Cutie Mark Crusaders' Journal of the unexplained 15
Mtangalion
Mtangalion
Sweetie Belle the Genie froze, gasping softly. "That felt weird. It... it worked! I'm out of the time loop, and Sweetie respawned."
Scootaloo blinked. "What, all by herself? Gosh, she must really be scared, wondering if the rest of us forgot everything, and if she's in the loop alone now."
Button nodded! "I wish for you to teleport the other Sweetie right here."
The Genie furrowed her brow. "Huh, I can't! The mansion is warded... nothing can teleport directly in or out without the spell key."
Button smirked. "Well, then I wish you knew the spell key!"
"Ah bet it's genie-proofed," said Apple Bloom.
Sweetie nodded. "We'll just have to wait for her to get here."
"Ugh!" Scootaloo sighed at the last door, with its gem touchpad. "And we're so close!"
Button grinned deviously. "I'm sure we can think of something to pass the time. Like... I wish Scoots was a dragon again, with perfect control over her greed!"
Sweetie the Genie pretended to think it over... for all of two seconds, before waving her hoof.
Scootaloo yelped, growing until her sprouting horns nearly brushed the ceiling, pony fur rippling into shiny orange and purple scales. "Whoa! You could have asked first."
"Okay, I'll have Sweetie change you back then," teased Button.
"NO!" roared Scootaloo. "I mean... no, this is fine!" She looked around the room, gazing longingly at all of the enchanted items on the shelves. "But, um... thanks for that part about being in control of my greed... cause otherwise, I'd be making a hoard of every shiny thing in this room, and we'd find out if the mansion is dragon-proof too."
Button Mash blinked. "Yikes. So... what form would you like, Apple Bloom?"
Apple Bloom fidgeted her hooves. "Well, I can kind of do that myself, remember? I mean, I couldn't at first after the Nightmare world reset, but... it's kinda coming back to me." She demonstrated by slowly shifting herself into a big shaggy yellow and red wolf pup... she was panting by the time she finished, but she did it. "Maybe I'm soaking up more magic as I go," she said, her voice a deeper growl now.
Button noticed that Flim and Flam's icons were facing each other, talking back and forth across the pixel border. "And what are you two whispering about?"
Flim grinned brightly. "While you kids were having fun, we've been browsing the manual over in the help menu."
"And guess what?" said Flam.
"We don't need you to let us out of here!" With a flash, the brothers appeared beside Button Mash, full-sized. Not wasting a moment, they took off their usual hats and replaced them with a matching pair of ridiculous sparkly purple hats from a nearby shelf.
A curious change came over the room. Button Mash blinked slowly, then scratched Apple Bloom's ears, as if he'd completely forgotten about Flim and Flam. "That's pretty neat."
"So what should I turn you into, master?" asked Sweetie.
The brothers hoofbumped. "It was a lamentable, regrettable day when Uncle Flummox confiscated these Don't-Notice-Me hats," said Flam.
"The scams we could have pulled!" said Flim. "Well, that's water under the bridge." He slipped Journals Two and Three out of Apple Wolf's saddlebags, and the Crusaders still didn't notice them at all.
Flam started punching the code into the door. "Enough colt's games. If we're going to do something nice for somepony, then let's do it and get it done."
"Well said, brother of mine!" Flim and Flam trotted through the door, and shut it behind them.
Alex Warlorn
"You call him master, but you do not treat him as master." Said the voice of Sweetie Belle with a french accent. The maid Sweetie Belle looked at Scootaloo. "May I shine your scales honored guest Scootaloo? Or may I comb your fur honored guest Apple Bloom?"
"Uh, no thanks," waid the wolf Apple Bloom as she began to flipped through journal pages again.
"Uh, sure as long as you're offering."
"Scootaloo!" Genie Sweetie said.
"What? She's offering."
"Exactly." Smiled the maid Sweetie. "It is a servant duty's to serve and obey, for it to be their reason, to live is to serve, to serve is to live. You shouldn't get to chose what wishes to grant, granting any wish should be the reason for being as long as it furthers the will of your master."
"Andrew Rybread would scream at that." Button Mash said.
"He'd likely scream louder at how what he called the 'book of lies' has, 'do not swear at all, rather, have your yes mean yes, and your no mean no,' written in it," Apple Bloom said flipping through more of the book.
"Can you have one of you wish for me to take the dress off her?" Sweetie asked.
Button said, "Sure, I wish the dress was off her."
"EEK! I am not properly dressed! A servant on duty must be property dressed at all times!" The maid Sweetie still with a french accent quickly put her dress back on.
Apple Bloom found the page she was looking for. "The dress was just the delivery system. I think it was meant as a surprise for any thief that tried to sneak in that way. Or any pony foolish enough to put on a dress they got for free in the mai;. The enchantment bound her and the others to the house and whoever is legitimately the current master of the house."
"Exactly!" Maid Sweetie now dressed again bowed. "Such a pure, total sense of devotion, I understand my purpose perfectly. One YOU should possess!" She pointed at Sweetie Belle. "If you're going to be a servant for eternity, why not have the mind of one?"
"What I don't get?" Button Mash said. "WE should have reset too! Since we're still technically the friends of the Sweetie Belle who got turned into a genie. So shouldn't we have been shifted into a new timeline too? Sometime weird is going on."
Meanwhile, what slipped around them was a presence that had no presence. No scent, no shadow, no magic signature, was silent, no reflection, and left no trail, but was not exactly invisible in spite of these. And the camera COULD see her (it was Pinkie Pie's original camera from the 4th wall studio after all, now gathering dust), but none of the eyes of the CMC themselves. She'd slipped through one of the world mirrors, and followed the CMC+1 back to this world.
She'd had to hide from the Flim and Flam brothers when they put on the hats, since that which was unnnoticed, could notice which was also unnoticed, such were the laws of this world. With the brothers' backs turned, she shifted into a shadow, shaped like a filly Alicorn, with eyes that sparkled that diamonds, and she slipped after the brothers as they entered leaving the girls behind.
Sweetie meanwhile, passed unmolested through Carnival Cat's fairgrounds. She passed by the vast collection of CMC+1 under contract by the daughter of avatars of Tragedy and Temptation who was now capable of loving herself (and thus others loving her).
MtangaLion
Inside the sealed chamber, Flim and Flam slipped off their hats and gaped in wonder... which was unfortunately convenient for the two unnoticed shadows who followed them inside.
A single pony floated in the center of the room, caught up in a swirl of wild magic and flying scrolls and scraps of parchment... all suspended, completely motionless. Three crystal pillars surrounded him, forming the points of a dark triangle on the floor. Old-fashioned brown coat worn over yellow fur, tangled red mane, a magnifying glass and star cutie mark... a look of intense, almost desperate concentration, and a frozen emerald glow on his horn... there could be no doubt who this was.
"Uncle Flummox!" shouted Flim. "Why, he hasn't aged a day!" He started forwards...
Flam barred his way quickly. "Don't be hasty, brother. That's a time trap."
Flim blinked. "It is at that! Odd. I distinctly remember our Chronology professor saying that those were only theoretical."
"Was that before or after we put his hamster in a quasi-stable repeating loop?" mused Flam.
"Surely before," said Flim. "Well, then, the mystery is solved! Dear old Uncle Flummox trapped himself by mistake. He'll be so very grateful when we let him out!"
Flam stroked his chin with a hoof. "And his warning, that we should stay far away?"
Flim grinned. "He didn't want us to get caught up in the trap too, but we're much smarter than that now!"
"Good enough for me!" said Flam. Journal One was already sitting in a nook on the closest pillar, open to a page in the middle that was a partial diagram of this very chamber. "Oh. This will hardly be a challenge at all..."
Still unnoticed, the shadowy human woman glared at the shadowy filly. "Blank Diamond," she hissed. "You shouldn't be here."
The filly seemed equally annoyed. "I could say the same, *Lilith*. Don't interfere with my plan."
Lilith laughed musically, cold and cruel. "I would say the same, wretched beast. But as it happens, I'm only here to tip a lantern into some oil-soaked rags and watch this pathetic pony civilization burn. Afterwards, I should have no end of opportunities to return in the flesh."
Blank Diamond took a step back, a bit less sure of herself.
"Having second thoughts, dearie?" crowed Lilith. "Well, it's a bit late now."
Flim and Flam had already put the Journals on the other pillars, and tapped the crystals in the coded sequences they revealed. The crystal pillars flared, and went dark. The flying pages finally blew away, and Flummox floated to the ground, panting, gaping at the two of them. And then, he spoke.
"My boys!" cried Flummox in a shaky voice. "My dear nephews! I'm honestly touched, that you cared about somepony other than yourselves long enough to rescue me." He squeezed his eyes shut, moaning, then snapped them open... red and slit-pupiled. His voice started getting louder, higher-pitched... shadowy hands seemed to brush his coat. "But you really... *really* shouldn't have let me out!"
Flim and Flam cowered, holding each other. "Uncle..." "Uncle, what did you *do*?!"
"Hah hah! Why, my dear boys, I had to KNOW! Secrets and lies and conspiracies everywhere! No one I could trust. Even the Princess was a liar like all the rest! Underneath every mystery, yet another mystery and another!! I needed someone I could trust, someone with ALL the answers, and I found... him! The Triangle Man! Gahhhh!!"
Flummox writhed and grew, bones and muscles creaking. Brass-feathered wings burst from his sides. His cutie mark blurred and melted, reforming into a magnifying glass over a pyramid with an eye.
"He taught me so much..." Flummox wiped a crocodile tear from his eye. "But he's gone now... So it's up to me to tell ponies all the secrets! Everything that ponies were not. meant. to. know! Ha! Hahaha! AH-hahaha! AH-HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!"
-- NIGHTSTALLION APOCRYPHA -- The Maddening Truth --
The Nightstallion paused and peered down, adjusting his glasses as he read the subtitle. "Nightstallion Apocrypha... Yes, that will do nicely!"
Kendell2
Suddenly, Genie Sweetie Belle blinked, finding herself in a strange place. It felt like she was in a wishing star or the birthday candle...it was strange to describe.
Visually, above was full of stars, each of one looked like the first one of a night (something that was of course physically impossible, but somehow here that was possible). The rest was ever shifting sands with areas with wishing wells in places. Another are had a forest of birthday candles. And that's just what she could actually DESCRIBE.
'I wish I was taller.'
'I wish daddy would come home.'
I wish I had lots and lots of candy!'
'I wish big sister would get better.'
'I wish for a friend.'
Sweetie Belle blinked as wishes seemed to be constantly wishing.
"Hello, Sweetie Belle," said a voice behind her.
She turned to see a purple Alicorn standing before her. Her Cutie Mark was a green present with a wishing star in it. Her mane was made of ever flowing sand that never fell and colored green, faded pink, and white with a golden tint to it. Her barding was similar to her own, only more fitting of her color scheme and having a veil over her muzzle.
Sweetie Belle gasped. Something felt...familiar. She wondered if this feeling was how a dragon feels around Tiamat and Bahamut. "Uh...hi. Who are you?"
The Alicorn chuckled. "My name is Princess Jiniri Miraculum Ponyland. Or just Jiniri. Or Razzaroo if you want."
Sweetie Belle bowed at the mention of Princess. She then looked over the Alicorn again. "Uh...are you a Genie like me?"
Jiniri tapped her chin. "You could say that, though it's more you're a genie like ME."
"Huh? Why?"
"Because I'm the Mother of All Genies, yes yes yes."
Sweetie Belle gasped in surprise. "So...you're like Tiamat and Bahamut for Genies?!"
Jiniri nodded. "Yes yes yes. I'm the Alicorn of Wishes and Miracles, so comes with the territory."
The little Alicorn nodded slowly. "Oh...okay...I think I get it...where am I?"
"You're in my realm, which means you're kinda in me looking at me...don't think about that too hard..." the Alicorn of Wishes and Miracles explained. Jiniri decided to leave out that she might also be a tiny bit into the future where Razzaroo had ascended already. Jiniri kneeled down a little bit so she could see her face to face. "Sweetie, I want to let you know a few things about being a Genie."
Sweetie cocked her head. "Yes?"
"There's a REASON I gave the Genies the ability to decide which wishes to grant, yes yes yes. Because granting EVERY wish is going to end badly...trust me, I know."
Sweetie Belle listened closely and thought about it. "So...I need to be careful?"
"Yes. You need to be responsible and keep in mind the consequences of granting a wish," Jiniri explained. "Last time every wish got granted without any problems...the world got tied in knots. I gave you that ability so you could CHOOSE what wishes you can be careful about it. Okay?"
Sweetie Belle listened...and a part of her seemed to REMEMBER it... It made her shudder. The thought of EVERY wish being granted. She just knew that some things couldn't co-exist...at all...and it resonated with something in her. "I understand, Jiniri, I'll be careful...oh! And one thing..."
"Yes?"
"Do I have to call you mom? Since you're my 'mother goddess' now?"
Jiniri chuckled. "Only if you WANT to...Have a good time, Sweetie Belle. Yes yes yes."
----
Sweetie Belle blinked, finding herself back in the room she'd left. She looked around in confusion.
"Oh! I know what we can do while we wait!" said Button. "I wish we had a game consol and some games to play while we're waiting!"
MtangaLion
A sickly green glow surrounded Nightstallion Apocrypha, and he floated off the floor, wings spread but not flapping. He teleported over to one of the crystal walls, frowning at his reflection. "What is that supposed to be?! You'd think I could have invented myself some fashion sense!" Magic rippled over his jacket and vest, turning them pitch black. "And my indoor voice has off and gone straight to Tartarus!! Mr. Triangle Man would be so proud! Hah! I'm a regular cross section off the convex polygon! Now, what should I do with..." His head pivoted sharply. "YOU TWO?!"
Flim and Flam cowered even harder, teeth chattering. "Really, it's okay!" stammered Flim.
"You don't have to thank us," said Flam. They started backing up towards the door.
Apocrypha teleported between it and them. "Are you kidding me?! You're the Fabulous Flim Flam Brothers! You never do anything without knowing what's in it for YOU, and you're never happy unless you're ripping somepony off! But you wouldn't cheat..." The Nightstallion's voice momentarily turned deep and loud enough to rattle the whole room. "YOUR DEAR UNCLE, would you?!"
Flim and Flam should their heads frantically.
Apocrypha kneaded his forehooves, grinning darkly. "Would you like to behold Lord Havoc in all his wondrous, blood-curdling glory?! I've seen it! Would you like to know what your father said about you in that nursing home when you colts didn't come to visit?! I can tell you! But first, how about a gift?!"
The Nightstallion drew enough magic into his horn to dim the whole room, conjuring a small crystal sphere. "Have you ever wondered what the world would be like today, if you boys had gotten your university degrees?! If you'd taken every amazing thing you ever invented to the patent office instead of using them for petty scams?! No need to wonder, kids! Take a GOOD LONG LOOK!!"
Magic lifted Flim and Flam right off their hooves and shrank them into tiny phantoms. They fell into the sphere, screaming.
"HA-hahahahaha!" Thunder boomed indoors, just for effect. The Nightstallion grinned sharply. "Well, I'm off to Canterlot, girls!" he said, winking at Lilith and Blank Diamond. "Don't wait up for me!" He disappeared in a teleport flash... and reappeared only seconds later. "All right, who ordered up the TIME LOOP!? I WILL NOT HAVE MY NEW ERA OF ENLIGHTENMENT SNUFFED OUT BEFORE IT EVEN BEGINS!" He glared at the door, and the mansion began to shake ominously.
Alex Warlorn
Flim and Flam meanwhile, found themselves in an Equestria where they basically lived like kings. They had revolutionized the entire economy, and being scammers themselves, they knew how to avoid being cheated out of their patents or their shares of the profits. Even Princess Celestia had to politely smile and nod to their financial might, their business empire had in just a couple decades interwoven itself too deeply into Equestria to be removed without causing sever internal bleeding to Equestria itself.
The native Flim and Flam were in particular intrigued.
"Other versions of Equestria? Brother just imagine! The trade on the scale of entire universes!"
-
Back in Uncle Flummox's mansion.
Maid Sweetie hummed to herself, and took some wooden 2 by 4s covered in glowing runes, and began hammering them into place over the door the Flim and Flam brothers had slipped through. She also plucked hair out of her own mane with barely an 'ouch!' and lined it around the door.
Maid Joystick, Maid Apple Bloom, and Maid Scootaloo meanwhile in other spots in the mansion, also began to began to do the same with stores of wigs from the dressing room made from real unicorn hair around the doors and window.
Nightstallion Apocrypha shouted mentally, 'HEY! You! I can sense you! Someponies who got tried on the maid outfits! You literally breath to obey me! Stop that! Get me out of here!'
"Sorry Master," The Maid Sweetie bowed to the door. As did her 'sisters' who apologized and bowed at their far end of the mansion. "You left specific instructions in the enchantments that bound us to your service master, 'If I ever become a Nightmare, Nightstallion, Night-creature or otherwise corrupted or 'too pure', you are to do everything to make sure U do not escape. And to ignore all orders from me until I am cured."
"NIGHTSTALLION?!" The foals and genie all gasped.
"YOU SPOILED MY BIG ENTRANCE YOU LITTLE BRAT!" Nightstallion Apocrypha boomed deafeningly right through the door.
"Also, since I and my fellow maids are already transformed and bound to the mansion, you can not transform us twice master, since we are already living fixtures of your homestead master. As you told us ahead of time master in case this happened master."
Inside the room, Nightstallion Apocrypha pointed at Lilith and the Nightfilly. "YOU! And you! Get me out of here!"
"I already have one mad god I have to listen to, and at least we're family." Blank Diamond said matter of fact. "No." The Nightfilly turned up her nose. "I'm just here for Apple Bloom and her friends, or rather, they're here for me."
"I remember when your species was taking dumps in the middle of grass fields and killing each other over mates, and were brainless beasts of burdens for centaurs, no." Lilith said, growing quite large, which made little sense given the supposed size of the room.
"I'll crush your minds with the infinite darkness from the depths of doom!"
"I AM the infinite darkness from the depths of doom!" Lilith boomed.
"Been there, done that," the Nightfilly rolled her eyes at him. "You're just a poor stallion's Discord. An you're an even more pale imitation of your mentor. I've ALREADY been ground into sand unspeakable horrible truths."
"What about the secret of being atomized?!" The stallion fired eye lasers at the Nightfilly who turned into a shadow and the lasers bounce around the room until entering the crystal sphere, where it atomized the visiting Flim's hat.
-
"Can you tell me why I reset, but my friends didn't respawn with me? If there's a new universe out there, wouldn't they then go with me to it, since then other me would be alone since we're supposed to respawn as a group, the result would be a world where my friends just vanished the day something strange happened to me." Sweetie had asked Carnival Cat.
"Hmmm. Something weird might be messing with the waves of fate and the spell. If your enchantment was made by Princess Luna and Fate if you say so. Something so weird it can actually mess things up retroactively when it first appears."
"So... I'm all alone now? I'm the Sweetie Belle without anypony? And the Sweetie Belle who became a genie is the one who has friends? Am... Am I going to finish this quest alone now? Am I going to come back to a world after tonight where all my friends just vanished since they're with that other Sweetie who used to be me?"
"... Technically, every time you 'respawn' it supposed to be just another timeline of your four watching everything up to that point on the what-if machine, and then heading out 'for the first time'... So you SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN ABLE to respawn on your own. AT ALL! ... I'd say you're from a timeline where your friends just didn't show up for some convoluted reason in Apple Bloom's bedroom, never mind it makes no sense that you'd be there at the Apple house all by yourself without at least Apple Bloom there, not to mention you REMEMBER that they're all supposed to be there... so yeah. Something WEIRD happened! What happened to you poor girl, isn't supposed to have happened. At all."
Sweetie Belle made her way to the mansion, and found Maid Joystick greeting her outside. "Hello honored guest Sweetie Belle! It's a measure to have you!" She bowed. "The master of the house has turned into a Nightstallion, so I and my fellow maids cannot guarantee your safety, sanity, or continued unique existence if you enter."
"STOP SPOILING MY BIG REVEAL!!!" Echoed a distorted voice from inside.
"Maybe you should... turn around and leave?" Maid Joystick suggested, for a moment actually, sounding... concerned for Sweetie.
"... I'm sorry, I can't. I have nothing to go back to, and nowhere else to go..." Sweetie said as she entered the mansion wondering if her friends had been respawned themselves since she entered. But they were part of GENIE Sweetie Belle's timeline, not hers, they COULDN'T respawn. "UH-OH!" Even if she was alone, she didn't want Genie Sweetie to be alone too if this Uncle Flummox Nightstallion zapped her friends into something lie say living rag dolls.
"First thing I'm doing when I break out of this door is zap that genie's friends I sense on the other side of this door into my living rag doll minions! And I've got a million other things I'll zap any other versions that show up into! Bowling balls! Modern art! The house could always use more staff! I'll fill the mansion with'em until it bursts!"
"Just be sure to leave one set for me, or rather, I'm for one at least one set." Blank Diamond knocked on the door. "I border in non-existence, no barrier can keep me out. I came in here hoping to find something of true interest and horror, and instead I just find another Nightstallion," She turned to shadow and slipped though unnoticed by the CMC as she stood right next to them, including the Genie filly. Waiting her turn.Or stop the Nightstallion if he got out of control.
"COME BACK HERE... So what are YOU here for again toots?" The Nightstallion asked the shade of the first witch to ever live. "That doors not Witch proof, so what can I do for ya to break it down for me?"
"You ask AFTER telling me to?" Lilith ask. "Me? The first witch to ever live? The true discover of black magic? The ancestor of every witch to ever live? I once sough to consume the world to feed my magic and unlife. NOW you want to barter with ME?!"
"Uh, yes?"
MtangaLion
Lilith answered him with a cruel smile and a single word. "No."
Apocrypha's eyes blazed. "Don't be so hasty, witch! I have something you want!"
She shook her head. "What I want... is to amuse myself at your expense, while you sit here in the cage made by your servants according to your contingency plan, until Fate's loop puts you back in the time trap you built. You outsmarted yourself, fool beast! Do you think you'd last a day against the bearers of wretched harmony? Unleashing a weak Nightstallion who will only get turned into another Alicorn is not conducive to my plans."
Apocrypha stamped a hoof so hard, the crystal floor should have shattered. "Weak, you say?! I'll get out without any help from you!" He charged his horn until it glowed blindingly bright... and everything else in the room grew cold and dim. Countless shadows of existence swarmed, nibbling at the edges of the rift.
Lilith arched a brow. "Now you're just being reckless and stupid. If you tear a hole in the world, all that you will accomplish is reseting the loop immediately."
The Nightstallion froze. His magic winked out, and the sealed room returned to normal. "You... you're right!"
Lilith blinked.
"I *am* being stupid! This... isn't me!" Apocrypha lifted a shaking foreleg, and hoofed himself right across the face.
And Lilith actually winced. "I'm not at all concerned about you injuring yourself... but I am curious why."
The Nightstallion slapped himself in the face again, spreading his wings for balance as he lurched to one side. "You were right to belittle me... madam. I didn't get where I am today..." SLAP! "by being a loud-mouthed... imbecile!" He hoofed himself one more time, then panted heavily, barely able to stand.
When he opened his eyes again, they were still a Nightstallion's eyes, but there was a new clarity in them. "I... feel better now," said Flummox. "Perhaps I can actually reason my way back to... well, reason!" He leaned to look for his cutie mark, and his face fell, seeing a blurred and flickering shape on his flank, a foal's chalk drawing left out in the rain. "So this is what it is like," he mused, "to know that one is a mad, broken pony. I should take notes... ah, but there's no time."
Lilith watched in mild disbelief as Flummox seized the crystal pillars in his magic, breaking them apart and sorting everything into basic components, all at once. "And what do you think you're doing now? It won't be any use."
"I'm gathering data," said Flummox grumpily, as he assembled a new device out of the crystal parts. "Thinking. Like I wasn't, when I made that damnable deal with my marvelous new so-called friend!" Magical lights started tracing pictures in the air... his mansion, the glowing cube of his prison... the foals and the maids and his unwelcome shadowy guests.
"This paradox," he mused, "with only that one unicorn filly reseting instead of all four... Yes, of course, there's only one reasonable solution! I myself am responsible for the other three being diverted, and I haven't done it yet!"
Flummox started slotting the rest of the crystal pieces together into a *time* portal, not trusting his unfamiliar Alicorn-level magic to transport him through across the time loop directly. Normally, even he wouldn't have tried to design the necessary Starswirl Spell Arrays all in his head, but he was working in a feverish, mad brilliance now. "It will be a great risk," he muttered to himself, "but there'll be worse than a reset if I don't!"
Alex Warlorn
'Well this has become a mess with no direction to go.' Thought 'Blank Diamond' looking at the genie Sweetie Belle. '... I guess she can sense me because she's not MY Sweetie Belle. Pst. These girls made here to find some 'great final secret' for the strangeness of Everfree, and all they do is delivery two stallions who set free a Nightstallion who then disposes of them, and is now set to defeat himself... What do Fawn Doo and Marcy Pan even see in those two?' She'd known as soon as she became a Nightmare that she was a wrongness in creation, but it had never hit her how much before coming here how much reality HATED HER. If her nature didn't make her scentless, there was no telling what the wolf would do to her. It actually made her shudder a little on the inside. She wasn't just wrong in the Nightmare sense, reality sincerely and truly despised her, it saw her as some awkward moment between her corruption and her purification. It wanted her not only to have never existed, but wanted NO TIMELINE ANYWHERE AT ALL to have another of her. She sickened it, and it loathed the fact she even drew breath. Knowing what reality thought of her... was it any wonder what she thought of reality? Truly?
Still, having come all this way, she wasn't about to leave empty hooved... or maybe not leave at all, depending on how things went. And Diamond Tiara sensed the Sweetie Belle who had respawned... alone... in the mansion... and she felt it... reality hated her too. For the crime of existing. 'Who'd think the two of us would be kindred spirits?' She thought and teleported right next to her at the other end of the mansion, walking along side her.
She was surprised when she Sweetie Belle... crying and whimpering before a angry and hungry wolf.
"BLANKY! What's wrong?! Don't you know me?!"
"Don't worry Guest Sweetie Belle! I'll-" Joystick was knocked aside by the wolf, the maids Apple Bloom an Scootaloo didn't even notice... Diamond Tiara recognized the gray sand colored in between that the wolf pulled its prey into. The Nightmare of Diamond Tiara sighed... And not even knowing why she was doing what she was doing, she blasted the Blank Wolf through a wall before it could eat Sweetie Belle.
"In retrospect, I should have just told the floor to commit suicide and the wolf would have fallen through." The Nightfilly thought in grim realization. After all, no amount of 'don't notice me' was going to work against doing THAT in plain view.
MtangaLion
Diamond Tiara scanned the mansion, and quickly teleported Sweetie and herself to the aquarium room, leaving the maids behind. They appeared next to the small tank that used to house a spawn of Ponythulhu, and a flick of her magic turned the wards back on. That would hide them, for a little while at least.
Sweetie groaned and shook herself. "Diamond? Is that you?"
Of course, Diamond knew, this Sweetie Belle couldn't see her properly. Her shroud was still in place. The Nightmare sighed, waiting for Sweetie's expression of disgust, her foalish demand to know what *she* was doing here.
Sweetie cantered forward in a rush and hugged her.
Diamond froze.
Sweetie hugged her tighter, shivering. "I never thought I'd be so glad to see you! I thought I was all alone, and everypony had forgotten me!" She hesitated. "Your fur is so cold... is Discord having you learn some other form again?"
Diamond Tiara... had no words. Somepony was hugging her? Somepony was happy to see *her*? How long had it been since *that* had happened? Her heart was empty... she couldn't return those feelings.
For just a moment, she almost hated herself for that.
Sweetie shrugged it off. "It still feels really weird to ask something like this, but... do you think Discord could help us straighten this out? I'm worried that something's gone really, really wrong with the loop."
Diamond finally recovered enough of her wits to push Sweetie back a pace and look her in the eyes. "You think Discord would *help*... *you?*"
Sweetie Belle shrank back a bit. "You don't remember, do you? Please, please try, Diamond! We all had this big, amazing adventure together! In one of the loops, the four of us turned into Nightmares, but then you showed up and we found out that you're a yokai, and you helped saved us! You're a hero, Diamond, as much as any of the rest of us Crusaders!"
Diamond reeled. That... was more insane than the remade world she and Father planned. It made no sense! Sweetie had to be lying!
No. Sweetie Belle couldn't have known to expect Blank Diamond. And she wasn't the kind of pony to play cruel tricks.
Diamond felt the barest ghost of horrible jealousy, the merest hint of a towering rage. Her world and this one were close, very close. Some tiny twist of Fate could be the difference between her becoming a hero... and a monster?
The Blank Wolf phased through a wall and stalked towards them, snarling. There were out of time.
"Blanky?" begged Sweetie Belle again. "Blanky, please!"
"Did... did you just call THE Blank Wolf a pet name?" Diamond trailed off, sensing something else approaching. Her eyes widened.
A much larger white wolf padded out of the shadows, easily bigger than a pony stallion. The smaller wolf hopped in place, nosing him. "Brother Snow Bound! Let's erase them together!"
Now Diamond Tiara would have felt terror, if she could still feel anything at all. TWO Blank Wolves? There was one, and only one to a world!
But the older wolf had what she now realized that the younger wolf lacked. The Wolf could die, but the Wolf always came back again. Those golden eyes had seen thousands upon thousands of years.
Blanky bared his fangs and gathered himself to spring upon them... but Snow Bound held out a forepaw sharply, baring his way. "Mother has asked us to wait," growled Snow, "but we will not wait forever. Watch them closely, brother, so they do not get away."
Alex Warlorn
"?!whaT ?!WhY !thE preY iS righT iN fronT oF uS"
".FatE haS commandeD ,wE shalL obeY"
Realizing they had a reprieve, Sweetie said, "Blanky! We're friends! You don't have to do this!"
"!yoU arE A contradictioN !yoU arE aN inconsistencY !yoU wilL bE removeD nonE escapE thE wolF !dutY ,purposE ,anD responsibilitY overridE alL" Blanky snarled.
Alex Warlorn
"You're wasting your time Sweetie Belle, they won't listen. You might as well try to convince a boulder not to fall on you. We're the same right now."
"Diamond Tiara, what do you mean?"
"It would be more pragmatic to pretend I'm your Diamond Tiara ... But I'm tired of everything... like you are too I guess... another way we're the same right now. I've come to hate the world, like this world has always hated me." She brushed Sweetie with her wings and tapped her with her horn, making it impossible for Sweetie not to recognize they existed. "I'm a Nightmare... I'm more than a Nightmare, all Nightmares are wrong, but I'm so wrong even other Nightmares loath and are disgusted by me merely existing... I'm hated and loathed for the crime of being. Do you know what it's like for reality to treat you like you're very existence is just an awkward moment to get through as quickly as possible? Any opponent you beat? It's seen as an embarrassment to them, not an accomplishment to you. Nothing you accomplish is seen as something great for you, it's just something that lessens others... Taste of my own medicine I guess eh?"
MtangaLion
Sweetie Belle put a hoof to her mouth, horrified. She wanted to shout that this wasn't a funny prank, not at all, but she *been there*.
The World Mirror maze. They'd left it unlocked.
Princess Thalia, telling them how she'd done something to make sure Discord wouldn't do bad things in the future...
"You're a Diamond Tiara who didn't get saved, cause your Discord didn't get saved..." Sweetie Belle shook her head forcefully. "I don't care what you say. I can't believe that you're utterly beyond hope. There's always hope!" She grasped one of Diamond's hooves, never mind how it made her own hoof feel numb. "I've been where you are now, Diamond Tiara, and my friends didn't give up on me, so how could I give up on you?"
A ghostly filly melted out of the shadows and drew near, one that Sweetie knew all too well. "Be Nightmare Cantata," whispered the ghost filly. "If you're really Diamond's friend, then stand by her. This isn't Diamond's fault. She's been wronged. *Make it right.*"
But another one of the same set, this one a colt, joined the first. "Be Euterpe, and the wolves will bow before you. Let your voice resound. Call down the Elements and make Diamond whole. You are not the dissonant one... it's the world that gone wrong. *Make it right.*"
Sweetie Belle shuddered. "You're both trying to trick me! ... but what other choices are there?"
The other Crusaders and Sweetie Belle the genie started feeling really uneasy, and they couldn't say why. Flummox grimaced and powered on his portal, no time for tests...
Alex Warlorn
"Sweetie Belle... " The Nightfilly sighed. "I have a feeling reality is about to get hit hard by a rather large ripple, I should know, I have lots of experiences creating them myself. Pity things got so thrown off course isn't it?"
Mtangalion
The portal twisted itself into being, grew solid and stable. Flummox hesitated. "You're not going to talk me out of it? Clearly, I'm mad to even consider this. Not even a last second taunt?"
The ghost of Lilith folded her arms crossly. "If you break everything, I will personally make your Oblivion hell."
He thought that over. "If I do, madam, you'll probably have to wait in line." The Nightstallion took a deep breath, and stepped through.
The world turned hazy and colorless... all motion, all sound ceased except for what noise he made himself. The portal hung behind him, a frozen oval of life and color.
Flummox shuddered. "This is..." He shook his head. "No, I don't want to see Outside. The world is so fragile, just a flickering flame suspended over endless Nothing..." Flummox gritted his teeth. "I must focus. I mustn't think about... those things." He reached out with his senses, then reluctantly spread his wings, feeling out where he needed to go.
He flew back... back to before the maids sealed him in. He watched Nightmare Apocrypha rant at the shadows, unbanish his nephews, transform back into his old self, and then get sealed into the time trap, all in reverse. He looked at his first Journal longingly, sorely tempted to go back a little further and grab it before his nephews could and buck the consequences. Reluctantly, he let it be, gliding through the wall and into the outer chamber.
Three fillies and a colt stood here, motionless in the gray haze, and the white-furred one was a *genie* of all things... the old bottle he'd brought back all those years ago... it had really worked!
"So," growled a deep in-equine voice. "Only now do you finally learn when you should leave well enough alone."
Flummox spun about in a panic and fired a crackling green burst from his horn. The huge white wolf chomped it right out of the air, and... Flummox hadn't fired his magic at all. He'd hesitated. "You!?" he snarled.
"What did you expect," rumbled Snow Bound, "when you came willingly into my hunting ground?" He stood there, golden eyes boring into him, but he made no move to attack.
The Nightstallion shook a hoof at the Wolf. "I remember now. In my earlier years, I thought I could improve on Starswirl's Proscribed Predestination Paradox, but the spells I constructed never seemed to work. Because of you! Every time I broke causality..."
"I erased the inconsistent timelines. That is my purpose."
"Two hundred and eleven times!!" roared the Nightstallion, dangerously close to losing control. "You ERASED me two hundred and eleven times. Another mystery explained."
Snow Bound snorted. "You were very persistent."
The room shifted, and time began to crawl forward again.
Button Mash tapped his chin. "Sweetie... What if I wished that after I'm not your master, your Rarity's the next one that finds you?"
"This is the moment when the loop should have reset," growled Snow Bound. "If you wish to make matters right, then resolve the paradox. Do what was, what will be, what must be done."
Flummox scowled, wanting to argue.
"I...I can do that! I can feel it, I can!" Sweetie Belle replied, smiling. She gave it serious thought. "Plus if I change my mind, I can just have Rarity wish me free in three days! So I think I do want to stay like this!"
But ironically, there wasn't any more time!
"Okay! Then I wish that when I'm not your master anymore, Rarity will be the one to find you!" Button replied.
Flummox locked his magic onto the colt and the two fillies who were still ponies, and cast the strongest temporal binding spell he knew, amplified by his Nightmare strength. Reality itself shuddered, resisting him.
Sweetie Belle the Genie froze, gasping softly. "That felt weird. It... it worked! I'm out of the time loop, and Sweetie respawned."
While the kids wished for their new genie friend to transform them into other shapes and provide them with games to play... Flummox was struggling with the effort of maintaining the spell. "When I let go... the loop will fully reset?"
Snow Bound hesitated before nodding. "Yes."
The anomalous Sweetie Belle came to the mansion, and was chased by... another Wolf? And another Nightmare?! No, focus! "Will I vanish in the next loop iteration?" he blurted out. "Never released from the time trap? Will I continue in some fashion? What will become of me?!"
Snow Bound approached and rested a huge white paw on his shoulder. Since when did the Blank Wolf comfort anypony? "I do not know. I dared not look that far ahead. But I expect we will meet again."
The Wolf vanished... gone to where the other Wolf was. Alone, Flummox waited until the moment felt right, then whispered a prayer and released his spell.
Alex Warlorn
Blank Diamond's horn glowed, and a barrier of her unique form of magic formed around them, letting them slip through the world rippling, but also, letting them stay in this moment, even Blank Diamond couldn't stop the horrible headache Sweetie was going to have in the morning.
"You know Sweetie Belle..." The Nightmare of Diamond Tiara said. "You have no place here. I could take you away from all this. I'm building a kingdom with my Discord, one where causality and continuity don't matter. Where everything is only as real as much as you believe it's real. Come with me, and you'll be a princess. Just believe you're loved by everypony and you will be. Believe it'll be a challenge and it will be. And Rota Fortuna, will have no control or dominion there."
"... Thank you Tiara... But... Why did you come here?"
"... I wanted to see. I wanted proof I wasn't just some disease. That I wasn't some unnatural fluke to be reviled. I thought if... you and your friends defeated me, that must mean there are others of me out there... after all, events have been set in stone, and I can't fulfill them if I'm beaten, so that must mean another Diamond Tiara has to." The filly said in a distant monotone. "... But then I found you... you're like me, a glitch in creation, a runtime error in reality... You know what it's like."
Sweetie Belle hugged the Nightmare, even if it did make her feel numb just by touching her. The dust itself seemed to go limp in contact with the Nightfilly.
"... Nopony is a mistake. I'm not a mistake. You're not a mistake. Don't listen to monsters who tell you different. You're... you're you... you're... you're just sick."
"Sick? Just another word for 'not normal', and 'normal' itself just being what everyone else, and what you are not."
"Tiara... don't be like this... When did bullying the world ever work?"
"... So you won't come with me?"
"... I just want to go home... this adventure was fun at first but now... I don't care about Everfree's secrets... I just want go to sleep... Where did you get that camera?"
"Just a little something I picked up, from you. You didn't notice it was with you the entire time?"
"No... No I didn't."
"Here. Hold onto it. It's funny... if I could still laugh I'd be in tears by now. Looks like I get what I want after all, but not the way I thought I'd get it... be happy and love your parents Sweetie Belle, they're the most precious family you have."
"Huh? Diamond Tiara! What are you doing?!"
The Nightfilly didn't answer. "Giving you what I can't give myself."
The Nightfilly took her chance, while events in this brief moment were still putty.
She nudged events. Now the foals all grabbed hold of Sweetie Belle as she was sucked in, and all were pulled in one by one, and their cutie marks appeared on the bottle as it got slightly larger as it was corked.
Blank Diamond picked it up.
"Oh, how uncle would LOVE to use the emerald talisman to make you all eager and willing slaves to whoever holds your battle... But that's not what Sweetie would want, so thank her for your continued freedom." The Nightfilly teleported it to Rarity's house.
Now... Sweetie's friends would reset with her. And events solidified and moved forward. Sweetie, now with her three friends like she was supposed to be from the start, and belonged.
Meanwhile... Blank Diamond sighed. She was surrounded on all sides.
A wolf. A dragon. A bird-of-prey. A sea-serpent. A tiger. A centaur. A hydra. An armed and armored flock of Scootaloos. Pony and beast all made of them of starscapes.
"Nightfilly... You have twisted and distorted reality. You reveal yourself to us fully with your meddling. You have altered the fate of three ponies to your liking. You sought to spread your corruption even further beyond your own reality. You are The Corruption. You have overstepped your bounds. All the concepts of the Equilibrium are here to pass judgement on you."
"I know." 'So... At least I found the proof that I wasn't the only one after all... Sweetie Belle, I hope you find your home again. Discord... Filth Rich, dad, mom, goodbye.'
The beasts fell upon her, claws and fangs bared.
( OOC: I based this on Ulysses 31's depiction on Circe, in particular the last scene of the episode where Zeus inform her that all the gods of Olympus had come to pass judgement on her for aiding Ulysses. )
MtangaLion
Everything grew hazy, and three fillies and a colt tumbled onto Apple Bloom's bed, in her warm, familiar room at Sweet Apple Acres.
The What-If Machine whirred. "This machine detected severe time distortion in your previous reality. Are you younglings intact and fully operational?"
Apple Bloom blinked at the screen. "Ah don't remember things turning out like *that*." The machine showed Rainbow Dash and Big Mac rushing around town, asking if anypony had seen Apple Bloom or Scootaloo. Maternity told them that Button Mash was missing too, but then Rarity emerged from her shop to unveil the ancient bottle, and all four of the Crusaders as newly minted genies.
Sweetie's eyes grew wide. "But I was the only one... wasn't I?" The four genies showed off all the amazing things they could do, turning Ponyville upside-down until even Thalia and Discord had to grin and tell them to tone it down a bit.
The machine whirred again. "This unit calculates a high probability that events in the immediate future of that world will be relevant and of interest to you. Accessing data..."
On the What-If Machine's screen.... The very next day, an unnatural darkness blotted out the sky over the Everfree Forest, and Nightstallion Apocrypha attacked Ponyville with gnomes and Sunnytown zombies and manticores, with another Nightstallion named Thorne and duplicates of Twilight and her friends twisted by dark sorcery, with Nobodies and shadowy tentacle things and creatures from beyond the stars. If four genies, two Alicorns, a draconequus, a yokai, and the other Bearers of Harmony hadn't been there to contain them...
"Wait, wait, hold on..." cried Scootaloo, freezing the image on Apocrypha. "Is that... Flummox? That was the big mystery in the last chamber? The Flummox of our world was a Nightmare... Nightstallion... the whole time!?"
Button Mash gasped, checking his inventory. "Girls, Flim and Flam are gone! When did they even..."
The CMC+1 looked at each other, thoughts whirling.
Sweetie Belle took a deep breath. "Girls... and Button... how about we just stay in tonight? We could have a sleepover or something."
A knock at the door startled them. Apple Bloom opened it and found Diamond Tiara, in the guise of a normal filly and wearing an overnight saddlebag. "Did somepony say sleepover?" She smiled nervously, as if she was afraid they'd slam the door in her face. "Some... things happened with a different me, and all I could do was watch, and..."
Without another word, the Crusaders invited her in and hugged her and each other, like one big herd.
After a long, deep sleep full of strange dreams, Apple Bloom stirred awake and smiled at the golden sunlight peeking in her windows. "Heh. So this is tomorrow."
Diamond Tiara yawned and smirked, not caring anymore who saw her mane not neatly brushed. "Tomorrow is today now, genius."
"I can't believe it's over," mused Scootaloo.
Button Mash smacked his face with a hoof. "I still have weekend homework I haven't done!"
Sweetie winked at Diamond, remembering her mentioning something similar, and nuzzled Button. "We'll do it together!"
A boom rattled all the furniture, followed by two more quick booms... just like the sound of Flim and Flam's steam wagon backfiring! Apple Bloom threw the bed covers aside. "What in tarnation?!"
The Crusaders and Diamond raced out and down the stairs and careened out the front door to find that they were half right. It was Flim and Flam... years older and bearded and jolly, and riding a *flying* steam wagon. Scootaloo blinked, thinking of the picture of 'Santa Claus' from Twilight's old book."
Flim took off his goggles. "Dimensional transfer accomplished!"
Flam grinned broadly. "Home sweet home!"
Flim nudged him. "Well, it will be!"
Apple Bloom's eyes bulged, taking in every detail of the flying machine. "How... how did ya do this? Where have you been?!"
Flim chuckled, and for once there was nothing devious or conniving in it at all. "Let's just say... we saw the world that my brother and I *could* have made."
Flam shook his head. "We couldn't go back and do things right from the start..."
Flim punched the air with a hoof. "But we could make a *new* start, right there and then and here and now!" Each of them levitated a framed master's degree in magical-technological engineering.
Flam grinned. "Come on down to Ponyville, kids! We've got lots to show everypony!"
Flim leaned out of the flying machine and whispered, "You can help us rescue our uncle later. He'll keep for a few more days."
Later that morning, Flim and Flam put up a big top tent next to Ponyville's marketplace, using floating crystal robots to do the heavy lifting. "Behold, the wonders of the future, today!" barked Flim to the gathering crowd of ponies, including a very skeptical Twilight, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash. The Crusaders were there too, and Apple Bloom could hardly contain herself, bouncing in place and rushing from one technological marvel to another.
"Reliable steam wagons that anypony can use!" shouted Flam.
"Machines to make life better and easier!" said Flim. "Hundreds of library books in one little crystal!" Twilight's friends had to stop her from rushing the stage with a dozen questions.
"All powered by sunlight and magic," declared Flam. "None of that stinky coal or burning wood, no ma'am!"
"Ponyville... we offer you factories and jobs! Reasonably priced wonders for everypony, with a modest and reasonable profit for ourselves."
"All on the up-and-up. Repeat, we are not planning to cheat anyone."
The Flim Flam Brothers chorused, "Cross our hearts, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in our eyes!"
Meanwhile, Apple Bloom just plum couldn't contain herself any more. "And these robots are like the ones Ah built in that other world... 'cept Ah can probably program 'em even better, and..." The filly gasped. Her cutie mark was shining bright.
Right in front of her friends and half of Ponyville, Apple Bloom floated into the air and was enveloped in a shimmering cocoon of light.
Kendell2
"What's going on?"
The group blinked, hearing stomps coming, turned to find Pipsqueek riding on top of Basil's head with Ruby Pinch and the rest of his crew.
"Oh yeah, I forgot that Basil was looking for him..." Sweetie Belle said, looking to her friends.
"Uh..." said Twilight. "What the..."
"This colt's ancestor forced me to swear myself to her as my master," Basil explained...as Ruby Pinch put a ribbon on one of his spike's. "This is humiliating, but at least I'm actually DOING something..."
"Don't worry, I ordered him not to hurt anypony," Pipsqueek said, smiling.
"Whao..." Spike said, looking up at the ancient dragon.
Patch's and Squire's ghosts appeared next to Coffee Swirl, invisible to Basil. "Huh...I could have sworn that he'd find some way to get out of that..." Patch remarked.
"Dragons have their pride, Patch," Squire replied.
"It appears that young Applebloom is reaching her full potential," said Celestia, herself and Luna descending from the sky...followed by a familiar flying saucer. "We were just coming back with the ambassadors from the Celestial Ponies who we met thanks to you four."
Pipsqueek waved to Luna who waved back, chuckling a bit at Basil's expense.
Under normal circumstances, an alien space craft landing in a town would cause more of a stir...but this was Ponyville, so it only got some excitement and confusion. It helped the Princesses had been the ones GUIDING them there.
The spaceship landed and out came some familiar aliens.
"Nova! Blue Dwarf! Pink Star! Nebula!" Sweetie Belle shouted, running over. Pink Star showed she still had the bandages.
"But I thought that timeline would've fractured off..." said Scootaloo.
"The reset was triggered by a separate event, not you meeting the Celestial ponies," Luna explained.
The alien ponies were quite happy to meet their friends again...but then looked at Applebloom. "Oh my, what's happening?" Nebula asked.
"Young Applebloom appears to be ascending," Luna explained, looking at her. "It seems you've arrived here just in time to witness something very special."
Veritas looked to Thalia as Twilight naturally started interviewing the aliens, who also noted the Flim Flam's technology was more advanced than they expected Equestria to have. "So...we getting character overload this time?"
Pinkie Pie's Alicorn shook her head. "Nah, this is grand finale territory! We're supposed to bring everypony we can back here to wave goodbye!"
Alex Warlorn
A dark shadow formed out of Sweetie Belle's own shadow, shaped like an equine, but not quite the same, like some evolutionary path that never was. It tapped her on the shoulder. The filly turned and gasped.
"W-what are you?"
It offered her a note. "By the request of The Nightfilly... this message is delivered to you." It dissolved back into shadow. The note fluttered down, and Sweetie caught it in her magic. All that it said on it in Diamond Tiara's mouth-writing was 'Beware of Lilith.'
Mtangalion
Diamond Tiara looked seriously freaked out. Sweetie Belle realized that Diamond had probably been moments from transforming to protect her from the shadow, and never mind who saw. "Diamond? It's okay. I'm okay!"
Diamond shook her head. "Lilith. Oh, I hope I'm wrong..."
Honestly, the Crusaders couldn't be blamed for what happened next. They'd been exploring and going around in their loop for so long, certain things just seemed normal to them now.
It started with Maternity Love-Tap making her way through the crowd and beaming at Button Mash. "There you are! Did you have a good time at the sleep... over..." A bag of groceries fell from her grasp. "You... you have your cutie mark! You do!" She hugged the stuffing out of her son. "I'm so proud!"
"Mooooom!" protested Button Mash, but he giggled and hugged her back.
Maternity beamed. "My little colt is getting so grown up! Why, before you know it, you'll be taking pretty mares on dates and studying for college!"
Button blushed. "Hehe, about that..." He put a foreleg around Sweetie.
"Not so loud!" whispered Sweetie. "My sister might..."
But Rarity loomed suddenly on Sweetie Belle's other side, as if she'd suddenly learned to teleport. "What's that? Did I just hear it strongly implied that *my* baby sister has a coltfriend?" She squealed with delight. "This is extraordinary news!"
"Rarity!" exclaimed Sweetie. "Don't scare him off!"
"My goodness!" exclaimed Maternity, still studying Button's cutie mark. "Just how many video games did you play last night?"
"Mom, it's really not that big a deal," said Button. "I mean, Apple Bloom got her cutie mark too." And then Button blinked, realizing that Big Macintosh was right behind him.
Big Mac paced around to come stare at the colt directly. "Mah little sis got her cutie mark, ya say?"
Button gulped. "Yes, sir."
Big Mac snorted. "And somehow Ah haven't heard any fillies running around screaming, 'Oh mah gosh, oh mah gosh, Ah got mah CUTIE MARK!'" He did an impressive falsetto impression.
"I... guess it slipped our minds?" Button pointed at the glowing cocoon. "And she's kind of in there now."
"So now they all have cutie marks?" Rainbow Dash hovered, grinning at the Crusaders. "Hah!! How do you those apples, Diamond Tiara?" She blinked. "Wait.... didn't you..."
Twilight gasped. "Diamond Tiara? When did you come back?!" More ponies gathered around, speaking to each other in hushed voices.
"Um..." Diamond Tiara nudged at the ground with a hoof, more self-conscious than most ponies had ever seen her. "Just a couple of days ago. A lot of things have been happening... and Rarity, I'm so, so sorry! You were trying so hard to help me, and I, uh... Don't worry, my parents already know, and Miss Cheerilee... you wouldn't believe how much homework I have to make up."
Scootaloo smirked. "You won't believe who her new house guest is, either."
"One thing at a time!" hissed Diamond. She coughed and spoke up. "I know I've disappointed a lot of you in the past, but starting now, I'm going to be a whole new pony!"
Big Mac zipped over to Twilight, surprisingly quickly for a stallion his size. "Miss Twilight, are ya sure all those changeling folks are accounted for?"
While Twilight was trying to decide what to say to that, Dr. Moon Shadow came trotting through the big tent and nuzzled her, and she nuzzled him back, still lost in thought. "Miss Twilight, this is extraordinary! I'd come to understand that Equestria today has far lesser technology than my era, but here I see devices wholly new, even superior in some respects! I must meet this Flim and Flam!" He paused, confused... because the whole tent had gone silent when he and Twilight nuzzled. "Was it something I said?"
Twilight caught on first. "Oh! Don't worry, everypony! Nothing to get excited about here! Dr. Moon Shadow is a new friend! We talked a lot last night... er, late last night."
"That's right!" said Moon Shadow awkwardly. "We have many, many common interests, it turns out."
Spike grinned hugely. "Those two are gonna be writing research papers together, if you know what I mean."
Twilight blushed. "Spiiiike!"
Alex Warlorn
"UGH!"
"Something got you down Flash Sentry? Or is Sunset Shimmer still planning to strangle you in your sleep for breaking up with her?" Asked Green Peace.
"No... I just felt like some one just tore out and step on my heart or something." Said the human teenager.
"Yes I know how that is." Said Sunset slinking up right behind him. "Green Peace, did you know Flash Sentry's guitar is non recyclable?"
"WHAT?"
"And Flash, Green Peace called your rock music 'noise pollution."
"You didn't!"
"Hey, I'm calling it like it is."
Sunset walked away feeling good at breaking another bond between the school's subgroups, this was good practice for when she ruled Equestria, and Earth eventually too, or at least a very large chunk of it. Now where was that book on atomic weapons she'd borrowed form the library?
Meanwhile, across time and space, a pegasus Guard who was orange and had blue hair also gasped out in pain like his heart had been stomped on.
"UGH! I haven't felt that since... since before Twilight came to my world... ugh. Why do I have this odd feeling of my very existence and motive for every coming to Equestria to begin with are being threatened by distortions in the timeline?"
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7834204
BWAAHAHAH!!!
:-)
Ask Mortis and Strife.
Be my guest.
Which seems kinda weird IMHO.
How many ranks are there?
Technically it's for containing suns.
????
Actually the plan was already a mess before he rushed in, in the original video.
Granted.
Don't know unless you try.
This is why I realized the story needed to END.
Armstrong's darwinistic views don't really apply here.
:-)
Won't take her away from RD. They'll all live TOGETHER.
And may Princess Twilight get to hang out with her human friends again!!!
7837420
I hate rick roll.
One of Nythy's avatars is known as the Clockwork Man.
Dr. Pinkie and Miss Pie. There's a musical!
Yes.
Aw crapbaskets
... no way they mean that. Sure, they're probably not gonna do something awful, but they're still the FlimFlam brothers
Y'know, I think you don't like Andrew Ryan. Call it a hunch
...does Apple Bloom have a Bible? How does she have a Bible?
Nvm.
Oh yay. There's two now
Why are they scam artists?!?!
oh. oh no.
Hooboy
Well, this is just peachy
Great.
Ha! Also, nice name. I forsee a Truth vs Truth battle
Yes! Yes! Yes!
I just now remembered exactly why she wanted to be that concept.
You mean like this?
They'll have everything they ever wanted
Nice
None can escape Weirdmageddon!
Now I see why Pinkie gave her a blue ring
Cutie Mark Alicorn Crusaders! Hooray!
Oh yeah. final boss
That is surprisingly adorable
7840693
Of all the things you could ask, of all the strange things, you ask that one?
People do not question how a devil costume exists in the Pony world, or how there can be devil minions in Hercules when devils weren't even part of Greek mythology... And you ask how Apple Bloom has a bible?
Maybe Megan left it behind on Earth by accident or design.
The thrill I imagine.
No comment on the Maid CMC?