Ch. 20 Eureka!
I headed over towards Bon Bon and Lyra’s home to learn a little more about their argument and see how to fix it. We had to be getting close to a solution and when the loop ended, I wanted to make sure I’d helped out everypony in town as much as I could.
There was plenty of time left before sunset if I moved quickly, and I doubted Starlight could get into that much trouble on her own. She seemed as desperate as I was to escape our fate, and if she had second thoughts afterwards then I’d just beat a little more common sense into her.
Being the good guy is exhausting work.
When I got to Bon Bon’s home, I snuck around to the back of the house, and tried to lean inconspicuously against a wall near the kitchen window. It had been opened to let a breeze through so that the ovens didn’t heat the kitchen up too much. Luckily, there were no ponies around, because it seemed pretty obvious I was up to something.
I’d spent so many loops hanging out with Lyra, or asking her to help, that I never once stopped to consider what her normal day would have been like if I hadn’t interfered. A kitchen timer rang and I heard somepony setting a pan down.
“You know I don’t want foals, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want you,” Lyra stated.
“I want to settle down with you, but you’re still the party girl I met when you moved to Ponyville,” Bon Bon replied.
I was tempted to peek through the window to see how the argument was going. However, I didn’t want to risk them noticing me and stopping before I learned more about how to fix it.
“What I do with other ponies doesn’t change how I feel about you. Remember back when you’d come along too? We had fun together.”
“We can’t keep swinging forever. Cloud Kicker, Dawn, Dash, Cheerilee, Vinyl. Don’t you want to just settle down with me?” Bon Bon asked.
I heard some hooves clop as a pony walked across the kitchen floor. “I have settled down with you, Bonnie. I’m still me, though, I wouldn’t ask you to change who you are just for me.”
“And I wouldn’t ask you to change either, but you knew when we met how much I wanted to have a kid someday.”
It got silent for a minute and I nearly poked my head up to see if they’d left the kitchen.
“You’re right, and you’d make a wonderful mother. I’m more of the fun aunt you don’t invite to holidays though. Do you really think I’d be a good role model?”
“Lyra, you’re the most loving mare I’ve ever met, and you have enough love to share with everypony. You’d make an excellent mom, if you leave the birds and the bees talk to me.” I heard Bon Bon and Lyra laugh.
“Alright, then. You mean the world to me, so we can talk to Zecora about it. She has made potions that can turn a mare into a stallion or vice versa, if you want it to be au naturale.”
“Thank you, Lyra. I love you so much,” Bon Bon answered. I heard some pots and ovens bang around for a moment.
“Wait, Bon Bon, the shop’s open.”
“I’ll close it. Now why don’t you stop protesting so I can properly thank you.”
I heard some more loud noises inside before I heard a gasp and somepony bump into something. Finally risking a peak in the window, I saw two ponies on the floor of the kitchen in a compromising position. I blushed, and quietly walked away to give them some privacy.
Once I’d gotten some distance, I started to think about what I’d seen. Lyra and Bon Bon’s relationship hadn’t needed any saving. In fact, by doing nothing and not running off with Lyra during future loops, she’d have this same outcome and potentially save her relationship.
Minuette had said as much, something about unexpected consequences from using knowledge of the future to try to fix things that may not need fixing. Still, I figured this was a fluke and Lyra had just been lucky. There was at least one couple in town who could still use my help.
I headed out towards the small fishing lake where I knew I’d find Vinyl and Octavia on their date. Flying would be quicker than walking, and the sun would set soon, so I took to the air.
When I’d run into them before, Octavia had somehow managed to tangle herself up in yards of fishing line. I had to help cut the hooks out and get her down. It would seem to anypony watching not to be the stuff great dates were made out of.
As I flew down to check on them I saw the fishing rods and line discarded against the tree. Octavia didn’t appear to be in any distress, unless Vinyl never gave her a chance to breathe. The white unicorn was currently laying on top of her and trying to tickle her tonsils with her tongue. Whatever mishap had happened during the past loop seemed to not be as bad as it had looked.
I hovered for a moment, considering how in Equestria a lack of fishing skill had led to a makeout session. Vinyl’s horn began to glow brightly, catching my attention. I looked down to see what she was levitating, but didn’t see any glowing objects. It took me another minute to notice the glow was coming from between their tails.
It was getting a bit uncomfortable to watch yet another pair of ponies getting their freak on, so I flew off towards the most non-sexual place I could think of: Sweet Apple Acres.
As I took my leisurely flight I couldn’t believe that two problems in a row had fixed themselves. I had been so busy in my loops trying to casually fix things, or screw around. This may have been the very first time I’d tried just doing nothing to see what happened in a loop. Whether I interfered or not, the lives of these ponies kept going on. Nothing horrible had happened, except to the pony on the construction site who I routinely had to save from being crushed to death. For everypony not in immediate mortal peril, though, things seemed to just work out.
Well, almost everypony. I swooped down when I saw Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo walking back towards their clubhouse. If anypony needed some adult supervision to survive a time loop, surely it was these three. I could already hear their conversation as I flew down to join them.
“I guess Dawn and Dash were right the first time we tried building siege weapons. It’s too dangerous, maybe we should stick to bungee jumping and manticore taming.” Scootaloo explained to her friends.
“I reckon those may be a bit dangerous too,” Apple Bloom countered. “There must be something left we haven’t tried to get our cutie marks.”
“At this point the only thing we’ve got is tons of experience on how to get a cutie mark. Only thing we could do with that is help other ponies find their own special talents,” Sweetie Belle added.
“Hmm, that does sound a lot less dangerous than your plan for the physicalist cutie mark,” Scootaloo stated.
“Physicist,” Sweetie Belle corrected. “And yeah, after that railgun, I don’t feel so good about my plan to build a particle accelerator anymore.”
“Next weekend’s my turn anyway,” Apple Bloom said.
“Oh come on!” I groaned as I landed behind the trio of fillies. They looked back in surprise.
“Dawn?” Scootaloo looked to her left and right, eyes wide. “The hole in the castle wasn’t us!”
Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. “Remind me to teach you how to lie properly sometime.”
I shook my head. “Oh, you’re not in trouble or anything. I was just looking for a… friendship problem to solve. I figured you three would definitely need some help.”
Sweetie Belle answered first. “At least you can’t cast a Want It Need It spell to manufacture one.”
“What kinda problem were you trying to fix?” Apple Bloom asked.
“We’re in a time loop, long story, and I wanted to fix a couple relationships. I figured I could try and fix a whole lot of stuff, as much as I could find wrong, around town,” I explained as we stood in the middle of the road.
“That doesn’t sound so bad,” Scootaloo added.
“Yeah, but I guess I never stopped to think about whether or not I should be fixing them. It turned out that you three building that railgun finally did what years worth of adults telling you not to be reckless couldn’t, and taught you a little common sense.”
Sweetie huffed. “We already had common sense, we talked Scootaloo out of using the railgun to fly super fast and impress Rainbow Dash.”
I chuckled and rubbed a hoof behind my neck. “Heh, yeah. Who’d be dumb enough to fire themselves out of a railgun?” I smiled at them and continued. “Anyway, the other problems were with Lyra and Vinyl’s marefriends. Turns out they pretty much worked it out too.”
“So are ya saying you learned a valuable lesson in friendship?” Apple Bloom asked me.
“I guess so. It’s not my place to try and fix every pony’s problems, especially when I know things about the future nopony else does. I can’t know everything, so I might think I’m making things better but actually I’m making them worse. I should trust that friendship will prevail.”
“You should put that in a letter to Celestia, I bet she’d like that,” Sweetie stated.
“She probably would.” I sighed. “I’m going to have one hell of a letter to write to her anyway to cover this whole time loop. Also, I wouldn’t write off that particle accelerator cutie mark so quickly. I bet it’d be fun.”
Apple Bloom groaned. “Is this what growin’ up feels like? Now we’ve gotta talk Dawn out of stupid ideas?”
“I sure hope not, or we’ll never have time to find our cutie marks,” Scootaloo answered.
“Hey! They’re not all stupid. After all, this’ll be the third apocalypse I’ve saved you from.” I stuck my tongue out at the fillies.
They started laughing, and I joined in, just as the loop reset.
Today started a little brighter than the previous days. I managed not to smash my alarm clock, I had a nice shower, I greeted my neighbors, and I headed off to work. By this point the construction site accident was so predictable that I probably could have saved the pony’s life with my eyes closed.
When Minuette and I got to the castle, Starlight was already waiting in the map room. She had some new spells written on a chalkboard and study materials laid out everywhere. It looked like everything was almost ready for our next attempt to end the spell, and Starlight had done it in record time.
“So I take it last night went well if you’ve got this much energy?” I asked.
Starlight smiled and nodded as she wrote something on the chalkboard. “You could say that, very invigorating. Not afraid to get rough, either. I really hope other ponies can forgive me that quickly."
I smirked as I quietly walked over to her, and said in my best sultry voice. “Well if that’s the kind of forgiveness you’re looking for, I bet Rarity should be your next apology.” I ran a wingtip across her flank, causing her to jump and drop the chalk she had been levitating.
“Dawn!” She took a couple breaths to try and hide the blush on her cheeks. “I could always turn you back into an owl if you’re not gonna be nice.”
“Pfft. Threats are only good if you’d actually do it.” I smiled and gave her a little more space.
When she turned to look at me I saw she was smiling too. “Fair enough. Thanks, Dawn, for last night. I had an epiphany on the spell while we were on top of the barn with the weather vane.”
“Uh, I feel like I’ve missed something. Are you and Dawn…” Minuette trailed off as she looked at the two of us.
“No,” Starlight responded. “He hooked me up with Cloud and—”
“Enough said.” Minuette interjected. “I still can’t look at strawberry jam the same way since I met her.”
“Huh, I guess it’s true; everypony really is a little cloudsexual.” I shrugged and went over to examine the other chalkboard.
“So, are you ready to try another spell? Dawn brought me up to speed on the way over. What’s different this time?” Minuette asked.
“Well, for the last few attempts I was trying to speed up the spell so that it would finish faster, before the table overloaded. I think instead, we need to slow the spell down a bit so the energy builds slow enough that the table doesn’t explode,” Starlight explained.
“That would be preferable,” I observed. I tapped at the chalkboard. “You changed this, that should help throttle the build up of magic, but won’t a longer spell lead to more chances for instability?”
“Yes,” Minuette said. “The quicker it’s over, the better.”
“You sound like Dash,” I muttered. I heard one of them chuckle as they looked over at me. “Sorry, you were saying?”
“I think with this much energy in the spell, it’s too risky not to complete the spell as fast as possible.”
Starlight shook her head. “Trust me, we’ve tried it. Slower would be better.”
“Dawn, what do you think?” Minuette asked.
“I’m gonna have to go with Starlight on this one. Being vaporized isn’t fun, and most of our attempts to just do it quicker ended poorly. With the changes Starlight made, slower could work,” I answered.
“Speaking of failed attempts,” Starlight said, “where’s Lyra?”
“In case this works, I wanted to not disrupt her day in the time loop. Turns out she makes up with Bon Bon, at least she will if I don’t go gallivanting around town with her all day long. Then, I don’t know if they’ll kiss and make up. Also, I’d avoid her sweets for the next couple days. I saw multiple hygiene violations in their kitchen,” I explained.
“Oh?” Minuette trotted over to speak with me. “You were planning to use—”
“Foreknowledge of the future to fix perceived problems. Yes, I was. Yes, you told me before. Yes, you’re right.” I sighed.
She grinned widely. “Good, no point giving you the speech again.”
“Are you worried about me messing up your future, Minuette?” I asked.
She shook her head. “Nah, my reason for moving to Ponyville wasn’t affected by the time loop. I probably would have just stayed home most of the day.”
“Alright, let’s get started then.”
Minuette and Starlight took up their positions on each side of the table. I stood to the side of the table near one of the chairs. Since Spike and Lyra wouldn’t be here today there wasn’t really much of a point to keeping us farther off to the side.
The table began to let out a low rumble as magic poured into it. The map of Equestria was replaced by arcane sigils that drew my gaze down into the table. For a brief moment, I felt like I was staring into the dimension of time. I blinked, thinking I’d seen a white rabbit with a stopwatch run by. A moment later my vision seemed to blur as I stared into the depths, and I had to look away from the table.
Minuette had her eyes closed, deep in concentration as she tried to keep the spell stable and repair the damage to time. Her horn was emitting a golden aura as her magic reached out beyond what I could perceive.
Starlight was staring intently at the scroll she was holding up in the air. She’d started smiling widely, which was my indication things were going well.
Then I felt the tingle of magical energy in the air. The table was starting to go from a rumble to a shriek as magic began to pour out of it, radiating and dissipating into the air. This usually preceded the table doing its best impersonation of a small atomic bomb.
I gulped and looked over at the two unicorns. Starlight could see what was coming, and had somehow brought up a small bubble around herself. She was still focused on the spell, as evidenced by the rotating vortex appearing over the table. Minuette, eyes closed, was still busy trying to sort out the very fabric of space-time and couldn’t tell the table was about to blow.
She needed my help more, so I went over to warn Minuette. When I nudged her, she didn’t move. Instead, my hoof seemed to pass through her. Whatever she was casting, it clearly was a bit more complicated than I’d thought.
If the table exploded with her this close to it though, I doubted it’d do her much good. I had to channel some of the energy away from her, while helping to hold the spell together long enough for them to finish it.
Already I could feel the heat of the magic coming off the table. As I thought about what I could do to help I remembered the lightning bolt I’d redirected. My innate pegasi abilities would protect me from incoming magic, and my knowledge of magic had been enough to shape it just enough to avoid being fried to a crisp. When Lyra had been using a scroll to shield us during one of our earlier attempts, my wings had acted as a magical lightning rod. All the energy from that attempt had poured through me into her shield.
I realized what I had to do, and flared both my wings. My left wing rested on the table, and I pointed the right towards a window. I tried to visualize the same magical formulae that I had used before to redirect Starlight’s attack. My mind raced with images of symbols that normally only a unicorn would bother to learn, and they began to burn themselves into my memory as magic flooded into them. It was more painful than the previous time I had experienced this, as the raw magic was nothing like a little wind or lightning. It struggled against my efforts to shape it as if it was alive. The magic felt almost angry.
I sensed something else then amidst the magic: concern, fear, and harmony. I focused on the latter, only for the emotions to vanish and a pressure to start building in my head. The harmony was replaced by doubt and I could feel a presence watching me and searching through my memories. My mind’s eye was focused on the vivid imagery of my fight with Starlight. I remembered the excitement of finally beating her. Whatever was watching focused on my sigils of magic, and I could feel them faltering. I could sense disapproval and tried to push the memory away, instead drawing upon a good memory to strengthen my resolve. I thought back to the time I had helped Dash teach Scootaloo to fly. I had sat down with her on a hill afterward hugging Scootaloo while I had been in Dash’s body. It had been a happy moment and one of intense loyalty. It was a memory I had cherished and used before to power an Element of Harmony.
The presence halted its attempt to force its way into my mind. The building headache faded and I could sense that it had recognized my loyalty. An image of the Tree of Harmony appeared, surrounded by ancient script and magic I couldn’t begin to decipher. In return, I pictured in my mind the desired outcome: I had to redirect this energy away from the table and the unicorns fixing the spell. The connection faded.
My vision began to recede as if I was looking down a tunnel, but I could see a thick arc of lightning dancing around the room, tearing the wall apart. Minuette was safe. I couldn’t turn to see Starlight. My heart and lungs seemed to seize up. My muscles wouldn’t relax. This was too much magic too fast. I couldn’t pull my wing away from the table.
Finally there was a flash of light. The dark tunnel that had surrounded my vision faded away. I found myself laying across the room, sore but alive. Half the table was intact, and a large vortex was hovering above it. Through the portal I could see clouds and rainbow waterfalls. It was the spitting image of Cloudsdale.
I tried to get to my hooves so I could go through the portal with Starlight to freedom, but my legs felt icy cold and wouldn’t listen. It took a few tries before I gave up. “Minuette? Starlight?” I called out to them.
A moment later I heard some debris shift, and then Starlight ran over to my side. “Dawn, you’re hurt!”
I looked around and then realized I had a jagged piece of crystal table in my stomach. “Huh, funny. I didn’t feel it until you said something.”
“I’ll get it out,” Starlight offered. Her horn lit up and surrounded the bit of jagged crystal.
“No!” I shouted, putting a hoof over the shard protectively. “It’s the only thing stopping the bleeding, as long as it’s in there against the arteries!”
“O-okay.” Her face whitened as her eyes lingered on the wound.
“What about Minuette?”
Starlight shook her head and looked down. “She didn’t make it.”
I looked down at the small puddle surrounding me and sighed. “The spell didn’t work, and it seemed to be going well. Damn it!”
Starlight shook her head. “It did work, sort of. Look, Dawn.” She pointed a hoof to the portal swirling over the table. “It didn’t fix the time loop, but it did complete the original spell accidentally. If we just go through that portal, we’ll be in Cloudsdale over a decade ago. We’re free, Dawn!”
I chuckled and shook my head. “You’re free, Starlight. There’s no way I can get up and through that portal in one piece, and if we do, how far would it be to a hospital?”
She looked down at me and frowned. “You don’t want to at least try?”
“If I do nothing, I will wake up tomorrow and will probably be fine. I go through that portal with you, I die and there’s no do over.” I smiled weakly. “Sorry, kid, I’m kinda attached to this reality. It’s the only place to get a decent burger.”
Starlight thought it over for a minute as the portal flickered in mid air, small arcane symbols dancing around the edges. “If I go back, I can change it so you don’t come to Equestria, you’d never get trapped in this loop.”
“You go altering time and we might end up in that doomsday scenario Minuette warned us about. Probably some big factory run by Flim and Flam where they turn everypony into mindless drones, or something.” I shrugged. “We’ll just try again tomorrow, no big deal.”
“It is, Dawn! It was an accident, I don’t know how the portal opened! What if we can’t do it again? What if we can’t fix the spell properly? This is our one chance to escape.” Starlight’s cheeks were matted with tears, and her pupils were dilated. I could tell by the waver in her voice and how her hooves trembled the thought terrified her. “Please, I don’t want to be trapped here, but I don’t want to lose you either. You’re… the first friend since...”
I reached up to the one cheek I could reach and tried to wipe it off for her. “Hey, it’s okay. Go, or stay, I won’t hold it against you. Me and death go way back and it usually doesn’t stick anyway. I’ll be fine.”
Starlight looked up at the portal and I wondered what her decision would be. Even if she left, I’d been doing alright in the loop. Maybe Minuette and I would figure it out. Or maybe I’d never see Dash again. I’d give anything for her to be here right now. To hear Dash tell me it’d be okay. To have her say one last time that she loved me, in case I didn’t wake up tomorrow. After all I’d been through, I didn’t want it to end like this. I began to tremble in fear too.
“Dawn?” Starlight asked. “Are you still with me?”
“It’s… cold.” I mumbled.
I felt her sit down and gently try to cover me up to keep me warm, without bumping into the sharp chunk of rock in my stomach. “It’ll be okay, Dawn. You’re going to be okay. I won’t leave you. We’ll figure out how to fix the instability and stabilize the chaos. If that jerk Discord could do it, so can we.”
I nodded and tried to lean into her warmth. I couldn’t feel my legs, wings, or stomach, and the sensation was only spreading. “Pfft, Discord. Nothing but trouble. You know I dreamed about him once?” I rambled.
Starlight nodded, looking back at the portal that had started to shrink over the table. “Shh, just sleep. We’ll try again tomorrow.”
“Wait, the tantabus.” I struggled to sit up, but was pinned down by Starlight. “I know how to learn what you need! I just—” I must have breathed too deeply in my excitement, and began to cough. Once I finished, I continued. “Just have to dream, I’ll get the answer. I hope you’ve thought up one hell of an apology for Twilight, because tomorrow we’re gonna be free!”
I started to laugh and grin to the best of my limited abilities. My vision started to grow dark, and I made one last attempt to hold on to Starlight’s warmth as I finished dying.
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So dawn had One heroic death as far as i know in this entire loop shenanigan.
11148043
1 heroic death to counter-balance about 20 reckless deaths for stunts, and a dozen or so getting owned by the villain.
I guess even a blind pegasus can land on a cloud once in a while.
Man, I hate it when my epiphanies only happen just before I die. So annoying
Dawn pieing was supper hard to Starlight.
this chapter is really good. this hole story is amazing.
He's gonna feel that one in the morning. Ouch.
... oh, you cheeky devil.
Silly Dawn. Shoulda watched more movies for references and picked up the guitar.
Also, it'd be funny/interesting if Dr. Whooves was meant to die in that construction accident and reincarnated as Minuette.
Excellent work keep it up
It just occurred to me that Pony Archimedes would have been seen as significantly less eccentric for rushing towards the palace directly from a bathtub without putting clothes on first.
So are they just not really aware that the tree is sentient and, since it's a magical entity like Dawn and the bat, is probably immune to the loop's effect and so could probably help?
11148065
Post-mortem clarity do be like that, tho
11154158
Nothing sick about it. If you don't like my opinion, shut up and move on. Act like you didn't even see it. Have a good day.