The Weathered Loops

1.0

Weathered was bored. He had been recording Universes for three years now, and he was getting a little tired of it. So he decided to try something new. Looking across the Multiverse, he tried to find anything that didn't have the same Imprint as a Universe. After an hour or so, ho mind hit a bump in reality- a small orb of energy that didn't read like his Multiverse did. This was what he was looking for.

He walked through the usual steps for Hopping: imagine, or find a door, imagine that it connects to the target location, and open it. He felt the familiarwhoosh as he Hopped. All in one moment, he entered to the foreign energy source, into Limbo, and Drew a barrier around himself. This allowed him to exist in Limbo without being ripped to an infinite amount of pieces. He Checked the world for an Imprint. New. This was not his Limbo, if it was Limbo at all. He could be in space for all he knew.

“Well, Weathered. Either you found a new Universe with a fancy door, or you hopped out of the Multiverse. Either way, it's different. That's what we wanted.” He tried doing something he hadn't done in years; creating a Universe. He willed and wished, pushing on the darkness until it gave- then he fell. He appeared in the sky several miles above The Field, or at least the new Field. He righted himself mid-air, staring at the ground rushing to him before Drawing his unicorn self from Earth-3a, teleporting to the ground.

Everything was still the same compared to the original Field, except for the center. The Key-gates were gone, of course, this was a fresh Field. After a moment of taking the scenery in, he got to work. He set up a blank Key-gate, and searched the Multiverse for anything with a similar Imprint to his Multiverses Universes. First one he found had an echo of similarity to Earth-3a, so he decided to pay a visit to his Equus friends. The Key-gate hummed to life, creating a dark void inside its arch as a passage to a Universe was made.

1.1-My Little Pony

Weathered walked through a doorway, which rapidly closed itself. Looking around, he recognized the cottages of Ponyville. Good, maybe he can talk to the Twilight here, get to know her. Weathered didn’t know what time it was in the Multiverse: he hadn’t made the clock yet. First step to figuring that out was to find the date locally, he could do the math later.

Walking through the town, he noticed that Twilight’s castle wasn’t there, and the Golden Oak Library was still intact. That meant it was somewhere before the second half of C.E. 24, before Tirek rose to power again. That was a stressful few days.

He walked up to the door and knocked. It swung open, and Weathered was greeted by a familiar purple… unicorn. That means it's either C.E. 22 or 23. “Hey Twilight! Its me! Weathered Field! I was stopping by in Ponyville when I learned that you lived here! I just had to say hi!” While it wasn’t the whole story, it was truthful, and if this Twilight didn’t remember him, it would sound like a normal story. He just had to play the ‘I went to magic kindergarten with you’ card.

Twilight blinked. She had no idea who this pony was, so she quickly racked her loop memories, only to find that this was close to the baseline loop, a couple days after Princess Luna returned. She looked for any others, only to find that she was the only one Awake. “Uh… hello? I’m sorry if this sounds a little rude, but I don’t think I’ve met you before. How do you know me?” The unicorn- Weathered- blinked as he fabricated his story.

“Aww, c’mon! We were in magic kindergarten together! Remember? It was you, Lyra Heartstrings, Moondancer, Lemon Hearts, Minuette, and a few others? Lemon Hearts got her head stuck in that beaker, and ran around the room?” He faked a smile, and hoped that the stories that Twilight had shared with him would seal his story.

“Uh huh. We were definitely in the same class then, I don’t think I’ll forget that day easily. I’m sorry to say, though, that I still don’t remember you.” She smiled apologetically while Weathered quickly read her Imprint. She was Displaced, she had been in contact with other worlds, but she didn’t recognize him. Maybe someone else had connected the Multiverse here? That would make Weathered’s life easier, for sure.

“Ok. Well, I just wanted to say hi regardless. But before I go, have you ever thought about the theory of other Universes? I’ve been fascinated by the idea recently, and I figured that if alternate timelines existed, why not other Universes.” Twilight looked at Weathered, mouth slightly agape. Was this person a Looper from another Universe? Most normal ponies wouldn’t act this way, and Twilight hadn’t ever seen this one before, not even in that Loop where she made friends with every living thing in Equestria. But he wasn’t showing up as a Looper...

“Actually, yeah, I have. Uhm… This might sound a little strange, but have you studied the theory of Time Loops? Y’know, the theory that the Universe, after reaching a certain point in time, resets itself? It's rather fascinating.” Weathered furrowed his brow for a moment, before returning to a smile.

“No, I haven’t! Maybe we could share notes on the theories? I have a copy right…” A copy of ‘A Guide to the Multiverse’ booklet popped into existence with a gold flare of Weathered’s horn. “Here. The basics of what I have studied over the years.” Twilight pulled a similar book out of her mane, or rather her Subspace Pocket. It read on the cover ‘So You’re Time Looping’. They passed the books to each other, gave it a quick read, and paused, slowly looking at each other.

Weathered was the first to speak. “So you’re time looping, eh? You do that around here?” Twilight opened and closed her mouth, considering her words.

“Yeah, and you are… jumping Universes? How does that work? Do you just travel through the baseline Loops?” Twilight inquired.

“No, I think I Hopped into an entirely different Multiverse. Where I’m from, we have been friends for three years, you created your own Pocket Universe called The Library, and you were helping me catalog the Multiverse. Here, instead of Hopping being the main form of Universal travel, it's the Fusion and Crossover Loops, if I understand correctly?” Weathered raised his brow and looked up from the Loopers Guide, slightly grinning.

Twilight took that information in and filed it away for later use. “Yeah, I think. So, uh, what was The Library like? I mean, I trust myself to have made it how I imagine it to be, but still…” Twilight waited in excited anticipation.

“The Library was the largest collection of knowledge in the Multiverse. You had it set up so that every time something was discovered, it was sent there, sorted by confidentiality, and put on display, like a big public library. Except for the confidential things. Knowing the one word that could break a nation could lead to a God Complex, and those are massive headaches to deal with.” Twilight sighed, imagining the amount of planning and sorting it must have taken to construct that Universe. She snapped herself back to the present.

“Well, I don't know if you will remember anything in this Loop, but while you are here, wanna go through the loop?” Weathered blinked, then shrugged.

“Yeah, sure why not. I need a change of pace.”

1.2-My Little Pony

Twilight woke up in the Canterlot Library. That was an odd Loop she just had. Maybe that Weathered fellow was just part of the Loop? Oh well, he wasn’t here now. She did the ritual memory search, looking for anything odd. Oh- okay, she could work with that. Apparently Pinkie Pie and Discord had swapped places this timeline. Pinkie was still, of course, stuck in stone in the gardens, and had been since Celestia and Luna had sealed her 1000 years ago.

This will be strange, but nothing too strange. Simple character swaps like this were nothing too troublesome.

Weathered walked through a door, which then shut itself. He looked around, and concluded that he needed to find Twilight, as well as figure out what year it is.

Twilight heard a knock at the door, so she answered it. It was Weathered Field. “Uh… hello? How may I help you?”

“Hey Twilight! Its me! Weathered Field! I was stopping by in Ponyville when I learned that you lived here! I just had to say hi!” Twilight blinked, then she remembered this happening last Loop. It had been an slow ordeal, and she would rather avoid it this time.

“Yeah, I know. You came from an alternate Multiverse where I made a Pocket Universe called The Library. Also, I constantly Loop through time, read this.” She passed him the Loopers Guide and walked past him casually. Weathered stood there, rather dumbfounded. “This might be interesting” Twilight thought, thinking of the Loops to come with the Universal Traveler.