All's Fair

by Equestria Buck Yeah

Chapter 15

"Oh, hey Rarity! What are you doing here?" Sweetie Belle asked.

The only answer came in the form of a frozen white mare. Rarity's lips quivered as she tried to form a coherent sentence while staring in horror at her younger sister. One by one, the Crusaders and their newest member shared an awkward, confused look amongst each other.

"Errr, you okay?"

Blue eyes blinked, and the unicorn shook off her stupor. A crooked smile forced its way across Rarity's cheeks.

"Oh, um...h-hello, darling. I'm glad I found you!"

Sweetie Belle hopped to her hooves and trotted up to her elder. "Why? What's up?"

"If anypony says we did anything, they're lying," Scootaloo quickly added, hoping to dodge any potential activity-related trouble.

As Sweetie rolled her eyes at her friend, a nervous hoof grazed her shoulder. "Oh no no, nothing like that," Rarity insisted. "It's just that...Twilight wanted to speak with you. She...s-stopped by my place looking for you, but I figured you'd be here."

"Why didn't she come herself?" the youth wisely asked. "And aren't you guys kind of...fighting?"

The dressmaker bit her lip and quickly thought up a decent excuse. "Well, she, um...was short on time and didn't want to run around all day looking, so I volunteered...and, we're...not on the best of terms right now, no. Let's just leave it at that."

"Oh." The little one's ears sagged. "I wish it wasn't that way."

"Yes, well...life can be funny sometimes," Rarity sighed. "Come now. We shouldn't keep her waiting. Twilight said it was important that she see you right away."

"Can we come too?" Apple Bloom spoke up just as their ivory friends were about to turn to leave.

"It would be best if you girls stayed here. Besides, she only asked for Sweetie Belle."

As Rarity took the hurried lead, her sister paused momentarily to wave goodbye. "I'll catch up with you later, okay? Don't have too much fun without me!"

"No promises!" Cottontail said with a wink.

-----

Rarity shared next to nothing on her way back to Twilight's castle. A bit of nervous small talk about what her sister had been up to that day was about all she could muster, leaving Sweetie Belle frustrated and curious. Did she do something wrong? Her sister seemed upset, but as usual, she wasn't sharing.

The filly did note that as they got back into town, Rarity suddenly – noticeably – began staring long and hard at just about everypony they passed by and inspecting every corner of every building nearby. Did she think somepony was following her or something? Sweetie Belle even caught herself occasionally glancing at random townsfolk but couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. Everypony seemed to be just...going about their business.

As they finally approached the castle, the mare took one last suspicious look around, narrowing her eyes. Satisfied, she quickly pulled them inside and shut the door behind them, pausing again to glimpse around the empty hallway. Each open door they passed as they marched to where the others were waiting made Rarity stick her nose inside and inspect the place, never explaining why to Sweetie Belle despite the nervousness written all over her face. Why wouldn't she just spill the beans already?! Maybe Sweetie could help somehow!

At last, they arrived at their destination. Taking a deep breath, Rarity knocked and Twilight received them, cracking the door just enough to see them. Her lavender eyes widened when she saw the younger sibling but she still kept silent. Grimly, she exchanged a nod with Rarity and allowed them to enter. Once they were a few steps inside, Twilight slammed the door closed, holding it shut with her magic.

"Jeez, Twilight, you scared the....uh oh," a familiar voice squeaked.

With her ears perked hard, the new-arrived filly turned and found her staring at herself. 'What the–?' was all she managed to blurt out before she found herself and her twin violently engulfed by light blue magic and held hostage up against the wall.

"Rarity, what are you doing?!"

"Sis, it's me! Come on, stop!" they argued, but she wasn't giving an inch.

Somehow managing to keep her boiling blood under control, she growled to Twilight, "So how do we figure out which is the real one?"

Spike, who had been waiting back a distance, walked up to them. "Why not ask them something only the real Sweetie Belle would know?"

"Makes sense," his guardian admitted. "Go ahead."

After a moment of tapping at her chin, the designer cleared her throat. "Alright. What is the most important thing in the world to me?"

"What? What kind of question is that?" the dragon groaned.

"Just trust me, Spike," she replied, smiling gently at him.

The filly who had been at the castle already went first. "That's an easy one! Your friends! You've, like, saved the world a bunch of times and stuff, right?"

"Oh, what a cliched answer," her doppleganger said. "I'm the real one and can prove it. You didn't listen! She said 'thing', not ponies. Plus, she and her friends are kind of fighting right now, so that answer wouldn't make any sense anyway." Sweetie didn't notice her elders fidgeting uncomfortably as she rolled her eyes. "It's her fire ruby necklace! She told me so herself! She polishes it once a week even if it doesn't need it and has told me more than once that it was a very special gift from a very special pony....err, dragon. I have a feeling if anypony ever tried to take it, it'd probably be the last thing they'd do."

The latter found herself floating over to her big sister and embraced tightly, their cheeks nuzzling together.

"R-really?" Spike muttered, his eyes wet. "That's the most important thing in the world to you?"

"Of course, dearie," Rarity answered as she set her sister down. "Everything she said is completely true, and like I've been saying, you know I'd never do anything to intentionally hurt you – and if I ever have, I'm truly sorry."

Sniffling, Spike ran up and threw his arms around Rarity's neck, and she returned the gesture. His eyes suddenly flew wide open. "Wait a minute."

"What is it, darling?"

"If that wasn't really you that whole time, then that means..." His covered his mouth and almost collapsed. "O-oh gods. I think I'm going to be sick!"

In a flash, Twilight lifted him over to a nearby chair and gently set him down as he began to hyperventilate. "Easy! Easy!"

"Tw-tw-twilight! I-I think I–"

"I know, Spike, I know." She lovingly brushed a hoof across his forehead. "Just try to relax. I'm here."

With the ponies distracted, the phony Sweetie Belle started up her magic and grabbed a book off a nearby shelf and another off the center table, slamming them in her enemies' faces and knocking them to the floor. Finally free of Rarity's own magical grip, the fake bolted out the door and took off toward the exit.

The mares shook off the blows and got to their hooves, a furious Rarity first turning to her sister before sprinting away. "Sweetie Belle, stay here with Spike. Try to calm him down if you can."

Twilight took to the air once she recovered, stopping before the filly. "Go further up the hall. The next right and then your first left. It's a storage room. One of the few rooms in this place without any windows and only one way out. Get in there and wait for me to return."

"How will I know it's really you?!"

"Ruby!" the alicorn yelled as she jetted away.

"Ruby? Oh, a password!" Sweetie spun around and ran over to Spike, grabbed his limp arm. "Come on, we gotta go!"

Mustering what strength he could, he flopped weakly to the floor, barely able to stand. His stomach was doing just as well. He draped an arm across the filly's shoulder and hoped she could help carry him better than he could do on his own. As they stumbled past the book Twilight took to the head, the young dragon paused. "Wait."

"What is it?"

"You were right about one thing – Twilight and her friends fighting. If that other Sweetie Belle really is a changeling, they may need help." A small stack of papers and a quill sitting on the table stared back at him. "Plus, I'll bet somepony else would like another crack at them if there are others around."

-----

Twilight stopped just outside the castle and scoped out her prey. It would have been nearly impossible to tell where they went if she didn't spot Rarity galloping down the road. Zipping over, the fashionista yelled to her, "Dark blue, white hair!"

With a nod, the princess climbed higher, taking a shortcut over nearby houses. Looking down, she saw Rarity hang a right between a series of homes and small shops, hot on the trail. At the next street, the dressmaker slammed on the brakes, suddenly not sure which way they went. She knew the shapeshifter came that way, but finding someone that could change their appearance was already proving difficult.

"You go that way, I'll go this way!" Twilight called out from above.

Rarity continued straight ahead as the alicorn turned toward the south. After barely flying a block, a scream came from where they parted ways. They found Junebug with her back to the wall, shaking like a leaf.

"What happened?"

"Th-this...b-b-box just suddenly turned into a pony and ran away after it saw me!"

"What'd they look like?" Twilight demanded.

"Uh...i-i-it was, um...biege. Brown hair."

"Which way?"

"There!" she whimpered, pointing back the way they originally came.

Resuming their double-sided chase, Twilight took the lead, skipping past the buildings. A few alleys behind her, she eventually noticed a pegasus below that matched the description and appeared to be breathing hard, almost as if it had just finished running.

"Hey!"

The stallion looked up and gasped, quickly diving into the building next to him – Bon Bon's sugar shack. He barreled his way through the customers and forced his way around the counter, raising everypony's ire as he went. A second later, the door flew open again, an irate princess in tow. As she forced her own way through the small crowd, he grabbed a nearby jar of jawbreakers and flung it onto the lobby floor. Candy and shards of glass littered the place as he threw Bon Bon out of the way and scurried out the back. With little room to fly, Twilight had to watch every step she took despite shoving what she could see to the side with her magic.

Finally in the clear, the stallion, now with a greyish coat and a black mane, slammed open the side door and took off again, tossing a mare to the ground and bumping into another. Unfortunately, he wasn't aware that the loud rattle had stopped somepony else dead in her tracks at the far side of the building. Rarity had just ran past the place and quickly turned back, spotting the perpetrator racing away. She knew it was him! Rarity sprinted past the door, and only few seconds later, was joined by Twilight once again, having made it past the simple trap.

"He's heading toward the shopping district!" the fashionista shouted. "If he gets there, it won't be hard for us to lose him for good!"

Twilight took off again, slowly gaining ground. The chase was starting to become exhausting for everypony. A block ahead, the grey stallion took another left.

"Go on ahead!" Rarity called out as she ducked an early left herself.

Staying low, the princess hugged the same corner the shapeshifter took, her darting eyes finding nothing but a few citizens, one of whom stood with her cart and a few baskets of apples, curiously eyeing the next alleyway. Following their gaze, she glided around the house and past a few more puzzled onlookers. Unsure which way to go at that point, she paused to glance around, including overhead.

To her left, however, a block over, she spotted Rarity hiding out of sight, scoping for any signs of anypony acting odd. Seeing nothing, she quickly crossed the street, silently nodding at Twilight to take a right and continue. While the alicorn did so, the designer hid once more. At the other end of the building, she happened to spy a maroon unicorn filly taking a heavy sigh as she watched Twilight fly out of sight and then proceeding to peek around the far corner. She didn't hear any screams from before, so if this filly was the one she was looking for, it was possible nopony saw it change.

The youngster spun around, still seemingly searching for something, and met eyes with the ivory mare. Her stunned response was enough to give her away and Rarity resumed the chase. The youth's hooves got tangled, forcing her to lose several steps of distance. There wasn't any way she was going to be able to round any more corners and get away now. The only choice she had was straight ahead into the open shopping plaza and hope to the gods she could simply outrun the angry mare or get lucky that a random passerby would see the situation and take pity on the poor child being chased by a crazy lady.

"Stop that filly!" Rarity screamed as fatigue started to take its toll.

The little one wasn't running for long before she found herself suddenly off the ground and surrounded by a pinkish glow. As she kicked at the air, Rarity managed to catch up with her and violently tackled her, knocking the last of the wind out of each of them while Twilight landed next to them. With her full weight behind it, the fashionista ground a forelimb into the filly's chest. No escaping this time!

While the bizarre scenario unfolded in front of everypony, Applejack left her post with a confused and disgusted look on her face. Did she really just watch Twilight and Rarity gang up on some kid? What was the matter with them?! And why were they suddenly working together? Didn't they want to wring each others' necks?

"What in the world are you two lunatics doin'?" the country girl snarled.

"Not now, Applejack," Rarity wheezed.

A forceful shove launched the unicorn off the small pony. "You're stranglin' a filly, for Celestia's sake! Get off her!" Twilight quickly took her frenemy's place, further baffling the cowgirl. "What is this? What's the matter with you?!"

"It's not quite what it looks like, A.J.," the alicorn said, staring daggers at the child. "There's a bug going around, you could say. Now, why are you here, changeling?!"

"Changeling?"

"This one's mine, Twilight," Rarity interjected, snagging the filly out from under the princess and getting square in her little face. With how hard she was gritting her teeth, it was surprisingly that the posh mare didn't crack any. "It tried to take Sweetie Belle's place, and from it appears, mine too before this whole fiasco started. I'm taking what I'm owed!"

Slowly, a rather small crowd had started to gather around them, most of whom were just as upset and stunned as Applejack. Weren't these supposed to be Ponyville's protectors?

Just as Rarity was about to begin her version of an interrogation, the filly let loose an ear-piercing, inequine-sounding shriek.

"Whoa nelly!"

-----

Half a town away, in her lonesome little cottage, Fluttershy was busy sweeping up the gathered dust and dander. Though she adored the critters who frequented her home, they could sometimes leave a mess whether intentional or not, and while she wouldn't have cared if she never had any other visitors over ever again, it didn't mean she had to live in a dirty place.

She returned from the kitchen after dumping a dustpan's worth of hair and fluff into the garbage to find a gathering of animals staring curiously in the direction of town with Angel in the middle of it all. All of their ears were turned hard, focused on a truly bizarre yet somehow familiar noise coming from the distance that Fluttershy didn't hear. If they didn't know any better, they'd swear it was insectoid somehow. Still, it didn't sound like any of the bugs they knew to stop by their caretaker's place from time to time.

Angel muttered a question at the pegasus and thumbed toward town.

"Huh? No, I didn't hear anything. Why?" She received a quick reply that still didn't tell her much. "You're sure it wasn't just another little friend of ours? You know how most ponies feel about bugs."

Things started to get ugly. Angel turned his attitude up a few notches, just under normal levels. "Oh, don't bring him up!" Fluttershy snapped. "What does he have to do with what you thought you heard anyway?"

Her hard features gradually softened as the bunny argued his and the other animal's case to her about her large, red mistake. It became quite a bit clearer in the last few minutes what made them feel so uneasy about and sometimes downright hostile with Big Macintosh when he used to stop by and fool around with their caregiver.

"Come on, he was probably just growling under his breath at the time or...o-or something." The fluffy demon stamped a foot and pointed out the window, insisting she go see what was going on. The others agreed. "I really don't see why I should. I'm sure...Twilight's got a handle on things," the mare grumbled.

They stared each other down, not giving an inch. However, Fluttershy wasn't using her patented intimidation technique and eventually lost the battle, rolling her eyes as she turned to leave. "Alright, fine. I'll go check it out just so I can say I told you so and that there was nothing to worry about."

-----

Only a few blocks from where Rarity and Twilight had been trying to catch up with their culprit, a bummed out party pony slouched over her balcony, staring miserably at the goings on below and the ponies new and familiar trotting about. On her backside sat her toothless pet. He didn't have much to say, but at least he was keeping her company.

Despite the warm day, the cool breeze and the happy sunshine, Pinkie had little to feel upbeat about. If anything, it felt like the world was mocking her lately. The only ones that had any words to say to her over the last few days were the Cakes and Gummy. The pastries she had been baking for her customers didn't seem have the oomph they usually did. She could have sworn her coat had taken on a slightly grey tone, which terrified her. Thankfully it wasn't as muted as it was when Discord first showed up and had his fun, but it was still there whenever she'd look in the mirror.

Sighing, she turned to her reptilian companion. "I don't suppose you have any ideas on what to do?" His unsynchronized blinks gave her no answer. "I guess I could head down to the swimming hole and go for a dip. Alone. It's not like I really need anyone else to...have some fun with, right?"

Any entertaining thoughts were quickly shelved when a bizarre shriek echoed through the air, causing her fur to stand on end. However, it was Gummy's hiss that caught her by surprise the most.

"What the...? I've never heard you do that before."

His usually wandering eyes bore down on a trio of ponies to their left who took a particular, stone-faced interest in the wail where everypony else around them seemed just as perplexed as Pinkie was. The gator hissed again. What was his problem with them? Eventually, they trotted off to the source with purpose in their steps. Once they were out of sight, Gummy snorted and growled under his breath as he fidgeted there on her rump.

She knew he wasn't stupid. If the little lizard was acting so strange over those ponies, there had to be something strange with them.

Her butt hit the floor and the reptile slid down. "Stay here, Gummy. I'm not going to put you in a bad spot if there really is something off about those guys." As she turned to leave, Pinkie felt a tug at her tail. It was rather endearing to the mare seeing her scaly companion trying to stop her from going. Giggling, she pulled her tail from his mouth. "Don't worry! I'll be home before you know it! It's not like it'd be the first time I'd have been involved in something crazy – assuming something crazy does happen, of course."

As she headed out her bedroom, Gummy blinked and took a second glance at the street. Here and there, another pony or two marched on ahead, just as sternly as the first three he saw. Clicking nervously, he hopped inside, found Pinkie's favorite chair and shuffled under the seat, pulling his tail in for good measure.

-----

"Cottontail? Hellooooo?" Apple Bloom spoke up.

"Errr, huh? What?"

"I asked you three times if you wanted to maybe go to the park before it gets too late. What's going on? You've been distracted ever since Rarity came and picked Sweetie Belle up."

The little pink filly glanced yet again out the window toward Ponyville. What in the world had gotten the designer's feathers so ruffled – metaphorically speaking? For all of her supposed eloquence, she sure stuttered like a fool.

"Oh, it's nothing. Just felt like Rarity was up to something."

"Why do you say that?"

Cottontail shrugged. "She was acting weird, that's all."

"Eh, she's like that from time to time," Scootaloo admitted. "Could we ever tell you stories!"

A devious smirk crawled across her cheek. "I may be up for hearing some one–"

In an instant, her ears practically yanked her head toward town yet again, her cockiness replaced by equal parts curiosity and anger. Her lips curled in increasing fury, causing her two remaining friends to share a perplexed look.

"Uhhhhh, you okay?" the young farmer asked. Instead of answering, Cottontail bolted for the door and threw it open, nearly taking it off its hinges. "Hey, wait a minute!"

By the time Scootaloo and Apple Bloom had gotten to their hooves and made it through the door, Cottontail was already passing the nearby treeline.

"Wow, she's quick," the young daredevil blurted.

Despite their best efforts, the tiny unicorn was pulling away with every step, their concerned cries being drowned out by her stomping hooves. Whatever they were hollering didn't matter anyway. If she heard what she thought she did, there were bigger things on the horizon – things that she wasn't ready to deal with just yet. Still, it was likely that those damned fillies would be screaming in other, less annoying ways soon. That'd be a welcome change. Either way, somepony was about to be in an immense amount of pain, and she suspected she knew who it was.

Comments

[Hillbe]

spew spew

you okay Spike?

he ate a bug...

[SFaccountant]

And now everything falls into place.
Run little roach, run!