Tuesday
It was Rainbow Dash’s day off. Interestingly enough, it wasn’t by her own volition that she never worked on Tuesdays. It had been a measure forced onto her by the corporate branch of Ponyville; a lot of complaints had arrived saying that there may as well not have been a weather team with how quickly Rainbow dealt with everything.
Corporate had been quick to talk to her, trying to find a diplomatic solution to their complaints. Maybe Rainbow could have slowed down a bit, let the other ponies have a chance to hone their skills. Needless to say, she’d turned that idea down right off the bat. There was no way in Tartarus that she would slow down on the job.
After about three or four repeats of that, corporate had just thrown their hooves up in the air and granted Rainbow an extra day off every week so that the other ponies could manage the weather for at least one day out of seven.
The complaints stopped, the newbies got their experience days on the job, and Rainbow got some more time to practise and sleep. A win-win-win situation.
Sadly this Tuesday seemed to have started about five hours before it usually did.
Rainbow groaned, stretching her hooves out above her head and opening one eye a fraction of an inch.
The early morning sun streamed in, causing Rainbow to snap her eyes shut and groan louder as she stuck a pillow over her head.
“Stupid sun…” she mumbled into the bedsheets.
A few loud knocks echoed around the room.
Rainbow ignored them.
“Rainbow?”
It was another distraction, something else trying to disturb her lovely peace and quiet. She attempted to bury her head into the sheets further, making an earnest effort to cut off all light and sound from reaching her.
She almost thought that she heard a small chuckle, somewhere at the boundaries of her hearing, and that was when the blanket was yanked away from her, leaving her body exposed to the harsh and chilly environments of a bedroom in the morning.
Forgetting completely about the harsh sunlight, she withdrew her head from the safety of the pillow and looked around, annoyed. “Hey, what gives?” she asked Twilight who was standing at the foot of the bed, cover already folding itself up within her magic and wearing a smirk on her face.
Ignoring her completely, Twilight replied, “Morning Rainbow, have a good sleep?”
“I was…” Rainbow mumbled, blinking quickly as her eyes got used to the bright light of day.
“Excellent, want any breakfast then?”
Rainbow’s ears perked up, “Breakfast? What time is it Twilight?” she asked, chancing a brief look outside the window at the rising sun again.
“It’s around eight in the morning,” came the reply as Twilight moved the folded quilt onto a deserted chair with the note ‘washing’ taped onto the front of it.
Rainbow paused again, “Wait… eight in the morning as in before midday?” she clarified.
“Well unless you know any other eights in the morning, I guess so.”
Rainbow let out another loud groan, falling backwards and letting her head slam into the pillow, “But that’s like, too early…” she moaned into the air.
She was almost certain that she heard a snorting sound from Twilight before she spoke again, “Well, fine. If you do decide that you’re hungry, we’ve got plenty of stuff downstairs.”
Rainbow waited until she heard Twilight leave the room and the door click shut behind her before she sighed…
So she’d not even managed a night watch for Mare Do Better… not that it would have changed anything; she was fairly sure that Twilight would have mentioned it to her if she’d actually seen Mare Do Better last night.
But for Twilight, TWILIGHT, to stay up and watch for Mare Do Better instead of her? There was something seriously wrong with that picture… Rainbow should have been the one on lookout for the adventure and excitement while Twilight was catching up on her forty winks.
She’d have to ask Twilight to do it again, maybe even patrol the streets instead this time. They’d certainly be less likely to nod off mid-chase.
She sniffed.
Speaking of Twilight… breakfast was suddenly sounding very appealing to her empty stomach and she was painfully reminded of the simple sandwich that Twilight had cooked up last night for her, so long ago.
Letting her nose guide her, she rose out from the sheet-less bed and left the bedroom, taking the stairs downstairs two at a time as she honed in on that delicious smell.
She was fairly sure that she could smell waffles, pancakes, toast, jam, peanut butter and hundreds of other breakfast treats that had her drooling as she came down the last few stairs and stopped dead.
Twilight certainly hadn’t been lying when she’d said ‘plenty of stuff’… there was enough to feed a small army down here, all spread out across three tables and a small patch of the floor.
She glanced around, her eyes locking on Twilight as she emerged from the kitchen, looking slightly anxious.
“Is there enough here for you Rainbow? I knew that you’d be famished after not having much to eat last night and I wasn’t sure how much you’d want.”
Rainbow could just nod numbly, before she realised that Twilight was waiting for an actual response and replied hoarsely, “Yeah… this is great thanks.”
Twilight beamed at Rainbow and started levitating a pair of plates, splitting the two between herself and Rainbow.
Rainbow immediately got to piling her plate high with food, managing to fit three pancakes, a few waffles and four slices of toast onto her plate before deciding that anything else would just bring it all crashing down.
Twilight on the other hoof was carefully and meticulously picking out her breakfast, scrutinising it carefully before moving on to eating it.
They both ate in silence, until they finished, then they kept silent, the feeling of being well-fed and among friends making all conversation unnecessary.
Then the silence continued.
And continued.
And continued.
Eventually, a loud knock at the door broke the spell on the room.
“I’ll get it,” Twilight said quickly, standing up and heading towards the door as Rainbow laid her head in her hooves.
This was idiotic. There’d never been as long a silence between herself and Fluttershy. She put it down to not spending enough time around Twilight.
Twilight’s voice drifted across the room, “How can I- Oh hi Rarity, what brings you here this morning?”
“Ah, good morning Twilight, I was wondering if you’d run into Rainbow Dash lately perchance?” Rarity’s voice followed Twilight’s, as measured and smooth as normal.
Alarm bells immediately started ringing between Rainbow’s ears. Rarity… here… looking for her…
Crud.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, she registered that Twilight had replied to Rarity, but the forefront of her mind was more preoccupied with thinking up escape routes. If she knew Rarity, she could tell that meeting her was going to be a bad idea, scratch that… a very bad idea.
The sound of the door shutting startled Rainbow into action, sending her up onto her hooves and leaping up the stairs, all-but flying into Twilight’s bedroom; she looked around wildly, deciding on the balcony almost immediately and trying to turn herself towards the exit, skittering slightly on the wooden floor as she tried to find some grip.
Using her wings for balance, she finally pointed herself in the general direction of the way out and ran, full-pelt, towards it just as the hoofsteps started climbing the stairs.
With a whoop of relief, she leapt outside and off the balcony, congratulating herself on her quick thinking as she stretched out her wings and glided gently down to the ground.
“Ah Rainbow, so nice of you to join me.”
Rainbow froze mid-stride, her pupils dilating to pinpricks. She turned around slowly, spotting Rarity instantly, less than ten paces away and her mane as good as new.
“Ah- Hey Rarity,” she offered weakly.
“I didn’t want to intrude on your incredibly important business, but it seems that you’re free now,” Rarity’s words came out sickly sweet, but Rainbow was convinced she could hear the malice beneath. Her mind had been boosted into overdrive as her eyes darted left and right, desperately calculating the best escape route possible.
“Won’t you join me for a bit of mare-to-mare chat?”
Was there a hint of a leer in Rarity’s gaze now? It certainly looked like there was to Rainbow.
Rarity took a step forwards.
Rainbow took a step back.
“I’d rather not, thanks all the same,” Rainbow replied, slowly edging away… if she could just start running into the alley before flying away…
“No, no… you misunderstand my dear… I simply insist that you join me for some simple conversation.”
Rainbow decided. “Not likely,” she said over her shoulder, spinning around and attempting to speed off in whatever direction was not covered by Rarity.
Or at least, she would have if Rarity hadn’t caught her in a magical bubble first.
“My, my… so enthusiastic to get started are we Rainbow Dash?”
Rainbow attempted to spin around in her prison until she was facing Rarity who was definitely leering at her now.
“Mercy?” she asked hopelessly as she prodded the barrier around her. Completely impenetrable.
Rarity quirked her head as if surprised, “Mercy? You mean like you and Pinkie showed my coiffure mercy two days ago? I think not. It’s the spa for us two.”
Rainbow’s stomach clenched as she realised that Rarity was already on the move, Rainbow Dash in tow, “No, please, no…” she started, trying desperately to think of an escape, “I’ll model your dresses for you, I’ll… I’ll… I’ll take part in a fashion show for you; just please… not the spa.”
Rarity turned her head and smiled angelically at Rainbow before facing forwards again, the spa just becoming visible atop the next hill.
“I don’t think so my dear. I said that I’d treat you to a spa visit and I’ll stick by my word as a lady. And if you should even so much as consider running out on this, I will hunt you down and tie your wings to your chest before I bring you back and we start over again with the full treatment. Do we have an understanding?”
Rainbow shook her head wildly as the spa loomed in front of them, “Mercy…” she whispered.
“MERCY!”
“Twilight, I want you to promise me something.”
Rainbow Dash’s voice came through the library door muffled and completely serious. Twilight reached out to push the door open to let Rainbow inside only to find that the door stayed stock still, blocked from the other side.
“Rainbow-”
“Just promise me you won’t laugh, ok?” Rainbow cut across Twilight, almost pleading.
There was a pause from inside the library, then Twilight replied, “Alright, I won’t laugh. Happy?”
Rainbow nodded to no-one in particular and stepped back from the door, letting it swing open and clenching her eyes shut. She didn’t need to see Twilight’s reaction to what had been done to her.
Time passed and the air remained silent.
Curiously, Rainbow opened an eye, trying to gauge Twilight’s reaction against her better judgement.
Dusk had fallen again in Ponyville and Rainbow had finally been released from Rarity’s care with the addition of a belt around her midriff.
Twilight had stuck to her promise and wasn’t making a sound, simply gawping at Rainbow instead before she spotted Rainbow scrutinising her and shut her mouth with an audible click.
“Well I guess that explains where you sped off to this morning…” she offered weakly, still looking at Rainbow with an air of disbelief.
Rainbow nodded self-consciously.
“And the belt?” Twilight asked, deliberately looking away from Rainbow’s face at her midriff.
“Tried to escape…” Rainbow mumbled, her voice almost inaudible to her own ears, “Rarity caught me.”
A look of understanding flashed across Twilight’s face before she stuck her head out suddenly, looking left and right before using her magic to yank Rainbow inside, closing the door with a snap behind her.
“Wha- Hey!” Rainbow started before Twilight cut across her.
“I don’t think that standing around on my doorstep as you… as you are, is going to help your reputation very much,” Twilight sighed, “you’re free to use my bathroom, first door on the left at the top of the stairs.”
Rainbow muttered, “Thanks,” and turned towards the stairs.
“Oh, and Rainbow?”
She paused and felt the belt around her chest loosen and detach itself, dropping to the floor with a loud clunk a moment later.
Rainbow nodded her thanks, before rushing up the stairs and shutting the door behind her with a snap, locking it a moment later.
She breathed out a sigh of relief, at least Twilight hadn’t laughed at her. There was that at the very least. She shuddered slightly as the day replayed itself over and over in her head.
First they’d given her a seaweed mud bath. That had been fine, no problemo.
Then they’d tried to file and buff her hooves… that had been a big problemo.
That was when she’d tried to escape, but Rarity had been waiting for her with a belt, and true to her word… they’d started again, seaweed mud path followed by hoof filing and buffing.
It had taken four ponies to hold her down and her hooves steady as the spa ponies worked their torture on her. She had that to be happy for at least.
After that, they’d started on her head and her mane, rubbing sweet-smelling liquids into her mane and pressing itchy powder against her face, no matter how much she begged for mercy.
After several hours of hell, she was finally released from the torture chamber and sped off on hoof, unwilling to let Rarity corral her into any more wretched spa treatments. She hadn’t even managed to have a look at what those imps had done to her.
That problem was solved when she saw herself in Twilight’s mirror.
The pony that looked back from the mirror was free from any scrapes, bumps and bruises that Rainbow Dash possessed. She didn’t have snarls in her mane or tail and she didn’t look like she’d just flown through a hedge backwards, nor did her body shine slightly in the low light afforded to her by a small lamp above.
She barely recognised herself.
Then there was her face. She could barely see the pony beneath all that make-up; she could barely see herself within the doll in the mirror.
But if she was honest with herself… she looked…
Beautiful.
She turned on the tap.
Eventually, Rainbow Dash emerged from the bathroom; all of the make-up removed and currently on its way down Twilight’s drain. She’d not been able to do anything about her mane yet, but she had no doubt that it’d be back to its messy self within a matter of hours.
She came back downstairs to find Twilight rummaging through her saddlebags, looking for something.
“Are you going out somewhere?” she asked.
Twilight turned and her eyebrows shot skywards, only to settle back down a moment or so later, “We, you mean. I think it’d be more productive for us to actually go and wander around Ponyville to see what we can find. We can wander along the rooftops and see what we can see.”
Rainbow blinked before shaking her head, clearing some of the cobwebs within it before nodding in agreement, “Sounds like a plan, what’s with the saddlebags though?”
“Pictures,” Twilight replied, returning to searching through the various bags that littered the floor.
“Huh?”
“If we can get a picture of Mare Do Better, that’s one step closer to finding her identity,” she explained, letting out a loud: “Aha!” a moment later and producing a dusty camera from the depths of one of the bags.
“There you were…” she murmured, turning back to Rainbow a moment later and hanging the camera around her own neck, “so are you ready to start looking?”
Rainbow nodded firmly, “Yeah, let’s just hope that tonight’s going to be more interesting that last night.”
Twilight hummed in agreement, lifting her saddlebags onto her back.
Rainbow walked over to the door, holding it open for Twilight, “Let’s get going then.”
Twilight nodded and slipped out, followed closely by Rainbow who shut the door behind herself.
The moon was starting to rise into the sky and everything was eerily quiet outside.
“Ok… first step is the rooftops right?” Rainbow questioned.
Twilight nodded again, “Right, I’ll meet you up there then?”
“But you can’t fly…” Rainbow pointed out.
Twilight sighed, rolling her eyes before she opened them again, “Hello… magic?”
“Oh yeah…” Rainbow replied grudgingly, stretching her wings open and flapping them once or twice. She had been itching to fly ever since Rarity had stuck that stupid belt on her, and now she had her chance.
She lifted off, flying just high enough to drop down on the first roof that came up in front of her, dropping down silently onto it as Twilight appeared right next to her.
“Rainbow?” Twilight whispered across to her companion.
“Yeah Twi?” Rainbow whispered back.
“Why don’t we split up? That way at least one of us is going to be near an incident if one occurs, then we can signal the other one.”
Rainbow thought about it for a moment, then replied quietly, “What about that whole safety in numbers thing?”
Twilight just pointed to her horn.
“Alright… good point,” Rainbow muttered before raising her voice again, “alright, fine. See you later then.”
Twilight nodded and lit her horn, sparking away moments later and leaving Rainbow on her own on the rooftops.
She shivered slightly as the wind blew across the rooftops.
The wind carried a sound across the silence; it was almost-but-not-quite the sound of friendly pats on the back of ponies, this sound much closer to the clacking of shod hooves on cobblestones, timed rhythmically for four clacks a second.
Curiosity piqued, she spread her wings and started flying in the general direction of the sound. Her mind briefly informed her that Twilight hadn’t said which way she was going to go, but she wasn’t worried about it, it would just mean that there were two ponies against Mare Do Better tonight if Twilight had come this way, and if not…? Rainbow was confident enough that this Mare Do Better would be no match for her.
The clacking drew closer and closer until Rainbow was forced to drop down onto the roofs, lest she be seen from below.
She carefully poked her head out over the edge of the roof and was not disappointed.
Far below, a stallion, lean and oozing power, was circling another pony on the ground.
The pony on the ground groaned helplessly.
The stallion leant down, lifting the pony on the ground up with a forehoof and barely a hint of effort, before slugging him across the face with his other forehoof.
Rainbow winced as she saw a few teeth fly from the helpless pony, yet she didn’t look away, the horrific scene below her keeping her eyes glued to the spectacle better than any stage had ever done.
Something moved to the right of the scene below and Rainbow’s eyes shot across, fixing on the pony emerging onto the massacre.
The pony wore a dark blue cloak, just like the papers had said, along with a dark velvet hat that was practically glued to the pony’s head. Rainbow couldn’t see any wings though.
The large stallion paused as he caught sight of the newcomer. He started speaking in a cultured accent, “Ah, Mare Do Better I see. Thank you for coming.”
The cloaked pony remained silent.
“You’ve angered one of my bosses to no end, those two meetings you interrupted? Someone has to pay for those mistakes, wouldn’t you say?”
Silence reigned supreme for a few moments again.
The large pony sighed, “Why are all the heroes in this town either completely egotistical or silent?” he asked rhetorically before laughing loudly, “Not that it matters, now I have to deliver a message on regards of my business,” he settled back into a fighting stance, “Come at me.”
And like that, it had begun.
Rainbow didn’t dare to blink, they both shot towards one another with almost superpony-like speed, evading blows, dodging attacks and retaliating with their own counters with perfect synchronicity.
This wasn’t a fighting style that Rainbow knew, though. This looked like street fighting. Neither of them fought fair; the large stallion tried to aim for the eyes more than once, and Rainbow thought she saw Mare Do Better attempt to kick her opponent where the sun doesn’t shine.
It looked like a perfect stalemate until Mare Do Better drew back, a pained hiss echoing up to Rainbow as she saw a thin line of blood spurt from the vigilante’s muzzle.
The stallion leered at the masked pony, walking towards her menacingly.
Rainbow blinked, and blinked again, this time in disbelief.
The large stallion was on the floor, canaries practically whizzing around his head, while Mare Do Better was still stood stock still in the dim alley.
But she looked winded; she looked weaker than she had before.
“You’re mine now Mare Do Better!” Rainbow called from high up on the rooftops, jumping off and speeding down into the alley.
Mare Do Better glanced up and started running towards the end of the alley, completely ignoring both downed ponies. Rainbow was surprised; she was quick for an Earth pony, but no-one was quicker than Rainbow Dash.
She landed on level ground and started running, flying in the dark was just asking for a darkened sign to pop up out of no-where.
Her quarry was always in her sights, every time she rounded a corner, she saw Mare Do Better turn another one, slipping further and further into the labyrinth of Ponyville.
Then Mare Do Better made the first mistake of the night, turning down into a dead end.
“I’ve got you now!” Rainbow yelled, putting on a burst of speed and rounding the corner to be met with the blank wall dead ahead.
She braked, sliding to a halt and looking around the alley. Then she lifted off and looked over the rooftops.
There was no-one there.