Chapter 5
Possible Suspects
Morning 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, shut off her phone’s alarm, then carelessly tossed her phone across the room. After four months of the exact same morning routine over and over, she had very little patience left for even the most minor of things. Even so, the recent reminder that she had bought along her magic journal to Princess Twilight of Equestria gave her something to be optimistic about. As far as she was concerned, today was going to be her last hope of ever finding a way out of this perpetual time loop.
Sunset climbed out of her sleeping bag, tossed off her pajamas, and slipped on the exact same music festival outfit she had worn for the past four months. This time, before she headed outside, she searched through her packed things and quickly found her magic journal. She then quickly grabbed a pen she had also packed, then walked out the door and around the front of the RV to join her friends, who were already gathered outside.
It was the same old setting Sunset had seen over a hundred times already. Twilight, Fluttershy, and Applejack were seated around the RV’s heating table as they ate breakfast, while Rarity and Spike were seated at a nearby picnic table as Spike demonstrated some of his beatboxing skills.
Rarity rolled her eyes and grumbled, “Ugh, I shall never understand the appeal of beatboxing.”
Spike kept his smile as he shrugged and remarked, “Eh, to each their own.”
Sunset had ignored that discussion and focused on flipping through the pages of her journal to reach the first blank page. However, this prevented her from noticing Rainbow Dash quickly run over and stop right behind her while carrying a large paddle with the Sonic Rainbooms band symbol printed on it.
“Starswirled day one! Come and get it!” Rainbow excitedly declared as she swung the paddle around, accidentally smacking Sunset’s rear end.
“Ow!” exclaimed Sunset as she grasped her rear end and glared at Rainbow.
“Oops.” Rainbow chuckled sheepishly and responded, “Sorry. I’ll be more careful next time.”
“No, Rainbow Dash!” Sunset suddenly snapped. “You won’t! Every day you say that, but you never are! Why won’t you change?!”
Rainbow stared back at Sunset in shock and confusion for a moment before she awkwardly responded, “Okaaaaay…” She then began to slowly back away.
Sunset immediately regretted what she had just shouted, and felt even more so when she glanced around and saw all of her friends were also staring at her in shock. She sighed and shamefully spoke up, “Sorry for snapping like that. Long story short, I’ve been stuck in a time loop where I’ve been repeating this day for months now. I know what you did was a total accident, Rainbow, but after receiving the exact same accident every single morning for me… I just got really tired of it, after a while.”
All of Sunset’s friends continued to stare at her in confusion. Eventually, Applejack turned to Twilight and asked, “Uh, what does she mean by ‘time loop’?”
Twilight was about to reply when Sunset suddenly spoke up, “Don’t bother, Twilight. I’ll explain everything a little later when we’re in the security lines. Trust me, those lines will be slow enough that I’ll have time to explain everything. But right now, I need to send a message to Princess Twilight in Equestria so she can start researching any possible causes for this time loop, and hopefully she’ll find an answer for me before the end of this day.”
Sunset sat down at a nearby available seat as she opened her journal and placed it in her lap. She pulled out her pen and took a moment to consider the wording of her message before she began to write.
Dear Princess Twilight,
This is going to sound weird, but… how long has it been since my latest message? The one I supposedly wrote only yesterday about how excited I was to be going to the Starswirled Music Festival? I’m not sure how or why, but… I’m caught in a time loop where I’ve been repeating this day over and over. I can’t think of anything that caused it, but it did start when I missed seeing PostCrush the first time going through this day and I had wished for a do-over. I eventually got my wish, but it’s now been four months for me, and I can’t figure out if there’s some kind of Equestrian Magic involved. If you could help me find some answers before the end of today, I would highly appreciate it.
Your friend, Sunset Shimmer.
Sunset closed her journal and put away her pen as she spoke up, “Okay, that’s taken care of. Now we just need to wait and see if she’s able to find any answers.”
“And what shall we do in the meantime?” asked Rarity.
“You girls just go ahead and do whatever you wanna do,” replied Sunset as she walked over to the nearby picnic table to grab her now very familiar breakfast of blueberry pancakes — having long since memorized almost every detail in each and every one of those specific pancakes, such as their exact shape and the exact placement of every single blueberry scattered within them. “I’ve already been everywhere and done everything imaginable, so I’m just gonna sit around and wait for a response from Princess Twilight.”
“In that case, I’ll just hang out with you all day,” said Pinkie with a smile as she rushed over to stand beside Sunset.
“You don’t have to do that,” Sunset pointed out as she began to gather her stack of pancakes. “I’ll be willing to pass on watching PostCrush, if necessary, and I’d rather you not miss out on that show just for me.”
“We’re best friends, Sunset,” stated Pinkie as she hugged Sunset. “I’d miss PostCrush a hundred times if it meant being there for you in your time of need.”
That statement of dedication from Pinkie immediately brought feelings of guilt to Sunset. After all, she had already had those hundred chances and more, but had either blamed Pinkie for making them both miss out or simply abandoned her to watch PostCrush alone. Even worse, the perception she had developed of the time loop meaning she wouldn’t have to be concerned with anyone remembering anything by the end of the day before it reset again had resulted in her, more often than not, completely disregarding the feelings of Pinkie or any of her other friends. It was only now, as she sat down to start eating her blueberry pancake breakfast with maple syrup, that she realized that if she was going to be serious about bringing an end to this time loop, then she would definitely need to get back into a habit of not taking everything for granted.
After the two-hour long wait through the security line — where she had the opportunity to fully explain her time loop situation to her friends — Sunset had decided to spend her day of waiting within the large tent that served as a lounge not far from where the food trucks and carts were located. Pinkie had volunteered to frequently run back and forth to the food trucks to provide some food and drinks for herself and Sunset — though it was Pinkie who ended up consuming most of those snacks and beverages.
With her magic journal resting in her lap, Sunset waited all morning, all afternoon, and finally late into the evening for a response. It was right when she and Pinkie heard the announcement in the distance signaling that the live performance of PostCrush was about to begin that the journal suddenly started to glow and vibrate, indicating a message from Princess Twilight.
Sunset did not hesitate to open that journal and start reading the recently added message.
“Ooh! Ooh! What does it say?!” asked Pinkie eagerly. “Did she figure it out?! Does she know what’s going on?!”
Sunset’s initial smile quickly fell as she read the message. She glanced over at Pinkie, then looked down at her journal and read aloud, “Dear Sunset Shimmer. I’ve been doing some research and I’m sorry to inform you that I’ve been unable to find any information regarding your temporal loop experiences, but that’s only because I could look though only so many books and scrolls in just one day. There’s much more of my library I have yet to search, and I may have to expand my search to the library in Canterlot, if necessary. At the very least, I can confirm that, yes, the effects of your temporal loop extend even into Equestria, meaning that the next time you wake up, I will have no recollection of your message or any of the research I just did.”
“Aww,” muttered Pinkie sadly. “That’s a real bummer…”
Sunset continued reading aloud, “However, I’ve got an idea to help us work around this limitation. After this message, I will list the sections I have already searched through, and I want you to memorize all of it. That way, when you next wake up earlier this morning again, you will not only rewrite your message to me, but also include the sections I had listed. That way, I’ll know which sections I had already searched in previous loops and thus can skip right over to essentially resume where I left off. With this system, hopefully it won’t take long before I can find something relevant to solving your temporal loop issue. Your friend, Princess Twilight Sparkle.”
Sunset turned the page to look over the list that Princess Twilight had recorded of the sections of her library she had already searched through. It was certainly thorough, to say the least. Sunset sighed and noted, “Well, at least this won’t be a hopeless effort. I just need to not only rewrite my message to Princess Twilight the next morning, but also memorize this list tonight so I can include it in that message. Of course, there’s no telling how many more days I’ll have to go through with this before she eventually finds something helpful.” She closed her journal and sighed. “If she can find anything helpful…”
“Look on the bright side,” said Pinkie with optimism. “Maybe tomorrow will be the day you get your answers.”
“I sure hope so…” muttered Sunset as she stood up and began to make her way back to the campgrounds.
Thanks to some help from her friends later that evening, Sunset was able to memorize the sections of Princess Twilight’s research, allowing her to add that list to her rewritten message the next morning. Unfortunately, the second day ended mostly the same as the first, which inevitably left Sunset with a second list of additional research material to memorize for the following morning. It had been a struggle to memorize that second list in addition to the first one, but she was able to be mostly confident in her accuracy as she included it with her rewritten message to Princess Twilight the following morning.
On the third day of waiting, Sunset received a reply in her journal sometime around late afternoon — a few hours earlier than she had received the previous replies throughout the time loop, which immediately filled Sunset with optimism that, perhaps this time, Princess Twilight might have actually found something significant. With a smile on her face, Sunset immediately open her journal and began reading the most recent message.
“Ooh! Ooh! What does it say?!” asked Pinkie eagerly, tossing aside the bag of potato chips she had been snacking on. “Did she figure it out?! Does she know what’s going on?!”
Sunset kept her smile as she glanced at Pinkie, then turned her gaze down at the journal and read aloud, “Dear Sunset Shimmer. Taking into consideration the research you claim I have already done in the previous loop of this day, I concluded that I should skip further ahead and go straight to the restricted section of Canterlot Library. I’m sure you remember going there with me during that Memory Stone incident.” Sunset chuckled as she glanced over at Pinkie and remarked, “How could I not? She practically fell in love with the place, as if someone decided to let you run loose in a candy factory.”
Pinkie gasped and excitedly exclaimed, “Me allowed to freely explore a candy factory?! That would be the best thing I could ever imagine!”
Sunset giggled, the turned her gaze back down to the journal and continued reading aloud, “It seems my hunch this time was right, as it looks like you’ve found another long lost Equestrian artifact.” Sunset sighed and grumbled, “Lucky me…”
“Eh, at least this means you’ve finally got an answer and don’t have to wait anymore,” noted Pinkie before taking a sip from her strawberry slush drink.
“True…” acknowledged Sunset. She turned her gaze back down to the journal and continued reading aloud, “This artifact is called the Time Twirler. I don’t know how it found its way into the Lego World, but when activated, it has the power to loop time. What you’re experiencing isn’t simply magic run amok or a wish gone awry. Somepony is using the Time Twirler to cause this. I’ve used a copy-paste spell to record for you all the relevant information on this artifact over the following two pages. Please be sure to inform me once you’ve been able to locate and deactivate the Time Twirler, even if it takes you a few more loops of today to accomplish that. Your friend, Princess Twilight Sparkle.”
Sunset turned the page and looked over the two pages of copied notes and diagrams describing the Time Twirler in full detail. The artifact appeared to be some sort of amulet shaped like a stopwatch with a large eye covering most of the face of it, and according to the diagrams, the artifact was activated by pressing the button on top, and that activation would be signified by the eye opening and a pair of golden fins flaring out the sides of it. “Okay, this is definitely promising,” noted Sunset with a smile as she showed those pages to Pinkie. “If we find whoever used the Time Twirler to start the loop, we’ll be able to end it for good!” She then slammed her journal shut and declared, “Gather the others and tell them we have a new mission.”
“You got it, Sunset!” acknowledged Pinkie with a salute before she swiftly rushed off, spilling her half-full slush drink to the ground in the process.
While she waited for her friends to arrive, Sunset decided to open her journal again and study the copied ancient notes and diagrams on the Time Twirler. Now that she finally had a promising lead to work with, she wanted to make sure she knew as much about it as possible before officially starting her investigation.
As the sun began to set over the festival grounds and the sky turned to brilliant shades of orange and red, Sunset had just finished telling her friends about the Time Twirler and they were now walking around the area and observing their surroundings for anything suspicious.
“So, uh… what exactly should we be on the lookout for?” asked Fluttershy.
“Whoever has this Time Twirler artifact is the only one besides Sunset who isn’t in the same places doing the same things every day,” noted Twilight. “Either that, or any people who come into contact with them. After all, we would all be elsewhere doing something different had it not been for Sunset summoning us together to help her stop this time loop. Therefore, identifying multiple differences and tracing them back to a common source should provide us with our potential suspect.”
“But if Sunset’s the only one of us experiencing the time loop, how would the rest of us be able to notice any differences?” Spike pointed out.
Twilight held up her hand and was about to respond, only to suddenly realize the meaning behind Spike’s question. “Huh… that’s actually a good point,” she reluctantly acknowledged.
Pinkie moved ahead to walk beside Sunset and asked, “So what do you think, Sunset? Have you noticed anyone who doesn’t belong? Anyone out of place? Anyone… evil?!” She pulled an evil-looking face as she spoke that last word.
Sunset rubbed the back of her head and replied, “I don’t think so…” She let out a sigh of frustration. “How could I? Every day is the same!”
“Every day’s the same…” sang two girls cheerfully as they happened to walk by the Equestria Girls.
Sunset continued, “It goes round and round and— Wait. Did you girls hear that?”
Sunset and her friends looked around in confusion. Before any of them could identify the two girls who had walked by, they saw someone else also walk by while cheerfully singing a song lyric.
“Round and round and round and round…” sang the guy who Sunset quickly recognized as that paint balloon artist she and Pinkie had often encountered on previous loops. This time, he also happened to be wearing headphones over his ears.
Sunset quickly caught up to that artist and snatched his headphones as she called out, “Hey! What are you listening to?” She held up one half of the headphones close to her ear and listened to the music playing through them. She couldn’t quite identify it, but somehow, the feminine vocalization she was hearing sounded remarkably familiar.
The artist guy quickly swiped back his headphones and responded, “They say it’s the latest hit single from a band that’s begun to rise from its ashes.” He then placed his headphones back over his ears and made his way over towards the secondary performance stage a short distance away.
Sunset looked over towards that secondary stage, where a small crowd had already gathered around and cheered with enthusiasm. Although the stage was currently obscured with some kind of green fog, she did hear the exact same feminine vocalizing as she had heard on those headphones, and some of the lyrics they slowly sang matched up with the theme from the brief bits of that song she had heard.
So ordinary… stuck on repeat…
Gotta find the passion, passion, passion…
Sunset smiled and declared, “I think we’ve got a clue, girls.” She then led her friends towards the secondary performance stage.
As soon as the Equestria Girls arrived at the back of the gathered crowd, they suddenly gasped in shock and huddled together, which caused them to unintentionally shove Sunset back behind them, leaving her unable to see what they were witnessing.
“The festival brochure didn’t have them on the list of performing artists,” noted Twilight with concern.
“They must’ve been a last-minute addition!” concluded Pinkie worriedly.
“Who?” asked Sunset desperately as she struggled to see around her group of friends, only to get accidentally shoved back again as Fluttershy cowered fearfully behind the others.
“But they lost their singing voices!” Rainbow Dash insisted. “They’ve gotta be using magic!”
“That or vocal processin’,” Applejack pointed out.
“They wouldn’t!” argued Rainbow Dash. She then rolled her eyes and grumbled, “Wait, what am I talking about? Of course they would.”
“Who are you talking about?!” demanded Sunset as she decided to just shove her friends aside to get a good view of the stage. Once she finally got a glimpse of the figures emerging through the artificial fog, she gasped in shock. The trio who were performing on that stage may have been wearing unfamiliar outfits, but their skin color and the shape and color of their hair pieces left no question who those three girls really were.
“The Dazzlings are back?!” asked Sunset in shock.
Those three faces — and their outrageous hairstyles — left no doubt at all that it was indeed the Dazzlings, three former sirens from Equestria who had once tried to conquer the entire Lego World some time ago, only to be defeated by the Equestria Girls and not only lose their magical singing voices but also ended up being sent to prison supposedly for the rest of their lives.
But right here and now, they were obviously not in jail, they seemed to have regained at least some of their singing talent, and even got some new outfits for this performance in front of an audience that seemingly didn’t care at all about their past misdeeds. Adagio Dazzle — the light yellow girl with orange hair tied back in a big mass of curls — had dark purple on her feet and upper legs, maroon on her arms and torso, light purple on the front of her torso under an open jacket, and a gold belt around her waist. Aria Blaze — the light violet girl with dark purple hair tied to the sides in two long pigtails — had magenta on her feet, dark purple on her legs, bright green on her torso and upper arms, and magenta with white dots on her lower arms and the front of her torso under an open jacket. Sonata Dusk — the light blue girl with medium blue hair tied back in a long ponytail — had turquoise on her feet, magenta on her torso, left arm, and the skirt around her upper legs, and a taco printed on the front of her torso and the sides of her skirt. And together, the three of them were performing a slow song with lyrics that Sunset found rather suspicious.
It wasn’t long until the Dazzlings reached the end of their song. As the crowd cheered, Adagio sighed and rather tiredly stated, “That song’s called Find the Magic.” She then grumbled something under her breath as she held out her microphone and let it drop to the stage. The three former sirens smiled at the crowd, then turned to walk off the stage.
“Seriously?” asked Sunset in disbelief.
“The chord progression is kind of samey-samey,” noted Rarity.
Sunset facepalmed and firmly stated, “And the Dazzlings are behind the time loop!”
“Still no excuse for lazy songwriting,” Rarity slyly muttered with a smile as she rolled her eyes.
“But what are they even doing out here anyway?” asked Spike. “I thought they were sent to jail for life.”
“They were!” agreed Applejack, just as confused as Spike. “They were sent to Lego Maximum Security Prison. There’s no way a facility like that would ever allow ‘em outside its walls for whatever reason. This don’t make any sense.”
“Was there some kind of jailbreak we were never told about?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“Actually…” Twilight spoke up, quickly feeling rather self-conscious as all of her friends turned to her. “This was supposed to be kept strictly between myself, Sunset, and Celestia, but… as part of her ‘Redeemables’ project, Celestia had secretly arranged to have the Dazzlings transferred to Albatross Prison, just off the coast from Lego City. Her intent was to offer them an opportunity to join that project with a reward of being allowed to leave prison, much like how Sunset was originally given her second chance.”
“And they actually agreed to that?” asked Fluttershy in shock and disbelief.
“Well, not quite,” admitted Twilight. “Sonata and Aria both expressed interest in the offer, but would join only if their partners in the trio also agreed. Adagio, on the other hand, seemed more reluctant, and agreed only to consider the idea.”
“In other words, the only reason they didn’t actually join the Redeemables project was ‘cause Adagio wasn’t on board with the idea?” asked Applejack.
“Yeah, pretty much,” confirmed Sunset. “Despite their different attitudes and opinions, they practically see each other as family, so they’ll never do anything without each other. To put it bluntly, Adagio’s stubborn pride is really the only thing that prevented them from actually joining the project.”
“Maybe she changed her mind and that’s why they’re now out of jail,” suggested Spike with a shrug.
“Even if that were true,” Sunset pointed out, “if they’re using the Time Twirler, then they’re definitely betraying the trust that project demanded of them.” She sighed and grumbled, “I knew something like this would happen. I knew Celestia was making a big mistake believing that even they could earn our trust. This just proves they’ll never deserve that second chance.”
“So what are we gonna do?” asked Rainbow Dash.
Sunset watched as the villainous trio walked backstage through an opening in a short fence beside the stage, then a certain familiar security guard closed off the opening with a velvet rope. Is this guy pretty much the only security guard around here? thought Sunset in confusion for a moment. She quickly dismissed the question and considered her options. She then smiled and spoke up with determination, “Okay, new mission. We have to get backstage. We need to find the Time Twirler without them suspecting anything, so some of us will have to provide some sort of diversion while the rest of us search for that artifact. Once we find it, we can shut it off to end the loop.”
“But our backstage passes don’t become valid until day two,” Twilight pointed out. “Since you’re stuck repeating day one, we’ll never have an opportunity to be permitted backstage.”
Sunset sighed in frustration, then declared, “Then we’ll have to find some other way to get past that guard.”
The group of friends turned to the security guard blocking the backstage entrance a short distance away, where a rather awkward teenage fanboy was trembling as he held up a poster of the Dazzlings.
“I-I-I, uh, j-just wanna ask if I could, uh, g-get their autographs?” asked the fanboy nervously with a squeaky voice.
“Beat it, kid,” scolded the guard with a stoic frown on his face as he shook his head. “These girls have a strict restraining order against all members of the public while they’re out on tour.”
“Ah, yes, right,” acknowledged the awkward fanboy, sweating profusely as he nervously backed away. “S-S-Sorry for, uh, w-wasting your time.” He then tripped over his own feet and fell over backwards, accidentally crumpling his poster as he hit the ground. He quickly rolled over and staggered back onto his feet, whimpering as he stumbled away.
Most of the Equestria Girls cringed and muttered various words of unease after witnessing that encounter.
Pinkie Pie, on the other hand, was completely undeterred by the serious security guard standing in their way. With a smile of determination on her face, she began marching forward as she declared, “The weak shall crumble before me! I got this!”
“Wait!” exclaimed Sunset as she grabbed Pinkie’s arm to hold her back. “If you wanna help, let me come up with a plan.” She released her grip on Pinkie and continued, “No distractions, no detours, no…” She trailed off as she watched Pinkie completely ignore her and resume marching towards the guard. “…walking off while I’m in the middle of talking to you… just like in almost every other loop I’ve been through already.” She sighed and facepalmed, then turned back to her friends and grumbled, “Now do you see why my patience for Pinkie has been wearing so thin lately?”
Pinkie walked up to the security guard and began to closely observe him, studying his diligent stance from all angles, and even at times looking through a magnifying glass like some cliché investigator, all while the guard remained as unmoving as a statue. Finally, Pinkie casually walked over to the guard and innocently asked, “Last summer, weren’t you working at the, um…?”
“Cat food convention?” finished the security guard, unamused.
“Cat food convention!” stated Pinkie, as if she had come up with that answer herself. She nodded and contently continued, “Oh, that’s right! Mm-hmm! Uh, you were the guy who…?”
“Yeah…” responded the guard sourly. “I. Got. FIRED!” he shouted that last word directly in Pinkie’s face.
Pinkie flinched at the outburst, but quickly collected herself as she took a step back and innocently continued, “Because, uh… now, what happened again?”
The Security guard let out a sigh of exasperation before he answered, “I tried taking a kitten home with me, all right? But it turns out, that’s against the rules!”
Back with the rest of her friends, Sunset groaned in frustration and grumbled, “If she blows this thing, I’ll have to start this day all over again!”
“Was it an orange cat?” asked Pinkie casually with a smile still on her face.
“Tuxedo!” hollered the guard as he waved his arms around with clenched fists. “Ask me her name! See what happens!”
“You’re pushing your luck too far, Pinkie!” cautioned Twilight worriedly.
“Don’t do it, Pinkie!” warned Applejack with concern.
“Bail, Pinkie! Bail!” Rainbow Dash cried out fearfully.
But Pinkie behaved as if she had not heard any of her friends as she considered her next question and blissfully asked, “What was her name?”
SLAM!!
Once again, Sunset found herself facing the door out of the festival grounds with the familiar message of “EXIT ONLY! Trespassers will be tackled on sight,” on a decal stuck to that door. And thanks to her experiences in one of the earlier loops, she knew that message was not an empty threat. This time, however, Pinkie wasn’t the only one standing beside her for this outcome. All of the rest of her friends had also been kicked out, and they all looked down at the cut fragments of their festival bracelets scattered across the ground.
“Wow, Pinkie,” remarked Sunset sourly with her arms crossed and a frown on her face. “Your actions managed to get all eight of us kicked out in one go. After four months of repeating this day, that’s actually a first.”
Pinkie shamefully looked away as she groaned sadly and muttered, “I guess I don’t got this…”
Sunset continued to glare at Pinkie for bringing such a disastrous end to the day, yet again. But when she glanced back at the rest of her friends standing behind her, she noticed many of them were shaking their heads in disapproval… and their gazes were on Sunset. Those resentful looks made her quickly realize she was once again being unfairly harsh to Pinkie. It certainly wasn’t the first time she felt bad about being hard on Pinkie for ruining this day, but now, after so many earlier loops of expressing indifference to her friend’s feelings, she just couldn’t bring herself to allow this loop to simply end without some attempt at reconciliation.
As Pinkie whimpered with guilt, Sunset considered what she should say next. She smiled as a thought of optimism occurred to her, so she walked over to Pinkie and explained, “Maybe you don’t, but together, we do. For a time looper like me, today’s failure can be tomorrow’s success.”
Pinkie slowly began to smile again as she remarked, “Yeah… I guess you’re right. The rest of us may start all over again, but at least you’ll remember which mistakes to not make the next time around.”
“Exactly!” confirmed Sunset with a smile. “Thanks to you exposing that security guard’s weakness, we can use it to our advantage on the next loop.” She then turned back to the rest of her friends and asked, “Fluttershy, who did you leave to look after your pet shop while we’re out of town?”
“My friend Tree Hugger,” answered Fluttershy. “We’ve known each other for years, so we trust each other very much.”
“Give her a call right away,” requested Sunset confidently. “Ask if you have a kitten there that matches the description of the one that security guard said he wanted to take home with him. Also be sure to ask if she was busy with anything earlier today. If you have the type of kitten we need and your friend had time to spare earlier today, then on the next loop, I can ask you to call her to bring that kitten over here.”
As Fluttershy nodded in agreement before she quickly pulled out her phone and began to make that call, Rainbow Dash smirked and playfully quipped, “Bribing the guard with a kitten? Looks like some of the old Sunset is starting to show through again.”
“What can I say?” responded Sunset shamelessly with a shrug. “When I get determined enough to accomplish something, I’m willing to do whatever it takes, even if it means resorting to some underhanded tactics.”
“And I can see you at least still have your journal with you,” noted Rarity as she pointed at the satchel slung over Sunset’s shoulder. “Perhaps you might wish to spend the last few hours of this day studying Princess Twilight’s message regarding the Equestrian artifact you’ll be searching for.”
“That’s actually a pretty good idea,” agreed Sunset as she and her friends began walking towards the campgrounds. “Although I could simply message her on every loop to send me that research information — especially now that I know exactly what to look for — I’d rather not keep bothering her from whatever she’s been up to in Equestria.”
“If it’s okay with you, I’d like to help you with memorizing that information,” suggested Twilight.
“Sure, Twilight,” agreed Sunset with a smile. “After four months of this, I’ll take whatever help I can get.”
Twilight then moved close to Sunset and quietly added, “Personally, I’m relieved this time loop will reset at least one more time, because now our ‘special assignment’ regarding the Dazzlings and the Redeemables project will go back to being a strict secret between us, as Celestia Playwell had insisted.”
“True,” acknowledged Sunset. “Although seeing as it’s almost certain Pinkie will accompany me wherever I go, I may have to let her in on the secret again.”
“Don’t worry, Sunset,” assured Pinkie. “As long as you tell me how super-duper important it’ll be keep that info super-secret, you can count on me to never say a word of it to anyone else.”
“I sure hope so,” muttered Sunset, failing to hide the skepticism in her voice. “If my plan works and I can find and disable the Time Twirler, then the next loop will be the final one, which means whatever happens that time around will be what we’re stuck with once time starts going like normal again.” She paused before she uneasily added, “Now that I think about it, if the next loop of this day is really gonna be the last one, then I’d better make sure everything else around me goes perfectly — especially if we wanna watch PostCrush.”
“Take it easy, Sunset,” advised Spike calmly as he place a hand on Sunset’s shoulder. “Focus only on the important mission. Try not to get distracted by any secondary goals.”
Sunset smiled and responded, “Thanks, Spike. Sometimes, it’s good to a voice of reason like you around.”
It was at this moment that Fluttershy finished her phone call. She put away her phone, then turned to Sunset and explained, “Tree Hugger checked the shop and said we do have a tuxedo kitten, whose name is Hattie. She also confirmed she didn’t have much to do this morning, so, hypothetically speaking, she could’ve had plenty of time to deliver that adorable kitty to us.”
“So I guess that settles it,” declared Sunset with a smile of confidence. “As soon as I wake up in the morning, I’ll ask you to call Tree Hugger to bring the kitten named Hattie here to the music festival. Though to make sure the guard in question doesn’t catch on to our plan, It might be best to let you bring the kitten through a different security line than the one I’ll take, and then you can hand it over to me once we’re inside.” She let out a sigh, then spoke up, “Well, girls… wish me luck on the next loop.”
Once the Equestria Girls arrived at their RV, they spent the last few hours of the day helping Sunset make her final preparations for the next repeat of day one, hopeful that their temporally trapped friend will finally be able to break herself free from that endless time loop.
Morning 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. Remembering everything she had learned from the previous loop, she was now feeling very confident that, this time, she was finally going to be able to do something to end the time loop once and for all. As far as she was concerned, today was finally going to be her last time going through day one of the Starswirled Music Festival.
Sunset climbed out of her sleeping bag, tossed off her pajamas, and slipped on that all-too familiar music festival outfit. She then walked out the door and around the front of the RV to join her friends, who were already gathered outside.
Once again, Sunset saw all of her friends in their familiar starting locations and sharing the same conversations she had heard many times before. She tried to not pay attention to any of that and focus on starting her mission right away, but that caused her to not notice Rainbow Dash once again quickly run over and stop right behind her while carrying a large paddle with the Sonic Rainbooms band symbol printed on it.
“Starswirled day one! Come and get it!” Rainbow excitedly declared as she swung the paddle around, accidentally smacking Sunset’s rear end.
“Ow…” muttered Sunset flatly as she glanced back with a mildly annoyed expression at Rainbow.
“Oops.” Rainbow chuckled sheepishly and responded, “Sorry. I’ll be more careful next time.”
With that inconvenience behind her, Sunset walked over towards the heating table as she once again heard the same old conversation between her friends gathered there.
“So Ah says to Big Mac, ‘Get your own chicken coop!’” spoke Applejack.
Fluttershy happened to be in the middle of taking a sip of her orange juice when she heard the end of that joke, so she ended up doing a spit-take directly onto the front of Applejack’s torso before beginning to laugh.
“Hey! Watch it!” complained Applejack.
Fluttershy laughed for a little bit before she calmed down enough to respond, “Sorry. It’s just that one had animals in it.”
Applejack grabbed a nearby napkin and started drying herself off as she grumbled, “Well next time, try not to spray it at someone.”
“Ooh! Ooh! How about this one?!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie excitedly as she suddenly bounced over to where most of her friends were seated. “What do you call a PostCrush fan with three eyes?”
Sunset chose this moment to step forward and spoke up, “Sorry to cut short your jokes, but I need to inform you of something very important. Long story short, I’ve been stuck in a time loop where I’ve been repeating this day for months now. The good news is that, thanks to a message from Princess Twilight, I now know that it’s the result of a magical artifact from Equestria called the Time Twirler. You girls still with me?”
There was a moment of silence as all of Sunset’s friends stared at her in confusion. Eventually, Applejack turned to Twilight and asked, “Time loop?”
Twilight responded, “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,” Sunset quickly finished.
Twilight was momentarily speechless before she noted, “That’s exactly what I was about to say…”
“Because I’ve already heard you say it dozens of time already,” added Sunset flatly.
Twilight was stunned in silence for a moment before she conceded, “You really have been repeating this day a lot.”
With that clarification taken care of, Sunset continued explaining, “The good news is that in the previous loop, we were able to find a potential suspect. We also came up with a plan on how to reach them and hopefully retrieve the Time Twirler from them.” She turned to Fluttershy and swiftly requested, “Fluttershy, call your friend Tree hugger and ask her to bring the tuxedo kitten named Hattie right here.”
“Um, okay…” responded Fluttershy with confusion. “Any, um, particular reason why?”
“Let’s just say I know someone who’d be very happy to adopt that cute little kitten,” answered Sunset cryptically. “Also, once that kitten is here, do not bring it through the same security line as the one I’ll be taking. Trust me, the plan will be ruined if a certain one of those security guards sees that kitten this early in the day.”
“Uh… I guess I could do all of that,” agreed Fluttershy somewhat reluctantly. “I’m not sure why you want me to do those things, but if you’ve really been repeating this day so many times, then I’m sure you have your reasons.”
“Believe me, this is the best plan we could come up with for these circumstances,” assured Sunset. “You even confirmed on the previous loop that you should be fully capable of completing this task for me.”
“If you’re sure about that,” muttered Fluttershy with uncertainty as she pulled out her phone and began to make the call.
“What about the rest of us?” asked Applejack as she and the others still had their attention on Sunset.
“If all goes well,” replied Sunset, “then this could be the last time I’ll have to repeat this day, so your girls can all just go ahead and do what you were already planning to do. I’ll explain everything when we meet back here at the end of the day.”
Pinkie Pie leaned close to Sunset and asked, “Are we still gonna be able to watch PostCrush together tonight?”
Sunset pondered that scenario for a moment before she smiled and replied, “As long as you do everything I ask you to do and not get in my way for any silly reason, then yes, it should be possible for us to have just enough time to spare for PostCrush.”
“Yes!” cheered Pinkie excitedly with a leap. She then gave a salute and enthusiastically declared, “I promise I won’t let you down, Sunset!”
“I sure hope you’ll actually mean it, this time,” muttered Sunset as she walked over to the available stack of familiar blueberry pancakes to grab some breakfast. Although she was wise enough to not speak up about her misgivings, the fact remained that the stakes were now too high for any of Pinkie’s antics to disrupt her plans. For this time in particular, failure was not an option.
Sunset went through the same old entry routine she had done for much of the last four months. She followed her friends to the main entrance to the festival grounds — somehow still managing to step into that same old mud puddle along the way — and waited with Pinkie in the slow-moving center security line.
This time, Sunset was pleased to see Fluttershy take notice of that and made sure to wait in a different line. The shy girl didn’t quite reach the front of her line when she got the call from her friend to pick up the special delivery, so she had to give up her place in line to retrieve the kitten. Sunset had just reached the front of her line when she saw Fluttershy return and had even thought ahead to have the basket covered so that no one — except of course the other security guard she had to be inspected by — could know for sure what she had really brought with her. Finally, once they all had made it through security, Fluttershy handed the kitten in a blanket-covered basket over to Sunset, then went on her way to proceed with her day as originally planned.
Sunset didn’t want to take any chances, so, much like with the previous loop, she chose to spend most of the day just waiting around in the lounge tent. Although she gave Pinkie permission to go out and do other fun things on her own, the pink party girl insisted on sticking with her, regardless of whatever the two of them would do. Although Sunset got the feeling that it didn’t seem fair that her friend chose to sacrifice any opportunities for having fun, she remained convinced that her mission was too important to prioritize anything over it. At least having that cute kitten with them helped to keep them entertained a little while they waited for their moment of opportunity.
Eventually, as the afternoon gave way to evening under the setting sun, Sunset was finally ready to move out and put the plan into action. Pinkie naturally volunteered to assist, and so followed her over to the secondary performance stage. Of course, with this being a new loop, Pinkie had no idea who the suspects were until she saw them performing on that stage in front of a small crowd.
“The Dazzlings?!” asked Pinkie in shock. “But I thought they were in jail! How are they out here?!”
“Remember when Celestia Playwell assigned us with that ‘Redeemables’ project?” explained Sunset. “Well, in addition to those five we all know about, she had also secretly arranged to have them transferred to Albatross Prison near Lego City so she could send me and Twilight on that ‘special assignment’ to secretly extend that same offer to the three of them.”
“And they accepted?!” asked Pinkie, further surprised by that additional revelation.
“Actually, not quite,” replied Sunset. “For them, they said it had to be a three-way mutual agreement, and while Sonata and Aria were open to the offer, Adagio had little interest and agreed only to accept the information folder we had to deliver to her, claiming she would consider her options.”
“Maybe Adagio changed her mind,” suggested Pinkie. “Why else would they suddenly be out here, outside of jail?”
“Whatever the reason,” stated Sunset bitterly, “if they’re using the Time Twirler, then they definitely no longer deserve any hope for a second chance.”
It wasn’t long before the Dazzlings reached the end of their song. Once again, Adagio expressed little enthusiasm as she stated the name of their song, dropped the microphone, and walked off the stage in front of her two companions. They then headed into the backstage area, which that familiar security guard blocked off with a velvet rope. And once again, that security guard harshly denied entry for the awkward teenage fanboy who desired an autograph, causing the later to fearfully stumble away.
Sunset held up the basket in her hands as she turned to Pinkie with a confident smirk and asked, “You ready for this?”
Pinkie swiftly removed the blanket that covered the kitten in that basket before she proudly confirmed, “Operation: Kitty Bribery is a go!”
Sunset chuckled in amusement as she began to walk towards the security guard standing between her and the Dazzlings. She and Pinkie walked with confidence, not even bothering a glance at the retreating fanboy as he stumbled past them.
The moment that security guard’s eyes fell on that kitten being carried by Sunset, his diligent stance suddenly fell as he gasped and his jaw dropped. He was rendered completely speechless and strongly overcome with emotion as he watched such an adorable little kitten being carried directly towards him.
While Sunset visibly kept her cool as she approached the guard, she felt quite amused to see one of the toughest guys in the festival area practically lose it at the sight of such a simple yet adorable gift. Once she reached the guard, she held out the basket towards him and casually said, “Say hello to Hattie the kitty cat. He’s been looking for a good home to adopt him, and I have a feeling the two of you will be perfect for each other.”
The guard slowly reached forward and gently lifted the kitten out of the basket. Although his sunglasses obscured his eyes, the tears of happiness rolling down his cheeks gave away just how overwhelmed he was feeling in this moment. “Hello, Mister Kitty,” he cooed as he held the kitten close to his face. The kitten reciprocated the affection by licking away his tears.
Sunset set down the basked and calmly stated, “If you spend all your time keeping people out, how are you ever gonna let anybody in… to your heart?”
“Oh, gosh…” he whimpered as he wiped away his tears. “Y-You have no idea how much this means to me…” He then removed the velvet rope behind him and stepped aside. “Go ahead and go backstage, the both of you’s.”
“Really?” asked Pinkie cheerfully as Sunset stepped through the opened entryway. “Wow, thanks!” She followed Sunset into the backstage area, then quietly remarked to her friend, “Great idea, Sunset!”
“We came up with it together,” noted Sunset with a friendly smile. “It was your discovery in the previous loop that made today’s success possible.”
The two girls came around a corner and soon found themselves approaching a rather modest van that appeared to have seen better days and with a rather crude paint job across the sides. Before either of them had a chance to say anything, the van’s side door suddenly began to slide open. Sunset reacted quickly by pulling Pinkie with her to hide behind some large boxes sitting beside the van. Once they were out of sight, they sat still and listened in on the people emerging from that run-down van.
“Ooh, that was our best show yet!” cheered Sonata.
“The loop is really working,” remarked Aria.
“Of course it’s working,” noted Adagio smugly. “It was my idea.”
“I knew it!” whispered Sunset. “I bet they’re hiding the Time Twirler somewhere in their tour bus.”
“Nice thinking,” agreed Pinkie quietly. She then peeked her head above the boxes and noted, “Actually, it looks more like a tour van to me.”
Sunset swiftly yanked Pinkie back down to keep her out of sight.
“Did you hear something?” asked Sonata.
“Hey! Where’d that security guy run off to?” Aria spoke up irritably.
“Ugh! I swear, the law enforcement in this world is an absolute joke,” grumbled Adagio, followed by the noise of the van door sliding shut.
Sunset carefully watched around the side of the boxes as the three former sirens walked away from the van and back through the entryway they had recently passed through. Once she was confident they were far enough away to no longer notice them, she stood up and quickly walked over to the van. As she opened the side door, she turned back to Pinkie and ordered, “Stay here and stand guard. If you see anyone coming, sound the alarm.”
“Sure thing, Sunset!” agreed Pinkie with a salute and a smile. “I promise to keep an eye out for anything and everything.”
“No, Pinkie,” Sunset firmly stated. “A regular promise isn’t gonna cut it this time. I want you to Pinkie promise that you won’t leave your post.”
Pinkie went through the usual gestures of her special promise and declared, “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stuck a cupcake in my eye!”
“Good,” said Sunset with a nod of approval. “Hopefully, this won’t take too long.” She then pulled the sliding door shut.
Pinkie then began marching around the van as she firmly muttered to herself, “No one’s gonna get by me! No way, no how! Nuh-uh! Nope! Not at all!”
Meanwhile, the three Dazzlings walked further into the festival grounds. However, they didn’t get close to anything of interest before Adagio suddenly stopped and asked, “Wait… Did one of you remember to take the bread out of the toaster?”
“It’s not my job to not start fires,” complained Aria as she glared at Sonata.
Sonata scoffed and retorted, “How was I supposed to know you can’t put tacos in a toaster?”
Adagio rolled her eyes as she groaned and grumbled, “You two can be so annoying at times. We’re going back. Looks like we’ll have to cut this one short.” She turned around and began walking back to their van.
“Aww, bummer…” moaned Sonata in disappointment as she and Aria followed after Adagio.
Back at the van, Pinkie continued to diligently patrol around the van as she proudly muttered, “Keepin’ watch, that’s what I—” She paused as she suddenly began to smell a rather sweet and delicious aroma. “What’s that smell?” she asked as she sniffed the air. “Could it be?” She glanced over towards the festival grounds and gasped as her eyes fell on a certain specific cart not far away. “Puffed Pasty’s exclusive star-crusted, cinnamon-dipped churros!” Her mouth watered at the sight and smell of those irresistible treats, but then she quickly frowned. “Now’s probably not the best time to go get one,” she reluctantly acknowledged. She then smiled and noted, “On the other hand, if I get two, then Sunset could have one with me.” She glanced back at the van where Sunset was still busy searching, then immediately snapped out of it and scolded herself, “No! I will not give in!”
Pinkie stood in place and turned away from the churro cart, but then remembered she was supposed to be keeping watch, which meant looking around at everything away from the van… which included those very tempting churros. She soon found herself slowly moving towards that cart, then immediately backed off and scolded herself, “No, Pinkie! No! Don’t fall for it!” She attempted to resume her patrol, but the instant her eyes fell on that churro cart again, she drooled and slurped as she drifted towards that source of immense temptation. She quickly backed off again and sharply scolded herself, “No! No! You Pinkie promised! Don’t do it!” But just as quickly, she whimpered as she was unable to keep her eyes away from that specific cart.
Pinkie’s mental tug-o-war between her promise to Sunset and her cravings for churros endured for several more seconds. Ultimately, she glanced around in all directions and saw absolutely no one was nearby or even seemed to have any interest of approaching the old van. “Just a quick in-and-out,” she assured herself. “No one will even notice.” With her mind finally made up, Pinkie left her post and swiftly made her way towards the churro cart.
Only seconds later, the Dazzlings appeared from around the stage and made their way back to their tour van.
Inside the van, Sunset extensively searched every nook and cranny she could think of, but was unable to find any trace of the Time Twirler. Instead, all she was discovering was that the interior of this van was covered in various scuffs and stains, full of cheap products, and had a rather offending odor. Hardly a life of luxury for those three, that’s for sure, she thought.
As Sunset searched through the kitchen section of the van, she pushed a toaster aside, only to get startled when a pair of blackened slices of toast suddenly popped out. “Who leaves toast in a toaster? Honestly…” she grumbled to herself.
Suddenly, the van door slid open and Sunset found herself directly facing the three former sirens, and when they saw the intruder inside their van, their expressions were furious.
“Don’t even think about eating our toast, Sunset Shimmer!” warned Adagio as she pointed at the intruder in their van.
Sunset chuckled sheepishly. “I, uh, don’t think you’ll have to be concerned about that,” she noted awkwardly as she gestured at the toaster.
When the three former sirens saw the charred black toast within that toaster, Aria growled and turned to Sonata. “What did I just say about not starting fires?” she grumbled.
“Well I’m not the one who prefers her toast extra crispy,” argued Sonata.
While Sunset had her attention on the Dazzlings confronting her, her gaze drifted past them towards an all-too familiar churro cart… with Pinkie Pie standing right in front of it with a blissful smile on her face. Sunset growled in frustration and grumbled, “Should’ve known Pinkie would do this to me…”
“What are you doing on our bus?” accused Adagio.
Recognizing her original plan to be stealthy and discrete was no longer possible, Sunset quickly decided to change tactics to regain the upper hand. She smiled and smugly replied, “Sorry, not sorry, Adagio, but it’s time to take this track off repeat. I heard you admit the time loop was your idea.”
“Time loop?” asked Adagio in confusion. “Where’d you get that idea? We looped a vocal track.” She and her two companions laughed together at Sunset’s misguidance.
Sunset was undeterred, and with the Dazzlings momentarily distracted, she took immediate advantage of this opportunity by reaching forward and grasping Adagio’s wrist.
“Hey!” protested Adagio. “What are you doing?!”
As soon as that contact was made, Sunset’s body stiffened and her eyes glowed white as she began to look into Adagio Dazzle’s memories.
The memory Sunset witnessed occurred within Albatross Prison. This was most likely sometime after she and Twilight had delivered their offer of inviting the Dazzlings to join the Redeemables project, because she had been told during her visit there that Adagio had stubbornly refused to leave her cell for any reason ever since she and the other two were transferred there, and this memory began with Adagio walking down a hallway with a look of pride on her face.
Adagio soon arrived at the prison’s mess hall, where many inmates were currently gathered for lunch. It didn’t take long for many of them to turn their attention towards her as she made her way between the tables and benches spread out across the room.
“Hey, check it out,” called out one inmate. “Looks like cheese puff decided to finally come crawling out of her cage.”
“Didn’t think that wuss would ever have the guts to do that,” mocked another inmate.
Yet another inmate began to closely follow Adagio and asked, “So now that you’re outta your cell, how’s about I take you to my cell an’ show you a good time, eh?”
Adagio immediately stopped walking. Many of the inmates watching her quickly grinned with malicious intent. After standing still for a few seconds, she then suddenly spun around and swiftly kicked that stalking inmate right between his legs.
The inmate immediately grasped his groin as he grunted in pain and crumpled to the ground. “Mommy…” he whimpered with a suddenly squeaky high voice.
With a smile of satisfaction on her face, Adagio turned her attention to the rest of the surrounding inmates and asked, “Who’s next?”
The other inmates quickly averted their gazes away from her and pretended to focus on their meals.
Adagio’s smug smile widened as she concluded, “My thoughts exactly…” With that much-needed boost to her self-esteem, she resumed her confident march through the mess hall until she arrived at the table where her two sisters, Aria and Sonata, were seated.
Sonata had a plate full of sushi in front of her, while Aria’s lunch consisted of two slices of pizza with toppings of sausage and bacon. Both of them paused eating their meals as they watched the leader of their trio sit down across from them at the same table. The other inmates who also happened to be seated at that table — some of whom had been eyeing those other two girls with malicious intent — quickly got up and moved to sit at any of the other tables, though preferably as far away as possible.
“Boy, Adagio, you sure do know how to make a statement,” quipped Aria.
“I’ll say!” agreed Sonata. “A lot of these prison guys are just the worst. About time someone showed those creeps not to mess with us.”
Aria glared at Sonata and noted, “I literally get payed to beat the crud outta some of those creeps.”
“Yeah, but you like to make your fights last long to make sure they’re hurting all over,” Sonata pointed out. “Adagio just dropped that guy in one move and now suddenly no one wants to be anywhere near her.” She grabbed one of her pieces of sushi and tossed it in her mouth. Once she finished that bite, she turned to Adagio and added, “By the way, I haven’t seen you at all since we first got here. It’s so nice to see the three of us are finally together again!”
“Yeah, what made you suddenly decide to come out of hiding?” asked Aria as she turned to Adagio and raised an eyebrow. “You finally done moping over what we lost?”
“Brooding, not moping,” clarified Adagio. “And to answer your question, I think I need to say no more than mention a certain gift that I’m sure the two of you also received from those who brought us down.”
“Oh yeah, that offer from the LEGO Team,” noted Sonata. “Aria and I told them we’d join it only if you agreed to join as well.” She gasped as a thought crossed her mind, then asked, “Have you decided to go for it?”
“No,” replied Adagio. “Not yet. I’ve been considering some… other options.”
“What do you have in mind?” asked Aria, mildly interested.
Adagio glanced around at all the other inmates gathered in the mess hall, still eying her very warily. She turned back to her two sisters and stated, “We’ll discuss this later in private.”
Sunset watched the memory continue to later meetings between the three former sirens. Adagio’s first priority was to restore some dignity to the three of them as singers and musical artists. Although their defeat at the hands of the Equestria Girls had robbed them of their magically enhanced voices, they had been able to slowly improve their singing talent through natural practicing like any ordinary person, though it was still a far cry from what they were once capable of. Adagio eventually came up with the idea to utilize technology to make up for their natural limitations, ultimately becoming perfected through vocal processing.
The next step was to bring their new musical talent out to an audience willing to listen to them. Due to Albatross Prison being not quite as strict as Lego Maximum Security Prison had been, they were able to obtain permission from the warden to occasionally venture outside the prison, albeit under strong surveillance to ensure they were doing exactly what they said they would be doing. First, they were granted access to the equipment necessary for their vocal processing efforts, as well as record the few new songs they had written to help raise awareness among potential audiences. Next, thanks to some connections with prison fixer Blue Whittaker, they were able to obtain a van that was still in fairly decent shape to be used as transport, to which they applied a custom paint job, though they had to leave the engine completely stock to appease the prison surveillance team. They also got in touch with a professional tailor to provide them with an entirely new set of stage performance outfits, since they certainly didn’t want to do any shows while dressed in prison attire. The last thing they needed was a venue to perform at, but thanks to their reputation of attempting to take over the Lego World, that was understandably the most difficult task. Their lucky break came only yesterday, when one band scheduled to perform near the end of day one of the Starswirled Music Festival suddenly had to pull out, and with no one else stepping in to fill the opening, the Dazzlings were allowed to perform at the festival.
Yet, despite seeing every aspect of the Dazzlings’ efforts to restore their dignity and build a better reputation, not once did Sunset ever see any sign or mention of the Time Twirler. In fact, just like practically everyone else at the music festival, they were completely unaware that this day had been repeating for over four months, and therefore, they were not responsible for causing the time loop.
Sunset’s body relaxed and her eyes returned to normal as her glimpse into Adagio’s memories came to an end. With a shameful look on her face, she reluctantly acknowledged, “You’re telling the truth…”
“Of course I am!” insisted Agadio as she yanked her arm out of Sunset’s grasp.
“But the lyrics of your song, ‘Every day is the same…’” Sunset pointed out in confusion.
“That’s about being stuck in this miserable plastic block world with no magic or hope of ever returning to Equestria,” grumbled Adagio sourly.
“And by the way,” added Aria, “if there’s Equestrian magic afoot here, we call dibs.”
“I just don’t understand how you three can be allowed to roam so freely outside of prison,” muttered Sunset as she rubbed her forehead.
“Oh, we’re still very much prisoners,” Adagio irritably pointed out. She and her two companions spun around and raised their right legs, revealing the three of them had a small gadget with a blinking red light attached to their ankles.
“Tracking devices,” noted Sunset in astonishment.
“Courtesy of the surveillance team that must closely monitor our every move whenever we wish to travel,” explained Adagio as the three of them spun around to face Sunset again. “The official policy is that if any of us make any attempt to remove or suppress them, then all members of every form of law enforcement will be instantly permitted to use lethal force against us. As much as we hate this place, none of us have a death wish.”
“I thought if anyone would wanna be able to redo the day and fix their mistakes, it’s you three,” muttered Sunset.
“We made the mistake of using our powers to manipulate the Lego World,” Adagio sharply responded, “and we’ve paid the price for it… with our magic!”
“Unless you count the magic of vocal processing,” Sonata suddenly cut in.
“Which I don’t!” snapped Adagio. She took a moment to take a deep breath to calm herself down, then continued, “What I’m saying is we already get a do-over with every day. It’s called living life.”
“You should try it sometime,” mocked Sonata, to which the three former sirens laughed at Sunset’s expense.
“I can’t!” Sunset shot back.
“Poor Sunset Shimmer,” mocked Aria. “Are you mad?”
“You don’t understand!” Sunset furiously responded. “I don’t get a new day, okay?! I get this day forever! Nothing changes! I can’t tell you how sick I am of Pinkie Pie constantly running off on me to get churros! One way or another, those stinkin’ churros always seem to ruin my day! I HATE THEM!!”
That outburst somehow managed to actually startle the Dazzlings a little. Not much, but just enough for them to take a step back, only to bump into someone behind them. They moved aside and discovered Pinkie Pie, the apparent source of Sunset’s frustrations, was standing right there and holding a plate full of churros.
“Oh…” muttered Pinkie in shock. “I, uh… just wanted to say the Dazzlings are back…” Without taking her gaze off Sunset, she slowly backed up to a nearby trashcan and dumped the whole tray of churros into it as she awkwardly continued, “…but I see you see they see you seeing them, a-and you’ve seen me, too, so, um… s-see ya.” She then turned away and began fleeing as she tearfully added, “That’s a cool tour bus, by the way!”
Sunset was devastated to see Pinkie feel so hurt by her outburst, so she ran a few steps after her and called out, “No! Pinkie! I didn’t mean it!”
“If this day’s always the same,” mocked Adagio, “maybe you’re the one who needs to change.” The three Dazzlings laughed at Sunset’s misfortune one last time as they climbed into their tour van.
Sunset just stood still as she glanced back and watched the trio enter their van, start up the engine, and then begin to drive away… followed by at least three black cars with tinted windows that had been hiding within the foliage at the edge of the surrounding forest. They sure weren’t kidding about being under immense surveillance, she thought.
Now that she stood completely alone, Sunset felt absolutely ashamed of what had just happened. This day had started out so promising with a seemingly foolproof plan, but not only did her main objective turn out to be a false lead, she had also seriously hurt Pinkie’s feelings. While it was hardly the first loop to end with Pinkie’s feelings being hurt due to Sunset’s actions, this incident really hit Sunset because she had been so painfully blunt to Pinkie without even realizing it.
As she approached the trashcan where Pinkie had disposed of those churros, Sunset sighed in disappointment, then swiftly kicked that can over, spilling its contents across the ground. “Stupid,” she scolded herself bitterly.
Later that evening, Sunset returned to the RV at the campgrounds, where most of her friends were seated around the heating table and roasting marshmallows over it. Seated at a nearby picnic table was a still sobbing Pinkie Pie being comforted by Twilight and Fluttershy. As she walked, Sunset continued to feel horrible for her recent outburst against Pinkie, and what she saw waiting for her return did little to make her feel any better.
Rainbow Dash placed her roasted marshmallow on a graham cracker and removed it from the skewer she held when she noticed Sunset’s arrival. “There she is,” she spoke up in a tone of disapproval as the others also turned to see their friend walking towards them.
Sunset sighed in resignation and shamefully muttered, “Don’t bother telling me, girls. I know I messed up badly…” She sat down at one of the available seats around the heating table and turned to face Pinkie. “I’m sorry for what I said back there, Pinkie.”
“It’s okay,” responded Pinkie tearfully as she continued sobbing. “I deserved it for breaking my Pinkie promise…”
As Fluttershy hugged Pinkie and gently patted her back, Twilight turned to Sunset and calmly asked, “Sunset, what did you do?”
Sunset let out another sigh before she explained, “The suspects we were after were the Dazzlings — long story for how and why they were out here. I told Pinkie to keep watch while I searched their van for the Time Twirler, even insisting that she Pinkie promise to not leave her post for any reason except to warn me of their return. Instead, she ran off to grab herself a bunch of churros while I was left to confront the Dazzlings on my own.”
“It’s true!” confessed Pinkie tearfully. “I broke a Pinkie promise! My life has lost all meaning!” She bawled loudly into Fluttershy’s shoulder as the shy girl continued to futilely comfort her.
Sunset buried her face in her hands as she grumbled, “I made her Pinkie promise specifically in the hope that, for once, she would not be tempted to once again ruin my day by going after those blasted churros, but it seems that not even the almighty Pinkie promise could overcome that…”
After hearing both sides of the incident, the rest of the group were now starting to feel bad for both Pinkie and Sunset, though they remained convinced that it was no excuse for Sunset’s outburst against Pinkie.
As Pinkie sniffed back a few tears, she asked, “Did you at least convince the Dazzlings to break the time loop?”
Sunset remained silent for a few seconds before she shamefully answered, “They never had the Time Twirler. They had nothing to do with the time loop. Whoever’s causing this whole thing, it’s not them.”
“Oh…” mumbled Pinkie sadly in response. “Well… I guess it’s for the best. I sure wouldn’t wanna remember any of this.” She sniffed back some more tears. “You deserve a better friend than me. You deserve to have a good day, Sunset.”
Sunset turned away from Pinkie and stared down at the heating table as she muttered, “So do you, Pinkie…” As Sunset thought about that last statement, a realization slowly occurred to her. For almost every single previous loop of this day, she had been mainly concerned about achieving the best day possible for herself. Until now, it had never crossed her mind that perhaps she should use her experiences in the time loop to instead make this a better day for her friends — especially Pinkie Pie.
“So, uh… now what?” asked Spike.
Sunset glanced around at her friends, then turned to Applejack and asked, “You missed out on watching Dirk Thistleweed because the crowd got too rowdy and stomped on your foot, correct?”
“Uh… yes?” replied Applejack uneasily.
Sunset turned to Rarity and stated, “You purchased a faux suede jacket, only to have it quickly ruined by a bunch of kids playing with squirt guns.”
“Indeed, such a tragedy,” confirmed Rarity.
Sunset next turned to Rainbow Dash and added, “You wanted to convince the festival’s manager to give our band a gig on day two, but he rejected your request due to a number of bad moves on your part.”
Rainbow Dash rubbed the back of her head and looked away as she awkwardly responded, “I didn’t think it went that badly, but when you put it that way…”
Sunset then turned back to Twilight and noted, “You ended your day at the festival early because you accidentally dropped your phone into a barrel of water, which prevented you from accessing the carefully planned schedule you had made for yourself.”
Twilight sighed and shamefully admitted, “It’s true.”
Sunset next glanced at Fluttershy and pointed out, “You were so terrified of catching the attention of a crowd that you refused to do any activities, and spent the whole day with Spike just wandering around and watching things.”
Fluttershy said nothing as she hesitantly nodded her head.
“And I’m sure I don’t need to go over what Pinkie’s day was like,” finished Sunset.
“What about me?” asked Spike. 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 pointed at that flaming marshmallow and casually replied, “That, right there…”
“What are ya gettin’ at, Sunset?” asked Applejack.
For the first time since she arrived that evening, Sunset smiled as she replied, “Let’s just say I’ve finally learned to look at things from a different point of view.”
“But what about finding the Time Twirler and stopping the time loop?” asked Twilight.
“I’ll figure it out sooner or later,” assured Sunset as she stood up and began walking towards the RV. “For now, I’m gonna do what I should’ve done from the very beginning.” She then opened the door and stepped inside.
As Sunset started getting ready to go to sleep, she was already thinking of all the things she was going to say and do differently on the next loop to provide a much better experience for not just Pinkie, but for all of her friends. Although she still had no clue who might be using the Time Twirler, she decided to set aside that objective for now. Instead, her new goal was to fulfill her original wish before this whole time loop ever started, and that was for her and Pinkie to share the best day ever and finish it off by watching the live performance of PostCrush together.