Twilight tries to come up with a scheme to solve a friendship problem, only for Rainbow Dash to ruin everything with honesty, loyalty, and violence. If Dash can't beat Twilight at being the Princess of Friendship, just use MORE Dash!
Twilight Sparkle has grown more confident in her role as the Princess of Friendship, though her methods - primarily, hatching crazy indirect schemes to solve friendship problems - are a tad unorthodox. Still, she hasn't turned anyone into houseplants or destroyed any historic monuments lately, so things are looking up... until she shares her latest scheme with Rainbow Dash, who proceeds to ruin it, mostly with a volatile mixture of violence, honesty, loyalty, and even more Rainbow Dash.
( References to Equestria Girls movies, and some comics. Reading the comics beforehand is unnecessary. This story works as a standalone, but is also a sequel to Librarian Twilight Sparkle, Tutor of the CMC)
Twilight hummed a satisfied little tune to herself as she watched Discord and Celestia play a round of her new game, 'Free Will is Boring'. The guards participating (all blindfolded, of course) seemed to be having fun, and Pinkie Pie was going ballistic.
"Despite the major setback of Discord being more interested in who created the game than who hosted it, it would seem that 'Operation: Being Nice to Discord' was a success. The Twilight Empire grows!"
Rainbow Dash, sitting on the hill next to Twilight, snickered.
"Empress Egghead, where lay our next conquest?"
Twilight sighed.
"Daa~ash, stop calling me that."
"You name the operations!"
"You told me you liked 'Being Nice to Discord!' "
"I thought it was a funny joke. Like, not putting his operation in code, just spelling it out. It kinda got old."
Twilight pouted, but then became thoughtful, putting on an imperious air and funny accent.
"The 'Egghead Empress' is considering your inquiry, lieutenant Dash."
"Why do you say it like that, anyway? 'Lef-tenant'?"
"That's how they say it in some parts of Equestria."
"But if I'm the lef-tenant – oh, can Tank be the rightenant?"
Twilight spluttered, losing her persona altogether. "Whuh?"
"Well like, it'd be weird to have a leftenant's lieutenant, right? So he should be the rightenant, the leftenant's right-hand man!"
Twilight just stared at Rainbow for a few seconds. Dash, for her part, maintained a perfectly innocent expression, right up until both of them started laughing. After a few moments, Twilight relaxed, taking on a slightly more serious demeanor.
"I actually did have an idea for what to do next, though."
"Oh really?"
Rainbow took on the persona of 'Lieutenant Dash', a battle-hardened veteran of the Friendship Wars, which primarily took the form of putting on an eyepatch. Twilight fluffed up her wings and took on her imperious air again.
"Indeed. For you see, your empress has been troubled of late, lieutenant. For all that we have made great gains in Equestria, I fear we are quickly approaching the day that there will be no more friendship problems to solve.
Dash smirked. "For all our progress, Empress, I feel that day is still well o—"
"Silence!"
Twilight picked up her prop cane with her telekinesis, floated it to her hoof, and brandished it wildly at Dash, causing the pegasus to have a giggle-fit. Twilight heedlessly pressed onwards.
"Do you insinuate that I am incapable of winning this war once and for all, lieutenant?!"
Dash considered that for a moment, totally breaking character.
"Weeeell, I mean, we are doing a pretty good job. I mean, I guess we could get around to all of Equestria, if, like, other ponies started to do the same sort of thing. Err, Empress."
Twilight smirked.
"Very good, lieutenant. This war will be won yet, but then, what shall we do? If we will someday conquer the entire world, then we must look... beyond our world!"
"... Huh? You mean like, make friends with aliens?"
Twilight snickered, dropping the cane and accent.
"No, Dash, I mean the portal. The human world. There's something that's been bugging me."
"Right, I knew that. So what's on your mind?"
Dash flicked off the eyepatch as she spoke, smiling idly at Twilight. Twilight simply couldn't tell if Dash was bluffing or not.
"W-well, I've noticed something that bothers me about the way Sunset Shimmer behaves. I mean, I know you don't know her personally, but she sorta reminds me of you in how she stands up for other people; that aggression can get ahead of her, though. Remember how I told you she felt awful for yelling at the other Twilight after the big race?"
Twilight was recounting the story as she had been told it by her friends from the other world. Dash pondered for a second, before suddenly lighting up in recognition.
"Oh yeah! That was the race where the other me body-slammed a giant evil plant, right?"
Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Well, yes, but—"
"That's so awesome! I was worried other-me wouldn't get a chance to throw down with monsters or anything, since the human world is apparently all boring. Man, if I ever meet her the first thing we need to do is throw down."
Twilight just stared at Dash, her expression a mixture of bemusement, amusement, and disbelief. Dash noticed the look and became somewhat sheepish.
"Uh, but... yeah, Twilight, I remember. She felt really bad because she blew up on the other-you, right? Even though the other-you nearly, like, got people eaten by a giant plant?"
Twilight nodded, relieved to be back on track.
"That's right. Hearing that bothered me, but I wasn't sure why. I've given it more thought, though, while going over some of our old discussions in the journal. What I've noticed is a trend where Sunset seems to... well, just accept criticism thrown her way, and seems to judge herself really harshly, but she's a lot more lenient towards others than she is with herself."
"Isn't that normal? Pushing yourself to be a better pony – or, person, I guess?"
"I don't just mean she has higher standards for herself. She actually seems to think that it's okay for other people to treat her more poorly than they treat each other."
Dash looked stricken at that, glancing off to the side.
"... Oh. So that's how it is."
"Yeah. I think I really started to suspect something like this last year. Sunset started sending me messages about a terrible event happening at Canterlot High..."
Twilight recounted the story of 'Anon-a-Miss', an anonymous online poster who shared the secrets of everyone at Canterlot High. While no one knew who the poster was, people suspected Sunset Shimmer, and turned on her, including her closest friends. While the human Rainbow Dash had seemed hesitant to accept the idea, she still joined the others in telling Sunset she wasn't welcome among them anymore. It was only when Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle had admitted to being the ones responsible that things had returned to normal. Twilight was so consumed with her explanation that she didn't notice the gradually darkening expression on Dash's face.
"... and so I've come to think that it's also certain events, not just people, that are mirrored between dimensions! Oh, but I'm getting off-topic; so, that's what really got me thinking that Sunset didn't really stand up for herself, maybe because she feels so guilty over what she did before. I've got a plan to fix that, though!"
Dash looked up from the patch of grass in front of her that she had been glaring at for the past few minutes.
"Already?"
"Well, it's been bothering me for a long time, actually. I just wasn't sure what to do about it. Now, here's what I was thinking..."
Twilight took on her normal conspiratorial grin and leaned in close. Dash normally loved this goofy part of their routine, but her heart just wasn't in it, this time. She leaned down to listen as Twilight spoke.
"So, Sunset needs to learn to stand up for herself, right? But she still stands up for other people, so all we need to do is put her in a situation where she will stand up for someone else in her position! I was thinking I'd contact the other Twilight, and see about arranging some kind of... I dunno, maybe some kind of faux fight between us, where Sunset thinks I'm berating the other Twilight for what she did? What do you think?"
To Twilight's surprise, Rainbow Dash leaned back away. She almost looked pained.
"Twilight, why does Sunset need to change her behavior?"
"Wha-huh? Uhh... I thought I just explained that?"
Twilight was off-centered by Dash's sudden retreat and manner; Rainbow had never gotten so serious at one of their Friendship Counsels before.
"It doesn't sound like Sunset's just being a doormat, Twilight. What you're saying makes it sound like she... she doesn't really care about herself."
Twilight looked puzzled, but nodded.
"I suppose so... so you don't think my plan will work?"
"Of course it won't work! She'll defend somepony else because she cares about them! The only way she'll care about herself is if her friends convince her she's worth something!"
"Wow. Rainbow... that's a really good analysis. How did you figure that out?"
Rainbow began stomping the dirt in front of her as she spoke.
"Because I am super, super angry at the others for not doing anything about this! I mean, did they even apologize to her after that whole 'Anon-a-Miss' thing?!"
"Huh? Uh... I actually don't know. She didn't say."
Dash groaned and dug into the ground with a hoof.
"And you're telling me that there's another me out there who just let this happen? And you think we're the same?"
"Whoa. Rainbow, you really need to calm down! I mean, you're just hearing one side of the story, here – second-hand, at that! I'm sure there's more going on."
"Oh, right, so you're going to say I need to 'get all of the facts before I act', right?"
"Well, yeah."
Dash pointed a hoof down at the game Celestia and Discord were playing in alarm, and yelled "Look out! It's a coop detat!"
Twilight looked in confusion, and a second later, said "It's pronounced 'coo day tah', Dash—"
Looking back, Twilight realized that Rainbow had raced off in the direction of the mirror portal.
Rainbow Dash flew as fast as she could towards Ponyville. Sparing a glance behind her, she saw Twilight turn around just in time to see her become a speck in the horizon.
Hah! Score one for Dash! Now... can I figure out how to use the dumb portal?
Dash remembered that the way Twilight had rigged it up looked really complicated... and really fragile.
Oh well. Just gotta go for it!
Dash dove towards the ground, digging a trench to slow herself to a stop in front of Twilight's castle.
Perfect landing! Well, actually, I guess I could have done a zig-zag high-speed strut to bleed off speed without damaging the ground... yeah... okay, so that was a 5/10 at best. Whatever, time to go!
Dash zipped inside of the castle, zipping around corridors until she found her way to the portal room. She rushed up to the portal, and tapped it with a hoof to see if it was active – and to her surprise, it was. He hoof didn't make contact with it, but instead made ripples in the surface. Dash flinched back.
Whoa. It's actually active? So I can just... walk right through?
It began to dawn on Rainbow Dash that she was about to cross through the portal for the first time – and that meant crossing into a world she had never seen before, with no idea where she was, or what she was doing. She wouldn't even have wings.
But I'll still be awesome.
"Yeah, that's right, other world! Brace yourself, you're about to have two Rainbow Dashes! You had better stop me now if you can't handle the awesome, so don't say I didn't warn you!"
Dash pretended to lean towards the portal and listen for a reply. When none came, she smirked, though she was actually feeling no small amount of anxiety.
"Well alright then!"
Dash ran towards the portal... and stopped right in front of it, entirely on reflex. She muttered under her breath at herself and lunged forward, losing her balance, and falling into the mirror. She remembered that Twilight had been yelling on the way through – so Dash bit her lips as she fell through what felt like a blender onboard a ship in a nasty storm on an unstable planet.
Suddenly, the world righted itself – but her body didn't, and she came spilling out of the portal back-first towards the ground. One semi-graceful roll later, she was sitting cross-legged in front of a giant brick-and-mortar building, and finally unclenched her teeth.
Yeah! Not a noise, and nailed that—well, that landing was okay, at least!
Rainbow slowly rose to her two feet, remembering what Twilight had said about the balance being tricky. Luckily, her martial-arts training as a pony had frequently involved standing on two legs – and this was way less awkward than doing it as a pony.
And Rainbow Dash trumps Twilight yet-again! Okay, now I need to find, uh... me.
Rainbow Dash started doing some stretches, trying to get the hang of this new body. After about a minute, she managed to do a cartwheel, and decided that was sufficient proof of her mastery. She beamed – but then realized no one was around to see it.
Oh. Right. Twilight said they stay in the school most of the time... in class. Dangit, I didn't think about that! If it's the middle of a class period, Twilight might catch up to me before I find myself!
Rainbow glanced around, and then got an idea, and made a bee-line for the corner of the building.
Twilight mentioned getting whooped at some kind of hoofball by the other me in a field somewhere around here...
Dash eventually discovered she had run along the wrong side of the school, after making a nearly full rotation of the campus, but finally found the practice field she had been looking for. Luckily for her, while she was running, a bell tolled, and students began to make their way around. Dash considered for a moment, and then ran up to the nearest person she saw – a tall woman with a deep blue mane.
"Oh, hello, Rainbow Dash. Did you need something?"
Whoa. That's weird.
"Hey! Uh, I'm not who you think I am – I'm one of Princess Twilight's friends."
The woman seemed taken aback for a moment, but then smiled warmly and extended her hand.
"Ah, I see. That explains the outfit. I am vice-principal Luna, welcome to our school. What brings you here?"
This is the human Luna? Hmm... no way, the pony Luna is way cooler.
Dash slowly, and very carefully, mimicked the gesture. Luna seemed to pick up on her confusion, and took hold of Rainbow's hand, giving it a small shake and letting go.
Huh. It's sort of like a hoofshake, but more... squishy.
"Well, I, uh... I need to speak to me. Er, the other me – your Rainbow Dash. Can I borrow her for a couple of minutes?"
Luna considered, but then nodded.
"I don't see why not. I believe she's practicing with her band right now – if you wish, I will fetch her for you."
"Ah... uh, yeah. Thanks!"
Luna nodded, and set off. Dash looked around for something to do, but finding nothing, settled for leaning against a wall and looking cool. Then she remembered Luna's comment about her outfit, and glanced at it, discovering that she was wearing some kind of aviator jacket over what looked like a Wonderbolt outfit.
Oh man. The portal is definitely making a statement, here. Even inanimate magical objects know how awesome I am!
Rainbow smugly waited for her counterpart to show up, observing what a beautiful day outside it was. After a few minutes, she walked out of one of the nearby side exits, and walked up to her, mouth agape. They stared at each other for a few minutes before pony Dash spoke up.
"Pretty awesome, right?"
"Totally! That's what you come through the portal with?!"
"Yep! But hey, that's not why I'm here – uh, obviously, I guess."
The Equestrian Dash scooted off the wall and walked up to her human counterpart, who nodded.
And then tried to smack her in the face while making some kind of whooping noise. Equestrian Dash blocked on instinct, more than a little confused.
"Hey! What giv—oh, right."
Dash suddenly remembered that the first thing she intended to do on meeting her duplicate was 'throw down'.
Man, I had totally forgotten.
And so the two of them began fighting. It started out with a series of strikes between them, but the Equestrian Dash quickly realized she wasn't as good at using her fists as her human counterpart.
But I bet she isn't as good at fighting close to the ground!
Dash got down on all fours, and started doing huge, sweeping kicks at her foe's ankles. This confused her foe, causing them to stagger backwards – and Dash took that chance to bolt forward and slide right through her ankles, sending her tumbling to the ground. She knew that the time it would take her to stand up and turn around would be long enough for the other Dash to do the same – so she didn't do either.
"GET DUNKED ON, PONY STYLE!"
And with that bizarre, hastily-conceived battlecry, Dash bucked her opponent in the stomach, rolling her over a complete cycle and back onto her stomach. Before the human Dash could recover, the Equestrian Dash was on top of her, locking her arm.
"Aww, yeah! Score one for Equestria, whoo!"
The human Dash kept struggling, but she had a pretty broad smirk.
"Jeez, I thought you would still be getting used to having a human body!"
Dash whooped a laugh from her position atop her fallen adversary, arm still held in a lock.
"Come on, you know we're too awesome for that. I'm no Twilight Sparkle, jeez!"
And both of them started snickering as Dash released her counterpart's arm. Both of them stood up and started dusting themselves off, until the Equestrian Dash realized her counterpart was getting ready for a rematch.
"Whoa, hey now. I didn't come all the way to... wait, what is this place even called? Is it still called Eque—nevermind. I didn't come all the way here just to kick your butt! We need to talk!"
The human Dash looked mildly surprised, and shrugged and thumbed over towards the bleachers. They began chatting as they walked.
"Okay, then. Start talking; what's up?"
"Well, I can't stick around long; Twilight'll be hot on my hooves, so I need to keep it quick. Look, she's a lot better at the whole 'dance around the issue and let them figure it out themselves' thing, but... I came here because, based on what she said, it sounds like you screwed up. And I figured it would be better for you to hear it from me – y'know, yourself, sorta, I guess? – and maybe get your butt kicked over it, than have her come here and make you feel... not-awesome."
Both of them took a seat on the bleachers; during Dash's speech, her human counterpart had started to noticeably pale, and now looked quite nervous. Dash nodded gravely.
"Yeah, I guess we're a lot alike. You know I wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't important to us."
Her human counterpart nodded, swallowing hard. "I left someone hanging, huh?"
"Yep. Bet you can even figure out who."
Dash's human analogue paused in silence, thinking for a minute. Then she sighed.
"Is it Sunset?"
"Yeah! Jeez, that was quick."
"I always kinda felt funny around her. Like... she tried to hurt everyone. I'm supposed to beat up people who do that – so how can she be one of the people I'm protecting? I like her, but it just makes me feel weird sometimes – and I guess that makes me prone to screwing up, huh?"
"Yeah. It's like the nightmare scenario for us. I mean, how do you protect a friend..."
"... who's fighting another friend, yeah."
Both Dashes sat there in solemn silence for a few seconds, pondering those words. The human Dash seemed a little discouraged – you know, just a little bit, definitely nothing serious – and her Equestrian analogue shuffled a bit uncomfortably, trying to think of what to say.
"But seriously, either she's your friend now, or she isn't. If she isn't, don't lead her on... and if she is, that means you believe she's changed. Now... go make her believe it, right? And make sure everyone else does, too!"
Dash gave her human counterpart an encouraging pat on the back. You know, like athletes do. It definitely wasn't a hug or anything, because that'd be mushy, and you'd do that, if, like, your friend was crying – which the other Dash was not, for sure. No way. Dash just kept 'patting' the other for a few seconds, before speaking further.
"Hey, you've got this, right? I mean—"
"I shouldn't need some other me to—I should have done something."
Dash frowned at the sudden response, her mind scrambling for what to say. It came up with nothing, so she went with blunt honesty.
"We're kinda bad at this stuff."
"Huh?"
"Friendship. Mushy stuff. We're bad at it. But hey – I came here to outdo Twilight. The Princess of Friendship. And check it out – I knew you would understand what was wrong just like that" – Dash snapped her finger for emphasis – "and I totally called it! So like, sure, maybe we're bad at this stuff on our own, but like – now there's two of us, right? No way Twilight can compete with that."
The other Dash sniffled – she must have had allergies or something, of course – and nodded. A thin, determined smile was forming.
"Yeah. We'll watch each others' backs."
"Yeah! I mean, if I have to kick some sense into me once in a while – I do that already anyway!"
The Equestrian Dash winked at her human counterpart, and the two exchanged another... 'pat on the back', before breaking apart and standing up to part ways.
"Alright. I should get back; Twilight can't break the sound barrier, but she'll still get here eventually..."
"Wait, break the – you can do that?! Wait, can I do that when I have wings?!"
"Sure, didn't you know?"
And with another wink, the Equestrian Dash rounded the corner from her counterpart... and let the shakes come on.
Oh man. I was totally not prepared for that. That was insane. Did I screw it all up? Oh man... I sure hope things go okay...
Dash paused for a moment, leaning against a wall, to catch her breath.
Man... I bet Twilight is going to be so peeved when I get back. Price I pay for being awesome, I guess. Good luck, other me!
The Rainbow Dash native to the human world walked back towards her music room, trying to shake off the adrenaline and wiping the... 'sweat' off of her face.
Okay. Okay, focus, Dash! The other Dash has kicked a dragon in the face! Or at least, so Twilight told me. And I've slammed a giant monstrous plant mouth thing into the ground! She believes I can handle this! I can handle this!
Dash paused, leaning against a wall and trying to let the anxiety bleed off.
How am I going to handle this?
Dash facepalmed. It seemed so simple; just clear the air with Sunset, right? No problems here! Simple! Easy peasy! Terrifying!
How do I even approach something like this? I can't just go up to her and be like 'hey, I know we put this bad thing behind us, but let's talk about it again, because I feel like I've been a bad friend', can I? Wait, if I feel like I've been a bad friend, what does that say about the others? Am I saying that they were bad friends, too?
Dash paused, rubbing her face. She couldn't find a way to rationalize around that issue; the others had been right alongside her, so what set them apart? The pony Dash had to have thought so, too, so why did she come for just her?
She thinks I can handle... what do I even do? Yell at all of them? And myself? She thinks I can handle all of this?
Dash groaned in frustration, flailing her arms a bit as she paced back and forth, anxiety turning to frustration. She nearly jumped out of her skin when the bell rang, signalling the end of the period, and the start of the lunch period. Dash realized she had been standing outside of the music room door for a few minutes, as her friends filed out towards the cafeteria with passing greetings.
"Sunset, wait up. Can we talk for a minute?"
Sunset Shimmer turned around, her congenial smile offset by a bit of visible anxiety.
I must look pretty spooked. Why did I even stop her?! This is a stupid time to do this!
"Sure, Rainbow. What's up?"
Why did that other-me do this to me?!
Dash fidgeted a bit, and then froze as she realized something.
If I found out that some other me had screwed up like this, I'd be all over them. It doesn't matter what the other girls do – that's their business.
Dash gestured towards the hallway away from their other friends with her thumb, and they began walking.
I need to deal with my own mistakes first.
"Sunset, it's about the Anon-a-Miss thing. And... a lot of other stuff, I guess. I wanted to tell you that I'm really... y'know, I'm sorry about that."
Sunset frowned, glancing away for a second, before looking back.
"Rainbow, it's okay. You don't need to apologize, you had good reason to think I would do something like that. I mean, we both know that I would have—"
"Stop that! That's not cool!"
Dash had literally grabbed Sunset's shoulders and stopped her. Sunset, for her part, looked surprised and anxious, but paused to listen.
I get why the other 'me' came over, now.
"Look, no friend of any Rainbow Dash should doubt that someone has their back! Ever!"
That's why she came over here. That's why I'd go over there!
"What? Dash, I don't doubt that!"
If I screw up and hurt my friends, I'd want to get a good kick in the stomach! Which I did! It still hurts and everything!
"You should, though! When you needed someone to stand by you, I didn't! I wanted to, but I didn't!"
In her haste, Rainbow hadn't realized the full effect her words were having on Sunset, who was now starting to hyperventilate and mist at the eyes. Sunset clasped Rainbow's elbows, punctuating the weight of her words.
"Rainbow, that was my fault! I forfeited that trust, so I have to earn it back! You shouldn't feel bad about that!"
Sunset was now crying openly, though she was keeping her voice mostly under control.
I'd want a kick to the stomach, because it hurts a lot less than seeing that does.
"I feel bad about saying you were my friend, Sunset!"
Hey! That other Rainbow Dash told me just what to say! Awesome!
Sunset looked horrified. Rainbow suddenly realized what she had actually just said.
"Wait! Not like that! I mean I feel bad about saying you were my friend, and not living up to it! I'm not saying I regret being friends! No, the... opposite of that thing!"
"What... what are you talking about?"
"Sunset, I didn't say I was friends with a demon who tried to mind-control the school. I said I was friends with you; I would never be friends with a monster, so what does that make you?"
Sunset shifted uncomfortably, glancing around.
"N... not a monster?"
"Not a monster! And I don't know what was going on with you before, but if I say you're my friend, then you should be able to trust me to... uh... trust you. Wait, isn't that, like... the whole idea of friendship?"
"I... I guess so? I mean, Twilight would probably have more to say about it than that..."
"Wait, it doesn't even matter. No matter what the word normally means, here's what it means to me; if you were to try to hurt everyone tomorrow, I'd be betrayed, Sunset. That means I can't go around acting like I figured it would turn out that way, like I expected it; I don't. No more from you than from anyone!"
"But I already did try to hurt everyone, once! How can you really not be suspicious of me, going forward?"
"I... I don't know! I'm just not! I can't be. I have to not be."
Sunset sniffled, looking downwards.
"Because Twilight asked you to look after me, right?"
"No! Heck no! She's got nothing to do with this! I couldn't be your friend for someone else – I want to be your friend, that's my choice!"
Rainbow found herself facepalming, trying to figure out how she had managed, while walking in a straight line, to step on every trap in this conversational minefield – a metaphor she was subconsciously very proud of. She almost fell over when Sunset suddenly hugged her around the midriff. Rainbow tensed up instinctively, but slowly let a hand rest on Sunset's back. They stood in silence for a few seconds before Rainbow spoke.
"Sunset, I don't know why you did the things you did... but I think I'd like to. Maybe I trust you now because you weren't as bad as you thought you were to begin with."
Sunset broke free, backing up a step. Her expression was a mixture of shock and sadness.
"But you saw what I did! I was a monster!"
"That's funny, I seem to recall you specifically saying you weren't a monster, remember? To Twilight. Right before you let her dog go."
Sunset paused, but Rainbow pressed on.
"That wasn't the only thing, either; I was thinking about, like... every time you flipped out. I noticed you got angry when you saw us being, like, friends, especially with Twilight."
"That doesn't excuse what I did!"
"I guess not. It just changes what it says about you."
Sunset just stared at Rainbow for a few seconds, and then smiled.
"I guess you're right. When did you become all... Princess of Friendship-y, Dash?"
"Oh, y'know. It's just a trait of being so awesome; I put, like, 210% effort into things."
Sunset snickered.
"Right... well, we should probably head to the cafeteria before the period's out."
"Oh, right! Yeah. Let's do that."
"And Dash... thank you."
~
Meanwhile, around the corner of the hallway, two Equestrian natives were straining their ears to listen.
"And Dash... thank you."
Twilight and Dash heard footsteps retreating down the hallway. Both breathed a sigh of relief, and then Twilight spoke up, rubbing her forehead.
"I can't believe she just... ran into that situation like that! I mean, I can believe it, because that's what you did, but... Dash, how did you know this would work out so well?!"
Rainbow Dash shrugged, and put on her biggest, goofiest grin.
"Well, my friends are awesome, so I figured her friends were awesome, and when everybody's awesome, how could it fail?"
"... So what you're saying is... you trusted your – I mean, her – friends to just work it all out? Because you trust... your..."
Twilight made a few somewhat awkward flowchart motions with her hands, trailing off.
"Yep! I mean, it's what I'd want her to do in my shoes. Or... wait... what I'd want to do if I were – you get what I mean! Being able to move past stuff is like, all kinds of what friendship is all about, right?"
Twilight smirked, and then smiled genuinely. She adopted that same imperious voice from before.
"This point goes to Rainbow Dash; truly, I am upstaged."
"YES!"
Rainbow Dash did a small victory dance as the two made their way back to the portal.
"I guess you were right about us not needing to come back after all, Dash."
Dash frowned, rubbing the back of her head.
"Yeah... I guess. I was honestly planning to do it anyway, though. I felt bad putting all of that on me—on her, I mean."
The two paused in front of the statue.
"Oh-ho, Rainbow Dash has a soft side after all!"
"Well yeah. Not all of us can be soft on the inside like you, Twilight."
"Huh?"
"Not all of us can be so... egg-like."
Dash dove into the portal laughing before Twilight could respond. Twilight, for her part, just facepalmed, and laughed.
