LEGO Equestria Girls 9by Chronicler06ChaptersPrologueFirst Day RuinedA Do-Over?Go Nuts!Possible SuspectsBest Day EverBreaking the LoopEpilogueFlying SoloPrologueLEGO Equestria Girls 9 Prologue Summer had passed, and the arrival of slightly cooler weather marked the beginning of autumn. Even so, the weather was still mild enough for all kinds of outdoor activities, and it was at this time of the year that a music festival was being set up on a well-known site in the forest, just a few hours’ drive outside of Canterlot City. The Starswirled Music Festival — named in memory of the original ruler of the Castle Region — was a gathering of various musical talents from all over the Lego World to provide live performances in front of hundreds of music fans, many of whom would spend their nights on the nearby campgrounds to ensure they would have as much time as possible to enjoy everything this festival had to offer. It was on this Friday night before the start of the music festival that among the numerous visitors arriving at the campgrounds was a rather luxurious RV, which drove over to the designated area and parked at one of the available spaces. Once that RV had stopped, the side door opened and out stepped a group of minifigs as they prepared to set up the RV for their weekend stay. This group happened to be none other than the Equestria Girls, the well-known LEGO Team members from Canterlot City who had already saved the Lego World from numerous threats involving Equestrian Magic. After their previous attempts to enjoy a relaxing vacation were disrupted by those magical issues, they were definitely looking forward to this opportunity to finally just enjoy themselves without anything serious to worry about. Rarity had spared no expense for their attendance to this music festival, not only on the luxury RV she had purchased for what she claimed would be the ultimate “glamping” experience, but also on all of the custom outfits she had designed for all of them. Rarity had magenta on her legs, a violet skirt around her upper legs, light blue on her torso and upper arms, gold on the front of her torso under an open jacket with a pattern of purple gems in the middle, her hair was tied back in a ponytail, and her magical geode around her left wrist. Fluttershy had white on her feet, turquoise on her torso, arms, and the skirt around her upper legs, purple flowers printed all over the turquoise areas, three roses on the left side of her hair, and her magical geode in the middle of highest flower on the front of her torso. Applejack had red on her lower legs, a white skirt around her upper legs, medium blue on her upper arms and torso, white on the front of her torso under an open jacket with a red apple in the middle, a slightly different western hat with green fringe on her head, apple-shaped sunglasses with green tinted lenses, and her magical geode around her left wrist. Twilight Sparkle had medium blue on her lower legs, dark blue on her upper legs, a purple skirt around her upper legs, magenta on her upper arms and torso, a symbol of a turquoise circle printed in the middle of the front of her torso, a dark blue fanny pack attached around her waist by a gold belt, and her magical geode on a star-shaped hair clip on the left side of her hair piece. Rainbow Dash had rainbow horizontal stripes on her lower legs, dark blue on her upper legs, light blue on her arms and torso, white on the front of her torso under an open jacket with a rainbow symbol in the middle, a green visor atop her head with her hair tied back in a ponytail, and her magical geode around her left wrist. Pinkie Pie had magenta on her feet, light blue on her right leg, light yellow on her left leg, a skirt around her upper legs that was light yellow on the upper part and magenta on the lower part, light blue on her torso with yellow balloons printed on the front, her hair tied up in two buns on the sides of her hair piece, a tiny magenta fanny pack attached around her waist, and her magical geode at the upper part of the front of her torso. Sunset Shimmer had magenta on her feet, maroon on her legs with her red and yellow sun symbol printed on the side of her left leg, black on her torso and arms with an orange chevron printed on her upper arms, a pattern of yellow and orange triangles on the front of her torso under an open jacket, her hair was smoother down than usual, and her magical geode was on the front of her waist. And lastly, Spike had dark blue on his legs, dark grey on his arms and torso with his green shirt visible on the front under an open jacket, and the cap on his head was black with a white symbol on the front that resembled the spiral shell of an ammonite. Once their campsite was properly set up, Sunset smiled as she turned away to look at the festival grounds that were only a short walking distance away. “Starswirled Music Festival, we have arrived!” she cheerfully declared. As Applejack set down a large cooler, she contently stated, “Two days an’ nights of cool music, hot food, an’ sleepin’ under the stars. Can’t ask for much more than that!” “To Pinkie and me, this festival is about one thing only,” noted Sunset as Pinkie Pie rushed over to stand beside her. “PostCrush!” Sunset and Pinkie simultaneously exclaimed excitedly. Applejack chuckled in amusement and playfully remarked, “We know. Y’all won’t stop talkin’ about it.” “Who? PostCrush?” responded Pinkie as she suddenly appeared right in front of Applejack. “That’s only because PostCrush is the craziest, most amazing-est pop duo ever! PostCrush, PostCrush, POSTCRUSH!!” She paused when she noticed everyone staring at her with amused looks on their faces. “Oh… I see your point,” she sheepishly added. “After they canceled their last tour to go on ‘indefinite hiatus’, we thought we’d never see them live,” explained Sunset. “But we thought wrong,” sang Pinkie Pie. She then excitedly announced, “Roll call!” “Kiwi Lolipop…” began Sunset as she struck a cool pose. “A.K.A. ‘K-Lo’,” added Pinkie. “…is the cool one,” finished Sunset. “While Supernova Zap…” began Pinkie as she struck a zany pose. “A.K.A. ‘Su-Z’,” added Sunset. “…is the zany one!” finished Pinkie. The two of them then held their respective poses back-to-back — recreating the iconic image of PostCrush —as Pinkie remarked, “Not unlike another certain dynamic duo we know.” The rest of the group couldn’t help but laugh at that final comment. “I guess that explains why the two of you became such huge fans in the first place,” quipped Twilight. Sunset smiled at Twilight in acknowledgement. Back when Sunset had only recently joined the team after defeating the Dazzlings, she had wanted to find ways to connect with her new friends in their own unique ways, if only so they wouldn’t feel obligated to be friends just because Princess Twilight of Equestria had insisted. For Pinkie Pie, it had occurred when, among many things Pinkie rapidly threw around just to see what would stick, she shared albums of some of her favorite bands, and when she got to PostCrush, Sunset had casually noted how remarkable similar the attitudes of those two bandmates were to the two of them. Pinkie was so astonished by this insight that she immediately declared PostCrush to be her absolute favorite band of any music, but only on the condition that Sunset also become a huge fan of PostCrush. Sunset was uncertain at first, but was willing to give it a try. By the time she managed to listen to every single song that PostCrush had recorded, she knew in her heart they were worth the hype, so she welcomed Pinkie’s offer and the two of them became practically the biggest PostCrush fangirls in all of Canterlot City. “All right, less laughin’ an’ more gaffin’,” Applejack spoke up as she picked up the cooler and began carrying it back into the RV. “We got an early mornin’ tomorrow.” Pinkie placed an arm over Sunset’s shoulders and giggled excitedly as the two of them followed their friends into the RV to get ready for sleep. As Sunset walked with a smile on her face, she excitedly thought to herself, Tomorrow is going to be the best day ever! Author's Note While much of this story will be mostly similar to Sunset's Backstage Pass, I'll certainly be throwing in a few additional things to make it a little more interesting. I won't say much about it just yet, but let's just say the three weeks Sunset had spent in the time loop in the official version won't be enough for what I've got in mind. As usual, please be sure to point out any issues or errors I might have missed so I can correct them immediately. First Day RuinedChapter 1 First Day Ruined Morning arrived at the campgrounds just outside the Starswirled Music Festival. It was little more than an hour after sunrise, and by this point, Sunset Shimmer was the only one still asleep within the RV that she and her friends were using for their stay at the festival. As Sunset slept in her sleeping bag beside the window, her phone was lying beside her head on the pillow. At the moment the time became 7:00, the phone’s alarm went off by playing a song by PostCrush. Be the true… true, true original— Sunset quickly woke up and shut off her phone’s alarm. When she glanced at her phone, she smiled as she realized that the day she had been highly anticipating had finally arrived. Tonight, she and Pinkie Pie were going to attend the live concert of their favorite band, PostCrush. As far as she was concerned, today was sure to be the best day ever. Sunset jumped out of her sleeping bag, tossed off her pajamas — a magenta pair of legs and a magenta torso and arms with her sun symbol printed on the front of the torso — and slipped on her special outfit for the music festival. She then walked out the door and around the front of the RV to join her friends, who were already gathered outside. At this moment, Twilight, Fluttershy, and Applejack were seated around the RV’s heating table as they ate breakfast, while Rarity and Spike were seated at a nearby picnic table as Spike demonstrated some of his beatboxing skills. Rarity rolled her eyes and grumbled, “Ugh, I shall never understand the appeal of beatboxing.” Spike kept his smile as he shrugged and remarked, “Eh, to each their own.” With Sunset’s attention on Spike and Rarity, she failed to see Rainbow Dash quickly run over and stop right behind her while carrying a large paddle with the Sonic Rainbooms band symbol printed on it. “Starswirled day one! Come and get it!” Rainbow excitedly declared as she swung the paddle around, accidentally smacking Sunset’s rear end. “Ow! Hey!” exclaimed Sunset as she grasped her rear end and glared at Rainbow Dash. “Oops.” Rainbow chuckled sheepishly and responded, “Sorry. I’ll be more careful next time.” She then turned and walked away. Sunset rubbed away the stinging pain as she optimistically muttered, “Oh well. Not gonna let something minor like a sore butt ruin this perfect day.” Once the pain had dulled enough that she could tolerate it, she then walked over to the rest of her friends near the heating table to see what was available for breakfast. She smiled to see there were still plenty of pancakes available on another nearby table, so she began to walk towards it as she listened in to the conversation between her friends. “So Ah says to Big Mac, ‘Get your own chicken coop!’” spoke Applejack. Fluttershy happened to be in the middle of taking a sip of her orange juice when she heard the end of that joke, so she ended up doing a spit-take directly onto the front of Applejack’s torso before beginning to laugh. “Hey! Watch it!” complained Applejack. Fluttershy laughed for a little bit before she calmed down enough to respond, “Sorry. It’s just that one had animals in it.” Applejack grabbed a nearby napkin and started drying herself off as she grumbled, “Well next time, try not to spray it at someone.” “Ooh! Ooh! How about this one?!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie excitedly as she suddenly bounced over to stand beside where Applejack was seated. “What do you call a PostCrush fan with three eyes?” Everyone was silent while Pinkie waited for a response. Sunset almost immediately understood the joke, but was too busy gathering a stack of pancakes onto her plate to speak up. After waiting all of just one second, Pinkie cheerfully answered, “Pinkie Pie!” She then rushed over to Sunset and began shoving her towards the festival grounds. “Whoa! Hey!” protested Sunset, despite having a smile on her face. “At least wait until I’ve actually had breakfast. We’ve still got the whole day ahead of us.” Pinkie giggled in embarrassment as she let go of Sunset and allowed her to sit down at the picnic table. Fluttershy glanced around at her friends with a confused look on her face before she confessed, “Um… I don’t get it.” “It’s a pun, Fluttershy,” responded Applejack as she stood up and continued cleaning off all the orange juice on her torso. Fluttershy looked away with a thoughtful expression on her face for a moment, then turn her gaze back to her friends and sheepishly asked, “Which part is the pun?” Twilight turned to Applejack and asked, “Should I explain it to her?” “Don’t bother,” grumbled Applejack as she wadded up the soaked napkin she had used to clean herself and tossed it into a trashcan a short distance away. “A joke ain’t funny if ya gotta spell it out to someone.” Sunset couldn’t help but giggle at that exchange as she took her first bite of those delicious blueberry pancakes with maple syrup. While she was sure that all of her friends had their own plans for the first day of the music festival, the only thing that really mattered to her was being able to watch PostCrush with Pinkie Pie tonight, and she already had a plan to ensure that it would be the perfect experience. Once everyone had finished with breakfast, the group began to walk towards the entrance to the festival grounds. Rainbow Dash eagerly led the way, followed by Applejack and Rarity having a casual conversation, Pinkie Pie cheerfully skipping along, Fluttershy and Spike walking beside each other, and finally Twilight with Sunset following right behind. Squish. “Whoa!” cried out Sunset as she suddenly stumbled forward and grabbed onto Twilight’s shoulders. Twilight yelped as Sunset fell onto her, but she was able to keep herself upright and thus prevented Sunset from falling to the ground. Twilight smiled as she helped her friend stand up straight again and asked, “Are you okay?” Sunset glanced down at her feet and noticed that her right foot had stepped into a mud puddle. She smiled as she raised her mud-coated foot and replied, “Oh, just a little mud puddle. No biggie.” She then rubbed her foot against the grassy ground a few times to scrape off most of that mud. Pinkie Pie suddenly jumped in front of Sunset and excitedly exclaimed, “Sunset! Sunset! Look!” She then grabbed Sunset’s wrist and yanked her along behind her as she rushed ahead. Seconds later, they arrived at the three entrance lines at the front of the festival grounds, which she gestured at as she cheerfully exclaimed, “So many lines to stand in! This day’s already amazing! Let’s go!” As Pinkie immediately rushed towards the middle line, Sunset smiled as she chuckled and shook her head. “Typical Pinkie Pie,” she muttered in amusement as she followed the party girl to the middle line. Pinkie zipped over to the end of that middle line and casually asked the person standing ahead of her, “You come to this line often? Any other sweet lines we should hit up?” The guy standing ahead of Pinkie raised an eyebrow in confusion and replied, “Uh… I’m just waiting in line to get through security.” “I know!” remarked Pinkie cheerfully. “Isn’t it exciting?” The guy turned away and muttered under his breath, “Not as exciting as watching paint dry…” “Hey, girls!” Rainbow Dash called out as she, Fluttershy, Spike, and Twilight got into the right line. “Hey, Rainbow!” Sunset called back contently. She then crossed her arms and proceeded to wait in line. She tapped her foot impatiently, then glanced back at the right line and saw it already moving up. “Hmm… that line’s moving fast…” she muttered with concern. She then glanced over at the left line — where Rarity and Applejack were — and saw that line also advance forward. “Huh… they are, too…” Sunset tried to remain patient, but after counting nine people ahead of her and Pinkie in line, then watching the other two lines advance again while she remained stuck in the same place in the middle line, her patience quickly wore thin. “Can’t this thing move any faster?!” she called out towards the front of the line. The security guard working at the front of the line paused his work and looked down the line to see who was shouting at him. He had light blue skin, medium blue on his legs, white on his torso and upper arms, a black necktie printed on the front of his torso, a grayish-blue flat-top hair piece, a mustache on his face of the same color as his hair, and sunglasses with bronze lenses that obscured his eyes. Once he identified the girl who had shouted at him, he firmly responded, “Security is an art. It cannot be rushed.” He then returned to checking the bag belonging to the person currently at the front of the line. Sunset moaned in disappointment and slumped against one of the short walls along the line. Pinkie hooked her arm around Sunset’s neck and pulled her friend close to her as she took out her phone and optimistically said, “Aw, cheer up, Sunset. Lines fly when you’re having fun!” She then held up her phone and smiled at it. Sunset couldn’t resist giving a smile of her own as Pinkie took a selfie of them. Always leave it to Pinkie to find the fun in any situation, she thought to herself, already starting to feel a little better. After all, once they made it through this line, there would be nothing left to stop them from watching PostCrush. It took nearly two hours for the line to advance enough that Pinkie and Sunset finally reached the front. Pinkie was ahead, so she was the first to be checked by the security guard. He started by searching through her tiny fanny pack, for which his very thorough and methodical search ended up taking a ridiculously long time. If he was surprised by the absurdly huge amount of random objects somehow stuffed inside that tiny bag, his expression never showed it. He then proceeded to wave a metal detecting wand over every part of her body, but Pinkie’s persistent giggling — which she claimed was completely by reflex — caused so much interruption to the guard’s process that it took him more than twice as long to complete that task than he had with most of the other people who had been ahead in line. When his search was finally complete, he finished the security process by strapping a yellow festival bracelet around Pinkie’s wrist, then scanned it with his phone to permit her entry into the music festival. Once the security guard gave a nod of approval, Pinkie walked through the gateway as she turned back to her friend and cheerfully called out, “See you in there, Sunset!” Now that it was Sunset’s turn to go through security, she immediately held her arms out and said to the guard, “I don’t have any carry-ons with me, so just get the scan done and let me through.” The security guard raised an eyebrow and responded, “Didn’t you hear what I said earlier?” “Security can’t be rushed, I know,” replied Sunset impatiently. “Let’s just get it over with.” Despite the look of displeasure on his face, the security guard grabbed the metal detecting wand and began his standard procedure. Sunset was cooperative enough that it took only a few minutes to complete that part of the security process. Finally, he strapped a green festival bracelet around Sunset’s wrist, scanned it with his phone, then gave the nod of approval to inform her that she was permitted to enter. As soon as Sunset was finally allowed to pass, she immediately rushed through the gateway and ran a short distance to where the rest of her friends were waiting. “Whew… I thought it’d take me all day to get through there,” she remarked with relief. Applejack chuckled in amusement and said, “Welp, y’all have fun seein’ PostCrush. We’ll see ya back at camp tonight.” And with that, everyone in the group went their separate ways to enjoy all the different shows and activities at this music festival they were each interested in, leaving behind only Sunset and Pinkie to prepare for the performance of PostCrush later that evening. After the two of them took a moment to wave goodbye to their friends, Sunset pulled out her map of the festival grounds and pointed to certain locations on it as she explained, “Okay, main objective: get front row for PostCrush. Mission procedure: we cut around the Neon Garden to the main stage and rush the front during Pon Iver’s set. We can camp there until showtime, giving us the best outcome we could possibly ask for.” Pinkie looked down at the map and listened to Sunset’s strategy, but as soon as her organized friend had finished describing the plan, something else nearby suddenly caught her attention. “Secondary objective: win a tandem bicycle!” exclaimed Pinkie excitedly before she suddenly rushed over to the giveaway booth with a purple tandem bicycle being displayed to the side. “Pinkie!” objected Sunset, but with the party girl definitely not listening, she let out a sigh of frustration as she shoved the map back into her pocket and followed after her. Pinkie stopped right in front of the giveaway booth and read the brief contest rules. As Sunset arrived, Pinkie pointed at a full jar of jellybeans on the booth’s counter and cheerfully said, “All I have to do is guess how many candies are in the jar, and my sugar senses say… three hundred and five!” BZZZZ! The giveaway booth attendant — a girl with lime green skin, magenta on her upper legs, purple and magenta vertical stripes on her torso, white on her upper arms, a magenta bowtie around her neck, and a short and straight teal hair piece with a tan boater hat on top — smacked the buzzer on the counter, indicating Pinkie’s guess was incorrect. “Awww…” moaned Pinkie in disappointment. “What about seeing PostCrush together?” begged Sunset with a look of frustration on her face. “Uh, this bike has two seats, Sunset,” insisted Pinkie. “That’s one more than usual!” Sunset crossed her arms and maintained her grumpy glare at the girl who had such a short attention span. Pinkie rolled her eyes and conceded, “Fine, I’ll focus.” As her gaze turned away, she then suddenly gasped and excitedly exclaimed, “Oh, look! The Neon Garden!” She then immediately rushed towards the site of her latest distraction. “Pinkie!” objected Sunset, but again her friend was too blissfully excited to bother listening to her. She let out a groan of frustration, then followed after Pinkie. Pinkie squealed and giggled cheerfully as she rushed towards the entrance to the Neon Garden, which was a series of tall hedges with strings of glowing lights in various bright colors that were laid out along the hedges, the ground, and through the tunnels cut through some of the hedges. Some of these strings of lights were even arranged in some places along the hedges to resemble large flowers. Sunset had no choice but to chase after Pinkie into the Neon Garden. As her friend continued to blissfully frolic around aimlessly, Sunset struggled to keep up and eventually had to pause for a moment to catch her breath. She took that moment to examine her surroundings and a crushing realization occurred to her. “The Neon Garden is a maze?!” she cried out in disbelief. She then facepalmed and grumbled, “Ugh, should’ve expected that from all these hedges…” “WHEEEEEE!!” squealed Pinkie excitedly as she ran by along the path behind Sunset. Sunset immediately turned back and rushed over to the intersection of the path she was on and the path Pinkie had been on. She looked both ways, but was unable to locate the energetic pink girl. Pinkie giggled and snorted as she did cartwheels along another path behind Sunset. Sunset spun around and rushed to the other end of the path she was on to reach the intersection with that other path. She looked both ways, but again found no signs of that party girl. Behind Sunset, Pinkie suddenly hung upside down from the ceiling of the hedge tunnel and teasingly tapped the back of Sunset’s head before swiftly retreating back up into the hedge while snickering mischievously. Sunset spun around again and once again failed to find any trace of her pesky friend. She growled and furiously shouted, “Pinkie! We don’t have time for this!” Pinkie’s only response was yet more cheerful giggling from elsewhere in the Neon Garden. Sunset rolled her eyes as she groaned and muttered, “It’s like trying to catch a wild animal…” As soon as that thought crossed her mind, she suddenly got an idea. First, she navigated her way through the Neon Garden, taking her nearly half an hour to eventually find the exit. Once she was finally out, she rushed all the way across the festival grounds over to where all the food trucks were parked and purchased a bag of candy, then quickly returned to the Neon Garden. Sunset made her way back into the middle of the Neon Garden, where she heard persistent giggling that confirmed Pinkie was still frolicking around in here. Again, she tried to navigate her way around the maze, but with a moving target like Pinkie, she eventually realized she was never going to have any chance of reaching her. Instead, she took some time to study the paths through the maze and eventually discovered there was a loop around somewhere in the middle. With the day continuing to waste away, Sunset decided it was time to put her plan into action. She opened that bag of candy, then began to set a trail by dropping one piece of candy at a time, making sure to follow that course that looped around. When she completed the loop and saw the first pieces of candy she had dropped were now gone, she knew she finally had Pinkie’s attention. She adjusted the course of her candy trail to lead towards the exit, where she then dropped the bag and hid behind the side of the hedge entryway. Only seconds later, Sunset saw Pinkie casually picking up the pieces of candy as she practically blindly followed the trail out of the Neon Garden. Just as Pinkie was about to grab the whole discarded bag, Sunset immediately jumped out of hiding and grabbed onto Pinkie’s arm. “Come on!” complained Sunset as she began to forcefully tug her friend away from the Neon Garden. “We’re gonna miss the show if you keep up this nonsense!” “Awww…” moaned Pinkie sadly as she stumbled along to reluctantly follow after Sunset while looking back at that bag of candy on the ground. Sunset firmly led the way directly to the main performance stage. Upon seeing the small crowd that had already begun to gather in front of it, she knew she and Pinkie were going to cut it very short, but as long as nothing else occurred along the way, they would still have a chance to secure that perfect spot up front from which to watch PostCrush later that evening. Alas, she failed to notice a pair of easels set up along the path, nor the nearby artist handling small balloons filled with some liquid. “Who wants to be part of an art show?!” the artist — who had turquoise skin, olive green on his legs, medium blue on his torso and upper arms, a purple handkerchief around his neck, and a magenta afro hair piece — cheerfully called out as he held up two of those filled balloons. Pinkie suddenly freed herself from Sunset’s grip and began waving her arms around as she excitedly replied, “Ooh! I do! I do!” The artist turned to the two girls and smiled when he saw they were already standing between the two easels he had set up. “Ah, perfect!” he declared. “Stay right where you are…” He then pulled his arms back, preparing to toss the filled balloons in his hands. “No! Don’t!” Sunset desperately protested. The artist ignored Sunset’s plea and tossed the balloons at the easels, bursting upon impact and splattering paint all over the easels and the two girls, with pink paint on Pinkie on the left and blue paint on Sunset on the right. Pinkie giggled and cheerfully cried, “Do it again!” “NO!!” Sunset furiously shouted. She kicked over the easel next to her. “I never agreed to be part of this pathetic excuse for art!” She then firmly grabbed Pinkie’s wrist and began dragging her away. “C’mon, Pinkie! Let’s get cleaned up before our chance to watch PostCrush slips away.” “Awww, but I was having fun!” whined Pinkie as she stumbled along behind Sunset. “And if you keep getting distracted like this, we’ll never get to see PostCrush!” Sunset shot back as she tightened her grip on Pinkie’s wrist. “That’s the one reason why we’re even here in the first place, remember?!” “Owie! Owie!” cried Pinkie from the painfully tight grip Sunset had on her hand. “Okay! I give!” She sighed and sadly conceded, “We’ll do things your way…” “First thing’s first,” stated Sunset as she led Pinkie over to the public restrooms. “We gotta wash off all this paint.” She kicked open the door to the girls restroom, walked inside, and flung Pinkie towards the far end of the room. “And if we’re quick enough, we might still have a chance to get a decent spot to watch PostCrush.” “Consider it done!” declared Pinkie with a smile. She then tore open one of the paper towel dispensers, removed the entire roll of paper towels, brought it with her into one of the toilet stalls, and shut the door. Sunset was baffled by Pinkie’s method for cleaning paint off herself, but then just sighed and shook her head before turning her attention to the mirror and one of the sinks. She grabbed a paper towel, soaked it under the running water in the sink, and wiped it across one of the paint splatters on her body. Once that paper towel had soaked up as much of that paint as possible — which was actually not much at all — she tossed it into the trashcan, then grabbed another paper towel and repeated the process. With so much paint all over herself, and with how difficult all of it was proving to be to wash off, Sunset knew they were rapidly losing even more precious time that could’ve been saved had it not been for yet another moment of distraction by Pinkie. As Sunset continued to clean herself, she remained very displeased and grumbled under her breath, “Stupid paint… stupid artist… stupid Neon Garden… stupid bicycle… stupid security… stupid Pinkie…” When that last one came out of her mouth, she quickly regretted thinking such a thing about someone who was, after all, one of her closest friends. She took a deep breath and slowly let it out in an effort to calm herself. Splash! That noise from the occupied toilet stall was immediately followed by some hysterical giggling from Pinkie. For Sunset, that swiftly brought her temper back up to the high point. Pinkie partially opened the stall door and peeked her head out as she eagerly said, “Guess what! I spilled some paint on the inside of this door and it looks exactly like…” She threw the door all the way open to reveal the splattered paint on the other side of it. “Rarity with a pirate mustache! Huh? Huh?” Objectively, Sunset had to admit the supposedly random mess did bear quite the uncanny resemblance to Rarity’s face with a bushy mustache slapped over the mouth. However, Sunset was not in the mood for any further antics from Pinkie, so she responded with nothing more than a flat stare. With Sunset not reacting with any positivity, Pinkie shrugged and stated, “What? It’s washable.” Sunset facepalmed and grumbled, “I’ve had just about enough of this.” Without another word, she swiftly reached into Pinkie’s fanny pack and began digging through its contents. She tossed out a trumpet, a spatula, a tire, a horseshoe magnet, and a rubber chicken before she finally pulled out a pair of handcuffs. She slapped one of the cuffs onto Pinkie’s wrist and the other cuff onto her own wrist, then placed the accompanying key into her pants pocket. “There,” Sunset firmly declared with a frown. “No more getting separated. No more distractions. Now let’s get going.” As Sunset started walking towards the door out of the restroom, Pinkie gave a salute and cheerfully responded, “You got it, Sun— Whoa!” She was yanked right behind Sunset to follow her out of the restroom. Once they stepped outside, Sunset was astonished to see it was already starting to get dark. Did we really waste that much time already?! she thought in horror. Ugh, I knew I should’ve kept checking the time to make sure we were still on schedule. “Wow!” remarked Pinkie with a smile. “I guess time really does fly by when you’re having fun!” “No more time for fun!” Sunset shot back irritably as she rushed towards the main performance stage. It wasn’t long before she saw her worst fears were confirmed. A massive crowd of people had already gathered around in front of that stage, with very little room to maneuver through the middle of it all. The sight of it quickly discouraged Sunset, but after everything she had been through today, she grew more determined than ever. No! she thought firmly. I’ve come too far to give up now! “Hurry, Pinkie!” Sunset spoke up urgently. “They’re about to go on! We’ll have to push to the front row! Come on!” She gave no apologies at all as she started shoving her way through the middle of the crowd, much to the annoyance of everyone she bumped into. “Hey! What’s the big idea?” “Watch it, buddy!” “Ow! My foot!” “Hey, I’m standin’ here!” Pinkie gave no resistance as Sunset pulled her along. However, once they were only halfway through the crowd, she suddenly began to smell a rather sweet and delicious aroma. As she continued sniffing the air, she turned her gaze back and gasped when she saw Puffed Pastry — a certain chef she had previously encountered on that unfortunate cruise from a few months ago — giving out a very special baked good from her food cart. “Puffed Pastry’s exclusive star-crusted, cinnamon-dipped churros!” exclaimed Pinkie, already drooling at the sight those delicious treats. Another yank from the handcuffs that attached her to Sunset snapped Pinkie out of her dessert daydream. She shook her head and firmly declared, “No! I will not give in!” She tried to allow Sunset to guide her through the crowd, but her resolve crumbled only one second later as she took another glance back at the churro cart. “Ooh, I can’t resist!” she squealed excitedly as she suddenly turned back and began to charge towards the churro cart. As soon as Pinkie began her attempt to run off, Sunset felt the tug on the handcuffs holding them together and immediately dug her heels into the ground in a desperate effort to hold back her energetic friend. “This is the worst possible time for churros, Pinkie!” protested Sunset. Although she was able to significantly slow Pinkie’s progress, they were still surrounded by a dense crowd of minifigs, so all it took was one minor and accidental nudge from one of them to cause Sunset to suddenly lose her footing and get flung up into the air as Pinkie was now free to rush at the churro cart. Pinkie was so narrowly focused on grabbing some of those churros that she never noticed what happened to Sunset, nor did she ever consider the consequence of the fact they were still handcuffed together. Pinkie abruptly stopped right in front of that churro cart, but with Sunset still being flung along behind her, that momentum caused her to uncontrollably slam into the unaware party girl, causing both of them to then slam into the cart, smashing it to pieces and sending cinnamon dust flying everywhere. Sunset and Pinkie were both momentarily dazed from the impact. When they recovered, they both noticed a shadow looming over them. They looked over their shoulders and saw the security guard from the front entrance was now standing before them with his arms crossed, a scowl on his face, and his head and torso covered in cinnamon dust. Pinkie giggled nervously and sheepishly said, “Our bad.” “More like your bad,” grumbled Sunset as she glared at Pinkie. “This wouldn’t have happened if you had just listened to me for once.” The security guard wasn’t interested in hearing any excuses. He grabbed the two girls by the shoulder and hauled them up to their feet, then began forcefully escorting them towards a doorway in the wall that marked the perimeter of the festival grounds. Once they arrived at that door, he removed their festival bracelet pieces, used a pair of scissors to snip them in half, and dropped the destroyed parts to the ground. Finally, he opened the door, shoved both girls outside, and then slammed the door shut. Sunset and Pinkie were now suddenly faced with the shut door with a decal of a warning message stuck on it that read, “EXIT ONLY! Trespassers will be tackled on sight.” Both of them lowered their gazes to the ground in sadness, but then Sunset glared sideways at Pinkie, who shamefully recoiled in response. Suddenly, the two banished girls saw above the wall some bright lights shining up into the sky from the direction of the main performance stage while an amplified voice in the distance shouted out, “Let me hear three big cheers for two best friends who got back together for one incredible night! PoooooostCruuuuuush!!” That announcement was immediately followed by a roaring cheer and applause from the crowd that the two girls were so close to being part of. Pinkie tried to silently assure her friend by placing a hand on Sunset’s shoulder, but Sunset smacked her friend’s hand away. Sunset reached into her pants pocket and pulled out the key to the handcuffs that still held the two of them together. Once she unlocked and removed the cuff on her wrist, she tossed the key to Pinkie and began to walk off towards the campgrounds. Pinkie was at a loss as she glanced back and forth between the key she had just caught in her hand and Sunset walking off without saying a word. Her attention soon turned to the concert they were missing out on when she heard PostCrush beginning to play their famous song. Realizing there was no point in staying here, she sighed sadly as she used the key to remove the cuff from her wrist, then tossed both items to the ground before she turned away from the door and slowly walked off after Sunset. Later that evening, Sunset and Pinkie returned to their RV in the campgrounds, where the rest of their friends were seated around the heating table and roasting marshmallows over it. As they walked, Sunset had her gaze down at the ground with a sullen look on her face, while Pinkie cautiously followed close behind with a shameful expression on her face. Rainbow Dash placed her roasted marshmallow on a graham cracker and removed it from the skewer she held when she noticed the arrival of Sunset and Pinkie. “There they are!” she spoke up eagerly as the others also turned to their two friends. “Two peas in a pod! How was it? Rad-tacular? Amaze-magic?” Sunset growled as she crossed her arms and looked away from her friends. The others looked at each other uneasily before Applejack cautiously asked, “Uh, what’s wrong?” Sunset sighed and sadly replied, “We missed PostCrush.” He voice gradually grew angrier as she continued, “Someone wanted to win a bike, then got us lost in a maze, covered in paint, sidelined by churros, and finally, kicked out!” Fluttershy gasped and worriedly muttered, “Oh dear…” “I’m really sorry, Sunset,” responded Pinkie remorsefully. In an effort to try to stay positive, she placed her hand on Sunset’s shoulder and added, “I wish we could do the day all over again. I’d do it differently.” Sunset smacked Pinkie’s hand off her shoulder and grumbled, “Me, too.” She turned and began to walk away from the group. “I’d do it alone…” Pinkie felt especially hurt by that statement, and began to make another attempt to reach out to Sunset. “Pinkie, darling,” Rarity spoke up. “Perhaps you should just leave her be for the moment.” “I concur,” agreed Twilight. “It sounds like she’s had a very rough day. Trust me, it’s best that you let her have some time to herself to cool off.” “I’m sure she’ll forgive you later,” added Spike with a smile. Just then, the marshmallow he was roasting suddenly caught on fire. He yelped in panic and started waving the skewer around in an effort to put out the fire. Instead, the smoldering treat flung off the skewer and splattered against Rarity, who yelled out in horror at seeing her expensive jacket ruined by the gooey mess. Under normal circumstances, Pinkie would have laughed at seeing such silly antics among her friends, but the guilt of having ruined what should’ve been the best day ever for both her and Sunset left her reacting with little more than a sad sigh. Sunset had wandered around aimlessly until she eventually found herself on a hilltop overlooking the festival grounds. From this vantage point, although she could see the bright lights from the main performance stage, the conifer trees of the surrounding forest obscured her view of most of the stage. Not to mention that at this distance, she could barely hear any noise from the performance, let alone identify whatever song was being played right now. Sunset reluctantly pulled out her phone to check the time and, as she had feared, the end of the scheduled time for when PostCrush was due to perform had already come and gone. Sunset shoved her phone back into her pocket and sat down upon the hilltop. She felt really hurt that she missed out on the one thing she had been most looking forward to for the entire music festival, and even more so that she would not be allowed back onto the festival grounds for the remainder of the event tomorrow. As she held her knees close to her chest, she lowered her head down and began to sob. I really wish I could have another chance to watch PostCrush, she thought solemnly. Boom. Whoosh! With her gaze turned down, Sunset failed to notice the burst of light that suddenly erupted from somewhere out in the middle of the forest. That burst was immediately followed by a shockwave that quickly spread out across a large area in the woods, though not large enough to reach even the nearest edge of the festival grounds. However, Sunset was close enough to the epicenter for that glowing shockwave to pass through her — a sensation she definitely felt. “Huh?” muttered Sunset in confusion as she suddenly turned her head up and glanced around. The burst of light had lasted so briefly that by the time she looked up, it was already gone. She cautiously stood up and continued to look around, but still saw nothing out of the ordinary. Sunset once again pulled out her phone to check the time, then sighed as she put her phone away again. It was starting to get rather late, so she decided it was probably best to return to the RV and get ready for bed. She had no idea what she could possibly do tomorrow that could make up for today’s complete disaster, but she knew she would have to come to terms with the fact that it was all in the past now, and there was nothing she could do to change it. It’s not like reality had a reset button, after all… Author's Note As I wrote this chapter, it occurred to me how the official version seemed to have the first loop of that day go by much more quickly than later loops seemed to portray, so I tried to figure out which events probably contributed to the most amount of time wasted, and possibly imply how less time would be spent on those moments in the later loops. There's more I'd like to further explain, but I'll save it for later chapters when it'll be more relevant. A Do-Over?Chapter 2 A Do-Over? Morning arrived at the campgrounds just outside the Starswirled Music Festival. It was little more than an hour after sunrise, and by this point, Sunset Shimmer was the only one still asleep within the RV that she and her friends were using for their stay at the festival. As Sunset slept in her sleeping bag beside the window, her phone was lying beside her head on the pillow. At the moment the time became 7:00, the phone’s alarm went off by playing a song by PostCrush. Be the true… true, true original— Sunset slowly woke up and shut off her phone’s alarm. She didn’t bother glancing at the phone as she set it back down and let out a tired groan. She had definitely not forgotten about how she had been unable to watch the live performance of PostCrush the previous night, and still felt very depressed about it. As far as she was concerned, today was sure to be absolutely miserable. Sunset shuffled out of her sleeping bag, tossed off her pajamas, and slipped on the same outfit she had worn yesterday for the music festival. She then walked out the door and around the front of the RV to join her friends, who were already gathered outside. At this moment, Twilight, Fluttershy, and Applejack were seated around the RV’s heating table as they ate breakfast, while Rarity and Spike were seated at a nearby picnic table as Spike demonstrated some of his beatboxing skills. Rarity rolled her eyes and grumbled, “Ugh, I shall never understand the appeal of beatboxing.” Spike kept his smile as he shrugged and remarked, “Eh, to each their own.” Didn’t they have that exact same conversation yesterday? thought Sunset in confusion as she looked towards Spike and Rarity. With her attention on them, she failed to see Rainbow Dash quickly run over and stop right behind her while carrying a large paddle with the Sonic Rainbooms band symbol printed on it. “Starswirled day one! Come and get it!” Rainbow excitedly declared as she swung the paddle around, accidentally smacking Sunset’s rear end. “Ow! Watch it!” exclaimed Sunset as she grasped her rear end and glared at Rainbow Dash. “Oops.” Rainbow chuckled sheepishly and responded, “Sorry. I’ll be more careful next time.” She then turned and walked away. Sunset began to rub away the stinging pain, but then stopped as a shocking realization occurred to her. “Wait…” she quietly muttered. “Did she just say… Starswirled day one?” She then turned to the rest of her friends seated around the heating table. “So Ah says to Big Mac, ‘Get your own chicken coop!’” spoke Applejack. Fluttershy happened to be in the middle of taking a sip of her orange juice when she heard the end of that joke, so she ended up doing a spit-take directly onto the front of Applejack’s torso before beginning to laugh. “Hey! Watch it!” complained Applejack. Fluttershy laughed for a little bit before she calmed down enough to respond, “Sorry. It’s just that one had animals in it.” Applejack grabbed a nearby napkin and started drying herself off as she grumbled, “Well next time, try not to spray it at someone!” As Sunset listened to that conversation, she was astonished by how remarkably accurate it was to the conversation they had the previous morning. Either her friends were all playing a very convincing joke on her, or something really weird was happening. What is going on here? she thought to herself in absolute confusion. “Ooh! Ooh! How about this one?!” Pinkie Pie suddenly exclaimed excitedly as she bounced over to where most of her friends were seated. “What do you call a PostCrush fan with three eyes?” She waited only one second before she quickly answered, “Pinkie Pie!” She then rushed over to Sunset and began shoving her towards the festival grounds. Sunset was so preoccupied with her confused thoughts that she stumbled a little as Pinkie shoved her ahead. Fluttershy glanced around at her friends with a confused look on her face before she confessed, “Um… I don’t get it.” As Applejack stood up and continued wiping off all the orange juice splattered on her torso, Twilight suddenly stood up and called out, “Pinkie, wait! I don’t think Sunset’s had a chance to grab any breakfast yet.” Pinkie stopped and glanced back at Twilight, then turned to the other nearby table where a large plate with plenty of pancakes on it was still set out. She then giggled in embarrassment and released her grip on Sunset. “Sorry about that,” she said. “I guess I’m just so excited that we’re finally gonna see PostCrush tonight!” “Yeah… that thing…” agreed Sunset halfheartedly as she walked over to the table, grabbed her own plate, and started gathering a stack of those blueberry pancakes. That rather dull comment from Sunset caused most of her friends nearby to glance at each other with confused looks. Applejack wadded up the soaked napkin she had used to clean herself and tossed it into a trashcan a short distance away before she worriedly asked, “You feelin’ all right, Sunset? Ah thought you’d be practically over the moon to see PostCrush tonight.” As Sunset poured some maple syrup over her pancakes, she hesitantly replied, “To be honest… I’m not sure. It’s just… something doesn’t feel right about any of this…” Pinkie hooked her arm around Sunset’s neck and smiled as she assured her friend, “Aw, you probably just had a rough night. I’m sure you’ll forget all about it once we get there.” Sunset wished she could share Pinkie’s optimism, but was still too baffled by what she was experiencing at the moment. Perhaps it was her imagination, but as she took her first bite of those pancakes, she couldn’t help but notice they seemed to appear perfectly identical to the pancakes she had for breakfast the previous day. But perhaps the strangest part of all was that everyone around her was behaving as if there was absolutely nothing weird to be concerned about. This doesn’t make any sense, thought Sunset as she continued eating. Why is everyone behaving like it’s day one all over again? I thought I went through all of this yesterday. Why am I the only one who seems to notice anything weird about it? If anything, the only thing Sunset could be certain about right now was that, somehow, something very strange was going on… Once everyone had finished with breakfast, the group began to walk towards the entrance to the festival grounds. Rainbow Dash eagerly led the way, followed by Applejack and Rarity having a casual conversation, Pinkie Pie cheerfully skipping along, Fluttershy and Spike walking beside each other, and finally Twilight with Sunset following right behind. But while the rest of her friends were looking forward to the day ahead of them, Sunset was feeling rather lost and confused about everything going on around her. Squish. “Whoa!” cried out Sunset as she suddenly stumbled forward and grabbed onto Twilight’s shoulders. Twilight yelped as Sunset fell onto her, but she was able to keep herself upright and thus prevent Sunset from falling to the ground. Twilight helped her friend stand up straight again and asked, “Are you okay?” Sunset glanced down at her feet and noticed that her right foot had stepped into a mud puddle — just like what had happened to her the previous day. She frowned as she stared down at her mud-coated foot and hesitantly replied, “I’m… not sure…” Twilight glanced down at Sunset’s feet and asked in confusion, “What are you talking about? It’s just a little mud puddle.” “It’s not just the mud,” replied Sunset as she rubbed her foot against the grassy ground a few times to scrape off most of that mud. “Sunset! Sunset! Look!” Pinkie cheerfully cried out up ahead with the others. “So many lines to stand in! This day’s already amazing! Let’s go!” She immediately rushed ahead to the middle of the three security lines. The others also took their places in the lines, with Rarity and Applejack in the left line, Fluttershy and Spike in the right line, and Rainbow Dash following Pinkie into the middle line. Meanwhile, Twilight was starting to feel a little concerned about Sunset, so she calmly offered, “If it makes you feel better, I’ll let you go ahead of me in line.” Although Sunset accepted the offer and began walking ahead of her friend, she still felt uneasy as she responded, “I don’t know if that’ll make much of a difference…” Sunset and Twilight arrived at the middle line just in time to hear Pinkie Pie attempt to share some casual conversation with the guy ahead of her in line. “You come to this line often?” she asked him. “Any other sweet lines we should hit up?” That guy raised an eyebrow in confusion and replied, “Uh… I’m just waiting in line to get through security.” “I know!” remarked Pinkie cheerfully. “Isn’t it exciting?” As that guy turned away and muttered something under his breath, Sunset simultaneously spoke, “Not as exciting as watching paint dry…” Rainbow Dash suddenly glanced back and forth between Sunset and the guy ahead of them in line, somehow convinced that she had just heard both of them say the exact same thing at the exact same time. “Huh?” she asked in confusion. “That’s what the guy ahead of us just said,” explained Sunset, just as baffled as Rainbow. Feeling a little weirded out, Rainbow Dash turned her attention elsewhere and soon discovered the other two lines seemed to be moving ahead more quickly than the one she was currently stuck in. Since she naturally hated staying in one place for too long, she impatiently called out to the front of the line, “What’s with these long lines, man?!” The security guard at the gate up ahead was in the middle of waving his metal detecting wand over the person currently at the front of the line. He paused his work and turned his attention to the girl who had shouted at him from further down the line. “Security is an art,” he firmly responded. “It cannot be rushed,” spoke Sunset simultaneously with the security guard, albeit in a much less confident tone than he had used. Behind her, Twilight was now really starting to feel concerned for Sunset. Accurately matching two spontaneous comments in under a minute? she thought to herself in confusion. There’s definitely something unusual about Sunset today, and judging by her behavior, it seems she’s struggling to understand all of this as much as any of us are. More than two hours had passed by the time all of the girls had made it through the security lines. Even there, Sunset was continuously reminded of all the events she had remembered occurring, such as all the unusual items inside Pinkie’s tiny fanny pack, and Pinkie’s struggle to control her reflexive giggling during the part involving the metal detecting wand. What did turn out different this time was that Rainbow Dash and Twilight were also in their line, so that was a little more additional time she was forced to wait through. And unlike last time, she felt no sense of urgency to get through the line, so she never spoke up at all when it was her turn to go through the security process. And when that green festival bracelet was placed on her wrist and she was permitted to enter, she could only stare at that bracelet in disbelief as she walked into the festival grounds that she had so vividly remembered being kicked out from the previous night. By the time Twilight made it through security and was the last one to join up with the group of friends, Pinkie was practically hopping in place with barely contained excitement for the day ahead, while Sunset still remained speechless from her immense confusion. “Welp, y’all have fun seein’ PostCrush,” stated Applejack as she waved at Pinkie and Sunset. “We’ll see ya back at camp tonight.” Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Spike also waved at Pinkie and Sunset before they all went their separate ways to enjoy all the different shows and activities at this music festival they were all interested in. While Pinkie eagerly waved back to their departing friends, Sunset continued to display an absence of any emotions, while Twilight was so concerned about Sunset that she decided to forgo her own interests at this festival so she could keep an eye on her seemingly lost friend. “What do you wanna do first, Sunset?” asked Pinkie excitedly. “There’s so much we can do! Like…” She quickly glanced around and when her eyes fell upon a nearby giveaway booth, she gasped and exclaimed, “Win a tandem bicycle?!” She immediately rushed over towards that booth with a purple tandem bicycle displayed to the side. Sunset was about to protest Pinkie running off, but stopped herself before she could get a word out, somehow understanding that it would be a pointless effort. She glanced over at Twilight, who responded with only a shrug and a confused expression. “All I have to do is guess how many candies are in the jar,” explained Pinkie as she eyed the jar full of jellybeans on the booth’s counter, “and my sugar senses say…” Sunset leaned close to Twilight and quietly said, “She’s gonna guess three hundred and five, which will be wrong.” “…three hundred and five!” finished Pinkie. BZZZZ! The booth’s attendant smacked the buzzer on the counter, indicating Pinkie’s guess was incorrect. “Awww…” moaned Pinkie in disappointment. Twilight’s jaw dropped as she turned to Sunset and asked, “How did you…?” “Exactly,” agreed Sunset in astonishment. “Seriously, is anyone else having some serious déjà vu right now?” “Nope. Just déjà V-you,” joked Twilight in an effort to lift her friend’s spirits. She laughed at her joke and explained, “Get it? ‘Cause it’s just you? With the déjà vu? And the U is replaced with you?” With Sunset not even cracking a smile at that, Twilight sighed in defeat and admitted, “Okay, so I’m terrible with puns.” Sunset rubbed her forehead as she began to walk away and explained, “I don’t know how to explain it, but… I did all of this yesterday.” “Yesterday?” asked Twilight in confusion as she followed after Sunset. “But yesterday was Friday, a weekday when we all have job obligations in the city. And since this is the very first day of the music festival, how could you have done anything like this the previous day?” “That’s the thing,” replied Sunset. “I know for a fact that I already went through this whole day. I mean, right now, Pinkie has just run off to—” Sunset immediately stopped — both speaking and walking — when she realized the full implication behind what she was about to say. “What is it?” asked Twilight. “Where’s Pinkie?” “Oh, no,” said Sunset firmly as she frowned and furrowed her brow. “I’m not gonna waste most of the day like that again. This time, I’m coming prepared.” She immediately turned and ran off towards the area where all the food trucks were parked. “Pinkie’s over by the food trucks?” asked Twilight in confusion as she ran after Sunset. “No, she’s in the Neon Garden,” replied Sunset as she continued running. “But that place is literally a maze, and she’s too busy having pointless fun to bother finding her way out, so my only option is to lay a trail of candy to lure her out.” “Seems a little desperate, if you ask me,” noted Twilight. “I don’t know about you,” retorted Sunset, “but I’d rather not spend hours and hours wandering around in a hedge maze trying to find someone with seemingly no interest in focusing on the most important thing that needs to get done, and that’s to get us the best seats to watch PostCrush.” Once she arrived at the truck that was selling all kinds of candy, she slapped a one dollar bill on the counter and grabbed a bag of hard candy in assorted flavors. “Call it what you want, but I’m interested in dealing with this issue the fast way.” She then began to run off towards the Neon Garden. “Let me help you out,” Twilight quickly offered, before she also handed over a one dollar bill and quickly grabbed another bag of candy. She then ran off after Sunset all the way across the festival grounds to eventually reach the entrance to the Neon Garden. As soon as the two girls passed through the entrance into the Neon Garden, they heard the unmistakable sound of Pinkie’s blissful giggling from somewhere within the hedges. “She’s definitely in here somewhere…” muttered Sunset with determination as she opened her bag of candy. She made her way further into the hedge maze until she reached a site she remembered was part of the looped path she had discovered the previous time she was here. “You go that way and I’ll go this way,” ordered Sunset, pointing first to the left and then to the right. “We’ll meet up somewhere on the other side, then backtrack our trails. Once we find a missing part of either trail, we’ll know where to find Pinkie.” She then began dropping pieces of candy as she headed off down the right path. “If you’re sure about this…” responded Twilight with uncertainty before she opened her bag of candy and started dropping pieces of it as she headed off down the left path. Unlike Sunset, she was unfamiliar with the arrangement of the paths within this hedge maze, so she was concerned she might take a wrong turn and end up getting herself lost, which would make finding Pinkie much more difficult. Thankfully, Twilight managed to choose the correct path and ended up encountering Sunset at a different site after only a few minutes. Once their trails of candy came together, the two girls shared a nod of agreement and began to backtrack down the trails they had laid out. Twilight made it around only two turns before she found her trail suddenly ended, even though she was sure it should have continued back to the path into the garden. With no sign of Pinkie in sight, Twilight was convinced this meant Sunset would likely intercept her, but just in case they managed to somehow bypass each other, Twilight decided to replace the missing trail in an effort to further ensure Pinkie could be lured out of this maze. Meanwhile, Sunset also discovered her trail had suddenly ended before she reached the starting point, so in the unlikely chance that Pinkie was somehow able to bypass Twilight, she set down that trail again to shrink the gap. With her and Twilight coming in from both directions, Sunset was convinced there was no way Pinkie would be able to escape from them. After only a couple minutes, Sunset and Twilight met up again, but they were both astonished to see each other replacing the missing trail of candy with no sign of Pinkie anywhere between them. “Huh?” asked Twilight in confusion. “How did she avoid both of us?” Sunset was about to say something when she suddenly heard a rustle in the hedges not far behind her on the path where she had laid her trail of candy. She rushed back the way she came and made it around a corner just in time to see a pair of pink arms retreat into the hedge wall, followed by some mischievous giggling that unmistakably came from Pinkie Pie. “Hey, that’s cheating!” cried out Sunset furiously. “Is she going through the hedges?” asked Twilight as she caught up to her friend. “Unfortunately, yes,” grumbled Sunset in response. “So how are we gonna catch her now?” asked Twilight. Sunset took a moment to consider her options. As she thought about what else she could remember about the Neon Garden the last time she was here, she soon smiled and replied, “I might have an idea…” She turned to Twilight and added, “Stay on the trail. I’ll be right back.” She then ran off towards a different part of the garden. While she waited, Twilight decided to follow the complete circuit of the trail of candy. She found a few short gaps scattered along the trail, but no large missing sections that would indicate Pinkie was following the trail. “I think Pinkie might already be onto us,” she muttered to herself with concern. “Not this time,” Sunset spoke up as she returned, now carrying with her an empty food crate and a short rod piece. “It’s amazing what kind of random parts people leave lying around in random places.” Without wasting any time, she tossed her entire bag of candy to the ground, then overturned the small crate with its open side down and used the short rod to prop up one end of that crate, essentially creating a classic box trap. “Simple, yet effective,” remarked Twilight with a smile. “We’re definitely gonna catch her this time,” declared Sunset with a grin of confidence. “Who are we catching?” Sunset and Twilight immediately turned to that third voice and found Pinkie Pie standing right behind them while snacking on an armful of candy pieces she was carrying around. After a moment of shock, Sunset facepalmed, then grabbed Pinkie by the arm and began to forcefully tug her along the path out of the Neon Garden, causing her to drop her armful of candy. As Sunset and Pinkie left, Twilight glanced back at the box trap and pile of candy as she asked, “Uh, shouldn’t we clean this up?” “No time for that,” replied Sunset dismissively. After a few minutes of navigating the winding paths through the hedges, the three girls finally made their way out the exit from the Neon Garden and proceeded towards the main performance stage, with Sunset leading the way. “You need to focus, Pinkie,” Sunset firmly stated. “If you keep running off like this, we’ll be late for the concert!” She then turned away and grumbled under her breath, “Again…” However, it seemed fate was not favorable to Sunset this time, for she had forgotten about the pair of easels set up along the path, along with the eccentric artist who was handling small balloons filled with paint. “Who wants to be part of an art show?!” the artist cheerfully called out as he held up two of those paint balloons. Pinkie suddenly freed herself from Sunset’s grip and began waving her arms around as she excitedly replied, “Ooh! I do! I do!” The artist turned to the three girls and smiled when he saw they were already standing between the two easels he had set up. “Ah, perfect,” he declared. “Stay right where you are…” He then pulled his arms back, preparing to toss the filled balloons in his hands. “Don’t do it!” Sunset desperately cried out as she held her hands out. “Don’t—!” Splat! The artist ignored Sunset’s protests and tossed the balloons at the easels, bursting upon impact and splattering paint all over the easels and the three girls, with green paint on Twilight and Pinkie on the left and blue paint on Sunset and Pinkie on the right. Thrilled to be in the middle and covered in both colors of paint, Pinkie giggled and cheerfully cried, “Do it again!” “No! Not again!” Sunset protested. Again, the artist obeyed Pinkie and ignored Sunset by swiftly tossing two more balloons at the easels, splattering yellow paint on the left and pink paint on the right. Pinkie giggled again and excitedly exclaimed, “Awesome!” In a fit of rage, Sunset grabbed the easel next to her and tossed it towards the eccentric artist. The artist narrowly dodged the flying easel and shouted, “Hey! Watch it!” “Consider it payback!” Sunset shot back. “I never agreed to be part of this pathetic excuse for art, and I never will! Seriously, when I said no, I really meant no!” She then tightly grasped Pinkie’s wrist and began dragging her away. “Owie! Owie! Owie!” cried out Pinkie in pain as she stumbled along after Sunset. “Hey! Wait up!” Twilight called out as she attempted to follow after them. “I can’t see anything!” Due her glasses being completed covered in paint, she was forced to reach her arms outward as she followed the voices of her two friends. “But Sunset, I was just having fun!” whined Pinkie as she continued to be pulled along. “Do I look like I’m having fun?!” Sunset furiously shot back as she stopped and glared back at Pinkie. Seeing the fierce scowl — complete with an eye twitch — on Sunset’s face caused Pinkie to hesitate for a moment before she shamefully conceded, “Uh… I guess not…” Sunset let out a sigh of frustration as she turned away and grumbled under her breath, “At least you’re not completely clueless.” She then spoke up, “Let’s just go to the restroom and wash off all this paint. Hopefully, we’ll still have enough time to get ready to see PostCrush.” She then continued walking ahead, pulling Pinkie along behind her. As Twilight blindly staggered over to them, Pinkie reached out and grabbed her hand and assured her, “Don’t worry, Twilight. We got ya.” Sunset guided her two friends over to the public restrooms, kicked open the door to the girls restroom, and hauled them both inside before she finally released her firm grip on Pinkie’s hand. “Just get cleaned up so we don’t waste any more time,” insisted Sunset. “Consider it done!” declared Pinkie with a smile. She then tore open one of the paper towel dispensers, removed the entire roll of paper towels, brought it with her into one of the toilet stalls, and shut the door. Sunset sighed and shook her head before she turned her attention to the mirror and one of the sinks. She grabbed a paper towel, soaked it under the running water in the sink, and wiped it across one of the paint splatters on her body. Once that paper towel had soaked up as much of that paint as possible, she wadded it up, tossed it into the trashcan, then grabbed another paper towel and repeated the process. Removing all of that paint proved to be just as difficult as she remembered the first time, so she knew she would be at this for quite some time. Meanwhile, Twilight felt her way around until she reached one of the available sinks. She turned on the water, removed her glasses, and rinsed off all the paint that covered them. Once all of that paint was washed off, she flicked off the water and put her glasses back on. Now that she could finally see how much of a mess she was, she sighed in frustration and grumbled, “If this day already happened, then couldn’t you have at least warned us about the paint?” She held out her hand towards Sunset. Sunset grabbed a paper towel and passed it over to Twilight, who used it to start wiping the paint splatters off herself. “I was kinda hoping that getting out of the Neon Garden sooner meant we wouldn’t have to face that freaky artist,” admitted Sunset as she grabbed another paper towel for herself and continued cleaning off the paint splatters on her body. “Seeing as he used different colors this time probably means he got set up sooner than I thought.” Splash! That noise from the occupied toilet stall was immediately followed by some hysterical giggling from Pinkie. The two girls at the sinks glanced back at that occupied stall, then turned to each other. Sunset sighed, then leaned close to Twilight and quietly explained in a flat tone, “Pinkie just splattered some paint on the inside of that stall’s door and it just so happens to resemble Rarity with a pirate mustache. And when I’m not impressed by it, she’ll just argue that it’s washable.” Twilight smirked and remarked, “That’s so randomly specific that if it turns out true, there’s no way it can be excused as a total coincidence. Especially when you take into account the changed variable regarding these paint colors.” Pinkie partially opened the stall door and peeked her head out as she eagerly said, “Guess what! I spilled some paint on the inside of this door and it looks exactly like…” She threw the door all the way open to reveal the splattered paint on the other side of it. “Rarity with a pirate mustache! Huh? Huh?” Twilight’s jaw dropped the moment she caught sight of that paint splatter that bore such an uncanny resemblance to Rarity’s face with a bushy mustache slapped over the mouth. She pointed at the paint splatter as she turned to Sunset and exclaimed in shock, “Seriously?!” “What?” responded Pinkie with a shrug. “It’s washable.” Twilight’s jaw remained down and her mouth gaping as her gaze shifted back and forth between Sunset and Pinkie while her hand continued pointing at that paint splatter. “Seriously…” responded Sunset in a bored tone. By the time the three girls had finished cleaning off all that paint, there was still just over an hour left to go before PostCrush was due to come on stage and begin their show, so they agreed to head over to the food trucks and grab something quick to eat. Sunset decided to get a small basket of fries, Twilight settled on a large pretzel, and Pinkie naturally went with some cotton candy. As they sat down at a table and ate their food, Sunset decided to explain in more detail her strange experiences of having already been through today’s events once before. However, she chose not to explain how her previous day ended, only stating that she and Pinkie ended up missing PostCrush’s live show. “So what do you think, Twi?” asked Sunset. “Any scientific explanation for this?” Twilight finished the last bite of her pretzel as she considered a potential hypothesis to explain Sunset’s recent experiences. After thinking it over for a minute, she stated, “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. Quite fascinating, really.” As she spoke, she presented a visualization of her hypothesis by taking one of the fries and bent it around to create a circular shape. Sunset took a moment to think about what Twilight was suggesting, and once she realized what it all meant, she gasped and noted, “A time loop…” Pinkie giggled and cheerfully remarked, “Time loop! Classic Sunset…” Sunset ignored Pinkie and asked, “But why only me? The only time I was alone yesterday was on the hill when I wished—” “For more wishes?” interrupted Pinkie blissfully as she leaned close to Sunset. “Solid choice.” Sunset rolled her eyes, placed her hand on Pinkie’s face, and gently shoved her away. She then continued, “This might sound crazy, but… I think Equestrian Magic is giving me another chance to see PostCrush.” She smiled as she spoke that final thought. Twilight and Pinkie glanced at each other, then turned back to Sunset. “Eh, not that crazy,” remarked Twilight before eating that fry she was still holding. “Eh, seen crazier,” agreed Pinkie before she took a final large bite of her cotton candy. Sunset sighed with a smile and admitted, “Yeah, I guess we really have been through a lot of weird things involving Equestrian Magic.” As Pinkie finished the last of her cotton candy, she suddenly frowned and asked, “Wait. Why didn’t you see PostCrush?” Sunset doubted it would have been appropriate to say right to Pinkie’s face that it was entirely her fault they both missed seeing PostCrush, so she just glanced to the side and grumbled, “Mistakes were made…” Pinkie moved over to sit beside Sunset and assured her friend, “Aw, don’t beat yourself up. I promise we’ll see them together tonight, or so help me, I—” She suddenly stopped when she began to smell a rather sweet and delicious aroma. “What’s that smell?” she asked as she continued sniffing the air. “Could it be?” She let out and excited gasped as her gaze fell on a certain food cart. “Puffed Pastry’s exclusive star-crusted, cinnamon-dipped churros!” Hearing those exact words come out of Pinkie caused Sunset to immediately glare at her, remembering all too well what those words ultimately led to on her previous experience of this day. Pinkie’s enthusiasm fell when she noticed the angry look on her friend’s face. “Now’s proooob’ly not the best time to go get one,” she reluctantly acknowledged. “It’s not!” Sunset eagerly agreed. “Let’s get moving so nothing goes wrong for PostCrush!” As she stood up, she handed over her half-full basket of fries to Pinkie. “Here, I’ll even let you have the rest of my fries.” Pinkie smiled at the offer and carried those fries with her as she began to follow Sunset and Twilight towards the main performance stage. She made it only a few steps before her mind drifted back to those churros. “On the other hand, if I get two, then Sunset can have one with me,” she noted to herself. She immediately snapped out of it and scolded herself, “No! No! I will not give in!” She then grabbed a handful of those fries and shoved them in her mouth. Alas, those fries were not enough to satisfy Pinkie’s cravings, which demanded something much sweeter with a cinnamon flavor, like those mouth-watering churros that she struggled to keep her eyes off for more than a few seconds. Her mental tug-o-war between obeying Sunset’s advice and giving in to her cravings left her whimpering and groaning for a few seconds, her body motionless as her mind kept jumping back and forth like a ping-pong ball. Finally she tossed those fries aside and rushed the churro cart as she screamed, “But I can’t resist!” As those fries spilled all over Sunset and the basket landed upside down atop her head, she turned back to Pinkie and exclaimed in panic, “Okay, this is the worst possible time for churros!” She then charged after Pinkie. Pinkie completely ignored Sunset and remained solely focused on grabbing some of those churros. She continued to rush towards that cart with an almost psychotic smile on her face with her tongue flailing out, the sight of which caused everyone near the cart to run away in terror. “Pinkie! Stop!” Sunset cried out desperately as she leaped into the air and tackled Pinkie. Although they both hit the ground, their momentum caused them to continue tumbling forwards until they both slammed into the churro cart, smashing it to pieces and sending cinnamon dust flying everywhere. Crash! Twilight cringed as she helplessly watched that disaster unfold. Sunset and Pinkie were both momentarily dazed from the impact. When they recovered, they both noticed a shadow looming over them. They looked over their shoulders and saw the security guard from the front entrance was now standing before them with his arms crossed, a scowl on his face, and his head and torso covered in cinnamon dust. Pinkie giggled nervously and sheepishly said, “Our bad.” “No, her bad,” argued Sunset to the security guard. “You saw me try to stop her, right, sir?” The security guard wasn’t interested in hearing any excuses. He grabbed the two girls by the shoulder and hauled them up to their feet, then began forcefully escorting them towards a doorway in the wall that marked the perimeter of the festival grounds. Once they arrived at that door, he removed their festival bracelet pieces, used a pair of scissors to snip them in half, and dropped the destroyed parts to the ground. Finally, he kicked the door open, shoved both girls outside, and then slammed the door shut. Once again, Sunset was faced with the message of “EXIT ONLY! Trespassers will be tackled on sight,” on a decal stuck to that door. And once again, it was only seconds after being kicked out that Sunset saw over the wall some bright lights shining up into the sky from the direction of the main performance stage while an amplified voice in the distance shouted out, “Let me hear three big cheers for two best friends who got back together for one incredible night! PoooooostCruuuuuush!!” That announcement was immediately followed by a roaring cheer and applause from the crowd that had gathered around that stage. And once again, Sunset was furious at Pinkie for causing both of them to miss out on the show that was now starting without them. “Maybe you’ll get another another chance?” assured Pinkie sheepishly. Sunset removed the overturned fries basket from atop her head and slammed it to the ground. “This is exactly how it ended the first time,” grumbled Sunset as she turned and began walking away back to the campgrounds. “If I do get another do-over, then I’m definitely gonna do this whole day alone.” Pinkie was at a loss as she glanced back and forth between the shut door and Sunset walking away. Although she heard PostCrush beginning to play their famous song, she was too devastated to enjoy it. “There you are!” cried out Twilight as she ran over to Pinkie from the main entrance of the festival grounds. As she stopped in front of Pinkie, she worriedly said, “I saw the whole thing happen. Are you okay?” Pinkie began to cry as she sadly replied, “Well… neither of us got injured, but… Sunset’s really mad at me. She said that this is exactly how this day ended for her the first time, and that if she gets another do-over, she’s gonna do it all alone…” “Oh, Pinkie, I’m so sorry,” said Twilight calmly as she pulled Pinkie into a hug. “I’m sure it was all just a misunderstanding.” “But you don’t understand!” sobbed Pinkie against Twilight’s shoulder. “Sunset knew that me going after those churros would ruin everything for us! She just didn’t say it in front of me because she knew it would hurt my feelings, but it still happened anyway! Why oh why did I have to give in to those silly churros?!” As Pinkie continued sobbing, Twilight simply patted her on the back to do what little she could to calm her depressed friend. After about a minute, Twilight released her hug and suggested, “Let’s head back to the campgrounds. I’m sure both of you will feel better once you have a chance to talk it out.” Pinkie sniffled and rubbed the tears from her eyes, but nodded in agreement. She and Twilight turned away from the door and began to make their way down the path towards the campgrounds. Later that evening, Sunset arrived at the RV in the campgrounds, where the rest of her friends were seated around the heating table and roasting marshmallows over it. As she walked, she had a grouchy look on her face as she kept her gaze down at the ground. Rainbow Dash placed her roasted marshmallow on a graham cracker and removed it from the skewer she held when she noticed Sunset’s arrival. “Look! There’s Sunset!” Rainbow spoke up eagerly as the others also turned to Sunset. Rainbow’s excitement quickly turned to confusion as she asked, “Uh, where’s Pinkie and Twilight?” “I’m sure they’re somewhere behind me,” grumbled Sunset irritably. The others looked at each other uneasily before Applajeack cautiously asked, “Uh, what’s wrong?” Sunset let out a sigh of frustration and grumbled, “I missed PostCrush… again. And it was all because of Pinkie… again.” The others stared at Sunset in confusion. “Again?” asked Fluttershy. “What do you mean by that?” “I’d rather not talk about it,” muttered Sunset as she turned away and headed towards the door into the RV. “I’ve had a long day. I’m gonna turn in early.” She opened the door, stepped into the RV, and then slammed the door shut. The rest of the group of friends were stunned and remained silent as they awkwardly glanced at one another. A couple minutes passed before Twilight and Pinkie finally arrived at the RV. Pinkie was leaning against Twilight’s shoulder with a shameful look on her face, while Twilight had her arm around Pinkie’s shoulder as she guided her remorseful friend over to the RV. “And there’s Pinkie and Twilight,” Rainbow Dash spoke up, not as excitedly as she had been just moments ago. “Hi, girls,” greeted Twilight with a smile, though the tone of her voice made it obvious she was not exactly in a positive mood at the moment. She frowned as she glanced over her friends and asked, “Where’s Sunset?” “She decided to hit the sack early,” replied Applejack as she gestured at the RV. “She seemed to be rather frustrated over supposedly missing PostCrush,” explained Rarity with concern. “Would you care to elaborate?” Pinkie sighed and sadly confessed, “It’s all my fault. I got us kicked out just before PostCrush went on, all because I couldn’t resist grabbing some churros. She knew it would lead to trouble for both of us, and I was too stupid to listen to her.” “No, Pinkie, you’re not stupid,” assured Fluttershy as she walked over and placed a hand on Pinkie’s shoulder. “Whatever happened, I’m sure it was just an accident that no one could’ve expected.” “But she did know that would happen!” argued Pinkie shamefully. “She had already been through this whole day once before and got another chance for us to see PostCrush. But I totally blew it!” Unable to hold back, she began sobbing again. While Fluttershy embraced Pinkie and gently rubbed her back in an effort to calm her down, everyone else turned to Twilight with looks of confusion on their faces. “It’s a little complicated…” explained Twilight uneasily. “Aw, cheer up, Pinkie,” assured Spike with a friendly smile. “I’m sure Sunset will forgive you in the morning.” Just then, the marshmallow he was roasting suddenly caught on fire. He yelped in panic and started waving the skewer around in an effort to put out the fire. Instead, the smoldering treat flung off the skewer and splattered against Rarity, who yelled out in horror at seeing her expensive jacket ruined by the gooey mess. Meanwhile, inside the RV, Sunset had changed into her pajamas and climbed into her sleeping bag. Due to her sleeping bag being placed right next to the window, she was able to see and hear the conversation that was happening outside. Although she could understand why Pinkie would be devastated by today’s events, the fact that the exact same outcome had occurred twice in a row made it difficult for her to have much sympathy for her overly energetic friend. Sunset let out a huff of frustration and laid down inside her sleeping bag. Although she had her doubts she would be able to repeat this day a third time, she couldn’t help but hope that it would indeed happen. After all, if Pinkie was always going to be responsible for ruining this day, then the only way she could possibly hope for that perfect outcome she desired… would be to completely exclude any interference from her friend. Author's Note Not much new to be seen in this chapter, aside from some additional little details here and there. Those of you familiar with the official version might recognize which scenes are ones that I came up with on my own, such as that final part back at the RV at night. Even so, writing this chapter was very slow-going for me, so hopefully the later chapters of this story won't turn out to be quite as problematic. Go Nuts!Chapter 4 Go Nuts! It was the first day of the Starswirled Music Festival… for what was now the twentieth time, from Sunset Shimmer’s perspective. Despite fulfilling her wish to attend and watch the live concert of PostCrush, her experiences through the time loop of this day had still not ended. After wasting her fourth day simply coming to terms with the fact that the time loop was still occurring, she spent the fifth day repeating what she had done on the third day, with mostly the same outcome. She spent the sixth day begrudgingly allowing Pinkie to follow her, only for the party girl’s desire for churros to once again get them both kicked out before they could see PostCrush, thus resulting in a similar outcome to the first two days. On the seventh day, Sunset decided to try a hybrid approach by insisting to Pinkie that they spend the day separately, but agreeing to meet up again in time to watch PostCrush. Although Sunset once again got to see PostCrush from the front row, a certain mishap involving those darn churros resulted in Pinkie getting kicked out alone and missing out on PostCrush without her best friend. After the first week, Sunset finally just gave up on trying to follow her original plan to a hopelessly better outcome. Instead, she decided to follow each of her other friends, just to see what they were all up to while she and Pinkie had kept failing to watch PostCrush together. Fluttershy and Spike had spent the entire day together with no real definitive plan, and mostly just wandered around to observe — but not partake in, due to Fluttershy’s fear of drawing attention to herself — all the fun activities and try out some of the rather whimsical kinds of food that were sold at the food trucks and carts. Rarity had browsed through the souvenir tents and decided to purchase a faux suede jacket with fringe that she was especially enamored with, but was devastated to have it quickly ruined when she got caught in the crossfire of a squirt gun fight between some kids — not to mention how her original jacket always seemed to end up ruined at the end of the day by Spike’s flaming marshmallow. Applejack was thrilled to have the chance to watch a live performance of her favorite country singer, Dirk Thistleweed, but tragically had to spend the entire show in the infirmary tent when some members of the enthusiastic crowd accidentally stomped on her foot. Twilight had meticulously planned all of her activities for the festival, but a lapse of attention caused her to stumble over a boom box and accidentally drop her phone into a barrel of water, and with her ruined phone denying her access to her schedule, she was rendered hopelessly aimless and eventually decided to just leave the festival grounds by midafternoon — thus explaining why she always seemed to be first one to return to the RV. Rainbow Dash spent half the day struggling to find the manager in charge of the music festival, and once she eventually did find him, she tried to ask for permission to allow her band — the Sonic Rainbooms — to perform on day two of the festival as a last-minute entry, but a series of embarrassing missteps — such as forgetting that she and her friends didn’t bring their instruments, and also accidentally smacking him in the face with that darn oversized paddle — ultimately convinced the manager to deny her request. And Pinkie Pie, well… Sunset was already well aware of what she did all day. For the third week, Sunset decided to simply allow Pinkie to go off and do her own thing while Sunset explored other areas of the festival grounds at various times of the day. As a result, after only a few more days going through the exact same time loop, she was convinced she had now seen everything of potential interest, and could now predict a number of significant events down to the exact second. Not to mention, by this point, she had already seen PostCrush enough times that she didn’t even bother sticking around to watch them anymore and simply returned to the RV at the end of the evening — especially once it became clear that Pinkie would always seem to get herself kicked out for somehow mangling that churro cart as a result of her overenthusiasm. And now, as she neared the end of her third week through the time loop, Sunset was feeling absolutely bored as she wandered around on her own in the area near the food trucks and the souvenir tents. As she walked, she noticed on her right was some rocker dude with long dark hair and wearing a tie-dyed shirt standing not far away as he sipped on a milkshake. To her left was some other guy wearing glasses and with orange hair and a short beard, who was tinkering around with some contraption a short distance away. As the glasses guy worked on his unidentifiable creation, he accidentally bumped something on the mechanical object, causing it to suddenly fling a coconut high into the air. “Whoa! Heads up!” he immediately cried out. The rocker dude slowly turned around towards the glasses guy and then looked up and watched as that coconut began falling directly towards him. Sunset calmly reached over and easily caught the falling coconut just inches away from the rocker dude’s face. She then gently lowered the coconut and casually dropped it near her feet, all with a bored expression on her face. “Whooooaaaa,” said the rocker dude slowly in astonishment. “How did you appear outta nowhere like that? Are you—?” “No, I’m not a ninja,” replied Sunset dismissively in a bored tone as she continued walking by, not even bothering to spare a glimpse towards that rocker dude. A couple minutes later, Sunset arrived at one of the various souvenir tents, where she saw two familiar guys wearing black and white striped prison shirts — one with a grey jacket partially covering it, and the other with the sleeves torn off — and black beanie hats. These two we none other than Rocky and Mugsy, two of the most incompetent crooks in the Lego World, and right now, they were hauling away a large chest with each of them grasping the handles on either end of it. Sunset let out a bored sigh and muttered, “And there go the brick-heads on their latest attempt at petty robbery.” She pulled out her phone and watched the time as she continued, “Cue the handle breaking off in Mugsy’s hand and spilling the loot in… three… two… one…” Chink. Crash! Sure enough, right at the exact moment Sunset called it, the handle on the end being carried by Mugsy suddenly detached from the chest, causing the chest to drop to the ground and topple over, allowing the lid to pop open and spill the massive load of cash and coins contained within. “Whoops,” muttered Mugsy. “HEY!!” furiously shouted a nearby security guard — the exact same security guard who worked in the security line Sunset always seemed to use, and the exact same security guard who on some loops ultimately kicked her and Pinkie out of the festival grounds. “Scram!” exclaimed Rocky urgently as he dropped his end of the chest and immediately started running towards the nearest section of the boundary wall surrounding the festival grounds, with Mugsy quickly following right behind. The security guard swiftly pursued the two pathetic robbers towards that wall, not too far away. Once they reached the wall, they both tried to jump over it, but it proved to be too high for either of them to even grasp the top of that wall. With the security guard closing in, Rocky decided to climb on top of his partner in crime, using him as enough of a boost to jump and grab onto the top of that wall. Once he hauled himself halfway over that wall, he then reached down and grasped Mugsy’s hands, then hauled him up and over the wall just a split second before the security guard could touch either of those crooks. Of course, once the two incompetent robbers flung themselves over the top of the wall, they both crashed to the ground on the other side. “You’d better run!” shouted the security guard over the wall at the fleeing robbers. “Your kind isn’t welcome here!” Unable to further pursue those crooks, he turned away to check on the dropped chest full of loot. However, as soon as he turned his attention toward that chest, he noticed Sunset Shimmer standing nearby. “Hey, hey, HEY!!” he called out firmly as he rushed back to that chest. “Get away from that!” “Seventeen seconds,” muttered Sunset in a bored tone as she continued staring at her phone in her hand. The security guard stopped in front of Sunset and raised an eyebrow as he asked in confusion, “Huh?” “You had your attention away from this pile of loot for a total of seventeen seconds,” explained Sunset. “In that time, anybody could’ve easily walked by and taken a small portion of it for themselves, with nobody around to catch them in the act.” The security guard overturned the chest back upright and started tossing the spilled loot back into it as he firmly scolded, “Don’t get any ideas, missy. I won’t be repeating that mistake anytime soon.” “Doubtful,” sang Sunset in a dull tone as she turned and walked away. She made it only a few steps before she bumped into another familiar face. Specifically, the paint balloon artist as he was carrying his two easels under his arm on his way to setting up his so-called art show. “Ow! Watch it!” cried out the artist irritably from that mild impact. “Sorry,” responded Sunset with a complete lack of any enthusiasm. “I thought you didn’t pass through the area until later. I’ll make a note of that.” She sighed and continued flatly, “Day twenty: saw paint guy in food truck area right before he breaks up with his girlfriend, claiming that it’s not him, it’s her.” She noticed the paint guy suddenly glanced over her shoulder with a shocked expression on his face while also faintly hearing some sobbing behind her. Well aware of what was happening around her, she didn’t bother turning her attention elsewhere as she continued, “Yes, I’m the one who can read minds, but no, I don’t have the ability to predict the future. I’ve just been caught in an endless time loop of this day.” As she noticed at the edge of her vision to her right the artist’s girlfriend running away in tears, she finished, “Yeah, I’m just gonna move on and leave you to your own issues.” She then turned and began walking away. “Yeah, well… you’d better run!” the artist shot back irritably before he turned and ran off after his fleeing girlfriend. Sunset scoffed and grumbled, “Run away from my problems? I…” She trailed off and began to smile as a thought occurred to her. “…actually haven’t tried that yet.” Already, a plan of escape was starting to come together that she would put into action sometime later. Later that night, Sunset was ready to put her desperate escape plan into action. First, she had chosen to skip seeing PostCrush and simply returned to the campgrounds on her own terms, in order to ensure she would still be allowed into the festival grounds for day two in the unlikely event that this crazy scheme might actually work — especially since this loop ended with Pinkie once again getting kicked out for that same old mishap with the churro cart. With that taken care of, she then had to wait until everyone else was asleep, knowing that without the awareness of being in a time loop, her friends were unlikely to allow her to dare attempt such a seemingly act of madness. And besides, she knew from experience that the moment she fell asleep was essentially the reset button for the time loop, so she had to discreetly stay awake the whole time she waited for her moment of opportunity. To ensure this, she had made the excuse of going out for a little walk before returning to the RV, by which time the only one still awake was Pinkie, who had wanted to make sure her friend would make it back safely. This worked in Sunset’s favor, as Pinkie then quickly fell right to sleep before Sunset could even pretend to start getting ready for bed. Now that the moment of opportunity had arrived, Sunset was ready to put her plan into action. The objective was to simply get as far away from the festival grounds as quickly as possible, with easily the best method being to use a motorized vehicle, and the only such vehicle she had available was the RV, hence why she had to wait so late to ensure none of her friends would try to stop her. Being careful not wake any of her friends, she walked over to and sat down in the driver’s seat, then buckled up the seatbelt. She then turned on the engine — knowing that she was now at the point of no return and thus committed to her desperate plan — shifted the vehicle into drive, and finally stomped on the accelerator. She wanted to be absolutely sure her friends would never get a chance to stop her, so not only did she plan out her escape route during her earlier “walk”, but also intentionally left the RV’s expandable portion extended outward to save time, despite the balance issues this would inevitably cause while driving at high speed. Just as Sunset had anticipated, the rumble of the engine followed by the rough shaking of the RV as it tore along the dirt road away from the campgrounds swiftly woke up everyone inside the vehicle. By the time Sunset turned the vehicle onto the paved road that would lead directly back to Canterlot City, Twilight had retrieved her glasses and stumbled her way towards the front of the RV. “Sunset! Slow down!” Twilight cried out in panic as she quickly sat down in the passenger seat and buckled up the seatbelt. “I gotta break outta here somehow!” Sunset responded in desperation, ignoring the screams of terror from her friends as she continued to accelerate along the paved road. The still-expanded RV dangerously tilted left and right as it sped around tight curves at high speed. At one point, it veered a little too far to the left and a large tree branch caught and tore off the awning that had been left extended. “Why are you doing this?!” screamed Twilight fearfully as she tightly gripped the sides of her seat. “Maybe if I leave this area, it’ll finally end!” responded Sunset as she continued her high-speed getaway. Pinkie Pie stumbled her way to the front of the RV and gripped both front seats to stand between them. “What. Are. You. Talking about?!” she exclaimed irritably. Sunset turned to Pinkie and furiously shot back, “This is all your fault! I blame you for everything that has gone wrong!” Due to Sunset taking her eyes off the road at that moment, she failed to notice a pothole in the pavement, and when the RV hit it, the impact tore the right front wheel off the axle. The RV slammed down on its right front corner and emitted a shower of sparks as it dragged along the pavement, causing the RV to start slowing down while the loose wheel rolled away up ahead. “Oh no! Runaway wheel!” cried out Pinkie as she pointed out the lost wheel rolling away. When she saw Sunset glare at her, she giggled sheepishly and asked, “Y-You’re not gonna blame me for that, too, are ya?” “Yes… Yes, I am,” grumbled Sunset as the RV soon skidded to a complete stop. Once the wild ride through the woods was finally halted, Twilight relaxed and let out a huge sigh of relief. She then took a deep breath as she turned to Sunset and asked, “Okay, now that that’s over with, could you please be kind enough to explain just WHAT THE BRICK YOU DID THAT FOR!?!” Sunset sighed and shamefully replied, “It’s a long story… and I’m not sure you’ll even believe me.” “Well, seeing as we’re definitely not going anywhere for a while, I’d say we’ve got plenty of time to listen,” stated Twilight as the rest of their friends slowly got up and gathered around them. After Sunset had taken a few minutes to explain her situation to her friends, Applejack had politely asked everyone to leave the RV and wait on the side of the road. Once everyone was out, Applejack then used her super strength to lift the broken down vehicle so she and Rainbow Dash could inspect the damage. Meanwhile, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Spike sat together against the base of a nearby tree, while Sunset sat at the base of another tree with her arms holding her knees close to her chest as Twilight and Pinkie stood nearby and continued to ask questions about Sunset’s experiences. Pinkie leaned close to Sunset and asked, “Are you saying the calendar industry cooked up a conspiracy to make every day today just to save paper?!” Sunset facepalmed and irritably shot back, “No, Pinkie, I’m not saying that at all!” “You’re right,” agreed Pinkie suspiciously as she tapped her chin and looked away. “It’s too obvious…” “More like too ridiculous,” grumbled Sunset. “This is why I gave up trying to save you from getting kicked out over that churro cart incident.” Pinkie paused and silently glanced back and forth between her bare wrist and Sunset’s wrist which still had that green festival bracelet attached. Sunset sighed and shamefully said, “Sorry for snapping at you like that.” She turned to the others and added, “And I’m sorry to all of you for hijacking the RV while you were all sleeping, but I’ve tried everything except leaving the area, and I doubted any of you would take me seriously enough to let me try it.” Twilight began pacing around as she hypothesized aloud, “It’s possible a snag in the fabric of spacetime could cause a—” “—temporal point — i.e., this day — to fold in on itself and thereby repeat,” spoke Sunset in a dull tone perfectly simultaneously with Twilight, which completely caught the latter off guard and made her stop pacing around. “You really have done this a lot,” they both spoke again simultaneously, which now irritated Twilight. “Okay, you’ve made your point! Stop!” Sunset sighed again and muttered, “This time loop started because I missed PostCrush. So why didn’t it end when I saw them?” “Are you sure it’s only about PostCrush?” asked Twilight as she gave a subtle glance towards Pinkie. “What else could it be?” asked Sunset desperately. “I can’t think of any other catalyst that could’ve started this whole mess!” “Last night — or rather, three weeks ago from your perspective — you specified your plan was for you and Pinkie to watch PostCrush together,” stated Twilight bluntly. “Did you ever manage to accomplish all of those criteria?” “I’ve tried, Twilight,” responded Sunset in frustration. “Believe me, I’ve tried, but no matter what I do, the day always ends with either both of us staying together and getting kicked out over the churro cart incident, going our separate ways so I can watch PostCrush while she either leaves on her own or gets kicked out alone over the churro incident, or I simply don’t bother watching PostCrush while Pinkie also misses out on PostCrush for any of the previously mentioned reasons. I can’t for the life of me figure out how to make Pinkie watch PostCrush — either alone or with me — under any circumstances!” In the stunned silence from everyone around that followed her rant, Sunset noticed Pinkie with a sad look on her face before the party girl shamefully turned away. Sunset let out another sigh and regretfully added, “I wish I could say sorry, but I’m not sure if I can even mean it anymore. I swear, if I don’t figure out a way out of this mess, I’m gonna completely lose it!” It was at this point that Applejack and Rainbow Dash finished their inspection of the broken down RV and walked over to the rest of their friends. “Bad news,” reported Applejack. “Transmission’s shot, an’ the front axle’s bent outta shape, so there’s no chance of fittin’ the wheel back on — assumin’ we could even find it, that is. Ah just called the tow truck an’ he says he’ll be here tomorrow mornin’. He wants us to pay with cash, an’ these repairs ain’t gonna be cheap.” Sunset sighed yet again and irritably grumbled, “Tomorrow? Sure. You can tell the guy I’ll pay him a million dollars if I’m able to see him tomorrow! Not like it’ll matter, since this thing will just go right back to the way we left it this morning when I next wake up.” Rainbow Dash considered the meaning behind Sunset’s response for a moment. “Huh… I guess you’re right,” she noted. She then chuckled and playfully remarked, “I gotta admit, I’m actually kinda jealous of you right now.” Sunset glared at Rainbow and shot back, “Jealous?! How could there be anything about my situation worth being jealous about?!” “Seriously, think about it,” explained Rainbow eagerly with a smile. “It’s like you just said. It doesn’t matter how badly you’ve wrecked the RV, ‘cause it’ll go right back to being as good as new once you start the next loop. As soon as the time loop resets, everything goes right back to the way they were, not just broken things being restored, but also no one will have any memories of what happened in the previous loop. No one will ever be aware of what you did in any of the earlier loops. You could destroy valuable objects, say nasty things to people, commit robbery, run around naked, and never have to worry about facing any consequences for whatever you did as soon as the time loop resets. You could literally do anything you want, and totally get away with it!” As Rainbow Dash spoke, Sunset initially maintained her incredulous stare, but as the implication began to dawn on her, her expression gradually softened, then she began to look on in curiosity, and then she slowly began to smile. “Rainbow Dash!” scolded Rarity. “Please don’t try to give Sunset any nefarious ideas.” “Too late for that,” quipped Sunset with a smirk as she stood up. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’m gonna go to bed and hit the reset button on this time loop. After everything I’ve been through, I think it’s time for me to really start enjoying myself.” She then walked over to the broken down RV, opened the door, and stepped inside. Twilight turned to glare at Rainbow and grumbled, “Nice going, Rainbow Dash. Thanks to you sharing your fantasies, Sunset has now been inspired to completely exploit this time loop at our expense, purely for the sake of personal entertainment. And since we’re incapable of passing on our experiences through these time loops, our fates now rest solely on whatever outrageous whims she happens to spontaneously come up with. There’s no telling how long she could end up allowing this time loop to perpetually continue, just for the fun of it!” “Aw, c’mon,” retorted Rainbow dismissively with a smile and a shrug. “What’s the worst that could happen?” Morning had arrived at the campgrounds just outside the Starswirled Music Festival. It was little more than an hour after sunrise, and by this point, Sunset Shimmer was the only one still asleep within the RV that she and her friends were using for their stay at the festival. As Sunset slept in her sleeping bag beside the window, her phone was lying beside her head on the pillow. At the moment the time became 7:00, the phone’s alarm went off by playing a song by PostCrush. Be the true… true, true original— Sunset quickly woke up and shut off her phone’s alarm. She quickly climbed out of her sleeping bag as she glanced at her phone, then turned her attention to look out the nearby window. Sure enough, the RV was no longer broken down on the side of an empty road in the woods, but instead was right back at the campgrounds and perfectly intact, while all of her friends were once again gathered outside in all of the exact same positions she remembered seeing them every single time on this time loop. As far as she was concerned, she no longer had any reason to worry about anything. Sunset glanced between the phone in her hand and the window she was looking through, and quickly got her first wild idea. She smirked and remarked, “No consequences? No problem!” She pulled her arm back and chucked her phone against the window, smashing a jagged hole through the glass. Smash! The sudden breaking of that window immediately caught the attention of all of Sunset’s friends gathered outside. “Score!” cheered Sunset excitedly. Without even bothering to change out of her pajamas, she then kicked open the door and charged outside. As she ran off into the woods, she excitedly declared, “Goodbye, common sense!” Meanwhile, all of Sunset’s friends just stared in absolute shock towards the direction she was running off. “What in the blazes has gotten into Sunset?” asked Applejack, completely baffled by the behavior she and the others had just witnessed. After going completely nuts in the previous loop to let off some stress, Sunset was ready to try something in this loop that would definitely relieve one particular source of stress that had been building for some time, and now that she no longer cared about any potential consequences, nothing was going to stop her from going through with it. After going through the old routine of breakfast with her friends and then going through the security line, she and Pinkie immediately found themselves at the giveaway booth with a purple tandem bicycle being displayed to the side. Pinkie stared at a jar full of jellybeans on the booth’s counter as she cheerfully said, “All I have to do is guess how many candies are in the jar, and my sugar senses say… three hundred and five!” BZZZZ! The giveaway booth attendant smacked the buzzer on the counter, indicating Pinkie’s guess was incorrect. “Awww…” moaned Pinkie in disappointment. While Pinkie and the booth attendant were occupied with each other, Sunset took advantage of the diversion to remove the clamps that attached the bicycle to the display stand, then hopped onto the bicycle and quickly rode off on it. “So long, losers!” she taunted as she sped away on the bike. “Hey!” exclaimed the booth attendant. She turned to the nearby main entrance and cried out, “Security! Petty theft bicycle!” The security guard at the main entrance who had permitted entry to Pinkie and Sunset only minutes earlier turned back to observe the crime in progress, then swiftly dropped the bag he had been searching and ran off after the fleeing girl on that stolen bicycle. Sunset was absolutely thrilled as she rode the stolen bicycle across the festival grounds. So much time had passed since the days when she was one of the most wanted criminals in all of the Lego World, she had forgotten just how much excitement she always got from every theft and getaway she had committed. In a way, she almost felt nostalgic for her old criminal behavior in this moment. It wasn’t long before Sunset reached the area with all the food trucks and food carts, and once she identified one particular cart, she immediately zeroed in on it. “Be gone with you, evil churros!” she declared with determination as she pedaled the bike directly at the churro cart. Puffed Pastry and a few other people near that cart quickly jumped out of the way only seconds before the stolen bicycle slammed into it. Crash! The cart was smashed to pieces and cinnamon dust was sent flying everywhere, while the bicycle was bent out of shape as one of its wheels detached and rolled away. Sunset was momentarily dazed from the impact. When she recovered, she noticed a shadow looming over her, so she looked up and saw that security guard from the front entrance was now standing before her with his arms crossed, a scowl on his face, and his head and torso covered in cinnamon dust. Sunset just smiled and, after a brief giggle, contently remarked, “Totally worth it.” Less than an hour later, Sunset’s wrists were bound by a pair of handcuffs behind her back as police officer Flash Sentry escorted her to his cruiser parked nearby. All of Sunset’s friends had gathered together to watch in both shock and shame. They were absolutely baffled why someone who had been such a good friend of them for so long would spontaneously do such a horrible thing. All the while, Sunset still had a pleasant smile on her face. “Don’t worry about me, girls,” she assured her friends contently as she was escorted past them. “I’ll see you again in the morning.” “After the stunt you just pulled? Don’t count on it,” scolded Flash Sentry before he opened the rear door and shoved Sunset into the backseat. He shut that door, then climbed into the driver’s seat, started up his cruiser, and drove off away from the festival grounds. As Flash drove the cruiser down the road leading back to Canterlot City, he sighed and spoke, “I’m very disappointed in you, Sunset. I thought for sure you had moved on from your criminal past, and judging by the looks on your friends faces, I’m sure they thought the same thing. I don’t know what gave you the idea to do such a crazy thing, but in doing so, you’ve betrayed everyone’s trust in you. Care to explain yourself?” “Simple,” remarked Sunset, still with that pleasant smile on her face. “I’m caught in a time loop. No matter where you take me, I’ll just wake up the next morning back at this morning, and no one will ever remember what I just did.” “That has gotta be one of the most ridiculous reasons I’ve ever heard,” responded Flash skeptically. BANG! Fssssss… Flash was shocked when the vehicle’s engine suddenly blew and thick smoke began billowing out from under the hood. “Oh, come on! Seriously?!” he exclaimed in disbelief as he pulled the broken vehicle over to the side of the road. “I just had this thing inspected only three days ago!” As the spontaneously broken down cruiser slowed to a stop, Sunset giggled and remarked, “Wow… I guess whatever’s behind this time loop also doesn’t want me going anywhere away from that music festival.” “You’re not doing yourself any favors, here,” grumbled Flash as he climbed out of the car and walked around to the front of it. He pulled open the hood, only to suddenly find himself engulfed in thick black smoke, quickly causing him to cough uncontrollably. “Yeah, you go ahead and choke yourself trying to figure out that mechanical failure,” quipped Sunset. “I’m just gonna lie down back here and take a nap.” She then leaned over and rested on her side along the backseat of the cruiser and closed her eyes. She listened to Flash cough and curse the vehicle’s busted engine before she eventually dozed off. The next thing she knew, she woke up to the same PostCrush song on her phone. Be the true… true, true original— She reached for her phone and shut off the alarm. She looked around and saw she was back in the RV, back in her sleeping bag, and back in her pajamas. She smirked and quietly remarked, “Yeah… totally got away with it…” Another loop passed by, and Sunset found herself back inside the festival grounds. This time, she was going to apply some experience from some of the previous loops to do another petty crime without any fear of consequences. First, Sunset waited near the row of port-a-potties until she saw one girl remove her backpack and set it down on the ground before walking into one of the stalls. Once that door was latched, Sunset casually grabbed that backpack, dumped all of its contents onto the ground, and then slung the empty bag over her shoulder as she began to make her way towards the souvenir tents Sunset pulled out her phone and checked the time down to the second as she arrived at those souvenir tents. Right at the same time as usual, she watched those two robbers, Rocky and Mugsy, make their attempt to steal a chest full of loot. Second by second, the same old sequence occurred. Chink. Crash! The handle on Mugsy’s side of the chest suddenly detached, causing it to drop to the ground and topple over, allowing the lid to pop open and spill the massive load of cash and coins contained within. “Whoops,” muttered Mugsy. “HEY!!” furiously shouted that security guard before he began to charge at the robbers. “Scram!” exclaimed Rocky urgently as he dropped his end of the chest and immediately started running towards the boundary wall with Mugsy following right behind him. As the security guard pursued the two incompetent crooks, Sunset lowered her stolen backpack and calmly began shoveling as much of that spilled loot into it as she could. “You’d better run!” shouted that security guard off in the distance. “Your kind isn’t welcome here!” As soon as Sunset heard the start of that shout from the security guard, she immediately stopped grabbing any more of the loot, zipped up the backpack, and slung it over her shoulder as she began to casually walk away. With every step away from the fallen chest, she listened carefully, and was pleased that not only did the security guard not call attention to her, but also began tossing the spilled loot back into the chest, seemingly unaware some of it was no longer there. A perfectly clean getaway, thought Sunset with a smirk. Okay, now that I’ve got a small fortune with me, what should I spend it on? She glanced around at some of the other souvenir tents in the immediate vicinity. She then shrugged and thought, Eh, might as well do something nice for my friends. As much as Sunset enjoyed taking advantage of the time loops negating any potential consequences, she still cared very much for her friends, so she was perfectly fine with spending this ill-gotten loot on lavish gifts for her friends. After purchasing all those expensive souvenirs, Sunset decided to head right back to the RV and wait for her friends to arrive. Once everyone was back together later that evening, Sunset surprised everyone by offering those gifts to all of them. She gave a blue cashmere cloak to Rarity, authentic vintage cowboy attire to Applejack, a sports jersey signed by many of the best athletes in the world to Rainbow Dash, an interchangeable bird call for some of the rarest species of birds to Fluttershy, a rare copy of the very first Power People comic book to Spike, the latest high-tech digital assistant tablet to Twilight, and a super-sized pack of novelty-flavored jellybeans to Pinkie Pie. Everyone greatly appreciated the gifts Sunset got for all of them, but it wasn’t long until one of them asked the inevitable question. “How were you able to afford all of these things?” asked Twilight. Sunset just chuckled and slyly replied, “Let’s just say I decided to ‘borrow’ some funds that were left behind by a failed robbery attempt.” “What?!” exclaimed Twilight in shock. “You stole money to purchase these things?! Do you have any idea how much trouble you’ll be in for such a crime?!” “Oh, I’m well aware, Twilight,” Sunset casually replied, “but since I’m trapped in a time loop, I don’t have to fear any consequences.” She took a sip straight from a bottle of high-quality champagne she had purchased for herself before she added, “Better enjoy your gifts while you can, because as soon as I go to bed and then wake up in the morning, everything will reset and I’ll be the only one who remembers any of this.” “Oh, I’m definitely enjoying my gift,” acknowledged Pinkie cheerfully. “Thank you so much!” She tossed one of her jellybeans into her mouth and chewed it for a few seconds before she pleasantly remarked, “Wow, this pack really does come in every flavor imaginable. That last one tasted like grass.” In another loop, Pinkie Pie had once again gone off frolicking in the Neon Garden, blissfully wandering around the maze without a care in the world. Bzzzzzz! Pinkie suddenly stopped when she noticed a chainsaw pierce through one of the hedges nearby and trace a circular path, ultimately cutting a hole through the hedge. The person armed with that chainsaw then stepped through, revealing herself to be Sunset. “Sunset?” asked Pinkie in confusion. “What are you doing?” “What does it look like I’m doing?” responded Sunset with a cocky grin as she held up that chainsaw. “I’m cutting a few shortcuts through the Neon Garden. Wouldn’t want us to get lost in here, now would we?” “I guess…” responded Pinkie with uncertainty as she rubbed the back of her head. Sunset walked over to another nearby hedge and began to cut another large hole through it. Bzzzzzz! BZZT! As Sunset cut through that hedge, she accidentally severed one of the strings of lights, causing many of the intricate flower designs along the hedges to suddenly go dark. “Whoops,” she muttered. That moment of guilt ended after only one second before she shrugged and dismissively remarked, “Oh well, not like anybody cares about those things.” She then resumed her work of cutting large openings through the hedges to provide shortcuts everywhere. Another loop began like many others, right to the moment Sunset decided to once again help herself to some of the loot abandoned by those two pathetic robbers. She went through the same routine as the previous times she had done this. She stole and emptied the backpack from outside the port-a-potty, then walked over to the souvenir booths where Rocky and Mugsy were making their robbery attempt. Chink. Crash! “Whoops,” muttered Mugsy as the handle broke off in his hand, dumping the chest and its loot on the ground. “HEY!!” shouted the security guard as he began pursuing the crooks. “Scram!” exclaimed Rocky as he and Mugsy ran off, with the security guard right behind. With only seventeen seconds available, Sunset scooped as much of the spilled cash and coins as she could into her stolen backpack. “You’d better run!” shouted the security guard at the fleeing robbers. “You’re kind isn’t welcome here!” Before the security guard had turned back to the spilled loot, Sunset zipped up the backpack and walked off with that small fortune. Another clean getaway, she thought with a smirk. Now… what should I splurge the money on this time? She walked around the souvenir booths to browse what was available. As soon as she came across a set of golf clubs, she knew right away exactly what she was going to use them for. A few hours later, Sunset had disassembled part of a secondary stage and rebuilt some of the pieces into a basic frame for a small tower. She then climbed to the top of that tower while carrying the golf clubs she had purchased with that ill-gotten loot. Once she stood on the platform atop that makeshift tower, she set a golf ball on the tee, selected one of her new golf clubs, then prepared to take aim — directly out into the middle of the festival grounds. Finally, she swung the golf club back and made her first strike of the ball. The ball harmlessly bounced across a grassy open area. “Lame,” muttered Sunset as she set down a second ball. She took a few seconds to anticipate her aim, then struck the ball. Thunk! The second ball bounced off the side of a wooden support post. “Eh, at least it’s something,” muttered Sunset as she set down a third ball. She adjusted her aim, then struck the ball. Gloop! The third ball landed in a bowl of punch, creating only a small splash that splatted two people who happened to be standing near it. “Okay, that’s a little impressive,” remarked Sunset as she set down a fourth ball. She checked her aim again, then struck the ball. Smash! The fourth ball struck and shattered a glass bottle, spraying its liquid contents all over the countertop it was resting on. “Yeah! That’s a hit!” cheered Sunset as she set down a fifth ball. “Hey!” called out the security guard from the ground at the base of the tower. “What are you doing up there?!” “What does it look like I’m doing?” replied Sunset dismissively as she took aim again. “I’m working on my golf game.” She then struck the ball. Bonk! “Ow!” cried someone in the distance. “Ha! Nailed him!” cheered Sunset as she set down a sixth ball. “You think this is funny?” scolded the security guard. “You’re breaking things and injuring people! Cut that out and get down from there right now!” “Sorry, buddy,” responded Sunset insincerely, “but I’m not coming down until I’ve used up all of my golf balls.” She then struck the ball and watched as it bounced off the top of a wooden post and then smashed a floodlight. Thunk! Smash! “Hey, that was a pretty good trick shot,” remarked Sunset quietly as she set down a seventh ball. “All right, missy, you asked for it,” grumbled the security guard as he marched toward the tower and began to climb up the frame of it. As soon as that security guard neared the top of the tower, Sunset suddenly turned to him and sharply exclaimed, “Hey! I said I’m not done up here!” She then struck the guard in the face with her golf club, causing him to lose his grip and fall off the tower, smashing to pieces upon hitting the ground. The security guard rolled his detached head to glare up at Sunset atop the tower. “Oh, you’re in real trouble now, missy!” he threatened. “Oh, pull yourself together,” rebuked Sunset dismissively as she took aim. “No need to go all to pieces.” She then struck the ball again. At this rate, she just might be able to go through all of the golf balls she had brought with her before security would inevitably manage to apprehend her. And since she still had no concern for any consequences, she found that possible accomplishment to be rather impressive. Of course, no matter how many times Sunset went through all these time loops, they would always start out exactly the same way, especially one particularly painful moment. “Starswirled day one! Come and get it!” Rainbow Dash excitedly declared as she swung her large paddle around, accidentally smacking Sunset’s rear end. “Ow! Seriously?!” exclaimed Sunset furiously as she grasped her rear end and glared at Rainbow Dash. “Oops.” Rainbow chuckled sheepishly and responded, “Sorry.” On this particular loop, Sunset had simply had enough of that incident, so she immediately swiped the paddle out of Rainbow’s hands, snapped it in half over her knee, and then tossed the broken pieces over onto the heating table. Sunset let out a sigh of relief as she turned away and contently remarked, “Boy, that felt good.” All of Sunset’s friends looked on in confusion as they watched her walk away. Their attention was then quickly brought to the heating table when the broken paddle suddenly ignited from the heat and burst into flames. On a different loop, Sunset decided to bring Pinkie along for something so wild and reckless that even the zany pink party girl was quick to have second thoughts about it. “Are you sure this is such a good idea, Sunset?” asked Pinkie worriedly. The two girls were seated in an old sports car they had “borrowed” from the parking lot, with Sunset sitting in the driver’s seat. Directly ahead of them was a makeshift ramp Sunset had built out of various Lego parts in the area that led straight towards their RV. And strapped to the roof of that car was a crude rocket engine that was certainly large enough to provide some significant thrust to such a vehicle. “Relax, Pinkie,” assured Sunset confidently. “All we’re gonna do is drive this car up that ramp and use the homemade rocket on the roof to give us a speed boost to clear the RV and make a safe landing in the woods.” She smiled and quipped, “What could possibly go wrong?” As Sunset started up the engine, Pinkie gulped and nervously asked, “I-Is it okay if I back out right now?” Sunset just smirked and playfully retorted, “Too late!” She then stomped on the accelerator. The car’s tires tore through the gravel parking lot as the vehicle rapidly approached the ramp, with Pinkie screaming in terror all the way. Vroooooom! Finally, as they approached the ramp, Sunset smacked the big red button on the dashboard, igniting the rocket. The car quickly shot off the ramp, the screams of the two girls inside drowned out by the loud roar of the rocket. FWOOOOOOSSSHHH!!! However, almost immediately after going airborne, the attempted stunt went horribly wrong as the front-heavy car quickly tipped forward, altering its trajectory down directly onto the RV. Sunset didn’t even have time to curse before the moment of impact. The next thing Sunset knew, she woke up in the RV to the morning alarm on her phone. Be the true… true, true original— Sunset shut off the alarm on her phone and quietly remarked with a smile, “Huh… I guess not even losing my Creation Spark can break this time loop.” Not all loops were spent doing wildly crazy things. Sometimes, Sunset was satisfied with something relatively minor, such as retaliating against that paint balloon artist. Specifically, she wanted to see if she could catch one of the paint balloons thrown at her and send it right back at him. On her first attempt, Sunset reached her hand out in front of her and caught the balloon, but squeezed it too hard, bursting the balloon and causing blue paint to splatter all over herself. She growled in frustration, then pointed at the artist and declared, “I’ll get you next time!” On another loop for her second attempt, Sunset tried to catch the balloon with both hands, but since it came directly at her, she ended up squeezing it against her torso, bursting the balloon and splattering yellow paint all over herself. Again, she growled in frustration at this failure. On the following loop for her third attempt, Sunset quickly stepped aside as she tried the catch the balloon with both hands, but she fumbled it around until it ended up getting flung upwards, then came back down on top of her head, bursting upon impact and splattering green paint all over herself. Once again, she growled in frustration. On the next loop for her fourth attempt, Sunset quickly stepped aside and grasped the flung balloon while being careful to not grasp it with too much pressure. Remarkably, she actually succeeded this time as the balloon stopped within her grasp and remained intact. “Ha!” she shouted triumphantly before she promptly chucked the balloon right back at the artist, splattering him in the face with orange paint. “Ah! My eyes!” cried the artist as he tried to rub the paint off his face. “Serves you right!” declared Sunset with conviction. Pinkie gasped and exclaimed in shock, “Sunset! That wasn’t very nice!” “Eh, why should I care?” retorted Sunset with a shrug. “I’m stuck in a time loop. He’ll be totally fine the next time I see him.” On yet another loop, Sunset had decided to simply lie down on her back and relax for the afternoon. Screeeeeeeeeech! But Sunset wasn’t relaxing just anywhere. She was lying down in the backseat of a convertible car. She had also driven this “borrowed” car from the parking lot out to the nearest paved area, placed a weight on the accelerator, and locked the steering wheel all the way to the left. As a result, the convertible was now perpetually doing donuts with no one in the driver’s seat, all while Sunset rested in the backseat with sunglasses over her eyes and a smile on her face, as if she was lounging at the beach. Screeeeeeeeeech! Not far away, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were staring at that unusual stunt in confusion. Speechless at what they were witnessing , they briefly glanced at each other, then resumed staring at the spinning vehicle. Screeeeeeeeeech! Many loops later, after doing so many crazy and outlandish things throughout the numerous previous loops, Sunset was actually starting to feel rather bored by this point, and ultimately had decided to spend this loop just staying at the RV and doing absolutely nothing. Naturally, all of her friends — especially Pinkie Pie — were concerned with her seemingly depressed behavior, so she assured them she would explain everything to them later only if they agreed to enjoy day one of the Starswirled Music Festival without her. They had all reluctantly accepted her promise and went ahead with their original plans, except for Pinkie, who felt so lonely that she eventually decided to just return to the RV and hang out with Sunset before the day was even halfway over, despite being well aware that it would mean they would miss seeing PostCrush later that night. Now, it was late in the evening as Sunset was seated with all of her friends around the RV’s heating table as they were roasting marshmallows over it. As soon as everyone had gathered together, Sunset had explained her situation to all of them. Pinkie, who was sitting beside Sunset and had waited all afternoon to find out what was troubling her friend, was the first to speak up. “Are you saying the calendar industry cooked up a conspiracy to make every day today just to save paper?!” she asked. “For the twenty-third time, Pinkie, no, that’s not what I’m saying at all,” grumbled Sunset. “You’re right,” agreed Pinkie suspiciously as she tapped her chin and looked away. “It’s too obvious…” Twilight hummed in thought for a moment before she stated, “It’s possible a—” “—snag in the fabric of spacetime could cause a temporal point — i.e., this day — to fold in on itself and thereby repeat,” finished Sunset flatly. Twilight blinked as she stared at Sunset for a moment before she added, “You really—” “—have done this a lot?” finished Sunset again. Twilight raised her hand and was about to say something else, but was interrupted again. “Yes, I’ve made my point, and I’m gonna stop now,” added Sunset, still speaking monotone. “Oh dear,” muttered Fluttershy worriedly. “I wonder what could’ve caused this.” “I gave up trying to figure that out,” confessed Sunset. “At first, I thought it was because I missed seeing PostCrush the first time around. I’ve now seen them at least two dozen times, and this time loop is still going strong.” “If ya don’t mind me askin’,” asked Applejack hesitantly, “how long have ya been goin’ through this here ‘time loop’?” “To be honest, I’m starting to lose count by now,” answered Sunset shamefully. “My best estimate is that I’m now at somewhere around four months.” “Four months?!” exclaimed all of Sunset’s friends at once. “So you’re saying that the night we first rolled into this campground, which for us was only twenty-four hours ago, was for you over four months ago?!” asked Twilight in shock. “Yeah, pretty much,” replied Sunset as she inspected her marshmallow. “Goodness, darling,” said Rarity, aghast. “I almost dread the thought of what one could possibly do to spend four months of their life repeating the exact same day, over and over.” “Oh, I could think of plenty of things,” quipped Rainbow Dash with a grin as she placed her roasted marshmallow on a graham cracker and removed it from the skewer she held. “If anything, I’m actually kinda jealous of Sunset.” “What do you mean?” asked Fluttershy as she also removed her toasted marshmallow from her skewer. “Just think about it, girls,” explained Rainbow eagerly. “When you’re the only one caught in a time loop, it doesn’t matter if you destroy something or hurt someone’s feelings. As soon as the time loop resets, everything goes right back to the way they were, not just broken things being restored, but also no one will have any memories of what happened in the previous loop. No one will ever be aware of what you did in any of the earlier loops. You could destroy valuable objects, say nasty things to people, commit robbery, run around naked, and never have to worry about facing any consequences for whatever you did as soon as the time loop resets. You could literally do anything you want, and totally get away with it!” “Rainbow Dash!” scolded Rarity. “Please don’t try to give Sunset any nefarious ideas.” “Too late for that,” noted Sunset, still with that bored frown on her face. “She gave me that idea way back at the end of my third week.” “Wow, no wonder you’ve been at this for four months,” remarked Spike. “You must’ve spent all that time doing all kinds of crazy things.” “Eh, I won’t completely deny it,” confessed Sunset sheepishly with a shrug. “But I also wasn’t going totally nuts all that time. As much as I enjoyed the opportunities, I also still wanted to figure out what was really causing the time loop and how I could end it.” “Did you discover anything of significance, thus far?” asked Twilight. Sunset took a moment to recall some of her experiences before she answered, “Well, whatever magic is behind this time loop, it doesn’t seem to allow me to go anywhere outside this area. I once tried to hijack the RV and make a getaway, only to bust a wheel off not far down the road. And on those loops when I did stuff crazy enough to get arrested, the police cruiser taking me to jail would always suddenly break down not far from the festival grounds, at which point I would decide to just take an early nap to reset the loop.” She then chuckled in amusement. “One time, I decided to get arrested early enough just to see how many vehicles they could go through while trying to take me away. It was kinda funny seeing one emergency vehicle fail after another. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Eventually, they just gave up on trying to take me to jail, so instead they brought the jail to me by building a little jailhouse over there, just for me.” She pointed at an empty site on the side of a dirt road not far away. There was an awkward silence among Sunset’s friends over just how casually she was speaking about being arrested multiple times at this music festival. During that silence, Twilight’s gaze drifted to the Jump-Gate return device she often wore on her right wrist, so she smiled as she held up her arm and asked, “What about—?” “Already tried the Jump-Gate, too,” answered Sunset, frowning again in disappointment. “That device spontaneously shorted out the moment you were about to use it.” “Spontaneously shorted out?” asked Twilight in confusion as she glanced down to closely inspect her device. “But with the reliability and maintenance that goes into this thing, that’s gotta be like a—” “One in a billion chance?” finished Sunset. “That’s what you said… all eight times I tried to use the Jump-Gate… and that’s exactly what happened, all eight times.” Twilight’s jaw dropped from hearing that astonishing statistic. “Have you tried staying up all night long to see if that could break the time loop?” asked Rainbow Dash. “Tried it plenty of times,” replied Sunset, still speaking in a bored monotone. “But as soon as the clock struck midnight, I would always suddenly pass out and then wake up back on the morning of day one.” “Golly,” muttered Applejack in disbelief. “You are really up a creek on this one, Sunset.” “And that’s the seventh time I’ve heard you say that phrase to describe my situation,” noted Sunset. “Second only to, ‘You’re sure in quite a pickle,’ which you’ve so far used nine times.” “I can see why you’ve all but given up by now,” Fluttershy quietly muttered. “I’ve probably asked you this, like, a gazillion times already,” Pinkie spoke up, “but what did Princess Twilight in Equestria say when you told her about this through your magic journal?” Upon hearing that, Sunset’s eyes widened before she smacked herself in the forehead and exclaimed with a smile, “Of course! The journal with Princess Twilight! I totally forgot that I brought it with me! How did I not try that months ago?!” Pinkie giggled and remarked, “Seriously, though, why didn’t you? Are you asking yourself, ‘Self, how do you spend four months with my best friend Pinkie Pie without asking for help until now?’” Twilight gave Sunset a hard look and suspiciously asked, “Are you sure this time loop is only about you seeing PostCrush?” The implied accusation left Sunset feeling a little uncomfortable for a moment, but then she took a deep breath to relax herself before she stated, “Either way, I’ll contact Princess Twilight first thing in the morning. That should allow her to spend as much of the day as possible trying to research for any possible answers — since that’ll be all the time she’ll have available before the loop resets again.” “Well, it’s nice to see you’ve finally got a new plan in mind,” remarked Spike contently. Just then, the marshmallow he was roasting suddenly caught on fire. He yelped in panic and started waving the skewer around in an effort to put out the fire. Instead, the smoldering treat flung off the skewer and splattered against Rarity, who yelled out in horror at seeing her expensive jacket ruined by the gooey mess. Sunset rolled her eyes and flatly noted, “And if there’s one thing about this evening get-together that always seems go the same way every time, it’s that right there.” She gestured at Rarity. “The least could’ve done was warn me,” grumbled Rarity with a frown as she reached for a napkin to smother the still flaming mess on her jacket. Sunset simply shrugged as she replied, “Seeing as it always happens less than an hour away from the end of the loop when everything resets, I just don’t see the point.” “With sentiment like that, I’m starting to get a little concerned about your sanity,” stated Twilight worriedly. “I sure hope the other me can finally give you some answers on the next loop.” “So do I, Twilight,” muttered Sunset in solemn agreement as she turned her gaze up at the starry night sky above. “So do I…” Author's Note Personally, I found it a little hard to believe that it would take Sunset only three weeks to memorize everything she knew by the final loop, so that's why I chose to have her go through the time loop for significantly longer than the show version did (though not quite as long as the novel version of one year, which seemed a little too excessive for me). The idea of Sunset doing all those crazy things without any concern for consequences was largely inspired by a certain episode of the show Stargate SG1 (if you've seen that show before, I'm sure you might easily remember which episode I'm talking about). In addition, the reason Sunset is always incapable of leaving the area (either by vehicle or by Jump-Gate) will be explained later with the reveal of the Time Twirler. Possible SuspectsChapter 5 Possible Suspects Morning arrived at the campgrounds just outside the Starswirled Music Festival. It was little more than an hour after sunrise, and by this point, Sunset Shimmer was the only one still asleep within the RV that she and her friends were using for their stay at the festival. As Sunset slept in her sleeping bag beside the window, her phone was lying beside her head on the pillow. At the moment the time became 7:00, the phone’s alarm went off by playing a song by PostCrush. Be the true… true, true original— Sunset quickly woke up, shut off her phone’s alarm, then carelessly tossed her phone across the room. After four months of the exact same morning routine over and over, she had very little patience left for even the most minor of things. Even so, the recent reminder that she had bought along her magic journal to Princess Twilight of Equestria gave her something to be optimistic about. As far as she was concerned, today was going to be her last hope of ever finding a way out of this perpetual time loop. Sunset climbed out of her sleeping bag, tossed off her pajamas, and slipped on the exact same music festival outfit she had worn for the past four months. This time, before she headed outside, she searched through her packed things and quickly found her magic journal. She then quickly grabbed a pen she had also packed, then walked out the door and around the front of the RV to join her friends, who were already gathered outside. It was the same old setting Sunset had seen over a hundred times already. Twilight, Fluttershy, and Applejack were seated around the RV’s heating table as they ate breakfast, while Rarity and Spike were seated at a nearby picnic table as Spike demonstrated some of his beatboxing skills. Rarity rolled her eyes and grumbled, “Ugh, I shall never understand the appeal of beatboxing.” Spike kept his smile as he shrugged and remarked, “Eh, to each their own.” Sunset had ignored that discussion and focused on flipping through the pages of her journal to reach the first blank page. However, this prevented her from noticing Rainbow Dash quickly run over and stop right behind her while carrying a large paddle with the Sonic Rainbooms band symbol printed on it. “Starswirled day one! Come and get it!” Rainbow excitedly declared as she swung the paddle around, accidentally smacking Sunset’s rear end. “Ow!” exclaimed Sunset as she grasped her rear end and glared at Rainbow. “Oops.” Rainbow chuckled sheepishly and responded, “Sorry. I’ll be more careful next time.” “No, Rainbow Dash!” Sunset suddenly snapped. “You won’t! Every day you say that, but you never are! Why won’t you change?!” Rainbow stared back at Sunset in shock and confusion for a moment before she awkwardly responded, “Okaaaaay…” She then began to slowly back away. Sunset immediately regretted what she had just shouted, and felt even more so when she glanced around and saw all of her friends were also staring at her in shock. She sighed and shamefully spoke up, “Sorry for snapping like that. Long story short, I’ve been stuck in a time loop where I’ve been repeating this day for months now. I know what you did was a total accident, Rainbow, but after receiving the exact same accident every single morning for me… I just got really tired of it, after a while.” All of Sunset’s friends continued to stare at her in confusion. Eventually, Applejack turned to Twilight and asked, “Uh, what does she mean by ‘time loop’?” Twilight was about to reply when Sunset suddenly spoke up, “Don’t bother, Twilight. I’ll explain everything a little later when we’re in the security lines. Trust me, those lines will be slow enough that I’ll have time to explain everything. But right now, I need to send a message to Princess Twilight in Equestria so she can start researching any possible causes for this time loop, and hopefully she’ll find an answer for me before the end of this day.” Sunset sat down at a nearby available seat as she opened her journal and placed it in her lap. She pulled out her pen and took a moment to consider the wording of her message before she began to write. Dear Princess Twilight, This is going to sound weird, but… how long has it been since my latest message? The one I supposedly wrote only yesterday about how excited I was to be going to the Starswirled Music Festival? I’m not sure how or why, but… I’m caught in a time loop where I’ve been repeating this day over and over. I can’t think of anything that caused it, but it did start when I missed seeing PostCrush the first time going through this day and I had wished for a do-over. I eventually got my wish, but it’s now been four months for me, and I can’t figure out if there’s some kind of Equestrian Magic involved. If you could help me find some answers before the end of today, I would highly appreciate it. Your friend, Sunset Shimmer. Sunset closed her journal and put away her pen as she spoke up, “Okay, that’s taken care of. Now we just need to wait and see if she’s able to find any answers.” “And what shall we do in the meantime?” asked Rarity. “You girls just go ahead and do whatever you wanna do,” replied Sunset as she walked over to the nearby picnic table to grab her now very familiar breakfast of blueberry pancakes — having long since memorized almost every detail in each and every one of those specific pancakes, such as their exact shape and the exact placement of every single blueberry scattered within them. “I’ve already been everywhere and done everything imaginable, so I’m just gonna sit around and wait for a response from Princess Twilight.” “In that case, I’ll just hang out with you all day,” said Pinkie with a smile as she rushed over to stand beside Sunset. “You don’t have to do that,” Sunset pointed out as she began to gather her stack of pancakes. “I’ll be willing to pass on watching PostCrush, if necessary, and I’d rather you not miss out on that show just for me.” “We’re best friends, Sunset,” stated Pinkie as she hugged Sunset. “I’d miss PostCrush a hundred times if it meant being there for you in your time of need.” That statement of dedication from Pinkie immediately brought feelings of guilt to Sunset. After all, she had already had those hundred chances and more, but had either blamed Pinkie for making them both miss out or simply abandoned her to watch PostCrush alone. Even worse, the perception she had developed of the time loop meaning she wouldn’t have to be concerned with anyone remembering anything by the end of the day before it reset again had resulted in her, more often than not, completely disregarding the feelings of Pinkie or any of her other friends. It was only now, as she sat down to start eating her blueberry pancake breakfast with maple syrup, that she realized that if she was going to be serious about bringing an end to this time loop, then she would definitely need to get back into a habit of not taking everything for granted. After the two-hour long wait through the security line — where she had the opportunity to fully explain her time loop situation to her friends — Sunset had decided to spend her day of waiting within the large tent that served as a lounge not far from where the food trucks and carts were located. Pinkie had volunteered to frequently run back and forth to the food trucks to provide some food and drinks for herself and Sunset — though it was Pinkie who ended up consuming most of those snacks and beverages. With her magic journal resting in her lap, Sunset waited all morning, all afternoon, and finally late into the evening for a response. It was right when she and Pinkie heard the announcement in the distance signaling that the live performance of PostCrush was about to begin that the journal suddenly started to glow and vibrate, indicating a message from Princess Twilight. Sunset did not hesitate to open that journal and start reading the recently added message. “Ooh! Ooh! What does it say?!” asked Pinkie eagerly. “Did she figure it out?! Does she know what’s going on?!” Sunset’s initial smile quickly fell as she read the message. She glanced over at Pinkie, then looked down at her journal and read aloud, “Dear Sunset Shimmer. I’ve been doing some research and I’m sorry to inform you that I’ve been unable to find any information regarding your temporal loop experiences, but that’s only because I could look though only so many books and scrolls in just one day. There’s much more of my library I have yet to search, and I may have to expand my search to the library in Canterlot, if necessary. At the very least, I can confirm that, yes, the effects of your temporal loop extend even into Equestria, meaning that the next time you wake up, I will have no recollection of your message or any of the research I just did.” “Aww,” muttered Pinkie sadly. “That’s a real bummer…” Sunset continued reading aloud, “However, I’ve got an idea to help us work around this limitation. After this message, I will list the sections I have already searched through, and I want you to memorize all of it. That way, when you next wake up earlier this morning again, you will not only rewrite your message to me, but also include the sections I had listed. That way, I’ll know which sections I had already searched in previous loops and thus can skip right over to essentially resume where I left off. With this system, hopefully it won’t take long before I can find something relevant to solving your temporal loop issue. Your friend, Princess Twilight Sparkle.” Sunset turned the page to look over the list that Princess Twilight had recorded of the sections of her library she had already searched through. It was certainly thorough, to say the least. Sunset sighed and noted, “Well, at least this won’t be a hopeless effort. I just need to not only rewrite my message to Princess Twilight the next morning, but also memorize this list tonight so I can include it in that message. Of course, there’s no telling how many more days I’ll have to go through with this before she eventually finds something helpful.” She closed her journal and sighed. “If she can find anything helpful…” “Look on the bright side,” said Pinkie with optimism. “Maybe tomorrow will be the day you get your answers.” “I sure hope so…” muttered Sunset as she stood up and began to make her way back to the campgrounds. Thanks to some help from her friends later that evening, Sunset was able to memorize the sections of Princess Twilight’s research, allowing her to add that list to her rewritten message the next morning. Unfortunately, the second day ended mostly the same as the first, which inevitably left Sunset with a second list of additional research material to memorize for the following morning. It had been a struggle to memorize that second list in addition to the first one, but she was able to be mostly confident in her accuracy as she included it with her rewritten message to Princess Twilight the following morning. On the third day of waiting, Sunset received a reply in her journal sometime around late afternoon — a few hours earlier than she had received the previous replies throughout the time loop, which immediately filled Sunset with optimism that, perhaps this time, Princess Twilight might have actually found something significant. With a smile on her face, Sunset immediately open her journal and began reading the most recent message. “Ooh! Ooh! What does it say?!” asked Pinkie eagerly, tossing aside the bag of potato chips she had been snacking on. “Did she figure it out?! Does she know what’s going on?!” Sunset kept her smile as she glanced at Pinkie, then turned her gaze down at the journal and read aloud, “Dear Sunset Shimmer. Taking into consideration the research you claim I have already done in the previous loop of this day, I concluded that I should skip further ahead and go straight to the restricted section of Canterlot Library. I’m sure you remember going there with me during that Memory Stone incident.” Sunset chuckled as she glanced over at Pinkie and remarked, “How could I not? She practically fell in love with the place, as if someone decided to let you run loose in a candy factory.” Pinkie gasped and excitedly exclaimed, “Me allowed to freely explore a candy factory?! That would be the best thing I could ever imagine!” Sunset giggled, the turned her gaze back down to the journal and continued reading aloud, “It seems my hunch this time was right, as it looks like you’ve found another long lost Equestrian artifact.” Sunset sighed and grumbled, “Lucky me…” “Eh, at least this means you’ve finally got an answer and don’t have to wait anymore,” noted Pinkie before taking a sip from her strawberry slush drink. “True…” acknowledged Sunset. She turned her gaze back down to the journal and continued reading aloud, “This artifact is called the Time Twirler. I don’t know how it found its way into the Lego World, but when activated, it has the power to loop time. What you’re experiencing isn’t simply magic run amok or a wish gone awry. Somepony is using the Time Twirler to cause this. I’ve used a copy-paste spell to record for you all the relevant information on this artifact over the following two pages. Please be sure to inform me once you’ve been able to locate and deactivate the Time Twirler, even if it takes you a few more loops of today to accomplish that. Your friend, Princess Twilight Sparkle.” Sunset turned the page and looked over the two pages of copied notes and diagrams describing the Time Twirler in full detail. The artifact appeared to be some sort of amulet shaped like a stopwatch with a large eye covering most of the face of it, and according to the diagrams, the artifact was activated by pressing the button on top, and that activation would be signified by the eye opening and a pair of golden fins flaring out the sides of it. “Okay, this is definitely promising,” noted Sunset with a smile as she showed those pages to Pinkie. “If we find whoever used the Time Twirler to start the loop, we’ll be able to end it for good!” She then slammed her journal shut and declared, “Gather the others and tell them we have a new mission.” “You got it, Sunset!” acknowledged Pinkie with a salute before she swiftly rushed off, spilling her half-full slush drink to the ground in the process. While she waited for her friends to arrive, Sunset decided to open her journal again and study the copied ancient notes and diagrams on the Time Twirler. Now that she finally had a promising lead to work with, she wanted to make sure she knew as much about it as possible before officially starting her investigation. As the sun began to set over the festival grounds and the sky turned to brilliant shades of orange and red, Sunset had just finished telling her friends about the Time Twirler and they were now walking around the area and observing their surroundings for anything suspicious. “So, uh… what exactly should we be on the lookout for?” asked Fluttershy. “Whoever has this Time Twirler artifact is the only one besides Sunset who isn’t in the same places doing the same things every day,” noted Twilight. “Either that, or any people who come into contact with them. After all, we would all be elsewhere doing something different had it not been for Sunset summoning us together to help her stop this time loop. Therefore, identifying multiple differences and tracing them back to a common source should provide us with our potential suspect.” “But if Sunset’s the only one of us experiencing the time loop, how would the rest of us be able to notice any differences?” Spike pointed out. Twilight held up her hand and was about to respond, only to suddenly realize the meaning behind Spike’s question. “Huh… that’s actually a good point,” she reluctantly acknowledged. Pinkie moved ahead to walk beside Sunset and asked, “So what do you think, Sunset? Have you noticed anyone who doesn’t belong? Anyone out of place? Anyone… evil?!” She pulled an evil-looking face as she spoke that last word. Sunset rubbed the back of her head and replied, “I don’t think so…” She let out a sigh of frustration. “How could I? Every day is the same!” “Every day’s the same…” sang two girls cheerfully as they happened to walk by the Equestria Girls. Sunset continued, “It goes round and round and— Wait. Did you girls hear that?” Sunset and her friends looked around in confusion. Before any of them could identify the two girls who had walked by, they saw someone else also walk by while cheerfully singing a song lyric. “Round and round and round and round…” sang the guy who Sunset quickly recognized as that paint balloon artist she and Pinkie had often encountered on previous loops. This time, he also happened to be wearing headphones over his ears. Sunset quickly caught up to that artist and snatched his headphones as she called out, “Hey! What are you listening to?” She held up one half of the headphones close to her ear and listened to the music playing through them. She couldn’t quite identify it, but somehow, the feminine vocalization she was hearing sounded remarkably familiar. The artist guy quickly swiped back his headphones and responded, “They say it’s the latest hit single from a band that’s begun to rise from its ashes.” He then placed his headphones back over his ears and made his way over towards the secondary performance stage a short distance away. Sunset looked over towards that secondary stage, where a small crowd had already gathered around and cheered with enthusiasm. Although the stage was currently obscured with some kind of green fog, she did hear the exact same feminine vocalizing as she had heard on those headphones, and some of the lyrics they slowly sang matched up with the theme from the brief bits of that song she had heard. So ordinary… stuck on repeat… Gotta find the passion, passion, passion… Sunset smiled and declared, “I think we’ve got a clue, girls.” She then led her friends towards the secondary performance stage. As soon as the Equestria Girls arrived at the back of the gathered crowd, they suddenly gasped in shock and huddled together, which caused them to unintentionally shove Sunset back behind them, leaving her unable to see what they were witnessing. “The festival brochure didn’t have them on the list of performing artists,” noted Twilight with concern. “They must’ve been a last-minute addition!” concluded Pinkie worriedly. “Who?” asked Sunset desperately as she struggled to see around her group of friends, only to get accidentally shoved back again as Fluttershy cowered fearfully behind the others. “But they lost their singing voices!” Rainbow Dash insisted. “They’ve gotta be using magic!” “That or vocal processin’,” Applejack pointed out. “They wouldn’t!” argued Rainbow Dash. She then rolled her eyes and grumbled, “Wait, what am I talking about? Of course they would.” “Who are you talking about?!” demanded Sunset as she decided to just shove her friends aside to get a good view of the stage. Once she finally got a glimpse of the figures emerging through the artificial fog, she gasped in shock. The trio who were performing on that stage may have been wearing unfamiliar outfits, but their skin color and the shape and color of their hair pieces left no question who those three girls really were. “The Dazzlings are back?!” asked Sunset in shock. Those three faces — and their outrageous hairstyles — left no doubt at all that it was indeed the Dazzlings, three former sirens from Equestria who had once tried to conquer the entire Lego World some time ago, only to be defeated by the Equestria Girls and not only lose their magical singing voices but also ended up being sent to prison supposedly for the rest of their lives. But right here and now, they were obviously not in jail, they seemed to have regained at least some of their singing talent, and even got some new outfits for this performance in front of an audience that seemingly didn’t care at all about their past misdeeds. Adagio Dazzle — the light yellow girl with orange hair tied back in a big mass of curls — had dark purple on her feet and upper legs, maroon on her arms and torso, light purple on the front of her torso under an open jacket, and a gold belt around her waist. Aria Blaze — the light violet girl with dark purple hair tied to the sides in two long pigtails — had magenta on her feet, dark purple on her legs, bright green on her torso and upper arms, and magenta with white dots on her lower arms and the front of her torso under an open jacket. Sonata Dusk — the light blue girl with medium blue hair tied back in a long ponytail — had turquoise on her feet, magenta on her torso, left arm, and the skirt around her upper legs, and a taco printed on the front of her torso and the sides of her skirt. And together, the three of them were performing a slow song with lyrics that Sunset found rather suspicious. It wasn’t long until the Dazzlings reached the end of their song. As the crowd cheered, Adagio sighed and rather tiredly stated, “That song’s called Find the Magic.” She then grumbled something under her breath as she held out her microphone and let it drop to the stage. The three former sirens smiled at the crowd, then turned to walk off the stage. “Seriously?” asked Sunset in disbelief. “The chord progression is kind of samey-samey,” noted Rarity. Sunset facepalmed and firmly stated, “And the Dazzlings are behind the time loop!” “Still no excuse for lazy songwriting,” Rarity slyly muttered with a smile as she rolled her eyes. “But what are they even doing out here anyway?” asked Spike. “I thought they were sent to jail for life.” “They were!” agreed Applejack, just as confused as Spike. “They were sent to Lego Maximum Security Prison. There’s no way a facility like that would ever allow ‘em outside its walls for whatever reason. This don’t make any sense.” “Was there some kind of jailbreak we were never told about?” asked Rainbow Dash. “Actually…” Twilight spoke up, quickly feeling rather self-conscious as all of her friends turned to her. “This was supposed to be kept strictly between myself, Sunset, and Celestia, but… as part of her ‘Redeemables’ project, Celestia had secretly arranged to have the Dazzlings transferred to Albatross Prison, just off the coast from Lego City. Her intent was to offer them an opportunity to join that project with a reward of being allowed to leave prison, much like how Sunset was originally given her second chance.” “And they actually agreed to that?” asked Fluttershy in shock and disbelief. “Well, not quite,” admitted Twilight. “Sonata and Aria both expressed interest in the offer, but would join only if their partners in the trio also agreed. Adagio, on the other hand, seemed more reluctant, and agreed only to consider the idea.” “In other words, the only reason they didn’t actually join the Redeemables project was ‘cause Adagio wasn’t on board with the idea?” asked Applejack. “Yeah, pretty much,” confirmed Sunset. “Despite their different attitudes and opinions, they practically see each other as family, so they’ll never do anything without each other. To put it bluntly, Adagio’s stubborn pride is really the only thing that prevented them from actually joining the project.” “Maybe she changed her mind and that’s why they’re now out of jail,” suggested Spike with a shrug. “Even if that were true,” Sunset pointed out, “if they’re using the Time Twirler, then they’re definitely betraying the trust that project demanded of them.” She sighed and grumbled, “I knew something like this would happen. I knew Celestia was making a big mistake believing that even they could earn our trust. This just proves they’ll never deserve that second chance.” “So what are we gonna do?” asked Rainbow Dash. Sunset watched as the villainous trio walked backstage through an opening in a short fence beside the stage, then a certain familiar security guard closed off the opening with a velvet rope. Is this guy pretty much the only security guard around here? thought Sunset in confusion for a moment. She quickly dismissed the question and considered her options. She then smiled and spoke up with determination, “Okay, new mission. We have to get backstage. We need to find the Time Twirler without them suspecting anything, so some of us will have to provide some sort of diversion while the rest of us search for that artifact. Once we find it, we can shut it off to end the loop.” “But our backstage passes don’t become valid until day two,” Twilight pointed out. “Since you’re stuck repeating day one, we’ll never have an opportunity to be permitted backstage.” Sunset sighed in frustration, then declared, “Then we’ll have to find some other way to get past that guard.” The group of friends turned to the security guard blocking the backstage entrance a short distance away, where a rather awkward teenage fanboy was trembling as he held up a poster of the Dazzlings. “I-I-I, uh, j-just wanna ask if I could, uh, g-get their autographs?” asked the fanboy nervously with a squeaky voice. “Beat it, kid,” scolded the guard with a stoic frown on his face as he shook his head. “These girls have a strict restraining order against all members of the public while they’re out on tour.” “Ah, yes, right,” acknowledged the awkward fanboy, sweating profusely as he nervously backed away. “S-S-Sorry for, uh, w-wasting your time.” He then tripped over his own feet and fell over backwards, accidentally crumpling his poster as he hit the ground. He quickly rolled over and staggered back onto his feet, whimpering as he stumbled away. Most of the Equestria Girls cringed and muttered various words of unease after witnessing that encounter. Pinkie Pie, on the other hand, was completely undeterred by the serious security guard standing in their way. With a smile of determination on her face, she began marching forward as she declared, “The weak shall crumble before me! I got this!” “Wait!” exclaimed Sunset as she grabbed Pinkie’s arm to hold her back. “If you wanna help, let me come up with a plan.” She released her grip on Pinkie and continued, “No distractions, no detours, no…” She trailed off as she watched Pinkie completely ignore her and resume marching towards the guard. “…walking off while I’m in the middle of talking to you… just like in almost every other loop I’ve been through already.” She sighed and facepalmed, then turned back to her friends and grumbled, “Now do you see why my patience for Pinkie has been wearing so thin lately?” Pinkie walked up to the security guard and began to closely observe him, studying his diligent stance from all angles, and even at times looking through a magnifying glass like some cliché investigator, all while the guard remained as unmoving as a statue. Finally, Pinkie casually walked over to the guard and innocently asked, “Last summer, weren’t you working at the, um…?” “Cat food convention?” finished the security guard, unamused. “Cat food convention!” stated Pinkie, as if she had come up with that answer herself. She nodded and contently continued, “Oh, that’s right! Mm-hmm! Uh, you were the guy who…?” “Yeah…” responded the guard sourly. “I. Got. FIRED!” he shouted that last word directly in Pinkie’s face. Pinkie flinched at the outburst, but quickly collected herself as she took a step back and innocently continued, “Because, uh… now, what happened again?” The Security guard let out a sigh of exasperation before he answered, “I tried taking a kitten home with me, all right? But it turns out, that’s against the rules!” Back with the rest of her friends, Sunset groaned in frustration and grumbled, “If she blows this thing, I’ll have to start this day all over again!” “Was it an orange cat?” asked Pinkie casually with a smile still on her face. “Tuxedo!” hollered the guard as he waved his arms around with clenched fists. “Ask me her name! See what happens!” “You’re pushing your luck too far, Pinkie!” cautioned Twilight worriedly. “Don’t do it, Pinkie!” warned Applejack with concern. “Bail, Pinkie! Bail!” Rainbow Dash cried out fearfully. But Pinkie behaved as if she had not heard any of her friends as she considered her next question and blissfully asked, “What was her name?” SLAM!! Once again, Sunset found herself facing the door out of the festival grounds with the familiar message of “EXIT ONLY! Trespassers will be tackled on sight,” on a decal stuck to that door. And thanks to her experiences in one of the earlier loops, she knew that message was not an empty threat. This time, however, Pinkie wasn’t the only one standing beside her for this outcome. All of the rest of her friends had also been kicked out, and they all looked down at the cut fragments of their festival bracelets scattered across the ground. “Wow, Pinkie,” remarked Sunset sourly with her arms crossed and a frown on her face. “Your actions managed to get all eight of us kicked out in one go. After four months of repeating this day, that’s actually a first.” Pinkie shamefully looked away as she groaned sadly and muttered, “I guess I don’t got this…” Sunset continued to glare at Pinkie for bringing such a disastrous end to the day, yet again. But when she glanced back at the rest of her friends standing behind her, she noticed many of them were shaking their heads in disapproval… and their gazes were on Sunset. Those resentful looks made her quickly realize she was once again being unfairly harsh to Pinkie. It certainly wasn’t the first time she felt bad about being hard on Pinkie for ruining this day, but now, after so many earlier loops of expressing indifference to her friend’s feelings, she just couldn’t bring herself to allow this loop to simply end without some attempt at reconciliation. As Pinkie whimpered with guilt, Sunset considered what she should say next. She smiled as a thought of optimism occurred to her, so she walked over to Pinkie and explained, “Maybe you don’t, but together, we do. For a time looper like me, today’s failure can be tomorrow’s success.” Pinkie slowly began to smile again as she remarked, “Yeah… I guess you’re right. The rest of us may start all over again, but at least you’ll remember which mistakes to not make the next time around.” “Exactly!” confirmed Sunset with a smile. “Thanks to you exposing that security guard’s weakness, we can use it to our advantage on the next loop.” She then turned back to the rest of her friends and asked, “Fluttershy, who did you leave to look after your pet shop while we’re out of town?” “My friend Tree Hugger,” answered Fluttershy. “We’ve known each other for years, so we trust each other very much.” “Give her a call right away,” requested Sunset confidently. “Ask if you have a kitten there that matches the description of the one that security guard said he wanted to take home with him. Also be sure to ask if she was busy with anything earlier today. If you have the type of kitten we need and your friend had time to spare earlier today, then on the next loop, I can ask you to call her to bring that kitten over here.” As Fluttershy nodded in agreement before she quickly pulled out her phone and began to make that call, Rainbow Dash smirked and playfully quipped, “Bribing the guard with a kitten? Looks like some of the old Sunset is starting to show through again.” “What can I say?” responded Sunset shamelessly with a shrug. “When I get determined enough to accomplish something, I’m willing to do whatever it takes, even if it means resorting to some underhanded tactics.” “And I can see you at least still have your journal with you,” noted Rarity as she pointed at the satchel slung over Sunset’s shoulder. “Perhaps you might wish to spend the last few hours of this day studying Princess Twilight’s message regarding the Equestrian artifact you’ll be searching for.” “That’s actually a pretty good idea,” agreed Sunset as she and her friends began walking towards the campgrounds. “Although I could simply message her on every loop to send me that research information — especially now that I know exactly what to look for — I’d rather not keep bothering her from whatever she’s been up to in Equestria.” “If it’s okay with you, I’d like to help you with memorizing that information,” suggested Twilight. “Sure, Twilight,” agreed Sunset with a smile. “After four months of this, I’ll take whatever help I can get.” Twilight then moved close to Sunset and quietly added, “Personally, I’m relieved this time loop will reset at least one more time, because now our ‘special assignment’ regarding the Dazzlings and the Redeemables project will go back to being a strict secret between us, as Celestia Playwell had insisted.” “True,” acknowledged Sunset. “Although seeing as it’s almost certain Pinkie will accompany me wherever I go, I may have to let her in on the secret again.” “Don’t worry, Sunset,” assured Pinkie. “As long as you tell me how super-duper important it’ll be keep that info super-secret, you can count on me to never say a word of it to anyone else.” “I sure hope so,” muttered Sunset, failing to hide the skepticism in her voice. “If my plan works and I can find and disable the Time Twirler, then the next loop will be the final one, which means whatever happens that time around will be what we’re stuck with once time starts going like normal again.” She paused before she uneasily added, “Now that I think about it, if the next loop of this day is really gonna be the last one, then I’d better make sure everything else around me goes perfectly — especially if we wanna watch PostCrush.” “Take it easy, Sunset,” advised Spike calmly as he place a hand on Sunset’s shoulder. “Focus only on the important mission. Try not to get distracted by any secondary goals.” Sunset smiled and responded, “Thanks, Spike. Sometimes, it’s good to a voice of reason like you around.” It was at this moment that Fluttershy finished her phone call. She put away her phone, then turned to Sunset and explained, “Tree Hugger checked the shop and said we do have a tuxedo kitten, whose name is Hattie. She also confirmed she didn’t have much to do this morning, so, hypothetically speaking, she could’ve had plenty of time to deliver that adorable kitty to us.” “So I guess that settles it,” declared Sunset with a smile of confidence. “As soon as I wake up in the morning, I’ll ask you to call Tree Hugger to bring the kitten named Hattie here to the music festival. Though to make sure the guard in question doesn’t catch on to our plan, It might be best to let you bring the kitten through a different security line than the one I’ll take, and then you can hand it over to me once we’re inside.” She let out a sigh, then spoke up, “Well, girls… wish me luck on the next loop.” Once the Equestria Girls arrived at their RV, they spent the last few hours of the day helping Sunset make her final preparations for the next repeat of day one, hopeful that their temporally trapped friend will finally be able to break herself free from that endless time loop. Morning arrived at the campgrounds just outside the Starswirled Music Festival. It was little more than an hour after sunrise, and by this point, Sunset Shimmer was the only one still asleep within the RV that she and her friends were using for their stay at the festival. As Sunset slept in her sleeping bag beside the window, her phone was lying beside her head on the pillow. At the moment the time became 7:00, the phone’s alarm went off by playing a song by PostCrush. Be the true… true, true original— Sunset quickly woke up and shut off her phone’s alarm. Remembering everything she had learned from the previous loop, she was now feeling very confident that, this time, she was finally going to be able to do something to end the time loop once and for all. As far as she was concerned, today was finally going to be her last time going through day one of the Starswirled Music Festival. Sunset climbed out of her sleeping bag, tossed off her pajamas, and slipped on that all-too familiar music festival outfit. She then walked out the door and around the front of the RV to join her friends, who were already gathered outside. Once again, Sunset saw all of her friends in their familiar starting locations and sharing the same conversations she had heard many times before. She tried to not pay attention to any of that and focus on starting her mission right away, but that caused her to not notice Rainbow Dash once again quickly run over and stop right behind her while carrying a large paddle with the Sonic Rainbooms band symbol printed on it. “Starswirled day one! Come and get it!” Rainbow excitedly declared as she swung the paddle around, accidentally smacking Sunset’s rear end. “Ow…” muttered Sunset flatly as she glanced back with a mildly annoyed expression at Rainbow. “Oops.” Rainbow chuckled sheepishly and responded, “Sorry. I’ll be more careful next time.” With that inconvenience behind her, Sunset walked over towards the heating table as she once again heard the same old conversation between her friends gathered there. “So Ah says to Big Mac, ‘Get your own chicken coop!’” spoke Applejack. Fluttershy happened to be in the middle of taking a sip of her orange juice when she heard the end of that joke, so she ended up doing a spit-take directly onto the front of Applejack’s torso before beginning to laugh. “Hey! Watch it!” complained Applejack. Fluttershy laughed for a little bit before she calmed down enough to respond, “Sorry. It’s just that one had animals in it.” Applejack grabbed a nearby napkin and started drying herself off as she grumbled, “Well next time, try not to spray it at someone.” “Ooh! Ooh! How about this one?!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie excitedly as she suddenly bounced over to where most of her friends were seated. “What do you call a PostCrush fan with three eyes?” Sunset chose this moment to step forward and spoke up, “Sorry to cut short your jokes, but I need to inform you of something very important. Long story short, I’ve been stuck in a time loop where I’ve been repeating this day for months now. The good news is that, thanks to a message from Princess Twilight, I now know that it’s the result of a magical artifact from Equestria called the Time Twirler. You girls still with me?” There was a moment of silence as all of Sunset’s friends stared at her in confusion. Eventually, Applejack turned to Twilight and asked, “Time loop?” Twilight responded, “It’s possible a snag in—” “—the fabric of spacetime could cause a temporal point — i.e., this day — to fold in on itself and thereby repeat,” Sunset quickly finished. Twilight was momentarily speechless before she noted, “That’s exactly what I was about to say…” “Because I’ve already heard you say it dozens of time already,” added Sunset flatly. Twilight was stunned in silence for a moment before she conceded, “You really have been repeating this day a lot.” With that clarification taken care of, Sunset continued explaining, “The good news is that in the previous loop, we were able to find a potential suspect. We also came up with a plan on how to reach them and hopefully retrieve the Time Twirler from them.” She turned to Fluttershy and swiftly requested, “Fluttershy, call your friend Tree hugger and ask her to bring the tuxedo kitten named Hattie right here.” “Um, okay…” responded Fluttershy with confusion. “Any, um, particular reason why?” “Let’s just say I know someone who’d be very happy to adopt that cute little kitten,” answered Sunset cryptically. “Also, once that kitten is here, do not bring it through the same security line as the one I’ll be taking. Trust me, the plan will be ruined if a certain one of those security guards sees that kitten this early in the day.” “Uh… I guess I could do all of that,” agreed Fluttershy somewhat reluctantly. “I’m not sure why you want me to do those things, but if you’ve really been repeating this day so many times, then I’m sure you have your reasons.” “Believe me, this is the best plan we could come up with for these circumstances,” assured Sunset. “You even confirmed on the previous loop that you should be fully capable of completing this task for me.” “If you’re sure about that,” muttered Fluttershy with uncertainty as she pulled out her phone and began to make the call. “What about the rest of us?” asked Applejack as she and the others still had their attention on Sunset. “If all goes well,” replied Sunset, “then this could be the last time I’ll have to repeat this day, so your girls can all just go ahead and do what you were already planning to do. I’ll explain everything when we meet back here at the end of the day.” Pinkie Pie leaned close to Sunset and asked, “Are we still gonna be able to watch PostCrush together tonight?” Sunset pondered that scenario for a moment before she smiled and replied, “As long as you do everything I ask you to do and not get in my way for any silly reason, then yes, it should be possible for us to have just enough time to spare for PostCrush.” “Yes!” cheered Pinkie excitedly with a leap. She then gave a salute and enthusiastically declared, “I promise I won’t let you down, Sunset!” “I sure hope you’ll actually mean it, this time,” muttered Sunset as she walked over to the available stack of familiar blueberry pancakes to grab some breakfast. Although she was wise enough to not speak up about her misgivings, the fact remained that the stakes were now too high for any of Pinkie’s antics to disrupt her plans. For this time in particular, failure was not an option. Sunset went through the same old entry routine she had done for much of the last four months. She followed her friends to the main entrance to the festival grounds — somehow still managing to step into that same old mud puddle along the way — and waited with Pinkie in the slow-moving center security line. This time, Sunset was pleased to see Fluttershy take notice of that and made sure to wait in a different line. The shy girl didn’t quite reach the front of her line when she got the call from her friend to pick up the special delivery, so she had to give up her place in line to retrieve the kitten. Sunset had just reached the front of her line when she saw Fluttershy return and had even thought ahead to have the basket covered so that no one — except of course the other security guard she had to be inspected by — could know for sure what she had really brought with her. Finally, once they all had made it through security, Fluttershy handed the kitten in a blanket-covered basket over to Sunset, then went on her way to proceed with her day as originally planned. Sunset didn’t want to take any chances, so, much like with the previous loop, she chose to spend most of the day just waiting around in the lounge tent. Although she gave Pinkie permission to go out and do other fun things on her own, the pink party girl insisted on sticking with her, regardless of whatever the two of them would do. Although Sunset got the feeling that it didn’t seem fair that her friend chose to sacrifice any opportunities for having fun, she remained convinced that her mission was too important to prioritize anything over it. At least having that cute kitten with them helped to keep them entertained a little while they waited for their moment of opportunity. Eventually, as the afternoon gave way to evening under the setting sun, Sunset was finally ready to move out and put the plan into action. Pinkie naturally volunteered to assist, and so followed her over to the secondary performance stage. Of course, with this being a new loop, Pinkie had no idea who the suspects were until she saw them performing on that stage in front of a small crowd. “The Dazzlings?!” asked Pinkie in shock. “But I thought they were in jail! How are they out here?!” “Remember when Celestia Playwell assigned us with that ‘Redeemables’ project?” explained Sunset. “Well, in addition to those five we all know about, she had also secretly arranged to have them transferred to Albatross Prison near Lego City so she could send me and Twilight on that ‘special assignment’ to secretly extend that same offer to the three of them.” “And they accepted?!” asked Pinkie, further surprised by that additional revelation. “Actually, not quite,” replied Sunset. “For them, they said it had to be a three-way mutual agreement, and while Sonata and Aria were open to the offer, Adagio had little interest and agreed only to accept the information folder we had to deliver to her, claiming she would consider her options.” “Maybe Adagio changed her mind,” suggested Pinkie. “Why else would they suddenly be out here, outside of jail?” “Whatever the reason,” stated Sunset bitterly, “if they’re using the Time Twirler, then they definitely no longer deserve any hope for a second chance.” It wasn’t long before the Dazzlings reached the end of their song. Once again, Adagio expressed little enthusiasm as she stated the name of their song, dropped the microphone, and walked off the stage in front of her two companions. They then headed into the backstage area, which that familiar security guard blocked off with a velvet rope. And once again, that security guard harshly denied entry for the awkward teenage fanboy who desired an autograph, causing the later to fearfully stumble away. Sunset held up the basket in her hands as she turned to Pinkie with a confident smirk and asked, “You ready for this?” Pinkie swiftly removed the blanket that covered the kitten in that basket before she proudly confirmed, “Operation: Kitty Bribery is a go!” Sunset chuckled in amusement as she began to walk towards the security guard standing between her and the Dazzlings. She and Pinkie walked with confidence, not even bothering a glance at the retreating fanboy as he stumbled past them. The moment that security guard’s eyes fell on that kitten being carried by Sunset, his diligent stance suddenly fell as he gasped and his jaw dropped. He was rendered completely speechless and strongly overcome with emotion as he watched such an adorable little kitten being carried directly towards him. While Sunset visibly kept her cool as she approached the guard, she felt quite amused to see one of the toughest guys in the festival area practically lose it at the sight of such a simple yet adorable gift. Once she reached the guard, she held out the basket towards him and casually said, “Say hello to Hattie the kitty cat. He’s been looking for a good home to adopt him, and I have a feeling the two of you will be perfect for each other.” The guard slowly reached forward and gently lifted the kitten out of the basket. Although his sunglasses obscured his eyes, the tears of happiness rolling down his cheeks gave away just how overwhelmed he was feeling in this moment. “Hello, Mister Kitty,” he cooed as he held the kitten close to his face. The kitten reciprocated the affection by licking away his tears. Sunset set down the basked and calmly stated, “If you spend all your time keeping people out, how are you ever gonna let anybody in… to your heart?” “Oh, gosh…” he whimpered as he wiped away his tears. “Y-You have no idea how much this means to me…” He then removed the velvet rope behind him and stepped aside. “Go ahead and go backstage, the both of you’s.” “Really?” asked Pinkie cheerfully as Sunset stepped through the opened entryway. “Wow, thanks!” She followed Sunset into the backstage area, then quietly remarked to her friend, “Great idea, Sunset!” “We came up with it together,” noted Sunset with a friendly smile. “It was your discovery in the previous loop that made today’s success possible.” The two girls came around a corner and soon found themselves approaching a rather modest van that appeared to have seen better days and with a rather crude paint job across the sides. Before either of them had a chance to say anything, the van’s side door suddenly began to slide open. Sunset reacted quickly by pulling Pinkie with her to hide behind some large boxes sitting beside the van. Once they were out of sight, they sat still and listened in on the people emerging from that run-down van. “Ooh, that was our best show yet!” cheered Sonata. “The loop is really working,” remarked Aria. “Of course it’s working,” noted Adagio smugly. “It was my idea.” “I knew it!” whispered Sunset. “I bet they’re hiding the Time Twirler somewhere in their tour bus.” “Nice thinking,” agreed Pinkie quietly. She then peeked her head above the boxes and noted, “Actually, it looks more like a tour van to me.” Sunset swiftly yanked Pinkie back down to keep her out of sight. “Did you hear something?” asked Sonata. “Hey! Where’d that security guy run off to?” Aria spoke up irritably. “Ugh! I swear, the law enforcement in this world is an absolute joke,” grumbled Adagio, followed by the noise of the van door sliding shut. Sunset carefully watched around the side of the boxes as the three former sirens walked away from the van and back through the entryway they had recently passed through. Once she was confident they were far enough away to no longer notice them, she stood up and quickly walked over to the van. As she opened the side door, she turned back to Pinkie and ordered, “Stay here and stand guard. If you see anyone coming, sound the alarm.” “Sure thing, Sunset!” agreed Pinkie with a salute and a smile. “I promise to keep an eye out for anything and everything.” “No, Pinkie,” Sunset firmly stated. “A regular promise isn’t gonna cut it this time. I want you to Pinkie promise that you won’t leave your post.” Pinkie went through the usual gestures of her special promise and declared, “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stuck a cupcake in my eye!” “Good,” said Sunset with a nod of approval. “Hopefully, this won’t take too long.” She then pulled the sliding door shut. Pinkie then began marching around the van as she firmly muttered to herself, “No one’s gonna get by me! No way, no how! Nuh-uh! Nope! Not at all!” Meanwhile, the three Dazzlings walked further into the festival grounds. However, they didn’t get close to anything of interest before Adagio suddenly stopped and asked, “Wait… Did one of you remember to take the bread out of the toaster?” “It’s not my job to not start fires,” complained Aria as she glared at Sonata. Sonata scoffed and retorted, “How was I supposed to know you can’t put tacos in a toaster?” Adagio rolled her eyes as she groaned and grumbled, “You two can be so annoying at times. We’re going back. Looks like we’ll have to cut this one short.” She turned around and began walking back to their van. “Aww, bummer…” moaned Sonata in disappointment as she and Aria followed after Adagio. Back at the van, Pinkie continued to diligently patrol around the van as she proudly muttered, “Keepin’ watch, that’s what I—” She paused as she suddenly began to smell a rather sweet and delicious aroma. “What’s that smell?” she asked as she sniffed the air. “Could it be?” She glanced over towards the festival grounds and gasped as her eyes fell on a certain specific cart not far away. “Puffed Pasty’s exclusive star-crusted, cinnamon-dipped churros!” Her mouth watered at the sight and smell of those irresistible treats, but then she quickly frowned. “Now’s probably not the best time to go get one,” she reluctantly acknowledged. She then smiled and noted, “On the other hand, if I get two, then Sunset could have one with me.” She glanced back at the van where Sunset was still busy searching, then immediately snapped out of it and scolded herself, “No! I will not give in!” Pinkie stood in place and turned away from the churro cart, but then remembered she was supposed to be keeping watch, which meant looking around at everything away from the van… which included those very tempting churros. She soon found herself slowly moving towards that cart, then immediately backed off and scolded herself, “No, Pinkie! No! Don’t fall for it!” She attempted to resume her patrol, but the instant her eyes fell on that churro cart again, she drooled and slurped as she drifted towards that source of immense temptation. She quickly backed off again and sharply scolded herself, “No! No! You Pinkie promised! Don’t do it!” But just as quickly, she whimpered as she was unable to keep her eyes away from that specific cart. Pinkie’s mental tug-o-war between her promise to Sunset and her cravings for churros endured for several more seconds. Ultimately, she glanced around in all directions and saw absolutely no one was nearby or even seemed to have any interest of approaching the old van. “Just a quick in-and-out,” she assured herself. “No one will even notice.” With her mind finally made up, Pinkie left her post and swiftly made her way towards the churro cart. Only seconds later, the Dazzlings appeared from around the stage and made their way back to their tour van. Inside the van, Sunset extensively searched every nook and cranny she could think of, but was unable to find any trace of the Time Twirler. Instead, all she was discovering was that the interior of this van was covered in various scuffs and stains, full of cheap products, and had a rather offending odor. Hardly a life of luxury for those three, that’s for sure, she thought. As Sunset searched through the kitchen section of the van, she pushed a toaster aside, only to get startled when a pair of blackened slices of toast suddenly popped out. “Who leaves toast in a toaster? Honestly…” she grumbled to herself. Suddenly, the van door slid open and Sunset found herself directly facing the three former sirens, and when they saw the intruder inside their van, their expressions were furious. “Don’t even think about eating our toast, Sunset Shimmer!” warned Adagio as she pointed at the intruder in their van. Sunset chuckled sheepishly. “I, uh, don’t think you’ll have to be concerned about that,” she noted awkwardly as she gestured at the toaster. When the three former sirens saw the charred black toast within that toaster, Aria growled and turned to Sonata. “What did I just say about not starting fires?” she grumbled. “Well I’m not the one who prefers her toast extra crispy,” argued Sonata. While Sunset had her attention on the Dazzlings confronting her, her gaze drifted past them towards an all-too familiar churro cart… with Pinkie Pie standing right in front of it with a blissful smile on her face. Sunset growled in frustration and grumbled, “Should’ve known Pinkie would do this to me…” “What are you doing on our bus?” accused Adagio. Recognizing her original plan to be stealthy and discrete was no longer possible, Sunset quickly decided to change tactics to regain the upper hand. She smiled and smugly replied, “Sorry, not sorry, Adagio, but it’s time to take this track off repeat. I heard you admit the time loop was your idea.” “Time loop?” asked Adagio in confusion. “Where’d you get that idea? We looped a vocal track.” She and her two companions laughed together at Sunset’s misguidance. Sunset was undeterred, and with the Dazzlings momentarily distracted, she took immediate advantage of this opportunity by reaching forward and grasping Adagio’s wrist. “Hey!” protested Adagio. “What are you doing?!” As soon as that contact was made, Sunset’s body stiffened and her eyes glowed white as she began to look into Adagio Dazzle’s memories. The memory Sunset witnessed occurred within Albatross Prison. This was most likely sometime after she and Twilight had delivered their offer of inviting the Dazzlings to join the Redeemables project, because she had been told during her visit there that Adagio had stubbornly refused to leave her cell for any reason ever since she and the other two were transferred there, and this memory began with Adagio walking down a hallway with a look of pride on her face. Adagio soon arrived at the prison’s mess hall, where many inmates were currently gathered for lunch. It didn’t take long for many of them to turn their attention towards her as she made her way between the tables and benches spread out across the room. “Hey, check it out,” called out one inmate. “Looks like cheese puff decided to finally come crawling out of her cage.” “Didn’t think that wuss would ever have the guts to do that,” mocked another inmate. Yet another inmate began to closely follow Adagio and asked, “So now that you’re outta your cell, how’s about I take you to my cell an’ show you a good time, eh?” Adagio immediately stopped walking. Many of the inmates watching her quickly grinned with malicious intent. After standing still for a few seconds, she then suddenly spun around and swiftly kicked that stalking inmate right between his legs. The inmate immediately grasped his groin as he grunted in pain and crumpled to the ground. “Mommy…” he whimpered with a suddenly squeaky high voice. With a smile of satisfaction on her face, Adagio turned her attention to the rest of the surrounding inmates and asked, “Who’s next?” The other inmates quickly averted their gazes away from her and pretended to focus on their meals. Adagio’s smug smile widened as she concluded, “My thoughts exactly…” With that much-needed boost to her self-esteem, she resumed her confident march through the mess hall until she arrived at the table where her two sisters, Aria and Sonata, were seated. Sonata had a plate full of sushi in front of her, while Aria’s lunch consisted of two slices of pizza with toppings of sausage and bacon. Both of them paused eating their meals as they watched the leader of their trio sit down across from them at the same table. The other inmates who also happened to be seated at that table — some of whom had been eyeing those other two girls with malicious intent — quickly got up and moved to sit at any of the other tables, though preferably as far away as possible. “Boy, Adagio, you sure do know how to make a statement,” quipped Aria. “I’ll say!” agreed Sonata. “A lot of these prison guys are just the worst. About time someone showed those creeps not to mess with us.” Aria glared at Sonata and noted, “I literally get payed to beat the crud outta some of those creeps.” “Yeah, but you like to make your fights last long to make sure they’re hurting all over,” Sonata pointed out. “Adagio just dropped that guy in one move and now suddenly no one wants to be anywhere near her.” She grabbed one of her pieces of sushi and tossed it in her mouth. Once she finished that bite, she turned to Adagio and added, “By the way, I haven’t seen you at all since we first got here. It’s so nice to see the three of us are finally together again!” “Yeah, what made you suddenly decide to come out of hiding?” asked Aria as she turned to Adagio and raised an eyebrow. “You finally done moping over what we lost?” “Brooding, not moping,” clarified Adagio. “And to answer your question, I think I need to say no more than mention a certain gift that I’m sure the two of you also received from those who brought us down.” “Oh yeah, that offer from the LEGO Team,” noted Sonata. “Aria and I told them we’d join it only if you agreed to join as well.” She gasped as a thought crossed her mind, then asked, “Have you decided to go for it?” “No,” replied Adagio. “Not yet. I’ve been considering some… other options.” “What do you have in mind?” asked Aria, mildly interested. Adagio glanced around at all the other inmates gathered in the mess hall, still eying her very warily. She turned back to her two sisters and stated, “We’ll discuss this later in private.” Sunset watched the memory continue to later meetings between the three former sirens. Adagio’s first priority was to restore some dignity to the three of them as singers and musical artists. Although their defeat at the hands of the Equestria Girls had robbed them of their magically enhanced voices, they had been able to slowly improve their singing talent through natural practicing like any ordinary person, though it was still a far cry from what they were once capable of. Adagio eventually came up with the idea to utilize technology to make up for their natural limitations, ultimately becoming perfected through vocal processing. The next step was to bring their new musical talent out to an audience willing to listen to them. Due to Albatross Prison being not quite as strict as Lego Maximum Security Prison had been, they were able to obtain permission from the warden to occasionally venture outside the prison, albeit under strong surveillance to ensure they were doing exactly what they said they would be doing. First, they were granted access to the equipment necessary for their vocal processing efforts, as well as record the few new songs they had written to help raise awareness among potential audiences. Next, thanks to some connections with prison fixer Blue Whittaker, they were able to obtain a van that was still in fairly decent shape to be used as transport, to which they applied a custom paint job, though they had to leave the engine completely stock to appease the prison surveillance team. They also got in touch with a professional tailor to provide them with an entirely new set of stage performance outfits, since they certainly didn’t want to do any shows while dressed in prison attire. The last thing they needed was a venue to perform at, but thanks to their reputation of attempting to take over the Lego World, that was understandably the most difficult task. Their lucky break came only yesterday, when one band scheduled to perform near the end of day one of the Starswirled Music Festival suddenly had to pull out, and with no one else stepping in to fill the opening, the Dazzlings were allowed to perform at the festival. Yet, despite seeing every aspect of the Dazzlings’ efforts to restore their dignity and build a better reputation, not once did Sunset ever see any sign or mention of the Time Twirler. In fact, just like practically everyone else at the music festival, they were completely unaware that this day had been repeating for over four months, and therefore, they were not responsible for causing the time loop. Sunset’s body relaxed and her eyes returned to normal as her glimpse into Adagio’s memories came to an end. With a shameful look on her face, she reluctantly acknowledged, “You’re telling the truth…” “Of course I am!” insisted Agadio as she yanked her arm out of Sunset’s grasp. “But the lyrics of your song, ‘Every day is the same…’” Sunset pointed out in confusion. “That’s about being stuck in this miserable plastic block world with no magic or hope of ever returning to Equestria,” grumbled Adagio sourly. “And by the way,” added Aria, “if there’s Equestrian magic afoot here, we call dibs.” “I just don’t understand how you three can be allowed to roam so freely outside of prison,” muttered Sunset as she rubbed her forehead. “Oh, we’re still very much prisoners,” Adagio irritably pointed out. She and her two companions spun around and raised their right legs, revealing the three of them had a small gadget with a blinking red light attached to their ankles. “Tracking devices,” noted Sunset in astonishment. “Courtesy of the surveillance team that must closely monitor our every move whenever we wish to travel,” explained Adagio as the three of them spun around to face Sunset again. “The official policy is that if any of us make any attempt to remove or suppress them, then all members of every form of law enforcement will be instantly permitted to use lethal force against us. As much as we hate this place, none of us have a death wish.” “I thought if anyone would wanna be able to redo the day and fix their mistakes, it’s you three,” muttered Sunset. “We made the mistake of using our powers to manipulate the Lego World,” Adagio sharply responded, “and we’ve paid the price for it… with our magic!” “Unless you count the magic of vocal processing,” Sonata suddenly cut in. “Which I don’t!” snapped Adagio. She took a moment to take a deep breath to calm herself down, then continued, “What I’m saying is we already get a do-over with every day. It’s called living life.” “You should try it sometime,” mocked Sonata, to which the three former sirens laughed at Sunset’s expense. “I can’t!” Sunset shot back. “Poor Sunset Shimmer,” mocked Aria. “Are you mad?” “You don’t understand!” Sunset furiously responded. “I don’t get a new day, okay?! I get this day forever! Nothing changes! I can’t tell you how sick I am of Pinkie Pie constantly running off on me to get churros! One way or another, those stinkin’ churros always seem to ruin my day! I HATE THEM!!” That outburst somehow managed to actually startle the Dazzlings a little. Not much, but just enough for them to take a step back, only to bump into someone behind them. They moved aside and discovered Pinkie Pie, the apparent source of Sunset’s frustrations, was standing right there and holding a plate full of churros. “Oh…” muttered Pinkie in shock. “I, uh… just wanted to say the Dazzlings are back…” Without taking her gaze off Sunset, she slowly backed up to a nearby trashcan and dumped the whole tray of churros into it as she awkwardly continued, “…but I see you see they see you seeing them, a-and you’ve seen me, too, so, um… s-see ya.” She then turned away and began fleeing as she tearfully added, “That’s a cool tour bus, by the way!” Sunset was devastated to see Pinkie feel so hurt by her outburst, so she ran a few steps after her and called out, “No! Pinkie! I didn’t mean it!” “If this day’s always the same,” mocked Adagio, “maybe you’re the one who needs to change.” The three Dazzlings laughed at Sunset’s misfortune one last time as they climbed into their tour van. Sunset just stood still as she glanced back and watched the trio enter their van, start up the engine, and then begin to drive away… followed by at least three black cars with tinted windows that had been hiding within the foliage at the edge of the surrounding forest. They sure weren’t kidding about being under immense surveillance, she thought. Now that she stood completely alone, Sunset felt absolutely ashamed of what had just happened. This day had started out so promising with a seemingly foolproof plan, but not only did her main objective turn out to be a false lead, she had also seriously hurt Pinkie’s feelings. While it was hardly the first loop to end with Pinkie’s feelings being hurt due to Sunset’s actions, this incident really hit Sunset because she had been so painfully blunt to Pinkie without even realizing it. As she approached the trashcan where Pinkie had disposed of those churros, Sunset sighed in disappointment, then swiftly kicked that can over, spilling its contents across the ground. “Stupid,” she scolded herself bitterly. Later that evening, Sunset returned to the RV at the campgrounds, where most of her friends were seated around the heating table and roasting marshmallows over it. Seated at a nearby picnic table was a still sobbing Pinkie Pie being comforted by Twilight and Fluttershy. As she walked, Sunset continued to feel horrible for her recent outburst against Pinkie, and what she saw waiting for her return did little to make her feel any better. Rainbow Dash placed her roasted marshmallow on a graham cracker and removed it from the skewer she held when she noticed Sunset’s arrival. “There she is,” she spoke up in a tone of disapproval as the others also turned to see their friend walking towards them. Sunset sighed in resignation and shamefully muttered, “Don’t bother telling me, girls. I know I messed up badly…” She sat down at one of the available seats around the heating table and turned to face Pinkie. “I’m sorry for what I said back there, Pinkie.” “It’s okay,” responded Pinkie tearfully as she continued sobbing. “I deserved it for breaking my Pinkie promise…” As Fluttershy hugged Pinkie and gently patted her back, Twilight turned to Sunset and calmly asked, “Sunset, what did you do?” Sunset let out another sigh before she explained, “The suspects we were after were the Dazzlings — long story for how and why they were out here. I told Pinkie to keep watch while I searched their van for the Time Twirler, even insisting that she Pinkie promise to not leave her post for any reason except to warn me of their return. Instead, she ran off to grab herself a bunch of churros while I was left to confront the Dazzlings on my own.” “It’s true!” confessed Pinkie tearfully. “I broke a Pinkie promise! My life has lost all meaning!” She bawled loudly into Fluttershy’s shoulder as the shy girl continued to futilely comfort her. Sunset buried her face in her hands as she grumbled, “I made her Pinkie promise specifically in the hope that, for once, she would not be tempted to once again ruin my day by going after those blasted churros, but it seems that not even the almighty Pinkie promise could overcome that…” After hearing both sides of the incident, the rest of the group were now starting to feel bad for both Pinkie and Sunset, though they remained convinced that it was no excuse for Sunset’s outburst against Pinkie. As Pinkie sniffed back a few tears, she asked, “Did you at least convince the Dazzlings to break the time loop?” Sunset remained silent for a few seconds before she shamefully answered, “They never had the Time Twirler. They had nothing to do with the time loop. Whoever’s causing this whole thing, it’s not them.” “Oh…” mumbled Pinkie sadly in response. “Well… I guess it’s for the best. I sure wouldn’t wanna remember any of this.” She sniffed back some more tears. “You deserve a better friend than me. You deserve to have a good day, Sunset.” Sunset turned away from Pinkie and stared down at the heating table as she muttered, “So do you, Pinkie…” As Sunset thought about that last statement, a realization slowly occurred to her. For almost every single previous loop of this day, she had been mainly concerned about achieving the best day possible for herself. Until now, it had never crossed her mind that perhaps she should use her experiences in the time loop to instead make this a better day for her friends — especially Pinkie Pie. “So, uh… now what?” asked Spike. Sunset glanced around at her friends, then turned to Applejack and asked, “You missed out on watching Dirk Thistleweed because the crowd got too rowdy and stomped on your foot, correct?” “Uh… yes?” replied Applejack uneasily. Sunset turned to Rarity and stated, “You purchased a faux suede jacket, only to have it quickly ruined by a bunch of kids playing with squirt guns.” “Indeed, such a tragedy,” confirmed Rarity. Sunset next turned to Rainbow Dash and added, “You wanted to convince the festival’s manager to give our band a gig on day two, but he rejected your request due to a number of bad moves on your part.” Rainbow Dash rubbed the back of her head and looked away as she awkwardly responded, “I didn’t think it went that badly, but when you put it that way…” Sunset then turned back to Twilight and noted, “You ended your day at the festival early because you accidentally dropped your phone into a barrel of water, which prevented you from accessing the carefully planned schedule you had made for yourself.” Twilight sighed and shamefully admitted, “It’s true.” Sunset next glanced at Fluttershy and pointed out, “You were so terrified of catching the attention of a crowd that you refused to do any activities, and spent the whole day with Spike just wandering around and watching things.” Fluttershy said nothing as she hesitantly nodded her head. “And I’m sure I don’t need to go over what Pinkie’s day was like,” finished Sunset. “What about me?” asked Spike. Just then, the marshmallow he was roasting suddenly caught on fire. He yelped in panic and started waving the skewer around in an effort to put out the fire. Instead, the smoldering treat flung off the skewer and splattered against Rarity, who yelled out in horror at seeing her expensive jacket ruined by the gooey mess. Sunset pointed at that flaming marshmallow and casually replied, “That, right there…” “What are ya gettin’ at, Sunset?” asked Applejack. For the first time since she arrived that evening, Sunset smiled as she replied, “Let’s just say I’ve finally learned to look at things from a different point of view.” “But what about finding the Time Twirler and stopping the time loop?” asked Twilight. “I’ll figure it out sooner or later,” assured Sunset as she stood up and began walking towards the RV. “For now, I’m gonna do what I should’ve done from the very beginning.” She then opened the door and stepped inside. As Sunset started getting ready to go to sleep, she was already thinking of all the things she was going to say and do differently on the next loop to provide a much better experience for not just Pinkie, but for all of her friends. Although she still had no clue who might be using the Time Twirler, she decided to set aside that objective for now. Instead, her new goal was to fulfill her original wish before this whole time loop ever started, and that was for her and Pinkie to share the best day ever and finish it off by watching the live performance of PostCrush together. Author's Note Looking back, I probably should've divided this chapter into two separate chapters. However, if I only now tried adding an additional chapter to this story, it would end up throwing off my schedule rather significantly. Besides, at least I managed to get it finished (albeit literally just last night, after working on that Word Document for a total of over fifty hours throughout the past two weeks), so I might as well just post it as is. As I mentioned in the Redeemables short story, more would be revealed about the Dazzlings during their appearance in this story, so that's why I included a flashback scene when Sunset checked Adagio's memories. Best Day EverChapter 6 Best Day Ever Morning arrived at the campgrounds just outside the Starswirled Music Festival. It was little more than an hour after sunrise, and by this point, Sunset Shimmer was the only one still asleep within the RV that she and her friends were using for their stay at the festival. As Sunset slept in her sleeping bag beside the window, her phone was lying beside her head on the pillow. At the moment the time became 7:00, the phone’s alarm went off by playing a song by PostCrush. Be the true… true, true original— Sunset quickly woke up and shut off her phone’s alarm. For the first time since her very first run through this day, she had a genuinely positive smile on her face. After so many loops with selfish desires and frustrating setbacks, she had decided that she was going to spend the entirety of this loop on nothing more than to simply make this the best day she could for her friends — especially Pinkie Pie. As far as she was concerned, there was a good chance this would be that best day ever she had long since been looking forward to. Sunset jumped out of her sleeping bag, tossed off her pajamas, and slipped on her special outfit for the music festival. She then walked out the door and around the front of the RV to join her friends, who were already gathered outside. At this moment, Twilight, Fluttershy, and Applejack were seated around the RV’s heating table as they ate breakfast, while Rarity and Spike were seated at a nearby picnic table as Spike demonstrated some of his beatboxing skills. Rarity rolled her eyes and grumbled, “Ugh, I shall never understand the appeal of beatboxing.” Spike kept his smile as he shrugged and remarked, “Eh, to each their own.” As Sunset listened to Rarity and Spike, she also watched as Rainbow Dash quickly ran over and stopped right behind her while carrying a large paddle with the Sonic Rainbooms band symbol printed on it. “Starswirled day one! Come and get it!” Rainbow excitedly declared as she swung the paddle around. This time, Sunset reacted quickly by swiping that paddle right out of Rainbow’s hands as it swung close to her. “Hey!” protested Rainbow. Sunset decided to show off a little by twirling the paddle around for a few seconds, then swung it around and moved as if she was about to swiftly strike Rainbow right in the head with it. Rainbow immediately yelped and flinched, but when she felt no impact at all, she opened her eyes and saw that Sunset had stopped the paddle just inches away from her face. Sunset smirked as she flipped the paddle around and offered it back to Rainbow. Rainbow Dash chuckled sheepishly and stated, “I’ll, uh… I’ll be more careful next time.” She gently took back her paddle, then turned and walked away. With the first of many previous nuisances successfully averted, Sunset next turned her attention to the rest of her friends gathered around the heating table. As she heard Applejack speaking, she gently grabbed Fluttershy from behind and carefully turned her around in her seat so that she was now facing towards the right of where she had been previously. “So Ah says to Big Mac, ‘Get your own chicken coop!’” spoke Applejack. Fluttershy happened to be in the middle of taking a sip of her orange juice when she heard the end of that joke, so she ended up doing a spit-take out into the open grass before beginning to laugh. She soon calmed down a little and remarked, “Oh, that’s a good one, Applejack, because it has animals in it.” “Ooh! Ooh! How about this one?!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie excitedly as she suddenly bounced over to stand beside where Applejack was seated. “What do you call a PostCrush fan with three eyes?” From where she stood behind Fluttershy, Sunset cheerfully answered, “You call her Pinkie Pie, because your name is spelled with three ‘I’s!” She and Pinkie then reached forward to hug each other and twirled around as they giggled together. Fluttershy took a moment to think about the meaning behind that joke, then smiled and remarked, “Oh, I get it. It’s a pun.” She then giggled in amusement. Sunset released her hug with Pinkie and then walked over to the picnic table where a stack of blueberry pancakes with maple syrup was available. As she gathered her breakfast, she glanced back and asked, “Hey, Twilight? Is it okay if I borrow your pen and a sheet of paper from your notebook?” “Sure,” replied Twilight as she set aside her plate full of pancakes and pulled out her pen and notebook from her bag. She tore a blank page out of her notebook, then handed that page and the pen over to Sunset. “What’s that for?” asked Pinkie with a smile. “Let’s just say it’s a surprise for all of my friends,” replied Sunset cryptically. She was about to start writing when she noticed Pinkie looking over her shoulder. “No peeking, Pinkie,” she playfully scolded. “This is meant only for the others, and that’s only because I’ll be spending the whole day with you. Trust me, we’ll have plenty of opportunities to have fun today.” “You got it, Sunset!” agreed Pinkie, before she skipped away to hang out with the others and have a friendly chat with them all. Now that she was sure no one was watching her, Sunset began to write down some quick notes onto the sheet of lined paper. Twilight: Never check your phone while walking. A lot of dumb accidents happen because of that. Applejack: Watch where you’re stepping before Dirk Thistleweed is on. Those country music fans sure can get rowdy. Rarity: When you purchase something at the souvenir tents, stay away from the open ground near the public restrooms. You never know when some reckless children could ruin your day. Spike: If you really want Fluttershy to have some fun by actually doing something, consider offering to keep the crowds away. She won’t be so self-conscious if she believes no one is watching her. Fluttershy: When it’s time for lunch, Spike would love to try a lasagna pop. Yes, it sounds weird and gross, but I know he’ll love it. Rainbow Dash: Before meeting with the festival manager at the secret falafel truck during lunch, make sure you ask permission from all of us if you could collect our band’s instruments from our places. And whatever you do, never hold up that paddle while standing near him. Once those notes were finished, Sunset tore the paper into six pieces to separate each of those notes, then folded them in half and put them in her pocket. She decided she would wait a little bit before giving those notes to her friends. For now, she still had a delicious blueberry pancake breakfast to eat. Once everyone had finished with breakfast, the group began to walk towards the entrance to the festival grounds. Rainbow Dash eagerly led the way, followed by Applejack and Rarity having a casual conversation, Pinkie Pie cheerfully skipping along, Fluttershy and Spike walking beside each other, and finally Twilight with Sunset following right behind. This time, Sunset made sure to watch where she was stepping, and as she approached that all too familiar mud puddle, she passed over it by stomping both of her feet against the dry ground on either side of it, effectively avoiding the squishy mess. She celebrated that moment of triumph by pointing down at that mud puddle as she proudly declared, “Ha! In your face, mud! You won’t be clinging to my foot this time!” Twilight stopped and glanced back at Sunset. “Did you just trash-talk a mud puddle?” she asked with concern and confusion. “Sure did!” confirmed Sunset shamelessly as she continued walking ahead after the rest of the group. Twilight continued to stare at Sunset in confusion for a moment, then shook her head and followed after her. As the group continued walking, Sunset spoke up, “Oh, that reminds me. Hey, Rarity?” Rarity stopped and looked back at Sunset. Sunset pulled out a bottle of body wash and asked, “Is it okay if I borrow this? I have a feeling I might need it today.” “Oh, uh, sure, darling,” replied Rarity. Despite her confusion over why Sunset would think she’d need that, Rarity was still willing to be generous with her friends. “Just be sure to not completely use it up. I’ll still have need of it, you know.” “I’ll try my best,” assured Sunset as she placed the bottle of body wash back into her pocket and continued walking with her friends. “Sunset! Sunset! Look!” Pinkie cried out cheerfully from the front of the group as she wildly gestured at the three entrance lines at the front of the festival grounds. “So many lines to stand in! This day’s already amazing!” “I know!” agreed Sunset contently as she walked over to Pinkie and placed an arm around her shoulder. “Pick whichever one you want. They’re all slow, but security is an art. It cannot be rushed.” At the front of the middle security line, that same security guard Sunset had become familiar with over the previous time loops paused his search and glanced out past the line to glance at her. He turned back to the person he was in the middle of inspecting and complained, “See? She gets it. She knows what it takes.” He turned his gaze back out to Sunset and, with a smile on his face, clenched his right hand into a fist, held it up to his chest, then held it out towards Sunset. “Respect, Miss!” he stated proudly. “Right back at ya!” responded Sunset as she repeated his gesture. “Wow, Sunset!” remarked Pinkie cheerfully. “You totally just made that guy’s day! Oh! We have got to go with his line!” “Sure thing, Pinkie,” agreed Sunset. “But first, a little something for the rest of you.” She turned back to the rest of her friends and pulled out the six little notes she had written earlier. As she passed out those notes, she explained, “These are meant to be read only by each of you on your own. Do not share them with anyone else. In fact, I’d recommend not reading them until after you’ve made it through security. I’ll explain everything when we meet back at camp tonight.” Despite some confusion from many of them, everyone in the group accepted the little messages addressed specifically to each of them. Pinkie was excited to see her friend offering a special surprise to everyone, but her smile fell when she realized she was the only one who did not receive one. “Hey, where’s my secret message?” she asked in confusion. “You won’t be needing one,” assured Sunset, “because we’ll be spending the whole day together. Whatever secret messages I have for you, I can just tell you directly.” “Oh yeah, you’re right,” noted Pinkie as she smiled again. She then giggled and excitedly declared, “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s get in line!” She then zipped over to the end of the middle security line and casually asked the person standing ahead of her, “You come to this line often? Any other sweet lines we should hit up?” The guy standing ahead of Pinkie raised an eyebrow in confusion and replied, “Uh… I’m just waiting in line to get through security.” “I know!” remarked Pinkie cheerfully. “Isn’t it exciting?” The guy turned away and muttered under his breath, “Not as exciting as watching paint dry…” As Sunset got in line behind Pinkie, she shrugged and quipped, “Eh, I personally find it more exciting to watch grass grow.” Pinkie giggled and cheerfully replied, “Good one, Sunset!” “What can I say?” remarked Sunset with a shrug and a smile. “Lines fly where you’re having fun.” It took nearly two hours for the security line to advance enough for Pinkie and Sunset to reach the front. Pinkie was up next, and the security guard went through his usual inspection routine. He started with a thorough and methodical search of Pinkie’s fanny pack — if he was surprised by the absurdly huge amount of random objects somehow stuffed inside that tiny bag, his expression never showed it — then proceeded to wave a metal detecting wand over every part of her body — for which Pinkie’s persistent giggling, which she claimed was entirely by reflex, caused numerous delays — and finished the process by strapping a yellow festival bracelet around Pinkie’s wrist, then scanned it with his phone to permit her entry into the music festival. Once the security guard gave a nod of approval, Pinkie walked through the gateway as she turned back to her friend and cheerfully called out, “See you in there, Sunset!” Sunset had a content smile on her face as she stepped forward for her turn to get through security. Since she wasn’t carrying any packs or large bags with her, she only had to hold still while she was searched with a metal detector. “Hey, I recognize you,” noted the security guard as he grabbed his metal detector wand. “You’re Sunset Shimmer. You used to be number one on LEGO’s Most Wanted.” “Guilty as charged,” Sunset casually acknowledged as she held out her arms to await being scanned. “I guess that explains why you respect my line of work,” stated the security guard as he began his slow and steady search. “You know from experience what it takes to overcome security.” “To be honest, I encountered a lot of pathetic guards back in my days as a criminal mastermind,” remarked Sunset. “But unlike those losers, you’re actually competent and take your job seriously. Whoever made the decision to hire you for this festival certainly made the right call.” “Flattery won’t grant you any special access,” cautioned the guard. “You’ll have to go through the same search as everyone else.” “And I would expect nothing less, mister…” responded Sunset, deliberately trailing off. “The name’s Max Steele,” acknowledged the guard. “Got it,” confirmed Sunset. Although she already knew his name from numerous encounters on previous time loops, she understood it would be highly suspicious if she had mentioned it prior to at least asking him about it. Besides, she wanted to feel like she could be on friendly terms with this guy rather than just constantly referring to him as that security guard. “By the way, when you’re done here, you might wanna keep an eye out over by the souvenir tents. I heard a couple of dummies were thinking of doing a little robbery today.” “Not on my watch, they won’t,” warned Max. Only a few seconds later, he finished his scanning process. He put away his metal detector, strapped a green festival bracelet around Sunset’s wrist, and scanned it with his phone. “All right, you’re clear to enter.” He decided to share some respect with her by holding out a fist toward her. “Thanks, sir,” responded Sunset as she shared a fist bump with Max. “Keep up the good work.” She then passed through gateway and ran over to where the rest of her friends were waiting. “Welp, y’all have fun seein’ PostCrush,” stated Applejack as she waved at Pinkie and Sunset. “We’ll see ya back at camp tonight.” With that, everyone in the group went their separate ways to enjoy all the different shows and activities at this music festival they were each interested in, leaving behind only Sunset and Pinkie to prepare for the performance of PostCrush later that evening. After the two of them took a moment to wave goodbye to their friends, Pinkie turned to Sunset and asked, “What do you wanna do first, Sunset? There’s so much we can do!” “How about we start right over there?” suggested Sunset as she pointed at the nearby giveaway booth with a purple tandem bicycle being displayed to the side. Pinkie gasped and excitedly exclaimed, “Win a tandem bicycle?!” She immediately rushed over to the booth and read the brief contest rules. As Sunset arrived soon after her, Pinkie pointed at a full jar of jellybeans on the booth’s counter and cheerfully stated, “All I have to do is guess how many candies are in the jar, and my sugar senses say… three hundred and five!” BZZZZ! The giveaway booth attendant smacked the buzzer on the counter, indicating Pinkie’s guess was incorrect. “Awww…” moaned Pinkie in disappointment. Sunset stepped up to the counter and, with a smug smile on her face, stated, “Five hundred seventy-two and a half, counting the green jellybean you ate part of in the parking lot when you thought no one was watching.” The both attendant’s jaw dropped. “That’s… that’s impossible,” she muttered in complete shock. “H-How did you…?” “Let’s just say I have my special ways of figuring out these things, Belle Barker,” Sunset smugly replied. “Yes, I even know your name. Now how about releasing that tandem bicycle I just won so my friend and I can enjoy it?” Belle sputtered in shock for a few seconds before she finally sighed in defeat and began releasing the clamps that attached the bicycle to the display stand. “So much for taking the prize home with me…” she muttered under her breath. “Yeah, you thought you could keep that bike for yourself,” quipped Sunset. “Maybe next time, you’ll think twice before trying to outsmart someone like me.” Once the bicycle was completely released, she put on one of the two provided helmets, hopped onto the front seat and cheerfully spoke up, “C’mon, Pinkie! Let’s ride!” “Woohoo!” cheered Pinkie excitedly as she hopped onto the rear seat and put on the other available helmet. “This day’s already getting even better!” Once both girls were on the bicycle, they began to pedal it forward and rode off further into the festival grounds. Belle Barker was now left with no choice but to pack up her booth and leave early. As she tried to think of how that girl could so precisely guess the correct answer, not to mention how she could even know her name without a proper introduction, she suddenly froze when the truth finally hit her. “Wait a minute,” she muttered to herself. “That was Sunset Shimmer from the LEGO Team. She’s the one who can read minds!” As she then swiftly resumed packing her things, she quietly mumbled, “I’d better start wearing a tinfoil hat whenever she’s around…” Sunset and Pinkie laughed and giggled together as they rapidly pedaled their new tandem bicycle across the festival grounds. The day was already off to a great start, and they were enjoying every moment of it. As they rode through the area near the food trucks and souvenir tents, Sunset recognized the guy with glasses and orange hair and beard tinkering on some contraption. When he accidentally bumped something on the mechanical object that caused it to suddenly fling a coconut high into the air, he immediately cried out, “Whoa! Heads up!” “Hey, Pinkie!” Sunset called back cheerfully as she steered the bicycle towards that flying coconut. “Catch it like a football!” Pinkie grinned as she released the handlebars in front of her seat and held out her arms. The coconut quickly plummeted back down, and thanks to Sunset’s remarkable aim, Pinkie was able to actually catch that coconut. “Woohoo!” she cheered excitedly. “Touchdown!” “Whooooaaa,” a nearby rocker dude with long dark hair and a tie-dyed shirt said slowly in astonishment. “How did you appear outta nowhere like that? Are you, like, ninjas?” Sunset giggled and playfully replied, “I wish!” “Here, have a coconut!” remarked Pinkie as she casually tossed that coconut over to the rocker dude. “I’ve already got plenty at home.” As the two girls began to ride off on their tandem bicycle, Pinkie suddenly asked, “By the way, Sunset, how did you know exactly how many jelly beans were inside that jar? I’ve seen you use your mind reading powers before, and I’m pretty sure it requires actually touching someone, which you clearly didn’t do with that booth lady.” Sunset couldn’t help but smirk, knowing that it had been only a matter of time before Pinkie would’ve eventually figured out her bluff. She glanced back at her friend and responded, “You wanna know the real truth? Then let me show you something else.” She steered their bicycle towards one specific souvenir tent and stopped a short distance away. She pointed at that particular tent and simply stated, “Keep an eye out for a couple of familiar faces over there.” Pinkie was curious what kind of surprise her friend had for her, so she watched that tent — the front of which was facing away from where they stood, so she couldn’t see what kind of special items were being sold there. A few seconds later, they saw two familiar guys wearing black and white striped prison shirts — one with a grey jacket partially covering it, and the other with the sleeves torn off — and black beanie hats emerge from within that tent and started hauling away a large chest with each of them grasping the handles on either end of it. Pinkie gasped and loudly whispered to Sunset, “I know those two! It’s the robbers Rocky and Mugsy! We gotta stop ‘em!” “Don’t bother,” assured Sunset casually. “Those brick-heads won’t get far. Just watch…” Pinkie worriedly continued watching as that pair of robbers tried to haul away their chest full of ill-gotten loot. It just didn’t seem right that she and her friend were allowing these bad guys to simply walk away with committing a petty robbery. Chink. Crash! Suddenly, the handle on the end being carried by Mugsy detached from the chest, causing the chest to drop to the ground and topple over, allowing the lid to pop open and spill the massive load of cash and coins contained within. “Whoops,” muttered Mugsy. “HEY!!” furiously shouted a nearby security guard — whom Sunset and Pinkie quickly recognized as Max Steele from the main entrance security lines. “Scram!” exclaimed Rocky urgently as he dropped his end of the chest and immediately started running towards the nearest section of the boundary wall surrounding the festival grounds, with Mugsy quickly following right behind. Max swiftly pursued the two pathetic robbers towards that wall, not too far away. Once they reached the wall, they both tried to jump over it, but it proved to be too high for either of them to even grasp the top of that wall. With Max closing in, Rocky decided to climb on top of his partner in crime, using him as enough of a boost to jump and grab onto the top of that wall. Once he hauled himself halfway over that wall, he then reached down and grasped Mugsy’s hands, then hauled him up and over the wall just a split second before Max could touch either of those crooks. Of course, once the two incompetent robbers flung themselves over the top of the wall, they both crashed to the ground on the other side. “You’d better run!” shouted Max over the wall at the fleeing robbers. “Your kind isn’t welcome here!” Unable to further pursue those crooks, he turned away to check on the dropped chest full of loot. At the tandem bicycle, Sunset clapped as Max arrived at the chest of spilled loot and contently spoke up, “Nicely done, sir! You sure showed them to not get any bright ideas while you’re around. Though, word of advice, you might wanna secure the dropped loot before chasing the bad guys, otherwise some other bad guy might come along and take it for himself. Better to let the crooks get away empty-handed than to provide a brief opportunity for a different crook.” Max Steele glanced over at Sunset, then turned his gaze down at the dumped loot. “Yeah, you’re right,” he acknowledged reluctantly. “I’ll make sure not to repeat that mistake anytime soon.” He then overturned the chest back upright and started tossing the spilled loot back into it. As Sunset began to pedal the tandem bicycle away from the scene of a failed crime, Pinkie asked in astonishment, “How did you know?” “Let’s just say we’re now faced with yet another incident involving Equestrian Magic,” replied Sunset, maintaining a remarkably pleasant tone. “In this case, there’s this artifact called the Time Twirler that, when activated, can cause a day to repeat itself. I don’t know who’s been using it, but as far as I know, I’m the only one who’s been caught in this time loop.” “Aren’t you gonna do something to stop it?” asked Pinkie. “I will… eventually,” admitted Sunset. “The most recent suspect turned out to be a false lead, and after all the other kinds of madness I’ve been through, I’d rather spend this loop just relaxing and having fun. Specifically, I’d like to make this the best day possible for you, Pinkie.” Pinkie smiled and replied, “Aww, that’s really nice of you.” “Now let’s go check out the Neon Garden,” said Sunset cheerfully as she continued pedaling the tandem bicycle. “As long as we stick together, my experience means you won’t have to worry about getting lost in that hedge maze.” Once Sunset and Pinkie arrived at the Neon Garden, they parked their tandem bicycle outside the entrance, then they ran off together into that hedge maze. They explored all of the different paths, admired the numerous strings of neon lights that were hung in intricate patterns, and just simply frolicked around aimlessly. Sunset had even guided Pinkie to a secret photo booth hidden at the end of one path, where they took all kinds of fun and playful photos together. Once the two girls had their fun inside the Neon Garden, Sunset quickly guided Pinkie along the correct paths to reach the exit out of that hedge maze. As soon as they were out, Sunset led Pinkie past their parked bike over to where a pair of blank easels had been set up, not far from a guy who was handling small balloons filled with paint. “Hey, Oxford Brush!” called out Sunset playfully, catching the attention of that paint balloon artist. “I heard you were doing an art show!” She then turned to Pinkie and asked, “What do you say, Pinkie? You want in on the fun?” “Ooh! I do! I do!” replied Pinkie excitedly as she turned to the artist and waved her arms around. The paint balloon artist, Oxford Brush, smiled in response and tossed the first two balloons at the easels. Splat! The balloons burst upon impact, splattering paint all over the easels and the two girls, with yellow paint on Pinkie on the left and blue paint on Sunset on the right. As the two girls giggled in delight, Oxford quickly followed that up with two more balloons, splattering more paint all over the easels and the two girls, with green paint on Pinkie on the left and pink paint on Sunset on the right. Sunset and Pinkie giggled some more before Sunset cheerfully spoke up, “Hey, Pinkie! Record a video!” Pinkie continued to smile as she pulled out her phone and started recording a video. “I’m gonna try and catch one of these balloons!” declared Sunset excitedly before she gestured at Oxford to send another balloon. Oxford Brush shrugged with a smile as he grabbed another balloon and tossed it right as Sunset. As that balloon was flung directly towards her, Sunset quickly stepped aside and grasped that balloon while being careful not to grasp it with too much pressure. Astonishingly, she actually succeeded in catching that balloon without it bursting within her grip. “Ha! First try!” stated Sunset excitedly. “Wow! That was awesome!” cheered Pinkie as she continued recording that video. Sunset decided to celebrate her accomplishment by simply tossing that balloon up into the air and letting it come back down atop her head, causing it to splatter purple paint all over herself, Pinkie, and the two easels behind them. Pinkie giggled and remarked, “Nice one, Sunset!” Sunset giggled alongside Pinkie for a few more seconds, then turned to Oxford and contently stated, “All right, I think that’ll be enough for us. We’ll let you save the rest of those balloons for any other volunteers.” “Not to worry,” assured Oxford. “I brought along plenty of them.” “C’mon, Pinkie,” said Sunset contently as she began walking away. “Let’s get ourselves cleaned up. We certainly don’t wanna watch PostCrush looking like this.” “Right behind ya, Sunset!” agreed Pinkie as she followed her friend over towards the public restrooms. About halfway there, she suddenly gasped and asked, “Is this why you asked Rarity if you could borrow that bottle of body wash from her?” “Absolutely,” confirmed Sunset. “Previous experiences in a time loop means better foresight.” “I just hope we don’t have to completely used it all up trying to wash off all this paint,” remarked Pinkie. “I’d hate to see her get upset over not having any left for herself.” “She brought along, like, a dozen different varieties,” Sunset pointed out. “What are the odds that she’ll want to use this one in particular?” Pinkie shrugged and acknowledged, “Eh, I guess that’s true.” The two best friends soon entered the girls restroom. Sunset grabbed a paper towel, pulled out that bottle of body wash, and poured a small amount of it out onto the paper towel. She then handed that paper towel to Pinkie and said, “That should be enough for you. You’ll have to use some more paper towels to wipe yourself with.” “Consider it done!” declared Pinkie with a smile. She then tore open one of the paper towel dispensers, removed the entire roll of paper towels, brought it with her into one of the toilet stalls, and shut the door. Sunset giggled before she turned to the sinks, poured out some more of that body wash onto another paper towel, and began cleaning herself off. As she had hoped, the special body wash made very quick and easy effort on wiping away all of those paint splatters, especially off of her clothes. It took only a matter of minutes until nearly all of that paint had been wiped away. Splash! That noise from the occupied toilet stall was immediately followed by some hysterical giggling from Pinkie. She partially opened the stall door and peeked her head out as she eagerly said, “Guess what! I spilled some paint on the inside of this door and it looks exactly like…” She threw the door all the way open to reveal the splattered paint on the other side of it. “Rarity with a pirate mustache! Huh? Huh?” Just like on the previous loops when Sunset went through this part, the supposedly random mess bore a striking resemblance to Rarity’s face with a bushy mustache slapped over the mouth. “Impressive,” remarked Sunset before she removed the paper towel she had been using to wipe her face, exposing a paint mustache on her own upper lip. She then quipped with a pirate accent, “But not as impressive as this here mustache, ye scurvy knave!” Pinkie immediately burst out laughing at that display. To her, it seemed there was no shortage of immensely fun moments between her and Sunset today, and she absolutely loved it. Sunset and Pinkie spent the rest of the afternoon checking out some of the various other activities available at the music festival. They once again found themselves riding their tandem bicycle around the area near the food carts and just having a pleasant conversation. “So about those little notes you gave to the rest of our friends…” Pinkie spoke up. “Just little bits of advice to help make this day a little better for all of them,” answered Sunset. “Aww, that’s really nice of you, Sunset,” noted Pinkie. “Using all of your experiences from all the previous loops to make this day the best it could possibly be for all of us.” She then sighed and sadly added, “Too bad this’ll all go away after tonight, seeing as you still haven’t found that Time Twirler thingy.” “I’ll figure it out eventually,” assured Sunset. “After all, I really do have practically all the time in the world to figure it out.” She then stopped pedaling the bicycle and brought it to a stop so she could turn back to face her friend. “Besides, at least now I know what I can do to make this the best day possible for all of us. In a way, I guess this could be like a dress rehearsal for what I can do once I’m finally able to bring this time loop to an end.” “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” admitted Pinkie. “In that case, I hope I can get your stamp of approval here so that some future alternate Pinkie Pie really will have the best day ever at this festival.” Sunset giggled and remarked, “Believe me, Pinkie, after going through this day for four months, this loop has by far been the best one I’ve yet to experience.” “Then let’s make sure we make it end on a high note!” declared Pinkie excitedly. “Time for the grand finale! PostCrush live!” “Not quite, just yet,” said Sunset slyly as she resumed pedaling the bicycle forward. “I’ve still got one last surprise for you before we’re ready for PostCrush.” “Ooh! What is it?!” asked Pinkie excitedly. “I can’t think of anything that could possibly make this day even better!” As they rode their bicycle past some more food carts, she suddenly began to smell a rather sweet and delicious aroma. “What’s that smell?” she asked as she sniffed the air. “Could it be?” “It sure is,” remarked Sunset as they arrived at one particular cart where the familiar chef Puffed Pastry was selling her special confectionery for the festival. “Puffed Pastry’s exclusive Starswirl cinnamon-swirled churros!” announced Puffed Pastry to everyone passing by. “Get zem while zey’re marginally fresher zan a little bit!” As the two girls came to a stop and Sunset lowered the kickstand, Pinkie gasped and exclaimed, “It’s the one thing about this festival I’ve been most excited for after PostCrush! How did you know?!” Sunset giggled as she and Pinkie got off their bicycle, then turned to Puffed Pastry and spoke up, “We’ll have two boxes, please. And make it quick, before my friend here wrecks your cart.” Puffed Pastry laughed as she quickly filled two small boxes with about half a dozen churros each and remarked, “At least you were kind enough to ask first.” The two best friends smiled as they walked over and grabbed their boxes of churros. Pinkie took a big whiff of those delicious baked goods and let out a sigh of bliss. Sunset removed one of the churros from her box, then turned to Pinkie and confessed, “You know, on many of the earlier loops when I did things my way on my own, I eventually came to realize that having a perfect day was never going to be perfect without… having you there with me.” Pinkie had grabbed one churro from her box and was about to bite down on it when she heard the end of Sunset’s confession. She paused, then smiled and said, “Awwww…” She then held out that churro in her hand and declared, “Cheers!” Sunset chuckled and lightly smacked the churro in her hand against the one Pinkie held out. They then bit down on their respective churros at the same time, only to simultaneously flinch at how surprisingly tough they turned out to be. “Ow!” complained Sunset. “Mine’s hard as a rock. This is like eating a crowbar.” “Yeah, didn’t see that coming,” admitted Pinkie. Sunset then chuckled and remarked, “Oh, the cruel irony…” When Pinkie gave her a questioning look, she explained, “On many of the previous loops, often the one reason we kept missing PostCrush was because you were so eager for these churros that you ended up destroying that cart, leading to us getting kicked out before the show started. As a result of that and other incidents, I eventually came to regard these silly things as practically the bane of my existence at this festival. But now that I’ve finally decided to actually give these things a try…” She giggled as she pocketed the churro she had failed to even leave a bite mark in. “Turns out, I was never gonna like ‘em, anyway.” “Aw, that’s a shame,” said Pinkie in disappointment. She then immediately perked up again and remarked, “Oh well! More for me!” She the swiped the box out of Sunset’s hands and held both boxes with her left arm as she began gnawing noisily on the churro she still held in her right hand. Sunset stared at Pinkie in disbelief and muttered, “Some days, I wonder if you even have dental insurance…” “Your lousy golf cart broke down on me yet again!” Sunset and Pinkie turned to see Puffed Pastry being confronted by an angry intern. “I’ve had enough of this nonsense!” the intern declared furiously. “Find someone else to deliver churros backstage to PostCrush, because I quit!” He then threw his golf cart keys to the ground and began to storm off. “Get back ‘ere, you mauviette!” Puffed Pastry called out in frustration. “If zat cart won’t work, zen find a different means of transport!” Sunset and Pinkie glanced at each other, smiled at the same time, then turned to Puffed Pastry. “Hey,” Sunset spoke up, catching Puffed Pastry’s attention. “How about a bicycle?” “It even comes with a built-in basket on the front!” Pinkie pointed out cheerfully. “Perfect for easy churro transport.” “Plus, we don’t mind not getting paid,” Sunset pointed out. “We happen to be huge fans of PostCrush, so just getting this opportunity to meet them is good enough for us.” Puffed Pasty took a moment to look over the tandem bicycle being offered to assist her, glanced back at the intern who had already walked off, then smiled at the two girls and remarked, “You mademoiselles always find new ways of surprising me.” She walked back to her churro cart, filled one more box of fresh churros, then handed it over to Sunset. “Just make sure you do not mix zem up with ze ones I just gave you.” “No problem!” assured Pinkie. “I’ve got my own special way of carrying stuff.” She swiftly removed her hair piece, tossed her two boxes of churros into the opening on the bottom of it, then stuck it back on her head. When Puffed Pastry raised an eyebrow in confusion, Sunset just shrugged and said, “I’ve learned to not question Pinkie’s antics ages ago.” She then placed the box of churros intended for PostCrush into the bicycle’s basket and hopped onto the front seat. “By the way, do you mind telling us where we can find PostCrush?” “Zeir tour bus is behind ze main stage,” replied Puffed Pastry. “You’ll know it when you see it. And if anyone questions seeing you backstage, just tell zem you’re doing some volunteer work for Puffed Pastry.” “Good enough for me,” noted Sunset as she secured her helmet atop her head. “C’mon, Pinkie! Let’s ride!” Pinkie whooped with joy as she hopped onto the rear seat of the tandem bicycle and tossed her helmet onto her head. Sunset then raised the kickstand and began to pedal the bicycle forward. Both girls laughed and giggled excitedly as they sped across the festival grounds to a destination neither of them could have ever anticipated they would ever get to see. “See what happens when you embrace the chaos of our friendship?” remarked Pinkie. “This couldn’t happen with all the mission planning in the world!” Sunset cheerfully acknowledged. It took the two girls only a couple minutes to cover the distance to the area behind the main stage, where they saw a large tour bus that was dark purple with the band symbol for PostCrush labeled on the side of it. The two close friends brought their bicycle to a stop beside that bus and Sunset lowered the kickstand. As they removed their helmets and got out of their seats, Pinkie excitedly remarked, “Ooh, I hope they like us! You must’ve met them on one of the other loops! Tell me what happens!” Sunset chuckled and admitted, “Believe it or not, this is actually the very first time I’ve gotten a chance to personally meet PostCrush, and I’m glad it’s gonna be with the other half of my dynamic duo.” Pinkie gasped and cheerfully exclaimed, “Wow! An awesome surprise for both of us! This day just keeps getting better and better!” “Just try to keep your cool so they won’t call security on us,” cautioned Sunset with a smile. She grabbed the box of churros from the bicycle’s basket and handed it over to Pinkie. “Since I’ve already experienced a lot around here, I think it’s fair I should let you be the one to hand these over to them.” Pinkie was practically speechless as she accepted those churros with a huge grin on her face. “You ready?” asked Sunset. Pinkie responded with a rapid nod of agreement. Sunset and Pinkie then turned to the bus and walked over to its door. Sunset took a deep breath before she knocked on the door. As they waited, Pinkie slowed her breathing and quietly muttered to herself, “Keep it together, Pinkie. Keep it together…” Within a few seconds, the bus’s door opened, revealing Kiwi Lollipop, the cool half of the dynamic duo that was PostCrush. “Special delivery!” announced Sunset. Pinkie held out the box of churros and stated with barely repressed excitement, “We are huge, huge, ginormous fans!” K-Lo reacted with little more than a blank stare at the two girls standing before her, as if something didn’t seem quite right to her. As this led to a rather awkward silence, Sunset and Pinkie continued to smile as they briefly glanced at each other before turning their star-struck stares back at K-Lo. Suddenly, Supernova Zap — the zany half of the PostCrush dynamic duo — leaned out of the doorway and looked at the two fangirls with narrowed eyes. “That’s weird,” she muttered suspiciously. “The delivery’s much earlier than usual, and the delivery guy looks like two girls today.” K-Lo swiftly jabbed Su-Z in the torso with her elbow and glared at her. Su-Z flinched at the impact, then smiled and innocently spoke up, “I mean, today’s the first a-and only time we’ve done this! Yesterday was, um… a different day.” A visibly annoyed K-Lo sighed and facepalmed. While Pinkie continued to grin at the opportunity to personally meet PostCrush, Sunset’s expression had turned blank. After all, in her ongoing effort to find the Time Twirler, Sunset had to keep an eye out for anyone who seemed to have any awareness that this day had been repeating numerous times. Su-Z’s remarks about some peculiar specifics regarding the churro delivery definitely raised some red flags in Sunset’s mind. “Today can be a funny thing,” she noted suspiciously as she crossed her arms and frowned. Pinkie glanced at Sunset in confusion, then turned back to PostCrush with a nervous grin in an effort to keep her cool. “Word,” acknowledged K-Lo, mildly annoyed as she stepped out of the bus. “Thanks for being fans, but we gotta… you know… get on stage.” “Of course!” agreed Pinkie uneasily. “We don’t wanna keep you back.” She took a step back towards the bicycle and tried to pull Sunset back with her as she rather loudly whispered, “C’mon, Sunset.” Sunset stood her ground and watched as the PostCrush duo turned away and began walking off. She couldn’t help but notice that the large golden clip holding the purple bow to the back of K-Lo’s hair piece looked remarkably similar to the illustrations she had seen of the Time Twirler — another huge red flag in Sunset’s mind. Sunset knew she couldn’t risk any direct confrontation without absolute proof of her suspicions, so she brushed off Pinkie’s grip on her shoulder and stepped forward. With a smile on her face, she calmly asked, “But before you go on, could you at least give me the honor of shaking your hand?” K-Lo and Su-Z stopped and turned back to look at Sunset. “As a thank you for all your music and anything else you might’ve done to me — I mean, for me,” added Sunset. She really hoped they didn’t catch that little slip-up at the end of her request. After all, she and her friends had already saved the Lego World numerous times, so her magical powers were not exactly unknown to everyone, and her blatantly asking for direct hand contact was sure to raise suspicions in anyone who was fully aware of her mind-reading powers. Pinkie Pie and Su-Z stood off to the side and watched in confusion while K-Lo stared at the open hand Sunset was offering to her. K-Lo had been very insistent on getting ready for their upcoming show, and her face still reflected her mild annoyance. In fact, because of her impatience, she believed it would be best to take the extra few seconds to shake Sunset’s hand so that this pointless meeting could end as soon as possible. K-Lo softened her expression, then stepped forward and held out her hand as she casually stated, “Anything for a fan.” As soon as Sunset and K-Lo gripped their hands together, Sunset’s body stiffened and her eyes glowed white as she began to look into K-Lo’s memories. Sunset was already aware that back when PostCrush broke up for their “indefinite hiatus”, K-Lo and Su-Z had spent much of that time traveling around separately, so it didn’t really surprise her that the first memory she witnessed was K-Lo wandering around a bazaar in the desert region of Pharaoh’s Kingdom. She was wearing a white hooded cloak as she browsed the numerous stands that were selling all kinds of items. She was rather fascinated by the aesthetics of this region — pyramids and decorated obelisks, tombs and gilded sarcophaguses, and especially the hieroglyphic symbols — so she was looking for a little something she could take home with her, though she didn’t exactly have anything in particular in mind at the moment. “Hey! You there!” someone softly spoke up. K-Lo turned to the source of that hushed voice and saw someone standing behind one of the nearby shop stands. He was wearing a dark robe and headwear that obscured everything except his eyes, so the only part of him she could identify was that he had the standard yellow skin tone of most minifigs. “Would you like to purchase a forbidden accessory?” offered the cloaked shopkeeper quietly. K-Lo glanced left and right, then approached the stall and asked, “Depends on what you mean by ‘forbidden’.” The anonymous shopkeeper lifted a cloth from the counter between them, exposing a small, round, golden object. “This piece is said to have been plundered from the tomb of Somnambula,” he explained. K-Lo picked up the mystery object and closely inspected it. It was unlike anything she had ever encountered. She couldn’t quite figure out how, but it just didn’t feel like most Lego parts she had handled before. She raised an eyebrow and asked, “Is that all there is to it?” “According to legend,” continued the mysterious shopkeeper, “this artifact has the power to manipulate time itself. One press of that button on top, and you and everyone else nearby will next awaken back on the previous morning. You will have the opportunity to avoid whatever mistakes you had previously made that day, and if a single repeat doesn’t cut it, just press the button again anywhere at any time on that same day, and you and everyone else affected the first time will repeat that day a third time. There’s no limit to how many more times you can then repeat the day, so long as you keep hitting that button before the end of that day.” K-Lo took a moment to process that information as she stared at the artifact in her hand. She was hardly a superstitious person and knew better than to trust the words of some stranger who refused to show his face. However, she couldn’t deny that the thought of having such a power like that was rather tempting. After all, the reason she and Su-Z had parted ways was because she had such an immense desire for perfection and Su-Z just couldn’t stand it. For example, their hit song True Original went through a hundred recordings before Su-Z and the studio had to insist on no more attempts, forcing her to settle on one that was merely good enough. To have something that could offer the ability to retry real life sounded almost too good to be true. If this item could really do what this stranger claimed, then perhaps she could even accept Su-Z’s request for them to do a live show, now that she had the assurance that they could simply try it again if anything went wrong. Then again, K-Lo had to remind herself that it was all just an interesting story to go with this item. The practical side of her was adamant that there was nothing special about this thing at all, aside from its interesting appearance. Ultimately, all she really wanted was an accessory that looked good and beautifully reflected this region, and as far as she could see, this item seemed like an ideal option for those criteria. With the artifact still in her hands, K-Lo turned to the mysterious shopkeeper and asked, “What’s your asking price?” “I’ll accept any form of payment,” replied the anonymous vendor, “but if you want the value in dollars, all I’m asking for is twenty.” Without a word, K-Lo pulled out a green 1x2 tile piece with the number “20” printed on it in white, handed it over to the mysterious vendor, and then began to walk away with her newly purchased item. As K-Lo left, the unknown vendor soon began to giggle hysterically before he excitedly cried out. “It worked! She took it! It’s no longer mine! The curse has been lifted! I’m free!” He started whooping uncontrollably as he did all kinds of crazy dance moves atop the counter of his stand. K-Lo glanced back at the shopkeeper’s spontaneous antics, then she shook her head and muttered, “What a weirdo…” The next memory Sunset witnessed was the live performance of PostCrush on the night of day one of the Starswirled Music Festival — which she had missed seeing the first time around. This concert started out smoothly, but then went terribly wrong when K-Lo accidentally broke one of the strings on her guitar. Although the crowd continued to cheer as they proceeded with their song, K-Lo was absolutely furious about how out of tune the remainder of the show was with the absence of that one string. After the show was over and practically the moment the two of them were backstage and out of sight from the audience, K-Lo did not hold back her frustration. “Ugh! I can’t believe that just happened!” she cried out furiously. “I mean, seriously?! I just had to break a string right in the middle of our show!” Su-Z sighed and irritably responded, “Yeah, I get it, K-Lo. Trust me, I’d be upset if that happened to me. We’ll just have to accept it and move on.” In a fit of anger, K-Lo removed the bow from the back of her hair and threw it to the ground. When she heard a faint metallic noise as it hit the floor, she was suddenly reminded of that item she had purchased back in Pharaoh’s Kingdom, which she had decided to use as a decorative accessory on her bow. She stared at the mysterious artifact for a moment, contemplating its rumored powers. She still had her doubts, but after how disastrous tonight’s show had been in her mind, she was willing to try anything to correct it. K-Lo reached down and removed the golden artifact from her discarded bow. She continued to stare at it for a moment before she muttered, “Maybe we don’t have to…” Su-Z raised an eyebrow and asked, “What are you talking about?” K-Lo didn’t give a direct answer and instead began to walk off as she simply stated, “Come with me.” “Hey! Where are you going?” Su-Z called out as she chased after K-Lo out of the backstage room. K-Lo led her bandmate away from the stage, away from the crowds and lights of the festival, and out into the forest wilderness surrounding the festival grounds. Eventually, they came to a stop on a small wooden bridge across a creek. Su-Z took a moment to catch her breath after that chase, then desperately asked, “Could you please explain to me why we’re suddenly out in the middle of nowhere?” “Because we can’t allow anyone to know about this,” replied K-Lo as she showed the artifact to her bandmate. Su-Z stared at the artifact for a moment before she asked, “What’s so special about it? I mean, you said it was just a little something you got in Pharaoh’s Kingdom.” “The guy who sold this to me claimed that it has the power to turn back time itself,” explained K-Lo. “With that kind of ability, we can redo this day and avoid that dumb mistake that happened in the middle of our show.” Now Su-Z became intrigued. “Does it work?” she asked. “To be honest, I’ve never tried it before,” confessed K-Lo. “And frankly, I didn’t believe a word of it when I bought it. But after tonight’s disaster, I’m willing to give it a try.” “Well, with all the otherworldly magic I’ve been hearing about all over the Lego World recently, I guess it’s possible that thing might actually have that power,” noted Su-Z. “So how do we activate it?” “All I have to do is hit the button on top,” explained K-Lo, “and the next time we wake up will be right back where we were at the start of this day. The first time will affect everyone nearby, but after that, we can keep reusing it no matter where we are.” “Oh, so I guess that explains why you wanted the two of us all alone out in the middle of nowhere,” acknowledged Su-Z. “Well, might as well go for it.” With that word of encouragement from her bandmate, K-Lo tapped the button on the artifact. Whoosh! A bright flash was suddenly unleashed along with a shockwave of energy that quickly spread out across a rather large distance. Thankfully, the intense effect lasted very briefly before everything had seemingly returned to normal. “Whoa. I sure hope nobody saw that,” muttered Su-Z, somewhat astonished to have experienced such a weird sensation. “Even if anyone did, they won’t remember it once we wake up,” assured K-Lo. “So I guess this means we should just head back to our bus and turn in for night, then we’ll find out if it actually worked,” suggested Su-Z. “Agreed,” stated K-Lo as she pocketed her magical artifact and led the way back to their tour bus. When they woke up in the morning, they quickly confirmed that they really were right back at the previous morning on day one of the festival. With that reset, K-Lo made sure to replace that weak guitar string to prevent a repeat of the on-stage disaster. Unfortunately, Su-Z accidentally punctured one of her drums in the middle of their show, forcing K-Lo to hit the reset button a second time. The two of them went on to reset the day many more times as a result of unforeseen mishaps. The third attempt involved K-Lo accidentally smacking the neck of her guitar against one of the cymbals on Su-Z’s drum set — which Sunset suddenly realized she had remembered seeing on her first successful attempt to watch PostCrush. Further mishaps involved Su-Z breaking a drumstick, K-Lo fumbling and dropping her guitar pick, an ill-timed sneeze from Su-Z throwing off the rhythm, K-Lo managing step on the one loose floorboard on stage that caused her to stumble. After dozens of attempts, they did manage to learn from experience and consistently made all the subtle adjustments to avoid repeating any of those mishaps. But although their performance eventually improved to the point that a common fan might consider it superb excellence, K-Lo’s obsession with absolute perfection soon got the better of her. On the more recent resets, K-Lo started calling out every single little thing that didn’t feel quite right to her, much to Su-Z’s frustration. Even something as minor as just one off-key note was enough to drive K-Lo to hit that reset button yet again. Sunset’s body relaxed and her eyes returned to normal as her glimpse into K-Lo’s memories came to an end. She gasped in shock and released her grasp on K-Lo’s hand, then immediately scowled at her and furiously accused, “You found the Time Twirler! You’re the ones who’ve been causing this time loop!” Pinkie dropped the box of churros in her hands as she gasped in shock and exclaimed, “Holy linguini!” “Uh, pause,” Su-Z spoke up. “How did you figure that out so quickly?” K-Lo slapped herself in the forehead and growled in frustration. “I should’ve seen that one coming!” she grumbled as she placed her hands on her hips and glared at Sunset. “I mean, your friend even said your name out loud. You’re Sunset Shimmer, one of the seven Equestria Girls with magical powers. You’re the one who can read minds.” “Glad to know some people aren’t totally ignorant of all the things my friends and I have done,” muttered Sunset dryly as she rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. “And as much as I really do admire your music, I have to say that by abusing the use of Equestrian Magic, you have now made yourselves our latest opponent.” She then held out her hand and casually suggested, “How about you just hand over the Time Twirler and make this easy for all of us?” “Forget it!” K-Lo shot back defiantly. “We’re gonna loop our show ‘til it’s perfect! A fangirl like you wouldn’t get it.” “Unless you’re such a huge fangirl that you do get it,” noted Su-Z. K-Lo scoffed and dismissively insisted, “You know fans can never get it.” “But I do,” explained Sunset as she took a step forward. “When I first got here, I also had a desire to have a perfect day, but after all these loops, I’ve learned that no matter how hard you try, things can never be perfect.” “Then we stop, never,” declared Su-Z. “Besides,” continued K-Lo smugly, “I had my suspicions that someone else might’ve gotten caught up in our time loop — that big explosion in the campgrounds that one time was kinda hard to ignore, for example. But now that we know you’re the one who’s in on our little secret, we’ll make sure that you’ll never set foot inside this festival ever again.” “Go ahead,” muttered Sunset dismissively. “Take our pictures and hang them up. They’ll all disappear in the morning.” K-Lo maintained her smug expression as she asked, “Ever heard of drawings?” “Everything resets,” insisted Sunset. “Believe me, I know from experience.” “You don’t, and neither do we,” argued Su-Z as she stepped back into the tour bus. She reemerged after only a few seconds, now holding a pen in one hand and a sheet of paper in the other hand. As K-Lo turned around and leaned slightly forward, Su-Z used her back as an easel and began quickly scribbling on the paper as she continued, “And now that we’ve seen your faces, I’m an art school dropout, and you better believe I can draw your faces so flawlessly, guards will ban you at the gates from now until forevah.” Su-Z finished her drawing and held it up, showing a rather crude sketch of Pinkie and Sunset to the girls depicted on that sketch. “Forevah-evah!” added K-Lo tauntingly. “NO!!” Pinkie cried out in horror. “Yeah, she can,” stated K-Lo confidently. “Mmm-hmm,” agreed Su-Z with a nod. “You call that flawless?” retorted Sunset skeptically. “And even if you do manage to convince the guards to keep me out, I’ll always be in the area, not because I won’t leave, but because I can’t. According to a friend of mine who told me about that artifact, it’s got a fail-safe that prevents anyone caught in its effect from ending up too far away from it while it’s in use. I’ve honestly lost count of how many perfectly fine vehicles spontaneously broke down while trying to get me away from here.” She crossed her arms and narrowed her glare at the PostCrush duo as she firmly added, “Besides, do you really think you can intimidate someone with my kind of past that easily? Whenever I’m faced with a threat — especially one that could harm my friends — I will stop at nothing to defeat it. I will do whatever it takes to shut off that Time Twirler and end this time loop, even if I have to demolish half of this festival in the process.” K-Lo just smirked and smugly declared, “Then let’s see you try.” Su-Z snapped her hand and called out, “Security! We got a code chartreuse — crazy fan alert!” Sunset and Pinkie glanced around and soon saw a certain security guard march over to them from behind where they stood. “You again?” muttered Sunset in shock as she recognized him as Max Steele from the entrance security line. “All right, you girls are coming with me,” Max firmly stated as he grasped Sunset and Pinkie by their arms and began forcefully escorting them away from the scene. “You should know that you’re not allowed back here without a valid backstage pass.” “But we were just delivering churros to PostCrush!” insisted Pinkie desperately. “Just ask Puffed Pastry! She’s the one who sent us after her regular guy quit on her!” “I don’t wanna hear any excuses,” argued Max as he forced the two girls around the edge of the festival grounds. “Just let me do my job and there won’t be any further trouble.” Sunset and Pinkie didn’t put up much resistance as security guard Max shoved them ahead until they finally reached a doorway in the wall that marked the perimeter of the festival grounds. As she and Pinkie were thrown out through the doorway, Sunset turned back to Max and desperately pleaded, “How are you gonna let anyone in if you keep kicking people out?!” Max made no response and simply closed the door. He turned away and began to return to his post, but then paused and glanced back at the shut door. He hesitated for a moment, then let out a reluctant sigh and resumed walking away. Outside the doorway, Sunset was once again faced with the warning message of “EXIT ONLY! Trespassers will be tackled on sight,” on the decal stuck to that door. She glanced up at the sky and saw it was already starting to get dark. PostCrush would be starting their show soon, and if it didn’t go perfectly — which was practically guaranteed to happen — then they would reset the loop yet again and all of Sunset’s efforts today would go to waste. Despite the confidence she had shown earlier while confronting PostCrush, Sunset was seriously concerned about the consequences she and her friends would be faced with if she failed to somehow stop PostCrush on this particular loop. Author's Note There was a moment last week when I was worried I wouldn't be able to get this chapter up on schedule due to the power adapter on my ten-year-old laptop suddenly failing. Thankfully, the laptop itself still works perfectly fine, and I was very lucky to have a spare power adapter that works just as fine for my laptop, so as long as this old thing remains fully functional for at least one more month, I shouldn't have any serious issues with finishing this story (just one chapter and the epilogue left to go). Anyway, I didn't want Sunset to use her experiences to give only Pinkie a better day, so that's why I had mentioned the issues of the rest of her friends in an earlier chapter, with Sunset providing them with notes of advice in this chapter, and those resolutions will be revealed in the next chapter. It also seemed reasonable that Sunset would eventually learn the names of all those people she kept bumping into on most loops, but since I didn't feel like taking the time to come up with such names myself (just writing this chapter was already time-consuming enough), I decided to simply go with the ones used by derpibooru. And rather than PostCrush simply finding the Time Twirler randomly on the ground somewhere like the official version, I instead decided to have them acquire it in such a way that it provides some clues as to how it ended up being brought from Equestria to the Lego World (I've already got the full sequence of events in mind, but they won't be revealed until a later story in this fanfiction series), as well as better explain how Sunset got caught in the time loop in the first place. Breaking the LoopChapter 7 Breaking the Loop “Think fast, Sunset,” muttered Sunset worriedly to herself as she paced around just outside the exit-only door out of the festival. “Come on, think!” “I can’t believe they actually called your bluff,” Pinkie spoke up sadly. “I would’ve totally panicked if I had been on the receiving end of a threat like the one you made.” “It wasn’t a bluff,” stated Sunset. “Huh?” asked Pinkie in confusion. “I was being completely serious about demolishing the festival if it meant stopping the time loop,” explained Sunset. “I could build a giant bulldozer to easily crush anything between here and their tour bus. I could build a catapult to fling flaming boulders over the walls and destroy their tour bus. I could even build massive drilling machine to undermine and collapse everything in the area.” She then sighed and confessed, “But the truth is… I’d rather not have to do any of those things, not only because it would obviously be way too much unnecessary collateral damage, but also because this day turned out so great for both of us that I’d hate to see it end in such a terrible way before everything resets yet again.” Pinkie was silent for a moment as she considered her friend’s dilemma, then smiled and calmly assured Sunset, “You know, just because you’re the only one experiencing the time loop doesn’t mean you have to figure this out all by yourself. We’re a team, Sunset — members of the LEGO Team, which means we build on each other. If there’s anything I can do to help, then you can totally count on me to make it happen.” Sunset smiled back and responded, “You’re right, Pinkie. Whatever we have to do next, we’ll do it together, ‘cause that’s what friends do.” She then turned away and muttered, “Now, then… how are we gonna get back into the festival grounds? I don’t really see much of anything around here that we can work with.” As Sunset glanced around in various directions, Pinkie suddenly caught a glimpse of something sticking out of the pocket on her jacket. Pinkie gasped, then reached over and removed the item as she exclaimed, “Puffed Pastry’s exclusive star-crusted, cinnamon-dipped churros!” Sunset was briefly confused, then smiled as she chuckled and remarked, “Oh yeah, I forgot about that. I just didn’t have the heart to throw it in the trash after it turned out to be too inedible for me.” The two girls suddenly stared at each other, turned their gazes towards the exit door, then turned back to each other. “Like eating a crowbar!” they both said simultaneously in realization. Pinkie waved the hardened churro around and naughtily whispered, “Churros are magic!” “I guess those silly things aren’t so evil after all,” quipped Sunset as she and Pinkie approached the door. Once they stopped in front of it, she tapped her chin and muttered, “So how exactly are we gonna make use of it?” “I say we just go for it,” suggested Pinkie as she raised the churro over her head while pressing her other hand against the door. However, before Pinkie could make her first strike, the door suddenly flung open, throwing the two girls backwards as security guard Max Steele appeared in the now opened doorway. “Hey! You two!” he firmly spoke up. “I remember you…” “You do?” asked Sunset worriedly, fearing the possibility of further punishment this guy might unleash upon her and her friend. “Yeah…” began Max Steele gruffly. His tone then quickly relaxed as he continued, “You respected my security line earlier today. So many of these people just don’t get it.” Pinkie and Sunset glanced at each other, then they both stood up and smiled at Max. “We get it!” agreed Pinkie. “So I thought, ‘Hey, self, these gals aren’t crazy fans. They’re just fans,’” continued Max as he turned away. “Plus, not only did you tip me off on that attempted robbery, but I also just spoke with Puffed Pastry and she confirmed you really were making a churro delivery on her behalf, so you girls technically never did anything… illegal.” “Weren’t about to, either!” Pinkie blurted out as she hid the stiff churro behind her back. Max turned back to the girls and raised an eyebrow. “Don’t mind her!” Sunset swiftly insisted. “She says random stuff all the time.” She continued grinning at Max as she jabbed her elbow against Pinkie’s torso. Pinkie flinched from the sharp impact and briefly glanced at Sunset, then turned to Max with a big smile as she held up that stiff churro and spontaneously quipped, “They’re magically delicious!” She bit down on that rock-hard churro, then immediately flinched in pain before she mumbled, “Must’ve been a bad batch…” Max stared at Pinkie for a moment, then stated, “Anyway, you girls are just big fans of PostCrush, and since security is all about karma…” He smiled and stepped aside to leave the doorway open. “I think it’s only right you should be able to see the show.” Sunset and Pinkie both smiled as they could hardly believe just how incredibly lucky they suddenly were in that very moment. They had only minutes left to go to put a stop to the latest abuse of Equestrian Magic, and the security guard who was supposed to keep them out was instead allowing them to simply walk right back into the festival grounds. “Max Steele, you are the best security guard ever!” praised Sunset. “I swear, if tonight works out for all of us, I’ll give you something tomorrow that I know you’ll appreciate!” “Oh, gosh, you’re too kind,” responded Max, absolutely flattered by the appreciation. He gestured at the open doorway and politely stated, “Just go on in.” With that invitation, Sunset and Pinkie rushed past the security guard and headed straight towards the area of the main stage. Once they were far enough away from the guard, Sunset spoke up with determination, “Final objective — get the Time Twirler from K-Lo’s hair and turn it— twirl it off, or— whatever! Just make it not work anymore!” “You got it, Sunset!” agreed Pinkie. “Time to shut it down!” “Shut it down…” muttered Sunset, suddenly feeling a little remorseful. As the two girls continued running, Sunset spoke up, “I just realized that I’ve already watched PostCrush plenty of times, but you haven’t experienced any of these time loops. If we go through with this, we’re not only gonna ruin their reunion show, but also your only chance of seeing them perform live on stage.” Pinkie immediately scoffed and furiously retorted, “Are you kidding?! They trapped my best friend at a super fun music festival without me for months! They are so going down!” “In that case, I’ll let you have the honors of blasting the door open,” responded Sunset with a smile. “I may not have met them personally on any of the previous loops, but I did get to see the room where they’re gonna be getting ready just before the show starts.” “Lead the way, Sunset!” declared Pinkie. “Let’s stop this time loop, once and for all!” A huge crowd had gathered at the main stage, nearly all of whom were excitedly anticipating the start of PostCrush’s live concert that was now only minutes away. They knew this show would be very special because it would be the first time in quite a while that the popular duo would be performing together, and since it was likely this would be the only time in the foreseeable future they would be willing to do such a show, this was something that any fan of PostCrush absolutely did not want to miss for any reason. In the room below stage, K-Lo and Su-Z were making final preparations just before the start of the show. After going through the same routine over a hundred times already, they had practically memorized every step of the process. But while they were confident with the upcoming show, their recent encounter with Sunset and Pinkie had left them feeling a little on edge. “I’m getting tired of living the same day over and over,” complained Su-Z with a sad sigh as she applied the last of her makeup. “Can this please be our last performance?” “We’ve been over this, Su-Z,” scolded K-Lo. “We don’t stop until we get it perfect.” “Just don’t like watching live TV knowing exactly what’s gonna happen on every channel,” whined Su-Z. “I’m really starting to miss not being able to predict everything around me.” “And we will go back to regular time, once we finally get our perfect show,” assured K-Lo. “More like your perfect show,” grumbled Su-Z under her breath. She then spoke up again, “Besides, now that Sunset Shimmer of all people is on to us, I don’t think we’ll have many chances left anyway. Everyone knows that a threat from Sunset Shimmer should not be taken lightly.” “We’ve already had security kick them out,” insisted K-Lo. “They can’t bother us anymore. It’s not like they’re just gonna suddenly break the door down at the last minute.” Boom! K-Lo and Su-Z both immediately turned to see the only door into the room suddenly get blown off its hinges and tumble to the floor. The pink smoke from the blast cleared after only a few seconds, revealing none other than Sunset Shimmer and Pinkie Pie as they stepped into the room. Pinkie giggled and remarked, “Now that’s what I call a cherry bomb.” Sunset glared at PostCrush as she crossed her arms and stated, “Sorry to barge in on you like this, but your abuse of Equestrian Magic ends right here, right now.” Su-Z gasped in shocked and furiously asked, “Who let you two back in?!” “Let’s just say a little bit of kindness and respect can go a long way,” responded Sunset. “I’m only gonna say this one more time. Make this easy on yourselves and hand it over. Don’t make us have to do this the hard way.” “You wouldn’t dare!” K-Lo shot back aggressively. “If you were real fans, you’d want this show to be perfect!” Sunset simply shrugged and quipped, “Eh, nothing’s ever gonna be perfect. Right, Pinkie?” “You said it, Sunset!” agreed Pinkie eagerly. “As Master Builders, we know better than to ever expect total perfection. Instead…” She reached into her hair and pulled out the rock-hard churro. With a bit of effort, she then bent it into a ninety-degree angle. “You just gotta make the best with what you’ve got!” She then tossed the bent churro directly at K-Lo. K-Lo saw the bent churro fly right at her face, so she and Su-Z quickly ducked. Once the bent churro flew over their heads, they both stood up again and smirked at their opponents. “Ha! You missed!” taunted K-Lo. But behind the PostCrush duo, the bent churro reversed direction in midair just before it could reach the wall on the far side of the room, then began to rush right back towards them. While K-Lo was gloating, the bent churro smacked her in the back of the head, knocking the Time Twirler loose from her hair piece and flinging it up into and air on a trajectory towards where Pinkie and Sunset stood. Pinkie ended up catching the Time Twirler. Once it was in her hands, she dangled it teasingly and playfully retorted, “Ah-ha! Now who’s laughing?” “LEGO!!” screamed Su-Z furiously as she swiftly tackled Pinkie to the floor, causing the Time Twirler to fly out of her grasp. Sunset quickly caught the magical artifact as it came back down, only for K-Lo to rush over and also grasp onto it. “Give it back!” demanded K-Lo as she tugged on the Time Twirler. “Never!” Sunset shot back as she also tugged on the magical artifact. The two girls continued tugging on the magical item until K-Lo accidentally rolled her foot on a microphone that was lying on the floor. She quickly lost her balance and fell over backwards, creating a sudden tug that was strong enough to fling the Time Twirler out of both of their grips. The four girls in the room watched as the Time Twirler flew through the air, bounced off the edge of a large amp, landed in the clamp of a boom stand where a microphone would typically be held, spun around on that boom stand a few times before being flung off, then bounced off a drum — producing the noise of that drum’s beat in the process — and landed inside a toaster, which then dinged and shot it straight up at the ceiling, where it deflected off a support beam, bounced off a guitar — producing a sharp twang noise of one string in the process — landed in the open tray of a CD player which then closed, quickly followed by the other tray on that player opening and shooting it out, and finally landed on a purple square platform in the middle of the room. All four girls briefly glared at their opposing side, then simultaneously dove at the Time Twirler resting upon that platform. There was a mad scramble between all of them as they each tried to grab the artifact and smack away anyone else who tried to do the same. The four-way tug-o-war between them became so fierce that they failed to even notice a square hole opened up in the ceiling and the platform they were struggling on began to slowly rise up towards that opening. They were so focused on taking possession of that magical item that none of them seemed to notice the change in their surroundings, such as the surrounding pink fog, the dark sky and bright stage lights, or even the noise of the cheering crowd. “Let me hear three big cheers for two best friends who got back together for one incredible night!” an amplified voice shouted out across the stage and the gathered crowd. “PoooooostCruuuuuush!!” The cheer and applause from the crowd began to roar loudly, but then quickly silenced as the fog cleared, exposing PostCrush and two other girls seemingly in the middle of a fearsome brawl. The swift change in their surroundings finally snapped the four girls out of their massive fight as they turned their attention out to the huge audience gathered around the stage. All four of them practically froze in whatever tangled pose they had been in as they stared out at so many different minifigs staring back at them. “Awkward…” Pinkie quietly sang with embarrassment. Sunset managed to recover from the shock only a brief moment before any of the others, but that was all the time she needed. With her left arm occupied with shoving Su-Z away, she released her grip on the Time Twirler with her right hand so she could clench a fist and swiftly smack the artifact out of the collective grasp of the other three girls. When that object landed right beside her feet on the stage floor, she did not hesitate to swiftly and firmly stomp her foot on it, shattering the magical artifact. As soon as the object was broken into fragments, the Equestrian Magic contained within unleashed light so intensely bright that the four girls surrounding it were forced to close their eyes and take a few steps back. A thick, dark cloud of energy slowly rose up from the shattered remains of the Time Twirler, then burst into sparkly vapor as it released a bright shockwave that spread across the stage, the audience, and ultimately all over the festival grounds. The time loop was finally over. The four girls on stage stood still in shock as they watched the last of the magical vapor fade away. Eventually, K-Lo dropped to her knees as she looked down at the shattered remnants of the Time Twirler and began to sob. “Our legacy is destroyed!” she cried out furiously. “Everything was riding on this show!” She turned to glare at Sunset. “And you ruined it!” Sunset was momentarily stunned by the accusation, but then as she listened to the crowd of fans gathered around, she began to smile. “Are you sure about that?” she asked slyly as she gestured out towards the gathered crowd. Following Sunset’s example, Pinkie gently turned a saddened Su-Z around to face the crowd. Much to the astonishment of both members of PostCrush, the massive audience was cheering loudly and excitedly chanting the name of their band over and over. “I… I-I-I don’t understand…” muttered K-Lo breathlessly. “Your fans don’t want perfection,” explained Sunset with a friendly smile. “They just want to see you rocking out and having fun.” She gazed out towards the audience as she walked across the stage. “Sometimes, the flaws and silly mistakes are what makes the experience perfect. That’s the best part about seeing live music.” She stopped beside Pinkie and placed an arm around her shoulders. “And it’s the best part about being friends.” Su-Z was so touched by Sunset’s words and gestures that when she glanced over at K-Lo still down on the stage floor, she decided to walk over to her bandmate and kneel down on the floor beside her. K-Lo glanced over at her bandmate and shamefully acknowledged, “We did used to have a lot of fun.” Su-Z sadly confessed, “I guess we got so wrapped up in the pressure to be perfect…” “…we forgot how to be friends,” finished K-Lo as she and Su-Z both turned to Sunset and Pinkie. “So what do you say?” asked Sunset contently. “I don’t know…” muttered K-Lo as she wiped away her tears. She began to smile as she replied, “I guess… this one’s for real.” Su-Z let out a sigh of satisfaction as she held hands with her old friend and declared, “Let’s do it, then. For real. It’ll be you and me, just like old times. Whatever happens, happens.” The two bandmates continued to smile and hold hands as they stood up. When they both turned their attention out to the large crowd gathered before them, they shared a brief nod before they turned away from each other and struck their iconic PostCrush pose — K-Lo in a cool pose, Su-Z in a zany pose, both while standing back to back. The cheer and applause from the audience roared significantly louder as they witnessed that iconic pose. While K-Lo grabbed her guitar resting nearby and Su-Z sat down at her drum set nearby, Sunset and Pinkie moved over to stand aside on the main stage. As excited as they were to watch PostCrush from a place that any fan could only dream of, the two Equestria Girls were respectful enough to leave the stage clear for the intended performers. Finally, all of the various stage lights dimmed, and the audience soon quieted their cheers. With their instruments at the ready, the PostCrush duo began playing the opening notes of their famous song. The stage lights flashed with every beat of the tune. After a few seconds, the display panels along the back side of the stage lit up, illuminating the girls on stage with flashing displays of pulsing hearts. While Su-Z continued with the opening beats, K-Lo turned to face the audience and sang the opening lyrics. 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… Su-Z joined in with K-Lo for the next part of the lyrics. We’re all about perfection, Projecting the pure reflection, Exceeding your expectations, Yeah… The PostCrush duo performed with all their heart into the music and the audience cheered louder as the song reached its chorus. 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! As PostCrush performed, Sunset and Pinkie danced to the music off to the side of the stage. K-Lo and Su-Z watched them enjoy themselves, then glanced at each other and shared a nod of agreement. Su-Z kicked one of her drums to slide across the stage and stop right in front of Pinkie. The two Equestria Girls stopped dancing when they noticed the drum sent towards them. They both turned to PostCrush and smiled as they watched K-Lo pick up the spare guitar on stage and tossed it over to them. As Sunset eagerly caught the guitar, Pinkie swiftly pulled her drumsticks out from within her hair piece, and soon, the two fans of PostCrush were performing right alongside them. True, true original… True, true original… True, true original… We’re perfect, perfectly true! As K-Lo enthusiastically vocalized throughout the instrumental part of the song, Sunset and Pinkie looked out towards the audience as they continued playing. They were pleasantly surprised when they saw the rest of their friends make their way into the crowd. Rainbow Dash pointed up to them on stage and waved at them, followed by the rest of the group of friends waving at them. Sunset and Pinkie spared a brief moment to wave back at their friends in the audience as they continued playing along to the music. When the time came for the next verse of the song, K-Lo moved aside and pointed towards Sunset and Pinkie, signaling for them to take the lead for this part of the song. After the experiences those two had been through today, they decided to slightly change the lyrics to reflect the lessons they had learned. But… it’s not about perfection, Set off in your own direction, Shake off the expectations… With her duet with Pinkie complete, Sunset walked over to stand beside K-Lo on stage. K-Lo smiled and nodded in approval, and then all four girls performed the chorus with slightly modified lyrics to reflect the lessons they had all learned tonight. 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, imperfectly you! The audience continued the cheer as they seemed to absolutely love the improvised new version of the song. Pinkie decided to throw in some special visual effects by pulling two handfuls of hard candy out of her hair piece and tossed them high up into the air. Thanks to her magical power, those pieces of candy exploded like fireworks when they reached the apex of their flight, and the crowd continued the cheer. True, true original… True, true original… True, true original… You’re perfect, imperfectly you! Just as she had done over a hundred times before, K-Lo finished the song by tossing her guitar pick into the air, this time intentionally flinging it backwards to ensure it would be caught by the two Equestria Girls who helped make this their best show ever. Sunset ended up catching the pick, but as soon as she glanced over at Pinkie, she quickly decided to hand it over to her friend. With the song finished, the audience roared with excitement and enthusiasm as they chanted the name PostCrush over and over. Sunset and Pinkie turned to each other with thrilled expressions as Sunset excitedly remarked, “I can’t believe we just played at Starswirled!” “You sure did!” agreed Su-Z as she and K-Lo waved over at them. “Get over here and take a photo with us!” suggested K-Lo with enthusiasm. Sunset and Pinkie glanced at each other with huge smiles on their faces, then immediately rushed over to join the favorite band out on stage. As Sunset pulled out her phone and prepared to take a group selfie, she excitedly remarked, “Now this is a perfect moment!” Pinkie giggled excitedly as the four girls pressed together and posed for the photo. Once they were all together within view of the phone’s camera, Sunset took the picture. Sunset had a huge smile as she looked at the new picture on her phone. “I am so gonna make this my phone’s new background!” she excitedly declared as she tapped her phone. “If anything, at least it’ll prove to me tomorrow morning that this time loop is finally over.” “Yeah, sorry you had to go through all that,” apologized K-Lo. “We never meant for anyone to get caught in the loop with us.” “Eh, I won’t take it personally,” assured Sunset. “I was pretty much just in the wrong place at the wrong time.” “More like the right place and time,” corrected Pinkie cheerfully, “because if you didn’t get caught in the time loop with PostCrush, you never would’ve gained all that experience to make this the best day for all of us!” “I guess that’s another way of looking at it,” admitted Sunset with a smile. “As great as this show went, we’d better get off stage before the fans start asking for an encore,” stated K-Lo as she gestured for the girls on stage to follow her. “Just this one show was stressful enough.” “Tell me about it,” remarked Su-Z with a scoff as she rolled her eyes as she, Sunset, and Pinkie followed K-Lo backstage. She glanced back at the other two and added, “Believe me, after repeating this day so many times, I was getting very close to just walking out on K-Lo until she’d agree to finally stop using that stupid thing.” K-Lo let out a sigh of disappointment and acknowledged, “I should’ve expected that would eventually happen. It was practically the same issues that drove us apart in the first place.” Once the four girls arrived in the secluded backstage room, K-Lo smiled and noted, “I’m just glad it didn’t have to come to that again, thanks to some special insight from a couple of special fans. That improv you two came up with went so great, I dare say that even if I still had that time resetting artifact, I probably would choose not to use it again tonight.” “Wow,” remarked Pinkie. “Who’d’ve thought that you became so obsessed with using that Time Twirler over and over again, and yet the moment you suddenly couldn’t use it anymore just so happened to occur on the very same loop where you decided everything went super-duper enough that you didn’t even need it anymore, anyway?” That observation pointed out by Pinkie made Sunset suddenly remember a certain detail from when she had viewed K-Lo’s memories earlier. “The curse has been lifted…” she muttered. “Huh?” asked Su-Z in confusion. Sunset turned to K-Lo and spoke up, “That guy who sold you the Time Twirler… the moment you bought it from him, he said something about a curse being lifted.” “He did,” acknowledged K-Lo, “but I never believed in any curses. At the time, I thought he was just spewing some nonsense from being out in the desert for too long.” Pinkie gasped as she grabbed Sunset by the shoulders and asked, “Are you saying the Time Twirler was cursed by making whoever uses it for whatever reason be always unable to actually achieve that thing they were using it for, thereby forcing them to keep on using it over and over and over again for all of eternity?!” “Well, when you put it that way, I guess that might explain a lot,” noted Su-Z. “I mean, it did seem kinda weird at times how we always seemed to find all kinds of new ways to mess up our show.” “I’m not sure,” answered Sunset as she gently pried Pinkie’s hands off her. “When Princess Twilight of Equestria sent me those notes about the Time Twirler, they never said anything about a curse. Then again, the guy who sold it claimed that it was plundered from a tomb, so maybe there was something about being in that tomb that put a curse on it.” She waved her hand dismissively and added, “Either way, I’ll need to send a message to Princess Twilight to at least let her know the Time Twirler has been destroyed, even though she technically won’t remember anything about it since she did all that research in an earlier loop.” “Uh, quick question,” Su-Z spoke up hesitantly. “Since we messed around with Equestrian Magic, does this mean we’re gonna get in big trouble for what we did?” That thought caused K-Lo to look at Sunset with a very worried expression, suddenly feeling very concerned about the impact this incident might have on the reputation of PostCrush. Sunset thought about it for a moment, then smiled and replied, “Well, thanks to the extensive use of time travel, technically the only one to have been affected by all of this was just me, and since I’m a rather forgiving person, I promise to not press any charges.” Both K-Lo and Su-Z let out a huge sigh of relief upon hearing that statement. “But as a member of the LEGO Team, I’ll still be obligated to submit a report on this incident,” added Sunset. “I’m not sure what kind of judgement they’ll have for your actions and behavior, but I’ll be sure to put in a good word for you.” “Oh! I just realized something!” Pinkie suddenly spoke up excitedly. “Since you’ve been using Equestrian Magic in a not-so-nice way and later apologized for hurting everyone affected by it, that means you could be invited to join the Redeemables! It’s this group of former enemies of ours who are gonna be working together to make themselves better and to help prevent any other would-be bad guys from becoming bad guys in the first place!” “That does sound kinda interesting,” admitted Su-Z. “But I think we’ll decline that offer,” stated K-Lo as she shared a smile and nod of agreement with her bandmate. “We have no interest in becoming heroes, and would much rather stick with what we’re already famous for.” “In fact,” added Su-Z, “now that we’re no longer disagreeing about so many things, we might actually stick together this time and go on an extended tour.” “That sounds like a great idea!” agreed Sunset. “I’m sure your fans will be thrilled to hear about that.” “We’ll be sure give credit where it’s due,” assured K-Lo. “We’ll make the announcement tomorrow and tell everyone it couldn’t have been possible without a little help from the Equestria Girls.” “Did you hear that, Sunset?!” exclaimed Pinkie excitedly. “We helped PostCrush stay together for more than one night!” Sunset giggled in amusement, then turned back to the PostCrush duo and said, “Well, this night sure has been eventful, but it’s getting pretty late, so I guess we’d better get going.” “Yeah, I’m sure your friends are waiting for you back at the campgrounds,” agreed Su-Z. “Not to mention, now that we’re no longer gonna repeat this day, we gotta figure out what we’re actually gonna do tomorrow.” K-Lo chuckled and acknowledged, “Yeah, I guess I never really thought about what we’d do once the show was done, but I’m sure we’ll think of something.” “Either way, if you ever change your mind about the Redeemables, I’m sure the invitation will always be open,” stated Sunset as she held out her hand. K-Lo and Su-Z stepped forward, but then hesitated as they suddenly remembered what happened the last time Sunset had requested a handshake. Sunset quickly understood their reluctance, so she giggled and assured them, “Relax, I’ve got enough control over my magical power that I don’t read minds every single time I touch someone.” She leaned close to them and discretely whispered, “If I didn’t, I’d go mad from exposure to Miss Sugar Bomb over there.” The PostCrush duo glanced over at Pinkie, who eagerly waved at them with a huge grin on her face. “Point taken,” remarked Su-Z before she shook Sunset’s hand. “Have a good one,” said K-Lo as she shook Sunset’s hand. “Same to you,” responded Sunset. As the PostCrush duo next turned to Pinkie, the party girl rushed towards them and wrapped them both in a tight hug as she squealed and exclaimed, “I’m sharing a hug with PostCrush! This really has been the best day ever!” “And this is why we don’t interact with fans very often,” muttered K-Lo and she and Su-Z strained against the tight hug. Upon hearing that, Pinkie quickly released them and giggled in embarrassment. Sunset chuckled and politely declared, “All right, Pinkie, let’s get going.” She then began to make her way out of the backstage area. Pinkie nodded in agreement and followed after Sunset. The two Equestria Girls paused at the exit and turned back to wave at PostCrush, who waved back at them. With that final exchange, Sunset and Pinkie left the main stage area and began to make their way back towards the campgrounds, feeling very pleased to have such a great ending to such a great day. Later that evening, Sunset and Pinkie returned to their RV in the campgrounds, where the rest of their friends were seated around the heating table and roasting marshmallows over it. Both girls had big smiles on their faces as they walked together beside each other. Rainbow Dash placed her roasted marshmallow on a graham cracker and removed it from the skewer she held when she noticed the arrival of Sunset and Pinkie. “There they are!” she spoke up eagerly as the others also turned to their two friends. “We saw you two play on stage with PostCrush. I don’t know how you got to do that, but it was awesome!” As Sunset walked over to grab a skewer and placed a marshmallow on it, she chuckled and stated, “I’m glad you girls got to see that. I honestly never could’ve imagined this day would turn out like that.” “And after everything you’ve been through, that’s really saying something!” remarked Pinkie cheerfully as she grabbed the last available skewer and stabbed a handful of marshmallows onto the end of it. “Oh? How did your day go, Sunset?” asked Fluttershy with curiosity. As Sunset and Pinkie sat down around the heating table to join their friends in roasting marshmallows, Sunset sighed and admitted, “It’s a long story.” “More like a long four months, if what you said was true,” quipped Pinkie. She turned to the rest of her friends and swiftly explained, “You see, there was this other magical thing from Equestria that ended up in our world that could make a day repeat for someone over and over, and Sunset somehow got caught up in its effects, leaving her trapped on this day and in this place for a really really long time and had no idea what was going on until she eventually sent a message in her magic journal asking Princess Twilight for help, who then told us about that Time Twirler magical thingy, but Sunset was never able to find out who had that thingy until right on this loop when both of us were shocked to discover that it was actually PostCrush who had been using it all along!” Everyone besides Pinkie and Sunset gasped at that revelation. “No way…” muttered Rainbow in shock and disbelief. “It’s true!” continued Pinkie. “They were using it because they were so super-duper obsessed with performing the perfect show but some little things always kept going wrong for them, forcing them to keep using that Time Twirler over and over and over, kinda like hitting the reset button on a video game, except this was happening in real life! Thankfully, we managed to catch up to them and Sunset was able to smash the Time Twirler, but it was while we accidentally ended up on stage with them that we helped them realize they didn’t need to be perfect to put on an awesome show, so they agreed to finally just go for it, and they even allowed us to play alongside them as a way of thanking us for helping them solve their problems, encouraging them finally reunite for real this time!” “Wow,” muttered Spike. “That really was a long story.” “So, in other words, you’re saying this magical artifact from Equestria caused Sunset to experience a perpetual temporal loop?” asked Twilight. Sunset smirked and replied, “To quote you word for word, ‘It’s possible that a snag in the fabric of spacetime could cause a temporal point — i.e., this day — to fold in on itself and thereby repeat.’” Rainbow chuckled and quipped, “Yeah, that sounds like something Twilight would say, alright.” Rarity glanced away and quietly muttered, “I suppose that would explain a few things.” “Like what?” asked Pinkie. “Do you remember those secret messages Sunset distributed to us at the start of the day?” responded Rarity. “The one I received warned me to stay clear of the public restroom area shortly after making a significant purchase. Sure enough, as soon as I bought myself this fashionable faux suede jacket with excessive fringe,” she spoke as she gestured at the new jacket she was wearing, “I was curious enough to inspect from a distance why I should stay clear of that area, and it turns out there was a group of children playing with squirt guns and super soakers, which would have surely ruined this jacket had I been unfortunate enough to end up in the crossfire of that playful conflict.” “That’s interesting,” noted Twilight as she turned to Sunset. “My message warned me to watch where I was going while holding my phone. There was a moment I would’ve tripped over an old music player on the ground and possibly could have accidentally tossed my phone into a nearby barrel of water, had I not heeded that advice.” “Ah was careful enough to avoid all the pushin’ an’ shovin’ that was goin’ on when Dirk Thistleweed came on, which ya warned be about,” Applejack pointed out as she also turned to Sunset. “I was able to convince Fluttershy to try singing at that karaoke place by building a little privacy booth around her,” added Spike. “I still can’t believe there was a food truck that actually sold those so-called lasagna pops, but Spike sure seemed to really like it,” added Fluttershy. “And the manager of this festival told me that if I could get permission from all of you, he could arrange to have a rental van pick up our instruments so we can perform some of our songs on stage tomorrow night,” Rainbow Dash finished. “Wow, Sunset!” remarked Pinkie cheerfully. “Looks like all those secret messages you gave to everyone really did make this day better for all of them!” “Glad to hear that,” responded Sunset. “Personally, I’m just happy this whole time loop is over, which means we can finally move on to the real tomorrow.” “Well, I guess it’s nice that everything turned out great for all of us,” remarked Spike. Just then, the marshmallow he was roasting suddenly caught on fire. He yelped in panic and prepared to start waving his skewer around, only to have it suddenly slip out of his hand behind him before he could fling it forward. He looked around in confusion and soon discovered that Sunset had yanked it out of his grasp. Sunset strongly blew on the flaming marshmallow, quickly putting out the flame. She then passed the burnt marshmallow back to Spike and quipped, “And now, everything has turned out great for all of us.” The other girls all laughed and giggled at that remark. “You know,” Rainbow Dash spoke up, “I just realized that we just stopped yet another force of evil magic, only this time we didn’t even need to use our rainbow lasers.” She smirked and added, “We must be getting good at this.” Sunset chuckled and admitted, “Now that you mention it, I’m kinda glad we didn’t upstage PostCrush’s show by ponying up. Now there’s something I don’t think I could ever live down.” “Yeah, me neither,” agreed Pinkie. She then promptly shoved her wad of toasted marshmallows into her mouth and ate them straight off the skewer. Sunset smiled and stated, “Still, all things considered, I couldn’t have asked for a better day than this.” Sunset and her friends all continued to share friendly conversations with each other as they toasted marshmallows together over the heating table. Eventually, they all agreed to turn in for the night and entered the RV. As she and her friends changed into their pajamas and climbed into their sleeping bags, Sunset had to admit she was definitely looking forward to what tomorrow would finally bring. Author's Note Once again, I barely managed to complete this chapter in time to meet my schedule. Thank goodness I now have just the epilogue left to go before this story is finished. Anyway, while this chapter wraps up a lot of things from throughout this story, there's still a few other remaining things that will be mentioned in the epilogue, so you can look forward to that next week. EpilogueEpilogue Morning arrived at the campgrounds just outside the Starswirled Music Festival. It was little more than an hour after sunrise, and as Sunset slept in her sleeping bag beside the window inside the RV that she and her friends were using for their stay at the festival, her phone was lying beside her head on the pillow. At the moment the time became 7:00, the phone’s alarm went off by playing a song by PostCrush. Be the true… true, true original— Sunset quickly woke up and shut off her phone’s alarm. She had a huge smile on her face as she saw that not only was today finally Sunday instead of Saturday, but also the new background image she had applied based on the selfie she had taken the previous night with Pinkie and PostCrush. That was all she needed to confirm that today was finally going to be a brand new day in every way imaginable. Sunset looked out at the rest of the RV’s interior and saw that Pinkie Pie was still asleep atop her now ruffled sleeping bag, while everyone else had already gone outside. As she listened to Pinkie snore and mumble something about churros, Sunset grinned and excitedly declared, “Starswirled day two!” Pinkie immediately awoke with a gasp, then quickly started jumping around the room as she excitedly cheered, “Yes! We did it! Woohoo!” She then landed to sit down beside Sunset atop her sleeping bag and asked, “So what do you wanna do today, Sunset?” “Whatever the day brings us,” replied Sunset contently. She then rolled her eyes and grumbled, “Yesterday was the longest four months of my life!” Sunset and Pinkie both laughed at that remark for a few seconds. Once their laughter calmed down, Sunset stood up and suggested, “How about you get dressed and go ahead of me? I’ll catch up after I take care of a few things.” “Sure thing, Sunset!” agreed Pinkie eagerly as she rushed towards the bathroom and closed the door. Just two seconds later, she came back out of the bathroom, now fully dressed for the real second day of the music festival, then quickly headed out the door outside. With a smile still on her face, Sunset turned to her packed bags. Before she started getting ready for a brand new day, she wanted to write a message to Princess Twilight in Equestria to inform her of what really happened yesterday. Outside the RV, the rest of the group was gathered together as they prepared for the day ahead. At one of the nearby picnic tables, Pinkie and Applejack sat on the side closer to the RV while Rainbow and Rarity sat on the other side, all of whom were sharing the usual small talk. The other nearby picnic table was occupied by Twilight and Spike as they tested a solar-powered waffle maker, one of Twilight’s recent inventions that included a repurposed satellite dish to focus the sun’s light into a heating element that was directly connected to a slightly modified waffle iron. Sunset eventually stepped out of the RV and made her way over to the empty table where most of her friends were seated. As she sat down in the available space to the right of Pinkie and across from Rarity, the other girls seated at the table turned to her and saw she was mixing a bowl of oatmeal she had just finished making for herself. “Oatmeal?!” asked Pinkie in shock. “Are you crazy?!” Sunset just smiled and replied, “Let’s just say that after eating the exact same blueberry pancake breakfast for four months straight, I’m actually craving something a little bland for once.” “Eh, to each their own,” remarked Spike as he glanced over at the table where the girls were seated. Sunset giggled and retorted, “You know, that’s exactly what you said yesterday morning to Rarity. I should know, ‘cause I had to hear it for four months straight.” She scooped out a spoonful of her oatmeal, but before she took a bite, she turned to the other girls and asked, “By the way, I saw the note Fluttershy left behind this morning saying she went out early to check on something. Any idea what that’s about?” “Not a clue,” replied Applejack with a shrug. “She hasn’t even come back yet.” “Oh! There she is!” Rainbow Dash suddenly pointed out. Everyone turned to see Fluttershy slightly hunched forward as she slowly walked over to the picnic table and sat down in the available seat to the right of Rainbow Dash and across from Applejack. “What have you been up to this morning?” asked Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy let out a tired sigh and replied, “When Sunset mentioned the Time Twirler had an area effect on its first use, I couldn’t get any sleep over the thought that it might have also affected some of the animals in that part of the forest. I checked out the site and, sure enough, there were quite a few critters who had gone half-crazy at seeing their food stockpiles never changing and failing to see the arrival of winter that to them should’ve been weeks ago. You have no idea how hard it is to explain time loops to woodland critters.” She then smiled and added, “But the important thing is that I assured them all they are now finally back on their natural cycles and can get back to preparing for the upcoming change of seasons.” “That’s quite the relief,” Rarity spoke up. “I honestly had never even considered the possibility that any fauna in the area might have been affected by the time loop, and I seriously doubt such a thought would have crossed the minds of PostCrush, either.” Sunset finished a bite of her oatmeal before she asked, “By the way, Fluttershy, could you give your friend Tree Hugger a call? Ask her to bring Hattie the tuxedo kitten over here, as I happen to know someone who’d love to adopt him.” Fluttershy was initially confused by that request, but then quietly responded, “Well, you know a lot more about what happened yesterday than anyone else, so if you really think that’s a good idea, then I guess it might be worth it.” She then stood up and began walking away as she pulled out her phone and made the call to her friend. “Oh, I get it,” remarked Pinkie slyly. “This is supposed to be a favor for that security guard from yesterday, isn’t it?” “Guilty as charged,” acknowledged Sunset with a smile. “Maybe we should also throw in a thank you card so he understands why we’re offering him that gift.” “Got it covered!” declared Pinkie as she dug around in her tiny fanny pack until she pulled out a pen and a pink greeting card with the words “Thank You Very Much!” printed on the front. Sunset giggled and continued, “Write the following message inside. ‘To Max Steele, the best security guard ever. We never could have stopped the latest threat of Equestrian Magic had it not been for your good judgement and actions. As promised, here’s a little something I know you’ll appreciate.’” She paused and waited for Pinkie to finish writing before she added, “Then we’ll just sign our names at the bottom.” Pinkie nodded in agreement before signing her name in the card. She then passed the card and pen over to Sunset so she could also sign her name in it. “By the way,” Rainbow Dash spoke up, “that rental van the festival manager hired will be here in less than half an hour. I know you don’t wanna trust the keys to your homes to a total stranger, so I’m gonna ride with him and grab our instruments myself, if that’s okay with all of you.” “Fine by me,” agreed Sunset as she finished another bite of her oatmeal. “After four months of trying to watch PostCrush, I’m definitely looking forward to preparing our own show on stage.” Pinkie suddenly gasped and excitedly asked, “Since we played on PostCrush’s show last night, do you think they’d be interested in playing on our show tonight?!” “After what we’ve all been through, I’m sure they’d welcome the invitation,” replied Sunset with a smile. “And since it’s now day two and our backstage passes have become valid, we shouldn’t have any trouble reaching out to them.” Rainbow Dash chuckled and remarked, “You know, Sunset, I gotta admit, I’m actually kinda jealous of you.” “In what way?” asked Applejack. “Just think about it, girls,” explained Rainbow eagerly. “As virtually the only one aware that she was in a time loop, Sunset didn’t have to worry about destroying something or hurting someone’s feelings. As soon as the time loop reset, everything went right back to the way they were, not just broken things being restored, but also no one would have any memories of what happened in the previous loop. No one would’ve ever been aware of what she did in any of the previous loops. She could’ve destroyed valuable objects, said nasty things to people, committed robbery, ran around naked, and never would’ve had to worry about facing any consequences for whatever she did as soon as the time loop reset. She could’ve literally done anything she wanted, and would’ve totally gotten away with it!” “Rainbow Dash!” scolded Rarity. “Honestly, our friend Sunset is responsible enough to not take advantage of such circumstances for any petty, selfish gains!” Her expression quickly grew more uncertain as she then turned to Sunset and asked, “Right?” Sunset had just scooped another spoonful of her oatmeal as she glanced around at her friends seated at the table, all of whom were anxiously expecting an answer from her. She stared back at them for a few seconds, then simply smirked before she put that spoonful of oatmeal in her mouth. There was no need for her to tell them anything. Of course, Sunset’s reaction was enough of an answer for all of them to understand the truth. Rainbow Dash cackled and quipped, “She did. She totally did!” She turned to Sunset and insisted, “Oh, you have got to tell us what kinds of crazy stuff you did!” “Sorry, girls,” responded Sunset with a playful smile after she finished her bite of oatmeal, “but that’s for me to know and for you to speculate. Those secrets are gonna stick with me for the rest of my life. After all, it’s like the old me used to say — it’s not illegal if you never get caught.” She couldn’t help but giggle at the mixed reactions she got from her friends. “Besides, that all happened yesterday. Today is a brand new day to look forward to.” “Couldn’t have said it better myself!” agreed Pinkie cheerfully. Twilight suddenly groaned in frustration. Everyone turned to her and saw that her experimental waffle iron has resulted in a burnt waffle that audibly sizzled. “Well that’s ruined…” she grumbled. She then glanced back with an embarrassed smile and asked, “Hey, uh, Sunset? Do you happen to know where I could find another Time Twirler? I could really use one right about now.” Everyone gave Twilight a blank stare. “That was a joke,” added Twilight in a deadpan tone. All of the Equestria Girls quickly burst out laughing. All in all, it was just another day of a group of best friends having a good time together, and there was nothing about this day that any of them would want to change for any reason. Author's Note And that brings an end to the latest main story in my LEGO Equestria Girls series. After the ridiculously late start I got on writing this story, I was left pretty much scrambling to get every chapter completed on time, and while I'm relieved that I was able to stick to my schedule, it often resulted in a lot of nights with very little sleep. Hopefully I'll be able to actually better manage my time once I start writing the next part of this fanfiction series. Next up will be the group of holiday-themed short stories, which will be a mix of ones based on some of the official holiday shorts and ones that are my own original ideas. Flying SoloChapter 3 Flying Solo Morning arrived at the campgrounds just outside the Starswirled Music Festival. It was little more than an hour after sunrise, and by this point, Sunset Shimmer was the only one still asleep within the RV that she and her friends were using for their stay at the festival. As Sunset slept in her sleeping bag beside the window, her phone was lying beside her head on the pillow. At the moment the time became 7:00, the phone’s alarm went off by playing a song by PostCrush. Be the true… true, true original— Sunset slowly woke up and stared at her phone for a moment before she reached over and shut off the alarm. Despite just waking up, she felt exhausted after missing PostCrush two nights in a row. As far as she was concerned, there was no point in trying to anticipate what today would be like. Sunset let out a tired sigh as she shuffled out of her sleeping bag, tossed off her pajamas, and slipped on that same special outfit she had worn for the last two days for day one of the music festival. She then walked out the door and around the front of the RV to join her friends, who were already gathered outside. At this moment, Twilight, Fluttershy, and Applejack were seated around the RV’s heating table as they ate breakfast, while Rarity and Spike were seated at a nearby picnic table as Spike demonstrated some of his beatboxing skills. Rarity rolled her eyes and grumbled, “Ugh, I shall never understand the appeal of beatboxing.” Spike kept his smile as he shrugged and remarked, “Eh, to each their own.” Upon witnessing that familiar conversation between Rarity and Spike, Sunset began to smile, as she realized this was a good sign that the previous day was now repeating a second time. With her attention on them, she failed to see Rainbow Dash quickly run over and stop right behind her while carrying a large paddle with the Sonic Rainbooms band symbol printed on it. “Starswirled day one! Come and get it!” Rainbow excitedly declared as she swung the paddle around, accidentally smacking Sunset’s rear end. With that definite confirmation that the previous day was now repeating again, Sunset cheerfully cried out, “Yes! Thank you!” When she glanced back and saw Rainbow staring back at her with a confused look on her face, Sunset awkwardly added, “I mean… ow… that hurt…” Rainbow Dash rubbed the back of her head and awkwardly grinned as she responded, “Uh… sorry about that. I’ll be more careful next time.” She then turned and walked away with a noticeable blush on her face. As Sunset rubbed away the stinging pain, she quickly recognized how embarrassingly awkward that encounter must have been for both of them, but she just shrugged and muttered to herself, “Oh well. Not important, compared to PostCrush.” Once the pain had dulled enough, she made her way over to the other table and began to grab some of the available blueberry pancakes as she listened to the familiar conversation between the rest of her friends. “So Ah says to Big Mac, ‘Get your own chicken coop!’” spoke Applejack. Fluttershy happened to be in the middle of taking a sip of her orange juice when she heard the end of that joke, so she ended up doing a spit-take directly onto the front of Applejack’s torso before beginning to laugh. “Hey! Watch it!” complained Applejack. Fluttershy laughed for a little bit before she calmed down enough to respond, “Sorry. It’s just that one had animals in it.” Applejack grabbed a nearby napkin and started drying herself off as she grumbled, “Well next time, try not to spray it at someone.” “Ooh! Ooh! How about this one?!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie excitedly as she suddenly bounced over to where most of her friends were seated. “What do you call a PostCrush fan with three eyes?” During that one second of silence, Sunset finished pouring the maple syrup onto her gathered stack of pancakes. “Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie cheerfully answered before she rushed over to Sunset. Sunset quickly dropped the bottle of syrup and pushed back against Pinkie. “No time for goofing around,” Sunset sharply spoke up with a frown. She then turned to the rest of her friends — who all turned to look at her in confusion — and smiled as she asked, “Uh, could you girls keep Pinkie occupied today? I’m gonna go ahead on my own.” Carrying her plate full of pancakes with her, she immediately began walking away towards the festival grounds. “What do you mean by that?” asked Twilight. “Trust me, this is for the best,” assured Sunset as she continued walking away as quickly as she could. Thankfully, the plate and fork she was using were disposable, so she could simply toss them into any nearby trashcan once she was finished with her pancakes. The others looked on in confusion as they watched Sunset’s sudden departure with seemingly no explanation from her. Fluttershy turned to Pinkie and asked, “Um, weren’t you two supposed to watch PostCrush together?” “We were…” replied Pinkie with a sad frown, baffled by her friend’s recent actions. “Eh, she probably just wanted to get in line early to avoid waiting around too much,” assured Spike with a shrug. “We’ll catch up to her once we get through security.” “Ah sure hope so,” muttered Applejack as she wadded up the soaked napkin she had used to clean herself and tossed it into a trashcan a short distance away. “Yeah… that’s probably it,” agreed Pinkie with an uneasy smile, trying her best to remain optimistic for the day ahead. As soon as everyone had finished their breakfast, the group walked up the path towards the entrance to the festival grounds. They arrived just in time to watch Sunset receive her festival bracelet, followed by the security guard checking her in to allow her to pass through. The rest of the group — especially Pinkie Pie — were stunned to see their friend move on into the festival grounds without even so much as a glance back towards them, as if she had no reason to be concerned with anyone except herself. “Sunset! Wait for me!” Pinkie cried out desperately as she rushed towards the middle entrance, bypassing the security line that had formed behind where Sunset recently stood. “Hold it right there, miss!” the security guard firmly spoke up as he held up his hand. Once the pink girl skidded to a sudden stop, he continued, “Back of the line and wait your turn! Or I’ll have to stamp your wrist with my ban hammer.” He then pulled out a rubber mallet with the word “BANNED” etched backwards onto the face of it. Pinkie’s eyes shrank as she was suddenly faced with the possibility of missing out on everything at the music festival before she could even get started. She glanced back at the line that by now consisted of almost ten minifigs, then glanced forward in a futile effort to try to see Sunset somewhere beyond the entryway. When her gaze returned to the security guard threatening her with that mallet, she gulped and, with a shaky smile, nervously conceded, “Y-You’re the authority, here…” She then walked backwards, never taking her eyes off that security guard until she finally arrived at the end of the line. The security guard maintained his serious frown as he set down his mallet and proceeded to inspect the next person waiting in line. Pinkie tried to be patient. Normally, she could find all kinds of fun things to do while waiting in line, but right now, there was nothing she wanted more than to catch up with Sunset. As she was nervously sweating all over her body, she impatiently tapped her foot, groaned worriedly, and after waiting for all of just half a minute, she suddenly hollered out, “C’mon, c’mon, c’mon! Hurry it up!” “Pipe down, miss!” the security guard firmly scolded. “Security is an art. It cannot be rushed.” “But my friend could be having all kinds of fun in there without me!” whined Pinkie desperately. “Not my problem!” the security guard sharply shot back. “One more outburst outta you, miss, and I will bring out the ban hammer.” Pinkie immediately whimpered and slapped her hands over her mouth. As she anxiously watched the security guard resume his work, she couldn’t help but think about just how unfair it all seemed to her. If only Sunset hadn’t gone ahead without her… “Relax, Pinkie,” assured Twilight as she got in line behind Pinkie. “By my calculations, this line should take an absolute maximum of two hours before it’s our turn. Even under that worst case scenario, that still leaves you with plenty of time to enjoy this day with Sunset. Especially when you keep in mind that PostCrush won’t be on until later tonight.” Pinkie hunched over and let out a sad sigh. As much as she believed Twilight’s reasonable assurance, it still pained her that she had to miss out on any time with Sunset. Within the festival grounds, Sunset was very pleased with herself for achieving a much earlier start than she had on her two previous experiences of this day, allowing her to get in ahead of the long lines and thus leave her with plenty of time to plan for her ultimate goal of obtaining a front row seat to watch PostCrush later tonight. After two failed attempts as a result of Pinkie’s antics, she was now determined to finally succeed on the third attempt, even if it meant avoiding any contact with that pink party girl for the entire day. Although she acknowledged such an attitude could be considered cruelty to one of her closest friends, she was not going to take any chances this time. “Sunset!” Sunset had been in the middle of studying her map of the festival grounds when she heard Pinkie’s cheerful voice call out to her, which immediately filled Sunset with dread as she glanced back to see her hyperactive friend pass through the entryway. “I had to wait in line for, like, over a hundred minutes!” continued Pinkie as she excitedly ran towards Sunset. “But I finally made it through security!” In a moment of panic, Sunset immediately started running away from Pinkie. Being close to Pinkie had caused her to be kicked out of the festival grounds on both previous times, and she absolutely wanted to avoid that outcome at any cost. “Hey! Wait for me!” Pinkie cried out cheerfully as she quickly pursued Sunset. Back at the entryway, Twilight was waiting through her security search as she watched that encounter between Pinkie and Sunset, and what she saw left her feeling not only further confusion about Sunset, but also a sense of foreboding for Pinkie. Having already planned out her intended route to the ideal location for tonight’s main performance, Sunset quickly decided that a little detour towards the Neon Garden would provide her best chance of getting Pinkie to lose track of her. The first landmark she passed by was the giveaway booth with a purple tandem bicycle displayed to the side. As they ran past that giveaway booth, Pinkie suddenly stopped and glanced at it as she gasped and excitedly noted, “Win a tandem bicycle?!” Her excitement for it vanished just as quickly as she turned to see Sunset still rapidly fleeing from her. “Sunset!” she cried out as she immediately resumed following after her friend. Sunset kept her attention focused straight ahead as she quickly approached the Neon Garden. “Sunset!” Pinkie cried out desperately as she continued to follow her friend across the festival grounds. Sunset entered the Neon Garden and, thanks to her memorizing the paths from her two previous experiences of this day, swiftly made her way along the shortest route through the maze. Once she arrived near the end of that path, she slowed to a stop so she could take a moment to catch her breath. “You found me!” Pinkie cheerfully exclaimed as she suddenly burst out of the hedges behind Sunset. Sunset yelped in shock and immediately began running away again. That renewed burst of adrenaline allowed her to quickly leave the Neon Garden and seek an alternate escape route. Pinkie’s smile turned awkward from that encounter, but she maintained her optimism as she called out, “Okay, now I’ll find you!” She jumped out of the hedges and followed after Sunset. Sunset decided her next best chance was to cross the width of the festival grounds to reach the area with all the food carts and food trucks, hoping that something there would distract Pinkie long enough to lose track of her. Along the way there, she ended up passing by that familiar paint balloon artist, but because it was now significantly earlier in the day than the previous two times she had passed this way, that artist was currently in the middle of setting up the two easels for his art show. Sunset was silently thankful her early start meant that, this time, she would not have to worry about wasting precious hours of this day washing paint off herself, and could instead spend that extra time to get herself ready to see PostCrush. But first, she still had to shake Pinkie off her trail. “I’m having fun with my friend!” remarked Pinkie cheerfully as she ran by the artist. However, that artist had so far set up only one of his easels, while the other was still lying on the ground. Pinkie was so desperate to keep up with Sunset that she failed to notice the easel on the ground and tripped right over it. Despite falling flat on her face, she quickly got back up and continued following after Sunset. Now with a little additional distance between them, Sunset continued straight ahead. As soon as she arrived at the area where all kinds of festival food were sold, she smiled as she recognized one of the first food carts she encountered along the way. Those churros, she thought to herself. This could be my best chance. Sunset rushed past the churro cart, where Puffed Pastry was in the middle of mixing the batter for her churros. “Sunset!” Pinkie cried out as she continued pursuing her friend. However, as she approached the churro cart, she was quickly distracted and couldn’t help but desire to sample the batter. “Ooh…” she muttered curiously as she reached her hand out towards the bowl in Puffed Pastry’s hands. Puffed Pastry frowned as she yanked the bowl out of Pinkie’s reach and firmly scolded, “No churros for you!” “Aww…” moaned Pinkie sadly. With that rejection, she turned away from the churro cart and tried to turn her attention back to her friend. However, as she glanced all around, she was unable to find any sign of Sunset Shimmer. “Sunset?” asked Pinkie in confusion as she kept looking around in every direction. “Sunset? Are you…” She gasped as a dreadful realization finally occurred to her. “…ditching me?” She whimpered at the very heartbreaking thought of such an idea, but upon reflecting on Sunset’s unusual behavior today, there was simply no other explanation she could come up with. Pinkie sighed dejectedly and hung her head in sadness as she turned away and began to slowly walk back to the main entrance to the festival grounds. She had been eagerly looking forward to watching PostCrush with Sunset tonight, but if her best friend was suddenly refusing to have anything to do with her today, then she might as well just return to the RV for the rest of the day. True, there were so many other fun activities at this music festival, but without a best friend to enjoy them with, she believed there was simply no point in sticking around. Meanwhile, Sunset had taken cover behind one of the food trucks and remained hidden behind a series of other such trucks as she doubled back towards the main performance stage. As she moved out of cover from behind the last food truck, she glanced around and was pleased that she had finally lost sight of Pinkie. With that major source of numerous distractions finally out of the way, Sunset was now able to focus entirely on the main objective, and that was to secure an ideal place in the audience to watch PostCrush later that night. Sunset finally arrived at the main performance stage and was immensely pleased to discover that she had arrived so early that there was literally no one else waiting around in front of it. The only people she could see around were members of the stage crew as they set up the lights and amps for the various shows that would be performed on this stage later today and tonight. Thankful that she had finally achieved her main objective, Sunset fell to her knees and raised her arms as she turned her gaze upwards and praised, “Universe, I promise to make the most of this do-over, do-over!” Sunset had spent nearly all of the remainder of the day holding her place at the front of the crowd, despite the various other performances she would normally care little about. She did have to occasionally leave rather briefly to grab a snack or take a bathroom break, but was otherwise able to keep her spot as the crowd really started to form as night fell over the festival grounds. Finally, the moment Sunset had anticipated three times over had arrived. As the overhead floodlights switched on, followed by the decorative pink and blue lights surrounding the stage, the gathered crowd began to cheer. A sparkling pink fog began to spread out across the stage floor, and then a section of the floor opened up. Sunset watched in excited awe as the two members of her favorite band slowly rose up through the floor to stand out on the stage. An amplified voice from the stage shouted out across the crowd, “Let me hear three big cheers for two best friends who got back together for one incredible night! PoooooostCruuuuuush!!” As the cheer and applause across the crowd roared loudly, the two members of PostCrush struck their iconic pose. For this very special performance, they had even dressed up in outfits that were identical to what they had worn on that iconic image that everyone was familiar with. On the left with a cool pose, “K-Lo” Kiwi Lollipop had light blue skin, blue eyes, long magenta hair stylized outward around the back, and wore a sparkly outfit that was purple on the right half of the torso, blue on the left half of the torso, a skirt around her upper legs that was magenta on the upper half and purple on the lower half, pink around her feet, and a large purple bow on the back of her hair. On the right with a zany pose, “Su-Z” Supernova Zap had pale yellow skin, blue eyes, short light purple hair stylized into a bow on the back, and wore a sparkly outfit that was light blue on the upper half of the torso and right arm, light purple on the lower half of the torso and left arm, magenta on the skirt around her upper legs, dark purple on her lower legs, magenta around her feet, and a pink heart on the front of her torso. For the gathered fans of these two, they knew this was going to be a night they would never forget. “We did it!” cheered Sunset excitedly. “PostCrush roll call!” She attempted to mimic the PostCrush pose by doing the cool half, but stumbled backwards and nearly bumped into some of the other people in the crowd. It was then that she realized Pinkie was not beside her, as she had originally planned for, and couldn’t help but feel a little ashamed for a moment. In a way, Sunset had sort of hoped that Pinkie would find a way to join the crowd on her own, allowing them to watch PostCrush together. She quickly glanced back across the surrounding crowd, but as far as she could see, there was no sign of Pinkie to be found. She couldn’t help but wonder what sort of circumstances might have caused Pinkie to miss PostCrush, but she decided she would think more on that later. For now, PostCrush was about to perform, and she wanted to be absolutely sure she would not miss a moment of it. K-Lo reached over to pick up her electric guitar, while Su-Z sat down at her drum set and grabbed her drumsticks. The two bandmates turned to each other, silently gave a smile and a nod to each other, then started playing the opening notes to their most popular song, True Original. As the starting lyrics of the song played out, everyone in the gathered audience cheered loudly and danced along to the music. Sunset was absolutely euphoric as she joined in with the collective excitement. After weeks of anticipation — and two unexpected do-overs — she was finally watching PostCrush performing live right in front of her. She continued to dance along as the song proceeded onto the chorus. 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! As the band performed, K-Lo stepped forward and held out her arm as she walked along the edge of the stage, allowing many of the fans standing at the front to have the privilege of briefly touching her. Among those very lucky fans was Sunset Shimmer, who couldn’t help but blush in awe from being able to receive such an experience from her favorite band. True, true original… True, true original… True, true original… As PostCrush came close to the end of their famous song, K-Lo got a little too close to Su-Z’s drum set and accidentally smacked the neck of her guitar against one of the cymbals. Su-Z reacted quickly and reached out to silence the cymbal within only one second. In spite of that minor mishap, the band continued playing. We’re perfect, perfectly true! K-Lo finished off the song by flinging her heart-shaped guitar pick into the air towards the audience. And the very lucky person in the crowd who caught that pick happened to be Sunset Shimmer. Upon seeing that pick in her hands, Sunset held it close to her chest as she had a huge smile on her face and excitedly declared, “What a perfect day!” Later that evening, Sunset returned to the RV at the campgrounds, where the rest of her friends were seated around the heating table and roasting marshmallows over it. As she walked, she had a smile of satisfaction on her face that had not faltered at all since the end of PostCrush’s live performance at the music festival. Rainbow Dash placed her roasted marshmallow on a graham cracker and removed it from the skewer she held when she noticed Sunset’s arrival. “Heh, there she is,” she spoke up in amusement as the others turned to glare at Sunset. “The lone wolf.” She then teasingly howled like a wolf. Sunset let out a blissful sigh as she sat down at the empty seat around the heating table, seemingly unaware of the negative looks her friends were directing towards her. Most of Sunset’s friends glanced at each other with suspicious looks before returning to glare at her. “Pinkie Pie’s been actin’ mighty strange this evenin’,” noted Applejack with contempt. “Any idea what might’ve happened to her?” For the first time that evening since the start of the PostCrush concert, Sunset’s smile fell. She had not seen any sign of Pinkie ever since she deliberately lost contact with her, and had yet to hear anything about what her pink party friend had been up to since then. She knew her friends wouldn’t understand and definitely wouldn’t appreciate her reasoning for outright abandoning Pinkie, so she put up a false smile and replied, “We… lost track of each other.” “Me lose track of Sunset?” asked Pinkie incredulously, drawing everyone’s attention to her as she was seated at a nearby picnic table. Not only did she have a half-crazy grin on her face, but also her hair piece had now changed shape into a rather flat and straight hair style. “Hah! But she’s been right here the whole time!” She then reached behind the picnic table and pulled out a shoddy minifig-sized dummy built out of various scratched and chipped Lego parts to form a very crude replica of Sunset. “Right, actual Sunset Shimmer?” She grabbed the back of the volleyball head and slightly moved it around as she spoke in a slightly deeper voice, “Right, Pinkie Pie! By the way, your roasting technique is flawless!” She then giggled like a maniac as she added in her normal voice, “Thanks!” A moment of awkward silence settled over the group of friends outside their RV. After a few seconds, the volleyball head slipped loose from the dummy and bounced along the ground, taking with it a mop top in place of hair. Pinkie glanced down at the fallen item and sadly moaned, “Aww… You dropped your head…” she then suddenly perked up and eagerly added, “That’s okay! I’ll get you a new one!” She then suddenly rushed off, swiftly returned a split second later with a pumpkin, then stuck that pumpkin onto the dummy’s neck joint. She then tossed the mop top onto the pumpkin and used a marker to rapidly scribble something onto the side of that pumpkin. Once complete, she turned the pumpkin to her friends to reveal a very crudely drawn smiley face drawn on it. She looked to her friends as she tightly hugged the dummy while making a cheerful giggle, although her crossed eyes gave away her absence of sanity. Everyone continued to stare at Pinkie with weird looks for an awkward moment before Rarity glared at Sunset and dryly asked, “So… how was the show?” With everyone’s displeased attention back on Sunset, she replied, “It was…” She couldn’t help but smile blissfully as she finished, “…perfect.” Rarity scoffed and irritably grumbled, “I was being judgmental, darling. What is the point of throwing shade if no one’s there to catch it?” Sunset knew her friends were upset with her. She completely understood why they were all upset with her. Yet, after finally being able to watch PostCrush a short while ago, she was unable to feel and express any emotion other than absolute satisfaction. She was well aware that it was hardly an appropriate attitude for her to have in front of the accusatorial glares of her friends, so she stood up and stated, “Sorry, too blissed out from the show to care right now. We’ll talk in the morning, once I’ve had time to calm down.” She then turned and walked away from her friends. As Sunset headed towards the RV, she walked by Pinkie, who slowly rocked back and forth with a sorrowful look on her face as she tightly hugged her crude Sunset dummy close to her. Sunset didn’t even bother a single glance to her devastated and heartbroken friend before opening the door and stepping into the RV. Meanwhile, the rest of the group continued to glare in the direction Sunset had walked off. “I can’t believe Sunset could really be that selfish,” said Twilight as she shook her head in disbelief. “After everything we’ve been through, you’d think she would’ve already learned her lesson by now,” muttered Fluttershy in disappointment. “Man, I tell ya, she won’t be getting any forgiveness from me anytime soon,” grumbled Spike. Just then, the marshmallow he was roasting suddenly caught on fire. He yelped in panic and started waving the skewer around in an effort to put out the fire. Instead, the smoldering treat flung off the skewer and splattered against Rarity, who yelled out in horror at seeing her expensive jacket ruined by the gooey mess. Meanwhile, inside the RV, Sunset changed into her pajamas and climbed into her sleeping bag. After finally getting what she desired most of all at the music festival, she felt like she deserved to get some extra rest tonight. Sure, her friends were still going to be upset and disappointed with her tomorrow morning, but she would wait until then to deal with that, once she had a clearer head after a good night’s sleep. Morning arrived at the campgrounds just outside the Starswirled Music Festival. It was little more than an hour after sunrise, and by this point, Sunset Shimmer was the only one still asleep within the RV that she and her friends were using for their stay at the festival. As Sunset slept in her sleeping bag beside the window, her phone was lying beside her head on the pillow. At the moment the time became 7:00, the phone’s alarm went off by playing a song by PostCrush. Be the true… true, true original— Sunset slowly woke up and shut off her phone’s alarm. With a smile on her face, she stretched herself as she gently climbed out of her sleeping bag. Despite the reckoning she would have to face with her friends, she was proud to have gotten what she wanted and could now enjoy the actual second day of the music festival. As far she was concerned, everything today was going to be just fine. She climbed out of her sleeping bag, tossed off her pajamas, and slipped on her special outfit for the music festival — hopefully for the last time for a while. She then walked out the door and around the front of the RV to join her friends, who were already gathered outside. Sunset’s content smile quickly fell when she noticed that everything outside the RV looked too familiar. To her left, Twilight, Fluttershy, and Applejack were seated around the RV’s heating table as they ate breakfast. To her right, Rarity and Spike were seated at a nearby picnic table as Spike demonstrated some of his beatboxing skills. As she listened to the exact same melody from Spike and the exact same words spoken by Rarity and then by Spike, Sunset was left petrified in horror. “It… can’t be,” she muttered in shock. “It’s still…” “Starswirled day one! Come and get it!” Rainbow Dash excitedly declared as she swung her large paddle around, accidentally smacking Sunset’s rear end. “Oops.” She chuckled sheepishly and added, “Sorry. I’ll be more careful next time.” She then turned and walked away. Despite the stinging pain, Sunset made no reaction to that impact at all. She just remained frozen on the spot with that same look of terror plastered on her face. Her stance and expression remained completely unchanged as she listened to the nearby conversation between the rest of her friends. It was all exactly the same as it had been all three previous times; the same chicken coop joke from Applejack, the same orange juice spit-take by Fluttershy onto Applejack’s torso, the same complaint from Applejack to not spray it at her next time, and of course the same PostCrush fan joke by Pinkie. “What do you call a PostCrush fan with three eyes?” asked Pinkie excitedly. After waiting only one second, she cheerfully answered, “Pinkie Pie!” She then rushed over to Sunset and grabbed her wrist, preparing to guide her best friend and fellow PostCrush fangirl towards the music festival. However, Sunset was still so petrified in horror that she simply toppled over onto her back and was dragged along behind Pinkie for a short distance before the pink party girl — and the rest of their friends — noticed Sunset’s unusual lack of reaction. As all of Sunset’s friends gathered around and stared down at her with concerned expressions, Twilight worriedly asked, “Are you okay, Sunset?” Sunset continued to remain motionless on her back with a blank stare straight upwards at the sky. After a few seconds of silence, she finally responded breathlessly, “No… I’m not…” Author's Note For some reason, I got severely bogged down with trying to write this chapter in particular (I sure hope my struggle to write it hasn't affected the quality of this chapter). Thankfully, this will bring an end to the slower early part of this story, so hopefully I won't continue to struggle quite as much as I have so far. The next chapter should (hopefully) be especially more interesting, as I've got a lot of original content planned for it.
PrologueLEGO Equestria Girls 9 Prologue Summer had passed, and the arrival of slightly cooler weather marked the beginning of autumn. Even so, the weather was still mild enough for all kinds of outdoor activities, and it was at this time of the year that a music festival was being set up on a well-known site in the forest, just a few hours’ drive outside of Canterlot City. The Starswirled Music Festival — named in memory of the original ruler of the Castle Region — was a gathering of various musical talents from all over the Lego World to provide live performances in front of hundreds of music fans, many of whom would spend their nights on the nearby campgrounds to ensure they would have as much time as possible to enjoy everything this festival had to offer. It was on this Friday night before the start of the music festival that among the numerous visitors arriving at the campgrounds was a rather luxurious RV, which drove over to the designated area and parked at one of the available spaces. Once that RV had stopped, the side door opened and out stepped a group of minifigs as they prepared to set up the RV for their weekend stay. This group happened to be none other than the Equestria Girls, the well-known LEGO Team members from Canterlot City who had already saved the Lego World from numerous threats involving Equestrian Magic. After their previous attempts to enjoy a relaxing vacation were disrupted by those magical issues, they were definitely looking forward to this opportunity to finally just enjoy themselves without anything serious to worry about. Rarity had spared no expense for their attendance to this music festival, not only on the luxury RV she had purchased for what she claimed would be the ultimate “glamping” experience, but also on all of the custom outfits she had designed for all of them. Rarity had magenta on her legs, a violet skirt around her upper legs, light blue on her torso and upper arms, gold on the front of her torso under an open jacket with a pattern of purple gems in the middle, her hair was tied back in a ponytail, and her magical geode around her left wrist. Fluttershy had white on her feet, turquoise on her torso, arms, and the skirt around her upper legs, purple flowers printed all over the turquoise areas, three roses on the left side of her hair, and her magical geode in the middle of highest flower on the front of her torso. Applejack had red on her lower legs, a white skirt around her upper legs, medium blue on her upper arms and torso, white on the front of her torso under an open jacket with a red apple in the middle, a slightly different western hat with green fringe on her head, apple-shaped sunglasses with green tinted lenses, and her magical geode around her left wrist. Twilight Sparkle had medium blue on her lower legs, dark blue on her upper legs, a purple skirt around her upper legs, magenta on her upper arms and torso, a symbol of a turquoise circle printed in the middle of the front of her torso, a dark blue fanny pack attached around her waist by a gold belt, and her magical geode on a star-shaped hair clip on the left side of her hair piece. Rainbow Dash had rainbow horizontal stripes on her lower legs, dark blue on her upper legs, light blue on her arms and torso, white on the front of her torso under an open jacket with a rainbow symbol in the middle, a green visor atop her head with her hair tied back in a ponytail, and her magical geode around her left wrist. Pinkie Pie had magenta on her feet, light blue on her right leg, light yellow on her left leg, a skirt around her upper legs that was light yellow on the upper part and magenta on the lower part, light blue on her torso with yellow balloons printed on the front, her hair tied up in two buns on the sides of her hair piece, a tiny magenta fanny pack attached around her waist, and her magical geode at the upper part of the front of her torso. Sunset Shimmer had magenta on her feet, maroon on her legs with her red and yellow sun symbol printed on the side of her left leg, black on her torso and arms with an orange chevron printed on her upper arms, a pattern of yellow and orange triangles on the front of her torso under an open jacket, her hair was smoother down than usual, and her magical geode was on the front of her waist. And lastly, Spike had dark blue on his legs, dark grey on his arms and torso with his green shirt visible on the front under an open jacket, and the cap on his head was black with a white symbol on the front that resembled the spiral shell of an ammonite. Once their campsite was properly set up, Sunset smiled as she turned away to look at the festival grounds that were only a short walking distance away. “Starswirled Music Festival, we have arrived!” she cheerfully declared. As Applejack set down a large cooler, she contently stated, “Two days an’ nights of cool music, hot food, an’ sleepin’ under the stars. Can’t ask for much more than that!” “To Pinkie and me, this festival is about one thing only,” noted Sunset as Pinkie Pie rushed over to stand beside her. “PostCrush!” Sunset and Pinkie simultaneously exclaimed excitedly. Applejack chuckled in amusement and playfully remarked, “We know. Y’all won’t stop talkin’ about it.” “Who? PostCrush?” responded Pinkie as she suddenly appeared right in front of Applejack. “That’s only because PostCrush is the craziest, most amazing-est pop duo ever! PostCrush, PostCrush, POSTCRUSH!!” She paused when she noticed everyone staring at her with amused looks on their faces. “Oh… I see your point,” she sheepishly added. “After they canceled their last tour to go on ‘indefinite hiatus’, we thought we’d never see them live,” explained Sunset. “But we thought wrong,” sang Pinkie Pie. She then excitedly announced, “Roll call!” “Kiwi Lolipop…” began Sunset as she struck a cool pose. “A.K.A. ‘K-Lo’,” added Pinkie. “…is the cool one,” finished Sunset. “While Supernova Zap…” began Pinkie as she struck a zany pose. “A.K.A. ‘Su-Z’,” added Sunset. “…is the zany one!” finished Pinkie. The two of them then held their respective poses back-to-back — recreating the iconic image of PostCrush —as Pinkie remarked, “Not unlike another certain dynamic duo we know.” The rest of the group couldn’t help but laugh at that final comment. “I guess that explains why the two of you became such huge fans in the first place,” quipped Twilight. Sunset smiled at Twilight in acknowledgement. Back when Sunset had only recently joined the team after defeating the Dazzlings, she had wanted to find ways to connect with her new friends in their own unique ways, if only so they wouldn’t feel obligated to be friends just because Princess Twilight of Equestria had insisted. For Pinkie Pie, it had occurred when, among many things Pinkie rapidly threw around just to see what would stick, she shared albums of some of her favorite bands, and when she got to PostCrush, Sunset had casually noted how remarkable similar the attitudes of those two bandmates were to the two of them. Pinkie was so astonished by this insight that she immediately declared PostCrush to be her absolute favorite band of any music, but only on the condition that Sunset also become a huge fan of PostCrush. Sunset was uncertain at first, but was willing to give it a try. By the time she managed to listen to every single song that PostCrush had recorded, she knew in her heart they were worth the hype, so she welcomed Pinkie’s offer and the two of them became practically the biggest PostCrush fangirls in all of Canterlot City. “All right, less laughin’ an’ more gaffin’,” Applejack spoke up as she picked up the cooler and began carrying it back into the RV. “We got an early mornin’ tomorrow.” Pinkie placed an arm over Sunset’s shoulders and giggled excitedly as the two of them followed their friends into the RV to get ready for sleep. As Sunset walked with a smile on her face, she excitedly thought to herself, Tomorrow is going to be the best day ever! Author's Note While much of this story will be mostly similar to Sunset's Backstage Pass, I'll certainly be throwing in a few additional things to make it a little more interesting. I won't say much about it just yet, but let's just say the three weeks Sunset had spent in the time loop in the official version won't be enough for what I've got in mind. As usual, please be sure to point out any issues or errors I might have missed so I can correct them immediately.
First Day RuinedChapter 1 First Day Ruined Morning arrived at the campgrounds just outside the Starswirled Music Festival. It was little more than an hour after sunrise, and by this point, Sunset Shimmer was the only one still asleep within the RV that she and her friends were using for their stay at the festival. As Sunset slept in her sleeping bag beside the window, her phone was lying beside her head on the pillow. At the moment the time became 7:00, the phone’s alarm went off by playing a song by PostCrush. Be the true… true, true original— Sunset quickly woke up and shut off her phone’s alarm. When she glanced at her phone, she smiled as she realized that the day she had been highly anticipating had finally arrived. Tonight, she and Pinkie Pie were going to attend the live concert of their favorite band, PostCrush. As far as she was concerned, today was sure to be the best day ever. Sunset jumped out of her sleeping bag, tossed off her pajamas — a magenta pair of legs and a magenta torso and arms with her sun symbol printed on the front of the torso — and slipped on her special outfit for the music festival. She then walked out the door and around the front of the RV to join her friends, who were already gathered outside. At this moment, Twilight, Fluttershy, and Applejack were seated around the RV’s heating table as they ate breakfast, while Rarity and Spike were seated at a nearby picnic table as Spike demonstrated some of his beatboxing skills. Rarity rolled her eyes and grumbled, “Ugh, I shall never understand the appeal of beatboxing.” Spike kept his smile as he shrugged and remarked, “Eh, to each their own.” With Sunset’s attention on Spike and Rarity, she failed to see Rainbow Dash quickly run over and stop right behind her while carrying a large paddle with the Sonic Rainbooms band symbol printed on it. “Starswirled day one! Come and get it!” Rainbow excitedly declared as she swung the paddle around, accidentally smacking Sunset’s rear end. “Ow! Hey!” exclaimed Sunset as she grasped her rear end and glared at Rainbow Dash. “Oops.” Rainbow chuckled sheepishly and responded, “Sorry. I’ll be more careful next time.” She then turned and walked away. Sunset rubbed away the stinging pain as she optimistically muttered, “Oh well. Not gonna let something minor like a sore butt ruin this perfect day.” Once the pain had dulled enough that she could tolerate it, she then walked over to the rest of her friends near the heating table to see what was available for breakfast. She smiled to see there were still plenty of pancakes available on another nearby table, so she began to walk towards it as she listened in to the conversation between her friends. “So Ah says to Big Mac, ‘Get your own chicken coop!’” spoke Applejack. Fluttershy happened to be in the middle of taking a sip of her orange juice when she heard the end of that joke, so she ended up doing a spit-take directly onto the front of Applejack’s torso before beginning to laugh. “Hey! Watch it!” complained Applejack. Fluttershy laughed for a little bit before she calmed down enough to respond, “Sorry. It’s just that one had animals in it.” Applejack grabbed a nearby napkin and started drying herself off as she grumbled, “Well next time, try not to spray it at someone.” “Ooh! Ooh! How about this one?!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie excitedly as she suddenly bounced over to stand beside where Applejack was seated. “What do you call a PostCrush fan with three eyes?” Everyone was silent while Pinkie waited for a response. Sunset almost immediately understood the joke, but was too busy gathering a stack of pancakes onto her plate to speak up. After waiting all of just one second, Pinkie cheerfully answered, “Pinkie Pie!” She then rushed over to Sunset and began shoving her towards the festival grounds. “Whoa! Hey!” protested Sunset, despite having a smile on her face. “At least wait until I’ve actually had breakfast. We’ve still got the whole day ahead of us.” Pinkie giggled in embarrassment as she let go of Sunset and allowed her to sit down at the picnic table. Fluttershy glanced around at her friends with a confused look on her face before she confessed, “Um… I don’t get it.” “It’s a pun, Fluttershy,” responded Applejack as she stood up and continued cleaning off all the orange juice on her torso. Fluttershy looked away with a thoughtful expression on her face for a moment, then turn her gaze back to her friends and sheepishly asked, “Which part is the pun?” Twilight turned to Applejack and asked, “Should I explain it to her?” “Don’t bother,” grumbled Applejack as she wadded up the soaked napkin she had used to clean herself and tossed it into a trashcan a short distance away. “A joke ain’t funny if ya gotta spell it out to someone.” Sunset couldn’t help but giggle at that exchange as she took her first bite of those delicious blueberry pancakes with maple syrup. While she was sure that all of her friends had their own plans for the first day of the music festival, the only thing that really mattered to her was being able to watch PostCrush with Pinkie Pie tonight, and she already had a plan to ensure that it would be the perfect experience. Once everyone had finished with breakfast, the group began to walk towards the entrance to the festival grounds. Rainbow Dash eagerly led the way, followed by Applejack and Rarity having a casual conversation, Pinkie Pie cheerfully skipping along, Fluttershy and Spike walking beside each other, and finally Twilight with Sunset following right behind. Squish. “Whoa!” cried out Sunset as she suddenly stumbled forward and grabbed onto Twilight’s shoulders. Twilight yelped as Sunset fell onto her, but she was able to keep herself upright and thus prevented Sunset from falling to the ground. Twilight smiled as she helped her friend stand up straight again and asked, “Are you okay?” Sunset glanced down at her feet and noticed that her right foot had stepped into a mud puddle. She smiled as she raised her mud-coated foot and replied, “Oh, just a little mud puddle. No biggie.” She then rubbed her foot against the grassy ground a few times to scrape off most of that mud. Pinkie Pie suddenly jumped in front of Sunset and excitedly exclaimed, “Sunset! Sunset! Look!” She then grabbed Sunset’s wrist and yanked her along behind her as she rushed ahead. Seconds later, they arrived at the three entrance lines at the front of the festival grounds, which she gestured at as she cheerfully exclaimed, “So many lines to stand in! This day’s already amazing! Let’s go!” As Pinkie immediately rushed towards the middle line, Sunset smiled as she chuckled and shook her head. “Typical Pinkie Pie,” she muttered in amusement as she followed the party girl to the middle line. Pinkie zipped over to the end of that middle line and casually asked the person standing ahead of her, “You come to this line often? Any other sweet lines we should hit up?” The guy standing ahead of Pinkie raised an eyebrow in confusion and replied, “Uh… I’m just waiting in line to get through security.” “I know!” remarked Pinkie cheerfully. “Isn’t it exciting?” The guy turned away and muttered under his breath, “Not as exciting as watching paint dry…” “Hey, girls!” Rainbow Dash called out as she, Fluttershy, Spike, and Twilight got into the right line. “Hey, Rainbow!” Sunset called back contently. She then crossed her arms and proceeded to wait in line. She tapped her foot impatiently, then glanced back at the right line and saw it already moving up. “Hmm… that line’s moving fast…” she muttered with concern. She then glanced over at the left line — where Rarity and Applejack were — and saw that line also advance forward. “Huh… they are, too…” Sunset tried to remain patient, but after counting nine people ahead of her and Pinkie in line, then watching the other two lines advance again while she remained stuck in the same place in the middle line, her patience quickly wore thin. “Can’t this thing move any faster?!” she called out towards the front of the line. The security guard working at the front of the line paused his work and looked down the line to see who was shouting at him. He had light blue skin, medium blue on his legs, white on his torso and upper arms, a black necktie printed on the front of his torso, a grayish-blue flat-top hair piece, a mustache on his face of the same color as his hair, and sunglasses with bronze lenses that obscured his eyes. Once he identified the girl who had shouted at him, he firmly responded, “Security is an art. It cannot be rushed.” He then returned to checking the bag belonging to the person currently at the front of the line. Sunset moaned in disappointment and slumped against one of the short walls along the line. Pinkie hooked her arm around Sunset’s neck and pulled her friend close to her as she took out her phone and optimistically said, “Aw, cheer up, Sunset. Lines fly when you’re having fun!” She then held up her phone and smiled at it. Sunset couldn’t resist giving a smile of her own as Pinkie took a selfie of them. Always leave it to Pinkie to find the fun in any situation, she thought to herself, already starting to feel a little better. After all, once they made it through this line, there would be nothing left to stop them from watching PostCrush. It took nearly two hours for the line to advance enough that Pinkie and Sunset finally reached the front. Pinkie was ahead, so she was the first to be checked by the security guard. He started by searching through her tiny fanny pack, for which his very thorough and methodical search ended up taking a ridiculously long time. If he was surprised by the absurdly huge amount of random objects somehow stuffed inside that tiny bag, his expression never showed it. He then proceeded to wave a metal detecting wand over every part of her body, but Pinkie’s persistent giggling — which she claimed was completely by reflex — caused so much interruption to the guard’s process that it took him more than twice as long to complete that task than he had with most of the other people who had been ahead in line. When his search was finally complete, he finished the security process by strapping a yellow festival bracelet around Pinkie’s wrist, then scanned it with his phone to permit her entry into the music festival. Once the security guard gave a nod of approval, Pinkie walked through the gateway as she turned back to her friend and cheerfully called out, “See you in there, Sunset!” Now that it was Sunset’s turn to go through security, she immediately held her arms out and said to the guard, “I don’t have any carry-ons with me, so just get the scan done and let me through.” The security guard raised an eyebrow and responded, “Didn’t you hear what I said earlier?” “Security can’t be rushed, I know,” replied Sunset impatiently. “Let’s just get it over with.” Despite the look of displeasure on his face, the security guard grabbed the metal detecting wand and began his standard procedure. Sunset was cooperative enough that it took only a few minutes to complete that part of the security process. Finally, he strapped a green festival bracelet around Sunset’s wrist, scanned it with his phone, then gave the nod of approval to inform her that she was permitted to enter. As soon as Sunset was finally allowed to pass, she immediately rushed through the gateway and ran a short distance to where the rest of her friends were waiting. “Whew… I thought it’d take me all day to get through there,” she remarked with relief. Applejack chuckled in amusement and said, “Welp, y’all have fun seein’ PostCrush. We’ll see ya back at camp tonight.” And with that, everyone in the group went their separate ways to enjoy all the different shows and activities at this music festival they were each interested in, leaving behind only Sunset and Pinkie to prepare for the performance of PostCrush later that evening. After the two of them took a moment to wave goodbye to their friends, Sunset pulled out her map of the festival grounds and pointed to certain locations on it as she explained, “Okay, main objective: get front row for PostCrush. Mission procedure: we cut around the Neon Garden to the main stage and rush the front during Pon Iver’s set. We can camp there until showtime, giving us the best outcome we could possibly ask for.” Pinkie looked down at the map and listened to Sunset’s strategy, but as soon as her organized friend had finished describing the plan, something else nearby suddenly caught her attention. “Secondary objective: win a tandem bicycle!” exclaimed Pinkie excitedly before she suddenly rushed over to the giveaway booth with a purple tandem bicycle being displayed to the side. “Pinkie!” objected Sunset, but with the party girl definitely not listening, she let out a sigh of frustration as she shoved the map back into her pocket and followed after her. Pinkie stopped right in front of the giveaway booth and read the brief contest rules. As Sunset arrived, Pinkie pointed at a full jar of jellybeans on the booth’s counter and cheerfully said, “All I have to do is guess how many candies are in the jar, and my sugar senses say… three hundred and five!” BZZZZ! The giveaway booth attendant — a girl with lime green skin, magenta on her upper legs, purple and magenta vertical stripes on her torso, white on her upper arms, a magenta bowtie around her neck, and a short and straight teal hair piece with a tan boater hat on top — smacked the buzzer on the counter, indicating Pinkie’s guess was incorrect. “Awww…” moaned Pinkie in disappointment. “What about seeing PostCrush together?” begged Sunset with a look of frustration on her face. “Uh, this bike has two seats, Sunset,” insisted Pinkie. “That’s one more than usual!” Sunset crossed her arms and maintained her grumpy glare at the girl who had such a short attention span. Pinkie rolled her eyes and conceded, “Fine, I’ll focus.” As her gaze turned away, she then suddenly gasped and excitedly exclaimed, “Oh, look! The Neon Garden!” She then immediately rushed towards the site of her latest distraction. “Pinkie!” objected Sunset, but again her friend was too blissfully excited to bother listening to her. She let out a groan of frustration, then followed after Pinkie. Pinkie squealed and giggled cheerfully as she rushed towards the entrance to the Neon Garden, which was a series of tall hedges with strings of glowing lights in various bright colors that were laid out along the hedges, the ground, and through the tunnels cut through some of the hedges. Some of these strings of lights were even arranged in some places along the hedges to resemble large flowers. Sunset had no choice but to chase after Pinkie into the Neon Garden. As her friend continued to blissfully frolic around aimlessly, Sunset struggled to keep up and eventually had to pause for a moment to catch her breath. She took that moment to examine her surroundings and a crushing realization occurred to her. “The Neon Garden is a maze?!” she cried out in disbelief. She then facepalmed and grumbled, “Ugh, should’ve expected that from all these hedges…” “WHEEEEEE!!” squealed Pinkie excitedly as she ran by along the path behind Sunset. Sunset immediately turned back and rushed over to the intersection of the path she was on and the path Pinkie had been on. She looked both ways, but was unable to locate the energetic pink girl. Pinkie giggled and snorted as she did cartwheels along another path behind Sunset. Sunset spun around and rushed to the other end of the path she was on to reach the intersection with that other path. She looked both ways, but again found no signs of that party girl. Behind Sunset, Pinkie suddenly hung upside down from the ceiling of the hedge tunnel and teasingly tapped the back of Sunset’s head before swiftly retreating back up into the hedge while snickering mischievously. Sunset spun around again and once again failed to find any trace of her pesky friend. She growled and furiously shouted, “Pinkie! We don’t have time for this!” Pinkie’s only response was yet more cheerful giggling from elsewhere in the Neon Garden. Sunset rolled her eyes as she groaned and muttered, “It’s like trying to catch a wild animal…” As soon as that thought crossed her mind, she suddenly got an idea. First, she navigated her way through the Neon Garden, taking her nearly half an hour to eventually find the exit. Once she was finally out, she rushed all the way across the festival grounds over to where all the food trucks were parked and purchased a bag of candy, then quickly returned to the Neon Garden. Sunset made her way back into the middle of the Neon Garden, where she heard persistent giggling that confirmed Pinkie was still frolicking around in here. Again, she tried to navigate her way around the maze, but with a moving target like Pinkie, she eventually realized she was never going to have any chance of reaching her. Instead, she took some time to study the paths through the maze and eventually discovered there was a loop around somewhere in the middle. With the day continuing to waste away, Sunset decided it was time to put her plan into action. She opened that bag of candy, then began to set a trail by dropping one piece of candy at a time, making sure to follow that course that looped around. When she completed the loop and saw the first pieces of candy she had dropped were now gone, she knew she finally had Pinkie’s attention. She adjusted the course of her candy trail to lead towards the exit, where she then dropped the bag and hid behind the side of the hedge entryway. Only seconds later, Sunset saw Pinkie casually picking up the pieces of candy as she practically blindly followed the trail out of the Neon Garden. Just as Pinkie was about to grab the whole discarded bag, Sunset immediately jumped out of hiding and grabbed onto Pinkie’s arm. “Come on!” complained Sunset as she began to forcefully tug her friend away from the Neon Garden. “We’re gonna miss the show if you keep up this nonsense!” “Awww…” moaned Pinkie sadly as she stumbled along to reluctantly follow after Sunset while looking back at that bag of candy on the ground. Sunset firmly led the way directly to the main performance stage. Upon seeing the small crowd that had already begun to gather in front of it, she knew she and Pinkie were going to cut it very short, but as long as nothing else occurred along the way, they would still have a chance to secure that perfect spot up front from which to watch PostCrush later that evening. Alas, she failed to notice a pair of easels set up along the path, nor the nearby artist handling small balloons filled with some liquid. “Who wants to be part of an art show?!” the artist — who had turquoise skin, olive green on his legs, medium blue on his torso and upper arms, a purple handkerchief around his neck, and a magenta afro hair piece — cheerfully called out as he held up two of those filled balloons. Pinkie suddenly freed herself from Sunset’s grip and began waving her arms around as she excitedly replied, “Ooh! I do! I do!” The artist turned to the two girls and smiled when he saw they were already standing between the two easels he had set up. “Ah, perfect!” he declared. “Stay right where you are…” He then pulled his arms back, preparing to toss the filled balloons in his hands. “No! Don’t!” Sunset desperately protested. The artist ignored Sunset’s plea and tossed the balloons at the easels, bursting upon impact and splattering paint all over the easels and the two girls, with pink paint on Pinkie on the left and blue paint on Sunset on the right. Pinkie giggled and cheerfully cried, “Do it again!” “NO!!” Sunset furiously shouted. She kicked over the easel next to her. “I never agreed to be part of this pathetic excuse for art!” She then firmly grabbed Pinkie’s wrist and began dragging her away. “C’mon, Pinkie! Let’s get cleaned up before our chance to watch PostCrush slips away.” “Awww, but I was having fun!” whined Pinkie as she stumbled along behind Sunset. “And if you keep getting distracted like this, we’ll never get to see PostCrush!” Sunset shot back as she tightened her grip on Pinkie’s wrist. “That’s the one reason why we’re even here in the first place, remember?!” “Owie! Owie!” cried Pinkie from the painfully tight grip Sunset had on her hand. “Okay! I give!” She sighed and sadly conceded, “We’ll do things your way…” “First thing’s first,” stated Sunset as she led Pinkie over to the public restrooms. “We gotta wash off all this paint.” She kicked open the door to the girls restroom, walked inside, and flung Pinkie towards the far end of the room. “And if we’re quick enough, we might still have a chance to get a decent spot to watch PostCrush.” “Consider it done!” declared Pinkie with a smile. She then tore open one of the paper towel dispensers, removed the entire roll of paper towels, brought it with her into one of the toilet stalls, and shut the door. Sunset was baffled by Pinkie’s method for cleaning paint off herself, but then just sighed and shook her head before turning her attention to the mirror and one of the sinks. She grabbed a paper towel, soaked it under the running water in the sink, and wiped it across one of the paint splatters on her body. Once that paper towel had soaked up as much of that paint as possible — which was actually not much at all — she tossed it into the trashcan, then grabbed another paper towel and repeated the process. With so much paint all over herself, and with how difficult all of it was proving to be to wash off, Sunset knew they were rapidly losing even more precious time that could’ve been saved had it not been for yet another moment of distraction by Pinkie. As Sunset continued to clean herself, she remained very displeased and grumbled under her breath, “Stupid paint… stupid artist… stupid Neon Garden… stupid bicycle… stupid security… stupid Pinkie…” When that last one came out of her mouth, she quickly regretted thinking such a thing about someone who was, after all, one of her closest friends. She took a deep breath and slowly let it out in an effort to calm herself. Splash! That noise from the occupied toilet stall was immediately followed by some hysterical giggling from Pinkie. For Sunset, that swiftly brought her temper back up to the high point. Pinkie partially opened the stall door and peeked her head out as she eagerly said, “Guess what! I spilled some paint on the inside of this door and it looks exactly like…” She threw the door all the way open to reveal the splattered paint on the other side of it. “Rarity with a pirate mustache! Huh? Huh?” Objectively, Sunset had to admit the supposedly random mess did bear quite the uncanny resemblance to Rarity’s face with a bushy mustache slapped over the mouth. However, Sunset was not in the mood for any further antics from Pinkie, so she responded with nothing more than a flat stare. With Sunset not reacting with any positivity, Pinkie shrugged and stated, “What? It’s washable.” Sunset facepalmed and grumbled, “I’ve had just about enough of this.” Without another word, she swiftly reached into Pinkie’s fanny pack and began digging through its contents. She tossed out a trumpet, a spatula, a tire, a horseshoe magnet, and a rubber chicken before she finally pulled out a pair of handcuffs. She slapped one of the cuffs onto Pinkie’s wrist and the other cuff onto her own wrist, then placed the accompanying key into her pants pocket. “There,” Sunset firmly declared with a frown. “No more getting separated. No more distractions. Now let’s get going.” As Sunset started walking towards the door out of the restroom, Pinkie gave a salute and cheerfully responded, “You got it, Sun— Whoa!” She was yanked right behind Sunset to follow her out of the restroom. Once they stepped outside, Sunset was astonished to see it was already starting to get dark. Did we really waste that much time already?! she thought in horror. Ugh, I knew I should’ve kept checking the time to make sure we were still on schedule. “Wow!” remarked Pinkie with a smile. “I guess time really does fly by when you’re having fun!” “No more time for fun!” Sunset shot back irritably as she rushed towards the main performance stage. It wasn’t long before she saw her worst fears were confirmed. A massive crowd of people had already gathered around in front of that stage, with very little room to maneuver through the middle of it all. The sight of it quickly discouraged Sunset, but after everything she had been through today, she grew more determined than ever. No! she thought firmly. I’ve come too far to give up now! “Hurry, Pinkie!” Sunset spoke up urgently. “They’re about to go on! We’ll have to push to the front row! Come on!” She gave no apologies at all as she started shoving her way through the middle of the crowd, much to the annoyance of everyone she bumped into. “Hey! What’s the big idea?” “Watch it, buddy!” “Ow! My foot!” “Hey, I’m standin’ here!” Pinkie gave no resistance as Sunset pulled her along. However, once they were only halfway through the crowd, she suddenly began to smell a rather sweet and delicious aroma. As she continued sniffing the air, she turned her gaze back and gasped when she saw Puffed Pastry — a certain chef she had previously encountered on that unfortunate cruise from a few months ago — giving out a very special baked good from her food cart. “Puffed Pastry’s exclusive star-crusted, cinnamon-dipped churros!” exclaimed Pinkie, already drooling at the sight those delicious treats. Another yank from the handcuffs that attached her to Sunset snapped Pinkie out of her dessert daydream. She shook her head and firmly declared, “No! I will not give in!” She tried to allow Sunset to guide her through the crowd, but her resolve crumbled only one second later as she took another glance back at the churro cart. “Ooh, I can’t resist!” she squealed excitedly as she suddenly turned back and began to charge towards the churro cart. As soon as Pinkie began her attempt to run off, Sunset felt the tug on the handcuffs holding them together and immediately dug her heels into the ground in a desperate effort to hold back her energetic friend. “This is the worst possible time for churros, Pinkie!” protested Sunset. Although she was able to significantly slow Pinkie’s progress, they were still surrounded by a dense crowd of minifigs, so all it took was one minor and accidental nudge from one of them to cause Sunset to suddenly lose her footing and get flung up into the air as Pinkie was now free to rush at the churro cart. Pinkie was so narrowly focused on grabbing some of those churros that she never noticed what happened to Sunset, nor did she ever consider the consequence of the fact they were still handcuffed together. Pinkie abruptly stopped right in front of that churro cart, but with Sunset still being flung along behind her, that momentum caused her to uncontrollably slam into the unaware party girl, causing both of them to then slam into the cart, smashing it to pieces and sending cinnamon dust flying everywhere. Sunset and Pinkie were both momentarily dazed from the impact. When they recovered, they both noticed a shadow looming over them. They looked over their shoulders and saw the security guard from the front entrance was now standing before them with his arms crossed, a scowl on his face, and his head and torso covered in cinnamon dust. Pinkie giggled nervously and sheepishly said, “Our bad.” “More like your bad,” grumbled Sunset as she glared at Pinkie. “This wouldn’t have happened if you had just listened to me for once.” The security guard wasn’t interested in hearing any excuses. He grabbed the two girls by the shoulder and hauled them up to their feet, then began forcefully escorting them towards a doorway in the wall that marked the perimeter of the festival grounds. Once they arrived at that door, he removed their festival bracelet pieces, used a pair of scissors to snip them in half, and dropped the destroyed parts to the ground. Finally, he opened the door, shoved both girls outside, and then slammed the door shut. Sunset and Pinkie were now suddenly faced with the shut door with a decal of a warning message stuck on it that read, “EXIT ONLY! Trespassers will be tackled on sight.” Both of them lowered their gazes to the ground in sadness, but then Sunset glared sideways at Pinkie, who shamefully recoiled in response. Suddenly, the two banished girls saw above the wall some bright lights shining up into the sky from the direction of the main performance stage while an amplified voice in the distance shouted out, “Let me hear three big cheers for two best friends who got back together for one incredible night! PoooooostCruuuuuush!!” That announcement was immediately followed by a roaring cheer and applause from the crowd that the two girls were so close to being part of. Pinkie tried to silently assure her friend by placing a hand on Sunset’s shoulder, but Sunset smacked her friend’s hand away. Sunset reached into her pants pocket and pulled out the key to the handcuffs that still held the two of them together. Once she unlocked and removed the cuff on her wrist, she tossed the key to Pinkie and began to walk off towards the campgrounds. Pinkie was at a loss as she glanced back and forth between the key she had just caught in her hand and Sunset walking off without saying a word. Her attention soon turned to the concert they were missing out on when she heard PostCrush beginning to play their famous song. Realizing there was no point in staying here, she sighed sadly as she used the key to remove the cuff from her wrist, then tossed both items to the ground before she turned away from the door and slowly walked off after Sunset. Later that evening, Sunset and Pinkie returned to their RV in the campgrounds, where the rest of their friends were seated around the heating table and roasting marshmallows over it. As they walked, Sunset had her gaze down at the ground with a sullen look on her face, while Pinkie cautiously followed close behind with a shameful expression on her face. Rainbow Dash placed her roasted marshmallow on a graham cracker and removed it from the skewer she held when she noticed the arrival of Sunset and Pinkie. “There they are!” she spoke up eagerly as the others also turned to their two friends. “Two peas in a pod! How was it? Rad-tacular? Amaze-magic?” Sunset growled as she crossed her arms and looked away from her friends. The others looked at each other uneasily before Applejack cautiously asked, “Uh, what’s wrong?” Sunset sighed and sadly replied, “We missed PostCrush.” He voice gradually grew angrier as she continued, “Someone wanted to win a bike, then got us lost in a maze, covered in paint, sidelined by churros, and finally, kicked out!” Fluttershy gasped and worriedly muttered, “Oh dear…” “I’m really sorry, Sunset,” responded Pinkie remorsefully. In an effort to try to stay positive, she placed her hand on Sunset’s shoulder and added, “I wish we could do the day all over again. I’d do it differently.” Sunset smacked Pinkie’s hand off her shoulder and grumbled, “Me, too.” She turned and began to walk away from the group. “I’d do it alone…” Pinkie felt especially hurt by that statement, and began to make another attempt to reach out to Sunset. “Pinkie, darling,” Rarity spoke up. “Perhaps you should just leave her be for the moment.” “I concur,” agreed Twilight. “It sounds like she’s had a very rough day. Trust me, it’s best that you let her have some time to herself to cool off.” “I’m sure she’ll forgive you later,” added Spike with a smile. Just then, the marshmallow he was roasting suddenly caught on fire. He yelped in panic and started waving the skewer around in an effort to put out the fire. Instead, the smoldering treat flung off the skewer and splattered against Rarity, who yelled out in horror at seeing her expensive jacket ruined by the gooey mess. Under normal circumstances, Pinkie would have laughed at seeing such silly antics among her friends, but the guilt of having ruined what should’ve been the best day ever for both her and Sunset left her reacting with little more than a sad sigh. Sunset had wandered around aimlessly until she eventually found herself on a hilltop overlooking the festival grounds. From this vantage point, although she could see the bright lights from the main performance stage, the conifer trees of the surrounding forest obscured her view of most of the stage. Not to mention that at this distance, she could barely hear any noise from the performance, let alone identify whatever song was being played right now. Sunset reluctantly pulled out her phone to check the time and, as she had feared, the end of the scheduled time for when PostCrush was due to perform had already come and gone. Sunset shoved her phone back into her pocket and sat down upon the hilltop. She felt really hurt that she missed out on the one thing she had been most looking forward to for the entire music festival, and even more so that she would not be allowed back onto the festival grounds for the remainder of the event tomorrow. As she held her knees close to her chest, she lowered her head down and began to sob. I really wish I could have another chance to watch PostCrush, she thought solemnly. Boom. Whoosh! With her gaze turned down, Sunset failed to notice the burst of light that suddenly erupted from somewhere out in the middle of the forest. That burst was immediately followed by a shockwave that quickly spread out across a large area in the woods, though not large enough to reach even the nearest edge of the festival grounds. However, Sunset was close enough to the epicenter for that glowing shockwave to pass through her — a sensation she definitely felt. “Huh?” muttered Sunset in confusion as she suddenly turned her head up and glanced around. The burst of light had lasted so briefly that by the time she looked up, it was already gone. She cautiously stood up and continued to look around, but still saw nothing out of the ordinary. Sunset once again pulled out her phone to check the time, then sighed as she put her phone away again. It was starting to get rather late, so she decided it was probably best to return to the RV and get ready for bed. She had no idea what she could possibly do tomorrow that could make up for today’s complete disaster, but she knew she would have to come to terms with the fact that it was all in the past now, and there was nothing she could do to change it. It’s not like reality had a reset button, after all… Author's Note As I wrote this chapter, it occurred to me how the official version seemed to have the first loop of that day go by much more quickly than later loops seemed to portray, so I tried to figure out which events probably contributed to the most amount of time wasted, and possibly imply how less time would be spent on those moments in the later loops. There's more I'd like to further explain, but I'll save it for later chapters when it'll be more relevant.
A Do-Over?Chapter 2 A Do-Over? Morning arrived at the campgrounds just outside the Starswirled Music Festival. It was little more than an hour after sunrise, and by this point, Sunset Shimmer was the only one still asleep within the RV that she and her friends were using for their stay at the festival. As Sunset slept in her sleeping bag beside the window, her phone was lying beside her head on the pillow. At the moment the time became 7:00, the phone’s alarm went off by playing a song by PostCrush. Be the true… true, true original— Sunset slowly woke up and shut off her phone’s alarm. She didn’t bother glancing at the phone as she set it back down and let out a tired groan. She had definitely not forgotten about how she had been unable to watch the live performance of PostCrush the previous night, and still felt very depressed about it. As far as she was concerned, today was sure to be absolutely miserable. Sunset shuffled out of her sleeping bag, tossed off her pajamas, and slipped on the same outfit she had worn yesterday for the music festival. She then walked out the door and around the front of the RV to join her friends, who were already gathered outside. At this moment, Twilight, Fluttershy, and Applejack were seated around the RV’s heating table as they ate breakfast, while Rarity and Spike were seated at a nearby picnic table as Spike demonstrated some of his beatboxing skills. Rarity rolled her eyes and grumbled, “Ugh, I shall never understand the appeal of beatboxing.” Spike kept his smile as he shrugged and remarked, “Eh, to each their own.” Didn’t they have that exact same conversation yesterday? thought Sunset in confusion as she looked towards Spike and Rarity. With her attention on them, she failed to see Rainbow Dash quickly run over and stop right behind her while carrying a large paddle with the Sonic Rainbooms band symbol printed on it. “Starswirled day one! Come and get it!” Rainbow excitedly declared as she swung the paddle around, accidentally smacking Sunset’s rear end. “Ow! Watch it!” exclaimed Sunset as she grasped her rear end and glared at Rainbow Dash. “Oops.” Rainbow chuckled sheepishly and responded, “Sorry. I’ll be more careful next time.” She then turned and walked away. Sunset began to rub away the stinging pain, but then stopped as a shocking realization occurred to her. “Wait…” she quietly muttered. “Did she just say… Starswirled day one?” She then turned to the rest of her friends seated around the heating table. “So Ah says to Big Mac, ‘Get your own chicken coop!’” spoke Applejack. Fluttershy happened to be in the middle of taking a sip of her orange juice when she heard the end of that joke, so she ended up doing a spit-take directly onto the front of Applejack’s torso before beginning to laugh. “Hey! Watch it!” complained Applejack. Fluttershy laughed for a little bit before she calmed down enough to respond, “Sorry. It’s just that one had animals in it.” Applejack grabbed a nearby napkin and started drying herself off as she grumbled, “Well next time, try not to spray it at someone!” As Sunset listened to that conversation, she was astonished by how remarkably accurate it was to the conversation they had the previous morning. Either her friends were all playing a very convincing joke on her, or something really weird was happening. What is going on here? she thought to herself in absolute confusion. “Ooh! Ooh! How about this one?!” Pinkie Pie suddenly exclaimed excitedly as she bounced over to where most of her friends were seated. “What do you call a PostCrush fan with three eyes?” She waited only one second before she quickly answered, “Pinkie Pie!” She then rushed over to Sunset and began shoving her towards the festival grounds. Sunset was so preoccupied with her confused thoughts that she stumbled a little as Pinkie shoved her ahead. Fluttershy glanced around at her friends with a confused look on her face before she confessed, “Um… I don’t get it.” As Applejack stood up and continued wiping off all the orange juice splattered on her torso, Twilight suddenly stood up and called out, “Pinkie, wait! I don’t think Sunset’s had a chance to grab any breakfast yet.” Pinkie stopped and glanced back at Twilight, then turned to the other nearby table where a large plate with plenty of pancakes on it was still set out. She then giggled in embarrassment and released her grip on Sunset. “Sorry about that,” she said. “I guess I’m just so excited that we’re finally gonna see PostCrush tonight!” “Yeah… that thing…” agreed Sunset halfheartedly as she walked over to the table, grabbed her own plate, and started gathering a stack of those blueberry pancakes. That rather dull comment from Sunset caused most of her friends nearby to glance at each other with confused looks. Applejack wadded up the soaked napkin she had used to clean herself and tossed it into a trashcan a short distance away before she worriedly asked, “You feelin’ all right, Sunset? Ah thought you’d be practically over the moon to see PostCrush tonight.” As Sunset poured some maple syrup over her pancakes, she hesitantly replied, “To be honest… I’m not sure. It’s just… something doesn’t feel right about any of this…” Pinkie hooked her arm around Sunset’s neck and smiled as she assured her friend, “Aw, you probably just had a rough night. I’m sure you’ll forget all about it once we get there.” Sunset wished she could share Pinkie’s optimism, but was still too baffled by what she was experiencing at the moment. Perhaps it was her imagination, but as she took her first bite of those pancakes, she couldn’t help but notice they seemed to appear perfectly identical to the pancakes she had for breakfast the previous day. But perhaps the strangest part of all was that everyone around her was behaving as if there was absolutely nothing weird to be concerned about. This doesn’t make any sense, thought Sunset as she continued eating. Why is everyone behaving like it’s day one all over again? I thought I went through all of this yesterday. Why am I the only one who seems to notice anything weird about it? If anything, the only thing Sunset could be certain about right now was that, somehow, something very strange was going on… Once everyone had finished with breakfast, the group began to walk towards the entrance to the festival grounds. Rainbow Dash eagerly led the way, followed by Applejack and Rarity having a casual conversation, Pinkie Pie cheerfully skipping along, Fluttershy and Spike walking beside each other, and finally Twilight with Sunset following right behind. But while the rest of her friends were looking forward to the day ahead of them, Sunset was feeling rather lost and confused about everything going on around her. Squish. “Whoa!” cried out Sunset as she suddenly stumbled forward and grabbed onto Twilight’s shoulders. Twilight yelped as Sunset fell onto her, but she was able to keep herself upright and thus prevent Sunset from falling to the ground. Twilight helped her friend stand up straight again and asked, “Are you okay?” Sunset glanced down at her feet and noticed that her right foot had stepped into a mud puddle — just like what had happened to her the previous day. She frowned as she stared down at her mud-coated foot and hesitantly replied, “I’m… not sure…” Twilight glanced down at Sunset’s feet and asked in confusion, “What are you talking about? It’s just a little mud puddle.” “It’s not just the mud,” replied Sunset as she rubbed her foot against the grassy ground a few times to scrape off most of that mud. “Sunset! Sunset! Look!” Pinkie cheerfully cried out up ahead with the others. “So many lines to stand in! This day’s already amazing! Let’s go!” She immediately rushed ahead to the middle of the three security lines. The others also took their places in the lines, with Rarity and Applejack in the left line, Fluttershy and Spike in the right line, and Rainbow Dash following Pinkie into the middle line. Meanwhile, Twilight was starting to feel a little concerned about Sunset, so she calmly offered, “If it makes you feel better, I’ll let you go ahead of me in line.” Although Sunset accepted the offer and began walking ahead of her friend, she still felt uneasy as she responded, “I don’t know if that’ll make much of a difference…” Sunset and Twilight arrived at the middle line just in time to hear Pinkie Pie attempt to share some casual conversation with the guy ahead of her in line. “You come to this line often?” she asked him. “Any other sweet lines we should hit up?” That guy raised an eyebrow in confusion and replied, “Uh… I’m just waiting in line to get through security.” “I know!” remarked Pinkie cheerfully. “Isn’t it exciting?” As that guy turned away and muttered something under his breath, Sunset simultaneously spoke, “Not as exciting as watching paint dry…” Rainbow Dash suddenly glanced back and forth between Sunset and the guy ahead of them in line, somehow convinced that she had just heard both of them say the exact same thing at the exact same time. “Huh?” she asked in confusion. “That’s what the guy ahead of us just said,” explained Sunset, just as baffled as Rainbow. Feeling a little weirded out, Rainbow Dash turned her attention elsewhere and soon discovered the other two lines seemed to be moving ahead more quickly than the one she was currently stuck in. Since she naturally hated staying in one place for too long, she impatiently called out to the front of the line, “What’s with these long lines, man?!” The security guard at the gate up ahead was in the middle of waving his metal detecting wand over the person currently at the front of the line. He paused his work and turned his attention to the girl who had shouted at him from further down the line. “Security is an art,” he firmly responded. “It cannot be rushed,” spoke Sunset simultaneously with the security guard, albeit in a much less confident tone than he had used. Behind her, Twilight was now really starting to feel concerned for Sunset. Accurately matching two spontaneous comments in under a minute? she thought to herself in confusion. There’s definitely something unusual about Sunset today, and judging by her behavior, it seems she’s struggling to understand all of this as much as any of us are. More than two hours had passed by the time all of the girls had made it through the security lines. Even there, Sunset was continuously reminded of all the events she had remembered occurring, such as all the unusual items inside Pinkie’s tiny fanny pack, and Pinkie’s struggle to control her reflexive giggling during the part involving the metal detecting wand. What did turn out different this time was that Rainbow Dash and Twilight were also in their line, so that was a little more additional time she was forced to wait through. And unlike last time, she felt no sense of urgency to get through the line, so she never spoke up at all when it was her turn to go through the security process. And when that green festival bracelet was placed on her wrist and she was permitted to enter, she could only stare at that bracelet in disbelief as she walked into the festival grounds that she had so vividly remembered being kicked out from the previous night. By the time Twilight made it through security and was the last one to join up with the group of friends, Pinkie was practically hopping in place with barely contained excitement for the day ahead, while Sunset still remained speechless from her immense confusion. “Welp, y’all have fun seein’ PostCrush,” stated Applejack as she waved at Pinkie and Sunset. “We’ll see ya back at camp tonight.” Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Spike also waved at Pinkie and Sunset before they all went their separate ways to enjoy all the different shows and activities at this music festival they were all interested in. While Pinkie eagerly waved back to their departing friends, Sunset continued to display an absence of any emotions, while Twilight was so concerned about Sunset that she decided to forgo her own interests at this festival so she could keep an eye on her seemingly lost friend. “What do you wanna do first, Sunset?” asked Pinkie excitedly. “There’s so much we can do! Like…” She quickly glanced around and when her eyes fell upon a nearby giveaway booth, she gasped and exclaimed, “Win a tandem bicycle?!” She immediately rushed over towards that booth with a purple tandem bicycle displayed to the side. Sunset was about to protest Pinkie running off, but stopped herself before she could get a word out, somehow understanding that it would be a pointless effort. She glanced over at Twilight, who responded with only a shrug and a confused expression. “All I have to do is guess how many candies are in the jar,” explained Pinkie as she eyed the jar full of jellybeans on the booth’s counter, “and my sugar senses say…” Sunset leaned close to Twilight and quietly said, “She’s gonna guess three hundred and five, which will be wrong.” “…three hundred and five!” finished Pinkie. BZZZZ! The booth’s attendant smacked the buzzer on the counter, indicating Pinkie’s guess was incorrect. “Awww…” moaned Pinkie in disappointment. Twilight’s jaw dropped as she turned to Sunset and asked, “How did you…?” “Exactly,” agreed Sunset in astonishment. “Seriously, is anyone else having some serious déjà vu right now?” “Nope. Just déjà V-you,” joked Twilight in an effort to lift her friend’s spirits. She laughed at her joke and explained, “Get it? ‘Cause it’s just you? With the déjà vu? And the U is replaced with you?” With Sunset not even cracking a smile at that, Twilight sighed in defeat and admitted, “Okay, so I’m terrible with puns.” Sunset rubbed her forehead as she began to walk away and explained, “I don’t know how to explain it, but… I did all of this yesterday.” “Yesterday?” asked Twilight in confusion as she followed after Sunset. “But yesterday was Friday, a weekday when we all have job obligations in the city. And since this is the very first day of the music festival, how could you have done anything like this the previous day?” “That’s the thing,” replied Sunset. “I know for a fact that I already went through this whole day. I mean, right now, Pinkie has just run off to—” Sunset immediately stopped — both speaking and walking — when she realized the full implication behind what she was about to say. “What is it?” asked Twilight. “Where’s Pinkie?” “Oh, no,” said Sunset firmly as she frowned and furrowed her brow. “I’m not gonna waste most of the day like that again. This time, I’m coming prepared.” She immediately turned and ran off towards the area where all the food trucks were parked. “Pinkie’s over by the food trucks?” asked Twilight in confusion as she ran after Sunset. “No, she’s in the Neon Garden,” replied Sunset as she continued running. “But that place is literally a maze, and she’s too busy having pointless fun to bother finding her way out, so my only option is to lay a trail of candy to lure her out.” “Seems a little desperate, if you ask me,” noted Twilight. “I don’t know about you,” retorted Sunset, “but I’d rather not spend hours and hours wandering around in a hedge maze trying to find someone with seemingly no interest in focusing on the most important thing that needs to get done, and that’s to get us the best seats to watch PostCrush.” Once she arrived at the truck that was selling all kinds of candy, she slapped a one dollar bill on the counter and grabbed a bag of hard candy in assorted flavors. “Call it what you want, but I’m interested in dealing with this issue the fast way.” She then began to run off towards the Neon Garden. “Let me help you out,” Twilight quickly offered, before she also handed over a one dollar bill and quickly grabbed another bag of candy. She then ran off after Sunset all the way across the festival grounds to eventually reach the entrance to the Neon Garden. As soon as the two girls passed through the entrance into the Neon Garden, they heard the unmistakable sound of Pinkie’s blissful giggling from somewhere within the hedges. “She’s definitely in here somewhere…” muttered Sunset with determination as she opened her bag of candy. She made her way further into the hedge maze until she reached a site she remembered was part of the looped path she had discovered the previous time she was here. “You go that way and I’ll go this way,” ordered Sunset, pointing first to the left and then to the right. “We’ll meet up somewhere on the other side, then backtrack our trails. Once we find a missing part of either trail, we’ll know where to find Pinkie.” She then began dropping pieces of candy as she headed off down the right path. “If you’re sure about this…” responded Twilight with uncertainty before she opened her bag of candy and started dropping pieces of it as she headed off down the left path. Unlike Sunset, she was unfamiliar with the arrangement of the paths within this hedge maze, so she was concerned she might take a wrong turn and end up getting herself lost, which would make finding Pinkie much more difficult. Thankfully, Twilight managed to choose the correct path and ended up encountering Sunset at a different site after only a few minutes. Once their trails of candy came together, the two girls shared a nod of agreement and began to backtrack down the trails they had laid out. Twilight made it around only two turns before she found her trail suddenly ended, even though she was sure it should have continued back to the path into the garden. With no sign of Pinkie in sight, Twilight was convinced this meant Sunset would likely intercept her, but just in case they managed to somehow bypass each other, Twilight decided to replace the missing trail in an effort to further ensure Pinkie could be lured out of this maze. Meanwhile, Sunset also discovered her trail had suddenly ended before she reached the starting point, so in the unlikely chance that Pinkie was somehow able to bypass Twilight, she set down that trail again to shrink the gap. With her and Twilight coming in from both directions, Sunset was convinced there was no way Pinkie would be able to escape from them. After only a couple minutes, Sunset and Twilight met up again, but they were both astonished to see each other replacing the missing trail of candy with no sign of Pinkie anywhere between them. “Huh?” asked Twilight in confusion. “How did she avoid both of us?” Sunset was about to say something when she suddenly heard a rustle in the hedges not far behind her on the path where she had laid her trail of candy. She rushed back the way she came and made it around a corner just in time to see a pair of pink arms retreat into the hedge wall, followed by some mischievous giggling that unmistakably came from Pinkie Pie. “Hey, that’s cheating!” cried out Sunset furiously. “Is she going through the hedges?” asked Twilight as she caught up to her friend. “Unfortunately, yes,” grumbled Sunset in response. “So how are we gonna catch her now?” asked Twilight. Sunset took a moment to consider her options. As she thought about what else she could remember about the Neon Garden the last time she was here, she soon smiled and replied, “I might have an idea…” She turned to Twilight and added, “Stay on the trail. I’ll be right back.” She then ran off towards a different part of the garden. While she waited, Twilight decided to follow the complete circuit of the trail of candy. She found a few short gaps scattered along the trail, but no large missing sections that would indicate Pinkie was following the trail. “I think Pinkie might already be onto us,” she muttered to herself with concern. “Not this time,” Sunset spoke up as she returned, now carrying with her an empty food crate and a short rod piece. “It’s amazing what kind of random parts people leave lying around in random places.” Without wasting any time, she tossed her entire bag of candy to the ground, then overturned the small crate with its open side down and used the short rod to prop up one end of that crate, essentially creating a classic box trap. “Simple, yet effective,” remarked Twilight with a smile. “We’re definitely gonna catch her this time,” declared Sunset with a grin of confidence. “Who are we catching?” Sunset and Twilight immediately turned to that third voice and found Pinkie Pie standing right behind them while snacking on an armful of candy pieces she was carrying around. After a moment of shock, Sunset facepalmed, then grabbed Pinkie by the arm and began to forcefully tug her along the path out of the Neon Garden, causing her to drop her armful of candy. As Sunset and Pinkie left, Twilight glanced back at the box trap and pile of candy as she asked, “Uh, shouldn’t we clean this up?” “No time for that,” replied Sunset dismissively. After a few minutes of navigating the winding paths through the hedges, the three girls finally made their way out the exit from the Neon Garden and proceeded towards the main performance stage, with Sunset leading the way. “You need to focus, Pinkie,” Sunset firmly stated. “If you keep running off like this, we’ll be late for the concert!” She then turned away and grumbled under her breath, “Again…” However, it seemed fate was not favorable to Sunset this time, for she had forgotten about the pair of easels set up along the path, along with the eccentric artist who was handling small balloons filled with paint. “Who wants to be part of an art show?!” the artist cheerfully called out as he held up two of those paint balloons. Pinkie suddenly freed herself from Sunset’s grip and began waving her arms around as she excitedly replied, “Ooh! I do! I do!” The artist turned to the three girls and smiled when he saw they were already standing between the two easels he had set up. “Ah, perfect,” he declared. “Stay right where you are…” He then pulled his arms back, preparing to toss the filled balloons in his hands. “Don’t do it!” Sunset desperately cried out as she held her hands out. “Don’t—!” Splat! The artist ignored Sunset’s protests and tossed the balloons at the easels, bursting upon impact and splattering paint all over the easels and the three girls, with green paint on Twilight and Pinkie on the left and blue paint on Sunset and Pinkie on the right. Thrilled to be in the middle and covered in both colors of paint, Pinkie giggled and cheerfully cried, “Do it again!” “No! Not again!” Sunset protested. Again, the artist obeyed Pinkie and ignored Sunset by swiftly tossing two more balloons at the easels, splattering yellow paint on the left and pink paint on the right. Pinkie giggled again and excitedly exclaimed, “Awesome!” In a fit of rage, Sunset grabbed the easel next to her and tossed it towards the eccentric artist. The artist narrowly dodged the flying easel and shouted, “Hey! Watch it!” “Consider it payback!” Sunset shot back. “I never agreed to be part of this pathetic excuse for art, and I never will! Seriously, when I said no, I really meant no!” She then tightly grasped Pinkie’s wrist and began dragging her away. “Owie! Owie! Owie!” cried out Pinkie in pain as she stumbled along after Sunset. “Hey! Wait up!” Twilight called out as she attempted to follow after them. “I can’t see anything!” Due her glasses being completed covered in paint, she was forced to reach her arms outward as she followed the voices of her two friends. “But Sunset, I was just having fun!” whined Pinkie as she continued to be pulled along. “Do I look like I’m having fun?!” Sunset furiously shot back as she stopped and glared back at Pinkie. Seeing the fierce scowl — complete with an eye twitch — on Sunset’s face caused Pinkie to hesitate for a moment before she shamefully conceded, “Uh… I guess not…” Sunset let out a sigh of frustration as she turned away and grumbled under her breath, “At least you’re not completely clueless.” She then spoke up, “Let’s just go to the restroom and wash off all this paint. Hopefully, we’ll still have enough time to get ready to see PostCrush.” She then continued walking ahead, pulling Pinkie along behind her. As Twilight blindly staggered over to them, Pinkie reached out and grabbed her hand and assured her, “Don’t worry, Twilight. We got ya.” Sunset guided her two friends over to the public restrooms, kicked open the door to the girls restroom, and hauled them both inside before she finally released her firm grip on Pinkie’s hand. “Just get cleaned up so we don’t waste any more time,” insisted Sunset. “Consider it done!” declared Pinkie with a smile. She then tore open one of the paper towel dispensers, removed the entire roll of paper towels, brought it with her into one of the toilet stalls, and shut the door. Sunset sighed and shook her head before she turned her attention to the mirror and one of the sinks. She grabbed a paper towel, soaked it under the running water in the sink, and wiped it across one of the paint splatters on her body. Once that paper towel had soaked up as much of that paint as possible, she wadded it up, tossed it into the trashcan, then grabbed another paper towel and repeated the process. Removing all of that paint proved to be just as difficult as she remembered the first time, so she knew she would be at this for quite some time. Meanwhile, Twilight felt her way around until she reached one of the available sinks. She turned on the water, removed her glasses, and rinsed off all the paint that covered them. Once all of that paint was washed off, she flicked off the water and put her glasses back on. Now that she could finally see how much of a mess she was, she sighed in frustration and grumbled, “If this day already happened, then couldn’t you have at least warned us about the paint?” She held out her hand towards Sunset. Sunset grabbed a paper towel and passed it over to Twilight, who used it to start wiping the paint splatters off herself. “I was kinda hoping that getting out of the Neon Garden sooner meant we wouldn’t have to face that freaky artist,” admitted Sunset as she grabbed another paper towel for herself and continued cleaning off the paint splatters on her body. “Seeing as he used different colors this time probably means he got set up sooner than I thought.” Splash! That noise from the occupied toilet stall was immediately followed by some hysterical giggling from Pinkie. The two girls at the sinks glanced back at that occupied stall, then turned to each other. Sunset sighed, then leaned close to Twilight and quietly explained in a flat tone, “Pinkie just splattered some paint on the inside of that stall’s door and it just so happens to resemble Rarity with a pirate mustache. And when I’m not impressed by it, she’ll just argue that it’s washable.” Twilight smirked and remarked, “That’s so randomly specific that if it turns out true, there’s no way it can be excused as a total coincidence. Especially when you take into account the changed variable regarding these paint colors.” Pinkie partially opened the stall door and peeked her head out as she eagerly said, “Guess what! I spilled some paint on the inside of this door and it looks exactly like…” She threw the door all the way open to reveal the splattered paint on the other side of it. “Rarity with a pirate mustache! Huh? Huh?” Twilight’s jaw dropped the moment she caught sight of that paint splatter that bore such an uncanny resemblance to Rarity’s face with a bushy mustache slapped over the mouth. She pointed at the paint splatter as she turned to Sunset and exclaimed in shock, “Seriously?!” “What?” responded Pinkie with a shrug. “It’s washable.” Twilight’s jaw remained down and her mouth gaping as her gaze shifted back and forth between Sunset and Pinkie while her hand continued pointing at that paint splatter. “Seriously…” responded Sunset in a bored tone. By the time the three girls had finished cleaning off all that paint, there was still just over an hour left to go before PostCrush was due to come on stage and begin their show, so they agreed to head over to the food trucks and grab something quick to eat. Sunset decided to get a small basket of fries, Twilight settled on a large pretzel, and Pinkie naturally went with some cotton candy. As they sat down at a table and ate their food, Sunset decided to explain in more detail her strange experiences of having already been through today’s events once before. However, she chose not to explain how her previous day ended, only stating that she and Pinkie ended up missing PostCrush’s live show. “So what do you think, Twi?” asked Sunset. “Any scientific explanation for this?” Twilight finished the last bite of her pretzel as she considered a potential hypothesis to explain Sunset’s recent experiences. After thinking it over for a minute, she stated, “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. Quite fascinating, really.” As she spoke, she presented a visualization of her hypothesis by taking one of the fries and bent it around to create a circular shape. Sunset took a moment to think about what Twilight was suggesting, and once she realized what it all meant, she gasped and noted, “A time loop…” Pinkie giggled and cheerfully remarked, “Time loop! Classic Sunset…” Sunset ignored Pinkie and asked, “But why only me? The only time I was alone yesterday was on the hill when I wished—” “For more wishes?” interrupted Pinkie blissfully as she leaned close to Sunset. “Solid choice.” Sunset rolled her eyes, placed her hand on Pinkie’s face, and gently shoved her away. She then continued, “This might sound crazy, but… I think Equestrian Magic is giving me another chance to see PostCrush.” She smiled as she spoke that final thought. Twilight and Pinkie glanced at each other, then turned back to Sunset. “Eh, not that crazy,” remarked Twilight before eating that fry she was still holding. “Eh, seen crazier,” agreed Pinkie before she took a final large bite of her cotton candy. Sunset sighed with a smile and admitted, “Yeah, I guess we really have been through a lot of weird things involving Equestrian Magic.” As Pinkie finished the last of her cotton candy, she suddenly frowned and asked, “Wait. Why didn’t you see PostCrush?” Sunset doubted it would have been appropriate to say right to Pinkie’s face that it was entirely her fault they both missed seeing PostCrush, so she just glanced to the side and grumbled, “Mistakes were made…” Pinkie moved over to sit beside Sunset and assured her friend, “Aw, don’t beat yourself up. I promise we’ll see them together tonight, or so help me, I—” She suddenly stopped when she began to smell a rather sweet and delicious aroma. “What’s that smell?” she asked as she continued sniffing the air. “Could it be?” She let out and excited gasped as her gaze fell on a certain food cart. “Puffed Pastry’s exclusive star-crusted, cinnamon-dipped churros!” Hearing those exact words come out of Pinkie caused Sunset to immediately glare at her, remembering all too well what those words ultimately led to on her previous experience of this day. Pinkie’s enthusiasm fell when she noticed the angry look on her friend’s face. “Now’s proooob’ly not the best time to go get one,” she reluctantly acknowledged. “It’s not!” Sunset eagerly agreed. “Let’s get moving so nothing goes wrong for PostCrush!” As she stood up, she handed over her half-full basket of fries to Pinkie. “Here, I’ll even let you have the rest of my fries.” Pinkie smiled at the offer and carried those fries with her as she began to follow Sunset and Twilight towards the main performance stage. She made it only a few steps before her mind drifted back to those churros. “On the other hand, if I get two, then Sunset can have one with me,” she noted to herself. She immediately snapped out of it and scolded herself, “No! No! I will not give in!” She then grabbed a handful of those fries and shoved them in her mouth. Alas, those fries were not enough to satisfy Pinkie’s cravings, which demanded something much sweeter with a cinnamon flavor, like those mouth-watering churros that she struggled to keep her eyes off for more than a few seconds. Her mental tug-o-war between obeying Sunset’s advice and giving in to her cravings left her whimpering and groaning for a few seconds, her body motionless as her mind kept jumping back and forth like a ping-pong ball. Finally she tossed those fries aside and rushed the churro cart as she screamed, “But I can’t resist!” As those fries spilled all over Sunset and the basket landed upside down atop her head, she turned back to Pinkie and exclaimed in panic, “Okay, this is the worst possible time for churros!” She then charged after Pinkie. Pinkie completely ignored Sunset and remained solely focused on grabbing some of those churros. She continued to rush towards that cart with an almost psychotic smile on her face with her tongue flailing out, the sight of which caused everyone near the cart to run away in terror. “Pinkie! Stop!” Sunset cried out desperately as she leaped into the air and tackled Pinkie. Although they both hit the ground, their momentum caused them to continue tumbling forwards until they both slammed into the churro cart, smashing it to pieces and sending cinnamon dust flying everywhere. Crash! Twilight cringed as she helplessly watched that disaster unfold. Sunset and Pinkie were both momentarily dazed from the impact. When they recovered, they both noticed a shadow looming over them. They looked over their shoulders and saw the security guard from the front entrance was now standing before them with his arms crossed, a scowl on his face, and his head and torso covered in cinnamon dust. Pinkie giggled nervously and sheepishly said, “Our bad.” “No, her bad,” argued Sunset to the security guard. “You saw me try to stop her, right, sir?” The security guard wasn’t interested in hearing any excuses. He grabbed the two girls by the shoulder and hauled them up to their feet, then began forcefully escorting them towards a doorway in the wall that marked the perimeter of the festival grounds. Once they arrived at that door, he removed their festival bracelet pieces, used a pair of scissors to snip them in half, and dropped the destroyed parts to the ground. Finally, he kicked the door open, shoved both girls outside, and then slammed the door shut. Once again, Sunset was faced with the message of “EXIT ONLY! Trespassers will be tackled on sight,” on a decal stuck to that door. And once again, it was only seconds after being kicked out that Sunset saw over the wall some bright lights shining up into the sky from the direction of the main performance stage while an amplified voice in the distance shouted out, “Let me hear three big cheers for two best friends who got back together for one incredible night! PoooooostCruuuuuush!!” That announcement was immediately followed by a roaring cheer and applause from the crowd that had gathered around that stage. And once again, Sunset was furious at Pinkie for causing both of them to miss out on the show that was now starting without them. “Maybe you’ll get another another chance?” assured Pinkie sheepishly. Sunset removed the overturned fries basket from atop her head and slammed it to the ground. “This is exactly how it ended the first time,” grumbled Sunset as she turned and began walking away back to the campgrounds. “If I do get another do-over, then I’m definitely gonna do this whole day alone.” Pinkie was at a loss as she glanced back and forth between the shut door and Sunset walking away. Although she heard PostCrush beginning to play their famous song, she was too devastated to enjoy it. “There you are!” cried out Twilight as she ran over to Pinkie from the main entrance of the festival grounds. As she stopped in front of Pinkie, she worriedly said, “I saw the whole thing happen. Are you okay?” Pinkie began to cry as she sadly replied, “Well… neither of us got injured, but… Sunset’s really mad at me. She said that this is exactly how this day ended for her the first time, and that if she gets another do-over, she’s gonna do it all alone…” “Oh, Pinkie, I’m so sorry,” said Twilight calmly as she pulled Pinkie into a hug. “I’m sure it was all just a misunderstanding.” “But you don’t understand!” sobbed Pinkie against Twilight’s shoulder. “Sunset knew that me going after those churros would ruin everything for us! She just didn’t say it in front of me because she knew it would hurt my feelings, but it still happened anyway! Why oh why did I have to give in to those silly churros?!” As Pinkie continued sobbing, Twilight simply patted her on the back to do what little she could to calm her depressed friend. After about a minute, Twilight released her hug and suggested, “Let’s head back to the campgrounds. I’m sure both of you will feel better once you have a chance to talk it out.” Pinkie sniffled and rubbed the tears from her eyes, but nodded in agreement. She and Twilight turned away from the door and began to make their way down the path towards the campgrounds. Later that evening, Sunset arrived at the RV in the campgrounds, where the rest of her friends were seated around the heating table and roasting marshmallows over it. As she walked, she had a grouchy look on her face as she kept her gaze down at the ground. Rainbow Dash placed her roasted marshmallow on a graham cracker and removed it from the skewer she held when she noticed Sunset’s arrival. “Look! There’s Sunset!” Rainbow spoke up eagerly as the others also turned to Sunset. Rainbow’s excitement quickly turned to confusion as she asked, “Uh, where’s Pinkie and Twilight?” “I’m sure they’re somewhere behind me,” grumbled Sunset irritably. The others looked at each other uneasily before Applajeack cautiously asked, “Uh, what’s wrong?” Sunset let out a sigh of frustration and grumbled, “I missed PostCrush… again. And it was all because of Pinkie… again.” The others stared at Sunset in confusion. “Again?” asked Fluttershy. “What do you mean by that?” “I’d rather not talk about it,” muttered Sunset as she turned away and headed towards the door into the RV. “I’ve had a long day. I’m gonna turn in early.” She opened the door, stepped into the RV, and then slammed the door shut. The rest of the group of friends were stunned and remained silent as they awkwardly glanced at one another. A couple minutes passed before Twilight and Pinkie finally arrived at the RV. Pinkie was leaning against Twilight’s shoulder with a shameful look on her face, while Twilight had her arm around Pinkie’s shoulder as she guided her remorseful friend over to the RV. “And there’s Pinkie and Twilight,” Rainbow Dash spoke up, not as excitedly as she had been just moments ago. “Hi, girls,” greeted Twilight with a smile, though the tone of her voice made it obvious she was not exactly in a positive mood at the moment. She frowned as she glanced over her friends and asked, “Where’s Sunset?” “She decided to hit the sack early,” replied Applejack as she gestured at the RV. “She seemed to be rather frustrated over supposedly missing PostCrush,” explained Rarity with concern. “Would you care to elaborate?” Pinkie sighed and sadly confessed, “It’s all my fault. I got us kicked out just before PostCrush went on, all because I couldn’t resist grabbing some churros. She knew it would lead to trouble for both of us, and I was too stupid to listen to her.” “No, Pinkie, you’re not stupid,” assured Fluttershy as she walked over and placed a hand on Pinkie’s shoulder. “Whatever happened, I’m sure it was just an accident that no one could’ve expected.” “But she did know that would happen!” argued Pinkie shamefully. “She had already been through this whole day once before and got another chance for us to see PostCrush. But I totally blew it!” Unable to hold back, she began sobbing again. While Fluttershy embraced Pinkie and gently rubbed her back in an effort to calm her down, everyone else turned to Twilight with looks of confusion on their faces. “It’s a little complicated…” explained Twilight uneasily. “Aw, cheer up, Pinkie,” assured Spike with a friendly smile. “I’m sure Sunset will forgive you in the morning.” Just then, the marshmallow he was roasting suddenly caught on fire. He yelped in panic and started waving the skewer around in an effort to put out the fire. Instead, the smoldering treat flung off the skewer and splattered against Rarity, who yelled out in horror at seeing her expensive jacket ruined by the gooey mess. Meanwhile, inside the RV, Sunset had changed into her pajamas and climbed into her sleeping bag. Due to her sleeping bag being placed right next to the window, she was able to see and hear the conversation that was happening outside. Although she could understand why Pinkie would be devastated by today’s events, the fact that the exact same outcome had occurred twice in a row made it difficult for her to have much sympathy for her overly energetic friend. Sunset let out a huff of frustration and laid down inside her sleeping bag. Although she had her doubts she would be able to repeat this day a third time, she couldn’t help but hope that it would indeed happen. After all, if Pinkie was always going to be responsible for ruining this day, then the only way she could possibly hope for that perfect outcome she desired… would be to completely exclude any interference from her friend. Author's Note Not much new to be seen in this chapter, aside from some additional little details here and there. Those of you familiar with the official version might recognize which scenes are ones that I came up with on my own, such as that final part back at the RV at night. Even so, writing this chapter was very slow-going for me, so hopefully the later chapters of this story won't turn out to be quite as problematic.
Go Nuts!Chapter 4 Go Nuts! It was the first day of the Starswirled Music Festival… for what was now the twentieth time, from Sunset Shimmer’s perspective. Despite fulfilling her wish to attend and watch the live concert of PostCrush, her experiences through the time loop of this day had still not ended. After wasting her fourth day simply coming to terms with the fact that the time loop was still occurring, she spent the fifth day repeating what she had done on the third day, with mostly the same outcome. She spent the sixth day begrudgingly allowing Pinkie to follow her, only for the party girl’s desire for churros to once again get them both kicked out before they could see PostCrush, thus resulting in a similar outcome to the first two days. On the seventh day, Sunset decided to try a hybrid approach by insisting to Pinkie that they spend the day separately, but agreeing to meet up again in time to watch PostCrush. Although Sunset once again got to see PostCrush from the front row, a certain mishap involving those darn churros resulted in Pinkie getting kicked out alone and missing out on PostCrush without her best friend. After the first week, Sunset finally just gave up on trying to follow her original plan to a hopelessly better outcome. Instead, she decided to follow each of her other friends, just to see what they were all up to while she and Pinkie had kept failing to watch PostCrush together. Fluttershy and Spike had spent the entire day together with no real definitive plan, and mostly just wandered around to observe — but not partake in, due to Fluttershy’s fear of drawing attention to herself — all the fun activities and try out some of the rather whimsical kinds of food that were sold at the food trucks and carts. Rarity had browsed through the souvenir tents and decided to purchase a faux suede jacket with fringe that she was especially enamored with, but was devastated to have it quickly ruined when she got caught in the crossfire of a squirt gun fight between some kids — not to mention how her original jacket always seemed to end up ruined at the end of the day by Spike’s flaming marshmallow. Applejack was thrilled to have the chance to watch a live performance of her favorite country singer, Dirk Thistleweed, but tragically had to spend the entire show in the infirmary tent when some members of the enthusiastic crowd accidentally stomped on her foot. Twilight had meticulously planned all of her activities for the festival, but a lapse of attention caused her to stumble over a boom box and accidentally drop her phone into a barrel of water, and with her ruined phone denying her access to her schedule, she was rendered hopelessly aimless and eventually decided to just leave the festival grounds by midafternoon — thus explaining why she always seemed to be first one to return to the RV. Rainbow Dash spent half the day struggling to find the manager in charge of the music festival, and once she eventually did find him, she tried to ask for permission to allow her band — the Sonic Rainbooms — to perform on day two of the festival as a last-minute entry, but a series of embarrassing missteps — such as forgetting that she and her friends didn’t bring their instruments, and also accidentally smacking him in the face with that darn oversized paddle — ultimately convinced the manager to deny her request. And Pinkie Pie, well… Sunset was already well aware of what she did all day. For the third week, Sunset decided to simply allow Pinkie to go off and do her own thing while Sunset explored other areas of the festival grounds at various times of the day. As a result, after only a few more days going through the exact same time loop, she was convinced she had now seen everything of potential interest, and could now predict a number of significant events down to the exact second. Not to mention, by this point, she had already seen PostCrush enough times that she didn’t even bother sticking around to watch them anymore and simply returned to the RV at the end of the evening — especially once it became clear that Pinkie would always seem to get herself kicked out for somehow mangling that churro cart as a result of her overenthusiasm. And now, as she neared the end of her third week through the time loop, Sunset was feeling absolutely bored as she wandered around on her own in the area near the food trucks and the souvenir tents. As she walked, she noticed on her right was some rocker dude with long dark hair and wearing a tie-dyed shirt standing not far away as he sipped on a milkshake. To her left was some other guy wearing glasses and with orange hair and a short beard, who was tinkering around with some contraption a short distance away. As the glasses guy worked on his unidentifiable creation, he accidentally bumped something on the mechanical object, causing it to suddenly fling a coconut high into the air. “Whoa! Heads up!” he immediately cried out. The rocker dude slowly turned around towards the glasses guy and then looked up and watched as that coconut began falling directly towards him. Sunset calmly reached over and easily caught the falling coconut just inches away from the rocker dude’s face. She then gently lowered the coconut and casually dropped it near her feet, all with a bored expression on her face. “Whooooaaaa,” said the rocker dude slowly in astonishment. “How did you appear outta nowhere like that? Are you—?” “No, I’m not a ninja,” replied Sunset dismissively in a bored tone as she continued walking by, not even bothering to spare a glimpse towards that rocker dude. A couple minutes later, Sunset arrived at one of the various souvenir tents, where she saw two familiar guys wearing black and white striped prison shirts — one with a grey jacket partially covering it, and the other with the sleeves torn off — and black beanie hats. These two we none other than Rocky and Mugsy, two of the most incompetent crooks in the Lego World, and right now, they were hauling away a large chest with each of them grasping the handles on either end of it. Sunset let out a bored sigh and muttered, “And there go the brick-heads on their latest attempt at petty robbery.” She pulled out her phone and watched the time as she continued, “Cue the handle breaking off in Mugsy’s hand and spilling the loot in… three… two… one…” Chink. Crash! Sure enough, right at the exact moment Sunset called it, the handle on the end being carried by Mugsy suddenly detached from the chest, causing the chest to drop to the ground and topple over, allowing the lid to pop open and spill the massive load of cash and coins contained within. “Whoops,” muttered Mugsy. “HEY!!” furiously shouted a nearby security guard — the exact same security guard who worked in the security line Sunset always seemed to use, and the exact same security guard who on some loops ultimately kicked her and Pinkie out of the festival grounds. “Scram!” exclaimed Rocky urgently as he dropped his end of the chest and immediately started running towards the nearest section of the boundary wall surrounding the festival grounds, with Mugsy quickly following right behind. The security guard swiftly pursued the two pathetic robbers towards that wall, not too far away. Once they reached the wall, they both tried to jump over it, but it proved to be too high for either of them to even grasp the top of that wall. With the security guard closing in, Rocky decided to climb on top of his partner in crime, using him as enough of a boost to jump and grab onto the top of that wall. Once he hauled himself halfway over that wall, he then reached down and grasped Mugsy’s hands, then hauled him up and over the wall just a split second before the security guard could touch either of those crooks. Of course, once the two incompetent robbers flung themselves over the top of the wall, they both crashed to the ground on the other side. “You’d better run!” shouted the security guard over the wall at the fleeing robbers. “Your kind isn’t welcome here!” Unable to further pursue those crooks, he turned away to check on the dropped chest full of loot. However, as soon as he turned his attention toward that chest, he noticed Sunset Shimmer standing nearby. “Hey, hey, HEY!!” he called out firmly as he rushed back to that chest. “Get away from that!” “Seventeen seconds,” muttered Sunset in a bored tone as she continued staring at her phone in her hand. The security guard stopped in front of Sunset and raised an eyebrow as he asked in confusion, “Huh?” “You had your attention away from this pile of loot for a total of seventeen seconds,” explained Sunset. “In that time, anybody could’ve easily walked by and taken a small portion of it for themselves, with nobody around to catch them in the act.” The security guard overturned the chest back upright and started tossing the spilled loot back into it as he firmly scolded, “Don’t get any ideas, missy. I won’t be repeating that mistake anytime soon.” “Doubtful,” sang Sunset in a dull tone as she turned and walked away. She made it only a few steps before she bumped into another familiar face. Specifically, the paint balloon artist as he was carrying his two easels under his arm on his way to setting up his so-called art show. “Ow! Watch it!” cried out the artist irritably from that mild impact. “Sorry,” responded Sunset with a complete lack of any enthusiasm. “I thought you didn’t pass through the area until later. I’ll make a note of that.” She sighed and continued flatly, “Day twenty: saw paint guy in food truck area right before he breaks up with his girlfriend, claiming that it’s not him, it’s her.” She noticed the paint guy suddenly glanced over her shoulder with a shocked expression on his face while also faintly hearing some sobbing behind her. Well aware of what was happening around her, she didn’t bother turning her attention elsewhere as she continued, “Yes, I’m the one who can read minds, but no, I don’t have the ability to predict the future. I’ve just been caught in an endless time loop of this day.” As she noticed at the edge of her vision to her right the artist’s girlfriend running away in tears, she finished, “Yeah, I’m just gonna move on and leave you to your own issues.” She then turned and began walking away. “Yeah, well… you’d better run!” the artist shot back irritably before he turned and ran off after his fleeing girlfriend. Sunset scoffed and grumbled, “Run away from my problems? I…” She trailed off and began to smile as a thought occurred to her. “…actually haven’t tried that yet.” Already, a plan of escape was starting to come together that she would put into action sometime later. Later that night, Sunset was ready to put her desperate escape plan into action. First, she had chosen to skip seeing PostCrush and simply returned to the campgrounds on her own terms, in order to ensure she would still be allowed into the festival grounds for day two in the unlikely event that this crazy scheme might actually work — especially since this loop ended with Pinkie once again getting kicked out for that same old mishap with the churro cart. With that taken care of, she then had to wait until everyone else was asleep, knowing that without the awareness of being in a time loop, her friends were unlikely to allow her to dare attempt such a seemingly act of madness. And besides, she knew from experience that the moment she fell asleep was essentially the reset button for the time loop, so she had to discreetly stay awake the whole time she waited for her moment of opportunity. To ensure this, she had made the excuse of going out for a little walk before returning to the RV, by which time the only one still awake was Pinkie, who had wanted to make sure her friend would make it back safely. This worked in Sunset’s favor, as Pinkie then quickly fell right to sleep before Sunset could even pretend to start getting ready for bed. Now that the moment of opportunity had arrived, Sunset was ready to put her plan into action. The objective was to simply get as far away from the festival grounds as quickly as possible, with easily the best method being to use a motorized vehicle, and the only such vehicle she had available was the RV, hence why she had to wait so late to ensure none of her friends would try to stop her. Being careful not wake any of her friends, she walked over to and sat down in the driver’s seat, then buckled up the seatbelt. She then turned on the engine — knowing that she was now at the point of no return and thus committed to her desperate plan — shifted the vehicle into drive, and finally stomped on the accelerator. She wanted to be absolutely sure her friends would never get a chance to stop her, so not only did she plan out her escape route during her earlier “walk”, but also intentionally left the RV’s expandable portion extended outward to save time, despite the balance issues this would inevitably cause while driving at high speed. Just as Sunset had anticipated, the rumble of the engine followed by the rough shaking of the RV as it tore along the dirt road away from the campgrounds swiftly woke up everyone inside the vehicle. By the time Sunset turned the vehicle onto the paved road that would lead directly back to Canterlot City, Twilight had retrieved her glasses and stumbled her way towards the front of the RV. “Sunset! Slow down!” Twilight cried out in panic as she quickly sat down in the passenger seat and buckled up the seatbelt. “I gotta break outta here somehow!” Sunset responded in desperation, ignoring the screams of terror from her friends as she continued to accelerate along the paved road. The still-expanded RV dangerously tilted left and right as it sped around tight curves at high speed. At one point, it veered a little too far to the left and a large tree branch caught and tore off the awning that had been left extended. “Why are you doing this?!” screamed Twilight fearfully as she tightly gripped the sides of her seat. “Maybe if I leave this area, it’ll finally end!” responded Sunset as she continued her high-speed getaway. Pinkie Pie stumbled her way to the front of the RV and gripped both front seats to stand between them. “What. Are. You. Talking about?!” she exclaimed irritably. Sunset turned to Pinkie and furiously shot back, “This is all your fault! I blame you for everything that has gone wrong!” Due to Sunset taking her eyes off the road at that moment, she failed to notice a pothole in the pavement, and when the RV hit it, the impact tore the right front wheel off the axle. The RV slammed down on its right front corner and emitted a shower of sparks as it dragged along the pavement, causing the RV to start slowing down while the loose wheel rolled away up ahead. “Oh no! Runaway wheel!” cried out Pinkie as she pointed out the lost wheel rolling away. When she saw Sunset glare at her, she giggled sheepishly and asked, “Y-You’re not gonna blame me for that, too, are ya?” “Yes… Yes, I am,” grumbled Sunset as the RV soon skidded to a complete stop. Once the wild ride through the woods was finally halted, Twilight relaxed and let out a huge sigh of relief. She then took a deep breath as she turned to Sunset and asked, “Okay, now that that’s over with, could you please be kind enough to explain just WHAT THE BRICK YOU DID THAT FOR!?!” Sunset sighed and shamefully replied, “It’s a long story… and I’m not sure you’ll even believe me.” “Well, seeing as we’re definitely not going anywhere for a while, I’d say we’ve got plenty of time to listen,” stated Twilight as the rest of their friends slowly got up and gathered around them. After Sunset had taken a few minutes to explain her situation to her friends, Applejack had politely asked everyone to leave the RV and wait on the side of the road. Once everyone was out, Applejack then used her super strength to lift the broken down vehicle so she and Rainbow Dash could inspect the damage. Meanwhile, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Spike sat together against the base of a nearby tree, while Sunset sat at the base of another tree with her arms holding her knees close to her chest as Twilight and Pinkie stood nearby and continued to ask questions about Sunset’s experiences. Pinkie leaned close to Sunset and asked, “Are you saying the calendar industry cooked up a conspiracy to make every day today just to save paper?!” Sunset facepalmed and irritably shot back, “No, Pinkie, I’m not saying that at all!” “You’re right,” agreed Pinkie suspiciously as she tapped her chin and looked away. “It’s too obvious…” “More like too ridiculous,” grumbled Sunset. “This is why I gave up trying to save you from getting kicked out over that churro cart incident.” Pinkie paused and silently glanced back and forth between her bare wrist and Sunset’s wrist which still had that green festival bracelet attached. Sunset sighed and shamefully said, “Sorry for snapping at you like that.” She turned to the others and added, “And I’m sorry to all of you for hijacking the RV while you were all sleeping, but I’ve tried everything except leaving the area, and I doubted any of you would take me seriously enough to let me try it.” Twilight began pacing around as she hypothesized aloud, “It’s possible a snag in the fabric of spacetime could cause a—” “—temporal point — i.e., this day — to fold in on itself and thereby repeat,” spoke Sunset in a dull tone perfectly simultaneously with Twilight, which completely caught the latter off guard and made her stop pacing around. “You really have done this a lot,” they both spoke again simultaneously, which now irritated Twilight. “Okay, you’ve made your point! Stop!” Sunset sighed again and muttered, “This time loop started because I missed PostCrush. So why didn’t it end when I saw them?” “Are you sure it’s only about PostCrush?” asked Twilight as she gave a subtle glance towards Pinkie. “What else could it be?” asked Sunset desperately. “I can’t think of any other catalyst that could’ve started this whole mess!” “Last night — or rather, three weeks ago from your perspective — you specified your plan was for you and Pinkie to watch PostCrush together,” stated Twilight bluntly. “Did you ever manage to accomplish all of those criteria?” “I’ve tried, Twilight,” responded Sunset in frustration. “Believe me, I’ve tried, but no matter what I do, the day always ends with either both of us staying together and getting kicked out over the churro cart incident, going our separate ways so I can watch PostCrush while she either leaves on her own or gets kicked out alone over the churro incident, or I simply don’t bother watching PostCrush while Pinkie also misses out on PostCrush for any of the previously mentioned reasons. I can’t for the life of me figure out how to make Pinkie watch PostCrush — either alone or with me — under any circumstances!” In the stunned silence from everyone around that followed her rant, Sunset noticed Pinkie with a sad look on her face before the party girl shamefully turned away. Sunset let out another sigh and regretfully added, “I wish I could say sorry, but I’m not sure if I can even mean it anymore. I swear, if I don’t figure out a way out of this mess, I’m gonna completely lose it!” It was at this point that Applejack and Rainbow Dash finished their inspection of the broken down RV and walked over to the rest of their friends. “Bad news,” reported Applejack. “Transmission’s shot, an’ the front axle’s bent outta shape, so there’s no chance of fittin’ the wheel back on — assumin’ we could even find it, that is. Ah just called the tow truck an’ he says he’ll be here tomorrow mornin’. He wants us to pay with cash, an’ these repairs ain’t gonna be cheap.” Sunset sighed yet again and irritably grumbled, “Tomorrow? Sure. You can tell the guy I’ll pay him a million dollars if I’m able to see him tomorrow! Not like it’ll matter, since this thing will just go right back to the way we left it this morning when I next wake up.” Rainbow Dash considered the meaning behind Sunset’s response for a moment. “Huh… I guess you’re right,” she noted. She then chuckled and playfully remarked, “I gotta admit, I’m actually kinda jealous of you right now.” Sunset glared at Rainbow and shot back, “Jealous?! How could there be anything about my situation worth being jealous about?!” “Seriously, think about it,” explained Rainbow eagerly with a smile. “It’s like you just said. It doesn’t matter how badly you’ve wrecked the RV, ‘cause it’ll go right back to being as good as new once you start the next loop. As soon as the time loop resets, everything goes right back to the way they were, not just broken things being restored, but also no one will have any memories of what happened in the previous loop. No one will ever be aware of what you did in any of the earlier loops. You could destroy valuable objects, say nasty things to people, commit robbery, run around naked, and never have to worry about facing any consequences for whatever you did as soon as the time loop resets. You could literally do anything you want, and totally get away with it!” As Rainbow Dash spoke, Sunset initially maintained her incredulous stare, but as the implication began to dawn on her, her expression gradually softened, then she began to look on in curiosity, and then she slowly began to smile. “Rainbow Dash!” scolded Rarity. “Please don’t try to give Sunset any nefarious ideas.” “Too late for that,” quipped Sunset with a smirk as she stood up. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’m gonna go to bed and hit the reset button on this time loop. After everything I’ve been through, I think it’s time for me to really start enjoying myself.” She then walked over to the broken down RV, opened the door, and stepped inside. Twilight turned to glare at Rainbow and grumbled, “Nice going, Rainbow Dash. Thanks to you sharing your fantasies, Sunset has now been inspired to completely exploit this time loop at our expense, purely for the sake of personal entertainment. And since we’re incapable of passing on our experiences through these time loops, our fates now rest solely on whatever outrageous whims she happens to spontaneously come up with. There’s no telling how long she could end up allowing this time loop to perpetually continue, just for the fun of it!” “Aw, c’mon,” retorted Rainbow dismissively with a smile and a shrug. “What’s the worst that could happen?” Morning had arrived at the campgrounds just outside the Starswirled Music Festival. It was little more than an hour after sunrise, and by this point, Sunset Shimmer was the only one still asleep within the RV that she and her friends were using for their stay at the festival. As Sunset slept in her sleeping bag beside the window, her phone was lying beside her head on the pillow. At the moment the time became 7:00, the phone’s alarm went off by playing a song by PostCrush. Be the true… true, true original— Sunset quickly woke up and shut off her phone’s alarm. She quickly climbed out of her sleeping bag as she glanced at her phone, then turned her attention to look out the nearby window. Sure enough, the RV was no longer broken down on the side of an empty road in the woods, but instead was right back at the campgrounds and perfectly intact, while all of her friends were once again gathered outside in all of the exact same positions she remembered seeing them every single time on this time loop. As far as she was concerned, she no longer had any reason to worry about anything. Sunset glanced between the phone in her hand and the window she was looking through, and quickly got her first wild idea. She smirked and remarked, “No consequences? No problem!” She pulled her arm back and chucked her phone against the window, smashing a jagged hole through the glass. Smash! The sudden breaking of that window immediately caught the attention of all of Sunset’s friends gathered outside. “Score!” cheered Sunset excitedly. Without even bothering to change out of her pajamas, she then kicked open the door and charged outside. As she ran off into the woods, she excitedly declared, “Goodbye, common sense!” Meanwhile, all of Sunset’s friends just stared in absolute shock towards the direction she was running off. “What in the blazes has gotten into Sunset?” asked Applejack, completely baffled by the behavior she and the others had just witnessed. After going completely nuts in the previous loop to let off some stress, Sunset was ready to try something in this loop that would definitely relieve one particular source of stress that had been building for some time, and now that she no longer cared about any potential consequences, nothing was going to stop her from going through with it. After going through the old routine of breakfast with her friends and then going through the security line, she and Pinkie immediately found themselves at the giveaway booth with a purple tandem bicycle being displayed to the side. Pinkie stared at a jar full of jellybeans on the booth’s counter as she cheerfully said, “All I have to do is guess how many candies are in the jar, and my sugar senses say… three hundred and five!” BZZZZ! The giveaway booth attendant smacked the buzzer on the counter, indicating Pinkie’s guess was incorrect. “Awww…” moaned Pinkie in disappointment. While Pinkie and the booth attendant were occupied with each other, Sunset took advantage of the diversion to remove the clamps that attached the bicycle to the display stand, then hopped onto the bicycle and quickly rode off on it. “So long, losers!” she taunted as she sped away on the bike. “Hey!” exclaimed the booth attendant. She turned to the nearby main entrance and cried out, “Security! Petty theft bicycle!” The security guard at the main entrance who had permitted entry to Pinkie and Sunset only minutes earlier turned back to observe the crime in progress, then swiftly dropped the bag he had been searching and ran off after the fleeing girl on that stolen bicycle. Sunset was absolutely thrilled as she rode the stolen bicycle across the festival grounds. So much time had passed since the days when she was one of the most wanted criminals in all of the Lego World, she had forgotten just how much excitement she always got from every theft and getaway she had committed. In a way, she almost felt nostalgic for her old criminal behavior in this moment. It wasn’t long before Sunset reached the area with all the food trucks and food carts, and once she identified one particular cart, she immediately zeroed in on it. “Be gone with you, evil churros!” she declared with determination as she pedaled the bike directly at the churro cart. Puffed Pastry and a few other people near that cart quickly jumped out of the way only seconds before the stolen bicycle slammed into it. Crash! The cart was smashed to pieces and cinnamon dust was sent flying everywhere, while the bicycle was bent out of shape as one of its wheels detached and rolled away. Sunset was momentarily dazed from the impact. When she recovered, she noticed a shadow looming over her, so she looked up and saw that security guard from the front entrance was now standing before her with his arms crossed, a scowl on his face, and his head and torso covered in cinnamon dust. Sunset just smiled and, after a brief giggle, contently remarked, “Totally worth it.” Less than an hour later, Sunset’s wrists were bound by a pair of handcuffs behind her back as police officer Flash Sentry escorted her to his cruiser parked nearby. All of Sunset’s friends had gathered together to watch in both shock and shame. They were absolutely baffled why someone who had been such a good friend of them for so long would spontaneously do such a horrible thing. All the while, Sunset still had a pleasant smile on her face. “Don’t worry about me, girls,” she assured her friends contently as she was escorted past them. “I’ll see you again in the morning.” “After the stunt you just pulled? Don’t count on it,” scolded Flash Sentry before he opened the rear door and shoved Sunset into the backseat. He shut that door, then climbed into the driver’s seat, started up his cruiser, and drove off away from the festival grounds. As Flash drove the cruiser down the road leading back to Canterlot City, he sighed and spoke, “I’m very disappointed in you, Sunset. I thought for sure you had moved on from your criminal past, and judging by the looks on your friends faces, I’m sure they thought the same thing. I don’t know what gave you the idea to do such a crazy thing, but in doing so, you’ve betrayed everyone’s trust in you. Care to explain yourself?” “Simple,” remarked Sunset, still with that pleasant smile on her face. “I’m caught in a time loop. No matter where you take me, I’ll just wake up the next morning back at this morning, and no one will ever remember what I just did.” “That has gotta be one of the most ridiculous reasons I’ve ever heard,” responded Flash skeptically. BANG! Fssssss… Flash was shocked when the vehicle’s engine suddenly blew and thick smoke began billowing out from under the hood. “Oh, come on! Seriously?!” he exclaimed in disbelief as he pulled the broken vehicle over to the side of the road. “I just had this thing inspected only three days ago!” As the spontaneously broken down cruiser slowed to a stop, Sunset giggled and remarked, “Wow… I guess whatever’s behind this time loop also doesn’t want me going anywhere away from that music festival.” “You’re not doing yourself any favors, here,” grumbled Flash as he climbed out of the car and walked around to the front of it. He pulled open the hood, only to suddenly find himself engulfed in thick black smoke, quickly causing him to cough uncontrollably. “Yeah, you go ahead and choke yourself trying to figure out that mechanical failure,” quipped Sunset. “I’m just gonna lie down back here and take a nap.” She then leaned over and rested on her side along the backseat of the cruiser and closed her eyes. She listened to Flash cough and curse the vehicle’s busted engine before she eventually dozed off. The next thing she knew, she woke up to the same PostCrush song on her phone. Be the true… true, true original— She reached for her phone and shut off the alarm. She looked around and saw she was back in the RV, back in her sleeping bag, and back in her pajamas. She smirked and quietly remarked, “Yeah… totally got away with it…” Another loop passed by, and Sunset found herself back inside the festival grounds. This time, she was going to apply some experience from some of the previous loops to do another petty crime without any fear of consequences. First, Sunset waited near the row of port-a-potties until she saw one girl remove her backpack and set it down on the ground before walking into one of the stalls. Once that door was latched, Sunset casually grabbed that backpack, dumped all of its contents onto the ground, and then slung the empty bag over her shoulder as she began to make her way towards the souvenir tents Sunset pulled out her phone and checked the time down to the second as she arrived at those souvenir tents. Right at the same time as usual, she watched those two robbers, Rocky and Mugsy, make their attempt to steal a chest full of loot. Second by second, the same old sequence occurred. Chink. Crash! The handle on Mugsy’s side of the chest suddenly detached, causing it to drop to the ground and topple over, allowing the lid to pop open and spill the massive load of cash and coins contained within. “Whoops,” muttered Mugsy. “HEY!!” furiously shouted that security guard before he began to charge at the robbers. “Scram!” exclaimed Rocky urgently as he dropped his end of the chest and immediately started running towards the boundary wall with Mugsy following right behind him. As the security guard pursued the two incompetent crooks, Sunset lowered her stolen backpack and calmly began shoveling as much of that spilled loot into it as she could. “You’d better run!” shouted that security guard off in the distance. “Your kind isn’t welcome here!” As soon as Sunset heard the start of that shout from the security guard, she immediately stopped grabbing any more of the loot, zipped up the backpack, and slung it over her shoulder as she began to casually walk away. With every step away from the fallen chest, she listened carefully, and was pleased that not only did the security guard not call attention to her, but also began tossing the spilled loot back into the chest, seemingly unaware some of it was no longer there. A perfectly clean getaway, thought Sunset with a smirk. Okay, now that I’ve got a small fortune with me, what should I spend it on? She glanced around at some of the other souvenir tents in the immediate vicinity. She then shrugged and thought, Eh, might as well do something nice for my friends. As much as Sunset enjoyed taking advantage of the time loops negating any potential consequences, she still cared very much for her friends, so she was perfectly fine with spending this ill-gotten loot on lavish gifts for her friends. After purchasing all those expensive souvenirs, Sunset decided to head right back to the RV and wait for her friends to arrive. Once everyone was back together later that evening, Sunset surprised everyone by offering those gifts to all of them. She gave a blue cashmere cloak to Rarity, authentic vintage cowboy attire to Applejack, a sports jersey signed by many of the best athletes in the world to Rainbow Dash, an interchangeable bird call for some of the rarest species of birds to Fluttershy, a rare copy of the very first Power People comic book to Spike, the latest high-tech digital assistant tablet to Twilight, and a super-sized pack of novelty-flavored jellybeans to Pinkie Pie. Everyone greatly appreciated the gifts Sunset got for all of them, but it wasn’t long until one of them asked the inevitable question. “How were you able to afford all of these things?” asked Twilight. Sunset just chuckled and slyly replied, “Let’s just say I decided to ‘borrow’ some funds that were left behind by a failed robbery attempt.” “What?!” exclaimed Twilight in shock. “You stole money to purchase these things?! Do you have any idea how much trouble you’ll be in for such a crime?!” “Oh, I’m well aware, Twilight,” Sunset casually replied, “but since I’m trapped in a time loop, I don’t have to fear any consequences.” She took a sip straight from a bottle of high-quality champagne she had purchased for herself before she added, “Better enjoy your gifts while you can, because as soon as I go to bed and then wake up in the morning, everything will reset and I’ll be the only one who remembers any of this.” “Oh, I’m definitely enjoying my gift,” acknowledged Pinkie cheerfully. “Thank you so much!” She tossed one of her jellybeans into her mouth and chewed it for a few seconds before she pleasantly remarked, “Wow, this pack really does come in every flavor imaginable. That last one tasted like grass.” In another loop, Pinkie Pie had once again gone off frolicking in the Neon Garden, blissfully wandering around the maze without a care in the world. Bzzzzzz! Pinkie suddenly stopped when she noticed a chainsaw pierce through one of the hedges nearby and trace a circular path, ultimately cutting a hole through the hedge. The person armed with that chainsaw then stepped through, revealing herself to be Sunset. “Sunset?” asked Pinkie in confusion. “What are you doing?” “What does it look like I’m doing?” responded Sunset with a cocky grin as she held up that chainsaw. “I’m cutting a few shortcuts through the Neon Garden. Wouldn’t want us to get lost in here, now would we?” “I guess…” responded Pinkie with uncertainty as she rubbed the back of her head. Sunset walked over to another nearby hedge and began to cut another large hole through it. Bzzzzzz! BZZT! As Sunset cut through that hedge, she accidentally severed one of the strings of lights, causing many of the intricate flower designs along the hedges to suddenly go dark. “Whoops,” she muttered. That moment of guilt ended after only one second before she shrugged and dismissively remarked, “Oh well, not like anybody cares about those things.” She then resumed her work of cutting large openings through the hedges to provide shortcuts everywhere. Another loop began like many others, right to the moment Sunset decided to once again help herself to some of the loot abandoned by those two pathetic robbers. She went through the same routine as the previous times she had done this. She stole and emptied the backpack from outside the port-a-potty, then walked over to the souvenir booths where Rocky and Mugsy were making their robbery attempt. Chink. Crash! “Whoops,” muttered Mugsy as the handle broke off in his hand, dumping the chest and its loot on the ground. “HEY!!” shouted the security guard as he began pursuing the crooks. “Scram!” exclaimed Rocky as he and Mugsy ran off, with the security guard right behind. With only seventeen seconds available, Sunset scooped as much of the spilled cash and coins as she could into her stolen backpack. “You’d better run!” shouted the security guard at the fleeing robbers. “You’re kind isn’t welcome here!” Before the security guard had turned back to the spilled loot, Sunset zipped up the backpack and walked off with that small fortune. Another clean getaway, she thought with a smirk. Now… what should I splurge the money on this time? She walked around the souvenir booths to browse what was available. As soon as she came across a set of golf clubs, she knew right away exactly what she was going to use them for. A few hours later, Sunset had disassembled part of a secondary stage and rebuilt some of the pieces into a basic frame for a small tower. She then climbed to the top of that tower while carrying the golf clubs she had purchased with that ill-gotten loot. Once she stood on the platform atop that makeshift tower, she set a golf ball on the tee, selected one of her new golf clubs, then prepared to take aim — directly out into the middle of the festival grounds. Finally, she swung the golf club back and made her first strike of the ball. The ball harmlessly bounced across a grassy open area. “Lame,” muttered Sunset as she set down a second ball. She took a few seconds to anticipate her aim, then struck the ball. Thunk! The second ball bounced off the side of a wooden support post. “Eh, at least it’s something,” muttered Sunset as she set down a third ball. She adjusted her aim, then struck the ball. Gloop! The third ball landed in a bowl of punch, creating only a small splash that splatted two people who happened to be standing near it. “Okay, that’s a little impressive,” remarked Sunset as she set down a fourth ball. She checked her aim again, then struck the ball. Smash! The fourth ball struck and shattered a glass bottle, spraying its liquid contents all over the countertop it was resting on. “Yeah! That’s a hit!” cheered Sunset as she set down a fifth ball. “Hey!” called out the security guard from the ground at the base of the tower. “What are you doing up there?!” “What does it look like I’m doing?” replied Sunset dismissively as she took aim again. “I’m working on my golf game.” She then struck the ball. Bonk! “Ow!” cried someone in the distance. “Ha! Nailed him!” cheered Sunset as she set down a sixth ball. “You think this is funny?” scolded the security guard. “You’re breaking things and injuring people! Cut that out and get down from there right now!” “Sorry, buddy,” responded Sunset insincerely, “but I’m not coming down until I’ve used up all of my golf balls.” She then struck the ball and watched as it bounced off the top of a wooden post and then smashed a floodlight. Thunk! Smash! “Hey, that was a pretty good trick shot,” remarked Sunset quietly as she set down a seventh ball. “All right, missy, you asked for it,” grumbled the security guard as he marched toward the tower and began to climb up the frame of it. As soon as that security guard neared the top of the tower, Sunset suddenly turned to him and sharply exclaimed, “Hey! I said I’m not done up here!” She then struck the guard in the face with her golf club, causing him to lose his grip and fall off the tower, smashing to pieces upon hitting the ground. The security guard rolled his detached head to glare up at Sunset atop the tower. “Oh, you’re in real trouble now, missy!” he threatened. “Oh, pull yourself together,” rebuked Sunset dismissively as she took aim. “No need to go all to pieces.” She then struck the ball again. At this rate, she just might be able to go through all of the golf balls she had brought with her before security would inevitably manage to apprehend her. And since she still had no concern for any consequences, she found that possible accomplishment to be rather impressive. Of course, no matter how many times Sunset went through all these time loops, they would always start out exactly the same way, especially one particularly painful moment. “Starswirled day one! Come and get it!” Rainbow Dash excitedly declared as she swung her large paddle around, accidentally smacking Sunset’s rear end. “Ow! Seriously?!” exclaimed Sunset furiously as she grasped her rear end and glared at Rainbow Dash. “Oops.” Rainbow chuckled sheepishly and responded, “Sorry.” On this particular loop, Sunset had simply had enough of that incident, so she immediately swiped the paddle out of Rainbow’s hands, snapped it in half over her knee, and then tossed the broken pieces over onto the heating table. Sunset let out a sigh of relief as she turned away and contently remarked, “Boy, that felt good.” All of Sunset’s friends looked on in confusion as they watched her walk away. Their attention was then quickly brought to the heating table when the broken paddle suddenly ignited from the heat and burst into flames. On a different loop, Sunset decided to bring Pinkie along for something so wild and reckless that even the zany pink party girl was quick to have second thoughts about it. “Are you sure this is such a good idea, Sunset?” asked Pinkie worriedly. The two girls were seated in an old sports car they had “borrowed” from the parking lot, with Sunset sitting in the driver’s seat. Directly ahead of them was a makeshift ramp Sunset had built out of various Lego parts in the area that led straight towards their RV. And strapped to the roof of that car was a crude rocket engine that was certainly large enough to provide some significant thrust to such a vehicle. “Relax, Pinkie,” assured Sunset confidently. “All we’re gonna do is drive this car up that ramp and use the homemade rocket on the roof to give us a speed boost to clear the RV and make a safe landing in the woods.” She smiled and quipped, “What could possibly go wrong?” As Sunset started up the engine, Pinkie gulped and nervously asked, “I-Is it okay if I back out right now?” Sunset just smirked and playfully retorted, “Too late!” She then stomped on the accelerator. The car’s tires tore through the gravel parking lot as the vehicle rapidly approached the ramp, with Pinkie screaming in terror all the way. Vroooooom! Finally, as they approached the ramp, Sunset smacked the big red button on the dashboard, igniting the rocket. The car quickly shot off the ramp, the screams of the two girls inside drowned out by the loud roar of the rocket. FWOOOOOOSSSHHH!!! However, almost immediately after going airborne, the attempted stunt went horribly wrong as the front-heavy car quickly tipped forward, altering its trajectory down directly onto the RV. Sunset didn’t even have time to curse before the moment of impact. The next thing Sunset knew, she woke up in the RV to the morning alarm on her phone. Be the true… true, true original— Sunset shut off the alarm on her phone and quietly remarked with a smile, “Huh… I guess not even losing my Creation Spark can break this time loop.” Not all loops were spent doing wildly crazy things. Sometimes, Sunset was satisfied with something relatively minor, such as retaliating against that paint balloon artist. Specifically, she wanted to see if she could catch one of the paint balloons thrown at her and send it right back at him. On her first attempt, Sunset reached her hand out in front of her and caught the balloon, but squeezed it too hard, bursting the balloon and causing blue paint to splatter all over herself. She growled in frustration, then pointed at the artist and declared, “I’ll get you next time!” On another loop for her second attempt, Sunset tried to catch the balloon with both hands, but since it came directly at her, she ended up squeezing it against her torso, bursting the balloon and splattering yellow paint all over herself. Again, she growled in frustration at this failure. On the following loop for her third attempt, Sunset quickly stepped aside as she tried the catch the balloon with both hands, but she fumbled it around until it ended up getting flung upwards, then came back down on top of her head, bursting upon impact and splattering green paint all over herself. Once again, she growled in frustration. On the next loop for her fourth attempt, Sunset quickly stepped aside and grasped the flung balloon while being careful to not grasp it with too much pressure. Remarkably, she actually succeeded this time as the balloon stopped within her grasp and remained intact. “Ha!” she shouted triumphantly before she promptly chucked the balloon right back at the artist, splattering him in the face with orange paint. “Ah! My eyes!” cried the artist as he tried to rub the paint off his face. “Serves you right!” declared Sunset with conviction. Pinkie gasped and exclaimed in shock, “Sunset! That wasn’t very nice!” “Eh, why should I care?” retorted Sunset with a shrug. “I’m stuck in a time loop. He’ll be totally fine the next time I see him.” On yet another loop, Sunset had decided to simply lie down on her back and relax for the afternoon. Screeeeeeeeeech! But Sunset wasn’t relaxing just anywhere. She was lying down in the backseat of a convertible car. She had also driven this “borrowed” car from the parking lot out to the nearest paved area, placed a weight on the accelerator, and locked the steering wheel all the way to the left. As a result, the convertible was now perpetually doing donuts with no one in the driver’s seat, all while Sunset rested in the backseat with sunglasses over her eyes and a smile on her face, as if she was lounging at the beach. Screeeeeeeeeech! Not far away, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were staring at that unusual stunt in confusion. Speechless at what they were witnessing , they briefly glanced at each other, then resumed staring at the spinning vehicle. Screeeeeeeeeech! Many loops later, after doing so many crazy and outlandish things throughout the numerous previous loops, Sunset was actually starting to feel rather bored by this point, and ultimately had decided to spend this loop just staying at the RV and doing absolutely nothing. Naturally, all of her friends — especially Pinkie Pie — were concerned with her seemingly depressed behavior, so she assured them she would explain everything to them later only if they agreed to enjoy day one of the Starswirled Music Festival without her. They had all reluctantly accepted her promise and went ahead with their original plans, except for Pinkie, who felt so lonely that she eventually decided to just return to the RV and hang out with Sunset before the day was even halfway over, despite being well aware that it would mean they would miss seeing PostCrush later that night. Now, it was late in the evening as Sunset was seated with all of her friends around the RV’s heating table as they were roasting marshmallows over it. As soon as everyone had gathered together, Sunset had explained her situation to all of them. Pinkie, who was sitting beside Sunset and had waited all afternoon to find out what was troubling her friend, was the first to speak up. “Are you saying the calendar industry cooked up a conspiracy to make every day today just to save paper?!” she asked. “For the twenty-third time, Pinkie, no, that’s not what I’m saying at all,” grumbled Sunset. “You’re right,” agreed Pinkie suspiciously as she tapped her chin and looked away. “It’s too obvious…” Twilight hummed in thought for a moment before she stated, “It’s possible a—” “—snag in the fabric of spacetime could cause a temporal point — i.e., this day — to fold in on itself and thereby repeat,” finished Sunset flatly. Twilight blinked as she stared at Sunset for a moment before she added, “You really—” “—have done this a lot?” finished Sunset again. Twilight raised her hand and was about to say something else, but was interrupted again. “Yes, I’ve made my point, and I’m gonna stop now,” added Sunset, still speaking monotone. “Oh dear,” muttered Fluttershy worriedly. “I wonder what could’ve caused this.” “I gave up trying to figure that out,” confessed Sunset. “At first, I thought it was because I missed seeing PostCrush the first time around. I’ve now seen them at least two dozen times, and this time loop is still going strong.” “If ya don’t mind me askin’,” asked Applejack hesitantly, “how long have ya been goin’ through this here ‘time loop’?” “To be honest, I’m starting to lose count by now,” answered Sunset shamefully. “My best estimate is that I’m now at somewhere around four months.” “Four months?!” exclaimed all of Sunset’s friends at once. “So you’re saying that the night we first rolled into this campground, which for us was only twenty-four hours ago, was for you over four months ago?!” asked Twilight in shock. “Yeah, pretty much,” replied Sunset as she inspected her marshmallow. “Goodness, darling,” said Rarity, aghast. “I almost dread the thought of what one could possibly do to spend four months of their life repeating the exact same day, over and over.” “Oh, I could think of plenty of things,” quipped Rainbow Dash with a grin as she placed her roasted marshmallow on a graham cracker and removed it from the skewer she held. “If anything, I’m actually kinda jealous of Sunset.” “What do you mean?” asked Fluttershy as she also removed her toasted marshmallow from her skewer. “Just think about it, girls,” explained Rainbow eagerly. “When you’re the only one caught in a time loop, it doesn’t matter if you destroy something or hurt someone’s feelings. As soon as the time loop resets, everything goes right back to the way they were, not just broken things being restored, but also no one will have any memories of what happened in the previous loop. No one will ever be aware of what you did in any of the earlier loops. You could destroy valuable objects, say nasty things to people, commit robbery, run around naked, and never have to worry about facing any consequences for whatever you did as soon as the time loop resets. You could literally do anything you want, and totally get away with it!” “Rainbow Dash!” scolded Rarity. “Please don’t try to give Sunset any nefarious ideas.” “Too late for that,” noted Sunset, still with that bored frown on her face. “She gave me that idea way back at the end of my third week.” “Wow, no wonder you’ve been at this for four months,” remarked Spike. “You must’ve spent all that time doing all kinds of crazy things.” “Eh, I won’t completely deny it,” confessed Sunset sheepishly with a shrug. “But I also wasn’t going totally nuts all that time. As much as I enjoyed the opportunities, I also still wanted to figure out what was really causing the time loop and how I could end it.” “Did you discover anything of significance, thus far?” asked Twilight. Sunset took a moment to recall some of her experiences before she answered, “Well, whatever magic is behind this time loop, it doesn’t seem to allow me to go anywhere outside this area. I once tried to hijack the RV and make a getaway, only to bust a wheel off not far down the road. And on those loops when I did stuff crazy enough to get arrested, the police cruiser taking me to jail would always suddenly break down not far from the festival grounds, at which point I would decide to just take an early nap to reset the loop.” She then chuckled in amusement. “One time, I decided to get arrested early enough just to see how many vehicles they could go through while trying to take me away. It was kinda funny seeing one emergency vehicle fail after another. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Eventually, they just gave up on trying to take me to jail, so instead they brought the jail to me by building a little jailhouse over there, just for me.” She pointed at an empty site on the side of a dirt road not far away. There was an awkward silence among Sunset’s friends over just how casually she was speaking about being arrested multiple times at this music festival. During that silence, Twilight’s gaze drifted to the Jump-Gate return device she often wore on her right wrist, so she smiled as she held up her arm and asked, “What about—?” “Already tried the Jump-Gate, too,” answered Sunset, frowning again in disappointment. “That device spontaneously shorted out the moment you were about to use it.” “Spontaneously shorted out?” asked Twilight in confusion as she glanced down to closely inspect her device. “But with the reliability and maintenance that goes into this thing, that’s gotta be like a—” “One in a billion chance?” finished Sunset. “That’s what you said… all eight times I tried to use the Jump-Gate… and that’s exactly what happened, all eight times.” Twilight’s jaw dropped from hearing that astonishing statistic. “Have you tried staying up all night long to see if that could break the time loop?” asked Rainbow Dash. “Tried it plenty of times,” replied Sunset, still speaking in a bored monotone. “But as soon as the clock struck midnight, I would always suddenly pass out and then wake up back on the morning of day one.” “Golly,” muttered Applejack in disbelief. “You are really up a creek on this one, Sunset.” “And that’s the seventh time I’ve heard you say that phrase to describe my situation,” noted Sunset. “Second only to, ‘You’re sure in quite a pickle,’ which you’ve so far used nine times.” “I can see why you’ve all but given up by now,” Fluttershy quietly muttered. “I’ve probably asked you this, like, a gazillion times already,” Pinkie spoke up, “but what did Princess Twilight in Equestria say when you told her about this through your magic journal?” Upon hearing that, Sunset’s eyes widened before she smacked herself in the forehead and exclaimed with a smile, “Of course! The journal with Princess Twilight! I totally forgot that I brought it with me! How did I not try that months ago?!” Pinkie giggled and remarked, “Seriously, though, why didn’t you? Are you asking yourself, ‘Self, how do you spend four months with my best friend Pinkie Pie without asking for help until now?’” Twilight gave Sunset a hard look and suspiciously asked, “Are you sure this time loop is only about you seeing PostCrush?” The implied accusation left Sunset feeling a little uncomfortable for a moment, but then she took a deep breath to relax herself before she stated, “Either way, I’ll contact Princess Twilight first thing in the morning. That should allow her to spend as much of the day as possible trying to research for any possible answers — since that’ll be all the time she’ll have available before the loop resets again.” “Well, it’s nice to see you’ve finally got a new plan in mind,” remarked Spike contently. Just then, the marshmallow he was roasting suddenly caught on fire. He yelped in panic and started waving the skewer around in an effort to put out the fire. Instead, the smoldering treat flung off the skewer and splattered against Rarity, who yelled out in horror at seeing her expensive jacket ruined by the gooey mess. Sunset rolled her eyes and flatly noted, “And if there’s one thing about this evening get-together that always seems go the same way every time, it’s that right there.” She gestured at Rarity. “The least could’ve done was warn me,” grumbled Rarity with a frown as she reached for a napkin to smother the still flaming mess on her jacket. Sunset simply shrugged as she replied, “Seeing as it always happens less than an hour away from the end of the loop when everything resets, I just don’t see the point.” “With sentiment like that, I’m starting to get a little concerned about your sanity,” stated Twilight worriedly. “I sure hope the other me can finally give you some answers on the next loop.” “So do I, Twilight,” muttered Sunset in solemn agreement as she turned her gaze up at the starry night sky above. “So do I…” Author's Note Personally, I found it a little hard to believe that it would take Sunset only three weeks to memorize everything she knew by the final loop, so that's why I chose to have her go through the time loop for significantly longer than the show version did (though not quite as long as the novel version of one year, which seemed a little too excessive for me). The idea of Sunset doing all those crazy things without any concern for consequences was largely inspired by a certain episode of the show Stargate SG1 (if you've seen that show before, I'm sure you might easily remember which episode I'm talking about). In addition, the reason Sunset is always incapable of leaving the area (either by vehicle or by Jump-Gate) will be explained later with the reveal of the Time Twirler.
Possible SuspectsChapter 5 Possible Suspects Morning arrived at the campgrounds just outside the Starswirled Music Festival. It was little more than an hour after sunrise, and by this point, Sunset Shimmer was the only one still asleep within the RV that she and her friends were using for their stay at the festival. As Sunset slept in her sleeping bag beside the window, her phone was lying beside her head on the pillow. At the moment the time became 7:00, the phone’s alarm went off by playing a song by PostCrush. Be the true… true, true original— Sunset quickly woke up, shut off her phone’s alarm, then carelessly tossed her phone across the room. After four months of the exact same morning routine over and over, she had very little patience left for even the most minor of things. Even so, the recent reminder that she had bought along her magic journal to Princess Twilight of Equestria gave her something to be optimistic about. As far as she was concerned, today was going to be her last hope of ever finding a way out of this perpetual time loop. Sunset climbed out of her sleeping bag, tossed off her pajamas, and slipped on the exact same music festival outfit she had worn for the past four months. This time, before she headed outside, she searched through her packed things and quickly found her magic journal. She then quickly grabbed a pen she had also packed, then walked out the door and around the front of the RV to join her friends, who were already gathered outside. It was the same old setting Sunset had seen over a hundred times already. Twilight, Fluttershy, and Applejack were seated around the RV’s heating table as they ate breakfast, while Rarity and Spike were seated at a nearby picnic table as Spike demonstrated some of his beatboxing skills. Rarity rolled her eyes and grumbled, “Ugh, I shall never understand the appeal of beatboxing.” Spike kept his smile as he shrugged and remarked, “Eh, to each their own.” Sunset had ignored that discussion and focused on flipping through the pages of her journal to reach the first blank page. However, this prevented her from noticing Rainbow Dash quickly run over and stop right behind her while carrying a large paddle with the Sonic Rainbooms band symbol printed on it. “Starswirled day one! Come and get it!” Rainbow excitedly declared as she swung the paddle around, accidentally smacking Sunset’s rear end. “Ow!” exclaimed Sunset as she grasped her rear end and glared at Rainbow. “Oops.” Rainbow chuckled sheepishly and responded, “Sorry. I’ll be more careful next time.” “No, Rainbow Dash!” Sunset suddenly snapped. “You won’t! Every day you say that, but you never are! Why won’t you change?!” Rainbow stared back at Sunset in shock and confusion for a moment before she awkwardly responded, “Okaaaaay…” She then began to slowly back away. Sunset immediately regretted what she had just shouted, and felt even more so when she glanced around and saw all of her friends were also staring at her in shock. She sighed and shamefully spoke up, “Sorry for snapping like that. Long story short, I’ve been stuck in a time loop where I’ve been repeating this day for months now. I know what you did was a total accident, Rainbow, but after receiving the exact same accident every single morning for me… I just got really tired of it, after a while.” All of Sunset’s friends continued to stare at her in confusion. Eventually, Applejack turned to Twilight and asked, “Uh, what does she mean by ‘time loop’?” Twilight was about to reply when Sunset suddenly spoke up, “Don’t bother, Twilight. I’ll explain everything a little later when we’re in the security lines. Trust me, those lines will be slow enough that I’ll have time to explain everything. But right now, I need to send a message to Princess Twilight in Equestria so she can start researching any possible causes for this time loop, and hopefully she’ll find an answer for me before the end of this day.” Sunset sat down at a nearby available seat as she opened her journal and placed it in her lap. She pulled out her pen and took a moment to consider the wording of her message before she began to write. Dear Princess Twilight, This is going to sound weird, but… how long has it been since my latest message? The one I supposedly wrote only yesterday about how excited I was to be going to the Starswirled Music Festival? I’m not sure how or why, but… I’m caught in a time loop where I’ve been repeating this day over and over. I can’t think of anything that caused it, but it did start when I missed seeing PostCrush the first time going through this day and I had wished for a do-over. I eventually got my wish, but it’s now been four months for me, and I can’t figure out if there’s some kind of Equestrian Magic involved. If you could help me find some answers before the end of today, I would highly appreciate it. Your friend, Sunset Shimmer. Sunset closed her journal and put away her pen as she spoke up, “Okay, that’s taken care of. Now we just need to wait and see if she’s able to find any answers.” “And what shall we do in the meantime?” asked Rarity. “You girls just go ahead and do whatever you wanna do,” replied Sunset as she walked over to the nearby picnic table to grab her now very familiar breakfast of blueberry pancakes — having long since memorized almost every detail in each and every one of those specific pancakes, such as their exact shape and the exact placement of every single blueberry scattered within them. “I’ve already been everywhere and done everything imaginable, so I’m just gonna sit around and wait for a response from Princess Twilight.” “In that case, I’ll just hang out with you all day,” said Pinkie with a smile as she rushed over to stand beside Sunset. “You don’t have to do that,” Sunset pointed out as she began to gather her stack of pancakes. “I’ll be willing to pass on watching PostCrush, if necessary, and I’d rather you not miss out on that show just for me.” “We’re best friends, Sunset,” stated Pinkie as she hugged Sunset. “I’d miss PostCrush a hundred times if it meant being there for you in your time of need.” That statement of dedication from Pinkie immediately brought feelings of guilt to Sunset. After all, she had already had those hundred chances and more, but had either blamed Pinkie for making them both miss out or simply abandoned her to watch PostCrush alone. Even worse, the perception she had developed of the time loop meaning she wouldn’t have to be concerned with anyone remembering anything by the end of the day before it reset again had resulted in her, more often than not, completely disregarding the feelings of Pinkie or any of her other friends. It was only now, as she sat down to start eating her blueberry pancake breakfast with maple syrup, that she realized that if she was going to be serious about bringing an end to this time loop, then she would definitely need to get back into a habit of not taking everything for granted. After the two-hour long wait through the security line — where she had the opportunity to fully explain her time loop situation to her friends — Sunset had decided to spend her day of waiting within the large tent that served as a lounge not far from where the food trucks and carts were located. Pinkie had volunteered to frequently run back and forth to the food trucks to provide some food and drinks for herself and Sunset — though it was Pinkie who ended up consuming most of those snacks and beverages. With her magic journal resting in her lap, Sunset waited all morning, all afternoon, and finally late into the evening for a response. It was right when she and Pinkie heard the announcement in the distance signaling that the live performance of PostCrush was about to begin that the journal suddenly started to glow and vibrate, indicating a message from Princess Twilight. Sunset did not hesitate to open that journal and start reading the recently added message. “Ooh! Ooh! What does it say?!” asked Pinkie eagerly. “Did she figure it out?! Does she know what’s going on?!” Sunset’s initial smile quickly fell as she read the message. She glanced over at Pinkie, then looked down at her journal and read aloud, “Dear Sunset Shimmer. I’ve been doing some research and I’m sorry to inform you that I’ve been unable to find any information regarding your temporal loop experiences, but that’s only because I could look though only so many books and scrolls in just one day. There’s much more of my library I have yet to search, and I may have to expand my search to the library in Canterlot, if necessary. At the very least, I can confirm that, yes, the effects of your temporal loop extend even into Equestria, meaning that the next time you wake up, I will have no recollection of your message or any of the research I just did.” “Aww,” muttered Pinkie sadly. “That’s a real bummer…” Sunset continued reading aloud, “However, I’ve got an idea to help us work around this limitation. After this message, I will list the sections I have already searched through, and I want you to memorize all of it. That way, when you next wake up earlier this morning again, you will not only rewrite your message to me, but also include the sections I had listed. That way, I’ll know which sections I had already searched in previous loops and thus can skip right over to essentially resume where I left off. With this system, hopefully it won’t take long before I can find something relevant to solving your temporal loop issue. Your friend, Princess Twilight Sparkle.” Sunset turned the page to look over the list that Princess Twilight had recorded of the sections of her library she had already searched through. It was certainly thorough, to say the least. Sunset sighed and noted, “Well, at least this won’t be a hopeless effort. I just need to not only rewrite my message to Princess Twilight the next morning, but also memorize this list tonight so I can include it in that message. Of course, there’s no telling how many more days I’ll have to go through with this before she eventually finds something helpful.” She closed her journal and sighed. “If she can find anything helpful…” “Look on the bright side,” said Pinkie with optimism. “Maybe tomorrow will be the day you get your answers.” “I sure hope so…” muttered Sunset as she stood up and began to make her way back to the campgrounds. Thanks to some help from her friends later that evening, Sunset was able to memorize the sections of Princess Twilight’s research, allowing her to add that list to her rewritten message the next morning. Unfortunately, the second day ended mostly the same as the first, which inevitably left Sunset with a second list of additional research material to memorize for the following morning. It had been a struggle to memorize that second list in addition to the first one, but she was able to be mostly confident in her accuracy as she included it with her rewritten message to Princess Twilight the following morning. On the third day of waiting, Sunset received a reply in her journal sometime around late afternoon — a few hours earlier than she had received the previous replies throughout the time loop, which immediately filled Sunset with optimism that, perhaps this time, Princess Twilight might have actually found something significant. With a smile on her face, Sunset immediately open her journal and began reading the most recent message. “Ooh! Ooh! What does it say?!” asked Pinkie eagerly, tossing aside the bag of potato chips she had been snacking on. “Did she figure it out?! Does she know what’s going on?!” Sunset kept her smile as she glanced at Pinkie, then turned her gaze down at the journal and read aloud, “Dear Sunset Shimmer. Taking into consideration the research you claim I have already done in the previous loop of this day, I concluded that I should skip further ahead and go straight to the restricted section of Canterlot Library. I’m sure you remember going there with me during that Memory Stone incident.” Sunset chuckled as she glanced over at Pinkie and remarked, “How could I not? She practically fell in love with the place, as if someone decided to let you run loose in a candy factory.” Pinkie gasped and excitedly exclaimed, “Me allowed to freely explore a candy factory?! That would be the best thing I could ever imagine!” Sunset giggled, the turned her gaze back down to the journal and continued reading aloud, “It seems my hunch this time was right, as it looks like you’ve found another long lost Equestrian artifact.” Sunset sighed and grumbled, “Lucky me…” “Eh, at least this means you’ve finally got an answer and don’t have to wait anymore,” noted Pinkie before taking a sip from her strawberry slush drink. “True…” acknowledged Sunset. She turned her gaze back down to the journal and continued reading aloud, “This artifact is called the Time Twirler. I don’t know how it found its way into the Lego World, but when activated, it has the power to loop time. What you’re experiencing isn’t simply magic run amok or a wish gone awry. Somepony is using the Time Twirler to cause this. I’ve used a copy-paste spell to record for you all the relevant information on this artifact over the following two pages. Please be sure to inform me once you’ve been able to locate and deactivate the Time Twirler, even if it takes you a few more loops of today to accomplish that. Your friend, Princess Twilight Sparkle.” Sunset turned the page and looked over the two pages of copied notes and diagrams describing the Time Twirler in full detail. The artifact appeared to be some sort of amulet shaped like a stopwatch with a large eye covering most of the face of it, and according to the diagrams, the artifact was activated by pressing the button on top, and that activation would be signified by the eye opening and a pair of golden fins flaring out the sides of it. “Okay, this is definitely promising,” noted Sunset with a smile as she showed those pages to Pinkie. “If we find whoever used the Time Twirler to start the loop, we’ll be able to end it for good!” She then slammed her journal shut and declared, “Gather the others and tell them we have a new mission.” “You got it, Sunset!” acknowledged Pinkie with a salute before she swiftly rushed off, spilling her half-full slush drink to the ground in the process. While she waited for her friends to arrive, Sunset decided to open her journal again and study the copied ancient notes and diagrams on the Time Twirler. Now that she finally had a promising lead to work with, she wanted to make sure she knew as much about it as possible before officially starting her investigation. As the sun began to set over the festival grounds and the sky turned to brilliant shades of orange and red, Sunset had just finished telling her friends about the Time Twirler and they were now walking around the area and observing their surroundings for anything suspicious. “So, uh… what exactly should we be on the lookout for?” asked Fluttershy. “Whoever has this Time Twirler artifact is the only one besides Sunset who isn’t in the same places doing the same things every day,” noted Twilight. “Either that, or any people who come into contact with them. After all, we would all be elsewhere doing something different had it not been for Sunset summoning us together to help her stop this time loop. Therefore, identifying multiple differences and tracing them back to a common source should provide us with our potential suspect.” “But if Sunset’s the only one of us experiencing the time loop, how would the rest of us be able to notice any differences?” Spike pointed out. Twilight held up her hand and was about to respond, only to suddenly realize the meaning behind Spike’s question. “Huh… that’s actually a good point,” she reluctantly acknowledged. Pinkie moved ahead to walk beside Sunset and asked, “So what do you think, Sunset? Have you noticed anyone who doesn’t belong? Anyone out of place? Anyone… evil?!” She pulled an evil-looking face as she spoke that last word. Sunset rubbed the back of her head and replied, “I don’t think so…” She let out a sigh of frustration. “How could I? Every day is the same!” “Every day’s the same…” sang two girls cheerfully as they happened to walk by the Equestria Girls. Sunset continued, “It goes round and round and— Wait. Did you girls hear that?” Sunset and her friends looked around in confusion. Before any of them could identify the two girls who had walked by, they saw someone else also walk by while cheerfully singing a song lyric. “Round and round and round and round…” sang the guy who Sunset quickly recognized as that paint balloon artist she and Pinkie had often encountered on previous loops. This time, he also happened to be wearing headphones over his ears. Sunset quickly caught up to that artist and snatched his headphones as she called out, “Hey! What are you listening to?” She held up one half of the headphones close to her ear and listened to the music playing through them. She couldn’t quite identify it, but somehow, the feminine vocalization she was hearing sounded remarkably familiar. The artist guy quickly swiped back his headphones and responded, “They say it’s the latest hit single from a band that’s begun to rise from its ashes.” He then placed his headphones back over his ears and made his way over towards the secondary performance stage a short distance away. Sunset looked over towards that secondary stage, where a small crowd had already gathered around and cheered with enthusiasm. Although the stage was currently obscured with some kind of green fog, she did hear the exact same feminine vocalizing as she had heard on those headphones, and some of the lyrics they slowly sang matched up with the theme from the brief bits of that song she had heard. So ordinary… stuck on repeat… Gotta find the passion, passion, passion… Sunset smiled and declared, “I think we’ve got a clue, girls.” She then led her friends towards the secondary performance stage. As soon as the Equestria Girls arrived at the back of the gathered crowd, they suddenly gasped in shock and huddled together, which caused them to unintentionally shove Sunset back behind them, leaving her unable to see what they were witnessing. “The festival brochure didn’t have them on the list of performing artists,” noted Twilight with concern. “They must’ve been a last-minute addition!” concluded Pinkie worriedly. “Who?” asked Sunset desperately as she struggled to see around her group of friends, only to get accidentally shoved back again as Fluttershy cowered fearfully behind the others. “But they lost their singing voices!” Rainbow Dash insisted. “They’ve gotta be using magic!” “That or vocal processin’,” Applejack pointed out. “They wouldn’t!” argued Rainbow Dash. She then rolled her eyes and grumbled, “Wait, what am I talking about? Of course they would.” “Who are you talking about?!” demanded Sunset as she decided to just shove her friends aside to get a good view of the stage. Once she finally got a glimpse of the figures emerging through the artificial fog, she gasped in shock. The trio who were performing on that stage may have been wearing unfamiliar outfits, but their skin color and the shape and color of their hair pieces left no question who those three girls really were. “The Dazzlings are back?!” asked Sunset in shock. Those three faces — and their outrageous hairstyles — left no doubt at all that it was indeed the Dazzlings, three former sirens from Equestria who had once tried to conquer the entire Lego World some time ago, only to be defeated by the Equestria Girls and not only lose their magical singing voices but also ended up being sent to prison supposedly for the rest of their lives. But right here and now, they were obviously not in jail, they seemed to have regained at least some of their singing talent, and even got some new outfits for this performance in front of an audience that seemingly didn’t care at all about their past misdeeds. Adagio Dazzle — the light yellow girl with orange hair tied back in a big mass of curls — had dark purple on her feet and upper legs, maroon on her arms and torso, light purple on the front of her torso under an open jacket, and a gold belt around her waist. Aria Blaze — the light violet girl with dark purple hair tied to the sides in two long pigtails — had magenta on her feet, dark purple on her legs, bright green on her torso and upper arms, and magenta with white dots on her lower arms and the front of her torso under an open jacket. Sonata Dusk — the light blue girl with medium blue hair tied back in a long ponytail — had turquoise on her feet, magenta on her torso, left arm, and the skirt around her upper legs, and a taco printed on the front of her torso and the sides of her skirt. And together, the three of them were performing a slow song with lyrics that Sunset found rather suspicious. It wasn’t long until the Dazzlings reached the end of their song. As the crowd cheered, Adagio sighed and rather tiredly stated, “That song’s called Find the Magic.” She then grumbled something under her breath as she held out her microphone and let it drop to the stage. The three former sirens smiled at the crowd, then turned to walk off the stage. “Seriously?” asked Sunset in disbelief. “The chord progression is kind of samey-samey,” noted Rarity. Sunset facepalmed and firmly stated, “And the Dazzlings are behind the time loop!” “Still no excuse for lazy songwriting,” Rarity slyly muttered with a smile as she rolled her eyes. “But what are they even doing out here anyway?” asked Spike. “I thought they were sent to jail for life.” “They were!” agreed Applejack, just as confused as Spike. “They were sent to Lego Maximum Security Prison. There’s no way a facility like that would ever allow ‘em outside its walls for whatever reason. This don’t make any sense.” “Was there some kind of jailbreak we were never told about?” asked Rainbow Dash. “Actually…” Twilight spoke up, quickly feeling rather self-conscious as all of her friends turned to her. “This was supposed to be kept strictly between myself, Sunset, and Celestia, but… as part of her ‘Redeemables’ project, Celestia had secretly arranged to have the Dazzlings transferred to Albatross Prison, just off the coast from Lego City. Her intent was to offer them an opportunity to join that project with a reward of being allowed to leave prison, much like how Sunset was originally given her second chance.” “And they actually agreed to that?” asked Fluttershy in shock and disbelief. “Well, not quite,” admitted Twilight. “Sonata and Aria both expressed interest in the offer, but would join only if their partners in the trio also agreed. Adagio, on the other hand, seemed more reluctant, and agreed only to consider the idea.” “In other words, the only reason they didn’t actually join the Redeemables project was ‘cause Adagio wasn’t on board with the idea?” asked Applejack. “Yeah, pretty much,” confirmed Sunset. “Despite their different attitudes and opinions, they practically see each other as family, so they’ll never do anything without each other. To put it bluntly, Adagio’s stubborn pride is really the only thing that prevented them from actually joining the project.” “Maybe she changed her mind and that’s why they’re now out of jail,” suggested Spike with a shrug. “Even if that were true,” Sunset pointed out, “if they’re using the Time Twirler, then they’re definitely betraying the trust that project demanded of them.” She sighed and grumbled, “I knew something like this would happen. I knew Celestia was making a big mistake believing that even they could earn our trust. This just proves they’ll never deserve that second chance.” “So what are we gonna do?” asked Rainbow Dash. Sunset watched as the villainous trio walked backstage through an opening in a short fence beside the stage, then a certain familiar security guard closed off the opening with a velvet rope. Is this guy pretty much the only security guard around here? thought Sunset in confusion for a moment. She quickly dismissed the question and considered her options. She then smiled and spoke up with determination, “Okay, new mission. We have to get backstage. We need to find the Time Twirler without them suspecting anything, so some of us will have to provide some sort of diversion while the rest of us search for that artifact. Once we find it, we can shut it off to end the loop.” “But our backstage passes don’t become valid until day two,” Twilight pointed out. “Since you’re stuck repeating day one, we’ll never have an opportunity to be permitted backstage.” Sunset sighed in frustration, then declared, “Then we’ll have to find some other way to get past that guard.” The group of friends turned to the security guard blocking the backstage entrance a short distance away, where a rather awkward teenage fanboy was trembling as he held up a poster of the Dazzlings. “I-I-I, uh, j-just wanna ask if I could, uh, g-get their autographs?” asked the fanboy nervously with a squeaky voice. “Beat it, kid,” scolded the guard with a stoic frown on his face as he shook his head. “These girls have a strict restraining order against all members of the public while they’re out on tour.” “Ah, yes, right,” acknowledged the awkward fanboy, sweating profusely as he nervously backed away. “S-S-Sorry for, uh, w-wasting your time.” He then tripped over his own feet and fell over backwards, accidentally crumpling his poster as he hit the ground. He quickly rolled over and staggered back onto his feet, whimpering as he stumbled away. Most of the Equestria Girls cringed and muttered various words of unease after witnessing that encounter. Pinkie Pie, on the other hand, was completely undeterred by the serious security guard standing in their way. With a smile of determination on her face, she began marching forward as she declared, “The weak shall crumble before me! I got this!” “Wait!” exclaimed Sunset as she grabbed Pinkie’s arm to hold her back. “If you wanna help, let me come up with a plan.” She released her grip on Pinkie and continued, “No distractions, no detours, no…” She trailed off as she watched Pinkie completely ignore her and resume marching towards the guard. “…walking off while I’m in the middle of talking to you… just like in almost every other loop I’ve been through already.” She sighed and facepalmed, then turned back to her friends and grumbled, “Now do you see why my patience for Pinkie has been wearing so thin lately?” Pinkie walked up to the security guard and began to closely observe him, studying his diligent stance from all angles, and even at times looking through a magnifying glass like some cliché investigator, all while the guard remained as unmoving as a statue. Finally, Pinkie casually walked over to the guard and innocently asked, “Last summer, weren’t you working at the, um…?” “Cat food convention?” finished the security guard, unamused. “Cat food convention!” stated Pinkie, as if she had come up with that answer herself. She nodded and contently continued, “Oh, that’s right! Mm-hmm! Uh, you were the guy who…?” “Yeah…” responded the guard sourly. “I. Got. FIRED!” he shouted that last word directly in Pinkie’s face. Pinkie flinched at the outburst, but quickly collected herself as she took a step back and innocently continued, “Because, uh… now, what happened again?” The Security guard let out a sigh of exasperation before he answered, “I tried taking a kitten home with me, all right? But it turns out, that’s against the rules!” Back with the rest of her friends, Sunset groaned in frustration and grumbled, “If she blows this thing, I’ll have to start this day all over again!” “Was it an orange cat?” asked Pinkie casually with a smile still on her face. “Tuxedo!” hollered the guard as he waved his arms around with clenched fists. “Ask me her name! See what happens!” “You’re pushing your luck too far, Pinkie!” cautioned Twilight worriedly. “Don’t do it, Pinkie!” warned Applejack with concern. “Bail, Pinkie! Bail!” Rainbow Dash cried out fearfully. But Pinkie behaved as if she had not heard any of her friends as she considered her next question and blissfully asked, “What was her name?” SLAM!! Once again, Sunset found herself facing the door out of the festival grounds with the familiar message of “EXIT ONLY! Trespassers will be tackled on sight,” on a decal stuck to that door. And thanks to her experiences in one of the earlier loops, she knew that message was not an empty threat. This time, however, Pinkie wasn’t the only one standing beside her for this outcome. All of the rest of her friends had also been kicked out, and they all looked down at the cut fragments of their festival bracelets scattered across the ground. “Wow, Pinkie,” remarked Sunset sourly with her arms crossed and a frown on her face. “Your actions managed to get all eight of us kicked out in one go. After four months of repeating this day, that’s actually a first.” Pinkie shamefully looked away as she groaned sadly and muttered, “I guess I don’t got this…” Sunset continued to glare at Pinkie for bringing such a disastrous end to the day, yet again. But when she glanced back at the rest of her friends standing behind her, she noticed many of them were shaking their heads in disapproval… and their gazes were on Sunset. Those resentful looks made her quickly realize she was once again being unfairly harsh to Pinkie. It certainly wasn’t the first time she felt bad about being hard on Pinkie for ruining this day, but now, after so many earlier loops of expressing indifference to her friend’s feelings, she just couldn’t bring herself to allow this loop to simply end without some attempt at reconciliation. As Pinkie whimpered with guilt, Sunset considered what she should say next. She smiled as a thought of optimism occurred to her, so she walked over to Pinkie and explained, “Maybe you don’t, but together, we do. For a time looper like me, today’s failure can be tomorrow’s success.” Pinkie slowly began to smile again as she remarked, “Yeah… I guess you’re right. The rest of us may start all over again, but at least you’ll remember which mistakes to not make the next time around.” “Exactly!” confirmed Sunset with a smile. “Thanks to you exposing that security guard’s weakness, we can use it to our advantage on the next loop.” She then turned back to the rest of her friends and asked, “Fluttershy, who did you leave to look after your pet shop while we’re out of town?” “My friend Tree Hugger,” answered Fluttershy. “We’ve known each other for years, so we trust each other very much.” “Give her a call right away,” requested Sunset confidently. “Ask if you have a kitten there that matches the description of the one that security guard said he wanted to take home with him. Also be sure to ask if she was busy with anything earlier today. If you have the type of kitten we need and your friend had time to spare earlier today, then on the next loop, I can ask you to call her to bring that kitten over here.” As Fluttershy nodded in agreement before she quickly pulled out her phone and began to make that call, Rainbow Dash smirked and playfully quipped, “Bribing the guard with a kitten? Looks like some of the old Sunset is starting to show through again.” “What can I say?” responded Sunset shamelessly with a shrug. “When I get determined enough to accomplish something, I’m willing to do whatever it takes, even if it means resorting to some underhanded tactics.” “And I can see you at least still have your journal with you,” noted Rarity as she pointed at the satchel slung over Sunset’s shoulder. “Perhaps you might wish to spend the last few hours of this day studying Princess Twilight’s message regarding the Equestrian artifact you’ll be searching for.” “That’s actually a pretty good idea,” agreed Sunset as she and her friends began walking towards the campgrounds. “Although I could simply message her on every loop to send me that research information — especially now that I know exactly what to look for — I’d rather not keep bothering her from whatever she’s been up to in Equestria.” “If it’s okay with you, I’d like to help you with memorizing that information,” suggested Twilight. “Sure, Twilight,” agreed Sunset with a smile. “After four months of this, I’ll take whatever help I can get.” Twilight then moved close to Sunset and quietly added, “Personally, I’m relieved this time loop will reset at least one more time, because now our ‘special assignment’ regarding the Dazzlings and the Redeemables project will go back to being a strict secret between us, as Celestia Playwell had insisted.” “True,” acknowledged Sunset. “Although seeing as it’s almost certain Pinkie will accompany me wherever I go, I may have to let her in on the secret again.” “Don’t worry, Sunset,” assured Pinkie. “As long as you tell me how super-duper important it’ll be keep that info super-secret, you can count on me to never say a word of it to anyone else.” “I sure hope so,” muttered Sunset, failing to hide the skepticism in her voice. “If my plan works and I can find and disable the Time Twirler, then the next loop will be the final one, which means whatever happens that time around will be what we’re stuck with once time starts going like normal again.” She paused before she uneasily added, “Now that I think about it, if the next loop of this day is really gonna be the last one, then I’d better make sure everything else around me goes perfectly — especially if we wanna watch PostCrush.” “Take it easy, Sunset,” advised Spike calmly as he place a hand on Sunset’s shoulder. “Focus only on the important mission. Try not to get distracted by any secondary goals.” Sunset smiled and responded, “Thanks, Spike. Sometimes, it’s good to a voice of reason like you around.” It was at this moment that Fluttershy finished her phone call. She put away her phone, then turned to Sunset and explained, “Tree Hugger checked the shop and said we do have a tuxedo kitten, whose name is Hattie. She also confirmed she didn’t have much to do this morning, so, hypothetically speaking, she could’ve had plenty of time to deliver that adorable kitty to us.” “So I guess that settles it,” declared Sunset with a smile of confidence. “As soon as I wake up in the morning, I’ll ask you to call Tree Hugger to bring the kitten named Hattie here to the music festival. Though to make sure the guard in question doesn’t catch on to our plan, It might be best to let you bring the kitten through a different security line than the one I’ll take, and then you can hand it over to me once we’re inside.” She let out a sigh, then spoke up, “Well, girls… wish me luck on the next loop.” Once the Equestria Girls arrived at their RV, they spent the last few hours of the day helping Sunset make her final preparations for the next repeat of day one, hopeful that their temporally trapped friend will finally be able to break herself free from that endless time loop. Morning arrived at the campgrounds just outside the Starswirled Music Festival. It was little more than an hour after sunrise, and by this point, Sunset Shimmer was the only one still asleep within the RV that she and her friends were using for their stay at the festival. As Sunset slept in her sleeping bag beside the window, her phone was lying beside her head on the pillow. At the moment the time became 7:00, the phone’s alarm went off by playing a song by PostCrush. Be the true… true, true original— Sunset quickly woke up and shut off her phone’s alarm. Remembering everything she had learned from the previous loop, she was now feeling very confident that, this time, she was finally going to be able to do something to end the time loop once and for all. As far as she was concerned, today was finally going to be her last time going through day one of the Starswirled Music Festival. Sunset climbed out of her sleeping bag, tossed off her pajamas, and slipped on that all-too familiar music festival outfit. She then walked out the door and around the front of the RV to join her friends, who were already gathered outside. Once again, Sunset saw all of her friends in their familiar starting locations and sharing the same conversations she had heard many times before. She tried to not pay attention to any of that and focus on starting her mission right away, but that caused her to not notice Rainbow Dash once again quickly run over and stop right behind her while carrying a large paddle with the Sonic Rainbooms band symbol printed on it. “Starswirled day one! Come and get it!” Rainbow excitedly declared as she swung the paddle around, accidentally smacking Sunset’s rear end. “Ow…” muttered Sunset flatly as she glanced back with a mildly annoyed expression at Rainbow. “Oops.” Rainbow chuckled sheepishly and responded, “Sorry. I’ll be more careful next time.” With that inconvenience behind her, Sunset walked over towards the heating table as she once again heard the same old conversation between her friends gathered there. “So Ah says to Big Mac, ‘Get your own chicken coop!’” spoke Applejack. Fluttershy happened to be in the middle of taking a sip of her orange juice when she heard the end of that joke, so she ended up doing a spit-take directly onto the front of Applejack’s torso before beginning to laugh. “Hey! Watch it!” complained Applejack. Fluttershy laughed for a little bit before she calmed down enough to respond, “Sorry. It’s just that one had animals in it.” Applejack grabbed a nearby napkin and started drying herself off as she grumbled, “Well next time, try not to spray it at someone.” “Ooh! Ooh! How about this one?!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie excitedly as she suddenly bounced over to where most of her friends were seated. “What do you call a PostCrush fan with three eyes?” Sunset chose this moment to step forward and spoke up, “Sorry to cut short your jokes, but I need to inform you of something very important. Long story short, I’ve been stuck in a time loop where I’ve been repeating this day for months now. The good news is that, thanks to a message from Princess Twilight, I now know that it’s the result of a magical artifact from Equestria called the Time Twirler. You girls still with me?” There was a moment of silence as all of Sunset’s friends stared at her in confusion. Eventually, Applejack turned to Twilight and asked, “Time loop?” Twilight responded, “It’s possible a snag in—” “—the fabric of spacetime could cause a temporal point — i.e., this day — to fold in on itself and thereby repeat,” Sunset quickly finished. Twilight was momentarily speechless before she noted, “That’s exactly what I was about to say…” “Because I’ve already heard you say it dozens of time already,” added Sunset flatly. Twilight was stunned in silence for a moment before she conceded, “You really have been repeating this day a lot.” With that clarification taken care of, Sunset continued explaining, “The good news is that in the previous loop, we were able to find a potential suspect. We also came up with a plan on how to reach them and hopefully retrieve the Time Twirler from them.” She turned to Fluttershy and swiftly requested, “Fluttershy, call your friend Tree hugger and ask her to bring the tuxedo kitten named Hattie right here.” “Um, okay…” responded Fluttershy with confusion. “Any, um, particular reason why?” “Let’s just say I know someone who’d be very happy to adopt that cute little kitten,” answered Sunset cryptically. “Also, once that kitten is here, do not bring it through the same security line as the one I’ll be taking. Trust me, the plan will be ruined if a certain one of those security guards sees that kitten this early in the day.” “Uh… I guess I could do all of that,” agreed Fluttershy somewhat reluctantly. “I’m not sure why you want me to do those things, but if you’ve really been repeating this day so many times, then I’m sure you have your reasons.” “Believe me, this is the best plan we could come up with for these circumstances,” assured Sunset. “You even confirmed on the previous loop that you should be fully capable of completing this task for me.” “If you’re sure about that,” muttered Fluttershy with uncertainty as she pulled out her phone and began to make the call. “What about the rest of us?” asked Applejack as she and the others still had their attention on Sunset. “If all goes well,” replied Sunset, “then this could be the last time I’ll have to repeat this day, so your girls can all just go ahead and do what you were already planning to do. I’ll explain everything when we meet back here at the end of the day.” Pinkie Pie leaned close to Sunset and asked, “Are we still gonna be able to watch PostCrush together tonight?” Sunset pondered that scenario for a moment before she smiled and replied, “As long as you do everything I ask you to do and not get in my way for any silly reason, then yes, it should be possible for us to have just enough time to spare for PostCrush.” “Yes!” cheered Pinkie excitedly with a leap. She then gave a salute and enthusiastically declared, “I promise I won’t let you down, Sunset!” “I sure hope you’ll actually mean it, this time,” muttered Sunset as she walked over to the available stack of familiar blueberry pancakes to grab some breakfast. Although she was wise enough to not speak up about her misgivings, the fact remained that the stakes were now too high for any of Pinkie’s antics to disrupt her plans. For this time in particular, failure was not an option. Sunset went through the same old entry routine she had done for much of the last four months. She followed her friends to the main entrance to the festival grounds — somehow still managing to step into that same old mud puddle along the way — and waited with Pinkie in the slow-moving center security line. This time, Sunset was pleased to see Fluttershy take notice of that and made sure to wait in a different line. The shy girl didn’t quite reach the front of her line when she got the call from her friend to pick up the special delivery, so she had to give up her place in line to retrieve the kitten. Sunset had just reached the front of her line when she saw Fluttershy return and had even thought ahead to have the basket covered so that no one — except of course the other security guard she had to be inspected by — could know for sure what she had really brought with her. Finally, once they all had made it through security, Fluttershy handed the kitten in a blanket-covered basket over to Sunset, then went on her way to proceed with her day as originally planned. Sunset didn’t want to take any chances, so, much like with the previous loop, she chose to spend most of the day just waiting around in the lounge tent. Although she gave Pinkie permission to go out and do other fun things on her own, the pink party girl insisted on sticking with her, regardless of whatever the two of them would do. Although Sunset got the feeling that it didn’t seem fair that her friend chose to sacrifice any opportunities for having fun, she remained convinced that her mission was too important to prioritize anything over it. At least having that cute kitten with them helped to keep them entertained a little while they waited for their moment of opportunity. Eventually, as the afternoon gave way to evening under the setting sun, Sunset was finally ready to move out and put the plan into action. Pinkie naturally volunteered to assist, and so followed her over to the secondary performance stage. Of course, with this being a new loop, Pinkie had no idea who the suspects were until she saw them performing on that stage in front of a small crowd. “The Dazzlings?!” asked Pinkie in shock. “But I thought they were in jail! How are they out here?!” “Remember when Celestia Playwell assigned us with that ‘Redeemables’ project?” explained Sunset. “Well, in addition to those five we all know about, she had also secretly arranged to have them transferred to Albatross Prison near Lego City so she could send me and Twilight on that ‘special assignment’ to secretly extend that same offer to the three of them.” “And they accepted?!” asked Pinkie, further surprised by that additional revelation. “Actually, not quite,” replied Sunset. “For them, they said it had to be a three-way mutual agreement, and while Sonata and Aria were open to the offer, Adagio had little interest and agreed only to accept the information folder we had to deliver to her, claiming she would consider her options.” “Maybe Adagio changed her mind,” suggested Pinkie. “Why else would they suddenly be out here, outside of jail?” “Whatever the reason,” stated Sunset bitterly, “if they’re using the Time Twirler, then they definitely no longer deserve any hope for a second chance.” It wasn’t long before the Dazzlings reached the end of their song. Once again, Adagio expressed little enthusiasm as she stated the name of their song, dropped the microphone, and walked off the stage in front of her two companions. They then headed into the backstage area, which that familiar security guard blocked off with a velvet rope. And once again, that security guard harshly denied entry for the awkward teenage fanboy who desired an autograph, causing the later to fearfully stumble away. Sunset held up the basket in her hands as she turned to Pinkie with a confident smirk and asked, “You ready for this?” Pinkie swiftly removed the blanket that covered the kitten in that basket before she proudly confirmed, “Operation: Kitty Bribery is a go!” Sunset chuckled in amusement as she began to walk towards the security guard standing between her and the Dazzlings. She and Pinkie walked with confidence, not even bothering a glance at the retreating fanboy as he stumbled past them. The moment that security guard’s eyes fell on that kitten being carried by Sunset, his diligent stance suddenly fell as he gasped and his jaw dropped. He was rendered completely speechless and strongly overcome with emotion as he watched such an adorable little kitten being carried directly towards him. While Sunset visibly kept her cool as she approached the guard, she felt quite amused to see one of the toughest guys in the festival area practically lose it at the sight of such a simple yet adorable gift. Once she reached the guard, she held out the basket towards him and casually said, “Say hello to Hattie the kitty cat. He’s been looking for a good home to adopt him, and I have a feeling the two of you will be perfect for each other.” The guard slowly reached forward and gently lifted the kitten out of the basket. Although his sunglasses obscured his eyes, the tears of happiness rolling down his cheeks gave away just how overwhelmed he was feeling in this moment. “Hello, Mister Kitty,” he cooed as he held the kitten close to his face. The kitten reciprocated the affection by licking away his tears. Sunset set down the basked and calmly stated, “If you spend all your time keeping people out, how are you ever gonna let anybody in… to your heart?” “Oh, gosh…” he whimpered as he wiped away his tears. “Y-You have no idea how much this means to me…” He then removed the velvet rope behind him and stepped aside. “Go ahead and go backstage, the both of you’s.” “Really?” asked Pinkie cheerfully as Sunset stepped through the opened entryway. “Wow, thanks!” She followed Sunset into the backstage area, then quietly remarked to her friend, “Great idea, Sunset!” “We came up with it together,” noted Sunset with a friendly smile. “It was your discovery in the previous loop that made today’s success possible.” The two girls came around a corner and soon found themselves approaching a rather modest van that appeared to have seen better days and with a rather crude paint job across the sides. Before either of them had a chance to say anything, the van’s side door suddenly began to slide open. Sunset reacted quickly by pulling Pinkie with her to hide behind some large boxes sitting beside the van. Once they were out of sight, they sat still and listened in on the people emerging from that run-down van. “Ooh, that was our best show yet!” cheered Sonata. “The loop is really working,” remarked Aria. “Of course it’s working,” noted Adagio smugly. “It was my idea.” “I knew it!” whispered Sunset. “I bet they’re hiding the Time Twirler somewhere in their tour bus.” “Nice thinking,” agreed Pinkie quietly. She then peeked her head above the boxes and noted, “Actually, it looks more like a tour van to me.” Sunset swiftly yanked Pinkie back down to keep her out of sight. “Did you hear something?” asked Sonata. “Hey! Where’d that security guy run off to?” Aria spoke up irritably. “Ugh! I swear, the law enforcement in this world is an absolute joke,” grumbled Adagio, followed by the noise of the van door sliding shut. Sunset carefully watched around the side of the boxes as the three former sirens walked away from the van and back through the entryway they had recently passed through. Once she was confident they were far enough away to no longer notice them, she stood up and quickly walked over to the van. As she opened the side door, she turned back to Pinkie and ordered, “Stay here and stand guard. If you see anyone coming, sound the alarm.” “Sure thing, Sunset!” agreed Pinkie with a salute and a smile. “I promise to keep an eye out for anything and everything.” “No, Pinkie,” Sunset firmly stated. “A regular promise isn’t gonna cut it this time. I want you to Pinkie promise that you won’t leave your post.” Pinkie went through the usual gestures of her special promise and declared, “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stuck a cupcake in my eye!” “Good,” said Sunset with a nod of approval. “Hopefully, this won’t take too long.” She then pulled the sliding door shut. Pinkie then began marching around the van as she firmly muttered to herself, “No one’s gonna get by me! No way, no how! Nuh-uh! Nope! Not at all!” Meanwhile, the three Dazzlings walked further into the festival grounds. However, they didn’t get close to anything of interest before Adagio suddenly stopped and asked, “Wait… Did one of you remember to take the bread out of the toaster?” “It’s not my job to not start fires,” complained Aria as she glared at Sonata. Sonata scoffed and retorted, “How was I supposed to know you can’t put tacos in a toaster?” Adagio rolled her eyes as she groaned and grumbled, “You two can be so annoying at times. We’re going back. Looks like we’ll have to cut this one short.” She turned around and began walking back to their van. “Aww, bummer…” moaned Sonata in disappointment as she and Aria followed after Adagio. Back at the van, Pinkie continued to diligently patrol around the van as she proudly muttered, “Keepin’ watch, that’s what I—” She paused as she suddenly began to smell a rather sweet and delicious aroma. “What’s that smell?” she asked as she sniffed the air. “Could it be?” She glanced over towards the festival grounds and gasped as her eyes fell on a certain specific cart not far away. “Puffed Pasty’s exclusive star-crusted, cinnamon-dipped churros!” Her mouth watered at the sight and smell of those irresistible treats, but then she quickly frowned. “Now’s probably not the best time to go get one,” she reluctantly acknowledged. She then smiled and noted, “On the other hand, if I get two, then Sunset could have one with me.” She glanced back at the van where Sunset was still busy searching, then immediately snapped out of it and scolded herself, “No! I will not give in!” Pinkie stood in place and turned away from the churro cart, but then remembered she was supposed to be keeping watch, which meant looking around at everything away from the van… which included those very tempting churros. She soon found herself slowly moving towards that cart, then immediately backed off and scolded herself, “No, Pinkie! No! Don’t fall for it!” She attempted to resume her patrol, but the instant her eyes fell on that churro cart again, she drooled and slurped as she drifted towards that source of immense temptation. She quickly backed off again and sharply scolded herself, “No! No! You Pinkie promised! Don’t do it!” But just as quickly, she whimpered as she was unable to keep her eyes away from that specific cart. Pinkie’s mental tug-o-war between her promise to Sunset and her cravings for churros endured for several more seconds. Ultimately, she glanced around in all directions and saw absolutely no one was nearby or even seemed to have any interest of approaching the old van. “Just a quick in-and-out,” she assured herself. “No one will even notice.” With her mind finally made up, Pinkie left her post and swiftly made her way towards the churro cart. Only seconds later, the Dazzlings appeared from around the stage and made their way back to their tour van. Inside the van, Sunset extensively searched every nook and cranny she could think of, but was unable to find any trace of the Time Twirler. Instead, all she was discovering was that the interior of this van was covered in various scuffs and stains, full of cheap products, and had a rather offending odor. Hardly a life of luxury for those three, that’s for sure, she thought. As Sunset searched through the kitchen section of the van, she pushed a toaster aside, only to get startled when a pair of blackened slices of toast suddenly popped out. “Who leaves toast in a toaster? Honestly…” she grumbled to herself. Suddenly, the van door slid open and Sunset found herself directly facing the three former sirens, and when they saw the intruder inside their van, their expressions were furious. “Don’t even think about eating our toast, Sunset Shimmer!” warned Adagio as she pointed at the intruder in their van. Sunset chuckled sheepishly. “I, uh, don’t think you’ll have to be concerned about that,” she noted awkwardly as she gestured at the toaster. When the three former sirens saw the charred black toast within that toaster, Aria growled and turned to Sonata. “What did I just say about not starting fires?” she grumbled. “Well I’m not the one who prefers her toast extra crispy,” argued Sonata. While Sunset had her attention on the Dazzlings confronting her, her gaze drifted past them towards an all-too familiar churro cart… with Pinkie Pie standing right in front of it with a blissful smile on her face. Sunset growled in frustration and grumbled, “Should’ve known Pinkie would do this to me…” “What are you doing on our bus?” accused Adagio. Recognizing her original plan to be stealthy and discrete was no longer possible, Sunset quickly decided to change tactics to regain the upper hand. She smiled and smugly replied, “Sorry, not sorry, Adagio, but it’s time to take this track off repeat. I heard you admit the time loop was your idea.” “Time loop?” asked Adagio in confusion. “Where’d you get that idea? We looped a vocal track.” She and her two companions laughed together at Sunset’s misguidance. Sunset was undeterred, and with the Dazzlings momentarily distracted, she took immediate advantage of this opportunity by reaching forward and grasping Adagio’s wrist. “Hey!” protested Adagio. “What are you doing?!” As soon as that contact was made, Sunset’s body stiffened and her eyes glowed white as she began to look into Adagio Dazzle’s memories. The memory Sunset witnessed occurred within Albatross Prison. This was most likely sometime after she and Twilight had delivered their offer of inviting the Dazzlings to join the Redeemables project, because she had been told during her visit there that Adagio had stubbornly refused to leave her cell for any reason ever since she and the other two were transferred there, and this memory began with Adagio walking down a hallway with a look of pride on her face. Adagio soon arrived at the prison’s mess hall, where many inmates were currently gathered for lunch. It didn’t take long for many of them to turn their attention towards her as she made her way between the tables and benches spread out across the room. “Hey, check it out,” called out one inmate. “Looks like cheese puff decided to finally come crawling out of her cage.” “Didn’t think that wuss would ever have the guts to do that,” mocked another inmate. Yet another inmate began to closely follow Adagio and asked, “So now that you’re outta your cell, how’s about I take you to my cell an’ show you a good time, eh?” Adagio immediately stopped walking. Many of the inmates watching her quickly grinned with malicious intent. After standing still for a few seconds, she then suddenly spun around and swiftly kicked that stalking inmate right between his legs. The inmate immediately grasped his groin as he grunted in pain and crumpled to the ground. “Mommy…” he whimpered with a suddenly squeaky high voice. With a smile of satisfaction on her face, Adagio turned her attention to the rest of the surrounding inmates and asked, “Who’s next?” The other inmates quickly averted their gazes away from her and pretended to focus on their meals. Adagio’s smug smile widened as she concluded, “My thoughts exactly…” With that much-needed boost to her self-esteem, she resumed her confident march through the mess hall until she arrived at the table where her two sisters, Aria and Sonata, were seated. Sonata had a plate full of sushi in front of her, while Aria’s lunch consisted of two slices of pizza with toppings of sausage and bacon. Both of them paused eating their meals as they watched the leader of their trio sit down across from them at the same table. The other inmates who also happened to be seated at that table — some of whom had been eyeing those other two girls with malicious intent — quickly got up and moved to sit at any of the other tables, though preferably as far away as possible. “Boy, Adagio, you sure do know how to make a statement,” quipped Aria. “I’ll say!” agreed Sonata. “A lot of these prison guys are just the worst. About time someone showed those creeps not to mess with us.” Aria glared at Sonata and noted, “I literally get payed to beat the crud outta some of those creeps.” “Yeah, but you like to make your fights last long to make sure they’re hurting all over,” Sonata pointed out. “Adagio just dropped that guy in one move and now suddenly no one wants to be anywhere near her.” She grabbed one of her pieces of sushi and tossed it in her mouth. Once she finished that bite, she turned to Adagio and added, “By the way, I haven’t seen you at all since we first got here. It’s so nice to see the three of us are finally together again!” “Yeah, what made you suddenly decide to come out of hiding?” asked Aria as she turned to Adagio and raised an eyebrow. “You finally done moping over what we lost?” “Brooding, not moping,” clarified Adagio. “And to answer your question, I think I need to say no more than mention a certain gift that I’m sure the two of you also received from those who brought us down.” “Oh yeah, that offer from the LEGO Team,” noted Sonata. “Aria and I told them we’d join it only if you agreed to join as well.” She gasped as a thought crossed her mind, then asked, “Have you decided to go for it?” “No,” replied Adagio. “Not yet. I’ve been considering some… other options.” “What do you have in mind?” asked Aria, mildly interested. Adagio glanced around at all the other inmates gathered in the mess hall, still eying her very warily. She turned back to her two sisters and stated, “We’ll discuss this later in private.” Sunset watched the memory continue to later meetings between the three former sirens. Adagio’s first priority was to restore some dignity to the three of them as singers and musical artists. Although their defeat at the hands of the Equestria Girls had robbed them of their magically enhanced voices, they had been able to slowly improve their singing talent through natural practicing like any ordinary person, though it was still a far cry from what they were once capable of. Adagio eventually came up with the idea to utilize technology to make up for their natural limitations, ultimately becoming perfected through vocal processing. The next step was to bring their new musical talent out to an audience willing to listen to them. Due to Albatross Prison being not quite as strict as Lego Maximum Security Prison had been, they were able to obtain permission from the warden to occasionally venture outside the prison, albeit under strong surveillance to ensure they were doing exactly what they said they would be doing. First, they were granted access to the equipment necessary for their vocal processing efforts, as well as record the few new songs they had written to help raise awareness among potential audiences. Next, thanks to some connections with prison fixer Blue Whittaker, they were able to obtain a van that was still in fairly decent shape to be used as transport, to which they applied a custom paint job, though they had to leave the engine completely stock to appease the prison surveillance team. They also got in touch with a professional tailor to provide them with an entirely new set of stage performance outfits, since they certainly didn’t want to do any shows while dressed in prison attire. The last thing they needed was a venue to perform at, but thanks to their reputation of attempting to take over the Lego World, that was understandably the most difficult task. Their lucky break came only yesterday, when one band scheduled to perform near the end of day one of the Starswirled Music Festival suddenly had to pull out, and with no one else stepping in to fill the opening, the Dazzlings were allowed to perform at the festival. Yet, despite seeing every aspect of the Dazzlings’ efforts to restore their dignity and build a better reputation, not once did Sunset ever see any sign or mention of the Time Twirler. In fact, just like practically everyone else at the music festival, they were completely unaware that this day had been repeating for over four months, and therefore, they were not responsible for causing the time loop. Sunset’s body relaxed and her eyes returned to normal as her glimpse into Adagio’s memories came to an end. With a shameful look on her face, she reluctantly acknowledged, “You’re telling the truth…” “Of course I am!” insisted Agadio as she yanked her arm out of Sunset’s grasp. “But the lyrics of your song, ‘Every day is the same…’” Sunset pointed out in confusion. “That’s about being stuck in this miserable plastic block world with no magic or hope of ever returning to Equestria,” grumbled Adagio sourly. “And by the way,” added Aria, “if there’s Equestrian magic afoot here, we call dibs.” “I just don’t understand how you three can be allowed to roam so freely outside of prison,” muttered Sunset as she rubbed her forehead. “Oh, we’re still very much prisoners,” Adagio irritably pointed out. She and her two companions spun around and raised their right legs, revealing the three of them had a small gadget with a blinking red light attached to their ankles. “Tracking devices,” noted Sunset in astonishment. “Courtesy of the surveillance team that must closely monitor our every move whenever we wish to travel,” explained Adagio as the three of them spun around to face Sunset again. “The official policy is that if any of us make any attempt to remove or suppress them, then all members of every form of law enforcement will be instantly permitted to use lethal force against us. As much as we hate this place, none of us have a death wish.” “I thought if anyone would wanna be able to redo the day and fix their mistakes, it’s you three,” muttered Sunset. “We made the mistake of using our powers to manipulate the Lego World,” Adagio sharply responded, “and we’ve paid the price for it… with our magic!” “Unless you count the magic of vocal processing,” Sonata suddenly cut in. “Which I don’t!” snapped Adagio. She took a moment to take a deep breath to calm herself down, then continued, “What I’m saying is we already get a do-over with every day. It’s called living life.” “You should try it sometime,” mocked Sonata, to which the three former sirens laughed at Sunset’s expense. “I can’t!” Sunset shot back. “Poor Sunset Shimmer,” mocked Aria. “Are you mad?” “You don’t understand!” Sunset furiously responded. “I don’t get a new day, okay?! I get this day forever! Nothing changes! I can’t tell you how sick I am of Pinkie Pie constantly running off on me to get churros! One way or another, those stinkin’ churros always seem to ruin my day! I HATE THEM!!” That outburst somehow managed to actually startle the Dazzlings a little. Not much, but just enough for them to take a step back, only to bump into someone behind them. They moved aside and discovered Pinkie Pie, the apparent source of Sunset’s frustrations, was standing right there and holding a plate full of churros. “Oh…” muttered Pinkie in shock. “I, uh… just wanted to say the Dazzlings are back…” Without taking her gaze off Sunset, she slowly backed up to a nearby trashcan and dumped the whole tray of churros into it as she awkwardly continued, “…but I see you see they see you seeing them, a-and you’ve seen me, too, so, um… s-see ya.” She then turned away and began fleeing as she tearfully added, “That’s a cool tour bus, by the way!” Sunset was devastated to see Pinkie feel so hurt by her outburst, so she ran a few steps after her and called out, “No! Pinkie! I didn’t mean it!” “If this day’s always the same,” mocked Adagio, “maybe you’re the one who needs to change.” The three Dazzlings laughed at Sunset’s misfortune one last time as they climbed into their tour van. Sunset just stood still as she glanced back and watched the trio enter their van, start up the engine, and then begin to drive away… followed by at least three black cars with tinted windows that had been hiding within the foliage at the edge of the surrounding forest. They sure weren’t kidding about being under immense surveillance, she thought. Now that she stood completely alone, Sunset felt absolutely ashamed of what had just happened. This day had started out so promising with a seemingly foolproof plan, but not only did her main objective turn out to be a false lead, she had also seriously hurt Pinkie’s feelings. While it was hardly the first loop to end with Pinkie’s feelings being hurt due to Sunset’s actions, this incident really hit Sunset because she had been so painfully blunt to Pinkie without even realizing it. As she approached the trashcan where Pinkie had disposed of those churros, Sunset sighed in disappointment, then swiftly kicked that can over, spilling its contents across the ground. “Stupid,” she scolded herself bitterly. Later that evening, Sunset returned to the RV at the campgrounds, where most of her friends were seated around the heating table and roasting marshmallows over it. Seated at a nearby picnic table was a still sobbing Pinkie Pie being comforted by Twilight and Fluttershy. As she walked, Sunset continued to feel horrible for her recent outburst against Pinkie, and what she saw waiting for her return did little to make her feel any better. Rainbow Dash placed her roasted marshmallow on a graham cracker and removed it from the skewer she held when she noticed Sunset’s arrival. “There she is,” she spoke up in a tone of disapproval as the others also turned to see their friend walking towards them. Sunset sighed in resignation and shamefully muttered, “Don’t bother telling me, girls. I know I messed up badly…” She sat down at one of the available seats around the heating table and turned to face Pinkie. “I’m sorry for what I said back there, Pinkie.” “It’s okay,” responded Pinkie tearfully as she continued sobbing. “I deserved it for breaking my Pinkie promise…” As Fluttershy hugged Pinkie and gently patted her back, Twilight turned to Sunset and calmly asked, “Sunset, what did you do?” Sunset let out another sigh before she explained, “The suspects we were after were the Dazzlings — long story for how and why they were out here. I told Pinkie to keep watch while I searched their van for the Time Twirler, even insisting that she Pinkie promise to not leave her post for any reason except to warn me of their return. Instead, she ran off to grab herself a bunch of churros while I was left to confront the Dazzlings on my own.” “It’s true!” confessed Pinkie tearfully. “I broke a Pinkie promise! My life has lost all meaning!” She bawled loudly into Fluttershy’s shoulder as the shy girl continued to futilely comfort her. Sunset buried her face in her hands as she grumbled, “I made her Pinkie promise specifically in the hope that, for once, she would not be tempted to once again ruin my day by going after those blasted churros, but it seems that not even the almighty Pinkie promise could overcome that…” After hearing both sides of the incident, the rest of the group were now starting to feel bad for both Pinkie and Sunset, though they remained convinced that it was no excuse for Sunset’s outburst against Pinkie. As Pinkie sniffed back a few tears, she asked, “Did you at least convince the Dazzlings to break the time loop?” Sunset remained silent for a few seconds before she shamefully answered, “They never had the Time Twirler. They had nothing to do with the time loop. Whoever’s causing this whole thing, it’s not them.” “Oh…” mumbled Pinkie sadly in response. “Well… I guess it’s for the best. I sure wouldn’t wanna remember any of this.” She sniffed back some more tears. “You deserve a better friend than me. You deserve to have a good day, Sunset.” Sunset turned away from Pinkie and stared down at the heating table as she muttered, “So do you, Pinkie…” As Sunset thought about that last statement, a realization slowly occurred to her. For almost every single previous loop of this day, she had been mainly concerned about achieving the best day possible for herself. Until now, it had never crossed her mind that perhaps she should use her experiences in the time loop to instead make this a better day for her friends — especially Pinkie Pie. “So, uh… now what?” asked Spike. Sunset glanced around at her friends, then turned to Applejack and asked, “You missed out on watching Dirk Thistleweed because the crowd got too rowdy and stomped on your foot, correct?” “Uh… yes?” replied Applejack uneasily. Sunset turned to Rarity and stated, “You purchased a faux suede jacket, only to have it quickly ruined by a bunch of kids playing with squirt guns.” “Indeed, such a tragedy,” confirmed Rarity. Sunset next turned to Rainbow Dash and added, “You wanted to convince the festival’s manager to give our band a gig on day two, but he rejected your request due to a number of bad moves on your part.” Rainbow Dash rubbed the back of her head and looked away as she awkwardly responded, “I didn’t think it went that badly, but when you put it that way…” Sunset then turned back to Twilight and noted, “You ended your day at the festival early because you accidentally dropped your phone into a barrel of water, which prevented you from accessing the carefully planned schedule you had made for yourself.” Twilight sighed and shamefully admitted, “It’s true.” Sunset next glanced at Fluttershy and pointed out, “You were so terrified of catching the attention of a crowd that you refused to do any activities, and spent the whole day with Spike just wandering around and watching things.” Fluttershy said nothing as she hesitantly nodded her head. “And I’m sure I don’t need to go over what Pinkie’s day was like,” finished Sunset. “What about me?” asked Spike. Just then, the marshmallow he was roasting suddenly caught on fire. He yelped in panic and started waving the skewer around in an effort to put out the fire. Instead, the smoldering treat flung off the skewer and splattered against Rarity, who yelled out in horror at seeing her expensive jacket ruined by the gooey mess. Sunset pointed at that flaming marshmallow and casually replied, “That, right there…” “What are ya gettin’ at, Sunset?” asked Applejack. For the first time since she arrived that evening, Sunset smiled as she replied, “Let’s just say I’ve finally learned to look at things from a different point of view.” “But what about finding the Time Twirler and stopping the time loop?” asked Twilight. “I’ll figure it out sooner or later,” assured Sunset as she stood up and began walking towards the RV. “For now, I’m gonna do what I should’ve done from the very beginning.” She then opened the door and stepped inside. As Sunset started getting ready to go to sleep, she was already thinking of all the things she was going to say and do differently on the next loop to provide a much better experience for not just Pinkie, but for all of her friends. Although she still had no clue who might be using the Time Twirler, she decided to set aside that objective for now. Instead, her new goal was to fulfill her original wish before this whole time loop ever started, and that was for her and Pinkie to share the best day ever and finish it off by watching the live performance of PostCrush together. Author's Note Looking back, I probably should've divided this chapter into two separate chapters. However, if I only now tried adding an additional chapter to this story, it would end up throwing off my schedule rather significantly. Besides, at least I managed to get it finished (albeit literally just last night, after working on that Word Document for a total of over fifty hours throughout the past two weeks), so I might as well just post it as is. As I mentioned in the Redeemables short story, more would be revealed about the Dazzlings during their appearance in this story, so that's why I included a flashback scene when Sunset checked Adagio's memories.
Best Day EverChapter 6 Best Day Ever Morning arrived at the campgrounds just outside the Starswirled Music Festival. It was little more than an hour after sunrise, and by this point, Sunset Shimmer was the only one still asleep within the RV that she and her friends were using for their stay at the festival. As Sunset slept in her sleeping bag beside the window, her phone was lying beside her head on the pillow. At the moment the time became 7:00, the phone’s alarm went off by playing a song by PostCrush. Be the true… true, true original— Sunset quickly woke up and shut off her phone’s alarm. For the first time since her very first run through this day, she had a genuinely positive smile on her face. After so many loops with selfish desires and frustrating setbacks, she had decided that she was going to spend the entirety of this loop on nothing more than to simply make this the best day she could for her friends — especially Pinkie Pie. As far as she was concerned, there was a good chance this would be that best day ever she had long since been looking forward to. Sunset jumped out of her sleeping bag, tossed off her pajamas, and slipped on her special outfit for the music festival. She then walked out the door and around the front of the RV to join her friends, who were already gathered outside. At this moment, Twilight, Fluttershy, and Applejack were seated around the RV’s heating table as they ate breakfast, while Rarity and Spike were seated at a nearby picnic table as Spike demonstrated some of his beatboxing skills. Rarity rolled her eyes and grumbled, “Ugh, I shall never understand the appeal of beatboxing.” Spike kept his smile as he shrugged and remarked, “Eh, to each their own.” As Sunset listened to Rarity and Spike, she also watched as Rainbow Dash quickly ran over and stopped right behind her while carrying a large paddle with the Sonic Rainbooms band symbol printed on it. “Starswirled day one! Come and get it!” Rainbow excitedly declared as she swung the paddle around. This time, Sunset reacted quickly by swiping that paddle right out of Rainbow’s hands as it swung close to her. “Hey!” protested Rainbow. Sunset decided to show off a little by twirling the paddle around for a few seconds, then swung it around and moved as if she was about to swiftly strike Rainbow right in the head with it. Rainbow immediately yelped and flinched, but when she felt no impact at all, she opened her eyes and saw that Sunset had stopped the paddle just inches away from her face. Sunset smirked as she flipped the paddle around and offered it back to Rainbow. Rainbow Dash chuckled sheepishly and stated, “I’ll, uh… I’ll be more careful next time.” She gently took back her paddle, then turned and walked away. With the first of many previous nuisances successfully averted, Sunset next turned her attention to the rest of her friends gathered around the heating table. As she heard Applejack speaking, she gently grabbed Fluttershy from behind and carefully turned her around in her seat so that she was now facing towards the right of where she had been previously. “So Ah says to Big Mac, ‘Get your own chicken coop!’” spoke Applejack. Fluttershy happened to be in the middle of taking a sip of her orange juice when she heard the end of that joke, so she ended up doing a spit-take out into the open grass before beginning to laugh. She soon calmed down a little and remarked, “Oh, that’s a good one, Applejack, because it has animals in it.” “Ooh! Ooh! How about this one?!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie excitedly as she suddenly bounced over to stand beside where Applejack was seated. “What do you call a PostCrush fan with three eyes?” From where she stood behind Fluttershy, Sunset cheerfully answered, “You call her Pinkie Pie, because your name is spelled with three ‘I’s!” She and Pinkie then reached forward to hug each other and twirled around as they giggled together. Fluttershy took a moment to think about the meaning behind that joke, then smiled and remarked, “Oh, I get it. It’s a pun.” She then giggled in amusement. Sunset released her hug with Pinkie and then walked over to the picnic table where a stack of blueberry pancakes with maple syrup was available. As she gathered her breakfast, she glanced back and asked, “Hey, Twilight? Is it okay if I borrow your pen and a sheet of paper from your notebook?” “Sure,” replied Twilight as she set aside her plate full of pancakes and pulled out her pen and notebook from her bag. She tore a blank page out of her notebook, then handed that page and the pen over to Sunset. “What’s that for?” asked Pinkie with a smile. “Let’s just say it’s a surprise for all of my friends,” replied Sunset cryptically. She was about to start writing when she noticed Pinkie looking over her shoulder. “No peeking, Pinkie,” she playfully scolded. “This is meant only for the others, and that’s only because I’ll be spending the whole day with you. Trust me, we’ll have plenty of opportunities to have fun today.” “You got it, Sunset!” agreed Pinkie, before she skipped away to hang out with the others and have a friendly chat with them all. Now that she was sure no one was watching her, Sunset began to write down some quick notes onto the sheet of lined paper. Twilight: Never check your phone while walking. A lot of dumb accidents happen because of that. Applejack: Watch where you’re stepping before Dirk Thistleweed is on. Those country music fans sure can get rowdy. Rarity: When you purchase something at the souvenir tents, stay away from the open ground near the public restrooms. You never know when some reckless children could ruin your day. Spike: If you really want Fluttershy to have some fun by actually doing something, consider offering to keep the crowds away. She won’t be so self-conscious if she believes no one is watching her. Fluttershy: When it’s time for lunch, Spike would love to try a lasagna pop. Yes, it sounds weird and gross, but I know he’ll love it. Rainbow Dash: Before meeting with the festival manager at the secret falafel truck during lunch, make sure you ask permission from all of us if you could collect our band’s instruments from our places. And whatever you do, never hold up that paddle while standing near him. Once those notes were finished, Sunset tore the paper into six pieces to separate each of those notes, then folded them in half and put them in her pocket. She decided she would wait a little bit before giving those notes to her friends. For now, she still had a delicious blueberry pancake breakfast to eat. Once everyone had finished with breakfast, the group began to walk towards the entrance to the festival grounds. Rainbow Dash eagerly led the way, followed by Applejack and Rarity having a casual conversation, Pinkie Pie cheerfully skipping along, Fluttershy and Spike walking beside each other, and finally Twilight with Sunset following right behind. This time, Sunset made sure to watch where she was stepping, and as she approached that all too familiar mud puddle, she passed over it by stomping both of her feet against the dry ground on either side of it, effectively avoiding the squishy mess. She celebrated that moment of triumph by pointing down at that mud puddle as she proudly declared, “Ha! In your face, mud! You won’t be clinging to my foot this time!” Twilight stopped and glanced back at Sunset. “Did you just trash-talk a mud puddle?” she asked with concern and confusion. “Sure did!” confirmed Sunset shamelessly as she continued walking ahead after the rest of the group. Twilight continued to stare at Sunset in confusion for a moment, then shook her head and followed after her. As the group continued walking, Sunset spoke up, “Oh, that reminds me. Hey, Rarity?” Rarity stopped and looked back at Sunset. Sunset pulled out a bottle of body wash and asked, “Is it okay if I borrow this? I have a feeling I might need it today.” “Oh, uh, sure, darling,” replied Rarity. Despite her confusion over why Sunset would think she’d need that, Rarity was still willing to be generous with her friends. “Just be sure to not completely use it up. I’ll still have need of it, you know.” “I’ll try my best,” assured Sunset as she placed the bottle of body wash back into her pocket and continued walking with her friends. “Sunset! Sunset! Look!” Pinkie cried out cheerfully from the front of the group as she wildly gestured at the three entrance lines at the front of the festival grounds. “So many lines to stand in! This day’s already amazing!” “I know!” agreed Sunset contently as she walked over to Pinkie and placed an arm around her shoulder. “Pick whichever one you want. They’re all slow, but security is an art. It cannot be rushed.” At the front of the middle security line, that same security guard Sunset had become familiar with over the previous time loops paused his search and glanced out past the line to glance at her. He turned back to the person he was in the middle of inspecting and complained, “See? She gets it. She knows what it takes.” He turned his gaze back out to Sunset and, with a smile on his face, clenched his right hand into a fist, held it up to his chest, then held it out towards Sunset. “Respect, Miss!” he stated proudly. “Right back at ya!” responded Sunset as she repeated his gesture. “Wow, Sunset!” remarked Pinkie cheerfully. “You totally just made that guy’s day! Oh! We have got to go with his line!” “Sure thing, Pinkie,” agreed Sunset. “But first, a little something for the rest of you.” She turned back to the rest of her friends and pulled out the six little notes she had written earlier. As she passed out those notes, she explained, “These are meant to be read only by each of you on your own. Do not share them with anyone else. In fact, I’d recommend not reading them until after you’ve made it through security. I’ll explain everything when we meet back at camp tonight.” Despite some confusion from many of them, everyone in the group accepted the little messages addressed specifically to each of them. Pinkie was excited to see her friend offering a special surprise to everyone, but her smile fell when she realized she was the only one who did not receive one. “Hey, where’s my secret message?” she asked in confusion. “You won’t be needing one,” assured Sunset, “because we’ll be spending the whole day together. Whatever secret messages I have for you, I can just tell you directly.” “Oh yeah, you’re right,” noted Pinkie as she smiled again. She then giggled and excitedly declared, “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s get in line!” She then zipped over to the end of the middle security line and casually asked the person standing ahead of her, “You come to this line often? Any other sweet lines we should hit up?” The guy standing ahead of Pinkie raised an eyebrow in confusion and replied, “Uh… I’m just waiting in line to get through security.” “I know!” remarked Pinkie cheerfully. “Isn’t it exciting?” The guy turned away and muttered under his breath, “Not as exciting as watching paint dry…” As Sunset got in line behind Pinkie, she shrugged and quipped, “Eh, I personally find it more exciting to watch grass grow.” Pinkie giggled and cheerfully replied, “Good one, Sunset!” “What can I say?” remarked Sunset with a shrug and a smile. “Lines fly where you’re having fun.” It took nearly two hours for the security line to advance enough for Pinkie and Sunset to reach the front. Pinkie was up next, and the security guard went through his usual inspection routine. He started with a thorough and methodical search of Pinkie’s fanny pack — if he was surprised by the absurdly huge amount of random objects somehow stuffed inside that tiny bag, his expression never showed it — then proceeded to wave a metal detecting wand over every part of her body — for which Pinkie’s persistent giggling, which she claimed was entirely by reflex, caused numerous delays — and finished the process by strapping a yellow festival bracelet around Pinkie’s wrist, then scanned it with his phone to permit her entry into the music festival. Once the security guard gave a nod of approval, Pinkie walked through the gateway as she turned back to her friend and cheerfully called out, “See you in there, Sunset!” Sunset had a content smile on her face as she stepped forward for her turn to get through security. Since she wasn’t carrying any packs or large bags with her, she only had to hold still while she was searched with a metal detector. “Hey, I recognize you,” noted the security guard as he grabbed his metal detector wand. “You’re Sunset Shimmer. You used to be number one on LEGO’s Most Wanted.” “Guilty as charged,” Sunset casually acknowledged as she held out her arms to await being scanned. “I guess that explains why you respect my line of work,” stated the security guard as he began his slow and steady search. “You know from experience what it takes to overcome security.” “To be honest, I encountered a lot of pathetic guards back in my days as a criminal mastermind,” remarked Sunset. “But unlike those losers, you’re actually competent and take your job seriously. Whoever made the decision to hire you for this festival certainly made the right call.” “Flattery won’t grant you any special access,” cautioned the guard. “You’ll have to go through the same search as everyone else.” “And I would expect nothing less, mister…” responded Sunset, deliberately trailing off. “The name’s Max Steele,” acknowledged the guard. “Got it,” confirmed Sunset. Although she already knew his name from numerous encounters on previous time loops, she understood it would be highly suspicious if she had mentioned it prior to at least asking him about it. Besides, she wanted to feel like she could be on friendly terms with this guy rather than just constantly referring to him as that security guard. “By the way, when you’re done here, you might wanna keep an eye out over by the souvenir tents. I heard a couple of dummies were thinking of doing a little robbery today.” “Not on my watch, they won’t,” warned Max. Only a few seconds later, he finished his scanning process. He put away his metal detector, strapped a green festival bracelet around Sunset’s wrist, and scanned it with his phone. “All right, you’re clear to enter.” He decided to share some respect with her by holding out a fist toward her. “Thanks, sir,” responded Sunset as she shared a fist bump with Max. “Keep up the good work.” She then passed through gateway and ran over to where the rest of her friends were waiting. “Welp, y’all have fun seein’ PostCrush,” stated Applejack as she waved at Pinkie and Sunset. “We’ll see ya back at camp tonight.” With that, everyone in the group went their separate ways to enjoy all the different shows and activities at this music festival they were each interested in, leaving behind only Sunset and Pinkie to prepare for the performance of PostCrush later that evening. After the two of them took a moment to wave goodbye to their friends, Pinkie turned to Sunset and asked, “What do you wanna do first, Sunset? There’s so much we can do!” “How about we start right over there?” suggested Sunset as she pointed at the nearby giveaway booth with a purple tandem bicycle being displayed to the side. Pinkie gasped and excitedly exclaimed, “Win a tandem bicycle?!” She immediately rushed over to the booth and read the brief contest rules. As Sunset arrived soon after her, Pinkie pointed at a full jar of jellybeans on the booth’s counter and cheerfully stated, “All I have to do is guess how many candies are in the jar, and my sugar senses say… three hundred and five!” BZZZZ! The giveaway booth attendant smacked the buzzer on the counter, indicating Pinkie’s guess was incorrect. “Awww…” moaned Pinkie in disappointment. Sunset stepped up to the counter and, with a smug smile on her face, stated, “Five hundred seventy-two and a half, counting the green jellybean you ate part of in the parking lot when you thought no one was watching.” The both attendant’s jaw dropped. “That’s… that’s impossible,” she muttered in complete shock. “H-How did you…?” “Let’s just say I have my special ways of figuring out these things, Belle Barker,” Sunset smugly replied. “Yes, I even know your name. Now how about releasing that tandem bicycle I just won so my friend and I can enjoy it?” Belle sputtered in shock for a few seconds before she finally sighed in defeat and began releasing the clamps that attached the bicycle to the display stand. “So much for taking the prize home with me…” she muttered under her breath. “Yeah, you thought you could keep that bike for yourself,” quipped Sunset. “Maybe next time, you’ll think twice before trying to outsmart someone like me.” Once the bicycle was completely released, she put on one of the two provided helmets, hopped onto the front seat and cheerfully spoke up, “C’mon, Pinkie! Let’s ride!” “Woohoo!” cheered Pinkie excitedly as she hopped onto the rear seat and put on the other available helmet. “This day’s already getting even better!” Once both girls were on the bicycle, they began to pedal it forward and rode off further into the festival grounds. Belle Barker was now left with no choice but to pack up her booth and leave early. As she tried to think of how that girl could so precisely guess the correct answer, not to mention how she could even know her name without a proper introduction, she suddenly froze when the truth finally hit her. “Wait a minute,” she muttered to herself. “That was Sunset Shimmer from the LEGO Team. She’s the one who can read minds!” As she then swiftly resumed packing her things, she quietly mumbled, “I’d better start wearing a tinfoil hat whenever she’s around…” Sunset and Pinkie laughed and giggled together as they rapidly pedaled their new tandem bicycle across the festival grounds. The day was already off to a great start, and they were enjoying every moment of it. As they rode through the area near the food trucks and souvenir tents, Sunset recognized the guy with glasses and orange hair and beard tinkering on some contraption. When he accidentally bumped something on the mechanical object that caused it to suddenly fling a coconut high into the air, he immediately cried out, “Whoa! Heads up!” “Hey, Pinkie!” Sunset called back cheerfully as she steered the bicycle towards that flying coconut. “Catch it like a football!” Pinkie grinned as she released the handlebars in front of her seat and held out her arms. The coconut quickly plummeted back down, and thanks to Sunset’s remarkable aim, Pinkie was able to actually catch that coconut. “Woohoo!” she cheered excitedly. “Touchdown!” “Whooooaaa,” a nearby rocker dude with long dark hair and a tie-dyed shirt said slowly in astonishment. “How did you appear outta nowhere like that? Are you, like, ninjas?” Sunset giggled and playfully replied, “I wish!” “Here, have a coconut!” remarked Pinkie as she casually tossed that coconut over to the rocker dude. “I’ve already got plenty at home.” As the two girls began to ride off on their tandem bicycle, Pinkie suddenly asked, “By the way, Sunset, how did you know exactly how many jelly beans were inside that jar? I’ve seen you use your mind reading powers before, and I’m pretty sure it requires actually touching someone, which you clearly didn’t do with that booth lady.” Sunset couldn’t help but smirk, knowing that it had been only a matter of time before Pinkie would’ve eventually figured out her bluff. She glanced back at her friend and responded, “You wanna know the real truth? Then let me show you something else.” She steered their bicycle towards one specific souvenir tent and stopped a short distance away. She pointed at that particular tent and simply stated, “Keep an eye out for a couple of familiar faces over there.” Pinkie was curious what kind of surprise her friend had for her, so she watched that tent — the front of which was facing away from where they stood, so she couldn’t see what kind of special items were being sold there. A few seconds later, they saw two familiar guys wearing black and white striped prison shirts — one with a grey jacket partially covering it, and the other with the sleeves torn off — and black beanie hats emerge from within that tent and started hauling away a large chest with each of them grasping the handles on either end of it. Pinkie gasped and loudly whispered to Sunset, “I know those two! It’s the robbers Rocky and Mugsy! We gotta stop ‘em!” “Don’t bother,” assured Sunset casually. “Those brick-heads won’t get far. Just watch…” Pinkie worriedly continued watching as that pair of robbers tried to haul away their chest full of ill-gotten loot. It just didn’t seem right that she and her friend were allowing these bad guys to simply walk away with committing a petty robbery. Chink. Crash! Suddenly, the handle on the end being carried by Mugsy detached from the chest, causing the chest to drop to the ground and topple over, allowing the lid to pop open and spill the massive load of cash and coins contained within. “Whoops,” muttered Mugsy. “HEY!!” furiously shouted a nearby security guard — whom Sunset and Pinkie quickly recognized as Max Steele from the main entrance security lines. “Scram!” exclaimed Rocky urgently as he dropped his end of the chest and immediately started running towards the nearest section of the boundary wall surrounding the festival grounds, with Mugsy quickly following right behind. Max swiftly pursued the two pathetic robbers towards that wall, not too far away. Once they reached the wall, they both tried to jump over it, but it proved to be too high for either of them to even grasp the top of that wall. With Max closing in, Rocky decided to climb on top of his partner in crime, using him as enough of a boost to jump and grab onto the top of that wall. Once he hauled himself halfway over that wall, he then reached down and grasped Mugsy’s hands, then hauled him up and over the wall just a split second before Max could touch either of those crooks. Of course, once the two incompetent robbers flung themselves over the top of the wall, they both crashed to the ground on the other side. “You’d better run!” shouted Max over the wall at the fleeing robbers. “Your kind isn’t welcome here!” Unable to further pursue those crooks, he turned away to check on the dropped chest full of loot. At the tandem bicycle, Sunset clapped as Max arrived at the chest of spilled loot and contently spoke up, “Nicely done, sir! You sure showed them to not get any bright ideas while you’re around. Though, word of advice, you might wanna secure the dropped loot before chasing the bad guys, otherwise some other bad guy might come along and take it for himself. Better to let the crooks get away empty-handed than to provide a brief opportunity for a different crook.” Max Steele glanced over at Sunset, then turned his gaze down at the dumped loot. “Yeah, you’re right,” he acknowledged reluctantly. “I’ll make sure not to repeat that mistake anytime soon.” He then overturned the chest back upright and started tossing the spilled loot back into it. As Sunset began to pedal the tandem bicycle away from the scene of a failed crime, Pinkie asked in astonishment, “How did you know?” “Let’s just say we’re now faced with yet another incident involving Equestrian Magic,” replied Sunset, maintaining a remarkably pleasant tone. “In this case, there’s this artifact called the Time Twirler that, when activated, can cause a day to repeat itself. I don’t know who’s been using it, but as far as I know, I’m the only one who’s been caught in this time loop.” “Aren’t you gonna do something to stop it?” asked Pinkie. “I will… eventually,” admitted Sunset. “The most recent suspect turned out to be a false lead, and after all the other kinds of madness I’ve been through, I’d rather spend this loop just relaxing and having fun. Specifically, I’d like to make this the best day possible for you, Pinkie.” Pinkie smiled and replied, “Aww, that’s really nice of you.” “Now let’s go check out the Neon Garden,” said Sunset cheerfully as she continued pedaling the tandem bicycle. “As long as we stick together, my experience means you won’t have to worry about getting lost in that hedge maze.” Once Sunset and Pinkie arrived at the Neon Garden, they parked their tandem bicycle outside the entrance, then they ran off together into that hedge maze. They explored all of the different paths, admired the numerous strings of neon lights that were hung in intricate patterns, and just simply frolicked around aimlessly. Sunset had even guided Pinkie to a secret photo booth hidden at the end of one path, where they took all kinds of fun and playful photos together. Once the two girls had their fun inside the Neon Garden, Sunset quickly guided Pinkie along the correct paths to reach the exit out of that hedge maze. As soon as they were out, Sunset led Pinkie past their parked bike over to where a pair of blank easels had been set up, not far from a guy who was handling small balloons filled with paint. “Hey, Oxford Brush!” called out Sunset playfully, catching the attention of that paint balloon artist. “I heard you were doing an art show!” She then turned to Pinkie and asked, “What do you say, Pinkie? You want in on the fun?” “Ooh! I do! I do!” replied Pinkie excitedly as she turned to the artist and waved her arms around. The paint balloon artist, Oxford Brush, smiled in response and tossed the first two balloons at the easels. Splat! The balloons burst upon impact, splattering paint all over the easels and the two girls, with yellow paint on Pinkie on the left and blue paint on Sunset on the right. As the two girls giggled in delight, Oxford quickly followed that up with two more balloons, splattering more paint all over the easels and the two girls, with green paint on Pinkie on the left and pink paint on Sunset on the right. Sunset and Pinkie giggled some more before Sunset cheerfully spoke up, “Hey, Pinkie! Record a video!” Pinkie continued to smile as she pulled out her phone and started recording a video. “I’m gonna try and catch one of these balloons!” declared Sunset excitedly before she gestured at Oxford to send another balloon. Oxford Brush shrugged with a smile as he grabbed another balloon and tossed it right as Sunset. As that balloon was flung directly towards her, Sunset quickly stepped aside and grasped that balloon while being careful not to grasp it with too much pressure. Astonishingly, she actually succeeded in catching that balloon without it bursting within her grip. “Ha! First try!” stated Sunset excitedly. “Wow! That was awesome!” cheered Pinkie as she continued recording that video. Sunset decided to celebrate her accomplishment by simply tossing that balloon up into the air and letting it come back down atop her head, causing it to splatter purple paint all over herself, Pinkie, and the two easels behind them. Pinkie giggled and remarked, “Nice one, Sunset!” Sunset giggled alongside Pinkie for a few more seconds, then turned to Oxford and contently stated, “All right, I think that’ll be enough for us. We’ll let you save the rest of those balloons for any other volunteers.” “Not to worry,” assured Oxford. “I brought along plenty of them.” “C’mon, Pinkie,” said Sunset contently as she began walking away. “Let’s get ourselves cleaned up. We certainly don’t wanna watch PostCrush looking like this.” “Right behind ya, Sunset!” agreed Pinkie as she followed her friend over towards the public restrooms. About halfway there, she suddenly gasped and asked, “Is this why you asked Rarity if you could borrow that bottle of body wash from her?” “Absolutely,” confirmed Sunset. “Previous experiences in a time loop means better foresight.” “I just hope we don’t have to completely used it all up trying to wash off all this paint,” remarked Pinkie. “I’d hate to see her get upset over not having any left for herself.” “She brought along, like, a dozen different varieties,” Sunset pointed out. “What are the odds that she’ll want to use this one in particular?” Pinkie shrugged and acknowledged, “Eh, I guess that’s true.” The two best friends soon entered the girls restroom. Sunset grabbed a paper towel, pulled out that bottle of body wash, and poured a small amount of it out onto the paper towel. She then handed that paper towel to Pinkie and said, “That should be enough for you. You’ll have to use some more paper towels to wipe yourself with.” “Consider it done!” declared Pinkie with a smile. She then tore open one of the paper towel dispensers, removed the entire roll of paper towels, brought it with her into one of the toilet stalls, and shut the door. Sunset giggled before she turned to the sinks, poured out some more of that body wash onto another paper towel, and began cleaning herself off. As she had hoped, the special body wash made very quick and easy effort on wiping away all of those paint splatters, especially off of her clothes. It took only a matter of minutes until nearly all of that paint had been wiped away. Splash! That noise from the occupied toilet stall was immediately followed by some hysterical giggling from Pinkie. She partially opened the stall door and peeked her head out as she eagerly said, “Guess what! I spilled some paint on the inside of this door and it looks exactly like…” She threw the door all the way open to reveal the splattered paint on the other side of it. “Rarity with a pirate mustache! Huh? Huh?” Just like on the previous loops when Sunset went through this part, the supposedly random mess bore a striking resemblance to Rarity’s face with a bushy mustache slapped over the mouth. “Impressive,” remarked Sunset before she removed the paper towel she had been using to wipe her face, exposing a paint mustache on her own upper lip. She then quipped with a pirate accent, “But not as impressive as this here mustache, ye scurvy knave!” Pinkie immediately burst out laughing at that display. To her, it seemed there was no shortage of immensely fun moments between her and Sunset today, and she absolutely loved it. Sunset and Pinkie spent the rest of the afternoon checking out some of the various other activities available at the music festival. They once again found themselves riding their tandem bicycle around the area near the food carts and just having a pleasant conversation. “So about those little notes you gave to the rest of our friends…” Pinkie spoke up. “Just little bits of advice to help make this day a little better for all of them,” answered Sunset. “Aww, that’s really nice of you, Sunset,” noted Pinkie. “Using all of your experiences from all the previous loops to make this day the best it could possibly be for all of us.” She then sighed and sadly added, “Too bad this’ll all go away after tonight, seeing as you still haven’t found that Time Twirler thingy.” “I’ll figure it out eventually,” assured Sunset. “After all, I really do have practically all the time in the world to figure it out.” She then stopped pedaling the bicycle and brought it to a stop so she could turn back to face her friend. “Besides, at least now I know what I can do to make this the best day possible for all of us. In a way, I guess this could be like a dress rehearsal for what I can do once I’m finally able to bring this time loop to an end.” “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” admitted Pinkie. “In that case, I hope I can get your stamp of approval here so that some future alternate Pinkie Pie really will have the best day ever at this festival.” Sunset giggled and remarked, “Believe me, Pinkie, after going through this day for four months, this loop has by far been the best one I’ve yet to experience.” “Then let’s make sure we make it end on a high note!” declared Pinkie excitedly. “Time for the grand finale! PostCrush live!” “Not quite, just yet,” said Sunset slyly as she resumed pedaling the bicycle forward. “I’ve still got one last surprise for you before we’re ready for PostCrush.” “Ooh! What is it?!” asked Pinkie excitedly. “I can’t think of anything that could possibly make this day even better!” As they rode their bicycle past some more food carts, she suddenly began to smell a rather sweet and delicious aroma. “What’s that smell?” she asked as she sniffed the air. “Could it be?” “It sure is,” remarked Sunset as they arrived at one particular cart where the familiar chef Puffed Pastry was selling her special confectionery for the festival. “Puffed Pastry’s exclusive Starswirl cinnamon-swirled churros!” announced Puffed Pastry to everyone passing by. “Get zem while zey’re marginally fresher zan a little bit!” As the two girls came to a stop and Sunset lowered the kickstand, Pinkie gasped and exclaimed, “It’s the one thing about this festival I’ve been most excited for after PostCrush! How did you know?!” Sunset giggled as she and Pinkie got off their bicycle, then turned to Puffed Pastry and spoke up, “We’ll have two boxes, please. And make it quick, before my friend here wrecks your cart.” Puffed Pastry laughed as she quickly filled two small boxes with about half a dozen churros each and remarked, “At least you were kind enough to ask first.” The two best friends smiled as they walked over and grabbed their boxes of churros. Pinkie took a big whiff of those delicious baked goods and let out a sigh of bliss. Sunset removed one of the churros from her box, then turned to Pinkie and confessed, “You know, on many of the earlier loops when I did things my way on my own, I eventually came to realize that having a perfect day was never going to be perfect without… having you there with me.” Pinkie had grabbed one churro from her box and was about to bite down on it when she heard the end of Sunset’s confession. She paused, then smiled and said, “Awwww…” She then held out that churro in her hand and declared, “Cheers!” Sunset chuckled and lightly smacked the churro in her hand against the one Pinkie held out. They then bit down on their respective churros at the same time, only to simultaneously flinch at how surprisingly tough they turned out to be. “Ow!” complained Sunset. “Mine’s hard as a rock. This is like eating a crowbar.” “Yeah, didn’t see that coming,” admitted Pinkie. Sunset then chuckled and remarked, “Oh, the cruel irony…” When Pinkie gave her a questioning look, she explained, “On many of the previous loops, often the one reason we kept missing PostCrush was because you were so eager for these churros that you ended up destroying that cart, leading to us getting kicked out before the show started. As a result of that and other incidents, I eventually came to regard these silly things as practically the bane of my existence at this festival. But now that I’ve finally decided to actually give these things a try…” She giggled as she pocketed the churro she had failed to even leave a bite mark in. “Turns out, I was never gonna like ‘em, anyway.” “Aw, that’s a shame,” said Pinkie in disappointment. She then immediately perked up again and remarked, “Oh well! More for me!” She the swiped the box out of Sunset’s hands and held both boxes with her left arm as she began gnawing noisily on the churro she still held in her right hand. Sunset stared at Pinkie in disbelief and muttered, “Some days, I wonder if you even have dental insurance…” “Your lousy golf cart broke down on me yet again!” Sunset and Pinkie turned to see Puffed Pastry being confronted by an angry intern. “I’ve had enough of this nonsense!” the intern declared furiously. “Find someone else to deliver churros backstage to PostCrush, because I quit!” He then threw his golf cart keys to the ground and began to storm off. “Get back ‘ere, you mauviette!” Puffed Pastry called out in frustration. “If zat cart won’t work, zen find a different means of transport!” Sunset and Pinkie glanced at each other, smiled at the same time, then turned to Puffed Pastry. “Hey,” Sunset spoke up, catching Puffed Pastry’s attention. “How about a bicycle?” “It even comes with a built-in basket on the front!” Pinkie pointed out cheerfully. “Perfect for easy churro transport.” “Plus, we don’t mind not getting paid,” Sunset pointed out. “We happen to be huge fans of PostCrush, so just getting this opportunity to meet them is good enough for us.” Puffed Pasty took a moment to look over the tandem bicycle being offered to assist her, glanced back at the intern who had already walked off, then smiled at the two girls and remarked, “You mademoiselles always find new ways of surprising me.” She walked back to her churro cart, filled one more box of fresh churros, then handed it over to Sunset. “Just make sure you do not mix zem up with ze ones I just gave you.” “No problem!” assured Pinkie. “I’ve got my own special way of carrying stuff.” She swiftly removed her hair piece, tossed her two boxes of churros into the opening on the bottom of it, then stuck it back on her head. When Puffed Pastry raised an eyebrow in confusion, Sunset just shrugged and said, “I’ve learned to not question Pinkie’s antics ages ago.” She then placed the box of churros intended for PostCrush into the bicycle’s basket and hopped onto the front seat. “By the way, do you mind telling us where we can find PostCrush?” “Zeir tour bus is behind ze main stage,” replied Puffed Pastry. “You’ll know it when you see it. And if anyone questions seeing you backstage, just tell zem you’re doing some volunteer work for Puffed Pastry.” “Good enough for me,” noted Sunset as she secured her helmet atop her head. “C’mon, Pinkie! Let’s ride!” Pinkie whooped with joy as she hopped onto the rear seat of the tandem bicycle and tossed her helmet onto her head. Sunset then raised the kickstand and began to pedal the bicycle forward. Both girls laughed and giggled excitedly as they sped across the festival grounds to a destination neither of them could have ever anticipated they would ever get to see. “See what happens when you embrace the chaos of our friendship?” remarked Pinkie. “This couldn’t happen with all the mission planning in the world!” Sunset cheerfully acknowledged. It took the two girls only a couple minutes to cover the distance to the area behind the main stage, where they saw a large tour bus that was dark purple with the band symbol for PostCrush labeled on the side of it. The two close friends brought their bicycle to a stop beside that bus and Sunset lowered the kickstand. As they removed their helmets and got out of their seats, Pinkie excitedly remarked, “Ooh, I hope they like us! You must’ve met them on one of the other loops! Tell me what happens!” Sunset chuckled and admitted, “Believe it or not, this is actually the very first time I’ve gotten a chance to personally meet PostCrush, and I’m glad it’s gonna be with the other half of my dynamic duo.” Pinkie gasped and cheerfully exclaimed, “Wow! An awesome surprise for both of us! This day just keeps getting better and better!” “Just try to keep your cool so they won’t call security on us,” cautioned Sunset with a smile. She grabbed the box of churros from the bicycle’s basket and handed it over to Pinkie. “Since I’ve already experienced a lot around here, I think it’s fair I should let you be the one to hand these over to them.” Pinkie was practically speechless as she accepted those churros with a huge grin on her face. “You ready?” asked Sunset. Pinkie responded with a rapid nod of agreement. Sunset and Pinkie then turned to the bus and walked over to its door. Sunset took a deep breath before she knocked on the door. As they waited, Pinkie slowed her breathing and quietly muttered to herself, “Keep it together, Pinkie. Keep it together…” Within a few seconds, the bus’s door opened, revealing Kiwi Lollipop, the cool half of the dynamic duo that was PostCrush. “Special delivery!” announced Sunset. Pinkie held out the box of churros and stated with barely repressed excitement, “We are huge, huge, ginormous fans!” K-Lo reacted with little more than a blank stare at the two girls standing before her, as if something didn’t seem quite right to her. As this led to a rather awkward silence, Sunset and Pinkie continued to smile as they briefly glanced at each other before turning their star-struck stares back at K-Lo. Suddenly, Supernova Zap — the zany half of the PostCrush dynamic duo — leaned out of the doorway and looked at the two fangirls with narrowed eyes. “That’s weird,” she muttered suspiciously. “The delivery’s much earlier than usual, and the delivery guy looks like two girls today.” K-Lo swiftly jabbed Su-Z in the torso with her elbow and glared at her. Su-Z flinched at the impact, then smiled and innocently spoke up, “I mean, today’s the first a-and only time we’ve done this! Yesterday was, um… a different day.” A visibly annoyed K-Lo sighed and facepalmed. While Pinkie continued to grin at the opportunity to personally meet PostCrush, Sunset’s expression had turned blank. After all, in her ongoing effort to find the Time Twirler, Sunset had to keep an eye out for anyone who seemed to have any awareness that this day had been repeating numerous times. Su-Z’s remarks about some peculiar specifics regarding the churro delivery definitely raised some red flags in Sunset’s mind. “Today can be a funny thing,” she noted suspiciously as she crossed her arms and frowned. Pinkie glanced at Sunset in confusion, then turned back to PostCrush with a nervous grin in an effort to keep her cool. “Word,” acknowledged K-Lo, mildly annoyed as she stepped out of the bus. “Thanks for being fans, but we gotta… you know… get on stage.” “Of course!” agreed Pinkie uneasily. “We don’t wanna keep you back.” She took a step back towards the bicycle and tried to pull Sunset back with her as she rather loudly whispered, “C’mon, Sunset.” Sunset stood her ground and watched as the PostCrush duo turned away and began walking off. She couldn’t help but notice that the large golden clip holding the purple bow to the back of K-Lo’s hair piece looked remarkably similar to the illustrations she had seen of the Time Twirler — another huge red flag in Sunset’s mind. Sunset knew she couldn’t risk any direct confrontation without absolute proof of her suspicions, so she brushed off Pinkie’s grip on her shoulder and stepped forward. With a smile on her face, she calmly asked, “But before you go on, could you at least give me the honor of shaking your hand?” K-Lo and Su-Z stopped and turned back to look at Sunset. “As a thank you for all your music and anything else you might’ve done to me — I mean, for me,” added Sunset. She really hoped they didn’t catch that little slip-up at the end of her request. After all, she and her friends had already saved the Lego World numerous times, so her magical powers were not exactly unknown to everyone, and her blatantly asking for direct hand contact was sure to raise suspicions in anyone who was fully aware of her mind-reading powers. Pinkie Pie and Su-Z stood off to the side and watched in confusion while K-Lo stared at the open hand Sunset was offering to her. K-Lo had been very insistent on getting ready for their upcoming show, and her face still reflected her mild annoyance. In fact, because of her impatience, she believed it would be best to take the extra few seconds to shake Sunset’s hand so that this pointless meeting could end as soon as possible. K-Lo softened her expression, then stepped forward and held out her hand as she casually stated, “Anything for a fan.” As soon as Sunset and K-Lo gripped their hands together, Sunset’s body stiffened and her eyes glowed white as she began to look into K-Lo’s memories. Sunset was already aware that back when PostCrush broke up for their “indefinite hiatus”, K-Lo and Su-Z had spent much of that time traveling around separately, so it didn’t really surprise her that the first memory she witnessed was K-Lo wandering around a bazaar in the desert region of Pharaoh’s Kingdom. She was wearing a white hooded cloak as she browsed the numerous stands that were selling all kinds of items. She was rather fascinated by the aesthetics of this region — pyramids and decorated obelisks, tombs and gilded sarcophaguses, and especially the hieroglyphic symbols — so she was looking for a little something she could take home with her, though she didn’t exactly have anything in particular in mind at the moment. “Hey! You there!” someone softly spoke up. K-Lo turned to the source of that hushed voice and saw someone standing behind one of the nearby shop stands. He was wearing a dark robe and headwear that obscured everything except his eyes, so the only part of him she could identify was that he had the standard yellow skin tone of most minifigs. “Would you like to purchase a forbidden accessory?” offered the cloaked shopkeeper quietly. K-Lo glanced left and right, then approached the stall and asked, “Depends on what you mean by ‘forbidden’.” The anonymous shopkeeper lifted a cloth from the counter between them, exposing a small, round, golden object. “This piece is said to have been plundered from the tomb of Somnambula,” he explained. K-Lo picked up the mystery object and closely inspected it. It was unlike anything she had ever encountered. She couldn’t quite figure out how, but it just didn’t feel like most Lego parts she had handled before. She raised an eyebrow and asked, “Is that all there is to it?” “According to legend,” continued the mysterious shopkeeper, “this artifact has the power to manipulate time itself. One press of that button on top, and you and everyone else nearby will next awaken back on the previous morning. You will have the opportunity to avoid whatever mistakes you had previously made that day, and if a single repeat doesn’t cut it, just press the button again anywhere at any time on that same day, and you and everyone else affected the first time will repeat that day a third time. There’s no limit to how many more times you can then repeat the day, so long as you keep hitting that button before the end of that day.” K-Lo took a moment to process that information as she stared at the artifact in her hand. She was hardly a superstitious person and knew better than to trust the words of some stranger who refused to show his face. However, she couldn’t deny that the thought of having such a power like that was rather tempting. After all, the reason she and Su-Z had parted ways was because she had such an immense desire for perfection and Su-Z just couldn’t stand it. For example, their hit song True Original went through a hundred recordings before Su-Z and the studio had to insist on no more attempts, forcing her to settle on one that was merely good enough. To have something that could offer the ability to retry real life sounded almost too good to be true. If this item could really do what this stranger claimed, then perhaps she could even accept Su-Z’s request for them to do a live show, now that she had the assurance that they could simply try it again if anything went wrong. Then again, K-Lo had to remind herself that it was all just an interesting story to go with this item. The practical side of her was adamant that there was nothing special about this thing at all, aside from its interesting appearance. Ultimately, all she really wanted was an accessory that looked good and beautifully reflected this region, and as far as she could see, this item seemed like an ideal option for those criteria. With the artifact still in her hands, K-Lo turned to the mysterious shopkeeper and asked, “What’s your asking price?” “I’ll accept any form of payment,” replied the anonymous vendor, “but if you want the value in dollars, all I’m asking for is twenty.” Without a word, K-Lo pulled out a green 1x2 tile piece with the number “20” printed on it in white, handed it over to the mysterious vendor, and then began to walk away with her newly purchased item. As K-Lo left, the unknown vendor soon began to giggle hysterically before he excitedly cried out. “It worked! She took it! It’s no longer mine! The curse has been lifted! I’m free!” He started whooping uncontrollably as he did all kinds of crazy dance moves atop the counter of his stand. K-Lo glanced back at the shopkeeper’s spontaneous antics, then she shook her head and muttered, “What a weirdo…” The next memory Sunset witnessed was the live performance of PostCrush on the night of day one of the Starswirled Music Festival — which she had missed seeing the first time around. This concert started out smoothly, but then went terribly wrong when K-Lo accidentally broke one of the strings on her guitar. Although the crowd continued to cheer as they proceeded with their song, K-Lo was absolutely furious about how out of tune the remainder of the show was with the absence of that one string. After the show was over and practically the moment the two of them were backstage and out of sight from the audience, K-Lo did not hold back her frustration. “Ugh! I can’t believe that just happened!” she cried out furiously. “I mean, seriously?! I just had to break a string right in the middle of our show!” Su-Z sighed and irritably responded, “Yeah, I get it, K-Lo. Trust me, I’d be upset if that happened to me. We’ll just have to accept it and move on.” In a fit of anger, K-Lo removed the bow from the back of her hair and threw it to the ground. When she heard a faint metallic noise as it hit the floor, she was suddenly reminded of that item she had purchased back in Pharaoh’s Kingdom, which she had decided to use as a decorative accessory on her bow. She stared at the mysterious artifact for a moment, contemplating its rumored powers. She still had her doubts, but after how disastrous tonight’s show had been in her mind, she was willing to try anything to correct it. K-Lo reached down and removed the golden artifact from her discarded bow. She continued to stare at it for a moment before she muttered, “Maybe we don’t have to…” Su-Z raised an eyebrow and asked, “What are you talking about?” K-Lo didn’t give a direct answer and instead began to walk off as she simply stated, “Come with me.” “Hey! Where are you going?” Su-Z called out as she chased after K-Lo out of the backstage room. K-Lo led her bandmate away from the stage, away from the crowds and lights of the festival, and out into the forest wilderness surrounding the festival grounds. Eventually, they came to a stop on a small wooden bridge across a creek. Su-Z took a moment to catch her breath after that chase, then desperately asked, “Could you please explain to me why we’re suddenly out in the middle of nowhere?” “Because we can’t allow anyone to know about this,” replied K-Lo as she showed the artifact to her bandmate. Su-Z stared at the artifact for a moment before she asked, “What’s so special about it? I mean, you said it was just a little something you got in Pharaoh’s Kingdom.” “The guy who sold this to me claimed that it has the power to turn back time itself,” explained K-Lo. “With that kind of ability, we can redo this day and avoid that dumb mistake that happened in the middle of our show.” Now Su-Z became intrigued. “Does it work?” she asked. “To be honest, I’ve never tried it before,” confessed K-Lo. “And frankly, I didn’t believe a word of it when I bought it. But after tonight’s disaster, I’m willing to give it a try.” “Well, with all the otherworldly magic I’ve been hearing about all over the Lego World recently, I guess it’s possible that thing might actually have that power,” noted Su-Z. “So how do we activate it?” “All I have to do is hit the button on top,” explained K-Lo, “and the next time we wake up will be right back where we were at the start of this day. The first time will affect everyone nearby, but after that, we can keep reusing it no matter where we are.” “Oh, so I guess that explains why you wanted the two of us all alone out in the middle of nowhere,” acknowledged Su-Z. “Well, might as well go for it.” With that word of encouragement from her bandmate, K-Lo tapped the button on the artifact. Whoosh! A bright flash was suddenly unleashed along with a shockwave of energy that quickly spread out across a rather large distance. Thankfully, the intense effect lasted very briefly before everything had seemingly returned to normal. “Whoa. I sure hope nobody saw that,” muttered Su-Z, somewhat astonished to have experienced such a weird sensation. “Even if anyone did, they won’t remember it once we wake up,” assured K-Lo. “So I guess this means we should just head back to our bus and turn in for night, then we’ll find out if it actually worked,” suggested Su-Z. “Agreed,” stated K-Lo as she pocketed her magical artifact and led the way back to their tour bus. When they woke up in the morning, they quickly confirmed that they really were right back at the previous morning on day one of the festival. With that reset, K-Lo made sure to replace that weak guitar string to prevent a repeat of the on-stage disaster. Unfortunately, Su-Z accidentally punctured one of her drums in the middle of their show, forcing K-Lo to hit the reset button a second time. The two of them went on to reset the day many more times as a result of unforeseen mishaps. The third attempt involved K-Lo accidentally smacking the neck of her guitar against one of the cymbals on Su-Z’s drum set — which Sunset suddenly realized she had remembered seeing on her first successful attempt to watch PostCrush. Further mishaps involved Su-Z breaking a drumstick, K-Lo fumbling and dropping her guitar pick, an ill-timed sneeze from Su-Z throwing off the rhythm, K-Lo managing step on the one loose floorboard on stage that caused her to stumble. After dozens of attempts, they did manage to learn from experience and consistently made all the subtle adjustments to avoid repeating any of those mishaps. But although their performance eventually improved to the point that a common fan might consider it superb excellence, K-Lo’s obsession with absolute perfection soon got the better of her. On the more recent resets, K-Lo started calling out every single little thing that didn’t feel quite right to her, much to Su-Z’s frustration. Even something as minor as just one off-key note was enough to drive K-Lo to hit that reset button yet again. Sunset’s body relaxed and her eyes returned to normal as her glimpse into K-Lo’s memories came to an end. She gasped in shock and released her grasp on K-Lo’s hand, then immediately scowled at her and furiously accused, “You found the Time Twirler! You’re the ones who’ve been causing this time loop!” Pinkie dropped the box of churros in her hands as she gasped in shock and exclaimed, “Holy linguini!” “Uh, pause,” Su-Z spoke up. “How did you figure that out so quickly?” K-Lo slapped herself in the forehead and growled in frustration. “I should’ve seen that one coming!” she grumbled as she placed her hands on her hips and glared at Sunset. “I mean, your friend even said your name out loud. You’re Sunset Shimmer, one of the seven Equestria Girls with magical powers. You’re the one who can read minds.” “Glad to know some people aren’t totally ignorant of all the things my friends and I have done,” muttered Sunset dryly as she rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. “And as much as I really do admire your music, I have to say that by abusing the use of Equestrian Magic, you have now made yourselves our latest opponent.” She then held out her hand and casually suggested, “How about you just hand over the Time Twirler and make this easy for all of us?” “Forget it!” K-Lo shot back defiantly. “We’re gonna loop our show ‘til it’s perfect! A fangirl like you wouldn’t get it.” “Unless you’re such a huge fangirl that you do get it,” noted Su-Z. K-Lo scoffed and dismissively insisted, “You know fans can never get it.” “But I do,” explained Sunset as she took a step forward. “When I first got here, I also had a desire to have a perfect day, but after all these loops, I’ve learned that no matter how hard you try, things can never be perfect.” “Then we stop, never,” declared Su-Z. “Besides,” continued K-Lo smugly, “I had my suspicions that someone else might’ve gotten caught up in our time loop — that big explosion in the campgrounds that one time was kinda hard to ignore, for example. But now that we know you’re the one who’s in on our little secret, we’ll make sure that you’ll never set foot inside this festival ever again.” “Go ahead,” muttered Sunset dismissively. “Take our pictures and hang them up. They’ll all disappear in the morning.” K-Lo maintained her smug expression as she asked, “Ever heard of drawings?” “Everything resets,” insisted Sunset. “Believe me, I know from experience.” “You don’t, and neither do we,” argued Su-Z as she stepped back into the tour bus. She reemerged after only a few seconds, now holding a pen in one hand and a sheet of paper in the other hand. As K-Lo turned around and leaned slightly forward, Su-Z used her back as an easel and began quickly scribbling on the paper as she continued, “And now that we’ve seen your faces, I’m an art school dropout, and you better believe I can draw your faces so flawlessly, guards will ban you at the gates from now until forevah.” Su-Z finished her drawing and held it up, showing a rather crude sketch of Pinkie and Sunset to the girls depicted on that sketch. “Forevah-evah!” added K-Lo tauntingly. “NO!!” Pinkie cried out in horror. “Yeah, she can,” stated K-Lo confidently. “Mmm-hmm,” agreed Su-Z with a nod. “You call that flawless?” retorted Sunset skeptically. “And even if you do manage to convince the guards to keep me out, I’ll always be in the area, not because I won’t leave, but because I can’t. According to a friend of mine who told me about that artifact, it’s got a fail-safe that prevents anyone caught in its effect from ending up too far away from it while it’s in use. I’ve honestly lost count of how many perfectly fine vehicles spontaneously broke down while trying to get me away from here.” She crossed her arms and narrowed her glare at the PostCrush duo as she firmly added, “Besides, do you really think you can intimidate someone with my kind of past that easily? Whenever I’m faced with a threat — especially one that could harm my friends — I will stop at nothing to defeat it. I will do whatever it takes to shut off that Time Twirler and end this time loop, even if I have to demolish half of this festival in the process.” K-Lo just smirked and smugly declared, “Then let’s see you try.” Su-Z snapped her hand and called out, “Security! We got a code chartreuse — crazy fan alert!” Sunset and Pinkie glanced around and soon saw a certain security guard march over to them from behind where they stood. “You again?” muttered Sunset in shock as she recognized him as Max Steele from the entrance security line. “All right, you girls are coming with me,” Max firmly stated as he grasped Sunset and Pinkie by their arms and began forcefully escorting them away from the scene. “You should know that you’re not allowed back here without a valid backstage pass.” “But we were just delivering churros to PostCrush!” insisted Pinkie desperately. “Just ask Puffed Pastry! She’s the one who sent us after her regular guy quit on her!” “I don’t wanna hear any excuses,” argued Max as he forced the two girls around the edge of the festival grounds. “Just let me do my job and there won’t be any further trouble.” Sunset and Pinkie didn’t put up much resistance as security guard Max shoved them ahead until they finally reached a doorway in the wall that marked the perimeter of the festival grounds. As she and Pinkie were thrown out through the doorway, Sunset turned back to Max and desperately pleaded, “How are you gonna let anyone in if you keep kicking people out?!” Max made no response and simply closed the door. He turned away and began to return to his post, but then paused and glanced back at the shut door. He hesitated for a moment, then let out a reluctant sigh and resumed walking away. Outside the doorway, Sunset was once again faced with the warning message of “EXIT ONLY! Trespassers will be tackled on sight,” on the decal stuck to that door. She glanced up at the sky and saw it was already starting to get dark. PostCrush would be starting their show soon, and if it didn’t go perfectly — which was practically guaranteed to happen — then they would reset the loop yet again and all of Sunset’s efforts today would go to waste. Despite the confidence she had shown earlier while confronting PostCrush, Sunset was seriously concerned about the consequences she and her friends would be faced with if she failed to somehow stop PostCrush on this particular loop. Author's Note There was a moment last week when I was worried I wouldn't be able to get this chapter up on schedule due to the power adapter on my ten-year-old laptop suddenly failing. Thankfully, the laptop itself still works perfectly fine, and I was very lucky to have a spare power adapter that works just as fine for my laptop, so as long as this old thing remains fully functional for at least one more month, I shouldn't have any serious issues with finishing this story (just one chapter and the epilogue left to go). Anyway, I didn't want Sunset to use her experiences to give only Pinkie a better day, so that's why I had mentioned the issues of the rest of her friends in an earlier chapter, with Sunset providing them with notes of advice in this chapter, and those resolutions will be revealed in the next chapter. It also seemed reasonable that Sunset would eventually learn the names of all those people she kept bumping into on most loops, but since I didn't feel like taking the time to come up with such names myself (just writing this chapter was already time-consuming enough), I decided to simply go with the ones used by derpibooru. And rather than PostCrush simply finding the Time Twirler randomly on the ground somewhere like the official version, I instead decided to have them acquire it in such a way that it provides some clues as to how it ended up being brought from Equestria to the Lego World (I've already got the full sequence of events in mind, but they won't be revealed until a later story in this fanfiction series), as well as better explain how Sunset got caught in the time loop in the first place.
Breaking the LoopChapter 7 Breaking the Loop “Think fast, Sunset,” muttered Sunset worriedly to herself as she paced around just outside the exit-only door out of the festival. “Come on, think!” “I can’t believe they actually called your bluff,” Pinkie spoke up sadly. “I would’ve totally panicked if I had been on the receiving end of a threat like the one you made.” “It wasn’t a bluff,” stated Sunset. “Huh?” asked Pinkie in confusion. “I was being completely serious about demolishing the festival if it meant stopping the time loop,” explained Sunset. “I could build a giant bulldozer to easily crush anything between here and their tour bus. I could build a catapult to fling flaming boulders over the walls and destroy their tour bus. I could even build massive drilling machine to undermine and collapse everything in the area.” She then sighed and confessed, “But the truth is… I’d rather not have to do any of those things, not only because it would obviously be way too much unnecessary collateral damage, but also because this day turned out so great for both of us that I’d hate to see it end in such a terrible way before everything resets yet again.” Pinkie was silent for a moment as she considered her friend’s dilemma, then smiled and calmly assured Sunset, “You know, just because you’re the only one experiencing the time loop doesn’t mean you have to figure this out all by yourself. We’re a team, Sunset — members of the LEGO Team, which means we build on each other. If there’s anything I can do to help, then you can totally count on me to make it happen.” Sunset smiled back and responded, “You’re right, Pinkie. Whatever we have to do next, we’ll do it together, ‘cause that’s what friends do.” She then turned away and muttered, “Now, then… how are we gonna get back into the festival grounds? I don’t really see much of anything around here that we can work with.” As Sunset glanced around in various directions, Pinkie suddenly caught a glimpse of something sticking out of the pocket on her jacket. Pinkie gasped, then reached over and removed the item as she exclaimed, “Puffed Pastry’s exclusive star-crusted, cinnamon-dipped churros!” Sunset was briefly confused, then smiled as she chuckled and remarked, “Oh yeah, I forgot about that. I just didn’t have the heart to throw it in the trash after it turned out to be too inedible for me.” The two girls suddenly stared at each other, turned their gazes towards the exit door, then turned back to each other. “Like eating a crowbar!” they both said simultaneously in realization. Pinkie waved the hardened churro around and naughtily whispered, “Churros are magic!” “I guess those silly things aren’t so evil after all,” quipped Sunset as she and Pinkie approached the door. Once they stopped in front of it, she tapped her chin and muttered, “So how exactly are we gonna make use of it?” “I say we just go for it,” suggested Pinkie as she raised the churro over her head while pressing her other hand against the door. However, before Pinkie could make her first strike, the door suddenly flung open, throwing the two girls backwards as security guard Max Steele appeared in the now opened doorway. “Hey! You two!” he firmly spoke up. “I remember you…” “You do?” asked Sunset worriedly, fearing the possibility of further punishment this guy might unleash upon her and her friend. “Yeah…” began Max Steele gruffly. His tone then quickly relaxed as he continued, “You respected my security line earlier today. So many of these people just don’t get it.” Pinkie and Sunset glanced at each other, then they both stood up and smiled at Max. “We get it!” agreed Pinkie. “So I thought, ‘Hey, self, these gals aren’t crazy fans. They’re just fans,’” continued Max as he turned away. “Plus, not only did you tip me off on that attempted robbery, but I also just spoke with Puffed Pastry and she confirmed you really were making a churro delivery on her behalf, so you girls technically never did anything… illegal.” “Weren’t about to, either!” Pinkie blurted out as she hid the stiff churro behind her back. Max turned back to the girls and raised an eyebrow. “Don’t mind her!” Sunset swiftly insisted. “She says random stuff all the time.” She continued grinning at Max as she jabbed her elbow against Pinkie’s torso. Pinkie flinched from the sharp impact and briefly glanced at Sunset, then turned to Max with a big smile as she held up that stiff churro and spontaneously quipped, “They’re magically delicious!” She bit down on that rock-hard churro, then immediately flinched in pain before she mumbled, “Must’ve been a bad batch…” Max stared at Pinkie for a moment, then stated, “Anyway, you girls are just big fans of PostCrush, and since security is all about karma…” He smiled and stepped aside to leave the doorway open. “I think it’s only right you should be able to see the show.” Sunset and Pinkie both smiled as they could hardly believe just how incredibly lucky they suddenly were in that very moment. They had only minutes left to go to put a stop to the latest abuse of Equestrian Magic, and the security guard who was supposed to keep them out was instead allowing them to simply walk right back into the festival grounds. “Max Steele, you are the best security guard ever!” praised Sunset. “I swear, if tonight works out for all of us, I’ll give you something tomorrow that I know you’ll appreciate!” “Oh, gosh, you’re too kind,” responded Max, absolutely flattered by the appreciation. He gestured at the open doorway and politely stated, “Just go on in.” With that invitation, Sunset and Pinkie rushed past the security guard and headed straight towards the area of the main stage. Once they were far enough away from the guard, Sunset spoke up with determination, “Final objective — get the Time Twirler from K-Lo’s hair and turn it— twirl it off, or— whatever! Just make it not work anymore!” “You got it, Sunset!” agreed Pinkie. “Time to shut it down!” “Shut it down…” muttered Sunset, suddenly feeling a little remorseful. As the two girls continued running, Sunset spoke up, “I just realized that I’ve already watched PostCrush plenty of times, but you haven’t experienced any of these time loops. If we go through with this, we’re not only gonna ruin their reunion show, but also your only chance of seeing them perform live on stage.” Pinkie immediately scoffed and furiously retorted, “Are you kidding?! They trapped my best friend at a super fun music festival without me for months! They are so going down!” “In that case, I’ll let you have the honors of blasting the door open,” responded Sunset with a smile. “I may not have met them personally on any of the previous loops, but I did get to see the room where they’re gonna be getting ready just before the show starts.” “Lead the way, Sunset!” declared Pinkie. “Let’s stop this time loop, once and for all!” A huge crowd had gathered at the main stage, nearly all of whom were excitedly anticipating the start of PostCrush’s live concert that was now only minutes away. They knew this show would be very special because it would be the first time in quite a while that the popular duo would be performing together, and since it was likely this would be the only time in the foreseeable future they would be willing to do such a show, this was something that any fan of PostCrush absolutely did not want to miss for any reason. In the room below stage, K-Lo and Su-Z were making final preparations just before the start of the show. After going through the same routine over a hundred times already, they had practically memorized every step of the process. But while they were confident with the upcoming show, their recent encounter with Sunset and Pinkie had left them feeling a little on edge. “I’m getting tired of living the same day over and over,” complained Su-Z with a sad sigh as she applied the last of her makeup. “Can this please be our last performance?” “We’ve been over this, Su-Z,” scolded K-Lo. “We don’t stop until we get it perfect.” “Just don’t like watching live TV knowing exactly what’s gonna happen on every channel,” whined Su-Z. “I’m really starting to miss not being able to predict everything around me.” “And we will go back to regular time, once we finally get our perfect show,” assured K-Lo. “More like your perfect show,” grumbled Su-Z under her breath. She then spoke up again, “Besides, now that Sunset Shimmer of all people is on to us, I don’t think we’ll have many chances left anyway. Everyone knows that a threat from Sunset Shimmer should not be taken lightly.” “We’ve already had security kick them out,” insisted K-Lo. “They can’t bother us anymore. It’s not like they’re just gonna suddenly break the door down at the last minute.” Boom! K-Lo and Su-Z both immediately turned to see the only door into the room suddenly get blown off its hinges and tumble to the floor. The pink smoke from the blast cleared after only a few seconds, revealing none other than Sunset Shimmer and Pinkie Pie as they stepped into the room. Pinkie giggled and remarked, “Now that’s what I call a cherry bomb.” Sunset glared at PostCrush as she crossed her arms and stated, “Sorry to barge in on you like this, but your abuse of Equestrian Magic ends right here, right now.” Su-Z gasped in shocked and furiously asked, “Who let you two back in?!” “Let’s just say a little bit of kindness and respect can go a long way,” responded Sunset. “I’m only gonna say this one more time. Make this easy on yourselves and hand it over. Don’t make us have to do this the hard way.” “You wouldn’t dare!” K-Lo shot back aggressively. “If you were real fans, you’d want this show to be perfect!” Sunset simply shrugged and quipped, “Eh, nothing’s ever gonna be perfect. Right, Pinkie?” “You said it, Sunset!” agreed Pinkie eagerly. “As Master Builders, we know better than to ever expect total perfection. Instead…” She reached into her hair and pulled out the rock-hard churro. With a bit of effort, she then bent it into a ninety-degree angle. “You just gotta make the best with what you’ve got!” She then tossed the bent churro directly at K-Lo. K-Lo saw the bent churro fly right at her face, so she and Su-Z quickly ducked. Once the bent churro flew over their heads, they both stood up again and smirked at their opponents. “Ha! You missed!” taunted K-Lo. But behind the PostCrush duo, the bent churro reversed direction in midair just before it could reach the wall on the far side of the room, then began to rush right back towards them. While K-Lo was gloating, the bent churro smacked her in the back of the head, knocking the Time Twirler loose from her hair piece and flinging it up into and air on a trajectory towards where Pinkie and Sunset stood. Pinkie ended up catching the Time Twirler. Once it was in her hands, she dangled it teasingly and playfully retorted, “Ah-ha! Now who’s laughing?” “LEGO!!” screamed Su-Z furiously as she swiftly tackled Pinkie to the floor, causing the Time Twirler to fly out of her grasp. Sunset quickly caught the magical artifact as it came back down, only for K-Lo to rush over and also grasp onto it. “Give it back!” demanded K-Lo as she tugged on the Time Twirler. “Never!” Sunset shot back as she also tugged on the magical artifact. The two girls continued tugging on the magical item until K-Lo accidentally rolled her foot on a microphone that was lying on the floor. She quickly lost her balance and fell over backwards, creating a sudden tug that was strong enough to fling the Time Twirler out of both of their grips. The four girls in the room watched as the Time Twirler flew through the air, bounced off the edge of a large amp, landed in the clamp of a boom stand where a microphone would typically be held, spun around on that boom stand a few times before being flung off, then bounced off a drum — producing the noise of that drum’s beat in the process — and landed inside a toaster, which then dinged and shot it straight up at the ceiling, where it deflected off a support beam, bounced off a guitar — producing a sharp twang noise of one string in the process — landed in the open tray of a CD player which then closed, quickly followed by the other tray on that player opening and shooting it out, and finally landed on a purple square platform in the middle of the room. All four girls briefly glared at their opposing side, then simultaneously dove at the Time Twirler resting upon that platform. There was a mad scramble between all of them as they each tried to grab the artifact and smack away anyone else who tried to do the same. The four-way tug-o-war between them became so fierce that they failed to even notice a square hole opened up in the ceiling and the platform they were struggling on began to slowly rise up towards that opening. They were so focused on taking possession of that magical item that none of them seemed to notice the change in their surroundings, such as the surrounding pink fog, the dark sky and bright stage lights, or even the noise of the cheering crowd. “Let me hear three big cheers for two best friends who got back together for one incredible night!” an amplified voice shouted out across the stage and the gathered crowd. “PoooooostCruuuuuush!!” The cheer and applause from the crowd began to roar loudly, but then quickly silenced as the fog cleared, exposing PostCrush and two other girls seemingly in the middle of a fearsome brawl. The swift change in their surroundings finally snapped the four girls out of their massive fight as they turned their attention out to the huge audience gathered around the stage. All four of them practically froze in whatever tangled pose they had been in as they stared out at so many different minifigs staring back at them. “Awkward…” Pinkie quietly sang with embarrassment. Sunset managed to recover from the shock only a brief moment before any of the others, but that was all the time she needed. With her left arm occupied with shoving Su-Z away, she released her grip on the Time Twirler with her right hand so she could clench a fist and swiftly smack the artifact out of the collective grasp of the other three girls. When that object landed right beside her feet on the stage floor, she did not hesitate to swiftly and firmly stomp her foot on it, shattering the magical artifact. As soon as the object was broken into fragments, the Equestrian Magic contained within unleashed light so intensely bright that the four girls surrounding it were forced to close their eyes and take a few steps back. A thick, dark cloud of energy slowly rose up from the shattered remains of the Time Twirler, then burst into sparkly vapor as it released a bright shockwave that spread across the stage, the audience, and ultimately all over the festival grounds. The time loop was finally over. The four girls on stage stood still in shock as they watched the last of the magical vapor fade away. Eventually, K-Lo dropped to her knees as she looked down at the shattered remnants of the Time Twirler and began to sob. “Our legacy is destroyed!” she cried out furiously. “Everything was riding on this show!” She turned to glare at Sunset. “And you ruined it!” Sunset was momentarily stunned by the accusation, but then as she listened to the crowd of fans gathered around, she began to smile. “Are you sure about that?” she asked slyly as she gestured out towards the gathered crowd. Following Sunset’s example, Pinkie gently turned a saddened Su-Z around to face the crowd. Much to the astonishment of both members of PostCrush, the massive audience was cheering loudly and excitedly chanting the name of their band over and over. “I… I-I-I don’t understand…” muttered K-Lo breathlessly. “Your fans don’t want perfection,” explained Sunset with a friendly smile. “They just want to see you rocking out and having fun.” She gazed out towards the audience as she walked across the stage. “Sometimes, the flaws and silly mistakes are what makes the experience perfect. That’s the best part about seeing live music.” She stopped beside Pinkie and placed an arm around her shoulders. “And it’s the best part about being friends.” Su-Z was so touched by Sunset’s words and gestures that when she glanced over at K-Lo still down on the stage floor, she decided to walk over to her bandmate and kneel down on the floor beside her. K-Lo glanced over at her bandmate and shamefully acknowledged, “We did used to have a lot of fun.” Su-Z sadly confessed, “I guess we got so wrapped up in the pressure to be perfect…” “…we forgot how to be friends,” finished K-Lo as she and Su-Z both turned to Sunset and Pinkie. “So what do you say?” asked Sunset contently. “I don’t know…” muttered K-Lo as she wiped away her tears. She began to smile as she replied, “I guess… this one’s for real.” Su-Z let out a sigh of satisfaction as she held hands with her old friend and declared, “Let’s do it, then. For real. It’ll be you and me, just like old times. Whatever happens, happens.” The two bandmates continued to smile and hold hands as they stood up. When they both turned their attention out to the large crowd gathered before them, they shared a brief nod before they turned away from each other and struck their iconic PostCrush pose — K-Lo in a cool pose, Su-Z in a zany pose, both while standing back to back. The cheer and applause from the audience roared significantly louder as they witnessed that iconic pose. While K-Lo grabbed her guitar resting nearby and Su-Z sat down at her drum set nearby, Sunset and Pinkie moved over to stand aside on the main stage. As excited as they were to watch PostCrush from a place that any fan could only dream of, the two Equestria Girls were respectful enough to leave the stage clear for the intended performers. Finally, all of the various stage lights dimmed, and the audience soon quieted their cheers. With their instruments at the ready, the PostCrush duo began playing the opening notes of their famous song. The stage lights flashed with every beat of the tune. After a few seconds, the display panels along the back side of the stage lit up, illuminating the girls on stage with flashing displays of pulsing hearts. While Su-Z continued with the opening beats, K-Lo turned to face the audience and sang the opening lyrics. 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… Su-Z joined in with K-Lo for the next part of the lyrics. We’re all about perfection, Projecting the pure reflection, Exceeding your expectations, Yeah… The PostCrush duo performed with all their heart into the music and the audience cheered louder as the song reached its chorus. 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! As PostCrush performed, Sunset and Pinkie danced to the music off to the side of the stage. K-Lo and Su-Z watched them enjoy themselves, then glanced at each other and shared a nod of agreement. Su-Z kicked one of her drums to slide across the stage and stop right in front of Pinkie. The two Equestria Girls stopped dancing when they noticed the drum sent towards them. They both turned to PostCrush and smiled as they watched K-Lo pick up the spare guitar on stage and tossed it over to them. As Sunset eagerly caught the guitar, Pinkie swiftly pulled her drumsticks out from within her hair piece, and soon, the two fans of PostCrush were performing right alongside them. True, true original… True, true original… True, true original… We’re perfect, perfectly true! As K-Lo enthusiastically vocalized throughout the instrumental part of the song, Sunset and Pinkie looked out towards the audience as they continued playing. They were pleasantly surprised when they saw the rest of their friends make their way into the crowd. Rainbow Dash pointed up to them on stage and waved at them, followed by the rest of the group of friends waving at them. Sunset and Pinkie spared a brief moment to wave back at their friends in the audience as they continued playing along to the music. When the time came for the next verse of the song, K-Lo moved aside and pointed towards Sunset and Pinkie, signaling for them to take the lead for this part of the song. After the experiences those two had been through today, they decided to slightly change the lyrics to reflect the lessons they had learned. But… it’s not about perfection, Set off in your own direction, Shake off the expectations… With her duet with Pinkie complete, Sunset walked over to stand beside K-Lo on stage. K-Lo smiled and nodded in approval, and then all four girls performed the chorus with slightly modified lyrics to reflect the lessons they had all learned tonight. 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, imperfectly you! The audience continued the cheer as they seemed to absolutely love the improvised new version of the song. Pinkie decided to throw in some special visual effects by pulling two handfuls of hard candy out of her hair piece and tossed them high up into the air. Thanks to her magical power, those pieces of candy exploded like fireworks when they reached the apex of their flight, and the crowd continued the cheer. True, true original… True, true original… True, true original… You’re perfect, imperfectly you! Just as she had done over a hundred times before, K-Lo finished the song by tossing her guitar pick into the air, this time intentionally flinging it backwards to ensure it would be caught by the two Equestria Girls who helped make this their best show ever. Sunset ended up catching the pick, but as soon as she glanced over at Pinkie, she quickly decided to hand it over to her friend. With the song finished, the audience roared with excitement and enthusiasm as they chanted the name PostCrush over and over. Sunset and Pinkie turned to each other with thrilled expressions as Sunset excitedly remarked, “I can’t believe we just played at Starswirled!” “You sure did!” agreed Su-Z as she and K-Lo waved over at them. “Get over here and take a photo with us!” suggested K-Lo with enthusiasm. Sunset and Pinkie glanced at each other with huge smiles on their faces, then immediately rushed over to join the favorite band out on stage. As Sunset pulled out her phone and prepared to take a group selfie, she excitedly remarked, “Now this is a perfect moment!” Pinkie giggled excitedly as the four girls pressed together and posed for the photo. Once they were all together within view of the phone’s camera, Sunset took the picture. Sunset had a huge smile as she looked at the new picture on her phone. “I am so gonna make this my phone’s new background!” she excitedly declared as she tapped her phone. “If anything, at least it’ll prove to me tomorrow morning that this time loop is finally over.” “Yeah, sorry you had to go through all that,” apologized K-Lo. “We never meant for anyone to get caught in the loop with us.” “Eh, I won’t take it personally,” assured Sunset. “I was pretty much just in the wrong place at the wrong time.” “More like the right place and time,” corrected Pinkie cheerfully, “because if you didn’t get caught in the time loop with PostCrush, you never would’ve gained all that experience to make this the best day for all of us!” “I guess that’s another way of looking at it,” admitted Sunset with a smile. “As great as this show went, we’d better get off stage before the fans start asking for an encore,” stated K-Lo as she gestured for the girls on stage to follow her. “Just this one show was stressful enough.” “Tell me about it,” remarked Su-Z with a scoff as she rolled her eyes as she, Sunset, and Pinkie followed K-Lo backstage. She glanced back at the other two and added, “Believe me, after repeating this day so many times, I was getting very close to just walking out on K-Lo until she’d agree to finally stop using that stupid thing.” K-Lo let out a sigh of disappointment and acknowledged, “I should’ve expected that would eventually happen. It was practically the same issues that drove us apart in the first place.” Once the four girls arrived in the secluded backstage room, K-Lo smiled and noted, “I’m just glad it didn’t have to come to that again, thanks to some special insight from a couple of special fans. That improv you two came up with went so great, I dare say that even if I still had that time resetting artifact, I probably would choose not to use it again tonight.” “Wow,” remarked Pinkie. “Who’d’ve thought that you became so obsessed with using that Time Twirler over and over again, and yet the moment you suddenly couldn’t use it anymore just so happened to occur on the very same loop where you decided everything went super-duper enough that you didn’t even need it anymore, anyway?” That observation pointed out by Pinkie made Sunset suddenly remember a certain detail from when she had viewed K-Lo’s memories earlier. “The curse has been lifted…” she muttered. “Huh?” asked Su-Z in confusion. Sunset turned to K-Lo and spoke up, “That guy who sold you the Time Twirler… the moment you bought it from him, he said something about a curse being lifted.” “He did,” acknowledged K-Lo, “but I never believed in any curses. At the time, I thought he was just spewing some nonsense from being out in the desert for too long.” Pinkie gasped as she grabbed Sunset by the shoulders and asked, “Are you saying the Time Twirler was cursed by making whoever uses it for whatever reason be always unable to actually achieve that thing they were using it for, thereby forcing them to keep on using it over and over and over again for all of eternity?!” “Well, when you put it that way, I guess that might explain a lot,” noted Su-Z. “I mean, it did seem kinda weird at times how we always seemed to find all kinds of new ways to mess up our show.” “I’m not sure,” answered Sunset as she gently pried Pinkie’s hands off her. “When Princess Twilight of Equestria sent me those notes about the Time Twirler, they never said anything about a curse. Then again, the guy who sold it claimed that it was plundered from a tomb, so maybe there was something about being in that tomb that put a curse on it.” She waved her hand dismissively and added, “Either way, I’ll need to send a message to Princess Twilight to at least let her know the Time Twirler has been destroyed, even though she technically won’t remember anything about it since she did all that research in an earlier loop.” “Uh, quick question,” Su-Z spoke up hesitantly. “Since we messed around with Equestrian Magic, does this mean we’re gonna get in big trouble for what we did?” That thought caused K-Lo to look at Sunset with a very worried expression, suddenly feeling very concerned about the impact this incident might have on the reputation of PostCrush. Sunset thought about it for a moment, then smiled and replied, “Well, thanks to the extensive use of time travel, technically the only one to have been affected by all of this was just me, and since I’m a rather forgiving person, I promise to not press any charges.” Both K-Lo and Su-Z let out a huge sigh of relief upon hearing that statement. “But as a member of the LEGO Team, I’ll still be obligated to submit a report on this incident,” added Sunset. “I’m not sure what kind of judgement they’ll have for your actions and behavior, but I’ll be sure to put in a good word for you.” “Oh! I just realized something!” Pinkie suddenly spoke up excitedly. “Since you’ve been using Equestrian Magic in a not-so-nice way and later apologized for hurting everyone affected by it, that means you could be invited to join the Redeemables! It’s this group of former enemies of ours who are gonna be working together to make themselves better and to help prevent any other would-be bad guys from becoming bad guys in the first place!” “That does sound kinda interesting,” admitted Su-Z. “But I think we’ll decline that offer,” stated K-Lo as she shared a smile and nod of agreement with her bandmate. “We have no interest in becoming heroes, and would much rather stick with what we’re already famous for.” “In fact,” added Su-Z, “now that we’re no longer disagreeing about so many things, we might actually stick together this time and go on an extended tour.” “That sounds like a great idea!” agreed Sunset. “I’m sure your fans will be thrilled to hear about that.” “We’ll be sure give credit where it’s due,” assured K-Lo. “We’ll make the announcement tomorrow and tell everyone it couldn’t have been possible without a little help from the Equestria Girls.” “Did you hear that, Sunset?!” exclaimed Pinkie excitedly. “We helped PostCrush stay together for more than one night!” Sunset giggled in amusement, then turned back to the PostCrush duo and said, “Well, this night sure has been eventful, but it’s getting pretty late, so I guess we’d better get going.” “Yeah, I’m sure your friends are waiting for you back at the campgrounds,” agreed Su-Z. “Not to mention, now that we’re no longer gonna repeat this day, we gotta figure out what we’re actually gonna do tomorrow.” K-Lo chuckled and acknowledged, “Yeah, I guess I never really thought about what we’d do once the show was done, but I’m sure we’ll think of something.” “Either way, if you ever change your mind about the Redeemables, I’m sure the invitation will always be open,” stated Sunset as she held out her hand. K-Lo and Su-Z stepped forward, but then hesitated as they suddenly remembered what happened the last time Sunset had requested a handshake. Sunset quickly understood their reluctance, so she giggled and assured them, “Relax, I’ve got enough control over my magical power that I don’t read minds every single time I touch someone.” She leaned close to them and discretely whispered, “If I didn’t, I’d go mad from exposure to Miss Sugar Bomb over there.” The PostCrush duo glanced over at Pinkie, who eagerly waved at them with a huge grin on her face. “Point taken,” remarked Su-Z before she shook Sunset’s hand. “Have a good one,” said K-Lo as she shook Sunset’s hand. “Same to you,” responded Sunset. As the PostCrush duo next turned to Pinkie, the party girl rushed towards them and wrapped them both in a tight hug as she squealed and exclaimed, “I’m sharing a hug with PostCrush! This really has been the best day ever!” “And this is why we don’t interact with fans very often,” muttered K-Lo and she and Su-Z strained against the tight hug. Upon hearing that, Pinkie quickly released them and giggled in embarrassment. Sunset chuckled and politely declared, “All right, Pinkie, let’s get going.” She then began to make her way out of the backstage area. Pinkie nodded in agreement and followed after Sunset. The two Equestria Girls paused at the exit and turned back to wave at PostCrush, who waved back at them. With that final exchange, Sunset and Pinkie left the main stage area and began to make their way back towards the campgrounds, feeling very pleased to have such a great ending to such a great day. Later that evening, Sunset and Pinkie returned to their RV in the campgrounds, where the rest of their friends were seated around the heating table and roasting marshmallows over it. Both girls had big smiles on their faces as they walked together beside each other. Rainbow Dash placed her roasted marshmallow on a graham cracker and removed it from the skewer she held when she noticed the arrival of Sunset and Pinkie. “There they are!” she spoke up eagerly as the others also turned to their two friends. “We saw you two play on stage with PostCrush. I don’t know how you got to do that, but it was awesome!” As Sunset walked over to grab a skewer and placed a marshmallow on it, she chuckled and stated, “I’m glad you girls got to see that. I honestly never could’ve imagined this day would turn out like that.” “And after everything you’ve been through, that’s really saying something!” remarked Pinkie cheerfully as she grabbed the last available skewer and stabbed a handful of marshmallows onto the end of it. “Oh? How did your day go, Sunset?” asked Fluttershy with curiosity. As Sunset and Pinkie sat down around the heating table to join their friends in roasting marshmallows, Sunset sighed and admitted, “It’s a long story.” “More like a long four months, if what you said was true,” quipped Pinkie. She turned to the rest of her friends and swiftly explained, “You see, there was this other magical thing from Equestria that ended up in our world that could make a day repeat for someone over and over, and Sunset somehow got caught up in its effects, leaving her trapped on this day and in this place for a really really long time and had no idea what was going on until she eventually sent a message in her magic journal asking Princess Twilight for help, who then told us about that Time Twirler magical thingy, but Sunset was never able to find out who had that thingy until right on this loop when both of us were shocked to discover that it was actually PostCrush who had been using it all along!” Everyone besides Pinkie and Sunset gasped at that revelation. “No way…” muttered Rainbow in shock and disbelief. “It’s true!” continued Pinkie. “They were using it because they were so super-duper obsessed with performing the perfect show but some little things always kept going wrong for them, forcing them to keep using that Time Twirler over and over and over, kinda like hitting the reset button on a video game, except this was happening in real life! Thankfully, we managed to catch up to them and Sunset was able to smash the Time Twirler, but it was while we accidentally ended up on stage with them that we helped them realize they didn’t need to be perfect to put on an awesome show, so they agreed to finally just go for it, and they even allowed us to play alongside them as a way of thanking us for helping them solve their problems, encouraging them finally reunite for real this time!” “Wow,” muttered Spike. “That really was a long story.” “So, in other words, you’re saying this magical artifact from Equestria caused Sunset to experience a perpetual temporal loop?” asked Twilight. Sunset smirked and replied, “To quote you word for word, ‘It’s possible that a snag in the fabric of spacetime could cause a temporal point — i.e., this day — to fold in on itself and thereby repeat.’” Rainbow chuckled and quipped, “Yeah, that sounds like something Twilight would say, alright.” Rarity glanced away and quietly muttered, “I suppose that would explain a few things.” “Like what?” asked Pinkie. “Do you remember those secret messages Sunset distributed to us at the start of the day?” responded Rarity. “The one I received warned me to stay clear of the public restroom area shortly after making a significant purchase. Sure enough, as soon as I bought myself this fashionable faux suede jacket with excessive fringe,” she spoke as she gestured at the new jacket she was wearing, “I was curious enough to inspect from a distance why I should stay clear of that area, and it turns out there was a group of children playing with squirt guns and super soakers, which would have surely ruined this jacket had I been unfortunate enough to end up in the crossfire of that playful conflict.” “That’s interesting,” noted Twilight as she turned to Sunset. “My message warned me to watch where I was going while holding my phone. There was a moment I would’ve tripped over an old music player on the ground and possibly could have accidentally tossed my phone into a nearby barrel of water, had I not heeded that advice.” “Ah was careful enough to avoid all the pushin’ an’ shovin’ that was goin’ on when Dirk Thistleweed came on, which ya warned be about,” Applejack pointed out as she also turned to Sunset. “I was able to convince Fluttershy to try singing at that karaoke place by building a little privacy booth around her,” added Spike. “I still can’t believe there was a food truck that actually sold those so-called lasagna pops, but Spike sure seemed to really like it,” added Fluttershy. “And the manager of this festival told me that if I could get permission from all of you, he could arrange to have a rental van pick up our instruments so we can perform some of our songs on stage tomorrow night,” Rainbow Dash finished. “Wow, Sunset!” remarked Pinkie cheerfully. “Looks like all those secret messages you gave to everyone really did make this day better for all of them!” “Glad to hear that,” responded Sunset. “Personally, I’m just happy this whole time loop is over, which means we can finally move on to the real tomorrow.” “Well, I guess it’s nice that everything turned out great for all of us,” remarked Spike. Just then, the marshmallow he was roasting suddenly caught on fire. He yelped in panic and prepared to start waving his skewer around, only to have it suddenly slip out of his hand behind him before he could fling it forward. He looked around in confusion and soon discovered that Sunset had yanked it out of his grasp. Sunset strongly blew on the flaming marshmallow, quickly putting out the flame. She then passed the burnt marshmallow back to Spike and quipped, “And now, everything has turned out great for all of us.” The other girls all laughed and giggled at that remark. “You know,” Rainbow Dash spoke up, “I just realized that we just stopped yet another force of evil magic, only this time we didn’t even need to use our rainbow lasers.” She smirked and added, “We must be getting good at this.” Sunset chuckled and admitted, “Now that you mention it, I’m kinda glad we didn’t upstage PostCrush’s show by ponying up. Now there’s something I don’t think I could ever live down.” “Yeah, me neither,” agreed Pinkie. She then promptly shoved her wad of toasted marshmallows into her mouth and ate them straight off the skewer. Sunset smiled and stated, “Still, all things considered, I couldn’t have asked for a better day than this.” Sunset and her friends all continued to share friendly conversations with each other as they toasted marshmallows together over the heating table. Eventually, they all agreed to turn in for the night and entered the RV. As she and her friends changed into their pajamas and climbed into their sleeping bags, Sunset had to admit she was definitely looking forward to what tomorrow would finally bring. Author's Note Once again, I barely managed to complete this chapter in time to meet my schedule. Thank goodness I now have just the epilogue left to go before this story is finished. Anyway, while this chapter wraps up a lot of things from throughout this story, there's still a few other remaining things that will be mentioned in the epilogue, so you can look forward to that next week.
EpilogueEpilogue Morning arrived at the campgrounds just outside the Starswirled Music Festival. It was little more than an hour after sunrise, and as Sunset slept in her sleeping bag beside the window inside the RV that she and her friends were using for their stay at the festival, her phone was lying beside her head on the pillow. At the moment the time became 7:00, the phone’s alarm went off by playing a song by PostCrush. Be the true… true, true original— Sunset quickly woke up and shut off her phone’s alarm. She had a huge smile on her face as she saw that not only was today finally Sunday instead of Saturday, but also the new background image she had applied based on the selfie she had taken the previous night with Pinkie and PostCrush. That was all she needed to confirm that today was finally going to be a brand new day in every way imaginable. Sunset looked out at the rest of the RV’s interior and saw that Pinkie Pie was still asleep atop her now ruffled sleeping bag, while everyone else had already gone outside. As she listened to Pinkie snore and mumble something about churros, Sunset grinned and excitedly declared, “Starswirled day two!” Pinkie immediately awoke with a gasp, then quickly started jumping around the room as she excitedly cheered, “Yes! We did it! Woohoo!” She then landed to sit down beside Sunset atop her sleeping bag and asked, “So what do you wanna do today, Sunset?” “Whatever the day brings us,” replied Sunset contently. She then rolled her eyes and grumbled, “Yesterday was the longest four months of my life!” Sunset and Pinkie both laughed at that remark for a few seconds. Once their laughter calmed down, Sunset stood up and suggested, “How about you get dressed and go ahead of me? I’ll catch up after I take care of a few things.” “Sure thing, Sunset!” agreed Pinkie eagerly as she rushed towards the bathroom and closed the door. Just two seconds later, she came back out of the bathroom, now fully dressed for the real second day of the music festival, then quickly headed out the door outside. With a smile still on her face, Sunset turned to her packed bags. Before she started getting ready for a brand new day, she wanted to write a message to Princess Twilight in Equestria to inform her of what really happened yesterday. Outside the RV, the rest of the group was gathered together as they prepared for the day ahead. At one of the nearby picnic tables, Pinkie and Applejack sat on the side closer to the RV while Rainbow and Rarity sat on the other side, all of whom were sharing the usual small talk. The other nearby picnic table was occupied by Twilight and Spike as they tested a solar-powered waffle maker, one of Twilight’s recent inventions that included a repurposed satellite dish to focus the sun’s light into a heating element that was directly connected to a slightly modified waffle iron. Sunset eventually stepped out of the RV and made her way over to the empty table where most of her friends were seated. As she sat down in the available space to the right of Pinkie and across from Rarity, the other girls seated at the table turned to her and saw she was mixing a bowl of oatmeal she had just finished making for herself. “Oatmeal?!” asked Pinkie in shock. “Are you crazy?!” Sunset just smiled and replied, “Let’s just say that after eating the exact same blueberry pancake breakfast for four months straight, I’m actually craving something a little bland for once.” “Eh, to each their own,” remarked Spike as he glanced over at the table where the girls were seated. Sunset giggled and retorted, “You know, that’s exactly what you said yesterday morning to Rarity. I should know, ‘cause I had to hear it for four months straight.” She scooped out a spoonful of her oatmeal, but before she took a bite, she turned to the other girls and asked, “By the way, I saw the note Fluttershy left behind this morning saying she went out early to check on something. Any idea what that’s about?” “Not a clue,” replied Applejack with a shrug. “She hasn’t even come back yet.” “Oh! There she is!” Rainbow Dash suddenly pointed out. Everyone turned to see Fluttershy slightly hunched forward as she slowly walked over to the picnic table and sat down in the available seat to the right of Rainbow Dash and across from Applejack. “What have you been up to this morning?” asked Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy let out a tired sigh and replied, “When Sunset mentioned the Time Twirler had an area effect on its first use, I couldn’t get any sleep over the thought that it might have also affected some of the animals in that part of the forest. I checked out the site and, sure enough, there were quite a few critters who had gone half-crazy at seeing their food stockpiles never changing and failing to see the arrival of winter that to them should’ve been weeks ago. You have no idea how hard it is to explain time loops to woodland critters.” She then smiled and added, “But the important thing is that I assured them all they are now finally back on their natural cycles and can get back to preparing for the upcoming change of seasons.” “That’s quite the relief,” Rarity spoke up. “I honestly had never even considered the possibility that any fauna in the area might have been affected by the time loop, and I seriously doubt such a thought would have crossed the minds of PostCrush, either.” Sunset finished a bite of her oatmeal before she asked, “By the way, Fluttershy, could you give your friend Tree Hugger a call? Ask her to bring Hattie the tuxedo kitten over here, as I happen to know someone who’d love to adopt him.” Fluttershy was initially confused by that request, but then quietly responded, “Well, you know a lot more about what happened yesterday than anyone else, so if you really think that’s a good idea, then I guess it might be worth it.” She then stood up and began walking away as she pulled out her phone and made the call to her friend. “Oh, I get it,” remarked Pinkie slyly. “This is supposed to be a favor for that security guard from yesterday, isn’t it?” “Guilty as charged,” acknowledged Sunset with a smile. “Maybe we should also throw in a thank you card so he understands why we’re offering him that gift.” “Got it covered!” declared Pinkie as she dug around in her tiny fanny pack until she pulled out a pen and a pink greeting card with the words “Thank You Very Much!” printed on the front. Sunset giggled and continued, “Write the following message inside. ‘To Max Steele, the best security guard ever. We never could have stopped the latest threat of Equestrian Magic had it not been for your good judgement and actions. As promised, here’s a little something I know you’ll appreciate.’” She paused and waited for Pinkie to finish writing before she added, “Then we’ll just sign our names at the bottom.” Pinkie nodded in agreement before signing her name in the card. She then passed the card and pen over to Sunset so she could also sign her name in it. “By the way,” Rainbow Dash spoke up, “that rental van the festival manager hired will be here in less than half an hour. I know you don’t wanna trust the keys to your homes to a total stranger, so I’m gonna ride with him and grab our instruments myself, if that’s okay with all of you.” “Fine by me,” agreed Sunset as she finished another bite of her oatmeal. “After four months of trying to watch PostCrush, I’m definitely looking forward to preparing our own show on stage.” Pinkie suddenly gasped and excitedly asked, “Since we played on PostCrush’s show last night, do you think they’d be interested in playing on our show tonight?!” “After what we’ve all been through, I’m sure they’d welcome the invitation,” replied Sunset with a smile. “And since it’s now day two and our backstage passes have become valid, we shouldn’t have any trouble reaching out to them.” Rainbow Dash chuckled and remarked, “You know, Sunset, I gotta admit, I’m actually kinda jealous of you.” “In what way?” asked Applejack. “Just think about it, girls,” explained Rainbow eagerly. “As virtually the only one aware that she was in a time loop, Sunset didn’t have to worry about destroying something or hurting someone’s feelings. As soon as the time loop reset, everything went right back to the way they were, not just broken things being restored, but also no one would have any memories of what happened in the previous loop. No one would’ve ever been aware of what she did in any of the previous loops. She could’ve destroyed valuable objects, said nasty things to people, committed robbery, ran around naked, and never would’ve had to worry about facing any consequences for whatever she did as soon as the time loop reset. She could’ve literally done anything she wanted, and would’ve totally gotten away with it!” “Rainbow Dash!” scolded Rarity. “Honestly, our friend Sunset is responsible enough to not take advantage of such circumstances for any petty, selfish gains!” Her expression quickly grew more uncertain as she then turned to Sunset and asked, “Right?” Sunset had just scooped another spoonful of her oatmeal as she glanced around at her friends seated at the table, all of whom were anxiously expecting an answer from her. She stared back at them for a few seconds, then simply smirked before she put that spoonful of oatmeal in her mouth. There was no need for her to tell them anything. Of course, Sunset’s reaction was enough of an answer for all of them to understand the truth. Rainbow Dash cackled and quipped, “She did. She totally did!” She turned to Sunset and insisted, “Oh, you have got to tell us what kinds of crazy stuff you did!” “Sorry, girls,” responded Sunset with a playful smile after she finished her bite of oatmeal, “but that’s for me to know and for you to speculate. Those secrets are gonna stick with me for the rest of my life. After all, it’s like the old me used to say — it’s not illegal if you never get caught.” She couldn’t help but giggle at the mixed reactions she got from her friends. “Besides, that all happened yesterday. Today is a brand new day to look forward to.” “Couldn’t have said it better myself!” agreed Pinkie cheerfully. Twilight suddenly groaned in frustration. Everyone turned to her and saw that her experimental waffle iron has resulted in a burnt waffle that audibly sizzled. “Well that’s ruined…” she grumbled. She then glanced back with an embarrassed smile and asked, “Hey, uh, Sunset? Do you happen to know where I could find another Time Twirler? I could really use one right about now.” Everyone gave Twilight a blank stare. “That was a joke,” added Twilight in a deadpan tone. All of the Equestria Girls quickly burst out laughing. All in all, it was just another day of a group of best friends having a good time together, and there was nothing about this day that any of them would want to change for any reason. Author's Note And that brings an end to the latest main story in my LEGO Equestria Girls series. After the ridiculously late start I got on writing this story, I was left pretty much scrambling to get every chapter completed on time, and while I'm relieved that I was able to stick to my schedule, it often resulted in a lot of nights with very little sleep. Hopefully I'll be able to actually better manage my time once I start writing the next part of this fanfiction series. Next up will be the group of holiday-themed short stories, which will be a mix of ones based on some of the official holiday shorts and ones that are my own original ideas.
Flying SoloChapter 3 Flying Solo Morning arrived at the campgrounds just outside the Starswirled Music Festival. It was little more than an hour after sunrise, and by this point, Sunset Shimmer was the only one still asleep within the RV that she and her friends were using for their stay at the festival. As Sunset slept in her sleeping bag beside the window, her phone was lying beside her head on the pillow. At the moment the time became 7:00, the phone’s alarm went off by playing a song by PostCrush. Be the true… true, true original— Sunset slowly woke up and stared at her phone for a moment before she reached over and shut off the alarm. Despite just waking up, she felt exhausted after missing PostCrush two nights in a row. As far as she was concerned, there was no point in trying to anticipate what today would be like. Sunset let out a tired sigh as she shuffled out of her sleeping bag, tossed off her pajamas, and slipped on that same special outfit she had worn for the last two days for day one of the music festival. She then walked out the door and around the front of the RV to join her friends, who were already gathered outside. At this moment, Twilight, Fluttershy, and Applejack were seated around the RV’s heating table as they ate breakfast, while Rarity and Spike were seated at a nearby picnic table as Spike demonstrated some of his beatboxing skills. Rarity rolled her eyes and grumbled, “Ugh, I shall never understand the appeal of beatboxing.” Spike kept his smile as he shrugged and remarked, “Eh, to each their own.” Upon witnessing that familiar conversation between Rarity and Spike, Sunset began to smile, as she realized this was a good sign that the previous day was now repeating a second time. With her attention on them, she failed to see Rainbow Dash quickly run over and stop right behind her while carrying a large paddle with the Sonic Rainbooms band symbol printed on it. “Starswirled day one! Come and get it!” Rainbow excitedly declared as she swung the paddle around, accidentally smacking Sunset’s rear end. With that definite confirmation that the previous day was now repeating again, Sunset cheerfully cried out, “Yes! Thank you!” When she glanced back and saw Rainbow staring back at her with a confused look on her face, Sunset awkwardly added, “I mean… ow… that hurt…” Rainbow Dash rubbed the back of her head and awkwardly grinned as she responded, “Uh… sorry about that. I’ll be more careful next time.” She then turned and walked away with a noticeable blush on her face. As Sunset rubbed away the stinging pain, she quickly recognized how embarrassingly awkward that encounter must have been for both of them, but she just shrugged and muttered to herself, “Oh well. Not important, compared to PostCrush.” Once the pain had dulled enough, she made her way over to the other table and began to grab some of the available blueberry pancakes as she listened to the familiar conversation between the rest of her friends. “So Ah says to Big Mac, ‘Get your own chicken coop!’” spoke Applejack. Fluttershy happened to be in the middle of taking a sip of her orange juice when she heard the end of that joke, so she ended up doing a spit-take directly onto the front of Applejack’s torso before beginning to laugh. “Hey! Watch it!” complained Applejack. Fluttershy laughed for a little bit before she calmed down enough to respond, “Sorry. It’s just that one had animals in it.” Applejack grabbed a nearby napkin and started drying herself off as she grumbled, “Well next time, try not to spray it at someone.” “Ooh! Ooh! How about this one?!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie excitedly as she suddenly bounced over to where most of her friends were seated. “What do you call a PostCrush fan with three eyes?” During that one second of silence, Sunset finished pouring the maple syrup onto her gathered stack of pancakes. “Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie cheerfully answered before she rushed over to Sunset. Sunset quickly dropped the bottle of syrup and pushed back against Pinkie. “No time for goofing around,” Sunset sharply spoke up with a frown. She then turned to the rest of her friends — who all turned to look at her in confusion — and smiled as she asked, “Uh, could you girls keep Pinkie occupied today? I’m gonna go ahead on my own.” Carrying her plate full of pancakes with her, she immediately began walking away towards the festival grounds. “What do you mean by that?” asked Twilight. “Trust me, this is for the best,” assured Sunset as she continued walking away as quickly as she could. Thankfully, the plate and fork she was using were disposable, so she could simply toss them into any nearby trashcan once she was finished with her pancakes. The others looked on in confusion as they watched Sunset’s sudden departure with seemingly no explanation from her. Fluttershy turned to Pinkie and asked, “Um, weren’t you two supposed to watch PostCrush together?” “We were…” replied Pinkie with a sad frown, baffled by her friend’s recent actions. “Eh, she probably just wanted to get in line early to avoid waiting around too much,” assured Spike with a shrug. “We’ll catch up to her once we get through security.” “Ah sure hope so,” muttered Applejack as she wadded up the soaked napkin she had used to clean herself and tossed it into a trashcan a short distance away. “Yeah… that’s probably it,” agreed Pinkie with an uneasy smile, trying her best to remain optimistic for the day ahead. As soon as everyone had finished their breakfast, the group walked up the path towards the entrance to the festival grounds. They arrived just in time to watch Sunset receive her festival bracelet, followed by the security guard checking her in to allow her to pass through. The rest of the group — especially Pinkie Pie — were stunned to see their friend move on into the festival grounds without even so much as a glance back towards them, as if she had no reason to be concerned with anyone except herself. “Sunset! Wait for me!” Pinkie cried out desperately as she rushed towards the middle entrance, bypassing the security line that had formed behind where Sunset recently stood. “Hold it right there, miss!” the security guard firmly spoke up as he held up his hand. Once the pink girl skidded to a sudden stop, he continued, “Back of the line and wait your turn! Or I’ll have to stamp your wrist with my ban hammer.” He then pulled out a rubber mallet with the word “BANNED” etched backwards onto the face of it. Pinkie’s eyes shrank as she was suddenly faced with the possibility of missing out on everything at the music festival before she could even get started. She glanced back at the line that by now consisted of almost ten minifigs, then glanced forward in a futile effort to try to see Sunset somewhere beyond the entryway. When her gaze returned to the security guard threatening her with that mallet, she gulped and, with a shaky smile, nervously conceded, “Y-You’re the authority, here…” She then walked backwards, never taking her eyes off that security guard until she finally arrived at the end of the line. The security guard maintained his serious frown as he set down his mallet and proceeded to inspect the next person waiting in line. Pinkie tried to be patient. Normally, she could find all kinds of fun things to do while waiting in line, but right now, there was nothing she wanted more than to catch up with Sunset. As she was nervously sweating all over her body, she impatiently tapped her foot, groaned worriedly, and after waiting for all of just half a minute, she suddenly hollered out, “C’mon, c’mon, c’mon! Hurry it up!” “Pipe down, miss!” the security guard firmly scolded. “Security is an art. It cannot be rushed.” “But my friend could be having all kinds of fun in there without me!” whined Pinkie desperately. “Not my problem!” the security guard sharply shot back. “One more outburst outta you, miss, and I will bring out the ban hammer.” Pinkie immediately whimpered and slapped her hands over her mouth. As she anxiously watched the security guard resume his work, she couldn’t help but think about just how unfair it all seemed to her. If only Sunset hadn’t gone ahead without her… “Relax, Pinkie,” assured Twilight as she got in line behind Pinkie. “By my calculations, this line should take an absolute maximum of two hours before it’s our turn. Even under that worst case scenario, that still leaves you with plenty of time to enjoy this day with Sunset. Especially when you keep in mind that PostCrush won’t be on until later tonight.” Pinkie hunched over and let out a sad sigh. As much as she believed Twilight’s reasonable assurance, it still pained her that she had to miss out on any time with Sunset. Within the festival grounds, Sunset was very pleased with herself for achieving a much earlier start than she had on her two previous experiences of this day, allowing her to get in ahead of the long lines and thus leave her with plenty of time to plan for her ultimate goal of obtaining a front row seat to watch PostCrush later tonight. After two failed attempts as a result of Pinkie’s antics, she was now determined to finally succeed on the third attempt, even if it meant avoiding any contact with that pink party girl for the entire day. Although she acknowledged such an attitude could be considered cruelty to one of her closest friends, she was not going to take any chances this time. “Sunset!” Sunset had been in the middle of studying her map of the festival grounds when she heard Pinkie’s cheerful voice call out to her, which immediately filled Sunset with dread as she glanced back to see her hyperactive friend pass through the entryway. “I had to wait in line for, like, over a hundred minutes!” continued Pinkie as she excitedly ran towards Sunset. “But I finally made it through security!” In a moment of panic, Sunset immediately started running away from Pinkie. Being close to Pinkie had caused her to be kicked out of the festival grounds on both previous times, and she absolutely wanted to avoid that outcome at any cost. “Hey! Wait for me!” Pinkie cried out cheerfully as she quickly pursued Sunset. Back at the entryway, Twilight was waiting through her security search as she watched that encounter between Pinkie and Sunset, and what she saw left her feeling not only further confusion about Sunset, but also a sense of foreboding for Pinkie. Having already planned out her intended route to the ideal location for tonight’s main performance, Sunset quickly decided that a little detour towards the Neon Garden would provide her best chance of getting Pinkie to lose track of her. The first landmark she passed by was the giveaway booth with a purple tandem bicycle displayed to the side. As they ran past that giveaway booth, Pinkie suddenly stopped and glanced at it as she gasped and excitedly noted, “Win a tandem bicycle?!” Her excitement for it vanished just as quickly as she turned to see Sunset still rapidly fleeing from her. “Sunset!” she cried out as she immediately resumed following after her friend. Sunset kept her attention focused straight ahead as she quickly approached the Neon Garden. “Sunset!” Pinkie cried out desperately as she continued to follow her friend across the festival grounds. Sunset entered the Neon Garden and, thanks to her memorizing the paths from her two previous experiences of this day, swiftly made her way along the shortest route through the maze. Once she arrived near the end of that path, she slowed to a stop so she could take a moment to catch her breath. “You found me!” Pinkie cheerfully exclaimed as she suddenly burst out of the hedges behind Sunset. Sunset yelped in shock and immediately began running away again. That renewed burst of adrenaline allowed her to quickly leave the Neon Garden and seek an alternate escape route. Pinkie’s smile turned awkward from that encounter, but she maintained her optimism as she called out, “Okay, now I’ll find you!” She jumped out of the hedges and followed after Sunset. Sunset decided her next best chance was to cross the width of the festival grounds to reach the area with all the food carts and food trucks, hoping that something there would distract Pinkie long enough to lose track of her. Along the way there, she ended up passing by that familiar paint balloon artist, but because it was now significantly earlier in the day than the previous two times she had passed this way, that artist was currently in the middle of setting up the two easels for his art show. Sunset was silently thankful her early start meant that, this time, she would not have to worry about wasting precious hours of this day washing paint off herself, and could instead spend that extra time to get herself ready to see PostCrush. But first, she still had to shake Pinkie off her trail. “I’m having fun with my friend!” remarked Pinkie cheerfully as she ran by the artist. However, that artist had so far set up only one of his easels, while the other was still lying on the ground. Pinkie was so desperate to keep up with Sunset that she failed to notice the easel on the ground and tripped right over it. Despite falling flat on her face, she quickly got back up and continued following after Sunset. Now with a little additional distance between them, Sunset continued straight ahead. As soon as she arrived at the area where all kinds of festival food were sold, she smiled as she recognized one of the first food carts she encountered along the way. Those churros, she thought to herself. This could be my best chance. Sunset rushed past the churro cart, where Puffed Pastry was in the middle of mixing the batter for her churros. “Sunset!” Pinkie cried out as she continued pursuing her friend. However, as she approached the churro cart, she was quickly distracted and couldn’t help but desire to sample the batter. “Ooh…” she muttered curiously as she reached her hand out towards the bowl in Puffed Pastry’s hands. Puffed Pastry frowned as she yanked the bowl out of Pinkie’s reach and firmly scolded, “No churros for you!” “Aww…” moaned Pinkie sadly. With that rejection, she turned away from the churro cart and tried to turn her attention back to her friend. However, as she glanced all around, she was unable to find any sign of Sunset Shimmer. “Sunset?” asked Pinkie in confusion as she kept looking around in every direction. “Sunset? Are you…” She gasped as a dreadful realization finally occurred to her. “…ditching me?” She whimpered at the very heartbreaking thought of such an idea, but upon reflecting on Sunset’s unusual behavior today, there was simply no other explanation she could come up with. Pinkie sighed dejectedly and hung her head in sadness as she turned away and began to slowly walk back to the main entrance to the festival grounds. She had been eagerly looking forward to watching PostCrush with Sunset tonight, but if her best friend was suddenly refusing to have anything to do with her today, then she might as well just return to the RV for the rest of the day. True, there were so many other fun activities at this music festival, but without a best friend to enjoy them with, she believed there was simply no point in sticking around. Meanwhile, Sunset had taken cover behind one of the food trucks and remained hidden behind a series of other such trucks as she doubled back towards the main performance stage. As she moved out of cover from behind the last food truck, she glanced around and was pleased that she had finally lost sight of Pinkie. With that major source of numerous distractions finally out of the way, Sunset was now able to focus entirely on the main objective, and that was to secure an ideal place in the audience to watch PostCrush later that night. Sunset finally arrived at the main performance stage and was immensely pleased to discover that she had arrived so early that there was literally no one else waiting around in front of it. The only people she could see around were members of the stage crew as they set up the lights and amps for the various shows that would be performed on this stage later today and tonight. Thankful that she had finally achieved her main objective, Sunset fell to her knees and raised her arms as she turned her gaze upwards and praised, “Universe, I promise to make the most of this do-over, do-over!” Sunset had spent nearly all of the remainder of the day holding her place at the front of the crowd, despite the various other performances she would normally care little about. She did have to occasionally leave rather briefly to grab a snack or take a bathroom break, but was otherwise able to keep her spot as the crowd really started to form as night fell over the festival grounds. Finally, the moment Sunset had anticipated three times over had arrived. As the overhead floodlights switched on, followed by the decorative pink and blue lights surrounding the stage, the gathered crowd began to cheer. A sparkling pink fog began to spread out across the stage floor, and then a section of the floor opened up. Sunset watched in excited awe as the two members of her favorite band slowly rose up through the floor to stand out on the stage. An amplified voice from the stage shouted out across the crowd, “Let me hear three big cheers for two best friends who got back together for one incredible night! PoooooostCruuuuuush!!” As the cheer and applause across the crowd roared loudly, the two members of PostCrush struck their iconic pose. For this very special performance, they had even dressed up in outfits that were identical to what they had worn on that iconic image that everyone was familiar with. On the left with a cool pose, “K-Lo” Kiwi Lollipop had light blue skin, blue eyes, long magenta hair stylized outward around the back, and wore a sparkly outfit that was purple on the right half of the torso, blue on the left half of the torso, a skirt around her upper legs that was magenta on the upper half and purple on the lower half, pink around her feet, and a large purple bow on the back of her hair. On the right with a zany pose, “Su-Z” Supernova Zap had pale yellow skin, blue eyes, short light purple hair stylized into a bow on the back, and wore a sparkly outfit that was light blue on the upper half of the torso and right arm, light purple on the lower half of the torso and left arm, magenta on the skirt around her upper legs, dark purple on her lower legs, magenta around her feet, and a pink heart on the front of her torso. For the gathered fans of these two, they knew this was going to be a night they would never forget. “We did it!” cheered Sunset excitedly. “PostCrush roll call!” She attempted to mimic the PostCrush pose by doing the cool half, but stumbled backwards and nearly bumped into some of the other people in the crowd. It was then that she realized Pinkie was not beside her, as she had originally planned for, and couldn’t help but feel a little ashamed for a moment. In a way, Sunset had sort of hoped that Pinkie would find a way to join the crowd on her own, allowing them to watch PostCrush together. She quickly glanced back across the surrounding crowd, but as far as she could see, there was no sign of Pinkie to be found. She couldn’t help but wonder what sort of circumstances might have caused Pinkie to miss PostCrush, but she decided she would think more on that later. For now, PostCrush was about to perform, and she wanted to be absolutely sure she would not miss a moment of it. K-Lo reached over to pick up her electric guitar, while Su-Z sat down at her drum set and grabbed her drumsticks. The two bandmates turned to each other, silently gave a smile and a nod to each other, then started playing the opening notes to their most popular song, True Original. As the starting lyrics of the song played out, everyone in the gathered audience cheered loudly and danced along to the music. Sunset was absolutely euphoric as she joined in with the collective excitement. After weeks of anticipation — and two unexpected do-overs — she was finally watching PostCrush performing live right in front of her. She continued to dance along as the song proceeded onto the chorus. 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! As the band performed, K-Lo stepped forward and held out her arm as she walked along the edge of the stage, allowing many of the fans standing at the front to have the privilege of briefly touching her. Among those very lucky fans was Sunset Shimmer, who couldn’t help but blush in awe from being able to receive such an experience from her favorite band. True, true original… True, true original… True, true original… As PostCrush came close to the end of their famous song, K-Lo got a little too close to Su-Z’s drum set and accidentally smacked the neck of her guitar against one of the cymbals. Su-Z reacted quickly and reached out to silence the cymbal within only one second. In spite of that minor mishap, the band continued playing. We’re perfect, perfectly true! K-Lo finished off the song by flinging her heart-shaped guitar pick into the air towards the audience. And the very lucky person in the crowd who caught that pick happened to be Sunset Shimmer. Upon seeing that pick in her hands, Sunset held it close to her chest as she had a huge smile on her face and excitedly declared, “What a perfect day!” Later that evening, Sunset returned to the RV at the campgrounds, where the rest of her friends were seated around the heating table and roasting marshmallows over it. As she walked, she had a smile of satisfaction on her face that had not faltered at all since the end of PostCrush’s live performance at the music festival. Rainbow Dash placed her roasted marshmallow on a graham cracker and removed it from the skewer she held when she noticed Sunset’s arrival. “Heh, there she is,” she spoke up in amusement as the others turned to glare at Sunset. “The lone wolf.” She then teasingly howled like a wolf. Sunset let out a blissful sigh as she sat down at the empty seat around the heating table, seemingly unaware of the negative looks her friends were directing towards her. Most of Sunset’s friends glanced at each other with suspicious looks before returning to glare at her. “Pinkie Pie’s been actin’ mighty strange this evenin’,” noted Applejack with contempt. “Any idea what might’ve happened to her?” For the first time that evening since the start of the PostCrush concert, Sunset’s smile fell. She had not seen any sign of Pinkie ever since she deliberately lost contact with her, and had yet to hear anything about what her pink party friend had been up to since then. She knew her friends wouldn’t understand and definitely wouldn’t appreciate her reasoning for outright abandoning Pinkie, so she put up a false smile and replied, “We… lost track of each other.” “Me lose track of Sunset?” asked Pinkie incredulously, drawing everyone’s attention to her as she was seated at a nearby picnic table. Not only did she have a half-crazy grin on her face, but also her hair piece had now changed shape into a rather flat and straight hair style. “Hah! But she’s been right here the whole time!” She then reached behind the picnic table and pulled out a shoddy minifig-sized dummy built out of various scratched and chipped Lego parts to form a very crude replica of Sunset. “Right, actual Sunset Shimmer?” She grabbed the back of the volleyball head and slightly moved it around as she spoke in a slightly deeper voice, “Right, Pinkie Pie! By the way, your roasting technique is flawless!” She then giggled like a maniac as she added in her normal voice, “Thanks!” A moment of awkward silence settled over the group of friends outside their RV. After a few seconds, the volleyball head slipped loose from the dummy and bounced along the ground, taking with it a mop top in place of hair. Pinkie glanced down at the fallen item and sadly moaned, “Aww… You dropped your head…” she then suddenly perked up and eagerly added, “That’s okay! I’ll get you a new one!” She then suddenly rushed off, swiftly returned a split second later with a pumpkin, then stuck that pumpkin onto the dummy’s neck joint. She then tossed the mop top onto the pumpkin and used a marker to rapidly scribble something onto the side of that pumpkin. Once complete, she turned the pumpkin to her friends to reveal a very crudely drawn smiley face drawn on it. She looked to her friends as she tightly hugged the dummy while making a cheerful giggle, although her crossed eyes gave away her absence of sanity. Everyone continued to stare at Pinkie with weird looks for an awkward moment before Rarity glared at Sunset and dryly asked, “So… how was the show?” With everyone’s displeased attention back on Sunset, she replied, “It was…” She couldn’t help but smile blissfully as she finished, “…perfect.” Rarity scoffed and irritably grumbled, “I was being judgmental, darling. What is the point of throwing shade if no one’s there to catch it?” Sunset knew her friends were upset with her. She completely understood why they were all upset with her. Yet, after finally being able to watch PostCrush a short while ago, she was unable to feel and express any emotion other than absolute satisfaction. She was well aware that it was hardly an appropriate attitude for her to have in front of the accusatorial glares of her friends, so she stood up and stated, “Sorry, too blissed out from the show to care right now. We’ll talk in the morning, once I’ve had time to calm down.” She then turned and walked away from her friends. As Sunset headed towards the RV, she walked by Pinkie, who slowly rocked back and forth with a sorrowful look on her face as she tightly hugged her crude Sunset dummy close to her. Sunset didn’t even bother a single glance to her devastated and heartbroken friend before opening the door and stepping into the RV. Meanwhile, the rest of the group continued to glare in the direction Sunset had walked off. “I can’t believe Sunset could really be that selfish,” said Twilight as she shook her head in disbelief. “After everything we’ve been through, you’d think she would’ve already learned her lesson by now,” muttered Fluttershy in disappointment. “Man, I tell ya, she won’t be getting any forgiveness from me anytime soon,” grumbled Spike. Just then, the marshmallow he was roasting suddenly caught on fire. He yelped in panic and started waving the skewer around in an effort to put out the fire. Instead, the smoldering treat flung off the skewer and splattered against Rarity, who yelled out in horror at seeing her expensive jacket ruined by the gooey mess. Meanwhile, inside the RV, Sunset changed into her pajamas and climbed into her sleeping bag. After finally getting what she desired most of all at the music festival, she felt like she deserved to get some extra rest tonight. Sure, her friends were still going to be upset and disappointed with her tomorrow morning, but she would wait until then to deal with that, once she had a clearer head after a good night’s sleep. Morning arrived at the campgrounds just outside the Starswirled Music Festival. It was little more than an hour after sunrise, and by this point, Sunset Shimmer was the only one still asleep within the RV that she and her friends were using for their stay at the festival. As Sunset slept in her sleeping bag beside the window, her phone was lying beside her head on the pillow. At the moment the time became 7:00, the phone’s alarm went off by playing a song by PostCrush. Be the true… true, true original— Sunset slowly woke up and shut off her phone’s alarm. With a smile on her face, she stretched herself as she gently climbed out of her sleeping bag. Despite the reckoning she would have to face with her friends, she was proud to have gotten what she wanted and could now enjoy the actual second day of the music festival. As far she was concerned, everything today was going to be just fine. She climbed out of her sleeping bag, tossed off her pajamas, and slipped on her special outfit for the music festival — hopefully for the last time for a while. She then walked out the door and around the front of the RV to join her friends, who were already gathered outside. Sunset’s content smile quickly fell when she noticed that everything outside the RV looked too familiar. To her left, Twilight, Fluttershy, and Applejack were seated around the RV’s heating table as they ate breakfast. To her right, Rarity and Spike were seated at a nearby picnic table as Spike demonstrated some of his beatboxing skills. As she listened to the exact same melody from Spike and the exact same words spoken by Rarity and then by Spike, Sunset was left petrified in horror. “It… can’t be,” she muttered in shock. “It’s still…” “Starswirled day one! Come and get it!” Rainbow Dash excitedly declared as she swung her large paddle around, accidentally smacking Sunset’s rear end. “Oops.” She chuckled sheepishly and added, “Sorry. I’ll be more careful next time.” She then turned and walked away. Despite the stinging pain, Sunset made no reaction to that impact at all. She just remained frozen on the spot with that same look of terror plastered on her face. Her stance and expression remained completely unchanged as she listened to the nearby conversation between the rest of her friends. It was all exactly the same as it had been all three previous times; the same chicken coop joke from Applejack, the same orange juice spit-take by Fluttershy onto Applejack’s torso, the same complaint from Applejack to not spray it at her next time, and of course the same PostCrush fan joke by Pinkie. “What do you call a PostCrush fan with three eyes?” asked Pinkie excitedly. After waiting only one second, she cheerfully answered, “Pinkie Pie!” She then rushed over to Sunset and grabbed her wrist, preparing to guide her best friend and fellow PostCrush fangirl towards the music festival. However, Sunset was still so petrified in horror that she simply toppled over onto her back and was dragged along behind Pinkie for a short distance before the pink party girl — and the rest of their friends — noticed Sunset’s unusual lack of reaction. As all of Sunset’s friends gathered around and stared down at her with concerned expressions, Twilight worriedly asked, “Are you okay, Sunset?” Sunset continued to remain motionless on her back with a blank stare straight upwards at the sky. After a few seconds of silence, she finally responded breathlessly, “No… I’m not…” Author's Note For some reason, I got severely bogged down with trying to write this chapter in particular (I sure hope my struggle to write it hasn't affected the quality of this chapter). Thankfully, this will bring an end to the slower early part of this story, so hopefully I won't continue to struggle quite as much as I have so far. The next chapter should (hopefully) be especially more interesting, as I've got a lot of original content planned for it.
