The next morning, I found Twilight in the kitchen, making toast. She spread strawberry jam on the thick slice and bit into it, moaning like it was the best thing she’d had for years.

“Morning!” she said brightly.

“Morning,” I mumbled, not in the mood to return her cheer. I shuffled to the table and rested my head on it. “Make any for me?”

“Luckily for you, I did, even though I’m not obligated to. You know, because this is also my house, technically.”

“If you’re me, then you know that you are equally responsible for making me breakfast.”

“Only half responsible, and I’ve made half of myself a breakfast, fulfilling my obligation to myself.”

“If I starve to death, then you’ll starve to death.”

“Oh, causality! A tricky trap.”

“So feed me.”

She flicked a dismissive hoof. “You’ll hardly starve.”

“But any discomfort I feel would be your discomfort.”

“Time makes discomfort more bearable. I have a lot of that.”

I sighed, getting up from my seat. Well I didn’t expect to win an argument against myself especially when I wasn’t well-rested.

Twilight waved me back down with grin. “I’m joking, here.”

I stared at the toast.

“Uhm, thank you,” I said in surprise.

She gave me a look. “You’re thanking yourself?”

And there goes my sincerity. I stared at her as I nibbled on the toast.

“So what now?” I finally said.

“Pranking,” she announced, with a flourish.

I could feel one side of my mouth pull downwards. Keeping up with myself was proving harder than I thought. It was like she was part Pinkie on the inside.

“Pranking?”

Twilight looked like a bobblehead with the way she nodded. “Yep, we’re going to play a joke on a Princess.” She grinned like a madmare. “What do you think, Celestia or Luna? They’re both good targets that are worthy of our combined intellect.”

My mouth worked as I tried to find the words to express just how incredibly insane that sounded.

“The Princesses?!” was all I could say.

“Really, Twilight, you remind me of my younger self, always repeating what other ponies say.”

“I am you!”

“Ow! No need to shout. It’s simple. You said you would do what I tell you. It’s only a few things. One of these things is pranking. Are you going to help me or not?”

“Help you?” I furrowed my brows as I narrowed my eyes at her. “Were you going to do it even if I didn’t help you?”

“Of course,” she replied with a raised eyebrow. “Waste of a prank if I didn’t.”

I pressed my lips together, peeking at her saddlebags from the corner of my eyes. The book was so close, who knew when the chance would arise again? Literally, I didn’t know when I would get to the future and find out when I would lay my hooves on the book again. But that wasn’t why I considered it. I needed to make sure she didn’t do something I would regret later. I made up my mind.

“Pranking I can do,” I said slowly. Maybe I could convince her of a different target? “I mean I’m not good at it, but why the Princesses? If it were Rainbow, or Pinkie, or any of my friends… maybe.”

“Oh come on,” Twilight replied, wrinkling her muzzle. “Rainbow and Pinkie have done it already, why haven’t you?”

“Wait, Rainbow and Pinkie did what?!”

The alicorn shook her head sadly. “Twilight you’re so uptight, you have to learn to let loose once in a while.” She patted me on the head as I glared at her and waited for her to remove her hoof. When she didn’t stop, I shook free from her grasp with an exasperated grunt.

“I-I’m not uptight,” I shot back defensively.

Twilight lifted an eyebrow and considered me silently. “Face it, you’re uptight.” She paused. “And a bit of a shut-in. An uptight shut-in.”

“I’m not uptight! I’m not a shut-in either! I do plenty of outdoor sports!”

Twilight’s gaze swept over my body critically.

“I-I mean it.” I hated the way I didn’t sound so sure of myself. I knew myself. It was my future-self that was throwing doubts about my own self-perception. Unfair. I mean, I’m not that uptight, am I? I stole another glance at myself as she grinned at me.

“Well… I need to make some preparations, not enough time yesterday.” Twilight made a shooing gesture with her hoof. “Go play around or buy some groceries, I’ll be a while.”

I staggered to the door. I wasn’t really paying attention to the fact that I was effectively kicking myself out of my own house, I was more concerned with what Twilight had mentioned. I wasn’t a shut-in… surely. It was probably another sneaky deceptive ploy from my sneaky deceptive future-self. I closed the door to the library and immediately spotted Rainbow and Pinkie chatting to each other. Looking around surreptitiously, I headed over to them. They would know.

——————

“You’re pretty uptight.”

I gaped at Rainbow. Wow, that was blunt. Maybe she should be the Element of Honesty?

“And a little bit of a shut-in!” Pinkie added helpfully.

Rainbow raised an eyebrow at my shocked look and shrugged. “You haven’t been around recently. Most of the time you’ve been nose-deep in one of your books. We’ve hardly seen you outside, let alone know if you’re loose enough to do any pranking with us. We know you wouldn’t be up to some of the stuff we do.”

“I-I could loosen up!” I shot back. By Rainbow’s unimpressed look, I must not have been very convincing.

“Come on, Twi’, when was the last time you’ve broken the rules? I don’t mean the small ones like being late, or something, I mean something big just because you wanted to?”

“I-I…”

Pinkie interrupted as I went crimson with embarrassment. “Aww Dashie, Twilight’s not that bad.”

That bad?!

Pinkie smiled at me, taking some of the edge off Rainbow’s—and her own—comment. “You’re just kinda sorta a little non-bendy sometimes.” She hummed thoughtfully as she made an effort to clarify her point. Pinkie held out her hooves and mimed a weighting scale. “Just a little itty bit.” She tilted her hooves a little to the left. “Juuuust a little.”

My eyes flickered between them. I couldn’t believe it. Even my friends thought I was an uptight shut-in. Well, it was true that recently I’ve been busy with projects, but I certainly talked to my friends! Last Tuesday… or was it Thursday? No, there was Rarity’s fashion something-or-other that she invited me to, but I thought that was next week, and Applejack was busy. So I spent the night reading some books, and there was a recent research paper that I had to verify and crosscheck with Neighture. In between that, I think Rainbow popped in at one point, but I told Spike to tell her not to break anything again. And Applejack really needed to return her books, and Pinkie needed to use the front door more often—

It suddenly occurred to me.

“Dear Celestia…” I whispered. “I am an uptight shut-in, aren’t I?”

“It’s not that…” Pinkie trailed off. The fact that Pinkie of all ponies was at a loss for words was the final nail in the proverbial coffin. I groaned, sinking to my haunches as I put my head in my hooves.

“Eh, Twilight, just come visit us sometime,” Rainbow said in the silence. “Not those quick ‘hello, how’s it going’, an actual visit.”

I couldn’t really say anything. She was right.

Rainbow and Pinkie shared a glance. I caught them signalling not-so-subtly to Fluttershy, who had stopped by and was peering at us all curiously.

“Uhh…” she trailed off as Pinkie and Rainbow made some more gestures, thinking I wouldn’t notice. I rolled my eyes, but hopefully Fluttershy had a different opinion?

“We were talking about Twilight,” Rainbow hinted through clenched teeth and an eyebrow wiggle. “And how she’s worried about how uptight she may or may not be.” The sentence was so strangled I had a hard time trying to figure out what she was trying to say.

“Oh Twilight’s not like that at all,” Fluttershy replied with a nervous smile.

I blinked in surprise. “R-Really?” I said.

Fluttershy seemed confused, but there was no mistaking the sincerity of her tone. “Oh yes,” she continued, her eyes flickered to Rainbow and Pinkie. “You’re a really good… uhm…”

I saw a pink blur in my periphery, but every time I looked Pinkie was whistling, as if she hadn’t been frantically signalling moments before.

“…At… uhh…”

I leaned forward.

“At sticking to the rules and being on time. Yes, you’re very punctual. You’re really smart and you’re widely read…?” She smiled hopefully at all of us. Rainbow winced as Pinkie sucked in a breath. I sagged. Fluttershy blinked in bewilderment as she registered our reactions. “Oh dear, did I say the wrong thing?”

Fluttershy hadn’t known what we were talking about, but somehow her shot in the dark about my redeeming qualities were centred around the very facet of my personality I was trying to avoid. It was clear. I was uptight. I was a shut-in. This… this was all kinds of depressing. A little because I knew I’d have to concede to my future-self, and mostly because I should have seen this earlier. Also, I would probably have to listen to a gleeful monologue from her. My future-self who was an infuriating parody of what I would strive to never become. Honestly.

The sigh leaving my lips felt like my soul leaving my body rather than depressive catharsis for my subdued mood.

The damage already done, Rainbow and Pinkie trotted over to Fluttershy, whispering into her ears while I sat on the ground, my own ears flat to my skull. I poked the ground with a dejected hoof. It’s not my fault I liked to follow the rules. Rules were important. Rules made things better. Rules could be fun… Oh dear Celestia, did I just think that rules could be fun? Nopony would think that! But I could be fun! Rules didn’t define me. Ponies needed to give me a chance at proving that wrong.

“Oh sorry, Twilight,” Fluttershy spoke tentatively, snapping me out of my brooding thoughts. Her low voice quivered as she moved on. “I didn’t know it was about the, uhm, thing. Sorry. I hope you’re not upset.”

I watched guiltily as Fluttershy went crimson and crossed her legs awkwardly. Was I making an Ursa Major out of a Minor? This wasn’t me, making my friends worry about something so trivial. I got to my hooves and shook my head.

“Don’t worry about it, Fluttershy, it’s not your fault.” The heavy sigh I gave made me feel a little better, even though nothing had changed. “I-It’s just me.”

No really, it was me.

“Are you sure? You look awfully upset,” Fluttershy mumbled.

I glanced up, noting my friend’s concern. That was stupid. What was worse than being uptight? Being a sad sack. I forced a grin and shook my head. At least my friends were honest with me. The truth hurt, but it was my pride more than anything. The day was young, and I could still spend some time with my friends, instead of moping around pitifully.

“Come on,” I said, “I haven’t seen you three in a while, what with me cooped up in the library. Let’s go get something to eat.”

Rainbow and Pinkie smiled in encouragement and Fluttershy looked relieved.

“Yeah,” Rainbow said, “good idea, we should hang out.”

“Yeah Twi’, we’ll get something to eat,” Pinkie exclaimed, her eyes twinkling in excitement. “I know just the place.”

Fluttershy smiled. “I could use something sweet.”

I smiled, much more sincerely this time. “First round of cupcakes is on me, then.”

“Aww yeah,” Rainbow cheered.

“Yes!” Pinkie shouted.

“Thanks, Twilight,” Fluttershy said.

——————

Time flew by fast when I was with my friends. Rarity and Applejack even dropped by, as if my friends were iron filings drawn by a magnet. Rarity said she’d cleared her schedule faster than she anticipated, while Applejack started in surprise and said the exact same thing too.

“So you believe me?”

“Of course we would,” Rarity replied. “Why wouldn’t we?”

“It’s not like you would lie to us,” Applejack said with a nod.

“I guess… I thought that you might have thought I was crazy.”

Rainbow cocked her head. “Well you were acting kinda—urk”

Rainbow ended her sentence abruptly as Rarity nudged her none-too-gently.

“In any case,” Rarity continued as if she wasn’t the cause of Rainbow’s discomfort, “we’re glad you’re out and about. We were worried you’d get cooped up in your lab the whole week.”

“We’re glad to see you,” Fluttershy added with a small smile. “I haven’t seen you or Owlowiscious for a while.”

Rarity steepled her hooves together as she considered me. “Even Spike was worried for you, dear. You need to get out more.”

“I was so close to making…” I frowned as I trailed off. What was it I was making again?

“See dear? You’re clearly overworked. Relax a little.”

“You’re right,” I said softly. “I think I’ve been in the lab a little too long.”

“Alright,” Rainbow said. “We should do something together, any plans?”

“Oooh! Oooh! I have about a hundred!” Pinkie exclaimed.

I licked my lips, falling into a helpless smile. “Let’s start at number one, then.”

————

Whatever the reason, I was glad to spend some time with my friends. I didn’t realise how much I had missed them until I saw them. Chatting with them made time fly by and made me forget about Twilight’s little prank, at least for a few hours.

Despite the fact that I wasn’t looking forward to actually having anything to do with my future-self, I did feel slightly guilty that I ditched her to meet up with my friends when she was waiting for me to come back and help her out. As exasperating as she was, I did give her my word that I would help. That wasn’t like me, it wasn’t like me at all. All my misgivings, however, were promptly erased when I stepped into the library.

“What in Equestria is going on here?”

Future-Twilight glanced up from the book she was reading…. Then she craned her neck down to view me from atop of the tower of books she had constructed.

“I’ve read all these books!” she exclaimed with a heady grin. “There’s so many books to read, I love it!”

“D-Did you just…?” Where did she get so many books? The library didn’t have this many books. Oh some of these are great reads! No, bad Twilight, focus! Right, how did she get to the top of her book fort? Wait, wings, duh! Okay, how did she read so many books in so little time? I wish I could read that many—

I shook my head free of the envious thoughts and drew courage in the breath I took to launch myself into a lecture.

“See here—”

“So did you loosen up a bit?”

Her pointed question took the wind out of my sails a bit.

“Uhh…” I sat on my haunches and crossed my arms. “What do you mean?”

Twilight rolled her eyes and glided down from the stack of books. Apart from being substantially taller than me, the way she flew, which reminded me a little of Rainbow, was disconcerting. Again, I caught myself being envious, despite the logical fact that I knew that it would be my future.

“I hope you’ve done more than just sit around on a bench all day.”

I reddened, retorting her assumption irritably. “I didn’t! I was with all my friends. What about you?”

For the first time I saw her, Twilight twitched in surprise. She recovered fast, but not before I caught it. I wondered what it meant.

“Ah,” she said, the self-satisfied smirk coming back. “So you aren’t always such a shut-in.”

“You’d know because you’re me,” I shot back, but Twilight simply chuckled.

“Oh… I’m glad you’re having fun,” she said, and again I caught that indiscernible emotion flicker across her features. Then she smiled, dismissing the statement with the small shake of her head. “Let’s have some time together. I have not spent these past few hours idly.”

I approached her with no small amount of caution. Who knew what I had in store for myself? “So…” I drawled, “what sort of prank requires this much preparation?”

Twilight’s smile spread slowly, looking more like the way a predator bares their fangs. I felt a shiver work its way down my spine.

“I’m glad you asked.”

Author's Notes:

Target locked.

Update, update, update.

Next Chapter: Things go entirely as expected.

As always, my indispensable readers, thanks for reading!