• Published 3rd Aug 2014
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Mare Do Well: Fallout - LordBrony2040



Yet another Mare Do Well story. Tears will be shed, friendships will be broken, and knives will be twisted as everything that can go wrong WILL.

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Chapter 3

Chapter 3

As she entered Carousel Boutique to the sound of the bell above the door, Twilight blinked at the sea of purple that assaulted her. While the place usually had an…abundance of the color hanging from the ceiling or covering some of the windows, the rows and rows of purple cloth in every shade Twilight could imagine that lined the main room stunned the lavender unicorn into stillness for a moment. “Wrugh ruh regh?” she mumbled before the basket of baked goods fell from her mouth.

“Coooooming!” Rarity sang as she trotted into the room with a smile. “Oh, Twilight, darling! How good it is to see you this morning! Is there something you needed?”

Twilight looked around at the multiple shades of purple. “Um Rarity…what’s with all the…” she paused and frowned at the light purple, the dark purple, and the purple that was so dry it looked more like a grayish-blue black despite the fact that Rarity had insisted it was also a member of the umbrella term that was purple. “Wait a second…these are Mare Do Well costume colors.”

The other unicorn sighed. “Yes. Once everypony in town found out I made the originals, all the little foals were placing orders for an official Mare Do Well costume, and now I’ve got close to one hundred orders,” she lamented before her smile returned. “Of course I had to go buy the materials since our costumes had been made from my curtains.”

I thought that suit felt a little odd, Twilight mused as she looked up at the ceiling for a second before turning her attention back to Rarity, careful not to move her head too quickly lest it rebel. “I need to talk to you about Rainbow Dash.”

Twilight blinked as a small twitch occurred at the tip of Rarity’s mouth, making her smile seem a bit…forced. “What about Rainbow Dash?” the marshmallow unicorn asked.

“We need to do something about her!” replied a little too loudly and winced in regret a second later.

Rarity tilted her head to the side a bit. “Horn headache?”

A sigh escaped Twilight’s lips, and she barely stopped herself from nodding. “Yeah.”

“I’ve got some tea,” the other unicorn replied before she trotted into one of the back rooms and came out a little later with a small packet floating in her magic before she placed it in Twilight’s basket. “I’d brew it myself darling but…”

“It’s okay, I can wait until I get home and have Spike do it,” Twilight replied before she put her mind back on track. “Now, about Rainbow Dash. After yesterday, I was thinking we need to change tactics and go with a new plan.”

Rarity raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

“I haven’t been able to think of anything yet. So I want you all to meet with me tomorrow and we can come up with something new to make Rainbow Dash apologize, and finally stop…bragging,” the purple unicorn mumbled towards the end as Rarity’s forced smiles slowly became a hesitant look. “Is something wrong?”

After clearing throat, Rarity spoke. “Um…look Twilight…I made the costumes for you girls and everything but…after yesterday and sleeping on this whole...thing…I’m out.”

“WHAT?” Twilight yelled, then winced.

“Look,” she replied while holding up a hoof to stop Twilight from saying anything else, as if the lavender unicorn could with the pickaxe buried in her skull. “I’m all for going to Rainbow Dash and demanding an apology for everything she said to us, but…whatever else you’re planning this time, count me out.”

Twilight’s mouth dropped open with disbelief as Rarity’s words reached her ears. “Rarity! I can’t believe…you’re just going to abandon a friend that needs your help?”

An eyebrow raise from the other unicorn was all she got for a moment. “Which friend are we talking about here? You or her?”

“Both of us!” Twilight exclaimed as soft as she could.

Rarity sighed and rubbed her head right beneath her horn. “Look…I have a ton of local orders to fill and special requests that are going to make me ride up to Canterlot so I can buy the materials I need,” she said. “I-I just don’t have time to deal with this right now. If you want to have us talk to Rainbow Dash about the way she was acting the other day, fine. Otherwise, just come and get me when the dust settles.”

As the white unicorn turned to get back to her work, Twilight was left standing in shock. I…I can’t believe what I just heard, she told herself. Rarity was…abandoning two friends in need? For...work? For some silly little costumes worth a few bits?

Twilight took one last look at the unicorn as she continued her work, then turned to leave.


A long walk, two groups of screaming fans that made Twilight cringe in pain before she signed some autographs to make them go away, and three more skull splitting migraines after she had left Rarity’s dress shop, got Twilight to Fluttershy’s house and noticed an odd orange addition to the usual scenery standing on her lawn with a pair of buzzing wings. The unicorn also noticed a rather large amount of hoof made signs that were scattered on the lawn proclaiming their love of Mare Do Well and Fluttershy.

After she set the basket down on the grass, Twilight looked over to the small pegasus that was trying to hop up high enough to see through the window. “Um…hey Scootaloo. What’re you doing here?” the unicorn asked in confusion.

“Trying to get Fluttershy to tell me about the time she beat up that dragon!” the little filly exclaimed. “Do you know she beat up a dragon, Twilight?”

“Well that’s not quite-”

“It was like, three hundred feet tall!”

“Not real-”

“And I bet it breathed fire-”

“That part’s actually tru-”

“And had scales so hard nopony else could touch it-”

“Don’t you mean hot-”

“Then it went I’m going to eat all the ponies in Equestria and Fluttershy-”

Twilight sighed and stuck her hoof in the little filly’s mouth. “Ummm, don’t you usually do this stuff with Rainbow Dash?”

The little pegasus rolled her eyes. “Yeah right. Applejack told me she’s just does things so ponies will like her because she’s such an ego…ego-something. Fluttershy’s the real hero,” the little filly replied.

“What? Now, hold on a second, Rainbow’s got an ego, but I wouldn’t go that far,” Twilight mumbled while wondering just what the hay Applejack had told the fillies last night, or if it was something that had been so misconstrued as Fluttershy’s quest to ‘slay’ a dragon all those weeks ago. However, her soft words were apparently unheard, and the foal of a fan was already going on about another story in her hero’s legend.

“Hey, do you know about the time Fluttershy saved me from this big cock-No WAIT! Don’t open that door!” Scootaloo screamed as Twilight knocked.

As the door opened, Twilight looked over at Scootaloo while the filly backed away in horror. “Don’t you know Fluttershy keeps Everfree animals that are dangerous to Ponyville locked away in her house to keep in shape for the next time she has to fight a dragon, or a hydra, or a manticore?”

Using all of her willpower, Twilight managed to keep from gaping at the comment. Where in the hay is she getting all this from?

Then, as the door opened, Scootaloo let out a scream and ducked behind the nearest bush as Angel Bunny appeared in the doorway. The rabbit took one second to give the terrified filly a dirty look that had Twilight frowning at the small creature or his actions, but she was in no mood or condition for a fight and simply moved the basket of goods in front of the animal as several others came to the door. “From Pinkie Pie. Leave the basket and the non-perishables.”

A few seconds after everything was gathered, Twilight blinked when Angel motioned towards the little pegasus that was sticking her face out of the bushes just enough to see. Once she had figured out what the rabbit was trying to say, the unicorn shook her head. “Sorry, I’m really in no condition to deal with overactive fillies right now.”

However, as Angel continued to look at her, the unicorn sighed. At the very least, she could give it a try. “Say Scootaloo, I…” Twilight looked down at her basket sitting by the door for a moment, she focused on the thermos and remembered her promise to Pinkie. “I have to head over to Rainbow Dash’s house. I bet-”

“Kay, bye,” the little filly replied before Twilight could even finish.

Twilight held in a sigh. “Well, I know she-”

“Look if you’re going to leave, then go so they can close the door before something escapes from Fluttershy’s basement!”

After another moment of just staring at Scootaloo, Twilight let out a groan and trotted back to the door. “Well…I tried,” she said before picking up the basket in her mouth and heading away from the cottage.

A few steps into the journey, Twilight heard a little crack, and looked down at the broken sign that had been discarded and…after closer inspection, trampled on by quite a lot of ponies…running away from Fluttershy’s cottage.

“Just what the hay happened here last night?”


In order to avoid her…admirers, Twilight took the long way around the outskirts of town until she came to the small mansion in the clouds that the pegasus called home. The structure of Rainbow’s house was like a floating contradiction for the pegasus. For somepony who avoided spas like the plague and never bushed her mane, she seemed to have an extremely…girly taste in architecture.

For a minute Twilight thought that if she was going to talk to Rainbow Dash, then it might have been better to have all the girls with her but…Fluttershy was hiding, Applejack wouldn’t come because of her anger and…in her condition, Twilight really didn’t want to have to go back and get Pinkie and Rarity. Even if she said she wasn’t going to help us fix Rainbow Dash, the other unicorn had said she’d talk with her.

The pains in her head reminded Twilight that magic wouldn’t be a good move, so she took in a deep breath…and thought of a better idea than shouting at the top of her lungs to try and get the attentions of a pegasus that might not even be home. Then Twilight glanced down at the basket by her feet. Oh…right…megaphone, the unicorn thought to herself.

Sometimes I have to wonder if Pinkie’s sense allows her to see into the future or something, Twilight thought to herself as she picked up the device and looked at the volume controls…and blinked in confusion at the three settings of FSS, Loud, and RCV. Apparently, even Pinkie’s devices made no sense.

Twilight looked the thing over in a vain attempt to find any instructions, then set it to RCV and spoke into it in a normal voice.

“RAINBOW DASH, YOU THERE?”

The world erupted in pain. Twilight dropped the megaphone to back away from it while it felt like her ears cried out…which they might have been as she could hear a constant ringing.

A few seconds later when it thankfully died down Twilight had to close her eyes when she was hit by a sudden gust of wind, and opened her eyes to find Rainbow Dash standing in front of her. For some reason, she looked even more disheveled than usual. There were traces of bags under the pegasus’s eyes and a scowl on her face. “Ugh, what the hay do you want?”

“I…” Twilight took a breath and pushed aside the confusion caused by Rainbow’s sudden appearance and her…disheveled appearance. For a moment Twilight thought about just giving her Pinkie’s drink and going but…the unicorn figured that wasting an opportunity to talk when they were in the privacy of Rainbow’s rather removed from Ponyville home might go over better than it did the other day. At the very least, Twilight knew she wouldn’t be interrupted by screaming fans, and in the best case scenario she could finally make Rainbow see the error of her ways. “I came here to talk to you.”

Rainbow’s eyes narrowed a bit. “About what?” she grumbled with a bit of a sneer.

The tone of the pegasus’s voice and look she was being given made Twilight frown and her anger rise. “What do you think?” she demanded in a heated voice. “About what happened yesterday!”

For a second, Twilight found herself on the end of a scrutinizing stare, and then Rainbow spoke. “…okay.”

Twilight let out a relieved sigh. Although her head still felt like she had lifted an Ursa Major and tossed it into space, the unicorn was able to make a checklist. “Okay first…the apology for yesterday.”

“Okay,” Rainbow agreed.

The unicorn nodded…and waited.

The pegasus blinked…and stood there.

“Well?” they both said at the same time. “What do you mean well?”

Then the moment ended and Rainbow’s face heated in anger while Twilight frowned. However, even with the handicap of her brain feeling as it were about to explode, Twilight could still get words to her mouth faster than the ego obsessed pegasus. “Apologize for that fit you threw yesterday!”

“You mean for telling you the truth?” Rainbow shot back. “How about you apologize for dressing up in that clown costume and everything else you did!”

For a second Twilight felt yet another increase in cranial throbbing, but pushed it aside in favor of cementing her position in the debate. “You mean for teaching you a lesson about your BRAGGING?” the unicorn yelled before a sharp stab of pain caused her to stop there and let the pegasus gain a hoofhold in their struggle.

“My bragging? What the buck is wrong with that?” Rainbow Dash demanded.

Twilight frowned back at her while fighting through the pain in her skull. “Are you kidding me?” the unicorn yelled as she ignored the spikes driving into her head in favor of getting her point across. “Remember Trixie? You were being just like her!”

“So I tied Applejack up and lied through my teeth?” the pegasus shot back. “Newsflash Twilight! Trixie was a lying bully! All I ever did was tell ponies about how awesome I AM!”

The unicorn winced as her ears rang from Rainbow’s audio assault, and she took a moment to try and collect her thoughts while the pegasus continued to go on. “And guess what? I LIKE to tell ponies how awesome I am! It’s called being inspirational! Truthful, and COOL!”

Twilight stomped her hoof as she refocused herself. “No! It’s called WRONG!”

“SAYS WHO?” Rainbow yelled again as she advanced, forcing Twilight to back up as she began experiencing another migraine on top of the headache, joined with her other pain in the head that she was a little too inhibited to name at the moment.

As her head continued to try and explode without gunpowder, Twilight wracked her brain for a response for a second before she came to her answer just in time to talk before Rainbow could get a word out of her open mouth. “Princess Celestia! She always told me to be humble and-”

“Stab a blue pegasus in the back when she talks about how cool she is?” Rainbow demanded. “Because you sure as hay didn’t do it to Applejack all those times SHE was going on about herself! Hay, remember when she decided she said she could buck her whole stupid farm all by herself and couldn‘t do it? How is that NOT boasting? Why didn’t you get everypony and show her that we could do what her CUTIE MARK says her destiny is better than SHE can?”

Rainbow jumped and hovered a few inches from the ground and looked down at the unicorn, forcing her back. “Or hay, how about the time Applejack challenged me to a bucking RODEO and I STILL beat her?” she demanded. “Before that she was going ON AND ON about how she was the best athlete in Equestria! How come you didn’t decided to enter the contest and magic your way to second place so she could feel like a total loser?

“Oh, and remember when Applebloom got two cutie marks, what was it? TWO WEEKS AGO?” she went on. “I didn’t see YOU walking around and telling everypony how much better yours was! I didn’t see YOU and Apple-smack having a problem with a pony showing off when it was her SISTER, who was really LYING BY THE WAY!”

Twilight winced in pain, and lowered herself to the ground in a crouch as she tried to think of what to say. This…this wasn’t the way things were supposed to go! Even though she hadn’t had time to make a plan, she had thought that just maybe, taking to Rainbow Dash would have gotten an apology, and instead…

“And then there’s Rarity,” Rainbow spat. “You’ve heard her. She never shuts up about how fabulous all her stupid dresses are! Oh, but you don’t do something to ruin HER DREAMS! No! You don’t just ignore HER going on about HERSELF! You give her a bucking pair of wings so the UNICORN can enter a contest for PEGASI!”

As the pegasus paused for breath, Twilight saw her opening, and desperately latched onto her argument to try and stem the tide. “But…you…Trixie,” she managed before Rainbow’s face became contorted in rage once again.

“Trixie! TRIXIE?” she repeated, making Twilight hunker down and cringe in a way she hadn’t done since she was a foal. “You’re still going on about HER? The one who tied Applejack up, zapped me with lightning, and made Rarity look like something that was dragged through a swamp? AND GOT AWAY WITH IT? You could take taken that idiot apart, but you sat on your sorry plot and gave her a free pass while I get…THIS!” she yelled while throwing her hooves out towards Twilight.

“Buck, even when I messed up, at least I tried to help ponies! If it wasn’t for that stupid costume, would you have even gotten off your sorry plot to do ANYTHING?” Rainbow demanded.

For a moment, the tirade stopped and Twilight started working to collect her thoughts to present a counter argument.

“You know, I was there to cheer Applejack on when she got her trophy and patted you on the back with everypony else when you saved the town,” the pegasus went on, but not nearly as loud. “But the second I start getting recognized as the hero I am, you and those four hypocritical nags you call friends decided to stab me in the back!”

Twilight shook her head viciously, fighting through the pain of her crippling headache to try and explain things to her friend. “It was for your own good!” she told Rainbow. “Everything we did, with the costumes and the balloon, and the cart and the dam-”

“Wait a second!” Rainbow pointed a hoof in the unicorn’s general direction. “Just how the buck were you all those places anyway?” she demanded. “I can get around Ponyville in ten seconds flat and you just and all the others just happened to show up in a bucking costume whenever there was trouble?”

The accusing question threw Twilight off for a moment, and she tried to collect her thoughts to try and explain things, but Rainbow beat her to the punch. “Sweet Celestia, you… You bucking caused them, didn’t you?”

“WHAT?” Twilight shouted, scandalized at the thought that her friend could accuse her of such a thing. “How in the hay could-that doesn’t even… Do you honestly think I would do something like THAT?”

Rainbow glared at the unicorn. “Wouldn’t be the first problem you caused, SMARTY PANTS!” she screeched, making Twilight recoil at both the loud noise, the accusation, and the memory it brought up.

“T-That’s not fair,” she mumbled as she remembered the town at each others throats, Princess Celestia looking down on her with angry disapproval. Despite the fact it had been a few weeks ago, Twilight still felt as if the memory was an open wound that refused to heal.

“You want to talk about fair NOW?” the pegasus went on. “You know what? Buck you Twilight! And the next time you think about doing something for my own good, stay the buck home!” her friend replied as she turned around and the unicorn watched as her wings tensed for takeoff.

Twilight forced herself to slow down her breathing as she watched her friend start to turn away. Somehow, she knew this was her one chance…her only chance to say something and fix things. “R-Rainbow wait!” Twilight said desperately. “Listen…I…I’m sorry we…upset you like that.”

As she saw Rainbow’s wings start to relax, Twilight took another breath, and gulped. “A-And…I…I’m sorry we went behind your back like that.”

Ten seconds passed.

Twenty…

Thirty…

“And?” Rainbow growled.

Twilight blinked in confusion. “And…now…don’t you have something to say?” she asked as she waited for her to apologize for her outburst the other day.

“Yeah, where the hay is your apology for thinking about me like you did?” the pegasus demanded.

Twilight filched back. “W-What?” she stuttered while trying to make sense of that statement and figuring it had to do with what she thought about the bragging. “Rainbow…you were out of control! You’re were just so unbearable and-”

All of a sudden, there was a gust of wind and Twilight found Rainbow in her face again. “I WAS OUT OF CONTROL?” she demanded. “I don’t lie, cheat, blow up dams-”

“I didn’t blow up the-”

“-AND TURN PONIES INTO A CRAZY MOB OVER A STUPID DOLL!” the pegasus shouted over Twilight’s words, which got a cringe for both the volume and the memory. “Princess Celestia HERSELF showed up, and was going to haul your sorry plot back to Canterlot until I stepped up for you, BUT NOW I’M WISHING SHE DID! You are not my friend, you were never my friend, and I’m ashamed I ever even thought about calling you that.”

Twilight’s eyes widened, and she looked back up at the pegasus. “R-Rainbow you…y-you don’t really mean that.”

The pegasus took in a deep breath and let it out through her teeth. “Yeah, I do you hypocritical control FREAK!” she yelled before Rainbow was replaced by her contrail as she disappeared back into her home.

For a moment, Twilight simply sat there and looked up at the house that her…former…friend had disappeared into. The pounding in her head began to lessen, and her thoughts began to clear as a dozen arguments popped into Twilight’s mind that countered all of Rainbow’s arguments, about how awful a pony Dash really was with her conceited outlook on life and why she just cared about herself to the exclusion of all others!

She didn’t care about anypony but herself!

She wasn’t a hero! If all those ponies would have fallen off that cliff, or downed in the river, or if that one pony would have crashed it would have been her fault!

ALL HER FAULT!

She wasn’t even worth helping!

Twilight’s eye twitched as she looked back up at the house. “Fine! Be that way you stupid, self-centered, illiterate, pig-headed pegasus!” Twilight yelled through the pain.

Although…the declaration didn’t make her feel any better.

So…

…she grabbed Pinkie’s megaphone to help her out and…

“AND GOOD RIDDANCE TO YOU TOO RAINBOW TRASH!”

The satisfaction of getting the last word in and actually seeing the pegasus stick her head out a window before flying off to get away from the truth felt good…

…the debilitating pain that almost made her want to black out…

...not so much.

Author's Note:

And...
...Then...
......They...
.........Banged...


-Pinkie's Megaphone Instructions-

FSS= Fluttershy Squee
RCV= ROYAL CANTERLOT VOICE