Twilight still isn't having a very good day. An army of changelings is attacking Canterlot, and the experimental spell that blew up in her face has stuck her in a time loop until she gets everything perfect and saves Equestria.
She's got a plan. She's also got a problem: Suddenly, she's not the only one whose day is repeating. And when you're caught between unstoppable force and immovable object, life has a tendency to get complicated.
* * *
This story is an authorized alternate-universe re-imagining of Eakin's Hard Reset, in which multiple loopers turn the time shenanigans up to 11. (Knowledge of Hard Reset is not required, but based on reader comments, will help in sorting out the early chapters.)
Cliff's Notes versions: RampantArcana has started a GitHub repository to codify the time-loop rules and the early-story timeline. Hawthornbunny has posted a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of all the loops, including the ones we don't see, with a lot of critical analysis. Those links contain spoilers (of currently posted chapters). If you're confused, either one of those fan projects is a great starting point, and story comments have a lot of insightful discussion as well.
Publication schedule: 2014 kicked my plot, but as of November I'm picking up the writing again and hope to have something by the end of the month.
Cover art by Alexstrazsa.
Shit, I forgot to comment on this before it went live... what? Really? Not until then? Oh, well, never mind then. I guess this time I didn't forget. Disregard those last few sentences.
Anyway, this ripoff/homage/reboot/sequel/whatever is 120% Time Loop Approved.
Author's note-to-self: Hmm … no comments yet? Next loop, remind 3777814 to reset his time loop and leave a comment before publication.
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3792379
Ha! That didn't take long.
310 stories in my read later list...I have a lot of work ahead of me.
3792396
It's entirely possible I may have read not only this chapter, but a large number of future chapters last night.
--arcum42
O can already tell this is going to be crazier than the original.
3792422
Silly me for assuming a linear progression of time
Well... that sure didn't work.
dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/109212453/Bruce-%20Approved.jpg
Figured this would be a parody. Apparently not.
Anyway, not bad. Not quite got Eakin's perfect Twilight Snarkle voice, but it's interesting nonetheless.
Oh, this is gonna be goooood.
Also, nice to see Celestia comes prepared. That spell of hers is especially interesting. Apparently, it stores information achronically. Useful.
Eagerly looking forward to more.
Oh boy. Here we go again!
Oh shiiiiiit!
A Royal Guard... named Parade Rest?
New favorite fic. Instantly better than 3779113's original. If you make a sergeant named Knife Hand, you will probably be my new Jesus.
So Twilight's in the innermost loop, and the other loopers can screw her up? But not stop her looping apparently?
Well, I suppose I'd enjoy this story more if I let it build up a bit more. It's definitely interesting.
3792421 I had the same problem until a few days ago when I went through the whole list and asked myself about every story:"Do I really want to read it or is this just a little casual interest?" And boom, down to 60.
It's fav time. *clicky clicky*
This better be just as good as the original or else i'll be extremely disappointed.
Confusing. Enjoyable. The former will go away, I expect the latter to continue.
I'm looking forward to the next 27,631 words, that's for sure!
Very nice. Yet another time loop scenario fic, and yet I still enjoy them. Looking forward to the next chapter!
Teisto - take me (Elliot Berger remix
AS SOON AS I READ THE LAST WORDS OF THE CHAPTER THE BASS DROPPED
That makes this
B IU
STCopyright by Omnifire
Meaning : holy $HIT this is an AWSOME story
HEY also listen to arkasia -soldiers
And uhhhh... Hold on
SYNX - gone away
Cry wolf - the moon is falling down
James Egbert - exit wound
And a $hit load more that I post later
No stopping me heh hah HAH HAHAHSHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH-
oh! Uh sorry
You wouldn't have happen to have read Time Braid, a naruto fanfiction of a similar Time Loop setting, would you?
I don't think this was reset hard enough.
This is going to hurt my brain, isn't it?
Oh well, may as well take the hot sauce approach to pain. Glug glug glug. So far, a worthy reimagining of a quite good tale.
Bulk upload the whole thing! I love how it started, why drag it out? Hook people now with a big piece of content!
3793136
That might seriously break people's brains. I've read through chapter ten, and this gets really, REALLY complicated. Things are going to go off the rails pretty quick once the rules are laid out.
why would something this confusing be a draw for readers?
On my to-read list, but the premise already reminds me of a more comedic take on the premise: MLP Time Loops.
The 'death by Celestia as a means of verification' is a nice touch.
This is going to be so gloriously confusing.
Bring it on!
Ganked by Princess Redshirt, hard core.
OH MY GOD MOAR!!! I loved this story first time around, can't wait to see how this changes things up!
3792706 Tried that. Number stayed the same :P
I'm trying to figure out circumstances in which it makes sense for Celestia to give the incomplete password.
More content for the Hard Reset-verse?! To borrow from Ric Flair...
Awesome first chapter, and already I'm confused as to exactly who is in the time loop with Twi, and what is causing the loops to change. Excellent! Can't wait for more!!
3792469 I don't think it's much of a spoiler to confirm that, yes, Chrysalis is also looping.
3792476 I'm glad it's got your attention despite the readjustment of your expectations. Partially, it's a character interpretation thing; I'm taking an interpretation that this version of Twilight has been burned out a bit more by her loops, so the snark doesn't shine through quite as consistently. Partially, it's a different authorial voice, no matter how much I might try to imitate Eakin's style. I hope the story continues to hold you on its own merits!
3792539 3792964 3792614 3793127 3793431 3793431 Chapter 2 will lay out the rules. (Also create more questions, since Twilight's figuring this all out as she goes along. But the fundamental approach here is simple; it's a bit like Life in that all the confusion is a product of emergent complexity from the premise you'll shortly learn.)
3792565 When Celestia picks guards to stand unmoving for hours in front of her quarters, she picks the best.
When you say you’ve got 30,000 words written… is that the entire story, or just what you’ve got written so far?
Also, regarding your chapter length: I find a lot of stories with ~2,000 word chapters tend to come off as rather disjointed compared to those with ~4,000–6,000 words. If you’ve already got 30,000 words written as if it were a single piece, but you’re just splitting at ~2,000 words, then I worry quality will drop once you’ve run through your buffer and start writing as if you had such an arbitrarily small word‐limit per chapter.
Trying to drive us loopy, I see. Well, it won't work.
We're already there
3793057 I have not read Time Braid, no, but it seems like an interesting entry into the "time keeps repeating and bad stuff happens" genre for the Naruto fans among us.
3793060 Clearly I should have skipped straight to "Hard Reset 3: Reset Hardest".
3793248 This is something of a cold open. It doesn't work for everyone, but I appreciate you giving it a try. If you're curious enough to stick with it for one more chapter (which will post by tomorrow morning), you'll get to learn (along with Twilight) a little more about what's going on.
3793301 The Best Night Ever is another great one. It's somewhere in between the comedy of MLPTL and the black humor of HR/HR2.
3793313 3793484 3793554
Re "death by Celestia": As she will shortly explain, it's a method of verification that Twilight's being honest about looping. There's a reason for that. And yes, it's ice cold, and yes, that's deliberate; and exploring what's up with that is a major ongoing theme.
3793846
I think you should have gone straight to Hard Reset ∞: ∞ Divided by 0
The only correct response to this is 5 minutes of incoherent squeeing.
3793554
Realized I didn't answer your question, and it's that "redundant verification" that gives Chapter 1 its title. So here's the full scoop:
The idea behind it is that Celestia herself does not know the complete password. The safeword essentially is encrypted in her memories, and only unlocked to her once the trigger is spoken. That way, if someone reads her mind, they get the trigger but not even knowledge that the safeword exists. The only way to learn the safeword is to have spoken the trigger, but at that point the safeword is moot … unless you can manipulate time.
Looking forward to figuring out these time loops and complicated stuff.
What I can assume happened is that Twilight at first told the guards to not allow anyone inside unless the building is on fire, thwarted-ish (Cause she didn't break out of the time loops) Chrysalis' plans, then Chrysalis went back and disrupted Twilight's plans and now we're in a whole heap of whatever.
Expecting that the Celestia at the end of the chapter is really Chrysalis. Although I don't see why one of them couldn't figure out where the other starts their loop and just find and kill them at the beginning so they have free reign. Maybe there's a third element in play here.
3792439
Of course, that means I'm left with a completely different cliffhanger.
--arcum42
3794182
You and me both. I expect the comments section about 41 days from now to be positively SCREAMING for resolution of that one.
3794241
Oh yeah. That's a much worse cliffhanger then this one. To quote horizon, "Mwahahahaha!".
--arcum42