Loops 40
40.1 (misterq)
"When mixing these two, you have to use a tiny bit of red mercury and a lot of earth pony magic to stabilize the whole thing. Then just add a touch of cinnamon, a dollop of orange juice for flavour, and garnish with a ruby and a tiny umbrella; and viola!" Berry Punch held the enchanted glass container up triumphantly in one hoof. Suddenly, the tiny little wooden umbrella caught fire and burned away to nothing. The rest of the drink bubbled and shook violently but settled down in the end, "One serving of Foofy, the magic dragon drink of doom. And I should probably think of a better name for it, though."
Big Macintosh and Trixie looked on in amazement from their makeshift bunker inside Big Mac's bar. Spike looked on eagerly at the drink as he sat at a nearby table. Twilight was maintaining a containment shield outside, as well as being – in her own words – ready to teleport any foolish pony before they start choking on the inevitable burning poisonous fumes.
"How the hay did you know how to make that?" the red stallion asked in wonder.
"While you all have been going on adventures and being princess of the moon and everything, " Berry gave Big Mac a knowing look, causing him to fidget uncomfortably at the memories of being an alicorn – a female alicorn. "I have been perfecting my craft. I can mix any drink and make it better than perfect. I can brew the most powerful spirits known to pony-kind. I can make the most delicious wines I have ever tasted. I have learned long lost recipes from the ancient temples in the wild jungles to the ruins in the frozen valley. And several loops ago, I decided to study dragons to see if I could figure out a perfect drink for them. Do you know that their stomach is more like a magical fusion reactor?"
Every pony turned towards Spike. The baby dragon shrugged. "I knew that. Then again, I also studied other dragons for many, many loops."
"Right. Here you go." The light purple earth pony carefully handed Spike the glass. "Drink it quickly before the ingredients eat through the magical stabilization. On a scale of one to ten, this thing has a shelf life of nope, it doesn't have a shelf life. And never, ever serve it to a pony – or really, anyone other than a real equestrian dragon. Otherwise, the customer will explode. Then their remains will explode. Then, whatever is left will require Sparkle to hit it with another entire lake bed before it makes the surrounding area unlivable."
Spike gingerly held the glass before downing it all in one long gulp. He set down the empty container as his eyes widened and his pupils grew to twice their normal size.
"Duck and cover!" Berry Punch shouted and ducked under a table. Big Red and Trixie wasted no time in flattening themselves in their bunker.
Spike opened his mouth and burped out an immense gout of green fire.
"Er, sorry about your bar, Big Macintosh," he said sheepishly. The ponies turned around and saw that there was a smouldering hole through the far wall, and one in the wall beyond that one, and another through the final wall. They could see a shocked Twilight outside still maintaining a shield around the establishment.
"No problem. I got a couple spares of my bar in my subspace pocket. I can use one of them while I repair this place." The red pony turned towards the stunned little dragon, "So how was the drink, Spike?"
"It... was... the best thing I have ever tasted! Nectar of the universe!" Spike said enthusiastically. "You should totally give her a job."
"Well, the results do speak for themselves, Berry. You've got yourself a job," Big Mac said.
"Wait. What? I never applied for a job here."
Macintosh shrugged, "As more ponies find out about this place, it starts to be too much for just me to handle everything. If you want it and can be all professional-like, you can have yourself a job here. So for the loops that you're here, Berry, you can make full use of your special talent and be appreciated for it."
Berry Punch took a few seconds before nodding with a grin, "Alright, if you'll have me. I've never worked for you before. Plus the whole, 'I can talk about the loops because you are a looper' thing is handy."
"It sure is," Big Mac sighed. Gilda was great and even Chrysalis was nice once he got to know her, but he still wondered if Cheerilee would ever start looping.
Loops made everything just plumb confusing.
"I recognize that type of sigh," Berry Punch said. "So what's, or should I say who's on your mind?"
Big Mac just smiled and shook his head, "Eenope. It's only your first day. Customers first. The bartender's problems are something for much later on."
"Fair enough. Just give me a tour of the place and I can start helping with the cleaning. I doubt we're going to get too many customers with all those danger ribbons cordoning off the place while Sparkle maintains a magical shield."
"Eeyep."
"Are you guys done it there?" came Twilight's voice from outside, "What was that fire blast? Spike, are you okay in there?"
Spike the dragon just rocked slowly in his seat, mumbling, "So good," over and over.
Trixie strode out and exclaimed "Success! For my next attempt at a drink for dragons, I shall try to create magical cold fusion in a glass!"
"Hmm," Berry Punch contemplated. "I actually have several ideas about that using flavored deuterium, tritium, and lime juice."
Big Mac watched as the two mares climbed upstairs, talking while they toured his place. Then he looked at the dragon-caused hole in the nearest wall that was no longer only smouldering, but was merrily on fire. Perhaps it was time to seriously reinforce his bar.
Meanwhile, in Canterlot, Princess Celestia looked down at the three circular pieces of different walls that had appeared in front of her before falling on the floor with a clatter. She looked towards her sister for a possible explanation.
"Nope," Princess Luna looked up at her sister and shook her head slowly. "We have got nothing."
40.2 (anowack)
Princess Luna did not usually consider herself an experienced Looper. She knew that her sister had experienced more lives than her own count, let alone the sheer number that the Elements of Harmony had lived. She was slightly afraid to ask Twilight Sparkle how old she was, for she had little doubt that the (usually) unicorn Anchor was possibly her elder by now.
Almost all of Luna's loops took place in an Equestria much like the long-ago baseline, so she had long since grown used to Awaking on the moon, a far cry from the horror and panic she had felt the first time she had been returned to her prison. Still, the rare instances where she found herself coming to anywhere else were a pleasant change of pace.
Even when she Awoke in a dirty alley with a too-bright morning sun in her eyes, like this Loop. Although she was in her accustomed alicorn form, the architecture surrounding her was enough to tell that this was probably some variation on the human world.
“...is that a horse?” The trio of human males staring at her may have also been a small clue.
“Be quiet,” Luna ordered. “I am trying to figure out who I am.” Loop memories could be tricky sometimes, but these were fragmentary even for that and trying to figure them out was rapidly giving her a headache.
“...a talking horse?” one of the humans asked.
“I said, be quiet!” Luna roared, and the humans scattered. She took a calming breath and tried to make sense of her new memories. She was... a survivor of a lost, ancient kingdom on the moon? Fair enough. She had some kind of mission too... the old enemy that had destroyed her people was returning, and it was her duty to defend the Earth against them. Check.
Now, how was she supposed to do that? Luna searched her scattered Loop memories.
“...find the Moon Princess?” she asked herself aloud. A little worried, she turned her head and was relieved to see her familiar mark on her flank. “That was easy,” she said. “Now what?”
A commotion at the entrance of the alleyway made her raise her head again. She took one look at the murmuring crowd of humans, then transformed herself to shadow and escaped. If this – maddeningly vague in her Loop memories – enemy really was out there searching for her, discretion would be the better part of valor for the moment.
That discretion lasted only until the early evening, when Luna was stirred from her nap on a high rooftop after a long day spent searching without luck for Twilight Sparkle. There was the crawling sensation of a dark presence nearby, and it reminded her just a little of how her own magic felt when she was Nightmare Moon. Before she even had a chance to consider Luna was in the air, searching for the abomination.
She had a duty to protect her subjects, after all. Even if they weren't her usual subjects, and even if they didn't know they were her subjects yet.
It took only a brief search, and it was only a moment's work after shattering the gem store window with her hooves to dispatch the demon. She had perhaps over-estimated the monster's strength; she'd hoped to interrogate it but was left with only a pile of magically inert dust. She felt a little guilty for a moment, but she was uncertain the creature had been sentient to begin with, and it had been threatening a young human filly. Girl. Whatever.
She checked the human – fainted, like the other humans scattered about the store – and cast a simple charm to ensure restful dreams before she was interrupted.
“Who... what are you?” the male voice asked from above.
Luna looked up to the high window she'd broken, and saw a male, masked human figure in a strange outfit. Possibly the human version of a tuxedo, she decided. “It is polite to give one's own name first,” she returned, stretching her wings. Perhaps this was the person responsible for the monster; she sensed magic on him, unlike any other humans she'd encountered this Loop.
“You talk!” the man exclaimed.
“So do you,” Luna replied archly. She hated these Loops where equines weren't intelligent by default. Perhaps she should do something about that when she had a chance.
“I... I am... Tuxedo Mask,” the man said.
“I see,” Luna said dubiously. She was reasonably sure that wasn't how humans named themselves this Loop. “I am Luna, the Princess of the Moon.”
The man staggered like he'd been hit, raising one hand to his face. “But... you're a horse,” he protested.
“Pony,” Luna corrected.
“I... I need to go,” the man said. His cape swirled, there was a flare of magic, and he was gone.
Luna nodded to herself. Tuxedo guy was definitely suspicious.
Many of her classmates held the strong belief that Ami Mizuno was not human. The debate raged furiously over whether she was a soulless cyborg from the distant future or an inscrutable extrusion of a vast alien intelligence, but even here at cram school there were only a few lonely voices that supported her claim to humanity.
It was perhaps a shame that all the other students were unconscious, because this afternoon – confronted with the unimaginable circumstance of being rescued by what she didn't yet know to call an alicorn princess from an actual demonic monster – she proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was a flesh-and-blood teenage girl.
“You're a pony!” Ami squealed in delight.
“Yes, I am.” The equine paused. “Excuse me.” There was a flash of dark blue light, and the demonic schoolteacher flew back into the wall she'd been bucked into moments previously.
“You're a magic unicorn talking pegasus pony!”
“Do human's foreheads normally glow in this world?” the pony asked.
“...no?” Ami said, suddenly feeling a strange sensation there and being shaken enough from Pony Proximity Euphoria Syndrome into realizing that, perhaps, this situation was slightly unusual. Almost downright unscientific.
“Okay,” the winged creature said. Another flash of blue light revealed a small... pen? “I am Princess Luna,” she said, “and if I can trust these cursed defective memories, you are supposed to be Sailor Mercury, one of the guardian soldiers of the Moon Princess.”
Ami stared at the pony.
“That's me, by the way,” Luna added, apparently considering that the most pressing thing to clarify. Encased in dark light, the pen floated closer to Ami.
There were plenty of really important questions she probably should have asked. “Will I get to ride you?” came out instead.
Luna frowned. “I suppose,” she allowed.
Ami's hand, without conscious direction, grabbed the floating pen. “Deal. Umm... Your Highness.”
Behind Luna, the demonic monster stirred again. The equine princess stepped aside. “Show me what you can do,” she ordered.
Ami blinked. Twice. Then the demon jumped for her and instincts she never knew she had made her raise the pen high, words she somehow knew by heart ripping from her throat.
“Well, bubbles,” Luna said a few moments later. “I've seen worse special talents. We can work with that.”
For the first time in countless years stretching beyond the boundaries of this life, the four guardian soldiers of the Moon Princess were gathered. Perhaps they would have been more excited if they hadn't just been fighting for their lives against two of the Generals of the Dark Kingdom.
“Well done, my soldiers!” Luna exclaimed.
“...why do you have a talking horse?” the newly arrived Sailor Venus asked.
“Pony,” Sailor Mercury insisted.
“I am Luna,” the equine in question announced, “the Princess of the Moon.”
Sailor Venus blinked several times. “The h-pony is the Moon Princess?”
“Luna?” another voice interjected. A white blur came down from somewhere and landed on Venus's shoulder.
“...why do you have a talking cat?” Sailor Jupiter asked, her arms crossing.
“Sister?” Luna asked cautiously, staring at the white cat with a golden moon on its forehead. Her accursed, near-useless Loop memories throbbed, like she should have recognized the feline.
Venus giggled. “Sister? I knew there was something you weren't telling me, Artemis.”
The cat swatted at her face with one paw. “I told you, it's not my fault the Greeks got my gender wrong.”
It had been a long shot, but Luna was still disappointed. As far as she could without explaining the Loops to the human girls, she'd searched for any sign that anypony – or even anyone – else was Awake, and had found nothing.
Artemis was now staring at her. “You're... Luna?” he asked.
Luna tried to force her Loop memories to tell her who this cat was supposed to be to her, but came up with nothing. “I'm sorry,” she said. “I do not remember who you are.”
“I'm not sure I remember who you are,” Artemis said. “I... I didn't think you were a horse.”
“Pony,” Sailor Mercury corrected again. Really, she got more offended by that than Luna did herself.
“More importantly,” Venus interjected, glancing at her passenger. “Is she the Moon Princess?”
“Of course I am,” Luna answered. If there was anything she was sure of in this Loop, it was that.
“Really?” Artemis sounded a little dubious. He raised one paw to his head, like he was warding off a headache.
“I could lower the moon now to prove it,” Luna offered – there was no point getting offended, given that the cat's memories of the old kingdom were probably as bad as her own. “It would probably panic the populace though.” She never felt right in these – usually human – loops where the moon and sun just went up and down on their own. It was downright unscientific. “Maybe we could go visit the old castle again?”
“Umm... I don't think that's necessary, Your Highness,” Sailor Mercury said quickly. Luna was a gracious enough ruler to pretend not to notice the warning signs her guardians were giving the newcomer and her cat. Really, forget one lousy oxygen spell and you never live it down.
Sailor Venus seemed to think for a moment, then knelt. Artemis lost his balance, and leaped down to the ground. “I am Sailor Venus, or Minako Aino, Your Highness,” the blonde girl said.
Luna smiled. “Rise, my guardian.”
“Are you sure you're supposed to be a pony?” Artemis whined plaintively.
The time had come for the final battle. It would happen here, in the heart of the Dark Kingdom itself, buried beneath the North Pole. (When Luna recounted the story to Twilight in her next Loop, that bit would send the unicorn on a particularly entertaining rant.) Minor demons scattered, unwilling to face the furious alicorn princess.
“Moon Princess,” the waiting queen said, shadows hanging off of her like physical things. She carried a tall staff, which she tapped on the onyx floor.
“Release your hold on the sun and end this night,” Luna stated coldly, “and some mercy may be shown to you, witch.” The air was thick with dark magic, enough that Luna half-feared to see black corruption staining her flank just from being here.
The ruler of the Dark Kingdom threw back her head and laughed. “Foolish Princess. You think that I could bring back the sun? It is our Great Leader's power that blackens the day, not mine.”
“Then I shall destroy you both,” Luna said.
Her enemy laughed again. “You seek to slay both I and Queen Metallia alone, Princess?”
“Not alone,” Luna said grimly, and she spread her wings. In this place, for once her darkly colored magic shone brightly, and the four she carried hidden underneath them returned to their full size, two on each side. “The guardian soldiers of the Moon Princess,” she proclaimed.
“Sailor Mercury,” one said.
“Sailor Mars.”
“Sailor Jupiter.”
“Sailor Venus.”
“And in the name of the Princess, we will punish you!” the four finished in unison. Artemis had been upset to be left behind, but this was no place for a cat.
The woman they faced just laughed again. “Endymion... kill them.” The shadows surrounding her parted slightly, revealing the man who knelt at her left, kissing her hand.
He rose, drawing a sword. “Yes, Queen Beryl.” Luna was pretty sure she recognized him, and she snorted. She'd known that tuxedo guy was up to no good.
Endymion jumped high in the air, raising his sword for a downward slash. “Girls,” Luna prompted, and her guardians acted.
Sailor Mercury clenched a fist, and a cloud of bubbles shrouded the man's head. Sailor Jupiter met him in midair, dodging the wild, blind swing of his sword and tackling him to the ground, lightning crackling around them. Still blinded, Endymion managed to throw her off but lost a hold of his weapon. Arcs of fire from Sailor Mars's hands pushed him back, and then a golden spear of light from Sailor Venus punched through his chest armor.
The dark warrior gasped, staggered once, then collapsed at his queen's feet. Beryl's hand tightened around her staff. “You,” she snarled.
“He'll live,” Luna said, keeping her voice cold. This wasn't the time for sympathy.
“Just die!” Beryl roared, raising her staff and a hurricane of dark magic swept the room. Luna had barely a moment to shield her friends and then she was caught up in the storm. “Die, Moon Princess!” Beryl shouted again.
Luna called on her own power and the winds stilled. She steadied herself with a beat of her wings and fired a moonlight spear at Beryl. The woman blocked it with a wall of black lightning, but it was only a distraction.
Luna landed smoothly and was relieved to find all four of her guardians standing. “Now,” she said. Each of the four girls pulled out a small, brightly colored gemstone, while Luna summoned the three she'd kept for herself. (She would have to ask Twilight if there had been any Loops with seven Elements of Harmony, as these “Rainbow Crystals” were clearly the local equivalent.)
Beryl's eyes widened. “What,” she started. With practiced ease, Luna called forth the gemstone's power, merging it with the magics summoned by her guardians. The whole vast throne chamber started to shake, and Beryl stepped backward, her staff falling from her hands. “No!”
As if in answer, a ball of white light formed in front of Luna. The dark force saturating this place stirred, but too late. “This ends now,” Luna declared, and the bright magic consumed everything.
It was a strangely intimate thing, and Luna wondered if this was what it was like for Twilight Sparkle when she healed Nightmare Moon. The dark power – the “Great Leader” – Luna scoured from the world, dissolving every last strand of its being; it was utterly inequine and beyond salvation. Yet when she looked in her foes' hearts, she found something different.
Endymion – the tuxedo guy – had been being brainwashed after all. Well, that was easily fixed with this power.
Beryl, though? Madness and betrayed hurt, a lust for power and recognition, callous disregard for the lives of others... all of that and more Luna found. But down in her heart, deep beneath everything, Luna found a girl who wanted to be loved. “Be healed,” Luna whispered and then, more than aware of the irony, she sent the dark queen to slumber on the moon.
The light faded, and when it did the seven Rainbow Crystals were gone. Instead, a single gem floated before her horn.
Endymion, his wounds healed, rose to one knee, staring at it. “The Silver Crystal,” he breathed. “You are the Moon Princess.”
Luna still didn't know why everyone seemed to find that hard to believe. “I am,” she said.
“I... just don't understand,” Endymion said. “Why are you a horse?”
“She's a pony!” Sailor Mercury declared, throwing up her hands. “Why am I the only one who sees that?”
Luna snorted in amusement, but her mind was elsewhere. She had still yet to find a single other Awake soul in this Loop, and if she understood one thing from Twilight Sparkle's explanations, it was that there always must be an Anchor in every loop. Surely Twilight would have found a way to contact her by now, but Luna knew that it was possible for her to enter a fused loop with a different Anchor.
So... where was this Loop's Anchor?
In her small bedroom, Usagi finished laughing and let the image die on the crystal ball she'd stolen from Beryl... oh, at least a thousand loops prior. She reached down and was sad to discover that the bag of popcorn she'd brought up here was empty.
“I hope you're happy,” a familiar voice came from nowhere.
Usagi turned and watched the green-haired woman step out of thin air. “Oh come on, Puu,” she said, sitting straighter on her bed. “This is hilarious.”
Perhaps a smile flickered briefly on the woman's face, but it was gone a moment later. “You realize that she sets up Endymion with Beryl later.”
Usagi shrugged. “Not the real Mamo-chan, not my problem,” she said. “I've done that a few dozen times. They make a cute couple when she isn't evil.”
Sailor Pluto just stared at her. “You know how much work this is for me.”
“I'll help?” Usagi offered. “Look, I was going to introduce myself, and then she just went and proclaimed herself the Moon Princess! I had to see what was going to happen.”
“Yes, you're going to help,” Sailor Pluto hissed. “Do you have any idea what Crystal Tokyo looks like now?”
“A lot more ponies, I guess?” Usagi proposed.
“Thanks to Mercury's Equine Uplift Project and her Poniform Transformation Spell, yes.”
“The mind boggles,” Usagi asked. “Dare I ask where we're going to get a Chibi-Horse-Luna?”
Luna stood tall and proud atop one of the skyscrapers of this human city, her mane blowing in the wind as she watching over the dreams of the sleepers below. This Loop was still a little strange, but, setting aside the question of the missing Anchor, it wasn't bad, really. The victory party had been fun, even if she'd needed to dust off an old spell for taking on human form to avoid attracting too much attention.
After so many Loops of being the ancient returning villain, it was refreshing to be the prophesied reborn heroine. And now, with the Dark Kingdom defeated and its queen safely imprisoned – though from her sifting though dreams she already could tell that the humans were a little concerned about the sudden appearance of a female face on their moon – she could start making longer term plans. Perhaps she could rebuild those old ruins up there to give herself a more comfortable place to call home? Or maybe she should just go public... the options seemed truly limitless.
That was when something opened above her head and deposited a creature on her back. Luna grabbed it with her magic and brought it to float in front of her.
The pink-maned alicorn filly started back at her, then giggled. “Yay! Hi, big sister!”
Luna broke into a smile. “Hello, Celestia,” she said. “I'm glad to see you.”
40.3 (Stavaros_Arcane)
Big Mac put the finishing touching on setting up his bar for this loop. He'd gotten enough practice doing it that he could have a full stocked, ready to go drinking establishment open for business quick enough that you could almost Awaken in a loop with a drink in your hoof.
Big Mac polished a glass while he waited for whoever was awake this loop to arrive to plan out their summer sun celebration shenanigans. What he did not expect was the door to be almost kicked off its hinges and a massive mountain of an equine to storm in.
Mac thought the newcomer resembled the Horses of Saddle Arabia but the comparison felt...wrong. While the Saddle Arabians conveyed the calm of a breeze through an oasis, the new comer felt like someone had strapped a blizzard and a typhoon together and then shoved them in the form of a horse made of iron.
There was the clop of heavy hooves as the newcomer approached the bar. It was then that Big Mac noticed something. The number of hoof beats was wrong. As though two ponies were walking in instead of one. A glance downward showed why. Eight legs. The stallion had eight legs. That made him...
Big Mac looked up to find the dark grey stranger – Sleipnir – had closed the distance from the door to the bar counter. While there had been ponies tall enough to force Big Mac to look up in order to meet their eyes, never had anypony make him feel so small, even the Princesses or Twilight during his early loops didn't make him feel quite like this. Like he was a tiny speck in the vast cosmos, and yet the cosmos had turned its attention to him. Even for a looper it was rather intimidating – and usually Sleipnir had better control of his presence. Much better. To the point it was hard to notice the eight legs at times.
But Big Mac was a rock, as like an apple tree with roots tapping into the very core of the world. He had spoken with beings of great wisdom that knew how to make the world turn on something as small as a tortoise turned right side up. So he did what he needed to do. Bartend.
"What'll ya have?" Mac asked.
"You'll find behind your counter a cask of thrice blessed Aesir mead. We'll start with that and drink our way through the rest of your stock until the memories are well and truly drowned."
Big Mac was about to ask about the use of the term "We" when the Swiftest of Horses moved two of his limbs and lifted the shivering form of Twilight Sparkle off his back to plop her down on a seat beside him. "Actually, grab me one of your families' famous ciders. I'll hopefully be too drunk to truly appreciate them later."
Big Mac poured the drink order, briefly studying the cask that he knew had not been part of his stock a few minutes ago. As he placed the drinks in front of the two he asked "Rough loop?"
He watched as in perfect unison the Anchor and the deity slugged back their mead, slammed their mugs down and said, "You don't know the half of it!" in unison.
As Mac moved to refill their mugs the eight legged stallion drank his cider. Unlike the previous drink he savoured the flavour of the beverage. "Twilight has just been through one of the worse hells you could inflict on a sane being. I would never wish it on any of my little ponies. So we're going to drink until those memories are two hazy to hurt anypony anymore, and then the healing can begin. I will make it up to you Twilight. "
Twilight cut in "I appreciate what you're doing. Like you wouldn't believe," the Equestrian Anchor said as she took a large swig of her second drink. " But I keep telling you that..." Twilight shuddered. "Wasn't your fault." she shoved the second empty mug to Mac and the red stallion refilled it again.
Big Mac was now morbidly curious. "She go through something bad in your home loop?" he asked, assuming that Sleipnir's mysterious home loop had gone a little out of kilter.
A smile briefly crossed the newcomers face, "Nay, the suffering she went through happened in Equestria although you are closer then you realize. I blame myself because I should have been able to stop the file corruption in Equestria's Yggdrasil branch before it spawned that abomination scenario."
Big Mac blinked at the mention of the computer he'd been told ran the multiverse. "Wait... that means you're..."
"Sleipnir Eight-Legged, Wotansteed, Lokison, Divine Beast First-Class, and System Administrator of the Equestrian Loops." The Horse God said. “Yes, I may have misled you a little on my importance; it comes of being related to Loki.”
Big Mac blinked at the God and looked at Twilight Sparkle.
She shrugged. "I was surprised too. Did not expect my first meeting with the god in charge of our loop to go like it did."
"I didn't start my day thinking I'd have to fend off an insane horde of ponies wielding a dragon tied to a toothless alligator either." Sleipnir snorted. "I'll admit that was the only part of that loop that was remotely not traumatizing."
Big Mac refilled their mugs yet again and poured himself one. He felt that he needed it. "What happened?"
Twilight shuddered, finding herself almost curling up into a ball on instinct.
Sleipnir looked like he was about to put a comforting hoof on the purple unicorn's shoulder before catching himself. She needed a few more drinks first to dull the emotional pain of that loop. "We won't share the full extent of what happened. But it all started when I found some corrupt files in Equestria's systems. While the loops are beyond the control of even the gods, those of us who work with Yggdrasil's systems have the ability to influence them in certain ways. Programming an algorithm to drastically increase the probability of one emotionally distraught looper to visit a specific loop for their first fused loop. To rewrite code and allow a child to stay with their adopted mother instead of being wiped clean by a resetting loop. You get the idea."
Sleipnir's demeanour seemed to change, giving off an almost paternal feel to the ponies around him. "Of course then some idiot can just as easily cause misery and woe with an act of stupidity and crassness. The corrupt files created some unpleasant loops, and I wanted to track the source of them to help keep Equestria the safe loop you've worked to make it. Well I found it. Somebody thought it would be a great idea to hide their massive collection of porn on my office computer. And I swear I will geld the Olympian son of an incestuous titan for it once I'm done repairing the damage. The stuff was not only vile in its own right but was full of corrupt data and viruses, and the end result was beyond the stuff of night terrors."
Sleipnir emptied his mug again and Big Mac pulled out a row of shot glasses and a couple of bottles. Sleipnir raised an eyebrow as the farm pony turned bartender shrugged. "Mead's out. And this sounds like it's about to get worse."
Twilight grabbed the bottles with her magic and started rapidly filling each small glass. "Eyup." Twilight said, stealing the stallions catchphrase. The alcohol was doing its work, which was the only thing keeping Twilight from starting to cry. "You've heard the horror stories about the loops with the insanely depraved alternate Celestia we call Molestia, right Big Mac."
Big Mac shuddered, "Eyup." He'd been lucky enough to avoid being Awake those loops so far but knew it was bound to happen sooner or later.
Twilight continued. "Now imagine an Equestria where her being in charge made sense!"
As Big Mac paled, Sleipnir picked up where Twilight left off, "Whatever you are thinking of... It was worse. Not only was she in charge but she was the pinnacle of what every pony strove to be, the ideal pony in the eyes of her subjects! And Twilight was the only one Awake, the only sane mare in this mad mad mad mad mad mad mad mad world. And then this corrupted world painted a target on her by making her the most desirable mare alive to everyone in said world."
"Oh mah god..." Big Mac said his imagination giving life to a shadow of the terror described to him.
"I hear you." Sleipnir said with a nod. He barely registered what the last two shots he tossed back were. "And then it got worse."
Everyone in the room shuddered. Big Mac barely managed to get out a word. "How?"
Sleipnir shook his head, "You don't want to know. Trust me. YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW."
After a moment of silence and more bottles being brought out, Sleipnir spoke again. "So I entered the Loop, something I've tried to avoid because you ponies can handle yourselves without my meddling. Fought my way to Twilight Sparkle and then we both fought our way to the gates of Tartarus, changed which side of the door the locks were on, locked ourselves in, and then I called down a Gungnir strike ending the loop."
Twilight nodded. "Never has a planet cracking divine orbital bombardment been more welcome."
"And now I'm going to make it up to her, for all the suffering. This is a healing loop, and we're going to start by sterilizing the metaphorical wounds with alcohol. So. Cheers, everypony," he said, raising a glass to the group that had walked in during the tale of woe. The gathered Equestrian loopers rushed to comfort Twilight.
Sleipnir smiled, glad he'd had the forethought to have Spike message everyone who was Awake to join them. Now the healing could really begin.
40.4
“Well, I hope never to have to detox Zeus' account again,” Sleipnir said, sitting back on his rear legs with a long sigh.
Loki leant back against the comforting bulk of his middle son, Fenris, and collapsed down his spear. “Indeed. What was that thing at the end?”
“Basically Scylla and Charybdis merged with hentai,” Sleipnir answered. “Not fun.”
Hel and Jormugandr trooped in, Hel's living side looking nearly as decrepit as her dead side and Jormugandr's crest drooping with exhaustion.
“At least you didn't have to chase the thing down to be sure it was dead,” Jormugandr hissed.
“And was it?” Sleipnir tapped on air, and his barding dematerialized.
The world-serpent grinned, showing his myriad teeth. “Once I was done with it... yes.”
Hel sat down next to her father. “It's good to have that over and done with...”
“Sorry for calling you all into it,” Sleipnir said, embarrassed. “But, well, given that it had fused with Twilight's loop last time, I wasn't comfortable going in alone to make sure it was cleared off.”
“Good call,” Fenris growled. “Not often we get to cut loose.”
“You ate the planet.” Sleipnir paused. “Sort of planet. Well, okay, drive partition.”
“It's what I do best.” Fenris chuckled.
Sleipnir kicked him affectionately with a forehoof. “Goof.”
“That's me, I think you'll find,” Loki pointed out.
“Right, I think we might all need a drink after that. Wonder if Mac's got the bar set up yet...”
“Why not just check?” Hel grinned. “Wonder how I'd look as a pony.”
Sleipnir summoned a Yggdrasil terminal. “Well, it might...” he tailed off, then blinked. “Huh.”
“What?” Loki asked, craning to see the screen.
In reply, Sleipnir tapped on it and pushed it away from the small group, letting it expand to cover one wall. The 'days since start of loop' number flashed blue, drawing attention.
“That...” Fenris looked closer. “That's bigger than I remember it being...”
Twilight woke up.
That in itself was unusual, since she'd gone to bed after the end-of-loop party fully expecting to snap to attention reading a book.
Razzen-frazzen fused loops...
And her loop memories were on the fritz, too. How truly good. And not what she needed after that nightmarish loop before last.
“Twilight!” Spike skidded into her room, alarm in his voice. “Get up!”
“What is it?” Twilight rolled out of bed. “And are you actually normal Spike this time, or have I missed some formative event that took place in the past?”
“Twilight...” Spike said, slowly. “This isn't a new loop.”
“Impossible,” Twilight replied bluntly. “Loops have a maximum length.”
“Well...”
Spike pointed out the window.
Trotting over, Twilight shook her head to try to get rid of the inexplicable hangover.
Then stopped dead.
The ruins of Pinkie's “far-too-many-to-bother-counting-loop-end-party” were strewn all over her house, and the square, and half the rest of Ponyville as well. Ponies lay in various states of comatose on the floor, having been thoroughly Partied Out.
Pinkie was still on a DDR machine.
“But...” Twilight winced, then remembered enough magic to erase her hangover. (Drinking at the end of a loop wasn't supposed to make hangovers, so she'd gone a little overboard.) “That's... how?”
A clattering of hooves sounded on the balcony, and then Sleipnir came in through the door – causing a little minor structural damage, since he wasn't quite small enough to fit. “Twilight, good. Sorry for the short notice, I just found that getting rid of that stash of Zeus's has caused your loop to start expanding to take up the slack. It looks like you're getting about a week's worth of new time each stage of expansion... I think.”
“Wait, so you fixed things too hard?” Spike asked.
“Basically,” Sleipnir said with a nod. “Okay, must dash. My siblings and I have to go let the Norns know, and see if this is happening anywhere else.”
He wheeled on two hooves, strode back up to the balcony, and vanished.
Spike took a deep breath.
“...so, what now?”
“Now,” Twilight said firmly, “I go and find something that hasn't been drunk yet.”
40.5
“Right, that's done...” Twilight said, panting.
“Giving up the Elements suuuuucks,” Pinkie moaned. “I'm the Element of Laughter! It's my Thing! Well, that and being a Pink Lantern, but they're kinda related...”
“She's got a point, Twi,” Dash said in an unusually subdued tone. “We're so used to having the powers of the Elements on tap that... well, what does it mean for us?”
Trixie walked in, dragging a huge mass of burning rosebush-like thorns from her left rear hoof. “That. Was. Not. Fun.”
“Well, you at least kept the tree contained until we could sort it all out...” Twilight consoled.
“True. But-” Trixie's eye twitched, and she flailed her hoof until the woody detritus fell off. “Oh, this is going to give me a complex if it happens every time...”
Fluttershy brought over some towels and gently cleaned the cuts. Looking up at Trixie, she smiled wanly. “They don't look too bad. You should be fine – no real need to even use magic to heal them.”
Trixie sighed. “Well, Trixie will see you next Loop. She understands that this one will not be much longer than normal?”
“Yeah, Sleipnir said something about extending in discrete jumps,” Twilight agreed. “I think there's about another five days to go for this lot.”
“Because the Tree of Doom is a perfect way to end a Loop. Alright. Buck keeping a low profile.” Trixie flared her horn, Ascended and flew off.
Twilight blinked. “Wait a moment...”
The six remaining loopers exchanged glances.
Then Twilight looked up, mouthed something, and closed her eyes.
With a flash of violet light, her Element of Magic burst into being on her forehead.
“Did it work?” she asked, eyes still shut.
“Yes,” Rarity breathed. Then, with another soundless flare, her Element of Generosity materialized.
Four more followed in quick succession, and then a relieved laughter chased away the last of their anxiety.
“As far as I can tell,” Twilight said, by now on her fourth blackboard of notes, “when the tree was said to require the Elements, it was only after the physical representations – you know, the stone orbs from the Sisters' Castle, or equivalent. But because by now they're basically part of our souls, they can't be taken away in any meaningful sense. I should have realized!” She rounded on her audience. “We've used this fact so many times before! Every time we've conjured the Elements into being to mess with Discord!”
“So...” Applejack raised a hoof. “What all does this mean for us in a real sense?”
Twilight turned back to the boards, and made a few more annotations. “I think it means that we need to make a policy of retrieving the solid Elements from the Sisters' Castle every single loop. We can't really sustain the magic needed to re-actualize the elements if the energy isn't going back into us once we're done with them – so we just give the tree the appropriate Elements from the same loop, and we're golden.”
“I see,” Fluttershy said. “Thank you for the explanation, Twilight. And – would you and Pinkie be able to join me the next time she, Discord and I are all Awake at the same time?”
“Sure,” Twilight replied. “What for?”
Fluttershy's eyes hardened. “I am a kind pony. But I am going to hit him with every form of confection that I can think of until he feels sufficiently sorry for not warning us about that tree in all the time he has had to do so.”
The others shuffled away from Fluttershy unconsciously.
“...yeah, sure,” Twilight said, nodding. Then she sat down on a nearby chair. “I hope this kind of thing doesn't happen every time the timeline extends...”
40.6 (masterweaver)
Trixie took in her marefriend's pacing, raising an eyebrow. "Chrysy.... you're in a rut."
"I know, I know!"
"No, I mean, literally."
The changeling queen glanced down, blinking. "Oh. When... when did this happen?"
"About half an hour ago." Trixie hopped down into the ditch, tapping the dirt around her. "I'm amazed it didn't happen sooner, actually, you've been at this for hours."
Chrysalis flinched at the accusation. "I... I'm trying to steel myself for this, but, but--"
"But you're frozen by fear and shame and don't want to cause a confrontation, and every time you push one pillar of your emotions away you get snagged by another."
The changeling gave Trixie a weak smile. "Are you sure you're not part of the hive mind?"
"Nope, I just know what it's like to be there. Ol' Great and Powerful having to apologize to mares she embarrassed and terrorized..." Trixie shrugged. "Not as personal as your situation, of course, but I'm sympathetic. And I know how hard it can be to do something like this..." She took a breath. "Which is why I want to preemptively apologize."
Chrysalis blinked. "Apologize? I don't understand, what did--"
"Come on, honey, what could be so importaaaaaaaaa....." Shining's voice trailed off as he entered the room, his attention fully on the mare who stared back at him in utter horror. He didn't even notice Cadance's horn glowing briefly, infusing the tableau with a faint cyan aura. Trixie awkwardly clambered out of the rut, giving the alicorn of love a look; Cadance returned it with a sigh, flicking her eyes at her husband and shaking her head.
After a moment, Shining Armor cleared his throat. "Soooooooooooo. I, uh, take it you're looping?"
Chrysalis managed, barely, to nod.
"O...kay... Well, um, welcome to the loops, I guess...?"
Chrysalis took a breath. "This.... this isn't my, uh, first loop."
The stallion nodded. "Yeah, I can see how that could work. Take some time to get acclimatized before.... well, meeting somebody who was basically prey." He shrugged. "I don't.... well, so long as you don't do it again, I figure the past is the past."
"Oh. Yes, quite." Chrysalis nodded. "Yes! Yes, I'll not be... invading... again. Nope." She smiled awkwardly, buzzing out of the ditch and landing. "Um. So, uh... nice to meet you! Heh."
Trixie sighed. "You need to tell him."
Shining Armor looked toward the magician. "Tell me what?"
Chrysalis's horn flared and she popped out of existence. A moment later she popped back into existence and stumbled into a wall.
"Anti-teleport field," Cadance explained, tapping her horn. "Chrysalis, this is for your own good, really."
The changeling queen glared at her... then turned her gaze toward Trixie. "You... you planned this!" Her eyes were wide and wet with tears of betrayal.
"Er... my plan involved rockets," Trixie admitted sheepishly. "We went with Cadance's plan... I, uh, may have a small problem."
A shaky hole-ridden hoof rose to point at her. "NO SUPERFUN FOR, FOR A MONTH!"
Shining blushed. "Did... did she just pull a List Trotter gambit?"
"Um, no. Superfun means explosives," Trixie explained. "Happyfun means--"
"I think that the point has been made!" Cadance shouted. She took a breath, calming herself. "Chrysalis is very upset that we're forcing this, even if it is for her own good. Anyway, Chrysalis..."
"Just... just give me a moment." The ebony mare took a few deep, shaky breaths.
Shining Armor leaned in toward his wife. "Is... is this some sort of addiction intervention? Has she been draining my non awake selves or something?"
"WE WERE MARRIED, OKAY?!"
The stallion's jaw dropped.
Chrysalis buried her head in her hooves. "We were married, Shiny. For eighteen years, and... and that was my first loop. I thought the baseline was a nightmare because, because I, I couldn't even think of... I didn't want to think I could be that cruel. Not after fighting... well, the Celestia of that loop. Not after falling in love and freeing slaves... and... and then I woke up in the next loop and it was all a lie." She moaned. "There you have it. That's my big secret. Now just... just go."
Shining stepped forward. "Um, I--"
"Leave, all of you. Trixie too." The queen of changelings sighed. "I.... need to be alone right now..."
40.7
Celestia carefully unlocked the door to her treasure chamber. “Thank you all for coming,” she said, as the magic released. “I fear that a great evil may have returned, and-”
She stopped.
Twilight blinked at the ash-strewn ruins within, then she and the others started coughing as thick clouds of smoke erupted out.
“Dash!” Twilight said, hacking and coughing in the smoke. “Clear this!”
Dash answered with a pair of wingbeats, thinning the smoke enough to see through, and Twilight added her normal artificial-air-supply spell over the whole group.
With the smoke clearing, there was a blue glow of magic visible in the air...
“Trixie?” Rarity, Applejack and Dash asked together.
“Ah, the Element bearers,” Trixie said, turning. She had Twilight's Magic tiara on her forehead, and no less than five necklaces on – all the Elements. “Surprised?”
“Kind of, yeah,” Pinkie said, scratching her head. “I could swear this was supposed to be a new villain...”
“There probably is.” Trixie tossed her head. “But the security on the Elements was no match for Trixie's advanced safe-cracking techniques!”
Twilight sniffed the air, then looked up. “Wait a moment... did you seriously melt a hole in the ceiling?”
“Indeed!” Trixie answered, pleased. “Iron oxide and Aluminium are excellent tools.”
“So. Thermite.” Twilight shrugged. “Well, have fun, then.”
“What?” Celestia asked incredulously, echoed by three of Twilight's friends. (Fluttershy didn't say anything, and Pinkie was too busy browsing through a book she'd retrieved from somewhere.)
Twilight pointed. “Look, if she wants to use the Elements on the new problem, that's fine.”
Trixie's eyes widened. “Trixie might have to use them?”
“Well, yeah...” Twilight glanced aside at her mentor. “About the only things in history which required the Elements were... ooh... Nightmare Moon and Discord-” Celestia twitched, “and I suspect it's the latter. So if you want to keep them, keep them – just know that Discord will take them away again in about five minutes.”
Trixie pondered this for a few seconds.
“I want to keep the magic one. You can have the rest back.”
“Sure,” Twilight said.
“Twilight!” Celestia said, shocked. “What are you thinking?”
Twilight stretched. “That it's my element and I'll lend it out if I want to, she's probably the number two magical unicorn in the country, and that I was halfway through a good book. See you guys later.”
She vanished with a flash.
“How'd it go?” Twilight asked, as Trixie walked heavily into the library with her hat askew.
“Not particularly well,” Trixie admitted. “It looks like the baseline-loop magic show is not compatible with me using the Elements alongside the others. Well,” Trixie waved a hoof. “We got it going eventually. But the palace west wing is probably going to stay as boiled sweets for the rest of the Loop.”
“Okay.” Twilight nodded. “Well, it's good to know this sort of thing. More data points about friendship.”
40.8
“Okay. Sure.” Chrysalis nodded. “I can do that. I think.”
“Could you really?” Twilight asked, smiling. “Thanks. Normally I'd be fine with it, it's just...”
She tailed off, then tried again. “That loop.”
“Yeah, I get the picture.” Chrysalis shifted to match Twilight's form... then frowned back along her body. “With wings or without? I've lost track of if it's general knowledge you're a princess this time.”
“With.” Twilight winced. “I lost track myself at the loop-start, and Sparkler saw me with them. I told her it was an accident and to keep it secret, which means that only Canterlot high society knows...”
“Right, right.” More faint green light, and the Twilight-double had wings. “How's that?”
“Looks good.” Twilight nodded. “Shrub, but that gala would have been awkward.”
“I'm sure.” Chrysalis turned in place, still looking back along her borrowed form. “Hey, I just noticed. Your hair doesn't have a... thing.”
“You mean an aura?” Twilight asked.
“If I knew what an aura was, then I might be able to answer that...”
Twilight summoned her element of magic and ascended in the same instant. “This.”
Slowly, her mane began to glow with a soft orange light. The colour striping along it seemed to blur, slightly, and then become bands of backlit shadow.
They looked like nothing less than two banks of cloud between sky and land, lit by a sun that had just set below the horizon. The angle of the light changed as she moved, never quite still.
“...okay, that's cool.” Chrysalis turned her head on its side. “I think I get it. Twilight, right?”
“Yeah...” Twilight shrugged, and then her mane was just coloured again. “It kind of attracts attention, though... and I'm conspicuous enough already with wings.”
Chrysalis' copy of Twilight's mane lit up. “Gah, that's hard to copy. Can any of the others do that?”
“Well, yeah...” Twilight answered. “We're old enough and have enough power. But I usually see them in the more recent Sisters loops, because that way we at least have a reason to use them.”
“Okay, now I'm curious.” Chrysalis frowned. “Aren't most of the others awake this loop? I kind of want to see.”
“...sure.” Twilight went from alicorn to pegasus, then slapped a glamour on herself which made her cutie mark a nebula. “You may as well use the chance to practise being me.”
“Oh, that,” Dash said with a shrug. “Yeah, use it all the time.”
“You do?” Twilight blinked. “I'd thought it was a rare thing...”
“Well, sort of, yeah, but who's going to be able to tell when I'm moving at supersonic speed anyway? Besides, it looks cool.” Dash ascended, then her mane began to...
Finding words was hard. It was still the same rainbow of colours, and none of them moved, but it was as though one was looking at something going past at extreme speed parallel to the directions of the lines.
“...that is giving me a headache,” Chrysalis commented absently.
“Just go with it,” Dash tossed her head, and the colours... reacted after the mane itself, briefly resulting in a mane that was almost entirely red.
“Okay,” Twilight said brightly, tapping the facsimile of her shoulder. “Next?”
As they flew back down to Ponyville, Chrysalis looked Twilight's glamour over. “That looks fairly detailed. Standard form?”
“Yes.” Twilight nodded, backwinging a little. “Starry Nights, a pegasus who goes stargazing on cirrus clouds at night. I made up a few of these one loop, for just this sort of thing.”
“I approve,” Chrysalis said. “It feels less... impolite, taking a form you have permission for, and invented forms automatically result in permission. I have one who likes collecting rocks...”
With a clatter of hooves, they landed in front of Carousel Botique.
“And this is my friend Rarity's house,” Chrysalis added, knocking.
After some muffled cursing and a loud splash noise, the door opened on a rather damp Rarity.
“Oh, come in, Twilight,” Rarity said, her eyes flicking to the pegasus as she said the name. “Who's your friend?”
“Starry Nights,” Chrysalis replied easily. “I met her at an astronomy meeting a few days ago.”
As the door closed again, Twilight nodded to Chrysalis. “Very smooth.”
“Thank you,” Chrysalis replied with a nod.
“So, what brings you two here?” Rarity asked, summoning a mop from the back room with her telekinesis and clearing off the floor. “Sorry about this, by the way, my attempt at creating a hat with fish in is still pending a stable but non-stasis containment spell for water in cloth form.”
“Chrysalis is curious about our mane auras.” Twilight shrugged. “It's an opportunity to practise being me around town, as well.”
“Oh, that thing.” Rarity rolled her eyes. “That does look nice, but it does also force me into a very limited style of clothing. But I suppose you'd like to see it, of course.”
Rarity's mane aura was, as was becoming a theme, very different to that of anypony else. Where Twilight's had shone, and Dash's had flickered, Rarity's mane... refracted.
It was see-through, though a deep purple in colour. But what you saw through it didn't match the edges up with what was visible past it. And when it moved, the whole thing acted like a funhouse mirror and distorted in unpredictable ways.
“So, there it is,” Rarity said, before undoing the aura and going back to unicorn. “It's like I'm wearing a giant, flexible gemstone – which doesn't work well if I want to wear a lot of colours. More colours do well with purple than do well tinted purple, and of course I can't mute the colouring of it with a well-done hairstyle either.”
Chrysalis nodded. “I see. So they... what, they reflect the magical signature of the pony?”
“Partially,” Twilight replied. “But that's not the whole story. Let's go see Pinkie.”
“...do we have to? I'm still digesting the last Genocide By Toffee, and that was five loops ago...”
“Ta-da!” Pinkie said, shaking her pink curls. “Like it?”
“...but that's just your normal mane-style, isn't it?” Chrysalis asked.
Twilight grinned. With the air of one doing a magic trick, she ran her hoof along the edge of the mane.
Some of it came off.
“Here, try it,” Twilight offered. “It's delicious.”
Tentatively, Chrysalis took a small portion with a spoon, and tasted it experimentally.
“Okay, what.” The disguised changeling pointed, licking the spoon. “Your mane is literally cotton candy.”
Pinkie beamed.
“Let's see...” Twilight said, as they came down to land outside Sweet Apple Acres. “Applejack next, then Fluttershy – Trixie's there as well, I think, so we can do her too – then we teleport to Canterlot to call in on Shiny and Cadence and finish up with my daughter.”
“Do we have to do your brother?” Chrysalis winced. “I mean...”
“I know.” Twilight laid a wing across Chrysalis' back. “If you want, I'll ask them to do it and you can look in from outside. But they are important.”
“I'll-” Chrysalis swallowed. “I'll give it a go.”
“That's the spirit. Oh, hi, Applejack. I'm showing Chrysalis all our mane auras.”
The farm-pony nodded to both of them. “I'm expectin' you'll want to see mine, then?”
“Please.”
“Okay.” Applejack stamped on the ground, which produced a ripple and made the nearest field plough itself instantly. “Take a look, then.”
Applejack's alicorn mode was the largest of all the Element bearers', when shapechanging magic or sheer age wasn't coming into the equation, and her mane was entirely in scale. After a moment, it took on the slightly unearthly quality which Chrysalis was starting to notice all mane auras had.
“That's... very yellow, actually,” Chrysalis said, walking all around Applejack. “Or... hold on, is the colour changing?”
“It cycles through,” Twilight explained helpfully. “Applejack tends not to use hers because it actually changes her colouration – which is very obvious. It goes from yellow to red, then back through yellow to green. Apple colours.”
“Okay, thank you.”
Applejack took that as the okay to revert to her base form. “Right, where was ah... oh, yeah. Potatoes.”
“New thing?” Twilight asked.
“Ah heard th' Prench called 'em pommes de terre,” Applejack said over her shoulder. “Worth a try.”
“That's really strange,” Chrysalis said, watching the pink shapes move over one another. “Are those butterflies or leaves?”
Fluttershy shook her head, causing the shapes to shuffle around more vigorously. “I think it depends how you look.”
“My turn!” Trixie said, her magic-circlet materializing on her brow. A flash of light, a puff of smoke, and she too was an alicorn.
“Trixie's mane is a bit like Fluttershy's,” Twilight commented. “See the flashes?”
“I don't... wait, there we are.” Chrysalis squinted. “Like tiny little fireworks.”
Trixie spun with a flourish, sending her mane flying out behind her – in a crescendo of bright, multicoloured light.
“There we go,” Twilight said, smiling. “The faster she moves, the larger the flashes get – and they take on different colours, too.”
“If only Trixie could get this to work without the wings,” Trixie said sadly. “That would be an excellent magic show.”
Twilight turned to Chrysalis. “Ready?”
Chrysalis sighed. “...as I'll ever be.”
“...so, long story short, she's borrowing my form and she wanted to find out about how alicorn manes work,” Twilight said, keeping an eye on the pair's reactions.
“Well, that sounds fine,” Shining said, looking a little uncomfortably at the faux-alicorn. Chrysalis shuffled her wings, and stepped back a bit. “That is so strange... she's even got your mannerisms down...”
“The mane?” Twilight prompted.
“Okay.” Shining slipped his hoof into his subspace pocket, touched his spectrum crystal pendant, and flashed through an ascension.
“Watch this,” Twilight said. Taking a comb from the dresser, she made to comb her brothers' mane.
With a tink, the comb bounced off.
“Coherent forcefield,” she said with a wink. “Bit of a pain, though, because stallions find it harder to get away with a useful length of mane.”
“And as for mine...” Cadence waved a hoof through her mane, which billowed and parted before reforming into the same curls as before. “Try to hold it and it's as tenuous as smoke. Leave it alone and it always comes back. Sort of like love, really.”
“Okay, thanks.” Twilight turned to Chrysalis. “Can you teleport us back? Remember the horn aura ultraviolet spell, the fake horn aura spell, and the teleport as well.”
“Right.” Chrysalis frowned. “Let me know if it works.”
“Yeah, I hardly ever use mine,” Nyx said, looking back at her mane and tail.
“Why?” Chrysalis asked. “What does it do?”
“Nothing.”
“...well, how-”
“No,” Nyx blew her mane out of her eyes. “Literally nothing. Watch.”
Mane and tail both went black.
Completely black. Not just raven-black. Not even coal-black.
Hole-in-space black. The black of the cold between the stars. So black that your eyes could tell that not a single photon of light was either coming from or being reflected from the hair in question.
And then Nyx's mane was back to a dark purple colour.
“So, yeah,” she said, shrugging. “Depressing.”
“Right.”
Chrysalis sat back to absorb that.
After a few minutes, another question came to her. “Why are Celestia and Luna so similar, then? In their auras, I mean?”
“I think it's because they're sisters, and because both of them have talents and magic associated directly with the light of celestial bodies.” Twilight half-spread her wings, then furled them. “I'm not sure, of course, because a lot of this is based on observation, and if you find the definitive book on alicorn magic then please lend it to me as soon as possible.”
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These don't quite seem to match up. The first suggests that Big Mac already knows Sleipnir's identity as a deity, while the second suggests he only knew Sleipnir as a 'fellow looper'.
These time loops make me so happy.
Great work as alway's. Loved how the Sailor Moon loop went. Nothing like a little misunderstanding cuasing big ripples. Any chance of Trixie having a loop in the Lunaverse, or Twilight having a loop in the Life In Manehatten universe.
40.1 - So Foofy isn't sufficient to let Berry Ascend? Or is it the lack of access to a sufficienly powerful magical artifact? Maybe if the Cold Fusion experiments work out...
Also, there seems to be a problem with Horizontal Rule coding.
Do a prototype crossover!
You know things are well and truly borked up when LOKI and his family get to play big damn heroes.
I can't believe how well you've managed to include S4 in this. Also; Zeus, you freak.
Saphroneth: Your [hr/]s are showing.
3572351
Here is the original. I like it better without Big Mac knowing Sleipnir.
In the original form of that loop, Big Mac had no idea who Sleipnir was. But then there was a bit of debate because apparently Big Mac and Sleipnir being pals was an established thing on the spacebattles threads (although it never made it into the compilations), so it got changed...but not enough to be self-consistent
That was certainly a creative way to incorporate season 4 into the story.
3567594
True, but I don't particularly see how that slides in between Love and Hate on the spectrum. If anything, making others happy sounds like it's benefiting them, which makes it fall under Compassion (though certainly not a style of execution seen in DC Comics).
Of course, this is Pinkie we're talking about...
3572351
He knows Sleipnir is a "deity" - but then, so are about half his fellow Equestrian loopers.
3573256
Fastbond and Channel with Storm Cauldron. Any other questions?
3571368
No difference, just autocomplete and me being lazy.
3573348
You will be happy whether you like it or not.
3572805
Actually, I tend to prefer pre-Baldr Loki, as far as the legends of the Norse gods go. That makes Loki a prankster but still firmly on the side of the light (or at least the Aesir) - and, of course, it means that I can write a happy family composed of five goofballs with varying levels of goof, no two of whom are the same shape. (Unless Loki has shifted to something enough like one of the others.)
3573187
3572452
Done.
3573256
...actually, now I think of it.
Black Lotus or something like that.
(But any strategy based on life burn is insanely viable in a game where you start with eight thousand life..)
I like the one with Luna in a human world, and her getting to meet her little sis at the end. I can imagine her echoing Applebloom's line, "Now I'm the big sister!" And Luna gets to be a big hero for once, like she so well deserves.
Nice job on the one with Berry Punch mixing drinks for Spike. The poor dragon looks to have been sent into orbit by that one!
And again -- poor Twilight! I begin to wonder just what sort of 'nightmare fuel' worlds the girls have awoken in. There was the slave one, as I recall. I wonder if she ever awoke in one of those 'Tyrant Sparkle' worlds where she'd conquered Equestria? Of course, if she did, I doubt it stayed tyrannical for long.
Great new chapter!
..."too hazy"
3572351
There were also some rewrites to that section as I was a little unclear on what was canon in the loops for Sleipnir, it was originally written as though none of the Equestrians had met him yet. Saph changed some things around.
3576519
Yes.
3576633
There are format and cross-compatibility issues with most Whoniverse crossover attempts in the Loops.
3577542
Fox has a habit of that.
The reason I've stuck more to shorter, snappier and less in-depth ficlets is because it allows for exploration of more ideas, relatively speaking...
3586628
That is indeed what is being referenced; however, basic incompatibilities in the way "time" works between the settings make actually combining them all but impossible.
3587493
Basically, because time travel in the Whoniverse doesn't work with the Loops - it's too easy to get caught in a completely incomprehensible snarl.
3587952
There's a link to the SpaceBattles thread in the description. I would prefer that loops go there for checking, though they can also be sent to me via other means. I'm just far more likely to notice them in the SB.com thread.
3591751
Sadly, since Fausticorn is basically a real person ponified, I'm far too nervous to try. It's hard enough to write for characters.
The exceptions, of course, are now necklaces.
wouldn't something so dark cause the entire room to get darker? I mean, it seem to have the ability to trap light... wait a moment! Her mane aura turns it into a black hole!
3869787 That would, again, cause the room to get darker in parts. I assume it simply absorbs any photons that hit it, and nothing else.
Berry managed to make a drink that made a dragon dazed? Wow, hats off Berry Punch. Remind me to make sure Trixie never gets her hands on that drink. I wonder how things would turn out in a loop where only Twilight and Discord are Awake and they start 1000 years ago and have to stop Luna and Celestia who aren't Awaken and are tyrants instead of stopping Discord for once? Discord could easily be Laughter, perhaps Loyalty and perhaps Kindness, and then Twilight for once is the one that goes nuts and is banished to the moon and Discord has to rule Equestria, it would be itneresting, no?
Yeah that was weird- though I wondered when season 4 would pop up.
And that explanation with the mane auras was pretty cool. I guess Applejack now grows potatoes
Well done. That's a brilliant way to ease into season 4.
I wonder how they will deal with Tirek.
3587875 In other words, a Timey Wimey Ball?
I know it's outside ratings, but I can't help but want to see the "Molestia" loops. How would a society whose highest ideal is "buck anything with a pulse* and even an iota of consent**" even function? It would be like a universe of Winningverse Cloud Kickers. It's an interesting thought experiment.
* pulse optional.
** consent also generally optional.
Did Luna ever make it to the Sailor Moon Dream Arc? With the Dead Moon Circus, Queen Nehelenia, Pegasus/Helios (who could pass for an Alicorn and be a potential love interest for either sister), and the issue of stealing beautiful dreams/the golden crystal so Nehelenia could stay young and beautiful forever?
On the one hoof, talk about porn and hentai and what have you I'm pretty sure it is above the story's "everyone" rating.
On the other hoof, I'm pretty sure anyone with the attention span to get this far into the story is at least a teenager anyway.
Also, nice work with season four
ZEUS YOU MOTHERF
ER
ouch, now i'm having a vision of Molestia ORGANIZING things, letting other ponies take turns molesting Twilight...nasty.
Applejack planting potatoes got me thinking about something I recently discovered. Seems the French word for potato and apple are more or less the same. Hundreds of years ago, potatoes and apples were both really bland. Years of selective breeding is what has gotten us the sweet-tasting apples we enjoy nowadays. Probably why crabapples are so sour actually.
here's a similar gag in a fan-comic:
https://www.deviantart.com/art/Hot-Stuff-Part-4-413162452
edit: drat, that comic is no longer available, so i'll describe it:
Spike got roped into judging a Chili contest.
after trying a bowl made by Pinkie Pie, he accidentally dropped an entire TREE on Celestia!
PS: the chili contained Liquid Rainbow...
Somehow I'm not surprised.
Thermite?
10791647
This has brought up a question I haven't thought about: is thermite counted as an explosive?
Like, legally or chemically...
And then there's different kinds of thermite...
11039647
Thermite doesn't explode (usually; it can occur with copper thermite, but rarely). To quote Wikipedia, "Most varieties are not explosive, but can create brief bursts of heat and high temperature in a small area."
Until next time...
Anon e Mouse Jr.
11039794
There are also certain circumstances where bog-standard thermite can induce an explosion while not itself exploding, such as in the presence of ice.
Exhibit A, from "Beyond The Press" Thermite and Ice, from Beyond The Press
Exhibit B, from Adam and Jamie Mythbusters: Thermite and Ice
Honestly, this being Trixie, I wouldn't put it past her to discover Thermite and immediately decide to improve it so it was like she wanted it to be...