MLP Loops 182
182.1(Evilhumour)
Luna was enjoying her sister's sun, with her possum laying across her pillow when all of a sudden, a voice called out.
'Luna, the red-nosed reindeer, had a very shiny nose,'
Luna shot a look around, before speaking up. "We are a pony...and our nose is not re–" Luna blinked as she saw her nose was red now!
'And if you ever saw it, you would even say it glows.'
"Tia....," Luna called out as she started to wince at her glowing nose, getting off her bed to find her sister.
'All of the other reindeer, used to laugh and call her names,'
Luna shot her guards a look, who quickly did their best not to snicker at their princess's predicament, as she moved towards her sister's bedroom.
'They never let poor Luna, play in any of their reindeer games.'
"We do not wish to play any reindeer games as reindeer games are quite brutal!" Luna shouted back at the voice before pausing at her sister's door. "Tia, there is a singing voice following me, calling me a reindeer and made my nose bright red!"
'Then one foggy Hearth's Warming Eve, Santa came to say,'
Celestia opened her bedroom door, wearing a bright red bathrobe.
"Luna, with your nose so bright, won't you guide our ponies tonight?"
Luna simply turned around and fled as fast as she could, with ponies following her through the now foggy castle.
'Then all of the other reindeer loved her, as they shouted out with glee,'
"Thou art all daft!" Luna shouted over her shoulder, flying into the sky to escape the crazy ponies. "Daft I say!"
'Luna the red-nose reindeer, you'll go down in history!'
182.2 (Evilhumour)
Twilight smiled to herself, ascending naturally with an unAwake Celestia coming to congratulate her.
"My dear student, I am ever so proud of you," she said, drawing Twilight into a hug. "But..."
"But?" Twilight blinked, looking up at her.
"You will need to attend school to learn how to use your wings," she said, with a sly smile on her face. "That is why I am sending you to flight kindergarten."
"Wait, what?!" Twilight snapped her head around as Celestia teleported her away.
Twilight blinked as she found herself in a classroom fit for foals, filled with pegasi foals and a mare with a very strained smile on her face, with everypony looking at her.
"Welcome Princess Twilight," the teacher said, doing a short bow. "Princess Celestia had wrote to me that I was to be your teacher as you just gained your wings and you do not know how to use them yet."
"While I did just get them, I–" Twilight began, starting to stand upright when the mare let out a happy chirp.
"Wonderful!" The teacher said, moving back to the front of the desk and tapping a blackboard. "Now class, who can tell me the different types of feathers?"
"There are different types?" A young colt cried out as all of the foals let out amazed sounds. Twilight simply did her best not to plant her face into her desk; she'd done that before and ended up slamming her face through the cloud floor.
182.3 (Evilhumour)
"Crystals..." Sombra called out to the mane six, causing Twilight to roll her eyes as she prepared to get out the squirt bottle when Pinkie Pie bounced ahead.
"Gem gem ruby sapphire?" She asked, tilting her head.
"Crystals!" Sombra chirped out, suddenly perking up. "Crystal pearl peal amber emerald! Ruby diamond crystal amethyst, jasper quartz quartz."
Pinkie Pie giggled and then said, "Ruby ruby sapphire tiger-eye eme–" She then blinked before saying, "Crystal crystal diamond!" She then leaned over, grabbed Twilight by the waist and squeezed, causing a beam of magic to shoot out of Twilight's horn and at Sombra. "Better?" Pinkie Pie asked as she still held a confused Twilight.
"Hm? Oh by the Empire, yes it is!" Sombra smiled before pulling the earth pony into a hug. "Thank you so much for helping me, my dear Pinkie Pie."
"It was my pleasure, Sombra," Pinkie Pie beamed back as she placed Twilight in her mane to return the hug. "I'm glad that I took the time to learn the ancient language of earth ponies, you know."
"As am I," Sombra smiled to everypony. "Now if you will all excuse me, I have a lot of work to do to help the new Empress find that blasted Heart..." He trailed off, walking off to the Crystal Empire.
"Um...Pinkie Pie," Twilight asked, still in her friend's mane as she was unsure if she should try moving, although she was secretly very comfortable in the mane. "Before I ask about that language you two just spoke, how did you make me fire a language translating spell?"
"Oh that's easy Twilight," Pinkie Pie said as she removed Twilight from her mane. "All I needed was a complete understanding of all of your body's pressure points and a little bit of latent psychic manipulation to make sure you did the right spell!"
Twilight simply blinked at that, not sure how should she feel about that.
Eating the cupcake she found in her friend's mane seemed to be a good start...
182.4 (Keywii_Cookies55)
"Twilight Sparkle was just a studious unicorn who minded her own business."
Twilight Awoke to hear a voice come from nowhere. Raising an eyebrow slightly, she looked around to catch her bearings.
"Okay, nothing immediately different except for that voice," she thought as she looked down at the book she usually found before her. "I may have to put my prank on hold and play things Baseline this time."
Twilight Pinged but got no responses, so figuring it'd be another lonely Loop, she stood up from her spot and headed to meet with Spike.
"Oh I'm not worried Spike, the Princess trusts me completely!" Twilight spoke, turning back to Spike, "In all the years she's been my mentor, she's never once doubted me."
Spike burped and through his dragon flame, Celestia's response came.
"...Until a letter from Princess Celestia turned her whole world upside down!" The same voice from earlier spoke a second time. Twilight looked around again, but Spike didn't seem to notice the voice. He only noticed her confusion.
"What's wrong Twilight?"
Thinking on her hooves, she pushed his concern away and returned to script, but she couldn't help be start to understand what was happening. It'd take a few more observations to confirm it though.
Pinkie Pie was walking up to Twilight and Spike for the first time when Twi heard the voice once again.
"Now she has to make some friends, but there's nothing written on it in her books." Twilight noted that Pinkie's ear twitched slightly, but made no other indication that she noticed the speaker. "There's Pinkie Pie, the quirky party planner who doesn't take no for an answer!"
"Oh birch," Twilight thought, "It's not going to introduce all of them, is it?"
"Rarity, the beautiful fashion designer with something more to offer."
Twilight internally sighed.
Rarity pulled on the rope, opening the curtain to reveal an empty balcony where Celestia should be.
"But then the unthinkable happens, and Princess Celestia is nowhere to be found."
Twilight audibly groaned.
Twilight finished up her speech with Nightmare Moon, and the Elements blasted her.
"Turn in this summer for: All Signs Point to Harmony."
182.5 (Hvulpes, Archeo Lumiere, Keywii_Cookies55, Purrs, masterofgames)
The Discord went down to Equus
He was looking for a soul to troll
He was in a bind 'cause he was way behind
And he was willin' to give it a roll
When he came across this DJ
Kicking up a rhythm and wubbing a beat
So he floated his way down and spun her around
And said, "I'll tell you something neat
"Perhaps you didn't know that
I can spin a mighty tune
And if you'd care to take a dare
I'd be higher than the moon
"Now you spin pretty good rhythm, mare
But give ol' Discord his due
I'll bet a mixer of gold against your soul
'Cause I think I'm better than you"
The mare said, "My name's Vinyl
And you just lost a bet
This'll be fun, I've already won
And I will make you sweat"
Vinyl you set up your booth
And mix your music right
'Cause Discord's loose in Equus
And he's looking for a fight
And if you win you'll get the prize
A mixer made of gold
But if you lose then Discord
Gets to troll
And now Discord started up his track
And he said "I'll set the scene"
And his claws turned into needles then
And his eyes were mischief-keen
And he set his needles on the discs
And they all let out a squeal
But then he let his mouth hang wide
And out came rhythm, colored teal
Then when Discord finished Vinyl said
"Well, you've got some skill for sure
But have a seat, put up your feet
And let me play you something pure"
Down in the valley, run colts run
Discord's in the house of the kindest one
The chicken in the bread pan peckin' at dough
Granny does Winona bite, no child, no
Now Discord realized that
He'd been beaten through and through
And he conjured up that mixer
And said "Well, I promised you"
Vinyl said, "Discord just come on back
If you ever want another try
I just can't be beat you son of a wheat
My dubstep will never die"
And she played
Down in the valley, run colts run
Discord's in the house of the kindest one
The chicken in the bread pan peckin' at dough
Granny does Winona bite, no child, no
The next loop, Vinyl marched into Fluttershy's house without warning and glared at the resident chaos spirit. "That golden mix table I got from you is worthless! It doesn't make a single sound when I use it!"
Discord shrugged. "Vinyl, you should know better than that! For a golden mix table, you need golden records!"
182.6 (Evilhumour)
"Vi, you know you are my best mate and I'd trust your opinion in almost anything," Octavio said to his roommate who rolled her eyes.
"One bad date and you still hold it against me, Octs," Vinyl huffed as she continued to set up the stage.
"A bad date is something I can understand," he glared at the mare's head. "Finding out that my blind date is Princess Luna is pushing the line!"
"Oh come on, what about the time I hooked you up with Celly?" She asked, causing the stallion to facehoof.
"I repressed that memory, thank you for reminding me of that debacle," Octavio shuddered as he remembered why he was terrified of cakes. "So what are you doing and will I need to inform the police again?"
"I left my turntables alone for a moment," Vinyl shouted as she pulled her head away from the cello she was modifying for this loop. "How was I supposed to know that a fear cloud was wandering around and would get stuck in them?!"
"Only you could accidentally cause fear wubs," Octavio sighed heavily, remembering the nightmares of performing with Pinkie Pie in a country fair.
Vinyl muttered something under her breath, then swore loudly as she banged her head against the counter she was under before standing upright. "Here," she said, holding a pair of glasses in her hooves out to him. "Put these on and play your cello, Octs."
Octavio blinked and reluctantly put them on his face. Seeing nothing out of the norm, he picked up the cello and started to play.
Gasping as he saw the colours jump, he could feel the wind move as he played, the ground sway as he deepened his bowstring. As he played the cello, he could feel the world move around with him, the universe in his hooves due this wonderful gift. He was in bliss, pure bliss, his magic talent blossoming fully now.
Panting after a long session, he turned his head to see Vinyl holding a recording device and tears in her eyes, he put the cello down and pulled her into a hug.
"Vi, is this what you see all the time?" he asked, seeing the air around her beat in the same tempo as her wubs did.
"Yup," she sighed, leaning into his side before letting out an adorable yawn. If they were not just great friends, he would have taken this chance to kiss her as she was so cute right now opposed to her usual crass, abrasive, Vinyl self. Instead, he just pulled her closer as he pulled a blanket over them as it was getting colder on their roof. "Glad I could help you see it, Octs."
"Thank you, Vi," Octavio hummed, watching the universe move around them and the beauty of the setting sun and rise of the moon, both fast asleep by the time the first stars came out.
182.7 (Gamerex27)
It had been a year, and she was getting worried.
True, she had gotten two Pings – Magic and Loyalty – and Spike had shortly given her one of her signals that he was Awake.
But Twilight had been reclusive for almost the entire Loop. While both she and Spike had been through these events more than enough times to stop Nightmare Moon, Tirek, and all the other villains of Equestria, the fact that their Anchor was nowhere to be found worried them.
That, and yet another off gimmick of the Loop. Everypony seemed to have a theme song of some sort, playing whenever they walked into the room.
Which had brought Zecora to test out one of her more experimental brews – one of near-perfect scrying.
"–some thyme, wolfsbane, and triamisu," she finished, dropping the last of the ingredients into the cauldron. "This should show us what she's up to."
"I hope so," Spike said as entered the zebra's study, trying to ignore the soundtrack of Puff the Magic Dragon playing softly around him. "I'm getting worried. She's taken long breaks plenty of times before, but she's always at least sent a letter."
The liquid rippled, eventually clearing up to the craggy, grey surface of the moon, Twilight, her mane frayed and twitching wildly, was scrawling equations and huge blocks of text on a blackboard as big as all of Canterlot.
And on the floor. If every wall of every conspirarcy theory had been forcibly fused together, it would probably look a lot like this.
Sharing a worried glance, Zecora ducked into her Pocket and grabbed a potion of teleportation. Dropping some moon dust into the vial, she smashed it on the ground with a thrust of her hoof.
As the vapors cleared and the pair found themselves off-planet, Twilight's rapid hoofwriting slowed as the bars of Reading Rainbow played in her ears.
".....oooooh, weeds," she groaned. "I knew I was forgetting something. How long was I..."
"One year," Zecora answered, trying and failing to make sense of the nigh-arcane equations scrawled as far as the eye could see. "Er...I have to ask: are you alright, dear?"
"What?" Twilight blinked, then facehoofed. "Oh, right, right I see how this looks. Don't worry, I'm fine. Alone for about a dozen Loops, but in terms of how I'm doing, fine. I...just got carried away."
"That's good to know, but what exactly is all this?" Spike asked. Was it just him, or did these equations and lines of writing make a pattern or some sort?
"I've figured it out!" said Twilight, her ears perking up and wings flapping excitedly. "This has been bugging me for tens of thousands of Loops, and I've cracked the code!"
"Have you now?"
"Oh, I don't mean actual Yggdrasil code, Sleip...nir..." Twilight trailed off as she noticed the stallion suddenly standing behind was decidedly not Odin's steed. Having only two pairs of legs was a dead giveaway. "Sorry about that mix-up. So you're–"
"Loki Laufreyson, at your service," the trickster god confirmed, bowing slightly. "I stopped by for a family visit during my coffee break, and all this caught my attention." He stared at Twilight's work for a few moments, his expression suddenly going from his usual smug mischievousness to careful contemplation. "Why don't you give all of us a summary of your...findings?"
"Right!" Conjuring a few chairs, Twilight's audience stared at one another, then took their seats.
"I've been reviewing everything I've remembered about every Loop since the beginning," she began, pacing back and forth. "Every Variant, every weird quirk of each timeline, every Fusion...why we end up with more Fusions, why we have more Loopers, why the same situations repeat themselves...I know what's making us go through these specific things."
The shape of the equations suddenly came together for Spike.
They formed a tree.
"You don't mean–"
"I do," Twilight said, beaming. "It's Yggdrasil. Yggdrasil itself is doing all this. This is why we end up with the Bureau multiple times even though each Variant's supposed to be one of a kind. This is why we end up with weird one-off gimmicks in Loops like this one! This is why Rarity and I end up in so many weird situations together!"
"And why, pray tell, is it all the same?" Zecora asked. "If Yggdrasil's doing all this, what is there to gain?"
"The tree's been broken for countless eons," she explained. "If Yggdrasil's supposed to run all of reality, then it hasn't been able to do its job since the Event that started the Loops! All this time, it must have been sitting around waiting for the Admins to glue its branches back on! With nothing to do!"
"It's actually more like duct tape," Loki muttered under his breath.
"So, what do you do when you already know all forms of entertainment since they're inside you? And the gods are too busy working to do anything interesting?" Twilight's grin widened, her eyes gleaming with triumph. "You make your own fun! Yggdrasil's creating and recycling all of these weird Loops to have fun!"
"...huh." Spike said, scratching his chin. "I mean...I guess that would explain...wait, we have an Admin right here!"
Loki said nothing, staring right at Twilight.
"So, is she right, Loki?" he continued. "Is that why this stuff keeps happening?"
The Liesmith was silent. He stared at Twilight. He looked at the equations making the shape of a tree. At the other Loopers on the Moon. Back to Twilight.
Finally, he smiled, far too many teeth than a herbivore should have showing in his mouth.
"Well. It's an interesting theory, isn't it? Very interesting, indeed."
And then he was gone.
For a few moments, the remaining ponies were silent.
And then, a few moments later, Twilight looked skywards and began swearing loudly enough to make Angel Bunny blush.
"You, know, there's no rule against just telling her." Slepinir rolled his eyes, as his parent changed back to his usual form and stood up. "There's nothing against protocol in telling her that her theory is–"
"Why spoil the fun?" Smirking evilly, Loki left the room.
182.8 (Vinylshadow -MLP/Pokémon)
Luna flew over the hills and valleys of Equestria, searching for the owner of the telepathic voice who had called for her.
Finally, at the top of Equestria's tallest mountain, she found the one who had called her.
"Mewtwo," she greeted the replica neutrally, landing at the cave entrance and took a few steps inside. She was pleased at the temperature change and soaked in the warmth gratefully. The anthropomorphic feline looked up from his preparations of a drink with an expression Luna hazarded as amused.
"Hello, Moonbringer," he replied telepathically. Luna’s ears flicked and she settled down on one of the cushions strewn about.
"And you as well," Luna replied, rather irritated at the lack of non-insulting or overly sappy nicknames for the clone at her disposal. "Any particular reason for the late summons?"
"My apologies," Mewtwo said, sending a cup of tea floating her way. Luna took the cup in her magic and sniffed the steaming drink. "I chose the evening because you and I are both nocturnal beings."
Luna nodded slowly before taking a small sip of her drink.
"Genmaicha Green...didn't know they still made this," Luna observed.
"They don't, actually. A...friend managed to snag some for me in a Loop a while back."
Luna noted the slight change in the cat's demeanor and arched an eyebrow. "Just a friend, hm?"
Mewtwo narrowed his eyes at the mare. "Considering she's well into her senior years, yes. Just a friend. One who I only ever meet in a specific Variant."
Luna pressed her lips together. "I see."
"Everyone has their specific Loops that they treasure because of the events that take place in it. There was one I particularly enjoyed because I was able to be myself in it."
Luna swirled her drink thoughtfully. "And who are you?"
"If I may be so bold, I consider myself similar to the moon," Mewtwo said, setting down his drink. Luna stared at him curiously.
"A celestial body I have chosen to consider as an extension of myself. Over the ages – not to mention several different Branches of Yggdrasil – nearly every civilization has developed an elaborate system of symbols to help them comprehend the world around and within themselves. In the latter case, they have often adopted emblems, familiars and signs – external, usually socially constructed entities – to represent themselves, make them stand apart from everyone else. You've had experience with a world where everyone was the same, correct?" Mewtwo asked.
Luna nodded. "Twilight recently took on someone who had hoped for that outcome as her pupil, but that's a story for another time. What about you? The moon is how you set yourself apart?"
"Correct. Much like how – for the most part, anyway – no one has a concrete answer as to the moon was formed, so to, can no one understand how I came to be...myself." Mewtwo examined one of his limbs almost lazily. "Cloned from a Mew. Or maybe birthed and experimented on...there's conflicting data on that. Much like how the moon reflects the sunlight, I am but a reflection of what I came from. A replica, crafted by man and science."
"Does that bother you?" Luna asked, placing her empty cup down. Mewtwo shook his head.
"No. I've long since come to terms with it. Much less stressful, if I do say so."
Luna chuckled softly. "I'm glad."
She looked around curiously. "Where's BlackWarGreymon?"
Mewtwo smiled slightly, nodding towards a pile of pillows where Luna spotted the figure fast asleep.
"You're planning on staying up here for the Loop then? I'm sure Twilight would love to hear from you," Luna continued, turning to face the clone, who was now cleaning the dishes."
"I'll be down once I've spent some time organizing my notes," Mewtwo replied, gesturing to a mountain of paper behind him. "That'll save us both time and energy."
Luna let out a low whistle. "I see. Best of luck to you then. Stop by and say hi to Cellie. She'd enjoy debating philosophy with you."
"That's hardly fair. She's always had an extra millennium to get her arguments in order. I barely get a month!" Mewtwo protested.
Luna grinned wickedly. "Your debates are practically gladiatorial in nature. I look forward to seeing the match. Sayonara," she finished before striding to the mouth of the cave and took wing while Mewtwo turned to the paperwork.
182.9 (Masterweaver)
"That was amazing!" Starlight gushed. "I thought for sure you were going to be eaten by that manticore, but you teleported away at the last second!"
Trixie smiled gently. "Starlight, Starlight, Starlight. I thought you would have realized by now – nopony ever uses magic in a magic show."
Starlight blinked. "...what?"
"It's all sleight of hoof, misdirection, and theatrics. I'm a showmare, Starlight. The whole mystique is in not knowing how I pulled a stunt – and if I cast a spell, that would leave a trace."
The pink unicorn gaped, her jaw working up and down as she pointed from the stage to the cannon. "But–but–I saw you! You went into the cannon, and, and you shot out and the manticore ate you and–How could you have survived if you didn't teleport?!"
Trixie tapped her chin. "...will you stalk me obsessively if I don't tell you?"
"...maybe," Starlight admitted. "I mean, I stalked Twilight."
"Fair point. Well then..." The blue mare looked around, making a show of ensuring nopony was looking, and leaned in. "There's a hidden chamber in the back of the cannon."
"...what?"
"It wasn't me that was shot out," Trixie explained. "It was a life-sized ragdoll I put there beforehoof. Once I got in and lit the fuse, I slipped through a hatch, painted myself green, and zipped around the crowd while they were looking at 'me' waiting to get shot out of the cannon. There was a bucket of water under the stage, a trapdoor beneath the box, and after Sebastian swallowed his treat I waited just long enough to build the tension before revealing myself."
Starlight blinked. "That... why go to all the trouble?"
Trixie smiled, putting a hoof on her shoulder. "What is it that I'm living for? Applause, my mare, applause. Nothing I know brings on the glow like sweet applause..."
"You're thinking you're through," sang a second Trixie that stepped backstage, "that nobody cares, then suddenly you hear it starting..."
And thus was Starlight further confounded by a musical number with an inordinate number of showmares. All of who refused to tell her how they did it.
182.10 (Masterweaver)
Twilight blinked.
She blinked again.
Briefly, she considered whether 'blinking in shock' was too cliche, but failing to come up with an appropriate alternative resigned herself to blinking a third time.
Then she remembered letting her jaw drop and giving a small choking sound. That was a decent choice, her eyes were starting to water.
Fluttershy, standing beside her, nodded. "Surprised me too."
"I..." Twilight tried to come up with an appropriate question, before settling for the fundamentals. "HOW?!"
"Apparently he admired her devotion to her ideals and refusal to deny her past."
"Fluttershy, that's why, not how."
"Well, he does have a little romance in his soul," Fluttershy explained simply. "Most people don't realize that his blatant antagonism is actually a facade for his wish to be a firm but fair knight in the days of yore."
Twilight stared at her.
"...Oh, I'm sorry. Why, not how. As to how..." The pegasus rolled her hoof. "Love notes, minor gifts, non-obsessive stalking – you know, the kind where you just check in from time to time, without demanding they love you."
Twilight turned her gaze back to the picnic blanket, on which sat Starlight Glimmer and Angel Bunny.
"...Is... is she okay with this?"
"Maybe. The whole 'rabbit' thing is weirding her out, but she did like the notes and the gifts and she's willing to give it a go."
"...okay. You know what, we have a dragon and a unicorn, a chaos spirit and a drunkard, and a showmare and a lovebug." Twilight threw up her hooves. "Just... make sure they don't take over Equestria or anything."
"Will do, Twi."
182.11 (Masterweaver)
"Hey Twi! What's happening–"
Rainbow blinked as Twilight walked past her, giving the Wonderbolts leader a cold look.
"Uh... hello Princess." Spitfire stood to attention. "What do you need, ma'am?"
"Your badge."
Spitfire flinched. "...ma'am?"
"At the young flyer's competition a few years ago, you failed to rescue a single unicorn. When called upon to defend Ponyville from a dragon, you were nearly instantly taken out of commission. Those could be chalked up to pure chance or perhaps incompetence. However, you have encouraged potential Wonderbolts to take risky actions only intervening when publicly famous individuals were threatened, you deliberately attempted to sabotage non-Cloudsdale teams at the Equestria Games qualifier after failing to properly tend to one of your own teammates, you nearly excommunicated a rookie when she threatened a record belonging to a high-ranking member of the Wonderbolts, and just a minute ago you confirmed you wanted Rainbow Dash in your group specifically because of her talent and accomplishments. These point to a group that prides appearance and reputation over integrity and reliability, which is not acceptable in a military setting."
"Ma'am, I–"
"Furthermore," Twilight continued, "I have been made aware that you chose to ridicule your new member for a one-time mistake, to the point where she had a psychological breakdown and was willing to risk her life in an attempt to earn your 'approval.'" She glowered contemptuously at the now rigid yellow pegasus. "The famed Wonderbolts, descending to schoolyard bullying and jockeying. Firefly would be ashamed."
"Twilight," Rainbow interjected, "it's fine, really! It's just a silly little tradition that I took way too seriously."
The purple alicorn frowned. "It's not 'just' the namecalling, Dash. Quite frankly, this has been a long time coming." She held her hoof out to the yellow pegasus. "I will be inspecting the Wonderbolts personally over the next month, but as of this moment, Spitfire, you are no longer their commanding officer. Your badge. Now."
Very slowly, Spitfire took off her badge and handed it over. "...as you command, Princess."
Twilight took the badge and put it in her saddlebags, walking away. First the Manticore Moonshot, now this... these expansions were getting a little too intense for her liking.
182.12 (Masterweaver)
"A-HA!"
The scientists all froze as an alicorn strode into their laboratory. "So this is what you've been up to all this time. Did you really think embezzling crown funds wouldn't go unnoticed?" She trotted up to the pony who had a badge. "And before you go saying 'Celestia knew what we were doing', no, she did not, you deliberately arranged for all the relevant paperwork to be misfiled. Now I'm sure you all know how much I value knowledge, so I'm going to give you a chance to come clean before I use my deific powers to take it anyway."
"...oh, very well. We were creating candidates for the element of Magic."
Twilight blinked. "...what?"
With a flicker of his horn, the lead scientist pulled back a curtain to reveal glass chambers containing sleeping unicorns in various stages of development. "That was our original mission, anyway. We wanted to create the Ultimate Unicorn, the one that would wield the ancient powers of Harmony itself. Celestia signed a paper letting us have access to her stem cells, we decided to infuse them with sperm from high-power unicorns, and... well, a few of our creations were spirited out over the years by 'moralist' ponies, but for the most part they're still in here." He shrugged.
"Wait... this is a cloning lab?"
"Mmhmm." The scientist tapped his chin. "Actually, you were one of the clones yourself, if I recall... there was also the Trixie filly, and Celestia's other student, and... I think Moonsomething and Starsomething?"
Twilight facehooved. "Great, an Orphan Black plot... alright, thanks for your honesty, but if ponies start thinking they're 'me but with different lives' there's going to be far too much psychological torment to go around. I'm shutting you down, making all the clones legal citizens with their own identities, and placing you under arrest while I figure out what to charge you with."
She rolled her eyes and turned away from the shocked stallion. "Honestly–'Twilight clones.' What kind of ridiculous idea is that?"
182.13 (Vinylshadow)
Tirek sat on the throne in Canterlot Palace, fingers drumming on the armrest in boredom.
"Who knew, that after all this time, I'd finally have what I've wanted...and then be utterly bored of it in the first hour."
He got to his feet and started walking. Leaving the throne room, he walked down the long hallway lined with stain glass windows, each depicting one of the Princesses of Equestria.
The glass was magically animated to mimic the movements of the ones they represented, safely locked away in Tartarus. Most of the Princesses appeared asleep, save for one.
Tirek stopped in front of Luna’s window and gazed up at her with a frown.
The glassy mare watched him as if she could actually see him, but Tirek knew that was impossible. He sighed, crossing his arms over his chest.
"How did you stand this mindlessness for centuries on end? No wonder you went insane," he growled. He then nearly leaped out of his skin as the window talked.
"Hardly, dear Tirek. We just had numerous underlings to help us. Something you could never understand since you would never share your power with anyone. We don't need to do anything. Your empire will crumble without our help and we have all the time in the world to wait. I hope you enjoy your rule. You've certainly earned it."
The glass mare grinned and went still.
Tirek turned away with a shudder.
"These ponies are insane," he muttered.
182.14 (Masterweaver, Vinylshadow)
"Rainbow...." Scootaloo ruffled her feathers, glancing about awkwardly. "Can I... can I ask you something?"
"Of course, Scoots! You can ask me anything!" Rainbow Dash flicked her tail, gliding off the cloud she was resting on.
"...why do you still care about the Wonderbolts?"
The blue pegasus frowned, tapping her hoof on the ground. "...what brought this on?"
"Look, I... last loop, I got to see you finally become a Wonderbolt, only you weren't awake and..." Scootaloo sat down, rolling a hoof. "I mean, I can see why your unawake self would willingly suffer through that. But you... Even if you were locked to your baseline ability, you have the capability to be great and the maturity to actually... not need the ‘bolts anymore. And it's not like the ‘bolts are really all they claim to be. I mean, they get knocked out at the young flyer's competition, they barely even buzz greed-growth Spike, and with the way they handle Lightning Dust and Wind Rider and the tryouts for the Equestria games..." She shook her head. "It just feels more and more like they're a sham team, more concerned with their looks than integrity or effectiveness. And now with the callsign thing, and how they flat out admit they choose you because of your fame..."
Rainbow Dash took in her sagging wings, her quiet frown.
"...You know about the Crystal War timeline, right?"
Scootaloo nodded. "One of Starlight's timelines? Yeah."
"Well, it's... apparently some sort of parallel variant now. It happens a lot, for reasons Twilight loves to speculate about... anyway, in that timeline, Celestia gets the royal guard's flank in gear, and that goes to all the armed forces. ‘Bolts too." She shook her head. "It's kind of ridiculous, really, but we become full on legit fighter squadrons. I usually lose a wing – it gets replaced, but no matter how I try to keep it it's gone pretty quick. And that doesn't stop me, because... well, because it's war, and those Wonderbolts are my fellow soldiers."
"I've been in wars before Dash," Scootaloo pointed out. "Pilot, all that."
"Yeah, but my point... see, it's not what the Wonderbolts are. It's what they could be." Rainbow extended a wing, looking down the feathers. "Even in baseline, the Wonderbolts have a military history. Maybe they're not as good as they once were, but... there have been times when I convinced Twi to let us all back off, just to see how the military would handle Nightmare Moon and Tirek, and... all our baseline catastrophes. And when the ‘bolts get their act together, when they stop caring about their image... they become heroes. Almost every time." She shrugged. "It's kind of like... you know, back before she started looping, you crusaders hated Diamond, but then there were those times where you helped her and she became incredible?"
"Yeah, I... yeah, I remember those times." Scootaloo shrugged. "I... guess I can get where you're coming from."
"Speaking of which, how are you and Tiara doing?"
Scootaloo flicked her wings. "After giving it some thought, we ended up breaking it off. There wasn't a connection there and we both knew it wasn't going anywhere."
"I'm sure you'll find someone. Maybe Tender Taps?"
Scootaloo made a face. "That'd be like dating a mirror, so no."
"Well darn, guess I lost that bet."
182.15 (Masterweaver)
"So Twi, I got to a hub loop recently–"
"Oooo!" Twilight Sparkle bounded over to Rainbow Dash. "Did you get copies of all the things I asked you to?"
"Yes, Twi, I got your shopping list done." The pegasus rolled her eyes. "Even got those black and white plays you keep saying are impossible to record."
"YES! YES! Ohmygosh Rainbow you are the best! I've been waiting for new books to read for a thousand loops now!"
"I just hooked some out-of-loop tech to the internet and set it to mass download," Dash pointed out, hiding an amused smile as she hoofed over a small sphere. "You'll have to print the books yourself. You've got some sort of replicator in your pocket, right?"
"What looper wouldn't?"
"Just checking. ANYway, so you know that last expansion where you read Christmas Carol to Starlight?"
Twilight Sparkle rolled her eyes. "It's a memetic story. I'm surprised we didn't have a real-world Scrooge or something–"
"Actually, I caught the hub-loop backup version. They went with the universal adaptor cast, with you reading the story as a framing device."
The unicorn leaned back with a grin. "Really? Wow. Was it musical?"
"Yep. There was the teaser song, the villain song – they had Starlight as Scrooge – the three ghosts each had a song, another song to cap off the story, then Starlight got the closing number..."
"Oh, that sounds pretty cute, actually. I wonder if–" Twilight frowned, staring at Rainbow's fidgeting wings. "What? What is it?"
"...they made me Cratchit."
"What?" Twilight tilted her head. "Cratchit? Really?"
"Yeah. I mean, Snow Dash was a wizard, not a money-lender, so I was basically the maid–" Rainbow shook her head. "But I mean, why Cratchit?! I don't hate the guy, don't get me wrong, but his whole thing is 'suffering father with a moral core' and... okay, so I'm a bit of a tomboy but I don't think I have the subtlety for that role!" She snorted. "Then again, they didn't throw in anything about 'Snow Dash's' family..."
"They adapted out Tiny Tim?"
"He got a nod in the Present sequence. Featherweight has a crutch and then Pinkie uses her Present magic to give him tap shoes." Dash sighed. "It's just... I think I would have made a far better Fred than Cratchit."
Twilight nodded. "Yeah, I could see you as Fred. If I had to pick a pony for Cratchit, I'd go with Applejack."
"Funny thing, she was the spirit of the Past." Rainbow chuckled. "Great creepy entrance, though."
"Really? I would have pegged Fluttershy as Past. Where'd she end up?"
"She and Rarity were the 'talking ponies' at the party scene." Rainbow rolled her hoof. "It was like they took the Fezziwig, Fred, and Cratchit parties and blended them all together in the Present. It was..."
She made a face. "It was weird! They totally dropped Marley, made Scrooge actively try to end Christmas, and the future was an outright apocalypse! It's like... like... It wasn't bad, but I wasn't expecting it! The pattern was subverted and... I was Cratchit! Why was I Cratchit?!"
Twilight tilted her head. "...you're really hung up on this Cratchit thing, aren't you?"
"It just doesn't make any sense!"
"Oh Rainbow Dash," purred Discord as he phased through the wall with so many clanking chains, "what fun is there in making sense?"
182.16 (Masterweaver)
"I'm sorry, what?"
"We can't enter your work into the competition under Dark," the spokesman repeated.
"...Why?" Rainbow Dash tapped the pages. "I mean, I know you've read it, cause you're the approval guy for this competition–"
"That is correct–"
"The whole thing is about the devastation of living through a war as viewed through the eyes of an innocent orphan who becomes a depressed cynic and only lives because of her foolish hope of catching a rainbow!" The pegasus crossed her forelegs. "Scootaloo has to kill and eat a cat she's befriended at one point! Come on!"
The spokesman nodded. "I know, miss Dash, but you see, you are a pony. And ponies cannot write dark fiction."
Rainbow stared at him.
"It's a scientific fact," he explained. "Now, if you'd like, I could submit it in the Drama category–"
"HEY!" Something pink and serpentine slithered up to the desk, slamming their hands down. "What are you trying to pull?!"
"I beg your pardon?"
"My story! It's a cutsie tale about a rabbit and a badger joining forces to create the ultimate salad! Why's it labeled Mature?!"
"Well, Miss...ter...y Slaanesh, you are a chaos god. And as every space marine knows, anything a chaos god creates must be a mind-twisting perversion of reality. It's only reasonable."
"REASONABLE–?! You're forcing my story away from its intended audience to show it off to people expecting something totally different!"
"He's telling me that ponies can't write dark stories," Rainbow deadpanned.
"What? Seriously?"
"Yeah, I know!"
The chaos god looked at the spokesman. "Okay, you know what? Screw you."
"Misstery Slaanesh, please! There's a pony present. Mind your language."
Rainbow Dash gave him a flat look, inhaled, and spent the next minute and a half unloading a litany with vocabulary so vile that Slaanesh started to take notes midway through.
182.17 (Vinylshadow)
Apple Bloom wandered around Zecora's hut, examining the various bottles and knick-knacks lying around.
"So is there a purpose for any of these?" she asked, eyeing a talisman that looked like a carved Alicorn Amulet.
"They're fetishes," Zecora replied as she carefully diced some berries and powdered some beans.
"Beg pardon?" Apple Bloom asked, stepping back.
Zecora smiled slightly with an amused whicker. "Not the type you're thinking of. In my homeland, fetishes were items said to be imbued with mystic powers or spirits and were revered."
Apple Bloom tapped her chin thoughtfully before the theoretical light bulb went off. "Oh yeah. I remember in a Fallout Equestria Loop, that Zebras mentioned their talismans that gave them various powers like cloaking and wings as fetishes. Huh. The more you know, I suppose."
Zecora dumped her ingredients into the cauldron with a snort. "Language changes over the years. What were once innocent words became dirty and taboo. It saddens me, to see such greatness fade away. Although one could possibly argue that communication is better because of it."
"Less thees and thous?" Apple Bloom snickered.
"Verily."
The two females shared a glance before cracking up.
182.18 (Detective Ethan Redfield)
"The night...will last...FOREVER!"
The stunned silence lasted a couple seconds, before the sound of a horn chime echoed through the town. A single orange pegasus filly rode up on her scooter, shouted, "Telegram for Nightmare Moon, Telegram for Nightmare Moon."
Nightmare Moon...and by extension the rest of Ponyville, stared at the filly in question, before replying, "I AM THE MARE YOU SEEK, YOUNG FILLY! SPEAK AT ONCE!"
Scootaloo nodded and pulled out the telegram. "Pinkie Pie has a message for you and the whole of Ponyville. She says, 'I have a very twitchy tail!' End of message."
The Ponyville residents gasped and ran away, hiding under anything and everything. Nightmare Moon looked on confused as Scootaloo put her helmet back on and departed the area. The Nightmare opened her mouth, "What is the meaning of–"
She was cut off a moment later when suddenly a flood of candies rained from above. After the short but heavy deluge of candy disappeared. Nightmare Moon poked her head out a minute later, dazed and confused.
Pinkie stood outside Ponyville, besides a couple dozen catapults manned by Rainbow Dash dressed in camo. She had an army helmet on and was staring at the Ponyville through binoculars, "The tribute had no effect, Commander Dash. Your suggestions?"
Dash puffed out her chest and replied, "We must send more tribute, Private Pie! Launch the next catapult!"
Pinkie hopped with excitement, "Okie Dokie, Loki!"
With that, the confections rained on Ponyville, and only the bravest stepped out to take a piece. Rarity stood alongside Twilight as they ate snacks of daisy sandwiches prepared by Spike. The fashionista just shook her head, "This is dreadful."
Twilight tilted her head in confusion, pausing her meal to reply, "Nightmare Moon's taken more heavy beatings than this. Remember Nanoha when she blasted her mid speech?"
Rarity blinked, confusion transferring from Twilight to her, "What? Oh, no, Dash's outfit. Olive green is so drab like that. Further it clashes with her mane."
Twilight shook her head and continued eating her sandwich.
182.19 (Detective Ethan Redfield and Vinylshadow)
The mane five and the princesses sat, enraptured by the display in front of them. Truly, it was a sight to behold, watching as Twilight worked her magic. With a flourish and a bow, the play was over. Twilight trotted to the front and asked with a bright eyed expression, "What do you all think?"
The seven ponies looked amongst themselves as Applejack raised a hoof, "Twi', it was...somethin', but I have to ask, have you been feelin' alrigh'?"
Twilight looked a bit put out, "I have felt a bit tired lately after finalizing this project."
Rarity held out a hoof on the alicorn's shoulder and replied, "Twilight dear, don't you think building a scale replica of the Opera Garneigh out of books is a bit much?"
Twilight frowned and tried speaking before Dash spoke up, "And then performing the Phantom of the Opera with life sized book mannequins, how bored are you?"
"I mean, it's not as bad as some of your previous seclusion phases," Fluttershy spoke up. "There weren't any paper-mache replicas of us this time."
Twilight flicked her ears in embarrassment. "Could we not bring that up?"
Celestia said, "I think you've been hanging out in your library for too many loops. You should really stay with your friends for a couple loops."
Twilight tried protesting as Applejack led her out of the replica opera house.
182.20 (Vinylshadow)
"I have seen many things over the years, but this probably warrants a place in the top thousand," Luna muttered, shaking her head.
Beside her, Celestia munched some popcorn and shushed her. "Luna, it's not every day your protégé gets into a Broom versus Brush War for their senior project."
Below them, a blue-coated mare with a silver and blue striped mane glared daggers at a mulberry-coated unicorn with an indigo-colored mane with pink and purple streaks.
"Brushie brush!"
"Sweep sweep!"
"Brush!"
"Sweep!"
Minuette smirked and pulled out a Large Red Button of Pushing.
"Very well, Sparkle, you leave me no choice. Behold, my masterpiece, the Brushinator!"
Pushing the button, there was a low rumble and a giant robot literally made out of toothbrushes leaped into view.
Twilight smirked and brought forth her own Heavy-duty Super Colliding Pressure Pad.
"I see your Brushinator and raise you...the Sweepinator!"
A giant robot made out of brooms swept into view and the two titans began a climactic duel of cleaning the city.
"Told you that redirecting their energy towards tidying up Equestria was a good thing," Luna smirked while Celestia leaned back as a brush scrubbed the floor.
"You did always have the more interesting ideas when it came to projects," Celestia conceded with a nod. "Very well. You win this time, but I will have my revenge!"
"You said that the last two hundred thousand, four hundred and sixty-nine times too. I look forward to making it an even seventy."
182.21 (Masterweaver)
"Twilight?"
"Yes Rarity?"
"Why are we Pinkie Pie's shoulder angels?"
"Well, it's a common aspect of psychology for there to be a conscience as well as a tempting voice, and–"
"No, let me rephrase. Why are we Pinkie Pie's shoulder angels?"
"...You're asking me to explain Pinkie Pie."
"Oh, good point. New question: Why am I the evil one?"
"...the evil angel has to be able to convince their subject to do something they would morally be opposed to and thus requires charisma and social charm?"
"Hmm. So I have to seduce Pinkie Pie to the dark side. Well, I suppose if I'm going to be red, I can take this time to design some appropriate bridlewear–"
"Would you two stop making small talk?! I need to decide what kind of cake to make for that new pony that looks a lot like Goodvoice but purple!"
"Well, I would suggest making her a velvet cake, darling."
"What?! Rarity, I hate velvet cake! Which probably means she will too!"
"But it's chocolate! Rich, dense chocolate! Everypony loves chocolate."
"....you are disturbingly good at this."
"Thank you, dear."
182.22 (Masterweaver)
"...I could use it as a beat," Vinyl mused as she peered through the door. "It's not catchy enough to be a real rhythm though. Pretty basic. If they tried varying it up a bit--"
A flash of pink caught her eye, and she glanced at a passing pony before looking back at the shop. Then she blinked, lowering her glasses and looking back at the pony that had caught her eye.
"Wait a minute...."
She glanced in the shop, just to double check – yes, there was Pinkie Pie, mimicking a carpet cleaner. And yet, when she looked back, there was another Pinkie Pie, adjusting her trenchcoat.
"...Okay, somebody's got to be pranking me."
Vinyl trotted to the corner, pinging as she approached the trench-coated mare. There wasn't any visible reaction, but then again if this was a changeling and Chrysalis was stealthing there could be a delay. Or just confusion. Oh well, might as well go the old fashioned way.
"Man," she announced, nudging the trench-coated Pinkie, "I just had one LOOPY day, you know?"
The mare gave her a wary look.
"I mean, sometimes it feels like the same thing is happening over and over again, and your anchor seems to fade into the shadows, you kinda get stir-crazy and the next thing you know, WHAMMO! Somebody you thought was somebody turns out to be somebody else!"
"...Uh-huh." The mare glanced around. "I'm sure that's a thing."
The unicorn blinked. Then she cleared her throat. "Wow, sorry, I was being rude. Name's Vinyl Scratch!" She held out her hoof.
It wasn't hard to see that Pinkie Pie Plus Trenchcoat was growing increasingly uncomfortable with the situation. Still, she clopped the hoof quickly. "Yeah, um.... good to meet you."
Vinyl had a long history of keeping her smile on even when the clubs got rowdy. Not an inch of disappointment showed on her face. Whoever this was, they were pretty devoted to their secret... which meant either a great prankster or somebody psychologically disturbed.
"So... what are your thoughts on parties?"
The mare stiffened. "WHAT? PARTIES? I–I know nothing about them! Not at all!"
"Oh! Darned shame. I'm a DJ, you see." She gestured back at the building she had been peering through. "I got hired to run a party palace over there. Short gig."
"Oh. Good for you."
"...Funny thing. There's this clothes store opening right under me today. I got a look at the staff." Vinyl shrugged. "One of the ponies kinda looks like you."
That... got a reaction. Vinyl had expected maybe denial, or deflation and admittance.
She had not expected the mare to outright panic.
"WHA–Nononnono, nonononononno, I gotta–it, it was, nice meeting, yeah, don'tfollowme!" With that, the trench-coated Pinkie Pie rushed away, plowing through ponies like a trainwreck.
"...what."
"What," Twilight repeated.
Vinyl shook her head, shutting off the projector. "I had enough presence of mind to cast a tracking spell on her, but I wasn't able to follow up before the loop ended. All I know is, she panicked and skipped town." The DJ shrugged. "I was running it baseline–except for telling Octy about the loops, of course–and I thought since we had a stealth anchor I could figure out how I got that Party Palace..."
"Then suddenly this other Pinkie showed up and you got curious?"
"Yeah." Vinyl bit her lip. "You... think it's a variant?"
"...Maybe." Twilight folded back her ears. "Although..."
"What?"
"...There is the Mirror Pool incident," she reluctantly admitted. "Generally Mirror Pool clones aren't... fully realized, but sometimes they are... and if this expansion firms that up..."
"Whoa." Vinyl looked at the projector. "The mirror pool? Really?"
"...This is going to call for some experimentation," Twilight mused. "And serious reconsideration of our 'cap-it-fast' protocol." She sighed. "I really, really don't like this new batch of expansions, you know? It's frustrating to see so many moral ambiguities cropping up."
"Hey, you know that we're all here for you, right?"
Twilight smiled sadly. "Yeah, I know. I appreciate it really."
She paused.
"...was the Sweep Stance really that bad?"
"Bad, no. It was just... blah."
182.23 (Masterweaver)
"Hey Twilight!" Cadance called, waving from a bench with a stroller next to it.
"Oh, hey Cadance!" Twilight walked over. "I'm on my way to Moondancer's party. You want to come?"
"Might have to pass, actually. You remember that looper challenge you made?"
"Which one?"
"You know, the one where we use one power and solo all the baseline baddies."
"Oh, THAT one!" Twilight chuckled. "Geeze, it's been a while since I made that. Do you want a go?"
"Yep. Well, I wanted to run it by you first, cause this is a bit of a variant..."
"Really?" Twilight asked. "How do you..."
The words died on her lips as her eyes finally fell on the stroller. Or rather, the alicorn in it.
"Yeah, me and Shiney had some looser morals before we Woke up this loop." Cadance giggled. "Now we have our Flurry Heart early!"
Twilight looked from the alicorn filly to the alicorn mare. "...you want to throw your daughter at angry gods, tyrants, and armies."
"Well, not without a few protective spells obviously. Which is kind of what I want to talk to you about, which spells I should use, making sure it doesn't violate the challenge–"
"Cadance, do you realize how this sounds?"
"Well, I thought it would be some good mother-daughter bonding time."
"She's a baby!" Twilight protested.
"Aww come on Auntie Twilight." Cadance levitated Flurry Heart next to her face, speaking in a squeaky voice as her daughter giggled. "I wanna be a bwig hewo jus wike wou awe!"
The purple unicorn gave her a deadpan look. "...You know I deal with Fluttershy on a regular basis. I'm immune to cute by now."
"Just hear us out on this one?" Cadance pleaded.
"Fine. But I'm almost a hundred percent certain that there is no way I could ever–"
"THE NIGHT! WILL LAST! FOREVER!"
"Goooooooooooo!"
"What in–?!"
Twilight sighed as Nightmare Moon was suddenly confronted with an adorable narwhal facehugger hybrid. "I still can't believe you talked me into this."
"Shhh." Cadance waved her down, holding up her camera. "It's my girl's first big villain!"
"MY EYE! GET THINE WING OUT OF MY EYE!"
Cadance shed a tear. "I'm so proud!"
Twilight settled for sighing again.
(Masterweaver)
"Look, Cadance," Celestia said gently, "I'm not sure that this was the wisest idea."
Cadance sighed. "Twilight's explained the loops to you, right Auntie?"
"....yeeeeees."
"She's mentioned variants right?"
"...A bit, yes." Celestia sighed. "And I know you don't 'usually' have Flurry Heart until much later but–"
"Auntie Celestia, in baseline I have to deal with no less than three individual threats to my life and country. And I'm a full-grown mare. Flurry Heart is an infant--that means she has less defenses than usual. I could, quote unquote, lock her away for her own safety--or arrange secret protection, or whatever it is you're about to suggest. Somehow, though, the idea of limiting my own daughter in that way is... offensive. Degrading. I don't want to become the overbearing mother who won't let her daughter out and about."
"...So you're teaching her to defend herself?"
"Yes."
"...She's a baby–"
"YES I KNOW!" Cadance cried. "I KNOW SHE'S A BABY! And there are worlds out there that don't give a sprig, Auntie, where babies are literally fuel or meals or bargaining chips! And maybe Equestria isn't one of them, and maybe I should hope for a normal upbringing, and maybe I should be happy she exists at all, but, but, I want to be able to raise her, actually raise her, not just give birth to her again and again and again and, and that means I want her to loop, and, and that means I should know if she can handle the loops and..."
She sighed.
"This is safe, auntie. What I'm doing might look crazy, but I quadruple checked everything, got Shining to look over it, got Twilight to look over it. And... maybe it is a little pushy. If this were a normal situation, I could look forward to seeing her in the school play, or maybe coming home with a boyfriend I'd disapprove of, or... something. This isn't normal, though. It never will be. I... I love Flurry Heart. But I know I can't always be there for her, even when I should be." Cadance let her wings droop. "I don't know how being born over and over and being trapped at infancy will affect her. I don't know... basically, I know nothing. I..."
Celestia looked at her for a long moment.
"...you're not sure about this either."
"...no. Not entirely. Auntie... I don't know if there's any precedent for this. For raising a child like this. I just... I want her to live."
"So you're throwing her at Nightmare Moon and Discord."
Cadance shrugged, tears streaming down her cheeks. "It's not like it's not working."
"...Discord proclaimed her to be his chosen prophet."
"He does that."
Celestia sighed. "Cadance... I don't quite agree with this. And I can tell it's troubling you too. You're... absolutely sure Flurry Heart is safe?"
"Yeah. As sure as I can be."
"...I suppose I shall let this continue, then. But... I ask you, please, to speak to somebody about this. One of your Loopers, who might understand the situation better then I."
Cadance ran her forehooves down her cheeks. "...sure... sure thing."
182.24 (Scorntex)
"So," Cheerliee said, "what have we learned today?"
Silver Spoon raised an appendage. "Never mix Chaos and any kind of holographic technology?"
Cheerliee nodded. "Indeed. Anything else?"
Behind them, the smoking remains of Twilight's library crumbled in on itself.
"We... probably should've told everypony we were going to do this?" Sweetie Belle supplied.
Somewhere in the distance was a electric scream of a hovercraft full of eels being crushed by a forty-foot high attack kitten.
"And maybe tested it somewhere safer," Diamond Tiara murmured, "like on an uninhabited planet, in another solar system."
"Or," Pansy suggested, "just not followed through on the idea at all."
Somewhere else, something exploded, and it began raining custard.
"That might have been an idea."
"How did..." Twilight began as she stared at where her library had once been.
From behind her, there was a tiny, self-conscious cough. With the speed of a glacier, Twilight turned to look at the Crusaders, who looked like they wished they could have been somewhere, anywhere else.
"You tell her," Diamond Tiara murmured to Apple Bloom.
"Ah ain't gonna tell her, you tell her!"
"It was your idea!" Diamond shot back, "you tell her."
"Maybe Ah didn't think ya'll would agree with me!"
"GIRLS!" Twilight yelled, causing all five of them to jolt in alarm. She paused to regain her composure and tried smiling warmly.
Somehow, as Twilight stood in front of not only the remains of her tree, but the five rapid-grown tree clones that had been spawned after its fight with the fifty-foot attack kittens, this wasn't at all reassuring.
"My home has been destroyed under highly unusual circumstances. At the moment, I do not care who is responsible. I just want to know how it happened!"
Several long seconds passed, punctuated only by the remains of one of the trees collapsing slightly further. Apple Bloom shuffled, then sighed.
"It was kinda mah fault, Twilight, y'see, I..."
Then Silver Spoon leapt into the air.
"WHAT IN THE HAY IS THAT?!" she yelled. Twilight just stared at the five fillies, as they looked up at something.
"Really, that's the best yo–" and then everything went sideways. Also, everything was suddenly distressingly sticky.
Once the world has stopped spinning, Twilight saw it was because she was being held by a large... thing, which appeared to be composed entirely of custard.
From down below she heard Sweetie Belle go, "I thought we got all of them!"
There was the sound of heavy machinery unfolding, before Scootaloo spoke up. "So I missed one! Sue me!"
As whatever machine it was the group was using began making a slightly disconcerting humming noise, Twilight tried turning to look at them.
"I've changed my mind! I no longer care how this happened! Just tell me–" she tried teleporting free from the creature, which only resulted in her horn fizzling pathetically. She growled in frustration.
"Just tell me you can get rid of this thing so I can drink the memories away!"
182.25 (Scorntex)
"Pinkie, dear?"
Pinkie looked up from what she was doing at Mrs. Cake. "Yuh-huh?"
"We were about to go out and..." Mrs. Cake's gaze was drawn from Pinkie Pie over to the bipedal being sitting next to her.
In fairness to her, it wasn't exactly often the average pony saw a Martian.
It also wasn't often when said Martian waved politely at them.
Compared to that, the fact that Pinkie Pie was holding a cone of ice cream several feet high with no problem whatsoever didn't even register.
"What exactly are you doing?" Mrs. Cake felt compelled to ask.
Pinkie looked at her guest, then back to Mrs. Cake. "Oh, this is J'onn, who's from Mars which is another planet and in another universe, and he's here because he'd been hiding the fact he can make ice cream, and I don't know why anyone would hide that–"
Mrs. Cake nodded along to Pinkie's rapid-fire explanation, not quite understanding most of what Pinkie said (though this was perfectly normal), though she thought she heard something in there about paying her bizarre looking visitor with cookies. "Okay then, be sure to clean up if you make a mess. We're just taking the twins out for a walk."
And with that, she turned and very carefully made her way back downstairs. As she did, she heard Pinkie Pie exclaim "Oooh, try blueberry this time!"
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182.3: ...I don't even know...
182.7: CALLED IT!
182.10: ...Whut? Just... whut?
182.23: Not sure about the morality of that, but it certainly sounds effective.
Season 6, man. These new expansions usually aren't too good on the loopers, huh?
And this line. Just. This line. Cut off at the exact point for us to be left wondering. Tree dammit.
Forgot to ask this before, but what happened to Nyx and Lemon's wedding? I never saw it happen. It just jumped from them being engaged to them being married.
7755600
Separate fic.
7756355 Which fic? Could you link it?
Ah, yes, clearly Twilight has looped in as Twilight Brickle.
pre08.deviantart.net/8c5c/th/pre/i/2016/334/d/0/twilight_brick_by_princessfaeron-daq317d.png?1
(for future reference, that's what Twilight Sparkle would look like with a mulberry coat.)
Y'know, I get wanting to go three different kinds of crazy over the internal operations of an intensely close knit group, but you could at least fact check before you write a scene with that much wrong in it.
7756948
Which scene do you mean?
7756960 Specifically I refer to Twilight's rant to Spitfire in .11. Most of the list is so distorted that it's not meaningful. At least one is wholly fabricated and has no basis to start with. The couple of points with merit are standard storytelling devices, which really don't make sense coming from a Looper that has performed scholarly research on narrative causality.
Taken as a whole, the rant is tainted by those flaws and fails to have the kind of emotional impact the author clearly wanted. With the tone it currently has, an appropriate followup would be Celestia quietly sending Twilight a study plan on The Value of Research to Making Royal Decrees while she fixes the mess.
7756892 The wikia has her color as "Pale light-grayish mulberry"
The whole Wonderbolt thing feel like you are trying to impose what you thought is right/correct even if it isn't in real life. Not to mention, looking into it too deeply with the "want it to be bad" goggle.
And the cloning thing isn't actually that bad if Twilight...A supposed clone can become a respected princess.
The only moral implication that clones really generate is the prospect of treating them unethically. And or trying to replace the orginal with the clone.
182.1
Thou is always singular, using all makes it automatically plural, and should be "Ye are all daft!"
182.23
THY WING and MINE EYE
7757584 Pretty much everything those scientists were doing was unethical at every stage.
7757584
There's citations:
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/98568/198/mlp-time-loops/mlp-loops-189#comment/7757347
So I feel the Wonderbolt thing is at least a viable point of view. Not the only one, of course.
Also, "you" should really be directed at "the author" - I didn't write that one, but it feels like you're blaming me for it.
Eh?
...
Yes. Just yes.
And besides, did you REALLY expect him to NOT screw you over somehow?
Headcanon accepted.
Useful.
TIRamisu.
*snerk*
Huh, clever girl.
Oh dear.
You utter DICK! Amazing!
Fair enough.
AMAZING.
And it kinda ruins the whole effect.
Well, points for honesty.
As someone who strives to be an actor and who basks in the glory of the stage, she's right.
That works.
... I, see...
Oh please, I give it a couple of Loops.
... That, sounds like you're practically ASKING for Mewtwo Redux.
No offense, big guy, but, you don't seem like a very creative type, so, that might be part of the problem.
Perhaps, but they're still in charge. Or, were, rather.
So, they're Gohan, weak at first, but they hold immense potential.
Fair enough.
I swear I'm the only one who doesn't think they look alike.
Oh yeah.
Of course you WOULD answer.
... Normally, you'd have a point.
Huh, OK, interesting.
I love these little slice of life moments.
I hope this goes where I think it will..
She's right.
She's right again.
*chuckle*
She has a point.
7760403 You do realize how much this clutters up the comments, right?
Like, this would be fine for a quote or two. but I had to hit Page Down eight times to scroll through your comment.
You're typically supposed to respond to criticism, but since you don't put out stories, I can't expect that from you.
If he was the one to down vote that, then yes, shame on him. But both of your have a right to post comments. Even if his are taking a long time to scroll through, it's just a comment. He's not being offensive. Love and tolerate, guys?
182.5
I need some to make a cover of this. I don't know how good it would actually be but I want it anyway
7789340 there is a thing called the middle mouse button
8075171
Thank you, Captain Obvious. But you see, it's fucking massive. So scrolling past it takes far more effort than it needs to. Along with the copy and paste job serving as a "reaction" comment would be better off as a blog so that people who would be interested in that would have much less hassle trying to find the relevant xontent, as well as not cluttering up the comments.
Surprisingly, I don't have much love for "reaction" style stuff. Go figure.
182.7 (Gamerex27)… brill. Nicely-written.
(triamisu->tiramisu, Laufreyson->Laufeyson, Slepinir ->Sleipnir)
Since when does Pinkie hate cake?
oh, that made me think of a crazy comic book i read where Scrooge had to "embrace Christmas" to avert a Zombie Apocalypse!
it was one of those crazy "marvel zombies" comics...
Is it just me, or did Zecora completely fail to rhyme in this chapter?
8278519
She appears in two snips. In the first one, she rhymes just fine.
In the second one... I dunno, either I need to go clonk Vinylshadow and all the proofreaders over the head or they're speaking Illefarn.
this comes to mind:
reminds me of a line in "into the looking glass" by John Ringo: a soldier and a scientist are trapped in a building surrounded by alien monsters, and the scientist says, "you know, this is ALMOST as exciting as defending a research paper."
Eh... really not a fan of Twilight taking such a poor view on the Wonderbolts...
I much, much prefer Rainbow's own view on them.
I bet you're gonna absolutely love the Washouts expansion, aren't you?
7756355
Think I could maybe get the link?
I cant wait till someone makes a fic out of 182.11
That’s what everyone said to Pinkie when she made her party cannon and started predictions the future with her Pinkie sense!
9371315
If you haven’t gotten a link yet, here it is.
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/344960/the-infinite-loops-the-wedding-of-leman-russ-and-nyx-sparkle
If Pinkie is disturbed, we all need to panic. Loudly.
this reminds me of a really silly story:
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/356092/the-horrifically-horrible-kidnapping-of-princess-flurry-heart
Liked the music.
Just to be sure, this is Twilight and Rarity talking here, right?
11805266
No at this point its rarity attempting to convince pinkie to make a velvet cake and because pinkie being pinkie can hear it
this part also reminds me of a scene in "the great Alicorn hunt" by RhJunior, where Princess Rainbow Dash PUNCHES OUT Spitfire after Spitfire said she didn't think Dash deserved her position and "needed to be taken down a peg"...