//------------------------------// // Go Nuts! // Story: LEGO Equestria Girls 9 // by Chronicler06 //------------------------------// Chapter 4 Go Nuts! It was the first day of the Starswirled Music Festival… for what was now the twentieth time, from Sunset Shimmer’s perspective. Despite fulfilling her wish to attend and watch the live concert of PostCrush, her experiences through the time loop of this day had still not ended. After wasting her fourth day simply coming to terms with the fact that the time loop was still occurring, she spent the fifth day repeating what she had done on the third day, with mostly the same outcome. She spent the sixth day begrudgingly allowing Pinkie to follow her, only for the party girl’s desire for churros to once again get them both kicked out before they could see PostCrush, thus resulting in a similar outcome to the first two days. On the seventh day, Sunset decided to try a hybrid approach by insisting to Pinkie that they spend the day separately, but agreeing to meet up again in time to watch PostCrush. Although Sunset once again got to see PostCrush from the front row, a certain mishap involving those darn churros resulted in Pinkie getting kicked out alone and missing out on PostCrush without her best friend. After the first week, Sunset finally just gave up on trying to follow her original plan to a hopelessly better outcome. Instead, she decided to follow each of her other friends, just to see what they were all up to while she and Pinkie had kept failing to watch PostCrush together. Fluttershy and Spike had spent the entire day together with no real definitive plan, and mostly just wandered around to observe — but not partake in, due to Fluttershy’s fear of drawing attention to herself — all the fun activities and try out some of the rather whimsical kinds of food that were sold at the food trucks and carts. Rarity had browsed through the souvenir tents and decided to purchase a faux suede jacket with fringe that she was especially enamored with, but was devastated to have it quickly ruined when she got caught in the crossfire of a squirt gun fight between some kids — not to mention how her original jacket always seemed to end up ruined at the end of the day by Spike’s flaming marshmallow. Applejack was thrilled to have the chance to watch a live performance of her favorite country singer, Dirk Thistleweed, but tragically had to spend the entire show in the infirmary tent when some members of the enthusiastic crowd accidentally stomped on her foot. Twilight had meticulously planned all of her activities for the festival, but a lapse of attention caused her to stumble over a boom box and accidentally drop her phone into a barrel of water, and with her ruined phone denying her access to her schedule, she was rendered hopelessly aimless and eventually decided to just leave the festival grounds by midafternoon — thus explaining why she always seemed to be first one to return to the RV. Rainbow Dash spent half the day struggling to find the manager in charge of the music festival, and once she eventually did find him, she tried to ask for permission to allow her band — the Sonic Rainbooms — to perform on day two of the festival as a last-minute entry, but a series of embarrassing missteps — such as forgetting that she and her friends didn’t bring their instruments, and also accidentally smacking him in the face with that darn oversized paddle — ultimately convinced the manager to deny her request. And Pinkie Pie, well… Sunset was already well aware of what she did all day. For the third week, Sunset decided to simply allow Pinkie to go off and do her own thing while Sunset explored other areas of the festival grounds at various times of the day. As a result, after only a few more days going through the exact same time loop, she was convinced she had now seen everything of potential interest, and could now predict a number of significant events down to the exact second. Not to mention, by this point, she had already seen PostCrush enough times that she didn’t even bother sticking around to watch them anymore and simply returned to the RV at the end of the evening — especially once it became clear that Pinkie would always seem to get herself kicked out for somehow mangling that churro cart as a result of her overenthusiasm. And now, as she neared the end of her third week through the time loop, Sunset was feeling absolutely bored as she wandered around on her own in the area near the food trucks and the souvenir tents. As she walked, she noticed on her right was some rocker dude with long dark hair and wearing a tie-dyed shirt standing not far away as he sipped on a milkshake. To her left was some other guy wearing glasses and with orange hair and a short beard, who was tinkering around with some contraption a short distance away. As the glasses guy worked on his unidentifiable creation, he accidentally bumped something on the mechanical object, causing it to suddenly fling a coconut high into the air. “Whoa! Heads up!” he immediately cried out. The rocker dude slowly turned around towards the glasses guy and then looked up and watched as that coconut began falling directly towards him. Sunset calmly reached over and easily caught the falling coconut just inches away from the rocker dude’s face. She then gently lowered the coconut and casually dropped it near her feet, all with a bored expression on her face. “Whooooaaaa,” said the rocker dude slowly in astonishment. “How did you appear outta nowhere like that? Are you—?” “No, I’m not a ninja,” replied Sunset dismissively in a bored tone as she continued walking by, not even bothering to spare a glimpse towards that rocker dude. A couple minutes later, Sunset arrived at one of the various souvenir tents, where she saw two familiar guys wearing black and white striped prison shirts — one with a grey jacket partially covering it, and the other with the sleeves torn off — and black beanie hats. These two we none other than Rocky and Mugsy, two of the most incompetent crooks in the Lego World, and right now, they were hauling away a large chest with each of them grasping the handles on either end of it. Sunset let out a bored sigh and muttered, “And there go the brick-heads on their latest attempt at petty robbery.” She pulled out her phone and watched the time as she continued, “Cue the handle breaking off in Mugsy’s hand and spilling the loot in… three… two… one…” Chink. Crash! Sure enough, right at the exact moment Sunset called it, the handle on the end being carried by Mugsy suddenly detached from the chest, causing the chest to drop to the ground and topple over, allowing the lid to pop open and spill the massive load of cash and coins contained within. “Whoops,” muttered Mugsy. “HEY!!” furiously shouted a nearby security guard — the exact same security guard who worked in the security line Sunset always seemed to use, and the exact same security guard who on some loops ultimately kicked her and Pinkie out of the festival grounds. “Scram!” exclaimed Rocky urgently as he dropped his end of the chest and immediately started running towards the nearest section of the boundary wall surrounding the festival grounds, with Mugsy quickly following right behind. The security guard swiftly pursued the two pathetic robbers towards that wall, not too far away. Once they reached the wall, they both tried to jump over it, but it proved to be too high for either of them to even grasp the top of that wall. With the security guard closing in, Rocky decided to climb on top of his partner in crime, using him as enough of a boost to jump and grab onto the top of that wall. Once he hauled himself halfway over that wall, he then reached down and grasped Mugsy’s hands, then hauled him up and over the wall just a split second before the security guard could touch either of those crooks. Of course, once the two incompetent robbers flung themselves over the top of the wall, they both crashed to the ground on the other side. “You’d better run!” shouted the security guard over the wall at the fleeing robbers. “Your kind isn’t welcome here!” Unable to further pursue those crooks, he turned away to check on the dropped chest full of loot. However, as soon as he turned his attention toward that chest, he noticed Sunset Shimmer standing nearby. “Hey, hey, HEY!!” he called out firmly as he rushed back to that chest. “Get away from that!” “Seventeen seconds,” muttered Sunset in a bored tone as she continued staring at her phone in her hand. The security guard stopped in front of Sunset and raised an eyebrow as he asked in confusion, “Huh?” “You had your attention away from this pile of loot for a total of seventeen seconds,” explained Sunset. “In that time, anybody could’ve easily walked by and taken a small portion of it for themselves, with nobody around to catch them in the act.” The security guard overturned the chest back upright and started tossing the spilled loot back into it as he firmly scolded, “Don’t get any ideas, missy. I won’t be repeating that mistake anytime soon.” “Doubtful,” sang Sunset in a dull tone as she turned and walked away. She made it only a few steps before she bumped into another familiar face. Specifically, the paint balloon artist as he was carrying his two easels under his arm on his way to setting up his so-called art show. “Ow! Watch it!” cried out the artist irritably from that mild impact. “Sorry,” responded Sunset with a complete lack of any enthusiasm. “I thought you didn’t pass through the area until later. I’ll make a note of that.” She sighed and continued flatly, “Day twenty: saw paint guy in food truck area right before he breaks up with his girlfriend, claiming that it’s not him, it’s her.” She noticed the paint guy suddenly glanced over her shoulder with a shocked expression on his face while also faintly hearing some sobbing behind her. Well aware of what was happening around her, she didn’t bother turning her attention elsewhere as she continued, “Yes, I’m the one who can read minds, but no, I don’t have the ability to predict the future. I’ve just been caught in an endless time loop of this day.” As she noticed at the edge of her vision to her right the artist’s girlfriend running away in tears, she finished, “Yeah, I’m just gonna move on and leave you to your own issues.” She then turned and began walking away. “Yeah, well… you’d better run!” the artist shot back irritably before he turned and ran off after his fleeing girlfriend. Sunset scoffed and grumbled, “Run away from my problems? I…” She trailed off and began to smile as a thought occurred to her. “…actually haven’t tried that yet.” Already, a plan of escape was starting to come together that she would put into action sometime later. Later that night, Sunset was ready to put her desperate escape plan into action. First, she had chosen to skip seeing PostCrush and simply returned to the campgrounds on her own terms, in order to ensure she would still be allowed into the festival grounds for day two in the unlikely event that this crazy scheme might actually work — especially since this loop ended with Pinkie once again getting kicked out for that same old mishap with the churro cart. With that taken care of, she then had to wait until everyone else was asleep, knowing that without the awareness of being in a time loop, her friends were unlikely to allow her to dare attempt such a seemingly act of madness. And besides, she knew from experience that the moment she fell asleep was essentially the reset button for the time loop, so she had to discreetly stay awake the whole time she waited for her moment of opportunity. To ensure this, she had made the excuse of going out for a little walk before returning to the RV, by which time the only one still awake was Pinkie, who had wanted to make sure her friend would make it back safely. This worked in Sunset’s favor, as Pinkie then quickly fell right to sleep before Sunset could even pretend to start getting ready for bed. Now that the moment of opportunity had arrived, Sunset was ready to put her plan into action. The objective was to simply get as far away from the festival grounds as quickly as possible, with easily the best method being to use a motorized vehicle, and the only such vehicle she had available was the RV, hence why she had to wait so late to ensure none of her friends would try to stop her. Being careful not wake any of her friends, she walked over to and sat down in the driver’s seat, then buckled up the seatbelt. She then turned on the engine — knowing that she was now at the point of no return and thus committed to her desperate plan — shifted the vehicle into drive, and finally stomped on the accelerator. She wanted to be absolutely sure her friends would never get a chance to stop her, so not only did she plan out her escape route during her earlier “walk”, but also intentionally left the RV’s expandable portion extended outward to save time, despite the balance issues this would inevitably cause while driving at high speed. Just as Sunset had anticipated, the rumble of the engine followed by the rough shaking of the RV as it tore along the dirt road away from the campgrounds swiftly woke up everyone inside the vehicle. By the time Sunset turned the vehicle onto the paved road that would lead directly back to Canterlot City, Twilight had retrieved her glasses and stumbled her way towards the front of the RV. “Sunset! Slow down!” Twilight cried out in panic as she quickly sat down in the passenger seat and buckled up the seatbelt. “I gotta break outta here somehow!” Sunset responded in desperation, ignoring the screams of terror from her friends as she continued to accelerate along the paved road. The still-expanded RV dangerously tilted left and right as it sped around tight curves at high speed. At one point, it veered a little too far to the left and a large tree branch caught and tore off the awning that had been left extended. “Why are you doing this?!” screamed Twilight fearfully as she tightly gripped the sides of her seat. “Maybe if I leave this area, it’ll finally end!” responded Sunset as she continued her high-speed getaway. Pinkie Pie stumbled her way to the front of the RV and gripped both front seats to stand between them. “What. Are. You. Talking about?!” she exclaimed irritably. Sunset turned to Pinkie and furiously shot back, “This is all your fault! I blame you for everything that has gone wrong!” Due to Sunset taking her eyes off the road at that moment, she failed to notice a pothole in the pavement, and when the RV hit it, the impact tore the right front wheel off the axle. The RV slammed down on its right front corner and emitted a shower of sparks as it dragged along the pavement, causing the RV to start slowing down while the loose wheel rolled away up ahead. “Oh no! Runaway wheel!” cried out Pinkie as she pointed out the lost wheel rolling away. When she saw Sunset glare at her, she giggled sheepishly and asked, “Y-You’re not gonna blame me for that, too, are ya?” “Yes… Yes, I am,” grumbled Sunset as the RV soon skidded to a complete stop. Once the wild ride through the woods was finally halted, Twilight relaxed and let out a huge sigh of relief. She then took a deep breath as she turned to Sunset and asked, “Okay, now that that’s over with, could you please be kind enough to explain just WHAT THE BRICK YOU DID THAT FOR!?!” Sunset sighed and shamefully replied, “It’s a long story… and I’m not sure you’ll even believe me.” “Well, seeing as we’re definitely not going anywhere for a while, I’d say we’ve got plenty of time to listen,” stated Twilight as the rest of their friends slowly got up and gathered around them. After Sunset had taken a few minutes to explain her situation to her friends, Applejack had politely asked everyone to leave the RV and wait on the side of the road. Once everyone was out, Applejack then used her super strength to lift the broken down vehicle so she and Rainbow Dash could inspect the damage. Meanwhile, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Spike sat together against the base of a nearby tree, while Sunset sat at the base of another tree with her arms holding her knees close to her chest as Twilight and Pinkie stood nearby and continued to ask questions about Sunset’s experiences. Pinkie leaned close to Sunset and asked, “Are you saying the calendar industry cooked up a conspiracy to make every day today just to save paper?!” Sunset facepalmed and irritably shot back, “No, Pinkie, I’m not saying that at all!” “You’re right,” agreed Pinkie suspiciously as she tapped her chin and looked away. “It’s too obvious…” “More like too ridiculous,” grumbled Sunset. “This is why I gave up trying to save you from getting kicked out over that churro cart incident.” Pinkie paused and silently glanced back and forth between her bare wrist and Sunset’s wrist which still had that green festival bracelet attached. Sunset sighed and shamefully said, “Sorry for snapping at you like that.” She turned to the others and added, “And I’m sorry to all of you for hijacking the RV while you were all sleeping, but I’ve tried everything except leaving the area, and I doubted any of you would take me seriously enough to let me try it.” Twilight began pacing around as she hypothesized aloud, “It’s possible a snag in the fabric of spacetime could cause a—” “—temporal point — i.e., this day — to fold in on itself and thereby repeat,” spoke Sunset in a dull tone perfectly simultaneously with Twilight, which completely caught the latter off guard and made her stop pacing around. “You really have done this a lot,” they both spoke again simultaneously, which now irritated Twilight. “Okay, you’ve made your point! Stop!” Sunset sighed again and muttered, “This time loop started because I missed PostCrush. So why didn’t it end when I saw them?” “Are you sure it’s only about PostCrush?” asked Twilight as she gave a subtle glance towards Pinkie. “What else could it be?” asked Sunset desperately. “I can’t think of any other catalyst that could’ve started this whole mess!” “Last night — or rather, three weeks ago from your perspective — you specified your plan was for you and Pinkie to watch PostCrush together,” stated Twilight bluntly. “Did you ever manage to accomplish all of those criteria?” “I’ve tried, Twilight,” responded Sunset in frustration. “Believe me, I’ve tried, but no matter what I do, the day always ends with either both of us staying together and getting kicked out over the churro cart incident, going our separate ways so I can watch PostCrush while she either leaves on her own or gets kicked out alone over the churro incident, or I simply don’t bother watching PostCrush while Pinkie also misses out on PostCrush for any of the previously mentioned reasons. I can’t for the life of me figure out how to make Pinkie watch PostCrush — either alone or with me — under any circumstances!” In the stunned silence from everyone around that followed her rant, Sunset noticed Pinkie with a sad look on her face before the party girl shamefully turned away. Sunset let out another sigh and regretfully added, “I wish I could say sorry, but I’m not sure if I can even mean it anymore. I swear, if I don’t figure out a way out of this mess, I’m gonna completely lose it!” It was at this point that Applejack and Rainbow Dash finished their inspection of the broken down RV and walked over to the rest of their friends. “Bad news,” reported Applejack. “Transmission’s shot, an’ the front axle’s bent outta shape, so there’s no chance of fittin’ the wheel back on — assumin’ we could even find it, that is. Ah just called the tow truck an’ he says he’ll be here tomorrow mornin’. He wants us to pay with cash, an’ these repairs ain’t gonna be cheap.” Sunset sighed yet again and irritably grumbled, “Tomorrow? Sure. You can tell the guy I’ll pay him a million dollars if I’m able to see him tomorrow! Not like it’ll matter, since this thing will just go right back to the way we left it this morning when I next wake up.” Rainbow Dash considered the meaning behind Sunset’s response for a moment. “Huh… I guess you’re right,” she noted. She then chuckled and playfully remarked, “I gotta admit, I’m actually kinda jealous of you right now.” Sunset glared at Rainbow and shot back, “Jealous?! How could there be anything about my situation worth being jealous about?!” “Seriously, think about it,” explained Rainbow eagerly with a smile. “It’s like you just said. It doesn’t matter how badly you’ve wrecked the RV, ‘cause it’ll go right back to being as good as new once you start the next loop. As soon as the time loop resets, everything goes right back to the way they were, not just broken things being restored, but also no one will have any memories of what happened in the previous loop. No one will ever be aware of what you did in any of the earlier loops. You could destroy valuable objects, say nasty things to people, commit robbery, run around naked, and never have to worry about facing any consequences for whatever you did as soon as the time loop resets. You could literally do anything you want, and totally get away with it!” As Rainbow Dash spoke, Sunset initially maintained her incredulous stare, but as the implication began to dawn on her, her expression gradually softened, then she began to look on in curiosity, and then she slowly began to smile. “Rainbow Dash!” scolded Rarity. “Please don’t try to give Sunset any nefarious ideas.” “Too late for that,” quipped Sunset with a smirk as she stood up. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’m gonna go to bed and hit the reset button on this time loop. After everything I’ve been through, I think it’s time for me to really start enjoying myself.” She then walked over to the broken down RV, opened the door, and stepped inside. Twilight turned to glare at Rainbow and grumbled, “Nice going, Rainbow Dash. Thanks to you sharing your fantasies, Sunset has now been inspired to completely exploit this time loop at our expense, purely for the sake of personal entertainment. And since we’re incapable of passing on our experiences through these time loops, our fates now rest solely on whatever outrageous whims she happens to spontaneously come up with. There’s no telling how long she could end up allowing this time loop to perpetually continue, just for the fun of it!” “Aw, c’mon,” retorted Rainbow dismissively with a smile and a shrug. “What’s the worst that could happen?” Morning had arrived at the campgrounds just outside the Starswirled Music Festival. It was little more than an hour after sunrise, and by this point, Sunset Shimmer was the only one still asleep within the RV that she and her friends were using for their stay at the festival. As Sunset slept in her sleeping bag beside the window, her phone was lying beside her head on the pillow. At the moment the time became 7:00, the phone’s alarm went off by playing a song by PostCrush. Be the true… true, true original— Sunset quickly woke up and shut off her phone’s alarm. She quickly climbed out of her sleeping bag as she glanced at her phone, then turned her attention to look out the nearby window. Sure enough, the RV was no longer broken down on the side of an empty road in the woods, but instead was right back at the campgrounds and perfectly intact, while all of her friends were once again gathered outside in all of the exact same positions she remembered seeing them every single time on this time loop. As far as she was concerned, she no longer had any reason to worry about anything. Sunset glanced between the phone in her hand and the window she was looking through, and quickly got her first wild idea. She smirked and remarked, “No consequences? No problem!” She pulled her arm back and chucked her phone against the window, smashing a jagged hole through the glass. Smash! The sudden breaking of that window immediately caught the attention of all of Sunset’s friends gathered outside. “Score!” cheered Sunset excitedly. Without even bothering to change out of her pajamas, she then kicked open the door and charged outside. As she ran off into the woods, she excitedly declared, “Goodbye, common sense!” Meanwhile, all of Sunset’s friends just stared in absolute shock towards the direction she was running off. “What in the blazes has gotten into Sunset?” asked Applejack, completely baffled by the behavior she and the others had just witnessed. After going completely nuts in the previous loop to let off some stress, Sunset was ready to try something in this loop that would definitely relieve one particular source of stress that had been building for some time, and now that she no longer cared about any potential consequences, nothing was going to stop her from going through with it. After going through the old routine of breakfast with her friends and then going through the security line, she and Pinkie immediately found themselves at the giveaway booth with a purple tandem bicycle being displayed to the side. Pinkie stared at a jar full of jellybeans on the booth’s counter as she cheerfully said, “All I have to do is guess how many candies are in the jar, and my sugar senses say… three hundred and five!” BZZZZ! The giveaway booth attendant smacked the buzzer on the counter, indicating Pinkie’s guess was incorrect. “Awww…” moaned Pinkie in disappointment. While Pinkie and the booth attendant were occupied with each other, Sunset took advantage of the diversion to remove the clamps that attached the bicycle to the display stand, then hopped onto the bicycle and quickly rode off on it. “So long, losers!” she taunted as she sped away on the bike. “Hey!” exclaimed the booth attendant. She turned to the nearby main entrance and cried out, “Security! Petty theft bicycle!” The security guard at the main entrance who had permitted entry to Pinkie and Sunset only minutes earlier turned back to observe the crime in progress, then swiftly dropped the bag he had been searching and ran off after the fleeing girl on that stolen bicycle. Sunset was absolutely thrilled as she rode the stolen bicycle across the festival grounds. So much time had passed since the days when she was one of the most wanted criminals in all of the Lego World, she had forgotten just how much excitement she always got from every theft and getaway she had committed. In a way, she almost felt nostalgic for her old criminal behavior in this moment. It wasn’t long before Sunset reached the area with all the food trucks and food carts, and once she identified one particular cart, she immediately zeroed in on it. “Be gone with you, evil churros!” she declared with determination as she pedaled the bike directly at the churro cart. Puffed Pastry and a few other people near that cart quickly jumped out of the way only seconds before the stolen bicycle slammed into it. Crash! The cart was smashed to pieces and cinnamon dust was sent flying everywhere, while the bicycle was bent out of shape as one of its wheels detached and rolled away. Sunset was momentarily dazed from the impact. When she recovered, she noticed a shadow looming over her, so she looked up and saw that security guard from the front entrance was now standing before her with his arms crossed, a scowl on his face, and his head and torso covered in cinnamon dust. Sunset just smiled and, after a brief giggle, contently remarked, “Totally worth it.” Less than an hour later, Sunset’s wrists were bound by a pair of handcuffs behind her back as police officer Flash Sentry escorted her to his cruiser parked nearby. All of Sunset’s friends had gathered together to watch in both shock and shame. They were absolutely baffled why someone who had been such a good friend of them for so long would spontaneously do such a horrible thing. All the while, Sunset still had a pleasant smile on her face. “Don’t worry about me, girls,” she assured her friends contently as she was escorted past them. “I’ll see you again in the morning.” “After the stunt you just pulled? Don’t count on it,” scolded Flash Sentry before he opened the rear door and shoved Sunset into the backseat. He shut that door, then climbed into the driver’s seat, started up his cruiser, and drove off away from the festival grounds. As Flash drove the cruiser down the road leading back to Canterlot City, he sighed and spoke, “I’m very disappointed in you, Sunset. I thought for sure you had moved on from your criminal past, and judging by the looks on your friends faces, I’m sure they thought the same thing. I don’t know what gave you the idea to do such a crazy thing, but in doing so, you’ve betrayed everyone’s trust in you. Care to explain yourself?” “Simple,” remarked Sunset, still with that pleasant smile on her face. “I’m caught in a time loop. No matter where you take me, I’ll just wake up the next morning back at this morning, and no one will ever remember what I just did.” “That has gotta be one of the most ridiculous reasons I’ve ever heard,” responded Flash skeptically. BANG! Fssssss… Flash was shocked when the vehicle’s engine suddenly blew and thick smoke began billowing out from under the hood. “Oh, come on! Seriously?!” he exclaimed in disbelief as he pulled the broken vehicle over to the side of the road. “I just had this thing inspected only three days ago!” As the spontaneously broken down cruiser slowed to a stop, Sunset giggled and remarked, “Wow… I guess whatever’s behind this time loop also doesn’t want me going anywhere away from that music festival.” “You’re not doing yourself any favors, here,” grumbled Flash as he climbed out of the car and walked around to the front of it. He pulled open the hood, only to suddenly find himself engulfed in thick black smoke, quickly causing him to cough uncontrollably. “Yeah, you go ahead and choke yourself trying to figure out that mechanical failure,” quipped Sunset. “I’m just gonna lie down back here and take a nap.” She then leaned over and rested on her side along the backseat of the cruiser and closed her eyes. She listened to Flash cough and curse the vehicle’s busted engine before she eventually dozed off. The next thing she knew, she woke up to the same PostCrush song on her phone. Be the true… true, true original— She reached for her phone and shut off the alarm. She looked around and saw she was back in the RV, back in her sleeping bag, and back in her pajamas. She smirked and quietly remarked, “Yeah… totally got away with it…” Another loop passed by, and Sunset found herself back inside the festival grounds. This time, she was going to apply some experience from some of the previous loops to do another petty crime without any fear of consequences. First, Sunset waited near the row of port-a-potties until she saw one girl remove her backpack and set it down on the ground before walking into one of the stalls. Once that door was latched, Sunset casually grabbed that backpack, dumped all of its contents onto the ground, and then slung the empty bag over her shoulder as she began to make her way towards the souvenir tents Sunset pulled out her phone and checked the time down to the second as she arrived at those souvenir tents. Right at the same time as usual, she watched those two robbers, Rocky and Mugsy, make their attempt to steal a chest full of loot. Second by second, the same old sequence occurred. Chink. Crash! The handle on Mugsy’s side of the chest suddenly detached, causing it to drop to the ground and topple over, allowing the lid to pop open and spill the massive load of cash and coins contained within. “Whoops,” muttered Mugsy. “HEY!!” furiously shouted that security guard before he began to charge at the robbers. “Scram!” exclaimed Rocky urgently as he dropped his end of the chest and immediately started running towards the boundary wall with Mugsy following right behind him. As the security guard pursued the two incompetent crooks, Sunset lowered her stolen backpack and calmly began shoveling as much of that spilled loot into it as she could. “You’d better run!” shouted that security guard off in the distance. “Your kind isn’t welcome here!” As soon as Sunset heard the start of that shout from the security guard, she immediately stopped grabbing any more of the loot, zipped up the backpack, and slung it over her shoulder as she began to casually walk away. With every step away from the fallen chest, she listened carefully, and was pleased that not only did the security guard not call attention to her, but also began tossing the spilled loot back into the chest, seemingly unaware some of it was no longer there. A perfectly clean getaway, thought Sunset with a smirk. Okay, now that I’ve got a small fortune with me, what should I spend it on? She glanced around at some of the other souvenir tents in the immediate vicinity. She then shrugged and thought, Eh, might as well do something nice for my friends. As much as Sunset enjoyed taking advantage of the time loops negating any potential consequences, she still cared very much for her friends, so she was perfectly fine with spending this ill-gotten loot on lavish gifts for her friends. After purchasing all those expensive souvenirs, Sunset decided to head right back to the RV and wait for her friends to arrive. Once everyone was back together later that evening, Sunset surprised everyone by offering those gifts to all of them. She gave a blue cashmere cloak to Rarity, authentic vintage cowboy attire to Applejack, a sports jersey signed by many of the best athletes in the world to Rainbow Dash, an interchangeable bird call for some of the rarest species of birds to Fluttershy, a rare copy of the very first Power People comic book to Spike, the latest high-tech digital assistant tablet to Twilight, and a super-sized pack of novelty-flavored jellybeans to Pinkie Pie. Everyone greatly appreciated the gifts Sunset got for all of them, but it wasn’t long until one of them asked the inevitable question. “How were you able to afford all of these things?” asked Twilight. Sunset just chuckled and slyly replied, “Let’s just say I decided to ‘borrow’ some funds that were left behind by a failed robbery attempt.” “What?!” exclaimed Twilight in shock. “You stole money to purchase these things?! Do you have any idea how much trouble you’ll be in for such a crime?!” “Oh, I’m well aware, Twilight,” Sunset casually replied, “but since I’m trapped in a time loop, I don’t have to fear any consequences.” She took a sip straight from a bottle of high-quality champagne she had purchased for herself before she added, “Better enjoy your gifts while you can, because as soon as I go to bed and then wake up in the morning, everything will reset and I’ll be the only one who remembers any of this.” “Oh, I’m definitely enjoying my gift,” acknowledged Pinkie cheerfully. “Thank you so much!” She tossed one of her jellybeans into her mouth and chewed it for a few seconds before she pleasantly remarked, “Wow, this pack really does come in every flavor imaginable. That last one tasted like grass.” In another loop, Pinkie Pie had once again gone off frolicking in the Neon Garden, blissfully wandering around the maze without a care in the world. Bzzzzzz! Pinkie suddenly stopped when she noticed a chainsaw pierce through one of the hedges nearby and trace a circular path, ultimately cutting a hole through the hedge. The person armed with that chainsaw then stepped through, revealing herself to be Sunset. “Sunset?” asked Pinkie in confusion. “What are you doing?” “What does it look like I’m doing?” responded Sunset with a cocky grin as she held up that chainsaw. “I’m cutting a few shortcuts through the Neon Garden. Wouldn’t want us to get lost in here, now would we?” “I guess…” responded Pinkie with uncertainty as she rubbed the back of her head. Sunset walked over to another nearby hedge and began to cut another large hole through it. Bzzzzzz! BZZT! As Sunset cut through that hedge, she accidentally severed one of the strings of lights, causing many of the intricate flower designs along the hedges to suddenly go dark. “Whoops,” she muttered. That moment of guilt ended after only one second before she shrugged and dismissively remarked, “Oh well, not like anybody cares about those things.” She then resumed her work of cutting large openings through the hedges to provide shortcuts everywhere. Another loop began like many others, right to the moment Sunset decided to once again help herself to some of the loot abandoned by those two pathetic robbers. She went through the same routine as the previous times she had done this. She stole and emptied the backpack from outside the port-a-potty, then walked over to the souvenir booths where Rocky and Mugsy were making their robbery attempt. Chink. Crash! “Whoops,” muttered Mugsy as the handle broke off in his hand, dumping the chest and its loot on the ground. “HEY!!” shouted the security guard as he began pursuing the crooks. “Scram!” exclaimed Rocky as he and Mugsy ran off, with the security guard right behind. With only seventeen seconds available, Sunset scooped as much of the spilled cash and coins as she could into her stolen backpack. “You’d better run!” shouted the security guard at the fleeing robbers. “You’re kind isn’t welcome here!” Before the security guard had turned back to the spilled loot, Sunset zipped up the backpack and walked off with that small fortune. Another clean getaway, she thought with a smirk. Now… what should I splurge the money on this time? She walked around the souvenir booths to browse what was available. As soon as she came across a set of golf clubs, she knew right away exactly what she was going to use them for. A few hours later, Sunset had disassembled part of a secondary stage and rebuilt some of the pieces into a basic frame for a small tower. She then climbed to the top of that tower while carrying the golf clubs she had purchased with that ill-gotten loot. Once she stood on the platform atop that makeshift tower, she set a golf ball on the tee, selected one of her new golf clubs, then prepared to take aim — directly out into the middle of the festival grounds. Finally, she swung the golf club back and made her first strike of the ball. The ball harmlessly bounced across a grassy open area. “Lame,” muttered Sunset as she set down a second ball. She took a few seconds to anticipate her aim, then struck the ball. Thunk! The second ball bounced off the side of a wooden support post. “Eh, at least it’s something,” muttered Sunset as she set down a third ball. She adjusted her aim, then struck the ball. Gloop! The third ball landed in a bowl of punch, creating only a small splash that splatted two people who happened to be standing near it. “Okay, that’s a little impressive,” remarked Sunset as she set down a fourth ball. She checked her aim again, then struck the ball. Smash! The fourth ball struck and shattered a glass bottle, spraying its liquid contents all over the countertop it was resting on. “Yeah! That’s a hit!” cheered Sunset as she set down a fifth ball. “Hey!” called out the security guard from the ground at the base of the tower. “What are you doing up there?!” “What does it look like I’m doing?” replied Sunset dismissively as she took aim again. “I’m working on my golf game.” She then struck the ball. Bonk! “Ow!” cried someone in the distance. “Ha! Nailed him!” cheered Sunset as she set down a sixth ball. “You think this is funny?” scolded the security guard. “You’re breaking things and injuring people! Cut that out and get down from there right now!” “Sorry, buddy,” responded Sunset insincerely, “but I’m not coming down until I’ve used up all of my golf balls.” She then struck the ball and watched as it bounced off the top of a wooden post and then smashed a floodlight. Thunk! Smash! “Hey, that was a pretty good trick shot,” remarked Sunset quietly as she set down a seventh ball. “All right, missy, you asked for it,” grumbled the security guard as he marched toward the tower and began to climb up the frame of it. As soon as that security guard neared the top of the tower, Sunset suddenly turned to him and sharply exclaimed, “Hey! I said I’m not done up here!” She then struck the guard in the face with her golf club, causing him to lose his grip and fall off the tower, smashing to pieces upon hitting the ground. The security guard rolled his detached head to glare up at Sunset atop the tower. “Oh, you’re in real trouble now, missy!” he threatened. “Oh, pull yourself together,” rebuked Sunset dismissively as she took aim. “No need to go all to pieces.” She then struck the ball again. At this rate, she just might be able to go through all of the golf balls she had brought with her before security would inevitably manage to apprehend her. And since she still had no concern for any consequences, she found that possible accomplishment to be rather impressive. Of course, no matter how many times Sunset went through all these time loops, they would always start out exactly the same way, especially one particularly painful moment. “Starswirled day one! Come and get it!” Rainbow Dash excitedly declared as she swung her large paddle around, accidentally smacking Sunset’s rear end. “Ow! Seriously?!” exclaimed Sunset furiously as she grasped her rear end and glared at Rainbow Dash. “Oops.” Rainbow chuckled sheepishly and responded, “Sorry.” On this particular loop, Sunset had simply had enough of that incident, so she immediately swiped the paddle out of Rainbow’s hands, snapped it in half over her knee, and then tossed the broken pieces over onto the heating table. Sunset let out a sigh of relief as she turned away and contently remarked, “Boy, that felt good.” All of Sunset’s friends looked on in confusion as they watched her walk away. Their attention was then quickly brought to the heating table when the broken paddle suddenly ignited from the heat and burst into flames. On a different loop, Sunset decided to bring Pinkie along for something so wild and reckless that even the zany pink party girl was quick to have second thoughts about it. “Are you sure this is such a good idea, Sunset?” asked Pinkie worriedly. The two girls were seated in an old sports car they had “borrowed” from the parking lot, with Sunset sitting in the driver’s seat. Directly ahead of them was a makeshift ramp Sunset had built out of various Lego parts in the area that led straight towards their RV. And strapped to the roof of that car was a crude rocket engine that was certainly large enough to provide some significant thrust to such a vehicle. “Relax, Pinkie,” assured Sunset confidently. “All we’re gonna do is drive this car up that ramp and use the homemade rocket on the roof to give us a speed boost to clear the RV and make a safe landing in the woods.” She smiled and quipped, “What could possibly go wrong?” As Sunset started up the engine, Pinkie gulped and nervously asked, “I-Is it okay if I back out right now?” Sunset just smirked and playfully retorted, “Too late!” She then stomped on the accelerator. The car’s tires tore through the gravel parking lot as the vehicle rapidly approached the ramp, with Pinkie screaming in terror all the way. Vroooooom! Finally, as they approached the ramp, Sunset smacked the big red button on the dashboard, igniting the rocket. The car quickly shot off the ramp, the screams of the two girls inside drowned out by the loud roar of the rocket. FWOOOOOOSSSHHH!!! However, almost immediately after going airborne, the attempted stunt went horribly wrong as the front-heavy car quickly tipped forward, altering its trajectory down directly onto the RV. Sunset didn’t even have time to curse before the moment of impact. The next thing Sunset knew, she woke up in the RV to the morning alarm on her phone. Be the true… true, true original— Sunset shut off the alarm on her phone and quietly remarked with a smile, “Huh… I guess not even losing my Creation Spark can break this time loop.” Not all loops were spent doing wildly crazy things. Sometimes, Sunset was satisfied with something relatively minor, such as retaliating against that paint balloon artist. Specifically, she wanted to see if she could catch one of the paint balloons thrown at her and send it right back at him. On her first attempt, Sunset reached her hand out in front of her and caught the balloon, but squeezed it too hard, bursting the balloon and causing blue paint to splatter all over herself. She growled in frustration, then pointed at the artist and declared, “I’ll get you next time!” On another loop for her second attempt, Sunset tried to catch the balloon with both hands, but since it came directly at her, she ended up squeezing it against her torso, bursting the balloon and splattering yellow paint all over herself. Again, she growled in frustration at this failure. On the following loop for her third attempt, Sunset quickly stepped aside as she tried the catch the balloon with both hands, but she fumbled it around until it ended up getting flung upwards, then came back down on top of her head, bursting upon impact and splattering green paint all over herself. Once again, she growled in frustration. On the next loop for her fourth attempt, Sunset quickly stepped aside and grasped the flung balloon while being careful to not grasp it with too much pressure. Remarkably, she actually succeeded this time as the balloon stopped within her grasp and remained intact. “Ha!” she shouted triumphantly before she promptly chucked the balloon right back at the artist, splattering him in the face with orange paint. “Ah! My eyes!” cried the artist as he tried to rub the paint off his face. “Serves you right!” declared Sunset with conviction. Pinkie gasped and exclaimed in shock, “Sunset! That wasn’t very nice!” “Eh, why should I care?” retorted Sunset with a shrug. “I’m stuck in a time loop. He’ll be totally fine the next time I see him.” On yet another loop, Sunset had decided to simply lie down on her back and relax for the afternoon. Screeeeeeeeeech! But Sunset wasn’t relaxing just anywhere. She was lying down in the backseat of a convertible car. She had also driven this “borrowed” car from the parking lot out to the nearest paved area, placed a weight on the accelerator, and locked the steering wheel all the way to the left. As a result, the convertible was now perpetually doing donuts with no one in the driver’s seat, all while Sunset rested in the backseat with sunglasses over her eyes and a smile on her face, as if she was lounging at the beach. Screeeeeeeeeech! Not far away, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were staring at that unusual stunt in confusion. Speechless at what they were witnessing , they briefly glanced at each other, then resumed staring at the spinning vehicle. Screeeeeeeeeech! Many loops later, after doing so many crazy and outlandish things throughout the numerous previous loops, Sunset was actually starting to feel rather bored by this point, and ultimately had decided to spend this loop just staying at the RV and doing absolutely nothing. Naturally, all of her friends — especially Pinkie Pie — were concerned with her seemingly depressed behavior, so she assured them she would explain everything to them later only if they agreed to enjoy day one of the Starswirled Music Festival without her. They had all reluctantly accepted her promise and went ahead with their original plans, except for Pinkie, who felt so lonely that she eventually decided to just return to the RV and hang out with Sunset before the day was even halfway over, despite being well aware that it would mean they would miss seeing PostCrush later that night. Now, it was late in the evening as Sunset was seated with all of her friends around the RV’s heating table as they were roasting marshmallows over it. As soon as everyone had gathered together, Sunset had explained her situation to all of them. Pinkie, who was sitting beside Sunset and had waited all afternoon to find out what was troubling her friend, was the first to speak up. “Are you saying the calendar industry cooked up a conspiracy to make every day today just to save paper?!” she asked. “For the twenty-third time, Pinkie, no, that’s not what I’m saying at all,” grumbled Sunset. “You’re right,” agreed Pinkie suspiciously as she tapped her chin and looked away. “It’s too obvious…” Twilight hummed in thought for a moment before she stated, “It’s possible a—” “—snag in the fabric of spacetime could cause a temporal point — i.e., this day — to fold in on itself and thereby repeat,” finished Sunset flatly. Twilight blinked as she stared at Sunset for a moment before she added, “You really—” “—have done this a lot?” finished Sunset again. Twilight raised her hand and was about to say something else, but was interrupted again. “Yes, I’ve made my point, and I’m gonna stop now,” added Sunset, still speaking monotone. “Oh dear,” muttered Fluttershy worriedly. “I wonder what could’ve caused this.” “I gave up trying to figure that out,” confessed Sunset. “At first, I thought it was because I missed seeing PostCrush the first time around. I’ve now seen them at least two dozen times, and this time loop is still going strong.” “If ya don’t mind me askin’,” asked Applejack hesitantly, “how long have ya been goin’ through this here ‘time loop’?” “To be honest, I’m starting to lose count by now,” answered Sunset shamefully. “My best estimate is that I’m now at somewhere around four months.” “Four months?!” exclaimed all of Sunset’s friends at once. “So you’re saying that the night we first rolled into this campground, which for us was only twenty-four hours ago, was for you over four months ago?!” asked Twilight in shock. “Yeah, pretty much,” replied Sunset as she inspected her marshmallow. “Goodness, darling,” said Rarity, aghast. “I almost dread the thought of what one could possibly do to spend four months of their life repeating the exact same day, over and over.” “Oh, I could think of plenty of things,” quipped Rainbow Dash with a grin as she placed her roasted marshmallow on a graham cracker and removed it from the skewer she held. “If anything, I’m actually kinda jealous of Sunset.” “What do you mean?” asked Fluttershy as she also removed her toasted marshmallow from her skewer. “Just think about it, girls,” explained Rainbow eagerly. “When you’re the only one caught in a time loop, it doesn’t matter if you destroy something or hurt someone’s feelings. As soon as the time loop resets, everything goes right back to the way they were, not just broken things being restored, but also no one will have any memories of what happened in the previous loop. No one will ever be aware of what you did in any of the earlier loops. You could destroy valuable objects, say nasty things to people, commit robbery, run around naked, and never have to worry about facing any consequences for whatever you did as soon as the time loop resets. You could literally do anything you want, and totally get away with it!” “Rainbow Dash!” scolded Rarity. “Please don’t try to give Sunset any nefarious ideas.” “Too late for that,” noted Sunset, still with that bored frown on her face. “She gave me that idea way back at the end of my third week.” “Wow, no wonder you’ve been at this for four months,” remarked Spike. “You must’ve spent all that time doing all kinds of crazy things.” “Eh, I won’t completely deny it,” confessed Sunset sheepishly with a shrug. “But I also wasn’t going totally nuts all that time. As much as I enjoyed the opportunities, I also still wanted to figure out what was really causing the time loop and how I could end it.” “Did you discover anything of significance, thus far?” asked Twilight. Sunset took a moment to recall some of her experiences before she answered, “Well, whatever magic is behind this time loop, it doesn’t seem to allow me to go anywhere outside this area. I once tried to hijack the RV and make a getaway, only to bust a wheel off not far down the road. And on those loops when I did stuff crazy enough to get arrested, the police cruiser taking me to jail would always suddenly break down not far from the festival grounds, at which point I would decide to just take an early nap to reset the loop.” She then chuckled in amusement. “One time, I decided to get arrested early enough just to see how many vehicles they could go through while trying to take me away. It was kinda funny seeing one emergency vehicle fail after another. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Eventually, they just gave up on trying to take me to jail, so instead they brought the jail to me by building a little jailhouse over there, just for me.” She pointed at an empty site on the side of a dirt road not far away. There was an awkward silence among Sunset’s friends over just how casually she was speaking about being arrested multiple times at this music festival. During that silence, Twilight’s gaze drifted to the Jump-Gate return device she often wore on her right wrist, so she smiled as she held up her arm and asked, “What about—?” “Already tried the Jump-Gate, too,” answered Sunset, frowning again in disappointment. “That device spontaneously shorted out the moment you were about to use it.” “Spontaneously shorted out?” asked Twilight in confusion as she glanced down to closely inspect her device. “But with the reliability and maintenance that goes into this thing, that’s gotta be like a—” “One in a billion chance?” finished Sunset. “That’s what you said… all eight times I tried to use the Jump-Gate… and that’s exactly what happened, all eight times.” Twilight’s jaw dropped from hearing that astonishing statistic. “Have you tried staying up all night long to see if that could break the time loop?” asked Rainbow Dash. “Tried it plenty of times,” replied Sunset, still speaking in a bored monotone. “But as soon as the clock struck midnight, I would always suddenly pass out and then wake up back on the morning of day one.” “Golly,” muttered Applejack in disbelief. “You are really up a creek on this one, Sunset.” “And that’s the seventh time I’ve heard you say that phrase to describe my situation,” noted Sunset. “Second only to, ‘You’re sure in quite a pickle,’ which you’ve so far used nine times.” “I can see why you’ve all but given up by now,” Fluttershy quietly muttered. “I’ve probably asked you this, like, a gazillion times already,” Pinkie spoke up, “but what did Princess Twilight in Equestria say when you told her about this through your magic journal?” Upon hearing that, Sunset’s eyes widened before she smacked herself in the forehead and exclaimed with a smile, “Of course! The journal with Princess Twilight! I totally forgot that I brought it with me! How did I not try that months ago?!” Pinkie giggled and remarked, “Seriously, though, why didn’t you? Are you asking yourself, ‘Self, how do you spend four months with my best friend Pinkie Pie without asking for help until now?’” Twilight gave Sunset a hard look and suspiciously asked, “Are you sure this time loop is only about you seeing PostCrush?” The implied accusation left Sunset feeling a little uncomfortable for a moment, but then she took a deep breath to relax herself before she stated, “Either way, I’ll contact Princess Twilight first thing in the morning. That should allow her to spend as much of the day as possible trying to research for any possible answers — since that’ll be all the time she’ll have available before the loop resets again.” “Well, it’s nice to see you’ve finally got a new plan in mind,” remarked Spike contently. Just then, the marshmallow he was roasting suddenly caught on fire. He yelped in panic and started waving the skewer around in an effort to put out the fire. Instead, the smoldering treat flung off the skewer and splattered against Rarity, who yelled out in horror at seeing her expensive jacket ruined by the gooey mess. Sunset rolled her eyes and flatly noted, “And if there’s one thing about this evening get-together that always seems go the same way every time, it’s that right there.” She gestured at Rarity. “The least could’ve done was warn me,” grumbled Rarity with a frown as she reached for a napkin to smother the still flaming mess on her jacket. Sunset simply shrugged as she replied, “Seeing as it always happens less than an hour away from the end of the loop when everything resets, I just don’t see the point.” “With sentiment like that, I’m starting to get a little concerned about your sanity,” stated Twilight worriedly. “I sure hope the other me can finally give you some answers on the next loop.” “So do I, Twilight,” muttered Sunset in solemn agreement as she turned her gaze up at the starry night sky above. “So do I…”