“And that, my little fillies, is how I got my Cutie Mark.” Smiling, Sweetie looked down at the three fillies, looking at her with amazement. The two girls were sporting red bows, a gift from their mother. The colt on the other hand, was dressed in a backwards cap, and his wings buzzed with excitement.
“But Miss Belle...If this happened when my mum wasn’t even born yet, how are you still alive?” The buttercup filly scrunched up her face, confused. Chuckling, Sweetie used her magic to gently push them closer as she leaned down.
“In truth,” she admitted. “I should have realised Discord was lying. I guess the news was so much a relief I didn’t detect it.” Shrugging, Sweetie straightened up once more, giving the three an amused smile. Outside, screams of enjoyment could be heard as the flying pig races exited the Discordic Portal.
“Wait, if you got your Mark during that one Loop, why’d you tell us the entire thing?” The colt frowned, and the bright orange filly pointed a hoof in accusation.
“Yeah! We coulda been flyin in Discord’s race if ya hada left it ta one Loop!” Sharing nods, the three folded their arms, annoyed with Sweetie. Shaking her head, she slouched slightly on her throne, swishing her tail and sending the three spinning around in the air.
“Come now, do you realise how boring that would have been?” Smirking as they both cried out in annoyance, Sweetie swished her tail, letting them plop gently back to the floor. Their glares full of mirth, she launched into a full fledged laugh. Sighing, the three turned, skulking away.
“She’s useless, let’s go bother Lightyear. I hear Princess Twilight finally let him off his studies.” After the three turned the corner, Sweetie pulled out a list, and began looking it over. Each page had a picture of a filly or colt, a background, and what their personality was like.
Musing over the current page, she looked to the list of activities the pony had tried, before writing down a few ideas they had yet to. If none of those worked, she’d have to make a personal trip down and see the pony.
“Excuse me, Miss Belle?” Glancing away from the papers, Sweetie was surprised to see the colt from earlier, drawing a circle in the ground
“Call me Sweetie, our families are friends after all, Clipwing.” Giving the nervous colt a gentle smile, Sweetie watched as he mustered the courage to ask his question.
“Umm, well, I was, well, wondering if you-You see I uh. H-How did you put up with it?” Glancing to her, the colt looked to the floor and bit his lip. Placing the paper down, Sweetie got low to the ground, placing a hoof under the colt’s chin, and forcing their eyes to meet.
“What’s wrong,” she spoke sternly, but softly. Clipwing’s eyes clenched closed, and a single tear escaped. Without a second thought, Sweetie brought him into a hug.
“I-It’s just. What if these exercises never work, and I’m flightless just like-And what if I get a mark that represents it, how do I-” Dissolving into sobs, Sweetie gently brushed Clipwing’s mane, letting him calm down. Finally, Sweetie released him, and brought his chin up once more.
“You are such a kind and caring colt Clipwing. Don’t ever think that one single thing defines you. A Cutie Mark won’t change you, it simply completes you. It won’t appear until you realise what that very thing is. Take my story to heart, and remember that as long as you continue to put one hoof in front of the other, you’ll find it.” Bringing the colt into a hug, Sweetie smiled sadly.
“I know you think you might be flightless, and I can’t say for certain if you are or not. But don’t let it be the focus of your life. Find a new goal. I can’t tell you what to find, because that would be cheating, but I can give you a nudge in the right direction.” Releasing the colt, Sweetie used a spell to dry his eyes, and made sure there was no sign he had been crying.
“Close your eyes,” she spoke, and began nudging him along with her magic as he did so. Following him out, Sweetie slowly led him toward the finish line of the flying pig races, where a filly was currently being cared for by a nurse.
“Open your eyes.” Sweetie stepped back as Clipwing did so, and noticed the hurt filly before anything else. Rushing over, he tried to help out without thinking about it. Walking away, Sweetie smiled, closing her eyes and letting a breath out. All it took was a careful nudge in some cases, she smiled.
“Discord?” As she spoke, the Draconequus slowly swam over, hoving beside her as she walked.
“Yes, Chickenlord?” Sniggering, both shared a good natured smile, enjoying each others company. Looking to Discord, Sweetie’s smile grew slightly malicious.
“Let’s go eat Lightyear’s homework. In front of Twilight.”
Is this in the future?
Cutie Mark Crusaders' family, it seem?
PS: The feels.
Poor Lightear... seems Sweetie has really taken Discord's teachings in chaos to heart.
in a backwards cap,and his wings
1. Forgot your spacing. And personally, I don't think that comma counts as an Oxford comma. Just my opinion.
So Sweetie and Discord are basically family now. Not sure if adopted or married.
Needs a question mark.
Also, Twilight is gonna freak out.
Honestly have no idea of what to make of the ending. But at least I followed through from beginning to end.
So basically the (not-really) Princess of Cutie Mark seekers?
Also wow, adult Sweetie really let her hair grow out in the picture.
Did she become an alicorn, or did she become ageless, or is this in the future?
Pure. Evil. I like it!
“Let’s go eat Lightyear’s homework. In front of Twilight.”
Great ending.
... So Sweetie didn't become the Princess of Adorable Voice Cracks?
Or does she still retain that title?
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In order; maybe, yes, yes.
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You just know they've done this without being in front of Twilight, and she didn't believe the poor colt.
She brought the reckoning on herself.
Oh, Twilight will grieve. How most eviL!
A tale of time and shadow past
has come to an end,
now alive with splendour.
Forever in peace,
in this pleasant warmth
of friendship.
Excellent work, dear Author!
While I like happy endings, I feel torn.
The final battle of spells and wits against Starswirl was won by a single statement:
"Ponies aren’t ready to face eternity."
And this statement seemed so strongly true, that Starswirl accepted it with relatively little struggle compared to the amount of work he has done to achieve immortality, practically acknowledging the truth of it that seemed to exist deep inside both of them and was the main idea of this story.
And then, here we are, Sweetie Belle being immortal and happy, contradicting the entire fiction's idea and making the final "philosophical" victory void.
Therefore, every death that ever happened ever since the Loops ended, every orphan crying, every widow mourning, every loved one taken by sickness, is Sweetie Belle's fault. She was the pony who stopped Starswirl making everyone immortal, which as shown, would have ended with ponies being happy forever, with the biggest enemy of life: death defeated.
Of course one might say: "But Starswirl wanted everyone to become immortal through looping and we've all seen how bad that is!" However, as shown from Starswirl's explanation, these "personalized" loops wouldn't even remotely have been like Sweetie's because of two big differences:
1)You could bring others with you
2)Anyone could access the loop archive.
These two effectively make the "loops" not even loops. It's more like splitting the timeline into two: ponies being in a straight one, going forward (relative time experience to other ponies), while the world around them in a loop. Which is already true for reality, nature itself is in a loop: we live in a loop of day-night, Summer-Winter, ebb tide and flood tide . Practically it would have been as Starswirl said: a world where ponies are immortal with the only "drawback" being the changed natural cycles that ponies need to get used to.
However, this is my only big problem with the story, and besides this, the story itself was fun to read as I adventured together with Sweetie through the madness of the loops. So thank you warewolves for writing it.
FING TIME TRAVEL AND IT'S FING RANDOM PORTAL ACTIVATION
And that is why the most beautiful part of any loop is when the loop ends. Because that means you're finally free to seek the future.
Sweetie Belle the Chickenlord : Lord of the chicken.
Aaaaand Read everything in one afternoon. Well, it was fun.
You know, the ending, some find it clashes with the philosophy of Starswirl confrontation, but... well...I see it as more as... well Discord gambit to prove that Sweetie AND Starswirl were wrong. During the confrontation, Sweetie was right. She was not ready for immortality. Neither was Starswirl, his obsession making miss the point of it, and his Loop based world idea can seem good on paper, but on practice ? Let me tell you, this Loop idea was the entryway for a good ol' fashioned Dystopia. And damn, what of the dragons ? That were NOT affected by the Loops ? What of potentially every other races ? Does they all get a ticket to this "perfect loop system" ?
Moving on. I resume, Neither Sweetie nor Starswirl were ready at the moment of their confrontations. But while Starswirl was stagnant in his philosophy, Sweetie Belle was growing as a Pony, during the Loops and all epilogues chapters before this one. And during the timeskip she continued to Grow. And you know ? Discord's lie was a bit necessary to not only get the last laugh, but also ensure that in the end, she don't follow a path Ironically similar to Starswirl in a way. If Discord had told directly Sweetie, she would have grown an obsession to get rid of it, reminding her too much of the Loops. The lie allowed her to continue to grow and learn, without worrying about her mortality, or lack thereof. And when she discovered Discord's Lie ? Her reaction i think had been a "Oh, well, that's Life. I'll adapt.". Thus, proving that you can be ready for immortality. You just Need to not get obsessed over it. Thus making Discord having the last laugh.
...Welp, rambling over. Hiirome Out.
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I think it's a different kind of immortality.
Like, being trapped in a time loop indefinitely? Soul crushing.
But, regular immortality is a lot better, as it's a lot less predictable. In all honesty, I would be very disappointed if Sweetie went through all that, just to die of old age or something.
I think the reason Sweetie's immortal is because she earned it. She did what the strongest unicorn in Equestrian history could not; get through the loops with her sanity . . mostly intact
Yes Chickenlord
Bwahahhaa
Pfff
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In the end, her sanity was bent enough to make regular immortality tolerable, I think.
Ok, the fact that Discord makes keeping her sanity a joy instead of a chore is just a cherry on top for this story. I with I could upvote a hundred times.