Author's Note

Electrix is in for a very loopy time!

Twilight discovered the 4th wall, and time-looped all of reality using the Time-Twirler™?

Twilight straightened out her Very Official Government Documents. Today was a tax day kind of day, except she was the one receiving the taxes. Of course, she also paid her taxes too. Using the tax money that she collected, of course.

Clink.

"Mm?" Twilight peeked under the stack of documents at the translucent blade that dropped out. Apparently someone wasn't nearly as organized as she said she was.

Twilight glanced at the door. Then out the window behind her. Gadget was outside doing something with the CMC.

She pretended not to hear the jackhammer sounds coming from their general location as she turned her attention back to the shard.

She also pretended not to hear Apple Bloom yelling about finding oil directly under the castle.

Twilight gingerly picked up the shard with her magic. How was this supposed to work again? Just... cut?

She drove it forward in a stabbing motion. Sure enough, the very tip of the blade vanished, slicing cleanly through the normally intangible fabric of reality.

"Oi mate, ya got a license for that?" a muffled voice came from behind where she'd stabbed the knife into. A hoof punched through from the other side, sending the blade flying barely past Twilight's face and out the window. The hoof tore the hole wider to reveal one of Gadget's incarnations. "Come with me if you want to live."

"Hu--"

Other Gadget pulled Twilight in right as her castle burst into flames no thanks to it becoming covered in oil. Blame Scootaloo and her angle grinder. (Don't worry, Spike's fine. He's fireproof from all the asbestos he's eaten.)

"Told ya. Now what the heck were you doin' with that sky shard thingy?" Gadget dusted herself off. "Were you trying to come in here and influence fate? 'Cause if you were then I'ma have to fight you. I ain't the guardian of this place for no reason after all. Aside from being dead, I mean."

"Uhhhhhhhhhh."

Gadget rubbed her chin. "I see, confused tourist it is." She grabbed Twilight by the hoof. "Come, come! If you're here to look around ya gotta see this!"

"See... wh..." Twilight slowed her steps, lagging behind Gadget. "Woah."

She stared at these exact words being written from the other side of the page. And these ones, too. In fact, she watched herself write out these words as they went through her mind.

...

...

Wait, did that mean that she had no free will? That she, Gadget, and everyone else that she knew was merely a puppet bending to the machinations of another, higher Twilight that dictated their very being?

"Woah," the Twilight Sparkle writing this chapter leaned back in her seat after writing that. "Spike, how's this look? Pretty good for something written out of boredom, yeah?"

Spike gave a silent thumbs-up beside her before stealing a cookie off the conveniently located plate of cookies he'd brought in to share.

"TWILIGHT! TWI-LIGHT!" Pinkie Pinkie'd into this chapter. "Twilight! It's been so long since I've managed to sneak around the author and get into this place! How're you doin?"

Twilight shrunk away in shock from ME! PINKIE! Here, Twi! Leavin' you a present! See ya!

*keyboard clattering noises*

Ahem.

Twilight stared at the large box now sitting in front of her. As did Twilight and Gadget within the sub-story of this chapter. As well as the Twilight that's presumably writing about Twilight writing about Twilight in this chapter. And the Twilight--

Get on with it you doofus.

Twilight opened the box and pulled out a weird helical device. There was nothing on it except for a singular button.

The sky shard from all the way back two scenes ago fell through the ceiling and hit the button.

After many years of studying in the Royal Canterlot Archives, Twilight finally closed the cover of the final book. She set her head down gently, and sighed, "Finally, the last book." She got up, and pushed her chair in. She ignored the little blue unicorn filly clambering into the seat immediately after.

A few minutes later, she stepped outside. It had been weeks since she had seen the sun, and even longer since she'd touched grass. It almost made her want... want to build a machine for it...

A weird helical device fell from the sky and clocked her on the skull.

Sammy, Zoey, Caleb, and Brodie were trapped. That was pretty much the whole story. Trapped. In a web. Surrounded by zombies. In a foreign universe. Trapped. Sammy was using--

"Ewwwww, who wrote this trash?" Twilight belched as she shoved the old manuscript aside. "It stinks of middleschoolerisms!"

Unfortunately, shoving the manuscript aside caused it to tip over and off the table, where it fell in just the right way to hit a certain button on a certain device hereby dubbed the Time-Twirler™.

Twilight blinked, staring down at the chapter she was currently writing.

"What the fk."

"Hey look, Sweetie! We've struck oil! We're gonna get our cutie marks in becoming wealthy oil barons!"