Limited

by Cynical

Chapter 7: Repetition

Twilight Sparkle had a headache.

This was not unusual as and of itself.

The unusual part of the matter was when she had this headache… most notably… post mortem.

She groaned and opened her eyes, finding herself in a familiar room in a familiar treehouse.

The headache made itself known quite plainly to her and she sat up, guarding her face against the pain. To her left was the familiar glass of water and she grasped it loosely in her hooves, unsure of whether it was real or not.

She took a gulp from her glass and looked towards the drawn curtains, the light of the sun slipping through their folds. “Did that really just happen?” she asked herself, looking back to the water which felt so real; so solid. Surely this was some cruel twist of fate…

A knock at the door proved otherwise and Spike walked in with his breakfast tray.

“Morning, Twilight,” he greeted as normal, “How’re you feeling?”

“Fine, probably,” Twilight replied, still somewhat confused, “What day is it today?” she asked, trying to figure out what had just happened.

“It’s March the fourteenth,” Spike replied, allowing an undertone of worry to seep into his words, “You’ve been asleep for more than half a day; are you sure you’re okay? I found you on the porch yesterday, I wasn’t sure whether I should get a doctor or take you to the hospital or-”

Twilight held up her hoof, trying to quieten Spike as she drew in a deep breath, putting aside her worries for the moment, “I’m fine, Spike. It was just an accident. I don’t quite need a doctor,” she said with a half-smile.

Only because they’ve already done all they can for you, her subconscious said bitterly.

“Well, if you’re sure,” Spike said doubtfully, “Call me if you need anything. I’ll just be downstairs.”

“Thanks Spike,” Twilight said gratefully, “You’re a lifesaver.”

He grinned at her before turning and leaving the room, ego stoked.

Once the door had shut behind him, Twilight sighed, planting her head in her hooves and nearly unsettling the breakfast tray in front of her.

She was very sure that she’d died. There was just no way her mind could invent such a voice as that, nor could it weave such an odd conversation as she and Death had had together. So what was this? Everything seemed the same as it had been before.

She checked the breakfast in front of her, confirming that it was indeed exactly the same as before.

Did that mean that she was stuck in this infernal loop, come death or slightly-later-death, with no way out?

She hoped not.

Which drew her back to what she’d been doing before she’d… died.

It seemed that diagnosing herself was going to be a bit trickier than she’d originally anticipated; especially if there was the reasonable likelihood that she was going to die in the process of doing so.

She bit her lip in thought, trying to think back to exactly what had happened…

Maybe it was because she’d stretched herself too far… that was certainly a possibility; her sense of pain had seemed muted throughout that whole experience so that was another factor to add into it.

Remembering what had happened after that was harder… pain did that to minds sometimes. At other times, it could make events excruciatingly detailed. Now, it seemed to Twilight that the memory was too hot to touch, even now…

She stayed away from it, admitting defeat.

“Well… at least I really can’t die while I’m in this loop,” she said to herself, unsure of whether she was being bitter.

She paused, thinking along that tangent. Did she want to die now? Was she so willing to die that her failure to do so was a disappointment to her?

As much as she wanted to contest the idea… it did seem to ring true. This was the seventh time she’d lived this day… she’d lived a whole week longer than she had any right to. How long did Clover the Clever say she’d been in this loop for? A month? Longer?

Twilight couldn’t recall…

A month of impending doom… Twilight tried to imagine it. A month of living in stasis, where nothing would ever actually change and she might wake up tomorrow to find that it was all over for her…

Perhaps that was the scary part. At least without the loop, she knew that she was going to die tomorrow. Now, on the other hand… tomorrow could be another month away, or it could be… tomorrow.

There was no way of knowing when the loop would stop and when Twilight would die… If only she’d found out how the loop worked, then she might have stood a chance in predicting the end of the loop.

Pragmatic as ever, Twilight considered what would happen if tomorrow was the day that the loop stopped looping and the day that she embraced her death.

Then… the doctor would be the only one to know. She’d told Spike and her friends before, but that wasn’t… that wouldn’t… The doctor would have to tell them, the Princesses, her parents…

Twilight pulled herself up from her bed and wandered over to the window to see the sun rising into the sky. She sat down in front of the window.

She’d forgotten about her parents… her brother… not-a-one of them had she told of her condition in any of these loops. She hadn’t even remembered to do so. Celestia had been told in the second day of the loop, but even then… that had been through the cold facts of a letter.

She gazed out the window, the silence of the room surrounding her as the sun trekked its path across the sky, rising and falling until the moon was all that hung in front of her and the darkness of the night was eternal.

She was aware of Spike, stood somewhere behind her and keeping a watchful and worried eye on her contemplation.

Eventually… she spoke.

“I have to tell them…”

Author's Note:

A few apologies.
Sorry for being two weeks late in updating.
Sorry for this being a short update.
Sorry for not updating this for another month or so because finals.

There.

Comments

[Iron Nebula]

This is great! Update again, please.

[Willsons]

Apologies accepted, not like we needed them anyway.