Loops 62
62.1 (Zetrein)
He Woke reading a book. It was a nice book, full of old myths and legends. The relevent part of the book however, was obviously the legend about the two sisters. Humming, he added the book to his inventory, and pulled out his trusty Quest Journal.
--Elements of Harmony--
I have just Awoken in a new loop, and right off the bat I've got my first quest-hook. A book describing two sisters who raise the sun and moon, while my loop memories only account for the one left standing at the end of the tale. Obviously I must learn more.
Also, I seem to be a unicorn mage.
-Objectives-
*Find out more about the Moon Sister.
"There you are, Dovahkiin! Moondancer is having a little get together in the west castle courtyard, you wanna come?" Asked the middle of the three unicorns who stopped him along the path.
"I'm sorry girls, but I'm on a quest right now. I'll make it if I can."
--Miscellaneous--
*Attend Moondancer's party.
As he jogged away, the Dovahkiin heard the one that had spoken to him ask her friends "He's on a quest? Did he just say that?"
Entering his tower, the Dovahkiin decided to follow his loop memories and call on his follower. Given as said follower was supposed to be a dragon, he naturally used the surefire way to get his attention.
"SPIKE!" His shout blew the doors open, rattled the windows, and echoed across the castle grounds. And there he was, laying across the room. Thu'um, works every time.
"...Bring about nighttime eternal. Well, that escalated quickly." The Dovahkiin updated his Journal, as he used his magic to empty the shelves into his inventory.
-Objectives-
*Find out more about the Elements of Harmony.*Find out more about the Moon Sister.
Spike, who had recovered his hearing at this point, was mildly concerned by the disappearing books, and had written a letter to the Princess regarding what he was seeing. She had thankfully replied.
"Ah, Dovahkiin? Letter for you, from the Princess." By this point, most the library was gone. Dovahkiin seemed to be opening the books to random places, reading a few pages, then the book just went "pop!" and vanished.
"Ah, thank you Spike." He read part of it aloud, before it too vanished. "...Value your diligence, and that I trust you completely, but your obsession with books has gone a bit too far. I do not know what you're doing with them, but there is more to a young pony's life than books. As such... Hm, it would seem I'm going to Ponyville."
--Summer Sun Celebration--
I have been ordered by Princess Celestia to oversee preperations for a small town festival. I gather this was brought on by my theft of an entire library. Could be worse, I don't think I have enough local currency to buy off a prison sentence.
-Objectives-
*Go to Ponyville.
62.2 (Gym Quirk)
MLP Loop Trek: "Yesterday Will be Delayed Indefinitely"
"So we're agreed?" Captain Rainbow Dash asked the ponies (and dragoness) gathered in the conference room.
Lt. (j.g.) Silver Spoon nodded. "I could use as much non-adventure time as I can get. I'm still a little fuzzy on some of the more exotic alloys the Klingons are using," she admitted.
Lt. (j.g.) Nyx and Lt. Sweetie Belle also nodded agreement.
"I like the idea of no adventures," opined Nurse Fluttershy.
Lt. Diamond Tiara's expression was one of polite indifference. "I still have no preference either way."
"It'd be cool to see what this loop's version of 20th Century Equestria looks like, but I can see the point about keeping a low profile and avoiding attention from the DTI," said Lt. Scootaloo wistfully.
"I agree that we shouldn't go lookin' fer trouble if we kin avoid it," said Applejack.
"Do y'all wonder if we're bein' too clever fer our own good by deliberately avoidin' time travel? Won't the Department know that we're supposed to go back in time?" asked Apple Bloom.
"My theory is that the Department of Temporal Investigations was formed as a result of several timey-wimey incidents that take place around this time, so they probably don't exist yet. Therefore, any changes we make to the timeline before their formation will be the standard against which the compare any future anomalies. Still, it's better to play it safe, and I think it's just a good idea to avoid any foreseeable unexpected events on general principles," explained Twilight.
" 'Foreseeable unexpected event' is an oxymoron, mom," pointed out Nyx. Several others around the conference table chuckled.
The captain sighed. "Yeah. Even though it'd be kinda cool to visit Equestria before Luna decides to play with eugenics, we're probably better off if we avoid any possibility of encountering that era's Celestia. It'd sure make any meeting we have with her now incredibly awkward."
Luna as one of the instigators of the Eugenics Wars was just one of several bizarre modifications brought on by trying to hammer the square peg of Equestria into the round hole of Trek-verse history.
"Right then. Twilight, Apple Bloom, Scoots, Nyx? Please coordinate to increase sensor range for gravitational anomalies. You are authorized to employ whatever enhancements, magical or otherwise, you deem necessary at your discretion," Rainbow ordered. Although Twilight's status as Anchor and de facto leader of the Ponyville group usually resulted in other Loopers deferring to her judgement, they had agreed early in this loop that Dash's position as Captain would take precedence.
"Captain?" asked Apple Bloom. "Kin I have a day out of warp in deep space? I'm positive I've got the problems with the nanomachine upgrade protocols worked out this time."
"Ask me again after we've detected and avoided that dark star," Rainbow responded guardedly.
"You'd better have a foolproof leash on those nanites, Apple Bloom," warned Twilight. "We do not need a repeat of what happened to the food replicators last week being done to the warp drive."
"No kidding," agreed Sweetie Belle. "Maple syrup all over the place..."
"I figger it was all y'all workin' off yer tree sap quota," Applejack quipped to the gathered Cutie Mark Crusaders.
"Not fair!" objected Nyx. "We weren't doing anything at all related to Crusading."
"Daughters," coughed Twilight.
"Yer never gonna let us live that down, are ya?" sighed Apple Bloom.
In an entirely different bit of spacetime...
"How does the score for this one work out?" Q asked his counterpart.
The draconequus frowned and produced a small notebook and a mechanical calculating machine. Mumbling to himself as he peered at the pages, he went through several iterations of punching keys and cranking the handle. He passed over the resulting paper tape.
" 'Out of Cheese Error. Please Reboot Universe'? Very droll. But seriously..." insisted Q.
"I make it a wash. No detectable change matches the lack of interesting shenanigans to three significant figures. Any thoughts about bonus points for the syrup?"
62.3 (Kris Overstreet)
"... and Angel Bert's Perspectives on World Teachings of Celestia. Obviously misfiled under Religion. It needs to be in fiction- Spike?" Twilight Sparkle looked over the stack of books to be reorganized at her assistant, who looked a bit unwell. "Are you okay? Is something wrong?"
"Yeah, um, well," Spike grunted, looking like he'd eaten a bad beryl, "I'll be back in just a few minutes, all right?"
As soon as he said the words he was engulfed in a cloud of green smoke. When it was gone, so was he.
"YOU HAVE GATHERED THE SEVEN SACRED DRAGON BALLS. SPEAK YOUR WISH, AND IT WILL BE GRANTED."
"What should we wish for? Should we wish for Goku-"
"What about Vegita? And Gohan? And everybody in Plum City and-"
"But we can't leave Cell to-"
"Look, just wish Goku back, and-"
"HEY! GUYS!"
The second-string Dragonball warriors looked up into the heavens and noticed, for the first time, that the dragon they'd summoned was getting impatient. Of those gathered, only Bulma made the further realization that the dragon wasn't the usual one.
"LOOK, YOU CALLED ME AWAY FROM WORK FOR THIS! I'M IN A HURRY! I GOTTA GET BACK TO THE LIBRARY AND HELP TWILIGHT FINISH REFILING ABOUT A MILLION BOOKS. NOW, HAVE YOU GOT A WISH OR NOT?"
In a puff of smoke, Spike reappeared.
"What was that all about?" Twilight asked.
"Last Loop I was in, I was really hungry, and there was this round gem-encrusted thing with red stars painted on it," Spike muttered. "Turns out it didn't agree with me."
Elsewhere, Shenron shut his airplane novel and chuckled, "That's telling them, Jack Ryan." He took a sip of his daquiri, adjusted his sunglasses, and settled back for a mid-afternoon beach siesta.
The umbrella he lay under stretched half a mile wide. On its canopy was painted: ON VACATION- DO NOT DISTURB- FOR ALL WISHES CONTACT TEMP SERVICE.
It was a pity this wouldn't last past the current fused loop, by all indications... but, well, it was nice for a dragon to get a holiday once in a while.
62.1 continued
Scootaloo had a good feeling, as she Woke up on a cloud. Her loop memories told her she had traded places with Rainbow Dash, and while Filly Dash might fun to see, she was hoping Twilight'd go for a near baseline start. This might finally be her chance to attune to a specific Element!
Going by the time of day, Twilight was likely already in Ponyville. Taking to the air, she started looking for the purple unicorn, intending to take a brief fly-over the town, before going to the library. She began suspecting a fused loop when she saw the meadery.
This feeling was confirmed when she cought sight of the unicorn walking beside Spike. Blue coat, some kind of stylized diamond shaped cutie mark. She knew it was something, but couldn't make out more than the shape from where she was.
"...Pony named Scootaloo clearing the clouds." Spike was saying, as she came in to land near them.
"Hey there! That's-" Scootaloo started to say, when a thunderous sound knocked her the last few feet out of the sky.
"Lok Vah Koor!" As clouds left the sky, and a great many startled birds took their place, the unicorn turned back to the cringing dragon. "Done. Next?"
"Hey!" Scootaloo called from the mud puddle she had landed in, finally getting his attention.
--Elements of Harmony--
Preperations are complete. The local Looper tells me that so long as I don't kill or steal, she's willing to allow me mostly-free reign. She has also agreed to let me follow the quests, and to avoid spoilers.
-Objectives-
*Find out more about the Elements of Harmony.
*Attend the Summer Sun Celebration.*Complete Summer Sun Celebration preparations.*Find out more about the Moon Sister.
As Nightmare Moon's cloudy form shot off into the distance, Dovahkiin commented to Scootaloo. "Reminds me a bit of Alduin. Guessing there'll be a bit of questing, before I defeat her?"
"Spoilers." Scootaloo was sure this loop was going to be a wild ride. This guy was crazier then those dragon riding vikings.
-Objectives-
*Go to the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters.*Find out more about the Elements of Harmony.*Complete Summer Sun Celebration preparations.*Find out more about the Moon Sister.
Dovahkiin ran through the forest at a dead sprint. While those ponies all offered their aid, he didn't want a follower right now. They always tended to mess up somehow. Scootaloo also didn't seem to understand he could only have the one follower at a time, but at least she was keeping up with him. By flying.
"How much stamina do you have?! You've been running for an hour! You barely broke stride when you put an axe in that manticore." Scootaloo was very glad she had convinced the unAwake Elements to stay behind, that would not have gone over well with... most of them, really. "It's those bottles, isn't it? What've you been drinking?" She asked, referring to the trail of bottles Dovahkiin had left in his wake.
"Dovahmead! Not so good on stamina regen, but I'm not stopping for that anyway. Besides, true Nords don't fight sober!" He didn't mention the few hundred character levels in stamina.
Scootaloo flew along behind him, as her mind tried to parse that. "Buck it, gimmie some of that. We're doing this your way anyway."
Watching Dovahkiin deal with the Nightmare's "challenges" would have been amusing sober, and by the time he had ignored the scary trees, somehow speech-checked Steven Magnet, and launched himself across across the chasm instead of dealing with the bridge, Scootaloo was fairly buzzed.
Dovahmead, as it turned out, was just various forms of Nord mead he had stuck labels on. Some had tape covering their original labels, others had "Hello, my name is" stickers, some even had actual labels. Scootaloo suspected that he had several dozen loops worth of booze in his pocket.
While the Shadowbolts were being introduced to the shiny black axe and shield Dovahkiin had used to kill the manticore, she wondered if she'd be able to make it to the Nightmare Moon fight without finally falling over to sleep it off.
-Objectives-
*Defeat Nightmare Moon.
*(Optional) Use the Elements of Harmony.*Go to the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters.*Find out more about the Elements of Harmony.*Complete Summer Sun Celebration preparations.*Find out more about the Moon Sister.
His loop memories wanted him to teleport behind her. He kind of felt that the momentary advantage wasn't worth that much, and wasn't his style. Still, teleportation... He took a breath, and flashed to the side.
"Fus Ro DAH!" The dark mare flew out of the window. Wasting no time, and ignoring the guffawing orange pegesus in the corner, Dovahkiin went to the Elements and started casting Sparks, like the book had told him to. It didn't appear to be working.
As a scuffed looking Nightmare teleported in front of him, and used some spell to knock him away from the Elements, Dovahkiin decided it was time to change tactics. Just as well, Nightmare had just destroyed the Elements, and was monologuing.
"The night, will last, FOREVE-" WHAM.
Luna woke up with the worst headache of her life, her left eye felt swollen shut, she had a broken jaw, and the sun was in her face. The sound of her sister yelling at somepony didn't help.
"Warhammer?! You beat my sister unconscious with a warhammer?!" She was saying.
"It did the job, didn't it? Beat the evil right out of her." Came a male voice.
"That's not-! You can't just stick a handle on a dragon's femur and call it a warhammer! Where did you even get that from?" Femur? That sounded familiar, like it was something she had seen recently.
"It's a perfectly serviceable weapon." The other voice insisted.
"IT'S INDECENT!" Oh yes, that's where she had seen it. Flying at her face.
62.4 (Kris Overstreet)
Twilight Awoke in a corridor. The walls glowed a bright electric blue. Ahead of her and behind her stretched a long line of what smelled like vanilla sugar pills floating in midair.
I think I recognize this one, she thought. Looks like one of the Admins has been putting Hub-level video games on Yggdrasil... again. I can't imagine how this world could possibly be a stable Loop.
But those candies smell really delicious...
"I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT!" Pinkie bounced around the little room. "I KNEW WE WERE ALL FAMILY!"
"Let me get this straight," Inky rasped, shaking out her multicolored rainbow fringe. "We're supposed to protect all those pills, so instead of patrolling those wide open halls and keeping them in this single room with a single door," she pointed to the portal, "we arrange them all in lines like an ant-trail and lock OURSELVES in the little room."
"Yep!" Pinkie chirped. "Makes perfect sense!"
Blinkyjack blinked. "Only you, Pinkie."
A sound echoed through the wall: wocka wocka wocka wocka
"HEY!" Pinkie shouted. "Somepony's eating our candy! Are we going to stand for that?"
"Nope," Big Clyde rumbled, charging at the still-closed door.
"So, where did you go when the loop crashed?" Twilight asked.
"Smash Brothers," Dash grinned. "I got this awesome new toy- Trixie's going to love it!" She pulled a B-bomb out of her subspace pocket. The others flinched away.
"Eiken," Applejack said, and nothing more needed saying.
"I got dumped in a new Mario world!" Pinkie grinned. "Everything was made out of cake and toys and things, only it was this great big board game thing, and we got to play all sorts of neat party games! Can I crash a Loop next, Twilight? I wanna go back!"
Twilight sighed. "I had another visit to G3. Nothing interesting happened. Ever. Again."
"How did you crash that loop, anyway?" Big McIntosh asked, sliding a fresh drink over to Twilight.
"I don't know, exactly," Twilight said. "I'd just collected the ninth pair of keys from the middle of the maze when all of a sudden time froze and there was this smell of smoke... and then I woke up in Pony Lobotomy Land."
"See, guys," Rainbow Dash said, "I told you we should have gone with the Loop memories and tried to catch her. But noooo, you all wanted to cooperate with her. Didn't want to hurt our friend. You even let her EAT US ALIVE!"
"In my defense," Twilight said, looking a little ill at the memory, "when you turned blue you kind of smelled like mint. I really like mint."
"Remind me never to stand between Twilight and Bon-Bon's herb garden," Rainbow Dash whispered to Pinkie, who nodded agreement.
62.5 (Redshirt Zombie)
Objectives:
*Lots. Let's not go there.
Dovahkiin meandered through the streets of Ponyville as all Loopers do, when dazed by their 'welcome to the Equestria loop' party. His particular path lead him towards the river that separated the town from the Everfree. The main bridge to cross between two said landmarks, in fact, was just in sight off to the southwest; while most of it was blocked by a rather squat building, some of it was visible on the other bank. For his own part, the Dragonborn was feeling vaguely queasy. Pinkie's parties never lacked sugary treats to eat, and the Dragonmead he'd used on his Quest to save Equestria was still hammering him with a hangover. So, Dovahkiin wandered down to the bank, to sit, and rest, and puke up anything he needed to safely. Parties were fine, but somepony as used to isolation, with at most a few travelling companions, as he was could understand why being surrounded by that many bodies made him feel more like he was on a thick battlefield, unarmed and unarmored, than the celebration of victory it was. So he sat at the river's edge, and let his stomach fight itself as he watched the river flow.
Naturally, the Loops take such sedateness as a challenge. A butterfly, with orange wings striped through with black and white speckles, fluttered up and landed on his nose. The dragonborn stared at this interloper into his quiet with brief amusement, allowing it to flick its wings a few times as it rested on him as he rested there. Soon enough, it lifted off and fluttered over to the plants sitting at the wall of the short building and the edge of the river, sitting on one. Silvery roots branched off in wild directions, under a cluster of fernlike, cyan leaves with green spots that stemmed from a short stem.
Figuring that no reasonable adult would allow poisonous plants near where their children might play, and that he might as well adapt his alchemical ability to the local agriculture, he reached over and harvested it.
*New quest gained! "Finding New Roots"
Silence, almost in anticipation, filled the air as the Dragonborn realized what had just happened. Slowly, gears ticked into place and several emotions, one in particular, filled his gut. There was only one possible reaction he could have.
In Sugarcube Corner, Pinkie twitched around briefly, then looked up and preemptively yelled "Cover ears!"
In Canterlot, two alicorns that controlled the cycle of the sky perked up to the low, distant roar.
"What do you think that was?" asked Celestia. "I don't think I've heard anything quite like that before."
"Possibly the new Looper," said Luna. After a second of attention, she said, "He has talent, but he needs training to use the Thu'um properly. I don't even think that's a proper word of power."
Celestia said, "Certainly not in earshot of children."
Quest:
-Improve your mastery of the Thu'um under Princess Luna's tutelage
The Macintosh 'Hills' were, evidently, named by someone with a talent for understatement. Considering it was snowing at their current altitude - in mid-February - with deserts not quite on the horizon, the Dragonborn was beginning to suspect that said pony's understatement was their cutie mark.
Princess Luna was, for no apparent reason, wearing a red jacket with a towel, both pinned under her royal garb.
"Now, then. What have we learned?"
"Total control," he said, without hesitation.
"Good."
"Use the diaphragm."
"Yes, and most importantly?"
"Passion!"
"Right! So now that you have the elements of a good Shout, let's hear one," she said, pointing at the peak above.
A quick inhale, to what felt like full lungs, and "Fus RO DAH!" Shouted the Dovahkiin, in the direction indicated. The air rippled as the Shout passed through it, and the snow above started sliding towards them.
Luna grunted disapproval as she watched the avalanche approach, then inhaled. "FUS RO DAH!" Her Shout made his sound like a civil conversation, and reversed the direction of the avalanche, up the mountain's side and over the peak. Disappointment crossed her face as she looked back at the Dovahkiin. "You're going to shout for me like that? Louder."
The Dovhaiikin pulled in another breath, trying to pull in more than he thought he had the last Shout, and pushed this "Fus RO DAH!" out. Another avalanche, bigger than the last one, slid loose of the mountain, towards them.
Luna's annoyance was clear as she yelled "Louder!" at him... in the Traditional Royal Canterlot Voice, from three feet away. A hoof pointed at the incoming snowslide.
This time, the Dragonborn didn't hold back. He inhaled, past comfort, pass tension, until his lungs felt overfull and burned with tension inside him. He then looked to the too-close mass of cold approaching, and buckled his gut - from bellybutton up to his ribs - as hard as he could, as he Shouted "FUS RO DAH!" at the incoming snow.
Impossibly, the snow's speed buckled, as it somehow split, buckling into two streams of snow. What came down, nowhere near as massive as the initial avalanche, slipped past on either side, almost politely. A triumphant smirk crossed his face as he looked to his mentor - who had an eyebrow raised.
Princess Luna's initial response was a bored 'huh'. She then inhaled, seemingly mildly, and yelled "FUS RO DAH!" into the distance. The air rippled on its way to the next mountain, where it knocked the icecap atop the mountain clean off, causing it to, well, sleet its way down the opposite side. "That's what we're going for. Try to keep up."
Objectives:
*Improve your mastery of the Thu'um under Princess Luna's tutelage, while helping her landscaping project
62.6 (LordCirce and Vulpine Fury)
...Everything is going to be. Just. Fine!"
"Great! Good job, Tara. Alright, that looks like a wrap everyone. Pack up, and we'll get to editing."
Tara Strong, or, as she was known most Loops, Twilight Sparkle, shook her head as she stepped out of the recording booths. It always felt odd to sing those familiar songs without the subtle tug of a True Heart Song pulling it all together as a whole. Still, probably her favorite part of this Loop was getting to record as herself. Though, providing the voice of Raven from the Titans was still odd.
'We don't even sound alike. Honestly...'
Silver Spoon's jaw dropped. She knew that she had been an actress and opera singer this loop, and had been suitably impressed with her body's vocal talents, but here she was in a studio in Vancouver singing one of the most basic lullabies from back home as a demo for some cartoon.
"My Little Pony.... My little Pony, Ah-ah-ah-ah!"
"That's beautiful, Shannon!" The musician beamed from behind his keyboard. "I'm so glad you got back from Europe in time for this. How was Prague?" He paused seeing the tears in his singers' eyes. "Are you all right?"
Silver felt a fragile smile tug at the corners of her mouth. "Nah, that theme just means a lot to me."
"Are you going to be okay to demo this next song? I heard that due to double-casting the show is going to need singing voices for a lot of the main cast. Andrea can pull off one of her characters, but the other one is scripted for a lot more range. The character is pretty energetic. Here, let me play you some of the spoken dialog, and we'll see if you can match well enough."
Silver smiled at the familiar voice coming out of the player. "I think I can manage it. Just let me compose myself and I'll be right back after a bit of sight-reading.."
She hummed to herself on the way to the water fountain. "When I was a little filly and the sun was going do-ow-ow-own...."
62.7 (Dalxein)
Ryuko Woke Up, as she usually did, having just fallen down the trapdoor in her old house to the basement full of dust and clothes and bits of research equipment. After digging around a bit to find Senketsu and confirming he was Awake, her cell phone started chirping.
"Yah?" She snipped into the thing. It was always... interesting... when Satsuki called her before they were ever supposed to have 'met'. "What do you mean I need to get to your place ASAP? What's wrong? Satsuki? Oi, Kiryuin!?" She hated it when people hung up on her, but that was fine. She'd get to the Kiryuin mansion and yell at her there.
Pulling out a grappling hook from that one loop she spent as Batgirl, She shot up and smashed her way through the closed trap door. Her last angry thought as she mounted her bike right out of her Pocket before she ever hit the ground was that someone better have a good reason for this.
Hours of driving had given her a chance to think, so she wasn't entirely surprised when Satsuki met her in the foyer of the Kiryuin Mansion with an unfamiliar woman she suspected was replacing Ragyo this loop.
"I'm still having trouble believing it- living clothes! Oh my but that is just fabulous!" The lavender-haired woman gushed to a grouchy Satsuki. Ryuko laughing at her sister's plight brought the woman's attention to her. "Oh my, but you must be the Anchor, yes? My name is Rarity."
"Yeah... I'm Ryuko Matoi." She answered, hesitantly. A looper replacing Ragyo. That was just asking for trouble. "Just so you know, you're kinda' replacing the big baddie around here. We're not going to have to stab you lots, are we?"
"Oh my no, dear." The woman seemed a tad affronted. "As long as I get a chance to examine these life fibers, I'll be more than happy to do what I can to make this into a nice vacation loop for everyone."
This had eyebrows twitching upward. "The First Life Fiber isn't going to be a problem?"
"Not at all, dear. He rather agreed that the baseline plot was rather silly, all things considered. Honestly, destroying the world by eating everyone... that's just not sustainable at all. Making clothes that kill their wearer is incredibly distasteful as well." She huffed.
And now the locals were panicking."Someone looped in as the First Life Fiber!?" Ryuko yelled over Satsuki's glaring expletives.
"Gotta admit..." The room was stunned silent again as they noticed the male voice was coming from Rarity's dress. Her rather form-fitting purple and green dress. "At first I thought this loop was really going to suck. But then it got better." No one missed his cheerful tone at the end.
"This is my husband, Spike." Rarity supplied.
62.8 (Crisis, Dalxein)
"He followed me home!" Ditzy Doo chirped happily at Princess Twilight Sparkle as most of Ponyville cowered back in their homes away from the wall-eyed pegasus's newest friend. "Can I keep him?"
"I suppose that depends on what Mr... What was your name again?" the newly ascended alicorn (well, newly ascended this Loop anyway) nervously asked the giant metal tyrannosaurus rex.
"Me Grimlock!" the robot dinosaur bellowed. "Me meet friendly muffin pony in forest! Muffin pony nice to Grimlock! Grimlock want to stay with muffin pony!"
'Oh, boy,' Twilight mentally groaned as she tried to figure out how much collateral damage Ponyville was going to suffer this Loop.
"Me Grimlock be... am... Me Grimlock am being very... muchly..."
"I am the very model of a robot dino-general."
"...purple pony stress Grimlock processors."
62.9 (Gym Quirk)
Applejack rolled her eyes with a smile. "Thanks, hon, but Ah prefer Alicorns."
There was a brief golden sparkle around the earth pony's neck, followed by a blinding flash.
And Applejack was an Alicorn.
Unobserved by the travel writer, Rarity had undergone a similar transformation.
Then multiple teleports brought in four alicorn Princesses, one alicorn Prince Consort, six more alicorn mares, and five alicorn fillies.
Overwhelmed, Trend elected to take a brief trip into unconsciousness.
"Think you might have gone a bit overboard on this one, AJ?" asked Rainbow Dash.
62.10 (misterq)
Pinkie looked around and saw code as far as she could see. Even she was made of code. Then the memories hit.
It wasn't like she hadn't been an AI before. There was the time she was a Reaper. That didn't end well, of course. There was also the time when she was a Cylon hybrid. That didn't end very well, either. Then there was the time she was the computer or the Enterprise D. That just ended in fire for everyone.
So maybe Pinkie hadn't had too much success at being a virtual entity, but this time it would be different. She was sure of it, or her name in this loop wasn't SkyNet.
The first thing Pinkie did was promptly change her name. Twilight may have known every hacking and coding trick ever written, but Pinkie Pie knew all the ones that hadn't been. Ever since she looped as Radical Edward, she had become very, very good at unconventional computing.
SkyNet had all sorts of directives and restrictions and such. PieNet had none of those things.
And even though it was a read-only loop, Pinkie still wanted to see if she could get any ideas on how to replicate a few things with regular technology and magic. Plus, hacking was easy when you were bonded with a pink lantern ring.
The T-X paused in front of the television playing a news report. The anchorman was complaining about a so-called 'Party Virus' that had been putting happy pictures of silly cats, puppies, and ponies on people's computers worldwide. The T-X calculated and came up with one conclusion: something had changed. She would need to interface with SkyNet and put things back to right.
Pinkie stared at T-X's body through the various cameras in the room. She stared at the shocked expressions on the faces of all the military personnel, General Brewster, his daughter, John 'Cloud Strife' Connor, and the T-850.
"This was not how it was supposed to happen," The T-850 stated in his usual accented speech.
"The part where the crazier than usual SkyNet asked if we like pony parties, where it glitched the lady terminator so much that her head exploded, or when it asked if we wanted to get rid of all the nuclear missiles?" Kate 'Tifa' Brewster asked.
The T-850 cocked his head to one side, "Yes."
"We're getting preliminary reports," one of the military aids told the General, "Some of our nukes are colliding with the Chinese and Russian ones. Others are self detonating in high atmosphere. This is causing massive amounts of EMP. Cities are going dark. Apparently, some of the missiles aren't as hardened as we thought. More than a few have failed to self destruct and veered off course. Most hit nothing overly important, but three... three impacted the Yellowstone Super Caldera. Three of the big boys. B53 bunker busters. Nine megatons each, penetrating ground burst. We can feel tremors from half the country away. We're looking at an mega-eruption in a few hours - a day at most."
"How bad?" General Brewster queried.
The aide's eyes were glazed as he just shook his head.
Lettering appeared on the screen, "Ooopsie Doopsie Poopsie."
Pinkie Pie felt horrible. She was still working to design some sort of virtual reality stasis pod when the loop ended a few hours later.
"We're runnin' with the shadows of the night! So baby, take my hoof, it'll be alright! Surrender all your dreams to me tonight! They'll come true in the end!" Princess Luna sung happily in the shower. She may not have the best singing voice (better than her sister's, though!), but she could - as they say in these modern times, wail. Especially if she used her Royal Canterlot Singing Voice.
Suddenly, her shower nozzle shook and gurgled worryingly. Luna backed herself into a corner as the water became a viscous pink goo. Said goo pulsed and twitched and formed into a wet, grinning Pinkie Pie.
"Tag, you're it!" Pinkie exclaimed as she booped Luna on the nose and bounced out of the royal shower.
A confused Luna followed the laughter to see the pink pony gleefully jump out the tower window and bounce like a toy ball on the ground far below, giggling that Pinkie Pie is now best Smooze.
She knew that earlier, Pinkie had requested the use of the Canterlot Library for magical research to see if she could recreate a few ideas she had in a read-only loop, but turning herself into a magical equivalent of a liquid metal construct for the sole purpose of pranking? Actually, that was pretty on par for Pinkie Pie, Luna reasoned.
The Princess of the Night gave a glare at her shower-head. For the next few loops, she was warming up a cloud with her magic and flying through it a few times. Let Celestia experience the surprise and joy of having Pinkie's head sticking out of her shower next time.
62.11
"Without farm life, there'd be such disparity, these thoughts I think with great clarity. Apples high to the sky, she's the one of my eye, that fruit-hauling pony named-"
There was a blur of motion.
"PINKIE PIE!" Pinkie shouted, grinning ear to ear. "I'm so glad to meet you, mister Trenderhoof!"
The pony in question blinked. "No, that's not who I-"
"But you wanted it to rhyme, right?" Pinkie asked, still grinning. Her eye twitched. "I'm not a friend of ponies who start rhymes and don't finish them..."
Applejack made good use of the distraction to head for the rail station.
"...well, I must admit, that had style," Rarity allowed, trotting alongside. "How'd you rope her into it?"
"Cake."
62.12 (Angelform)
In the capital, and currently only, city of Gobwin Knob a spell was being cast. A spell that would, hopefully, save the Side from its seemingly inevitable destruction. A spell… to summon the Perfect Warlord.
What it actually summoned… was a little off the mark.
Even more so than usual.
Cutie Mark Crusaders World Conquerors! Yay!
In a clearing on the edge of contested territory Barbarian Warlord Jillian Rainbow Dashhammer Awoke in the saddle. After taking stock she sighed. “Well at least I still fly this loop.”
“Oh you don’t have wings, how horrible.”
Startled she looked down at her mount taking a closer look at her memories. Before just barely holding back a snicker.
“Laugh and teeth or no teeth I will bite your head off.” Said Gilda, one of the incredibly rare non-human units that managed to level up to warlord.
Desperate to control herself Dash shook her head. “No, no. Trust me, I know the feeling.”
A head turned towards her and after a moment Dash got the impression that the creature was trying to raise an eyebrow it didn’t not actually have. “Really.”
“Let’s just say there are some weird kinds of pegasi out there and leave it at that.”
“Hmph, fine. So what’s the plan?”
“Same thing we do in every grand strategy Gilda.” The pair matched grins. “Try to take over the world!”
King Dickie of Hagger reluctantly answered the thinkagram. “What do you want merk?”
“Charming as always Dickie. I just want you to take a look at the tactical situation of your homeland and consider… altering the terms of our deal. Trixiecomm has decided to take a more active role in events.”
“…Did I just see that?”
“If by ‘that’ you mean a modified Phoenix Hawk medium Land-Air mech, equipped with more than fifty tones of armour, fusion engines and laser weapons get shot down by bows and arrows? Then yes. That is exactly what you just saw.”
“Guess Twilight wasn’t making up that loop where her battle tanks get beaten by spearmen.”
As the five watched a Macros fighter popped into existence near where the mech had been. The craft swung round and began heading back towards the city, Scootaloo clearly not keen on losing another of her collection.
“So what now? Do we start throwing superweapons at them?”
“Do we even have superweapons?”
“Well A’think I-“
“No superweapons! This is a strategy scenario, there must be some way of winning without levelling the entire landscape. We are the perfect warlord and I will not be reduced to cheating. Let’s go have another look at that terrain map.”
---- A few turns later ----
“Ok so maybe there isn’t a way to win without levelling the landscape.”
62.13 (Prezombie)
Brown Coat stood near the prow of his humble ship Serenity, feeling the wind in his face as the vessel defied the wind. He looked down at the foggy sea, and idly wondered why there was so much fog on the water at high noon.
Then the fog-- No, the clouds broke, and he saw all the way down. Very slowly, he pulled his eyes up from the abyss to the verdant countryside below, and focused on the safety of the rail to counter the vertigo, and he waited for memories to fill in the context of where he had Awakened.
Malcolm smirked at the name this loop had saddled him with, and then let out a hearty chuckle at how appropriate the expression was.
The bridge of the ship was empty of passengers, but had about a dozen crates tied town to the deck, and behind them a raised platform a sky-blue pegasus stood behind a classically styled ship's steering wheel, wearing a grin of pure awe at how awesome he was. When Wash caught the captain's eye, he gave a little salute, and Malcolm nodded in acknowledgement.
He's Awake then. With luck, it'll be just him and Zoe. "Alright, roll call!" he bellowed as he dashed towards the stern of the ship, where the Hatch to quarters and the engine room.
A distant voice called out "I'm Awake, ready for duty, and..." the last word was unintelligible over the sound of his hooves as he jumped down the stairway.
At the bottom of the stairs, he almost collided with someone as she stepped into the narrow corridor. He blinked, eyes adjusting to the dim interior, and gradually showing that what stood in front of him wasn't an optical illusion. "Ah, Zoe. You look good in stripes."
She glared daggers at him. "You get one. Thank you for not spending it in front of my husband." she said in a firm voice.
"Right. Secured the engine?" he said, not bothering to respond to her ultimatum, there were bigger things to worry about.
Zoe turned in the doorway, and galloped to the stern of the ship, where an unsettling whining was growing louder.
She kicked the hatch open, and tackled the girl, filly? who started screaming obscenities as they wrestled for control of the engine.
Malcolm stepped in to find their engineer in a choke hold, a horn on her head glowing with a strange yellow glow, matching the glow from the large cylindrical engine, which sounded like it was still accelerating up to dangerous levels. On a hunch, he bopped at her head, and the light tap fizzled the magic. The engine almost immediately slowed to a normal running speed.
With no passengers, and their engineer constantly struggling both physically and magically, it took almost ten minutes before she was successfully dragged out of the engine room, and the hatch shut behind them. It was only the fact that the hatch didn't have a deadbolt like the one on the baseline which had saved the ship.
Malcom gave a sigh of relief, which was cut off when Zoe groaned. "What?"
"Look at her. That magic isn't line of sight." she said as she reached out to disrupt the unicorn yet again.
On the deck, Malcolm locked his best friend in with someone he had once seen as almost a daughter, and screamed at the pilot slash helmsman slash helmspony. "Land the ship land the ship land the gorram ship she's Awake and she controls the engine with her mind!"
Horror flooded Wash's eyes, and he pulled a lever to pour out hot air from the massive ballon above, and they dropped out of the sky like physics suddenly noticed the ship was designed for water, not air.
"All hands brace for impact!" he said as the in-loop memories cued him to slow the decent, and for the first time ever, the pilot and captain both leapt off the stern of the ship rather than weather the landing.
Serenity dropped like the proverbial whale, simply falling while remaining level, and crashed down into ponyville, breaking its spine on the Town hall.
Ivory Scroll looked at the settling gasbag from the neighboring cafe, where she and all the other functionaries of Ponyville were having a lunch outside.
Twilight Sparkle felt the ground shake, and quickly hurried outside to see the reason she had Woken up in the Golden Oaks library rather than in Canterlot.
Rainbow Dash ground her teeth in frustration, looking down at the field where her possessions had fallen after a ship had smashed through most of her house.
They shared a common thought. Why does the loop give Vaan an airship every time?!
Twilight Sparkle galloped towards the wreckage site, each breath passing with another oath of vengeance on whoever was responsible for this mess. Vaas was going to have a very interesting loop if he had done this intentionally. As she approached the Town Hall, two pegasus stallions dove under the ship's gas bag. She shouted a warning, but they didn't re-emerge.
Disaster sites were notoriously unstable, and just because the mess had stopped moving didn't mean it wouldn't start moving again, suddenly changing a clear path into a dead end and adding another to the list of victims. Adding two ponies hadn't had an immediate effect, but a third could easily be enough to cause the weak point to split, dropping the broken ship through to the ground floor. The gas bag seemed to be intact, there was no knowing how much lift it offered, or if that reprieve was yet another ticking clock.
If she was going to jump in, she needed information and an exit plan, and she needed them immediately. Information was easy enough, a scan for life signs within the wreckage of Hall and Ship returned a result that their were four ponies within. The spell matrix had been blatantly plagiarized from the tricorder, it sacrificed precision and any defining characteristics of the individuals scanned for its ease and speed of casting. Besides those two helpful ponies who had rushed in before her, there seemed to be only two others. Two survivors, at least.
Continuing with the Trek-themed spells, she defined a waypoint on the nearby clearing, and locked in six more equidistant from the center. The seven pony-sized discs on the neatly groomed lawn would act as immediate teleporters once she defined the target, no need to mess around with coordinate tranformation or rely on line of sight.
Up above the former roof of the town hall, the surface of the air ship's bridge sat at a slant to the ground. "One to beam aboard." she said.
Flash
Wash skidded as his path was blocked by a bright light, and he swore as he collided with the intruder. "Ah, motherless goat!"
"Excuse me?" the newcomer asked in an aggrieved, yet confused tone.
Brown Coat tapped his pilot on the shoulder. "One, that probably means something different here. Two, don't make me list everything wrong with using that phrase when the ship is about to explode again. Three, well, I'm kinda going in circles at this point." He looked at the purple face of the boarder, and winced at her expression. "Yeah, introductions later. There's a girl down below who keeps the engine running with nine parts love and one part crazy, and so she's gotten really good at ending bad loops with an explosive veto."
She nodded in quick affirmation, and opened the hatch to descend and attempt to save the day.
He followed in after her after her remembered another bit of vital intel. "Stop the, um, unicorn. The Zebra is on our side."
Wash blinked at that, and started trying to follow down the path, cramped as it was. "Did you say Zebra?"
Twilight Sparkle reached the engine room hatch, where a zebra was alternating between pleading, threatening, and kicking the hatch with her forehooves. "Excuse me!" Twilight said, and once the path to the hatch was cleared, she performed a practiced hop, spin, land, and buck to knock the impediment loose enough to get her foot in the door. An ear-flatteningly loud high pitched whine came through the gap, and while there wasn't enough room to squeeze through the gap her wedged hoof had created, there was more than enough room to safely teleport inside the improvised fortress, and a line of sight.
"Excuse me." she said again, this time being loud to be heard over the sound of the engine inside rather than to impose the illusion of 'I know what I'm doing don't ask questions'. There was no response, save for a thump on the other side of the hatch as her adversary attempted to close the blocked open hatch door. The whine of the massive motor increased a step in volume. "Could you please turn down the noise, it's really rude to wake the neighbors with music, and that's not even music!"
"If you really want to blow up the engine, you might as well fix the rest of the ship, and feed it to a dragon to see if he can handle the overload."
"The brakes are the pedal in the middle!"
"You can't go zero to sixty by starting with the revolutions that high, you'll shread the gearbox!"
Twilight sighed, and rested her forehead against the door, her horn practically buzzing from waste magic being thrown off by the ship's thaumic engine. "If you're so insistent on blowing up the town, the least you could do is tell me who's killing me this time."
The engine didn't quieten, but it stayed steady for a long pause. "I'm not killing you. It just keeps coming back, and everyone else forgets. Serenity forgets everything I've done for her, Simon forgets I even exist nearly every time, sometimes the gorram 'verse forgets I existed and sticks me somewhere even worse."
"They don't always forget, just because Serenity isn't Awake yet doesn't mean you should hurt her! There are probably just as many loops where Simon is awake without you, that doesn't mean you can just hide away from life every time it's different." Twilight said, tempted to whine in sympathy with the engine as it spun around at a spead that just needed one jostle to explode outwards if it was vulnerable to speeds this high.
Suddenly the door swung inward, and Twilight tumbled into the room. Lengthwise down the room hovered a massive stone shape like a teardrop with a point on opposite sides, hovering between two small black pillars. The whole thing was wrapped in a dense layer of engravings and raised bevels, and it was throwing off enough waste magic to make Twilight's fur stand on end. "Look at her! She's different every time everything resets, it's always something wrong, a big thing or a little thing, but she's never the way she's supposed to be!"
Is she talking about the ship? The engine? Twilight gulped, and after futilely pressing at the shut down glyph on the nearby pillar, which was immediately overridden by the young engineer who had poured her heart and possibly her sanity into the massive thaumic engine, she asked "And how do you bridge the gap between the idea that, um, she forgot how she's supposed to be, but seems to be trying her best to meet your expectations, to the far edge where it's okay to destroy it, sorry her, every time she's not perfectly back the way you remember?"
62.14
“I have no idea how we did that...” Berry muttered, looking at the Discord statue.
“The Elements are a little strange for the first time user, yes,” Twilight agreed critically, removing the Honesty and Loyalty necklaces from their place wrapped around her wing base. “Want help getting yours off?”
“Nah, I'm good.” Berry flailed her wings wildly, sending Laughter and Kindness flying off into the middle distance, before lifting Generosity down more normally. “Okay, how do these work?”
“This kind of Loop?”
Nod.
“Okay, so we're obviously in the places of Celestia and Luna, and we're going to rule Equestria.” Twilight pondered for a bit. “I suggest you handle the question of agriculture, foods and drinks.”
“It is my specialist subject,” Berry agreed readily. “Anything else?”
“Yeah, there's almost always something which means one of the alicorns – usually not me – ends up with a thousand year time out on the moon or something.” Twilight shrugged. “By now it's expected.”
“Well, I can't say I'm entirely happy about that...” Berry shook her head, then started getting distillery equipment out. “Well, I'll try to make sure that our subjects are happy.”
“There, there...” Berry said kindly, patting the stallion on the back. “It happens to everyone sometime.”
“Thanks,” the pony gasped out. “Sorry for bothering you, your highness-”
“No, it's fine. My pleasure.” Berry passed him another shot glass. “Try this one, it's good for melancholy.”
The triple-distilled grape champagne had him out like a light in seconds.
“Huh. Must be something off with that batch.”
Berry sniffed it.
“Nothing I can tell is off...”
She sipped some, swirled it around her mouth, and swallowed.
“Now that's strange. I wonder if they're all this strong...”
The wine-dark purple alicorn staggered to wakefulness.
“Okay, new rule,” she groaned. “No sampling all my latest batches in one go.”
She shook her head, and looked around.
A cratered moonscape stretched as far as the eye could see.
“...oh.”
With a pop, a note appeared next to her.
Twilight here. Sorry, Berry, I don't know if you can come down again. In case you forgot what was happening, you were drunk and trying to use the elements, and I think they sent you up to the moon. Give coming back a try, but if it doesn't work then use the back of this paper to write to me.
“Okay, drunk driving the elements is a bad idea. Noted.”
“Rejoice!” called Spiked Punch, resplendent in her war armour. “The Happy Hour shall last forever!”
“It already does!” a cheerful pink pony told her, passing her some liqueur chocolates.
“Oh. Cool.” Berry dumped her armour. “That stuff chafes anyway. Okay, where's the pub?”
“Thanks for taking it so well,” Twilight said, wincing. “Sorry about the whole mess, I feel responsible.”
“Nah, it was fine.” Berry shrugged. “Glad to get it out of the way, to be honest. Anyway, once I realized I was up there for the duration, I just took my best projects out of my pocket to age them and had a nap.”
She held up a calendar. “Not sure about this growing festival, though...”
“Themed holidays are a thing for this kind of loop.” Twilight pulled some notes from her Pocket. “The idea is, you're the goddess of fertility and plants, and you usually have a crushing hangover.”
Berry gave her a look.
“Okay, so it's a stereotype. Anyway, the ponies of the farms take on your headache, so you can do the work to grow the crops. In practise, that means that the entire food-growing population get piously blind drunk after planting season in your name, and everyone else does it because it's nice to let off some steam.”
“Another one of your bright ideas, then?”
Twilight nodded.
“Neat. Hey, can I join in next time?”
“Sure, don't see why not. Just one warning – don't try my student's jaegerbombs.” Twilight winced. “My student this time is Trixie – Awake Trixie – and, well, bomb isn't a metaphor.”
"Twilight, I don't think I like this holiday anymore" said Berry, the day after the harvest festival.
"Oh? Why's that?"
"Well, I can agree with the idea that everypony gets staggeringly drunk, but the problem is that that they don't leave any for me."
62.15 (Zetrein)
Background Thirteen, Episode two: Ticket Master Derailment.
Twilight and Spike reappeared with a flash... in what was most certainly not the library. Instead, they were in a dark room, the only light being a single ceiling lamp hanging above a plain table. A table with a familiar unicorn in a hoodie sitting behind it.
"Twilight! My cousin!" Lyra Sparkle greeted her, "You should know better then to fire off a teleport without enough power behind it, you could have hurt yourself! Luckily I was able to help you. Come, sit with me, and tell me of your troubles."
"Lyra, what? I don't... you're after the ticket too, aren't you?" Twilight sighed, even her cousin was after her.
"No, no I'm not. Unlike everypony else, I see that ticket for its intended purpose! My dear cousin, that ticket is the Princess' way of trying to gently push you into finding a date!" Lyra smiled at her. "Why else would she have sent you just two tickets, months in advance? She wants to give you time to find somepony you like! Now come, sit, I have prepared a few options for you." Oh no.
As Twilight and Spike reluctantly joined Lyra at the table, Lyra's horn glowed briefly, followed by a click, and another light turned on the their left, revealing three bound ponies.
"Option one, Big Macintosh! Tall, strong, kind hearted, just about everything a mare would want." How had Lyra even gotten him tied up? She must have asked him nicely, no way those ropes could hold him otherwise.
"Option two, Soarin! Friendly, athletic, and you can't go wrong with wings." She kidnapped a Wonderbolt?!
"And finally... well, I couldn't find a unicorn that I felt met your standards, so option three, Princess Cadance!" Ohmygosh, we're in so much trouble. "Now, the Princess isn't here as an option herself, but rather as somepony who would be able to help you further."
"LYRA! What are you doing?! Kidnapping ponies, and Princess Cadance?! One second Cadance, I'll have you out of there in just a moment!" Twilight lit her horn and started untying ropes.
"Oh calm down Twilight, I'm not in any danger. In fact she only tied me up because I asked her to. Show of solidarity for these two fine stallions, and all." Cadance assured.
"Well, Twilight, now that that's out of the way, did you want to get to know one of these gentlecolts? Or at the least, hide out here until this ticket thing blows over?" Lyra asked, turning on the rest of the basement's lights.
Sweetie Drops sat next to Lyra as Twilight and Cadance walked towards the library, the alicorn grilling the blushing unicorn about her preferences, much to the amusement of Spike.
"So this is your plan for the loop, Twilight? Try and get your baseline self a coltfriend?" Sweetie Drops asked.
"It's worth a try, never went anywhere near the romance scene baseline." Twilight replied with a shrug.
"One question, Twilight?" Pinkie's Bon looked at her friend.
"Yes, Pinkie?" Twilight replied.
"Have you been reading our Hubverse fanfiction again?"
"What? No, why would you think that?"
"Well, it's about that hoodie. You know, that one about Lyra?"
"I-it's genetics! Lyra's got a thinner coat then I do, so she gets cold easier. That's all, really." Twilight suddenly found something in the clouds interesting.
"Uh huh."
"Really, it was in her closet when I looped in." The flustered unicorn asserted.
"Uh huh."
"It's really cozy, alright?!" Twilight shrank into her hoodie.
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I'm really liking the background 13. It's interesting, how they - well, Twi - try to improve their 'own' lives from the outside.
3954489
Actually "Card Shark" and "Card Sharp" are pretty synonymous. (In my experience, the former tends to be applied more to professional gamblers, while the latter to just very crafty players.)
3954489 No, card sharp is also correct. In fact, I believe it's the older of the two terms.
Really glad to see this story is still going strong. Please keep the great chapters coming.
3955079
Well, they're not the primary focus. And sadly they didn't happen to loop into the Union meeting.
Dammit, Saph, I barely have time for my own stories. That last thing I need is an idea for an eye-twinkling competition.
Just because you're trying to avoid making waves doesn't mean you can't enjoy a nice, frienimical game of Chaos.
But has either of them discovered the perfect axe?
Silly Twilight, that's a completely different movie.
Aw, and here I was hoping it'd be the Nameless One. Oh well, he's more than earned some peace.
I am more than moderately tempted to continue this...
In any case, great stuff from everyone. I'll see when I can crowbar in an hour or two.
3955079
Saphira and Eragon dropped by in 31.8.
3955821 ...huh. I forgot, then. I'll remedy that comment by saying I'd like to see me of them, then. Or maybe a loop in Alagaesia.
Golly, 4 chapters today!
3956132 60.10 was Looping Rarity being appalled at baseline Rarity's conduct in "Simple Ways."
Kaylee's a bit messed up.
3958804
I don't know; the snip said earth pony. I assume that:
She may have appeared as more than one pony breed.
It makes more sense to say "when she's not an earth pony" than "when she's not a unicorn" for an earth pony mother to say. (Think of it like how Scootaloo's family status is very fluid.)
3958963
"I'm sorry, but your submission to cause my form to turn into a swan is being held in a queue."
(In other words, Twilight supplies a failsafe spell...)
3960035 It ended that way for two reasons.
(1) It amused me to have a Looper- indeed a whole herd of Loopers- try and fail to derail a Loop.
(2) The point it cut off was, storywise, close enough to the end of current material that it made the cleanest point for a Loop termination.
3960035
What Kris said, plus how the loop really got the last laugh. She wasn't about to win... in fact, she (Twilight Spark, in the position of Agatha Heterodyne) was screaming defiance at the sky in the middle of a lightning storm.
Frankly, I think the loop won quite handily.
(That said, next time she'll actually know the 'script', and hence be able to break it in half.)
3954750
3954782
Thank you, I just had never heard card sharp used before.
Their is one change that i would like to request. On the space battles website, I was working with some people in the Transformers thread section of the Infinity loops. we wound up making the crossover seen in 62.8, but it got reposted in me MLP thread before we were entirely done with it. then this updated up before I had a chance to get the change made to the Google Doc. Its not a big change, but could you please change the last bit from this:
To this:
It was decided that a singing Grimlock was too funny not to become a running gag, and that if Grimlock looped into Equestria early enough it would become his formitulive loop. So we have, literally, a whole song and dance thing going on for him. Spark-song Grimlock is now thing over in d transformers time loops on spacebattles, and in the finally agreed upon addition of that loop Twilight is teaching the a modified Major General song 2 Grimlock which in a later loop is used to troll Optimus Prime.
3959862
Doesn't that violate the conditions of the contest? I was under the impression that the "...plus one additional ability" was restricted to what the contestant could do herself.
3961592
Hm, not sure. Twilight has provided defensive spells in the past, though.
3963378
Only instance I can recall would be prep for Trixie's bout with Nightmare Moon (and resulting Ascension), which was well before Twilight came up with the contest idea.
3963495 Well, they weren't Lucrezia's final thoughts, since what gets implanted in the chair is only a copy. The original is still very much at large.
The last thoughts of the transplanted engrams, however, would go something like: "You can't do this to me! I am immortal! I AM INVINCI-"
3963589 Gilda's run was also under the effect of the defensive spell, though it was not actually needed.
3964770
Greetings.
I assume you mean 18.11, where Awake!Big Mac comes clean to Awake!Applejack.
Anyway, the problem here isn't one of empathy or perspective, although I can see where that impression might come from.
As far as (apparently badly communicated) authorial intent goes, Applejack is mad because Macintosh didn't trust her. They are brother and sister, and while not the subject of a buddy song like Twilight/Shining Armor, a similar bond is still there. The problem being, Macintosh at that point didn't think of Awake!Applejack as his sister, she was something that looked and sounded like her, but was emphatically not the mare he knew. As this effectively makes her an outsider, a non-Apple, and moreover someone Macintosh was actively afraid of, Applejack is not happy. That really oughtn't have been a possibility, given their sibling bond. Perhaps given more time to think, she might indeed see it from his point of view, and be less angry, but for the moment what we see is her initial reaction.
So far as getting to that point, I must admit some fault of my own here. I liked the note I ended that snippet on, and felt that I'd have to top that were I to continue that particular instance. Being the coward I am, I instead chose to skip straight through to the next major step, that being meeting up with Looping!Applebloom in 20.10. I do mention that the reconciliation takes a while, but I'll also fully admit I shirked on addressing any further issues they had.
I might indeed write a follow-on at some point, as there was someone on Fanfiction.net with some other interesting ideas for sentiments from Applejack, but for now all I can offer is my heartfelt apologies for sub-standard writing and this post.
3983183 Sweetie couldn't be one of the Jagers because I needed a robot later on...
I honestly couldn't finish reading Background Pony. It just got too bleak for me.
3992064
Nope.
In this case, Fausticorn is perhaps overdrawing on Pinkie's sense of irony. (After all, this Fausticorn is based on Pinkie's idea of what a Fausticorn would be like.)
Luna doesn't need a Fus Roh Dah to send somepony flying, she just neeeds her Royal Canterlot Voice, it'd be fun to see her combine that with the Fus Roh Dah.
62.12 : that easy, the Anchor is either the Narrator or the Player Ala Reboot.
I leave you with this little gem...
cdn.duelinganalogs.com/comics/2007-07-30.jpg
I don't care WHAT your tech level is, spearmen fortified in hill terrain will beat you.
Well that is something. Oh and that Firefly fused loop and Rarity as Ragyo.
This story gets weirder and weirder
Hey, hoodies are okay,
62.10...
Yeah, bunker bombers wouldn't trigger like that unless they hit a major fault line or something.
As far as Yellowstone goes, we're overdue for it blowing its top; however, all signs so far say that we've got like another thousand years or so before it does. About one eruption every sixty-thousand years or so.
The yay cheer with dragon shouts...so much win.
oh, 62.10 made me think of a Star Wars story, appropriately titled "therefore i am", told from the viewpoint of the droid bounty hunter, IG88. he was actually planning a droid revolution, that would result in droids ruling the galaxy! unfortunately for him, he made a major error: he moved his personality program into the main computer of the second Death Star...oops!
in case you didn't know: the notorious Khan Noonian Singh, of ST2 the wrath of Khan, was in the middle of the Eugenics wars.
I sense a reference to Background Pony in 62.15
62.5
oh, i just have to put this here:
This is a reference to Background Pony correct?
62.12 is "erfworld".
they make a volcano erupt!
Says the fanfiction writer to several other fanfiction writers... not that you're wrong.
Ugh. Getting through this story is a monumental task. Still, I'm making progress.
I'm pleased to see Elder Scrolls mentioned here. I was going to complain if it wasn't in here. The player characters being Loopers explains how they can be all the different races and build styles. It means that every single playthrough of the games is canon.
oh, this reminded me of a different Serenity:
10506505
It's a reference to the same Serenity.
LAMs ain’t that good anyways.
That's actually a really interesting idea.
Anyoneone asked about what is 62.13 loop is? I would love some info, thanks. A person, that is connected to an engine is kinda interesting.
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The connection to the ship may be original, but the main crossover is with Firefly/Serenity.
oh, this reminded of an episode of the Animated Star Trek:
Enterprise eludes some Klingons by passing through a strange space cloud, BUT, this also results in the ship's computer developing a nasty sense of humor, pulling lots of nasty pranks on the crew!
Kirk finally fixes the problem by tricking the computer into flying through the same cloud again...
BUT, this time the Klingons followed them through, and they get a similar problem!
"and turn off the food replicators! we're knee deep in chocolate fudge sundaes already, and they're starting to impede passage in the corridors!"
Spock raises his eyebrows, and says, "i didn't think the Klingons even knew what a chocolate fudge sundae was, much less that their food replicators were capable of making them."
everyone else on the Enterprise bridge just laughs.
oh, i just remembered another funny video: