Do These Waffles Taste Funny to You?

Chapters

And You May Find Yourself in a Beautiful House...
Visiting Friends
The Rainbow Dash Show, Starring Rainbow Dash
The Last Sonic Fall Weather Party for the Century Clause 1,2,3
Parasprite
Over and Over (Friends Revisited)

And You May Find Yourself in a Beautiful House...

The thing about happily ever after is that they never quite say what you’re supposed to do when you get there. When one is chasing the future for so long, it’s easy to forget that someday it might be more than just a far-off fantasy. This was a realization that every pony had to decipher at some point.

This was the realization that Rainbow Dash had one morning, her breakfast fading from memory.

She shook her head, blinking the intrusions away until the waffles on her plate became real again, their warmth an anchor of comfort that reminded her to stay cool, collected, and ready for anything. Yet she could not help but look around and find her surroundings foreign, the solace of the food at odds with a house she had known for so long. The light pouring through the window, the kitchen filled with dirty silverware, these were details turned against her, everyday sights that could no longer be trusted.

At the end of the table was Applejack, investigating the day’s newspaper. For what, Rainbow Dash did not know. There were two types of ponies in Equestria, those who read the newspaper, and those who would much rather live in their own world for a while.

Rainbow Dash found herself returning to her waffles. They held but a single bite, the other squares untouched and unloved.

“Hey, Applejack?”

AJ dropped her newspaper and stared at her partner, ready for any possible question Rainbow Dash could begin to ask.

“Are we… boring?”

The farm pony held her gaze, unable to reply. Perhaps she had failed to consider the questions Rainbow Dash was capable of asking. “Now what in tarnation is making ya’ say that?”

Dash tensed, forgetting that she had to follow up on the things she said out loud. That was always the hard part. “Don’t get me wrong, my life is pretty awesome as is, but I don’t think I ever realized how… different things are now.”

The room grew smaller. Applejack could only do her best to decipher the hidden messages buried underneath, Dash’s statements the surface of a pit much deeper. “Rainbow, if it’s something with us—”

“No, of course not! This’ll never get old, ever. That’s a promise. I just… I didn’t think things would be so… slow.” She winced at the word, unable to think of a replacement. It represented everything she sought to avoid, but here she was, saying it right after she had gotten everything she wanted.

“Ain’t having too much fun with the Wonderbolts?”

“No. It… it isn’t that either.”

Applejack let the urge to demand an exact answer pass through her. She had been with Rainbow for too long to do such a thing. Problems like this were vague in nature, they took time and care, and she wanted to find that with as little obstacles as possible. This was the life they lived now, one of simplicity and understanding. To choose any other path would be to undo years of work that only looked to make them happy.

“Like I said, life is awesome… It’s that special kind of awesome. But everyone’s so far apart, so far apart…”

The sentence trailed off, Rainbow pausing as a second realization dawned upon her. With a single flick of thought, her face plummeted into the waffles, the only means of escape from the consequences of her words.

“Uh… Rainbow?”

“AJ… I think I miss the past.”

These words came out muffled, Dash’s breakfast acting as a pillow of smothering sympathy. However, the second the room grew silent, the ridiculousness of this washed over her in a wave of self-awareness, embarrassment setting in.

“Well now, nopony said that’s gotta be a bad thing sugarcube. It’s nostalgia. Ah reckon that all you need is something new and exciting, and you’ll be all back to normal.”

Rainbow did not budge. To lift her head would require her to acknowledge the possibility that nothingwas new and exciting, and she much rather preferred the shelter of the existential batter below.

“How about a trip? Or… or a race! Hay, we could go and do that right now! Just get your head out of the waffle, would ya’?”

With her pride swallowed, Rainbow faced Applejack directly, no longer interested in breakfast, or any food for that matter. Even in her confusion, there was still somepony sitting across from her. She was glad that somepony was Applejack.

“Thanks…” she said, stuttering. "I think it has to do with all of us being… being scattered, y’know? Yeah, we still see each other, but it’s… it’s different. It’s like we’ve…”

It’s like we’ve had all the fun that we can have. Even after years of blurting out her thoughts, she could not bring herself to say this. She wasn’t even sure if it was true. She didn’t wantit to be true. That was the best part about having friends, right? There were always new ways to fall in love with them. The weight of shared memories worked to make everything more meaningful.

Except new experiences could only be new if they were different, and Rainbow Dash didn’t want different. Except she did. But that was the olddifferent, forever locked away in the past. She wanted the new old different and thinking about that for more than thirty seconds revealed it as an impossible paradox that could never exist in any shape or form.

The waffles were beginning to seem nice again, but their sogginess offered little protection in the face of a dilemma still growing.

“And I feel the same way sometimes Dash. But I grew up with a scattered family, and that only ever made us stronger, ‘cus we always knew we were there for each other, even when separated.”

Rainbow Dash finally met Applejack’s eyes. The care, the affection manifested so early in the morning, it was genuine in the truest sense of the word, present in the smallest detail.

“Both of us are still here sugarcube. Let’s give one another a helping hoof, alright?”

“…Yeah. Alright. That… that would be great.”

Despite the offer, Dash couldn’t shake the feeling that she was attacking the very foundation they had built together. No Applejack, I’m not satisfied. That’s what it sounded like. No Applejack, you haven’t made me happy.

Panic was setting in and her breakfast could no longer solve anything.

“I’m going to fly around for a bit,” she said, moving away from the table. “To gather my thoughts and all that. But when I get back, you still owe me that race, alright?”

“Darn tootin’ I do.”

Rainbow Dash went through the door, taking flight the second the roof vanished over her head.

Applejack watched her go, locked in place long after her partner disappeared. Whatever interest she had in reading the newspaper was gone.

Visiting Friends

Rainbow Dash darted between the clouds, searching for the clarity of a bright blue sky. With each flap of her wings, she found this more and more difficult.

Flying. There was something that never changed. Even if she couldn’t escape her thoughts, she could at least bring them to where they didn’t matter. Up beneath the sunlight, the world was hers, and the destinations were endless.

Except aimlessness and silence could not coexist, and her surroundings faded under the volume of her guilt.

Was she having a midlife crisis?

Her wings began to move faster, a second jolt of panic turning the wind into an unfamiliar obstacle that allowed for no corrections.

Yet the idea still remained.

A midlife crisis. That doesn’t happen to happy ponies. That doesn’t happen to Rainbow Dash.

If she couldn’t keep it together, who could? If every day wasn’t a spectacular event full of wonder, what was the point? Even her vanity was fading. Where were the smug retorts that could sweep this all to the side? Could you even be smug to your own existential hysteria? The questions tied together to create one mess of a pony, their burden ready to drag her straight into the ground.

She needed friends. She didn’t know the implications of choosing somepony other than Applejack, but she needed a face that she wasn’t waking up with each morning. If she was going to address this problem, this is where she had to start.

Twilight was an easy no. As much as Rainbow missed her, she was the ruler of Equestria, and free time was sparse. The last thing Twilight needed was a new stressor.

The same idea applied for Rarity. She wasn’t a princess, but it was easy to be convinced otherwise. As appealing as a detailed discussion with the two sounded, chances are they were probably attending fancy sophisticated gatherings, both getting new experiences delivered on a silver platter.

Rainbow wondered if they felt the same way about her. She wondered if they even thought about her in the first place. It felt selfish to want to be on someone’s mind.

That left Pinkie and Fluttershy. Could they even relate? Pinkie seemed eternally happy and Dash was sure that Fluttershy had found her peace long ago. Besides, Pinkie was raising a child, which was pretty much as intense as ruling a kingdom.

No wonder things are the way they are.

Fluttershy. That was the only logical answer. When you know someone for so long, their mere presence is enough to remind you that things are good, and that they may never have been bad in the first place. Plus, she didn’t have a kid, unless her and Discord had discovered some accursed new system of magic.

Rainbow Dash shook her head and changed course. In an active world, Fluttershy had remained in place, her cottage an eternal structure of peace. Rainbow could fly there blindfolded.

When she arrived, she stood at the hill, half-expecting the entire place to be transformed, Discord’s interior design skills unleashed and out of control. However, one quick examination revealed it to be the same. If there was one thing that wasn’t in place, it was the multi-colored pony standing before it. She couldn’t decipher if the problems were getting deeper or already on their way out.

All she could do was knock on the door.

Her hoof collided with the wood, the sound of her own actions shaking her once again, each echo a reminder to why she had come here in the first place. Moments later, the door opened.

“…Hello?” asked a gentle voice, Fluttershy freezing in place as her friend came into full view. “Oh! Oh my goodness, Rainbow Dash!”

Rainbow gave a false smirk and fixed her posture to emulate expectations, the lie attempting to fool not only Fluttershy, but the pony telling it as well. “Thought I’d drop by,” she said, skipping over the half an hour of thought that went into this. “Had to see what was going on with my old pal Fluttershy!”

“How wonderful!” Before any more remarks could be made, Fluttershy turned back to her cottage and took a few steps inward. “Discord! Guess who’s here!”

Discord. Right. How could I forget.

Rainbow Dash tried her best to not let her smile slip, still uncertain if the draconequus was included in her picture of the past. She supposed she had known him as a friend longer than she had as an enemy, or even as a statue, and that counted for something.

From the side, a potted plant was soon replaced with a head, Discord taking form to inspect the arriving guest. “Ah, well if it isn’t my good friend Rainbow Dash, how wonderful! Truly a pleasure to see you, yes, quite certainly.” Discord pulled himself from the dirt and moved next to Fluttershy, wiping the clumps of ground off him with one quick swoop.

It was then that Rainbow Dash noticed a slight change in his demeanor, one invisible to anypony who wasn’t looking. Despite being an immortal being, Discord looked… older.

Be careful Dash. You only have space for one midlife crisis. Can’t go adding Discord’s on top of that before you even figure out anything for yourself. Besides, he has all the time in the world to figure it out. He always does.

“Good to see you too Discord!” she blurted out, increasingly aware of how forced this was. “Don’t go thinking that I forgot about you!”

Fluttershy beamed, waving Rainbow along. “Why don’t we all go inside? We can all catch-up over some tea.”

The three of them moved inside. Before they could take a seat at the table, Fluttershy stopped in place, remembering a small detail erased by the new arrival. “Oh, let me take care of one tiny thing, and then I’ll make the tea, okay? I won’t be long, I promise.”

With that, Fluttershy vanished into another room, leaving Rainbow Dash alone with Discord in a room that felt much tinier than she remembered. They stared at each other, waiting in silence. Somewhere across the cottage, a door closed again.

Rainbow Dash went to speak, but Discord had already sprung to life, peering in with a knowing leer.

“Now is it just weary old me,” he said, narrowing his eyes, “or is something not quite right with my good friend Rainbow Dash?”

Whatever defense Rainbow was ready to give was lost, her feigned stature growing weak. “I don’t know what you’re... what you’re...”

Without even changing his expression, the assertion had already fallen apart.

“…How did you know?”

A snap of the fingers dropped Dash into a lounge chair, Discord sitting across from her with a pencil, a notebook, and glasses. “Please, it wasn’t difficult. Oh, good to see you too Discord! Don’t go thinking that I forgot about you! Did you expect me to believe that?”

“Hey, I meant it!”

“I’m sure you did, but tell me, when have we ever talked like that?”

Rainbow Dash was ready to make a thousand more arguments, but the truth was out, and Discord could deflect every single one. Besides, they only had so long before Fluttershy returned.

“Tell me,” he said, scribbling some notes despite having no new information, “what so ever is the matter?”

“I missed Fluttershy. That’s all.”

“A valid reason as any, but I have a feeling there’s more to it than just that. Could it be that a certain somepony is just not treating you right?” Discord held up his notepad to reveal a crude drawing of Applejack, her hat far bigger than her face.

“No! That’s not—” Rainbow Dash looked in disbelief at the drawing, the farm pony holding a great big smile. “That isn’t any of your business anyway!”

“Oh, but it is! Friends look after one another, do they not?”

Another comment that couldn’t be fought. At the end of the day, Discord was someone she had known for most of her life, and they had been through a lot together, even if not all of that was as pleasant as they wished it to be.

“Could it be that the great Rainbow Dash has found her life is no longer what it once was?”

On the other side of the room, the great Rainbow Dash turned pale. Discord’s ability to unravel minds was something that kept her up at night, even after he was reformed.

“Trust me, I know the feeling. When did it happen for you?”

“Uh…”

“For me it was when we were playing board games. But you know what?” A box appeared in Discord’s paw, and he drew it close, cradling the memory. “I realized that I didn’t mind one bit. I was happy. Can you believe that? It was quitewonderful, and I can only wish you the same feeling.”

“I was eating breakfast.”

“Excuse me?”

“I was… eating breakfast with Applejack and I couldn’t recognize… anything.”

“Well now we’re getting somewhere!” With another snap, the board game vanished and a chart materialized between them, one-word descriptions scattered around a detailed diagram of Rainbow Dash. “Hm, yes… This does seem like a very ‘you’ type problem… In fact, I’m surprised that it hasn’t happened earlier.”

“Discord, this is serious!” Dash tensed at the sound of her own raised voice, afraid Fluttershy might hear. She wasn’t sure why exactly, but her emotional turmoil was not something that had to be brought up so soon. What was taking Fluttershy so long anyway?

“It is serious! It’s very serious! And that’s why you’ve enlisted the best person for the job! Who better to spice things up a bit than Discord, hmm?”

“I’m not sure you can help,” said Dash, grumbling. She wasn’t sure anyone could help, but she was going to keep that part to herself.

“Watch me.”

Before Rainbow Dash could react, Discord snapped his fingers once more, and together they vanished.

The Rainbow Dash Show, Starring Rainbow Dash

When Rainbow Dash opened her eyes, she discovered that the coziness of the cottage was long gone, Fluttershy and her animals nowhere to be seen. Instead, she found herself outside of not just the building, but physicality altogether. She was floating as a ghost, unable to decipher any understanding of what was in front of her.

Past experiences faded into one another, each one regressing further into the past. Rainbow Dash’s life moved backward, the specifics becoming looser and their clarity wavering. A life with Applejack swirled into times spent with the Wonderbolts, both giving way for adventures, hijinks, and most importantly, time spent with friends, friends who were plentiful and always a few seconds away.

Soon she found herself at the beginning, not the beginning of life, but rather the days that would define everything after, the moments that shaped existence when no one was paying attention. These played out all at once, the specifics strong even in their age.

Rainbow Dash glanced to the side and saw Discord in a sofa, popcorn in hand, 3D glasses on. “Watch closely,” he said, pointing at the collection of recurring events, “this part always makes me laugh.”

On cue, a tired Applejack landed on a catapult, launching a younger Rainbow Dash far into the sky. Before the older Rainbow Dash could get angry at Discord for mocking her, she held her words, and soon realized that she too found this funny.

Then she remembered that Discord had plucked her out of reality without her permission, zero questions asked. The moment she opened her mouth to complain about this minor detail, a second cushion appeared beneath her, trapping the pony in its soft fabric.

“Enjoying the show?” Discord turned, extending his snack box in her direction. “Care for some popcorn?”

“What… what in the hay is going on right now?”

“Is this not what you wanted? Fantastic performance by the way, oh, this part just makes me sob every time!”

In front of them, six friends hugged one another, all having realized that they shared a common origin destined to bring them together. Despite Discord’s obvious sarcasm, Rainbow Dash found herself wanting to cry, the memory undiminishable in its specialness. She pulled the tears back in, removing herself from the scene present. “Take me back Discord. This isn’t funny. At all.”

“Funny? You have me all wrong! This is quite serious. What better way to relearn oneself than through precious, precious memories?”

On screen, six ponies were now floating in the air, the elements of harmony ready to defeat a draconequus on a throne.

“Why don’t we skip this part,” said Discord, the scene fast-forwarding with the flick of a paw.

“This isn’t going to help. It just makes me miss it more and you know that.”

“Then whatsoever are you looking for?”

“I don’t know. I’m probably making a big deal over nothing, like I always do.”

“And this is something that you really believe?”

No response.

“This is the rest of your life we’re talking about. If you’re going to call that nothing then I think there is much cause for concern.”

The rest of your life. Discord’s attempts to help were backfiring in more ways than one.

Rainbow Dash once again did her best to conceal her cracking ego, the whimpers passing in waves. “I just… Look at us Discord! There’s so much… future! Now that’s… It’s all behind us.”

“And you wish to experience that again?”

“I thought I was going to feel the same way my entire life. But now when I look at myself, I know that I’m different… and I feel like a big phony. I wouldn’t even want to change anything. I only want to experience it over and over. Over and over.”

The chairs vanished.

With one look around the room, Rainbow Dash realized she was alone.

“Discord!” she yelled, shaking, “I told you, this isn’t funny!” The whimpers were already revealing themselves beneath her voice, each one working to empty her spirits a little more.

From all around, Discord’s voice rang out, no mouth present to carry it. “I have to say, you might be missing something rather important.”

As he spoke, Dash found herself staring straight ahead, colors overwhelming her. It was there that she found herself running with Applejack, autumn leaves spinning around them.

The scene called her forward. She leaned in, the memory reshaping and rearranging the closer she got.

“Make sure you appreciate it while you can,” said Discord, “It doesn’t last forever.”

His voice was already distant and forgotten. Rainbow Dash stepped into the race and hit the ground running, never looking back.

The Last Sonic Fall Weather Party for the Century Clause 1,2,3

Except in this transfer of worlds, Rainbow Dash could not keep momentum, and she soon dropped into the dirt, the taste of soil overwhelming her taste buds.

“Whoa there partner, are you alright?”

Rainbow Dash lifted her head from the trail, blinking until the sunlight no longer blinded her.

Above her, outlined in the glow of a soft autumn afternoon, was Applejack. Whatever signs of age she held were gone. Instead, she looked strong and resilient, a certain type of snark brightening her face. “Guess the day is finally catching up to you there, Rainbow Dash. We don’t have t’keep it up anymore if y’don’t want to.”

I’m dead, thought Rainbow, a weight setting on her soul. Sweet Celestia, Discord killed me.

“…Something wrong?” Applejack began to blush, Dash’s stare unrelenting and intensely focused. “…Yer’ looking at me all funny.”

How did this go again?

“Just admiring the view.”

Applejack’s blush deepened. Her eyes darted left and right, but there was no escaping what had been said, and her surprise could not be hidden.

Is that what I said? That doesn’t feel like what I said.

“You’re, err, awfully polite today… Rainbow Dash.”

“You know me, I just call it like I see it.”

“…Is that so? Well, two can play at that game.”

What is going on.

Despite the confusion, despite the grand, paralyzing absurdity thrust upon her, Dash let the stream run its course, history replaying without any consideration for accuracy. It didn’t matter who said what, or if things happened earlier or later, moments were being relived, and Dash could now love what she had not known as fleeting. A wish for permanence no longer deceived.

A helping hoof was extended and the two ponies met each other standing up. Even with her embarrassment, Applejack was grinning.

Then Rainbow Dash hugged her and the feeling returned five times worse.

“Rainbow! Now what in tarnation has gotten into you?”

“Thank you…” she said, tightening her grip, “Thank you for today. All of it.”

They stood in silence, the duo divided at the opposite ends of puzzlement. As the words set in, Applejack returned the hug, shedding her reluctance in favor of shared feeling and silent acknowledgment, truths left unspoken.

“Ah’d sure like to keep goin’, but we better mosy back on over to the barn if we want to be there in time for Pinkie.”

Rainbow Dash broke from Applejack and took a few steps back, hoping to find her comprehension along the way. “…Huh?”

“Y’know, for the surprise party? You didn’t go on forgetting now… did you?”

“Oh I… I thought that was later. My bad.”

Without saying anymore on the matter, Applejack began to lead the way, the two returning the way in which they came. Dash followed, unable to think of any questions that the world around her would be able to answer. Every time doubt creeped in, she looked ahead and saw the pony she was set to spend her life with, the nostalgic bliss powerful enough to launch her above the clouds.

She didn’t know how long it would last, but Discord had given her an antidote, and she was going to value every last drop. She was going to look around at colors so bright and tell herself how beautiful it was, and she was going to repeat it until she knew it to be true. It was beautiful, it was beautiful, it was beautiful.

Time progressed without consistency. Rainbow Dash’s surroundings were an extension of what she remembered and what she wished to remember. The highlights were sequenced in succession, the mundanity of the in-between wiped away in favor of endless celebration, misadventures that always wrapped up right when they should. The days went by in seconds, but their laughter could not be constrained to linear understanding. Together they travelled far into the future only to wind up right where they started. It mattered little. Each repetition was welcomed, and Rainbow Dash had nothing to change.

Yet she couldn’t shake the feeling that it was all going to end a second time.

A certain surprise party had just begun anew, and as far as Dash could tell, that first autumn run with Applejack had occurred only minutes ago. Except this time, she smiled less and her heart was heavier, an undeniable sadness intruding on every joke and every comment.

Despite this, she still loved her friends, and that was almost powerful enough to last into infinity.

Pinkie was leading the conga line through the barn and together they passed the side entrance. It was there that Rainbow Dash first saw something too unignorable to deny as a mistake.

Outside was a single parasprite, alone in a field. It hovered in place and followed Rainbow Dash, unblinking as it bobbed up and down, detached from the rest of the world. With it in view, the rapture of the party silenced and she had no choice but to acknowledge the anomaly more distinct than any of its surroundings.

“Everything alright there?”

Applejack stepped forward from behind, taking Rainbow’s side. If there was any dancing left in the barn, Rainbow could not hear it.

“I’m… I’m not sure. Do you see that?”

She pointed straight ahead, extending a hoof directly towards the parasprite. How else was she supposed to answer the question? Did she respond to the old Applejack, or the one she had spent so many years growing old with? Speaking of which, where even was that Applejack?

“…See what now, exactly?”

Applejack gave Rainbow Dash the exact expression anypony would give if asked to stare at an object that wasn’t there. Yet the concern was restrained and understanding, their relationship growing in ways they had never expected. A domino effect of changing lives had pulled them together into the sparks of a bright future, their path uncertain but their destination clear. Except this was something Rainbow Dash knew already, and the look only reminded her of all that had yet to happen.

Before she could respond, everything was gone, and her explanations were meaningless. There was always the comfort that it would all come back around a third time, but Dash was getting less and less sure, fear setting in.

But this is good, she thought, lost without location, as long as I stay here, I know there’s something to rely on. That’s what I need. Something to rely on. None of it has to change.

But if that was true, why did everything feel so different?

She landed on a hill. Her friends stood beside her, the familiar details of the present returning. Her hand was on Applejack’s shoulder and in the distance a young student was gazing at them, her potential unrealized.

Was this where everything went wrong?

As if the image meant to respond, this scene was wiped away, the colors melting into unison, the world drained into the recesses of Dash’s consciousness.

Instead, she found herself at an exam, a red F planted at the top of her paper. It shimmered only the light, waiting to change at any moment.

No, this isn’t it either.

The grade corrected itself, transforming into a perfect score. The last thing Rainbow wanted to do was convince herself that achieving a dream was the basis for regret.

Did she regret anything in the first place?

Before an answer could be ignored, an eruption of arguments filled her surroundings, bitter voices at odds with one another. The closer she listened, the more she recognized. Friends and family stood out against the rest, each line a great mistake waiting to be rewritten. The illusion of memory could no longer deceive. Each fight was real and distraction offered no exit. Everyone she had ever met was in front of her ready to remind her that mistakes were possible.

But the question still remained.

Did she regret anything in the first place?

Maybe right after they happened. Sometimes the frustration lasted months, the same feeling returning every night when she was alone with her thoughts and all too aware of who she was. But regretting the same moment twice was a waste of growth and ruminating on days turned sour only brought down future joy with it.

It was Applejack who taught her that. An older Applejack who knew her more the slower things got.

In a frenzy of yelling and screaming, Rainbow Dash had come full circle and once again could not understand what she was doing. All she knew was that the second she got out of here, she was going to kill Discord. Chaos was supposed to be dancing animals and sporadic prop usage, not intense life reflection.

As if to spite her, the scenery snapped into place, an invisible floor slipping beneath her hooves. Rainbow Dash dropped through the clouds, unable to stretch her wings in the way she once knew.

Below, Rarity was plummeting, two Wonderbolts at her side. The ground was rising, ready to snatch them both, their survival an issue of no consideration. The faster Dash tried to move the more she fell apart, the inner machinations of her body rusty and rigid. Out of all the horrors bombarding her at every moment, this was the final culmination of them all, the greatest reminder that she was no longer the mare she once knew, the one she loved so much. Rarity was going to fall and there was nothing she could do about it.

Rainbow Dash shut her eyes and let the wind take her.

It was nice to surrender.

Parasprite

Dying was a lot less complicated than Rainbow Dash initially expected. For one, there was no pain. The ground never came and she soared on forever, the sensation of dread carrying her past the realm of impact. She always claimed that there was no afterlife and had always hoped to be proven wrong, but with her eyes still closed, no evidence could confirm or deny the illusion of existence.

Rainbow Dash was beginning to suspect that she hadn’t even died in the first place.

Right, she thought, the sensation of wind fading, Discord isn’t going to let me die. He wouldn’t do that. This isn’t some wacky bizarro long con chaos scheme. He loves Fluttershy too much, right?

Maybe he was having his own infinity of a life crisis and she was just caught in the fire. It would explain the aging he had caused for himself. The validity of the idea held no weight against his declarations of love, but who knew what anypony or draconequus thought at this point.

We’re all going through it together. Remembering this comment made Dash sharply aware of an inescapable stupidity that had trailed behind her each step of the way. She felt dumber than ever and that was a feat that rivaled any stunt she had pulled with the Wonderbolts, the competition fierce. How could she assume that any of her friends didn’t go to bed with the same exact nightmares? It was a move of ignorance innate to her and yet it was the same principle locking them away from one another. They were in their separate boxes unable to solve a problem so familiar because the fine details drew the distance further and further. Maybe all they had to do was reunite and use the Elements of Harmony, but those were gone and forgotten. How fitting.

Unable to find her peace, Rainbow opened her eyes. Like everything else in life, she had gone back to where she started. The distractions diluted anything familiar, the shapes losing color when no one was paying attention. What was left was a hollow copy, already faded before it could be remembered.

Ponyville was standing before her, its foundation undefined and its structures fuzzier than any previous memory witnessed. When Rainbow moved forward, the ground moved with her, buildings and scenery correcting themselves with each step.

No matter where she looked, the streets remained empty. It was hard to tell if it was even Ponyville to begin with. The echoes were obvious, but each familiarity only made it more foreign, the translation written in imperfect script. Nothing could be forced into place. Even the recent interactions of yesterday could not withstand the walls of withering static, locations expanding without logic or coherence.

Rainbow Dash entered a courtyard, unable to differentiate left from right.

Despite it all, Equestria remained.

Don’t panic. This is still just some messed up prank. You’re gonna wake up and you’re gonna be totally cool and the lesson will be learned and you’ll enjoy the rest of your life as it should be because otherwise you’ll end up back here and who wants that and who wants anything and who

In the center of the false city was a toy. Its colors stood solidified; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet lined up against one another in defiance of their surroundings.

Rainbow Dash was staring at a miniature version of herself, two ponies alone together in a world that could not hold them.

She wanted to break it into a million pieces.

“Amazing, isn’t it?”

A gentle voice broke the silence, the sound flooding all that could be seen. Before Rainbow Dash could turn, the speaker revealed themselves, their body floating separate from the rest of the blur.

In front of her was a green parasprite bobbing up and down above the toy, its eyes unblinking and its smile deceiving.

“Even in a world so peculiar, here you are, existing all the same.”

Words were forgotten and Rainbow Dash could not bring forth any feasible feeling. She stood in place, only remembering the comments she was supposed to be making, the ones that no longer matched her own volition. She was left with one response.

“You have gotto be kidding me.”

“And whatever might there be to kid about? I was under the impression that this was a grave subject of serious proportions.”

“Well I thought so too! But now there’s a talking parasprite right in front of me and I don’t even know what in the hay to think! I know I should have expected this with Discord but—”

“This is not of Discord’s design.”

Once again words left her, but this time there was no point in repeating her remaining comment; her face said it all.

“I am indeed a friend,” said the parasprite, its voice holding the same tone through every syllable, “but I have decided to flip his script just a bit. With your help of course.”

“…I think I’m getting a headache.”

“Come, Rainbow. Take a walk with me.”

As the parasprite began to move away from the toy, Rainbow Dash found that she had no choice but to follow. Maybe it was the sensation of grand design, or the mistakes of the past pushing her along, but she was going to find her answers, even if it came in the form of… whatever this was. She had held herself back for far too long to stop and sneer at the ridiculous.

“Now Rainbow, when you look around this place, what do you see?”

“Ponyville.” The answer came out as a mumble, her eyes struggling not to roll at the obvious.

“And whose Ponyville is that, exactly?”

Before Rainbow Dash could dismiss the pointless question with one word, her surroundings began to change, and her response was no longer certain. The reliable familiarities of the passing houses revealed themselves as mere tricks of the light. The ground was upside down and the buildings were inside out, Dash’s inspection exposing her imposed mimicries as an effort of delusion. The truth was in the spotlight and it could not be hidden.

“It’s a fascinating feature for this place, Rainbow Dash. What you perceive is exactlywhat you see.”

Tell me something I don’t know. Another comment held back. It was too easy to be herself.

“Everything you have witnessed here is a product of your own interpretation of all that had come before! Your thoughts are fluid and the past is only what you’ve written it as! Perhaps Discord expected you to utilize your desires differently, but who can ever be certain about anything until it is shown to us?”

Rainbow Dash nodded, desperate to understand a bundle of words so incomprehensible.

“This is why I came to offer interference. You draw yourself to the past and yet here we are in the future! One in the same!”

“Alright, alright, slow down, you’re going to have to walk me through this.”

“Thank goodness we’re already walking.”

Dash gave a small, forced chuckle, half-worried she would be smitten without hesitation if she did otherwise.

“Now here’s a question: what’s the one thing that we can guarantee about the far future?”

“That… Equestria will still be around, I hope.”

“Ah, but who’s to say, who’s to say? An admirable answer, but the only thing we can guarantee about the future is that we won’t get to see it!”

“And this is supposed to make me feel better?”

“It’s supposed to make you feel how you feel. I have not arrived to tell you that you’re wrong to have these problems in the first place. I’m here to talk, and talking is an awfully important thing is it not?”

“…Sure, let’s go with that.”

“It seems that your primary concern is that tomorrow will never match up to yesterday.”

A sharp pain wrapped its way around Rainbow Dash, the direct acknowledgment holding a special awfulness when removed from her own mind.

“Truly a cruel thing. We pay for wonder and happiness by having it become a means for comparison.”

The parasprite stopped without warning, forcing Dash to hold onto this statement for far longer than she wanted to. In front of them, separate screens began to spread themselves out across the landscape. There were nine in total, all of them condensing the scenes Dash had relived into separate periods of her life. Some moments were better than others, but as each memento continued, they melted into one single idea, one single truth that could not be reconstructed or rewritten.

Rainbow Dash saw her life and she saw that it was good. She saw that there was so much she had forgotten to love, so much she had failed to appreciate just because she had claimed her heart to feel otherwise.

Yet even with all of this, there was still joy.

And how could there not be? She saw the greatest friends she could have ever received, and she saw that they had cared in a way that could overflow into several lifetimes, even when she did her best to convince them she didn’t deserve it. There were so many mistakes, but with friends like these, they held no weight. What they shared triumphed every time. These were the victories she could rely on.

She wanted to rush forward and hug all of them. She wanted to admit to her tears and feel no shame in doing so.

Then she remembered that they weren’t in front of her, and the cycle began all over again.

Except that’s okay. You’ll see them again! You’ll see them again and it will be even more meaningful because of the absence. Nothing is ever really gone. It was Applejack who told you that, wasn’t it?

Maybe the cycle wasn’t as concrete as she may have expected.

“So is that what you’re here to tell me?” She broke from the screens, turning towards the Parasprite. She was unsure how long she had been lost in thought. “That I should get over the past and be thankful for where I’m at? Listen, I appreciate this, but it all seems a bit… simple. Too simple.”

“If that is your interpretation, then it shall be as so.”

“Hey, I’m trying my best here.”

“What you have said can have meaning, but you’re right. It’s simple. Too simple. I’m sure you’ve heard it many times over, the words going through one ear out the other. A fascinating thing really. When such advice becomes repeated, it becomes almost meaningless.”

“I mean, I get it, I like to live in the moment, but…”

“I think the big mistake here is that you’ve interpreted it as the idea that you should ‘get over’ the past. Take a look in front of you again. You miss these experiences dearly, but are they not also showing you how good things can be?”

“But it’s not the same. It just feels like a replacement. Yeah, things couldbe that good, but they aren’t.”

“Then it shall be as so.”

Rainbow Dash returned to the Parasprite, ready to sneer. “Thought you were supposed to be helping me.”

“Once again, I am here to talk. If you consider what I say helpful, then I am glad. But I am impartial to its effect.”

“…I’m sorry. I’m not too great at this, uh, self-reflection thing.”

“That’s because there’s no switch to flick Rainbow Dash. You can look at the future and see that you’ve remained, that you’ve become a great story among many, but this doesn’t change the fact that you won’t be around to witness it. It’s as I said before. What happens next is beyond us, but this moment exists, and that will always be true for now. Everything in front of you, everything surrounding us, they are nothing but tools for understanding.”

Gears turned in Rainbow’s brain, their rust cracking through a sheer force of will. Get over the past. Be thankful for where you’re at. This was what they tried to reinterpret. Maybe she had it all wrong. Maybe this was what she had been trying to force every morning, every night. The principle could remain, but there no longer had to be a perfect formula for stealing yesterday into the present. If she didn’t figure it out now, that was okay. She was starting to wonder if she would ever figure it out.

“The only fact that remains is that you’re going to have to fall in love over and over again. These were the words once spoken to me.”

A chill swept its way over Rainbow Dash. Over and over again. A simple phrase. One she had heard many times.

“A curse to some, a blessing to others, but it’s how it must be. Do you think you’re up to the task? Be careful about responding out loud. I believe that you already know the answer.”

Dash peeked at the screen, her head turning slightly. The dividing lines had faded, each section joining the other into a giant collage of all that had happened.

You’re going to have to fall in love over and over again. Over and over again. Over and over again.

Do you think you’re up to the task?

The gears stopped in place.

Nothing had changed and she was left in the same exact place she was at the beginning. If this bothered her, she could not tell. What had been said was said, and what she took from this was yet to be proven.

“I believe that our time is drawing to a close Rainbow Dash. I’m sorry if I’ve only spoken the familiar, but thank you for this chance to be able to do so in the first place.”

Next to her, the parasprite was already fading into the future, its colors receding into the background.

“Wait, what?”

“I must go now Rainbow Dash. Thank you for sharing this moment with me.”

“But… I don’t… What even are you? What even is anyof this?”

“I’m the same as everything else in this place. I am the conversation you were seeking in the midst of all that you could reexperience. Thank you for sharing this moment with me.”

Before she could demand any more answers, the parasprite popped out of existence, along with the rest of Equestria. In a brief second of consciousness, all that remained was a single toy, its colors reflecting against an endless void of potential.

Then that too was gone, leaving Rainbow Dash with nothing but the words ringing in her ears.

It was the one thing she could carry with her.

Over and Over (Friends Revisited)

The thing about staring blankly at a wall is that you never quite realize what’s going on until it’s over.

Rainbow Dash broke from her trance, free from all anxieties if only for a moment. She traced the corners of the room, shocked to find Fluttershy’s cottage before her without any changes. The only difference was an orange farmpony, one who had taken Discord’s place across the floor.

“…Dash?” she asked, returning from her own daze at the slightest of movements. “You there?”

“I… I think so… I don’t…”

What was there to explain? Everything that had happened was as equally incomprehensible to herself as it would be to Applejack. At least she hoped so. Previous notions of AJ’s wisdom were waiting to be disproven every time they spoke.

“Discord said it would take a couple of hours.”

Discord. Before any frustration could develop, a second question replaced the old one, stumping her in its deviance of everything she could rely on.

What was there to be mad about?

Rainbow Dash changed course, switching to simplicity without any hesitation. “Did you say hours?”

Dash was not a pony of math, but something did not seem right. Except she wasn’t exactly sure if her time spent away had been longer or shorter, so she was once again left in an impossibility she would much rather ignore.

“Dash… You’ve been staring at that wall all day.”

They went quiet. Perhaps Dash’s flight had taken a little longer than she had initially anticipated. “…Still owe me that race though,” she said, shooting a smile at her partner, a bold effort in the face of a lie too apparent. Applejack was unamused, her disappointment brought forth at an instant.

“I was worried sick.”

A guilt entered both ponies, their heads dropping to the floor. It was the earliest of signs acknowledging that things weren’t quite right, and that if they were ever going to recover, they’d have to keep on acknowledging it until the tragic truth was all out in the open.

“I’m sorry.”

In that brief second, Rainbow Dash was afraid that there’d be nothing more, that she’d apologize and that Applejack would say nothing and that they’d ride out the rest of their lives never acknowledging this brief blip in their world of happiness.

But then she kept talking, unable to let this happen.

“I know, I know, that doesn’t cut it. I ran out on you and lied when all we had to do was talk.”

“Dash—”

“But I’m not letting that happen anymore, alright? You hear me? You said that we were going to give each other a helping hoof and that’s how it’s gonna be. Because I don’t want to do this on my own, and as much as it hurts to say, I don’t think I cando this on my own in the first place, but that’s alright, because you’re here, and—”

“Dash—”

“And there’s so much left for us to do! And I want to do that with you! ‘Cus… ‘cus you’re so smartand you know who you are and you’re like, one of the coolest ponies I know, and I’m marriedto you and I can’t even begin to describe how awesome that is, so it’s like, why cause problems? Why try to ruin something so perfect? So great? I know that I can lose track sometimes but I can’t… I can’t—”

“Dash!”

Rainbow Dash froze, her cheeks reddening as she registered all three calls at once.

“Ah ain’t mad for pete’s sake!” Applejack crossed the room, taking a seat right next to the pony she called her wife. “How could I be mad? No one said it had to be perfect all the time sugarcube. And you’re right, we aregonna give each other a helpin’ hoof, but that won’t happen if we start getting angry at one another for feeling things. That just ain’t the Apple way. I’m not going to let you get kicked down into the dirt so easily.”

The two of them had returned to yesterday’s staring match, the next 50 pages of Rainbow’s apology rant thrown into the garbage without warning.

“…Ah do wish we got the chance to talk about it some more before you ran off though.”

Without any warning, Rainbow Dash pulled Applejack into a hug, locking onto her until she felt real again. Her eyes watered, the buildup starting.

“You won’t believe the story I have to tell you.”

“Can’t wait to hear it.” Applejack returned the hug, taking Rainbow in with full force. Even in their expressions of affection, they were trying to outdo each other in an endless strive for perfection.

“Thank you for this.” Rainbow thought back to that autumn afternoon that all of this began, and despite everything, she remembered it for exactly as it was, perfect through and through. “Thank you for today. And yesterday. And all the days before that. And for everything that’s going to happen next. I’m so ready for all of it.”

Whatever surprise Applejack felt from Rainbow’s prose meant nothing in the face of the new moment created before them. It rivaled everything that had come before and carried a piece of each other memory with it, the best parts wrapped into a bundle so sweet and perfect. Instead of speaking, she sank into everything she could feel, lost in the indescribable emotion that came from having a friend to share this with, a friend who had become so much more.

When the time felt right, she once again opened her mouth. “…Y’know, you might want to take a quick walk over to the farm,” said Applejack, her whisper ecstatic at what she already knew to be inevitable.

Rainbow Dash knew not to ask questions. With their embrace gone and tucked away deep into her identity, she followed Applejack out the door and tried her best not to overwhelm herself with expectations. However, nothing that she came up with could match what was waiting for her at their destination.

Standing behind a row of games and treats were four ponies, a dragon, and a draconequus, each with their own distinct smiles.

“Surprise!” yelled Pinkie, hopping to the skies in a burst of celebration.

Dash stood across from them, unable to move. She failed to think of any action that could properly match the sight before her. Something in her wanted to stare at her friends and draw the moment out forever, but somewhere, someplace, a parasprite was shaking their head.

She knew she would see them again.

But never like this.

“I came as soon as I heard something was wrong!” said Rarity. “Pinkie told me you were desperately in need of a party and I simply had to oblige.”

To her right was Twilight, towering over her friends with her crown shining in the sunlight. “Dash, when I said that we’d meet once a year, I wasn’t implying that we couldn’t meet outside of that at any point!”

“Yeah, think about how boring that’d be!” Pinkie was still ecstatic, carrying her momentum up and down around in a circle. “No friends? No parties? You think I could let that happen?!”

In the spectacle of radiance, Rainbow Dash knew that she could not lose track of what she intended to do. It was the one thing she could remember in the face of a sight so brilliant.

She was going to rush forward.

Hug all of them.

Admit to her tears.

And feel no shame in doing so.

It was a maneuver faster and easier than anything she had done before. She threw herself at them, the group of friends pulling together in a bundle of warmth, their circle a shield of protection against the changing skies above them. It was a constant that told the same story even when the details changed. Despite it all, they were together.

“I love you guys,” she said, her voice a whimper.

It was then that she began to cry. She let it happen, the action only deepening her words.

“And we love you too Dashy!”

It was Pinkie that said this first, but they spent the rest of the night sharing this in different ways, the affection rephrased through action and celebration that defied every kind of language. Conversation jumped between them, the past mentioned not with longing, but with the acknowledgment of all that it created.

If this was boring, then Rainbow Dash welcomed boring at every waking moment.

At some point, she found herself by the cupcakes, Discord joining her. “Having fun?” he asked, his sarcasm tucked away for the night.

“Discord—”

“Okay, I admit it, I admit it, instrumental combat against exploding parasprites may have been a teensy weensy too much, but how else was I supposed to give you something new? Do you really think the spirit of chaos was going to leave you reexperiencing what you’ve already been through? How boring.”

It took five seconds for Discord to register that this was, in fact, not what happened.

“Oh. Well, I can’t say I knew how that was going to play out, but that’s what you wanted, wasn’t it?”

A smirk broke across Rainbow Dash’s face, Discord left vulnerable in the face of all that he didn’t know. Of course it had happened this way. Life’s design knew no boundaries. “Actually, I wanted to thank you, if you could believe it.”

“Thank me?”

“That was an awfully nice thing you tried to do for me, even if it isn’t exactly what you intended. I owe you one.”

“Ah, but you owe me nothing Rainbow Dash, is that not what friends are for?”

Rainbow Dash tilted her head forward with a snicker, unable to believe the comment being made before her. Discord watched this, caught in her trap.

He sighed, too far reformed to deny the truth of what was present. “It’s like I said, I know the feeling. I have been around for a very long time Rainbow Dash. I knew no other way to give you what I could not give myself. You can only pretend to grow old for so long.”

Just like that, Dash was ready to cry again. In front of her was another reminder of everything she neglected. With no real conclusion to any of this, how could she look at any of her friends and pretend that they had finished their journey before her? It wasn’t as if change was something that only affected her.

Except she had gone through this panic already, and this time around, she was going to leave it in the back of her mind. Her friends were around, and that was all the company she needed.

“Hey, it’s alright.” She gestured to the group, still dancing, still laughing. “Why don’t we go back to the party?”

“…That would be nice.”

The two of them stepped away from the cupcakes, the conversation left behind with all the other ones they had since forgotten.

From there, all they could do was appreciate one another’s company. The party lasted far into the morning, the golden cider turning their bodies invincible. Their voices were a force that knew no limits, the hillsides showered in cheers of wonder.

If that were all, Rainbow Dash would have died a happy mare.

But it kept going.

Because over and over again was never once.

And things would never stop being different.

When the sun finally rose and she went home with her wife, she carried that night with her, and she knew she’d have to do it once again.

Over and over.

When the nights flashed on by and that memory became another so far away, she did it once more.

Over and over.

When things continued to slow and her friends found their lows, she stood by their side, passing on what had once been passed onto her.

Over and over.

When they got old and none of them were quite who they once were, they laughed anyway, knowing very well that they had spent their time in all the right places and that the fruits of their labor had paid off in ways that they could have never predicted.

Over and over.

The more Rainbow Dash saw as different, the more she saw all that had stayed the same. At some point, these comparisons held no meaning. Instead, she found herself marveling that there was anything good to be found in the first place, comfort given in the subtlest of ways.

This was the life that she never knew she would have.

When the time came for a future that couldn’t be seen and for her to leave behind her friends once and for all, she knew she would be making a parasprite proud. Even without any proper answers, she knew that there was little she would change. She knew that she had gotten it right, and that this was something that could be carried into forever.

It was there that she knew she would do it all again.

Over and over.