Am I really back here yet again? I thought I escaped, why did the time loop restart?! “Lovely day isn’t it Twily?” She’s quite cheerful for a killer.
“No, I’m not feeling well.”
“Ah... let Pinkamena cheer you up. You’ll never have a bad day as long as I’m around.” Except it’s always bad when I’m trapped with one of my friends turned killer. No, this is more like an evil clone of Pinkie, right? Surely it can’t be a hidden side to the Pinkie I know? Did something kill me right as I escaped last time? Did escaping in itself restart the time loop? If I can’t even escape, am I truly stuck here forever? No, this cannot be my fate, I refuse it!
“Can you bake a cream pie?”
“Anything for you Twily, anything!” Except me leaving her, or not loving her back enough, but can I expect an evil pony to have their logic straight? What can I do differently this time? Getting killed didn’t end the loop. Escaping didn’t end the loop. How about I fully play along this time, no escaping? How long will the loop go on for in that case? Something is going to get me out of here, I must believe that. What if I do go crazy? Would I just become numb to the stabbing as I die? Will I get to the point where I feel nothing at all and that lasts for eternity?
Eternity is a very scary concept. At some point I will lose my ability to keep track of time here. A hundred years can pass, then a thousand, ten thousand. I could be here for billions of years. Maybe I’ll be stuck here for a googol of years, which is a hundred zeroes behind it. I could even be here for a googolplex which is ten to the power of a googol. And that would still be zero percent of how long eternity lasts. A googolplex is too big to be written out to fit into the known universe and I don’t think even Discord could understand the full impact such a number would have. I’m going to develop apeirophobia, the fear of eternity, at this rate.
Focus Twilight, don’t get caught up in imaging the worst. “Pie is ready!” Pinkamena says, bringing my attention back to the here and now. I’m so used to using my magic to help me manipulate things that using my hooves and mouth to use a fork is so much harder. I don’t even need the silverware with magic. I take a bite. “Do you like it, huh, huh?”
“Yes Pinkamena, your baking is always great!” I say after chewing, although Pinkamena’s lack of table manners is among the least of my problems.
“Just another of my many, many talents. I’m the best marefriend you could ever want.” I can thankfully finish a quarter of the pie without feeling too full while Pinkamena just waits, watching me eat, watching my every single move. I rub my stomach.
“That filled me up,” I insure her, “let’s go to bed so we can wake up wide and early tomorrow.”
“I tend to stay up longer, but for you, sure, let’s do that.” I follow her while she bounces to her bedroom and gets into bed. “Good night sweet Twily.” Now the challenge is trying to fully go to sleep knowing that she could stab me at any time for seemingly any reason. Her arms over me, the snoring, and the drooling doesn’t help me sleep. At least this is time to think before I fall asleep.
I’m going to have to get really good at keeping mental checklists. I’m so used to having Spike take notes for me on my many checklists to be absolutely sure I don’t miss or forget anything. How is he doing now? In fact, where is he and the rest of my closest friends? Will I ever see another pony or creature again?
And how am I supposed to figure out Pinkamena? She’s shown she’s not completely serious in her behaviors all the time like bouncing around. She literally pulls her knife out of her mane which shouldn’t be possible to fit in there. She’s clearly based on Pinkie Pie or actually is her, but to what extent?
Looks like my only solution is to experiment, lots and lots of experimenting. Figure out how this time loop works and figure out how Pinkamena works, although the latter is like asking the impossible. If she’s using Pinkie Sense, what hope do I have if I’m the smartest unicorn in Equestria and her behaviors make no sense? Even if I am this smart, I’ll probably overlook simple something that other ponies don’t. Let’s break this down. My closest friends have an Element of Harmony associated with them. Although there is more to us than what our elements are.
Laugher. Is that how...
I’m bleeding! Pinkamena suddenly woke up to stab me in such a quick movement, but why? “You’re boring me Twilight!”
“But we were sleeping, how could you?!”
“You’re too slow, you can’t run Twilight.”
“I wasn’t doing that.”
“My previous sentence almost makes me feel like rapping. Anyway, I should have realized sooner I can’t have you because you don’t truly believe in our love. I had plenty of time to realize it in my sleep. Rest now, forever!”
I come to be yet again. “Hello silly filly, we’re dating now, isn’t that wonderful?” She asked.
“Yeah, sure is. Brownies please.”
“Brownies coming right up!” The previous loop also had me bleeding out longer than usual and I can easily imagine it again despite not feeling that pain now. What was up with Pinkamena suddenly stabbing me when I did nothing to try to escape? Am I on a time limit per loop? Let’s not go to bed this time and see what happens. And what was my train of thought before another untimely death? Was I onto something? I’m just going to small talk my way through this to keep Pinkamena’s attention as I’m pretty sure she gets violent if I don’t do that fast enough.
Sun is fully down as I small talk my way through eating the brownies, not really learning anything new about Pinkamena. Time for more questions. “Pinkamena, how are we going to survive in here?”
“Don’t worry about it Twilight, I got it all taken care of. I don’t just keep food and cooking supplies in the kitchen. I got this entire building full of supplies. I came very prepared for the rest of our lives together.”
“Wow, you thought of everything didn’t you?”
“Inspired by you Twily.” I’m disturbed by how quickly and calmly she is answering these.
“But with all the food and supplies, won’t they get stale?”
“I got magical enchantments on them. They’ll last longer than we’ll be alive. Although in the afterlife, we truly can be together forever.” Thankfully I don’t have to worry about that in this time loop.
“Yeah, it’s good to be prepared for anything. So, the food is hidden?”
“I only bring it out when I need it. I’ll handle it, you never have to worry again with Pinkamena on the case.”
“That’s... nice. How did you get food enchanted to last longer?” I don’t recall doing that myself and I can’t really think of any ponies who could.
“You don’t need to ask too many questions silly filly. Just know it is handled. Anyway, I’m starting to get bored.” No, no!
“Could you ever be bored with the love of your life, right here to embrace you?” Buy the line Pinkamena, please.
“That’s so touching Twily.” Then she suddenly gets a creepy grin on her face. “Let’s play stab Twilight!”
“No, can we not? That would kill me.”
“And I’ll still have all the lovely memories of you to keep me going.”
“What?!” She stabs me in the chest, bringing me to my knees.
“You’re boring now.”
“Pinkamena!”
I’m already losing track of how many times this loop restarted. So, what have I learned? Pinkamena gets mad if I try to escape, say I don’t love her, don’t give her enough attention, and killing me if enough time passes within the time loop. And if she greets me differently every time the loop restarts, then am I able to escape the same way? So far, the only way I found out how to escape is to break her down with my words on how awful she is. Let’s try that again. Maybe I can explore more once I’m pass that door before going all the way down to the exit.
“Hello the love of my life,” she greeted.
“Don’t give me that again! You’re keeping me against my will, claiming to love me while giving me no choices or options beyond loving you back. This is not a healthy love, it is twisted and cruel.” She then looks sad.
“Twily, please, don’t leave me. I don’t know how you know all of that, but I Pinkie Promise to treat you good.”
“Then you’ll let me leave and give us time to figure this out, separated.” A statement, not a question.
“But I can’t do that. If I let you out, you may never come back, I can’t risk it.”
“What do you mean? You let me out in a previous time loop.”
“What, time loop? Are you sure about that?”
“I think so. I don’t understand how your behavior seems to change slightly after every loop.”
“You sure you’re not overthinking it?”
“I know what I experienced.”
“I feel you’re telling the truth Twily.”
“Don’t you get it? I’m trapped here. We’re trapped here.”
“Trapped? No, this is how it’s meant to be, us two, no other pony to get in the way of our love.”
“I just told you this isn’t love!” Out comes the knife.
“Are you sure about that?”
“Your knife hardly scares me anymore. Kill me and I’ll just be back at the start of the loop.” She then slashes my legs, making me fall as I bleed.
“You still feel pain? I’m going to take my time this time, really make you suffer before you die.”
“Y... y... you monster!”
“Without me, who else will ever love you?”
“My actual friend, Pinkie Pie, perhaps.”
“That’s funny Twilight, I am her!”
“And yet you call yourself Pinkamena, when she no longer goes by that.”
“I just learned to embrace both sides of me.”
“I will break this cursed loop, no matter how long it takes.”
“Now take your time bleeding out, suffer as much as possible. That’s what you get for rejecting my free love!” I’m too much in pain to focus on talking to her more. Here’s something I never thought would happen prior to this situation. Me wanting to die to end the pain. Try not to focus on the pain, just let it run its course.
Another loop. I need to be really careful that Pinkamena doesn’t make me suffer more. What happened last time could have been far worse. Don’t tell her about this being a time loop. Don’t give her any reason to do this to me. But I need to keep experimenting, figuring out how this works. The physical pain goes away between loops, but not the mental and emotional pain.
I retrace my dialogue from my second loop, leading up to my first escape as best as I could from memory. “So please Pinkie, let me go.”
“I get the feeling you’re trying to escape.” You’re not supposed to know that.
“No, just getting some breathing room.”
“You did this before didn’t you?”
“No, what makes you think that?”
“Pinkie Sense, duh.” Of course that ability factors in, I should have seen it coming. Does this mean I can’t escape the same way twice? At some point I’ll run out of ideas on how to escape. Imagine being on a timer in a time loop. Surely her Pinkie Sense can’t catch on as long as I don’t attempt escapes, right? I’m thinking like I can make any logical sense out of Pinkie Sense. What to do now?