It’s always nice to have a day off. A day off bestows upon one the opportunity to release pent up tension and stress. It’s time available to indulge in personal hobbies and activities. To finish up extra work and to enjoy much needed relaxation. A day off from the constant pressures of paid labor is a coveted luxury, so it wasn’t surprising when a certain cyan pegasus squealed in joy after receiving one of her own. She so dearly needed it, too. As diligent as she was, Rainbow Dash still found it difficult to balance her job, Wonderbolt training, and social life without suffering from mental strain and fatigue.

Sleep was her slice of heaven. On a regular workday, eight hours of overnight rejuvenation were always appreciated. However, a personal day left a blank space in the pegasus’s schedule. She wasn’t required to wake at a set time, so in this instance her alarm clock served no use.

She already knew how she was to use her free time. Because it was a rather simple concept: snooze like she never snoozed before.

Snoozing was like breathing to Rainbow Dash. It wasn’t only a necessary part of her daily routine; it was a sought out bonus to her day. It was the extra frosting to her cake. Staying in bed and slumbering into the afternoon was the plan, and to her nothing was going to interrupt it. She found total bliss in the world of reveries. Her future role within the Wonderbolts, her friends and family, the blue skies and the white clouds, the rush from soaring at sonic speeds…Everything delightful could be reproduced by the wonders of imagination.

Enlightenment. Pure enlightenment. It was the release of body and mind, and it was paradise. A paradise that, on this day, Rainbow Dash truly wished she could remain in for the rest of her lovely existence.

For, on this day, the spirited little pony was to be awoken. And in more ways than one.

The Selfish One

The phone rang.

One ring, two rings, three rings. It was bothersome. Too many rings. Too many sounds. Too many throbs for the head. Four rings, five rings, six. It was too much. Why wouldn’t it stop? Seven rings, eight rings, nine –

CLICK. Hello, what’s up? …… Oh, it’s you. How’s it going? …… I’m kind of busy right now……because I’m not at the phone! Heh, heh! I so got you, didn’t I? Yeah, this is Rainbow Dash. Leave a message at the beep. BEEP.

A faint hiss resonated from the phone’s speaker, traveling across the tiny room. A click followed after a few seconds, and then there was once again that sweet, sweet silence. It was a beautiful moment for the slightly conscious pegasus, because it allowed her to finally drift back into her harmonic sleep. The phone had rung, and it had gotten her to squeeze her eyelids shut in frustration, but that was all over now. Again she was free to dream about anything on her mind. No more annoying rings, no more faint background hisses, no more –

One ring, two rings, three rings. Why? Why was it back? Four rings, five rings, six. Did it have to be so loud? Couldn’t it just wait? Couldn’t it be patient enough to wait until the afternoon? Seven rings, eight rings, nine –

CLICK. Hello, what’s up? …… Oh, it’s you. How’s it going? ……

“Oh, come ooon.” Rainbow Dash grunted in desperation, burying her face into a warm pillow to block out the ear-piercing sounds.

I’m kind of busy right now……because I’m not at the phone! Heh, heh! I so got you, didn’t I? Yeah, this is Rainbow Dash. Leave a message at the beep. BEEP.

Once again the soft, static hisses returned to echo across her room. If the phone ringing hadn’t promptly ruined the mood, the non-existent caller certainly did. To Rainbow Dash, it was either you called and left a message, or you didn’t call at all and try another time, preferably hours after the first attempt. It was basic common courtesy, wasn’t it? Calling two times in a row without leaving a message was borderline harassment this early in the morning.

The click of a call dropping ensued after another few seconds, and to Rainbow Dash’s relief she was free. Satisfaction coursed through each pressure point, releasing all her pent up tension. No more extraneous noises, no more real-world responsibilities. Just the simple, relaxing free-fall into slumberland.

Her face still in the pillow, the pegasus didn’t waste the strength to turn her head. She was too comfortable where she was to care. Her torso lay prone over the cushiony mattress. It was as soft as a fresh new cloud, perhaps even more so. One of her legs hung over the bed while the other rested snugly under a stray pillow. They both slid lazily underneath the two cotton blankets, caressing into each other.

And there it was. The luxury of finding the perfect resting position was a glorious instance for the chronic snoozer. Her quiet breaths slowed until she no longer noticed, and before she knew it she was back flying with the Wonderbolts under a vividly shining sun. Her mane was blown back, wild and uninhibited. Just Rainbow Dash, the team and the blue, blue sky–

One ring, two rings, three rings. Ugh. There it was again. Who was calling so damn much? Four rings, five rings, six.

The caller just couldn’t let it go, huh? There was just no pleasing this one! If the phone wasn’t picked up the first two times, why even bother the third time? Seven rings, eight rings, nine –

CLICK. Hello, what’s up? …… Oh, it’s you. How’s it going? ……

“Just. Shut. Up.” Rainbow Dash growled, a growing irritation boiling within her chest. “Stop. Calling.”

I’m kind of busy right now……because I’m not at the phone! Heh, heh! I so got you, didn’t I?

“I’m gonna get whoever this is. Calling me on my day off. What kind of pony does that?” Her eyes remained closed as she fumbled a hoof over her bed desk, half-heartedly reaching out for the phone.

Yeah, this is Rainbow Dash. Leave a message at the beep. BEEP.

There wasn’t an answer. Only the emptiness of a hissing speaker. Hmph, no surprise there, Rainbow thought. Why would there be a voice this time? It’s as if the caller was purposefully trying to aggravate her. Congratulations to the prankster, because it was definitely working.

This time Rainbow Dash didn’t let the phone hang up to produce a third click. Her hoof landed on the familiar arched shape, and after quickly bringing the plastic to her ear, she barked into the mouthpiece.

“What is it?! What do you want?!” She didn’t think about the consequences. In her groggy, half-conscious state Rainbow Dash felt justified for all her actions. She was the one undergoing unreasonable, excessive punishment, after all.

“Good afternoon. You seem up and ready for this new day.” A low, husky voice pronounced calmly. It seemed too gravelly to be female, so it must have been male.

“It’s so early in the morning! You couldn’t wait a few hours?” Rainbow responded angrily, rubbing at her aching eyes.

“Ah, but it’s two in the afternoon, actually. I had thought about calling you in the morning, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Call me merciful, hmm?” The caller didn’t come off snarky or sarcastic. He spoke matter-of-factly, as if everything he stated was unadulterated truth.

“Two…in the afternoon?” That couldn’t be right, she thought. The tired little pegasus focused her eyes to adjust to the darkness in her bedroom. She searched for the switch of the lamp located beside the telephone, and when she flicked it on a hoof went up to shield the sudden light from stabbing at her retinas. Bright. Too bright.

“Yes, yes, go ahead and open up your curtains. It is such a beautiful day today. If you had continued sleeping in, you might have missed it.” The caller hummed innocently. “I didn’t want you to be deprived of such an opportunity.”

The last thing she wanted was to be chewed up and swallowed whole by the sun.

“Thanks but no thanks. I see it here. Two o’ five…” Rainbow Dash stared at her tiny, oval-shaped alarm clock. It was classic in its design. There weren’t any illuminated numbers on the timepiece, but instead it displayed two ticking hands. She thought it fit to the interior, and admittedly she was never fond of always knowing the current time, especially in the wee hours of dawn. It was less stressful for her, because she’d never feel rushed to get to a certain appointment. “Look, sorry for yelling just now. Had no idea it was already this late.”

She apologized, but she wasn’t totally invested in the apology itself. She would have slept until much later if it hadn’t been for the caller. He still hadn’t identified himself to her either. Or why he had called to interrupt her precious day off. With the schedule she’d be taking on the next day, she deserved as much sleep as she could get.

“Who is this, anyway?” Rainbow asked, subconsciously pressing her head to the earpiece. “I can’t recognize your voice. Do I know you?”

“We aren’t particularly acquainted, no. We’ve never really exchanged words, though we’ve bumped into each other before.”

Rainbow Dash sat up in her bed, pushing her head-pillow behind her lower back. She didn’t want to get out of bed. If the reason for the call could be finished up as quickly as possible, she’d be satisfied and given the chance to maybe reenter slumberland. It was a long shot, but she’d work at it.

Rainbow waited for the caller to continue speaking. She expected to be given his name, his motivation, and especially his ‘goodbye’ fairly soon.

But he didn’t speak. The undesirably familiar hissing bounced around the pegasus’s eardrum for an agonizing half-minute before she’d finally had enough.

“So…who are you, and why are you calling me?” Rainbow Dash sighed in resignation. Somepony had to get the ball rolling.

He answered punctually. “You don’t have to know my real name to have a conversation. But because I understand anonymity can serve as an inconvenience, I’ll let you call me Dusty.”

What was he going on about now? She didn’t have the patience to find out. “Uh, okay. I don’t get what the point is, but whatever. Can you just tell me what you’ve called me for? I kind of want to get back to sleep.”

“The point of providing you a pseudonym, Rainbow Dash, is to hide my true identity.” Dusty explained. Again his voice was neither snobbish nor mocking. He came off as merely noting a detail.

Rainbow Dash’s tolerance, however, was growing thin. She refrained herself from clearing her throat in contempt. “Fine, Dusty. You still haven’t told me why you called.”

“So you want to immediately arrive to the fun part, I see. I’ll be forthright in admitting that I wanted to play a little longer, seeing as how you’re distressed and all. But no matter. We can begin now, if you’re in such a hurry to.”

Odd. Rainbow Dash could almost hear the smile stretching behind Dusty’s dry tone.

“Okay, I’m getting a little tired of this stalling. Are you supposed to be pranking me or something? If so, you’ve done a bad job at it, and I’m hanging up.” She wasn’t enduring it any longer. She could understand the merriment in the occasional prank, but stripping someone away from their sleep was going too far. Sleep was her close friend. The two had been split up by an outside force, and they wanted to be together again.

“Pranks are too juvenile. No, you don’t deserve that, Rainbow Dash.” He replied in a slow and clear manner. “You deserve something much more enlightening. Something you’ll remember for the rest of your life.”

Rainbow almost laughed. “Yeah, I’m hanging up now.” She made to immediately hang up the phone, but muffled sounds from the earpiece piqued her curiosity. The caller had said something, and if she could guess, it sounded like a question. She swiftly brought it back to her ear to listen to the rest of it.

“ – you truly are?” Dusty finished and paused.

“What? I didn’t get that first part.” Rainbow wondered why she was even bothering. It’s not as if it mattered to her in the slightest.

A dark, chilling chuckle parried back, causing the pegasus to tremble without her control. It was unanticipated. The caller’s polite, welcoming nature had vanished, replaced by a discomforting aggressiveness.

“I’ll repeat my question only because I appreciate the irony.” Dusty tittered ominously. “Do you, Rainbow Dash, realize how disgustingly selfish you truly are? It seems you–”

“Joke’s over. Don’t call me again–”

“I’ll let your selfish little interruption slide this once.” His tongue clicked, and a split second later his voice returned to its original calm. “However, the next time will bring consequences.”

The pegasus was shocked. Her mouth hung open in daft silence, her eyes glazed in the midst of a stupor. Her entire body went stiff as a board, and her mind whirred into chaos, thinking, wondering, analyzing, asking…She didn’t understand why the caller had asked her such a question, or why he’d come off as domineering. She didn’t want to understand. It was a meddlesome affair that had gone on for longer than she should have allowed it to. It was a mistake on her part to continue listening, because nothing but abject chills crawled up her spine as she slowly hung up the phone.

The click of the phone fitting into its base brought on an ease to her confusion. Blinking, Rainbow turned to stare at the wireless device. It was as if she needed to confirm that it was actually hung up. And after a full minute of staring catatonically at the wretched telephone, she shook her head with vigor, wiping her thoughts clean of the call prior. The pegasus then breathed a huge sigh of relief, and she sunk back under the blankets to fall back asleep.

Yet she couldn’t doze off. She waited and shifted and counted all the sheep…yet she was unable to push pass the threshold into slumberland. The lights were off, the phone wasn’t ringing, the blankets were warm, the mattress was cushiony, the pillow was soft, her wings were folded in snugly, her eyes were heavy and tired...Still she wasn’t entering her Eden of fantasies.

So close to slipping through. She was so close. But for the life of her she couldn’t do it. So in her frustrated, conscious state, she began to wonder. What was wrong? Oftentimes she’d have no trouble seeking REM experiences, so why was today different?

Deep down the pegasus knew the answer. In the back of her mind, she knew. She never intended to confront it, because it was a ridiculous little piece of insignificance to her day. It was simply the result of an anonymous caller’s annoying nature. The product of his stupidity.

She shouldn’t have been moved by it…but the constant lies she told herself finally weighed her down. What was wrong and different was his question. Rainbow Dash had been startled by that dumb, stupid, idiotic, crack-pot question from that dumb, stupid, idiotic, crack-pot Dusty. His voice had been ringing in her head ever since he’d shushed her up, and it was making her gag. She couldn’t believe she’d been affected so easily by something so trivial.

“Selfish? Who does that jerk think he is?” She mumbled to herself, scrunching up her face in utter distaste at the thought of Dusty. “Disgustingly selfish? What the buck does that mean?”

Rainbow didn’t find it fair that she had to suffer for somepony’s lame excuse for a prank. Disgustingly selfish, Dusty had said. It was merely an insult directed at her. Why she had been disrespected so harshly racked the pegasus’s brains. She knew because of her popularity as an Element of Harmony, she had many friends and supporters. Her role within the Wonderbolts was also making itself known throughout the heart of Equestria. Fame was an inevitable byproduct for both these involvements, so it wasn’t surprising she’d at times become the center of attention.

But Rainbow also recognized that popularity had its consequences. For one thing, it brought with it jealousy. She couldn’t think of any reason for Dusty’s call other than the fact that he was jealous. She figured he’d likely be a covetous wreck. Somepony who glared at her with some unjustifiable hatred, only because he could. Envy made such a creature more pathetic than he already was, she thought. It was despicable but nothing she couldn’t handle.

The phone then rang again.

Rainbow Dash reacted instantly, jumping out to the phone with expert reflexes. She wanted to give this caller a piece of her mind.

“Look, bub! I don’t know how you got my number, but if you don’t stop calling me, I’ll find you and report you!” She snarled intimidatingly into the mouthpiece, attempting to readdress her dominance. The last call had been a fluke, and she hadn’t been prepared, but this time she was ready.

Dusty didn’t wait to provide a rebuttal. “You’re quite fortunate that it was I who had called. If it was somepony else, you might have startled them. But it demonstrates how you’re so disgustingly selfish. You certainly didn’t take into regard the well-being of others, and you only though about yourself.”

Rainbow paused. Her head began to ache. “…I know what you’re doing, and it’s not working. So stop calling me or you’ll regret it!”

“I beg to differ, because I believe it is in fact working. Why, you didn’t even resist answering the phone. It seems you were awake, hmm?” Rainbow could hear Dusty smack his lips together. “Perhaps it was I who kept you awake?”

“What do you think?” She spat. And at that she slammed the phone down, hearing the click as it disconnected. Crossing her forehooves with a huff, Rainbow blew the bangs away from her eyes. “What the buck’s his problem?”

It took a few minutes before she calmed down again. The pace of her palpitating heart eased back into its regular beat. She was tired, confused and most of all upset. What was she going to do now? Duck under the covers and wish desperately for sleep? As hopeful as she’d wanted to be, Rainbow could see the futility of those actions. She wasn’t going back to sleep, because she was too awake and alert to try.

“It’s his fault…” Rainbow’s enmity simmered. She despised having been so ruffled up by an unknown source. His calls had succeeded in staggering her, a moment she abhorred greatly. And yet the after-effects still lingered in the air, pushing down on the pegasus’s comfort zones, puncturing them. A couple rings of the phone, a dumb question and more nonsense were all it took to push her buttons? Indeed it was a saddening reality for the prideful little pony.

She considered disconnecting the phone completely. At least she wouldn’t have to be bothered again by his calls. The downside to unplugging it, though, was not being able to receive any notices. Postal mail was a profitable service, as it was regarded as a formal, more refined means of communication among the citizens of Equestria. However the telephone was a grand invention that had immediately gave way to quicker contact between users, and it, too, gained mass approval from consumers. It seemed nowadays all her friends, her employers, even the Wonderbolt Academy reached out to Rainbow Dash almost solely through phone lines.

She had no choice but to keep the phone connected. At any time of the day, an actual call of importance could possibly ring through, and she needed to make sure it did. At this Rainbow Dash held onto the conviction that she would not allow anymore anonymous callers to pester her. Because she was stronger than them. She’d prove it to both herself and to Dusty.

.............................................

PLOT BASIS

“If and when you admit to your disgustingly selfish behavior, I’ll promptly cease all calls and never call again.”