• Published 19th Apr 2013
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MLP Time Loops - Saphroneth



Twilight Sparkle has been here before. In fact, she's been here so often she's thoroughly bored. Time Loop stories for Equestria.

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MLP Loops 194

194.1 (Evilhumour)


"Rush, we need to talk," Big Maroon said as the rest of the primarch loopers came into the tree library, with a couple squirt bottle armed servitors pointing their cold ammunition at them in case another brotherly incident occurred.

Rush looked at the primarchs of the IV, VII, VIII, IX, XII, XV, and XVIII Legion. "What is it, brothers?"

"The Elements; you have one, " Big Maroon said with a snort, rolling his eye. "Magic, of all things."

"Your point?" Leman asked. "My element is more than just magic and friendship, you know. As the Princess said in baseline, it also represents leadership. And when she said that, she identified the others as optimism, integrity, compassion, charity and devotion."

The others exchanged glances as he began to eat the meal his wife had prepared in previous Loops for him; he was still on probation after she saw what he had been surviving on. So what if it didn't appear to be edible, he could eat it after he gutted it and cooked it for a few days! That little truth was still too much for Nyx and she decided that he was to be banished to the couch for being a stupid colt...

"We have been talking," Big Maroon said before Regal Stone coughed loudly. "I have been talking to our other brothers about it and we realized that while we are usually like our baseline selves in Equestria, we lack the more essential....equipment here."

"So you want to do an Element Run?" Rush scratched his chin in thought. "Well, we will need to talk to Twilight and the girls about it once they get home, and we need to figure out how we are going to do it as there are eight of us, but I see no reason why we cannot do it."

There was a sudden explosion of light outside with Corn Curse and Blood Flower yelling at them to get down. As all of the stallions threw themselves to the floor, a fairly large black shape crashed through the window and into the arms of a yellow coated stallion.

With a giggle, the mare leaned up and kissed the stallion. "My hero," she cooed before hearing a rather loud cough and opened her eyes.

"Hello sister," Regal Stone said with a ghost of a smile on his face. "I do believe you were aiming for the other yellow coated giant stallion in the room."

Nyx groaned as she facehoofed, pointedly ignoring the laughter from her brother in-laws and husband. "First mom shows off her new super soaker and now this again!" She pouted, leaning over Regal Stone's back. "Take me to the kitchen, for I demand cookies!" She pointed her hoof towards the kitchen, and Regal gave a light bow of his head before he started carrying her toward the door, taking a slight detour so the mare could steal a kiss from the other yellow stallion before fixing him with a look. "And what's this I hear about you guys going for an element run?"

"Well, we'd just started discussing that..." Leman replied nervously.

The six primarchs not speaking to or still holding Nyx exchanged glances and decided to retreat to a more secure location to plot. And to raid the pantry en route.


194.2 (Vinylshadow)


Deep within Twilight's castle, a royal guard yawned.

Beside him, an older guard frowned and shook his head.

"No discipline in the ranks nowadays," he grumbled, repeating a phrase the younger guard had heard many times before from other guards throughout his training.

"Well, in case you haven't noticed, we got no fewer than six new princesses in less than a day, so of course there's lax discipline because there's no time to train all the new guards like you old nags are used to," the young pony said.

"Harrumph."

They both jumped in surprise as the door they were standing beside slammed open and an alicorn with a pearly coat and curled violet mane stormed out, a towel wrapped around her barrel.

"WHEN I GET MY HOOVES ON THE ONE WHO PUT BUGS IN MY SHAMPOO, THERE WILL BE MODERATE AMOUNTS OF VIOLENCE!"

The guards stared after the pony in bafflement before shaking themselves and went back to their posts.

"I hate this job," grumbled the older guard.

"As you have told me no fewer than eleven times in the past hour," his companion replied.

Somewhere in the castle, something exploded and they looked at the ceiling warily.

"Whose bright idea was it to build a castle out of crystal?" the veteran sighed.

"They don't pay me to read, sir."

"Hmph...well, there's no point in standing around here. There's nobody in this wing anymore."

"How do you know?" the greenhorn asked.

"Have you not noticed the maps?" the old guard asked, pointing at an animated map on the wall, showing the locations of several ponies, as well as yellow dots denoting guards. "Besides, our shift is about to shift. We're needed in the upper northwest wing now."

"...Who designed this castle?!"

"They don't pay me to read."


194.3 (Vinylshadow)


Celestia poked her head around the corner of one of her castle's many walls, ears pricked, eyes darting to and fro, looking for something.

She sniffed the air for a moment before slinking down a side corridor. Nose to the floor, she made several twists and turns and finally bumped into a door.

Opening it, she slipped inside without a sound before looking around.

This was one of the castle's old kitchens she had condemned after her sister had left.

Maybe there was still something in the cupboards.

She went through them and halfway through a set of wall cupboards, she let out a squee.

Reaching in, she pulled out an old cake mix. She nuzzled it and smiled. Finally, she'd be able to make herself some real food in this horrible Null Loop.

The entire room was flooded with light.

"DROP THE CAKE MIX AND PUT YOUR HOOVES WHERE WE CAN SEE THEM! DON'T BOTHER TRYING TO TELEPORT, WE'VE SET UP ANTI-MAGIC SPELL MATRIXES!"

Guards poured out of the cabinets, boxing the princess in, who hissed and backed away. Glancing behind her, she smirked before turning back to the guards.

"You'll never take me alive!" she declared before throwing herself out of the window.

Or, more accurately, bounced off it.

"Nice try princess, but that won't work twice," a guard said, advancing towards her. "Come along now, your meal of a celery stalk is waiting. Come quietly and you'll even get a carrot! Isn't that nice?"

Celestia pouted and handed over the cake mix. "Fine, you win this round, but I will have my revenge! And cake. Lots and lots of cake..."

"I'm sure you will," the guard said soothingly. "Just like the last twenty times you've tried to skip on your diet," he added under his breath.

As Celestia was led away, Luna watched her go, munching on a head of lettuce.

"I wonder if I should tell Celestia about my hidden stash of sweets, all disguised as healthy foods," she murmured before turning and trotting back to her quarters.

Entering her room, she closed and locked the door before wiggling under her bed and lifting a tile to reveal...

...An empty candy stash with a picture of the sun sitting at the bottom of it.

"...Well-played, sister...well-played."


194.4 (Katfairy)


“Hey, Twilight, I’ve been wondering something,” Presto said as they set up camp for the night a few months later. “In most Loops, the worlds that the Realm can access have multiple portals to them and they’re pretty random about sucking people in. I know we haven’t seen any yet, but do you think there might be more Equestrians around?”

“Well, nobody’s Pinged us or used any of the other communications methods, so if there are, they probably aren’t Looping. But there could be non-Loopers here; I did study magic, but this time around I didn’t start studying the history of Equestria before all this because I wanted to wait until I could get at the primary sources. UnAwake me was very focused on getting the magic right before worrying about the rest of her studies, since they weren’t part of the entrance exam and she’d already learned the basics at home. Although now that I think about it, I was a bit sheltered, so who knows what I wasn’t told. For all I know, there could be a revolving door between the two worlds.”

“Uh, isn’t one of your bad guys called Nightmare Moon?” Eric asked, frowning. “Because Venger rides a Nightmare, and he’s bad enough on his own without adding a superpowerful magic flying unicorn as a sidekick.”

“Alicorns, Eric. They’re called alicorns,” Presto sighed. “But that’s a good question, even if it does come from Eric.”

“Hey!”

“I don’t think Nightmare Moon would let Venger ride her,” Twilight said quickly, hoping to stave off another bickering session between the two; they were as bad as Rarity and Applejack sometimes. “And if I remember right, his Nightmare is a lot bigger; aside from the ego issues, I don’t think either of them would find the size difference comfortable. Also, Tiamat would have mentioned it if Nightmare Moon was here; she’s still a bit annoyed that she’s never had a chance to fight her properly.”

“I thought she’d been to Equestria a few times; how’d she miss that? I mean, stars moving around and the moon suddenly changing; kinda hard to—she slept through it, didn’t she.” Eric rolled his eyes, then sidestepped the tiny bolt of lightning that fizzled by him. Twilight was amused by the fact that he hadn’t even looked; Eric was picking up a few tricks.

“The first time, she didn’t know about it yet, since we were her first outside Loop. It’s kind of our fault she learned to eat rocks, although Hank tells me it’s come in handy a few times.”

“Last Loop?” Presto looked at Eric and the two cracked up. “The look on Venger’s face…”

A golem made of diamonds is a ridiculous idea and I decided to remove it in the most efficient manner. They were inferior stones anyway, although the slight fennel flavor imparted by the impurities was not unpleasant.

“Anyway,” Twilight said, deciding she knew more than she wanted, “Her second time, yes, she did sleep through it, but only because unAwake her had been asleep when the Loop started. …That sentence just does not sound right, but you know what I mean. Her third, fourth, and fifth times, she hadn’t started from an area close enough to reach us in time. It’s too bad, because we’ve got a plan that we really like even if it does come with a slight risk of Eiken. I’m not really sure what will happen if she eats the Elements of Harmony, and new experiments that don’t cross any important lines don’t pop up as often as they used to.”

“I guess that would be a problem,” Presto nodded. “We’ve heard about that girl from that one Loop who went nuts and now everyone treats her like she still is.”

“Sakura,” Twilight said. “It’s not quite that bad; a lot of people still remember her bad days, but some have forgiven her and others know it could have happened to them. Newer Loopers tend to think of her as a cautionary tale, which I guess she is. But yes, that’s exactly my point. Any experienced Looper can tell you they’ve had moments when they’ve come close to doing something regrettable or even something they’d ordinarily consider unforgivable only to bring themselves up short when they remembered what happened to her and how she got started. Or had friends remind them if they didn’t see what they were doing. It’s especially dangerous for someone like me, who can easily get caught up in research and forget everything else. Which is why I try to make a point of discussing my experiments with others if I think there’s even the slightest risk of crossing the line. On the other hand, I’m pretty lucky, and for the same reason you are.”

“Lucky?” Eric sputtered, eyes bugging out. “Is your horn on too tight? How is knowing about a high risk of going oofty-mcgoofty lucky?”

“She means you’ve got friends to look out for you, doofus,” Diana said. “Trust me, if you start going even crazier, we’ll take care of you.”

“Thanks, Diana. Real comforting.”

“Any time.”

“Okay, guys, time to start making supper,” Hank said, just slightly louder than necessary. Fish, mushrooms, pine nuts, and I found some wild lavender and burnet. I’m thinking we use some to make a salad and use the rest to season the fish. Sound good?”

As distractions went, it was a pretty good one. The incipient argument was dropped in favor of a good meal, which wasn’t always possible without using supplies from the Loopers’ Pockets; being able to make one with available resources while camping in a place that wasn’t a swamp, a desert, or actively trying to kill them meant it was definitely a good night. Twilight had been to the Realm before, but it had been a long time ago and she’d forgotten what a dismal place it could be. It reminded her of a larger version of the Everfree Forest at times, at others like the Crystal Empire under Sombra. Very rarely did they find even a mildly attractive area that wasn’t hiding some sort of a trap, but she, Hank, and Tiamat had all checked this clearing and declared it safe. For the first time since she’d Awakened, they had a good chance to relax.


A week later, Twilight was getting worried. And she wasn’t the only one. The landscape was reasonably pleasant, the weather hadn’t done anything worse than the odd passing shower, and the biggest threat they’d run into was crossing a rickety bridge. The first day they accepted as a gift, but a week of it had them all wondering what the Loop was getting ready to drop on them.

“Anything?” she asked Tiamat as the dragon landed with more of a thump than necessary.

Thisss is unnatural. Have we somehow ended up in Equestria?

“It’s not impossible, but if we had, you’d probably have found something familiar during your search. What exactly did you see from up there?”

A forest perhaps an hour’s walk; you will see it once you crest the next hill. It resembles the Cloud Bears’ lands, but the trees are wrong. There is a remnant of old magic near its heart, but it has faded beyond mortal power to detect. At a guess, I would say that near a thousand years have passed since this magic was used. I do not believe that it was a spell meant for longevity; it echoes rather than resonates.

“Well, that’s the biggest excitement we’ve had in over a week, so let’s assume it’s something getting ready to bite us,” Hank said. “That’s probably the best way to get it to turn out to be nothing.”

“I’d say it doesn’t work that way, but I’ve been Looping too long,” Twilight grinned. “Okay, getting ready for trouble.”

“Just don’t make it double.”

“I’m not preparing.”

“Fair enough.”


“Twilight…”

“I see it too.”

That was not visible from the air, and I confess I am not certain how that was achieved.

It was a castle. Large, stone, all the usual pointy bits Twilight was used to seeing in Equestria. In fact, the castle itself was Equestrian.

“If I found out I got stuck with Machiavellian Celestia who dumped me here on the off-chance I’d find this place, I am going to take the Elements and… well, I’ll think of something.”

“This is the place you found them in the first place, isn’t it.” Hank was pinching the bridge of his nose, shaking his head. “Man, I knew it was too good to be true. So we get the Elements and get you back home as quick as possible then. It should still be too early for Nightmare Moon as long as we don’t take years to do it.”

“Let’s still be careful, though,” Twilight said. “In some Loops, even when Nyx isn’t around, Nightmare Moon is a separate entity, one that took control of Luna when she dropped her guard, and fragments of it remained in the castle even after she was banished to the moon.”

Hank stiffened. Twilight winced, knowing why; he’d come a long way since the Mythos has pretty much broken him, but she suspected he’d always react badly to similar incidents. She saw him start to reach into his Pocket before forcing himself to relax; she’d be willing to bet he’d been reaching for his special bow, which would definitely be an overreaction. Tiamat growled softly, her blue head muttering something Twilight was just as glad she didn’t understand.

“I’m okay,” Hank said after a few seconds. “Just… keep an eye out, will you, and if it looks like that’s what’s happening, let us know. That’ll be our cue to get the hell out and then nuke it from orbit. I don’t want any of us getting possessed by anything, and we don’t need Venger trying to use another ancient evil for whatever scheme he’s got going.”

“That would be an unfortunate turn of events, but thankfully, un—“ Dungeon Master cut himself off, nearly going cross-eyed staring at the glowing arrow barely an inch from the tip of his nose. Hank backed off the moment he realized what he was doing, letting out an explosive breath.

“Dammit, Dungeon Master, one of these days you’re going to sneak up at the wrong time and I’ll be apologizing for the next dozen Loops!”

“That would not be necessary; a mere half-dozen would suffice. But there is great power hidden in the Castle of the Sisters, as well as great danger.”

“Here we go, back to normal,” Eric groaned. “Okay, what’s the cryptic advice we won’t figure out until the portal home is destroyed?”

“Why, that the power also lies within your grasp, but as yet beyond your reach. In friendship lies a magic beyond any Venger may acquire.”

Twilight facehoofed, with Hank and Tiamat having similar reactions. She had a sudden depressed feeling that she knew where this was going.


194.5 (Anon e Mouse Jr.)


Dear Princess Celestia,

I would appreciate it if you came by for dinner this evening. Spike's going over to my parents' house for the night, but he's fixed his special casserole for the two of us, and we know how much you love that. Plus, this will give you and I the chance to talk about the upcoming Summer Sun Celebration and a few other things.

Your faithful (if somewhat Loopy) student,
Twilight Sparkle

Dear Twilight,

I would love to have dinner with you, and catch up on recent events. Especially because of the... unusual expressions I've been seeing on the Mare in the Moon for the last several days, which would seem to hint that Luna Awoke early and is planning something very silly for her comeback.

Yours truly,
Princess Celestia


That evening, two mares enjoyed themselves with idle chit-chat at the dinner table for a while. But finally, Twilight set down her fork and eyed her mentor. "Celestia?"

"Yes, Twilight?"

"This is going to sound odd, but... was your unAwake self into wife husbandry this Loop?"

Celestia froze. "Was I... no, Twilight! Of course not! Why would you even ask such a thing?"

"Because according to my foalhood memories from this Loop, you proposed to me around the time I became your student."

"I what?" Celestia shook her head, wondering if she'd misheard her student. "Tell me, what exactly did I say back then?"

"You announced that you were going to marry me when I was ready." Twilight gave her a look. "And you said it to a six-year-old filly."

"I... oh. Oh!" Celestia sighed. "Now I know what you mean. And that wasn't a proposal, Twilight. I was promising to officiate at your wedding when you were ready."

"Officiate... oh! Well..." Twilight facehooved. "Now I feel embarrassed."

"Don't be." Celestia smiled at her. "It was an honest mistake, though I suppose now I won't get the chance to do so."

"You might well get the chance when the Loops end, if I ever find someone." Twilight smiled back. "But that is a relief to know what you meant... I've Awoken in a few Loops where we were married, and it was kind of odd to be in a romantic relationship with somepony I normally view as a second mother to me."

"I can understand that," Celestia told her, smiling lightly.

Sipping her drink, Twilight contemplated and changed the subject. "So, what do you think Luna's planning for this Loop?"

"Well, it could be something incredibly complicated... or it could be as simple as that Loop where she got out a little early and I woke up in time to find her standing over my bed, still in her Nightmare form."

"And then what happened?" Twilight asked, intrigued.

"Four words, Twilight: Royal Canterlot Belly Zerbert."

Twilight promptly fell off her chair laughing, and Celestia chuckled along with her. "In hindsight, it is rather amusing. But at the time, I was more upset about being woken out of a sound sleep instead of getting up on my own. The castle staff spent the entire rest of the Loop talking about our chase through the halls that morning: myself yelling threats the likes of which they'd never heard, and my sister giggling like a loon the entire time as she ran from me. And I swear I heard Yakety Sax playing at the same time."

"That certainly sounds like Luna," Twilight managed between giggles of her own.

"Laughter is usually one of the three Elements she wielded against Discord for a reason," Celestia told her, a look of amusement on her face. "Should she ever be permanently bonded to an Element again, I suspect it may be the one to return to her for good."

"We'll see, Celestia. We'll see."


194.6 (Detective Ethan Redfield)


Twilight ran back and forth in Golden Oaks Library basement, attaching dozens of wires to the same helmet she once used on Pinkie. In addition, there were spell matrices drawn across every surface, glowing dully. All of them were pointed at a single blue coated colt with a black mane and a magnifying glass on his rear. Twilight placed the helmet on the colt’s head before returning to the machine. The colt looked around in concern before asking, "Is this really necessary, Twilight?"

Twilight pointed at a cuffed Lyra and Sweetie Drops being grown in a cloning tube. Lyra seemed distraught and mournful. "Every time you visit, Ponyville's murder rate increases tenfold...from nothing. I'm just heading it off this loop. Besides, how many murder cases do you go through in the course of your loop?"

He tilted his head before giving an annoyed, "At least 400 to upward of 700 easy."

"And how long does your loop happen?"

"A year to a couple years, it can vary."

"That's more than most hub universe detectives get in a lifetime! You have to be cursed or something."

The colt gave a half-lidded stare, "Oy, Oy."

He looked around before asking, "Say, is this safe?"

"Yeah, I used it on Arthur Dent to clear up his curse."

The pony didn't seem very reassured when the machine printed something off. Twilight tore the paper, read the results, and threw it away. "Ok, so baseline machine shows nothing. No surprise."

She bucked the machine across the room and an opening to her subspace pocket formed in space. Twilight stepped inside, then returned a minute later with more wires and an even bigger hat. The colt sweatdropped at the helmet.


A week later later

Applejack opened the door to Golden Oaks Library, only to pause as she noticed dozens of machines had taken up residence where previously it housed bookshelves. Spike sat on the ground with a laptop in front of him, watching the latest Podcasts from other loopers on the states of their universes. Silently, he moved his hand around, causing the machines to float wherever Twilight designated. At the center of it all sat the blue colt, clearly bored as he studied the Sherlock Hooves novel he had already read a dozen times. Applejack stepped up to Spike after closing the door and asked, "So, we havin' another Contraptionology loop or somethin'?"

Spike shook his head. "Twilight's on a research binge. Do you know our guest here?"

Applejack shook her head. Spike held out a claw towards the pony, "Kudo Shinichi, Jimmy Kudo or Conan Edogawa. He's a Japanese detective. Twilight, you do realize sometimes there's no curse? He may just have some really bad luck."

The spell matrices flashed several different colors before reverting to nothing. Twilight paused for a second before muttering, "Three...Two...One..."

Her hoof pointed at the door as it burst open, revealing Rarity, "Twilight-dear! It's horrible, the Mayor, she's dead!"

Twilight muttered, "And that's the fifth one since he's gotten here," as she removed the large helmet from the detective. He rose from the ground and marked his place before giving Rarity a determined gaze, his mind already preparing to crack the new case before him.


194.4 continued


“You know, none of you ever Pinged,” Luna said. “I was beginning to think I had a Stealth Anchor. And before you asked, I’ve been sending out Pings every so often; the last time was… um. Maybe ten years ago. I might have lost track of time a bit, but then, I have been Awake for about a thousand years, hiding this place from Venger and idiot heroes the entire time. Not that there were many of those; I’ve been pretty good about keeping the castle concealed. Having part of the Everfree come with me helped.”

“What? How? Buhhhhhh--!” Twilight wasn’t often taken by surprise anymore, but running into anyone, let alone a non-Nightmare-Moon-Luna, in an ancient Equestrian castle transported to an extra-dimensional world made up of fragments of others, was a bit much. She shook her head, clearing it a bit, before asking a bit more intelligently, “Okay, you’re here. So you woke up before the whole Nightmare Moon thing, then?”

“Not much before. I was getting my armor ready when I Woke up. No possessing entity this time, just an adolescent hissy fit. And just as I was getting myself ready for a good long talk with Celestia, there was a flash of light and suddenly a huge chunk of the Everfree Forest was here, taking me and the castle with it. I took one quick flight around to see where I was, ran into Venger, and managed to get away without being followed. I think the chocolate-wasabi cream pie in the face might have helped.”

“…Hank, didn’t you mention Scooby-Doo was Looping?” Presto was looking a bit nauseated at the combination. Hank just grinned.

“Nah, that’s one of mine. I got really annoyed at a room-mate in one Loop who kept stealing my snacks and leaving them lying around half-eaten. It worked, but then I mentioned that combination to Pinkie Pie and she took it as a challenge.”

“I haven’t even met her yet and I believe it,” Eric said. “So you’ve been hiding out waiting for rescue since then?”

“Ee-nope. For a thousand years? I could have rescued myself in that time. But I knew if I went back, I’d just have to spend a thousand years in lunar time-out anyway because unAwake Tia really didn’t want to share this time. If I was going to be gone for a thousand years, I was going to do it somewhere new and interesting. At first I turned myself human-ish and passed myself off as a friendly sorceress, but you can guess why I stopped.”

“Venger and idiot heroes,” Diana nodded. “Well, we’re not here to be heroes; we just want to find all of us a way home. Including Twilight. And you, if you want to.”

“Wait, Luna, what about the Elements of Harmony?” Twilight asked. “Are they still keyed to you and Celestia?”

“Well, they were, but I think that’s gone dormant because of the thousand-year cross-dimensional separation,” Luna said. “But I do think they’re still keyed to Equestria. You can check for yourself, but I don’t think they’ll work for anyone who wasn’t born in our world. However, I’ve had a few chats with Dungeon Master and some of his friends, and I think there’s something similar for each plane/dimension that’s part of this mini-multiverse. I probably should have come up with some ridiculously cryptic way of telling you that, but after waiting a millennium, I’d just like to get it over with.”

“You are my new best friend,” Eric said. “Hank, can we trade Dungeon Master for her?”

Hank started to reply, blinked, then snickered instead. Tiamat joined him.

I also like the idea of introducing him to Pinkie Pie. Especially since I have a few bottles of Moxie in my Pocket.

NO!!!” Hank, Luna, and Twilight chorused before the not-as-reformed-as-she-ought-to-be ancient evil finished her sentence. Tiamat’s grins merely grew wider in return, and Hank shook his head at her.

“Do we want to know?” Sheila asked.

“Probably not,” Diana replied.

“Long story,” Hank said. “And I’d have to explain Pinkie Pie. Which means I’d have to understand Pinkie Pie. Which I’m not sure is actually possible.”

“It isn’t, really,” Twilight admitted. “After a while, you just accept that and move on. She’s a good friend, but when the living embodiment of chaos admits he can’t figure her out…”

“So we should introduce her to Venger instead?” Eric smirked, then paled as Tiamat’s grins grew even wider and Hank’s saw fit to match. Luna looked as though she was seriously considering the idea. Twilight, on the other hand, only allowed herself the briefest of amusing fantasies before returning to the task at hand.

“Guys, we need to focus. If this goes the way things usually do around here, Venger will be here before much longer, and we don’t have Pinkie to throw at him. Which I’ll admit is too bad, because that would be even better than when you set Rarity on him. But anyway, we’ve got to figure out how to prevent him from getting his hands on the Elements, whether or not they work here. Despite what you said earlier, Tiamat, he’s a very powerful mage, and even if he can’t use them as designed or bend their specific magic to his will, he’s both strong enough and smart enough to reverse-engineer them and maybe create Anti-Elements. It’s happened before in other Loops, and dealing with them was NOT fun.”

No, it would not be. And for this, we cannot rely on our baseline knowledge to defeat him, which adds a layer of difficulty to our task. Also, if the Moon Princess is correct, then we must not only protect these Elements from him, we must also find and secure the Elements for The Realm. I suspect my Dragonkin and his friends are probably the avatars for them anyway.

“Probably,” Luna said. “Although, unless Bobby—you are Bobby, right?—I’m sorry, but unless you’re Looping, the Elements may not consider you old enough to be a true host. It has nothing to do with defects in character; it’s simply that you are too young for your character to have sufficiently formed. The rest of you are also young, but old enough and experienced enough to have formed the basis of your character, for good or ill.”

Bobby looked disappointed for a moment, then indignant as Eric ruffled his hair.

“Hey, don’t worry about it, kid—you can be the superhero team’s annoying kid sidekick who gets to save the day in ridiculous ways just often enough to remind us why we keep you around.”

“Does that mean I have to save you, too?”

“Guys.” Hank tried to look disapproving, but the smirk was breaking through. Twilight ignored them and continued.

“I’m pretty sure Dungeon Master gave us a clue. ‘Within your grasp but as yet beyond your reach’, remember?”

“Yeah, but if we are this world’s Elements, he could be referring to that and not the physical Elements,” Hank said.

“That’s true. Well, we can worry about them after we’ve got the Equestrian ones dealt with, since those are right here.”

“And so is Venger,” Luna said. “He just landed outside of the door. Time for an epic battle, I suppose.”

“Sorry,” Presto sighed. “I don’t know how he always seems to be able to follow us.”

“My guess is it’s either your magic weapons or because this Loop insists that he show up any time you seem to be getting a break,” Twilight said. “I’ll help you work on that later, too. For now, I’m thinking Plan C4.”

Luna looked wary as the others began to grin. Twilight was rather anticipating the expression on her face when the plan was put into action.


194.7 (DrTempo and BIOS-Pherecydes)
[MLP/Rosario + Vampire]


It had been another eventful Loop in Youkai Academy, and the Newspaper Club was preparing the latest edition of the newspaper; Kurumu and Inner Moka were talking to each other, while Mizore and Yukari were also working. As Tsukune looked around, he saw that one of the club members was writing in a book, and Tsukune called to her.

"Sunset!"

Sunset Shimmer looked up, and said, "Hey, Tsukune."

"What are you writing?"

"Just an entry in my journal."

At this, Yukari looked at Sunset, confused. "I thought that journal of yours chronicled your adventures before you finally returned to Equestria, Sunset."

Sunset chuckled. "Well, I still have more Fused Loops than most other Equestria Loopers, so I figured writing a journal of the new Loops I've been to would be a good idea."

Kurumu nodded in agreement. "That makes a lot of sense. So, mind reading us the entry?"

Sunset nodded, and she began reading.

From Sunset's Journal, Second Volume (Post-Return to Equestria Adventures)

Even though I've returned to Equestria at long last, I still tend to Loop into other Loops more often than most other Equestria Loopers.

Now that I know it was Lyra's antics that caused the whole mess, I blame that. But I don't mind what happened; who knows how I'd be if that hadn't?

The Loop I visited this time was Youkai Academy, a place where monsters hide in disguise to be able to fit in the human world. The Anchor, Tsukune Aono, is a normal human who somehow ended up in Youkai Academy, and met Moka, a vampire with two separate personalities. From what I've heard, the 'Outer Moka' personality is a fake one, but it was real enough to become a Looper alongside the 'true' personality, which I'll refer to as Inner Moka.

Tsukune soon befriended Kurumu, the succubus, Mizore, the Yuki Onna, and Yukari, the prodigy witch, all of whom are Looping as well.

I knew a lot more about this Loop than most other new Loops that have appeared since my journey ended thanks to Big Macintosh having found himself in Tsukune's role, having met Inner Moka.

From what I've heard, the Loop was so stable Tsukune had no idea of the nature of the Loops until several thousand Loops after he first Awakened, as he had somehow managed to avoid dying before that point. Even when taking into account the events of one of the few Variants he had prior to that, in which he didn't meet Moka when he first arrived at Youkai Academy.

What had happened to him before he'd Awakened that Loop...I suppose the term 'he who fights monsters' is quite fitting. He had actually killed Moka right before he Awakened. I pity what he had to experience that Loop.

Anyway, I was a Kirin, which among other interesting quirks meant that it was easier to use my magic. I met Tsukune on the same day he met Moka; and curiously enough, it was a Variant where both of Moka's personalities were separate people, and were twins.

Inner Moka snickered when Sunset mentioned how she'd met Tsukune. "That was an event, wasn't it?"

Outer Moka nodded. "Yes. It was kinda funny..."

Sunset chuckled. "Tsukune had the bad luck to land on top of me when Outer Moka crashed into him with her bike. You think he'd have learned to dodge by now."

Outer Moka laughed. "Look who's talking."

"To be fair, I had literally just Awoken. I barely had time to realize where I was before that happened. And the shock of seeing both versions of Moka didn't help things. I thought you two would be angry.'

Inner Moka shrugged. "Considering how often that sort of thing happens in the anime Variant we have, we're used to it."

Sunset laughed. "At least it's peaceful compared to your Baseline."

Kurumu rolled her eyes. "Mind getting back to the journal entry, Sunset?"

Sunset smirked at her friends impatience, but complied.

I found myself involved in the usual shenanigans, though Tsukune did mention there was a Variant where said antics were more common than the usual, where there is a lot more drama.

Shortly after that, the ogre that attempted to attack Moka in Baseline decided to attack me instead, figuring me for an easier target than one of the twin vampire sisters; cue one boot to the head, and him getting sent to the hospital.

It was at this point Kurumu made her grand appearance by trying to charm every guy in school, though she had learned from her Baseline self and now made a point of refraining from using her Charm. Not that it changed the result in the slightest.

I would like to say our first meeting went well. I would like to. However because of a chain of mishaps which left Tsukune and I in an uncomfortably close position, she made the mistake of assuming I was trying to make a move on him and challenged me to a fight. She'd just had a Loop as Morrigan from the Darkstalkers Loop, so she had a few new tricks which she thought would help her finish things easily. I just wanted to clear up the misunderstanding, but she was too quick to act and I resigned myself to the fight.

I thought I could put an end to it quickly so that I could explain things, but she actually put me through my paces a good bit. Among other things, I didn't expect her to use Esper abilities from the Haruhi Loop. However, though I've never been there, I'd heard enough about it to be able to adapt. Once I finally pinned her, Tsukune and I were able to resolve the situation and things calmed down. For awhile.

However my meeting with Mizore unfortunately, went about as well; but for different reasons. In Baseline she first met the Newspaper Club by attacking them and trying to kidnap Tsukune. This time she went after me. She had Looped in as Elsa and Sub-Zero from the Mortal Kombat Loop, so she had honed her ice powers to an exceptional degree, which taken with her mastery of her A.T Field from her first Loop in Tokyo-3 made for a devastating combination.

I had thought Mizore was attacking me for similar reasons to Kurumu, but the truth was she was just wondering if the rumors she had heard about me were true. Apparently, since I had returned to Equestria, the Loopers who I'd met on my journey, who I had asked not to tell my Equestria Loopers I was Awake, were starting to tell stories about my adventures. And as you could expect, such stories were exaggerated. I would have gladly offered to spar with her, but Mizore's the kind of person who acts first and explains later. Still it was all in good fun, and no harm was done.

But moving on, I met Yukari next, and she had just finished a Loop in Equestria. She had heard about me from Twilight, and wanted to test her new Equestria style magic. This time at least I had the option of advanced warning, and we made a show out of it. It wasn't exactly a good representation of the Newspaper Club, but it was entertaining. The other students certainly seemed to enjoy it, and Gin was outright ecstatic at the number of applications for the club which came in afterwards.

It was a fun duel, but I did win. Yukari is very skilled with magic, though. Reminds me of Hermione.

Kurumu grimaced as she was reminded of her defeat at Sunset's hands. "I still feel bad about that. I should have known better. The beginning of our Loop always seems to run on the Rule of Funny. Still, I could have sworn I had you. Stupid magic key sword."

Mizore smirked. "I was only curious to see if the stories were true. Though I did better than you did."

Yukari smiled, ignoring Kurumu's childish response to Mizore's teasing, as she too remembered her battle with Sunset. "Even after training with Twilight, I still lost to Sunset. I'll just have to work harder I guess. There are so many magics to learn, I get excited just thinking about it!"

Sunset blushed. "Thanks, guys. But, enough talking about that. I still have more stuff in this entry."

After meeting Ruby, things were relatively peaceful. The older witch was very kind, and I'm happy to say our meeting didn't involve any fighting. Of course, there were plenty of other people to fight.

Most of the jerks we faced early on were simply basic villains, and nothing to worry about. Three of them stand out, though.

First, Okuto Kotsubo. When I heard what he nearly did in Mizore in baseline...well, cue me deciding to personally kick his ass into next millennium. From what I understand, Mizore typically opts to simply freeze him and get him tossed out of the school. The others, while usually inclined to more violent actions, allow Mizore to deal with things her own way. Which isn't to say Kurumu didn't add her own touch to the bastard's punishment. Usually I'm not one to condone mental attacks, but a few weeks of nightmares are way less than he deserved.

The second was the art teacher, Hitomi Ishgami. She was the legendary Medusa, and wanted to turn Moka into a statue. I was also a target, but I captured her, and she was fired. She tried to strike back a bit later during the Sports Festival, but the twin Mokas put an end to that easily enough.

The other main jerk was Tadashi Wanibuchi, a lizardman and his two friends. He and his friends killed Yukari once before Tsukune and company learned of the Loops. Tsukune still blames him for that, though not as much as he blames himself, but won't hurt him or his friends. I was sorely tempted to give them a beatdown, but they weren't worth it. Besides, Yukari got her own form of justice.

I'll never look at washtubs the same way again. And neither will they.

The first major threat was the Public Safety Commission. They were supposed to help keep the peace in Youkai Academy, but they essentially became a gang of thugs. Keito, one of the leaders of the group, was the one Tsukune befriended when he became 'one who fights monsters', and was a fellow Looper. Thanks to her, the Commission's leader, Kuyo, was forced to realize we were a lot stronger than he was, and ran for it. He had kept his power through fear, but once he was defeated, that fear faded away.

The next threat was ANTI-THESIS, a group dedicated to destroying Youkai Academy. Their leader, Hokuto Kaneshiro, was human once but after years of fear and torment both before coming to Yokai Academy and after, and after becoming a monster himself had grown to hate both humans and monsters. His goal was to reveal the existence of monsters to the human worlds and let both sides fight each other, so that everyone could know the pain he had felt. I really sympathized with him, for all his threat what he really needed all along was a good friend to offer him a helping hand. I know what that's like more than I like to admit.

Even so, his goals were a danger to hundreds of thousands or even millions of innocent lives and he needed to be stopped. He and his second in command, Kiria Yoshii, never even got close to starting their plan this Loop, as Tsukune and company were there to stop him. Sadly he chose to scorn our offer of friendship, and we were forced to fight. It didn't work out well for him, but he still managed to escape.

After that things were fairly peaceful for a while. We took a nice trip to the sea, and I got to meet one of the original members of the Newspaper Club. San was a wonderful person, and a much better kind of Siren than the trio I typically deal with.

Unfortunately that was about the time Fairy Tale showed up (no relation to the magic guild by that name). Kanade Kamiya, the Siren who had attacked San and the human who she had come to see as a mother, was quickly taken care of by Mizore and Kurumu and they explained what was what. These guys were the standard "destroy humanity" kind of villains, led by Miyabi Fujisaki, a clone of the legendary vampire Alucard (again, no relation to other vampires with that name), and Gyokuro Shuzen, a wife of Moka's father, and a cruel woman who reminded me of Ragyo.

After saying goodbye to San and Marin, who had been informed of the danger and had chosen to stand by San despite her being a monster, we left to prepare for the coming fight.

Moka's sisters, Akua and Kahlua, were the first opponents we encountered and I decided that the skills from my Loop as a Belmont were the best choice to fight them. Moka asked me to spare them, as even despite what they had done, she still loved them both; and also because they had eventually become allies in Baseline. Akua was the more dangerous of the two, her Jigen-Tou something even I couldn't defend against; but despite her skills I was able to get around the dimension cutting attack and put her down.

Kahlua however, was dealt with by Kokoa; the youngest sister of the Shuzen family. Kahlua wasn't really a bad person, despite having done countless horrible things at her mother's behest. In the end she just wanted to be dealt with by one of her sisters as penance for her crimes. Kokoa did exactly that, but rather than kill her instead defeated her soundly before offering her a chance to start over as family. The tears she shed were the happiest tears she had cried in years.

Soon after, we faced Kuyo, Hokuto, and Kiria once more, as they had joined Fairy Tale. Kuyo wouldn't listen to my pleas for him to surrender, and I had no choice but to strike him down. Hokuto however had been a double agent, and with his help we were able to infiltrate Fairy Tale's headquarters. Kiria was indifferent, just as long as Hokuto continued to be 'interesting.'

Then the battle with Miyabi and Gyokuro began. While Tsukune and Outer and Inner Moka went to destroy Alucard, the other Loopers worked alongside me to defeat Gyokuro and Miyabi. In the end, both of them were slain. Alucard however wasn't so easily put to rest. Being effectively immortal, more so than most who used that term, he needed to be resealed rather than killed. The Headmaster made a surprise appearance here, revealing himself as one of the Three Dark Lords. Together with Touhou Fuuhai, another of the group, they managed to seal the Shinso lord with help from the Mokas and Tsukune holding him at bay.

With that however, peace had finally come to this Loop.

Tsukune frowned as he remembered those battles. "I'm surprised you were in favor of killing Kuyo. I know you gave him a final chance to surrender, but I wouldn't think you'd be so willing to go for such a final option."

Sunset nodded, and sighed. "Considering all the trouble he and Fairy Tale caused, I didn't really have a choice. Kuyo was arrogant, plain and simple. I've always believed in trying to redeem people, but if there's one thing I've learned since I started Looping, it's that there are those who will never listen. As much as it bothers me, sometimes the only way to have peace is with war. Some people aren't willing to change, and the only way to end their terror is permanently."

Inner Moka sighed. "Like Gyokuro, right?"

"Yeah. But, she had done some horrible things. I knew that any attempt to redeem her would fall on deaf ears."

Outer Moka then smiled. "Enough about that! Let's just enjoy the rest of the Loop!"

Sunset smiled back. "Sure."

Sunset closed her journal, and joined her friends. Yet another Loop, but to Sunset each one was precious.


194.8 (Detective Ethan Redfield)


"She's gonna kill us for this, Fred."

Two ponies stood in front of a giant library tree… or more specifically what had once been a library tree. Instead, it was a giant stack of oversized pancakes, covered in whip cream, syrup and a massive strawberry on top.

"Indeed, George, but imagine her reaction!"

They both allowed their imaginations to run wild.


"Trixie, you didn't need to level half the crystal empire to take down Sombra."

Trixie waved off Twilight, "Oh please, the Great and Powerful Trixie fixed everything before we left."

"You made everything out of wood, not the same as crystal."

"I haven't learned how to work with Crystal. Besides, everything was the same as we had first started, just everything was made out of wood. Down to the smallest fruit."

"You can't eat...*GASP*"

Twilight stopped midstep and stared several long minutes at the Pancake house. After Trixie tried waving a hoof in front of her friend, Twilight suddenly started screaming in horror and fury.


Fred snickered. "Ok, yeah, that's gonna be good. Wait til' she sees the flapjack books we stocked her shelves with.”

George joined in on the laugh, only for a familiar voice to mutter, "Eh, I give it an 8 out of 10."

Fred and George froze up, before turning to see Twilight looking at the mass of pancakes. She just smiled at the two of them. Fred asked, "Uh, you're not mad at us?"

Twilight shrugged. "Pinkie did this a hundred loops ago-"

The two's eyes widened in horror. As one, they started screaming, though they said different things, "NOOOO!!!" "CURSE YOU, PINKIE PIE!"


Several hours later, Twilight took a seat on her pancake bed and turned out the lights. In the dark of night, she cast a scrying spell directed at the two Weasleys and gave a slightly evil grin. The two were asleep. Excellent, she thought as she cast a teleportation spell. With the act of revenge done, she cast a few anti-scrying, anti-magic spells on her own room and went back to bed, pulling up the pancake blanket as she did.


"Fred?"

"Yes George?"

"Why are we on the moon?"

"I blame Twilight for this."


194.9 (Evilhumour)


Celestia looked at the cake in front of her with lust. For the last month, she'd been unable to eat a cake due to a wide range of reasons; her guards acting on a nonexistent diet plan, her sister already devouring them and leaving notes, random food fights breaking out with her cake being the first casualty, what Discord did...

No matter, she would have her cake and eat it to-

She frowned, ears twitching as she felt the dragon fire spell activate and saw the smoke race over to her.

No matter, she would read the letter from her student as she ate her-

SPLASH!

With a squeak of surprise coming from both her and her cake, Celestia saw that there was a pony rolling around before sitting upright.

"Oh my, Princess Celestia," Rarity blushed as she bowed. "This is a bit awkward..."

"It is okay, my little pony," Celestia said while mourning her vanilla cake internally. "Mistakes happen and I will have a chariot take you back home once you have finished washing my cake out of your coat."

Rarity blinked and looked over herself, covered in chocolate cake bits. "Oh yes, a shower would be lovely, Princess Celestia," she said, bowing her head again, smiling a bit too widely.

As Celestia walked Rarity to her washroom, she felt that she was missing something rather obvious but she couldn't place her hoof on it...


194.4 continued


“This has to be one of the most disturbing sights I’ve ever seen. And my Loop has both Pinkie Pie and Discord.”

“It’ll be even scarier if it works,” Hank said reassuringly. Although he had to admit Luna had a point; Twilight in full Cute Mode was bad enough, but adding Tiamat in chibi-form… “You know, I still have no idea where she picked that up. And I’m not sure I want to know.”

You don’t,” Tiamat replied, and Hank got a brief flicker of children with ridiculously large eyes, small fluffy animals, and a generally pastel tone. “I still say she over-reacted; it is not as though I knew eating that fool would crash the Loop.”

“Told you that would get you in trouble someday.”

“You guys are so weird,” Diana said, shaking her head with a grin. “If this is what being a Looper does to you, I really hope I start someday. I know it’s not all fun, but I think I’d be willing to put up with a lot just to see Venger set up by what looks like a baby unicorn and Tiamatlet.”

“It does have its good points,” Hank agreed. He’d have said more, but the silent wards they’d erected to warn them when Venger was close enough to hear them flashed blue a few times before fading. Hank held up a hand; everyone got serious.

Well, as serious as they could be with Tiny Twilight and Tiamatlet (Hank knew that nickname was going to be stuck in his head for the rest of the Loops) frolicking adorably in the middle of the room. The rest of them drew back into alcoves or convenient patches of shadow; Sheila simply drew up the hood of her cloak and vanished. Seconds later, the doors opened for Venger to make his usual dramatic entrance. The two “babies” stopped their play, looking up at the scowling dark lord-wannabe, six sets of big eyes gleaming.

Daddy!” they cried. Venger stopped in his tracks, thoroughly gobsmacked, exactly where they’d predicted. Which meant that when the two simulacra exploded, he was thrown backwards into the now-closed doors; he bounced off, landing in a heap on the floor. While he gathered his shaken wits, the group stepped out of concealment: two alicorns, a full-sized five-headed dragon, and six children with magical weapons they knew more about than they technically should have at this point in the Loop.

“Plan C4,” Hank said. “Explosive cuteness. It’ll only work once in any given Loop, but once is enough. You’re already beaten, Venger, and you were before you even got here. You can’t use this magic. At all. You’re not Equestrian, and the only two here who have the kind of connections to them that would be any use are not going to help you.”

“I am aware of that, Ranger. I did not come here for them. I came because this is your one chance to send the little unicorn home—“

“And you were going to attack us while we said our goodbyes? What a creep.” Diana shook her head, disgusted. “Well, it didn’t work and you aren’t getting our weapons, so why don’t we just skip the fight and call it good?”

“I like that idea,” Eric said.

“I do not.” And Venger was back on his feet, hands glowing. Hank sighed, wishing he was a little more surprised than he was. Every so often, they’d get a Venger who had enough common sense to know when to cut his losses; this was not one of those Loops. And of course, Venger was done ranting. “You may have managed to take me by surprise, but you are too soft to take proper advantage of that, and it will be the cause of your doom.”

“I don’t sound like that when I’m Nightmare Moon, do I?”

“Nowhere near that pretentious,” Twilight said. “Hank, you really need to give him a copy of the Evil Overlord Handbook like you keep saying you’ll do.”

“…There’s a handbook?” Bobby blinked.

“Why would you want to make his job easier?” Eric demanded at the same time.

“I don’t,” Hank said. “I just want to make him less annoying.”

“Oh, okay. I’m good with that.”

“Cease this childish banter before I destroy you!”

“Not helping your case, hornhead,” Eric sniped, then yelped as he dodged a bolt of magic. “Geez, you don’t have to be so touchy!”

“Your prattle annoys me.”

“It annoys us too, but we don’t try to kill him,” Presto said.

“Guys, Venger has anger management issues, okay?” Hank reminded them. “We’re talking about a guy who once tried to kill me for saving his life! Oh, wait, you weren’t Awake for that. Sorry. Okay, Sheila, you know what your part is; Luna, are you—“

This time it was Hank who slammed against a solid surface and fell to the floor in a barely-conscious heap. He could hear Sheila shrieking, Eric and Bobby shouting, and Venger’s laughter, but he couldn’t make out what anyone was actually saying. The only coherent thought in his head was How the hell did Venger manage to get control over Luna?


Author's Note:

194.2: Guard problems.
194.3: Celestia is a celerized head of state.
194.4: Dungeons and Determinism?
194.5: You do need to air things like this.
194.8: Loop Pranksters have originality issues.

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