//------------------------------// // Over and Over (Friends Revisited) // Story: Do These Waffles Taste Funny to You? // by tin77 //------------------------------// 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 can do 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 smart and you know who you are and you’re like, one of the coolest ponies I know, and I’m married to 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 are gonna 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.