Rainbow Dash's Simple Solution

by Ironskull

Rainbow Dash's Simple Solution

"Twilight!" shouted the voice of Rainbow Dash. Twilight Sparkle turned her head toward the source of the voice, searching for her friend's conspicuous rainbow mane among the crowd of ponies who had come to trade their possessions.

A blue blur appeared and stopped in front of her seat. "You've gotta help me!" cried Rainbow Dash.

"Calm down, Rainbow!" said Twilight. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," replied her friend quickly, "I just need some help. I needed to trade an orthos for a first edition Daring Do book-"

"Orthos?" asked Twilight, confused. Then her expression turned to shock. "First edition?"

"Yes! So you totally see why I have to have it, right?"

"Of course!" said Twilight. "Knowing you, you would do almost anything to get that book! But why do you need my help?"

"Oh, right!" said Rainbow Dash hastily. "Um, well, Fluttershy sort of agreed to stay with the new owner to train the orthos for a few months in return for the Daring Do book-"

"What?" exclaimed Twilight. "You made Fluttershy agree to a deal like that?"

"I didn't make her agree to anything!"

"Did she volunteer?" asked Twilight skeptically.

"Well, no, but-"

"But what? Rainbow, you know you can't make a deal like that!"

"Don't worry, Twilight, I have this all figured out! All we need to do is get Fluttershy to use that mirror pool thingamajig that pinkie used to create copies of herself!

"Rainbow, have you lost your senses? There's a reason we sealed that place off forever!"

"We sealed it off from other ponies because they might misuse it, but this is for a good cause! We only need to have just one copy of Fluttershy! Just one!"

"Rainbow, have you forgotten how much trouble Pinke Pie caused with that pool?"

"Think about it, Twilight! The copies don't care about anything except for the pony's special talent! With the copies of Pinkie Pie, there's no stopping them once they decide what they want to do for fun, but how much trouble could a single Fluttershy cause? It would be completely dedicated to taking care of the orthos!

"But Rainbow Dash, what if it reacts in a way that we don't expect? We can't take that risk."

"Look Twilight, I'll admit that those copies of Pinkie were nothing but trouble. But Fluttershy? Even if the copy did decide to rebel, I don't think it would be very hard stop it. Erm, don't tell Fluttershy that I said that."

Twilight said nothing for a while.

"Well?" demanded Rainbow Dash.

"Okay, okay!" Twilight relented. "But if we're going to do this, we need to be quick before anypony comes searching for us. Go get Fluttershy."

---

There was a flash of light in the chamber of the mirror pool and Twilight appeared with Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash beside her.

"Okay Fluttershy, are you ready?" asked Twilight.

"Um, why are we doing this again?"

"It's really simple!" said Rainbow Dash enthusiastically. "Pinkie Pie told us how to use the mirror pool to make a copy of yourself, and the copy can take care of the orthos, and you can stay here with us and everypony will be happy! Even the copy!"

"Oh. But... Remember what happened with Pinkie? Is this safe?" asked Fluttershy, addressing her last words to Twilight.

"Rainbow and I thought it over," replied Twilight, "And we are positive that the copy will not be a problem. And even if it is a problem, we can handle it, since..." Twilight trailed off, suddenly deciding not to say what she was about to say. "Well anyway," she continued hurriedly, "it won't be a problem."

"Well, alright, if you say so."

"Can we hurry this up?" asked Rainbow Dash, earning herself a look from Twilight. "What? You said yourself that you need to be quick before anypony else needs you."

Twilight turned to Fluttershy. "Are you sure you are okay with this?" she asked the pegasus.

"If... this is how we can make everypony happy, then I'm more than willing to do it," said Fluttershy confidently.

This answer was satisfactory to Twilight, who then said, "Alright, follow me." She walked to the edge of the water.

Fluttershy followed and looked down into the water.

"Alright Fluttershy, just repeat after me. Ready?"

"I don't think this is going to work," muttered Fluttershy.

"What?" asked Twilight. Rainbow Dash walked next to Fluttershy to hear her better.

"I said I don't think this is going to work."

"What?" asked Rainbow Dash in surprise. "Why?"

"Look," said Fluttershy, indicating the water directly below her with a hoof.

"I don't see anything," said Rainbow Dash. There was two seconds of silence. "Wait... whoa."

"What?" shouted Rainbow Dash. "What's going on here? Something's not right!"

"Hmm," said Twilight, her head tilted to the side. "That is strange."

Upon the surface of the pool was, in contrast to the reflections of the two ponies beside her, a distinct lack of a reflection of Fluttershy.

"How can that be?" demanded Rainbow Dash. "This doesn't make any sense! This was supposed to be simple!"

"I'm sorry, Rainbow Dash," said Twilight. "But it looks like this is one problem that magic just can't solve. We will have to figure another way."

"This wasn't even a problem until it stopped working! What am I going to do? And why doesn't Fluttershy have a reflection? It doesn't make sense!"

"Dash!" said Twilight in slight surprise. "You're a full grown mare. You know you can't just break down when things don't go your way!"

"I'm surprised that you aren’t freaking out!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash. "This is impossible! Doesn't that bother you?"

Twilight thought about it. "The mirror pool probably just doesn't work on some ponies for some reason," she said eventually. "I don't know why, and it is interesting, but I don't have the time to study it right now. We have to go back now!"

Twilight's horn started to glow.

"This is lame!" cried Dash to nopony in particular. "How can Fluttershy not have a reflection?"

Twilight, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy (who had been too nervous to say anything since Rainbow's outbreak) disappeared in a flash of magical light.

Author's Note:

For anyone who doesn't get it, here's a hint: Fluttershy wouldn't have a reflection in a regular mirror either.

This silly short story is a small way of saying sorry to people for disappearing for weeks and weeks. I'm sorry!

Comments

[Skylight77]

Oh dear Celestia, I just got it... The Vampire Fruit Bat incident...

But still, Twilight's attempt at reasoning with Rainbow Dash... people seem to forget that, despite Rainbow Dash's protest, Twilight was gonna allow the trade to happen anyway if the trader didn't change her mind in the end.

[Ironskull]

5656214 This is true. And I can see how one could also argue that Twilight doesn't react quite how she should. However, the whole story was written just for the sake of the punch line. I didn't spend a lot of time having everything make perfect sense.

[Limelight02]

I liked this.

[saintgat99]

You'd think from the fan reaction that the mare was going to make Fluttershy live in a fucking dungeon, and only let her out for training the orthros.
Listen, I know what RD did was stupid; that was kind of the point of the episode. A lot of people were made at Twilight, but by law, she couldn't do anything. The rules were that if both parties agreed the trade was fair, it was done for good. During the trade, Rainbow declared it fair without even thinking. It's actually a good rule; after all, having somebody come back saying,"Actually, nah, I want it back," is incredibly unfair. The law should probably be edited to say,"No slave labor," but Twilight was right: she could do nothing.

[Ironskull]

5657833 You are completely right, but I hope that you didn't get the idea that Twilight was going to force Rainbow Dash to cancel the deal. Twilight isn't going to stop Rainbow Dash in this story. She does say that she thinks that it is stupid, but she isn't going to stop it. All she is doing is trying to do what Rainbow wants her to do.

[Skylight77]

I just looked into that episode, and saw something I can't believe I missed. Fluttershy does have a reflection, even as a bat. And that's actually what they used to distract her and change her back into a pony.

[Ironskull]

5705195 Hmm, now that I think of it, you are right. I wrote this off my memory, as it wasn't long enough or serious enough to merit me watching the relevant episodes. Oh well, just because it is now proven to contradict the show is no reason to not laugh at this "what if" scenario.
The whole vampirism thing has multiple canons for how it works, and one of the oldest and probably most credible one is Dracula, and I am pretty sure that he had a reflection, but did not like to see it. I'm pretty sure that is what the show was imitating. I don't actually know of specific examples of vampires without reflections, but I have seen it depicted many times, especially in cartoons. A specific Gary Larson cartoon comes to mind, in which a man is stranding on the busy street corner warning everyone walking down the street that "vampires are everywhere!" Meanwhile, unnoticed by the screaming man, there is a truck from a mirror manufacturing company on the other side of the street and there are two workers carrying a giant mirror, and the only person visible in it is the shouting man. So, if Gary Larson, my favorite cartoonist ever, can get away with making that joke, then I figure I can too.
I do like the fact that the story was memorable enough for you to remember it nearly two weeks after reading it and actually come to tell me this.

[Lord Of Dorkness]

A bit nonsensical, but cute.

Always nice to see The Ancient Artifact of Doom (TM) that caused trouble in one episode actually be remembered and (attempted) as the solution for another.