Dash of Humanity 3: Live, Fly, Reboot.

by Kaidan

Rating: teen
Tags: Lyra, Original Character, Rainbow Dash, Comedy, Adventure, Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Colgate, Human
Length: 91881

Discord is defeated, Soarin left Dash, and I finally admitted my true feelings to her. Now I can finally take the next step... except I'm trapped reliving the same day over and over, and a mare hellbent on revenge may be my only way out.

My time in Equestria has been eventful: I woke up trapped in Dash's head and sharing her body. I saved the world from Discord, adapted to life as a pony, and survived a love triangle between Dash, Soarin, and myself. Just when I thought I could finally relax and enjoy my new relationship, Equestria had one more surprise to throw at me.

I'm trapped in a time loop, cast by some unknown jerk, reliving the same day over and over. Twilight's out of town so I don't get to pull my favorite move: the ask a Princess to fix it for you card. As the only pony who can remember the time loop, it's up to me to fix it. I'll have to get help from the few unicorns left in town: Rarity, Lyra, and my new neighbor Minuette. Could this day get any worse?

Editor: TheEighthDayofNight
Updates: Wednesday and Saturday
A Re-Write of Dash of Humanity 3, focused on the Comedy HiE aspects that made the first two stories a success.

Published 2021-12-04 23:00:04 UTC
Last updated 2022-02-16 16:38:46 UTC

Ch. 1 Prelude

I shifted in my seat to get comfortable and picked a small tomato out of my salad with my primary feathers. It rolled back and forth across the three longest ones before I brought my wing up and let it roll down into my mouth. The tomato tasted amazing and fresh, which was really saying something given how much I’d hated salads up until a few months ago.

There was a time when I thought salads weren’t food, they were what you fed food. I’d even made it a point to find the one place in Ponyville that could serve bacon to try and escape this cruel fate. But in the end, I’d learned to embrace healthy living. Mostly it was because I had a new set of taste buds that were less appalled at the thought of eating leafy green lawn clippings masquerading as a balanced breakfast.

“Dawn?” Lyra asked.

I blinked and looked over at her across the small purple table of the diner. “Huh?”

“You tilted your head and kind of zoned off there for a minute,” she stated.

“Oh, just reminiscing about the first time I ate a salad—”

“And got zapped to Equestria by Discord.” She chuckled and took a bite of her daisy sandwich.

“Guess I’ve told that story a few too many times. I’m feeling nostalgic.”

Lyra finished her sandwich and took a drink. “For Earth? Do you still think of going back?”

“No,” I shook my head. “Couldn’t even if I wanted to.”

“Guess that freeing Discord from stone and asking nicely isn’t an option.”

I smirked. “It’s really not. Doubt he’s coming back this time.” I gestured over my shoulder towards the sun.

Lyra raised an eyebrow and whispered, “I thought he was turned to stone. Was he banished there?”

Nodding, I ran a hoof across my lips to zip them shut.

“Looks like Celestia isn’t taking chances.”

“Plus, I’m happy here,” I explained. “It was rough going for a while with Soarin dating Dash and getting her pregnant. If it hadn’t been for you and Twilight, I might still be moping around. Since then, nothing terrible has happened. It’s actually been a bit too quiet.”

“That’s just Ponyville,” Lyra explained. “Quietest town in Equestria, until it’s not.”

The salad was nearly finished and the cloudy sky was giving us a respite from the sun. It was chilly out, and the weather had called for clear skies by noon. There would only be about an hour left now for me to handle Dash’s weather duty today.

“I appreciate a chance to have lunch and catch up, Lyra, but Dash is expecting me to clear out these clouds and I think I’m running out of time.”

She nodded. “I wouldn’t keep her waiting. Thanks for lunch.”

I placed several bits on the table to pay for lunch, it was my treat today. Lyra had become my closest friend when I’d first become a pony. It started when Pinkie sent me on a blind date, knowing that Lyra was fascinated with the mythological beings known as humans. After I proved it wasn’t an elaborate prank, we’d become inseparable. Lyra probably realized my feelings for Dash before I did, yet she didn’t get upset about it. Instead, she supported me as I tried to untangle the love triangle that had developed between Soarin, Dash, and Myself.

Back on Earth, Lyra would have fit right in with the sixty’s hippie culture. Here in Equestria, I guess free love never died. Lyra and Cloud Kicker were a couple of the more notorious ponies, but it seemed like everypony was a bit more open about their sexuality. This had led her to become a friend with benefits for Dash and myself. I’d be a foolish stallion to turn down an arrangement like that.

I gave Lyra a salute with my wing, “I’m off to clear the sky and save everypony from the horrors of not getting enough vitamin D!”

Lyra leaned back in her chair and waved.

After a couple wing beats, I was soaring through the nearest clouds, dissolving them instantly. One after another they burst as I flew through them, and I worked my way out towards the edge of town. It didn’t take long to clear the sky, and I finished about half an hour early. I left one cloud intact to take a nap upon, a trick I’d learned from Dash, and flew up to it. I went to land on it and flipped over at the last second, landing on it back first.

I sighed contently as I wiggled my wings and sank into the cloud, only my muzzle remaining above them. The moisture tingled gently against my skin as my innate pegasi magic allowed me to lay on them. It was without a doubt the most comfortable place to take a nap in all of Ponyville. I yawned and felt sleep taking hold of me.

I glided down to the ground and faced Tirek. He was imprisoning seven ponies in magic-proof bubbles. The landscape was scorched, and dozens of ponies lay on the ground, lethargic and apathetic after he had drained their essence.

“You! The pony whose essence I couldn’t drain, this can’t be!” Tirek ground his teeth so hard I could hear them from twenty yards away.

“But it is, Tirek!” I smiled and flared my wings. “The princesses knew you couldn’t consume me because I was human, and they gave me their power!”

I lit up my horn and tried to growl menacingly at him.

“No! Dawn, the Alicorn Princess! It can’t be!”

“That’s Prince to you, asshole! Now unhand all my friends before I go medieval on your sorry ass.” I could feel the magic thrumming in my horn and saw small pebbles rising off the ground as magic permeated the air.

“Fine, have them back! What do I care? I still have the rest of the magic in Equestria, and you’ll never foil me… once I have consumed—”

“Quit explaining your evil plan, it’s so cliche.”

Tirek hissed and floated over Twilight, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Applejack, Rarity, and Dash.

“I said, all my friends!” I shouted at him, firing a warning shot to his side that cut a swath of ground out of the hillside.

Tirek tilted his head and looked puzzled. “You… consider this pony a friend? After his fits of jealous rage? In Pegasi culture, that’s considered ‘a dick move’.”

I nodded, watching as he floated Soarin over to join me and the former Elements of Harmony.

“You see, Tirek, I learned something important about the magic of friendship during my time in Equestria… It’s not about some fancy gems, or where we come from, or what we’ve done… The true magic that lives in our hearts—”

I heard somepony giggling and turned to look to the right. Sitting in a black and red reclining chair and eating some popcorn was the Princess of the Night, Luna.

“Really? In the middle of my monologue?!” I sighed and fired a bright multi-colored beam of magic to vaporize Tirek, as my mane and tale gained a strip of bright green. Turns out the magic of friendship lived inside us all, and not the fancy jewelry my friends had worn. The moment was ruined though.

“Sorry, Dawn, to interrupt your dream… but you’ve got the most interesting dreams out of all my subjects.” Luna put her popcorn down and walked towards me. “Plus, not many ponies are napping at noon on a Monday.”

Now that I realized I was in a dream, I had enough awareness to take control of it. I felt myself shrinking back to my normal size. I felt rather silly standing there as a brightly colored fictional alicorn. “Hey, shouldn’t you be sleeping right now? How are you here?”

She smiled. “If I can dream walk when I’m awake, how much easier must it be when I’m asleep?”

“Guess that makes sense. This really was a pretty sweet dream.” I gestured to the hillside and the several craters Tirek and I had blasted into it. “This is a much better version than how the fight with Tirek actually went.”

Luna smiled gently. “There is no shame in the role you played. Had you not helped find the last key, Twilight would not have found the inner magic she and her friends needed to be victorious.”

“Yeah,” I snorted, “ it’s not at all embarrassing to have spent most of that day imprisoned in a bubble, waiting for my marefriend to rescue me… I’m just glad the whole Tirek apocalypse is over, and I did have front row seats to a pretty epic ass-kicking.”

Luna lit her horn, returning the landscape back to its normal appearance. The ponies who had their essence drained began to walk off back towards Ponyville. “Don’t sell yourself short, Dawn. Tirek imprisoned you when he couldn’t figure out why he couldn’t drain you, and later trapped the Elements of Harmony. Had it not been for Twilight’s realization that she had taught friendship to a human, and thus could teach it to all the races of Equestria, she would not have found the final key.”

I thought about it for a moment and smirked. “So really, this means I’ve saved Equestria twice? First from Discord, then from Tirek with the last minute assist? How many more on my punch card until I get a horn of my own?”

Luna laughed merrily for a minute. “Now that I’d quite like to see; we haven’t had a Prince in ages. Perhaps after you avert the next apocalypse we shall broach the topic with our sister.”

“I’ll hold you to that. I could be the Prince of Procrastination,” I said with a chuckle.

“I’ll try not to interrupt you the next time you’re having such a good dream. Joking aside, I just wanted to visit and check in on how you were doing.”

“Oh? I’m doing pretty well. I’ve been thinking of making the next move with Dash, but don’t tell anypony.”

“Congratulations,” Luna said. “I’m happy you’ve adjusted so well to life as a pony. Though, I’m afraid our time here is about to end.”

I looked around at the dreamscape. Usually, if a dream was ending, things would get hazy and fade out. I’d been visited by Luna enough times to know the signs. “Uh, what makes you say that?”

“Simple deduction,” she explained. “You’re napping in the afternoon, I assume on a cloud, on a day for which Ponyville is supposed to have clear skies.”

“I’m with you so far.”

“And the lead weather pony in Ponyville, whose job it is to clear those skies, is going to find you passed out cold on a cloud.”

I opened my mouth to make a smartass remark when it dawned on me what Luna meant. “And she loves a good prank… Quick wake me up!”

Before Luna could reply, the dream blacked out.

I was jolted awake as every muscle spasmed simultaneously and I felt myself falling. The cloud that had been holding me had been bucked and evaporated. I could feel my body twisting as my wings flared, the air currents surrounded me and I knew without thinking what to do. By the time I was aware enough to realize what happened, I was hovering in the air ten yards below the cloud I’d been napping on.

“Rainbow Dash!” I yelled. I heard laughter to my left and looked over to see her. “You could have hurt me!”

“Come on, I put a backup cloud.” She pointed down below me to where I would have been caught if my instincts hadn’t kicked in. “Besides, I had to see if you’d been sticking to my practice routine to build up your muscle memory.”

“The only thing you’re gonna remember is my primaries on your hooves when I catch you!”

And with that, I angled my wings and shot forward towards her. She evaded me easily and was still faster and more agile than I could be as a stallion. Even pregnant she could probably have out-flown half the Wonderbolts with her eyes closed.

She didn’t seem too determined to get away as she flew into a formation of gray rain clouds over the Everfree. I followed her in to find they had been hollowed out. I tackled her into the wall and tried to get hold of her hooves to tickle her, but she moved at the last moment. We ended up tangled and laying on our sides when Dash started to kiss me. I lost focus as my hooves wrapped around her and pulled her in close.

It was several moments until our lips parted, leaving the faint taste of fresh rain in my mouth.

“Wow, big talk about revenge and I shut it down with one kiss.” Dash laughed.

“What can I say? I’m a stallion of simple pleasures.”

I looked into her magenta eyes for a minute, neither one of us wanting to do more than just lay there cuddling. It has been said the eyes are the windows to the soul, and I had been on the other side of those magenta windows. I could still vividly remember being trapped here in Equestria by Discord when both our minds had been forced to share the same body. Over the course of a few weeks I had gotten to know her intimately, mostly by being an insufferable ass, but the end result was the same. I had gotten closer to her than anyone I’d ever known in my life. As my human side affected her, Dash’s loyalty for her friends had changed me in a way nopony would have predicted.

When I realized that I was what stood in the way of the Element of Loyalty functioning, I enacted a plan to sacrifice myself and save Equestria. Discord hadn’t expected it. I had to let go of who I was, fading into Dash’s mind, to restore her element. She never gave up on finding a way to rescue me. Without her I would still be living out my days in her subconscious, but she saw something in me worth saving. I tried to repay her by helping her relationship with her idol, Soarin, but in the end, I couldn’t deny my true feelings for her. Luckily, Soarin was a huge jealous douchebag and torpedoed that relationship almost on his own. Once Dash had forgiven me for my part in it, we had gotten together and continued dating since.

Dash and I had enjoyed the last several months together. Until Tirek’s attack we had been spending time with Fluttershy, who was as close as family to us. We’d been having fun with Lyra, and teasing Rarity, whom we both agreed was likely just as big a freak in the sheets as anypony else. Rarity was less than amused that she now had two ponies to put up with that knew how to push all of her buttons.

“You look lost in thought, Dawn.” Dash pushed a hoof gently against a rib.

“Oh, just remembering how we met, and it reminded me there’s something I wanted to ask you.”

She smirked. “Yeah? What’s that?”

I ran a hoof up her chest, ruffling all the fur so it puffed outward. “Well, I—”

Of course, at that exact moment, her cutie mark started flashing like a strobe light. I let out a long sigh and rolled my eyes. “Friendship problem? I guess I can wait a couple days to ask.” I gave her another kiss, not letting it end until she gently pushed back.

“Yeah, I better go to Twilight’s castle and see what it is, and who I’m going with. Duty calls, just don’t miss me too much while I’m off saving Equestria.” Dash stood up and began preening her feathers, quickly fixing the ones that had gotten smashed together as we made out in the cloud.

“I wish I could come with you.”

“Why, you jealous?”

“Of a glowing flank stamp? As if.” I chuckled.

She gave me a playful hit on the shoulder as I stood up. “Hey, it’s important work, but I promise to wrap it up as fast as I can. I mean, other than that weirdo town in the middle of nowhere the problems usually only take two days tops.”

“I’ll hold you to that. Two days or I get to do that thing I keep asking about.”

Dash blushed, wings fluttering upward. “D-Dawn… are you serious?”

“Yeah, I’m telling you… once you’ve tried Dungeons and Dragons you won’t ever go back to Monopoly.”

She laughed out loud and shook her head. “I really thought you were going somewhere a lot dirtier with that.”

“There’s only one pony in Equestria who gets my bad references, you bet I’m taking advantage of it.”

Dash’s flank started flashing with a renewed vigor, and she walked past me slowly, raising her tail. “Well, I think my flank stamp is getting impatient.”

I tried not to stare and extended a hoof to dissolve the wall of the cloud for her. “Far be it from me to argue with the will of a magical table you grew out of a kinder surprise egg.”

“Thanks, Dawn. Now go check in with the weather team for me and let them know we’re done. You can meet me at the castle to say goodbye once I know where I’m going.”

I hovered in the air with Thunderlane and the rest of the weather team as they made their reports. When Dash needed a day off I’d fill in on the weather team, but I had neither the college education from Cloudsdale in weather nor the decade of experience that she had. Normally Dash called the shots, but Thunderlane and Cloud Kicker took over in her absence, and I was just an extra pair of hooves to help.

My own talents lay in the medical field, not weather. I’d learned after coming to Equestria that I had a knack for finding lost ponies. The search part of search and rescue seemed to have more to do with my cutie mark than my training on Earth. The rising sun accenting the medical caduceus symbol had appeared on my flank when I’d tracked down Dash in the Everfree. Years as a nurse in the emergency room had taught me all I needed to know about trauma and first aid. Adapting those skills to apply to ponies took time, but luckily ponies exhibited a lot fewer high-risk behaviors like riding shopping carts off roofs while drunk.

“Thanks, Cloud Kicker. Tell everyone good job and that Dawn will continue filling in for a few more days. Dash has a friendship problem to solve,” Thunderlane explained.

“Yep,” I added. “Good job everypony! Now I’m going to head to that tree castle and see them off. Probably catch the end of a big speech about harmony and all that. Somepony has to sit in the peanut gallery and cheer for them.”

“Have a good night, Dawn,” Thunderlane said with a nod. “Skies should stay clear but if they aren’t, meet us back here in the morning.”

“Aye aye.” I smiled and took off towards Twilight’s castle.

It was an impressive sight, made mostly of crystal and resembling a tree. The thing had basically popped up instantly, and since then they’d been adding to it. So far they had built a small garden, some dirt paths, a track and field for buckball.

On one of the upper levels was a table that contained a map of the entirety of Equestria. There were six chairs, plus one for Spike. I’d asked when I would get a chair, but unless there were any friendship problems that needed some aggressive negotiations I was unlikely to earn a seat at the table.

I can dream though. With the way villains seemed to grow on trees around here maybe I’d get to knock some heads around one day. On the other hoof, the last villain had almost sucked everypony’s essence out and gotten away with it. Maybe I should be more careful about what I wish for.

A window was left open on the castle, likely by Dash, who would certainly have flown in instead of walking. I flew through the window and landed. They were still seated around the table, so I approached them quietly.

Above Canterlot was a symbol matching Twilight and Dash’s cutie marks. They circled the mountain, indicating a problem that needed to be solved and the ponies who needed to do it.

“The table’s never been wrong before,” Twilight stated. “Somepony in Canterlot needs Dash and my help.”

“All I’m saying is to be careful,” Rarity said. “I haven’t seen the table flicker like that before.”

“It’s Canterlot. Twilight will have both princesses there if she needs help, plus ah reckon it’s the closest friendship problem we’ve had to Ponyville.” Applejack adjusted her stetson. “Anything goes wrong and we’ll all be on the next train there.”

“Let’s head out tonight.” Dash pointed to the train station just outside Ponyville. “We can get on the next train there and get a room for the night. I bet Dawn I’d only be gone a couple days, and you know how competitive he can get.”

“Now where do ya reckon he picked that up?” Applejack taunted.

Pinkie was seated across the table from me and smiled, having seen me waiting and listening to the conversation. “Sounds like Dashie is gonna miss her little snuggle bunny and wants to fix the problem fast!”

Dash sputtered and looked to her other friends. Her back was to me so she didn't see me lurking there. “What? That’s not what I said! I’m… too cool to cuddle!”

I had to stifle a laugh as I imagined Dash blushing in her chair.

“Girls, can we focus on the problem at hoof?” Twilight asked. “Dash, let’s leave tonight like you suggested and solve this quickly. It would look bad if friendship problems this close to Ponyville went unsolved, or expanded. Plus if we fix it quickly I can visit Celestia. I haven’t gotten to catch up with her in ages.”

“Sounds like it’s settled then,” Applejack added.

I walked up behind Dash’s chair and stepped beside it. “Hey snuggle bunny!”

She gasped and almost shot out of the chair in surprise, but it was pushed up too close to the table. “Gah! I knew there was somepony spying on me!”

Pinkie laughed and waved a hoof at me, and I nodded my thanks for her help in tormenting Dash a bit. I’d certainly miss having somepony around to keep me warm at night, especially when I would stay over at the cloud house. The clouds could get drafty at night, and as nice as pegasi magic was at keeping you from freezing, it didn’t keep you warm quite the same way a special somepony did.

“You’re incorrigible, Dawn,” Twilight said.

“Guilty. I just thought I’d fly Dash back to her house, but if you’re leaving immediately then I’m glad I dropped in so I can say goodbye.” I reached over with a wing to rub Dash’s back gently. She had an image to maintain that didn’t include too much mushy stuff in public.

“Thanks, Dawn.” She got out of the chair and walked with me over to get her saddlebags. “We’ve got most of what we need right here so I don’t need to stop by the house.”

Everypony got up and started gathering their things to head back into town for the remainder of the day.

“Be careful, and remember… grab me one of those snow globes at the train station,” I stated.

She rolled her eyes and whispered to me. “Hey, no need to hide your concern with jokes. We’ll be in and out in a couple of days.”

“Well,” I whispered back. “Guess you just need a kiss for good luck?”

I leaned forward and kissed her. To my surprise, she pushed closer and tilted her head. Dash pushed her tongue into my mouth and I felt my wings stretching a bit to show off my plumage. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the moment until she pulled back.

“Wow… who was giving who the good luck?” I asked. I shuffled my legs and I flapped my wings a couple times to close them.

“You need it more than me, I’m not the one always accidentally eating poison joke.” Dash smiled widely as she went over to Twilight near the open window.

“Hey, that was like... four times. Max!” I shouted. “Good luck you two!”

Twilight and Dash flew out the window and towards the train station.

I turned to walk out of the castle. As much as Dash tried to avoid making out in public, she’d never hesitate to try to get me excited in public. The joke’s on her though, turns out I enjoyed that little game and had gotten a lot better at not giving anypony an eyeful. Still, it’d be best to walk and not fly back to my house since it was the middle of the day.

As I was heading down the stairs into the foyer, Fluttershy came up beside me. “Oh, Dawn, was my advice helpful?”

I nodded. “It always is. But the friendship problem interrupted before I could ask Dash if we should move in together.”

“Ah. Well, I’m still certain she’ll say yes.” Fluttershy smiled. “You make her very happy.”

I extended a wing to give her a quick hug as we walked. “And you make both of us happy, you really are the best friend I could ask for.”

Fluttershy was kind to a fault, even standing up for me when Twilight had first suggested removing me from Dash’s mind as if I were a disease and not a sapient being. I’d recognized Dash was overly-protective of Fluttershy, and later learned why. Fluttershy had been bullied in flight camp for liking mares, and that realization bothered me too. I’d become similarly protective of Fluttershy, in addition to becoming a close friend of hers. She was my go to for all my advice when it came to dating mares, since Lyra’s expertise was more in bedding them.

“I… um… thanks.” Fluttershy blushed and I released my wing from her back.

We reached the castle’s front door and I pushed it open. “Take care, Fluttershy. I think I’ll go check in at the guard station to see if there are any missing ponies for me to track down. Then I’ll check the hospital to pick up some shifts with the emergency response team, and last I should make sure the Cutie Mark Crusaders aren’t causing any trouble. Then again, maybe I hope they are. They’re my job security, after all.”

“Okay, I have some animals to tend to. If you get lonely, feel free to stop by.”

“Thanks, have a good night.”

Author's Note

Special thanks to the fans for reading this, can't believe it's been 8 years since you made Dash of Humanity a hit. Thanks to Refro for pre-reading this chapter and giving feedback before I had committed to completing the story. Thanks to Starscribe's server for the motivation to do this story for NaNoWriMo. And a big thanks to TheEighthDayofNight for agreeing to edit it so I could start releasing it as soon as November ended.

Next time on DoH3: Dawn wakes up to disaster in Ponyville, saving a life in the process. Little does he realize that the day may never end...

Ch. 3 Deja Vu

Come on everypony smile, smile, smile
Fill my heart up with sunshine, sunshine

I rolled over and reached a hoof out to turn off the alarm, hitting it on the second try. My dream, whatever it had been, faded from memory quickly as my eyes adjusted to the morning sun. Once I was ready to get out of bed I began my morning routine.

Yesterday I had some apple cinnamon oatmeal, but today I was in the mood for something a bit more exciting. I opened the fridge to look for some eggs and bacon, and found that sadly I was out of both. Real bacon was hard to come by and too much could cause indigestion, but after yesterday it would have been nice to have some anyway.

Next I checked the coffee container to make some coffee, finding it empty as well. It was shaping up to be one of those days already.

The food in the rest of the fridge and pantry was scarce, I’d have to run out and buy some groceries if I wanted to have something more exciting than oatmeal tomorrow. It looked like for now, I had to eat another bowl of steel rolled oats with Sweet Apple Acres apples. As I thought about it, I could think of worse fates than having to eat oatmeal two days in a row.

By the time my morning routine was done, I headed upstairs to brush my mane. My medical saddlebags were still by the standing mirror. They were a bit heavier, but after yesterday, I felt like carrying them around with me just in case. The bags were emblazoned with the red plus symbol to let ponies know I was a medic. I’d have to ask sometime if it was considered a war crime in Equestria to attack a medic, not that I had any intention of holding still to find out the next time some villain was blowing up the town.

I hovered above the street today as I greeted Minuette. “Good morning.”

“Good morning, Dawn.” She waved back and resumed checking her mail.

As I went down the street I heard a familiar voice shout out. “Looks like somepony has a case of the Mondays.”

I tilted my head before landing and running a hoof through my mane. “First off, it’s Tuesday, and second off, I actually fixed all the cow licks in my mane today…”

Rose chuckled. “Must have it bad if you can’t remember what day of the week it is. Were you up late having a little fun? With Dash out of town too.” She tapped her chin. “Oh, I wonder if it was Lyra or Fluttershy keeping you up?”

“Both. And Cranky. I promised Fluttershy I'd show her what a donkey show was.” I lined my wings up and pushed a hoof through them to simulate.

She blushed for a moment before thinking of a reply. “You sure you weren’t a sailor in your other life?”

I shrugged and decided not to make any further remarks before I upset her. Most ponies had accepted I was a smart ass, in the same way we all accepted Pinkie had some sort of bottomless bag of holding in her mane. However, I tried not to abuse the responsibility that came with this great power.

Today I decided not to walk into town, taking to the air instead. As I gained altitude to fly over the construction site, I looked down to notice with some surprise they’d resumed construction. I thought for sure they’d at least wait for the body to get cold first, maybe do some safety training, or recheck their ropes.

There was a loud crash, noticed in my peripheral vision, and I swooped down amid several shouts of shock from nearby ponies. I landed next to a wooden beam, pinning a stallion with a rather generic shade of brown fur.

I blinked twice as two earth ponies moved to lift the beam, and looked straight at the shocked foreman. “Are you bucking kidding me? Again?!”

Before he could reply I rushed over to help the pony. I was angry enough not to notice the nagging sense of deja vu as I checked the pony's vitals. Weak, thready, shallow breathing, and then no heartbeat, no breathing…

Something about the symptoms seemed so familiar. I should be starting chest compressions, but my mind was racing. Blunt force trauma to the chest, the heartbeat fading out in less than a minute. As the rational side of me outpaced my anger, I suddenly realized what I had to do.

“Flitter,” I shot a hoof to the side without looking. “Hospital, trauma team, now!”

I was already pulling the medical supplies out of my saddlebag before Flitter replied and took off. This pony had fluid building up around the heart, and I knew I had to fix it fast, but wasn’t sure which needle to use. I opted to go large, pulling out the fourteen gauge IV needle. I lined it up where Doctor Stable had shown me yesterday.

“Celestia, I hope I’m right about this.”

The needle slid in easily; every pony seemed to be holding their breath. I went slow until straw-colored plasma tinged with blood began to flow out of the needle. I pushed the catheter in and removed the needle, watching as the fluid buildup was quickly relieved. My hoof rested against his neck and I waited to see if I’d just saved or killed somepony.

After counting to ten I felt it, the heartbeat had returned and was getting stronger. The pony gasped. I turned to the two Earth ponies nearest me, “Hold him down gently, if he panics before I tape this down he could knock it loose.”

I grabbed some tape and began securing the small plastic catheter that was allowing his pericardial sac to drain. By the time I was done, Nurse Redheart and the trauma team had arrived. She came up and took a look at the large wood beam, the severed rope, and a rather confused and sore earth pony.

“Dawn?” she asked.

I had been just staring at the pony trying to process what just happened. “Oh?” I turned to the nurse. “Uh, he had a cardiac tamponade. I was able to relieve it.”

Redheart raised an eyebrow, looking at the supplies I’d laid out on the ground. “You diagnosed that without listening with a stethoscope, and minimal training on pony anatomy? That’s quite impressive. You’d make a good Doctor.”

I chuckled. “Doctor Stables said the same yesterday, but I just got lucky. Better get him back to the hospital.”

She nodded. “Feel free to stop by later, I’m sure the staff and this pony would love to congratulate you.” The earth pony was on the litter now, and being carried off towards the hospital. He’d need to be seen by a doctor and probably go into surgery or have some magic used to properly fix his injury.

My anger returned and I caught sight of the pony who had let two ponies get injured in as many days. I got up and marched over to the Foreman, stabbing a hoof into his chest. “What the hell is your major malfunction?” I screamed. “Twice in two days, broken ropes, crushing workers?”

“What?” The Foreman stuttered. “We haven’t had an accident in sixty days, and it was a splinter—”

“Splinter? You killed a pony yesterday and almost another one today! Were you born a fat, slimy, scumbag puke piece of crap? Or did you have to work on it?” I asked as I took a step forward into his face.

He looked around nervously until one of the older stallions stepped up and put a hoof on my shoulder. “Don’t do something stupid, son. Knocking his head off won’t fix anything.”

I looked at the gray stallion and felt my rage fading. After all, I’d saved the injured pony's life. “Fine. I’ll be at the hospital, and Princess Celestia is going to hear about this.”

My saddlebag was still on the ground and I quickly scooped the medical supplies back into it. Before anypony else could drop a wooden beam on somepony, I took off towards the hospital.

There was something a bit familiar about the hospital today. The chair dug into my flank in the same spot, causing a leg to fall asleep. The bag of cookies in the vending machine almost got snagged on the same hook. It was nagging at me as I waited for an update on the patient I’d helped out earlier. I didn’t have to wait as long as yesterday though.

Doctor Stable walked out, immediately smiling and hurrying over to me. “Dawn Seeker! Hero of the day, how does it feel?”

My spirits lifted as I grinned. “I take it he’s stable then?”

“Yes. It’s not often a pony places a shunt in the field, much less diagnoses a condition like that on sight. I’m seriously impressed.” He pointed a hoof to my cutie mark. It was a medical caduceus—two serpents spiraled around a staff, with a pair of wings at the top—on a rising sun. “You’ve got a talent for this. I know I’ve said it before, but—”

“You’d like to hire me full time, or sponsor me for medical school in Equestria?” I finished for him.

He chuckled. “Do I say it that often?”

“It’s more like this really weird sense of deja vu today. If you hadn’t shown me yesterday where to place the needle for a cardiac tamponade, I wouldn’t have known how. Then today another pony got hit in the exact same way at the same spot. What are the odds?”

Stable looked confused. “We didn’t chat yesterday, nor did I advise you on how to do such a procedure. You shouldn’t perform any interventions you’re not trained in.”

“Huh? Yeah we did.” I rubbed a hoof in my mane. Yesterday and today had been a blur, but I was certain we’d had that talk. “I mean, I know things can get really weird around here on Tuesdays, but I’m pretty sure you taught me that yesterday.”

“It’s Monday, Dawn.” Stable frowned for a moment. “Do you know where you are?”

I glared at him. “Really? You’re going to check if I’m alert and oriented? I haven’t hit my head lately that I can recall. Of course, that’s exactly what I’d say if I was trying to hide a concussion so…”

Stable had a light out and was shining it into my eyes before I could protest, seemingly content at how my pupils reacted. “Hmm, well you look fine. I’d appreciate it if you are a little more cautious in the future though. You got a lucky diagnosis, but could have hurt the pony if you were wrong.”

“Come on, I was sitting right here when you showed me what to do.” I tapped a hoof against my ribs. “If you’re saying that didn’t happen, then how did I know that?”

He thought for a minute. I could tell he was searching for a logical explanation; we’d been friends long enough that he knew I wouldn’t joke when it came to medicine. “Hmm, you should ask Twilight if anything odd is going on. Usually she’s behind, or aware of, such things.”

I sighed. “She’s out of town on a friendship emergency. I think this is a little above my pay grade too. Maybe I’ll send Celestia a letter to be safe, but I would rather not spend my day trying to chase down the reason I seem to be the only pony who remembers yesterday. That’s a princess problem.”

“Fair enough. Take it easy, Dawn, and again, excellent work. Just be more careful in the future.”

As I walked away I looked back. “Kind of sending a mixed message there, Doc. I’ll just keep doing what’s best for the patient. It’s worked out fine so far.”

It didn’t take long to track Spike down; this late in the day he’d been out running some errands in town. We sent a quick letter to Celestia about how I seemed to have lost track of a whole day, and how it was her problem to figure it out. I was exhausted from having to scramble to try and help two ponies in as many days, and started to trudge towards the grocery store.

Eventually I headed home carrying several bags worth of groceries. Fresh produce, coffee, cereal, eggs, bacon, the works. The only place in town that sold meat was the one hotel that catered to griffons, dragons, and other carnivorous races that were allied with ponies. The chef there was happy to help me out, mostly because they often had to throw out expired food. Not too many guests from other nations chose to visit Ponyville over the big cities like Canterlot and Manehatten.

By the time I was home and ready for bed the sun was setting. I spread my wings to stretch, feeling out the air currents in the room and a strange static charge in the air. I’d been doing my best to learn about innate pegasus magic. As far as I could tell, there was a storm system forming in my bedroom with a sixty percent chance of rain. I looked around incredulously before climbing into bed to fall asleep. I must have been tired, because the next thing I knew I was waking up the next day.

Author's Note

Next time on DoH3: Twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern. What is going on, and what can Dawn do to fix it?

Ch. 4 Groundhog's Day

Come on everypony smile, smile, smile
Fill my heart up with sunshine, sunshine

There was a sharp crack as I hit the alarm to turn it off. I must have hit it harder than I thought, because I heard something spark and smelled a faint scent of burnt plastic. Looking over at the clock, the display was black. “Serves you right,” I grumbled. “There’s gotta be more than that one song on the radio.”

The clock flickered and resumed playing.

Yes the perfect gift for me
Is a smile as wide as a mile

I groaned and fished around behind the bedside stand and pulled the plug. “No point in trying to go back to sleep now.”

After a quick trip to the restroom I headed downstairs for breakfast, eager to cook a nice meal and drink a copious amount of coffee. I opened up the fridge to an interesting sight, it was empty. Everything I’d bought yesterday was gone.

Closing the door I went to the pantry, finding it was also mostly empty. No coffee, just some oatmeal and a little soup.

“Did someone break in just to raid my fridge?” I scratched my chin. “Maybe Dash came back and raided it. It has been a couple days.”

I looked around for any other signs somepony had been inside, but everything seemed to be in place. Upstairs I found my saddlebags near the mirror. Inside the bathroom my medicine cabinet also hadn’t been raided. It contained some semi-valuable medicines, and a lot of Zecora’s potions that could be used for fun times. One in particular was a fast acting poison joke potion, and another was an antidote. You never knew when something like that would come in handy.

“Well I’m either going crazy, or it’s time for Equestria’s bi-annual apocalypse.” A quick glance out the bathroom window revealed no changeling swarms, giant soul-suckers, cotton candy clouds, or zombies. “Or not.”

Downstairs I was able to find some depressing oatmeal to eat for the third day in a row. I went outside shortly afterward, heading towards the castle to see if Spike had gotten a letter back from Celestia.

“Good morning, Minuette,” I said.

“Good morning, Dawn.”

A couple houses further down I heard a familiar mare call out. “Looks like someone has a case of the Mondays.”

I groaned loudly. That line was cliche and grating on my last nerve. “One of these days, Rose. Pow! Right in the kisser.” I leapt into the air and flew towards the castle quickly. As I passed by the construction site I saw them beginning to lift a wooden beam into the air, and a brown pony starting to walk towards it.

The Deja Vu was too strong. Swooping down, I grabbed the familiar looking pony and pinned him to the wall.

“What?” He gasped and tried to push me off.

A moment later the beam fell next to us.

He blinked and glanced to where he would have been standing, then back at me. “You saved my life! My name is—”

I ignored him as he spoke. All the pieces began coming together in my head. I hadn’t seen the future, I’d lived it. Every morning this pony stepped under that beam on this construction site. My radio played the same song, my pantry was empty, my neighbor had the same asinine greeting.

“Fuck, this is totally a time loop isn’t it?” I asked.

“Time loop?” the stallion inquired. “It wouldn’t be my fir—”

“Screw this, time to call in a favor and make Celestia magic my problems away.”

I took off towards Canterlot, rapidly accelerating as I gained altitude. It felt good to be flying and giving myself a workout, and the wind whipping through my mane and tail took my mind off the weirdness lately. I’d expended most of my patience reliving this day just three times. It was time to make a princess earn her paycheck.

As my wings fell into a familiar rhythm I became more aware of the changes in air pressure over my feathers, subtly detecting the weather. I began to feel a familiar tingle of magic, but it didn’t seem to be pegasi magic. The charge built over my wings, as if I were trying to form a storm cloud or shoot a lightning bolt after a cloud. The tension built a little higher, mimicking a high pressure system, and I began to feel nauseous. I was about to drop to the ground and land quickly before I got sick. Before I could, I noticed a wall of purple magic in front of me, just about half a second before I collided with it.

Come on everypony smile, smile, smile
Fill my heart up with sunshine, sunshine

I shot up in bed and rubbed my head to soothe a sudden headache. Instead of recalling a dream, my last thoughts were off a building pressure before suddenly hitting something that felt like lightning, only a lot less pleasant. The next thing I knew, I was back here in bed.

All I really needs—

The alarm was cut off by another sharp crack. Hooves were harder than plastic casing, after all. “Damn that’s gonna get old.” I glanced over to find the alarm pancaked against the night stand.

Without waiting to brush my teeth or use the restroom, I headed to the balcony and flew out of my house towards Canterlot. This time I knew about how far out of town I could go before I “hit” the purple wall of death, or whatever it had been.

As I got closer to the wall, I slowed down and landed. I was on the outskirts of town, a little past Sweet Apple Acres. Walking forward I felt the tingling pressure grow, almost walking into the spell before I got close enough to see it. The force field was only visible once I was within a foot or so of it. I reached out with a hoof to touch it, before realizing what a monumentally stupid idea that probably was.

Something was up and I needed to slow down and analyze the situation.

The wall faded to my left and right. I began to fly parallel to it, using the sense of pressure to trace my way along its edge around the town. While curving around town I was able to get a sense for how far it expanded. It headed around the farm, towards Ghastly Gorge, over the Everfree, back around past Fluttershy’s cottage, and to the outskirts where I had started.

With no apparent gaps in the spell to be found, I couldn’t reach Celestia directly. There was, however, one creature in town who would be able to get a message to her instantly, and bypass the strange barrier. I headed to the castle to search out Spike and report my findings. The windows were open at the top of the crystal tree near the bedrooms, so I let myself in and headed over to Spike’s room.

It didn’t take me long to wander over to his bedroom. I found him reading a comic book in a small beanbag chair. “Oh, hey Dawn. What brings you by?” He set his comic down on a small table.

“Spike, this is going to sound crazy, but I think I’m trapped in a time loop,” I explained.

“Oh? Has your future self visited you yet?” he asked.

“What?” I tilted my head and shot him a confused look. “Why would that happen?”

Spike shrugged. “We’ve had time traveling adventures before, it’s nothing new.”

“Of course it’s not. Then can we send Celestia a letter and fix it already? It’s only looped a few days and I’m already pissed.”

He got up and went over to his desk to get his quill and parchment, beginning to write a letter. “Yep, no problem. I don’t remember a loop, sounds like it’s only affecting you. Something similar happened in Power Ponies issue one eighty-seven.” He scribbled down a couple more lines. “And it’s not one of those things where you try to avoid the thing but only end up causing the thing you were trying to avoid, right?”

“Uh, yeah I’m pretty sure it’s more of a 90’s movie situation, and not one of the fun ones like riding a train down a broken bridge until you get it up to eighty-eight miles per hour,” I stated.

Spike scribbled it all down for me. “You know they’re not going to get the reference?”

“Of course, but I’m easily amused. Can you send that in triplicate? Maybe to Luna and Twilight too?”

He nodded, jotting a few more hasty notes before starting to breathe green flames and send off letters. I watched them swirl up into smoke, seeing the faint glimmers of magic shoot off towards Canterlot.

“Now we wait,” Spike said. “You want to play some Ogres and Oubliettes? Guy’s night hasn’t been the same without you.”

“Just the two of us? Maybe we can do some cards instead. I’m really hoping they reply quickly.”

A couple hours had gone by while I played cards with Spike. He had a few bean bags in his room instead of chairs, which proved to be quite comfortable. We pulled up a table between two of them and began to play a game of goldfish while we chatted.

“So, if you could have a million bits and immortality, but an immortal snail would chase you forever, would you do it?” Spike asked. “Remember if it ever finds and touches you, you’d die.”

“I still think it’s a silly thought experiment,” I replied. “I could just move to Cloudsdale and never have to worry about the snail catching me.”

“Hmm, well what if I gave the snail the lowest level spell possible to bridge any gap or confinement that was preventing it from moving closer?”

“That’s better, but a snail’s a bit silly. If you’re going to use it in a campaign, shouldn’t it be something scarier like a mind flayer?”

“Got any kings?”

“Go fish,” I replied. Spike drew a card from the pile.

“Well, I think it could be interesting.”

“Oh, I’ve got it. I’d take the money, and then become a lich. Even if the snail catches me, he can’t destroy my phylactery and I’d respawn safely,” I explained.

“That is pretty good.”

“If you want horror though, you should work in some of the stuff from Earth. Got any seven’s?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Spike handed over his seven of clubs.

“Like what if there was a creature that ate everypony’s memories, and you couldn’t even look at it. If you did, you’d instantly forget you’d seen it, rendering it almost invisible. It’d lurk in a town, feeding off the villagers. No one would be able to remember it was there as they vanished one by one.”

Spike nodded. “The false hydra?”

I shrugged. “I was thinking of something from a TV show. I think it was called the silence, but yeah you get the idea. Then as the DM you could mess with the players by forgetting things you’d told them, and claiming NPC’s you introduced them to never existed. That sort of stuff.”

“Hey, that’s good.”

“Got any four’s?” I asked.

“Go fish,” Spike replied.

I turned, putting my cards down. I thought I heard some hoofsteps out in the hallway. It could have been one of the princesses who finally came to fix everything for me. I got up and hurried to the door, opening it to look in the hallway. It was empty and the draperies were still; the hallway seemed a little too quiet.

“Hear something?” Spike asked.

“Yeah, I thought I heard somepony out there but I didn't see anything.” I closed the door and went to sit back down. “Does it usually take Celestia this long to respond? I’m kinda having an existential crisis here.”

“Maybe she’s busy?”

“Luna and Twilight too? I don’t think I can just sit here, there’s gotta be something we can do to fix this ourselves”

Spike nodded. “Twilight used to keep a lot of contingency plans around for emergencies in the library’s basement, but I’m not sure where she moved them after it was destroyed. Maybe you could try Pinkie? She’s the only other pony who likes to stash things for emergencies, though they’re usually cupcakes or bouncy balls.”

“Heh, twenty bits says there’s no way Pinkie’s sitting on an ‘in case of time loop emergency’ kit.”

“Deal,” Spike replied.

I nodded. “Thanks, Spike. I’ll be at Pinkie’s then, and see if she has any ideas to help.”

Going over to his window, I pushed it open and looked outside. It was almost noon and I could make out most of the town in the distance, including a pink rooftop of Sugarcube Corner.

“Good luck, Dawn. I’ll let you know if I get a reply.”

I took off towards town in a gentle glide, looking around as I did so. Ponyville was lively today, including a new cloud house I hadn’t seen before. There must have been a pegasus moving in, and they’d positioned themselves right over downtown where they’d have easy access to most of the stores and restaurants.

Once I passed Carousel Boutique I landed and began to walk the last block to Sugarcube corner. When I got there I found a small line at the counter with Mr. and Mrs. Cake helping serve their customers.

“Hi, Mr. Cake,” I said. “Have you seen Pinkie?”

“Hi, Dawn. Yeah, she just headed out the back.” He pointed through the kitchen to the back door.

I thanked him and trotted through the house, heading out the back and seeing something in the bushes between the neighbor’s house and Sugarcube Corner. I went over to see what it was, when I heard Pinkie. It was a white bit of cardboard on a long stick.

“Uh, oh! Twitchy tail! Twitchy tail!” Pinkie shouted.

I picked up the sign, and turned to look at Pinkie. “Huh?”

She dove behind another bush, wearing a strange umbrella hat, and shouted; “Hurry Dawn!”

Looking around in confusion, I couldn’t see what she was going on about. Looking at the sign in my hooves, it only had two words written on it. “Meep Meep?"

Then I noticed a shadow growing on the ground, and heard some pegasi shouting up in the air. Gazing upwards, I noticed the new cloud house above me, and one rapidly plummeting grand piano.

I gulped.

Author's Note

T-T-That's All, Folks!

Next Time on DoH3: After A Major accident leaves him feeling D Flat, Dawn will B Sharp and ask his friend's for help.

Ch. 5 Chekhov's Gun Store

Come on everypony smile, smile, smile
Fill my heart up with sunshine, sunshine

I woke up with a groan to the sharp pains of sore muscles, and what I assume a few hundred broken bones felt like. The ache bit deep throughout my body, but was mercifully fading quickly. Raising up my forelegs I noticed a few things instantly. First, they weren’t flattened to the thickness of pancakes, which is always a good thing. Secondly, there weren’t any signs of an injury: bruising, scars, or jutting bones.

The memory of a large musical instrument falling on me was something I could do without, but at least I was alive. My wings stretched open and I began to roll out of bed. The pain had finally faded. I checked my mouth with a hoof, half expecting to find piano keys instead of teeth, then slammed a hoof on the radio to shut off the song.

“Well, that happened…” I hopped out of bed, taking a few steps to make sure everything was alright. I felt a little dizzy, but chalked it up to getting out of bed too fast. “Could certainly do without that happening again.”

I went over and opened the door to my balcony, looking out at the neighbors starting their morning routines, and lost myself in thought. My attempt to fly to Canterlot had failed, and I’d received no response to Spike’s letter. Then I’d gone to see Pinkie, but before I was able to see if she had some magical solution, a freaking grand piano had squashed me.

This was not gonna be my day.

Spike could always send another letter. I could also do nothing and hope Twilight pulled some deus ex machina to save me. It would probably be better to be proactive, however, and finish my visit to Pinkie. If that failed, I could always check in with Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy to see if they had any ideas.

I’m not sure how long I leaned on the railing lost in thought before screams and shouting from down the road caught my attention. I noticed some panicked ponies heading down the street from the direction of the construction site.

“Oh, guess I forgot about the brown stallion.” I shrugged and headed inside, closing the door and going to eat some oatmeal. “Better luck tomorrow, I guess.”

I got to Sugarcube Corner earlier today than I had yesterday. The line from the afternoon rush hadn’t formed yet, and I saw Mrs. Cake was in the kitchen baking. I crossed the room to ask her where Pinkie was, and noticed a massive cake sitting in the kitchen that caught my curiosity.

“Hi Mrs. Cake, what’s that?” I pointed to the large desert.

“Oh that’s one of Pinkie’s specialties, the Marzipan Mascarpone Meringue Madness,” Mrs. Cake replied.

“It looks good. I was looking for her, where is she?”

“In the living room, she had to take a break from baking.”

I headed in the direction she pointed, entering the living room to find Pinkie having a series of twitches, ear flaps, shakes, and other muscle spasms. Apparently her Pinkie sense was going full tilt today. I’d never bothered to figure her Pinkie sense patterns out, but after yesterday, I should probably make the time.

“You okay, Pinkie?” I asked.

“Oh hey, Dawn, you here about the itchy fetlock and twitchy ear?” Pinkie asked. “Or the ear flap, eye twitch, itchy tooth?”

“Uh, in English please?” I replied. “I don’t speak Pinkie sense, but I’d like to learn.”

“Oh, somepony’s doing a powerful spell and it’s working its way up to a real doozy.”

I nodded. “Yeah, that’s me. I’m pretty sure I’m trapped in a time loop, I was hoping you can help.”

“Oh so that’s what that one means, I haven’t felt one like that since Twilight time traveled.” Pinkie smiled. “Of course I can help you! I’ve got something stashed in case of a time loop emergency!”

“Crap, there goes the twenty bits I bet Spike,” I sighed. “Okay, where’s it at?”

She led me upstairs to her room, and then down a slide into a room filled with party supplies and filing cabinets. There was almost as much paperwork in here as the mayor’s office. I picked up the nearest book and read the cover aloud. “Pinkie’s Party Canon: Unabridged Edition.” Opening it up to a random page, I saw a detailed account of Vinyl Scratch’s twenty-fifth birthday party.

“Yep! It’s my complete record of every party I’ve ever thrown and how much the pony enjoyed it!” Pinkie continued digging through a pile of streamers before tossing them out of the way. “Oh there it is!”

“You found a wardrobe?” I walked over to stand beside it with her

“It’s what’s inside that matters.” She opened it up and gestured. “Tada!”

“Uh, what is it?” I reached up and began rifling through a dozen skin tight black suits, made for the various races. “A bunch of black ponysuits?”

“No, these are six black dangerous mission outfits, and six slightly darker black dangerous mission outfits!” Pinkie gestured to them, but I couldn’t see the difference. “Plus there’s this!”

She pulled out a large wooden baseball bat that seemed to shimmer slightly.

“A baseball bat? Really?” I shook my head in disbelief. I could accept that she had somehow stashed a bunch of useful items for an emergency away, she was Pinkie Pie after all. Unfortunately, all I saw here was a bat and some form fitting suits that would leave nothing to the imagination when worn. The best I could do with this was start a sexy all-mares baseball team called Dawn’s Angels.

“Oh, Twilight swears by that bat, and made me promise to take good care of it after the library got blasted in case she ever needed it again.”

I rummaged around in the wardrobe. “Got anything more useful in here, like a T.A.R.D.I.S. or keys to a DeLorean?”

“Nope! But I’ve also got this.” Pinkie pulled out a bottle that looked like it was made of swirling rainbow liquid and handed it to me.

“Made by Potion Nova? What does it do?” I shook the bottle and watched the colors as they broke apart and spiraled, but never mixed.

“I don’t know, she’s not as popular as Zecora because she doesn’t visit Ponyville often. Oh, and there’s no telling what her potions do until you use them. They haven’t failed me yet!”

I sighed. “And how many of them have you tried?”

“Oh, none. Or maybe I tried one in a past loop and I don’t remember. I try not to think too hard about time travel,” Pinkie explained.

“So you’ve tried none, and we’re only a few days into the loop so I doubt you went mission impossible on anypony yet.” I sighed and put the potion back into the wardrobe, beside the bat and suits. “Shouldn’t you be a little more freaked out by this?”

Pinkie bounced over and gave me a quick hug. “Oh, I’m not worried at all. If anypony can fix this, it’s you. We’re the only two ponies in town that have been to other dimensions, a little time loop paradox is no biggie!” She let go and pulled a cupcake out of her mane. “Cupcake?”

“Wait, another dimension?” I opened my mouth to ask for an explanation, but thought better of it. “Because Pinkie, of course.” I took the cupcake and ate it. It was chocolate with a hint of strawberry, and cheered me up.

“Now, I bet you want to go get advice from our other friends, so I won’t hold you up any longer.”

“Uh, actually yes. I’ll get going now. Thanks, Pinkie. If by some series of coincidences it turns out I actually need these objects to fix this time loop mess, I know where to find them now.” I started to walk away looking for the way out. “Where are the stairs?”

“Oh there are none. Just do this!” Pinkie closed the wardrobe, ran over to the slide, and slid up it in reverse.

Sighing, I spread my wings and flew myself up through the opening into her bedroom. I landed on the rug in the middle of her room while she closed the secret passage to her party planning basement. A headache started to form as I realized she lived on the top floor of Sugarcube Corner, and had a hidden basement in her room. In order to not lose my sanity, I decided to file it under “Because Pinkie Pie” in my brain.

“Thanks for the help, Pinkie. I think I’ll go to the next pony on my checklist for help”

Carousel Boutique was a short walk away from Pinkie’s place. The building was one of the fanciest ones in town, kept immaculately clean by Rarity. The plants were always trimmed neatly, and I had to wonder how much time she spent each week just to maintain the place. Though since it doubled as both her home and her store, it made sense that it always had to look perfect.

There was an ‘open’ sign in the window next to the door, so I pushed it open and let myself inside. A small bell rang, alerting the fashionista to my presence.

“Be right there, darling,” Rarity called from the other room.

I wandered over to a small stool and took a seat. There were a variety of ponnequins around the room displaying some of the latest fashion trends. I couldn’t tell the difference between the dresses, though I did spot a summer dress that looked a bit shorter and tighter than the others.

My mind wandered and I pictured Dash wearing the red summer dress. She’d fight me on it, refusing to wear the dress as soon as I suggested it. I’d probably have to make some concessions for her to agree to wear it. As soon as we got away from town I’d catch her checking herself out in a mirror or a window’s reflection. Then I’d call her girly, tease her a bit, and probably get hit by a disproportionate prank in response a few days later.

I smiled at the thought. It’d only been a few days, but I already missed her.

“See something you like?” Rarity asked.

I realized I was grinning as I stared across at the dress. “Huh? Oh yeah, that dress is nice.”

“Well, I’d be happy to give you a discount and tailor it for Dash. Unless…” She smirked as she trotted over. “You missed the time you were in that Prench maid’s outfit and the dress is for you?”

I shook my head quickly. “What? No way, I’m too cool for that!”

Rarity lifted up the red dress and took it off the display, hanging it onto a rack. “Sometimes you sound just like Dash. Well then, what brings you by today?” She shuffled through some more clothing before finding something that she liked, putting it onto the now bare ponnequin.

“Oh, so I’m stuck in a time loop and I’m checking in with my friends to see if anyone has any bright ideas. I’ll also accept secret basement laboratories, emergency supplies, or some sort of counter-spell.”

Rarity raised an eyebrow and shot a glance back at me. “Is this a prank? Because it seems rather low effort. I’m very busy today. I’ve got an entire line up to redesign. I’m afraid I’ll have to take a rain check.”

“Really?” I groaned. “Look, Twilight’s time traveled and we’ve done way crazier stuff before. I’ve already had a grand piano fall on me out of nowhere, and I’m not sure how someone proves they’re trapped in a loop only they can remember.”

She levitated a dress off the rack, adjusting it in mid-air. “Hmm, how about this one?” Rarity turned and showed me a dark short skirt and button up white shirt. “I’ve got a hunch Dash has been a naughty school filly who needs a little extra discipline.”

My mind immediately pictured Dash in the outfit, sitting behind a school desk. “That’d be entertain—bah wait! I’m not here to spice up my love life. Time loop. Trapped. Fate of Equestria!”

Rarity nodded. “Yes, I’m sure” She put the outfit back and headed into a walk-in closet to fish something else out.

“Come on, would I lie to you?” I asked.

“Like the time you stole control of Dash’s body, didn’t tell me, and then forced her into a maid’s outfit you knew would embarrass her?” Rarity called from inside the closet.

I rolled my eyes and groaned. “Come on, that’s ancient history. I beat Discord, I gave Twilight a key for Tirek. Pinkie believed me as soon as I told her about the time loop!”

She walked out carrying another outfit. “How about this for Dash when she gets back?”

It was a pink ballerina outfit with tight white socks and a tiara. I shook my head. “They’d never find my body and you know it.”

Rarity shrugged and floated it to a nearby hook, hanging it up. “Was worth a shot. So, darling, you’re really stuck in a time loop then? This isn’t some thought experiment like Spike is so fond of?”

“Yes!” I shouted, a bit too enthusiastically. “Twilight’s out of town, and this is way above my pay-grade. I’m at a serious loss on how to solve an apocalypse by myself so I thought as a unicorn you’d have some valuable insight. I won’t prank you for a year if you just help me out.”

She stopped working and began to tap a hoof on her chin, thinking it over. “I suppose the first problem would be having to constantly explain to ponies they were in a loop each time they forgot. If I were in a loop, I’d ask ponies for something only they would know.” Rarity worked on a dress that had been placed on a mannequin while she spoke. “Then in future loops, I could use that to prove I was time traveling and not taking part in some elaborate practical joke.”

I sat up straight and smiled. “Good idea, if you’re this hard to convince every loop I might go insane. So this is the part where you tell me your deepest fillyhood secret so I don’t have to convince you it’s a time loop next time? I promise not to tell anypony.” I might have sounded more convincing if an idiotic grin weren’t spreading across my face.

“Nice try.” Rarity began to carefully snip the thread at the seam of a dress and restitch it to adjust the size of the garment. “No, I suppose something you couldn’t have known is in order though. If you need to convince me again, just say kumquat.”

“Is that even a real fruit? Nevermind. How about something more actionable. Do you know any time spells? How about a counterspell?”

She shook her head. “I’m afraid I don’t know anything like that. Furthermore, time magic is forbidden. Only ponies with proper clearance from Princess Celestia can study it, and fewer still are allowed to write books on it. The only pony I know with any experience in it is Twilight.”

“Come on, they didn’t teach you anything about time magic? What’s the worst that could happen if every unicorn got to learn it?”

“Hmm.” Rarity thought about it for a moment. “I mean, a unicorn who miscast a time spell could be trapped in a time loop, unable to escape or die, for all eternity. Seems like a good reason not to let just anypony play with it.”

I slumped in the chair, deflating as the realization of my situation hit me. “Buck me. I didn’t think of that. I keep resetting to the morning, and yesterday a piano crushed me and I was good as new this morning. If I don’t fix it, I can never escape.”

She hurried over and put a hoof on my shoulder. “Oh, but Dawn, dear, I’m sure we’ll get this sorted out for you in no time! I know you didn’t cast the spell, we just need to find the unicorn who did and have them reverse it.”

“But I’m the only pony in town I’ve met, so far, that seems to know it’s a loop. How do I figure out who cast it? Can’t you just cast a counterspell?”

Rarity shook her head. “I’d need to study for months to figure out the spell to know how to counter it. Even if I did, I’m afraid I lack the power and skill to fix such a powerful spell. If you can figure out the spell, and find a skilled unicorn in town, then it’s possible.”

This hadn’t gone how I had hoped, and I wasn’t quite sure what to do about that. “So, I guess I’m doomed. I’m just going to keep reliving today, forever, plus Dash is out of town so I’ll be utterly alone.”

“You’re hardly alone, Dawn. Have you visited all of our friends yet? You know we’ll always be here to help you. Have you reached out to other unicorns in town? Or tried reaching Princess Celestia?” Rarity asked.

“No, no, and yes.” I got up and sighed, walking over to the door to leave. I’d suddenly given myself a lot to process, and wasn’t sure if Rarity’s penchant for drama would make things better or worse. “You’re right, it’s a little too early to abandon all hope. I, uh, need some air.” I tried the door but found it locked, and looked around in confusion.

“That’s the door to my basement, Dawn, not the front door,” Rarity stated.

I raised an eyebrow, forgetting about the problem for a minute and smirked. “I’ve heard rumors on the weather team about what’s down there. Cloud Kicker swore it was a secret sex dungeon. I bet that’d take my mind off my imminent doom.”

Rarity used her magic to gently nudge my shoulder, pushing me towards the correct door. “Nothing of the sort, just a messy storeroom despite what any promiscuous pegasi professes. I hate to rush you out but I’m very busy, crisis or not."

“Fine, I get the hint.” I opened the front door, but paused before leaving and grinned over my shoulder at her. “No entering the sex dungeon without signing the release of liability waivers.”

She groaned, grabbing the door in her magic. “Don’t be a stranger, I’m happy to help you fix this time loop. Just let me know what plan you come up with, Dawn. If you need some stoic optimism I’d try Applejack. Let me know tomorrow what your plan is, or I guess today would be more accurate.” Rarity chuckled at her own joke.

The door closed, pushing me out into the street. Now that Rarity had hurried me out to finish her work I could no longer deflect with humor, and the reality of my situation began to set back in. Why would she even care about getting her work done today, she’d just have to do it again next loop?

I began to cross town and head towards Applejack’s farm to see if she had any ideas. Not even halfway there my hooves began to drag through the dirt and my wings slumped down a bit. I hadn’t considered the possibility of being trapped in the loop for any length of time. Heck, I hadn’t even realized it was a loop until yesterday. Ending apocalyptic threats with magical macguffins was just sort of how things worked around here. Even when my friends didn’t have any magical jewelry to help them, the strength of their friendship alone was enough to stop a magic stealing demigod from draining the souls of every pony in existence.

I didn’t have much to brag about myself, other than the assist on Discord, or being in the right place at the right time with Tirek. Certainly nothing I could contribute would free me from this loop. I was alone without any powerful artifacts or princesses, and everything I knew about time travel was from fictional TV show reruns. I considered briefly that dimensional travel was also impossible, as was magic, until Discord got bored and proved it wasn’t. If he could do it, then there was a non-zero chance that somepony in town might be able to fix this. Still, the odds of that were too slim to counteract my sour mood.

The sign to Sweet Apple Acres passed over me as I trudged down the path, lost in thought. I continued towards the farm house, almost stepping on the doors to an underground cellar on the way. The small sign next to it explained it was the Apple family’s reserves.

I didn’t realize Applejack was trying to get my attention until she stepped out on the road in front of me. I ran right into her before looking up and realizing she was there. Along with the Earth pony, I noticed that there were a few scattered gray clouds in the air. It felt fitting my pegasi magic would summon rain clouds to follow me around while I moped.

“Oh, hey AJ.”

“What’s wrong, Sugarcube?” Applejack picked up her stetson that I’d knocked off her when we collided and put it back on.

“Just stuck in a time loop,” I explained. “Then Rarity pointed out the very real possibility I could be stuck forever.”

“So that’s why you nearly wore a rut in the dirt road all the way up to my house?” She gestured back, and I glanced over to see a trail of my hoofprints.

“Yeah, I figured I’d ask my friends if they had any bright ideas, but what’s the point?” I lamented. “It’s not like we’ve got any skilled unicorns sitting around to fix it for me, and I can’t fix it myself. I doubt you’ve secretly become an expert in time magic between harvests. So what am I supposed to do?”

Applejack thought my question over for a moment. Finally she pointed at the orchard. “Maybe you’ve gotta take it one tree at a time, just like when we’re harvesting. Break the problem into smaller pieces, then tackle each piece one at a time.”

I nodded and looked at her. “If I’m the only pony who can remember the loops, what good will that do?”

“I reckon that means you’ll have to put in the most hard work, day after day, until you finish solving the problem. Twilight’s got a library full of books, and you’ve got a sharp mind. Why don’t you use this abundance of time you’ve got now to become our expert on time magic?” Applejack walked over and put a hoof on my shoulder. “It ain’t gonna be easy, and there’s gonna be days you just wanna quit. But if you work hard and figure out what the spell is, then I’m sure we can find a unicorn, or maybe several working together, that can counter the spell.”

For the first time since leaving Rarity’s shop, I smiled again. “That’s just crazy enough to work. If I study a little bit each day, and carry that knowledge forward, maybe I can figure this out. It’d sure beat moping around until I went insane.”

“See? There’s no limit to what we can accomplish when we work hard. My Pa once told me it takes ten thousand hours to become a master at something. Now, whether that’s farming, or magic, or dressmaking, anypony can do anything they set their mind to. Problem is for most ponies, they just ain’t got the drive to make that commitment.”

“Ten thousand hours? That’s over a year’s worth of time,” I mumbled, nodding. “I certainly hope I’m not trapped here that long. Everything was finally going right, I had my life together at last. I just hope my next leap is the leap home, so I can see Dash again.”

“Was that an Earth reference? See, as long as you can joke it’s proof the Dawn we know who never gives up is in there.” Applejack hooked her foreleg behind my neck and brought me in for a quick hug. “I believe in you, Dawn. Maybe I can’t be of much help solving a time loop, but if you ever think of giving up for even a second, then you march your flank right back here so I can knock some sense into you. Deal?”

“Deal.” I spit on my hoof, as did AJ, and we gave a quick hoof bump. “When did you become so wise?”

“Try raisin’ a little sister on your own sometime while working a farm.” She chuckled and smiled at me. “It can really get your priorities in order and teach you the kinda things most ponies need decades to learn.”

“Thanks, Applejack, for breaking me out of my funk.”

“Well now that you are, it brings us to the problem at hoof. How bad is it? Is it affecting the whole town?”

“Uh, yeah. Some kind of force field around the town kept me from reaching Celestia,” I explained.

“Have you seen Apple Bloom? She went off crusadin’ and she could be trapped out there, or in trouble.”

I shook my head. “No, not yet. If I come across her I’ll do what I can, however, as far as I can tell everyone’s safe. You just keep restarting the day blissfully unaware.”

“Well, do me a favor, Dawn. If you see her, make sure she’s safe. And if it comes to the worst case scenario and you can’t save everypony, you make sure she gets out, even if you have to leave me and Mac behind.”

“And I thought I was gloomy. I’ll look out for your sister, but I’m going to save everypony. I don’t know how, but all of Ponyville gets saved or I’ll just keep looping until I make it happen. Pinkie Promise.” I gave her a confident smile. I had absolutely no idea if I could fix this and save everypony, but I had an infinite amount of time to pull it off.

“Thanks, Dawn.” Applejack tipped her stetson at me with a hoof. “Well, reckon I might as well get back to work, for what it’s worth. How about you?”

“I’ve got one last stop, and after that a lot of work to do.”

“Oh, what’s your last stop?” she asked.

“Fluttershy’s cottage,” I answered.

“I reckon she’s not going to know much about time travel either.”

“Nope. But she gives an excellent massage.”

Applejack chuckled. “Can’t argue with that. Just don’t go making any bad decisions in these loops. Just ask yourself, what would Applejack do?”

I chuckled at that. “Come on, when have I ever acted rashly and made a stupid decision?” I had to quickly put my hoof up on her mouth to stop her from answering honestly. “Actually, that was rhetorical.” I lowered the hoof.

The journey over to Fluttershy’s cottage was uneventful. The summer sun lingered longer during the day than it would in winter, and as it set, it cast a lovely orange glow over Ponyville. I almost thought I could see the odd dome shimmering in the distance as I approached Fluttershy’s home.

Coming from Sweet Apple Acres brought me down a smaller side trail, passing by a shed behind Fluttershy’s hen house. The door was locked and curiosity got the better of me, so I tried to peer inside the window. There was a sheet of plywood inside the window with small perforated holes, the kind tools could be hung on. Whatever was in Fluttershy’s shed, I couldn’t see it from out here.

I shrugged and headed back towards the cottage, knocking on the door once I got there. It didn’t take long for Fluttershy to answer. “Oh, hello Dawn. What brings you by?”

“Well, I’m stuck in a time loop, and the town’s resident expert on breaking and fixing the laws of the universe is in Canterlot,” I quipped. “I figured I could stop by to get your help.”

“I’m sorry,” Fluttershy said. “I’m not sure there’s much I can do to fix time travel problems. Angel’s also been acting weird lately, talking about being late and always checking the clocks. Plus, now I’ll have to check on all the other animals tonight to make sure they are okay.”

“Don’t worry, I’m going to work on fixing it.”

“Oh, thank you. I’m not worried, though. I know our friends are very talented and will do everything they can to fix this. If there’s anything I can do to help, let me know.”

“I don’t want to take up much of your time, even if you’ll have no memory of it once the sun sets. I was just hoping you could maybe give me a massage?” I asked. “I could really use a little time to relax and feel like things are normal.”

She opened the door and gestured for me to come in. “I could do that. Just lay down on the couch.”

“Thanks.” I trotted over to the couch and laid down. A moment later I felt Fluttershy sit on the couch next to me, and begin working two hooves just under my wing joints. The tension I hardly realized I’d been carrying began to melt instantly.

It was a few minutes later as I let out a yawn that Fluttershy finally spoke up. “So, do you have a plan yet?”

“I guess I can get some books to study. The only two unicorns I know in town are Lyra and Rarity. Maybe they can help me with the basics,” I explained. “I’ll learn as much as I can, and if I’m lucky, figure it out with their help.”

“Oh, that sounds like a good plan. Rarity has a little more experience with magic than she lets on. Lyra was a student at Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns.”

Fluttershy moved her hooves up to my shoulders and gently pushed down, locating and releasing another knot of tense muscles. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could stay awake at this rate. “Good to know. Do you mind if I stop by again if I get too stressed out?”

“You know you’re always welcome here, Dawn. I’m always happy to help a friend, especially you and Dash.”

“Thanks. If it weren’t for your advice, I might not have been ready to ask Dash to move in with me.” I sighed. “Wish I’d asked her before she left though, who knows how long it’ll be now. Could be a week or months before I get to see her again.”

“A mare like her is worth waiting for.” There was a smile on her face as she said it.

“You are too, and one day I’ll help you find the perfect mare, and that’s a Pinkie promise,” I said. She deserved just as much happiness as she brought to others, and I hoped it wouldn’t be too long before a mare swept the shy pegasus off her hooves.

Fluttershy smiled. “I’ve always thought about that, you know. How it’d feel to have a special somepony kneel down in front of me. She’d pluck out and present me with her largest primary feather, in the old pegasi tradition, and ask me to marry her. I’d be so happy to say yes.” She had stopped massaging my back as she lost herself in thought. “What a beautiful thing the wedding would be...”

She trailed off at the end of the sentence. I rolled over and sat up, giving her a firm hug. “Like I said, I’ll make that happen for you somehow. You deserve it; you’ve been such a wonderful friend to Dash and me.”

She leaned against me for a few minutes, lost in her own thoughts, before noticing the time. “The sun’s about to set. Did you want to stay in my guest room, or are you heading home?”

I glanced out the window and saw the sun just dipping below the horizon, and felt a faint tingling in my wingtips. “Why don’t we head outside and watch the sunset? I just realized I haven’t stayed up past dark these past few days.”

Together we headed out of the cottage, and walked to the side facing the sun. Celestia must have been lowering it at this very moment, slowly sinking it past the horizon. We took a seat on the grass and watched. The sun looked larger and more red as it continued shifting down, and the tingling sensation built.

In the distance I could make out Canterlot, clinging to the side of its mountain. There was a sparkling rainbow in the distance, almost like a perfect circle, and I noticed a contrail headed towards Ponyville. Before I could put too much thought into it, time seemed to slow down, and my weariness increased. I wondered if this was what it was like to be awake when the loop restarted, then lost consciousness.

Author's Note

This wraps up Act 1. Time for Dawn to get to work solving the problem, but first we need to check in on someone else...

Next Time on DoH3: I doubt they would call this a happy accident, no matter how insistent a certain famous Earth pony painter was about it. What can you do when your plan has gone off the rails and you're stuck in a backwater podunk town?

Ch. 6 Interlude I

A lilac unicorn ran straight into the door of the Crystal Tree’s map room. It was a pull, not a push. She rubbed her nose, a small trickle of blood running down from where she’d slammed it right on the door.

“By Starswirl’s bearded arse crack,” Starlight muttered. “Stupid spell couldn’t have reset me to the moment I cast it, oh no, why not ten seconds before I cast it when I was trying to enter the room.”

The door began to glow teal, surrounded by Starlight’s magic, until it slowly crumbled down to dust. Only once it was a small pile of crystal dust on the floor did she bother to walk through.

After she got to the table, she pulled out her scroll and tried casting the spell again. Nothing happened. She began to examine the table and scan it with her magic. She had spent months planning this, studying every spell she could find. Breaking into the Starswirl the Bearded wing to steal his work on time magic had been easy. With an invisibility spell and a silence spell she’d learned, she was in and out of the deepest parts of Canterlot castle with none the wiser. Starlight had found flaws in Starswirl’s time travel spell, and had worked hard to make her own version that could go back further in time than a single week.

She pulled out his opus magnum, a thick tome filled with spells that could easily restructure the four dimensions that Equestria existed in. It was no wonder that it had been kept under lock and key. Starswirl's Guide to Time, the Universe, and Everything may have been pretentiously titled, but contained every finished and unfinished spell he’d ever created. Once Starlight was done here, there were at least a dozen other spells in the book that she would have fun completing.

Yet try as she might to figure out why this simple time travel spell had failed, she could find no flaws in her calculations. Clearly something had gone wrong, or she’d be in Cloudsdale right now. Instead, she had spent the last few days stuck in this empty castle with only the baby dragon as company. Of course, Starlight avoided him so as to not waste time or possibly get recognized.

If her spell was flawed, then perhaps she should cross-reference any books in the castle’s library to determine if she forgot to carry the zero or something. As Starlight headed down the hallway towards the library, she realized the hallways and doors all looked the same.

Sure enough, she was lost and going in circles only a few seconds later. She heard some talking coming from one of the rooms, and slowly approached.

“Got any four’s?” a stallion asked.

“Go fish,” a dragon replied.

Starlight trotted closer, realizing the crystal floors and walls made for a very loud echo.

“Hear something?”

She ducked behind a curtain and cast a spell to make herself less interesting, then peeked out. If anypony tried to look at her, they’d find the curtain painfully boring and look away.

A blue pegasus trotted out into the hallway. Starlight tilted her head curiously. She thought Spike, Twilight’s assistant, was the only one living in the castle. Perhaps this other pony was the foalsitter.

“Yeah, I thought I heard somepony out there but I didn't see anything.” The stallion closed the door and went back into the room.

Starlight let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding, and cast a teleportation spell to cross the hallway and land at the intersection about four doors down. She looked around for any distinctive markings. Now that she knew where the dragon and it’s foalsitter were, Starlight could just avoid that hallway. The pony and dragon would be stuck in the loop, reliving the same day over and over. Meanwhile, she’d be free to fix this spell, travel to Cloudsdale, and have her revenge once and for all.

Author's Note

The other interludes between acts are longer, this one was limited in how much I could reveal after the first act. The next chapter kicks off Act 2, and is a pivotal 8k word chapter. See you Christmas day, and hope your holiday is awesome!

Up next on DoH3: Dawn's studies into Equestrian magic have had a few bumps, but at the end of the day he proves you can teach an old human new tricks...

Ch. 7 Rarity's School for Ungifted Pegasi

One of the unspoken benefits of reliving the same day over and over is you get really good at avoiding ponies. When I don’t feel like hearing Roseluck mock my bed head with a quip about Mondays, I know exactly where she’ll be. Fifteen minutes after I wake up she’s watering her flowers. She heads indoors about half an hour after that, then goes to work once she puts her gardening tools away.

She’s trapped in her routine, like the rest of Ponyville. The easiest way to avoid her is to just take to the sky first thing when I leave my home. As long as I don’t take too long getting ready in the morning, it’s easy to stop by the construction site before the earth pony gets pancaked. It’s kind of ironic, the pony has an hourglass for a cutie mark, and now he’s on-time to his own death day after day. I might have to ask him one of these days what his job is.

From my vantage point a few hundred feet in the air it’s trivial to spot the part of town Lyra lives in. I dive down, picking up speed until it begins to blur my vision, pulling up at the last second and zooming straight down the street. My hooves are only inches off the ground, scattering dust and small stones across the street like I’m doing some sort of street luge. Scootaloo would be proud.

I flared my wings and jammed my hooves into the dirt to come to an abrupt halt. I had been going so fast I almost plowed straight through Lyra, and it took a minute for the dust cloud around us to clear.

“D-Dawn?!” Lyra coughed on some of the dust.

“Lyra.” I reached out a hoof. “Come with me if you want to live.”

She raised an eyebrow and looked at me skeptically, before shrugging and reaching out to take my hoof.

I smiled, and pulled her beside me, walking down the road towards Rarity’s House. “And that, Lyra, is why you’re one of my top three mares.” She was always ready to help me out, and easily amused by my antics.

“Oh, wow, you really know how to flatter a pony,” she quipped. “So what’s with the action hero routine?”

“So it turns out Ponyville is trapped in a time loop, and I’m the only pony who remembers it. I figure you and Rarity can teach me everything you know about magic and time travel. Once I learn enough, I can devise a spell for you two to cast to fix everything. Genius, right?” I asked.

Lyra thought it over for a minute before replying. “Son of a gun, I’m in. So you’re trying to figure out a time spell? Have you asked Minuette for help?”

“The mare that moved from Canterlot?”

“Yeah, she was at Celestia's school with Twilight and I.” Lyra shot a glance around and leaned in closer. “Rumor has it she cast some time magic at her entrance exam, Celestia was so impressed she admitted her to the school as long as she promised not to teach that magic to other ponies.”

I stopped in my tracks. “Wait, a pony who knows time magic? What’s the catch? I feel like there’s a catch, or the universe suddenly stopped hating me.”

“No catch. Why don’t we head over to her home and get her to help with your little study session?”

“You’re awesome Lyra. It’s going to break Dash and Fluttershy’s hearts when I tell them I just bumped you up to my number one mare.”

She laughed. “Breaking both their hearts? I could sell tickets to the flank kicking you’d receive.”

I chuckled in agreement as I thought about it. Just being able to hear Dash yell at me if I goaded her too far would be a nice break from reliving the same day over and over. If making Lyra my new favorite pony required Dash to get Fluttershy’s help to thoroughly punish me, say back at my place, it was a price I was willing to pay.

The smile that had spread across my face went nearly from ear to ear. “Yeah, I’m not brave enough to piss them both off at the same time outside a loop, so I guess we’ll never know.”

Now that I had Lyra with me I was unable to just fly over there like an amateur fighter jet pilot to save time. It took five minutes to walk there, instead of a thrilling thirty second climb followed by a thirty second dive. The ability to fly had really spoiled me. Most ponies just ignored us as we walked, content to go around their daily routines. I saw the flower trio at their shop, Pinkie bouncing down the road to make a delivery of baked goods, and a couple of the weather ponies chatting on a rooftop.

I realized I hadn’t seen the Cutie Mark Crusaders around in any of my loops yet, which caused a chill to run down my spine. Whatever they were up to, they’d be up to it day after day until I fixed this. I’d have to check on them at some point to ensure they weren’t somehow covered in tree sap and directly responsible for the time loop. Stranger things had happened.

Minuette wasn’t in her front yard gardening anymore, so I had to knock on her door as Lyra and I waited on her porch. After a brief wait, she opened the door.

“Lyra! How good to see you again. Hi, Dawn. What brings you by?” Minuette asked.

“I was telling Dawn that you’ve moved to town,” Lyra explained. “I also told him you were the closest thing we had to an expert on time loops available.”

Her smile vanished and she nodded, looking around outside. “Yeah, come in. We should talk privately.” Minuette opened the door and led us both inside.

I headed inside and went over to her sofa, taking a seat on the left side. Lyra sat on the right side, and Minuette closed the door. She headed off into the kitchen and came back with a few glasses of water levitating in her magic, setting them down on a coffee table. She took a seat in a chair beside the sofa.

“So, as pleased as I am to see you both, you do know that time magic is heavily restricted, right?” Minuette asked.

“Yeah. I’m told somepony could screw it up, get trapped in an endless loop, unable to die or ever escape for all eternity. Such a pony would be royally screwed. ” I grinned and pointed a hoof to my chest. “Hi, Minuette, I’m royally screwed.”

She tilted her head and looked at Lyra. “Well normally I’d think this was some kind of prank, but Lyra wouldn’t bring you over here for a joke. She knows me well, as well as the consequences for violating the laws surrounding time magic. So, Dawn, have you gone to Twilight or the Princess for help yet?”

“Twilight’s out of town, and my letters to Celestia went unanswered. Also there’s some kind of dome over all of Ponyville, preventing me from leaving,” I stated. “I’ve got no idea what the situation on the other side is.”

Minuette’s eyes went wide as she gasped. “Oh Celestia… the entire town? That shouldn’t be possible.”

“On a scale of one to ten, how screwed are we?” Lyra asked.

Minuette responded by levitating a quill and piece of parchment over and began jotting some notes. It took her a few minutes to finish whatever calculations she was doing. “I was always more into theoretical applications, and theoretically if I had Twilight’s skill in magic and the Elements of Harmony, I’m not sure I could fix this. I’d say we’re a solid eleven, Lyra.”

“Yay,” I mumbled, before taking a deep breath. “Well, fear not, I’m here to save you. I can remember between loops, and you’ve just been drafted to teach me everything you know, so I can fix it.”

Minuette looked between us in confusion. “Celestia hasn’t allowed a pony to take notes on time magic since Starswirl the Bearded a millenia ago. She allowed me to study it if I promised not to share notes or teach it to others.”

“Well you’re in luck, I’m a pegasus so I’m incapable of using the magic, and I Pinkie Promise not to tell anypony.” I began to make the motions of the promise with my foreleg. “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

The blue unicorn smiled at me. “Well, I don’t think a temporal paradox would save you from a broken Pinkie Promise, so I guess I can teach you. But what do you plan to do after that?”

“Somepony has to carry our knowledge forward as we study this,” I explained. “That’s me. Somepony else has to cast the spell to fix this when we figure out what it is. That’s you.”

“I’m on board, of course,” Minuette responded. “I don’t know if I have the power to reverse a spell of this magnitude though. We need to find whoever cast it, learn how, plus carefully study the spell. Maybe if we’re lucky and find the original spell’s caster, we can fix this.”

“What if the pony who cast it is outside the dome trapping the town?” I asked.

“Then we start with teaching you magic, and pray to Celestia we can form a team of less skilled unicorns to help us fix it. I’ve never managed to time travel further than one minute.”

I took a drink of my water and set it back down on the coffee table. “Well you’ve never been trapped for eternity in a time loop before, that’s gotta be pretty motivating right? And just think, if you hadn’t moved to Ponyville you’re probably kicking back shots in a bar in Canterlot right now instead.”

“Yay,” Minuette rolled her eyes and let out an exasperated sigh. “If only I hadn’t moved to town to be closer to my marefriend. She did warn me this kind of nonsense happened all the time, but also promised it was no big deal. I figured maybe a bugbear, or the Cutie Mark Crusaders, but not a tear in the fabric of space-time.”

“Come on now. You will never forget your first apocalypse in Ponyville,” Lyra stated. “Plus, Pinkie throws the best So You Survived an Apocalypse parties in all of Equestria. I figure for what we’re about to do she’ll get Berry to make us some of the really good fruit punch.”

“See?” I said. “Now you’ve got something to look forward to. We’re gonna head over to Rarity’s, teach me everything about magic, and watch me save the whole world. Who knows, maybe they’ll have to promote me to Prince. I promise not to forget you when I’ve got my own kingdom.”

Minuette let out a groan and shot Lyra a glance. “Is he always like this?”

“Yeah, but I kinda like it,” Lyra replied.

“Well, as long as it’s not too distracting. We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Minuette explained. She began levitating books, quills, and scrolls out of several shelves and drawers around her living room. They floated over towards her saddlebags, and she began to make notes on one of the scrolls. “It might even be fascinating to solve such a complicated problem, though sadly only Dawn will remember it. Promise me you’ll give me all the details afterwards?”

“Sure thing Minuette,” I answered. “If we invent some awesome new spell, it seems like the least I could do would be to give you a copy. So, are you ready to head to Rarity’s now?”

“Sure,” Minuette replied. “Let’s get this study session started.”

The bell over the door rang as Minuette, Lyra, and I entered the boutique. Rarity was quick to hurry into the room, probably expecting customers. “Oh, hello everypony. What brings you by?” she asked.

“Kumquat,” I stated.

I heard Lyra chuckle behind me, while Rarity just stared right at me with an eyebrow raised. “Excuse me?”

“Well we’re stuck in a time loop, and we need to commandeer your domicile for altruistic… purposes?” I shrugged and shook my head. “Honestly, I should have prepared some impressive speech to convince you it’s a time loop, and that’s on me. I haven’t had time to workshop it yet to see what works best. You told me to say kumquat and you’d know what it meant, so… kumquat. Kumquat. Kumquat!”

I hadn’t seen Rarity this confused before. She kept almost saying something, and looking around as if Dash was going to burst out of a mannequin and shout “got ya!” at any moment. It probably didn’t help that Lyra was still barely holding back a fit of laughter, and I was being myself.

Rarity glanced at the blue unicorn, no doubt having heard in passing that Minuette went to Celestia’s school of magic. She assumed Minuette would be a voice of reason. “Minuette, darling, are these two serious or am I about to have to ban someponyfrom my shop during business hours?” Rarity asked.

“They’re serious, I’m afraid,” Minuette stated. “I haven’t fully investigated, but there’s definitely a powerful spell affecting the town, you can detect the change in the leyline if you extend your senses.”

She nodded. “Thank you. That won’t be necessary, though. If you vouch for him and somehow he knows… my favorite fruit… then I’m confident he has been here before.”

I grinned and walked towards the kitchen. “Favorite fruit, eh? Maybe I can try one, since it’s totally a fruit and not something else.”

Rarity continued to ignore me, speaking to Minuette. “If you and Lyra can babysit him for a bit, I’ll get the shop set up. What exactly do you need?”

“We need to teach Dawn everything we know about magic, and hope he can stop joking long enough to save Equestria.” Minuette tilted her head to Lyra. “She says he’s good for it.”

“He’s good for a lot of things, but I’m worried how much help a pegasus can be when it comes to magic.” Lyra shot me an apologetic glance when she noticed me glaring at her. “No offense.”

“Some taken,” I stuck my tongue out at her.

“Well, he certainly has a unique point of view,” Rarity offered. “If there is anypony in town who can think outside the box, or perhaps has never been in a box, it is Dawn. He has saved us once before, too.”

“Twice.” I pretended to adjust a tie on my neck and lowered my voice. “Mares, I tell ya. I can’t get no respect.”

With no further appreciation for my attempts to lighten the mood, Rarity went off to begin getting her home ready. Minuette offered to help get things set up. I went over to make small talk with Lyra. “So, Lyra, you want to come visit Dash and I again after I fix this? You always know the best recreational activities for three consenting adults.”

She smiled and nodded. “Sure, but first you’ve got a lot of work ahead of you, Dawn. I’m actually a little surprised you’re not taking this more seriously.”

“What can I say? I’m just confident I’ll have this fixed in under a week. Faster if I don’t spend half that week on spa days,” I added.

“I think you’re deflecting a little too much with humor. Are you sure you’re okay?” Lyra asked.

I thought of giving her the honest answer, but admitting how worried I was wouldn’t be as productive as having a task to focus on. As long as I kept studying, and kept my mind occupied, there was no risk of spiraling down a rabbit hole of negative thinking. “You know me really well. I think even if you can’t remember the loops, you can be my anchor. If I’m ever not okay, you’ll be the first to recognize it if I don’t say anything first.”

“No pressure, huh?” When I didn’t respond, she chuckled nervously and said “I’ll do my best.”

Before long, Rarity had converted her shop into a small classroom and closed the store for the day. I was seated at a table in a rather uncomfortable chair with several books in front of me. There were two chalkboards in the room, as well as extra seats. Lyra was seated leaning back in hers, reminding me of how I’d sit if I were still human. I mimicked her, leaning back in the chair and trying not to slide out of it. Minuette had chosen to sit like a normal pony, hindquarters firmly planted on the seat. Rarity was drawing something on the chalkboard, though I wasn’t paying much attention.

I started to zone out as I recalled Twilight mentioning magic kindergarten. Apparently unicorns had to start learning to control their magic young, and that made me wonder if they had magic puberty. Perhaps if a filly didn’t have their magic under control they could cause some sort of chain reaction. Their magic could surge, hatching a dragon, and granting their future friends cutie marks. Said pony could go on to experiment on a human in their secret basement. They might kidnap somepony in a dream and force said pony to teach them the Dewey Decimal system.

Clearly, not paying attention in magic kindergarten could send a talented unicorn down a dark path to depravity.

Rarity dragged a hoof down the board, the shriek breaking me out of my daydream. My eyes snapped to the board, and I saw Rarity glaring at me. I wondered how long I’d been lost in thought. “As I was saying Dawn, magic is a force of life and creation. Almost all living beings in Equestria produce magic, a collective energy known as mana. Most creatures have, at the very least, a passive ability to tap into it. For a pegasus, that means the ability to tap into the energies present in the weather. Clouds, winds, storms, and so forth.”

I nodded along, pushing the unbidden thoughts of mares in librarian outfits and thick wooly sweaters out of my mind. “How is this useful?”

“Because every unicorn filly has to learn this in kindergarten, and you have not yet learned it. I’ll not have you leaving us trapped in this time loop forever because you fell asleep in class,” Rarity chided.

Minuette looked up from a small notebook where she was working on a complex series of runes. “There’s more to magic than being something only a unicorn can do. Look at Dash’s rainboom, or Spitfire’s ability to superheat the air and appear as if on fire during stunts. Even a pony without a horn channels magic, and uses it, even if only subconsciously. The more you know about magic, the more prepared you’ll be to use it.”

“Trust us on this,” Lyra said. “Besides, you’re going to miss the easy stuff when we move onto thaumaturgy symbols. There’s a reason I majored in music, you know.”

“Okay. If you say the basics are important, I believe you.” I lifted my hooves in surrender. “I’m just anxious to finish this course and be promoted to the rank of master.”

“Graduate from the course you may, but promoted to the rank of master you are not,” Lyra quipped. We both started giggling, while Minuette just stared at us in confusion.

Rarity groaned loudly. “This is no time to repeat Dawn’s outlandish campfire stories about space ninjas.”

“Hey!” I interjected. “They’re jedi, and they’re awesome!”

“Can we focus? We have limited time,” Minuette said. “I know it may look to you like you’ve got an infinite amount of time, but a spell that uses enough power to affect a whole town is likely highly unstable. I only know what you know, and right now you don’t know how the spell is structured, or if it uses a focus, or well… anything. The sooner we do, the sooner I can offer you some useful information, like whether or not we’re all going to blink out of existence when the spell unexpectedly collapses.”

I sighed and nodded my head. “Yeah, I guess that’s a good reason to keep things moving. So, please continue.”

Rarity drew three circles around the three ponies on the board, a unicorn, pegasus, and an earth pony. In the middle where they overlapped was an alicorn. “Pegasi can channel magic through their wings, using it to affect the weather. It also enhances their flying and provides them a certain… bounciness… when they crash. Judging by a skilled flier like Rainbow Dash and her history with crashing, this was a necessary evolutionary advantage to pegasi magic.”

“Next up are Earth ponies, who channel their magic in many subtle ways. It increases their strength, their skill in alchemy, their ability to heal, growing plants, and raising animals. While they can rarely manifest their magic in flashy ways like a weather pony or a unicorn, they still use magic.”

“Unicorns are the most well known magic users,” Rarity droned on. “Thanks to their horns, they are able to directly channel magic, shaping it in their mind to the desired effect. There are several key factors, for example, one's ability to concentrate and focus to shape the spell. One must also believe they are capable of completing the spell. Even the smallest doubt could interfere in the use of a spell. A momentary distraction can disrupt the channels of power or the mental symbols the caster is concentrating on. It may look like a horn just glows and magic happens, but that isn’t how it works.”

I was about to flick a small paper football over to Lyra, who was holding up her hooves to make goal posts, but quickly hid it under a hoof when Rarity turned around. Lyra also resumed looking innocent just in time. “Okay,” I said quickly, nodding along. “I get the basics. I’m guessing next you’ll tell me how alicorns fit in? They’re the ones with wings and a horn, right?”

Rarity narrowed her eyes, studying me for a moment. She must have decided I’d been paying attention and was only being my usual amount of incorrigible. Rarity turned back to the board and continued the lesson. I let out a sigh once she wasn’t looking at me, sliding the paper football out from under my hoof.

“Alicorns have the benefits of all three races, but also a vastly increased ability to draw upon the energy that powers magic. They get stronger as they age and the magic can keep them alive well beyond the lifespan of normal mortals. Occasionally a unicorn like Starswirl or Twilight will be able to match an alicorn’s power, or even ascend, but in almost every case alicorns are in a league of their own. They’ve got all the flaws and beauty of normal ponies, but far more raw power.”

“Cool,” I replied. So far the lessons had been pretty boring. I was certain they wouldn’t be teaching me about the races of pony if it wasn’t important, but perhaps I could speed things along to a more valuable topic. “So there’s gotta be some laws of magic or something too, right? ‘Thou shall not allow a pony to come to harm whether through action or inaction’, that sort of stuff?”

“Well,” Rarity stated, “the first rule of magic is: do not use it to kill a pony. Technically, any sapient being, but a strong case can be made for self-defense a lot of the time. A hungry changeling may be sapient, but it could kill you as easily as a manticore. Some races like griffons are carnivorous, so the laws on hunting game animals that are merely sentient are relaxed. In general though, since you’re a pony, let’s just say killing is frowned upon,” Rarity explained.

I nodded along, muttering loudly. “Killing is bad.” I scribbled it down on a piece of paper. “And what’s Celestia’s stance on kneecaps?"

Rarity continued onward, knowing that acknowledging me would only encourage me. “Then there are laws against necromancy, time travel, mind control, forced shape shifting a being into a familiar, or traveling outside our dimension. It’s not really something I think you’ll have to worry about.” Rarity finished writing out the seven laws on the board.

“Okay, but didn’t Twilight time travel to warn herself and freak out that one time? Why wasn’t she arrested?” I asked. “She had a pretty epic meltdown from what I heard.”

“Ah, the predestination paradox,” Minuette admired. “By trying to warn herself not to worry, she sent herself down a path that caused her to worry. Once she got the spell and realized there had been nothing to worry about, she went back to let herself know, thus creating the very situation she wanted to avoid.”

“Celestia and Luna can give out exceptions to some of the laws,” Rarity said. “They approved Twilight’s use of the spell as there were no consequences. They trust her to learn from the experience and use that knowledge responsibly. Starswirl helped write the book on what is and isn’t allowed when it comes to any time-related magic.”

“Okay. Most of those laws sound easy not to break. Now can we learn the cool stuff like how to bend a spoon with my mind?” I asked.

There was a crack as the chalk in Rarity’s telekinetic grip snapped, and a moment later fell to the ground as a fine white dust. I winced when I saw one of her eyelids twitching. Perhaps Rarity wasn’t taking my constant joking in stride while trying to teach me the fundamentals of magic. She must have noticed the guilt on my face as I shrank back slightly in the chair.

“Apologies, Dawn. Magic may be powered by mana, but emotion also has a very large impact in powering or weakening it. I am a bit… frustrated at your cavalier attitude, which disrupted my levitation spell. Strong emotion and spells do not mix.” Rarity took a deep breath to calm herself. “I shall endeavor to continue. After all, we are trapped in this time loop together. For eternity. Unless I am able to teach you how to fix it.”

“No pressure,” Minuette added.

I looked at all three of them, noticing none of them were smiling. Sure, Lyra had been playing along, perhaps she knew I needed a little outlet for my nervous energy. As I thought about Rarity’s words, it began to dawn on me how serious this was. Everypony was counting on me, and only me, to solve a problem none of them were aware existed. While being a smart ass was endlessly entertaining, I was doing it at their expense. Each day longer it took me to fix this was another day spent in this unknown void, separated from the world.

I gulped. “Point taken. I guess it’s time I paid attention then. This is the tenth day you’ve had to explain the races of ponies to me, after all.”

Lyra chuckled and I could hear Rarity’s teeth grinding.

“Sorry! That was the last joke, Pinkie Promise!” I added. If I broke this promise though, I’m pretty sure Pinkie wouldn’t ever find out on account of the time loop. “We’ve only been in the loop for like a week, and this is the first time you’ve explained this to me.”

“Why don’t you do a little reading on the schools of magic while I find some more chalk that hasn’t been turned to dust.” Rarity picked up a book and floated it over to me. “I must admit, though, you are disappointing me, Dawn. I expected you to be able to put the attitude aside in light of the seriousness of the situation. If you won’t do it for me, then do it for Dash.”

I winced and kept my mouth shut, knowing that Rarity’s shot below the belt would only lead me to say something I’d regret. She was right, and I knew it. Rarity had always been my one friend who refused to humor me and give into my antics. Naturally, that made me push harder to find and press some of her buttons. Even now, with the entire town trapped in a time loop, I was using it as an opportunity to see just how far I could push her. There was something in the tone of her voice that let me know not to push my luck any further.

I nodded and flipped open the book and began reading. I could dial it back for a week or two and give this my full focus. “This shouldn’t take too long to learn.” I glanced at the table of contents and noticed the page count. “Buck me.”

I slowly spun around on the small stool I was seated on as my lessons on magic continued. Today, Lyra had decided to go fetch the relevant books from the castle library. I’d almost gone myself just to get out of class for half an hour, but Rarity had been quick to point out the fact that the more I studied, the sooner we’d fix this problem.

“So, Dawn, care to recite what we’ve gone over on ley lines so far?” Rarity asked.

She often quizzed me to make sure I was paying attention. It was her only way to know if I was retaining information in the current and past loops. Any gap in knowledge would lead to a day spent repeating a topic.

“They’re concentrated veins of magic that flow around Equestria,” I recited. I stared up at the ceiling in boredom as the room slowly spun. “They can flow from a place like the Crystal Empire, or the Everfree, carrying different kinds of magic. Castles and towns are often situated near them.”

Minuette’s horn lit up and my chair stopped rotating as a matching glow surrounded it. “Not bad, how many weeks have you been at this?”

“Uh, like two?” I replied. “Should I have learned this stuff more quickly?”

“Faster would be better,” Rarity retorted. “However, despite appearances of not paying attention, you seem to have a very good memory.”

“It beats cellular biology, or half the electives I had to take to get a nursing degree. Go ahead, ask me to name all the facial nerves.”

“Perhaps the type of ley lines in Ponyville would be a bit more relevant,” Rarity interjected.

“The main ley line comes from the Everfree, carrying wild magic, and the Tree of Harmony, which grew the lovely tree shaped castle. It is a source of harmony, a type of magic directly opposed to chaos magic.”

I flipped open one of the books to a small diagram of unicorns gathered around an etched circle. “Ley lines are most often used to fuel ritual magic. By tapping into them, a unicorn isn’t limited to their own ability to draw on magic. Of course, one small mistake and you’ll have it all explode in your face. I imagine the resulting disintegration would be unpleasant.”

“Which explains why unicorns often use a focus,” I added. “Be it a staff, spell scrolls, or another pony. Anything that allows the spellcaster to split the effort of the spell means they have more concentration to devote to the ritual, and controlling the magic.”

Rarity smiled, and nodded in approval. “I’m impressed by your progress. When Lyra gets back, we’ll move onto the advanced topics. You might just pull this off after all.”

I held a piece of chalk in my hoof, drawing intricate symbols that reminded me a little of an Asian language. Today I was writing the sets of magic runes over and over on the chalkboards. This must have been the tenth time today I’d been tracing them out. It was the seventh day in a row I’d spent repeating and memorizing symbols. Learning a new language is hard. Learning one that’s literally magic, and at an accelerated pace, was exhausting. I’d taken to drinking several cups of coffee each morning just to push myself harder to learn as fast as possible.

When writing down spells, unicorns tended to use the symbols instead of written words. They could convey more information this way in less space. When trying to cast a complicated spell, it helped if you had just one page and not a small booklet to leaf through. Knowing the basic building blocks was important. By combining the symbols for protection and fire together correctly, you make a pony fireproof.

Of course, if I didn’t learn all of them correctly, I wouldn’t be able to read them correctly. If I found the spell that trapped us here but misread the symbols, I’d effectively send us down the wrong path for weeks. I erased one of the symbols I was drawing, and drew it again. It was important I got this perfect, and not let the pressure get to me.

I took a step back and looked at the symbols. “Fire, water, lightning, evocation, thaumaturgy, illusion…” I scribbled one more down for ‘necromancy’. “I think I completed another set. Do they really teach every unicorn a whole language of runes?”

“Yes,” Rarity responded. She didn’t look up from her sewing machine. I think sewing helped her focus and keep herself busy. “Though Minuette has added some of the less common symbols that aren’t taught in school.”

“So you know these all too, Harpy?” I asked Lyra.

“Harpy?” She responded, giving me a confused look.

“Been trying out some new nicknames, no good?”

“Pass.” She rolled her eyes. “And yeah. It’s a bit easier for unicorns to memorize them. The runes generally are the same shape as the channels of magic when we cast a spell. It’s sort of like a cheat sheet: if I think of lightning and charge my horn, I can see it in my mind’s eye.”

“Ah,” I sighed. “So unicorns are cheating. I’ve spent like a week learning an entire language, and you can just close your eyes and poof! Magic runes.”

Minuette came over and was examining the board. She’d taken a piece of red chalk and began making corrections in a few places, but I had gotten a lot better at memorizing the runes. “Pretty good, there’s still room for improvement though.”

“Do we have to?” I groaned as I watched her strike through another symbol completely, then redraw it.

“If you are able to locate a spell scroll, and aren’t fluent in these symbols, then you can’t read it. If you can’t read it, you can’t fix it.” Minuette reached the end of the chalkboard and fixed one of the last symbols.

I ground my teeth for a minute while I thought of what to say that wouldn’t sound overly aggressive. “Do you know how difficult it is to learn a language in a week? I can just bring you the scroll, and have you read it. This is a waste of time if I can’t actually cast magic.”

Minuette smiled and nodded. I had to hand it to her, she had a lot more patience than I did. “I understand your frustration, but trust me that this will be valuable. You could easily close your eyes, channel magic, and view these symbols in your mind if you wanted to.” She tapped on the symbol for lightning on the board. “Like lightning, with your pegasi magic you could channel the power, and shape it with this rune.”

I rolled my eyes and huffed. “Dash already showed me how to do that, and you know the best part? It just works. I find a cloud, touch it, and I think ‘hey cloud, shoot some lightning’ and bam! Lightning. At least, it works as long as I’m outdoors. I doubt I’ll be zapping anypony indoors.”

“Subconsciously, you’re channeling the magic. Pegasi excel at controlling certain elements related to weather; it’s so deeply intertwined with their magic and special talents that they don’t have to visualize it. However, at some level, this is what you're thinking without realizing it,” Minuette explained. She tapped on the lightning rune.

“Well do I pass or am I going to have to spend more loops learning these?” I looked at the board where about one out of five symbols had been corrected in red. “Ugh, I got Earth, Wind and Fire wrong?” I chuckled to myself, saying in a melodic voice “It must be the twenty-first night of September.”

“I think you should practice some more,” Rarity offered, ignoring my reference. “There is still time today to get them all right.”

“Damn it! I need to do better than this! I didn’t even get the lightning symbol correct.” I huffed and shook my head before continuing to rant. “I’m going to have to repeat this tomorrow, and we still haven’t even begun to figure out what the problem is. I’m in remedial magic class and it’s been over a month!” I complained, stomping back over to the board.

The low boil of frustration I’d been feeling throughout the week, trying to learn an entire language of magic, began to pour out. “This is like, Chinese times a thousand! I’m learning an entire set of the basic symbols and there’s probably hundreds more to go, plus all the combinations and variations of them! Oh, sure, let’s teach Dawn how to turn lead to gold or transform somepony into a breezie! It’s as easy as one, two, three, a, b, c!” I shouted.

“Dawn, please calm down,” Rarity said. Her voice was perfectly calm, her tone unwavering.

“Calm?” I let out a manic laugh. “I’ve got to save Equestria by myself, learn this dumbass language,” I slammed a hoof on the board. “Apparently I wasn’t even doing the weather right because this whole time I was supposed to be picturing this symbol for lightning that looks like a ‘Z’ got into a three-way with a ‘J’ and a ‘P’!”

“Dawn, please,” Lyra called.

“Listen to me,” Minuette said, her voice carrying a hint of command. “You need to take a deep breath. Hold for five seconds, and exhale.”

I turned to insult her, except she was no longer standing near me. Minuette had backed away, Rarity had stepped away from her sewing machine, and Lyra was looking at me with trepidation. Had I been yelling that loudly at them?

There was an itching in my wings, and I realized I could still see the symbol for lightning. I wasn’t looking at the board anymore, but I just knew the symbol was there. I could see it, almost up and behind my eyes, in my mind. It was crackling with little bolts of energy. I realized I could hear the crackling, and that my wings were stretched out.

“Dawn?” Minuette asked. “Take that deep breath.”

“What’s going on?” I responded. My voice had quieted down, but I was starting to panic. Small arcs of electricity tingled between my primary feathers. “How am I channeling weather magic indoors?”

“Are you picturing the symbol?” Minuette took a step closer to me, smiling to try and ease my mind.

“Yes.”

“Well, stop.”

“I would if I knew how!” I cried out, a small crack of thunder sounding as I flapped my wings. “I’m sorta on auto-pilot here!”

“We need to ground out his magic,” Minuette observed.

“How? He doesn’t have a horn.” Rarity asked.

“Should I try and shoot lightning at something?” I looked around the room for something inexpensive looking.

“Just relax and let it naturally wear off,” Minuette said.

I could feel my heart racing and the pressure of the magic was building. “I don’t think it’s working—”

“It’ll be okay, Dawn,” Lyra interrupted. She had snuck up and began to hug me. I instantly felt all the electricity flow out of me and into her.

“Lyra!” I yelled, feeling the jolt of energy leave me. I turned to look at her, but had to close my eyes. Her horn was glowing as brightly as the sunrise. After a brief flash, the magic had all dissipated. It had flowed out of me, with Lyra’s own horn and magic acting as the lightning rod. She continued to hold me for a moment until she was sure I had calmed down.

“Risky, but effective,” Minuette said. She walked over, and soon Rarity joined her. The three unicorns stood right in front of me now.

“Lyra, you could have gotten hurt! Why’d you do that?” I asked.

She shrugged. “You’re not the first pony to have a magic surge, though you’re the first pegasus I’ve seen have one.”

“Wait, so that was the kind of magic surge unicorn fillies have all the time?”

“Basically,” Rarity said. “Sweetie has had a few. They are fueled by strong emotion, which overrides your control of the magic. It can basically trap the magic with no way out until it finds the first spell it can and, bam. Magic surge.”

I nodded my head, making sense of the things I’d learned and the experience I’d just had. My wings were still tingling slightly, and I stretched them out to make sure they were okay. They weren’t even sore. They seemed to have a faint glow to them that faded slowly to nothing. “So, weather magic works through the wings. I drew magic in through them. I got emotional, losing control. I was picturing that rune for lightning, and then the magic had no way out except as lightning?”

“Yep!” Minuette said excitedly. “You’re a quick study. I was trying to explain to you that knowing these symbols, and being able to draw in magic through your wings, would allow you to cast certain spells. Heck, I could probably teach Applejack a simple cantrip or two with enough time.”

“Wait.” I kept my wings folded and pictured the lightning symbol. I spread my wings slowly, watching in my mind’s eye as sparks of energy flowed across it. I closed my wings before anything bad could happen, realizing I’d just had some sort of breakthrough. “This is awesome! So I can cast magic now?”

“Well, weather magic at least,” Minuette explained. “It is the one area pegasi are gifted in. Unfortunately, like you pointed out earlier, it just sort of ‘happens’, so most pegasi never give it a second thought or try to improve their control.”

I laughed out loud and fluttered my wings, feeling the energy flow into them as I imagined the symbol for ice. The air seemed to get a bit chillier. “This is awesome! I can cast spells. So you’re saying I’ll be able to teleport?”

“No, Dawn,” Lyra replied. “We’re saying when you’re ready, you won’t need to.”

I let out a loud ‘squee’ sound and hugged Lyra, and then let go. “You just gave me goosebumps! Best reference ever!”

I looked over to Rarity and Minuette, who were both staring at me blankly.

“Oh come on! The Matrix? I know I’ve told that story several times.” I looked at them again.

Rarity shrugged. “Sorry, Dawn, I don’t remember that campfire story.”

I groaned and looked at Lyra. “At least somepony other than Dash has good taste in stories. You just made my time loop!”

“Thanks, Dawn. I’m just glad you’ve calmed down. You had me worried,” Lyra said. Her hair was still standing up a bit from all the electricity that had recently flown through it.

“Yeah, I guess I was just getting a bit frustrated is all.” I smiled and gave her a quick hoof bump. “Thanks, Lyra, for being here for me. If I get frustrated again, I’ll try to say something sooner.”

I went back over to the chalkboard and glanced over the symbols again as I began erasing them. My heart was still racing from the adrenaline as I nearly turned into a pony tesla-coil. It had renewed my sense of purpose and shaken me out of the funk I’d started to go into.

“So, you’re ready to try again?” Minuette asked.

“Yep. I’ve got my second wind, and all it took was ten thousand volts,” I replied. “I’m going to ace it this time and we’re going to move on to the advanced stuff.”

I’m not sure how many weeks have gone by since that first session. Once I got past the initial hurdle, some of this magic theory stuff was actually pretty interesting. I still had to wake up every morning, fetch Minuette and Lyra, then head to Rarity’s to study.

Convincing them that they were in a time loop had become routine. For Lyra, I could pretty much say anything. Perhaps she had fun humoring me since I was the mythological human she’d been hoping her whole life to meet. For Minuette, just the fact I knew all sorts of stuff about time magic was persuasive enough. We’d only exchanged pleasantries before the loop, and nothing says ‘master of time and space’ like casually dropping one of Minuette’s own theorems on her.

As for Rarity, convincing her had gotten too easy. My record was fourteen words to convince her we were in a time loop. So most days, I chose to mess with her instead. I knew she’d never remember, and it was the only real form of entertainment I had. Sometimes I’d say every word that rhymes with Kumquat. Other times I’d mention a dress I couldn’t possibly have known she was working on. One time I nearly had her convinced Sweetie Belle was our child, displaced in the time stream, and that I’d come from the future to save Ponyville. Lyra couldn’t hold in her laughter, unfortunately, and ruined that loop.

Once I’d gathered my impromptu magic tutors and moral support, we’d make a quick lesson plan for the day. One of them would head to the castle to fetch whatever books were relevant for the day’s lesson. Occasionally I’d go by the castle just to say hi to Spike and grab the books myself. After that, I’d be quizzed by Minuette to assess my current knowledge level.

Today we were memorizing the most advanced magic rune combinations. Each combined shape could be visualized to help the unicorn channel magic in a specific way. At this point, combining three to four symbols at once was a piece of cake.

I took the chalk in my hoof and began drawing a modification to the symbol for time. “I know this is the symbol for time, but I’m telling you when combined with this symbol for alchemy, and this symbol for thaumaturgy, you can bypass the equivalent exchange of energy. Suddenly, instead of a one to one ratio, with the proper focus, you can get tenfold the power for the spell. We went over this all yesterday,” I explained.

Rarity and Lyra were seated at the table, snacking on some bon bon’s we’d brought to class today.

Minuette was next to the chalkboard, angrily drawing on the other half. “But it can’t work that way due to conservation of energy, the energy has to come from somewhere.”

“You said that yesterday too, but that’s the whole point of ritual magic. By inscribing a spell on a scroll, or drawing sigils on the floor, the caster has to spend less of their concentration on casting the spell. Combined with other unicorns to draw extra power, or a focus capable of drawing its own power, one unicorn can suddenly cast a spell that might take a few alicorns to pull off.”

“Are you following any of this?” Lyra asked Rarity.

“Not really,” Rarity whispered back.

Minuette opened her mouth to protest, before closing it. Then she nodded. “Alright, so for a spell of this magnitude, either it’s being cast by at least one alicorn, or it’s using some combination of a ritual and a focus. Now we just need to find and study them to figure it out.”

“Yeah, exactly. So I should probably start looking around town again to try and find it,” I said. “I’m the only one who can search the town and remember it.”

“We still haven’t covered the rest of the intermediate or advanced topics,” Minuette replied. “If you damage the components being used for this spell, it may eliminate our chance of reversing it.”

“Well how much longer do we need to finish bringing me up to speed then? You always say I’ve barely scratched the surface, but I feel like I’ve come incredibly far.”

“Celestia’s school took years. We could probably condense that down to—” Minuette paused and looked up at the ceiling, eyes flicking back and forth as she did the mental math. “Six months,” Minuette answered.

“I hope we can do it a little quicker than that. For months I’ve been waking up to the same damn song on the radio, and the only thing for breakfast in my kitchen is one flavor of oatmeal. My neighbor keeps going on about Mondays when it’s clearly Tuesday.” I began to draw a runic symbol on the chalkboard, twisting it into a jagged looking smiley face. “If I don’t learn how to fix this soon, just think what could happen. I might go crazy, cuckoo, insane! I’d give up, and declare Ponyville my timeless harem.”

Rarity chuckled loud enough to get my attention.

“Hey, quiet in the peanut gallery,” I frowned. “I could totally pick up every mare in town in a single day with enough loops to practice. You’d all be putty in my hooves!”

“I bet you could, tiger.” Lyra winked at me, smirking.

“So how about this,” Minuette interrupted. “Before you trap us all in a school colt’s fantasy for eternity, we’ll do one more lesson plan. We’ll study ritual magic, scroll making, multi-unicorn spells, and creating a focus to channel magic. That’ll take a few weeks, then you can try and hunt down said objects without any undue risk of accidentally destroying them. Plus, it’ll help you know what to look for.”

I nodded and sighed. “Alright, I guess a few more weeks won’t hurt.” I wish I could say the rest of that day studying was as productive as the others. However, I never quite got that harem fantasy out of my head.

Author's Note

Merry Christmas.

Next Time on DoH3: The Cutie Mark Crusaders have tried building catapults, ballistas, and trebuchets to get a cutie mark. Dawn discovers that they've really brought their A-game to the time loop...

Ch. 9 Time to Focus

Come on everypony smile, smile, smile
Fill my heart up with sunshine, sunshine

I groaned and reached over to turn off the alarm clock, then got out of bed to repeat a morning routine I could have done blind at this point.

I flew up as high over Ponyville as I could, until I felt the familiar tingling that meant I was getting near the borders of the spell trapping us in town. From this vantage point, the ponies looked like ants as they went about their lives. Everything from Applejack’s farm, to the Everfree, to Ghastly Gorge was laid out below me.

During the first week I was trapped inside the spell, I had flown around Ponyville to get a feel for how far the spell extended. From up here, near where the center should be, I realized I was almost directly above Twilight’s castle. It seemed like if a spell was spread out in a circle around town, then the most logical place it was cast would be in the middle of the circle.

I glided down to the castle and through Spike’s bedroom window, catching him reading a comic book and relaxing as he usually did in the loop. “Hey, Spike.”

He looked up and put the comic back into its plastic sleeve. “Hey, Dawn. What’s up?”

“I’ve been trying to figure out where the spell trapping us in a time loop was coming from. If the very center of the barrier keeping me from leaving town is centered on the castle, then it’s probably somewhere in here. Can you help me search for it?”

“Wait, what?” Spike asked.

“Power Ponies issue one eighty-seven,” I replied.

He blinked, glancing to his bookshelf where the comic sat. “Huh? That’s the one where they get trapped reliving the same day over and over.”

“Yep, I got bored and snuck some of them into Rarity’s ‘magic kindergarten’ to read when I was supposed to be studying. Also, I didn’t wash my hooves before reading them.”

Spike huffed and crossed his arms. “You’re lucky we’re in a time loop then. I guess we’ve tried a letter to the princesses?”

“Yeah.”

He got up and went over to his desk, putting a few items into a small backpack, and slinging it over his shoulder. “Alright, let's start searching the castle and see if we can find anything out of the ordinary.”

“Great, let’s start in the map room.” I walked out into the hallway turning right. The sooner I found something useful, the sooner I could put this whole mess behind me.

“Uh, it’s this way.” Spike closed his door and started walking to the left.

“Right.”

“No, left.”

I sighed. “Correct.”

I followed him down the hallway and we found the door to the map room was already open. Once we got inside, we headed over to the map and I climbed up onto it, standing in a mountain range near the Crystal Empire.

“Careful, Dawn.” Spike stepped up into his chair, looking out over the table.

“What, it’s a solid crystal table, not an IKEA display,” I quipped.

The map that spread out over Equestria looked normal, from what I could tell. When active, there would be cutie marks spreading out over it. I think I had even seen Twilight zoom it in once, but for now it seemed stationary. As I got closer to Ponyville and took a look, it seemed a bit fuzzy over the town. There was a pink dome, barely visible but definitely there. If the map knew what was wrong, it didn’t seem to be able to tell me.

The map flickered briefly before returning to normal, the image unchanged. “They could really have used a keyboard or something to control this thing.”

“You’re telling me,” Spike complained. “This whole castle is weird and nopony seems to care; it just grew out of a seed. Plus, I think it’s still growing rooms at random. I found a new bathroom in the tree that just has three shells to control the toilet. Is it too much to ask for them to grow something dragon accessible?”

“Huh, that doesn’t sound as bad as the four pedals on the train to flush. You know on Earth they just have one handle. I still haven’t figured out what the third and forth pedals did.”

I jumped down from the table and went over to sit in Twilight’s chair, throwing my hind legs up onto the map. “Hmm, are there any magical artifacts or items Twilight uses to focus magic that you know of?”

Spike walked over and tried to push my hooves off the table, “Come on, Twilight doesn’t like that.”

“She’ll never know,” I complained, but took them down.

“She’s still setting things up, we should probably check the castle top to bottom to be thorough,” Spike said.

“Just how big is this place that she’s still trying to unpack? Then again, I had a stack of boxes from the last time I moved into my old apartment. Guess I’ll never get around to them now.” I got out of the chair. “We’d better be thorough, there’s no telling what’s hiding about in your magical tree fort.”

We walked down the hallway to the last room we hadn’t checked in the castle. It was just past Twilight’s bedroom and the air tingled from the amount of spells that had been placed to ensure her laboratory didn’t do anything disagreeable, like explode when she created Frankenstein’s monster or something.

“You know, Spike, I’m surprised there aren’t more ponies visiting the castle since it’s open to the public.” I grinned. “All we found were a few library patrons, and a filly and colt making out in a broom closet.”

“We get a lot more visitors when Twilight is around, suitors too. Though after how she discouraged the last noble who visited from Canterlot, we get a lot fewer of those,” Spike said.

“Let me guess, she turned him into a frog, or maybe an owl, fed them some bugs, and forgot to change them back a few weeks later and send them home?”

He laughed at the idea. “I can neither confirm nor deny that Owlowiscious is Prince Blueblood.”

“I knew it; every witch needs a familiar.” I walked to the side of the door to Twilight’s lab and gestured for Spike to open it. “If there’s enough magic for me to feel it, I don’t want to find out what happens if an unauthorized pony tries to enter.”

Spike walked up and pushed the door open; it was unlocked. “The lock will open for any of her close friends. Those wards are mostly to prevent somepony from entering and getting hurt. Plus she doesn’t want to break her new castle. Twilight learned her lesson when she built a miniature particle accelerator to win an argument with Moondancer as a filly.”

“Oh? How’d that turn out?”

“There used to be two mountains in the Canterlot mountain range, and our dining room became a patio.” Spike chuckled as he recalled the memory.

“You’re pulling my leg. Right?”

“Nah, she wanted to prove something about quarks I think. I was too young to talk any sense into her.”

I followed Spike into the lab, pushing a hoof to a small crystal on the wall. It triggered the lights for the room, and pulled back the curtains from the windows. “Wow, a particle accelerator as a filly? I think it took humans decades and hundreds of scientists to make something like that, and we didn’t even create anything cool like a miniature black hole.”

The room was filled with bright metal machinery, more advanced than most of the technology I’d seen ponies using. Some of the panels looked like something out of a cheap sci-fi movie set. Others I recognized due to their similarity to medical equipment: devices to read brainwaves, heart rate, and I assume magic in a pony.

It was a similar setup to this that Twilight had once used to try and forcefully separate me from Dash, when we were sharing a body. Luckily Dash had been adamantly against that, or who knows what would have happened.

“You okay Dawn?” Spike asked. “You’re grimacing.”

“Yeah, just remembering how unfun it is to be a lab rat,” I answered. “You’re her assistant; is there anything in here used to channel or focus energy, like, Elements of Harmony level magic?”

“Not really,” Spike said. He walked over to one of the machines that had an old school cathode ray-tube monitor built in, and pressed a button. The screen flicked to life with a small display that resembled a radar, circling around. “Twilight uses this to monitor large fluctuations in magic.”

I walked over to the display. As the line swept around, I could make out a large set of rivers, or perhaps veins, that seemed to flow across the screen. They were brightly lit, indicating a large magical charge, and I recognized they must be the ley lines that ran through town. In the middle of the circle was a bright dot, shaped vaguely like the castle.

“Is this a normal reading?” I asked.

“Yeah, we’re here.” Spike tapped the center. “The castle itself radiates magic, or so Twilight says, and feeds into the ley lines. These faint flickers to the side are unicorns in town casting spells. Before Twilight had the map, she could use this to try and predict apocalypses.”

“How’d that work out for her?”

“Uh, she was like oh for seven on predicting world ending apocalypses, so she stopped using it.”

There was a large flare on the monitor, and I tapped it with a hoof. “What’s over there?”

“Oh, that’s the Everfree. You think that’s where the spell’s coming from?” Spike asked.

I sighed. “No, probably just Sweetie Belle’s railgun. Avoid the East Wing of the castle in the afternoon, they’ll be test firing soon. We’ve been through the whole castle and I don’t see anything that screams secret time spell, so I think I’ll head into town for the rest of the day.”

“Oh, okay. Well if I can be of any more help, let me know. I’m going to go get some gems to snack on and finish reading my comics.”

“Thanks for the help, Spike.” We exited the lab, not bothering to close the door, and headed our separate ways.

As I was heading back into town down one of the many dirt paths, Pinkie Pie jumped out of a bush and landed next to me. At this point it took her a lot more than that to surprise me. “Hey, Pinkie.”

She smiled. “Hey Dawn! You must be trying to solve the time loop, huh?”

“What?” I asked. “How could you know you’re in a loop? I’m the only one who remembers.”

“Well I had a Pinkie sense, itchy fetlock and twitchy ears. Then I realized that means somepony is stuck in a time loop. I said to myself, ‘Pinkie, if anypony was going to get stuck in a time loop and go on an amazingly heroic journey of self-discovery, who would it be?’”

“Daring Do?”

“No, you silly!” Pinkie replied.

I started to feel a headache coming on, and rubbed a hoof against my temple. “So you don’t remember the loops, but you can tell you’re in one, and apparently that allows you to break your daily pattern. Here I thought the magic lessons were hard enough to figure out.”

We were nearing Bon Bon’s candy shop, and I could smell something sweet and cinnamon in the air. Pinkie must have smelled it too, and pulled a cupcake out of her mane. “Hungry? Try my strawberry cilantro cinnamon cupcakes.”

Before I could decline, she’d stuck it into my mouth. As I bit into it, the clashing flavors hit my tongue all at once. She’d gone a bit heavy on the cinnamon too, and I could feel it coating my mouth. I coughed and spit out the cupcake. “Uh, that was a… bold flavor profile…” Using one of my hooves I wiped the remaining cupcake from my tongue, replacing it with the dirt caked onto my hooves.

“Hmm you too? I figured I should try some new recipes since nopony will remember, I guess I can cross strawberry cilantro cinnamon cupcakes off my list.” Pinkie sighed, crossing it off a scroll she’d produced from somewhere, before putting it back in her mane.

“Won’t you forget you tried that horrible flavor tomorrow?” I asked.

“No, silly, that’s why I wrote it down!”

“But…” I sighed. “Nevermind. I think I’m gonna stop in and see what Bon Bon’s baking, plus I’ve never found out what Lyra’s up to when I don’t interrupt her to go study.”

Pinkie continued to walk down the road as I stopped at the front of the store. “Oki doki loki artichoki!”

The store was empty as I walked in, and the bell over the door seemed to have gotten stuck and didn’t ring as I entered. I walked over to the counter and saw that it was empty. Bon Bon must be in the kitchen. I headed over to call out to her, when I heard some hushed arguing. My ears tilted to better hear it, but a moment later the argument started to get louder as it escalated.

“You know I don’t want foals, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want you,” Lyra stated.

“I want to settle down with you, but you’re still the party girl I met when you moved to Ponyville,” Bon Bon replied.

I realized this conversation wasn’t for me, and started to back away from the kitchen.

“What I do with other ponies doesn’t change how I feel about you. Remember back when you’d come along too, we had fun together.”

“We can’t keep swinging forever. Cloud Kicker, Dawn, Dash, Cheerilee, Vinyl. Don’t you want to settle down with just me?” Bon Bon asked.

That was when I backed right up into the counter, knocking off a sheet of candies that had been drying near the register. There was a loud crash, and I almost turned to bolt out the door when a head popped out of the kitchen.

“Speak of the devil,” Bon Bon quipped.

“Oh, hi! I was just looking at the,” I pointed to the closest thing to me. “Coconut supreme chocolates!”

She walked out behind the counter and smiled. “Oh, how many would you like?”

“A dozen!” I answered far too quickly. “Yep, came in for a dozen, uh make it two dozen! Because you’re the best, Bon Bon.”

After a minute she’d finished boxing some up and setting them on the counter. I wasn’t a fan of coconut. If only I had pointed at some truffles, bordeaux, or even peanut brittle.

“That’ll be eight bits,” Bon Bon said.

I reached back for my saddlebag where I kept my money, before realizing I hadn’t brought it with me today. “Oh, uh, I must have forgotten it at home. Well this is embarrassing, I guess I’ll just head out then.” I started inching back towards the door in reverse. “I guess I’m just out of it today.”

Before I could make my escape, Lyra stuck her head out of the kitchen. “Oh, I’ll cover his order.”

“Crap. I mean, thanks!” I chuckled nervously. “What a surprise, because I didn’t see you back there.” Bon Bon was glaring at me so I quickly ran over to the counter and grabbed the sweets. I grabbed one and tossed it in my mouth, thinking I’d be polite, and bit into it. Immediately I could feel the dry coconut flakes wedging themselves between my teeth and under my tongue. Despite the regret and my hatred of coconuts, I couldn’t exactly spit them out in front of Bon Bon. Best case, the embarrassment would kill me and reset the loop.Worst case, I’d get stuck in the middle of their fight.

“Yum!” I smiled weakly. “Well I’m super duper grateful, so I’ll just take these and go. You two take care!”

Once I was finally outside I was able to exhale and unclench my muscles. I hadn’t meant to walk into an argument, let alone one about how Lyra’s promiscuous lifestyle was making her apparent marefriend jealous. Ponies may have had a more open view on casual sex, but it would seem jealousy was universal. Perhaps I could use some of the time loops to delve into their relationship and help them fix it. I did seem to be in the perfect spot to help everypony in town, though I had already found at least a half dozen crises to fix. If I did everything perfectly, I might be able to fix them all in one day, if I could figure out which day would be the last day of the loop.

After heading a few blocks away, I found Blossomforth walking down the street and surrendered my coconut candies to her. Even though I didn’t like them, I’m sure other ponies did, or they wouldn’t be so popular.

At this point there wasn’t much to do until tomorrow, when I could report my findings and study some more magic. I wondered what to do with my free time, and my mind immediately pictured Dash. I scowled, knowing that once my mind went down that path I’d be unable to avoid dwelling on how much I missed her. I couldn’t solve this problem and save everypony if I spent all my time feeling sad and lonely. There was one pony in town I could open up to and help take my mind off of Dash.

I decided to head off towards Fluttershy’s cottage to get a massage and relax. Once I took to the air it only took a few minutes to fly over and land at her cottage, then knock on the door.

A moment later she opened the door and smiled. “Dawn, great to see you. What brings you by?”

I brought a wing up in a practiced motion, making it look like a muscle had sprained and I couldn’t extend it. “I, uh, pulled a muscle and was hoping you could give me a massage.”

She nodded and opened the door. “Oh, anything for you, Dawn.”

I followed her in and went over to the couch, sitting down in just the right spot without being prompted. I must have been grinning because a minute later I noticed Angel glaring at me. He was thumping a foot on the coffee table, arms crossed. Apparently my injured wing act still needed a little work.

Fluttershy began rubbing my back with her hooves, and I stuck my tongue out at Angel. He jumped off the table, and I hoped it wasn’t to cause me any trouble. Before I could melt too far into the cushions of the couch, Fluttershy spoke up. “Is that too soft? Normally it’d be really tender but you don’t seem to react at all.”

“Ow.” I let out a gasp, only realizing afterwards that she didn’t have either hoof on my back when I faked a gasp of pain.

“Is something bothering you Dawn?” Fluttershy asked. “Dash used to fake a wing injury when she wanted to talk about her feelings but didn’t want to admit it, and here you are doing the same.”

I sighed and nodded. “I’ll talk, if you don’t mind continuing.” I waited until she started to rub my back again. I hadn’t been giving it much thought, but at the mention of Dash’s name, and now that I felt like I was in a safe place, I began to open up. “I really miss Dash.”

“That is tough, but at least she’ll be back tomorrow,” Fluttershy observed.

“No, she won’t,” I complained. “I’m stuck in a time loop, and I’m doing my best not to dwell on it, but it’s been at least six months.”

“Oh, dear.” She leaned over to nuzzle my neck. “I’m sure you’re working very hard to fix it. Have you tried sending Celestia a letter?”

“Yeah, I’ve tried it all, and I’ve been working with Rarity to study magic. I like to sneak over here every so often after studying to spend time with you, because it helps me forget about how much I’m missing Dash.”

Two hooves pushed down more firmly into the thicker muscles in my shoulders, eliciting a deep wave of relief. As the tension faded, I continued talking to Fluttershy. “I guess not facing it is easier than admitting how hard it’s been to not see her for so many months, to never know if I’ll see her again. All the things I could have said before she left, or the things I’ll never get to say.”

I turned my head to look back at Fluttershy. “I don’t ever want to be away from her again. I have great friends in Ponyville, but Dash is so much more than that.”

She nodded. “I understand, Dawn. I’m sure Dash feels the same way.”

“I’ve got to get back to studying tomorrow, and report the results of searching for the source of the spell. I didn’t find anything though. What if I can’t fix this, and spend the rest of my life stuck on this day?”

“That won’t happen,” Fluttershy stated as a matter of fact. “You were brave enough to sacrifice yourself to save Equestria, with no guarantee you’d survive. Then you did, and you pushed through the hardship of life as a pony. You found your special somepony, Dawn, and don’t you dare ever let go of her.”

I felt her lift one of her hooves for a minute. Had I looked back, I’d have seen that she was crying and wiping off the tears. The hoof returned a moment later and the massage continued.

“I’m really looking forward to things settling down, I think I’ve had enough adventures for a lifetime. Wouldn’t it be nice to just come home after work and hang out, or chat about our future together?” I smiled as I pictured Dash in a kitchen apron cooking dinner; that was about as likely Celestia sprouting horns and conquering Equestria.

“You’ve earned a chance to settle down after all the heroics, and I’m sure Dash feels the same way. You just have to ask her, she’s probably been waiting since she met you.”

“I really need to think of what I’m going to say to her when this ends and I see her again. I mean, with all this free time it’ll have to be something amazing that totally sweeps her off her hooves, right?”

“I’m sure she’ll appreciate anything you say.” Fluttershy finished rubbing my back and began to give me a scalp massage.

I yawned, stretching out my limbs and realizing how tight the muscles had gotten. All my stress was gone now. “Thanks, Fluttershy. You’re an amazing friend.” Even if she didn’t remember it, her cottage had become the best place I could go when I needed to get away and relax.

“Anything for you, Dawn.”

I had one last thought nagging at me, that I’d been afraid to ask. “Do you really think I’m ready to do the whole family thing? Dash’s kid is on the way, and I never really saw myself with a family.”

Fluttershy gave me a hug. “Dawn, any mare would be lucky to have you. I’m sure you’ll make an excellent father for her kid too.”

My eyelids felt heavy as I laid on the couch. A blanket settled down over my back as I waited to fall asleep. My worries vanished as I waited for the sun to set on another loop.

I felt a lot better after visiting Fluttershy and admitting to somepony how badly I’d been missing Dash. After a few more days studying advanced magical formulae, however, my mood had started to become melancholic again.

Inside Rarity’s boutique, Minuette was explaining some of her theories on the chalkboard, while Rarity was working on some sewing. At this point, the fashionista didn’t have much more to add beyond ensuring I stayed focused. Lyra sat beside me at the table, none the wiser that I’d walked in on her and Bon Bon in a previous loop. She seemed willing to be here just to support my efforts to fix the time loop at this point.

“Given how many loops have been spent searching, I think it’s safe to say the time loop is being caused by a pony,” Minuette said. “It’s the only way they could avoid being discovered.”

“I agree,” I replied. “We even split up yesterday and none of you noticed anything. I’m pretty sure even I would have noticed an arcane matrix powerful enough to affect the whole town.”

“So, I think it’s time we start checking every single pony in town.”

I groaned and fell forward, letting my head hit the desk and going limp. “That’s going to be hundreds of ponies, at least, and that’s if we only check unicorns.”

I felt a hoof on my back, and rolled my head on the table to look over at Lyra. “It’s okay, Dawn. So we’ll need a few more months. We’ll figure it out.”

Minuette set down the chalk and walked over to put a hoof on my other shoulder. “Why don’t I go check the library for any books that might be useful. You look like you’re pushing yourself too hard and could use a break.” I heard the door close behind her a moment later.

“I don’t want to keep doing this, Lyra. It sucks,” I whined. “It’s seven days a week, I didn’t even cram this hard for my finals.”

She looked around to see if Rarity was still out of the room, then smirked. “So, why don’t you take a little vacation?”

“What do you mean? Like con Fluttershy into more massages?”

“No, I mean, think about it. You know in advance that no matter what, everything is going to go back to the way it was every day. You could do absolutely anything you wanted, for as long as you want, without having to worry about consequences.”

I sat up slowly as a grin spread from ear to ear, and grabbed Lyra’s shoulders.

“D-Dawn?”

I pulled her forward and kissed her, with tongue, before she finally recovered enough to push me off with her magic. “Marry me.”

“What?” Lyra blushed and backed up.

“It’s metaphorical!” I shouted and cackled. I leapt out of the chair, filled with renewed energy. “Oh, Lyra, you’re without a doubt my new favorite pony.”

Lyra had inched her way over to the door by now and had it halfway open in her magic. “Sweet Celestia, what have I unleashed on Equestria?”

I was still grinning like a mad stallion as I went across the room and began opening drawers and fishing around in them. Finally I found a small key, and began to walk back towards the door to Rarity’s basement. “First order of business, I’m finally going to find out what’s in that damn basement.”

Lyra shook her head. “I want no part of this. When I said to screw around I meant, like, eat an entire cake in one sitting!”

“You’ve opened Pandora’s box now, Lyra. I’m ready to kick ass and chew bubble gum, and I’m all outta gum.”

I heard the door close as a shocked Lyra probably ran for her panic room. Given how often Ponyville was nearly destroyed by powerful villains, it was a given that most ponies would have one.

The door to the basement clicked open, and I slipped through quietly and let it close behind me. The basement was dark, and I wasn’t sure where the light switch was, so I had to take the stairs slowly. I ran one hoof along the wall the whole way down, looking for the lights. There could be anything down here. Rolls of fabric, a kill room, a portal to a dimension populated by pony-human hybrids, or even another smaller basement.

The crystal in the wall met my hoof, and the room lit up instantly. There were plush red padded panels on the wall, trimmed with ebony wood. The floor looked like polished marble, except where small crimson rugs had been set up under the furniture. There were thick curtains that could be pulled to further divide the room and offer some privacy.

Leaning against the near wall was a giant X-shaped cross, with several metal bolts and loops dangling from it. To its left, a large chalkboard that was titled “Rarity’s Rules”. The first rule mentioned that the safeword was Kumquat. The second rule stated that no matter how much you begged to be let free, you would not be freed, unless you used the safeword. The rest of the rules continued onward in a similarly boring fashion.

“Jackpot!” I shouted. “I knew Rarity had a secret sex dungeon! It’s always the prim and proper ones. Or the quiet ones. Or the librarians. Or maybe it’s just everypony?”

I hurried over towards a wall from which dozens of whips and toys were hanging, then opened a large wooden steamer trunk. Even the chest was ornately decorated, the entire room felt vibrant and alive with all the shades of red and black.

Inside were all sorts of leather and rubber things I couldn’t begin to identify. I was so engrossed in exploring the wonderland of adult content, that I didn’t notice the door open and close. The hooves echoed slightly as they came down the steps, and onto the floor of the basement.

There was a loud crack, and I dropped the large set of straps I’d been trying to figure out, leaping several feet into the air in shock. I turned around to find Rarity standing there, levitating a whip and glaring daggers at me.

“Somepony needs to be taught a lesson in respecting boundaries, and I think—”

“Kumquat!” I shouted, backing against the wall in surprise. Rarity was wearing a black outfit and her horn seemed to glow slightly more green than usual. Her voice carried a hint of command in it.

“Now, Dawn, if you really want to safeword and leave, go right ahead… but I think you know you deserve to be punished for violating my privacy.” Rarity took a few steps forward as I slinked down the wall until I was sitting. “And, honestly, with how often you and Dash have been teasing me, I’ve gotten quite the impression that you both wanted to come down here and were afraid to ask. So, what will it be?”

The clock on the wall hadn’t even hit noon yet, meaning sunset was at least six hours away. I grinned weakly and decided that somehow I’d get even with Lyra. She must have known exactly what awaited me down here, and had the good sense to run.

Author's Note

Next Time on DoH3: Starlight's frustration continues to grow as she is running out of ideas to fix the spell, and the loops have become boring and predictable. Eager for some excitement, she decides to investigate that pesky loud noise that happens every afternoon in the castle's east wing...

Ch. 10 Interlude II

Starlight was about to burn the entire castle library down, for all the good it had done her. She had been working every single angle she could think of for months, had scoured every single page to try and find what she had missed. Starlight even reviewed the fundamentals, as boring and useless to her as they were, in an attempt to be thorough. Every single spell she had combined had been fully researched, except for the few too restricted for Twilight to have kept in her library.

There was only one room left in the castle she couldn’t get into due to the heavy warding. Starlight had only recently discovered a room under a concealment spell, and had been slowly picking the protective spells apart to get herself into the room. Today she carried up a few books on defensive magics and was certain she’d be able to unlock it to find out what secrets were hidden inside. If there was a book about any of the restricted spells she had used, especially the time based ones, it would be in this last heavily warded room.

Instead of another day spent learning to take apart the wards faster, she found the door ajar and the room open. It seemed too good to be true, and Starlight cast a spell to try and detect anything unusual going on. She heard two ponies chatting as they walked away, but nothing else out of the ordinary. Locked vaults didn’t just unlock themselves, so she took a moment to investigate the noise.

She teleported down the hallway to see who was there. It was the purple dragon, whose name she learned was Spike, and the blue pegasus. He seemed to be the babysitter. Both the stallion and the dragon seemed to keep to themselves. This suited her fine. The fewer ponies she had to avoid, the more time she had to study. It was easy enough to avoid the few ponies that came to check books out of the library every day, as well as the filly and colt making out in the broom closet. She chuckled to herself, realizing even if somepony did see her and raise the alarm, they’d forget the next day. Still, anypony who couldn’t help her fix this wasn’t worth giving the time of day.

Starlight shrugged and headed back towards the door, not caring how or why it had been left open anymore. All that mattered was fixing the broken spell, the one that would potentially trap her here for eternity. She ground her teeth as a familiar red tinted her vision. Being stuck here, unable to age, unable to truly progress her life or knowledge in any meaningful way for all eternity, would be a fate worse than death.

Inside the room was a wide assortment of rather useless magical objects. The first she noticed was a mirror, charged with magic, but inert. A quick scan revealed it was very old, and probably useless for anything more than checking her reflection. Starlight caught sight of her horn in the mirror, glowing faintly red as her anger sought an outlet. She decided to take out a little of her frustration on the mirror. “It’s not like my luck can get any worse.”

She took one of the books out of her saddlebag and slammed it into the mirror repeatedly until cracks spread across it. Small chips of glass fell to the floor, and the layer of silvery magic beneath began to bleed out into the air. After a few more hits, the unweaving enchantments on the mirror finished discharging.

Looking around the room revealed several expensive consoles that used technology powered by magic. A quick survey revealed to Starlight that they were mostly for medical or biological experiments, and again useless for fixing this time loop. A grin spread across her face and Starlight decided to continue her therapy session. She picked the book back up and began slamming it into the controls. Smoke started to pour out of them. The book fell apart from the abuse, the damaged spine releasing the pages as they scattered to the floor. Starlight began to feel less angry the more she destroyed Twilight’s laboratory.

She continued digging around the room, looking for a private journal, a notebook, anything that might have some useful new information. It took some time, but eventually she found what she was looking for. Behind a small illusory spell sat a collection of Twilight’s private research notes. Starlight would have to study these quickly before the loop reset, and break in again tomorrow if necessary.

In nearly two hundred days, she’d made nearly two hundred attempts to release the spell and end the time loop. For the first time in months, she had found new information that could be of use to her. She left the tattered remains of Starswirl’s book on time magic on the floor, having bashed it apart destroying the lab.

All that mattered to her now were these notes. She hoped to herself that they would contain the answers she needed. Starlight wasn’t sure how many more failures she could take before she did something drastic.

Starlight began this loop the same way she always did: running directly into a door that was a pull, not a push. Of all the inconveniences and humiliations of being trapped in a day on repeat, running into this door was the worst. It was unavoidable and too sudden for her to brace herself, or prepare for it. Just as she began to drift to sleep the door would appear, smashing into her muzzle. Even when she didn’t go to sleep, like last night while reading Twilight’s notes, it took her by surprise.

It had taken several days to go through all the notes. Twilight wrote in excessive detail about anything she studied, as if fearing to miss the tiniest detail. Starlight was upset when she first realized she couldn’t study the entirety of the books in one evening. Fortunately, now that she had been inside the laboratory once and seen the wards from the inside, it was much easier to break back in.

One of the books she had stayed up studying was an unfinished journal on friendship. She was tempted to skim it, but decided there may be some valuable nugget of information in it. It turned out that there was no hidden wisdom in it to help in her quest. It was filled with a recounting of various friendship problems, metaphors, and parables. Starlight was particularly miffed by how blatantly obvious the solution to most of the problems was, such as requesting extra tickets to the Gala. Lighting the book on fire afterward was a small consolation for having to sift through so many tales of morality.

Another book was a set of very detailed notes bound into a protective hardcover. It detailed all the steps to create a living pony and transfer a consciousness into it. While fascinating, and potentially useful to her in the future, it was useless to fix a time spell. Starlight doubted even an alicorn could pull off such a feat as creating life from inanimate components. However, she had to begrudgingly admit to herself Twilight had invented alchemical theorems far beyond any Starlight had ever heard of.

The most helpful journal was one detailing how Twilight had visited herself from the future. Unfortunately, she had used a spell Starlight already knew, so it offered little new info. It was, at the very least, amusing to imagine Twilight freaking herself out and creating a paradox. If even Twilight couldn’t master time travel, perhaps Starlight wasn’t as unskilled as these months of torment had led her to believe. There were a few theorems in the book as well, but not enough to figure out the mistake Starlight had made in the spell scroll she had crafted.

The map table seemed to remain undamaged, and was continuing to channel energy into the spell. Starlight was certain the problem must have been the spell itself. She was glad she had used a scroll to cast it. This allowed her to easily try new variations without forgetting the original components used in the spell. Every day she made at least one alteration to the scroll, and the scroll reset to the original state the next day. Every day the alterations failed.

So she spent another day studying some of Twilight’s notes, and trying to fix the scroll by trial and error. With the leyline’s power and the map table focusing the spell, it should have gone without a hitch. Starlight had determined the fault had to lie in the intricately designed patterns and runes of the scroll.

There was a loud boom in the afternoon that interrupted her reading. The mysterious object that seemed to hit and shake the castle slightly each day had just repeated. Normally Starlight was willing to ignore this nonsense as it was literally not her problem, but the explosion sounded different today. It was more of a brief thudding sound. Normally it had a sound more like a dozen windows shattering. The fact something in the time loop happened differently, which shouldn’t be possible, was enough to convince Starlight to figure out once and for all what the heck had been hitting the castle for months.

She might also find and incinerate whatever pony kept interrupting her study sessions with these shenanigans. Perhaps the rumors she’d heard of Ponyville being a hotbed for chaos were warranted.

It didn’t take her long to find her way from the map room to the east wing of the castle where the projectile had hit. There was a large hole in the exterior castle wall that was almost pony-shaped. Starlight looked out the gap towards the Everfree, noticing a few tiny ponies in the distance. There was some smoke rising from the forest too; at least now she had a vague idea what was going on.

Starlight turned her attention back to the pony-shaped gap in the crystal wall, and looked across the hallway. There was another hole, and an indent against the wall inside the room. Starlight noticed a pair of goggles laying on the floor, and went to peek her head through the wall.

The color drained from her face, leaving her as white as Rarity. She backed up and fought the urge to vomit.

Author's Note

Next Time on DoH3: Dawn's long awaited Day Off. What would you do if your actions had no consequences, and an entire town full of ponies who'd never remember? Join us next week for a special episode of...

Dash of Humanity 3: No Consequences. :trollestia:

Ch. 11 Dawn Seeker's Day Off

I walked across my bedroom, stepping over the unplugged alarm clock, in my striped red bathrobe. Turning to face nopony in particular, I began to talk out loud. “Incredible. This time loop is one of the worst things to happen to me since I came to Equestria, and I never considered I could do anything I wanted consequence free. How could I possibly go back to studying magic after a revelation like this? I had a minor setback after Rarity caught me in her basement, and I still feel the whip marks. I like to think I learned a valuable lesson in friendship yesterday, one that I can shock Celestia with after all is said and done.”

The curtains to my bedroom window were pulled open as I tugged down on the rope attached to them. I looked out over Ponyville, a town now full of possibility. “Time loops move pretty fast,” I said, staring out the window. “If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. I am supposed to be studying theoretical physics of the fourth dimension as it applies to the metamagic of transmutation today, but really, what’s the point?” I turned from the window and headed toward the bathroom, continuing my monologue. “I’m not a unicorn, I don’t plan on being a unicorn, so who gives a crap about electron orbits and their effect on spell casting?”

I removed the robe and got into my shower, letting the hot water flow down over my back. “It’s been a hard day’s night,” I sang, “and I’ve been working like—well let's just leave it at that. It’s not like I’m still bitter about the DMCA or anything.” Using a soapy loofa on a stick, I scrubbed under my wings. “I don’t condone any acronyms really. Anything that needs an acronym is just not good in my opinion. A person shouldn’t believe in them, they should believe in themselves.”

I lathered some shampoo into my mane, as I continued to talk to myself and anypony who might be listening. “To quote John Lennon’s song: I don’t believe in magic, I just believe in me. Had to paraphrase a bit there, it was a long list of things he didn’t believe in. After all, he was the walrus, and I’m a pegasus, and the fact that any of this makes sense as I talk to myself in a shower should be a huge red flag if a psychiatrist is listening.”

Once the shower was finished I got out and dried off, getting back into my bathrobe and heading out onto my second story balcony. I looked up the street to where Roseluck was watering her flowers and smirked. “Today is gonna be my day.”

I dropped the robe and flew up into the air, holding a leather strap in my right front hoof. The wind was drying my damp hair and making it curl and stick out as if it hadn’t even been brushed this morning. By the time I got to Rose my mane looked like a porcupine and a lint trap had a baby and left it on tumble dry for an hour.

She gasped and said to me, “Looks like somepony’s got a case of the—”

Rose was cut off as I shoved a gag into her open mouth, and fastened it around her head. There was a click as a small lock was set in place. “I guess I’ll have to thank Rarity for that gag gift she got for my birthday after all.”

Rose mumbled something, before promptly fainting and twitching a leg in the regular dramatic way of the flower trio.

“Wow, what a lightweight. That was just a gag, yesterday I got the whole nine yards.”

The small alarm clock fell to the ground in the middle of central park in Ponyville. Pinkie Pie and I slowly walked up towards it, both wearing a dress shirt and tie. She hadn’t even asked me for an explanation. Maybe I’d been wrong about her randomness; it was amazingly useful after all. She even had a record of the Geto Boys, Celestia knows how.

As the music blasted from the small record player, I could see several mares rushing their fillies and colts out of the park. I circled around the alarm clock that had been tormenting me for nearly half a year every morning. Balanced across my back and wings was the baseball bat from Pinkie’s party planning basement that I thought I’d have no use for.

The record player hit the chorus of the song. “Die mother-buckers die mother-buckers still!”

I brought the baseball bat down on the radio alarm clock, causing the casing to explode and reveal the small circuit boards inside. A couple more swings and the small spool of analog numbers used to show the time had scattered into dozens of little cards laying across the grass.

Pinkie walked up, singing along to the song. “Walk around town with a frown on my face!” She kicked the alarm over, then slammed a hoof down on it hard enough to shatter the plastic.

It still wasn’t enough, and I began swinging the bat again at one of the small transistors that was still intact. I must have hit it a dozen more times until it finally shot out a small spark and split open. Pinkie came up behind me and started pulling me back from the alarm clock, going so far as to take the bat away from me.

The bat fell to the ground and I almost felt catharsis at having taken my anger out on the clock.

Almost.

Before she could stop me I rushed back over to the alarm clock and began jumping up and down on it, slamming my hoof into it hard enough to split the keratin and cause a trickle of blood from the frog. This time she had to grab my tail in her mouth, dragging me away from the remains of the cursed device. I managed to grab the power cord and tried to bite it in half in my mouth as I was dragged away.

Across Equestria in every dictionary that existed, beneath the word ‘obliterated’, a picture of a radio alarm clock appeared. It would puzzle scholars for the remainder of the day, until the next time loop reset the dictionaries to normal.

Annihilating an alarm clock can work up quite the appetite, so after Pinkie and I got changed we went back down to the kitchen to view the Marzipan Mascarpone Meringue Madness. It had four layers and was larger than most wedding cakes I’d ever seen. It was coated top to bottom in enough sugar to give an entire football stadium diabetes.

“Oh, Dawn, that cake is really delicious. I remember eating an entire one in a single bite once!” Pinkie stated.

“Can I learn this power?” I asked Pinkie.

She grinned. “Not from an alicorn.”

“I’ll take it.” I slammed down a bag full of bits on the counter in front of Mrs. Cake, and pointed at the cake.

“Oh, sure Dawn. Do you want us to deliver it to your home?” she asked.

“Nope, I’ll need you to wheel it out here and get me a fork and lots of water,” I explained.

By the time she’d wheeled it out, I’d gathered a small audience. Maybe Pinkie had snuck out to gather them up. I recognized Thunderlane, Big Mac, Berry Punch, Lyra, Octavia, Flitter, and a few others.

I flew up to hover above the cake and carved out my first bite with the fork. As I began to chew the cake, I could feel the sugar making its way through the enamel of my teeth, causing the roots to ache. It was so sweet, so sugary, and I could already feel my pancreas shriveling up in fear. By the time I’d swallowed the first bite, I’d made up my mind.

“This cake is better than sex.”

Mrs. Cake blushed, rushing off to make sure her kids weren’t close enough to have heard this. I saw a couple ponies in the crowd nodding in agreement. As I ate a few more bites, I noticed that bits were changing hooves among the crowd. It looked like they were taking bets on whether or not I’d finish it.

“Hey, if you’re gonna take bets, I just want to say one thing. I’m going to eat this whole bucking cake, or die trying.” I smiled and took a big bite directly out of the cake, getting frosting all over my muzzle. This seemed to encourage Thunderlane, who placed a sizable bet right afterwards.

The first layer didn’t last long, it was the smallest and at the top. About halfway through the second layer, I had to stop and drink some water. I was starting to sweat, and my wings were getting sore from hovering with all the extra weight I was consuming.

I landed on the ground to give them a rest, as I polished off the second half of the second lair. My stomach was starting to cramp up a bit as I dug into the third layer of the cake. Mixed in with the sweat and tears was a growing layer of frosting. My forelegs, head, and the fluffier bits of my chest were coated in yellow frosting as I carelessly dug in.

By now the Cake’s shop was standing room only. There must have been fifty or sixty ponies watching, with more outside peering through windows. Pinkie was keeping my water glass full, and facilitating the bets.

“Five to one odds with a ten percent cut to the house that he finishes the third layer! Twenty to one he has to get his stomach pumped after!” Pinkie shouted.

“I’ll take that bet!” Berry yelled.

“Fifty to one he finishes the whole cake. Ten thousand to one he finishes the whole cake and walks out of the shop under his own power!” Pinkie barked.

“I’ll take that bet!” Kevin shouted.

Nopony seemed to notice, or care, that a changeling named Kevin had just placed a bet, except for me. I glanced over at him with a surprised look. He shrugged. “If someone gives you ten thousand to one, on anything, you take it.”

I saluted him with my fork, taking a long drink of water. My breath smelled like fruity acetone, and my vision was a bit blurry, but I had yet to vomit. I was three layers through the cake and feeling energetic enough to take on the whole damn world.

The pain in my teeth had subsided, they were now so thoroughly saturated in ten thousand times the daily recommended value of sugar that the nerves had likely died. Each bite into that fourth and final layer was harder than the last. I was grateful that Pinkie had used the really good frosting, and none of that pasty store-bought stuff.

My bites got slower and slower as I struggled to stay awake and focused. The fourth layer was mostly gone, or mostly there, as my vision doubled. Far in the distance I could hear Pinkie asking me something, but it was hard to make out. I was so thirsty I could have drank an entire lake by now, emptying each glass as soon as Pinkie set it before me. Each time I burped I had to make a conscious effort not to throw up.

“I’m… fine…” I wave a hoof around wildly. “Get back! Mine!” I fell forward onto the cake, and began eating my way through it with my face. I used my forelegs to shovel it towards my hungry maw. My stomach was so distended any pony might have mistaken me for pregnant.

I bit into something cardboard and looked up in confusion. Pinkie was lifting my foreleg in the air, shouting. I mumbled and tried to ask her to be quiet, my headache felt like it would split my skull over at any second.

“He did it! He finished the cake!”

The ponies erupted in cheering, but I wasn’t done yet. There was somepony out there named Kevin who I was going to make very rich for the rest of this loop. I felt a relief of pressure, and some gasps of horror.

Near the back of the crowd I heard somepony shout “Yes! I had thirty bits on him wetting himself!”

I struggled to my hooves, drooling and my mouth hung wide open. My eyes couldn’t focus, but I could see a pathway to the door opening up before me. Whether they were hoping I’d take home the gold and beat the thousand to one odds, or escaping the expanding puddle, I’d never find out.

The crowd cheered. “Dawn! Dawn! Dawn!”

I shuffled one foot in front of the other, my heart racing, ears ringing. I could feel sharp pains in my sides, in parts of the pony body I didn’t even know I had. Several more steps forward I stumbled, making it to the door and stepping down into the dirt outside. I grinned and said something incoherent that got a good laugh from the crowd, before promptly falling over dead of hyperglycemic shock.

Come on everypony smile, smile, smile
Fill my heart up with sunshine, sunshine

I woke up and reached to hit the alarm clock, but my swing went wide. I rolled out of bed and caught the floor with my face. Groaning in pain, I decided to just knock the whole nightstand down and flail wildly until the alarm clock finally stopped making noise.

The taste of sweet victory, smell of fruity nail polish, and aching of my teeth were slowly fading. I was slowly being healed by the time loop, or perhaps it was just the phantom aches and memories that were vanishing. My pancreas had served with distinction yesterday, and I had learned what it takes to eat an entire cake in a single sitting. This also furthered my conviction that Pinkie Pie should not exist, as nopony should be able to eat that large a cake and not die.

I laid there for a while basking in the afterglow, before finally getting to my hooves to begin my next day off. There were still a lot of things I wanted to do, or could do, so I decided to head out first to Fluttershy’s cottage. It was a short flight from my home, but I had to stop by Barnyard Bargains first to purchase something.

By the time I arrived at Fluttershy’s I had everything I needed to unravel one of the greatest mysteries of our times. I was going to find out what was in Fluttershy’s shed.

I walked right up to the locked door and removed the bolt cutters from my bag. It was trivial to cut through the metal shackle with the large cutting tool. I knocked the lock off the door and walked into the shed, letting the light from outside illuminate it.

On the walls were various gardening tools and a couple work benches. There were bags of animal and bird feed, as well as fertilizer and weed killer. I paced around the room, letting out a disappointed sigh.

“I guess I was expecting another dungeon or something cool. Maybe Fluttershy’s just a perfectly normal pony.”

I looked down at a garish rug on the floor, it was tacky even by my standards. “Eh, mostly normal.”

Turning around to leave, my hind hoof flicked the rug back enough to reveal a hidden trap door. I closed the door to the shed, flying back into town unaware of anything out of the ordinary.

Sun’s Flank was one of the shadier bars in Ponyville. Granted, there were only a few bars, but if you named your bar something that would certainly draw the ire of an alicorn whose power was the nuclear furnace known as the sun, then you had balls. The kinds of ponies who drank the alcohol at the Sun’s Flank, which was often cut with pure grain alcohol to stretch it out a little longer, were similarly brave.

However, I wasn’t here to get hammered. I had something better in mind. It wasn’t long before the town's most notoriously promiscuous, and if Lyra is to be believed, awesome in the sack mare came into the bar.

As soon as she sat down, I sauntered over to Cloud Kicker and sat down across the table from her. “You’ve got to help me! I’m trapped in a time loop and only you can help me escape it!”

She raised an eyebrow. “Oh yeah? And how will I do that?”

“I’ve got to bang the hottest mare in town to break the loop, and save all of Ponyville!” I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing.

Cloud Kicker looked at me incredulously. “So my boss’s colt friend wants me to bang ‘em to free them from a time loop. I mean, it’s not the worst pick up line I’ve had, but you clearly didn’t think this through, Dawn.”

I finally let out the chuckle I’d been holding in. “I know, right? But it’s pretty good for a pick up line if I weren’t seeing somepony?”

“I don’t think you need pick up lines, what I think you need is somepony to teach you about the weather vane trick.” Cloud smirked and leaned forward, beckoning me to lean closer to her. She began to whisper in my ear.

I began to blush, and realized I wouldn’t be able to get out of the booth until I’d spent ten to fifteen minutes thinking about baseball or politicians, and I might have to throw my grandmother in there for good measure.

“Holy hell, that’s hot,” I responded.

“Yeah, and if you and Dash ever want to have a three way, let me know. I’m sure I could make an exception to my rule about not banging the boss and her friends, just to see the look on her face when you get the weather vein to start slapping her.”

“Well, thanks for the advice. We’ve still got some time before the time loop resets, so I had another idea I think you could help me out with.” I gestured around to the crowd. “I figure we round up everyone here and break into Applejack’s private reserves, and have a little drinking contest.”

Cloud raised an eyebrow. “Wait, you’re serious about the time loop thing?”

“Yeah, so can you round up as many ponies as you can, and be sure to bring whoever is the best at holding their liquor. We’re going to party like it’s nineteen ninety nine!”

“Uh, I’m not sure what that means, but let’s do it. It’s your flank if the loop doesn’t reset anyway.”

“What in tarnation is going on?!” Applejack shouted.

Deep in the cellar that housed the Apple family reserves, four dozen ponies were drinking hard zapp apple cider and cheering “Chug! Chug! Chug!” so loudly hardly anypony noticed we’d been caught.

Sitting across from Berry Punch, I was quickly throwing back shots that had been poured across the table. There were twenty-one in front of each of us to make up the traditional twenty-one gun salute. Each was some sort of vodka distilled from apples, but judging by the taste it was more like a mixture of moonshine and paint thinner.

Berry was on her eighteenth shot, and I’d just downed my nineteenth. It was a race against time to prove I could drink Berry under the table, or it had been. I could barely see straight and was mostly putting anything I could find in my mouth and swallowing it. Maybe alcohol and good decision making don’t mix.

The crowd erupted in cheering as I finished the last shot. Berry finished hers, and we both erupted in laughter, then hugged. I couldn’t feel my hooves, nose, or ears, and my stomach felt like it was on fire. The alcohol probably wouldn’t stay down long, and I stumbled over towards Applejack.

“i kanew you weure hliodng out on us applejqack! Hah!” I stuttered.

“Dawn, what in the blazes were you thinking?” She raised her voice. “Y’all are drinking over twenty years of reserves on private property!”

“pull the sckit out of your flanmk and live a little. i got a new trick wibth da weather vein to show you before i die of alcohol poiskoning!” I had to grab onto her as I suddenly found myself unable to balance. I may have thrown up in her mane a bit after that, before I started laughing again.

“I think we better get you to the hospital.” Applejack turned to guide me out of the cellar.

Berry walked by and shot me a glance. She was notably more composed than I was. “Good going, Dawn. You had me worried for a minute.”

“what trhe hell? how are you not drunmk? this isn't fanir!”

She shrugged. “I wouldn’t try that again outside a time loop. You lightweights are liable to get hurt.”

I groaned as Applejack lifted me up onto her back, and started to carry me up the ramp out of the cellar. We never did make it to the hospital.

Come on everypony smile, smile, smile
Fill my heart up with sunshine, sunshine

My head began to pulsate with waves of pain. My skull felt like the two halves were being slowly separated by meat hooks. I’d never been so hung over. The radio sounded like it was being pumped through the largest subwoofer Vinyl Scratch owned, directly into my ears.

I didn’t bother trying to turn it off, I couldn’t move without being overcome by waves of nausea and pain. After a few minutes the memories and pain faded, and I was able to find the alarm and silence it. As I rested in bed, I began to recall some of the highlights from my vacation.

So far I’d managed to do almost every stupid or reckless thing I could think of. I did some light breaking and entering, discovering several interesting things. Twilight has an addiction to trashy romance novels like Fifty Tones of Neigh. Strawberry Sunrise has a huge crush on Applejack. Granny Smith is more spry than she looks, and has good aim with a frying pan. After an attempt to discover why Cranky Doodle is so grumpy, I’ve decided to never mess with him again.

I even called for an emergency town hall meeting and gave one of the most riveting, detailed, and horrific renditions of The Aristocrats joke to ever be told. I know it was that good, because Mayor Mare immediately served me an eviction notice. Not from my house, but from all of Ponyville.

During my last loop I spent most of my savings getting the spa twins to give me eight spa treatments in a row. It was almost time to get back to studying, I just didn’t want to. I wanted one more loop, one more ridiculous adventure, before I went back to work.

Sitting up in bed, I realized what it would be. “I’m going to do a sonic rainboom!”

I hurried to get ready and went outside, dressed in my flight suit to be as aerodynamic as possible. It was a plain dark blue, but hugged tightly to my body to help with high speed maneuvers.

I relished the air flowing over my wings as I took off into the sky. Even if I were trapped in this time loop for eternity, the joy of flying was one thing I don’t think I’d ever get tired of. I continued climbing until I was high over the town and near the Everfree.

My sights were set on Sweet Apple Acres. From this high up, gravity would do most of the work. I just had to angle downward, flap hard, and build speed until I broke the sound barrier. If I was lucky, some sort of pony-magic would kick in at about that moment and I’d shoot rainbows, lightning, or maybe some wicked fire out of my wingtips as I broke the barrier.

There was no time like the present to find out whether or not Dash had been a good enough flight instructor to teach me something nopony else had ever done. I dove and began to beat my wings in a practiced rhythm. My legs tucked in against my barrel, and I assumed as aerodynamic a pose as I could.

I appreciated the flight goggles that had come with the suit as I neared the sound barrier. Without them I wouldn’t be able to see very well as the wind whipped past. I was quickly running out of room, however. Sweet Apple Acres was coming up, and just beyond that the time barrier, and I hadn’t broken the speed of sound yet.

I could feel the turbulence building and put my outstretched hooves together to form a spear shape. The wind was breaking over them, and with just one wrong move I would be sent tumbling to the ground. I could see something sparking at the tips of my forelegs, and felt a change in the air pressure.

It looked like I was actually doing it. I began beating my wings harder, speeding up, fully focused on getting that little bit of speed. I was distracted by the weather magic sparking around my hooves and barely dodged one of the larger trees. My eyes went wide, then I ran directly into the Crusader’s club house.

Come on everypony smile, smile, smile
Fill my heart up with sunshine, sunshine

I groaned as I reached over to shut off the alarm. I realized I’d done some pretty dumb stuff lately, but running straight into a large wooden structure at nearly the speed of sound had hurt the most so far.

Thinking back, it seemed like I would have been able to do it if I had a little more room and speed. I had gotten distracted near the end, and lost altitude over the apple orchard. If there had been a way to build speed quicker, I could have pulled it off, then turned before hitting the barrier.

Then I remembered about a certain trio of fillies that had built something in the Everfree that could give me just the boost I needed.

Today, like yesterday, I hurried to get ready for the day. I made it to the clearing before the Cutie Mark Crusaders had even finished assembling their rail gun.

“Hey girls, I’m here to help build your railgun,” I explained.

“Dawn? How’d you know about this?” Sweetie asked.

“We’re stuck in a time loop, you’ve built it before. Plus, I know you built it backwards. So we’re gonna build it right, then adjust the speed down enough to not liquify me. Then, I’m going to do a sonic rainboom… no wait, a quadruple sonic rainboom!”

“Yes!” Scootaloo cheered. “This is gonna be so awesome!”

“I’m glad somepony is excited, but isn’t it reckless to fire yourself out of a rail gun Dawn?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Pfft.” I waved a hoof dismissively, and pointed to where Scootaloo had laid out a helmet, filly-sized flight suit, and her scooter. “You were totally gonna let her try it if the test firing went well.”

Sweetie rolled her eyes. “We may have let her think that, but even we’re not dumb enough to do that to Scootaloo.”

“What?” Scootaloo complained. “Come on, you agreed it’d be the coolest cutie mark ever!”

“Tell you what, Scoots, if it works for me we’ll let you launch out of it next.” I said.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie glanced at each other. “Well, if an adult says it’s okay…”

It had taken us almost the entire day to make the necessary changes to correctly assemble the rail gun and tune it down just enough to fire me at only marginally unsafe velocities. Now I was seated inside the railgun, compressed inside some sort of small magical magnetic field.

I squirmed and adjusted my flight goggles, making sure I was in position to be fired. “Okay, girls, I think I’m ready.”

“Commencing countdown!” Sweetie said from outside. “Ten, nine, eight.”

I started giggling in excitement. Dash would never believe me when I told her I broke her record, I only wish I could somehow measure the true speed. Would I just break mach one, or would I get up to mach 5? For all I knew, I might break the warp ten barrier.

“Seven, six. Hey, does anyone smell that?”

I sniffed, and realized something did smell a bit smokey. The magnetic field was grabbing me more tightly than before, and I couldn’t squirm much. There was a thrumming flow of magic down the length of the barrel, and my pegasi senses were screaming at me to run.

“Five, four, three.”

“Maybe we should abort”

“It’s automated! I don’t know how!”

I tried to say something, but it was near full charge, and I couldn’t breathe.

“Two, One.”

There was a deafening noise as the wind rushed past, but I was able to breathe again. I was hurtling through the air so quickly that I almost forgot to spread my wings. Once I did, I nearly spiraled out of control from the sheer speed I was traveling at. I felt a wall of wind, some sort of loud sound, and then total silence.

I was slicing through the air so fast, I couldn’t hear the wind whipping past me. That meant I must have broken the sound barrier. I’d actually done it! I turned my head back to see if I was trailing rainbow, lightning, or something else unspeakably awesome.

As I turned my head to look, it altered the airflow over my body, causing me to swerve to the left. I couldn’t get a good look at my contrail, but when I looked forward again I got a very good look at a rapidly approaching castle.

“Mother F—”

Author's Note

I walked out of my kitchen munching on a sandwich in my bathrobe, and raised an eyebrow. "You guys are still here? The chapter's over. You can go home... Come on, go." I shoed you all towards the door. "Oh, and feel free to drop by my discord server sometime."

Next time on DoH3: Dawn learns the secrets of time magic. A line is crossed. The hunt begins.

"Really? I finally get my cameo and you're not going to name drop me?"

Ch. 12 Klein Bottle

I had been running down a path in the Everfree forest at night, the shouts of ponies in the distance trying to track me down. The full moon lit the path enough for me to not trip. It all seemed so familiar, like I’d been here before. I slowed down and looked around, noticing a saddlebag on my back. I reached into it, pulling the Element of Loyalty out.

It dawned on me that I must be dreaming, and that this was the night I’d faced down Discord. His plan was to use me to break the Element of Loyalty, and it had nearly worked. I wasn’t particularly loyal or fun to be around, at least at first. Once I got to know the ponies, I had decided to do something selfless to save Dash and her friends.

“Re-runs?” A voice asked. “How long have you been stuck in that time-loop if you’ve got nothing better to dream of?”

I looked up and saw Discord standing in the clearing, wearing a pair of sunglasses and surrounded by sunlight. The moon was gone, and the leaves had formed a clearing around him. “Discord?”

“The one and only.” He snapped his fingers and a radio started to play. It took me a moment to recognize the song.

“My Chemical Romance? Well at least it’s not the Smile song.” I glared up at him. “So, figment of my imagination, what do you want?”

“I want you to free me.”

I laughed. “Fat chance. You’re dead. Plus this is just a dream, which means you have no power here.”

“Banished, not dead. It is true, however, I only have the power here you think I have. I suppose it’ll have to do, we’ve got a score to settle.”

I leapt forward and jabbed a hoof out into his face, wiping the grin off as he fell backward to the ground. As soon as we landed I started stomping down on his face as he laughed like a maniac, not even trying to avoid the punches. Despite it being a dream I started to pant, finally stopping to catch my breath.

“I love violence.” Discord spit a tooth out, which promptly came to life and skittered off into the forest like a rat. “Glad to see the ponies haven’t erased all of your personality. Feel free to dream of me again anytime you get homesick.”

“Dawn?” a voice behind me asked.

I looked back to see Luna standing there, then looked back down but the Discord in my dream was gone. “What was that?”

“You shouldn’t dream of him,” Luna said.

“Why not? It’s just a dream.”

Luna stepped into the clearing as the forest returned to night, but brightly lit by silver moonlight. All signs of Discord’s presence had faded. “A tantabus is a nightmare given shape, with all the powers the dreamer imagines it to have. A tantabus of Discord would be problematic; it is for that reason I monitor closely for any signs of one. Ever since my own guilt nearly escaped the dream realm and terrorized Ponyville, it’s a chance I can’t afford to take.”

I nodded, and was about to say something when it finally dawned on me. “Wait, Luna! You’re really here?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Yes? Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I’m trapped in a time loop and I have been for months! I’ve dreamed, but haven’t seen you, except that first day with the zombies. It’s been ages and I need your help! You have to get word to Celestia, you have to do something to get me free!” I continued rambling on, not giving her a chance to respond. “Please, I’m at my wit’s end, I’ve studied almost everything, checked almost everypony, I don’t know how to fix time magic!”

Luna had to put her hoof on my muzzle before I finally stopped to take a breath. Her horn lit up and the moonlight intensified. I felt an icy chill in my bones as her magic washed over me, yet it wasn’t painful. I recognized the spell, and could almost see the shapes of the rune words and sigils. This kind of magic had been mentioned when I was studying with the unicorns. At its core it was a medical diagnostic spell, but it also seemed to be reaching back in my mind and reading my memories all at once.

“Dawn, you’re injured. What’s happened to you?” Luna inquired.

It took me a moment to focus and remember. “Oh, I sort of fired myself out of a rail gun to break the sound barrier, and it worked! Until I hit the castle. It’s okay though, it heals when I restart the loop.”

She gave me an incredulous look, horn lighting again and magic surrounding me. “A rail gun?” Luna sighed. “I will always be puzzled by the pegasi predilection for flying at unsafe velocities.” The spell slowly faded and her tone took a hard edge like a parent scolding a colt. “You should be more careful. I can sense deep magical scars. Until we can fix this, perhaps don’t recklessly endanger yourself?”

I was frowning and looking down at the ground, only looking up once it was my turn to speak. “Wait, how are we going to fix this? I’m the only one who remembers it.”

“There is another… familiar somehow.” Luna looked up at the moon, losing herself in thought.

The forest around me started to shimmer, and I felt a pull as I started to wake up. “Wait, we haven't fixed this yet! Quick, tell me something only you would know so we don’t waste any time next time you find my dream!”

Reality seemed to warp through a fish-eyed lens as my only hope of aid was slowly drifting away. Luna shouted to me from the distance. “Poughkeepsie.”

Come on everypony smile, smile, smile
Fill my heart up with sunshine, sunshine

If you ask a mare they’ll say an unmedicated childbirth is the most painful thing you can experience. If they’re a stallion, maybe it’d be a kidney stone. If you asked me, I’d say it was waking up after hitting a magical crystal castle wall while traveling at seven hundred sixty miles per hour.

The song on the radio continued to play as I recovered from what I assume being a puddle felt like. I slowly remembered what a limb was and managed to get one out from under the cover and turn the alarm off.

“You win, Luna, no more abusing my immortality.” I laid there for another hour before finally getting up and getting ready for my day, reciting the word Luna had told me to make sure it was committed to my memory. That was the thing about dreams, it was very easy to forget them once you got out of bed and got ready for your day.

It was two hours after my alarm had gone off that I finally made it into Rarity’s boutique. Minuette had gone to fetch some relevant books so we could study and Rarity was baking some cookies. I may have told her that chocolate chip cookies were an essential reagent to fixing the time loop.

Which left me time to explain my exploits to Lyra.

“So for the next loop, I had to pick somepony who’d be an easy mark for the prank. Next day, I dyed my whole coat, mane, and tail gray, so I looked like eighty years old.”

Lyra nodded her head. “Following you so far.”

“I waited until she was out making a quick visit to say good morning to Applejack, and I swooped down just after bucking a cloud to send a flash of lightning across the sky. I land and say, ‘You’ve gotta come back with me, Rarity! Back to the future! It’s our kids, Rarity!’ And she just stands there like she forgot how to speak, and I hear Applejack barely holding her laughter in.”

“Oh, I think I recognize this one,” Lyra chuckled.

“Yeah, I think I’ve shared that movie with you before. Right, so then I grab her by the hoof and pull her over to this racing chariot I rented for the day, complete with two pegasi to pull it. Rarity finally says ‘What’s going on? This is a racing chariot, the roads in Ponyville aren’t big enough.’ I finish pushing her into the vehicle and hop on. Right before I crack the reins to tell the stallions to take off, I say—”

Lyra grinned and said with me. “Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need roads.”

Lyra and I laughed together, and a moment later the door opened. Minuette came back in and began setting down books on the table. Rarity came back with some cookies for us to snack on, and they quickly began to levitate off the plate. I grabbed a couple out of the green glow surrounding them, and tossed them into my own mouth.

“Alright, Dawn, are you ready to get down to brass tacks?” Minuette asked.

I hastily chewed and swallowed. “So what are we learning today?”

“Time, the universe, and everything.”

“It’s forty-two, right?” I replied.

“Um, no. Fourth dimension stuff.”

“Yay,” I said unenthusiastically, “I’m sure that won’t at all be as confusing as imaginary numbers.”

“What’s so hard about those?” Lyra asked.

“Are you kidding? They’re literally made-up, so they can equal anything I want, therefore I should not have failed that test in college!” I complained.

“Well, this may be a good segway into thinking about dimensions beyond the three we exist in.” Minuette took a bite of cookie on her way over to a chalkboard, and began to draw a series of graphs on it.

“You brought this on yourself, Dawn,” Rarity stated. “Anything I can do to help, Minuette?”

“Yeah, I’ll need a cube made of a transparent material for later,” Minuette said. Rarity nodded and left the room to make one. “Now, Dawn. Imaginary numbers were initially discovered when trying to find all the places a cubic equation met the x-axis.”

“Oh no.” I slumped on the desk defeated. “She wasn’t kidding.”

Lyra shrugged, “It’s not that hard, we learned about it in—”

“If you say magic kindergarten, I’m resetting the loop and duct taping you to your ceiling,” I pouted.

“Come on, Dawn,” Minuette said. “I’ll make it quick and you’ve already learned more than most unicorns. If you’re going to understand time travel, you’re going to want to understand the fundamentals.”

I glared at her for a moment and finally answered. “Fine.”

She smiled and began drawing on the graph again. “Okay, so a cubic equation can only cross the X axis once in the real plane, but there are still two other roots, which are in the imaginary plane. So in order to solve this type of equation, we must use a third imaginary plane to help describe those places that cross the real plane of the x and y axis.”

“It’s coming back to me. So we have a real x and y axis, and an imaginary x and y axis, to solve the math problem.”

“Yes.” Minuette had drawn a small graph on the chalkboard. “In a way, time travel is the same. To solve the equation for time travel, you must use dimensions that aren’t real as an intermediary step. We live in three dimensions. Up and down, left and right, forward and back. Like the math problem, these are the only real dimensions we can observe.”

“But we can see time,” I interrupted. “The past, the present, the future.”

“We can’t see it. We’re basically stuck on train tracks, only moving forward, but that’s not quite the right analogy for what I want to teach you today.”

I smirked as I got out of my seat, feeling emboldened by my recent vacation. “Before you say anything else about imaginary numbers, I Just want to say one thing.”

Minuette and Lyra looked over at me. “Oh?”

I reached out and took Minuette’s hoof and began to sing. “We’re no strangers to love. You know the rules, and so do I! A full commitm—”

“Dawn Seeker!” Pinkie shouted, appearing in an explosion of confetti that sent Minuette tumbling backward into the wall. “You Pinkie Promised to stop being such a smart-flank and joking around during lessons!”

“Gah!” I shouted, losing my own footing in the process of her arrival. I looked around, heart racing, as Pinkie was just suddenly there in my face. She didn’t use a door, or a window, or even a potted plant, and it nearly caused my heart to stop.

“You also know better than to mess with the RIAA, or Baskin Robbins!” Pinkie looked up at the ceiling and sighed. “Somehow they always catch me.”

Lyra continued to munch on a cookie, unphased and more used to Pinkie than either of us.

“This is serious!” Pinkie continued, “like when I have to report my income for taxes, or when Mrs. Cake has the fire marshall or health inspector visiting!”

“I… what the buck, Pinkie?” Minuette exclaimed. She’d gotten back to her hooves, and her mouth opened and closed a few times as she tried to think of what to say.

“Uh, let’s hear her out,” I mumbled, anxious to avoid the consequences of a broken Pinkie Promise.

Pinkie stopped glaring at me and looked over at the unicorn.

“This… this isn’t possible. Pinkie, you’re not physically possible!” Minuette began to rant. “This is a closed time loop, you can not have awareness of the loops, or memories of past loops! Even if I accept you somehow knew Dawn was screwing around, which I don’t, how did you just appear?!”

Lyra, Pinkie, and I all chimed out at once. “Pinkie sense.”

“What?” the exasperated unicorn asked. She was still panting from the initial shock of Pinkie’s appearance.

“You’ve got a lot to learn about this town,” I chuckled. “I heard Twilight burst into flames once trying to figure it out. I was only here for like three days before I gave up. Trust me, don’t try to figure it out.”

Minuette looked over at Pinkie one last time. “Fine, I need some water.” She turned to go, leaving me to face Pinkie’s wrath.

“Did you not throw her a Welcome to Ponyville party?” I asked. “This should have all been covered in orientation.”

“Don’t try and distract me,” Pinkie said in a commanding tone of voice. “You’re supposed to be studying and fixing this. You wouldn’t believe how itchy I’ve been getting lately! And this isn’t even the first Pinkie Promise you’ve broken.”

“What? I haven’t broken a single promise this whole loop, until now. You can’t even prove it if I did!”

She reached into her mane and pulled out a hardcover book with a nice fake leather grain and gold trim. I didn’t catch the title, but Pinkie had quickly flipped it open and began reading from it. “Aha, here you’re breaking the promise, and here… at least a dozen times! I shouldn’t have let you out of my sight.”

“Pinkie, just what is that?” I got to my hooves and went over to see what she was reading from. “Have you got some kind of journal?”

“Nope. This is your memoir.”

“His memoir?” Lyra asked, walking up on the other side of Pinkie to take a look for herself.

“Yep. Dawn wrote a tell all story about his adventures with you know who and fixing the time loop!” Pinkie said with a smile.

“You know who? Do you know who is responsible for this, Pinkie?” I asked.

“Nope! You know who it is though! You wrote the book after all.”

I started to feel like how Minuette, and Twilight before her, must have felt as my brain skidded to a halt. The gears were jammed, possibly melting, as I tried to add this up. “Wait, you’re saying that this book contains my memoir on fixing this time loop that I am currently in and couldn’t possibly have written yet?”

“Yeppers! See?” Pinkie handed the book over to me.

I lifted it up in a hoof and began to read from it.

Rarity lifted up the red dress and took it off the display, hanging it onto a rack. “Sometimes you sound just like Dash. Well then, what brings you by today?” She shuffled through some more clothing before finding something that she liked, putting it onto the now bare ponnequin.

“Oh, so I’m stuck in a time loop and I’m checking in with my friends to see if anyone has any bright ideas. I’ll also accept secret basement laboratories, emergency supplies, or some sort of counter-spell.”

I sat down on the floor. “Holy shit, she’s telling the truth!”

“Language!” Pinkie complained.

“This book actually happened? So I can skip ahead to find some answers!”

“Wow, talk about convenient,” Lyra added. She stepped over and looked down as I flipped ahead to a random page and started reading.

The whip bit deep into my flank, sending a hot sharp jolt of pain racing up my spine. The leather strained as I tried to pull away from the pony hellbent on teaching me some manners.

I quickly flipped ahead, hoping Lyra didn’t have time to read that page. “Uh, we’ll skip that part, uh, nothing to see here… how are you?”

Pinkie gave me a knowing grin. “Stop there.” She tapped a hoof on a page.

“Huh? This looks like it hasn’t happened yet. What am I looking at?” I asked, opening the page for all of us to read.

“You’re looking at now,” Pinkie explained to her confused friends. “Everything that happens now, is happening now, Dawn.”

“What happened to then?” I asked, looking back and forth between the words on the page and the pink earth pony to my side.

“We passed it.”

“When?”

“Just now.” Pinkie turned the page, so we could continue reading. “We’re at now, now.”

“Wait, Pinkie, go back to then,” I said.

“When?”

“Now!”

“Now?”

“Yes, Now!”

She turned the page back.

“I can’t go back to now,” Pinkie stated. “We missed it.”

“When?”

“Just now!”

I sighed, rubbing my temples as I wondered if it was possible to get a spontaneous migraine from proximity to Pinkie Pie. “When will then be now?”

“Soon, I promise.”

“Um,” Lyra interrupted. “Dawn, as much as I enjoy whatever—” she gestured with a hoof to Pinkie, myself, and the book, “—this is, why don’t you just flip to the last page and see how to fix it?”

“Ah, spoilers are no fun!” Pinkie complained.

“She has a point though.” I wouldn’t have been able to maintain my sanity for much longer at that rate anyway. “Last page of the book and… it’s blank?” I began to flip backwards from the end of the book, finding that half the book was empty.

“Well, of course! It hasn’t happened yet,” Pinkie took the book back, flipping it back to chapter twelve. “See? This is as far as you’ve gotten.”

“No,” I whined. “But, you, the book, from the future, none of it’s happened yet! But I already wrote it… so how has it not been written yet?”

“Don’t hate the player, hate the game, Dawnie.” Pinkie shoved the book back into her mane.

“No wait!” I jabbed my hoof into her mane, feeling it poke out the other side. “Damn it! What was the point of this whole ordeal?”

Pinkie giggled and gave me a hug. “Not everything needs a point, life would be boring if it did. Now, I’m willing to postpone the punishment for all those broken promises, but I will be keeping count! So you better be on your best behavior Mister!”

I had never wanted so badly to understand the insanity that was Pinkie, or to hit her, I couldn’t quite make up my mind. After trying and failing to figure out how she could help me, I decided to just let her go and focus on the very important lesson with Minuette she had interrupted.

“Fine, Pinkie. Thanks for… whatever that was. I’m sure if you were going to help you would have, or already have, who knows how this time travel crap works.”

“Minuette does! She’s gonna explain it all now that she’s downed a double dose of tylenol. Take care! Nice to see you again, Lyra!”

“Nice to see you—” Lyra sighed, looking around the room. I followed her gaze, realizing Pinkie had vanished as suddenly as she appeared. “I never get used to that.”

“Tell me about it,” I echoed. “She has got to be related to Discord or something.”

Minuette returned to the room and began clearing off a table. “We’re ready for the important part of the explanation. I’ll thank everypony not to mention Pinkie again so the loop can reset and I can forget the rat’s nest of a paradox I just overheard from the other room.”

Rarity followed shortly after with the scratch paper and a small clear cube and set them on the table. Minuette hurried over and used her magic to cut a few squares out, then drew a room on a large piece of paper and put a square inside it.

I glanced down at the page. The room drawn on the paper had 4 walls and a small door, forming a little two-dimensional home. The black paper square must have represented a little square person to live in the house.

“If this square lived in a two dimensional world, this room would look solid to it, these squares outside couldn’t see it. However, to us, who exist in a third dimension, we can look down on the square and see it inside the room. The same holds true if a fourth-dimensional being were to look down on us in our three dimensional world.”

“So the secret to time travel is to view this magical fourth dimension?” I asked. I moved one of the squares with a hoof, wondering how it would look if I was also flat. In two dimensions, I’d only be able to see a line, and perhaps the line would have shading. Nothing would really have any depth. However, since I was a pony looking down on the paper, it was almost like I existed in a higher plane of existence than the little crafting paper shapes.

“The secret to time travel, which I’ll thank you not to repeat, is to view the shadow of the fourth dimension. We exist in three dimensions and can’t see the fourth one.”

Lyra and Rarity both looked lost. “Okay, we’re all truly confused now.”

“And you weren’t when—” Minuette’s glare caught my attention, “—you know who was here?”

Minuette levitated the clear cube Rarity had made onto the table, and the sunlight hit it just right to cast a shadow. “This three dimensional cube casts a two dimensional shadow on the table.” She drew an outline of it on the table. “It should look familiar, this is much the same way we’d sketch a cube on a piece of paper. So basically, the shadow of a three dimensional object occupies two dimensions. This means a fourth dimensional object or spell can be observed by its shadow in three dimensions.”

“Now, I want to keep it simple, so let's just say there are only four dimensions and that fourth one is time. I want to travel back in time and kill baby Sombra and save the Crystal Empire. However, I can’t see the dimension of time. What I can see is its shadow in the three dimensions my magic can perceive. So, by manipulating the shadow I can manipulate time itself.”

I gasped as I remembered an earlier lesson on the types of magic. “Thaumaturgy?”

Minuette smiled. “There’s hope for you yet. Yes. Thaumaturgy as a school states ‘As it is above, so it is below.’ You make something happen on what you can see and link it to what you can’t see. Some mane hair and a doll, and you’ve got a voodoo doll that can affect a pony you can’t see. We’ll use it in a similar way, to manipulate the shadow of time we can observe, and thus manipulate time itself. However, because you can’t actually see what you’re doing directly, it’s very error prone.”

“So we’ll be poking the shadow of time to try and get the dimension in the next room we can’t see to do what we want, and hope it doesn’t get broken and un-exist us. Sounds fun!”

She let out a sigh and nodded. “One of the lesser known rumors is that Starswirl got so good at it, he became able to perceive the fourth dimension and ascended to a higher plane of existence. If you ask me though, he probably created some sort of paradox that trapped or killed him.”

“Yeah, I can see why. I can’t imagine trying to screw with the forces of the universe based on the fact I can sorta make out their shadow.”

“If anypony could truly master time, they could travel anywhere, anytime, with the push of a button or the glow of the horn. It is truly terrifying to consider a pony could be looking down on us unseen, with as much power over us as we have over this square of paper. Let’s say that Discord had been able to perceive four dimensions, we’d have been ants for him to use a magnifying glass on.” Minuette pointed a hoof at the cutout bit of paper from earlier, before her magic incinerated it.

“Well let’s hope we’re not dealing with any pissed off demigods, because I did that once, and once is enough. So we're still looking for a unicorn?” I asked.

“Yeah, and one that’s royally screwed up. I went to check the barrier while I was getting these books.” Minuette went back to the chalkboard and quickly sketched out a map of Ponyville. There was a large circular shape encompassing the entire town. “This was the confusing part. Why would a time spell create a barrier? What’s the point of keeping ponies in or out? Is the spell contained to Ponyville, or all of Equestria?”

She came back over and began to draw a smaller cube inside the shadow of the larger cube, letting her thought process carry her through the explanation. “Thinking about how to dumb it down for you, no offense Dawn, brought me to a realization about this spell. The barrier around Ponyville is part of the shadow of time, and time has been fractured.”

I nodded and poked a hoof onto the inner cube drawn in the shadow of the outer one. “Your new drawing here is the shadow of time. Whoever broke time, fractured it around Ponyville, trapping us in here. When I touched the barrier, the day reset instantly. To fix the spell, we need to fix the barrier because it’s actually the shadow of the spell.”

“Exactly!” Minuette grinned brightly. “Now that we’ve advanced your knowledge about as far as we can on magic, we can start studying the barrier together to find a solution. Since we don’t know who cast this spell or how, our only option is to work backwards from the shadow of the damage to fix it.”

“The barrier is so geometric, if it’s the shadow of the damaged stuff we can’t see, what are the odds it’d be a near perfect circle?” I thought out loud. “I mean, I’d almost expect time to unravel or something. The damage could spread, or you could just blink right out of existence when crossing it.”

“I can’t say, yet. Studying the nature of the barrier should help. It will also answer the question of whether the rest of Equestria is looping with us. I’d definitely recommend not touching the barrier again.” Minuette’s horn lit up and she slid a piece of paper to the edge of the table. “You could quite literally fall out of our three dimensions if you did manage to touch a damaged enough section.” The small black square fell off the table, toppling to the ground.

I groaned and rubbed my head as I felt a headache coming on. “This is why I like medicine, it’s so simple! Give me a pulmonary edema to fix any day. Hell, I’ll disimpact all the bowels if I don’t have to fix a time loop again.”

“Hey, you’re doing great,” Lyra said. “She lost me back with the square piece of paper metaphor.”

“I’m afraid I didn’t understand much after the imaginary numbers,” Rarity added.

“Alright.” I got out of my chair and stretched. “I need to use the restroom; why don’t you go ahead and start towards Fluttershy’s cottage. It’s remote and near the barrier. I’ll catch up.”

Minuette started levitating the books into her saddlebag. “I have a few instruments at home that may help take measurements, if I can remember where I packed them. Lyra, will you come with me and help me with them?”

“Sure thing, Minuette.” Lyra opened the door and they both walked outside.

“I had better go check on Sweetie Belle. I know she’s out crusading today and it’s been awfully quiet,” Rarity said.

I headed into the bathroom and closed the door, shouting as I peed so she could hear me. “Oh, they’re in the Everfree forest building a railgun! It works remarkably well, I might add. I look forward to your continued lack of adult supervision, because I think they may invent a spaceship next and I’d pay good bits to see that!”

“They’re what?!” Rarity screamed. “And you’re just telling me this now?”

I heard the door slam as a panicked unicorn ran off to rescue her sister, for all the good it would do. I flushed the toilet and washed my hooves off, heading outside to try and catch up.

As I walked through town, I noticed a crowd of ponies ahead, and some shouting. It reminded me of the crowd that gathered when I hadn't been able to rescue the construction pony one morning. I felt a pit in my stomach as I hurried forward and began to push my way through the crowd.

When I made it up to the clearing, I found two ponies lying dead in the street, their fur burnt as if hit by fire or lightning. I glanced up, seeing only clear skies, and back down. A feeling of rage was rising up as I stared down at the corpses of Lyra and Minuette. “Who did this?”

I glanced around, but nopony was talking. A few were backing away from me, as my wings were flared and my connection to the weather had lightning dancing from the tips of my feathers. Somepony had chosen to kill two ponies in cold blood, and somepony would pay.

In the distance, I saw a mare that screamed guilty. She was wearing a hooded cloak, and instantly ducked behind a building when she saw me look in their direction. Thunder cracked and I heard ponies shouting as I took off into the air. The lightning danced around me, hitting the ground, as thoughts of beating somepony half to death filled my mind.

I whipped around the corner of the building, then the next corner, catching up to the mysterious hooded pony. A blue sphere formed around her as I slammed into the shield, and in an instant I felt all the electricity from my wing tips grounded into the spell, seeming to short circuit it for just a moment. My forelegs connected with the pony, slamming her backwards and onto the ground.

The pony reminded me of Twilight. Her fur was a light pinkish-purple, and her mane was a darker purple. There was a mint green stripe in her hair. “Who the fuck are you?” I shouted.

She looked up at me in terror, but only for a moment, before beginning to laugh. “You’re just a worthless pegasus.”

Her horn began to glow, so I tried stomping a hoof on it. When my hoof connected to the horn, I felt a searing jolt go up my foreleg before my heart seized and I blacked out from the surge of magic.

Author's Note

Next time on DoH3: How far can a pony be pushed before they give into despair and snap? Starlight realizes there are no consequences in a time loop no pony remembers, deciding to do anything to fix the loop, except one pony does remember...

Ch. 13 Interlude III

Starlight sat in the middle of a pile of books almost twice as tall as she was. The glow of her magic surrounded dozens of books as she skimmed through every single one of them, desperate for any lead. Her horn was too hot to touch and the familiar pain of a headache was coming on from the overexertion. Normally a unicorn would stop before they caused themselves any long-term injuries, but Starlight knew her horn would be just fine in the morning.

Her sole focus now was to escape the prison she had trapped herself in. Nopony in town knew her, except for the few who had destroyed her village and ruined her dream. For that reason she hadn’t bothered to reach out to any of them for help. If the answer existed, Starlight would be the one to find it and fix everything, then recast the spell and get her revenge.

The creek of the library doors alerted Starlight to a visitor in the castle library. She had cast a spell to make the hinges rustier in case she got any unexpected guests. The books all fell to the floor, and she hurried down the hall to see who was there.

Starlight tripped and nearly fell on somepony. She’d said her name was Lemon Drops, and she visited the library at eleven in the morning. Lemon was here every day in every loop, looking for a cookbook that might teach her new lemonade recipes. Her incessant questions were reason enough to avoid her each loop, until Starlight realized there were quicker ways to shut the pony up.

At the end of the aisle, Starlight slowly peaked her head out and saw a unicorn with light blue fur and a dark blue mane with a white stripe. Her and the mint green mare visited the library too, though Starlight had never bothered to keep track of the time of day. It was suspicious enough that they didn’t follow a fixed pattern in the loops that she decided to spy on this new pony today and find out what kind of books she had been coming to check out of the library.

The unicorn was headed right for Starlight’s aisle, so she had to quickly turn around and clear the aisle so that she wouldn’t be detected. She levitated Lemon Drop’s body onto one of the shelves, and crammed some books into the shelf to hide it. Starlight wouldn’t normally resort to violence so readily, but she’d figured out that her actions had no consequences until the loop had been fixed. For that reason she’d taken a much more… effective approach to ensure her attempts to fix the spell weren’t interrupted.

She hid down at the end of the aisle, a faint glow surrounding her as she tried to make herself less noticeable. The unicorn walked down the aisle and began levitating out a few books. Starlight had reshelved them in a hurry, but this aisle contained most of the books on advanced magic topics, including the pitifully few books on temporal mechanics. Whoever this pony was, they seemed to be studying the same thing as Starlight.

The fact a pony had been studying time magic was concerning, but more concerning was that she hadn’t noticed it sooner. At first Starlight had written off minor things, like a pony she hadn’t seen before; she paid so little attention to them she couldn’t be sure anything was out of the ordinary. She had started paying closer attention when somepony had been fired through a castle. Something was definitely going on, and since the spell was still stable, it must mean a pony was aware of the loop. Starlight decided to follow her back into town and see what else might have changed from past loops. She went back to the table where she’d stored her things and Starswirl’s book, and grabbed her bags and cloak.

Starlight followed the unicorn into town to a boutique. She recognized the building from her reconnaissance as Rarity’s home and shop. Her horn glowed briefly to strengthen her spell; anypony who looked at Starlight would suddenly find the area she was standing in painfully boring and quickly look away. It wasn’t as good as true invisibility, but often a subtle compulsion would work just as well to help a pony pass unseen.

She creeped up to a window slowly, looking inside. Starlight recognized Rarity, but not the other two unicorns. She did recognize the pegasus, blue furred with blonde hair and a pink streak. It was the stallion that should have been in the castle babysitting the dragon. She realized that this light blue unicorn must be aware of the time loop, and had disrupted the routines of the other ponies.

Starlight thought it through as she watched the ponies studying. If a pony was aware of the time loop, they could be recruiting help to try and escape, or find the cause. The two unicorns she didn’t recognize must be skilled in magic to be aware of the loops at all. Starlight would have to figure out which one of them it was for sure, but so far the blue unicorn seemed to be in charge. Rarity and the pegasus were inconsequential. Just as likely as fixing the spell, the group inside might be trying to find and capture the pony responsible.

She was getting desperate, but not desperate enough to ask for their help and risk taking the fall for this when Celestia found out.

After ducking back and hiding in the bushes, Starlight took some time to come up with a plan. Part of her wanted to burst in now and demand answers, but the wiser course of action would be to wait for them to split up. She could try and get a feel for how far along they were in their efforts to undo the spell. After all, if there’s one thing Starlight had, it was time.

It took a couple hours before two of the unicorns finally left the building. Starlight glanced inside to see the other two talking, and decided to follow the mysterious unicorn from the library down the road. Nopony seemed to care much that she was in a dark traveling cloak and following behind the mares. A couple weather ponies almost landed on her, before the spell suggested to them they land a little further down the road. Starlight grinned at how easy it was to hide from ponies when they didn’t have a reason to look twice.

As she got closer, she began to hear them speak.

“That was a really cool analogy,” the one with a harp on their flank said.

“At least I don’t have to worry about you repeating it when the loop resets. Princess Celestia doesn’t have a sense of humor when it comes to time magic, or eating the last slice of cake. Both almost got me expelled from her school.”

The green one laughed. “Yeah, she removed cake from the school cafeteria for two months because of that.”

“Worth it. That cake was pretty awesome.”

They turned a corner, and Starlight hurried after them. They’d gotten to a less populated part of town; there were only about a dozen ponies in eyesight. It was as good a time as any, and she pulled back her hood and dropped the spell that was helping hide her from being noticed.

“Excuse me!” Starlight called out. She trotted up. “I seem to be a bit lost, I was looking for Twilight.”

The two unicorns turned around and smiled at Starlight. “Sorry, she’s out of town.”

“Oh, what’s your name?” she asked.

“I’m Minuette, and this is Lyra,” Minuette replied.

“Hello there!” Lyra said enthusiastically.

“Ah, and you’re trying to fix the time loop we’ve been trapped in?” Starlight dropped her smile and glared at Minuette as if she’d just killed Starlight’s favorite puppy.

“And you are?” Minuette shifted forward slightly to put herself between Lyra and the stranger.

“Uh…” Starlight looked around, spotting an outdoor diner and a half empty glass of soda. She glanced to the other side of the street, seeing a box of cereal through a window. “Fizzlepop Berrytwist.”

Lyra burst out laughing, causing them both to stare at her until she stopped. “Sorry, but that’s just such a silly name for a pony!”

Starlight felt a surge of frustration welling up inside her. She had neither the time nor the patience to bottle up her anger right now; these ponies had answers and they were going to give them to Starlight. If they didn’t, there was always an endless supply of do-overs.

“I don’t have time for this.” Starlight took a step forward and was already mentally preparing several spells to choose from. “I know we’re in the time loop, you know you’re in it. You’re going to tell me everything you know about time magic and what you’re planning to do!”

Minuette also got rid of her jovial attitude, the faintest hint of magic running along the spiral of her horn. Starlight smirked, whoever this unicorn was had the skill to prepare a spell and keep the signs hidden almost as well as she did. This would be fun.

“Why should I tell you anything? This is Ponyville, handling the apocalypse is just a normal Tuesday.”

Lyra’s horn lit up, a faint green shield appearing around her. Starlight glanced and could sense from here it’d hardly have enough power to stop a basic spell. The other unicorn, however, was still primed to cast an unknown spell, presenting the greater threat.

“I can fix this still, end the loop, and then cast it correctly. But if you insist on making this difficult, I will hunt you down every single loop until you beg me to let you tell me all you know. Then I’ll fix the loop, and if you piss me off enough, you’ll become a loose end I need to tie up.”

Minuette and Starlight locked gazes, each waiting for the other to make a first move.

“Well, if you’re feeling froggy. Then. Jump!” Lyra shouted.

Starlight almost ignored her, but felt the buildup of power from the green unicorn. Some sort of large fist resembling a monkey’s hand formed and nearly collided with Starlight. She barely deflected it in time, and expected the other unicorn to seize the opportunity to attack.

“Run, Lyra!” Minuette commanded.

“Buck this!” Starlight turned on the confused Lyra and fired a small ball of fire at her. The orange globe hit her fur and passed into her, leaking a little smoke. The unicorn fell to the ground, dead.

Minuette gasped, finally releasing the spell she’d been charging.

“Excuse me!” Starlight called out. She trotted up. “I seem to be a bit lost, I was looking for Twilight.” She stopped in place, looking around in confusion. “Deja vu?”

“Go get Dawn!” Minuette yelled at Lyra.

“What?” Lyra glanced between the two of them, and noticed Minuette’s horn had wisps of black smoke coming off it. “Uh, yes!”

Starlight took aim as the mint green unicorn turned to run, firing a bolt of lightning this time since it was a quicker spell to cast. Lyra fell to the ground in cardiac arrest.

Minuette’s horn lit up again, but this time she fell to the ground in pain, her horn sputtering from the overload of magic flowing through it.

“Impressive. You reversed time to before I killed her.” Starlight grinned. “So are we doing this the easy way or the hard way? Because I’m sure finding where you live won’t be hard, and I can be very persuasive.”

“I won’t help you!” Minuette screamed, hoping to draw the attention of other ponies. “The spell you’ve cast has damaged the fabric of time, if you haven’t damned us all yet, you very well might!”

Starlight looked around, noticing a crowd gathering. “We didn’t have to make this personal, but after two hundred forty seven loops trapped in this living hell you call a town, I have to say… I’m very much going to enjoy breaking you.”

Before Minuette could answer, Starlight screamed and poured all her magic into a searing lance of fire, killing the unicorn where she lay.

It only took her a few seconds to pull her hood up and renew the spell to mask her from the presence of the other nearby ponies. Most of them hurried around the two dead unicorns, a few could still see Starlight. As she walked away from the scene, she heard some shouting and looked back.

Starlight wanted to see what the town’s reaction would be to a couple dead ponies, and waited a few houses down to watch.

“Who did this?!”

The shout seemed to carry through the crowd, but Starlight couldn’t see the source from here. A moment later she saw a pegasus staring right at her. A halo of lightning seemed to form, arcing between his feathers and zapping at the ground like a filly’s science toy. She realized her mistake at once. This pony was very angry, and very determined to find out what had happened. Her spell wasn’t strong enough to compel him to look away, or make her any less interesting, especially not to a pony affected by strong emotions.

Starlight turned to run, teleporting down the alley to take the next corner more quickly. There was a loud boom that rattled some nearby windows. She looked back just in time to see a pegasus flying straight at her like a thestral out of tartarus. As he got closer she recognized the pegasus as the babysitter, and threw up a shield as quick as she could.

She felt a jolt of pain as the pegasus collided with the shield, his weather magic discharging and disrupting the shield. She landed on her back and began to laugh, finally something interesting was happening in the loops. “You’re just a worthless pegasus.”

Starlight lit up her horn, and predictably the pegasus tried to stomp on her horn. The magic flew up his foreleg, into the pony, dropping him dead with minimal effort. She got up and dusted herself off, readjusting her cloak. “Now, I think I’ve got some research to do on who the hell you ponies are.”

Author's Note

Next time on DoH3: It's unicorn hunting season, and Dawn's just renewed his license...

Ch. 14 The Most Dangerous Game

Come on everypony smile, smile, smile
Fill my heart up with sunshine, sunshine

I sat up in bed, clutching my chest. There was a deep crushing pain that had me immediately imagining the flattening EKG as my heart stopped, and how there’d be nopony here to get me to a hospital.

It took me a few minutes to calm down and get my breathing back to normal. I wasn’t having a heart attack. I’d just been killed by some unicorn, the same one that killed Lyra and Minuette. The only bright side was the loop had reset, and none of us were going to stay dead.

However, the phantom pains did seem to linger a bit longer than most of the other times I’d recklessly abused the temporal mechanics of time loops for ‘get out of death’ free cards.

“Minuette!”

I left the alarm playing, hurrying over to my balcony, then flying over to her house. The door was unlocked and I let myself in, slamming it behind me and fumbling the lock closed. Minuette was taking a sip of coffee, setting it down when she saw me burst in. I quickly pulled the curtains over the front windows.

“Uh, Dawn, right?” Minuette asked.

I turned and stared at her. “I found the idiot who broke time!”

“You’ve lost me, also, you’re freaking me out and you just broke into my home so…” Minuette gestured to the door.

“What? No you don’t understand, I’ve seen the future! Well, a day’s worth of it, and we’re stuck in a loop and the villain just bucking killed you!”

“This is all very dramatic, and did I mention the part where you didn’t knock? So—”

I calmed down enough to remember that for her, this was the first time I’d done more than say hello to her from across the street. After collecting my thoughts, I repeated what she’d told me yesterday. “Time’s a fourth dimensional tesseract thing and we can see the shadow in three dimensions, and manipulate it, to control time!”

Minuette stared at me for a few seconds while she put the pieces together, realizing I was a time traveler. “Shit, I’m the only one who could have told you that. How bad is it?”

I quickly explained the time loop to Minuette, and how we’d made a breakthrough of sorts yesterday when the reclusive pony responsible for it all had decided to commit some light first-degree murder.

“So, how do we stop her?” I asked.

She had taken a seat on her sofa as I stood near the door. “Well I guess we need to find her, and the sooner in a loop the easier it’ll be. She has to start the day in the same spot just like both of us. Then we need to convince her to end the spell.”

“Do you think she will? I mean, she did just kill three ponies.”

“How many months has the loop been going on? Is this the first time she’s killed anypony?” Minuette inquired. “If I had to guess, she’s getting desperate. Maybe she can’t fix the spell, but we should at least find her and ask. I’m certain I’ve told you this in a past loop, but the best way to fix this is to find the pony who broke it.”

“Yeah, you did.” I sighed. “Great, now I’ve got another thing to add to my list of things to fix in Ponyville when we fix the loop.”

“What kind of things have you been fixing?”

“Oh, a pony gets injured and dies on a construction site. Vinyl and Lyra are both having relationship issues with their marefriends, plus the Cutie Mark Crusaders are building a railgun.”

“You should focus on fixing the spell, not trying to use knowledge from the loops to fix everypony’s personal problems. I’m sure Vinyl and Lyra’s relationships will be just fine without your meddling.”

“Huh?” I looked over at her. “I mean, I’ve basically seen the future, I can make everypony’s lives better when we fix the loop. Wouldn’t it be selfish not to?”

“Just consider it,” Minuette answered. “Maybe things were going to work themselves out all along. A lot fewer paradoxes when we don’t go poking time with a pointy stick.”

“And the stallion who gets crushed at the construction site?” I retorted.

“Changing the future is playing with fire. I’m not saying to just let him die, it sounds like he is in clear and present danger. However, each choice you make irrevocably alters the future, and you have no idea how. For all you know he goes on to start a war, or maybe he retires and fishes for thirty years. Even if it seems like a tiny harmless change, nopony should risk altering the future. Promise me you’ll be careful in these time loops, don’t take it too far and make things worse.”

I groaned. “Fine, I Pinkie Promise I won’t take the hero routine too far and try to fix all the problems. I’ll fix like, eighty percent tops. Now, I think I should be out there looking for this mysterious moron who broke time.”

Minuette nodded and got up from her sofa, walking towards her kitchen. “I’ve got a back door so we can go out. I have a plan on how we can find this pony.”

I followed her out the back of her house, watching as she used her magic to lock it behind her. “Ok, what’s the plan?”

“I’m going to get Lyra and Rarity, and send Lyra to fetch some books from the library. You said we spent most loops studying? Well I’m counting on our adversary knowing this. They’ll show up to interrupt our study session again. When they do, you’ll be waiting on a cloud. Watch what direction they come from. Once we have a better idea who they are and what they want, you can use that knowledge to capture them.”

I opened my mouth in surprise, no words coming to me for several seconds. “You want to be bait and let the mad mare kill you?”

She shrugged. “I’ll be fine next loop. If she’s killed me once she likely suspects I’m the one working against her. You’re the one who will remember what happens. It’s imperative that we don’t let your mystery villain figure that out. As long as she is fixated on me, and my knowledge of time magic, you’ll be free to act. Once she figures out you are the one she needs to worry about, no amount of magic facts you memorized will save you from a pissed off unicorn who is feeling cornered.”

“Fine.” I sighed and took a moment to try and settle down. My heart was still racing from earlier. “I don’t like it, but you’re right.”

“Good, now get to a good vantage point and don’t do anything stupid.”

I laughed, “Me, do something stupid? Have you not met me before?”

From high above Ponyville, perched in a cloud, I watched over the entire town. I was a silent protector, maybe not the hero that Ponyville wanted, but I was the one it was stuck with. Somepony was hurting my friends, and I was going to find them and make them pay.

Unfortunately, I hadn’t seen any pinkish-purple unicorns or mysterious cloaked figures moving around yet. Rarity’s home had not had any visitors yet and it was just past noon. I scanned over the town again and again, like I was trying to find Waldo. So far, all I’d found was the same ponies I saw every day.

Lyra and Minuette had already gone inside to have their fake study session. I figured by now, the unicorn must have had plenty of time to show up and attack them for information. In fact, I was certain of it. And being a unicorn, they could probably use their magic to teleport behind buildings and into cover, making it very easy to hide.

I smirked as a very stupid idea came to me. They might be down there hiding in a bush, but I knew just the way to startle them and get them to reveal themselves.

The cloud began to turn gray as I spread out my wings, letting them tingle as I gathered energy to me. Controlling the weather was still a pretty weird concept to me, though thanks to my recent study it was no longer a great unknown. Pegasi had an innate connection to several elements, and at a subconscious level could manipulate them. Water in its several forms, electricity, and in some cases things like flame or rainbow. Even the wind could be at the beck and call of a pegasus.

So as I focused on brewing a nice juicy thundercloud, I could feel the growing tension in the air. My fur stood on end and the exhilarating feeling of the building voltage coursed through my veins. I remembered the sigil for lightning, the one unicorns had to use to do consciously what a pegasi could do subconsciously. As I pictured it, the lightning around me and in the cloud seemed to get a little less chaotic and more organized. I found it curious, but didn’t have time to ponder how this combination of innate pegasi and focused unicorn magic had affected the cloud.

I looked down at the boutique, feeling the storm cloud as if it had a personality all its own. It was impatient and full of tension, begging to be released. The black cloud had swollen to almost ten meters across, the only thing holding it back was my concentration.

Aiming was the hardest part. For a pegasi it was risky to get hit by lightning in the air, but luckily our innate magic would help direct it around us. When hit, it’d at least mostly be focused on the wings: painful but survivable. However, for the earth ponies and unicorns on the ground, if my lightning bolt hit them, they’d have no protection from the energy. It would pass through their back to their hooves, likely taking a shortcut through the heart, and disrupting its electrical rhythm.

That would be bad.

Part of the reason so few unicorns learned evocation spells was that they were very hard to aim. A unicorn might aim at the broadside of the barn and hit the barn, the house to its side, and the chicken coop all at the same time. Plus, even the tiniest bit too much power in the spell could seriously harm somepony. Without a horn I wasn’t sure my aim, or control, would be much better.

So I focused on where I wanted the lightning to go, reaching out to the anxious lightning cloud. I tried to think loudly at the cloud, instructing it on how I wanted it to strike.

An instant later I felt the discharge from the cloud, and heard an ear splitting roll of thunder that probably carried all the way to Canterlot.

A massive bolt split the sky, forking as it neared the boutique. Half the bolt discharged into a small flagpole atop the building. The other half forked down and charred a patch of earth beside the boutique. I could see several ponies looking up in shock, and a few weather ponies flying as fast as they could up here to disperse the cloud.

I also saw who I was looking for. A very startled lilac unicorn in a cloak, just outside the boutique peering inside a window.

“Jackpot.”

The unicorn teleported and I saw a flash of light inside the boutique.

I gathered up the remaining energy in the cloud, returning it to a fluffy white state, and dropped through the cloud. I plummeted down towards the ground, pulling up at the last second and flying straight towards the door of Carousel Boutique.

Both wings flared to slow me down and I still nearly collided with the front door. I landed and shoved it open, finding overturned tables and a broken chalkboard inside. Lyra lay on the ground, unmoving. The other unicorns were nowhere in sight.

I heard crashing in the kitchen, hurrying in there to find the back door open and Rarity gasping as she leaned against her oven.

“Rarity, are you okay?” I asked.

“Starlight,” she muttered. “She’s back. It’s too dangerous, Dawn, you can’t stop her.”

I ran over and looked at her closely. She’d taken a glancing blow and her foreleg looked broken. As I touched her shoulder some static electricity jumped between us. “Oh, I’m damn well going to try to stop her, though. You’ll be fine.”

“Be careful,” she said.

After hurrying outside I could see Starlight and Minuette firing spells. Minuette was doing her best to play defensive, as Starlight threw spell after spell at her. The magic charging the air was making my hair stand on end. Minuette’s form seemed hazy and blurred as she moved more quickly than I thought possible just an instant before each hostile spell would collide with her. Somehow she was dodging them, but each time she got closer and closer to getting hit.

A stray bolt hit the ground, throwing up enough dirt to give both unicorns a pause to catch their breath. I flew over and landed next to Minuette, spreading my wings and letting the lightning dance between them so I’d look menacing. “You. Shall not. Pass!” I shouted.

Starlight smirked. “Let me guess, you’re the coltfriend? You’re out of your league, pal.”

I heard Minuette whispering behind me. “Buy me a little time to recover, then run and hide. She’s using illusions or something, if she lets either of us live it’ll only be to track us and gain intel for the next loop.”

I gave a slight nod, glad to have such an insightful friend on my side. “There’s just one thing I want to say first, before you start blasting again.”

“Oh?” Starlight raised an eyebrow.

I took a deep breath and began to belt out. “Welcome to the Hotel California!”

“What?” she tilted her head.

I smirked and added a little vibrato to my voice. “What a lovely place!”

Pinkie echoed from the bushes, “what a lovely place.”

Starlight spun and fired a bolt at the pink pony who had suddenly appeared behind her, but Pinkie had sensed it and dodged to the side. “Gah! What in tartarus?”

I shrugged. “I like to sing it to distract people, sue m—”

Before I could finish, something hit me in the chest and threw me backward down an alleyway, slamming through a small door built into a fence. I tumbled into the street and hit a cabbage stand, breaking the cheap plywood and spilling the produce into the street.

“My cabbages!” a pony called out.

“Ugh, and here I was trying to take this fight seriously and she sucker punches me.”

I stood up and looked down the alleyway, seeing Starlight firing wildly around her. That was probably Pinkie Pie, and I nearly rushed back in to resume the fighting. One of the stray bolts flew over my shoulder, hitting the cabbage merchant behind me. I flew up into the air to come at Starlight from above, instead of fleeing like Minuette had asked. Pinkie was gone, and Starlight seemed to be asking Minuette some questions. My friend was pinned to a wall in a field of Starlight’s magic.

With her distracted, this was probably my best chance to do something heroic. I swooped down at her, beckoning weather magic into my wings, prepared to knock what I’m sure was a very smug look off Starlight’s face.

Before I could connect, I heard something snap, and then Starlight’s telekinesis spell grabbed my wings. I lost control, feeling the spell struggle to keep a hold on me. I stopped focusing, letting the electricity ground itself as I hit the ground, and rolled into the second hard wooden object I’d hit in the last few minutes.

“Now I think I have some questions for you, too,” Starlight said.

Suddenly, running and hiding seems like it would have been a very good decision. “Buck.” I could already feel a sharp pain in both wings and I hadn’t spread them yet, so I took off running down the road towards Sugar Cube Corner.

I heard cursing behind me but didn’t stop to look back until I’d reached Pinkie’s home, hoping I’d find her around to help me out. Instead I found a small sign in a bush, and looked up to see some moving ponies getting furniture into a house.

“Heh, if I pull this off it’ll be epic!” I drew a little X on the ground about where the piano had fallen on me earlier on in the time loop, and leaned against the nearest wall of a house and tried to look pitiful and defeated.

“There you are.” Starlight’s horn was glowing but she didn’t fire when she saw me faking some labored breathing, and making no attempt to run. Once her horn stopped glowing, she slowly approached.

When she got to the marked spot on the ground I finally sputtered. “W-wait… I’ll tell you whatever you want to know, just stop!”

She stopped walking. “Alright. Where does Minuette live?”

“In a house,” I answered.

I could hear her teeth grinding from where I lay. “Don’t be a smartass, nopony likes a smartass.”

“S-sorry! Just nervous. It’s, uh…”

“Where does she live, now or I’ll end you!” Starlight shouted.

I needed to buy a little more time, or a lot more, I couldn’t remember exactly when the piano fell. “Is…” I smiled weakly. “Is it bad that you’re kinda turning me on right now?”

My bluff worked, Starlight opened and closed her mouth a few times without speaking. “I don’t have the patience for this. Why couldn’t I get trapped at a beach resort for eternity? Instead I’m stuck with Twilight’s friends and perverts.”

“Hey!” I objected. “I always ask for consent from every pony, donkey, goat, and marsupial in the room.”

Her horn began to glow and I could feel magic tingling in my fur as she got ready to strike. I heard shouting from up above us.

“Wait! I’ll tell you where she lives!” I pulled out the sign from behind the bush.

“Meep meep?” Starlight read out loud.

I grinned.

She looked up, and the piano crashed on her making a deafening sound as wood splintered.

As the dust cleared I saw the clear outline of a magical shield around Starlight.

“I knew the cartoons were unrealistic.” Before she could recover and carry out her threat, I bolted down the street towards the nearest pony I knew would hide me for the rest of the day.

It only took me a minute to reach and slam through the door to Bon Bon’s home. I spun her sign to closed, locked the door, and hurried into the kitchen where I was sure I’d find the earth pony baking.

“Dawn?” Bon Bon sputtered as I barged in.

My mane and tail were a singed mess, one or both of my wings were injured, and my fur was half dirt and half melted. “Bon Bon! You’ve gotta help me, there’s some villain named Starlight, she killed Lyra and Minuette, and she’s coming for me!”

I heard a screeching noise, and noticed she was holding a cast iron pan with some sort of dessert she was cooking in it. The handle was beant nearly ninety degrees by her passive earth pony strength.

“She killed Lyra?” Bon Bon had a fury in her eyes far more frightening than the rage I’d seen in Starlight’s eyes.

“We’re in a time loop! She’ll be fine, technically!” I blurted out. “I just, I don’t know how to fight her! She’s strong. What if she keeps winning, loop after loop, until she does fix it and we don’t get any extra lives?”

Bon Bon calmed down considerably. “Well, then I guess it’s time to come out of retirement.” She walked over to one of the ovens and turned a few knobs, before going to open the pantry.

“Yeah so we—wait what? Retirement?” I asked.

I could hear something that sounded like a heavy latch and some wood moving, and the door to the pantry opened. There was a set of stairs to a basement inside.

“I was formerly an agent of S.M.I.L.E. The Secret Monster Intelligence League of Equestria,” Bon Bon explained. “Hurry, she could be here any minute.”

“Does everypony have a basement? It better not be another sex dungeon,” I complained, before hurrying inside and down the stairs.

Bon Bon followed me down and I heard the door closing behind me. Inside her basement I saw some advanced electronics, the kind I’d only ever seen before in the largest pony cities. There were also maps on the walls showing Ponyville in great detail. Shelving units contained food and water, and I realized this probably was Bon Bon’s panic room and base of operations.

“Wow, at least spies believe in being prepared,” I observed.

Bon Bon began digging through a filing cabinet before she pulled out some dossiers and brought them over, setting them out for me to read. “You’ll need some training to fight a unicorn and not get obliterated. Luckily for you, unicorns are the least dangerous thing we used to fight.”

“Wow.” I picked up one of the folders titled So You’re Stuck in a Time Loop. The next one was Insane Unicorns and You. The third folder was titled Best Places to Hide a Body. “Hey, Bon Bon, why do I need this last one about hiding a body?”

She smirked. “I wanted you to know you’ll never be found if this time loop ends and anything happens to Lyra.”

I gulped. “Loud and clear.”

“Now, hurry up and read those. I don’t have a sparring mat so this is gonna hurt, but I need to teach you some mixed martial arts after you’re done reading.”

“Don’t worry about it, if I die I’ll wake up fine in the next loop.”

“Good, I won’t have to go easy.”

The next several hours included some of my favorite things: mares, sweaty bodies, and creative poses. They also included some things I liked a lot less: intense exercise, hitting hard surfaces, and pulling muscles I didn’t know I had.

Bon Bon wasn’t kidding about her martial arts skills, slamming me into the brick wall of the basement hard enough to make me see the room spinning. She offered me a hoof to help me up, taking me to a nearby chair to sit while she opened a bottle of water for me. I took it and drank the whole bottle. My fur was drenched in sweat, and I already felt like I’d been working out for days.

“While you catch your breath, where do you want to hit a unicorn to disrupt a spell?” Bon Bon asked.

“Nerve cluster at the base of the horn. Don’t aim for the horn directly unless you’ve got a weapon, they’re harder than a hoof,” I replied.

“Good, best places to disrupt their focus?”

“Eyes, throat, groin.”

“Best way to avoid a spell?”

“Keep moving.”

“Correct.” Bon Bon smiled. “Earth ponies have the strength advantage, and resilience, if we get close enough and are so inclined we could snap most ponies like twigs. Luckily, Equestria is a peaceful place so ponies who have to get their hooves dirty are few and far between. You’ve become one of those ponies now, Dawn. You may need to get your hooves dirty to fix this, but as a pegasus you don’t have my strength. Speed, weather magic, and the element of surprise are your strengths.”

I got out of the chair and tried to stretch, but by now every muscle was equally sore. “Okay. Can you help me sneak around unnoticed? Starlight’s using illusions and I’m not sure how to see her before she sees me. I can’t just keep shooting lightning blindly.”

Bon Bon rubbed a hoof to her chin. “Hmm, why didn’t you say so?” She went back to the filing cabinet and pulled out some more reading materials. “Mental exercises to help you see through lesser illusions. If she’s determined, you won’t see through a powerful enough invisibility spell. The problem is, the less ponies can see her, the less she can see.”

“Huh?” I asked. I pulled over one of the dossiers and opened it.

“Invisibility has a catch. If you make it so all the light passes around or through you, then how can you see?” Bon Bon explained. “The light is no longer hitting your eyes. This Starlight of yours could be truly invisible, but then she would be blind, and very cold, as no light or warmth reached her.”

She came over and tapped on the dossier. “So ponies take shortcuts. They don’t go invisible, they make themselves less interesting, or quieter, or look like somepony else.”

I nodded as I read through some of the tips and tricks for bypassing illusion magic. “Makes sense. I did see her after the first time she killed Lyra, I was really angry and determined and it was like I looked right at her.”

“First time? How many times has she killed Lyra?” Bon Bon asked, the tone of her voice icy.

“Uh, twice so far?” I smiled. “Look, it’s not that bad…”

“You’re going to come back here tomorrow for more training, and you’re going to let me help next time you confront her.”

I shook my head. “You’ve done plenty, I couldn’t ask you to put yourself in harm's way.”

“That wasn’t a request. If you can win this next round of sparring, I’ll let you face Starlight without me.”

I got into a fighting stance as we prepared for another practice round. “Fair enough.” What I didn’t tell her, was that I could just not tell her about the time loop and face Starlight on my own anyway.

Bon Bon made the first move, and I countered it like she had shown me. I tried to grapple her and spin, getting behind her where her strength would help her less. Unfortunately she expected it, reversing the hold and slamming me into the ground too hard. I never felt myself lose consciousness.

Author's Note

Don't let Dawn's loss to Starlight in round 1 distract you from the fact that in 1998, The Undercolt threw Ponykind off Hell in a Stable, and plummeted 16 feet through Celestia's cake table.

Next time on DoH3: Dawn tries some new tricks to capture Starlight, before coming to a startling realization. The only thing left to do, is deliver a hero monologue...

Ch. 15 Happy Death Day

The next few mornings I woke up worrying that Starlight would blast into my room looking for revenge. It would seem I was due some good fortune, because it hadn't happened yet. Starlight had said something about me being Minuette’s coltfriend, and seemed content to dismiss my existence and pursue other leads for now. Unfortunately, her best lead was Minuette, who lived right across the street. I didn’t want to abandon the unicorn to get interrogated over and over, so I’d started hurrying across the street to warn her every day. Starlight didn’t know where either of us lived yet, but it was only a matter of time.

Before I took on Starlight again, and made it abundantly clear I was gunning for her, I needed to learn how to fight properly. A few days of training with Bon Bon and I felt like I could probably wrestle Applejack and win. I also had a newfound respect for the baker, and if she worked out as hard as she sparred, it was no wonder all that candy didn’t go straight to her flanks.

Of course, I’d told Bon Bon as much when I commented on how all those bon bon’s hadn’t gone to her ass. That was why I was waking up in bed right now, after getting slammed a little too hard into a wall during sparring practice.

I rubbed my sore spine before rolling out of bed, and turning off my alarm. My hooves tingled a little as if they were still asleep, pins and needles going through them. “Lesson learned, never even hint that Bon Bon’s fat.”

After a brief morning routine of getting ready and alerting Minuette, I took to the sky to watch over town again. I’d developed a daily routine that involved helping the construction pony over the loops, and visiting my friends. Sticking to it may have helped me appear like just another pony stuck in the loop. Since I still had the element of surprise, it was time to put it to good use. Hopefully Starlight hadn’t gone too hard on my friends trying to find answers, but as of today, it was her turn to start supplying some answers.

I wasn’t sure things would go much differently this time, but I hoped they would. Now I knew some of the signs to look for. If I glanced at a patch of road between two houses, and my eyes instantly averted, then it could be the sign of an illusion spell. The mental exercises had reminded me a bit of meditation, but allegedly would also help me catch my mind wandering. At the first sign, the training instructed me on how to refocus and pierce the spell. As soon as you saw through the spell, even for a second, it would cease to function.

Today I’d asked Minuette to gather Lyra and Rarity to work on the spell, instead of laying low to hide from Starlight. So I sat over town, slowly scanning my way towards the castle, when I felt my eyes flicker. I started to wonder about how Dash was doing. Before I could get lost in that thought, I refocused and caught sight of Starlight, heading into town from the direction of the castle.

“Jackpot.”

Bon Bon had instructed me to strike hard and fast, while Starlight wasn’t expecting it. So I waited until she got a little closer to the Carousel Boutique. I wanted to make sure Minuette would hear it, so she could use that freaky speed of hers to help take down Starlight.

Once Starlight stopped near the boutique, I dropped off my cloud and folded my wings to my side, legs tucked in. After gravity had given me an assist in speed, I flared my wings and began beating hard, diving straight towards Starlight. The wing was blurring my vision and I realized I’d built up too much speed, but it was too late to stop. I started to pull up, dodging a chimney and thinking very angry thoughts to help build up a nice bolt of lightning quicker.

Before I could ram into her side with the speed of a freight train, she looked over and saw me. Starlight had time to smirk as her horn lit up. I was moving too fast to dodge, hoping I’d connect with her side first. Instead, I felt a jolt of pain, waking up back in my bed before I’d processed what happened.

My next two attempts didn’t fare much better. For my fourth attempt to capture Starlight, I crouched inside a bush on the road leading towards Carousel Boutique. Bon Bon had tried to teach me how to not be too conspicuous, and I thought that having a dozen ponies help me ambush Starlight might have been too obvious. For that reason I’d decided to try and keep the strike team small. Pinkie was the queen of popping out of places unexpectedly and to be perfectly honest, I had no idea where she was hiding right now. Maybe she’d jump out of my own mane at the perfect moment.

Starlight was going for a leisurely stroll down the road as if she didn’t realize, or didn’t care, that she’d gone this way several times before. I gently touched the tripwire running across the road with my hoof, smirking as the unicorn walked right towards it.

I’d wanted to build a pit with punji sticks in it, but Pinkie had told me that’d be overkill. Apparently there was such a thing as war crimes in Equestria, and Pinkie had talked me into something a bit less lethal.

Starlight hit the tripwire and almost fell over, glaring around the street to find the culprit. Only now did she realize the town was unusually quiet. Pinkie had ensured nopony would be out on this street this morning. Then she heard the loud snap as the trap was sprung, and several large logs rolled out into the street from between two houses. A party cannon boomed, spreading confetti and caltrops everywhere.

Several sticks burst out of the dirt carrying netting hung from chicken wire between them. Despite how painstakingly Pinkie and I had set this trap up, it only took Starlight about five seconds to unleash a wave of magic and disintegrate the netting.

It was long enough to give me the opportunity I wanted. I was halfway to Starlight, staying on my hooves and low to the ground hoping she wouldn’t expect it. I saw a flash of pink from a street lamp, and Pinkie was closing from the other side.

Starlight shouted out in pain as she stepped on one of the caltrops, firing a blast of magic that caused one of the large logs rolling towards her to explode. I felt some of the chunks of wood hit me, but the unicorn still hadn’t turned to focus her magic on me.

For the first time, I managed to reach her before she could use her magic on me. I hit her side hard, and raised a hoof to hit the sensitive part of her horn near the base, when there was a flash of magic. Pinkie landed on me a moment later. Starlight had teleported away, leaving us to untangle ourselves. The street looked like someone had ransacked a logging company and lit half the debris on fire.

A moment later I realized the flaming logs were floating up into the air above me, and I was unable to get away before they came crashing back down.

Today I was perched atop a cloud that was gently drifting south in the breeze towards Twilight’s castle. Only during one of my attempts was I quick enough to get the drop on Starlight, so I decided to do a little recon today. I could learn more about her daily routine, and why she seemed less fixated on Minuette now. Maybe if she got distracted by somepony on the way into town I might have more luck.

So far I hadn’t seen her, as she was likely cheating by using her magic again. I’d put a few extra clouds up in the sky with the hopes that I wouldn’t stand out too much. I stretched and wondered what was taking Starlight so long, when I felt a flash of cold surround the cloud.

I tried to leap off and take flight, only to realize I had been encased in some sort of crystal. My muzzle was held shut and I couldn’t call out for help. I realized with a growing sense of dread, I couldn’t take a breath of fresh air.

Panic hit me and I began to struggle against the clear chunk of crystal around me, as it slowly sank through the cloud. I tried to cause a storm cloud, some lightning, or anything I could, but the glassy prison around me prevented it.

After a moment I felt my stomach turn, as the crystal dropped from the cloud and plummeted down towards the ground. I couldn’t even blink as I saw the sky rush past, then a roof, then the crystal shatter with me inside it.

Come on everypony smile, smile, smile
Fill my heart up with sunshine, sunshine

I was getting very tired of waking up, in pain, to this same song. I was somewhere around zero for nine on my attempts to ambush Starlight. I’d tried hitting hard and fast, recruiting help, and even just spying on her without trying to take her prisoner.

Since I was lost in thought it took me a minute to realize my muzzle was damp. I sat up in bed and rubbed a foreleg across it, noticing my cyan fur was now stained red with blood. “That’s odd.” I said to myself. In all my loops I’d died and woken up unharmed, aside from phantom pains of my death. While unpleasant, I’d never shown physical signs of trauma.

I got out of bed and went into the bathroom, cleaning up my muzzle with a damp cloth, then holding it there until the bleeding stopped. My nose was still sore, and some of the muscles in my neck were painfully tight, as if I’d slept on them wrong. I recalled getting crushed by some large logs, but compared some of the other deaths, that was barely a flesh wound.

Caution got the better of me, so I decided to take the loop off to visit the Ponyville hospital and have a talk with Doctor Stable. I stopped by the construction site briefly to save the brown earth pony, I didn’t want the doctor to be busy in surgery when I got to the hospital. The stallion thanked me and I headed off.

Once I got to Doctor Stable’s office, I was able to see him immediately. “Hey, Dawn. What brings you by today?” Stable asked.

I sat in the chair across from him. “So this is going to sound all kinds of crazy, but I’m trapped in a time loop. I keep dying, but I wake up okay the next day. Today I didn’t. Can you cast some spells and take some x-rays or something?”

“What? Dawn, I know some strange things happen to Ponyville but a time loop? Are you sure?” he asked.

“I know how it sounds, but it’s true. And if it’s not true, you’ve still got to run one of those fancy magic scans to figure out what else is wrong, so what have we got to lose?” I shrugged and pointed up to his horn. “Besides, think of the case study if I’m correct and you discover some cool temporal paradox illness!”

He sighed and chuckled once. “I would have done an exam regardless, for a friend.” His horn began to glow and I felt a tingle of magic run over me.

“Hey don’t get sentimental on me, I get enough of that from the mares in town. The perfect stallion relationship involves fishing, growing old, and not talking.”

Doctor Stable didn’t laugh at my joke, instead I felt the magic increasing as he seemed to concentrate harder. He carried on for a minute before noticing me staring at him. “Oh, you wanted an x-ray too? Let’s go do that.”

“Wow, that felt rehearsed. Intensely focused, quick change of topic, how bad is it?” I inquired.

“Let’s… get some x-rays.”

About half an hour later I was in a patient gown in a lead-lined room waiting for the results. “You realize I’m always naked, so why bother with a gown?” I asked the x-ray tech.

“Because it’s hospital policy, it’s how we’ve always done it.”

“Yeah, but, why? If I take it off, I’m still covered in fur. And the way you cut the gown, my junk’s gonna hang out anyway. So the one useful thing it could be doing, it isn’t doing.”

He shrugged, and Doctor Stable walked into the room. He placed some of the images up on the lightboard so that we could all see them.

“So, Dawn, I’m not sure how familiar you are with the pony bone structure, but look at this.” He pointed a hoof up to the image of my skeleton.

I got a little closer to see it better. “It looks pretty normal to me. Are there supposed to be so many criss-crossing lines on it?”

“These,” he tapped on my femur in the image, “are healed hairline fractures. I noticed it when I cast the spell on you, but there were so many I knew it couldn’t possibly be right.”

“Wait, but the loop restarts and I go back to normal every morning. Right?”

“I suppose it could be working like that, but it doesn’t seem to be. Maybe time is rewinding or something but it doesn’t go back quite far enough to erase the damage. Maybe the spell is weakening. It’s beyond my expertise. But what I can tell you is this: if you keep dying, eventually it’s going to be more than scars.”

I gulped and nodded my head. “Like waking up in the morning with a nose bleed and a sore muzzle.”

He raised an eyebrow and stared at me. “And you’re sharing that now? Was there any bleeding from the ears, or eyes? If the bones show this many signs of injury, your soft tissue is probably a lot worse off.”

“No.” I shook my head. “Just a nosebleed, that's why I came in today.”

“Well, how hard will it be for you to avoid dying anymore until you resolve this crisis?” Stables asked.

“Well, I’m kind of taking a day off from fighting a homicidal and emotionally unstable unicorn who seems to take it very personally when I try to knock her teeth out. I’m guessing it’ll be hard to avoid dying anymore.”

“You know,” he stated, “you could always try talking to her. Not everypony’s first choice is violence, Dawn.”

“If you’d met her you’d understand,” I sighed. “First time I met her she killed two of my friends.”

“Just think it over. If you keep this up, something bad will happen. The physical toll you pay to fix the loop may not go away when it ends.”

I nodded. “Fine, it’s past noon. I’ll take a day off from the violence, and try to reach out to this Starlight maniac.”

It was already past noon when I left the hospital, so I acted on my plan to take a day off from getting my ass kicked. Tomorrow would be a better day to try and reach out to Starlight and call for a parlay, or maybe I would call it a truce instead. Trying to quote the pirate code to somepony who definitely wouldn’t get the reference might not be a good idea, even if I found it endlessly amusing to confuse ponies with Earth’s pop culture.

In order to get a day of rest without getting attacked or discovered by Starlight I’d have to go somewhere in town she wouldn’t think to look. I flew straight up to Dash’s house as quickly as I could, figuring it would be as safe a place as any since unicorns can’t fly.

As soon as I walked into her home to enjoy my day off, I noticed a picture of the two of us on her mantle. A wave of sorrow hit me as I walked over to look at it. We’d taken the photo a few weeks ago, but it had actually been almost a year for me. Dash and I were seated at one of the restaurants in town. We’d finally admitted our feelings for each other, helped Twilight to rescue Shining Armor, and ran Soarin out of town.

I couldn’t remember the name of the restaurant.

I’d been keeping myself so busy trying to fix things that I hadn’t realized how deeply I missed Dash. I wiped a foreleg across my muzzle and it came away damp with tears. She was out there somewhere, blissfully unaware that I was trapped, missing the pony I cared for most. If it wasn’t for our mutual friends I don’t know how I would have coped. All the visits to let Fluttershy console me, or all the hijinx with Pinkie, couldn’t replace the special place that Dash had come to occupy in my life.

Across the room was a dining table, the one that I’d found myself sitting at only moments after being zapped to Equestria. I’d had a mean right hook and sent Soarin toppling to the floor for trying to kiss me. Then I’d done my best impression of a space shuttle trying to fly: half-gliding and half-plummeting towards the ground in my attempt to flee my strange pony nightmare.

A couple weeks later, I’d worked together with Dash at this same table to try and make things right with her. I’d given her the inside advice she needed, and the courage she lacked, to have a successful second date with her fillyhood idol. Perhaps I did my job too well, because the date had ended in a way that thrilled Dash and horrified the man riding shotgun in her mind.

Before long I had wondered my way up to her bedroom, lost in my nostalgia. I came across a full-size standing mirror in her bedroom, and looked at my reflection. Even looking at myself it seemed somehow unfamiliar. “Have I really been in the loop so long this all seems so distant? Will she even recognize who I am now, running around loop after loop trying to cripple Starlight?”

I went to Dash’s bed and lay down on the compacted clouds, pulling the blanket up over me. The pillow smelled faintly of spring rain. As far as time was concerned, Dash had laid here only a day ago, so her scent still lingered. I smiled as I thought about the nights we’d laid here together snuggling, drifting off to sleep before I knew it.

Come on everypony smile, smile, smile
Fill my heart up with sunshine, sunshine

I woke up in a far better mood than usual. It helped that I hadn’t been killed by something straight out of a Saturday Morning Cartoon yesterday. It also helped that I’d spent the night at Dash’s house, remembering how far I had come from a socially isolated human, to a somewhat isolated and assholish pony, to being in a committed relationship. If a little friendship could turn a sarcastic jerk of a human into a functioning member of society, maybe Twilight was right about it being magic.

I took a little time this morning to get ready, treating myself well by taking a shower and shampooing my mane, then brushing it. It was very relaxing and helped lower my stress levels as I treated it like an almost normal day. The room was dark despite the sun being up, so I headed over to open the curtains. Once I got to the window and opened them, I looked outside to see Starlight standing in front of Minuette’s house.

“Buck me.” I dropped the curtain as Starlight looked across the street at my home, but I knew deep down she’d seen somepony peeking out the window. “Damn it!”

I ran across the room, looking for something to defend myself with. It was bad enough she’d found where Minuette lived. If she could get here this fast, and realized where I lived, she might be able to kill me before I even woke up for the morning. I’d never live long enough to be aware of another loop.

“Shit!” I ran into the bathroom, looking around for a razor or something. I opened the medicine cabinet, and saw the bottle of fast acting poison joke that I’d been saving. I laughed as I grabbed it and downed it in one gulp.

I closed the door for a moment as Zecora’s potion acted quickly to reshape me into the form the poison joke had found most “funny” for a human male stranded in Equestria: a pink mare with a highly active libido. Being a mare had been confusing at first, led to some wildly fun experiences, and threatened me with split personality disorder. The poison joke may have gone a bit overboard, but eventually I made my peace with it. Now I kept it around mostly for all the fun things two adventurous ponies could do with such a potion.

Once I was finished changing, my fur matched the old pink streak in my hair, which was still mostly blond. The highlight was blue now, and aside from the cutie mark, I looked like a completely different pony.

I opened the door to walk out into my bedroom, noticing Starlight standing there looking through a dresser.

“Uh, hi, can I help you?” I asked.

She looked over at me and her horn glowed briefly before fading. “Sorry, I was looking for a stallion friend of mine. I think he’s been… cheating on me.” Starlight smiled and looked over. “Do you live here alone?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “Just me.”

“And you are?” She asked.

I blurted the first two vaguely weather sounding words to come to mind. “Sunny Cloud.”

“Ah, Sunny, I see you’ve got some rather interesting… marital aids,” Starlight replied. “And some of these outfits seem a bit big for a mare.”

I had to think of something quickly that sounded plausible, and one pony in town was almost as infamous as the elements were famous. “I’m a friend of Cloud Kicker’s.” I smiled as I walked up next to her and brushed my feathers along her flank. “Friends with benefits you could say. Have you heard of the weather vein trick?”

My bluff worked. I was beginning to understand why Cloud had so much fun teasing ponies like this. Starlight blushed and backed away from me. “Wait, what?”

“I’m no stranger to horns either, if you’re feeling horny. Mysterious pony breaking into my home is one of my top three fantasies,” I explained.

“No… just no!” Starlight groaned. “Look, I’m looking for an idiotic cyan pegasus stallion. Everypony seems to know everypony in this damn town, so can you at least tell me who it is?”

I tapped a hoof to my chin as I thought about it. “Hmm, real sarcastic smart ass, always doing reckless stuff? Sounds like Dawn. I think he lives near Ghastly Gorge.”

“Thank you! Finally somepony in this town can answer a bucking question on the first try. Well, sorry to have barged in, Sunny. Take care!” Starlight vanished in a flash of teleportation magic.

I slumped down on the ground and exhaled in relief, having only narrowly avoided being discovered. The plan was to reach out to her today; now I knew she’d be investigating Ghastly Gorge. She was expecting Dawn, not Sunny, so I’d have to change back before I went to talk to her. However, I was feeling paranoid that she could be lurking around my house to spy on me. So I went and took another long shower before taking the antidote to change back. She’d bought my lie about being a mare, and didn’t know about the poison joke. I could hide in plain sight anytime I wanted as long as I was careful. Starlight seemed more than happy to blast first and ask questions later, especially after I’d tried to grievously injure her over a dozen times. Luckily for me, as far as she knew Sunny was just another face in the crowd.

Once I finally got cleaned up, and convinced she wasn’t lurking in my bedroom any longer, I decided to go check on Minuette.

The front door to her house was locked, so I went around to the back and found it open. Now that I was a blue stallion again, if Starlight did find me, she wouldn’t realize I lived in the home of the pink mare she’d barged in on earlier.

Once I got inside, I found Minuette dead on her sofa, encased in crystal. “This mare is really starting to piss me off.”

I rushed back outside and took off towards the Ghastly Gorge. It was all the way across town, one of the reasons I’d sent Starlight there looking for me. As I flew over I calmed down a little bit, and began to slow down. If I went in like she expected, hostile and ready to knock some heads around to save Equestria, she’d respond in kind by blasting me again. I wasn’t some super spy or unicorn, and I’d seen over the past week how well trying to be one was working out for me.

So I landed quietly outside the gorge once I’d spotted her, and walked down into the canyon. Along the sides were the large holes the quarray eels lived in. I stayed away from them and the gashes their teeth had left on the walls and ground of the chasm.

I could see Starlight from here, poking at the barrier that surrounded the town and trapped everypony inside. Ripples were traveling along the wall of shattered time, and it almost looked like she was trying to find a way to make a hole in it. The light seemed less distorted, and for a moment I worried she might succeed and step outside, leaving me alone here forever.

“Don’t shoot, I’m alone and unarmed. I just want to talk,” I said loudly.

Starlight spun around, horn still glowing, but when she saw I had told the truth she didn’t fire. “You again, Dawn.” She groaned and glanced back at the barrier. “If you’re here to surrender it’s about time. As fun as it is finding new and exciting ways to crush you like a bug, it’s distracting me from fixing this spell.”

I took a few more steps towards her so I wouldn’t have to yell to talk to her, and she continued to hold her fire. “Look, I know you broke time and it’s okay. I want to help fix it. We can both walk out of this eternal prison together, but only if you agree to stop killing ponies.”

“Pfft. It’s not like they stay dead, nothing we do has consequences. There is no escape. Our only reprieve is the amusement we can find.” She smirked as she lifted up a stone, encased it in crystal, and let it fall to the ground.

“I’ve been studying with my friends on how to fix this. So, Starlight, are we going to fix this thing the easy way, or the hard way?”

“I don’t have time for anypony or anything that can’t help me achieve my goals. What good is a pegasus going to do me? Why shouldn’t I just keep killing you for fun?” she asked.

I advanced slowly on Starlight, my head slightly lowered as I glared directly at her. I spoke softly but firmly.

“Yes, I’m just a pegasus, but I used to be a human from another dimension. I don’t have magic, but what I do have is questionable morality, and a very particular set of skills. Skills that would make me a nightmare for somepony like you. If you help me fix this loop now, that’ll be the end of it. I won’t look for you, I won’t rat you out to Twilight or Celestia. However, if you kill me with magic one more fucking time, I will look for you next loop. I will find you. And I will kill you. And then I’ll make a game of doing it slightly faster each loop, until you go insane and I can get back to fixing your mess on my own.”

Starlight had taken a few steps back as I approached. Her back was against the canyon wall near one of the large holes. I stopped in front of her, watching as she levitated a small rock up in the air. “Hmm. You say you can be useful to me, then provide empty threats? Prove it.”

She tossed the stone she was holding up into the dark hole in the canyon wall. I heard a rumbling and took a step back, flaring my wings and getting ready to fly. I tripped and fell onto my rump, looking down to see I was now sitting in a large gash in the ground. My eyes went wide in surprise as I scrambled back to my hooves. A mouth snapped shut around me just as I tried to take flight, swallowing me whole.

Author's Note

Next time on DoH3: Dawn's angry. Starlight won't like him when he's angry. Witness the epic conclusion to the fight of the century as Dawn and his friends come up with the perfect ~~heist~~ ass-kicking

Ch. 16 Home Run

Come on everypony smile, smile, smile
Fill my heart up with sunshine, sunshine

If you’d asked me a year ago to rate the most painful ways to die, I might have said something like fire. I like to think that I’m well educated, but death is one of those things most ponies are only unfortunate enough to experience once. Given my new skill set, I could safely say fire barely cracks the top ten worst ways to die.

I won’t bore you with numbers two through ten, but I can safely say the worst way I’ve died in a time loop was the quarray eel. As I lay in bed I could still feel the thick slime and how it burned. I still struggled to breathe, and the claustrophobia lingered. It took a couple minutes to will myself not to dwell on the excruciating details of being a snack for a very large pony-eating killing machine.

I’d have to do something to end this, once and for all. If Starlight wouldn’t cooperate by choice, I’d have to force her to. There was just one problem.

I was in no way a warrior. I tended to deflect inquiries into my well-being with humor and procrastinate when I had a tough decision to make. Ponies often assumed I was just some jerk who didn’t want to fit in.

I was primarily a healer. It didn’t matter if I looked like a human or a pony, the thing I enjoyed most in life had always been healing others. When somepony was having their worst day, when nopony else could be there to help, I was there. By pony standards I was very admirable in my desire to heal and do no harm, but what ponies often forgot is that I was a human first.

I couldn’t use any fancy combat spells, or do pony kung fu. I’d only saved Equestria twice, compared to Twilight’s fifteen or so times. My favorite way to solve conflict was to threaten to get Celestia involved.

Despite all that, I did grow up in a world where our favorite pastime was violent movies and video games that could teach you to survive anything from the zombie apocalypse to driving a taxi crazily through a town. Starlight may outmatch most ponies in every way that mattered, but I doubted even she had the raw potential for chaos and violence I did. That same potential had drawn Discord to use Earth as his vacation home. Humans could do a lot of horrible things when they got angry.

And I was pissed.

I had one other thing Starlight didn’t have: a town full of friends. Some of them had contingency plans for time loops, some of them were spies, and some had seen through my brash exterior to my potential to change for the better. With their help, I would make sure each and every one of us got through this time loop. Most importantly, I’d make sure we opened a can of whoop-ass on Starlight so big that she’d start whimpering in fear anytime she saw a can opener.

It didn’t take long to gather up my friends and convince them to meet at Bon Bon’s home. I’d decided to use the potion to turn myself into a mare. I could go around the town and if Starlight saw me, she’d think it was just Sunny going around to do her errands. Given how Starlight had been killing me on sight a lot lately, it seemed a prudent measure to take. It took time to make preparations, and being a mare again proved the perfect disguise.

Bon Bon led us down into the basement once I’d explained to her what was going on. Knowing she was a S.M.I.L.E. agent had gone a long way to convincing her I was from the future, and not on some crazy poison-joke fueled bender. I suppose after doing that a few times, it can color a pony’s perception of you.

Minuette, Lyra, Bon Bon, Pinkie Pie, and I were huddled up around a table where I’d hastily scribbled some notes to represent the plan. We were each dressed in one of Pinkie Pie’s dangerous mission outfits. She’d even sewn pockets into mine, where I’d stashed the rest of the gear from her prophetic In Case of Time Loop Emergency Kit. The last piece of the kit was resting against the wall.

“I’ve brought you all here for your special skills that will help us with this mission. Minuette, you’re the only pony who can do time magic and not break reality. I need you to do that thing and keep us one step ahead of Starlight’s attacks,” I stated.

“Got it,” she answered.

“Bon Bon, you’re the only one with access to the network of spy devices to coordinate this mission. Everypony have one of Bon Bon’s ear pieces?” I asked.

“Roger roger!” Pinkie said through the device.

My earpiece whined slightly from the proximity to hers as it transmitted. “Ugh, not so loud. Anyway, Pinkie, I need you to go get Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rarity. You’re the only one quick enough to get them all undetected using your… well, whatever it is that lets you defy physics like the laws of the universe are more of a suggestion.”

“Got it. What do you need us to do?” Pinkie inquired.

“Make it look like you’re evacuating the town, and be sure to tell everypony they’re stuck in a time loop but you found a way out. Send them all towards town hall,” I explained.

“What am I going to do?” Lyra walked over and stood next to me. “Don’t think I’d let you do this alone, even if my magic isn’t as awesome as Minuette’s.”

“Lyra, I need you to find Vinyl and have her crank up the bass to eleven,” I explained.

“What?” Lyra frowned. “You’re sidelining me?”

I glanced at Bon Bon, who nodded once. “I couldn’t live with myself if anything happened to you. The only way this works is if I keep you safe so I don’t have to worry about protecting you, Lyra.”

She immediately looked over at Bon Bon, seeming to realize who had really made that call, before turning back to me. “Alright. If you care about me that much, then I’ll do it.” She shot one more nastly glance at Bon Bon. “For you, Dawn.”

I was glad they probably wouldn’t remember this conversation. I was uncomfortable watching the two of them, they were clearly leaving a lot left unspoken and it was affecting their relationship.

“Anyway, you’ll lead her here and that’s when it’ll happen…”

“Come on everypony! You too Apple Bloom!” Applejack shouted. “Hurry up, portal outta the time loop won’t be open forever.”

She trotted down the road on the left side, while Fluttershy was leading several animals down the middle. On the right side of the road, Rarity was knocking on doors and getting everypony to evacuate their homes. The crowd of ponies going down the main street had at least fifty ponies present.

“Hurry up, darling,” Rarity said to Lemon Drop. “Remember straight to town hall, if the villain shows up nopony look back. Run for safety, you know the drill!”

“The eagle has left the nest” Bon Bon’s voice crackled as she spoke into my earpiece. “Repeat, the eagle has left the nest.”

“Hear that Pinkie?” I asked. “Have our friends keep it up.”

Pinkie appeared from behind a picket fence and hopped over to Fluttershy. “Alright, you best hurry up with those animals. Starlight’s almost here.”

She nodded. “Please, Pinkie, keep an eye on Dawn for me. I wish I could do more.”

“Don’t be a silly filly, we all have a part to play and you’re helping keep her safe just as much as me!”

Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. “Her?”

Pinkie put a hoof to her lips. “Shh, it’s a secret. She’s undercover.”

Fluttershy muttered something too soft for me to hear.

“What was that, Pinkie?” I asked.

“She said you should visit her one loop as a mare and, um… I don’t wanna repeat the rest. There are fillies present,” Pinkie responded.

I heard an “eep” that somehow carried all the way down the road to me, and saw Fluttershy blush red enough to match Big Mac’s coat color.

Luckily, her embarrassment was cut short as Starlight glided down towards my friends in an aura of her own magic.

“She can fly now?” Bon Bon asked. “That wasn’t in the intel you gave me, Dawn!”

“Hey if being a spy is so easy, why didn’t you know?” I quipped.

“What’s going on here?” Starlight’s voice carried as if it were the Royal Canterlot voice, getting everypony’s attention. To their credit, this wasn’t the first apocalypse they’d faced, and everypony immediately scattered to find the nearest panic room.

“It’s over, Starlight.” Applejack stepped forward defiantly. “We beat you once, and I reckon we’ll do it again.”

“Applejack, honestly, did you really find a way to fix or escape the spell?” Starlight asked. She landed on the ground and stepped right up to her, muzzle to muzzle.

“Honestly? I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time.” Applejack swung so fast that I barely saw the punch thrown.

Starlight had been expecting it, and her shield came up just in time to throw the earth pony back into the nearest wall as it expanded. The wooden wall of the house cracked from the impact.

“Crap, where’s Lyra’s distraction? Do we move early?” I asked.

“Hold position!” Bon Bon replied.

Applejack hadn’t gotten up yet, and a very angry Rarity stood in the middle of the road. Wisps of green were trailing from her eyes and horn, reminding me of a story Spike had told me once and asked me not to repeat. I smirked, apparently Rarity had never fully let go of the things she’d learned from that tome of dark magic, and I couldn’t be prouder.

Before the two unicorns came to blows, there were loud explosions and all the windows in the street shattered outwards. The loudest bass drop I’d ever heard was playing and it sounded like it was coming from everywhere at once. I couldn’t hear a damn thing except the lyrics.

“It’s all about that bass! Canon bass! No cello! All about that bass!—”

As we gathered around the table in Bon Bon’s basement, I spelled out the next phase of our plan. “I’ve tried attacking her alone or with the help of one or two other ponies, but it never goes well. She’s good, like Twilight-level good, and she always seems to have just the right spell prepared. No matter how hard I try to surprise her, we’re kinda stuck in a time loop together and she knows I’m coming again and again.”

“So we just have to do something so random she’d never predict it!” Pinkie offered cheerfully. “I’m thinking of a giant cake with dynamite instead of candles, and instead of exotic dancers bursting out, we fill it with parasprites!”

I stared at her for a minute and almost took her up on her offer, before deciding there was no way she could seriously pull that off on short notice in under an hour. “Let’s call that plan B. Plan A is for Minuette and I to attack as soon as the music starts to try and keep her off balance. She’ll be surrounded by the former element bearers, a bunch of panicked ponies, and our hit team. She can’t track all of us at once, especially in the crowd.”

Bon Bon raised a hoof. “Remember we’re trying to limit collateral damage, worst case the loop ends and we destroy half of Ponyville and get ponies hurt. We have to take her down at all costs though, and prove to her that she has no choice but to cooperate. If she doesn’t, then I’ll personally extract the information from her using my interrogation room.”

I nodded. “I’m going to take the first shot at interrogating her, no offense. If that doesn’t go well, we can pull her teeth out together.”

“Don’t be so barbaric,” Bon Bon said. “Only amateurs resort to physical violence.” She smirked in a way that made me absolutely certain I did not ever want to piss this mare off.

“So you’ve tried it before, how will this time be different?” Lyra asked.

“With this.” I pulled out the potion that was in Pinkie’s emergency kit. “It’s made by Potion Nova, I have no idea what it does, and I already drank it half an hour ago.”

“And you didn’t explode or get sucked into the bottle so I’m pretty sure it’s something good!” Pinkie exclaimed.

“Uh, got anything a bit more substantial? Like maybe one of those guns or a lightsaber you always talk about?” Lyra made a whooshing sound as she waved a foreleg around.

“Better.” I lifted up the baseball bat. “I’ve got this.”

“Yeah it’s pretty clear, I ain’t no connoisseur—”

The music continued to pump so loudly that I was sure the entire town had already lost half their hearing. The distraction was working perfectly.

Starlight stood in the middle of the road, firing wildly at anypony she could see and missing most of the shots. Her and Rarity traded a few blasts, and I realized Rarity seemed to be getting incredibly lucky as Starlight’s attacks kept barely missing her.

In a side alley, I saw Minuette, her horn glowing and a faint wisp of smoke rising from it. I realized I needed to move now, before she over-exerted herself again. She was keeping Rarity safe, and Starlight distracted, but time magic came at a high cost.

“Red five, going in!” I said into my earpiece.

I jumped off the roof I had been crouching on and gripped the baseball bat tightly. It only took a few seconds to close the distance on Starlight. I swung the bat down hard to hit her, hitting the ground with the thick wooden stick. She’d teleported at the last second, and I immediately climbed into the air and banked hard to the right. A bolt of energy sizzled past me, taking off most of my tail.

By the time I spotted Starlight again, she had engaged Minuette directly. I saw Rarity laying in the street, and she wasn’t moving. Minuette had a shield up, but wasn’t dodging the spells.

I dove down at Starlight again, and wasn’t surprised when she quickly turned and fired a bolt of magic right at me. I swung the bat out of reflex, it connected with the magic and made a loud pinging sound. The magic flew back at Starlight, catching her off-guard and sending her tumbling across the ground.

I was a bit shocked that the bat had done that, and looked down at it. Along the side of the bat two words were emblazoned on the wood, smoking faint lavender wisps. “Home Run”. Apparently Twilight didn’t mess around when it came to baseball or time travel.

As I got closer to strike at Starlight again, I heard a scream and glanced over in time to see Minuette suffering from magical overload. She’d pushed too hard with magics no pony should mess with. Looking through the magical feedback was like looking through a kaleidoscope and the next second, she too lay unmoving on the ground. The stump of her horn smoked, and I really hoped she’d wake up fine the next loop or I would never forgive myself.

Starlight was already back on her hooves, and I saw her wipe some blood from her muzzle. She looked more unamused than usual, causing me to gulp as I stood there staring at her like a dumbass.

“The important thing to remember,” Bon Bon stated, “is that no plan survives contact with the enemy.”

I nodded and gestured to the map of the town. “We don’t have a lot of heavy hitters here, but Bon Bon will try to coordinate if Minuette or I go down early in the fight. That’s where you come in Pinkie, along with anypony that’s got no qualms about getting their hooves dirty.”

“My hooves are almost always dirty, you’d be surprised at how flour can get everywhere,” Pinkie said.

“This is serious, Pinkie.”

“I know, that’s why I straightened out my mane,” Pinkie explained.

I tilted my head to the side in confusion, as every other pony in the planning room started backing away from her.

The bolt of magic hit me right in the face as I let out a dignified war cry, and not a scream. I felt a surge of magical energy around me, and the spell seemed to get absorbed before it could do unspeakably painful things to me. I was sent tumbling across the ground, the potion bottle spilling out of my pocket and skidding to a stop in front of me.

I thanked my lucky stars that the potion had seemed to have anti-magic properties. “Bon Bon, Plan B!” I cried into the earpiece. I looked around for the baseball bat, not wanting to find out if the potion was able to absorb more than just the one spell. “My flanks are hanging out in the wind!

As I got back to my hooves, I heard the song continue playing. It was accompanied by a loud bang as a giant cake full of sparklers and fireworks landed on Starlight’s shield. An instant later the cake exploded, coating the street in frosting, but leaving two ponies completely unscathed; Starlight, and Pinkamena Diane Pie. The pair stood about six feet apart staring at one another.

I quickly got to my hooves and started looking for Home Run so I could knock that horn off Starlight’s head.

“Why. So. Serious?” Pinkamena asked.

“Pfft.” Starlight’s horn lit up and she summoned a bolt of lightning.

I felt it coming with my pegasus magic, looking over to warn Pinkie. It took only a fraction of a second to form and strike, but Pinkamena was already gone. She’d dodged the spell, popping up right behind Starlight. She spun and kicked her hard in the flanks, sending Starlight tumbling for the second time today.

“Yeah! Go Pinkie!” I cheered.

She descended on Starlight again and I resumed my search for my weapon. A cloud of dust formed as they tumbled across the road. A moment later I heard a cry of pain. Pinkamena was lying still in the road, a large chunk of Starlight’s tail caught in her teeth.

“Wild Child is down! Wild Child is down!” Bon Bon warned me. “We’ve got no more contingency, get out of there Dawn!”

“We’ve come too far to quit! I just need something blunt,” I answered.

“Damn it! Abort!”

I started rustling through a nearby bush in a panic; the bat couldn’t have gone far. Starlight took her time walking towards me, nopony else daring to get near her. When I looked up she was right across the road from me.

“Uh, parlay?” I asked meekly.

Her horn lit up and she fired another bolt of lightning at me.

“So what’s plan C?” Lyra asked. “If this doesn’t work, do I get to help next time?”

I shook my head. “There isn’t really a plan C, Lyra. I used being a mare as a disguise to make all the preparations. I’m keeping it for the fight so she underestimates me. I can only really use that trick once. Plus, Doctor Stable says all my deaths in the time loop are causing lasting damage. I ran into Luna in a dream a while back, and now I understand she was trying to tell me the same thing.”

“Everypony,” I said. “This has to work. Maybe she’d have listened to reason but our relationship has become too antagonistic. If we can’t beat some sense into her, this back and forth may continue until I stop waking up in the next loop. Then she’ll fix it, and probably leave you all here to your fate.”

The room grew quiet and somber, before Lyra spoke up. “Well then I won’t let you fail.”

“No!”

There was a flash of mint green as Lyra leaped out in front of the lightning bolt, trying to shield us with her magic. The spell fizzled, and the lightning bolt coursed through her body, leaping over to strike me. My wings flared and I felt the energy dissipated into them. Lyra was not as lucky, and twitched twice on the ground before she ceased moving.

“You killed Lyra!” I shouted angrily.

“What?!” Bon Bon screamed.

I grinned. “Oh, now you fucked up.”

“Making mares fight his battle for him?” Starlight rolled her eyes. “I’m not even going to ask how Dawn roped you into this, Sunny, but the only mistake here was helping him. I know where you live, and I’m going to pluck every single feather off you tomorrow morning, stuff them up your—”

She let out a puff of air and grunted in pain as a highly trained and exceptionally pissed earth pony plowed into her side. Bon Bon carried Starlight over twenty feet just with the pure momentum of her charge, before smashing through a fence and several trash cans. They vanished down the alleyway, and I had the impression a freight train would have made less noise than Bon Bon currently was.

“So what’s the endgame, Dawnie?” Pinkamena asked. “If you are able to actually subdue her.”

“I’ll pay a visit to Rarity’s to get some restraints. Trust me, she can hold a full-grown stallion down easily with her gear. Don’t ask.” I shuddered at the thought.

“Then we chop her up like some sort of… sweet apple cupcake factory in a shed?” Pinkamena asked.

“Interrogation, remember,” I stated. “We’re not in the killing business, nor the shock fiction business. We’re in the blunt force trauma business. And business is good.”

I ran over to help, making it halfway across the street before a wave of wind hit me. I skidded to a stop as trash cans and debris flew out of the alleyway. There was no more noise from the fight going on.

Starlight walked out into the road, her eyes filled pure white with magic. Her mane and tail were hovering in the air. I’d learned enough to know what a magic surge looked like. It was the kind of thing very stressed and desperate unicorns went through. It was also the best way to get rid of a pesky mountain that was blocking your view of the ocean.

I glanced away to see if any help was coming, and noticed the bat. Starlight followed my gaze. It was halfway between us and off to the right resting against a mailbox. There was no way I’d get to it in time.

“So I hear you pegasi like lightning,” Starlight stated.

Every fiber of my being told me to run, but I was petrified as the sky quickly darkened and thunder rumbled in the sky. Bolts of energy were dancing around Starlight like a Tesla coil. Already my wings had involuntarily spread, and the electricity was arcing between them just from my proximity to her.

I searched my memory for all the things I had learned about magic over the past months for anything that could help me. I began piecing together the symbols and runes in my mind, as if they would do me any good without a horn to cast them. To counter so much power you’d need shielding, you’d need to channel the power through or away from you. The sigil for raw magic could be combined with the one for lightning to shape it into a form a pegasus would be more able to handle.

As the images danced around in my head, I imagined what it would take to survive the fury of electricity quickly gathering around me.

Starlight fired and I thrust my wings forward, hoping that my innate magic would at least lessen the impact.

The world exploded into white light, and I felt a searing pain run through my wings and into every bone in my body. The sigils and runes in my mind glowed brightly, and for a brief moment I saw the raw essence of magic in my mind. It was being shaped and controlled, directed by my will. I couldn’t keep up with the how or the why, but deep down I understood what was happening.

The two dozen lightning bolts that had coalesced from every direction had contacted my left wing. Energy flowed in, across my back, and out my right wing. A single bolt of lightning the width of a pony’s chest leapt forth from my outstretched primary feathers and directly into the next nearest magical conductor: Starlight’s horn.

It looked like she let out a scream of agony, but my hearing was completely shot and ringing from the loud crack of thunder. I stood frozen in place as she collapsed, my mind still reeling as my muscles and nervous system slowly regained their ability to communicate.

I walked over to the baseball bat, and then over to Starlight. She was struggling to get back to her hooves. Her horn was trailing thick wisps of smoke.

“How the hell did you survive that?” I asked.

Then I brought the baseball bat down on her head like I was playing whack-a-mole at an arcade.

She collapsed limply into the street. I reached down to check her pulse, she was still alive which meant she could answer some questions. I began pulling out the gear I’d borrowed from Rarity, and dragged Starlight by her tail, over to the nearest intact cart I could find.

Starlight was still unconscious. Her legs were bound and a magic inhibitor ring was on her horn. I’d taken her to Twilight’s castle and found a nice room where we wouldn’t be disturbed so we could have a little chat. Daylight was running out, however, and I was a little worried she might not wake up in time.

It had taken half a dozen friends to subdue Starlight, and Ponyville had turned into a ghost town. Anypony with half a brain had stayed in hiding, and everypony who had helped me or just been outside in the wrong place at the wrong time was dead until the next loop. Even knowing it wasn’t permanent, I still had to work hard to control my rage at what Starlight had done. I needed her help, and that meant only bluffing when she woke up about all the fun ways I could disassemble her.

While I waited, I found a small medical kit and began tending to our wounds. Something had hit my eye and scratched it, blurring my vision a bit and being generally annoying. I found an eyepatch to wear to help with the sensitivity to light. Next I’d tend to a few smaller cuts. Most of my mane and tail were gone, singed by magic. It left my mane short and choppy looking.

Starlight was worse off. Several ribs felt fractured, judging by the grunts of pains when I performed a physical exam. Her horn still had faint wisps of smoke coming off it, though the inhibitor ring seemed to be preventing any further damage.

As a few glass bottles of disinfectant clinked together, I chanted. “Starlight, come out to play~” I chuckled to myself before getting up to stretch and walking over to sit by the door.

I heard a groan, and grabbed the baseball bat to protect myself. Starlight was waking up, and a moment later was staring at me. She struggled a bit, and her eyes were watery from the pain.

“You should get that concussion checked out. They’re, like, super bad for you.” I explained. “Everpony thinks you just tap someone on the head and they pass out, but it’s more like I played pinball. Your brain was the ball, and my bat was the bumper.”

“What?” She mumbled. “Where am I?”

I walked over, deliberately dragging the bat on the ground so it’d make as much noise as possible. I let it knock over a few of the bottles.

“We’re in the castle. I’m Dawn, not Sunny,” I explained. “Oh I look like a mare, sure, but I did say I had many skills that would make me a nightmare for a pony like you. You ruined a perfectly good monologue in Ghastly Gorge too, but you just had to fuck around and find out.”

“Dawn?”

“Yep.” I sat down in front of her and poked her muzzle with the bat. “I’m here to force you to fix the time loop, and ironically we’re short on time. So I think I’m going to start by breaking your kneecaps to jog your memory, like one of those old mob movies I used to watch. Wait, do you even have kneecaps?” I asked.

Starlight groaned and tugged at the leg restraints. Her horn began to glow faintly, and the magic inhibitor lit up brightly.

“Not so fun to be the one getting their ass kicked huh? But I wouldn’t try magic, not with that inhibitor on.”

The metal ring around her horn began to glow red, quickly approaching white hot.

“Hey, I’m serious!” I said, dropping the sarcastic tone. “I’ve heard what trying to force magic through an inhibitor does and you’re barely conscious!”

Starlight whimpered as she continued to try and overload the ring. For a moment I thought it might explode, but the faint glow of the horn finally stopped. The unicorn who had spent the better part of a month killing ponies for fun began to cry. She sobbed uncontrollably and curled up into as small of a ball as she could make on the hard crystal floor.

“Well I saw this going one of two ways, but I never thought you’d start crying.”

After a few moments I was convinced it wasn’t an act. I walked over and began to gently massage her scalp, trying to ease the pain of the magic that had built up when she tried to destroy the inhibitor. It seemed to work, and her sobbing was starting to slow down. Without her crying acting as a distraction, I asked her the one simple question I hoped would bring me to the core of the issue.

“What on Equestria happened to you to make you so vengeful?”

Author's Note

Next time on DoH3: The final interlude before act 4.

Ch. 18 Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

I sat there with Starlight on the floor of a random guest room in the crystal castle in Ponyville. My slightly darker black dangerous mission turtleneck outfit was still torn in a few places. Between the bandages, eyepatch, and singed mane, I looked like some sort of veteran of a time war. Daylight was running out quickly, but I felt that I was finally starting to understand where Starlight was coming from.

At some point in the story I’d laid her head on my lap, in a motherly gesture to comfort the unicorn. She explained how her only friend in childhood had left her to go to a more prestigious school. Starlight had taken it personally, and her parents did little to ease her growing social anxiety. She pushed other ponies away and isolated herself, so afraid of the pain of loss that she spent her whole life alone.

After Starlight finally found happiness by removing the cutie marks of an entire town, she thought her loneliness was over. Then Twilight and her friends were sent on a mission of friendship and had taken it all away, plunging her back into despair.

She also described her time spent in the time loop, and how she had finally tried the last plan on her list when all other plans had failed. Starlight had tried to escape the loop by weakening the spell and killing herself, but as I had learned early on, death just reset the loop for the affected pony. I needed her help to fix the loop, and from the sound of it she’d tried everything including resorting to options I’d never have put on the table.

“So there you have it.” I felt Starlight shrug slightly, though she was still laying on the ground. Her injured ribs hurt; I might have broken a few of them. She said the coolness of the crystal floor eased the pain somewhat.

“Yeah, that’s a hell of a story. Bet they could even adapt it into a pretty messed up movie. I’m sorry you had to go through all that alone,” I replied. “Being trapped here has honestly been brutal, but I had the benefit of my friends to support me.”

Starlight sighed. “I don’t think I’ve ever told any pony the full story before. Usually when I try they just can’t relate, they tell me something cliche like, ‘oh but you could have just reached out to Sunburst, or made a new friend!’ It doesn’t really take into account what it’s like to experience something so painful, because other ponies don’t know that pain.”

I put a hoof on her shoulder to reassure her. Part of me wanted to comment on how she’d lost her marbles and gone straight to the nuclear option over losing a friend, but when Dash had ended our friendship, I hadn’t reacted much better, so I bit back any witty remarks. “Well, I know that pain, what it’s like to lose everyone and everything you know. I wasn’t messing around earlier when I said I’m from another dimension, a whole other world really. My speech mannerisms, the constant inside jokes nopony gets, and so forth.”

“What’s the deal with that, anyway? I’ve never heard of you like I’ve heard of the Elements of Harmony, yet you seem to be right in the thick of things anyway.”

“Well, I can give you the short version before the sun sets.” I leaned back against the wall and looked up at the ceiling as I thought it over. “I was a human; they’re like monkeys, but bipedal. I was also a nurse, you have those here in Equestria. Discord got a little butt-hurt about being encased in stone for centuries, and decided to erase Dash’s mind by putting my mind into her body. Instead, she ended up with two minds in the same body. It still nearly worked, and almost destroyed the Element of Loyalty’s ability to function. Then, he would have conquered Equestria.”

“So you got trapped here, away from your life, family, and friends?”

“Pretty much. At first I was pissed and made things difficult, but over time some of the best traits of ponies rubbed off on me. I think the turning point was when I realized Celestia and Twilight looked at me as some sort of disease they had to cure, but Dash refused to let them hurt me. It finally made me stop and think. Why would she be a loyal friend to some alien who could lead to the downfall of Equestria and a new reign of Discord?”

I smiled, lost in thought. “Our personalities were getting kind of mixed up, so maybe we understood each other on a level other ponies never could. Suddenly I felt as loyal to her and her friends as she did. They accepted me, just because Dash did. That’s when I knew what I had to do to fix the Elements; I had to give Dash her mind back. I let go, faded into her subconscious, and thought that was that. Equestria saved. Dash never gave up on me though, eventually finding me in her dreams and getting Luna to pull me out, turning me into this.” I waved a hoof at myself.

“I wish I had a friend like that,” Starlight muttered.

“Well you do now.” I leaned forward and gave her a quick hug. “Assuming you’ll follow some ground rules. I’d really rather not spend eternity in a constant battle with you like a bad Roadrunner rerun.”

Starlight turned her head to look up at me, letting out a pained grunt as her sore muscles protested. “Really, just like that? You forgive me?”

I shrugged, “Yeah. One of those pony traits that rubbed off on me was being quick to forgive, I guess. I won’t forget, though. You were pretty fast and loose with killing ponies. Rule number one is no more killing, and that’s non-negotiable.” I paused to think for a moment, smirking slightly. “Unless it’s Soarin. Accidents happen.”

She raised an eyebrow. “The Wonderbolt?”

I nodded. “Rule number two is you have to be entirely honest after we fix this. Twilight, Celestia, whoever else asks. What you did, why you did it. They’re big on reforming villains, but they’re also big on banishing them to the sun, or turning them into statues in their statue garden. It’s actually pretty messed up. I mean, imagine being completely aware of everything around you. You can’t move, can’t speak, just awake twenty-four seven staring into some topiaries, hoping one day your sentence might end.”

She shuddered at the thought. “I’d rather not end up in a statue garden, but I guess you’ve got to tell them all about what I did, trapping Equestria in a time loop.”

“Well to be fair, I said I’d do that if you used magic again to kill me. You used a rock and a Quarray Eel, so I’m willing to gloss over a few of the minor details. Also, I’m willing to vouch for you. That plus the fact you’re going to fix this ought to be enough to keep you out of Tartarus or the royal garden.”

It took her a few minutes to think about it, or maybe it just took time for the reality to sink in. For somepony so used to working alone and being alone, it couldn’t have been easy to trust after so long. It probably didn’t help that I’d almost turned our conflict into a game, constantly looking for ways to injure her before ever bothering to reach out a hoof to her in friendship. Maybe I was still more human than ponies realized.

Even now a quiet voice in my head was mocking the idea that a little friendship could reform Starlight. I drowned it out by imagining how my friends might have reacted in my place. Pinkie would have thrown her a ‘So You’re Stuck in a Time Loop’ party and welcomed her with open arms. Twilight would have given her a big speech that sounded rehearsed on the magic of friendship. Fluttershy probably would have invited Starlight to move into her cottage and become inseparable besties. At least Dash and AJ might have roughed her up a little more first, before begrudgingly offering her their friendship. I shook my head and tried to focus on not further antagonizing my ‘get out of jail free’ card. Maybe the answer really was as simple as showing her that at least one pony was willing to believe in her.

“Deal,” Starlight said. “If you promise to be my friend, I’ll do whatever it takes to fix this and make it up to everypony. I can’t go through that loss again, though. If you abandon me, I don’t know what I’d be capable of—”

I put a hoof on her muzzle. “Hey, that's not going to happen. We’re going to be thick as thieves now, Starsky and Hutch, Bonnie and Clyde, Ren and Stimpy, Michael and Dwight, Anakin and Ahsoka—”

“You realize I didn’t understand a single word you just said?” Starlight interrupted.

I laughed. “You’ll get there. I do campfire stories a couple times a week for the school kids, but Lyra and Dash are picking up the references quickly. I’ve got a whole world of stories nopony has heard before.”

“That’s nice and all but… what if we can’t fix this? I’ve told Minuette I’ve tried everything, and I meant it.”

“We will fix it,” I countered. “Discord, Tirek, now you, there’s one mistake creatures keep making. One thing you never ever put in a trap when you’re trying to take over the world, if you value your plans working without a hitch. The one person you don’t mess with if you have dreams of defeating the heroes and living to see tomorrow as a free being...”

“Oh? What’s that?”

“A human.” My smile widened. “I’m the wrench in the gears, the variable everyone forgot to carry, the wild card. If there’s one thing I excel at where nopony else does, it’s making the impossible possible. We will fix this time loop, because you and Minuette are smart, and I’m the variable that you could never have known to plan for. So together, we’re going to magic the crap out of this time loop and fix it!”

“That’s actually kind of inspiring.” Starlight rolled over to rest on her forelegs. “So I guess this means you can take the inhibitor ring off now?”

I glanced at her for a moment thinking about it. I had just told her I trusted her and was her friend, and hesitating wouldn’t look very good. Part of me wanted some sort of extra assurance from her, but at the end of the day we would both be stuck here forever if I didn’t prove to her that our temporal war was over.

“Yeah, just take it easy. You took a huge hit to your horn in the fight and the inhibitor may be the only thing keeping the damaged horn from overloading or cracking. It’d be a shitty way to end the loop.”

I began to squeeze the inhibitor from two sides with my hooves. As the ring compressed, the small rough points that kept it attached to the horn retracted. Then I lifted the ring up and off of her horn, freeing her to use magic for the first time since her capture.

Starlight immediately closed her eyes and took a sharp breath as her numb horn woke up. It began to glow faintly, and I could see little dark outlines almost like cracks on it. A moment later the glow faded, and I released a breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding.

“Probably lucky it didn’t explode during the fight,” Starlight said. “It’s in bad shape, thank goodness it’ll heal tomorrow morning. I can already feel a magically-induced migraine coming on.”

“Take it easy when you wake up,” I replied. “The loops may effectively heal you, but I’ve learned from experience that the effects of dying still linger and are cumulative. In fact, I’m kinda worried about what’ll happen to me if I die anymore, is the spell getting weaker?”

Starlight shook her head. “It shouldn’t be; it’s powered by the leyline beneath the castle, channeled through the map table. The spell should reset you to the same moment every morning, I’ve got no idea why it doesn’t reset injuries completely. Luckily, I’ve decided to let you live as my love slave, mwahaha!”

I crossed my forelegs and glared at her.

“What, too soon?” She smiled. “I mean, these leg restraints were sending mixed messages, you know.” She held out her forelegs, which were chained to her hind legs. Above each hoof was a fuzzy pink hoof cuff.

I chuckled once. “Yeah, I had to raid the local sex dungeon to get ‘em. I was a bit pressed for time. Anyway, best leave the humor to me, you’ve got more of a mad scientist vibe to you… like you’d agree to remove some pony's cutie mark without properly vetting the research and causing an apocalypse or something.”

Starlight held her forelegs up, and I fished around for the key. Once I found it, I quickly unlocked them, allowing her to get to her hooves and slowly stretch.

“The sun should set soon, do you want to meet in the map room tomorrow to start working on the solution to the problem with me and Minuette?” I asked.

“Yeah, sounds good to me,” Starlight answered. “I’ve literally tried everything else, so I’ve got nothing to lose by giving friendship a chance.” I caught her eyes running down my body and lingering on the flanks. “By the way, has anypony told you that you look good as a mare?”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, basically everypony has. I guess they’re not wrong, at first the poison joke was alarming, but now…” I stood up and smoothed out the tight black outfit along my flank. “If looks could kill, they’d have to throw me in Tartarus too.”

Starlight looked away when I made eye contact again, blushing slightly.

“Mind out of the gutter, I’ll be back to being a stallion tomorrow, and I’m seeing Dash. Though, I could always put in a good word for you with Rarity. I get the feeling you two might have similar interests.” I tossed the hoof cuffs in front of her where she could see them, causing her blush to deepen.

The sun set and the loop restarted before she could reply.

Parchment and books were stacked around the map room by the time I’d gotten there. Sitting around the table were myself, Starlight, Spike, Minuette, and Lyra. At first I had planned to bring Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie, but Starlight convinced me that the time spent bringing them up to speed each loop would be a waste, and that she’d rather only apologize to them once, after fixing things.

Lyra had seen Minuette and I walking towards the castle, and she knew me well enough to tell I was up to something. I had to bring her and Minuette up to speed on the walk over, though she was welcome company whenever Minuette started to go into the details of magic that still went over my head.

Now we sat around the table, quietly staring at each other instead of studying or brainstorming solutions. Minuette’s face looked like she’d just been told that ‘yes, that dress does make your flanks look fat’, and her glare was directed straight at Starlight with a laser focus. Starlight was trying to look anywhere except the only pony in the room who realized what a colossal screw up she had made.

Lyra’s gaze kept drifting back over to the baseball bat I had laying on the table. I probably wouldn’t need it. Starlight and I had made our peace, however where I’m from even when you walk softly, you carry a big stick. Spike was here to take notes and try to send letters to the Princesses. I figured it’d be good to keep him in the know so he didn’t interrupt us at a crucial moment when he heard a small group of ponies hanging out in his castle.

“So,” Starlight said, trying to break the ice and get the conversation going. She pointed a hoof at the baseball bat. “What in Tartarus is that, anyway? It’s got more magic inscribed into it than almost any artifact I have seen before.”

I lifted it up and swung it through the air a couple times, feeling the hum of energy in it. “No idea, I’ll have to ask Twilight. You know what the weirdest part is? It was next to my bed when I woke up this morning. It’s like time doesn’t apply to it or something. It and Pinkie Pie are probably the only two things in this loop that get to ignore causality.”

Minuette stopped glaring at Starlight long enough to look at me and the bat, her horn glowing softly. “I wouldn’t be surprised. Twilight always was Celestia’s favorite student, so she can get away with doing a lot of things. I would guess that is the equivalent of a wizard’s focus, and that she uses it for casting advanced magics.”

“Can we use it to help fix the time loop?” I asked.

“It is probably attuned to Twilight, honestly I’m surprised it wasn’t booby trapped or something to keep other ponies from using it. Trying to integrate it into the spell to fix this would be like trying to open Pandora’s box. No telling what happens,” Minuette said.

“So we can fix this, right?” Lyra asked. “Dawn’s been memorizing stuff all these loops, Starlight’s the spell creator and has months of experience. Our chances have got to be better now?”

Minuette’s horn glowed as she levitated several scrolls into the air. “I hate to say it, but Starlight’s damn good. You combined several seemingly unrelated spells together to create something original. Even without the proper understanding of time magic, you were almost able to create something that would surpass the greatest unicorns that ever lived.”

“Thank you,” Starlight beamed.

“However, you were so busy focusing on whether or not you could time travel over a decade into the past you never stopped to ask yourself if you should time travel. There’s a reason the greatest unicorns and alicorns alive never time traveled.” Minuette glanced back over at Starlight. “They’re not that bucking stupid.”

Starlight frowned. “You’re only saying that because it didn’t work. I was missing something to stabilize the inherent chaos in fusing so many conflicting spells together.”

“And then what? You stop the rainboom, get revenge on Twilight, and plunge Equestria into an eternal war with Sombra? Or maybe we failed to stop Chrysalis? Discord? Tirek—”

Minuette looked ready to continue when I interrupted. “No need to rub it in. I think we’re all very clear on time travel being a bad idea, Starlight and I have woken up, trapped on repeat hundreds of times. No guilt trip you can send her on compared to living with that reality day after day.”

“It’s like when Fili-Second in issue A-113 ran so fast, she got trapped in a time loop and went insane. She couldn’t deal with it after a while,” Spike added. “Was a pretty dark comic though. They let Zack Ponyder go from his job after that series.”

“I’m sorry, Minuette, everypony.” Starlight levitated the scroll she had used to cast the time spell back over to Minuette. “I just want to fix this.”

“See?” I said.

Minuette sighed, seeing she was outnumbered on this. “Fine. I guess I forgive you, not that I’ll remember doing it tomorrow. So to save you time from explaining it over and over, just remind me that everypony makes mistakes like I once did with my first fillyfriend.”

That got an interested glance from everypony in the room. Lyra was probably the only pony in the room who knew much of Minuette’s personal life, having grown up as friends in Canterlot.

“Your fillyfriend? Didn’t you say you moved to Ponyville to be closer to somepony special?” I blurted out, earning a few stares from the mares. “Sorry if that was too personal, but I could hook you two up or something while we’re looping and tell you what she likes afterward.”

“Like I’m sure I’ve said in the past, I don’t approve of you using foreknowledge of loops to try and fix things or interfere in a pony’s personal life,” Minuette answered. “Ask me after we fix this, and I’d be more than happy for us to get to know each other, Dawn. You too, Starlight.”

“Wait, really?” Starlight asked. “I thought you were pissed off about the whole almost ending reality thing.”

“Yeah, but you’re going to need somepony to talk to about time magic. I know how frustrating it can be to discover some of the coolest spells ever, but not be allowed to use or discuss them with anypony not already in the know.”

“Thanks. I… I think I’d enjoy that.”

“So, are we ready to fix this or what?” Lyra asked. Her forelegs were crossed and she seemed a bit more upset than I’d seen her in loops where I’d found her earlier in the day to enlist her aid. “Bon Bon’s been in an awful mood lately. I can’t figure out what it’s about, or remember it apparently, but I’ve still gotta deal with it every loop. I just want to wake up and have it be tomorrow so we can make some progress on it”

Minuette began scribbling with some quills onto several pieces of parchment at the same time. It looked impressive, but I’m sure when you’re experienced with magic, it’s fairly easy. After a minute she began to pass them out. “Well here’s what we know so far. Time has been damaged, and the original spell did not complete. Observations of animals near the barrier show them in the same place each day on the other side, so it’s most likely all of the planet, maybe the universe, is looping. It’s a bit hard to tell from inside the barrier. Is that a part of your spell, Starlight?”

Starlight finished glancing over her scroll, then over to the blue unicorn. “No. The spell should have opened a vortex, and taken me to Cloudsdale when Dash did the sonic rainboom. Any casting of the spell would pull me back there as a failsafe, in case somepony else tried to undo what I did. The barrier isn’t mine, but I did uh…” Starlight shot me a look, before glancing down at her hooves. “I kind of made sure Twilight and Dash were out of town, as they were the most likely to stop me. My ego’s not so big that I’d try to rub the spell in her muzzle and cast it right in front of her.”

I smiled and nodded in approval. “Good that you are telling us the full truth. So, your spell didn’t create the barrier, and it shouldn’t have fractured time. I know the barrier is centered here in the castle, and that touching the barrier resets the loop. Wouldn’t that suggest that something in the castle created the barrier?” I leaned forward onto the table, looking down at the holographic map that covered the surface. The bubble around Ponyville was pulsing.

“It’s as good a hypothesis as any,” Minuette stated. “I’m not sure what in the castle could do it or why. Honestly, I’m just glad reality didn’t instantly unravel. Celestia once explained to me that any magic powerful enough to damage time would cascade unstoppably, so we’re lucky to even be having this chance to fix it.”

My gaze was still fixed on the small purple dome sparkling on the map table, only half listening to Minuette as a few pieces fell into place. “The Tree of Harmony.”

“What?” Lyra asked.

The map table seemed to pulse brighter for a moment. “This table was created by the Tree of Harmony, and is powered by the same leyline Starlight used to power the spell. It may still be connected to it. The dome wasn’t part of your spell, but appeared with the loop. What if the Tree created it, like a cyst around a foreign object in the body? It has created a seal to keep the damage to a minimum until the body can expel the object, and heal. What if this bubble is holding the damage shut until we can fix it?”

When I looked up, none of the unicorns seemed to have anything to say about that. Finally Minuette spoke up. “I’d really have to ask Celestia to form a hypothesis. The Tree of Harmony, the very font of the magic that created the Elements, isn’t something any of us unicorns fully understand. I think it’s possible you’re right, but regardless, the solution remains the same. We have to fix this as quickly as we can.”

I held up one of the scrolls she had passed out. “And these spell instructions you’ve given out are the way to do it?”

“Yes. This is my first guess at how to fix this,” she explained. “Starlight can recast her main spell, with my correction. We can’t really counter a spell that was never completely cast in the first place, and casting it correctly should help undo the damage. I will try to stabilize the fragment of damaged time that Ponyville is lodged in, and try to realign it with the rest of space-time. If I can figure out and hold things together long enough for Starlight’s spell to finish and counter the spell, we should go back to normal.”

I looked at the scroll in front of me. It had a crude drawing of me and Spike standing behind Lyra, who was casting a shield. “That sounds convoluted and like a job for two insanely powerful unicorns. So I guess we’re in the peanut gallery for this one?”

Minuette nodded. “Starlight and I should be able to handle it.”

“This doesn’t look too different from one of the variations I tried,” Starlight explained. “I don’t think it’ll work, the feedback of magical energies grows too rapidly.”

“Yes, due to the damage you’ve caused.” Minuette countered. “However, with me stabilizing that damage I think it’ll allow your spell to succeed.”

“It’s worth a shot,” I said. “Worst that can happen is we try again. Come on, team moral support over here.” I got up from my chair, took the bat, and walked across the room towards one of the windows. We were about fifteen feet from the table. Lyra put up a thin green shield bubble around Spike, herself, and me.

Minuette stood next to the table, beside Twilight’s chair. Starlight stood across the table from her. They were levitating the scrolls in the air.

“Okay, once we start, don’t make any noise,” Minuette said. “Starlight and I will have to—well, it’s complicated.”

“Channel large quantities of magic through the complex web of the spell you’re visualizing in your head. Activate the scroll to release that magic into the table. Control the flow of the leyline’s magic into the table, and out into Equestria. Try to solve a four-dimensional rubik’s cube you can’t see, while hoping none of the dozen spells Starlight slapped together has a flaw you didn’t see,” I explained.

Starlight and Minuette both stared over at me in surprise. “Uh, yeah.”

I shrugged. “I didn’t sleep through all your magic lessons. Only like, thirty percent tops.”

“Sadly, there still isn’t much for you to do,” Starlight stated.

I began to hover so I could cross my forelegs and look indignant, nearly touching the top of Lyra’s shield bubble. “Hmph. You’re just jealous of my rugged good looks and irresistible charisma.”

That got a few eye rolls and laughs from around the room, before I landed again and whispered to Spike. “Mares, am I right?”

“You know it,” he answered.

Without any further commentary from the peanut gallery, the two unicorns began to focus their magic and cast the spell. It was fascinating to watch. The glow of their horns began to surround their bodies, and the scrolls in the air. The color slowly spread down into the map table.

As soon as the map table activated, it lit up the room as brightly as the noon sun on a clear day. Runes and sigils began to hover in the air over the table, and I could have sworn I heard the sounds of clocks ticking. The brightness and noise kept building louder and louder.

At some point, I couldn’t see Minuette or Starlight anymore. My feathers began to itch and tingle, and the pressure built on my eardrums. I knew something was wrong and I could no longer see past Lyra’s shield spell.

Lyra was visibly shaking, her own spell scroll under a hoof. I walked up next to her and put a wing over her back, stepping onto the scroll. An odd tingling ran down my foreleg as I attempted to comfort her. The ambient magic in the air seemed to be draining into my wings and down into the scroll, and her shield spell strengthened slightly.

There was a loud boom before I could reflect on this development.

I blinked twice, feeling like I’d been hit by a runaway carriage. The room was spinning slowly, and acrid smoke filled the air. Everything I saw lacked color, and my ears were ringing as loud as an air raid siren. It took a moment to sit up, and I tapped my head a few times as if that’d somehow fix the ringing.

To my left lay Lyra, and to my right I saw Spike walking over. Apparently the little dragon was a lot tougher than he looked. My hearing had cleared up enough to hear him speak.

“Well, that didn’t work,” Spike stated.

I groaned and flopped back on the ground for a moment. “Of course it never works the first try.”

When I remembered the other ponies in the room, I slowly rolled over and got up to go take a look for them. The crystal floor was charred black across the room, except the small circle where Lyra, Spike, and I had been standing.

I couldn’t see Starlight and Minuette anywhere. The map table had grown as dim and dark as obsidian, and was the source of the sour smelling smoke in the air. While I searched for my friends, I heard a low rolling thunder outside. At the nearest window I was able to look up into a vast void that had replaced the sky. It was filled with a rich myriad of colors, like the aurora borealis but a hundred-fold more colorful. Dancing fragments of broken glass seemed to tumble through the air, reflecting countless hazy images through them. It was unfathomably beautiful, and yet filled me with a deep sense of dread. I was staring up into an infinite kaleidoscope where once had been only blue skies, perhaps beyond the very veil of reality itself. A moment later a thick purple haze formed as the dome surrounding the town seemed to solidify, and the images vanished. When I finally looked away from the window, I noticed the table had begun glowing again. It cast a faint bluish light around the room, and the map of Equestria flickered back into existence.

With the spectacle in the sky seeming to be resolved for now, I resumed the search for Minuette and Starlight. After looking around for a couple more minutes I realized there were two unicorn-shaped silhouettes on the wall. One beyond Twilight’s chair, the other on the opposite wall of the room.

Lyra noticed me staring at a shadow of a pony standing on its hind legs, forelegs outstretched, and realized what had happened. “Wow. She wasn’t kidding about it overloading the table. It must have tapped directly into the leyline, and—” She noticed Spike had walked over, also looking curiously at the shadow on the wall. Lyra decided not to describe in detail what had happened in front of him.

I nodded my head. “Yeah, Starlight’s not gonna be happy about that tomorrow. That had to hurt. We may need to take a day off, but I’ll come get you and Spike when we’re ready to try again.”

Author's Note

Next time on DoH3: With the dream team assembled, can Dawn convince Starlight not to let a little molecular disintegration deter her from fixing the spell? If things keep blowing up in their faces, perhaps they'll need another day off...

Ch. 21 Perfect Day

Come on everypony smile, smile, smile
Fill my heart up with sunshine, sunshine

I woke up in bed and turned to look at the alarm clock, seeing that it was nine fifty-two. I blinked in confusion, having set the clock to go off much earlier. The time was now three twenty-seven. I sat up in bed, rubbing my eyes and noticing the clock change time again.

I realized I was dreaming, and grinned widely. Now that I had, I could exert some control over the dream, and I knew exactly who I wanted to see. I pictured him wearing a frilly pink dress.

“Really, Dawn, I’m supposed to be the one causing nightmares, not the other way around. Is this the best you’ve got?” Discord asked.

I looked across my room at the tantabus, my mind’s recreation of my worst fear. Discord had been the one to effortlessly hurl me across dimensions without a shred of remorse. He could, and would, kill anypony without hesitation. Luckily, he found little to no amusement in that and preferred to play with his food first.

“I know what you are, and Luna says as a tantabus you’d basically have all the powers and knowledge of Discord, right?” I asked.

“Tantabus are ponies too, you know. Or maybe I really am him,” Discord countered. “Shall we ask Luna when she gets here?”

“Look, we don’t have much time and I doubt Luna’s gonna like what I need from you. I need you to teach me chaos magic, specifically how to control chaos when a series of spells inherently conflict with each other. Like evocation and enchantment,” I explained.

Discord snapped his fingers and we were suddenly standing in the dream world version of the Crystal Empire. The snow was falling and the wind howled, as Discord sat on the edge of the train platform. Meanwhile, I was tied to the tracks, and heard a train in the distance.

“Discord, I’m serious! Ugh, even as a figment of my imagination you’re an ass,” I complained.

“I moved us here so we'd have more time before Luna got here. You seriously want my help after what you pulled?” Discord leaned over the platform, spilling some of his popcorn onto me. “Give me a single reason why I would?”

“I know where they banished you. I’m the only shot you have at freedom,” I said.

“Pfft, like they’d ever go for that. I’m immortal anyway, and the sun will burn out eventually.”

“So what, you’re just gonna let the real you chill for a billion years without a single ounce of entertainment?” I countered. I could see the train’s headlight growing closer.

“Hmm, so you need a primer on chaos magic in order to escape your little time loop.” Discord tapped a finger on his chin, twirling a small tuft of hair. “Even I’m not stupid enough to mess with time.”

The train whistle sounded again, close enough now I could see the cow catcher on the front. I struggled in the ropes holding me to the track to no avail.

“Luckily for you, you have no idea what you’ve just invited upon yourself.” Discord started to cackle, before snapping his fingers with a single word. “Done.”

The train track segment I was tied to lowered itself, and the train thundered overhead. It vanished into the distance, leaving me alone on the snowy train tracks.

A moment later a silhouette appeared in the moonlight, and the howling winds stopped. Luna descended beside the track, and the ropes around me vanished.

“Dawn Seeker, what have you done?” Luna asked.

I stood up and tried to brush some of the snow out of my fur. “I asked the Tantabus to teach me about chaos magic,” I explained.

“That may be the single most reckless, idiotic thing you’ve done to date!”

“I had no choice, I’ve been stuck in a time loop—”

“Dawn, by making a connection with the Tantabus you’ve only fed it power, power it could use to undo you.”

“Pooghkeepsie,” I stated.

Luna raised an eyebrow at the phrase she had given me in a past loop. “Where’d you learn that code word?”

“From you,” I explained. “I’ve been in this time loop for like, a year or something, and it’s freaking horrible. I absolutely needed this knowledge. So if I’ve just opened Pandora’s box and doomed all of Equestria, at least give me a few weeks of peace before you let the other shoe drop.”

Luna nodded. “I see.” She thought for a second before adding, “I won’t tell Celestia what you’ve done, yet. You can explain it yourself after you escape your current predicament. Tell nopony you have this knowledge, and dare not speak to that Tantabus again. The consequences of either could make your time loop look like a picnic.”

“Loud and clear.” I saluted her with a wing tip. “I won’t tell a single pony, except Starlight Glimmer.”

“Starlight?!” Luna sputtered. “Dawn don’t you dare—”

Come on everypony smile, smile, smile
Fill my heart up with sunshine, sunshine

I woke up to an icy feeling that permeated my core, and all four of my legs were numb. This couldn’t have been a dream because you never felt this uncomfortable in a dream. The fact I’d bled to death probably didn’t help either. I ran a hoof along my side where the chunk of crystal table had been. The pins and needles sensation in my side was a bit irritating, but since it could have been worse, I was glad to have gotten off so easily.

Today was finally going to be a good day, and I wouldn’t let a little near-death experience change that. I rolled out of bed and walked over to take a nice hot shower to help restore sensation to my body. I was on a tight schedule to make sure and get the important things done today, so I didn’t linger too long in the bathroom.

When I got outside, my first stop was Minuette just across the street.

“Good morning, Dawn,” Minuette said.

“Good morning, Minuette,” I replied. “So, Starlight broke time, and the fourth dimensional shadow trapped us in a time loop in Ponyville. I may have just made a mistake like you said you once did with your first filly friend in a past loop. Are you ready to help us fix it?”

She stared at me like I’d just walked on water while singing I’m Walking on Sunshine out of my rear end. “I guess I’m in.”

I chuckled and started to walk down the road. “Never gets old shocking ponies with things I couldn’t possibly know.”

As we trotted down the road, I heard a familiar voice call out. “Looks like somepony’s got a case of the Mondays!”

“Good morning Rose!” I replied. I walked over to the planter she was watering. “Tulips are looking great, the new fertilizer you’ve been using is really working. Careful not to overwater the petunia’s, you did them yesterday but forgot because you are in a hurry to get the gardening done before your spa trip with the flower trio.”

Rose looked over at the petunias and back at me. “Thanks, Dawn. You really know your stuff. Want to try one?” She picked one of the flowers and brought it over to me.

“Thanks, you get sweeter every loop,” I responded. I ate the flower in one bite, chewing on it as we trotted down the road.

“Well, if I didn’t believe you at first I certainly do now. You’re awfully chipper for somepony trapped in a time loop,” Minuette observed.

“Yep! That’s because today I finally know how to fix the spell,” I answered. “I also figured out that I don’t have to fix everything, and in fact, that could be dangerous.”

“Ah, must have been because of what I told you about my filly friend,” Minuette said.

“Actually, you never explained that to me. Walk a little faster, please.” I sped up as we headed down the road towards the construction site.

“I guess I don’t mind telling you.” She hurried up to match my pace. “After being accepted to Celestia’s school I perfected a time travel spell, and found I could travel up to a minute back in time without consequences. I had quite the crush on a friend of mine, and started using the spell to go back a minute anytime I said or did something stupid. We had the perfect friendship, because I erased every mistake.”

I nodded. “And then at some point, those mistakes caught up to you?”

“Yes,” Minuette sighed. “Celestia found out what I was doing and made me admit it to my friend. She wasn’t happy about it. By trying to make everything perfect I’d ignored what makes life worth living, its imperfections.”

“That’s a beautiful lesson to learn, and I wish you’d shared it earlier in the loops. It took me forever to realize that. Have you ever talked to your friend again?”

“Not until recently,” she replied. “She visited Canterlot and we got a chance to catch up, and… well, ask me tomorrow when we fix the loop. I should have a better idea by then if it’s gonna work out.”

“I will.” I flared my wings and got ready to fly. “Now watch this, I’m a bit behind schedule so I’ll have to make it a bit flashy today.”

Minuette watched as I zoomed into the air, and immediately dived back down. I landed just short of the brown stallion with dark brown hair. “Look out!” I pushed him back as a large wooden support beam fell down. It landed with a loud crack and splintered, right where the stallion would have been standing.

It took the stallion a moment to recover. “You saved my life. You look really familiar, too. Have we met before? How can I repay you?”

I smiled and gave him a salute with my wing. “Your gratitude is reward enough. I may not be the hero Ponyville needs, but I’m the one it’s got. A silent protector, a vigil—”

“Is he quoting a Batmare comic?” a worker off to the side asked.

I grit my teeth and let out a long sigh. “Okay, this was almost the perfect loop. Somehow there’s always a critic when I give my big post-rescue speech.” I looked over at the stallion. “I’m Dawn Seeker, and I’m afraid there’s no time to chat. I’ve got a busy day full of fixing the damage to the space time continuum, I’m sure you understand.”

“Actually, I do,” the stallion replied. “I’m—” He groaned and I heard him mutter something about my lack of social skills as I walked away.

By now I’d rejoined Minuette, and continued to trot off towards the castle. I realized I’d never bothered to get the pony’s name, but if I went back now I’d look really silly. So I just shrugged and figured I’d find out whose life I’d saved tomorrow.

When we were about halfway to the castle, I stopped in front of a store. “Hold on, Minuette, there’s one thing I need to grab real quick.”

Starlight and I were in the map room, surrounded by chalkboards and new equations I’d put on them. “Just so we’re clear, Luna was pretty adamant that knowing Chaos magic was a super bad idea. I don’t think she meant like the time I lucid dreamed about Celestia in a sexy french maid’s outfit either. It sounded more like the kind of bad idea that gets ponies killed.”

“Oh?” Starlight smirked. “How does Celestia look in a maid’s outfit?”

“Stunning,” I replied. “I wasn’t sure if I was just dreaming, or Celestia was dream walking. So I imagined her in the frilliest skimpiest maid’s outfit I could to see how she reacted. She didn’t react at all; she’s got one hell of a poker face. The next night, I dreamed of being a statue in the Canterlot garden for a whole night. I think it was her way of getting back at me. She must have learned some dream magic from Luna, so I haven’t messed with her in a dream since.”

“Wow, sounds a little mean.”

“Yeah, but if I admit I know she visited my dream and giving me a bad dream to get even, I’m also admitting I deliberately put her in a risque outfit. It’s probably best to just continue pretending it never happened.”

“Why would she even want to visit your dream in the first place?”

“Maybe she’s jealous of how much me and Luna hang out? Some mysteries are better left unsolved. Anyway, you’ve got some chaos magic to learn.”

“And this is all of it?” Starlight asked, pointing at the chalkboards.

“Everything Discord shared. If it’s as dangerous as Luna says, I figure the less ponies that know, the less at risk they are. My best guess is we’re now the only two ponies alive who know this. It may make us both targets.”

“Please,” Starlight rolled her eyes. “If anypony tries to beat the information out of me I’ll blast them and the hill behind them. This does look like it’ll work, and force the spells to remain stable.”

“That’s great news,” I replied. “I’m really ready for this day to be over and to see Dash again. I imagine Twilight won’t be far behind, and then there’s the other elements, which brings us to the bad news.”

Starlight stopped studying the spell to look over at me. “What’s the bad news?”

“Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie are downstairs with Minuette and Spike waiting. I want to bring them up to watch the spell. If it works, they can help calm down whoever shows up next. I honestly don’t know if it’ll be Celestia, Twilight, Dash, or all of them. The more ponies that vouch that you helped fix this, the better.”

“I thought you were vouching for me,” Starlight stated.

“I am. Minuette probably will too, but I want everypony to know you helped fix this in case Celestia’s not in a talking mood. She’s motherly, but didn’t hesitate a second once she made up her mind Discord had crossed a line.”

“Fine.” She looked uncertain, but turned back to the board to study the spells contained on it again.

“I’ll go get everypony. Remember to erase the board before anypony else can see it.”

“It may take a while.” She paused, and before I left the room added, “You really think they’ll forgive me?”

I called back from across the room. “Yes.”

It only took a minute to get down to the foyer and greet my assembled friends. Minuette was chatting with Rarity, while Applejack and Fluttershy chatted about something. Pinkie Pie was showing off a baseball bat to Spike, and explaining how the bat had saved Equestria. Spike wasn’t buying it.

“Attention, everypony,” I called out.

They all looked up the stairs to where I was standing.

“Thanks for coming on short notice, as I mentioned we’re stuck in a time loop but that’s not the full story. The loop was caused by a pony you’ve met before, and she was trapped here too. After some aggressive negotiations, we decided to work together to fix it. I want you all to actually see her fix it, and to know without a doubt that I’m telling the truth.”

“And just who is this mystery pony?” Applejack asked.

“The mystery pony, and my newest friend, is Starlight Glimmer.”

“Oh dear,” Rarity said, looking around to see if any fainting couches were nearby.

“Surely you can’t be serious,” Applejack said. “She’s rotten to the core.”

“Don’t call me Shirley, and I never jest,” I retorted. “Look, I know what she did to the ponies in her village was messed up, and she knows it. She’s had the better part of a year to reflect on it while reliving the same day over and over without a single friend. I reached out to her… well, technically beat some common sense into her… but we came to an agreement.”

I spread my wings and glided down the stairs to stand in front of Applejack. “Starlight wants to learn a better way, and I’m vouching for her. She’s my friend and wants to be a better pony. It’s no more than we’ve done for others. It’s no more than you did for me.”

Applejack never broke eye contact while I spoke, and it was always a bit unnerving, as if she was staring into my soul. She might just be good at reading body language, but Applejack got real intense when using her lie detector trick. “Alright, I believe you, Dawn. What do you want us to do?”

“The map room’s going to be a bit crowded, but just watch Minuette, Starlight, and I cast the spell. While we finish getting ready, could you throw up a lightning rod outside the east window of the map room?”

“I could whip one up. Could use Rarity’s help to levitate things into position,” Applejack said.

“It’s hardly my forte, but I suppose I could help throw something together,” Rarity replied.

“Pinkie and Fluttershy, could you maybe get a small party prepared in the castle’s dining room. I have a feeling we’re going to have lots to celebrate when the loop ends.”

“Sure thing!” Pinkie vanished in a flash.

“Oh, I guess I’d better go find her. Be careful, Dawn,” Fluttershy said.

“Meet back in two hours!” I called out as everypony dispersed.

“What should I do?” Spike asked.

“You’ve got the most important job of all. Keep this safe until Dash gets here. You’ll know when I need it.” I handed over my saddlebag to Spike. He peeked inside at the single object within.

Time flies when you’re setting up a super complicated spell to jump start the fabric of reality.

What shouldn’t have taken us very long had somehow used up most of the day. Minuette focused on her spell, while Starlight and I focused on discretely learning about controlling chaos. Applejack and Rarity had constructed a lightning rod outside the window, while Pinkie and Fluttershy had set up for a small So You Prevented The Apocalypse party.

Everything had come together without too much time to spare when everypony gathered in the map room to watch.

“Thanks, everypony, for helping out today. Hopefully we don’t have to do it over tomorrow,” I chuckled. “Just find a spot to stand away from the east window or the table, and enjoy the show.”

I watched as they lined up and sat down in small folding chairs over on the west wall. Minuette and Starlight stood on opposite sides of the map table. I laid my wing on the table and prepared myself to help channel the excess magic away from the table if it should start to overload.

“You’re sure about this?” Minuette asked Starlight. “You’ve been real hush-hush about your additions to the spell today.”

“She had to be,” I interjected. “Luna was very ominous about the consequences were we not.”

Minuette nodded. “I’m not normally bothered by things being ‘need to know’ with time magic, but I got a glimpse of those equations and they’re not time magic.”

“It’s not dark magic,” Starlight stated. “It’s like Dawn said. You can ask Luna after if you want, but trust us. This is how it has to be.”

“Alright, then. I’m ready,” Minuette said.

“Me too. What is this, take twenty-seven?” I asked jokingly.

“All attempts or just the ones you’ve helped with?” Starlight inquired.

“Actually,” I interrupted, “I’d rather not know. Let’s just fix it and hope we don’t all get crippling nightmares about it for months.”

“Alright, I’m ready,” Starlight added.

Minuette and Starlight lit up their horns, beginning the spell. As it took shape, I couldn’t help but look over at my friends. Fluttershy was hugging Spike, though I felt it was more for her comfort than his. Applejack tilted her stetson to me, while Pinkie stood by her party cannon, waiting. Rarity had a look of awe on her face as she was able to more clearly see and understand the arcane workings of the spell swirling around the table.

Thanks to all my study while using Rarity’s home as a schoolhouse, I could also appreciate the spell being cast. It was a thing of beauty in the same way you’d admire a megalodon that could swallow you whole without ever having to use any of its pony-sized teeth.

If this spell worked, we’d be fundamentally altering space-time to repair it, something nopony had ever done before. Of course, aside from maybe Starswirl the Bearded, I doubt anypony but Starlight had ever had enough of an ego to break time in the first place.

My attention came back to the spell as I felt energy flowing into my wing, and getting trapped inside my body. I had to focus to conduct the energy into my other wing. My mind filled with the images of the magic I would need to use as power flowed into them.

The familiar sensation of the table seeming to resist my advances returned, and with it the same image from yesterday of the Tree of Harmony. I let it in, trying to remember all the sigils from the spells Minuette and Starlight were casting to share what we were trying to do with it. I felt a memory of the presence in pain, and it recoiled, recognizing the symbols of chaos. They flickered and danced, as if not content to be confined to the runes of magic. I mentally cursed myself, realizing that we were using harmony to power a spell of chaos. It would have been like asking water and oil to call a truce and mix just this once.

I took a breath and focused my thoughts on how Starlight had once mentioned needing to stabilize the chaos in her spell matrix. I then pictured Luna, as I explained to her my plan in haste. The presence seemed guarded, but allowed me to continue my spell. I directed the flow of current to the tip of my second-longest primary feather, and pointed it towards the window.

Lightning began to arc off my wing like a small tesla coil, getting some gasps from the ponies watching. I grit my teeth as the magic leaked past my innate abilities, and my muscles tensed. The buzzing sound grew until finally a tendril of lightning arced over and hit the lightning rod outside the window.

Once it made contact, the pressure I was feeling inside my head and ears dropped. The excess energy from the table was flowing into me and out as lightning, being harmlessly grounded outside the window.

I slowly turned my head to look at Minuette and Starlight. They both had their eyes closed. Their golden and green magical auras surrounded the table, reflecting off each arcane rune. I wasn’t the only pony being affected by all the magic radiating from the table. Their manes and tails flickered into the air, beginning to hover on their own.

The castle began to rumble, as it had in the past before the table would explode. I refocused on what I was doing. Using a meditation trick, I scanned through each of my body parts to see how they were doing and to calm myself. When I closed my eyes, I could clearly see the pathways of magic moving through me, and tried to imagine myself opening them wider to let more power through.

As more of the energy traveled through me, I felt myself brushing up against the presence, and began to see its thoughts again. It had respect and admiration for Minuette, but I sensed only distrust and fear of Starlight. A realization came to me, that perhaps the Tree of Harmony had been holding back the energy in the leyline from one or both other unicorns, having not known them like I did. It could explain why the energy built up in the table until it detonated if it didn’t trust them to use its power wisely. I had to try and convince it to allow all of us to connect to the source of harmony.

I shared my memory of how Starlight had been socially isolated as a filly after losing a friend, and how she had chosen to stay with me in the loop when she could have fled to Cloudsdale. Doing my best to plead with this unknown entity, I pictured it helping us achieve our goal and my desired outcome.

When I opened my eyes again, I noticed them glowing from my reflection in the floor. A quick glance over showed Starlight and Minuette also glowing. The rumbling of the table stopped, and the air grew still and silent. It seemed that all three of us had become conductors for the leyline powering the table, and had actually bled off enough power to keep it from detonating.

At this point it felt like my mind was on autopilot, acting purely on instinct. I hardly noticed the lightning continuing to arc from my wing, or the way the world seemed to blur and turn upside down. I couldn’t move as time seemed to slow down, reverse, and then stop. My perception of time ceased entirely, and I was aware only of myself, Minuette, Starlight, and something else standing around the table. The barrier around Ponyville flashed out of existence in our small moment of stationary time.

Half-seen shadows danced around the room, and the whole world exploded into a kaleidoscope of colors. Brilliant symbols, far beyond my comprehension, filled the air in countless intricate spirals. All around me I glimpsed fragments of everything that ever was, is, or could be. A billion moments of time, uncountable realities, and the smallest particles that made up the physical universe were displayed in equal prominence.

I had never seen anything like the fourth dimension before that, and in that single moment the comprehension of the laws of the universe hit me. Minuette must have felt it too, quickly aligning and fixing the damage that was done. No sooner had she fixed it, the realization passed. The memory faded, and the swirling fractal shapes all but vanished. I watched the lingering after-images, trying to will myself to remember the cosmic truth I had gotten the briefest glimpse of. However, it had disappeared completely. The moment that seemed to encompass an eternity, as if I had lingered in it for years, was gone more quickly than I could blink.

I realized a minute later that the spell was finished. I was just standing there staring at the wall, wings spread out, unmoving. Ponies were talking but I didn’t think any of them were talking to me. To my side, I saw Fluttershy had approached Starlight to check on her, while Rarity checked on Minuette.

Something knocked me to my side and I was about to curse my bad luck, assuming the table had exploded. Instead, Pinkie Pie was standing atop me with a wide smile on her face. “So how’s it feel to save all of Equestria, huh? And you did it all by yourself! Well, mostly. You had a little help, but not as much help as we had with Tirek or Chrysalis! Oh! Are you gonna exaggerate when you tell Dash what happened? Can I help? Can—”

“For Pete’s sake, Pinkie, are ya tryin’ to give him a heart attack?” Applejack asked. She dragged the mare off me by her tail.

“Thanks, Applejack,” I said. I got up to my hooves and began to stretch out and examine myself for damage. I’d probably need a spa treatment to fix all the frayed hair in my mane, and my feathers would take days to preen back into good condition. But overall, I was unharmed.

I grinned widely and hurried over to where Minuette and Starlight were discussing something. I hovered in the air so I could use my forelegs to grab both and pull them into a tight hug. “We did it! We really did it!”

“I think so,” Minuette said.

“That was one heck of a trip,” Starlight added. “Your… advice worked, Dawn. It kept the spell matrix stable, and allowed us to bleed off the excess mana from the leyline.”

“Damn right it did!” I smiled. “There’s only one thing that could make this day better.”

Right as I said it, I heard a loud boom outside in the distance. Even without being able to see the prismatic glow outside I knew who it was. I hurried over to open the window that faced Canterlot, then stepped back. A few seconds later, Dash flew through, wings spread wide to slow down her speed before she collided with anypony.

She looked around the room, spotting Starlight. “There you are! I’ve got half a mind—”

“Dash! Thank Celestia!” I tackled her into a hug mid-sentence, choking back tears.

“Gah! Dawn, not now you buffoon! Starlight faked the friendship problem, she’s dangerous!” Dash squirmed and tried to knock me off with her hooves.

“I’m so happy to see you!” I smiled and released my death grip on her. She quickly shot out from under me and got back to her hooves.

“What’s gotten into you?” Dash asked.

Before I could answer, there was a loud pop and my ears swiveled, it sounded like a teleportation spell.

“You!” Twilight shouted. “What did you do?”

“Oh crap,” I muttered. I turned and saw Twilight marching towards Starlight.

“W-wait! I can explain,” Starlight stuttered.

“Hold up, sugarcube,” Applejack added. “She fixed the time loop.”

I ran over as Twilight’s horn charged. “I could sense the time magic from Canterlot, what did you try to do? You better tell me quickly! Celestia’s not going to be as forgiving.”

Starlight had backed up right to the wall, showing enough restraint not to challenge Twilight and cause an all-out fight. I finally reached her, skidding to a stop and throwing up my wings to shield her.

“Damn it Twilight! Stop for a second and let us expla—oof!” I felt something hit me in the side and skidded back to the wall.

“Dawn?!” There was panic in the alicorn’s voice as she realized she’d just accidentally blasted me.

“Dawn!” Starlight cried out, stepping over me and throwing up a magic shield. “He said you’d listen! He said you’d forgive me and you come in here blasting?”

“What?” Twilight looked around in confusion, only now realizing all of her friends were here.

By now Dash had rushed over, and slammed a hoof against the shield bubble. “Get away from him!”

“I’m fine,” I groaned. I’m surprised Twilight spooked that easily, but she didn’t seem to hurt me badly.

“This is low even for you, tricking me out of town to attack my friends!” Twilight shouted. I could see her horn glowing, magenta magic dancing over the spherical shield Starlight was holding up.

“Look, I’m sorry alright! I don’t want to hurt you, but I will if you’re going to hurt Dawn again!” Starlight stated.

“What? You don’t even know him!” Dash added.

For a moment I saw the shield bubble fail, and the room spun. I realized we’d teleported across the room, and heard a crack where Twilight’s spell had hit the wall behind where Starlight and I had been. At this rate somepony was going to get hurt. Before any more bolts of energy could fly our way, I had to act.

I groaned and stood up, pushing at the sore rib with a hoof. I took a deep breath. “Everypony needs to sit down and shut up now!” I yelled.

All eyes in the room fell on me, tinted green through the shield. It seemed I’d finally gotten their attention. “Dawn?” Starlight asked.

“I’m okay. Now, sit down at the table and let's discuss this like civilized, colorful little ponies,” I chided. “The next time somepony throws a spell, I'll break out the baseball bat!”

Starlight dropped the shield. Everypony walked over to sit in their seats at the crystal map table, including Twilight. She shot me a few disapproving looks, but after she’d nearly cracked a rib in half, I didn’t care. Minuette pulled up a chair near Twilight, while I dragged one over to Dash’s side. Spike had his own small chair by the table, leaving Starlight to stand awkwardly near me and Dash.

“Now that we’re all seated,” I explained, “We’re going to tell you everything. I haven’t mentioned the ‘pirate code’ once, so you know I’m not screwing around.”

“So,” Starlight chuckled nervously. “About today…” She paused for a moment and the silence began to get awkward.

“Want me to get you started?” I asked. We had everypony’s full attention, now I just had to hope Starlight was ready to admit her mistakes.

“It’s okay.” She took a deep breath. “After my best friend as a filly got accepted into a school for gifted unicorns and I didn’t, I developed an… unhealthy view on friendship. After you defeated me and disbanded my town where everypony was equal, I was left to brood and plot my revenge. I was so obsessed I never stopped to think if there was a better way.”

“So I came to Ponyville to cast a spell, travel back in time, and stop the rainboom so Twilight would never meet her friends. I based it on the speech you gave about how you six met. I messed up the spell, big time. Instead of traveling back in time I trapped Equestria in a loop, as far as I know. For all of us here in Ponyville, we were completely trapped by a bubble of damaged time.”

“I thought I could fix it on my own, that I’d be fine without friends, but I was wrong on both counts. I got agitated and angry, and took it out on others. It wasn’t until Dawn here knocked some sense into me and offered me a hoof in friendship that I started to turn it around.”

Starlight looked over at me and smiled. “Dawn told me I could have a second chance, and could have a friend. I wasn’t sure at first, but for the first time since I got stuck in the time loop, I found myself smiling. It turned out I really could be happy again, and all it took was nearly destroying the universe to discover it.”

She turned to face the ponies around the table. “And for that, I’m deeply sorry. I promise never to do anything like it again, and I’d really like it if I could stay and maybe… learn more about friendship?”

Everypony turned to look at Twilight, who glanced back at each of us in turn. “This is kind of a big decision to thrust on me all at once, you know?”

“Well, you did want to be the princess of friendship,” I countered. “Starlight wants to learn, and none of us would be here if she hadn’t decided to help fix it. She could have taken the easy way out, but she didn’t. I vouch for her, and if you trust me, that should be enough.”

Twilight nodded. “Any objections?” She looked around the table, but nopony said anything. “Then I guess you’ll be my first pupil, Starlight Glimmer. We’ll have to set some ground rules, though. First, no kill—”

“We’ve covered that one, and I told her to be honest,” I interjected. “I’m sure Applejack can hold her to that.”

“I’ll draw up a full list of rules later, then.” Twilight shook her head absently. “I’m not sure how we’ll explain this to Celestia.”

“I wouldn’t worry too much about that,” I added. “I get the feeling I stepped on a few hooves and will probably be the one explaining the worst parts of this to her.”

“Well, then I guess all that’s left is to—”

“Party!” Pinkie shouted, firing her confetti cannon.

Twilight groaned and lowered her face into her hooves. Everypony began to laugh or talk amongst themselves, and things seemed almost normal again.

While the side conversations were still quiet, I turned to speak to Dash. “Before this party gets started, there’s something I have to ask you.” I looked over at Spike and nodded. My throat was already feeling dry.

Dash tilted her head. “What’s up, Dawn?”

“I know that for you it seems like just yesterday that you left for Canterlot, but for me it’s been almost a year. There were a lot of things I thought would suck about reliving the same day over and over, but there was one thing so painful that I couldn’t bear it. I tried everything not to think about it.”

I could feel my heart racing, as the words I'd rehearsed continued to pour forth. A quick glance around and I noticed Rarity was smiling, seeming to already know where this was going. "As a human I couldn't have imagined spending my life with someone, having them constantly be there in my home. I didn't have friends or lovers, I had no idea what I was missing out on until you came along."

I swallowed the knot in my throat, willing myself not to speak too quickly as I got more nervous. Dash was frozen in place, eyes locked on mine. “Once I realized I'd be stuck in the loop for a long time, I couldn’t stand the thought of not seeing you again. I don’t know how I held it together as long as I did, but I know now that a life without you in it isn’t a life at all.”

I kneeled down on the floor, and reached over to take a small rectangular box from Spike. He’d hurried over, not missing his cue as he handled the important assignment I’d given him. By now, every single pony in the room was watching. Dash’s wings were trembling slightly.

"I love you, Dash. I love the way I can smell that spring rain scent from your mane in my fur after I spend a day near you. I love how you never hesitate to help a friend, and pretend it's no big deal even when it means giving up something you wanted. I love the way your muzzle scrunches up when you're thinking about how to get even with me with a prank for something I did.”

By now, a wide smile was creeping up her face, and her eyes were watering. Nopony else mattered as the world seemed to narrow to just the two of us living in this one moment.

“Dash, you’re the best pony I’ve ever known, the one pony I’ve loved more than life itself. The life I left behind pales in comparison to the one I’ve had with you. I realized that when you want to spend the rest of your life with somepony you want the rest of your life to start right away."

"I saw a glimpse of what life without you was like. I don’t want to ever spend another day apart. Will you marry me?”

I reached up with the box in my hoof, opening it up to reveal a pristine primary feather that I’d plucked from my wing. It was the old pegasi tradition, one Fluttershy had recommended to me earlier in the loops.

Dash nodded, wiping a tear from her cheek. She seemed to let out something between a nervous chuckle and a hiccup. Her wings fluttered a few times as she composed herself enough to speak. That moment of apprehension passed quickly; I was confident what her answer would be.

“Yes, Dawn. Yes.” She reached back and pulled out one of her feathers, dropping it in the box beside mine. The two blue primaries were laid side by side. The feathers symbolized that she’d always have a part of me, and I her.

I got up and set the box on the table, and hugged her. She pulled back and began to kiss me in front of everypony, not caring if it made her look less cool. I could vaguely hear the clapping of hooves as Dash pulled me close. I could have held her there forever as the stress of the many months of being alone and trapped faded away. Finally she shifted to get comfortable, the pregnant bulge of her belly pushing against me. I let go, and let Dash slide back into her seat at the table.

“It’s about time,” Pinkie said cheerfully. She looked about one breath away from hyperventilating or exploding in excitement.

“Pinkamena Diane Pie,” Rarity scolded. “One does not rush true love.” She gave me an approving nod, wiping a hoof against some of her makeup that had ever so slightly started to run down her cheek.

“What? We were all thinking it,” Pinkie retorted.

Fluttershy wiped some tears of joy from her cheeks, saying softly “I’m so happy for both of you.”

Starlight shot me a smile, but kept a respectful distance and stayed silent as she watched a group of friends she hoped to become a part of.

“They make a cute couple,” Minuette said to Twilight. The two were the most composed, almost academic, in their reaction to the proposal. “I guess love always finds a way.”

Twilight nodded, scribbling something down onto a scroll of parchment. “Minuette, thank you for helping them fix this,” Twilight whispered. “I know they couldn’t have done it without you.”

Minuette waved a hoof. “Ah, shoot. Give them a little credit, I just did the fun part.” Her and Twilight began to converse in hushed whispers about timey wimey stuff.

“I couldn’t be happier, and I reckon we can host the wedding at the farm,” Applejack stated. She had approached and had a supportive hoof on Dash’s shoulder.

“If that’s what Dash wants,” I said.

“Honestly, I’m not sure. I never really expected, well, this,” Dash responded. “Seems like not too long ago I was set to be a Wonderbolt, and now I’m going to be a married mother instead.”

“If anypony can make the Wonderbolts after giving birth, it’s you. If you want to go over the pros and cons of marriage, I’ve got some very convincing pros stashed back in my bedroom,” I offered.

“Dawn,” Dash complained. “As much as I’d love to galavant off together, you’ve got to explain what happened to Celestia, and keep an eye on Starlight. I mean, we only stopped the apocalypse like twenty seconds ago.”

“Oh, I’m sure I can cover for you two for an evening,” Twilight said. “It might not stop Celestia from dropping in unannounced, however.”

I grinned and looked at Dash. “Hotel?” I asked. “Bet she can’t check all of them. We’ve got a lot to catch up on, and Starlight owes me one so we won’t blow Ghastly Gorge up until I get back.”

“Wait, what?” Twilight asked.

“Cloudsdale isn't far,” Dash replied.

“Would be nice not to have to wash the sheets.”

“Room service, all you can eat buffet.”

“He’s joking… I think,” Starlight offered to Twilight.

I continued to conspire with Dash to make our escape. “I’ve got like a year’s worth of showing you how much I love you to catch up on.”

“Maybe a hot stone massage.”

“Have you heard about the weather vane trick?”

“Heard of? I invented it. Has Cloud Kicker been saying otherwise again?”

“We can borrow AJ’s and take it with us.”

“What?” Applejack said.

Starlight chuckled, watching me and Dash get up to leave. I grabbed the box with our feathers in it so we could properly display them later. “Are they always like that?” she asked.

“More or less,” Twilight said. “I’m not sure who was the worst influence on the other. I’m just glad it all worked out in the end.”

“So, I guess I should be heading out too, I need to find a place to stay.”

“No need,” Twilight explained. “The castle has guest rooms, and Celestia should be by soon to talk to you. You’re the distraction while those two go… you know.” She made a gesture with her hooves.

Starlight sighed. “Reforming isn’t going to be easy, is it?”

“Never said it would, but it beats the statue garden.”

“Aww, does this mean the party’s over already? I haven’t even cut the cake,” Pinkie frowned as she watched us hurry away.

“I’m sure the rest of us could use some cake, darling,” Rarity stated.

There was a loud boom and the castle shook loudly. Everypony froze and I glanced over at the clock. I knew I’d forgotten something. Luckily I could see everypony was safely in this wing of the castle far from the errant railgun round. “Oh, how’d that storm system get there? Come on Dash, hurry!” I gave her a push towards the window.

“That didn’t sound like thunder,” Twilight shouted. “What’d you do to my castle, Dawn?!”

Dash was first out the window, and I followed shortly after. We split up to race to our homes and grab about a saddlebag’s worth of luggage each before we set off towards Cloudsdale for a hard-earned day off. For now, Starlight was in capable hooves. Celestia and Luna could come get their explanations after I finished making up for lost time with Dash.

Tomorrow, for the first time in ages, I would wake up to witness a new dawn.

Author's Note

Epilogue will post tomorrow morning.

Next time on DoH3: With a major crisis averted, Dawn has some explaining to do: To Twilight about a hole in her castle. To Celestia about forbidden knowledge. To a very flustered and confused construction pony. To the poor hotel room service who had to clean up 3 gallons of olive oil, a weather vane, a duffle bag full of down feathers, four sending stones, forty yards of rope, a fondue fountain, and some dental floss...

Ch. 22 Epilogue

Dash and I had managed to sneak out of town to celebrate our reunification after the end of the time loop, and had the time of our lives celebrating our engagement. Today we returned to find Twilight inviting us out to lunch at a local cafe. She was accompanied by Minuette, and Starlight, who looked like she hadn’t gotten much sleep.

We ordered an assortment of sandwiches and salads, and the conversation slowly drifted from formalities to the state I’d left the town in.

“So, Dawn, about my castle…” Twilight sighed. “Why did you let the Cutie Mark Crusaders shoot it with a railgun?”

“Me?” I put a hoof to my chest and tried to look offended. “I had to teach them a valuable lesson in friendship! Why, I’ll have you know they swore off dangerous crusades after that whole ordeal.”

“Well, of course they did. They’re grounded for a month, they won’t be crusading for a while.”

“That seems harsh. I mean, how do three fillies build a railgun without anypony noticing? If anything, we should ground their sisters.” I scratched an itch on my side.

“It’s not like he forgot,” Dash added. “If anything, he probably remembered but decided it’d be funny.”

“Not helping,” I muttered and glared at her.

“Somepony could have been hurt,” Twilight said.

“Nah, nopony got shot as far as I know during the loops, and if they did they wouldn’t even realize it happened.”

“You know,” Starlight began, “there was one day early on when I was exploring the castle and just woke up with no explanation.”

“I stand corrected, nopony important got hurt.”

“Who?” Starlight said, with a singsong quality like an owl.

I gulped. “Kidding, of course!” I chuckled nervously. “Of course you’re important.” I shifted in the seat and looked down to see if there were ants or something on the chair.

“Are you okay, Dawn?” Minuette asked. She was seated to my side and could see my attempts to discreetly scratch at my flanks.

“Uh, I think Pinkie got me with itching powder again, it’s nothing.” I waved a hoof dismissively, “she’s just been getting even for some allegedly broken Pinkie Promises during the loop. She’s also demanding I finish a memoire before next Tuesday or else it’ll create a paradox.”

“Well you’re the one who told me to go along with her antics”

“You know,” Starlight offered, “I know a spell to speed up writing. We could have the book done in a few hours.”

“If you break time again I’m going to bill you hourly,” Minuette threatened.

“That reminds me, what did Celestia think of your explanation, Starlight?” I asked.

“Celestia wasn’t happy about what I’d done, but when we got done talking she agreed to let me study friendship. I can’t cast anymore time spells though, not that I’d be dumb enough to,” Starlight explained.

“And Celestia wasn’t upset about how we fixed it?” I asked.

Starlight glanced around and lowered her voice. “I told her that you’d explain that part. I’m not stupid.”

“Thanks.” I rolled my eyes. “So it looks like I get to explain to Celestia how I convinced Discord’s tantabus to teach me chaos magic. At least she likes me, though if you’d like to explain instead, Twilight, I’d really appreciate it.”

She chuckled and shook her head. “Sorry, Dawn. Consider it a friendship lesson on the value of… honesty.”

I groaned. “Not everything has to be a lesson.” I looked over to Starlight. “I’m glad you’ll be sticking around at least. It would have been hard to get away and visit you in Tartarus, what with a kid on the way and all.” I smirked and took a bite out of my sandwich.

“Dawn Seeker?” a pony called.

Trotting towards me was the brown stallion that I’d been saving from the construction site throughout the past several months. He was wearing saddlebags and a long scarf. “Oh, hey… you! Good to see…” I wracked my brain for his name, but quickly came to the conclusion that I’d never asked. “You again.”

He walked up to the table and gave a small nod to Twilight. “Princess, pardon the interruption, but I’ve been trying to track Dawn down since yesterday to thank him.”

“No toasters,” Dash said. “Would love some chocolate covered strawberries, though.”

“Easy there, it’s my reward. You should have seen how heavy that log was,” I replied. “Do ponies have the law of surprise? The best part of that is my reward could be anything: a house, a boat, or a godchild.”

“Ah, yes, about that reward. Introductions are in order first. I’m the Doctor.” He pulled a small black wallet out of his saddlebag with his mouth, and held it up to show me his credentials.

“Oh? You must be a veterinarian, because that says you’re the Ponyville Pussy Inspector,” I responded.

He spit the wallet out in shock. “What?!” The Doctor glanced at the blank paper in disbelief, before Twilight snatched it out from in front of him.

“Dawn! It says here he was knighted by Celestia, and she hasn’t knighted anypony in over a hundred years, so show a little respect!” Twilight scolded.

I laughed and pointed at the credentials. “Well, it actually says Department of Homeland Security. However, nopony but me would have heard of that, so I just figured he was using some sort of Jedi mind trick, and I’d mess with him.”

“Ahem.” The Doctor snatched the badge back and put it in his bag. “It’s psychic paper, actually, and it—”

“How can paper be psychic?” Starlight asked.

“Maybe it took a correspondence course,” I answered. “It does create a lot of unanswered questions, however. If a paper can be psychic, can an axe can have a Ph. D?”

“Dawn!” The Doctor interjected. “I’m trying to repay you for saving my life here and you’ve gotten us quite off topic.”

I nodded and looked over at him. “Sorry, you’re right. I just got done sparing you from a crushing death in the time loop. So, you’re Doctor… who?”

“Whooves, actually,” he stated. “It’s quite embarrassing. I was caught completely off guard by the time loop and would have taken days to regenerate after that beam hit me. The cumulative effects of dying over and over can be very bad, but luckily it seems we’ve all avoided the worst of it. I owe you a debt of gratitude, but more importantly, this.”

He pulled out a business card and handed it over to me. “If you’re ever in need, just follow the instructions to give me a call.”

I glanced down at the card, reading it out loud. “To activate, read instructions out loud. To summon The Doctor, look into a mirror after reading, and say his name.” I glanced up at him to make a witty remark, when the business card suddenly vanished in a swirl of golden energies, shooting itself into my foreleg and vanishing.

“Gah! What was that?” I asked.

“Ah, just the spell activating. I find it best to store these things in the fourth dimension, you wouldn’t believe how often ponies misplace get out of jail free cards like that,” The Doctor explained.

I shook my leg a few times, trying to make the card reappear. “If you just tagged me with some fourth-dimensional kick-me sign, I’m gonna be pretty upset.”

“Nothing of the sort. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m late for brunch with Starswirl.” He gave another nod to Twilight, before trotting off.

Twilight spit out a bite of the sandwich she’d been chewing. “Wait, did he just say Starswirl?”

“I wouldn’t worry about it,” Minuette explained. “I’ve heard stories, he’s become a bit of a legend or a conspiracy theory depending on who you ask. I never thought he actually existed.”

I looked over to Twilight, then Dash. They didn’t seem to have any idea what was going on either. “So what is he then?”

“Oh, a time traveler,” Minuette explained as if it was a matter of fact.

“Wait, so I could have just asked a literal time traveler for help this whole time and nopony told me?!” I looked at Starlight who shrugged, and then at Minuette.

“I guess, technically yes. If you’d ever stopped to get his name, or to know him” she answered.

I groaned and let my head fall forward, landing on the table with a loud thud. “Please somepony tell me this is an elaborate prank.”

“I don’t think so, Dude,” Dash said. “Maybe you can catch him and ask, though.”

I sat back up and nodded. “Yeah, be right back.” If he had just sat by and done nothing for a whole year, I’d probably have to throw down and beat a little sense into him.

I gently flapped my wings until I was above the cafe, and flew off around the corner of the building that I’d seen the Doctor disappear behind. I could hear whining noises, and followed it to the source, catching a glimpse of something like a mirage. There was no sign of the stallion, however. The blue image I thought I saw quickly vanished.

A shadow passed by me and I heard a pony land right behind me. “Ah, Dawn, just the pony I was hoping to see,” a voice said.

I turned to see Celestia standing there in her royal regalia, smiling happily. “Oh, did you happen to see a brown stallion run by here? Fancies himself a doctor?” I landed near her, folding my wings against my sides.

Celestia nodded. “He seems to have taken a liking to you; I’m certain you’ll see him again.”

“So, he really is a time traveler then?” I asked.

“Spoilers, Dawn.” She glanced back at where the fleeting image had recently vanished. “It’s not often he gets upstaged, which begs the question of how you managed it. Who knows what problem he was solving during the loop, but he clearly trusted you to solve yours. Or, maybe he couldn’t have helped; he’s a real enigma.

“He still could have at least tried,” I whined.

“He doesn’t do anything by chance or accident, but feel free to ask him when you meet again. The Doctor would not have given you his business card otherwise. Now, to the matter of this time loop and you vouching for a pony who very nearly erased existence… I’ve already talked to Starlight, Minuette, even Luna. I’d like to hear your side of the story.”

I nodded and gulped. “So, how much trouble am I in? Need I remind you I just saved the world?”

Celestia chuckled. “Oh, Dawn, don’t be so glum. If I turned everypony who annoyed me into a statue I’d need a bigger garden. You’re not in trouble, at least not from me. Though, I was a bit surprised when an avalanche of letters appeared after the loop ended. Apparently you wrote for help often, and I appreciate the sentiment. Also, Princess Cadence wrote and said something about banning golf in the Crystal Empire.” Celestia smirked, “I’d quite like to hear the story behind that sometime.”

I let out a deep belly laugh and felt a bit more at ease as I pictured golf balls whistling out of thin air, bouncing around a crystal throne room. “Okay. So I guess the loops weren’t all bad. But I had to make a few decisions I don’t think you’ll like. Did Luna tell you about the dream?”

“Luna only said that she’d tell me what you did after I gave you the chance to do it yourself. Starlight, on the other hoof, seemed a little too willing to fall on her sword to protect you. You must have made quite the impression on her.”

“Yeah, I guess being stuck in time can do that. You may want to sit down for this,” I said. I took a seat on the ground, waiting for her to do the same. “So, I assume Starlight explained how she’d created a matrix of spells, combining them all together to do more than any single spell could do?”

“Yes,” Celestia said, taking a seat. “She did. An impressive feat, honestly. I haven’t seen a unicorn that skilled since Twilight. The more spells you combine, the more chaotic it becomes. I think Starswirl once managed eight, but Starlight managed twelve at once.”

“Sounds right to me,” I answered. “There’s just one problem, she didn’t manage it. She created the time loop, but there was too much chaos for her to control, no matter how many ways we tried to tackle the problem. One of the spells would always fail catastrophically, and the table itself seemed to be linked to the Tree of Harmony, and it wasn’t exactly thrilled about us poking and prodding the leyline. I think it may have been behind that bubble and somehow prevented reality from unraveling. I wonder what that would look like.”

“Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light,” Celestia explained.

“I think Minuette called it total protonic reversal. Apparently that’s what almost happened. I was able to see some of the thoughts and memories of the Tree of Harmony, though I’ve got no idea why it didn’t do something more direct. It seemed to help, but even then I was barely grounding enough of the energy from the leyline to stop it from vaporizing us. If Discord got to run around screwing things up, shouldn’t Harmony be allowed to be more direct and run around fixing them?”

“Sadly, it hasn’t worked like that in a long time. So what is this knowledge you used to fix the loop? The knowledge Luna and Starlight seem insistent I hear about from you?”

“Well around the time I was bleeding to death a few days ago, I finally realized there was only one being who could teach me what I wanted to know. The problem in the spell matrix was that we didn’t know how to control chaos.”

I looked at Celestia, noticing her eyes narrow as she stared at me. Meeting her gaze always intimidated me. There was something behind those eyes, some mixture of power, wisdom, and sorrow. I didn’t want to say what I had done out loud, and we sat there awkwardly for a minute while she waited for me to fess up. “So… I realized I had this tantabus of Discord in my head, and Luna told me how it was just as dangerous as Discord. I figured, he must know as much as the original did too, right?”

“Dawn…” she whispered. “You didn’t.”

“So I asked it to teach me chaos magic, which went about as well as you’d expect. Then he said something about how I didn’t realize what I’d just done, laughed gleefully, and granted my request.”

Celestia bowed her head slightly and sighed.

“That bad?” I asked. Her face was unreadable, which meant it must be bad if she felt the need to hide it.

She opened a wing and nodded towards it. I walked over and sat down next to her, letting her wrap a wing around me. Celestia spoke softly as she embraced me. “Dawn, the knowledge you’ve been granted will be coveted by the most dangerous beings in Equestria. They couldn’t take it by force from Discord if they tried, but a pegasus? I’ll do my best to protect you, but Discord was right. You’ve leapt out of the kettle and into a fire.”

“Funny you should say that.” I leaned against her side and braced myself. “Because I’m not a unicorn, and Starlight was the one who needed to know chaos magic so she could fix the spell.”

I felt Celestia tense up for a moment, before exhaling and relaxing. “I suppose there was no way around that. I’ll have to keep an eye on you and Starlight, then. If that knowledge is ever shared, it could bring ruin to Equestria. I’ll have to speak to Starlight again and impress the importance of this upon her. I trust you can keep quiet about what you know?”

“Of course, I’m only like twenty-percent stupid,” I answered. “I learned a lot about magic during the time loop, and I’m not going to go running my mouth about any of the restricted stuff, and especially not about chaos magic. Not like I can cast it anyway. The best I can do is the passive applications, like imitating a magical lightning rod.”

Celestia relaxed and I could feel a change in her posture as she hugged me with a wing. It was comforting and warm; it made me feel how everpony else must feel to know an unstoppable force of nature was always watching over them. “Then I suppose you’re free to go. I trust you, Dawn. You’ve come a long way since your arrival and I regret having doubted you at first. Due to the actions of you, Twilight, and her friends, chaos is all but gone from Equestria. You may see the return of harmony in your lifetime thanks to your actions. I’d still appreciate a more detailed letter on what transpired, minus the sensitive information, of course.”

“How sensitive are we talking?” I asked as I got up and took a couple steps away, then turned around. “Because I got up to some pretty wacky stuff in the time loop.”

“Keep it safe for fillies, after all Spike’s probably going to transcribe and send it,” Celestia answered.

“Got it, I’ll skip the parts about the sex orgy, the harem, or how I enslaved the entire town using an ancient necromantic ritual.” I waved my hooves in the air and made a spooky sound.

Celestia laughed, and shook her head. “I’m glad you’re okay, Dawn. Equestria certainly has been more interesting since you arrived. Go on now, your friends are waiting to finish lunch.”

“Thanks, Celestia. Oh, and next time can it be Twilight’s turn to save Equestria?” I asked.

“On one condition,” Celestia said. “Starlight may be Twilight’s pupil, but you were her first friend and pulled her out of the time loop. It’s your responsibility as much as Twilight’s to help her learn a better way.”

“Uh, you’ve met Dash and Lyra recently, right? You sure you want me to rub off on Starlight too?” I asked.

“Yes. You may deflect with humor, but you’re as selfless and loyal as anypony I have known. You adapted to life here, despite all you had lost. If you can teach those traits to Starlight, then one day Luna and I will be leaving Equestria’s fate in the most capable of hooves.”

I smiled widely and went back over to give Celestia a quick hug, which she returned. “That’s the nicest thing you’ve said to me. Thank you, and it’s a deal.” I ended the hug and began to walk back towards my friends. “I’ll make sure Starlight stays reformed, if you make sure Twilight solves the next apocalypse!”

Later that week I headed out onto the balcony of Dash’s cloud home to watch the sun set. Ever since I’d gotten out of the loop I liked to watch it, partly to remind myself I was out of the loop, and partly because I was worried I was still in it. Dash joined me a moment later, sitting down next to me and spreading a wing across my back. Having her here helped relieve the anxiety I felt in the evenings.

“Hey, Dude.”

“Will you ever stop calling me that?” I asked her.

Dash grinned widely. “Not a chance.”

I wrapped a foreleg around Dash, pulling her in close and holding her against me. She was soft and warm, and I watched her shift her position slightly to get comfortable. I put a hoof against her belly and could feel the foal inside shifting around. It wouldn’t be long now until we had a baby, and were raising a family together. I’d never imagined that I’d be raising a family like this, let alone as a pony. At times being in Equestria hadn’t seemed real, but Dash had been an anchor for me to hold onto. Now that I’d asked her to marry me, I felt like it was the sort of thing I’d known would happen ever since I first arrived.

As the sun touched the horizon I tightened my grip on Dash. “Are you okay, Dawn?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I sighed. “I just keep having this feeling that any moment I’m going to wake back up in the loop, and that maybe if I hold you tight enough I won’t lose you again.”

Dash nodded, wrapping her own foreleg around me. “I’m here for you, Dawn.”

I tensed up a bit as the sun dipped below the horizon, but began to relax as I saw the moon rising. None of the loops had ever made it to night time, so now that the moon had reached the apex of the sky I could relax, safe in the knowledge I wasn’t in a loop.

“Thanks, Dash.”

“It’s no problem.”

I got up and followed her to bed, crawling onto the cloud mattress and laying down beside her. I began to grin stupidly as I smelled the scent on the pillow.

“What are you up to?” she asked.

“Nothing.” I might have convinced her if my grin hadn’t kept spreading.

“No, really, what are you thinking about?”

“It’s just that scent of rain,” I admitted. “Everytime I smell it, it brings back good memories. During the loop it gave me hope, and even now that you’re right here in front of me, I just love the memories it brings.”

“That was beautiful,” Dash said. “Don’t go telling anypony we’re turning into sappy romantics, though.”

“Deal.”

Dash rolled over to get comfortable and find a position to rest with her back up against me. I snuggled up and nuzzled against the nape of her neck, breathing in the scent of her hair. I held onto her with a foreleg and yawned, feeling myself drifting off to sleep quickly. Perhaps Luna was giving me some help in that department; she had been quick to intercept any nightmares I had lately.

As I fell asleep, I reflected on the interesting twists and turns our lives had taken, only for us to end up together. I was content and happy, and I knew Dash was too. I adjusted the blanket a bit as my eyes started to feel too heavy to keep open, and drifted off to sleep.

Author's Note

Special thanks to:
TheEightDayOfNight for editing.
Starscribe's server for encouraging me during the month of November to keep writing.
All the fans commenting and chatting with me in various discord servers throughout the weeks. It kept me motivated.

Ch. 2 It's Always Sunny in Ponyville

I aimed down the iron sights as the howling intensified; a vast shambling horde was pounding at the gates to the run down cemetery. Zombies began to pour over the wrought iron fence as it collapsed under the weight. There was a sharp crack, followed by a high pitched pinging sound as an empty clip was ejected from my M1 Garand’s magazine. Smooth as butter, I loaded a fresh clip, pushing it into the rifle and shoving the bolt of the action home to chamber another round. The next zombie over the fence dropped from an expertly placed shot.

From the belltower of the dilapidated church, it was like shooting fish in a barrel. They continued to stumble forward, eager to break in and climb up to eat my brains. Unluckily for them, I was human, I was lucid dreaming, and I was armed.

This was going to be fun.

Dozens fell before I started to get bored, then I heard the wood creaking in the tower behind me. A zombie must have snuck up behind me. I spun around, leveling my weapon on a startled looking Princess Luna.

“Dawn… I sensed your nightmare. Are you okay?” Princess Luna asked.

“Yeah,” I smiled. “Did you know, I can’t remember the last time I was human in a dream? I’ve just gotten so used to being a pony, I guess. This is fun, I think it’s based on one of my favorite video games.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Of course this would be a pastime on Earth.”

“Brains!” A zombie cried as it shambled up the stairs behind Luna, eager to taste the forbidden flesh of an alicorn.

I leveled the weapon just to the side of her head like a big damn hero in an action movie and pulled the trigger. The round swished through her hair, hitting the zombie and dropping it to the floor.

Luna blinked, looking back to the zombie then to me. She’d seen more of Earth than any other pony by visiting my dreams, yet was still surprised by the brutality of our past times. I didn’t have the heart to tell her this game had only been rated Teen. I fired another round into the zombie’s head.

“Dawn! I think it’s dead…”

“Rule number two, Princess. Always double tap.”

She groaned, “I’m not going to ask… I’m just glad you’re okay.”

I smiled and put down the weapon, picking up a fireman’s axe. I turned it over in my hands, looking at the transition from bright red to silver steel, and the razor sharp edge. “Oh better than okay. Did you know I couldn’t lucid dream back on Earth? I guess some good has come of all this dream magic stuff.”

There was a loud roar and a zombie the size of a fire truck slammed through the wall surrounding the cemetery. It had muscles the size of a suspension bridge cable, and was leaking black ichor from its mouth.

“You’ll wake soon,” Luna observed. “So your… leisure time is nearly at an end.”

“Then I better hurry, I hate waking up before the best part.” I gave her a quick salute with the axe, before turning around and leaping out of the window, axe gripped in both hands. I swung downward as I plummeted towards the zombie’s head, letting out my own warcry. “For Aiur!”

Come on everypony smile, smile, smile
Fill my heart up with sunshine, sunshine

I groaned and rolled over, my hoof falling onto the off button of the radio alarm clock with practiced precision. The sun was coming in through my window, and now that I was up I could hear birds chirping outside. At least someone was happy to be awake.

Lingering in bed for an hour or two sounded pretty good, but it could also turn my day into a slog. If I headed into town I could probably get some coffee to help jump start my day. After that I could check in with the weather team, and then go see if any ponies got lost or injured.

Being on the medical evac and the search and rescue team for Ponyville was a pretty sweet gig. It meant I was always on call, but at the same time apocalypse level events only happened two to three times a month tops. I had always wanted to help people growing up, only now it was ponies instead of people. As much as I loved being lazy, I couldn’t help anypony if I didn’t get my day started. I would need to check in with the guard and the hospital to see if any jobs needed to be done today.

It didn’t take me long to run a brush through my mane and tail, both primarily blonde with a pink highlight in them. I kept the mane short and the tail long enough to cover my rear. Most ponies weren’t very self conscious, but I certainly was when I could feel the breeze back there. Technically you weren’t naked if you had fur, but try telling that to the part of my brain that still thought like a human.

Preening had become second nature and I smoothed out my light blue feathers quickly. A large standing mirror helped me to find and straighten the feathers out. Next to the mirror was a pair of saddlebags, packed full of medical supplies provided by the hospital. I left it there for now; in an hour or two I’d know if any hikers had gotten lost or if any patients needed emergency transfers to Canterlot. I grabbed a smaller bag for carrying some bits around. It hung from one side instead of both like the larger saddlebags.

I headed downstairs and began to rummage through the cabinets. Locating some cat food didn’t take long, and I filled up a bowl for Bagheera. He’d woken up as soon as he heard the can opening, appearing from underneath the sofa. I gave him a quick pat on the head, and could feel him gently purring. After feeding my pet, I found myself a bit of oatmeal in the nearly empty pantry. I was out of coffee grounds and headed back up to my bedroom, instead of towards the front door.

My bedroom was on the second floor of my home, and I stepped out a door onto a balcony. It was a pegasus habit to use windows instead of doors. Maybe we were part cat and just liked being high up, or perhaps flying was just that much better than walking. I flared my wings and jumped over the railing, then glided down into the street. Across the street was Minuette, some new pony who had decided to get a home here in Ponyville. I think she came from Canterlot before.

“Good morning, Minuette.” I waved to her as I started up the street towards the nearest coffee shop.

“Good morning, Dawn,” she called back.

I walked down the street towards the homes still under construction. My home had been one of the first built in the last expansion of Ponyville. As a pony headed down the street towards the center of Ponyville, they also skirted along the edge of the Everfree. Most ponies preferred to find homes closer to Sweet Apple Acres or Ghastly Gorge, but the Everfree wasn’t as dangerous as most ponies thought. Fluttershy had taught me that for the most part, if you leave the animals in the forest alone, they’ll leave you alone in return. I’m glad that was true, because the one time I’d tangled with a manticore hadn’t gone well.

Half my neighbors were newer to town than me, and more were moving in every week. I liked being out here on the edge, it almost felt like the frontier. There was a largely unexplored forest, Zecora’s hut where you could get all sorts of awesome potions, and Fluttershy’s cottage. The rest of the town bustled with activity and lights at night, but for now the edge of the Everfree was quieter and had a nicer view. Dash kept her cloud house near here also. Pegasi preferred to have more personal space and open sky than the other races. If the town kept encroaching on my modest bachelor pad, I might have to find myself a cloud house soon to escape the hustle and bustle.

I was lost in thought, trotting down the road, when I heard somepony call out. “Looks like somepony has a case of the Mondays.” Rose was watering her flower garden with a small green can, and grinning at me.

She must have noticed my mane looking a bit unkempt, and I ran a hoof through it to confirm. I was a bit annoyed. I didn’t particularly like mornings or Mondays, but it was a bit rude to call somepony out like that. It was exactly the sort of thing my old Nurse Administrator Melody would say to me when I was thirty seconds late to work. The less said about her, the better.

However, I had learned better than to be a smartass to ponies who didn’t know me well. Apparently, Twilight insisted, it could come off as hostile. So I didn’t throw back a witty remark at Rose.

“Hey, Rose. Thanks, I must have missed that cow lick.” I smiled back at her.

I continued down the road, noticing the sounds of hammering and a pony shouting commands. Just ahead was a new two story home being built, with a couple dozen construction ponies hard at work. Several ropes and pulleys were in use, lifting up wooden beams to form the structure of the upper level of the house.

There didn’t seem to be many unicorns on this team; it’d have been easier with a little magic. Some cranes would have handled the heavy lifting also, but Ponyville was about as rural as Equestria could be. All the cool machines were in towns like Manehatten. There was a burly earth pony lifting a wooden support beam that must have been ridiculously heavy. I wondered how strong a pony had to be to lift a beam that large by a simple rope and pulley.

That was when I heard the snap. The rope failed in a split second, and I watched the beam, probably ten feet long and almost as thick as my chest, fall down onto a pony who was standing in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Ponies began to scream and shout in a panic, looking around to each other and unsure what to do. A couple of the older ponies, perhaps ones that had seen tragedy before, moved forward to start lifting the beam.

I jumped into action without thinking; this was the sort of medical emergency I’d trained for as a human. It was my last link to who I used to be, a skill that even Discord flinging me here couldn’t take away from me.

By the time the two earth ponies began lifting the beam, I already had two hooves under it to help toss it to the side. My wings strained against the weight, but I ignored their protest. There was a heavy thud as the thick wooden plank landed behind the pony and I began checking his vital signs.

He was out cold and not moving. I used the frog of my hoof to try and find a pulse, noticing it was weak and thready. Next I checked his breathing by leaning in to listen and feel it against my cheek. It was there, but very shallow. He was still alive, for now.

I stood up and looked at the ponies gathered around, watching and unsure of how to help. To snap them out of the bystander effect, I picked the first pony I recognized out of the crowd. “Flitter! Fly to Ponyville hospital, tell them I need a trauma team here immediately.”

She nodded, and flew off towards the hospital. I looked down at the injured stallion again, noticing his chest didn’t seem to be moving anymore. He’d stopped breathing. I quickly checked against his neck and I couldn’t be sure I felt the pulse anymore.

“You,” I shouted to one of the earth ponies that had helped lift the beam. “You know CPR?” He nodded. “Good, two breaths after every 30 compressions.”

I adjusted the unconscious pony to give better compressions. It wasn’t quite like a human; I had to adjust for the new anatomy. To date I’d been lucky enough to never need to perform CPR on a pony in a real life or death situation. They say you perform like you practice. It looked like today I’d find out how well I’d learned from Nurse Redheart.

Counting out loud, I finished my first set of thirty. I waited to let my helper deliver a couple breaths. I completed the second set, then a third, and a fourth. Muscles began to burn, but the adrenaline kept me going as we waited for the trauma team to arrive.

By the twentieth set I was tempted to take a break and let the earth pony take a turn with compressions. I knew I couldn’t keep it up much longer, but I also knew handing this off to a pony not as well trained as me could mean the dying pony had a lower chance of survival. That was a risk I was not willing to take.

I was so fatigued by the time the trauma team got there that Nurse Redheart had to pull me back herself, stepping in and using her magic to deliver the compressions.

I caught my breath before muttering, “Show off.” I chuckled and got back to my hooves. The other two unicorns Redheart brought had already loaded the pony onto a stretcher and began carrying him off towards the hospital.

The unicorns took off at a sprint, and the crowd began to slowly disperse. I began to walk after them, my forelegs absolutely burning from the overexertion. As was often the case, it was a lot more tiring than it looked and I may have broken a few of the dying pony’s ribs, but I’d kept his blood circulating. With my legs so sore I went to spread my wings and fly, noticing they were also strained from trying to lift the beam earlier. Still, they hurt less than my legs. After stretching them for a minute I was able to take flight and give my legs a rest.

The cool air was refreshing as I flew. It gave me a much needed chance to take weight off my legs and stretch them out two at a time. As the muscles tensed and relaxed a few times, the aching began to fade. I let out a sigh of relief as my fight or flight response slowly faded. The familiar rhythm of my wings beating loosened up the tight muscles in my back. As I got nearer to the hospital the rush of adrenaline faded.

A clock ticked in the empty hospital waiting room, and I realized I’d been staring blankly at it. The chair I was in had gotten uncomfortable, and I spent a moment trying to figure out how long I’d been sitting here. I didn’t want to leave until I found out if the injured pony would be okay.

I reached over to the small table next to my chair. I stuck a hoof into a small bag of cookies that I’d got from a vending machine and pulled the last one out, tossing it into my mouth.

It was only a few minutes later when Dr. Stable came out of the double doors from the surgery wing. He must have heard from one of the nurses that I’d been waiting out here, because he headed straight over to see me.

“Good afternoon, Dawn. I heard you were first on the scene?” he asked.

“Yeah, figured I’d wait for a bit to see how he did… though I’m a bit worried at how long it’s been,” I replied.

Doctor Stable nodded and took a deep breath, the kind I’d seen before when a doctor had bad news to deliver. “He didn’t make it, despite all you tried to do for him.”

“Celestia damn it.” I immediately felt like there must have been something more I could have done. I did what I always did in these situations; I took a soothing deep breath and accepted that you can’t always save a patient. “What was the cause of death?”

“There’s nothing you could have done, and he’d have been dead on the scene, instead of the operating room, if not for you,” he explained.

“There’s always something that could have been done differently, it’s how we get better. Was he really beyond saving?” I asked.

Doctor Stable nodded. “It was a cardiac tamponade caused by an acute pericardial effusion. Not many ponies could diagnose that on the scene from a visual inspection.”

I nodded and gazed down at the floor in defeat. What the doctor had described was caused by fluid building up around the heart, inside the small fluid filled sac that surrounds it and reduces friction when it beats. With enough trauma, it’s possible for fluid to fill it up, building pressure on the heart until it can no longer expand to pump blood. No amount of chest compressions or first aid would have helped him.

“That sucks…” I sighed and shook my head. “Really was nothing I could have done, unless I knew about the fluid build up and had a needle. Even then, I only know the approximate location for where to put the needle on a human. I guess I’ll have to do more reading on pony anatomy.”

Doctor Stable levitated out a small pen light, moving it over to press between two of my ribs. “Right here, angled slightly upward. I know I’ve said it before, but we’d be happy to hire you full time. I’d happily sponsor you to get you into medical school and become a doctor too.”

I looked down and made a mental note of where the pen was at before he removed it. I really hoped I’d never need to use this information. I realized I was frowning and still staring down at my own hooves. I quickly looked up and smiled at Stable. I could kick myself for losing my first patient in Equestria later, in private.

“Thanks, but I’d always wanted to be on the front lines helping people on Earth. I’m a bit old to start pony medical school and relearn everything I’d need to know to be a proper nurse or doctor in Equestria. I’ll stick to my self-study of some of Twilight’s medical books for now.”

Stable shrugged and smiled. He was always gentle in his insistence that I could achieve more. “This is the first pony that’s died since you got to Equestria, right?” Stable asked. “So far you’ve mostly had lower stakes search and rescue and emergency medical work?”

I noticed him switching tracks, showing his concern for my well being. The good medical professionals never left a colleague to wallow in doubt when they lost a patient. “Yeah, it’s the first.”

“If you want any counselling, we keep a pony on staff for that. You’d be surprised how many ponies have difficulty dealing with their first death.”

I tried to dismiss it with a smile, maintaining eye contact to convince him I was fine dealing with loss on my own. “Thanks, again. I’ve lost enough patients to know the drill. Nothing to do but take a hot bath, do something life affirming, maybe drink a few hard ciders, and do better next time.” I stretched and stood up from the chair.

He let out a soft chuckle. “Sorry. It’s just that I forget sometimes how different your approach to life and death is from us ponies. I may see one or two deaths a year from trauma, but you used to see them daily. I can’t imagine being so desensitized to violence.”

“Well, sure it sounds bad when you put it like that. However, detachment can be healthy when you’re dealing with the worst a species has to offer,” I explained. “If I couldn’t handle loss, I couldn’t do my job.”

“I hope that’s true for you, but if you ever need a friend to talk to, my door is open. There is a difference between handling and avoiding loss.” He reached out a hoof and I shook it. “Always a pleasure, Dawn.”

“Thanks, Doc.”

The flight home didn’t take long, and I decided to stick to my plan of relaxation. A hot bath, some cider, and time to reflect on the day’s events was what I needed, just like I’d told Stable. Now was the time to make myself believe it. I lost myself in thought as I went through the steps to relax and get ready for bed.

Things had always seemed to work out in Equestria, and even though death was a very real possibility, it seemed like Twilight and her friends always came out with minimal injuries. Perhaps on some level I’d started to believe that ponies just didn’t get hurt in Ponyville, not seriously at least. If they did, surely there’d be a spell that could fix it right up.

It turns out, sometimes ponies die, even if I did everything right. There weren’t always magic do-overs or a princess to make things right. As I laid in bed I could feel some of my sore muscles spasm and tense from the exertion earlier.

If only Dash had been here, I could have opened up to her about how I was feeling. She would have understood what it was like. Dash had been to Earth with me. She’d realize how different the two worlds were and how I’d hoped that inconveniences like the pain of loss wouldn’t follow me here. Equestria had been my second chance to live in a world where bad things didn’t happen to good ponies.

I had to intentionally blank my mind with a meditation exercise to stop the thoughts that were racing through my head. I had spent my time dwelling on the day’s events, and what I needed most now was some sleep. Once I had stilled my mind and finished the breathing exercise, I felt an odd tingle and a muscle spasm, then fell asleep quickly.

Author's Note

Next time on DoH3: Dawn experiences a sense of Deja Vu. Is this the do-over he hoped for, or something worse?

Ch. 8 Seige Warfare Cutie Marks Yay!

I leaned forward, stretching out not unlike a cat would. It had been a long day of studying, and I still had to swing by the castle to talk to Spike. I’d decided to try sending another letter to Celestia this morning. Every so often I’d try again even though none had ever been responded to. When I needed a little break from studying magic, it was as good an excuse as any.

Once I was done listening to my stiff joints pop, I flexed my wings and took off towards the castle. The town looked normal from the sky, every pony going around blissfully unaware they’d done their daily routine for a few months. By now I knew where most ponies were at any given point in the day.

The flight to the castle didn’t take long, and I headed over towards the wing that had the bedrooms to find an open window. I noticed something odd, and let myself into the nearest window to investigate.

There was a hole large enough for me to crawl through, and almost perfectly round, in the tree castle’s wall. I rubbed a hoof around the circular gap. The crystal was smooth, and seemed to have dribbled down a little like molten wax. Whatever had hit the wall had moved fast enough to vaporize the crystal.

I looked across the floor, expecting to find chunks of crystal and maybe some bits of debris from whatever fast moving object had collided with it. There was a fine powder on the purple rug running down the center of the hall, and some tiny slivers of crystal.

That’s when I noticed a hole on the other side of the hallway. I leaned over to look through the hole, seeing half a dozen more holes before I saw the sky on the other side. Something had hit the castle hard enough to punch straight through.

I trotted down the hallway as it gently curved, coming to Twilight’s bedroom. I pushed the door open and found a confused Spike staring out the final hole in the wall into the distance.

“Hey, Spike, what happened?” I asked.

He jumped slightly, before turning back to me. “Oh, hey Dawn. I was waiting to hear back from Celestia, when all of a sudden the castle shook. There was a loud noise, and this hole was here.”

“Huh, weird. No pony got hurt though?”

“Yeah, not many ponies visit when Twilight’s gone. Just you, and earlier Lyra was grabbing some books. What do you think caused this?” Spike asked.

I looked back down the series of holes in the walls, seeing the Everfree forest in the distance. “I’m not sure, but I think I have time before the sun sets to find out. It looks like this came from the Everfree.”

Spike gulped. “Be careful, Dawn.”

“Pfft, I’m functionally immortal right now. Whatever’s in the Everfree should be more afraid of me.”

I flew up high to get a good look down at the forest, then slowly glided down towards it. There wasn’t much to see but treetops from up here, and the path to Zecora’s hut. A couple small clearings stood out, but not large enough to see into them very well. I started to fly in closer above the treetops, then hover above each gap in the foliage to look down.

In the second clearing I heard familiar voices. “I don’t think we hit anything; it was aimed into the forest right?”

“I dunno, it happened so fast I didn’t get a good look. I was just eyeballing it.”

“And we didn’t even get our cutie marks. I spent three months' allowance on all these crystals.”

I sighed and dropped down into the clearing, landing next to the three fillies. If ever there were poster children for needing adult supervision, Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle would have been featured front and center.

“Hey, girls. What in Celestia’s green Equestria are you doing this time?” I gestured to the odd looking device. It was at least thirty feet long, metallic, straight, and glowing with lines of magic crystals.

“Hey Dawn!” Scootaloo smiled, excited to see me. “You’ll never guess what Apple Bloom built!”

“Well, I may have built it, but Sweetie Belle supplied the magic,” the yellow filly responded.

“We’re trying to get our siege warfare cutie marks!” Sweetie walked over to the other two fillies, and they shouted together. “Cutie Mark Crusaders siege warfare experts! Yay!”

I rubbed a hoof behind my head, looking at the long metal device as pieces slowly fell into place. “Wait, you tried this before with the trebuchet, right? And I think there was a ballista and catapult.”

“Well, yeah,” Apple Bloom said. “But obviously we didn’t think big enough, and what’s the biggest baddest siege weapon ever?”

“The sixteen inch guns on the U.S.S. Iowa?” I replied.

“Not sure what that is, but bigger,” Sweetie said.

“So help me, if this is a fission reactor…”

“No idea what that is either,” Scootaloo said, “but we built something better!”

Sweetie Belle went up and ran a hoof down the large metal cylinder. “This siege weapon uses alternating magic fields to attract and repel a large object. It’s able to accelerate anything you can fit inside faster than the sound barrier, though it seems to work better with objects that have a magnetic field.”

“Oh my god,” I said flabbergasted as the realization dawned on me. “You built a freaking railgun.” I pushed a hoof against one of the crystals that ran parallel to the metal rails that ran along the center of the device. The glowing blue gem pushed my leg back like two magnets repelling each other. If this was anything like a railgun on Earth, it could likely accelerate an object to a significant fraction of the speed of light.

The fact the castle had a hole punched through a dozen walls without the projectile noticeably slowing was proof that their railgun worked well. “I would be impressed if I weren’t so angry right now.”

“Angry?” Scootaloo asked.

“I don’t suppose you’re familiar with the first law of thermodynamics?” I looked to Sweetie Belle, who seemed to be the brains of this operation.

“Uh, Starswirl’s first law is that an object in motion stays in motion,” she answered.

“No credit for partial answers.”

“Unless…” Sweetie thinks for a moment. “Unless acted on by an outside force?”

“Bingo.” I lowered my voice into a stern cadence as I paced in front of the fillies. “And that makes Starswirl the deadliest son of a bitch in Equestria, because once you fired this railgun you have to realize that projectile would keep going until it hit something. That could be a tree, a castle, or Luna sunbathing on her moon.” I marched over to the small stack of metal cannon balls sitting near the end of the railgun and tapped one with my hoof. “This cannonball might fly off into space and hit someone ten thousand years from now. If you build a weapon like this and fire it you’re ruining somepony’s day, sometime, somewhere.”

I went over to Apple Bloom, who I’d heard was aiming the weapon as I’d landed in the clearing. “And that, Apple Bloom, is why we do not eyeball it! You’re not a cowpony shooting from the hip. This isn’t a siege weapon, it’s a weapon of mass destruction that just blasted a hole clean through a dozen walls of Twilight’s castle!”

She gulped, and the three of them looked like they were about to cry. Instead of crying, they suddenly hit me with these innocent wide-eyed stares. It reminded me a bit of a puppy dog who thought if it just looked cute enough you’d forget it had peed on the carpet.

I couldn’t resist weaponized cuteness of this magnitude. “Ugh, fine.” I sighed, averting my eyes. “I won’t tell your parents, but you owe me one!”

“Thanks Dawn!” They cheered together, running forward and attaching themselves to my side in a hug.

“At least you weren’t aiming it at me this time. You know Dash still refuses to eat watermelons after the trebuchet?” I asked.

They collectively giggled, releasing the hug.

“Now, why don’t you show me how to operate this thing? Because I’m dying to know exactly how three fillies built a functional railgun, and the time loop won’t reset for another few hours.”

“Time loop?” Scootaloo asked.

“It’s a long story, sufficeth to say there’s a non-zero chance this railgun could somehow come in useful. So, how’s it work?”

Sweetie Belle went over to her saddlebags and started to fish through it. “We mail-ordered the instructions to build it off the back of one of Scootaloo’s comic books.” She brought the comic over and showed it to me. “It can fire anything from a potato to a pony, and you can adjust the speed here…”

By the time I’d finished in the clearing I only had an hour or so left before the loop would reset. I decided to walk back towards the castle, just to make sure nothing else had been hit by the railgun. It had shattered a few trees as it exited the forest. Had they not assembled it backwards, it would have fired into a large dirt embankment. Still, I wasn’t sure if that would have stopped the round.

Luckily the round had exited the forest and not passed near any homes. It passed over a small lake, and as I approached I saw a rather odd site. A pony was dangling in a tree, and a frantic unicorn was trying to help them down.

As I got closer, I realized it was Vinyl and Octavia, two of the musicians that lived in town. Vinyl was into electronic music, techno, dubstep, basically anything she could lay down a killer beat to. Octavia played only classical music, primarily the cello, but I think it likely she was proficient at some other stringed instruments too.

There was a tacklebox and several fishing rods near the base of the tree, a couple chairs, and an ice box. Several hundred feet of fishing line and several small treble hooks had attached themselves to Octavia, who was dangling from the tree like a twisted marionette.

“I don’t know much about fishing, but I don’t think I could have done… just what exactly happened here?” I asked.

Vinyl looked over at me and gasped. “Dawn?! Quick, you’ve gotta get her down! We were fishing, and then there was a gust of wind, and I don’t know what happened!”

Octavia groaned. “One of the hooks caught my fur and next thing I know, Vinyl’s trying to pull them out. Somehow they got caught on the tree…”

Nodding, I headed over to the tackle box and pulled out a pair of pliers with a small metal blade made to cut through small hooks. “This’ll do, just hold still for a second. It looks like it’s more fishing line than hooks, at least.”

I began snipping at the hooks that had caught on Octavia, pulling them out one by one. To take her mind off of it, I thought I’d make a little small talk. “So what brings you two out fishing?”

“It was supposed to be a date,” Octavia replied.

“I thought she’d like something normal, I know she's not into clubs and raves and all,” Vinyl explained to me. “So, you know, fishing.” She rubbed a hoof behind her head nervously.

I finished removing the hooks, luckily they were tiny; less than an inch each. After cutting the remaining knotted fishing lines free, Octavia fell two feet to the ground and landed on her hooves. She began to stretch her sore muscles.

“All better. I guess we can look on the bright side though, how awkward would this have been for a first date?” I asked.

Vinyl looked at the ground, not meeting my eyes. “It was our first date…”

“Oh.” I gulped and tried to think of some other silver lining, but none came to me. I’d heard they were roommates, and had always assumed they were an item. “Well it can only get better from here.”

“I think I’ll head home for a bath. Perhaps you could give me some time to calm down?” Octavia asked, giving Vinyl a weak grin. “That was a bit panic inducing.”

“Yeah, sure thing… Tavi.” Vinyl smiled, and headed over towards the fishing gear. “I should get these back, they’re rentals. I’ll figure out a way to make up for this.”

Once Vinyl wasn’t looking, I saw a pained look on Octavia’s face and her shoulders drooping. Perhaps she was also struggling to find the right words to not leave on an awkward note. I felt bad for Octavia, and figured I’d make myself useful and find out what Octavia would have enjoyed. “I’ll walk you home, if you like.”

“Thanks, Dawn,” Octavia began to walk towards town.

“Don’t worry, Vinyl. I have a feeling this will work out.” I gave her a wink as we headed into town.

The sun was nearly set as we headed back into town. Octavia had been quiet, so I had to ditch the subtlety to try and gain a little intel quickly. I walked up beside her, giving her a supportive shoulder to lean against if she needed it.

“So, if things had gone differently, what might you have enjoyed for a first date with Vinyl?” I asked.

Octavia thought it over for a minute. “Well, I guess it’d have been nice to just go for a nice dinner, and maybe a movie or play. There’s not much of a night life here in Ponyville, so I suppose I should have figured she’d just do something… different.”

“Different how?” I asked.

“I composed a song for a pony I liked once, that’s very romantic. Maybe just a nice picnic on a hill? It’s hard to say, Dawn. Part of the reason I like Vinyl is that we’re so different. However, she just tries too hard to make everything… awesome. Honestly, I half expected our first date to be her trying to talk me into attending a rave.”

“Ah, sounds like a mare I fell for.” I smiled. “Everything had to be twenty percent cooler.”

She stopped walking next to a house. I realized it had to be the one she and Vinyl shared. “Thanks, Dawn. I’m sure we’ll work things out; I’d hate to lose her as a friend.” Octavia opened the door and turned back to give me a quick hug. “Thanks for wandering by when you did.”

“No problem,” I said. “And don’t worry, when the time loop resets I’ll have plenty of time to come up with the perfect first date for you two lovebirds.”

“Wait, what? Time loop?” Octavia scratched her head and gave me a confused look.

I grinned like a mad stallion, adjusted her bowtie, and then booped her on the nose. “Bowties are cool.”

She opened her mouth a couple times, unsure what to say, when I felt the familiar tingling of energy that accompanied the sunset. Before she could figure out a reply, I woke up to Equestria’s worst song ever on the radio.

Author's Note

Next Time on DoH3: Dawn visits Twilight's new Lab, Bon Bon, Fluttershy, and Lyra, leading to a startling realization...

Lyra inched her way over to the door and held it halfway open in her magic. “Sweet Celestia, what have I unleashed on Equestria?”

Ch. 17 Interlude IV

Starlight had spread parchment across the table in the map room of the castle, each one containing variations of the time spell. She had tried each and every one of them in past loops, over a hundred total, and not one had fixed or ended her imprisonment.

Every relevant book from the small town library, and the castle’s extensive library, were stacked up around her. As far as she could tell, there was not a single useful bit of information left on how to fix a screw up of this magnitude.

Even with Minuette’s help over countless interrogations, Starlight didn’t have what she needed. She was convinced that the blue unicorn wasn’t holding anything else back at this point. It’s easy to lie, but it’s a lot harder when a pony can just ask a new question a slightly different way the next day and you can’t remember your original lie.

Whatever Minuette knew, Starlight knew, and that scared her. There was nothing left to try, no more untapped resources, just a town full of ponies who couldn’t be of use to her. The pegasus Dawn was a particular nuisance, and seemed to be aware they were trapped in a loop. Starlight had spent days interrogating Minuette about how he knew this, and where he lived. Unfortunately, that was something Minuette seemed determined to take to her grave over and over. Starlight hadn’t run into Dawn around town for days; it was almost like the stallion had vanished completely. At least his sneaking around in the shadows provided her a brief reprieve.

Ponies frustrated Starlight to no end when they’d choose friendship over self-preservation or logic. Minuette would be an eternal punching bag just to protect some worthless pegasus who couldn’t levitate a book, let alone fix a time spell. Starlight was almost certain the two must have been seeing each other.

Still, all those concerns were secondary to the elephant in the room. Starlight had tried almost everything she could think of, there was only one thing left she could do to escape this time loop.

Starlight cast a spell on herself to try and bring herself out of phase with time slightly. Everything in the room appeared in a slight double vision as she got out of her chair.

It was at this moment Spike walked in, looking over at the unicorn in confusion. She reminded him of Twilight at first, sitting amidst a pile of books and scrolls deep in study. Then he recognized her from the warnings Twilight had given him of a mare known as Starlight.

“Um, can I help you?” Spike asked. “If you’re here to cause trouble, we’ll stop you again.”

Starlight smiled at the little dragon as she walked over towards the window. Her motions were smooth and carefree as she climbed up into the window, and stepped outside, still smiling.

“Starlight!” Spike shouted, running over to the window.

There was a thud from outside. Spike looked down from the window to find one very dead villain on the ground, several stories below.

Starlight ran straight into the crystal door of the map room. She sat down, not bothering to wipe the blood from her nose or pull the door open. She sniffled in defeat, and began to mutter to herself.

“Of course I can’t die, even if I try to suspend the spell. Everypony else that died came back. There really is no escape. This is my prison for billions of years.”

She began to sob, leaning against the wall as she contemplated this fate worse than death. At least the other ponies were blissfully ignorant, they would never know of the prison they lived in. For Starlight, and possibly that pegasus Dawn, they would live every day dreading the millions that would follow.

At some point her tears had dried up, but Starlight still didn’t have the strength to stand. There was a blanket that somepony had put over her shoulder while she had laid there crying, and a small pillow nearby. Perhaps it had been Spike that had found her and shown sympathy. Starlight spent the rest of the day curled up outside the map room.

The next day Starlight had another idea, one she hadn’t tried before. She had hurried over to Minuette’s to demand answers. The light blue pony was currently on her couch with her legs encased in crystal.

“Even if there was a way to pierce the barrier of damaged time, and there isn’t, I wouldn’t tell you. This isn’t a problem you can run away from, it’s one that you have to fix,” Minuette explained. “You’re lucky you didn’t tear space-time wide open. That barrier you keep asking about is probably the only thing holding reality together. You know as much about it as I do, and I only heard about it half an hour ago.”

“We’ve been over this,” Starlight replied “I’ve tried everything, hundreds of iterations, it can not be done! However, if I fix the spell locally, just a big enough gap for a pony to squeeze through...”

“You haven’t tried asking for our help.”

“Please,” Starlight huffed. “A town full of earth ponies and pegasi. If I need to grow some carrots and make it rain, I know just what to do. As far as unraveling time spells go, you’re the only pony in this town worth a damn, and you refuse to help me.”

Minuette rolled her eyes. “Well, did you think maybe shooting first might give the wrong impression? Heck, I’d probably be none the wiser if you just asked nicely.”

“Oh, I’ve tried nice, and I ran out of patience after a few months. I even tried making friends, but by the time I’d made one the loop reset, leaving me alone again. You want to know the only thing worse than being alone, Minuette?”

“What is it?”

“It’s being surrounded by ponies that make you feel alone. Every single day I see every pony but me living their happy lives. Even in this prison, they’ve known more happiness in a day than I have since I was a filly.”

Minuette tried to cast a spell, causing the crystal encasing her horn to glow brightly for a moment, before the spell fizzled. “Fine, you win for the most tragic backstory. However, we can still help you.”

“Oh? Like how your coltfriend Dawn wants to help? You never did tell me how it is he seems to remember the loops,” Starlight observed.

Her eyes shot to the window and the house across the street. In her haste today, Starlight hadn’t bothered to draw the curtains shut.

Starlight followed her gaze and smirked. “Well, this just got interesting. How many times have we done this dance, Minuette, and you finally slipped up.”

“Please—” Minuette’s plea was cut off as Starlight’s magic expanded the clear crystal, trapping the unicorn in it like a mosquito in amber.

She stepped outside, closing the door behind her and looking up at the home across the street. Starlight saw somepony watching from the window, but the curtains closed before she got a good look.

“Was it really this simple the whole time?” She walked across the street and let herself into the house. She looked around for any photos, but didn’t see any. The home certainly looked messy enough to belong to a stallion. Before she could head up the stairs, she heard a hissing sound and a large black cat pounced on Starlight.

She batted it away with her levitation, and the cat ran under the couch. Starlight proceeded up the stairs, and began to look around the room for the owner of the home. She saw one of the dresser cabinets sitting slightly open. Pulling out the drawer, she looked into it to guage who the contents might belong to.

“Uh, hi. Can I help you?” A bright pink pegasus mare stood in the doorway to the bathroom. Her blonde hair and blue highlight was about as opposite the stallion Starlight was looking for as it could get.

Starlight nearly teleported away out of sheer frustration, but decided to ask a few questions before she left this mare.

“Sorry, I was looking for a stallion friend of mine.” Starlight smiled and glanced over at the mare. She already had decided on a believable enough lie. ‘I think he’s been… cheating on me. Do you live here alone?”

“Yeah,” she replied. “Just me.”

“And you are?” Starlight asked.

The pegasus blurted out with the unearned optimism of most of their kind, “Sunny Cloud.” Starlight had to fight from rolling her eyes, wondering how a cloud could be sunny. Maybe partly cloudy would have fit her better, but her cutie mark had no clouds on it.

“Ah, Sunny.” Starlight levitated an object out of the nearby dresser. “I see you’ve got some rather interesting… marital aids.” She dropped it back into the drawer with a thud, causing something else to start buzzing softly against the wooden dresser. “And some of these outfits seem a bit big for a mare.” Starlight’s eyes flicked to the open drawer, then back to the pink pegasus. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she tried to spot any signs the mare was lying.

Sunny took a moment to reply. “I’m a friend of Cloud Kicker’s.” Feathers brushed softly along the unicorn’s flank. “Friends with benefits you could say. Have you heard of the weather vein trick?”

Starlight’s brain skidded to a halt, as she contemplated the odds of being hit on by a horny stranger while stuck several months into a time loop in the search for a stallion with a special talent of being a pain in her ass. The formula must have contained division by zero and her mind skidded to a halt, as she glanced back at the horny pegasus. “Wait, what?”

“I’m no stranger to horns either, if you’re feeling horny. Mysterious pony breaking into my home is one of my top three fantasies,” she explained.

Starlight pictured herself using a few choice spells to have her way with the mare, but only for a brief moment. “No… Just no!” She groaned, making a mental note to take a long bath later to alleviate some of her frustrations. “Look, I’m looking for an idiotic cyan pegasus stallion. Everypony seems to know everypony in this damn town, so can you at least tell me who it is?”

Sunny tapped a hoof to her chin, eyes looking up and to the right. “Hmm, real sarcastic smart ass? Always doing reckless stuff? Sounds like Dawn. I think he lives near Ghastly Gorge.”

“Thank you!” Starlight blurted out in relief. “Finally somepony in this town can answer a bucking question on the first try. Well, sorry to have barged in, Sunny! Take care!” Her horn lit up and without further explanation, she threw herself across town and near the canyon.

When the spell ended, Starlight stood near the barrier and on the upper lip of Ghastly Gorge. She looked around, noticing there were very few homes near the gorge that she’d need to check. After that, Starlight could pursue her lead about piercing the barrier. If she could poke even a small hole through the barrier, then she could dive through and escape to freedom. Once on the other side, the best case is she would be free forever, and the worst case was she could teleport back to the Canterlot library to pursue further leads. Starlight had tried to teleport through the barrier before, but it had instantly reset the loop.

Starlight grinned. It was hard to imagine she had been desperate enough to casually step out a window mere days ago, but for the first time this year she felt a spark of hope. Now she just needed to take care of a loose end before it could stick its nose in her business and ruin everything.

Author's Note

Next time on DoH3: Act 4 begins, and Dawn has new options for how to fix the time loop. He can also begin writing that memoir that was bound in authentic, and definitely not genuine, leather.

Ch. 19 Window of Oppurtunity

After the explosion in the map room, I hurried over to check on Minuette and then Starlight the next morning.

Minuette seemed fine, having no recollection of what had happened.

Starlight was less fine, and appeared to be focusing on taking deep breaths when I found her just outside the map room. She’d been vaporized by raw magic when the spell had gone bad. I wasn’t sure what that felt like, but I’d died enough stupid ways to hazard a guess.

I went over and put a wing across her back. “Hey, are you going to be okay?”

“That was awful, Dawn. I told her it would overload!” Starlight complained.

“Yeah, you did. I checked on her and she’s fine. It seems like it’s just us who get death hangovers. I wonder if it’s got something to do with the fact that we can remember it happening?” I asked.

“I don’t want to experience that again. It was like time slowed down as it happened.” Starlight shuddered, and looked at me. “You said you’ve died a lot and… I’m sorry, Dawn. For hurting you.”

I waved a hoof dismissively. “Nah, no big deal, water under the bridge that is space-time. Besides, we’ve got to try some new spells today to fix it.”

She shook her head. “It’ll just explode again.”

“Really? And given that you have foreknowledge that it’ll explode, you don’t know any spells that could stop it?” I asked.

Starlight thought for a moment. “Well, I guess I could make a containment spell.”

“Perfect! So let’s give it the old college try. If anything like that happens again, I promise we’ll take a few days off together.”

“Days off? What do you mean?” Starlight looked at me, puzzled.

I grinned. “Oh, it’ll be fun, you’ll see. Give me a few loops to come up with some ideas, and you just worry about fixing the spell.”

Perhaps it shouldn’t have surprised me that we didn’t make much progress that week. Starlight and Minuette were able to come up with dozens of new spell combinations to try. Some of those spells had exploded, yes, but the table was exploding in interesting new ways. One loop turned into a sticky web-like substance and plastered us all to the walls. Another loop the table shot up through the ceiling, and we assume, into outer space.

The last loop it had detonated again, and not in a fun way. So true to my word, I’d revealed to Starlight the kind of things I liked to do for fun in Ponyville when my actions had no consequences.

I held the golf club in my mouth, a bit of drool running down the uncomfortable grip, and then took a swing. It hit the golf ball and a large patch of grass into the air, where it was quickly consumed by a burst of Spike’s emerald green flames. I stuck the club back in the golf bag.

“Not very comfortable,” I said.

Starlight nodded. “I’m surprised you wanted to learn to golf, it’s mainly a sport for rich unicorn nobles.” She levitated a ball onto a tee, then took a nine iron out. Starlight waited for Spike to nod that he was ready, and then took a swing with her magic. She hit the golf ball perfectly, and Spike’s flame barely caught it in time.

“Still, this has got to be a world record for longest drive, right?” I asked.

Spike shrugged. “I’m sending ‘em to the Crystal Empire, so that’s an awful long way.”

“About six hundred miles, I think,” Starlight observed. “Definitely a record.” She reset a ball onto a tee for me to hit.

“Cadence must be so confused right now as golf balls start pinging out at max speed in the air around her.” I laughed, and then took the nine iron from Starlight, gripping it in my mouth. “You know,” I mumbled around the club, “it’d be easier if I flew and used my legs maybe?”

“Hovering isn’t level enough, you keep rising and falling. Honestly, you’re doing pretty good. Just try to keep your knees bent, neck straight, and use one smooth motion.”

I nodded, fixing my posture and lining the golf club up. Then I turned my head back, bringing the club up in a beautiful arc.

“Dawn! Look out! That’s Starlight!” A pony yelled.

My club came back down, burying itself in the grass. I spit it out and turned to see Applejack running right towards us. “Really? In the middle of my backswing?!”

Spike and Starlight fell to the ground laughing, as I tried to explain to Applejack that Starlight wasn’t here to cause trouble. Well, any further trouble.

“There’s no way,” I said incredulously, taking a bite of my sundae. Starlight and I sat outside an ice cream shop in Ponyville. “Almost nopony uses transformation magic, it’s got too much potential to mess up. I heard about a thing with the breezies once, but I bet there’s no way you could just wing it and transform somepony.”

“Witches used to do it all the time to create familiars before it was banned. I’ve got a pretty good memory, I think I remember the necessary spells to combine.” Starlight shrugged and floated up a spoon full of mint ice cream covered in fudge.

“Prove it,” I dared her.

“Really, Dawn?” Starlight asked. “You want me to prove I can turn somepony into an animal?”

“Yeah, it’s our day off, isn’t it?”

“Fine, are you done with your ice cream?”

I took a final bite of it and a drink of water. “Alright, twenty bits says you can’t do it without having to look up the spells.”

Starlight smirked and shot me a look that made me a lot less confident. “Alright, just remember you asked for this.”

I was already looking around for a pony to have her test the spell on, when I realized she was talking to me. “Wait, wha—”

An aura of magic surrounded me, causing an intense tingling sensation. My body felt like it was submerged in water as the pressure slowly built, and the world around me got larger. I flailed my wings and legs as soon as I could to try and stop the spell, but it was too little too late.

I wasn’t sure what had happened. The sun seemed ten times brighter, and I tried to shield my eyes. I still had my wings, though the feathers had changed shape and their blue color had faded a bit. I felt my hooves curl on reflex, and small sharp nails claw against the table.

“Who?” I asked. It didn’t sound right; I’d meant to ask what she’d done.

Starlight giggled. “You make an adorable owl, and you owe me twenty bits. Never challenge a dubious unicorn to prove it, Dawn.”

“Who!” I screeched.

“Okay, okay. I’m not gonna rub it in,” Starlight stated. “I’ll turn you back.”

Her aura of magic surrounded me, causing a familiar tingle, but nothing happened. She squinted and tried again, the magic feeling slightly warmer than last time.

“Hmm, okay.” Starlight chuckled nervously. “So, uh, I might have just slightly forgotten the spell to turn you back to normal. Maybe somepony should, I dunno, restrict this school of magic so accidents don’t happen?”

“Who, who!” I did my best to groan, but I just didn’t have the right vocal chords anymore. I couldn’t even cross my wings and look properly upset.

“It’s not so bad, you’ll be fine in the morning. I could probably find you some tasty beetles or field mice,” Starlight added.

“Oh, how adorable!” I heard somepony say.

I rotated my head until I was staring directly behind myself, which only got disorienting after I realized I’d done it. My head was some sort of super-swivel now. Fluttershy was rapidly approaching, and reached out to pet me when she noticed Starlight.

“Oh, um… hi,” she said. “Are you here because you’re still upset with us?”

“Who!” I answered.

“Oh, you’re fixing a time loop with Dawn’s help, and you’ve been reformed?” Fluttershy translated for me.

“Uh, yeah, that about sums it up,” Starlight said.

“Who?”

“Well, of course I can understand you. It’s my special talent.” Fluttershy patted me on the head, and gave a little scratch behind an ear. It felt amazing.

“Who…” I returned my head forward and flapped a couple times. My flight was unsteady, but I was used to flying, so being in a new form didn’t hinder me too much. I landed on Fluttershy’s back and glared at Starlight. “Who!”

Fluttershy nodded. “Oh, dear, that was a silly bet to make, Dawn. So now you’re stuck like this until tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” Starlight said. “I’m not sure how to fix it, and by the time I figured it out, the time loop will have reset anyway. The important thing is to make sure nothing bad happens to Dawn.”

“Why’s that?” Fluttershy asked.

“Dying in the time loop is taking a toll on us, and he’s uh… there have been accidents,” Starlight hedged. “I don’t want him to get hurt again.”

“Oh, say no more! I’ll keep little Dawn here as safe as can be back at my cottage. You’re welcome to come too, if he vouches for you.”

“Who.”

Fluttershy smiles. “He says I can trust you, and that, um.” She lowered her voice and blushed a bit. “He thinks you like mares.”

Starlight smirked, and I saw a wicked glint in her eyes. “Does he, now? Quite an observant little owl. We’d better make sure to keep him safe.”

Her horn glowed and a bird cage appeared floating in the air. I took one look at it and let out a squawk, before trying to fly away. A field of magic surrounded me, gently pushing me into the cage before the door clicked shut. Fluttershy didn’t seem nearly alarmed enough at the fact I’d just been stuck in here like a pet.

“Who! Who!” I protested.

“Oh, that’s not very nice, Dawn. Besides, you will be safe there, especially since I’ll be busy taking care of my animals and my house guest.” Fluttershy smiled at me. “Come on, Starlight, I’ll show you the way to my cottage.”

I fumed silently as they walked back to her cottage, perched on a wooden bar inside the cage. My talons curled tightly around it, keeping me from falling off. I calmed down a little on the way over. Fluttershy and Starlight seemed to be getting along just fine, and there really wasn’t much for me to do as an owl anyway. Plus, if I behaved and they let me out of the cage, maybe I could spend the rest of the loop terrorizing Angel Bunny. That would make it all worth it.

The next loop, I took Starlight out to the hotel in Ponyville that catered to griffons. We sat down for breakfast in a corner booth for two. “Seriously, no hard feelings. I did ask you to prove you could pull off such a complex spell.”

“Thanks, Dawn,” Starlight said.

“Plus, it’s not like you were fooling around with Fluttershy, right?” I inquired.

She blushed a bit. “Nothing like that, no. We just met, it wouldn’t be right.”

“Good,” I stated. “Not that you can’t, you’re grown mares, but Dash and I are both a bit overprotective. If you’d like to fool around a little, however, I know the perfect pony.”

The griffon came back and served our breakfast. Starlight had ordered a typical pony meal consisting of oatmeal and some fruit. I’d ordered my usual, all the eggs and bacon they could scrounge up. It’s no surprise which meal smelled and tasted better.

“That’s a lot for one pony, and is that real bacon?” Starlight asked. I could see a bit of drool that she quickly wiped off her lips.

“I know, right? It tastes even better than it smells. I figured to show you there’s no hard feelings, I’d let you try as much as you want.”

“I’ve never eaten meat before,” Starlight said. “What’s it like?”

“There’s nothing like it. I figure, what better time than when there are no consequences for you to try something taboo?” I explained.

She took a fork and poked it through a piece, bringing it up to her muzzle tentatively. Starlight took a long sniff to smell it, before placing half in her mouth and biting down to chew. After a moment she swallowed. “Wow, that’s amazing.”

“Dash thought so too. Not sure where the griffon’s get the stuff, but oddly it seems nopony can resist it.”

Starlight began to dive into the bacon, and even took a few of the eggs. Eggs and fish were a more common pony meal, but within the borders of Equestria few would ever even consider eating a fellow animal with hooves.

We enjoyed breakfast together, but I must have been grinning a little too widely near the end. “What is it, Dawn?”

“Oh, well, bacon may taste great but ponies aren’t used to eating meat,” I said. “As good as it tasted, you’re gonna want to clear an hour or two from your schedule for a little trip to the porcelain throne.”

“What now?” Starlight asked.

“The head, the john, bathroom, washroom, privy, toilet, el baño, commode, outhouse, the porcelain trumpet, the—”

“I get it.” Starlight groaned, and I thought I could hear her stomach rumbling. “You tricked me!”

“It wouldn’t have been so bad if you hadn’t eaten so much, but yes. Now we’re even for the owl spell.”

“I could turn you back into an owl today.” Starlight glared at me, then started to laugh. “But you know what, I’m not even mad. That was well played, Dawn. I can’t even remember just hanging out with a friend and having fun. Thank you.”

Her stomach rumbled again, and I chuckled. “Unless you want to be camped out here,” I explained, “maybe we should head back to my house. Then you’ll at least have a little privacy.”

“Good idea.”

Starlight and I were walking towards the Sun’s Flank. “Trust me, if you want a little roll in the hay this is the place to go. Then we will try and fix the table again tomorrow. It could be weeks more of trying and failing to fix the time loop, so it’s important you enjoy yourself as much as possible and come at it with a fresh perspective tomorrow.”

“And the best way to do that is to spend a loop getting laid?” Starlight asked.

“Hey, don't knock it until you’ve tried it.” I stopped walking. “Wait, you have tried it before. Right?”

“What? Of course I have!” Starlight looked back at me, her tail swishing side to side. “It still counts if they’re mind controlled, right?”

I raised an eyebrow as I tried to gauge her expression. “Dark humor? I like it. You had me going there.”

She laughed nervously as we resumed walking towards the bar. “Yeah, it’s too easy when you’ve got a bad reputation.”

“So have these days off given you any ideas on what the spell is missing?” I asked as we neared the bar.

“I keep coming back to one thing, but there’s nothing I can do about it.”

“What’s that?”

“The inherent chaos of the spell matrix. I’m combining spells that are total opposites, like oil and water they don’t want to mix. The only way I pulled it off was to force them, but that leads to instability which leads to… boom.”

“Alright, so chaos is bad?” I asked.

“Yes, and no. If I knew chaos magic, I could easily stabilize them. Unfortunately, books on chaos magic are probably non-existent, I’ve never heard a confirmed report of one. The only other being who could have taught me went missing.”

“Discord.” I shuddered at the thought. “He’d have turned you into a pair of slippers or something before he taught you anything.”

“Yeah, thus my dilemma,” Starlight said. “The more I’ve tried everything, the more this one tiny little thing is nagging at me. If I just had some way to control and shape the chaos into something more manageable, maybe I could fix the spell. Or maybe it’s nothing, and it’s just the fact that I can’t rule it out that’s made me start to obsess about it.”

I opened the door to the bar, letting her walk in first. “I can see why that’d bother you.” I followed inside, and pointed to a table across the room. “That’s her over there.”

“Alright, a few hours of the loop to blow off some steam, then back to work in the map room tomorrow,” Starlight stated.

“Yep, and I’m going to do a little recon on some relationship problems in town with the rest of my evening off. Just remember, consent is king.”

“Don’t worry, I wouldn’t make anypony do anything they didn’t want to. I haven’t figured that spell out yet,” Starlight replied.

“Plus they’re from a long-standing guard family and would likely snap you in half if you tried, but maybe you’re into that.” I laughed.

Cloud looked up as we approached, having recognized me. When we got to the table I smiled and raised a hoof. “Have you met Starlight?” I asked, drawing out the first word.

“Starlight Glimmer, eight of clubs,” Cloud answered.

“Uh, what?” Starlight responded.

“Our Town, cutie mark removal magic, wanted fugitive?” Cloud shifted in her seat. “The guard has a deck of cards with pictures of threats to Equestria, you made the cut during the last update.”

“Slow down there,” I interjected. “There’s been a time loop spell that went wrong in town, trapping us all here. Starlight’s the only pony in town who has the knowledge to fix it, and we’ve been working on it for months. The fate of Equestria literally depends on you showing this mare a good time.”

Cloud Kicker shot me a confused look. “I’m not sure if I should be impressed at your skills as a wingpony, or if I should be getting ready for the apocalypse. You’re serious?”

“Yeah,” I answered.

“And you’re reformed?” Cloud asked Starlight.

“I’m working on it, the best I can.”

“Well, I won’t promise anything but I’ll buy you a drink and we can chat,” Cloud replied. She looked at me. “Unless your stallion friend here is staying, then it’ll be two drinks.”

I chuckled and looked at her. “You know I’m seeing Dash, and you’ve tried that line before.”

Cloud Kicker nodded her head. “Right, time loop. So you can go up to anypony you want, any day, and try any pick up line until one works?”

“I guess, technically yes,” I replied.

“And you haven’t banged your way across town?”

“I’m seeing Dash,” I repeated.

“Wow, lucky mare.” Cloud Kicker grinned. “Still the biggest missed opportunity ever, but I respect it. As for your friend here…” She looked at Starlight. “Not too late for you to bang your way across Ponyville.”

Starlight had already slid into the seat and blushed. I thought I saw a hoof nudging her leg under the table.

“I think I’ll leave you two to it, then.” I turned around and trotted out of the bar. I needed to gather some intel on some of the friendship problems around town. We were getting closer to a solution and I wanted to be ready to fix them all in one pass when we did.

Author's Note

Next time on DoH3: While Starlight learns a valuable lesson in "Friendship", Dawn goes to check on some of the problems he has yet to solve. Lyra, Vinyl, the CMC... can he figure out the way to fix all of the problems and have a perfect run when he figures out how to fix the loop?

Ch. 20 Eureka!

I headed over towards Bon Bon and Lyra’s home to learn a little more about their argument and see how to fix it. We had to be getting close to a solution and when the loop ended, I wanted to make sure I’d helped out everypony in town as much as I could.

There was plenty of time left before sunset if I moved quickly, and I doubted Starlight could get into that much trouble on her own. She seemed as desperate as I was to escape our fate, and if she had second thoughts afterwards then I’d just beat a little more common sense into her.

Being the good guy is exhausting work.

When I got to Bon Bon’s home, I snuck around to the back of the house, and tried to lean inconspicuously against a wall near the kitchen window. It had been opened to let a breeze through so that the ovens didn’t heat the kitchen up too much. Luckily, there were no ponies around, because it seemed pretty obvious I was up to something.

I’d spent so many loops hanging out with Lyra, or asking her to help, that I never once stopped to consider what her normal day would have been like if I hadn’t interfered. A kitchen timer rang and I heard somepony setting a pan down.

“You know I don’t want foals, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want you,” Lyra stated.

“I want to settle down with you, but you’re still the party girl I met when you moved to Ponyville,” Bon Bon replied.

I was tempted to peek through the window to see how the argument was going. However, I didn’t want to risk them noticing me and stopping before I learned more about how to fix it.

“What I do with other ponies doesn’t change how I feel about you. Remember back when you’d come along too? We had fun together.”

“We can’t keep swinging forever. Cloud Kicker, Dawn, Dash, Cheerilee, Vinyl. Don’t you want to just settle down with me?” Bon Bon asked.

I heard some hooves clop as a pony walked across the kitchen floor. “I have settled down with you, Bonnie. I’m still me, though, I wouldn’t ask you to change who you are just for me.”

“And I wouldn’t ask you to change either, but you knew when we met how much I wanted to have a kid someday.”

It got silent for a minute and I nearly poked my head up to see if they’d left the kitchen.

“You’re right, and you’d make a wonderful mother. I’m more of the fun aunt you don’t invite to holidays though. Do you really think I’d be a good role model?”

“Lyra, you’re the most loving mare I’ve ever met, and you have enough love to share with everypony. You’d make an excellent mom, if you leave the birds and the bees talk to me.” I heard Bon Bon and Lyra laugh.

“Alright, then. You mean the world to me, so we can talk to Zecora about it. She has made potions that can turn a mare into a stallion or vice versa, if you want it to be au naturale.”

“Thank you, Lyra. I love you so much,” Bon Bon answered. I heard some pots and ovens bang around for a moment.

“Wait, Bon Bon, the shop’s open.”

“I’ll close it. Now why don’t you stop protesting so I can properly thank you.”

I heard some more loud noises inside before I heard a gasp and somepony bump into something. Finally risking a peak in the window, I saw two ponies on the floor of the kitchen in a compromising position. I blushed, and quietly walked away to give them some privacy.

Once I’d gotten some distance, I started to think about what I’d seen. Lyra and Bon Bon’s relationship hadn’t needed any saving. In fact, by doing nothing and not running off with Lyra during future loops, she’d have this same outcome and potentially save her relationship.

Minuette had said as much, something about unexpected consequences from using knowledge of the future to try to fix things that may not need fixing. Still, I figured this was a fluke and Lyra had just been lucky. There was at least one couple in town who could still use my help.

I headed out towards the small fishing lake where I knew I’d find Vinyl and Octavia on their date. Flying would be quicker than walking, and the sun would set soon, so I took to the air.

When I’d run into them before, Octavia had somehow managed to tangle herself up in yards of fishing line. I had to help cut the hooks out and get her down. It would seem to anypony watching not to be the stuff great dates were made out of.

As I flew down to check on them I saw the fishing rods and line discarded against the tree. Octavia didn’t appear to be in any distress, unless Vinyl never gave her a chance to breathe. The white unicorn was currently laying on top of her and trying to tickle her tonsils with her tongue. Whatever mishap had happened during the past loop seemed to not be as bad as it had looked.

I hovered for a moment, considering how in Equestria a lack of fishing skill had led to a makeout session. Vinyl’s horn began to glow brightly, catching my attention. I looked down to see what she was levitating, but didn’t see any glowing objects. It took me another minute to notice the glow was coming from between their tails.

It was getting a bit uncomfortable to watch yet another pair of ponies getting their freak on, so I flew off towards the most non-sexual place I could think of: Sweet Apple Acres.

As I took my leisurely flight I couldn’t believe that two problems in a row had fixed themselves. I had been so busy in my loops trying to casually fix things, or screw around. This may have been the very first time I’d tried just doing nothing to see what happened in a loop. Whether I interfered or not, the lives of these ponies kept going on. Nothing horrible had happened, except to the pony on the construction site who I routinely had to save from being crushed to death. For everypony not in immediate mortal peril, though, things seemed to just work out.

Well, almost everypony. I swooped down when I saw Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo walking back towards their clubhouse. If anypony needed some adult supervision to survive a time loop, surely it was these three. I could already hear their conversation as I flew down to join them.

“I guess Dawn and Dash were right the first time we tried building siege weapons. It’s too dangerous, maybe we should stick to bungee jumping and manticore taming.” Scootaloo explained to her friends.

“I reckon those may be a bit dangerous too,” Apple Bloom countered. “There must be something left we haven’t tried to get our cutie marks.”

“At this point the only thing we’ve got is tons of experience on how to get a cutie mark. Only thing we could do with that is help other ponies find their own special talents,” Sweetie Belle added.

“Hmm, that does sound a lot less dangerous than your plan for the physicalist cutie mark,” Scootaloo stated.

“Physicist,” Sweetie Belle corrected. “And yeah, after that railgun, I don’t feel so good about my plan to build a particle accelerator anymore.”

“Next weekend’s my turn anyway,” Apple Bloom said.

“Oh come on!” I groaned as I landed behind the trio of fillies. They looked back in surprise.

“Dawn?” Scootaloo looked to her left and right, eyes wide. “The hole in the castle wasn’t us!”

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. “Remind me to teach you how to lie properly sometime.”

I shook my head. “Oh, you’re not in trouble or anything. I was just looking for a… friendship problem to solve. I figured you three would definitely need some help.”

Sweetie Belle answered first. “At least you can’t cast a Want It Need It spell to manufacture one.”

“What kinda problem were you trying to fix?” Apple Bloom asked.

“We’re in a time loop, long story, and I wanted to fix a couple relationships. I figured I could try and fix a whole lot of stuff, as much as I could find wrong, around town,” I explained as we stood in the middle of the road.

“That doesn’t sound so bad,” Scootaloo added.

“Yeah, but I guess I never stopped to think about whether or not I should be fixing them. It turned out that you three building that railgun finally did what years worth of adults telling you not to be reckless couldn’t, and taught you a little common sense.”

Sweetie huffed. “We already had common sense, we talked Scootaloo out of using the railgun to fly super fast and impress Rainbow Dash.”

I chuckled and rubbed a hoof behind my neck. “Heh, yeah. Who’d be dumb enough to fire themselves out of a railgun?” I smiled at them and continued. “Anyway, the other problems were with Lyra and Vinyl’s marefriends. Turns out they pretty much worked it out too.”

“So are ya saying you learned a valuable lesson in friendship?” Apple Bloom asked me.

“I guess so. It’s not my place to try and fix every pony’s problems, especially when I know things about the future nopony else does. I can’t know everything, so I might think I’m making things better but actually I’m making them worse. I should trust that friendship will prevail.”

“You should put that in a letter to Celestia, I bet she’d like that,” Sweetie stated.

“She probably would.” I sighed. “I’m going to have one hell of a letter to write to her anyway to cover this whole time loop. Also, I wouldn’t write off that particle accelerator cutie mark so quickly. I bet it’d be fun.”

Apple Bloom groaned. “Is this what growin’ up feels like? Now we’ve gotta talk Dawn out of stupid ideas?”

“I sure hope not, or we’ll never have time to find our cutie marks,” Scootaloo answered.

“Hey! They’re not all stupid. After all, this’ll be the third apocalypse I’ve saved you from.” I stuck my tongue out at the fillies.

They started laughing, and I joined in, just as the loop reset.

Today started a little brighter than the previous days. I managed not to smash my alarm clock, I had a nice shower, I greeted my neighbors, and I headed off to work. By this point the construction site accident was so predictable that I probably could have saved the pony’s life with my eyes closed.

When Minuette and I got to the castle, Starlight was already waiting in the map room. She had some new spells written on a chalkboard and study materials laid out everywhere. It looked like everything was almost ready for our next attempt to end the spell, and Starlight had done it in record time.

“So I take it last night went well if you’ve got this much energy?” I asked.

Starlight smiled and nodded as she wrote something on the chalkboard. “You could say that, very invigorating. Not afraid to get rough, either. I really hope other ponies can forgive me that quickly."

I smirked as I quietly walked over to her, and said in my best sultry voice. “Well if that’s the kind of forgiveness you’re looking for, I bet Rarity should be your next apology.” I ran a wingtip across her flank, causing her to jump and drop the chalk she had been levitating.

“Dawn!” She took a couple breaths to try and hide the blush on her cheeks. “I could always turn you back into an owl if you’re not gonna be nice.”

“Pfft. Threats are only good if you’d actually do it.” I smiled and gave her a little more space.

When she turned to look at me I saw she was smiling too. “Fair enough. Thanks, Dawn, for last night. I had an epiphany on the spell while we were on top of the barn with the weather vane.”

“Uh, I feel like I’ve missed something. Are you and Dawn…” Minuette trailed off as she looked at the two of us.

“No,” Starlight responded. “He hooked me up with Cloud and—”

“Enough said.” Minuette interjected. “I still can’t look at strawberry jam the same way since I met her.”

“Huh, I guess it’s true; everypony really is a little cloudsexual.” I shrugged and went over to examine the other chalkboard.

“So, are you ready to try another spell? Dawn brought me up to speed on the way over. What’s different this time?” Minuette asked.

“Well, for the last few attempts I was trying to speed up the spell so that it would finish faster, before the table overloaded. I think instead, we need to slow the spell down a bit so the energy builds slow enough that the table doesn’t explode,” Starlight explained.

“That would be preferable,” I observed. I tapped at the chalkboard. “You changed this, that should help throttle the build up of magic, but won’t a longer spell lead to more chances for instability?”

“Yes,” Minuette said. “The quicker it’s over, the better.”

“You sound like Dash,” I muttered. I heard one of them chuckle as they looked over at me. “Sorry, you were saying?”

“I think with this much energy in the spell, it’s too risky not to complete the spell as fast as possible.”

Starlight shook her head. “Trust me, we’ve tried it. Slower would be better.”

“Dawn, what do you think?” Minuette asked.

“I’m gonna have to go with Starlight on this one. Being vaporized isn’t fun, and most of our attempts to just do it quicker ended poorly. With the changes Starlight made, slower could work,” I answered.

“Speaking of failed attempts,” Starlight said, “where’s Lyra?”

“In case this works, I wanted to not disrupt her day in the time loop. Turns out she makes up with Bon Bon, at least she will if I don’t go gallivanting around town with her all day long. Then, I don’t know if they’ll kiss and make up. Also, I’d avoid her sweets for the next couple days. I saw multiple hygiene violations in their kitchen,” I explained.

“Oh?” Minuette trotted over to speak with me. “You were planning to use—”

“Foreknowledge of the future to fix perceived problems. Yes, I was. Yes, you told me before. Yes, you’re right.” I sighed.

She grinned widely. “Good, no point giving you the speech again.”

“Are you worried about me messing up your future, Minuette?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Nah, my reason for moving to Ponyville wasn’t affected by the time loop. I probably would have just stayed home most of the day.”

“Alright, let’s get started then.”

Minuette and Starlight took up their positions on each side of the table. I stood to the side of the table near one of the chairs. Since Spike and Lyra wouldn’t be here today there wasn’t really much of a point to keeping us farther off to the side.

The table began to let out a low rumble as magic poured into it. The map of Equestria was replaced by arcane sigils that drew my gaze down into the table. For a brief moment, I felt like I was staring into the dimension of time. I blinked, thinking I’d seen a white rabbit with a stopwatch run by. A moment later my vision seemed to blur as I stared into the depths, and I had to look away from the table.

Minuette had her eyes closed, deep in concentration as she tried to keep the spell stable and repair the damage to time. Her horn was emitting a golden aura as her magic reached out beyond what I could perceive.

Starlight was staring intently at the scroll she was holding up in the air. She’d started smiling widely, which was my indication things were going well.

Then I felt the tingle of magical energy in the air. The table was starting to go from a rumble to a shriek as magic began to pour out of it, radiating and dissipating into the air. This usually preceded the table doing its best impersonation of a small atomic bomb.

I gulped and looked over at the two unicorns. Starlight could see what was coming, and had somehow brought up a small bubble around herself. She was still focused on the spell, as evidenced by the rotating vortex appearing over the table. Minuette, eyes closed, was still busy trying to sort out the very fabric of space-time and couldn’t tell the table was about to blow.

She needed my help more, so I went over to warn Minuette. When I nudged her, she didn’t move. Instead, my hoof seemed to pass through her. Whatever she was casting, it clearly was a bit more complicated than I’d thought.

If the table exploded with her this close to it though, I doubted it’d do her much good. I had to channel some of the energy away from her, while helping to hold the spell together long enough for them to finish it.

Already I could feel the heat of the magic coming off the table. As I thought about what I could do to help I remembered the lightning bolt I’d redirected. My innate pegasi abilities would protect me from incoming magic, and my knowledge of magic had been enough to shape it just enough to avoid being fried to a crisp. When Lyra had been using a scroll to shield us during one of our earlier attempts, my wings had acted as a magical lightning rod. All the energy from that attempt had poured through me into her shield.

I realized what I had to do, and flared both my wings. My left wing rested on the table, and I pointed the right towards a window. I tried to visualize the same magical formulae that I had used before to redirect Starlight’s attack. My mind raced with images of symbols that normally only a unicorn would bother to learn, and they began to burn themselves into my memory as magic flooded into them. It was more painful than the previous time I had experienced this, as the raw magic was nothing like a little wind or lightning. It struggled against my efforts to shape it as if it was alive. The magic felt almost angry.

I sensed something else then amidst the magic: concern, fear, and harmony. I focused on the latter, only for the emotions to vanish and a pressure to start building in my head. The harmony was replaced by doubt and I could feel a presence watching me and searching through my memories. My mind’s eye was focused on the vivid imagery of my fight with Starlight. I remembered the excitement of finally beating her. Whatever was watching focused on my sigils of magic, and I could feel them faltering. I could sense disapproval and tried to push the memory away, instead drawing upon a good memory to strengthen my resolve. I thought back to the time I had helped Dash teach Scootaloo to fly. I had sat down with her on a hill afterward hugging Scootaloo while I had been in Dash’s body. It had been a happy moment and one of intense loyalty. It was a memory I had cherished and used before to power an Element of Harmony.

The presence halted its attempt to force its way into my mind. The building headache faded and I could sense that it had recognized my loyalty. An image of the Tree of Harmony appeared, surrounded by ancient script and magic I couldn’t begin to decipher. In return, I pictured in my mind the desired outcome: I had to redirect this energy away from the table and the unicorns fixing the spell. The connection faded.

My vision began to recede as if I was looking down a tunnel, but I could see a thick arc of lightning dancing around the room, tearing the wall apart. Minuette was safe. I couldn’t turn to see Starlight. My heart and lungs seemed to seize up. My muscles wouldn’t relax. This was too much magic too fast. I couldn’t pull my wing away from the table.

Finally there was a flash of light. The dark tunnel that had surrounded my vision faded away. I found myself laying across the room, sore but alive. Half the table was intact, and a large vortex was hovering above it. Through the portal I could see clouds and rainbow waterfalls. It was the spitting image of Cloudsdale.

I tried to get to my hooves so I could go through the portal with Starlight to freedom, but my legs felt icy cold and wouldn’t listen. It took a few tries before I gave up. “Minuette? Starlight?” I called out to them.

A moment later I heard some debris shift, and then Starlight ran over to my side. “Dawn, you’re hurt!”

I looked around and then realized I had a jagged piece of crystal table in my stomach. “Huh, funny. I didn’t feel it until you said something.”

“I’ll get it out,” Starlight offered. Her horn lit up and surrounded the bit of jagged crystal.

“No!” I shouted, putting a hoof over the shard protectively. “It’s the only thing stopping the bleeding, as long as it’s in there against the arteries!”

“O-okay.” Her face whitened as her eyes lingered on the wound.

“What about Minuette?”

Starlight shook her head and looked down. “She didn’t make it.”

I looked down at the small puddle surrounding me and sighed. “The spell didn’t work, and it seemed to be going well. Damn it!”

Starlight shook her head. “It did work, sort of. Look, Dawn.” She pointed a hoof to the portal swirling over the table. “It didn’t fix the time loop, but it did complete the original spell accidentally. If we just go through that portal, we’ll be in Cloudsdale over a decade ago. We’re free, Dawn!”

I chuckled and shook my head. “You’re free, Starlight. There’s no way I can get up and through that portal in one piece, and if we do, how far would it be to a hospital?”

She looked down at me and frowned. “You don’t want to at least try?”

“If I do nothing, I will wake up tomorrow and will probably be fine. I go through that portal with you, I die and there’s no do over.” I smiled weakly. “Sorry, kid, I’m kinda attached to this reality. It’s the only place to get a decent burger.”

Starlight thought it over for a minute as the portal flickered in mid air, small arcane symbols dancing around the edges. “If I go back, I can change it so you don’t come to Equestria, you’d never get trapped in this loop.”

“You go altering time and we might end up in that doomsday scenario Minuette warned us about. Probably some big factory run by Flim and Flam where they turn everypony into mindless drones, or something.” I shrugged. “We’ll just try again tomorrow, no big deal.”

“It is, Dawn! It was an accident, I don’t know how the portal opened! What if we can’t do it again? What if we can’t fix the spell properly? This is our one chance to escape.” Starlight’s cheeks were matted with tears, and her pupils were dilated. I could tell by the waver in her voice and how her hooves trembled the thought terrified her. “Please, I don’t want to be trapped here, but I don’t want to lose you either. You’re… the first friend since...”

I reached up to the one cheek I could reach and tried to wipe it off for her. “Hey, it’s okay. Go, or stay, I won’t hold it against you. Me and death go way back and it usually doesn’t stick anyway. I’ll be fine.”

Starlight looked up at the portal and I wondered what her decision would be. Even if she left, I’d been doing alright in the loop. Maybe Minuette and I would figure it out. Or maybe I’d never see Dash again. I’d give anything for her to be here right now. To hear Dash tell me it’d be okay. To have her say one last time that she loved me, in case I didn’t wake up tomorrow. After all I’d been through, I didn’t want it to end like this. I began to tremble in fear too.

“Dawn?” Starlight asked. “Are you still with me?”

“It’s… cold.” I mumbled.

I felt her sit down and gently try to cover me up to keep me warm, without bumping into the sharp chunk of rock in my stomach. “It’ll be okay, Dawn. You’re going to be okay. I won’t leave you. We’ll figure out how to fix the instability and stabilize the chaos. If that jerk Discord could do it, so can we.”

I nodded and tried to lean into her warmth. I couldn’t feel my legs, wings, or stomach, and the sensation was only spreading. “Pfft, Discord. Nothing but trouble. You know I dreamed about him once?” I rambled.

Starlight nodded, looking back at the portal that had started to shrink over the table. “Shh, just sleep. We’ll try again tomorrow.”

“Wait, the tantabus.” I struggled to sit up, but was pinned down by Starlight. “I know how to learn what you need! I just—” I must have breathed too deeply in my excitement, and began to cough. Once I finished, I continued. “Just have to dream, I’ll get the answer. I hope you’ve thought up one hell of an apology for Twilight, because tomorrow we’re gonna be free!”

I started to laugh and grin to the best of my limited abilities. My vision started to grow dark, and I made one last attempt to hold on to Starlight’s warmth as I finished dying.

Author's Note

Next time on DoH3: Dawn had an epiphany before he died. What reckless, stupid, dangerous stunt is Dawn about to pull to gain the knowledge he needs to save the day?

But what's puzzling you, is the nature of my game~