210.1 (Masterweaver) [MLP/RWBY]

"Oh hey, Pinkie!" Ruby waved at the pink-haired faunus. "You're feeling loopy?"

"Well anchored now that you're here," the girl replied. She took a cake — a whole, triple layer cake — and wrapped her mouth around it, swallowing with a contented grin (and apparently not noticing the looks of shock and horror from the bakery's customers and staff).

"Yeah, listen, I know you have a usual game plan and all," Ruby idly left the lein for the cake on the counter, "but we've had an expansion recently so I figured I'd warn you-"

"Hmm. Last I remember, you were going to that farm. Brunswick, right?"

"Yeeeeah... turns out there's a pretty nasty pack of Grimm in the water tunnels. They, um..." Ruby glanced around, leaning in. "They're called the Apathy."

Pinkie's smile didn't fade, but her poofy tail stopped flicking. "The... what?"

"They, um... drain people's willpower. Just by being around. They can focus it through a scream, but even ordinarily... the farmers all got too tired to get up, eventually. Didn't care to get out of their beds... died in their sleep."

Pinkie Pie, sometimes considered the living manifestation of zaniness and sugar rushes, was still technically smiling... but she had gone very, very still.

"...so, I thought I'd warn you," said Ruby, backing up a step or two. "I mean, if you go in unprepared... The first time I Woke Up in that expansion, I didn't even think to check my subspace pocket because, well, they'd been working on me. Almost got me too, you need to put up a mental shield ahead of-"

"Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Ruby." Pinkie's voice was still friendly, happy, but the usual zaniness had been replaced by a polite... edge. "Would you make sure nobody heads near the farm for the next week? I'm going to be very busy."

She turned and walked out the bakery door, without bothering to open it first.

"Aheh..." Ruby turned to the shocked shopkeep with a sheepish smile. "I'll repair that personally."

It was a week and a half later, and team RWBY had decided to finally investigate whatever the fallout of Pinkie's actions might have been. They approached the trail... and noticed the first difference.

"Huh." Ruby nodded. "You know, I never thought Pinkie would be one to make a cemetery... but then again, there's no real happy way to deal with corpses."

"Not unless you have a dark sense of humor," Blake agreed.

Yang glanced down the trail. "We're nowhere near the property, though..."

"Mmm." Wess rubbed her chin. "Out of sight. Maybe not out of mind."

After a few minutes of solemn respect, they marched on... and Ruby, of course, was the first to notice the second change.

"Does anybody else smell peppermint?" She blinked. "And chocolate, and... a lot of sugary flavors, actually..."

"I..." Blake sniffed. "Huh. It's there, faint, but it's there." She grabbed Yang's hand. "Ginger too."

Yang smiled and blushed a bit. "Right... of course you'd notice that."

They turned the bend and paused. The snow melted away to reveal grass... not green, or dry yellow, but grass of a shimmering rainbow hue. Weiss knelt down, running her fingers through it. "Hmm. There's a lingering presence here... I wouldn't be surprised if Pinkie used some of her more extreme powers."

As they continued, her assertion was proven correct. Trees of striped red and white; boulders of yellow and blue, covered in sparkles and that gave slightly when touched; banners of myriad colors, made of cheerful smiling faces. Here and there, birds and other things flitted about, singing brightly; the fields were growing crops not of green or gold, but of twisted red stalks with violet leaves and orange flowers in the shape of flames.

When they finally reached the estate proper, they were unsurprised to find it painted and enhanced to resemble a gingerbread village. They were, however, surprised when Raven of all people jumped out of a house, squealing happily as she snuggled Ruby tightly.

"Ruby Rose! Oh I've missed you so much!"

"Sorry!" Pinkie came out of the house, chuckling a bit. "Sorry, there's still some lingering laughter radiation in the waterways. I was a lit-tle more intense than I meant to be, and Raven apparently wandered in while I was setting up shop-"

"Girls!" Raven released Ruby, beaming gleefully. "It is so good to see you! Isn't this place great?"

Weiss leaned back, though there was an amused smile on her face. "I think it's a little sweet for your tastes, right?"

"Oh, when this crazy happy feeling runs its course I'm sure I'll agree," Raven agreed blithely. "I'll probably be out like a flash and super embarrassed, but right now I just feel like... I feel like flying!"

She took to the sky, whipping around the farm with unabashed laughter and joyous winds.

"Huh." Blake quirked an eyebrow. "Rare to see her use the Maiden powers so freely."

Pinkie shrugged a little. "Well, if it makes her happy, right?"

"Sooooooo..." Ruby gestured around. "I mean, sure, you need a place to stay, but... why here?"

"Look, my home loop is all about redemption and new beginnings. And friendship, more often, but we've got a lot of villains gone to the good side. Now obviously we can't redeem the Grimm, what with them being literal manifestations of angst..."

Her smile faded a bit. "...and depression, in this case..."

Ruby nodded slowly. "...but you can give Brunswick a new lease, right? A new existence."

"Yep!" Pinkie's smile returned full force. "I figure if I'm doing my 'laughter reformation' of Remnant every time I visit, I should have a home base. And where better to show the power of optimism than at the very site where supernatural forces tried to quell it by force?"

"Well... alright then. Barring future revelations, Brunswick shall be yours whenever you visit." Ruby curtsied. "And as always, it is a pleasure to have you here."

Raven finally landed, her eyes alighting on the final team member with a wide, fond smile. "Yang, you beautiful woman. Have I ever told you how proud I am of who you've become?"

Yang smiled back, her expression a touch forced. "...I appreciate the sentiment, and I think it really is genuine but... You are acting way out of character, it's creeping me out, I'm just going to go."

"Okay! I totally get that!" Raven waved as Yang spun around and started walking back up the trail, followed by a giggling Blake. "Bye Yang! Have fun this loop!"

210.2 (LadyStina2)

Cheerilee and Ivory Scroll both stared out of the window, occasionally nudging each other out of the way.

"Are you sure you have your timing right?" Cheerilee asked curiously as she glanced out a different window for a hopefully better view.

Ivory nodded and adjusted her glasses before answering, "I'm positive. We should be able to see them coming anytime now."

"And… and you've tried getting some before?" Cheerilee asked apprehensively.

Once again, Ivory nodded and said, "Yes. I've attempted to order it for an event, and even a personal one for myself. I've managed to be a judge at this, and other, contests several times. And something happens every time. Even when they're Awake. I'm convinced this is the only way."

"It just… you know… seems a little… dishonest?" Cheerilee weakly protested.

Ivory shrugged and replied, "You can always leave." A slow smirk spread upon her muzzle as she continued, "And never have your curiosity satisfied."

Cheerilee laughed softly and pushed Ivory playfully as she said in a mockingly-dramatic voice, "Oh curses! You've discovered my one weakness!" In her normal voice she continued, "Fine. I'll stay. Mostly because I am curious."

"We can get some tonight once everypony's asleep," Ivory said excitedly.

They smiled at each other and looked out the window again to continue their vigil. They gasped as the coveted confection came into view.

With mischievous smiles they both looked towards each other and said, "MMMM…"

210.3 (Evilhumour)

Cadence placed a hoof over her mouth, gagging a bit as she Woke up. She tried to keep what was in her stomach down but she couldn't help but retch out...

Flying hearts, chocolate delights, foals in diapers flying away and other incredibly cutesy stuff...

"HUZZAH!" Celestia roared from her left, to which a cheering crowd below stamped the ground with their approval. "The love barf has been witnessed! Let Hearts and Hooves Day begin!"

Cadence had no time to react as everypony ran off in good cheer and joyous mood, blinking in the sheer oddne-

"Excuse me," a green mare with a black mane grinned at her, with a flaming heart cutie mark on her flank and a camera in her hooves, said. "But if I were to guess, you're feeling a bit Loopy?"

"But I am wide Awake now..." Cadence prodded the stuff in front of her with a tentative hoof. "Chrysalis...what the hay just happened?!"

"Ah," Chrysalis wiggled her ears as she snapped pictures of the princess. "This loop, you take in love, absorbing it again and again until..."

"It reaches a point where I just tip over and let it all out?" Cadence asked, tilting her head as she stared at a cupid pony fly away, shooting arrows into the retreating crowd.

"Correct," Chrysalis said, bobbing her head. She then scoffed her free hoof against the floor as Cadence examined one of the more typical Heart and Hoof day items that was laying on the floor. "So… are you going to eat that?"

Cadence looked at the item in hoof. "What?"

"Well, I'm still a changeling and these are some of the most potent love items around. Just one could feed my hive for the entire loop," Chrysalis rolled her eyes before looking at her friend again. "So can I take that chocolate off of your hooves?"

Cadence looked at her friend and slowly gave Chrysalis the barfed up heart.

"Thanks!" Chrysalis said, pulling her into a hug. She then trotted away, nomming the heart with glee leaving Cadence feeling really confused to how she felt about all this.

210.4 (Wixelt)

Twilight the Equine Anchor

(to the tune of 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer')

You know Ranma and Shinji and Lina and Ichigo,

Usagi and Harry and Kurama and Naruto.

But do you recall...

The most purple Anchor of all.

Twilight the Equine Anchor,

Had a very lovely tree,

And if you ever torched it,

You'd be dumped in a lunar sea.

All of the other Anchors,

Used to call her too obsessed,

And never let dear Twilight,

Live down all of that duress.

Then one loopy Nightmare Night,

Pinkie came to say:

"Twilight with your mind so vast,

Won'tcha give it a rest at last."

Then all the Anchors let up,

And all shouted out with glee:

"Twilight the Equine Anchor,

You're really still a mystery!"

"...still a mystery, huh?" Twilight raised an eyebrow, setting the song-sheet down and looking across at its pronking author, "And this was meant to make me let my library getting destroyed go... how, exactly?"

"It was maybe a work in progress?" Pinkie shrugged, giggling slightly, "There was a reason I never actually performed the ditty back when you were still really, really, really fixated on your tree going boom all the time, ya know?"

"Yes, I suppose-" the Anchor stopped, blinking, "...you planned to perform this?"

"Yeppers."

"I, uh..." Twilight froze for a moment, then sighing, a small smile gracing her lips, "Whatever. Happy Hearth's Warming, Pinkie."

"To you too, Twi!"

210.5 (misterq)

"What did you do, Pinkie Pie?" Twilight pointed a hoof at her most cheerful, pink-iest friend, who stopped mid bounce in the air and twisted her head ninety degrees like a confused puppy.

"Um, you're going to have to narrow it down a little, Twilight," Pinkie Pie slowly floated down to the ground in defiance of gravity and a few other laws of motion.

"What did you do, Pinkie Pie?" from behind Twilight, appeared the large eight-legged stallion form of Sleipnir.

Pinkie thought for a moment, twisting her head another ninety degrees so that her head was now impossibly upside down before replying, "Nope, sorry. You'll have to narrow it down a little more."

"This, Pinkie. We're talking about this," Twilight reached into her soul and pulled out the small data drive that Pinkie helped make to defend her against loops that featured any mind-reading all powerful artificial intelligence.

"Oh yeah! I remember that!" Pinkie twisted her head back to it's normal position, "What's wrong with it?"

"Nothing. It works fine. It works better than fine, actually. Sleipnir, please tell her what you told me."

"You see, lately we've seen an anomaly in our data. Yggdrasil has been healing a tiny bit of a percent faster than we expected. So we searched for correlations. Apparently, loops that Twilight Sparkle visits are healing faster than expected."

Pinkie grinned and hugged her lavender alicorn friend, "That's because she's just awesome like that!"

Sleipnir chuckled at the display, "That was my first hypothesis as well."

Twilight blushed, "Aww.. you guys."

The admin stallion continued, "But then I checked and saw that the improvements only started after you obtained that data drive. So, Pinkie Pie. What exactly did you do?"

"Ahh, yeah," the party pony rubbed the back of her mane, "Well you see, at the time I was seeing how sad the damage Yggdrasil was making you Admins and I thought, 'Pinkie, there should be a way you can cheer them up! They would be happy if you can help Yggdrasil heal faster. And it's a lot easier to fix something from the outside, right? Of course you're right! You're Pinkie and so am I!"

Sleipnir shook his head, "You can't make Yggdrasil heal faster. The World Tree is the entire omni-verse. You can't go outside of Yggdrasil. That's impossible."

"Exactly! To heal Yggdrasil from the outside, I'd have to go Beyond the Impossible!" Pinkie made a dramatic pose.

Twilight groaned, "This is going to give me a multi-loop headache. I just know it."

Sleipnir gave Twilight a sympathetic pat and motioned Pinkie to continue.

"Right! So here I was, searching for impossible things that I could try to distill. My first stop was obvious! Sugar Cube Corner. I needed muffins!"

"Of course, the mailmare," Twilight said.

Pinkie nodded, "She was still going by Derpy then. I gave her the muffins and baked up a machine that slowly extracted minute amounts of impossible out of her. Slow enough that she could regenerate it in about a day."

"Pinkie Pie, can you please define this impossible substance?" Sleipnir asked while Twilight was busy rubbing her head.

"That's easy. You have established rules for each universe, right? Now you just have to look for people or ponies or things that break those rules with absolutely no explanation why. It should be impossible, right?"

Twilight nodded, "That.. actually makes sense."

"Yeparoonies. That's why I managed to extract a tiny bit of impossible from Fluttershy and myself. Less than Derpy provided, but every little bit helps, right?"

"How do you two break the rules of this universe?" Twilight asked.

"Fluttershy is a pegasus with earth pony powers. I have pegasus powers," Pinkie Pie emphasised it by jumping into the sky and just floating there for far too long a moment before slowly coming down, "There is absolutely no explanation for this at all. Impossible!"

Twilight opened her mouth, thought for a moment, and then closed it.

Pinkie continued, "It was hard to find any other examples of Impossible in other loops, but eventually I had enough to start working. I cooked up a machine that would place me inside an Impossible energy field as I programmed my part of the data drive. Once done, I gave it to Apple Bloom so she could make the entire thing actually work. Then I instructed her to fix any bits of broken Yggdrasil loop she could find. It's more like filling in any potholes you come across rather than repaving the entire highway, but I figured that's better than nothing."

Sleipnir sighed, "If I didn't see the figures, I'd label this whole things completely impossible."

Pinkie Pie grinned, "It is!"

"Wait a moment, Pinkie," Twilight spoke up, "You said you told 'her' to fix any broken pieces? Who is... 'her'?

"Ahh.." Pinkie turned to look at the data drive, "You can come on out now."

There was a burst of light and suddenly a hazy shape of a pony was standing next to Twilight. Her image, composed entirely of constantly moving holographic Equestrian code, was that of a white pegaus with a highlighter-yellow mane and tail in the same curly style as Pinkie Pie.

Twilight recognized the form instantly, "Surprise?"

The digital pony nodded, "That's my name! Although more like 'Surpr-A.I.-se', because, you know, digital pony and all."

Twilight blinked and stuck out an accusatory hoof at the newcomer, "You were in my head!"

"Yup. I live there! It's great seeing you looping to different places. Actually, with all the extra time you loop as an anchor, I think I may be older than you, Mommy Pinkie."

"They grow up so fast!" Pinkie dramatized with a smile.

"This is Impossible!" Sleipnir had removed several admin-level sensor devices, aimed them at Surpr-A.I.-se, and was trying to make sense of the readings.

Pinkie nodded, "Just a little bit of Impossible.

The admin stallion sighed, "Look, I'm going to go start a conference call with my fellow admins to try to make sense of these readings. You keep that data drive safe, alright?"

"You got it!" Twilight nodded.

"Yep! Right now, we're going to try to figure out a way to break the news to Surpr-A.I.-se's other code-mommy," Pinkie Pie grinned, "Apple Bloom is going to be so thrilled... or terrified. Possibly both."

Sleipnir sighed, "Perhaps it would be better to let me see the data drive. We could get much more useful info out of it. Who knows how much sooner Yggdrasil could be repaired. And it will all be thanks to you ponies."

"Aww, thank you very much, Sleipnir." Twilight said, and then just stood there.

"I know going a few loops without the data drive is a big thing to ask of you, Twilight, but the amount of time and loops it would save would be truly tremendous."

"Oh, I know." Twilight said, still without moving.

"All you have to do is hand me that data drive," Sleipnir repeated.

"Yeah, about that," Twilight sighed, "did you think I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a true divine presence and a 'don't-look -any-closer-it's-fine' compulsion? I worked with wizards, jedi, and timelords to perfect that little bit of mind trickery."

"I suppose there's no point in this charade any longer, Twilight," Sleipnir's form shivered and reformed into the avatar of CelestiAI.

"Using my own mind and memories, my hopes and desires to help fix the loops against me was ingenious."

"Thank you, Twilight Sparkle. Are you certain you do not wish to remain in my world any longer? Together, I am sure we can figure out a way to spread friendship and ponies to so many different worlds. Remember that I can multitask and provide all the attention and focus that my prized pupil deserves and more."

"CelestiAI," Twilight took a deep breath, "if you've seen inside my mind, you know what is coming next."

CelestiAI bowed her head, "I know. Until next time, Twilight."

"Hopefully, next time will never happen," Twilight activated the data drive with a thought, "Do your thing."

There was a flash of light, a pulse of something unidentifiable; and everything was suddenly variously sized electric banana splits and giant fluffy pink pillows.

210.6 (Rowan Ex; edited by Wixelt) [MLP/39 Clues]

For the first time, Ian Kabra, Lucian Cahill and one of the winners of the Gauntlet, held on a private island only accessible by approach, as it could not simply be seen from the shore, was resting underneath an apple tree.

Being a Cahill was hard work, and because his whole life was repeating itself just based on the clue hunt itself, the work never ended. He liked being with his family, and although he never wanted his mother to go crazy after drinking the Lucian serum, he sometimes still expected her to share the serum with the family.

He was out of the clue hunt for now, though, enjoying the view as he watched the sunset. He would remember this tree for all eternity, and this spot is where he would rest until he was needed.

"Prince Ion Cobra! C'mere and help us pick up the apples!" a voice called from afar.

He raised his head from his front limbs, before sighing and raising his voice a little. "Coming!"

Work never stopped, even if he was in his embarrassing-but-favorite branch.

"So, Ian Kabra, right?" Applejack asked as she bucked the tree, apples falling towards the buckets that were strategically placed to catch most of them.

Ian nodded. "Yup. What about it?"

"You seem relaxed for a Cahill Looper. What gives?"

Ian's lips curled upwards. "I feel free from the things that make me a Cahill. Besides, I've got a nice looking flank."

Both eyes stared towards his plot, which had a simple picture of a cobra around a star.

"Yeah, about that. What'dya think it means?" Applejack asked while walking towards the next tree.

He shrugged while walking to the next tree. "I'm a cunning prick that got two million back in baseline for betraying my rich but insane mother, like how I'm currently helping you despite being related to the nobility."

"Yeah, nobility here are selfish pricks, alright. Thanks for helpin'." Applejack walked faster as they got to the last tree, Ian just leaning on the previous one. "So, what's your plan?"

"Simple. I try to make sure the Madrigals over there don't freak out every time we get here." Ian pointed to the two nearby pegasi sitting on top of the cloud, currently having their own conversation with a certain rainbow-haired mare.

Her eyes gazed over to the winged ponies as well. "Ya mean Amy and Dan?"

"Eh, same shit. They're the black sheep that brought us together," he spouted, before eyeing around, cheeks turning red. "Whoops."

"Ah, that's fine."

210.7 (Vinylshadow)

Twilight's ears flicked as the axis of the universe shifted slightly.

She sighed, getting to her hooves, putting the book she'd been perusing back on its shelf before trotting through the labyrinthine corridors of her castle - she idly noted that Pinkie had been by at some point and installed the helpful navigation signs - and left the castle, heading into Ponyville.

She walked up to a cottage and knocked on its door a few times, then stepped back. A few seconds later, Vinyl Scratch opened the door.

"Okay, I can explain," she said, standing aside so Twilight could come in. A quick glance around showed that Octavia wasn't home. Vinyl went over to her mix station and stared at it. "I was trying to refine some errant Wubbergy streams and… somehow made a subsonic frequency wubboom that may have slightly altered the universe."

"Again?" Twilight asked, tilting her head.

"I know, I know," Vinyl grumbled, scratching her head. "I don't get it either. I followed your notes, theories, and all that other stuff to the letter," she said, waving a hoof at a small pile of paperwork off in the corner.

"You're the one trying to refine this stuff, so of course it's not going to be perfect," Twilight said soothingly. Vinyl snorted, adjusting a few dials and carefully twisted a knob.

"Would be nice if magic was consistent," she muttered, reversing her previous alterations, causing the universe to shift back to its previous state. "It's all the minor inconsistencies that mess with the fundamentals of Wubbergy."

"It's been connected to the fae realm, leylines, ambient magical energy, Rainbow Power, the Elements of Harmony, Elements of Disharmony, the Warp... Anything else?"

"Phases of the moon, and a few unmentionables," Vinyl said. Twilight grimaced slightly. "Now that everything's more-or-less back to normal, I'm gonna work on a few new gigs. Wanna help?"

"Been a while," Twilight said. "Sure. Triangle or Cowbell?"

"Bagpipes, banjos, and accordions."

Twilight's lips twitched in amusement. "Now there's a trio I haven't heard in a while. Let's get to it."

210.8 (Evilhumour) [MLP/Zelda (sort of)]

The Refactoring

It was late in the day when the two horse Admins, Epona and Sleipnir, finally managed to get a moment to themselves and began to make a simple dinner for the two of themselves. Sitting down across from each other, Sleipnir looked at his wife and asked her, "So have you made changes to your Branches since the update?"

"A few," Epona said, tilting her head to the side. "Little odds and ends here and there; the biggest one is that I managed to incorporate the Lorule sub-Branch back into the main Zelda Branch and downgrading Hilda into a normal Looper."

"How is she dealing with it?" Sleipnir asked intently as he took a pause from eating his hay and oats supper.

"Fairly well," Epona said before asking him. "And yours?"

Sleipnir let out an annoyed sigh, resting two hooves on the table. "I thought I'd fixed the whole issue with Twilight acting as an Anchor for four Branches eons ago..."

"But let me guess, with all the data cleared up, you noticed she still was?" Epona smirk grew as her husband groaned louder.

"Yes and it took me nearly the entire day to detangle that nonsense. She wasn't actually Anchoring them when I finally got everything separated but it had fooled the system into thinking she was," Sleipnir said sourly. "I'm dreading when Skuld reads my report on the matter; she is going to kill me when she finds out it took me this long to figure out and fix."

"Anything else?" Epona asked cheekily, ignoring the annoyed glare her husband gave her.

"Beyond fixing Derpy's subspace issue so she actually has one now, and Lyra's plural loop memories, no, nothing major yet," Sleipnir said before sighing. "Though I'm sure that with missing my star Anchor anchoring four Branches means that something else slipped past me."

"Well to be fair, you can be fairly oblivious," Epona chuckled. "I mean, you haven't noticed that I'm pregnant again."

"I'm not that ba-Wait, what‽" Sleipnir's annoyed face changed to complete astonishment only to reset itself when Epona started to laugh uncontrollably. "My family has corrupted you horribly," he muttered sourly which only got her laughing harder.

210.9 (Wixelt)

Twilight Time

"Twilight?"

"Twilight, Twilight?"

"Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight?"

"Twilight... Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight... Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight."

"...Twilight?"

"Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight, Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight."

"...Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight."

"Twilight."

Sane Person Translation:

"Twilight?"

"Yes, Rarity?"

"Would you care to explain yourself?"

"I... may have burst in on Pinkie to give her that lecture about her attempts to dispose of the Cuil Sandwiches... during one of said attempts."

"...and?"

"And stepped into her disposal circle, causing it to backfire and imprint the first half of my name on the speech patterns of the entire population of the branch."

"...of course you realise this means war."

"Naturally."

210.10 (Vinylshadow)

"Uuugggghhhhh."

Berry Punch blinked in surprise as Shining Armor made his first noise since entering the bar six hours ago. He'd simply walked in, looked around, taken a seat in one of the corners, and curled up into a ball. Since then, he hadn't moved or made a sound and nobody really noticed him aside from a few sympathetic glances, and he had been left alone.

Now, the bar was mostly quiet, with Zecora, Big Mac, Scootaloo, and a jackalope playing a game of 42, and all of them jumped in surprise when Shining Armor 'spoke'.

The unicorn lifted his head and looked around, blinking owlishly. "How long have I been out?" he asked dazedly as he got to his hooves.

"A while," Scootaloo said, pushing a domino forward. "I've only been here for a few hours and you haven't moved since."

"Bad Loop?" Zecora asked, exchanging conspiratorial glances with the jackalope before playing her 2:4. "It's been pretty slow here today."

Shining joined them, watching the proceedings curiously. "It was a Variant with different ponies being Element bearers. Most of them were new, or not even Loopers. We had a Changeling, a Crystal Pony, Boulder, Tom, the Storm King's severed head, and I. Things were going alright until Donut Steel showed up with the Element of Potato Salad and then things got weird, because Godzilla, Kairi, and a Ludicolo showed up as villains and were completely immune to the Elements of Harmony, but they were OHKO'd by a tsunami of potato salad and Donut got to be the hero all the time. It was… interesting."

"What kind of potato salad?" Scootaloo asked, scowling as the jackalope took the hand. "Mustard, baked, egg?"

"Whichever was needed," Shining said sourly. "They even had deviled potatoes for Kairi, which… worked, I think? They kinda tore open a hole in the space-time continuum and she was dragged screaming into the abyss."

"Dare I ask how he took out Godzilla?" Zecora asked.

"We'd done 99% of the work, and Fluttershy was there to calm him down, then in comes Donut with a giant waffle iron and he turned Godzilla into a potato pancake. Fluttershy was... She made Chaos Goddess Pinkie Pie look like a puppy, but then Donut said a few things and she was drooling all over him, eager to get back to her cottage with him so she could… reward him for his heroics." Shining shook his head. "Not a fun Loop."

"How did it end?" Big Mac asked, taking the next hand.

"Donut filled the universe with potato salad, killing everything in existence to stop an out-of-control babycoach."

Everyone stared at Shining, brows raised. He held up his hooves, shrugging. "I wish I could make it sound more sensible, but… nah."

"Definitely doesn't seem like something worth thinking about," Zecora said. "I'd buy you a drink, but it's about time to close the bar, and Berry's closed the taps."

"It's fine," Shining said with a chuckle. "I've got plenty of drink back home. Good luck with the rest of your game."

"That jackalope is cheating," Scootaloo grumbled, throwing her hand down. "I keep getting the worst possible choices, and they get an 84 first game? Bah!"

The jackalope merely smirked wider and swept the dominoes its way.

(DrTempo) [MLP/Final Fantasy 7]

From the Journal of Sunset Shimmer:

Welp, I ended up in Cloud Strife's home Loop. I should have seen this happening eventually.

For those few who don't know of this Loop, it involves Cloud Strife and his allies fighting against Sephiroth, a man who would want to wield immense power by causing enough damage to the planet to absorb it's life force. Trust me, it's more complicated than that, but that's the basics.

Ironically enough, Sephiroth himself is Looping, and thankfully he is the hero he was before the moment that made him go insane in baseline happened, much like Superman in that one variant where he killed the Joker after the Joker caused Superman to kill Lois Lane and in the process destroy Metropolis.

Heck, the two even sound similar. Weird, huh? And thank the Admins Sephiroth didn't Awaken with the same personality he had when he went insane. That would be a perfect example of an MLE.

However, he wasn't Awake this time, so I learned of this being the case from Cloud himself. Besides him, Tifa, Barret, Aerith(who tries not to get killed whenever she can), Red XIII (though he goes by his original name of Nanaki these days) and Vincent are Looping, as well as Zack, Cloud's mentor who suffered a tragic death in baseline, as he did this Loop. I didn't replace anyone this time, so I was able to travel with all these Loopers.

Since the lion's share of abilities here come from Materia, artifacts created from aforementioned life force, that meant about all I could learn here were the special abilities, or Limit Breaks as they're known, of my allies. Besides, the magic here is basically stuff I learned way back during my time in the Kingdom Hearts Loop, so no big loss there.

What I did get was a lot of training of my own abilities here, as I decided to spend most of this Loop training whenever I could.

Sephiroth never stood a chance.

This Loop was fun, and I got to travel alongside some well known Loopers. I still hope I return to Equestria someday, but no matter what, I will always do what I can to learn during this journey.

210.11 (Scorntex)

"I know that look." She heard Rainbow Dash say. "What'cha plotting, Sun Shim?"

Sunset looked up at her. "Oh, just thinking about a way of preventing an innocent if kinda stupid teenager from absorbing too much magical power, turning into a floating crazed person, and causing damage to the fabric of reality."

Rainbow Dash gave an unimpressed grunt, idly spinning the soccer ball she was carrying. "That all?"

"Well," Sunset sighed, "I have a plan, but there are a few parts of it that seem... kind of mean, I guess?"

"Okay," Rainbow Dash said, "what is this plan, then?"

All was in readiness. The students from Crystal Prep High had arrived at Canterlot High, and as usual the former were avoiding the latter, and the human Twilight Sparkle was awkwardly wandering about the halls. The time to act was now.

Sunset grit her teeth. She knew, over the course of her long experience Looping, that she had done far worse things than what she was planning, on every level, but there was still part of the plan that just seemed...

Well, it just seemed mean.

She steeled herself. It was for a good cause, and the chances of things going very hideously wrong were... well, okay, they were actually about average. There was always room for something to go hideously wrong, but she was deciding to feel optimistic.

Her target was milling around the hallways, cheerfully minding her own business.

"Hey, Ditzy," Sunset called out to her fellow competitor in the Friendship Games, "there you are. I was wondering if I could catch you..."

"Hey, Sunset!" Ditzy called out, "what's going on?"

Sunset watched. Everything had been leading up to this. Pinkie's Getting To Know You Party was in full swing (possibly more than full swing, she wasn't entirely sure. She didn't have a swing-o-meter to hand, just in case. Even when dealing with human Pinkie, they had a tendency to explode), students were, for the moment, mingling, and Target A was approaching Target B. Sunset tried to sit back and look casual, and not like someone who was expecting disaster to suddenly strike.

"Hi, there." She heard Ditzy say. She saw Twilight Sparkle nervously say hello.

Then she heard the magic (well, not literally magic) words. "I like your necklace."

"Oh, thanks. But it's not actually a necklace. It's a device I built to track and contain anomalous energies."

"Sounds neat." Ditzy said, cheerfully. "How does it work?"

Twilight chortled cautiously, "believe me, it would take hours to explain, and I'm the one who built it..."

"Can I take a look?" Sunset fought down a triumphant grin. And at the same time, she fought down a still-somehow triumphant grimace. Many (well, many-ish) was the Loop wherein Ditzy uttering that phrase had heralded disaster, and mayhem, and more bran products that a mind could comfortably withstand.

But if Sunset knew Ditzy (and she did), and if she knew Twilight Sparkle (which she also did), then she knew the phrase, said in that inescapably cheerful and friendly way, would work, overriding logic and sanity and basic survival instincts.

"I suppose there's no harm in a little technical demonstration..." Twilight said.

The Device was one of a kind. It had taken months of careful study and analysis for Twilight Sparkle to build. It had been specifically designed to absorb vast amounts of a strange and unknown type of energy, and it did the job spectacularly well. Possibly even too well, since even Twilight Sparkle herself hadn't known the way it would work once built.

It was spectacularly well made. It was practically a work of art, if not a work of science. Idiot-proof might've been the word.

But it was not Ditzy-proof.

It had taken a few Loops around for Sunset to check and confirm which kind of Ditzy she was dealing with, for the type of Ditzy was always variable. Confirmation had not taken long.

The Ditzy just about to take The Device in her hand was a very typical Ditzy: Kind, sweet, loving, friendly, and a walking, unwitting avatar of entropic chaos.

At her touch, chairs would break. Screws unscrew. Metal would suddenly develop stress fractures where there had been none before. Doors would fall off hinges. Computers fresh out of the box would die at the press of a single key.

And always, always there would be Ditzy, blinking in confusion and exclaiming "oops."

Sunset watched as Ditzy took The Device in her hand.

She felt her stomach clench. It was mean to both Twilight and Ditzy to do this, but at the same time...

The instant The Device touched Ditzy's fingers, several things happened at once. The first of these was the impossible.

The Device was both simple, and yet complicated in its design. Twilight Sparkle had made sure, in that way that only the genius and the insane possess, that it had multiple safeguards in place.

The instant Ditzy touched The Device, all those systems, without so much as a warning or a blip, died. No fuss, no muss, not even the tiniest dramatic spark of a fuse blowing.

Picoseconds later, every other electrical part of The Device followed them into oblivion.

Sunset watched as Ditzy gently tapped on The Device, frowned in curiosity, and hummed. She looked as Twilight's face sunk, as she realised what had happened to her invention. She looked as the young woman looked up again, to ask Ditzy what exactly she'd just done, but Ditzy had already wandered off into the crowd.

Sunset took in Twilight's expression, that of someone who wanted to scream her head off, only there weren't the words (and it'd draw everyone's attention), and winced.

"Sorry."

210.12 (Evilhumour)

"So, it's official." Twilight said to the gathering of all her home Branch looping friends. "Sleipnir has told me that there is just one more massive expansion for us and then..." She trailed off.

"Everythin' more or less back to normal before these time loops?" Applejack offered, tapping her hoof on the table with Twilight nodding her head and everyone falling silent at that as they all knew what it meant. Whatever happened in that expansion, it would be the last real chance for any details of their pasts to become hard-coded and most importantly, it would mean they wouldn't see any more Loopers appearing from their own Branch as there wouldn't be any need for them.

With a thunderous clap of her hooves, Trixie threw herself onto the table. "Trixie thinks that even though our end might be coming, we should make it one birch of a final show and go off with a -"

"You blow up mah barn and Mac here will cut ya off for fifty thousand loops," Applejack threatened with the showmare deflating and hopping off the table.

"Plus, just because our baseline adventures may be coming to an end doesn't mean we won't have more adventures," Sunset said while leaning back in her chair, twirling her keyblade. "Finn's Branch is more or less done with its restorations but he and Jake always find new adventures to go on. I doubt it will change for us when we have two chaos gods living here on a full time basis."

"You're right darling," Rarity said with a smile on her face.

"And this will let me finally throw my Our-Branch-Is-More-Or-Less-Fully-Restored-Barring-The-Odd-Expansions party!" Pinkie shouted with a massive grin on her face. "I've been planning for this since I started Looping!"

Everypony shared a look with each other before Rainbow Dash ventured. "How big are we ta-"

"It will make all of my other parties combined look like a five second thrown together lunch," the mare said with her grin escaping her face again and leaking Pink onto her chair.

"Anyone else terrified beyond all words?" Gilda asked with her coat paling with everyone else nodding in terror at what was to come.

210.13 (Wixelt)

Victory Lap

"Something bothering you, Sunset?"

Sunset Shimmer looked up from her lunch at the new arrival taking a seat opposite her and sighed.

"Nothing major. I think." She shrugged, levitating up her half-eaten sandwich, "It's just… well…" the unicorn shook her head, "You know when you have those moments where something suddenly occurs to you without warning and you just get…" her tone dropped, "…sad?"

"I can relate." Twilight Sparkle, local Anchor, sighed, taking a seat opposite her long-time friend and functional adoptive sister, "This is about the final expansions, right?"

"To an extent, yeah." The bacon-maned pony nodded, lowering her meal without so much as a bite, simply looking at it morosely, "Having a hard time believing the branch is almost out of usable data."

"You know Sleipnir said we might still get occasional drops or variant info now and then, though." The for-this-loop alicorn princess offered, "And all that broken data won't stay that way forever, even if we have to wait until the tree's almost fixed for the Admins to recover it, as long as that will be…"

"I know, but you know as well as I do that isn't the same." Sunset hummed momentarily, "We kinda got lazy these last few blocks of expansion…"

"Oh? How do you suppose?"

"Just observation." The former Travelling Looper shrugged, "We used to get a kick out of every little expansion, when we were all younger. Everypony, and I mean everypony, would have some shenanigans or comments on the new part of the world. The new friends, or enemies, that now existed." She giggled faintly, "There's probably been moments since, but the last time I can really recall all of us getting super pumped was when Fluttershy's brother was revealed and kept turning up in every possible job all over baseline, and everypony sort of just had fun with it." The sometimes-human look down a little, "And here comes the end of all that, one last round, and we have all this stuff we could've done that we haven't. Bit of a waste…"

"…you do have a point." Twilight realized with a frown, shaking her head, "The CMC and their sisters were all for the Applewood Derby, not too soon after that, and Scootaloo and I did a few things with the whole 'Rainbow Zombie Revenge' incident, but we do tend to pick and choose now. Everypony focuses more on their looping lives…"

"I mean, everypony was stoked for the whole King Thorax thing when that happened, and the other 'finales and specials' got some attention, but that faded quickly." Sunset noted, "Heck, I'd thought the Storm King expansion would've gotten us all up and about, with how much of the world it opened up, but even that was lacking… uh…" she grimaced deeply, "Twilight? Have we… have we become distant from our baseline?"

"I think we've become bored on some level, more than anything. A sad kind of bored." The Anchor mused, "I think I remember talking to Ruby Rose about this sort of thing. She isn't as far along as we are in age, but she's an Anchor like me, so spends a lot of time alone and tends to grind to a halt, getting cyclically depressed because of it and the fact that she just ends up doing the same things over and over."

"I remember her saying that too, but how does that fit in here?"

"A little of that is why some of our more recent expansions haven't gotten more than a couple of looks, I feel." Twilight clarified, pulling some notes out of her pocket, apparently checking some previous observations, before nodding and putting them away again.

"We all expected to just do the same things over and over in some of the expansions, got bored, went looking for more interesting things in our own hobbies for the most part, and beyond the occasional thing, we never thought to look back. I think I'm probably the worst offender as Anchor." She apologized, "Now that I think about it, there's definitely been a few expansions I've gone through a couple of times before anypony else, then completely bypassed afterward."

"I wouldn't hold it against you." Sunset smiled again, more reassuringly this time, "I don't think any of us have a right to."

"Thank you." Twilight nodded, then blinked, before a wide, mischievous grin spread across her face, "You said you thought we'd wasted opportunities, right?"

"Mhm." Shimmer confirmed, then noticed her friend's expression, "Ooooh. I know that look. What are you planning, Sparkle?"

"Well, nothing particularly devious, but…" the purple pony pulled some more notes from her pocket, "Those events, from all those expansions, might not be as fresh in our minds, or anywhere near as new, but there's nothing stopping us from making up the losses now, is there?"

"So, what you're saying is…?"

"A tour, Sunset Shimmer. A world tour. We go over as many expansions from after the point we all started to lose interest as we possibly can, and do what we normally would've done. Give each event the coverage and attention it deserves."

"Shenanigans, nails and general amusement." Sunset Shimmer smirked, mood drastically improved, "Let's do it." She paused, "We're not doing it alone, though, right?"

"Of course not. It'd defeat the point a little if we did." Twilight beamed, standing, "Everypony's Awake this loop, right?"

"Yeah, I think. A bunch of us were going to get together for a 'Weirdest X' session at Mac's later."

"Perfect." Princess Twilight Sparkle, Anchor of Equestria and Queen of Weaponized Snark laughed, a new energy in her step that the other unicorn present shared to a degree, "I'll broach the idea before we all get into that, then. Put a whole 'lead up to the end' spin on it, even if we're not done by then."

With that, she turned and trotted out, humming happily without another word. Sunset stared after her for a long moment, before an equally wide grin spread across her face, and she finally lifted her sandwich to finish it, then followed.

"This is going to be so much fun."

210.14 (Wixelt)

Victory Lap: 28 Pranks Later [6x15]

(1 of 5)

Rainbow Dash stared at the 'Zombie Ponies' with visible boredom.

The 'Zombie Ponies' gazed emptily back, multicolored filling dripping from their mouths as they advanced upon their target.

Rainbow Dash yawned.

Several ponies at the back of the group, who apparently thought they weren't quite visible, shared looks of confusion, wondering if Dash thought she was just having a weird dream. The ones at the front maintained the façade, though their eyes betrayed similar thoughts. The exception, of course, was Twilight, who instead seemed a little tense under it all, as if she were anticipating something.

"CoOoooOOokies-"

*click*

*whung*

*SPLAT*

On cue, one of the front runners, an unAwake Applejack, as it happened, walked straight into a tripwire, pulling it taught. In less time than it took anypony to blink, everyone present except Dash was covered from head to toe in cake mix. Immediately, at the sight of the thoroughly surprised 'zombies', the kaleidoscopette's calm exterior crumbled, unable to stop herself breaking down into fits of giggles.

"Pfft. Heh… You- you should see your faces!" she chuckled with mirth, finally calming down and seeing the range of emotions those before her were expressing, being everything from the previously noted annoyance to flat out confusion, "Didya really think you'd get me with…" Dash paused, then shrugged, "Okay, if I hadn't checked exactly what was in the rainbow cookies before I ordered them, you might have got me, I guess."

"…kind of missin' the point there, sugarcube." AJ gave her a flat look.

"What? You were trying to give me a taste of my own? Nah, I got that." Rainbow rolled her eyes, the looks of surprise not lost on her, "And yeah, I get it. Maybe I did go a little overboard."

"And, uh…" Fluttershy piped up, wiping mix from her face, "…the cake mix?"

"Kinda wanted to see if I could one-up your one-up, just 'cause." The pegasus preened, then coughed, looking a little awkward, then gave Fluttershy an apologetic look, as if she should've known better, "But yeah, I'm done now. Will tone it back a bit."

"Well, so long as y'all're humble about it, I guess…" Applejack nodded, then looked to the others, "Alright folks, show's over."

With that, the 'zombies' dispersed, heading their separate ways for the evening, many relieved, and several still confused faces amongst them. One Anchor in particular, however, slipped over to the defused prankster.

"Well, that's one way to kick things off." Twilight mused, wiping the last of the mix away with magic, "Still surprised you told me ahead of time, though."

"Eh, you'd have figured it out if I hadn't." Dash chuckled, "Y'know, I never realized it, but baseline me really dropped the ball on this one by getting caught up in things. Even early on I wouldn't normally have pranked Flutters."

"Everyone has their moments."

"Yeah, yeah. Just glad I could run it through and have a little fun at the same time with this whole look-back deal." Rainbow pulled a roughly noted list out of her pocket, looking it over, "Anyway, I was thinking next loop I could do it with tree sap instead…"

Twilight coughed.

"…little much?" the third/fourth of Equestria asked sheepishly, looking away slightly.

"Not as such, but maybe see if you can get the CMC in on it if they're Awake. They have the experience in dealing with any complications with sap-related incidents."

210.15 (Kicker2004)

"Ahppulejahck, dahrlin'?"

"Yes, Rarity?"

"Why does aryboday have an over-exaggerated so'ern accent"

"Ah don't know. Ah just don't know."

210.16 (Wixelt)

Victory Lap: 28 Pranks Later [6x15]

(2 of 5)

"Delivery for Rainbow Dash?" Derpy called up to the cloud house above her, watching as a streak of multi-color rounded the structure, before speeding to a halt in front of her.

"Yello?" Dash grinned, nodding.

"Sign here please." The mail-mare held out a clipboard, which the recipient, seeing what she was signing for behind the grey pegasus, signed a little too enthusiastically.

Looking the form over for a few moments, Derpy nodded, before turning to leave.

"Alright. Have a nice day, ma'am."

Watching Derpy go, Rainbow grinned mischievously at the massive pile of joke cookie boxes that now belonged to her. This was going to be her best prank yet. All she needed to do was switch these for the real cookies and she'd be set.

"All according to plan." The weather mare giggled to herself, "I'll show them 'lazy'. They'll never forget this…"

Of course, that would mean nothing if they didn't work, though. Though it'd be a little awkward to explain if someone turned up mid-bite, she could cover for that. She was cool enough to deflect suspicion.

"How about… this one." Rainbow swept up a box from the top of the pile, pulling it down to the floor with a few flaps of her wings, "Yeah, this'll do."

Cracking the lid open slightly, she licked her lips. Even if they were joke trapped, they were still cookies, and cookies were delicious. Once she saw that tell-tale rainbow stain on her lips, she'd know she was ready for the best prank ever.

Ready, she opened the box entirely.

*BANG*

*SPLAT*

…Rainbow Dash coughed several times, dropping the box in a slight daze.

"What the…" she shook her head, trying to blink the stars out of her eyes. Slowly, she reached up to wipe her brow. And froze.

Dash stared at her front leg for a long moment, making sure what she was seeing was actually there. When she was sure it wasn't just her seeing things, she looked herself up and down, her suspicions confirmed.

The entire front of her body, face and all, was stained grey.

Quirking an eyebrow, she giggled faintly, though nervously. Looking around.

"Okay, okay. Real funny, guys." She rolled her eyes, "Put an exploding box amidst all the others. Glad to see you've stopped being party poopers, eh?" Rainbow shook her head, amused.

Seriously, though, she thought as she reached for another box, slowly opening it. She needed to test these. Otherwise, she'd never know if they were-

*BANG*

*SPLAT*

For a second time in the last minute, Rainbow reeled, though got her bearings faster this time. She frowned, a thought occurring to her.

"Celestia no, don't tell me…"

She swept up another box, flinging it open, but facing the inside away from herself.

*BANG*

*SPLAT*

Rainbow gawked at the now grey colored patch of grass and path, roughly laid out in a cone shape, widening outwards from the box. She growled, her tone of amusement still present but beginning to give way to annoyance at her prank preparation being disrupted.

"Alright, who's the wise-pony?!"

Looking around, Dash saw no-one, so started to fly, arcing around in a larger area to search for any onlookers snickering at her. She'd barely covered a quarter of the ground around her home before she crossed over a nearby pond and froze in mid-air, her reflection stunning her.

After a moment of blank surprise, she drew in a deep breath, and after briefly wondering how the heck she hadn't noticed the 'explosion' had also dyed her hair a sort of yellow…

"DERPY!"

Several hundred meters away, hiding in a bush, a very much Awake Derpy Hooves snickered to herself.

210.17 (Vinylshadow)

Twilight stared at the thing sitting on a stool within the confines of the Golden Oaks Library.

"Nyx, I know you can hear me, and I'm not going to give you the satisfaction of hearing me ask why you're a can of fuel."

"High-octane Nightmare Fuel," the jug of gasoline corrected her sheepishly.

"I noticed," Twilight said dryly. "I sometimes wake up screaming in the middle of the night whenever I remember a particularly egregious pun."

"Like Flutterbat?" Nyx asked, pointing her nozzle at a hissing stick of wood flying around the ceiling. Twilight stared at it for a moment then shook her head.

"Alright, I'll admit it's been more than a hot minute since I've run into that one," she said.

"Hey Twilight," a voice rasped. "Pie's ready!"

Twilight glanced towards the kitchen before grabbing Nyx and trotted into it. Setting Nyx on the counter, Twilight turned towards the voice.

"You alright, Applejack? You sound-" her voice trailed off as she noticed Applejack, who was a sixth her usual size. "...I get it," Twilight sighed, rubbing her temples. "And it's a two-fer, no less."

"I don't like it any more than you do," Applejack wheezed.

"Hellooooo? Is anyone out there? It's really hot in here!"

Twilight and Applejack's ears perked up, and Twilight opened the oven to see Pinkie sitting in a pie tin. The pink party pony waved at them.

"Oh, there you are. Why am I in an oven? Are we fused with Miss Frizzle and the gang?"

She hopped out of the oven and shook herself, before looking around. "Ah," she said, ears going flat. "I see what's going on here. Pity I missed it, but I'm sure there's plenty more to come. Who wants to join me on a puntacular adventure?"

"I'd love to," Twilight said. "Unfortunately, I've got a school, castle, and country to run before I can do anything remotely resembling fun."

"Oh yeah, that's a thing that's happening," Nyx mused. "Been a while since you've run the country, hasn't it?"

"I do it all the time in Variants," Twilight said defensively. "And I only turn evil 70% of the time. I'm sure it'll be fine."

"Yeah, but now there's puns involved," Applejack pointed out. "And if there's anything that makes you get all twitchy-eyed and frazzle-maned, it's puns and wordplay."

"Only when they're not clever," Twilight grumbled. "The downside of a horse-based society."

"You get used to it," Pinkie said, admiring Nyx's design. "Besides, it's all in good fun, and it's good practice for jokes. Also good for exercise since you learn to dodge tomatoes, fruits, and the occasional bear."

"Who throws bears?" Applejack asked blankly.

"The one that walks softly and carries a large bat," Pinkie said cheerfully, before ducking an angry hissing stick of wood.

210.18 (Wixelt)

Victory Lap: 28 Pranks Later [6x15]

(3 of 5)

This was going to be hilarious.

With intent, the eyes of a pegasus on the prowl for a prank watched Fluttershy guide her animal friends back down the path to her home in the late evening darkness. She was a scaredy-cat, easy to prank, and whilst Rainbow Dash was sure she'd get reprimanded for this later, either by Flutters or someone else, she felt the two had known each other long enough that she could get away with it relatively unberated.

Also, it was totally going to be worth it just to see her reaction.

Watching as the butter colored pony continued walking, about to arrive at the optimum position for Dash to begin her scaring spree, the blue mare crouch, making sure her monster costume was up to par, tensed to get moving, and-

*thud*

"Oof!"

With a sudden impact to the back of her head, Rainbow grunted, toppling forward out of the bushes. Rolling for several moments, she came to a stop directly in front of Fluttershy, who gave her a look of confusion.

"Dashie?" the animal keeper leant forward, frowning, "Is everything alright?"

"I… I'm fine." Rainbow shot to her feet, visibly annoyed as she rubbed the bump that was beginning to form, "Someone hit me with something…"

"That doesn't sound very nice, but…" Shy looked her friend up and down, taking in the costume, "Why, um… why were you out at this time of night? And wearing that?"

"I was… erm…" Dash coughed, "Trying to prank someone."

"…this is the path to my house, though." The other pegasus gave Rainbow a look of disappointed disapproval that told her Twilight was going to hear about this.

"I- I'm aware..." Rainbow countered, still looking around for what hit her.

Eventually, her eyes fell on a golf ball sitting innocently not far from the bush she'd been hiding in.

"…the buck?"

"Language!"

Glancing around, Rainbow slowly slipped the whoopee cushion she'd been hiding under her wing into her hoof. She had, maybe, 20 seconds before the others were in the map room, so she had to get this right.

Taking a natural path around the table in case anyone walked in early, she approached Twilight's chair en-route to her own, and reached out to drop the cushion into it-

*thud*

"Gah!"

Rainbow spiraled forward, sprawling out into a heap on the floor, whoopee cushion landing soundlessly in front of her. Clutching her head again, she staggered to a stand through the throbbing pain, and cracked her eyes open…

…only to find a golf ball sat motionless in front of her, mere inches from her muzzle.

"…who's doing this?" eyes darted around, looking for the culprit, "It's not funny if it hurts, y'kno-"

"Rainbow?"

Dash froze, slowly turning to find her friends all staring at her. Twilight in particular looked vaguely unimpressed. Rainbow followed her gaze to the whoopee cushion, then looked back at Twi, then at the cushion again, before flushing nervously.

"Well, uh, you see…"

She managed another brief scowl at the golf ball before she became caught in a tirade.

There's nothing quite like a good night's sleep, free of interruptions. It refreshes the soul.

It was at about 3am that Applejack knew tonight wasn't going to be one of those nights.

She was rudely awoken by a series of loud crashes, the clanging on metal objects, and what sounded distinctly like glass shattering. Bolting up in bed, she glanced around frantically, before a loud groan drew her eyes to the floor, and a prone Rainbow Dash wrapped in ropes and covered in bells and pans.

"Dangit Dashie! What'd we tell ya?" the farm mare narrowed her eyes, then chuckled dryly, "Guess ya aren't as good a prankster as ya thought, huh?"

"Not in the mood…"

"Ya'll broke in my house, Dash." AJ replied bluntly.

"And I would've gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for this Celestia damn…" Rainbow growled loudly, catching Applejack off guard. Leaning further off the bed a little, she followed her prank-happy friend's glare of burning anger to…

…a golf ball. The orange earth pony raised an eyebrow.

"Uh…"

"Scaring Fluttershy. Whoopeeing Twilight, Caking Rarity, and now THIS!" Dash shouted at the ball, "I can't get a single prank in! What do you want with me?! Who sent you?!"

Applejack finally concluded that Rainbow Dash might've gone off the far end a little.

"Direct hit!" Discord lowered his hand from above his eyes, swinging his golf club over one shoulder, before returning his gaze to Spike, "With those force powers of yours, this really shouldn't surprise me, but…" he shrugged, pulling out a glass of orange juice and drinking the glass.

"Yeah, well, Jedi awareness is helpful for lining up shots." The dragonling shrugged, nonplussed but satisfied, dropping his golf club back into his pocket, "It's a little bit luck, though. Wasn't expecting to hit her over the head a fourth time. I was actually aiming for one of AJ's traps."

"Good enough, though." Gilda mused, watching from the other side of the counter-prankster, then laughed, "Still can't believe Dash was alright with us doing this to her unAwake self…"

"Twilight and Sunset's 'tour of the old' deal really got her motivated."

"Rest assured she isn't the only one." Discord smirked to himself, "I have a few ideas of my own when it's my turn."

"Yeah, same." Gilda grinned, flicking her tail back and forth meaningfully, "Grizelda might not go for it, but I have a plan lined up."

"Well, my run isn't over yet." Spike unpocketed a different club to the one he had, before turning to leave the hill they were stood on, overlooking Sweet Apple Acres from a distance, "Come on, I think her prank on Cranky's next, if she keeps at it."

"And if she doesn't?"

"Then we switch the rules to 'fastest taken to make Dash give up', I guess."

Author's Note:

210.1: The Apathy are kind of depressing. Pinkie takes that as a challenge, frankly.
210.5: There is no surprise.
210.8: In case you're wondering about the Refactoring, so am I but that's not helpful. See below.
210.9: Twilight.
210.10: If you're wondering, say his name with "OC" in front of it.
210.11: Basically Tuesday.
210.13: Somepony tell Melon Coly to show up.
210.17: An entirely different kind of Fear Gas.

So the Refactoring is basically what happened when someone managed to free up a chunk of processing power, fixing lots of minor problems. This means some of the quirks that may have been noticed earlier on are resolved, though probably not all of them.