My Little Mages: Subrosa Admissionby FoxhelmChaptersThe Cycle BeginsThe Loop ContinuesBreaking The CycleThe Cycle BeginsThe sun had begun its descent to the western horizon. Princess Twilight’s skyboat descended onto a small plot of grass as its recently installed landing gear came out and parked before its engines shut off. The plot of land the skyboat landed in was part of a series of a couple of grosses of prepared campgrounds about a twenty-minute walk from walled-off area about five to six acres in area with numerous stages and platforms set up for bands and other performances. The door to the skyboat opened and Sunset Shimmer lept out and threw her arms in the air. “WE MADE IT!” she shouted at the top of her lungs. “The Whirling Constellation Music Festival!” she added as she was followed by her friends and half-sisters out of the sky boat, Pinkie had a comedically high collection of random collectibles. Applejack walked over to a part of the lot next to where the skyboat landed and began to dig a fire pit. “An entire week of the best music around, including Sapphire Shore, RaRa, Songbird Serenade, Octavia Melody and the rest of both her swing quartet and the orchestra she’s part of, Vinyl Scratch, to list a few.” the paladin said as she paced the dimensions, while everyone started to set up the rest of their campsite. Rarity giggled as she got the paladin a shovel, “Let’s not forget your own troubadour, Dirk Thistleweed,” Applejack gave a blissful sigh at the thought before she started to dig after taking a glance of her left hand and the wedding band of the setted gem shaped to look like her aura mark of three stylized apples mixed among two circles one red and one orange with the red one being the larger of the two. Everyone had a small laugh as they took out a table and chairs and prepared the outside of the shyboat for the week ahead. Fluttershy then spoke as she placed the chairs she took out of the skyboat, “Or the band Skull Cruncher.” Everyone turned to her in confusion. “I know you can’t really make out the lyrics over the death metal, but if you actually look around the area around them after they play all the life around is empowered.” Everyone blinked a few times but elected to not press the matter. Electing to kill the awkward silence, “Or MC Dex FX.” Sci-Twi and Princess Twilight said together, both seeming to be excited over the techno-DJ as they squealed. “Didn’t Flash promise to introduce you both to him?” Rarity asked. Twilight and Sci-Twi looked to each other and with massive grins on their faces like a couple of schoolgirls that were complemented by the most attractive upperclassmen in the school. "B.H.E.?” Twilight asked. “B.H.E.!” Sci-Twi answered before they cheered, unable to contain their excitement. Everyone shook their heads, the two seemed to have forgotten that Flash’s band, Flash Drive, would also take this event to kick off their reunion tour. But that number wouldn’t be until the last day. However, no one was going to press the matter. “And let’s not forget it takes place only once every fifty years,” Princess Twilight added, in an attempt to continue building on the excitement given the frequency of the festival. “Can you imagine it?” she asked as she and Sci-Twi got the fire wood that they brought with them as Applejack finished the fire pit. “Our parents were either not born yet or little kids the last time this took place.” she added, with a massive grin on her face. There was silence for a solid second before she noticed how no one was commenting. She was perplexed at first before she turned her attention to Sci-Twi and recalled that she is infact a clone of herself, with DNA and RNA from everyone of this group… and more. “Um…” she trailed off as she tried to save some face. Sci-Twi just rolled her eyes. Twilight gave a weak and guilt-filled laugh, “Sorry,” she added sheepishly. After having a little laugh at Twilight’s expense, “Well this festival is about one thing only for Pinkie and me.” Sunset started before she was joined by Pinkie Pie, “POSTCRUSH!!!” the two shouted and swelled in clear euphoria of seeing the band in question perform. Indigo groaned, “No, really, we couldn’t tell, it’s not like you two did talk about my ‘look at me kawaii desu’ cousin Supernova and her ‘I am soo~ cool~’ friend Kiwi since we got on Twilight’s boat… oh wait that’s the only thing talked ABOUT!!!” the arcane monk yelled at the two, as if she was one hairpin away from tearing the two apart. “And everyone says I have anger issues,” Sour joked only for Indigo’s glare to shift to her. “Never mind.” Applejack gave a chuckle, “Sorry Indie, yah gotta forgive those two, but K-Lo and Su-Z .” the paladin said as she walked up to Indigo and patted her on the shoulder. “When K-Lo and Su-Z declared that PostCrush would be on 'indefinite hiatus', well you’d get better odds of a rooster laying an egg.” The farmer attempted to comfort. Indigo was unamused about all this, but seemed to have reluctantly relented. Applejack then returned to the fire pit she was making, “Now let’s finish getting this site together, we an early mornin’.” the paladin declared before she cleared her throat as if she was holding off from cracking a whip. This was not lost on the rest as they finished getting the camp together. The next morning, just in the earliest hours of day, when only the morning star was above the horizon, before it could herald the sun. Almost everyone of the party was sound asleep before, “RISE AND SHINE!!!” shouted Sour as all the girls jerked and jumped out of their beds. “Applejack says breakfast is almost ready.” she added sweetly. All groaned as they recovered from the shock before as they changed into what they were going to wear that day, each at her own pace. Outside they found a fairly basic breakfast spread out with Sour at the table ready to eat. The barbarian was not dressed in her usual brown bear based suit, instead she wore a white furred tunic with black fur leggings, with the bear’s bones making her belt, with the skull hung around her neck, with the top of her tunic made out of the head of the black and white bear. While most were unphased by the barbarian’s getup, “Um, you do know those only eat plants right?” the druid question. “I’m a berserker, I wear shirts made from bears.” Sour retorted. Fluttershy could only sigh. The reaction the rest had were mixed. Some of the ladies chuckled, others rolled their eyes, while Rainbow seemed to offer some silent comfort for her best and longest friend. “Whoo! Whril-Con Mus-Fes Day One!” shouted Lemon as she was the last to exit. She had in her hands a paddle with the logo of the Rainbolt, which itself was a rainbow with the Aura Marks of the Rainbooms coming from the stylised S of the Shadowbolts with their Aura Marks within the S itself, with Sunset’s Aura Mark placed in what could described as the merging point. “Come and get it!” she shouted as she swung her paddle whacking Sunset in the rear. It was then that Lemon fully realized her surroundings. She took off her head set, “Haha… Whoops…” she said weakly as Sunset only glared at her sister. “Sorry, sis.” she said weakly. “Got a little too excited.” she confessed. Before Sunset could respond, she was offered an ice cold cloth by Sugarcoat, “It’s not worth getting angry at her over this.” Sunset accepted the cloth and applied it to her rear to sooth the pain. “She’s gonna smack every one of us at some point this week with that stupid paddle.” While the pain of the whack was dulled with the cold cloth, “Have you ever considered actually sugarcoating what you say?” Sunset asked. Sugarcoat slightly shut her eyes, “Just because we basically live in a world mostly noted for being one of rainbows and sunshines, we can expect some cloudy days.” she stated bluntly, “Also if Life is anything, it's full of irony.” Sugarcoat then went to get her breakfast with the rest. Sunset let out a nasal exhale and then a deep breath, “No point in letting a little thing like intense pain ruin this day.” Sunset decided as she joined the rest for the breakfast Applejack prepared. “Before anyone eats, Rarity, Rainbow,” the paladin directing her attention solely on the two, “One of you have to get Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo up.” Rainbow groaned as she got up and went to wake up the three. Applejack then looked to Lemon, “Whirl-Con Mus-Fes?” she asked the question on everyone’s mind yet none seemed to be asking. “Well ‘Whirling Constellation Music Festival’ is such a long title, so I shorten it to just the first syllables of each word.” Lemon explained. “Say, if your little sisters are here, why isn’t that Starlight friend of yours here?” Indigo asked Twilight. Princess Twilight paused as she tried to recall the plans of everyone they knew, “Trixie and the Illusions are also playing here. So Starlight is here with her. And since one of the ‘Illusions’ is Fuschia Blush, Wallflower may be here with her sister.”` “Say is anyone else we’re missing.” Pinkie asked. “Vignette is undoubtedly going to be here, Darling,” Rarity answered as she placed some of the food on her own plate, “Like she’d miss the chance to have the fans of all the performers to also intersect with her own fans.” She informed the others, as Rainbow returned with the CMC following her. Pinkie mused, “Okay, but there are others we’ve met, like Juniper?” “Um, Juniper’s been commissioned by myself, Princess Twilight, and if I recall correctly Prince Rutherford, Dragonlord Ember, Queen Novo, King Thorax and the other heads of state to record the event for posterity, Dearie,” Sunny answered as she started to eat. As Rainbow was about to eat her own meal, “Besides, it’s not like we won’t bump into them and everyone else we know. This is the place to be.” She then took a few bites of her food before she stopped and looked to Rarity, “Say Rare, is that quartet of yours also performing?” she asked with her food still in her mouth. Rarity gave a slight sigh, “Dashie-Darling, please finish eating before speaking.” she bemoaned before taking a calming breath. After which she gave her answer, “But yes, we MagiTones are performing, but not until tomorrow.” She took a sip of her morning tea, “While Toe-Tapper, Torch Song and I are here, our bass won’t be done purifying Sweet Apple Temple until noon and he won’t be here late afternoon.” Everyone but Rarity and the CMC turned to Applejack as if to accuse the farmer of shaking her responsibilities, “Paladin, Ah couldn’t help Big Mac during a Jubilee Purification if I wanted to, it’s a cleric only thing.” “Hoho! I have another question.” Pinkie cheered, getting everyone to focus on her, “What do you call a PostCrush fan with three eyes?” she asked. “Pinkie Pie!” she cheered in less than a second. There was a solid three seconds of silence, not even the chirping of a cricket. “Um, I don't get it.” Fluttershy stated. Everyone but Pinkie and Applejack groaned, “God bless your heart, Sugarcube, Pinkie made a pun.” Applejack explained to the druid before she spotted her own shadow. After a second of mental calculation, “Alright everyone, we got ten minutes to eat so we can beat the lines.” Everyone then started to eat their meals a little faster. Once they finished their meals and cleaned up afterwards, they all headed to the festival grounds proper. As they head out, Sunset stepped into a small puddle of very moist mud. In the process she lost her balance and just barely fell into the ground by bumping into Sci-Twi. Each giving exclaiming a “Whoa!” until Sunset regained her balance. Once Sunset was back on her two feet, “Are you okay?” Sunset herself over and saw that there was mud on her shoe. Beyond that, she had no issues. She shrugged her shoulder, “Just a little mud.” She dismissed any concerns about herself. However, just as soon as Sunset concluded that she was fine, Pinkie seemed to pop right next to her and took her right hand. “Sunset, Sunset! Look!” Pinkie shouted as she pulled Sunset to the lines to enter the grounds in what felt like two seconds despite being between twenty five and thirty meters away. All Sunset could do was shout ‘Whoa!’ as she was pulled behind the party planner. Once they got to the entrance. Pinkie was so wrapped up in the moment of being at the festival. “So many lines to stand in! This day's already amazing! Let's go!” Pinkie turned to the person immediately in front of the two, who happened to be Cherry Crash. “Hey, Cherry, you come to this line often?” she asked in what sounded flirtatious, however gave off the air of being a joke. Cherry laughed, “Nah, this is my first time.” she replied before she cupped her left hand and placed it next to her mouth as if she wanted only Pinkie to hear as if she was going to sell something, off-market as it were. “But I do know a few sweet lines we can hit up once we place the rental.” The rocker and jester then just broke into laughter over it all. Sunset smiled as she saw that Pinkie was having a great time. Given that Pinkie was supposed to be on her honeymoon and Cheese’s cheesy-sense had him in Abyssinia for Capper’s citizenship reaffirment celebration, the Whril-Con Mus-Fes (Sunset couldn’t not believe that she just thought of calling the festival that) was a much needed outlet. However she then noticed how Sci-Twi and Rainbow, who were in the line to their right, had moved ahead of her and Pinkie. “Hmm. That line's moving fast.” She could not but help express the observation and then looked to see all the other lines were moving faster than her’s. “Huh. They are, too.” She then stood up on her toes in an attempt to call whoever was doing the security check for this line, “Can't this thing move any faster?!” she shouted. At the front of the line and thoroughly examining the bag of one of the attendants was none other than Fluttershy’s younger brother, Zephyr Breeze. However his hair was cut short, his five o’clock shadow shaved clean. “Sorry, ma’am, but security is an art.” He said as he carefully put the contents back into the bag. “It cannot be rushed.” he added as he placed a band on the attendant’s wrist and using a scanner on the band cleared the attendant. Sunset could only sigh in frustration at this. Pinkie patted Sunset on the shoulder, “Aw, cheer up. Lines fly when you're having fun!” she cheered. “Besides, this has to be the first time Zephyr put in any real effort into a job.” she added under her breath. Sunset tried to smile, which became easier as her line went faster following the attendant with the bag. Once Pinkie was cleared, “See you in there, Sunset!” she shouted to Sunset. Sunset took a breath as she was cleared by Zephyr and gave a ‘Whew’ of relief once she was through and joined up with her group. Everyone was comparing notes for their itineraries for the first day. Applejack seemingly made a master itinerary of all the Rainbolts and the CMC, as the paladin had finished jotting down Pinkie and Sunset’s main plan. “And that’s Pinkie and Sunset.” the paladin finished. “Now remember if anyone ain’t back campsite two and half hours after sunset, the time of day, we start looking. Are we good?” “Yes, Mom.” they all groaned, save Apple Bloom, Pinkie, Twilight and Sci-Twi. Applejack rolled her eyes at most of her friends moaning over the presence of a plan, “Well, y’all have fun.” She then turned to Apple Bloom, “Yah ready Sis?” she asked the young artificer. Apple Bloom gave a thumbs-up, “Let’s do it!” she declared. The two farmers then laughed before everyone started to head out. Sunset took out her map of the grounds, “Main objective –” she paused as she grabbed Pinkie into a huddle. “Get front row for PostCrush. Mission procedure –” she paused as she pointed to the map and drew a path with her right index finger, “we cut around the neon garden to the main stage and rush the front during the set-up when we get there and we can camp there until showtime.” Sunset gave the plan. Little did she know that Pinkie’s eyes had wondered from the map to one of the stands not far from the entrance, “Secondary objective – “ she paused as she pointed the stand out to Sunset, the main thing was that it was an answer-something-correctly-and-win-a-prize stand. “win a tandem bicycle!” Pinkie cheered before she zipped to the stand, catching Sunset up in the wake. Once there she pointed to the ‘question’, a jar of jelly beans. Pinkie smirked, “All I have to do is guess how many candies are in the jar.” she stated like she pretty much knew the answer. “And my sugar senses say…” she trailed off as she stuck her tongue out and waved her hands in front of the jar. After a few seconds she pulled her tongue back into her mouth and gave her answer, “Three hundred and five!” she declared with confidence. The person manning the stand pressed the nearby buzzer to indicate a wrong answer. Pinkie gave a slightly depressed but accepting “Awww.” of defeat. Sunset pinched the bridge of her nose as she tried to remain calm, “What about seeing PostCrush together?” she asked, calling attention to Pinkie’s apparent short-sightedness and broadening on self-parodying childish behavior. Pinkie turned to the prize, a tandem bike. “Uh, this bike has two seats, Sunset!” she said in a clear attempt to get Sunset to guess the number of jellybeans too. After a solid three seconds of silence from Sunset, beyond a frown of frustration, Pinkie gave a light but unhappy sigh, “Fine. I'll focus.” She said as she looked around to see their path ahead. “Oh, look!” she declared as she pointed to a collection of hedges adorned all over all with giant neon (and other noble gases) lights. “The neon garden!” Pinkie shouted as she bolted to the hedges. Sunset tried to remain calm and remember that Pinkie was basically coping with the fact that her honeymoon was cut short and she couldn’t be here with her husband. She really did, but today wasn’t going to plan. The pyromancer groaned before she headed after Pinkie only to see Pinkie running around like she was replaying an animated hallway chase sequence, giggling, wheezing and laughing all the while. Sunset stopped in what seemed to be the center of the hallway as she tried to visualize the interior of the neon garden within her mind based on how Pinkie was running around. After two seconds she face-palmed herself with her right hand, “It’s a maze.” she groaned as she slid down her hand as she started to lift her face back up. She took a deep breath as she attempted to find Pinkie (without resorting to burning the maze down). After using some very light pyromancy to find the way out, Sunset spent about an hour trying to calculate the best path for her to traverse in the hedge maze for her to not only exit but more importantly intersect Pinkie. Once she had plotted her path, she started farther into the maze. After thirty minutes, as she was about to exit, she turned to her right and grabbed Pinkie’s left arm, just as the latter was about to pass by. “Come on!” she tried vigorously to refrain from shouting. She then pulled Pinkie out of the maze,“We got to bet the crowd if we want to get to the front!” Sunset vented as she began to lead Pinkie out of the maze. Pinkie gave a depressed but somewhat understanding ‘awww’. After the two got a few paces from the exit, they stumbled upon a collection of large elises with one man in the middle. “Who wants to be part of an art show?” he called out to everyone around. Pinkie gasped before she pulled her arm free, started to jump up and down, wave her arms and shouted, “Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! I do! I do!” This was followed by the man throwing a water balloon at Pinkie causing it to break and splatter paint on her and Sunset. Sunset could only frown as she was unable to escape from this event. After, in Sunset’s eyes, a ridiculously long time as being part of the ‘live’ art feature, which was more or less a water-balloon fight with paint. Sunset had more or less dragged Pinkie into the public lavatory that was constructed for the festival ground. To be sincere it was very much like a glorified version of the public restroom from that could be found in the upper scaled establishments in Chanterlot and the other move urban cities. After what felt like forever, Sunset finally got the last of the paint off her clothes and dry them. Fortunately the paint was water soluble and didn’t set-into the clothes. After looking herself over in the mirror, Sunset gave an exhausted and frustrated sigh just before she heard a splat from one of the stalls followed by Pinkie giggling. Pinkie then opened the stall she was in, slightly. “Guess what!” she cheered before she opened the stall door all the way, showing a slightly cartoonish rendering of Rarity with a large black mustache often used in depicting pirates. “I spilled paint, and it looks exactly like Rarity with a pirate mustache!” Pinkie added with a clear laugh in her heart. There was a solid minute after showing the work with Sunset giving a bemused expression that would give Applejack’s a run for its money. “What? It's washable.” Pinkie pointed out. Sunset groaned before she reached into Pinkie’s hair and pulled out a blue ribbon. She then wrapped and tied the ribbon around her left wrist and Pinkie’s right wrist. “There.” she declared and started out of the lavatory and back to the festival grounds. “Now, no more getting separated and no more distractions.” By this time, the sun had already set and the crowd for the PhotoCrush performance had already formed. Sunset started to panic as she tried to plot a way to get the two as close to the stage as possible. “You got it, Su—” Pinkie stated only to be cut off as Sunset pulled her towards the stage of their intended performance, which was several meters away. “Whoa!” As the crowd was getting thicker and thicker and the stage lights began to focus on the center of the stage. All of which herald the arrival of Photocrush onto the stage. “They are about to go on!” Sunset nearly panicked, “We'll have to push to the front row!” she added as it dawned on her that the two were not likely to actually see the duo. “Come on!” Pinkie however stopped the two as she smelt something. “The Whirling Constellation Music Festival Exclusive Star-crusted, Cinnamon-dipped Churros.” she whispered as if she was falling under a siren’s song as she turned to the mobile stand that sold the churros in question. She looked at her watch. “We got enough time.” she said before she dashed to the stand. “Pinkie, this is the worst possible time for churros…” Sunset started only to be pulled by Pinkie to the cart. However before Sunset could herself stop, the two ended up crashing into the cart causing the content to spill upon the cart attendant and the nearby security guard, Zephyr Breeze. Pinkie laughed weakly, “Hey Zeph.” She then gulped, “Our bad.” she stated earning a glare from Sunset. “Say, you know Rainbow likes a man in uniform…” she said as she batted her eyes. Before the two knew it, Zephyr had opened one of the doors security used to throw out festival attendants that have violated their agreement to be at the festival. He took a pair of scissors and cut the two’s wrist bands and closed the door in their faces. Sunset was left speechless as she dropped to her knees. Just then the final lights on the stage were ready and came the voice of an announcer, “Ladies and Gentlemen, let’s hear it for two best friends who got back together for one incredible night! PostCruuuuush!” he declared as the crowd cheered. Sunset dipped her head and almost wept. Pinkie was left speechless as she could only reach out, but could not make contact with Sunset. About half an hour later, with the sky full of stars, Sunset and Pinkie returned to their camping site. There everyone else the two came with were at the Skyboat, around the firepit Applejack made upon their arrival. Several were roasting marshmallows, but they were all chattering. Rainbow was the first to spot the two, “There they are!” the Wonderbolt called attention to the two. “Two peas in the pod!” she added as the two sat down. “How was it? Rad-tacular? Amaze-magic?” she asked as she didn’t seem to notice that Pinkie was full of guilt and Sunset was irate. Everyone else could just feel the disappointment from the two which revealed that they missed the performance. Applejack was the first to speak, “What happened?” the paladin asked. Sunset glared at Pinkie for a second before she groaned before she turned back to everyone else, “Someone wanted to win a bike, then got us lost in a maze, covered in paint, got sidelined by churros, and finally, got us kicked out!” she was close to shouting. Sunset’s ire was felt by everyone, and no one really knew how to diffuse the situation. Finally, Pinkie spoke, “I'm really sorry.” Pinkie apologized for what was likely the four hundred and eighty ninth time the plea was made. Sunset only got up and started to walk away. “I wish we could do the day all over again.” she called out to Sunset as if to call her back. “I'd do it different.” she added with Sunset still close enough to hear. Sunset turned back for a second to look almost squarely at Pinkie, “Me, too. I'd do it alone.” she stated before she just left her friend there. After walking to one of the forested hills nearby she sat down and rested her head on her knees and whimpered. Within a decameter from her a beam of light shot up into the sky before a wave of purple light washed over. The next morning, just in the earliest hours of day, when only the morning star was above the horizon, before it could herald the sun. Almost everyone of the party was sound asleep before, “RISE AND SHINE!!!” shouted Sour as all the girls jerked and jumped out of their beds. “Applejack says breakfast is almost ready.” she added sweetly. All groaned as they recovered from the shock before as they changed into what they were going to wear that day. Outside they found a fairly basic breakfast spread out with Sour at the table ready to eat. The barbarian was not dressed in her usual brown bear based suit, instead she wore a white furred tunic with black fur leggings, with the bear’s bones making her belt, with the skull hung around her neck, with the top of her tunic made out of the head of the black and white bear. While most were unphased by the barbarian’s getup, “Um, you do know those only eat plants right?” the druid question. “I’m a berserker, I wear shirts made from bears. And this is the one for this.” Sour retorted. Fluttershy could only sigh. Sunset remained still in confusion, “Whoo! Whril-Con Mus-Fes Day One!” shouted Lemon as she was the last to exit. She had in her hands a paddle with the logo of the Rainbolt, which itself was a rainbow with the Aura Marks of the Rainbooms coming from the stylised S of the Shadowbolts with their Aura Marks within the S itself, with Sunset’s Aura Mark placed in what could described as the merging point. “Day One?” Sunset asked as she couldn’t understand what Lemon meant. This perplexity didn’t last long as her rear was smacked by Lemon’s paddle. “OW!” she shouted as she turned to glare at Lemon. “Haha… Whoops…” she said weakly as Sunset only glared at her sister. “Sorry, sis.” she said weakly. “Got a little too excited.” she confessed. Before Sunset could respond, she was offered an ice cold cloth by Sugarcoat, “It’s not worth getting angry at her over this.” Sunset accepted the cloth and applied it to her rear to sooth the pain. “She’s gonna smack every one of us at some point this week with that stupid paddle.” Sunset didn’t understand why, but Sugarcoat said that before. She was still trying to make sense of it all when Applejack said, “Before anyone eats, Rarity, Rainbow,” the paladin directed her attention solely on the two, “One of you have to get Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo up.” Rainbow groaned as she got up and went to wake up the three. Applejack then looked to Lemon, “Whirl-Con Mus-Fes?” she asked the question on everyone’s mind yet none seemed to be asking. Sunset watched and listened as pretty much the conversation that accrued yesterday repeated itself vervadium. This continued to leave her in a state of perplexity even when SciTwi nearly tripped and when Pinkie zipped taking her with her to the lines and pointed out all the lines before she picked the one that was cleared by Zephyr Breeze. This was mostly left unnoticed by everyone save for SciTwi as she, and Rainbow had stepped into the same line that Sunset and Pinkie were in behind the two. “Hun, are you okay?” SciTwi asked as she noted Sunset’s eyes were staring in the space in front of her, as if she was reading a book in an attempt to find an answer. “I'm... not sure.” Sunset seemed to trail off in the middle of her response. Pinkie turned to the person immediately in front of the two, who happened to be Cherry Crash. “Hey, Cherry, you come to this line often?” she asked in what sounded flirtatious, however gave off the air of being a joke. Cherry laughed, “Nah, this is my first time.” she replied before she cupped her left hand and placed it next to her mouth as if she wanted only Pinkie to hear as if she was going to sell something, off-market as it were. “But I do know a few sweet lines we can hit up once we place the rental.” The rocker and jester then just broke into laughter over it all. “What's going on?” Sunset asked as yesterday continued to be repeated today. “You said it, Sunset.” Rainbow groaned as she noted that the line they were in was going so slowly. “What's with the long line, man?” she shouted towards the security guard, who happened to be Zephyr Breeze. “What! Zephyr!” Rainbow almost screamed as she ducked behind the person behind her. If Zephyr noticed Rainbow’s reaction to the revelation, he showed no signs as he said with what Rainbow and her friends would deem an out of character degree of professionalism, “Security is an art.” “It can't be rushed.” Sunset said at the same time as Zephyr as if she was presented with the answer to her question, however it was in the form of a riddle to solve. After everyone had cleared security, they were comparing notes for their itineraries for the first day. Applejack seemingly made a master itinerary of all the Rainbolts and the CMC, as the paladin had finished jotting down Pinkie and Sunset’s main plan. “And that’s Pinkie and Sunset.” the paladin finished. “Now remember if anyone ain’t back campsite two and half hours after sunset, the time of day, we start looking. Are we good?” “Yes, Mom.” they all groaned, save Apple Bloom, Pinkie, Twilight and Sci-Twi. Applejack rolled her eyes at most of her friends moaning over the presence of a plan, “Well, y’all have fun.” She then turned to Apple Bloom, “Yah ready Sis?” she asked the young artificer. Apple Bloom gave a thumbs-up, “Let’s do it!” she declared. The two farmers then laughed before everyone started to head out. As everyone started to head their own way, Pinkie turned to see Sunset seeming out of it as she looked into some short of void. “What do you want to do first, Sunset?” Pinkie asked as she tried to get Sunset out of her funk. “There's so much we can do!” she said as she gestured to the grounds of the festival. “Like…” she trailed off before she spotted the stand with the tandem bike as the prize, “win a tandem bicycle?!” she asked before she headed over and looked at the jar, “All I have to do is guess how many candies are in the jar.” As Sunset witnessed Pinkie get the answer wrong again, “Anyone else having serious deja vu?” she asked the only remaining member of her group, SciTwi, hoping that she wasn’t alone in this as she n. “Nope. Just deja V-you.” SciTwi responded in an attempt at a joke. This was followed by a nervous laugh as she realized that Sunset was not laughing at the joke, “Get it? 'Cause it's just you? With the deja v…” she trailed off as it was clear that Sunset didn’t laugh in fact it was hard to tell if she even heard the joke. This surprised SciTwi as normally Sunset would have given a slight chuckle and say something around the lines of ‘Bae, you know I love you, and God bless your heart, but there are times when I can only say ‘Thank God, you’re cute’.’ But Sunset’s mind was elsewhere. Sunset rubbed the back of her head, “I don't know how to explain it, but…” she trailed off as she seemed to her that the riddle she was given was starting to make sense. “I did all of this yesterday.” SciTwi partially squinted her right eye in confusion, “How? Yesterday we just finished loading and began boarding Princess Twilight’s skyboat for the flight here.” she pointed out as the two walked until Sunset stopped and SciTwi bumped into her with a grunt. “Are you okay?” SciTwi asked as she regained herself. SciTwi then looked around and noticed the absence of a particular member of their party. “Where’s Pinkie?” she asked. Sunset closed her eyes for a second and took a breath. “If I’m right, I know where she's headed.” she said as she headed into the Neon Garden, taking SciTwi with her. Once inside, Sunset took a breath as she prepared her spell to find the path out and find the pattern of Pinkie’s own path in the maze. It took a few minutes for her spell to find the way out. Now Sunset needed to form-“What are we waiting for?” came Pinkie’s voice from behind her. Sunset and SciTwi turned to Pinkie standing innocently. Sunset took Pinkie’s hand, “Pinkie, I need you to focus.” She said as she led the other two of the trio out of the Neon Garden, “If you keep up like this,” Sunset scolded her main partner in crime, “we’ll miss the concert!” She added before she realized that she had arrived at the… “Who wants to be part of an art show?” came the voice of a man. Sunset’s eyes shot wide open before Pinkie shouted “Ooh, ooh, ooh! I do! I do!” Before Sunset could respond one of the water balloons hit and broke, splattering paint on the three. Sunset could only growl as Pinkie laughed as the three had been both voluntarily (Pinkie) and not (Sunset and SciTwi). After what felt like a ludicrously long time in this water balloon fight, Sunset had managed to Pinkie into the pubic lavatory, along with SciTwi. As SciTwi and Sunset were cleaning the ( thankfully water soluble) paint, “If this already happened, couldn’t you have warned us about the point?” SciTwi asked, not believing that Sunset could in fact have foreseen this. She groaned, as more of the paint came off, silently thankful that the paint didn’t seem to be setting it. Sunset took a break from cleaning the paint off herself and clothes and shut her eyes as she turned in the direction of SciTwi and looked to the ceiling, “Pinkie just splattered paint, and it looks exactly like Rarity with a pirate mustache.” Sunset declared before she lowered her gaze back to SciTwi, “How's that?” she asked before dropping her arms. SciTwi smirked as she chuckled, “Well, that would prove it for sure!” she declared, her tone saturated with sarcasm. Just then the door of the stall Pinkie used open to show the image Sunset predicted as Pinkie giggled. SciTwi turned back to Sunset, her mouth agape, after two seconds “Seriously?!” she asked, voicing her confusion. “What?” an equally confused Pinkie asked. “It's washable.” she added as she pointed to the painting and cleaned it off. A few minutes later, after they finished cleaning themselves off, the trio sat down at one of the paknic tables, “So, what do you think, Babe?” Sunset asked with it clear that SciTwi believed her. SciTwi hummed to herself as she held her chin in thought with her left hand. After a minute of contemplation, “It’s possible that yesterday, a snag in the fabric of spacetime could cause a temporal point – i.e., today – to fold in on itself and thereby repeat.” she said with a slight smile on her face, like a child having done what even they know was an extraordinarily great job at something productive and wanting just a pat on the head, “I’ve been reading Dr. Time Turner Who’s doctoral thesis and a few of his research papers, the subject of time travel is actually quite fascinating, really.” “So, Sunset is in a time loop?” Pinkie asked in a clear attempt to make SciTwi’s technobabble (magic-babble?) much more intelligible. SciTwi nodded, although it was clear that she felt somewhat offended that her well thought out explanation was reduced to such a plebian understanding. “But why only me?” Sunset asked, holding the sides of her head trying to make sense of why all of this happened. All the while she cast her vision to the ground, “The only time I was alone was then I was on the hill and I wished—” she stopped abruptly and lifted her head and gaze to look at SciTwi and Pinkie, “This might sound crazy…” Pinkie snorted before she rolled her eyes and waved her left hand dismissively, “I held Discord’s power, along with the power of Celestia and Luna and used it to defeat Tirek, Chrysalis and Cozy Glow. Go ahead and try me.” Pinkie challenge. Sunset raised her left hand with the index finger to ask, but lowered it as she recalled the mantra ‘It’s Pinkie Pie, don’t question it’. She took a breath, “Well, I think something is giving me another chance to see PostCrush.” Sunset concluded. Pinkie held out her left hand with the palm down and rocked back and forth and up and down as if it was a series of waves, while she squinted both of her eyes slightly as she was ranking how crazy the claim Sunset made was “That’s at best a three on the discord scale of crazy… maybe a three point three if you stretch it, but I’ve done crazier.” Pinkie retorted, “Besides time loops were sooo~~~ twenty fifteen, even back in twenty nineteen.” Pinkie said as she turned to face you, the reader, as Sunset and SciTwi looked at each other, neither understanding their peculiar friend. Her eyes then shot wide open, “Wait.” she stopped as she turned back to Sunset, “Why didn't you see PostCrush?” she asked, getting to the heart of the matter. Sunset opened her mouth by then closed it and dipped her head, she wasn’t sure what to say. She didn’t want to lie to Pinkie, but she didn’t want to blame Pinkie either. She looked to the ground and took a breath and tried to find the best words to use. Once she found them. “Mistakes were ma…” She trailed off before she looked back up to see Pinkie was not there. “Where’s Pinkie?” she asked. SciTwi pointed over her right shoulder to Pinkie jogging to the stand that was selling the churros she wanted last time. Sunset groaned as she got to her feet, “Okay, this is the worst possible time for churros!” Sunset shouted before she dashed to get in front of Pinkie. “WAIT!” SciTwi shouted after she did some quick physics. “You’ll only…” she trailed off as Sunset zipped to be in between Pinkie and the stand. “Cause a collision…” SciTwi trailed off before she looked away and shut her eyes. Sunset didn’t hear any of that as she shouted, “Pinkie, stop!” Only then that she realized that as Pinkie was running, Sunset had placed herself too close for Pinkie to stop safely and as the later shouted whoa, she collided with Sunset and the intera of the two caused them to collided with the stand knocking it over and spilling some of the content on the security guard that was standing near by, Zephyr Breeze. As the two recovered from the impact they saw Zephyr take a deep breath as if to calm himself. Pinkie gave an apologetic chuckle, “Hey, Zeph, our bad.” Sunset’s eyes shot wide open in horror as she recalled what happened last time. “No, her bad.” she countered. “You saw whose bad it was, right?” she asked. “Ma’am, you did jump in front of her before she was able to come to a stop.” Zephyr pointed out and before the two knew it, he had shut the door that security used to throw out the festival attendants that have violated their agreement to be at the festival, in their faces and the two’s easy access wristbands were on the ground, cut. Then came the voice of an announcer just as the light indicated that PhotoCrush was about to go on stage. “Ladies and Gentlemen, let’s hear it for…” The announcer continued to speak, however Sunset couldn’t hear him over Pinkie, “Maybe you'll get another another chance?” she asked, giving a somewhat forlorn Sunset some hope. The announcer then finished greeting the band, “...PostCruuuuush!” before the crowd cheered. In the earliest hours of day, when only the morning star was above the horizon, before it could herald the sun. Almost everyone of the party was sound asleep before, “RISE AND SHINE!!!” shouted Sour as all the girls jerked and jumped out of their beds. “Applejack says breakfast is almost ready.” she added sweetly. All groaned as they recovered from the shock before as they changed into what they were going to wear that day. Outside they found a fairly basic breakfast spread out with Sour at the table ready to eat. The barbarian was not dressed in her usual brown bear based suit, instead she wore a white furred tunic with black fur leggings, with the bear’s bones making her belt, with the skull hung around her neck, with the top of her tunic made out of the head of the black and white bear. While most were unphased by the barbarian’s getup, “Um, you do know those only eat plants right?” the druid question. “I’m a berserker, I wear shirts made from bears. And this is the one for this.” Sour retorted. Fluttershy could only sigh. “Whoo! Whril-Con Mus-Fes Day One!” shouted Lemon as she was the last to exit. She had in her hands a paddle with the logo of the Rainbolt, which itself was a rainbow with the Aura Marks of the Rainbooms coming from the stylised S of the Shadowbolts with their Aura Marks within the S itself, with Sunset’s Aura Mark placed in what could described as the merging point. “Come and get it!” she shouted as she swung her paddle whacking Sunset in the rear. Sunset smiled, “Thank you!” she declared before the pain of blow set in, “Ow.” she whispered with her voice strained to hold back from shouting in pain. “Thank you.” she continued Lemon was not sure how to respond, “Um you’re welcome…” she said weakly before she walked away utterly freaked out by Sunset’s reaction and took her seat. “Um... is everything okay?” Sugarcoat asked as she handed an ice cold cloth, “That is far from the normal reaction of being stuck in the rear by a paddle.” “HEY!” cheered Pinkie getting everyone to focus on her instead of Sunset, “What do you call a PostCrush fan with three eyes?” she asked. Sunset however started heading in the direction of the main entrance of the festival’s ground, “Sorry, can’t stay for the joke, I got head out. I’ll check you all later. Okay bye!” she said and started to speed walk. This left everyone even more confused, “Say, weren’t you supposed to catch PostCruch together, dearie?” Sunny asked Pinkie as she turned to focus on the party planner. Pinkie waved it aside, “She just wants to beat the crowd to get it, we’ll see it together.” Pinkie said as she started to eat her breakfast. No one could tell if Pinkie actually believed that and was trying to defend Sunset or was she in denial... “WE’RE NOT IN EGYPT, FOXHELM!!!” She then rapidly consumed her meal and then dashed to get in line. She soon sported Sunset in the grounds for the festival, “Sunset! Hey! Wait up! Hey!” she called out to get her attention as she traveled through the line and was cleared and continued to call as Sunset walked away seeming to ignore Pinkie. As Pinkie got closer she saw the stand with the tandem bike prize. She gave a slight gasp, “Win a tandem bike?” she asked, however Sunset quicken her pace. “Sunset!” Pinkie called as the pyromancer ducked into the Neon Gardens. “Suuuunseeeet!” Pinkie called out as she looked for Sunset in the maze. She called out thrice more until she just stopped. “She…” Pinkie trailed off, desperately holding out hope that her faith in Sunset was not mis-placed. “...ditched me…” She could not but whimper as she dropped to her knees as if to weep. On the other side hedge, Sunset looked down to the ground and sighed in guilt and shame, “Universe, I promise to make this up to Pinkie, just let me make the most of this do-over do-over.” She declared as she ran to the stage when PhotoCrush would perform, however it was still hours before the show, but she could ‘camp’ out as the other performances that would use that stage. As the last of the sun’s light was vanishing over the western horizon, as the rest of people the fans of PhotoCrush gathered until the announcer spoke, “Ladies and Gentlemen, let’s hear it for two best friends who got back together for one incredible night!” The crown cheered as Kiwi and Supernova emerged on stage. Sunset laughed with joy. “We did it! PostCrush roll call!” She declared as she tried to strike a pose and almost lost her balance in the process. “Whoa!” she declared as she regained herself and realized why the pose failed, Pinkie was not there. Kiwi took her guitar as Supernova manned the drums and the two started to play. Kiwi gave a ‘Yeah’ and the two started to sing their new song. “Be the true, true, true original Dare to be what you are meant to be Working hard, that's our thing All this way, we're perfect, perfectly true True, true original True, true original True, true original.” As the two performed the crowd danced with the beat and cheered on, all caught up in the excitement of the music. Supernova crashed the cymbal’s of her drum set before the two started singing again. “We're perfect, perfectly true.” In the process Kiwi’s grip on her guitar bit loosened and it flew from her hand and Sunset caught it. “What a perfect day!” Sunset declared before she screamed in joy. About an hour later, with the sky full of stars, Sunset’s blissful smiled radiated as she returned to the camp site with everyone else chattering among themselves. Rainbow was the first to spot her, “There she is.” the elementalist pointed out. “The lone wolf.” She then proceeded to howl. Sugarcoat couldn’t but groan, “First thing, and this is what everyone gets wrong, wolves are social animals, we recognize their societies as packs. They survive best as part of a pack and lone wolves oft die comparatively young and are far from a healthy state when they do. Second thing, given that Sunset is a woman, and if you insist on using that lupine comparison, the phrase is ‘The lone wolven’ because ‘wolven’ is the femanine form of the word ‘wolf’.” Sugarcoat then let out an exhausted sigh. This was followed by a more blissful sigh from Sunset as she sat down. No one spoke for about three seconds as they silently judged Sunset before Applejack cleared her throat, “Pinkie’s been actin’ mighty strange even by her standards this evening.” the paladin started. “Any idea what might've happened to her?” she asked, giving Sunset the chance to confess her transgression. Sunset was still high on the euphoria of the show, had she stayed in the festival grounds proper a few more minutes, her word choice would have been more sincere. Yet in her… intoxicated state, “We must have lost track of each other.” she answered without thought. “Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,” came the laughter of Pinkie. It was then that Sunset realized that Pinkie was not with the rest. Sunset turned to see Pinkie leaning against the skyboat. “Me lose track of Sunset?” she asked. her voice seemed to crack like a poorly handled porcelain plate. “Hah!” she laughed before she pulled out seemingly nowhere a strawman made to resemble Sunset. “But she's been right here the whole time!” she declared with what could be registered as a resolve far more durable then the doors of Tartarus. “Right, actual Sunset Shimmer?” she said to the puppet. She then flawlessly imitated Sunset with her own answer without moving her own mouth, “Right, Pinkie Pie! By the way, your roasting technique is flawless!” Pinkie then laughed normally in joy, “Thank you!” she said as she hugged the puppet. Everyone turned back to Sunset, all frowning at the pyromancer. Rarity was the first to speak, her tone was super-saturated with sarcasm, “How was the show?” she asked the question as Sunset was scrutinized. “It was... perfect.” Sunset replied, still very much in bliss from the PostCrush show. Everyone rolled their eyes as Rarity scoffed at the answer, “I was being judgmental, darling.” she spelt out to Sunset. “What is the point of throwing shade if no one's there to catch it?” she asked rhetorically. “Sorry. Too blissed out from the show to care right now.” Sunset said, seeming to dismiss the very valid judgement being levied on her. “Talk tomorrow?” she asked as she got up and headed to bed. This left Pinkie almost in tears. The Loop ContinuesThe next morning, just in the earliest hours of day, when only the morning star was above the horizon, before it could herald the sun. Almost everyone of the party was sound asleep before, “RISE AND SHINE!!!” shouted Sour as all the girls jerked and jumped out of their beds. “Applejack says breakfast is almost ready.” she added sweetly. All groaned as they recovered from the shock before as they changed into what they were going to wear that day. Outside they found a fairly basic breakfast spread out with Sour at the table ready to eat. The barbarian was not dressed in her usual brown bear based suit, instead she wore a white furred tunic with black fur leggings, with the bear’s bones making her belt, with the skull hung around her neck, with the top of her tunic made out of the head of the black and white bear. While most were unphased by the barbarian’s getup, “Um, you do know those only eat plants right?” the druid question. “I’m a berserker, I wear shirts made from bears. And this is the one for this.” Sour retorted. Fluttershy could only sigh. Sunset froze as she recalled that very conversation the day before, “It can't be.” she tried to deny but she knew it was futile, “It's still—” “Whoo! Whril-Con Mus-Fes Day One!” shouted Lemon as she was the last to exit. She had in her hands a paddle with the logo of the Rainbolt, which itself was a rainbow with the Aura Marks of the Rainbooms coming from the stylised S of the Shadowbolts with their Aura Marks within the S itself, with Sunset’s Aura Mark placed in what could described as the merging point. “Come and get it!” she shouted as she swung her paddle whacking Sunset in the rear. It was then that Lemon fully realized her surroundings. She took off her head set, “Haha… Whoops…” she said weakly as Sunset only glared at her sister. “Sorry, sis.” she said weakly. “Got a little too excited.” she confessed. Sunset looked to the sky, “Okay,” she stated “My do-over can end now.” but as she spoke she seemed to travel forward and with every word her surroundings changed as did her expression to frustration to rage to cold apathy. This finished as she was standing next to Sandalwood as he minded his own affair. With a tone of absolute boredom,“Cue Snips, and push Sandalwood out of the way in three, two…” she said before she trailed off as the schoolmate of the CMC was stepping into view. “You stage direct— Whoa!” Snip started to ask before he lost his balance and fell into a puddle with a splat while Sunset pushed Sandalwood out of Snip’s way. Snips groaned with an ‘Aww’ upon impact. As Snips started to pick himself up, with some help from Sandalwood. “Could've warned me, you know?” Snips questioned as he tried to clean himself off. Sunset’s apathetic expression didn’t change, “Tried that nine times, never worked.” she stated not even bothering to see if the boy understood her or not. She then turned and started to walk away before she dumped into the artist of the paint water balloon fight. Sunset grunted and groaned at the collision before she recovered and saw who she dumped into. “Hey, watch it!” the artist bemoaned. Sunset’s apathy didn’t change. “Sorry.” she said with passion. “Thought you didn't come up 'til later.” Sunset commented with a slight degree of amusement, “I'll make a note of that for next time.” She took out a notepad and started to jot something down. “Day eighteen – saw the paint guy by the food stand right before he breaks up with his girlfriend.” She dictated what she jotted before she started to walk away from the artist. “It's not you, it's her and I’m gonna go.” she informed and left the scene. The artist could not but shout out, “You better run!” “Run from my problems? I... actually haven't tried that yet.” Sunset paused for a second and then broke into what could only be described as mad laughter. Once she finished and took a breath to collect herself, “Yeah, like that every works out for anyone who ever tried.” But then something popped in her head. She rushed off to find where MC Dex FX was playing. Sci-Twi and Twilight have both been great sound boards in the past. When she got there, the techno-disc-jockey had taken off his helmet, revealing himself to be Mirco Chips (which didn’t surprise her) and was accepting the applause from the audience. After a few seconds she spotted both Twilight and Sci-Twi in complete stupidity, mouth agape and all. She swiftly approached the two, “Hey can we talk?” she asked. Still very much trapped in disbelief, “I could have sworn MC Dex FX was a woman,” Twilight finally blurted out. “But ‘MC’... how is it not ‘modulated computersounds’! And how could he use a 42-00 pre-effect mixer like that, you’d need a 42-3C effects pedal to do all that!” Sci-Twi pulled on her hair in frustration over how she could have been so wrong. Sunset coughed to get their attention, “As earth-shattering as figuring out that your favorite musician is actually Flash’s best friend, you’re not going to believe this.” “Wait, weren’t you and Pinkie gonna…” Twilight started. Sunset sighed, “Let me explain.” After what felt like an hour of explaining what Sunset had been through, in the tent set up for eating. Once she finished. “And I don’t know what to do.” Sci-Twi mused for a second, “Hmm...It's possible a snag in the fabric of spacetime could cause a…” Sunset then started to join Sci-Twi, saying the same words at the exact same time, “...temporal point – i.e., this day – to fold in on itself and thereby repeat.” Both stopped at the same time and held that for a second, before Sci-Twi continued only for Sunset to speak at the exact same time, “You really have done this a lot.” They stopped again for a second. “Okay, you've made your point! Stop!” The two said together again. Sci-Twi’s squinting eyes and frown made her irritation blatant, while Sunset’s face was written with apathy. After they both stopped, Sunset sighed, “This time loop started after I wished for another chance to catch PostCrush, and since I did see them, why didn't it end?” Sci-Twi and Twilight looked at each other for a second neither amused with the fact that Sunset ditched Pinkie. However while scolding Sunset was called for, this might not be the time or place. Twilight was the one to speak, “Are you sure about this you being able to see PostCrush?” she asked. Sunset open her mouth as if to speak only to fall mute after some thought. Twilight then reached into her pants and pulled out a small scrying crystal. “If you’re right, there is one person who knows most about time traveling.” “Who?” Sunset and Sci-Twi asked. Twilight didn’t answer the question as she muttered something and the scrying crystal projected the inside of Timer Turner Who’s lab as he picked up his phone. “Dr. Time Turner Who, Technomancer, Chronomancer and Artificer, for all your physics bending needs. How can I help you.” “Time, it’s Princess Twilight Sparkle,” “Oh, you’re grace, it’s been a while, so what can I do for princess and country?” Time asked as he seemed to stumble around after learning his caller’s identity. “Listen, a friend of mine claims to be stuck in a time loop and has been for eighteen days.” Twilight started. Time gave a hum as he thought, “Time loop”... he hummed again, “We humans don’t traverse through time in that manner, something has to be triggering it. Something with chronomancy.” “Like Star Swirl’s time travel spell.” Twilight mused. Time broke into deep hearty laughter for a solid minute, like he had been told the funniest joke ever told. Once he collected himself, about half a minute later, “Sorry, but that spell is not even a baby’s teething toy for chronomancy. No, you would need something with actual power. But aside from Old Blue Bessy, the only artifact I know that can travel back in time to any meaningful extent is the Time Twister.” Twilight’s and Sunset’s both widened. “But that has been lost for over two thousand years,” he added. He paused in thought, “I should compare notes with Meadowbrook, it’s absolutely fascinating that she was able to make it in the first place. BRIGHTEYES, Start up the Box, we’re going on a trip! ALLONSY!” he shouted before he hung up, ending the call. Sci-Twi cleared her throat, “Um, the Time Twister? Can someone explain it?” she asked her two companions. Sunset was the first of the two to speak, “It’s one of the eight artifacts that Mage Meadowbrook crafted. It has the ability to cause time to rewind to the last sun rise.” “But Meadowbrook lost that before she and the rest of the Pillars trapped the Nightstalker in Limbo.” Twilight added as she started to connect the dots herself. “Someone must have found it and is using it.” Sunset started to stand up, “If we can find whoever is using it, we should be able to end the loop.” As she started to head out, “We got to get everyone else, we got a mission.” About two hours and an explanation in a zone of truth later, Sunset opened the floor for discussion. Pinkie, with a question mark literally manifesting itself over her head for the better part of the exposition, was the first to speak. “So whoever has the Time Twirler is the only person besides you who isn't in the same place doing the same thing every day.” she pointed out. “It’s possible.” Sunset admitted albeit with a fair amount of trepidation. Pinkie sieged on her thus far unfalsified assertion. “Well, until we have better information, let’s work with that.” Pinkie then proceeded to question Sunset on a few things, “Have you noticed anyone who doesn't belong? Anyone out of place? Anyone... evil?!” as she asked, her tone got darker and more sinister as she said ‘evil’. After letting Pinkie… well be herself, Sunset took a few seconds to remember if anything stood out to her. However she had been consumed by her own wrath the first four or five times after she caught the show, by the tenth time her emotions had burnt out and she had been drifting along ever since. She shook her head, “After a dozen times, I just couldn’t get myself to care anymore, every day is the same.” Little did they know, Sweetie Drops, Lyra and their adopted daughter, a four to six year old Nightingale, were passing by and had overheard the last things Sunset said. “Oh you know that song?” Lyra asked. “Lyra!” Sweetie Drops scolded, with Nightingale in her arms. “We’ve been over this, if we don’t want Night to get into trouble, we need to set the best examples we can and that includes minding our own business.” Lyra gave a soft and hinted to being apologetic. Sweetie Drops sighed before she turned to the group. “I wish to apologize on behalf of my wife.” Before the apology could be accepted, “What song are you talking about?” Applejack asked. Sweetie was about to answer when Lyra spoke up, “Oh there’s this new trio. They’re about to play over there in about fifteen minutes, they released the single they are here to perform about a week ago.” She said as she pointed to a stage. “You should totally catch them.” Sweetie cleared her throat, in a not so subtle attempt to direct Lyra to inform the group of the trio. “Right, sorry, they are the Glitzing Fasteners.” “Glitzing Fasteners?” Sugarcoat asked, “That is one of the stupidest names for a band ever.” Sweetie snickered, “Says the keyboarder of ‘The Shadowbolts’ and one of the two keyboarders of ‘Sparkle and the Rainbolts’.” she retorted pointing out the lack of creativity of the names of the bands Sugarcoat was a part of. Sugarcoat took off her glasses, “Touché,” she granted. “Well, we need to get Nightingale something to eat. It’s been a long day for her and we still have a couple more performances to catch today.” Sweetie said as she looked at her daughter resting her head on her breasts. She then started to leave, “Come along, Lyra.” Lyra groaned at how her wife was basically treating her as a kid. After the couple left, Pinkie started in the direction of the stage the two pointed out. As the rest stared at her in confusion. “What?” Pinkie asked, “It’s not like we have anything better to do. Besides, at the very least its something to check out.” Everyone ultimately shrugged and followed their friend that has spent too much time in cloud cuckoo land. As they arrived near the stage they and all the others there for the show saw something float from the stage, a lime green fog. Soon the main lights focused on the center as part of the fog cleared to reveal Adagio curtains were pulled to reveal Adagio Dazzle leaning back on a chair, facing stage left. As the music started, she started to sing and move her left arm to put the back of her left hand on her forehead. As she sang, Aria’s and Sonata’s voices were heard in harmony with hers and they moved their arms slightly slower than Adagio and Sonata the slowest of the three, harkening to their practice of appearing as one being on multiple limbs. “Where do we go? Every day's the same Did we lose the magic, magic, magic? So ordinary, stuck on repeat Gotta find the passion, passion, passion The days go round and round, round and round Gotta break away, find a great escape Round and round and round Round and round and round Ohhh Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, let's find Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, let's find Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, let's find the magic Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, let's find Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, let's find Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, let's find the magic.” As the first part of the trio’s song was performed. Sunset and company were for the most part left speechless. “They must be a last-minute addition.” Pinkie suggested with a raised voice in an attempt to be heard by the lot but not be so loud as to make the rest of the audience feel the need to request her silence. Rainbow was the next to speak up, and seemed to be the only one to notice that the three should be incarcerated having spied that around their necks were collars with what had to be fake rubies. “But they’re supposed to be in prison!” Princess Twilight gave a weak laugh. This cause them all to turn to face the princess, “Well, you see Tempest, as warden of Stonlingrad Penitentiary, can grant a week long parole to any inmate at her discretion and without consultation.” Everyone turned to the princess, “And yah couldn’t ‘ave told us t’at earily?” Applejack asked, far from amused at this development. The princess could only give a weak and somewhat apologetic ‘haha’ in response. Everyone could only groan as the rest of the song was performed. With Twilight’s ‘haha’, Adagio sang a line by herself, “Can I find the beauty in the simple things?” she asked in the song. She was joined by her sisters in response or rather continued the question, “Can I learn to see it,see it, see it? The days go round and round, round and round Gotta break away, find a great escape Round and round and round Round and round and round Ohhh Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, let's find Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, let's find Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, let's find the magic” Adagio repeated the last part of the verse, “Let's find the magic” before she was rejoined by her sisters. “Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, let's find Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, let's find Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, let's find the magic Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Ooh…”. And thus the song ended and the crowd cheered, even Twilight et al were impressed to some extent by the show. After the crowd had died down slightly, Adagio spoke. “That was ‘Find the Magic’.” she informed and dropped the micro she sang into before the three left the stage. “Seriously?” Sunset asked once the crowd finished cheering and applauding before they all started to head off each in their own direction. “It’s like they aren’t even trying to be subtle.” “Two things, Sunset darling,” Rarity started. “First, when have the three ever been subtle?” she asked. “My wedding reception.” Princess Twilight pointed out. Rarity groaned, “Do you honestly believe that was their idea?” Rarity asked before she groaned. “That whole plan was clearly Sombra’s. Moving on to the second point, the chord progression was very samey-samey.” Everyone fell silent as they turned their sole focus on the enchantress with bemused expressions. “What!? Adagio might want to present herself as an evil mastermind, but that’s no excuse for lazy songwriting. Even if they are responsible for the time loop Sunset is trapped in.” There were a few groans but Rarity did have a few valid points. Sunset sighed, “Regardless, we have a new mission,” she said as she turned from the others to look beyond the stage to the area the musicians were temporarily housed. “To get backstage.” Before anyone could do anything, Princess Twilight stepped in front of everyone, her wings and arms out as if to block everyone. “Hold it!” She declared. “None of the backstage passes are valid until day two, even for us VIPs!” she added as she pointed to her badge. If the intent was to discourage Sunset, Princess Twilight’s actions failed as the pyromancer looked beyond the demigod to see Zephyr. “The key is to get past him,” Sunset said before she got everyone to look beyond Princess Twilight as well. However instead Sunset had seemed to have forgotten that Fluttershy’s younger brother was taking his job seriously as he conjured a small gale. This gale sent Snips and Snails almost flying a few meters in order to bar them from getting backstage. “We just wanted an autograph!” Snips bemoaned, as his plea fell on deaf ears. Zephyr remained unmoved as the two youths got back on their feet and headed elsewhere. Fluttershy was the first to speak, “I’ve never seen Zephyr so professional.” The druid was actually impressed with her younger brother’s change in behavior. “It’s going to take some serious work to convince him to let us through.” she added giving the benefit of the doubt to her oft freeloading brother. Rainbow snorted, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Rainbow took off her hat and let loose her hair as she waved it to give it an alluring puff. “Your little brother has only one thing on his mind.” “Ah thought ya’h hated his flirtations?” Applejack pointed out. Rainbow took a breath and tried to not let her body convulse in repulsion, “Someone has to take one for the team.” she pointed out. “And it helped when we did that whole heist thing sibling challenged thing between Twilight…” she trailed off as she recalled SciTwi, “um the princess…” she added with a weak guilty teehee. “And Shining.” Rainbow turned away and did her best to doll herself up. “Wait! Didn’t that plan fail?” Sunset asked. The five remaining members of that heist paused in thought for a second, until Rarity answered, “Didn’t Spike sabotage that plan from the beginning by convincing Luna to recruit Zephyr in the first place?” the enchantress asked. “Yeah...,” Twilight answered as she trailed off. “What are you getting at?” Sunset’s mind worked the swiftest of the group, “RAINBOW DON’T!!!” she shouted as she tried to close the distance with the rest realizing too late. “You know I can’t resist a man in uniform.” Rainbow said with a sultry voice as she batted bedroom eyes at Zephyr as she tapped his chest slightly. “Miss Dash, while I appreciate the compliment. I am on the clock.” Zephyr said as he turned away. “My behavior from before was far from called for, in fact it was basically sexual harassment.” the normally flirtatious Zephyr confessed. “However, I can’t indulge in this.” If Rainbow was shocked at the maturity that Zephyr was desperately attempting to maintain, she showed no signs as she batted her eyes and slightly shut them not dissimilar to a woman about to pull a man into her own room, before she pulled closer to Zephyr as if to whisper into his ear, “Looks like the boy has become a man, can you show me how much of one you have, my darling Breeze.” Zephyr looked from Rainbow to her now arriving friends and scowled, as he saw what Rainbow was trying to do. Before anyone could say anything, Zephyr had slammed the door in their faces, their bands for easy access were cut and on the ground. Everyone save Pinkie and Sunset scowled at Rainbow. “Well, I guess we’re stuck.” Pinkie commented, trying to not berate Rainbow, but pointing out that their attempt failed. Sunset shook her head with a smile, “Not for a time looper.” she almost laughed. Everyone turned to her. “You all won’t remember this, but today’s failure is tomorrow’s success.” the pyromancer declared as a triumphant grin formed with her lips. Once more everything reset. After making it to catch the Dazzling’s performance. After Zephyr had put his foot down with Snips and Snails and the two had left. Sunset and Pinkie walked up to him. “Ms. Shimmers, Ms. Pie,” Zephyr greeted the two. “I know our backstage passes don’t take effect until tomorrow, but I need to talk with Adagio and her sisters.” Sunset started. Zephyr lowered his uniform sun-glasses and looked at Sunset with a lot of doubt. “You saw those collars around their necks?” Sunset asked. Zephyr nodded. “Those are parole collars, it means they are being permitted a break with regards to their sentence.” Zephyr nodded as he seemed to follow. “You see I want to reduce their sentences by telling them that I have forgiven them for what they have done specifically to me.” Zephyr turned his eyes to Pinkie. It was clear he was questioning why Pinkie was coming with her. Pinkie pulled a suitcase out of her hair, on it was written ‘Pinkamena Diane Pie, Notary Public (Communia et Civilis et Criminalis)’. “Needs to be notarized.” Pinkie informed. Zephyr was about to speak but was silenced as Pinkie cleared her throat. “According to the Jubilee Act of King Bullion 2 Annio Bullion, Article 3 section 7 paragraph 40, “No attempt to offer forgiveness can be barred and no one’s employment can be terminated by allowing an offer of forgiveness to be made if by allowing the actions necessary for the offer to accrue would normally result in the termination of employment.” Pinkie said as she pulled out a copy of the act made by Bullion in question with the clause highlighted. After looking it over, “You will go to back for me?” he asked. “We’re required to, you’ll see that in--” Pinkie stated as she was about to point to a different clause of the law, before she was cut off. “Yes.” Sunset simplified. Zephyr then looked around to make sure there was no one else watching. He then nodded and stepped to the side slightly. Sunset and Pinkie smiled and swiftly walked past him as if they had every right to be there. “Okay, we made it backstage, now to find…” Sunset started as she looked around the temporary housing for the musicians and crew when the duo heard the door open for one. Exiting from it were the trio they sought. “That had to be our best show yet!” Sonata cheered, expressing jubilation over the success of their most recent performance. Aria chuckled in agreement, “I gotta admit, the loop was a stroke of genius, Dagi.” Adagio snickered, “Of course it was.” she said as she shut the door, “It was my idea.” before she closed the door to their housing, without locking it. Sunset made a fist with her right hand and brought it down into her left, “I knew it! I bet they're hiding the Time Twirler somewhere in there.” Sunset and Pinkie waited for the trio to be out of sight. Sunset then opened the door, “Stand guard and let me know if you see someone.” Sunset pretty much told Pinkie before she shut the door. “You got it!” Pinkie declared with a slight salute before she turned to watch out for the Dazzlings and anyone else. “No one's gonna get by me! No way, no how! Nuh-uh! Nope! Nah, nah-ah!” she compounded the negatives to emphasize her resolve. After walking a few meters, Adagio suddenly stopped after she seemed to have recalled something. This caused her sisters to stop. “What is it Dagi?” Sonata asked. “My tacos are in the fridge.” she said as if she expected to be blamed for something. Aria groaned, “You know sis, Dagi and I don’t always freeze to accuse you of anything.” “Shut up, you two.” Adagio said as she turned around to see Pinkie not far from their temporary living area. The cotton candy haired jester was looking around as if she was a look out. However, Adagio also spied that Pinkie’s attention was divided. Adagio sighed, “We got company.” Pinkie was desperately trying to focus. “Keepin' watch. That's what I—” she trailed off as a scent reached her nose. She took a deep nasal inhale, as her eyes shut automatically, so that she could better identify the scent. After taking a second, her eyes shot open. “The Whirling Constellation Music Festival exclusive star-crusted, cinnamon-dipped churros!” she barely managed to not shout as she spotted the stand where it was sold. She whimpered as she turned her gaze away. “Now's probably not the best time to go get one.” she said as she started to debate with herself. “On the other hand, if I get two, then Sunset could have them with me.” She paused as she looked away as she tried to restrain “No! I will not give in!” However Pinkie’s resolve was far from adamant as she whimpered at the site. Inside the trio’s temporary housing, Sunset was about to tear the place apart but she needed to make as little as a mess as possible. She shut her eyes and took a few breaths before again using her pyromancy to locate the artifact. However after what felt like an hour, no results. Her eyes shot open. “What?!” she tried to not panic. “It’s not here?”. Just then the door opened. “What the fuck are you doing here?” came Adagio’s voice. Sunset turned to see face the Dazzlings as they re-entered. Before Sunset could answer, “Look, Shimie, if you want an in person apology, you can call up Tempest and set up a meet up.” Adagio pointed with her left thumb over her shoulder to the door. Sunset groaned as she lamented internally that her judgement call from a handful of minutes before. She gave a weak laugh. However, due to the lack of response, Adagio also groaned. “Okay, I am sorry for all I did to you, okay. Accept it, don’t, I don’t care, I don’t have the patience for this.” Adagio said as she went to the kitchen in the mobile establishment, and opened a cupboard where she took out a bottle of rum and another one a three scotch glasses. “But maybe over a drink.” she said as she poured some of the rum into two and handed one to each of her sisters. Sunset was perplexed that Adagio had not poured herself any rum. But given that she was technically trespassing, she wasn’t in a place to decline. She nodded and accepted the third glass Adagio made. She took a sip first. “Listen, I am willing to accept your apology if you hand over the Time Twirler and we can forget this whole thing.” Aria and Sonata looked at each other in confusion then to Adagio then back to Sunset and back to each other. Adagio had finished making herself a cinderella and was unphased at the accusation. Adagio took a sip of her drink with a slight laugh, “The Time Twister?” she hummed amused. “That thing still exists?” she mused in question. She gave a small laugh as she reached out her right hand, “I know you can use your pyromancy to see through deceit.” Sunset was reluctant about accepting Adagio’s hand. Seeing the hesitation, “Or you could cast a zone of truth spell.” “Zono Vero.” Sunset said as her focus gem glowed as the spell was cast. Adagio took another sip of her cinderella, “We don’t have it and even if we did, I wouldn’t let either of these two use it.” She took another sip of her drink, “Well not until after the Fall Equinox.” she added in what seemed to be a deliberate attempt to make Sunset ask a follow up question. Aria and Sonata both froze at the statement. Sunset took a sip of the rum as she thought about what Adagio just said and why would she say the last bit, “What’s so important about the Fall Equinox that you wouldn’t allow Sonata or Aria to use the Time Twister if you knew they had it?” Sunset elected to ask, she was certain that she had taken the bait for a trap. However, she could tell Adagio had something she wanted to say, but she wasn’t stupid enough to just blurt it. Adagio placed her drink aside as she smiled, “Do you know why there’s this Whirling Constellation Music Festival every fifty years in the week leading up to the Summer Solstice?” Sunset internally groaned. It wasn’t that she was terrible with history. No, it was because she had pretty much affirmed that Adagio was the one that would be controlling the conversation. “Pretty much King Bullion set it up as a massive circus so that should the populace not have enough bread at any point in that fifty years the people wouldn’t revolt.” This surprised Adagio, Aria and Sonata, “Twilight’s the one of Celestia’s most recent students that needs the history lesson.” Sunset added, far from amused of the situation. “So we got the whole jubilee thing, so about the Fall Equi…” Sunset trailed off as she recalled something, “The Day of Absolution…” she realized. Adagio nodded, “And since we have these,” she slipped her right thumb under the parole collar on her neck, “A single toe off the straight and narrow and…” she trailed off as she allowed Sunset to make the inference herself as she removed her thumb. “Well, a smart girl like you can connect the dots.” she said before she picked up her cinderella and took another sip. Sunset took a sip of her rum, “So about that time loop thing in your song, you know ‘every day is the same’?” she asked. “You send six days a week since last winter solstice working on the Pie Rock Farm with Limestone overseeing you.” Aria declared as she spoke into her glass before taking another sip of her rum. “Now that’s being stuck on repeat.” “Which inspired the song. Also singing does help set and keep a work pace.” Sonata added after she took another sip of her rum. Sunset couldn’t but look at her rum for a second before she could speak, “Oh and if you’re wondering if we would redo a day, The Time Twister only repeats the day before it was used, we’d have to go back in time farther than that,” Adagio seemed to cut Sunset off before she could ask, “Besides we made our choices and we’re paying the price and we’re already been given a do-over as it were, with every new day.” She then finished her drink. “It’s called living life, I’d suggest you try it some…” Adagio stopped as she realized, “Oh, that’s why you asked about the Time Twister.” she started to prod, “you were within a decameter of whoever has it and you had a desire to repeat this day.” “Sucks to be you, we don’t need to get pastured to forget all.” Aria snickered. Sunset could only growl in response. “Are you mad?” she asked mockingly. “Aria, I thought we were trying to turn a new leaf.” Sonata pointed out her sister’s behavior and that it was not conducive for her own turn around. “Sonata, if you haven’t noticed, I am taking this slow and steady.” Aria took another slip, “And who said you can’t enjoy these turns of events.” Sunset could not but help but almost roar at trio, "You think working under Limestone is bad! You’re free of her at least once a week!” She continued. “I’m stuck with her sister every single day!” She compounded with her anger boiling near the surface. “I can't tell you how sick I am of her sister ruining everything by running off to get churros of all things! Churros! Fricking Churros!” She continued to shout, not noticing that Pinkie was back and in the doorway. “I hate churros!” She finished venting, letting out what she truly blamed for her predicament. There was a moment of silence as everyone heard the creak of the door. They turned to see Pinkie standing there. “Oh. I, uh... just wanted to say the Dazzlings are back,” she started to say informing Sunset as she was asked and ordered to. As it was clear that what was said was not needed. “But I see you see they see you seeing them, and you've seen me too, so, um... see ya.” she said before she left running away in tears. Sunset rushed out and tried to call out, but her voice died in her throat. She knew there was nothing that she could say. She, in her anger she was, well, sincere about how she felt. She gave a sorrowful and guiltridded sigh as she looked to the ground in defeat. “If the day's always the same,” came Adagio’s voice. Sunset turned to see the eldest of the sisters in the doorway ready to shut the door. “maybe you're the one who needs to change.” she finished and slammed the door shut. Sunset couldn’t delve too much on the words, but she couldn’t forget them. However she needed to catch up with Pinkie. After taking a second to think she conjured a ring of fire to use as a teleportation ring. After going through it she was standing next to a weeping Pinkie. “Pinkie, I’m sor…” she started. “Did you convince the Dazzlings to break the time loop?” she asked in a whimper, in a poorly veiled attempt to act like nothing was wrong. Sunset’s own heart ached with shame and guilt, “It wasn't them.” she informed Pinkie. “Well there’s always tomorrow.” Pinkie said weakly before she left sobbing. “Maybe it will be a good day. You deserve it, Sunset.” she finished calling back. Sunset’s own soul now spasmed in repulsion for her actions. “So do you, Pinkie Pie.” she said acknowledging it. Author's Note Song used: Find the Magic Breaking The CycleThe next morning, just in the earliest hours of day, when only the morning star was above the horizon, before it could herald the sun. Almost everyone of the party was sound asleep before, “RISE AND SHINE!!!” shouted Sour as all the girls jerked and jumped out of their beds. “Applejack says breakfast is almost ready.” she added sweetly. All groaned as they recovered from the shock before as they changed into what they were going to wear that day, each at her own pace. Outside they found a fairly basic breakfast spread out with Sour at the table ready to eat. The barbarian was not dressed in her usual brown bear based suit, instead she wore a white furred tunic with black fur leggings, with the bear’s bones making her belt, with the skull hung around her neck, with the top of her tunic made out of the head of the black and white bear. While most were unphased by the barbarian’s getup, “Um, you do know those only eat plants right?” the druid question. “I’m a berserker, I wear shirts made from bears.” Sour retorted. Fluttershy could only sigh. The reaction the rest had were mixed. Some of the ladies chuckled, others rolled their eyes, while Rainbow seemed to offer some silent comfort for her best and longest friend. “Whoo! Whril-Con Mus-Fes Day One!” shouted Lemon as she was the last to exit. She had in her hands a paddle with the logo of the Rainbolt, which itself was a rainbow with the Aura Marks of the Rainbooms coming from the stylised S of the Shadowbolts with their Aura Marks within the S itself, with Sunset’s Aura Mark placed in what could described as the merging point. “Come and get it!” she shouted as she swung her paddle. However Sunset dodge it like had seen it coming from five parsecs away and going a millimeter a second. “HA! NOT TODAY!” she shouted in joy. Everyone looked at Sunset somewhat confused. Save Pinkie. “What do you call a PostCrush fan with three eyes?” she asked in joval tone to get people’s focus off of Sunset. Sunset placed an arm over Pinkie’s shoulders, “You call her Pinkie Pie, because you spell her name with three I's!” she answered, delivering the punchline properly. That got everyone to have a soft laugh with the occasional head shake of why the joke was even found funny before they continued their breakfast. Once finished the party headed toward the main festival grounds. This time Sunset spotted the mud puddle she had oft stepped in and evaded it. While she should have known better, “In your face, mud!” she could not help but declare in euphoria. While this did rise a few eyebrows, the rest elected to just let it go. “This day's going to be amazing!” Pinkie cheered as they arrived at the lines to the entrance. “I know!” Sunset agreed as they got into the line that was manned by Zephyr Breeze. “It might be slow, but security is an art. It can't be rushed.” she declared. After a few minutes Zephyr cleared the two and they gave their input to Applejack’s master itinerary, Pinkie spotted the booth with the tandem bike as the prize. Pinkie gasped. “Let’s try our luck.” Sunset whispered as they walked up and looked at the jar. Pinkie smirked, “All I have to do is guess how many candies are in the jar.” she stated like she pretty much knew the answer. “And my sugar senses say…” she trailed off as she stuck her tongue out and waved her hands in front of the jar. After a few seconds she pulled her tongue back into her mouth and gave her answer, “Three hundred and five!” she declared with confidence. The person manning the stand pressed the nearby buzzer to indicate a wrong answer. Pinkie gave a slightly depressed but accepting “Awww.” of defeat. “Don’t feel bad,” Sunset said as she patted it’s Five hundred seventy-two…” Sunset then paused as she recalled one of her last times she counted out the beans, “and a half, counting the green broken one.” she declared. The attendant of the stand was shocked at the number and rang the gong to indicate that the prize was won. After getting the bike, “Next stop the Neon Gardens.” Sunset said as she started pedaling, Pinkie ‘Whee-ed’ as she joined and the two headed to the Neon Garden hedge maze. Once there the two arrived they ditched the bike to run the maze. All the while Pinkie’s laughter was contagious until they exited and arrived at the art show paint water-balloon ‘fight’. Silently the two agreed to be part of it. This time around Sunset had to confess that this was fun. After the ‘show’ the two mostly cleaned up in which Pinkie showed her take on Rarity with a moustache. However unlike before Sunset too drew a moustache, on her own face. This only encouraged the laughter of the two. About ten minutes late the two, fully cleaned and dry, exited the facility and watched the sun begin its descent pass the horizon. “This is the best day ever!” Pinkie cheered. “Don’t let Cheese hear you say that, especially when he has to plan for your anniversary.” Sunset teased. Pinkie gave a snort like chuckle, “Yeah,” she then thought about all the days in her life. She paused and looked over all the days in her life. “Maybe the top….” she started but then stopped as she recalled the sheer number of days that she had to count as ‘best’. After half a minute, “five hundred.” she finished. Once she did she smelt something. “Is that…” she started before she sniffed the air. “Whirling Constellation Music Festival Cinnamon-Swirled Churros!” Sunset answered as sat returned with two of the churros in question, having seized the moment to purchase them while Pinkie was lost in her calculations. Pinkie gasped as she accepted one of them. “How did you know?!” Sunset chuckled, “I’ve done this alone my way, and after giving it an honest look, I realized having a perfect day wasn't perfect without... you.” Sunset said as gave her friend a hug. Pinkie gave an ‘Awwww.’ clearly of gratitude and the two bit into their churros with a clang in their mouths. Sunset rubbed her jaw, “Ow!” she complained. “Mine's hard as a rock!” she added before she started to look for the nearest place to dispose of it. “This is like eating a crowbar.” Pinkie only giggled as she ate her churro, “I know.” she said in between bites as she devoured her churro. Sunset was left with nothing to say and elected to just let it go. Just then they saw someone dressed like a delivery person storm off from the stand that sold the churros after he shouted, “Find someone else to deliver churros backstage to PostCrush, because I quit!”. Sunset and Pinkie looked at each other, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Pinkie asked Sunset. Sunset nodded as Pinkie pulled the tandem bike they won out of her hair. After getting past security, the two arrived at PostCrush’s temporary housing. “Ooh, I hope they like us!” Pinkie said as they stopped. “You must've met them on one of the other days.” she assumed her friend would have done that due to the loop she has been trapped in. Sunset shocked her head with a laugh, “Nope, First time.” she informed Pinkie as the two dismounted their bike. “And I'm glad it's with the other half of my dynamic duo.” she added with a friendly hug. After a second the hug ended and they walked up to the door. “You ready?” she asked. Pinkie nodded. Sunset then knocked on the door. “Special delivery!” she declared before the door opened. Answering the door were two young women about Sunset’s age. The shorter one was dressed in a long sleeve shirt of light blue, mid light blue and purple with a pink heart in the chest and light red sparkling mid-thigh dress with a few orange hearts around her waist and black leggings. She had light blue violet hair with streaks of magenta and cyan and cobalt eyes with two small pink hearts under her eyes. This was Supernova Zap, however despite being Indigo’s cousin, one could easily mistaken her for being Sour’s sister. The taller one dressed in a sleeveless dress. The top had what looked like yellow-white fur that went over the shoulder which connected to the main body of the top which looked like a sparkling blue and purple heart with two magenta hearts on the front. The lower part of the dress had two small trains around the dress, the top most was a sparkling magenta with a darker magenta one beneath that. The main dress, which was mid-thigh, had large patches of purple with three orange hearts and patches of pink covered with sparkles. She had sapphire eyes with bright cerise hair with magenta and violet highlights with magenta hearts under her eyes. This was Kiwi Lollipop, and while her relationships were unknown save her career with Supernova, one could easily assume she had a familial connection to Sunny. Before either Kiwi or Supernova could speak, “We are huge, huge, generous fans!” Pinkie declared jovially. Supernova and Kiwi were both confused for a blink and you’ll miss it lapse of time. However Kiwi’s expression changed after said blink to one as if nothing had happened, while Supernova was still confused. She was about to speak when Kiwi coughed. “Yeah, thanks for making the delivery today. We weren’t expecting fans to make it!” she said also too cheerfully as if she was expecting someone else. That comment seemed to pass Pinkie by, but Sunset didn’t blink and the comment didn’t slip by. “Today’s been funny.” Sunset said with a slightly squinted left eye. Supernova and Kiwi nodded, neither seeming to notice that Sunset caught Supernova’s slip. “Still thanks for the delivery and for being fans.” Kiwi said in gratitude, however she couldn’t shake a sudden onset of nervousness. “Say, we got some last minute prep for when we get on stage….” “Totally understand!” Pinkie cut her off with a salute. “We won’t keep you up.” Pinkie started to turn, “Come on, Sunset.” she said as she took Sunset’s left hand. However Sunset took another step forward, “Say, before we go, could I shake your hand.” She said as she took her left hand back and offered both to Kiwi and Supernova. “It would mean a lot to me, think of it as a thank-you for all your music.” Kiwi and Supernova looked at each other for a second and shrugged their shoulders. “Anything for a fan.” Kiwi said as she took Sunset’s right hand and Supernova took Sunset’s left hand. “Veritatem.” Sunset whispered as her eyes and focus gem glowed as did Kiwi and Supernova’s eyes. It was night as Kiwi and Supernova were walking not far from where the musicians and other performers of the Whirling Constellation Music Festival had their temporary housing set up, along the edge of the small forest. They were about a kilometer in, as Kiwi finally spoke, giving a voice to the tension between the two. “Tomorrow has to be perfect!” She declared as she kicked a rock out of their way. “We've only got one shot at this!” she added, turning towards the sky in frustration. Supernova groaned as she turned away, “As if I'm not super-duper aware, K-Lo!” she wanted to curse out her partner as she kicked at the dirt too. However she uncovered something in the soil. It was a golden medallion that was shaped around a circle with a set of folded wings around the base and a point at the top. In the medallion was a crescent of purple with three starts hinting to a night’s sky over an eye-like shape. The two were bewildered by the item they found. Kiwi picked it up and pressed the point. This caused the golden eye shape to open to reveal an eye. There was zap and the two woke up in their apartment in Manahattan. It didn’t take long for them to figure out that they had reset the day. Time flashed to after their performance, when Sunset was on the hill bemoaning her lot. “That was terrible!” Supernova snapped as tears started to form in her eyes. Kiwi looked at the medallion they found as a stern and resolute frown formed on her face, “We can do it again, and it will be perfect.” She then pressed the top activating the artifact again. The vision changed to show them performing their song again. However there was a minor hiccup, one of Kiwi’s guitar strings. Kiwi then pressed the medallion activating it again, this continued almost twenty times, each time another hiccup, one had Kiwi lose her guitar bit, one had Supernova’s shoe break, another had Supernova’s drum stick break, just to list a few. Each time one noticed a mishap, Kiwi would use the Time Twirler. After the twentieth reset, Sunset let go of both Kiwi’s and Supernova’s hands with a gasp. “You found the Time Twirler!.” Sunset declared as she took a step back and pointed at the two. “You're the ones causing the time loop!” she accused the two. Kiwi was left flabbergasted and her mouth agape as she blinked. However, Supernova was able to voice her confused state, “How did you see my brain?” she asked. “Pyromancy can burn through a lot of things.” Sunset answered. At this point Kiwi had collected herself, “Yes, we’ve been looping our show and we’re gonna loop our show 'til it's perfect!” she declared. “Fans like you wouldn't get it.” she sighed in defeat. “But I do.” Sunset countered as she placed her right hand over her heart. “I wanted things to go perfectly today, too.” She added, trying to show that she actually understood. “But now I know they never do.” Supernova and Kiwi looked at each for a second and then back, to Sunset and Pinkie, “Then we. Stop. Never!” she declared empathizing each word with building force. “And now that we know you're in on our little secret, you'll never set foot inside this festival again.” Kiwi added, as what seemed to be both a smug grin and a remorseful frown formed on her lips. Sunset was not phased. “Go ahead. Take a picture and hang it and as many copies as you can make up.” she smirked as she crossed her arms, seeming to have won this exchange. “Tomorrow morning, they'll all disappear.” she added pointing out the flaw in the band’s plan and compounding what she assumed was her victory. The remorseful frown that was mixed in Kiwi’s expression vanished, “Ever heard of drawings?” she asked as the smug grin took even more of her face. “Everything resets.” Sunset pointed out. Supernova had a slight chuckle, “You don't, and neither do we.” she pointed out. This caused Sunset to blink a couple of times as she started to recall what she experienced and what she saw. “Now that I've seen your faces,” Supernova took out a pen and piece of paper and at the speed of light drew almost flawless to scale depictions of Sunset and Pinkie. “Singing and drums aren’t the only things I’m good at.” She said as she showed her work. “All I have to do is draw this when we get up and you won’t be getting through the gate foreva!” This left Sunset speechless as Pinkie gasped in horror. Supernova then cuffed her left hand to the side of her check, “SECURITY!” she shouted. This got the attention of the closest security guard, who happened to be Zephyr Breeze. Once he arrived, “Too bad we don’t have Rainbow.” Pinkie commented, speaking into Sunset’s ear. Sunset could only sigh knowing that even if Rainbow was there, it would not have helped. As Zephyr arrived he spotted Sunset and Pinkie, “Sorry, but not even V.I.P.s are allowed backstage until tomorrow.” He said as he looked between the two attendees. He took off his uniform sunglasses, “I don’t think we want to make this a code chartreuse.” He said before he seated around the two to be behind the two. Before anyone could register, the door that attendees were sent out closed behind Sunset and Pinkie. Sunset groaned before she started to pass and think aloud. “Tonight is my last chance to stop this before I get banned for life!” she bemoaned. “Think fast, Sunset. Come on, think!” she stopped and looked around, “Okay…” she trailed until she spotted a tree not far from “If we climb up this tree, attach a rope there, and swing over and…” she sighed as she trailed off realizing her defeat. “Who am I kidding?” she asked as she let herself drop to the ground and on her back. “I'm done for.” Pinkie knelt down, sitting on her knees, “At least we'll be together.” She tried to comfort Sunset. Sunset looked at Pinkie and a smile formed on her lips, “You know what?” she asked rhetorically, “That actually makes being trapped at an eternal music festival seem not half bad.” She stated her current situation and tried to see the brighter sides of things. Pinkie gave a happy sigh and sniffed a couple of times, “What's that smell?” she asked before she sniffed again. “Could it be?” she asked until she spotted that in a pocket of Sunset’s jacket was a… “Whirling Constellation Music Festival Cinnamon-Swirled Churro!” Pinkie declared following a massive gasp of revelation before she took it from Sunset’s pocket. “Oh, yeah.” Sunset said with a slightly guilty laugh, “Um, it was a little too inedible for my taste.” she commented. There was a pause as the two looked at each other and recalled something she said earlier when they both tried the churros. “Like eating a crowbar!” the two declared together. They nodded and went to the door to break in using the churro as a crowbar. Just before the two could attempt to break in, the door opened, “Seriously?” came the voice of a familiar singing foe. The two gasped as they saw the person who was letting them in. “Adagio!” the two almost shouted recognizing the source of their assistance. Adagio rolled her eyes with a frustrated sigh, “How stupid are you losers, trying to break back in?” she asked before she stepped aside to let the two in. As the two stood there utterly befuddled at what was happening, “Well! You coming or not?” Pinkie ran and gave a somewhat tackle-like hug to the former siren. “Thank you, you have no idea how much this means.” After a couple of seconds, Adagio managed to get herself out of the hug. “Don’t ever say I never helped you.” Once the two that Zephyr booted were back inside. “Well, catch you losers lat…” she turned and started to walk away. “We need to get backstage to stop K-Lo and Su-Z!” Sunset cut Adagio off. “I don’t have much time to explain, but K-Lo has this artifact that can reset time and if we don’t get it from them, we’ll never have another shot!” Adagio’s face was not visible to Sunset, and as such neither Sunset or Pinkie could tell what Adagio was thinking. After a second she groaned, “Fine.” Sunset then hugged Adagio, “Thank you,” She then broke the hug as she turned to face Pinkie. “Alright Pinkie, final mission – get the Time Twirler from K-Lo's hair and turn it– twirl it off, or–” she tried to find the right way to describe the goal. She ended up groaning before she concluded, “Make it not work anymore!” she declared before Adagio and Pinkie started in the direction backstage of PostCrush’s performance. However, after only taking a few steps, “Wait.” Sunset called, making the two stop. Adagio groaned as Pinkie turned to face Sunset and asked, “What's wrong?” “It's just that…” Sunset trailed off slightly, “I've already seen PostCrush.” she pointed out what she experienced. “But if we break the time loop right now, you won't.” she pointed out that Pinkie had never seen the duo perform. “We're ruining PostCrush's only reunion show.” she compounded. As Adagio started tapping her left foot in annoyance, Pinkie scoffed at Sunset’s concern that Pinkie would never get to see the performance. “Are you kidding?!” she They trapped my best friend at a super fun music festival without me for weeks! They are so going down! Adagio groaned, “Seriously?” she asked. Pinkie’s resolve didn’t waver. The former siren sighed, “Whatever, I’ll get you two losers to them, and there we part ways. This good guy shit blows.” she said as she took a couple steps ahead of Pinkie and Sunset. The two only shock their heads before following Adagio. Behind the stage Supernova looked at her hands, while they were no different then when they started, she could not but feel the three weeks of calluses and blisters from playing over and over again. She sighed, “I'm getting tired of living the same day over and over. Can this please be our last performance?” she asked with the invisible dark circles under her eyes clear to Kiwi. Kiwi picked up the Time Twirler and put it in her hair like a hair pin. “We've been over this, Su-Z.” She said as she brushed her hair to hide the artifact. “We don't stop until we get it perfect.” Just then the door opened with a boom to show Sunset and Pinkie, “Sorry to interrupt, buuuut…” Pinkie started. “...you have something that doesn't belong to you.” Sunset finished as the two stepped farther in. Supernova gasped at the entry of two, “Who let you two back in?!” she asked as she and Kiwi were shocked at the situation. Sunset took another step forward as she held out her right hand towards Kiwi. “Give us the Time Twirler now!” she ordered. Kiwi and Supernova stood up and as if on instinct took on the rudimentary stances for a fight, “You wouldn't dare!” Kiwi growled. “If you were real fans, you'd want this show to be perfect!” she protested. “Nothing's perfect.” Sunset countered. “Now let’s not make this harder than it needs to be.” She almost pleaded in a desperate attempt to prevent a fight. “Right, Pinkie Pie?” she asked as she could feel that conflict was almost inevitable. “Yup!” Pinkie agreed as she reached into her hair and pulled out the churro from Sunset’s pocket. She grunted as she bent the churro into a boomerang. “You just gotta make the best with what you've got!” she declared before she threw the churro. It spun around as it flew around to strike the back of Kiwi’s head with a clunk and sent the Time Twirler into Pinkie’s right hand. Kiwi growled at the turn of events as Supernova tackled Pinkie. This caused Pinkie to lose her grip on the Time Twirler as it was sent to the floor. Kiwi and Sunset then tackled each other to prevent each from getting the artifact. All the while no one noticed Adagio in the doorway. “I’ll be taking that.” Adagio said as she took it off of the floor causing everyone to stop their fight and see the former siren. “Adagio, if you use that, you’ll…” Sunset protested as she struggled to get out the twister-like state the four were in. “I ain’t spending more time in Stonlingrad than I have to.” Adagio declared as she let it drop to the floor before she raised her right foot and brought it down with as much force as she could muster, destroying the artifact. “There that’s done,” she said as she brushed off her hands as if in a way to wash them clean symbolically. “Now are you four brats done acting like infants and ready to be adults?” Kiwi was the first of the four to break out of the ball they had become, “You stupid bitch! You destroyed our legacy!” she shouted right in Adagio’s face. “Everything is riding on our show and you ruined it!” She wanted to strike Adagio but before she could Adagio slapped her with the palm of her right hand, shutting her up. “Do you really think all those simps care if you two give a flawless performance? If you do, you’re the stupid bitch.” Adagio’s words stung harsher than the slap and the fact she was right gave it all an even greater edge. “They don’t give two flying fucks if you flub a word or if you’re flat on line, or whatever bull shit error you fixate on, all they care about is being here to see what they believe might be your last performance.” “Wow,” Pinkie said as the four were left in utter disbelief. “Who’d have thought Adagio of all people would be the voice of reason?” Sunset was about to answer but she stopped as she saw Adagio shake her head slightly. Then it hit her, Sunset wasn’t the only one caught up in PostCrush’s time loop. “You’re on in what,” she looked at the clock in the room, “five minutes. So here’s the deal, you’re going on stage and you’re going to put your heart and soul into the performance, flaws be damned, because that’s what makes an experience perfect, that’s what makes Life worth living. Being with people that not only put up with your imperfections, but accept you because of them.” As Adagio spoke the last bit Kiwi and Supernova looked at each other. After recovering from Adagio’s assault, Kiwi finally rubbed her check to soothe the pain. After another second her gaze fell to the floor as it all came tumbling down. “It was fun at first…” she trailed off, while both wanting to state something yet at the same time deny the truth. However, Supernova stepped up and spoke up in a way coming to her best friend’s aid. “But every time we got into a spat,” she started. “We ended up causing a big deal out of it that our fans feel like each performance we’d do would be our last. And since we don’t know how long we’re actually going to last…” this time she trailed off fearing what her words would enable another to infer. This time Kiwi took over, “we had to make this perfect, we had to go out with a bang… or at least that’s what we thought.” ‘Urg…” Adagio gagged. This caused the others to turn to face the former siren. "This is so fucking saccharine,” she added before she started out, “ Screw it, I am blowing this popsicle stand before I get diabetes.” before she shut the door. “Later cunts.” she declared and was gone. The four remaining young women were left silent. “She could have used less… shall we say colorful language?” Pinkie asked as she was the first to recover from everything. Sunset turned to the two performers. “So what do you say?” she asked the two. “I don't know.” Kiwi said as she looked at her hands, there was no redo, no do-over, this was it, sink or swim. “This one's for real.” The horror she felt was barely hinted at by her voice. Supernova sighed in response to her friend, “Let's do it then.” she declared with resolve as she took her friend’s hand. “For real. It'll be you and me. Just like old times. Whatever happens happens.” “Ladies and Gentlemen, let’s hear it for two best friends who got back together for one incredible night! PostCruuuuush!” the announcer called as it was time for the two to take the stage. Kiwi “PostCrush! PostCrush! PostCrush!” The crowd cheered. Before the two walked out, “You coming?” Kiwi asked Sunset and Pinkie. “It might not be us alone, but we have heard you two play with your band…” she trailed off leaving her offer not fully stated. “We’re in.” Pinkie cheered as she pulled out Sunset’s guitar and her drumset before the four went onto stage with the cheering crowd to greet them. Kiwi started the duo’s song, “Always first place, never second best Only high stakes, we aim to impress And there's no room for mistakes Yeah, we're flawless everyday, 'cause.” “We're all about perfection Projecting that pure reflection Exceeding your expectations.” Supernova joined in the song as Sunset and Pinkie joined in playing the song. It was surprising for Sunset how she could match Kiwi and cover her, Pinkie matching Supernova was not surprising as this was Pinkie. Kiwi gave a ‘yeah’ in a break of the vocals as the four continued to play. “Be the true, true, true original Dare to be what you are meant to be Working hard, that's our thing All this way, we're perfect, perfectly true True, true original True, true original True, true original We're perfect, perfectly true.” The members of PostCrush sang together as they let Sunset and Pinkie play the instrumental of the song. “Oh-oh, true original Oh, oh, hey, hey (We're perfect, perfectly true) True original Oh, oh Oh, oh” Kiwi took over the song as she and Supernova rejoined playing the instrumentals of the song. “But it's not about perfection Settle things your own direction Shake off the expectations” Sunset and Pinkie took over the vocals as they stopped playing for a brief bit. “You're the true, true, true original Dare to be who you are meant to be Free yourself, do your thing All your way, you're perfect, perfectly you True, true original True, true original True, true original You're perfect, you're perfectly you!” All four sang and performed as they carried the last verse and stanza of the song. The crowd cheered and chanted, “PostCrush! PostCrush! PostCrush!” as the song finished. “I think we just played the Whirling Constellation Music Festival!” Sunset said to Pinkie as she tried her best to not scream in jubilation over what felt like the perfect performance of the song and the perfect way to end her day and to experience what many thought would be the last performance of PostCrush. Pinkie was slightly better at containing her joy as nodded her head with closed eyes and a massive toothy grin on her face. “Yeah, you did!” Supernova said as she and Kiwi pulled the two to join them in the current photo op. As the other fans took photos and continued to cheer, “Now this is a perfect moment!” Sunset declared as Pinkie gave a cheerful squeal and giggled. In the very early hours the next day, just before the morning star itself started its own accent, Sunset woke, this time she spied that Sour was still in bed. “YES!!!” she shouted, “I AM FREE, THE LOOP IS OVER!!!” She could not help but cheer. While she was greeted with the various groans of the rest as they wanted to continue their sleep in silence, she could not be parsed from celebrating, “IT’S WHIRL-CON MUS- FES DAY TWO!!!” Sunset shouted. Bit by bit the others gave up any pretentious of sleep as they started to stir. However, Pinkie seemed to jump to life as she gasped, “That must mean we did it! Woo-hoo!” she cheered. She turned to her fully awake friend, “So what do wanna do today, Sunset?” Sunset just giggled, “Frankly I am game for anything.” She answered, “Yesterday was the longest day of my life!” she expounded as they two started out before the rest. Pinkie then saw a question mark appear over her own head only to realize that she had a question herself, “Hey Sunset, I doubt you’d lie about the whole time loop thing with PostCrush, but how long was that loop?” Sunset froze for a second before she shook her head and started to laugh, “Now that is something you wouldn’t believe, but I was stuck in there for three weeks.” Pinkie had a light laugh, “Yeah, I guess that would make it the longest day of your life.” Sunset could only laugh in response. Author's Note And so ends the time loop. I am open to do, shall we say, a bonus track or two for this story. Open to ideas. As any more else for My Little Mages... it's not likely I will have more entries. But if I do they would be adaptations of The CMC Dream Trilogy and the Rainbow Key Pentalogy. Should I never do them, there will be a blog of what changes I'd make to each. Song used. Foxhelm, out. Brohoof?
The Cycle BeginsThe sun had begun its descent to the western horizon. Princess Twilight’s skyboat descended onto a small plot of grass as its recently installed landing gear came out and parked before its engines shut off. The plot of land the skyboat landed in was part of a series of a couple of grosses of prepared campgrounds about a twenty-minute walk from walled-off area about five to six acres in area with numerous stages and platforms set up for bands and other performances. The door to the skyboat opened and Sunset Shimmer lept out and threw her arms in the air. “WE MADE IT!” she shouted at the top of her lungs. “The Whirling Constellation Music Festival!” she added as she was followed by her friends and half-sisters out of the sky boat, Pinkie had a comedically high collection of random collectibles. Applejack walked over to a part of the lot next to where the skyboat landed and began to dig a fire pit. “An entire week of the best music around, including Sapphire Shore, RaRa, Songbird Serenade, Octavia Melody and the rest of both her swing quartet and the orchestra she’s part of, Vinyl Scratch, to list a few.” the paladin said as she paced the dimensions, while everyone started to set up the rest of their campsite. Rarity giggled as she got the paladin a shovel, “Let’s not forget your own troubadour, Dirk Thistleweed,” Applejack gave a blissful sigh at the thought before she started to dig after taking a glance of her left hand and the wedding band of the setted gem shaped to look like her aura mark of three stylized apples mixed among two circles one red and one orange with the red one being the larger of the two. Everyone had a small laugh as they took out a table and chairs and prepared the outside of the shyboat for the week ahead. Fluttershy then spoke as she placed the chairs she took out of the skyboat, “Or the band Skull Cruncher.” Everyone turned to her in confusion. “I know you can’t really make out the lyrics over the death metal, but if you actually look around the area around them after they play all the life around is empowered.” Everyone blinked a few times but elected to not press the matter. Electing to kill the awkward silence, “Or MC Dex FX.” Sci-Twi and Princess Twilight said together, both seeming to be excited over the techno-DJ as they squealed. “Didn’t Flash promise to introduce you both to him?” Rarity asked. Twilight and Sci-Twi looked to each other and with massive grins on their faces like a couple of schoolgirls that were complemented by the most attractive upperclassmen in the school. "B.H.E.?” Twilight asked. “B.H.E.!” Sci-Twi answered before they cheered, unable to contain their excitement. Everyone shook their heads, the two seemed to have forgotten that Flash’s band, Flash Drive, would also take this event to kick off their reunion tour. But that number wouldn’t be until the last day. However, no one was going to press the matter. “And let’s not forget it takes place only once every fifty years,” Princess Twilight added, in an attempt to continue building on the excitement given the frequency of the festival. “Can you imagine it?” she asked as she and Sci-Twi got the fire wood that they brought with them as Applejack finished the fire pit. “Our parents were either not born yet or little kids the last time this took place.” she added, with a massive grin on her face. There was silence for a solid second before she noticed how no one was commenting. She was perplexed at first before she turned her attention to Sci-Twi and recalled that she is infact a clone of herself, with DNA and RNA from everyone of this group… and more. “Um…” she trailed off as she tried to save some face. Sci-Twi just rolled her eyes. Twilight gave a weak and guilt-filled laugh, “Sorry,” she added sheepishly. After having a little laugh at Twilight’s expense, “Well this festival is about one thing only for Pinkie and me.” Sunset started before she was joined by Pinkie Pie, “POSTCRUSH!!!” the two shouted and swelled in clear euphoria of seeing the band in question perform. Indigo groaned, “No, really, we couldn’t tell, it’s not like you two did talk about my ‘look at me kawaii desu’ cousin Supernova and her ‘I am soo~ cool~’ friend Kiwi since we got on Twilight’s boat… oh wait that’s the only thing talked ABOUT!!!” the arcane monk yelled at the two, as if she was one hairpin away from tearing the two apart. “And everyone says I have anger issues,” Sour joked only for Indigo’s glare to shift to her. “Never mind.” Applejack gave a chuckle, “Sorry Indie, yah gotta forgive those two, but K-Lo and Su-Z .” the paladin said as she walked up to Indigo and patted her on the shoulder. “When K-Lo and Su-Z declared that PostCrush would be on 'indefinite hiatus', well you’d get better odds of a rooster laying an egg.” The farmer attempted to comfort. Indigo was unamused about all this, but seemed to have reluctantly relented. Applejack then returned to the fire pit she was making, “Now let’s finish getting this site together, we an early mornin’.” the paladin declared before she cleared her throat as if she was holding off from cracking a whip. This was not lost on the rest as they finished getting the camp together. The next morning, just in the earliest hours of day, when only the morning star was above the horizon, before it could herald the sun. Almost everyone of the party was sound asleep before, “RISE AND SHINE!!!” shouted Sour as all the girls jerked and jumped out of their beds. “Applejack says breakfast is almost ready.” she added sweetly. All groaned as they recovered from the shock before as they changed into what they were going to wear that day, each at her own pace. Outside they found a fairly basic breakfast spread out with Sour at the table ready to eat. The barbarian was not dressed in her usual brown bear based suit, instead she wore a white furred tunic with black fur leggings, with the bear’s bones making her belt, with the skull hung around her neck, with the top of her tunic made out of the head of the black and white bear. While most were unphased by the barbarian’s getup, “Um, you do know those only eat plants right?” the druid question. “I’m a berserker, I wear shirts made from bears.” Sour retorted. Fluttershy could only sigh. The reaction the rest had were mixed. Some of the ladies chuckled, others rolled their eyes, while Rainbow seemed to offer some silent comfort for her best and longest friend. “Whoo! Whril-Con Mus-Fes Day One!” shouted Lemon as she was the last to exit. She had in her hands a paddle with the logo of the Rainbolt, which itself was a rainbow with the Aura Marks of the Rainbooms coming from the stylised S of the Shadowbolts with their Aura Marks within the S itself, with Sunset’s Aura Mark placed in what could described as the merging point. “Come and get it!” she shouted as she swung her paddle whacking Sunset in the rear. It was then that Lemon fully realized her surroundings. She took off her head set, “Haha… Whoops…” she said weakly as Sunset only glared at her sister. “Sorry, sis.” she said weakly. “Got a little too excited.” she confessed. Before Sunset could respond, she was offered an ice cold cloth by Sugarcoat, “It’s not worth getting angry at her over this.” Sunset accepted the cloth and applied it to her rear to sooth the pain. “She’s gonna smack every one of us at some point this week with that stupid paddle.” While the pain of the whack was dulled with the cold cloth, “Have you ever considered actually sugarcoating what you say?” Sunset asked. Sugarcoat slightly shut her eyes, “Just because we basically live in a world mostly noted for being one of rainbows and sunshines, we can expect some cloudy days.” she stated bluntly, “Also if Life is anything, it's full of irony.” Sugarcoat then went to get her breakfast with the rest. Sunset let out a nasal exhale and then a deep breath, “No point in letting a little thing like intense pain ruin this day.” Sunset decided as she joined the rest for the breakfast Applejack prepared. “Before anyone eats, Rarity, Rainbow,” the paladin directing her attention solely on the two, “One of you have to get Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo up.” Rainbow groaned as she got up and went to wake up the three. Applejack then looked to Lemon, “Whirl-Con Mus-Fes?” she asked the question on everyone’s mind yet none seemed to be asking. “Well ‘Whirling Constellation Music Festival’ is such a long title, so I shorten it to just the first syllables of each word.” Lemon explained. “Say, if your little sisters are here, why isn’t that Starlight friend of yours here?” Indigo asked Twilight. Princess Twilight paused as she tried to recall the plans of everyone they knew, “Trixie and the Illusions are also playing here. So Starlight is here with her. And since one of the ‘Illusions’ is Fuschia Blush, Wallflower may be here with her sister.”` “Say is anyone else we’re missing.” Pinkie asked. “Vignette is undoubtedly going to be here, Darling,” Rarity answered as she placed some of the food on her own plate, “Like she’d miss the chance to have the fans of all the performers to also intersect with her own fans.” She informed the others, as Rainbow returned with the CMC following her. Pinkie mused, “Okay, but there are others we’ve met, like Juniper?” “Um, Juniper’s been commissioned by myself, Princess Twilight, and if I recall correctly Prince Rutherford, Dragonlord Ember, Queen Novo, King Thorax and the other heads of state to record the event for posterity, Dearie,” Sunny answered as she started to eat. As Rainbow was about to eat her own meal, “Besides, it’s not like we won’t bump into them and everyone else we know. This is the place to be.” She then took a few bites of her food before she stopped and looked to Rarity, “Say Rare, is that quartet of yours also performing?” she asked with her food still in her mouth. Rarity gave a slight sigh, “Dashie-Darling, please finish eating before speaking.” she bemoaned before taking a calming breath. After which she gave her answer, “But yes, we MagiTones are performing, but not until tomorrow.” She took a sip of her morning tea, “While Toe-Tapper, Torch Song and I are here, our bass won’t be done purifying Sweet Apple Temple until noon and he won’t be here late afternoon.” Everyone but Rarity and the CMC turned to Applejack as if to accuse the farmer of shaking her responsibilities, “Paladin, Ah couldn’t help Big Mac during a Jubilee Purification if I wanted to, it’s a cleric only thing.” “Hoho! I have another question.” Pinkie cheered, getting everyone to focus on her, “What do you call a PostCrush fan with three eyes?” she asked. “Pinkie Pie!” she cheered in less than a second. There was a solid three seconds of silence, not even the chirping of a cricket. “Um, I don't get it.” Fluttershy stated. Everyone but Pinkie and Applejack groaned, “God bless your heart, Sugarcube, Pinkie made a pun.” Applejack explained to the druid before she spotted her own shadow. After a second of mental calculation, “Alright everyone, we got ten minutes to eat so we can beat the lines.” Everyone then started to eat their meals a little faster. Once they finished their meals and cleaned up afterwards, they all headed to the festival grounds proper. As they head out, Sunset stepped into a small puddle of very moist mud. In the process she lost her balance and just barely fell into the ground by bumping into Sci-Twi. Each giving exclaiming a “Whoa!” until Sunset regained her balance. Once Sunset was back on her two feet, “Are you okay?” Sunset herself over and saw that there was mud on her shoe. Beyond that, she had no issues. She shrugged her shoulder, “Just a little mud.” She dismissed any concerns about herself. However, just as soon as Sunset concluded that she was fine, Pinkie seemed to pop right next to her and took her right hand. “Sunset, Sunset! Look!” Pinkie shouted as she pulled Sunset to the lines to enter the grounds in what felt like two seconds despite being between twenty five and thirty meters away. All Sunset could do was shout ‘Whoa!’ as she was pulled behind the party planner. Once they got to the entrance. Pinkie was so wrapped up in the moment of being at the festival. “So many lines to stand in! This day's already amazing! Let's go!” Pinkie turned to the person immediately in front of the two, who happened to be Cherry Crash. “Hey, Cherry, you come to this line often?” she asked in what sounded flirtatious, however gave off the air of being a joke. Cherry laughed, “Nah, this is my first time.” she replied before she cupped her left hand and placed it next to her mouth as if she wanted only Pinkie to hear as if she was going to sell something, off-market as it were. “But I do know a few sweet lines we can hit up once we place the rental.” The rocker and jester then just broke into laughter over it all. Sunset smiled as she saw that Pinkie was having a great time. Given that Pinkie was supposed to be on her honeymoon and Cheese’s cheesy-sense had him in Abyssinia for Capper’s citizenship reaffirment celebration, the Whril-Con Mus-Fes (Sunset couldn’t not believe that she just thought of calling the festival that) was a much needed outlet. However she then noticed how Sci-Twi and Rainbow, who were in the line to their right, had moved ahead of her and Pinkie. “Hmm. That line's moving fast.” She could not but help express the observation and then looked to see all the other lines were moving faster than her’s. “Huh. They are, too.” She then stood up on her toes in an attempt to call whoever was doing the security check for this line, “Can't this thing move any faster?!” she shouted. At the front of the line and thoroughly examining the bag of one of the attendants was none other than Fluttershy’s younger brother, Zephyr Breeze. However his hair was cut short, his five o’clock shadow shaved clean. “Sorry, ma’am, but security is an art.” He said as he carefully put the contents back into the bag. “It cannot be rushed.” he added as he placed a band on the attendant’s wrist and using a scanner on the band cleared the attendant. Sunset could only sigh in frustration at this. Pinkie patted Sunset on the shoulder, “Aw, cheer up. Lines fly when you're having fun!” she cheered. “Besides, this has to be the first time Zephyr put in any real effort into a job.” she added under her breath. Sunset tried to smile, which became easier as her line went faster following the attendant with the bag. Once Pinkie was cleared, “See you in there, Sunset!” she shouted to Sunset. Sunset took a breath as she was cleared by Zephyr and gave a ‘Whew’ of relief once she was through and joined up with her group. Everyone was comparing notes for their itineraries for the first day. Applejack seemingly made a master itinerary of all the Rainbolts and the CMC, as the paladin had finished jotting down Pinkie and Sunset’s main plan. “And that’s Pinkie and Sunset.” the paladin finished. “Now remember if anyone ain’t back campsite two and half hours after sunset, the time of day, we start looking. Are we good?” “Yes, Mom.” they all groaned, save Apple Bloom, Pinkie, Twilight and Sci-Twi. Applejack rolled her eyes at most of her friends moaning over the presence of a plan, “Well, y’all have fun.” She then turned to Apple Bloom, “Yah ready Sis?” she asked the young artificer. Apple Bloom gave a thumbs-up, “Let’s do it!” she declared. The two farmers then laughed before everyone started to head out. Sunset took out her map of the grounds, “Main objective –” she paused as she grabbed Pinkie into a huddle. “Get front row for PostCrush. Mission procedure –” she paused as she pointed to the map and drew a path with her right index finger, “we cut around the neon garden to the main stage and rush the front during the set-up when we get there and we can camp there until showtime.” Sunset gave the plan. Little did she know that Pinkie’s eyes had wondered from the map to one of the stands not far from the entrance, “Secondary objective – “ she paused as she pointed the stand out to Sunset, the main thing was that it was an answer-something-correctly-and-win-a-prize stand. “win a tandem bicycle!” Pinkie cheered before she zipped to the stand, catching Sunset up in the wake. Once there she pointed to the ‘question’, a jar of jelly beans. Pinkie smirked, “All I have to do is guess how many candies are in the jar.” she stated like she pretty much knew the answer. “And my sugar senses say…” she trailed off as she stuck her tongue out and waved her hands in front of the jar. After a few seconds she pulled her tongue back into her mouth and gave her answer, “Three hundred and five!” she declared with confidence. The person manning the stand pressed the nearby buzzer to indicate a wrong answer. Pinkie gave a slightly depressed but accepting “Awww.” of defeat. Sunset pinched the bridge of her nose as she tried to remain calm, “What about seeing PostCrush together?” she asked, calling attention to Pinkie’s apparent short-sightedness and broadening on self-parodying childish behavior. Pinkie turned to the prize, a tandem bike. “Uh, this bike has two seats, Sunset!” she said in a clear attempt to get Sunset to guess the number of jellybeans too. After a solid three seconds of silence from Sunset, beyond a frown of frustration, Pinkie gave a light but unhappy sigh, “Fine. I'll focus.” She said as she looked around to see their path ahead. “Oh, look!” she declared as she pointed to a collection of hedges adorned all over all with giant neon (and other noble gases) lights. “The neon garden!” Pinkie shouted as she bolted to the hedges. Sunset tried to remain calm and remember that Pinkie was basically coping with the fact that her honeymoon was cut short and she couldn’t be here with her husband. She really did, but today wasn’t going to plan. The pyromancer groaned before she headed after Pinkie only to see Pinkie running around like she was replaying an animated hallway chase sequence, giggling, wheezing and laughing all the while. Sunset stopped in what seemed to be the center of the hallway as she tried to visualize the interior of the neon garden within her mind based on how Pinkie was running around. After two seconds she face-palmed herself with her right hand, “It’s a maze.” she groaned as she slid down her hand as she started to lift her face back up. She took a deep breath as she attempted to find Pinkie (without resorting to burning the maze down). After using some very light pyromancy to find the way out, Sunset spent about an hour trying to calculate the best path for her to traverse in the hedge maze for her to not only exit but more importantly intersect Pinkie. Once she had plotted her path, she started farther into the maze. After thirty minutes, as she was about to exit, she turned to her right and grabbed Pinkie’s left arm, just as the latter was about to pass by. “Come on!” she tried vigorously to refrain from shouting. She then pulled Pinkie out of the maze,“We got to bet the crowd if we want to get to the front!” Sunset vented as she began to lead Pinkie out of the maze. Pinkie gave a depressed but somewhat understanding ‘awww’. After the two got a few paces from the exit, they stumbled upon a collection of large elises with one man in the middle. “Who wants to be part of an art show?” he called out to everyone around. Pinkie gasped before she pulled her arm free, started to jump up and down, wave her arms and shouted, “Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! I do! I do!” This was followed by the man throwing a water balloon at Pinkie causing it to break and splatter paint on her and Sunset. Sunset could only frown as she was unable to escape from this event. After, in Sunset’s eyes, a ridiculously long time as being part of the ‘live’ art feature, which was more or less a water-balloon fight with paint. Sunset had more or less dragged Pinkie into the public lavatory that was constructed for the festival ground. To be sincere it was very much like a glorified version of the public restroom from that could be found in the upper scaled establishments in Chanterlot and the other move urban cities. After what felt like forever, Sunset finally got the last of the paint off her clothes and dry them. Fortunately the paint was water soluble and didn’t set-into the clothes. After looking herself over in the mirror, Sunset gave an exhausted and frustrated sigh just before she heard a splat from one of the stalls followed by Pinkie giggling. Pinkie then opened the stall she was in, slightly. “Guess what!” she cheered before she opened the stall door all the way, showing a slightly cartoonish rendering of Rarity with a large black mustache often used in depicting pirates. “I spilled paint, and it looks exactly like Rarity with a pirate mustache!” Pinkie added with a clear laugh in her heart. There was a solid minute after showing the work with Sunset giving a bemused expression that would give Applejack’s a run for its money. “What? It's washable.” Pinkie pointed out. Sunset groaned before she reached into Pinkie’s hair and pulled out a blue ribbon. She then wrapped and tied the ribbon around her left wrist and Pinkie’s right wrist. “There.” she declared and started out of the lavatory and back to the festival grounds. “Now, no more getting separated and no more distractions.” By this time, the sun had already set and the crowd for the PhotoCrush performance had already formed. Sunset started to panic as she tried to plot a way to get the two as close to the stage as possible. “You got it, Su—” Pinkie stated only to be cut off as Sunset pulled her towards the stage of their intended performance, which was several meters away. “Whoa!” As the crowd was getting thicker and thicker and the stage lights began to focus on the center of the stage. All of which herald the arrival of Photocrush onto the stage. “They are about to go on!” Sunset nearly panicked, “We'll have to push to the front row!” she added as it dawned on her that the two were not likely to actually see the duo. “Come on!” Pinkie however stopped the two as she smelt something. “The Whirling Constellation Music Festival Exclusive Star-crusted, Cinnamon-dipped Churros.” she whispered as if she was falling under a siren’s song as she turned to the mobile stand that sold the churros in question. She looked at her watch. “We got enough time.” she said before she dashed to the stand. “Pinkie, this is the worst possible time for churros…” Sunset started only to be pulled by Pinkie to the cart. However before Sunset could herself stop, the two ended up crashing into the cart causing the content to spill upon the cart attendant and the nearby security guard, Zephyr Breeze. Pinkie laughed weakly, “Hey Zeph.” She then gulped, “Our bad.” she stated earning a glare from Sunset. “Say, you know Rainbow likes a man in uniform…” she said as she batted her eyes. Before the two knew it, Zephyr had opened one of the doors security used to throw out festival attendants that have violated their agreement to be at the festival. He took a pair of scissors and cut the two’s wrist bands and closed the door in their faces. Sunset was left speechless as she dropped to her knees. Just then the final lights on the stage were ready and came the voice of an announcer, “Ladies and Gentlemen, let’s hear it for two best friends who got back together for one incredible night! PostCruuuuush!” he declared as the crowd cheered. Sunset dipped her head and almost wept. Pinkie was left speechless as she could only reach out, but could not make contact with Sunset. About half an hour later, with the sky full of stars, Sunset and Pinkie returned to their camping site. There everyone else the two came with were at the Skyboat, around the firepit Applejack made upon their arrival. Several were roasting marshmallows, but they were all chattering. Rainbow was the first to spot the two, “There they are!” the Wonderbolt called attention to the two. “Two peas in the pod!” she added as the two sat down. “How was it? Rad-tacular? Amaze-magic?” she asked as she didn’t seem to notice that Pinkie was full of guilt and Sunset was irate. Everyone else could just feel the disappointment from the two which revealed that they missed the performance. Applejack was the first to speak, “What happened?” the paladin asked. Sunset glared at Pinkie for a second before she groaned before she turned back to everyone else, “Someone wanted to win a bike, then got us lost in a maze, covered in paint, got sidelined by churros, and finally, got us kicked out!” she was close to shouting. Sunset’s ire was felt by everyone, and no one really knew how to diffuse the situation. Finally, Pinkie spoke, “I'm really sorry.” Pinkie apologized for what was likely the four hundred and eighty ninth time the plea was made. Sunset only got up and started to walk away. “I wish we could do the day all over again.” she called out to Sunset as if to call her back. “I'd do it different.” she added with Sunset still close enough to hear. Sunset turned back for a second to look almost squarely at Pinkie, “Me, too. I'd do it alone.” she stated before she just left her friend there. After walking to one of the forested hills nearby she sat down and rested her head on her knees and whimpered. Within a decameter from her a beam of light shot up into the sky before a wave of purple light washed over. The next morning, just in the earliest hours of day, when only the morning star was above the horizon, before it could herald the sun. Almost everyone of the party was sound asleep before, “RISE AND SHINE!!!” shouted Sour as all the girls jerked and jumped out of their beds. “Applejack says breakfast is almost ready.” she added sweetly. All groaned as they recovered from the shock before as they changed into what they were going to wear that day. Outside they found a fairly basic breakfast spread out with Sour at the table ready to eat. The barbarian was not dressed in her usual brown bear based suit, instead she wore a white furred tunic with black fur leggings, with the bear’s bones making her belt, with the skull hung around her neck, with the top of her tunic made out of the head of the black and white bear. While most were unphased by the barbarian’s getup, “Um, you do know those only eat plants right?” the druid question. “I’m a berserker, I wear shirts made from bears. And this is the one for this.” Sour retorted. Fluttershy could only sigh. Sunset remained still in confusion, “Whoo! Whril-Con Mus-Fes Day One!” shouted Lemon as she was the last to exit. She had in her hands a paddle with the logo of the Rainbolt, which itself was a rainbow with the Aura Marks of the Rainbooms coming from the stylised S of the Shadowbolts with their Aura Marks within the S itself, with Sunset’s Aura Mark placed in what could described as the merging point. “Day One?” Sunset asked as she couldn’t understand what Lemon meant. This perplexity didn’t last long as her rear was smacked by Lemon’s paddle. “OW!” she shouted as she turned to glare at Lemon. “Haha… Whoops…” she said weakly as Sunset only glared at her sister. “Sorry, sis.” she said weakly. “Got a little too excited.” she confessed. Before Sunset could respond, she was offered an ice cold cloth by Sugarcoat, “It’s not worth getting angry at her over this.” Sunset accepted the cloth and applied it to her rear to sooth the pain. “She’s gonna smack every one of us at some point this week with that stupid paddle.” Sunset didn’t understand why, but Sugarcoat said that before. She was still trying to make sense of it all when Applejack said, “Before anyone eats, Rarity, Rainbow,” the paladin directed her attention solely on the two, “One of you have to get Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo up.” Rainbow groaned as she got up and went to wake up the three. Applejack then looked to Lemon, “Whirl-Con Mus-Fes?” she asked the question on everyone’s mind yet none seemed to be asking. Sunset watched and listened as pretty much the conversation that accrued yesterday repeated itself vervadium. This continued to leave her in a state of perplexity even when SciTwi nearly tripped and when Pinkie zipped taking her with her to the lines and pointed out all the lines before she picked the one that was cleared by Zephyr Breeze. This was mostly left unnoticed by everyone save for SciTwi as she, and Rainbow had stepped into the same line that Sunset and Pinkie were in behind the two. “Hun, are you okay?” SciTwi asked as she noted Sunset’s eyes were staring in the space in front of her, as if she was reading a book in an attempt to find an answer. “I'm... not sure.” Sunset seemed to trail off in the middle of her response. Pinkie turned to the person immediately in front of the two, who happened to be Cherry Crash. “Hey, Cherry, you come to this line often?” she asked in what sounded flirtatious, however gave off the air of being a joke. Cherry laughed, “Nah, this is my first time.” she replied before she cupped her left hand and placed it next to her mouth as if she wanted only Pinkie to hear as if she was going to sell something, off-market as it were. “But I do know a few sweet lines we can hit up once we place the rental.” The rocker and jester then just broke into laughter over it all. “What's going on?” Sunset asked as yesterday continued to be repeated today. “You said it, Sunset.” Rainbow groaned as she noted that the line they were in was going so slowly. “What's with the long line, man?” she shouted towards the security guard, who happened to be Zephyr Breeze. “What! Zephyr!” Rainbow almost screamed as she ducked behind the person behind her. If Zephyr noticed Rainbow’s reaction to the revelation, he showed no signs as he said with what Rainbow and her friends would deem an out of character degree of professionalism, “Security is an art.” “It can't be rushed.” Sunset said at the same time as Zephyr as if she was presented with the answer to her question, however it was in the form of a riddle to solve. After everyone had cleared security, they were comparing notes for their itineraries for the first day. Applejack seemingly made a master itinerary of all the Rainbolts and the CMC, as the paladin had finished jotting down Pinkie and Sunset’s main plan. “And that’s Pinkie and Sunset.” the paladin finished. “Now remember if anyone ain’t back campsite two and half hours after sunset, the time of day, we start looking. Are we good?” “Yes, Mom.” they all groaned, save Apple Bloom, Pinkie, Twilight and Sci-Twi. Applejack rolled her eyes at most of her friends moaning over the presence of a plan, “Well, y’all have fun.” She then turned to Apple Bloom, “Yah ready Sis?” she asked the young artificer. Apple Bloom gave a thumbs-up, “Let’s do it!” she declared. The two farmers then laughed before everyone started to head out. As everyone started to head their own way, Pinkie turned to see Sunset seeming out of it as she looked into some short of void. “What do you want to do first, Sunset?” Pinkie asked as she tried to get Sunset out of her funk. “There's so much we can do!” she said as she gestured to the grounds of the festival. “Like…” she trailed off before she spotted the stand with the tandem bike as the prize, “win a tandem bicycle?!” she asked before she headed over and looked at the jar, “All I have to do is guess how many candies are in the jar.” As Sunset witnessed Pinkie get the answer wrong again, “Anyone else having serious deja vu?” she asked the only remaining member of her group, SciTwi, hoping that she wasn’t alone in this as she n. “Nope. Just deja V-you.” SciTwi responded in an attempt at a joke. This was followed by a nervous laugh as she realized that Sunset was not laughing at the joke, “Get it? 'Cause it's just you? With the deja v…” she trailed off as it was clear that Sunset didn’t laugh in fact it was hard to tell if she even heard the joke. This surprised SciTwi as normally Sunset would have given a slight chuckle and say something around the lines of ‘Bae, you know I love you, and God bless your heart, but there are times when I can only say ‘Thank God, you’re cute’.’ But Sunset’s mind was elsewhere. Sunset rubbed the back of her head, “I don't know how to explain it, but…” she trailed off as she seemed to her that the riddle she was given was starting to make sense. “I did all of this yesterday.” SciTwi partially squinted her right eye in confusion, “How? Yesterday we just finished loading and began boarding Princess Twilight’s skyboat for the flight here.” she pointed out as the two walked until Sunset stopped and SciTwi bumped into her with a grunt. “Are you okay?” SciTwi asked as she regained herself. SciTwi then looked around and noticed the absence of a particular member of their party. “Where’s Pinkie?” she asked. Sunset closed her eyes for a second and took a breath. “If I’m right, I know where she's headed.” she said as she headed into the Neon Garden, taking SciTwi with her. Once inside, Sunset took a breath as she prepared her spell to find the path out and find the pattern of Pinkie’s own path in the maze. It took a few minutes for her spell to find the way out. Now Sunset needed to form-“What are we waiting for?” came Pinkie’s voice from behind her. Sunset and SciTwi turned to Pinkie standing innocently. Sunset took Pinkie’s hand, “Pinkie, I need you to focus.” She said as she led the other two of the trio out of the Neon Garden, “If you keep up like this,” Sunset scolded her main partner in crime, “we’ll miss the concert!” She added before she realized that she had arrived at the… “Who wants to be part of an art show?” came the voice of a man. Sunset’s eyes shot wide open before Pinkie shouted “Ooh, ooh, ooh! I do! I do!” Before Sunset could respond one of the water balloons hit and broke, splattering paint on the three. Sunset could only growl as Pinkie laughed as the three had been both voluntarily (Pinkie) and not (Sunset and SciTwi). After what felt like a ludicrously long time in this water balloon fight, Sunset had managed to Pinkie into the pubic lavatory, along with SciTwi. As SciTwi and Sunset were cleaning the ( thankfully water soluble) paint, “If this already happened, couldn’t you have warned us about the point?” SciTwi asked, not believing that Sunset could in fact have foreseen this. She groaned, as more of the paint came off, silently thankful that the paint didn’t seem to be setting it. Sunset took a break from cleaning the paint off herself and clothes and shut her eyes as she turned in the direction of SciTwi and looked to the ceiling, “Pinkie just splattered paint, and it looks exactly like Rarity with a pirate mustache.” Sunset declared before she lowered her gaze back to SciTwi, “How's that?” she asked before dropping her arms. SciTwi smirked as she chuckled, “Well, that would prove it for sure!” she declared, her tone saturated with sarcasm. Just then the door of the stall Pinkie used open to show the image Sunset predicted as Pinkie giggled. SciTwi turned back to Sunset, her mouth agape, after two seconds “Seriously?!” she asked, voicing her confusion. “What?” an equally confused Pinkie asked. “It's washable.” she added as she pointed to the painting and cleaned it off. A few minutes later, after they finished cleaning themselves off, the trio sat down at one of the paknic tables, “So, what do you think, Babe?” Sunset asked with it clear that SciTwi believed her. SciTwi hummed to herself as she held her chin in thought with her left hand. After a minute of contemplation, “It’s possible that yesterday, a snag in the fabric of spacetime could cause a temporal point – i.e., today – to fold in on itself and thereby repeat.” she said with a slight smile on her face, like a child having done what even they know was an extraordinarily great job at something productive and wanting just a pat on the head, “I’ve been reading Dr. Time Turner Who’s doctoral thesis and a few of his research papers, the subject of time travel is actually quite fascinating, really.” “So, Sunset is in a time loop?” Pinkie asked in a clear attempt to make SciTwi’s technobabble (magic-babble?) much more intelligible. SciTwi nodded, although it was clear that she felt somewhat offended that her well thought out explanation was reduced to such a plebian understanding. “But why only me?” Sunset asked, holding the sides of her head trying to make sense of why all of this happened. All the while she cast her vision to the ground, “The only time I was alone was then I was on the hill and I wished—” she stopped abruptly and lifted her head and gaze to look at SciTwi and Pinkie, “This might sound crazy…” Pinkie snorted before she rolled her eyes and waved her left hand dismissively, “I held Discord’s power, along with the power of Celestia and Luna and used it to defeat Tirek, Chrysalis and Cozy Glow. Go ahead and try me.” Pinkie challenge. Sunset raised her left hand with the index finger to ask, but lowered it as she recalled the mantra ‘It’s Pinkie Pie, don’t question it’. She took a breath, “Well, I think something is giving me another chance to see PostCrush.” Sunset concluded. Pinkie held out her left hand with the palm down and rocked back and forth and up and down as if it was a series of waves, while she squinted both of her eyes slightly as she was ranking how crazy the claim Sunset made was “That’s at best a three on the discord scale of crazy… maybe a three point three if you stretch it, but I’ve done crazier.” Pinkie retorted, “Besides time loops were sooo~~~ twenty fifteen, even back in twenty nineteen.” Pinkie said as she turned to face you, the reader, as Sunset and SciTwi looked at each other, neither understanding their peculiar friend. Her eyes then shot wide open, “Wait.” she stopped as she turned back to Sunset, “Why didn't you see PostCrush?” she asked, getting to the heart of the matter. Sunset opened her mouth by then closed it and dipped her head, she wasn’t sure what to say. She didn’t want to lie to Pinkie, but she didn’t want to blame Pinkie either. She looked to the ground and took a breath and tried to find the best words to use. Once she found them. “Mistakes were ma…” She trailed off before she looked back up to see Pinkie was not there. “Where’s Pinkie?” she asked. SciTwi pointed over her right shoulder to Pinkie jogging to the stand that was selling the churros she wanted last time. Sunset groaned as she got to her feet, “Okay, this is the worst possible time for churros!” Sunset shouted before she dashed to get in front of Pinkie. “WAIT!” SciTwi shouted after she did some quick physics. “You’ll only…” she trailed off as Sunset zipped to be in between Pinkie and the stand. “Cause a collision…” SciTwi trailed off before she looked away and shut her eyes. Sunset didn’t hear any of that as she shouted, “Pinkie, stop!” Only then that she realized that as Pinkie was running, Sunset had placed herself too close for Pinkie to stop safely and as the later shouted whoa, she collided with Sunset and the intera of the two caused them to collided with the stand knocking it over and spilling some of the content on the security guard that was standing near by, Zephyr Breeze. As the two recovered from the impact they saw Zephyr take a deep breath as if to calm himself. Pinkie gave an apologetic chuckle, “Hey, Zeph, our bad.” Sunset’s eyes shot wide open in horror as she recalled what happened last time. “No, her bad.” she countered. “You saw whose bad it was, right?” she asked. “Ma’am, you did jump in front of her before she was able to come to a stop.” Zephyr pointed out and before the two knew it, he had shut the door that security used to throw out the festival attendants that have violated their agreement to be at the festival, in their faces and the two’s easy access wristbands were on the ground, cut. Then came the voice of an announcer just as the light indicated that PhotoCrush was about to go on stage. “Ladies and Gentlemen, let’s hear it for…” The announcer continued to speak, however Sunset couldn’t hear him over Pinkie, “Maybe you'll get another another chance?” she asked, giving a somewhat forlorn Sunset some hope. The announcer then finished greeting the band, “...PostCruuuuush!” before the crowd cheered. In the earliest hours of day, when only the morning star was above the horizon, before it could herald the sun. Almost everyone of the party was sound asleep before, “RISE AND SHINE!!!” shouted Sour as all the girls jerked and jumped out of their beds. “Applejack says breakfast is almost ready.” she added sweetly. All groaned as they recovered from the shock before as they changed into what they were going to wear that day. Outside they found a fairly basic breakfast spread out with Sour at the table ready to eat. The barbarian was not dressed in her usual brown bear based suit, instead she wore a white furred tunic with black fur leggings, with the bear’s bones making her belt, with the skull hung around her neck, with the top of her tunic made out of the head of the black and white bear. While most were unphased by the barbarian’s getup, “Um, you do know those only eat plants right?” the druid question. “I’m a berserker, I wear shirts made from bears. And this is the one for this.” Sour retorted. Fluttershy could only sigh. “Whoo! Whril-Con Mus-Fes Day One!” shouted Lemon as she was the last to exit. She had in her hands a paddle with the logo of the Rainbolt, which itself was a rainbow with the Aura Marks of the Rainbooms coming from the stylised S of the Shadowbolts with their Aura Marks within the S itself, with Sunset’s Aura Mark placed in what could described as the merging point. “Come and get it!” she shouted as she swung her paddle whacking Sunset in the rear. Sunset smiled, “Thank you!” she declared before the pain of blow set in, “Ow.” she whispered with her voice strained to hold back from shouting in pain. “Thank you.” she continued Lemon was not sure how to respond, “Um you’re welcome…” she said weakly before she walked away utterly freaked out by Sunset’s reaction and took her seat. “Um... is everything okay?” Sugarcoat asked as she handed an ice cold cloth, “That is far from the normal reaction of being stuck in the rear by a paddle.” “HEY!” cheered Pinkie getting everyone to focus on her instead of Sunset, “What do you call a PostCrush fan with three eyes?” she asked. Sunset however started heading in the direction of the main entrance of the festival’s ground, “Sorry, can’t stay for the joke, I got head out. I’ll check you all later. Okay bye!” she said and started to speed walk. This left everyone even more confused, “Say, weren’t you supposed to catch PostCruch together, dearie?” Sunny asked Pinkie as she turned to focus on the party planner. Pinkie waved it aside, “She just wants to beat the crowd to get it, we’ll see it together.” Pinkie said as she started to eat her breakfast. No one could tell if Pinkie actually believed that and was trying to defend Sunset or was she in denial... “WE’RE NOT IN EGYPT, FOXHELM!!!” She then rapidly consumed her meal and then dashed to get in line. She soon sported Sunset in the grounds for the festival, “Sunset! Hey! Wait up! Hey!” she called out to get her attention as she traveled through the line and was cleared and continued to call as Sunset walked away seeming to ignore Pinkie. As Pinkie got closer she saw the stand with the tandem bike prize. She gave a slight gasp, “Win a tandem bike?” she asked, however Sunset quicken her pace. “Sunset!” Pinkie called as the pyromancer ducked into the Neon Gardens. “Suuuunseeeet!” Pinkie called out as she looked for Sunset in the maze. She called out thrice more until she just stopped. “She…” Pinkie trailed off, desperately holding out hope that her faith in Sunset was not mis-placed. “...ditched me…” She could not but whimper as she dropped to her knees as if to weep. On the other side hedge, Sunset looked down to the ground and sighed in guilt and shame, “Universe, I promise to make this up to Pinkie, just let me make the most of this do-over do-over.” She declared as she ran to the stage when PhotoCrush would perform, however it was still hours before the show, but she could ‘camp’ out as the other performances that would use that stage. As the last of the sun’s light was vanishing over the western horizon, as the rest of people the fans of PhotoCrush gathered until the announcer spoke, “Ladies and Gentlemen, let’s hear it for two best friends who got back together for one incredible night!” The crown cheered as Kiwi and Supernova emerged on stage. Sunset laughed with joy. “We did it! PostCrush roll call!” She declared as she tried to strike a pose and almost lost her balance in the process. “Whoa!” she declared as she regained herself and realized why the pose failed, Pinkie was not there. Kiwi took her guitar as Supernova manned the drums and the two started to play. Kiwi gave a ‘Yeah’ and the two started to sing their new song. “Be the true, true, true original Dare to be what you are meant to be Working hard, that's our thing All this way, we're perfect, perfectly true True, true original True, true original True, true original.” As the two performed the crowd danced with the beat and cheered on, all caught up in the excitement of the music. Supernova crashed the cymbal’s of her drum set before the two started singing again. “We're perfect, perfectly true.” In the process Kiwi’s grip on her guitar bit loosened and it flew from her hand and Sunset caught it. “What a perfect day!” Sunset declared before she screamed in joy. About an hour later, with the sky full of stars, Sunset’s blissful smiled radiated as she returned to the camp site with everyone else chattering among themselves. Rainbow was the first to spot her, “There she is.” the elementalist pointed out. “The lone wolf.” She then proceeded to howl. Sugarcoat couldn’t but groan, “First thing, and this is what everyone gets wrong, wolves are social animals, we recognize their societies as packs. They survive best as part of a pack and lone wolves oft die comparatively young and are far from a healthy state when they do. Second thing, given that Sunset is a woman, and if you insist on using that lupine comparison, the phrase is ‘The lone wolven’ because ‘wolven’ is the femanine form of the word ‘wolf’.” Sugarcoat then let out an exhausted sigh. This was followed by a more blissful sigh from Sunset as she sat down. No one spoke for about three seconds as they silently judged Sunset before Applejack cleared her throat, “Pinkie’s been actin’ mighty strange even by her standards this evening.” the paladin started. “Any idea what might've happened to her?” she asked, giving Sunset the chance to confess her transgression. Sunset was still high on the euphoria of the show, had she stayed in the festival grounds proper a few more minutes, her word choice would have been more sincere. Yet in her… intoxicated state, “We must have lost track of each other.” she answered without thought. “Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,” came the laughter of Pinkie. It was then that Sunset realized that Pinkie was not with the rest. Sunset turned to see Pinkie leaning against the skyboat. “Me lose track of Sunset?” she asked. her voice seemed to crack like a poorly handled porcelain plate. “Hah!” she laughed before she pulled out seemingly nowhere a strawman made to resemble Sunset. “But she's been right here the whole time!” she declared with what could be registered as a resolve far more durable then the doors of Tartarus. “Right, actual Sunset Shimmer?” she said to the puppet. She then flawlessly imitated Sunset with her own answer without moving her own mouth, “Right, Pinkie Pie! By the way, your roasting technique is flawless!” Pinkie then laughed normally in joy, “Thank you!” she said as she hugged the puppet. Everyone turned back to Sunset, all frowning at the pyromancer. Rarity was the first to speak, her tone was super-saturated with sarcasm, “How was the show?” she asked the question as Sunset was scrutinized. “It was... perfect.” Sunset replied, still very much in bliss from the PostCrush show. Everyone rolled their eyes as Rarity scoffed at the answer, “I was being judgmental, darling.” she spelt out to Sunset. “What is the point of throwing shade if no one's there to catch it?” she asked rhetorically. “Sorry. Too blissed out from the show to care right now.” Sunset said, seeming to dismiss the very valid judgement being levied on her. “Talk tomorrow?” she asked as she got up and headed to bed. This left Pinkie almost in tears.
The Loop ContinuesThe next morning, just in the earliest hours of day, when only the morning star was above the horizon, before it could herald the sun. Almost everyone of the party was sound asleep before, “RISE AND SHINE!!!” shouted Sour as all the girls jerked and jumped out of their beds. “Applejack says breakfast is almost ready.” she added sweetly. All groaned as they recovered from the shock before as they changed into what they were going to wear that day. Outside they found a fairly basic breakfast spread out with Sour at the table ready to eat. The barbarian was not dressed in her usual brown bear based suit, instead she wore a white furred tunic with black fur leggings, with the bear’s bones making her belt, with the skull hung around her neck, with the top of her tunic made out of the head of the black and white bear. While most were unphased by the barbarian’s getup, “Um, you do know those only eat plants right?” the druid question. “I’m a berserker, I wear shirts made from bears. And this is the one for this.” Sour retorted. Fluttershy could only sigh. Sunset froze as she recalled that very conversation the day before, “It can't be.” she tried to deny but she knew it was futile, “It's still—” “Whoo! Whril-Con Mus-Fes Day One!” shouted Lemon as she was the last to exit. She had in her hands a paddle with the logo of the Rainbolt, which itself was a rainbow with the Aura Marks of the Rainbooms coming from the stylised S of the Shadowbolts with their Aura Marks within the S itself, with Sunset’s Aura Mark placed in what could described as the merging point. “Come and get it!” she shouted as she swung her paddle whacking Sunset in the rear. It was then that Lemon fully realized her surroundings. She took off her head set, “Haha… Whoops…” she said weakly as Sunset only glared at her sister. “Sorry, sis.” she said weakly. “Got a little too excited.” she confessed. Sunset looked to the sky, “Okay,” she stated “My do-over can end now.” but as she spoke she seemed to travel forward and with every word her surroundings changed as did her expression to frustration to rage to cold apathy. This finished as she was standing next to Sandalwood as he minded his own affair. With a tone of absolute boredom,“Cue Snips, and push Sandalwood out of the way in three, two…” she said before she trailed off as the schoolmate of the CMC was stepping into view. “You stage direct— Whoa!” Snip started to ask before he lost his balance and fell into a puddle with a splat while Sunset pushed Sandalwood out of Snip’s way. Snips groaned with an ‘Aww’ upon impact. As Snips started to pick himself up, with some help from Sandalwood. “Could've warned me, you know?” Snips questioned as he tried to clean himself off. Sunset’s apathetic expression didn’t change, “Tried that nine times, never worked.” she stated not even bothering to see if the boy understood her or not. She then turned and started to walk away before she dumped into the artist of the paint water balloon fight. Sunset grunted and groaned at the collision before she recovered and saw who she dumped into. “Hey, watch it!” the artist bemoaned. Sunset’s apathy didn’t change. “Sorry.” she said with passion. “Thought you didn't come up 'til later.” Sunset commented with a slight degree of amusement, “I'll make a note of that for next time.” She took out a notepad and started to jot something down. “Day eighteen – saw the paint guy by the food stand right before he breaks up with his girlfriend.” She dictated what she jotted before she started to walk away from the artist. “It's not you, it's her and I’m gonna go.” she informed and left the scene. The artist could not but shout out, “You better run!” “Run from my problems? I... actually haven't tried that yet.” Sunset paused for a second and then broke into what could only be described as mad laughter. Once she finished and took a breath to collect herself, “Yeah, like that every works out for anyone who ever tried.” But then something popped in her head. She rushed off to find where MC Dex FX was playing. Sci-Twi and Twilight have both been great sound boards in the past. When she got there, the techno-disc-jockey had taken off his helmet, revealing himself to be Mirco Chips (which didn’t surprise her) and was accepting the applause from the audience. After a few seconds she spotted both Twilight and Sci-Twi in complete stupidity, mouth agape and all. She swiftly approached the two, “Hey can we talk?” she asked. Still very much trapped in disbelief, “I could have sworn MC Dex FX was a woman,” Twilight finally blurted out. “But ‘MC’... how is it not ‘modulated computersounds’! And how could he use a 42-00 pre-effect mixer like that, you’d need a 42-3C effects pedal to do all that!” Sci-Twi pulled on her hair in frustration over how she could have been so wrong. Sunset coughed to get their attention, “As earth-shattering as figuring out that your favorite musician is actually Flash’s best friend, you’re not going to believe this.” “Wait, weren’t you and Pinkie gonna…” Twilight started. Sunset sighed, “Let me explain.” After what felt like an hour of explaining what Sunset had been through, in the tent set up for eating. Once she finished. “And I don’t know what to do.” Sci-Twi mused for a second, “Hmm...It's possible a snag in the fabric of spacetime could cause a…” Sunset then started to join Sci-Twi, saying the same words at the exact same time, “...temporal point – i.e., this day – to fold in on itself and thereby repeat.” Both stopped at the same time and held that for a second, before Sci-Twi continued only for Sunset to speak at the exact same time, “You really have done this a lot.” They stopped again for a second. “Okay, you've made your point! Stop!” The two said together again. Sci-Twi’s squinting eyes and frown made her irritation blatant, while Sunset’s face was written with apathy. After they both stopped, Sunset sighed, “This time loop started after I wished for another chance to catch PostCrush, and since I did see them, why didn't it end?” Sci-Twi and Twilight looked at each other for a second neither amused with the fact that Sunset ditched Pinkie. However while scolding Sunset was called for, this might not be the time or place. Twilight was the one to speak, “Are you sure about this you being able to see PostCrush?” she asked. Sunset open her mouth as if to speak only to fall mute after some thought. Twilight then reached into her pants and pulled out a small scrying crystal. “If you’re right, there is one person who knows most about time traveling.” “Who?” Sunset and Sci-Twi asked. Twilight didn’t answer the question as she muttered something and the scrying crystal projected the inside of Timer Turner Who’s lab as he picked up his phone. “Dr. Time Turner Who, Technomancer, Chronomancer and Artificer, for all your physics bending needs. How can I help you.” “Time, it’s Princess Twilight Sparkle,” “Oh, you’re grace, it’s been a while, so what can I do for princess and country?” Time asked as he seemed to stumble around after learning his caller’s identity. “Listen, a friend of mine claims to be stuck in a time loop and has been for eighteen days.” Twilight started. Time gave a hum as he thought, “Time loop”... he hummed again, “We humans don’t traverse through time in that manner, something has to be triggering it. Something with chronomancy.” “Like Star Swirl’s time travel spell.” Twilight mused. Time broke into deep hearty laughter for a solid minute, like he had been told the funniest joke ever told. Once he collected himself, about half a minute later, “Sorry, but that spell is not even a baby’s teething toy for chronomancy. No, you would need something with actual power. But aside from Old Blue Bessy, the only artifact I know that can travel back in time to any meaningful extent is the Time Twister.” Twilight’s and Sunset’s both widened. “But that has been lost for over two thousand years,” he added. He paused in thought, “I should compare notes with Meadowbrook, it’s absolutely fascinating that she was able to make it in the first place. BRIGHTEYES, Start up the Box, we’re going on a trip! ALLONSY!” he shouted before he hung up, ending the call. Sci-Twi cleared her throat, “Um, the Time Twister? Can someone explain it?” she asked her two companions. Sunset was the first of the two to speak, “It’s one of the eight artifacts that Mage Meadowbrook crafted. It has the ability to cause time to rewind to the last sun rise.” “But Meadowbrook lost that before she and the rest of the Pillars trapped the Nightstalker in Limbo.” Twilight added as she started to connect the dots herself. “Someone must have found it and is using it.” Sunset started to stand up, “If we can find whoever is using it, we should be able to end the loop.” As she started to head out, “We got to get everyone else, we got a mission.” About two hours and an explanation in a zone of truth later, Sunset opened the floor for discussion. Pinkie, with a question mark literally manifesting itself over her head for the better part of the exposition, was the first to speak. “So whoever has the Time Twirler is the only person besides you who isn't in the same place doing the same thing every day.” she pointed out. “It’s possible.” Sunset admitted albeit with a fair amount of trepidation. Pinkie sieged on her thus far unfalsified assertion. “Well, until we have better information, let’s work with that.” Pinkie then proceeded to question Sunset on a few things, “Have you noticed anyone who doesn't belong? Anyone out of place? Anyone... evil?!” as she asked, her tone got darker and more sinister as she said ‘evil’. After letting Pinkie… well be herself, Sunset took a few seconds to remember if anything stood out to her. However she had been consumed by her own wrath the first four or five times after she caught the show, by the tenth time her emotions had burnt out and she had been drifting along ever since. She shook her head, “After a dozen times, I just couldn’t get myself to care anymore, every day is the same.” Little did they know, Sweetie Drops, Lyra and their adopted daughter, a four to six year old Nightingale, were passing by and had overheard the last things Sunset said. “Oh you know that song?” Lyra asked. “Lyra!” Sweetie Drops scolded, with Nightingale in her arms. “We’ve been over this, if we don’t want Night to get into trouble, we need to set the best examples we can and that includes minding our own business.” Lyra gave a soft and hinted to being apologetic. Sweetie Drops sighed before she turned to the group. “I wish to apologize on behalf of my wife.” Before the apology could be accepted, “What song are you talking about?” Applejack asked. Sweetie was about to answer when Lyra spoke up, “Oh there’s this new trio. They’re about to play over there in about fifteen minutes, they released the single they are here to perform about a week ago.” She said as she pointed to a stage. “You should totally catch them.” Sweetie cleared her throat, in a not so subtle attempt to direct Lyra to inform the group of the trio. “Right, sorry, they are the Glitzing Fasteners.” “Glitzing Fasteners?” Sugarcoat asked, “That is one of the stupidest names for a band ever.” Sweetie snickered, “Says the keyboarder of ‘The Shadowbolts’ and one of the two keyboarders of ‘Sparkle and the Rainbolts’.” she retorted pointing out the lack of creativity of the names of the bands Sugarcoat was a part of. Sugarcoat took off her glasses, “Touché,” she granted. “Well, we need to get Nightingale something to eat. It’s been a long day for her and we still have a couple more performances to catch today.” Sweetie said as she looked at her daughter resting her head on her breasts. She then started to leave, “Come along, Lyra.” Lyra groaned at how her wife was basically treating her as a kid. After the couple left, Pinkie started in the direction of the stage the two pointed out. As the rest stared at her in confusion. “What?” Pinkie asked, “It’s not like we have anything better to do. Besides, at the very least its something to check out.” Everyone ultimately shrugged and followed their friend that has spent too much time in cloud cuckoo land. As they arrived near the stage they and all the others there for the show saw something float from the stage, a lime green fog. Soon the main lights focused on the center as part of the fog cleared to reveal Adagio curtains were pulled to reveal Adagio Dazzle leaning back on a chair, facing stage left. As the music started, she started to sing and move her left arm to put the back of her left hand on her forehead. As she sang, Aria’s and Sonata’s voices were heard in harmony with hers and they moved their arms slightly slower than Adagio and Sonata the slowest of the three, harkening to their practice of appearing as one being on multiple limbs. “Where do we go? Every day's the same Did we lose the magic, magic, magic? So ordinary, stuck on repeat Gotta find the passion, passion, passion The days go round and round, round and round Gotta break away, find a great escape Round and round and round Round and round and round Ohhh Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, let's find Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, let's find Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, let's find the magic Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, let's find Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, let's find Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, let's find the magic.” As the first part of the trio’s song was performed. Sunset and company were for the most part left speechless. “They must be a last-minute addition.” Pinkie suggested with a raised voice in an attempt to be heard by the lot but not be so loud as to make the rest of the audience feel the need to request her silence. Rainbow was the next to speak up, and seemed to be the only one to notice that the three should be incarcerated having spied that around their necks were collars with what had to be fake rubies. “But they’re supposed to be in prison!” Princess Twilight gave a weak laugh. This cause them all to turn to face the princess, “Well, you see Tempest, as warden of Stonlingrad Penitentiary, can grant a week long parole to any inmate at her discretion and without consultation.” Everyone turned to the princess, “And yah couldn’t ‘ave told us t’at earily?” Applejack asked, far from amused at this development. The princess could only give a weak and somewhat apologetic ‘haha’ in response. Everyone could only groan as the rest of the song was performed. With Twilight’s ‘haha’, Adagio sang a line by herself, “Can I find the beauty in the simple things?” she asked in the song. She was joined by her sisters in response or rather continued the question, “Can I learn to see it,see it, see it? The days go round and round, round and round Gotta break away, find a great escape Round and round and round Round and round and round Ohhh Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, let's find Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, let's find Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, let's find the magic” Adagio repeated the last part of the verse, “Let's find the magic” before she was rejoined by her sisters. “Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, let's find Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, let's find Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, let's find the magic Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Ooh…”. And thus the song ended and the crowd cheered, even Twilight et al were impressed to some extent by the show. After the crowd had died down slightly, Adagio spoke. “That was ‘Find the Magic’.” she informed and dropped the micro she sang into before the three left the stage. “Seriously?” Sunset asked once the crowd finished cheering and applauding before they all started to head off each in their own direction. “It’s like they aren’t even trying to be subtle.” “Two things, Sunset darling,” Rarity started. “First, when have the three ever been subtle?” she asked. “My wedding reception.” Princess Twilight pointed out. Rarity groaned, “Do you honestly believe that was their idea?” Rarity asked before she groaned. “That whole plan was clearly Sombra’s. Moving on to the second point, the chord progression was very samey-samey.” Everyone fell silent as they turned their sole focus on the enchantress with bemused expressions. “What!? Adagio might want to present herself as an evil mastermind, but that’s no excuse for lazy songwriting. Even if they are responsible for the time loop Sunset is trapped in.” There were a few groans but Rarity did have a few valid points. Sunset sighed, “Regardless, we have a new mission,” she said as she turned from the others to look beyond the stage to the area the musicians were temporarily housed. “To get backstage.” Before anyone could do anything, Princess Twilight stepped in front of everyone, her wings and arms out as if to block everyone. “Hold it!” She declared. “None of the backstage passes are valid until day two, even for us VIPs!” she added as she pointed to her badge. If the intent was to discourage Sunset, Princess Twilight’s actions failed as the pyromancer looked beyond the demigod to see Zephyr. “The key is to get past him,” Sunset said before she got everyone to look beyond Princess Twilight as well. However instead Sunset had seemed to have forgotten that Fluttershy’s younger brother was taking his job seriously as he conjured a small gale. This gale sent Snips and Snails almost flying a few meters in order to bar them from getting backstage. “We just wanted an autograph!” Snips bemoaned, as his plea fell on deaf ears. Zephyr remained unmoved as the two youths got back on their feet and headed elsewhere. Fluttershy was the first to speak, “I’ve never seen Zephyr so professional.” The druid was actually impressed with her younger brother’s change in behavior. “It’s going to take some serious work to convince him to let us through.” she added giving the benefit of the doubt to her oft freeloading brother. Rainbow snorted, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Rainbow took off her hat and let loose her hair as she waved it to give it an alluring puff. “Your little brother has only one thing on his mind.” “Ah thought ya’h hated his flirtations?” Applejack pointed out. Rainbow took a breath and tried to not let her body convulse in repulsion, “Someone has to take one for the team.” she pointed out. “And it helped when we did that whole heist thing sibling challenged thing between Twilight…” she trailed off as she recalled SciTwi, “um the princess…” she added with a weak guilty teehee. “And Shining.” Rainbow turned away and did her best to doll herself up. “Wait! Didn’t that plan fail?” Sunset asked. The five remaining members of that heist paused in thought for a second, until Rarity answered, “Didn’t Spike sabotage that plan from the beginning by convincing Luna to recruit Zephyr in the first place?” the enchantress asked. “Yeah...,” Twilight answered as she trailed off. “What are you getting at?” Sunset’s mind worked the swiftest of the group, “RAINBOW DON’T!!!” she shouted as she tried to close the distance with the rest realizing too late. “You know I can’t resist a man in uniform.” Rainbow said with a sultry voice as she batted bedroom eyes at Zephyr as she tapped his chest slightly. “Miss Dash, while I appreciate the compliment. I am on the clock.” Zephyr said as he turned away. “My behavior from before was far from called for, in fact it was basically sexual harassment.” the normally flirtatious Zephyr confessed. “However, I can’t indulge in this.” If Rainbow was shocked at the maturity that Zephyr was desperately attempting to maintain, she showed no signs as she batted her eyes and slightly shut them not dissimilar to a woman about to pull a man into her own room, before she pulled closer to Zephyr as if to whisper into his ear, “Looks like the boy has become a man, can you show me how much of one you have, my darling Breeze.” Zephyr looked from Rainbow to her now arriving friends and scowled, as he saw what Rainbow was trying to do. Before anyone could say anything, Zephyr had slammed the door in their faces, their bands for easy access were cut and on the ground. Everyone save Pinkie and Sunset scowled at Rainbow. “Well, I guess we’re stuck.” Pinkie commented, trying to not berate Rainbow, but pointing out that their attempt failed. Sunset shook her head with a smile, “Not for a time looper.” she almost laughed. Everyone turned to her. “You all won’t remember this, but today’s failure is tomorrow’s success.” the pyromancer declared as a triumphant grin formed with her lips. Once more everything reset. After making it to catch the Dazzling’s performance. After Zephyr had put his foot down with Snips and Snails and the two had left. Sunset and Pinkie walked up to him. “Ms. Shimmers, Ms. Pie,” Zephyr greeted the two. “I know our backstage passes don’t take effect until tomorrow, but I need to talk with Adagio and her sisters.” Sunset started. Zephyr lowered his uniform sun-glasses and looked at Sunset with a lot of doubt. “You saw those collars around their necks?” Sunset asked. Zephyr nodded. “Those are parole collars, it means they are being permitted a break with regards to their sentence.” Zephyr nodded as he seemed to follow. “You see I want to reduce their sentences by telling them that I have forgiven them for what they have done specifically to me.” Zephyr turned his eyes to Pinkie. It was clear he was questioning why Pinkie was coming with her. Pinkie pulled a suitcase out of her hair, on it was written ‘Pinkamena Diane Pie, Notary Public (Communia et Civilis et Criminalis)’. “Needs to be notarized.” Pinkie informed. Zephyr was about to speak but was silenced as Pinkie cleared her throat. “According to the Jubilee Act of King Bullion 2 Annio Bullion, Article 3 section 7 paragraph 40, “No attempt to offer forgiveness can be barred and no one’s employment can be terminated by allowing an offer of forgiveness to be made if by allowing the actions necessary for the offer to accrue would normally result in the termination of employment.” Pinkie said as she pulled out a copy of the act made by Bullion in question with the clause highlighted. After looking it over, “You will go to back for me?” he asked. “We’re required to, you’ll see that in--” Pinkie stated as she was about to point to a different clause of the law, before she was cut off. “Yes.” Sunset simplified. Zephyr then looked around to make sure there was no one else watching. He then nodded and stepped to the side slightly. Sunset and Pinkie smiled and swiftly walked past him as if they had every right to be there. “Okay, we made it backstage, now to find…” Sunset started as she looked around the temporary housing for the musicians and crew when the duo heard the door open for one. Exiting from it were the trio they sought. “That had to be our best show yet!” Sonata cheered, expressing jubilation over the success of their most recent performance. Aria chuckled in agreement, “I gotta admit, the loop was a stroke of genius, Dagi.” Adagio snickered, “Of course it was.” she said as she shut the door, “It was my idea.” before she closed the door to their housing, without locking it. Sunset made a fist with her right hand and brought it down into her left, “I knew it! I bet they're hiding the Time Twirler somewhere in there.” Sunset and Pinkie waited for the trio to be out of sight. Sunset then opened the door, “Stand guard and let me know if you see someone.” Sunset pretty much told Pinkie before she shut the door. “You got it!” Pinkie declared with a slight salute before she turned to watch out for the Dazzlings and anyone else. “No one's gonna get by me! No way, no how! Nuh-uh! Nope! Nah, nah-ah!” she compounded the negatives to emphasize her resolve. After walking a few meters, Adagio suddenly stopped after she seemed to have recalled something. This caused her sisters to stop. “What is it Dagi?” Sonata asked. “My tacos are in the fridge.” she said as if she expected to be blamed for something. Aria groaned, “You know sis, Dagi and I don’t always freeze to accuse you of anything.” “Shut up, you two.” Adagio said as she turned around to see Pinkie not far from their temporary living area. The cotton candy haired jester was looking around as if she was a look out. However, Adagio also spied that Pinkie’s attention was divided. Adagio sighed, “We got company.” Pinkie was desperately trying to focus. “Keepin' watch. That's what I—” she trailed off as a scent reached her nose. She took a deep nasal inhale, as her eyes shut automatically, so that she could better identify the scent. After taking a second, her eyes shot open. “The Whirling Constellation Music Festival exclusive star-crusted, cinnamon-dipped churros!” she barely managed to not shout as she spotted the stand where it was sold. She whimpered as she turned her gaze away. “Now's probably not the best time to go get one.” she said as she started to debate with herself. “On the other hand, if I get two, then Sunset could have them with me.” She paused as she looked away as she tried to restrain “No! I will not give in!” However Pinkie’s resolve was far from adamant as she whimpered at the site. Inside the trio’s temporary housing, Sunset was about to tear the place apart but she needed to make as little as a mess as possible. She shut her eyes and took a few breaths before again using her pyromancy to locate the artifact. However after what felt like an hour, no results. Her eyes shot open. “What?!” she tried to not panic. “It’s not here?”. Just then the door opened. “What the fuck are you doing here?” came Adagio’s voice. Sunset turned to see face the Dazzlings as they re-entered. Before Sunset could answer, “Look, Shimie, if you want an in person apology, you can call up Tempest and set up a meet up.” Adagio pointed with her left thumb over her shoulder to the door. Sunset groaned as she lamented internally that her judgement call from a handful of minutes before. She gave a weak laugh. However, due to the lack of response, Adagio also groaned. “Okay, I am sorry for all I did to you, okay. Accept it, don’t, I don’t care, I don’t have the patience for this.” Adagio said as she went to the kitchen in the mobile establishment, and opened a cupboard where she took out a bottle of rum and another one a three scotch glasses. “But maybe over a drink.” she said as she poured some of the rum into two and handed one to each of her sisters. Sunset was perplexed that Adagio had not poured herself any rum. But given that she was technically trespassing, she wasn’t in a place to decline. She nodded and accepted the third glass Adagio made. She took a sip first. “Listen, I am willing to accept your apology if you hand over the Time Twirler and we can forget this whole thing.” Aria and Sonata looked at each other in confusion then to Adagio then back to Sunset and back to each other. Adagio had finished making herself a cinderella and was unphased at the accusation. Adagio took a sip of her drink with a slight laugh, “The Time Twister?” she hummed amused. “That thing still exists?” she mused in question. She gave a small laugh as she reached out her right hand, “I know you can use your pyromancy to see through deceit.” Sunset was reluctant about accepting Adagio’s hand. Seeing the hesitation, “Or you could cast a zone of truth spell.” “Zono Vero.” Sunset said as her focus gem glowed as the spell was cast. Adagio took another sip of her cinderella, “We don’t have it and even if we did, I wouldn’t let either of these two use it.” She took another sip of her drink, “Well not until after the Fall Equinox.” she added in what seemed to be a deliberate attempt to make Sunset ask a follow up question. Aria and Sonata both froze at the statement. Sunset took a sip of the rum as she thought about what Adagio just said and why would she say the last bit, “What’s so important about the Fall Equinox that you wouldn’t allow Sonata or Aria to use the Time Twister if you knew they had it?” Sunset elected to ask, she was certain that she had taken the bait for a trap. However, she could tell Adagio had something she wanted to say, but she wasn’t stupid enough to just blurt it. Adagio placed her drink aside as she smiled, “Do you know why there’s this Whirling Constellation Music Festival every fifty years in the week leading up to the Summer Solstice?” Sunset internally groaned. It wasn’t that she was terrible with history. No, it was because she had pretty much affirmed that Adagio was the one that would be controlling the conversation. “Pretty much King Bullion set it up as a massive circus so that should the populace not have enough bread at any point in that fifty years the people wouldn’t revolt.” This surprised Adagio, Aria and Sonata, “Twilight’s the one of Celestia’s most recent students that needs the history lesson.” Sunset added, far from amused of the situation. “So we got the whole jubilee thing, so about the Fall Equi…” Sunset trailed off as she recalled something, “The Day of Absolution…” she realized. Adagio nodded, “And since we have these,” she slipped her right thumb under the parole collar on her neck, “A single toe off the straight and narrow and…” she trailed off as she allowed Sunset to make the inference herself as she removed her thumb. “Well, a smart girl like you can connect the dots.” she said before she picked up her cinderella and took another sip. Sunset took a sip of her rum, “So about that time loop thing in your song, you know ‘every day is the same’?” she asked. “You send six days a week since last winter solstice working on the Pie Rock Farm with Limestone overseeing you.” Aria declared as she spoke into her glass before taking another sip of her rum. “Now that’s being stuck on repeat.” “Which inspired the song. Also singing does help set and keep a work pace.” Sonata added after she took another sip of her rum. Sunset couldn’t but look at her rum for a second before she could speak, “Oh and if you’re wondering if we would redo a day, The Time Twister only repeats the day before it was used, we’d have to go back in time farther than that,” Adagio seemed to cut Sunset off before she could ask, “Besides we made our choices and we’re paying the price and we’re already been given a do-over as it were, with every new day.” She then finished her drink. “It’s called living life, I’d suggest you try it some…” Adagio stopped as she realized, “Oh, that’s why you asked about the Time Twister.” she started to prod, “you were within a decameter of whoever has it and you had a desire to repeat this day.” “Sucks to be you, we don’t need to get pastured to forget all.” Aria snickered. Sunset could only growl in response. “Are you mad?” she asked mockingly. “Aria, I thought we were trying to turn a new leaf.” Sonata pointed out her sister’s behavior and that it was not conducive for her own turn around. “Sonata, if you haven’t noticed, I am taking this slow and steady.” Aria took another slip, “And who said you can’t enjoy these turns of events.” Sunset could not but help but almost roar at trio, "You think working under Limestone is bad! You’re free of her at least once a week!” She continued. “I’m stuck with her sister every single day!” She compounded with her anger boiling near the surface. “I can't tell you how sick I am of her sister ruining everything by running off to get churros of all things! Churros! Fricking Churros!” She continued to shout, not noticing that Pinkie was back and in the doorway. “I hate churros!” She finished venting, letting out what she truly blamed for her predicament. There was a moment of silence as everyone heard the creak of the door. They turned to see Pinkie standing there. “Oh. I, uh... just wanted to say the Dazzlings are back,” she started to say informing Sunset as she was asked and ordered to. As it was clear that what was said was not needed. “But I see you see they see you seeing them, and you've seen me too, so, um... see ya.” she said before she left running away in tears. Sunset rushed out and tried to call out, but her voice died in her throat. She knew there was nothing that she could say. She, in her anger she was, well, sincere about how she felt. She gave a sorrowful and guiltridded sigh as she looked to the ground in defeat. “If the day's always the same,” came Adagio’s voice. Sunset turned to see the eldest of the sisters in the doorway ready to shut the door. “maybe you're the one who needs to change.” she finished and slammed the door shut. Sunset couldn’t delve too much on the words, but she couldn’t forget them. However she needed to catch up with Pinkie. After taking a second to think she conjured a ring of fire to use as a teleportation ring. After going through it she was standing next to a weeping Pinkie. “Pinkie, I’m sor…” she started. “Did you convince the Dazzlings to break the time loop?” she asked in a whimper, in a poorly veiled attempt to act like nothing was wrong. Sunset’s own heart ached with shame and guilt, “It wasn't them.” she informed Pinkie. “Well there’s always tomorrow.” Pinkie said weakly before she left sobbing. “Maybe it will be a good day. You deserve it, Sunset.” she finished calling back. Sunset’s own soul now spasmed in repulsion for her actions. “So do you, Pinkie Pie.” she said acknowledging it. Author's Note Song used: Find the Magic
Breaking The CycleThe next morning, just in the earliest hours of day, when only the morning star was above the horizon, before it could herald the sun. Almost everyone of the party was sound asleep before, “RISE AND SHINE!!!” shouted Sour as all the girls jerked and jumped out of their beds. “Applejack says breakfast is almost ready.” she added sweetly. All groaned as they recovered from the shock before as they changed into what they were going to wear that day, each at her own pace. Outside they found a fairly basic breakfast spread out with Sour at the table ready to eat. The barbarian was not dressed in her usual brown bear based suit, instead she wore a white furred tunic with black fur leggings, with the bear’s bones making her belt, with the skull hung around her neck, with the top of her tunic made out of the head of the black and white bear. While most were unphased by the barbarian’s getup, “Um, you do know those only eat plants right?” the druid question. “I’m a berserker, I wear shirts made from bears.” Sour retorted. Fluttershy could only sigh. The reaction the rest had were mixed. Some of the ladies chuckled, others rolled their eyes, while Rainbow seemed to offer some silent comfort for her best and longest friend. “Whoo! Whril-Con Mus-Fes Day One!” shouted Lemon as she was the last to exit. She had in her hands a paddle with the logo of the Rainbolt, which itself was a rainbow with the Aura Marks of the Rainbooms coming from the stylised S of the Shadowbolts with their Aura Marks within the S itself, with Sunset’s Aura Mark placed in what could described as the merging point. “Come and get it!” she shouted as she swung her paddle. However Sunset dodge it like had seen it coming from five parsecs away and going a millimeter a second. “HA! NOT TODAY!” she shouted in joy. Everyone looked at Sunset somewhat confused. Save Pinkie. “What do you call a PostCrush fan with three eyes?” she asked in joval tone to get people’s focus off of Sunset. Sunset placed an arm over Pinkie’s shoulders, “You call her Pinkie Pie, because you spell her name with three I's!” she answered, delivering the punchline properly. That got everyone to have a soft laugh with the occasional head shake of why the joke was even found funny before they continued their breakfast. Once finished the party headed toward the main festival grounds. This time Sunset spotted the mud puddle she had oft stepped in and evaded it. While she should have known better, “In your face, mud!” she could not help but declare in euphoria. While this did rise a few eyebrows, the rest elected to just let it go. “This day's going to be amazing!” Pinkie cheered as they arrived at the lines to the entrance. “I know!” Sunset agreed as they got into the line that was manned by Zephyr Breeze. “It might be slow, but security is an art. It can't be rushed.” she declared. After a few minutes Zephyr cleared the two and they gave their input to Applejack’s master itinerary, Pinkie spotted the booth with the tandem bike as the prize. Pinkie gasped. “Let’s try our luck.” Sunset whispered as they walked up and looked at the jar. Pinkie smirked, “All I have to do is guess how many candies are in the jar.” she stated like she pretty much knew the answer. “And my sugar senses say…” she trailed off as she stuck her tongue out and waved her hands in front of the jar. After a few seconds she pulled her tongue back into her mouth and gave her answer, “Three hundred and five!” she declared with confidence. The person manning the stand pressed the nearby buzzer to indicate a wrong answer. Pinkie gave a slightly depressed but accepting “Awww.” of defeat. “Don’t feel bad,” Sunset said as she patted it’s Five hundred seventy-two…” Sunset then paused as she recalled one of her last times she counted out the beans, “and a half, counting the green broken one.” she declared. The attendant of the stand was shocked at the number and rang the gong to indicate that the prize was won. After getting the bike, “Next stop the Neon Gardens.” Sunset said as she started pedaling, Pinkie ‘Whee-ed’ as she joined and the two headed to the Neon Garden hedge maze. Once there the two arrived they ditched the bike to run the maze. All the while Pinkie’s laughter was contagious until they exited and arrived at the art show paint water-balloon ‘fight’. Silently the two agreed to be part of it. This time around Sunset had to confess that this was fun. After the ‘show’ the two mostly cleaned up in which Pinkie showed her take on Rarity with a moustache. However unlike before Sunset too drew a moustache, on her own face. This only encouraged the laughter of the two. About ten minutes late the two, fully cleaned and dry, exited the facility and watched the sun begin its descent pass the horizon. “This is the best day ever!” Pinkie cheered. “Don’t let Cheese hear you say that, especially when he has to plan for your anniversary.” Sunset teased. Pinkie gave a snort like chuckle, “Yeah,” she then thought about all the days in her life. She paused and looked over all the days in her life. “Maybe the top….” she started but then stopped as she recalled the sheer number of days that she had to count as ‘best’. After half a minute, “five hundred.” she finished. Once she did she smelt something. “Is that…” she started before she sniffed the air. “Whirling Constellation Music Festival Cinnamon-Swirled Churros!” Sunset answered as sat returned with two of the churros in question, having seized the moment to purchase them while Pinkie was lost in her calculations. Pinkie gasped as she accepted one of them. “How did you know?!” Sunset chuckled, “I’ve done this alone my way, and after giving it an honest look, I realized having a perfect day wasn't perfect without... you.” Sunset said as gave her friend a hug. Pinkie gave an ‘Awwww.’ clearly of gratitude and the two bit into their churros with a clang in their mouths. Sunset rubbed her jaw, “Ow!” she complained. “Mine's hard as a rock!” she added before she started to look for the nearest place to dispose of it. “This is like eating a crowbar.” Pinkie only giggled as she ate her churro, “I know.” she said in between bites as she devoured her churro. Sunset was left with nothing to say and elected to just let it go. Just then they saw someone dressed like a delivery person storm off from the stand that sold the churros after he shouted, “Find someone else to deliver churros backstage to PostCrush, because I quit!”. Sunset and Pinkie looked at each other, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Pinkie asked Sunset. Sunset nodded as Pinkie pulled the tandem bike they won out of her hair. After getting past security, the two arrived at PostCrush’s temporary housing. “Ooh, I hope they like us!” Pinkie said as they stopped. “You must've met them on one of the other days.” she assumed her friend would have done that due to the loop she has been trapped in. Sunset shocked her head with a laugh, “Nope, First time.” she informed Pinkie as the two dismounted their bike. “And I'm glad it's with the other half of my dynamic duo.” she added with a friendly hug. After a second the hug ended and they walked up to the door. “You ready?” she asked. Pinkie nodded. Sunset then knocked on the door. “Special delivery!” she declared before the door opened. Answering the door were two young women about Sunset’s age. The shorter one was dressed in a long sleeve shirt of light blue, mid light blue and purple with a pink heart in the chest and light red sparkling mid-thigh dress with a few orange hearts around her waist and black leggings. She had light blue violet hair with streaks of magenta and cyan and cobalt eyes with two small pink hearts under her eyes. This was Supernova Zap, however despite being Indigo’s cousin, one could easily mistaken her for being Sour’s sister. The taller one dressed in a sleeveless dress. The top had what looked like yellow-white fur that went over the shoulder which connected to the main body of the top which looked like a sparkling blue and purple heart with two magenta hearts on the front. The lower part of the dress had two small trains around the dress, the top most was a sparkling magenta with a darker magenta one beneath that. The main dress, which was mid-thigh, had large patches of purple with three orange hearts and patches of pink covered with sparkles. She had sapphire eyes with bright cerise hair with magenta and violet highlights with magenta hearts under her eyes. This was Kiwi Lollipop, and while her relationships were unknown save her career with Supernova, one could easily assume she had a familial connection to Sunny. Before either Kiwi or Supernova could speak, “We are huge, huge, generous fans!” Pinkie declared jovially. Supernova and Kiwi were both confused for a blink and you’ll miss it lapse of time. However Kiwi’s expression changed after said blink to one as if nothing had happened, while Supernova was still confused. She was about to speak when Kiwi coughed. “Yeah, thanks for making the delivery today. We weren’t expecting fans to make it!” she said also too cheerfully as if she was expecting someone else. That comment seemed to pass Pinkie by, but Sunset didn’t blink and the comment didn’t slip by. “Today’s been funny.” Sunset said with a slightly squinted left eye. Supernova and Kiwi nodded, neither seeming to notice that Sunset caught Supernova’s slip. “Still thanks for the delivery and for being fans.” Kiwi said in gratitude, however she couldn’t shake a sudden onset of nervousness. “Say, we got some last minute prep for when we get on stage….” “Totally understand!” Pinkie cut her off with a salute. “We won’t keep you up.” Pinkie started to turn, “Come on, Sunset.” she said as she took Sunset’s left hand. However Sunset took another step forward, “Say, before we go, could I shake your hand.” She said as she took her left hand back and offered both to Kiwi and Supernova. “It would mean a lot to me, think of it as a thank-you for all your music.” Kiwi and Supernova looked at each other for a second and shrugged their shoulders. “Anything for a fan.” Kiwi said as she took Sunset’s right hand and Supernova took Sunset’s left hand. “Veritatem.” Sunset whispered as her eyes and focus gem glowed as did Kiwi and Supernova’s eyes. It was night as Kiwi and Supernova were walking not far from where the musicians and other performers of the Whirling Constellation Music Festival had their temporary housing set up, along the edge of the small forest. They were about a kilometer in, as Kiwi finally spoke, giving a voice to the tension between the two. “Tomorrow has to be perfect!” She declared as she kicked a rock out of their way. “We've only got one shot at this!” she added, turning towards the sky in frustration. Supernova groaned as she turned away, “As if I'm not super-duper aware, K-Lo!” she wanted to curse out her partner as she kicked at the dirt too. However she uncovered something in the soil. It was a golden medallion that was shaped around a circle with a set of folded wings around the base and a point at the top. In the medallion was a crescent of purple with three starts hinting to a night’s sky over an eye-like shape. The two were bewildered by the item they found. Kiwi picked it up and pressed the point. This caused the golden eye shape to open to reveal an eye. There was zap and the two woke up in their apartment in Manahattan. It didn’t take long for them to figure out that they had reset the day. Time flashed to after their performance, when Sunset was on the hill bemoaning her lot. “That was terrible!” Supernova snapped as tears started to form in her eyes. Kiwi looked at the medallion they found as a stern and resolute frown formed on her face, “We can do it again, and it will be perfect.” She then pressed the top activating the artifact again. The vision changed to show them performing their song again. However there was a minor hiccup, one of Kiwi’s guitar strings. Kiwi then pressed the medallion activating it again, this continued almost twenty times, each time another hiccup, one had Kiwi lose her guitar bit, one had Supernova’s shoe break, another had Supernova’s drum stick break, just to list a few. Each time one noticed a mishap, Kiwi would use the Time Twirler. After the twentieth reset, Sunset let go of both Kiwi’s and Supernova’s hands with a gasp. “You found the Time Twirler!.” Sunset declared as she took a step back and pointed at the two. “You're the ones causing the time loop!” she accused the two. Kiwi was left flabbergasted and her mouth agape as she blinked. However, Supernova was able to voice her confused state, “How did you see my brain?” she asked. “Pyromancy can burn through a lot of things.” Sunset answered. At this point Kiwi had collected herself, “Yes, we’ve been looping our show and we’re gonna loop our show 'til it's perfect!” she declared. “Fans like you wouldn't get it.” she sighed in defeat. “But I do.” Sunset countered as she placed her right hand over her heart. “I wanted things to go perfectly today, too.” She added, trying to show that she actually understood. “But now I know they never do.” Supernova and Kiwi looked at each for a second and then back, to Sunset and Pinkie, “Then we. Stop. Never!” she declared empathizing each word with building force. “And now that we know you're in on our little secret, you'll never set foot inside this festival again.” Kiwi added, as what seemed to be both a smug grin and a remorseful frown formed on her lips. Sunset was not phased. “Go ahead. Take a picture and hang it and as many copies as you can make up.” she smirked as she crossed her arms, seeming to have won this exchange. “Tomorrow morning, they'll all disappear.” she added pointing out the flaw in the band’s plan and compounding what she assumed was her victory. The remorseful frown that was mixed in Kiwi’s expression vanished, “Ever heard of drawings?” she asked as the smug grin took even more of her face. “Everything resets.” Sunset pointed out. Supernova had a slight chuckle, “You don't, and neither do we.” she pointed out. This caused Sunset to blink a couple of times as she started to recall what she experienced and what she saw. “Now that I've seen your faces,” Supernova took out a pen and piece of paper and at the speed of light drew almost flawless to scale depictions of Sunset and Pinkie. “Singing and drums aren’t the only things I’m good at.” She said as she showed her work. “All I have to do is draw this when we get up and you won’t be getting through the gate foreva!” This left Sunset speechless as Pinkie gasped in horror. Supernova then cuffed her left hand to the side of her check, “SECURITY!” she shouted. This got the attention of the closest security guard, who happened to be Zephyr Breeze. Once he arrived, “Too bad we don’t have Rainbow.” Pinkie commented, speaking into Sunset’s ear. Sunset could only sigh knowing that even if Rainbow was there, it would not have helped. As Zephyr arrived he spotted Sunset and Pinkie, “Sorry, but not even V.I.P.s are allowed backstage until tomorrow.” He said as he looked between the two attendees. He took off his uniform sunglasses, “I don’t think we want to make this a code chartreuse.” He said before he seated around the two to be behind the two. Before anyone could register, the door that attendees were sent out closed behind Sunset and Pinkie. Sunset groaned before she started to pass and think aloud. “Tonight is my last chance to stop this before I get banned for life!” she bemoaned. “Think fast, Sunset. Come on, think!” she stopped and looked around, “Okay…” she trailed until she spotted a tree not far from “If we climb up this tree, attach a rope there, and swing over and…” she sighed as she trailed off realizing her defeat. “Who am I kidding?” she asked as she let herself drop to the ground and on her back. “I'm done for.” Pinkie knelt down, sitting on her knees, “At least we'll be together.” She tried to comfort Sunset. Sunset looked at Pinkie and a smile formed on her lips, “You know what?” she asked rhetorically, “That actually makes being trapped at an eternal music festival seem not half bad.” She stated her current situation and tried to see the brighter sides of things. Pinkie gave a happy sigh and sniffed a couple of times, “What's that smell?” she asked before she sniffed again. “Could it be?” she asked until she spotted that in a pocket of Sunset’s jacket was a… “Whirling Constellation Music Festival Cinnamon-Swirled Churro!” Pinkie declared following a massive gasp of revelation before she took it from Sunset’s pocket. “Oh, yeah.” Sunset said with a slightly guilty laugh, “Um, it was a little too inedible for my taste.” she commented. There was a pause as the two looked at each other and recalled something she said earlier when they both tried the churros. “Like eating a crowbar!” the two declared together. They nodded and went to the door to break in using the churro as a crowbar. Just before the two could attempt to break in, the door opened, “Seriously?” came the voice of a familiar singing foe. The two gasped as they saw the person who was letting them in. “Adagio!” the two almost shouted recognizing the source of their assistance. Adagio rolled her eyes with a frustrated sigh, “How stupid are you losers, trying to break back in?” she asked before she stepped aside to let the two in. As the two stood there utterly befuddled at what was happening, “Well! You coming or not?” Pinkie ran and gave a somewhat tackle-like hug to the former siren. “Thank you, you have no idea how much this means.” After a couple of seconds, Adagio managed to get herself out of the hug. “Don’t ever say I never helped you.” Once the two that Zephyr booted were back inside. “Well, catch you losers lat…” she turned and started to walk away. “We need to get backstage to stop K-Lo and Su-Z!” Sunset cut Adagio off. “I don’t have much time to explain, but K-Lo has this artifact that can reset time and if we don’t get it from them, we’ll never have another shot!” Adagio’s face was not visible to Sunset, and as such neither Sunset or Pinkie could tell what Adagio was thinking. After a second she groaned, “Fine.” Sunset then hugged Adagio, “Thank you,” She then broke the hug as she turned to face Pinkie. “Alright Pinkie, final mission – get the Time Twirler from K-Lo's hair and turn it– twirl it off, or–” she tried to find the right way to describe the goal. She ended up groaning before she concluded, “Make it not work anymore!” she declared before Adagio and Pinkie started in the direction backstage of PostCrush’s performance. However, after only taking a few steps, “Wait.” Sunset called, making the two stop. Adagio groaned as Pinkie turned to face Sunset and asked, “What's wrong?” “It's just that…” Sunset trailed off slightly, “I've already seen PostCrush.” she pointed out what she experienced. “But if we break the time loop right now, you won't.” she pointed out that Pinkie had never seen the duo perform. “We're ruining PostCrush's only reunion show.” she compounded. As Adagio started tapping her left foot in annoyance, Pinkie scoffed at Sunset’s concern that Pinkie would never get to see the performance. “Are you kidding?!” she They trapped my best friend at a super fun music festival without me for weeks! They are so going down! Adagio groaned, “Seriously?” she asked. Pinkie’s resolve didn’t waver. The former siren sighed, “Whatever, I’ll get you two losers to them, and there we part ways. This good guy shit blows.” she said as she took a couple steps ahead of Pinkie and Sunset. The two only shock their heads before following Adagio. Behind the stage Supernova looked at her hands, while they were no different then when they started, she could not but feel the three weeks of calluses and blisters from playing over and over again. She sighed, “I'm getting tired of living the same day over and over. Can this please be our last performance?” she asked with the invisible dark circles under her eyes clear to Kiwi. Kiwi picked up the Time Twirler and put it in her hair like a hair pin. “We've been over this, Su-Z.” She said as she brushed her hair to hide the artifact. “We don't stop until we get it perfect.” Just then the door opened with a boom to show Sunset and Pinkie, “Sorry to interrupt, buuuut…” Pinkie started. “...you have something that doesn't belong to you.” Sunset finished as the two stepped farther in. Supernova gasped at the entry of two, “Who let you two back in?!” she asked as she and Kiwi were shocked at the situation. Sunset took another step forward as she held out her right hand towards Kiwi. “Give us the Time Twirler now!” she ordered. Kiwi and Supernova stood up and as if on instinct took on the rudimentary stances for a fight, “You wouldn't dare!” Kiwi growled. “If you were real fans, you'd want this show to be perfect!” she protested. “Nothing's perfect.” Sunset countered. “Now let’s not make this harder than it needs to be.” She almost pleaded in a desperate attempt to prevent a fight. “Right, Pinkie Pie?” she asked as she could feel that conflict was almost inevitable. “Yup!” Pinkie agreed as she reached into her hair and pulled out the churro from Sunset’s pocket. She grunted as she bent the churro into a boomerang. “You just gotta make the best with what you've got!” she declared before she threw the churro. It spun around as it flew around to strike the back of Kiwi’s head with a clunk and sent the Time Twirler into Pinkie’s right hand. Kiwi growled at the turn of events as Supernova tackled Pinkie. This caused Pinkie to lose her grip on the Time Twirler as it was sent to the floor. Kiwi and Sunset then tackled each other to prevent each from getting the artifact. All the while no one noticed Adagio in the doorway. “I’ll be taking that.” Adagio said as she took it off of the floor causing everyone to stop their fight and see the former siren. “Adagio, if you use that, you’ll…” Sunset protested as she struggled to get out the twister-like state the four were in. “I ain’t spending more time in Stonlingrad than I have to.” Adagio declared as she let it drop to the floor before she raised her right foot and brought it down with as much force as she could muster, destroying the artifact. “There that’s done,” she said as she brushed off her hands as if in a way to wash them clean symbolically. “Now are you four brats done acting like infants and ready to be adults?” Kiwi was the first of the four to break out of the ball they had become, “You stupid bitch! You destroyed our legacy!” she shouted right in Adagio’s face. “Everything is riding on our show and you ruined it!” She wanted to strike Adagio but before she could Adagio slapped her with the palm of her right hand, shutting her up. “Do you really think all those simps care if you two give a flawless performance? If you do, you’re the stupid bitch.” Adagio’s words stung harsher than the slap and the fact she was right gave it all an even greater edge. “They don’t give two flying fucks if you flub a word or if you’re flat on line, or whatever bull shit error you fixate on, all they care about is being here to see what they believe might be your last performance.” “Wow,” Pinkie said as the four were left in utter disbelief. “Who’d have thought Adagio of all people would be the voice of reason?” Sunset was about to answer but she stopped as she saw Adagio shake her head slightly. Then it hit her, Sunset wasn’t the only one caught up in PostCrush’s time loop. “You’re on in what,” she looked at the clock in the room, “five minutes. So here’s the deal, you’re going on stage and you’re going to put your heart and soul into the performance, flaws be damned, because that’s what makes an experience perfect, that’s what makes Life worth living. Being with people that not only put up with your imperfections, but accept you because of them.” As Adagio spoke the last bit Kiwi and Supernova looked at each other. After recovering from Adagio’s assault, Kiwi finally rubbed her check to soothe the pain. After another second her gaze fell to the floor as it all came tumbling down. “It was fun at first…” she trailed off, while both wanting to state something yet at the same time deny the truth. However, Supernova stepped up and spoke up in a way coming to her best friend’s aid. “But every time we got into a spat,” she started. “We ended up causing a big deal out of it that our fans feel like each performance we’d do would be our last. And since we don’t know how long we’re actually going to last…” this time she trailed off fearing what her words would enable another to infer. This time Kiwi took over, “we had to make this perfect, we had to go out with a bang… or at least that’s what we thought.” ‘Urg…” Adagio gagged. This caused the others to turn to face the former siren. "This is so fucking saccharine,” she added before she started out, “ Screw it, I am blowing this popsicle stand before I get diabetes.” before she shut the door. “Later cunts.” she declared and was gone. The four remaining young women were left silent. “She could have used less… shall we say colorful language?” Pinkie asked as she was the first to recover from everything. Sunset turned to the two performers. “So what do you say?” she asked the two. “I don't know.” Kiwi said as she looked at her hands, there was no redo, no do-over, this was it, sink or swim. “This one's for real.” The horror she felt was barely hinted at by her voice. Supernova sighed in response to her friend, “Let's do it then.” she declared with resolve as she took her friend’s hand. “For real. It'll be you and me. Just like old times. Whatever happens happens.” “Ladies and Gentlemen, let’s hear it for two best friends who got back together for one incredible night! PostCruuuuush!” the announcer called as it was time for the two to take the stage. Kiwi “PostCrush! PostCrush! PostCrush!” The crowd cheered. Before the two walked out, “You coming?” Kiwi asked Sunset and Pinkie. “It might not be us alone, but we have heard you two play with your band…” she trailed off leaving her offer not fully stated. “We’re in.” Pinkie cheered as she pulled out Sunset’s guitar and her drumset before the four went onto stage with the cheering crowd to greet them. Kiwi started the duo’s song, “Always first place, never second best Only high stakes, we aim to impress And there's no room for mistakes Yeah, we're flawless everyday, 'cause.” “We're all about perfection Projecting that pure reflection Exceeding your expectations.” Supernova joined in the song as Sunset and Pinkie joined in playing the song. It was surprising for Sunset how she could match Kiwi and cover her, Pinkie matching Supernova was not surprising as this was Pinkie. Kiwi gave a ‘yeah’ in a break of the vocals as the four continued to play. “Be the true, true, true original Dare to be what you are meant to be Working hard, that's our thing All this way, we're perfect, perfectly true True, true original True, true original True, true original We're perfect, perfectly true.” The members of PostCrush sang together as they let Sunset and Pinkie play the instrumental of the song. “Oh-oh, true original Oh, oh, hey, hey (We're perfect, perfectly true) True original Oh, oh Oh, oh” Kiwi took over the song as she and Supernova rejoined playing the instrumentals of the song. “But it's not about perfection Settle things your own direction Shake off the expectations” Sunset and Pinkie took over the vocals as they stopped playing for a brief bit. “You're the true, true, true original Dare to be who you are meant to be Free yourself, do your thing All your way, you're perfect, perfectly you True, true original True, true original True, true original You're perfect, you're perfectly you!” All four sang and performed as they carried the last verse and stanza of the song. The crowd cheered and chanted, “PostCrush! PostCrush! PostCrush!” as the song finished. “I think we just played the Whirling Constellation Music Festival!” Sunset said to Pinkie as she tried her best to not scream in jubilation over what felt like the perfect performance of the song and the perfect way to end her day and to experience what many thought would be the last performance of PostCrush. Pinkie was slightly better at containing her joy as nodded her head with closed eyes and a massive toothy grin on her face. “Yeah, you did!” Supernova said as she and Kiwi pulled the two to join them in the current photo op. As the other fans took photos and continued to cheer, “Now this is a perfect moment!” Sunset declared as Pinkie gave a cheerful squeal and giggled. In the very early hours the next day, just before the morning star itself started its own accent, Sunset woke, this time she spied that Sour was still in bed. “YES!!!” she shouted, “I AM FREE, THE LOOP IS OVER!!!” She could not help but cheer. While she was greeted with the various groans of the rest as they wanted to continue their sleep in silence, she could not be parsed from celebrating, “IT’S WHIRL-CON MUS- FES DAY TWO!!!” Sunset shouted. Bit by bit the others gave up any pretentious of sleep as they started to stir. However, Pinkie seemed to jump to life as she gasped, “That must mean we did it! Woo-hoo!” she cheered. She turned to her fully awake friend, “So what do wanna do today, Sunset?” Sunset just giggled, “Frankly I am game for anything.” She answered, “Yesterday was the longest day of my life!” she expounded as they two started out before the rest. Pinkie then saw a question mark appear over her own head only to realize that she had a question herself, “Hey Sunset, I doubt you’d lie about the whole time loop thing with PostCrush, but how long was that loop?” Sunset froze for a second before she shook her head and started to laugh, “Now that is something you wouldn’t believe, but I was stuck in there for three weeks.” Pinkie had a light laugh, “Yeah, I guess that would make it the longest day of your life.” Sunset could only laugh in response. Author's Note And so ends the time loop. I am open to do, shall we say, a bonus track or two for this story. Open to ideas. As any more else for My Little Mages... it's not likely I will have more entries. But if I do they would be adaptations of The CMC Dream Trilogy and the Rainbow Key Pentalogy. Should I never do them, there will be a blog of what changes I'd make to each. Song used. Foxhelm, out. Brohoof?
