The Time Thief

by Reading4HalfMyLife

Loop 17

"Oh Gods, this is my fault! How did I not think of magical overload before?" It was becoming clearer that the comforting, calm Twilight of the last loop had been nothing more than a mask. Without it, the purple mare was clearly panicking and guilt ridden.

"It's fine mom, there was no way you would jump to that conclusion. Besides, it's not the first time I'll die, it'll probably just reset all over again" Astral shrugged her shoulders. After thinking it over, she realized she had been over reacting.

Twilight turned to stare at her daughter, eyes wide. "Are you apathetic to your death?" She asked, concerned.

Astral tilted her head, and shrugged again "I mean, yeah. Whenever I die, I'll just come back here, so it's not like it's permanent or anything."

Twilight bit her lip, and turned away to concentrate on the data. "It says here that apparently for two loops after the death loop, the ponies who were outside had extremely powerful magic, before it faded away."

"So somepony is giving everypony in the same room as you magic, and is turning it up" She mused, before shaking herself briskly. "That means somepony is on the outside giving you their magic. They're either the cause of the loops, or are the solution. Possibly both."

" . . What?" Astral asked, baffled.

"It's possible that someone put you in these loops by accident, and are giving you their magic to try and get you out, since for some reason they can't do it on their own, or one creature put you in the loop, and another is giving you their magic so you can leave."

"What would be that powerful?"

"I have no idea." Seeing her daughter disappointed look, she put a hoof under Astral's chin and forced her to meet her eyes. "Hey, why don't we start on your Intermediate test?"

The reaction was immediate. Astral's face cleared up and she flung herself at her mom in a quick hug, before bounding around the room, all the while screaming "yes!" Over and over again.

"Well come on then, your dueler is waiting for you."

---

When a pony goes from a Beginner to Intermediate, they had to take a test.

This test, or a duel as it was called, was basically a magic fight between a Beginner and an Intermediate. Both were only allowed use Beginner spells, and whoever either tapped out or was marked with the opposing colors paint.

Which meant the opponent would have to get close enough to mark the other.

Astral stuck a hoof into the ring, only to see Aunt Trixie waiting for her. "Please tell me you're joking" she muttered.

"Nope, go get em tiger" Starlight shoved her into the circular arena, which was, thankfully, only ringed by her parents and Trixie's husband Pharynx.

She turned to stare at her moms. "Is Bladecasting a beginners spell?" At their nods, she summoned her blade. Most ponies named theirs, but she had only just got hers, and hadn't had the time.

At the same time, Trixie pulled five blades out of thin air, and readied herself. Astral audibly gulped, before getting into her battle pose, as she waited for the bell that signified the start of the duel.

It went off, a shrill sound that hurt her ears, but she was already rolling to dodge the blades that were moving towards her. Thankfully, all shards had been dulled before the duel, so the worse that would happen was bruising.

Still, she couldn't exactly stave off five shards with one.

Coming out of the roll, she frantically leaped over the shards, landing clumsily behind Trixie and sending her shard towards her, which was quickly knocked out of the air. Trixie turned to face her, only to find Astral had used the ice spell right under her hooves.

Seeing her opponent fall down with a grunt, Astral reached out to tap her shoulder, only for the mare to roll out of the way, and send two of her shards at the filly to get her to retreat.

I need to get these shards off me. Her horn glowed, and she cast the reverse illumination spell.

Instantly, the room was bathed in darkness. Trixie took a small couple of steps back, before casting her illumination spell only to find . . nothing. Astral wasn't anywhere in her weak light.

Trixie frowned, turning a tight circle, looking for a flash of magic, but nothing showed.

It occurred to her too late to look up.

Astral canceled the telekinetic hold that was keeping her up, dropping onto Trixie from above, and slamming her paint hooves onto her back.

Twilight rang the bell to signify the match was over, before she, Starlight and Pharynx raced into the ring, where Astral was gingerly stepping off her Aunt.

"I think you broke Trixie's back" Trixie complained as she stood up, rolling her shoulders.

Starlight nudged her friend, and Trixie rolled her eyes. "Oh yes, you did well to take down Trixie, and for that, I give you the license of an intermediate."

Astral looked at the slip of magic-proof paper doubtfully. "Just give that to shop owners, and they will give you Intermediate books from now on" Twilight explained, and Astral brightened.

"Can I buy some new books now?"

Twilight and Starlight exchanged a look, before shrugging. "Yeah, sure why not?" Starlight said, and Astral's grin grew even bigger.

"Yay!"

Goals

• Get a cutie mark
• Help CMC get cutie marks
• See Alchemy
• Graduate from Beginner to Intermediate
• Beat Shining Armour in a duel
• Beat the Princesses in a duel

Author's Note:

I can't write fight scenes, so I guess this is good practice

Comments

[Reading4HalfMyLife]

9075788
Oh, sorry, just saw this comment. The picture for the cover is of Astral as a teen instead of a filly.

Yeah, she's gonna be in here for a while.

I gave her the traditional unicorn tail, but made her fluffy because her mom is part pegasus. Right now she looks exactly the same as the original design, except with a the covers color palette- without the stars in it, obviously.