Ask Looping Sparkle #1: Paradoxes and Regrets







more unexplained weirdness piling up on top of everything I'm already struggling with.

want me to really be an avatar of a Discord-level power, and then I could shoot this with my canon cannon, cause it sounds like you could use help trying to simultaneously destroy Equestria and not destroy it. I'm super good at both those things!


The Letter J: "When Twilight hears that everything worked out [with her honesty plan] … why was the Euthanatos spell the first thing she did? Why didn't she talk with Celestia and Luna or get her memories back or anything else? How is resetting again 'basking in the glow of a pleasant surprise?' "



Every single time I've reset to big things unexpectedly changing, it's been for the worse. Celestia becoming a looper and immediately killing me, Chrysalis destroying the train —

Hard Reset 2. But, um, okay … there's some big spoilers for the arc we just finished ahead.

good to surprise me was such a novel idea, I didn't want to ruin the surprise by retrieving the explanation in advance.



Nekonyancer, who asks: "Back in the loop where you brought everyone's secrets out, how come it would have caused a paradox for Celestia to reset before you did?"





No math. You have to Pinkie Promise.


not like math? It's so straightforward and comprehensible! When you apply the same numbers and the same operations, you always get the same results. It's ponies that I don't understand —
Neeeeeeeeeerd.

totally incredible idea, Twilight! You should answer Nekonyancer's question like we're actually here to do!

permanent effects regardless of who reset the loop.
is in the first place.


second half of the explanation runs something like, "This created a type mismatch between the data format of Actual Twilight (which Luna changed) and Save Point Twilight (which she didn't), and if the loop spell tried to restore from the save point before Actual Twilight died and updated the information there, it would have started throwing null pointer exceptions," and you can't tell me that null pointer exceptions —
(*gasp*) No math, Twilight! You promised!

Promised.



kahtoc has two questions for you!
kahtoc is "cothak" backward!



neeeeevveeer introduce me to Q!






PINKIE.

(*sigh*) Anyway. As for most changelings killed in a loop — back before everything changed, when I was the only one looping, I spent a bunch of loops going through Canterlot blowing off steam. My record with Home Run was 53, but when I switched to the chainsaw I managed 87.


Spoilers!




WHAT?!


wait until you hear all the ponies that HR-you made the snoo-snoo with. And what you did! I don't even know if I can explain that … aha! Here, hold this for a second, okay?


Ask Looping Sparkle #2: Interruptions and explosives
G?#?F$&?c&*a?a`?b?"??*Ϲڣc;Gu?*?
NO MATH, TWILIGHT.
Thursday. Which is after I do these columns.
FanOfMostEverything writes, "Dear Pinkie, Pinkie says 'Hi.' And that Pinkie and Pinkie will totally be attending the party at Pinkie's. Pinkie can't make it, though, because she's continuity-sitting for Pinkie, who had a thing at the place with the guy."
"Why do you think this timeline's Star Swirl deliberately distorted the laws of magic?"
already, I can't possibly imagine that there are alternate realities out there that are so bad that he'd have had to go to those extremes —
GET here? We're outside spacetime.
ThanatosBrony has a question about "Star Horse," after hearing us discuss it on our trip to Skyrend Mountain. "Did Greeno buck first, or did Hay Solo?"
didn't buck first in the movie. You can clearly see Greeno turn around and hoof the wall next to him before Hay even stands up.
still an establishing moment for Hay's character, just a different one now. It shows that he's a good pony at heart who's forced into desperate measures by his bad decisions. It's more symbolic of Star Horse's overall theme of a small group of plucky heroes overcoming greater evil.
Says the time looper.
refferee — who must remember how you taught yourself to mix up explosives from household materials in the original Hard Reset — writes: "Have you ever tried to destroy Canterlot with explosives or some such when you were still the only original looper?"
kilograms of it?
Now let's get out of here before Doctor Turner tracks down Merchandise Twilight's spell source and finds us talking about high explosives.
Cliff's Notes versions
• RampantArcana has started a GitHub repository to codify the time-loop rules and the early-story timeline.
• Hawthornbunny has posted a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of all the loops, including the ones we don't see, with a lot of critical analysis.
If you're confused, either one of those fan projects is a great starting point, and story comments have a lot of insightful discussion as well.
Fan works
• "Do You Want To Kill Some Changelings?" [Lyrics] — RampantArcana wrote a song about the evolving relationship between Twilight and Celestia, to the tune of "Do You Want To Build A Snowman?" from Frozen.
• "Erred Earth's Re-had Easter" [Fanfic] — Prawo Jazdy's delightful HR2 homage explores what might have been, if the "easter egg" that I included in Chapter 11 had actually been a cryptic hint that Twilight Sparkle was going to start having some racial issues. NOTE: Currently this is included here (just click on the "next chapter" link), but should be moving out to its own story soon.
• HR2 Movie Poster [Art] — I commissioned Alexstrasza for cover art, and Alex created this amazing homage to Die Hard 2: Die Harder. Looks even more awesome (and contains some easter eggs) at full resolution.
