Ch. 18 Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
I sat there with Starlight on the floor of a random guest room in the crystal castle in Ponyville. My slightly darker black dangerous mission turtleneck outfit was still torn in a few places. Between the bandages, eyepatch, and singed mane, I looked like some sort of veteran of a time war. Daylight was running out quickly, but I felt that I was finally starting to understand where Starlight was coming from.
At some point in the story I’d laid her head on my lap, in a motherly gesture to comfort the unicorn. She explained how her only friend in childhood had left her to go to a more prestigious school. Starlight had taken it personally, and her parents did little to ease her growing social anxiety. She pushed other ponies away and isolated herself, so afraid of the pain of loss that she spent her whole life alone.
After Starlight finally found happiness by removing the cutie marks of an entire town, she thought her loneliness was over. Then Twilight and her friends were sent on a mission of friendship and had taken it all away, plunging her back into despair.
She also described her time spent in the time loop, and how she had finally tried the last plan on her list when all other plans had failed. Starlight had tried to escape the loop by weakening the spell and killing herself, but as I had learned early on, death just reset the loop for the affected pony. I needed her help to fix the loop, and from the sound of it she’d tried everything including resorting to options I’d never have put on the table.
“So there you have it.” I felt Starlight shrug slightly, though she was still laying on the ground. Her injured ribs hurt; I might have broken a few of them. She said the coolness of the crystal floor eased the pain somewhat.
“Yeah, that’s a hell of a story. Bet they could even adapt it into a pretty messed up movie. I’m sorry you had to go through all that alone,” I replied. “Being trapped here has honestly been brutal, but I had the benefit of my friends to support me.”
Starlight sighed. “I don’t think I’ve ever told any pony the full story before. Usually when I try they just can’t relate, they tell me something cliche like, ‘oh but you could have just reached out to Sunburst, or made a new friend!’ It doesn’t really take into account what it’s like to experience something so painful, because other ponies don’t know that pain.”
I put a hoof on her shoulder to reassure her. Part of me wanted to comment on how she’d lost her marbles and gone straight to the nuclear option over losing a friend, but when Dash had ended our friendship, I hadn’t reacted much better, so I bit back any witty remarks. “Well, I know that pain, what it’s like to lose everyone and everything you know. I wasn’t messing around earlier when I said I’m from another dimension, a whole other world really. My speech mannerisms, the constant inside jokes nopony gets, and so forth.”
“What’s the deal with that, anyway? I’ve never heard of you like I’ve heard of the Elements of Harmony, yet you seem to be right in the thick of things anyway.”
“Well, I can give you the short version before the sun sets.” I leaned back against the wall and looked up at the ceiling as I thought it over. “I was a human; they’re like monkeys, but bipedal. I was also a nurse, you have those here in Equestria. Discord got a little butt-hurt about being encased in stone for centuries, and decided to erase Dash’s mind by putting my mind into her body. Instead, she ended up with two minds in the same body. It still nearly worked, and almost destroyed the Element of Loyalty’s ability to function. Then, he would have conquered Equestria.”
“So you got trapped here, away from your life, family, and friends?”
“Pretty much. At first I was pissed and made things difficult, but over time some of the best traits of ponies rubbed off on me. I think the turning point was when I realized Celestia and Twilight looked at me as some sort of disease they had to cure, but Dash refused to let them hurt me. It finally made me stop and think. Why would she be a loyal friend to some alien who could lead to the downfall of Equestria and a new reign of Discord?”
I smiled, lost in thought. “Our personalities were getting kind of mixed up, so maybe we understood each other on a level other ponies never could. Suddenly I felt as loyal to her and her friends as she did. They accepted me, just because Dash did. That’s when I knew what I had to do to fix the Elements; I had to give Dash her mind back. I let go, faded into her subconscious, and thought that was that. Equestria saved. Dash never gave up on me though, eventually finding me in her dreams and getting Luna to pull me out, turning me into this.” I waved a hoof at myself.
“I wish I had a friend like that,” Starlight muttered.
“Well you do now.” I leaned forward and gave her a quick hug. “Assuming you’ll follow some ground rules. I’d really rather not spend eternity in a constant battle with you like a bad Roadrunner rerun.”
Starlight turned her head to look up at me, letting out a pained grunt as her sore muscles protested. “Really, just like that? You forgive me?”
I shrugged, “Yeah. One of those pony traits that rubbed off on me was being quick to forgive, I guess. I won’t forget, though. You were pretty fast and loose with killing ponies. Rule number one is no more killing, and that’s non-negotiable.” I paused to think for a moment, smirking slightly. “Unless it’s Soarin. Accidents happen.”
She raised an eyebrow. “The Wonderbolt?”
I nodded. “Rule number two is you have to be entirely honest after we fix this. Twilight, Celestia, whoever else asks. What you did, why you did it. They’re big on reforming villains, but they’re also big on banishing them to the sun, or turning them into statues in their statue garden. It’s actually pretty messed up. I mean, imagine being completely aware of everything around you. You can’t move, can’t speak, just awake twenty-four seven staring into some topiaries, hoping one day your sentence might end.”
She shuddered at the thought. “I’d rather not end up in a statue garden, but I guess you’ve got to tell them all about what I did, trapping Equestria in a time loop.”
“Well to be fair, I said I’d do that if you used magic again to kill me. You used a rock and a Quarray Eel, so I’m willing to gloss over a few of the minor details. Also, I’m willing to vouch for you. That plus the fact you’re going to fix this ought to be enough to keep you out of Tartarus or the royal garden.”
It took her a few minutes to think about it, or maybe it just took time for the reality to sink in. For somepony so used to working alone and being alone, it couldn’t have been easy to trust after so long. It probably didn’t help that I’d almost turned our conflict into a game, constantly looking for ways to injure her before ever bothering to reach out a hoof to her in friendship. Maybe I was still more human than ponies realized.
Even now a quiet voice in my head was mocking the idea that a little friendship could reform Starlight. I drowned it out by imagining how my friends might have reacted in my place. Pinkie would have thrown her a ‘So You’re Stuck in a Time Loop’ party and welcomed her with open arms. Twilight would have given her a big speech that sounded rehearsed on the magic of friendship. Fluttershy probably would have invited Starlight to move into her cottage and become inseparable besties. At least Dash and AJ might have roughed her up a little more first, before begrudgingly offering her their friendship. I shook my head and tried to focus on not further antagonizing my ‘get out of jail free’ card. Maybe the answer really was as simple as showing her that at least one pony was willing to believe in her.
“Deal,” Starlight said. “If you promise to be my friend, I’ll do whatever it takes to fix this and make it up to everypony. I can’t go through that loss again, though. If you abandon me, I don’t know what I’d be capable of—”
I put a hoof on her muzzle. “Hey, that's not going to happen. We’re going to be thick as thieves now, Starsky and Hutch, Bonnie and Clyde, Ren and Stimpy, Michael and Dwight, Anakin and Ahsoka—”
“You realize I didn’t understand a single word you just said?” Starlight interrupted.
I laughed. “You’ll get there. I do campfire stories a couple times a week for the school kids, but Lyra and Dash are picking up the references quickly. I’ve got a whole world of stories nopony has heard before.”
“That’s nice and all but… what if we can’t fix this? I’ve told Minuette I’ve tried everything, and I meant it.”
“We will fix it,” I countered. “Discord, Tirek, now you, there’s one mistake creatures keep making. One thing you never ever put in a trap when you’re trying to take over the world, if you value your plans working without a hitch. The one person you don’t mess with if you have dreams of defeating the heroes and living to see tomorrow as a free being...”
“Oh? What’s that?”
“A human.” My smile widened. “I’m the wrench in the gears, the variable everyone forgot to carry, the wild card. If there’s one thing I excel at where nopony else does, it’s making the impossible possible. We will fix this time loop, because you and Minuette are smart, and I’m the variable that you could never have known to plan for. So together, we’re going to magic the crap out of this time loop and fix it!”
“That’s actually kind of inspiring.” Starlight rolled over to rest on her forelegs. “So I guess this means you can take the inhibitor ring off now?”
I glanced at her for a moment thinking about it. I had just told her I trusted her and was her friend, and hesitating wouldn’t look very good. Part of me wanted some sort of extra assurance from her, but at the end of the day we would both be stuck here forever if I didn’t prove to her that our temporal war was over.
“Yeah, just take it easy. You took a huge hit to your horn in the fight and the inhibitor may be the only thing keeping the damaged horn from overloading or cracking. It’d be a shitty way to end the loop.”
I began to squeeze the inhibitor from two sides with my hooves. As the ring compressed, the small rough points that kept it attached to the horn retracted. Then I lifted the ring up and off of her horn, freeing her to use magic for the first time since her capture.
Starlight immediately closed her eyes and took a sharp breath as her numb horn woke up. It began to glow faintly, and I could see little dark outlines almost like cracks on it. A moment later the glow faded, and I released a breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding.
“Probably lucky it didn’t explode during the fight,” Starlight said. “It’s in bad shape, thank goodness it’ll heal tomorrow morning. I can already feel a magically-induced migraine coming on.”
“Take it easy when you wake up,” I replied. “The loops may effectively heal you, but I’ve learned from experience that the effects of dying still linger and are cumulative. In fact, I’m kinda worried about what’ll happen to me if I die anymore, is the spell getting weaker?”
Starlight shook her head. “It shouldn’t be; it’s powered by the leyline beneath the castle, channeled through the map table. The spell should reset you to the same moment every morning, I’ve got no idea why it doesn’t reset injuries completely. Luckily, I’ve decided to let you live as my love slave, mwahaha!”
I crossed my forelegs and glared at her.
“What, too soon?” She smiled. “I mean, these leg restraints were sending mixed messages, you know.” She held out her forelegs, which were chained to her hind legs. Above each hoof was a fuzzy pink hoof cuff.
I chuckled once. “Yeah, I had to raid the local sex dungeon to get ‘em. I was a bit pressed for time. Anyway, best leave the humor to me, you’ve got more of a mad scientist vibe to you… like you’d agree to remove some pony's cutie mark without properly vetting the research and causing an apocalypse or something.”
Starlight held her forelegs up, and I fished around for the key. Once I found it, I quickly unlocked them, allowing her to get to her hooves and slowly stretch.
“The sun should set soon, do you want to meet in the map room tomorrow to start working on the solution to the problem with me and Minuette?” I asked.
“Yeah, sounds good to me,” Starlight answered. “I’ve literally tried everything else, so I’ve got nothing to lose by giving friendship a chance.” I caught her eyes running down my body and lingering on the flanks. “By the way, has anypony told you that you look good as a mare?”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, basically everypony has. I guess they’re not wrong, at first the poison joke was alarming, but now…” I stood up and smoothed out the tight black outfit along my flank. “If looks could kill, they’d have to throw me in Tartarus too.”
Starlight looked away when I made eye contact again, blushing slightly.
“Mind out of the gutter, I’ll be back to being a stallion tomorrow, and I’m seeing Dash. Though, I could always put in a good word for you with Rarity. I get the feeling you two might have similar interests.” I tossed the hoof cuffs in front of her where she could see them, causing her blush to deepen.
The sun set and the loop restarted before she could reply.
Parchment and books were stacked around the map room by the time I’d gotten there. Sitting around the table were myself, Starlight, Spike, Minuette, and Lyra. At first I had planned to bring Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie, but Starlight convinced me that the time spent bringing them up to speed each loop would be a waste, and that she’d rather only apologize to them once, after fixing things.
Lyra had seen Minuette and I walking towards the castle, and she knew me well enough to tell I was up to something. I had to bring her and Minuette up to speed on the walk over, though she was welcome company whenever Minuette started to go into the details of magic that still went over my head.
Now we sat around the table, quietly staring at each other instead of studying or brainstorming solutions. Minuette’s face looked like she’d just been told that ‘yes, that dress does make your flanks look fat’, and her glare was directed straight at Starlight with a laser focus. Starlight was trying to look anywhere except the only pony in the room who realized what a colossal screw up she had made.
Lyra’s gaze kept drifting back over to the baseball bat I had laying on the table. I probably wouldn’t need it. Starlight and I had made our peace, however where I’m from even when you walk softly, you carry a big stick. Spike was here to take notes and try to send letters to the Princesses. I figured it’d be good to keep him in the know so he didn’t interrupt us at a crucial moment when he heard a small group of ponies hanging out in his castle.
“So,” Starlight said, trying to break the ice and get the conversation going. She pointed a hoof at the baseball bat. “What in Tartarus is that, anyway? It’s got more magic inscribed into it than almost any artifact I have seen before.”
I lifted it up and swung it through the air a couple times, feeling the hum of energy in it. “No idea, I’ll have to ask Twilight. You know what the weirdest part is? It was next to my bed when I woke up this morning. It’s like time doesn’t apply to it or something. It and Pinkie Pie are probably the only two things in this loop that get to ignore causality.”
Minuette stopped glaring at Starlight long enough to look at me and the bat, her horn glowing softly. “I wouldn’t be surprised. Twilight always was Celestia’s favorite student, so she can get away with doing a lot of things. I would guess that is the equivalent of a wizard’s focus, and that she uses it for casting advanced magics.”
“Can we use it to help fix the time loop?” I asked.
“It is probably attuned to Twilight, honestly I’m surprised it wasn’t booby trapped or something to keep other ponies from using it. Trying to integrate it into the spell to fix this would be like trying to open Pandora’s box. No telling what happens,” Minuette said.
“So we can fix this, right?” Lyra asked. “Dawn’s been memorizing stuff all these loops, Starlight’s the spell creator and has months of experience. Our chances have got to be better now?”
Minuette’s horn glowed as she levitated several scrolls into the air. “I hate to say it, but Starlight’s damn good. You combined several seemingly unrelated spells together to create something original. Even without the proper understanding of time magic, you were almost able to create something that would surpass the greatest unicorns that ever lived.”
“Thank you,” Starlight beamed.
“However, you were so busy focusing on whether or not you could time travel over a decade into the past you never stopped to ask yourself if you should time travel. There’s a reason the greatest unicorns and alicorns alive never time traveled.” Minuette glanced back over at Starlight. “They’re not that bucking stupid.”
Starlight frowned. “You’re only saying that because it didn’t work. I was missing something to stabilize the inherent chaos in fusing so many conflicting spells together.”
“And then what? You stop the rainboom, get revenge on Twilight, and plunge Equestria into an eternal war with Sombra? Or maybe we failed to stop Chrysalis? Discord? Tirek—”
Minuette looked ready to continue when I interrupted. “No need to rub it in. I think we’re all very clear on time travel being a bad idea, Starlight and I have woken up, trapped on repeat hundreds of times. No guilt trip you can send her on compared to living with that reality day after day.”
“It’s like when Fili-Second in issue A-113 ran so fast, she got trapped in a time loop and went insane. She couldn’t deal with it after a while,” Spike added. “Was a pretty dark comic though. They let Zack Ponyder go from his job after that series.”
“I’m sorry, Minuette, everypony.” Starlight levitated the scroll she had used to cast the time spell back over to Minuette. “I just want to fix this.”
“See?” I said.
Minuette sighed, seeing she was outnumbered on this. “Fine. I guess I forgive you, not that I’ll remember doing it tomorrow. So to save you time from explaining it over and over, just remind me that everypony makes mistakes like I once did with my first fillyfriend.”
That got an interested glance from everypony in the room. Lyra was probably the only pony in the room who knew much of Minuette’s personal life, having grown up as friends in Canterlot.
“Your fillyfriend? Didn’t you say you moved to Ponyville to be closer to somepony special?” I blurted out, earning a few stares from the mares. “Sorry if that was too personal, but I could hook you two up or something while we’re looping and tell you what she likes afterward.”
“Like I’m sure I’ve said in the past, I don’t approve of you using foreknowledge of loops to try and fix things or interfere in a pony’s personal life,” Minuette answered. “Ask me after we fix this, and I’d be more than happy for us to get to know each other, Dawn. You too, Starlight.”
“Wait, really?” Starlight asked. “I thought you were pissed off about the whole almost ending reality thing.”
“Yeah, but you’re going to need somepony to talk to about time magic. I know how frustrating it can be to discover some of the coolest spells ever, but not be allowed to use or discuss them with anypony not already in the know.”
“Thanks. I… I think I’d enjoy that.”
“So, are we ready to fix this or what?” Lyra asked. Her forelegs were crossed and she seemed a bit more upset than I’d seen her in loops where I’d found her earlier in the day to enlist her aid. “Bon Bon’s been in an awful mood lately. I can’t figure out what it’s about, or remember it apparently, but I’ve still gotta deal with it every loop. I just want to wake up and have it be tomorrow so we can make some progress on it”
Minuette began scribbling with some quills onto several pieces of parchment at the same time. It looked impressive, but I’m sure when you’re experienced with magic, it’s fairly easy. After a minute she began to pass them out. “Well here’s what we know so far. Time has been damaged, and the original spell did not complete. Observations of animals near the barrier show them in the same place each day on the other side, so it’s most likely all of the planet, maybe the universe, is looping. It’s a bit hard to tell from inside the barrier. Is that a part of your spell, Starlight?”
Starlight finished glancing over her scroll, then over to the blue unicorn. “No. The spell should have opened a vortex, and taken me to Cloudsdale when Dash did the sonic rainboom. Any casting of the spell would pull me back there as a failsafe, in case somepony else tried to undo what I did. The barrier isn’t mine, but I did uh…” Starlight shot me a look, before glancing down at her hooves. “I kind of made sure Twilight and Dash were out of town, as they were the most likely to stop me. My ego’s not so big that I’d try to rub the spell in her muzzle and cast it right in front of her.”
I smiled and nodded in approval. “Good that you are telling us the full truth. So, your spell didn’t create the barrier, and it shouldn’t have fractured time. I know the barrier is centered here in the castle, and that touching the barrier resets the loop. Wouldn’t that suggest that something in the castle created the barrier?” I leaned forward onto the table, looking down at the holographic map that covered the surface. The bubble around Ponyville was pulsing.
“It’s as good a hypothesis as any,” Minuette stated. “I’m not sure what in the castle could do it or why. Honestly, I’m just glad reality didn’t instantly unravel. Celestia once explained to me that any magic powerful enough to damage time would cascade unstoppably, so we’re lucky to even be having this chance to fix it.”
My gaze was still fixed on the small purple dome sparkling on the map table, only half listening to Minuette as a few pieces fell into place. “The Tree of Harmony.”
“What?” Lyra asked.
The map table seemed to pulse brighter for a moment. “This table was created by the Tree of Harmony, and is powered by the same leyline Starlight used to power the spell. It may still be connected to it. The dome wasn’t part of your spell, but appeared with the loop. What if the Tree created it, like a cyst around a foreign object in the body? It has created a seal to keep the damage to a minimum until the body can expel the object, and heal. What if this bubble is holding the damage shut until we can fix it?”
When I looked up, none of the unicorns seemed to have anything to say about that. Finally Minuette spoke up. “I’d really have to ask Celestia to form a hypothesis. The Tree of Harmony, the very font of the magic that created the Elements, isn’t something any of us unicorns fully understand. I think it’s possible you’re right, but regardless, the solution remains the same. We have to fix this as quickly as we can.”
I held up one of the scrolls she had passed out. “And these spell instructions you’ve given out are the way to do it?”
“Yes. This is my first guess at how to fix this,” she explained. “Starlight can recast her main spell, with my correction. We can’t really counter a spell that was never completely cast in the first place, and casting it correctly should help undo the damage. I will try to stabilize the fragment of damaged time that Ponyville is lodged in, and try to realign it with the rest of space-time. If I can figure out and hold things together long enough for Starlight’s spell to finish and counter the spell, we should go back to normal.”
I looked at the scroll in front of me. It had a crude drawing of me and Spike standing behind Lyra, who was casting a shield. “That sounds convoluted and like a job for two insanely powerful unicorns. So I guess we’re in the peanut gallery for this one?”
Minuette nodded. “Starlight and I should be able to handle it.”
“This doesn’t look too different from one of the variations I tried,” Starlight explained. “I don’t think it’ll work, the feedback of magical energies grows too rapidly.”
“Yes, due to the damage you’ve caused.” Minuette countered. “However, with me stabilizing that damage I think it’ll allow your spell to succeed.”
“It’s worth a shot,” I said. “Worst that can happen is we try again. Come on, team moral support over here.” I got up from my chair, took the bat, and walked across the room towards one of the windows. We were about fifteen feet from the table. Lyra put up a thin green shield bubble around Spike, herself, and me.
Minuette stood next to the table, beside Twilight’s chair. Starlight stood across the table from her. They were levitating the scrolls in the air.
“Okay, once we start, don’t make any noise,” Minuette said. “Starlight and I will have to—well, it’s complicated.”
“Channel large quantities of magic through the complex web of the spell you’re visualizing in your head. Activate the scroll to release that magic into the table. Control the flow of the leyline’s magic into the table, and out into Equestria. Try to solve a four-dimensional rubik’s cube you can’t see, while hoping none of the dozen spells Starlight slapped together has a flaw you didn’t see,” I explained.
Starlight and Minuette both stared over at me in surprise. “Uh, yeah.”
I shrugged. “I didn’t sleep through all your magic lessons. Only like, thirty percent tops.”
“Sadly, there still isn’t much for you to do,” Starlight stated.
I began to hover so I could cross my forelegs and look indignant, nearly touching the top of Lyra’s shield bubble. “Hmph. You’re just jealous of my rugged good looks and irresistible charisma.”
That got a few eye rolls and laughs from around the room, before I landed again and whispered to Spike. “Mares, am I right?”
“You know it,” he answered.
Without any further commentary from the peanut gallery, the two unicorns began to focus their magic and cast the spell. It was fascinating to watch. The glow of their horns began to surround their bodies, and the scrolls in the air. The color slowly spread down into the map table.
As soon as the map table activated, it lit up the room as brightly as the noon sun on a clear day. Runes and sigils began to hover in the air over the table, and I could have sworn I heard the sounds of clocks ticking. The brightness and noise kept building louder and louder.
At some point, I couldn’t see Minuette or Starlight anymore. My feathers began to itch and tingle, and the pressure built on my eardrums. I knew something was wrong and I could no longer see past Lyra’s shield spell.
Lyra was visibly shaking, her own spell scroll under a hoof. I walked up next to her and put a wing over her back, stepping onto the scroll. An odd tingling ran down my foreleg as I attempted to comfort her. The ambient magic in the air seemed to be draining into my wings and down into the scroll, and her shield spell strengthened slightly.
There was a loud boom before I could reflect on this development.
I blinked twice, feeling like I’d been hit by a runaway carriage. The room was spinning slowly, and acrid smoke filled the air. Everything I saw lacked color, and my ears were ringing as loud as an air raid siren. It took a moment to sit up, and I tapped my head a few times as if that’d somehow fix the ringing.
To my left lay Lyra, and to my right I saw Spike walking over. Apparently the little dragon was a lot tougher than he looked. My hearing had cleared up enough to hear him speak.
“Well, that didn’t work,” Spike stated.
I groaned and flopped back on the ground for a moment. “Of course it never works the first try.”
When I remembered the other ponies in the room, I slowly rolled over and got up to go take a look for them. The crystal floor was charred black across the room, except the small circle where Lyra, Spike, and I had been standing.
I couldn’t see Starlight and Minuette anywhere. The map table had grown as dim and dark as obsidian, and was the source of the sour smelling smoke in the air. While I searched for my friends, I heard a low rolling thunder outside. At the nearest window I was able to look up into a vast void that had replaced the sky. It was filled with a rich myriad of colors, like the aurora borealis but a hundred-fold more colorful. Dancing fragments of broken glass seemed to tumble through the air, reflecting countless hazy images through them. It was unfathomably beautiful, and yet filled me with a deep sense of dread. I was staring up into an infinite kaleidoscope where once had been only blue skies, perhaps beyond the very veil of reality itself. A moment later a thick purple haze formed as the dome surrounding the town seemed to solidify, and the images vanished. When I finally looked away from the window, I noticed the table had begun glowing again. It cast a faint bluish light around the room, and the map of Equestria flickered back into existence.
With the spectacle in the sky seeming to be resolved for now, I resumed the search for Minuette and Starlight. After looking around for a couple more minutes I realized there were two unicorn-shaped silhouettes on the wall. One beyond Twilight’s chair, the other on the opposite wall of the room.
Lyra noticed me staring at a shadow of a pony standing on its hind legs, forelegs outstretched, and realized what had happened. “Wow. She wasn’t kidding about it overloading the table. It must have tapped directly into the leyline, and—” She noticed Spike had walked over, also looking curiously at the shadow on the wall. Lyra decided not to describe in detail what had happened in front of him.
I nodded my head. “Yeah, Starlight’s not gonna be happy about that tomorrow. That had to hurt. We may need to take a day off, but I’ll come get you and Spike when we’re ready to try again.”
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Deus ex machina anyone? Because it's coming with the Dawn...
Too much?
Dawn gets the easy job. He doesn't have to cast the Apocalypse spell.
11140753
what better way to fix time then to make it so all of this was planned and everything worked out in the end. in other words an item that is sent into the past as a way to keep the timeline stable in the end. it might be this or just a weird wand bat
I was honestly expecting the rail gun to muck things up, with the warning about distractions. Now I'm beginning to wonder if it'll be a part of the solution, since it's such a ludicrous thing that exists and hasn't played a significant role yet.
Nice
Good ol' Spike always knows just what to say
11140758 dawn to starlight;
i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/027/763/07B89120-B48D-45FB-AF1D-49AF6CD16790.jpeg
11140758
Awesome Ghostbusters reference, wonder if I should sneak that into the story. She definitely got vaporized and I wasn't sure how dark to make it so I didn't dwell on what that felt like. I was thinking maybe time slowing down to the point she could count the layers peeling away but uh... Yeah, 80's movie reference beats grimdark any day.
11140767 11140753
Home Run will appear again, just not until a sequel. Might even uograde her to a supporting character, give her a ribbon for being a big damn hero, the whole nine yards.
Maybe try something more pony-like? Maybe "Pondora's box?"
Since you're talking about light & noise, I would suggest changing the sentence to match the topic. It's a minor change, but a change nonetheless. Try this:
"The brightness and noise kept building brighter and louder."
Ouch.
Fortunately it isn't that Hard to Reset.
...
Well that was a let down... At least we got to see Starlight getting blasted trough a wall (a wall made of crystal no less). But, I can't help but feel like Dawn is getting more than just a few power boosts...
...
He's gonna become an alicorn isn't he?
"Hey so remember how I said we're taking small chip damage each loop?"
*Starlight mumbles incoherantly*
"Ya so our brains are also slowly turning to goop, so maybe keep the vaporizations down to a minimum"
ok outchy that one left a mark.
a grate chapter.
That's a jumbo OOF, but hey, they're making progress!
Don't celebrate yet, we still got a few Chekhov's guns left to fire....
...potentially literally.
The Doctor? Let's have another quote of his that can pretty easily be applied to Dawn:
I'm loving all the "Hard Reset" references.
Can't help but imagine they just made a new reset point.
Would suck to be starlight though, always returning fractions of a second before an explosion pastes you.
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I'm sure where ever Twilight is, her eyelid started twitching at those four words.
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I do have a plan for it, though it may not be as awesome as performing a quadruple sonic rainboom.
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What would he be the Prince of? Mistakes? Recklessness? Chaos? Hmm that last one has a nice ring to it...
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I'm thinking of doing a side stories thing, because it would be neat to see a universe spin off of a reset point like that and how dark things could get... but I'm not sure that's the kind of thing I want to bring into the main continuity.
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I really like that second quote, I will have to use that the next time some villain decides to mess around and find out. In the meantime I guess I should re-watch some Doctor Who.
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10 out of 10 Doctor's agree: being disintegrated by raw magic is super bad for you.
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Hmmm... Dawn as a Prince, definitely of chaos since Discord is not around anymore and there HAS to be a balance, otherwise we would die out of boredom very, very slowly! Since Discord is ded somepony needs to carry on his mantle and it would be kind of ironic if Dawn got it. Also The Canterlot nobles are probably gonna flip their shit and seeing Blueblood loosing his sanity by Dawn's shear personality and charisma would be priceless!
Great chapter and surprisingly wholesome reaction from Dawn after hearing Starlights story. Really makes my heart bleed.
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I was worried at how bloodthirsty people were, but it fits the show and Dawn's character growth I think. A lot of his rough edges from being human have smoothed.
A-113, seriously? :D
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Thought it'd be fun to reference A-113 and see who noticed.
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I saw very much A-113 reference in cartoons, heh
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He's sacrificed his life and body in his original dimension.
He sacrificed his very being to save Dash and defeat Discord.
He's sacrificed his humanity, and became a pony- though this point wasn't much of his choice?
I'd bet on him being the Prince of Sacrifice. Or maybe a nicer way of saying would be the Prince of Duty?
That is a lot of references in one short paragraph.