Predictions & Prophecies

by Kinrah

16 - The Loop (Part 2)

Behind the door, there was nothing.

Literally nothing. The floor reached the threshold and then ended. Beyond that was… it wasn’t darkness, but it was almost like a field of stars.

Twilight made to cautiously put her hoof through the door, but the Princess caught her leg. “Be careful, Twilight Sparkle,” she said, looking at her, then returning her gaze to the door to nowhere. “This is where the dream ends.”

“The dream ends?” Twilight echoed, looking again at the emptiness. Yes, she supposed. Reeds Melody would never have come in here, and her own memory didn’t extend beyond this door. Those were the two dreams making this landscape… “So what do we do now?”

For a moment, the Princess considered this. “I cannot contract the space for fear of destabilizing the dream further. It is likely we will have to try something unorthodox.”

“Unorthodox?”

“Twilight Sparkle, Spike, Sweeping Stroke.” Princess Luna seemed to have reached a decision. “I must ask something of you.”

Uh oh. For some reason Twilight had a bad feeling about this. Still, she gave her assent, quickly followed by the two males. She trusted the alicorn. Just being in the dreamscape was an implicit trust in her abilities.

“So far, we have been experiencing Reeds Melody’s dream with elements from Twilight Sparkle’s. However, both of their memories of this place end here. In order to continue, we must build our path. I ask for permission now to enter each of your dreams as we reach parts of the castle the others do not know.”

It took Twilight a moment to put together how that worked. A jigsaw puzzle of memories. Sweeping Stroke probably wouldn’t have any knowledge of the castle interior, but between her and Spike… she’d spent ten years learning and living here, and for Spike that meant his entire life until he moved to Ponyville. True, they didn’t know the whole castle, but they ought to know enough to get them to the school grounds, right? Interesting.

Then another thought occurred. “Princess, neither Spike nor I have been in here before.”

Princess Luna smiled. “But I have.”

There was a flash. It wasn’t blinding, nor was it as magically dangerous as the explosion from the 990 memory, but enough to make Twilight stagger a few steps backward. Then she looked again, and gasped. As she watched, the corridor behind the door was assembling itself, stone by stone, carpets and tapestries fluttering into existence, torches lighting themselves. No longer was it covered in dust, but lived in. It was like they’d taken a further step back in time.

Another, more muted flash. Then Princess Luna stepped across the threshold.

Just over a thousand years had passed since Princess Luna had last set hoof in the maids’ lodge, which meant that the memory had to have come from a time before Nightmare Moon. Twilight had trouble remembering some of the things she’d been doing yesterday, she couldn’t imagine how perfect the Princess’s memory had to be to clearly remember the interior over a millenia later. Everything from the details on the carpet to the individual maids they passed, who gave them funny looks but otherwise ignored them. The maids’ lodge was busy, as it was meant to be.

“Fascinating…” Sweeping Stroke murmured. He was unaware of the time difference, but he still seemed to grasp the gravity of the situation. “We walk amongst the ghosts of the past…”

This was how Twilight had originally imagined a time-travel spell to work, to place the caster as an observer only. Whatever actions they took here would not affect the future. Everything was fixed.

Wait, hold on. If this was Princess Luna’s memory, then—

A familiar voice from one of the rooms off the hallway interrupted her thought. “That is no excuse! She told Us that they were gone for good!” That was the Princess’s Royal Canterlot Voice, all right, and it sounded like she was upset with her sister. “We asked her to do one thing for Us, one thing, and We were ignored! Those infernal charms have brought us nothing but ruin!”

Princess Luna, their Princess Luna, looked slightly uncomfortable, and stopped at the next door, where within a decidedly angrier blue alicorn was pacing backwards and forwards, ignoring the maid who was trying to calm her down. “We had the situation under control! There was no need for the Elements!”

“Princess, please, calm down—”

“Calm down?! Our sister has betrayed Us. We will not let this stand! We—” the memory of Princess Luna stopped, and Twilight realized with slight panic that she’d seen herself in the doorway. After a second of confusion, there was a brief flash of understanding, and then the scowl on her face deepened. “Nothing better to do than trouble old thoughts, Princess?” she spat. “Take Thy guests elsewhere. This is no place for them.”

“Of course.” There was no hesitation. Their Princess Luna wanted the situation over as soon as possible too. “My apologies.”

Again, Twilight felt as if she’d intruded on something private. Memory Luna had referred to the Elements as ‘infernal’ and said they’d brought nothing but ruin. How could that be true?

The alicorn drew the door shut with a soft click. “I apologize. You should not be witnessing me on my worst days. The nightmare had taken me, and I perceived most of my sister’s actions as an affront.” She sighed. “She was right. We should move out of this memory as quickly as possible. We are using it as a passage, nothing more, and there is nothing but darkness here.”

With that, she strode off, the smaller ponies and dragon having to hurry to keep up with her. As if being in 611 wasn’t hard enough on her, she’d then had the tall mare and now this thrust on her. This night would change her, for better or worse. Twilight wanted to know more, and at the same time, she didn’t want to press the alicorn with any more questions. Was that conversation with reference to the first defeat of Discord? He’d been defeated with the Elements shortly before Nightmare Moon had come around…

To her horror, Spike asked for her. “So what was she— er, what were you complaining about?”

Before Twilight could shush him and apologize, Princess Luna spoke anyway. “Earlier in the day, we had been at the Crystal Empire. I foolishly believed I could defeat King Sombra on my own. So when my sister used the Elements of Harmony to save me, and the Empire subsequently disappeared, I held her accountable for everything, including my own rash actions.”

“You will have to tell me about these Elements of Harmony,” Sweeping Stroke said from the back. “Even if it is something I must keep to myself, they sound like vital artefacts.”

“They are!” Spike’s grin was wide. “They defeated Nightmare Moon and Discord!”

And they were responsible for allowing Twilight to meet her new friends. She couldn’t imagine what her life would be like now if she’d never read about the prophecy of Nightmare Moon returning. Actually, she’d probably be suffering under Nightmare Moon’s rule. The six ponies would never have met in Ponyville, and would never have confronted the alicorn at her old castle. Princess Celestia would still be banished, and Equestria would be approaching its first full year of eternal night. Even if by some fluke Nightmare Moon was defeated, there was still Discord, Queen Chrysalis, King Sombra…

She decided not to stop Spike from gushing about the Elements. If Sweeping Stroke was anything like herself, pre-emptively shutting off his source would only increase his curiosity. Twilight’s own curiosity had gotten her in trouble more times than she could count. This entire situation had stemmed from a mistake attributed to curiosity.

Finally, after descending a flight of stairs, they reached the end of the hallway, which Twilight supposed was the other side of the building. This time, though, she recognized the sigil above the door.

“I know this door!” she exclaimed, dashing up to it. “I didn’t put it together before, but this comes out near the Meditation Chamber!” To be more specific, it was in the hallway leading from the Meditation Chamber up to the castle grounds. Her first time visiting the Chamber she’d attempted to open the door, then had to be rescued by a member of the Royal Guard when she got lost.

“Then it must be your dream to which we hop next. In order to reach the school towers from this location without venturing outside, we must take a shortcut.” Princess Luna put a hoof on the door as if to test it, then pushed it open. Again, the interior beyond was constructing itself, a perpendicular hallway with about the same level of decoration, just much, much newer. “We are too pressed for time to navigate the surface.”

Ah, now this was familiar territory. Somewhere down the hall to the right would be a door that exited into the grand foyer. Down to the left was the Meditation Chamber, through the door which had been locked when she’d been in the past previously. And this was her dream now, so— she had to restrain her imagination when an alcove popped into existence on the opposite wall with several books in. Careful now. Keep things simple. Just an errant thought could—

Princess Luna zapped the Changeling who had been utterly bewildered at appearing in the middle of a strange hallway. “Please, kerb your enthusiasm, Twilight Sparkle,” she warned. “Here of all places, where such things can be controlled.”

“S-sorry, Princess…” Twilight stuttered out an apology and rubbed her mane. “Left or right?”

“Left. I should not be showing you this, but like before, we have little choice.” What? Was there something in or beyond the Meditation Chamber that she hadn’t spotted before?

It shouldn’t have surprised her. There had been so much down the windowed corridor that Twilight didn’t know about, let alone the hallway she and the others had teleported into… wow, was it only yesterday? Felt like years. With a start, she realized that, even though it was only by a few hours, she and by extension some of her friends as well were slightly older than they should be.

They really ought to have thanked that strange mare, really, the one who’d locked the door on them. If she hadn’t been there, then they’d probably have paused slightly in the Meditation Chamber, then continued on, and they… they would have gone to find Princess Celestia to explain the situation. Not only would that throw all sorts of spanners everywhere due to the time travel, the Princess had been in the gardens at the time, she’d gone straight into the tower to release the extra magic younger Twilight had built up, and from there she’d proceeded almost directly to the hos-

“Excuse me.”

“Oh, sorry.”

The response was reflexive. The double-take that came a few seconds later wasn’t. Twilight stopped dead and turned to face herself.

“What.”

“Uh…”

So now there were two Twilight Sparkles in the hallway.

Meeting herself was something she’d been bound to do eventually. If this was the memory she was thinking of, Memory Twilight was investigating the apparent refurbishment of the Meditation Chamber, and they would meet her in there. But Twilight hadn’t been in this corridor for well over a year, and she certainly hadn’t been carrying a saddlebag then.

Real Twilight spoke first. “What are you doing?” It wasn’t the most elegant question, but it would do.

Memory Twilight opened and shut her mouth a few times. “…I don’t know.”

“Wh— how can you not know?”

“I don’t know how I don’t know!” Great, they’d only been talking for ten seconds and already Memory Twilight was descending into Panic Mode. She looked just as confused as the Changeling had been. “What am I doing here?! I—”

Princess Luna laid a hoof gently on Memory Twilight’s head. “STOP.”

The duplicated unicorn’s mouth hung open, paused midway through her sentence, her eyes frozen in a state of horror at her situation. Satisfied, the Princess removed her hoof. “Hmmm.”

“That was… weird,” commented Spike. “Didn’t you meet yourself before?”

“I’m starting to get a headache,” added Sweeping Stroke.

Yes, but that time there was definitively a Past Twilight, there was definitively a Future Twilight, and both of them knew, more or less, what they were doing. This was completely different.

At a stretch, though… Twilight had a hunch. “Princess, was that a random manifestation?”

“A what?”

“I think…” Twilight closed her eyes, and tried to mentally rewind the scene. “I think I accidentally called up the pony who threw the cloak at me in the Meditation Chamber, but since I don’t know who it was, my dream’s put myself in there instead…?” She looked at Princess Luna for confirmation. It made more sense than any other explanation she could think of. Since she had no idea what the mare would have been doing, the manifestation wouldn’t either.

Disturbing, but understandable.

To her relief, the alicorn nodded slowly. “Yes, an astute observation-” Memory Twilight abruptly turned around and started walking backwards down the hallway towards the Meditation Chamber. “Twilight Sparkle?”

“Sorry, sorry…” as if time travel wasn’t confusing enough, now they were traveling forwards while the memory around them was rewinding. Memory Twilight was almost running in reverse towards the door. That pony had certainly been in a hurry. Twilight’s subconscious must have heard the hoofsteps disappearing up the hall.

Sure enough, when the memory reached the door, she unlocked it, un-slammed it, and dashed forwards. On the other side of the Chamber, the other Memory Twilight struggling at suddenly finding herself under a cloak. Even as they watched, the cloak flew across the room back into the first Memory Twilight’s hooves, and the second Memory Twilight disappeared into the corridor opposite.

Spike was the first one to brave entering the room. “That was even weirder. I just saw myself.”

“Spare some thought for me, Spike. There were three of me.” The first Memory Twilight was bending over the sandstone slab, inspecting the prophecy written there. “This is probably all going over your head, uh, Sweeping Stroke?”

There was no reply.

Sweeping Stroke had stepped into the room and he was immediately lost in awe, his mouth hanging open. The telescope, the Iris, the stained glass, the colors… that was a pony who was inspired. A typical pony from a town like Raven’s Town would never see anything as bright as this, his own apparent adventures aside. Throughout this dream he was seeing wondrous things that he’d never normally… well, dream of. This was the future to him, and it was amazing.

Where to next? Twilight coughed, and this seemed to get the Princess’s attention. She’d been looking slowly between the telescope and the windows with a sort of concerned confusion. Something was up, but again, she didn’t want to pry. They had enough on their plate as it was.

“Right, yes.” Princess Luna strode around the telescope to the bookshelf on the back wall. “We will be entering my memory again for the chamber beyond. Twilight Sparkle, Spike, know that you must not disclose the existence of these passages to anypony else. Like I previously said, I should not be allowing you to know of it at all, but it is the shortest route to the school that we can take.”

Twilight gulped. What they were about to see was an alicorn-level secret, on par with the exact events of Nightmare Moon’s first fall, the battle with Discord, and Princess Celestia’s favored brand of bubble bath. She didn’t feel comfortable with it, not at all, but what choice did she have?

The alicorn reached out to the bookshelf. It wasn’t going to be one of those secret book levers, was it? Surely not! That would be too cliche for Canterlot castle! She didn’t care what secret was behind it, if there was one of those levers, then she was disavowing the whole—

There was the sensation of something poking against her leg, and she looked down to see Spike prodding her. “Twilight, you’ve got a really scary face on now.”

Uh. Twilight grinned sheepishly at the looks she was getting from the others. Maybe she was taking this just a bit too seriously… In front of her, Princess Luna gave her a sideways look, then instead of pulling a book out - thank Celestia - she moved some books aside, and pushed her hoof to the back of the shelf.

Something went click. Then the bookshelf rotated in and away from them, revealing a dark, barely lit passage that was almost finished building.

“Please follow closely.” With that, Princess Luna ducked into the passage, followed by Sweeping Stroke and Spike. Twilight cast one final glance back at Memory Twilight, still standing over the slab, then entered herself, and swung the bookshelf carefully back into position.

Now this is what secret passages were supposed to look like, like they were described in the Daring Do novels; unkempt, dirty, and direct. Proper secret passages were from getting from A to B only without worrying about what things looked like. They were headed in towards the castle again, somewhere under the grounds. Off-hoof, Twilight couldn’t remember the exact layout.

Would it end out somewhere incredibly obvious in hindsight? She would be annoyed, but also slightly thrilled, at the prospect of having stared at a fixture for years never knowing that there was the exit to a secret passage behind it. She had never doubted that there were secret passages, of course. Princess Celestia had gained a reputation for ‘teleporting’ around the castle without using magic. There was one in the library, which Twilight had discovered by accident, leading into the storage rooms of the royal kitchens.

Of course, Princess Celestia also had a reputation for cake smuggling.

The dimensions of the passage were big enough so that she and Sweeping Stroke could walk normally, but Princess Luna ahead of them had to stoop. Spike, of course, was only complaining about still having to walk. There was the occasional torch bracketed on the wall, but other than that, it was dark and for most of the time they were in their own shadows.

“(Where exactly does this lead, Princess?)” Twilight whispered. She didn’t need to whisper, but she just felt it was something that should be done whilst one was in a secret passage.

“A place where I have not been for the longest time.”

Not long later, the Princess stopped, and for once the others behind her were able to stop without crashing into her. Ahead, there was only blackness, but something glowed blue with alicorn magic, and the darkness slid aside—

“Aaagh! Bright light! Bright liiiiiight!”

“(Is he, uh, is he always like this?)” Sweeping Stroke whispered to Twilight.

“(Only on days of the week ending in a ‘y’.)”

“(But all days end in— oh.)”

Despite Spike’s exaggerated screaming, their eyes adjusted from the darkness fairly quickly. And, once again, Twilight had no idea where they were.

It was a perfectly circular domed room, like the Meditation Chamber, only this one had no windows. Around the walls were hung a number of empty picture frames, one of which had just moved aside to admit them access, above exquisitely detailed wooden paneling. Five double doors at regular intervals led out of the room, each bearing a different symbol. One that was marked with the sun and moon motif of the Royal Sisters was instantly recognizable, but the others, a flower, a spoked wheel, a wave, a lightning bolt bisecting a cloud…

The symbols were Important. Twilight didn’t even question that thought. Nor did she question the subsequent idea that she had just stepped into the most important room in Canterlot castle. The room exerted that notion in such a way that you just knew. Just thinking of speaking felt like she was defiling the room’s importance.

And yet the middle of the room was completely empty.

“Wow.” As usual, Spike was immune to all senses of such things, and he brazenly walked out into the room. “What is this place?”

“It has had many names,” said Princess Luna, replacing the empty frame to cover the secret passage. “The last name I knew it by was the Circuit Mensae.”

Circuit Mensae. That was fairly easy to translate. “Round Table.”

“A good enough approximation. The Round Table of Canterlot. Come.” The alicorn headed for the sun/moon doors. “We should hurry before the memory b—”

She had barely reached the doors when they opened.

Twilight only just managed to avoid gasping in shock. Yes, of course it was Princess Luna, it was her memory - but she was so… young. She was barely Twilight’s height. She was certainly dwarfed by Princess Celestia beside her, who was as tall as Luna was now. Both alicorns were lacking their ethereal manes, Luna sporting the light blue she’d had when freed of Nightmare Moon, Celestia a bubblegum pink, and their usual regalia was absent, replaced instead by a simple amulet each.

Were they… were they even royalty at all?

Both sisters were in deep discussion, but unlike the previous memory in the maids’ lodge, the conversation was entirely in rapid-fire Old Equestrian which Twilight hadn’t a hope of translating. Neither of them seemed to notice the strangers in the room. This was an old memory. This predated Nightmare Moon by… it could only be centuries.

There were a few familiar words here and there. She was sure that Star Swirl was namedropped a few times. Mention was made of the magical ley-lines. But all in all, it wasn’t really anything spectacular beyond how young the Princesses were.

From the doorway behind the sisters, the older Princess Luna beckoned them over. Yeah, they should hurry. They didn’t have time to linger and listen to every little memory. Slowly, carefully, Twilight, Sweeping Stroke and Spike shuffled around the edge of the room, trying not to make any sudden movements. If they were noticed, there was going to be one heck of a language barrier.

Twilight half expected that they would get interrupted by somepony else entering through one of the other sets of doors, but even when they joined Princess Luna at the sun/moon doors, the young sisters were the only two in the room, so engrossed in their conversation that they never noticed that they were in a memory. Their Princess Luna, for one, looked glad to be getting away from the room, but at the same time, looked wistful. They looked like simpler times.

Beyond the sun/moon doors was a staircase leading upward. They followed the princess up, and to another door, which creaked open at her touch. The next room was easy to recognize, but no less surprising. Of all the places in the castle, Twilight hadn’t expected this one.

“The Royal Portrait Gallery!”

It had to be. No other place in the castle that she hadn’t been would have so many paintings. She recognized a few of the great masters’ works, among faces of ponies who must have been important in their time but had just faded away into the depths of history.

“Indeed. The Gallery adjoins the school. We are almost there. Let us not dally any further.”

They’d covered about a dozen yards when Twilight stopped again. “No, wait hold on. Whose memory is this?” Some of these paintings were recent. Too recent. They had to be in somepony else’s memory now. Assuming they weren’t a more recent memory of Princess Luna’s, Twilight had never been in the room and obviously Sweeping Stroke wouldn’t have been in here. That only left…

Spike slowly raised his hand. “Um, mine.” He pointed down one of the halls, where a flustered Princess Celestia was trying to catch a toddling dragon. “Uh, aheh. I guess I kind of thought this was where all the food was.”

Right. Okay. Random, but at least it bridged the gap. Now they could get going aga—

“I admit I don’t know much about art,” came Sweeping Stroke’s voice from around a corner, and Twilight rolled her eyes, “but this is magnificent!”

What had he seen round there? Twilight followed the sound of his voice, and upon turning said corner, almost fell over in surprise.

“One of Stalleonardo da Colton’s works, I believe,” said Princess Luna from the main hall. “Please hurry.”

A Stalleonardo painting of a sonic rainboom over Canterlot. Twilight hadn’t expected to see that here. Wait, but did that mean that Princess Celestia had sent it to Rainbow Dash?!

Sweeping Stroke gazed up at the painting. “I have never heard of this Stalleonardo fellow. Still, I have seen some artists at work, and not one of them could match up to this skill.” He turned around and trotted back to the main hall. “Apologies for the detour, it just drew my eye.”

Spike had to drag Twilight by the tail to rejoin the others. Things weren’t making sense any more. The painting was here, now, before she’d taken Spike on as her assistant? Why had Princess Celestia chosen that moment to send it to Rainbow Dash? She was getting more questions, and none of the answers!

But that aside for the moment. The Gallery adjoined the School for Gifted Unicorns. They had jumped their last hurdle.

Or not.

Still reeling from the revelation about the painting, Twilight stared out at the starry blackness on the other side of the door. “What does this mean?”

“It means that none of us have a memory of the final remaining part of the castle,” Princess Luna stated the obvious. “I will have to contract the space and hope that it does not weaken the dream too much.”

Imagining what would occur if that were to happen wasn’t pretty. Twilight had heard stories - they were only stories but there was probably some grain of truth to them - of ponies who had lost the ability to dream and spent every night dreading the moment they fell asleep. For Reeds’ sake, they had to do this as carefully as possible.

Somepony stepped past her. Sweeping Stroke cast his gaze out into the empty space. “Could we not build our own way?”

The Princess shook her head. “The spatial relations would have to be exact. A wrong turn and we may end up in a different dream… altogether…” she trailed off, her eyes wide. “And yet you continue…?”

From behind, Twilight could hear the now familiar sound of bricks and stone being assembled. “You said yourself we had no other choice,” continued Sweeping Stroke, stepping forwards and through the door. “I fail to see why we cannot simply imagine a way to… what did you say her name was? Lady Melody? Why should we be afraid to dream?”

Twilight caught a glimpse of what was happening through the portal, and gasped. A sweeping path of stone led away from the door, twisting through the void, surrounded by loose bits of masonry, tapestries, paintings. In the distance, there was another door at the end of the path, that seemed to be illuminated from behind.

Again, Princess Luna took a few moments to find her words. “Mainly because such direct paths that the dreamer does not reject are impossible,” she said eventually. She stepped past Sweeping Stroke and looked back at him. “But using ignorance to your advantage is a quality not many ponies have. Well done.”

“(Was that a… compliment?)” Sweeping Stroke whispered as the Princess took the lead again.

“(I think so,)” replied Twilight. “(Thanks, Sweeping Stroke. How did you know where to build the path?)”

“(It just seemed like the most obvious route.)”

Well, Twilight had heard better reasons, but she decided not to press the issue. “Come on. We’d better catch up.”

Once more they rejoined Princess Luna at the door, and at her nod, they opened it and stepped inside.

The interior of the room was littered with weather surveying equipment, and judging from some of the furniture, it was supposed to be a student lounge. Students had certainly had their way with it, to Twilight’s disgust. There were discarded books and papers everywhere, some of which, she suspected, would have ended up in the library she’d take residence in a few years later. But this was definitely where they were supposed to be. Reeds Melody had mentioned she’d been assisting with weather experiments. Twilight had been expecting something like this. She hadn’t been expecting the tie-wearing pegasus stallion in the room.

From the looks of things, he hadn’t been expecting them either. “Oh! I’m sorry, I wasn’t aware there were any students in today,” he said, to the four newcomers’ nonplussed bewilderment. “It’s the induction today, you see. Lots of little’uns running about. Can I help you with anything?”

“(Induction?)” Sweeping Stroke whispered. “(Why in Equestria would he assume we were students?)”

“(This is part of the original memory,)” Princess Luna explained, glancing around. “(He only sees ponies who were here when the events originally played out.)” Out loud, she said “We are here to see Miss Reeds Melody, sir.”

“Oh, that should be easy enough. Reeds!” the stallion - Twilight suddenly remembered the name Reeds had mentioned, Professor Stormy Eye - called out. Much like Twilight’s dream, the response Princess Luna gave seemed to match up to what the original reply had been. “Reeds! Where is that filly? Reeds! I think she’s around somewhere. We’re preparing for an experiment, you see. If you’d care to follow me…”

As they followed the professor across the room, the Princess issued a quiet warning. “I will do my best, but we may find that Miss Melody cannot be broken from the memory. If that is the case, do not overstress yourselves. We can still break her from the loop. The bleed itself will be easy to heal in comparison.”

They found Reeds in the next room.

It was quite jarring to see her, ten years younger than they had… um… Twilight had lost track of how much time they’d been dreaming. That was worrying. But they were nearing the end. Immediately the reason for her lack of response was obvious, the oversized headphones a dead giveaway. She was bobbing her head to whatever she was listening to without a care in the world. She had no idea what she was about to be dragged into by Twilight’s past self.

Professor Eye tutted, and rolled his eyes. “I should have known.” He tapped her on the shoulder. “REEDS!”

Reeds Melody took off in fright and nearly crashed into the ceiling. “Ah!” she exclaimed, whipping the headphones off. “Don’t do that, you scared me!”

“You’ll ruin your ears listening to it at that volume!” the professor chided. “And you have visitors!”

It seemed Reeds was just as surprised to see them as the professor had, looking between the two ponies at the front of the four-strong group, which happened to be Twilight and Sweeping Stroke, the latter of whom who was staring at the dropped headphones in mystified concern. “Are you supposed to be here?” She cast a look at Professor Eye. “Is she supposed to be here?”

Whatever the Professor’s reply was, Twilight didn’t hear it, as Princess Luna’s horn hummed loudly with magical energy. She almost had to put her hooves over her ears to protect them from the din. Accompanying it was a strange sensation, as if the dream were… contracting around them. At the same time it was gaining a sort of vibrancy she never noticed was missing. Outside, she imagined that the Changelings were being overwritten as her own dreams’ influence was eliminated. Would the tall mare be removed too, if the reset hadn’t already?

She switched back on in time to hear Reeds continue with what she’d said in Twilight’s dream before. “Oh, really?” It looked like healing the bleed hadn’t woken her from her endless loop. “Welcome back.”

Despite the Princess looking like the magical assertion had taken its toll, and panting noticeably, she seemed confident that everything was going according to plan. Healing the bleed was the easy part, she repeated. It was now only a matter of time until she ‘woke up’.

“So, uh, Reeds!” Twilight could just about remember what the next lines of the script were, and if everything they said was going to be responded to the same way, it might as well make sense in the absence of the ponies she’d actually been talking to. “You’re doing a weather experiment?”

Reeds rubbed the back of her neck. “Something like that, yeah. Look, are we going to get started or—”

“Professor!”

A new voice but familiar voice called out from the other room. That couldn’t be—

Sweeping Stroke definitely recognized it, and turned to look past the others in surprise. “Was that Lady Daffodil?!”

Sure enough, standing in the other room was Daffodil, the first pony they’d met in 611, period clothes and everything, and the professor pushed past them to reach her. Clearly that couldn’t have been the pony who had actually called… maybe Reeds just didn’t remember their face, and had subconsciously picked up on the Raven’s Town mare while she was asleep? But then, where were the two ponies who’d helped her with the experiment? Surely they should be somewhere around…

She voiced this question aloud, and thankfully Princess Luna did have an answer for it. “They would be participating, only I have had to suppress their appearance to allow us to interact with the dream.”

“Simple enough,” supposed Sweeping Stroke.

“I’m sorry, ladies,” interjected the professor, returning, “but I’m afraid I’m needed elsewhere.” He rolled his eyes. “I’m the only pegasus staff professor on the campus and somepony’s let their little darling play hide and seek in the gymnasium. Reeds, we’ll have to do this another time.”

Wait, what? The thing was canceled? That wasn’t how it was supposed to… Twilight spoke before she even knew what she was doing. “We’ll help her! Um…” She could feel the gaze of the others on her, silently questioning her words.

Fortunately, it paid off, and the professor nodded. “Well, you’ve got some volunteers, Reeds. Glad to know somepony pays attention to my lectures. Are you comfortable with that?”

There was a healthy pause.

“O-kay, I can work with that.” Reeds looked… um… it was the sort of face you pulled when you were trying to be nonchalant but secretly delighted. “Both of you, follow me.”

Right. Now it would have just been Reeds and the two strangers, and the sonic rainboom was only a few minutes away. And then… that was a good point. If the loop ended, and the memory continued, was Reeds just going to end up in the fountain? That would certainly wake her up. Or maybe a big enough shock instead. That might work. Up was the general direction they were headed, with Reeds making use of her wings to avoid tiring herself out on the stairs. Spike had just jumped on Twilight’s back. That was cheating, but she let it slide. He was only a baby dragon, after all.

“I hope this hullabaloo ends soon,” Sweeping Stroke muttered as they ascended. “I’m not sure about any of you, but I’ve certainly had more than my fair share of excitement tonight.”

“Hah! This is nothin’!” Leave it to Spike to be the voice of optimism when Pinkie wasn’t around. “You think the stuff you’ve seen’s strange, you should see the stuff we’ve had to deal with in the future!”

“From what I’ve seen so far, I agree completely, little dragon. I am in a way glad I will not be around to see it for myself.”

Twilight shrugged. “Never know, the spell might not work properly and we might end up dragging you back with us.”

The clerk seemed to consider this for a moment, then shook his head. “I rather hope not.”

From up ahead, Reeds spoke again. “I hope you know what you’re doing. I’m new to this too, you know.”

Technically speaking, they didn’t really have to do anything, they could just ignore her until the end of the memory. There was an implication, though, that the two ponies who should have been there did know what they were doing, otherwise they wouldn’t have been allowed to continue unsupervised. Probably some older students.

The upstairs room, much like the lounge downstairs, was filled with weather studying equipment, although a lot of it was covered in dust sheets. Twilight recognized some of them from her own studies - she noted a couple which had to have been a decade old already. Pegasi were normally fine with unicorns studying the weather, and some (not some that Twilight could name, mind) actively encouraged it, but the moment they started actually manipulating the weather all of them got very hot under the collar. The one pegasus who’d been witness to her accident with Rainmaker had gotten very agitated. Next to the window was the weather balloon, which, unfortunately, was shortly going to be blowing away. Where had that ended up?

Only one of the machines was switched on. Instead of the fear she expected from him, Sweeping Stroke was actually the first to approach it in awe. He was going to have an awfully hard time keeping quiet about all this. Princess Luna had to know what she was doing, though. If she hadn’t permitted him to know the truth, or brought him with them on the dream journey, then they’d probably be doing all this in the street somewhere. One individual in 611 knowing the events and culture of 1001… But he must have been able to keep quiet, right? Because otherwise Twilight would have heard something about it in her own studies.

No. If she fell into that mindset, that she could do anything she liked if she hadn’t read about it, that the past was set because she’d already seen the outcome, it would be the top of a slippery slope she’d never recover from. Just because she’d never read about a clerk named Sweeping Stroke obviously didn’t mean that he didn’t exist. She’d never heard of a place called Raven’s Town, but it apparently existed. Aiming to minimize the effect on the past was better than working under the blanket assumption that everything was going to turn out the same no matter what actions were taken.

“Sit yourself over there, and let’s get this show on the road,” Reeds said, gesturing to the activated machine, whilst herself heading for the balloon. At Twilight’s guess, the data from the balloon was going to be magically sent to the machine, which… uh… its display was unreadable, vague blurs that were barely recognizable as words. Either Twilight’s eyesight was going, or Reeds just didn’t remember what it said. Seeing as she really had no idea what she was doing, the latter was far more likely. The professor, and subsequently the replacement ponies, would have interpreted the data. Reeds was only the assistant.

For a while now the Princess had been quiet. Either she was just waiting for the memory to play out, or she was still thinking about the appearance of the tall mare. She had been absolutely rattled on seeing her, an expression Twilight had only seen on Princess Celestia once before. Everypony had been watching in rapt horror as Queen Chrysalis revealed herself at the royal wedding, but Twilight had glanced towards her mentor, and she’d been wearing the same face of terrified recognition. What would cause the two sisters to react the same way to an ‘old friend’ as Princess Luna had put it and an evil Changeling queen?

While she’d been caught up in her thoughts, Reeds had untangled the weather balloon. “There we go,” she said, carefully maneuvering it through the window. Once she was some distance out, she called out again. “It should be coming through!” Here it comes… “What do you see?”

“Um…” Sweeping Stroke gave a glance towards the window, then back towards the equipment. “Should we be… assisting her? I don’t see how this is meaningful at all.”

“It’s not just you,” Spike said, climbing up onto the stool in front of the monitor. “I can’t read this thing at all. I think it’s broken.”

“It is likely Miss Melody does not remember what the results were,” Princess Luna finally spoke, a seconder for Twilight’s theory. “Following the Interruption she would not have had opportunity to find out either.”

“Are you sure?” called Reeds from outside. “That can’t be right.”

Something wasn’t sitting right. With everything she’d learned about this situation, something was nagging at the back of Twilight’s brain. Either the memory wasn’t accurate, or Reeds hadn’t been telling the truth. But about what?

She went to the window and looked outside. There was Reeds, looking between the window and the balloon with a mix between boredom and exasperation. The pegasus wanted this over as much as they did. But… the scene outside of the window looked otherwise normal, for what was due to happen in less than a minute. Over to the left just out of sight would be the tower where Twilight was about to explode, down on the right hidden by buildings was the Meditation Chamber where she’d discovered the time-traveling…

“Reeds!” she shouted, just hoping for a response that wasn’t the same as the past three times she’d heard it. “What’s wrong with this picture?!”

The response was what she expected. “You’ll know when it’s working.”

You’ll know when it’s working. She had to figure this one out for herself.

Spike came up behind her. “Twilight, what’s up?” Her hooves were tapping impatiently, and her tail was swishing from side to side, which she knew she only did when she was perplexed. Something was wrong.

“I don’t know…” she looked down. Around the base of the tower was the Royal Garden, where Princess Celestia should be, though closer to the other tower. Down there on the left was the fountain that Reeds was going to end up in when the explosion knocked her out of the sky. Everything seemed to be in order—

Above her, Reeds flapped higher, giving herself a commanding view of Canterlot, all the way down to the park where they’d first started. “How about now?”

On the left?

But the explosion would have knocked her to the right…

“That’s it!”

Twilight looked up at Reeds, who grinned back down at her. “At last! Now, hurry up and let’s get on with this before—”

BANG.

“-the hay?”

He hadn’t gotten a good view of it from the ground but from the window Sweeping Stroke had an unobstructed view of the sonic rainboom. His eyes lit up. That was the face of a pony who had just been inspired. Of course. Barely anypony in 611 would have even heard of such an event, and here he was, witnessing one that was due to take place in the future.

It was a life-making moment. A second later it was rather ruined by the windrush knocking everypony back across the room.

Twilight struggled back to the window just in time to see the balloon blowing away in the direction of the mountain, and Reeds flailing after it, herself vainly trying to stay in the air. “I lost the balloon!” she shouted, pointing after it as if the unicorn couldn’t see it. “Darnit, we were so close!”

Behind her, there was some commotion. Spike and Princess Luna were gathered around Sweeping Stroke, who… had some kind of black stain in his mane, which was spreading rapidly.

“W-what’s going on?!” he stammered, wiping his hooves across his head and finding them too stained. “What magic is this?!”

“Sorry, now we’re going to have to start again.”

Oh no you don’t! “Reeds! You have to come back inside!”

She was flying closer, now that the windrush was dying down, but she was still too far away. “We’ll try again later when the weather’s better.”

“Reeds!”

“You know, I really think—”

There was no time to think any more.

Twilight screamed, gripped the pegasus in her magic… and pulled.

She woke panting heavily on an unfamiliar floor. Sweeping Stroke’s house, the past. That part hadn’t been a dream. She really was temporarily stuck in CE 611. But… she was having difficulty remembering the dream she’d just woken up from. Like many other dreams before, only vague elements remained. Changelings. Lots and lots of running. A tall mare in a green cloak with four swords. A painting. Reeds Melody—

Next to her, Reeds Melody groaned and blearily opened her eyes. “Whuzzgoinon,” she put forth eloquently. “Anypony know… where I can find some… coffee…?”

The other three were in varying stages of waking. Spike was still out, though stirring, the Princess was just shaking off the last of her slumber, and Sweeping Stroke was making a rapid ascent from waking through realization to panicking at the state of his mane which… oh yeah. Why had it been turning black? Twilight’s eyes went up from the stallion’s head… to the desk, which he had clearly rolled into, and the two overturned bottles of ink. Ouch. That was going to be expensive and, knowing the state of hygiene in this part of history, unlikely to ever come out.

Well, they didn’t have Princess Celestia standing above them, so that was a plus. From where she was, she could see that it was still night outside, so they hadn’t been asleep for too long, not that she knew what time it had been when they’d started anyway. She hadn’t had enough of a frame of reference with the moon earlier to determine that. Every minute they spent in the past was too long anyway.

“For your information,” Princess Luna said, once again in her guise of Moonshine, attempting to calm the stallion down so she could try and do something about his mane, “we have been asleep for approximately twenty seven minutes. I have detected that my sister is on her way, but we have earned a reprieve in that she is not teleporting. Unless you feel your magic has recovered sufficiently, Twilight Sparkle, I suggest we move on as soon as possible.”

Less than half an hour…? It had certainly felt like longer… Twilight rubbed her horn. How much of what magic she remembered using in the dream had been actual, and how much had just been due to it being the dreamscape? And the Iris… it sat floating and spinning gently a short ways away, still giving off that hollow feeling, but now she was used to it, it was just sort of there.

The pegasus among them tried to sit up. “Urgh. Crazy dream, guys. Haven’t slept that well for ages. Seriously though, where’s the coffee?”

At this point, probably about two hundred years away, but Twilight didn’t want to point this out. Reeds Melody probably didn’t even know they’d traveled in time. If they could get moving - or even better, get back to 1001 - before she started asking awkward questions, that would be great. Trixie had been antagonistic about being dragged through time, but Trixie was Trixie; Reeds was if anything enthusiastic, and that was marginally worse. She didn’t fancy their chances of remaining incognito if one of their number was more likely to slip up.

So why wasn’t Princess Celestia teleporting? Obviously she was more than capable of it. Maybe she didn’t want to disturb the subjects of this town… wherever it was.

Her attention was distracted by Spike, who, now awake, was fanning himself. “Is it hot in here or is it just me?” Huh, it was a little warmer than she remembered it being… their body heat while sleeping had probably contributed. Yeah, that was it. That and the Iris, which as a magical charm was bound to give off some heat.

Sweeping Stroke had calmed down now, and was using a loose piece of cloth to wipe away the trails of ink that were dribbling down his face. “I suppose that is that, then. Are you sure that I should not mention any of this? Not even obliquely?”

“So long as you are sure you will not become responsible for them in the future. That book,” Princess Luna indicated the one in which he’d written the Pinkie Pieism, “cannot leave your side. Nopony else can be permitted to read it.”

The stallion nodded. “Very well, Princess. I’ve been meaning to try this for a while now.” His horn lit up, and he lifted the book. Twilight watched him draw the matrix. Now she had the chance to examine it, something about it seemed awfully familiar. And the spell he was casting…

A sick feeling welled up in her stomach.

“There.” The magic glow faded, and Sweeping Stroke put the book back down on the table. “I got the details for this spell the last time I was in Canterlot. If I get too far away…” He crossed to the far wall, and in the blink of an eye, the book was in his magical grip again. “…it returns to me.”

No. No, nononononono. That couldn’t be right. It couldn’t… It was all Twilight could do to prevent herself from hyperventilating. “Princess, we need to leave. Now.” The others looked at her in surprise, but she continued on. “I can’t tell you why, but we just need to go. Spike, get in the box. I’ll get the—” as she spoke, she reached out and grabbed the Iris. They obviously couldn’t leave it behind.

When she grabbed the Iris, the Iris grabbed her.

No! Not again! For the third time, uncontrolled magic surged through her, and she yelled out, magic surging, just waiting to be released. Why did it do this now?! They needed to get out of there! They needed to… they needed to…

The Iris still has instructions that it must follow…

Spike yelped as he found himself picked up bodily, and Princess Luna gave an uncharacteristic squeak as the magic lifted her off her hooves. Reeds looked as though she thought she was still dreaming. Sweeping Stroke pressed himself back against the far wall. No! She wasn’t going to cast it! She wasn’t! She…

She drew the matrix for Prophetia.

And could only watch as the clerk, unable to take his eyes off the spectacle, opened the book and began writing it down.

She had to warn him. She opened her mouth. Don’t cast this spell. It will destroy your life. “Prophetia!”

“The Lords and the Ladies came out to play
To celebrate their lifebearer’s birth
But one lone Royal was absent that day
Still she guarded her vault in the earth.”

FLASH!

The unicorn, pegasus, alicorn and dragon hit the grass rolling, followed shortly thereafter by the Iris, which started hissing in the light rain that had started falling. Immediately they were set upon by familiar faces - Princess Luna’s guards - who quickly helped them to their hooves.

By now it was fully dark, and a lot of ponies would be in bed, but Twilight couldn’t stop herself screaming at the Iris. “No! Take me back! We can’t let him… I…! We just…!”

Princess Luna shook her by the shoulders. “Calm yourself, Twilight Sparkle. What’s wrong?”

Twilight looked up at her, red faced. She was responsible for everything. They’d just looped back to the start. “We just gave Prophetia to Stalleonardo!”

Author's Note:

There's a reason why this chapter is called The Loop.

Comments

[RTStephens]

Aaaaaaannnnnd Twilight finally understands. This just isn't her month.

Figured a few chapters ago that the prophecy would have been created by Twilight herself. It's just her luck.

Hopefully, Reeds is at least cured. Now she can sleep!

Till next time!