103.1 (Gym Quirk)
"Twilight?"
"Yes, Rarity?"
"Why are we bothering to continue this overused gag?"
"In my case, because my Bucks-to-Give meter's completely empty. You?"
"The same."
103.2 (Masterweaver)
Berry and Discord watched their daughters playing in the park with vague smiles on their faces.
"...you know, I never knew you had a little filly," Berry finally commented, sipping her milkshake. "Or is this a 'comes and goes' kind of thing?"
"Mmm." Discord nodded, absently shifting one of Screwball's constructs with his magic so Ruby didn't run into it. "She's... well, she tends to at least exist, but whether she's my daughter can be extremely variable. Sometimes she's just another random citizen of Ponyville, or a devoted cultist, or an asylum patient... do you know, she tends to be related to Diamond Tiara for some reason?"
"Oh yeah! I think I remember one loop she was her mother." The winemaker snorted a bit at that. "Locked up in the asylum, but... well, me and Cheerilee got through to her eventually. And that got Diamond on a better path and... yeah, it was a pretty cute loop all round." She shook her head, giving the pink pony a strange look. "Apparently she figured out the loops too..."
"Yes, she seems to be loop aware," Discord agreed. "Of course, with her insanity it's hard to be sure..."
"Anyway," Berry continued, "My point is you have a daughter. Sometimes. Enough that it counts. That's... very sweet, actually. Screwball, dear, be sure to change Ruby back!" she added quickly.
"But she likes being a squirrel!"
"I didn't say you had to do it right now, but when we head home she needs to be a unicorn again."
103.3 (Masterweaver)
"So, ya have an adaptive megabuster hmm?"
Rock nodded, glancing from the small yellow pony to his suddenly stonefaced sister. "Yeah." He shifted on his hooves--something he still couldn't quite get used to. "It's a bit difficult to use here, because, well--"
"Bipedal design don't hold out well when ya've got hooves." The filly nodded knowingly. "Ya know, Ah'm a bit of an engineer. Ah'm thinking Ah might be able ta help ya out with that." She trailed her hoof up Rock's megabuster, smiling faintly. "Drop by mah workshop anytime."
"Uh... sure." The blue pony robot inched away slightly. "I'll do that, sometime."
"Ah'm free this saturday," Apple Bloom offered, looking into his optic processors. "We can go over yer blueprints together."
"...sounds... like fun?"
"See ya then, sugarcube."
The filly sauntered out of the library.
After a few seconds, Rock turned to Roll. "Was I just hit on by an underage horse?"
She burst out laughing.
"And how come you didn't help me out with that?!" he demanded, thanking Light for not installing a blush function.
"You looked, haha, looked like you were do, doing well enough on your own, loverbot hahahahahahahaha!" Roll curled up on the floor, barely able to process enough air for operation.
103.4 (Drachefly)
Captain Zelnick eyed the Sun Device nervously. "Are you Awake?"
It did nothing, said nothing.
"All right. I was just speculating that you might be Princess Celestia."
Nothing happened.
"Just checking."
"WE ARE THE CHENJESU. WE ARE THE MMRNMHRM."
Something was missing. Zelnick hesitantly asked, "Is there any particular reason you aren't complaining that I interrupted the Process? You know, the one by which you're merging into crystalline/mechanical hybrids instead of one crystalline and one mechanical species?"
There was a noticeable pause before the reply, "DO YOU HAVE FOREKNOWLEDGE OF THIS SITUATION PROVIDED BY A STABLE TIME LOOP?"
Now that's some deductive power! "Yes! I do. I also have a device to speed things up a lot. Like, finish the Process in an afternoon instead of thirty more years."
"UPDATING."
After a minute, Zelnick asked, "Is this update going to take a while? I'll kind of need improvements made to a bomb some time in the next two and a half years or so, and it would be nice if you could provide some military backup in the ensuing confusion."
"UPDATING."
Zelnick sighed. "Would you mind updating me on what's going on?"
"ONE OF YOUR EARTH YEARS AGO WE RECEIVED A DELUGE OF MEMORIES FROM TWO EXTRADIMENSIONAL BEINGS KNOWN AS DIAMOND TIARA AND SILVER SPOON. THIS INFORMATION CONVINCED US TO SUSPEND THE PROCESS AS FUTILE."
Why didn't it occur to me that someone might loop in as them?
After a few more moments, the voice continued, "CONCLUSION: EVEN WITH YOUR DEVICE, SINCE THE FUTURE OF SAPIENT LIFE IS NOT IN THE BALANCE, WE DECLINE TO SACRIFICE OUR RESPECTIVE ESSENCES."
"All... right... So you're just going to leave everything to burn... Oh, right, you didn't know: a few months before the latest possible end of the loop, a faction of Ur-Quan you haven't met is going to sweep through here and kill everything unless we stop them."
"HORSEFEATHERS."
103.5 (misterq)
"Good, you're here!" the door slammed shut just as Sweetie Belle entered Sugarcube Corner. Berry Punch was already there, eating a small slice of rum cake. Pinkie Pie had raced back from where she closed the door to a small desk full of various parts and pieces. She was now fiddling with a strange floating contraption that looked like it was made out of circuit boards and gingerbread. The magi-technological device beeped once and started glowing with a pale pink glow. Pinkie clapped her hooves happily, "There! Now no snoopy ponies would be able to spy on our meeting in any way whatsoever."
Berry Punch's cough sounded a lot like, 'Sparkle'.
"What exactly are we supposed to talk about in these meetings?" Sweetie Belle asked, her head tilted to one side like a confused puppy.
"Oh, that's right. You weren't looping during the first few," the party pony sat down at the table and handed out treats and drinks to the other two ponies, "Basically, we just talk about what it means to be the best element."
"Best element?" Rarity's little sister sipped her milkshake.
"Well, I may be a little biased, but laughter is awesome," but then Pinkie's tone turned serious, although thankfully her mane didn't fall flat, "But it can also be one of the most dangerous elements. And that's what today's meeting is about."
"Dangerous?" Berry Punch asked.
"Yes. Now, we've all gotten Twilight's 'Every alicorn is a walking, talking, end-of-the-world scenario with emotional issues,' lecture already so we all know the dangers of turning our alicorn talents on full blast. But the element of laughter is like... like," Pinkie thought for a moment, "is like a roller coaster! Why do riders like to ride in roller coasters?"
"Because it's fun?" Berry wagered a guess.
Pinkie nodded, "Yes, exactly! But why are roller coasters fun?"
Sweetie spoke up, "Because they fool you into thinking you are undergoing something dangerous with all the twists and loops and speed."
The party pony pointed a hoof at the little unicorn, "Yepperoonies! It's actually an evolutionary trait. When ancient ponies survived something dangerous, they would laugh because they had been scared and now they weren't. And when you laugh, you tend to remember things better as well as wanting to share what was funny with your friends. So by laughing at danger, those ancient ponies learned how to survive or avoid it, as well as spreading that knowledge to their herds."
"That makes sense," Sweetie Belle said. Berry Punch nodded in agreement.
Pinkie continued, "As elements of laughter, we're all kind of like a pony-shaped roller coaster. We all have that illusion of danger, of unpredictability around us. But at the end of the ride, every pony walks out laughing and happy. However, just as no pony would ever ride a roller coaster that is truly dangerous or about to seriously break down, we can never let loose our dangerous sides. Hinting that we all have a dark side is fine and dandy, but actually going down that path is a big, big no-no. Because then, then the fun turns to fear; the laughter turns to screams. If we subvert our talents, use them in the wrong way, in a dark way; then they will change us. Nothing is worse than a corrupted element of laughter. And I will never, ever, never become the Element of Terror!"
Sweetie Belle looked on worriedly as Pinkie Pie was panting with emotion, "What do you mean by using our talents in a bad way?"
The pink pony sighed, "Berry can mix just about anything. Her talent seems to let her overcome the limitations of chemistry at will. How quickly can you whip up something dangerous? Truly dangerous?"
Berry Punch didn't answer. She just looked away.
Pinkie continued, "For me; two words: knife party."
All three ponies shivered at that thought.
"What about me?" squeaked the littlest looper at the table.
Pinkie Pie sighed and walked over to the other side of the table. Then she gave the little filly a hug. Pulling back, she said, "Don't take this the wrong way but in my personal opinion, you, Sweetie Belle, are the single most dangerous pony in all of Equestria."
Sweetie Belle looked up at Pinkie, "What? Me? Why?"
"You have the gift of music. The universe is composed of vibrations and motion, tiny particles and quantum strings all interacting and resonating in harmony. They form the concert that is the whole of reality. You have already sung one world into being."
"I just helped. It wasn't all me," Sweetie protested.
"Nevertheless, you have sung a song of creation. That means you can do the opposite. You can sing the song that ends the world."
"No, I..," and in that moment, Sweetie Belle realized that Pinkie Pie was indeed correct. She did have the ability. And there was only one thing she could say to that, "I would NEVER do that!"
Pinkie smiled, "I know. Like I said, all three of us carry a sense of potential danger. And all three of us should endeavor to keep it only a potential."
Silence prevailed in the bakery.
Then, the baker pony smiled and said, "That concludes the serious portion of tonight's meeting. Now how about we figure out awesome ways to use our element to cheer every pony up this loop."
Berry Punch and Sweetie Belle both looked up and smiled as well.
103.6 (Drachefly)
Ranma was in the middle of explaining his situation to a completely unAwake Tendo family at the beginning of another near-baseline loop. He'd gotten a response ping, but that wasn't saying much. His curiosity as to who it was was quickly resolved as Shampoo apparated in.
The Tendo family seemed not to react, which puzzled Ranma for a moment until he realized he'd had to overcome a Somebody Else's Problem Field to notice her.
He slipped inside it and the Tendo family resumed their tea, idly discussing what he'd just been describing and not at all noticing that Ranma had slipped from their perceptions.
"Hi, what's the rush?"
"Zelda told me you had a package for me..."
"Ah, Twilight Sparkle! Nice to loop with you again! And yes, I do have a number of packages for you."
Twilight Sparkle clasped her hands in front of her and hopped up and down, giddy.
"Ready? Here's one I got. It might be a little stale - that stasis system only has a time compression factor of a trillion, and its clock has rolled over a few times." There was a peculiar sucking sound as a silver-gray-coated tree emerged from nowhere and vanished into an equally small nowhere before it could reach its full size. "Here's one from Happosai when he looped in as Pinkie. Yeah, you don't want to know, but it's fresh. And here's one from Raven."
"Which Raven?"
"The Teen Titan, not Mr. Poor Impulse Control."
"That possibility hadn't crossed my mind."
"Much like, oh, doing this yourself? I'm still not clear on why you don't."
She pursed her lips. "I just get the feeling that if I do that instead of someone else looping in as me... it'd happen anyway, and take my whole pocket with it. And the other natives haven't had any luck with it when there are guest anchors. I think it could only be not-fated when there aren't any natives around at all."
That fits. We went as a gang when I got mine, and Happosai didn't face any interference from native loopers. "So this is an ongoing thing? Just, grab one if I can?"
"Please! I'll make you some stasis spells to make up for..."
He laughed and waved her off.
"Take them or I'll press my engagement claim just to annoy you."
"Annoy? Annoy? Having you chasing me would be novel enough to be worth it!"
"All right then, we call it even if I try to get you to marry me until the end of time?"
"Umm..." Ranma looked across the Tendo family and realized that she had turned off the Somebody Else's Problem field before saying that.
103.7 (Drachefly)
"Next: Most useless skillset in which you earned a professional certification!" Twilight declared to the assembled loopers. "As point leader, it's your turn, Applebloom."
She blinked, trying to find something that could possibly win. After a moment, she shook her head. "Pass."
Scootaloo, at her left, immediately declared, "Quidditch judge."
That shut down a lot of the circle; the next pony who put something forth was Rainbow Dash, with "Windows ME sysadmin. Yeah, I know, not very 'me'. I woke up on way to the test, and went off loop memories, but I earned it."
Twilight Sparkle sucked air between her teeth. "That may be even less useful than Quidditch judge, but I'm not sure that's really 'earning'. Anyone else?"
Cheerilee deadpanned, "Teaching certificate."
Celestia broke the ensuing awkward silence by saying, "I was an official planting-stick sharpness tester. There wasn't a certificate, but it was declared before the village council and entered into the record."
"Good enough, and now you're the one to beat."
Applejack narrowed her eyes and asked, "Planting-stick?"
"Before modern agricultural tools such as plows, you'd poke the ground and put a seed in. This was much harder if the sticks were dull. I was officially recognized as qualified to judge if a stick was sharp enough to use, and if not, whether to mend or replace it."
"Right, but why didn't you lead an agricultural revolution?"
"I was eight, Applejack."
"Ah've done, oh, fifty or sixty agricultural revolutions when I was under ten. You sure could."
"No. This was the first time I was eight."
103.8 (FanOfMostEverything)
"For you are my daddy Discord, and I am a piece of you." Screwball, the pink-coated, purple-maned scion of chaos, sighed and rested her head on the terrified statue's dragon foot. "I miss you, Daddy."
A glow lit up within Discord's petrified chest, and there was a sound as of a throat clearing.
The equinoid abomination perked up. "Daddy! You're alive!"
"Indeed. Just a moment, daughter dearest. Daddy's going over the script." Discord frantically leafed through his long-term memory, trying to recall this particular number. Heartsongs rarely cooperated with him. Lower-case "h" harmony magic plus spirit of disharmony equaled malfunction in the cosmic karaoke machine. "Oh, forget it." An exertion of will, a few million years' memories of harmonious behavior, and the draconequus was free and smiling at his swirly-eyed daughter. "Want to get ice cream?"
Screwball pounced on her father and hugged him for all he was worth. (Eighty-seven bits, judging by how much came shooting out of his ears.) "Ice cream!"
103.9 (Masterweaver)
"DON'T TELL APPLEJACK I'M HERE!"
Twilight blinked as Vinyl ran into a closet and shut herself in. "Uh...."
A moment later, the orange farm mare burst into the library, wearing a black cloak and a terrible sneer. "Alright, Twilight, where's that blood-sucking varmit?! I've gotta send her back to her grave!"
"She flew out the back door, said something about Manehattan."
"CONSARN IT!" Applejack threw her hat to the floor. "Tell Mac I'm not going ta be here fer a while, will ya?"
103.10 (Masterweaver)
"I'm sorry, you want to sue who?"
"Prince Angel is the subject of my ire. Repayment from him is what I desire."
The lawyer peered over his glasses at the strangely rhyming striped alicorn. "I'm afraid I don't quite understand. What crimes has the prince committed?"
Zecora snorted. "A thousand years before this morn, two sisters with both wings and horn sat upon Equestria's throne and treated their subjects like their own. The elder gave learning to every child, whilst the younger tended to the forest wild. Yet the ponies of the time did fear nature and the ways of the younger dear. They burned the trees and razed the land, but for this the younger would not stand--"
"Wait, is this the story of Thorny Vines?" interrupted the pony. "Because she's a Creeper Night myth."
There was an awkward moment. Then, very pointedly, Zecora extended her wings and rose an eyebrow.
"Not that..." The lawyer gulped. "Er, not that it isn't a very... interesting myth..."
"The point is made, I have returned... and my lesson has been learned. No longer do I seek vengeance, now I regret the fate that those innocents of years ago met. I wish to return to my sibling and make right, well, everything." Zecora sighed. "Which brings us back to this task, and the question I must ask; why is Angel on my seat? What requirement could he meet?"
"Erm. He's your regent, miss."
"....That is actually... quite a reasonable choice. I withdraw my protesting voice..."
103.11 (Spectrumancer)
It was the day after the Summer Sun Celebration. Luna had been taken care of by an awake Nyx, nihilism and a crate of postage stamps, and Twilight was looking forwards to spending a quiet loop on magical research.
"Morning, momma."
"Morning, Nyx."
"And what am I, roasted oats?"
"Morning to you too, Spike."
A perfectly normal loop.
After pancakes and coffee, Twilight moved to the main room of the library, making a mental note to set up something later to prevent Tirek from blowing it up this time around. But first, research. Twilight reached into her Pocket to grab a notebook and a Spellbook from Oerth, as she settled down for a nice, quiet day of studying.
Nyx and Spike were playing chess on the second floor of the library (neither the Crusaders nor Rarity were awake) when the tree was wracked by a loud crash. Alarmed, both ran downstairs to investigate.
And stopped as they observed Twilight, staring at the 20-feet wide spell book lodged through what used to be the east wall.
A few moments passed, before Twilight slowly reached into her Pocket again. And produced a Hub-world toy replica of herself. Which was now life-sized. She looked to the staircase, where Spike was now leaning on a 10-feet long lightsaber hilt propped against the wall, and Nyx, who was reaching into her own Pocket, but apparently thought better of it and retrieved nothing.
A moment passed before a look of comprehension came over Twilight, who proceeded to groan loudly and face-hoof.
"Uh, so what's up with the..." Spike said, gesturing to the oversized items.
Twilight replied with a sigh, before explaining. "...My Little Pony." Then she face-hoofed again.
103.12 (Masterweaver)
"...so then Thief takes over, pulls her into an epic snog, and swipes the Alicorn Amulet into our pocket."
Cheerilee shook her head. "Wow. Never suspected Bonbon would be a dark sorcerer."
"Oh it gets better. Her nefarious rival was Sassafrass."
"...Caramel's marefriend, right? The blue pegasus?"
"Yep!" Lyra giggled. "She tried to apprentice Sweetie Belle, but Sweetie was Awake so--"
Bright Eyes and Ditzy Do glided down to the picnic blanket, Ditzy snapping her wings in and letting herself drop the last three feet (much to Bright Eye's bemusment). Ditzy grinned as she sat down, producing her own basket from nowhere. "Hey spygals, how's it hanging?"
"Pretty good, all things considered." Cheerilee smirked. "You should have seen what Dinky drew last week for her art assignment, it's just adorable!"
"Oh, I look forward to it. How about you, Lyra, you doing okay?"
"Yeah, I'm cool." Lyra flipped her mane. "Been practicing some of my techniques."
"I'm looking forward to it. Pinkie's not awake this loop, so no pepperment pylon, but soon as she is we'll have a go."
"I still feel like a fourth wheel here," Bright Eyes grumbled. "I mean, you're always talking about these loops and here I am, stuck in linearity."
Ditzy gave her a good natured should nudge. "Come on, I told you this like thirteen times already! I just want to see if I Dream your memories some loop--"
"--because I am you and you are me, yeah yeah..." Bright Eyes rolled her eyes. "I'm supposed to be the smart sister."
"And you are! I'm the crazy one, you're the down to earth one. Except we're pegasi, which ruins the metaphor...."
Cheerilee chuckled. "She's the falcon to your hummingbird?"
"Don't let Hummingway hear that," Lyra interjected, rolling her shoulder with a wince. "That bird can pack a wallop when he wants..."
103.13 (feral wolfskin)
(Grammar checked by Masterweaver)
Nightmare Moon looked at the lavender unicorn in front of her. “I use Veil of the Darkness and Massive Attack to Snacks.” She put the cards of Chaos in the board. “Now your party is ruined!”
A gasp of horror could be hear from a pink pony in the crowd.
Twilight just grinned and put down her own cards. ”Emergency Party Supplies allow me to restock the party, and the combination of Sphere of Mirrors and Disco Fever nullify your Veil of Darkness and give me points in charisma, making some of your pieces join my cause.”
“I love this game, it's like was created for me!” exclaimed Discord, moving a few pieces.
Twilight rolled the two six faced dices. “37.8 and summer. With that my ducks can cross the river of mayonnaise and conquer Australia.”
“With the power of Bifrost the Rainbow Bridge, my army of pink fluffy unicorns attacks your capital!” exclaimed Chrysalis moving her pieces.
Twilight took a card from the deck and put two in the board. “Planet Wide Heartsong, distracts all the pieces for 5 turns and I use Deficit of Attention in my own armies making them unable to keep concentration on the same thing for more than a turn."
“Crystals,” moaned Sombra, moving a piece with the form of a cat up a step in a stair.
Twilight spun a roulette that ended in a clock. “I prevent the existence of the rats creating a temporal paradox, because I don’t have safe guards the universe get destroyed ending the game. This cost me a lot of points but I still win.”
Sombra looked over the sheet with points, made a few mental calculations, and nodded before abandoning the Crystal Empire.
Twilight looked the board, the dice, the cards, the fishing rods and the other objects necessary to play Chaos before looking at her enemy. “You win. I have no way to beat this strategy.” The vines of the Plunderseed rearranged the game. “2 of 3?” After a affirmative response they started playing.
Tirek stared the Alicorn in front of him before putting a token and a card in the board. “I use Fireball and Narrative Causality to destroy your Golden Oak Library!”
Twilight removed the piece of the game and started to plan a new strategy.
Twilight looked to her NOT destroyed library before looking at the mini Library Tirek ´destroyed´. “Next variant the villains prefer playing games to fighting, I am repeating this.”
103.14 (Crisis)
"Ditzy..." Twilight approached the wall-eyed pegasus, her telekinesis trailing a package that had a grinning Pinkie Pie poking her head out. "We need to talk about this 'friendshipping' business of yours."
"Oh," Ditzy looked downcast. "Am I not using enough postage?"
"No," Twilight fought the urge to facehoof. "It's... That's not what friendshipping means."
"Oh," the mailmare blinked, and then blinked again as she seemed to understand. "Oh! I get it! Don't you worry Twilight! I'll have your date with Pinkie set up toot-sweet!"
Twilight's protest that that wasn't right either was cut off as the pegasus sped away. Her intended pursuit was cut off by Pinkie letting out a long dramatic gasp.
"Ohmygosh!" Pinkie popped out of the package she'd been happily sitting in. "We haven't been on a date with each other since that Loop way back when you were experimenting to see if you might be romantically interested in anyone you knew and didn't know I was Awake as well!"
"Pinkie," Twilight growled out, "how is blurting that out for all of Ponyville to hear 'never speaking of it again'?"
"I don't know silly," Pinkie rolled her eyes. "You're the super-smart smarty-pants!"
103.15 (LordCirce)
Twilight stared down at Pinkie, who was currently being restrained by Rainbow Dash and Applejack.
"Your family is what now?"
Pinkie grinned widely. "We are the true believers of Discord, the Bringer of the UltraPlusFun! We knew, when my eldest sister Maud was born, marked of Discord from the womb, that she would be the instrument of his rise. Even now, he will seek her out, and release from within her the True Party. Praise be to chaos! Discordru fhun p'farthti! Discordru fhun p'farthti!"
Twilight sat back and sighed. This Loop had seemed like a normal baseline, except that Pinkie had been slightly more manic than usual. And, now that she thought about it, the Pies had both smiled a bit more than usual. Apparently, they were all Discord cultists waiting for him to break free. The moment Celestia announced he had escaped, Pinkie had began laughing, and had tried to body tackle Celestia for some reason.
Glancing up, Twilight nodded to Dash and Applejack. "Make sure she's secure, Sugar Overload Protocol Three, then meet us in the main hall." They both nodded, while Pinkie continued chanting on the floor.
Twilight made her way out the door to the chamber, then glanced off to the side. "Did you know anything about this?"
Discord shrugged, then manifested a second set of arms to shrug again. "No. This is new to me. And rather exciting. I mean, I've had cultists before, but most of them are boring stufffy old cloak-wearers, all daggers and blood and 'down with my mean teacher'. I've never had a whole group of cultists who actually appreciate what chaos is all about."
Twilight nodded, still frowning. "It is probably the scientist in me speaking, but I am almost tempted to let you release whatever power is in Maud. I don't recall ever seeing you Discordify her before." She glanced up when she saw Discord wince. "What is it?"
Discord paused. "Well, I've done it once. Hiccup was replacing you, shortly after Maud showed up in the expansions and all. I thought it would be a good prank, sort of my own, welcome-to-Ponyville present." He winced again.
Twilight started grinning. "Go on."
Discord sighed. "She...got clingy. And emotional. And did I mention clingy?"
Twilight started snickering. "Aw, did Discord get an admirer?"
Discord gave her a flat look. "She showed a level of obsession that would make a Dating-Simulator wielding Cadance look aloof."
Twilight froze, ran that scenario through her mind, then slowly nodded. "So...desert island?"
Discord nodded, snapping his fingers to dress himself in a hula girl outfit. "Desert island."
The two of them vanished, just as Dash and Applejack walked out of the chamber.
"Pinkie is secure, for now...where did they just go?"
Applejack shrugged in response.
103.16 (Conceptulist)
“SQUIRREL!” yelled Twilight. And then she promptly jumped out of the chariot and proceeded to chase the squirrel she had spotted. Which scared the squirrel, causing it to run away. Which caused Twilight to run faster, which caused the squirrel to run faster, etc.
Spike reintroduced his palm to his face for what felt like the gazillionth time this loop. The Royal Guard pegasi who had flown Spike and Twilight to Ponyville started to snicker before they regained their composure.
Pinkie Pie, who had wandered over to see what all the commotion was about, stared at the purple unicorn. Said purple unicorn had apparently grown bored with the squirrel and was now experimenting with a friction coefficient reducing spell. Mostly by slipping and sliding up and down the road like it was made of soap.
Pinkie gasped really loudly before attempting to Road Skate as well. Spike could see the disappointment in Pinkie Pie as she discovered the road itself was not slippery. Twilight, now bored of Road Skating, solved this predicament by recasting the friction coefficient reducing spell on Pinkie Pie. Once Pinkie realized what had happened, she leapt up into the air and gave another gasp, before skating off to sugar cube corner. ‘Most likely to go prep for the ‘Welcome to Ponyville party’ she usually throws for Twilight and me,’ assumed Spike.
Spike got out of the chariot so the guards could take it back to Canterlot. He was surprised when the squirrel from earlier dizzily wandered up to him. “Well, that’s one way to Awake,” the squirrel commented.
“Silver Spoon?” questioned Spike. “Or would that be Silverleaf?”
“Actually, it’s Silver Fur this time,” answered the squirrel. “But you can just call me Silver.”
“Ok. I was pretty sure that it was just gonna be me and Twilight Awake this loop, so it’s nice to have some late Awakenings this time.”
Staring at the purple who was now climbing a tree to count how many leaves it had, Silver asked the question that was on every Ponyvilleian’s mind at the moment. “What’s up with her?”
“You know how Twilight is kinda somewhat selectively OCD in the baseline and is sometimes really OCD in variant loops?” sighed Spike.
“Yeah,” nodded Silver.
“Well, this time she has got something different to deal with. And she also decided to 'play along' with the plot of the loop. 'Because, why not?' she told me. "
Sliver was pretty sure she knew knew what Spike was referring to, but decided to ask and make sure. "So Twilight has Attention Deficit Hyperactive-"
"Ooo! Shiny!" yelled Twilight. She then teleported from the tree top to right behind Sliver Fur and glompt'd the squirrel. Because Sliver's fur was a nice, shiny color of silver.
"-Disorder," deadpaned Sliver Fur.
103.17 (Conceptulist)
Sometimes it got lonely bartending. When the day's work was done, Big Mac had to go down to the cellar and make sure everything was stocked right. He had to be certain everything was ready to go at a moment's notice. Not that he minded. The monotony was relaxing.
But when the chores and restocking was done, it got lonely. There wasn't as much to do on the farm since he had started looping. Sure, all the daily chores still needed to be done. No tree could be left unbucked, no apples left unloaded, no cart left in the groves. Fields got plowed and planted. The work got done. It just didn't take quite as long to do anymore.
There were all kinds of tricks to make farm work easier. They weren't necessarily shortcuts or cheats. Not like when Applebloom builds an auto-bucker nine thousand or something. It was just that there was the right way to buck a tree and the best way to buck a tree. Constant practice and a steadfast work ethic meant Big Mac learnt how to do it right, how to do it best, and then how to do it perfect.
Applejack could do it best. She had started looping well before Big Mac. She had much more time to practice. But she was always going off and doing things with her friends. Well, not all the time. Just a whole lot more than Big Mac did. Heck, Big Mac couldn't even remember when the last time he looped somewhere outside of Equestria was, let alone the last time he went out and did something just for the heck of it. Maybe it was that time where he bartended in Gotham? Anyway, the point was that of the looping Apple Clan, Big Mac was the one did do the most farm work the most often. Even counting Pinkie Pie and the rock farm.
All that time working on the farm and in the orchards paid off in the form of every single trick in the book of farming tricks. As well as enough extra to write his own book, and that book's dozen sequels. Most of them were subtle little things. Some of the tricks were Variant Cutie Mark Talents like listening for the sound the apples made as they fell into the buckets, and making an accurate count of the tree's current crop based on that. Some tricks were a tad more obvious, like seeding a furrow while simultaneously plowing the next one. But most of them where just the product of a long, long time spent refining his technique.
Farm work aside, there was also keeping the bar ready at a moments notice. It was usually fairly easy to slip away during the Summer Sun Apple Family Reunion. As long as he showed up for the roll call slash Applejack introducing the extended Apple Clan to Twilight, nobody noticed if he spent an hour or so building a fully stocked bar in the cellar.
Of course, the ponies and slash or other miscellaneous Equestrian species who were Awake Loopers tended to notice. The bar, not the building of the bar. They always found there way to the cellar at some point in the loop. Hopefully not to try and drown out memories, but for more casual reasons. So getting and keeping the bar ready for Loopers was definitely a priority.
There were chairs to set up and stools to polish. Tables to assemble. Kegs of beer to prep. Bottles of wine to taste test, as so to not serve a wine that had aged too much. They did spoil eventually. And lastly, there were glasses to clean. Oh so many glasses.
By this point, Big Mac had quite the impressive collection of drinking implements. There were the wooden mugs he had started out with. The kind that the Apple Family Cider was traditionally served in. Then there were the wine glasses. Since good wine apparently deserved more respect than a good, old fashioned, Apple Family Cider Mug could offer. At least, according to Rarity in full blown snob mode. Although, Big Mac had to admit that the wines did taste better when the cider aftertaste was no longer present.
Then there where the shot glasses. Tiny little things. Hard to clean, especially with hooves. It took a lot of practice and broken glass to get the trick of it. Mostly, the shot glasses were used for various kinds of Brain Bleach. Any alcohol he served in amounts that small was likely to melt through standard shot glasses. The specialty drinks for dragons needed some extra mumbo jumbo to keep from distorting the glass into its component molecules. Still, they made for a nice change of pace.
There were saké saucers for Gilda and the more oriental visiting loopers, as well as plenty of rice wine to serve in them. Steel mugs for some of the trickier brews. It didn't build up flavor like a cider mug made from the wood of an Apple farmed apple tree, but steel was much harder to set on fire.
And then there was the good old standby. The glass mug. The one that every modern bar in the multiverse stocked. Traditional, time tested, steadfast, slow to change, straight forward, and clear as could be. Big Mac heartily approved of such a thing. They just need a good cleaning and polishing once they were used. Speaking of which, that was exactly what Big Mac was doing. Cleaning and polishing his supply of glass mugs.
It was very easy. The mugs Big Mac stocked were wide enough that he could stick his hoof in them and have room for a washcloth to be wrapped around his hoof at the same time. Grab the mug, stick a washcloth covered hoof in, swipe around 'till it's clean, subspace mug. Change the washcloth if it is getting to dirty to clean with. Then grab the next mug and repeat. It was very repetitive.
'Sorta like the loops,' pondered Big Mac. 'I got who knows how many more to go. I'm gonna most likely do the same thing I always do. I'm mostly not doing it for my sake. I do what I feel needs to be done, when I feel I need to do it, how I feel is best for the most amount of ponies. Errm. Most amount of people. And I'm not planning on changing it up any time soon.'
Placing the the now clean mug into his Subspace Pocket, Big Mac picked up and examined the next mug. The glass had warped quite a tad with age, so it was now much thinner at the top and extremely fatter at the bottom. Big Mac sighed, as he realized would ether have to fix it or replace it. Careful consideration lead to the decision to fix it, because it would be faster overall.
A metal tray came out of subspace and was placed down to protect the wood of the bar top from getting damaged. The warped mug was placed down on the the tray. And then Big Mac started to breath fire on the mug.
The fire was one of the few loop abilities he had actively decided to keep. There was a loop a long time ago where dragons and ponies had switched as the dominant species on Eques. It was not that bad being a dragon, but Big Mac was glad when he was back as a pony. He had come down with a nasty case of scale rot towards the end of that loop, and it wasn't something he wanted to experience again.
The dragon fire was nowhere near the level it could have been. For one, Big Mac never used the ability. It just wasn't needed. Therefore, it had atrophied. On top of that, he was currently not a dragon. This meant he was fueling the fire breath entirely with his normal earth pony magic. It was not as powerful and destructive as it could have been. But Big Mac didn't care. It did a fine job of softening up glass as it was.
Cutting off the fire breath, Big Mac started to reshape the glass. It hadn't gotten hot enough to melt down, just enough that it was somewhat pliable. Earth Pony magic protected his forehooves as they pressed the mug back into shape. Soon it was beginning to cool off. Magic channeled almost instinctively reinforced the glass, rounding out the center again. A bucket of water was pulled from subspace and the mug was dropped into it. Pulling it out, Big Mac was satisfied that the mug was serviceable once again.
Picking up where he left off, both in his work and in his thoughts, Big Mac thought 'And just like in the Loops, when I do change my routine it is a temporary, premeditated change in response to something needing to be done.'
Calmly wiping out the mug in hoof, Big Mac realized something. 'I probably spend way to much time alone with my own thoughts. They tend to wander pretty far.' And then he moved on the next mug.
103.18 (Anonymous Ask, Edited by Detective Ethan Redfield)
"Great Oak Library, I have returned," announced Twilight as she stood in front of her home.
There was a brief moment of silence, before the massive tree spoke, "Twilight, Hast though brought one book and thine oaken shield?"
She held up a copy of the History of Equestria and an ornate shield carved from an oak husk with the forms of the twin sisters on their front. Again, another moment passed as the front of Golden Oaks Library Tree dropped open like a mouth, "Thou may enter, oh brave Twilight, and face the great evil that hast grown more powerful than mine ability to contain."
Twilight shook her head at this loop as she stepped within to face off against Nightmare Moon. Apparently this loop, there were no Elements of Harmony, so she would have to beat the evil out of Luna this time. With things playing out similar to the events of Ocarina of Time from the Hyrule loops, Tirek probably replaced Ganondorf, or maybe vice versa. Either way, this would be interesting.
103.19(TokoWH)
Some loops were weirder than others.
Spyro already had a good idea of the fact that there were other universes out there, and that occasionally loops would fuse together for whatever reason...
But seeing his best friend as a miniature Pegasus was still weird.
Sparx smirked, still glancing over his yellow-furred body. His mane and tail were short and a silver-ish grey, with two tuffs of his mane at the front sticking straight up like his antennas used to. Sparx glanced over to Spyro. "I don't know about you, but so far I'm liking this loop."
"Easy for you to say. You weren't turned into a baby."
Spyro frowned, barely coming up to Sparx's knees as he walked on all fours. At least he could somehow still talk, but being a baby once was already enough for him. The fact that his appearance had got him tackle-hugged by a pegasus earlier that day hadn't helped, either. He was supposed to be one of the Dragon Realm's greatest heroes! A totally awesome dragon all around! He was not supposed to be cute!
Spyro sighed as he looked around the library that was in this hollowed-out tree. There were more multicolored miniature horses everywhere. For whatever reason, a pink one that somehow seemed to be even more hyper than Agent 9 on a sugar rush had insisted on giving them a 'Welcome to our loop!' party. Spyro shook his head. He didn't mind parties, but considering only three people—sorry, ponies—were aware they were looping, he didn't see much of a point, as it only served to confuse most of the non-looping ponies who were there.
"So, how ya'll likin' our loop so far?"
Spyro and Sparx turned around to see Applejack, a brownish-yellow pony with straw-yellow hair in a cowboy hat, standing there.
"Pretty good so far. Took a bit of getting used to with this new body, but I love the fact that other people besides Spyro can understand what I'm saying for a change," Sparx said with a big grin, sitting down.
Spyro still had a flat expression on his face. "Other than being de-aged to a baby, I guess it's been alright so far."
AJ chuckled, giving a wink. "Sorry 'bout that. I'd get RD to age ya'll up, but any dragons older than ah baby tend to cause quite the panic in Ponyville."
Spyro narrowed his eyes before he glanced at the rainbow-maned pegasus in the background. Rainbow Dash had been the first one to welcome Sparx and him to their loop and explain what was going on. Apparently, Sparx had replaced Twilight, this world's Anchor, as the number one student of this world's ruler, 'Princess Celestia', and Spyro had replaced Twilight's assistant, Spike, who was also a baby dragon.
Also, apparently, when awake in one of their loops, most of Twi's friends had long since learned how to become 'alicorns'—which apparently were the demigods of this world in that they had the abilities of all major pony species, as well as massive reserves of magic. Rainbow Dash had accidentally triggered her transformation while she was racing to where they had 'looped in' to make sure they didn't do anything stupid, and was now using an invisibility spell to hide the newly-acquired horn on her head.
She had also told them about what was going to happen today. Apparently, some not-quite-evil but rather misunderstood alicorn named 'Nightmare Moon' would appear later today to try to plunge the world into an eternal night. Spyro shook his head. If it wasn't for the fact that he was a baby at the moment, he'd torch her butt the second she'd appear.
"So, what do you want us to do about this 'Luna' girl?" Sparx asked, glancing over to Applejack.
AJ placed her hoof to her chin. "Well, we've all come up with several different ways 'ah dealin' with her when she ain't loopin', but considerin' ya'll are new here, do you two have any particular ideas?"
Spyro and Sparx glanced at each other before a devious grin appeared on Spyro's face. He looked back at Applejack. "I think I have an idea."
Nightmare Moon yelled in rage at the top of her lungs, but no one in the room could hear her. Thanks to a combination of skills learned from that one loop where Spyro had decided to challenge himself, and a bit of reinforcement from RD's new magical ability, the Mare in the Moon who had attempted to plunge the world into eternal night...was currently trapped in a giant bubble.
Spyro smirked. True, he probably could have come up with something better given time, but considering he was still new to this world, he decided to go with something simple.
Rainbow Dash was laughing her butt off, while AJ was trying her best to suppress a chuckle. "Trappin' her in ah bubble. Ain't nothin' too new, but it is effective."
Spyro snorted out a laugh. It seemed like this loop would be a rather fun one.
Though, he still wished he wasn't a baby for it.