3:14 PM

by SugarPesticide

Just Choose Not to Choose

This time, as Gilda approached from the distant east, Pinkie was ready. Most of Ponyville was still drowsing at this hour, but Pinkie was up bright and early, having taken the time to set things up. She shielded her eyes with a hoof, squinting against the blinding dawn sun, and made out the shape of the familiar feathered fiend ... soon to be a familiar feathered friend, if all went to plan. Pinkie doubted this would be the case, knowing that she could yet again get easily killed for some arbitrary reason, but it never hurt to have a little optimism.

As she’d hoped, the griffon faltered in her flight, then angled downward at a pace not unlike somepony dragging her hooves. (“Dragging her wings”? Pinkie wondered if there was a whole cornucopia of alternate idioms for different species, silly though the idea might be.) Gilda touched down tentatively, though her wings pumped impressively in a show of supposed dominance.

Here it comes. Pinkie plastered on a winning smile.

Golden hawk eyes narrowed as Gilda sized her up. “... Yeah?”

“Good morning!” Pinkie chirped. “On behalf of all Ponyville, I welcome you to the coziest little town on this side of Everfree!” She waved a hoof at the tables. “Hungry?”

“Eh.” Gilda glanced lazily at the treats on display there ... then did a double take. Piles and piles of muffins sat stacked on an enormous tray, surrounded by fruit of all shapes and sizes. A banner repeated Pinkie’s welcome in loopy hoofwriting. “What the?!”

“I did a little research.” Pinkie hoped she wasn’t sounding braggy. “I figured you’d like something to nibble on after a super-long trip from Griffonstone. Nothing too rich or sweet, though.”

Gilda leaned tentatively forward, poking an apple with a noticeably sharp claw. Her gaze took in the sight again, more slowly this time. Her nostrils flared ever so slightly to take in the scent of slightly warm muffins. “You did this for ...?” She shook herself, twisting her beak in a scowl. “How’d you know I was coming? I didn’t tell anyone!”

“I have my ways.” Pinkie tapped her head in feigned wisdom. “I know Dash will be super excited to see you! But she’s still asleep, so maybe we should wait until she wakes up.”

Feathers ruffled as the griffon gave her a suspicious sidelong glance. Reluctantly, Gilda plucked the apple from its perch, gave it a long sniff, and downed it in one snap of her beak. “I guess I could chow down a little.”

Fifteen muffins and eight apples later, Gilda seemed to be letting her guard down. She listened, albeit with a heaping tablespoon of skepticism, as Pinkie chattered inanely about the goings-on of Ponyville. A feathered eyebrow rose a little more with every odd little story Pinkie could come up with.

“—and that’s why Dash and I aren’t allowed to tell scary stories at Twilight’s sleepovers ever again.” Pinkie swept her hooves in a flourishing ta-da gesture. Then she cracked a grin as Gilda struggled to conceal her snickering. "Dash is a silly filly sometimes."

"Heh, that's for sure." Gilda blinked, then coughed. "So, uh ... Pinkie, I think you said your name was? Do you do this for anyone who comes to town?"

"Sometimes." Now that she thought of it, maybe that could nip the Trixie thing in the bud before bears started happening. "I figured you'd want something a little quieter than what I usually do." She lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "Ponies are pretty jumpy."

"Isn't that the truth." Gilda managed a grin of her own. "You know, you're not as bad as I thought at first. Once you look past the pink fluff and stuff, you're all right."

"Thanks. I think." Pinkie flipped her bangs in a cool-kid kind of way. "But what about you? Any weird stories in your super-cool life?"

"Pshyeah." Leaning back, Gilda launched into a memory with a sharp gesture. "So this one time, at flight camp ..."

Comments

[G S tol Kriaal]

Oh, that's nice...

So what goes horribly wrong?

[smolbep]

Pi.

[YewUnicorn]

Well, that Is a much better way to greet her and get on her good side.
Nice change of pace. But are we going to get the normal set of elements back? Or keep going with the Flutter lead?

[ChaosFerret]

7030383 Who knows? This goes on long enough, we might get to try each one of them as lead.

Also, good to see this updating again.

[EnderHooves]

Nice to see this updated for pi day. Awesome, I hope for more soon.

[FanOfMostEverything]

It would've been a great shame to let Pi Day pass by without updating this. Thank you for ensuring that it didn't.

Also, I'm surprised to see that this wasn't part of the optimal solution. I wonder what's going to go wrong. I'm also still concerned about the chapter titles and what they may represent.

[MustacheMerlin]

Pi day! I should have seen this coming.

[xoid]

"So this one time, at flight camp ..."

I almost want this to be an American Pie reference but then I remember that flight camp was when they were — what, eight years old‐ish? — and I start hoping it isn’t.

[silvershinepony]

MORE OMG

[Yami Vizzini]

This was a cute breather.

7031147 Well, we do know Dash has done tricks with a flag the likes of which nopony saw before and nopony's seen since.

[poptartpony]

"So this one time, at flight camp..." Then one punch man ad shows up.

static1.fjcdn.com/thumbnails/comments/Lt+the+last+guy+_24b326079e285c0797caf4f8747b2e2c.jpg

[cheesegal]

Yay! A new chapter! Finally!

[RBronyReader446]

"So this one time, at flight camp ..."

dang I kinda want to know what happened Also love the American Pie reference even if they were probably only 6-11 years old

[Rakdar]

And here I thought I was spoiled for getting on average 10k words per chapter, in most of the stories I read. But no. This is less then 1000 words. I thought 3000 was a reasonable number. I wish you just kept us waiting longer and gave us a proper chapter.

[Emperor]

But what about this one time at band camp?

[Emperor]

You know (if you ever get to that part), I just realised that the Return of Harmony episodes will be REALLY interesting. Why? Because in canon Return of Harmony, Discord had to forcibly discord Fluttershy, which he presumably couldn't do for Twilight because deus ex crap (and the fandom assumption that there's no real 'opposite' of magic or friendship like the other elements, which is a stretch of the imagination but whatever). Assuming the Bearer of the Element of Magic has extra protections the other Element Bearers didn't, this could work up to a really awesome confrontation between Discord and Fluttershy, with the former meeting his match with Fluts.

[ferret]

7105697
Not to mention the fact that Discord wasn't playing to win, but doing it to solidify their friendship, sacrificing his freedom to show them what their friendship is capable of overcoming.

How else was he gonna find out what's in that box?

[Emperor]

7163349 Hmm? Not sure I follow, I was talking about Return of Harmony and you're talking about Twilight's Fluttershy's Kingdom

[PrismStrike]

so this is a pretty epic time loop fic. the one thing i dont understand though is why pinkie hasent tried different combinations of giving the elments to her friends to try and get things perfect. for me stuck in a time loop id eventually try everything on the day in question first to try and make ti happen perfectly before ever allowing it to get to a second day and thus complicate the loop with unneeded knowledge of the future. though the story itself is still very much good enough to earn a like and a follow from me

[Zaralann]

This is probably one of the best Time-Loop Stories on Site!

[KiKo4]

When u catch up with everyone else
;w;

[Emperor]

Hopefully you managed to get a chapter out for Pi Day this year

[Emperor]

If this is going to end like I think it is where Twi gets the Element of Magic = Friendship and that's the true loop, I half expect Pinkie aborts the first loop by pounding as hard as she can on Twilight's chest, "Why is it you?! You were a friendless, snarky jerk! Me and Fluttershy were much better at this friendship thing than you!"

[insertfootinmouth]

7968127
You really like this story, don't you?

[Emperor]

8235933

Ha. Interesting stories spark ideas of my own in my head from time to time and sometimes the plot points percolate in the months or years after where a story doesn't update. In this case both.

[josue]

need more i love it

[MLPFiMFTW]

8354765
It's dead, Jim.

[Magpy]

I just realised this, I accidentally started reading this at 3:14 PM

Oh dear

[Dr Freaky]

This is one of the really decent stories on the site... is it cancelled or permanently on hiatus ?

[Beanbagburrito]

Has this been cancelled

[Dreadnought]

9302663
I hope not.

Dreadnought

[NachoTheBrony]

This story was nice.
Thank you.
The ending was a little abrupt, though.

[The Cynical One]

What a great story. Sad to see it end so suddenly with so few answers on our plate. Guess that leaves us room to feign thought in a future forever untold. Mayhaps finding another chronomancer would facilitate that mysterious time fellow again. Get a little more talk and the such. Also the line 'you may have noticed some things have changed' said somewhere in the story. Implies that fundamentally some MAJOR time shenanigans occurred in the main timeline which lead to this timeline... Maybe Starlight could be implicated to the root cause? Welp, we'll forever be unsure as to the future of this woven tale... just enough loops to get me stuck I guess. Great story! Hope to find another like this one...

[Silent_Knight]

Awww Fewmets its over?

[RandomGuy101]

Excuse me, but will this story be cancelled or do you plan on updating it?

[Andy Ray]

Wai-i-it, there are no more?? ... Could we get this to continue?..

[hollowsbest]

sad that there's no more of this, but it was definitely fun while it lasted! I do love a good timeloop story, thanks for the words!

[Mrazi]

Blast it. I could've sworn I chose Completed in my search.
Where ending??