Loops 7
7.1
“Twilight!”
Twilight looked around. It was the evening after the formation of the Elements, and the purification of Luna. Since the purple Anchor was planning on experimenting with events at the Gala, she’d done it effectively as she had in the original time line.
The pink-and-yellow alicorn hovering outside her bedroom window sort of suggested her plans were going to have to change, though.
“Cadence!” she said, quietly but happily. “Hold on.” A silence spell manifested around Spike’s bed. “Okay, come around to the balcony, I’ll let you in.”
“So you’re Looping this time?” Twilight asked, levitating over a glass of sparkling water. “It’s nice to see you. What’s the plan this time?”
“You always let me plan things, Twilight.” Cadence said, accepting the drink and sipping it. “That’s nice of you.”
“Well, it is fairly rare I see you.” Twilight reminded her. “I know it seems different from your perspective, but I do have a fair number of lonely Loops.”
“I can imagine.” After a moment, Cadence changed topics. “Anyway, there’s some good news. And I need to ask you for a few favours.”
“…okay.” Twilight answered warily, suddenly suspicious.
“Favours first.” Cadence said. “First, I’d like everything right up to my wedding to go exactly the same as it did the first time around. I’m sorry if that’s wearing on you, but I’d really like the wedding to go as planned the first time.”
“No, it’s no hardship.” Twilight assured her. “Actually, after the last loop it might be nice to relax a bit.”
“Last Loop?” Cadence pried.
“Something very energetic involving giant robots again. Fun, but after a while you just want to relax, you know?” Twilight tapped a hoof. “Though Dash did beat up that Starscream robot in a very impressive way… anyway. The second thing?”
“Do you know a temporary memory spell?” Cadence asked. “Something that temporarily – not permanently – prevents a pony from remembering something?”
“I… think I do.” Twilight said. “Or I can have one fairly soon, an adaptation of Obliviation. But why? You’re starting to worry me…”
“And third,” Cadence said, “I want you to bring a lump of Cosmic Spectrum with you when you rescue me from the mines.”
Twilight put two and two together. “Shiny’s awake?!”
“Well done.” Cadence grinned. “Yes, he is, and it’s such a relief. But you know why I’m asking for all those things?”
“Yes.” Twilight began pacing. “You want the wedding to go exactly as it did the first time, so if Shiny’s awake you’ll need him to not remember about Chrysalis – otherwise, even if he’s good at acting, his emotions will give him away. You have much better control of your emotions because that’s what your talent is about, so you’re fine, and I can fake what we need effectively. And it’s too good an opportunity to miss.”
“Precisely.” Cadence said. “Now, if we do want things to go right, we’ll have to stay out of touch for a fair while. Otherwise you’ll be just too credible…”
“I understand.” The unicorn gave a determined nod.
Twilight sat back, watching the familiar glow building on the horns of Shining Armor and Cadence. It was always impressive to watch, this, but – considering that she could see the lump of Cosmic Spectrum Cadence had stuffed into his outfit – she rather thought her brother was about to outdo himself.
With a concussive boom, the shield/exclusion spell hit criticality and bloomed outwards, picking up all the Changelings and throwing them away.
…actually, by the looks of things the shield had expanded to the size of the entire country. That was a first.
“Well done, Shiny.” Cadence said, and snapped the thread of the spell Twilight had applied last month with a quick flicker of magic.
“What- oh.” Shining Armor stood up, shakily, and looked around. “Did you block my memory of last time that – that… of last time Chrysalis attacked?”
“Yes.” Cadence said, looking down and shuffling her hooves. “But it was for a good cause.”
“Really?” Shining asked. “Really?”
“Yep.” Cadence flicked a hoof out, and Shining’s thought processes abruptly shut down as his girlfriend tapped him on the wing.
“Darling…” he asked, with impressive calmness, “Why do I have wings?”
“I said it was for a good cause,” she replied impishly. Then glanced over at Twilight. “You can explain things, right?”
“Think so.” Twilight replied. “I’ll say it was a wedding gift you were going to give, and explain to Celestia and Luna a shortened version of what happened. But in my experience it takes an hour for the wedding to get back on track, so be back by then.”
“Right.” Cadence nodded her thanks, then grabbed Shining Armor in a curtain of magic and teleported fifty miles east to an unoccupied country estate.
7.2
Twilight watched as Gilda ranted, berating Dash and every other pony in the room.
She knew it was hard on her friend to face this, and more so when she’d recently started looping and had to face it more than once…
The griffin finally finished, panting, and turned to go.
“Wait.” Dash said, the calm word sounding all the louder by contrast with Gilda’s shouts.
Gilda turned, almost against her will.
“Look,” the pegasus continued. “I’m not good at speaking – you know that – so sorry if this isn’t all fancy and… I’m making this up as I go, okay? I… I do like you. You’re one of my oldest friends. You were there for me, back at flight school…”
Everyone else was silent, listening to Dash’s voice. She’d lost the calm she’d had earlier, and the words were strained.
“But… I don’t know. Maybe you’ve changed, maybe I’ve changed, maybe I’m just noticing it now and I didn’t care before. But you just… you aren’t nice. More importantly – though it shouldn’t be – you aren’t nice to my other friends.” Twilight spotted that Dash’s eyes were shining with unshed tears, and a look over at Gilda showed that the griffin’s own face was screwed up like she didn’t know what to think.
“Please, Gilda.” Dash said, her voice wavering. “Don’t make me choose between my friends.”
Gilda blinked, scowling, then shook her head. “I… gaah! Why does this have to be so hard! I don’t know what to – and – aargh!”
“Look, you don’t have to be all sweetness and light. That wouldn’t be you.” The ghost of a smile crept across Dash’s face. “Just… I dunno, give me your address or something. We’ll work from there.”
“Yeah, I guess that works.” Gilda said, then looked around at the other ponies. “This never happened, okay?”
Twilight nodded encouragingly. “For some reason, I’ve been struck blind. And deaf.”
“Me too!” Pinkie said. “Ooh, where am I?”
Gilda surprised herself with a tired chuckle. “Heh. Okay, fine. I think I know your address. I’ll send you a letter after I think it over, alright?”
“That’s fine.” Dash nodded. “Hey, maybe you can come to the Best Young Fliers. I’ve got a great set planned!”
“Wouldn’t miss it.” Gilda said, and Twilight realized she meant it.
“Well done, Dash.” Twilight said, beaming. “That must have been tricky for you.”
“Yeah.” Dash replied, shaking her head. “I can’t believe I said half the stuff I said there.”
Twilight chuckled. “Yeah, funny how that works. Maybe next time you can try and get it sorted out earlier – I mean, if you get to know how she is now this loop.”
“Sure.” Dash shrugged. “I just… I dunno. Maybe she felt like how Pinkie was behaving was too much like what it was like when we were bullied? I know she stuck up for me back at Flight School.”
“Could be.” Twilight agreed. “From what I know of griffin culture, though, they’re very impressed by strength – not just strength in battle, either. Strength of character, strength of will… maybe if Fluttershy was a bit more confident, or…”
“Don’t know.” Dash replied. “Something to try out, maybe. Now I’m going to go and see if I remember how to write a letter…”
7.3
Nightmare Moon spread her wings, rearing back. “The Night Will-”
As was getting fairly normal for Equestria’s Time Loops, she didn’t finish the sentence. What was unusual, though, was that she got tackled by a gigantic purple dragon.
“Excellent work, my faithful minion!” a dark-purple-and-black alicorn boomed, eyes flaring and a wan light emanating from her. “Day and Night are outdated. This shall forever more be the land of twilight!”
“Actually,” the dragon asked, looking up from hog-tying Nightmare Moon. “How are we going to do that? I mean, the sun has to be up or down, right?”
“Use my title!” the alicorn snapped.
“Fine, then.” The eighty-foot dragon rolled his eyes. “Eternal Twilight, Lady of the Morning and the Evening. How are we going to actually do this?”
“Well… put the sun at the place it is at sunrise, and the moon at moonset.” Eternal Twilight said, her voice losing the echoing quality slightly. “You know. Like in the morning. Or the evening.”
“But…” the dragon didn’t let it go that easily, and ponies began to creep back out of their hiding places to watch. “The world is round, right?”
“Of course, Spykoranuvellitar!” Eternal Twilight answered promptly. “You know that.”
The Great Wyrm nodded. “Yeah, yeah. So… if you make it so it’s twilight in Ponyville, then if you walk forty miles east… what is it?”
“…oh.” The alicorn kicked the stage. “I didn’t think of that. It would be morning, of course. Cursed Celestia! She foils me without even trying!”
The two interlopers stood there for a moment, awkwardly shuffling their feet.
“What about overcast?” Spykoranuvellitar suggested. “Maybe you could invent glowing clouds or something.”
“Of course!” Eternal’s voice went right back to the booming, echoing shout. “Hurry, my faithful minion! We must establish a major and permanent cloudbank, which is also on fire at the top. To Cloudsdale!”
“And that’s another thing.” Spykoran added, taking flight after the alicorn and smashing a hole in the roof. “Why am I a minion?”
“Villains have minions!” the alicorn replied, and after that they were out of earshot.
Celestia blinked at the thoroughly restrained Nightmare Moon. “What on Equestria happened to you?”
“Mmmff.” Nightmare replied, rolling her eyes towards the rope tying her muzzle shut.
“Oh, sorry.” With a flash of fire, Celestia incinerated the rope. Nightmare gasped in air.
“Celestia, sister of mine… why?” Nightmare managed. “Why must you torment me so?”
“Pardon?” Celestia asked. “This wasn’t me.”
“It can’t have been coincidence.” Moon said, pointedly. “A thousand years. A thousand years on the moon, I planned my revenge. And when I got here, and announced my arrival to the world, I got halfway through my planned speech and then got body-checked by a great wyrm. It’s just not fair.”
“A great wyrm… hmmm, there aren’t any I can think of.” The Princess of the Sun mused. “Not that would get involved, anyway. And… what’s happening to the sky?”
“Don’t ask me.” Nightmare Moon finally got a spell off, and dissolved into stars before reforming with the ropes left where they’d been shed. “Is that cloud… rainbow coloured? Did you redecorate while I was gone?”
“We have ignition!” Spike said.
Twilight grinned. “This is probably a really stupid thing to do, but who cares. We’re the only ones in danger.”
‘Eternal Twilight’ dumped a last batch of liquid rainbow into the cloud layer, then kicked the pilot cloud into the main cirrostratus.
There was a huge flash, and when it died down Twilight was short most of her hair and Spike had a singed tail.
On the other hoof, the cloud layer was merrily burning.
“Success! Now to go and make my demands to Celestia!” Twilight cackled, getting back into character. “Though I might want to apply a hair regrowth spell first. I look ridiculous.”
“Don’t you have a magic… thing… with your mane?” Spike waved a claw vaguely. “You know, like Luna and Celestia do?”
“No, but it might be nice to invent one.” Twilight agreed. “I’ll ask for how they did it next time. Anyway, let’s see…” she checked a list. “Our demands include, but are not limited to… the town of Trottingham except the left half, every first edition book in Equestria, the treasury – with condiments,” she nodded to Spike, “free passes to Ponyville sauna, a cool set of armour for me, and…”
Spike started whistling.
“You added this bit, didn’t you?” Twilight asked accusingly. “The dressmaker known as ‘Rarity’ to perform Damsel in Distress duties for one day a month?”
“You know it’s not a proper horde without a proper horse.” Spike said glibly. “Actually, though… why are we doing this?”
“It is very funny.” Twilight replied.
“No, I mean what are we going to tell them?”
“Oh. Hadn’t really thought that through.” Twilight admitted. “I suppose that if we can get Celestia and Nightmare Moon to put aside their differences, that’d be nice. But the reason we’ll tell them? Hmmm…”
“Why, Twilight?” Celestia asked, pushing with her magic at Eternal Twilight’s shield. “Why did you become so twisted and dark?”
“Ahem.” Nightmare Moon interjected, horn blazing right alongside her sister.
“Sorry.” Celestia apologized. “Force of habit.”
“That’s alright.” Moon accepted her sister had simply made a slip of the tongue, and kept hammering away at the shield.
“You weren’t ready for Nightmare Moon’s return!” Eternal Twilight shouted. “Neither of you are fit to rule, and so I decided to take over!”
“And what about young Spike?” Celestia slammed her hooves on the floor, increasing the intensity of her attack.
Spykoranuvellitar, standing to one side and taking up most of the Ponyville Square, looked embarrassed. “The pay’s good. She does dental.”
Nightmare Moon suddenly looked interested. Celestia nudged her. “Stay on-task, sister!”
“Fine.” Moon grumbled. “Did you have a plan for my return?”
“You’re looking at her.” Celestia replied. “She seemed like a good fit to use the Element of Magic.”
Twilight’s shield dropped so suddenly that the two estranged royal sisters’ attack overshot, and demolished the empty library.
“Oh.” Twilight said, shrinking back into a unicorn. “You could have said. Hey, Spike, go put the clouds out.”
“Why me?” Spykoranuvellitar asked, crossing his enormous arms.
“You’re fireproof, and you still have wings.” Twilight replied. “Besides, I need to go rebuild the library.”
“…that’s it?” Nightmare Moon asked. “Seriously?”
“Shut up and stop complaining!” Celestia hissed. “Do you want to fight her again?”
“…you have a point.” Moon admitted.
Dear Princess Celestia.
Sorry about the misunderstanding. I may have overdone it a bit there. But you have to admit, it would have set my mind at rest a lot more if I’d had the sense you were doing something.
The thing I learned about friendship today is that sometimes ponies who have grudges will team up against a more important enemy, and that that can help them get over the grudges.
P.S. if Spike’s sent most of the desk with this one, that’s because I haven’t managed to undo the growth spell yet.
7.3 additional
The library door creaked open.
“Oh, who is it- Nightmare!” Twilight said, startled.
“Please, call me Luna,” the alicorn of darkness said. “My sister and I have discussed things in great detail, and I wish to put the whole sorry affair behind us. No, I was here for a different matter. I heard about this ‘Nightmare Night’. What would be a good costume?”
Twilight blinked. “Why ask me, your highness?” She looked Luna up and down. She actually looked… like she hadn’t changed anything from how she looked when she’d turned up in battle rattle to try and overthrow Celestia.
“…I don’t actually know many ponies.” Luna said. “It’s only been a few weeks, after all. And you at least know who I am.”
“True.” Twilight nodded. “Well, you’re ready.”
“I am?” Luna seemed surprised. “But the holiday is not for months!”
“Yeah, but…” Twilight shrugged. “You’re kind of the patron slash scary thing of the holiday. You could go as, er… you.”
“What are you going as, then?” Luna asked.
Twilight frowned. “I might actually go as Eternal Twilight. Hmmm… can you encourage your sister to come to Ponyville too? If she dresses up as, I don’t know… Infernal Blaze, or something?”
“Ah, a theme!” Luna said, enthused. “Much like the costume balls I remember. Yes, I shall enjoin her to do so.”
“TREMBLE IN FEAR, MORTALS!” boomed out from a black shape wreathed in stars.
“THE NIGHT SHALL NOT SAVE YOU NOW!” added a second voice, accompanied by the crackling of flames.
The light in Ponyville gradually washed out, diffused by fog into a featureless grey. “THERE IS NO HOPE OF DAWN, NO SOLACE OF THE NIGHT.”
Gradually, almost every pony in the town gravitated to the main square – which the three figures had left alone, preferring to stalk the streets instead.
Then the front of one of the houses moved. “Boo.”
Spike, Twilight, Celestia and Luna exchanged hoofbumps and high fives.
“That’s the most fun I’ve had in a century!” Celestia said, still grinning.
“Indeed, ‘twas most enjoyable.” Luna added, slipping back into archaisms.
Twilight nodded. “Though it might have gone down a bit less well if Spike hadn’t dumped so many sweets into the square – after scaring every pony silly, I mean.”
“True.” Celestia said. “Now, I wonder how we’re going to top that next year…”
7.4
“How are we dividin’ this up?” Princess Applejack asked, bodily lifting the newly statue’d Discord into position in what would become the gardens of Canterlot palace. “I mean, ah know Dash did one o’ these loops with you, but…”
“Hmm…” Princess Twilight Sparkle frowned. “What about if I get the heavens and you get the earth?”
“Seems t’ work.” Applejack nodded. “Now, what first?”
“First,” Twilight levitated up a huge stack of books. “I’m afraid we do need to get rather good at paperwork.”
“Ah, horsefeathers.” Applejack said morosely, and picked up a quill with her telekinesis. “Good thing ah went to that nice school in Manehattan that one time…”
“Er, Applejack…” Twilight ventured. “You don’t think you might be getting perhaps a little fixated?”
“What’s that, Twi?” Applejack mumbled, around a mouthful of papers. “Ah’m too busy settin’ up more land grants.”
“Yeah, that’s the thing.” Twilight spread out a map with a crackle of paper, and markers appeared. “You’ve dedicated seventy-three percent of the continent to apple production. There was a ‘please, not apples again’ riot in Trottingham!”
Applejack shrugged. “They’re ingrates, then.”
“Look… I know you’re in charge of what happens on the ground, but… there are other foods besides apples.” Twilight pressed, feeling a strangely familiar sinking sensation.
There was a whump, and the yellow-orange alicorn in front of her was consumed by crimson fire. “Say that again, Twilight Sparkle!”
Here we go again… Twilight thought to herself.
It seemed like the first time one of her friends became one of Equestria’s two rulers, they always overdid something. Twilight was probably quite lucky to have Celestia and Luna to keep an eye on her the first time, actually…
“Right.” A sceptical pegasus said to her teacher. “So you want me to go to Ponyville and make sure the sky is clear for that star show thing?”
“Yes, Dash.” Princess Twilight replied. “And take Spike with you, he needs a bit of exercise. Oh, actually, if you could handle organizing things as well?”
“Pfeh.” Dash shrugged. “If you want. What do you need?”
“Hmmm…” Princess Twilight frowned. “I think it’s on the checklist, but I’m particularly concerned about making sure there’s a mage on hand and… make sure the local schoolchildren have their trip to see the display scheduled right, as well. You should find who you need in the notes.”
“Then I am taking Spike.” Dash said firmly. “No way I’m going to read that much paperwork.”
What do you know, Twilight thought as she teleported into the familiar room of the Sisters’ castle. Loyalty was the crown this time. Neat.
Celestia as an earth pony was a bit stranger, but not by much. Her once-and-future mentor was equally comfortable as all three of the pony breeds, even more so than Luna (who was a unicorn for this particular loop).
“Well, ah screwed up.” Applejack muttered. “Nice of y’all to keep th’ ecological reforms goin’, though.”
“Least I could do.” Twilight replied sincerely. “It was amazing work.”
Then she turned to the Elements for this particular Loop. “Well done, by the way. All of you. Though… Dash, was it really necessary to carry all of them most of the way to the castle?”
“They were so slow!” Dash complained. “It was driving me nuts!”
“What did you expect?” Celestia replied. “You’re so good at pegasus magic that you’re taught by Princess Twilight.”
Celestia was an interesting one, actually. She was the schoolteacher this loop. Cheerilee, meanwhile, was part of the local ecology team.
It was always interesting, how the Loops shuffled ponies around to fit their talents.
“Anyway.” Twilight continued. “There’s a harvest festival in a few months, sister. It’s technically in your honour, so… perhaps you could spend it with these fine ponies?”
Several of the Elements flinched.
Fluttershy raised a hoof timidly. “Uh… will she let us have foods that aren’t apple based?”
Twilight turned to Applejack.
“…all right, fine,” the currently-smaller alicorn said. “But this is a big concession on my part.”
7.5 (Moonstuck)
You are Princess Twily. You are on the moon for some reason.
“Huh.” Twilight said, looking around, and noticing that she was much younger than she usually started a loop. “This is new. And by the princesses I am cute!”
You are overcome by your own cuteness.
“Hmmm…” Twilight looked up. “Where did that voice come from?”
Stop breaking the fourth wall.
“Oh, sorry. Uh… inventory?”
You have hooves. There is a chair and a fedora.
Additional from 6.3 (from Madfish) (40K universe)
Fluttershy walked among the drifts of the freezing valleys she found herself on at the start of the loop. She had had to restore her alicorn status just to survive the frozen wasteland, as the weather was the harshest she’d ever seen. She could have allowed her self to die and end the loop for herself, but if the others were here somewhere they would need her help – given that the few times she had tried a spell beyond telekinesis, she’d felt sick as if monsters had tried to climb through her horn into her skull. Besides she owed it to her current companions’ mother to make sure they grew up big and strong first.
"I hope Twilight's going to be ok," she said to the wolves beside her, "Without her magic she gets- twitchy...."
She trailed of as one of the wolves, a cub a bit larger than her pegasus self, drew her attention to a light flickering in the distance. Lights meant people, hopefully friendly people.
As they approached she found herself disappointed as all that was there was some sort of pod covered with ice. Scraping the ice of the hatch she gasped as she saw the child within.
The wolves panted, breath frosting in the air as they looked in at what had surprised their surrogate mother.
"No! You can't eat him. We're going to take this pod to shelter and we're going to help the poor dear. If no one comes for him you can think of him as your new little brother."
7.6 (from Namar13766)
"Okay, it's the Summer Sun celebration.” Twilight paced. “How do we deal with Nightmare Moon this time?"
"I already took care of it,” Rarity said, smugly.
"Rarity, do we have to worry about ending up in Hogwarts, Eikan, or the Bureau?" Twilight, and most of the others, shuddered at the thought. Rarity, for her part, simply looked indignant.
"Of course not! I’ve been planning this one for several loops."
Dash rolled her eyes cynically. "That just means it could blow up worse because you just told us."
"Dashie!” Pinkie tried to look stern, though the giggles ruined the effect. “Don't be a meanie pants!"
"Is it musical? Who's in it?"
"Well, I went to see Steven Magnet..." Rarity hinted.
"Oh-hohohoho! My mustache. How wonderful."
"You look smashing." CURSE YOU NIGEL THORNBERRY!
"I. MUST. SING."
It was a kind of sick fascination that kept Nightmare Moon watching.
"25 years and I'm alive here still...," He sang, dropping his head in sorrow.
"Trying to get up that great big hill of hope," drawing out the P with tears in his eyes.
"For a destination." He looked up with a miserable face.
"I realized quickly when I knew I should," Steven drew up his hands operatically.
"That the world was made up of this Brotherhood of man," crossing his arms across his chest.
"For whatever that means." Steven shrugged, and drew himself up.
Out of sight, Vinyl Scratch switched out the piano for a drumbeat, simultaneously making streaks of color with sparkles liberally interspersed appear.
"And so I cry sometimes when I'm lying in bed, just to get it all out what's in my head, and I'm" He threw his head back as "I" echoed.
"And I'm, I am feeling a little peculiar." His headbang was more of a headbob.
"So I wake in the morning and I step outside, and I take deep breath and I get real HIGH," looking directly at Nightmare Moon's astral form.
"And I scream from the top of my lungs, What's goin' on?" He then grabbed her, shock preventing her from reacting.
"And I say HEEEEY EY AAAEY EY AAAEY AY AY, HEEEEY EY AAAEY EY AY! I said Hey!" He brought the princess poltergeist in close.
"What’s goin' on?” Steven then dramatically flung his arms out...sending her flying.
Several Loops later
Several human loopers looked at each other with varying degrees of shock. Then they looked back at the earnest-looking purple unicorn.
“Your friends are scary,” someone muttered.
Ranma smirked. "Okay, who can beat having a villain purified by a Meterosexual British River Serpent's Singing?"
7.7 (from Mandemon)
"Mama!" A way too cheery voice shouted. Twilight grumbled in her sleep. Had one of the Crusaders got into the Library? She merely turned her head instead of waking up.
"Mama!" The voice insisted. Aww, she was having such a good nap, they didn't make beds like these often.
"MAMA!" Guess there would be no rest. She slowly opened her eyes and turned to voice the annoying voice.
"What is it Celes..." Twilight fell silent. In front of her, a filly sized Celestia stood with an incredibly grin on her face, holding a picture. Next to her, equally small and equally smiling Luna was holding her own picture.
"We made pictures!" Celestia said. Then the memories came. Twilight tried really hard not to show the rising panic on her face.
"Um... yes, they are very nice, now let mommy sleep, okay?" she managed.
"Aww, but you promised we would go see Aunty Pinkie!" Filly Luna pouted. Twilight was not sure whenever she should squee and hug her or be disturbed.
"Yes, um, we will be. Just, let mommy nap for five more minutes, okay?" She needed it. She needed a lot more time than that, actually, but five minutes was probably all she could get.
"Okay!" Both fillies ran off. Once she was relatively sure they were gone, Twilight cast a silence spell and stuffed her head into the pillow. She really did not need memories of a foal birth.
"Celestia and Discord, sitting in a treehouse, kiiiisss-"
"SHUT UP! I don't have a crush on him!" Celestia shouted at Luna, who was giggling. Twilight was still trying to adjust to the whole idea of suddenly being a parent. To her own mentor, to boot. According to her memories, she had been Chief Librarian of what was known as the Holy United Kingdom of Equestria and Griffin... lead by a several thousand years old Spike. According to those same memories, she had moved to Ponyville to raise her two children.
"Oh, hey Twilight!" Pinkie shouted. "Dissy! It's Twilight and the sisters!" A small draconequus looked out the upper floor, before jumping down and turning the land under him into a pillow. He tried to run to the sisters, but Pinkie stopped him. "Dissy, what have I said about turning things and not turning them back?"
"Never turn anything into different things and not revert them unless it is to help someone or it is very amusing." Discord said, looking down and holding his hands behind his back. Pinkie nodded happily and gave him a nudge.
"Okay, now go play with your friends."
"YAY! Divine Cutie Mark Seekers go!" All three shouted and ran off.
"That... was disturbing." Twilight muttered. "So, you're Discord’s parent?"
"YUP! He is such a sweety, really! Never cleans his room, but he has his heart in the right place." Pinkie said. "Oh, and he just loves having fun, just like me!"
"So, while our… children… are looking for their cutie marks,” Twilight paused, and went down a different track, “seriously, can Discord even have one?"
"I don't know, you're the one with the big library! I just know he is equally excited as your two little girls!" Pinkie said. Twilight was starting to doubt that Pinkie was even Awake. She was taking all this way too easily.
"Anyway, we might as well as see what others are doing." Twilight said, turning around the corner to see the orphanage where – according to her memories – Rarity and Applejack worked. However, before they got there they met Fluttershy, who was trying to hold down a very exited Cadance.
"Please mommy!? Can we go see Shining Armor? Please please please pleaaaaaase!?" Little Cadance was asking, while doing the best puppy eyes impression she could. To her credit, Fluttershy managed to hold out… for about five seconds.
"Alright, after we have bought these items, then we can go see Shining." Fluttershy said meekly. She did have experience with animals, but Cadance was something she had never faced before.
"YAAAAAAAAAY! Come on Mom! You're so slow!" The little filly said, jumping up and down, running back and forth the shop and Fluttershy.
"Need help?" Twilight asked she and Pinkie walked to her.
"Oh, it's okay, she’s just eager to see Shining Armor..." Fluttershy began.
"Ohh! Pinkie Sense says someone has a cruuush~!" Pinkie Pie said, with Candance nodding.
"YUP! We are going to get married and then we are going to have a big wedding and cakes and a big castle and he is going to be my personal knight and..." Twilight more or less tuned out Cadance’ increasingly rapid fire fantasy.
"Is Shining Armor aware of this... relationship?" Twilight asked.
"I think he likes her too, but is afraid other boys will make fun on him because of it..." Fluttershy said. "So, where are the Princ.... Celestia and Luna?" She asked.
"Ran off with Discord to seek their cutie marks, though seeing how they seem to have kept their powers, I fe-" At that moment, a sudden down pour of orange juice fell on Twilight. Twilight merely looked upwards and saw the three kids, Celestia, Luna and Discord with a rather large bucket.
"Aww, apparently our specialty ain't pranking..." Discord said.
"How about farming?" Luna suggested.
"Alright, so, we are all here." Twilight said, looking down at her notes so far. "Spike is an ancient dragon that one day decided he’d grown tired of mortals ruining his day nap and… conquered the continent."
"Don't forget the part where he dried out the ocean between Equestria and Griffin Kingdoms, making them a single continent." Dash said, smirking. "All because one of the griffins dared to poke him."
"Right, that too. Well, looks like he isn't Awake, and if he is, he isn’t showing it. So, main thing is... we are all parents. In one sense or other." Twilight said, shaking her head. "I really didn't need to those memories to begin with."
"Oh, it ain't that bad." Dash said. "At least it's fun to wat- SOMBRA! STOP PICKING ON YOUR SISTER!" She shouted at the sight of Sombra trying to scare Chrysalis with a bug. Which, seeing that Chrysalis was still a changeling, was kinda weird.
"But moooom!" The little Sombra said, trying his best puppy eyes impression.
"No buts! Into the corner!"
"Aww..." Grumbling, but still obeying, Sombra walked into the corner and sat down. Chrysalis blew him a raspberry, before noticing the look Dash was giving to her and stopping.
"So, an orphanage?" Twilight asked Rarity.
"Yup. All those little ones, all in need of someone to hold them. Besides, Big Mac is just adorable when he pouts!" Rarity said.
"Adorable? It's hilarious!" Applejack said. "I can never take him seriously again! I mean, sure, Granny Smith did hint at it but I never knew he was such a cry baby!"
7.8 (from Zulaq)
“Ok,” Princess Twilight Sparkle turned away from the just closed doors to the throne room, “Whose turn is it to go evil and try and take over Equestria now?” she surveyed the nine other alicorns in the room.
“Oh, oh, me, me!” Princess Pinkie Pie shouted, bouncing up and down, “I have just the idea! I can throw a party! And then another party! And then another! And get this, all those parties will be part of my plan to TAKE OVER THE WORLD! Or they would be if it weren’t for the fact that I’d rather party than actually rule. I wonder if that takes me out of contention?”
“Darling, I don’t really think you can use parties to take over the world,” Princess Rarity said somewhat haughtily.
“She can,” Twilight replied flatly, before shuddering slightly “And you don’t want to know the details.”
“Whose stupid idea was it to alternate who goes evil, and who gets to be a mentor to a new hero anyway?” Princess Rainbow Dash asked.
“Yours Dash. I think you said something about not wanting to spend a thousand years trapped on the moon and not being able to take a nap, again.” Twilight explained somewhat tiredly, “And seeing as there are ten of us alicorns now,” she gestured to the others who hadn’t spoken yet, those being Princesses Luna, Celestia, Applejack, Cadence, Fluttershy, and the sole male among them, Prince Shining Armor. “We thought it would be fair if we each took 100 years, rather than any of us spending a full thousand on the moon.”
“Well this stinks,” Rainbow said, “I mean just look at what some of you guys have done,” she turns to Princess Applejack, “I mean seriously, Hard Truth? Couldn’t you come up with a better name for yourself? It was kina’ hard for me to keep a straight face when I told Spirit Wind about you.”
“Now wait one doggon minute!” Princess Applejack countered Rainbow Dash, “Danger Dash wasn’t even dangerous. You just pranked the country enough that people were practically on all four knees begging us to stop you!”
“Yeah, well that’s better than simply making everypony tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth!” Dash argued.
“Now ladies,” Princess Celestia interrupted, “I’m sure that you know that the truth can be a beautiful and terrible thing.”
“Dids’t thou just quote Albus Dumbledore?” Princess Luna inquired of her sister incredulously, “Really?”
“Oh come on, stop arguing,” Twilight interjected, “It’s getting us nowhere, and besides we already have a schedule written up, and it’s-“
“My turn, little sis.” Prince Shining Armor broke in with a grin, “I can’t wait.”
“What are you smiling about, Shining?” Princess Cadence asked her husband, “It means that we won’t be able to see each other for a century!”
“Two words darling.” Shining said with an even bigger grin, “Makeup sex.”
“Ohhh.” Cadence said, her eyes glowing a bit. Her voice dropped a bit and became husky, “I can’t wait. We can do that thing using those pirate outfits you think I haven’t noticed.”
“Gah!” Twilight practically screamed, bringing her hooves up to her eyes, “I didn’t need that mental image of my brother!”
“Well it’s a good thing you’re not married to him isn’t it, little sister.” Cadence said cheerfully, before turning back to Shining, “So what’s your plan for going evil?”
“Oh, I was thinking about something along the lines of kidnapping a certain princess.” Shining said with a lecherous grin, “and holding her hostage until the other Princesses agree that I become the sole ruler of Equestria!”
“So when do you want to start?” asked Celestia.
“Right now!” With that Prince Shining Armor leaped up, used his magic to levitate Princess Cadence and leapt out of the adjoining balcony, “Catch me if you caaan!” He shouted on his way out.
The remaining eight princesses just stared after him in silence before Princess Fluttershy asked, “So, maybe we should go after them?”
Rainbow Dash just looks at Fluttershy askew, “Seriously? I think we’ll need to give them a bit of time to ‘cool off’ first. Maybe a decade or two will do.”
“Ok, so who’s left?” Princess Twilight Sparkle asked of her fellow co-rulers of Equestria, “We’ve had Nightmare Moon attempt to make an eternal night.”
At the mention of Nightmare Moon, Princess Luna perked up, “We have had much time to practice our detransformation, but that was the first time we’ve ever repeated the transformation. I daresay we outdid ourself.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Princess Rainbow Dash waved her hooves, “I don’t get what was so special about turning the moon to cheese, or that thing about ‘Night Eternal’ is the only way you could get it to age properly.”
“Thou simply hast no sense of taste.” Luna scoffed, “It was the finest brie ever made.”
“It was!” Princess Pinkie Pie interjected, “It was just perfect for all those parties I threw as Party Pink!”
“That was a lot of parties, darling.” Princess Rarity sighed, “I daresay I probably put on more than a few pounds at them.”
“A few pounds!” Princess Applejack said, laughing, before making a gesture with her hooves as far apart as she could make them, “I think you were about this big by the time you realized. And then you singlehoofedly beat her and banished her to the moon. Or at least what was left of it after Pinkie finished carving it up for parties.”
Princess Rarity looked like she was about to start a big argument with Applejack, but Twilight stepped in before the two mares could really get going, “Moving on. After Party Pink, we had Blazing Sun. I have to say you did an excellent job with that Celestia.”
Princess Celestia blushed a bit, “It wasn’t much. I’ve had a lot watching Lulu do it, so I just sort of copied her actions a bit.” She turned to Princess Luna, “Although I am sorry about your cheese.”
Princess Luna looked rather downbeat, “It took over two hundred years for it to get just ripe enough. And then thou melted it!” And with that she began crying.
“There, there,” Princess Fluttershy reassured her, “At least it made the moon round again after Pinkie’s parties.”
“But all that cheese, Wasted!” Luna wailed, “And that cute little cottage cheese cottage we made for us to stay in was completely gone. And what was left was burnt!”
“Uh, moving on again,” Twilight interjected in-between Luna’s wailing about dead cheese, “After that we had Danger Dash, who pranked people until they could be pranked no more.”
“Eh, the old fall back was good enough for me,” Princess Rainbow Dash said, “It worked the first time, and I moderated myself a bit so the elements would let me sleep this time.” She paused a bit, before running a hoof along her wings, “Although getting all that goopy, melted cheese off of my wings was a bit of a pain.”
“After Danger Dash, we had me, Eternal Twilight.” Twilight said proudly.
“Meh,” Rainbow Dash yawned, “You didn’t really do that much. I mean your whole plan revolved around owning a copy of every book ever written, and then enslaving everypony in your library paradise. Where was the action! The excitement! I mean you even made sure to treat your slaves well; I think the worst thing that happened to them was a papercut.”
“Well it’s not exactly efficient to work them to death.” Twilight defended herself, “Do you have any idea how hard it is to train someone to work in a library properly?”
“Yeah, Twily,” Prince Shining Armor put in. “I mean, the only reason why we had to banish you was because you wanted to expand your library to the whole castle. Not exactly threatening.”
“Oh really,” Twilight said, her eyes narrowing, “And what about you. You turned into Dashing Armor, then you kidnapped Cadence.”
“And?”
“And there is no ‘and’. You kidnapped her, and then the two of you took a century long second honeymoon! At no point did we have to send you to the moon. Do you know how embarrassing it was to explain to my student that she had to go get my brother and sister-in-law because they let their second honeymoon go on too long, and we really, really needed them back at the court?”
Twilight paused, and gathered her thoughts for a moment, “Anyway, moving on, again. After that we had Hard Truth. I must say, I didn’t really think making everypony tell the truth all the time was much of an evil plan, but… you made it work, Applejack.”
“Shucks, It weren’t nothin’” Princess Applejack blushed, “Nopony knows more than me how the truth can make or break a relationship.”
“Ok, and after that we had Loving Evening,” at this Twilight drooped a bit, “whose plan consisted of kidnapping Shining Armor, and going on your third honeymoon. Seriously, Cadence?”
Princess Cadence blushed a bit, “Well when a pony has an itch, she wants it taken care of.” She looked at Shining Armor, and her blush deepened. “And I daresay that I have the best way to relive it, ever.”
“Please, spare me the details,” Twilight said dryly, “And after that we had The Fasionista! (exclamation mark included), who forced everypony to wear fashionable clothes, whether they wanted to or not.”
“Oh darling, The Fashionista! was my most brilliant idea ever.” Rarity gushed with a glow in her eyes, “If it weren’t for Rainbow Dash I’d never have had to have seen somepony wearing anything out of fashion ever again!” She let out a somewhat disturbing laugh, and the other nine alicorns moved away from her nervously.
“And now it’s Fluttershy’s turn” Twilight said once she’d recovered, “So-“
“Wait a moment!” Rainbow Dash interrupted, “I don’t think this is a good idea Twi.”
“Nonsense,” Twilight dismissed her, “We all agreed in the beginning we’d take turns being the villain, and now it’s Fluttershy’s turn.”
“I hate to say it,” Applejack interjected, “But I agree with Dashie. You haven’t forgotten that incident with Iron Will, have you?”
“Oh come on. What could go wrong?” Twilight said blithely, overriding her friends’ concerns, “It’s Fluttershy’s turn, and that’s all there is too it.”
“Well,” Princess Fluttershy said quietly, “I guess, if you think it’s alright.”
Fluttershy seemed to compose herself, before her eyes flashed red and she turned to Twilight Sparkle. She spoke, her mouth containing far too many, and far too pointed teeth for a normal pony, “I AM FLYING HATRED. AND YOU ALL WILL BOW BEFORE ME! ALL SHALL LOVE ME AND DESPAIR!”
7.9 (from DrTempo) (Metal Gear Solid universe)
Spike shook his claw in pain.
"Why won't you die?"
Spike had enjoyed this loop. Not every day he was a badass cyborg… Though the beginning where he was a whiny rookie on the Big Shell bothered him. Man, that whole ending had given him a MASSIVE headache.
And now, he was fighting Blueblood…or his counterpart, anyway. And he wouldn't stay down!
Cue Blueblood tearing off his shirt.
"Nanomachines, son!"
Spike shook his head at this. "Forget this." He drew a lightsaber, and went to town on Blueblood.
"Protect yourself from THIS."
At Mission Control, Twilight shook her head. “And he was doing so well… right, how do I explain away a lightsaber.” After a moment, she answered her own question. “Of course. Nanomachines. Silly me.”
As Blueblood went down, deader than dead, Spike smirked. He'd enjoyed cutting that jerk up like a Hearth's Warming turkey. Then Blade Wolf arrived, carrying the Murasama.
His jaw dropped. "Oh. Why did you need this thing again?"
7.10 (Namar13766)
Twilight looked at her friends in the library. "So what's our plan for this loop?"
Rarity chuckled. "Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and I think we'll take a vacation for this loop. What about you?"
Applejack chuckled, "Well, after hearing Sheppard's music, I think I’ll turn Big Macintosh into a Country Music Singer."
Pinkie smiled, before turning into Pinkamena Diane Pie, causing her friends to flinch...before noticing that the expression was the same Pinkie. "I'm also going to take a vacation." Fluttershy opened her mouth, before being cut off by Pinkie. "While looking like this, just to see how people react."
Rainbow rustled her wings slightly. "So what will you be up to Twilight?"
"I'm thinking of trying something with Zecora." She levitated a familiar book in front of herself.
Five of the loopers looked at the coronation of a new Alicorn in shock. Twilight looked slightly smug.
"Well, I think this settles the question of how similar zebras are to ponies, wouldn't you say?"
It was sort of a pity that Zecora wasn’t looping, actually, because that meant the ascension was for this loop only. But it was an interesting proof of concept.
7.11 (Mandemon)
(This one came from a typo which misspelt Sombra.)
"You have to be kidding me." Twilight said.
"Cryyyyysssstaaaallls... heaaaaaarts..." A drooling Crystal Pony was walking towards Twilight and her friends, who were not awake in this loop.
"Unfortunately, Zonpies created by Zombra tend to be like this." Candance said, blasting one of the infected ponies. "They spread the infection by biting you."
"And you want us to go into the deepest pit of their lair, to find the source of the infection?" Applejack asked.
"You know what? Buck it." Twilight said, and turned into an alicorn.
"WHOA NELLY!" Applejack jumped a foot into the air. The others were a little better able to control their shock, but not much.
"Let's see... how did Nanoha do it again... Oh right!” Twilight planted her hoof with a crack. “STARLIGHT BREAKER!"
A massive beam hit the castle, tearing through the walls and mindlessly shambling infected Zonpies. In the middle of the hive, a mass of flesh and crystals opened one of its many eyes to see a bright light approaching. Funnily enough, its last thought was "Not again."
7.12 (Filraen)
PLEASE NOTE: this loop was previously posted incomplete. This is entirely my fault, and the following version is the complete, edited, definitive one.
Ranma Saotome was going on a walk, getting used to this new body and loop.
He was on a new loop, of that he was certain, after distracting the Lovely Angels into a mission to a G-Stone powered Death Star, whose predictable result was the destruction of the whole galaxy. Honestly, given how bad the loop ended he was surprised he wasn't on Eiken. 'Then again, better lose a G-Stone and a Death Star than deal personally with Kei and Yuri when Awake…', Ranma shuddered at the thought of what could have happened again.
Then there was his body: a dark blue-colored small horse. While it wasn't the strangest body Ranma has inhabited, having replaced the bodiless Voldemort a few times, the lack of fingers felt just plain weird. Though… he didn't seem to stand out, in this population of small horses as colorful as the rainbow. It actually made him remember Nanoha's tale of a certain unicorn, a new anchor, she met some time ago. Probably he was in the unicorn's loop.
Apparently his name here was Rapid Hooves and the town he was in was named Ponyville, a nice enough place at first glance, 'though with my luck I can only hope it stays like that'. Still, better be careful: learn the ropes now to play pranks later.
"Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" an acute shriek filled the air. When Ranma looked at the direction he saw a cloud of smoke going into his way, whose cause was apparently a bright pink colored horse with a cotton candy-like mane, probably a she.
The mare rounded Ranma a few times looking at him carefully while his sense of panic started to fire like crazy and he finally realized three things: first, he was definitely a stallion here; second, he didn't remember seeing any males; and third, he was naked. 'Why I always have to get the crazy ones?’ To his surprise though, the crazy pink mare just stopped, looked at him in the eye and began running in another random direction.
That was strange.
"Twilight! Twilight!" The pink earth pony jumped by Twilight Sparkle's side.
"What's up Pinkie Pie?" The unicorn kept reading her book.
"I met a new pony today!" That made Twilight stop reading. She knew Pinkie Pie knew everypony who lived in Ponyville from her custom to launch "Welcome to Ponyville" parties, and then even extended to Equestria since the loop the Pincesses asked Pinkie Pie to make a census of Equestria's pony population. To have Pinkie Pie meet somepony she had never met before it was very strange. 'Unless...'
"How does this new pony look?" On this question Pinkie Pie started to jump again, even more quickly.
"Oh! Oh! Oh! I know that one! Let me see... he was an earth pony who had two eyes, two forelegs, two hindlegs and a mane. Also he was dark blue in color and had his mane in a black braid." That solved a few things, she didn't remember an earth pony with a braid other than Applejack. "Oh! and I also found him by following the most strange doozy: left ear three round right, right ear two rounds left and four pulls from my tail."
Twilight frowned a little. "That's a new Pinkie Sense, what does that mean?" One of there loops she had to understand how that worked.
"I'm not sure, but I've only felt it once before, when we met Hiccup and you weren't around." Pinkie tried to show how big Hiccup's dragon had been.
'That loop? Then that means...' "Ok Pinkie, you win. Looks like you'll host your first 'Welcome to Equestria's Loop' party. I want to inform the Princesses though, they are awake this time."
"Okie dokie lokie! I'll prepare my Party Cannon Mk. pi for this new friend!" Pinkie said, putting her right hoof in a salute.
Twilight Sparkle put a leaf inside the book to continue reading it later "All right Pinkie. By the way, what's his-" but by the time Twilight looked again at her friend Pinkie had already left "- name?". Ok, never mind. Better find Spike, she had a letter to send.
Dear Princess Celestia,
I send this letter to tell you information of great importance. Not five minutes ago I received a visit from Pinkie Pie to tell me she found a pony she has never meet before, who she believes is actually a looper. As such Pinkie decided to throw him a 'Welcome to Equestria' party.
Since Pinkie Pie is already making preparations for the party I believe it will start within the hour. Should you and Princess Luna wish to attend it I think you should teleport directly into Ponyville Library.
I'm sorry to send this letter so little time beforehoof but Pinkie Pie was very enthusiastic to throw the party quickly. Nevertheless, I have great hopes in Pinkie Pie and everypony to make this party a success, both as a student of the Magic of Friendship and as Equestria's Anchor.
Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle
"...and send it, Spike."
The child dragon looked at the scroll suspiciously "Looper? Anchor? You aren't making any sense, Twilight."
The purple unicorn just threw him an apologetic look "Sorry, I'll explain later. Please just go along for now, OK?"
"Fine," and with a burst of flame Spike sent the now rolled letter to the Princess. "Letter on its way. Now what?"
"Now we find the girls. Let's meet at the Library in half an hour." Twilight said.
Hearing that, Spike started to run. "I'll go to Carrousel Boutique first! See you later, Twilight."
Twilight Sparkle just smiled.
"Hey!"
Ranma looked around for the voice who was calling him, but saw nobody.
"Hey, you, new pony!"
Well, if there's nobody around there must be -¬¬ 'Up there!'
"At last! You'd swear nopony ever looks up." That was a light blue horse, apparently standing in the cloud looking down on him.
"I don't remember seeing you around here, and Pinkie Pie said she had met somepony new today." And apparently he was wrong, as when flying down the cloud he realized the horse was actually a pegasus, a pegasus whose mane was literally as colorful as the rainbow.
The pegasus grinned "I'm Rainbow Dash, the coolest and fastest pegasus of all Equestria and local weather manager. Your name?"
"Ran-pid Hooves. I just arrived here."
Rainbow Dash looked at Ranma as if measuring him. "Rapid Hooves, huh? So, how fast do you are?"
"Never really pushed myself, but I think I can do pretty good." Technically true. After all he had just found himself in this body.
"But not as fast as me." For Ranma the feeling of a yet-untold challenge from a stranger met just by walking around was... nostalgic.
Not being one to stand down, Ranma upped the ante. "You'd think, but you're the fastest pegasus only because I don't have wings."
"All right Rapid Hooves, it's on! See the tree by the end of the street? That's Twilight's house, the first pony to enter the house wins."
Why not? After all a bit of a run may help to understand this new body. "Just say the word, Rainbow Dash. And prepare to lose."
"At the count of three. One, two, three!" And then they started.
In the end Ranma wasn't sure who won the race as he got entangled with Rainbow Dash to enter through the designed-for-one-horse door. He knew neither he nor Rainbow was going as fast as they could, though, and he suspected the pegasus also knew it. Overall, the body may need a little time to get used to but he had the whole loop for that. Still, he’d miss having fingers.
Now that he thought about it, it was strange… the door was opened yet it was dark inside--
*click* "SURPRISE!"
Ranma looked around to what looked like a surprise party: balloons, confetti, foods, drinks and some cake on tables... for the pegasus perhaps? It wasn’t like he knew anybody yet in this world. Until he looked at a giant banner over the horses and unicorns.
Welcome to Equestria's Loop.
"What?"
"It's him, right? The looper you found, Pinkie Pie." Rainbow Dash called to the crazy pink mare from a while before.
"Yes Rainbow!" Pinkie looked even more like she was in a sugar rush. She took Ranma's equivalent to right hand into of her forelegs and shook them energetically. "Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie. What's your name? How long have you been on Equestria? What is your world called? Do you like cake? Everypony I know loves cake, and that's one of the reasons I love to work in Sugarcube Corner here and why I want to..."
"Pinkie! Let him stand up." A purple unicorn interrupted Pinkie Pie. Thankfully.
"Oops, sorry." Said the pink horse... pony? Before letting go of Ranma.
After standing up, the looping male pony asked the group "So, let me this straight. All of you are Awake right now."
"Except Spike here, yes." The purple unicorn pointed to the little lizard by her side.
"And she found me and realized I was also a looper." Ranma asked pointing to Pinkie Pie.
"Yes." The unicorn answered again. You'd expect one of the bigger unicorns in the back might be better choices to play spokesperson.
"And then you decided to throw a welcome party for me?"
"Actually the party was Pinkie Pie's idea." The unicorn said while pointed to the pink mare.
"I wasn't going to let the chance to throw a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party go, but in your case you were new to Equestria so the other banner wouldn't work here; to think I'd have the chance to make a welcome party for somepony from another world... I think I'd have used few more star-pattered balloons because stars and worlds are so close but I couldn't find them, and then I decided on starfish but I realized 'aren't we too far from the sea to get starfish?' so I threw away the idea and decided to go with the multicolor balloons..."
"Wait, just one question: how did you realize I was a looper too?" Ranma asked, stopping Pinkie Pie's rambling once again.
"But that’s obvious, because I know everypony who lives in Equestria." Wait, just like that?
"Everyone everyone?"
"Nope, everpony." The others don't seem to be surprised by the answer… so it was probably true.
"Well, I think I'll take your word from it. Better start with introductions: my name here is Rapid Hooves, but you can imagine that isn't my real name because I'm looping too. My real name is Ranma Saotome."
"What?! The first anchor?!" The purple unicorn was about to start talking excitedly when a single word stopped her.
"Twilight..." From one of the bigger unicorns in the back, the white one... they also have wings too, so pegacorn.
The purple unicorn flinched before throwing her a short apologetic look and returning to business. "Oh yes, sorry Princess. My name is Twilight Sparkle. I'm Equestria's Anchor and my friends here are the other loopers from this world..."
In the end, Twilight Sparkle was the unicorn anchor who had met Nanoha. She introduced herself as the local librarian and calling herself a student of "the Magic of Friendship." 'No wonder Nanoha seemed to like her'. The party itself had gone without incident other than some spontaneous firing of cannons from Pinkie Pie. Oddly, it happened to use a table with tablecloth, a punch bowl, glasses and snacks as ammunition... a trick to learn later.
Now there was time to meet the Princesses, something Ranma was a bit wary of. Apparently they had to make the party private so nobody realized they were here.
"So, do you have any plans for this loop?" Celestia asked.
"Not really, Your Highness" Better be polite with royalty, they always know how to screw with you.
"Princess, please." The Sun Princess corrected.
"Oh, right. Well, Princess, I just started this loop and I was actually thinking of going and learning how things worked in this world."
"I can see that, there are many things that are better to learn first hoof. But please, if you have anything you'd like, big or small, don't be afraid to ask Twilight Sparkle. We are in constant communication." As on cue Spike appeared and burned a rolled scroll, which vanished and appeared right in front of her.
"Well, Princess..." why did his weakness have to be women? "…in my own experience, most rulers who are as generous as you claim to be always have something you do for them." Even a Seto Kamiki Jurai, hopefully still non-looping, can be a pain after she got her sights on you.
"Oh, but there is one little thing you can do for me..." Celestia told Ranma, closing her eyes with a predatory grin, and Ranma felt the blood draining from his face. Looked like Equestria won't be the safe haven he thought it would be.
"W-hat is it P-princess?"
Princess Celestia opened her eyes as if she was a child entering a sweet shop. "Stories of your previous loops, of course!"
Huh?!
Celestia's composed yet cheerful tone continued "According to Twilight Sparkle, Equestria's loop is relatively new in relation to other worlds, and I'm even not Awake as often as I want! Twilight has told me about other places but I've been out of Equestria only a few times. But sadly we have an important mission here in Equestria, as I raise the Sun every day and my sister raises the Moon every night.
"I understand that by your looper standards I'm just a filly so I want to know what happens. This is the most interesting development we've had in centuries, and I want to help them," Celestia pointed to the other ponies in the room, "as much as I can."
Internally Ranma sighed in relief. 'For one moment I thought the mares were going to-'
"But there's also another reason." Celestia told him when the dark blue pegacorn... alicorn walked to her side, Princess Luna, both hardening their expressions and shifting their positions into a more regal one.
"Even before the loops started my sister Luna and I have ruled Equestria for over a millenia, and we are proud to believe in its founding principles: Harmony and the Magic of Friendship. We believe in friendship and redemption, in always working together so the next day, even if that day is in the past, is better than today, and in always have a place to call home and return."
Princess Luna continued where her sister left off "And 'tis with conviction and knowledge, true and certain in equal measure, that a soul may become heavy in the course of long life; that we, the Diarchs of Equestria, offer you, Ranma Saotome, together with any other Looper willing to accept, be they pony in form or no, our fair land as a place of sanctuary and respite from the wearying travel 'twixt worlds and loops."
Ranma was dimly aware that the other ponies bowed to the Princesses while he weighted what he was really being offered.
After coming to a decision, Ranma sighed heavily, stood tall in front of the Princesses and nodded with a smile in his face. "Sure, let's give it a shot." Who knows, it may even work for some time after all. They all seem to be a nice enough group.
He was going to miss having fingers though.
7.13 (Rufus Shinra and Lord of Bones)
Celly,
Got over the Eternal Night thing. Am on vacation. Will send postcard with pictures of any studly pool colts.
Hugs and kisses,
Luna.
"What's that sound?" asked the waiter stallion on the beach.
"Just my sister's plans for the next few years crashing and burning," answered the alicorn, drinking another cocktail with a smile on her face.
7.14
Celestia knocked on the door of her sister’s apartments. “Luna?”
No reply.
“Luna! The sun’s going down in a few minutes.”
Still no reply. Celestia opened the door and peered in. “Are you sleeping in ag-aaaah!”
“What?” the jet-black alicorn inside asked, her slit green eyes blinking in the sudden light. “Oh, Our apologies. We forgot to set Our alarm.”
“Nightmare Moon!” Celestia said, getting over her shock and lighting her horn.
“Yes, We know We have slept in, Infernal Blaze.” Nightmare Moon… rolled over out of bed and started getting dressed.
Celestia’s spell collapsed, as she tried to work out what the her was going on.
“Twilight!” Celestia said, teleporting into the Books and Branches library. “Nightmare Moon is back!”
“So?” her students’ voice said from behind her. “It is the evening. That’s her job.”
Celestia turned to the voice, and saw her student… with an aura of dim light around her, a pair of wings, and her eyes blazing with an internal fire.
Spike was standing next to her. Or, more lying next to her. That was because he was fifteen feet long, matte black and possessed of both a wide, salamander-esque mouth and huge wings.
Celestia stared for a moment more, then ran out the door.
“Five of them.” Celestia said to herself. “How could this have happened?”
It had been bad enough when the two other Elements of Harmony in town had also turned out to be alicorns – their coats with the unnatural colouration of corruption. Worse still were the huge fangs of whatever sweet Fluttershy had become, and the crimson fires coursing over Applejack’s body.
The fact that they were still doing their daily routines was just weird.
She was distracted by a flash of blue. “Wait!” she called, hoping it was who she thought it was.
A moment later, Rainbow Dash came back down to land in front of her. Mercifully, the pegasus was unchanged.
“Thank goodness. I have terrible news, Rainbow Dash. All the other Elements are-”
There was a loud BANG, and she jumped at the shock.
“Hah!” Dash shouted. “Got you! The old firecracker trick!” As she spoke, she shifted. Her mane grew more vibrant, then got pushed aside by a horn. She gained an extra few inches, and her eyes flashed with fire. As an afterthought, she added “Oh, and it’s Danger Dash, by the way. Well, so long, I have to go deliver some rain.”
Celestia sat back on her haunches, flabbergasted.
“Well?” Dash asked, crowding around the table where the other Elements, Spike and Luna were already sitting.
“I think it worked.” Twilight replied, grinning. “She’s boarded up her room and says she won’t come out until things start making sense.”
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ha!
hmm this is insane i like it
2624995
2625219
2627608
...okay, but I can't actually tell much about what's good or bad from a picture of Pinkamena...
2627813
what i liked was the loop with Ranma where he thought the princesses was laying onto him. "laying onto is that right?"
while they where actually offering a safesone from some parts of the madness of the loops in their world.
2628053
The term you're probably looking for is "coming onto him". That would mean "suggesting that they are attracted to him". And yeah, that's one of the nice things about Filraen's work there - it's very "Equestria". There genuinely is no other shoe to drop.
2628055
what i am pretty sure of is that Equestria does not have much of a chance to remain safe for most of the anchors.... after all there are the female anchors not counting twilight sparkle to take into account and they are insane....
2628063
One of the nice things about the loops is that a person who screws it up one loop won't have left anything lingering the next, except emotional scars. And the Elements of Harmony will both handle emotional scarring fairly well (I assume) and also have a number of options to handle troublemakers. (They handle Discord effortlessly, so they have at least a chance against the average Looper.)
2628067
yeah you have a point there, oh well i'm gonna look around at spacebattles
2628081
Do contribute a Loop if you think of one.
2628088
a loop idea.
Mimir's well.
As Tol'thir was setting up for yet another contest of bets, he remarked that he had a visitor in the room with him.
it was a unicorn with purple hair. "why am i so bad at explaining how things look!!!!"
*Twilight sparkle perspective*
She was confused, this loop had just started and she had yet to actually get any memories about where she was and what this loop was about.
and then she noticed a black cat looking at her.
that's about what my brain dump can manage....
2628240
Sorry, what?
I'm afraid I do not understand where that is, let alone what is going on.
And I meant on the SpaceBattles thread anyway...
2628268
never actually got to make an account there :D
it's a world where several beings of different levels of power gathers around mimirs well to make a bet. or do a reality changing change to a world such as throwing a pebble into the well to see the ripples of change happen... although it's a lot harder to find the fannon universe than most innortal inspired stuff.
2628310
Ah.
See, to me, that seems redundant at best. The Loops are a medium to allow interesting changes to a canon series, and so is Mimir's Well. They kind of fulfil the same job... and they're two different, incompatible framing devices. (They have different multiverse rules.)
2628318
yeah :D never thought of that before...
2628327
Fair enough.
Hey, there's a lot of under-construction Loops going on in the SpaceBattles thread, if you happen to head that way.
Another great chapter.
Seriously i've said it once and i'll say it again. I love loop stories.
Do you take suggestions for fanfic's to include in the loop's? You know like how you did the Lunaverse.
2633431
Kind of. It can be very tricky to do something in another fanfic-verse... I will take suggestions, but there's no promise they'll be followed up on.
2633436 Okay here's a list of stories that would be interesting to see as loop's. At the very least I recommend you read them if you haven't already. Their all good stories.
The Unexpected Love Life of Dush Shine by meme-asaurus- A au story where Twiight is born male, but everyone else's gender's remain the same. Just to warn you while the story is good it can also be mature at times.
The Manehattan verse- Where Twilight is sent to Manehattan is sent to Manehattan instead of Ponyville. The first story in this series is The Wrong Place at the Right Time by Little Jackie Papercut. Like the Lunaverse this universe also has a group called Life in Manehattan.
The Overworked Alicorn by BreakDown- It's a Faust story. A very well written one at that.
The Thousand Year Change by Darthvalgaav- Basically a story where Luna had ponies who noticed her night. No Nightmare Moon but Luna still end's up going to the moon, but for very different reasons.
Night's Favoured Child by Municipal Engines- In this story Nightmare Moon won not Celestia. One of the thing's this story is about, is a orphan Twilight being raised by Nightmare Moon.
Past Sins by Pen Stroke- One of the most popular FIM stories ever written. This story is about a alicorn filly named Nyx. Who Twilight find's, and who was created from the remains of Nightmare Moon. This isn't a mary sue fic believe me. It's one of the most popular stories on this site and equestria daily for a reason.
Last but not least.
Magical Pony Lyrical Twilight by PurpleProse. I'm pretty sure your a fan of Nanoha from reading this story. Well in this story Twlight and Equestria take Nanoha's and Earth's place. Just to note this story is already complete, and the author is writing the sequel now.
Well that's all my suggestions for now. Again even if you decide not to use any of them in loops. At the very least check them out. Their all great storie's.
2628053
Thanks
2628063
Yes, Equestria is not particularly powerful and very young Loop-wise. What it has, however, is two pony Princesses, who realize they are out of they depth beyond their wildest imagination pre-loops.
While the Princesses aren't Awake as often as the Mane 6 In other of my snippets I had Twilight write Friendship Reports about the loops the Princesses haven't been Awake. Celestia and Luna extrapolate from there: for every trouble Twilight tells them there are probably one hundred worse ones she may have or may have not found yet.
Adding the fact the Luna and Celestia understand immortality, showed by knowing of the deep regrets a long life can gather (Nightmare Moon, anyone?), they offer sanctuary to Ranma and other Loopers with two reasons: first and foremost it's what they told, belief in Friendship; the second reason is protecting Equestria in the long run, to improve predisposition from other loopers to Equestria.
2628067
I see the Element bearers being well-adjusted[1] for two main reasons: they were already used to some weirdness in their prime loop and their loop is relatively new[1].
[1] for Looper standards
2633670
I know of several of those. Thing is, I'm quite leery about using "other fanfic universes" to write in, partly because of concerns of not doing it justice.
2638641
what about the FUBAR loops?
2641674
(I don't understand what part of my post are you answering to)
Friendship reports? They try not to think about them, especially that previos Generation loop (their equivalent to Eiken)
Element bearers being well-adjusted? There's a reason for adding "for looper standards" after almost every sentence.
2641836
let's say everything went to hell in a handbasket, for example Ranma taking the place of discord and he manages to keep control of the entire of Equestria during the loop. also does the elements of harmony work against beings that aren't entirely evil, how can it stop them then.
most of the anchors not counting the younger ones are incredibly old, with a incredibly good amount of tricks. actually I'm quite sure any of the gen 1 loopers can easily overturn the elements.
hmm now that i think about it what did i answer you for....?
< i need a new picture
2641887
My interpretation:
The Elements manage to WTFPWN Discord, quite easily in fact. They restrain Nightmare Moon (who was not entirely evil, since Luna.) And so on.
They're a very powerful, and specific, weapon.
Since late-series Loopers, while powerful, are still not trans-dimensional beings (as in, they're not multiversal gods) then the Elements should be able to handle them. At least give them a time out on the moon for the duration of the Loop.
2641908
i give them about three seconds on the moon before they get back
2641912
Luna can teleport. The Elements kept her there. There's something more at work than just physical distance.
2641918
dark thoughts abound now, forcing the moon closer to the planet O_O wouldn't that work seeing as they are supposed to be confined to the moon. or we can just make them statues, also shadow clones
2641924
The Elements are reality alteration devices more powerful than Discord by a good way. (Notice how they cleaned up the mess he left in about a second).
Since it's hardly a secret:
Among the first loops of chapter eight is one where Twilight and co. enforce Equestria's "safe ground" status. It involves an earth pony with a sakura-petal cutie mark taking time out on the moon. And a spiral-marked pegasus and a sharingan-marked unicorn developing nice, safe, boring, Sakura-free hobbies.
2641929
shouldn't the elements therefore be nerfed outside their homeloop. because really they seem way OP.
Aisen vs elements = elements win, Aisen is classified as one of the most dangerous loop foes.
meh i read this story for the humor not the facts.... so i need to stop the stupid thoughts.....
2641980
I don't think I've had the Elements actually do much outside their home Loop.
But anyway. Aizen isn't much of a threat either to Loopers - the Bleach Loop has them trolling Aizen all the time.
2641986
Aizen is closer to being a threat than most other foes though
2641887
If the situation gets FUBAR enough the ponies won't be able to do anything about it, and that's final: keep even one of the Element bearers separated from the rest (they don't even need to kill them) and the Elements of Harmony are neutralized; never mind some loopers should be able to tank the EoH. That's why C&L are taking preventive measures, trying to improve predisposition of loopers towards Equestria.
2641986
It's heavily implied in the Bleach loop thread in TFF that the loops are maintained, in part, by an Aizen who succeeded in his plans and is now bored out of his skull.
2641929
2641980
From what I remember the Elements have some charge time (~5-10 seconds). That's enough time for an experienced looper to separate an Element or Element bearer from the other 11.
Discord actually won against the Elements of Harmony the first time shown by subverting the qualities in the ponies (even if forcefully like he did with Fluttershy). So, while powerful, the Elements of Harmony have some drawbacks and no experienced looper would be really caught more than once.
Then again I don't have any intention to use the Elements outside Equestria for the moment.
._. o_o O_O @_@ Guys. GUYS. .... This. Do this for a loop. XD The loop memories hitting Twilight alone would make an epic reaction... :D
XD We need a shrink for Princess Celestia. XD Stat.
That last one was AWESOME.
What is the full song of
I mean, I've seen the He-Man song, but I've never heard a version that had that first part.
EDIT: 18 weeks later, and I find the video. Woooo!
Does anypony read this now and immediately think of Flutterbat?
3826064
Flutterbat mixed with Galadrial.
I'd love to see more about the loop where all the Mane 6 are parent to villains of the show. Pinkie works so muchas Discord's mother, they both have a similar wierd train of thought that few can follow,can warp reality, albeit Discord more than Pinkie and both are random, make little sense and love having fun. And more about the loop in which they are all in their corrupt forms but same personalities. Many of these loops would be great fics.
I loved 7.14.
7.7 and 7.14 were nice changes of pace.
A sanctuary loop? Awesome!
Did anyone else notice that a WWE R-truth reference at 7.8 by Rainbow Dash?
<- I wouldn't mind seeing this one as a full-fledged story.
I would like that reference to the guide to be expanded. Maybe pair it with Pern?
ohh that's good this has to be the best loop I've read so far
“I think it worked.” Twilight replied, grinning. “She’s boarded up her room and says she won’t come out until things start making sense.”
I like the last one best. I have now favorited this Fimfic. Congrats.
forgot 'the'
I think you were going for another.
drop the 'to'
princesses
um add get
loop 7 just being helpful.