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MLP Loops 120

Deviation Actions

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120.1 (fractalman)




“So, keep it baseline till the gala?” asked Gilda.

“Yes.” replied Twilight.

Gilda flapped away.

“We’ll do the Gala in a dignified manner and see what ripple effects we get.”




So far, the Gala had, indeed, gone smoothly. Then Gilda showed up. “Ello, Sunbutt.”

Silence fell as the nobles turned to stare.

Two seconds passed. “AHHHHHHHHHH!”

‘Sunbutt’ giggled while Gilda muttered “I’ve seen them go into a panic when I’ve called Celestia fat-butt before, but this is the first time I’ve seen them panic over the nickname Sunbutt.”




120.2 (fractalman)




Fluttershy placed some barrels around the tree. “Ok Mr. Tree, it’s time to let go of your apples.”-and it did.




“Yeeehaw!” yelled Applejack, as she lassoed the next cloud into position.




Most ponies agreed that Rarity’s parties were “pretty good, as long as she remembers that not everypony likes caviar”.




“One little bunny, two little kitty, three little gummy, four little snakey…”

The animals weren’t quite sure what to make of the pink…thing in the house, but they did agree on one thing: she was more interesting than clawing up curtains or running around making a mess.




“Rainbow Dash always dresses in style-and you can too, at the Carousel boutique!”




Unlike the disastrous cutie-mark swapping of baseline, Twilight’s friends were quite happy in their new roles. Twilight decided she’d let her unawake friends stay the way they were for now…if she could break Rainbow’s habit of saying “Rainbow Dash always dresses in style”. That simply had to go.

First things first, though, she had to figure out who cast Starswirl's incomplete spell, before the caster did something stupid with it...like ascending everypony at once.




120.3 (Novusordomundi)




Sunset Shimmer turned the page of her Hoofbeat magazine, engrossing herself in the juice rumor and gossip the pages provided. It was proving more interesting than her current job of protecting the Blue Intelligence Briefcase.

*Whoosh*

Sunset jerked her head up, looking left and right for the source of the sound that had interrupted her. However, nothing presented itself as the source of the sound. As immediately as it started, it stopped. Shrugging, Sunset went back to her magazine, assuming that the noise was nothing to be concerned...


"So, class." Cheerilee said, pausing the video. "What exactly did Sunset Shimmer do wrong?" A handful of hooves went into the air, each attempting to be the one to answer. "Yes, Applejack"

Applejack put her hoof down. "She ignored the sound. Even if it ends up being nothing, you can't take that risk."

Cheerilee nodded. "That's one of many things, yes. When you are responsible for the security of someone or something, you must assume that any noise made could be from someone with hostile intentions. And that means you must be alert at all times. Which Miss Shimmer was clearly not. Now, watch what could happen to you in such a situation." She turned back towards the television and pressed play...

...she flipped a page, her need for sordid gossip overtaking common sense and her awareness as a human figure dressed in a nice suit with a red mask on walked into view behind her, a butterfly knife clutched in his hand. A sudden clamping of Sunset Shimmer's mouth, followed by a quick motion with the knife across the throat, and in a few seconds the only living thing in the room was him. Grabbing the Briefcase, he walked calmly out of the camera's view.

Cheerilee pressed "pause" again, and turned towards the class, many of which were in a state of shock. "Now, that was a simulated event, and nobody actually died. But there are many Loops out there where not paying attention can end badly. Especially in the role of the security guard." She then smiled, as the sound of a Pinkie Pie-rung school bell echoed through the class, as students started getting ready to go home. "Remember that the lesson on guards and teamwork is tomorrow, so study up!"




"So, how did the class go?" Twilight Sparkle asked the schoolteacher, both of who were currently in Mac's Bar, the usual place for unwinding.

"Oh, it feels so good to teach ponies and actually have the lessons stick after a Loop Reset." Cheerilee gushed, swaying a tad bit in her seat. "And I can play the role of both the teacher and the student! I'd actually learned quite a bit of guard duty from some loopers. Actually, I looped in as a guard at this pizza place a few loops ago and got to test some of my skills. See if I'd picked it up enough to teach. And thanks to the animatronics there, I had!"

"I'm assuming this was why you're teaching it now." Twilight said, getting a nod in response. "Well, I'm glad this is working out for you. And if you ever need me to assist with your lessons ..."

Cheerilee put a hoof to her chin. "You know, I do need to make a few videos for my next subject, and you could be the perfect subject. It's about checklists!"

The grin on Twilight's face told all that needed to be said.




120.4 (novusordomundi)




"Ah! Twilight-sempai!"

A slow sigh escaped from 'Twilight-sempai'. "Hai, Rari-chan?"

"Ah, Sempai noticed me!" Rarity responded, posing dramatically for a couple of seconds, which Twilight would swear cherry blossoms petals blew past both of them, before Rarity became as serious as the situation would allow. "So, have we turned Japanese this loop?"

"I really think so" Twilight looked around at their current location, which to no surprise was a traditional High School. "It's not Eiken, which is good..."

"Oh, thank Kami!" Rarity exclaimed, before stopping to consider the fact that "Kami" was used rather than a plant-based word. "This is going to be a thing this loop, isn't it?"

"Hai."




(DrTempo)




From the Journal of Sunset Shimmer:

My next Loop was the Fate/Stay Night Loop, with me in Rin Tohsaka's role.

Basically, the big thing here is that seven magic users summon seven legendary heroes, or "Servants" for the proper term, to fight in a big battle royale. The prize to the winner? The "Holy Grail", which grants a wish to the winner.

I wouldn't use it, even if it wasn't corrupted by an evil being to twist any wish to cause the end of the world. Too darn risky.

Anyway, I'd heard that more often than not, other Loopers get summoned as Servants here a lot. Such was the case for me, as my Archer wasn't the baseline one Rin got, but Pit from the Kid Icarus Loops. After the introductions, we quickly ran to save the Anchor, Shirou Emiya. He wants to be a hero, but ends up never thinking about his own survival. At least, he used to from what I've heard, but from what I noticed, his Awake self's gotten past that. As we were about to fight the Servant Berserker, something blasted it to oblivion first.

Deciding to solve that later, I took the chance to spar with Shirou's Servant, Saber, who's actually King Arthur, but a girl. Even with all my experience from my Loops, she still kicked my sorry flank easily. OUCH.

Things went close to baseline after that until our confrontation with the Servant Caster...who was Pit's boss, Palutena. As Pit'd figured, she'd been the one to send Berserker packing. However, the wild card, Gilgamesh, showed up, and despite her best efforts, Palutena fell, and Pit decided to take Gilgamesh with him in an act of self-sacrifice. The rest of the Loop was simply making sure the Grail wasn't used, and taking down the two main villains here, Kirei and Zouken. They give me the chills...Utter monsters, both of them. I did enjoy sending those two to their fate.

In all, it was an exciting Loop. I got a few new tricks, and sparring with Saber sharpened my sword skills a bit. Pity about Pit, though. Hope his next Loop is better than this...




(DrTempo)




From the journal of Sunset Shimmer:

My next stop was the Pokemon world; namely, the version where Ash's Pikachu is the Anchor. I was in the Unova region at the time he was, and was focused on entering the Pokemon League there. I started with a Tepig, and before long, I was caught up in Team Plasma's antics. You'd think they'd realize Pokemon and humans are perfectly fine working together. But considering Ghetsis was pulling the strings, they were deluded. Jerk.

Besides that mess, my life was more or less that of your usual Pokemon Trainer; nothing unique, really. I didn't win the Pokemon League; in fact, Ash easily beat me. It was fun, though.

It was a fun journey, though, and I made a few friends, including Ash himself. It sucks my Pokemon couldn't join me in the Loops, but rules are rules.

Nice breather Loop for me, though, after my last Loop.. Knowing my luck, my next Loop won't be as peaceful...




120.5 (Crisis)




Twilight and her friends, Awake and otherwise, had been in something of a bind. It was one of those weird rare variants where non-native powers didn't quite work right, if they worked at all, and the power levels of loopers in general were nerfed to roughly baseline levels. It was also one of those variants where events veered so greatly from the baseline that foreknowledge was all but useless.

Which had ultimately led to them getting trapped in the local version of the Everfree by a pack of timberwolves just large enough to overwhelm them. And then the sounds of general flank-kicking began and the timberwolves started flying.

And what a group of stallions it was. They weren't overly muscled like Bulk Biceps tended towards, but their muscles were evident enough that baseline Big Mac would have looked kind of ordinary next to them. Plus they were clad in the kind of barbarian-style outfits that seemed to exist solely to highlight musculature.

"Oh, my," Rarity tittered and blushed. Though Twilight suspected all of the mares were blushing. Most Loops she herself wasn't generally in the market for a romantic and/or physical relationship, but that didn't mean she was blind. Yowza.

"Who are you fine stallions?" Applejack asked as more timberwolves were sent flying.

One of the stallions cleared his throat and in deep manly baritones, the six began to sing as they fought.

"Call upon the He-Ponies when you're in distress! Mighty as can be ponies, simply signal S.O.S!"




120.6 (Masterweaver)




Ah, Prince Blueblood. The Ponce of Ponydom, the Ninny of Nobility, the Moron of Magic.

Well... most of the time.

Eighty five percentish of the loops he was merely a buffoon. Granted, he could be a foolish one or dangerously cunning in his grasp of noble law, whether he was classist or racist or simply superior could flip and flop, and exactly how much power he actually had waxed and waned at random.

The remaining fifteen percent of the time was split between "Tired of gold diggers," where his act at the Gala was merely an act, "Crushing on somepony," where he was actually very reasonable but doggedly loyal to somebody, and "No sense of self worth," where he put Celestia on a pedestal and simply believed himself to be a pointless appendix to the nation. It was that last one that saddened and frustrated the loopers the most, to the point where they would always subtly check around for the signs before even planning to step foot in Canterlot, let alone go to the gala. Building up this version of Blueblood was something of a priority to them, both due to their status as a sanctuary loop and...

...well...

...nobody wanted the Ponce to be looping, to be completely honest.

Still, even knowing that they had to be careful, Twilight found it hard to suppress a giggle at the current situation.

"No, no, Auntie, you need to... use your magic. With your horn."

"Oooooooh." Celestia prodded at the keratin on her head, staring wide eyed at the staring horizon. "Okay, so I just point it at the mountains and the sun will come up?"

"Yes. No. You need to use your magic..." Blueblood levitated a small flower. "Like this, but on the sun."

"...how are you doing that?" The alicorn stared at the flower in amazement. "It's like magic!"

Twilight snorted, snickered, and burst out laughing. Blueblood glared at her. "I certainly hope you've been working on that memory spell of yours, or you'll be raising the sun again today..."




120.7 (Kris Overstreet)




"The Jedi Council will be gratified to know," the Kaminan geneticist told Obi-Wan Kenobi, "that our production of the new clone army proceeds ahead of schedule. Although we must admit, due to the nature of the... donor subject... the military discipline of the force will be a bit... er... unorthodox."

Obi-Wan had been through enough Loops that he'd become quite skilled at feigning the appearance of a person trying hard not to look surprised. When the observation ports opened to reveal the mess room below, however, he found himself quite unable to feign anything. The surprise was just that real- and emphatic.

The massive mess hall was full of quadrupedal creatures, almost all pink, except for a very small minority of white-bodied, blonde-maned sports. You couldn't say the room was festooned with balloons and streamers, because that would leave no space for the words, "overloaded," "overburdened," "overkill," and the two word phrase preferred by the part of Obi-Wan's brain that gibbered in fear at the sight, "game over."

"Of course we had a different donor in mind," the Kaminan continued, "but Jedi Skywalker was adamant that this was the optimum form for the Council's needs."

"Jedi Skywalker? Jedi Anakin Skywalker?" Kenobi asked.

"I believe so," the Kaminan nodded. "It's none of my affair, but I thought it odd that the Council would send such a young man on such a task. But since he knew everything about the project," the tall, slender amphibian shrugged, "I suppose the Council knows its affairs better than I would."

Oh, Anakin, Anakin, Obi-Wan thought, terror rising in spite of a lifetime of Jedi training from the crèche, what HAVE you done?

Below, the creatures tossed cupcakes at one another and bounced around merrily, shouting, "Fun! Fun! Fun fun! Fun fun! FUN!!"




120.8 (Masterweaver, Bigou)




Well, this is awkward…’ quipped Vinyl.

Octavia sighed. “What is it this time?”

Oh, just Waking Up inside your head.’

“Vinyl, you always wake up inside my head. You're my imaginary friend!”

Yeah, um… About that…’




120.9 (yannoshka)

All things considered, Twilight Sparkle did not often loop in as a full blown alicorn. Occasions where she was male were of more frequent occurrence than that. Sister - or in recent looping history mother - loops excepted.

So, when she awoke encased in forty feet of ice, her first instinct was understandably to free herself as swiftly as possible. Loops where she died at the very beginning were a bad portent for the nature of the following one.

Thus it happened that it did not dawn onto the alicorn of magic that she in point of fact was an alicorn - aura mane and tail and all - until after she had quite spectacularly shattered her icy confinement and faced the six awe-struck ponies. Three of which had apparently been brawling before her prodigious revelation of herself.

Before she could even try to ascertain what was going on, she heard a slight shuffle behind herself and felt a magical touch from an Honesty, which besides herself was responded by another magic, a laughter and a loyalty.

None of the pony loopers cared much for telepathy in general, but it was widely acknowledged and accepted fact that, on occasion, it was a useful channel for communications, especially when there was no one around who could conceivably detect it.

Thus, hearing her daughter's mental voice intruding into her thoughts, while unexpected, was firmly considered a nice kind of surprise.

"Hi momma! Girls are device necklaces. We have a plan. This is hearthswarming cave we find ourselves in. Be haughty and hammy, please momma." Nyx could usually produce much more coherent and well articulated mental conversation, but simple was best when time was nipping at one's hooves.

There were very few persons within the multiverse that Twilight Sparkle would do whatever was asked for without a thought, no questions asked. Her little Nyxie was at the very top of that list. So, when the alicorn spoke to the huddled ponies she gave a command performance.

"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!" She thundered in Royal Canterlot Voice. "WHO DARES DISTURB MY REST? WHO DARES BRING HATRED AND DISHARMONY TO ME AND MY DAUGHTER? SPEAK NOW YOU FOOLISH FOALS, OR FACE MY FURY!"

The first to snap out of the mix of abject terror and awe in the face of what to them appeared as goddess was the bright yellow pegasus mare. Without missing a beat, she smartly turned, saluted her ebullient superior officer and reported.

"Sir, as your aide, it is my duty to advise you that this is the time to exercise every last scrap of humility and diplomacy you possibly could manage to dredge up."

Even as the pegasus was speaking the earth pony mare dragged her elderly mentor, looked him straight into the eye, and spoke levelly.

"Now sir, none of your usual antics now, elsewise you will never see another honey-and-oats cookie again. Now go and try to soothe the angry super pony afore she blasts us all to smithereens, aye?"

The unicorns on the other hoof, had quite different predicament. Namely the green one in hooded robes was hyperventilating and babbling while her becrowned compatriot was trying to get her attention.

"OhMyHerdOhMyHerdOhMyHerdShe'sAnAlicornSheMustBe TheMasterWasRightINeedToTellHimINeedToFindOutMore OhMyHerdOhMyHerdShe'sAngryShe'sMadShe'sGoingToAnihilateMe Idon'tWantToGetAnihilatedThereIsSoMuchMoreToLearn OhMyHerdWhatDoWeDoNow...Ack!"

Platinum finally broke her chief mage out of her fit by a resounding telepathic slap.

"None of that. You can fall to pieces later. Now feed me cues however you can." The unicorn princess growled at blinking Clover out of the side of her muzzle before affixing a gracious smile, and took a deep bow before the purple being of immense power.

"As it please your greatness, I am Platinum, crown princess and in the interim the regent of the unicorn Kingdom. I led the expedition of my people here in attempt to find a safe harbor from the unendurably deteriorating environments of our home, only to find out that these lesser ponies followed us, and brought the blizzards with them!"

Clover was not called the clever for nothing. Once snapped from her panic attack her mind raced as fast as it ever had in her young life - and being an apprentice to a brilliant, absentminded eccentric who lacked the basic most sense of self preservation trained one to think fast indeed. And if her master's theories were right, Platinum had just insulted two thirds of the alicorn's biology. She hurriedly butted in over her mistress in a damage control mission.

“And by lesser ponies my mistress meant those of lesser education and culture, not disparaging the other tribes of ponies!”

Diplomat from her cradle, Platinum accepted the alteration in stride and tried to carry on as if Clover’ correction had been exactly what the unicorn princess meant. Unfortunately for her it was not a very big cave, the ones she referred to as 'lesser ponies’ were also present, and at least one of them was not about to allow for a precedent of allowing prissy useless unicorns to malign him and his army.

“Like stormblazes she wasn’t. She meant every zephyr and cumulus word exactly as it came out!” The pegasus stallion bellowed in parade ground shout, his voice surprisingly high.

His move might have been politically inspired, had he not spoiled the effect by then turning and arrogantly leering at Twilight.

“Commander Hurricane. Stratus Stratocracy. Who and what are you?”

Twilight noted with an internal wry smile that Pensee facehooved in exasperation.

Before Twilight could respond to Hurricane’s insulting behavior the only other stallion present there chided him. In contrast to the former’s clear, high voice, Puddinghead had a brogue so thick you could cut it with a knife.

“Naw, naw, maw fellah. Where’re yar manners… Er was it marrinades - nevar could remember which’s which - tha’s ‘ardly polite’s what I’ve be’n sayin’ dontcha know. We’re all guests here at mistresses suffer’nce. Tis not p’lite ta be d’mandin an all that. An’ I’d watch that fowl tongue ayours. There be youngin ears ‘ear’bouts, dotcha notice.” The Elderly stallion trotted past Twilight bold as brass, to come face to face with Nyx, who was mostly hidden in the shadows of the cave and her mother's body, and then took down his enormous hat to reveal a bowl of pudding perfectly balanced at the top of his head. He took it down, pulled a small wooden spoon from the band of the hat, replaced the hat upon his head, and then offered the bowl and spoon to bemused alicorn filly.

“Hello there youngster. Want some pudin’?” as Nyx readily took the offering from his hooves, he turned back to apparently gobsmacked Twilight and abashedly shuffled his hooves.

“Sorry I couldn’t offer you any ma’am. I only got enougha fer one.” Then he gave her a Pinky-wide grin and bowed floridly, sweeping off his absurd hat once more.

“Pecan Puddin’ be my name, though mosta folk jist call me Puddin’ead. Fer my sins, th’ duly elected chanc’ler o’ the earth pony federation.”

Where Pensee was still holding her head in her hooves, Cookie looked caught in between desire to laugh uproariously and bash her head on the cavern wall. That was the nature of her boss, he’d either charm you utterly, or drive you completely up the wall. Her paralysis of indecisiveness finally broke as Puddinghead handed the bowl of pudding to the angry imposing supper-pony’s foal. She did have to admit that the black little filly looked awfully cute, even if she did have very odd eyes.

As Puddinghead introduced himself to Twilight, who it must be said had to work hard to maintain her forbidding expression in face of the old stallion’s odd charm, Cookie bashfully approached to the alicorn, and, gaze held firmly to the ground, addressed her.

“Erm, ma’am. He didn’t mean anything by it. Giving your daughter sweets I mean. And ignoring you while he went about it, of course. He just loves foals is all. And I want to assure you that that pudding is nothing dangerous. That was to be his luncheon.”

“I’ll shay. Thish shtuff ish top notch.” Nyx mumbled in foalish bliss through a muzzleful of pudding.

Her mind however conveyed a question to her mother. “Ready to kick it up a notch momma?”

“I’m thinking going to 2.3 Rarities and 1.64 Trixies*?” was Twilights mental response

“Hmn, Fine to start, but maybe drop it to 1.61 Trixies, we don't want to get too overwhelming.”

Twilight reared up in apparent agitation, and her horn momentarily lit up like a newborn star. A broad ribbon of lilac magic shot up and lassoed around the room (thank you AJ for your tutelage) gathering and disposing each and every non-alicorn pony in the chamber before her in a space of time so small none of them could even draw breath to comment. As the coup de grâce of performance, the ribbon then proceeded to muzzle them down.

ENOUGH OF THIS CHARADE!” She boomed magnificently.

YOU WISH TO KNOW ME? YOUR TONGUE IS TOO LIMITED FOR MY NAME, BUT PALTRY THOUGH IT MIGHT BE IT SHALL HAVE TO SUFFICE. I AM TWILIGHT VESPERTINE, ETERNAL AND UNAGING, FIRST AND LAST LIGHT; HUMBLER OF THE SUN AND CLEANSER OF THE MOON; ALICORN OF MAGIC, SOVEREIGN OF FRIENDSHIP; GRAND HIGH ARCH-LIBRARIAN OF THE INFINITY CODEX; SHADOW GUARDIAN; KEEPER OF THE LOST TREE OF KNOWLEDGE; TAMER OF THE PLANET CRACKER; BEARER OF THE DREAD UNENDING QUESTION; THE FLAME OF JUDGEMENT; KEEPER OF PANDEMONIUM; ELDEST OF THE IMMORTAL ALICORNS; LADY OF TIME; THE UPLIFTER; BINDER OF THE CULT MOST CHAOTIC; DRAGON MOTHER; THE PERFECT STORM; DREAM CATCHER; THE REVOLUTIONARY; SHE WHO VERY NEARLY ONCE MADE A HONEY BADGER CARE; VIPER TITAN OF THE FORBIDDEN ARCANA; PARAGON OF LUNAR RESEARCH; THE SNARK; LOREKEEPER OF KNOWLEDGE MOST WOULD WISH LOST AND FORGOTTEN; TEACHER OF THE TEACHER OF THE ALTERNATE PATH; CHRONICLER OF THE SEVEN BUBBLES; KEEPER OF THE LUCKY NUMBER; AMANUENSIS PERIPATETIC; BRINGER OF SANITY; COMPOSITRIX PRINCIPIA POR MALLEUM DISCIPLINIE; GRAND MISTRESS OF THE ANCIENT AND ENLIGHTENED ORDER OF THE JEDI; DEFENDER OF THE CITY OF THE ANGELS; GUARDIAN OF THE FIRST SANCTUARY; ANCHOR OF REALITY; HARMONY’S GIFT; ONETIME BETROTHED OF THE FIRST IMMORTAL; HURRICANE ARCANA; SOUL SCHOLASTIC; SHINE OF DUSK; REDEEMING FRIENDSHIP OF SUNSET; ELDRITCH SPARKLE! HAVE YOU ANYTHING TO DECLARE FOR THINE SELVES AFORE I MET OUT MY JUDGMENT OF YOU?”

Her declaration was met with resounding silence. That is until Nyx wryly pointed that with their mouths magiced shut they could hardly say anything.

It was hardly unexpected that it was Puddinghead who spoke first as the magic binding dissipated from the muzzles of ensorcelled ponies. His question however…

“Yar younes didja ‘ear ya right? Onnaya names thingys be Snark, aye?” He asked brightly, apparently oblivious to any minor considerations such as say being in magical grasp of a testy corporeal goddess.

Caught by surprise by the non-sequitur, Twilight just nodded mutely. Even a mind inured by eons of association with Pinkie Pie apparently was no proper preparation to dealing with this version of Puddinghead.

The old stallion’s face near split in two as he crowed to his unamused secretary.

“An’ yer dou’ted me Cookie. I tolja Snark wus real. Whyelse woulda maw fam’ly dedicate generations to ‘unting it if it wusn’t real.”

Cookie’s voice was desert dry and bone tired as she gave a long suffering sigh and responded.

"Yes Chancellor, as usual, your logic is proven to be beyond the ken of lesser minds..."

Puddinghead did not seem to notice anything amiss with the manner his assistant and protégé delivered her response as he turned his face back to Twilight and, with an irrepressible grin, added.

“Though even I gotta admit I nevar expected snark to be a d’vine pony. I thought ittd beh a small bird or sum kinda roddant to be ‘onest ‘bout thigs.”

Twilight just stared at the unruly statespony for a good, long, and decidedly unamused moment, before she shook her head in true exasperation. Then, ever so slowly her penetrating gaze moved from one face of her captives to the next. Another flash of magic neatly divided the group in two, with the three leaders left in front of her, and their subordinates unceremoniously dumped near Nyx. As she next spoke to the leaders her voice was that of a being who had left mortality a long, long way ago. She was particularly proud of that voice, it took her several loops to truly perfect.

“My little ponies are meant to live and love and work together in harmony. That you disgraces managed not only to perpetuate divisionism but active hatred and animosity to the point that you called down windigoes upon those in your charge is beyond the pale. I judge you unfit to lead a herd of drawn sheep much less living ponies. Much as I would wish otherwise, as I had hoped for in the past, I see now that I cannot leave my little ponies to their own devices. You are simply not yet ready…”

As Twilight was berating the three leaders, Nyx did not waste time on pleasantries. As the founders were dropped and her mother drew attention, she used her magic to shove the appropriate device housing the appropriate one of her friends onto the appropriate mare.




Now, it should be mentioned an interesting phenomenon. The three founders, as a point of fact were not loopers. They were souls voluntarily bound to magical technology that were further soul bound to actual loopers. Therefore, the actual memories were contained, not by the souls of the founders themselves, but by the combination of Cutie Mark Crusaders and the intelligent devices housing said souls. This allowed for the admittedly rare and frankly odd cases when the CMC took residences in the devices for the loop to… facilitate the awakening of the souls of founders to the loop by putting them into contact with the devices. Put in simpler terms it took souls of the founders plus the physical devices plus the souls of cutie mark crusaders in direct contact for the founders to be, as it were, loop active.

Pensee blinked as her in-loop memories integrated with her ‘looping’ ones. Then she scowled.

“Was the charade truly necessary Scootaloo?” She mentally communicated to her mistress.

“Sure it was. We’re gonna play this loop without touching either the elements or the tree of harmony. We get to deal with all the treats as erstraz superheroes slash divine entities.” Came the unrepentant reply.

Despite herself the yellow Pegasus grinned.

“I suppose we’re finally going to attempt to feed me, Cookie and Clover alicorn energy to prevent our aging?” She queried in honest interest.

“... For self governance. I shall have to reassume the title of Queen of Equestria.” Twilight finished her diatribe.

“Umn, what and where is this Equestria?” Platinum asked in bewilderment. She could just feel the events spiraling more and more out of control, and it unsettled her more than she would be ready to admit to any save Clover.

Twilight graced her with cold smile. It was a good cold smile. She won sea cucumber over tufa in cold smiles, evil sneers and maleficent grins versus Discord with that one. Pinkie of course cleaned the house.

“Why, right here my dear. This, is my domain, and this will become the land of all ponies as it was meant to be.” And just to drive the point home, Twilight’s horn lit up like a localized supernova.

As everyone recovered from the blinding light of the spell, they found themselves, not in the crude cave they had been just a moment ago, but in grand throne hall, made of marble and gold and silver. Before them, the purple alicorn was no longer standing, but lying on the grand throne raised upon a dais. And just beside her grand throne, was another, filly sized one obviously intended for her daughter.

It was an ostentatious piece of magic, but universally agreed amongst the loopers, as a most fun one to use, if for no other reason than to observe the reactions of the nonlooper.

“Are the Heralds ready Nyx?” Twilight continued in imperious manner, finally drawing the attention of the three leaders of pony nations back to the little alicorn and their subordinates.

The Founders were a sight to behold indeed, clad in resplendent suits of armor, they hovered in midair just beyond Nyx and their eyes shone with eldritch fire.

“As ready as I could make them momma,” Nyx replied with a carefree grin, and military grade innocent childish cheer.

“Then step forth my Heralds, and accept thy tasks,” commanded Twilight.

True to his nature, Hurricane decided then and there that he was not going to take any more cumulus.

The poor, poor, misguided egomaniac…

“Lieutenant what is the meaning of this treachery, Must I remind you that desertion and defection are serious crimes.” He hissed at Pensee, before turning back to contentedly impassive goddess on her stately throne.

“And, I don’t know who do you think you are, but…” he started to below, but before he could gather any steam, he found himself muzzle to muzzle with a very surprised windigo, some forty miles above equistran.

“Well, now that that is taken care of…” Noticing the stink-eye both Nyx and Pensee were giving her, Twilight huffily amended what she was starting to say. “Oh, what do you take me for. I placed a bubble of protection on him that should last long enough for him to learn his lesson before it brings him down unharmed.”

With that paltry little thing out of the way she continued upon the prior agenda, and sent the three founders to herald the immediate - and in the case of Stratus Stratocracy forceful - change of governance and coincidentally, could you three be dears and kick the windigoes back to mesopause, we wouldn’t want former commander to get lonely, now would we?

Platinum was huddled in a miserable mess right where she stood before the almighty purple pony casually banished that insufferable lout Hurricane, without even a blink of her horn. That lasted until the madpony next to her cheerfully called the alicorn’s attention back to them.

“So yer takin’ tha’ buncha silly buggars offen m’ back? G’ luck witem m’lady and thenkeevermach o’ muchness. I’ll be righta glad t’ get backta wurkin’ with lil ones. Much m’re reasonable an’ sweet themper’d foals be as camper’d with m’ fine bucha coucilers, doncha know.” He turned jauntily and left the throne room tu utter, flabbergasted silence.

And then, just as the three remaining ponies were starting to recover, he stuck his head back in and shyly asked “If’n sompony could see it clear t’ lead me outa this yore castle on accounta, me ‘avin’ no iddea ‘ow to navigate it, twould be muchly ‘preciated.”

“Actually good master Pudding, it occurs to me that now that I am taking control of a nation, I will need a master of the royal nursery, and you seem to have already established a nice rapport with my daughter. Besides that, what with all the ravages caused by conflict and the ensuing windigos there are bound to be orphans of all three pony kinds that will need care for. Would you be interested? I warn you now it will be a hard and often thankless job…”

“Sahy no more, yer Maj. I’m yar stali’n, fer that, an’ no mistakin’ it. When willa ye be free to discuss plans and resources?” Despite his jolly, oftentimes cheerfully crossing into full blown ridiculous, demeanor, it should be noted that Pecan Pudding was by no means, intentions nor indications a fool. There was no mistaking the steely seriousness of his voice nor expression as he accepted the offer without a blink.

Twilight graciously nodded, and with great dignity proclaimed, “As soon as my heralds return with a preliminary census, and I establish some basic governance and infrastructure, you shall have first call on my time. For the moment though, Nyx can take you to the kitchens, since... ”

She never even got the opportunity to finish her sentence, before her daughter popped up next to the old goofball, picked him up in her magic and zoomed out of the throne chamber.

“...bwuh?” Twilight muttered in annoyance and mindspoke to Nyx. “What was that about?”

“I’m building a reputation for childish exuberance, general irreverence and mischievous spirit. I plan to have a lot of fun this loop. By the way, at what rate do I have to age? I’m thinking three hundred to one.” Came the prompt mental reply from her daughter.

Twilight had to fight down a bemused smile. “I’ll be taking the request under consideration. I accept bribes in the form of books, large amounts of chocolate and cuddles.” She bantered back, and then turned her attention to the gibbering mess of the former leader of the unicorns.

“Oh, do stop that, it is undignified. I neither torture, eat, experiment upon nor do other unspeakable things to my little ponies, and whatever I might think about your attitudes so far, you are one of my little ponies. You have my word as an alicorn.”

“But… But… Hurricane…”

“..Is taking a slightly uncomfortable and rather unpleasant time-out, but is otherwise quite safe.”

As she observed Platinum pulling herself together, she considered the unicorn carefully.

“Now, what shall I do with you? The stallions are easy to deal with, but you - you are versed in intrigue and plotting, and as unbalanced as you are now, I am quite certain it will not take you too much time to start pursuing your own agenda. To be quite blunt, I neither have time nor inclination to deal with that - so here is an offer, and you won’t get a better one, I can assure you of that. I leave you and your descendants, direct line only mind you, the title of princes and princesses, grant you housing, staff and stipend, and in return you pledge yourself and your progeny in service to myself, my family, and the well being of Equestria.”

Platinum did not need to consider the offer for overlong. She was quite shrewd enough to understand that while the alicorn’s promise protected her from horrific fates, it said nothing about any number of very unpleasant fates that she could think of offhoof.

“By the stream and the mountain, horn and spell, the sun and the moon, I Platinum, of a sound mind and under no coercion, do pledge allegiance of myself and any foal of my bloodline, to your majesty and your kindred, and also to that of the nation of Equestria.”

*Though perhaps a bit unkind Rarity and Trixie came to be neigh-universal scale for measuring drama and hammines respectively amongst their fellow Equestrian loopers. It said something about the nature of loops and loopers that those two were hardly the only ones used as a measurement, nor were they the most unkind usages. It is best left unsaid what Pinkie Pie scale was used for. Suffice to say, it only went from -1 to 1




120.10 (85.1 Continued) (Bigou)




The nightmarish idea that Pinkie Pie might be an imaginary pony made real not only scared said pink being, but also Twilight, the narrator, and even the author himself.

Strangely, Fluttershy wasn't. In fact, when it was proved that Pinkie never was anypony's imaginary friend, she was strongly disappointed.




120.11 (AnyonymousAsk: highly edited by fractalman)




Discord was resting inside a sofa, while Twilight and Celestia looked at him.

"Are you sure this is going to be a good idea, Doctor Twilight?" Asked Discord, feigning nervousness.

"Dah... the root of all your evil is inside you...we need to take it out" Say Twilight with a false Russian accent.

Twilight then took a pocket watch and swung it in front of Discord.

"Follow the watch, Mr. Discord... just relax, and listen to my voice.

"Now, you are relaxed. Let your mind return to the past...to the deep past...now, where are you, Discord?"

"In Canterlot Garden. I'm a statue." answered Discord.

There are many misconceptions about hypnosis. For starters, Legitimate hypnosis subjects do not speak in a monotone; instead they sound quite normal, if a bit relaxed. Discord and Twilight knew this, and knew that Celestia knew this, so Discord very much did NOT answer in a monotone voice. Deadpan snark, on the other hand/hoof/claw/paw...

"Okay...further back...that's it...now where are you?"

"Still a statue."

"Further back, please. "

There was a pause.

"WAAAAAH! I miss my mommy!" whined Discord.

"Oops!" giggled Twilight. "I guess he went too far back. Ah well, I guess you can raise him up from square one."

"Aunn'ie! Aunn'ie Sunny take care of me!" slobbered Discord as he hugged a rather nervous Celestia.




120.12 (fractalman)




Twilight raised an eyebrow as she stepped outside. The ground was slightly hardened sugar, most houses were made of gingerbread, and her tree was a candy cane.

She double-checked her loop memories; no, it was not discord's fault this time.

As she stared at the rim of the world, she chuckled: Equestria was literally a sugarbowl.




"I hear she flosses her teeth!"

"She lives in the Everfree!"

"It ain't natural there. The ground is made of nasty dirt! Ya can't eat it!" Applejack, farmer of candy apples, pointed out.

"The trees are...broccoli!" whimpered Fluttershy.

"No, that would be the bushes. And broccoli is edible in small quantities, though I have to admit it is most distasteful." quipped rarity.

"Yeah, the trees are made of toothpicks!" pointed out Rainbow Dash.

"The rain...is water! Pure water" whispered Fluttershy.

Most of the ponies in the room shivered in fear at that.

Twilight sparkle was quite bemused...until she remembered that, this loop, ponies were literally made of candy, rendering water hazardous to their health.




The Droplet fell, and struck the sugary ground. For a second, nothing obvious happened. Then it bubbled up, a black welt on the white land…

Twilight stared in horror for a second that felt like a minute. If that droplet had hit a pony…

Another droplet fell. Twilight snapped out of her stupor, cloned herself with kage bunshin, and started swarming the planet to find and wallop Dischem, the spirit of chaos and chemistry. Other clones went to retrieve the Skittles of Sugar, which would be most helpful for cleaning up the sulfuric acid clouds.

No messing around with this version of Dischem, oh no, Twilight was going to take him out with overwhelming firepower before he got somepony killed.

She was, however, looking forward to firing the Skittles of Sugar.




Twilight approached Bon Bon. "Excuse me, do changelings eat blood or love?"

Bon Bon stared. "What's blood?"

"The sugar water in ponies."

Bon Bon shrugged. "They drink the sugar water from ponies. Uh, why did you want to know?"

Twilight pointed. "You're leaving licorice crumbs everywhere."

Bon Bon eeped, while Twilight rolled her eyes. "Don't worry, I'm just going to grab some water from the Everfree and mix it with some ground. If it turns out that pony sugar-water has some nutrient you need, I'm sure I can synthesize that as well."

Bon Bon sagged in relief. "Oh, you would? Oh, it's official, Twilight Sparkle is best pony!"

"AHEM!"

Both ponies turned to see Lyra tapping her hoof. "Best pony?"

Bon Bon blushed. "Er, second best?"

Twilight rolled her eyes. "I'll go get started on that sugar water."




Meanwhile, in Lyra's mindscape:

"LET US OUT!" yelled human Lyra.

"This sticky concoction is not good for my circuitry." deadpanned Robot Lyra.

"Shoo-bee-STILL STUCK!" was all that Seapony Lyra felt needed to be said.

"How did Sweet Roll take over the entire mindscape, anyways? This is the first time she's even been sapient, isn't it?" asked Unicorn Lyra.

Sweet Roll Lyra merely grinned like an idiot. "This is so much fun! I'm sapient! I've never been sapient before!"




120.13




Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings, approached the door. She made to knock on it, blinked, and decided to kno-

New loop.

Whoa, that was-

What was? It's been a while, remember, I loop more-

Prince-

Looks like our local forms are telepaths. That seems to be accelerating our thought-speech.

Telepaths? This feels more like-

The Howlers were telepaths, it's how their hive mind worked.

I believe you, Cass. Now-

Prince Jake, I believe-

Dudes, we're not the only ones in this hive-

What the heck are we?

Chill, Rach, I've been here before once. They're called Changelings. Telepathic shapeshifters,

I'm guessing there's bad news?

There is, Prince Jake – we are also emotivores who feed on love.

Just throw Rachel at Tobias, we'll-

Guys, quit with the teasing, please! We're-

Why not Jake and I?

Not you, too, Cass! Marco, before you say it-

Wasn't going to.


Hello?

Oh, great. What was that you were-

I did say we weren't the only ones in this hive mind, Jakester-

Okay. Ax? Ideas?

We could potentially try a psionic surge to break the link. Elfangor told me of his experience with the Taxxon-

Dudes! Hive mind, remember!

Oh, crap. Did we just-


Don't worry, I'm looping. And not hostile.

Well, that's a relief.

They all say that at first. You know, no alien ever said 'we come in war'.

No, they usually shot first and moved onto the ash heap later-


I assure you, I can prove it as much as is normally possible. If my marefriend is around, then she can vouch for me.

No need, we can tell you're sincere.

This link is much deeper than normal thought-speech. It transfers emotions as well. It is truly a lot like the Howler link was, Prince Jake.


Can you turn it down? You're distracting the rest of the changelings.

And that would be bad. Can't you do the Howler-whammy on them, Jake?

Marco, they already know about love, they feed off-

I don't know much about beef.


Please keep the mental link below the point where it would have to be scrambled if it was television, please.

Hey, cool, she – she?

She.

She gets Earth humour! I think I like you, mysterious hive queen.

I am glad of the vote of confidence. However, I was busy. If you hold on a moment, I'll just cut you from the link for a few minutes, so you can get your shields and loop memories in order.

Sounds good to us.

-ck anyway.

“Hello? Princess Cadence?” she asked. “I just wanted to wish you a happy wedding, and to let you know I'm perfectly willing to take on your job if you need a longer honeymoon.”

She sleight-of-handed a business card from her pocket, and placed it on the nearest dresser, then left the rather startled bride-to-be and set about organizing her hive mind.
120.1: It's a funny word.
120.2: Walk a mile in somepony elses' horseshoes.
120.3: Basic courses in everything.
120.4: Baka...
120.5: The Masters of the Poniverse.
120.6: Someone find the Mnemosyne.
120.7: RUN.
120.8: Time for a rethink.
120.9: One of the few times she really gets to let loose.
120.10: It did, you know.
120.11: Really, Discord can cause far more interesting havoc now than he ever could before.
120.12: Literal metaphors.
120.13: How long did it take you to recognize them? (The Anchor is Tobias, by the way.)
© 2014 - 2024 Saphroneth
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120.9 That's the furthest back Twilight has ever been. She still hasn't beaten Rainbow Dash's record though.