• Published 29th Oct 2017
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Songs of the Spheres - GMBlackjack

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[RAGE] 092 - The Allure of Time, Part 1

Allure was not known for sleeping particularly soundly. Ever since she was a filly, she had been restless in any bed she was placed into, much to the annoyance of any friends at a sleepover. She didn’t snore, she just twirled around in the blankets like a drunk spider who got trapped in their own web and didn’t realize it.

This was why she woke up with her head facing the wall of her bedroom. She yawned and sat up – scraping her metallic horn across the edge of the wall. She let out a hiss of pain and grabbed her artificial protrusion, rubbing it gently to soothe the pain.

Her horn was a silvery metallic cone far sharper than any natural unicorn’s horn. The grooves in it were not a spiral, but rather three concentric rings. It worked just as well as her normal horn for actually doing magic, which was to say she still didn’t have much to work with.

It had no nerves in it so she wasn’t as aware of its position as she used to be, though after a few months she’d thought she’d finally gotten the hang of not scraping it on stuff. The horn itself may not have been able to feel pain, but when it tugged on the base at her skull the sensation was not only jarringly unpleasant, it also brought about a headache.

She rubbed her temples until the ache in her head went away – then she took a breath. It was time to wake up anyway, no need to get upset about losing sleep. She moved to leave her bed, but one of the blankets grabbed her back hoof, making her trip and land flat on her stomach. “What a great start to the day…” she muttered.

She pulled herself up and walked out of her room, into the mixture living room/kitchen area she owned. Minna was already up, sitting on the couch, face glued on the TV. She was watching the news – odd for a thirteen-year old, certainly, but not even close to the weirdest thing she had done.

…Skarn the Shaper made direct contact with Celestia City last night, and his daughter will be traveling to meet with Mayor Blumiere shortly. Another multiversal society has appeared before us. Will they be the friends they claim to be?”

“I don’t like him,” Minna said.

Allure glanced at the TV as she began to prepare breakfast. “Hm?” There was an image of a tall, brown, anthropomorphic horned bear on screen, with the caption Brell. “Minna, that’s a woman.”

“Not her. Skarn. The big bear.”

“Why?” Allure said, flipping the pancakes.

Minna shrugged. “Just don’t. Bad feeling.”

“Well, sometimes intuition ha-” Allure’s pancakes burst into flames. “What the-!?“

Minna leaped off the couch and ran to help her mother put out the fire, though by the time she arrived Allure had already taken care of the fire by placing a lid over the pan. After a few seconds, she removed the lid to see black charred remains.

“…That’s still edible, right?” Allure asked Minna.

“No.”

“…Cereal it is today. At least we still have nice orange juic-”

She stared at the glass of juice she had poured. It was black and looked like cinders. “Oh come on! How did that even happen!? I haven’t burnt juice since I was twelve!”

“…How do you burn juice?” Minna asked.

“You, uh… you…” Allure blinked. “I have no idea how I did that.”

“You could probably make money off burnt juice. Sell it as a novelty or something.”

Allure blinked. “…Yeah, no.”

“Your loss,” Minna said. “So… mom…

“No.”

“But I didn’t even ask yet!”

“You want to come on the adventure today. Minna, it’s a school day. You’re going to school. I’m going to work. Which is probably going to be patrolling Celestia City and not going anywhere special. So you’re not missing out.”

Minna groaned. “Fiiiine.” She grabbed her bowl of cereal and ate in silence.

Allure would have been concerned about this behavior if she wasn’t busy having an existential crisis over the burnt juice. How did the fire even reach it? How can you burn juice!? How in… Her mind’s processor stopped working.

“…Mom?”

“Huh?” she said, realizing she had a spoon of cereal levitated in front of her mouth, all the milk having dripped out onto the table below. “Oh for the…”

Minna hefted her backpack up. “I’m going to school now. Don’t you need to go to the League…?”

“Ponyfeathers,” Allure muttered, abandoning her breakfast and scrambling out the door. It helped to be a pony on days like this – she didn’t need to worry about getting dressed or anything of that sort. She just had to run.

Once again she wished she could teleport. Must be nice to go to and from places without straining legs to the brink.

She ran along the street.

“Morning Allure!” the pink Seskii called from her potion stand, which was currently situated across the street in front of a new ‘artistic installation’ that was literally just a bunch of scrap metal thrown into a pile two stories high.

Allure waved at Seskii for a moment, but the action of picking up one hoof while in the middle of a run sent her skidding across the pavement. She scrambled back to her hooves and continued on to the League of Sweetie Belles. She stepped into a public teleporter terminal and sent herself right to the League.

She barged in the front doors and ran through the man lobby. She slipped on the wet floor – having completely missed the ‘wet floor’ sign – and skidded until she hit Squeaky. They ended up in a position where Allure had Squeaky pinned to the ground awkwardly.

Allure blushed. “Uh… I think ka has it in for me today.”

“No kidding,” Squeaky muttered. “Mind getting off me? Sweeties are starting to stare.”

Allure scrambled off and dusted herself. “Eheh… Anyway, what’s up today?”

“Besides Blumiere’s meeting? Nothing,” Squeaky said. “We’ve got a slow day. By the way, ka is going to continue hating you.”

“…Why?”

“It’s your turn to manage the phones.”

Allure twitched. “…Great. This is just gonna be one of those days.”

“There’s the special ice cream in the fridge for lunch, don’t you worry,” Squeaky said, patting Allure on the back. “Also if the ‘Gregory’ guy calls about his fly problem, hang up. Then don’t answer the phone for five minutes.”

Allure blinked. “Sure.”

~~~

The phone rang again.

Jade barked, then put her hands over her mouth. “Sorry!” Jade had taken to hanging around the League of Sweetie Belles a lot, becoming sort of the ‘office dog’, occasionally going on missions with them. She’d decided to keep Allure company while managing the phones.

Allure rolled her eyes at Jade and picked up the League’s official phone. “League of Sweetie Belles, this is Allure.”

“I dropped off a sac of their eggs in your ventilation two days ago. They should already be leaving their grub state. Maybe now you’ll take my fly problem seriously.” The man Allure could only assume as ‘Gregory’ hung up.

Allure stared at the phone, blinking. “Uh… Okay. Jade?”

“On it.” She floated over to the ventilation system and popped the grate off the outlet. She looked in. “Don’t see any flies.”

“Do you know what this Gregory’s deal is?”

“He wants us to deal with his fly infestation for free rather than hire an exterminator,” Jade said. “He’s very persistent about it.”

“If he’s that persistent why not hire the exterminator?”

Jade shrugged. “I’ve never seen him, only heard other Sweeties talk about him.”

Allure looked up at the ventilation. “You know, if I poke my head up there, I’m just going to get a face full of flies given my luck today.”

“Did Vriska get to you?”

Allure blinked. “…You know what? That sounds like a solid maybe. Maybe I should call h-”

The phone rang again. Allure sighed. “League of Sweetie Belles, this is Allure.”

“Why aren’t you screaming in disgust at the infestation of flies!? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!?”

“Gregory, just go hire an exterminator.”

Gregory hung up.

Allure stared at the phone in confusion. “I… I just don’t get this guy.”

“I don’t think anybody does,” Jade said.

Allure checked the clock. “Well, it’s lunch time in a bit. After that my shift is DONE! I can get some other poor Sweet-”

The phone rang again.

“League of Sweetie Belles, this is Allure.”

“Help! My cat is stuck in a tree and I can’t get it down!”

Allure blinked. “…We’re not the fire department. Actually, don’t call the fire department either, cats can climb down trees on their own if they want.”

“But Fluffles is terrified of trees! You have to help!”

“Look, miss, find a local pegasus and have them fly up there.”

“They might hurt Fluffles!”

“And you think I won’t!?” Allure blurted.

The woman let out a stressed shriek and hung up.

Allure rammed her head into the desk and let out a scream.

“…Better?” Jade asked.

“I will be once I have lunch,” Allure muttered, walking away from the phone and into the break room. There was a fridge, a series of shelves with different sandwiches on them, a food replicator that had OUT OF ORDER on it, and a television screen displaying the news. There were at least a dozen flies on the ceiling of this room.

“…I was expecting worse,” Allure said. It was easy enough to squish all the flies in her telekinesis and dump them in the trash. “Guess they just like the break room better than the other rooms.”

Two Sweeties walked into the room, shouting at each other. They apparently decided the break room was the place to have their argument.

“Look, we have to figure out how to share him!”

“Sharing? Do you realize what you sound like!?”

“He doesn’t know there’s two of us!”

“Whose fault is that!?”

“Yours!”

“NUH-UH!”

Allure hated how common this argument was in the League. Oh hey I like this guy followed by “I like that guy tooanswered with back off and then wait a minute he has no idea there’s two of us does he? You’d think the Sweeties would be careful about that by now.

Allure wasn’t in the mood to deal with it. She walked to the fridge – realizing with annoyance that someone hadn’t closed it all the way. She poked her head inside to find not only had the ice cream melted, but there were three flies in it.

She closed the fridge. “Suffocate, vermin,” she muttered. She decided to just take a sandwich, but before she could do that the television suddenly cut to ‘BREAKING NEWS’

Allure turned to it, ears perking up.

The Ga of Inchari Libera have begun to riot outside the Mayor’s residence. As of this report their intent is unknown, but it is expected the demonstrating group is protesting against Inchari Libera’s application to join Merodi Universalis…”

Allure sighed. “That sounds like an emergency for us to deal with.” She set her sandwich down. “You can teleport us there, right?”

Jade nodded slowly. “…You guys didn’t tell me the Ga were Gardevoirs.”

“What?”

“From the Pokémon games.” She pointed at the news feed. The Ga were creatures with white skin and predominantly green hair, though other colors were visible in the crowd. All of them had red spikes in their chests and frilled ears. The women appeared to have dresses as part of their body, while the men had sharp points coming out the back of their elbows.

“Huh, really? I always thought they were a variant of Seskii’s race or something,” Allure said. “That’s not the point. Just teleport us there.”

Despite having lost her Green Sun power, Jade was still the Witch of Space, and as such could easily teleport within Celestia City. They appeared on the front steps of Blumiere’s house, right in front the rioting Ga. It was admittedly smaller than Allure had expected from the news report, only a few dozen individuals participating.

Thrackerzod was the only one there, using an eldritch wall to keep them back.

“Where are the other Sweeties?” Allure asked.

“I don’t have any idea,” Thrackerzod muttered. “All I know is that I’ve got th-” One of the Ga used a psychic power to punch Thrackerzod from the other side of the barrier, tossing her to the side with surprising ease.

“CHARGE!” a Ga man shouted, rushing forward.

Allure readied herself to knock him down. She didn’t get the opportunity – Blumiere stepped out of the front doors of his home, dark energy billowing off his back. “What is the meaning o-”

Gunfire rang out. The Ga in the riot quickly forgot their anger and started scrambling to protect themselves from the shots. Blumiere easily defended himself using dark magic, while Jade’s ghost body couldn’t take any permanent damage unless one of the bullets hit her reality bracelet - though she could feel pain.

Allure, however, took one to the leg. She yelled out in pain – but she was more annoyed by the way this day had turned out than worried about her wound. “This is stupid,” she muttered, limping backward to find some cover within Blumiere’s house.

A psychic blast from a Ga woman with blue hair sent her flying into the air instead. Allure locked eyes with her, glaring.

The woman raised a gun to take Allure out, using her free hand to psychically keep Allure in place. She fired…

And then all of Celestia City exploded. A white light shot out of the center of the Merodi’s pride, tearing the ground beneath them to shreds. Allure was aware enough to feel the white light burning her skin away.

She roared out in rage, her very soul fighting back against the burning fire of destruction. There was a pink spark-

And then there was nothing.

~~~

Allure woke up and dragged her horn against the wall of her bedroom. She let out a hiss of pain and grabbed her artificial horn, rubbing it gently to soothe the pain.

Then her eyes flew open.

Most people would have gone through the usual assumptions – I’ve been dreaming, I’ve just recovered from being blown up, or it was all an illusion.

Allure jumped right to the correct one.

“I’m a TIME LOOP!?” Allure blurted, ignoring her headache. “I just… Why today? …Why do I even have to ask that question, of course it’s today, because it was an absolutely cruddy day and because I’ve got to keep Celestia City from blowing up.” She took in a sharp breath. “I need to test first. Right.” She got out of her bed – and fell on her stomach. Again. She ground her teeth.

She lifted herself up and walked down the stairs. Minna was watching the news again.

…Skarn the Shaper made direct contact with Celestia City last night, and his daughter will be traveling to meet with Mayor Blumiere shortly. Another multiversal society has appeared before us. Will they be the friends they claim to be?”

“I don’t like him,” Minna said.

“Guess what Minna?” Allure said. “I’m in a time loop.”

“Really?” Minna said, tearing her gaze away from the television. “Neat.”

“Breakfast is going to have to be fast today, I’ve got to stop a disaster. You understand, right?”

“Can I come with?”

Allure poured the juice and got out cereal. “No, Minna, just because the day is repeating for me doesn’t mean you get out of school. Just means we don’t get good breakfast.”

“Does it also mean burnt juice?”

“What do y-” Allure stared in disbelief at the cup of juice she had just poured. It was burnt. “I… what?

Minna looked at her. “Did that happen last time?”

“Yeah. How in…?”

Minna shrugged. “You could probably sell that as a novelty, or something.”

“Right…” Allure shook her head. “Right, doesn’t matter.” She pulled out her phone and called Blumiere. “Hey, Blumiere. Allure here.”

“I am just about in a meeting with Brell. What do you need?”

“I’m looping through time and Celestia City is going to blow up around lunchtime if we don’t do something. You can probably go to that meeting though, it has to do with the Ga, not Brell. …Far as I know. Call me as soon as you get done so we can deal with it.”

“…One of those days?”

“It hasn’t even been twenty four hours and I’m already sick of it. I’ll gather the Sweeties.” Allure hung up, calling Squeaky. “Squeaky, I’m not going to come to the phone lines today.”

“How did y-”

“I’m suddenly psychic.” Allure chuckled. “No, I’m just looping through time. We need to stop Celestia City from blowing up. To do that, we should start by stopping a riot of Ga that’s going to form outside Blumiere’s house later.”

“Got it.”

Allure smirked, putting her phone away. “Ah, foreknowledge makes things great.”

She trotted outside, heading to the League.

“Hey, how’s it going?” Seskii asked Allure.

“Better!” Allure said, smiling. “About to save the City!”

“We’re all counting on you!”

She used the public teleporter to get to the League and ran through the doors again. She had completely forgotten about the wet floor and slipped into Squeaky for the second time.

Squeaky raised an eyebrow. “You look like you’ve been here before.”

“Eheh…”

~~~

The moment the Ga arrived, the League of Sweetie Belles made themselves known. The would-be rioters were circled by dozens of white unicorn mares plus a few bonus Sweeties, including Suzie, Burgerbelle, Servitude, and a handful of others.

Allure cleared her throat. “Yeah, we’re going to have to ask you to clear the area. No rioting today.”

A Ga man walked up to her. “We’ll make our displeasure known regardless of whatever you do!”

“Mhm. What’s your name?”

“Utar,” he said, narrowing his eyes.

“Right, Utar. Let me make this clear. Thrackerzod over there has a mental subduction spell trained on all of you. The moment you make a move you all will suddenly feel the need to grab your heads and cry. So just go home. There’s nothing for you here.”

Utar curled his hands into a fist. “We will not be sile-”

Thrackerzod activated the spell. All but the most powerful psychics among the Ga women fell instantly. One of those psychics decided she was going to keep fighting anyway.

Allure tapped into her magic, pushing it into her back hooves to give her jump a boost. She leaped through the air and placed a hoof on the woman’s shoulder. She was pushed to the ground by the force of the attack, allowing Allure to pin her, holding a hoof on her neck. “I said no rioting.”

She glared at Allure in anger, but decided she didn’t want to risk a snapped spinal column. She let her limbs go limp with an annoyed grunt.

“Good. Clear!” Allure said. She got up and dusted herself off.

“You were exact,” Blumiere noted with amazement. “Only one loop through and you already knew how to stop them!”

“I don’t think the people who were shooting were part of the riot,” Allure said. “We probably still have to watch for them.”

Blumiere nodded. “I have defenses ready. They won’t be catching us by surprise.”

Allure sat down, turning to Utar. “So, here’s a question. Why are you blowing up Celestia City with yourselves still on it?”

Utar looked at her with contempt, a hand to his head. “What? …You know, that’s not a bad idea.”

“Right, you’re useless,” Allure muttered. “Do any of you know about a bomb?”

Everyone stared at her with mixed expressions of bafflement and near-panic.

Blumiere nudged her. “Don’t spread panic.”

Allure put a hoof to her head. “Right, sorry. …Looks like they don’t know. So… distraction?”

Squeaky shrugged. “They seem like the sort to try and blow us up, but I don’t see how they’d be able to pull it off. Their race doesn’t have much aside from above-average psychics, and those are almost exclusively the women.”

Squeaky rubbed her chin. “Hrm…” She began pacing. “There’s got to be something else here. Bot, what’s the word on the Internet?”

“News reports about us stopping a riot before it started,” Bot chirped.

“Right… Do we know who these people are?”

“Sights Unseen.”

“Dumb name o’clock,” Thrackerzod muttered. “Not only is it an oxymoron, but it also sounds like whoever made the name wanted to sound mysterious. Clearly, these Ga are not mysterious. Just brutes.”

“How dare y-” Utar began – but then the bullets started flying. Blumiere’s defenses caught every bullet in an aura of purple energy easily.

Allure spied the blue woman she’d seen last time. Allure charged, ready to take her out and ask a few questions.

The woman dropped her gun and used simple psychic power to push Allure back. Allure was no match for the burst. She went flying backward and landed flat on her back.

“Ow…”

Thrackerzod rushed the woman, taking her down easily with eldritch vines.

Then Celestia City exploded again.

~~~

Allure scraped her horn on the wall and hissed.

“At least I’m still looping,” she muttered, rubbing her head. She carefully tore the blankets off herself and slid out of bed comically slowly. She managed not to trip.

She came down the stairs. “I don’t like him,” Minna said.

With the proof that she was still looping solidified, she took out her phone. “Sorry, Minna, I’ve got a bit of an emergency to deal with. You can make your own breakfast, right?”

Minna nodded. “What kind of emergency?”

“The one where I have to answer the same questions again and again,” Allure said, dialing Blumiere. “Hey, Blumiere, I know you have a thing with Brell. Just know that, after that’s done, we’re going to have to deal with a plot to blow up Celestia City. I’m looping through time, that’s how I know. Try to wrap it up quickly, I’ll be coordinating with the League to try something new. From my perspective anyway.” She hung up. “I am so lucky to live in a world where you can say ‘hey, I’m stuck in a time loop’ and people will just believe you.”

Minna nodded. “Yeah. ...Mom, why’s my orange juice burnt?”

“No idea, Minna,” Allure commented, eye twitching.

“I could make money off of this…”

Allure sighed, calling up Squeaky. “Hey Squeaky, I’m in a time loop. We need to deal with that. There’s a plot to blow up Celestia City. We’ll need Sweeties around Blumiere’s house with bullet-stopping fields – and no I am not answering the phone. I’m going to make some more calls before coming over.”

She dialed Aradia. She got a busy signal.

Odd. Aradia would almost always be able to answer calls because she could just go back in time and answer it later.

She tried Nova. Same busy signal.

She furrowed her brow. “Hrm…” She pulled out her dimensional device and opened a portal to the Gem Vein.

The portal led to complete blackness. She took the cup of burnt juice and flung it through the portal. It vanished into thin air instead of appearing on the other side.

“…Odd,” she said. “Looks like there won’t be any leaving the universe. Fun.” She stretched her legs and walked out, going to the League of Sweetie Belles once again.

“You look puzzled!” Seskii called.

“I am. I’ll tell you about it later, maybe. If I remember.” Allure continued on her way – this time watching for people moving through dimensions. They were a common sight in Celestia City, since the city rarely stayed in one universe for long. They were currently in Inchari Libera, so any normal Merodi travelers would have to come from elsewhere.

She saw one – a portal opened, but there was nothing through it. A man walked out of it anyway, like everything was normal. She spotted a pegasus open a portal that led to blackness and fly right into it. She was just gone.

Allure shivered. That was creepy.

A short while later, she opened the doors of the League of Sweetie Belles carefully, minding the wet floor. She snuck over to Squeaky.

“…Allure, what are you doing?”

“I’m not going to slip and fall on you again,” Allure said. “I’m not.”

“How many loops in are you?” Thrackerzod asked.

“Three.”

“You’re going mad faster than I would have expected.”

“Yeah, yeah, get a laugh out of it,” Allure said, rolling her eyes. “I just figured out that it’s only this universe that’s looping.”

“Makes sense,” Squeaky said. “We’re not causally consistent with any other universes where we are. I guess there’s a reason we don’t just dial out?”

Allure opened a portal that led to blackness.

Squeaky blinked. “Interesting… How does nobody notice this? Dimensional travel is a regular thing on Celestia City!”

“It’s obvious,” Thrackerzod said. “Any travel that happened the first loop is preserved in any subsequent loops. If you went to Equis Vitis for a coffee break and came back five minutes later, the loop would allow that. But if Allure told you to take a coffee break earlier, you wouldn’t be able to do it.”

Squeaky nodded. “Makes sense, though I fail to see how it’s obvious.”

“This kind of messy time sludge showed up all the time in the Embodiment,” Thrackerzod said. “They are not fond memories.”

“So what are we going to do, then?” Allure asked. “I already stopped the mob and defended against the attack, that didn’t stop the explosion.”

“Get more information!” Bot beeped.

Squeaky nodded. “Go stand in front of a city-wide scanner so it can tell you what’s happening the moment of the explosion. Then go back in time and use that knowledge.”

Allure grinned. “Yeah! I’ll go ask Blu-” she slipped on the floor and fell onto Squeaky again.

Squeaky raised an eyebrow. “You look like you’ve been here before.”

Allure just flopped over instead of standing back up, groaning.

“Emergency! We must drag her to the scanner ourselves!” Bot picked Allure up and flew her away.

“Oh, and there are flies in the ventilation!” Allure called back.

Squeaky twitched. “…Gregory…”

~~~

“Um… Hi,” a Fluttershy said to Allure, hiding behind her clipboard, lab coat, and giant glasses. Clearly one of the shyer versions of the pegasus. “Um… I’m Irenashy. Um… I’m told you need to use my scanner to see an… explosion?”

Allure nodded, walking into the room, showing off the ‘authorized visitor’ badge she had obtained from Blumiere a short while ago. “Yeah. Were you briefed?”

“Celestia City is going to explode…” she whispered.

“Yep. I’m here to stop it. And to do that I need to stare a…” Allure’s jaw dropped at the sheer size of the screen in the room, easily larger than most theater screens. Every section of it was covered in lines of coding. “What in ka’s ripple...?”

“It’s, um, sorry, my data. I’ll, uh, make it visually easier for you…” she pressed a few buttons, replacing the code with a white wireframe representation of Celestia City. “There you are. I have it keyed to show energy surges, outbursts, explosions…” She gestured at points on the giant image that were pulsing purple. “I think those are unicorns. Being… dangerous…

“You mean having fun.”

“Yes…” Irenashy breathed.

Man she’s an antsy one. “Well, I’ll just need to watch. And see what happens. And remember.”

“I’m going to burn and die and forget what it feels like tomorrow…”

“Hey, I’ve got you, okay?”

Irenashy nodded slowly. “R-right… Sorry.”

Allure stared at the screen for a few minutes. She realized the main screen didn’t have a clock on it. “Uh…”

Irenashy gestured to a smaller screen near the bottom right wall that displayed the time. “I, um, couldn’t be bothered to put it on the main interface in every view. Sorry.”

“Kay…” Allure said, examining the time. 11:59. …12:00. It happened shortly after noon…

They waited in silence. It put Allure on edge, but she couldn’t bring herself to freak Irenashy out more simply by talking.

The big screen went dead sometime after 12:03, along with almost all the lights in the room, plunging them into a dull red existence. Notably the clock kept running.

Irenashy panicked. “W-what!?” She checked her phone, tapping into backup sensors. “The… The entire system is down! I, uh, it’s been fried!”

Allure blinked. “Not going to get any data, are we?”

“Nothing good! I-” Celestia City rumbled. The clock struck 12:04. Light engulfed everything.

~~~

Allure scraped her horn on the wall and hissed. In her anger she forgot to check for the blanket and fell onto the floor.

She grunted, leaving her room.

“I don’t like him,” Minna said.

“Yeah, I know,” Allure said. She pulled out her phone and started making calls again. “Hey, Blumiere? I’m looping through time and Celestia City has blown up three times so far. I don’t have much in the way of information, but I want to try something. Let’s just move the city to another universe, okay? It might look a little weird, but trust me, we’ve gotta try it to see if it works.”

“Mom?”

“Emergency,” Allure said with a sigh. She called Squeaky. “We’re going to have to keep people calm while we move Celestia City to another universe. Why? Because we’re going to explode, that’s why. I’m in a time loop. Just try to keep everyone calm okay? Also, Gregory’s put flies in the ventilation. Might want to send someone to take care of that. A-” She turned around, noticing a cup of burnt juice on the countertop. “I DIDN’T EVEN POUR IT TODAY!”

There was silence on the other end of the line.

“Fine, I’ll be right over to explain anything. Just when I awkwardly fall on you, don’t blame me.” She hung up and dashed out of the house, leaving Minna confused.

“Happy-” Seskii began.

“NOT IN THE MOOD!”

~~~

Allure watched as the giant, black portal was created in front of Celestia City. It led into nothing.

“You sure about this?” Blumiere asked.

“If it doesn’t work, I just loop back. If it does, we escape. Figured we might as well try it.” She stretched her hooves. “The people are panicking, aren’t they?”

“Yep,” Blumiere said, folding his arms. “But you’re right. We should at least try. And I do trust your judgement, even if you seem a bit…”

“Frazzled? Angry? Twitchy? All of the above?”

“…Sure.” He watched as the front part of Celestia City vanished into the portal. “That’s unnerving.”

“Yeah, it is. Time to see what happens.” Allure held her breath…

…and scraped her horn against the wall. She hissed in pain. “At least there was no feeling of burning death that time,” she muttered, carefully getting out of her bed. She left her room.

“I don’t like him.”

“I know…” Allure muttered, pulling up the phone. “Blumiere, I’m stuck in a time loop and the last plan didn’t work. So we’re going to try it a little differently this time…”

~~~

Allure sat in a Skiff, filling only one of the six seats. She watched as Celestia City entered their giant black portal and vanished, the portal closing the moment they were all the way through.

She looked at the clock.

10:12

Probably should have had them wait a little bit, Allure thought to herself. She stretched her hooves and leaned back in the chair, waiting for 12:04.

Every now and then she’d try to create a portal. The Skiff would make one, and it would lead to endless blackness regardless of which universe she chose.

She pulled up some video games on the windshield-display, careful not to pick any with story since her progress would just be erased in a couple hours.

She grew bored and agitated with this rather quickly. She tried to read, but she couldn’t focus on the words. All she got was more annoyed with how long she was waiting.

“UGH, how much longer!?”

11:19

“I’m going to go nuts…” she moaned. “Or I’m already nuts. Five loops in and the insanity has set in. If this lasts much longer I’m going to become a wreck.”

She started making a mental list of the loops. Five loops. Each one lasts only from when I wake up to 12:04. So from 7:30 to 12:04… four and a half hours. About a fifth of a day. I’ve been in here for a full day without actually experiencing sleep. Lovely thought, that. She decided that maybe a nap was a good idea.

The explosion woke her up before it killed her.

~~~

“I don’t like him.”

“Blumiere! Yeah, it didn’t work. The – right. Ahem, I’m in a Time Loop. We need to do it again so I don’t fall asleep this time. I… Moving Celestia City. I – look, Blumiere, this is the sixth time I’ve been through this and I… Right, right, I’ll be right over to explain everything.” She dashed out the door, ignoring the burnt juice.

“What’s the rush?” Seskii called.

Allure ignored her.

~~~

Allure sat in the Skiff, again, this time with her eyes glued on the windshield. A wireframe representation of Celestia City was plastered on the screen where the city should have been if it wasn’t gone.

12:03.

They had left three minutes ago, just to give her a little time to grow accustomed to the Skiff. But she was ready. She was going to see the explosion when it happened and where it happened. Then she would go to the source before it happened and find out the answers to all her questions!

Yes… it was close… she could feel it…

The explosion went off. At this distance, the Skiff had enough time to tell her exactly where it was going off.

“Sector N-G, Marrow Street, 5439. Aha! Bing-”

~~~

Allure scraped her horn on the wall, removing her feeling of elation. It returned the moment she was out of her bed and on her four hooves.

She trotted to the kitchen-living room.

“I don’t like him.”

“That’s nice,” Allure said absent-mindedly. She pulled out her phone. “Hey, Thrackerzod. I’m stuck in a time loop. Meet me at Sector N-G, Marrow Street, 5439 in half an hour. We’ve got some investigating to do.”

“Oooh, can I come!?” Minna asked.

“No, you have school,” Allure said. “But you can have breakfast. How do pancakes sound?”

“Great!”

Allure started cooking.

Hey wait a minute, didn’t I light these on fire la-

The pancakes lit on fire. She smothered them, looking like she was about to blow a gasket. “Cereal it is!”

“I didn’t know you could burn juice.”

“APPARENTLY YOU CAN WITHOUT EVEN TRYING!” Allure said with a forced laugh.

“…Mom? Are you okay?”

“Not really,” Allure said, sitting down. She tossed the burnt juice into the trash. “But let’s enjoy our breakfast anyway and not freak out over the continual existence of burnt juice. That’d be silly. And frivolous.”

“I think you could make money off of it.”

“Is that all you ever think about?”

Minna cocked her head. “…No?”

Allure drove her face into her cereal.

Minna blinked. “…Mom?”

“Just give me a minute…”

A minute turned out to be a little bit too long. Allure had to run out of the house two minutes before she was supposed to meet Thrackerzod.

“Don’t trip!” Seskii called.

Allure took her advice without realizing it. She pulled out her phone. “Hey, Thrackerzod, where did I tell you to meet me? See, I don’t have any paper that I can take through the time loop and I’ve completely forgotten…”

~~~

Sector N-G, Marrow Street, 5439 was a small warehouse on a street in the middle of an abandoned factory district.

Allure came running in, panting heavily.

“You look like a cow has been sitting on you for hours,” Thrackerzod observed.

“I’m going a little nuts,” Allure admitted. “Loop seven. The fun thing is I’ve never been here before. Got information on it last loop.”

“So why are we here?”

“Because the explosion that destroys Celestia City will originate from here,” Allure said. “We’re here to investigate.”

Thrackerzod nodded. “Seems reasonable enough. Squeaky’s ticked at you, though.”

“She can man the phones if she thinks someone needs to be up there so bad.”

“I take it there are going to be some bad calls today?”

“You have no idea,” Allure muttered. She tried to open the doors of the warehouse, but they were locked. Thrackerzod tore them off their hinges, revealing a dark interior with a bunch of wooden crates inside, collecting dust.

“Any weird magic?” Allure asked.

Thrackerzod shook her head. “Nothing weird about this place at all. Besides the usual outrageous amounts of dust. Far too much dust.”

“I see where you’re coming from there…” Allure said, opening one of the crates to find old human clothing. “Hm. Why would the explosion come from here?”

Thrackerzod shrugged. “Not a clue. If it really does, it either isn’t here yet, or comes in from another universe.”

“…Probably the latter,” Allure said, rubbing her chin. “Let’s go outside and stake the place out. See if we can find anything.”

The two of them walked out of the warehouse only to find two dozen Ga pointing weapons at them.

“What are you doing here?” The lead asked.

“…Exploring?” Allure said, smiling weakly.

“Wrong answer.” She was shot between the eyes with a laser rifle.

~~~

“What are you doing here?” The lead asked.

“…Exploring?” Allure said, smiling weakly.

“Wrong answer.” At this point the League of Sweetie Belles appeared and subdued all the Ga with ease, not losing a single Sweetie or gaining a single injury.

“Huh. That worked really well,” Allure said. She walked up to the lead Ga. “Shooting me in the head isn’t nice.”

He clicked his teeth. Something inside his mouth burst and foam started flowing out of his mouth. He was dead in seconds.

Allure facehooved. “Did any of them not have a suicide capsule?”

“No, all of them are dead,” Squeaky said.

“Hardcore,” Bot observed.

Allure sighed. “I hate hardcore terrorist groups…”

~~~

This time Thrackerzod and Allure didn’t arrive at the warehouse until just before the explosion. There were no Ga in sight and the warehouse was still abandoned.

“Your ‘great idea’ has led me to a warehouse,” Thrackerzod deadpanned. “What now?”

Allure checked the time. 12:03. “Well, I guess we just see what happens.”

They saw a portal form in front of their eyes – and then they were engulfed in the light.

Oh hey, it hurts more this close. Cool.

~~~

“Dimensional inhibitor?” Allure asked.

“Check,” Bot said, placing the mechanical box down on the ground in the warehouse. It activated, ensuring a portal would not form in the nearby area.

“Time?”

“12:03,” Bot declared.

“Right. Let’s stop this portal from forming.” Allure rubbed her hooves together, feeling sure that this would be it.

“ERROR! INHIBITION CANCELLED FROM OUTSIDE SOURCE!”

“W-wha-”

The light engulfed her.

Yeah, still hurts a lot. Ow.

~~~

“What are you doing here?” The lead asked.

Allure took a serious expression. “We are the League of Sweetie Belles and you are all under arrest for suspicion of terrorism!”

“Wrong answer.” She was shot between the eyes with a laser rifle.

~~~

“What are you doing here?” The lead asked.

Allure sneered. “I bear a message from Sights Unseen…”

“Do you think we’re stupid? You’re Allure. Of course you aren’t.” She was shot between the eyes with a laser rifle.

~~~

“What are you doing here?” The lead asked.

Allure sighed. “Just shoot me and get it over with.”

“…Okay.” She was shot between the eyes with a laser rifle.

Reverse psychology: not a winner.

~~~

“What are you doing here?” The lead asked.

Allure turned to Thrackerzod. Thrackerzod cleared her throat. “Mortals, bow befor-

Thrackerzod was shot between the eyes with a laser rifle.

Allure blinked. “You didn’t even let her fi-”

Allure was shot between the eyes with a laser rifle.

~~~

“What are you doing here?” The lead asked.

Allure sighed. If this doesn’t work, I’m going to spend a dozen loops trying to figure out their movements until I get through all their bullets unscathed. “Please don’t hurt me! I’ll do anything! Anything!” She even put on fake tears.

Thrackerzod wasn’t there to be appalled. Allure had specifically left her behind this time for that exact reason.

The Ga lowered his gun, smirking. “Anything, huh?”

Allure gulped. “A-anything.” Okay, not anything, I have a list of truly disgusting and violating things I won’t agree to, but I need to sell this.

The Ga grinned. “See, we have no need for your help. In a few hours none of it will matter.”

Oh thank Celestia, I finally got him talking. “W-what?”

“This entire city. Boom.”

“W-why!?”

“To give you Merodi a message. Inchari does not need you.”

“C-can we talk about j-just agreeing to leave you alone?”

“Nah. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t see at least a few of you burn.”

“But y-you’re here! Why would you…?”

“Oh, we’ll be gone when it happens. Mostly. There’s a few morons for distraction.”

That’s probably the riot.

“Boss, why are you tellin’ her all this?” a woman Ga asked.

“Because she agreed to help. And I’ve got a few ideas for some fun we can have with the unicorn.”

Allure gulped. She needed one more bit of information. “W-wait… We were told this was related to the att-ttack on the Mayor’s residence…”

“What attack?”

Allure dropped the act and grinned. “Ah, thank you. You’ll be glad to know I’m a time traveler and you’re now royall-”

She was shot between the eyes with a laser rifle.

~~~

Allure scraped her horn against the wall. But she let out a cry of celebration anyway. “Loop sixteen: new information! The attack had nothing to do with them!” She knew where to investigate next.

“I don’t like him.”

“Yeah yeah, nobody does,” Allure muttered, not having any idea what anyone thought of Skarn. She thought about what she was going to do now. She’d already tried to shut the portal down at the source, the Ga obviously planned for their attack to be interrupted in that way. She supposed she could organize the League for a great attack on the warehouse where they had orders to knock people out with sleep spells and take them alive…

But no, she wanted to investigate the attack now. She just had a feeling that the attack on Blumiere’s house during the riot was important somehow.

She’d exhaust this side of investigation before she went and tried the crazy military approach again. One that would probably need more than a few tries.

She realized there was a cup of burnt juice in front of her.

She threw it out the window without bothering to open the window.

“M-mom!?”

“Oh, sorry, sorry,” Allure said, blushing. She went outside and cleaned up the glass with her magic, drawing more than a few stares.

“What was that all about?” Seskii asked.

“Nothing important,” Allure called. “Really! Nothing important at all!” She slunk back into her house, laughing nervously.

“…Mom?”

“I’m in a time loop, Minna. That glass of burnt juice has been following me around.”

“Did you think of-”

“-making money off of it? Yes! You remind me every day.”

Minna was clearly hurt by this statement, though also confused.

Allure sighed. “Minna, it’s not your fault. I’m just… tired of hearing the same things over and over again.”

“I’ll stop!”

Allure pulled her daughter close and smiled. “That’s a nice thought… But you won’t. And you don’t need to feel guilty about it either. Okay?”

“…Okay.”

“Now, I’ve got to go, and you’ve got to go to school.”

“Since it’s a time loop, can’t I just skip and it’ll have no consequences?”

Allure blinked. “…Yeah. Today, you can skip. But next loop you won’t!”

“And I won’t remember next loop,” Minna said with a smile. “Everybody wins!”

“Yeah…” Allure said, realizing with some horror that every time she looped, the memories of these people were all set back to zero, and the people they had become were gone. Did they die? Was having memory erased different from death in some way?

She really didn’t want to think about it further.

She made calls to Blumiere and Squeaky to tell them, once again, what was going on. It was time to find out who the attackers were. Starting with that one woman who tried to kill her in the first two loops.

~~~

Blumiere dragged the blue Ga closer to them with his powers. “Talk fast.”

“Who are you?” Allure asked.

“Nae,” she responded, face stern.

“And why are you here?”

“I do not need to tell you.”

Then everything exploded.

~~~

The next set of loops were the most annoying for Allure. They didn’t have time to grill Nae at the end of the day, so Allure had to retrace Nae’s steps backward through time over the course of the day.

The seventeenth loop she was able to determine which street Nae took with her squad to attack Blumiere’s house.

The eighteenth was just discovering they walked down that street for a while.

It was the nineteenth where Allure overshot where she thought they came from, and didn’t catch them.

Loop twenty, she found them making a turn. But she didn’t see anything before that, so in loop twenty-one she had to wait on a street corner and get exactly what she suspected – they had walked down that street for a while.

Twenty-two through twenty-four were a mix of overshoots and undershoots until she found the right place: a pub conveniently located in a niche designed to hide its location. How it stayed in business, Allure had no idea. Maybe it dealt in illegal favors more than alcohol.

Twenty-five she arrived at the pub a little late and got shot on the spot for walking in on a private conversation.

Twenty-six, her timing was right, but a Sweetie who stayed around too long not only scared customers away, but also got shot. Because the Sweeties were basically a form of law in Celestia City, of course they weren’t popular in this kind of shady joint.

She had to disguise herself as a different unicorn, going with a muted gray color scheme. So on loop twenty-seven, she got to watch the short time Nae and her fellow mercenaries were there.

Nae walked in first, though she was hooded so it took Allure a moment to realize it was her. She walked up to the bar, ordered water, and sat down at a table in the back. Allure had obtained a listening device from the League before she left, so this wasn’t an issue for her.

She just kept eating her nachos. Tower’s will, why did seedy places like this always have the best nachos? Great cheese, great chips… Maybe nachos were just one of those universal ‘we gotta do this good or not at all’ recipes. Or maybe she was going crazy. She had slept a few times the last few loops just to keep herself from going mad for that reason – the mind needed dreams, after all. Even a one to two hour nap could provide that.

Allure kept a careful eye on all the Ga that sat next to Nae. There were seven others, bringing the total of them to eight.

“We can’t let this stand,” one of the men said.

“Here here,” all seven agreed.

Nae nodded. “This has gone too far. They want to commit genocide. This cannot be allowed to happen, even to the Merodi.”

“But how can we stop it?” another woman asked. “They’ve got so many defenses…”

Nae looked around nervously, and then whispered so nobody but her table would be able to hear. With the exception of Allure with her listening device. “The Mayor has in his possession a pair of books.”

“This is just ru-”

“No, this is not rumor. His work of origin confirms these two books of power exist. And he has a chest in his home that is just the right size to hold both of them. If we can get those books, we can stop this tragedy.”

“Maybe we should tell him, so he can use them.”

“We do not have time to deliberate. The Navir will go off at any moment. If we want to move it has to be now.”

The seven of them nodded in agreement. They all stood up and left, leaving Allure behind.

Allure supposed she should probably go ask Blumiere about this… But there was something she wanted to do first.

~~~

Allure stopped Nae in the alleyway. “Hey. You might know me. My name is Allure. I just want to talk to you for a se-”

Nae triggered her suicide capsule and fell to the ground.

“…Wh… Why!? How on edge were you!?”

~~~

Allure injected Nae with a specialized drug inhibitor in the alleyway. This inhibitor prompted the Ga’s eyes to roll into the back of her head. She lost consciousness and slumped to the ground.

“Right, let’s take her back to the League,” Allure said, dusting her hooves off.

Squeaky blinked. “You sure this is her?”

“Blue Ga, serious expression, black cloak, walking past this corner at precisely 11:38? Yeah, it’s her. You better be able to wake her up once we get her back.”

“Easily,” Thrackerzod said. She teleported them all back to the League. They strapped Nae to a bed. Thrackerzod touched her horn to Nae. “Boo.”

Nae broke out in a cold sweat, eyes those of panic.

“Thrackerzod, there was no need to be so mean,” Allure muttered.

“Nightmare jolt is very effective,” Thrackerzod said.

Nae tried to activate her suicide capsule – but of course the drug inhibitor was still in her system. “Agh!”

“Ready to talk this time?” Allure asked.

“This time!?”

“I’m in a time loop. You’ve been rather difficult to get to cooperate even though we want the same thing.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Merodi scum!”

“At precisely 12:04 today, the Navir will go off and destroy Celestia City. It has done this, without fail, every time I’ve survived a loop to that time. We’ve tried stopping it using dimensional inhibitions, moving Celestia City, stopping the attacks on Bulmiere’s house… Nothing has worked. But two loops ago I overheard a conversation you had with seven other Ga. You mentioned a pair of books Blumiere had that would be able to stop the Navir?”

Nae stared at Allure in disbelief. “Wh…”

“As I said. I’m looping through time. All of this has happened before, and if I don’t find a way to stop it, all of it will happen again. So please. I want to know about these books Blumiere supposedly has.”

Nae stared at her. “…You’re telling the truth.”

“Of course I am!”

Nae nodded slowly. “Right… right… Blumiere’s source material reveals that he tried to destroy much of the multiverse with a book of power known as the Dark Prognosticus. The opposing side defeated him using the Light Prognosticus. These Prognostici books hold the power to destroy entire dimensions from a distance – or worse. If I had gotten hold of them I would have used my psychic powers to tap into them and destroy the Navir’s universe.”

“What is the Navir’s universe?”

“A pocket universe one of the Sights Unseen’s scientists discovered. It could be manipulated to release tremendous amounts of energy, from what I’ve been told. Enough to keep you from adding us to your Merodi alliance.”

Allure sighed. “You have the right to your opinion. But the vast majority of your universe wants to join, you know?”

“And I used to think fighting would help. But now we are just committing genocide.” Nae grabbed Allure’s hoof. “You must get those books. Use them to destroy the Navir. He should have them in a large chest somewhere in his home.”

“I’ll try,” Allure said. “…The only problem is that my time loop prevents us from accessing other universes, but things that accessed us still activate.”

Nae’s expression fell. “Oh…”

“But, but, it’s a lead. I’ll ask Blumiere about it.” Allure rubbed her chin. “Perhaps if we send energy through a portal that would destroy the universe on the other side, the time loop won’t be able to open the energy discharge again?”

“…I wouldn’t know,” Nae said.

“Neither would I,” Bot said.

“I would,” Thrackerzod interjected. “It depends on the sort of time loop we’re in, if it’s logically consistent. We’ll have to test it once, and then see if we can open a portal to the destroyed universe right afterward. If not, it worked.”

“Good. Let’s go ask Blumiere,” Allure said. “Nae, you probably could have asked him yourself if you explained the situation. He’d do anything to save this city.”

Nae nodded. “But in case you don’t get it in time… give me some paper and a pen.”

Allure undid her arm restraints and did so. Nae wrote down her number – and a phrase. ‘Indigenous Propaganda’. “Tell me you’re from the future and tell me this phrase. I’ll believe you.”

“What’s it mean?”

“If you don’t know that makes it more effective,” Nae said. “Now go.”

Allure nodded. “Zod?”

Thrackerzod lit her horn, teleporting the core four of the League of Sweetie Belles to Blumiere’s house. The riot was already starting outside, but that didn’t matter.

Blumiere looked up at them from his chair. “Hm? Is this about the riot outside?”

“Tangentially,” Allure said. “We don’t have much time. Suffice it to say we know that Celestia City is going to suffer an explosion at 12:04 that will destroy it utterly and completely. We’ve gathered intel that suggests you have a pair of books that have the capacity to destroy a universe. We need you to use them to ‘destroy’ the universe on the other side of the portal.”

Blumiere blinked. “A curious thought. But I have no such books.”

“Then what’s in the chest?” Bot asked, pointing down to the floor below. Allure couldn’t see, but she knew Bot was using magic sonar to scan the area.

Blumiere shrugged. “I do not kn-”

Thrackerzod teleported the chest up to them and opened it. Two large books floated out of it – one dark, one white, both with smooth crystals on the corners and center of their covers.

Allure looked to Blumiere. “Why did you lie to us?”

Blumiere took depressed breath. “Because nobody can know these exist.” He raised his hands. “All of you must forget.”

Allure panicked. “Thrackerzod! Kill me now!”

Thrackerzod didn’t object. Allure became nothing more than a splat against the wall.

~~~

Allure scraped her horn against the wall of her bedroom. She hissed.

Blumiere had a secret. A secret that can help us. A secret he isn’t willing to use.

She flopped out of bed, barely noticing that she had landed on her stomach.

“I don’t like him.”

“Minna, leave the room please. I’m going to have to shout at someone over the phone.”

Minna blinked – and went to her room. Of course she would have her ear pressed to the door and hear everything, but this was just a time loop, it didn’t matter.

Allure called Blumiere. “Hey, Blumiere. So, guess what? I’m looping through time. It sucks.”

“I would imagine so,” he said. “I take it the last one didn’t go well by the tone of your voice?”

“Not at all. You see, Celestia City gets destroyed at the end of every loop I don’t die in. So I’ve been spending every loop trying to figure out how to stop this. I finally found a way. Guess what it is?”

“What?”

“Those books you have in your basement.”

“…Allure, stay ri-”

“I already had Thrackerzod kill me to prevent you from taking my memory, I can have her do it again,” Allure said, bitterly. “What’s so important about those books that you have to hide from us? …Hello?”

He wasn’t on the line anymore.

Allure quickly dialed Thrackerzod and ran out of the house.

“Run little unicorn, run!” Seskii shouted.

“Thrackerzod! I need you to find my magic signature and kill me.”

“…What?”

“I’m stuck in a time loop and I need to reset. Now.”

Thrackerzod didn’t miss a beat. “Coming.”

Blumiere appeared right in front of Allure. He pointed a hand at her, surrounding her with purple magics. “You won’t find this solution aga-”

Thrackerzod appeared and turned Allure inside out. The death was instant.

~~~

Allure scraped her horn against the wall. She hissed. Blumiere wasn’t giving her answers.

Fine. She’d just have to do it herself.

“I don’t like him.”

Allure called up Thrackerzod. “Hey, Zod? I need you to come with me so you can kill me if things go south. I’m stuck in a time loop and I need to steal something from Blumiere.”

~~~

Thrackerzod teleported them into Blumiere’s basement. “Think you can find it here?”

“Look for a chest,” Allure said. “Something that might hold two magic books.”

“Found it,” Thrackerzod said, placing her hoof on the chest. “Lot of magic locks on this box.”

“You can break it, though.”

“Of course I can,” Thrackerzod lit her horn and broke the locks.

Blumiere appeared in front of them. “You two…? Why you two? Why would you do this?”

“Reset me,” Allure said. Thrackerzod once again proved herself by squashing Allure flat.

~~~

“Okay, Thrackerzod, last time you opened these locks Blumiere knew immediately. So fix that, okay? I’m getting really tired of being flattened.”

Thrackerzod smirked. “I bet I’m not getting tired of flattening you.”

“Har-de-har. Just get it open without setting off the magic alarm.”

Thrackerzod took a minute to focus. She eventually popped open the locks, and the two books floated into the air.

Allure swore they were speaking to her.

Thrackerzod nodded slowly. “Those are some powerful magic books. Probably able to drive you insane. How do we use them?”

Allure facehooved. “Give me a moment… I need to make a call. I make a lot of calls in these loops…” She cleared her throat. “Nae? I’m from the future. You told me to say ‘Indigenous Propaganda.’ I’m told it means something to you.”

“Y-yes. It does.”

“Good. I’m Allure. I have a way to stop the Navir. You told us you’d be able to use the Prognistici? We have them.”

“I can. Meet me at-”

“-that pub nobody can get to, I know the place. Future, remember?”

“Of course. How soon?”

“We’ll be waiting for you,” Allure said, hanging up. “Thrackerzod, we need black cloaks to be mysterious. And you need to hide those books.”

Thrackerzod stuffed them in a personal pocket dimension and gave both of them cloaks. “Done.”

“Good.” She gave Thrackerzod directions to the pub. It only took a few teleports to get there. They sat down and Allure ordered the nachos.

When Nae entered, alone, Allure tapped her hoof on the table. “Over here.”

Nae sat down, looking at them both curiously. “…You’re really from the future?”

Allure nodded. “At 12:04 the Navir will go off if we don’t stop it. Last time we talked, you said you could stop it with these books.” Thrackerzod summoned the books and put them on the table.

Nae put her hand on the books, nodding slowly. “Yes. I can.” She glanced around – the pub was mostly empty. “…I can do it now.” She closed her eyes and spread her hands over the books, feeling them with her psychic powers. The Dark Prognosticus opened for her, showing her the dark prophecies within its interior. She didn’t open her eyes. She cared only for a particular ‘spell’. She found it within a minute.

A dark purple power appeared around her hand with strange squares of blackness fading in and out of existence within the swirl. The swirl opened a portal in front of her hand – and dove into it. The portal closed quickly.

Nae closed the Dark Prognosticus and breathed heavily. “That should have done it.”

“We have to check,” Allure said. “The time loop has done bizarre things to this universe. Try opening a portal.”

Nae nodded. She took out a dimensional device of Merodi design and dialed the coordinates. Instead of creating a black portal, an error message came up.

Allure grinned. “Yes… It’s gone. There’s no universe there now, and there will be no explosion. It’s over! I can finally relax!”

Thrackerzod looked at the Prognostici. “We should return these before he notices.”

“Oh. Right.”

Thrackerzod teleported all of them back to Blumiere’s basement.

“Why am I here!?” Nae hissed.

“Oversight, apologies,” Thrackerzod said, placing the books back in the chest. She locked it up and recreated all the spells on it in a minute. Then she teleported them to the League of Sweetie Belles. “Now it is done.”

Allure pulled out her dimensional device and tried to open a portal – but it was still black.

“Allure, you’ll have to wait until 12:04,” Thrackerzod said. “The loop won’t let the events overlap like that.”

“Fine…” Allure said. “So, who wants to get lunch?”

“It’s barely after breakfast,” Nae pointed out.

“I haven’t gotten to eat lunch in thirty-two loops, I don’t care.”

~~~

Nae, Thrackerzod, and Allure stood in the League of Sweetie Belles, staring at a clock. 12:03.

“…What are you girls doing?” Squeaky asked.

“Staring at a clock,” Thrackerzod deadpanned.

“Uh-huh. Allure, I needed you on the phones.”

Allure didn’t shift her gaze. “You can have me on the phones at 12:04.”

“Why 12:04?”

“Time loop.”

Squeaky blinked. “Oh. Waiting for the end?”

“Actually, it’s over,” Allure said. “We’re just waiting for it to complete the last cycle so we can ask Eve what happened on her end. And Aradia.”

“…Huh.”

It hit 12:04.

There was no explosion.

“YES!” Nae cheered. “WE WON!”

“WOO-HOO!” Allure shouted. “Great galloping gazelles, I’m so glad that’s o-”

Allure scraped her horn against the wall of her bedroom and let out a hiss of pain.

She stared at the wall in disbelief. “Wha…?”

She stumbled falling out of the bed onto her stomach.

She wordlessly walked out of her bedroom.

“I don’t like him,” Minna said, staring at the same news report as last time.

Allure went to the kitchen and stared out the window, wondering what she did to deserve this. She’d fixed it. What else did they want?

Then she saw something across the street that made something in her mind go click.

She pulled a glass out of the fridge and poured juice into it. She turned around, hummed to herself a bit, and turned back. Sure enough, the juice was burnt. Somehow. But that wasn’t the point.

She grabbed the juice and marched across the street to the ‘artistic installation’ she had passed by almost every loop. She slammed the burnt orange juice down on the top of Seskii’s potion stand. “You never say the same thing twice. You know. So explain.”

Seskii grinned. “I thought you’d never ask.”

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