Twi.del.tia (25+9+((t^1)*(55+74+(30±20?))+((t^0)*(378+(38-33)))):
I sit up in the fancy evocation circle of the magical vaults. There's something subtly wrong … something incomplete. Something screaming for closure.
Luna prods Spike. "Well, that sure didn't work," he says.
Oh, there we go! I can start fixing things now.
"Hello, Twilight," Chrysalis says, walking into the circle. "I'm going to kill you now so I can take over the world."
"I'd rather you didn't do that," I say. I am trying to schedule my pain. I have millennia of it to parcel out, carefully balancing severity and type and inconvenience, and I've already written 187 pages of notes which a death now would disrupt. She keeps stealing my pages, and she's burned five of them. Why is she so mean?
"Chrysalis, I do not believe you are telling her the entire truth," Luna says.
"You mean the part where I don't have to kill her if she's one of my secret agents?"
"Don't be silly," I say. "I've been trying to stop you from the beginning."
"Oh," Chrysalis says, disappointed. "Okay." She takes out an oversized knife and slides it smoothly through my chest.
I check my notes. This is a Mortal Pain, Class 8. Now I'll have to reschedule getting fried in that burning building for T-66, and that means a full fourteen Class 4s to redistribute. "Ouch," I say, because Mortal Pain, Class 8 hurts a lot.
There is the sound of a bell. Celestia floats a "6" up to the scoreboard and hangs it over my ones place, incrementing the "25". "Oh, drat," Celestia says. "Chrysalis, stop breaking her. That's my job."
"Does that not seem like a strange thing for my sister to say?" Luna murmurs. "Why would she say that?"
I have to think about that one. I gasp. "Because … she's not the real Celestia!" I bound forward, gripping her Celestia costume by the shoulders, and yank it away in a single swoop. Underneath is a changeling! I knew it!
Luna frowns. "Incorrect." Her horn lights up, and she grabs the changeling costume and pulls. It comes away to reveal the real Celestia underneath, who waves sheepishly and giggles. Ha ha! We laugh at it together because the reinforcement of her authenticity is a cathartic reversal of the subversion of expectation created by my unfounded doubts, and cathartic r. of the etc. has been correlated with humor reactions in double-blind tests.
"Tell her what you think of her," Luna tells the genuine Celestia.
Celestia curls her neck around me in a hug and smiles. "I don't love you in the slightest."
"I know," I whisper, nuzzling her back, feeling her warmth and her closeness and the rise and fall of her breath.
"Teachable moment!" Celestia says brightly. "Why?"
"Because I'm not good enough." That's obvious.
Luna clears her throat. "That is not correct. Celestia, do you love Twilight Sparkle?"
"I love Twilight with all my heart," she says.
The feeling of subtle wrongness intensifies. "NO! That is a logical contradiction!" I scream, loud enough for cracks to appear in the floor. I scramble back away as an increasing sense of vertigo overtakes me. "I am Twilight. You cannot both love me and not love me!"
Suddenly, there's a sharp snap, the scent of ozone, and a stinging pain in my butt. I flail helplessly as reality forgets about gravity for a moment. The room cartwheels around me, then explosively shatters as it slams to a halt in my face.
Something foreign stirs at the edge of my consciousness as the world's fragments batter me like hail — another room almost identical to the shattered one, dim and a touch chilly, with a dark body grappling and pinning a thrashing lavender form —
"Hold!" Luna shouts, leaping into my field of view with her wings magnificently flared, chilling darkness streaming from her in every direction, repulsing the shards of perception, sending me tumbling into the void of endless night. I freeze instinctively, and lose all frame of reference as the echoes of her shout disrupt my thoughts.
"…," I say. There's a part of me that wants to keep screaming and flailing, but it's a distant, abstract sensation, like listening to a scratchy phonograph from across the room.
There's a sense of motion amid the featureless dark, then she fades into view again. "Look at me," Luna says, as if there was a reason to do anything but. "Take a deep breath. Refocus. How are you?"
"I'm Twilight," I mumble.
"How are you."
I whimper. "I'm Twilight." The blackness is still whirling nauseatingly around us, and that's the only thing left for me to cling to.
"Clearly you must be for us to continue," she says more quietly. She glides in to grab me in an awkward full-body embrace, making the universe lurch back into alignment, and stares into my eyes. "Be calm. We are here to help Twilight. Every one of us cares for Twilight greatly. Twilight is among friends."
It's instantly obvious that that's true. "The princess loves me. The princess trusts me." I gasp in realization and look around for the weird other-place again. "There was another Twilight Sparkle! I bet that's what confused her!"
"There is not," Luna says firmly. "That has been ruled out, else we should not be here."
"But the other-place!"
"Look." Her horn glows for a moment, and she tilts her head toward what I saw earlier. It's only a giant mirror! There I am sprawled in the middle of the evocation circle, where I've been all along, and there's Luna, her body pinning mine to the ground in a helpful and caring and friendly hug.
But … wasn't there something more? The sense of subtle wrongness stirs again. I shift my hooves. My reflection doesn't move —
"Sshhh. Calm." Luna stares into my eyes, and I refocus on her. She waves a wing, and somewhere in the unimportant background, the mirror fades back away. "Breathe. Empty your thoughts."
It's hard. My head hurts. "I'm scared, Luna. Help me."
She closes her eyes. She's silent for long moments, and her lower jaw quivers. Finally, she fights her expression back into careful neutrality, and says: "Twilight Sparkle believes in the power of the truth, even when it is frightening."
I do. I take a deep breath, holding her. "Show me the truth."
"I have tried. Perhaps we should approach it in a roundabout fashion." Luna coaxes me upright and points back over my shoulder at the scoreboard. "Do you not remember that you died? It is time for you to reset your loop."
Oh! That's what was wrong. She's right, we've got to save Equestria! I walk back to the center of the evocation circle and lie down where I started, but Chrysalis is still there. I glare at her and she walks back out of the circle again. Celestia … huh, she's back in place already. Of course she is, she's perfect and awesome, even if sometimes she's smart on some transcendent level that looks horrible to us stupid mortals.
"Spike?" I prompt.
"Well, that sure didn't work."
Chrysalis steps forward. "Hello, Twilight. I am going to kill you, et cetera."
I read through my script. "I'd rather you didn't do that," I say. I have to follow it until it's time to throw it away.
I glance over at Luna. It's her turn to speak. But then I feel a Mortal Pain, Class 8 in my chest. "Hey," I scold Chrysalis. "You weren't supposed to do that yet."
"Hello? Evil."
"Evil enough to take her over without her knowledge?" Luna asks.
Chrysalis raises an eyeridge. "What, this twerp? Don't make me laugh. She couldn't even stop me the first time. She's useless without her friends."
"I am not," I protest as I die again.
Celestia increments my scoreboard. I shoo Chrysalis out of the circle and prod Spike. "Well, that sure didn't work," he repeats.
While I page through my script, Chrysalis steps back up to me and takes out her knife. "Hello, etcetera. Can we skip to the fun part?"
"Hmm," Luna says, hoof at her chin. "If I may?"
"Silly pony," I say. "Stop interrupting. You're not looping." She stops open-mouthed at that, so I turn back to my script and frantically flip ahead to see if I can figure out what to break to fix this.
Luna's hoof comes down, crumpling the scroll I'm reading. "We shall speak of that belief later," she hisses. "For now, know this. Time was my plaything long before either Twilight or my sister ever thought to bend it." It's true. She's the smartest; she's got thick glasses on. "Listen to me."
"Okay!" I say, staring into her eyes. (They're beautiful eyes. She almost destroyed the world twice.)
"Further confrontations here will tell us little. Our answers lie in the past."
"Yes! Let's apply the second-order derivative of the thaumic flux and reverse the polarity of the temporal matrix!" Celestia declares. She's put on her glasses too. (So hot. I wonder if they've ever caused an apocalypse together.)
This is a puzzle. But I'm good at puzzles! I'll make her proud of me. After a moment's thought, I fire up my horn, and a glowing arrow labeled "TIME" appears on the wall, pointing to the right, surrounded by ghostly spinning clockwork gears and swinging pendulums. I grab the arrow in my hornglow, pull it from the wall, flip it, and stick it back into place so it reads "EMIT" and points to the left. "Now I'm looping backward," I say proudly.
",krow t'ndid taht ,lleW" Spike says.
",lekrapS thgiliwT ,uoy esruC" Chrysalis says as she kills me for the last time ever. Celestia takes a "1" off my side of the scoreboard and there's a glistening, perfect "0" in its place. Her side reads seventy billion and twelve.
"!thgiliwT ,won uoy evol I" Celestia says and gives me a hug.
Luna blinks. "What?"
"It's true!" I say. "Life was wonderful before I started looping."
"You had not cast any time loop spells prior to this invasion?"
I point at my scoreboard. "Duh."
"Then let us not be misled by borrowed memories." Her horn lights up, and a glowing white "TWILIGHT SPARKLE" line appears underneath the "EMIT" arrow. She peels everything to the left of us off of the wall, neatly folds it up, and hides it under her wing — leaving only several hundred glowing segments where I've been looping through invasion day, and a huge grey foggy mess throughout the rest of history. "Let us, instead, seek where you learned the Crystal Kingdom Anthem."
I look at her, confused. "You took it away."
"But that is …" she says, trailing off, then closes her eyes in concentration for several moments. "Very well. Show us." She returns my life to the wall.
I trot up to the line, squint real hard, and point. Sudden cold stabs at my flanks. Surprised, I turn around — only to take a blast of snow full in the face and flinch. When I open my eyes again, we're atop a small hill near the center of the Crystal Empire, amid the blinding white of a storm.
"It was in the library. Let's find the library," I say, trying to walk downhill to the street. It feels like my hooves are glued to the ground. Why is there such resistance? I know where to go.
Luna walks effortlessly over to me and brushes the snow underhoof to one side. "Observe."
At her motion, an even greater gale roars up around us. The layer of fallen snow smothering the hill is picked up by the wind and flung into the night. Left exposed is the shattered boneyard of a building — jagged chunks of granite brick and marble facing; twisted pikes of snapped iron struts; smashed statues of gryphons. Deep in the rubble, scattered flinders of charcoal and burnt wood scar a bed of soft white ash.
I look up, through a sky scoured clean by the receding storm. There's that residential building right next door, and the armory across the street, and the public house on the corner … everything else is right where I remember it. This is the library.
Was the library.
"This isn't right," I murmur.
"And thus we draw closer to understanding. Where did you learn the Crystal Kingdom Anthem?"
"Here. Now. From a library book."
"Impossible. Where did you learn the Crystal Kingdom Anthem?"
"Here! Right here, before history changed! I read it!" We're about where the reading room should be, right? Why doesn't she believe me? Am I a little too far to one side?
"Impossible," she growls, leaning forward. "Your memories are not consistent with mere time loop alterations. Where did you learn the Crystal Kingdom Anthem?"
My eyes fill with tears. "I-I don't know."
Her voice turns kindly, and she smiles at me. "That is progress. Let go of the lies. Deep inside you, you know the truth."
I don't want to disappoint her. She's being so nice. "I do."
"Close your eyes," she says. I do. The world around me fades away into featureless black, leaving just the two of us. "Once upon a time, you learned the Crystal Kingdom Anthem. Open yourself to that memory." There's a funny tingle in my body; I think Luna's helping. "Excellent. When you open your eyes, we shall be in the location where you learned it. Are you ready to see that?"
"Yes," I say, and open my eyes confidently. We're still in the rubble of the library.
The smile falls away from Luna's muzzle. Panic stirs within me. What did I do wrong?
"Very well," Luna says slowly. "Foal steps. Twilight, when did you learn the Anthem?"
I glance at my pocketwatch. It's Sombra o'clock. "Now."
"Sing the Anthem for me."
I take a deep breath. <The fires of —>
"Thank you." Luna's horn lights up, and the minute hand of the watch jerks backward a tick. The world motion-blurs around us, back to the train station, back through the long trip north, back into the Canterlot throne room where Celestia has just finished preparing me for the journey. "Sing the Anthem for me."
I take a deep breath, and stop with it held in, confused. What anthem?
"Hmm," Luna murmurs, and advances the watch again. Time whips forward and jerks to a halt with us in the ruined library. "How did you learn the Anthem?"
"From a book."
"Where was the book?"
"In … there." I gesture vaguely underneath us.
"Impossible." She thinks. "And yet this place is significant. Were you reading the book by yourself?"
"No. Spike helped." I point to where he's holding it open for my perusal, a proud living bookstand.
"Tell her the truth, Spike."
"I don't know the Anthem," he says, peeking around the side of History of the Crystal Empire, "and I never went to the place where the library used to be before Sombra's reign." He shrugs as best he can while keeping the book steady. "Sorry, Twilight."
"But," I say faintly. "Spike was there."
"Then … perhaps that is significant," Luna says. "Dark magic is full of illusions and deceptions, is it not?"
I think about that for a moment. All of this is wrong, but she has to be right. I can't let Luna down when she's gone to so much effort to help me.
Spike blinks. His eyes go glowy purple. "Yes," he hisses.
"Waaaagh!" I say. Sombra!
"You pitiful whelp!" he says. "I had you fooled this whole time! Everything you remember about my defeat is an illusion!"
I crouch into a fighting stance. "Then it is both my moral and academic obligation to defeat you again!"
Luna quietly clears her throat. Her horn glows.
Evil Spike briefly glances at her. "But first," he gloats, "I feel strangely compelled to deliver a detailed monologue on my plans so that you know the true depths of your previous crushing failure! Because I am a villain, and that is what villains do."
"You fiend!"
"Yes," Luna says. "Explain."
Sombra shrugs off his Spike suit and sidesteps out into his unicorn form like a pack of clowns from a foal-sized clown-wagon. It's clearly him, but he looks … wrong, in a way I can't place. He walks up to a lectern, turns to Luna, smooths down his beard with a hoof, and clears his throat.
"Uh," Sombra says, "are you okay?"
I glance at Luna. Her muzzle is contorted, her eyes squeezed closed. She draws in a breath through her teeth. "Worry not about me. Continue." When she opens her eyes again, her expression is again distant.
Sombra glances at me and shrugs, then leans over the lectern. Dark clouds roll through the sky, and the shadows around us deepen. "Clearly," he says, voice deepening ominously, "I lured Twilight to the old library, as a location of the symbolic triumph of my deception over the power of her knowledge." His horn flares out with dark magic. In a burst of sulphur-scented smoke, cardboard standees of my friends appear, along with a giant white backdrop with the word "LIBRARY" printed on it. "She wouldn't have believed that she came on her own, so I created phantasms of her friends to help her with her research. And then …" He pauses dramatically. Thunder rolls in the background, followed by the deep, dissonant chord of a pipe organ. "I taught her music! Ah-hahahaha!"
Luna arches one eyebrow. "Why?"
The chord peters out and dies. Sombra glances at me uncertainly, then stands up straighter. "To turn her evil." The lightning crashes again and a new, higher chord plays. "Because it was evil music!"
Luna lowers her head and presses her hoof to the bridge of her nose.
Sweat glistens on Sombra's forehead. "Wait. This makes sense, I promise. It was … revenge! I knew that if I taught Twilight the Anthem, it would make you and Celestia kill her someday."
Luna turns to me, eyes flaring out into light. "Stop."
"No?" Sombra says. "Okay, I did it to make her stop trusting her memories —"
Luna's horn flares. With a quiet squit, Sombra explodes into tiny fragments of flesh, leaving just four smoking hooves and a large red stain. "Thou art defying us, somehow," she says, the solid white of her eyes boring into me. "No more games."
Silent terror floods me. What am I doing wrong? I'm trying so hard to tell her what she wants! "I'm sorry!"
"How didst thou learn the Anthem?"
"I — I don't know!"
She frowns, grabs me with her forehooves, and slams my thrashing form against the "LIBRARY" wall. "How didst thou learn the Anthem?"
"I read it here with my friends!" I say with desperate conviction, because it's the only other answer I have.
"Nnghaaah!" she shouts. "Impossible! Who art thou?"
"Twilight —" I see her horn start to glow. "NO!" I scream, and start shouting names. "Chrysalis! Sombra! Discord! Trixie! Gilda!" Her implacable white eyes are just inches from my muzzle. It feels like they're about to leap out and devour me, and the thought fills me with a terror beyond rational description.
"Tell me!" I sob. "Tell me who I am!"
Luna stares at me in silence. I am thrashing my limbs with all my strength — I can feel resistance, somewhere, and the world cracking and crumbling around the edges — but I'm not getting free. I'm not getting free! Nothing matters but that primal need.
"Be that a clue?" she snarls. "Dost thou mock us, spirit? Do we … know …"
Her words trail off into a sharp gasp. Her eyes lose their glow in a single blink, and her horn sputters out. She scrambles backward as if I'd just set her hooves on fire, and drops into a crouch, teeth bared, shivering with adrenaline.
I take that opportunity to whirl around and rip apart the world, flinging rocks and buildings and snow and air aside and flailing at the darkness. Other-place! Where's the other-place? Scary! Hide!
"N-no," she whispers, then: "No!" — and I slam into a wall of her words right as I'm about to escape.
It's not a very good wall. It's brittle, hollow, tasting of fear and full of bluster. But it's enough to make me think for a moment. She's scared of me? I must be scary. That's what I'm doing wrong! I'm not supposed to run!
I turn around and stand up straight, towering over this weak and cowering foal. "We are done here," I bluff, my voice a dagger of ice slicing through her laughable barricades, leaving only her between me and freedom. "You will let me leave."
"W-we cannot," she says, voice quailing. She closes her eyes for a moment, takes a sharp breath, and stands up on trembling legs. "We have realized the truth," she says more evenly, and her hornglow flares weakly back to life. "Small wonder thou wert powerful enough in this realm to confound the truth so. Thou art the Nightmare itself."
What? No! That makes even less sense than the rest of this! But … why else would she be so scared?
Alright, then.
I laugh, a low and building chuckle, as I release my new true form. My mane and tail go jet black to complement my deep amethyst coat. Dark smoke roils from the edges of my eyes and the tip of my horn. I grow wings of smoke, because that sounds like the sort of awesome thing that evil me would do. Note to self: Learn to fly.
(Nightmare Twilight. Nightlight! No, wait, that sounds ridiculous. Twilight Darkle … ugh, worse. Alright, second order of business after crushing this puny foal before me is finding a decent name.)
"I was wondering when you'd figure it out," I purr, in a voice that could kill with sexy at thirty paces. I reach out a smoke-wing to caress her chin, and she scrambles backward to avoid it. "You fell right into my trap. Now you're stuck here with me." Her face pales. This is fun! "I think I'll toy with you for a while — but not too long. I need to go … hm. Wreak eternal vengeance against the illiterate?" I shrug. "Really, it's about the joy of unfettered power, but that sounds like as good an excuse as any."
"W-we cannot let thee!"
I raise an eyebrow. "I don't think you understand. I'm the Nightmare, babe. You're the weak little filly who crumples like parchment every time we meet. Game over. I win."
"N-not so," she says, cold sweat glistening on her forehead. Her hornglow has grown bright enough to cast shadows. "Perhaps on our own we are weak, but somewhere within thee lies also the mare who was our salvation. We owe all to her …" She straightens and slams a hoof on the ground. The thunder-crack echoes around the ruined landscape. "And for her sake we shall stand and defeat thee!"
"You're kidding," I say, getting a trifle irritated. "You're kidding, right?"
Luna lowers her head, horn glowing like a newborn star, and hoofs the ground. Oh, it is on.
We charge at each other. I know how this goes. At the last second, she's going to swerve or dodge or teleport, unable to face me head-on, and then that's when I get to unleash the spell that's aimed a few cubits behind me.
The only problem is, that's not what happens.
She lowers her head, and we collide straight on, her horn spearing through my chest. I barely have enough time to get the wind knocked out of me when she unleashes the spell she's been building, and the full power of a goddess explodes straight into my heart —
∗ ∵ ` . ’
HARD RESET 2 MICRO-CONTEST:
The first two paragraphs of this chapter contain a subtle little easter egg! Your job is to find it — or, failing that, to lie inventively about it.
If you figure it out, shoot me a PM telling me what the easter egg is. (If you post it in comments, you're just sabotaging your own chances by giving it to others!) I will randomly choose one correct answer as the first winner. (First correct answer gets an honorable mention. Edit: HM has been claimed.) Hint: It doesn't require any googling or clicking through to other chapters.
If you're stumped, post a comment telling everyone what my easter egg "really" was. Make something up! It should be something vaguely resembling plausible — i.e., at least make some effort to incorporate my actual text. I will choose the answer I find cleverest/funniest as the second winner. (Most upvoted answer gets an honorable mention.)
Both winners get honored with a name-drop in next chapter's author's note, and you get to give me a fanfic (your own or someone else's) to signal-boost to HR2's 1,186 followers. I'll read it (or, for longer works, the first 10,000 words) and give it a quick plug here next week.
Contest deadline is the very start of Monday, 12:01 a.m. 3/24 (Pacific time), so I have time to contact the winners and do my reading.
I must confess to being a bit confused here.
4102605
This chapter's title, "Aegri Somnia Vana," is a famous Latin phrase meaning "a sick man's empty dreams"; i.e. a hallucination. Keep in mind the last thing we saw Luna do. We'll return you to your previous reality shortly.
I'm sure the other commenters will go into great lengths dissecting it if you post some questions and/or check back. In the meantime, there's the contest!
Obviously, it's related to this math problem. Combining like terms gives us either (((t^1)*139) + 417) or (((t^1)*139) + 457).
Now, we can infer that the t variable in the problem is the number of loops, most likely around 25. Since I am honestly unsure about the number of loops that she has been through, I will solve the equations with the 25 and leave the others for someone who gets the nuances of this fic better than me.
(30 + 20 version) = 3932
(30 - 20 version) = 3892
It's probably significant that both of the results begin with a 3, end with a 2 and have a 9 in the middle, but I -for the life of me- can't figure out what that could mean. Perhaps those significant numbers are time loops? Unlikely, but possible.
Any thoughts?
.......what?
Is everything a dream? Twilight was just overdosing on LSD?
Some funky dreams, these are.
4102651 4102669
Let me clarify. I give you my word that everything before this chapter was real. I'm not nearly a big enough jerk to spend 40,000+ words building up to such a stupid anticlimax.
(*edited the author's note to make that clearer)
You. Are a terrible person. How the pre readers survived is a complete unknown.
But- that was a nice 'going crazy' bit. Luna's misunderstandings and assumptions colouring Twilight's very being as her every truth is decried as false. Cool.
Will Twilight be sensate when she awakens? Where and when will she wake up? And Luna's not looping (though this chapter as good as states that Nightmare Moon was at least an early user of looping. How long after Starswirl's disappearance did Luna fall again?) so.. I'm assuming taking a goddess to the heart does reset her, even here, so does that mean- well. It could mean a lot. So.
You are a terrible. Person.
You said this story would make more sense in act 2. You sir, have thoroughly lied to me. I do not appreciate this and oh I'm still going to be here same time next week because I have to know what the actual fuck is happening.
God damn you, sir.
... the fuck just happened?!
4102649
Solving this equation for the minimum value of the plus-or-minus 20 term (139t + 417 = 0, solve for t) gives t=-3, which is a nice (and probably entirely coincidental) result, given the complexity of the original equation.
Does it provide us with an answer to anything? Hell no. But what else are we supposed to make of this fever dream of a chapter?
(Since this is also my first comment on this fic, allow me to say that you're doing a great job, and my mind is full of bees and spiders thinking about what's going on here. Can't wait to see how it comes out.)
4102815
Oh dear, why didn't I think of solving for t? Thanks for pointing that out, my friend.
4102783 My thoughts precisely.
Poor Twilight... this is some serious mind magic, Luna is basically rummaging through every corner of Twi's mind, decrying the core of her being as false, and I'm left wondering how many ponies were left sane after this process was used on them. It's honestly a fair bit worse than simply tossing her on the rack, and is a rather horrible violation in every sense of the word.
Not to mention that she's been disconnected from all of her friends, save for Spike, since the start of HR1, and she's going to need her support circle to get through this without going completely insane. Which, I mean, I do assume she will manage, she's strong as-is, and she's been looping for a while so she's built up some tolerance for mental trauma - not to mention the meta point of this fic continuing with an insane Twilight as the main character would be quite a risky move.
Also kinda wish the next chapter was here, as this one leaves us in a bit of a holding pattern, with not much more actual knowledge being given than we already had before it, but it is a good read nevertheless.
Damn, are we sure letting Luna tamper with dreams is a good thing?
... NOW I'm confused, and I've been able to understand almost all this story!
You have made a promise, and you did not keep your word... T҉̫h̫̲̭͝o̜͔̹̖̥̜̣u̼̙̝̙̝̤͢ ̯̹̯̼͍ș̗̙͢h̳̮̬̩al̴̳͎l̷̙̰̣̮ͅ ̧̦̥̻̘̻ͅb̶͓̳͍̤̠̙̟e̱̗̤̙͎̲ ̬̥̝͇̰͍̳͘ca̷̜̝͕̫̬s̳͎̭͡t̗͚͕͢ iṋ͇͎̥̳̞͝t̜̠̗̣͍̭̀o͕͜ ̪͔t̥͢h̥̯͎͇̭̻͟e̡̤̣ ̘d̜e̸̺͇͈e̝̯̯͙̻̝p͏ ̶̘̖͖b̡̲ọ̞̝w̙̜̥͡e̲̖͢l͓̜̝̳͙͔s͎͓̘̠͔ ͉̥͎̝͈̣͍o̬̟̦͇f̛̻̝͚͍̜̻ ̴͓t͍̲h̠̥͖̯̘͓ḙ͉̫̙̟̭ ̷̺͍̗e͉ḁrt̖͇͍͍h͉̳͓̲̟̯͍ ̧͕̼̝̪͕͔ͅa̪̦͙͡n͎̦͚͈d̢̼ ̵̠̫̮̖̘̣ş̱̭̦̟̣͇m̪o͕t̳̙̭̯̗h̖̲͝ͅer͏̠̜̩͍͔̥̮e̞͜d̦ ̪̩̭͠í̟͓̘̭̩͈͓n̰̤̝͠ ̬͕͍d̯͢i̧͈̮̳̹̺r̛͇t̴̻̮ͅ ̵͈̞͈̘͈͕fơr̟̩̭͇̤ e̫̭̟̮͕t̹͎er͕͕n̦̼̱͙̺̳i̲ţ̺̻͙̪y̷.҉͙͈̬
Very, very trippy. This was the good sort of mind screw, with a good buildup to it. Heartily reccommended. The kind where after seeing the 'Twi.del.tia' bit, I reread the prior chapter.
AAAAAAH WHAT
I'm getting Double Rainbow flashbacks here, man.
3795725 Nothing to be ashamed about. We wouldn't even have FiM if it weren't for reimaginings
There's mind fuck, and then there's this.
I've got it, guys.
...
It's the number of 502 errors Fimfiction pumped out today!
What I gather is:
Twi.del.tia (25+9+((t^1)*(55+74+(30±20?))+((t^0)*(378+(38-33)))):
The second paragraph might be referring to Twi as the variable or Chrysalis's missing half of the equation.
Twi = T = 25
del/Delta = 2
tia/C = 9
so Twi.del.tia = 25.2.9 (means anything???)
: = half the equation is missing
The equation means: (T+Delta+(Celestia)): Chrysalis
-Celestia is lying about the Delta number to Twi. That's why del italicized?
-She also isn't sure exactly how many loops she's gone through (hence the ± and ?).
-Twilight is the reason she is uncertain (Twi is the variable).
-I'm uncertain what each number represents but t^1=t and t^0=1. Maybe something about Twi not being herself?
-Solution I got: (14,084?) and/or (13,084?). There is a strong chance this is wrong because it's been a few years since I last used calculus.
-Also something about the Nightmare the commentors before me probably already mentioned.
Imma go rest my brain now...
cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/500x/47391625.jpg
4102520 You got my hopes up with the "other" twilight you magnificent bastard. The words "called it" were on the tip of my tongue and you stole them write out of my mouth
Well, Luna B has eliminated a number of options, at least.
- Twilight A is not Chrysalis' spy
- Twilight A is not unknowingly Chrysalis' spy
- Twilight A expects Chrysalis will want to try to kill her
- Twilight A self-identifies very strongly as Twilight, to the point of calling out Celestia B's logical contradiction ('I love Twilight, but not you') and almost breaking the dream. Luna B has to work hard to maintain the dream at that point.
- Luna B believes that the idea of 'another Twilight Sparkle' has been ruled out. (Perhaps by Twilight A's knowledge of the Crystal Anthem?)
- When Twilight A is in distress, she calls on Luna B for help and comfort, in a very Twilight-like way.
- Luna claims to be looping. She may be the thousand-year plus looper whose loop changed history. (But if so, wouldn't her changes to history have happened the first time Twilight A died after Luna A; for example, if Twilight was far from the palace when the Shiny Death Wall appeared? I think Luna B may be looping, but Luna A never was)
- Luna B is surprised to learn the circumstances in which Twilight A learnt the crystal anthem; there's a contradiction in their pasts, and nothing in Twilight A's memory helps to explain it. It could be a dark magic illusion, but the only reasons for that that Twilight's mind can produce are patently ridiculous; all that effort to teach Twilight 'evil music' in the form of the Crystal Anthem?
...and then Luna B loses her temper. All she's getting are contradictions with known history, so she thinks Twilight A is somehow resisting her. She tries to frighten Twilight A into revealing herself, but there's nothing to reveal; Twilight A starts randomly guessing in her fear, trying to find an answer that Luna B will accept (Gilda? Bit of a stretch...)
And Twilight A's continual defiance frightens Luna B, as well it might. At this point, Luna B loses control of their shared dream; her fear gives Twilight A a way out, a role to play that's not frightening (for her) and doesn't seem dangerous. By playing the Nightmare, Twilight A takes partial control... but Luna B, fighting for the sake of Twilight, refuses to back down. Believing that she faces the real Nightmare, Luna B attacks in the dreamscape, blasting Twilight A with her full power...
I can see a few options for where this goes from here.
- Twilight A is killed. She resets. She's back in the circle, facing Celestia B and Luna B and Spike B, remembering the dream and also their question/answer session. She mentions her loop count to Celestia, letting Celestia know that she looped despite being held in a Euthanatos-proof enchantment. Celestia finds this worrying.
- Twilight A's body is fine, but her mind is gone. No reset for her. Celestia B, seeing her student unrecoverably dead, resets, and either tries again or prevents Twilight from starting to loop. (If this were to happen, then Twilight A wouldn't remember the interrogation, and we wouldn't have seen this chapter; so this, for metafictional reasons, doesn't work)
- It really really hurts, but Twilight A is fine; she will recover from her injuries (perhaps after a reset) but the trauma will take longer to deal with. Luna B retreats from the dreamscape, either still convinced that Twilight A is the Nightmare or having eliminated that possibility (that blast would have destroyed the Nightmare, but you are untouched! You cannot be the Nightmare! I know not what you are!) Either way, both Celestia and Luna are really really worried at this point. A reset by Celestia is likely in this scenario, which, for metafictional reasons, can't happen now.
So, my prediction for next chapter; at the start of the chapter, Twilight A resets. She immediately lets Celestia B know that she's reset, and that she's aware of Celestia B's series of questions, and even (if she's allowed) truthfully tells them what happened in the dreamscape. Celestia B promptly flips out even more, and (reset...)
At the start of the chapter, Twilight A resets. She immediately lets Celestia B know that she's reset, and that she's aware of Celestia B's series of questions, and even (if she's allowed) truthfully tells them what happened in the dreamscape. Celestia B nods calmly, and reveals that she reset to remember that; Twilight A can't pretend to be in her first hostile-Celestia loop after this. Twilight A begs for the opportunity to be allowed to present her side of the story, and help get to the bottom of the contradictions.
4103012
I think that's lowballing it a little
Anyway, I THINK I got it. And since I think I got it, I'm not going to be dropping what I think it is in the comments here as per horizon's instructions. Though if I'm right, it's a lot simpler than people are making it out to be.
Plot-wise, I think I understand. That would be impressive, if I seriously thought I'd be right about my understandings.
4102778
You said this story would make more sense in act 2. You sir, have thoroughly lied to me.
In my defense, this is actually Act 3. "Among Monsters" was Act 2. But thank you!
4102605 4102783 4102848 4102882
What just happened is approximately this: 4102766 4102857 Also we learned that I am a terrible person. And so is HR2!Luna.
What happened behind the scenes of what happened is approximately this: 4103033 (though Luna's not now looping)
Seriously, folks, those are worth reading; the amount of brainpower that goes into providing Cliff's Notes versions of this fic is astounding. As for the predictions, we'll see in a week.
4102815
Thank you for breaking your comment silence for me! Best of luck fending off the bees and spiders for a week …
4102866
Oh, nonsense. Luna is your friend. Trust the Luna.
Trust the Luna.
"Twi." likely stands for "Twilight", the protagonist of this story, who at this point is being treated like like she is sick or performing poorly. Given that Twi. is the first argument in the string, it's likely that this is the object being addressed.
In addition, you'll note that the "del." is italicized in this equation, likely to emphasize its importance as an acting logical function. Del can stand for delete in the ctrl-alt-del computer function that allows one to quit or stop functions that are performing poorly. This means it's likely that Luna is trying to access Twilight's core functions, as we see later on, and hopefully "quit" the "malfunctioning" Twilight that we have seen as our protagonist, in order to restore the one she knows.
"tia" stands for Princess Celestia, Twilight's mentor both within and without the time loop. For most administration purposes, though, you need a password or authentication in order to make real changes. Princess Celestia's role has been huge so far, so if there was any way of Luna (an outside, foreign user) bypassing Twilight's psychic barriers, it would be through authority of someone she trusted. One bit of evidence to support this is how they are formatted. You might think that Twi.del.tia should be parsed "Twi" ".del" ".tia", but if you look closely at the second period you'll notice that it's italicized, just like "del", meaning that it's really "Twi." "del." tia". Periods aren't usually used in passwords (certainly aren't a standard thought processes), and the "tia" uses only standard characters, so the "tia" is likely the password argument.
The garbled "(25+9+((t^1)*(55+74+(30±20?))+((t^0)*(378+(38-33)))):" is likely the executable program version of "del." meant to twist Twilight's mind into erasing parts of itself. This is at least partially successful, as emphasized in the stirring moments of consciousness that Twilight has when her mind wakes, or "boots" up.
Twilight's grown very inwardly focussed at this point, so she immediately notices that something isn't right. She can't put her hoof on it though, as the hole is now part of her very being, like a splinter in her mind. As hard as she tries to comprehend it, the only evidence is the subtle screaming as her sense of self begins to drain away through the gaping open hole.
Or at least, that's what I see.
4103147 That's fairly comprehensive. Maybe, between the two of us, we have the right of it?
Life lessons we can learn from this chapter? Don't get the PTSD patient do the mind magic, lest you end up with a Heroic BSOD ending in MPD.
4102857
Lack of actual knowledge? Possibly. But based on your previous debate, you might still be focusing very intently on Twilight. I've instead been extremely interested in Luna since chapter 9.
There are whispers here... hints in that which we never see. It's just like Celestia's and Chrysalis's loops. The thoughts we can't hear. The reactions we think we understand. The trigger words that seem so innocent...
The idea that so many of us could be so wrong and so horribly right... But I still have no concrete evidence. Only whispers from a dream gone horribly wrong. A phantasm that scoffs in the face of Twilight's current torment and whimpers feebly at the author begging for mercy...
Mercy for the Mistress of the Night.
----------------------------------------------
You have to admit though, Luna's presence here, her words, her reactions - They all have a deeper meaning. Forget the dream magic proficiency and the mysterious circlet. Why is her part so important at this exact moment? Why is she disturbed by Sombra's demeanor? What really caused Luna to completely obliterate Sombra in Twilight's mind?
That's not a reaction borne out of frustration or whatever we might think happened to Cadance, at least not in my mind. Frustration would dictate a lesser reaction. Rage for Cadance would require a different type of comment. There's something more here. Something terrible.
I can't think anymore... It all leans toward tragedy.
I don't post fanfiction, so the competition doesn't really matter to me...
But anyway.
It seems like no one in the comments has examined the significance of the individual numbers.
Twi.del.tia (25+9+((t^1)*(55+74+(30±20?))+((t^0)*(378+(38-33)))):
25 is Twilight's current number of loops.
9 is Celestia's current number of loops.
55 is the number of loops Twilight was at when Chrysalis started destroying the train before Twilight could get to it. This is after the first time the loop counter was reset, but before the second time they rest it.
74 is the number of loops Celestia was at when Chrysalis started destroying the train.
(30±20) After Crysalis starts destroying the train, Twilight goes into a depression that lasts for an unknown number of loops. Celestia also resets an unknown number of times trying to help Twilight. This is when the apocalypse loop happens. The equation comes from Twilight's point of view, so I don't know why she wouldn't know the exact number of loops between them unless they stopped exchanging the loop counter while she was depressed. The estimation Twilight is making for the number of loops is 10 to 50.
378 is the number of loops Celestia had right before the very first loop counter reset.
(38-33) represents the number of loops Twilight had before the first loop counter reset. 38-33=5, which is the real number of loops Twilight experienced. Twilight told Celestia that she went through 34 loops, when she really only went through 1. So she was lying about 33 of the loops. 38 is the number of fake loops plus the real loops Twilight went through.
Based on how the numbers are grouped in the equation, it's pretty simple to figure out what the two t's mean.
t^0 represents Delta-0: meaning the loop counter has been reset 0 times. The numbers that are multiplied by this t are Celestia and Twilight's added loops from the original counter.
t^1 represents Delta-1: the loop counter has been reset once. The numbers that are multiplied by this t are Celestia and Twilight's added loops from after the first time they reset the counter.
25+9 isn't attached to a t^2 because Delta-2 is the current one.
TL;DR The equation is a way to calculate the number of loops Twilight and Celestia have both gone through. It isn't the total number of time loops though, because Chrysalis's loops aren't included.
4103033
I think the last line:
is meant to be her cutie mark exploding. Given that Cutie Marks are directly related to the brain/mind (see Flutterbat and Hypnotism, or AppleBloom and Cutie Pox), having it simply disintegrate like that is probably the result of a euthanatos-level labotomy. While the other options are fairly comprehensive, I will agree with you and say that for metafiction reasons it's quite likely Twilight bit the dust.
4103033
Option-wise, I'd lean towards a Twilight is still alive, but having undergone some serious mental trauma (and considering her thrashing while being held down by Luna in the real world, a bit of physical trauma as well, but that's kinda inconsequential at the moment) at the end of it. Assuming Luna is convinced, Twilight resets. Either on her own power, or with help.
I don't think she can avoid this a second time around either. If you recall, Celestia was afraid in the beginning that powerful enough magic might be able to rip her loop password from her mind, so I am not sure that even knowing the sequence would help. And she's only got one shot there, and anything she says changes it, so she can't adjust to how they react, since she's still trapped in the magic ward.
Not to mention, that to be honest, I do not think she'd be in a clear enough sense of mind to argue this logically at all, much less assist either of the princesses in getting to the bottom of anything. And although I suppose Celestia might have a tea-based password for "We mind-raped you, but were totally wrong to do so," (rooibos?) it'd still fail under the "maybe she can read minds" concern.
Luna might be able to see her own handiwork in Twi's mind, and end it early. Even if not, by the end of it, Twi's insistence that this was the second time this had happened would be shown as true, and Celestia would reset.
Of course that would all happen "offscreen" to us, so after the reset, Twilight would not be in a ward circle anymore, and probably not having a lot of the warm and fuzzy feelings towards Celestia. or Luna for that matter.
Although of course if Luna just killed her, she gets to play the game again, and maybe more than once. Which is going to suck royally on multiple levels.
Um... Hmm... alright, I think I've managed to condense my thoughts into a concise, intelligent statement...
What.
4103131
Definitely tragedy, but I don't think we're seeing more than some of the broadest strokes yet. And yup, still focusing on Twi, mostly because I don't think Luna is letting a lot of stuff slip in here yet (maybe a morsel or two however), and it's just the two of them at the moment.
Actually I do think that the obliteration of mental Sombra was one of frustration. Not so much because it was representing Sombra, but because she's gone through every option, and Twilight keeps defying her, and hiding her true self.
Or so she thinks anyway. Luna's reaction is to turn back onto Twilight, and claim that she's obscuring the truth somehow. Luna blew him away, but turned from him with nary a comment nor reaction. It's just that she's trying to force Twi's brain to come up with the Evil Reasons For Evil, but it really sucks at that. Sombra monologuing behind a lectern?
We've learned that while Luna isn't looping, she has a lot of experience with it, and possibly some abilities related to that that she still has access to, despite not being an active looper at the moment.
And really, we still don't know why the anthem or the library are becoming focal points. It could be merely because of their impossibility in this reality, or of course, could be related to Cadence, or something very direct.
4103147
Just to clarify, what you describe is not an "easter egg" per se — because it is an amazingly comprehensive, factually correct analysis of the equation, and thank you for taking the time to type it out! If you do want that to count as a contest entry I'd be willing to throw one in for you.
(Random statistics: As of this post, I've received 13 PMs with entries, 9 of which were correct.)
4103131
> Mercy for the Mistress of the Night.
Well, I did take a week off from this story to write Thou Goddess …
Did I compliment you for last chapter's song yet, by the way? I'd love to put that somewhere more linkable-to and prod more attention at it.
About the Story
For those complaining about the promise to have everything make sense in act two remember that an act isn't just one chapter. I'm sure things will start to clear up as we go along.
Quite frankly though this chapter does shed at least a little light on whats going on. Luna forced twilight into the dream realm so that she had more control over what is going on. Then when she started probing twilights mind for answers, Twilight's reaction was to default into a theatrical like play on a loop. Luna is trying to figure out not "Is this Twilight?", but "What made this be Twilight?".
She's a different Twilight than the one that Luna knew because this Twilight remembers things that didn't happen. The reason she remembers them though is who ever was the Original Looper (OL) that was really far back had been killed before Twilight had in her most recent loop before this story (lets call its MRL). Here's the kicker. If that looper died before Twilight in RLM then Twilight doesn't remember what happened in RLM.
Lets also say that Celestia and Luna didn't do any looping in OUR Twilight's time line. That makes Twilight and OL the only two loopers.
So OL is reset. He butterfly effect the shit out of history. Now Celestia found out about looping and has since forced every day to be happy she sets up codes to send messages to herself if need be but only in the case of another looper. When Twilight brings this up to Celestia, she kills Twilight on the spot because only ancient and forbidden knowledge would know the code. My best guess would be from during the lunar revolution. If a guard was captured he would tell them the code. then when the code was said to a guard or celestia, they would assume that it ment *I should be killed on the spot* If they were to add the other word at the start it would be *I should not be killed and what i'm saying is the truth*
Next is the fact that twilight remembers everything before hand. Twilight became a looper. that means that everytime she dies first, her brain will remember it and she can act upon it. When OL died first and changed history, Twilight still remembers her timeline because she died first many times. Celestia and Luna didn't start looping until after the history reset meaning everything that changed was normal for them. New Twilight had a life that was effected by the historical changes. But when she starts the loop on Celestia's orders her memories are replaced by what her brain knows. as in New Twilight is erased and Old Twilight replaces her because Old Twilight is the first Twilight to loop... i really hope I'm making sense so far...
So we have OL Loop, Twilight Loop, Celestia Loop, Luna Loop, and Chrysalis Loop.
OL Loop stretches really far back in time. Possibly even around Starswirl's era. Not gonna point fingers but that is the only character i know to be extremely far back.
Twilight Loop exists in two realities. The first is before OL dies. Twilight goes through hundreds loops before somehow OL dies before she does. Her memories are kept in a frozen zone.
In the second reality history is slightly different because of OL's butterfly effect one of the results in Celestia, Luna, and Chrysalis all find out about looping somehow.
Celestia loop starts soon after the fall of nightmare moon. she relives every single day until it is perfect. when it is she resets her start point. She remembers everything of each day and has lived hundreds of thousands of years more than she lets on. If OL was to die and Reality #3's Celestia happened to start looping then Celestia's memories would be replaced by her last save point at that time.
Then Chrysalis finds out about looping from god knows where. she uses it to shut down every bit of competition she has. I assume she either hasn't reset her point OR she happened to reset it before Celestia. Either way her loop starts before celestia's most resent loop.
And finally Luna who has just started looping. no clue whats going to happen there.
Quite frankly If i was in Celestia's position i would have only reset the loop once every 6 months only after having lived a year... go for a year, everything is perfect, start over, set reset 6 months in, go on for a year after reset, repeat. This way I would have at least 6 months ahead of any on comming danger.
Heres something though. It could be quite possible Twilight knows subconsciously who OL is. Remember OL had to die before Twilight did for history to change the way it did. It's quite possible that in RLM Twilight kills OL. Its also quite possible that in the loops before RLM Twilight had ran into OL or even killed by him.
I'M TIRED SO I'M GOING TO BED BEFORE I CONTINUE RAMBLING ABOUT THE SUBJECT. but before i even do that i have a
Question for those working on the reference thingy
A lot of people have worked on the actual equation itself with out much of a break through on what it could be referencing. But what about the thing just before it. Twi.del.tia practically no one has thought about it (opens up new tab with refreshed page to see if still true) nevermind a few have. but still i think there is something big not mentioned about that part.
4103020 seems to have the most sense about Twi.del.tia
Heres another kicker. EVERYONE is right technicly. Just not right for this story. While I might not be correct with how I thought about everthing in section ABOUT THE STORY for this story it is entirely possible for a story to be made with those thoughts and actions in mind. now i absolutly must insist that my mind resets before i have to wake up in an hour...
Twi.del.tia (25+9+((t^1)*(55+74+(30±20?))+((t^0)*(378+(38-33)))):
Twilight seems to have a bit of an issue using a keyboard while coding.
She held shift while reaching for a semi-colon.
If it weren't for that her code would have parsed and there would be no issues with this entire dreamscape thing!
But on a more related note, this chapter has officially made me feel dumb! I had no idea it was a dream until I reached the comments.
Interesting, it seems the tendency to react with unexcusable violence and cruelty to unexpected events runs in the royal family.
I'm going to assume the whole Twilight Nightle thing is just Twi's mind breaking due to the torture and just confessing anything the interrogator wants to hear, and that Sombra was just Twilight Snarkle doing her thing.
Still, I don't see her surviving this and keep working with Celestia and Luna; this was a terminal breach of trust. A couple of cathartic loops as Queen Twilight, and then trying to stop the invasion again as an unaffiliated third party, with the added long term goal of dethroning and banishing both alicorns?
*sigh* Why are you such a douche! I wait weeks for the next chapter, only to be greeted with an incomprehensible dream-sequence, more questions and no answers. Make no mistake, the writing quality was fantastic, but SWEET CELESTIA I HATE YOU Give us something, im begging you!
I am so god damned confused right now. I need an audio clip of Morgan Freeman explaining what the hell is happening.
uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
UHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
UHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
*Explodes*
4103417
Luna didn't 'start looping recently' unless the sisters were lying. Her anchor point, were one set, would have to be at the start of her stint on the moon.
All the apparent loops in this dream are fakes.
All it takes is the weakest link to fail for a chained prisoner to break free.
I get the feeling that Luna is the weak link.
When I woke up this morning: "Nice, Hard Rest two updated! Now we'll get past that cliffhanger from last week!"
After I read this chapter: "Whhhhhhhhhhyyyyyyyyy?! You DO NOT put back to back cliffhangers in chapters like this! It makes readers want to do terrible, horrible things to you!"
Though I steadfastly do not agree with backer-backer cliffhangers keep up the great work!