Rainbow Continuity

“Rainbow Dash!”

Huh? I hear a voice. A very subtle... quiet voice.

“Rainbow Dash!”

Ugh... who is it? I try to open my eyes, but I can't, I only just woke up from the most peaceful slumber ever... and this cloud is so comfortable, smooth and soft. I don't want to move.

“Rainbow Dash!”

I... I gotta wake up, or that voice is going to continue nagging. I gently pull my eyes open. I see the sky, the sun, clouds... something yellow which isn't the sun. Everything is blurry, I'll have to focus a moment...

“Rainbow Dash!”

Still calling? As my eyes come into focus I realise the source of this voice... It's Fluttershy, flapping her wings gently to keep herself airborne. It's far too early to wake up... “Fluttershy... what's the time?”

“Half past one.”

Yeah... it's too early. But I sit up and give my right eye a quick rub. There must be a reason why she's waking me up, so let's find out! “Fluttershy, why are you waking me up?”

My eyes are in full focus now. I can see the full detail of the expression on her face, and she doesn't look pleased... why would she have a problem with me sleeping? I do this every Saturday weekend...

“Rainbow Dash... I was just wondering if...” Her sentence trailed off into senseless mumbles. I haven't a clue what she just tried to say, and she's gone shy now so...

“Yes, Fluttershy?” I say, trying not to reveal any trait of how irritating being woken up in the middle of an afternoon nap is. “You were wondering if...?”

“I was wondering if...” She can't say whatever she's trying to say. Maybe there's something wrong which she can't tell me... that happens surprisingly often.

“Umm... are you okay?” I ask, trying to resolve whatever possible problems she may have. There's definitely something a bit odd about what she's trying to say, if it wasn't serious then she wouldn't be acting quite this shy...

I stare at her, waiting for an answer. It takes a few seconds, but I can see the shy attitude slightly departing, leaving her with more confidence to react with my friendly invitation to speak. “I- I was wondering if you were going out with anypony... for... for Hearts and Hooves Day?”

Woah... what? Of course I'm not. Not at all. Never. She should know that... wait... is she making an offer here? I mean... if she wants to know then... oh, Celestia, no, I don't want that at all...

“Fluttershy!” I begin, raising my voice. “If I ever went out with anypony, it would be myself!” That should do it...

Wait… what did I just say?

Her gaze changes again. She's not really shy any more, no, she's a bit worse than that now. She's afraid. I watch as she slowly flies backwards, fearing my enraged tone, she'll hide away from me for a while now that I've made a sudden outburst like that... “Err... really?”

No... I don't seriously want to go out with myself... never. But she's looking at me like I just confessed to being pregnant or something...

“Yeah. Sure. Now please leave me alone.” I don't really want to be so mean to her, but I don't want to discuss the topic of romance after that little outbreak.

She floats away more, still staring at me... Why?

I know that was a weird statement to make, and I don't know why she said it... Though I really don't know why I'm suddenly feeling so embarrassed about it... It's not like I was being serious or anything, but I feel a little too warm all of a sudden... I've never liked the feeling of embarrassment.

In a few seconds she's gone. I lay my head back down on the cloud and close my eyes again... I just unintentionally admitted love for myself. There's probably some sort of reason I'd say that. I mean, there's no other pony who I'd rather love than myself... even if that is a bit weird.

Anyway, romance is for the weak, and I'm...

***

Huh? I must've drifted off... the air is very cold... I open my eyes, only to realise the world around me is dark. The moon is high in the sky with stars glittering around it. I overslept... I sit up. Time to speed home as quickly as possible.

I jump up, start flapping my wings powerfully, and look for the direction of my house. In a few moments I begin bolting towards Ponyville, head first and speed at maximum. No time to think.

Ponyville is pretty at night. Nothing like Canterlot with huge towers and overpowering lights but... It's nice. I fly above and look down at all the houses dominated in the dark. With so many silent homes it must be quite late. I can't believe I slept for so long, that never happens...

Even though I did... I still feel kind of sleepy. I let out a huge yawn and lower my pace across the sky. There's something not quite right... I come to a halt and just remain airborne while stationary... I just feel like I could nod off at any...

***

What the?

Where am I?

I can’t see anything; its pitch black. And my head hurts. “Oww…” I moan through my teeth, trying to push the pain away. It feels like I am lying on grass, but I can’t tell. I don’t want to stand up in case I walk into something in the dark. I slowly pull myself up into a sitting position and wave my hooves around, trying to grab onto something. But there’s nothing there. What is going on? I remember flying back towards my house…and feeling sleepy. And now I’m here. Wherever here is. How long have I been unconscious for? Maybe there’s somepony around. Maybe.

“Hello!?” I call. “Can anypony hear me!?”

My shouts echo for a second, and then disappear. I prick up my ears and listen, hoping for a reply.

Silence.

There's no wind, no birds, no nothing. Nothing but darkness, and cold. The only sound I can hear is my own slow breathing. It's very discomforting.

But then-

“Hello!”

“I can hear you!”

There is somepony here! Their voice sounds very familiar, but I can’t quite make out who it is. Whoever they were, they're quite far away.

I open my mouth and shout back. “I can’t see anything! Where are you!?”

“Uh, I don’t know! It’s too dark to see anything!”

Dammit. We’re both blind here. I think for a moment…what could I do?

“Hey! Come towards the sound of my voice!”

That’s a good idea.

“Okay!” I shout.

I slowly start to crawl my way towards the voice, calling every so often to get a reply.

“I’m over here!”

The voice is getting louder. I must be getting close. I push on, pulling myself forward, putting one hoof over the other.

“Hey! I’m here!”

The voice is very close now. I keep going, until I bump into something. I jump back in surprise and let out a yell.

“Aaah!”

“Aaah!” yells the voice.

I suddenly realise what I bumped into. It was the voice that had been calling me.

“I’m here” I say to the voice.

“Oh, you made it!” says the voice. “Do you know where we are?”

“No” I say. “I just woke up here, not being able to see anything.”

“Same here…what is going on?” replies the voice.

We’re both in the same position, we both woke up here and we both have no idea what is going on. How strange…

“I don’t know, but I don’t like it…” I say.

“Me neither…we have to find a way outta here…wherever we are…” the voice says.

“It seems we are in some sort of field” I say to the voice. “It feels like we are sitting on grass.”

“Yeah…it must be late at night.” the voice says.

Well, we’re going to have to find a way out of here… working together would benefit us both.

“I forgot to ask you your name.” I say. “If we’re going to try and work together, we might as well know each other’s names.”

The voice replied. “Oh, yeah. I’m Rainbow Dash.”

What? Rubbish. Lies. If that was an attempt at a joke, it wasn’t funny.

“Wait…how do you know my name?” I say.

“What?” The voice says, confused. “My name is Rainbow Dash.”

“But…that’s impossible…I’m Rainbow Dash.” I say.

No two ponies in Equestria have the same name. They can be similar, but never the same. I am the only Rainbow Dash here, the other pony is either lying or trying to pull off some stupid, unfunny prank.

I open my mouth to speak, but suddenly a blinding light causes me to turn away, shielding my face with my hoof. I waited a moment for my eyes to adjust to this newfound light, and then I lowered my hoof. It was the sun, ever so slowly rising from the horizon, scattering light in every direction.

Now I’ll see who this so called ‘other Rainbow Dash’ is.

“What’re you playing at?” I started, standing up and turning around, ready to have a go at this imposter.

I stopped in my tracks. My mouth dropped. I was speechless.

She was a pegasus. She had wings. She had violet eyes, and a rainbow mane. Her flanks had a sonic rainboom cutie mark.

It was…me.

I just stood there and stared. It was like looking into a mirror. I stared into her eyes, and she stared right back into mine.

We just stood there, for ages.

My brain could not understand. This must be some sort of trick. There had to be a logical explanation for this. I thought, and I thought hard. But there was no explanation. I was looking at myself…Rainbow Dash.

I slowly started to move, circling around her slowly, examining any and every detail of her, to find some sort of flaw that proved that she was an imposter. But there was no flaw. She was physically identical to me in every single possible way. I came to a stop in front of her, still not being able to understand what was going on.

Then she started to circle around me, as I did with her. She made a full circle around me and came to a stop in front, where we stood, staring at each other again.

She was the first to speak.

“What are the names…of your best friends…” she says, not breaking eye contact.

“Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Applejack, Twilight and Rarity” I say slowly. “How fast can you clear the skies?”

“10…seconds…flat…” she says. “What was wrong with your gala dress?”

“It needed to be about twenty percent cooler” I reply. “How many times have you pulled off a sonic rainboom?”

“Twice” she says.

It was real.

***

I'm still a little suspicious. Even after at least an hour of staring, studying every detail, asking more, deeper questions, I still feel this is all a big trick. But I can't claim it is... That pony is an exact copy of me, perfect in every way. Surely this is impossible? I am – and have always been – the real Rainbow Dash. I have no doubt this is still a big joke, one of Twilight's magic spells to try and trick me I suppose...

Anyway... we're in a field. The sun is just coming up above the horizon. The air is cold, very cold, exactly what you'd expect from an early, winter morning. I try to recall the events of last night. I woke up, late at night, flew home. Then I think I fell asleep in the open sky. Must've been painful when I hit the ground, but I don't feel any bruises or cuts...

I'm not exactly sure where we are... I know I definitely wasn't flying over a field when I fell asleep, I was in the middle of Ponyville... so where am I?

Or, more importantly, who is she? She…cannot be me…it’s not possible… although...

I can't take my eyes off her, and she can't take her eyes off me. We're trapped in an endless game of... eye contact. One of us is going to have to say something to end this...

I open my mouth. “Stop staring!” I shout, but there was something a little odd when I said that... I sounded perfectly in sync with... myself.

We continue to stare, but in realisation that we just spoke in perfect sync without one of us signalling to do so... that's creepy.

Okay. I might be wrong about the whole possibility of it being a trick. I'm hardly definitely wrong though. This barely proves anything, though my mind is beginning to unwillingly change. If she was a changeling then she would’ve attacked me by now, or ran off, which rules out that possibility. We are the same; we're both reacting in the same way and behaving in the same way.

Appearances match. Behaviours match.

Another thought crosses my mind. I remember an event of yesterday, my conversation with Fluttershy after she rudely woke me from a peaceful slumber. I told her that I had a crush on myself... no, that if I had a crush, it would be on myself. She reacted strangely, almost as if she took my statement seriously... nah...

Fluttershy would never find a way to create something like this. But I can't keep my mind away from the possibility that it may be related... when I look over myself it becomes a good question whether I was being honest. Could be true. I could actually have a little soft spot for... myself.

No, that's just weird. I draw my thoughts away from that...

At least now I have a clear understanding that she must be me. No more confrontations in my mind about whether this is truly happening. It is. And we've been standing here for far too long; it’s about time one of us does something...