MLP Loops 201
I sincerely apologize for the continuing lack of promptness in posting up compiled chapters of this fic. As of now I am blaming this on a combination of procrastination, project overload, hastily assembled excuses and a rotator cuff injury.
201.1 (Namar13766)
"Princess Celestia?"
"Yes, Twilight?"
"Do you ever lower the sun early so you can sneak off and have fun?"
"At least once a Loop."
"What's a Loop?"
201.2 (LadyStina2)
Ivory Scroll looked at her reflection in the mirror in front of her then back to Twilight standing next to her. “Are you sure it’s open? And safe?”
Twilight nodded and pointed, “See the book up there? It’s linked to one that Sunset has. As long as her book stays over there and its sister book stays over here, we can plug it into this device and it’ll open the portal whenever we want.” She smiled at Ivory.
Ivory nodded and asked, “Is there an extra pair of books somewhere so we can both have a copy? That’s how you communicate with Sunset, right?”
“I’ve already created two for you,” Twilight assured her. She motioned towards the mirror and said, “Go on. I’ll be right behind you. It is a little disconcerting, but at least you’ve looped as a human before so you’ll at least know how to walk when you get out the other side.”
Ivory gave her friend a little half-smile and agreed, “Yes. I bet that really disoriented you the first time. Or did you start looping before this expansion?”
Twilight looked thoughtful and said, “Before. My first time as a human was on Berk with Hiccup. But I know my Unawake self has real issues when she first goes through, so let’s leave it at that.” She then smiled widely and said, “But you won’t!” Then she suddenly pushed Ivory into the mirror.
Ivory silently cursed Twilight as she unexpectedly passed through a dimension full of colors and her body stretched and morphed unnaturally. Granted, she planned to pass through the mirror, but she didn’t get a chance to brace herself first.
Hours later… or maybe it was just a few moments... Having your body forcefully distorted seriously messed with a pony’s sense of time. Eventually, Ivory fell out of the portal. She quickly looked herself over and found that she was human, just as she expected. She carefully stood up and moved out of the way of the portal as she found balance as a biped once again. No need for Sparkle to fall on top of her while she was still adjusting to standing up.
Her instincts were obviously still finely honed, because just as soon as she cleared the exit, the portal started glowing and then spat out a humanized Twilight Sparkle.
She shook her head and stood up. “Chloroplast, that is always unsettling,” she complained as she brushed herself down. Once she finished, she looked over at Ivory and swept her arm out to gesture at the building behind her, “Welcome to Canterlot High. Sunset said we could borrow her car while she’s in class. Let’s get moving.”
Ivory knocked on the doorframe of the open door leading into an office merely labeled as ‘INTERN.’ A pink-haired head was staring intently at a laptop computer screen and typing furiously. She noticed that there was a piece of paper folded on the edge of the desk with handwritten lettering that read, ‘M. Mare.’
“Just a minute,” the young woman said distractedly as she continued typing. Still without looking up she said, “Have a seat.” Ivory sat in a metal folding chair across the desk from her Canterlot High counterpart. Sparkle had agreed to watch the door to ensure they weren’t interrupted.
The intern finished typing with a small flourish and a smile. “Sorry about that,” she said as she closed the laptop. “I needed to finish that email while it was fresh in my mind.” She looked up while saying, “Now, how can I… Who are you??” she ended with confusion.
Ivory smiled slightly as she thought about the shock of coming face to face with yourself. “Well, Ms. Mare-“ she started before being interrupted.
“Marey. Please,” her other self instructed.
“Ahh, Marey. Yes. I’m partial to ‘Ivory Scroll’ myself. As I was saying, Marey, I’m you from an alternate dimension.” She then spoke hurriedly to prevent interruptions, “And yes, I know what that sounds like. I’ve been assured that the timelines match up rather well, even if some of the ages are inconsistent.” She looked around the intern office for a second and said, “For example, it would appear that I am slightly, and only slightly mind you, older than you. I’m willing to answer questions to prove my identity. Mayor.”
The woman opposite her winced at their given name and glanced down at the folded piece of paper on her desk like it had betrayed her. She looked back at Ivory and muttered, “Then you should know how I feel about that name.”
“That our parents were a bit presumptuous. That everypony in school made fun of our name. That we tried to get everyp… err everyone in middle school to call us ‘Blossom.’ And that’s why you currently go by Marey and one of the reasons why I call myself Ivory. And it’s a position that you hope to one day achieve,” she answered.
“But you don’t?” Marey asked.
Ivory smiled and said, “I believe I’ve mentioned that I’m older than you. After my own internship, a couple of odd jobs, and a successful political campaign, I am proud to say that I’m mayor of my town. By the way, if you ever run into Ink Well, hire him immediately. He’s a lifesaver.”
“So why are you here?” she asked.
Ivory smiled and said, “I actually have a proposition for you. How would you like some real-world experience?”
She looked around the shabby office and replied with a wry smile, “I thought that’s what I was doing.”
Ivory shook her head and said, “You’re following orders and strengthening your resume. But we learned how to follow orders in school. I’m talking decision-making. Without hurting your career progression.”
“And how can you promise that?”
“We pull a Parent Trap and switch places. I take over your intern duties so your resume stays in shape and you become acting mayor of Ponyville.” Ivory suggested.
“…Ponyville?” she asked flatly.
Ivory shrugged and said, “A small farming town that cropped up around a successful apple orchard. I’m honestly surprised that the word ‘apple’ isn’t in the town’s name. But you’d get actual mayoral experience without the hassle of an election, and I have a way we can stay in communication for any questions either of us have for the other.”
Marey looked at her suspiciously and asked, “And what’s in it for you?”
“Movies,” Ivory answered simply. “Your world makes better movies than mine and I’d like the opportunity to soak up and collect some of your media. Instead of me stepping down or abdicating my duties to somebody else, I thought I’d offer you the chance for some experience. Not to mention the whole experiencing another world thing. And if you find it overwhelming, we can always switch back with no one the wiser.”
Ivory was betting on Marey not wanting to admit anything could overwhelm her. And the fact that Equestria was filled with magic would keep her curious once she arrived.
While Marey was thinking it over, Twilight stuck her head in the open door and said, “Sorry to interrupt, Ivory, but CHS will be letting out soon. We need to bring Sunset’s car back. Or I can wait at the portal if you want to catch a ride with, well… you.”
“And who are you?” Marey asked.
Twilight entered the doorway fully, smiled, and said, “Hello. I’m Twilight Sparkle, the Ponyville librarian. I volunteered to help you on the other side of the portal. I’ll be your assistant until you no longer need my services. And don’t worry. My assistant will have no trouble running the library while I’m away.”
Marey looked back at Ivory and asked, “What kind of communication device did you have in mind? I doubt our cell phones would work across dimensions.”
“Oh, that’s me,” Twilight said and dug into her backpack. She pulled out two thick books and placed them on the desk. One cover had Ivory’s cutie mark of a scroll tied up with a blue ribbon and the other had Twilight’s starburst cutie mark. “Go ahead. Write in one,” she instructed.
Curious, Marey opened up the book with Twilight’s cutie mark and wrote the word ‘test.’ Two seconds later the other book vibrated which startled both Ivory and Marey. Marey then reached for the vibrating book and opened it. On the first page was the word ‘test’ in her handwriting.
Marey could only stare at the books for a few seconds before she chuckled and said, “It’s a text.” Then she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. As she exhaled she opened her eyes and said, “Ok. I’m in. But I want to come back every weekend and check on my work here. I know you said that you’ll take care of it, but it’s still my future.”
“By all means,” Ivory agreed. Granted she could do this grunt-work in her sleep, but if it made her other self feel better, she didn’t see any harm.
They took a few minutes exchanging personal items and instructions before Marey left with Twilight. Ivory grinned as she looked around her new shabby office. It was terrible, but Ivory merely saw a challenge. At least the computer wasn’t completely obsolete.
She opened it and quickly checked a website for movie times at a nearby theater for the weekend. She had seen most of them, but the whole theater experience made rewatching movies more enjoyable. Not to mention, there were those that she had missed on the very few times she looped into the Canterlot High side of the mirror.
As she was planning out the order she would watch movies on Saturday, the book with her cutie mark vibrated. She pulled it over and opened to the first page.
test
Ivory,
Your counterpart insisted that I write to you immediately since she hasn’t got the hang of hooves yet. …And she’s staring at me while I’m writing with my magic… Anyway, she wanted me to ask, “WHY THE HECK DIDN’T YOU TELL ME YOU WERE A HORSE?! AND THAT SHE’S A UNICORN?!”
Don’t worry, I corrected her on the proper terminology. I’ll be teaching her to walk for the next few minutes if you have the time to reply.
Your friend,
Twilight Sparkle
Ivory chuckled and wished she could have been there to see her reaction. She’d have to ask Twilight to share it later. She reached for a pen and wrote back.
Twilight,
Simply tell her “Search your feelings. You know it to be true.” And deepen your voice a little when you say it.
Your friend,
Ivory Scroll
She waited a moment then the book vibrated again. She opened it and read the short passage with an anticipatory smile.
Really? A Star Wars quote? Really? You’re aware that doesn’t even make sense in context? But Marey laughed and said she’d get you back. I really hope you two didn’t just declare a prank war. On yourself. And if you did, then don’t you DARE tell Rainbow Dash or Pinkie Pie! It’ll give them… ideas…
Hoping I don’t regret getting dragged into this,
Twilight
Ivory smiled and closed the book. This Loop was looking up!
201.3 (Vinylshadow)
"The day will last forever!"
THWAP
Little Nightmare Daybreaker Corona Star clutched at her smarting nose in surprise as a lavender unicorn shook a rolled-up newspaper at her.
"No. Bad Celestia. Go back to your room."
"No," Nightmare Daybreaker Corona Star muttered rebelliously.
Twilight sighed and picked up the young filly in her magic and gave the room full of ponies a sheepish grin. "Sorry folks, she gets cranky when it's time for her diet."
"I weigh less than a kilogram over my normal weight!" Nightmare Daybreaker Corona Star squeaked in outrage. "This is pony cruelty! I'll have you disposed of as my nanny!"
"Your mother wouldn't allow that because this was her idea in the first place," Twilight explained patiently. "She wants you to grow up strong and healthy so that you may one day inherit the throne alongside your sister."
"And why doesn't she ever go on diets?" Nightmare Daybreaker Corona Star growled adorably.
"Because she doesn't gobble snacks and sweets like you do; plus, she actively exercises every day."
Nightmare Daybreaker Corona Star scowled and accepted the sprig of celery Twilight offered her.
201.4 (Anon e Mouse Jr.)
Gloriosa blew her whistle. "Okay, everyone, go get settled in. We'll be meeting at the docks in fifteen minutes to go over some camp safety rules. Let me know if you need anything!"
"I need something!" a voice suddenly called.
Gloriosa's eyes widened in shock as she saw the sharply-dressed man walking towards her, and so did Sunset as she recognized them. "Discord! So nice to see you!" The camp director's voice dropped an octave. "What can I help you with?"
"Oh, nothing much," the man purred. "Just your guarantee that you and your brother won't forget to relax and enjoy yourself this week as well. After all, that's part of the reason this camp was founded, wasn't it? To give people the ability to relax and enjoy themselves while surrounded by the beauty of nature." He sighed happily. "Reminds me of a dear friend and her home sweet home..."
"Uh... well. That's very nice of you," Gloriosa managed. "Is there anything else? Because I really need to get back to work..."
"Go on ahead then," Discord waved. "I'll just wander around, say hello to a few old friends like dear Celly and Lulu... oh, and I have a contract for you and your brother to read and sign. Something I've been meaning to get to you for a few days. Read it carefully, and I know you'll have a good week!" He handed her a manilla envelope, then wandered off.
"What was that all about?" Sunset wondered.
Gloriosa blushed. "Discord is, uh, an alumni of the camp. He likes to check on his old stomping grounds every now and again. But I think it's time for you to find your tents and put away your things. We've got the best week of camp ever to begin!"
"Sure thing." Sunset left Gloriosa and headed for the others. "I hope this isn't going to drive her towards another incident," she mumbled to herself.
"Why my dear Sun-shim, of course it won't!" Discord popped up behind her. "In fact, that contract is an iron-clad promise that her life will be so much better from now on! Well, the rest of this Loop, at any rate."
"Discord!" Sunset gave him a look. "What, exactly, are you up to?"
"Why, throwing the proverbial monkey-wrench into Filthy Rich's plans for this place! Of course, given what kind of person he is compared to his pony self, he deserved it," Discord said this last part with a growl. "But he was happy enough with the money I gave him... you see, I'm the camp's new owner since last week."
"Really?" Sunset gave him a look. "How... why?"
"Oh, just thought I'd do something nice on this side. I'm so rarely here, but I felt like dropping by. Besides, it's the perfect way of putting a little chaos into the life of someone who needed it."
"Looks more like you're stopping chaos to me," Sunset said.
"Trust me, there is more chaos going on here than you'd think." Discord gave her a wink. "For instance, you see my tie here? I put it on inside out!" He snickered.
"Right." Sunset gave him a deadpan look. "So, what's with the contract you gave Gloriosa?"
"A little something that should make her very happy."
Just then, a loud shout of "EEE-YES!" echoed through the camp.
"Oh, would you look at that... it seems she found the clause that says while I own the land it's on, no one can shut down the camp outside of a member of her family." Discord preened.
Sunset looked at him in shock. "You... you really did that?"
"But of course! Now, you run along and have fun. I'm going to go say boo at someone important." Strutting off, Discord crept up behind Celestia. "BOO!"
As their principal about jumped out of her skin, Sunset gave a little smile. "Only you, Discord. Only you."
201.5 (Evilhumour)
Guess who's coming to visit? Part One of unknown:
Twilight was in the midst of a good night's sleep, courtesy of her daughter taking over as Nyx was looking into doing other things, when there was a sudden banging on her door. Grumbling as she was woken up just before the good part of getting to the last page of Dash's new book, Twilight made a note to prank her daughter for using that as a dream as she teleported downstairs to her front door to open it, only to see a dragon mixed with a squid looking straight at her.
"GrEeTiNgS tWiLiGhT sPaRkLe," the Cthulhu like creature said to her, tipping his head. "YoU nO dOuBt ArE wOnDeRiNg WhY i Am HeRe, CoRrEcT?"
"Wait, you're the actual Cthulhu‽" she said as she instantly ascended and began to draw on some heavy spells. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't banish you to Tartarus until I get Sleipnir here to kick you out properly."
"BeCaSuE i Am HeRe FoR sOmE rNr?" Cthulhu said, blinking at her. "NoT tHaT iT iS aNy Of YoUr BuSiNeSs BuT i HaVe BeEn WoRkInG wItH cErTiAn PeOpLE aNd As I hAvE pRoVen MySelF TrUsTwOrThY, I wAs AbLe To ScHeDuLe SoMe TiMe HeRe As YoUr BrAnCh Is A sAnCtUaRy AnD a PlAcE wHerE oNe CaN rElAx WhIlE AbIdInG bY sOmE sImPle RuLes?" Cthulhu asked with a grin on his tentacle face that made Twilight just glare at the eldritch priest. She was about to tell him to go away when a piece of paper appeared into her hoof.
Sorry about this one Twilight but office politics and your reputation kinda forced my hoof here. Cthulhu should behave himself while he is on his vacation but if there is any problem, just shout my name out and we'll drag him out for you.
I promise to make this up to you
Sleipnir
"So WhErE dO i SlEeP?" Cthulhu asked her as a small number of shoggoths carrying suitcases entered her library, with Twilight letting out a groan that came from knowing this was going to be a long loop.
201.6 (Evilhumour)
The booming shout of "Student of the Great Enemy of Her Grace, lay not your hoof where you dare to tread!" along with a pointy stick in her face was not something Twilight was completely use to hearing upon Waking up, but due to her long live installing some instincts into her she jumped back and prepared to asce- "Thank you very much, oh great foe!"
Blinking as the robed pony in front of her jabbed a piece of garbage where she was about to put her hoof down and placed it into a garbage bag that he had attached to his side, Twilight looked around to see that she was in Ponyville and that there were a lot of cultists milling around, seemingly helping out everyone with some dramatics being thrown around.
Now it came the question of who these cultists belonged to; they weren't covered in hearts so it wasn't Cadance and they were not eating cakes so it wasn't Celesti-
"Oh," Twilight said to herself as both the words the cultist said and her Loop memories kicked in. She then grinned to herself and teleported herself to the new castle in the Everfree Forest. Upon materializing in the forest, she saw that there was a small militia of cultists glaring at and no doubt shouting the alarm as well as some moaning about their great enemy approaching. Twilight wasn't really paying attention to them; after dealing with so many cultists their words tended to blend together and she knew that their master would have made sure that they were not to touch her. "Good evening colts and fillies; is my daughter Nyx Nightmare Moon Sparkle-Russ inside?"
There was a series of gasps at her no doubt blasphemy of saying their leader's glorious name with the leader of their rabble storming right towards her. "How dare you profane Her Magnificent Name, oh foul one! I should slay you where you st-" There was a pop of magic with both a squirt bottle filled with water and newspaper appeared above the stallion that squirted him and smacked him on the nose respectively. "I mean to say," he said, shifting tones perfectly. "Her Grace would be honoured to see you, most revered one." He snarled the word revered out as if it was poison, stepping to the side and bowing slightly. "You may find Her Grace in the ballroom.
"Thank you dearies," Twilight said with a smirk on her face, trotting inside the castle with a number of ponies working feverishly on repairs and modifications to the castle, all of them doing their best not to lunge at her and attack her. Whistling a tune as she walked down the walls, she began to hear a very female voice she knew very well.
"No no no," the mare groaned. "How many times do I have to say this; we cannot have drain ponies magic if we want to have them come here again and again."
"I see, we do a long term drain on their magic-"
"Oh for spruce's sake NO!" The mare shouted, causing Twilight's coat to ruffle as she turned the corner and walked into the buzzing ballroom. It was filled with cultists swarming over the entire room, patching up the ceiling and hovering around a table in the centre where a dark coated alicorn mare was sighing heavily into her hooves. "Let me repeat this again; We are not, again, not attacking anypony!"
"But your Grace, what about your arch enemy, the Tyrant of the Sun?" a cultist asked in a manner akin to a little boy asking the fate of the last cookie in the jar that might be thrown out. As it came from a full grown stallion, it took all of Twilight's inner will not to laugh her head off.
"Bake her cake every week and you will be golden," Twilight said as she announced herself; the cultist hissing at her and the alicorn smiling in relief at her.
"Oh thank Yggdrasil, hi mom," the alicorn levitated Twilight to her side, nuzzling her happily. "How are you, did you just Wake up?"
"Yes I did Nyxie," she cooed, hugging her daughter with almost all the cultists jaws dropping to the floor. "How are things going here?" she asked, summoning up a glass filled with wine for herself and one filled with blood for her daughter. "Care to explain what this is all about?"
"Well," Nyx said as she took a long sip from her glass. "I Woke up very early and they were very persistent in their worship of me. No matter what I did got them to leave me alone so I thought to myself, if I can't get rid of them I might as well use them," Nyx said, gesturing to the ponies around her. "I have been trying to train them to be a religion for good with some mixed results."
"Oh?" Twilight raised an eyebrow at this, rising her wine glass to her lips. "Care to share?"
"Well," Nyx said while she began to blush. "I-"
There was a sudden clatter of hooves as two ponies raced into the ballroom, with one of them point at the other saying, "Your Grace, your terrifying abomination has escaped because of his lapse in duty unto you!"
"Liar!" the other pony shouted back at her. "The Mistress's beast fled when you left its cage open!"
They began to bicker back and forth with Nyx getting noticeably more angry at each exchange.
"ENOUGH!!!" She shouted, causing them to snap their heads back at her and whimper at her furious face. "I do not care who's fault it is that Larry got out of his room; we need to find him now!" She then flew over the table and glared at both of them. "And once we do, both of you are confined to the kitchen!"
"But your Grace!" they whined in perfect unison, with Twilight doing her best not fall over in a fit of laughter.
"No buts!" she snapped, pointing a hoof towards the door. "Now march you two!"
With awws, the two cultists charged out of the room, shouting Larry at the top of their lungs with other cultists following their actions, leaving Twilight alone with her daughter.
Nyx trotted back to Twilight's side and sat down with a sigh, saying, "These cultists are driving me to my wits end mom, have you ever had to deal with this kind of insanity?"
Twilight did her best to keep her face composed before replying. "Once you and Russ can give me grandkids, you will know."
"What are you talk-oh mom!"
201.7 (Vinylshadow)
"I don't know how video games work," Lyra said, staring at the controller in her hooves.
"You push the buttons and move the sticks," Human explained.
"No, no, no, we're playing video games of the future. It's motion control," Thief said.
"Oh, I forgot. It's 'flail wildly and shake a stick'," Human said, rolling its eyes.
Sweet Roll and Seapony stared at their friends in a mixture of amusement and pity.
"Feels weird to be related to them at times, doesn't it?" Seapony asked.
Sweet Roll shrugged - an impressive feat for a pastry - and looked at her cards. "It's no worse than the times they decide go-karts are a good idea."
"Oi," Human said, turning to them. "I'll you know go-karting is serious business."
"Tell that to the mothers whose baby coach wheels you steal," Sweet Roll replied dryly.
"Nothing else works!"
"You used me as a replacement wheel once," Sweet Roll pointed out.
"...I panicked?" Human said.
201.8 (Vinylshadow)
"Hi, Applejack," Pinkie Pie said cheerfully as she trotted up to the farm mare setting up the Apple Family Stall in Ponyville's market square.
"Mornin' Pinkie," Applejack said, hauling a basket of apples off the cart. When she turned back, the stall was completely set up and Pinkie grinned at her. "Uh...thanks."
"No problem. So, I have a question for you," Pinkie said.
Applejack glanced warily at the pink party planner pony of Ponyville. "What is it?"
"Which princess is the least guilty?"
Applejack blinked. "Guilty of what?"
Pinkie rolled her eyes. "Doesn't matter what, just pick one."
Applejack pondered for a minute before shrugging. "Cadence, I guess. Hasn't done anything that plunged Equestria into chaos yet."
"Besides give birth to Flurry Heart, which almost caused the destruction of the Crystal Empire," Pinkie pointed out.
"Still not Cadence's fault," Applejack said.
"Well, you were wrong," Pinkie said, droppings some bits on the counter. "It's Celestia."
"Why?"
"Because she's in a cent," Pinkie said, holding up the golden coin.
"Congratulations, you are banned from buying cider from the next Cider Season," Applejack deadpanned, taking the bits and handed over a bucket of apples.
"I know," Pinkie said cheerfully. "Why do you think I bought so much last time?"
Applejack then idly rolled a bit around, a gleam in her eye. "By the way, Pinkie, Celestia is still gilty as charged."
Pinkie winced. "Nice recovery."
201.9 (Awesomedude17)
Ditzy crashed into Berry Punch. Annoyed, Berry grabbed the cross-eyed mare and looked into her eyes.
"What's wrong?"
"Bus ninjas!"
"What?"
"Look!" Ditzy pointed at a bus with empty seats.
"Ditzy, those are bus seats."
"But-"
"No buts." Berry said as she walked away.
Meanwhile, Rainbow and Pinkie appeared from the seats.
"I can't believe she actually fell for that." Rainbow muttered.
"Eh. It was still a good prank." Pinkie shrugged.
201.10 (LadyStina2)
Shining Armor exhaled in relief as he sagged against the door he just exited. He did it. He made Captain of the Guard. The rumors that Captain Steel Wing was getting ready to retire were true. And now his post had been passed on to Shining.
Oh sure, there would be paperwork to fill out and other tasks to make it official before the ceremony hosted by Princess Celestia. The ceremony always trailed a couple moons behind the actual promotion. Then he could let his family and Cady know. It was hush-hush to civilians until then. Perhaps then he would build up the courage to propose to his princess of a fillyfriend.
He wiped the budding grin off his face and started walking away from his future office. He may not be on duty at the moment, but he couldn’t—
Suddenly there was a bright purple flash and four unicorn mares and a white unicorn filly appeared in front of him. All wearing cheerleading outfits. He could only make out the fact that two of the mares were different shades of pink, a taller light green one was in the back, and one that looked surprisingly like his younger sister before they started to wave their pom-poms and cheer.
“Shining Armor! Shining Armor! We’re not here ~ to cause a commotion! Just to say ~ YAY on your PROMOTION!!” As they ended the cheer and descended to whoops and hollers, what looked like a light green fin tossed the filly into the air. He focused on the white filly that was thrown into the air when she suddenly flared her wings. “YAY, SHINING ARMOR!” they all yelled again before disappearing inside another flash of purple.
Shining blinked at the sudden silence.
He looked up and down the hallway, expecting ponies to be poking their heads out of doorways to see what the ruckus was about. Amazingly, nopony was around.
And that curly-maned filly was an alicorn.
But there were only two alicorns in Equestria. Well… three with the return of Princess Luna… whom was still in recovery. And looked nothing like the cheerleading filly.
Shaking his head, he decided to consult with somepony more knowledgeable about this than he was.
“But Cady, I know what I saw.”
“A small herd of cheerleaders jumped out at you and cheered you for something work-related that you can’t tell me about yet. And at least one was an alicorn?” Cadence asked in disbelief.
“Yes! Exactly! I know the filly was one because she flared her wings. And I swear one of those mares looked like Twily!” Shining replied.
Cadence shook her head. “I don’t know what to tell you, Shiny. Aunt Celestia told me that I should be able to feel it if somepony ascended and I haven’t felt anything unusual. I can ask her about it if you’d like.”
“No, don’t bother the princess,” Shining said with a sigh. “I’ll just put it down to an overactive imagination and missing my LSBFF.”
Cadence smirked and said, “My, my. What does it say about my coltfriend that he imagines a herd of cheerleaders jumping out at him? Sounds like I’ll need to dig out my old uniform if I want to keep his attention.”
Shining couldn’t help but blush at the teasing.
SHE SAID YES!! The thought kept circling his mind. He just proposed to Cadence and she accepted! She had insisted on getting dressed up before they went out on their celebratory date and he was on the way to her chambers. Even though he wasn’t a pegasus, he felt like he was walking on air.
As he turned a corner of the hallway, he noticed the same group of cheerleaders waiting for him.
“Shining Armor! You charmer! Let us guess! She said yes! Now you’re off ~ to the altar!”
This time, their routine had the two pink mares, one with her mane tied on both sides of her head looking like two additional pink pom-poms and the other with two lighter tones of pink in her mane, stand on the bottom. Then the light green unicorn flipped upside down and balanced herself using minotaur-like limbs on their backs. And one of those looked metallic. Her back hooves were non-existent and instead had a large flipper. The mare who looked like his sister, down to the indigo color of her tail with a single stripe of pink and purple and was wearing a blue wig over her mane that looked like his own mane, leapt up, fluttered her wings and landed on the aquatic tail. The filly stayed on the ground this time.
They ended with, “YAY, SHINING ARMOR!” before they all flared their wings. He noted that the strange one in the middle of the pyramid had insectile-looking wings. Then the Twily lookalike flared her horn and they all vanished with a bright purple flash.
Twilight was busy sorting out a new book shipment for her library when she heard a commotion going on outside. She checked a nearby calendar and realized that the next baseline Ponyville disaster wasn’t scheduled for a few more days. Unless they were able to stop Unawake Apple Bloom from obsessing over getting a cutie mark. Which didn’t really work all that often.
She turned towards the door to see what was happening, when it opened and let in her brother.
“BBBFF!” she exclaimed, acting surprised. She was a little surprised he didn’t come after their first cheerleading event. “What are you doing here?” she asked.
“Twily!” he greeted. Then he came over and gave her a hug, lingering a little longer than normal while running a hoof along her sides.
She flinched back with a giggle and chided him, “Stop that. It tickles.”
“Just checking to make sure you didn’t sprout wings while you were away,” he teased. But now he also looked a little confused.
Twilight laughed and said, “Oh, come on, Shiny. You know that we’d tell each other if something major happens in their life. Like moving, changing jobs, getting married, being stuck in a time loop, or becoming an alicorn!”
Shining looked a little shifty-eyed at that and said, “Yes. Yes we would, wouldn’t we? Well, since I’m here, why don’t you show me around and introduce me to your friends?”
Huh. He still wasn’t going to tell her about his upcoming wedding. Well then. So much for coming clean about cheerleading. He’d get a lot more cheers before the loop was over. Particularly if she hooved the scheduling over to Pinkie like she’d been asking.
And Lyra, Cheerilee, and Sweetie Belle were all having fun too. She nodded her head to herself about her decision to give the schedule to the party pony to modify as she liked.
Twilight tried not to think too hard about the fact that Pinkie appeared in a mirror she happened to glance into and nodded in return.
201.11 [Star Trek][MLP:FiM] (ScyBlade)
Captain James T. Kirk Awoke. And he recognized where he was. Sadly, while he has been in Equestria numerous times, they usually had him in the role of a pet possum. And thusly, he did not have much experience being a pony. In case the reader hasn't figured it out, he's Awoken as a pony. Earth Pony specifically. Pear farmer by the creative name of Grand Pear.
His Loop memories kicked in about here.
"Better get to Ponyville."
Scootaloo Awoke. She checked the Elements. The CMC were almost all Awake. Nyx was the only exception. Applejack was Awake though. But not Twilight Sparkle. 'Odd. Are we getting a substitute Anchor, or a late Awakening?'
This is not something that is easily determined with an Element check. Sometimes a late Awakening leaves an imprint on the Elements of Harmony, sometimes not. Two Pings beyond the Element Bearers. 'One might be another Anchor. Better start with checking in with the Apples.'
"So, the three of us are Awake. And only one of every Element." Applejack noted.
"Ayep." Big Macintosh confirmed as he went about confirming where his bar was going to be this Loop.
"Right, Ah'll go check if Scoots is Awake." started little Applebloom.
"And Ah'll check on Rainbow Dash." continued Applejack. "Leaving Big Mac with Ivory Scrolls. And whoever finds the Awake Loyalty will signal."
"Here's the signal." Applebloom passed around simple looking fireworks. The Loopers knew these would produce a cloud in the shape of an apple over head.
*The Next Day*
Applebloom was just minding her own business walking through Ponyville, and getting a few items for the desserts the visiting Apples were gonna eat today, when she bumped into an elderly stallion. "Oops, sorry Mister?"
"Grand Pear." said Captain Kirk. "Feeling a little Loopy? I assure you I'm well Anchored." With a little wink, he sent out a Ping.
"Yeah, and so is my brother Big Mac, and 'sis Applejack." confirmed Applebloom. "Apple Family visiting can be a right doozy." Which was something she added to ensure they were misunderstood correctly. Non-Loopers could behave funny if Loopers weren't careful. "Might use some help."
'Grand Pear' winced. "Here's a sample of my pear jam." He hoofed over a jar. "Could you tell Granny Smith that Grand Pear wants to apologize for the past?" A beat passed. "I'll wait in Sugarcube Corner."
Blinking, Applebloom responded. "Okay."
"A bit odd for you, Grand Pear?" AJ asked.
"Not really." Kirk noted. "My baseline has me do some farming, a falling out with one I loved, and me lose a son. So, it amounts to different dressings. Here?" He placed the stool he was carrying when Big Mac nodded.
"Well, hopefully this is just a Variant." Applebloom brought up. "Ah'd rather my parents be elsewhere by necessity than dead. Nice to have names for them though. Usually can't remember even those. Bright Macintosh and Pear Butter slash Buttercup, huh? Good names, Ah'd say."
"True, and if this is a trend, we'll gladly add you to the Apple Family. If you'll have us, that is." AJ offered, while putting out a hoof.
"I'd be delighted. And don't worry about me making passes at Granny Smith." Kirk said, while taking the hoof "It would be a bit awkward, all things considered."
201.12 (Evilhumour, Anon e Mouse Jr.)
Captain James Tiberius Kirk was no stranger to Waking up to strange locations or strange places and while Waking Up on his bridge was always a positive in his eyes, getting a dressing down by his science officer Mister Spock was not. Seeing him, on the other hand, certainly was.
“-of the planet have also brought up the mating you have done with one of their citizens in the past as one of their grievances with you and the Federation, sir,” Mister Spock rattled off as Bones sighed loudly.
“Oh come now, you really think Jim here is responsible,” he protested.
“It is the only logical conclusion as the alien does fit the Captain’s known preference,” Spock said as he held up the data pad. “She was female, her skin is green and she was scantily dressed.”
“Good god man, you just made a joke,” McCoy made a mock gasping sound. “Must be that human side shining through.”
Spock raised an eyebrow. “I must correct you, doctor. That was not a joke; it was a truthful observation based on our captain’s past.”
“Deny it all you want, Spock, that was an honest-to-goodness joke from you.”
As the two men squabbled good-naturedly (or as much as Spock’s words could be called squabbling), James eyed him curiously. Is he possibly…? James could never really tell when he was Awake or not.
“Gentlemen, please,” James did his best to stop the fighting as he turned to the viewing monitor. “Let us see who this woman is to see if there is any truth to the mat-”
The words died in his mouth as he saw Celestia and Luna looking at him with the Apple family standing to the side and one of the mares gasping loudly at the sight of his face.
“My beloved,” Granny Smith said happily as she trotted closer to the camera. “You’ve returned!”
James did his best not to facepalm or show any sign of frustration at Yggdrasil once again finding ways to pull a fast one on him as he began to deal with this diplomatic issue with practiced ease.
201.13 (Vinylshadow)
"Applejack, I can explain-" Apple Bloom said.
"YOU BURNED SWEET APPLE ACRES TO THE GROUND!" Applejack shrieked.
"There was a flyder!"
"They're not that big!"
"IT WAS THE SIZE OF THE BARN!"
There was a beastly roar and the barn exploded, a giant flaming shape flying out of it.
"Oh," Applejack squeaked, paling.
"Oh good, all I did was piss it off," Apple Bloom grumbled. "I don't suppose Big Mac's set up the Orbital Friendship Cannon yet?"
Applejack blinked slowly. "Since...when was that Big Mac's responsibility?"
"I dunno, but he was fully qualified for it so he went off to arm it while I distracted it."
HATE DETECTED.
FIRING ORBITAL FRIENDSHIP CANNON.
Applejack's hat was blown off her head as a giant laser beam incinerated the monstrous flyder.
"And that takes care of that," she said, leaping after her hat.
"I'll go get a new barn from Barns'n'Bombs," Apple Bloom sighed.
Applejack did a double-take. "Barns'n'what?"
Apple Bloom shrugged. "We have weird stores."
201.14 (Anon e Mouse Jr.)
At the head of her classroom, Cheerilee looked out at her students, her eyes lingering on each of the five whom she’d hoped would be Awake, but had shown no signs of it so far. “Now, if you would please pass your homework assignments forward, everypony…”
She was very happy when most of them immediately began doing so, though there were a few odd ones who hadn’t. Snips was among them, which didn’t surprise her.
What did surprise her was that Apple Bloom was sitting at her desk, looking down. In both senses of the word. She made no effort to get her assignment out of her saddlebags, and Cheerilee decided to go over and talk with her.
“Apple Bloom?” She rested a hoof on her student’s shoulder. “Can I have your assignment, please?”
The little Earth Pony filly looked up her, almost tearful. “I’m sorry, Miss Cheerilee. I don’t have it.”
“Don’t have it? Why in Equuis not?” Cheerilee asked her.
“Well… I did do it last night… but on my way here this morning, I ran into some… great big jerk, and he took it and made sure I’d never get it back.”
Cheerilee was surprised at this. “Can you describe him, Apple Bloom? Maybe I can have a word with this fellow about bullying one of my students.”
“You can’t! He’s… awful.” She shivered. “He’s big, and grayish brown, and just brown, and red, and some other colors, and he’s got these weird mismatched horns and wings…”
Cheerilee’s blood ran cold - she knew only one being with that description, and this was the right time of the Loop. “Are you talking about Fluttershy’s guest?”
Apple Bloom nodded sadly. “Discord ate my homework, Miss Cheerilee.”
“And it was so delicious too!” a sudden voice announced, as the subject of their discussion wandered through the back of the room, still nibbling on a sheet of paper. “I see now why dogs do this sort of thing… I must try it more often!”
“Discord!” Cheerilee roared.
“That’s my name, don’t wear it out!” Discord preened.
Cheerilee felt a headache building, as she always did when dealing with the unAwake draconequus. “Excuse me, Apple Bloom.” Marching over to the supposedly-reforming-villain, she pointed a hoof at him. “You.”
“Yes?”
“You have done something absolutely unforgivable this day.” Cheerilee rose up and stuck her face in his. “You made one of my students cry.”
Discord suddenly felt a shiver of fear down his spine as he looked into her eyes. “Erm, parley?” he tried weakly.
Two hours later, Discord was still sitting at a desk of his own, hurriedly scribbling and grumbling all the time, under Fluttershy’s watchful supervision.
Meanwhile, outside, Cheerilee was talking to Twilight and Applejack while her eyes occasionally flicked over to the students having recess, including Apple Bloom as she played with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. “I decided to make the punishment fit the crime,” she said. “Since he ate Apple Bloom’s math assignment, he has to redo it, along with all the other assignments in one of our math books. Without using any of his magic to do so - that’s why I asked Fluttershy to watch over him.”
“Well shucks,” Applejack said. “Thank’n you so very much for being so understanding with Apple Bloom today, Miss Cheerilee.”
“It’s no problem at all,” Cheerilee replied. “She’s a joy to have in the class. But regardless of how I feel about them... nopony hurts one of my students and gets away with it.”
“Well, hopefully he’ll learn his lesson,” Twilight replied. “Say, you want to come over to my place after he’s done in there? Spike’s been out baking with Pinkie all day, and he’s brought home some of his best work.”
“I think I’d like that, Twilight. And while we nosh, you can help me grade, if you don’t mind.”
“I’d love to!” the Anchor exclaimed.
Applejack rolled her eyes, but she was still smiling. “Well, I’d best be gettin’ home. Thanks again for everything.”
“I’ll see you later, Applejack!” Cheerilee promised.
Once the other mare had left, she turned to Twilight. “And thank you for getting Fluttershy here so quickly,” she said.
Twilight smiled. “You’re welcome, Cheerilee.” Then she looked towards the school. “Hopefully he’ll learn his lesson after this.”
“If he doesn’t, I have a workbook full of Sudoku puzzles with his name on it, and he’ll need to finish all of them before he can go.”
Twilight smiled at that.
201.15 (Detective Ethan Redfield, Kinsfire)
Twilight awoke at the doors to Celestia's school for gifted unicorns. She started pulling up her memories when Shiny's voice cut through her thoughts, "Uh, Twily, I'm sorry."
Blinking, she looked at her brother, who was rubbing the back of his mane. Something wasn't right. Shining Armor continued, "I know you've put so much effort into this, studied so hard, even acing an exam that was newly re-written. Truth is, they'll never let you pass the next test. The examiners...well they are on Blueblood's payroll...though I don't have proof of that, and since I was responsible for outing him during an affair with a commoner..."
Twilight blinked as she recalled the test. Shining wasn't kidding. Her test was filled with theorems that even the greatest unicorns of baseline hadn't been able to solve. There was one question on Clover's Conundrum from that fused loop with Dexter's Lab, incomplete translation spells from one version of first contact where she had created a fairy race just to translate the human language, even questions on the various governments that only exist in human worlds. Someone clearly had a means of traversing to Canterlot High. No unicorn baseline or otherwise could have passed that test, but to her amazement her baseline self had proved up to the challenge...no, surpassing the challenge. Her smirk turned wicked. Baseline me was something else this loop.
She sauntered towards the door and looked at her big brother. "Don't worry, I got this."
The doors flew open, issuing the unicorn to the center of the room. The doors shut before Shining Armor could follow. Every single proctor glared at the Unicorn. One, an older stallion that said, "Twilight Sparkle, you're late. As punishment-"
Twilight's saddlebag opened, a paper containing the time of the test written at the top flew to the proctor. "You'll see at the top I'm not. Further, it was stamped with Celestia's seal herself. Speaking of which, where is Celestia? Shouldn't she be watching these exams?"
The older stallion didn't so much as blink, but the other proctors seemed to grow more irritable. He just smirked, "Cocky filly, aren't you? Well, let's see you pass this challenge. Celestia is busy with day court matters and couldn't attend."
A butler pony wheeled in a familiar egg, though it was brown. She frowned at it as the head proctor said, "You're task is to hatch the egg. Do so and you will be admitted into school. Fail, and you'll have to try next year. Don't harm the dragon inside if you know what's good for you. You have 20 minutes, good luck."
Twenty Minutes, She thought to herself incredulously. Her frown deepened, feeling distinctly insulted at being given so much time. Her horn glowed as the light of a diagnostic spell washed over the egg. The spell told her nothing, which was strange, since even in other universes, the spell could tell her something. It was as if a large blank spot existed in the center of the room. She tried lifting the cart, only for nothing to happen. Blinking, her frown twisted into a smirk. Anti-magic generator, localized to a 1 meter distance.
They really intended to fail her through any means. She overcharged her spell, increasing its intensity quickly enough to not lose too much time but controlled enough not to accidentally damage the egg. At an energy throughput that would make an archmage blush, sparks started shooting from the cart as the generator failed. Immediately she cut the spell. The egg glowed ever so slightly, causing Twilight to look at the proctors again. They seemed to grow more irritable. She once again cast the diagnostic spell, noting the presence of a dozen well-crafted stasis spells present on the egg. The future seemed to play out momentarily in her mind eye. The five proctors had not performed the spells, and the anti-magic generator would tear through the stasis spells like paper, meaning other unicorns were hidden in the room somewhere.
Her eyes centered on the main proctor, who seemed very cocky. Since she was still not getting an accurate reading on the egg, her magic shifted from an Equestrian diagnostic spell to a Hogwarts one. There it was, for the briefest moment she got a reading before the blocking spell adjusted and knew why they were so confident in her failure. The dragon within was dead. Upon her failure to hatch the egg, she'd be blamed for its death and permanently blacklisted from the school. And no matter how good her baseline self had proven, that filly wouldn't have stood a chance here.
But the proctors didn't count on something, this wasn't a filly, she was a looper. Her horn glowed a multitude of colors as a new barrier spell erupted around the egg. Sure enough, her barrier registered an impact designed to crush the egg. The proctors blinked in surprise as twilight dismantled the stasis spells in less than a minute. Finally, the magic surrounding her horn turned white as she cast a resurrection spell. The egg shifted from brown to purple. The proctors blanched and even the head proctor was frowning.
With a final application of magic, the shell burst, revealing a bright eyed Spike. She gently lifted the dragon from the cart and planted him on her back. She smirked at them and asked, "So, do I pass? Or do you have another challenge for me?"
Celestia was unhappy. Someone had delayed her appearance at her school. There was a very promising student testing today, and she had wanted to be there for the young filly’s test. She came to a stop outside the door to the faculty area, listening to the conversation within.
“…care what you say, we’re not failing her. She hatched a dead dragon egg after we trapped it to Tartarus and back! She shorted out the magic dampeners, she kept our other unicorns from crushing the egg, she … did I mention that she hatched a live dragon out of an egg that held a dead dragon?!?”
She raised an elegant eyebrow. Either Twilight Awoke since I last spoke with the filly, or this Unawake Twilight truly is a prodigy! A quick ping showed that quite a few were awake – including Twilight. Could have been stealthing, or just Woke up. Doesn’t really matter. She thought for a moment more. Hmm, do I hit the occupants with polite fury at their maneuvering, or do I remind them just who ACTUALLY runs things? She made her decision as she reached for the doorknob, already suspecting one of the ponies that she would find inside the room.
The occupants of the room spun to face the door as it opened, fury in their eyes. Until, of course, they saw precisely who they were about to order out of the room. “Princess Celestia! What brings you here?” And yes, Blueblood was in here, which meant that the stories about him ‘having it in for’ Shining Armor were true. We’ll see how he likes this…
“Well, there had been a student’s examination that I had hoped to sit in on, but there was apparently a scheduling mishap. I was sent to meet somepony who I am not supposed to meet until next week at this time. But a mistake like that is understandable – after all, I am well over a thousand years old, so the occasional memory lapse happens.” Her tone was light and cheerful, with an almost giggly sound to it. The eldest of the proctors who had been involved in Twilight’s testing winced, recognizing that sound as not a pleasant one, but more of a ‘someone is going to getting a punishment that will make them famous’ tone.
“Now, as I was approaching, I believe I heard something about Miss Sparkle managing to hatch that dragon egg? I am so very pleased by that, because it can only help strengthen the treaties that we have with the Dragon Lord. After all, with the agreement we have with them to protect any eggs that come into our care by any means? An egg that was allowed to expire would lead to no end of diplomatic issues with them, and I don’t want to think how many of my little ponies would have died here in Canterlot if they chose to mobilize. Dragon fire burns hot enough to make me notice, mind you, and I have literally bathed in the sun’s fires. And if something had actually smashed the egg? The rage of the dragons would have been epic – and by that I mean that epics would be written about it by the few survivors of their rampage. I would have no choice but to have attempted to appease them by finding out precisely who had allowed a dragon egg to die, and then offer the pony or ponies to the dragons. It would likely at least keep them to a mere uneasy state of what I believe is called a cold war, with both sides waiting for the other horseshoe to fall off.”
She waved a hoof as if none of that was an issue. “But Twilight hatched the dragon, which I admit is something of a surprise. I shall have to look her up and see how she is dealing with effectively being a mother at such a young age.” She is, after all, only a few billion years old by now? Celestia asked herself, keeping the smile off her face. She quickly shook her head, her mane flowing gently around it. Those who paid attention, though, would note that it was sparking occasionally, as if there were small solar flares flashing within. “What I would like to talk about now? Her amazing test scores. Completely ignoring the practical test that she was given here today, I was looking at the written tests that she took, and I am utterly astonished by the amazing work that she did. A silly bureaucratic mix-up had someone give her a post-graduate theoretical test, where the student is graded by how much sense they make out of as yet unproven Theorems.” She looked to the proctors. “As you know,” she said in a voice that was telling each one of them exactly how much she knew about how much involvement each of them had had in the current situation, even though it was still sounding light and airy to the uninitiated, “we use that test to see what direction would best serve them in post-graduate work. Our little Twilight was so amazing that she actually answered some of those questions such that there are some of our scientists running around attempting to verify her answers as being correct! She even explained ways to begin the testing of her answers, which makes her a true treasure that would have been criminal to have lost!”
She paused, allowing the barely veiled threats disguised as pleasant conversation to sink in to the listeners. She could see Blueblood blanching more and more with every word. Once again, she kept her smile purely internal. She finally spoke again, as if an idea had just struck her. “I see that Twilight Sparkle should not be a student at this school.” She watched as they perked up slightly at such a pronouncement. “After all, if Miss Sparkle is that good, then we should be moving her straight into post-graduate work.” She cocked her head as if thinking. “She showed a rather adult point of view in her answers, now that I think more about it. So adult that I may talk to her about running the department, rather than being a graduate or post-graduate student. It would give her a chance to study so many other things here in Canterlot, such as politics and the dirty dealings that are always a part of them.” Her gaze locked solidly on Blueblood at that point. “Actually, from previous conversations that I’ve had with the delightful young filly who I already consider my personal protégé -” Blueblood was white enough now that even Rarity would look grey by comparison “- I believe that I will put her in the position of Viceroy to the Throne of Equestria, which would place her second in line for the throne, behind only myself and my sister Luna, once she returns.” Her tone became the most cheerful it had been thus far, and the eldest proctor actively cringed. She gave him the smallest of nods in response to his obvious intelligence. “So, my dear Blueblood, due to your excellent service to the Crown, I shall give you the position of Assistant Viceroy. You will be Twilight Sparkle’s second in command.” Her tone changed to one that most would consider a normal tone, turning it into the death knell that it was surely meant to be. “May you serve her well, Blueblood. Remember, all eyes in Equestria will be upon you once you take up that position.” She turned and left the room, now humming as the door closed.
She found herself fighting a major fit of giggles once she had left the wing. The look on Blueblood’s face when he realized the Doom I pronounced upon him. Not only is he subservient to someone he sees as a child, but he is so close to the throne that he loses most of his ‘influence’, since he’ll be under so much more scrutiny now. She finally let go of the giggles she had been suppressing. I can’t wait to tell everyone at Mac’s bar.
She was finally able to get free for the day (well, a few hours at best, to be honest) and made her way to the bar that Big Macintosh set up in-Loop every time he was Awake. She was so looking forward to telling them all about how she’d managed to put thi s Blueblood in his place!
The door opened and she saw Twilight sitting at the bar, with Spike to her left and Rarity to her right. Both had her in a hug as she finished crying.
“It’s silly, right? I’ve been around for so long, with so many iterations on Spike – brother, son, romantic rival – and wasn’t that a strange loop? – and it took until this Loop for it to hit me.” Twilight turned to face Spike. “There was just … something … about that dead egg you were in.”
“I would’ve been back in the next Loop, Twilight,” he replied in a comforting tone.
“Oh, I know that,” Twilight said with a sniff. Mac slid some tissues across the bar wordlessly, and she nodded her thanks before somewhat noisily using one and discarding it properly in a nearby trash can. She shook her head as if to clear it. “There was just something that … I went the whole day without it affecting me, and it was only when I started to tell everyone here about my day that it struck me that if I hadn’t Awoken, not only would this Twilight not have had a good life, all because Blueblood wanted to hurt my brother, but the far worse thing is that she would not have had the simple joy of having you in my life.”
“No attempting to steal my husband, darling,” Rarity quipped from beside her.
Twilight giggled, and Celestia could see that Rarity had been aiming for just such a reaction. “He’s too much dragon for me, Rarity,” Twilight replied with a chuckle. “You’re the better mare as far as that’s concerned.”
Twilight hugged Spike quickly and then turned to face Rarity fully. “But you of all ponies can understand why I was so affected. You know how lonely it is when you’re in a Loop where you don’t even have an Unawake version of him. Yes, you know that he’ll be back in another Loop, but for that one? Lonely.”
She turned back toward the bar in order to ensure that she could turn her head to get Spike back within her vision. “I don’t think I’ve ever told you what a wonderful son/brother/assistant … friend you are Spike. And it was that loss that I averted that started me crying, no matter how silly it was that I was crying over something that didn’t happen.”
Celestia cleared her throat and spoke up finally, in a soft voice. “And that reaction is the true testament to Spike. That the mere concept of his loss from your life hit you so deeply.”
“Aw, c’mon,” Spike said, turning that interesting shade he blushed when embarrassed. “I’m just me. I’m nothin’ special!”
“You’re my friend,” Twilight said as she leaned over and kissed his forehead. “As far as I’m concerned, that make you quite special, at least to me. I know I don’t say it enough, but thank you for putting up with me for as long as you have. I know that life is more difficult when you’re not in Loop with me.”
Spike couldn’t say anything, so he just sat there, blushing.
Celestia walked to the bar. “I had originally come in to regale Big Macintosh with the story of Blueblood’s reaction to what I have set in motion today, but I think that will be for another time. I feel honored to have witnessed that outpouring of love.”
Twilight looked to her mentor and friend. “After that outpouring of love – and the several drinks that I ended up imbibing because of it – I think I’d like to hear this.” She quickly turned and hugged Spike. “Don’t ever forget that I love you, Spike,” she said in a voice thick with emotion.
“Never, Twilight,” was his equally emotional response as he returned the hug. They both turned to Celestia.
The solar royal knew that they needed this to clear the emotional palate, so to speak, so she smiled. “Well, I ‘accidentally’ walked in on this conversation about the practical that some prospective student had taken …”
201.16 (Vinylshadow)
Celestia dragged herself into her bedroom and sank into her bed, snuggling into the covers and nuzzling her pillow.
Just as she was about to sink into the sweet embrace of sleep, a loud hammering at her door jolted her from her sleep.
Celestia burned her bed to a cinder as she rose to her feet.
Throwing the door open, she stared down at Kibitz, who wasn't even fazed.
"What."
"You've been gone for seven years since you went off to scour Fillydelphia free of Parasprites," he said, pulling out a thick scroll. "We've got a lot of catching up to do with your duties. Luna's been trying, but...well, it's Luna, so..."
Celestia blinked. "Seven years?"
She stared off into the distance with a frown. "Hm...that explains a lot..."
Shaking her head, she turned back to Kibitz. "So, what's changed while I was battling Parasprites for over half a decade?"
"Discord returned, Shining Armor and Mi Amore Cadenza got married, Changelings invaded, the Crystal Empire returned, Twilight Sparkle became a Princess, the Elements of Harmony were returned to the Tree of Harmony, Tirek absorbed all the magic in Equestria and got whupped by Twilight Sparkle, a neurotic pony with an Equalist complex became Twilight's student after going back in time to rewrite history, Shining Armor and Cadence had a baby, the Changelings returned and were reformed... It's been quite hectic."
Celestia blinked slowly before dragging a hoof down her face. "Right. Well, I'm tired, so I shall take one more day to sleep, then get on all that."
Without another word, she slammed the door and turned to her bed. Or rather, the pile of ash that was once a bed.
With a groan, Celestia opened her closet and pulled the sleeping bag out.
Luna trotted up beside Kibitz as he carefully changed the List of Things Celestia Had To Do Once She Was Fit Again.
"I told you she was fine," Luna said.
"I never said she wasn't," Kibitz said with a sniff. "I simply said that she wouldn't be up to the task of tackling the list as soon as she got back, and I was right."
Luna rolled her eyes and hoofed over five bits. "Whatever. It'll be nice to give her back her responsibilities. Politics is so boring and she's always been better at it than I was."
"So I've heard, Miss Sic-a-Bugbear-On-Them," Kibitz said dryly.
Luna scoffed as she penned a quick letter to Twilight.
Cellie's not Awake, but she's back. Once she's rested, I'll be turning duties over to her. Tea at 3 tomorrow?
Sending it off, Luna flexed her wings. "I'll be taking tomorrow off. Can you handle that?"
"Yes, yes," Kibitz said, scribbling on another scroll. "Enjoy the rest of your vacation."
201.17 (DrTempo)
Angel Bunny was reading a paper, as Ivory Scroll was reading the recently published Friendship Journal. Ivory Scroll closed the book and stated, "This is a good book, I will admit."
Angel Bunny then pulled a sign out (a trick learned from Bugs Bunny), saying, 'You have seen how everypony reacted to it on baseline, right?'
Ivory Scroll chuckled. "Of course. It was like watching Daring Do fans complain about the latest book whenever one was written."
Angel Bunny then used another sign to say, 'Yeah. Them and every other book series, and comic series, and...Grr...you get the idea!'
"You have a point there. But, we should be surprised, though. At least there are those that are learning from this book, and that is what matters."
Angel Bunny chuckled. 'Yeah. But not many.'
201.18 (fractalman)
In the middle of a clearing, Gilda squirmed and shifted as she struggled to keep a bowling pin balanced on her head, flat side down. Zecora, by contrast, barely even breathed as she kept a ten-foot gardening stake on her head.
"Alright, Zecora, we've been at this for a whopping four loops now, and I still don't get it. How are you-"
"ZZZZZ".
Gilda frowned, and swiped at the pole, only for it to remain very firmly attached. Her eyes narrowed even further.
"ZECORA!!!"
Zecora jumped up and flailed, her chosen pole crashing into a tree even as she crashed into the ground, and STILL it remained attached to her head.
"On the bright side, I've finally figured out what you were trying to teach me: you're supposed to cheat at these balancing exercises, because the balancing isn't even the point. Right?"
Zecora may as well have turned into Big Mcintosh. "That's...that's not..."
Gilda snickered.
201.19 [D&DC/MLP:FiM][katfairy]
Hank stared at Tiamat, sensing her surprise through their link. Whatever was going on, she hadn’t seen this coming either. Tiamat was—had been—solidly built, and her scales had been glossy but opaque; Hank had always compared them to a classic hot rod’s paint job. Now, however, while still large, her body was sleeker, more aerodynamic; her heads more graceful; and her scales literally looked like polished jewels.
“Uh, Dungeon Master?”
“I am afraid I am as lost for an explanation as you, Ranger.” Dungeon Master’s voice had deepened, but was still recognizable as his. “It may be that when you restored balance to the Realm, it recognized that Tiamat had changed and altered her form to reflect that change. Or perhaps it was simply a strange interaction between her own innate magic, her Element, and the magic released with Venger’s soul.”
“Something else to figure out, but it’ll probably—“ Hank broke off, surprised by what he could only describe as a disturbance in the Force, even if he’d never been a Jedi. He looked around, noticing various reactions: Dungeon Master and Venger both paled, eyes widening; Tiamat’s heads snapped up, glaring toward the northeast; Presto glanced around wildly; Luna and Twilight stiffened. And Eric froze. That was worrying. “Okay, that’ll definitely have to wait. Nameless is on his way, and I don’t think we want to be facing him up here with that abyss at our backs. Or the touchy volcanos next door. I figure we’ve got maybe ten minutes to plan where we want to face him. Any suggestions?”
“The Forsaken Desert,” Luna said without hesitating. “It’s very much like the Hub’s Atacama Desert: dry, barren, lifeless. Over a hundred miles in any direction before you can find even the smallest signs of life.”
“Sounds good. Any arguments?”
“She has chosen wisely,” Dungeon Master said. “There are other locations that would also serve our purpose, but the Forsaken Desert has the added benefit of being comparatively close. Still, it would be best if we combined our magic in order to transport us there.”
“Good idea,” Twilight agreed. “No sense in one of us draining themselves before the battle. I’m ready whenever you guys are.”
The mass teleport took seconds, and the second they were there, the planning started.
“Dungeon Master, how long before he reaches us?”
“We have confused him somewhat with the blending of our powers, but he will quickly discern our whereabouts. I do not expect the last sun to have set before his arrival.”
“Half an hour, tops, then.” Hank looked over at Twilight and Luna. “Luna, I know this is your first time here, but I don’t remember if Twilight has ever had to face Nameless before. I’d been thinking she hadn’t, but I don’t remember all the details of all the Loops and you might have been here when I wasn’t Awake.”
“I have,” Twilight said, frowning, “but you’re right, I think. I don’t remember facing anything on this level here. My few Loops here, either you were Awake and made sure it didn’t happen, or the one time you weren’t, I had been keeping track in the Guide, so when we found that chest, I made sure to keep hold of it and handed it over to Dungeon Master unopened. Can you give me an idea of what level power I can use without crashing the Loop?”
“We’re up against your basic Cthulian-style eldritch abomination; start with facing an evil, unAwake Discord and build from there. We can let Luna try RCV first, but we’ll need to move quick if it doesn’t work.”
“When,” Luna said. “Unless this Loop decides it wants to run entirely on silly jokes, I rather doubt it will work on anything of that magnitude. Which is not to say that I do not wish to try. I think I know precisely what to call him.”
“Go for it. Dungeon Master, Venger, we’re going to be pulling all sorts of random tricks, anything we can think of to keep Nameless from killing us or destroying the Realm.”
“I have learned to expect nothing less,” Dungeon Master replied. “And this is not a time to hold back. We truly are fighting for the continued existence of the Realm, not just ourselves.”
“Although the Realm’s continued existence is moot should the Dragonkin fall.”
“Thanks, Tiamat. Real helpful.”
“Uh, guys, I’ve got a question,” Sheila said. “If Nameless is a god, and you’re going to try to match him, could that damage this Loop?”
Hank started to answer before realizing he didn’t have one. He looked over at Twilight and Luna. Luna, for her part, shrugged and turned her gaze toward Twilight, who stood quietly, thinking. After a few seconds, she shook her head.
“I don’t know. In theory, it shouldn’t, but there’s no guarantee. I do have a spell that can track the stability of a Loop; I’ve needed it back home for more reasons than you want to know.”
“Cast it. And the second the Loop starts to destabilize? Blast me.” Hank cut off the loud protests from the non-Loopers/Loop-Aware with a sharp gesture. Twilight winced, but nodded, and Tiamat growled a notably irascible assent. Hank, knowing if he didn’t say something, his well-meaning friends would try to protect him, figured he’d better explain. “If the Loop gets destabilized, it could get a non-reformed Venger Looping, or start one of you guys Looping with some sort of glitch like one of Twilight’s friends who has—how many different minds does she have in her head now? Seven? Eight? And there’s a guy in another Loop who can’t pick up any abilities from outside his home Loop. And there are Loopers whose memories of parts of their baseline are just gone. Not like us, where our background changes every Loop, which is bad enough; they know exactly what’s missing and that they may never get it back, even when the Loops end. The Loop could start getting more Variants, which is not always a good thing. It could start crashing more easily, which is really not a good thing. Long story short: it’s better for them to kill me before the Loop gets permanent damage. It’s not my favorite plan, but I’d rather take the hit than risk you guys.”
“He is right. I would kill him myself before risking the entire world.” Tiamat’s five heads gazed over all of them, her faces bearing identical somber expressions. “Better a death that will be undone in the next Loop than the chance that there will no longer be a Realm from which to Loop at all.”
“That can happen?” Eric squeaked. All of the older Loopers nodded.
“It has,” Twilight said. “Twice that I know of, and while one was restored, it was only because of ridiculously good luck. The other one is gone so completely that nopony—not even the Original Seven—has any idea what it was. Only that it used to exist and now it doesn’t. That’s not likely to happen here, but it isn’t impossible. Which is why, if the Loop does start to destabilize, I’ll call down Final Strike on both of us. Remember, I’m an Anchor, too.”
Hank froze. He hadn’t forgotten, not really, but he had forgotten just what that meant. Well, if he’d had any doubts about how seriously Twilight was taking this, that took care of the last of them. It also took care of anyone’s desire to talk; the rest of the preparations were done in silence, until the telltale roar could be heard echoing from the distant mountains. As one, they turned to look toward the sound, falling into a formation that would protect the less-powerful while still allowing them to attack when and if they could.
The enormous dark cloud boiled up and over the horizon, a cross between a time-lapse of a massive supercell storm and a pyroclastic flow. Only worse. The surges of light inside the cloud were in colors that had no name and could barely be comprehended by mortal minds, even Looping ones, and even from that distance, the older Loopers and the mages could feel the malevolence of the unleashed power. Hank didn’t try to pretend he wasn’t terrified, but he stood his ground all the same. This had to be done.
Luna took a deep breath and stepped forward, dropping all pretense of not being effectively a goddess. Power radiated from her as she began to look more real than her surroundings.
“REMOVE THYSELF FROM THIS PLANE FORTHWITH, THOU ELDRITCH SLUMGULLION!!!”
The response was not what they’d hoped, but about what they’d expected: a massive bolt issued from the cloud, only to shatter on impact with the shield the various magic-workers had set up beforehand. Luna sighed, shrugging.
“Okay, so third time isn’t the charm,” Twilight said. “Didn’t think it would be, but you never know. Hank, it’s your Loop, so it’s your call: do we risk full power if it looks like we’ll lose? Or do we use the rest of our power to hide until it’s gone?”
“Well, the best we’ve ever done against this is a stalemate.” Hank frowned as he thought, keeping an eye on the approaching Cloud O’ Doom, which was approaching a little more slowly but not attacking. “It’d be nice to win for once, but not if it endangers the Loop. So… I’m going to say keep that spell running that warns you about destabilization, and if you can safely go full power, then do it.”
Twilight nodded, turning back to face Nameless. She let loose some more of her power, knowing that Hank was doing the same. She glanced over at Eric, not surprised to see him whiter than ever, gripping his shield so hard she worried that he’d hurt himself. But he wasn’t running. Once, that wouldn’t have been the case, but he’d gained a backbone in his baseline and added to it during the Loops. She doubted he’d run, but what she wasn’t sure of was if he’d freeze once the fight really started, either from terror or because of some unexpected effect from having looked directly at Nameless.
A tectonic rumble distracted her from that line of thought; Nameless was about to attack again. Another massive bolt shot out of the cloud, heralding a bombardment that battered the shield, straining it but not yet breaking it. The kids all looked to Hank, who nodded.
“Drop the shield when I give the word. Okay, guys, we’ve done this before, but this time we need to time it just right. Me, to Presto, to Sheila, to Diana, to Bobby, to Eric, to Tiamat. Got it?”
Eric jumped, which the others ignored as they all agreed with Hank’s plan. Hank readied an arrow, firing it at Presto. The golden blast disappeared inside the magic hat, emerging as a ball of green light that floated over to Sheila, who flung her cape over it for a moment. That done, the now-lavender orb made its way to Diana, transmuting to an orange glow as she batted it with her staff. Bobby’s club hit it with a surprisingly loud smack, turning it blue and speeding it up even further, so that it ricocheted off Eric’s shield. A red globe zoomed toward Tiamat, who inhaled with all five heads.
“DROP IT NOW!!!”
The shield came down just as Tiamat blasted the group magic with fire, ice, lightning, acid, and poison. It made no sense that the result would be a massive blast of rainbow magic, but nobody was going to complain about it, except perhaps for Nameless. The massive cloud actually wavered, and both Venger and Dungeon Master didn’t hesitate to add their own magic to follow up. Luna took to the skies before firing off attacks of her own, and Twilight joined her, firing off Tirek-just-fried-my-tree-again-level blasts to establish just how much power it took to affect the enemy.
A lot, as it turned out. Not that Twilight was surprised; he was capable of turning square miles of terrain into molten slag just as a side effect, after all. And his attacks were not subtle, which made them easy to dodge but still dangerous. Even a casual brush by one could be fatal. There was a lot of power being flung around by both sides, and Twilight took a few seconds to add a safeguard to the spell monitoring the Loop’s stability: if they did start to destabilize, an octarine flare would go off. Since that only existed in Discworld without the direct action of a Looper causing it elsewhere, it would be an unmistakable and unmissable alert.
Another rainbow blast slammed into Nameless, followed by a third in short order and a fourth not long after that. The blasts weren’t on a par with the full power of the Elements of Harmony, but they were doing a good job and buying the group enough time to get the most powerful attacks ready. Twilight upped her own power, hoping they could at least give Nameless enough of a fight that he’d decided it just wasn’t worth the hassle. It wasn’t likely, but she’d seen more powerful/evil forces do just that in other Loops. It would all depend on whether Nameless was scheming evil or just destructive evil; the first would cut his losses, but the second wouldn’t care as long as he destroyed them.
The attacks kept coming from both sides, and around them the sands were fused into great patches of glass. Hank was keeping the fumes and some of the heat away from the landbound contingent with his Airbending, but splitting his attention meant that the kids’ attacks became more spread out. Venger and Dungeon Master took up the slack, but even combined their magic wasn’t as effective as the Elements. As powerful, but not as effective, if only because the Elements had a purity to their energy that intelligent beings very rarely had in any Loop, let alone this one.
The power in the air was nearly palpable, but the warning spell remained quiet; apparently the Realm could handle near-deity-scale magic wars. Which made sense, considering, but most of the Loopers knew better to rely on common sense when gauging how much a Loop could take, because doing so rarely ended well. Still, it was holding up just fine with the current level of power, so Twilight felt safe in stepping it up a bit more. Nameless’s attacks faltered just the tiniest bit when she did, but her spell remained stable; both were good signs. She risked a direct look at the great cloud, feeling both relieved and disappointed when she saw that, while it was showing some signs of damage, it was still mainly intact and concealing Nameless.
Luna had apparently noticed what Twilight had done, because her next blast severed a chunk of cloud, which dissipated. Nameless didn’t like that; a bellow like a thousand tornadoes echoed across the wasteland. An even bigger bolt than before issued from the cloud, and the only reason it wasn’t disastrous was because Dungeon Master and Venger combined their attacks to fire along with the Elements. The resultant explosion knocked everyone around a bit, and the ground-based combatants were left sprawling. Luna, Tiamat, and Twilight rushed to cover them, barely making it in time. Venger was on his feet quickly, followed more slowly by Hank and then Dungeon Master, and Bobby was sitting up while rubbing his head, but the other kids were—no, Diana and Presto were getting up and helping Sheila up as well. Which just left Eric. Who wasn’t moving. At all.
“Tiamat! Can you distract Nameless for a little while? Luna, we need to set up Starswirl’s Overpowered Shield Version 3.4!”
“With pleasure; this new body has powers I shall enjoy exploring.”
“Isn’t 3.4 the one that—ah. Yes. Of course. Well, if you don’t think that will crash the Loop…”
The two alicorns landed, reaching into their Pockets for the required components. Twilight had any number of geodes just sitting in a basket, so she snagged one, added a cashmere thread to a vial of fermented pumpkin juice, and dropped it into the platinum chalice Luna provided, stirring it with a glass swizzle stick. It was a deceptively simple spell; the incantation was quite basic and the ingredients were few and not that hard to come by, but they were also quite specific, even to the vessel used to contain them. All had to be pure, or at least as pure as anything fermented could be, and the age of both the thread and the juice had to be within a certain highly narrow margin. Luckily, they could be kept in stasis spells to keep them at that exact level.
“It’s ready,” Luna said as the geode dissolved with a sparkle. Twilight nodded and put her hooves over Luna’s as the two spoke the incantation.
“Throw your worst as under the shield we sit/ The same to you and thrice as much of it!
Starswirl rarely was much good at rhymes, however brilliant a wizard he had been.
The mess in the chalice erupted, spewing straight up into the air and spreading into a dome that covered the group. Twilight winced as she realized that Tiamat was still out there, but the dragon hadn’t even tried to get to safety. There was nothing that could be done about that, but there might be something that could be done about Eric, so Twilight turned to him. Hank and Venger were kneeling by him, with Dungeon Master frowning down at all of them. The reason for that frown was obvious: Eric’s eyes were open, but blank and staring. Twilight looked over at Hank, who shook his head.
“I tried telepathy, but there’s some sort of wall there. It’s some kind of old magic, but that’s all I got.”
“Old, yes,” Venger said, “but familiar. To me, at least. Father, how did the Cavalier gain access to the powers of the Dungeon Master, even if they are currently quite weak?”
“I can answer that,” Hank replied. “It was baseline; Eric mouthed off and Dungeon Master decided to teach him a lesson. Gave Eric his powers and went on vacation.”
“Seriously?” Twilight looked at Dungeon Master, whose eyebrows tried to disappear into his hairline.
“I am sure I must have had some insight that currently escapes me.”
“Well, he actually wasn’t too bad at it, and when it was over, you said there could be some long-term effects. I sure wasn’t expecting this, though. Why would your power turn him catatonic? --Unless he caught a glimpse of Nameless’ face again during that attack. It would be the second time, and who knows what effect that could have?”
Twilight blinked at Hank, then remembered he’d mentioned that before. It was as good a theory as any, and it was the sort of event that could trigger a latent power. If Hank was right, and she was right, things could get even more interesting.
Of course, they had to figure out how to wake Eric up first.
201.20 (DrTempo)
Shining Armor sighed. Somehow, he'd been the one sent to Ponyville instead of Twilight Sparkle(who was Awake, but was going to spend the Loop in the world beyond the mirror) this Loop. As would be usual for Twilight, he met the other Element bearers, and everything was more or less the same...Until he met Rarity.
To Shining Armor's shock, Rarity was wearing a pink getup, with her mane much like how it looked after a certain incident in baseline. Rarity was acting like her usual self, though. As Shining Armor looked confused, Rarity said in an angry tone of voice, "What do you want, pal?" Still confused, Shining Armor replied, "Just thrown for a Loop here."
Rarity chuckled, and in her usual manner of speaking, replied, "Maybe you need time to Wake up."
After Shining Armor facehooved, he stated, "I never thought you would have that hairstyle again, after what happened in baseline to have you need to have such a hairstyle in the first place."
"I've had a similar hairstyle before, Shining Armor. This was just a case where I didn't choose to do so. Though, I'm still wondering how to get Pinkie Pie back for causing me to have a bad hair day..."
Shining Armor thought for a second, and then replied, "Maybe have the same thing happen to her?" Rarity snickered.
"Why did I not think of that? Revenge is going to be sweet."
"As long as you pull said prank on an Unawake Pinkie Pie. Who knows what'll happen if you try to prank Pinkie when she's Awake."
"I do not want to know, Shining Armor." Assuming the arrogant persona she had been using this Loop, she then said, "Now scram! I have work to do!"
Shining Armor ran for it, and thought, 'Man, when Rarity is angry, she can be quite scary.'
201.21 (Vinylshadow)
Rainbow Dash stared at Celestia in disbelief.
"Run that by me again," Rainbow said.
"Starscream has sued for the Element of Loyalty," Celestia said, not even trying to disguise her amusement.
"And...it went through?" Rainbow asked, eyebrows rising.
"Do you have any idea how the Equestrian system works?" Celestia asked, matching - and outperforming - her stare.
"Well, given how often criminals walk around without a care in the world and don't have wanted posters and armed guards searching for them using their distinct coats and Cutie Marks..." Rainbow said, then winced. "Alright, I can see why it'd go through..."
Celestia nodded. "Well, I'm sure we'll be able to sort this all out and settle back down easily enough. I will not be the judge, since I'm quite biased, unfortunately. That, and it's not the Diarchy's problem."
"Right," Rainbow said. "What's the worst that could happen?"
Rainbow Dash grumbled as she handed over the keys to her house to a smugly-grinning Starscream.
"Tank likes to fly in his sleep, so make sure you tie him down before bed," Rainbow said, doing her best to keep a lid on her emotions. "If there's any problems with the clouds, call Cloudsdale and they'll send someone over to fix it."
"Thank you most kindly," Starscream said, adjusting the Element of Loyalty around his neck. To Rainbow's annoyance, it even had the gall to audibly gleam.
"Right," Rainbow said, and took flight before he could say anything else.
"Okay, that could've gone better," Twilight said as Rainbow finished unpacking her things into a room in Twilight's castle.
"I'm just trying to figure out how he got Phoenix to defend him," Rainbow grumbled. "I know he wasn't Awake, but..."
"They did have a legitimate list of grievances and things you did that cast doubt on your ability to wield the Element," Twilight gently pointed out. "Heck, we all do."
"Yet we managed to keep them until the Tree needed them and we've been able to handle everything that's doomed Equestria without them..."
"Mostly because we were barely involved in those calamities," Twilight said.
"About time," Rainbow muttered. "Let someone else handle them so we can retire and focus on our lives."
Twilight snorted. "As if you'd be able to stay away from the latest apocalyptic event."
"Guilty as charged," Rainbow said cheerfully.
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9241117
In two or decades, once the novelty has worn off, and then the sense of community slowly fades away as people try new things.
Is 201.15 based on anything?
Gotta applaud 201.12. That was a long bow to draw, but a perfect bullseye.
201.5
What did Cthlulu do? Thought last time we saw them together, he was admin-ing the arcade games.
I understood that reference.
In any case, don't strain yourself; as long as these find their way here eventually, I'm happy.
9250807
Doesn't mean that the fight doesn't fall flat and gives us no reason to believe it was a struggle and challenge that earn Gilda her ascension.
9251676
And he earned his off time.
I would very much like to know what a being so known for his treachery to the point where there’s a trope named after him and the page has a whole section dedicated to him alone plans to make ANY use of the Element Of Loyalty, unless it counts loyalty to oneself and one’s own goals, or the sheer level of Starscream’s ability to betray Loops right back around to counting as Loyal.
9252068
Alicorn-tier ascensions are caused by performing a Beyond the Impossible feat related to their special talent while in close proximity to a sufficiently powerful magical artifact (Element of Harmony, fragment of Cosmic Spectrum Stone, etc.). Gilda overcame Grogar's brand of mind magics - something that none had done before - through being brutally honest (staying true to her Element) about herself and pushed her ink magic and Pokémon skills (both of which have become her signature magics) over the limit to defeat Grogar.
I admit, I could have done a better job of showing it. But believe me, she pushed herself to the brink and beyond in that fight.
Until next time...
Anon e Mouse Jr.
9252263
I just can't wait for people to see the other ascension that we did that's coming soon.
9252743
Can't wait for that, as well as the other couple of things I know are coming that I had a hand in.
9252229
There's no real plan other than to stick it to Dashie.
9252999
Sounds about as well thought out as most of his plans.
I can just imagine the toys... Starscream, with Element of Loyalty! Only 24.99! (How I wish that price could be a joke...)
Yeah, I call shenanigans and Rainbow will get her element back ASAP
9252263
Doesn't matter what your reasoning is.
If the exicution is poor, then the exicution is poor.
9252181
Just wondering why she was wary of the guy. Felt like she was a bit miffed about something.
9253328
ya exicted about the up coming ascension?
Awesome work as always.
9253444
I literally cannot see your words on dark theme.
9254559
Whose ascension?
9253335
Could be worse. The Element of Loyalty could be sold separately.
9255399
That would be spoiling the surprise. But if you count who's left, you may figure it out.
You can also check the thread if you really want to find out....
9255888
I'll leave it a surprise then.
9255971
Just do the math of who is left to ascend.
9255608
You have a point, master marketeer! Starscream Element of Loyalty, $4.99!
9258794
It's a shame they make you pay for something that probably isn't going to live up to its name.
9259245
Starscream is loyal to himself and that's enough to wield the element
It's simply selfish instead of selfless, that's all :P
Ain't technicalities fun?
When will this be updated again. It has been far to long since there was last chapters added.
9266427
To quote the opening of the last (as of now) chapter:
Until next time...
Anon e Mouse Jr.
Don't you just hate it when you realize you forgot something?
In case you are curious about what I mean, I wrote snip 201.11, and forgot to include my name in its header.