Sweetie Bell awoke in her own bed in the carousel boutique which should have been something mundane, but instead proved to be a relief. Far too many of her recent jumps had put her in universes radically different from her own. As maddening as it had been to be trapped in that time loop with Blue Blood she could still draw comfort from the familiar surroundings; the absence of her sister’s blood curdling scream reassured her that she was not back in that ever-repeating day. As much as it would have been nice to see her big brother again, the idea of becoming trapped in the loop forever filled her with a deep existential dread.
Climbing out of bed she accessed her subspace pocket which felt heavier than usual. She grasped the contents and attempted to pull her journal out. It wouldn’t budge. Pulling harder she felt something start to move. She barely had time to raise her shield to save her from being crushed under the dozens of tons of random objects which had materialised inside her bedroom.
Enough dresses to fill a warehouse fought for space with an orchestra’s worth of musical instruments while weapons from medieval swords to laser pulse rifles were scattered haphazardly throughout. Many more objects that defied both description and understanding broke through the windows and spilled into the street below.
There was a sound of splintering wood as part of the floor gave way beneath several tons of gold ingots and coins. In a flash of blue magic Sweetie found herself teleported outside the boutique.
“Sweetie Belle!” Her sister admonished, “Did you just empty your entire subspace pocket INSIDE the boutique?”
Sweetie was at a lost for words.
“Uh… wha…” Her mind tried to wrap itself around what had just happened until she finally turned to look at her sister, “Rarity y-you have wings!”
The white alicorn just looked at her with an unamused expression.
“Sweetie Bell I know you’re Awake,” she chided, “it’s too early in the loop for unawake Sweetie to have her cutie mark.”
“And, ya know, unawake Sweetie doesn’t have access to her subspace pocket.” Spike chipped in, pulling himself out of a large pile of AV equipment which looked like it had been very expensive before it had been ejected from a first story window and landed in a tangled heap. Spike was significantly older than the Spike in her universe. Sweetie didn’t know much about how dragons aged, but he was about as tall as Rarity when he was on all fours, so when he stood on two he towered over both of them.
“Good morning, my love.” He said, leaning down to kiss the Alicorn.
Sweetie had thought she was getting used to being dropped into different universes, but right now she was just so confused. Through all her confused thoughts she latched onto one word and her body seized up in fear.
“Loop?” Her eyes had contracted to pinpricks, and she spoke in a strangled whisper “This is a time loop?”
The filly began to hyperventilate. She had barely escaped from her loop with Blue Blood. It took two and a half years of repeating the same day. She had died so many times just to escape that universe. What if she couldn’t find the fragment this time? What if it was too far away to reach before the loop reset? She could be stuck here forever, unable to even die. She could end up like Blue Blood, fruitlessly trying to take his own life over and over, or even like the Twilight fragment from that world, twisted and driven mad over centuries. She would never see her real sister again - her Twilight would remain fractured over a dozen universes.
Blue eyes consumed with worry filled her vision as her sister knelt down to place a hoof on her shoulder.
“What’s wrong Sweetie?” She asked, trying to comfort her distraught younger sister, “You know that I still love you, right? The Boutique is just a building. I’m just confused as to why you would do such a thing.”
The filly clung to her and sobbed, not answering the question.
“Did you have a bad loop?” Spike asked, concern evident in his voice.
“No…” Sweetie whispered, clutching her sister “No, no, no. Celestia no, please, tell me I’m not in another loop. I can’t go through that again! I don’t wanna be stuck here forever! I want to grow up, I want ponies to remember me! I don’t want to die any more!”
“It’s going to be alright Sweetie,” Rarity hugged her little sister, “I know the loops can be tough, but we’re all here for you, even if we’re not always by your side, and we’re not always Awake we know you’ll come back to us eventually.”
Rarity turned to Spike. “Send a message to Twilight to meet us at Mac’s bar.”
Spike pulled out a scroll from his own subspace pocket and scribbled down a message before burning it with his green fire.
In another flash of blue Sweetie Bell found she had been teleported yet again. Now she was sitting next to her alicorn sibling on a pair of bar stools, her sister’s leg still draped across her shoulders comfortingly. Behind the bar Berry Punch was serving drinks to a group of ponies, most of whom Sweetie could recognise from around Ponyville. Her heart seized for a moment when she spotted Discord sitting in a booth but she relaxed somewhat when she realised he was just playing some kind of card game with Pinkie Pie and a second Draconequus with a squirrel tail. None of the other patrons were paying them any mind.
“Bad loop?” Asked Berry Punch, “I can get you a milkshake if you like, but you’ll have to age up if you want any of the stronger stuff.”
“I don’t wanna be in a time loop.” Sweetie said dejectedly, laying her head on the bar.
Berry Punch winced. “Oh Sweetie,” she said, “don’t say that, you’ll get through this.”
A vanilla milkshake appeared in Berry’s hoof in a metal cup touched with frost. She placed it in front of Sweetie Bell, reaching below the bar for a straw.
“We’re all here for you, this is a sanctuary loop after all,” Berry placed a hoof on Sweetie’s other shoulder, “even if sometimes we’re looking after one of our own.”
Sweetie took a sip of the milkshake. It was incredible, the best milkshake she’d ever tasted, but she was too upset to enjoy it.
“What’s a sanctuary loop?” She asked in exasperation before burying her head in her hooves.
“Uhh, she is Awake, right?” Berry asked Rarity
Rarity sighed. “She crushed the Boutique under the contents of her pocket this morning, I barely managed to teleport her out from under it.” Rarity explained, “After that the poor thing just started crying and saying she didn’t want to loop anymore. I don’t know what happened in her last loop, but it must have been terrible, I mean, she’s been to Eiken, G3, even Bureau loops and sure, she was upset, but she never said she wanted to stop looping.”
“You don’t really want to stop looping do you?” She asked her sister pleadingly, “If you stopped looping then… then I would never see you again! Your friends would miss you. Whatever happened, it’s over now. We can work through it, together.”
There was a flash of magenta and Twilight appeared next to them, also in alicorn form. There was a low murmur of greetings and glasses raised in Twilight's direction. Twilight put a wing across Sweetie’s back and the unicorn filly felt warmth and power radiating from the alicorn. The field of passive magic that surrounded her former mentor was immense. It felt ancient and powerful, and yet somehow still lithe and flexible. Compared to this Twilight, even Princess Celestia would be as a foal.
"It's alright Sweetie," she said, "I've seen this variant before, and I know you're not our Sweetie. I took the liberty of retriving the fragment for you."
Twilight pulled a purple crystal from her subspace pocket and placed it on the bar. She then reached behind Sweetie's ear and pulled out Sweetie's journal from Sweetie's other subspace pocket.
"And I think you'll be needing this too. You have no idea how much difficulty we had finding that last time." She laughed lightly, "Honestly, two souls with intersecting subspaced pockets? Such a thing is unheard of in all the loops, or at least it was the first time it happend. Then again I suppose that's true of everything."
Sweetie blinked in shock.
"I'd ask you to stay a while and have some fun, but I know time loops make you anxious, so you'll tell me -"
"Thanks," said Sweetie, "I really appreciate it, but I should be on my way."
"I know what you do isn't exactly like looping, but even so," she hesitated, "remember to take some time every few jumps to spend with your friends. Their friendship is real, even if the next time you see them they won't remember. Never forget that ponies matter, even when you'll never see them again."
With that Sweetie picked up the crystal, binding it to her journal and, in a flash of light, an unawake Sweetie was very supprised to find herself sitting in a bar between two Alicorns. She took a sip of the milkshake in front of her and her pupils dilated.
"Wow, this must be the best milkshake ever!" Exclaimed the filly
0.o.0.o.0
Author's Note
Let me know if you want to see what happened in the first TSC:F variant loop.
Otherwise this will stay short and sweet.
