//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Not Another Alicorn! // by LordBrony2040 //------------------------------// Disclaimer: MLP is not mine. It is the product of the great Faust and owned by the evil empire known as Hasbro “Welcome my little pony, I-” “Huh? Wha? I…Prin-*yawn* Celestia?” “Umm Rainbow Dash? Are you al-” “Friendship report! Gotta… *thud* Zzzzzzzzzz.” “Well, this is a bit…different than last time.” Chapter 1: Realizations Rainbow Dash awoke with a headache and the memories of an odd dream involving Princess Celestia and…space? She groaned at the sunlight streaming into her cloud home that kept her from drifting back to sleep. Still, as the most awesome pony on town, and arguably the most lazy as well, a little sunlight wasn’t going to stop her from trying to make up for lost Zs that were sorely needed thanks to last night’s activity. I should have let Spike write that stupid friendship report after all, she thought before turning away from her window and looking at the reason for her loss of sleep. After her friends had revealed themselves to be Mare Do Well, Spike had offered a report he wrote on friendship to be sent with Rainbow’s name attached. Rainbow Dash had declined and decided to write one herself. It had seemed like a good idea at the time. After all, she had no idea what Spike wrote and...in all honesty, her feelings were a little conflicted on the matter even after they had all been written down. When she had run out of room on the paper that her friends had watched her write in that alleyway, Dash had run home to add onto it until she had managed to get all her thoughts down on the matter. And she had a lot of them, more than thirty pages in fact. Front and back. What had started out as a simple explanation as how a friend shouldn’t rub her awesomeness in the faces of others exploded into something so much more when she started to retell the series of events to the princess. Then it turned into a rant about Twilight and the others doing the exact same thing. That in turn led to Dash explaining how the mistrust and opinions of her friends made her feel before she started questioning just why having five ponies with negative opinions of her had so much more weight than an entire fan club before trying to explain all on paper. After those musings came a dozen other things that the incident brought to mind, which in turn led to even more ideas and things to write, and kept her writing until nearly four in the morning. Now that she was actually looking at the stack of paper, Rainbow admitted she might have gone a little overboard with her thoughts and explanations. It had been like when she was been in the zone while practicing her flying techniques, only…on paper. That must be what its like with Twilight and Rarity. Just thinking about her friends made her think about their solution to her ego problem. Which made her heart ache. While Dash admitted she had been pretty egotistical, instead of just telling her, Twilight and the others had concocted a huge plan to take away her fans. They didn’t think enough of her to just sit down and talk to the mare about something. It still hurts, Dash told herself. The fact that her friends thought so little of her that they decided to destroy her reputation because they didn‘t even think she would listen to them… Rainbow Dash shook her head. I told myself I wasn‘t going to dwell on that, she thought. Dash didn't like it, but she had to admit that the others had a point. While their methods stunk, she had decided last night could forgive them and move onward to prove to the girls she was better than what they probably saw her as. Or I could just talk to them about it…you know, like I thought they should have done with me? Rainbow told herself. But she didn’t want them to feel guilty about the whole thing. Like she had written last night, friends don’t guilt trip each other for revenge, or to get them to do things. Friends helped friends because they wanted to make their lives better, not out of some twisted sense of obligation. Stupid egghead zone, Dash told the part of her brain that was coming up with the contradictorily thoughts. Soon as cider season gets here, I’m shutting you up permanently with some of the hard stuff. If she went and whined to them about her feelings like a baby, it would probably kill her image even more. Taking herself out of the argument with…herself, Dash looked over to the cloud clock and grit her teeth at what it told her. Gah! How is THAT the time? I’m gonna be late for weather assignments! The top weather pony in Ponyville jumped out of bed and frantically looked around her home for something to carry all the paper to Twilight‘s house. Without any time for her rather haphazard morning grooming, she put on her saddlebags to hold the miniature novel that was her friendship letter and took off towards the Ponyville Weather Office. The cloud building wasn’t much to look at. A small town meant a small budget, and only enough concrete cloud material to cover a 10x10 area to give solid ground to the solid objects that she needed to run presentations and hold the paperwork. So Rainbow Dash made do with just a square formation of clouds large enough to hold a briefing room for the weather team positioned above the ground office that gave the weather reports to all the non-flying ponies of the town. It wasn't much, but it was still hers, to look after for Cloudsdale anyway. Sure, it wasn’t anything glamorous as a bigger city like Las Pegasus or Manehattan had, but plain also meant it was simple to run and keep up with. Dash didn’t have much problems running the thing on top of training for the Wonderbolts and catching a nap every now and then when her energy burnt out. Luckily, Dash made it into the cloud building before anypony else did. She didn't waste any time before she slipped into her office and start the morning's work. She grabbed the daily schedule that she had made at the start of the week off her desk. She put her saddlebags down in the corner, then did a quick check to make sure everything was in order. By the time she was ready, Dash could pick up some water cooler talk coming from the main room in the building. She couldn’t make out any individual words, but had a pretty good idea what was the topic of conversation. Oh boy this is not going to be pretty, the weatherpony told herself when she realized what else she would be having to deal with. Considering what happened with the Mare Do Well celebration the other day, Dash had a feeling that a few ponies would have some questions about what happened to their new hero after Dash had chased her off. Just suck it up and take it Dash, the pegasus told herself. Then, after looking around her office for a moment, she saw the head weatherpony sash that was the ‘uniform’ of her position. After a brief internal debate, she decided to put it on. Since Dash had become a bit of a laughingstock, she would probably need a reminder to the others about who was in charge to get through the meeting without too many jokes at her expense. Not to mention all the questions, if not demands for answers about happened with Mare Do Well. They wouldn't just let the town think I chased off their hero, would they? the pegasus asked herself. Then she shook her head at her foolishness. Oh come on Dash, have some faith in your friends. They probably explained the whole thing to everypony after you went to write that report, she told herself to crush the growing anxiety in her gut. That reminds me, I got to deliver that letter to Twilight after the briefing. With the faith in her friends removing her anxiety, Rainbow Dash took the assignment sheets and headed out to face the proverbial firing squad. The whole weather team was in attendance. Cloud Kicker and Raindrops were talking to each other over in the far corner. Thunderlane was waiting patiently at attention in his usual spot next to the presentation area, while Blossomforth was looking out the building’s East window, probably daydreaming like usual. Even Ditzy had managed to make it on time today, despite the fact that Rainbow didn’t have any work for her. The gray mare was just an auxiliary weather pony, not an official member of the team. I haven’t been able to find her something all week, Rainbow Dash scolded herself. Thanks to Ditzy’s condition and other quirks, Dash couldn’t put her on the roster. But despite her problems, the mare had a good heart and always tried her best at whatever she did. So Dash always tried to guide a little extra work her way either in weather or odd jobs around town in order to help her pay the bills. She closed the door to her office and walked out to the presentation room before stomping her hoof on the ground. “Okay guys front and center, and listen up,” Dash said loud enough to be heard across the room. “We’ve got-” “Dash I know you’ve got a weird sense of humor and a thing for pranks, but that’s not funny,” Thunderlane said with a frown on his face. “Take it off.” Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow at Thunderlane’s weird, and rather gruff comment. “Excuse me?” The dark gray pegasus let out a frustrated groan and flew up in Dash’s face. He glared at her for a moment while Dash shot him the same look, then reached up and swiped aside her hair. “What the? There‘s no seam-” “Hey!” Dash shouted as she knocked the pegasus’s hoof away from her face while glaring at the winged-ass. Murmurs in the back she could stand. Mumbling behind her back, Dash could survive. But when somepony just up and dissed her right in front of the room like a punk, Rainbow was not willing to let that one go. Thunderlane fell to the floor of the cloud building and landed on his flank with a soft thump while staring up at her with a gaping mouth. “This past week may have turned me into the town joke, and you can laugh at me all you want while we’re off the clock,” Dash told the pony who looked like he wanted to be anywhere else. The fact that the first thing another pony did was disrespect her caused some of the pent-up frustration Dash had have boil over, and she didn’t bother to hide it. “But while we’re on the clock, I am still the head weatherpony of this town and YOU WILL RESPECT MY POSITION!" Dash blinked when she realized Thunderlane was less than a foot from her face and cowering on the floor while looking like he wanted to be just about anywhere else. The blue pegasus realized she had been shouting and backed away from the terrified pony before she broke eye contact. “Sorry, this past week kind of has me on…edge?” The confusion in Dash’s mind only mounted when she noticed all the other ponies in the room were staring at her in shock, and looked to be halfway to the floor in prostration. “What?” “Sweet Celestia, she’s really-” “Don’t talk that way in front of one of them!” Raindrops told CK before the other pony could finish. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and looked over to the podium where everyone’s individual folders were. She just wanted to get the hay out of Dodge as fast a possible and forget the day had started, or that yesterday even existed. “Look, it’s the same as yesterday. CK and RD are on Everfree border patrol to keep the stray clouds in. Blossom’s got apple farm duty and Thunderlane’s-” “Sick!” Thunderlane yelled, the panic in his voice evident. The interruption made Dash flinch from its ferocity. She looked over to the pegasus in confusion. “Uh…no you’re not," the lead weatherpony mumbled before she frowned. Thunderlane took more sick days than three other pegasi combined. Thunderlane flinched, and continued on, in a panicked state. “Then I gotta file a repor-I mean! Personal day! I got to take a personal day!” He looked over to Dash, then moved his hoof halfway up to his face before catching himself. After that, Thunderlane quickly slammed it back onto the cloud and turned around to run towards the exit, yelling in a panic as he went. “Gotta go, Derpy can cover for me!” The whole frantic explanation was over before Dash could react, and Thunderlane was jumping out the door when the rainbow pegasus had finally recovered. “I told you guys not to call her that!” she shouted to the retreating stallion. “I don’t mind it that much anymore Dash,” Ditzy/Derpy said happily from the back of the room. Rainbow Dash let out a sigh and shook her head. “Okay, come up and get your assignments.” They might have been the same as the day before, but it didn’t mean there wasn‘t paperwork involved. Each one of them had to sign the papers saying they received their orders. The guys up top loved their paperwork. It was probably how they kept in practice for singing thier own checks and giving themselves raises every year. “Um, can’t you just float the…never mind,” Blossomforth trailed off when Dash gave her an odd look before trotting up behind Cloud Kicker and Raindrops. After she had given everyone else their assignments, Dash motioned for Ditzy to follow her into the back office so they could fill out the proper forms. It didn’t take long to get what was needed and give them to the wandering-eyed mare. She also took off her badge of office, and put the saddle bags back on while Ditzy was looking everything over slowly. “It’s just outlying farm duty,” Rainbow assured her. “Even if you put them all together, its not even half as much as the apple orchards. I’ll finish up clearing the clouds in town a bit early and come and see if you need help after lunch, okay?” Ditzy nodded. “Thanks Dash. I should be done in time for my route if its just basic cloud cleanup though.” Once she had gotten everything put away and her bags strapped on tight, Dash looked over to Ditzy with a hesitant expression. “Okay…go ahead an ask me. I know everypony else is dying to.” “About the horn? I like it! It‘s really shinny,” Ditzy told her. Dash blinked in confusion, then looked back at the emergency weather flugal horn that was supposed to warn the town in case of a weather emergency. “Thanks I uh…polished it a few days ago,” Dash replied, completely confused by the other mare’s sheer randomness. She could be as bad as Pinkie sometimes. “I was talking about that Mare Do Well stuff,” Dash informed her before looking away from Ditzy. “I’m surprised nopony mentioned it yet.” “Oh that…yeah, I didn’t really like her,” Ditzy told her with a wave of her hoof as she just blew the question off. “She just shows up, and everypony goes crazy over her in less than five seconds? I just didn’t get it. The Doctor said it was because of a…um…something to do with fields…I think? He said it didn't work on me because of my eyes, but I don't see what my eyes have to do with grass. “Even Dinky was bugging me to get a costume from Rarity’s shop, even when she knows we didn’t have the money for it. Then The Doctor snapped her out of it.” Ditzy shook herself out of her recollection and looked over to Dash as the other mare found herself a little miffed about how quickly all the foals of Ponyville had just tossed away her memorabilia like it was trash. “Ah don’t worry about it too much. The Doctor says everypony will completely forget about her in a few days long as she doesn’t come around again. Bye Princess.” Once again thrown off by the other pony's randomness, Dash just waved goodbye to her friend. “Uh…bye?” With Ditzy gone, Rainbow Dash took a few moments to make sure everything was where it was supposed to be. She locked the door behind her, then stepped out into the air and glided down towards the library at the center of town. After catching a few more weird looks from passersby and more than one disgruntled glare from a pony reading his paper across the street, Dash knocked on the door. “Spike you there? I got my letter for Princess Celestia,” she said. A few minutes later, she heard Twilight and Spike talking. Another minute of waiting, and the dragon opened the door after the muffled words had quieted down. “Oh hey Rain-bow…Dash?” the little dragon asked as he looked the newcomer up and down, then shrugged. “Uh, pretty sure impersonating a princess is treason you know. You better come in before somepony sees you.” Dash frowned at the comment, but followed Spike into the library and kicked the door closed behind her. “Hey Spike, can you send a lot of pages in one breath? I kind of got a doozy of a friendship report here,” she told him as she reached into her saddlebag and pulled out the several sheets of paper in her hooves. All the pages put in front of his face made Spike frown before he looked back up to the blue pony. “Is this a letter, or a dissertation?” The multi-page letter looked more like something Twilight would write than Dash. “Hey Rainbow, I was just-” Twilight cut herself off halfway into the room from her basement lab. “What the heck are you wearing!?” Dash blinked and looked over to Twilight in confusion while the irate unicorn glared at her. “Uh…my saddlebags?” she asked before looking back to the twin carrying cases with her cutie mark on the sides. “Take it off!” Twilight demanded while Dash continued to give her a look that said she was completely lost. “Ugh fine!” Then Twilight’s horn began to glow with her magic. The mild headache that Dash had been experiencing all morning became a full on migraine, and Dash felt something pull her forward. “Twilight! What the buck are you-” “What? Is that thing actually-oh no!” was all the purple unicorn managed to get out before the world went white. Twilight stumbled as she tried to get her footing on the grass that she found under her hooves after the forced teleport. Behind her, she heard Spike collapse and groan. She didn’t blame him, Twilight felt like she was about to lose her lunch too. What the heck just…oh Celestia don’t tell me that was a REAL magical aura reaction, she thought to herself before looking around. Much to her confusion, she found Ponyville several yards behind her. The magical safety measures in her lab had sent her beyond the city limits. Even from the edge of town, she could see the remains of her tree house and the numerous areas where the rest of it had fallen down after the expulsion of force blew the tree that held the town library to pieces. “But that means…” Twilight mumbled to herself before she stopped at just what everything that just happened meant. She had pulled at what she thought was a prop Rainbow Dash was wearing on her forehead, but got a reaction as if Twilight had been messing with another unicorn’s source of power directly. In other words: the horn on top of Rainbow Dash’s horn was real, the unicorn told herself in horror. Although that realization only raised more questions, the studious unicorn kept her mind focused on the current problem. She could think about what it meant that Rainbow had somehow become an alicorn when the current crises had been taken care of. Twilight focused her mind on the actual force of the explosion, which was a twofold surprise. She knew whenever magic from one unicorn touched the epicenter for magic of another, the incompatibility always resulted in a mystical blow-back that left both of them with a headache and some slight property damage around the one who had her horn messed with. That was thanks to the mixing of magic when a tiny portion of the unicorn’s mana pool is used to expel the offending magic in a knee-jerk defense reaction. Added to that was Twilight emergency procedures. Thanks to the experiments Twilight ran in her lab, she had made sure to create dozens of wards and safety measures in case something ever went wrong. If there ever was an adverse magical reaction, several spells would activate to contain, drain, and safely funnel the magic into the sky and away from the town. As a third precaution, Twilight had laid an emergency escape spell to teleport anyone that was in the building and in danger of being hurt away from the unfettered blast radius. The range was placed as such just in case all her other fail-safe spells didn’t work and she needed to get to safety. That spell sent her outside the town’s borders. Okay…okay, Twilight thought to herself as all the information in her head told her exactly how bad things were. Somehow, Dash…and I can’t believe I’m thinking this…Rainbow Dash actually achieved enlightenment and became an alicorn. The adverse reaction to my magic touching her horn…oh Celestia, she blew past all my wards and overloaded the magic funnel with just an adverse magic reaction? And if my wards really had failed the entire town would have…oh no, Rainbow Dash! “Spike stay here,” Twilight told her assistant before she gathered her magic and focused on a target. A moment later, she had teleported over to the wreckage of what had been her home. A second after her appearance, Carrot Top jumped in front of her and filled Twilight’s vision. “Twilight you’re okay! But if you’re here, then-Oh my gosh! Rainbow Dash blew up your house!” “WHAT?” Twilight shouted before knocking the crazy mare aside and made her way past some other ponies. How in Tartarus can they possibly think something like THAT? Twilight asked herself before she moved pass the crazed carrot farmer. That sounded about a silly as the rumors she had heard just this morning saying Rainbow Dash had kidnapped Mare Do Well and was holding her in some super villain base for showing her up! The disaster zone that had once been the library was…well, a disaster zone. Twilight pushed her way through the small group of ponies that was quickly forming into a crowd to see down inside. The crater that had been caused by Dash’s horn had actually pushed the dirt down further than Twilight’s lab, and there was nothing left of the tree at all. In fact, the only thing in the crater was a frantic former pegasus-turned-alicorn that zipped around the destruction as she went through destroyed bookcases, debris, and an assortment of normal rocks that were sharing the crater with her. All the while leaving a rainbow trail that zigzagged through the devastation. “TWILIGHT? TWILIGHT WHERE ARE YOU?” Rainbow Dash shouted frantically as she ripped up a bolder nearly twice her size with her bare hooves and tossed it aside to look underneath. Holy cow, I knew alicorn’s were physically strong but… Twilight was unable to finish her thought when she noticed the sheer look of panic on her friend’s face. Buck, friend’s mental stability first, scientific observations later. “Rainbow Dash I’m right here!” Twilight called out. However, as the pegasus continued her frantic digging through the area that had once been her lab, Twilight doubted her words had been heard. With words being ineffective, Twilight leapt down into the wreckage, and poked her friend in the flank. Rainbow immediately spun around and Twilight sucked in a breath. The tears collecting on the edge of the blue alicorn’s eyes and the panic on her face was like a knife in her own heart. “Twilight!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed before she grabbed her friend in a hug and lifted them both into the air. “Rainbow…can’t…breathe,” Twilight gasped while the alicorn crushed her rubs in a bear hug. When the sensation didn’t let up, Twilight gathered the last bit of breath in her lungs and shouted. “RAINBOW!” The pressure disappeared and Dash held her at arms length. “Sorry, I can barely hear you for this stupid ringing in my ears.” Twilight sighed and looked down at the crowd. She could see Applejack had abandoned her stand in the market to come and take a look at what was going on, and Pinkie was also among the throng of ponies looking up at them. Then Twilight looked around the rest of the town, and pointed with her hoof towards Rarity’s boutique. They needed to talk with their friends somewhere private. “Are you sure you’re both okay?” Rarity asked as she waited by her stove for the tea to come to a boil. As soon as it did, the white turned to look at the others gathered around her table. Fluttershy hadn’t been in town, so the impromptu meeting of the Element Bearers inside the living space of Carousel Boutique only included Rarity, Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and the newly altered Rainbow Dash. The alicorn nodded. “Yeah, my ears have stopped ringing.” “And the safety spells in my lab actually teleported me and Spike out before the explosion occurred,” Twilight assured her. “I don’t even have a headache. Spike did have a bit of warp sickness though. I’ll have to try and refine my teleportation runes targeting parameters the next time I set up a lab.” Rainbow moved her attention over to Twilight. “Hey, how come I didn’t get teleported out? And what the hay happened down there anyway? One moment I've got this splitting headache, and then everything goes white...or a weird light pink anyway, and then I look around and it looks like a bomb went off in your house." I accidentally set off some of your ethereal energy and if you had been teleported out before it went off, the entire town might have been blown away, Twilight thought to herself while she tried to come up with an explanation that didn’t sound like ‘I almost made you blow everypony in town to kingdom come’. “Okay, if nopony’s gonna ask about the elephant in the room, then Ah am,” Applejack said before she pointed to her best friend. “WHAT THE HAY IS RAINBOW DOING WITH A HORN ON HER HEAD?” Pinkie Pie rolled her eyes. “Duh, waiting for her tea silly.” Then she looked down at her table space as a telekinetic field dropped a cup off. “Thanks Rarity.” “Applejack, what’re you talking about?” Rainbow asked, a confused frown adding to the dust and dirt marring her face. Everypony in the room froze. Twilight blinked. Applejack just sat there slack jawed. Rarity could barely keep her teacups from dropping. Pinkie managed not to scream despite the fact that when it come time to freeze, she had the unfortunate timing of having to stop what the cup of tea was titled to her lips, but before her mouth was opened to accept the drink so that it spilled over and into her lap. “Say what now?” “You mean you don’t know?” “Haven’t you taken a look in a mirror this morning darling?” “Ow hot! It burns! Towels, icepack, somepony help!” And so after Pinkie had gotten the attention she needed and Rarity wiped up the liquid on her floor with a towel… “Here,” the fashionista told the alicorn as a full length mirror floated in from her inspiration room and over to Rainbow Dash. The blue alicorn with the rainbow mane took one look at her new head accessory, and blinked. Then, she reached up and poked the point of it with her hoof. A weird shiver ran all the way down her back to her tail, and she cried out in surprise before falling back out of her chair and flapping her wings to get into the air. “What the hay! Why is there a horn on my head?” “Oh, Oh I know,” Pinkie said as she jumped out of her seat. “Maybe Rainbow Dash is really the secret love-child of Princess Celestia! And the snooty nobles in Canterlot didn’t like the princess having a pegasus foal, so she had to ship Dashie off to Cloudsdale to live with a super-special adopted family while she secretly watched Rainbow Dash her whole life, and now that Dashie’s horn has finally grown, she’s going to make a surprise visit and suddenly announce me and Dashie are actually sisters!” Twilight held up a hoof to stop the pink pony before things could get even more bizarre. “Pinkie, please stop,” she begged while she rubbed her temples. “You’re not making any sense, and its causing me to get a headache. And how would Celestia being Dash’s mother have anything to do with the two of you being sisters?” Pinkie rolled her eyes. “Cause Dashie’s and me had the same dad in that fic, duh. Do I need to explain to you where foals come from Twilight?” “NO!” everypony at the table shouted as the collective thought not to try and examine Pinkie’s reasoning as to just why her theory also had her and Dash being sisters ran through their heads. “Pinkie…Princess Celestia is not my mom,” Rainbow Dash told Pinkie Pie in an even tone. “Then why’s your mane all rainbowy huh? Explain that!” Pinkie said as she pointed an accusing hoof at Rainbow Dash. In response, Rainbow Dash shrugged. “It’s a family trait. My dad had a rainbow mane, and my grandma, and great-grandmother. Every firstborn of my whole family has them.” Twilight frowned in confusion. “Just the firstborn? Uh Dash, that’s…not normal.” She didn't even want to try and calculate the odds of such a thing occurring. Although, complicated math problems did help calm her down... “I wake up with a horn, and you’re asking questions about my hair,” Rainbow Dash deadpanned. “That’s what’s not normal.” The statement had the unicorn rolling her eyes. “No, I’m just curious about how this one family trait is passed down from firstborn to firstborn, that’s not how genetics is supposed to work! I know what caused the horn,” Twilight said before frowning and rubbing her chin. “Although I’m lost on why you don’t remember it.” “WHAT?” the other ponies in the room shouted. Twilight blinked, then repeated her last statement. “I’m just surprised she doesn’t remember becoming an alicorn.” “Not that!” Applejack yelled. “How in tarnation can you explain Rainbow suddenly sprouting a horn overnight!” “She got it from Princess Celestia,” Twilight told them simply, like she was saying rain was wet. “You mean she really is Princess Celestia’s secret love-child?” Rarity shrieked. With the information being too much for the white unicorn, she pulled her fainting couch in from another room, and promptly collapsed on it. Pinkie danced in joy. “I knew it!” “I AM NOT PRINCESS CELESTIA’S SECRET LOVE-CHILD!” Rainbow Dash roared. Twilight barely had time to grab her tea before she saw Rainbow’s mane ignite with her mana to change it into an aurora lightshow while her eyes glowed and the anger induced surge of magic amplified her force to the point where everypony else was knocked onto their flanks. The display of power untwined Twilight’s hair and she had to force herself to keep from shaking. Rarity fared much worse. Although not a magic talent like Twilight, the other unicorn could still detect magic in use when it was around her; and Rainbow had just shown the tsunami that was her mana pool to any unicorn who bothered to look. The sight had sent the fashionista cowering behind her tipped over couch like it was cover for an incoming attack. It also didn’t help the pissed off alicorn was actually focusing her attention on the white unicorn. Standing like an angry goddess while the terrified seamstress looked up, knowing she could be crushed like a bug at any moment. “Are you guys even listening to me?” Dash demanded as her mane and tail blazed behind her. “My parents were a pair of awesome pegasi from Cloudsdale! NOT CELESTIA!” “But hey, you’re all, let’s not bother talking to Rainbow Dash about it!” the alicorn continued as she stormed around the room and looked at the others, causing them to flinch and tip over the table to hide behind. “Let’s make some stupid plan and try to convince her we’re right! I know! You can dress up in a Celestia costume and tell everyone that she’s really Celestia’s daughter and rub it in her face when she screws up and gets outshone by the mare in the costume when a building collapses, or a balloon crashes, or a BUCKING DAM BREAKS!” Twilight ducked behind the table with the two earth ponies and gulped. Sweet Celestia, her mane is etherealized, her eyes are glowing…her steps are causing miniature EARTHQUAKES! Cadence never did anything like this, Twilight mentally screamed. But then, Cadence was an older pony who never had to deal with her friends placing a bad luck spell on them while another pony wrapped in enchanting clothes that made everyone admire them did all the heroics, Twilight’s memory reminded her. “I think Dashie is just a liiiiitle bit angry about the whole Mare Do Well thing,” Pinkie reasoned as she braced her back against the table. “YA THINK?” Applejack shouted before she looked over to the purple unicorn. “Twilight, do somethin!” Twilight grabbed her hind legs to try and keep them from shaking. Thankfully, opening her mouth to talk kept her teeth from continuing to chatter. “I would, but terror is keeping me from moving or talking above my current volume,” she squeaked. “My flight instinct would have already kicked in and teleported me away, but the amount of mana Dash is emitting right now is reeking havoc with the surrounding ethereal void. So any attempt at crossing it would probably end with me being burnt to ash by Dash’s uncontrolled mana storm.” “Oh for-” Applejack cut herself off then jumped into the sights of what Twilight could only call an angry god. “Dash simmer down! We’re sorry about all that, okay? I know we wounded your pride an all-” “YOU THINK I CARE ABOUT THAT?” the alicorn raged, forcing Applejack back. “YOU…I mean, sure it hurt but…you guys…” Twilight blinked as the energy in the air around her quieted down as she looked over the table to see Dash was starting to clam down and…cry? “You guys did all that,” she said in her normal voice before while the alicorn’s tears continued to run down her cheeks. “But…why didn’t you just TALK TO ME?” “Did you think I wasn’t going to listen?” she demanded in a pleading tone as she looked over to Rarity as the unicorn peeked her head out. "That I didn't care what you guys thought?" The question made Rarity look away. “Well no. But, that’s…umm, you see…” “Twilight did it!” Pinkie explained as she pointed to the purple unicorn. The unicorn in question blanched. “Uh, Pinkie-” “Did what?” Rainbow asked, now somewhat confused. “Okay look,” Applejack cut in. “We were getting kinda fed up with yer ego antics, which you agreed were over the line.” The earth pony poked the alicorn to emphasis the point. “And we were going to get together as a group to have you turn it down. But then Twilight came up with this whole harebrained scheme and those magic costumes to put you on the receiving end and shrink yer ego down a bit.” Twilight let out a breath, thankful she didn’t tell the others about the bad luck spell she had placed on Rainbow Dash as well. “Don’t worry,” Twilight assured her. “In a few days without seeing the Mare Do Well costume, everypony will forget she ever even existed and everything else that had to do with her.” “I SAID I DON’T CARE ABOUT THAT!” Dash shouted at them before she sat down on the floor and the tears began to flow in earnest. “I…I don’t care if everypony in town thinks I’m a loser. You guys…the fact that you guys…is that how you see me? You really didn’t think I wasn’t going to listen did you? That I didn’t care about your feelings? That…that I… Isn’t that one of the whole points of being a friend?” The realization of what Dash was talking about hit Twilight like a hammer. Dash isn’t mad with us because of Mare Do Well…she’s upset because we… because I thought Mare Do Well was needed in the first place. “Rainbow…” “Oh darling of course we know you care about us,” Rarity was quick to respond as she rushed over to embrace the alicorn in a hug. Applejack was quick to join her. “Ah have to admit, Ah might have been a bit angry over the whole photo-op thing,” she said before taking off her hat. “Ah shouldn’t ta let that get to me and just gone along with Fluttershy’s suggestion and talked to you.” “Huh?” Rainbow asked. “Everypony did just wanted to tell you to knock it off Dashie,” Pinkie told her. “We were even going to tell you at a super-secret tone it down party, which wasn’t really a party cause then that would have just helped feed your ego, so all I made for it was some chamomile tea so you would relax and listen…better. Opps. Hmmm, guess what’s why I went with Twilight’s plan after she showed us all those funny numbers. Cause you know, I thought you needed help before you‘d listen to us.” The pink pony paused for a minute and took a breath while she steadied herself before looking Rainbow Dash in the eye with a serious expression. “I’m sorry I didn’t have faith in our friendship Dash.” A metaphorical arrow pierced Twilight’s heart, and she had to steady herself thanks to Pinkie’s last sentence. Was that what I… No! I ran the numbers, I showed them the equations. When Rainbow Dash gets on a stubborn streak and competitive…she didn’t even listen to me when we had the Running of the Leafs! Based on all previous evidence, there is no way Rainbow Dash would have done as we asked and stopped being so egotistical! Twilight remembered that Dash had been open to new ideas after the race once it was shown how wrong she was. Dash needed to be set up for failure before she would accept a new viewpoint, so Twilight had made it impossible for her to succeed. We needed to… I needed to place a bad luck spell on her so she couldn’t…save the balloon pilot… Or nearly get crushed under construction equipment… …and…nearly drown…when the dam…Oh sweet Celestia, what have I done? Twilight noticed her vision had become blurry, and wiped away her tears before she walked over to Rainbow Dash. “I’m sorry,” she told the alicorn before she wrapped her forelegs around Rainbow‘s neck. “I’m sorry…I’m so…so sorry.” The alicorn returned the hug. “It’s okay Twilight.” “No it’s not!” she cried as her mind listed everything that happened because of that stupid spell. Twilight had heard what other ponies were saying about the former pegasus behind her back. Rainbow Dash was fast on her way to being the town laughing stock. “Rainbow Dash blew up your house!” Carrot Top’s words echoed in her mind. Or the town pariah, Twilight told herself before she started to focus her magic. She needed to get rid of the bad luck spell before it got any worse. A hard banging on the door killed Twilight’s concentration, and all the ponies broke from the group hug to look at Rarity’s kitchen door before a familiar voice reached Twilight’s ears. “This is the royal guard! We know you’re in there, open up!” Shiny? Twilight asked herself as the voice was connected to a face. What the hay is he doing here?