“Gooooood morning Ponyville! I hope all of you little ponies slept well last night. I sure know I did! All thanks to ChangeCorp, our wonderful sponsors and producers. Why, if it wasn’t for them, none of us might be living our happy and wonderful lives! But enough about them! Let’s go to the weather.”

“Thank you, Silver Tongue! And what a wonderful day it is today, I must say! The sky is blue, the birds are singing, the sun is looming down on us from it’s unmoving position in the sky, and with no clouds around, it is truly a great day here in Ponyville. The pegasi are gathering all the clouds for the scheduled rainstorm, and it’s just a wonderful day. Why, a bird just flew through the window!”

“Isn’t that just great folks? Well, whilst my companion has a quick snack, I’ll bring you all up to date on the news! But first, a word from our sponsors:”

“Greetings, listeners. Are you tired of your everyday lives? Does it feel like it lacks purpose? Excitement? Whatever the cause, we here at ChangeCorp are willing to help! We can change your entire life for you, free of charge. You’ll have a great time, living the ChangeCorp life! It’ll be just as if you hadn’t left at all. Now, I’m sure you’re saying to yourself, “How ever can I possibly order such a great service?” Well, don’t worry yourself one little bit! When you need us, we will find you. We will always find you. There’s no escape from us, so don’t even try. ChangeCorp, changing lives, one pony at a time.”

“Wasn’t that the best thing you’ve ever heard, everypony? I sure thought it was! They certainly turned my life around. Just look at me! The head of Ponyville’s new community radio station, all because of them. And now, for the news, provided by ChangeCorp-”

The pony who was standing in the middle of the room had to resist the urge to turn off the radio right then and there. She choose to tune it out with a little song; she couldn’t afford to turn it off just yet.

Taking a deep breath, she turned to the machine on the table in front of her, and admired it for a moment. It hadn’t exactly been easy to procure it, but it had been even harder to get the scroll currently kept in her saddlebag. Sneaking around Canterlot was not her strong point, but she had done it often enough to get used to it by now. The guards never were that bright, original or changeling. And she knew all the magical spells guarding the Starswirl wing, and how to either defuse or avoid them.

Pulling up a chair, she sat down, took another deep breath, removed the scroll from her saddle bag, and unfurled it onto the table. She read over it once again to make sure she remembered how to cast it. Then she put on the makeshift headset, plugged it into the machine, and started to cast her spell. Not the spell on the scroll, though. That was for the very end.

“- and the last kitten was sadly not found. Wasn’t that just a lovely story, everyp-” the broadcast was cut off, just as she had planned.

“Hello? I’m not sure if this is working, but it should be. It’s me. Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Magic. I know, most of you thought I was gone, just like Princess Celestia; or captured, like Princess Luna; or even worse, like Cadence. But I’m still here. And I have a message for you all.”

Twilight Sparkle started to sweat as she continued onwards with her speech. It was weird hearing her own voice over the radio, even now. But she had rehearsed what she was going to say so many times she had it practically memorized. But it still felt like she was saying it for the very first time. But she had to continue. Because everypony needed her, needed to hear her voice, to have some sort form of hope to cling to. Something only she could provide, right now.

And the only way to provide it was through this message. She was actually pretty lucky, she had admitted to herself many a time. The element of magic, an alicorn, Princess Celestia’s student… all these factors had helped her before, and they were helping her again. And with her mastery over magic, it mere foal’s play to break through the ChangeCorp 24/7 radio broadcast, and replace it with her own. It was a simple magical frequency which she took over, and there was no way for them to get it back. Unless they had magic equal to hers, but the only two ponies she could think of who did would either refuse to do so, or were gone. So she knew she was safe to give her message.

“Well, a message for the few of you neither enslaved nor replaced. But I am sure that some normal ponies are left. And I’m sure this past year has been hard on you… it must have been, what with all that happened. But I’m not here to drudge up the past, no. There’s something I want you all to know.

“I found, a while back, a spell created by none other than Starswirl the Bearded. From what I can gather from the scroll, it should be able to help us all! In fact, I believe it to be his magnum opus, the last spell he ever wrote finished, before his mysterious vanishing. And I believe it will send me back to the past, which will allow me to prevent all this from happening.

“So please, everypony, have faith in me! I will be able to fix everything this time, I promise! And as long as you have faith in me, I know it’ll work.”

But as Twilight was saying that, an old voice cut through hers. An old, worn out voice, but one very familiar to her. “But why should we, Twilight? Isn’t this just what you say every time you cast that spell, my pupil?”

“P-p-princess Celestia! Is that really you? I thought you- we all thought you had vanished, or had even been killed,” said Twilight, her voice wavering.

“Oh no, not me. I simply… took a vacation, I suppose you could say. You should try that, next time around. You should know by now that there’s pretty much nothing you can do for us, my prized student. How many times have you gone through this loop?”

Celestia’s question left Twilight stunned. Something she had never thought possible had just happened. She couldn’t believe it, she just had to ask. “How do you know about the loops, Princess?”

“Oh, that’s simple, Twilight. Every time you reset, all the alicorns retain their memory of what happened previously. Every. Single. Time. All of your failures, all of the times you came so close, we remember it all. I remember it all, Twilight.”

“You… you do? But why have you never said anything about this before?”

“Because I was waiting. Waiting for the best time to tell you, my dearest student. Doesn’t it hurt, Twilight? To see everypony you’ve ever cared about… vanish, again and again? To know that you still can’t save them?”

“...” Twilight couldn’t answer. She had never stopped to think about it. She could never stop and think. So many times she had failed to save her friends. But sometimes she could, and that gave her hope. And something seemed… wrong, with what Celestia was saying.

“That’s what I thought. So why bother, Twilight? We’ve gone through this loop how many times now? I’ve lost count, myself. And every time you cast that spell, you make us relive our tragedies, never being able to change what has been fated. Except for you, Twilight. But what makes you think next time will be different?”

“I… I just know next time will be different! It just has to be! Everytime I cast this spell, I get closer to stopping the invasion! Just wait and see! I’ll find who it was who first made contact with ChangeCorp, and stop them in their tracks. Then it’ll turn out differently, I’m certain.”

“Well, I have to tell you something, Twilight. You’re face-to-face with the mare who sold the world.”

“You?! You’re the one… you’re the one who made the contract with ChangeCorp? The same one that allowed the changelings to freely invade Equestria?”

“Yes, Twilight, that was me.”

“But why? Why would you sign something that was so obviously suspicious?”

“Do you really want to know why, Twilight? Fine. I’ll tell you. I was bored of it all. Yes, that’s right! Do you know just how boring it gets, spending a thousand years, if not longer, with few shake-ups? Sure, there was Sombra, and Discord, and Tirek even; but they never lasted long enough to provide any real amusement. But that contract… they promised me excitement, Twilight! Excitement that I hadn’t felt for a hundred lifetimes!”

“That… that can’t be right! No, it just can’t be! The Princess Celestia I know would never do something like that, not ever!”

“But how would you know? You’ve not known me for that long, not in comparison to the hundreds of years I’ve trotted on this planet. You don’t know what it feels like, to care so much for a pony, and be forced to watch them fade away, again and again. So please, Twilight, just let me have this respite from my eternity of boredom.”

“No… no! This isn’t right. Even after all that you’ve said, I simply can’t believe that you are the Princess. My Princess Celestia wouldn’t doom everypony around, just for a bit of excitement! She wouldn’t allow all the ponies she cares about now, her sister, all of her friends… she wouldn’t let them all rot away! That’s not my Princess Celestia, she couldn’t do something so evil just for the sake of a little enjoyment!”

Just as Twilight was about to turn off the radio, Celestia asked one last question. “How can you be so certain?”

Twilight shut off the radio, with a deft flick of magic. But her breathing was heavy and irregular, and she was sweating even more. Before doing anything else, she took several deep breaths, like Cadence had taught her. She would have to remember to thank her next time. If she could get to her in time.

That’s right, she assured herself. She’d be able to save Cadence next time. She’d be able to save them all. If not next time, then the time after that. Her heart was not wavering, she repeated to herself. The words of Celes- the impostor, she corrected herself, were false, they had to be.

One more breath, then another. She knew what she had to do. She picked up the scroll, and started to intone the words written upon it, like she had done a hundred times before.

---

Somewhere, beneath Canterlot castle, there was a long, deep sigh. “Maybe next time… maybe next time,” said Princess Celestia, pacing around.

A step, a step, a clatter, a fall to the ground, then rising back up. “Yes, maybe next time,” said Queen Chrysalis, dusting herself off, as a green glow receded from around her.

The seeds of doubt had been planted, and she would be there to cultivate them. Even if she had ran out of time this loop, she could keep coming back.

The power of a changeling queen might not be equal to that of an alicorn, but… well, the power of three was more than enough. Chrysalis smirked at the three cocoons above her, the ponies within having long ago stopped struggling. “Oh, it’s just great to be queen,” she laughed. She kept laughing, even as Twilight finished her spell, even as time rewound once more.

She was prepared. And she wasn’t going to lose.