Come on everypony smile, smile, smile
Fill my heart up with sunshine, sunshine
I groaned and reached over to turn off the alarm clock, then got out of bed to repeat a morning routine I could have done blind at this point.
I flew up as high over Ponyville as I could, until I felt the familiar tingling that meant I was getting near the borders of the spell trapping us in town. From this vantage point, the ponies looked like ants as they went about their lives. Everything from Applejack’s farm, to the Everfree, to Ghastly Gorge was laid out below me.
During the first week I was trapped inside the spell, I had flown around Ponyville to get a feel for how far the spell extended. From up here, near where the center should be, I realized I was almost directly above Twilight’s castle. It seemed like if a spell was spread out in a circle around town, then the most logical place it was cast would be in the middle of the circle.
I glided down to the castle and through Spike’s bedroom window, catching him reading a comic book and relaxing as he usually did in the loop. “Hey, Spike.”
He looked up and put the comic back into its plastic sleeve. “Hey, Dawn. What’s up?”
“I’ve been trying to figure out where the spell trapping us in a time loop was coming from. If the very center of the barrier keeping me from leaving town is centered on the castle, then it’s probably somewhere in here. Can you help me search for it?”
“Wait, what?” Spike asked.
“Power Ponies issue one eighty-seven,” I replied.
He blinked, glancing to his bookshelf where the comic sat. “Huh? That’s the one where they get trapped reliving the same day over and over.”
“Yep, I got bored and snuck some of them into Rarity’s ‘magic kindergarten’ to read when I was supposed to be studying. Also, I didn’t wash my hooves before reading them.”
Spike huffed and crossed his arms. “You’re lucky we’re in a time loop then. I guess we’ve tried a letter to the princesses?”
“Yeah.”
He got up and went over to his desk, putting a few items into a small backpack, and slinging it over his shoulder. “Alright, let's start searching the castle and see if we can find anything out of the ordinary.”
“Great, let’s start in the map room.” I walked out into the hallway turning right. The sooner I found something useful, the sooner I could put this whole mess behind me.
“Uh, it’s this way.” Spike closed his door and started walking to the left.
“Right.”
“No, left.”
I sighed. “Correct.”
I followed him down the hallway and we found the door to the map room was already open. Once we got inside, we headed over to the map and I climbed up onto it, standing in a mountain range near the Crystal Empire.
“Careful, Dawn.” Spike stepped up into his chair, looking out over the table.
“What, it’s a solid crystal table, not an IKEA display,” I quipped.
The map that spread out over Equestria looked normal, from what I could tell. When active, there would be cutie marks spreading out over it. I think I had even seen Twilight zoom it in once, but for now it seemed stationary. As I got closer to Ponyville and took a look, it seemed a bit fuzzy over the town. There was a pink dome, barely visible but definitely there. If the map knew what was wrong, it didn’t seem to be able to tell me.
The map flickered briefly before returning to normal, the image unchanged. “They could really have used a keyboard or something to control this thing.”
“You’re telling me,” Spike complained. “This whole castle is weird and nopony seems to care; it just grew out of a seed. Plus, I think it’s still growing rooms at random. I found a new bathroom in the tree that just has three shells to control the toilet. Is it too much to ask for them to grow something dragon accessible?”
“Huh, that doesn’t sound as bad as the four pedals on the train to flush. You know on Earth they just have one handle. I still haven’t figured out what the third and forth pedals did.”
I jumped down from the table and went over to sit in Twilight’s chair, throwing my hind legs up onto the map. “Hmm, are there any magical artifacts or items Twilight uses to focus magic that you know of?”
Spike walked over and tried to push my hooves off the table, “Come on, Twilight doesn’t like that.”
“She’ll never know,” I complained, but took them down.
“She’s still setting things up, we should probably check the castle top to bottom to be thorough,” Spike said.
“Just how big is this place that she’s still trying to unpack? Then again, I had a stack of boxes from the last time I moved into my old apartment. Guess I’ll never get around to them now.” I got out of the chair. “We’d better be thorough, there’s no telling what’s hiding about in your magical tree fort.”
We walked down the hallway to the last room we hadn’t checked in the castle. It was just past Twilight’s bedroom and the air tingled from the amount of spells that had been placed to ensure her laboratory didn’t do anything disagreeable, like explode when she created Frankenstein’s monster or something.
“You know, Spike, I’m surprised there aren’t more ponies visiting the castle since it’s open to the public.” I grinned. “All we found were a few library patrons, and a filly and colt making out in a broom closet.”
“We get a lot more visitors when Twilight is around, suitors too. Though after how she discouraged the last noble who visited from Canterlot, we get a lot fewer of those,” Spike said.
“Let me guess, she turned him into a frog, or maybe an owl, fed them some bugs, and forgot to change them back a few weeks later and send them home?”
He laughed at the idea. “I can neither confirm nor deny that Owlowiscious is Prince Blueblood.”
“I knew it; every witch needs a familiar.” I walked to the side of the door to Twilight’s lab and gestured for Spike to open it. “If there’s enough magic for me to feel it, I don’t want to find out what happens if an unauthorized pony tries to enter.”
Spike walked up and pushed the door open; it was unlocked. “The lock will open for any of her close friends. Those wards are mostly to prevent somepony from entering and getting hurt. Plus she doesn’t want to break her new castle. Twilight learned her lesson when she built a miniature particle accelerator to win an argument with Moondancer as a filly.”
“Oh? How’d that turn out?”
“There used to be two mountains in the Canterlot mountain range, and our dining room became a patio.” Spike chuckled as he recalled the memory.
“You’re pulling my leg. Right?”
“Nah, she wanted to prove something about quarks I think. I was too young to talk any sense into her.”
I followed Spike into the lab, pushing a hoof to a small crystal on the wall. It triggered the lights for the room, and pulled back the curtains from the windows. “Wow, a particle accelerator as a filly? I think it took humans decades and hundreds of scientists to make something like that, and we didn’t even create anything cool like a miniature black hole.”
The room was filled with bright metal machinery, more advanced than most of the technology I’d seen ponies using. Some of the panels looked like something out of a cheap sci-fi movie set. Others I recognized due to their similarity to medical equipment: devices to read brainwaves, heart rate, and I assume magic in a pony.
It was a similar setup to this that Twilight had once used to try and forcefully separate me from Dash, when we were sharing a body. Luckily Dash had been adamantly against that, or who knows what would have happened.
“You okay Dawn?” Spike asked. “You’re grimacing.”
“Yeah, just remembering how unfun it is to be a lab rat,” I answered. “You’re her assistant; is there anything in here used to channel or focus energy, like, Elements of Harmony level magic?”
“Not really,” Spike said. He walked over to one of the machines that had an old school cathode ray-tube monitor built in, and pressed a button. The screen flicked to life with a small display that resembled a radar, circling around. “Twilight uses this to monitor large fluctuations in magic.”
I walked over to the display. As the line swept around, I could make out a large set of rivers, or perhaps veins, that seemed to flow across the screen. They were brightly lit, indicating a large magical charge, and I recognized they must be the ley lines that ran through town. In the middle of the circle was a bright dot, shaped vaguely like the castle.
“Is this a normal reading?” I asked.
“Yeah, we’re here.” Spike tapped the center. “The castle itself radiates magic, or so Twilight says, and feeds into the ley lines. These faint flickers to the side are unicorns in town casting spells. Before Twilight had the map, she could use this to try and predict apocalypses.”
“How’d that work out for her?”
“Uh, she was like oh for seven on predicting world ending apocalypses, so she stopped using it.”
There was a large flare on the monitor, and I tapped it with a hoof. “What’s over there?”
“Oh, that’s the Everfree. You think that’s where the spell’s coming from?” Spike asked.
I sighed. “No, probably just Sweetie Belle’s railgun. Avoid the East Wing of the castle in the afternoon, they’ll be test firing soon. We’ve been through the whole castle and I don’t see anything that screams secret time spell, so I think I’ll head into town for the rest of the day.”
“Oh, okay. Well if I can be of any more help, let me know. I’m going to go get some gems to snack on and finish reading my comics.”
“Thanks for the help, Spike.” We exited the lab, not bothering to close the door, and headed our separate ways.
As I was heading back into town down one of the many dirt paths, Pinkie Pie jumped out of a bush and landed next to me. At this point it took her a lot more than that to surprise me. “Hey, Pinkie.”
She smiled. “Hey Dawn! You must be trying to solve the time loop, huh?”
“What?” I asked. “How could you know you’re in a loop? I’m the only one who remembers.”
“Well I had a Pinkie sense, itchy fetlock and twitchy ears. Then I realized that means somepony is stuck in a time loop. I said to myself, ‘Pinkie, if anypony was going to get stuck in a time loop and go on an amazingly heroic journey of self-discovery, who would it be?’”
“Daring Do?”
“No, you silly!” Pinkie replied.
I started to feel a headache coming on, and rubbed a hoof against my temple. “So you don’t remember the loops, but you can tell you’re in one, and apparently that allows you to break your daily pattern. Here I thought the magic lessons were hard enough to figure out.”
We were nearing Bon Bon’s candy shop, and I could smell something sweet and cinnamon in the air. Pinkie must have smelled it too, and pulled a cupcake out of her mane. “Hungry? Try my strawberry cilantro cinnamon cupcakes.”
Before I could decline, she’d stuck it into my mouth. As I bit into it, the clashing flavors hit my tongue all at once. She’d gone a bit heavy on the cinnamon too, and I could feel it coating my mouth. I coughed and spit out the cupcake. “Uh, that was a… bold flavor profile…” Using one of my hooves I wiped the remaining cupcake from my tongue, replacing it with the dirt caked onto my hooves.
“Hmm you too? I figured I should try some new recipes since nopony will remember, I guess I can cross strawberry cilantro cinnamon cupcakes off my list.” Pinkie sighed, crossing it off a scroll she’d produced from somewhere, before putting it back in her mane.
“Won’t you forget you tried that horrible flavor tomorrow?” I asked.
“No, silly, that’s why I wrote it down!”
“But…” I sighed. “Nevermind. I think I’m gonna stop in and see what Bon Bon’s baking, plus I’ve never found out what Lyra’s up to when I don’t interrupt her to go study.”
Pinkie continued to walk down the road as I stopped at the front of the store. “Oki doki loki artichoki!”
The store was empty as I walked in, and the bell over the door seemed to have gotten stuck and didn’t ring as I entered. I walked over to the counter and saw that it was empty. Bon Bon must be in the kitchen. I headed over to call out to her, when I heard some hushed arguing. My ears tilted to better hear it, but a moment later the argument started to get louder as it escalated.
“You know I don’t want foals, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want you,” Lyra stated.
“I want to settle down with you, but you’re still the party girl I met when you moved to Ponyville,” Bon Bon replied.
I realized this conversation wasn’t for me, and started to back away from the kitchen.
“What I do with other ponies doesn’t change how I feel about you. Remember back when you’d come along too, we had fun together.”
“We can’t keep swinging forever. Cloud Kicker, Dawn, Dash, Cheerilee, Vinyl. Don’t you want to settle down with just me?” Bon Bon asked.
That was when I backed right up into the counter, knocking off a sheet of candies that had been drying near the register. There was a loud crash, and I almost turned to bolt out the door when a head popped out of the kitchen.
“Speak of the devil,” Bon Bon quipped.
“Oh, hi! I was just looking at the,” I pointed to the closest thing to me. “Coconut supreme chocolates!”
She walked out behind the counter and smiled. “Oh, how many would you like?”
“A dozen!” I answered far too quickly. “Yep, came in for a dozen, uh make it two dozen! Because you’re the best, Bon Bon.”
After a minute she’d finished boxing some up and setting them on the counter. I wasn’t a fan of coconut. If only I had pointed at some truffles, bordeaux, or even peanut brittle.
“That’ll be eight bits,” Bon Bon said.
I reached back for my saddlebag where I kept my money, before realizing I hadn’t brought it with me today. “Oh, uh, I must have forgotten it at home. Well this is embarrassing, I guess I’ll just head out then.” I started inching back towards the door in reverse. “I guess I’m just out of it today.”
Before I could make my escape, Lyra stuck her head out of the kitchen. “Oh, I’ll cover his order.”
“Crap. I mean, thanks!” I chuckled nervously. “What a surprise, because I didn’t see you back there.” Bon Bon was glaring at me so I quickly ran over to the counter and grabbed the sweets. I grabbed one and tossed it in my mouth, thinking I’d be polite, and bit into it. Immediately I could feel the dry coconut flakes wedging themselves between my teeth and under my tongue. Despite the regret and my hatred of coconuts, I couldn’t exactly spit them out in front of Bon Bon. Best case, the embarrassment would kill me and reset the loop.Worst case, I’d get stuck in the middle of their fight.
“Yum!” I smiled weakly. “Well I’m super duper grateful, so I’ll just take these and go. You two take care!”
Once I was finally outside I was able to exhale and unclench my muscles. I hadn’t meant to walk into an argument, let alone one about how Lyra’s promiscuous lifestyle was making her apparent marefriend jealous. Ponies may have had a more open view on casual sex, but it would seem jealousy was universal. Perhaps I could use some of the time loops to delve into their relationship and help them fix it. I did seem to be in the perfect spot to help everypony in town, though I had already found at least a half dozen crises to fix. If I did everything perfectly, I might be able to fix them all in one day, if I could figure out which day would be the last day of the loop.
After heading a few blocks away, I found Blossomforth walking down the street and surrendered my coconut candies to her. Even though I didn’t like them, I’m sure other ponies did, or they wouldn’t be so popular.
At this point there wasn’t much to do until tomorrow, when I could report my findings and study some more magic. I wondered what to do with my free time, and my mind immediately pictured Dash. I scowled, knowing that once my mind went down that path I’d be unable to avoid dwelling on how much I missed her. I couldn’t solve this problem and save everypony if I spent all my time feeling sad and lonely. There was one pony in town I could open up to and help take my mind off of Dash.
I decided to head off towards Fluttershy’s cottage to get a massage and relax. Once I took to the air it only took a few minutes to fly over and land at her cottage, then knock on the door.
A moment later she opened the door and smiled. “Dawn, great to see you. What brings you by?”
I brought a wing up in a practiced motion, making it look like a muscle had sprained and I couldn’t extend it. “I, uh, pulled a muscle and was hoping you could give me a massage.”
She nodded and opened the door. “Oh, anything for you, Dawn.”
I followed her in and went over to the couch, sitting down in just the right spot without being prompted. I must have been grinning because a minute later I noticed Angel glaring at me. He was thumping a foot on the coffee table, arms crossed. Apparently my injured wing act still needed a little work.
Fluttershy began rubbing my back with her hooves, and I stuck my tongue out at Angel. He jumped off the table, and I hoped it wasn’t to cause me any trouble. Before I could melt too far into the cushions of the couch, Fluttershy spoke up. “Is that too soft? Normally it’d be really tender but you don’t seem to react at all.”
“Ow.” I let out a gasp, only realizing afterwards that she didn’t have either hoof on my back when I faked a gasp of pain.
“Is something bothering you Dawn?” Fluttershy asked. “Dash used to fake a wing injury when she wanted to talk about her feelings but didn’t want to admit it, and here you are doing the same.”
I sighed and nodded. “I’ll talk, if you don’t mind continuing.” I waited until she started to rub my back again. I hadn’t been giving it much thought, but at the mention of Dash’s name, and now that I felt like I was in a safe place, I began to open up. “I really miss Dash.”
“That is tough, but at least she’ll be back tomorrow,” Fluttershy observed.
“No, she won’t,” I complained. “I’m stuck in a time loop, and I’m doing my best not to dwell on it, but it’s been at least six months.”
“Oh, dear.” She leaned over to nuzzle my neck. “I’m sure you’re working very hard to fix it. Have you tried sending Celestia a letter?”
“Yeah, I’ve tried it all, and I’ve been working with Rarity to study magic. I like to sneak over here every so often after studying to spend time with you, because it helps me forget about how much I’m missing Dash.”
Two hooves pushed down more firmly into the thicker muscles in my shoulders, eliciting a deep wave of relief. As the tension faded, I continued talking to Fluttershy. “I guess not facing it is easier than admitting how hard it’s been to not see her for so many months, to never know if I’ll see her again. All the things I could have said before she left, or the things I’ll never get to say.”
I turned my head to look back at Fluttershy. “I don’t ever want to be away from her again. I have great friends in Ponyville, but Dash is so much more than that.”
She nodded. “I understand, Dawn. I’m sure Dash feels the same way.”
“I’ve got to get back to studying tomorrow, and report the results of searching for the source of the spell. I didn’t find anything though. What if I can’t fix this, and spend the rest of my life stuck on this day?”
“That won’t happen,” Fluttershy stated as a matter of fact. “You were brave enough to sacrifice yourself to save Equestria, with no guarantee you’d survive. Then you did, and you pushed through the hardship of life as a pony. You found your special somepony, Dawn, and don’t you dare ever let go of her.”
I felt her lift one of her hooves for a minute. Had I looked back, I’d have seen that she was crying and wiping off the tears. The hoof returned a moment later and the massage continued.
“I’m really looking forward to things settling down, I think I’ve had enough adventures for a lifetime. Wouldn’t it be nice to just come home after work and hang out, or chat about our future together?” I smiled as I pictured Dash in a kitchen apron cooking dinner; that was about as likely Celestia sprouting horns and conquering Equestria.
“You’ve earned a chance to settle down after all the heroics, and I’m sure Dash feels the same way. You just have to ask her, she’s probably been waiting since she met you.”
“I really need to think of what I’m going to say to her when this ends and I see her again. I mean, with all this free time it’ll have to be something amazing that totally sweeps her off her hooves, right?”
“I’m sure she’ll appreciate anything you say.” Fluttershy finished rubbing my back and began to give me a scalp massage.
I yawned, stretching out my limbs and realizing how tight the muscles had gotten. All my stress was gone now. “Thanks, Fluttershy. You’re an amazing friend.” Even if she didn’t remember it, her cottage had become the best place I could go when I needed to get away and relax.
“Anything for you, Dawn.”
I had one last thought nagging at me, that I’d been afraid to ask. “Do you really think I’m ready to do the whole family thing? Dash’s kid is on the way, and I never really saw myself with a family.”
Fluttershy gave me a hug. “Dawn, any mare would be lucky to have you. I’m sure you’ll make an excellent father for her kid too.”
My eyelids felt heavy as I laid on the couch. A blanket settled down over my back as I waited to fall asleep. My worries vanished as I waited for the sun to set on another loop.
I felt a lot better after visiting Fluttershy and admitting to somepony how badly I’d been missing Dash. After a few more days studying advanced magical formulae, however, my mood had started to become melancholic again.
Inside Rarity’s boutique, Minuette was explaining some of her theories on the chalkboard, while Rarity was working on some sewing. At this point, the fashionista didn’t have much more to add beyond ensuring I stayed focused. Lyra sat beside me at the table, none the wiser that I’d walked in on her and Bon Bon in a previous loop. She seemed willing to be here just to support my efforts to fix the time loop at this point.
“Given how many loops have been spent searching, I think it’s safe to say the time loop is being caused by a pony,” Minuette said. “It’s the only way they could avoid being discovered.”
“I agree,” I replied. “We even split up yesterday and none of you noticed anything. I’m pretty sure even I would have noticed an arcane matrix powerful enough to affect the whole town.”
“So, I think it’s time we start checking every single pony in town.”
I groaned and fell forward, letting my head hit the desk and going limp. “That’s going to be hundreds of ponies, at least, and that’s if we only check unicorns.”
I felt a hoof on my back, and rolled my head on the table to look over at Lyra. “It’s okay, Dawn. So we’ll need a few more months. We’ll figure it out.”
Minuette set down the chalk and walked over to put a hoof on my other shoulder. “Why don’t I go check the library for any books that might be useful. You look like you’re pushing yourself too hard and could use a break.” I heard the door close behind her a moment later.
“I don’t want to keep doing this, Lyra. It sucks,” I whined. “It’s seven days a week, I didn’t even cram this hard for my finals.”
She looked around to see if Rarity was still out of the room, then smirked. “So, why don’t you take a little vacation?”
“What do you mean? Like con Fluttershy into more massages?”
“No, I mean, think about it. You know in advance that no matter what, everything is going to go back to the way it was every day. You could do absolutely anything you wanted, for as long as you want, without having to worry about consequences.”
I sat up slowly as a grin spread from ear to ear, and grabbed Lyra’s shoulders.
“D-Dawn?”
I pulled her forward and kissed her, with tongue, before she finally recovered enough to push me off with her magic. “Marry me.”
“What?” Lyra blushed and backed up.
“It’s metaphorical!” I shouted and cackled. I leapt out of the chair, filled with renewed energy. “Oh, Lyra, you’re without a doubt my new favorite pony.”
Lyra had inched her way over to the door by now and had it halfway open in her magic. “Sweet Celestia, what have I unleashed on Equestria?”
I was still grinning like a mad stallion as I went across the room and began opening drawers and fishing around in them. Finally I found a small key, and began to walk back towards the door to Rarity’s basement. “First order of business, I’m finally going to find out what’s in that damn basement.”
Lyra shook her head. “I want no part of this. When I said to screw around I meant, like, eat an entire cake in one sitting!”
“You’ve opened Pandora’s box now, Lyra. I’m ready to kick ass and chew bubble gum, and I’m all outta gum.”
I heard the door close as a shocked Lyra probably ran for her panic room. Given how often Ponyville was nearly destroyed by powerful villains, it was a given that most ponies would have one.
The door to the basement clicked open, and I slipped through quietly and let it close behind me. The basement was dark, and I wasn’t sure where the light switch was, so I had to take the stairs slowly. I ran one hoof along the wall the whole way down, looking for the lights. There could be anything down here. Rolls of fabric, a kill room, a portal to a dimension populated by pony-human hybrids, or even another smaller basement.
The crystal in the wall met my hoof, and the room lit up instantly. There were plush red padded panels on the wall, trimmed with ebony wood. The floor looked like polished marble, except where small crimson rugs had been set up under the furniture. There were thick curtains that could be pulled to further divide the room and offer some privacy.
Leaning against the near wall was a giant X-shaped cross, with several metal bolts and loops dangling from it. To its left, a large chalkboard that was titled “Rarity’s Rules”. The first rule mentioned that the safeword was Kumquat. The second rule stated that no matter how much you begged to be let free, you would not be freed, unless you used the safeword. The rest of the rules continued onward in a similarly boring fashion.
“Jackpot!” I shouted. “I knew Rarity had a secret sex dungeon! It’s always the prim and proper ones. Or the quiet ones. Or the librarians. Or maybe it’s just everypony?”
I hurried over towards a wall from which dozens of whips and toys were hanging, then opened a large wooden steamer trunk. Even the chest was ornately decorated, the entire room felt vibrant and alive with all the shades of red and black.
Inside were all sorts of leather and rubber things I couldn’t begin to identify. I was so engrossed in exploring the wonderland of adult content, that I didn’t notice the door open and close. The hooves echoed slightly as they came down the steps, and onto the floor of the basement.
There was a loud crack, and I dropped the large set of straps I’d been trying to figure out, leaping several feet into the air in shock. I turned around to find Rarity standing there, levitating a whip and glaring daggers at me.
“Somepony needs to be taught a lesson in respecting boundaries, and I think—”
“Kumquat!” I shouted, backing against the wall in surprise. Rarity was wearing a black outfit and her horn seemed to glow slightly more green than usual. Her voice carried a hint of command in it.
“Now, Dawn, if you really want to safeword and leave, go right ahead… but I think you know you deserve to be punished for violating my privacy.” Rarity took a few steps forward as I slinked down the wall until I was sitting. “And, honestly, with how often you and Dash have been teasing me, I’ve gotten quite the impression that you both wanted to come down here and were afraid to ask. So, what will it be?”
The clock on the wall hadn’t even hit noon yet, meaning sunset was at least six hours away. I grinned weakly and decided that somehow I’d get even with Lyra. She must have known exactly what awaited me down here, and had the good sense to run.