“Sweetie Belle, wake up, it’s time for school!” That was strange, it should be the weekend. Sweetie opened her eyes, and started looking around her room whilst rubbing her eyes.
“Rarity, it’s the weekend, what do you mean?” Sweetie raised her voice as she walked over to the mirror and pulled the brush out of the drawer in the vanity unit's desk. Brushing her mane, she smiled as her hair bobbed slightly when she moved her head. Perfect, as always. She turned just as Rarity opened the door and started to roll her eyes.
“Nice try little sister, you know as well as I do that the weekend ended yesterday. Now come downstairs and eat breakfast with me. I made pancakes.” Rarity chuckled as Sweetie was downstairs in an instant, digging into her pancakes. Sweetie loved Rarity’s pancakes, they were always so fluffy!
‘Still, must have been one heck of a weekend if I don’t remember any of it. Funny thing is, last week we had pancakes too, not that I’m complaining.’ Sweetie patted her stomach and sighed happily. Nothing beats a good meal, even on a school day. Standing up, Sweetie took the dishes, and began to wash hers up.
“You really don’t have to wash them up my dear, I can do that with my magic and save you having to touch that filthy water with your hooves.” Rarity picked up the plates and gently swatted Sweetie out of the way as she worked. Frowning, Sweetie felt a sense of deja vu hit her. Wasn’t that the same thing Rarity had said last week? Sweetie shook her head, there was nothing wrong with Rarity saying it twice. Glancing to the clock, she paled.
“Oh no! I’m going to be late!” Sweetie grabbed her saddlebags and made a dash for the door, closing it quickly and running down the path. Apple Bloom was already waiting for her. Scootaloo would meet them there, living on the opposite side of Ponyville. Sweetie looked up, taking in Twilight’s brand new castle, secretly glad for the shade it brought, and followed Apple Bloom to the school.
“All right kids, today we’re going to learn about how diamonds and sand are formed.” Cheerilee smiled warmly at her students, seeing Sweetie Belle blink and shake her head. That was peculiar, was something up with the filly?
“Why not get Sweetie Belle to answer, since her sister has a Cutie Mark of diamonds.” As if on cue, Diamond Tiara smirked at Sweetie, who shook her head once more. Both diamonds, and that same line from Tiara? Turning, she opened her mouth to make a quip, but Cheerilee was quick to intercept.
"That's a perfect suggestion, Diamond Tiara. Oh, since your name has diamond in it, why don't I give you the first question instead?" Cheerilee smiled warmly as Diamond Tiara winced, and glared at Sweetie in response, as if it was all her fault. Sweetie Belle held her head, and raised a hoof.
"Miss Cheerilee? Can I go to the nurse, I don't feel so good." It was true, her head was throbbing and as Cheerilee put her hoof on it, it was also warm to the touch. Biting her lip, she nodded.
"Yes dear, make sure to tell her what the problem is when you get there.” Cheerilee watched as Sweetie left, and began teaching as if she hadn’t. Sweetie walked into the nurse’s office, holding her head and groaned as she realised the nurse must have stepped out. Sitting down on one of the beds in view of the door, she waited patiently for a few minutes.
“Oh! I’m sorry, I was taking Lucky Shoe back to class.” The school nurse walked over and smiled warmly at Sweetie as she held her head.
“Now this may tingle a little bit, but don’t worry about it.” The nurse concentrated, and a spell passed over Sweetie, fading a moment later. The nurse opened her eyes and tilted her head.
“That’s strange, you’re having power fluctuations. Those normally don’t occur unless there’s a huge buildup of magic. Let me see if I can clear that for you.” Closing her eyes and biting her lip, the nurse once more cast a spell on Sweetie, who sat there and shivered as the spell washed over her. Suddenly, the pain was gone.
“There, whew you’ve got a magical future ahead of you with that sort of magic potential.” The nurse sat down as she puffed, fanning herself with her hoof. Sweetie smiled and stood up, finding herself free of the headache that had been plagued her for three weeks now.
Wait, three?
“Miss nurse, may I please go home? I know I should be in class, but I’m still not feeling too well.” Sweetie held a hoof to her mouth as she pretended to still be feeling unwell, and nailed it. The nurse nodded, quickly filling out a slip excusing her from school.
“Very well, but go right home and straight to bed.” Nodding as the nurse waved her off, Sweetie Belle took the slip and left. After the school vanished from sight, she turned and began heading for home. Opening the door, she realised Rarity was out, and shrugged. Walking to the kitchen table, Sweetie quickly wrote a note, before heading upstairs and straight to bed. It wasn’t long before her headache returned.
“Note to self: Get the spell from the nurse tomorrow.” Groaning, she slid the blinds closed and hid under her blanket, and quickly fell asleep, despite the headache.
Waking up, Sweetie Belle was relieved to feel her headache was just a backdrop today, and not a thudding pain. Turning to open the curtains, she widened her eyes. It was already midday. Sweetie quickly got ready and went downstairs to the living room. While she had been expecting Rarity, the lavender mare wasn’t too big a surprise, if not unexpected.
“Ah, you’re up. Rarity got called into Manehattan for a meeting with a retailer. She asked me to take care of you until tomorrow.” Twilight smiled warmly at Sweetie, putting down the book as Sweetie tilted her head in confusion.
“Wasn’t that meeting last week? Didn’t she say something about her fashion getting her big sponsors?” Sweetie felt her headache grow, and Twilight stood up and came over.
“No, but the more important question is, are you ok? You don’t look so good.” Twilight felt Sweetie’s forehead, and bit her lip. Sweetie shook her head, and decided it would be best to try and explain it.
“I’m fine, sorta, but I keep getting headaches and this weird sense of déjà vu. Like I’ve done this all before.” Sweetie winced once more. The pain was returning to a dull throb in her head, but it still hurt. Twilight’s horn lit up, and a spell passed over Sweetie.
“That’s strange, it looks like your magic is backed up, and yet it’s not, there’s a clear flow going through you. Have you tried levitating or using it?” Twilight stepped back as Sweetie shook her head, and looked toward the book on the desk beside where Twilight had been sitting.
“Well, all right.” Sweetie concentrated, biting her lip as her horn sparked to life. Slowly, the book levitated into the air. Almost immediately, she felt a strange sense of euphoria, as if this was a hot bubble bath after a long day of tree sap. Lowering the book, the headache returned, and she tilted her head.
“That’s highly irregular, but I can’t figure out what could be causing it. Do you mind if I run some tests?” Twilight looked to Sweetie, who shook her head, once more levitating the book. For some reason, levitating it felt a lot easier than she remembered.
“All right, let’s head to my castle. You’ll have to catch up on your schoolwork though.” Twilight chuckled as the filly winced, and they left Rarity’s boutique.
“I just don’t get it, there’s no scientific reason for it. I’m sorry Sweetie Belle, I’m going to have to file it under ‘Pinkie Pie’.” Twilight put a hoof sympathetically around the filly, who was currently levitating a feather quill.
“That’s all right Twilight, I’m just glad to have found something to stop the headaches.” Sweetie made a motion with the feather, and then paused, dropping it on the table. Levitating over a piece of paper, she folded it into a plane and smiled. Now she had something she could levitate that wouldn’t make her look strange, or like Twilight. Not that there was anything wrong with that, of course.
“Oh shoot, it’s already dinnertime. I’m so sorry, you must be starving.” Twilight quickly trotted into the kitchen to prepare dinner. Sweetie watched her work for a moment, before deciding to explore the castle. As she did, there were a lot of rooms, and her hooves seemed to know exactly where all the cool ones were. There was even one for Spike that housed a fluffy toy collection, which she would use to blackmail him with, of course.
“Dinner’s ready!” a voice called from the distance, and Sweetie felt her stomach grumble. Despite her inability to remember the way back, she never got lost and quickly joined Spike and Twilight at the table. The baby dragon was currently eating sapphires.
After that, it was time to read, and then to bed. Really, it was quite an unusual day.
“I say we try getting our cutie marks in hole digging!” Scootaloo nodded as Apple Bloom spoke, and both beamed at Sweetie Belle as she played with her paper plane.
“We did that last week though,” she said dejectedly. The other two raised an eyebrow, and shared a glance.
“Uh, no we didn’t, Sweetie. Last week we tried for cloud-bucking.” Scootaloo watched as Apple Bloom winced, and bit her lip. Needless to say, that hadn’t gone well.
“No, that was the week before! Why does everyone keep saying that?” Sweetie folded her arms irritably. The paper plane circled around her head, and then dived past her two friends.
“Maybe because it’s true. Don’t you want to get your Cutie Mark?” Apple Bloom’s comment sliced straight through her irritation, and she relented. Surely they wouldn’t make the same mistakes this time.
“All right, as long as we don’t dig it in Ponyville. We don’t want somepony falling in.”
Surprisingly, digging holes did not get them a cutie mark. It did, however, get them grounded. Rarity returned just in time to share her disapproval with Twilight, before Sweetie was dragged back home and told no dessert tonight. However, the next morning the Pegasi had decided it was a snow day, and Rarity had relented (on the condition she go to school at midday), allowing Sweetie to go with her friends to play in the deep snow on Applejack’s farm.
“I’m telling you, this whole week has been weird. It’s like I’ve done it all before.” Sweetie sat up from her snow angel and looked to the other two as they tried to make a snowman’s head be placed on an already towering body. Rolling her eyes, Sweetie Belle concentrated, and shakily placed it on top. Wiping the sweat from her brow before it froze, she picked up her paper airplane once more.
“Woah, that’s amazin’! Yer gettin’ pretty good with that magic.” Apple Bloom rolled up a snowball and threw it at Scootaloo. Smirking, the mare plucked up snow and began to create a snow fort. Apple Bloom and Sweetie quickly did the same. The snowball fight lasted all morning, and it was all too soon they had to go to school. Walking to the school, Sweetie felt a chill from the cold weather, knowing that it was just two more days until the weekend!
“And that is how you solve an equation with multiplication and division in it. I will see you all tomorrow.” Cheerilee watched all of the fillies make a hasty exit, and made to walk out herself. However, Sweetie had stayed behind for some reason.
“Uhm, Cheerilee, is tomorrow’s lesson gonna be about the tides?” Sweetie saw the shock on the teacher’s face as she nodded.
“But how did you know?” Cheerilee scratched the back of her head. She had been planning on using it to see if the students wanted to go stargazing, but it wouldn’t be very good if the surprise had been ruined.
“Maybe you can just give us the slips that day, and we can meet you at the school that night. I’m sure everypony is gonna love the chance to go stargazing, especially with Princess Luna.” Once more, Sweetie had surprised Cheerilee, and she scratched the back of her head.
“But Princess Luna isn’t coming.” Cheerilee felt her heart melt slightly as Sweetie beamed gleefully.
“Don’t worry about that, I’ll handle getting Princess Luna. Just make sure it’s tomorrow night.” Sweetie put on her best begging face, and felt satisfaction as Cheerilee caved.
“Well, okay, I’ll see you tomorrow,” she chuckled, sitting down at the desk. Sweetie quickly waved goodbye, and Cheerilee pulled out some paper, knowing she had about twenty ‘is your child allowed to attend this event’ slips to fill.
“I can’t believe it, Princess Luna!” All the kids crowded around the Princess as she smiled good-naturedly at their praise. Only one filly didn’t fawn over her. It was, of course, Sweetie Belle.
“I am most delighted to be sharing my night with you young ones. I do hope you enjoy the entertainment I have provided.” Luna smiled, and her horn glowed, filling the sky with a storm of shooting stars. Sweetie smiled warmly as she watched everypony enjoy it, wishing she had seen this last week.
Eventually it was time for bed, and she placed her paper plane down on her desk for the final time, closing her eyes. Soon she would be able to enjoy a weekend with her friends, and maybe even earn their marks. And this week’s strangeness would be forgotten. After all, she didn’t remember the weekend earlier, so there was no way she’d experience deja vu.
“Sweetie Belle, wake up, it’s time for school!”
Oh no.