“Dear god, this is my fault! I should have remembered to tell you to open a window. I didn’t think the flame would eat more air than what was casually flowing into the room via cracks.” Twilight was mortified, how could she had made such a stupid mistake? One simple oversight had almost cost Sweetie’s life, forever stuck in a death loop.
“It’s fine Twilight, you didn’t know.” Sweetie sighed and closed her eyes, leaning back on her chair. It really wasn’t that big a deal, everything turned out ok in the end. Twilight blinked, eyes slowly turning toward Sweetie.
“Are you...apathetic to your death?” Twilight bit her lip, concerned as the filly tilted her head.
“As in, you feel nothing about the fact you just died. Not only died, but died repeatedly by suffocation!” Twilight forced herself not to fly off the handle. There was nothing to be afraid of. A little apathy was not the signs of a mad pony, merely one of the steps toward it.
“Oh, yeah a little bit I guess. I mean, sure it was maddening while I was dying, but now I’m not I kinda feel it was one of the better ways to die. I mean, I wasn’t scratched all over by a cliff before splattering to piece-oops.” Sweetie remembered too late that this Twilight probably didn’t know too much about it. However, Twilight merely bit her lip and looked away. Sweetie supposed she had a whole section in Twilight’s notes dedicated to in depth details of her deaths.
“I don’t like it, but we should move onto the next bit of news. What happened to Philomena?” Twilight sighed, knowing that passing this might end badly in the future. Writing herself a note about it, Twilight returned her attention to Sweetie as she levitated the cage back up, including the live Phoenix inside.
“It’s weird. I remember during the last few times, at least when I was conscious enough to look over there, Philomena was just ash. However the moment the window and door opened she burst back to life.” Sweetie placed the cage down and scratched the back of her head. Twilight nodded, writing it down. Beside her was a spare piece of paper, a half written letter to Celestia.
“Speaking of which, how did the window and door open?” Twilight watched as Sweetie sighed, and shook her head sadly.
“I don’t know. All I know is if it wasn’t for them opening, I wouldn’t have escaped the death loop. What do you think it means?” Sweetie could tell the obvious, but maybe Twilight would figure something out she had missed. Twilight tapped the feather to her face as she sighed, folding her arms and musing.
“Well, there must have been outside interference. The question is by whom? How were they not resetting with each loop? This is based on the assumption if they weren’t then they would have gotten you out the very first death loop. I can only assume they’re in the same situation you are, able to keep a pocket around them from resetting each loop. The real question however, is why did they save you? Then there’s the possibility it was you somehow, but that answer doesn’t feel right.” Twilight closed her eyes, and bit her lip.
“Sorry Sweetie Belle, but I can only provide questions, not answers. I’ll send out findings to Princess Celestia, if you give me the looping letter, and we’ll see what she has to say.” Twilight took the letter, and carefully scribbled down their findings on a piece of paper. Calling for Spike, Twilight sent it off, and they both waited.
Sure enough, the letter arrived quickly.
Dear Sweetie Belle and Twilight
Enclosed is the loop letter, returned to Sweetie as requested. Moving on, this is indeed news both grave and hopeful. However, there is something I must discuss with Sweetie Belle in person, so I will be flying down with my sister, Luna, on Thursday. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask.
Sincerely, Princess Celestia
P.S. Feel free to release Philomena or take her with you though loops. I can confirm my version of her is not harmed in any way. Please do take care of her. Do not worry about feeding Philomena, as she will feed herself if you let her out. I have already instructed her to stay with you, so she will always return to you at sunset.
“Huh, I’ve got a pet Phoenix. Awesome.” Sweetie turned, opening the door to Philomena’s cage. Flying out of the cage, Philomena stretched her wings and came to land on Sweetie’s head, making a nest in her hair. Sweetie giggled, and Philomena chirped innocently.
“Anyway, that’s that. I’ll see you on Thursday Sweetie.” Twilight smiled warmly as Sweetie trotted away, heading toward school. As soon as the filly was out of sight, Twilight scribed a letter and sent it to Celestia once more.
“Dear Twilight, you worry too much. When death is no longer an option, you do gain a certain apathy to it.” Twilight growled, and scrunched up the letter, unconvinced.
“I’m sorry Sweetie, but no pets on the school grounds.” Cheerilee felt guilty to be forcing Sweetie to let her Phoenix go, mostly due to the sad look on everyfilly and everycolt’s face. Sweetie sighed, and opened the window.
“Alright Philomena, I’ll see you at home at sunset, ok?” Sweetie smiled, holding out a hoof near her head, which Philomena stepped onto. After a moment of nuzzling Sweetie, Philomena flared her wings and took off toward the Everfree. Sweetie sat down, and the class gave a sad sigh.
“Alright, now let’s begin today’s class on how diamonds and sand are formed.” Cheerilee began the class, and Sweetie glanced over to Diamond. There had to be a better way to get the five of them together without skipping a day. Sweetie glanced over toward Snips and Snails, and discarded her thoughts.
It would be nice to hang out with them today. Sweetie quickly checked she still had their loop notes. Nodding, she opened up her book and began to draw.
Just when you think you know all the shiz, something else happens.
Wait... does that mean that there are 2 Philomena's in this loop?
This is the best way I know on how to get a Phoenix now.
Sweetie and a Phoenix...
5379033
I believe it does, and as long as Sweetie has Philomena with her whenever she loops theoretically she should be able to keep the pheonix
Technically this isn't loop 18 since all those loops where she died happened. But I guess it's easier to call it loop 18.
Shouldn't Sweetie have a massively increased magical capacity now? From the way I understand the loop resets, she basically absorbs all the ambient magic of the living things around her (or in the same room as her) causing them to age and die. The magic that she absorbs is permanently added to her capacity. If that's the case shouldn't she have absorbed all the magic from Philomena many deaths?
5379033 This brings up the Paradox question tho. 2 beings in the same place. If they touched, or see eachother, would all of reality break? Or would it be concidered Masterbation? The answers we will never know...
:o
Woah.
One use time spell?
5379340
Actually physics has already answered that question. Can't find the article. But just as our molecules are arranged to keep matter in the shape it's in. If two of the same thing we're to touch. Their molecular structure would prevent anything bad from happening. After all even though they share a previous state, as time goes on, the over all state changes (cells multiply, the biological death clock/apopotitis, the effects of the environment, and element decay). So even if they are technically the same they are alway different enough.
That and technically they don't exist in the "same" place in time and space since their mass technically is a separate space ... Unless they physically teleport into their doubles bodies.
5379184 I think the Pheonix is a special case as when the Pheonix dies the burst of magical fire is a magical capsule of the sort causing the bird's magic and soul to mitigate into a tiny point somewhere in the ash pile. This tiny speck is neither alive nor dead and remain until the pheonix reforms.
As for Sweetie's weakness I have two different theories.
One: The loop is somehow maintained by Sweetie's magic by passively draining all the magic from every living being in the room (even microbial) at the time of reset. Thus when Philomena burned she increased the air pressure making so minimal/no life where able to enter the room and being unable to drain the Phoenix caused her to expend huge amounts of passive magic.
Two: Every time the loop resets a little bit of the drainage that comes from everyone she accidentally killed gets given back and after so many loops it gave back a huge chunk of energy thus making her weaker in perspective to before.
"suffocated and got reset by mysterious time magic" is not the same as "died"
the suffering inflicted by an experience is not amplified just by virtue of that experience being potentially fatal under different circumstances
this fic's version of Twilight is freaking out over the wrong thing entirely
even simple acts such as falling asleep are potentially fatal in day-to-day life, under the right (wrong) circumstances, and no one ever freaks out over that
Death is a complete obliteration of self, and I don't like to see the word abused in this way. It's a pernicious cheapening of the concept.
5380456 Ah, but there you are somewhat wrong. Death is more clearly defined as simply a loss of life within a creature. It can only be treated as a "complete obliteration of self" from a non-religious standpoint. From just about any religion (though there are certainly exceptions) there has been communication from the dead to the living at least once. Ignoring all those points of view, death can only be observed from an outsidea source. You see a person in their coffin and know that they aren't able to do anything here anymore, but there is no way to tell if the sense of self they possessed exists still or not.
Sweetie Bell very well could have died and been revived through the magic, but the author has not shown if Sweetie's soul leaves or travels with her body when she resets through death.
5379340
Another good question... what if she took both of the same phoenixs' with her in the next reset?
Would there then be 3?
Dear god... We have found the perfect Phoenix copy machine!
5379158
Lets just say that all the "death loops" will be considered 1 big reset gone haywire.
Poor Philomena only had one episode in the actual show... I think they could probably put her to good use in another episode...
>I can confirm my version of her is unharmed in any way
I suggest using 'not harmed' or only 'unharmed'
She'd best hope she don't get separated from that birdie and die or fall asleep
She should get pet princesses now
5395618
Luna: WHO DAREST DISTURB MINE ROYAL SLUM-
Luna: Greetings, me. It is me from the last loop.
Luna: O.O
Celestia: *barges into room* Sister! What is this pran- Oh.
Celestia: *walks into the room after Celestia* I told me.
--Sollace
5407385
Dad heard my fit of giggles and asked why I was laughing. I tried to explain a couple of times, that didn't work.
TIME!!! Y U SO CONFUSING?!
Wait a minute, if she ate Philomena's life over and over again due to the death loops, shouldn't she have the mother of all headaches right now? On the optimistic side, she can probably do advanced spells now.
5657817 That's an excellent question
5657817 maybe all that extra magic went wild and that's what opened the door?
Shouldn't this be a much higher loop number? You know because she died rapidly and reset instantly? Except of course if this Loop number is supposed to depict Sweetie's perception of the loops, then of course she would not count her deaths.
For the readers convenience though, I would count her death loops, just to show at least how many times she died and how long she was trapped.
6113158 I just think it's not counting the Death Loop for accurate full loop counting.
Y'know, so people can keep track of these like chapter numbers.
I NEED FANART OF THIS!!!!!!
I NEED IT!!!!!
In all seriousness though, you managed to put the most adorable image into my mind and because I can't actually see it, I will slowly die of prolonged exposure to cuteness overload! Well done.
…don't you mean Celestia?
Gonna fuck with the conservation of matter law. Oh well free birds!!