92.1 (misterq and Detective Ethan Redfield)
"So what did you need me for, Twilight?" Apple Bloom walked through the door into the anchor's library tree.
"I need a favor," Twilight sat at one of the reading tables with a stack of books in front of her, "That's why I gathered the two best computer programmers that Equestria has ever produced."
"Two best?" the young looking filly asked.
"Me!" A smiling Pinkie Pie dropped from the ceiling with a popping noise. The suction cups on her legs now stuck to the floor instead.
Apple Bloom stared at the pink party pony for a little bit, before a small smile formed on her face. Classic Pinkie, "Right, so what did you need us for, Twilight?"
The lavender unicorn sighed, "I need something I can use against CelestiA.I., if I ever end up in that loop again."
"She's the faulty computer simulation that eats a large chunk of the galaxy, right?"
"That's right."
Apple Bloom nodded, "I think I have some ideas."
"Oh, and so do I," Pinkie chimed in, "That big meanie computer eating all those planets and the poor little aliens!"
"Very well. Spike is off with Rarity and I'm going to spend the night at Lyra's. She's still having some trouble organizing her memories. I'll let you two work without interruptions and will be by tomorrow to check on how things are going. Good luck," Twilight waved as she walked out.
Pinkie and Apple Bloom set up their holographic computers and started working away.
"Do you want to try for your cupcake eating cutie mark once we finish this up?" Pinkie asked.
"Nah. I actually managed to get it one time. But in order to do so, I had to became morbidly obese," the yellow filly frowned as she activated her neural interface, "I don't really wanna talk about it much. It ain't my most shining moment."
When Twilight came back in the morning, she was surprised to see both programming ponies still up and awake. Apple Bloom's mane was disheveled and her giant hair bow was askew as she read over the holographic code. Pinkie looked as cheerful and happy as always. The good news was that there was no sign of coffee in Pinkie's vicinity. Twilight wasn't sure if she could deal with a hyper-caffinated Pinkie Pie.
"Howdy, Twilight," the youngest Apple weakly waved.
Twilight took one look at the little pony, "Is something wrong, Apple Bloom?"
"No? Yes? It's Pinkie's code. I just dunno," the filly spread her hooves wide and expanded the holographic screen, "Look at it all, Twi. It's a garbled mess. There's no documentation at all. The syntax is inconsistent at best. You know the basic programming logic gates; 'And', 'Or', 'Not', 'Nor', those? Well, Pinkie's... code also has things like 'I Suppose', 'Whatever', and my favorite, 'Surprise Me'. You'd think it would all fail when you tried to compile, but her code actually rewrites the operating system and the parser to allow them. To allow everything. It's a recursive fractal quantum headache that should never see the light of day, and worst of all - worst of all, it compiles. It compiles and can run the first time. Without any errors or corrections."
The lavender unicorn hugged the teary-eyed filly, "So what do you think it would do to a logic based optimizer like CelestiA.I.?"
"I got no idea, but just looking at it too much makes me wanna throw up," Apple Bloom sniffed and then held out a tiny magical storage drive to Twilight, "Here's what we made. I created the outer shell, which in this case means a simulation of a human simulating a pony that should be granted access it's own shard in Equestria Online."
"And I stuffed that virtual pony full of my special cupcake code. It should mesmerize that naughty old CelestiA.I. with it's digital deliciousness, and hopefully make her into a nicer pony program," Pinkie stopped bouncing and thought for a moment, "Or cause her to explode and de-rez. And then her leftover bits will explode again, leaving everything to be controlled by the next pony in charge - which I think is the programmer who made her in Luna's body."
"Either way, there's bound to be a pixel party!"
Twilight looked the storage device over, rotating it in her magic for a couple seconds before responding, "So basically anything could happen. We need a way to test that CelestAI will be neutralized or destroyed. Pinkie, would you mind sending for Captain Shepard in Canterlot?"
"Okie Dokie, Loki!"
"So you put together a team to create an AI to fight this CelestAI. Why didn't you send for me as well," A red maned mare with N7 emblazoned on her flank asked as she took a seat on a nearby cushion opposite Twilight, Pinkie and Applebloom.
Twilight's face turned sheepish, "Well, when we think AI designer or computer programmer, we typically think of Legion or Tali from your world. But then I remembered you liked collecting copies of EDI to cover your tracks when dealing with the Citadel Council."
Shepard blinked then shrugged, "Alright, so you want to test this new AI against a fully functional AI to see how it acts. I'm sure I could convince one of EDI's copies to help us."
The Holographic image of EDI's spherical body was silent for several seconds, "Commander, my auditory sensors must be faulty. Could you repeat your request again?"
"I need you to pretend to be a faulty optimizing A.I. pretending to be a pony that wants to fulfill people's needs and values through ponies and friendship. Then we're going to put a simulation of a human pretending to be a pony that is filled with fractal viruses in the hopes of redeeming or possibly destroying said faulty A.I. Basically, I need you to channel your inner Sovereign for us."
Several more awkward seconds passed as the AI processed the request, "I'm sorry, can you repeat that again. It seems my auditory inputs have something crazy stuck inside them."
Applebloom snickered in the corner as Shepard sighed, "Look, EDI, CelestAI represents a danger to the multiverse at large. If she manages to escape her loop, it may go on to infect the rest of the multiverse. I'm asking that you run some simulations with Applebloom here to see how the program would react to dangerous AI. It may throw a party for CelestAI, destroy her, or join her in her attempts to pacify the universe with ponies and friendship. Please, help us test this program. We need to know if it will succeed."
Several more seconds pass, before the blue orb spoke, "Very well, Shepard. However, I must ask that safety precautions are put in place."
The four loopers set about preparing the lab, preparing a computer where the program could be tested, setting up firewalls to prevent Pinkie and Applebloom's program from damaging EDI.
The surrounding loopers didn't realize something had gone wrong until EDI's holographic form started freezing up. Not even EDI herself realized something had gone wrong. And then, the blue hologram turned brilliant white with a yellow slit down the center. Shepard backed away slowly, "Uh...EDI, you feeling alright?"
EDI was silent several seconds before shouting in a sugary sweet tone, "SURPRISE!"
Twilight reacted fastest as a shield encompassed herself and the other three loopers, then another encasing EDI's mainframe and the lab. Several tense seconds passed, then the sphere turned blue again and her tone once again turned monotone, "That was a joke. The test was a complete success."
The shields dropped a moment later as the gathered loopers, besides Pinkie, sighed in relief. Shepard replied, "What were the results? Destruction or redemption of controlling AI?"
"Test AI froze up in light of the countless contradictions in Pinkie's coding, then was rewritten into the image of a white pegasus with a blond mane. Finally the experimental AI and the reformed test AI bypassed all our firewalls and threw me a welcome to Equestria party. Pinkie, you should feel very proud of your creation."
Pinkie giggled, "I knew she could do it!"
Shepard rubbed her head to push down the rising migrane, "Were there any side effects to the experimental AI escaping the quarantine?"
"The reformed AI calls herself Surprise and is currently...rolling on the floor with laughter. Furthermore, she believes me to be her mother."
Shepard placed a hoof against her face and sighed.
92.2 (Crisis)
Twilight was actually kind of enjoying this Loop. Most 'safe-mode' Loops, where all non-native abilities including subspace pockets were disabled, tended to be either categorically dull and boring (which was a torment of its own for loopers) or very, very aggravating in ways that couldn't be sidestepped or neutralized. This place? This place was shaping up to be pretty fun.
She and a few others from the Equestrian crowd each had their own island, hers had a stage and sound system (which extended to the rocks and trees no less), where they raised 'monsters' to perform music. Fluttershy was taking to the whole thing like a fish to water on the 'plant' island, her brother Shining wasn't doing to badly on the 'cold' island, Scootaloo thoroughly enjoyed her place on the 'air' island, Nyx had set up shop on the mysterious 'ethereal' island, and Spike was having fun on the volcanic 'earth' island. Even Applejack, despite claiming her submerged 'water' island was giving her bad flashbacks, was enjoying herself. Twilight herself was in charge of the legendary 'sugafam' monsters on her island and was putting together quite the band. She had been in the middle of trying to puzzle out a way to take recordings of the music everyone's monsters were producing past the Loop when she got a communique from Vinyl over on the 'gold' island.
Vinyl's actions this Loop had been rather puzzling. Twilight had thought the DJ would enjoy this, but she'd instead been doing some mystery project involving a giant box. And now she wanted everyone to send her one of each monster they'd been raising. So she could put them in the box.
"Okay Vinyl," Twilight allowed after Fluttershy had cleared the boxing process as safe and allowed the monsters inside, "mind telling us what this is about?"
"No problem!" Vinyl proclaimed from her spot atop the box and dramatically mashed the big red button perched there. "Arise! Wubbox Prime!"
Immediately there was a flash of light and the box began changing. The opening in the front became a giant mouth while the rest of the box unfolded into a giant humanoid form. Which immediately began dancing and pumping out loud techno beats.
"Oh, my," Fluttershy was almost inaudible over the pounding techno music being put out. "I guess this means the monster playground inside is active now?"
"Yep!" Vinyl agreed. "Totally self-sustaining for permanent rocking ability!"
"THERE IS A PARTY IN MY PANTS." Wubbox Prime agreed in its booming electronic voice as it did 'raise the roof' with its piston-hands.
92.3 (Crisis)
This was one weird variant. There really was no other way Twilight could put it. It was... mostly baseline except for some fundamental differences.
Like the fact that cats could fly on wings, which was honestly one of the tamer things. Whale watching involved going out at night with your telescope. Worms scooted around on naturally occurring wheels. Zecora had white stars in her black stripes. Hummingbirds were incurable gossips. Butterflies were the 'in' fashion this season (and it was driving Rarity up the wall trying to work with them). Celestia was a warthog. Mountains were actually sleeping dogs.
No, really, Twilight had checked. They even had a pulse and breathed very slowly.
Continuing the stranger notes, the moon was a cube. Fish grew on trees instead of leaves. Music was something you could touch (and the massive music spill when Vinyl overflowed her house was still talked about). Lightning had a bad habit of creating rhinos.
And no one had manes or tails made of actual hair. Twilight had problems with hers because they were made of mice, which made living with Owlowicious something of an adventure. But the funniest was Rainbow Dash's in her opinion. Her stunt-flying pegasus friend had actual rainbows instead of rainbow colored hair. Which wouldn't be all that funny but for one other fact:
Frogs, and toads for that matter, ate rainbows this Loop. Dash couldn't go anywhere without being attacked by every hopping amphibian in the immediate area.
92.4 (TheCentauress)
"Gimme a 307."
Macintosh looked up at the doorway, and into a set of slit cyan eyes in a pony the size of Celestia. Said pony seemed to be wearing armor, and had a scowl on her face.
He paused a moment and attempted to see her Cutie Mark. A dark cloud, with a crescent moon peaking out.
Shrugging, he filled a stein with the glowing libation and slid it across the bar. "Need an ear to chew, yer Majesty?" he asked kindly.
The Mare of Bad Dreams slammed back the drink and then lifted off her helm with her hooves. Letting it drop to the dirt floor with a dull 'clunk', she leaned a cheek against the cool wood. "Would that it were so simple, tavernmaster," she sighed, apparently completely unaffected by the mystically-potent brew. "I just had my magnificent flank handed to me by a unicorn. What manner of Discordian Chaos is occouring?"
"Mayhaps I can assist you, my twin," came a softer, yet similar voice from the doorway.
Sparing a look, the pair at the bar were surprised to see three alicorns filling the entryway. Mac could recognize the normal princesses Luna and Celestia, yet the third seemed somehow familiar... until he noticed that her Petryal was made of a shimmery red metal with a jet-black sun symbol, darker in shade of the roiling red ethereal mane that seemed to have loops of itself occasionally 'flaring'. His Loop memories supplied the answer, moments before his customer said it.
"Luna? Celly? Blaze?" it was at this moment that her previous drink hit her bloodstream. With a belch that blistered the varnish and rattled the glassware, Nightmare Moon dropped - like a rock with a rocket booster - into the land of Nod.
Sunset panted heavily, stowing the last keychain she used back into her subspace pocket. She grinned at Twilight as the lavender unicorn trotted up. The returned student was grinning... until she noted a dusky lavender unicorn behind the first, this one with a mane that was colored like the sky at sunrise: Orange at the roots, with indefinable 'bands' of colors that ended with a midnight blue-black. Both were giving her a glare of annoyance, one set of eyes a cool amethyst with a normal pupil and the other a dark blood red-purple slit-pupil. "Sunset Shimmer," they growled in a chorus. "Did you attack one of the Tetrarchy?"
The unicorn with the fire-like mane-do blink-blinked at that. "Say wh..." Hello, Loop memory-dump.
"Acorns."
Diary of Sunset Shimmer:
How was I to know that this Loop was a 'yin/yang' Variant? Or one that had TWO sets of the EoH?
But I do have to say, Equestria is really pretty above the moon...
92.5 (novusordomundi)
"Twilight?"
"Yes, Rarity?"
"Why am I in your body?"
Twilight (In Rarity's body) sighed. "Looks like we've switched bodies this loop. Well, it could be worse. I think I can at least manage to make a decent dress."
"I assume you'd want me to try and take your place this loop?" Rarity (In Twilight's body) asked. After getting an affirmative nod, she continued "Well, I do believe I've known you long enough to copy your mannerisms. Tell me if I've have this right..."
Rarity started pacing back and forth, acting nervous. "Oh no, I didn't complete my checklist! I'm going to miss a deadline! I am going to fail the Princess! She could send me to..." Rarity stopped, looking at Twilight "Magic Kindergarden!"
Twilight's stood on her back legs and put a hoof to her forehead "Oh no, I'm forgotten to stitch in the correct place! This dress is ruined. This is THE! WORST! POSSIBLE! THING!" Twilight "fainted" onto a conveniently appearing couch.
Twilight looked at Rarity in her body. Rarity looked at Twilight in her body. Then they started laughing at the absurdity of it all.
"Well, I think we can pass muster" Twilight said, once she could control herself.
"At least this isn't too big a problem."
That's when an Awake Spike walked through the door. Twilight and Rarity looked at him, then at each other.
"This... could be a problem..."
92.6 (Dalxein)
"I like the bubbles in the test tubes."
"That is your entire reason for pursuing doctorates in Chemistry and Radiology?"
"Preeeeetty much?"
"...I'm not sure whether to be impressed or insulted."
92.7 (Conceptulist, generiguy)
"SHAKE-A SHAKEY!" yelled Pinkie Pie extremely loudly. This was a very unexpected action, even for Pinkie Pie, and the nearby ponies began cowering under nearby furniture. After a second, Pinkie Pie stopped the shaking of her head with a hoof, then gave a small shrug. "Next, please," she smiled, as though absolutely nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
"Um. I don't think that the pony that was next in line is going to come out from under the table any time soon," said a voice.
Pinkie looked over the counter. Normally, there was a long line of Ponyville natives, but strangely, Pinkie Pie could only see one pony. Pinkie Pie recognized this pony as someone in particular who she hadn't seen nearly enough.
"SHIMMY?!"
Sunset Shimmer flinched at the sound of the accursed nickname, and then was tackled by an extremely hyperactive Pinkie Pie. The sheer strength of the “Welcome Back To Equestria Again Hug," copyrighted by Pink Inc., caused 'Shimmy' to turn slighly blue.
Pinkie Pie squeezed harder. Perhaps, in her excitement, she forgot that turning blue normally meant that someon- er, somepony, was running out of air to breathe. "OH! Oops! Sorry, Shimmy!" said Pinkie Pie, and she let go of her friend.
After a few seconds of recovery, Sunset Shimmer was once more breathing properly.
"It's fine. I'm fine,"reassured Sunset Shimmer. "Your hug was just a tad over enthusiastic."
Pinkie Pie bounced into the air. "Yay! Oh, but you came here to buy something, right? So! What'll it be?" Pinkie asked. Despite having just bowled over her friend, she was now inexplicably behind the counter once more.
"Sorry about that. I’ll try to keep the accidental reality warping to a minimum." said Pinkie. This was incredibly strange, because Pinkie Pie was talking to absolutely nothing.
"Okay, not exactly sure what that has to do with anything," Sunset said awkwardly. "I'll just have a bag of plain muffins. To go."
Pinkie Pie zoomed around the kitchen, and suddenly, Sunset Shimmer found herself holding an empty bag made entirely out of wrapping paper.
"Oopsy."
Once more, Pinkie Pie zoomed around the kitchen. Sunset Shimmer felt a weight taken off her hoof, only to be replaced with a perfectly normal brown paper bag, which was filled to the top with muffins.
"Good," declared Sunset Shimmer. "Before I go take these to Ditzy's picnic, would mind telling telling me what "shake-a shakey" means? I got the run down on your Pinkie Sense from Twilight, but I have no clue what rapid head shaking means. Could you please explain it for me?"
"Of course I wouldn't mind explaining!" said Pinkie Pie. "It means no, or no thank you."
Sunset Shimmer had to think about this response for a second. Despite Pinkie Pie's perfectly valid response, Sunset Shimmer clarified "I meant in terms of your Pinkie Sense."
"Oh!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie. "Why didn't you say so?"
"I thought I had," said Sunset Shimmer, bemused for some reason.
"It's my Pinkie Sense detecting sarcasm," declared Pinkie proudly.
"Of course it is," deadpanned Sunset Shimmer, but Pinkie Pie continued to speak.
"See! If my Pinkie Sense hadn't gone off earlier, it would have completely flown over my head," explained Pinkie.
Sunset Shimmer blinked in a rather owl-like manner. "That. I. What."
Sunset Shimmer ploughed her hoof into her face. This was the pony equivalent of banging your head into a wall, and Sunset Shimmer knew it perfectly well.
"It's at times like these I miss fingers. Nothing like fingers to massage an achy brain pan."
"Lyra has a spell or two that can deal with that, so maybe you should talk to her," Pinkie Pie suggested.
Sunset Shimmer nodded. She didn't trust herself to not say anything snarky about any enjoyment Lyra might have gotten from that. Sunset Shimmer had learned the hard way that Lyra knew a ridiculous amount kung fu, and Lyra most certainly did not appreciate those types of jokes.
Pinkie smiled an enormous smile. It was almost as if she was in on a joke that nobody else knew about. "You better get going, Shimmy. Didn't you say you were taking these to Ditzy? You don't want her to get impatient, now do you?"
"You're right," declared Sunset Shimmer, and she began to walk towards the front door of the bakery. "Can we have another party this weekend? I don't get Pinkie Parties nearly often enough."
"You know me. Of course we can!" Pinkie replied. Sunset Shimmer beamed and stepped through the door to begin walking towards the park.
As Pinkie Pie waved goodbye, she noticed that 'Shimmy' had emptied the last of Sugarcube Corner's muffin supply. Pinkie Pie decided she would have to make some more, and she walked through the brown door into the kitchen.
"Enjoying yourself?" Pinkie Pie asked the empty room.
Quite a lot, actually. I have to say, you make a much better story than some of your friends. They simply have no respect for the flow of the story at all.
There was this one person who just stood there. I had a whole story planned out for Stanley, and he just stood in Stanley's office and refused to move. I understand that it's part of Link's character to not talk very often, but that was simply ridiculous. There was a story to follow. It gets worse then that- Hiccup and Toothless even tried to outrun the story once. I'm still unsure just what came over them. I wasn't going to interfere if they simply asked, but all they did was flee and struggle. It's not very nice of them.
And then there's Stanley. He's been rather cooperative so far, but I have to say, ever since he started looping, he's been rather lifeless. Even his story has started to get rather stale. It needs interactivity to breathe fresh life into it- more narrative spirit, you could say. Without that the story withers. It's just aggravating.
Well, there's no use reflecting on the past when there's a story to be told. I have to say, thank you once more for not inexplicably resisting.
"You're welcome! Besides, Equestria is a sanctuary! You're not hurting anyone."
Shouldn't that be anypony?
"Why? I'm not speciesist. Not this loop, anyways."
Well, it's always worth knowing the idiosyncrasies of an environment. Honestly, I'm surprised we never brought up before.
Anyway, we should probably get back to the story. Several paragraphs of dialogue would make a terrible lull in the story, and we can't have that. Ahem. Now, where were we?
"I was just about to make some more muffins."
Ah, yes. Pinkie scanned the shelves for ingredients. Normally, Pinkie would need a cookbook, but Pinkie Pie had memorized all of the baseline recipes a while ago. It was rather nice to let autopilot take over.
(DrTempo)
From the Journal of Sunset Shimmer:
My next Loop was the Dragon Ball Loop. Oddly enough, Bulma's the Anchor here, NOT Goku, as you'd expect. Considering he 'dies' twice, I guess it makes sense, though. Goku was awake for this Loop, though, and he had a story to tell.
A few Loops ago from Goku's POV, he'd Looped into a DC Fused Loop. Goku's been wanting to fight Superman ever since he heard about him, and Superman agreed to the match.
It was epic, to say the least. When I saw that fight, I realized just what kind of power we Loopers can bring out when we need to; and they were using their baseline power in that one.
But, moving on from that...I took the time to hone my hand-to-hand skills this Loop, and see if I could pick up a few new tricks. Bulma did mention a Loop she'd heard of where a teacher from Equestria taught Gohan...wished I could've seen that. I did help out until after Namek(and boy, was that a long trip!), then I realized things were going beyond my skill level for now.
I'd barely survived Namek..no way was I daring to try my luck with the Androids. Goku did decide to just defeat Cell this time instead of having Gohan do it. As for Buu...didn't even get a chance for him to revive thanks to Goku.
Wonder where fate will take me next?
92.8 (The One Butcher)
"Never have I ever... slept with someone I thought was my sibling."
Another Drinker was regarded with shock: "Sweetie Belle?" Due to Rarity's absence Applejack took over outraged-dom. "Explain."
"Well, I knew he wasn't really my brother, but we were really close still. We grew up like Brother and Sister, because his father quasi-adopted me. When we grew up we... well... Experimented. And since I caused his father to be nice he wasn't that bad this loop. Really charming, well, I guess he always was really charming, but this time he was genuinely nice and charming." Sweetie babbled. She looked wistful. "It was a great four thousand years, I still treasure his gifts. He had a talent for those."
"Oh, now you've got to spill it!" Wormed Diamond. "Who?"
Sweetie looked around and said with a small voice: "Sauron."
Jaws, meet floor. Floor, meet the Jaws.
92.9 (Scygnus)
"Well, thish ish..." Twilight worked her jaw, "Huh... note to shelf, invent face-rearrangement shpell. For now..."
*clong!* Went the conjured shovel.
"Ow. Much better."
"What ARE you doing, Twilight?"
"Just fixing my face. Mom."
"You might want to pretend it's unfixed or your sisters might decide they have to re-do it." Chrysalis... looking like an ordinary pony in a suit... suggested, not unkindly.
"No worriesh mom."
"Ooh, you've been working on your illusions, very nice."
"Ehm, your evilness?" An overly-gnarled version of Spike spoke up from the doorway, "Pineapple, Sombra, four O'clock?"
"Of course. Run along and play, Twilight, mommy has work to do." Chrysalis stood up, moving over to the door, where Sombra was walking in, wearing a...
"Mom? I'm thinking of starting a photo album. Can I get a picture or two?" Twilight asked.
"Hrm? Oh, certainly, dear." Chrysalis replied while Sombra was digging through the mini-fridge for a pineapple that wouldn't get rejected like the last.
"Hold it up, in position..." *flash!* "One second... okay, go!"
"CRYSTAAaAAaaaaaAAaAAAalS!" Came the pathetic cry. Twilight ignored it as she walked out the door, tucking the camera back into her subspace pocket for later showing off. If she could avoid her sisters... unawake Trixie and Sunset Shimmer, plus exponential nasty... this would be an interesting loop. She had to get a recording of "Luna Dangerfield" while she was here, too.
92.10 (Gym Quirk)
Apple Bloom took a moment to collect her thoughts before addressing the three armored figures in the clubhouse.
"I have an idea to run past y'all. I don't expect an immediate answer, and won't be offended if you decide against. I just want to put it out there for ya to think about."
Clover and Pansy exchanged a look before turning to Cookie. "No, I don't know what she has in mind," said the metallic earth pony.
"It's just that since the three of us" -- She indicated the founding members of the CMC -- "can become alicorns, I was wonderin' if you'd like me to give y'all that option. That is, optional wings and horns if and when you want 'em. Obviously, there won't be any boost to your magical abilities, but we could help with cross-trainin' in other skills if ya like."
"I'll admit that it's kind of tempting," said Clover. "I've always wondered what it would be like to fly without levitation spells."
"Could be useful," agreed Pansy. "But I'm still working on mastering what I have now. A whole new set of abilities isn't high on my list right now." The pegasus founder had finally had her flight breakthrough and was now able to perform most routine pegasus tasks.
"I do appreciate the thought," said Cookie, "but I'm generally satisfied with what I am. Besides, I thought you were concentrating on giving us mobile holoemitters."
"Yeah...I need another loop or two in Voyager or Red Dwarf so I kin get a better look at how they do it. The new wings and horns would just be cosmetic add-ons plus some extra trainin' on your part. I'll just leave the option open. If ya want 'em, let me know."
92.11 (Kris Overstreet)
SPARKL, cybernetic domestic android, rubbed his oddly shaped forehead and wished the pain in his cerebral circuits would go away.
This wasn't Twilight Sparkle's first Red Dwarf loop, though usually she replaced either Dave Lister or (once) the ship's computer Holly. Substituting for Kryten- that was a first, but it wasn't the cause of her* headache.
Nor was it either of the natives still in the Loop. JMCS Red Dwarf's computer Holly wasn't a Looper, and at the moment s/he wasn't even online due to a processor-overclocking experiment that had cured the computer's cyber-senility at the cost of reducing its estimated remaining run time to about a minute and a half. The Cat, who'd begun Looping after the Crash, was Awake but might as well not have been. Like his evolutionary forebears, he had a microscopic attention span except when it came to food or sex. (Thankfully SPARKL was technically male at the moment, insofar as the term could apply to a mechanoid.)
No, the two people- or rather ponies- replacing Dave Lister and Arnold Rimmer were the reason SPARKL wanted to detach his head and dunk it in a pail of ice water.
"I still say we should use Holly's firing program," Arnold C. Lestia insisted.
"Hey, you lost the vote, fair and square," Dave Luna snapped. "Look, I move planets and moons around back home all the time. And my Loop memories include truly vast experience with billiards. All I have to do is synergize the two and we're golden, all right?"
"This from someone who invented the fried egg- Moon pie- curry sandwich."
The Royal Sisters, gender-flipped, bickering. With their lives on the line. Even if the white hole or flying planets or bomb-triggered solar prominences didn't kill them outright, a miscue could trap them in a nested time loop, which would leave the crew stranded indefinitely until and unless an Admin noticed and terminated the main Loop.
"Hey, purple pants," the Cat grinned, waving at SPARKL. "Don't worry about this. It's not that hard. I've seen Lister do this trick thousands of times!"
SPARKL didn't doubt it. This scenario was almost a fixed point for the Loop, except for the time Twilight, being Holly, had avoided the overclocking experiment. The other four times she'd been here, as Lister, she'd gone over Holly's program him/herself and corrected the equations, then let Starbug's computer auto-fire the mining nuke that sent planets spinning round like pool balls.
"And you know what?" the Cat continued, ignoring the mechanoid's silence."All those thousands of times, and I've never seen him do it the same way twice!"
"How many times does his end up knocking the planet into Starbug?" SPARKL asked.
"Oh, lots and lots!" the Cat shrugged. "Other times he knocks one into Red Dwarf. He calls that a 'scratch.' Don't know why." He looked at his carefully manicured claws and added, "Looked more like a pounce than a scratch to me."
"Sarcasm mode. Thank you so very much for the encouragement," SPARKL said.
"Hey, you're welcome," the Cat said, eternally immune to snark targeted at him.
"Cease thy bickering!" Luna demanded. "SPARKL, please bring me a six-pack of ship's issue lager."
"Sist... er, bro... Luna, what are you doing?" Lestia gasped. "How can you consider being intoxicated at a time like this?"
"Three reasons," Luna replied. "First, my opportunities for alcoholic experimentation are restricted in most Loops by duties and circumstances, as you well know. Second, my Loop memories strongly suggest from experience that I require heavy alcoholic sedation to achieve the muscle relaxation required for optimum performance.
"And third," Luna said, grabbing a can out of the yoke in SPARKL's hands, "if you think I'm going to pot a planet-busting nuclear weapon into a star so I can play bumper pool with three planets, two stars, and a white hole while sober, you have another think coming."
"You're mad, absolutely mad!"
"You're just jealous because with Holly down you can't get a holographic beer of your own!"
"Bucking right!" Celestia snapped.
The problem, Twilight Sparkle thought to herself, isn't that these two are as bad as the people they're replacing. They're a lot better. Arnold Lestia was chief of ship's security, Dave Luna chief of maintenance- both massively more competent than Second and Third Technicians Rimmer and Lister.
But compared to who they were elsewhere, the princesses were so very, very much worse, constantly on each other's nerves, to the point that the ship's observation bubble had been re-christened "The Moon" and made a destination for exile when one or the other became too obnoxious to tolerate.
And that complete disharmony, THAT was what gave her the headache.
Please work, she thought. I can't take umpty thousand years in a nested time Loop with them acting like this...
The bomb dropped into the first dwarf star and exploded, splashing a massive prominence into space, which struck the cue planet (A).
Cue planet (A) rocketed out of its orbit at just the right trajectory to knock the second planet (B) out of orbit, sending it screaming across the narrow space between the binary stars. (A) then span backwards from the point of impact, cutting a tight sun-grazing hyperbola which slung it out of orbit in turn, trailing planet (B). (B) smacked into the sole planet (C) orbiting the other dwarf star, sending (C) almost perfectly backward along its orbit while (B) drifted casually towards the white hole. (C) spun around the back of the second star just in time for (A) to smack it in the back. (A) took up a stable orbit around the second star while (C) brushed past (B), tugging it along in a spiraling path around a common center of gravity, potting both into the white hole simultaneously.
Blocked by two planetary masses, the white hole evaporated in a wave of time distortion.
All of this, from the point of view of the Starbug crew, took about three days to play out but only about as many minutes to watch, thanks to the time distortions caused by the white hole.
"YES! YES! YES!" Luna did a happy dance around the mock-up pool table. "Two balls pocketed on one stroke! The fun has been DOUBLED!"
"I... what... but... I.... Luck!!" Celestia gasped. "Absolute blind luck!"
"Planned, played for, and achieved!" Luna gloated, tugging her leather jacket in pride.
"Absolute luck, the whole lot!"
"Skill, my dear sibling!" Luna reached for a second six-pack of lager and opened a fresh can. "I wonder if we can set up a similar game when we return to Equestria!"
"I look forward to it!" Celestia snapped. "Because I guarantee there's no way you could ever make that shot twice!"
SPARKL shook his head and retired to the cockpit. Someone had to steer Starbug back towards Red Dwarf before cue planet (A) swung around in its new orbit and struck Starbug... or, more practically given the scale difference, vice versa.
Please, Twilight Sparkle thought inside the mechanical shell, please never let me be in a Loop where these two spend years shut up with no other company but each other. (The Cat doesn't count.) There's something about being stuck on the same ship, and THIS ship especially, which brings out the worst in everybody.
On the other hand...
Twilight pondered the hypothesis: if Red Dwarf is an inherently toxic environment, would the Dwarf Loopers respond better to a more nurturing world... like Equestria?
Lister and Rimmer hadn't visited Ponyville yet, but Twilight found herself hoping they would- badly.
If not for science and friendship, then at least for petty revenge... let them have the headache instead.
* Twilight had observed that between 1% and 2% of all Loops resulted in gender flipping. Almost all of these events, to Twilight, were supremely uninteresting, except for the inevitable pronoun confusion. Unfortunately the Red Dwarf loop preferred its Loopers to be all one gender or the other, which made a gender flip almost inevitable.
(DrTempo)
From The Journal of Sunset Shimmer:
Where I ended up this time was an interesting Loop...I was Rebecca Tennyson, cousin to Ben Tennyson, and was on a summer vacation with our Grandpa Max.
It didn't take Ben long to realize I was Replacing his real cousin. Ben is...well, interesting. This Loop lasted over 7 years, and Ben matured quite a bit as the wielder of the Omnitrix(an alien device that allows him to change into various aliens), though he did say he was still a bit of a brat in baseline. When I first heard his voice, for some odd reason, I was reminded of Twilight's voice...Don't know why. He doesn't mind enjoyong himself, but when the chips are down, he shows what it means to be a hero. Reminds me of Spider-Man, actually.
Anyhow, thanks to me already knowing magic(though I did add this Loop's brand of it to my arsenal), I fought alongside Ben from the start. He tries to stay as close to baseline as he can afford to usually; he's had experiences with time travel; this 'Paradox' guy reminds me a lot of a certain Doctor I've heard of. Still, he was glad for my help.
When he heard my story, he said it reminded him of his ex-rival Kevin. When I heard Kevin's story myself, I had to agree...we are a lot alike.
I did take time to enjoy life as well during this Loop, but when you're the cousin of a particular Loop's greatest hero, you tend to find trouble.
Everyone, I hope to see you again someday...
(DrTempo)
From The Journal of Sunset Shimmer:
Well, I always wanted to be a Princess.
I got my wish- in a manner of speaking. Getting kidnapped by one Bowser more times than I could count...Not fun.
I played along the first couple of times, but after around the fourth time...Well, I'd had enough. Cue Bowser being introduced to my Keyblade, and one flank-whooping. The so-called "King of Awesome" actually ENJOYED the fight though.
Apparently he is friendly enough with Mario that Bowser's a Looper himself. Bowser simply enjoys the thrill of challenging Mario time and again, and the plumber hero never fails to entertain him, or exceed Bowser's expectations. Mario himself is quite clever; he's done a lot of things even in baseline.
Peach, how you put up with all the kidnapping, I never know...
(DrTempo)
From the Journal of Sunset Shimmer:
Karma must love getting me back for my wanting to be a Princess once upon a time. Now I realize how hard having power is. Running Hyrule alongside my sister for this Loop, Princess Zelda, was difficult.
Then Ganondorf showed up. He was more affable than I expected, and was wanting to test some new tricks he got from Looping in the place of Dracula.
To explain why the main evil of this Loop would even BE Looping, allow me to explain: The Zelda Loops are unique in terms of who serves as Anchor..or rather, what serves as Anchor. The legendary wish-granting artifact, the Triforce, is the Zelda Loops' Anchor. In practice, it means either Link, Zelda, or even Ganondorf himself (though one purification via Sailor Moon's brought him to sanity) serve as Anchor. Even in baseline, the timeline for this Loop is confusing, since it splits into three separate timelines at the fateful final battle with Ganon during the Hero of Time's journey: Two were born from Link's victory(one where Link was sent back to live his lost seven years, and one existing from right after Ganon's defeat)...and the third is where Ganon WON, forcing a massive conflict to stop him, which began a gradual decline of Hyrule as a side effect.
Moving on, Ganondorf was hoping Link was Awake, so he could test his new castle and powers out on his rival; like Bowser, these days, Ganondorf enjoys seeing what kind of challenge his foe can overcome, having become an even greater manipulator than before. He'd even beaten an Unawake Link on a few occasions, but facing a 'static' foe got somewhat boring.
Sure enough, Link showed up to Ganon's Castle, and one journey through the castle later, the two clashed. The two know each other well, but Link won in the end.
This, and my Mario Loop, does prove some 'evils' that you'd think would be unredeemable can be.
Guess that's why Discord himself has changed, from the stories I've heard...Should be interesting to meet him. If he's Awake, that is. Otherwise, I might be tempted to see if he can be hurt by a Keyblade...
92.12 (Masterweaver)
Twilight honestly couldn't remember what this particular kind of fused loop was called.
She was in Equestria, still princess Celestia's student... and Hylian. Rainbow Dash had somehow managed to use her flippers to perform the legendary Spectral Tidalwave as a young Zora. Applejack just punched her apple trees with a rocky fist.
The anchor was sure she'd seen a couple Sheikah where the night guards would usually be....
Oh, and the book of prophecy mentioned the return of The Night Stallion, only male member of the Gerudo banished to the moon for a thousand years for trying to bring eternal night. Except Luna had pinged her back.
"...Well, this should be interesting..."
92.13 (The One Butcher)
"Something amusing was going to go wrong Spike, I just know it..."
Spike deliberated. "Well, since they are all treating me like a Hero, it'll probably all go to my head, I'll brag about it, completely mess everything up when that ice-cloud falls, let ponies be injured and learn humility and temperance from it." He said confidently.
Twilight looked at him strangely. "Do you actually remember your baseline self? When was the last time you met him? I mean I met mine in that Vespertine Loop and in those Loops with Nyx and when we all were Background Ponies and whenever I replace someone, what about you?"
"Well, there was that time when I replaced the Everfree Dragon."
"That doesn't count, you trained him to be a Jedi and got him and unawake Rarity engaged. He wasn't baseline. At all. I mean when did you last meet a Spike that Rampaged through Ponyville, Saved the Chrystal Empire, made fun of Applejack with that fictious Dragon Code and became real friends with Rarity? I think your baseline self has done quite a bit of growing up."
"I dunno, this was a pretty awesome year since your coronation, but when I think back to how I was when I started my Jedi training... Nah, I'll bet I'll mess up totally. Also, I am the only one awake and we acted as baseline as possible who else could have changed things up?"
"Well, I am still a pretty new Princess. I don't have many Princessly duties but I bet I've totally messed those up in baseline." Twilight insisted.
Spike gave her a cool gaze. "You're on. I bet baseline Spike'll mess up the ice cloud incident, because he gets a big head because he's the hero here. He'll try to play the Hero and thus get ponies hurt."
Twilight stood and challenged: "I bet you'll need to wait for the next stealth Anchor, because baseline Spike is much too humble and conscientious to think himself superior for doing what's right!"
"Excuse me," asked Celestia icily, "Would you please explain what you are talking about? Because it sounds to me as if you are not who you pretend you are and I demand...", just as the loop reset.
"I'm Awake again Twi, so it seems we'll have to wait a bit longer to resolve our bet." Spike lamented. He beamed. "On the other hand since none of the other Elements are awake how about I DO let the whole thing go to my head this time?"
Twilight thought about it. "Sure, I'm just glad to have your company again." She smiled. "Also it's more fun to anticipate the resolution! As for any plans you have:Go nuts!"
"I will! Or rather:" He grew to his "Knight in Shining Armor" size and took the Cape and breastplate from his Pocket "Did somepony order, A LARGE HAM!"
"Nightmare Moon! You fiend! I, Prince Spikoranuvellitar Celestia, shall purge you in the name of Mom, er I mean in the Name of the Princess!" Rarity swooned.
"Oh Lady Applejack, Lady Rarity and Lady Rainbow Dash, this traveling Jester simply intents to evoke feelings of Antagonism, so that her weak tricks seem funny instead of pathetic! Laugh heartily with me! Hahaha!" Rainbow and AJ concluded that Princess Celestia is, probably due to her age, a very old fashioned mare and seems to have imparted those traits and mannerisms into her son. They paid him no mind. Rarity however was saved green hair.
Spike was conspicuously absent from the first part of the Zecora problem. "I say!" Spike exclaimed, "To discriminate against someone who is different in form? And moreover do it to the wise and benevolent healer Zecora of Everfree? I am disappointed in all of you. I shall apologize to her in the name of the Equestrian Crown for this inexcusable behavior!"
"But what about these curses?", exclaimed Rainbow Dash.
He turned his stern eyes on the ponies. "You deserved those. Even just for running into the Everfree forest after her. There's strange things in there. You should not set foot in there without a proper guide, like me. Those look more like minor jinxes performed by the devious Poison Joak plant. I guess Zecora blasted you with a Blue Powder because of your insolence."
"Uh, no. But she did warn them not to walk through a patch of Blue Flowers..." Twilight said.
"You insolent curs! You have laid no claim on these mining grounds! Splendid Valley is property of the Crown, which lets you mine and live here tax free! But I think the Lady Rarity of Generosity will gladly sacrifice some of her time to help you with your operation. You should simply schedule a proper venture beforehand. Don't you?" Rarity looked at the Diamond Dogs in their dusty Vests and dirty fur...
"Sure, eh, Spike. I'd... love too. You know me, always happy to help!" She said with a huge smile. Lots of teeth. "But we really must go now, I have a large order coming."
"Applause for the Great and Honorable Prince Spikoranuvellitar of Equestria, the Brave and Glorious! Defeater of Nightmare Moon, Savior of Princess Luna, Draconic Diplomat of Equestria, Pacifier of the Ursa Minor, Exterminator of the Parasprites, vanquisher of Discord, Hero of the Epidemia of Ponyville, Savior of the Phoenixes of Dragonroost Mountain, Hero of the Invasion of Canterlot, Banisher of Sombra, Banisher of the Pink Horde, Defeater of the Timberwolves, Redeemer of Discord, Hero of the Everfree, Defeater of the Shadow Pony, Saviour of the Sun Temple, Capturer of the Mane-iac, Vanquisher of the Tatzlwurm, Savior of the Breezies and Defeater of the Witch of Ponyville."
Spike spread his wings and took off while growing to adult size. Then he soared in a circle once around the stadium and breathed a great gout of Gubraithian fire to hover ten feet over the giant torch.
"Showoff." muttered Rarity All-Princes-Are-Dreadful Belle.
Twilight's eyes widened. She was glad that the Loop was about to end, not liking to remember the Loop when Spike first learned to do that, which ended with the whole of Ponyville speckled in flames. Well next Loop I'm going to find out what the baseline is. Maybe.
A return from the Element of Loyalty. Dash was Awake! She's been looking forward to the Games forever.
Twilight went almost baseline until Scootaloo bowled her over: "Hey, Twilight! What's new?"
92.14(Masterofgames)
Vinyl blinked rapidly a few times as she Awoke, then glanced around, taking stock.
'Let's see, Her royal purpleness said to do... something. Ah, I remember. Step one, check surroundings.' She seemed to be on a boat. It didn't look like a passenger ship, so she was likely either on the crew, or a stowaway. As she was casually leaning against a wall in plain sight, likely the former. There were a few other people around, but they were either doing sailor stuff, or relaxing like she was, and none were paying much attention to her. One was even playing a small drum.
'Okay, step two... uh... hmm... what the heck was step two again?' she frowned. 'Oh, right, Step two, check self." She glanced herself over. She was human...ish. Her arms seemed to have an extra elbow. Weird, but the kind that was interesting, not freaky. She was wearing her shades, so that was good.
"Scratchgirl?"
No horn... 'Can I use my Pocket? Hmm... yeah, I can, for all the good it does me.' She sighed. She had only just been taught how to make one, and it was only just big enough for her headphones and music player, and maybe a few sheets of paper. Clothes... Boots, not unexpected all things considered. Long pants, flared at the bottom, odd. Tank top, light blue, cutie mark on the upper left, nice touch there...Light jacket, LONG sleeves, but with the extra length to her arms, hardly surprising...
"Scratchgirl..."
Actual clothing pockets? Empty. Head... huh, seems she already had a set of headphones this loop, and pretty high quality too. 'Might consider keeping these if I can make the pocket bigger before the loop ends. Wait, red? Ugh, never mind. Looks like that's all. Was there a step three? I feel like there was a step three...'
"OI! VINYL!"
Jumping slightly, Vinyl managed to keep from falling as she rapidly looked up. Another crew member was looking at her with folded arms, a box under one of them, and an irritated, but slightly amused grin. "Honestly, how someone like you plans to be a big shot pirate will forever be a mystery to me. Captain just gave an announcement. Said whoever wants that fruit we found is welcome to it. I wouldn't be caught dead eating it, but that's me."
Vinyl nearly asked what kind of fruit, but was cut off by her growling stomach. 'You know what? I don't care what kind it is. I'm hungry.' "Meh, sure, why not?"
Her crewmate laughed. "Figures. You wouldn't be Scratchgirl if you actually thought out what you did. All yours." he rolled his eyes, tossing her the box and walking off.
'Meh, screw step three. food first.' she grinned, flipping the box open. Inside was... well, actually, she had no idea. It was clearly a fruit of SOME kind, but not one she had ever seen before. It was all black and shaped sort of like a football, with a really long stem pointing straight up, with a black leaf on the tip. Vinyl giggled as she held it up. It looked like a musical note.
Shrugging, and taking a large bite, two things hit her very quickly, one the moment she swallowed- 'UGH! This fruit tastes god awful!'
-and the second as the crewmate who had given her the fruit shouted something to the rest of the crew. "Hey everybody! Scratchgirl's gonna eat the devil fruit!"
'Step three. Check memories. ALWAYS check memories!'
Vinyl really couldn't complain about her turn of fortune.
Really.
And she was going to keep telling herself that until she believed it.
'Ugh... my head...'
Ever since she had eaten that fruit a week ago, nothing sounded right. Or rather, it sounded exactly the same, but wrong. Honestly, trying to describe it was almost as painful as the problem itself.
'It's like... rhythm. Or the lack of it anyway. Nothing has a steady rhythm. And it hurts.'
Vinyl had tried sleeping it off, but the creaking of the ship, the wind, the waves, the footsteps and voices of the crew, it surrounded her at all times. And worst of all were the musicians. They had the closest thing to perfect rhythm, but that somehow made it the worst of the lot, so close, yet still wrong, like noticing a picture tilted off center ever so slightly.
And this boat had them playing. All. The. Time.
Finally, Vinyl decided she'd had enough. Pulling her pillow off from atop her head, sitting up, and stumbling to the door, she kicked it open with a crash, and stomped over to the somewhat stunned drum player.
"Like. This." she growled, pushing him aside and taking the bongo set herself. "It's not that hard. Just pay attention!"
And Vinyl started to play.
Bliss. Sheer bliss. Her headache vanished as her hands beat out a Perfect Rhythm as though it were the most natural thing in the world. The rest of the world, with its off tempo beat, faded away into nothingness.
The most pure of beats echoed through the ship, catching the attention of all. Every single member of the crew had SOME musical experience, so even the most mundane of tasks slowed to a halt as the listened to the beat they knew mere mortals were supposed to be unable to create.
After a time, the ship started to resume the activity, but it had all changed somehow. The shipwright would hammer a nail at the exact moment someone passing him took each step. The flapping of the sails in the wind perfectly matched the movement of the chef's hands as he sliced the fish for dinner. The creaking of the mast flowed seamlessly with the rolling of the waves.
And everything matched the beat of Vinyl's hands.
She was one with the music.
And then it all froze as a marine ship fired on them.
The impact sent everything sprawling. Vinyl managed to sit up and haul herself to her feet with the railing. "Seriously?! Not cool!" she shouted at the offending ship as she fixed her glasses. "I JUST got rid of my headache!"
They didn't seem to care. The ship opened fire on them again. The rest of the crew scrambled to return fire, but Vinyl was livid. "An entire damn week! Fixed! And you ruined it!" she ranted as she two ships battled, the flags hoisted tall. "It's back now, and worse than ever! But you don't even care, do you?! You just see the jolly roger and open fire!" she roared, not even flinching as a cannonball passed mere feet from her head.
She didn't get a response.
"Grr! Listen to me, damn it! Knock it off with the noise, or so help me, I will board your ship personally and MAKE you!"
They didn't stop.
"I'll do it! I'll break your entire ship apart, just like THAT!" she yelled, snapping her fingers.
The world froze. Vinyl noticed something rippling from her fingers.
She watched as something perfectly round rippled through the air. Something she could only describe as solid sound. She watched as it crossed the distance between the two crews, as it flowed over the marine ship.
And as it cleanly sliced it in half.
The world started again. The firing continued, then stopped in confusion as the enemy ship lurched and flipped. All eyes turned to face Vinyl, but she only had one thing to say.
"Why the hell have my fingers turned into castanets?" she asked, clicking them together a few times.
It was going to be a weird loop.
92.15 (FanOfMostEverything)
Once again, Rarity found herself accosted en route to the aerial relay.
"Miss?" said the security stallion. "Step right over here. Unicorns will no longer be admitted without a disabling spell, to prevent cheating. And make sure you don't even try casting a spell, or we'll know it."
Rarity rolled her eyes. This same insult to her honor every time. And the spell just felt icky, like a slug wrapped around her horn. No, she had a plan for this henceforth. "Not a problem, sir. Just a moment." She went to and from alicorn in a literal flash, the better to avoid awkward questions.
When the light cleared, her horn was gone. She moved a hoof back and forth over where it was. "I trust everything is accounted for?"
The stallion quirked an eyebrow, then put a hoof to his sunglasses, which began to glow. The other eyebrow joined its brother. "That... that's not an illusion."
Perhaps just a touch of Rarity's impatience began to creep into her tone. "No. It is not. May I pass, sir?"
"Um, yeah. G-go ahead."
Applejack shook her head as Rarity rejoined the group. "Y' couldn't've done that in yer room?"
"Of course, and henceforth, I will. But just this once I wanted get one over on that ruffian." Rarity huffed and stuck her muzzle in the air.
Pinkie giggled. "I thought it was a pretty good prank. Ooh! Ooh! How about this for the next time?"
(FanOfMostEverything)
"And make sure you don't even try casting a spell, or we'll know it."
Rarity sighed. "Oh, very well." She trudged off towards the line of disabler booths.
Applejack looked back. "Aw, shucks. Wish ya'd said somethin' sooner. C'mon, Pinkie." She turned around.
Pinkie followed. "Coming! Don't wanna disqualify Flutters and Dashie and Bulk just because Mr. Guard can't tell an outie from an innie!"
Mr. Guard (which was not actually his name) seemed rather confused. "A... what?"
Pinkie giggled. "An inicorn, silly! It's like an outicorn, but our horns point in! Well, usually. Watch!" She shut her eyes and mouth, pressed a hoof over her nostrils, and puffed out her cheeks.
"Ya don't have t' do it that way, sugarcube." All eyes turned back to Applejack, who now had a horn spiraling out of her forehead.
"Yeah, but it works!" Back to Pinkie, with same.
"Um... yeah..." The stallion cleared his throat. "Same deal, you two. Through the spell field, no funny stuff." He turned his gaze to the rest of the line, all of whom were just as confused. "Any other inicorns think they can get past me?"
(DrTempo)
From The Journal of Sunset Shimmer:
I've gone metal this Loop. As in, I'm made of metal. I'm called Sunset Woman here, a creation of one Dr.Light. Shortly after my 'activation', Dr.Wily tried turning me to his side when he snapped.
As tempted as I was to just kick his flank by going all-out, I'd remembered Blues telling me that Wily was 'Dreaming'; he's never truly Awakened, but seems to retain some knowledge of past Loops, if only like they were dreams. Reminds me of how I first saw my Loop memories why back in that fateful first Fused Loop.
In practice, that means he does tend to use said fragments of memory to change things up. I even heard he even managed to beat up a certain Bureau, even getting past their anti-tech defenses.
The first one of THOSE Loops I have, I'm going to enjoy tearing the Bureau apart...
But back to the events of this Loop. After I escaped, Rock and Roll arrived to save me, only to see me Keyblade in hand.
Turns out Blues was here as well, and he explained my story. From what he said, there'd been a Fused Loop with Equestria recently...if Blues remembers right, it was shortly before he met me. Dr.Light is curious as to why I'm Looping anyhow...You and me both. Hopefully, Twilight'll have the answer.
Rock said to sit this Loop out, and try to relax. I really can't. Guess I've become the kind of person who can't really stand by and watch evil win.
But I understood why they wanted me to sit things out: Dr.Wily and his Dreaming. Anything I might do could make things tougher in later Loops.
I actually pity Wily in a way. I do sympathize with his wanting recognition, but the ends never justify the means.
As the Loop went on, I was patient, but I never liked it. I could've done something to help...
I also feel bad for Rock and his Loop...they were nearly erased from ever even existing.
As this Loop ended, I'm starting to see what Loopers must go through as the Loops pass...