The alarm clock buzzed.

Illesio groaned and sat upright in bed, glancing at the clock. It was Monday.

What the hell happened yesterday? I can't remember a thing.

She cursed as her head caught up to her mind.Got the worst hangover, too. Must've been out too late again.

She rolled out of bed, glanced at Clear Sight, fixed herself a quick breakfast and walked down the stairs of the complex.

Sunglasses, she thought.

That's when something tapped her on the shoulder, causing her to shriek and jump in shock.

Naturally, it was Clear Sight, who said, "Did you know you live in the same apartment I used to? What a coincidence!"

Illesio had a brief moment of entirely genuine and complete confusion before the memories of the past two days began to resurface. She sighed in relief.

"Phew, thought something out of the ordinary was happening," she said, before immediately adding, "On second thought, forget I said that sentence."

"No problem, happens to me all the time," said Clear Sight, "So let me catch you up to speed. The Bearers are going to meet us in the Tech Center in approximately half an hour, and since the RIT functioned properly, we're going to see what happens if we just don't hold the interview in the first place."

"This is surreal," replied Illesio, "I mean, it's like a time loop of some sort, but without the...the time? To be entirely honest, I think it would be much easier to just have a time loop instead of what nonsense we're going through."

Clear Sight frowned. "Yeah, I don't get it either...you would think more subtle changes would occur, but the butterfly effect seems to have taken the week off, I guess we're all just winging it at this point."

"Mmm-hmm," said Illesio, "but how are we supposed to get there within half an hour?"

"Don't even trip, bro," was the response, "remember this?"

He pulled the artificial unicorn horn out of nowhere again. "This is the Klaspmente, so named because of a failed hardware prototype, really, don't ask." He shuddered. "Nightmare fuel."

Illesio stared. "Amazing...how did you make this? This is incredible, this could easily change Equestria for the better..." She thought for a second, "Or worse. Most likely worse. Probably best to keep it hidden for now."

"Well, I thought I had come back from the future to give myself the idea, that seems to happen a lot, but like I said yesterday, I can't remember..." He scratched his chin habitually.

Illesio realized something stood out to her about this statement, and thought about what it could be for a minute. Meanwhile, Clear Sight prepped a teleportation spell, and explained, "Since I'm an earth pony by birth, the magic in the horn is completely artificial, and has a harder time recognizing its owner. Et cetera, other funny business, just link the horn directly to the brain through a wireless connection--"

"Wait, you already invented wireless? How come you don't use it already?"

"Well, because it's impractical so far, I mean, take a severely metered lightning spell and transform it into a form of data, then teleport the electrical values to a linked node elsewhere, it's pretty complicated, and only used for real expensive stuff so far," Clear Sight explained, just as the spell zapped them both directly into the Tech Center. Ponies were rushing around in a general hullabaloo, moving all their projects into adjacent, smaller rooms.

Res walked towards them. "Great, Clear Sight. I've been thinking, and why do we still need to drag Illesio into this?" he gestured at her.

"Because it lets a less experienced main character gradually introduce the audience into the backstory and lore of our current story, and also other reasons, so shut up about it," Clear Sight said, brushing past Res and fiddling with a machine behind him.

"No, heck you, why do you always have to make this about theater? You shut the hell up." Res scowled and stalked away through the hubbub.

Clear Sight turned to Illesio and smiled warmly. "He just thinks I'm trying to hook him up with you, he gets mad about that stuff."

"Are you?" Illesio eyed him warily.

"Absolutely, no doubt about it." He winked. "Thank me later."

And went back to his work.

Res eventually walked back over, having calmed down, and said, "Well, since you're here, you might as well help around. We've got to figure out what is up with Everypony Equestria Round, and whether they're influenced by magic, which by now is the best-case scenario, or just really sociopathic, which means we're extremely screwed."

"So," he continued, "Before the Bearers get here, we've got to clear the room and set up some divining functions. You know anything on the subject?"

Illesio nodded. "One of my assignments had to do with the, ah, authenticity of a...certain spell," she blushed, "I had to learn advanced divination for that project. But I bet this is going to be master-class level, isn't it?" she guessed.

Res looked slightly impressed. "Good, you do. As for the skill level, you're mostly correct. Yes, it is master class, but we use enchanted technology for our most complex divination spells, so really, only a basic knowledge of the needed magic is required." He raised an eyebrow. "Is it alright if I put you in charge of the divination group?"

"Uhh, sure, why not?" replied Illesio.

Res sighed, "Great. Go see Doc about what to do. Next on the list..." he walked quickly away, consulting a piece of paper.

Coranto stood for just a second while her brain yelled at itself.

WHOA DID YOU SEE THAT! You played it so cool with him! He's impressed, good job!

But he's way out of my league, and not even remotely interested in any mare he's ever seen, what chance do I stand?

No way!! You got a chance, don't say that! Just play it cool, keep it up, and one day you--

She snapped back to reality when she realized Doc was waving a hoof in front of her face.

"So sorry to bother you, but I was wondering, if you are quite alright?" he asked. "You seemed a little, well, confuddled at the moment."

Illesio shook her head. "No worries, I was just, just thinking to myself, that's all. Also, apparently I'm in charge of the divination team?"

Doc clapped his hooves together. "Ah, smashing! Perfect timing. I'd been over my ears in work, but with a little explanation, you'll do a bang-up job, mark my words."

He quickly began explaining how the divination technology functioned, which Illesio jotted down in shorthoof in her notes. Afterward, he introduced her to the Divination team, a group of one each of unicorn, pegasus, and earth pony.

"Everyone, this is Illesio," Doc said to the group, "Illesio, this is Crystal Mirror, Quick Quill, and Pinkie Pie." He then disappeared into the crowd, yelling a rushed "Sorry, but I've got a busy schedule!"

Illesio did a double take at the pink earth pony. "Pinkie Pie? Since when did you work for ALPHA? Don't you have a job at Sugarcube Corner in Ponyville?"

"Yep," Pinkie replied, "and since half an hour ago. I woke up feeling all funny and woozy," she punctuated these words with a kind of sadistic choreography, "and looked at the calendar and it said Monday instead of Saturday! How weird, right?"

She kept talking faster, with no sign of stopping.

"So I thought to myself, 'why in Equestria would the calendar be wrong?' Then I though maybe the calendar was right and I was wrong, and I went to see the only ponies I knew that would help me out, which were the ponies here at ALPHA, but by the time I got here, everyone was in such a biiig hurry to do something that I felt I just had to help them out! So they put me on this team, with Cryssie and Quickie," Illesio choked, "and now you! That just happened just now, actually!"

Crystal Mirror raised an eyebrow. "Turns out she's quite knowledgeable in our field. Who would have guessed?"

Quick Quill shivered, and whispered, "Why are her bones not broken? Bones don't do that...Brrrr..."

Illesio shrugged. "Not the strangest thing I've seen the last few days..."

--<>-------Meanwhile, at the same moment,-------<>--/

Clear Sight suddenly raised his head and swore.

"What?" said Res.

Clear Sight responded, "Two things. Doc?"

Doc appeared. "Yes?"

"Stop pronouncing it WRONG, Doc. S-C-H-E-D-U-L-E. I don't care what accent you have, as long as you pronounce some specific words correctly."

Doc nodded, quickly disappearing again.

"OK, so what's the other thing?" Res asked.

Clear Sight cleared his throat. "When the memory wiped days go on, these ponies do the same things over and over. But since it's not a time loop, things done in previous days, ones they can't remember, stay done." He looked terrified. "How do they not notice, like, lets say Mrs. Cake baked a cake, the next morning a cake she never remembered making would be on her counter. How, how, does this not change how the day progresses??" He put his head in his hooves. "Nothing makes any sense anymore, Res, I can't deal with it."

Res gave a sarcastic smile. "If there's anypony who can deal with nonsense, you're the one, Clear Sight. Now stop having an existential crisis and give me time to have one instead."

"Ok, fine." Clear Sight jumped up and grinned, and proceeded to console the now hysterical Res.

"I still don't get it though," he said.

--<>-------Exeunt.-------<>--/

Author's Note

Oh better far to live and die / under the brave black flag I fly / than play a sanctimonious part / with no propensity for the arts

The absolutely serious explanation for the last logic problem?
Literally just a plot hole. Find out what exactly that entails later.

3 hrs

Cheers from the redneckiest nerd you'll probably never see,
Betless