//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5: Rainbow Road 
// Story: Friendship Day 
// by Crescent Pulsar 
//------------------------------//

"You're repeating the same day?" Spike responded, as he stood by and regarded Twilight Sparkle with a skeptical look.

Twilight Sparkle nodded her head. "It was caused by the magic surge I just had, when I was wishing I had more time. I haven't stayed up long enough to be sure, but I think the time loop starts after my magic surge and ends at midnight."

"Okay," Spike voiced his acceptance, his expression relaxing. Knowing her like he thought he did, he was pretty sure that she wasn't the sort of pony to lie about something serious. "Do you need my help with it?"

Internally relieved that it hadn't been too hard to convince him, Twilight Sparkle shook her head. "Actually, it was you who gave me the idea to take advantage of this situation."

Spike blinked his eyes in mild surprise. "I was?"

"And I've decided," Twilight Sparkle went on, "to both prepare for Nightmare Moon and learn how to make friends before addressing the time loop."

In light of the familiarity of Twilight Sparkle's dedication to Princess Celestia, and her stubbornness to prove something when she was confident that she was right, Spike absently scratched the side of his face and simply asked, "So, what's the plan?"

"First," Twilight Sparkle began, as she nabbed Spike with her magic and deposited him on her back, "we're going to make a stop at the library." With Spike ready for travel, she started to walk toward the aforementioned destination. "I just remembered that there are books on the second floor, and one of them might have something that will tell us about the fauna of the Everfree forest."

"Why do you need to know that?" Spike inquired.

"Well..." Twilight Sparkle temporized, as she considered how to word her response. "Let's just say that the forest isn't safe, and we need to travel through it to reach an ancient castle, where the Elements of Harmony might be found."

Spike cocked his head. "Is that the only way to get to the castle?"

Twilight Sparkle halted both physically and mentally as the question knocked her out of her tunnel-visioned focus, which gave her the perspective to think of another solution. Upon doing so, her face lit up with joy.

"That's it!" She exclaimed, before suddenly sprinting forward.

After yelping and barely managing to hold on, to keep himself from tumbling to the ground, Spike yelled, "What's it!?"





Twilight Sparkle had told Spike what she wanted to do, and why, while getting them to their destination. Said destination was a corner of a house that she had hidden behind before, in order to watch for a certain rainbow-haired pegasus who was destined to plummet into a mud puddle.

Looking decidedly bored as he stood beside her, Spike asked, "When will she get here?"

"Shouldn't be too much longer," Twilight Sparkle absently replied, who began to consider finding a convenient way to get a watch so she could mentally catalogue the times when certain events happened throughout the day.

A short time later Rainbow Dash made an appearance, in the middle of performing various aerial stunts. Eventually she tried something that she couldn't handle, and she would have failed to pull away from the ground in time if not for Twilight Sparkle catching her with telekinesis, thus saving her from a messy "landing."

Twilight Sparkle set Rainbow Dash down on dry ground as she approached her, who composed herself and put on a facade of confidence. "I had everything under control, but thanks."

Rather than call her out on that, and waste time, Twilight Sparkle genially replied, "Sorry. Despite knowing how great you are at flying, Rainbow Dash, I didn't want to take the chance."

Mildly surprised, Rainbow Dash pointed at herself and inquired, "You've heard about me?"

"Of course," Twilight Sparkle slyly replied. "I mean, aside from being the one assigned to supervise the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration, and knowing you're in charge of keeping the sky clear, a pegasus of your talent gets brought up in certain circles."

"Really!?" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, who took to the air in her excitement. She proceeded to show her interest by swooping right into Twilight Sparkle's face and asking, "What are they saying about me!?"

Twilight Sparkle leaned her head back as far as possible and did her best to hide her discomfort. "W-well... I've heard that they wouldn't be surprised if you joined the Wonderbolts someday."

Rainbow Dash did a quick inside loop that ended near its center rather than completing the circuit, where she threw her forehooves up and cheered, "Aw, yeah! I'm getting noticed without even trying!"

Glad that her personal space was no longer being invaded, Twilight Sparkle regained her composure before she cleared her throat and said, "And that's why I'm here to enlist your aid."

"You want my help?" Rainbow Dash replied, caught off guard.

Twilight Sparkle nodded her head. "On the surface I'm supervising the preparations, but your town is more than capable of handling them. The actual reason for why I'm here is because Nightmare Moon is going to return."

"Nightmare Moon?" Rainbow Dash questioned, as she regarded Twilight Sparkle with an incredulous look. "But she was just made up to scare foals on Nightmare Night."

Knowing that she didn't have much in the way of evidence to convince anyone of Nightmare Moon's return, especially considering how someone as old and wise as Princess Celestia brushed the idea aside, Twilight Sparkle decided to try a different tack. "Would you be up for a little adventure, anyway?"

Intrigued, Rainbow Dash landed and inquired, "Adventure? What kind of adventure?"

"I need to reach a castle in the Everfree forest," Twilight Sparkle informed her.

"There's a castle in there?" Rainbow Dash voiced her surprise.

Twilight Sparkle nodded her head. "That's where I'm hoping to find the artifacts that had banished Nightmare Moon to the moon, so she can be stopped again."

Rainbow Dash furrowed her brow and stroked her chin in thought, as she weighed her skepticism against her lack of plans for the day, and the fact that the request was coming from a complete stranger. "Alright," she eventually decided, her expression relaxing. "I've wondered what the Everfree was like anyway, since it seems to take care of itself." She grinned cockily. "And if you're telling the truth about Nightmare Moon, it'd be awesome to save Equestria."

Face brightening, in light of her plan working out, Twilight Sparkle replied, "Great! Hopefully it won't take too long to find the castle from the sky, and we'll have plenty of daylight to explore it."

"And miss out on the forest?" Came Rainbow Dash's confused response. "Where's the adventure in that?"

Although Twilight Sparkle certainly had the time to explore the Everfree forest, she wasn't ready to ignore her habit of being efficient and productive just yet. "If Nightmare Moon is released at dawn, we would be wasting valuable time." Putting on a sympathetic front, in response to the disappointment that was very clear on the pegasus' face, she added, "Besides, if the castle has been abandoned for a thousand years, it's bound to be in disrepair, and there's no telling what creatures have made its home there."

Rainbow Dash perked up in response. "Hey, yeah! Now that sounds like an adventure!"

Spike watched as the motivated pegasus proceeded to grab Twilight Sparkle around the barrel, behind her forelegs, and flew off with her. He watched until he couldn't see them anymore, then, with a sigh of disappointment, he began to make his way toward the town hall. Apparently, there was an interesting pony for him to meet there.