Dashin' All The Way!

by sonicfan05

Nightmare at the Manehattan Mall

Rainbow grumbled as she was flying towards the direction towards the Manehattan Mall. She had to spend over ten minutes of listening to Officer Warrant berating her and then received yet another ticket. At this rate, she’ll end up spending more bits on her fines than an actual toy. Rainbow gulped at the thought of her angry alicorn wife if she ever found out about this, but she’ll cross that bridge when she gets to it.

Rainbow eventually reached her destination and landed in front of the entrance of the mall. The mall itself was huge, probably took up about several hundred acres. She then entered the mall and was immediately overwhelmed by the size of the interior. There where many different sections to each different stores and there were also stairs that lead to the upper floor of this building.

Rainbow quickly looked at the map of the building to find the toy store of this place. Once she located the correct store, Rainbow quickly galloped towards and up the stairs to another floor. After that, she ruched down the upper level until she located the toy store and entered it. To her surprise, there were hundreds of ponies waiting in the middle of the store, and Lightning Dust was one of those ponies. Their eyes met and they glared at each other for moment before they looked away towards the front.

Right in the middle of the store stood three representatives of the store, wearing yellow and red uniforms. The one on the far left was a green pegasus with blue mane and the far right was a white earth pony with a red mane. The one in the middle was not a pony, but a different creature. He was tall and muscular blue minotaur with big horns, short blue hair and goatee and pink snout. He also wore the same uniform as the other two ponies except he also wore a black tie, a silver ring on his nose and a golden badge that said ‘Manager’ on his left side of his chest. There was something about that minotaur that looked familiar to Rainbow, but before she could thought further, the minotaur started speaking.

“Alright, alright! Quiet!” The minotaur spoke up loudly. “Let Iron Will speak!”

Once every pony in the crowd quieted down, Iron Will cleared his throat.

“Now then, I’m sure you all heard the rumors that we just received new shipment of these Zapp dolls. Well, Iron Will can definitely say that those rumors… Are. TRUE!”

Eveypony cheered loudly from the announcement before Iron Will ushered them quiet down again.

“Now, now. Iron Will knows that you ponies wanted to get this doll more than anything. BUT… we only have a few Zapp dolls to give around. So here’s what Iron Will is going to do. You will all line up in a neat single file and then you each take one ball at a time from one of my employers.” He gestured his two employers on each side, who were each holding a bucketful of various colored balls. “Each ball contains a number, which will be used in a standard lottery fashion. Once we announced those numbers, the lucky ponies will get the Zapp doll! Those who doesn’t, there will be plenty of Power Ponies’ comic relief character, Hum Drum for you to buy instead!”

Many ponies booed from the suggestion of buying the least favorite character of the Power Ponies and demanded the minotaur to just hoof over the Zapp dolls to them now.

“Oh, and one more thing!” Iron Will added. “Due to the supply and demand of these Zapp dolls, Iron Will announced that the price of these dolls are now doubled!”

Many ponies screamed out in protest of the news, causing the big minotaur to back up nervously. The crowd was pushing and shoving their way to the front, instead of lining up as Iron Will suggested. The two employed ponies tried to hold off from the crazy shoppers, but unfortunately for them, they were knocked down and all the balls from the bucket went flying into the air.

Then all Tartarus broke loose.

Every pony, including Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust tried to jump up and grab one of balls only to get tackled down by another pony. They all piled on top of each other and wrestled to the ground to try to rip the ball out of another pony’s hooves or mouths. Even Iron Will wasn’t spared from the attack as multiple ponies knocked him down. Some ponies went as far to punch, bite, buck or even pulling on each other’s manes and tails to get the ball before the other.

Despite being buried by many ponies, Rainbow was able to fight back and eventually placed her hoof over the ball.

“Yes, I got it!” Rainbow cheered!

“Not for long!”

Before Rainbow could detect her, Lightning swung her mailbag and hit Rainbow Dash in the face, forcing Rainbow to let go of the ball. Lightning snatched the ball up and hovered up over the crowd.

“HA HA! The ball is mine!” Lightning crowed.

Rainbow finally recovered from the attack and growled at the Lightning. She needed to escape from other ponies grasp and take the ball back from her rival. Thinking quickly, she raised her hoof and pointed at Lightning.

“Hey! That mare is holding more than one ball!” Rainbow shouted, getting the other ponies attention.

“What? She can’t do that!” one of the ponies cried.

“Yeah, get the mail mare!” another one shouted.

Lightning eyes widened as all the ponies got off from Rainbow Dash and then came after her. “No wait stop! I only have one!”

Lightning tried to get away, but she was cut off by three other pegasuses and was tackled to the floor, dropping her ball in the process and bounced out of the store. As many ponies continued to dogpile on top of Lightning Dust, Rainbow chased after the ball during the confusion.

By the time Rainbow Dash exited the store, the ball already bounced down stairs. Rainbow tried to go after it, but many ponies were blocking the stairs. With no time to wait, Rainbow used her wings to fly down to the next level, ignoring many ponies protests. Rainbow spotted the ball just in time as it bounced from one wall to the next and then bounced down the hall. Rainbow chased after the ball with all her speed, but just when she was about to grab it, she was hit in the face by a door from an oblivious pony, who was walking out of a store. Rainbow sat on a floor in a daze for a moment and then she shook it off. She quickly spotted the ball at the main hall, as it rolled across the floor. Rainbow quickly got up and galloped towards the main hall where the ball was. Just as Rainbow was about to pick up the ball, a big brown border dog snatched up the ball with its mouth.

Rainbow just stood there as the dog turned and stared at her. She needed to get that ball away from that dog. She figured if she just coaxed it to give the ball back to her, then it’ll be smooth sailing.

“Hey there fella,” Rainbow said gently like she usually does with her pet tortoise, Tank. “Do you mind handed that ball over? It belongs to me.”

As she reached out towards the dog’s mouth, the dog loudly growled at her.

Rainbow quickly retracted her hoof. “Oh come on little guy. Don’t you know it’s wrong to keep things that don’t belong to you?”

Rainbow once again reached out for the ball, but the dog growled, but much more aggressively this time.

“Okay, I’m done being nice!” Rainbow shouted angrily. “Give me the ball now!”

Just as Rainbow Dash reached out for the ball again, the dog sucked the ball into his mouth completely.

“Oh no you don’t!” Rainbow screamed as she lunged herself towards the border.

Just as she was going to choke the dog, she felt somepony hitting her multiple times on her head.

“Leave Ripley alone you big bully!” said the small yellowish pegasus filly with long amber mane, black glasses and silver tiara and a three paw prints as her cutie mark. She kept hitting Rainbow over and over with her giant doggy bone, which was meant to be her pet’s treat.

“Ow ow ow! Stop it!” Rainbow cried. “I was trying to—”

“DADDY!”

Rainbow eyes widened when she noticed an angry white pegasus stallion stomping towards her. Rainbow swatted the bone away and then quickly flew away from them. She kept on flying until she hid behind the water fountain at the other side of the mall. Once she was sure no pony was chasing her, she let out a long sigh.

“That was too close!” She muttered as she slid down to the floor with a frustrated groan. “What am I going to do now? How can I find these Zapp dolls if they are so hard to find?”

Rainbow ear perked up when she heard somepony calling out to her.

“Psssst! Hey you! The rainbow mare!”

Rainbow looked around, trying to find the source of the voice.

“Over here, behind the fountain!”

Rainbow slowly got up and trotted around the fountain. Once she was at the other side her eyes widened and then let out a groan.

Oh you have got to be kidding me!

Right on the other side of the fountain was a stage, which had a painted backdrop of a snowy mountain and a cabin made of wood, white cotton all around the stage, which represented snow, and a big red sleigh. What really got her attention was not one, but two Santa Hooves, sitting on two huge red thrones. They are both yellow unicorn stallions with green eyes wearing red suits, fake white beards and red Santa hats. Despite that they both wore fake white beards, Rainbow could still see a red brushy mustache poking out from one of those two ponies.

Rainbow sighed and then leered at the two ‘Santa Hooves.’

“What do you want Flim and Flam?”

“Greetings my fellow mare from Ponyville!” Flam greeted, the one with a mustache. “Anything you want for Hearth’s Warming?”

“Perhaps you wanted something very special from the two most attractive stallions?” Flim, the one without a mustache suggested while wiggling his eyebrows.

Rainbow scoffed in disgust. “No way! I’m not sitting on any of your laps! Besides, I’m playing for the other team, if you know what I mean!”

“Well that is quite a shame,” Flim said with a shrug. “But we weren’t talking about that.”

“We were actually talking about giving you an ultimate present that you wanted to buy for your love ones… for a fee of course!” Flam added with a smirk.

Rainbow narrowed her eyes. Flim and Flam were known as the ‘traveling salesmen,’ but really, they are nothing more than a couple of con artists. They visited her town twice just to pull off their scams. On their first visit to Ponyville, they attempted to drive the Sweet Apple Acres Farm out of business by making many barrels of apple ciders with their ‘Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000.’ However, their methods of producing apple ciders made them tasted horrible and they ended up fleeing out of town. One their second visit, they tried to sell their so-called ‘Miracle Curative Tonic,’ which was supposedly help cure everything, including making you young again. They had almost everypony fooled, even Granny Smith. But once again, it all turned out to be a sham and Applejack stopped her grandmother before Granny Smith could perform a dangerous high diving stunt. Needless to say, the brothers were chased out of town. The last thing Rainbow heard from those two sleazeballs was when Applejack and Fluttershy met them at the resort in Las Pegasus during a friendship mission. Applejack didn’t say much to her about the mission, but to make a long story short, two of her best friends were forced to team up with those two con-ponies to take out an even bigger con-pony at the resort. After they took that pony down, the two brothers turned around and took over the resort.

Rainbow’s glare intensified and pointed accusingly at the two brothers.

“No way! You two were nothing but crooks! And besides, I thought Applejack said that you two are now running the luxury resort in Las Pegasus!”

The two brothers suddenly looked uncomfortable at the mention of the resort.

“Oh… well… we realized… that that the resort business is not for us!” Flim said with some hesitation.

“So we decided to leave it behind to pursue another career!” Flam added quickly as he gave Rainbow his convincing smile.

Rainbow crossed her forehooves and gave the brothers her smirk.

“The ponies caught on to your schemes and then you two were chased out of town, didn’t you?”

“Look, are you interested or not?” Flim snapped impatiently.

Rainbow scoffed at them and then she turned to walk away. “Forget it! I got more important things to do!”

“Is finding that Power Pony Zapp doll the important thing?” Flam asked.

Rainbow stopped in her tracks and faced the brothers again with her arched eyebrow.

Flam smirked. “We knew that would get your attention. We managed to get this doll from this morning.”

“Don’t believe us?” said Flim as he used his horn to levitated a small photograph towards Rainbow Dash. “Here’s a picture of us with the doll!”

Rainbow snatched the photo from the air and then inspected it closely. The photograph contained the two brothers wearing their own Santa Hooves costumes, giving the camera their huge smiles while they each performed their usual showmen poses, which made Rainbow Dash to roll her eyes a bit. What really got her attention was the one item they hold on both of their hooves, the Zapp action figure. It was out of the box, but all the features were there, including the same colors of the hero’s face and mane, dark blue costume, lightning necklace, wings popped out, and most importantly, it looked brand new. While it is the very same toy Rainbow was looking for, but at the same time, it is also too good to be true.

Rainbow looked up at the brothers again and her eyes narrowed. “How do I know that this one is real?”

“Oh it’s real alright!” Flim insisted.

“And it’ll be yours for a fair price!” Flam added.

“Where is this doll?” Rainbow asked in her serious voice.

“We kept the doll nice and safe in one of the town’s warehouse,” Flam answered.

Rainbow’s facial expression remained stoic. “I want to see this do—”

“Shhhhhh!” Flim loudly shushed.

The two brothers then quickly acted like two jolly Santa Hooves, waving and saying “Ho, Ho, Ho!” as the security pony walked by them. The security pony himself waved back with a smile before he continued to walk down the mall. Once the guard was out of sight, the two brothers went back to business.

“We’ll let you see the doll,” Flim said in his hushed tone. “But not here! You’ll have to come with us to our warehouse!”

“How do I know this isn’t another one of your scams?” Rainbow asked skeptically with a frown.

Flam leaned towards Rainbow as he spoke in a very low volume. “Look… you can either wait for a few minutes and then we’ll all go get your doll together or you walk away, knowing that you miss your chance and you wouldn’t get an opportunity like this again.”

Flim then smirked. “Well? What’s it gonna be?”

Rainbow placed her hoof on her chin in thought. She knew that these two goons are nothing but trouble and they are not very trustworthy. They would probably pull a fast one on her just to take her money and not actually fulfilling their promise. On the other hoof, they are the only lead she has to get the doll she was looking for since she spent all day searching almost every location in Equestria and came up with nothing. Even if she refused, then where will she go from here? How will she know that the next location she will go to, only to turn out to be another wild goose chase? The more she lost time, the less likely she’ll get a gift for Scootaloo. She couldn’t bear to face Scootaloo without the toy. The thought of Scootaloo giving Rainbow a look of disappointment and betrayal was a stab to Rainbow’s heart.

With a long reluctant sigh, Rainbow Dash made her decision.

Author's Note:

Is Rainbow Dash taking their offer?

Find out tomorrow!

Comments

[Golden Fang Ryu Shenron]

“Alright, alright! Quiet! ” The minotaur spoke up loudly. “Let Iron Will speak!”

Oh no, not him!

Right on the other side of the fountain was a stage, which had a painted backdrop of a snowy mountain and a cabin made of wood, white cotton all around the stage, which represented snow, and a big red sleigh. What really got her attention was not one, but two Santa Hooves, sitting on two huge red thrones. They are both yellow unicorn stallions with green eyes wearing red suits, fake white beards and red Santa hats. Despite that they both wore fake white beards, Rainbow could still see a red brushy mustache poking out from one of those two ponies.

OH HAY NO!!!

Rainbow placed her hoof on her chin in thought. She knew that these two goons are nothing but trouble and they are not very trustworthy. They would probably pull a fast one on her just to take her money and not actually fulfilling their promise. On the other hoof, they are the only lead she has to get the doll she was looking for since she spent all day searching almost every location in Equestria and came up with nothing. Even if she refused, then where will she go from here? How will she know that the next location she will go to, only to turn out to be another wild goose chase? The more she lost time, the less likely she’ll get a gift for Scootaloo. She couldn’t bear to face Scootaloo without the toy. The thought of Scootaloo giving Rainbow a look of disappointment and betrayal was a stab to Rainbow’s heart.

Yes, yes it would....

With a long reluctant sigh, Rainbow Dash made her decision.

Oh boy....

[New Rebellion]

....

Why am I NOT surprised that it was THESE TWO who'd play the role of the conartists? Heheheheh!