MLP Loops 191
191.1 (katfairy)
Twilight Sparkle Awoke to find herself in a lovely sunny meadow, complete with babbling brook winding through it. It took the merest moment to realize she wasn't in Equestria, but decided not to worry about that until she had reason to do so. Then her Loop memories hit, and she stood blinking for a while.
"Well, that's new and different," she finally said, heading for her stable. As she trotted back, she saw other unicorns, some being groomed by humans or elves, and one by an orc. All seemed perfectly content; she was greeted by nods or waves as she passed.
It was a fairly standard fantasy-type setting, according to her memories, similar to the 500 Kingdoms (and she really owed Elena for not filming That Incident) but not entirely. The unicorns here were no more partial to virgins than anyone else, for one thing, and were considerably more intelligent. However, centuries ago it had been discovered that hair from their tails could be spun into a fiber that was fine, soft, and strong. That had led to problems, some of which still existed in some places, but by some uncharacteristic stroke of luck, she'd Awoken in a place where unicorns were considered citizens with full equality; the farm they were on was owned by the herd, and the various humanoids were employees. If she wanted to, she could just kick back and relax for the Loop; nobody had responded to her Ping, none of her locate-the-Big-Bad spells had come up with more than minor results, and unlike some Loops where she was in a herd, mating was a choice, not a season.
"Ah, the heck with it." She hadn't taken a break in a while, and this seemed like as good a place as any. If problems cropped up, she'd rethink her position, but until then, Twilight Sparkle was officially On Vacation. One bucket full of lavender-mint-infused water later, she was relaxing in a hot spring, making a mental list of Looping crafters who would love to get their hands on a new material.
191.2 (half_baked_cat)
Another loop, another time for Twilight and Rarity to Wake up as a random object.
"Hey, Rarity, why are we a shirt and skirt?"
"I do not know darling, but I am no mere shirt. I am a rather lovely blouse."
"Ok. Follow up question. As I never really got a hang of fashion, do we actually look good together?"
"Yes. As a white blouse with some lace detailing, I would look good with just about any skirt, but your plaid coloring is actually rather fetching and I am honored to be paired with you."
191.3 (half_baked_cat)
Loop starts are always a drag for me. Especially when I end up in my home loop. I spend years getting my reputation as the guardian of Chicago back, the one man in all of the U.S. you don't want to mess with, and it disappears in what seems to me to be a moment.
And I have to deal with my fellow wizards thinking I am some sort of monster on the edge of eating babies and kicking puppies everywhere I go. They are not wrong. I have seen what I can do when I stop following the laws of magic. Laws that seem to exist only in my home loop and the people of it.
Shaking my head, I send out a ping and get a single result. At least I am not...
'knock knock knock'
Odd. Usually I don't have visitors to my office at this point in the loop. Getting up, I slide my pistol into my coat pocket and keep a hold on it as I approach the door carefully, knowing the random dangers of my home far more intimately than most loopers. Opening the door, I see a young woman with hair that tells me exactly who this is even before she opens her mouth and starts rambling while hugging me. I would recognize that large, fluffy pink mane of hair anywhere, whether she was her native pony form, in a human form, or that one time she was a turtle made of cake I found in my fridge one loop.
"Hi Pinkie. Good to see you too," I tell her. "I have a murderer I need to take care of, but after I am done with him, I promise we can go have some fun."
Pinkie giggled. Uh oh. What did she do this time?
"Silly filly, I just explained I already took care of him for you."
"How?" I ask, knowing Pinkie won't be upset by a harsh tone since this was not her first time to Chicago and knew how bad of a loop it could be.
"I sent a box with compromising evidence to the police station under PDP. Now come on, we have ice cream to eat and parties to plan," Pinkie said, pulling me towards my Blue Beetle. My Blue Beetle that Pinkie seemed to have modified if the pink color, oversized exhaust port, and the sticky feel of Pinkie's chaos magic was any sort of clue. At least she is letting me control the trip this time.
We pass the drive catching up a bit on what we have been doing in the loops and gossiping a bit like a pair of old hens. I chose an ice cream parlor that seemed to be fairly stable as far as the loops go. The only variant it seems to have is if it is owned by the mob or not.
I get a double scoop of vanilla in a waffle cone with fudge on top. Pinkie gets a monstrosity with every option. I get comfortable after paying and begin eating my ice cream as the workers build Pinkie's creation.
"Pinkie, can one of these parties be at an amusement park?" I ask, hoping that this will be the loop I get to go on the rides.
I can see Pinkie hopping with joy at my suggestion. That or the sugar overload she is about to consume.
After Pinkie ate her treat in less bites than is physically possible in this universe, we got down to party planning. It was always easier to just go along with her parties than to resist. That, and her parties have solved a few of the major problems that crop up regularly here in Chicago.
I am just glad she respected my lack of interest in performing magic during parties. I may have developed plenty of utility uses for my magic, but I prefer more mundane forms of entertaining guests.
"So, we will go on a road trip next year to celebrate my birthday at Six Flags?" I ask, knowing I have a smile on my lips.
"Unhuh." Pinkie nods her head in agreement. "I know you are a bit jumpy about surprise parties, what with being soo~oo predictable and disliking big changes."
I glared at the grinning loon. "So I hear."
"Oh, that reminds me," Pinkie says as she pulls out a box wrapped in very colorful paper with little grumpy looking men wearing dusters and holding magical staves. Of course Pinkie has personalized wrapping paper. "Happy two hundred thirty seven billion, forty two million, six hundred fifty three thousand, one hundred twenty first loop."
I blink, cock my head, and decide to just roll with it. "Thank you Pinkie. You didn't have to..."
"But I did."
"But I will be sure to show you at some point or another how much this means to me."
Carefully, I remove the wrapping paper to see what looks like wood, but quickly becomes apparent is just a cardboard sleeve for a pair of board game boxes that was designed to look like a wine crate.
I look at Pinkie with a raised eyebrow, knowing she is dying to explain.
"It is a numbered collectors edition I got in a hub loop. I got number two since the designer wanted to keep number one in his personal collection, but got it signed for you. It is a game about winemaking and I know you like tabletop games and this one got many positive reviews, especially a lot of reviews saying it is good for all player counts and it is hard for you as an anchor to find another looper to play with, so I didn't want to get you a game that needed more than two players, but you can get more than two easily enough as well so I didn't want to get you just a two player game and you like alcohol so the theme seemed good and-"
"Thank you Pinkie. I love it. Give me a bit to read the rules over and we can play."
And I meant it.
...she probably just made up the number, though.
191.4 (Evilhumour)
"Hello, Applejack," Tenderhoof called out to her, making the farmer groan internally. Turning her head to face the stallion who was holding a bouquet of flowers out for her, he took a tentative step forwards. "I would really like-"
"Excuse me," a booming voice from behind caused Applejack to stare upwards at the giant yellow coated earth pony who was trotting towards them. Dipping his short cut white mane as he stood next to Applejack, he gave her a light nuzzle before looking at the quivering stallion. "Is there a reason why you are bothering my beloved?"
"N-n-n-no..." he squeaked before bolting away faster than Rainbow Dash ever could do unAwake.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Applejack looked at the stallion who saved her a long, painful awkward dance of letting Tenderhoof down gently. "Thanks, Regal Stone."
"It was no problem, Applejack," the stallion said with a hint of a smile on his face. "I must be on my way, the Little Mother does need these apples."
"Then get going," Applejack laughed, patting the stallion on the side. She regretted it as it was like smacking the hardest surface imaginable. Regal Stone gave a smirk to her as he started to move towards the cottage of her friend. Applejack watched him go before blinking and realizing something very important. "Wait a second, ya’ll love me?!" She shouted, causing the stallion to pause mid-step.
"I view our relationship as nothing more as simple friendship," he said slowly. "Why do you ask?"
"Ah..." Applejack blinked before trying to settle herself. "Mah senses didn't say yer were lying ta me."
Regal's eyebrow raised an inch before saying, "This sentence is a lie."
Applejack took a step back as her built-in lie detector did not go off. "Nothin’..." she said slowly, although she could feel a faint ting on her lie detector. She was trying to figure out why this was happening when Regal Stone started to laugh loudly.
"It seems that due to my nature of always telling the brutal truth of the matter has made most near incapable of detecting when I speak a lie," his laughter broke off into chuckles, clearly amused by this discovery.
Applejack simply decided that she needed to get some booze before she would inform Rush about this.
191.5 (Awesomedude17)
"But, my love... why?"
"It's not you, my dear Wade! It's the fact that I am Looping, and you're not!"
"I can change! Honest!"
"Goodbye, Wade Wilson. This Pie cannot be anything beyond a friend to you." Pinkie dramatically walked off.
Deadpool fell to his knees and raised his fists in the air.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"
Rarity blinked at the scene, and began to brew some tea.
"There will never be enough tea to make this any less cheesy, especially if Deadpool's faking it."
"Like your eyelashes?"
"Wade, I'm well versed in many forms of martial arts including Jeet Kun Do, Hapkido and Krav Maga, so I'd suggest you say your next words-"
"You have a weird hor- ARGHGAADSVAKJHGWMGOIUGMASDFMOVIERULZPAINPAINPAINOUCH!!!"
Rarity scoffed as she began to pour her tea.
"I warned you."
191.6 (Awesomedude17)
Pinkie Pie plopped onto her couch and groaned.
"Hey Gummy, you know how many times I've talked to you about the Loops? Well last Loop I ended up in some strange adventure with a Non-Looper and it eventually ended when I accidentally headbutted the guy in the *squee* and he keeled over, screaming '*beep* *beep* *beep*, MY *beep*!' and I was like 'OHMYGOSH!!! I'MSOSORRY!!!' and I grabbed a pot of water but it was boiling so I ended searing his *squee* and then I found out he was evil from the guy we were originally going to defeat, so I went and turned Chaos God, which led to him going 'HOLY *beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep*!' and then... you're not listening, are you?"
Gummy merely stared, as he usually did.
"AUUUUUGH!!! I feel so bad about the whole thing and you don't even listen!" Pinkie buried her face in her hooves. "I'm so sequoia embarrassed!"
"Uh, Pinkie, when did you learn to censor your own language like that?"
Pinkie turned to Rainbow and gave a look that said 'you're asking about me?' Rainbow quickly decided that Pinkie Pie was being Pinkie Pie and left.
191.7 (LadyStina2)
Rainbow Dash Awoke as a human sitting in a classroom. She let out a disappointed groan while waiting for her loop memories to kick in. If her currently light blue skin and rainbow hair were any indication, then she had looped into Canterlot High School.
She dropped her head into her hands, disappointed in having to sit through any kind of school again, and did a quick Element check and a Ping. The Element check came back with Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle being Awake, and no extra Pings in return. At least Sunset was on this side of the mirror.
Her loop memories told her that the unawake Sunset had been terrorizing the school and that this world’s Element bearers were at odds with each other.
Rainbow started putting together a mental to-do list and raised her head out of her hands to stare blankly at the front of the class only to find the teacher standing in front of her with her hands on her hips.
“Miss Dash, think you could answer the question for us?” the teacher, Mrs. Fields, asked with a hint of frustration in her voice.
“Oh, chlorophyll,” Rainbow swore as she began racking her brain, trying to remember the question.
“Uh. Yes. Yes, that’s correct, Miss Dash,” Mrs. Fields said in surprise before walking back to the chalkboard to continue her lesson.
Rainbow gave a relieved sigh and slumped in her chair. A pencil hit the floor to her left. When she turned her head, she spotted Sunset leaning over in her seat to pick it up. As Sunset straightened back up, she caught Rainbow’s eye and gave her a wink. Rainbow smirked and gave a single nod in return.
Now she just needed to find out if Twilight was going to join them here or stay in Equestria, fix the relationships between these versions of her friends, and discreetly meet with Sunset to discuss what to do this loop.
Sunset entered the school’s locker room, then cast a privacy spell over herself and Rainbow, who had stayed late after soccer practice so they could meet up.
“What’s up, Dash?” she asked, after looking around to make sure they were alone. She still hadn’t been ‘reformed’ yet after all.
“Hey. Thanks for meeting me. How was your last Loop?” she asked while towel-drying her hair.
Sunset sat on a bench and answered, “Heh, another fused loop. I ended up in Nerima replacing Kasumi. It was nice to see Ranma again. How about you?”
Rainbow threw her towel towards the towel hamper and pulled a brush out of her locker while replying, “It’s been a string of baseline runs for me. Oh! Twilight mentioned you recently had an expansion. What’s supposed to happen then?”
Sunset smiled and said, “Oh you’ll like this. I’ve only been through it a few times myself on baseline runs. So, the school takes a field trip to Camp Everfree-“
“Camp EVERFREE?!” Rainbow interrupted with a surprised shout. “Sounds ominous. Oh, wait, let me guess,” Rainbow smirked and asked, “Do the animals need care, the clouds never move, and the plants don’t grow at all?”
Sunset rolled her eyes with a smile before throwing a random peppermint from her leather jacket at Rainbow. “No. And it just sounds ominous to you because you usually live near the Everfree Forest. Everything at Camp Everfree has the same physics as everything else around here. Anyway, we get there and apparently there’s some Equestrian magic shards there that gives us all additional magic. We defeat a magic-corrupted human with the help of the new magic and we keep it until the end of the loop.”
“Same ol’, same ol’, huh?” Rainbow asked. “So what kinda new magic are we gonna get?”
Sunset smiled and said, “Well, Fluttershy will get to understand animals, AJ gets super strength, this Twilight gets levitating, I get touch-empathy, Rarity gets shields, and Pinkie will make sugary things explode.”
“Well there's a scary thought,” Rainbow replied dryly. “What about me?”
“You sure you want to know? You could just wait and find out…” Sunset teased her friend.
“Of course I want to know! What is it?” Rainbow demanded.
“Super Speed.”
Rainbow momentarily froze before she was suddenly in Sunset’s face and gripping her shoulders, “We’re going out there to get those shards!”
Sunset leaned back from Dash’s manic smile and replied slowly, “Ooookkkkaaaayyy. Why?”
“For the super speed, of course! Come on! I’ll borrow my dad’s truck and we can go get those shards tonight!” Rainbow said excitedly.
“I’m not saying no, because I simply haven’t tried to get them early yet, but again… why? You must have all kinds of tricks, spells, and devices in your Pocket that’ll give you super speed whenever you want,” Sunset replied.
Rainbow finally let go of Sunset’s shoulders and leaned back smugly before saying, “That’s true. I am awesome. But you never know when our Pockets will be locked. It’ll be good to know where we can get an upgrade when we need it. Let’s go!” Before Sunset could react, Rainbow grabbed her by the arm and pulled her out of the locker room.
“I still don’t know if this’ll work, Dash.” Sunset complained quietly while carefully traveling down the dark trail in the woods to the cave. There were lights on in the camp, so they were trying to stay quiet.
“You don’t know because you haven’t tried. If it doesn’t work now, we’ll run things baseline and keep checking back after major events to see when we can get it,” Rainbow pointed out as she followed Sunset closely.
Sunset frowned as she pushed aside yet another tree branch and replied, “Running things baseline includes me getting a face full of Rainbows. Not something I typically enjoy.”
“Stop your complaining. We all know you’ve figured out how to get around the rainbow laser and still get the sirens interested in CHS eons ago. Now let’s get those shards!” Rainbow pushed ahead of Sunset as the cave they were heading for came into view. She turned on a flashlight once she was inside.
Sunset caught up to her and headed to the pedestal where the shards should be. She sighed and pointed to the empty rock and said, “Nope. Not here yet.”
Rainbow walked over and swore, “Tree-dammit. I guess we’re going baseline.”
Sunset groaned and said, “I guess we’ll check it out after the Rainbow-laser-to-the-face thing.”
Rainbow and Sunset stared at the empty rock in silence. “You sure this is the place?” Rainbow finally asked.
“Yeah,” Sunset answered. “I thought for sure they would be here after the sirens. There was a lot of Equestrian magic thrown around last night. Maybe it’s after the Friendship games? That is when this world’s Twilight tears open rifts into Equestria and breaks the statue on top of the portal.”
“That actually makes sense,” Rainbow conceded. “You get some extra magic from Equestria leaking into this world, then BOOM! Extra set of Elements. Kinda.”
Sunset thought and said, “You know… this would’ve probably been easier if one of us had gotten hired on as a counselor and been here the entire time.”
“Didn’t you say they’re in debt? They wouldn’t hire anyone. And then if you take one of the two of us out of the equation, things wouldn’t happen baseline. And then those shards might never show up,” Rainbow argued. “We’re doing fine.”
Sunset shook her head and said, “You know, I’m slightly more used to dealing with Teenager-Unawake-you. When you start talking like that, it’s kinda strange.”
Rainbow shrugged and said, “I blame Twilight. And, well, being lots older than fifteen. Check back after the games?”
Sunset nodded and agreed, “After the games.”
“Is that them?” Rainbow whispered in awe while the two Loopers stared at glowing rocks on the previously empty rock pedestal.
“Yeah, I think so. I guess Gloriosa hasn’t found them yet,” Sunset replied as they crept a little closer.
“Grab them and see what happens?” Rainbow asked as she was reaching for them.
Sunset put a restraining hand over hers and said, “Just grab yours. I’ll put the rest of them in a bag and give them to the girls tomorrow.”
Rainbow stopped reaching for the shard, tilted her head and said, “Ok, two questions. Why just the one? We could see if we can get any of the others to work. And why tomorrow? They’re all at Pinkie’s for the post-Friendship Games party/sleepover. Assuming this thing works, I can get there before you make it back to the truck.”
Sunset shook her head and said, “We don’t know what it’ll do if we have all of them together. It didn’t do Gloriosa any favors.”
“Yeah. The human who’s never been exposed to magic gets corrupted by it. Imagine that,” Rainbow rolled her eyes. “We’ve got tons more experience with magic than that! It’s not going to do anything to us. Watch,” she said as she quickly swiped up all the shards into her hand.
Then everything went white.
Rainbow woke up and everything ached. She slowly blinked her eyes open and groaned with discomfort. When her eyes focused, she noticed that she was still human and laying in the bottom of a crater. The faces of her human friends along with Sunset, two Twilights, and herself were looking worriedly down at her.
She put two and two and rookie-move together and came to a conclusion. She looked up at Looping Twilight and asked, “I went Danger Dash, didn’t I?” Her body hurt too much to move more than her head at the moment.
Twilight nodded and replied, “Yeah. Sunset wrote to me and told me what happened. I brought the other you with me in case the Elements wouldn’t work without her. And on a side-note, your experiment didn’t work because those rocks were still magically-unstable. You see-“
Rainbow raised her arm and waved at Looper Twilight and interrupted, “Yeah, yeah. Lecture me later, Twi. Sunset tried to stop me, but I didn’t listen.” Applejack snorted in response, but Rainbow didn’t do more than glance over at her.
Rainbow dragged herself up and was helped out of the crater by several hands. She brushed off some of the excess dirt off her clothes before turning to face her doppelganger. She held out a fist towards her other-self and waited for the fist-bump. Rainbow knew that unawake-pony-her would recognize a hoof-bump more than a handshake. Other-her figured it out quickly and returned the fist-bump.
Rainbow told her doppelganger, “Thanks for the helping hoof, Dash. Sorry Twi had to drag ya through the mirror. I’m sure not having your wings sucks.”
Other-Dash smirked and replied, “Hey no problem, glad I could help. And I’m ok as long as we head back soon.” She moved her shoulders in a way that would usually flex her missing wings and glanced over at Looping Twilight for an answer.
Twilight opened her mouth but Pinkie interrupted, “Aww! I wanted to throw a Dashie’s-Not-Evil-Anymore-Party and invite our two pony friends!”
Other-Dash asked, “We could stay around for that couldn’t we, Twi? I mean, I know our Pinkie would be dying to know what kind of party the other-her can throw.”
Twilight smiled and replied, “I guess we can stay for a little while.” They all started moving off while Pinkie cheered, leaving Sunset and Looping-Rainbow standing by the crater.
Rainbow cleared her throat and asked, “So… Rainbow-laser-to-the-face?”
Sunset nodded and answered, “Rainbow-laser-to-the-face.”
191.8 (Vinylshadow)
Apple Bloom trotted into the kitchen of the Apple family home and looked around for the cookie jar.
Spotting it on the counter, she made her way over to it, casually building a flight of stairs so she could reach it without breaking stride. Reaching the sacred jar, she opened it to see a giant demonic head manifest in the center of the kitchen.
"WHO DARES DISTURB MY SLUMBER?"
"Heya Grogar. I'm here for cookies," Apple Bloom replied.
"RAISIN OR CHOCOLATE?"
Apple Bloom made a face. "Who mixes those two in one jar?"
Taking a glance at the deadpan expression on the demon's face, she rolled her eyes.
"Right, ask stupid questions...anyway, chocolate please."
"THAT'LL BE ONE SOUL."
Apple Bloom sighed and rummaged about in her Pocket for a moment before pulling out a jar. Opening it, she pulled out a wisp of white stuff that was promptly inhaled by the demon's mouth, which then spat out a cookie the size of Apple Bloom's head.
"A PLEASURE DOING BUSINESS WITH YOU."
Apple Bloom put the cover back on the jar and went to look for Applejack to report their cookie jar had been possessed.
Again.
191.9 (Awesomedude17 and Vinylshadow)
"So Twilight," Rainbow Dash started with a coy smile. "Time for you to eat your own words."
"Ha ha. Very funny." Twilight began to munch on her own words, literally.
"Hmm... tastes like boysenberry."
"Really? Mine tastes like Skittles."
"If we weren't ancient, this would be weird."
"No duh, Twilight."
Meanwhile, Pinkie stared at her plate, then craned her head back to gaze up at the mountain of words stretching into the sky.
"I wonder if this is a subtle jab at the fact I talk too much...naah, that couldn't be it."
Celestia poked her plate moodily, moving the few words around.
"I feel you, Pinkie. I wonder if mine is trying to tell me to go on a diet. Never, you hear me?!" she bellowed, shaking a hoof at the sky.
Luna rolled her eyes and happily munched on her giant words.
"And that is why you always use the Royal Canterlot Voice when eating your own words," she said smugly.
On the other end of the table, Discord wrestled with his poor choice of words.
"This is not safe for Woona! We can't show you here!"
"But I am an adult."
"Still not clean language."
191.10 (Vinylshadow)
Twilight stared at her library, then at the visiting Loopers and sighed.
"Look, while I'm grateful for your help in saving Equestria from the Metarex and all..." she said as she stepped forward and touched her odd metal tree. "Did you really need to replace my destroyed library with the corpse of their leader?"
"I thought it'd be amusing," Sonic the Hedgehog replied sheepishly. "Your library was an oak tree, and their leader was Dark Oak..."
Twilight grimaced. "Wouldn't be the first time I've had someone replace my tree like that. Professor Oak did it once and when I first entered, he asked if I was a boy or a girl, made me rename myself and his grandson, then prohibited me from running inside my own house for the rest of the Loop."
Sonic glanced down at his feet with a frown and shrugged. "Well, what's done is done. I could go find someone to get you an actual oak tree if you want?"
"Nah, I got this," Twilight said, lighting up her horn. Plucking Dark Oak from the ground, she threw him into the sun before pulling another tree from her Pocket and plonked it into the ground.
"Awesome. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got chili dogs to reintroduce to Equestria," the Blue Blur said before taking off.
Twilight pulled out a checklist and perused it for a moment. "I wonder if Rouge is Awake. Probably stealing the Elements of Harmony or something. Or the dragonlord's sceptre..."
She squinted up at the sky.
"Angel Island could be anywhere in Equestria. I hope Rainbow Dash and Spitfire have made arrangements with Knuckles to prevent it from drifting into Cloudsdale..."
Rolling the list up, she rubbed her tired eyes with a sigh.
"These kinds of Loops are exhausting, but at least everyone is usually kind enough to pitch in and help..."
Twilight trotted into the library and turned on the lights. She was only slightly startled to see Shadow the Hedgehog standing in the corner, apparently reading via Chaos Emerald light.
"Your window was open, so I let myself in," he said.
"You realize there's a door, right?" Twilight grumbled, horn coming to life as she tidied things up.
"Where's the fun in that?" Shadow asked, closing the book with a snap before carefully putting it back.
"It's called manners."
"My apologies. I'll get out of your mane then, since you seem to be busy," Shadow replied with a tip of an imaginary hat.
He vanished in a flash of Chaos Control and Twilight opened her fridge, looking for a good drink. She felt a headache coming on and she wouldn't be surprised if it was the first of many this Loop.
191.11 (LadyStina2)
Celestia and Luna hid behind the Ice Cream Hills and divided the sacred Elements of Harmony between themselves. The Chaos demon was just beyond the Ice Cream Hills and on the other side of the Lollypop Trees.
“Be brave, my sister,” Celestia encouraged her sibling as she adjusted one of the Element necklaces around her left wing. Surely these were intended to be wielded by six ponies instead of merely two. This was just awkward. “Fate has made us alicorns and Harmony has provided a weapon to defeat the vile chaos demon.”
“Struth. May Harmony smile upon us, dear sister,” Luna answered as she finished adjusting her own Elements.
They crept around the sticky hills and eased through the lollipops until Discord was finally in their sights. They knew they may only get one shot at the trickster so they wished to catch him off guard.
Discord was waving his lion paw like a conductor’s baton and having the aquatic fish flying in front of him respond in different patterns. Quite unexpectedly, he stopped and looked around. Did he sense their presence?? Celestia and Luna both held their breaths to see what he was going to do next.
“Discordan Era, I see,” the demon was talking to himself. “I always did like the sound of that. I could do without being a pigeon perch for the next thousand years though. Let’s re-write history, shall I?”
He then looked directly at Celestia and Luna’s hiding place and said cheerfully, “Celly! Lulu! So nice to see you! I halfway expected Sparkle to show up. No matter. I surrender.” He snapped his claws and the area as far as they could see normalized with the exception of a huge white flag appearing behind Discord. Grass was green once again, and the candy that dotted the countryside reverted back to trees and bushes.
The sisters stood up, Luna took a step forward and demanded, “What trickery is this, foul creature?”
Discord smiled and replied, “No trickery, Lulu. I just got bored with the whole total chaos thing. I believe you’ll find this to be in... bleh!... order.” He pulled a stack of papers from behind him then blew on them, causing them to vanish. The stack appeared in front of Celestia.
“What is this?” Celestia asked as she lifted the stack in her magic.
“Merely the terms of my surrender,” Discord said with a sly smile. “I think you’ll find everything accounted for. Ivory did put it together for me.”
“Who is this Ivory thou speakest of?” Luna asked in confusion.
Celestia interrupted, “Nevermind that now, sister. Discord. This states that thou desires co-rulership as a condition of thy surrender. Surely thou canst not believe we’ll grant thee sovereignty?”
Discord shrugged and replied, “You know what they say. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. How much closer could I get?!” He thought about that a moment before he added, “Well, we could get married, but I’m afraid neither of you are my type. I’ve got my eye on a mare that won’t be born for another thousand years, give or take a few decades. She’s much more fun than you two have ever been.”
“Do not trust him, sister. This is yet another trick of his,” Luna warned.
“Then how about I put you in charge of my probation, Moon Princess. It just might help keep the Nightmare away,” Discord suggested, putting an emphasis on words that didn’t warrant it.
“Everything seems in order, Luna,” Celestia said slowly. “The document is even magically binding. Once he signs, he’ll be held to the terms. I think we should give him a chance.”
“As a co-regent?!” Luna exclaimed hotly. “Hast thou forgotten what this demon has done merely a day ago? Thou hast always been too forgiving.”
“Perhaps,” Celestia agreed. “So thou shalt be his keeper until thou deem it no longer a necessity.”
Discord vanished and reappeared next to the sisters and hugged them both. “Oh, we’re going to have so much fun!”
… and the ruling sisters cautiously accepted Discord’s surrender. At first the discussions between the Princess of the Night and the Prince of Chaos were so disruptive that many ponies opted to sleep during the day when it was quieter and conduct business at night.
The nightly bickering suddenly ceased when the Princess of the Night became envious of her sister's lighter workload. Prince Discord convinced her to set aside her cares for one night and trick ponies instead as a way to relieve the stresses of ruling. This became an annual event, now known as Nightmare Night.
After that event, the Princesses decided to allow the Prince of Chaos to use his magic as long as it harmed nopony. We see evidence of this decision to this day.
Harmony and Chaos has been in balance ever since.
Twilight blinked as she Awoke and reread that passage.
“Huh,” she said out loud and looked around. Surprisingly, it was night, but she was in the park reading her book like normal for the start of a Loop. The trees were intermingled with large lollipops and gumdrops. Nopony seemed to be giving the oddities a second glance.
“Well, there you are. About time you Woke Up. Do you have any idea how long a thousand years are?” Discord’s voice came from behind her.
Twilight smirked and turned to face him. “Better than being a statue all that time isn’t it? Woke up early, huh?”
Discord replied, “Oh yes. Kept Lulu from throwing that little temper tantrum too. So no need for you to be rushing off to defeat her or anything. Not to mention I got a chance to stretch out a bit. And sorry for the eyes, by the way. You know how chaos magic can leak if you rein it in too long.”
Twilight rolled her eyes and asked, “Ok, why are you sorry about my eyes? They seem fine.”
“Just a minor evolutionary upgrade, my little night pony,” he replied while snapping his fingers and producing a mirror.
“Night pony?” Twilight asked before looking into the mirror and seeing that her pupils were slit, much like Spike’s normally were. “Ok. What?” she asked again.
He answered, “I suppose that your ancestors were among the many ponies that Lulu and I kept awake with our discussions when I first surrendered. My magic leaked out and decided since those ponies awake had nocturnal tendencies, that they should become nocturnal and adjusted your eyes accordingly.”
Twilight looked up at the night sky, then down at the book she had been reading without any additional form of illumination. She smiled and said, “Oh, I think I’m going to like this."
191.12 (Aranfan)
Twilight Sparkle Awoke to find herself, unusually, behind a desk. A look around revealed her to be in an office with a skyline view from Canterlot, and her office to be much higher tech than her usual baseline. Most notable however, was her right front leg, which was metal and machinery rather than flesh. She examined it for a moment, before sending out a Ping, and getting no response.
Then the loop memories kicked in and she focused on them. She was Twilight Sparkle, age 30, and she was the owner of Sparkle Industries, one of the largest augmentation companies on the planet and the dominant one in Equestria. Augmentations, not prosthetics, she noted, tech here was way higher than her baseline. As far as she could tell the only real downside, other than some ponies who looked down on having augs, was a dependance on a chemical to prevent rejection. Apparently her scientists had cracked that however and were set to present their findings to Celestia and Luna. Also something about a civil war in Griffonstone?
“You wanted to see me boss?” A masculine voice broke her out of her reverie.
Twilight didn't start, but it was a close thing. The pegasus pony was completely silent, which made sense, since her memories said his name was Merciful Ghost and he was her head of security.
“Yes, is everything ready for the hearing tomorrow?” She found herself asking, almost on autopilot. Wait, this reminded her of something.
Ghost nodded, “Yes. The CPD will escort us to the Palace, then the Royal Guard will take over.”
Oh! That's it, “Ghost, does the name Adam Jensen mean anything to you?”
His eyes widened, “Sarif?”
Twilight shook her head, “Twilight Sparkle, has time been looping for you?”
He snorted, “I've been stuck in a groundhog day for a long time if that's what you mean. First time I'm a pony though. You know anything about this?”
“Yes,” she nodded, pulling a pamphlet out of her pocket, “I'm what is called the Anchor of the Equestria loops, this will give a quick rundown of your situation.”
Ghost, Jensen rather, took the pamphlet and put it away without reading it. She raised an eyebrow at him.
“Don't have time to read anything boss. Pretty soon the klaxon is going to...”
The Klaxon went off. The screen behind her said there was an environmental malfunction.
“That would be the Illuminati attacking our scientists to suppress their findings. It will end with the scientists kidnapped and you needing to augment me to the gills to keep me alive.”
Twilight's eyes narrowed, “Equestria is a Sanctuary Loop, you don't have to undergo any trauma here.”
He snorted, “Good luck with that, you ever seen that old movie Final Destination? Me getting augs is like that, fated. I'm off to try to save our scientists, give me the run down in a month when I wake up.”
That said, he walked over to her private elevator, punched in the code, and Twilight huffed as he went down to meet his fate.
How to deal with how her friends had splintered over the aug question.
"Rarity! Can you turn off this racket?"
"Of course darling!"
ONE MONTH LATER
Twilight Sparkle was almost ready to scream in frustration. The ponies who had attacked her company and her people were impossible to find. Even knowing about how Jensen's baseline went didn't help, because none of the counterparts were actually part of the conspiracy. She had confirmed that Applejack wasn't in the Illuminati despite being counterpart to Taggart, and the market for augs didn't have a clear Tai Yong Medical equivalent. If she didn't want to bring in out of loop abilities, she was stuck, and she didn't.
Which left her here, standing over the bed of Merciful Ghost, who indeed, had needed significant augmentation to survive. She had given him the best military grade augs her company could make, partially in apology.
“Hey.”
This time she did start.
“Heh. You said you knew about this Groundhog Day crud?”
“Yes. The short of it is that Time is broken, and the computer that oversees it, Yggdrasil, has certain universes and certain people in those universes looping. Repeating the same segments of time over and over again as a sort of safe mode. Is anyone aside from yourself looping where you're from? Sarif maybe?”
“Just me and Sarif, we think. Sarif only started recently, and he doesn't always.”
“Every universe has an Anchor, the person who is always looping. I'm one, and probably you are too. Welcome to the multiverse Jensen.”
The human turned pony closed his eyes, sighing, “What's with this whole, pony thing, then? This is the first time things have been really different. Usually it's just what tack someone takes in an argument, or someone having a different apartment than normal.”
“This is what's called a fused loop. They're relatively rare, but they do happen. It's when two universes cross over. There's also things called Variant Loops, where things are different than what we call “baseline”, either because Yggdrasil hasn't worked out what baseline should be or just because.” Twilight shrugged, “As a looper you will soon find novelty to be the spice of life.”
“Yeah. I think I know what you mean.”
There was an uncomfortable silence, before Jensen spoke up again. “Are the other people real?”
Twilight's eyebrow shot up, “How do you mean?” Her voice had lost all cheer.
“I mean, I had decided to act as if the world kept going on even after I get sent back. That if I kill someone they're really dead, even if they'll be up again when the groundhog day comes again. Less chance of a swelled head that way. But if what you're saying about Yggdrasil is real...”
Twilight's expression softened, “That's a good heuristic, but you'll find strict utilitarianism doesn't hold much water among veteran loopers. Treating non-loopers as disposable just because they come back is known as Sakura Syndrome. They are real, and what you do or don't do to them matters.”
“Good. Well, once I've gotten used to my augs again, I'll find out what happened to the scientists, they're probably not dead.”
Twilight nodded, “I look forward to working with you Merciful Ghost, and I hope you can live up to the name.”
Adam Jensen, the new man or the new pony as it were, smirked, “Oh, I can.”
191.13 (Evilhumour)
"Well Twilight," the unAwake Celestia hummed after Twilight asked her why she was the sole princess with no Guards of her own. "The answer is a bit... embarrassing."
"Oh?" Twilight tilted her head, truly curious now.
"To be blunt, I cannot get any Guards to transfer over here without resorting to their incredibly high wage demands which would cripple the economy," Celestia answered, a faint blush across her nose.
"Why would they want such a high wage for working for me?" Twilight inquired. "I haven't done anything wrong, have I?"
"It's not you, Twilight, but they claimed they need it due to the environmental hazards they will encounter on a daily basis, and I am forced to agree with them after reading several reports."
Twilight scoffed at this, a slight nicker in her throat. "Princess Celestia, the Everfree Forest isn't that dangerous."
"They were referring to Ponyville," Celestia sharp clarification caused Twilight to pull back and blink as she processed the thought.
"Okay, fair enough," Twilight said, bobbing her head as she ducked a flaming piece of cake that was launched out of Pinkie's party cannon that Vinyl had modified which would eventually hit the barracks in Canterlot, causing the number of days that something from Ponyville broke something in Canterlot to go back down to zero.
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191.12: I actually just finished playing that game, so this didn't go completely over my head for once.
191.4
That sentence is a classic logical paradox. Probably the worst choice for testing a lie detector.
191.6
Probably the first actually good, Pinkie-ish Pinkie loop in a long, long while.
191.12
Adam Jensen is an invalid choice for an anchor. He is only peripherally involved with some defining events of that universe and is dead before the rest.
The two best picks for anchor are Paul Denton, who would be a child in Jensen's time, or Tracer Tong. Presumably Paul is the anchor and Jensen hasn't had the fortune to loop simultaneously with TT yet. After all, even if Paul wakes up in his youth, he has no reason to have ever heard of Jensen. He really is that unimportant.
This does leave the question of why Twilight doesn't realize that she's spruced identifying an anchor when she's familiar with DX.
8130915 I mostly have just embraced the insanity of not knowing where something comes from.
8130915
Speaking of which...
it-he.org/dxhr/MyLittleJensen.jpg
(via http://it-he.org/dxhr.php and https://www.furaffinity.net/view/6705830/)
Yeah, Viticulture! Great game, that! I hope she got him the Essential Edition. With Tuscany!
8131280 ARGHGAADSVAKJHGWMGOIUGMASDFMOVIERULZPAINPAINPAINOUCH
You've earned it.
Maybe, maybe not.
Yes.
Oh dear.
She has a point.
Danger Dash?
Say what now?
A demon, like Grogar.
I love how calmly she's taking this.
You're getting a kick out of this, aren't you Dash?
Whatever helps you sleep at night.
Of course.
Makes sense.
She's right.
Fair enough.
8137439
Pretty much all Alicorns have evil alternate personas - Luna's was Nightmare Moon, Rainbow Dash's is "Danger Dash". (And was first seen back in chapter 3.)
Until next time...
Anon e Mouse Jr.
Welcome to the Loops, Adam.
Also, always glad to see more of Harry Dresden.
Is 191.9 from the Dictionopolis banquet in The Phantom Tollbooth?
8145561
That's what I was thinking
i'm disappointed that Harry Dresden one is unfinished...
however, i recently stumbled across a good stand-alone story with him called "my little Denarians".
(whoops, this should have been posted on the last chapter)
Here's hoping to see more bout the Deus Ex crossover... and 191.3 just confuses me. Who is it?
8773294
I'm pretty sure it's Harry Dresden, because it mentions Chicago and wizards.
This line should be 'Order and Chaos have been in Harmony ever since'
8130915
8131440
Personally, Iv'e found such websites as Wikipedia, Google, and Wikia to be very useful indeed. There are many, many, many differnet Wikias.
9378528
Yeah, but it's not the same as experiencing the game for yourself. It's a better satisfaction when you not only get what they're referring to, but you understand all the hows and whys of it all, not just the mentioned things.
i missed this reference before. it's a series of books by Mercedes Lackey, where "The Tradition" keeps making fairy tales come true. Elena would have acted out "Cinderella", but the local prince was too young...
oh, here's a fan-comic that's surprisingly similar:
https://askthesunjackers.tumblr.com/