Loops 77
77.1
Different loopers had different skills, different specializations, and different patterns.
For Chrysalis – Changeling Queen, expert telempath, skilled general psion, mean strategist, and marefriend – the most important of the latter was a skill she had cultivated over many years.
No matter what the previous loop had been like, no matter how cataclysmic the circumstances or unexpected the transition, the very first thing she did when she entered a new loop was to automatically lock down any alternate form she was in.
Which was fortunate.
Think Fluttershy thoughts... she chanted in the back of her mind. Outwardly, she smiled at the various animal friends she'd been in the middle of feeding.
I'm just a nice, slightly cowardly pegasus who lives alone and works with animals. That's me.
She scattered some grain for the chickens.
Pay no attention to the changeling behind the transformation.
One of the crows cawed something purposeful.
...buck. I can't speak animal. Right, going by his emotions, he's... leaving.
The butter-coloured pegasus waved. “Good luck... if you want it, that is...”
Apparently this was the right choice, as the crow nodded to her before taking wing. He circled the clearing once, and flew off towards the south.
Okay, Chrysalis thought to herself, trying for 'calm'. It looks like Angel is fooled. That or he doesn't give a carrot-top, of course.
Despite her title, she wasn't always Queen, even when she was a changeling. Sometimes she was an elected president. Sometimes she was the Voice of the Changeling Hive.
And sometimes, like this time, she was a passed-over princess, with some form of sibling queen in her place.
Right. Taking stock.
She was an exile from the changeling hive, for having lost out in the succession. That wasn't exactly great, since if her 'sister' – apparently called Metamorphia – stuck to the same schedule as Chrysalis herself had done, then things would get quite complicated in two years.
What else do I need to know...
Paranoia against Changelings was... actually present. That made things worse – if this had been otherwise baseline, then she could literally have gone up to Celestia and explained herself.
The plus side (scant as it was) was that there wasn't a 'real' Fluttershy locked in the basement or anything. This loop, it seemed, she had come up with 'Fluttershy' independently.
Chrysalis frowned, shook her head, and decided to just roll with it.
After all, if she managed to keep it up, everything would be fine. Right?
Apparently S-Twilight wasn't Awake, amazing as that seemed.
Certainly nothing she said indicated anything of the sort, and Chrysalis put all her acting ability into trying to be as Fluttershy as possible.
Coordinating the songbirds' song was surprisingly like directing the hive, actually. Music instead of the constant presence of the hive mind, to be sure, but a wrong note still felt the same.
As they came to an end, she smiled nervously. “Um... was that okay?”
“That sounds great!” Twilight replied, smiling. “I think we can check that one off, Spike.”
“Good...” Chrysalis said, quietly.
It was really strange, seeing Sparkle like this. Her first memories of the purple unicorn were of her... firstly, defeating a well-laid plan of hers. And second, the time which stuck in her memory more than any other, the alicorn of magic who had overturned a thousand years of cruelty in a single day.
Seeing her as a magically adept geek with effectively no experience was... bizarre. Especially from this perspective. And feeling her simple enthusiasm over the Summer Sun celebration was... even more so.
Chrysalis had occasionally been in town during the Return Of Nightmare Moon (referred to with the capitals), but usually because she and Trixie had decided to relocate to Ponyville straight off. Loops like that, the dark alicorn got interrupted mid-speech by a bolt of blue magic the size of a tree trunk, as Trixie Lulamoon declared her intent to 'contest' the position of Master of Ceremonies.
Thought of Trixie brought a faint smile to her lips, but Chrysalis shook it off as the Nightmare batted aside a pair of guards. This was genuinely serious stuff.
She listened with half an ear to the speech, having heard it all before – but she wanted to catch if there'd been any unanticipated changes to the events of this loop. (That or whoever the anchor was this loop showing up, anyway. Usually they ended up interrupting the Summer Sun celebration, if they hadn't been contacted before then.)
Nothing unusual happened, which was a relief – right up until Chrysalis thought past the immediate situation to what would happen next.
She was replacing Fluttershy. The Elements wouldn't work.
Well, buck.
Okay. Options...
Could Twilight handle Nightmare Moon without the Elements? Yes – if she was Awake.
Trixie? The same answer presented itself.
Discord was a no-no, and if Celestia could sort it all out then she'd have done it already.
What about Cadence? That was less certain. It was hard to tell just how powerful Princess Mi Amore Cadenza was in the baseline, but from what Chrysalis remembered – defeating her in battle that long ago day – it wasn't up to much in direct combat.
Chrysalis swallowed. Looks like it's going to have to be me.
Fortunately, her pre-awakening time as Fluttershy had given her a respectable reserve of magic, drawn from the love of her animals. She was going to need every bit of it, and all of her looping skill, to pull this off.
The first step was to actually get close to Nightmare Moon.
The Return itself was a bust – by the time she'd started planning, the Nightmare had already left. Which meant she was tagging along with Twilight's expedition.
She'd used the excuse that she had to help them with getting through the Everfree. It was true, as far as it went – she could sense any monsters around, and her loop memories contained a reasonable map of the place – but there was a deeper reason, as well. A debt to be paid.
Twilight Sparkle, and Fluttershy, and Rarity and Pinkie and all the rest of them, had helped her out when she started looping. Back when she was 'young'.
Now she was the old, experienced one. And she would keep them safe.
77.2 (Dalxein)
“Twilight?” Rainbow Dash asked after zooming in through the library’s window. The unicorn hadn’t even had time to properly reorganize the place after her arrival from Canterlot this loop. “Snowflake’s been replaced by a looper, and… uhh… it’s weird.”
The purple mare sighed and nodded. “How weird?”
“Well, she’s not used to being a pegasus… or flying. We got her to my place before she decided she wasn’t going anywhere until someone explained what was going on, and I figured you’d do better than me with this one.”
Nodding again, Twilight cast a cloudwalking spell on herself before teleporting the both of them to Dash’s cloud flat. There sitting on a puffy couch made of cloud was a regal mare with gossamer wings, her coat an icy blue and her mane a braided silver. On her flank was an intricate snowflake pattern.
“Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle. I’m the local Anchor here in Equestria.” When the mare nodded understanding, she continued. “What’s your name?”
“My name is Elsa… and I am very confused.”
Twilight grinned.
After she’d finished her ‘welcome to the multiverse’ speech, Rainbow having left halfway through to go manage the Summer Sun Celebration while they were busy, Twilight asked, “So, are you your world’s Anchor?”
Shaking her head, partially to clear her mind after the information dump, Snowflake- or rather, Elsa, answered, “I do not believe so. My sister’s fiancé, Kristoff, is most likely our Anchor. He sometimes speaks of loops where neither myself nor my sister recall the loops. My sister, myself, Kristoff, and we believe his reindeer Sven, all began looping in time simultaneously.”
Twilight nodded. “Probably the crash, then.”
“The… crash?” Elsa tentatively probed.
“I haven’t worked it into the speech proper yet because it tends to be very intimidating, especially with how overwhelming everything else is in one’s first fused loop. Fairly recently, an entire reality collapsed. The strain on the system led to new loopers in established loops, and new worlds gaining anchors and loopers, to minimize the damage.”
“An entire…” Elsa paused, taking a moment to recollect herself. “That is indeed very troubling to hear.”
“Don’t worry too much,” Twilight said, trying to calm the mare down some. “There were extenuating circumstances, and in all my time as an Anchor I’ve only seen it happen that one time. Both our worlds are safe.”
It wasn’t much, but hearing that did help to comfort her a bit. “And… are there many other loopers and anchors about?”
This had the purple mare laughing “Oh, loads of them! I don’t think I’ve met even half of them, but that’s still quite a lot of po-eople…” She caught herself at the last moment. “I like to think that I’m fairly old and well-versed as far as Anchors go, but there are a lot that’ve been looping longer than me, and none of us even compare to the first loopers, who’re truly ancient compared to the rest.”
Seeing the goggle-eyed mare in front of her, she giggled. “Sorry, I’m trying to say that it’s a big multiverse out there, and there’s no end of new people to meet in the loops.” Her grin faltered. “There’s also no end of trouble you can get into in the other loops, as well. Some of them are pretty horrible, which is why we decided our loop would be a sanctuary. We do our best to make sure that our loop is as peaceful and pleasant as possible for any looper that needs a vacation. Our loops are usually about five years long, and that’s not much compared to some of the longer loops, but we try to help with the time we’re given to do so.” Sensing a segue, she pounced on it. “So, how long are your loops?”
“Between five and ten years, usually,” Elsa answered. “The only constant seems to be that they include my coronation somewhere along the line.”
“Coronation?” The unicorn gasped. “You’re a princess?”
This had the Pegasus grinning. “I am a queen. Queen Elsa of Arendelle.”
Of all the reactions she was expecting, having the unicorn speed in front of her staring intently at her forehead was not on the list. Flinching away from the sudden close proximity, she asked “What… are you doing?”
Something seemed to snap back into place in the purple mare as she twitched and her eyes widened. “Oh, sorry. It’s not that common that we see royalty from other loops here in Equestria. Most of our ‘royals’ are alicorns- ponies with both pegasus wings and a unicorn’s horn.”
Elsa tilted her head and raised an eyebrow.
“Sorry, what I meant was that Fused Loops have a tendancy to be ironic or humorous with one’s role or status or especially their name or job - the pony you’re taking the place of this loop is named Snowflake, for instance. Given that’s also your cutie-mark.” She received another blank look and popped off a quick summary. “It’s a magical glyph or symbol on our flanks usually received in adolescence depicting a strong aspect or talent deeply ingrained in us. Magical ponies are magical.” She showed her own starburst as an example. “Anyway, yours is a snowflake. I’m going to hazard a guess that means something personal to you?”
The pegasus’ mouth worked soundlessly, even as she glanced down at the ice crystal on her rear that she’d inspected for a time between Dash’s exit and return, for a moment before she nodded. “I was born with a curse - incredible power over ice and snow…” She paused trying to find a nice way to put the rest.
“That doesn’t sound like much of a curse,” Twilight hazarded, tentatively.
“I accidentally plunged my kingdom into an eternal winter until I learned to control it,” the queen said, deadpan.
Twilight was about to say something, but then shut her mouth with an audible ‘click’. “Alright, that sounds more like a curse.”
The Pegasus nodded. “It’s controlled in part by myself, and in part by my emotions. It’s taken several loops of trial and error to fully understand it, but negative emotions like fear and doubt wrest control away from me. I’ve been solving the issue by blotting them out with love and joy.”
“That seems like a terrible solution,” Twilight pointed out, worry clear in her voice.
Her concerns were waved away. “It’s worked well enough so far, especially with all these loops of practice. I haven’t accidentally frozen the entire kingdom in ages.” She began to chuckle, but when the unicorn didn’t share her mirth she stopped. “It was a joke, dear. I haven’t lost control of my powers since my… baseline, was it?” At the mare’s nod, she continued with a small grimace. “I’m not adapting to the loops as well as Anna and Kristoff. My sister jumps headlong into everything and her beau can be rather savvy when the urge strikes him, or he has need to be. Sometimes I feel like I’m still the stuffy princess locked away in her room, watching them have fun and play pranks while I manage trade agreements and paperwork…” She shook her head and chuckled. “No, I have enough fun when they drag me out to play, too. Maybe I should be the one to prank them next time, though… They just seem to be taking this so much better than me.” She glanced down shame-faced.
The purple pony scooted over to nudge the queen. “Hey, it’s actually pretty impressive that you haven’t gone crazy yet. I don’t know a single pony that didn’t go a little nuts adapting to the loops.” She made a show of thinking to herself. “Except Zecora, but I’m keeping a camera handy just in case.”
“You’ve been at this for so long and yet you’re still so… chipper about it. How do you manage it?”
“Our universe is approximately 40% Pure Harmony, 25% friendship, 15% love, 10% hijinks, 5% kindness, 4% sugary treats, and like one percent assorted evils, megalomaniacs and in-jokes,” Twilight said. A moment passed before her deadpan straight face broke and she snickered, causing the queen to break down in giggles herself.
“So.” The unicorn continued, “We’ve got about five years in a peaceful loop to look forward to. But first we have to make sure you’ve got the tools to enjoy it properly - since you’re a pegasus, that means learning to fly.” She gave a tentative smile to the regal mare. “If you think you’re up to it?”
A meek smile mirrored back at her. “I think I can manage… but how are you going to-?” A bright flash and suddenly the unicorn in front of her also bore a pair of wings. “…ah.”
“Sorry, I just think you’re better off learning the basics from me before Rainbow Dash gets ahold of you…”
77.3 (misterq)
'I'm a Princess. Are you a Princess, too?' proclaimed the poster with Celestia's mischievously grinning head on it. Big Mac just stared at the thing. It was stuck to one of the apple trees that he was scheduled to take care of today.
He could practically sense the chaos magic wafting from it, along with the faint scent of cinnamon and sugar. That meant Discord and Pinkie Pie. That, in turn, meant headaches for himself, at the very least.
There were twelve little tabs on the bottom of the poster, grouped in four sets of three; two tabs with a picture of a wing alternating with one that had a picture of a horn.
His adamant reluctance to ascend to an alicorn state was fairly well known by the other loopers. Still, experience had taught him that the best way to take care of a Pinkie and Discord prank is to completely subvert it. His years of earth pony magic mastery should help with that.
Mac walked into his bar and promptly ignored all the stares, acting as though absolutely nothing at all was wrong.
"Uh, Mac," a wide eyed Berry Punch spoke out tentatively, "I think there's something different about you today."
"Well, I did try to part my mane in a new way. Is that it?" Mac asked with a neutral expression while temporarily putting clean glasses on the four unicorn horns running along the length of his spine like the spikes on some dragons. His seven asymmetrically sprouting pegasus wings flapped gently, including the one placed where a normal unicorn's horn would be.
"No. No, that's not it."
77.4 (Masterweaver and Wing Zero 032)
Twilight loved to experiment. She was a scientist at heart... well, a scholar, actually, but science was a good part of that. And sometimes, during lonely loops, she would take a little sociological experimentation, mostly consisting of putting ponies in situations they hadn't been in before. Usually it all worked out or, at the least, she was able to repair the damage, and ninety nine point nine five oh three percent of the time she would have had the results on her list of possibilities.
"...Do you, Maud Pie, take the Tree of Harmony to be your lawfully wedded..." Twilight paused. "...spouse?"
And then there were times like these.
Maud Pie nodded. "I do." Loops of experience had taught Twilight to pick up on the slight quaver in her voice that occurred whenever she was excited, as well as the ear flick of glee and the small smile of deep love.
Honestly, she just wanted to see how Maud reacted to the Tree. She'd expected some amazement and maybe the need to restrain Maud from taking a sample...
"And do you, Tree of Harmony, take Maud Pie to be your lawfully wedded bride?" Twilight raised an eyebrow as the Tree pulsed once with light and powerful magic, its crystal vines wrapping around Maud's shoulders. "I'm.. just going to take that as a yes."
An unawake Pinkie dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief. "They just look so happy together...!" The other element bearers agreed, with varying degrees of unease.
"If there's somepony or something that may oppose this union, speak now or remain quiet forever." Suddenly, the huge diamond-shaped boulder known as Tom burst into the cave of Harmony interrupting the ceremony as it slowed down its roll until it stopped nearly in front of Maud.
Everypony was stone-cold frozen by this sudden interruption, they all knew Tom very well, he helped them to defeat Discord by providing heavy artillery, bombardment and cover for them. That and the fact that Rarity had a fling with him during that time, however said fling ended so bad to the point in which Rarity still insist to never speak of it again! Despite the brave attempts of him being her rock during hard times, and even attempting to bringing her a serenade... a rock serenade where she lives with the help of his buddies in the rock band!
There was a time where it looked like he would hit rock-bottom, he felt like a stepping stone and with a heart ground to dust, however they all knew Tom's character is really rock-solid based with well grounded morals and principles. Sure he may have a stone-cold attitude but he has a heart of gold, a temper of steel never taking things for granite even despite sometimes it looks like it, so it was no surprise when he had managed to roll away from his depression and start again, however they never had expected him to take interest for Pinkie's sister Maud, when he saw her, it hit him like a ton of bricks! He fell for her like a rock, she make him roll for her, and tried to woo her with his strength and solidity, but she didn't even bat an eye at him at all, always giving him that look that clearly says: 'You've been friendzoned'. But when she started to see that Tree Of Harmony... he could deal with that, he's made of stern stuff, but when he got the news by Boulder that she was going to marry that tree... That was the pebble that started the landslide!
"Tom, what are you doing here?" Maud asked, nopony could be sure if she was curious or annoyed, it's Maud after all.
"..." The rock said nothing... nothing at least understandable or even audible to normal pony ears (The Pie Family doesn't count!).
"I'm flattered that you think of me that way, but I can't be with you in this way," said Maud in in her apparently permanent rock hard expressions, only Pinkie knew that her sister was taken aback by Tom's declarations.
"..." The rock stood there, not moving one inch, silence ruling all over the cave.
"I know, I really know but we were not meant to be, I love the Tree of Harmony and he loves me back as much as I do, please understand!" Maud replied back at whatever Tom said, apparently this having touched a nerve on the usually stoic mare.
"..." Tom stood his ground once again, the Element Bearers couldn't help but not take their sight or try to interrupt this weird romance drama.
"Stop being stubborn as a rock and please, let me go! If you truly love me, let me go. I know you had your heart broken once, and I may have broke it once again, but trust me. There are other mares that may be interested in you..." said Maud, her hard-rock mask of indifference completely blown to cinders, then she approached to the diamond shaped boulder and slowly caressed one of his top sides as if it were the cheek of his face. "Just between us, but my sister Pinkie finds you attractive, why don't you give it a go, she may be look happy and energetic when surrounded by other ponies, but deep down she's so alone and insecure, she needs something to keep her grounded and stable, she needs someone who be her rock when hardship happens, and I think you, especially you, may be the rock for the job, because I don't trust those other friends of hers, specially that Rocky fellow, something's wrong with them." Just as she finished, she give him a good bye kiss on the 'check' and head back to the improvised altar.
"..." A drop of water fell over the diamond-shaped rock, it was weird how it kind of resembled a tear, giving the impression that the rock was completely heartbroken... again.
"Thank you for understanding, and I wish you happiness with whoever you end with, please take care of her," said Maud to the internally crushed rock, sitting there in utter defeat until the pink bridlemaid approached him.
"Come on Tommy, I know it's hard to you to bear with it, but remember, I'm always here for you," Pinkie said to Tom while somehow lifting him like nothing, taking him away from this heart grinding scene.
"Then by the power invested in me by Celestia, I proclaim you mare and... tree." Twilight snapped her book of matrimony shut. "You may now kiss the bride – er, if you can?"
It turned out the Tree could kiss Maud, very passionately. Somehow.
Then it turned out that neither Maud or the Tree had much modesty so the element bearers and rock rapidly cleared out to let them have their honeymoon in peace.
"So... Did we got our Siege Weaponry Cutie Marks?" said Sweetie Belle using a pair of scopes, looking where their projectile went and where it hit, Appebloom still looking at the giant catapult, looking for any failures or damages and Scootaloo still pulling the trigger.
The three of them started trying to look at their flanks, like little puppies chasing their own tails, however it was still as blank as they were since the morning.
"Awww..."
77.5 (The One Butcher)
Twilight came into Mac's bar carrying a book of ridiculous size, which was, however, dwarfed by her grin.
She was shortly followed by every single Looper in Equestria. Pinkie bounced against the wall and pushed it back, while Discord conjured thirty different Chairs.
"I have called all of you here to tell you about the Loop before last, which was a variant where... well, it's best if I start at the beginning. I thought it was a lonely baseline until Rarity eloped with Big Macintosh." She looked meaningfully at the mare in question. "That has happened before, that's the loops after all, however when Big Mac came to me for advice on dealing with a pregnant mare I knew that there was something fishy going on. Turns out Rarity lied to him to force a wedding, because she thought she was pregnant with Applejack's foal," Twilight looked at some raised hooves, "I didn't want to know and neither do you", the hooves went down, "and then Rainbow punched Applejack for cheating on her and Pinkie was heartbroken because she wanted to get with Rainbow and she and Big Mac comforted each other and Rainbow went after Fluttershy, but Fluttershy was pregnant with Nightmare Moon's foal until it turned out she wasn't and then Discord came back and was reformed instantly when Celestia told him someone revived their stillborn lovechild, which turned out to be Spike, so Discord was eternally grateful to me and became a father to Spike and made him into an adult so he could court Rarity, who in the meantime became a destitute maid working for Blueblood. Meanwhile everyone thought they were pregnant again while I wasn't looking and Applejack came back from the Everfree forest just in time for her own wedding to Rainbow, to reveal she didn't cheat on Rainbow with Rarity, it was her evil twin instead. It turned out to not be a changeling but an actual twin Big Mac and Applebloom knew nothing about."
Everyone but Pinkie was lost in the inaneness.
"After that I stopped paying attention and just made a ton of Photos."
She held up the tome: "I have here pictures of fake pregnancies, evil twins and interrupted weddings between any two of you. That's Four hundred and thirty five only counting the weddings between Loopers. Every single one of you has also married Prince Blueblood in that Loop. Shining Armor married him twice."
The Book went up in flames.
"And of course I have tons of copies of that tome. I do, now and forever, dominate the Blackmail-Material contest..."
77.6 (Dalxein)
Twilight was walking down the street as normal when Pinkie came by walking Gummy.
Gummy however, was slightly larger than normal and sporting full, puffy, and gleefully pink lips.
She paused to process this. "Big lipped... alligator moment?" she asked.
"Big lipped alligator moment," Pinkie replied with a nod.
"Alright then." Twilight nodded, continuing about her day.
Neither of them ever mentioned it again.
77.7 (Masterweaver)
"...who wrote this?"
"You did." Twilight shrugged. "A nonlooping you, anyway."
"...huh." Sweetie Belle flipped through the script again. "Expansion?"
"Yep."
"...I think I was trying to mimic one of Spear Shaker's comedies and didn't get that it was a comedy."
77.8 (Crisis, in honour of April 1)
Twilight yawned as she Awoke in her closet at Sugarcube Corner. The evidence around her suggested that it was a bit later in the Loop than normal, but it was hardly the first time that had happened.
According to her Loop memories, she and the other Elements of Harmony had redeemed Trollestia after the Hearth's Warming celebration just last afternoon and they had plans to hang out together later today.
Twilight grabbed her breadbox and stepped outside, only to nearly be run over by Cheese Sandwich as he shucked by. "Sorry, Twilight!" the unicorn snarled as he skadoodled on his way. Twilight looked around Las Pegasus and noted the incredulously pea soup green sky and the blue sun sneezing down upon the populace backwards as Fleur De Lis approached her.
"Greetings Twilight, my dear heir," she said politely. "How are you this fine chair?"
"I don't think I got enough sleep," Twilight replied wearily. "I'm going back to bed until things start making sense again."
77.9 (Gym Quirk)
"You came in that thing?" asked Cadance as she looked down on the Falcon from the observation gallery. "Huh."
Luke's thoughts took a minor stumble. He was so used to Leia -- Awake or not -- snarking at Han about his ship that even this minor change brought him up short.
So it was that the appearance of the stormtrooper patrol caught him by surprise.
This was nothing compared with his outright bewilderment when he heard Cadance's ululating battle cry.
"Ailalalalalalala!"
Cadance's metal ring caromed off a wall to perform an intricate pattern of ricochets between the stormtroopers' helmets and other nearby objects before rebounding to her hand.
{{That was...rather impressive,}} Chewbacca growled over the semi-conscious groans of the patrol, now slumped against bulkheads or prostrate on the deck.
"Totally awesome!" agreed Scootaloo.
"Took me forever to get the hang of this thing," admitted Cadance, twirling the chakram on a fingertip.
Sweetie led the still-groggy Imperial tech toward the Falcon's boarding ramp. Apple Bloom brought up the rear with the now-empty homing device case held in her heavy-duty manipulator arm.
"...Hope you feel better soon, sir. The activation and tracking codes for the device are entered on the status panel as per regulations. All you need to do is log them with the comm center. Do you need any further assistance?" she asked as they left the ship. The astromech extended the case with a helpful twitter.
"No...thank you," said the tech, accepting the container as his dazed expression faded. "Yes. Well. That's done. You can return to your normal duties." He marched toward a bank of turbolifts.
"Thank you, sir. Come along," she gestured to her counterpart, and the two droids made their way to the recharge/monitor station.
Once assured of some privacy, Sweetie triggered her comlink to send the all-clear.
Darth Vader strode toward the barabel, red lightsaber blade humming. Before he could say anything, Spike casually pre-empted, “Hello, Anakin. You’re looking well.”
Slightly nonplussed, Vader stopped his advance. “I’ve been waiting for you Spikey-one. We meet again at last. The circle is now complete…” he began.
“Yeah, yeah. Master...learner...Now you’re the master. Who writes your material? You weren’t this stuffy during the Clone Wars,” commented Spike, idly igniting his own lightsaber.
It wasn’t Obi-wan’s blue lightsaber from this or any previous loop, nor was it the purple saberstaff he’d built before the Jedi Civil War when he fought at Revan’s side.
This was a wedding present. The blade cycled through pink to orange to yellow to blue to violet and back to pink. At the core of the blade was a constant silver-white beam. I don’t know how or when Pinkie found the time to have this made, but it’s a magnificent gift.
The Sith Lord actually took a half-step backward when he saw the scintillating blade. Rallying, he made a cut toward Spike’s head that was easily turned aside. Spike’s riposte was similarly warded off. A series of probing attacks from each ended with Spike retreating toward the hangar bay door, just as he wanted.
“Your powers are weak, old man,” taunted Vader.
Spike barked a laugh in response. “In your dreams. I’m probably supposed to say something about if you strike me down, I’ll become more powerful than you can imagine. But I’m already there.” He flicked his left wrist and a second lightsaber appeared, igniting with a green blade. He used Vader’s moment of surprise to apply a touch of growth magic to himself and shifted to two-and-a-half meters in height with proportional increase in body mass. He was also visibly more draconic in appearance.
Darth Vader was clearly having a bad feeling about all this.
Trying to shake off his surprise, he launched into a flurry of attacks, but Spike’s defenses were more than up to the challenge.
The significant disadvantage of dual lightsaber technique is the supposed inability of a blade held in one hand to resist a heavy blow from an opponent using a single blade in a two-handed grip.
Spike’s greater bulk and raw strength belied that notion.
The power of the Sith Lord’s two-handed strikes were countered by the large reptilian’s own amplified strength. The need to stay aware of the jedi’s second lightsaber which lashed out from unexpected angles quickly put Vader on the defensive.
Spotting the rest of the party making their run for the Falcon, Spike ostentatiously caught Vader’s blade in a bind and sent it flying with a slice through both wrists. A short burst of intense green flame from his mouth caught the falling weapon, making it vanish in a puff of smoke and a shower of sparkles.
"I am truly sorry I had to do that, Anakin. I don't want to hurt you any more. Please believe me. I won't tell you to break free of the Palpatine's influence, because you already know, deep down, that's what you need to do to find peace for yourself."
Leaving the Dark Lord of the Sith staring at the smoking machinery of his wrists, Spike started walking toward the Millennium Falcon. “The Force will be with you, Anakin, if you allow it.”
The squad of stormtroopers blocking his path raised their weapons. He raised an eyeridge in response. “Seriously? Were you paying any attention to the past few minutes?”
The leader’s voice filtered through the helmet. “Fire!”
The squad was scattered around the hangar bay to be pinned against the bulkheads by the combined efforts of three Jedi masters. The single blaster bolt that ventured near the dragon was contemptuously swatted into the deck.
Joining his companions at the foot of the boarding ramp, he restored himself to his previous size and shape, nodding thanks to Luke and Twilight. He turned to examine Cadance. "No offense, but I don't think that look works for you."
The princess shrugged. "We couldn't find a salon or stylist anywhere in this place. What's a mare to do?"
"Perhaps it's time we left?" suggested Luke.
77.1 continued
Chrysalis quickly found herself cursing Fluttershy's timid nature – one she had to live up to.
She had only her pre-awakening self to blame, of course. Her logic had been that a recluse was much less likely to slip and give herself away – so timid, self-effacing and quiet she had been.
And now, now that she was heading into a forest that was quite possibly cursed to confront a being as powerful as herself – if not more so – with five reasonably skilled but inexperienced ponies by her side... she was handicapped by her own pre-awake preferences. She couldn't give orders, letting them use their skills to the best advantage. She couldn't fly at the front of the group, at least making sure that she would be the first to encounter danger.
And she certainly couldn't fly up into the air to scout out the forest. Which led to this mess.
“Sorry...” she said, wincing. “I think we took a wrong turn.”
“It's nothin',” Applejack assured her, appraising the cliff they were at the top of. “We kin just find a way around. Looks like-”
The disguised changeling sensed something malicious, moving very quickly towards them. She turned towards the source-
There was a crack-boom noise, and the ground fell away beneath them.
Chrysalis leapt for the air on instinct, before she could even think about maintaining her assumed persona, and breathed a sign of relief when no flare of surprise-suspicion followed. Then she saw that Twilight had just been convinced to let go of Applejack, and caught by Rainbow Dash.
She'd been too busy panicking to help.
Some protector I am.
Landing gently on butter-coloured wings, she shook her head. I'll do better this time.
There was a snarl, and a manticore pounced on the group.
Chrysalis skipped back out of the way, then concentrated. What is it that Fluttershy does times like this... right.
She looked directly at the manticore, and drew in a breath. At the same time, she carefully measured out some of her hoarded power from before Awakening, and shaped a strong mental suggestion.
“Stop! Sit! Bad manticore!”
Her voice bounced off the nearby trees, making not just the manticore but all five ponies freeze exactly where they were.
She walked closer, still keeping up the Suggestion. The animal was enraged, but beneath that there was something else... pain.
The tricky thing was that she had no idea where the pain was coming from. And that Suggestion wouldn't hold for long, whereas she had no desire to hold a pained animal in place or simply disable it, leaving it to suffer.
The easiest and least cruel solution was to- “Sleep.”
With a yawn and a thud, the manticore fell over and began snoring.
Time pressure gone, Chrysalis looked for anything obvious that might be causing the pain. It didn't take long to find it – a wicked-looking thorn that seemed to throb with malice.
“That was awesome!” Rainbow Dash enthused.
“Oh, er...” Chrysalis turned, letting her mane flop over one eye and discarding the thorn. “It was nothing.”
The others were giving her looks that ranged from scared to bewildered. Thinking back, she had just shouted down a manticore...
As they finally reached the room with the Elements in, Chrysalis was almost seething at her own inability to contribute.
The next thing they'd run into had been a grove of trees enchanted to cause fear. With her empathic senses fully open and straining to detect her foe, Chrysalis had been rendered almost unconscious by the powerful artificial emotion, and hadn't even recovered by the time Pinkie dispelled it with an expert heartsong.
That had been... humiliating. She was supposed to be a ruler. Supposed to be keeping these ponies safe. But she'd been reduced to a heap on the floor by a parlour trick.
The river serpent had been a little more like what she was ready for, but it hadn't even developed into a fight. Rarity had defused the situation in moments, leaving the Changeling Queen impressed but confused.
And as for the bridge... there had definitely been something in the mist, but despite the knowledge that Rainbow Dash might be in danger, Chrysalis had been unable to justify leaving the others defenceless. It wouldn't do any good to go and help Dash if doing so had allowed Nightmare Moon to attack – possibly even kill – Twilight, Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie.
But here they were, and Nightmare Moon was – if Chrysalis had all this right – just about to turn up. As subtly as possible, she began to ready herself for the fight.
As soon as her opponent was a viable target, she would have to drop her shapeshift. That should earn her at least a moments' distraction, letting her achieve an alpha-strike – a wave of magical energy as powerful as she could make it – and then set up a shield to convert Dark attacks into something more usable.
What happened then was... uncertain. But she'd have as good a chance as she could manage. And, hopefully, she could try and pierce the layers of mental transformation to free Luna. Somehow.
I hate working from rumors and half-truths and stories told by drunk fellow loopers about how they beat up Nightmare Moon!
I miss the hive.
Chrysalis bit her lip. I miss Trixie.
Infuriatingly (the kind of infuriation which made her double-check that she wasn't starting to exert empathic influence on the ponies around her) Nightmare Moon didn't even attack as a solid. Instead, she poured into the chamber as a cloud of dust, congealed around Twilight – who was too focused on her task to notice – and vanished in a teleport.
“Twilight!”
“Where'd she go?” Applejack asked, looking around. “Darn it!”
“This way,” Chrysalis replied, half her focus on tracking the mental 'glows' of the unicorn and alicorn. “Follow me.”
That got her some strange looks, but she barely noticed. Nightmare Moon had to be solid by now.
As they cantered into the room, Chrysalis saw a pile of glittering jewel-dust remnants lying around Twilight.
The unicorn was finishing some kind of speech. “...my friends!”
She made a gesture, which took in all five of them. Chrysalis didn't pay any attention, intent on the precise moment she would drop her shift and attack. Just a moment's surprise or inattention on the Nightmare's part would be sufficient...
“Applejack, who told me I was safe and got through my panic, represents the Element of Honesty! Fluttershy, who guided us through the forest and calmed the Manticore, represents the Element of Kindness! Pinkie-”
Chrysalis' concentration fell apart in tatters, as she noticed that one of the streams of jewel-dust was orbiting her. But... I'm not Fluttershy. How...
A soothing warmth began to build around her. With a flash of green light, the gems coalesced into a silvery necklace with an emerald heart-device.
Then everything went rainbow.
Chrysalis stirred. “What... what just...”
She saw Twilight looking at her. The purple unicorn had her Magic tiara neatly atop her head, but seemed more interested in her than in the unconscious and cured Princess Luna on the other side of the room. She was also ignoring the four still-asleep members of the Elements, lying to either side.
“What is it?” Chrysalis asked, looking down – and her heart nearly stopped.
Black chitin. Hooves with holes in them.
Her shapeshift had dropped.
“I swear, this isn't what...” she began, nervously, then sighed. “Okay, that's just a flat lie. It is what it looks like.”
Twilight gave her a closer look, focusing particularly on her Element. “Huh. This hasn't happened before...”
Chrysalis blinked. “I did not expect that... reaction...”
Twilight's emotions were confused/interested/melancholy? Why would she be...
“...oh, you have got to be kidding me.” Chrysalis closed her eyes, counted to three, then opened them again. “You're Awake, aren't you.”
An explosion of shock/surprise/relief greeted that statement. “You're Awake?” Twilight asked, carefully. “Have we both been playing along with our in-loop roles?”
“Looks like.” Chrysalis shook her head.
“We just spent the last day or so repeatedly missing one another, didn't we.” Twilight let out a sigh, then a chuckle. “That would have made things a lot simpler...”
“You're telling me. I spent the whole time here trying to keep you lot safe, and now it turns out I might as well not have bothered.”
Twilight frowned. “No, it was worthwhile. Just because it wasn't necessary doesn't mean it was a bad idea.”
“Sure, sure.” Chrysalis peered at Twilight again, noting that the unicorn had a sense of deliberation about her thoughts – clearly choosing her words carefully. “Did you only just Awaken?”
“No, same time as usual.” Twilight looked confused for a moment, then her face brightened in realization. “Oh, I see. You're confused because... no, I was going along with the baseline. I had plans to troll Discord, see, and if I'm going to do that I have to be pretty much baseline until then. It's why I did a ping – did you miss it?” Twilight shrugged. “That said, I'm not surprised that you couldn't tell I was Awake, I'm a very good actor by now.”
“Apparently,” Chrysalis muttered. “I must have missed the ping, I was kind of panicking when I Awoke.”
“To be honest, I thought you – well, Fluttershy, or whatever, was some kind of variant with more anger issues. A lot of anger issues.”
The unicorn mare tossed her head, grinning. “I was doubly interested in how it'd play out if you – er, she – had the same encounter with Discord as normal.” As she spoke, Twilight trotted over to the recumbent Princess Luna – stepping carefully over an unconscious Rarity - and cast a diagnostic spell. “Same as usual. Always good to check.”
“Right. I think.” The Changeling... well, Princess... rubbed her forehead, then tapped her new item of jewellery. It clinked. “So how come I've got... this?”
Twilight turned back to her, beaming. “Well, you were taking Fluttershy's place, you did handle the Manticore – and if I heard you right, you were also planning on keeping all of us safe.”
“I wasn't doing very well,” Chrysalis castigated herself. “I did have a vague plan to cure Luna – somehow – but... no, it wasn't anything like a proper plan. I was just going to try and help her, though... because if I didn't, what chance was there left?”
“Right.” Twilight nodded. “Thinking of the others – even Luna – before yourself... working to reduce suffering, and focusing on the problems that can be solved first... it might not be quite like Fluttershy does it, but you've earned an Element of Kindness. Congratulations.”
“Seriously?” Chrysalis looked down at the necklace, noting how it fit her current form rather better than it did 'Fluttershy'. “I... yeah, wow.”
“I know.” The bearer of Magic trotted over and laid a hoof on her shoulder. “It's a lot to take in. But you do deserve it, Chrysalis.”
With a bright flash of sunlight, Princess Celestia materialized in one corner of the room. “My faithful student! Good – wait, is that a Changeling?”
Twilight looked over at Celestia. “Yes.”
Celestia blinked. “...okay, er... why is there a changeling in here?”
“She's the Element of Kindness,” Twilight replied matter-of-factly.
“...right.”
Chrysalis couldn't help but snigger.
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All around good stuff.
There needs to be art of Supercorn!Mac. Right now.
4157205
Yep.
Here, have the uncompleted Mad Lib as a bonus:
Twilight yawned as she Awoke in her [room] at [Ponyville building]. The evidence around her suggested that it was a bit later in the Loop than normal, but it was hardly the first time that had happened.
According to her Loop memories, she and the other Elements of Harmony had redeemed [My Little Pony villain] after the [Equestrian holiday] celebration just last [time period] and they had plans to hang out together later today.
Twilight grabbed her [container] and stepped outside, only to nearly be run over by [character name] as he [verb]ed by. "Sorry, Twilight!" the [Equestrian race] [speaking verb]ed as he [verb]ed on his way. Twilight looked around [Equestrian town/city] and noted the [adjective] [color] sky and the [second color] sun [verb]ing down upon the populace [direction] as [second character name] approached her.
"Greetings Twilight, my dear [social relation]," she said politely. "How are you this fine [noun that rhymes with previous entry]?"
"I don't think I got enough sleep," Twilight replied wearily. "I'm going back to bed until things start making sense again."
This story has no cover image. I'm anal and like to give all my ebooks cover images, so I use this one.
4168112 For legal reasons, no. They are the Mythbuckers, Blast Radius and Simple Solution.
I would love to see a continuation of Chrysalishy and Big Mac's Bar for the Crimanally Insane.
Wow, it took me a couple of weeks to read this all starting from chapter 1. I'm kind of sad that I'm all caught up now. Well, at least I can look forward to each new chapter.
4168817 I love how both of those names boil down to blowing things up.
4183385
No problem. Let me know how it goes, actually.
Has there been a Fallout: Equestria loop?
4204338 Nope. There was an incognito Anchor (in this case, probably someone like Picard or Sisko) around - hence fulfilling the Anchor requirement.
4204338
It didn't. There was another anchor that Loop, and since s/he remained undetected by the whole Loop Fluttershy assumed it was Picard from Star Trek (which has a fame of hiding his Awake status)
You need an Anchor Awake somewhere in the Loop (not necessarily the local one), but said Anchor could perfectly be by the other end of the world and not interact at all with other Loopers.
4206248
AFAICT, it's been established that Picard is the Anchor for the TNG/DS9/Vgr time period of the Trek loops. Sisko and Janeway are just frequent loopers.
4218416 She could have, if she wanted to develop it. Absent actively developing it, though, she would not have it. (And given how the Spark results in mental alteration, I imagine she'd want to not keep it.)
Lol, that Xena reference looks good on Cadence.
Damn the Mad Libs world as nuts, Glad to see Spike dominate Vader.
This made me very happy. Especially with her replacing Snowflake/Bulk Biceps
I was really getting worried about how infrequent Disney loopers come into this story. So hearing that a very decent portion of Frozen is looping (as part of the Wonderful World of Disney-verse), made me both happy and sad- happy because Elsa can fix things- unhappy because the deaths of her parents might be something inherently important to the Arendelle looping reality. (Luke Skywalker did say that actually letting Alderaan explode was actually beneficial in the long run in the Star Wars loops because Leia had died because Vader realized he'd been tricked in sparing it. See those Star Wars fused loops that have Twi'lek Sparkle for the exact wording) I might be reading into it too much- since I am used to fixed points in time through Doctor Who (maybe Superman with him usually having Krypton blow up) and since DW is a read-only universe, I could be completely reading the meaning of the canonical plot of Frozen.
And the Loops are highly unconventional and the smallest action could cause large consequences due to Loopers and their influence.
This story is very good.
77.4
77.5
Okay, that also means that unless it was a close to baseline loop in Xena, Shining might have been Cadance lesbian girlfriend..
I really need to catch up! I still got, like, 50 chapters to read!
77.9 =
77.4
1. You should feel ashamed of yourself.
2. If Sans were to ever read this, he would feel a surge of immense pride and would solute you.
77.5
And of course this makes up for any lost ground from the previous loop.
77.9 So wait, Zena is Looping?
Huh, imagine that.
I don't think she's the Anchor though. It's either Gabrielle, Hercules, or one of the two gods that didn't die. Unless the Loop ends at the end of the last season.
Then again, since Zena was still around as a ghost, I can't be sure.
i just remembered a weird story called "the irony of Applejack" where Applejack turned out to be a Changeling...
Shouldn't it be defied?
https://www.deviantart.com/pixelkitties/art/Princess-Flyer-352750741
7773808
nah it's another word with a similar definition, where "defied" is simply "makes the notion incorrect" belied takes it a step further and in this context means "made the notion seem laughable".
oh, this reminded me of a weird story where Fluttershy got replaced by a changeling...the weird part was the the changeling was a youngster who got lost, was adopted by Fluttershy's parents...then took her place when the real Fluttershy was killed by a monster.
Then it turned out that neither Maud or the Tree had much modesty so the element bearers and rock rapidly cleared out to let them have their honeymoon in peace. Too bad you couldn’t squeeze in a getting their rocks off joke
Nice.
I quit!