Operation: Scare the Mare

All is well in Equestria; the skies are clear, there is green vegetation everywhere, and everypony is having a good time. Meanwhile, the Mane Six are having a picnic in the park. Twilight speaks of her egghead smarts, Rarity converses about the wonders of fashion, and Rainbow Dash brags on about how she claims that she is not afraid of anything.

"Me? Afraid? Ha! That's something you would never see from me! I'm not afraid of anything!" Dash claimed.

"Are you sure Rainbow Dash?" questioned Applejack, "Are you willin' to bet on it?"

"Oh! Now this I gotta see!" said Twilight.

"Of course Applejack!" Dash agreed, "I bet that if you can find something that can scare me by the end of today, which you won't, then you will force me to get over it no matter how much I refuse."

"And if I lose?"

"Then all five of us will have to discover your true fear and force you to get over it also."

"You, my mare-friend, have got yourself a deal!" Applejack accepted.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash both spat on their hooves and bumped hooves. Everypony else watched in curiosity and excitement as the two competitive mares officially launched their bet. Rainbow Dash flew off to practice her flying skills and left the rest of the Mane Six wondering how will Applejack kick things off. Applejack looked at everypony.

"Well, got any ideas anypony?" she asked nervously.

"You mean that you have no idea where to start!?" retorted Twilight, "And yet you bravely accepted Rainbow Dash's challenge with such good confidence!"

"I know, it's just that I got caught up in the moment," Applejack replied.

"Well, you gotta start off somewhere. Otherwise, you would be the one having to go through your worst fear."

"OOOH! OOOH! I know what we could do!" yelled Pinkie Pie, "We could have a surprise party at a time when she won't expect it. It would totally scare the wings off her!"

"Umm. I don't think that will work Pinkie," said Rarity, "And besides, parties don't scare her, they only surprise her. Maybe instead, we could make a scary mask? I can go get my supplies and we could start making it!"

"That sounds great Rarity!" commented Twilight, "Now, any other suggestions?" Fluttershy shyly stepped forward.

"Yes, Fluttershy?"

"Umm," she paused, "Perhaps we could-uhh-create some sort of-uhh-very scary-uhh-"

"Get to the point!" Twilight ushered impatiently.

"A costume! A very, very, scary costume!" Fluttershy said quickly.

"Hmmm. That could work too. Okay everypony, we're going to start off with Rarity's idea. Let's head on over to the boutique and get to work!" commanded Twilight.

"Yay!" shouted Pinkie Pie, "Operation: Scare the Mare is a go!"

11:00am

While at Rarity's boutique, everypony was running around, scanning for materials and equipment. Beads, feathers, sequins, and fabric littered the entire floor. Fluttershy was looking through fabric while Pinkie Pie covered herself in glitter. Applejack handled attaching the materials to the mask's basic shape, and Twilight and Rarity were busy cutting ribbons, plastic, and cardboard. There was a knock on the door. It opened and in came Sweetie Belle.

"Hey, Rarity!" she greeted, "What are you all-Wooaaa!" Sweete Belle accidentally stepped on a ball of yarn and slipped. She got up, itching away the pain in the back of her head.

"Ow! What are you all doing?" she asked. Pinkie Pie came over to her while balancing on top of a ball of yarn.

"We're all helping Applejack win a bet against Rainbow Dash!" Pinkie answered. Sweetie Belle gasped in excitement. She turned to her big sister.

"Rarity, can I help?" She asked.

"Not now, Sweetie Belle," Rarity declined, "Besides, we are almost done anyway." Sweetie Belle dropped her head in rejection and walked upstairs. It was noon when they finally finished their mask.

"Done!" notified Applejack. Everypony stepped back and contemplated the mask. It looked much like the masks that were seen in the countries of South America centuries ago. It had a half-oval shape with the flat part as the top of the head. Red and yellow feathers were used as its hair, plastic pieces were used as teeth in order to make a grin, circles of glitter were on its cheeks, and squares of fabric, beads, and sequins covered the entire mask.

"What do yall think?" asked Applejack.

"I don't know," answered Rarity, "We'll have to test it first." She looked upstairs and gave a mischievous smile. "And I know just the pony to do it."

Meanwhile in Sweetie Belle's room, Sweetie Belle was occupied with reading a book when she heard a knock at her door. She walked over and opened it. Once she did, out popped Rarity wearing the mask, yelling: "BOO!" along with some supposedly creepy sounds. The rest of the ponies popped out to see Sweetie Belle's reaction but there was no response to it at all. Instead, she yawned and closed the door on them. Everypony dropped their heads in failure.

"Oh, it's hopeless!" yelled Applejack, "If we can't scare Sweetie Belle, then there ain't no way we're gonna scare Rainbow Dash!"

"Hang in there, Applejack," Twilight said in a comforting tone, "We're just going to have to try harder. Fluttershy, your idea is up." Rarity laid the mask against the wall and headed down along with the others. Twilight was getting ready to follow when she noticed that Fluttershy was still at the top of the stairs.

"C'mon, Fluttershy," ordered Twilight, "Let's go." Fluttershy looked at the mask and back at Twilight. She was afraid of the mask.

"Uhh. That's okay," she said, "I'll just stay up here and work on the costume." Twilight knew what was going on. So she rolled her eyes and went back up, turned the mask over, and dragged Fluttershy downstairs with her telekinesis magic.

3:00pm

After hours of cutting fabric, sewing fabrics together, and spilling more materials all over the place, the five finally managed to complete their scary costume. They made a lederhosen outfit, with a shirt and a pair of suspender jeans, and added more decorations to it. There were sewed-in patches to make it look like it was torn, some real torn spots in the leg and abdomen areas, and some ketchup spots for the blood special effect. It was a zombie farmer pony. Everypony smiled at their accomplishment.

"So, who's going to wear it this time?" asked Rarity.

"OOOH! OOOH! ME! I want to wear it! I'll make a great zombie pony!" shouted Pinkie Pie, "Look! I'll do my zombie impression!" Everypony watched as Pinkie gave her zombie impression. She was doing it unusually well.

"Okay, Pinkie, you get to wear the costume," Twilight said, "Should we test it on Sweetie Belle again?"

"I doubt that she'll fall for any of our tricks again," replied Rarity.

"How 'bout we test it on my little sister, Applebloom?" suggested Applejack. The rest of the ponies nodded in agreement and set out to Sweet Apple Acres.

When they made it, they found Applebloom getting ready to head into the Cutie Mark Crusaders' treehouse in order to plan for another day of trying to obtain their cutie marks. They hid behind bushes and helped prepare Pinkie Pie for the scare. Applejack smeared ketchup all over Pinkie's face to enhance the bloody look but Pinkie kept licking it off.

"C'mon, Pinkie Pie!" said Applejack, "Quit lickin' off the ketchup!"

"I can't help it!" Pinkie retorted, "Ketchup's just so delicious!"

As they finally got Pinkie to stop licking it off, they let her go and dispatched her to scare Applebloom. While Applebloom was walking towards the treehouse, Pinkie Pie was tip-toeing right behind her. She jumped right in front of her and gave her her best zombie impression along with a googly-eyed expression. Applebloom screamed in fear. The ponies that were hiding in the bushes yelled in success, but for only such a short time. Because when Applebloom screamed, she instantly jumped into the air and kicked Pinkie Pie back into the bushes. She, then, ran straight into the treehouse, telling Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo all about what happened.

The gang became worried and ran up to Pinkie Pie, who was laying there on the ground.

"Are you alright Pinkie?" asked Twilight.

"Are you kidding me!?" Pinkie replied, "I just got kicked in the face by Applebloom!"

"Sorry 'bout that, Pinkie," said Applejack, "I probably should've warned you 'bout Applebloom's karate lessons she's been taking with Rainbow Dash."

"You think!?" yelled Pinkie, "The plan may have worked, but if I have to go through this again with Rainbow Dash, then I'm out!"

"Well, there must be some other way we could painlessly scare Rainbow Dash," said Fluttershy.

"I do have one," said Applejack, "But it's gonna be a long shot." Everypony listened closely to Applejack, about to hear what she is suggesting.

"We build a big, scary, mechanical robot," insisted Applejack, "It's gonna be as big as the farm house, on wheels, made of wood, have a cylindrical-like body, have big arms with claws that will be moved by magic, and it'll have a massive scary face, much like a jack-o-lantern. This will be our only hope for scaring Rainbow Dash. It'll take us up until near the end of today to finish the project. Now, who's with me?" The whole gang exchanged looks and agreed.

"Well, what do have to lose?" agreed Twilight. The plan was set and they all got to work.

9:00pm

Rainbow Dash was flying through Ponyville, looking for her friends before she returned to Cloudsdale. She set herself down in town square and looked around.

"Hello!?" she yelled, "Are you guys going to just give up that easily? Where's the scare? I'm waiting!"

"Hey!" shouted a pony from the second floor of his house, "Someponies are trying to get some sleep!"

"Oops! Sorry!" Dash said, embarrassed.

All of a sudden, Rainbow Dash felt the ground rumble. She looked around to find what was causing it, but she found nothing. She heard a roar out in the distance and realized that it was heading towards her. She had an unsettling feeling inside her but she stood her ground, unwilling to lose her title of bravery. When the figure came into view, Rainbow Dash gazed in awe with her jaw dropped as she is looking up at it. It was a gigantic, wooden robot on wheels with claws that roared once again as it stopped right in front of her. Rainbow studied it and had an idea. She flew away for a moment.

Meanwhile, inside the robot, the ponies were questioning what she was doing.

"Did we just win?" Applejack asked.

"I'm not sure," answered Twilight, "She didn't scream or anything. She just...flew off."

"Wait! She coming back!" yelled Pinkie Pie.

Everypony peeked out through the mouth and saw Rainbow Dash charging at them. They were panicking and braced themselves for impact. When Dash hit the robot, its cylindrical body flew off, revealing the five ponies that were inside it. She looked at them and laughed.

"Hahahaha! Really? A robot? Is that the best you can do?" Rainbow said, "And after all this time, you still have yet to scare me with something! Looks like I win."

"But it's not midnight yet," exclaimed Twilight.

"Who cares!" Dash replied, "You'd still have to think up another plan and, judging by the amount of work you all put into this, that was your best one. I doubt you could think up anything better than that!"

The five dropped their heads in shame. She was right. Their robot idea was their best idea and it still didn't work. They apologized to Applejack for their failure.

"It's alright guys," said Applejack, "At least I'll get to face my fear. If I can..."

"Well, looks like I'll see you all tomorrow!" Dash said, "This is goin' to be so hilarious!"

Everypony said their goodbyes went home. When Twilight got back to her house, which was a tree, Spike came downstairs and looked at Twilight, who had a glum expression on her face.

"Hey, what's wrong, Twilight?" he asked.

"I tried to help Applejack win a bet against Rainbow Dash," she answered.

"And?"

"We lost."

"What was it about?"

"We had to find something that could scare Rainbow Dash by the end of today so that we can force her to get over that fear; otherwise, Applejack would have to go through it instead of her."

"But it's not the end of today yet. You still have a chance!"

"No, we don't. We couldn't find an even more clever plan than the one we just did."

"Hmmm, I think I have an idea that may solve all your problems."

"Really? What is it?"

"You don't need to worry about that right now. Just invite everypony to our place. I'll handle the rest."

And so Twilight invited the rest of the Mane Six over to her place. Meanwhile, Spike went over to see a pony friend of his. He knocks on her door and a mint-green unicorn with a harp on her flank as her cutie mark appeared in the doorway.

"Hey, Lyra!" greeted Spike.

"Spike, you know it's pretty late in the night don't you?" said Lyra.

"I know, but I wanted to ask you something."

"And what would that be that could be so important at this time?"

"Do you still have that movie that the human had when he came to Equestria?"

"Why yes! I still do. You know me and my curiosity of humans! What do want with it?"

"I'd like to borrow it."

"What for? You're not planning to watch it aren't you? It's pretty intense."

"No, it's not that. It's to help a friend of mine win a bet."

"Oohh. I see. Well, okay here you go!"

"Thanks, Lyra!"

"You're welcome, Spike!"

Spike left Lyra's house and quickly obtained a projector and returned home. He showed everypony, except Rainbow Dash, the movie and they all agreed to premiere it.

10:10pm

"I already told you ponies before! I won the bet! There's no way you can win this time!" yelled Rainbow Dash.

"Oh settle down Rainbow, we all know you won the bet," said Applejack, "It's just a celebration of your victory so relax and enjoy the party."

"Yeah!" shouted Pinkie, "Let's get this party started!"

After a few minutes of partying, everypony gathered around to announce movie time. Rainbow Dash got to her seat first, excited to see what the movie would be. When she sat, all of the other ponies went up to her and tied her front hooves to the chair's arms, her back hooves to the chair's legs, and her head against the headrest.

"Hey!" she said, "What's going on?"

"Oh, we just want you to feel comfortable before the movie starts, that's all," Twilight said.

"This isn't really a celebration of my victory isn't it?"

"No, it's not."

"You ponies are still trying to scare me?"

"That's right!" said Pinkie Pie.

"Well, fine, lay it on me. What's the movie called?"

"It's called The Human Centipede," answered Twilight.

"Ha!" laughed Rainbow Dash, "That doesn't even sound scary. Bring it on!"

Twilight inserted the movie into the projector, set the subtitles to English, pressed play, turned off the lights and sat amongst everypony else. During the movie, Rainbow Dash started to become afraid of what she was seeing. Later in the movie, she started yelling and urged them to stop the movie. She looked at everypony. They weren't even moving or saying anything. Rainbow looked closer and realized that all of the ponies were replaced with stuffed animal versions of themselves. She tried to get her hooves out but the knots were too tight. She was stuck until the rest of the movie was over. Throughout the time she was screaming in terror of the disturbing images that she was seeing.

By the time the movie was over, Twilight turned on the lights and the rest of the Mane Six returned to the movie premiere. They all looked at Rainbow Dash, who was still tied to her chair that ended up being tipped over. She was sweating, shivering, and was exhausted from screaming constantly. Everypony looked at each other and laughed.

"Well, would you look at that," said Applejack, "You're scared out of your wits and it's midnight right now. Looks like I win the bet. And you know what that means everypony!" All of the ponies giggled and moved in on Rainbow Dash.

"Oh no," said Rainbow Dash, "Oh nononononono! NOOO! NOOOO! I'M NOT WATCHING THAT MOVIE AGAIN! Noooooo!"

As Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rarity were wrestling Rainbow Dash in order to get her to watch the movie again, Twilight Sparkle was setting up a letter to write to her mentor.

Dear, Princess Celestia

Tonight, I learned that when you are betting on something, you should always have a plan of action. You can't always depend on your friends around you to come up with ideas for you. Therefore, you must be independent and don't be afraid to share your own ideas with everypony. You just might come up with a clever idea. And even if it doesn't work, you should never give up no matter how intricate the idea was. You must simply find another way.

Your Faithful Student,

Twilight Sparkle

The End