//------------------------------//
// Case 23 
// Story: The Strange Cases of Twilight Sparkle 
// by DrakoGlyph 
//------------------------------//

	Twilight was well rested as she awoke. Her joys of learning of ‘Somnivinity’ had carried her into sweet dreams through the night. She was certain that this would be a good day. She wanted to finally get to her Royal Duties after all this time. She smiled and trotted past the sleeping dragon in his bed. Today she was going to finally get to that list of things to do. The last thing she had remembered before she went to bed last night was sorting everything on the shelves after her mad search for the book she had been trying to find. She checked her list for the next thing on her to do list, and the first thing that wasn’t checked off was still ‘Meet with the Mayor.’
She grumbled. Perhaps she hadn’t checked it off yesterday, though she swore she had. She crossed it off, again. “I thought this was checked off yesterday!” She watched the paper, trying to figure out what was going on. The line stayed where it was. “Spiiike!”
“What?” came the voice from upstairs, “I thought you were going to rest!” The half-drowsed voice came drifting down the stairs.
“That was yesterday, Spike! We need to get back to work, Spike!” 
She spun, trying to find the book, again. “Then where in the hay is that book?” She started levitating book after book from her shelves, scanning the title of each one, in an effort to locate the lost book. Once all the books in the library had passed her eye, she dropped them all on the floor with a loud clamor.
“Can you keep it down?” Spike shouted from upstairs.
Twilight rolled her eyes before a knock came at the door.
“Coming,” Twilight sighed, weaving through the various mounds of literature now on her floor. She opened the door to a worried Rainbow Dash.
“Are you okay? I heard this really loud noise, and I figured something happened.”
“I just lost a book, that’s all.” 
The surprise was almost palpable. Rainbow couldn’t comprehend that Twilight would ever lose anything, let alone a book. “You? Misplaced a book?” Then she broke out in the strongest bout of laughter she had ever had since first meeting Twilight. And that time at the Running of the Leaves. And a bunch of other times, all including Twilight for some reason. This all felt like it had happened before, she just couldn’t figure out why… then it hit her. This had happened yesterday.
“This is serious, Rainbow,” the Princess of Friendship scolded. “It was a special book sent to me by the Princess written by her great grandmother.”
“Okay…” Rainbow said, unsuccessfully stifling another roll of laughter. “Seriously, I got it now.” She breathed deep and got back to her feet. “You know who you should ask? Pinkie. That pony has a serious knack for finding things.” She smiled and lifted herself off the ground with a couple flaps of her wings. “I need to get back to cloud busting, see ya!” She zoomed off, leaving her signature rainbow trial.
“Okay, this is very strange.” She turned to the calendar, to try and figure out if her suspicions were true:  According to the calendar, it was only Friday. “Spike! Have you been crossing off the days like I asked you to?”
“Every night before I go to bed, Twilight.” There was a grumble that Twilight couldn’t understand, and she didn’t worry about it. She shrugged and set off out the door. Perhaps Pinkie had the book, and she was just… reliving the same day? Was that even possible?
She trotted down the main street, heading toward the Corner, trying to retrieve her book at the only place she could ever figure it could be. She was admiring the weather; Rainbow’s team had put out a nice sunny day.  Applejack was bartering with a customer, in fact, the same one who had been bartering with her twice before. Perhaps she had been living the same day over and over again?
That was silly, and there was no possible way that could be. What could possibly make anypony live the same day over and over again? She had gone back a week once, but that was a one-shot spell… there was no way she could do it again. It was impossible to relive the same day over and over again! There was simply no way it was true!
She turned her head the other way, and saw Rarity and the Cutie Mark Crusaders. That could happen every day… but she was also buying the same fabric… perhaps this was just because she had underestimated how much she needed for her order, or perhaps the Crusaders had gotten into them…
She breathed In, trying to calm herself. There was a perfectly logical explanation for all of this. She walked up to Sugar Cube Corner to see Pinkie out front handing out muffins. She did this a lot, Twilight supposed, or perhaps this week was a promotional thing, even though Sugar Cube Corner was the only bakery everypony seemed to use. Nothing made sense about these past weeks made sense… perhaps this was another Strange Case?
She needed that book. And she knew only one pony to ask.
“Howdy!” Pinky shouted. “You look so much better today!”
“I don’t know what’s going on, but I think I’m living the same day over and over again…”
“Is it the second of February already?”
“What?”
“Oh, never mind, I was just making a reference.”
“Reference to what?”
“I don’t think you’ve seen the movie, but it’s got Bill Mulerray in it.”
“I just need to know if you have my book…”
“Is it this one?” she said, holding out the book that Twilight had been searching for the whole time.
“Yes, thank you,” she said, levitating the book out of Pinkie’s hooves, running it home, past a Rarity who was dashing past to catch the Cutie Mark Crusaders who were just about to land in the mud. That was another thing she had seen before…
She shook it off, perhaps it was just something else that had happened two days in a row… she walked into the Library, placed the book on the table, and took to reshelving the books again, but was so exhausted from the process that she couldn’t possibly read the book tonight.

Case 23:

I have this strange suspicion that I’ve been through this day before… in fact, I don’t think that Somnimancy even exists. I think that I’ve been reliving the same day over and over again. I need to look into it some more, but I think perhaps this is another of the Strange Cases. Hopefully when I wake up tomorrow it won’t be the same day… again.

Your most faithful student,

Princess Twilight Sparkle


Princess Celestia sat in the Royal Hall, reading the latest Strange Case report, but it was starting to get to her. She couldn’t do this to her most faithful student, her favorite of all unicorns… well she was before she ascended to Princesshood. This was the rite of passage, the harrowing as it were to prove a princess’s ability to take whatever would come to pass, and make it through in one piece.
She had been through it, her sister went through it, her mother had been through it, her grandmother… perhaps Twilight had got to read the book, and Celestia’s little afterword…
“Celestia,” Discord said, holding a bowl full of… paper? “I hope you weren’t thinking about that afterword you wrote in the Strange Cases handbook. I wouldn’t want you to let her cheat!” He took a fork out of thin air and picked up a set of paper out of the bowl and ate it. “So I took the liberty of taking the cheat sheet and… well, digesting it for later reference.”
“I would appreciate if you stop eating paper… you know it gives you indigestion, Discord.”
“Only when I eat non-fiction… it’s too real for me.”
The glare from Celestia was enough to turn any lesser being to stone itself, but Discord knew what it meant.
“Very well, but I’m not returning your afterword to the book. And if you try sending her a letter of warning, then I will have to stop you.”