Chapter 1: Nothing Stays the Same for Long
It was Friday night, and Sugarcube Corner was alive with the sounds of music, laughter, and friendships new and old. That in itself was not so unusual, but on this particular evening the crowd filling the bakery’s tables was comprised of two groups of teenagers who up until a few days ago weren’t even on speaking terms with one another.
Pinkie Pie had, true to fashion, planned what she kept referring to as a ‘Victory and Friendship (although not so much the victory part ‘cause Principal Celestia said we’re all winners, and how can you declare victory when there’s no one to be victoryful over?) Party’. She’d personally invited every Friendship Games participant from both Canterlot High and Crystal Prep Academy, and ordered enough food, sweets, and party supplies for a gathering twice as large.
Also true to fashion, what she hadn’t planned for was how she was going to fit it all in her bedroom.
Luckily, the Cakes had heard that their favorite employee/customer/surrogate daughter wasn’t sure her home could accommodate all the guests, and they had generously offered to allow her to host the event at their bakery. So it came to pass that the students of both schools had come together on this night to share good food, listen to sweet tunes, and hopefully make what would be the first in a long line of great new memories. At the moment, the memory being made inspired just the tiniest bit of deja vu.
Gathered around a decent-size TV and gaming console that Pinkie had set up for the event, most of the partygoers were hooting and cheering as CHS’ resident super athlete Rainbow Dash and CPA’s number one track star Indigo Zap went head-to-head in some new fighting game that featured cute, fluffy creatures as the combatants. Both had initially expressed displeasure with the game’s aesthetic, but the words ‘tournament’ and ‘bragging rights’ had ignited the competitive spark in each of them. Now the air was filled with rapid, forceful clicking as they mashed buttons against one another in the final round, their faces twisted with intense focus and their school pride once again (sort of) on the line. No one even thought to snicker as Rainbow’s bandana-wearing baby cow bucked Indigo’s cuddly pastel llama in the nose.
Not everyone was interested in the dramatically cute battle, however. Fluttershy, while having loved the idea at first, had trouble keeping her eyes open once the little critters started smacking one another upside their furry heads. After an embarrassingly short first round matchup against Sour Sweet (it’s a little hard to use a game controller with both hands covering one’s face, after all), she, Bon Bon, Sunny Flare and Sugarcoat had retreated to a booth slightly farther from the crowd. There they conversed in quiet tones while Angel Bunny lounged on the table between them, happily enjoying the near-continuous belly rubs he was receiving from the four girls.
In another part of the room, behind a table on which Vinyl Scratch had set up her sound system, the blue-haired DJ’s head bobbed enthusiastically as she and her new, practically-joined-at-the-hip best friend Lemon Zest delivered the party’s music. Lemon had her eyes closed and was punching the air in time with the beat as Vinyl adjusted the equalizer on the fly, wide smiles on both their faces and not a care in the world.
One final group of four, sitting quite far from the rowdy gamers and the ever-impressive bass of Vinyl’s equipment, was all that remained.
“... But in the end I was finally able to convince Starlight Glimmer that what she was doing was wrong and restore the original timeline,” Princess Twilight Sparkle said, pausing to take a bit of a breath as she finished the rather lengthy tale of her recent exploits in Equestria. A moment of silence and blank looks of shock from the other girls followed.
“Wow,” Sunset Shimmer finally broke the lull with a raised eyebrow, “and here I thought we had an interesting week.”
“Indeed!” Rarity said. “I shudder to think of what might’ve happened had you not succeeded, Twilight. We might never have heard from you again!”
“This is incredible!” Princess Twilight’s human counterpart exclaimed. “This Starlight person--er, pony was actually able to alter past events in a way that translated to meaningful changes in the future timeline?”
Princess Twilight beamed. “I know; I didn’t think it was possible! My previous experience with time travel led me to believe that everything was predetermined, but this event completely contradicts that theory! It’s so exciting!” She made an indistinct, high-pitched squeaking noise. “I can’t wait to start researching it when I get back home!”
“Is that really a good idea?” Sunset asked. “After everything you just told us, you couldn’t even pay me to mess with time magic.”
“Oh, I’m not planning on doing anything too dangerous,” Princess Twilight gestured vaguely. “Just a few small-scale experiments to gather data and test theorems. You know, going a few minutes back in time to move a book and observing the results; that sort of thing.” Her excited smile returned. “There’s so much we could learn from even the simplest of tests; this could literally re-write everything we know about how time works!”
“I know exactly what you mean!” Twilight answered, her eyes practically twinkling as she joined in her dimensional twin’s exuberance. “If time travel is possible in Equestria, maybe it’s possible here as well! I should attempt to conduct some field experiments... we could compare notes, and review each other’s work!” Her face suddenly grew more serious. “Do you think that the changes in causality could persist, and represent some kind of divergent timeline phenomenon? Something like the branches of a temporal multiverse?”
“Oh boy, here we go,” Sunset smirked behind her drink and whispered to Rarity as she noticed the fashionista’s eyes beginning to glaze over from the sudden influx of nerdery.
Princess Twilight’s grin turned pensive. “Well actually-” She paused as someone cleared their throat behind her, and all four turned to see that someone was Flash Sentry, his hands in his jacket pockets and wearing a decidedly nervous smile as his eyes briefly glanced at each of them.
“Hey girls, sorry for interrupting.”
“Why, it’s no trouble at all, darling,” Rarity smiled sweetly and gestured to the empty seat between Princess Twilight and Sunset. “Would you like to join us?”
“Um, actually, Twilight can I talk to you for a second?” he practically mumbled, before adding a hasty “In private?”
A vibrant blush quickly overtook Princess Twilight’s features. “Oh, um... sure!” She pushed herself up from the table and took a moment to smooth her skirt before regarding her friends with a smile. “Hold that thought, I’ll be right back.”
The three seated girls watched with a mixture of amusement and curiosity as she turned and followed Flash a short distance, where he held open the door to Sugarcube Corner’s kitchen for her before slipping inside himself and letting it close behind them gently.
“Who was that?” Twilight asked once they were out of sight.
“That’s Flash Sentry,” Rarity offered. “He participated in the first round of the Friendship Games; don’t you remember?”
Twilight’s glasses chose that moment to slip down her nose, and she pushed them back up while giving the others a sheepish grin. “I was kind of too preoccupied with the whole ‘strange energy readings’ thing to memorize everyone’s names,” she admitted. “Although now that I think about it, I might’ve run into him that first day…”
Sunset cocked an eyebrow. “By ‘run into him’, you mean you collided with each other and ended up in a tangled pile on the floor?”
“Yeah!” Twilight’s eyes widened. “How’d you know?”
Sunset shook her head and sighed, eyes rolling playfully. “Classic Flash.”
Twilight smiled a little. “He helped me find my glasses after we fell. He seemed nice…” her expression fell suddenly, “and I completely blew him off because I was caught up in following the readings from my spectrometer.”
“Oh my,” Rarity grimaced, “and that was before Flash knew that you weren’t the other Twilight! I can only imagine how terribly heartbreaking that must have been for him.”
“I dunno, he seems like he’s handling the whole thing pretty well, if you ask me,” Sunset interjected, giving the door they had disappeared through a long, hard glance.
Eyeing her redheaded friend, Rarity opened her mouth to say something, but a pair of sudden shouts--one an overexcited ‘Yes!’ and the other a wail of disappointment--cut her short as the large group watching the video game tournament echoed the same sentiments to varying degrees.
“Oh yeah! Who’s awesome?” Rainbow Dash threw both arms in the air and struck a triumphant pose, while Indigo Zap held her bowed head in her hands and groaned. “Sorry, Zap! Mess with the best; go down like the rest!”
“Ugh, you just got lucky! If I hadn’t missed that last block you and your little cow would be veal right now!” Indigo shot back. A devious grin then spread across her face. “Rematch!” It was not a request.
Rainbow Dash smirked right back, twirling her controller on one finger like basketball. “Game on!”
The cheers of the onlookers redoubled as the dangerously fluffy grudge match rejoined with gusto.
Rarity sighed happily and rested her chin in her hand. “It’s so nice to see everyone getting along well with one another. Even after all that’s happened, I must admit that I still had my doubts that Canterlot and Crystal Prep could put so many years of rivalry behind them.”
“The rivalry seems just fine to me,” Sunset shook her head as the students watching the game took up chants of ‘Dash’ and ‘Zap’, divided cleanly along school lines.
“Oh, pish-posh,” Rarity waved dismissively. “Rainbow Dash could turn Bingo into a hyper-competitive sport if she tried, and from what I’ve seen Miss Zap seems much the same.”
Sunset nodded her agreement and raised her glass to her lips.
“So I’m guessing that the two of them are dating?” Twilight spoke up.
Sunset coughed, choking as fruit punch went down the wrong pipe and a tiny bit dribbled down her chin.
“What?” she spat once she’d cleared her throat, shooting a narrow-eyed glare at Rarity as the fashionista did a poor job of hiding her laughter behind one delicate hand while offering Sunset a napkin with the other.
Twilight stared at Sunset blankly for a moment until her eyes widened. “Oh! Not Rainbow and Indigo! Sorry, I was still talking about Flash and the other me!”
“Oh,” Sunset said, her tone somewhere between understanding and relief. “Not… exactly. They’re really into each other, but with her duties as a Princess back in Equestria Twilight doesn’t get to spend a whole lot of time here.”
Rarity nodded. “Even when she is around, it’s usually not under the best of circumstances. I don’t think the two of them really even had a chance to catch up with one another after the whole ‘Battle of the Bands’ incident, and Flash said some rather hurtful things while he was under the Sirens’ influence.”
“The Sirens?” Twilight blinked.
Sunset rolled her hand in the air dismissively. “Some magical beings from Equestria who tried to take over the world. It’s kind of a long story.” Twilight’s mouth dropped open in shock, but Sunset had already turned her gaze back to the kitchen door. “They’ve been in there a while... I hope everything’s all right.”
Rarity’s eyes widened suddenly. “You don’t think Flash would do anything… unbecoming, do you?”
“Are you kidding?” Sunset laughed out loud. “I’m more worried about Twilight trying something than him.”
“I see,” Rarity purred with a coy smile, “and the thought of Twilight and Flash behind closed doors makes you a little... uncomfortable, does it?”
Sunset rolled her eyes. “I’ve told you before, I never really liked Flash, I was just using him to become more popular.” Her gaze drifted back to the door. “I just don’t want to see Twilight get hurt, that’s all.”
Rarity regarded her for a moment longer before letting out a quiet sigh. “All right, if you say so, dear.”
“So… wait, you used to date Flash?” Twilight pointed at Sunset. “And you only did it because you were using him?
“Yeah,” Sunset winced and let her eyes fall to the table, “that’s kind of a long story too.”
Twilight giggled and smiled warmly. “Is there any other kind?”
Sunset found she couldn’t help but return the infectious grin.
“Not when it comes to this group of friends.” She pushed herself up in her seat and leaned forward with her elbows on the table. “Okay, so from the time I came to this world up until the Fall Formal last year, I was…” She trailed off when she noticed Rarity and Twilight’s eyes were drawn to the side, looking somewhere over her shoulder.
She turned in time to see Flash walking out of the kitchen, his head down and his pace brisk. As he passed their table he looked up briefly, meeting Sunset’s gaze, only for his eyes to dart away a split-second later.
A cold dread seeped into Sunset’s stomach. The angry glower on his face was somehow hauntingly familiar.
Without so much as a word to anyone, but with more than a few heads turning to watch, Flash made a beeline to the front door and slipped out into the night. Sunset, Rarity and Twilight exchanged confused glances as Fluttershy and Sugarcoat got up from their booth and walked over.
“That guy left in a hurry and looked really unhappy about something,” Sugarcoat stated in her usual blunt, rapid-fire manner as she adjusted her glasses.
“I don’t think I’ve seen Flash look so angry since the Battle of the Bands,” Fluttershy added with a nod. “Is everything all right?”
“I’m not sure,” Rarity admitted. “He was talking to Twilight and then-!”
The fashionista stopped short as Sunset all but leaped out of her seat, racing to the kitchen and pausing only for a moment at the door, opting to open it gently instead of just bursting through.
The kitchen itself was darker than Sunset expected, and it took a moment for her eyes to adjust. Emanating from within the shadows ahead of her, the unmistakable sounds of someone fighting a losing battle against their emotions brought Sunset’s heart into her throat.
“Twilight?” she called softly, her vision finally clearing enough for her to pick out the shape of her friend on the other side of the room. Standing with her back to the door and with her hands over her face, Princess Twilight didn’t notice Sunset’s approach.
“Twilight…” Sunset reached out to place a hand on the crying girl’s quivering shoulder, only to gasp and jerk it back as a particularly nasty shock coursed through her fingers.
Princess Twilight was likewise startled as she wheeled around. “S-Sunset… um…”
Sunset nearly choked when she saw the other girl’s face, her eyes red and raw, with twin rivulets that glistened even in the low light painting both her cheeks. For a moment she had to fight the urge to cry herself. “Oh, Twilight...”
“Oh my goodness, darling!” Rarity exclaimed as she and several others entered the kitchen, flipping on the lights and momentarily re-blinding Sunset in the process. The fashionista rushed to Princess Twilight’s side, drawing her into a tight hug. “Are you all right? What happened?”
“Flash, h-he…” Princess Twilight’s voice wavered as she all but collapsed onto Rarity’s shoulder. “I…”
As Sunset stood there, unsure of what to do or say, watching helplessly while her best friend struggled to even breathe between heavy, body-wracking sobs... she remembered. Her eyes went wide, and deep in her heart something snapped.
The last time Sunset had seen Flash wearing that expression was the night that he’d broken up with her.
Sunset wheeled around, her face hardening into a deep scowl, and practically shoved her way past Sugarcoat and the other Twilight. She slammed open the kitchen door, startling everyone still enjoying the party and drawing their undivided attention.
“Whoa!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed with a smile. “Easy there, Sunset! The Cakes were super-nice to let us use the bakery tonight. We don’t wanna leave them with a broken… door…” She ground to a halt, her eyes going wide as Sunset stalked right past her without a second glance.
Terrified expressions slowly formed on the face of every Wondercolt in the room. The kids from Crystal Prep had no way of knowing, but for the students of Canterlot High this was a sight they had become intimately familiar with over the years; one that many of them would have been happy to never see again.
This was Sunset Shimmer--the old Sunset Shimmer--and she was on the warpath.
Every eye in the room silently followed her as she snatched up her motorcycle helmet from the table next to the bakery’s front door and reached for the handle.
“Sunset!” Rarity’s voice called out behind her. “Sunset, wait!” When she did not, the fashionista huffed in frustration. “Rainbow, Applejack, a little help here, please?”
Sunset barely registered the subsequent scuffing of chairs and feet as the door closed behind her. Her real focus was on the sight of Flash’s unmistakable car driving past the storefront just as she stepped out into the seasonably warm night air. She glared after it for a moment before turning away and jogging to where her motorcycle, a dark red lacquered Barley Street 500, was parked alongside the curb. She pulled the keys from her pocket and threw one leg over the chassis in a swift, practiced motion. Rainbow Dash and Applejack came bursting out of the building just as the engine growled to life.
“Sunset!” Rainbow shouted over the noise.
“Where in tarnation are you goin’?” Applejack asked as they came up beside her, worry and confusion painted across their features. Sunset didn’t even look at them as she slipped the helmet onto her head and slapped the visor down.
“To beat some sense into my ex-boyfriend.”
With a roar and a squeal of rubber her bike leaped away from the curb, speeding Sunset off into the streets of Canterlot and leaving a very concerned group of friends behind.
O snap! 
Click here to visit the kickoff blog!
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Pinkie's long party name was a bit more descriptive than light-hearted, but the dialogue between rainbooms and activities with shadowbolts were really characterful, pleasant reading, quite succinct too. I can understand Flash not wanting to date a pony from another world, and Sunset still being angry. Really like this so far.
This thing! I remember this thing!
Interesting happenings ahead, I think.
Shit's already about to get real, and it's fucking amazing.
Fantastic start! I'm really looking forward to what happens next.
So a Groundhog Day fanfic? Sounds interesting. I hope things will be okay with Flash and Twilight, that seemed sudden.
Oh boy, this won't end well.
An intriguing concept. Tracking!
7480131
s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/2f/bd/26/2fbd2617f761e572729a839a5a0ea315.jpg
Glad you're enjoying it so far!
7480170
I don't know if you've seen it, but 'this thing' remembers you too, and gave you a shout-out,
7480181
I can say with complete honesty that there will not be nearly as much gore or as many changelings.
No promises about the weather vane,
Re: Groundhog Day; you might get a kick out of my wife's first attempt to troll me when I asked for cover art,
7480204
Hold onto your butt; it's about to get even real-er!
7480308
Glad to hear it! Your avatar is adorable, btw,
7480311
I promise nothing,
7481018
Hey, we can't let you have the only fic where Sunset gets in a bit of kickpunching,
7481260
Welcome aboard!
7481305 My butt has been held on to.
That's a bad touch...
So, about a month ago, over the span of roughly a week, I read a story that was upwards of a hundred fifty chapters. The story in question was Warewolves' A Little Loopy. I've linked it for you there. It was a story about Sweetie Belle getting stuck in a time loop and attempting to get out before she goes insane. It was a good read, but the reason I bring this up is because this story seems to be about time loops as well.
The point of this comment is as follows; I'll get around to reading this at some point, but as for now, I can let it develop.
It is doing very well. I like this.
OOOOOHHHH SNAP. this is off to a roaring start!
wait a minute.
*levitates in a bag of unidentifiable snack foods*
Proceed!
I know I told you this before, but this part makes me really happy.
Yes! YES!
Bad. Ass.
Here we go...
7481305 Not sure if I'm excited or scared for the possible return of The Weathervane...That was probably the second or third fic I ever read, and that weathervane has scarred me since.
and the bitch came back