//------------------------------// // MLP Loops 151 // Story: MLP Time Loops // by Saphroneth //------------------------------// 151.1: (Evilhumour) "Thor?" "Yes Sleipnir?" "I have a question for you, dear cousin." The Admin's eye twitched as they watch the loop around them. "Go ahead and ask, dear cousin," Thor answered a bit nervously, wincing as another building exploded in the distance. "How did Derpy pick up your hammer?" Sleipnir ducked as the grey mare flew over ahead, holding the mystical hammer in her hooves. Thor stood up and brushed the grass from his body. "I'm fairly sure that it is quite obvious; the looping maiden has proven herself worthy enou-" "She's not Awake right now!" Sleipnir shouted as a massive bolt of lighting almost hit them. "Ah." Thor blinked, and looked at his uncle’s second son. "I have no clue then." Sleipnir could only facehoof like a horse with four front hooves could do. “This is your fault,” Thor added. “How?” Sleipnir asked. “I mean, I only invited you to have dinner with us somewhere I like. You’re the one who hung Mjolnir on the coathook…” “I saw it in the Marvel loops…” Thor muttered. 151.2: (Evilhumour) Twilight Sparkle face twitched, her mane springing out in every direction. It had seemed like an almost perfect baseline Loop until this moment. "Well, I am sure we can find another place for you Miss Sparkle," the pony opposite of her said slowly, watching the scared reaction of the other ponies around her and the terrified princesses. "Maybe I can take you on as an assistant and let you stay in the guest room?" "I-I..." Twilight Sparkle shook her head, gulping a bit. "Thank you, but I'm sure that I can find my own place to work here, Miss Page Turner." She hated to say this next part. "I feel that if I did so I'd be overstepping my bounds if I do so." It pained her to say that. Turning her head to Celestia, she sighed internally. "Princess Celestia, if you don't mind, I would like to stay with my new friends until I find my place here in Ponyville." "Of course Twilight," the Princess smiled, seeing how close Twilight was to snapping. "But I don't think you should dismiss Miss Turner’s offer so quickly. You might find working in a library to be enjoyable." Grinding her teeth, Twilight nodded her head and let herself be dragged away from the confused owner of the Golden Oaks. 151.3: (Evilhumour) Nyx looked to the mare next to her and frowned. "What? This was your idea," the mare next to her huffed, rolling her eyes as she applied the make up. "Yes, I know but I didn't expect this!" she sneered, doing her own make up. "Jealousy doesn't suit you, Nyx," the yellow alicorn mare smirked, shaking her flanks slightly. "Besides, remember that Empress Celestia made me to be the perfect alicorn mare warrior. Can't help if I am so pretty!" She puffed her mane up as she left the bathroom, leaving Nyx scowling at her looping boyfriend's head. 151.4: (Evilhumour) {Rarity, We have a question for you. "Yes Skynet?" Rarity looked at the computer that was in a strange form. {Do you have any knowledge to why We are in this form this loop? "That's my line darling," Rarity looked at the bee shaped Terminator, before sighing. "But I do not know why nor do I know why I am one too." She sighed, fluttering her wings around the metal hive that was flying in space, replacing the Borg cubes of the Star Trek Loops. {We are also concerned that our main source of power is from the Cutie Mark Crusaders harvesting honey and tree sap. We are also concerned as it is very effective towards delaying Captain Picard. This universe does not make any sense. "Tell me about it," Slaanesh muttered, walking over to the group. "No lust in this freaking loop, just pure love for all things honey. I've never felt this way over a foodstuff before and it's so weird!" The Chaos God flailed before falling onto Rarity's fainting sofa, muttering about feeling dirty. "No," Alan Grant muttered, walking over to them. "What's weird is that our god is freaking Waspinator!" "Could be worse," Terry McGinnis muttered in a bright yellow bee styled batsuit. "Just don't know how." 151.5: (Evilhumour) Alan Grant Woke up on the helicopter as they were flying over the damnable island filled with the damnable dinosaurs that would make his life a living hell in a short while. With a sigh, he turned his head to look at the monster when he saw something that made him jump. "-hold, Equestria Park!" Blinking, Alan Grant saw a multitude of differently coloured ponies running around- except for a pink one that was bouncing- and he knew instantly that this was either going be one peaceful loop or one aggravating loop. 151.6: (Midnight Crescent) Now the books don't work... Twilight Awoke in the midst of reshelving day, and decided to take a break. After checking her loop memories to find no changes from baseline, except for the new radio station on the outskirts of the town, Twilight sent out a ping, before calling Spike down the stairs to help. Given that he was longer and taller than her, she figured one of the responses had come from him. "You had a chance to check who else is awake yet?" "Looks like it's just Nyx and Luna for now. I'm assuming they've got something up their sleeve, given Nyx isn't already here..." "Yeah, but she's not telling me what..." Twilight said, letting out a sigh. "So, ready to go to work?" Spike rolled his shoulders, and moved towards one of the piles of books. "Sure, let's go." The pair moved around the library, tuning out the odd word that came through the bursts of static from the radio as they finished the day's main task. "Saturday... Library... Unknowable..." It took them longer than expected. So much, in fact, that Spike had to retired before they'd even finished. Twilight shook her head and yawned as she finally slid the last book into a space she wasn't quite sure should be there, before turning off the radio and heading upstairs to bed. Twilight blinked herself awake, looking around the room in confusion. The bedroom of her tower didn't seem quite right today, but she shrugged it off, rising and shaking her mane from her eyes. "Spike, you up yet?" "Yeah, Twilight..." the drake replied, stretching out as he climbed to his feet from his basket, before stretching out to his preferred size. Looking round the room, he paused for a second. "Twilight, you got any idea why we're back in Canterlot?" "No idea, Spike..." she replied, sighing as she did. "One minute I was going to bed..." she started, but trailed off, as she realised all she could remember was going to bed, but the details were fuzzy. "Well, I went to bed somewhere else, then woke up here." "Pretty much the same as I got then..." Spike said, scratching his chin in thought. "Teleport to Ponyville?" "Teleport to Ponyville," she echoed in agreement, nodding her head. "Ready? In 3...2...1..." Twilight and Spike arrived just outside Ponyville in a flash of lavender magic. Spike took a few seconds to look around. "Nyx not joining us?" "She said she wanted to spend some time with Luna this loop," Twilight answered, crossing the bridge into the town proper. "She'll probably drop in at some point." "So, we don't have anything important to do for a while..." "Let me guess," Twilight said, stopping him mid-sentence. "You'll be helping Rarity?" "Am I that obvious?" "You really want me to answer that?" The two shared a laugh as they walked down the main road. Spike stopped first, turning to face Twilight. "How about you?" "I'm going to try and figure out what happened last night..." Twilight said, before pausing to think. "Maybe Applejack will let me work in her treehouse..." Spike raised an eyebrow. "Why in the treehouse?" Twilight shrugged. "I just feel like I should be working in a treehouse..." As the moon rose into the middle of the night's sky, Applejack walked up the ramp to her old treehouse, sitting next to her muttering friend. "Somethin' troublin' ya there, sugarcube?" "I'm not sure..." Twilight replied, shaking her head clear. "My memories all fuzzy, but I can't figure out why, and I've tried to every spell that might undo it, but they don't seem to have done anything..." "Alright, Twilight," Applejack said, hooking a foreleg around her friend steering her down the path towards the farmhouse. "It's near enough midnight," she started, only to be interrupted by the first chime of an unseen clock tower. "Scratch that, it is midnight, and yer obviously tired. There ain't no way I'm lettin' ya teleport back t'Canterlot like that. I know we ain't got much room up at the farm, but it's better than nothin'..." Twilight considered this, until the final ring of the bell tower. "Or I could just go back to the library..." "... Y'know, I'd plum forgotten you were staying there..." Applejack pulled her hat down over her eyes, her cheeks glowing red in embarrassment. "Darndest thing..." Twilight pulled a book from the shelves as she sat down with her morning coffee. She was relieved that the strange events from the previous week seemed to have just passed over without any after effects. Her telekinesis rolled the book around, while she tried to find a title on the oddly plain cover. After a full minute's search, she rolled her eyes, and moved to open the cover. Which didn't work. Raising an eyebrow she tried to increase her magic output slightly. But there were no changes. Scanning the book, she found that it was in fact all one piece - the pages inside were one mass, which was also firmly attached to the cover. Nothing to turn or open. Puzzled, Twilight took the next book off the shelf, only to find it was exactly the same first. As were the rest of that shelf. And that bookcase. Once she had discovered all the books in the library, even the ones in her room, were in the same condition, her eye had developed a twitch. Which was not helped by the rest of the town attempting to hammer down her front door, asking if she knew why their books weren't working too. When Spike and Nyx finally managed to talk Twilight out of her Episode, it was decided that they would run the library for the next month. Spike decided he could handle the sorting, while Nyx would deal with lending and collecting the late fees. Meanwhile, Twilight was to spend most of her time either sleeping, or at the spa with her friends. All in all, it seemed to be a fair arrangement. After all the previous events, Twilight wasn't too shocked when, towards the end of her tenure, Nyx walked into the library, very obviously weary eyed. Twilight raised an eyebrow as her daughter carried straight on, walking straight into the table, knocking the wooden bust down onto her head."Nyx, are you OK?" Nyx shook her head. "Ponies are checking books out by their dreams now..." she said, her eye twitching as a few choice images flashed back to the front of her mind. Twilight winced as she started to realise where this was going. "Pinkie Pie?" A nod confirmed Twilight's suspicions. "Even Unawake, her mind is a beautiful, terrifying, mind bending... experience..." Nyx elaborated, waiting a few seconds before speaking again. "Is Mac Awake yet, Mom? "I think he Woke up a day or two ago..." "Alright, I'm gonna go to the bar. Either I drink until I forget all this, or until Mac runs out of Brain Bleach..." Twilight thought about stopping her for a second, before deciding on a more appropriate response. "If things get any weirder this loop, I may join you..." "I know it was you..." a voice yelled, echoing through the mostly deserted station. "Now get back here!" "My dear Twilight Sparkle..." another voice replied from outside the booth's door. "I am a prankster, a trickster, and a swindler of the highest order. I am NOT suicidal. So why do you think I would be so stupid as to mess with your books?" "That's just what you want me to think, Discord! Now hold still..." Cecil gently moved his microphone back round to his face as the week's weather report concluded. "Dear listeners, it has come to my attention that an irate equine with a mane made of fire has been running rampant through our small town's radio station, chasing some sort of serpentine chimera. From what I've been told, their antics have already accounted for Angelina the intern..." As Cecil paused, more of the insanity from outside managed to leak into the recording booth. "Well then. Enough talk," Discord said threateningly. "Have at thee, worthless curd!" Twilight stared at the jar he was brandishing at her. Her cold gaze then turned back to the Draconequus' face. "I happen to like lemon..." "...Oops?" Shaking his head to free it from the captivating distraction, Cecil picked up where he had left off, realising some clarification was in order. "Now, as Angelina was a dust bunny, I'm not entirely sure whether she would have had a family for me to offer our condolences to, dear listeners, but if the theoretical family of the dust bunny intern does exist, I'm sure that they did indeed love her, and are saddened by their loss..." Another pause as he checked the stations itinerary for the next slot's programming allowed yet more of the external events to drift in. "You're... ridiculously... determined..." Discord panted. "But you don't... really think things through... when you're that angry, do you?" Twilight pulled up in front of him, her eyes glaring, and her coat darkening to a more familiar shade. "What do you mean?" "Come now, Sparkle. You of all ponies should know by now..." Discord said, his smirk spreading wider than his head. "That when I'm involved," Discord started, before clicking his fingers. Discord vanished, a small discord puppet falling into place where he had been. His voice now echoed around the whole station. "Things aren't always as they seem..." "..." Twilight blinked at the puppet for a few seconds, before her twitch returned. She ground her teeth, before throwing her head back and practically roaring. "DISCORD!" Cecil took a few breaths, holding the cough button as he attempted to stop the brief bout of chuckles in time for his farewell. "Stay tuned for 3 hours of watching paint dry - an exclusive interactive entertainment programme. But, for now, goodnight, dear listeners, goodnight..." 151.7: (Evilhumour) Part One of Learning to Fly by Wubbing. "Okaaaaay, let's do a quick catch up Twi?" Vinyl blinked as she stared at the lake in front of her. "I thought you were going to help me learn to use my wub hooves so why are we here?" "We're here for a reason Vinyl," Twilight said, holding a checklist in front of her. "Before you can start flying properly with your sonic propulsion hooves, we need to do some basic tests and experiments beforehand." "And crashing into a pond is a lot better then into the ground, trust me." Rainbow Dash said from her cloud, watching the scene carefully. "So let Twilight do her egghead tests with your wub hooves and I'll swoop and save your flanks if things get out of control." "Sounds good to me," Vinyl shrugged, rolling her neck. "So what's first on the old listie Twi?" Twilight's left ear flicked at the nicknames being used but she moved past them. "Air resistant goggles?" Vinyl took off her purple tinted glasses, reached into her subspace pocket and swapped out an equally tinted pair of goggles. "Got it. Next?" Twilight's right ear twitched but she did her best not to say anything. "Padding?" "One sec-" "Eeeeyup!" Dash grinned at the frowning Vinyl. "Oh come on, you know I was kidding." "Yeah, since all this?" Vinyl patted her sides, her hoof going in deep. "Is just fur. Unlike someponies, I don't need to work out to get a slim bod-GAH!" Vinyl and Dash squeaked as Twilight squirted them both with her squirt-bottle. "Let's stay on track, please?" "Spruce Twilight, that is bucking cold water!" Dash grumbled, flying quickly into the sky to dry herself off while Vinyl started to vibrate in place. "Yeah, what did you do, go to the north pole or something?" Vinyl grumbled as her long coat was now puffy. "Yes, actually. This bottle has a miniature portal inside that is connected to the original pony lands to a river that flows despite the sheer drop in temperature and the roaming Windigos. The glass itself is indestructible so it can handle the water inside of it." "Wow, really?" Vinyl and Dash both leaned in close to look at the bottle. "Of course not," Twilight snorted in soft laughter, shaking her head. "It's just from the tap with a couple of ice cubes tossed in." "Oh har har." Vinyl grumbled as she slipped on a full body padded suit. "You're a riot Twi." Vinyl made a face before she shook her mane. "Great, I've got knots in my fur. Rare's is going to kill me, and then she's going to drag me to the spa." It had been pretty funny to see their unAwake friend drag her mother around, and acting the more mature of the two while throwing a lot of guilt around at Vinyl. "Better you then me Vinyl," Dash grumbled, settling down on the cloud. "I hate ponies touching my hooves." "So what do I need to do Twi, hover in place?" Vinyl asked as she began to emit her wubs and begin to float. "No Vinyl, not just yet!" Twilight shouted, tossing her list to the side as she began to run over to the unicorn mare, ignoring Dash pulling out the popcorn bag. "What?" Vinyl shouted, walking around in place and lifting a hoof to her ear. Or at least that was her intention, but as she broke the stable and equally distributed propulsion of her body weight on four hooves to three as well as moving on to her face, she was suddenly rocketed sideways. Flailing with her hooves in the air, she was sent into a corkscrew fashion towards the lake. With a splash, Vinyl hit the water horn first and started to paddled in the water before Rainbow Dash flew over, plucked her out of the water and begun to lecture her. "Vinyl Scratch, do you have any idea in how stupid that was? You should never break up your flying format unless you have years of experience to back you up!" Grumbling loudly, the pegasus began to move Vinyl's legs back into place, with Dash bending Vinyl's knees. "Look, normally you'd keep your legs tucked for flight but for your wub hooves you would need to keep them bent for a good take off before straightening them out. And don't you dare think about doing any fancy twist or turns just yet missy, as we will need to a lot of exercises to get you floating steadily before we can have you flying properl-OH MY BIRCH!" Dash suddenly shouted, placing her hooves to her mouth in horror. "What? What's wrong Dashie?!" Twilight blinked, getting ready to run over to her friend, Vinyl staying in place. "I'm starting to sound like you." Dash's laughter was quickly picked up by Vinyl's snickering. Which was squashed by Twilight squirting the mare with a deadpan look on her face. Shaking her mane after squeaking by the cold water, Dash rolled her eyes at white mare standing beside her. 151.8: (Evilhumour) Luna Awoke on her Moon noticing two things. One, Nyx was not present. She was in complete control of her body and mind, without a trace of the usual Nightmare force. Two, Celestia had built something odd outside her moon prison. It was a massive wooden construct, with a large metal clump in the middle on the long side of it- "Oh you have to be KIDDING me!" Luna shouted as she face hoofed. Surely her sister wouldn’t- BANG BANG "LUNA, I AM RESPECTING YOUR PRIVACY BY KNOCKING BUT I AM ASSERTING MY AUTHORITY AS YOUR OLDER SISTER BY COMING IN ANYWAYS!" And with that, Celestia destroyed the door she created by using a very familiar tree as a battering ram. 151.9: (Evilhumour) Sleipnir coughed out his coffee when his mother told him of the latest virus and the fact that Skuld was reportingly flipping mad. "But mom, I didn't create a virus!" he shouted, running over to his brother’s terminal as he could not check his own branches for the so-called 'equine' virus. Ignoring his brother lying on his side as his girlfriend was scratching his ear, he looked at the helpers going over the terminals as his brother was enjoying his 'break'. All of the people were equines of some kind and he had no idea why! "I honestly did not believe you had it in you," Skuld growled at him from the doorway, holding her hammer lose in her hands. "Nearly everyone is reporting that their loops have a sudden abundance of horses everywhere!" Stepping over the gulping form of his little brother, she leaned into his face. "Unless this is a masterful prank by the loopers, you are in so much trouble!" Twilight pulled out her list of people that destroyed her tree and checked off Sleipnir's name. "Was it really worth it Twilight?" Spike asked her, raising an eyebrow at her. "Indeed." Twilight smiled at getting even with another person. It took considerable effort, a lot of favours being called in, and Loki and several other Admins being in favour of pranking Sleipnir and Skuld but it was totally worth being stuck in Gen 3 to get back at losing her tree. 151.10:(KrisOverstreet, Filraen) Rainbow Dash swooped just under the low ceiling beams of Mac's cellar-based bar and dropped onto a stool next to Gilda. "'Sup, Gils?" she asked. "Not much," Gilda shrugged. "Last Loop I joined the Wonderbolts. Unfortunately, this guy Troubleshoes- you heard'a him? Well, last Loop he had a thing for air shows instead of rodeos. Turns out he makes a decent ground support horse, given a push in the right direction." Rainbow Dash shifted on her barstool. "Um, yeah," she muttered. "Speaking of loop expansion stuff... during the last one the Cutie Map sent Pinkie and me on a mission, and we kinda met you..." "... the map led you to Griffonstone, didn't you." The crest of Gilda's feathers slumped. "Yeah, it did!" Rainbow Dash snapped. "What WAS that? What happened to all those defeat-the-emperor, all-hail-Gilda-the-new-queen things?" "Variant Loops, I suppose." Gilda sighed. "I really enjoyed those. It was nice to see home the way it should have been... instead of the miserable dump it usually is now. "I didn't want to believe it at first, you know Dash? Sure, it was a variant that happened every now and then. But lately it had been happening really often." Gilda flashed her own Element of Brutal Honesty before continuing. "And I can’t lie to myself for too long. You know that." Dash nodded her agreement. "And I can't even blame old Eight-Legs because I know it isn't his fault!" Gilda growled, pounding the bar for emphasis. “Well, yeah,” Dash shrugged. “You know you could have asked any of us for help, right? Get your home town back on its feet, and all that?” “Dash, come on!” Gilda groaned. “I didn’t want everypony to see what a cruddy hometown I came from! I'm sure you can understand that, right? Remember those times when Cloudsdale was a bunch of scudpaper shacks on rained-out stratus clouds?" Dash considered this. "Yeah, it wasn't a place I really wanted to show either." "Besides, there aren’t many griffons I wanted to introduce you to anyway," Gilda added. "You know, I managed to bring the Idol back a couple times?" "So did I, the first Loop I went there," Rainbow Dash muttered. "Pawned it, didn't they?" "Yep." "They always do. Look, Griffonstone's not something you can fix in the Loops," Gilda continued. "Oh, for fifty or a hundred Loops it's fun to go all Mareshal Plan on the place, go from hovels to palaces, and then it gets boring, just like everything else in these cruddy Loops. And of course everything you do gets wiped away with the Loop reset. Just let it go, okay?" A tankard of cider appeared in front of Rainbow Dash. She took several slow swallows from it, using the time to think about it. "I'll try, Gilda," she said. "But I can't speak for the others." "I know already. Pinkie Pie has tried to fix it a few times," Gilda grumbled. "She's experimented to see which baked good makes griffons friendliest. One time I saw her making hushpuppies. That backfired. Made the other griffons even more selfish and mercenary. One of them even wrote a book that began infecting the ponies with that attitude- Grover Shrugged, or the Fountainbeak, was the title." Gilda shuddered at the memory. "Dash, you don't ever want to see a Randian griffon. You just don't." "Um... riiiiight." Rainbow Dash tried not to lean away from Gilda on her stool. "And well, Sparkle of course. She has more reasons to be bored than us anyway," Gilda said. "At least her last try helped her vent, I think." Rainbow Dash remembered the state of Griffonstone's "library" and flinched. "What did she do?" Dash asked. "Well, the Loop before last -for me at least, who knows how many Sparkle had since- she was still in Punish the Infidel for Crimes Against Books mode," Gilda said. "I think one of her first edicts as a Princess was to commission the construction by forced labor of Book Fort McHennery. Before that, she told me, she'd had them conscripted into the University of Canterlot, lock, stock, and kitten. Last Loop she wasn't quite so Eternal-Twilight-y, but she was still a bit tetchy about the whole thing." Rainbow Dash nodded and finished her cider. "So, you doing anything for the Summer Sun Celebration this Loop?" Gilda smiled her little wicked smile. "Can't make it, Dash," she said. "I've got a coven meeting tomorrow night. Turns out I'm a Shadowbolt this Loop." She finished her own drink and got up from the barstool. "Better bring your A-game tomorrow night, loser." With that the griffon flapped her wings and flew towards the darkest shadow in the cellar, vanishing into nothingness. Dash tapped the bar with her hoof. "Same again Mac," she said, "and keep 'em comin'." 151.11 (Evilhumour) Twilight ducked as Perfect Fyre fire bended at her, with Honour knocking it away from the golden oaks library thankfully. It was a fused loop with the Avatar branch, with Twilight replacing Aang as the alicorn, the one that could use all types of magic and was destined to save the world, if not for the insane princess in front of them. "Sister, this is madness," the pony with a scarred left eye shouted. "I will not let you take alicorn pony to father!" "And how do you propose that, dear brother?" Fyre sneered. "I am far better at firebending and I doubt you can deflect my lightning." "I did not wish to do this," Honour said, reaching into his subspace pocket. "Here, catch." Like most ponies, when told to catch, the pony princess of the Fire Nation caught the muffin in her hooves. "Is this your master plan brother?" She began to laugh, not noticing the ponies around them begin to back up in fear as a shadow began to descend towards the unicorn. "A muf-" "MUFFIN!!!" With that as her only warning, Perfect Fyre was tackled straight through the library, with the air bending master Derpy Hooves unleashing her awesome and terrifying powers for her beloved treat. Twilight looked at Honour with an eye twitching, with the two seaponies snickering loudly from behind her. Boomerang and Water Whip were being a lot subtler than Blind Bandit, who was rolling on the ground in a fit of laughter. 151.12: (Evilhumour) Twilight blinked at the odd blue toucan that was replacing her owl this loop, who was nibbling on a cracker. "Ok, Tzeentch, what did you do?" The toucan tilted his head to a weird angle before sighing. "I might have made a deal with someone that I should have not made a deal with..." The blue bird muttered. "Who did you give future knowledge to?" She sighed, wondering what the Chaos God did that made him admit it was a bad idea. "In my defense, I only Woke up after I gave Wily knowledge about some of the fun stuff back home," Tzeentch sighed, "And before you ask, the Warp gave me the knowledge of the future to when I would Wake up but not to why I had that strange knowledge nor why it would be a bad idea. The Warp can mess up my plans. Also, next time you see those two android Anchors, tell them it is not my fault about dealing with the Master Primarchbots or the God Emperorbot thingy." He huffed, pecking at the cracker in his talon, looking out of the cage he was in. "Could have done it so much better if I knew what I was planning..." 151.13: (Filraen) ...as time went on, the younger sister became resentful. The ponies relished and played in the day her elder sister brought forth, but shunned and slept through her beautiful night. One fateful day, the younger unicorn refused to lower the moon to make way for the dawn. The elder sister tried to reason with her, but the bitterness in the young one's heart had transformed her into a wicked mare of darkness: Nightmare Moon. She vowed that she would shroud the land in eternal night. Reluctantly, the elder sister harnessed the most powerful magic known to ponydom: the Elements of Harmony. Using the magic of the Elements of Harmony, she defeated her younger sister. However after the battle the victor was so overcome by guilt that she exiled herself from Equestria vowing to return only when her sister returned too or she was directly contacted to return. For that event she left a magic relic... "... which as of today still lies at Canterlot Grand Cathedral," Twilight Sparkle finished reading. "Well, that's a new one." After promising Moondancer to go her birthday party as long as nothing else happened, an answer that was apparently beyond from what was expected from Twilight, the Anchor decided to go to the Grand Cathedral to investigate this discrepancy with baseline. If anything it was going to be different from the last hundred or so baseline loops. The Cathedral reminded her some of her own Royal Sisters loops where she had not sufficiently discouraged alicorn worship: huge, ostentatious, but hopefully open to all public during daytime. Apparently that big valuable relic was inside a treasure chest, which in turn was sealed in a powerful ward. ... though in a second thought, the most interesting thing about the ward wasn't that is was powerful nor that the ward didn't have any traps associated. It was the fact that the ward had magic, chakra and ki in its construction and it was needed knowledge of all of them to disable the ward. It was effectively a lock only Loopers could open. Who would do that and why? Twilight received no answer when she tried pinging earlier. The ward wasn't even that complicated to disable, as if whoever placed it wanted it to be opened... and there was a book inside the chest. The book was one Twilight recognized: with a sun mark on its cover it was one of the books Celestia gave to Sunset to communicate with her even if she was in the world beyond the mirror. If that meant Celestia was Awake... no need to guess, better ask her directly. Twilight had the book with her now anyway. Hello... Celestia, are you there? It took a minute or two before receiving an answer I am Celestia. Who are you who write to me? It's Twilight Sparkle. And yes, I just Awoke earlier today. This time the reply came almost immediately. Twilight? Thank pineness. Sorry about everything, I had to leave in a hurry. No problem, Equestria seemed to go reasonably well all things considered, if my loop memories are reliable. What happened to you, though? It doesn't seem like you to leave Equestria just like that. There was a problem when I Awoke. Sorry to ask, but is this the eve of the 1000th Summer Sun Celebration after the battle with Nightmare Moon? According to the banners in the temple, it seems so. Temples to Alicorns? Yes Urgh... now I really don't want to return to that. Anyway, I Awoke almost one thousand years ago during the battle with Nightmare Moon. To be precise when I Awoke I was using the Elements to banish Luna... Celestia, what are you not telling me? ... I may have missed the moon when banishing Luna. WHAT? It was an accident! The typical moment that it takes to orientate in a new Loop was just the moment when my pre-Awake self was supposed to take aim! Twilight... Twilight, are you still there? Sorry Celestia. Was too busy laughing and taking a photo of the page for future blackmail. Oh, you... I'm fine now. Back to the matter at hoof, I suppose after the banishment you left Equus to follow Luna? Exactly. Even if it took a millennium it may be time well spent if I could redirect the spell back to Equus, or any planet for that matter. No such luck yet though. I said that I was going to bring Luna back but I left the book in the hopes you'd contact me with it. That makes sense. Do you need some help? That'd be lovely. I'm quite lost to be honest, I can't recognize any constellations around here. If you could make a big flare using the elements it'd be really useful, and with a bit of luck I can use it to break the banishment spell. Right. The Elements are in your castle in the Everfree? Last I knew they were, but that was a thousand years ago. All right, I see what I can do. I'll keep you updated. Thanks Twilight, and good luck. Closing the book Twilight sighed. Well, better hurry to Ponyville. She only had until the end of the Loop to find Celestia and she had a thousand year head start. 151.14: (Heliomance) Applejack stood, tossing an apple in her forehoof as she looked down at the centaur rampaging through Ponyville. "So, somethin' Ah saw in a Hub loop recently got me t' thinkin'." She nodded to Shining Armor, who raised a powerful shield spell over the group. "How many apples does it take t' defeat Tirek?" In one smooth movement, she lobbed the apple high in the air, spun so she was facing away from Ponyville, and lashed out with her hind hooves as the apple came down. There was a deafening crack, a blinding flash, and the air between them and the magic-draining centaur seemed to explode. Tirek himself went flying, sailing through the air back to Tartarus. When their eyes and ears cleared, the recently evacuated Ponyville was all but gone, flattened by the shockwave. Applejack looked a bit smug. "One, at sufficient velocity." 151.15: (masterofgames) Rainbow Dash lounged on a rock atop the cliff overlooking the village of 'Our Town'. Twilight sat nearby on a lawn chair with sunglasses and a smirk. "Okay, I see what you did here." Dash commented to Twilight, gesturing to the town. "The whole Battle Of The Bands thing started with a song about competition, and standing out, and proving who the best was. This is a fitting punishment in theory. But I'm seriously starting to feel bad for them." Twilight took a long, leisurely sip of her drink. "Spike wasn't Awake. They kicked him. I was feeling vengeful." she shrugged, basking in the screams of rage and frustration from a certain house down below. "Nopony likes a winner." "Make it stop! MAKE IT STOP!" "Let us out of here!" "Like, why are you two complaining? Come on, read with me! It isn't half bad!" "AAAAAARGH!!!" "Apathy means happiness." 151.16: (masterofgames) Twilight checked off yet another item from her list as she walked to Fluttershy during the Gala. "Nice work! I'll admit I doubted you, but you're winning my little challenges left and right." she grinned. Fluttershy smiled softly as she half-hid behind her mane and glass of punch. "It's not so hard really. I did minor in psychology a long time ago after all, back when I got my P.H.D. in Adorableness. I just have to know how he thinks through a filter of jealousy a little." Twilight giggled. "Well let it not be said I can't see the use of a degree or two. Now, next on the list is getting Discord to turn the recording of Octavia's music into a Mare-iachi dubstep. Think you can do it?" "I'll start discussing large hats and spicy food with Tree Hugger, just as soon as we hit the pause between songs." Fluttershy winked. 151.17: (Detective Ethan Redfield) "Shepard, this is Sombra we're dealing with. I don't think we need a liberating army to deal with him," Twilight pointed at the massive Army the Mass Effect looper had assembled. Dragons, monsters of enormous size, Discord, the variant griffon empire's army, Luna, and about half the Equestrian Army stood on the borders of the shimmering city. Not to mention the assembled loopers, including Trixie checking her supplies of high powered explosives, Vinyl making some last adjustments to her Wub Cannon, and Sunset practicing with her keyblades. The Captain of the guard checked his weapons that were custom designed for pony use and replied, "I'm not usually married to Cadence. Even when I take your brother's position as captain, he's always been married to the princess. And since I'm married to her and am under orders to free the Crystal Empire, I want to be prepared." Twilight looked back at the city, "Prepared for what? It's like you expect to run into a nest of Reapers in there." With a click, Shepard finished adjusting his weapons belt and slid the final thermal clip into place, "That's about the sum of it." Twilight turned back to the male Earth pony, who shrugged, "Lately in every fused loop, I've been running into Reapers at the center of all my missions. Replacing Solid Snake? Instead of running into a Metal Gear, I find a mini reaper. Battling Andross in the Lylat System? After shooting him down, his remains animated like a reaper endoskeleton. Star Wars? Palpatine was a reaper puppet from beyond dark space and the invasion was a year away. Resident Evil Universe? Zombies replaced by husks along with dragon's teeth. Hell, my last loop at Freddy's, the animatronics were reaper embryos! I'm not taking any chances this loop." Little did Twilight know they were walking headlong into a nest of reapers in stasis, buried in the core of Equestria, and Sombra was the overseer of the sleeping reapers and would one day awaken the eldritch machines to wipe clean the galaxy. 151.18: (fractalman) The timberwolf was confused. One moment, it had been in the forest, hunting a rabbit; the next, a purple flash and it was in some....place, a place that defied description by its simple mind. It took a step forward into something soft and...good-smelling? Yes, good smelling. Maybe it would be a comfy place to take a nap? Yes, it decided, so it curled up and took a nap. The - unawake - Celestia stared at the timberwolf sleeping on her cake. "I really need to stop pulling all nighters." She never noticed the small camera recording her reaction, nor the subtle wards set up by her student to ensure that nopony got hurt if something went wrong. 151.19: (Rowan Ex) (Doors Loop) Room #0/Golden Oak Library Twilight came out on the other side of a white door, panting. The other Loopers who noticed her was confused, as well as what the door was. Sleipnir then came and looked at Twilight before closing the white Door, locking it, and burning it. Twilight raised a hoof and stared at her Admin and asked, "What in Yggdrasil's glitches was that?" "A glitch," Sleipnir replied, "somehow, the door threw you into something like the elevator loop, and..." He looked around. "How was it? We've been trying to solve that glitch but since you were in we can't just do it." Twilight looked up and began to tell her adventure which started with the white door... Room #1 Twilight looked around after buying a mysterious white door and entering it, and immediately saw herself in a small forest, with another white opened white door in front of her. She looked back, and instead of the library she saw the same room. She then faced the other door and ran towards it. Room #2 This must be a glitched variant as there was the door again, and the room changed into a white room. She checked her subspace pocket, took a camera, and began heading towards the next... Room #3 ... only for her to quickly return it to her subspace pocket. Twilight looked around and immediately ran to the next door after the sight of zombie ponies. Room #4 "Okay, this is getting ridiculous. GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!" Room #5 Twilight stopped for a while in this room where a chair and a cup a of tea and rested for a while. She looked at the next door before thinking what to do to escape these Nesting Doll-like glitch that always remind her of that Elevator Loop... Room #6/Crossover with Left 4 Dead Twilight saw what the room had and was shocked to see Rochelle staring at a suspicious white door which she immediately pulled away and placed it right in front of her door, which caused a few zombies to arrive. "What was that!?" Rochelle demanded in shock as she began to shoot the incoming horde. "I don't know," Twilight replied as she entered the white door. Room #7 Twilight looked around the dark room before she heard a buzzing sound which caused her to go up, down, and into the next door. What? Room #8 Twilight paused for a while and sat under a tree in the room while gazing at the doors. She looked around to find Applejack and Rainbow Dash, with Dashie falling to the ground. The Anchor chuckled a bit before headed towards the next room, tripping midway. Room #9 "Twilight!?" called Vinyl, "how in Yggdrasil did you got here in the first place?" Twilight looked around, saw Vinyl and Octavia and flinched. She looked around then headed towards the next room. She was heard muttering "my bad, my bad," afterwards. Room #10 (mariic) Twilight found herself outside a house somewhere in Ohio, and the entrance to the house was the door out of this room. She opened the door, but a shotgun blast barely missed her head. The G4 Anchor turned around to see the gunner, an overweight Sandusky film school dropout who shouted, "Get the f$# off mah property!" Twilight didn't needed to be told twice, and she dashed through the door. Room #11/Crossover with Quantum Leap (mariic) Twilight nearly ran into a stick figure, who asked her, "Door glitch?" "Door glitch." Twilight replied, nodding. The Quantum Looper just muttered, "Oh boy." and they both ran through the next door. Room #12/Crossover with Postal (Awesomedude17) "Postal Dude." "Twilight." "Why do you have a gunshot wound to the head?" "Shot myself." "Why?" "Forget my hateful wife's rocky road." "...Have you considered psychological help?" "Maybe." "Why are you here though?" "Probably the same reason you are." "Son of a birch." Twilight muttered. "At least Al Qaeda isn't on your ass." "What?" "Bye." The Dude left through a door quickly, and a bunch of people who looked like Osama Bin Laden rushed through another door. "Excuse me, did you see a trench coat wearing infidel?" One of them asked in a horrible Indian accent. Twilight pointed to the door The Dude left through. "Thank you." The group quickly left, and Twilight took out a vial of brain bleach. "Note to self, Paradise doesn't make sense." Room #13 Twilight found herself going up into the next door, and looked at her left before entering the door. Seeing that she was in a DS did solve her slight confusion. "What's gonna be next?" she asked to herself, "maybe Trixie?" Room #14 "Trixie alright," Twilight muttered as she shot a stun spell towards an Alicorn Amulet-using Trixie to find her way out. She saw the next door and hopped to it, only to be kicked by Trixie. "Ow! Hey!" Twilight casted another stun spell. Room #15/Crossover with Tomorrowland "Oh." Twilight muttered as she took her PADD from her subspace pocket and attempted to find anything about the place. She faced her six to find a teenage young lady and an old man. She slightly shifted and hid her PADD as she steered towards the next door which had a "NO ENTRY" sign on it. She opened it, and looked at the two again. She then asked, "Time been repeating?" They both nodded. "Who are you and what kind of creature are you?" the man, who introduced himself as Frank Walker, asked. Twilight decided to not leave the room for the moment for a quick explanation of the Loops. After the two have thought it well, they saw Twilight leave through the door. "So that meet-up with Delsin was a Fused Loop," he commented. "Mhm," said the girl, Casey Newton, looked at the door and locked it, "at least we proved that we're not crazy, after all. I wonder how we'll going to relay that message if they're really a universe away." They looked at the door again and opened it, only to find that it was just a broom closet. It got Frank to think about it again. "How did she do that?" Frank asked to the air before closing the door. Room #16 Twilight found herself floating towards the next door, catching a glimpse of who was using magic to move her toward the next room; An unAwake Princess Pinkie Pie. She was glad that the next room didn't have something like that, for the next room... Room #17/Crossover with FNAF "Nopenopenopenopenope-!" Twilight said, quickly dashing towards the next room. Four animatronics and two humans looked at each other before shrugging back into their conversation. Mike had no idea what has happened however, as he looked at the two white doors. Freddy raised a sign. "What was that for?" "We're not in a Fused right now, right?" Phone Guy asked. “Not exactly,” Mike replied, pointing to the doors. Room #18 Twilight saw herself watching Nyx watching the Pancake accident. Nyx then looked at her double that looked at Twilight which caused her to head towards the next room. Room #19 @TwilightSparkle posted at #Room19: This room is very weird. Apparently to unlock the door I must post something. Room #20 Twilight saw herself on Mac’s bar and went up and got herself some apple cider. Mac looked at the two doors and asked what the doors are for. “I bought a Door and entered it,” Twilight replied, “now I’m stuck room to room and I have to face challenges or relax.” “Do you think ya can escape them?” Mac asked. Twilight looked at the bar entrance and goes outside, only to come back from the white Door she came from. “Nope. Oh well, into the next room...” “Good luck, ya need it!” Mac shouted as she entered the next room. Room #21 Twilight saw herself walking towards the next door as a parade was held to her right. It was a peaceful regular parade dedicated for Princess Celestia, so she began to take pictures. Room #22 Twilight saw herself saw herself as she saw herself saw herself. She Pinged, and nothing came back in return, in which she was glad off. She quickly headed into the next room, unaware that something else was happening with that room and the next... Room #23/Crossover with Doctor Who The Doctor was banging his head into his TARDIS as his companion, a humanized Awake Derpy Hooves, made Twilight encounter duplicate herself as she was pushed by the time clones towards the next door. “What did you do Derpy?” Twilight asked, stopping herself from entering the exit door. “I...” Derpy looked around. “...one of those things, I guess.” Twilight facehooved as she was finally kicked into the next. Room #24/Crossover with RWBY “Oh, hi Blake!” Twilight greeted. She looked at Nora and saw the connection. “Oh, that makes sense now. Gotta go!” The aforementioned Loopers waved back as Twilight passed by. Nora tried to follow her only to be stopped by Blake who destroyed the door after a warning passed by their admin. Room #25/Crossover with Quantum Conundrum Twilight shook her head a lot of times before passing to the next door. “Damn it, Ike,” she muttered to the air, “why does your eyes do that when I look at it…” 151.20: (Filraen) Dear Celestia, Today's letter is about my previous Loop. It was a lonely baseline loop, except that we seemed to hit yet another expansion period. The most noticeable points of the extra time were Matilda and Cranky Doodle Donkey's wedding finally being here and a bugbear attack. The interesting part came when I didn’t realize the bugbear attacked the same day of the wedding. We girls totally missed the ceremony trying to get the monster out of Ponyville and I wasn’t particularly worried because I thought the wedding was the next day. A mystery for another loop I guess. In the end we (Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow, Fluttershy, Pinkie and myself) ended seeing the ceremony from the window outside Ponyville’s Town Hall. While not going into much detail (you were there and I think you’d appreciate not telling spoilers) the ceremony had two main high notes. First, I knew intellectually Cranky had literally searched for decades finding Matilda and the ceremony showed that: so many who Cranky had crossed paths with in his travels. The other point was that you were there and for once you weren’t the center of attention, not even a non-incognito guard present. The only who could count as part of the Royal Guard was my BBBFF and even he was invited. And as you expect, he was crying the whole time. I won’t lie and claim I wasn’t a bit disappointed by arriving late to Matilda and Cranky’s wedding but it was their day and there will be other loops. I still remember the time Chrysalis was Matilda’s maid of honor the loop she earned her Element of Kindness. That reminds me: there was a random changeling in the wedding undisguised. That seemed strange but we decided to leave him alone since he wasn’t attacking or anything like that. In fact everything pointed for him only attending the wedding. Hopefully for them that wedding is something they get to do every loop, and I’m both expectant and a little nervous on what Pinkie Pie will do for them next time she's Awake. And with a little luck next time we can get to the wedding on time. Your friend, Twilight Sparkle 151.21: (Filraen) Dear Celestia, Last loop I got reminded to be careful what I wish for. Remember how I had mentioned about the wedding between Matilda and Cranky Doodle two loops ago? Well, last loop still had a wedding all right but it seemed like it was a variant. Or at least I hope their wedding was baseline and last loop’s wedding is the variant. In any case, I present my most important finding from last loop: the need to implement protocols for Discord grade destruction the next loop Derpy isn’t Awake and gets married with Trouble Shoes. At least knowing that loop ended with Cranky and Matilda' wedding makes me think last loop didn't end crashed by Derpy and Trouble Shoes' marriage... I hope. Your friend, Twilight Sparkle 151.22: (Anon e Mouse Jr.) Ding-dong Now, who could that be? Twilight wondered to herself as she opened the door. "Hello?" And was promptly tackled across the room by a giant blue pillbug. "HUGS! HUGS FOR EVERYPONY!" A few minutes later, staggering to her hooves and shaking her head, Twilight looked around in confusion. The insect was nowhere to be seen. "Okay." Pulling a scroll and quill out of her Pocket, she made a note. "Not even remotely in the ten weirdest things to happen to me, but it's definitely up there." Meanwhile, a few blocks away, a certain draconequus was still giggling to himself while a plum-coated mare and a carnation-coated filly watched him. Ruby Pinch, confused, looked up at her mother. "Mommy? What is Mr. Discord laughing at this time?" Berry Punch smiled at her daughter. "I think he had a fit of the sillies earlier, dear." "Oh." 151.23: (Anon e Mouse Jr.) Twilight looked. And stared. "Somehow, I just know Pinkie is involved in this." "Involved in what?" Uncountable loops of experience or not, Twilight proved she could still be startled by almost jumping out of her skin. "Gah! Pinkie?" "The one and only! Except technically there's always at least two of me 'cause of that mirror world, and that's not even counting-" A hoof covered her mouth. "Pinkie. Focus." "Right. So, what's up?" Twilight pointed. "Why is there a cupcake the size of a house in the middle of town square?" "Oh! Remember a while back when we went to the Hub, and you bought all those books? Including their latest edition of the Guinness Book of World Records?" "Yes…" "Well, I borrowed it and saw they had a listing for the World's Largest Cupcake, so I decided I could do better." Twilight looked at the house-sized cupcake. "And I'm guessing you did." "Yeppers! The one in the book was only three feet tall and four feet, eight inches around. And I even followed the rules that said it had to be made all in one piece, without any kind of internal supports, so it would qualify for the record." "Oh my." "Yeah, that's about what the judges said when they first saw it." Twilight sighed. "Pinkie, tell me something. Where in the multiverse did you get an oven big enough to bake something that big?" Pinkie held out a familiar Acme Corporation catalog. "In a Looney Tunes loop." "Somehow, I'm not surprised." 151.24: (Anon e Mouse Jr.) "Morning, Twilight!" "Good morning, Derpy." Twilight smiled as she accepted her mail from the unAwake blonde pegasus. "How's Dinky?" "Oh, she's doing just fine!" Twilight nodded and watched as her friend left. Then she opened the lone letter that had come for her, and her eyebrows raised again. And again. "Why," she asked nopony in particular, "Do I have the feeling this is going to be one of THOSE loops?" A day later, she got her answer. Tirek had just released the others from their bubbles, and was getting ready to drain Twilight of her magic, when the ground started rumbling. Tirek looked around. "What… is that noise?" Twilight just pointed. Tirek looked in the direction she was pointing, and proceeded to scream like Prince Blueblood. A few minutes later, when the dust had settled, Twilight sighed. "Well, that's one way to defeat Tirek. And it certainly explains the letter I got yesterday." "What letter is that?" Rainbow Dash asked, having overheard as she and the others hurried over to Twilight. "This one." Twilight handed it to her. Rainbow Dash read it, and raised her eyebrows. "'The bunny rabbits is coming!'? Who the hay sent this?" Twilight shrugged. "I don't know, but they got here just in the nick of time." Rarity spoke up hesitantly. "Er, Darling?" "Yes, Rarity?" "Why do I have the feeling Angel Bunny is behind this?" Twilight sighed. "Personally, I'm more interested in knowing where whoever did this got a herd of oversized rabbits. Let alone trained them to stampede." There was a loud groan from nearby. "If you're quite finished," Tirek growled, "I'd like to go back to Tartarus now." Twilight's horn sparked. "Not a problem. Just give up your stolen magic first." "Fine! Anything, as long as it gets me away from those… things." The oversized centaur shuddered. "If I'd known there'd be days like this, I never would have left home." "There, there," Fluttershy said as she patted his head. Tirek just groaned again, though whether it was from pain or embarrassment was hard to tell. 151.25: (fractalman) Rainbow Dash glared figurative death beams at the sign of the Rainbow Factory. However, just before she could grab something out of her pocket to aid in its disassembly, she heard Scootaloo call out. "Hi, Dash! I'm ready to head back to Ponyville." Dash stared blankly at the grayscale filly. "Uh, Dash, are you OK?" Dash blinked as her loop memories kicked in. "Yeah, I'm OK, squirt. I just need to check on a few things, and then I'll be riiight back." "So yeah. This loop's Rainbow Factory doesn't kill anypony. Instead they just stick a vacuum cleaner to your side and suck up the color, the same way the crusaders vacuumed the color out of a rainbow in baseline. No uncool body disposal chutes or anything. They also pay ponies a couple bits for their time, and Scootaloo's been saving up to get corrective wing surgery." "That's a relief." said Twilight. "Are there any studies on the rate at which ponies regain their color?" Dash tapped her chin. "Not that I know of, but it takes Scootaloo about a week or two to get the nickname 'Patchaloo', and another week after that to regain all her color."