Early One Morning
Twilight Sparkle awoke early in the morning to the sound of incessant knocking at her door. She groaned quietly, pondering for a moment why Spike hadn't yet answered, but the pounding forced the thought out of her mind for the moment. Whatever the reason, her assistant, it seemed, was not going to answer the door for her. Gathering what little, precious energy she could, Twilight rolled her way off the side of the bed, just barely landing on her hooves before giving a languid stretch. First her forelegs, then her back, then her hind legs. Finally, doing something she was still fairly unaccustomed to doing, her wings were spread wide and she felt her bones crack and pop quietly.
The knocking hadn't even slowed.
“Coming!” Twilight snapped, glancing out the window. The sun was just now rising above the horizon, and her habit of late-night studying was doing her mood no favours. Although, anypony who decided getting her up this early in the morning was a good idea could use a stern talking to. Or, if Twilight's current scowl was any indication, a brief shouting fit.
Barely taking note of the unclean state of her library, Twilight strode straight through the clutter of books and notes to the front door, much like a dear sprinting effortlessly through the woods. When she reached the large oak passageway, she uttered a silent, mental prayer for whoever ended up on the receiving end of her rapidly growing fury.
“What!?” She shouted as the door was nearly flung off its hinges in her newly found alicorn magic. The pony on the other side of the door didn't even flinch.
“Twilight, listen,” Rainbow Dash said quickly, taking a few well-timed steps away from the angered alicorn. “I know you're probably pretty mad at me for-”
“Understatement of your life,” Twilight deadpanned, noting the gap between them was much too far for her to take a jab with her horn. “What do you want?”
Rainbow nodded. “Right, about that. You see, there's a very good reason for all of this... but I can't tell you until tomorrow.”
Twilight blinked, confusion monetarily overriding anger, though not for long as she set her strongest death glare on the pegasus before her. “What?” She asked plainly.
“Okay... okay... okay...” Rainbow just kept repeating it to herself for nearly a minute, staring at the ground and breathing in huffs. As though she'd just run a marathon. Finally, she looked up. “Twi, I gotta say, you're a good friend. A really, really good friend, and I wouldn't trade that for the world.”
“Uhh....” Twilight's mental faculties came to a full stop, even her burning anger ran low on fuel as she ran over the unexpected statement. Eventually, she offered a quiet, “You too?”
Rainbow shook her head furiously. “No, no, no, gotta do this right!” She seemed to be talking more to herself than Twilight. Or to somepony else, like a pony were sitting in a bush nearbye, watchign her. Perhaps it was a prank? “Alright... okay... well I guess the best way is to just get it over with, right?”
Twilight squinted at her unusually uptight friend. The closer she looked, the more she began to notice; Rainbow's mane was normally unkempt, but now it looked as though she'd put it in a blender this morning. Her wing were a mess, looking like she hadn't preened herself in months, and her eyes were bloodshot. When was the last time she'd gotten a proper night's rest? “Rainbow, are you... okay?”
“What, me? No- I mean yes! Yes! I'm fine... fine... fine...” She was off again, repeating 'fine' over and over, to the point where it no longer sounded like a real word.
“Rainbow?” Twilight repeated, carefully leaning down to try and catch the mare's gaze. She'd gone from furious, to concerned, to downright scared for her friend's mental well-being. “Would you like to come in?”
Rainbow's head snapped up, eyes wide as dinner plates as she stared. “No... no?” She paused, looking up to the sky. “No, I don't have time... or do I?” Another pause. “I do have time. No, I don't, I'll make time, so yes. Yes I would like to come in. That sounds right, doesn't it?”
Twilight nodded slowly, stepping to the side and watching with a frown as Rainbow's shaking hooves carried her into the paper jungle. “Sorry about the mess...”
“Looks... normal....” Rainbow trailed off, looking at the books with a twitching eye. “Everything's normal... and it's all going to be alright.... alright.... alright...”
Following Rainbow through the mess of her front room, Twilight watched as the mare absentmindedly dodged every obstacle in the room, something even she couldn't do without proper focus, and she was the one who put everything where it was. Without fail or fault, Rainbow found her way onto the couch and flopped down, waiting in silence for Twilight to sit next to her.
“Okay...” Rainbow started, looking around the room. Her eyes covered everything she could see, until they eventually settled on Twilight. Her hooves slowed their shaking, and she gave her thigh as a solid punch, flinching from the blow. “Okay... not dreaming, everything looks normal. Twilight's sitting next to me, and I'm going to talk to her.”
Twilight's brow creased as her frown deepened. “Rainbow Dash, what's going on?”
“I'm going to talk to you!” Rainbow announced, smiling proudly. “I said I wouldn't trade your friendship for the world already, right? Back at the door? You remember that, don't you?” A sliver of fear slipped into her voice.
“Yeah... yeah you did; I remember.”
Rainbow's head nodded up and down spastically. “Good... very good. They're starting to blend together, you know? Anyway, okay, I already said that, what's next? Oh... oh right! Well, here's the thing, I'm not exactly... what's the word? Content with out current relationship? Sounds right. Sounds normal. Good, normal's good.”
“Rainbow?” Twilight started cautiously. “What are you talking about? Why are you-”
“Just let me finish!” Rainbow snapped. She sounded angry, but a wide smile never left her lips. “Please. It's normal to let me finish, right? We're aiming for normal here, Twi. Anything not normal won't work.”
Twilight opened her mouth, but closed it slowly. Whatever was wrong, it seemed Rainbow had her own way of getting to the problem. Still, she paid close attention to her friend.
“Right, so... I'm not content... I said that already, didn't I?” She chuckled manically. “Of course I did. So what I'm saying here is that I'd like more than just friendship with you.”
“Rainbow, are you-”
“I love you, Twilight,” Rainbow shouted suddenly. A deathly silence fell over the library immediately after; event he books seemed to be quieter than normal. Nothing moved, nothing spoke, nothing breathed. After a solid minute of silence, Rainbow jumped off the couch. “No! No! That wasn't normal! Stupid me! Stupid... stupid... stupid...”
Twilight blinked, staring at the mare as she paced around the cluttered room, still muttering to herself. “Rainbow?” She ventured slowly, standing up and reaching a hoof out to catch her friend’s shoulder.
“It's not going to work!” Rainbow yelled, turning around and staring, half fearfully and half desperately, at Twilight. “It all has to be normal. If it's not normal, it won't work. Would you describe that as normal?”
“Uh... quite frankly, I wouldn't describe anything that's happened today as normal, why are-”
“Exactly!” Rainbow took to the air, flapping her wings and scattering loose paper everywhere.
Twilight cringed as she watched ink spill and book towers topple. “Hey, I-”
“They'll be fine tomorrow,” Rainbow said dismissively, waving a hoof nonchalantly in Twilight's direction.
“Rainbow, will you take a breath for one minute and tell me what the hay is going on with you?” Twilight demanded, stomping her hoof on the floor and using her magic to grab Rainbow's tail before she could fly away. “Ever since you got here this morning you've been acting... well, crazy. Now this? What's going on with you?”
Rainbow growled low in her throat, obeying the tug of Twilight's magic and landing on the floor. “You never believe me when I tell you! I've tried so many times, but you just don't get it! It's not a joke, I'm not pranking you, I'm not lying! I, Rainbow Dash, love you, Twilight Sparkle. Why is that so hard for your egghead mind to understand!?”
Twilight sighed quietly, releasing her hold. “I need you to calm down, okay? Do you think you can do that for me?”
Huffing, Rainbow scraped at the floor, looking over her shoulder skeptically. After a moment, she nodded. “Fine, whatever. I'm calm. Nice and normal and calm.”
“Good. Now, from the top, explain to me what's going on,” Twilight instructing, guiding them both back onto the couch.
“Well this is new...” Rainbow muttered to herself, before looking back to Twilight. “I came here to ask you out on a date, Twilight. But you said no.”
Twilight tilted her head. “What do you mean? I haven't said no yet. You actually didn't even ask me out on a date yet.”
“No!” Rainbow shook her head roughly. “I mean yesterday. Or today. Or maybe a month ago. I don't know, it all seems the same. But the important part is that I asked you out on a date, and you said no. I was pretty upset, but I got over it. I went to bed that night and... I woke up the same day.”
“You mean you woke up later in the night?”
Again, Rainbow shook her head. “No, I mean I woke up that day. As in the morning of that same day; not the next day. I came to your house again and... you didn't remember anything.”
“Rainbow, that's simply not possible. I haven't seen you in a few days; you were in Cloudsdale at that big weather meeting, remember? You were supposed to get back last night.”
“Twilight, that...” Rainbow frowned, brow furrowing for a moment. “I... I barely remember that. It's been so long... almost a year, I think. I was keeping track of the days once I figured it out but... I stopped...”
Twilight placed a gentle hoof on Rainbow's shoulder. “That was just yesterday.”
“No! It was... it was months... years... I don't even know... it wasn't yesterday! Yesterday I flew into your bedroom window, woke you up and kissed you. Do you remember that?”
“W-what!?” Twilight reeled back with a gasp. “What are you talking about?”
Rainbow threw her hooves in the air. “Exactly! You don't remember. I don't know how or why, but somehow, every night, I wake up the same morning every time. I can remember what I did the previous day, but nopony else does, like I'm stuck repeating the same day over and over. It's not just Ponyville, either; I've flown to Canterlot and talked to princess Celestia. She doesn't remember a thing the next day. I figure the only way to fix things is to act normal. Just keep being normal, doing everything as I would normally, and things should go back to normal, right?”
“Rainbow, I don't think-”
“It's the only thing left!” Rainbow yelled desperately. “I've tried everything. This must be the dozenth time I've told you about what's going on, and you've never believed me. One time Celestia had me arrested, but I just woke up back at home. The only thing I have left is to do what I would have done normally; ask you one a date, only get you to say yes instead of no. It's never worked! It's the only thing that's never worked."
Twilight, held her hoof up, silently asking Rainbow to stop. Hesitantly, she closed her mouth, and Twilight took a breath. “Rainbow... what you're describing to me here sounds an awful lot like a time-loop.”
“You've said that before, but you always say it's impossible!”
“That's because it is,” Twilight said simply. “Are you pranking me or something?”
Rainbow's eyes widened. “Am.... I... Twi, do I look like I'm pranking you? This has been going on for months!"
Twilight nodded, thinking silently for a moment. “Well... alright then. You say I've never said yes, right? Well then... yes; I'll go on a date with you.”
“But you... you just.... you did it!” Rainbow smiled widely. “You said yes! You finally did something new!”
“Rainbow, are you-”
“This is amazing! All it took was me completely flipping out on you! Oh, why didn't I try that sooner? No, I did... it must have been exactly what I said! This is amazing! It's finally normal, it'll stop! I'll wake up tomorrow, and it'll actually be tomorrow instead of today!”
Twilight watched, concerned and slightly amused, as Rainbow took off and joyfully celebrated. She shook her head, chuckling quietly. “This was all some kind of ploy to get me to say yes, wasn't it? You know I'd probably have given you a shot no matter what, right?”
“You think...” Rainbow trailed off, staring at her for a moment, before shrugging it off. “It doesn't matter what you think. The important thing is that you said yes! We... we have to go on a date! It's been so long, what was my plan again? Something about... dinner? Dinner and a play! That's it; I already made the reservations because I thought there was no way you'd say no to my awesomeness. It's tonight at 7; Ill pick you up at 6:30!” With that she was gone, took off out the window. Twilight watched her go confused, more than a little concerned, and curious as to what the rest of the night held for her.
The Next Morning
Twilight groaned as she awoke to the sound of somepony trying to knock a hole through her front door. She sighed, sitting up in bed and flinging the blankets off herself. The sun was just barely above the horizon, and apparently Spike had better things to do today than open the door for whoever was trying to get her attention.
Getting out of bed, she stretched languidly and made her way down the door, navigating through stacks of papers and piles of books, which she really should have cleaned up already. Opening the door and preparing to thoroughly chew out anypony who tried that hard to wake her up, she paused as she saw Rainbow Dash, sitting on her doorstep, crying.
“Rainbow?” Twilight asked, anger being washed away in an instant at the sight of her clearly distraught friend. “What's wrong?”
“You... you don't remember, do you?”
Twilight frowned. “Remember what? What don't I remember?”
Rainbow sniffled. “We went out on a date yesterday... to a play, and-”
“How could I forget that?” Twilight interrupted with a warm chuckle and a smile. “I had a lot of fun with you. I even said we should do it again. Why wouldn't I remember?”
Rainbow's jaw fell open, her tears stopping in their tracks. She hastily reached into her wing and pulled out two crumpled slips of paper. “I found these on my table this morning... I'm so.... so sorry, Twilight.”
“What do you-...” Twilight trailed off into chocked silence as she recognized the paper in Rainbow's hoof. They were two slips of gold-coloured paper, each admitting one to watch a play. Tonight. A play that she very distinctly remembered attending yesterday, where they took the tickets.
“You're stuck with me now... I'm so sorry...”
Author's Note
Written in a single night because I got the idea and couldn't resist. This is probably the fourth or fifth version this story went through, the other versions being much darker. Comments and corrections are always appreciated.
EDIT: It's been edited for your viewing pleasure. I think I caught most of the bigger things, but I have no doubt there are still things I missed.
