Time Loop Logic

Five fillies and an alicorn were relaxing in the Golden Oak Library. The pleasant smell of paper filled the air, and six glasses of iced fruit juice (bendy-straws optional) were a welcome respite from the warm summer's day outside.

At a designated table, of course. This was a library, after all.

Having the Cutie Mark Crusaders Awake made "Twilight Time" much simpler; doubly so with Diamond Tiara Awake as well. On the other hoof, this made it a challenge to find study material. On days like today, conversation topics tended to wander farther afield.

Nyx sipped at her juice. The little alicorn filly's nose crinkled in thought, in an expression that Twilight and Rarity had privately agreed ranked at least "0.2 squees" on the Fluttershy scale. A few moments later, that thought was voiced.

"Momma," she asked, "what did you and Celestia do that time you experimented with the sun?"

"Hey, yeah," Scootaloo chimed in. "That sounds like it would have been awesome! Even if, well..." She trailed off, seeing Twilight twitch at memories of the Eiken loop that followed.

Apple Bloom, on the other hand, looked miffed. "Wait, y'all went messing around with stars without inviting me? I've got loads of gear I've been wanting to try out. I figured I'd have to wait for another Trek loop before having the resources." She paused to take another sip of her own drink. "Stellar engineering ain't easy, ya know."

"I don't know, Sweetie managed it pretty easily during the Arda loop," Diamond Tiara chimed in. The smirk she directed at Sweetie Belle was a friendly one; a far cry from the expressions used by her baseline counterpart.

Sweetie Belle shifted uncomfortably. "I had help; all of the Ainur worked together for that. Besides," she smirked looking at Twilight, "we're getting off-topic."

Twilight took a deep breath, and sighed. "All right; I suppose it'll have to come out eventually. It was near the end of a loop, and it was more than just Celestia; she and Luna were both there, along with the original Element bearers..."

"Make haste, Twilight Sparkle. I do not know how long I can maintain this expansion."

Luna's voice was strained - and for good reason. The basement underneath the Golden Oak Library held rather more space than usual, even given Twilight's propensity for digging extra storage rooms. "Space" was also a bit more literal than usual, given that her basement didn't normally have a G-class star inside of it. Looping prominences cast harsh flickering light across the faces of both Royal Alicorn Sisters. Celestia's usually-serene expression couldn't quite mask stress matching her sister's, as she struggled to hold the star in place and keep it compressed enough to fit within the library's expanded confines.

"Don't worry, I'm almost ready!"

Twilight rushed to and fro, making final adjustments to the jumbled mass of humming equipment that circled the central space. The other Element-bearers waited uncomfortably on the circular platform she'd assigned to them. For all that they'd seen non-Euclidean space before, that didn't make it pleasant to stare at. Glancing about the periphery wasn't any more pleasant; they could either watch Twilight prancing about in full mad scientist mode, or glance at the two Royal Sisters who were struggling, with obvious stress, to keep the unsettlingly large ball of fire sharing the room contained.

Four out of five were uncomfortable, at any rate. Rainbow Dash had pulled a pair of sunglasses and a deck chair out of her pocket and was basking. Finally, Twilight trotted back to the group.

"All right girls, elements on, and formation!"

Six pairs of eyes closed, and six faces took on an expression of deep concentration. A familiar aura of power enfolded the Bearers, lifting them into the air, and as they opened their eyes, rainbow light burst forth. Instead of stopping, though, the drain went on and on. Twilight's eyes glowed with white fire as she poured more power into the Sun. Finally the light faded, and the bearers sank to the ground in exhaustion. Twilight remained standing, though, horn aura glowing violet-white.

"Um, Twi," Applejack asked, "ain't it over? We used the elements like you told us to, shouldn't they be doin' the rest of the heavy lifting?"

"They are, Applejack," Twilight replied, teeth gritted. "I still have to guide the process. Celestia and Luna are still holding on as well." The farm-pony glanced over towards the royal couple, whose strained faces confirmed that yes, keeping a star in Twilight's basement was still requiring effort.

Rainbow was looking at the sun and scowling. "So, what was this supposed to do again? The sun still looks like it did before." This wasn't quite true, she decided. There was a faint shimmer of magic around the flickering tongues of fire, and... was it getting smaller?

"It should be starting any second now... there!" Twilight's panting slowed, and her horn aura dimmed to its usual pink. Her grin had come back, and that wasn't entirely reassuring. "It's collapsing; you can see the accretion disk starting to form. If this works, we'll have magical power to spare! Think of it, girls - we could set up our workshops in hours instead of weeks, run extra-space charms powerful enough to hold entire cities, maybe even directly connect normal space to our pockets! There's no limit to what we could accomplish!"

"And the elements do what now?" Rainbow still looked confused.

"They set up a harmonic resonance, and I'm using it to halt the collapse at the last moment so that we can extract power. It's harmony that makes all of this work!"

The eight ponies watched as the sun shrank to a disc which swirled around an eye-hurtingly bright point of light.

"So, this is our magic element swirly-thing?" Rainbow ventured.

Rarity responded to that. "'Swirly thing', darling? Let's not be so gauche. Rainbow spiral, perhaps?"

"Maybe. Harmony cyclone?"

Fluttershy had been watching the disk contract, and finally spoke. "Um, actually, it doesn't look like a cyclone any more. It looks almost like an eye."

"You're all close," Twilight replied. "It's inspired by something I'd encountered in the Who loop. Girls, we now have our very own Eye of -"

There was a faint popping sound, and twin gasps of pain from Celestia and Luna. They fell to the floor... which was a lot more ordinary-looking than it had been a moment ago. Twilight's head whipped back and forth between her beloved mentor and trusted friend, and the empty, normal-sized room where a star was supposed to be. "What happened? Is everypony all right? What happened to the Sun? Did you have to pocket it? Did anything else - "

"I'm all right, Twilight," Celestia replied. The monarch looked worse for wear, but was recovering. "My connection to the spell vanished, but I don't seem to have experienced any ill effects from that. Lulu, did the same thing happen to you?"

"Yes, sister," Luna said, as her panting slowed and became normal breaths. "One moment, I was straining to hold this much Sky in one place, and the next it was as if I hadn't begun the spell."

Twilight was distraught. "But, but - the Eye! What happened to it? It was working, and we could have done so much!"

Pinkie bounced up to interrupt her monologue. "Mmf! M found this!" With that, she deposited a small piece of paper at Twilight's hooves, and bounced off again humming happily.

Twilight levitated the slip of paper in front of her, reading it.

What part of "read-only" wasn't clear, Sparkle?

-Skuld

"...Tree-damnit."

Eight ponies - three weary, four quietly relieved, and one prancing - made their way up the stairs from the basement. Upon entering the library proper, another surprise waited for them. Stacks and stacks of paper filled the foyer floor to ceiling, teetering precariously. A scroll with a purple ribbon rested in front of the nearest pile.

Twilight opened it with trepidation.

Community service paperwork - lot 1 of 277,432.

"...For birch's sake."

Five fillies sipped their juice as they juice as they digested the story.

Apple Bloom spoke first. "Ah'm torn between askin' ya for your schematics, or avoidin' Who-tech all together. That punishment don't sound like fun, and I'm gettin' the impression she still went easy on ya."

"Yes, it could have been much worse," Twilight replied. "Even so, that's more paperwork than I ever want to see in one place again."

"Hey, wait - paperwork!" Scootaloo chimed in. "So that loop where we were all your daughters, and you couldn't spend time with us because there was too much you had to do as Queen -"

Twilight smiled. "Got it in one. That was a major contributor to it."

Sweetie piped up. "So, did you finish it before taking your, um, sabbatical as 'Northern Twilight'?"

Twilight's chin lowered to rest on the table, gaze held off in the far distance. "No. By the time that loop ended, I was a quarter done."

The fillies pondered that. Nyx summed up the group's feelings eloquently.

"Remind me never to tick off Skuld."