> Mare Do Well: Fallout
>  by LordBrony2040
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 1

“But…don’t you all want me to be a hero?”

Rainbow Dash sat in the back alleyway as she looked at her friends dressed in their costumes, all standing there grinning as if they had pulled off some big practical joke. But…it hardly felt like one. There wasn’t some basic mess to clean up, or a little water on somepony’s dress that any unicorn worth two bits could get out with a glow of magic.

What the girls had done...it...hurt.

She still felt the pain of being forgotten by everypony in town over the last few days and her friends…having them just laugh at her was bad enough but knowing that they were behind everything…that they had meant to laugh at her inside Sugarcube corner when she had come needing cheering up…

Even Fluttershy…Fluttershy looked happy about how she had tricked her best friend, the pony who had stood up for her in flight camp, the pony who had moved to Ponyville to help keep her settled instead of taking a job in Manehattan or Fillydelphia where the weatherpony pay was so much better and ended up staying year after year just because she became all teary at the mention of Rainbow leaving for greener pastures…

Twilight said…something…drawing Rainbow out of her thoughts, and then…

“And a real hero doesn’t brag.”

Applejack’s statement made Rainbow Dash frown, her earlier confusion from the reveal about the town hero’s secret identity quickly fading as the anger in her gut began to rise. “Excuse me?”

“We were teaching out a lesson about modesty Rainbow Dash,” Twilight explained with a smile. “You were just bragging so much, and a real hero is modest and humble. Understand?”

The pegasus turned her glare towards Twilight. “Yeah, I understand just fine,” she said in a voice that was practically a growl.

A little put off by the hostility, the unicorn backed away from the pegasus. Then the orange earth pony in the purple costume stepped forward. “Hey! Don’t you be talking like that to her!” Applejack exclaimed as she approached the pegasus. “Twilight was right, you and your stupid bragging was  getting on our nerves, and you needed to be taught a lesson!”

“So you decided to sabotage and outstage me?” Rainbow demanded as she took the air to glare at the earth pony muzzle to muzzle instead of backing down. “You decided to laugh in my FACE? Oh, gee, thanks for the lesson Apple-smack! I guess seeing a pony who’s a real success must be too much for you huh? Not only can you not be happy for her, you have to lie and cheat to just to keep up! But I guess that’s the best we can expect from a pony who can’t even keep her own farm going, huh?”

“EXCUSE ME?” said apple farmer shouted.

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight yelled in something between surprise and outrage.

Rainbow whirled on Twilight and sneered. “A real hero doesn’t brag? Is that what Princess Celestia’s been teaching you all these years Twilight? Or are you just angry that I was getting pats on the back from everypony and she won’t even give you the time of day!”

The unicorn’s temper flared and she opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off when Rainbow Dash whirled to point at Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy. “And you three, thanks for stabbing me in the back! I guess that’s what I get for standing up for you all those years, huh Fluttershy? You know, since I’m not a real hero you’d better not fall out of some clouds anytime soon Rarity! And Pinkie, you can forget about me playing pranks with you anymore, because if this is your idea of a prank, then it’s the stupidest one I’ve ever seen!”

Spike flinched at the last word, and Twilight frowned at the temperamental pony and stepped forward. “Rainbow Dash! What in Equestria had gotten into you?” she demanded.

“What’s gotten into me? ME? You’re asking me that after what you did you-you…GAAAAAH!” she shouted after flying up in the air. “If you actually have to ask me that, then BUCK YOU Twilight! Buck all of you to Tartarus you bunch of whiney, ungrateful pathetic bunch of LOSERS!”

The last line of Rainbow’s rant made Twilight blink, the shock sent her out of the paralysis she had found herself in while Rainbow Dash had been shouting at the sky, and apparently attracting the attention of several of the towns ponies.

“W-What? Rainbow Dash, what’re you talking about?” she asked, confused over the unexpected turn of events.

“Heeeeeey,” Pinkie Pie whined. “You’re not supposed to talk that way to your friends Dashie!”

The words made the coat of the pegasus bristle as her look of anger turned to a sneer, shocking Twilight. “Oh really? Then guess what Pinkie? We-”

“Ooooo! Love guessing games is it-” Before the pink pony could say another word, she was cut off when Rainbow Dash zoomed down to within inches of her muzzle. “WE’RE NOT FRIENDS ANYMORE!”

The declaration left Twilight stunned. This was not how things should been going. According to her plan, Rainbow Dash should have seen the right of things agreed with them! After all, they had shown her how she had been acting when she came into Sugarcube Corner, they had shown that a real hero didn’t sit around to sign autographs and all the other things she did. So why is she doing this?

She furrowed her brow in thought. With things spiraling so out of control, she would need to take drastic measures for Rainbow Dash to admit her mistake. On top of which, Twilight would need to make her apologize to her friends for being such a jerk!

Fluttershy flew up to the air and met Rainbow Dash as she went higher into the air. “R-Rainbow Dash, we were just trying to help you.”

“HELP ME?” she shouted in Fluttershy’s face making the butter-yellow pegasus retreat before the other flying pony lowered her voice. “If that’s what you call help, then I don’t ever want your help again!”

“R-Rainbow,” Fluttershy stuttered before a cry from behind her made the pegasus look around in startlement and check to make sure she wasn’t wearing her costume.

“Oh my gosh! It’s Mare Do Well!”

The voice of the orange filly running through the crowd made the rest of the girls turn and look back at the assembled ponies that had been gathering since Rainbow Dash had flown above the roof of the houses and yelling. As Scootaloo ran past the older ponies, it seemed to open up the floodgates and everypony else swarmed the friends that had taken off their masks.

Twilight and the others quickly found themselves jostled by a crowd of ponies as they were beset by dozens of questions, thanks, and several requests for autographs, and they all looked around wildly while trying to fend off the attention.

“Applejack, You’re Mare Do Well?”

The farmer stood up a little straighter and puffed out her chest. “Ah sure as shooin’ am!” she said before noticing the purple unicorn looking her way and bent down a bit. “Well, it was a team effort. Uh, need me to sign that fer ya huh? Okay, just a second.”

Twilight frowned at the display of Applejack standing around while a group of ponies started to gather around her personally, then felt somepony tugging on her cape. “Oh, yes?” A second later, a filly jumped into Twilight’s forelegs, and she held the foal up while another pony who looked like the girl’s mother snapped a picture. The flash made Twilight stumble back, and she blinked several times while trying to clear her eyes.

“I got a picture with the unicorn Mare Do Well Mommy!”

“Oh thank you Twilight Sparkle!”

“Wha? Now, hold on everypony, there’s no need to-”

“Twilight!” a stallion said from within the crowd. “Is was you that fixed the dam right?”

The unicorn blushed at the attention and smiled at it. “Well, yes. It was me,” she said before looking back up at Rainbow Dash. Her smile of accomplishment turned to a worried frown when she caught sight of the pegasus’s scowl.

“That was an amazing spell Twilight!” a squeaky voice said from down on the ground. It took a second for the unicorn to look and see that Sweetie Bell was standing next to her. “You must be the most amazing unicorn ever! Can you teach me magic?”

Twilight smiled at the compliment, but it was the request that caught her attention. “Oh, well I’d be happy to help you learn how to use your horn Sweetie Bell…if it’s okay with your parents that is.”

Twilight looked back up to the sky, and found Rainbow Dash had disappeared. Then she turned her attention back to the others. “Uh girls, shouldn’t we do something about Rainbow Dash?”

Applejack let out a huff. “Why? You heard how she insulted me like that Twilight? Let the stupid little foal throw her tantrum. Not mah fault she can’t handle the truth!” she said before signing another autograph and taking a picture with Scootaloo. “That’s right everypony, come and get yer picture with the greatest hero in Equestria, right here!”

Thanks to the fact she wasn’t wearing a costume, the white unicorn of the group was able to avoid being swarmed and made her way over to the pink Mare Do Well. Apparently, the sad demeanor of the third costumed pony was keeping all the others away. “Pinkie?” Rarity spoke up as she walked over to the party pony. “Are you alright?”

“She…she said…Rarity…why aren’t Dashie and me friends anymore?” Pinkie asked the unicorn with tears in her eyes.

Unable to come up with the answer herself on the spot, Rarity looked around for support, but found Applejack continuing to sign autographs. As for Twilight, she too caught up in talking to a bunch of other unicorns that were asking her for magic lessons on how to repair everything around town.

“Oh well, the spell is kind of complicated, so it’s not something just anypony can do. I guess if you look at it that way, I am pretty amazing… Okay, okay, really amazing,” Twilight said to the group of unicorns standing around her that were mostly foals.

Then she looked over to Applejack. “That’s right little sister, yer big sister’s a bone-E-fied here-row!” the farm pony said as another crowd of foals gathered around her to listen to how she stopped the cart. “It was a tough job, but Ah am the strongest, fastest, and best athlete in Equestria. Remember how Ah bring home all them blue ribbons every rodeo?”

Seeing as she wasn’t going to get any help, Rarity looked back to her friend and sighed. “Um, well…I’m sure she’s just…a little out of sorts. Perhaps she’s sick or something, Celestia knows I can be a real terror if I get a migraine.”

“R-Really?”

The unicorn nodded and tried to sound more sure of herself than she had before. “Really!”

Almost immediately, Pinkie perked up and practically exploded back into a joyful grin. “Oh good! I thought it was because we betrayed her trust and undermined her whole self-image by making her feel completely useless and unappreciated by the entire town and her friends before we laughed in her face when she came to us looking for a confidence boost!” she exclaimed, making Rarity stumble back in both shock and confusion. “But it’s just because she had a headache! That makes sooooooo much more sense, thanks Rarity!”

For her part, Rarity simply stared at the pink pony for a moment, trying to make sense of the rush of words that ran through her ears. “W-What?”

“What are we all just standing around for? We’ve got a parade to get to!” Pinkie shouted as she turned to the crowd. “It’s like a moving party, come on everypony!”

As the crowd picked up a delighted Applejack, a somewhat less delighted Twilight Sparkle, and Pinkie Pie on their shoulders and took off, Rarity noticed Fluttershy was still just standing…or flying in the air with a broken hearted look on her face.

“Rarity, she said…she told me…what she said…it…it was so mean!” the pegasus exclaimed before looking over at the unicorn with tearful eyes.

Seeing Fluttershy’s pain filled face, the unicorn felt the last bit of her control snap. She frowned, but not at Fluttershy. She frowned up at the space where Rainbow Dash had occupied a second before. “Yes it was, wasn’t it?” she grunted. Then, she forced herself to brighten up. “Come on, this parade is for you too remember?”

The yellow pegasus froze and trembled for a moment. “W-What?” Oh Rarity no, I…please don’t tell anypony I’m Mare Do Well too! I-I don’t want ponies looking at me like that!”

Rarity gave her a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry dear, I wont.” Although, she more she thought about it…having everypony in town know about Fluttershy’s role as Mare Do Well would help the pegasus get over her crippling shyness.

“But wait...I know I saw a pegasus Mare Do Well too!” Scootaloo spoke up before she looked around for a minute, “and if it wasn’t Rainbow Dash then it had to be...Fluttershy!”

“W-WHAT?” the mare in question shrieked before a mob of pegasi descended on her.

“Oh my gosh that’s right, those girls do everything together! She had to be the pegasus!”

“Yeah! Come on guy, we can’t let our hero have the spotlight stolen from her,” another one of the flying ponies proclaimed before the yellow pegasus was hoisted up into the air.

For a moment Rarity wondered how she had been left in the alleyway if ‘all’ the girls were supposed to do everything together, but she sighed and let the other mares have their fame. She had gotten enough from all the custom costumes that every foal in town was ordering. Thanks to Mare Do Well, her off season was looking to be a bit more profitable than usual this year.

And if the idea became more popular… If I trademark the design of the costume and the character...oh my, this might turn out to be quite the win for me after all.





Rainbow Dash landed at her cloud home with a scowl on her face, feeling tears in her eyes threatening to form.

How the buck could they do that to me? The pegasus mentally shouted.

Not a real hero?

HER?

The fastest flyer in Equestria?

“Well what the buck do they know?” she shouted.

Twilight had to have been the one behind it all, Rainbow could see the bucking unicorn setting everything up so that the pegasus would have failed! I mean come on, Rainbow Dash thought to herself, I can buy all the stuff that happened in town, but the dam, the bucking dam that was miles away from Ponyville and she just happens to show up after it breaks from me touching it? Did Twilight think she was an idiot or something? I nearly drowned because of that stupid unicorn!

Applejack? How many times had she come to all of the others asking for help hauling apples, or just harvesting her own crops? The stupid earth pony couldn’t even run her own farm! And she’s calling me a fake? At least I can do what my cutie mark says I can!

Pinkie Pie going along with their scheme was…well, Rainbow Dash supposed she really didn’t know Pinkie all that well after all. The time she had seen the whacko playing with her rocks and that bag of flour made the pegasus shiver. Apparently, there was a backstabbing side to the mare along with her crazy and nutso one.

Rarity? Well, Rainbow Dash had seen her true colors the day she tried to steal the spotlight from the pegasus during the Young Fliers Competition. Rainbow knew Rarity was a snake…she just didn’t think the unicorn would have kept up with it after the pegasus had saved her life!

Fluttershy was…the idea that Fluttershy had helped them spit in her face made Rainbow Dash grit her teeth. All the others she could understand, accept, and toss aside like dirty laundry, but when Fluttershy had revealed that she had been in on it too…the pain in Rainbow Dash’s gut more than doubled.

And to top it off, there was what Fluttershy had said about Mare Do Well. “She really cares about other ponies.”

“And I don’t?” Rainbow grumbled. “Well you know what? Fine! Be that way! You’re right! I don’t care, I’ll never care about any of you girls again! Buck you girls, and buck this whole bucking town! And when they’re all going, ‘Oh save us Mare Do Well’ and you all buck up, I’M GOING TO BE THERE TO LAUGH IN YOUR STUPID FACES!”

> Chapter 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 2

Rainbow Dash shook off the drowsiness she was feeling as she made it into the Ponyville weather office. Although it wasn’t made of clouds, the area did have a high enough ceiling for her not to feel like she was trapped in a little box and enough room to make pegasus-style announcements. Ground bound ponies might have liked their ceilings so low that they could be touched by a pony standing on her hind legs, but pegasi needed a good ten feet of clearance from their heads to the ceiling to call a room anything but cramped.

Personally she preferred a solid fifteen, but Rainbow lived in Ponyville, not Manehattan…for the moment anyway, and she would take what she could get. As much as she felt like just blowing the town off and finding someplace that would appreciate a pony like her…finding a weather manager that could handle the freakiness that was the Everfree when it decided to spit out some random thunderstorm was going to take some time. So until then, the cyan pegasus was stuck in the middle of nowhere with the ingrates, backstabbers, and...them.

When the other ponies on the weather team started to file in, Rainbow made her way into her private office and grabbed the day’s paperwork. By the time she was back out, Raindrops, Thunderlane, Blossomforth, Cloud Kicker, and the twins had found a place to sit, and Rainbow was left looking for their last weather team member. When she didn’t appear out of the bathroom or anything, Dash looked over to the mare’s partner. “Raindrops, is Derpy coming?”

The gray mare had skipped out on morning meetings in favor of her mail route before more than once after all. 

“Yeah,” the surly pegasus groaned as she looked around.

As if her name was some kind of demonic summoning ritual, the pony in question crashed through the double doors and wobbled around in the air as she came in for a landing. However, by some miracle and the grace of Celestia, she managed to stop before colliding with the row of seats that the rest of the weather team had taken, thus keeping them from being confined to hospital beds for the next two weeks.

After Derpy got back to her hooves, she looked around and gave a nervous laugh. “Hey everypony sorry I’m a little late. I just wanted to swing by my house and make sure my muffin was okay.”

The mention of the mare’s younger foal made the annoyance Rainbow Dash felt at her near miss drain out of the pegasus, as well as remind Rainbow just why Derpy still had a job with the weather patrol. The poor mare worked two jobs with another part time gig on the side with a moving company to help provide for her foals. Because of that, Rainbow just didn’t have the heart to let the ditzy pony go.

Rainbow had seen how hard it was on a single parent and…she wasn’t about to make Derpy’s life any harder.

“Okay everypony listen up,” Rainbow announced as she took to the air and held up the papers that had the day’s assignments. “We’re doing a little schedule change today that’s going to last…well, probably for awhile. I’m gonna be taking one of the night shift slots, so…Raindrops, Derpy…which one of you girls wants to work Ponyville?

“Or,” she added before any of the mare’s could speak, “if anypony else wants to trade for it, now’s your chance.”

Cloud Kicker raised a hoof. “Wait, you’re not working center anymore? Um…why?”

Rainbow Dash frowned at the question, and didn’t bother holding in her anger that had been stewing all night. She didn’t want to answer questions, she wanted to get some sleep so her internal clock would be ready for the new shift. “Maybe I’m tired of a bunch of ingrates falling over themselves over a bunch of lying, backstabbing cheaters that don’t even-!” the pegasus exclaimed harshly before she caught herself at the sight of Cloud Kicker cowering. “Any other questions? No? Good! Now which pony wants the position.”

Derpy held up both her hooves as of to push something away. “I can’t. Graveyard shift is the only thing that works with my morning mail route and picking Dinky up from school.”

“Looks like you get Ponyville, Raindrops,” Rainbow said as she sorted through the files and threw the ponies their clipboards for them to sign so the head office would know they got their daily assignments sometime next week when the mail got to Cloudsdale. Why everypony had to go through so much paperwork, Dash would never understand.

Raindrops looked over to the pegasus sitting next to her. “Hey Blossom, you want to switch to Ponyville and let me take Everfree?”

“Are you sure you can handle her?” the other mare asked while pointing a wing at her weather partner.

“Hey!” Cloud Kicker whined.

A frown crossed the yellow pegasus’s face, and she bent over to glare at the town’s resident ‘free spirited’ pony. “The only banging me and you are going to do is when you ask me, and then I hit you on the head with a stick. A big stick, with nails in it…repeatedly.”

“Deal!” Blossom exclaimed before they switched papers.

After waiting for all the ponies to finish signing their names and passing the paperwork forward, Rainbow Dash checked everything, then stamped it with her hoof print and shoved them in the Sunday folder. “Great!” she said in a snap as the emotions CK’s questions brought up still burned in Rainbow’s heart. “See you tonight Derpy.”

As the blue pegasus walked past the gray one, Derpy fell in step with Rainbow and looked over to her in concern. “You okay Rainbow Dash?”

“I’m fine!” she snapped, and then noticed the gray mare recoil at the answer out of the corner of her eye. The sight made Rainbow stop and let out a tired sigh. “I…I’m fine Derpy, I just…didn’t get much sleep last night. Sorry. It’s…not your fault. You didn’t do anything.”

Derpy smiled and nodded. “Oh, okay. See you tonight then,” she said before reaching under her wing with a hoof. “Hey, do you want your mail?”

The oddity of the question made Rainbow Dash freeze, and turn back to look at the mare. Just as she had thought, the pegasus wasn’t wearing her mail carrier uniform, but she did have a letter. “Let me guess, forgot it yesterday?”

“Sorry,” Derpy admitted with a wince. “I sound it in the bottom of my bag yesterday after my rounds and you weren’t some so…”

A sigh escaped from Rainbow’s lips, and she took the envelope to see it was from Pinkie Pie. For a fraction of a second, Rainbow remembered the sad look on the other mare’s face after yesterdays events…then she opened the letter to read it.

Let me say salutations
And here’s an invitation
For an exaltation
Of the super most awesomest pony around
Who wears Magic like a crown
Just-

    Rainbow Dash stopped reading the invitation, and tore the paper in half, then into fourths, and eighths…sixteenths…and whatever came after sixteenths before letting out a snarl and tossing it in the trash bin beside her.

“Bad news?” Derpy called out as the pegasus stormed out the door in a fury.

So now they’re holding parties for themselves, and parades, and I’m supposed to be the braggart? Rainbow thought to herself as she flew home to get some much needed sleep.





Twilight awoke to the feeling of somepony pounding her skull with a mallet. Not that somepony ever had tried to smash her head in with a blunt object, but if they had, she imagined that it would have felt like what she was experiencing at the moment. She let out a low moan, and tried to remember how she had gotten in such a state.

It had been during the parade…or perhaps the after parade party, or maybe it was the post party parade party that Pinkie had set up for celebrating the fact that the town had given the girls a parade…

Sometime during all the excitement, Twilight remembered a group of her fans, or future students, or…whatever they were supposed to be, had asked to see everything she could do. The unicorn had complied after some pleading from the foals and performed trick after trick in an impromptu magic show until…

Twilight couldn’t remember.

Then I woke up here, the unicorn thought before looking around her bedroom for a moment and missing the presence of a familiar purple dragon. “Spike?” she asked in a lazy drawl.

A quick check of the primacies told Twilight where the dragon had fallen asleep, but she decided to leave him there in favor or something else. After Rainbow Dash’s outburst the other day, Twilight had wanted to go over her books for inspiration to find a way to make her apologize and learn her lesson in humility, but then the foals had blocked her escape during the celebration and after a lot of magic tricks…

That was as far as Twilight could get.

Right…memory loss…usual side effect number two of magic overuse and exhaustion, the unicorn told herself. Some ponies said it sounded a lot like getting extremely drunk but…Twilight had no intention of ever testing that theory. Overusing her horn didn’t kill brain cells, but Applejack’s special cider did.

She looked up at the books on the shelves and concentrated…then winced when a sharp spike of pain told the unicorn magic wasn’t a good idea at the moment. Maybe I ended up using more magic than I thought, Twilight told herself before she made a quick mental revision of her to do list.

First coffee, then breakfast, and finally…a day with some nice relaxing reading of arcane formulae as she tried to figure out a way to finish teaching Rainbow Dash her lesson. After what happened yesterday… Ugh,! I can’t believe she said all those things to us!

For a fraction of a second, Twilight considered just letting her friend spiral downwards into the dark abyss of moral ambiguity, but...she knew that was the headache talking.

A quick glance at the clock so she could add a timetable to her schedule and…Twilight blinked at what she saw. Ten thirty? How could it be ten thirty? Pinkie’s celebration hadn’t lasted THAT long!

…had it?

Let’s see...parade until five, then we had that speech session, then the Q&A…then Pinkie invited the town to Sugarcube Corner for her hero party and those fillies talked me into doing all that magic, Twilight reminded herself as she recalled as much as she could before hitting a wall.

To try and dislodge some memories, Twilight shook her head to try and clear it, and then instantly regretted it when she felt her brain practically slosh around inside her skull. GAH! Okay bad idea… Another sigh escaped the unicorns lips, and she X’d coffee off of her checklist. Caffeine was not a good drink to be had whenever a headache was already in progress.

“Maybe some tea instead,” the unicorn told herself before she headed for the door. With it being past ten, the market would be open. So while fresh coffee wasn’t an option, she could at least get what she needed to make some tea.

For a moment she looked back at the stacks of books and wondered if she could take the time to look through a few. The unicorn knew that somewhere in there a tome of herbal tea remedies waited for her to peruse its pages and find out just what she needed to down in order to help relieve a magical exhaustion migraine but with Spike unconscious and her telekinesis on the fritz for the day…

Twilight sighed dejectedly. “Suppose I could just ask but…oh pony feathers that’s going to be so embarrassing,” the unicorn mumbled before she headed to the door and…got another spike of discomfort when she tried to open the door with her horn on reflex. Then she rolled her eyes at the foible before turning the handle with her mouth to get out into the small hamlet she called home.

A quick glance around the outside told Twilight that she wasn’t the only pony getting a late start. Judging by all the parade leftovers that were still laying around like confetti and balloons, the cleanup crew had yet to begin removing the refuse. However, thanks to the size of the small town and the library being perfectly placed in the center, she was able to see that some of the booths in the market were open and was greeted by a bright light up hope amid the organized chaos.

Not the one she needed but…the sight of an orange pony already closing shop caused Twilight’s curiosity meter to rise, and she trotted over to see what was happening. “Hey Applejack…um, what’s going on?” Twilight as she looked at Applejack’s usual stand that was in the middle of being folded up for transport back to the farm. “Forget the apples?”

The farm pony gave Twilight and odd look at the unicorn snickered at her own joke. “Naw. I sold out,” she replied, making Twilight stop and jerk her head up…then immediately regret it when her brain reminded such quick movements were verboten.

“But…you…wait…doesn’t the market open at nine?”

“Eeyup.”

“And you sold out in…an hour and thirty four minutes?” she asked after making a slow calculation that would have left the unicorn in tears because of an apparent mental deficiency had the majority of her gray matter not been paralyzed with screaming pains.

Applejack shrugged. “Guess folks round here like to buy from a hero,” she continued before her face darkened a bit. “Remember all them yahoos was buyin’ all of Rainbow Dash’s stuff? Well now I’m getting’ the same treatment.”

As the earth pony stood up a little taller, Twilight wondered if she should tell Applejack that Rainbow hadn’t been behind the rainbow merchandise and it was just local sales ponies that made the things but…the need for relief came first. “Applejack, do you know of a good cure for headaches?”

The farm pony gave Twilight a measuring look. “You had a bit too much of Pinkie’s special punch last night?”

“Um…no,” Twilight mumbled as she tried to remember just what had happened and…failed miserably. “I just overworked my horn with all the magic those foals wanted me to show them and…now I’m paying for it.” When Applejack didn’t show any comprehension, Twilight sighed and spelled it out for her. “When a unicorn overuses her magic, we get really bad headaches. Remember when the bear attacked and I was stuck in the library all the next day? This isn’t as bad as that time but…it still hurts to…well, do anything really.”

Applejack nodded, finally comprehending. “Sorry to hear that Twi. Ah think Pinkie’s got something that’ll help, least it did for me once,” she said before thinking to herself for a second. “Think she called it her super special pink party pony late night…something or rather.”

“Thanks Applejack,” she mumbled before something else came to mind. “Oh, and have you seen Rainbow Dash today? I think we need to get together and-”

Twilight blinked when she saw the earth pony turn to scowl at her for a moment. “Feh! Far as I’m concerned, if I ever see that lousy pegasus again, it’ll be too soon!” she said before the stand was completely transformed back into a wagon, and Applejack made her departure.

Yeah, I was afraid of that, Twilight thought to herself as she watched Applejack head back to her farm. Considering how much those two butted heads, Twilight had doubted that Applejack would be up to looking past that one incident and helping Rainbow get over her bragging problem.

Now she needed to make Rainbow apologize, and still give her a lesson in humility.

-Break-

    “Heeeeeere you go Twilight,” the pink pony across the counter said as she slid the unicorn…something in a glass usually reserved for ice cream sodas. It was…brown, and yellow and…Twilight was pretty sure she saw something translucent swimming in the glass.

After studying it for a few more seconds, Twilight looked back up at the baker. “Pinkie…just what is in this...thing?”

Pinkie Pie gave her a confused look for a moment, then looked at the odd drink and back to Twilight. “Oh the usual,” she said. “Sea pony tears, lobster soul, fish eggs taken from the womb, eye of newt and tongue of frog, Tirek hair and bark of dog.”

All of a sudden, spending the day without magic didn’t seem so bad in Twilight’s eyes. She pushed the odd concoction away and groaned at the pounding in her head. “I’ll pass, thanks.”

“Or was it eggs mixed in a blender with-Oh. Okay, suit yourself,” she said before reaching over to grab the strange brew and downed it in one gulp. As soon as the glass hit the counter, Pinkie Pie let out a burp, and Twilight blinked in surprise as a could of strange red vapor formed into the face of a demonic horned creature that seemed to laugh in a deep evil voice for a second before evaporating.

With the…oddity that had Twilight wondering if Pinkie practiced witchcraft over, she looked back at the party pony and cleared her throat. “So um…about Rainbow Dash,” the unicorn said before pausing to see if Pinkie suddenly raised any objections to helping the pegasus just by the mention of her name.

When none came, Twilight let out a silent sigh of relief. “Since the Mare Do Well thing didn’t work, I was thinking we could do something else to stop her bragging,” she said. Ugh, why didn’t I bring my book, 101 Lessons in Humility? That one hadn’t even been on a shelf since Twilight had been using it as a reference to plan how things were...supposed to work out the other day.


“Oh! I know, maybe we can challenge her to a race!” Pinkie exclaimed, making Twilight blinked in surprise. After the running of the leaves, she didn’t think doing something like that again would have much in the way of positive results.

“You know how she’s always saying how she’s the fastest flyer in Equestria!” the pink party pony went on. “You can do something like give Applejack those butterfly wings and then-”

Twilight held up a hoof to stop her. “Pinkie, those things are delicate. They’re not built for racing,” she explained.

“Theeeeeen how about you use your magic to make Dashie super slow in the air?” Pinkie suggested while Twilight raised a cautious eyebrow before Pinkie kept going. “And the Applejack can be all ‘Look at me Ah’m a better flier than you too! Ah think Ah’ll go and join the Wonderbolts while you can just sit around here pushing clouds for the rest of yer life, uh-huck!”

The unicorn backed away from the earth pony’s rather…manic grin. “Okay first, Applejack doesn’t say uh-huck,” Twilight corrected her in a cautious tone. “And the fact I would never do something like that to Rainbow aside…cheating like that would defeat the point.”

As the pink pony’s grin changed to a look of confusion, Twilight found herself wondering if it would have been better to go to Fluttershy for advice first. She knew Rainbow better than anypony, she would have been the one to talk to about which option was best.

“But…we already cheated.”

Twilight looked back to the mare and frowned as her brain reminded her that there was currently an evil monster inside trying to claw its way out through her skull. “What?”

“You said you wanted to create a pony that would save ponies around town better than Dashie, but then you had me, Applejack, yourself and Fluttershy…even though she didn’t do anything, dress up as the same pony and make everypony think there was only one of us,” the party pony added after a second thought. “So it was more like four, or three really, against one than a one on one hero contest like Dashie thought it was. How is what we did not cheating?”

“Wha-it…” Twilight let out a groan. “Look, that’s not…it wasn’t a contest! It was a bunch of events where we helped out the town at different intervals while not taking any credit-”

“Until the parade you had me talk the mayor into,” Pinkie reminded her.

Twilight groaned. “Yes, but that was just supposed to push Rainbow Dash over the edge and have us chase us around town so we could reveal ourselves,” she went on before catching herself. Then Twilight got back on track mentally. “The point was, Mare Do Well didn’t brag about herself!”

“Buuuuuut, we did,” Pinkie replied as she tilted her head in confusion. “At least I think we did. Remember when Dashie came into Sugarcube Corner and we went on and on about what we did in costume and she got all angry with Mare Do Well…or us? Wait was she angry at us, or Mare Do Well? Because…Mare Do Well is us now, right?”

A throbbing in one of her lobes made Twilight groan as she . “That was to teach her empathy!” the unicorn exclaimed. “She was-all that boasting was annoying and she needed to be shown what it felt like!”

As Twilight reached up to rub the area beneath her horn, Pinkie picked up the conversation. “Ohhhhhh-kay…so…um…what about all the other stuff we set up like all the costumes and the parade?” she asked.

“What’s what all the questions all of a sudden?” Twilight grumbled as she frowned at the pink pony. She hadn’t been this inquisitive about the plan when Twilight and Applejack were getting her to go along with it.

“Oh those. I’m pretty sure nopony else will be allowed to get away with asking them without igniting cries of Oh Oh Ce,” she said before shrugging…and making Twilight wonder just what the hay was in that drink Pinkie downed. “And um…you never did answer my question about us cheating.”

Twilight’s eye twitched. Her head throbbed again, and her temper flared. “It wasn’t cheating!” she exclaimed. “We were providing Rainbow with a superior model to follow in how to be a hero with Mare Do Well! We didn’t brag-”

“Except in front of Rainbow, aaaaaand I might have told a few of my friends how awesome she, or uh we was…or is it we were? Anyway…and I might have mentioned where to go if they wanted to see her next appearance,” Pinkie cut in. “We uh…needed the crowds, especially way out there when you broke the dam.”

Twilight’s eye twitched again. “I didn’t break the dam!” she yelled before a stab of pain hit her brain.

“Then what were you doing way out there?” Pinkie asked with a cocked head.

“Saving the town, and Rainbow! But she seems to have forgotten that!” Twilight went on in a shout that made her wince again. “Hay, that alone proved that Mare Do Well was a superior model of hero since she saved a pegasus that was being such a jerk!” Almost immediately, the unicorn regretted her decision to yell when the migraine reminded her raised voices were a bad thing.

Pinkie blinked, half-nodded, then raised an eyebrow. “You mean like when how Rainbow saved Rarity even though she tried to upstage her in Cloudsdale and even messed up Dashie’s timing with her weird music so bad she couldn’t even do basic tricks that she had correctly practiced plenty of times before?”

Once again, Twilight felt her eye twitch. “I…that’s beside the point!” she exclaimed before taking a calming breath and exhaling. Calm down Twilight, shouting is bad and…you know Pinkie needs things explained slowly sometimes.

After she had found her center, Twilight looked at the pink pony that was balancing a spoon on her nose, and rolled her eyes. “Look, Pinkie. We were providing Dash with a superior model of hero to follow while showing her how bad she was being with her bragging. Remember how we saved the day four times, and she only got three rescues?” If math didn't prove her point, nothing would.

“Well if you want to be technical about it, Dashie saved the day three times with an assist to me when everything was falling apart at the construction site,” she said after putting the spoon away. “Then you had one, and Applejack had one, and me and…do you remember which of us did the balloon rescue?”

Twilight blinked in confusion and…drew a blank. “Um…that was…I’m not sure.”

As the pink earth pony jumped up in a gasp, Twilight was thinking that she should have just guessed Applejack. “Maybe it was the real Mare Do Well!”

Oh Celestia give me strength, Twilight prayed on the inside as she groaned on the outside from having to listen to Pinkie’s theory. “Look Pinkie…do you want me to help Rainbow Dash, or not?”

“Sure I want to help Dashie.”

Twilight sighed in relief. “Good,” she said with a nod…then winced. “I’ll see what Rarity is up for and…have you seen Fluttershy this morning?”

“She’s hiding out in her house’s secret basement until this Mare Do Well thing blows over because all those ponies kept mobbing her last night. Probably has something to do with that whole modeling scare she had last season…you know, in the Spring?” Pinkie replied before reaching behind the counter and pulling out a basket of baked goods. “She sent Angel over with a list of food and a note saying why she can't come into town anymore. Can you take it to her?”

For a fraction of a second Twilight willed the basket to levitate, then winced,  sighed, and reached to take the basket in her mouth since it refused to move by normal means.

“And can you take this to Dashie?” Pinkie asked before dropping a thermos into the basket as well. “Rarity said she had a headache yesterday so I made up enough of my super special cure-all for two.”

Twilight froze for a moment, unsure on whether to commit to such a task before Rainbow had been properly dealt with in regards to her actions, but she supposed if Pinkie wanted her to… “Roh-kay,” the unicorn managed to say with the weaved carryall in her mouth before heading for the door.

"Oh, and it's dangerous out there, take this."

Twilight turned around and grunted when yet another weight was added to the basket. She frowned at Pinkie for a moment, but rolled her eyes and carried it out anyway when the unicorn saw the party pony wasn't going to just let her leave it. What the hay am I supposed to need a megaphone for?

> 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.
> Chapter 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 4

As she made her way back into Ponyville and the Golden Oaks Library, Twilight Sparkle hurt.

She hurt a lot.

However, her inability to quantify the level of the pain she was in aside from ‘a lot’ was due to the fact that not all of the pain she was experiencing seemed to be coming from her head. It was a kind of pain she had never really felt before and didn’t seem to have any physical cause. The unicorn felt as if this strange new kind of wound was sapping her strength and putting some invisible weight on her body that made it hard to breathe.

On top of which, her eyes were watering. That at least was understandable. After all, she was in a great deal of physical pain, and shedding tears was a natural response to such stimuli.

The runny nose was a bit of an oddity since they were in Autumn and thus no Spring allergies were occurring but…Twilight was more preoccupied with just moving forward to have more than two worries on her slightly diminished mental capacity.

So the unicorn trudged through Ponyville and thankfully only had to tell Snips and Snails to beat it, not the majority of her other future students. However, before she could make it to the sanctuary that was her library and lay down on the bed to finally release her lachrymal fluids where no one could see, the door opened to reveal a mulberry pony with a pet carrier saddlebag barring Twilight’s way.

The local schoolteacher Ms Cheerilee was a pony after Twilight’s own heart…most of the time. While the unicorn loved knowledge for knowledge’s sake, Cheerilee was a more down to earth scholar that focused on the need to know stuff. Still, Twilight respected the woman for her profession. After all, it was one that Princess Celestia Herself held in the highest regard and even engaged in with very lucky ponies. A position that Twilight would soon hold herself in fact. She couldn’t wait to tell Princess Celestia about the first lesson she would be teaching all the young ponies of Ponyville.

“Oh Ms Sparkle, hello there,” Cheerilee. “I’m glad I caught you. I…are you okay?”

After setting down her basket, Twilight took in a deep breath through her nose and nodded. She didn’t want to air her dirty laundry in public…especially with her headache and the phantom pain in her chest that might have been the onset of a pulmonary disease. “No I’m fine, it’s just a little…hiccup,” she assured the teacher while trying to give herself a boost of confidence and hide the inner turmoil that her body was under. However, the tone of her voice came out flat and empty of any emotion. “I’m sure I’ll feel better by morning. Is there something I can help you with?”

“I just stopped by to remind you about thing we arranged for you to teach after school on Monday,” Cheerilee replied.

Doing her best to be careful with her head, Twilight slowly nodded. “Right, the after school special class on the magic of…friendship,” the unicorn mumbled after a pause while the pain in her chest doubled in intensity. “I’ll…be there.”

The earth pony teacher gave Twilight a measuring look, then shrugged. “Alright then,” she said before turning so Twilight could see the pet carrier she had brought with her. “And do you know where Fluttershy is today? I’m afraid the class pet is acting a little oddly and…well, you know they don’t put any funds in the school’s budget for animal care so I was hoping she could tell me if he’s really sick before I take him to the vet. But…I’ve heard from a dozen ponies that say she’s either in the Everfree to slay a hydra or combating something called the Smooze in another dimension so…”

“She’s in her cottage, in her basement where she keeps all her sewing and knitting supplies,” Twilight told her while trying to keep her voice neutral. “Just tell her pets you’ve got an animal for her to look at and don’t let the bunny scare you off.” You know now that I think about it…quickly discarded signs of a mob…stampede of ponies…what the buck did Angel do to run everypony off like that?

As she got into the library, Twilight found Spike performing his usual cleanup duties and told him there was a tea mix in the basket she left by the door that needed some hot water before going into her bedroom.

Safe and alone, Twilight walked up to her bed and just climbed on top of the covers. She let out a long breath and…started to regret crawling back in bed when her mind became unburdened by activity.

“I patted you on the back…”

“You caused them, didn‘t you?”

“I tried to help ponies.”

“You were out of control!”

“SMARTY PANTS!”

“Self-centered, illiterate, pigheaded…”

“You were never my friend!”

“And Good Riddance RAINBOW TRASH!”

Twilight cried into her pillow as the memories continued to run through her mind, over and over again.





Fluttershy looked up from her knitting as she heard a knock on the door. It wasn’t her front door, the sound of the impact was far too loud and close. It was the door at the top of the stairs leading out of her basement.

Worry flooded into her mind for a moment as she realized somepony from last night’s mob that Harry had come back and had managed they were in her house!

Needles were dropped as Fluttershy remembered that terrible night. All those ponies carrying her around, touching her, crowding her…some of them had even been so mean they had yanked off a few of her feathers and screamed in joy like they had just gotten a trophy or something! The memories of just being surrounded by so many other strange ponies, being touched and violated like she had been…it was a million times worse than when she had been at flight camp, or a model!

At least back then nopony had…assaulted her!

And there was what happened before that, which was even worse!

She had been so proud of finally being able to do something worthwhile for Rainbow Dash, to help her overcome that flaw of Rainbow’s that Twilight pointed out; much like Fluttershy’s own problems with dragons, crowded places, out of control situations, talking, an over abundance of clouds, a lack of sufficient cloud cover, and all those other things that made her nervous. Fluttershy didn’t really understand what the big deal was with how Rainbow talked about herself all the time, but if Twilight said it was bad for her…well, who was a nopony like Fluttershy to argue with the personal student of Princess Celestia?

But then…

“If that’s what you call help, then I don’t ever want your help again!”

“I just don’t understand,” Fluttershy mumbled to herself.

More knocking made Fluttershy flinch, and she looked up at the door for a few seconds before sighing in defeat. If she was lucky, it wouldn’t be as big a crowd that chased her home last night and if it was…she didn’t want to be trapped in a basement.

After ascending the stairs, Fluttershy opened the door and blinked at the friendly face. “Oh…hello Cheerilee,” she said before looking past the pony to see if there were any others. Thankfully, she was alone. “Is there something you…need?”

Fluttershy blinked as she caught sight of the pet carrier. “Oh my, is there something wrong with your pet, or do you just need me to groom him?”

“I’m not really sure,” Cheerilee admitted. “And it’s the class pet. I was wondering if you could…take a look at him?”

The pegasus opened the mobile cage to look inside, then turned her attention back to the earth pony. “Well, I’m not really a vet but I do know a lot about animals, so…I guess I could give it a shot.”

A second later, the carrier was on the ground, and Cheerilee was nodding to her in thanks. “Great! Just drop him off at the school at the closing bell and tell me if anything’s wrong or if he’s just having one of those moods so I know whether to take him to the vet or not.”

“W-What?” Fluttershy asked in a whisper as her mind informed her of all that entailed. She would have to go outside.

Into town.

Surrounded by all those ponies again!

No, I can’t do that, I can’t do that again!

When she looked up to tell the earth pony she would need to come and get her pet at the cottage, Fluttershy saw that Cheerilee was already closing the door behind her.





“Course Ah knew right then that if Ah didn’t act, all of Equestria was doomed,” Applejack said to the fillies and colts that had gathered around her stand. “So Ah leapt forward an grabbed onto Twilight’s hoof, and saved her from fallin to her death. Then we went an stopped Nightmare Moon.”

As the fillies Ahhed and the colts Oooooooed, Applejack pushed her last basket of apples forward for them to reach and collected the bits from all the little foals before she looked around. “Now, which of ya’ll wanna hear bout how I saved them tourists?”

One of the fillies in the back raised her foreleg. “I have a question,” she said with an odd lisp.

“Ain’t you that filly that played with my sister till you went and got yer cutie mark then ditched her like a rotten tomater?” Applejack asked.

“Yep, that’s her alright,” Applebloom agreed in a bored tone as she sat beside her sister’s stand like she had been for the past hour.

“Yes,” Twist replied with her odd lisp. “But Applejack…how did you know that the cart was going over the hill? Or with the balloon, and especially the dam? That’s miles out of town. Did you know all that stuff was gong to happen ahead of time and just jumped in at the last second to save the day rather than prevent the disaster in the first place?”

Applejack nodded at the intelligence of the filly’s questions while resisting the urge to frown at the hidden accusation. “Whelp…ya see, we started this Mare Do Well thing as a way to teach Rainbow Dash a lesson cause she was getting so outta hand. Ah couldn’t stand the way she went on and on about herself no more. So, me and Twilight or Twilight an Pinkie would wait up in the Ponyville clock tower where we could see her, and whenever she swooped down, Twilight would teleport one of us down to show her what fer. Then all of ya’ll were lookin to a real hero like me stead of that pegasus.”

“Feh! Twilight’s a better hero than you, she saved the whole town from that flood when Rainbow Dash broke the dam!” one of them two unicorn colts that used to follow Trixie around cried out. “You wouldn’t have been able to do anything!”

Taking a moment to remind herself she was talking to a youngin, Applejack took a deep breath…

…and had to hold it when Cloud Kicker’s little sister started talking. “Feh! Some of the water still made it into town. If it had been Fluttershy, she would have pulled down a huge cloud from the sky and let it soak up all the water before it could even get that far!”

“Clouds can’t do that!”

“Yes they can! In fact, Fluttershy would have packed them soooooooo tight, she could have made a whole new dam out of clouds!”

“Nuh-uh!”

“Yeah-huh!”

“Nuh-uh!”

“Yeah-huh!”

“Nuh-uh!”

“Yeah-huh!”

Applebloom stood up and glared at the two fighting foals. “Oh yeah, well Applejack would have kicked the canyon walls and caused a rockslide and stopped the water that way!”

Before her sister could get fully involved in the argument, Applejack kicked her stand to quickly collapse it most of the way back into a cart, then looked over to Bloom. “Gimme a hoof with the wheels and the hitchen, then we can get goin back to the farm.”

With their hero’s stock dry for the third time that day, the foals had learned when it was time to pick up and leave, and they took their conversations elsewhere.

“Nuh-uh!”

“Yeah-huh!”

“Nuh-uh!”

“Yeah-huh!”

“Nuh-uh!”

“Yeah-huh!”

As the sisters made their way home, Applebloom looked up to Applejack. “So…you and yer friends were doin all that stuff just to teach Rainbow Dash a lesson?”

“Yep,” Applejack said before Rainbow’s reaction to their reveal ran through her mind, and the farm pony frowned at the memory. “Don’t you be like her Applebloom. She’s just a conceited blowhard that don’t care about nothin but herself, always goin on about how great she was…well me and the other girls showed her different. And remember, a good pony let’s her actions speak fer themselves, they don’t need to go yammerin on about how great they think are when nopony wants to hear it. Specially when it ain’t true!”

“Um-”

And a good pony sticks close to her family,” Applejack said as she continued to impart her wisdom to her little sister. “Why, that lousy braggart came to Ponyville when she was eighteen years old, on her birthday! Just up and left her folks when she was finally old enough to start contibutin and payin em back fer all the hard work they put into raisin her!”

“Okay but-”

 And fer what? Feedin her own ego, that’s what! Only thing that mare ever cared about was getting cheered about by other ponies, and look where that got er,” Applejack finished.

“So…a good pony let her actions speak for themselves?” Applebloom asked.

Applejack blinked, and then looked back at her sister’s thoughtful face and smiled. It was good she seemed to be really putting to memory her big sister’s words.

Then, she looked back up at the older pony. “Hey Applejack, can you come and pick me up from school tomorrow?”

The absurdity of the question threw Applejack’s train of thought completely off the tracks and into the water below. “What? Now why would you be needin me to walk ya home?” Ponyville was about as safe as Equestria could get…long as ya stayed away from the Everfree.

“Um…you have been seeing what’s been going on around town since the start of this Mare Do Well thing, right?” Applebloom deadpanned.

“…good point,” Applejack agreed as she remembered all the occurrences for the past week. All things considered, it was probably best to be prepared.





Despite the oddity of her eyes, Derpy was able to see her partner in the moonlight just fine as the other pegasus continued to pack the clouds together…or pound them…

“Stupid…bucking…Twilight…Sparkle!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed as the cloud beneath her became the correct shape and she flapped her wings to get off it, then looked around for something else to…well, she probably wanted to punch something.

As the pegasus’s head swerved from side to side, Derpy noticed an odd glimmer in her eye. “Are you okay Rainbow Dash?”

“I’m fine!” she snapped.

The reply made Derpy cock her head in confusion. “You don’t sound fine, and…are you crying?”

Rainbow Dash looked away from the other pegasus for a second and brought a foreleg up to wipe her brow or something, then turned around to face Derpy. “No!”

“It looked like you were crying,” she told her partner.

For a moment, Derpy saw Rainbow Dash’s face contort into an angry frown, and then she looked down at the cumulonimbus beneath them. “It’s these stupid clouds! They’re defective,” she explained. “They rain up when you pack them in.”

Derpy looked down at the clouds beneath her in confusion. “Really? I haven’t seen them do that,” she said. Although, Derpy had to admit that her eyesight wasn’t the best. Rainbow Dash’s bright colors stood out in the night with the help of Luna’s moon. Water droplets…not so much.

The pair of pegasi were silent as they moved towards the next patch of clouds that needed packing. “Hey Derpy, have you ever…done something that made you feel bad? Even if you needed to do it?”

“Well…I do need to punish Dinky every now and then,” Derpy replied. “I didn’t do it enough with Sparkler and… oh pony is she a loudmouth these days. Sometimes, I think I go too far with Dinky because of that though.”

Rainbow Dash let out a groan that sounded pretty frustrated. “Yeah well…she deserved it!”

They landed on the area of the storm cloud that was sticking up a little more than the rest, and Derpy spoke while Rainbow Dash began to hammer it down. “I dunno, Dinky may have been playing with her doll in the house, but I don’t think she meant to break the vase. Maybe I should give her the toy back.”

“Wait, what?” Rainbow asked. “What the hay does Dinky have to do with all that crap Twilight and the rest of them did?”

Derpy sat down on the cloud, and winced when she heard the lightning go off from the impact. Thankfully, they had been in an empty field with nopony around instead of inside the city limits like the last three times she had caused an accidental strike…earlier tonight. “Um…what does Twilight have to do with anything?”

“MARE DO WELL!” Rainbow exclaimed as she threw up in a fit before leaning over to face Derpy. “They were behind it, all of it! Then they show up with their stupid smug faces thinking they’re all anything but a bunch of backstabbing jerks! then they’re all ‘you’re bragging and bragging is wrong, and having fans is wrong, and being cool is wrong, and we’re so much better than you because weeeeeeeeee lie through our teeth, and cheat, and wear a costume and sign autographs without trying to share the spotlight with Applejack like you did Rainbow Trash’!”

As the other mare paused for breath, Derpy raised a hoof to bring up a point. “Okay but, I thought you guys were best friends, can’t you just forgive them?”

Rainbow Dash froze in the air for a second and dropped to the ground before wiping more of the accidental upside down water discharge that got released when she packed the cloud. “I could forgive the back stabbing, and the name calling, and the cheating, and how Twilight nearly destroyed the town with her stupid stunt at the dam, and even their stupid smug smiles as they just spit out load after load of hypocrisy,” the pegasus grumbled. “But after what they did, what they really did…no, I can’t forgive them for that. Ever.”

“What’d they do?” Derpy asked.

For a few seconds, Rainbow Dash just looked at Derpy like the gray mare was either crazy, or insanely stupid, then let out a long sigh before they started talking. “I’m going to join the Wonderbolts one day. Do you know what they do? They do stunts and save ponies when nopony else is around to do it, and they sign autographs, and go on tours where they hold press conferences to talk about how awesome they are and let all these other ponies make money by selling posters, and T-shirts, and costumes.

“It’s my dream, my entire life…and they-they pissed on it!”

Derpy backed away from the enraged pegasus that was shouting at the sky and let out a nervous laugh, then gulped when Rainbow Dash turned her attention towards the gray mare. 

A few seconds later, after the moment of anger had passed, Derpy thought a change of topic in order. She decided to bring up something she had wanted to since Rainbow stopped by her house at the start of their shift. “Hey Rainbow, you like Dinky, right?”

The residual traces of fury on the pegasus’s face melted away and became confusion. “Your filly? Yeah. Why?”

“Oh I can’t pick her up when I’m supposed to tomorrow because of my job,” Derpy explained. Apparently she was staying after school for some kind of special class, and it let out at the same time as her mail route. “Can you go get her for me? She really took a liking to you yesterday.”

    Rainbow shrugged. “Sure.”
> Chapter 5
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 5

Applebloom awoke to the sound of the rooster as she did every morning, and sat up just in time to catch Princess Celestia’s sun as it ascended to the top of the sky before she let out a yawn. As soon as the little filly’s mind cleared, she thought back to what her sister had told her yesterday, and congratulated herself on being able to figure what Applejack was really trying to say when they were on their way home.

It had been a little confusing at first, but once Applejack had more or less laid it out for her, Applebloom understood that all that talk was just lip service for the fans that gathered around her all time so they would buy some apples.

Since there was still plenty of time to get ready for school, the filly looked up at the picture hanging on a dartboard set up on Appleboom’s door. She and frowned at it as if the pony depicted on it was in fact the horrible little filly herself, and found herself filled with the Music of Harmony before she felt compelled to sing.

Ah had me a moral dilemma
All confused turned around
On the fact that Ah
Needed to show you
Something true
But the pony that was me
Just couldn’t make ya see
An then, she showed me the light…

Applebloom jumped up and knocked open her window to look at the sky. It was a beautiful morning, with all sorts of animals fluttering about in the morning breeze as they woke up to meet the dawn.

It’s a brand new day an sun is high
An the birds are signin that yer gonna cry
First Ah hesitated, now Ah WON-DER WHY
It’s a brand new daaaaaay

She jumped back down to pack the things she would need at school, and once it got out. As Applebloom did so, she looked back up at the filly’s picture and frowned.

That time you abandoned me? Ah’ll live
All them laughs at my expense? Ah forgive
Sugary and sweet with yer cutie mark it’s true
But my sis, she set me on a path towards you
She done showed me the light….

Within her saddlebag she placed her books, pen, pencils, rope, bludgeon, buscopan, and left room for the other things she would need to get from the kitchen after breakfast. With everything else she needed tucked away, Applebloom forced the things closed and threw her saddlebags on her back.

It’s a brand new me
Ah got no remorse
Now there’s work to do
Gotta stay the course
Gonna fix you good
CAUSE AH’M ONE! BAD! HORSE!
It’s brand new daaaaaaaaaaaaaay

Applebloom looked down at her bare rear and frowned at its lack of decoration before she let out a sigh and became a little dejected.

An maybe Ah’ll see a mark of cutie
Won’t be a joke, not a dork, or a failure
An yer gonna cry but yer tears Ah’ll dry
Upon my shiny new posterior

Then she turned to glare at her former friend’s picture again as the glint from the sun obscured her target’s face.

It’s a brand new day
An the sun is high
The alicorns are sing-ing
THAT YER GONNA CRY!
Go ahead and laugh
But kiss yer flank good-bye!
It’s a brand new daaaaaaaaay

Applebloom jumped out her room’s exit and into the hallway and the music coming from the magic in the air around her just cut off and as she slammed the door shut behind her. Then she traveled down the hallway and down to the kitchen so she could get the last of the things she needed.





Fluttershy looked away from the clock and gulped. With the school day almost up, she really needed to go and give Cheerilee the class pet but...going outside where all those mean ponies were just made her want to run back into her basement and hide.

But if she didn’t go, then she would be making a poor animal suffer longer than it had to.

“Well…I guess a mare’s gotta do, what a mare’s gotta do,” Fluttershy mumbled to herself as she looked at the pet carrier and tried to build up the strength she needed to go to Ponyville’s school. “Don’t just take the job if you can’t follow through Fluttershy.”

She gulped and looked across the room at her front door and gulped. “All that matters is-”

Fluttershy blinked as an odd melody started playing in the background and Pinkie dropped down from her ceiling despite the fact that the was no possible way that could have happened before she put a foreleg around the pegasus’s neck.

Fluttershy! Just the pony I wanted to see
If you’re afraid of danger out there just stick with me
Yes Auntie Pinkie’s here, hair poofed up all crazy
My twitching says you need my friendly exper-teeeeeeeese

“Uh Pinkie, I’m older than-gak!” the pegasus squawked as the party pony pulled her out to the front door and kicked it open as she started singing again.

Cause a maaaare’s gotta do what a maaare’s gotta do
It seeeeeems the author, wants me to be hel-ping you
There’s gloomy doom that’s looming in a crazy plot twist
Now come with me I’m afraid I must insist

And with that, Pinkie Pie dragged Fluttershy with her towards the Ponyville as the school bell began to ring to signal it was time for the parents to come and pick up their foals. Although how she ended up in the building before the bell was done ringing...Fluttershy had no idea.





Despite having woke up just moments before, Rainbow Dash felt so out of it that she couldn’t find the will to pick herself up into the sky as she walked into Ponyville. Like for the past two days…or more really, memories of her…of Mare Do Well ran through her head even though she couldn’t think about anything else.

However, the thoughts brought little righteous fury with them like the night before, just…a weight on her shoulders.

“Hey, what the buck are you idiots doing?” a familiar voice that should have had a lot more smarminess to it reached Rainbow’s ears and made her look across the street. There, she saw Derpy’s older daughter wearing with an unmarked saddlebag being confronted by a pair of pegasi.

The dark green one that was in front of her rose up into the air and looked down with a scowl. “I’m getting really tired of your bucking mouth Sparkler!”

“Think it’s time we taught you a lesson in keeping it shut,” the other pegasus with a blue coat told her as pushed Sparkler from behind and knocked the smaller unicorn down into a puddle that was still around after last night’s shower.

For a fraction of a second, Rainbow was filled with the satisfaction of actually seeing somepony put the smartass in her place, but then she mentally kicked herself for thinking such a thing. Before things could get out of hoof, she dashed into the sky before coming down hard between her and the other two ponies.

“Back off losers or I’ll buck you so hard your teeth will be landing in Canterlot!” she threatened them.

All at once, the two ponies let out a girlish scream.

“It’s the Ego Maniac!”

“Fly for your life!”

Rainbow blinked in confusion as they two pegasi quickly turned tail and took off into the blue, shen she looked down at Sparkler. “You okay?”

The grumpy mare looked up with a frown as muddy water dripped from her mane. “What do you think Rainbow Splash?” the unicorn grumbled. “And what the hay are you doing here?”

“Picking your little sister up from school,” Rainbow replied to the ungrateful unicorn’s question before offering her a hoof.

Sparkler let out a groan as she slapped the hoof away and stood up on her own. “Figures, try and do something nice and this is what it gets me,” she grumbled before her horn lit up and the saddlebag opened before a plastic action figure floated out. “Mom said she could have it back after school, so here. I got to go take a bath.”

As Rainbow watched the unicorn walk away without so much as a thank you, she let out a growl and found a little more of that anger that had been eluding her all morning as she headed down the road again.

Any pony worth her mane
Can see this town is to-tally insane
To the point where I don’t know
If I’d upset the status quo
If I drank poison and opened up my veins

Rainbow turned a corner just in time to see the owner of the local costume shop come out the back door with a cardboard box full of Rainbow wigs in his magical grip. Then came other Rainbow Dash merchandise before he went back inside to start putting up Mare Do Well costumes complete with masks that showed the faces of her former friends in the window.

Listen close to this pony’s heart
And hear that breaking sound
Hopes and dreams are shattering apart
And crashing to the ground

She leaped into the sky and looked around as all of Ponyville seemed to be trying to cover itself with Mare Do Well stuff, if not some kind of banner, then at least a few purple flowers or other junk. As much as Rinbow tried not to, she saw several other ponies, including several adults dressed in Mare Do Well costumes that were going around in packs.

I just can’t believe my eyes
How could they say such lies
When it’s plain to seeeeeeeee
That deep down inside of me
I just wanna cry

The ringing of a school bell made Rainbow look over towards the school and sigh. Then, she slowly flew towards her destination at a speed that would have probably made her feel ashamed to call herself a pegasus any other day.





Applejack made her way through the town with a small smile on her face as several ponies in Made Do Well costumes waved at her excitedly, although a few frowns that crept up from other costumed unicorns and pegasi did confuse her, the vast majority of the townsponies seemed generally happy to see her.

Loooooooooook around
AAAAh’m the heeeeeere-row of the town
Whatever danger cooooomes around
I’ll be there to taaaaake it down

Out of the corner of her eye, Applejack saw the mayor standing on the stage from the other day and nodded at the giant poster of Mare Do Well behind her. From the looks of things, they were getting ready to have another one of them parties like the night before. She just hoped it ended a lot earlier than the last one, it was kind of a shame that she had to duck out but…early to bed, early to rise and all that.

But even if it ran late, Applejack knew she needed to at least make an appearance, keep all the colts and fillies happy, sign some autographs, tell a few stories, and give some inspiration speeches that would set ponies on the right path in life.

An ya see there’s good in everythin Ah do
Keepin um safe and sound
Just be like me, do-in yer part
An keep yerself on sol-lid ground

She trotted around smiling at all the Mare Do Well memorabilia everywhere. They even had little do-action figures of Applejack in that fancy hat and cape. Although her sister was getting older, the farm pony knew that she’d be appreciative of something like that and planned to make a stop back at the toy store and pick a few up.

I jus can’t believe mah eyes
Have ponies started growin wise?
To what’s plain to seeeeeeee
That emu-latin meeeeeee
Is how they should beee

The sound of a school bell ringing drew her attention, and she stopped prancing through the streets to head out and pick up her sister.





“Spike, did anypony come by while I was asleep?”

“No, where you expecting somepony to?”

“…not really,” Twilight mumbled before something else occurred to her. “Oh, what about yesterday when I was asleep?” Her fight with Rainbow Dash had left her in bed for most of the day after all. It was quite possible one of her friends had stopped by to check on her.

The dragon shook his head. “Not unless they came by when I was helping Rarity,” he said. “Hey did you know Sweetie Belle got grounded? She-”

“Spike,” Twilight interrupted with a moan. “I…don’t think I could hear any bad news right now.”

Thanks to the…incident the other day, Twilight had come home so tired and in pain that she had cried herself out in her pillow before Spike brought in some tea and she slept for the rest of the day. It wasn’t a restful sleep though, nightmares had assaulted her all night. Nightmares of Rainbow Dash yelling at her, of her yelling at Dash, or Rainbow smacking her on the head with a stick to make her head hurt worse and…much to Twilight’s shame, dreams of the unicorn getting back at Rainbow using her magic to beat the pegasus down…and worse.

After waking up in the middle of the night, Twilight had tried to busy her mind with studying some magic, maybe finding a spell that could just fix everything so her world could just go back to normal. By a stroke of luck, she had found just something to do that. There was a spell in the book on her bedroom’s desk that would allow the caster to alter a pony’s personality to suit her needs, completely reforming them.

Now all I have to do is find-Twilight’s picked her head back up to look at the clock on her wall as it began to chime, interrupting her thoughts. She needed to start getting ready to teach that special lesson in the magic of friendship to all those unicorns at the school.

As she tried to gather her strength, Twilight found herself struggling just to move when she remembered how nopony had come to see her all today and yesterday.

Anypony with half a brain
Can see that I am howling in pain
But nopony seems to care
And I wouldn’t even dare
To guess about the one with the rainbow mane

She got up out of bed and sighed. How was Twilight supposed to teach a lesson in such things as she was? The unicorn looked at the picture of her friends that sat on her nightstand.

Listen close to this pony’s heart
And hear that terrible sound
My friends are being all torn apart
And the blame rests on my crown

After walking into the library, she took a moment to pack some books that detailed looking cheery when she wasn’t, teaching fillies and…she grabbed the spell book with the Reform spell as well at the last moment.

I just can’t believe my eyes
How could I tell myself such lies
Now nothing’s plain to meeeeeee
And I feel like our Harmony
Is going to die

Hearing the sound of the school bell in the distance, Twilight focused her magic and the world disappeared in a bright purple light.





Rarity frowned as she continued to send the needle through the fabric time and time again. Although hardly original, the piece of clothing in front of her was still a masterful work, with every single bit of it horn-stitched using her magic to ensure maximum quality.

A memory flashed through her mind of a few night prior, and the effects it had on her emotions nearly caused the fashionista to make a terrible mistake in her work. After taking a second to get a breath, she continued working.

Just taaaaaake it slow
It’s something that you reeeeeeally should know
Won’t do to let your aaaaaaanger show
They just need some tiiiiiime to let go

She backed up a second to see the entirety of the piece. Just looking at the thing’s color scheme made Rarity feel a bit better. One could only take so much purple in their life without going crazy.

Believe there’s good in everypony’s heart
As long as its safe and sound
I just hope, that I can do my part
To turn this mess around

With the last stitch done, Rarity held up the uniform for a final inspection, and then began packing it into the gift box. Once she was done, the unicorn looked at the picture of herself and five other ponies that hung on her wall before she trotted up so close she could see her reflection in the glass.

I just can’t believe my eyes
That my world’s grown so in size
And now it’s plain to seeeeee
That this special Harmony
It’s not just about meeeeee

Rarity heard the school bell ringing, and headed out the door while mentally growing through her list of things to do. After she escorted her sister back home to make sure she got there without any deviations, the unicorn would head over to Rainbow Dash’s house and drop off the gift.

After that…she would need to finish up as many as those costumes of that horrid character as she could before getting to sleep. Tomorrow, Rarity would be in Canterlot, and be allowed a week away from this madness before coming back in time for Twilight’s birthday party. If she was lucky, everything would have died down by then.





As the light faded to a chorus of amazed gasps, Twilight blinked as she found herself standing on the front steps of the school while all the colts and fillies looked up at her in awe. For some odd reason, earth ponies and pegasi were also present for the lecture, but Twilight pushed that oddity to the side over what a great majority of the foals were wearing.

Mare Do Well costumes. More than half the class was dressed up as little Mare Do Wells. Although for some odd reason Twilight saw Snips and Snails had on outfits that looked like the one Trixie had worn and Derpy’s little filly was wearing a rainbow wig.

“Uh, Cheerilee,” Twilight began as she looked over to the other mare. “I know the school doesn’t have a dress code or anything but…what’s with all the Mare Do Well costumes?”

“Don’t you-”

“HEY EVERYPONY!”

Thanks to over half a year of being around the insanity that was Pinkie Pie, Twilight was able to resist the urge to jump, or scream, or blast the thing that startled her into the next county. Her head just snapped over to look at the impossible pony with wide eyes as Pinkie jumped out of the schoolhouse from behind her. “Pinkie? What are you doing here?”

“Oh, just escorting Fluttershy through town so she doesn’t get swarmed by fans and asking to lead the pegasus faction of Mare Do Well fans in battle,” she explained with a shrug before reaching into the schoolhouse and pulling out the nervous pegasus.

Twilight tilted her head in confusion. “Uh…what?”

The expression on Pinkie’s face became one of confusion. “Don’t you remember what happened the other night at our Mare Do Well after-party party? I know Applejack left early but I’m pretty sure you were still around when the r-”

“Not really,” Twilight said. “All I remember is the Q&A when we told everypony why we became Mare Do Well and how they shouldn’t brag and let their actions speak for themselves, then I put on that magic show and…it gets a little blurry after that.”

Pinkie opened her mouth to talk, but was cut off by the teacher’s frightful gasp. “So he really is sick?”

“Yes,” Fluttershy replied to Cheerilee's question. “You should probably get him to the vet as soon as you can.”

For a moment, the teacher gave the three mares a measuring look. “Well, I really shouldn’t leave the foals but…you three are here.”

“And I’m great with foals! Not to mention a profession child care expert,” Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she reached into her hair and pulled out her party pony license to show it to Cheerilee.

After reading over the credentials for a moment, Cheerilee shrugged nodded. “Well I guess that settles it then. Just send the children home when you’re finished, and I’ll take care of this little guy,” she said while taking the pet carrier from Fluttershy. “Don’t know why I’m being so nervous, Twilight. I mean, you and your friends are the embodiment of friendship after all. I’m sure the children are in good hooves.”

The mare’s comment made Twilight wince on reflex. “Right…that’s us,” she mumbled as her mask of normalcy nearly slipped and shattered before the unicorn could recover it.

A few seconds later, Twilight found herself the center of attention as all the foals looking up at her and Pinkie off to the side while Fluttershy hid behind the pink pony. Although her nerves began to flare up, Twilight cleared her throat and opened her mouth to speak.

“Do a magic trick!”

“Turn Pip into a plant Twilight! He tried to give me kooties!”

“TWILIGHT IS BEST MARE DO WELL!”

“Nuh-uh! Fluttershy is!”

“Twilight!”

“Fluttershy!”

Twilight cleared her throat. “Excuse me everypony,” she announced calmly.

“Twilight!”

“Fluttershy!”

“No Applejack is the best! She the fastest, strongest, bravest, most honest, and she takes pride in her roots, unlike some ponies!”

“Twilight!”

“Fluttershy!”

“Applejack!”

As the arguing continued, Twilight rubbed her head to try and fight off the growing migraine. She wanted to shout at the foals, but…Princess Celestia had shown her that teachers were never supposed to raise their voice at their students and always keep calm head. It was pretty difficult with how worn down Twilight felt, but she could stay calm. She could stay collected. She could do what she had said she was going to do.

All she needed to do was close her eyes and take a second to find her center…

“Twilight!”

“Fluttershy!”

“Applejack!”

“Oh yeah, well the Great and Powerful Trixie is better than all of them!”

That one made Twilight open her eyes and look to the pair of colts wearing Trixie outfits.

“I like Rainbow Dash,” Dinky declared, to which the whole class let out a horrified gasp and quickly backed away from the filly as if she had the cutie pox.

“Sweetie Belle!”

Twilight blinked, then looked over to see a white unicorn mare standing apart from the crowd. Glad for something to distract her from the mess that her class was turning into, she quickly told Pinkie to do something, and teleported over to the other unicorn was standing. “Rarity, what’re you doing here? I thought you were going to Canterlot.”

Confusion blossomed on the unicorn’s face. “Not for a little while darling, and I’m here to escort my sister home,” she said before looking back to the crowd. “Them too huh?”

“Yep!” a sugary voice chirped up from behind Twilight before Pinkie bounced up from behind the pink pony with Fluttershy doing her best to keep Pinkie between herself and the crowd.

Twilight frowned in confusion. “What do you mean, them too?”

“Oh great, what’re you guys doing here?” a disgruntled voice grumbled from overhead, filling Twilight with a mixture of shame, anger, doubt, and fear.

She looked up to the cyan pegasus, and gulped. “R-Rainbow Dash,” the unicorn mumbled as Rainbow landed and gave a little plastic toy to the unicorn filly that was wearing a rainbow wig.

Before Twilight could say anything more, Pinkie Pie jumped in front of her. “Hey Dashie! You finally feeling better?” she asked with a bright smile.

Thanks to Pinkie’s interruption, Twilight found a second to collect herself. Then she stepped out from behind Pinkie, and approached the blue mare. “Listen Rainbow, I need to talk to you for a minute.”

“What?” she demanded with a snarl as she approached Twilight. “You gonna feed me more about your moral junk about how I should be just like you when nopony else has to?”

Twilight tried to shake her head in a negative, but Rainbow continued talking. “You know what really ruffles my feathers? You actually think, you actually think all that humility junk is a good thing! And look at you!” she nearly shouted before her wings lifted herself into the air again. “You’re probably one of the most powerful unicorns in Equestria, but you’ve told everypony you’re a nopony so many times that you actually believe it!”

The…accidental compliment made Twilight blink. “W-What?” she asked before looking back to the book in her bag. Is that really a flaw?

“You’ve got so little confidence in yourself you freak out at the drop of a hat and sing whole arias about it!” she went on.

“Well if it ain’t the biggest ego in Equestria,” a pony’s familiar voice announced with a southern drawl.

Twilight let out a low moan. Oh no…not now, she mentally begged Celestia.

Rainbow growled so loudly Twilight could hear it from where she was floating in the air as her attention shifted to an orange pony that had made her way up the hill while all of the girls had been focused on the growing argument. “Oh it’s you. What’s wrong? Come to beg for help because you can’t harvest enough apples again? Or haul them? Hey cider season will be here pretty soon, think you’ll actually be able to make enough for more than a few dozen ponies this time so the ones that have real jobs can get some when we’re done watering everypony’s trees?”

“That’s funny commin from a pony that ain’t never had a hard day’s work in her life!” Applejack retorted. “What the buck you doin here anyway? Don’t nopony want you around!”

“Yeah!” several of the foals shouted at the same time.

“You tell her Applejack!”

“Get the Ego Maniac Fluttershy!”

“Banish her to the moon Twilight!”

As Twilight recoiled from the last suggestion directed towards her, Rainbow let out a snort.

Applejack smirked in a way that seemed almost dark. “From the mouths of foals Rainbow.”

“Applejack can’t handle the Ego Maniac, Fluttershy needs to do it!”

“No way, Applejack can do anything!”

“Then how come she lost the Iron Pony competition?”

“That’s because Rainbow Dash cheated and used her wings!”

“I didn’t see Applejack wearing super heavy horse shoes to weigh her down and make her more tired or nothin!”

Apparently not paying attention to the foals at all, the earth pony and the pegasus glared at each other, and even Twilight found herself ignoring everything else in fear of what was about to happen.

What should I do? Are they going to fight? They can’t fight! But if I don’t let them fight then they’ll both think I’m taking the others side and then Applejack will be mad at me and Rainbow won’t even speak to me again, and if I can’t speak with her then…then…

Twilight tried to take a breath and slow her racing mind down, but all she could do is see the images of what was certain to happen. Applejack and Rainbow would fight, and then they’d both get hurt, but Rainbow would get bucked in the face so hard that she would lose sight in one of her eyes and have her dreams of being a Wonderbolt crushed before she came back the next day with a lawyer and sued Applejack for damages that would result in the pegasus gaining the deed to the Apple Family farm, and then…

“Girls stop!” Pinkie cried out as she jumped up between the two before pointing forward. “Look at what you’re doing to our fans!”

All of the rest of the bearers blinked and turned to face in the direction Pinkie was pointing as the large group of foals continued to argue…or worse.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie-”

“-Rainbow Dash is the bestest-”

“Nuh-Uh!”

“Yeah-huh!”

“Nuh-Uh!”

“Yeah-huh!”

“Nuh-Uh!”

“Yeah-huh!”

Twilight gaped at the sight, Applejack frowned, Fluttershy placed herself behind the others, Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, and Rarity let out an aggravated sigh while the arguing continued to escalate in volume and intensity all around them.

Some fights had already become downright visceral.

“Oh yeah well…YOU’RE A POOPY-HEAD!”

“No, YOU’RE A POOPY-HEAD!”

“No, you are!”

“No, you are!”

“No, you are!”

“No, you are!”

“EEEEEEEEEEK THSOMEPONY PLETH HELP ME!”

The cry for help knocked the six mares out of their daze and they shared a look before running around the side of the school to see what was going on. Once the group arrived, Twilight’s eyes widened at what she saw.

Applebloom was standing over a little filly with a bright red mane that had been tied up. There was an empty medicine bottle with writing on it that Twilight couldn’t quite make out, and a kitchen knife gleaming in the young Apple’s grasp. The presence of the sharp object froze the unicorn solid for a moment.

“APPLEBLOOM! WHAT IN THE NAME OF CELESTIA DO YOU THINK YER DOIN?” Applejack shouted as she recovered from the sight of her little sister standing over that candy making filly Twist.

Despite the deafening ringing in her ears, Twilight used her magic to snatch the weapon out of the filly’s hoof while the foal with the red mane was dragged away from other other one by a blue glow as it undid her ropes.

“I-I was just doin like you taught me sis,” Applebloom explained a second after the foal she had restrained got up and ran away to safety while screaming in terror.

All of the older ponies gaped at the little filly’s explanation and Rarity’s mind just froze while Pinkie Pie looked over to Applejack with a frown. “Have you been beating your sister with that idiot stick you’ve had shoved up your ass for the past few days?”

The older farm pony gaped at the words for a second, then snapped her mouth shut with a hard crack that made some of the girls wince while she glared at her little sister. “AH NEVER SAID TO DO SOMETHING LIKE…like…THAT!”

Applebloom’s eyes went wide and she backed away a bit, but she still was able to answer. “Yes you did,” the little filly replied. “You talked and talked about how Rainbow Dash’s bragging was getting on your nerves, and about how the only thing she cared about was having other ponies cheer for her, so you and the others all got together to take that away and teach her a lesson just like Ah did with Twist cause of the way she talks. It’s really annoying!”

Rarity groaned and massaged her forehead. “Not another one,” she moaned, drawing Twilight’s attention

“What do you mean another one?” the purple unicorn asked.

A second later, all the other ponies in the group were listening to how Sweetie Belle had tried to break Diamond Tiara’s diamond tiara while Rarity had been fitting the filly for her Mare Do Well costume. It had gotten her grounded and meant Rarity had to escort Sweetie home to make sure she didn’t try and sneak some games with her friends in without her parents knowing.

As for Applejack, she just stood there looking at the filly in front of her for several seconds, not saying a word. Her legs wobbled. “I…I never said nothing like try and break another pony’s property or…or what you did!”

Somehow, for a reason beyond even Pinkie’s comprehension, Applebloom puffed her chest out proudly. “I know, but then you said a real hero like you lets her actions speak for themselves, and I figured out what you were really tryin ta tell me! If somepony’s annoying you, then you take something they either really like, or something you want fer yerself! So Ah was gunna shave off Twists cutie mark cause of the way she was talkin all the time!”

“But it…no! The reason Ah…that ain’t…”

As her sister faltered, the filly just kept going. “Ah mean, you couldn’t have been serious bout that whole bragging thing,” she said. “You brag all the time, and about everything! Plus you have that trophy the town gave you set up in the house where we kin see it from the livin and dining rooms, not to mention all yer ribbons. You put them outside in a display so everypony walkin by the far can see em without even trying. So even when yer not talkin yer still braggin!”

Applejack’s mouth worked silently for a moment before she finally made some noise. “…that’s just…tellin the truth.”

“But the first time you told me the Nightmare Moon story, you said you caught Twilight then you dropped her. It was Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy that caught her,” the filly went on. “Huh, you know…if Rainbow Dash caught Rarity an them other Wonderbolts like she said a few days ago, couldn’t she have just flown up an saved Twilight before she hit the ground even if you didn’t do anything? Or at least slowed her fall enough to make the crash non-lethal? …did you even do anything heroic in that forest that another pony couldn’t have taken care of in a much better way?”

Twilight could practically see the proverbial knife Applebloom had driven into Applejack’s brain twist as it went deeper to slice into the mare’s pride. “That ain’t...you…” she paused and looked over to the knife Twilight still held in her magic. After taking a breath, she looked back down at the filly with a frown. “THAT DON’T MATTER NONE! NOW YOU GIT HER SORRY PLOT HOME AND STAY UP IN YER ROOM FOR I TAN YER HIDE SO MUCH YOU’LL GET YER CUTIE MARK IN TAKIN’ WHOOPINS!”

Applebloom let out a shriek as her sister’s face got inches from her own, then turned and ran from the group of older mares.

Pinkie scratched her head. “But why Twist? She didn’t deserve something like…oh, never mind, answered my own question.”

“Wow AJ, you’re such a role model for little fillies,” Rainbow grumbled. “Waaaaaaaay better than me and my ego.”

The farm pony turned and frowned at the pegasus that was standing next to the rest of the mares. “T-that’s only…one…” All of a sudden, she trailed off, and her eyes widened, and her plot hit the ground with an audible thump.

“Hey, gimmie back my scooter!”

As Twilight turned around to look for the voice of the other Cutie Mark Crusader, her eyes widened at what she saw. All around the front of the school the verbal arguments had devolved into brutal fights. Foals everywhere were attacking each other for one reason or another.

“Fluttershy help me!” Scootaloo cried out as a pair of earth pony colts in Mare Do Well costumes wrestled her most precious possession away from her. While one held the orange pegasus down, the other lifted the scooter in obvious preparation to smash it against a nearby rock.

From her place behind Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy peeked out to speak barely loud enough for Twilight to hear the pegasus. “Um, could you two please stop that? It’s…well…it’s not very nice.”

“This is what you get for all that annoying buzzing around you do!” the colt holding the scooter shouted before he brought the scooter down…and blinked when said item disappeared in a blur of rainbow colors. Before he even had time to look around in confusion, his partner let out a painful squawk and as the boy’s tail was pulled hard enough to dislodge him from his location atop Scootaloo.

The filly’s face changed from one of horror to adulation in a second, and she looked up as Rainbow Dash put the girl’s most precious possession in the world back on the ground. “Here ya go squirt.”

As if the object would disappear at any second, Scootaloo quickly latched into her Scooter’s handlebars and looked up at her former hero with a trembling lip. “Th-thank you Rainbow Dash!”

Rainbow scratched the back of her head, then looked towards the rest of the schoolyard while it continued its descent into pandemonium. “Yeah…you should probably get going home now.”

“WHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

Twilight blinked and looked over to see a familiar looking little unicorn of a filly crying as she sat on the ground. In front of her lay a broken toy, while a pair of unicorn colts that were wearing a very familiar magician’s outfit loomed over Dinky with a pair of satisfied smirks.

“That’s what you get for calling the Great and Powerful Trixie a poopy-head!” Snips snapped at Dinky as the younger unicorn sat on the ground with tears running down her face.

“And if you ever say anything like that again!” Snails added as he raised a hoof to shake it at the little girl in a menacing fashion.

The sight made Twilight’s jaw nearly hit the ground when the unicorn filly turned her head away from the colts, and she saw the telltale beginnings of a bruise starting to form. For a second, all the lavender unicorn could do was stand there as her rage built up, and then…

“You VILE BEASTS!” Rarity roared before using her magic to seize both of the ears of both colts and twist them in the most unnatural way possible before pulling them towards her.

A second later, Rainbow Dash landed next to the little filly and scooped her up along with the broken toy.

The loud noise allowed Twilight to finally recover enough to pull her jaw off the ground and begin breathing again. “Girls…um…I think we need to take these foals back to their parents. And um…could all of you meet me in the treehouse when you’re done?”

“Tch, what for?” grumbled from above them as she held the unicorn filly in her forelegs while she examined the broken doll. “Got another lesson you want to teach me?”

Twilight looked back up at Rainbow with wide eyes, then her expression became downcast and she shook her head. “No I just…” She paused and the doll in Rainbow’s hooves was taken up by her magic before it was put back together and the damage mended. “Please?”

After taking the toy back and giving it to Dinky, Rainbow let out a groan. “Fine. Just give me a few minutes to talk to Dinky’s mother after I drop these brats off with their parents, and I’ll be there.”

> Chapter 6
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Final Chapter

Twilight looked up from her arcane tome as the library’s door shut behind Applejack, and she took a place at the table in the center of the library. The last of the former Mare Do Well ponies to arrive, Twilight was simply thankful that fate had at least allowed her to come before Rainbow Dash. Although, the unicorn had to wonder if Rainbow Dash had just been giving them lip service with her promise to come, or…

No, she said she would be here and Rainbow keeps her promises, Twilight told herself firmly.

“Kay Ah got mah group home and went and told Granny what happened,” the farm pony said barely loud enough for Twilight to hear before she slumped into a sitting position.

For a moment, the unicorn looked up at her friends and sighed. Rarity was looking quite perturbed and glanced back at her saddlebags every few moments. Fluttershy visibly trembled. Pinky actually looked annoyed with the whole situation, and Twilight had seen her hammering a ‘No Mare Do Wells’ sign outside Sugarcube Corner while Twilight had been escorting her group of foals home. Applejack looked…barely functional.

“Ah just don’t understand how something like this could happen,” she mumbled. Ah never told…Ah never said…Applebloom, she just…”

 Fluttershy smiled at the other mare. “Nopony blames you Applejack. It wasn’t your fault.”

“I do,” Rarity grumbled, which got a flinch from the farmer as she pointed to the floor in front of her. “I blame you. Blame on your hooves, right there.”

“Ditto,” Pinkie Pie agreed.

Twilight sighed and lowered her head. “This was all our fault,” she said. “I created Mare do Well. I made the plan, but I…sweet Celestia.”

“I don’t remember telling foals to pull knives on each other,” Pinkie said in a deadpan voice.

The comment a panicked rise out of Applejack. “S-She wasn’t gonna…try…and…hurt,” the farmer trailed off before her head lowered at Pinkie’s raised eyebrow.

A somber silence descended over the room, and Twilight tried to shift the conversation to something more productive. “Well, there is something I want to discuss while it’s still just the five of us,” the unicorn said. “It’s about Rainbow Dash.”

“Oh bucking Tartarus, you’re not going to start going on about that again, are you?” Rarity grumbled, causing Twilight to flinch. Then, before the purple unicorn could even get out a no, the fashionista went on. “Because after that little schoolyard display, I’d rather everypony in this town be loudmouth braggart than…Mare Do Well.”

Twilight shook her head as hard as she could. “N-No!” she exclaimed. “We…we need to apologize to her.”

When nopony raised an objection or asked a question, Twilight’s attention centered on Applejack and the orange pony gave her an innocuous, empty look in return. “At this point…Ah ain’t gonna say no to nothin.”

 Rarity let out a sigh, and her horn lit up a second before her saddle bags opened. A wrapped present that filled the whole of her pack floated out, then landed on the table. “Well I was going to give this to her after I dropped Sweetie Belle off as an apology for that mess but…if the rest of you want to put your names on it too, I won’t object.”

“Rarity…this is your gift to Rainbow, we couldn’t-”

“It’s an apology,” the other unicorn said, cutting Twilight off. “One that she isn’t going to have to listen to. Because I very much doubt she’s going to stick around that long. Now if you’re all apologetic, just sign your names on the box as well.”

After a minute of deliberation, Twilight sighed and got a quill and ink to write a short message on the box before she sighed her name. A moment later, the rest of the girls followed suit until the quill floated over to Fluttershy.

“I…I don’t understand Twilight,” Fluttershy spoke up. “W-Why is Rainbow so mad at us?”

Applejack let out a sigh and shook her head. “We stole her thunder Fluttershy. Ya know how that pony is, she-”

“We purposely out staged her, stabbed her in the back, and  laughed in her face when she came to us looking for moral support,” Rarity said with a scowl.

Twilight sighed and added onto the evaluation. “It’s more than that,” she began. “When I talked to Rainbow the other day, she…what we did to her…we have never done to another pony, and it sickens me that-”

“N-Now hold on a second Twi,” Applejack said as she raised a hoof. “Rainbow…she was out of control.”

The world seemed to spin as the unicorn heard the words coming from the earth pony’s mouth. All of a sudden, it was as if she was standing back beneath Rainbow’s cloud house a few days ago and…hearing those words again, coming from another mare… “AND YOU WEREN’T?” Twilight demanded, the intensity of her shout cowing Applejack in  second. “Hey, remember that first week I was in Ponyville? When you were the CAUSE of all those ponies getting hurt, and sick, and…I’m just thankful you were herding bunnies instead of something actually dangerous like cattle!

“But when you bit off more than you could chew, we came in to help you,” she went on before her anger deflated. “Like…we should have done…with Rainbow. If we had just…offered a helping hoof…even in that stupid costume…we would have been showing her a better way to do things instead of…showing her up because she annoyed us.”

Fluttershy’s eyes widened. “Is…is that what you were doing?” she asked before looking around the table. “I thought…you said…I thought you said you were showing her a better way to do things. T-That’s what you said…we were…doing. You told everypony that we were teaching Rainbow Dash a lesson in humility.”

As Fluttershy’s words resonated in her ears, Twilight felt the strength drain out of her body and then Pinkie spoke to deliver a devastating blow. “Of course we were Fluttershy,” she assured the pegasus. “We were humiliating Dashie for her own good! Right, Twilight?”

Since she didn’t feel she could take having to even contemplate an answer to that question, Twilight decided it was best to change subjects. “She’s also mad at us for something else but…I’m not even sure what it is,” the mare said as the memory began to make her tear up. “She said it was for…thinking about her the way we did. But I’m not even sure what that means!”

The silence returned, and Twilight lowered her head when her hope that at least one of her friends would be able to puzzle out the meaning to Rainbow’s words was dashed by their silence.

“And she thinks we…or I…caused all those accidents,” Twilight went on.

“WHAT?” Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Rarity exclaimed while Applejack just looked up at her in surprise.

“How in the hay could she-”

“Darling, that is a little bit-”

“But we didn’t-”

“…yeah, makes sense,” Pinkie added before Twilight spoke up and cut the others off.

“Smarty pants,” she mumbled before she found some strength in her voice. “And why not? We ran around in a costume, shoved our achievements in her face…”

Fluttershy reached over and patted the unicorn on the back. “I think you’re beating yourself up a little too much here Twilight.”

Despite the gentle nature of Fluttershy’s words…Twilight found little comfort in them. “I…betrayed Rainbow’s trust Fluttershy, and dragged all of you along for the ride.”

Applejack looked up and shook her head. “No this…all of this…it was… just bad-”

Before the farmer could finish, the door banged open and the last of their group trotted in with a scowl on her face. “I would have gotten here sooner, but I had to drag half a dozen foals home while they told me how much of a horrible pony I am for abandoning my mom and dad when they were in the poor house hospital after I stole all the money out of my mom’s purse every day of my life,” she grumbled.

“But Rainbow, you told me your mother died when you were-” Fluttershy snapped her mouth shut as the pegasus looked over to her. “Sorry. I um…know how much you don’t like talking about it.”

Then Rainbow turned her head towards the farmer. “They went on and on about how horrible a pony I was compared to Applejack, about how I should have stayed at home and helped on the farm like Applejack, and how my dead mother must be crying herself to sleep every night…unlike Applejack’s!”

Although the farmer’s eyes had gone wide at the mention of Rainbow’s family, they had opened to their maximum by the time she was done. “Rainbow Ah…” the mare got out before he lowered her head. “You never…said nothin bout yer folks so Ah just thought…”

“Poooooooor Applejack,” Rainbow went on with clenched teeth. “She lost her mommy and daddy, but she still gets to live at the rest of her family on a farm that was practically given to her while some ponies have to throw away everything when their father-”

Rarity cleared her throat and looked up at the pegasus. “Rainbow, that’s enough.”

For a second the pegasus met the unicorn’s eyes, then looked back at the earth pony. “My father gave me the only thing of any value my family ever owned so I could live here in Ponyville and maybe make something of myself someday while he makes do with a studio apartment in Cloudsdale,” she said before her words became a growl. “Parents exist to provide something better for their foals, not as some…leech to be placed on our backs as soon as we can work! And if you ever insult his sacrifice like that again, I will make sure that you stupid little farm receives so little rain your apples will dehydrate while they’re still on the branch!”

Twilight looked over to the pegasus with understanding. Her house…that’s why its so different than she is, the unicorn told herself. For a minute she wondered if Rainbow’s mother had a special connection to the place, but then realized the foolishness of wondering such a thing. Of course she did…why else would Rainbow and her father hold onto it? Just looking at the size of the place made it obvious it was made for a large family.

One that would never be.

“Rainbow,” the lavender unicorn said before the pegasus cut her off.

“No!” she exclaimed before Twilight could really begin her apology. “You idiots got to say your stupid moral junk. Buck you even got up in front of the whole town to talk about how right you were! WELL NOW IT’S MY TURN!”

Rainbow looked around the room with a frown. “WHAT THE BUCK WERE YOU IDIOTS THINKING?” she demanded. “You stood up in front of all those foals and went ‘this is how to behave everypony, teach your friends a lesson when they annoy you’ AND YOU DIDN’T THINK THEY’D COPY IT?

“BUCK!” she went on. “Just how stupid are you ponies? Do you know what I say when some idiot little foal tells me she wants to be like me? Aim high, but not too high!”

Before Twilight could question the…un-inspirational message verbally, Rainbow just went on. “Translation,” she said. “DON’T BE LIKE ME AND GET YOURSELF KILLED!”

As Rainbow Dash was catching her breath, Applejack spoke up. “W-We didn’t think…I never told them to…they weren’t supposed to do that.”

“Newsflash Applejack!” Rainbow exclaimed. “FOALS ARE STUPID! You’ve seen the leader of my fan club, what was my fan club anyway. I just thank Celestia that Scootaloo can’t actually fly yet, or she’d already be dead! Buck! The crashes she gets into on just her scooter alone are barely enough for a pegasus’s magic to negate. If she was a unicorn or an earth pony, I would have had to put a stop to it weeks ago!”

Since it seemed Rainbow had said her peace, Twilight spoke up. “Rainbow, to be fair, we never told those foals to do…what they did.”

A second later, Twilight discovered she made the wrong choice and found herself on the receiving end of Rainbow’s glare. “Well welcome to the spotlight Twilight!” the pegasus told her harshly. “When it’s shining on you, every little thing you do, every little action you take, every time you open your mouth, every single pony you know will be pulling everything you do apart to do something stupid with it! Read a bucking Wonderbolts magazine for once!”

Once again, Twilight sighed and lowered her head as she waited for Rainbow to continue. But when no other words came…she looked back up at the pegasus. “Is…can I speak now?”

“Fine, let’s hear your stupid lesson,” she mumbled.

Twilight took in a calming breath. “You’re right…about everything, and…and I’m sorry for everything I said to you yesterday, and…everything else too. I singled you out for something that…I don’t even know if…no…I should have just been a more understanding friend and helped you when things got too tough for you to handle on your own,” she said before looking into the other pony’s eyes with tears glistening in her own. “Rainbow, please believe me when I say…I really didn’t have anything to do with all those accidents. I used my magic to follow you around by teleporting, but I should have helped you when you were trying to save ponies instead of when you had gotten in over your head. If I was any kind of friend…that would have been the example to set.”

Rainbow held Twilight’s gaze for a long minute, then let out a sigh. “Okay…yeah…that was…what I said yesterday. You don’t really deserve-”

“No, I deserved every word,” the unicorn told her. “If I was really any kind of friend…a real friend…I would have been there to support you…instead of judge you like I did.”

The pegasus let out a low growl and looked away. “This doesn’t…we’re not… This doesn’t make us okay, you know.”

Twilight lowered her head and sighed. “I know,” she whispered before looking back up. “But…is it…a start?”

“Do you know what you did to me? What you said to me, really said to me with this whole Mare Do Well thing?” Rainbow Dash asked as her mouth contorted into a snarl.

After a few moments of looking her in the eyes, Twilight shook her head. “No…I don’t. And the fault for that lies with…me.” She looked up at the other girls with a sad expression. “We say we’re friends, but how much do we really know about each other? Not just our past but…our whole thought process!”

She looked back at the pegasus. “I call you one of my best friends, but I didn’t know anything about your personal life,” Twilight said before she addressed everypony else. “And I’ve never told you girls anything about my family, or my deepest thoughts or…anything!”

“You’re a lousy friend, I knew that already,” Rainbow grumbled before she rolled her eyes.

Fluttershy stood up and gave the pegasus a hurt expression. “Rainbow.”


In response, the cyan pegasus rolled her eyes. “What? Am I not caring enough about how safe ponies are still?”

“W-What?”

The question got an angry frown from the other pegasus. “That’s what you said!” Rainbow exclaimed. “When everypony else was going on and on about how much better Mare Do Well was than me, you just trot up and go…and she really cares about ponies!”

Fluttershy’s eyes widened. “That...” she said before trailing off and looking away.

“Like I don’t?” she demanded. “Buck! When we were going to fight a dragon, I was ready to counterman an order from Princess Celestia of all ponies and tried to talk Twilight into making you stay home where it was safe! I am always the first one flying towards danger, fighting a manticore and NIGHTMARE BUCKING MOON! But I don’t care about other ponies and their safety?”

A second later she practically deflated. “You…Fluttershy, how could you say that I didn’t really care about anypony’s safety.”

“I DIDN’T!” she cried desperately. “I…everypony else could go on and on about their accomplishments as Mare Do Well, but I had nothing! Rainbow, I haven’t ever done anything worthwhile! All I could say about me was…I care about ponies.”

Rainbow looked at the other pegasus in shock for a second before anger returned to her face. However, it looked to Twilight more along the lines of a normal kind of anger that Rainbow usually possessed rather than what she had been seeing from her lately. “Horse apples!” she exclaimed. “You’ve done a ton of awesome things, and I’m not talking about that junk those idiot foals are spewing out of their mouths either. You’ve fought manticores, a dragon, and stared down a bucking cockatrice that one time the CMC wandered into the Everfree Forest!”

Unlike when it was directed toward Twilight, the angry compliment didn’t seem to get through to Fluttershy very well. “But those were all just…special circumstances,” she mumbled. “I’m not brave, or special like you Rainbow. “I’m just-”

“UGH!” the pegasus exclaimed before she looked over to Twilight with a frown. “You see? THIS is what happens when ponies constantly put themselves down!” she exclaimed before turning back to Fluttershy with a much calmer expression, and let out her anger in a long breath. “I’m sorry I yelled at you Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy shook her head. “No you don’t need to-”

“I’m sorry…for everything!” Rainbow Dash went on before the other pegasus could really start. “I…sorry.”

“I’m the one who's sorry Rainbow,” Fluttershy replied as she looked away and hid behind her mane at the same time. “I’ve known you since we were fillies and… I’m sorry I didn’t stand up for you when I should have.”

The blue pegasus let out a disgruntled breath and looked over to the pink pony. Pinkie’s mane deflated a bit, and she let out a long sigh. “Sorry Dashie, I just…Twilight said it was all going to you head and…we had to fix…it.”

For a moment Rainbow looked at the pink pony, then let out a sigh. “It’s…okay Pinkie,” she said after a moment. “You didn’t run around town telling everypony what a jerk I was, or…buck, you weren’t even in Sugarcube Corner that day, where you?”

As Pinkie shook her head in a negative, Rainbow Dash looked around at the others. “And another thing!” she suddenly said before turning to face the others. “I never ONCE forced you guys to come listen to me! I didn’t corner you, or anything! YOU CAME TO ME! You came to talk behind my back, you came to look down on me, like you were sooooooooo much better than me! Just standing off in the back, mumbling to each other and looking at me with your bucking frowns!”

Twilight flinched at the accusation as she reviewed her memories and…couldn’t discount the accusation. Although… “You saw that?” she asked nervously. From what she remembered, the pegasus had only glanced their way a few times when she was flying around, telling one story or another.

“OF COURSE I DID!” Rainbow Dash roared.

“Hey!” Applejack spoke up. “You were getting mighty jealous of me as I recollect!”

Rainbow Dash spun and snorted at the earth pony before she started approaching her. “I was angry at a jackass in a costume that seemed intent on showing me up rather than helping me out! YOU WERE JEALOUS OF A FRIEND’S SUCCESS AND DECIDED TO TAKE IT AWAY!” she shouted in Applejack’s face.

“I-”

“And that’s what it really was, wasn’t it Applejack?” Rainbow spat before she pointed over to the mares around her one by one. “I can understand Pinkie and Fluttershy. Buck, I can even understand Twilight being stupid over this junk, but you?”

“Just let me say mah peace,” the farm pony said.

Instead of calming down and lightening up, Rainbow Dash just seemed to become even more enraged. “NO!” she shouted in the earth pony’s ear, making Applejack wince. “I’m going to let your actions speak for you. That’s what you wanted, AND THAT’S WHAT YOU GET!

“You LIE about my family! You turn the entire bucking town against me like I’m a bucking super villain or something! You stand there looking down on every single pony that walks by because they’re not stuck in some stupid little town in the middle of nowhere!” she exclaimed before flying back into the air and looking at each of the other girls. “Twilight and Rarity are probably going to be big shots in Canterlot one day, Pinkie Pie could probably open a club in Manehattan, or Las Pegasus, or some other big party city. Buck, even Fluttershy could probably write her own ticket in some kind of animal…care…thing, and I’m going to be a Wonderbolt! But you?

“This is all you are,” she went on evenly. “This is all you will ever be! A nopony who can’t even run her own farm without five other mares helping her out. You. Petty. Little. Nag.”

Twilight looked over to the pegasus with a tired expression. “Rainbow, that’s enough,” she mumbled. “ I didn’t call you here so you could…do this.”

“Well what do you want?” she demanded.

“I want to fix this!” Twilight told her. “We screwed up. Fine that’s…I get it okay? But right now…it’s not just about you anymore it’s about…what we did. What our actions did. What we…showed other ponies. That’s what we need to fix right now.”

A few seconds passed as Rainbow looked at her with a frown, then she groaned and took a seat between Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. “What’s next, a new superhero to beat Mare Do Well up or something?”

Twilight shook her head at the suggestion. “No…I think we need to…purge the town of all the Mare Do Well stuff. After tonight…I think the parents will be up for it.”

“I’ll cancel all the costume orders I took,” Rarity added, surprising Twilight. She knew the white unicorn would take a major hit to her reputation from such a move.

Not to mention a financial one, the lavender unicorn told herself as she remembered just how much purple fabric Rarity had in her shop. Even if she made purple outfits for years, the unicorn would never be rid of the stuff.

With that realization, Twilight remembered how she had thought that Rarity had cared so much about money just the other day…and felt ashamed of herself for letting such a thought cross her mind.

“And then what?” Fluttershy asked.

Twilight took in a deep breath to help brace herself, and then let out a long sigh. “Well…we can’t just get up in front of everypony and say Made Do Well is bad. It’s like…” She looked over to Applejack. “It’s like what Applebloom said. We can talk all we want, but its our actions that foals pay attention to. So I think we need to destroy our costumes…in front of everypony…and invite them to do the same.”

The suggestion managed to get the rise of a head out of Applejack. “Ain’t that a bit…much?”

“What else can we do Applejack?” Twilight asked in a low tone. “Mare Do Well did this because of our actions. Just talking to ponies isn’t going to end it. And…I want to make a public apology to you Rainbow Dash in front of everypony, and that’s when I want to explain why it was wrong.”

Rainbow’s eye twitched and she opened her mouth to speak, but Pinkie Pie beat her to it. “Sounds like a plan Twilight!” she exclaimed before reaching beneath the table and pulling out the wrapped gift. “Now open your apology present Dashie!”

Across the table, Rarity blinked and looked at her saddlebags, then over to the gift box that had been in them and sighed before she perked up and looked over to Rainbow. “Like everypony keeps saying, it’s our actions that show everypony how we really are. I made it myself but…it’s from all of us darling,” she told the pegasus. “Honestly…it’s the kind of thing a real hero should be wearing.”

Once again, the look of anger on Rainbow’s face deepened at the comment, and she tore off the package’s wrapping before opening the box.

Then, for the first time since she had come into the library…the first time that Twilight could remember since the Mare Do Well mess started, the anger on Rainbow’s face vanished…and she lifted the Wonderbolts uniform out of the box. “This is…”

“I know it’s not an official one darling,” Rarity said. “The material is probably all wrong, and I only copied what I could see from some of those magazines you mentioned but…I think I at least got the colors and shape right.”

“Th-thank you Rarity…I…” The pegasus took in a breath and blinked a few times before looking back up at the unicorn. “I accept your apology,” she said before looking over to Twilight. “And…you never stopped being my friend Twilight. Not…really.”

The change left Twilight stunned for a moment, and she wondered how something so simple could have such a profound effect on the pegasus. She knew there was something important she was missing but…the unicorn knew she couldn’t let her curiosity ruin this opportunity to begin the healing process. “Maybe not…but I did stop acting like one, and for that I am ashamed.”

A silence fell over the room once again, and after a few minutes, Twilight understood that it was time to call this little meeting to an end.

However, there was still some things that needed to be done…





Dear Princess Celestia,

Whenever I’m with other ponies, especially my friends, I sometimes find myself pressured into situations that I don’t want to be in…like the time I became a model because of Rarity. However, just because one pony…or even a lot of ponies tells you to do something, doesn’t mean you should, or even that it’s the right thing to do. All that ends up doing is making one more pony wrong.

Fluttershy

“Thanks for walking me home Rainbow,” the yellow pegasus said. “Um…I’m sorry.”

Rainbow Dash took a look at the Wonderbolt outfit held under her wing and let out a long sigh. “It’s okay Fluttershy. I already said I forgave you, remember?”

As much as those words helped, Fluttershy still found herself rather depressed. Her friend’s forgiveness was one thing, but…the real question was, how much longer would it take to forgive herself?

“So…what now?” Fluttershy asked.

Another sigh came from the stunt flier’s mouth. “Well, I can’t up and transfer to Manehattan or Vanhoover, or…wherever now,” she bemoaned. “It would be like running off. Like you girls chased me out of town or something.”

Fluttershy tried to hide her shock at the announcement. “You were going to…leave…Ponyville?” she asked in fear.

The hurt look Rainbow Dash gave her made the pegasus want to cry. “Fluttershy, you girls made the whole town forget about me, then all of you acted like you didn’t care about me, and then Applejack turned the whole bucking town against me!” she exclaimed. “I may be loyal Fluttershy, but even I have my limits.”

A second later, Fluttershy wrapped her forelegs around Rainbow Dash’s neck and whispered into her ear. “I care for you! You’re my…you’re practically my sister Rainbow! Please don’t leave me.”

“Uh…you heard the part where I said I can’t up and transfer, right?”





Dear Princess Celestia,

Even smart ponies do stupid things.

Pinkie Pie
    

“So…I’m waiting.”

Pinkie looked over to the other earth pony out of the corner of her eye and frowned at the poofless strand of hair that was blocking a good bit of her vision. Applejack was up and about, but her movements were still sluggish and there was a depressed gait to her walk as they made their way back to the farm. “Fer what?”

The toneless question turned frown even frownier. “For your apology to me. You gave Dashie hers…I think. Now I want mine.”

Applejack stopped and looked up to raise an eyebrow at Pinkie. “What fer?”

“Oh I dunno, how about cause I abandoned my family,” she said before turning her flank to face Applejack. “You know, cause I have a cutie mark that doesn’t look like big hunk of granite, or pumice, or stone, or sediment-”

“Okay okay! Ah’m sorry, alright?” Applejack said.

With the apology she needed given, Pinkie felt her levels of joy rise back to normal, and she bounced along the path as they entered Apple Country. “Thanks Applejack! I forgive you for being a complete donkey and hating anything that doesn’t fit inside your teeny-tiny, itsy bitsy little worldview of morality!”

Applejack let out a sigh and shook her head. “So…you think Rainbow Dash will ever…you know.”

“Buck no!” Pinky replied with a cheery smile and voice. “She’ll never forget all that stuff you said about her…or forgive!”

“W-What?” Applejack stuttered.

Pinkie had to stop bouncing along as her friend stumbled on the road so much she nearly fell. Then, once Applejack was up on all fours again, Pinkie explained the basics while they walked up to her house. “Oh I’m sure she won’t show it. Wellllll, okay that’s not true. I’m sure the next time you and Twilight get into some trouble and need her to help you out, Dashie’s just going to point and laugh at how stupid you look until the last possible second, and when you need her help to bail your farm out because you bit off something too big to chew, she’ll be smiling on the inside at your panic while helping you out because it’s the right thing to do before eventually letting go of her smoldering anger buuuuuuuuut…

“You’re never gonna be super duper best friends like me and Dashie are!” the pink party pony exclaimed with a smile before turning around to head for the nearest shortcut back to Sugarcube Corner. “Buuuuuuuuuuuut, cheer up. I’m sure it’ll all work out.”

“Well…I guess yer right I mean, me and Dash have always had our differences and things have always worked-Uh Pinkie, that’s the tool shed,” Applejack said from behind her before the pink pony closed the door.

A second later, Pinkie jumped out of her room’s closet and headed for bed.





Dear Princess Celestia,

You shouldn’t bring knives to school, even if they were your only option for shaving off another pony’s coat where their cutie mark is to get back at this snooty filly that tossed you to the curb and never helps you get your cutie mark.

“Hey wait a second…how come Ah’m the one writing one of these and not you?” Applebloom asked as she looked away from her older sister. “You were the one telling everypony what to do and calling Rainbow Dash a super villain, even though she saved Scootaloo and helped Dinkie!”

Applejack let out a sniff. “Then you need to learn to pay better attention!” she exclaimed. “Everything Ah said about Dash was right on the money, cept that part about her ma…Ah couldn’t of known she was done passed. Same reason Ah don’t talk about ours.

“It’s her fault fer never tellin, and yer fault fer doin as Ah did, not like Ah said to do!”

“But you said not to listen to what you say!”

“Then why’d you go and listen to that? Applejack told her before she turned around and started heading for the door. “Now Ah gotta go and start trainin fer the Canterlot Rodeo. Only got a few weeks to prepare. Gotta get back all them ponies respect, an that outta do it.”

Applebloom blinked at the sight of her departing sister. “…YOU DIDN’T LEARN ANYTHING!” she shouted as the door to her room closed.

And my sister is an idiot!

Applebloom





Dear Princes Celestia,

After living so long in Ponyville, after writing friendship report after friendship report, I thought myself an expert on it. After all, I have spent over twenty-six weeks studying the subject, when even the most complicated of spells takes me just a few days to learn. So after I thought I had mastered the subject of friendship, I sat in judgment over others, and even threw away previous lesson about always expecting the best from my friends.

While I completed some assignments…I failed the test.

And to be honest, I’ve been failing in friendship for awhile now.

I abandoned my friends to Discord’s magic because they annoyed me while under his influence, and talked behind the back of another time and time again.

When I looked back and examined things, what I discovered was that I was missing two key components of creating lasting friendships with others: compassion and understanding.

But don’t worry. I know what I need to do now, and I’m sure everything is going to be fine!

Twilight Sparkle

“Twilight?” a high class voice called out as the unicorn heard the library’s door open behind her. “Spike said you wanted to see me?”

The purple unicorn turned and smiled. “Hello Rarity, I need your help with a spell.”

Rarity laughed a little nervously. “Well darling, I think you for your confidence in me, but I’m not really talented in anything beyond-”

“Oh! Nononononono!” Twilight said as she raised her hooves before the other unicorn could continue. “I’ll be powering and crafting the magic. I just need you to hold, aim it at me, and trigger it. Just…let me get onto the bed before you release it.”

After following Twilight into her bedroom, Rarity nodded in understanding. “Trouble sleeping? Spike said you have been keeping odd hours since…you know.”

“I’m sure I’ll be better in the morning,” Twilight told her before she gulped down her nervousness and began weaving her magic into the form it needed to go. As much as she wanted to cure all her problems…multiple uses of the reform spell could have detrimental effects. So Twilight needed to make this single change count.

If she was wrong, then it would only be a matter of time before she ended up hurting her friends again.

“Pardon Twilight, but…isn’t that a little complicated for a simple sleeping spell?” Rarity asked as the other unicorn expelled the matrix from her horn while keeping it intact so Rarity could take control of it. “Not that I’m an expert mind you.”

Twilight smiled. “It’s not a simple sleeping spell,” she half-lied.

Thankfully, the other unicorn took the magic Twilight was offering, and then the younger of the pair laid down on her bed. A wave of guilt washed over her for a moment. “Rarity…I just want to say…” I’m sorry for ever thinking of you like I did…and tricking you like this.

“Hush dear, we’ll talk in the morning,” the other unicorn told her before Twilight felt the magic rip into her own mind.

“Sweet dreams.”

And the world faded to black.