55.1
Twilight Awoke, and was slightly surprised to be confronted with a book on comparative political history.
“Huh. Variant, then.” No book about Nightmare Moon meant no...
Wait.
This was a kind of funhouse-mirror version of the legend of Nightmare Moon, alright, with several changes... but it was all couched in the wrong language.
Then she got the memories. Ah, that explains it. Sort of.
She was a political science student at the main university in the Pony Lands, a web of mostly-aligned city states of structures ranging from direct democracy to dual-kingship to rule by priests. And the main other world power was Griffon, a large state to the west of their mutual ocean with a population of... well, it was fairly obvious.
The ponies and the Griffins had swapped places for a loop.
Putting the book down for a minute, Twilight started to think hard.
Well, the royal families of that pegasus kingdom with the two kings are the Rainbows and the Flitters, which lets me know where two of my friends are... no sign of Spike... Applejack's most likely farming as usual, and I'm not sure about the others.
Hold on a minute... Twilight cocked her head, the gesture doing nothing for her element-sensing but making her feel better.
I wonder if I can blag a field trip over the ocean, because there's two Elements of Honesty active.
Besides, a Griffin version of Equestria would be interesting. Especially as they seemed to still have a sun goddess...
“Okay,” Gilda said, cracking her knuckles. “I have to go to this boring backwater town where they farm dirt, and help with some flower festival or something. Seriously?”
Her ruler and mentor barked.
“I gotta admit,” the tiny green thing on her ruler's nose said, bouncing up and down, “It doesn't sound all that exciting, Ammy. You sure you want to send her out there?”
Another bark.
“Right, right.” Gilda sighed, shaking her head. “But I'm grabbing that Thunder Edge from the armoury, 'cause it's cool.”
Lady Amaterasu, sun goddess and origin of all that is good, looked quite self satisfied as her pupil left.
Then lay down on her tatami mat throne for a judicious nap.
“This is so boring,” Gilda muttered to herself, absently Blooming another cherry tree with a flick of her tail. “Seriously, what got up her tail?”
Then there was a loud boom noise.
“TREMBLE!” a deep voice resounded through the village, making buildings shake and nearly throwing Gilda off her feet. “Your lord has returned! May all be doomed under my great power and many tails!”
Ah.
Gilda reached into her Pocket and summoned Thunder Edge, making the huge blade flash into being on her back. “This is why I'm an idiot. I'm in Sparkle's place, of course there's an evil monster coming back after a thousand years!”
The good thing was, if this was as Okami-flavoured as the ruler of this place, she had a fairly good idea what he was vulnerable to...
Twilight materialized. “Hi, Gilda, I – gah!”
“Little busy here!” Gilda shouted, swinging Thunder Edge to block the house-sized glaive of Demon Lord Ninetails. “Any chance you can help?”
“Er, sure.” Twilight took in the situation. “How?”
“So 'no', then,” Gilda grunted, pushing the other's glaive back and summoning a lightning bolt with three quick tail strokes. In a clashing discharge of magic, the Demon Lord exploded into nine pony-sized foxes. “Quick, knock them out before he pulls himself together!”
“Oh, I remember this guy,” Twilight commented, picking up two of the foxes and bashing their heads together. “Didn't expect to see him here, though.”
“Yeah, well, given that our ruler is Amaterasu I should have expected it.” Another lightning bolt, this one leaping off Thunder Edge, crashed into one of the foxes and it collapsed with a stink of burned fur.
The remaining six regrouped, and with a flash the huge kitsune was back – but with three fewer tails.
“This could take a while...” Twilight observed.
Gilda's reply was a feral grin. “My kind of entertainment!”
“Seriously?” Gilda said, open beaked. “He nearly killed us, like, six times! I lost count of how many times I had to electrocute him!”
“Seventeen,” Twilight provided.
“Thank you,” Gilda replied with heavy sarcasm.
Amaterasu barked. Next to her, a much smaller nine-tailed kitsune sat in a posture of deepest embarrassment.
“Huh. Furball says they're related, or something,” Issun supplied. “News to me.”
Amaterasu barked again.
“So what if it's only this loop? I-”
“Thought so!” Gilda crowed. “You two are looping!”
Amaterasu gave Issun a look. The poncle was presumably chastened by it, though he was a little small to tell.
“Anyway, furball here wanted to take the opportunity to see if she could get this idiot looping,” Issun resumed, pointing at Ninetails. “I mean, it'd be one hell of a help, no offence.”
“Okay. Right.” Twilight nodded. “I understand the sentiment. Anyway, as the local Anchor, welcome to what's usually Equestria.”
The sun goddess bounded over and licked her snout.
“It's a pity Fluttershy isn't looping, she'd love you...” Twilight giggled. “You know, you're a lot more fun than Celestia is in her public appearances...”
Gilda put the finishing touches on her latest piece of work – a sumi-e cartoon about how she'd been getting on living with Twilight over in the Pony Lands.
“That looks like a familiar chore,” Twilight commented, looking it over. “I like how you've portrayed me.”
The griffin chuckled. “Yeah, it is kinda like those friendship reports, isn't it? You know, it isn't as easy as it looks...”
“Oh?” Twilight asked.
“Yeah, it's kinda hard not to accidentally cast magic, sometimes.” Gilda folded the paper into an origami crane. “Right, if I've got this right...”
The crane fluttered into the air, and set off west.
“Nice,” the unicorn commented.
“It's special paper,” Gilda shrugged. “Must be a lot easier for you, what with the dragon and all.”
“Yeah, I take your point.”
The conversation stalled at that point, Twilight not having anything more to say and Gilda unwilling to break the silence for a while.
“It's strange, you know...” Gilda said eventually.
“Oh?”
“Well, the whole brush-magic thing is kind of what's made me... well, who I am, as a looper. As my own person in the loops. And now there's Amaterasu, there, who's way better than me. Hay, Issun is better than me.”
Twilight stepped closer and touched her shoulder. Gilda controlled a slight flinch, and sighed. “Yeah, I get the picture.”
“Badum tish,” Twilight said, deadpan. Then started again, more seriously. “I don't really know what that's like. Since I'm an Anchor, I tend to be... well, the best at my speciality. It's because we have so much more time, really.”
Gilda shrugged.
“But... well, you're not just an inky tailtip, Gilda. You're more violent than most of the rest of us, which might not necessarily be a good thing, but you seem in control of it – and that makes you good when we have to deal with... fighty... situations.”
The griffin snorted. “Kinda ran out of steam, there.”
“Yeah,” Twilight agreed.
After a pause, Twilight spoke up again. “Hey, who's this world going to use for Discord?”
“Good question...”
“So,” Issun asked, laughter in his voice, “How'd you deal with Lechku and Nechku?”
Twilight pointed a hoof at him. “Your world has stupid enemies.”
Gilda tried to soothe down more of her ruffled feathers. “What. The hell. Was that.”
The ruler of Griffon barked.
“Yes,” Gilda added, abandoning her task to give Amaterasu a piercing stare. “I know that they were giant clockwork demonic owls with top hats and monocles. I was more asking why they were giant clockwork demonic owls with top hats and monocles.”
Ninetails raised a paw. “We're from Japan.”
“...yeah, that explains a lot, actually...” Twilight allowed.
55.2
“Okay, I don't get it.”
“What?” Spike asked, looking up and flipping his lightsaber hand to hand.
“Well...” Anakin paused. “I mean... okay, look. Despite what you may have encountered in the base line for my loop, I'm not generally psychotic.”
“Nah.” The dragon (well, winged bipedal lizard with clawed hands) shrugged. “I know – I was actually Obi-wan one of my first loops, which meant we put the kibosh on quite a lot of what was supposed to go wrong with the Republic.” He picked the lightsaber out of the air – after he'd stopped juggling it, it had frozen where it was. “It was kind of fun.”
“Right.” Anakin shook his head. “I can sort of see you as Obi-Wan now, but if that was one of your first loops...”
“Yeah, loudest-mouthed jedi knight in the Republic,” Spike confirmed. “Well, until your baseline self lost his braid.”
“I may have lost my train of thought,” Anakin apologized. “Right. Okay, well, what I was getting at was – it's really rare to encounter a looper who's an all-up Jedi. All the ones I tend to meet are Gray Jedi, but you're effectively a straight lightsider.”
“I think it's because of how my personality is structured.” They stood, and began to walk down a hall in the Temple. “See, as a dragon, I have this deep-seated need to have a hoard.”
“This sounds more like a reason why you shouldn't be a lightsider than a reason you should be,” Anakin observed as they turned a corner.
“Well, yeah, but meditation helps. In the end, I solved it by redirecting it – one example is my wife.”
“You're married?” Anakin asked, interested. A couple of passing Knights gave them very strange looks. “Oh, grow up!” he added sharply.
This did not improve the nature of the looks.
“Are you people all dense?” he checked. “Ki-adi-mundi has at least three wives and five kids!”
“Ah, it doesn't matter,” Spike said, loudly enough to be heard. “I mean, that's how the Sunrider clan got going, and they practically founded the modern order.”
The shocked looks died away, to be replaced by confused muttering.
“As I was saying,” Spike resumed, “I'm a dragon, she's the most precious thing I possess. But, at the same time, I belong to her in return.”
Anakin blinked. “That works?”
“Apparently.” Spike's smile was slightly distant. “It's a huge relief, actually, for my draconic hindbrain. As far as I'm concerned, I already have everything worth getting worked up about, which results in my feeling remarkably peaceful.”
The occasionally-a-sith frowned. “One of these days, I'll have to try that line on wrinkleface, he'd eat it up.”
“Feel free – but for me it's true.”
They reached a large durasteel door.
“Okay, where now?” Spike asked.
“...I was following you.”
“It's your home loop,” Spike pointed out reasonably.
“Right.” Anakin drew his lightsaber and lit it. “I refuse to admit we made a wrong turning, so the force must have guided us here.”
“You seriously don't know what's behind the door?” Spike checked. “Wow. Somehow, not what I'd expect from an Anchor...”
“Hey, this is the Galactic Republic. There's a lot of small details which are variant between loops. Like, where planets are...”
55.3
“Okay,” Spitfire said, coming up to Dash with an ever-so-slightly furtive air. “Look, you know how one of our team is out? As in, in the hospital?”
Dash nodded. “Well, yeah.”
“Yeah. That's... well, not to be too blunt about it, but I was wondering if you would consider...”
The rainbow-maned pegasus looked at Spitfire. “Sorry, I don't understand.”
Spitfire fought the urge to facehoof.
Mind you, she still felt she could talk Dash around eventually. She'd always dreamed of being a Wonderbolt, after all.
It was better for her this way.
“...I have no idea how this happened,” Spitfire said, in a slightly distracted voice.
Rarity made a few minor adjustments to Spitfire’s new team jersey. “Glad to have you, dear. I have to say, that coat of yours is just gorgeous!”
Dash nodded. “Yeah, looks good. Now, come on, Twi's going to give us a strategy talk!”
55.4
“Alright, girlie,” a voice with a strong Trottingham accent said, “I don't see what the Captain's getting at, but-”
Scootaloo almost panicked. This was not a baseline loop – she couldn't feel her wings.
After a moment, she refocused. Okay. I'm human. Female, about seventeen...
She reached into her Pocket, and got nothing. Ah, great. One of these loops.
“Are you listening, girlie? Thinking about your lacework?”
Things started to click, reminding her of a loop from long, long ago.
“No, sir, just eager!” she said smartly, saluting. If she was right, this could be an interesting loop – doubly so because the loop had preserved her normal gender.
The man in front of her – a Flying Officer in the RFC – harrumphed. “Well, a moment's inattention in the air can get you killed, private. In fact, I'm not at all sure this bloody wheeze from Whitehall is worth a thing – women fighting!”
“I'll go you three rounds in any aircraft you care to name, sir!” she pressed, still using that respectful, polished tone that wasn't quite insubordination.
Pansy had taught her once. She'd found it useful handling Commander Hurricane.
“Fiesty little scrap, aren't you!” The Flying Officer shook his head. “Well, you were sent out as a pilot, so I suppose if you crash in the first five minutes at least it solves this whole bloody mess. One aircraft's cheap at the price...”
As she walked out to one of the Sopwith Camels sitting on the grassy strip, Scootaloo ran back over what she was sure of about the loop so far.
First – she had a cousin who was assuredly Sweetie and almost certainly Awake, posted with her to the new experimental Women's Auxiliary Flying Corps.
The somewhat torturous logic the brass seemed to be using was that a woman flying an aircraft would free up a male pair of eyes to do a competent job of observing, and that the man could fly them to and from the observation site so that the woman didn't get her dainty hands sore. The practical upshot of which was, she and Sweetie – and unspecified others – would be forming a squadron of aircraft in a close-to-hub-world version of world war one.
Second, their genius of an engineer was (of course) Apple “Sparky” Bloomer. Admittedly, Applebloom was much less able to perform anything too miraculous without her Pocket, but there were miracles and there were miracles.
And third, she was Replacing James “Biggles” Bigglesworth. Which meant that, for all the “human” thing, and all the army politics, and all the annoyance of no subspace pocket, she had essentially been given a loop to go wild as a pilot in for over thirty five years.
The Sopwith Camel was a strange plane. It was certainly effective, capable of flight with two passengers, and well armed by the standards of the time... but, among other peculiarities, it had so much torque on the engine that it was quicker to turn left by turning right than the conventional way.
But in the hands of Sally “Scoots” Cooper, it danced. The poor Flt. Lt, completely unready for facing one of the great aces of the multiverse in the body of a teenaged girl, could barely keep track of her as she toyed with him for ten straight minutes.
“Alright, I've seen enough!” he eventually shouted, as she “bounced” him yet again. “Now land at No.1 strip.”
“And ah hope you didn't crack the undercarriage,” Applebloom fussed, checking the spark plugs on the aircraft's engine. “That's a nightmare to fix, that is.”
Scootaloo leant against the cowling. “I make no promises, Sparky.”
“Ah, stop calling me that,” the mechanic groused. “Ah don't always like in-loop nicknames, and that's one ah don't like.”
“You know as well as I do that you don't get to choose your own nickname... Sparky,” Scootaloo teased.
Applebloom waved a wrench threateningly.
After a moment, she shrugged. “Ah've been called worse. So, what's the plan?”
“Well...” Scootaloo thought. “First thing, do what we can to end the war – and the next – with as little loss of life as possible.”
“Gotcha. Though we can't do much without our pockets...”
“Yeah.” Scootaloo frowned. She was going to miss Pansy's help, especially in a loop like this one, quite apart from how they'd be limited to what was physically possible with no way to access magic.
“Second thing,” she resumed, “Make it as clear as possible that the women thing is working. Like, we get me and Sweetie and whoever else joins us to be the greatest fighter aces we can – national heroes, basically.”
Applebloom thought that over. “Yeah, makes sense. Less complicated than throwin' ourselves under horses.”
“Which would be just confusing,” Scootaloo agreed. “And third... I want a turbojet. By, like, 1930.”
She got a grin in reply. “Try asking me for something hard next time.”
“An excellent performance by the Supermarine aircraft there,” the Schneider announcer said over the public address system. “Of course, the Supermarine aircraft company won the last competition in a shut-out, but there is still one racer remaining to compete. Regular spectators may recall that the 1927 entry by the Bloomer aircraft company was unable to race due to severe engine faults, so I hope you'll join me in wishing them a good run for their 1929 showing. Pilot of the Bloomer Pensee is the famed lady fighter ace, Sally Cooper, and their start time is in ten minutes.”
“Are you sure you fixed the turbine problem this time?” Scootaloo asked, for the twentieth time.
“I'm sure!” Applebloom replied, hurt. “It was a bad batch of tungsten, alright?”
“You're not the one who's going to be flying it...” Scootaloo muttered, climbing the ladder. “Okay, is everything ready?”
Their rich sponsor, Lady Diana Thompson, waved. “Come back okay, Scoots,” she added. “I'd be dreadfully sorry if this investment came to nothing.”
“And the fact that my own personal body'd be in a thousand minced bits isn't a concern?”
Diamond Tiara – for she it was – shrugged. “You've got more.”
“That's cold...” Scootaloo mock-shivered, then flipped the final switches. “Number one engine fine... number two fine... okay, guys, clear the takeoff area, this is gonna get loud.”
She pulled the canopy closed, grinning as it sealed with a smooth click. The extra two years of work had let them build in all kinds of neat gadgets, though it still sucked they hadn't managed a public flight in 1927.
Technically, they could have revealed the Pensee in early '28, but somehow this felt far more dramatic.
She reached for the twin throttles, took a deep breath, then eased them forwards. A low rumble built to a roar, and the wheels inside the tarmac-compatible float undercarriage began to turn.
It was almost immediately obvious to Air Commodore Dowding that something new was afoot. The sound coming from the secretive Bloomer team's hanger was like nothing he'd ever heard from an aircraft before.
And, as it slowly nosed out of the door into the brilliant sunlight, it was like nothing he'd ever seen before.
There was no propeller.
Rather than a single engine, it had two pods – one on each wing – emitting the roar he had heard moments before.
And the floats seemed almost to be a concession to the rules. They were no doubt well designed, but they looked like an afterthought – this was a plane built for the land.
All in all, it was very interesting for a rising man in the Air Ministry. It brought back shades of the legendary début of Turbinia at the 1897 Admiralty review.
The roar increased, and his eyebrows rose in spite of themselves as the Pensee cannoned forwards, far faster than even the S.6 of an hour previously. The speed was impossible to accurately estimate, but if Dowding was any judge, the aircraft had at a stroke broken both the 400 m.p.h barrier and the 500 m.p.h barrier.
The skid-floats parted company with the runway as though they didn't want to be associated with it. The Pensee tilted back, making an angle of at least twenty degrees of climb, and shrank at seven thousand vertical feet per minute – on top of that blistering forward speed.
After a minute or so, the roar was gone into a clear blue sky, and the hubbub began.
Scootaloo grinned as the cockpit radio set pinged twice. To help her out, Applebloom had been kind enough to set up a crude form of radio direction finding beam to tell her when to turn.
It let her pay full attention to squeezing every last wingpower out of the engines.
“Hey,” she said, pushing the transmit key. “Should I buzz the stands? I reckon if I do a dive, I can kiss the sound barrier.”
“That is a deplorably showy idea,” Tiara replied. “Go for it.”
“Awesome.” Scootaloo tilted the Pensee up a little, aiming for height to fuel her dive. “One loud noise coming up.”
“How'd it go?” the ace asked that evening, after a wild party.
“We've got four orders for private pleasure planes, and one Air Ministry contract to denavalize the Pansee and produce a hundred a year as soon as possible,” Tiara answered, putting a pair of glasses down. “You know how we got rich by inventing the dynamic speaker and the pot transistor?”
Scootaloo nodded.
“That was being well off. Now we're rich.” Tiara pointed to the papers. “Essentially, we are the British fighter industry now.”
“Right,” Diana/Tiara said, sitting down in the drawing room of her manor. “I think it's time we discussed the glaring issue right now.”
“Which is?” Nell Xander asked, sitting back. A bright young lass and a crackerjack pilot, she'd come to the attention of Sally and the others about a year earlier. (Or, to be more accurate, Nyx had let them know she was around too.)
“Well...” Tiara exhaled sharply. “Basically, we broke World War Two.”
“I don't follow.” Sweetie frowned. “I'm not good on Hub-parallel world history.”
“Understandable.” Tiara nodded to her. “The basic version is, a particularly ugly kind of nationalism headed by an equally malodorous fellow who made Sombra look sensible kicked the whole thing off in 1939, after a few years of ratcheting tensions, and it connected with a couple of brushfire wars to eventually go global. It involved just about every country in the world.”
“So... it's late?” Scootaloo ventured, glancing over at the calendar.
It persisted in showing the date to be June 2, 1940.
“Unlike the rest of you, I've not been up to my elbows in jet aircraft,” Tiara sniffed. “I've been paying attention to the world situation. For a start, by now, Austria shouldn't exist. I looked up the person who was supposed to be in charge of Germany, and he's a painter.”
There was silence for a moment, as they contemplated the sheer magnitude of the change to history that that entailed.
“Yay?” Sweetie ventured.
“Oh, unquestionably,” Tiara nodded to her. “I mean, it's all rather to the good.”
“So...” Scootaloo raised a hand. “What do we do now? I mean, it's great and all, but... well... fighter pilots?”
“Oh, I was getting to that.” The Lady picked up a document from her bureau. “That nice Mr. Dowding contacted you through me, asking if you could help with a rash of crimes involving aircraft. He seems to think that an organization of expert pilots with prototype aircraft coming out of their ears could be useful for that sort of thing...”
“You mean that we basically get to fight crime in aircraft?” Scootaloo checked. “That's awesome!”
Tiara smiled. “I may have suggested the idea to him in the first place. Now, we rather assumed that you'd accept, so here's the first case.”
Scootaloo snatched the paper out of her hands. “Notorious criminal Julius Gontermann has been stealing jewellery from long haul transport flights?”
Applebloom clapped her hands together. “I'll wheel out those two prototype Clovers we were making for the Fleet Air Arm.”
Jean-Luc Picard, usually of Starfleet, sat back in his villa garden with a puzzled frown.
As a student of history, he knew full well that by now that Europe should have been embroiled in war – a war in which his own homeland, France, would come off decidedly second best. Despite his own variant of the Prime Directive, he'd privately decided to join the Resistance when the time came.
But, here it was, mid-1940... and no NSDAP, let alone World War Two. It was probably related to the unusually early appearance of jet aircraft, but it was impossible to tell for sure.
A rumbling sound drew his attention, and he shaded his eyes to look into the bright Mediterranean sun.
There were jet aircraft approaching from the south and east. Two of them were in a formation out in front; the one behind, an unusual two-boom design, was catching up fast.
As he watched, the front two broke formation. One stayed on its single-minded course for somewhere in the direction of Bordeaux, the other lifted into a wingover to gain height.
Picard stood, trying to follow what was going on. Thin streams of light darted from the first plane, trying to hit the wildly jinking pursuer, and he realized it was developing into a dogfight.
“Scoots, are you sure this is going to work?” Nyx asked plaintively from the rear seat.
“Sure I'm sure,” Scootaloo replied, standing the Clover on one wing and sliding away from more cannon fire. “This is why I got Applebloom to fit a machine gun to the original Sea Vixen design – whoops!”
A clang reverberated through the entire aircraft, as the other aircraft managed to get a hit with machine guns on her right wingtip.
“Okay, now I'm annoyed,” Scootaloo muttered. “Arm the no.1 missile.”
“Armed,” Nyx supplied.
Scootaloo fired it off, and watched with a grin as it exploded within seconds into a huge cloud of black smoke.
Julius Gontermann scowled. That trick rocket, whatever it was for, had made him lose sight of the agile British plane. With a pilot like Scoots on his case, he needed to down her fast or he was in trouble...
His Renkell lurched, the left engine erupting in a ball of smoke and flame, and his speed dropped markedly. As he looked around frantically for the source of the damage, a second short burst of gunfire hit the right engine.
“Damn it!” his accomplice Preuss said, from the rear seat. “Can we still fly?”
“Not worth a damn,” he replied, snapping the cockpit levers open. “I'm getting out of here.”
Without a backward glance, he jumped.
The Renkell scraped along the ground on its belly, though the fuel loss from bullet holes meant it didn't explode.
“Did you see parachutes?” Scootaloo asked, circling and looking for a suitable landing strip. (The Clover was designed to land on a carrier, so it didn't have to be all that big a landing strip, but the grapevines below probably weren't adequate.)
“One,” Nyx replied, looking herself. “It landed next to that villa.”
As the two pilots – one looking to be in her late thirties, though that was impossible given it was clearly WWI ace Sally Cooper, and another who appeared to be barely 18 – approached, Picard felt like kicking himself.
These had to be the Loopers who had altered world history, and here he was having to explain to them why he'd hit a man with a wrench.
Well, he'd just have to play it cool. After all, this German man had been threatening him with a gun. Just think aggrieved Toulousain.
“That man was very helpful,” Nyx said brightly. “It might have taken us weeks to catch Gontermann otherwise.”
“Yeah...” Scootaloo agreed, pensively. “I still think there was something familiar about him from somewhere.”
55.5
“MORTALS!” Nightmare Moon boomed. “The Night Will Last Forever... at the Lunar Resort! Yes, the Lunar Resort, where you'll feel eighty-three percent lighter!”
The screaming started, then stopped in confusion after about a second.
“Pardon?” Bon Bon said.
“I am the owner and proprietor of the Lunar Resort. Featuring great views over the ocean – and the land, depending on what time of the day it is – the Lunar Resort has all modern conveniences.”
Nightmare Moon's horn glowed, and two thousand brochures rained down on the startled crowd.
“We have a golf course – hit a golf ball for miles! We have fitness equipment, vertical cliff climbing, automated wing sets for unicorns and earth ponies, a lunar swimming pool – dive for half a minute! And much more!”
The dark alicorn cleared her throat, then spoke very quickly.
“Typical cost for a fortnight at the Lunar Resort is in the vicinity of one thousand bits, terms and conditions apply. Management is not responsible for accidental loss of breathing caused by opening doors signposted as for staff only.”
“So,” she went on, back to the normal voice. “Sign on for an out of this world experience! Book today and get a free cuddly toy!”
She held one up. To a Looper, it would bear a certain resemblance to Nyx.
Celestia looked up from the brochure. “...and this is what my sister did when she landed?”
“Pretty much,” Twilight confirmed, hiding her amusement. “I've booked already. I think you're right, I do need to make some friends, and unwinding with a holiday seems the perfect opportunity.”
55.6
An alicorn with a mane of red-flecked pastel, an ominous ruddy glow emanating from her very skin and lighting her white coat and wings with deep red light, stalked onto the stage.
“The Night Will Last Forever!” she announced, flaring her wings to knock the guards away.
“Sister!” came a voice from the side of the stage. In a clatter of hooves, an alicorn of dark fur and plumage cantered into view. “Why must we begin this old conflict again anew?”
“You did not respect my Night,” the first alicorn said, turning. “None of them did. They must be made to respect my Night, for it to get the admiration it-”
“Wait a minute!” Twilight said bossily, trotting up the steps onto the planking of the stage itself. “I think there's been a mix-up.”
“Are you sure?” the red-white alicorn said, turning to her and flourishing a piece of paper. “I checked my lines just five minutes ago.”
Twilight took the paper. “Oh, I think I see. Luna? Can I have yours?”
As the audience tried to work out what, precisely, was going on, the dark alicorn passed another sheet over.
“Right, right.” Twilight swapped them over, then gave them back. “Simple mix-up.”
“Okay, I see.” The two alicorns trotted off set.
A second later, the dark alicorn stalked onto the stage with her mane glowing like the stars. “The Night Will Last Forever!”
“Is this a joke?” someone asked from the back.
“Silence!” the dark alicorn ordered. “It was a simple mix up, that is all!”
“Is it my cue yet, Luna?” Celestia poked her head around the curtain, her mane still glowing red. “It'll take a moment more to get the makeup off...”
“No, it is not your cue yet,” Luna said, sighing. “Right, this is a wash. Let's try Trottingham.”
Two flashes of light, and they vanished.
55.7
“Okay, I've asked everyone else...” Chrysalis said. “What's your mane aura?”
Berry put her glass down carefully, and turned to Chrysalis. “No idea.”
“...pardon?”
“Look.” Berry picked her glass up again, and took a sip. “The whole ascension thing? Complete accident on my part. I wanted to have some glasses that Discord couldn't turn into kumquats, or whatever, so I got Twilight to make them out of that... cosmic...”
“Cosmic Spectrum, I think,” Chrysalis supplied. “What the Crystal Heart's made of.”
“Right!” Berry shrugged. “Apparently it causes ascensions. I did not know this, but Twilight assumed I did.”
“I see.”
The Changeling queen turned that over in her mind for a bit.
“So you don't Ascend much?”
“Hardly ever,” she confirmed. “Basically only when I'm tasting a drink that would do a non-immortal serious damage. I know that the loop resets fix things, but I'd rather not end up deaf in both ears for a few years.”
Berry then reached behind the bar. “Speaking of... I made this for you.”
Chrysalis looked at the bottle dubiously. “What's it made of?”
“Water,” Berry said with a virtuous nod. “Pure, distilled water.”
“And that's dangerous?”
“It is if you're running the still at twenty times normal speed...”
“I don't particularly want to know.” Chrysalis pulled the cork out and poured herself some. “Well... thank you, I suppose.”
“Okay, how did you do that?” Trixie asked, somewhat awed.
Chrysalis snored the snore of the deeply sloshed.
“Homeopathy,” Berry replied smugly. “I'm thinking of marketing it as the healthiest drink you can get drunk with.”
55.8
“Okay. Simple question.”
“Shoot.”
“Why are we horses?”
“Actually, I think it's ponies,” Ranma corrected. “I've been here before. Nice place.”
Nabiki looked dubiously at her hooves. “Name one good reason.”
“Well, here, the normal behaviour of two girls who have a crush on the same guy appears to be to talk it out with the guy.” The Anchor smiled wistfully. “Man, but that'd be nice in our baseline.”
“I wouldn't know, Saotome,” the mercenary Tendo snarked.
“Oh, that reminds me,” Ranma added. “The rulers of this place consider it to be a sanctuary loop. No giant monsters.”
“...that was just two times!”
“I didn't need to see a giant robot crushing Candyland once.” Ranma rolled his eyes. “Right, let's see if the locals are Awake.”
“Oh, I've heard about you,” Rarity said, looking Nabiki up and down. “So, what's your local name?”
Nabiki started to speak... and stopped. She whirled on one hoof to point at Ranma. “Why am I called Pound Foolish?”
Ranma shrugged, hiding a snicker.
“Well, at least you didn't do any physical damage,” Twilight said airily. “Not bad, for such an old and experienced looper on their first visit.”
Nabiki winced.
“I think it was the introduction of fractional reserve banking which did it,” the Tendo added. “Everything up until then was working perfectly.”
“It's a good thing we only tried it out in Ponyville...” Twilight shrugged. “The place is used to minor catastrophes, I think it's the Everfree forest.”
'Pound Foolish' nodded.
55.9
“This is gonna be so awesome,” Scootaloo grinned. For once, she'd managed to persuade everypony to do air combat instead of naval. (It had taken some doing.)
She pushed open the cockpit of the Spitfire Mk. 22, which had been produced (but not used) in the Hub world war two and was hence allowed.
This was her speciality, and-
“Okay, what.”
All four of the defeated fillies gave Silver Spoon identical black looks.
“What?” the pegasus asked, flaring her wings in a shrug. “It was WW2, like you said.”
“Enola Gay is cheating!”
55.10 (Zetrein)
Blue fluffy unicorns, dancing on rainbows! Blue fluffy unicorns, dancing on- dancing on- rain-
Trixie came to an abrupt stop as she Woke up. Opening her eyes, she was faced with a bed-maned Chrysalis, calmly staring at her. The two of them stood there for a moment, before Trixie commented, "Stop giving me that look, this isn't the worst thing you've ever cought me doing."
This did not however, have the intended reaction. Chrysalis' eyes widened, and pointing a trembling hoof at Trixie, she squeaked out, "Y-you can talk?!"
Thinking quickly, Trixie checked her loop memories for how Trixie Puff would deal with the situation.
"Pffft." Now cheerfully blank faced, tongue sticking out, Trixie observed Chrysalis, gauging how effective her ruse was.
It wasn't. "You don't believe Trixie for a moment, do you?"
Trixie had just finished explaining enough about the loops to a very confused unawake Chrysalis, and had re-introduced herself, complete with the little fireworks, when the Worst. Possible. Thing happened.
"Do you smell smoke? If Trixie set the library on fire, Twilight will- URGLBARGLE!" Chrysalis cut Trixie off with the fire extinguisher.
"Why did you do that?! How did you do that?! Trixie Puff isn't allowed to play with fireworks! She always catches fire! Crap, are you still smoldering? You're still smoldering. Come on, we need to soak you to put out the embers!"
No fireworks? No fireworks?! This loop is hell.
55.11 (masterofgames)
Inside the Twi-brary (patent pending), Twilight stood before her fellow loopers, wearing drill sergeant shades and an army helmet, with black stripes painted under her eyes, and a cigar in her mouth (bubblegum, it was the only kind Pinkie had on her)
"Okay troops. I think you all know why we're here. THIS." she declared, gesturing to the multi-locked box with a riding crop as Spike placed it on the table next to her. "We have tried frankly a downright irresponsible number of things to get this open. Zecora, Mac, and Berry have tried everything from Zebrican acid potions, to Applejack's potato cider..."
Applejack shot her brother a dirty look. "Ah swear! Ya mess up ONE time and ya never hear the end of it!"
"Applebloom tried military grade laser cutters..."
The filly in question looked up from her micro-welding and gave a shrug. "So ah forgot that the box has a mirror finish. Could have happened to anyone."
"The entire CMC tried taking it with them while crusading..."
"I'll admit, I was a bit shocked it didn't work." Nyx sighed.
Scootaloo nodded. "Yeah, it just wound up getting sticky..."
"Pinkie tried just plain cheating..."
"Those lockpicks were planted on me I tell you!" the party pony insisted. Though the old fashioned museum robber outfit she was wearing cost her a bit of credibility.
"Sweetie tried... wubs..."
"That canon of Vinyl's takes things apart at a sub-atomic level! It should have worked!"
"I think we all KNOW what Trixie tried..." Twilight continued, giving the showmare a sharp glare.
"Trixie has not failed, she has merely found a level of explosives that is insufficient! Now somepony uncuff Trixie!"
Chrysalis wiggled her eyebrows. "Must I?"
"... Trixie will allow you to release her later."
"Right, moving swiftly along. Fluttershy tried... asking nicely... I'm STILL not sure how that got four of the locks to open, but whatever."
"It was only polite, and if the box isn't ready to open up to others, it's not my place to force it." Fluttershy commented as she finished setting up her therapy couch for her plans this loop.
"Angel tried... something. That's all I'm saying on the matter. And I tried friendship beaming it. Both the Equestrian, AND the Nanoha kinds. Rainbow Dash, it's your turn, but after all that, don't get your hopes up."
Rainbow dash took the box and gave a wing salute and a grin. "Not to worry Twi, I got us a good one. We've just been using the wrong tactics. We've been TRYING to open it. I'm gonna' try opening it by... accident."
Twilight groaned. "Enlighten me then, how do you plan to do that?"
"Oh... I have my ways." Rainbow Dash chuckled, looking out the window at the passing local wall-eyed mail-mare with a smirk.
55.12 (Goldude)
"Focus, Casanova. What's next on the list?" Twilight asked. Since Chrysalis was really the only one awake this loop, she decided to go baseline for now. She had a plan to integrate The Changelings that felt like it was going to be fun.
Spike cleared his throat and fished for the checklist for The Summer Sun Celebration preparations. "Oh, uh... Music! That's the last one."
Twilight nodded. Then heard the all-too-familiar chirping of Fluttershy's birds. The purple pony closed her eyes and smiled, listening intently. What came next, she did not expect at all.
"Come on, sing it with me! ♪You and me, baby, we ain't nothing but animals, so let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel!♪" She could practically hear the record scratch in her own mind. Her eyes opened and smile faded as the animals actually started to sing in tune with this strange newcomer.
From what she could see, there was no Fluttershy. It was instead a yellow stallion pegasus with a short, brown mane that curled up in the front. He was also wearing a gaudy Hawaiian shirt and grinning proudly. Twilight boggled a moment as the song went on before rushing up to the new pony. "You're not Fluttershy!"
Just like that, the strange pony whipped his head to face her. He then looked up and down her, as if judging her. "...Well, hello there, B-E-A-eutiful!" He paused as he struck an exaggerated thinking pose. "My... memories tell me that I am to prepare for the 1000th Summer Sun Celebration. You shouldn't worry your pretty little head off, sparklebutt. I've got things well in hand."
This stallion's presence was somehow throwing her off. It's like he held an exuberant enthusiasm for animals. Twilight really couldn't understand why, and shook her head to try and clear her thoughts and compose herself.
"A- Anyway... I'm Twilight Sparkle, the Anchor for this universe."
The stallion's eyebrow raised as Twilight held her hoof out for a hoofshake. "Oh? ...How pleasant." He grasped Twilight's hoof delicately and kissed it gently, giving her a winning grin. "Name's Ace Vet. Or Ace Ventura. Whichever works. But you can call me 'The Master Mater."
Twilight could feel her cheeks blush. She tried to say something, but the words were caught up in her mouth. All that escaped was the sound of a chicken crossed with a dying sheep being put through a blender.
"Why, yes, I do have that kind of affect on the ladies!" Ace Ventura exclaimed.
"A Manticore!" It roared. Twilight wondered how exactly Ace Ventura would tackle this challenge. "We've gotta get past it!"
Without hesitation, the manticore leaped and swiped at Rarity. She dodged it. She always dodged it. She retaliated in kind with a strong buck to the face, sending it staggering back. She was then promptly tackled by Ace Ventura. "What are you doing, you vile, vile witch!" The last word was punctuated by a strong hoofslap across the face. Rarity tossed the crazy pony off of her.
Ace righted himself and stood up, beginning a rant. "Do you realize what that poor creature is? It's an ANIMAL. That means we don't hurt it! In fact, it's already hurt." He stood up straighter and gained a confident smile. "Allow me to handle this, ladies. Especially you, My Little Sparkle!"
Fluttershy's replacement then whipped himself around to face the manticore and got close to the ground, his teeth chattering as if he was a chipmunk. He jumpily looked around, teeth still chattering as he inched his way forward to the manticore. He paused once or twice to have a little grass nibble.
The manticore was cautious, as usual, as Ace got closer and closer. The rest of the girls looked at Ace as if he grew two heads, but none were able to form the words to caution him away from the manticore. When Ace got close enough, he started nuzzling it, eventually reaching the injured paw. And, as usual, it showed the source of its ailment, the thorn.
"Oh my god... you poor, poor baby..."
"Baby?" Rainbow Dash was incredulous at what was going on in front of her.
Ventura, however, continued to offer babytalking words of reassurance and encouragement. He massaged the back of the manticore's paw, and soon enough, was able to get the thorn out, pain free. When the manticore noticed, it scooped up Ace and began licking him. He returned the favor by licking the manticore back.
Applejack boggled at what she saw. "...What in tarnation did we just see?"
Twilight sighed a little. Even she didn't expect any of this. "Sometimes a little kindness goes a long way.
Rarity frowned. "It's a shame, darling, you having only two gala tickets." She sidled up next to Ace Ventura, gripping a leg with hers. "If you had more, Ace and I could've accompanied you."
Ace rolled his eyes and pulled away from Rarity. "As if."
Rarity blinked. "Why, whatever do you mean?"
The new Element of Kindness turned to face Rarity. "Let's face it: Twilight Sparkle and I are nothing but animals!" He paused to give Twilight a lecherous grin while the Anchor choked on her words and looked away. "Besides, whitey-tighty, you don't have her perfect girlish figure."
Rarity balked. "...Are you saying I'm fat?"
"Like a whale." Rarity's face blushed red and contorted in rage. Ten minutes later, he and Twilight were hiding in Rainbow Dash's house.
She considered sending Ace to the moon.
55.13 (Kris Overstreet)
Pinkie Pie bounced down the Ponyville street in her usual merry manner. Since the current Loop seemed to be baseline except for a slightly higher background magic level, and since the previous Loop had been a bit exhausting (note: the power of friendship can cure some, but not all, victims of a plague-based zombie apocalypse), and since the Princesses weren't Awake, the Elements had agreed to let things play out to baseline this Loop. Twilight was due in town any minute to oversee the Summer Sun Celebration preparations, and Pinkie was casually perambulating where she could see her for the "first" time and do her gasp of shock.
Pinkie was proud of her new "gasp of shock" routine. She'd been working on it for thirty-seven loops in private, waiting for a baseline run. If she could get Twilight to break baseline, Pinkie would count that as a victory.
Wondering what she would demand as a victory prize, Pinkie didn't notice the strange stallion in pyjamas and a somewhat ratty looking bath robe until she bounced right into him.
"Oof! Excuse me!" the stallion said in a light Trottingham accent.
Pinkie looked at him. She was absolutely, positively certain that, out of all the Loops she'd been Awake for, she had never, ever, ever seen this pony before.
Well, even if it meant spoiling the surprise for Twilight, there was only one thing to do.
The stallion stared in shock and terror as Pinkie's dramatic gasp went on for a good forty-two seconds. During that time her color went from pink through every color in the rainbow, including a strangely intelligent-looking shade of fluorescent blue. Her morphic field fluctuated, causing her to shape-shift mid-gasp through three other generations of pony, pegasus, alicorn, human, chaos god, elder god, whale, bowl of petunias, and teapot, before returning to her preferred shade and shape.
And then she said, "Hello!"
The stallion, after several seconds of gibbering, managed to say, "H-h-hello. I, um... I beg your pardon, but does the name 'Agrajag' mean anything to you?"
"No," Pinkie Pie said.
"Thank God for that," the stallion said, sitting down hard on the hard-packed dirt street.
"You must be a new Looper!" Pinkie beamed. "I've never met you before anywhere ever, any Loop ever, so I need to throw you a Welcome-to-Equestria party!"
"Oh, no," the stallion shook his head vigorously. "No, no, no, no, no. No parties. There is not time for a party. This is not a time for a party. The words party and time do not belong together in any imaginable sentence, under the current circumstances, except for sentences that indicate that the words party and time do not belong together in sentences."
"Oh, come now," Pinkie giggled. "It's always time for a party?"
"Even when something truly horrible and destructive is about to happen?"
"Really? What?"
"I don't know," the stallion said. "But I've been bounced from planet to planet, century to century, universe to universe, and Loop to Loop for thousands of Loops now. And just when I think things are calm and I can relax, wham bang, something horrible always happens to me! The entire multiverse of all things imaginable is out to get me!"
Pinkie put a forehoof on the trembling stallion's shoulder. "Look, buddy, don't worry. This is Equestria. We're a sanctuary Loop. We won't let anything bad happen to you, ever."
"I've heard that before," the stallion moaned wretchedly. "Usually just before the person saying it does something horrible."
Pinkie frowned. This pony was proving to be a real downer. If she couldn't cheer him up, then maybe it was time for more direct help. "Look, my Anchor's going to be here in a few minutes," she said. "We'll talk to her, and maybe she can come up with something, okay?"
Twilight remembered the primitive scanning devices of her baseline, with the blinky-light colander and printed readouts and all. She snorted derisively at baseline-Twilight's old concept of high technology and science. Such things were nothing compared to the holographic full-immersion multi-scan systems she'd assembled, mostly from a trip to the Tenchi Loop. The stallion sat in the middle of the hovering screens and colorful three-dimensional analytic readouts, in obvious awe (and bewilderment) at the capital-S Science Twilight had at her disposal.
Of course, there was a thing on his head with blinking multicolored lights on it, because if you're not going to have blinky lights, why bother?
"I'm amazed," Twilight said. "I've never seen a more perfect weave of the Interesting Times Curse and the Never Know Happiness Curse."
"Say, Twilight," Pinkie grinned, "remember when you said curses didn't exist?"
"Not now, Pinkie," Twilight replied. "This is a truly fascinating case. And these curses are so powerful and intricate! I'm so glad I can document all this for future study! I'll need a hundred Loops just to understand all the fine points of the design!"
"But can you do something about it?" the stallion asked. "Can you actually make all the horrible things stop happening?"
"Well, I can't make all the horribleness stop," Twilight said. "You're a Looper, and an Anchor too I'm guessing. You're going to have bad Loops just like the rest of us. But I think I can break the curse... if I have enough time." She looked at the stallion, who reminded him a bit of Rincewind. He'd shown up one Loop as a reddish unicorn with a scraggly beard and a weatherbeaten hat with "Wizzard" in places-where-sequins-used-to-be written on it. That notable had spent his entire Sanctuary loop in the Library under a bookshelf, stepping foot outside only to go to the market to buy potatoes.
"How much time do you think I have?" the stallion asked.
The moment he asked it Twilight's scanners went wild. An instant later the light coming in through the basement windows dimmed, and the wind howled outside the tree. A few moments later a loud, echoing voice filled the air:
"ATTENTION, BEINGS OF EQUESTRIA. THIS IS PROSTETNIC VOGON JELTS OF THE UNSEELIE TRANSDIMENSIONAL PLANNING COUNCIL. AS YOU ARE NO DOUBT AWARE, A FAERIE BYPASS IS BEING ROUTED THROUGH YOUR DIMENSION, AND REGRETTABLY YOUR ENCHANTED REALM IS SCHEDULED FOR DEMOLITION. THE PROCESS WILL TAKE SLIGHTLY LESS THAN TWO OF YOUR MINUTES. THANK YOU."
Twilight looked at Arthur "Tea Thirst" Dent. "I better work fast."
The ponies of Ponyville, upon seeing giant black cubes hovering in Equestria's skies in the exact same way bricks don't, responded in their tried and true manner, i. e. running and screaming in total panic. Few noticed the flashes of light and rumbling that shook Twilight's library from roots to treetop.
The voice came again.
"THERE'S NO POINT IN ACTING ALL SURPRISED ABOUT IT. ALL THE PLANS HAVE BEEN ON DISPLAY IN YOUR LOCAL PLANNING DEPARTMENT IN THE WINTER QUEEN'S CASTLE FOR THE PAST HUNDRED SUBJECTIVE YEARS, SO THERE'S NO POINT GETTING ALL EXCITED ABOUT- what?"
A second voice, too soft to be heard by the panicked ponies below, could just be heard over the magically amplified tannoy.
"YES, AS A MATTER OF FACT, WE DO HAVE THE APPROPRIATE PERMITS. COPIES OF SAID PERMITS ARE BEING SENT TO YOUR LOCAL GOVERNMENT CENTERS FOR REVIEW NOW. YOU HAVE FIVE MINUTES TO READ THEM."
It only took two minutes for the voice to return again. This time it was a very annoyed loud alien voice.
"YES, THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STUDIES, THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STUDIES ON THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STUDIES, AND THE IMPACTS OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES HAVE ALL BEEN COMPLETED. COPIES OF ALL SAME ARE BEING DUPLICATED TO YOUR LOCAL GOVERNMENT CENTERS NOW. KINDLY REVIEW THEM AND CEASE THESE POINTLESS DELAYING TACTICS!"
This time the pause was less than a minute.
"OH HO HO, YOU THINK YOU'RE CLEVER DICK, DO YOU? WELL, MISS WHOEVER YOU ARE, SINCE ALL WORK IN THE DEMOLITION IS CONDUCTED UPON THE SHIPS OF OUR BATTLE FLEET, I CAN TELL YOU WITH A SMUG LITTLE SNEER WHICH YOU OF COURSE CANNOT PROPERLY APPRECIATE THAT ALL LABOR RIGHTS NOTICES, HEALTH AND SAFETY ADVISORIES, AND LICENSES TO CONDUCT DIMENSIONAL DISRUPTION ARE ON DISPLAY WHERE ALL EMPLOYEES CAN READ THEM. SO THERE! WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY TO THAT?"
A long minute passed.
"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? OF COURSE WE DIDN'T PUT THE BID OUT TO LOCAL LABOR! WHAT FAIRY RACE IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD BID ON A CONTRACT TO DESTROY THEIR HOME REALM?"
That same not-quite-audible voice whispered on the loudspeakers.
"YES, I KNOW IT'S A REGULATION!" The alien voice wailed in despair. "IT'S A BLOODY STUPID, IDIOTIC, IMPOSSIBLE REGULATION! AND SINCE I AM A BLOODY STUPID, IDIOTIC, IMPOSSIBLY BUREAUCRATIC MEMBER OF MY BLOODY STUPID, IDIOTIC, IMPOSSIBLY BUREAUCRATIC SPECIES, AND JUSTLY PROUD OF THE FACT, I HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO FOLLOW IT, YOU HORRIBLE LITTLE CREATURE!
"BUT MARK MY WORDS, CREATURE- ONCE THE BIDDING PERIOD HAS EXPIRED AND ALL BIDS HAVE BEEN REVIEWED, CONTRACTORS INVESTIGATED, NEW ROUNDS OF ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STUDIES CONDUCTED, SAFETY INSPECTIONS AND LENGTHY PERIODS FOR PUBLIC COMMENT CONCLUDED- WE WILL BE BACK!"
The immense ships began to waver and fade into thin air. The voice of the Vogon commander could be heard saying one last thing on the still-live mike: "BLOODY AFFIRMATIVE ACTION, IT'LL BE THE-"
Then the skies were clear, birds chirping, and ponies jubilant.
The library door opened, and Twilight led Pinkie Pie and Tea Thirst, nee Dent, out into the sunlight. "I can't guarantee the curse will remain gone," Twilight said. "Yggdrasil might restore the status on your next Loop. But there are other Loopers who specialize in purifying curses. Keep an eye out for them. And in the meantime, enjoy the next four years or-"
She froze.
“Wait a minute. Who handled the thing with the Vogons?”
Pinkie screwed her face up. “I think it might have been Ivory Scroll! She's got the skills for it-”
Twilight ran back into her library. “Be back in a moment!”
There was a flash of light.
A few seconds later, Twilight came around the corner of the town hall, levitating a huge pile of paperwork.
Next to her was the Mayor, looking back along her body at her new wings.
“So, you see,” Twilight explained, “I suddenly realized that I must have been the one to transport you up there in the first place, so to maintain the timeline I had to go back in time to do it. And since I was going back in time, I decided to go back an extra few minutes to give you that talk.”
“I have to say...” Ivory said absently, “when you said that that pendant would make me a whole new pony, I didn't quite expect this...”
“I was in kind of a hurry, sorry.” Twilight winced. “You don't have to use it again, Berry doesn't much, but the option is there.”
Twilight left the mayor to the admiring crowd and walked back over to Pinkie and Tea Thirst. "All right," she said, "I've taken care of everything now."
Tea Thirst looked into the middle distance a moment. “Ah, right. I see.”
Twilight smiled and asked eagerly, "You do?"
"No," Tea Thirst admitted with a sigh.
"Ah, right," Twilight said. "Sorry about that. I should have said, I had some business to take care of in the past."
"Oh, time travel," Tea Thirst said. "Now I understand. I hate when it happens to me. It's a wonder I don't meet myself coming the other way more often."
55.14 (Stainless Steel Fox)
Dash saw Fleetfoot and Spitfire walking over and gave Twilight the nod. Time to troll the Cloudsdale team.
Spitfire spoke frst. "Rainbow Dash, you got a minute?"
"Uh, sure." Happy but slightly confused, that was the way to act.
"You could really be an asset to our team, so... we want you to join the Cloudsdale team. Permanently."
Rainbow Dash gasped, as she usually did, though the first time it had been in shock at the yellow dog offer.
"It looks like Soarin's wing won't heal in time for the trials. We want you to fly with us." Spitfire started the play and Fleetfoot continued the double team. "Of course, this means you won't be able to fly for Ponyville, but let's face it. Even with you on their team, their chances of qualifying for the Games are – pretty slim.
"So, what's it gonna be?" Spitfire asked.
Dash forced down her disgust at the way her one time idol was acting, though she could let at least some of it through to set up for the punch line.
"Abandon my team? Have you been flying too high? Element of Loyalty here! As if I would ever... oh, heh heh, good one. This is one of those 'secret test of character things' isn't it? I mean there's no way Spitfire, Leader of the Wonderbolts, epitome of everything a pegasus aspires to be would make such an offer for real. You'd be abandoning one of your own team mates like a used cloud and wrecking the chances of another team just to marginally improve the chances of what's already pretty much a sure thing."
Dash shook her head. "I mean, you had me going there for a moment, but after what you said to me at the Wonderbolt Academy about 'pushing yourself in the right direction', that beating everyone no matter who got hurt and winning at all costs was not the Wonderbolt way, you'd have to be a massive hypocrite to then turn around and do exactly that. And pulling it on me of all ponies, the Element of Loyalty? You'd have to be... what was that thing Twilight said yesterday before she'd had her coffee? 'displaying a level of ineptitude that borders on the imbecilic.' Yeah, that was it."
"Not even a brain damaged diamond dog would pull such a stupid stunt, let alone someone like you." Dash grinned. "Don't worry, I won't let you down, or my own team. I will continue to uphold the ideals of the Wonderbolts, even if I'm flying against you guys. Cloudberries, I can't believe I ever thought for a moment that you'd try such a despicable tactic! I must be the one flying too high! Anyway, gotta go! I hope we can still train together, after all, you guys push me further than I could go alone, and anything that makes me better helps my team. See ya!"
She walked away, not bothering to hide the smirk. Maybe next time she could get Chrysalis to take her place...
55.15 (Dalxein)
Twilight Sparkle was sitting in the Rich family's sitting room, waiting on Diamond Tiara so they could implement one of their plans for an otherwise baseline loop. Her eye however was drawn to a rather large and well-made painting depicting what was obviously (to her, despite the poor facial quality) the extended Cutie Mark Crusaders in human form, dressed in finery, military regalia or mechanic's overalls, and standing dwarfed in front of the daunting forms of half a dozen flying craft she managed to piece out as jet planes and fighters.
"Oh, you like it? It's one of my most prized possessions." Diamond said as she entered the room, her trusty butler leaving to attend other business.
Twilight smiled. "Well, I can see it's a very fine painting, but you've surely got other pictures of all of you together, why is this one so much more precious?" she asked, curious.
Diamond answered by pointing down to the signature at the painting's corner, causing Twilight's eyes to widen comically. "Ah."
"It was actually not that difficult to commission, all things considered. Bit of a bother keeping it, but the pocket was deposit-only that loop so that helped. Anyway, where were we? On to business!"
Twilight though couldn't stop wondering how they'd managed to get a group portrait painted by Adolf Hitler.
That was going to be one hell of a story.