//------------------------------// // Loops 68 // Story: MLP Time Loops // by Saphroneth //------------------------------// 68.1 (OracleMask) It took two weeks before they saw solid signs of progress. The color-change spell had started fading after the first week, very slowly shifting Fluttershy's mane and tail back to its normal pink during the course of the second one. Rarity, on Naruto's advice, had changed Fluttershy's hair color to a vividly bright red. The color didn't suit Fluttershy at all, but Kakashi seemed to relax more with the red than he did with Rarity's original choice of peach. The ninja had gotten a little twitchy once Fluttershy's natural pink-ness started becoming visible again, but Fluttershy's kind and caring self didn't change even though her mane did. Finally, it got to the point where Fluttershy was completely pink again and Kakashi didn't react to her at all. Everypony had been patting themselves on the back, but the next step would be much harder. Ponyville had many ponies in various shades of pink, including Pinkie Pie herself. Pinkie Pie had accidentally proven that Kakashi would need more help by setting him off herself when the urge to throw his 'Welcome to Equestria/Hooray for Being a New Looper' party overwhelmed her better judgement. Luckily, Konoha's Number One Confusing Ninja had come up with a plan of his own. It was based off a prank Naruto had done to the Unawake Kakashi more times than he could ever remember. It only seemed fitting to use to help the Awake Kakashi now. "YOSH!" Kakashi...stared. Fluttershy had asked if he could get something from the shed (if he wasn't busy, and didn't mind the walk), but he couldn't remember what it was. Not after seeing...this. "Eternal Rival! I am here to deliver a most Youthful Challenge!" Kakashi was fairly sure he'd seen this pony before, too. Even after extended Fluttershy exposure, the other shades of pink still set him off, but Kakashi could have sworn he'd seen this pony around. Mostly peeking through Fluttershy's windows at him. The jumpsuit and bowl cut were nostalgically familiar, and Kakashi's reply was automatic. "Hm? Did you say something?" "Yosh! A most Hip and Youthful reply!" 'Pinkie Gai' announced, "As expected of my Eternal Rival! Now, accept my Challenge!" "...What challenge?" Kakashi asked, warily. Pinkie pulled a large poster from nowhere. "Pin the Tail on the Pony! And if I cannot beat you at it, I will make one thousand balloon animals!" "I still can't believe this worked," Twilight said, looking around Fluttershy's lawn. 'Pinkie Gai' had challenged Kakashi to one party game after another. Then to a cupcake-eating contest. Right now they were doing a dance battle. Somehow in the middle of this, other ponies had arrived from Ponyville and the whole thing had turned into a full-fledged Pinkie Pie Party. Naruto's grin had gone from 'smug' to 'foxy' sometime around the limbo contest. 68.2 (misterq) "Rarity Crisp?" "Yes, Twilight Delicious?" Rarity casually adjusted her stylish white Stetson hat. "Why are we all part of the Apple family?" Twilight fidgeted with her lavender neck scarf. The white unicorn paused for a moment, parsing her new memories before answering, "Because when you gave Pinkie Pie the genealogy scrolls, she found out that most of the ponies in the Ponyville and Canterlot areas have a common ancestor. One Appleseed, who instead of just planting apple trees wherever he went.." "Ugh! I get it!" Twilight groaned, "Overly promiscuous stallions aside, what does this mean for us?" Rarity Crisp casually watched as Apple Bloom, Scrumptious Belle, and Seedaloo played together, "It means the next family reunion is going to be bigger than the Summer Sun Celebration." 68.3 (Ghrathryn) (Blytonverse continued) George had a slight smirk on her face as she faced the men that wanted her family’s gold for what had to be at least the fiftieth time that she could recall. They were, of course, in the little dungeon cell in Kirrin Castle, somewhere in the island’s network of underground passageways. As with the baseline, Lauren and Felicity were up on the surface while she and Rayne were down here, gathering the last few bits and dumping them into George’s subspace pocket, or they had been before the members of Greed International had shown up. “Jake! Look here!” One of the pair said. “You were right. The gold’s here all right. And how easy to take away! All in ingots! This is the most amazing thing we’ve ever found!” George rolled her eyes. What was left wasn’t even a fraction of what should be here, but of course with the loops these idiots wouldn’t recognise that fact. “Sorry to disappoint you boys, but you’re not going to get any of it.” “Yeah?” One of the pair, Jake probably since it wasn’t the one that had spoken the first time. “What makes you think you can stop us? You’re just a pair of kids.” George grinned, casting a quick look at Rayne. “Actually I’m a lot more now.” She said, Reaching for her Legacy and pulling on the magic around them, feeding it into her flame. Her target was the pistol that one of the pair pulled out, forcing the temperature of the air around it up until the metal started to bubble and melt. With the weapon out of the way, it would probably be easy to deal with the pair; particularly given they showed no signs of being anything other than normal ponies. “Hey! You can’t do that! Bats don’t have magic.” George smiled slightly at the pair of them, her eyes glowing redly, “Timmy, capture.” With a snarl, Timothy leapt at the men, shifting into his ‘dragon’ form mid-air and slamming them both to the ground. Rayne arched an eyebrow. “That was fast.” “Normally they’re a lot more annoying, but… two dragons against two… earth ponies did you call them?” Getting a nod from Rayne, she watched as Timothy knocked the pair out and bound them in chains of rock. “It’s rather bad for them. If we did it the normal way, Lauren would have to get a note and come down to rescue us. I don’t feel like dealing with the mess that will make, particularly if Felicity is anything like Anne is now we’re looping.” George shrugged, turning to stuff what remained of the gold in her subspace pocket. “So what do we do? Just leave them here?” Rayne asked as the two of them got ready to leave. “We usually leave them down here and wreck their boat so they won’t get away.” George replied as Timothy returned to the ‘normal’ Welsh border collie mongrel he was. “Let’s find the others.” Nodding, Rayne followed her back through the maze of passages under the castle, after locking the two would-be thieves in the cell. “Did you find it?” Lauren asked once the five of them had regrouped. “Where is the gold?” “Safe,” Rayne replied. “Though we did have a couple of people try to make trouble.” Felicity blinked. “Oh dear, I hope nobody was hurt too badly.” George shook her head. “The worst might be first or second degree burns to a hand.” “Oh my!” Felicity gasped. “Beyond that, they’re knocked out, bound and locked up. We should deal with the pair’s boat so they can’t make a swift get away if they manage to break out.” She grinned, pulling a length of rope from the pocket. “And I know the best way to.” Leading the group to the cove the Five normally landed in, she nodded, seeing the motorboat left there. It didn’t take them long to have it tied to their own rowboat, nor for them to be heading out into the bay. “Well,” Rayne said, sitting in the motorboat as George guided it through the rocks surrounding the island and into the bay. “Since we’ve got a bit of time before anything else happens, I was thinking. Don’t say anything, Fluttershy; I’ve heard most of them.” The last was an aside to the yellow Pegasus. “Given most of the things you’ve told me about seem to be handled easily in loop, even for your baselines; do you think that any of the others would be willing to open the loop up as another sanctuary?” George frowned. “I won’t speak for anyone outside the Five, since I don’t know them too well, but I can see Julian and Anne agreeing to have this as a sanctuary.” She shifted slightly, ignoring the calls from the large ship they passed. If things followed baseline, those sailors would probably go to the island. She glanced up, taking note of the name so she could tell the police later. “The thing is we’ve been told how powerful some of the older loopers are. Even with the five of us being what we are, I don’t know if we could handle them without some serious help.” Rayne nodded, twitching her tail. “I know, George, and Equestria will help as much as we can. One of our things is making as many friends as possible, because we’re stronger together, working in harmony, than anyone is alone.” She reached over, placing a hand on George’s shoulder, Felicity doing the same from the other side. “I think a lot of the loopers would be glad of somewhere that they can rest, somewhere that is human controlled most of the time.” Felicity said. “I don’t know if there is any way we can help you or the others here make sure the loops are safe for others, but Rainbow is right. Equestria won’t leave our friends hanging.” :This loop seems to be a fusion of all our groups, pack mate.: Timothy put in, placing his head in George’s lap, leaving Lauren with no way to get in for now. :We can talk to the others, let them know the idea and let them decide if they can handle things. When our pack mates return, we can talk to them and decide whether we can handle everything and the next time things fuse we can pass a message on.: He pointed out. “Come on, old thing,” Lauren said, getting an amused snort from George at how typically Julian or Dick that phrase was. “It can’t be all bad.” George smiled slightly. “I won’t answer for anyone else, but I can see about sending the offer along to those I know and we should be meeting the girls from Malory Towers in a few weeks so you can put the proposition to them yourselves.” She said, taking a moment to stroke Timothy’s head before focusing on getting them back to shore. Twilight sighed as she looked up at the cave that the red dragon typically slept in. They hadn’t been able to properly test whether Anne was able to use the Element of Kindness thanks to Luna being awake. Something that was both good and bad. Right now though, they had another problem, namely a dragon that was often a pain in the tail to get to move on. Tree but she hated dealing with this some days. “So normally this guy just shows up out of nowhere and decides to sleep here?” Julian asked, getting a nod from Twilight. “I think I might have a way to convince him to leave.” He said, frowning slightly as he looked into the cave. It was large, but not so large that he couldn’t do what he was planning. “Dragons here are vulnerable to cold, right?” Once again he got a nod. Grinning, Julian whistled as he walked towards the cave, his body starting to take on a blue-white colouration. Twilight shivered as he passed her, glancing back at Dick and Anne, who both shrugged their wings. Entering the cave, he let the cold spread. From their experimenting with their abilities, he knew he could cool a volume of around thirteen hundred cubic metres, all he really needed was to do that enough to convince the dragon that staying here wasn’t a good plan. The dragon in question tossed and turned a bit as the area around it started getting cold, ice forming and cracking on his scales before he blinked open his eyes and focused on the small pony in front of him. “Why do you disturb me, pony?” “I apologise for the interruption of your nap, but the local residents have requested you move on… and possibly have someone take a look at your nose and throat.” Julian responded politely. “And why should I care about pitiful little ponies?” The dragon asked, sounding somewhat amused by the stallion in front of him. Julian shifted slightly. “Ponies, much like my own species, aren’t individually powerful outside a chosen few.” He admitted. “However, you happen to have several of those chosen ones waiting outside.” He pointed out, his breath starting to steam in the air as the cavern’s temperature dropped another few degrees. “And if you hadn’t noticed yet, it’s getting cold in here. Soon enough it will be cold enough that your body starts shutting down.” He raised his head to look the dragon in the eye. “I can keep active in temperatures below minus one hundred degrees centigrade, can you?” The dragon shivered, hearing something crackle on his scales. “You’re bluffing. No pony could do such.” “I’m not a pony, sir.” Julian responded. “I am a dragon, but not one like you. Where you revel in fire and flame, I work best in temperatures that would make most others hide away to try to keep warm.” He pointed out, twitching his tail. It was at that point that the dragon noticed that Julian’s eyes looked like those of a frozen corpse, almost pure white. The temperature dropped a bit more and the dragon noticed ice coating the cave floor along with his treasures. “The other option would be for us to fight, though I would prefer it didn’t come to that.” Julian continued, not remotely bothered by the cold as the dragon picked his paws off the pile of gems and coins in a crackling of ice. “I…” The dragon looked around as an enclosed winter continued to encroach. “Fine, release your winter, pony. You have won this round.” Getting a nod, the dragon watched in surprise as winter seemed to evaporate from his cave. “A pleasure doing business with you, sir,” Julian smiled, turning to leave. “Wait…” The dragon held up a paw. “Are you really a dragon?” Julian grinned. There were a few moments of morphic confusion as his wings changed, the hair of his tail shortened while the tail itself stretched out and thickened. Not long after there stood a white and blue scaled dragon, around thirty to fifty feet in length stood in the pegasus’ place. “Ilistast the Ice Walker at your service.” He rumbled, bowing his head slightly. “Of the Avalon Brood.” “Slaryrrlus the Red,” The dragon introduced himself, his tail flicking. “I will admit, I never imagined I would meet another dragon in this region and I have never heard of one that uses cold like you.” “I doubt you will find too many cold wyrms in these parts, though I do know of at least three other dragons here.” Julian admitted. “Spykoran, a young dragon raised by ponies and two of my brood siblings, Fenynast of the Dark Forest and Kanrorarl the Storm Wind. All three are outside along with the Elements of Harmony.” Surprisingly they had managed to get hold of at least some of just about every group that existed in their universe, passing the message on, which of course had led to more and more questions. Finally George had gotten fed up of them all and just asked the ‘leaders’ of each group to come down to Kirrin. Being part pony had really speeded that up for a number of them, which was why they were back on Kirrin Island, in the ruined castle’s courtyard with her and the three from Equestria in front of a mass of anthro-ponies. “How many of them are there?” Rayne asked, looking out at the group. George frowned, shifting slightly. “Somewhere on the high side of a hundred, possibly over two hundred,” She replied, looking out at the group. “But… no loop has that many loopers.” Felicity whispered. “Actually this loop has ei… nine loopers.” George pointed out, remembering Jo at the last second. “The thing is you’re talking about the entirety of our ‘universe’ that links to ‘normal’ Earth so you’ve got something like seven to ten, possibly more actual loops that can and probably often do run together, each with their own loopers.” She wasn’t exactly sure how their universe worked, but she knew of two boarding schools and five holiday adventurer groups counting the Five themselves. “Think about it, there’s the Famous Five, the Secret Seven, the Adventurous Four, the Five Find-Outers, the Trents and Mannerings or Cunninghams or whatever those four call themselves and the schools, Malory Towers and St Claire’s and those are the ones I know of. I wouldn’t be surprised to find there’s a few others.” Rayne nodded as Felicity blinked. “Even if it’s only the anchor for each area this whole thing is almost like the Star Wars linked loops and possibly how the Star Trek ones are set up… the latter set at least.” She agreed. “If there are loopers for Star Trek, and Slepinir says there are, then there’s at least three for the different main Enterprises, if the station and that other ship have their own anchors that’s potentially another twenty or so loopers focusing on bridge crews.” She pointed out before looking out at the crowd again and sighing as the parrot decided to let out an imitation of a train whistle. That bird was already annoying her. Seeing everyone settling themselves down, she took a deep breath and let it out slowly. This would be the first time she had given the Looping Multiverse 101 to such a large group, heck she doubted Twilight had given that talk to such a large group. Stepping out, she quickly ascended to alicorn and let off a firecracker spell to get everyone’s attention as the others joined her. “Thank you.” Rayne said, looking around at the group, some of which were obviously adults, most seemed to be children. “My name, for this loop is Rayne Kirrin, normally I go by Rainbow Dash, fastest pegasus — or alicorn — in Equestria. With me I have Fluttershy, one of the other Equestrian loopers, Lightning Dust, a non-looper from Equestria and George Kirrin of the Famous Five, a local looper along with her dog, Timothy. “The reason you’re all here is because the universe is broken, the result of which is that we are all stuck repeating a certain amount of time again and again, sometimes in different ways.” Rayne looked around at the group, making sure they were paying attention before glancing back to see Felicity had set up a projector and had it running the introductory slide show. “I’ll try to make this quick since I’m not that good at public speaking. Reality as you know it is one universe of, literally, thousands. Under all of them is a super computer call Yggdrasil, unfortunately something broke the computer so the people that control it have put it in a kind of safe mode so it keeps working while they fix whatever broke. That safe mode is what caused the loops.” “Every loop has an anchor,” Felicity stepped forwards, switching the slides. “That person, whoever it is amongst your group, will always loop. That means that if anyone is likely to gain a lot of power or go insane from boredom, it will be the anchor.” Rayne nodded, taking over again. “From what George has told me, her section of this universe has looped maybe fifty to a hundred times, I presume most of the rest of you are about the same.” That got a number of nods from some people in the crowd. “What we have here is a Linked Loop, meaning that while each group here will be independent, there’s a high chance that something like this will happen, where you’re all together.” “From what I was told,” George cut in, flicking her tail. “Is that loops tend towards one of three types in the main. Universe, meaning they’re just what happens normally or a variation of it, fused, like this, where either people or concepts will jump from one universe to another.” She looked around at the audience. “I presume most of you freaked out when you woke up at the beginning of the holiday as bipedal ponies.” Getting more nods, she snorted in amusement. “Yeah, it does seem strange or as if everyone got completely drunk, but it’s something to do with the way things fuse. Don’t count on staying human or even looking the same if you do. You will want to keep an eye out for tricks you can pick up, particularly in game loops since they don’t show often and can give a lot of tricks. You don’t want to muck things up too much though. Apparently there’s punishment loops out there and they’re nasty.” “They are,” Rayne shuddered. “We tend to end up in a school for guys that want serious eye candy. How those people can handle the weight on their chests normally I don’t know. There’s also a lobotomised variant of our home loop or a version where we, for some reason try invading Earth and turning humans into ponies. “Given all that, as soon as you’re aware you’ve loops, check your memories. There might be something there that explains a variation on what you’re used to or explains a bit about who and what you are if you end up outside your normal loop.” Rayne continued. “Also, if you ever end up in a universe known as the hub or heck anywhere that has books, try to get as many ‘fiction’ books as you can same with movies, games or television programs. Loop backups are stored in media on other loops so you can find out a lot beforehoof. You should also know that everyone that loops has a subspace pocket; it’s the only way to take things between loops. Don’t put anything organic in there unless it’s dead and under stasis. You don’t know what will happen in there. Be aware that you won’t fit everything in a pocket all the time; it will take time before you can put mass amounts of stuff into one. “I know some of the old timers can fit planets into their pockets, new loopers might be unlucky enough to only fit a couple of pieces of jewellery.” Rayne finished, flicking her tail. “The last thing before I open up to questions is that Equestria is a sanctuary loop and from what I’ve heard from George, most everything here can be handled in baseline so we would like to ask you whether you would be willing to be a second set of sanctuaries. I know you may not be able to handle old and insane loopers so Equestria will likely help out as much as we can, but if you are willing and can handle some, it will give us a break and allow the older loopers a chance to relax.” “You don’t have to answer now,” Felicity said gently. “We don’t mind waiting for you to think things over.” She looked around. “Why don’t we answer whatever questions you have first?” She suggested, getting several people raising their hands in response. Leaning back from his console, the horned dragon frowned as he watched the development of one of the new loop sets he was in charge of. He knew that the Equestrians had designated their loop as a sanctuary to all but those most determined to cause trouble, but this was the first time he had heard of any of them trying to spread that. It was a good idea; many of the older loopers were close to breaking or had broken at least once. The question though, was how could a group of human children handle those with near unlimited power? Equestria had ways to deal with it, 50s Earth didn’t, even counting in the fact that they had a few dragons. The most obvious thing to do would be set up a power limiter on that set of loops, similar to the ones on Eiken, but that wouldn’t necessarily solve the problem. There was probably also going to need to be people that could handle people that were a mess psychologically. How would be the best way to do that? He flicked his tail, frowning. What could they do to mitigate the trouble from people like Sakura? What could they do to deal with the potential of someone like Leah from the Twilight series? Maybe it was time he spoke to Slepinir along with the others whose likenesses were used as sires for the Fireborn dragons. “Caranoch keep an eye on the loop in progress and make sure nothing nasty can access it.” He ordered the small draconic serpent that normally stuck with him. “I need to talk to Tiamat, Jormungand, Ladon, Ryu, Dambala and the others, then talk to Slepinir to see if we can come up with a way to handle the possibility of those loopers choosing to make their linked loop a sanctuary like the Equestria one.” He ordered, shifting into a horned, human like creature. It was easier to move through areas in his alternate form. “Right, tell me what happens, Cernunnos…” Caranoch looked over at his companion. “Or should it be Herne?” He asked, causing Herne to roll his eyes as he left the room. The Ursa Minor had failed to materialise at the end of Trixie’s usual first visit to Ponyville, something that everyone Awake and used to Equestrian loops had taken with a sigh of relief, right up to the point when a living storm had rolled out of the Everfree in its place. Shaking off the flash blindness from getting smacked in the muzzle by a lightning bolt, Dick looked up at the creature that had appeared, pinning his ears flat as it roared. “What is that?” He asked Twilight, who was watching the display with the air of someone that wasn’t happy about being sideswiped by events. “A Tempest. We encountered one once, it’s made of wild weather magic and makes the timber wolves in the Everfree look smart by comparison.” Twilight replied, scowling up at the living storm cloud. “The last time Rainbow and Lightning hit it with a double Sonic Rainboom. I don’t know how we can deal with it this time, at least not without ascending.” “If it’s Tainted weather, I’ll deal with it.” Dick growled, his hide starting to writhe as he pulled on his dragon form. Another bolt of lightning lit the sky, the terrible crack of it splitting the air covering whatever Twilight might had said as Dick leapt into the air, shedding his pony form in favour of becoming a silvery dragon as he beat his wings up into the sky. Reaching the same height as the rogue storm, he Reached out with his Legacy, scanning for any weaknesses. He could taste its Taint from where he was, niggling at the back of his throat. Unfortunately there didn’t seem to be any obvious weaknesses to the construct beyond rip out the heart of its weather magic. Dick’s eyes narrowed as another lightning bolt sizzled the air. He was a Storm Lord, it was a storm, he should be able to take it apart, if he remembered things from the time of Avalon properly. Closing his eyes, Dick felt his body start to become insubstantial as he used more of his Legacy. Reaching out to the Tempest, he felt around the cloud form for a moment before using the Legacy to slice one of its twister arms off. The creature roared in response. Another lightning bolt lanced through the sky, this one passing through Dick’s ‘body’ and fizzling out as he drew its power into himself. Narrowing his eyes, he formed a blade of wind and sent it through the Tempest in response, moving in behind it to blast the thing with a lightning bolt of his own. That was when things really got loud. The Tempest, as Twilight had said, wasn’t smart, most of the time its attacks were as straight forwards and predictable as a run-away big-rig. Dick on the other hand dodged and jinked around most of its attacks, reading them through his Legacy as he used it to slice pieces off the colossus. Cutting or disrupting the weather magic creating it, cleansing what he could as the storm cloud shrunk in on itself and finally disappeared as he swatted it with a fore paw. Back winging in to land, Dick shifted back to his pegasus form and grinned at Twilight. “One rogue storm dispersed.” He commented dryly before his stomach growled. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I am decidedly hungry so I’m going to get something to eat.” He added turning to do just that as the other Ponyvillians started cheering for him. Twitching her tail, Darrell Rivers looked around platform 7, watching the unawake girls going through their usual routines for the start of the term at Malory Towers, completely ignoring the fact that they were usually human. Even with the talk they had gotten a couple of weeks ago on Kirrin Island, it was strange knowing that she was a human and yet she and everyone else were anthro-ponies. “Hallo Darrell,” Alicia’s voice sounded from behind her, making her jump slightly. “Sorry about that old thing.” Turning, Darrell gave Alicia a look. “I do wish you wouldn’t do that.” Alicia shrugged her bat-like wings. “It just seems natural like this.” She replied before shifting slightly. “Have you seen any of the others yet?” “We’re only missing Sally and Gwendoline from our normal group and knowing Sally…” She trailed off as they both recalled what happened to Sally Hope in their baseline. “Other than that, it’s just the Kirrins, apparently there’s five of them and a dog.” Scanning the crowd again, Alicia twitched her tail as she noticed someone she recognised from the meeting. “I say, do you think that’s Sally?” She asked, pointing out another anthro-pony, this one with a horn instead of wings, along with an ice-blue mane and a light purple coat. “One way to find out,” Darrell replied. “Oi, Sally!” Getting a wave in response, she waited until the other pony reached them. “Good to see you, is everything alright?” “Actually yes,” Sally replied. “Daphne’s about Felicity’s age this time out, so I apparently got over my jealousy a long time ago.” “That’s good,” Darrell sighed in relief. Sally unawake and at baseline wasn’t fun because of the jealousy she had against her new-born and somewhat sickly little sister. Even when Sally was Awake, things weren’t nice for her that first term at Malory Towers because of that. “What do you suppose will happen if Gwendoline ends up doing this looping business?” Alicia shuddered. “I hope we don’t find out. She’s a piece of work as it is.” “Yes, but she does get better after her father ends up sick.” Sally pointed out. “If she can learn from that, maybe she can actually be less of an ass than usual.” She continued before looking up to see a group of mares, one of whom had a rainbow coloured mane. “And it looks like the Kirrins are here.” “My word,” Alicia blinked as Darrell and Sally waved the newcomers over. “I never knew our school uniform could look so strange.” Rayne snorted in amusement, catching the tail end of that as she and the others came up to the trio. “It probably looks fine on humans, at least compared to some I’ve seen.” She grimaced. “I remember being in the Potterverse once, got a look at the one for Harry’s cousin’s uniform. It was ugly and it had the same colours.” “It probably depends on how they do things.” Jo pointed out. “This is mostly brown or white with some orange so it doesn’t really clash.” George arched an eyebrow at Jo, “Since when are you into fashion, old girl?” Jo shrugged her wings. “Blame your mother.” She replied, causing George to roll her eyes. “So what er… what normally happens for you girls?” Felicity asked, looking between the three that normally went to Malory Towers. “Well, there’s not really much to do here apart from wait around. We’re still missing Gwendoline.” Darrell said, nodding to George’s mother as she came up to say good-bye to the Kirrins. “That’s usually a show since Gwendoline’s mother spoils her rotten.” “After we get to Malory Towers, it’s pretty much boarding school.” Sally shrugged her shoulders. “What you call baseline has me being jealous of my little sister, which fortunately won’t happen this time. We see Alicia pull a few tricks, including playing deaf.” Alicia grimaced. “I’m not doing that one this time, it’s bad enough when I get water logged ears as a human.” Darrell nodded, patting Alicia’s shoulder. “Beyond that, Gwendoline annoys me by dunking Mary-Lou, our ‘mouse’ girl.” “Watch out if Darrell starts glinting at you, it usually means she’s cross.” Darrell rolled her eyes at Alicia’s comment and ignored the snort of laughter from Sally. “We get through most of the term okay, then Sally ends up needing an operation,” She grimaced. “My temper gets the best of me and she’s probably not well from stress.” “I wasn’t,” Sally interrupted. “And I’ve told you, I forgave you years ago, Darrell.” She continued, giving her friend a hug. “Beyond those incidents, I don’t think there’s much else that’s really big. Well, except that Gwendoline likes trying to snuggle up to people she thinks are rich or popular and usually it ends poorly for her. I think Bill said she might show up early this time when we were leaving Kirrin.” “Bill?” Lauren asked. “Wilhelmina Robinson. She starts in our third year mostly and she’s horse mad.” Darrell explained before snorting in amusement. “She’s probably one of the few that were actually excited to wake up a pony.” George snickered as Timothy barked a laugh. :That sounds much like some people we’ve met.: He commented to George. “Finally,” Alicia sighed, noticing Gwendoline and her mother had finally arrived, the former of which had her blonde mane half way down her back. “Now they are here, we can get going.” With a bit of urging, the nine of them made their way onto the North Tower carriage of the train, Darrell, Sally and Alicia pointing out Gwendoline once they were settled, letting the Kirrins watch as the spoilt girl had her send off. 68.4 (Ghrathtyn) Twilight Awoke and blinked in surprise as her Loop Memories came in. “Well…” She started, raising insubstantial hooves to look through them. It wasn’t the first time she had been a ghost, or even looped in dead or near it, but this was a bit different. Looking up, she frowned at the house in front of her. According to her memories, she was supposed to take a team of four spirits to scare everyone living in the house out into the streets. “Twilight?” A voice came from behind her, causing her to turn around, finding ghostly versions of Big Mac, Rainbow Dash, Angel Bunny and Gummy floating in the sky. “What’s going on?” Twilight shrugged her wings. “I’m not sure Dash, but I think we’re ghosts and we’re supposed to scare the ever living sap out of anyone and everyone in there.” She waved her hoof at the house. “Let me have a look around, I think we can check the place out with impunity, but if we start doing anything we have to keep people scared otherwise we get knocked away.” The others nodded and Twilight floated in through the wall of the house. It seemed the place was one of the larger Canterlot College houses where they housed mares. A quick check revealed there were ten mares hanging around, chatting, sleeping or whatever. What she wasn’t expecting was grumbling from the basement. Floating through the floor, she blinked at the sight of Applejack, as ghostly as the rest of them, but chained to what looked like a tree stump. “Consarnit.” The orange ghost muttered. “Why. Won’t. You. Drop. Anything?” She asked, bucking at where the rest of the trunk should have been. “Did you try bucking the orchard while half asleep again?” Twilight asked, making Applejack jerk around to face her. “Twilight?” Applejack asked, getting a nod in return. “Thank goodness. Please tell me you know something about this? I keep thinking I need to buck this tree and I can’t.” “There’s no tree there, AJ.” Twilight pointed out, motioning at the stump. Applejack looked back at what she was chained to. “Oh…” She stared. “Um… help?” Twilight frowned. “You said you need to buck something, right?” She asked, getting a nod from her friend. “Well… I might be able to come up with something, but I need to look things up.” She reached over to pat Applejack’s shoulder. “We’ll get you out of here, just hold on.” Floating back to the others, she checked her in loop memories and pulled a book out of her mane. Flicking through it, she frowned. From what it said about the other four, she had a horde, a gremlin, a spook and a spectre. It looked like Applejack was some sort of phantom. At least AJ had the ability to make plants grow, though it would take a bit to get the energy together for that it seemed, at least the version they needed. “Alright everypony,” Twilight started as she joined the rest. “It looks like we’re a haunting team and I’m the leader. It also looks like we’re supposed to clear this house as a test… from Nightmare Moon.” The last got shocked looks. “Yeah, I don’t get it either.” Twilight admitted. “There’s ten mares in there to scare away, and we need to build the scares up to free AJ. She’s chained to a tree stump.” Rainbow burst out laughing at that and Twilight cracked a grin. Looking around at her team, Twilight grinned. This could be a fun loop, and a chance to really let loose and prank people without any problems. “Rainbow, see if you can get a storm rolling around the house, keep it to low winds and thunder for now. I don’t have the energy for you to really let loose yet.” “Got you.” Rainbow spread her wings as a glowing tether linked her to the grounds around the house. The wind started picking up, bringing dark clouds with it. “Angel, see if you can get some of your friends to run through the house. Gummy, you go upstairs and make the stereo in the upstairs lounge area dance.” Twilight ordered, getting nods from both animals. Shrieks soon echoed from the house, causing the mare to grin. “Mac, why don’t you introduce yourself to the nice mares?” She asked, sending some plasm to the stallion to allow him to manifest. Sitting in a rundown old schoolhouse, Twilight looked around at the ‘team’ she was supposed to be leading, which seemed to be made up of most of her looping friends, though there were certainly missing members. “Alright, I don’t know exactly what’s going on here but…” She trailed off as Nyx and Luna flashed into view, both looking as insubstantial as everyone else. “Hello Luna, good to see you Nyxie.” She held her hooves out to get a hug from her daughter. “Either of you know what’s going on?” “Not all of it,” Luna admitted. “It seems that we’re part of the supernatural world this time and I have control over that while Celestia is trying to make sure it’s forgotten by mortals.” She shrugged her wings. “Apparently thou art a new Ghost Master in mine service, though I don’t recall how or why thou joined me.” Twilight nodded. “Yeah, I got that much. I still don’t know what the eucalyptus is going on though.” Luna twitched her tail, then flattened her ears against her head. “Before Nyx and I Awoke, it seems Nightmare Moon launched a campaign of terror against the mortals and thou were sent to Canterlot.” She said, wincing. “There are at least five other groups out in other cities and more scattered in the towns, which is why thou only had the ponies here apart from fair Applejack.” “I think the best way to do this is see what shows up.” Nyx commented from where she snuggled into her mother. “Though I don’t know what will happen if you don’t manage things.” “I guess we’ll see.” Twilight sighed, looking around at the others. Nine ghosts to scare a city wasn’t much. Luna nodded before blinking and summoning a pile of gold, glowing… something. “Apparently this is Gold Plasm; it is used to empower thine underlings.” She explained quickly. “Empower, how?” Rainbow asked, floating forwards to look at the plasm. “It grants you more powers.” Nyx explained briefly. “You noticed that everypony has more ‘levels’ than they have powers, right momma?” She asked Twilight, getting a nod. “Well if you use Gold Plasm, you can grant one pony a new power for an amount of it.” Twilight frowned. “Dash, what abilities do you have?” Dash frowned. “Fog, Thunder Clap, Gather Winds, Rattle Chains, Jinx, Kinesis… I think I can have Rain, Flood and Hail, I’m not entirely sure what else there is.” “So if I used this Gold Plasm on Dash, I could give her one of those three?” Twilight asked. “Yup.” Nyx responded. “That’s pretty cool.” Twilight nodded, flicking her tail. “Alright,” She looked around, seeing Dash, Mac, Angel, Gummy, AJ, Sweetie Belle, Rarity, Berry Punch and Fluttershy. “Can all of you go through what you know about your abilities and potential abilities and decide what will work best for you?” She asked her friends before turning back to Luna. “I presume this wasn’t just a social visit, Luna.” Luna shook her head. “Unfortunately not. There is an older house near the outskirts of Canterlot that drew our attention. It seems that one of the past owners murdered ponies there to keep herself company. She was getting old and more than a little senile at the time.” She explained, grimacing as she waver a hoof at the table, causing a map to appear on it, a house rising from it with a glow around it. A moment later, a black-glowing, bat-infested house grew up as well. “We need you to take six of your team and find a way to reveal those killed by that old mare to the police, without scaring anypony away if possible.” Twilight grimaced. That didn’t sound good at all, “Alright, Dash, Berry, Fluttershy, Mac, Angel and AJ, let’s see what happened here.” Opening a portal, Luna twitched her tail. “Good luck, Twilight.” 68.5 (Crisis) Twilight Sparkle was walking down Ponyville going over her mental checklist of the Summer Sun Celebration for this Loop when she was bowled over by an IPBPP (Intra-Ponyville Ballistic Pinkie Pie). "Twilight-Twilight-Twilight-Twilight-Twilight-Twilight-Twilight-Twilight-Twilight!!!" the hyperactive pony projectile yammered from atop her. "Ow..." Twilight tried to shake the pink birdies from her head. One yammering pink entity was more than enough, thank-you-very-much. "What is it Pinkie? New loopers?" she ventured. That was about the only thing these days that would wind Pinkie up like this. "Not just any loopers Twilight!" Pinkie squeed. "Only the most amazing awesomest incredinja loopers from outside our universe since Lemon Rush! Oh, we had so much fun that Loop I had with them and I can't wait to introduce you!" "That's great Pinkie!" Twilight wheezed as her friend all but did a jig on her chest. "Could you let me up now?" "Oh, right," Pinkie slid off and let her friend stand up. "So can I use the library for their party? Huh? Can I, can I, can I, can I?" Pinkie was vibrating with so much excitement, Twilight expected her to blast off at any moment. "Sure," Twilight agreed. "Feel free to invite them to our planning session regarding Nightmare Moon too." "Ohhh, they'd like that!" Pinkie nodded, before gasping comically. "Pizza! I need to get pizza!" she yelled as she dashed off. "Pizza?" Twilight wondered to herself. "Not her usual fare... Wonder if it's something the new loopers like?" Rainbow Dash was on her way to Twilight's library with Tank in tow. She'd taken to adopting the tortoise right off the bat most Loops, and for some reason Pinkie said it would be a good idea to bring him to meet the new loopers. When pressed, Pinkie had admitted she had no idea why it seemed like a good idea, just that it did. Another one of her semi-random bursts of intuition probably. Upon entering, she identified the new loopers immediately. Four earth pony stallions with coats in varying shades of green and wearing colored mask/headband hybrids kind of stood out. As did the elderly diamond dog – who looked fairly rat-like – wearing a pretty worn, but still well cared for gi. Compared to that, the unicorn mare with a yellow coat and red mane practically blended in. "Yeah," the mare was talking to Twilight. Rainbow noted that she had a microphone cutie mark. "With all the different variations of myself that I Loop into, I have trouble keeping my Loop memories straight. I often find myself defaulting to behavior appropriate for a Loop different to the one I'm in." "Yes," the stallion in the purple mask next to them said. His cutie mark was of a simple bo staff wrapped at both ends. "My brothers and I have somewhat less serious cases of the same problem since our variations tend to have mostly similar histories, but it's still a problem for us at times. I've taken to calling it Disassociative Loop Identity Disorder and I've started a paper detailing the condition and the more successful methods of dealing with it. Hopefully if any more like miss 'Breaking News' here suffer from it we can help them." "Absolutely fascinating," Twilight mused, missing the dirty look the mare sent to the grinning stallion. "Most loopers I've talked to seem to spend the majority of their Loops with a history similar to their baseline self. I never really thought of what it could be like if you kept Waking Up to find that you had led a distinctly different life than the last Loop. Oh, hey Rainbow, glad you could make it." "Wouldn't miss it," Rainbow returned emphatically. "Had to know what got Pinkie so worked up. Had to see if these guys were half as cool as she made them out to be." "Dudette, we are the coolest you're ever going to meet," drawled the one in the orange mask coming up behind her, half a pizza balancing on his back as he munched on a slice and a cutie mark of nunchucks on his flank. He grinned at her in a way she'd normally seen in the mirror. "Why, you could say we're at least 20% cooler than the competition!" Rainbow blinked at having her phrase tossed back at her so casually before returning the grin confidently. "Oh, yeah? You think you can keep up with me dude? I'm Rainbow Dash, fastest flier in Equestria even before I started looping." "Michelangelo's the name," the stallion returned with equal confidence, "and extreme's the game. Fighting, partying, or stunts, I'm the host with the most." The red-masked one, sporting a cutie mark of twin three-pronged daggers, groaned as Fluttershy patted him sympathetically. "Oh Kami," he muttered in a manner not unlike her friend Gilda. "There's three of them now..." "Well, mister Splinter," she heard Rarity say from over in a corner where she and Spike were having tea with the diamond dog, "I must say, rat or dog, you are the most well-mannered and cultured example I have ever had the pleasure of meeting." "So," Rainbow said, reminding herself to get the full scoop on the diamond dog from Rarity later, "mind introducing me to the rest of you? And where's Applejack?" "She's in the kitchen making apple pizzas after Michelangelo dared her," Twilight told her. "Ah, call me Mikey," Michelangelo smiled as Pinkie popped up behind him. "All my friends do." "Yeppers!" Pinkie beamed. "You already met Michelangelo, or Mikey for short here. He's kinda like both you and me all wrapped up in one amazing package!" Rainbow was rather proud of herself for suppressing a wince of sympathy for the others present. She was awesome, Pinkie was awesome (if tiring to deal with sometimes), but somepony who was both at once sounded a little much even to her. On the other hoof, the pranks they could pull this Loop were going to be even more awesome than normal. "The grumpy grumpypants over there is Raphael, or Raph," Pinkie continued, pointing to the stallion in the red mask. "The super smartypants over with Twilight is Donatello, or Donnie. You know, I wonder why your names didn't change. Most loopers' do when they come here." "They sort of did," Donnie allowed. "But they were close enough to our usual names that if felt weird calling each other by them, so we just stuck with our normal names." "Except for me," the mare groused. "I'm called 'Breaking News' here, but I'm usually known as April O'Neil." "I replaced her when I looped with them," Pinkie stage whispered none too quietly. "Who's the Anchor?" Rainbow asked. "Oh, that would be Splinter-sensei," Mikey pointed to the diamond dog. "Which is cool, because I don't think I or my brothers could take being without each other for as many Loops as sensei's been alone in." "It is a burden I gladly bear if it will spare my sons from the loneliness of the Loops," the diamond dog agreed. "Wait, wasn't there one more of you?" Rainbow asked, looking around. She nearly jumped to the ceiling when she spotted the blue-masked stallion – cutie mark of crossed Neighpon-style swords on his flank – right next to her examining Tank. She hadn't even noticed him! "That's Leonardo, or Leo," Mikey told her. "He does that from time to time." "I'd like to know what he finds so interesting about my pet tortoise..." Rainbow finished fighting down the instinctive urge to jump as high and fast as possible. With the power she'd gained over the Loops, she could have inadvertently given the library a new skylight. "My apologies miss Dash," Leo offered, "but I thought your tortoise looked familiar." "You know," Mikey joined his brother in examining Tank, "I think you're right." 'When the buck did he move?' Rainbow thought to herself. "Holy pepperoni!" Mikey exclaimed suddenly. "It's Tank! How've you been my brother from another universe?" Rainbow was wondering how her tortoise was taking this since he seemed content to just stare back at the two and grin. "Wait," Twilight twitched. "Since when is Tank looping?" "I don't think he is," replied Donnie as he, Raph, and even Breaking News joined the gathering around Rainbow's pet tortoise, "he's never seemed aware of the Loops, but we've had him pop up in variations as our fifth brother about a dozen times now." Twilight twitched at this extra little bit of Loop weirdness, before sighing and hoofing away the stress. "Anyway, we need to discuss what we're going to do about Nightmare Moon. Luna hasn't signaled that she's Awake, so she's either not, she's planning a prank of her own, or she's going to Awaken upon defeat of Nightmare Moon, possibly splitting in a way that produces my adopted daughter Nyx." The latter method didn't happen often, but it was always a pleasant surprise for Twilight when it did. "If any of the visiting loopers want to get in on this, please let me know." "The night will last FOREVER!" Nightmare Moon cackled as lightning and thunder danced around her dramatically. "Well," Twilight said, stepping forth confidently, "I suppose there's only one thing to say to that." "And what would that be?" the corrupted alicorn inquired arrogantly. The answer didn't come from the unicorn in front of her though. It came from directly behind her. "COWABUNGA!" multiple voices cried out, and Nightmare Moon whipped around just in time to take a skateboard to the face. 68.6 (masterofgames) "Twilight! Diamond dogs stole all of The Great And Powerful Trixie's fireworks!" Trixie sobbed as she ran up to Twilight and pulled her into a hug. "Trixie had emptied her pocket so she could sort them, and they took them all and buried them! Trixie has a show tomorrow! What is Trixie to do!?" Twilight thought for a moment, then slowly grinned. "Trixie, get the others, I have a lot of orange flags to make. You just made this a game night loop. It's time to sweep some mines!" Trixie emitted a noise not unlike a squee. "Twilight knows just how to cheer Trixie up!" Applejack looked up from the box of Apples to Apples Twilight had shown her for this game night loop. "... I don't get it." Pinkie giggled as she hopped to the top of her castle, pulling a bullhorn out of her mane. and turned to face another nearby palace. "My turn Twilight, and I want to trade! Do you... (snerk) Do you have wood, for sheep?" "That wasn't funny the first time Pinkie... knock it off!" came the echoing reply. 68.7 (Masterweaver) "I don't know why we had to sit through a lecture about getting a cutie mark. I mean, waiting for your cutie mark is sooo last week. You got yours, I just got mine. We all have them already." Diamond mock gasped. "I mean, almost all of us have them already. Don't worry, you two, you're still totally invited to my cute-ceañera this weekend." Silver Spoon stared at her friend for a while. "...what?" Diamond Tiara looked back. "Why are you looking at me like that?" After a moment, the grey filly shrugged. "It's just... are we really doing this?" "Doing what?" "The whole... cutie shaming thing. Why are we doing this?" She rolled a hoof through the air. "Yeah, Twist and Bloom are kinda pathetic to be the last, but why focus on that? If we're such amazing ponies, we should, you know, let our amazingness speak for itself instead of trying to tear down others." Diamond Tiara blinked. "Wait... what? What are you talking about?" "Just... you know what, forget it." Silver Spoon sighed. "I think I'll just go home now." "...Hmph, sure. When you stop being weird, you should drop by my place. We still need to plan the party!" The grey filly nodded absently, spreading her dragonfly wings and taking off. An observant pony would have noticed how, halfway through her flight, she changed directions and headed for Sweet Apple Acres. "I mean, it's her, like I remember her." Silver balanced on the edge of her glass, sipping through the miniaturized straw. "Except... now I know her in the loops and... I compare them and it's like, how was she ever that? And was I... was I ever like that?" Macintosh rubbed his brow with a hoof. "Tha difference that experience can make in a pony is always surprisin'. Even more so with tha loops." "She's my friend-I think. I mean, I hope she is." With a flick of her wings, Silver was pacing on the bar counter. "But, it's like.... I was shallow, I know that, and I know she was kinda shallow too, but now I see this and I'm... I don't even know how to deal with this. I want to stay her friend, but the way she is now-" "If Ah may make a suggestion... It might be best ta consider this Diamond Tiara something more like tha looping Diamond's little sister." Silver Spoon froze. "....I... I guess I could see that...." 68.8 (Vulpine Fury) "Twilight? It's great you're a Crusader this loop an' all, but how the hay did you know that Mean Bugs was tryin' ta hornswaggle us?" Applebloom asked. "It's elementary, girls!" Twilight "Encyclopedia" Sparkle beamed. "The scimitar was engraved as being presented to General Stone Wall after the First Battle of Minotaur Run, but the Minotaurs didn't call the battle that, they called it the Battle of Mane-assas, and they had no idea there'd be a Second Battle there three years later, so why would they call it the First one?" "Yeah, that's fascinating and all..." Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "And how did you even know all that when I'm pretty sure this is a fused loop? I mean, not even a bookwom like you can learn that much history that fast!" "Well, Cheerilee helped me out. She's such a great friend!" Twilight's eyes shot open as she felt the familiar tingle. Warily, she turned to check her flank and found her familiar starbursts. "Oh, Maple." She grumbled.