Getting Their Just Desert

by dancing mop

The Fourth Chapter

In which four fearsome flunkies force a fast-paced finale, for a few feet, before a befuddled boss berates a bummed-out beam blaster for bad business.

Rarity and Pinkie Pie sprinted as fast as they could down a hallway identical to the one they'd started in, Donut Joe's goons in hot pursuit. Beams of magic sizzled around them, as they passed set after set of doors, illuminated by streamers of light from the vaulted ceiling. They were running full tilt, but the pegasus, a muscle-bound green mare with a shock of close-cut black hair, closed in from above. In one swift motion, she dove down and scooped Pinkie up, wrapping her hooves around the pink pony's barrel.

"Pinkie!"

"Help! Nibbles, help me!"

Rarity tried reaching for her, but the pegasus was pulling up too fast, and she had to keep running herself. Just then, she heard a series of chirps, and the bat flew out of the darkness ahead of them, flying directly into the face of Pinkie's attacker. Pinkie took advantage of this, and wrestled free of her hooves, pulling off her tent-cloth cloak as she did so.

"Take this, meanie!" Pinkie yelled as she wrapped the other pony in her cloak completely, even as she fell to the floor herself. The pegasus slammed into the floor and skidded quite a long distance, struggling to extricate herself from Pinkie's cloak and bumping into the wall repeatedly. Pinkie landed gracefully, flipping head over hooves and coming out running. She let out of whoop of excitement, calling to the bat who now flew along beside her, "You actually liked that name! Woohoo, hoofbump!" Behind her, Donut Joe and his unicorn flunkie both leaped over the still-struggling form of their companion, firing magic bolts and twirling a sling even as they did so.

A faint feeling of something hitting her mane caused Rarity to turn around. When she did, she was greeted by the sight of a blood-red earth pony right on her tail, smoothly-flowing white-with-red-stripe mane not quite concealing an ugly scar that ran across the left side of her face, with a large knife clenched sideways in her teeth. Rarity let out a squeak of terror, and involuntarily kicked out at her pursuer.

Luckily, the earth pony's momentum was enough to carry her face-first into the fashionistas outstretched rear hooves, and the kick landed hard, with an accompanying snap of broken cartilage. A lance of sharp pain shot up Rarity's left leg, and she belatedly realized that she had kicked right at the mare's knife. She tried running as fast as she could, but each step sent a jolt of pain through the wound. A rock whizzed past her ear, reminding her that two very unfriendly ponies were catching up quickly.

"Hey, Rarity!" Pinkie yelled as she unexpectedly launched herself to the left, "Catch me!" The two mares collided, and were thrown forcibly through a door by their momentum. They landed in the chamber beyond, rolled once, and slammed through another door, into the first hallway. Incredibly, Pinkie had managed to shut both doors behind them, and quickly recovered from their tumble. "Quick, through a door!", she said, grabbing Rarity by the hoof and yanking her through a door a few doors from where they had entered. When she slammed it shut behind them, Rarity had the good sense to be quiet, and not disrupt her friend's apparent plan to conceal them.

They both listened at the door as hoofsteps sounded in the hallway. A pair of muffled voices leaked through.

"Where'd dey go?" Said one, in Donut Joe's accented growl.

"I dunno." Said the other, in a nervous, squeaky tone. "You went through the door first."

Donut Joe cursed, and then paused for a long moment. "Marmalade?"

"Um, yeah?"

"What was that? Back dere?"

"What d'you mean?"

"I mean, where was da "magical artillery" ya said you could do? Ya turned stuff orange, for pony's sake! If dat's da best ya can give me , then what da hoof'd I hire you for!?"

The other voice whimpered, "I-I'm sorry. I just...really needed the work, you know? So I just..um-"

"Lied ta me? Suckered me inta hirin' you instead of a real unicorn?"

"What? Um, I am a-"

"Didja think I was stupid? Didja think I wouldn't make ya do anythin'? Dat maybe ya could just slide on by an' take my money?"

"I, no, um...I-I thought-"

"Ya know what? Forget it. Just...forget it. I'm takin' back half your fee when dis is done. All of it, if ya don't make yourself useful. Go find-hey, just da pony I was lookin' for! Northwind!"

"Boss?" Asked a gravelly mare's voice.

"You're done playin' wit da cape, I see. Wanna explain ta me how you an' Mean Streak got taken out by a couple scared fillies?"

"I'm a pegasus. It's an enclosed space. Dunno what Streak's problem was."

Joe scoffed, "Huh. I dunno what dat mare's problem is, most o' da time. Hey, Worthless, go back an' get her, willya?"

"M-Me?" Asked the nervous one, Marmalade.

"He didn't mean me." Said the newcomer, "I'm a valuable member of this team. You turn things orange."

"Yeah. You get ta wake her up. Hope she's not too mad, or anything. Consider dis penance for lyin' ta me."

Hoofsteps shuffled away, and no sound could be heard through the door for a small time. Then Donut Joe continued, "Well, we know they ain't comin' back ta that hallway for a while, and I'm pretty sure dat's da only exit, so why don't we start searchin' these doors?" I'll start on dat side, you go tell Worthless ta guard the entrance wit' Mean Streak."

"Kay, boss."

They could both be heard walking away, and Pinkie and Rarity finally breathed a sigh of relief. Pinkie assumed a thoughtful expression, and asked, "Hmmm, turning stuff orange? I didn't see anything turn orange, did you?"

"Yes, Pinkie," Rarity responded sarcastically, "While we were running for our lives, and fighting off a pair of extremely dangerous assailants, I managed to take time to check the decorations."

"Oh, good. I thought you would, you know, being you." She turned to say something else, and froze in shock, mouth half open, eyes widened.

"What?" Asked Rarity.

"Oh, uh, you might want to have a look at your mane."

Rarity frantically scrambled at her mane, hooves going numb in fear. She started imagining all sorts of horrible things, things that would make her slightly mussed look in the desert look downright fashionable in comparison. What happened to it? Oh no oh no oh no oh no-"EEE-" Pinkie shoved a hoof in her mouth to quiet her scream, before it could be heard. She could not believe that such an awful thing most prized trait, that she spent painstaking hours working into just the right look every single day.

Her mane had an ugly, dark orange splotch right across the middle. The horrendous color had gotten onto nearly every hair, and seeped up almost all the way to her scalp. There was no hope of enacting any kind of damage control, as far as she was concerned, her lovely, beautiful, perfectly coiffed, envy-of-the-world mane was ruined!

This is it, Rarity thought, as she sat, shivering, with tears running down her face, in spite of Pinkie's attempts to calm her, This is the end. This day cannot possibly get any worse.

And then the door opened.

Author's Note:

Heh, this was gonna be longer, but how could I resist leaving off at such a good straight line?

It's almost final-confrontation time! Woooo!

Comments

[bahatumay]

Orange!

[dancing mop]

5535525
I tried to imagine the most horrible thing that could possibly happen to Rarity.

It's even worse than green!

[i_am_the_jam]

You'd think that Rarity would know counterspells for altering color.

[dancing mop]

5538244
You would, but even in season three, she hasn't. Or she just gets too traumatized to pull them out. Think of Trixie's forced outfit change in Magic Duel.