//------------------------------// // L14 // Story: A little loopy. // by FaelaArts //------------------------------// “Sweetie Belle, wake up, it’s time for school!” Sweetie groaned, flicking her eyes open as a blurry room swum into view. Memory fuzzy, she sat up and rubbed her eyes. It had been an extremely uncomfortable night, full of nightmares of falling. Not to mention her bed felt really lumpy. Finally able to look around her room, Sweetie blinked. Various rocks, most small in size, were dumped around her room in a haphazard fashion. In fact, her bed was covered in them. No wonder Sweetie had been having trouble sleeping. Slowly moving the rocks off her bed, she rubbed her forehead and groaned. Not only had she slept badly, she had a splitting headache. Sweetie pulled a piece of paper out of her diary, a book kept under her bed, and folded it into a paper plane. As she began to levitate it, Sweetie held her head and waited for the headache to fade. Once it was gone, she could surely come to terms with what was going on. It didn’t. Sweetie dropped the plane, and slowly levitated her diary up, feeling it lessen slightly. Sweetie glanced to her sides, seeing her saddlebags still on her body. Yet another reason why she had slept horribly. Sweetie dug her two books out of it, levitating them instead. Sweetie sighed, the headache fading away. Finally able to think, Sweetie concentrated, trying to remember how she had ended up in her room. The last thing she remembered was scooting. Sweetie breathed in sharply, throbbing pain enveloping her as she remembered what had happened. Hugging herself, Sweetie sobbed quietly, both from the fact she had died, also dooming Scootaloo to the same fate, and the fact it wasn’t the way out of the loop. “Okay, calm down Sweetie, priorities. What day is it?” Sweetie quickly cast the spell, confirming it was Monday. The start of a loop, death had reset it. Not only that, dying had significantly raised the amount of stuff she had to levitate to keep the headache away. Sweetie bit her lip. Silently, she feared just what ramifications that had. “Sweetie Belle! Don’t make me come up there.” Rarity’s voice called again, jumping Sweetie out of her introspection. Sweetie looked at her bags and sighed. The good news was while death hurt, it wasn’t going to, well, kill her. It also looked like it reset her back in the room, albeit taking whatever was laying around her with Sweetie. That explained why there was a lot of rocks in the room. Standing up, Sweetie headed downstairs. Twilight would probably want to test that, however doing so meant Sweetie would have to restart the loop outside again. Sweetie knew that was something she would never attempt, at least, not now. Sweetie supposed there might be a time she got desperate enough, and shuddered as she sat down. “Sweetie, Twilight says there’s some event happening, and all ponies are ordered to stay indoors. She’s coming by to teleport you to school.” Rarity smiled gently as she placed the pancakes down. Sweetie tilted her head. That was strange, why was Twilight doing that? Was this due to her death? Sweetie mused for a moment, glancing toward her saddlebags. The temptation to see what would happen if Sweetie kept the truth about the loop hidden was strong. This was something that wasn’t going to happen a second time after all. Sure, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo had been hesitant to be near Sweetie, but this was almost like Twilight had seen something. “Why?” Sweetie decided it was best to ask. Rarity paused, and winced. “Well dear, Twilight was up at midnight, and something dreadful happened that only she was awake to witness. She fears it might happen again.” Rarity nodded, satisfied she had avoided saying what to the best of her ability. Sweetie nodded, and resumed eating. There was no doubting it, Twilight had seen the loop resetting. It seemed Twilight was awake when it reset normally, likely reading a book overlooking a window. That meant she would have seen the reset. Sweetie shuddered, knowing full well what had happened to those that had been outside. The good news was they weren’t technically dead. The bad news was, well… “That’s strange, Opal is avoiding you for some reason.” Rarity watched as the cat did indeed give the kitchen a wider berth than normal. Sweetie watched this, and inwardly sighed. Was it wrong she felt nothing about what happened to them? Sweetie shook her head rapidly and forced herself to discard the issue. If she tried to analyse why she felt or did something, she really would go insane. ‘I think I’ll see what Twilight does if I don’t tell her this is a loop. I doubt it will happen a second time.’ Sweetie finished her food and nodded. There was too much unknown about what would happen with this loop. Unknown meant new, and Sweetie was just starting to realise how much she loved new. After all, new meant she hadn’t done it before. And that was good. “Sweetie Belle! You have your Cutie Mark!” Rarity finally noticed Sweetie’s flank, and the filly mentally sighed. It was going to be a long day. ‘Alright, so far, there’s not much change beyond the fact of that ‘stay inside’ that was in the morning. Twilight called it off around midday for some reason. I gotta ask her why today while Rarity’s gone to Manehattan.’ Sweetie descended the stairs, smiling in greeting as she saw Twilight was indeed there. “Twilight, is something wrong with outside?” Sweetie knew she had to be careful with her questions. Twilight would be trying to keep the truth of what happened from her. Sweetie debated just outright telling Twilight. “Apparently not, but it looked like there was when I looked out the window at midnight.” Twilight bit her lip and sighed. The image of those ponies as they...was still in her mind. And yet, Twilight had seen Roseluck in her home the very next morning as she’d warned everypony to stay indoors. Roseluck, Twilight shuddered. No, there was no way a nightmare could be that vivid. Sweetie bit her lip. The way Twilight looked, it was harrowing. It looked like the effect of what Twilight had seen was merely just a small moment of being stuck indoors. Sweetie let her ears flop down and sighed. There was no point, Sweetie had to tell her. Pulling out the letter, Sweetie held it out for Twilight. Twilight was silent for a few minutes after reading it. The only movement she made was handing back the note, and closing her eyes. Sweetie jumped slightly as Twilight turned toward her, opening her eyes once more. Giving a sigh, Twilight lowered her head, wearily looking at the floor. “Why are you telling me this?” Twilight couldn’t doubt the truth on that piece of paper, as much as she wanted to. There was no denying it. “When I loop, time reset’s back to monday at the stroke of midnight. And...well...when ponies are in the same room as me when it resets…” Sweetie trailed off, forcing tears back inside her head. It wouldn’t do to cry right now. “So when I saw a pony that looked like me outside, it was my previous loop self, dying because you were outside for some reason.” Twilight looked toward Sweetie, understanding ticking though her brain quickly. The horror of what she had seen met with truth, and her mind shattered, going blank. “Y-You probably have a draining sensation too…” Sweetie scuffed the ground, shivering as she tried to forced herself to ignore the darkness she had caused. So many lives, so many ponies had been outside when she had...Would they all suffer that effect? Twilight nodded solemnly. “Yeah, there was a draining sensation. I couldn’t find the source of it so I researched a spell designed to stop magic from being taken out of my body, sort of like an invisible shield. The feeling faded the moment I cast it, so maybe the sensation isn’t just a sensation. Maybe you are actually draining the magic of anypony who get’s stuck in the same room with you at the end of the loop.” Twilight sighed, and rubbed her forehead. “Either way, the bad news continues to mount. If you are indeed draining ponies magic, it might explain the headaches. Or it might contradict it, I’ll need to research in the Canterlot Library. There’s not enough time for it this loop however.” Twilight nodded as Sweetie pulled out a folder. Twilight reconised her magic-writing. Turning to some blank pages, Twilight wrote down the new findings, before closing it and handing it back. Then, standing up, she walked over and hugged Sweetie tightly. “It’s okay to cry you know, no one is going to think less of you for doing so.” Twilight closed her eyes and hugged the filly tighter. Sweetie clenched her eyes tight, and let herself finally cry. There was so much to cry about. Sweetie wanted to cry about her death, about those she had just killed, and about her friends. “I just wish I knew why Twilight. Why am I stuck in a time loop? Why does it drain magic?” Sweetie sobbed quietly, distraught on a shattering level. How many lives had she ended? How many fates would have to end before she finally escaped? Star Swirl’s notes hadn’t been helpful in the slightest. None of them listed the exact spell he used to get out. “Maybe we can find that out with a memory spell. It might be you did something that you don’t remember due to the specifics of the spell. I sadly don’t have access to a proper memory spell. I can feed images of memories I have experienced, but I can’t help you remember them. That will have to be something we do next loop. I’ll make a note of it.” Twilight raised her head, and smiled softly at Sweetie as the filly sniffed. “But I suggest you spend some time relaxing after what happened last loop. Play some jokes, learn some magic, do something to heal. You’re stuck in a time loop Sweetie, you need to use that sometimes. Answers can wait a loop or three.” Twilight leaned forward, hugging the filly even tighter. Sweetie smiled warmly. Twilight was right, of course. Sweetie knew that the trip to Canterlot was important, but she so desperately wanted to cry at every moment of the day. Even now, crying as she was, she felt no end to the pain that throbbed in her chest. Sweetie closed her eyes and nodded. Some time off sounded good. Sweetie had been saving up a few good pranks, after all. Answers could wait. After all, you only loop once.