Rarity took a step back and admired her work, “Oh Rarity, you are a gem.” She said proudly, “There are not many mares who can turn their father’s conference room into a welcome back party.”
Unlike a Pinkie Pie Party, a Rarity party, or soirée, was more elegant and tamed. Silk banners hung all around the room, beautiful plants decorated the corners, and there were paintings of the senior boxing members in their glory hanging around the room. On the long, mahogany table, which was surrounded by leathery chairs, was an assortment of finger foods, drinks, and small gift for the members once they arrived. Hanging over the tables was a giant banner that said, ‘Welcome back, champion’.
The door opened and Rarity turned around to greet her guest, “Hello, may-AHHH!”
Rarity cried in fear when she saw who was at the door; Sweetie Belle, who was covered in dirt from head to toe.
“Hi, Rarity!” The little unicorn said cheerfully. She then rushed to give her big sister a hug. Rarity, however, held up her hands defensively and back away quickly,
“Sweetie, what in heavens happened to you?!”
Sweetie looked down at her clothes, “Oh, you mean the dirt? I was helping out the gardeners. They say I have a green thumb, which means I’m good at gardening!” She added cheerfully.
“Well, I’m glad that you enjoyed yourself,” Rarity said sincerely as she slowly approached the little unicorn, “but does that mean you have to have a brown…everything? Do you remember what I always tell you about mares?”
“That they represent elegance and regality.”
“That’s my little sister.” Rarity said fondly as she briefly patted Sweetie’s head, “Now, go and clean off all of that dirt on you.”
“Afterwards, can we play?”
“We’ll see, Sweetie.”
Sweetie Belle nodded and walked out of the room. Rarity sighed; she wondered how she could make Sweetie Belle into a proper woman. Then, the door opened again. This time it was Aloe and Lotus who entered.
Rarity began to greet them, but then stopped when she got a good look at her friends. Aloe’s nose was bloodied and Lotus had a nasty black eye. They’re clothes and hair were disheveled and ripped. They slowly walked to their chairs, sat down, and gasped in pain before sighing in relief.
“Girls, what happened?!” Rarity said urgently as she used her magic to levitate some ice cubes from the punch bowl. She then wrapped them into two ice packs. She handed them to the twins.
“Thank you, Rarity.” They both said. They took their ice packs and placed them on their head.
“What happened?” Rarity repeated.
“Gilda happened.” Aloe moaned.
“The griffin? I thought she wasn’t bullying students anymore.”
“Well you could have fooled us.” Lotus barked.
Before Rarity could say anything else, Vinyl and Colgate entered. Colgate walked past everypony without saying a word, sat down, and slammed her head on the table. Vinyl, however, strutted in and stopped at the sight of the preppy twins. She burst out laughing,
“Oh my Faust! Hey, Rocky called, he’s pissed for what you two did to his face.”
The DJ dodged two ice packs from hitting her head,
“Whoa, chill out.” Vinyl walked to the twins and patted them on the back (she received painful glares), “Now seriously, who did this to you?”
“Gilda.” Aloe and Lotus said.
“Then you two wait here while I go give Gilda a little visit.”
“Simmer down, Vinyl.” Rarity said, “We can go and visit Gilda diplomatically later. Remember, we promised the champion we would be here when he arrived.”
“Screw the champion.” Colgate said suddenly as she slammed her hands on the table.
“Colgate!” Rarity said, scandalized.
“I say we all go right now to Gilda and beat that chicken senseless!”
…
“Colgate,” Rarity repeated slowly. She placed a comforting hand on the preppy, “calm down. You have nothing to prove.”
“Why do I have to prove myself?” Colgate said cynically, “Just because my father keeps pestering me about being perfect? Just because my father told me to stop doing things in a ‘second-rate’ nature in front of you all, my friends? Just because he wants a champion son-”
“Okay!” Vinyl said loudly, “Why don’t we put an end to this Greek tragedy?”
“Agreed.” Rarity said, “Colgate, you can’t let your life be ruled by your father.”
“Listen to the purple head.” Vinyl said, “I can’t tell you how many times my old man tells me to stop making complex noise.”
“Well…” Aloe said slowly.
“Shut up.” The DJ said quickly, “Anyways, Colgate, chill the buck out. Now, you stay here while I go down to the kitchen and make you some strong tea. Rarity, please make sure no one does anything stupid, because that’s my job.”
Vinyl left and Rarity took the seat next to her troubled friend. The purple-haired unicorn patted Colgate comfortingly while Aloe and Lotus said encouraging words to Colgate. Then Rarity’s phone beeped. She checked her new message:
Rarity, how the TARTARUS do I make tea???!!!
-Vinyl
________________________________________
“So, how do you want to play this?” Gilda asked Dash as the two stared up at Rarity’s house.
“We could always split-up.” Dash suggested, “You can work on the front while I work on the sides.”
“Why do you get to have more fun?”
“Because I have bigger beef with the preppies than you do.”
“Fine, but I call the spray cans.”
“Deal.” Dash grinned.
Gilda and Dash were each holding a bulging bag, courtesy of Sparkler. Gilda’s bag was filled with spray cans while Dash’s bag had cartons of eggs and a small bat.
“See you in about ten minutes.” Dash said as she made her way to the other side of the house, “Remember not to have too much fun.”
“You’re not the boss of me.” Gilda countered as she shook her spray cans and flew up.
Dash laughed and casually walked to the right side of the house. She stared up at the clean wall and grinned,
“To quote Berry Punch, ‘I’m going to enjoy this a lot more than I should’.”
The rainbow-haired pegasus began to launch egg after egg at the wall and windows. She saw that there were a couple of opened windows and took the liberty to enter them and splatter the room with yolk. After she was done with the right wall, she made her way to the backyard. On the way, she saw a couple of birdhouses and gnomes, and began smashing them with the small bat.
“Security here sucks.” Rainbow noted as she knocked off a gnome’s head off with one swing.
Dash reached the backyard, which was similar to the front yard except that it had a much bigger garden. She was cracking her fingers in preparation to pull out some plants when she heard somepony behind her,
“Dash? What are you doing here?”
The athlete turned around and saw Vinyl exiting the back door and approaching her.
Rainbow raised an eyebrow, “The better question is what are you doing here?”
“Making tea.”
“I would have never pegged you as a tea drinker. Anyways…” Dash took an egg and threw it at an open window.
“Whoa!” Vinyl cried, “Stop that!”
“Why?” Dash said innocently.
“Because Rarity will kill both of us and anypony in a one mile radius if she finds yolk in her room.”
“That was her room?” Dash giggled, “Score!”
“Sorry Dash, but I don’t have time for you.” Vinyl said, uncharacteristically somber, “So I’m gonna asked you politely to hit the road.”
“What if I don’t?”
Vinyl held her fist up.
Dash rolled her eyes, “Okay, I should warn you that I’ve beaten, like, every preppy in the school.”
“Then I should warn you that out of the senior members, I’m ranked number three.”
“Really? Then who’s number one?”
“Rarity.”
Rainbow burst out laughing, “Rarity?! Are you serious?! My Faust, you preps need help.” She sighed, “Alright, I’m in a good mood, so I’ll give you a chance to try to beat me.”
Vinyl charged and did a handstand flip. Her legs landed on Dash’s shoulders.
“What the-” Dash said, surprised.
Vinyl clamped her legs on Dash, the preppy twisted her entire body, and the pegasus was slammed to the floor with a loud crash.
“Had enough?” Vinyl said, grinning broadly as she got up and dusted herself off.
“Is that all you got?” Dash grunted. She quickly got to her feet and smiled, “Even if your number three with your friends, I’m number one in the whole school.”
Dash threw a haymaker and Vinyl dodged it. The preppy jabbed, but Rainbow ducked and then did a pegasus leg sweep, knocking the unicorn down. Dash aimed to kick Vinyl, but the prep rolled away and got back up. Dash threw a pegasus uppercut, but Vinyl jumped away and then came rushing back with a front kick, which hit Dash’s stomach. Rainbow doubled over and Vinyl did an uppercut. Dash didn’t think and reacted instinctively; she dodged to the right and then landed a vicious slap across Vinyl’s face.
Vinyl stood there and massaged her cheek with a shocked expression. She stared at Dash, “Really?”
“If it makes you feel better,” Dash said as she picked up her bag, “I feel ashamed that I slapped you like a wuss. I should have punched you instead.”
“Yeah because a slap is just a buzzkill.” Vinyl said annoyingly
“Sorry Scratchy, but I’ve got work to do.” Dash began to walk away, “So, bye-bye.”
Vinyl growled and ran to Dash, but the pegasus had one hand in the bag. As soon as the preppy was close, Dash took out the small baseball bat and smacked the unicorn’s face with it. Vinyl stood with a dazed look for a second before she flopped to the floor.
“I really hope you don’t get brain damage.” Dash said as she replaced her bat with eggs.
________________________________________
“What’s taking Vinyl so long?” Colgate said irritably.
“Simmer down,” Rarity said, “I’m sure Vinyl will be up here any second now.”
“It would have been a lot easier if you just sent the help.” Aloe said.
“I gave them all the day off so we could have our reunion in peace.” Rarity replied.
“Your help get days off?” Aloe said curiously.
The unicorn raised an eyebrow, “Well, yes. Don’t yours?”
Before anypony could answer, there was a splattering noise at the window across from them. Lotus, who was the closest to the window, inspected it.
“Something hit your window, Rarity.” The prep told everypony in the room. She inspected the substance closely, “It looks like a…an egg?”
She opened the window and looked below, but found nothing. She then looked above and her expression turned to irritably confused, “What are you doing here?!”
After she said that, her face was then covered in yolk and egg shells.
________________________________________
Rainbow snickered as Lotus retreated back into the room, asking for a towel. The pegasus swooped through the open window and into the room. All the preps stared at Dash with surprise, and Dash returned the look with an impish smile,
“This is gonna be good.” She said before pelting the preppies and the entire room with eggs. The rich ponies were so taken back that all they could do was take cover from the chaos while Dash laughed evilly. After Rainbow ran out of eggs, she looked around to admire her work,
“There’s probably a ‘yolks on you’ joke around here somewhere, but I’m just too cool to say it.” And with that, she jumped out of the window and flew to the front of the house, where Gilda was still hard at work.
“Yo, Gilda, you done yet?” Dash asked as she flew next to the griffin.
“You can’t rush perfection.” Gilda answered. Cries of rage began to emit from the preppy house and thundering footsteps could be heard. Before Dash could pester Gilda about hurrying up, the griffin stopped spraying the house and looked at her work, “Okay, now I’m done.”
Gilda and Dash took many steps back until they could see the whole picture, which took up half of the wall.
“What do you think?” Gilda said smugly as she dusted her hands off, “Is this the greatest piece of art or what?”
Dash was at a loss for words as she stared at the painting,
She gulped slightly, “Um, Gilda, is that Rarity?”
“Yup.”
“Is she…naked?”
“Yes.”
“What is she-how is she-why is she-” Dash was unable to form a coherent thought.
“Sorry Dash, I didn’t know your parents haven’t given you the talk.” Gilda said, holding back her laughter, “Let me just say that those things she’s holding aren’t brown bananas and she is not covered in whip cream.”
“Holy crap.” Dash said. After the image finally processed, she burst out laughing,
“OH MY FAUST!” she shouted between laughs, “Gilda! You are one, sick genius!”
“An artist always likes to hear her work being appreciated.” Gilda said, taking a small bow, “It wasn’t that hard to come up with the idea. I mean,” she gestured to her ‘masterpiece’, “Rarity is a rich unicorn girl with daddy issues. This stuff is probably second nature to her.”
The doors to the mansion flew open and out came Rarity, Aloe, Lotus, and Colgate; they were all now egg-free.
“You have one minute before I forcibly evict you from the premise!” Rarity yelled as she and her group closed in on the two flyers.
“Don’t get your panties in a knot.” Gilda said, “We’re leaving, but I have to say that I love what you did to your front wall.”
Gilda pointed to the house and the preps slowly turned around and they saw the art. Their jaws all dropped simultaneously.
“Rarity, I need to tell you something!”
Dash turned her vision from the preps to Vinyl, who was jogging to her comrades. The DJ seemed to still be dazed and she was softly rubbing her head.
“I need to warn you that Dash is here!” Vinyl told Rarity, who was not paying attention to her. The DJ soon realized that all of the preps were staring at something, so she looked in the direction they were looking at. Vinyl whistled and said a very quiet, “Whoa.”
“Well,” Dash said as she stretched from a job well done, “If you don’t mind, me and Gilda will be leaving now. After all, we have a lot of homework to do, so…bye!” And she quickly ran to the gates. Gilda, who was grinning wickedly, was right behind her.
“Why aren’t we flying away?” Gilda asked as the two neared the gates.
“Because this is more fun!”
“Very true.”
The two flyers then began to giggle like school girls when they heard a very shrill cry behind them, “AFTER THEM!”
As Dash and Gilda neared the gates, the griffon took the lead and smashed through them. They looked behind them and saw the preps were still a distance away. It appeared that they were home free. They casually walked through the gate and onto the road, only to hear a screeching sound. Dash looked and caught the sight of a motorcycle barreling towards them. A split second later, Gilda grabbed Rainbow by the collar of her shirt and pulled her out of the way. The motorcycle and its rider eventually skidded to a stop. The rider took off his helmet, revealing light cream hair and a very annoyed look.
“What the hell do you two think you’re doing?” He said angrily as he checked his vehicle, “You’re lucky I don’t press charges on you.”
“And you’re lucky if I don’t beat your ass for almost hitting my friend!” Gilda said.
The rider looked at Dash from head to toe, turned to Gilda, and smiled wickedly, “Honestly, I doubt it would be much of a lost.”
“What’d you say, punk?!” Dash growled as Gilda cracked her knuckles.
The rider grinned broadly as he got up from his motorcycle. It was at that moment Dash and Gilda realized something; he was taller than both of them and much more muscular. He wasn’t as bulking as the captain of the M.A football team, Bulk Biceps, but he was still bulging with power.
“Dumb-Bell, welcome back!”
Dash turned around and saw that the preppies had finally caught up to them. However, they weren’t paying any attention to the flyers; they were smiling at the newcomer, Dumb-Bell.
The cyclist heard his name and saw the preps. The wicked grin turned into a pleasant one as he walked to the preps, “Rarity, Colgate, Aloe, Lotus, Vinyl!” he said their names friendlily, “How are my favorite mares doing?”
“Oh, you know, the usual.” Vinyl answered, giving Dumb-Bell a fist bump, “Except that we’ve been having some ‘issues’ with those ponies.” She pointed to Dash and Gilda, “More specifically; the one with rainbow hair.”
The male prep looked at the flyers, and then back at the preps, “The lesbians have been giving you trouble?”
“A gay joke?” Gilda said, taking a fighting stance, “Now I know he’s a dick.”
“Give me five minutes with them, and they won’t be troubling you anytime soon.” Dumb-Bell assured the preps as he took off his leather jacket, revealing more muscle and dark brown wings.
“I have to ask you something, Dumb-Bell.” Dash said, also taking her stance, “Are the muscles from steroids, or are you just trying to overcompensate for something else?”
Gilda laughed and said, “Well, aren’t you classy, Dash.”
Dash grinned; with Gilda by her side, there was no way Dumb-Bell could win. Dash strategized that since Dumb-Bell was very big, he was also very slow. There was no way he could keep up with her.
Dumb-Bell gave his wings a powerful flap and he was in front of Dash in a second.
‘Holy Crap! He’s fast!’ Dash shouted in her head. The male prep punched Dash in her solar plexus, instantly knocking the wind out of her.
As Dash fell to the floor, gasping for air, Gilda attacked Dumb-Bell with a haymaker. However, she, too, didn’t anticipate his speed. The prep swiftly dodged the attack and then grounded Gilda with an overhead punch.
“Are these really the ponies that have been giving you trouble?!” Dumb-Bell laughed, gesturing to the downed fighters, “My Faust; did you girls even practice while I was in Greece? Well, no need to fear because the boxing champion is here!”
The preps watching did not take this kindly. After being insulted, they didn’t bother telling Dumb-Bell to look behind him.
The pegasus prep turned around and saw Dash standing up. She smiled and pointed to the right. Dumb-Bell turned to the right and saw Gilda torpedoing towards him. He had no time to react as Dash got behind. Gilda performed a vicious cross line to the prep while Dash did the same to the prep’s legs. Dumb-Bell was spinning in the air from the attacks until he fell head first onto the floor.
“Come on, mister champion! If you can’t take an attack like that, then you must have been fighting preschoolers for the championship.” Gilda said.
Dash grinned as she turned to the bystanders, “Is that the best you got?!”
Rarity sighed, “Dumb-Bell, please stop playing around and finish them off.”
“With pleasure.”
Dash and Gilda jumped back as Dumb-Bell jumped back to his feet. He didn’t even look phased.
“Sorry about that, but my mom forced me to take some acting classes. So, did I fool you?”
Dash scoffed, “I liked you better unconscious.”
“Why? Because it reminds you of your deadbeat father?”
…
“Wow.” Gilda said, “Talk about a dick move.”
Dash didn’t really care about the insults Dumb-Bell threw at her; all she cared about was ending the preppy problem. Dash quickly collected her thoughts about Dumb-Bells fighting style; he’s strong and fast, but Dash was still quicker. She thought about aiming for the legs so the prep would be grounded.
Dash charged and threw a left hook. Dumb-Bell dodged and then Rainbow went with a pegasus leg sweep. The move connected, but Dumb-Bell used his wings in mid-fall to get him a safe distance from the athlete. However, he was too focused on Dash that he failed to see Gilda closing in on him. The griffin reached the prep and did a double axe handle. The move sent the prep sprawling to the floor. Gilda and Rainbow stood on top of the prep and they each sent a punch to his head. Dumb-Bell saw the attack and quickly grabbed the two fists and then slammed them together, causing the flyers to smack their heads on the other. The male prep took the advantage by kicking Gilda away and knocking Dash to the ground with a strong hook.
“Okay, I’m sorry!” Dumb-Bell told the female preps, “Can you please just help me make these two disappear; this is getting annoying!” The preps looked at one another and nodded; they accepted the apology.
Dash and Gilda stood back to back as they were surrounded by six experienced boxers.
Gilda leaned toward Dash and whispered, “Here’s the plan: I take on the steroid abuser and the bitch twins while you take on the wannabe DJ, toothpaste, and the whore. Deal?”
Dash looked around at their opponents, seeing their chances of winning, and then sighed, “Gilda, when I give you the signal, we fly out of here.”
“What?!” Gilda whispered, “Who are you and what have you done to the cool Dash?”
“Just listen to me damn it!” Dash whispered harshly, “As much as I hate to admit it, these preps are actually good. I could take two of them at once, but this is ridiculous. Plus, I'll have to watch your back."
“Buck off! I can handle myself.”
“We’ll deal with them later. When I say ‘Now’, we fly back to school as fast as we can and don’t look back.”
“Fine!” Gilda growled, “But you are so going to have to pay for this later.”
The preps took a step closer.
“Now!” Dash shouted. Gilda immediately flew into the air and was soon a speck as she soared back to school. Dash, however, stayed put, ready to fight.
“Well aren’t you a gallant one, Dash.” Rarity said, sounding impressed, “You actually letting yourself be the distraction while your friend escape. If we met on different circumstances, I’m sure I would have respected you.”
“Like I need respect from ponies who are shallower than a spit.” Dash said. She tried to look confident, but even she knew when situations were bad.
Colgate was the first to attack. She came from behind, but Dash quickly elbowed her back. Lotus was next as she threw a right hook, but Dash’s pegasus uppercut was faster. Then, Aloe managed to get a left hook in, momentarily stunning the athlete. Lotus came back with three jabs to the nose and Colgate followed up with a swift knee to the gut. Then Dumb-Bell came from behind and placed Dash in a full-nelson.
As Dash struggled to get free, Rarity walked in front of the captured pony, “You may not believe me, but I wished it wouldn’t have come to this.”
Rarity reached into her pocket and Dash was surprised by what she pulled out; brass knuckles.
“She still has those?!” Aloe asked her sister quietly. Dash was shocked to hear the fear in the earth pony’s voice.
“I thought she got rid of those.” Vinyl thought aloud, equally as anxious as Aloe.
Rainbow stopped struggling due to the fact that she was too distracted by Rarity. The preppy leader looked to be in a trance as she put on her brass knuckles.
“So what’s with Rarity’s weird fashion choice?” Dash asked Colgate. The prep, however, kept her mouth shut as though too afraid to say anything.
Rainbow stared back at Rarity and their eyes locked. The pegasus suddenly felt a strange chill going down her spine. Rarity didn’t look any different, but she gave off this dark presence. The preppy leader pulled back her fist with the weapon attached and aimed for Dash’s nose.
“This is gonna suck, isn’t it?” Dash grinned, trying to be as defiant as possible before the pain came.
Just as Rarity was about to strike, there was a sudden loud, almost animalistic, roar. Everypony looked up and saw Gilda flying toward them at unbelievable speed. The griffin came in leg first and struck Rarity in her face, sending her skidding across the floor. The preps was so taken aback that they couldn’t react as Gilda planted a haymaker to Dumb-Bell, successfully knocking him down and releasing Dash.
Gilda flashed Dash a grin, “Sorry, but I looked back.” She then grabbed Rainbow by her wrist and flew them both out of there, just as Dumb-Bell got up and chased after them.
________________________________________
One successful escape later,
Gilda and Dash were hiding on a cloud hovering over Manticore Town. They silently watched as Dumb-Bell stopped his search and sullenly went back home.
Gilda turned to Dash, “Well?”
Dash raised an eyebrow, “Well what?”
“I’m waiting for my ‘thank you’ for saving your flank.”
Dash scoffed, “Thanks for doing something unnecessary.”
“Bullcrap unnecessary! If it wasn’t for me, you’d be eating through a straw. There’s no point in us being friends if we only hang out during visiting hours.
Dash smiled when Gilda said ‘friends’.
“What’s with the creepy grin?” Gilda asked.
Dash sighed, “I’m about to open up, and if you tell anyone this, I’ll deny it. You see, I’ve always been the girl who always had my friends back. ‘Stupidly loyal’ is the best word for it. Whenever fights got too much, I would be the distraction while all of my friends ran away.” She looked at Gilda, “This is the first time a friend actually came back and helped me out. Thanks, Gilda.”
Gilda was silent for a moment before awkwardly saying, “So, are you gay?”
“And there goes the moment.” Dash said solemnly before flying away.
Gilda quickly caught up, “Hold up, Dash. It’s totally okay if you play for the same team, and I guess I’m flattered, but I don’t roll that way.”
“Gilda.”
“Yeah?”
“Shut up!”