222.1 (Anon e Mouse Jr.)
Mind Over Matter
Starlight looked around what seemed to be a void in confusion. "Where am I?"
There was an almost audible click, and then words and images appeared, including "Select Class". Squinting at the list that formed below it, she looked at one. "What's a Psionicist?"
Psionicist selected.
There was a blur of more words, and then she found herself in an inn, suddenly human and wearing a set of black leather pants and a sleeveless leather top. A quick check revealed she was carrying a small sack of gold pieces at her waist.
Then the doorbell jangled, and two male humans walked in, one in robes and one in light armor.
"Hey, Starlight!" the robed figure said in a familiar voice, waving. "How's it going?"
"Spike?" Starlight blinked in surprise. "Is that you?"
"Eeyup," Spike replied.
"And me," the other man said with the voice of Shining Armor. "First time in this Loop?"
"I think so." Starlight looked around. "Where are we?"
"The planet Oerth, in the Forgotten Realms," Shining Armor replied. "Also known as Dungeons and Dragons. Roughly equivalent to our own Loop's Ogres and Oubliettes game. We start by picking our class, then our starter skills, and then we get an adventure hook." He gestured. "I'm a Wizard, specializing in Abjuration, or protective spells. Spike's a Fighter, and you're..."
"A psionicist, whatever that is," Starlight said. Then the information hit her. "Oh... oh." She looked at them. "Psychic powers, apparently. I'm starting with psychokinesis as my primary discipline. My first science is telekinesis, and my devotions are... levitation, control wind, and inertial barrier, I think."
Spike nodded in approval. "Well, now we just need our adventure hook."
And then someone knocked on the door.
"I think that's it," Shining Armor said. "Come on, let's go."
Starlight found herself enjoying the side-effects of the adventure as they continued. While she knew Spike well, she hadn't had much time to interact with Shining Armor in the Loops so far, and this gave her the chance to learn more about him.
Not right this moment though, since they were in the thick of battle. Luckily, she'd gained a few levels since the Loop started, allowing her access to a second discipline (she'd chosen psychometabolism) and its associated further sciences and devotions, including one she thought would be useful here. If she could just hold on long enough to use it...
"Oof!" she grunted as a mountain orc's thrown rock hit her shield. "All right, that's it! Body Weaponry!"
Her arm morphed into a half-drill and she lunged forward, stabbing the orc in the gut, prompting it to roar in pain.
The battle continued for a little while longer, but finally, the last of the orcs were either dead or limping away, and she sagged.
"Interesting choice of weapons," Spike noted as he put his sword away.
Starlight blushed. "Yeah, I marathoned the Godzilla series when I was hanging out with Flash and Sunset last Loop. Both the movies, and one of the games. Megalon's drill arms were the first thing that came to mind when I needed a weapon."
"Nothing wrong with that," Shining Armor told her. "Sometimes you just need time to kick back and relax, and draw inspiration from what you know."
Starlight nodded, and as they started to move on, she looked at the pair. "Say, I've been meaning to ask... you've both been here before, right?"
Both nodded, and Spike was the first to reply. "Most of us have at times," he said. "That first Loop when Twilight and the girls were here together, she and Fluttershy were the ones who really benefited - Twilight was a wizard, and she still uses the magic from it a lot. Rarity was a sorcerer, Pinkie was a bard, Applejack was a barbarian, Rainbow Dash was a monk, Fluttershy was a druid, and Angel Bunny was her familiar. And yeah, that was after he started Looping."
"You don't say," Starlight said, doing her best to keep her face straight at the mention of the rabbit she'd caught sneaking around and watching her more than once. She had a feeling there was something going on with that, but nobody had explained it to her yet, and she hadn't asked.
Spike nodded. "Anyway, my big bro slash uncle here's been a cleric before."
"I was my wife's high priest when she was a local goddess," Shining Armor said. "And this was long before Chrysalis decided to become a Cadenza Cultist."
Starlight blinked. "Um... okay."
"Nobody's mentioned that to you before?" Spike asked.
"Oh, they have," Starlight said. "It's just one of those things I'm still getting used to."
Shining Armor nodded. "We had a time adjusting to it too," he said. "Especially after Flurry Heart was born and they were trying to figure out how to work her into the cult bible."
Starlight nodded, and decided not to think about that for her own peace of mind. "So, who else has been here?"
"Well, Trixie and Chrysalis were both psionicists like you that one time," Shining Armor said. "They've got pictures, I've seen them."
"And some other good ones," Spike added. "Heck, we all have good pictures from past Loops."
Shining Armor nodded, before continuing. "Mac's been in a few times with Spike and Discord, though that only started after they all got together for Ogres and Oubliettes that one expansion. Whenever that happens, Spike's the Wizard, Mac's the Fighter, and Discord's a Ranger."
"Zecora's been in a few times, and she's usually a druid," Spike added in. "Plant specialties, you know? But everyone else tends to mix it up if they Loop in more than once."
"And there was that time the Crusaders were all here together," Shining Armor continued. "Nyx ended up replacing Selûne, the moon goddess for the Faerûnian pantheon - they're from a different planetary system entirely in this branch - and demanded sweets from her worshippers."
"Not the only Loop where she's done that," Spike added. "Twilight's reaction when she found Nyx was pulling that kind of stunt in Port Island - the Persona 3 sub-Loop - was hilarious."
Shining Armor shook his head. "That niece of mine..." he muttered. "Anyway, most Loopers end up here eventually. Just like how everyone ends up a Primarch of the Space Marines at some point."
"Uhh..." Starlight looked a little confused as she tried to remember what that meant.
"It's one of those things," Spike told her. "Everyone ends up in the Warhammer 40,000 Loop as one of Leman's siblings at some point. Even if they've been something else in that branch first."
"I'll take your word for it," Starlight replied.
The adventure continued after that talk, but finally it came to an end, as all Loops do, and Starlight Awoke back home in Our Town.
Her ears flicked excitedly as she remembered everything she'd been through with the pair, and she began focusing, attempting to access the powers she'd gotten.
Then her face fell when nothing happened.
Nuts. She sighed, then went over to her dresser and began emptying things into a suitcase she'd pulled from her Pocket.
Well, looks like I'm rearranging things and headed to Ponyville early, she thought. Maybe Twilight will have an answer to this.
I hope she will, anyway.
Meanwhile, in Yggdrasil proper, Sleipnir stared at his terminal and frowned at what he was seeing in Starlight's code. "That's odd..."
The bug he was looking at didn't seem to be doing any harm for now, but he'd be keeping an eye on it and seeing what he could do to fix it, just in case. And, of course, he'd notify Twilight that there was an issue he was trying to solve.
Where and why Starlight had ended up with this glitch, when none of the others who'd Awakened around that time had it, was a mystery to him. And one that he'd be working on for some time.
222.2 (Lady Stina)
Spaceballs: The MLP Loop
Celestia Awoke and immediately noticed several things. The first being that she was currently bipedal. That wasn't entirely unusual; however, the previous step she made, from her perspective, was in her normal quadruped form. So the second thing she noticed as she stumbled, was that she was being supported by the arm of a middle aged man wearing a crown. Her Loop memories quickly informed her this was her father. The next several things she noticed was pews full of humans turned to look at her, a multitude of flowers, an altar, an old man in religious garments, and a young man yawning and looking in her direction.
She let out a small gasp as she put the pieces together. She was walking down the aisle for her own wedding!
Her loop memories were slowly coming in, but one piece of information was overwhelming all the others.
Run! The space-car is outside. Just run!
Seemed like sound advice. She didn't particularly feel like getting married to someone her unawake self didn't know, and it would mean going along with the Loop. At least until she got her bearings.
As she approached the altar, the religious man began his speech, "Dearly beloved, we are gathered here on this most joyous occasion, to witness Princess Vespa, daughter of King Roland-" She kept walking and then quickened her pace to rush right by the groom and out the side door.
She paid very little attention to the chaos she was leaving in her wake as she hurried to a small white spaceship parked nearby. Her droid-of-honor, Dot, was still holding onto the train of her dress and was pulled along with her while protesting the entire time.
Celestia opened the passenger-side door to the space-car and interrupted her golden friend's protests. "Quickly! Get in!" Without waiting for a response, she hurried around the spaceship and stuffed herself and her puffy wedding dress into the other side. Her loop memories guided her fingers to the correct buttons to start the launch sequence.
The engines quickly started, and the launch ramp moved up into position. She pushed a final button and gripped the steering controls as the ship blasted off. She smiled and twirled the space-car in a silent celebration. She never did get many opportunities to pilot her own spacecraft. She punched in the code to open the airlock around the planet and left the atmosphere behind.
Now that there was less of a chance of getting caught, she set the auto-pilot and looked over to her strangely silent android friend. Dot had been complaining the entire time during takeoff. Celestia opened her mouth to say something. She wasn't quite sure what, since she closed it immediately when she noticed Dot looking down at a golden flexing hand.
"Why am I always the oak-damned robot?" she heard Dot mutter at the same time she sensed a ping.
She smiled at the overheard curse, knowing that in all likelihood she knew the Looper next to her, and returned the ping along with a handful of others. Still smiling she commented, "Yggdrasil must think you're good at it."
'Dot' started and quickly looked over at Celestia. She got the feeling that if 'Dot's' face could emote that she would be glaring at her. "That's not funny, Scootaloo. You know I'm the robot even more often than Apple Bloom. And she enjoys it!"
Celestia couldn't help but laugh. She had never been mixed up with Scootaloo before. "Wrong pony I'm afraid, Sweetie Belle," she guessed with a smile.
"Oh," Sweetie said in surprise as she sat back and blinked once at her. That was only notable since that was the only movement her face could make. "Sorry. I just assumed since we're flying in space and all," she admitted.
"I could be Rainbow Dash," Celestia suggested playfully.
"Naw. You haven't mentioned how awesome you are even once," Sweetie teased back. They both chuckled then fell silent. She was enjoying this guessing game she suddenly decided to put Sweetie through.
There was a series of metallic clinks as Sweetie tapped her fingers impatiently before asking, "Well? Aren't you going to tell me who you are?"
She grinned back at the Crusader mischievously and answered, "Nope! I find this to be an amusing car game. And we have a long ride ahead of us without much in the way of scenery."
Sweetie was silent a moment before saying, "I only sense one magic Awake… Twilight?"
Celestia grinned again and teased, "The Great and Powerful Prrrincess Vespa must inform you that you are mistaken!"
"You're not Trixie. I can tell. And she doesn't even talk like that anymore," Sweetie chided. "Sunset?"
"Nope!"
"Ugghh! This is really annoying, you know," Sweetie crossed her arms petulantly and sulked for a moment before asking, "Lyra?"
Celestia laughed and answered, "I'll do you a favor and not tell her you said that. Seapony probably wouldn't take it well."
Now Sweetie laughed and said, "Then I guess you haven't heard what Sweet Roll has been up to lately."
"Oh?" Celestia asked, intrigued. "What trouble has she gotten them into?"
Before Sweetie could answer, the entire space-car was jostled by a laser blast.
Celestia gasped out, "What was that?" as she clicked off the auto-pilot, hit another button, and started zigging and zagging.
Sweetie removed her Founder's necklace from her pocket and commanded, "Continue with evasive maneuvers. Clover, we're under fire, we need your help." She reached down and popped a hidden compartment on the car open and examined the internals. "Do we have any weapons or shields on this thing?" she asked tensely.
"Besides the two of us? It's a personal luxury transport vessel, not a battle freighter," Celestia chided just as she saw what was shooting at them. "And call me crazy, but I don't think we could do much against that monstrosity with whatever we could fit aboard," she gestured out the windshield. She quickly glanced towards this system's sun and decided they were too far away for her to safely utilize it to help them.
Sweetie looked up and blinked in surprise. After a moment's pause she said, "Right. We need to high-tail it out of here. Any thrust boosters? Hyper-drive?"
"Personal. Luxury. Transport. Vessel," she reiterated as she continued to dodge laser blasts. Although, honestly, it didn't seem like they were that great of a shot. All the blasts were going very wide of their spaceship. "It's not a sports space-car, either. Here, you steer and I'll give us a shield."
Sweetie quickly grabbed the controls and said, "Fine. Just try to avoid any EMPs, Shining. I'd like to stay functional for a little longer."
Celestia absently responded, "I'm not Shining Armor, either," and concentrated on her magic. Everything had happened so quickly, she wasn't even entirely sure she'd be able to access it. Fortunately, she quickly found her magic and tapped into it. Using her hands as a focus, she let a small golden globe of magic appear between them and quickly checked it for any stray electromagnetic frequencies. Finding none, she expanded the globe by bringing her hands slowly apart. Satisfied that the shield was moving as it should, she threw her hands out to the sides and allowed the shield to quickly expand to cover their craft.
Sweetie muttered to herself before suggesting, "I'm going to try to lose them behind that planet, while you hold the shield. I can't imagine they have a lot of maneuverability in a spaceship that huge."
"That's what I was thinking too," she commented. "Does Clover have any ideas?"
Sweetie shook her head and answered, "Everything we've come up with will need the ship to be docked. It'd be too risky, or just impossible to do while it's powered up. Not to mention, I don't have many parts in my pocket. And I doubt we have any in the trunk."
"No, just the matched luggage. Not a lot of room for anything else," Celestia admitted after consulting her loop memories. "Full speed ahead," she commented as she added a propulsion spell to her shield to help give them more thrust.
"When we get closer to the moons around Jupiter Two, you may have to take the controls back," Sweetie commented as she dodged another blast. "It seems like this robot model doesn't have a great range of motion and I don't know if I can make those tight turns."
Celestia was about to reply when Sweetie continued, "Yes, I have some of her nanites, Clover. We'll have to program them when we're not in the middle of a space battle."
"When you program them, can you also have them create Clover a robot to inhabit? It's been awhile since we've spoken," Celestia suggested.
"Oh sure," Sweetie replied. "As soon as we have a few days to spare. What do you think, Clover? Humanoid or equine? I'm pretty sure Apple Bloom left me with the programming for both." There was a slight pause before she continued, "Maybe. But if you're more comfortable that way, then who cares?"
Celestia slightly tuned out the one-sided conversation and concentrated on her shield. For some reason it had taken on a green tint, but she couldn't detect anything wrong with her magic. And now that she was paying attention, they didn't seem to be moving as fast as they were. She glanced down at the speedometer and saw their speed was rapidly dropping off.
"I don't mean to interrupt," she interrupted, "but there seems to be something wrong with our propulsion system."
Sweetie blinked and looked over the instrument panel in front of them. "Everything seems to be operating normally."
"Only if we accidently put it in reverse," Celestia commented. "We're moving backwards. And that's with a force spell acting against it."
"They must have caught us in some kind of force beam," Sweetie commented as she looked around. "Think the three of us can teleport ourselves somewhere?"
"I wouldn't want to try it without ascending first, and there's not a lot of room in here," she admitted. Suddenly there was a heavy thump on their roof. They both looked up as she asked rhetorically, "What was that?"
Then there was knocking on the roof to the rhythm of the first half of 'Shave and a Haircut'. "Nevermind that. What was that?" Sweetie asked in reply. They gave each other a confused look. Very few beings could survive in space, and none of them should be on top of their space-car.
Sweetie reached up and knocked twice on the roof to finish the verse. She shrugged and admitted, "I can't stand for that 'two bits' part to remain unfinished."
Before Celestia could answer, the sunroof opened. They both gasped and looked up. However, neither were prepared for a familiar voice to chime in and say, "Oh, me neither. It just drives me batty!"
"Discord?!" they both exclaimed in surprise when they saw his familiar mismatched face above them.
"The one and only," he replied smugly. "It seems my pilot and I have been hired to 'rescue' you, Princess. No, no. No thanks are necessary. The reward from your father will be more than enough. Just up the ladder if you please. Unless you feel like being captured today."
Celestia gave him a half-smile and replied, "We're coming." She struggled to stand on her chair without stepping on her dress.
Sweetie pouted for a moment before complaining, "Why does he get to be normal?"
"Normal?!" Discord sat back on his heels and put a hand over where his heart could be. "Oh, you wound me."
"You know what I mean," she shot back as she helped Celestia up through the sunroof.
Discord gripped her arms and helped pull her out of the vehicle. "My, my. Celestia in a wedding gown. That's a particularly rare sight," he commented as he helped her get her balance on top of the car.
"Celestia!" Sweetie squeaked from inside.
She laughed lightly and said, "Well, there goes my little game. Help Sweetie Belle out of the space-car, will you Discord? How long before your breathing spell wears off?" she asked curiously as she gripped the lower rungs of the ladder that led up to an RV with wings.
Unexpectedly, Discord doubled over with laughter. There was a loud protest as he dropped Sweetie back into the space-car. He struggled to get ahold of himself to answer her question. "Y-you... Hahahahohohoho. Oh, oh! Hehehe. Alright. Alright. I'm fine… pppffffttt AAHAHAHAHA!! Ok. Ok. Whew. Hehehe. Ahem! Yes. You see, Princess… I haven't cast anything! It's the chaos of this universe!" He reached down to help Sweetie up and continued, "In fact, the only reason those melon-heads aren't shooting right now is because we jammed the radar. Literally! Big ol' jar of raspberry jam shot right onto their radar dish."
He crossed his arms, looked at Celestia smugly, and proudly stated, "And I had absolutely nothing to do with it!"
And there was the headache. It was awfully late in arriving. Particularly when she looped in as a human. She took a moment to rub the space between her eyes to help relieve the tension.
"Right." She looked up again and repeated, "Right. Let's get into your RV. We can continue explanations later." She dispelled her shield over her space-car and climbed the ladder up to the RV with Discord floating beside her.
When they all piled inside, Discord hit a button to retract the ladder and then led them to the front of his spaceship.
"Oh, Mac," he called as they found a seat and he floated into the front passenger seat. "I was right. They're Loopers, and a couple familiar friends with unfamiliar faces. You ready to head out?"
"Eeyup," came an answering voice from up front as the engines kicked on and they started accelerating.
"Hiya, Big Mac!" Sweetie said excitedly.
"Hello, Mac," Celestia called her own greeting.
"We can exchange pleasantries later, ladies. We need to move, Mac. It won't take them long to," he interrupted himself with a snicker and continued, "unjam their radar." There was a thoughtful pause before he suggested, "We could always follow it up with some peanut butter. Help it stick."
"Now you know we only fired the jam because it was already loaded," Mac chided the spirit of chaos.
"The fact that it was loaded at all invalidates your point, mister apple farmer," Discord complained. "Fine, fine. All speed ahead, or whatever."
"Looks like they recovered. Switch to secret hyper-jets," Mac instructed.
"Switching to secret hyper-jets," Discord repeated. "Celly, Baby-Belle, better buckle up. We're going to hyperactive!"
Celestia rolled her eyes and looked back over at Sweetie sitting across from her. Once they acclimatized to the sudden acceleration, she commented, "I think this Loop was tailor-made for him. I didn't get a chance to ask, but have you been here before?"
Sweetie jerkily shook her head and answered, "No. This is new to me. And a little strange. I usually get space loops with the other Crusaders."
Celestia chuckled and commented, "You still have. We've all been a Crusader at some point in time."
Discord's voice drifted in from the front, "Oh, thank you, Princess! And here I thought I'd be the one to invoke the Tree Sap Curse. It gladdens my heart to know that you're on my wavelength."
Hello again headache. I see you brought a friend. How nice. She rubbed briefly at her temples as she gathered strength to respond.
There were a pair of gasps from up front and then they heard Discord's delighted laughter.
"Ah… Ah think that was Spaceball One," Mac commented in surprise.
Discord, still laughing, replied, "Oh it was! They passed us like we were standing still! And they went straight to plaid! How wonderfully delightful!"
Celestia traded another glance with Sweetie Belle before curiosity got the better of them and they got out of their seats. They squeezed into the cockpit to see what all the commotion was about. Celestia saw stars streaking past them, giving her an idea of how fast they were currently traveling. And slightly above them, there was a square plaid pattern stretching out as far as they could see.
"Did… did they just do a sonic rainboom? I didn't think they were aerodynamic enough," she commented.
"Ah reckon there wasn't a 'boom' involved, just the plaid trail," Mac replied thoughtfully as he flipped a few switches to slow them down. "Gonna take 'em a bit to slow down and turn around. Should give us time to lose 'em. Set a course for Druidia."
"Roger Wilco, and all that jazz," Discord replied and punched some buttons on the control panel.
Celestia couldn't help but pout a little. "Must we? I just escaped from there. I have no desire to marry some guy just to appease my father. Let's go exploring instead. You know. Excitement, adventure, and really wild things?"
Suddenly, the ship started shaking. They all grabbed the nearest thing to steady themselves with. "Now what?" Celestia asked worriedly.
"We're losin' power. Why're we losin' power, Discord?" Mac accused as he checked on his instruments.
"Well I don't know," Discord protested the tone Mac had used. He then glanced at another dial, tapped it, and continued matter-of-factly, "Oh, wait. Yes I do. We're out of gas."
"Gas?!" Sweetie asked incredulously.
"Musta burned it up in hyperactive," Mac commented calmly. "We'll need to set her down and refuel. Ya'll better buckle up."
Discord rolled his eyes. Once they stopped rolling and landed on a pair of sixes, he scooped them up and popped them back into their sockets. He blinked twice, snapped his fingers, then opened a closet door and brought out a short, squat tank with a hose attached. He popped open a panel on the dashboard that read "Emergency Fuel" and put the nozzle in the hole. He squeezed the handle and the tank dinged a few times. Suddenly the ship stopped shaking and smoothed out.
Discord smiled smugly and shoved the tank back into the closet he grabbed it from. "There. That's all sorted. Now, I believe there was a mention of excitement, adventure and really wild things?"
Mac looked around at everyone and replied, "We'll still have the Spaceballs and Pizza the Hut after us. And probably King Roland if'n we don't return Celestia to him."
"Oh! I can help!" Sweetie Belle chirped. "I'm pretty good at setting up stealth systems on a ship." She tilted her head slightly and added thoughtfully, "Although I haven't used actual jam to block a radar signal. Can we land for a while? Then Clover and I can see what we can do."
Mac hit some buttons on the dashboard computer and commented, "We're near the planet Vega. It's not inhabitable, but one of its moons is."
"Is there a space-port we can set down in?" Celestia asked curiously. "I could at least call my father so he won't worry. And perhaps buy some less conspicuous clothes."
"'Fraid not, Princess," Mac replied. "It's just mostly desert. We'll land and let Sweetie do what upgrades she can and hope we lost the Spaceballs for a while. Although, we do have a video chat system available here on the rig, so you can still call yer Pa."
"Just Celestia, please, Mac. And that's fine. I have some spare humanoid clothing in my pocket. Something should fit well enough. I'll call him when we land. Perhaps then he won't hire more mercenaries to retrieve me," she commented.
"Prepare for entry," Mac instructed as he neared one of the Moons of Vega.
"Preparing for entry," Discord repeated as he ushered Celestia and Sweetie out of the small cockpit area. "Buckle up, ladies. Atmospheric entries can be a bit jarring," he instructed with a chuckle once they were out of the way.
"You know…" Sweetie began thoughtfully, "I have a few different models of androids in my pocket. Perhaps I'll upload my consciousness into one of those when we get some time. At least then I'll have better mobility and can emote. And it'll be faster than programming the nanites to modify this model."
Celestia commented, "Whatever works best. I'm afraid that you girls have me beat on the technological front."
Sweetie laughed and said, "When you spend eons with Apple Bloom you start to pick up a few things. But then, you have us beat on magic."
"Well, when you spend eons with Twilight Sparkle you start to pick up a few things," Celestia repeated playfully, causing Sweetie to laugh again.
"Oh sure. Pull the Anchor into it," she teased with an eye blink. Celestia supposed that it would normally have been an eye roll.
The ship suddenly started shaking from the turbulence with re-entry. Celestia looked around at the rickety-looking RV surrounding her and immediately surrounded the vessel with a shield. No need burning up in the atmosphere when she had specialized heat-sinking spells at the tip of her horn. Or fingers. Whatever.
With the shield in place, the turbulence lessened and made for a much smoother trip.
"Thanks, Celly!" Discord called from the front seat.
A few moments later, they'd landed next to a small mountain range in the middle of a vast desert. As soon as they exited the RV, the heat hit them like a slap in the face. Celestia frowned in response. She wasn't used to being affected by heat and wasn't happy that her current body didn't have a natural affinity for it.
Discord floated ahead of her, snapped his fingers and a couple lounge chairs appeared on the sand. He settled down into one, produced sunglasses from nowhere and created a glass of what appeared to be chocolate milk. "It's all yours, ladies," he said magnanimously.
Sweetie immediately pulled a couple computers from her pocket before waddling over to the back of the RV with Mac to inspect the engines.
Celestia took stock of their current situation and decided which spells to use. With a nod, she created a modified shield spell between her hands. She adjusted the heat resistance and the opacity before throwing her arms out to the sides and expanding the shield spell to surround the RV with a thirty-foot radius all around it. Instantly the temperature around them dropped to a more comfortable range, and the opacity of the shield gave them some shade. Then she placed an illusion on top of the shield to hide their presence. That should keep Spaceball One from noticing them.
"Well, there goes my tan," Discord muttered just loud enough for her to hear before tossing his sunglasses behind him.
She knew he was just trying to annoy her, so she resolutely ignored him as she searched her pocket for something better to wear than a wedding dress. She quickly located a pantsuit she commonly wore when she looped in as the CHS principal. Deciding that was good enough, she entered the RV to change. Once that was taken care of, she entered the cockpit to contact King Roland.
After fiddling with the switches, she finally got a signal through to her father for the loop. King Roland's surprised face appeared in the video screen and exclaimed, "Vespa, my darling! There you are. I was worried sick! Did Lonestar find you? Are you on the way home?"
Lonestar? That was probably what Mac was supposed to be called this loop. Discord did say they were hired to find her. And she and Sweetie had loop-specific names this go-round.
"Please calm down. I'm fine," Celestia interrupted before he could really get started. "Lonestar did find me, but so did the Spaceballs. It's not safe for me to come back home. We're going to stay hidden until they lose interest."
"But, Vespa! What about your wedding!" he protested. "You're a princess. And Prince Valium is the only prince left in the galaxy."
Celestia rolled her eyes at the apparent patriarchy and said firmly, "Then when it's time, I will rule alone. But I will not marry someone whom I do not love." Her father opened his mouth to say something else, but she quickly interrupted, "I'm safe and I will return when it is safe to do so. Take care of yourself, Father." She then turned off the video before he could reply.
That should give her a few years for adventure as long as she periodically checked in. She smiled and exited the RV. She noticed that Discord was still blatantly not doing anything productive and had manifested himself a sunlamp. Mac was standing by Sweetie's computers while she inspected a small lineup of deactivated androids.
Seeing as she couldn't help them improve the engines or whatever they were working on, she went and sat down in Discord's second lounge chair. Just to get into the spirit of things, she pulled her sunglasses and a fruity drink with a crazy straw and a paper umbrella from her pocket and removed the stasis spell on it. She put on her sunglasses and raised her drink in a silent toast to her former enemy before taking a refreshing drink. Not a bad start to a space vacation.
"Did you talk to daddy-dearest?" Discord asked nonchalantly.
"Eeyup," she replied back, purposely not rising to the bait. She took a sip of her drink, then pulled the straw up so it would suck in some air, making it slurp.
She saw his lips twitch like they wanted to form into a smile before he deliberately relaxed further into his chair. Hmm, a relaxing competition. That's a competition with no losers. Unless she can frustrate Discord enough. Not a bad goal with all the stress he's put her through over the eons. Since it was her turn, as it was, she kicked off her shoes and made sure he was looking when she wiggled her toes.
They continued to wordlessly try to out relax each other when she suddenly felt someone use some powerful magic nearby. She quickly turned her head towards the disturbance and noticed that Discord was looking in the same direction, towards the mountain they were parked next to.
"I didn't think this was a magical setting," she commented as she slipped her shoes back on to investigate.
"Chaotic, yes. Magical? Not particularly. There's the Scwartz, but on the magical scale of things, that's like a coconut. That? That was a solid kumquat," Discord replied.
Ignoring his scale rankings, because that way madness lies, she just guessed that he meant that was a stronger burst of magic than was normal for the setting. "I suppose we just found our Awake element of magic," she commented as she stood and headed for the mountain face.
She cast a spell to allow her to penetrate illusions as she neared the rock wall. Her three companions followed her, Sweetie already in a different android body, one that was more ambulatory than the gold model and had curly pink and lavender hair.
She scanned the rocky area in front of her, but her spell didn't detect any illusions. After a few moments of not getting any results, she dismissed the spell with a frown.
"Look! There's a door over here," Sweetie knelt and wiped some sand away to reveal a partially hidden set of doors. "Should we knock?"
"May as well," Celestia commented. "I think our other looper is in there."
Sweetie nodded and knocked. After a long moment of silence, she knocked again.
"Perhaps we should just pop on in," Discord suggested with his hand raised and fingers ready to snap.
Before they could act or comment on his suggestion, the doors opened and a small, greenish humanoid stuck his head out and asked, "Dink-dink?"
"Um…" Sweetie replied in confusion and looked around at the others. Upon only getting shrugs she turned back to the being and said, "I'm sorry. I don't have your language programmed in my databanks. Is there someone else that speaks another language available?"
The doorman nodded enthusiastically and exclaimed, "Dink-dink!" He then waved them in and started down a dimly-lit hallway.
The loopers exchanged a glance and another shrug before following him into the mountain. Celestia created a small ball of light in her hand, then tossed it upwards and let it hover above the group. It wasn't long before they entered what appeared to be a ceremonial chamber. There was a massive statue at the far end that looked like an older version of the fellow that led them here.
The fellow that led them there turned to them and instructed, "Dink-dink. Dink dink dink dink." His hand motions indicated that he wanted them to stay put.
"Ok. We'll wait here," Sweetie Belle replied to his motions.
He smiled, nodded, and walked off while calling, "Dink!"
"Coming!" a familiar voice called back. Celestia exchanged glances with Sweetie Belle while Discord laughed delightedly.
They heard hoofsteps approach and then Princess Twilight Sparkle entered the room from one of the corridors leading out of the chamber.
"Twilight!" they all called excitedly.
She momentarily stopped in surprise before grinning. "Discord," she greeted. "And, by the hair, I'm guessing Sweetie Belle. And I'm sorry, I don't recognize you two immediately."
"Yup, it's me!" Sweetie squeaked in reply.
Celestia smiled and said, "I'm not surprised. This loop not only made us human, but didn't bother to take any of our normal characteristics or even names into account. Sweetie only managed to look a little like herself because she's already switched android bodies. But that is Macintosh and I'm Celestia."
"Eeyup," Mac replied.
Twilight smiled a little brighter and said, "Wow, it's great to see you all! So, what's up? Any plans?"
Celestia smiled and said, "Well, Sweetie and I just ran away from my wedding. Some Spaceballs tried to capture us. Discord and Mac saved us while under contract to bring us back home. We all decided 'buck this loop,' and decided to go exploring instead. Care to join us?"
"Sure! Sounds like fun. Let me tie up a few loose ends here, then I'll join you outside."
Discord laughed and said, "You were right, Celly. It's high time for excitement, adventure, and really wild things!"
222.3 (Saphroneth)
Reinterpreting The Term 'Daily'
"...the night will last forever!"
"Why?" Twilight asked, stepping forwards.
That seemed to throw Nightmare Moon off a bit. "Why?" she asked. "What do you mean, why?"
"Well..." Twilight waved her hoof. "What I mean is - what I mean is, well, under Celestia the day didn't last forever."
"That is-" Nightmare began.
"-and," Twilight interrupted, giving Nightmare a moderately quelling look. "That meant that every night the moon rose overhead. Showing the marks of your prison, and silently flaunting that you had been captured to the whole of Equestria."
She smiled. "So I was assuming you'd want to do the same thing?"
"That contemptible-" Nightmare began, then cut herself off. "That is... I have reconsidered my policy on the night lasting forever."
"What I think," Twilight volunteered, "is that the Night should last two hours out of every three. Make it so the sun rises eight times a day, and spends an hour up in the sky each time, and no matter what the sleep schedule anypony has the majority of their time awake will be spent in darkness - but they'll still get to see the solar prison."
She paused. "As long as you issue sunglasses to everypony, of course."
"Of course," Twilight explained, some days later. (Either kind.) "Only a little bit of your power can actually be outside the seal without it being noticed, so that's why you've ended up a pegasus."
'Clear Skies' looked down at her hoof, then up at Twilight. "I... must confess, Twilight, I'm not sure what to think right now."
She managed a smile. "I would have said faithful student, but I don't even know if that works right now."
"You know what I think?" Twilight asked, then continued. "I think, right now, everypony's okay with the situation."
"The lack of responsibility is sort of tempting," Celestia admitted. "Only... where exactly did you learn this peculiar bit of applied thaumaturgy, Twilight?"
"There's someone I know called Kurama," Twilight answered. "He uses it sometimes... pranks, mostly."
222.4 (BG_Character_592)
Homebrew
Twilight Sparkle awoke in Sugarcube Corner, somehow an even more technicolour version compared to what was normal.
It only took a few seconds of investigating her demure stature, slightly altered hairstyle, and simplified cutie mark to realise she wasn't in Kansas anymore.
"Well, I guess it was only a matter of time before this variant came online." She bemoaned, a ping revealing she was so far the only one awake.
"Heya Twilight!" As Rainbow Dash zoomed in. "Gee you're looking a bit frazzled."
"Tell me about it." In a huff. "Guess I'm just feeling a bit loopy today."
"Ah I'm sure there's a potion for that, Twilight."
The anchor thought for a moment. "That's something I can do, at least."
"Huh?"
Grabbing a hold of Dash. "I'm going to beat Potion Nova at her own game! Even if it takes me centuries!"
"Gee you really have gone a bit loopy."
"C'mon, Dash!" As they zooped away as fast as comedy would allow.
Twilight's library lasted twelve minutes.
222.5 (Vinylshadow) [MLP/Doctor Who]
A Boring Life
Derpy flopped onto Time Turner and nibbled on his ear. He twitched it out of her teeth and glanced at her with a raised brow. "Something I can help you with?"
The mailmare sat up and pushed her mane out of her face. "You've been to the Pony Life thing that cropped up a while ago?"
Time Turner blinked, brow furrowing as he went through his memories. "I...think so? I recall a few few Loops where nothing happened beyond what some may call "lolrandom." I think Alex called it the Jingling Car Keys Variant?"
Derpy tilted her head. "Jingling car keys?"
"It's what some parents do with their kids to entertain them," Time Turner replied. "It looks and sounds pretty, but...that's it. There's nothing actually there to keep you entertained for long."
"Which is why the Loops there are so short?" Derpy surmised. Time Turner nodded. Derpy then pursed her lips. "Sounds like a punishment loop, like what Gen 3 is."
Time Turner shook his head. "It doesn't actively harm you though. It's just… boring. Everyone there felt like the same pony wearing a set of costumes. Not helped by the potion shenanigans, which can in fact let you transform into other ponies, so..."
"Seems more like it's a "make-your-own-fun" variant," Derpy said, flicking her wings. "Want laser vision? Potion. Want to be another pony race? Potion. Want to troll? Potion. Could be a good way to relax if you get it after a series of rough loops."
"Perhaps," Time Turner mused. "To each their own, I suppose?"
"Probably the best way to look at it, yes," Derpy said with a nod. "Not everyone likes time travel, or space travel, or endless grimderp, depending on the Loop, so they avoid the main stuff and just go off and do their own thing until the loop ends. Nothing's stopping you from doing that there either."
"Unless it's a Railroad Loop," Time Turner pointed out, before snorting. "Granted, given how off-the-wall it can get at times, would it even be possible to know if you're in that configuration?"
Derpy tilted her head. "Do you think it's Yggdrasil's way of experimenting with how to control what can happen in a Loop?"
"Anything's possible, whether we think it is or not. No one's ever truly sure about anything when it comes to Yggdrasil, even all this time later, so..."
"Already feeling a headache coming on from thinking about that, which is usually a surefire way to tell if it's worth pursuing or not," Derpy said cheerfully, getting to her hooves. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to pick Dinky and Alex up from school."
Time Turner blinked. "Why is Alex at school? Isn't he too old for school?"
"What's the point of growing up if you can't act childish sometimes?" Derpy said, sticking her tongue out.
"Touché," Time Turner muttered. "Shall I give you a lift?"
Derpy looked outside. "Nah. Weather's nice, and I could use the exercise."
"Then I shall see what I can whip up for dinner," Time Turner said, trotting into the kitchen.
Derpy decided she'd take the slow scenic route to and from home.
222.6 (Skittlebug)
Existentialism
"Twilight?"
"Yes, Rarity?"
"What happens after the loop ends?"
"What do you mean?"
"What if our souls from each loop continue on, not knowing why the loop stopped? What if we're created anew each time a loop happens? What if none of this is real?"
"Rarity?"
"Yes, Twilight?"
"We live inside a computer."
222.7 (Saphroneth) [MLP/Pern]
Left To Their Own Devices
"This is kind of a strange experience, you know," Sunset said, half her attention on the collection of bits and pieces on the table in front of her.
"I'm not sure why that would be the case," Falling Star replied. "Don't you teach other Loopers the new tricks you've picked up?"
"Well, yes, sometimes," Sunset agreed, picking up an oddly four-dimensional screwdriver and fiddling with a component. "But that's other Loopers, and often more junior ones. And you… you're an Anchor, and not a new one either!"
I think you'll find that most of the time I'm the one who does all the work, said Falling Star's pet bat. Carrying him around, breathing fire on things on occasion, and using all those psychic powers and so on and so forth.
"Yes, that's… essentially the problem," Falling Star agreed. "On Pern there's relatively little cause for much more than a bit of knife-fighting and being very good indeed at politics and dragon coordination, so one way and another I never seem to practice the things I pick up in other loops. I've got a little of a lot, but not a lot of anything."
Sunset nodded absently, then picked up a gemstone – it looked like a topaz – and pressed it into the hilt of the dagger she'd been working on.
"There we go," she told him. "See how that balances."
Falling Star took it, tossing it into the air and catching it, then flipped it from hilt to point and back again.
"Seems to be about right," he agreed.
"Good," Sunset pronounced. "In that case, let's get them initialized… thought of a name yet?"
I think Ever Alert might sound good, Mnementh said. It's a good name. You can trust someone with that name.
"Isn't that the name you have when you're a pegasus?" Falling Star asked, lifting up his arm to look at the bat clinging to it.
I don't see how that has any relevance.
"Well, don't take too long," Sunset advised. "I made sure the power feeds were properly strengthened and there's a cartridge system in there as well, and the other modes installed for now are a composite shortbow and an extendible spear."
She checked her watch. "I should have enough time to work you through doing the mode changes, and get the bond set up in case the loop ends tomorrow. You remember how that works, right?"
"If I've got an Intelligent Device or other soul-bound object out of my Pocket at the time of the Loop reset, the physical object is lost but the engram of the object is kept," Falling Star listed off. "If it's something I can summon without the physical object, like one of your Keyblades or Hiccup's Framherja, it's just a matter of resummoning them; if it's something physical, like an Intelligent Device, I have to get a new chassis to install the engram in."
"Correct," Sunset confirmed. "Now, first things first, going into inactive mode. You'll need to touch the gemstone core – that's that topaz – and say the password, which for now is 'seal'."
F'lar did as instructed, and the knife collapsed down to a small yellowish-brown crystal.
State adopted: sealed, the Intelligent Device announced, in Pinkie Pie's voice.
"...I might get that voice default changed for you," Sunset added. "Whoops…"
222.8 (Skittlebug) [MLP/The Owl House]
A Chaotic Multiverse
For what was probably way more than the 100th time, Luz stumbled through the doorway into the Boiling Isles. "Your fang is a magical construct designed to make tracking you difficult," she said to Eda.
Eda stopped what she was doing, and turned around. Her face was that of a goat or horse, and she had two antlers. One was a deer's antler, and the other seemed like a twisted kind of unicorn horn. She had mismatched yellow eyes, one red pupil larger than the other, and her eyebrows were white - as well as her goatee. Her hair was black and rectangular, and went down the back of her head in clumps. Her arms and legs were that of a lion, eagle, some kind of lizard, and a buffalo. Her tail was that of a dragon, and her two wings were that of a bat and a bird.
Also, she wasn't Eda. Or a she.
"Well, well, well, that's certainly a hurtful thing to insinuate about me. And we haven't even met! I say, what kind of despicable villain would insult my poor snaggletooth in that way?" Not-Eda asked Luz.
"You're… not Eda," was the only thing coming out of her mouth.
"Astute observation, my young friend. I don't seem to have any memory of you, so I assume that you don't know who I am, either?" Not-Eda was grinning that awful grin people gave when they knew something you didn't.
"I don't. Usually you're supposed to be Edalyn Clawthorne-"
"Most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles? Yes, that would be an accurate descriptor for my handsome self. Wanted fugitive of the Emperor and my own sister - oh, I don't often get siblings - because I won't join their cult…" He paused. "I suppose I'd like your explanation of how this loop works."
"You… what? You mean you're stuck in a time loop, too? But how did you break it? Where's Eda?"
"Patience, my young padawan. I'll explain in due time. Owlowiscious! To the Owl House!" He summoned Eda's staff which had a plump owl, definitely distinct from Owlbert. Nevertheless, a confused Luz rode the staff - Not-Eda flying without support next to them - to the Owl House.
"Hoot Hoot! Password, please!" Hooty gave his usual greeting.
"The kumquat looks ripe this season," he said.
"But only during winter," came the reply. Luz had never been more confused. But the door opened without any need for violence. Perhaps she'd try that next time.
"So, I never caught your name," she asked the weird monster who could self-levitate. He threw her a ball with the word "Discord" written in comic sans.
"Now you have," he grinned. "My name is Discord, and I am a native looper of Equestria."
"What's Equestria? How are you here?" She asked.
"Are you familiar with Yggdrasil?" He queried. At her negative reply, he shook his head, snapped his talons - suddenly donning a graduation outfit - and began to read from his scroll. "Welcome to the multiverse! I am your…" He ate the scroll. "Remind me never to read anything Twilight tries me to in the future."
"So what you're saying is that everyone is stuck in a time loop - like throughout the universe?"
"No, of course not, Luz. Only you and your two friends are. Some more might begin looping, but maybe not for a while. And those closest to you are the ones who start first. You mentioned that the rich girl, what was her name-"
"Amity- "
"-had a crush on you? That's probably why she began looping so fast. And Willow's your best friend. So that explains that. Who else would you say you're close with?"
"Well, the person who would normally be you - her name's Eda, there'd also be Gus, and finally the King of Demons." She looked quite hopeful. "How soon are they gonna begin looping?"
"I don't know." Discord simply replied. "I may be the Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony and rightfully describable as a demiurge, but the Admins are so many orders of magnitude above me that I can't rightly write out the number of digits their power level would be compared to mine. But you needn't worry about them. Most are quite chill. The few times I've met mine, we got along quite well - even if he's a stick in the mud about silly things like ascending."
"Ascending?"
"Yea. Lots of loops ago - and when I say lots I really do mean lots - a 'mortal' anchor by the name of Madoka Kaname was tricked into ascending to adminhood by… a not very nice person. I've had a couple of interactions with him. Long story short, Madoka ascended and nearly destroyed her whole universe. My loop was somewhat 'fresh' at that time still. Anyways, the universe was eventually restored, but some time after that another universe was destroyed completely and retroactively - not even the Admins have any true recollection. So I'd advise doing what your Admin says when you meet them. But otherwise, don't let silly things like death stop you from having fun. That's what Eiken's for."
"Eiken?"
"Don't worry your pretty little head about it yet, Luz. It's just extremely boooooooring." He drew out the final word, but Luz realized it was more for play than emphasis.
"Wait!" She said. "That means that girl in the Conformatorium was right!"
Luz hated to say it, but Discord was clearly a much more powerful witch - well, he called himself a draconequus - than Eda was. Part of that was due to Eda's curse limiting the amount of magic she could perform. But even when she went all out in the Emperor's Palace with Owlbert's assistance, Discord would probably wipe the floor with 20 Edas on a stick as if she were a mop head.
She was fearful that Lilith might be just as powerful to match - and the Emperor even moreso - but she was proven wrong at the Covention when Amity and Luz did their occasional Witches Duel. It certainly helped with Grom when she could show Amity just how hard she worked without resorting to Eda's methods. But apparently Discord cared about the rules even less. He had quite a laugh when Lilith was caught out cheating, but was quickly silenced when she challenged him.
Needless to say, she was beaten and humiliated in front of all of Bonesborough. Running out of Elixir was certainly an interesting experience. Instead of some beast, he turned into Eda. Interestingly, that included her magic, so he did some tricky spellwork with his hands and was back to his good old self. Or, morally neutral she supposed.
"Now, the most important part of the loops is to try and figure out who's Awake as discreetly as possible," he said, highlighting the letter A. Luz tried not to think about how. "Sometimes, asking someone if the word 'Anchor' means anything to them is good enough - but only if you know they loop. Other times, a more subtle approach is required like referencing other loops - and I don't just mean baseline loops; fused loops are great for this sort of thing."
She nodded along, not really paying any attention as she pet a sleeping King, Burger Queen crown safely atop his head. Of course, he wasn't getting out of this scot-free either. Luz noticed the time, grabbed the pile of books nearby, and began walking off to the library. Right as she entered the tree line, the Bat Queen's shadow appeared over her. She wondered how a… lots of years old multiversal god of chaos would react to the simplicity of children. But of course, children aren't like that. Ever. Laughing, she ran to the library to maximize her time with the twins. They were good people, but just… misguided.
The Day of Unity was approaching, which also meant the end of the loop. To celebrate the occasion, Discord made a 3-tiered cheese cake for breakfast. The layers from top to bottom were brie, camembert, and mascarpone, with a cool yet somehow still melted edam acting as frosting. Luz reflected on just how interesting the past 6 weeks were. As Discord ate his fork, and King his bacon and eggs, Luz took a bite of brie and gagged - there was paper in this! Expecting to find a note on the paper, Luz was disappointed to find that he'd accidentally baked it in by mistake.
"Ah, I was wondering where I put that!" He exclaimed. Pouring the paper into his cup, Discord put it down the hatch. "I suppose today is farewell, then?" He asked.
"Yea. At around sundown is when it happens." She hesitated. "Will I ever see you again?"
"Of course, Luz. I have been looping for a long, long time. Most of those loops come with thousands of years of memories - and that's excluding my time trapped in stone." Luz laughed. Apparently Eda was a lot like Discord in his baseline, right up to the stone petrification. The loops were funny like that. "Of those loops, I have visited countless people, been on an inordinate number of adventures, and seen a nearly infinite number of universes. But we will meet again. If I've seen correctly, I'm sure that many of my dear friends will visit here, and the odds of you visiting Equestria are very high. I'm fairly sure even my unawake self would like you." He stared off. "You know, I think I'm gonna take the day off. Adiós Luz. Que la buena fortuna te encuentre."
"Nos vemos, Discord." But he was already gone.