//------------------------------//
// The Fight 
// Story: The Misadventures of a Fox 
// by LucidDreamer 
//------------------------------//

It started with a single question.
“Darling would you mind trying on this scarf for me?”
It did not go well from there.
Dustin inhaled sharply, closed the game system he was holding with a soft click, and exhaled slowly.  “Rarity,” he said, “Did it ever occur to you that maybe, just maybe, I want nothing more to do with fashion after Suri’s complete abuse of my trust?”
“Darling.” Rarity sighed and slowly facehooved. “I’m not asking for you to model twenty-four seven. I’m simply asking for you to try on one scarf for me.”
“That’s how it started,” Dustin growled as he got up.  “‘Oh, just try this on.  Perfect!  Let me get some pictures of it.’  Then it was two things.  Then three.  Then she simply used me as her...her toy, her modelling pet without any care for what I wanted!”
“I’m not this Suri, Dustin!” Rarity snapped back. “You are free to come and go as you please. Though I wish you would stop bringing those female dogs around. That’s setting a terrible example for Sweetie Belle.”
“What about me now?” Sweetie asked, drawn in by the yelling of the fox.
“Like I ask them to do this!” Dustin replied.  “I try telling them to go back to the mine, but they just track me down again!  I don’t want them to be so...obsessed with me any more than you do!”
“The Bitches just want to get pregnant so they can have puppies. They’re in Season.” Sweetie explained.
“Sweetie Belle! Language! Where did you hear such things?!” Rarity snapped at her younger sister.
“At the mine?” Sweetie raised a brow. “This isn’t a big deal. Female dogs are called Bitches. And their need to mate is simply Biology. I’m learning a lot there actually.”
“Clearly too much!” Rarity snapped. “S-Sweetie Belle! You- You are banned from going to that mine! You hear me?!”
Sweetie Belle blinked, then her face twisted into a frown. “Fuck you.”
“Sweetie!” Rarity’s cry reached a new pitch. “How- How dare you use such- such foul language! You learned that from Dustin and those dogs didn’t you?!”
“She already knew the words, Rarity,” Dustin cut in.  “She merely didn’t have a chance to use them.  And my stance on profanity is a bit more lax than yours.  True, it’s verbal shorthand, and it invites you to be lazy with your words, but there are simply some situations that call for it.”
Sweetie looked over at Dustin. “Also, did you know shouting things like fuck, shit, balls, and other words like that actually draws on a different part of your brain than the normal language center? Twilight knows some pretty fascinating stuff.”
“Sweetie Belle! Will. You. Stop. Saying. Those. Words!?” Rarity all but screamed. “And- And you are banned from going to the Library if Twilight is so lenient with her wording!”
“Oh….. Yeah... Fuck that.” Sweetie snorted, shooting a glare at her sister. “What are you going to do, lock me in my room?”
“If I have to!” Rarity seethed.
“You know what, fuck all of this noise back to hell,” Dustin said, walking over to his bag and stuffing the 3DS inside of it.  “If you are going to argue with and around me, I’m going to leave.  I would rather deal with the bitches than your bitching.”
Sweetie shot a glance at Dustin. “Nice…” She nodded. Then she looked back to Rarity. “Ya know, I’m think I’m done here for the day too. See you at dinner.” Sweetie Belle stormed out of the boutique, almost tore the front door off its hinges, then slammed it behind her.
“Look what you did?!” Rarity thrust a hoof in Sweetie’s former direction.
“You actually think I’m responsible for your relationship with Sweetie deteriorating?” Dustin snorted as he put his bag on.  “Let me give you a little advice.  The only one you have to blame, you see in the mirror every day.”
And with that, he too left the boutique, the door slamming shut behind him as well.
Rarity breathed heavily, staring at the door long after Dustin left. The white mare’s legs begin to shake. Then with a whimper, Rarity collapsed to the floor of the boutique, sobbing into her forelegs.
Things had been going so well too.





"Come on Thweetie. You knew thith was coming.” Scootaloo patted the miserable filly’s shoulder as she refused to drink the vanilla milkshake she’d ordered at Sugarcube Corner. The small white filly refused to lift her head from the table.
“Ah’m just surprised it took so long… What a little over a week now?” Apple Bloom mused while taping her chin.
“Thanks for being so concerned over a bet.” Sweetie said flatly.
“Ah’m sorry Sweetie.” Apple Bloom winced and gave her friend a quick hug.
“Did I overhear something about a fight?” Sweetie blinked slowly and looking up at Pinkie Pie.
“Gah!” Scootaloo and Apple Bloom cried in unison. However Sweetie had ran out of fucks to give and she didn’t want to go home to get more.
“You did.” Sweetie nodded slowly. “Rarity wanted Dustin to try on a scarf and Dustin exploded. Then Rarity started blowing up at me when I started swearing.”
“Why’d you thtart thwearing?” Scootaloo asked, her brow furrowed in confusion.
“You try to remain calm, when the two people that are the closest things to active parents you have, start fighting.” Sweetie glanced over at her with a sniffle.
“But you have parents.” Apple Bloom pointed out.
“Ha!” Sweetie barked a mirthless laugh. “Sure I do. They’re more concerned with dumping me off on Rarity so they can go off on a trip somewhere. At this point I’d be less surprised if Rarity ended up being my mom from some kind of Teen Mom situation and she just had to give me to those two because she couldn’t raise me at the time.”
This was met by silence.
“Well shit.” Pinkie blinked. “Guilly! Alex!” She called out behind her. “We need a Double-Fudge Brownie Sundae! Stat!”
“On it!” Came the response from the kitchen.
“What should we do?!” Apple Bloom hissed at Scootaloo behind Sweetie’s back.
“The fuck if I know?!” Scootaloo hissed back, doing the same. “I don't know how to handle a situation like thith!”
The was a sound of wood on tile and the pair looked up to see that Pinkie had pulled up a chair. Pinkie lowered her head so her chin rested on the table. She looked at the filly across from her. “Hey.”
Sweetie looked at her. “Hey.”
“You’ve been having a shitty day.” Pinkie commented.
“Yep. Yep I have.” Sweetie sighed. “I just don’t know what to do.”
“Have you thought about it from their perspective?” Pinkie asked.
Sweetie finally raised her head from the table. “Huh?”
Pinkie gave her a small smile. “Well, why do you think that they’re fighting?”
“I don’t know.” Sweetie lowered her head back to the table with a dull thud.
“Hmmm.” Pinkie tapped her chin. She reached up a hoof into her mane, apparently searching for something. She smiled as she pulled her hoof out, coming with it was a chocolate bar. “Here,  eat this. It should help.”
Sweetie blinked at the chocolate, then looked at Pinkie. “You want me to eat chocolate you pulled from your mane?”
“Eat the Mane Chocolate.” Pinkie nodded as she began breaking it into pieces.
Sweetie sighed and opened her mouth with a roll of her eyes, allowing Pinkie to feed her a piece of chocolate. Sweetie chewed slowly, then swallowed  “Not bad for Mane Chocolate.”
“I knew that would help.” Pinkie smiled. “Okay, different strategy. Why do you think Rarity is so upset?”
“At me or Dustin?” Sweetie asked with a raised brow.
“I doubt Rarity’s actually upset at you directly. She may just be taking it out on you.” Pinkie said folding her forelegs and leaning back in the chair. “What’s been going on between Dustin and Rarity recently? Let’s see if we can get to the root of this problem.”
“Have you ever seen Pinkie this serious?” Apple Bloom whispered to Scootaloo.
“No. It’th weird!” Scootaloo whispered back. “But at leatht thhe’s not making dumb innuendo joketh.”
“Well, almost every time Rarity wants Dustin to do something, Dustin’s always on his 3DS trying to capture some pokeman.” Sweetie said.
“Pokemon.” Guilmon corrected as he walked up with a small plate containing a dark brownie covered in three scoops of vanilla ice cream and drizzled in chocolate syrup. The lizard was wearing a black apron as well, and as he set the confection down on the table and scooted over to the fillies, he pulled out four spoons and set them around the plate. “Enjoy ladies.”
“You’re getting better with your claws.” Apple Bloom commented as she picked up a spoon in a hoof.
“He’s…. had a lot of practice…” Pinkie giggled and gave an eyebrow waggle to her Guilfriend.
“There it ith.” Scootaloo rolled her eyes.
“Hon, contain yourself. There are fillies right there.” Guilmon rolled his eyes, then leaned in and kissed Pinkie on the forehead. “Hope this goes well, Alex and I have got baking to do.” He then gave a nod to the fillies and plodded off back to the kitchen.
“So…. back to Rarity and Dustin?” Pinkie asked after letting the fillies take a few bites of the desert.
“Right.” Sweetie nodded, sitting back up with a small groan. “So he’s on his Pokemon game all the time. So I think that’s one thing that’s annoying.” Tentatively, Sweetie tried a small bite of brownie and ice cream. She gave a quiet ‘mmmmm’ Then set her spoon down. “Also dogs will sometimes show up will small problems from the mine. Nothing too serious but I still think it gets on Rarity’s nerves. You know, having dogs track dirt into the boutique. Oh, and we can’t forget the bitches.”
“Actual bitches or stupid ponies?” Pinkie asked with a small smile.
Sweetie let out a small giggle. “The female dog kind.” She shook her head. “See since Dustin’s the boss the female dogs can only go to him. That is, unless he changes what the old boss put in place. That’d fix the problem of the bitches coming out every night to sing them the song of their people.”
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo gaped. “How do ya know all that?” Apple Bloom asked.
“I’ve been hanging out with Flint whenever I head into the mine with Dustin.” Sweetie shrugged. “Also, on the note of the mine, the mine does have a name but it isn’t pronounceable in Equish. I should have Flint translate it. That way we don’t just have to call it ‘the mine.’”
“Okay.” Pinkie nodded from her seat looking thoughtful. “So can you see why Rarity would be upset?”
Sweetie nodded. “Yeah.”
“Alright.” Pinkie smiled. “And what about Dustin? Why’d he be upset?”
Sweetie sighed again before replying.  “Well, Dustin escaped a life that was basically slavery in all but name. I can see why he’d hate fashion now. To be reminded of that everyday would get on your nerves really fast.” Sweetie hummed in thought. “Then there’s the mine. That’s stressful enough what with the small issues he has to solve, the bitches coming and calling almost nightly, and the stress that being the boss of a mine would cause. Especially with no experience. I also think he feels bad that he has to rely on Flint so much.”
“So,” Pinkie rested her elbows on the table and placed her forehoovs in front of her muzzle. “This might not have actually been them actively mad at each other, but more the straw the broke the camel’s back as it were.”
“Yeah.” Sweetie nodded slowly. The she blinked. “Oh! We can’t forget that they both love doing things for each other and they don’t like receiving that help for free.”
“There’s the two generous personalities repelling each other.” Pinkie said with a small smirk.
“Yeah.” Sweetie blinked as if remembering something. “Oh yeah… Ivy won the bet.”
“I figured.” Pinkie nodded.
“What was the pot at?” Apple Bloom asked.
“Can’t remember it off hoof.” Pinkie shrugged.
“Eight hundred bits.” Came Guilmon’s call from the kitchen.
“Thanks hon.” Pinkie called back then returned her gaze to the fillies. “Eight hundred bits apparently.”
“That’th one rich plant.” Scootaloo giggled.
“That’s funny coming from you.” Apple Bloom poked her with a hoof. Scootaloo simply shrugged.
“So, back to the matter at hoof.” Pinkie got the filly’s attention once again. “Sweetie, how are you feeling?”
“Actually…. Better.” Sweetie said with a smile.
“So what’s the plan?” Pinkie asked, preemptively pulling a pair of headphones out of her mane and slipping them over her ears.
There was some kind of silent consensus made. Then.
“CUTIE MARK CRUSADER RELATIONSHIP FIXERS! YAY!”