the other races.
“So even though you say it was unicorns that did the deed, the masterminds behind it could be from any or all of the three races. They might hate each other, but they might be willing to ally to stop us, figuring to diddle the other two later.”
“I know Commander Hurricane isn't happy about the alliance, but I've managed to keep him sweet so far by telling him how his decisive leadership makes him admired by the troops.” Pansy got a thoughtful look. “But if they wanted to remove us, why not just kill us? Why simply de-age us, but leave us with our memories?”
“Maybe they made a mistake.” Clover said excitedly. “Think about it. Even if they wiped our memories back to our filly days, the bond of our friendship would still be there. Starswirl is certain that bonds can exist between ponies, even if the memories that created them are absent. So they could have us hidden away somewhere, brought up as friends from foal-hood, and all the while our friendship would provide the power to keep the Windigoes away. They'd have the advantages of the Fire of Friendship without our inconvenient presence in the political arena.
“However, the friendship bond between us may have shielded our long term memories, the memories of us becoming friends, and everything connected to it. The spell probably suppressed them and wiped out our short term memory, but our true selves came bubbling back up after a time. This is probably some way-point on the way to wherever we were being sent. That's probably why there's no guard. Three amnesiac foals aren't likely to go anywhere.”
“So, escape, intelligence gathering, and then we hunt down whoever did this!” Pansy said, looking uncharacteristically fierce.
“We can count on Chancellor Puddinghead for aid.” Smart Cookie stated. “If we can get to him without tipping our hoof.”
“It sounds like a plan to me.” Clover said in agreement. “If we can get a message to my mentor, I'm sure he can help us reverse the ageing spell. I know for certain that he wouldn't be a party to this scheme.”
They headed out of the tree-house and Pansy tried to fly down, only to find that her wings didn't work properly. The best she could managed was a steep glide. She grimaced as she landed heavily, and called up to the other two. “Clever. They didn't want me flying to get help if my filly self panicked.”
Clover joined her on the ground. “I saw a town from the balcony. There seemed to be a lot of lights for this late in the evening, coloured ones too. I suggest we go there first, we can get lost in the mass of ponies – especially if, as I suspect, there's some sort of festival going on.”
“Well, we won't get any older standing here...” Smart Cookie said, then face-hooved. “You know what I mean!”
The mistake was probably deliberate, but it still made her companions smile, which was almost certainly the idea. She wasn't called Smart Cookie for nothing. With their spirits lifted, the three trooped down into Ponyville.
The cream coloured alicorn extended herself out of the fetal ball position and ambled over to the nearest couch.
"Get a hold of yourself, Lauren. I'm sure being a naked pony is some sort of strange dream or vision quest I'm having due to the days of brainstorming to find a way to reboot that old cartoon without turning ponies into superheros," the mare glanced out of the window only to see an odd pony agilely hopping along the rooftops. It was dressed in a costume that could only be described as a fusion between batman's and darkwing duck's.
"You're not helping!" she shouted ineffectually at what could only be her subconscious delusion.
"So even if this is just some crazy dream, it does feel very real. Oh wait," the alicorn looked around frantically before spotting a discarded newspaper. She rushed over, picked it up, and stared at the articles.
"Yes! I can't read any of this. You're not supposed to be able to read in your dream, right? Or was that just a plot of a movie I saw? The point is that I'm not crazy!" Lauren smiled.
Then the smile faded with a realization, "Okay, I'm going to take a mulligan on the whole talking to myself thing that I've been doing, but I'm still not crazy. Right?" she asked a small alligator that had crawled up onto a couch cushion. Said alligator just blinked asymmetrically and slowly opened up his mouth, which was lacking any teeth whatsoever.
"What do you know? You're probably just a symbol of.. of my unfounded fears or something like that. Well I'll show you, you toothless fear-gator. I'll head right on outside and into this dreamworld." The alicorn swiftly trotted over to the door and opened it up on... complete pandemonium. A group of ponies were battling a mummy pony, a vampire pony, and a werewolf pony. None of them sparkled. Up on a nearby rooftop, a strange but somehow very familiar winged fungal crab creature scuttled across and out of sight.
The front door slammed shut.
"Okay, I can do this. If I can handle screaming Powerpuff Girl fans at a convention, I can do this." Once again the door opened, but this time the alicorn pony stepped out into the chaos.
"Wait, you can do anything you want in a dream. That means..." Lauren grinned as she flew upwards, her wings flapping instinctively, "I take it all back. Flying is awesome! This is the best dream... well, the second best naked dream ever!"
Higher she flew. There were enough pegasi and other flying creatures in the air, that she wasn't noticed or stared at all that much. The alicorn set down in a peaceful corner of an orchard, near a child's tree house. That peace was interrupted when three fillies emerged slowly from the surounding trees and approached her.
"We mean you no harm. Who are you and what manner of pony has wings and a horn?" said the small wingless, hornless pony cautiously. Whatever reactions the three fillies were expecting out of the strange winged unicorn, a girlish squeal wasn't one of them.
As the three got closer, Smart Cookie looked down at her clothes and up at the other two and rubber her chin with a hoof. “Huh, I’m wondering if we shouldn’t disguise ourselves. Change our clothes about and our manes. A pegasus filly wearing armour is definitely going to attract attention at least.”
“A lot of the younger ponies are going around without anything at all, now that we no longer have to protect ourselves from the cold of Fumblewinter. I’ve done it a time or two myself.” Clover mused. “It felt… odd the first time, but it’s quite liberating once you’ve gotten used to it.”
“Hmm… our emblems are not well known, but if there’s someone from the conspiracy in town, they may recognise them. Do you have enough magic in that horn to disguise them?”
“That much I can do. I only have the power for cantrips, but I know quite a few that could be useful, including a cosmetic spell to change fur colour. It won’t hide them for long, but it’ll do the job.”
Pansy was already removing her kirtle, but stopped and said in a strained voice, “I don’t think that will be necessary.”
She showed her bare flank. The other two immediately checked their own hindquarters to the same result. Smart Cookie gave a strangled gasp, while Clover looked dumbstruck, and stuttered, “But that’s… impossible! Even if we were de-aged, we still have our memories, our knowledge. An emblem is connected to the pony’s spirit, not their body! I helped Starswirl do the research. This must be a side effect of the memory spell, but it would have to be very powerful to affect our souls as well as our memories.”
“Another thing to fix, but at least it solves our immediate problem,” Pansy finally managed. “But I think we should wait until we can see the local ponies directly before we get changed. Speaking of which, this orchard seems awfully large.”
Smart Cookie nodded, focussing on that to overcome the shock. “True, I don’t remember any this large or well developed in our latest survey, and look at the spacing of the trees, they were planted, not a natural orchard some-pony found.”
They reached the edge of the orchard, and looked out over the town. There were yells and screams, and the impression of a lot of running about. “Maybe we won’t need to change clothing, it sounds like a wild party down there.”
“More like a riot…” Pansy pointed at the sky. Look at all the pegasi in the sky, but why aren’t they in armour?”
“And what is that!” Smart Cookie’s eyes widened as something approached, flying down towards the orchard, a pegasus as big as any they’d ever seen and oddly proportioned. “Take cover!”
They did so and observed it as it landed, which only increased their confusion. It had an impressive horn, and an ink bottle and quill as an emblem.
“A winged unicorn?” Clover said quietly, looking incredulous.
Pansy smirked and whispered. “Or a Pegasus with a horn.”
“Or a… okay, I’ve got nothing!” Smart Cookie quipped, but keeping her voice as low as the other two. “At least she doesn’t look hostile. And I can’t imagine any scenario where something like that would be allied with a conspiracy to keep the tribes separate. We need information, and she may be able to provide it.”
They emerged from their hiding place and approached slowly, Smart Cookie in the lead. “We mean you no harm. Who are you and what manner of pony has wings and a horn?”
Whatever reactions the three fillies were expecting out of the strange winged unicorn, a girlish squeal wasn't one of them.
"You three are adorable! You must be the dream representations of Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup."
The fillies looked at each other in confusion. The earth pony spoke up again, "We do not know any pony with those names."
Lauren thought for a moment and asked, "Do you know any ponies named Firefly, Posey, Sparkler, Surprise, Twilight, or Applejack?"
The three fillies shook their heads, up until the name 'Applejack' came up.
"Yes, we know of an Applejack. She's an earth pony who runs the 'Falling Apple' tavern and inn. Makes great homemade liquor. But the rest of the names you mentioned are not familiar. And as I said, we have never seen a pony like yourself. "
"The night shall rule forever!" said a dark pony with a dark flowing mane, wings, and a horn as she flew by. Unlike Lauren's horn, this pony's horn was sputtering ineffectually, "Why won't thy work right? What insidious curse did my own sister do to my magic?"
"No matter, I shall triumph despite this handicap!" the dark pony said triumphantly right before she flew into a tree, "Ow! I had believed that I was more able at flying than this. Truly, this is a fell curse Celestia has afflicted upon me."
Rubbing her forehead, the dark pony slowly flew away. Lauren pointed at the direction the other alicorn was heading.
The three fillies looked at each other before Smart Cookie answered, "We have never seen that pony before."
"I don't care about that," Lauren said, "Is she trademarked? I think I just found the first season villain for my new show."
“You are a writer, a playwright?” Clover asked, “I thought you might be from your emblem. But I do not think that pony was marked for a trade… A crescent moon emblem often implies some-pony skilled in magic, but she had the look of a pegasus warrior, and we heard her curse her lack of magical power. What’s more it sounds like she was using that modern slang that young ponies are affecting, badly. Even I know it should be ‘thou’, not ‘thy’.”
Pansy snorted. “Any warrior that clumsy wouldn’t last a week. But we should be talking to the horned pegasus who didn’t fly off… stratus! We need a better name for ponies like her since they seem to be popping up all over the place.”
“Alicorn?” Clover suggested. “She has traits of ‘all’ of us, after all.”
“Maybe she has a name for her race as well as herself.” Smart Cookie suggested. “Maybe we should introduce ourselves first. I am Smart Cookie, advisor to Chancellor Puddinghead, leader of the earth ponies.”
The other two agreed. “Clover the Clever, apprentice to Starswirl the Bearded and, a tutor and advisor to Princess Platinum of the unicorns.”
“Lieutenant Pansy, aide-de-camp to Commander Hurricane of the pegasi. And I’m usually taller than this.”
“We all are,” Smart Cookie added. “We were full grown mares, but some fearful curse has reduced us to filly-hood.”
She examined the alicorn’s face for signs of recognition or understanding, and saw none. “We recently forged an alliance between our three races but there are members of all three who fear change and the loss of their existing power, and would return our peoples to three mutually suspicious, feuding tribes. They would consider you an abomination. So we may have common cause. May we know your name?”
"May we know your name?” said the precocious little earth filly, Smart Cookie. The inner girl within Lauren almost squealed at the cuteness exuded by the three little ponies in front of her.
"Sure. My name is Lauren Faust. It's great to meet you three. This is turning out to be the best dream I've had in a long time. Although when I'm not dreaming, I don't look like this." she gestured to her new body, "I'm human."
Private Pansy and Smart Cookie looked confused, but Clever Clover spoke up. "A Human? Strange hairless minotaur-apes from another dimension? Those are a myth."
The earth pony and pegasus looked at their friend. "You're an absolute mine of of useless information, aren't you Clover?" Smart Cookie asked.
"I enjoy the reading of fanciful tales and mythical beasts in my spare time," Clever Clover defended herself, then grinned. "Besides, it's not always useless, case in point."
"One for her side," Pansy quipped, and Smart Cookie shrugged, rolling her eyes.
"It doesn't mean I seriously think they exist though," Clover added.
Lauren snorted in amusement. "The magical unicorn doesn't believe in humans."
"Oh you should read some of the stories written about them," Clover said. "Ponies have claimed to have dreams, visions of other worlds, other times where these humans exist. Others believe that there are places in the world where the local magical field is so strong, it creates a weak point between different dimensions – pools, fracture planes of crystal, surfaces that reflect the light of other worlds. However, no-pony has ever shown them to exist, though admittedly such things would be unstable.
"That doesn't stop the stories though. Humans rarely seem to have magic, but they use tools even more than earth ponies. Wooden ships that sail through the roughest seas, armies in pegasus-like armour fighting ones in skins, or humans that wear unicorn-like plate, and ride horses who don't seem to object to the practice. Villages of mud brick or cities of stone. I've even seen the writings of this one mad stallion who claimed there was a world where every pony had a human counterpart."
She shook her head. "I studied the stories when I got a scholarship to the Academy, before Starswirl took me as his apprentice..."
"I can see where this is going," the alicorn said, "but I can't write another high school drama, even one about a magic school. It's cliché, and after battling the kind of horrors they did in generation one, trying to master gym class seems like a vast demotion. Oh, you wouldn't know any horrible monstrosities for ponies to fight? Good villains make for good stories."
"So you are a playwright," Smart Cookie said. "If you are in need of monstrous villains, I can tell you about the windigos. The evil spirits of cold and hatred that brought about Fumblewinter. Only by standing united, did the three pony tribes manage to drive them off."
Lauren thought for a moment. "So, unkillable spirits of cold that could only be driven away? Nah, that's definitely too much like the dementors from Harry Potter. I guess I'll stick with using that silly bad dream pony."
Smart Cookie looked ready to explode, but Pansy put a hoof on her shoulder, forestalling a tirade. "Calm yourself. You heard her, she thinks this whole world is a dream she's having, she doesn't understand what we went through, you more than many."
Smart Cookie growled. "Having the monsters that caused all that suffering , who almost killed us, dismissed so lightly..."
"C'mon, we have a mission to accomplish. She's clearly not interested in aiding us, and probably has no useful intelligence on the situation down there, so we had best leave her to her day dreams, and get on with finding some actual help."
Clover the Clever had put a hoof of her own on Smart Cookie's shoulder, but had turned back to the alicorn with a thoughtful expression on her face. "Before we go, could I do a magical scan of you? It is just that I have never seen a pony like yourself, with both wings and a horn. I assure you, it is harmless."
"Magical scan?" That piqued Lauren's interest, "Sure, go ahead!"
A faint glow formed around Lauren, causing her to twitch. "Hey, that tickles!"
The faint glow swiftly cut off.
"I do apologize, ma'am. It seems I was less than careful with my tests as I could not believe the result of the first one." Clover said in her most respectful tone of voice.
"Is she a threat?" the pegasus spoke for the first time.
"Pansy, this alicorn; Lauren Faust, is several orders of magnitude more powerful than my mentor, Starswirl. If she wanted to, she could rotate the planet just by herself."
Smart Cookie spoke up, astounded, "But that takes hundreds of unicorns working together."
"Yes. And actually if what my scans tell me is correct; she has unicorn, pegasus, and earth pony magic all in harmonious resonance. If she so desired, I think she could rearrange the solar system."
The three fillies slowly looked over at the smiling, happy alicorn.
"Well, this world is my dream. It makes sense that I could control the sun and the moon and the planets." Lauren swished her tail around in a complex circular pattern, and then stared at it, "Oh my gosh! Did you know my tail is fully prehensile. Check this out!"
The smiling alicorn bent over to her side and promptly stuck the end of her straight brownish tail right into her left ear.
Private Pansy gave a sigh, "And to top it off, it appears that she is completely insane."
"And that's why we can't leave her behind. You heard her, we're a dream, a fantasy, with no consequences for whatever she does. She could pull the moon out of the sky, or fling the sun away beyond recovery playing with her powers, or just by accident. She has has to come with us, so I can teach her at least the basics of controlling her power," Cover said quietly to the other two.
Smart Cookie gritted her teeth, then schooled her expression into pleasantness.
"Ma'am, or do you prefer to be called Lauren? Clover has offered to show you how to use that horn on your noggin. She's an amazing mage. and a capable teacher. All we ask is that you come with us, let me and Lieutenant Pansy deal with anything threatening, and not use your magic unless Clover approves it."
"I can do magic?" Lauren grinned. "This keeps getting better and better!"
The group started down into town, with Clover going through a very brief explanation of how to focus energy in a horn, and shape it
"Every unicorn can do telekinesis, it's practically instinctive, and light spells are almost as simple. For more complex normally use spells, a matrix or pattern that embodies the most efficient way to shape the magical energies. However, if you have enough power, you can brute-force it just by willing the effect to happen. Though don't you try it yet, with your power you could hurt some-pony by accident. Now, watch me."
She slowly built up energy in her short horn, and lifted a pebble from the side of the track, carrying it with her. "You see what I did? Now you try it."
Lauren remembered the tingling sensation, and tried to build it up in her horn, as instructed. She picked out a pebble and willed it to rise. There was a whip crack and a vertical shooting star as the pebble shot up; a sheath of superheated plasma forming around it and reached escape velocity within a few hundred feet.
"Oops!" Lauren blushed.
Clover face-hooved. "We've gotta long way to go..."
"Curse our sister for robbing us of our magic!" Fighting her sputtering magic, and still nursing a terrible headache, Nightmare Moon reached the town – well, more like a hamlet – and after checking her bearings, made her way toward the town centre. "Oh well, we are sure it will suffice for these peasants."
Just as she was going to approach for landing, her eyes fell upon her sister. "’Tis thou!" she cried. "Tia, thou shalt PAY FOR THIS!!"
Nightmare Moon swooped down from the sky like a bird of prey. Celestia’s ears drooped and her expression turned to horror. "L-lulu!?" Backing away, she was transfixed by the dark alicorn before her. "B-bu-but I banished you away!"
The elder Celestia – as well as Luna, who had been talking to the Sun Princess’ smaller version when the alicorn of the night arrived – looked on, utterly perplexed by the scene unfolding before them. Because, however you looked at it, this impromptu piece was truly strange.
"Hah!" The Mare of the Moon stamped her hoof. "Didst thou think it could hold us forever!?"
Luna leaned over to her sister and whispered: "Did we- I! Did I really sound like this?"
‘Tia’ - the elder Celestia - nodded.
"NO!!" The smaller Celestia burst out, then caught herself. "No! I was hoping for you to return some day, but..." She trailed off.
"But what, dearest sister?" Nightmare scoffed. "Thou didst even lock away our magical abilities! We demand that thou dost return them!"
"Abilities?" The other mare’s ears pricked up. "I did not do a thing to them!"
"Lie not, foul trickster!" The midnight blue alicorn reared up on her hind legs and stomped back onto the ground. Then she lit her horn, which flickered briefly and then sputtered out. "Does our magic look functional to thee!?"
‘Tia’ stepped in. "Now, girls. Wh--"
"Interrupt not, fo-!" Nightmare Moon’s pupils became as small as pinpricks. "Tia!!?"
"Oh dear." Luna face-hooved.
'Celly' tensed, and frowned at what her senses were telling her. Nightmare Moon was a pegasus, despite having a horn. The overlay spell that 'Tia' had shown her – rather, reminded her of – showed an aetheric echo of a pegasus with some sort of odd charm under a false horn.
It was a little fascinating how the charm interacted with pegasus magic to produce – she shook her head. Things were far too confusing to let herself go off on a tangent like that. She grit her teeth. "Sister, please, more has gone wrong than you know."
"SILENCE!" Nightmare Moon bellowed in the Royal Canterlot Voice, and Celly felt herself beginning to shrink under the intensity of her fallen sister's gaze.
And that was when, deep down in the unconscious reaches of her being, she realized who her opponent was! Steeling herself, the diarch of the sun took a deep, calming breath... and stared right back. Her gaze was enough to force an entire griffon army into submission – yet it simply washed over Nightmare Moon as if it was nothing.
"That's quite enough, Nimmy," Luna said, and suddenly a wing came down over the Mare of Darkness.
The false Nightmare Moon stiffened under the embrace. "Nimmy?!" she spluttered. Half-turning around, she glared at her alter ego. "How darest thou call us pet names?"
"Simple." Giving a smirk, Luna pulled her closer and waved a hoof at her sister. "While Tia and I have our suspicions, we're not quite sure who you are underneath this spell, but I am at least extending you the same courtesy we are extending to Twilight Sparkle while she thinks she is Celestia. Now, please, calm yourself and look around. What do you see?"
Calmly, Luna pointed out the decorations and that Nightmare Night was as much a celebration of the night as it was of fear.
Nightmare Moon felt unsure. "I just wanted them to love me."
Luna gave a motherly smile as she said: "They do, and I am pretty sure that they love who you are underneath as well."
The Mare of the Moon blinked...
"Princess Celestia?" Fluttershy turned her head. "Princess Luna?" She then examined her costume. "What happened?"
‘Celly’ gawped. Then she started to smile. "Huh. So there is a way."
Fluttershy's eyes hardened. "We happened. And we do not intend to leave, yet!"
The smaller sun goddess's ears drooped. "Or not."
Cadance set back on her haunches in shock. She'd been intending to visit Ponyville on Nightmare Night anyway this loop, just to see what it was like, but Twilight thinking she was Aunt Celestia was a bit much. As she numbly watched the attempted battle between 'Celly' and 'Nimmy,' she was interrupted by a gentle nudge at her fetlocks.
She turned her head and found herself looking into a filly alicorn's bright eyes. "Your Imperial Highness? Would you care for some tea?"
Cadance smiled. The Best Babysitter Ever™ was on the case.
Chrksxcin glided through the darkness, its wings humming quietly with aetheric energy as it observed the world below. There was a surprisingly large number of other flying creatures, but so far it had avoided being seen. Or the other flyers didn't care. Either way was acceptable--
Suddenly its antennae burned, and it landed on a roof near a massive tree. With a quiet chitter, Chrksxcin peered over the edge of the roof.
A collection of the odd flinchers were standing and conversing. Each one had a pair of wings and a stiff extension extending from the middle of their scanprods. More importantly, though, the sheer amount of aetheric power flowing through their bodies – except, oddly, the black one – was enough to level a planet. Had Chriksxcin had a concept of actual fear, it would have been utterly terrified. As it was, it was merely... cautious. Clearly one of them had to be responsible for transferring the Mi-Go to this world... or perhaps it was that other major aetheric power source Chrksxcin could feel coming up behind it.
The fungus turned, observing the massive, manacled monster rising on a column of pure aether. That. That it did not wish to anger.
"Where is my Mistress?" the creature thundered. "Where is Rarity?"
Realizing that a confrontation between two massive sources of power was not something it wanted to get involved in, Chrksxcin scuttled to the other edge of the roof and glided away.
[
]
"You know, I was expecting a song cue back there..." Lauren said, disappointed, as she held a boulder twice her size, and a ball of water from a convenient well in the air to either side of her. After several smaller rocks had achieved orbit, Clover had finally gotten her to tone her telekinesis down, by giving her something heavy so she needed less fine control.
All three ponies looked at her oddly, but Clover was the one who asked, "A song... queue? Only a few unicorns have the ability to focus their magic through music. It's a rare and powerful gift, and your emblem would surely show an affinity for it if you could."
Lauren looked puzzled, "Okay, what's an Emblem? I heard you talking about it earlier... oh, you mean my cutie-mark?"
"That's what some of the younger ponies are calling it nowadays." Smart Cookie said, "Spear Shaker and his crowd, the same bunch that are coming up with that slang that idiot from earlier was spouting."
"Now that's a fun idea, Shakespeare as a teenage rebel..." Lauren mused.
"How do you know of Emblems if you don't know of this world?" Pansy asked, slightly suspicious.
"We've got stories about something similar at home. Cutie-marks show a pony's special talent."
"Partly right. Emb... cutie-marks show how a pony has decided to express their special talent. For example, my talent is learning and studying magic, and my cutie-mark is a four leafed clover with a book resting on it. Clovers, especially the four leafed kind, are magically powerful reagents and can enhance pretty much any spell or potion. I received it when I became Starswirl's apprentice. It represents how I can help enhance magic through study and research. If I'd taken the instructor position at the Academy, as I loved teaching almost as much, my mark might have been different."
"Oh! Can I see it?" Lauren exclaimed.
Clover sagged slightly. "Unfortunately, these de-aged bodies have no cutie-marks. I still don't understand it, our memories and experiences are intact, so that decision, that expression of our souls should be too."
"'Ware ahead!" Pansy pointed up ahead where they could see a scene of chaos across the bridge that lead into the town square. Several ponies in outlandish clothing were running around, both adults and foals, and there was a lot of yelling and screaming.
"The hay!" Smart Cookie frowned. "What are those things!"
"Things out of old mare's tales!" Clover replied analytically. "A vampony, a wolf lycanthrope, and... I'm not even sure what that thing in bandages is, but it looks like some old legend of undead creatures... and other ponies all mixed in! There's too much happening!"
Pansy was taking a more tactical approach. "From the way they're placed, I think the vampony and the werewolf were fighting each other and the other undead is trying to keep them apart. I think the other ponies are just underhoof, too scared to get out of the way."
"Well some-pony's got to stop them before any-pony gets hurt!" Smart Cookie exclaimed, and started forward.
"Wait!" Pansy's voice had a snap of command, and Smart Cookie froze. "None of us are at our normal strength."
"But Pansy, we can't just do nothing!"
The pegasus shook her head. "No, but we need a plan. Clover, strengths and weaknesses?"
"If the old legends... vampony, can't cross running water, shies from magical light, killed by sunlight, staking or beheading. Lycanthropes, regenerate from anything except wolfsbane or silver, but there's a pony trapped inside, not in control of their actions, unlike the other two it's a living creature, could be knocked out. The other undead, magical light again. All three are tougher and faster than any regular pony."
"Hmm... Clover, you stay back, support us with cantrips to keep the other two from attacking us while we pony-pile them one at a time. Smarty, I need you to hit them low, buck things at them, while I drop in from above. Lauren, stay back here with Clover, your magic is too unreliable for a fight. If only we had some of those things you said..."
"Normally I could summon them without too much trouble," apologised Clover, "or transmute your horse-shoes to silver temporarily."
"But you can't," Lauren stated as she gently set down her boulder. However, her massive orb of water was still in the air, "You may have been mighty warriors in the past, but right now you are just three little fillies. That means you are not going out there to fight monsters that were made to scare adults. Besides, it seems to be a stalemate from what I can see. The mummy pony is keeping the vampir.. er.. vampony and werewolf pony from attacking each other. It's like better version of that Twilight series. It would have been at least kind of entertaining if Bella was secretly a mummy..."
"That what do you suggest for our course of action, Ma'am?" Clover asked, having gotten somewhat used to the alicorn's unidentifiable references.
"We wait. We watch. If anything tries to attack us, I'll gently throw my water ball at them. How's that for running water, hah!" Lauren said to the three little de-aged ponies, before sitting down on the grass, "Look, I just wanted to say I'm sorry. Even if this is my dream, I should have been a bit more respectful of you three. I used to play with my little pony dolls as a child; I'd stage elaborate adventures, and now I'm in one. Who's to say that dream worlds are any less real than the one we live in. It could be just like in the Sandman books. In any case, I apologize."
Clever Clover, Smart Cookie, and Private Pansy looked at each other. Cookie still seemed angry at her tribe's near extinction being dismissed so casually. Pansy was never a pony of many words, and that trait didn't seem to changing soon. Clover spoke up, "I accept your apology, Ma'am. Just do try to be more careful."
"I'll try, but it's not that easy." Lauren sighed. "It's like someone telling you to take the smallest step you can, but when you try it's never small enough."
No one really had anything to say to that. Instead, the three fillies crouched down next to the alicorn while watching all angles for possible attack. It was quiet for several minutes before Lauren spoke up quietly.
"I'm glad you girls don't look like my old dolls, though. Instead of being all chubby looking with long muzzles, you're more like sleek pony-cat hybrids."
"Er... thank you?" Clever Clover replied, "There is actually a great deal of research and controversy on how we evolved traits more in common with predatory animals like forward facing eyes and..."
"Not the time for this," Pansy interrupted.
There was silence as the four ponies watched the stalemate. The mummy pony was still keeping the other two from fighting while constantly chattering in her strange language, but was getting more exasperated. Other ponies, dressed up in various outfits, gave them a wide berth as they ran around in the pandemonium.
"I still think this is my dream," Lauren pointed with her hoof to a pony dressed as a dentist who was threatening any other pony she saw with a giant levitating toothbrush. Also, her mane was made of toothpaste. "How else can you explain that other than my subconscious telling me I should brush more often."
"It is an exceptionally odd sight," Smart Cookie admitted, "as is that." She pointed to where two viking pegasus ponies were trading sword strokes with several pirate ponies who were led by a small colt.
"No band of undisciplined viking raiders can match up to the dread pirate Pipsqueak and his crew!" cried out the high pitched voice of the pirate captain.
The lead viking mare spoke up, "But what if the viking raiders hired a ninja mercenary?"
And out of nowhere, a ninja stallion entered the fray.
"Yeah." Lauren stared at this. "I got nothing."
That was when every pony's attention was drawn to an immense dragon-genie which rose up out of the centre of town with a mighty roar.
The three fillies turned towards the alicorn.
"I can't use that," Lauren said calmly as she stared ahead, "Dragonball did it first."
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Woo! more TimeLoops! my morning is rescued
.
I totally agree with Lauren there.... I got nothing...
On to part 2!
This is the best and funniest thing I will read all day. Pinkie using chaos magic to bring forth Discord's power and becomes a Mi-Go*? Twilight turning into Celly? Flutts becomes Nighty, the CMC become the three advisers... Oh man, this is so great. And Lauren Faust shows up!
One question, what did Cadance turn into? I must have missed it.
* -- It could have been worse. She could have become a shoggoth!
EDIT: Ah, never mind about Cadence. Man but I must have been tired when I first read this!
Somehow the funniest thing I found this chapter was realizing nobody is reacting at Pinkie Pie suddenly multiplying herself.
This is really funny, and it's making me wonder if there are any Buffyverse Halloween fics where the Scoobies dress up as ponies
It's a level of chaos hat would make Discord give up.
I'm not the only one who thought that the ponies had feline characteristics
3427321 there actually is, I've read it, but I can't remember what it was called :(
...did Derpy just out-chaos DISCORD?!
And this is probably the best Faust-usage I have ever come across.
4049835
Almost, not quite.
Discord if he can witness this is probably laughing his head off, one ritual to bringmore fun by Pinkie Pie and everything goes haywire. Poor Lauren.
I shied away from these two chapters initially, because the "Buffy" episode was more grimdark than comedic, and because of the Satanism reference earlier... but now I'm glad I decided to come back and read them. This is hilarious! /)
Fuck your revisionist bullshit
Welcome to the Multiverse, Lauren! [Insert Welcome to the Multiverse speech here]
Wow Pinkie Mi-go? Well there goes the reference from Lovecraftian fiction.
And Lauren Faust as a possible looper? Even if this is just a one off fun chapter that adorkableness was just heartwarming.
I don't know why, but at first I read 'cantrips' as 'catnip'.
Gotta admit, RPfic is a little offputting. Oh well.
A Halloween costumes are real episode not in a Buffy loop, fun!
4861592 this must have been before all the shitty league of Villainry stories
Er... I can't make head or tails of this.
oh, that reminds me of a story called "the Celestia code", where Twilight is investigating the ruins of an ancient city of unicorns who considered alicorns to be abominations...
and "fumblewinter" made me think of a book called "the Barsoom project", where a crazy Eskimo cult tries to put out the sun, causing "Fimbulwinter".
An interesting concept. I like it! Especially Clover, Cookie, and Pansy. I want more filliy versions with adult memories gosh darn it!
Seriously, does anyone know where it is? I cant find the loop chapter which involves Sweetie Belles Lord of The Rings loop tut
8445323
Loops 43.
See here for a full list of who ascended and when.
Until next time...
Anon e Mouse Jr.
and THAT made me think of a silly fan-comic by Vavacung where Luna made friends with Nightmare Moon and kept calling her "Moony".
At least it's not dull