//------------------------------//
// MLP Loops 135 
// Story: MLP Time Loops 
// by Saphroneth 
//------------------------------//

135.1 (Kris Overstreet)

Twilight Sparkle Awoke in the park, but this time she wasn't reading That Book. She was working on a thesis paper of some sort, and Awakening had caused her to lose her thread of reasoning. By juniper, she grumbled to herself, I hate it when this happens. This is so very annoying!

Before she could go back and read what her unAwake self had written, she heard voices from the parkway path, arguing voices.

"And I say the moon is made of rock!"

"The moon is a celestial sphere, a jewel crafted by alicorn hooves!"

"My professor says the moon is made of green cheese!"

Twilight grit her teeth. The previous Loop hadn't been all that relaxing, and she'd dropped into this one in a state of tension only made worse by her mind getting derailed from her current research assignment. I can't concentrate. I need a moment of quiet to organize my mind, and I'm not getting it thanks to this pointless bickering. I cannot WORK under these conditions!

In a flash of teleportation she dropped herself between the three bickering fillies. "QUIET!" she shouted. "Ponies are trying to STUDY out here!"

"Er, Twilight Sparkle," one of the ponies- Twilight didn't particularly care which in her current frame of mind- greeted her. "Um, sorry to disturb you... your... whatever you were doing. We were just leaving, weren't we?" Frightened nods from the other ponies.

"No, no," Twilight insisted. "We're going to settle this once and for all. You want to know what the moon's made of?" Her hooves slowly left the ground as magic sparked and flared from her horn, sending streamers of lightning to the ground and into the bushes around them. "Let's find out from the foremost authority!"

As dark clouds gathered in the formerly clear, sunny summer sky overhead, Twilight Sparkle began chanting:

To Canterlot at the noontime hour
I summon thee with all my power
Thy twisted soul, they wicked hoof,
Thy dragon's eyes shall bear me proof
From thy prison beyond the sky
Where centuries have passed you by
I command thee come and grant my boon:
I invoke thee, NIGHTMARE MOON!

Lightning cracked, thunder shook the ponies gathered, and for a second everyone, even Twilight, was blinded by a flash of light.

And then, the sky again clear, the sun shining, Nightmare Moon sat in a bathtub, scrubbing her back with a brush, and singing something about the more fortunate aspect of a hedgehog's existence as opposed to other creatures. The singing stopped as the last few drops of water trickled out of the now disconnected showerhead.

The Nightmare opened her eyes, looked at the four ponies looking back at her, shrieked, and drew the shower curtain around herself. "How did you bring me here?" she gasped. "WHY did you bring me here? Can't you see I was busy? What do you want that couldn't wait two DAYS?"

"I summoned you here," Twilight growled. "These ponies were arguing about what the moon is. Is it a rock, a made thing, or is it a big lump of cheese?"

Nightmare Moon's eyes narrowed. "You summoned me here for that?" she hissed. "When I get my powers back in two days you're going to be the first-"

"Answer the question." Thunder rolled behind Twilight's command, and as the other student unicorns trembled, even Nightmare Moon leaned back in her bathtub, away from the very annoyed lavender pony.

"It's a rock," she said. "It's a big, barren, airless, dusty rock, made inhabitable only by my magic and a nice little clubhouse I made for myself in happier days." She pointed to the tub and continued, "Do you know how hard it is to get a plumber to make a house call on the moon in this day and age?"

"There," Twilight Sparkle said, "From the Mare in the Moon herself. It's made of rock. Debate over. Satisfied?" Her tone of voice dared anypony to even whisper a word of dissatisfaction.
Her three pony classmates weren't about to go there.

"Very well, my soon to be loyal subjects," Nightmare Moon grumbled. "May I go back now? I have a lot of preparing to do before I defeat-"

"LUNA!"

"-my sister," the Nightmare groaned, slumping in the bathtub as Princess Celestia descended on the group.

"Luna, how did you return two days- are you still the Nightmare? Who- Twilight, what is the meaning of this?" Celestia kept looking back and forth from Nightmare Moon, who looked about as embarrassed as an alicorn mare of ultimate evil can manage, and Twilight, who was finding that Pretty Darn Annoyed had multiple quantum states with no apparent upper limit.

"Delays, delays, delays!" the unicorn mage snapped. "Fine, I'll straighten this out, and then I can get back to my thesis!" Again sparks of magic flew from her horn. Again she rose into the air, not really noticing. This time she didn't bother with a chant, simply summoning five ponies by raw power. They appeared in a quintuple crack of thunder.

"Howdy, Twilight," Applejack said. "Why didn't y'all Ping-"

"You!" Twilight's horn flashed, and five familiar stone spheres appeared in the middle of the group. As her hoof pointed to Applejack, she said, "Equestria's most honest!" One of the spheres cracked, shattered, and reformed into a jewelled choker around Applejack's throat.

"You!" She pointed to Fluttershy, who would have run screaming if she hadn't been Awake, and thus merely flinched. "Equestria's kindest!"

Crack, shatter, magic bauble.

"You! Equestria's most loyal!"

Crack, shatter, bauble.

"Equestria's funniest!"

Crack, shatter, bauble.

"Equestria's most generous!"

Crack, shatter, bauble.

"Great! Love you all! Friends forever! That's magic! Go team!"

Flash, shimmer, jewelled tiara atop Twilight's head.

"Rainbow magic zappy time!" Twilight shouted, as streams of light connected her with five Awake, but very confused, Element bearers.

Zappy happened.

Princess Luna, still in her bathtub, wobbled dizzily, clinging with both forehooves to the rim of the tub. Celestia, not having been touched by the rainbow tornado, was a bit wobbly herself. Jaw moving motionlessly, she pointed a hoof in amazement at Twilight, who was still hovering in the air.

"There!" Twilight shouted. "Nightmare defeated, sister restored, Summer Sun Celebration still on for day after tomorrow, moon composition confirmed, NOW I can get back to my- WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT??" she shouted, veins pulsing on her temples as she noticed everypony gaping at her.

"Twilight, darling," Rarity said quietly, "your wings are showing."

Twilight for the first time noticed she'd ascended, glancing back and forth from one wing to another, then looking down at the growing smile on Celestia's face.

"Awwwwww, buck," she said with feeling.

Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Short Tempers, never did get back to her thesis.





135.2 (Masterweaver)

Fluttershy tripped, hit the ground, and burst into a large pile of yellow and pink lego bricks.

Twilight stared for a few seconds. Then she reassembled her friend. "Are... are you okay?"

"Um... Yes." Fluttershy nodded, blushing. "I could have put myself together eventually... you didn't have to do that."

Twilight nodded to herself, not really listening. "No problem. I've just never see a pony, uh, go to pieces like that." It had to be a variant loop, Fluttershy hadn't given any sign she was awake...





135.3 (DrTempo and Evilhumour)

Sunset Shimmer sighed. She'd heard of this Loop from Cheerilee, who'd met an all alone Nigel Uno.

And she'd Replaced Numbuh Eighty Six. According to her Loop Memories, she was...a jerk. Sighing, she went on her job of gathering Sector V to be 'decommissioned'; she knew it was an evil plot by a KND agent to keep himself from being decommissioned, but best to keep up appearances for the moment.

Chad was in for a buttkicking, though.

Sneaking up behind Nigel, she tried a bit of CQC, which he dodged. "Not bad, Numbuh One. Worthy of the number. Now, how about I throw you for a Loop?" Grabbing him, she swung him around, and tossed him into a tree.

Suddenly, she heard weapons activate behind her. Sector V'd snuck up on her. Cracking her knuckles, she prepared to attack, when Nigel made a hand sign, and all five members of Sector V used a Ping. Sunset laughed. "So, when these guys get their Wake up call?"

Numbuh Four said, "If you mean being part of his whole timey wimey business, all at once."

Sunset smirked. "Why am I not surprised...So, shall we help Chad celebrate his birthday?"

Nigel nodded. "Lead on, miss..."

"The name's Shimmer. Sunset Shimmer."

"Ah yes, one the ponies." Numbuh One smiled, shaking his head as his team started to make their way to hanger. "Thankfully not one of those dreadful conversion bureau loops, if I am correct." He dipped his sunglasses to look at her, probing her for a reaction.

Sunset stopped midstep, fear flowing down her face. "Oh no, I am so sorry, that's a reall-"

"Relax Numbuh Eighty Six," Numbuh Two said, placing a hand on her shoulder before shaking his head. "I mean Sunset. Numbuh One told us the first time it happened and it wasn't all that bad."

"In fact, it was a pretty good loop for my uncle." Numbuh One said. "Time to show our friend T.E.A.M. U.P." He grinned as they turned around, and dove for the couch. "Chad's birthday party can wait, you need to see this."

"Are you sure?" Sunset blinked, surprised to see anyone this eager to show off a CB loop.

"Oh yeah, I'm sure." The bald boy smiled as Numbuh Four pulled out some popcorn from somewhere and started stuff his face as the rest of Sector V claimed their spots. "Besides, we can wreck his birthday a bit later."

"Ok..." Sunset blinked, sitting on the edge of the couch. "So what's T.E.A.M. U.P.?" She asked.

"T.E.A.M. U.P.," Numbuh One smiled as he clicked the play button on the remote. "Totally Epic Adventure Mashup Using Ponies. But for now..."

"Leeeeeeeeeeeet's play!" They all drawled out with a shout as the scene began.





Nigel Uno sighed, unhappy that of all the people to Awake first was his uncle! Not his friends, not his father, not even Lizzie but his uncle!

Shaking his head, he flipped the channels, going past the cartoons of his friends from the Loops (too weird), the Rainbow Monkey channel (too annoying), the news that ponies had made contact (ponies made contact?), a channel-

"WAIT WHAT!?" He shouted, flipping back and seeing with growing horror it was on the dangerous Loops. "Oh no! EVERYONE, OMEGA THREAT LEVEL RED!" He shouted as he started the Treehouse's defenses procedures which he had been upgrading every loop he had the chance to do so. Running past his startled and scared friends, he grabbed the communication console and began to slam in the numbers for the Moon Base.

"Hey, this is a restri-"

"I DON'T FLIPPIN' CARE, WE HAVE A POTENTIAL GRANDFATHER LEVEL THREAT ON OUR HANDS HERE AND IF YOU DON'T GET ME TO SOOPREME LEADER THIS SECOND I SWEAR I WILL COME UP THERE MYSELF AND I DON'T HAVE THE TIME TO DO SO!" Numbuh One shouted into the phone, causing the operative to hide behind his chair as he fumbled for the keyboard to make the connection.

"Hey Numbuh One, these ponies have just created this strange orby thing in the middle of town-"

"Oh no, I hope I am not too late!" Nigel sprinted from the screen to the balcony, hitting the secret panel to activate the magical disruptor. "Please work, please!" He began to pray to himself, watching the damn cursable bubble splinter out of existence. "YES!" He shouted, pumping his arm.

"Numbuh One, can you explain to us what exactly is goin-What are those ponies doing to those people!?" Numbuh Two pointed to the TV screen which showed the ponies flinging the serum against the helpless adults, teens and kids, turning them into ponies.

"Yes, Number One, care to explain to us what is going on?"

Turning his head upwards, Nigel Uno looked up to see a frightful scene. On his tree were five ponies; two pegasi, two normal ponies and one unicorn. The unicorn shook her mane, and walked down the tree branch, her fellow ponies flanking her.

"I only have one thing to say," Nigel stood besides his friends, flexing his ice powers. "KIDS NEXT DOOR, BATTLE STATIONS!"





Numbuh One focused on the unicorn, using his frost powers on her horn first, to weaken her magic control. The pony danced backwards, yelping in shock as her shield clumsily blocked it.

Numbuh Five was focused on the yellow pegasus, using her cane fu and superior fighting styles to block the thrown vials of the serum as well land some blows on the pegasus.

Numbuh Four leaped towards the blue pony with rainbow as her mane, managing to grab her ears and was trying to slide onto her back with some success despite her shouts of protest and attempts to buck him.

Number Two was managing to prove very difficult to lasso, as his 2 x 4 tech was snapping the rope before it got to him.

Which left Numbuh Three alone with the pink one.

Kuki was proving to be a very difficult target to hit but the pink was doing a good job at keeping up.

And then it happened. Numbuh Three slipped on a discarded pizza slice that Numbuh Four had dropped on the floor early that day.

"Time to make you kiddies into proper happy children!" The pink pony giggled as she forced the serum down her mouth.

"NUMBUH THREE, NOOO!!!!!!!!!!!" Numbuh One, Two and Five all shouted as she began to shrink in size, with fur starting to cover her body.

"KUUUUUUUKIIIIIIIII!!!!" Numbuh Four bellowed, losing his grip on his enemy. Seeing the chance, the rainbow mare threw him off into the table with a crash.

"Wa-Wally?" Numbuh Three looked up from the floor to see one of her best friends not moving, laying next to her with his eyes closed. "You...hurt him." She spoke with tears flowing down her face, the serum nearly taking full effect as she reached out to touch him. Suddenly, she sprang upwards, tackling the pegasus out of the sky with fire around her. "NO ONE HURTS MY FRIENDS AND GETS AWAY WITH IT!!!" Numbuh Three declared, all signs of ponyism gone as she began to slug the pegasus down into the ground, back handing the pink pony that tried to sneak up on her into the wall.

"Good job team, let's keep it up here!" Numbuh One shouted, turning his attention back to his enemy, who he had managed to freeze to the ground. "So long as she-"

"What have you done to my friends!?" A voice shouted, and with a pink bling, an unawake Twilight Sparkle entered the scene.





Number One gulped, stepping back from this pony as she used her magic to defrost the unicorn known as Rarity, pulling Numbuh Three off of a badly bruised Rainbow Dash as well as retrieving a knocked out Pinkie Pie. Applejack dashed over to her friends side with Fluttershy hovering weakly by her sides.

"How dare you hurt my friends!" The purple unicorn shouted, her mane starting to catch on fire. "All we are trying to do is bring peace, order and unity to this world, and this how you kids react!?" She brought her horn close to Nigel's face, his entire body started to be coated with ice. "Do you miserable brats have anything to say for yourselves?!"

"Just one thing; SECTOR V SELF DESTRUCT: NIGEL UNO APPROVAL!" He blasted the pony in front of him, knocking her into her friends.

"HOAGIE P. GILLIGAN APPROVAL!" Numbuh Two shouted, already running for the escaped pods.

"KUKI SANBAN, APPROVAL!" Numbuh Three said over her shoulder, trying to help Numbuh Four to his feet while making her own way to the pods when Numbuh Two sprinted back with unseen speed.

"ABIGAIL LINCOLN, APPROVAL!" Numbuh Five shouted, staying beside Numbuh One as she fired against the ponies that were finding their footing.

"Wa-wallabee... Beatles, app-approval." Numbuh Four muttered weakly as the doors to the escaped pods closed around the three friends.

"Self destruct of Sector V approved by Numbuhs One through Five. Self destruct in five." The robotic voice of the base was replaced with sirens and alarms, red flashing lights replaced the normal lighting.

"Numbuh Five, get out of here!" Numbuh One shouted at his number two operative as he rolled to dodge a blast of magic from Twilight, her friends trying to pull away from the soon to be exploding tree house. Nigel responded with an ice blast to her feet, causing her to trip and fall on her stomach.

"No way Numbuh Five is going to leave a kid behind again!" She shouted, ducking a tossed serum bottle.

"Four."

"That's an order!" He shouted as Twilight unleashed a large magical blast that tore straight through the entire Treehouse, with Fluttershy whimpering and Pinkie Pie starting to wake up.

"I said no!" She shouted as she rolled off his back, firing a ball of taffy at Applejack's tail, stopping her lasso tricks for the moment.

"Three."

"Look out!" Nigel shouted, pushing her over as two explosions rocked the tree house.

"Two."

"Numbuh Five?" Nigel tried to see through the smoke, seeing the outline of his friend yanked away.

"One."

"Numbuh Five!" He shouted before something grabbed him with tremendous speed and whisked him out of the tree house. He heard a faint bling and swore he saw the outline of a teleport.

"Zero. Have a nice day."

And then the tree house exploded and Nigel Uno passed out.





Nigel Uno awoke in a semi familiar place. It was a largely undecorated room with a roaring fireplace and a lone chair face it.

Pushing himself away from the wall he was placed against, he walked up to the man he knew would be on the chair.

"Uncle Benn-"

"How many times I told you not to call me that Nigel?" The man coated in black asked him tiredly, turning his head to face his nephew. "You'd think you'd learn after all these loops is that I really don't like that name."

"Uncle Benny," Nigel frowned, as his uncle was Awake but in his depressed state, which only happened Poppy Uno was around. "What happened? What's the situation?"

"The situation?" The man turned his head back to fire before sighing. "We've lost. The adults, the teen and the kids are all trying to fight back but they're picking us off one by one. We've already lost New Jersey to them."

"That's not good." Nigel placed a hand to his chin. "That's more operatives we can afford to lose. Come, we need to start to-"

"Start what?" Benedict Uno asked his nephew. "We've lost! There's nothing we can do to stop them! They're stronger than any of us!"

"So that's it? We get invaded and you just give up?" Nigel leaned closed to the man. "I for one plan to fight on, not stay behind and whimper like some baby!"

Benedict's eye twitched. "What did you just call m-"

Without warning, an explosion was felt as the fireplace and the wall around it was forced inwards at the Uno men. Reacting instinctively, Benedict grabbed his brother's kid close to his chest as he rolled away from the falling bricks. Standing upright with Nigel as the dust settled, he saw two figures that filled him with dread.

One was the second in command of the whole invasion, the personal student to the invader's god like queen Twilight Sparkle.

Next to Twilight was her, in all her unholy glory was the white queen of fire, death and destruction: Empress Celestia.

Again, acting out instinct, he stepped in front of Nigel and tried to stare down the alicorn, but memories of his father echoed loudly in his head.

"What are you doing in my house?" He tried to sound strong but he knew his voice cracked.

"We've come for that boy you are hiding, human." The alicorn didn't even really look at him, as if he wasn't important enough to acknowledge.

"You're not taking him you evil ponies!" He tried to make his shout fear inducing like always, but there was a tremble in his voice.

"And what do you think you are going to do, little one?" She asked haughty, giving off a small laugh.

Benedict Uno blinked, something pricked his brain.

"What did you just call me?" He sneered at the pony, taking a step closer.

"What you are, what all your kind is to me." She took a step forwards, matching his sneer. "Children against a goddess of fire."

Something burned inside of Benedict now, as he clenched his fists.

"Don't call me that!" He shouted, the fire starting to build around his legs.

"I shall do what I please, child. I know better as I am older, bigger and more powerful then you will ever be."

"I SAID, DON'T CALL ME A-" He was roaring now, a fire storm running through entire his house now as he pulled his arm back. "CHILD!"

With burning anger and rage, he punched the white pony across the street and into the house next door. And then the house after that. And the one after that. And five more houses after those did she finally stopped.





Looking upwards, the Empress of the Ponies whimpered from an unknown pain; a pain she never felt before. With a bling, her student was trying to help her stand but when the magic touched her body, she cried out in pain.

"HAH!" Benedict and Nigel Uno landed in front of them, flying with fire and ice respectively. "I was under the impression you were a goddess!" The adult shouted, as he punched the white pony into a lamp post with Nigel keeping Twilight frozen to the ground. "Last time I checked!" He shouted as he rained down fiery punches into Empress of Ponies, before leaning in close to the singed pony. "Gods of fire can't be burned!" Just as he was pulling his fire powers around his fist for a powerful blow, the pony teleported to the side to escape him.

Gasping from the pain and disbelief that a human, of all things, managed to actually burn her, she asked one question to the man.

"Wh-who are you?"

"I AM BENEDICT UNO, LEADER OF THE ALLIANCE OF CONCERNED ADULTS, AND THE TRUE MASTER OF FIRE!" He shouted, moving to stand by his nephew. "AND IF YOU THINK I WILL LET YOU FREAKING PONIES TURN US ALL INTO ONE OF YOUR FREAKY NO SOUL MONSTERS, THEN IT'S TIME TO FEEL MY REAL ANGER!" The alicorn whimpered out of instinct as the man had brought memories back of her own stern father, yelling and brow beating her and Luna in the ground.

"N..no." She stuttered out. She was afraid of the man that managed to use fire to hurt her but she would not back away from her mission to bring Harmony to the universe. This proved that the humans needed Harmony to get rid of their warlike and dangerous ways. "You two think you can stand against me, my student and my little ponies alone?" She asked, regaining some confidence as she felt and heard her army start to gather behind her.

"That's where you're wrong lassie!" With a shout of surprise, an overweight human jumped down between the man and child. "You mess with one Uno, you mess with all of them!" The man smiled a wicked smile. "Numbuh Zero, recommissioned and reporting for duty, sir!"

"As the rest of the Kids Next Door Numbuh One!" The voice of the Soopreme Leader said, with more operatives coming to stand alongside Uno, crowding around him with their best 2 x 4 technology armed and aimed at the ponies.

"Don't forget us, you ungrateful brats." Mr Boss said, stepping to stand along with man that called himself Father as more adults grouped around him, with some moving to stand in front of the children as if to protect them.

"Or us," Cree frowned, with the teenagers standing behind Monty Uno, sneering viciously at the ponies.

The Uno men flashed either other a grin, nodding their heads.

"KIDS NEXT DOOR!"

"ALLIANCE OF CONCERNED ADULTS!"

"TEENAGERS!"

"ATTACK!"

With a mighty roar, the battle that would see the buttwhopping of the invading ponies and the end of the hostilities between adults, teens and kids began.





After Sunset watched the tape, she was shocked, to say the least.

"I've seen Xelly get whooped a lot..but THAT was impressive. To think, you guys are relatively new to the Loops. Remind me never to anger any of you unless I'm sure I can win the inevitable fight. Now, shall we say Happy Birthday to Chad? I mean, I get the whole 'undercover' business, but he could've bowed out gracefully. Let's go!"

"Indeed." Nigel leaned to whisper in Sunset's ear. "By the way, Father hasn't had any Fused Loops yet. All baseline." He lowered his glasses again and stared at her right in the eyes to drive the threat home. He then turned to his friends, smiling again. "Ok team, let's go wish a happy birthday to our friend Chad."

End Transmission





135.4 (Kingofsouls)

Twilight grumbled as she entered Carousel Boutique, a sour expression showcasing itself. Rarity bit her lip as she approached her friend. "Bad Loop Twilight?"

"Soap Opera Loop, and believe me it was one of the worst." Twilight moaned. "I really need a drink badly, and guess what? Big Mac and Berry aren't Awake."

This caused a confused Rarity to ask "Wait, both Big Mac and Berry?"

"..Yes..."

"Well, then if Big Mac isn't Awake, and Berry Punch isn't Awake, " mused Rarity "then who opened the bar?"





The bar in question was simply put well hidden. It looked exactly like any other house in Ponyville, save for a silver flute carved into the establishment's sign. Twilight opened the door, ringing to announce her arrival. She was greeted to the interior of a simple bar lined with tables and stools. Behind the bar was a single Earth Pony, silver fur and orange-ish red mane wearing a black cape. His cutie mark was a circle with a segment of sheet music in neon green.

He was currently cleaning several glasses via what appeared to be magic, strumming a lyre made of wood, coating the glasses in green sparkles. The bartender looked at his guest with green eyes. "Good morning. Welcome to the Silver Flute. Can I help you."

"Why yes." Twilight answered. "I need a strong drink, something recent caused me to be a little Loopy."

"A Looper then." He strummed his lyre, bottles of alcohol floating to assemble a drink. " Any preferences?"

"Strong. Really Strong."

The requested drink was quickly made Twilight gulping it down like water. "Hey, that's really good."

"Thank you. I was a bartender before my destiny found me. An incredibly useful talent indeed. The bartender replied. "For such a colorful word, your alcohol is pretty potent. Another?"

Twilight nodded as the bartender started to maker her a twin of the previous drink. "Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. Twilight Sparkle, and I'm the local Anchor for this Loop."

"Symphonic Void is my name. I think." The bartender put a hoof to his chin, thinking hard. "Sorry, this is the first time my memories are telling me what my name is. It is a little awkward."

"Don't worry, you'll get used to it."

"In regards to my true name, it is Anthony Drake. I prefer to be called by my hero name, the Argent Adept, Virtuoso of the Void."

"That...sounds familiar." Twilight mused before she discarded that thought and moved to another. "I'm not sure if you know this or not, but Equestria is a Sanctuary Loop. If you don't do anything too reckless, dangerous, or any combination of the two, then you can simply relax and take a vacation."

"I will keep that in mind when my nemesis comes by." Argent strummed again as more bottles flew, this time fixing himself a drink.

"I take it there's a backstory there."

"I come from a loop of superheroes." Argent explained. "And we loopers have noticed that when we travel to other Loops, our Nemesis tends to follow. Thankfully none of them are Looping. "

"So, how bad?"

The Argent Adept then pulled out a tiny box, and a silver remote with a large light. Pushing the button, he fired a beam at the box. It instantly grew in size until it was no longer abnormally small.

Twilight was impressed. " A shrink Ray?"

"Indeed. Our Anchor though of the idea." Argent explained. "He figured, if he couldn't make a larger Subspace Pocket quickly, then he would instead make the things he wanted to put in it smaller. Thus, he got our local super scientist to build a shrink ray."

"Impressive thinking." Twilight took a closer look at the box. "Sentinels of the Multiverse?"

"Would you like to play a game?" grinned the Virtuoso





135.5 (KingOfSouls and Kris Overstreet)

"A bar?"

Two part-time mixmasters, one the owner of the current bar already full of generally quadrupedal Looping clientele, the other a Looper visiting Equestria from a minor superhero world, stared in disbelief at the being asking the question.

"Yes." C-3PO replied. "I was wondering how one would go about developing such an establishment."

"My first piece of advice is to get reinforced tables and chairs." The Argent Adept answered. "Bar fights happen frequently, especially where I am from. "

Big Mac silently nodded. That was a good piece of advice, though brawls in his bar were thankfully rare. Being a larger than average pony in the first place, capable of becoming a green gamma-irradiated musclebound monster five times his original size, discouraged such nonsense.

On the other hand, the magical and technological mayhem cost a lot more to repair than simple fighting ever would...

"You will also need at least one, and preferably more than one, competent servers," Argent continued. "Particularly beings with well-developed social skills and a high level of empathy."

"That should present no problem," Threepio replied. "My counterpart R2-D2 has repeated experience as a serving droid, and my databanks can be easily supplemented with knowledge of over a billion drinks recipes."

"Bein' a bartender's 'bout more'n mixin' drinks," Big Mac said. "Any machine can make drinks with th' right programmin'. But a bartender's there to provide a personal touch."

"Oh, I am, as they say, all about the personal touch!" C-3PO said eagerly. "My primary function, as you well know, is interpersonal relations! I live to serve!"

"Riiiight," Big Mac drawled. "Th' thing is, when Loopers come inta bars, they're there for one'a two reasons. Either they're lookin' ta relax or have fun, or they're tryin' ta kill some kinda pain. A good bartender knows how to tell which is which, an' how ta get th' second kinda customer ta let go'a their pain an' get it outta their system."

"I believe I see your meaning," Threepio said primly. "I confess the specific protocol of such matters escapes me, however."

"Th' first lesson," Big Mac continued, "is that customers don't want a nosey, pryin' barman, 'least not at first. Once you're friends with a customer they'll accept a question like, 'How ya been?' But when someone comes inta that door for th' firs' time with a lot on their mind an' a powerful thirst, ya can't try an' put 'em on th' psychiatrist couch right off. Ya gotta wait until they open up, listen, let them do th' talkin'."

"Seems perfectly simple," Threepio said. "I believe I shall have no trouble applying that particular lesson."

Big Mac looked around and silently noted that, on this matter, the droid was the only believer in a large room full of atheists.

"How 'bout we put it to th' test?" he said, lifting the gated section of the bar and waving Threepio in with one hoof.

"You mean now?" Threepio asked. "I would be most gratified, but are you sure I'm ready?"

Nope. "We'll see," Big Mac said. "Firs' customer through that door, she's yours, right?"

"Very good, Master MacIntosh," Threepio agreed.

The next Looper into Mac's Bar, as it happened, was Chrysalis, looking grumpy. Big Mac noted that Trixie wasn't Awake this Loop, and neither were Cadence and Shining Armor, a combination that tended to get the changeling queen depressed at the best of times.

No sooner had the changeling stepped up to the bar than the tall bipedal protocol droid wobbled up to her. "Good evening, madam!" he said with a sprightly, hopeful tone. "I am C-3PO, human-cyborg relations, and I shall be your server tonight. I note by your demeanor that you are experiencing unpleasant feelings, but do not worry! It will be my pleasure to assist you in any way to make your evening more enjoyable, by serving you drinks, by listening to your troubles, and by providing sage advice, comfort, and even the occasional bit of witty banter! Would you like to begin by describing in detail the causes of your current negative mood, perhaps over a delightful glass of Altair water?"

The changeling raised an eyebrow and stared at the shiny droid for several seconds. Then she switched eyebrows and stared a bit more before saying, "Hydrospanner, please."

"Ah, I know that one," Threepio said. "The popular cocktail known as a hydrospanner is made from equal parts vodka and-"

"Not the drink. The tool," Chrysalis hissed.

"Ah. I beg your pardon, ma'am," Threepio asked, "but why would you want that?"

"A talking golden trash can has somehow snuck behind Mac's bar," she said slowly and distinctly, "and I plan on shutting it up."

Threepio hobbled around in a little circle. "I do beg your pardon, ma'am, but I don't see any talking golden-"

His photoreceptors happened to pass over a mirror on the wall. In his processors, the circuit closed.

"Oh. Oh my."

"I'll get you your usual in a minute, Chrys," Big Mac said, taking Threepio's elbow in one hoof and guiding him away from her.

"I am so sorry, Master MacIntosh," Threepio moaned.

Argent shook his head at the flustered droid. "I think you may need to observe first before you try again."

"That does sound like a simple idea, but simple observation may not yield the results I desired," Threepio moaned.

"You sound like you expected to nail it the first try." Argent sampled his drink, one that rivaled the drinks he made, and continued. "A wise man once said you learn more when you fail than when you succeed. I suggest you review what you did, then see what you did wrong, then next time...try again. And keep trying until you get it."

"I only wish I knew where I went wrong!" Threepio sighed. "My programming says I followed the correct protocol to the letter. It appears bartender protocols are rather more difficult than I thought."

"Eyup," Big Mac agreed, kindly but firmly walking Threepio back out from behind his bar.





135.6 (Kris Overstreet)

A pink pony with a slightly poofy blonde mane sat on a hilltop, looking at her fully inflated hot-air balloon, then looking back at her copy of Flying For Jackasses, then back to the balloon. The moment she'd seen the royal guards from Canterlot delivering one to the new librarian at the Golden Oaks, she'd doubled her odd-jobs schedule, putting every bit she earned (except for what she spent on enough cherries to put at least one on every item breakfast, lunch and dinner) towards the purchase of her own. Surprisingly, it had only taken a couple weeks, thanks to the generosity of Ponyville.

Burner tanks full? Check. Sandbags in basket for ballast? Check. Lunch? Check. Bucket for certain emergencies? Check. Megaphone to hail passing pegasi in case of trouble? Check. Flight helmet and goggles? She pulled them out of a shopping bag and carefully fit them atop her head, chin strap left open. They felt so very right there, like she had been incomplete without them. Double check.

Weather conditions? She checked the Ponyville weather schedule: continued wind from the southwest at ten knots, freshening to twenty as a warm summer front with gentle showers was brought up from Las Pegasus to allow the cacti to bloom in the Badlands. No rain scheduled in Ponyville or anywhere east until day after tomorrow earliest. The morning fog had burned off over the Everfree, leaving that untamed forest surprisingly quiescent weather-wise.

So- checklist all GO. Time to embark and cast off.

The mare had two legs in the basket when she heard the loud whirring sound, like somepony twirling a rock tied to a string over their heads. She piled back out of the basket and dashed out from beneath the canopy, looking up in the sky just in time to see another pink earth pony, one everyone in Ponyville, absolutely everypony, knew by first name. She was pedaling some kind of contraption with gears and chains linking the pedals to a great big propeller above her head and a smaller one hung from a latticework tail behind her. Grinning, not noticing the balloon below, Pinkie Pie pedaled her way up, up, up and away into the clouds.

The blonde-maned pink pony's teeth clenched.





It had taken two months of twenty-hour days without rest, between the double-shift odd jobs, weekends part-timing at Hay Burger, using the now-pointless balloon for occasional paid joy rides or aerial photography, and nights spent almost until dawn reading books on metalworking, structural engineering, and fluid mechanics. The easiest part of the whole thing had been buying Pinkie's original contraption; the party pony had let her have it for a song.

Now, helmet and goggles back on her head, the blonde-maned mare admired her cherry-tinted, heart-motif carriage of the skies. One ponypower would be more than sufficient to take to the air, despite the added weight of the superstructure, even with a passenger. (Even so, she'd included a second pair of pedals just in case.)

She had mounted to the saddle and put rear hooves to pedals when the soft buzzing sound she'd heard most of the morning became a loud roar.

A shadow flitted across her craft, followed by another, then by another. She looked up to see three things that looked half like box kites, half like clotheslines full of sheets, fly overhead and climb into the skies. Silhouetted against the sun for one brief moment, each looked like a strange bird caught in mid-flap, except for the blurred circle of the propeller pulling each along. Seated just behind the wings on each craft, wearing no helmets or safety gear of any kind, were three extremely familiar little fillies. One chasing the other through the skies, the fragile, swift craft dove, swooped, banked and twirled through the late summer air.

The blonde-maned pink pony beat her head against her helicopter's windshield.





The last leaves were falling, and the chill of winter winds tried to push her way through the plush-lined flight jacket the pink mare had added to her helmet and goggles.

It had taken all fall. It would have taken longer, except many of her most common odd-job givers had looked into her bloodshot eyes, shook their heads, and paid double the wages just to send her home. (She'd promised them she'd go straight to bed. She'd lied.) Most of the expense had come from experiments with engines, as the Cutie Mark Crusaders had denied all knowledge of those strange craft or their motive power source. Steam had been a disaster, and magic motors wouldn't store enough power for any but the shortest of flights. Eventually she'd had to consult Pinkie Pie, who had coerced her into two days of uninterrupted sleep followed by a crash course in the internal combustion engine, as powered by a combination of the old oil from Hay Burger and ancient shortening from Sugarcube Corner.

Her new craft required a large flat meadow for takeoff, and the only one available was on Sweet Apple Acres. Granny Smith had given her permission, and the cows had graciously allowed her to store the craft in their barn while it was under construction.

It was now or never, or at least not until spring. Cloudsdale had scheduled a particularly severe winter this year, and the snows for the Hearth's Warming Eve celebrations were already building up north of Vanhoover.

Her hoof had just left the choke knob and shifted over to the electric starter switch when she noticed the air shimmering directly above Sweet Apple Acres. She climbed out of the cockpit and stared with shock into the air as an immense craft shaped like an apple with a big blue window built into it, surrounded by a thin wooden Saturn's ring, blurred out of invisibility and into cold, hard existence. In complete defiance of the laws of physics the giant ship hovered above the farmhouse for a minute or two, then nosed up to the heavens and gradually but inexorably accelerated away, eventually vanishing in a sonic rainboom on the edge of sight.

The existential scream that clawed its way from the deepest part of the pink pony's soul and out through her throat broke thirty windows in Ponyville and could be heard from the balconies of Celestia's palace in Canterlot. A certain statue cracked and some bits fell off, but its occupant, who had been planning a truly epic prank for five Loops now, splashed the bits with crazy glue and pulled them back onto itself.





Pinkie Pie pushed the trembling, wild-eyed pink pony with the tangled blonde mane into the middle of the library's main reading room, under the gaze of the other five Elements of Harmony. "I caught her trying to break into the Mirror Pool cave," she said, for once completely serious and solemn. "I didn't know the problem was this bad, or I'd have brought her to you sooner."

Twilight Sparkle looked at Cherry Berry, the cherry-loving, non-Looping town aviatrix of Ponyville. Normally the mare was among the more positive citizens of the town, always willing to lend a hoof, but this Loop's version was in the throes of a nervous breakdown. "What's the matter?" she asked.

"Cherry Berry lives for two things in life," Pinkie said. "She loves cherries, and she longs to fly. She works with a smile because she knows the money she makes lets her take her hooves off the ground. But this Loop, every time she's about to do it, one of us stomps on her dream with a size 5,184 lead horseshoe. She doesn't just want to float. She wants to fly. She wants to soar."

"And Applejack taking Shojiki- a starship of incomprehensible power to an earth pony- out for a picnic cruise to the next galactic arm over, in full sight of her, was what pushed her over the edge?" Twilight asked.

"She keeps seeing what she can't have, Twilight," Pinkie nodded sadly. "You know, it's easy to forget sometimes that our shenanigans aren't always private things. She won't remember any of this next Loop, but that doesn't make her feel any better now. And I think we're kinda responsible for it."

For a couple minutes the Element Bearers sat in silence, while the non-Looping pony in their midst, still trembling, stared from one to another in total incomprehension.

"I think I got an idea," Rainbow Dash said. "We can give her a gift. It is that time of year, after all."

The other Loopers in the room nodded, listening intently to Dash.

"Twilight, we're gonna need to modify Starswirl's last spell," she continued. "And I think we have a full second set of Elements, what with the Crusaders being Awake and others. That's good, because we're gonna need all the power we can push into this one..."





Cherry Berry awoke from a sound sleep as the last sunrise of autumn peeked through a narrow gap under the heavy cloud blanket of Hearth's Warming Eve snow. She worked her way out of the nest of blankets and tarps that separated her from the hilltop below and the chilly air around her.

Without really thinking about it, she focused magic through her horn and pulled her flight goggles off her helmet and onto her eyes. The same magic carefully buckled the chin strap under her muzzle.

She stretched her wings out, first her left, then her right, shaking them to realign any that had become mussed or tangled in her sleep.

The earth pony spared no thought for the fact that, for no apparent reason, she now had a horn and wings. It was good and right that she had these things. It was her destiny, as the cherries with planetary rings around them and a rainbow-colored contrail behind them showed.

It was morning, and that meant it was time for her pre-breakfast flight.

One beat of her wings took her above the clouds.

The second beat of her wings took her above the atmosphere.

A certain part of her mind, memories which if examined would obviously not have been anything she could ever have experienced in her life, told her to do this and this and this with her magic, and the third beat of her wings struck the fabric of the universe and pushed her beyond the limits of general relativity.

And through her goggles, the blonde-maned, pink-bodied alicorn saw the stars fall past her like Hearth's Warming snow.





"I gotta haul GARBAGE!" Rainbow Dash moaned to Lyra, who was accompanying Bon-Bon on the latter's rounds clearing away the refuse from Hearth's Warming Day; trash bags full of wrapping paper, table scraps from feasts, and that sort of thing. Rainbow Dash, the fastest earth pony alive, pulled a second cart alongside Bon-Bon's, obviously not thrilled by the experience.

"It was your idea, Dashie," Lyra pointed out. "And Twilight is pretty sure your abilities will revert in the next Loop. If they don't, she says duplicating your Ascension conditions should be enough to get them back."

"Yeah, but... garbage!" Rainbow Dash pointed behind her at her cart.

A shadow soared slowly overhead, and the ex-pegasus, the non-Looping earth pony and the multiple-personality unicorn looked up to see an immense garbage wagon being towed slowly though the sky by a pink-bodied, yellow-maned alicorn wearing an old aviator helmet with goggles pushed above her horn. The smile on her muzzle screamed happiness and contentment.

"But I guess it was worth it," Rainbow admitted. "For one Loop, anyway. Besides, it was my idea."

And the fastest filly in the universe, for the next four years or so anyway, soared along on her rounds, with two more odd jobs to take care of before her pre-dinner flight around Antares.





135.7 (Detective Ethan Redfield)

Twilight sat down at a bar, rubbing her head and muttered, "A triple espresso, also Genocide by Toffee if you would."

Mac nodded, "Rough loop?"

Twilight rested her head against the counter and muttered, "No, just a strange dream. In it, Derpy Hooves rode into town on a Velociraptor wielding a nuclear rocket launcher while declaring freedom from Celestia's Tyranny during the Night of the Summer Sun Celebration."

Human Lyra, riding Pony Lyra, stepped out the bar door, "You have some strange dreams, Twilight."

Next to Twilight, Applebloom fiddled with her latest sonic screwdriver. The driver suddenly hummed, blowing up a quarter of Mac's counter. Mac just shook his head and tapped his hand on the counter, causing the wood counter to grow and repair itself like the accident never happened. Then the bartender set the espresso in front of Twilight along with a plate of sweets that would be considered 30 percent under the lethal dose of sugar, "Maybe you should take a break...go see the world again, rule the griffons or somethin.'"

Twilight nodded as she wolfed down the drink and started on the treats.





135.8 (Vulpine Fury)

"Oh, moth-er! I'm ho-ome!" Scootaloo caroled gleefully as she walked into her home for this Loop. She loved relatively baseline Loops where she had both parents. She still wasn't sure if her mother this time was a visiting Looper or not, but she'd replaced Pinkie Pie as the Element of Laughter. The house was spotlessly clean, and almost reminded her of the too-perfect homes in movies and, when Equestria had them, on TV shows.

She sniffed, and recognized the smell of burnt starch and linen. "Mom?"

A pale cream mare with the curliest, most vibrant red mane poked her head sheepishly out of the kitchen. "Yes, Scootie?" Loopty Loo absently blew out a tuft of her mane that had been on fire.

Scootaloo gave her current mother a flat stare. "You burned Dad's shirt while ironing it again, hm?"

"Oh, LOOP-tyyyy, I'm ho-ome!" Her current father, Babalu, caroled as he came in the back door, before he caught sight of the ruins of the frilly shirt he needed for his show that night. "Loopty... you have some 'splainin' to do!"

Loopty's overwrought cringe and cry almost made Scootaloo feel bad for wanting to laugh, until Loopty pulled out another, perfectly fine frilly shirt that she'd stashed around the house for frilly shirt emergencies.





135.9 (Kris Overstreet)

Twilight Sparkle's first thought, after Awakening to see herself surrounded by clanks and jagermonsters, was, Back here again?

This would make the third time she'd visited this alternate Europa. The first time had been an exercise in frustration, even with very nearly all her Looping friends joining her. The second time, alone but armed with foreknowledge and full access to her out-of-Loop abilities, had gone much more to her own satisfaction.

Since then she'd found the Hub backup material, a series of comic graphic novels- comedy! COMEDY!- and read them thoroughly, just in case. In all honestly, they'd been a very good read, and Twilight thought she might have enjoyed them if she'd found them before having to live through the hell of actually being IN the thing.

And yet... this third visit was different. She looked down at herself in her severe but expensive black clothing. She looked at the young woman with midnight-black hair and a bored expression next to her. She looked at the trail of minions, toadies and lackeys trailing her, flanked by the aforementioned robots and jagers.

And she looked ahead, noticing that absolutely no one was actually walking in front of her except two jagermonsters clearing a path through the streets of Beetleburg for her and her entourage.

Oh my larch,she thought, I'm the Baron this time.

The Loop memories came quick and fast. Barona Twilight Funkelbach, highly enlightened despot of a third of Europa and friend to as much of the rest of the continent as would stop shooting at one another, had managed to keep an uneasy peace for fifteen years. The young woman with her was Nyx, her daughter... who showed not a glimmer of awareness of her Ping. Her unAwake self had managed to do better than the baseline Baron Wulfenbach, in that a few rulers in Europa actually existed who weren't murderous, backstabbing, callous/insane psychopaths held in line solely by fear.

But she still wore black, mourning missing friends.

And now she stood at the gates of Transylvania Polygnostic University, prepared to conduct a surprise inspection that would inevitably conclude with discovering the horrible atrocity of war that Professor Beetle, ruler of the city, thought was his second closest guarded secret.

Which meant somewhere around here there was an Agatha Heterodyne, the young woman she'd replaced her first two trips. Whatever else happened the rest of the Loop, Twilight desperately wanted to meet her.

Twilight cut short the impromptu ceremony at the gates. Professor Beetle and his senior assistants never got in a single complete sentence. Twilight wanted to see Beetle's personal lab, and what the Barona wanted, she got. To try to soften her high-handed demands, she sent a couple of lackeys to fetch tea and scones so she could have a comfortable chat with her old teacher... in his personal lab, right now, I insist.

And there she was, in the lab, just shoving a closet door shut with her back- a smiling blonde woman with glasses-

No. No glasses. And crossed amber eyes.

"And this is my personal student," Beetle continued, "Desiderata Clay." In a softer voice he confided, "Please be understanding. She was robbed of her locket this morning and is still a bit, er, traumatized, poor girl."

Twilight barely heard. She was too busy watching the young woman step away from the closet, one hand lingering on the knob.

Of course the knob came off in her hand.

"Whoops! Excuse me!"

Of course she slid it back in and jiggled it to see if it was back in place.

Of course the contents of the closet- which could only have fit inside by serious violation of the law that two objects cannot occupy the same point in spacetime- exploded out of the closet, showering everyone EXCEPT Desiderata- jagers, clanks, even her daughter- with lab equipment.

"Oops! My bad!"

"Derpy," one of Beetle's assistants said, "please help pick this stuff up. Carefully."

"Yes, sir!" The young woman leaned forward to grab something, then noticed it was the arm of the clank that had been standing closest to the closet. "Oops! Looks like I broke your clank, ma'am!" she said. "But don't worry! I can fix that!"

I can fix that.

Twilight thought those four words, coming from Derpy Hooves' mouth in baseline, could not be any more terrifying. Oh, how wrong she was.

Please, please, please, she thought, let her not remember this Loop. Let her not pick up the Spark... oh, who am I kidding? First she replaces Doctor Doom, and now this. Next time she's Awake I better be ready to save Ponyville from automatic muffin-baking machines.





135.10 (masterofgames)

Lyra wandered into the Twibrary (TM) on unusually unsteady legs, speeding up and slowing down seemingly at random, bumping into things, and almost constantly on the very edge of losing her balance. "Left, turn LEFT! No, right front leg, THEN left hind leg! I'm trying, this isn't as easy as it looks! Brake, BRAKE! Okay, that's it! Move over, I'LL take the forelegs! Maybe you'll do better manning the horn." she babbled.

Twilight slowly lowered her book, glancing over the top from her favorite chair. "... Do I even want to know?"

Lyra glanced over. "Oh, hey Twilight! I'm just - No! Don't look away! I can't see where I'm aiming the legs! AAAHH!" she yelped, finally tripping and landing face first, thankfully on the rug and not the hardwood. "Ugh, that's it. Nobody touch anything until I finish with Twilight. All mikes off guys. We don't need any interruptions. Just one talking at a time." she groaned, twitching.

Twilight merely raised an eyebrow.

"Ugh... okay. Long story short, Science Me got the idea to build a cockpit in my head, Power Rangers style, so we could all pilot the body like a mecha." Lyra sighed, lying awkwardly motionless on the floor.

"A work in progress I'm guessing?"

"Yep. Starting to think the old way we had was better personally, but we promised to give it a shot." Lyra confirmed.

A moment later, her stomach grumbled loudly. "Ugh, Sweet Roll, we told you to keep an eye on the fuel levels!" she scowled, the effect being rather wasted at the potted fern she was facing.

Twilight rolled her eyes. "Any particular reason you're here?"

"Yeah, can you tell Bon-Bon we aren't nuts?" Lyra asked as Twilight levitated her to her feet once more.

"You just referred to yourself as 'we', you let one of the voices in your head renovate the inside of it, and you broke the universe once. You ARE nuts Lyra."

"Well yeah, but that doesn't mean Bon-Bon has to know!"

"... I'm going back to my book."

"Aww! Twilight! Come on! Please?"





135.11 (masterofgames)

Twilight had been once more interrupted from her reading when Vinyl had run up to her tree, waving a poster at her through the window and looking worried. Now she was once more unable to resume her book until whatever the problem was had been solved, which was why they were both looking carefully at the unrolled poster for one of Octavia's concerts.

"I just don't get it! 'Tavi is one of the most uptight, prim and proper ponies I know, so why the R rating for her next big show?" Vinyl asked, gesturing to the content advisory label on the poster's corner.

Twilight did not respond, too busy muttering to herself and going over every inch of the poster with a magnifying glass.

A short while later, Twilight had her findings on a whiteboard and was reviewing them for her. "The first clue was the number of musicians." she said as she gestured to the picture on the poster with a collapsible presentation stick. "They amount to much more than the usual for her groups. If you'll look closely however, all the extra seats are in one place, the string section! All the other sections have the same number as usual."

Vinyl nodded. "Okay, I see it."

"Furthermore," Twilight continued. "all the extra seats are in the back, meaning the smaller instruments."

"... So?" Vinyl asked, head tilting slightly.

Twilight floated her stick in front of her and closed it with a sharp click, one eye twitching slightly. "It means, beyond all shadow of a doubt, that there is only one reason for the rating! The symphony is rated R for needlessly excessive violins. Now, if you'll excuse me, I am going to get a drink. And then read everything. I'm not sure when I'll stop. I'll let you show yourself out."





135.12 (Detective Ethan Redfield)

Another loop had come with no one else responding to the ping, meaning she was the only one awake. This loop, however, was frustratingly odd. It seemed Mayor Mare was more bureaucratic than most loops...enough that it made the Vogons look like the public relations committee. She had to sign document after document for every occurrence. Nightmare Moon was not immune, though the Mayor nearly died trying to get the diarch to pay a thousand years of back taxes for renting the moon. An equitable solution was reached that Luna would pay half her 'newly founded' kingdom to Celestia and the two would rule the Lunar Republic jointly as princesses (Celestia got all the troublesome Nobles during day court).

Apparently, the Mayor had been doing so since her inception as Mayor. Every morning, the citizens of Ponyville would be served a new round of paperwork that would need to be signed, since, according to the Mayor, Bureaucracy stops for no pony!' Admittedly, it did make their lives easier, especially since it kept many of the more troublesome visitors out of town. Further, it made taxes dirt cheap what with all the loopholes.

With Derpy's arrival, Twilight just rolled her eyes as she signed the sheets, not even bothering to look at them. She thought nothing of it until the next day, when Mayor Mare showed up at Twilight's front door, looking confused, "Miss Twilight, why did you not show up?"

Confused, Twilight asked, "Uh, show up for what?"

This was new. Mayor Mare sighed and replied, "Didn't you read the paperwork yesterday? No matter, there was a clause for the event to take place the day after if the champion failed to appear. Come with me."

Now curious, Twilight followed the Mayor to the outskirts of town, only to pause. Grinding her teeth slightly, she looked at Mayor Mare with a deadpan expression and muttered, "How long has Dash been planning this?"

The Mayor gave a small grin, "Since you beat her that one loop. And don't even think about backing out. Some of the earlier paperwork included you returning to racing. Should you back out now, it would be an automatic forfeit, including banishment to the moon with Luna's assistance."

Twilight shook her head and turned away from the stealth looper back to the other Element Bearers. All of them had ascended and were stretching in preparation for their rematch. Luna, Celestia and Cadence, none of whom were awake, were there too with racing numbers. The three princesses shared baffled looks. The racers stood under the banner that sported large letters:

Fastest Alicorn Racer in Equestria Championship