Griffin Over the Line

Chapters

Chapter 1: "The Lazy Jerk"
Chapter 2: "The Reckless Jerk"
Chapter 3: "The Inconsiderate Jerk"
Chapter 4: "The Vengeful Jerk"
Chapter 5: "The Hidden Jerk" (epilogue)

Chapter 1: "The Lazy Jerk"

"...and so after that The Great & Powerful Trixie will move onto card tricks followed by..."

A very bored looking jasmine coated pegasus sat at a cafe by Ponyville park, staring somewhat blankly across the table at her perpetually overdressed unicorn friend as she yammered on about some upcoming performance she was planning. Casting her gaze about the pavilion, Raindrops observed that most of the tables were empty. It was well enough past high noon and there was even an angled tarp in place to shield patrons from the sun as it proceeded in its descent, yet it seemed even these months later most ponies were still slow to come out of their midday seclusions, unwilling to take any chances. Not for the first time since the meal began, Raindrops considered if she should have done the same.

Returning her gaze to the plate in front of her, the pegasus sighed as she poked absently at the food, though she thought describing it as food might be rather generous, having made what should have been the rather obvious mistake of letting her companion order for the both of them. It had seemed reasonable enough at the time and Trixie was paying, plus Raindrops could scarcely interpret the fanciful script on the menu, if it had even been written in Equestrian in the first place. She should still have known better, given the unicorn's rather, unique, tastes. This of course had done nothing to improve Raindrop's mood for the day.

"Remind me again why it is that you had to get me to be the one to go over all of this with you?" she interrupted the azure coated mare who had just gone into something about boxes and sawing ponies in half.

"Is that not plainly obvious?" Trixie replied, in that tone which carried just the barest trace of haughtiness, not quite enough to make it sound like she was actually talking down to anypony, but enough to make one feel almost justified slapping her upside the head anyway. "I need somepony to give me completely honest feedback on the routine. As such you would seem to be the most natural choice considering..." she trailed off letting the basic truth of the matter go unsaid, "Besides, Lyra still isn't much for talking to me."

"Yeah, yeah, I get all that," sighed Raindrops with exasperation, purposely trying to ignore that Trixie had just bluntly admitted to only talking with her as a second choice, "but it's not like I've got much of an idea what would make a good performance in the first place."

Trixie chuckled with that distinctive trill of hers. "But don't you see, that's exactly what makes you an ideal sounding board. Staging a good performance isn't science, but pure art. It's not about technical requirement, but the emotional response of the audience."

Raindrops gave Trixie a halfcocked sideways glance. "Don't know if you noticed, but emotional responses aren't exactly my strong suit," then added in a mutter, "Not the good kind at least."

"Oh stop glowering. What's got you in such a sour mood anyway? I hope you aren't still brooding over the whole Winter Wrap-Up mess. You've hardly even touched your food."

Gee I wonder why, she thought to herself as she gave another glance at the so-called food in front of her. Still, as much as she hated to admit it Trixie had a point and it would be unfair to try to pin all the blame on this disappointment of a meal. "I've lived in Ponyville long enough to have seen worse Wrap-Ups. As bad as this year may have seemed, last year was even worse, but it is work related. You see Rainbow Dash has ──"

"Oh please," Trixie cut in, "that's hardly anything new now is it."

"Well yeah, but it's worse than usual. She blew off her entire shift yesterday. Not just got a late start, not just rushed through the work then take the rest of the day off, but outright skipped the whole shift. And then this morning ──"

Her rant was cut abruptly short with a, "Tut-tut, you can worry about that on your own time. Now then, where was Trixie... oh yes..."

Trixie resumed her spiel, but in short order her less than enthusiastic audience was no longer listening. Not just because the unicorn was being infuriatingly dismissive, again, but because Raindrops attention was instead focused solely on an errant cloud that was slowly drifting by overhead, a cloud sporting a rather distinctive multi-hued tail.

As she stood from her seat, spreading her wings, Raindrops made no attempt to excuse herself. So focused on her goal as she ascended, she hardly even noticed as Trixie cried out a protest. No, she had more important matters to attend to as she set her eyes fixedly on Ponyville's lead weathermare, unsurprisingly engaged in her second favorite pastime, napping. "Rainbow Dash!" she bellowed, "So this is where you've been hiding. It's bad enough when you leave the rest of us to cover for your lazy flank, but this cloud was supposed to be on the south side of town a good hour ago."

The lazily reclining pegasus waved a forehoof in a dismissive acknowledgment, not even bothering to open her eyes as she yawned out a response, "Yeah, yeah. I'll get right on that just as soon as I finish getting another few winks."

Raindrops eyed her quarry coldly and let out a single brief snort.

Rainbow Dash opened a single eye and sighed, "You're not going to drop this are you?" A beat passed as neither pegasus said a word or made a motion until, "Fine!" she groaned just before rolling off of the cloud, catching herself mid free fall before slowly flapping her way back up as she rubbed the sleep from her magenta eyes, "but you have to help me move it."

For just a moment Raindrops balked. It was hardly like her boss to ask for assistance, especially for a task so trivial as moving a single cloud. No doubt she was just being grumpy from having her nap disturb. Still, if it meant getting things back on schedule and hopefully getting the weather manager back into the patrol station for the rest of the afternoon it would be worth the minor trouble.

With a shrug and only the barest hint of a glower, Raindrops flew over. She placed each of her forehooves against the cloud, not even waiting for Rainbow Dash to do the same, she knew all too well what definition of help was expected and had no patience for playing games at the moment. No sooner had she started to push the cloud then a pair of claws burst out of it grabbing hold of each of her hooves, then before Raindrops had time to figure out what was happening a sharp beaked maw burst forth and let out a deafening roar into her face.

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My little pony, My little pony
Ahh ahh ahh ahhh...
My little pony
Friendship never meant that much to me
My little pony
But you're all here and now I can see
Stormy weather; Lots to share
A musical bond; With love and care
Teaching laughter; It's an easy feat
And magic makes it all complete!
You have my little ponies
How'd I ever make so many true friends?

Chapter 2: "The Reckless Jerk"

To all the world it looked as though Raindrops had been shocked into a catatonic state, the only motion left in her body being the steady wing beats holding her aloft. In actuality she was counting slowly backwards from '10' under her breath, while silently offering up a prayer that the moon might grant her the patience not to strangle the pair of guffawing idiots rolling about on the cloud in front of her. As her count down reached the number '4' she pegged her odds of self-restrain at about fifty-fifty.

As Rainbow Dash and her griffin cohort continued to laugh Raindrops stomped over towards them, an impressive display considering she was still hovering a few dozen feet in the air.

"Whoa, Dash, I think your friend here might be mad," came the nonchalant voice of the griffin.

Raindrops fumed as she locked eyes with the half-eagle half-lion, "oh we've already left mad behind, try furious," she answered in a forcibly calm tone.

"Lighten up Drops," chimed Rainbow Dash as she hopped from her perch and glided between the two, "it was just a joke." Dash let out a last few chuckles as she smiled, but Raindrops only stared back sternly. "Anyhow, Drops, I'd like you to meet my griffin friend ──"

"Gilda," Raindrops interrupted flatly.

"Aw, you've heard of me," the griffin responded with a somewhat sarcastic sounding croon as she stroked a talon through the loose feathers atop her head, "I'm flattered."

"After the fuss Rarity was making this morning, I'm rather sure everypony in town has heard of you."

"Heheh, yeah, that was pretty funny," chuckled Rainbow Dash, "Don't know how she figured out it was us though?"

"Given that you showed up with your friend here at her boutique last night just before closing, professing that you had finally given into your marish desires and were ready to let Rarity give you a full fashion makeover, which of course she immediately dropped everything to do, what with how she's always fancied what she could do with all those colors of yours. Then at near the crack of dawn she comes storming through the downtown streets, wrapped head to toe in a trench coat and scarf, practically beating down the spa door to demand an emergency full body treatment. What did you two do to her anyway?"

"Nothing much, just replaced her fancy bodywash with grape jelly," Dash snickered, "and that fashion snob deserved to get knocked down a peg or two anyway, especially after what she put me through while I was distracting her so Gilda could make the switch. I was stuck there for over an hour trying on all her dresses."

Gilda seemed to make quite the effort of suppressing a new set of her own snickers at being reminded of her friend's distress. "Aw, but I thought they made you look quite, dashing!" With that she broke into a full fit of uncontrolled laughter.

"Yeah, yeah," moaned the multi-hued pegasus, "Laugh it up before I shut you up."

The image of her boss dressed up in all the finest Carousel Boutique had to offer briefly made Raindrops forget how angry she was trying to be. The accompanying image of the shop's proprietor staring into her bathroom mirror, shocked horror plastered on her face at the sight of her normally pristine white coat stained with thick purple patches was almost as distracting, "Okay maybe, but did the rest of the town deserve to have to put up with two hours of whining at a pitch so intense that it ensured no pony within a three block radius could sleep in?"

"Meh, a little lost sleep never hurt anypony."

Raindrops blinked as her brain struggled to process how Rainbow Dash of all ponies could say that with a straight face. "Right... Well now that I've found you, I think it's about time I got you to the back to the patrol station so you can start making up that shift you missed yesterday."

"About that..." started Dash in a disturbingly calm tone, "See the way I figure it I've got about three days of vacation time saved up, so I was planning on just taking the rest of today and tomorrow off, then float my weekend break to the day after. That'll see me through to the end of Gilda's visit"

Raindrops could already feel the veins in her forehead fighting to break free again. "You're supposed to clear schedule changes like that a full week in advance, preferably two," she forced out between tightly clenched teeth.

"I did," she answered with the widest most obnoxious grin imaginable plastered across her face, "I got full approval from the weather captain herself."

Gilda snickered.

The sound of her own heart beat echoed repeatedly through Raindrops head. Her eyes narrowed, a rage clearly building to a boil, rising up and into her throat as she bellowed, "You know that's not how things work when you are the weather captain!"

"Yeah, yeah," Dash droned as she waved off the technicality, "Take it up with the weather captain, when she gets back from her vacation," and with that she was off, quick as her namesake.

Gilda was close behind, but twisted midair for a single flap to offer up a mock salute, "Smell ya' later, Dropsy."

Raindrops repeated her earlier countdown, though this time giving herself significantly worse than the fifty-fifty odds of her first. She was broken from her exercise in self-restraint as she reached the number '3'.

"Hey! If you're quite done up there, do you think you could come back down so I can finish going over the routine," Trixie called out from bellow.

"Are you serious?!"

"Quite, I need to make sure everything is as exciting as possible."

Raindrops simply stared for a beat then let out in a huff, "Why don't you try throwing a knife at somepony's face!" With that she flew off to the weather patrol station to see just how much shift juggling Rainbow's impromptu vacation was going to require, while she muttered to herself, "I know that would excite me right about now."

What Raindrops never saw was Trixie raise a hoof to her chin in contemplation, "That just might work."

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Ponyville Elementery. Young students sat at their desks in front of trays of sopping sticky goo and strips of thinly sliced paper. At the front of the room paced a plum colored mare, baring a trio of smiling flowers on her flank, currently engaged in a lecture on the finer points of papier-mâché. As Miss Cheerillee turned to the black board to write out the latest keyword for her class, Rainbow Dash poked her head up outside the open window, a straw held between her hooves that she immediately blew into before ducking back out of sight.

The wad of wet paper flew through the air, striking a young colt in the back of the neck. Suddenly jerked to full alertness, the colt turned his head, only to see one of his classmates lazily running a single strip of paper back and forth in a tray of glue. Not to be taken for a pushover, the colt grabbed one of his own strips of paper, soaked it in the tray, then crumpled it up and hurled it at his presumed assailant.

The classmate was struck across the side of the face. He glared in stunned surprise at the snickering colt in front of him, and then proceeded to return the favor. A quick dodge though and the wad instead struck the filly just beyond.

By the time Cheerille turned back around the class room was a flurry of commotion as fillies and colts flung the supplies of their arts and craft lesson at each other.

"That's enough of that my little ponies, settle down," she chimed with only the barest hint of frustrated harshness as she ducked a rogue projectile. When the class showed no signs of heading the request, she repeated with somewhat more forced authority, "Ehem! That's quite enough now. We've all had our fun, but ──" She was cut off as another rogue, and rather large, wad of gooey paper that she wasn't quite fast enough for was abruptly plastered across her face.

With slow deliberate motion the teacher reached up with a single hoof, clearing away the mess and revealing eyes that weren't nearly so infinitely patient as usual.

A pair of birds where happily chirping in a tree outside the schoolhouse when, "I SAID, THAT'S ENOUGH!!!"

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A sea green unicorn mare made to enter a candy shop when, she suddenly found herself spun about in a whirl as a flash of colors whizzed past her. She staggered about, her eyes still spinning in their sockets when, WHAM, something large brown and feathery slammed into her.

"Hey watch where I'm flyin' why don't'cha!" a rather gruff and irritated voice called as it too sped away.

Lyra picked herself up off the ground dazed and dizzy as she thought to herself how rude some ponies, or whatever that thing had just been, could be. Dusting herself off as she regained her bearings, Lyra proceeded about her original business as she stepped though the still open door.

"Hey BonBon, I was wondering..." Lyra's golden eyes scanned the room. Two customers had just left, but the musician could see no sign of the shop's cream coated owner.

"Up here," she heard that most familiar voice call out, though it lacked any of its usual honey.

The unicorn's eyes slowly rose up, where to her stunned astonishment she saw Bonbon, the mare's curly blue and pink locks permeated by some sticky substance plastering her to the ceiling.

"How, how did you...?"

"Don't ask," came the earth pony's indignant reply, "now why don't you stop staring slack jawed and use some of that fancy magic to. Get. Me. Down!"

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The gray coated mailmare cantered merrily down her route in her bright blue uniform with satchels stuffed full of letters slung over her sides. Her bright yellow eyes roamed about her surroundings, seeming to take in everything but the path directly in front of her, yet she never faltered a step.

She came to a stop and opened the mailbox in front of her, but before she could reach into her bag her eyes seemed to roll into a focused forward alignment as her brows furrowed in curiosity. She reached into the box, and pulled from it a small hive. Its tiny occupants buzzed about her outstretched hoof but none seemed to make a motion to sting the gentle mare.

"Aw, I love it when ponies leave me gifts," she smiled, "and Dinky will be so glad to have some fresh honey to go with dinner tonight."

The pegasus then stretched out a single wing and balanced the hive lightly atop it. She then proceeded to finish delivering the kind pony's mail, before turning to continue her route.

In a nearby tree sat a rather disappointed and bepuzzled griffin alongside her pegasus cohort.

"See, I told you there was no point in trying to prank Derpy," Dash said with an exasperated sigh, "that mare is just too vapid to realize what's going on."

Gilda shrugged, "Yeah I guess so. Come on lets go see if we can find some actual fun," and with that the pair flew off to find their next victim.

Ditzy Doo merrily continued down the road, one eye fixed ahead, as the other tracked a pair of unaware would-be pranksters as they flew away.

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"Thanks again for helping me get today's stock to market." said the golden coated earth pony mare with the curly orange mane.

Raindrops was happy enough to help her friend retrieve a supply of vegetables. Carrot Top had even promised her a few of her signature namesakes as compensation. Not that such a reward was strictly necessary, but after the less than satisfactory meal she'd had yesterday in exchange for helping a friend, the pegasus found it reassuring that she'd actually get something edible this time.

As the pair approached the shed where Carrot Top stored her goods Raindrops hoof sank into a mud puddle. Lifting it back up to stare briefly with a furrowed brow, she then slowly craned her head, eyes scanning left and right across the cloudless sky. Without having even given it much thought the experienced weathermare had spread her wings wide, feeling the air around her. There was a rather unusual amount of humidity in the immediate area, but why? Her eyes drifted back down to the ground, where more patches of mud dotted the surrounding path, growing ever more concentrated as one approached the ──

"Wait! Carrot Top don't open ──"

The warning came too late, as no sooner had the farmer begun to lift the latch than the shed's doors flung open drowning the two mares in a sudden torrent of water.

Moments later as the two came to their senses some dozen feet from where they had been standing, coughing up water and thoroughly coated in the freshly made muddy slurry that was now all around them, a steady sound came to their ears, that of raucous and guffawing laughter.

Carrot Top hardly seemed to notice staring about in a dazed confusion, but Raindrops already had her eyes focused sharply at the base of a nearby tree, just outside of the flood's path.

Raindrops rose, her eyes narrowed and full of vengeance. She began to stomp her way over to commence teaching a rather harsh lesson, only to slip and fall face first into the fresh mud sliding to halt not too far from her intended quarry. Though caked in mud, her eyes contained no less fury as she glared up at the source of her ire.

Without even rising again she hissed, "You are so dead Rainbow Dash."

Rainbow Dash wheezed a bit as she fought to choke out a reply through her fits of laughter, "Gee Drops ... it's not like ... I meant to prank you twice ... even I know not to take a joke that far."

Raindrop's eye twitched as she finally managed to get her hooves steady beneath her. That might have just been the closest thing she had ever heard from Rainbow Dash that even remotely resembled an honest and sincere apology, and it was directed at her. Not at Carrot Top, to whom they had recklessly inflicted who knows how much property damage while nearly drowning the poor mare in the process. No, instead it was directed at Raindrops who'd received no more than a brief fright the day before and a little bit of accidental water logging due to nothing more than her proximity to the true victim in all of this. It was in that moment that she realized just how silly yesterday's anger at the pair had been. This, this was true fury, and she was about to unload it all over their sorry flanks.

Rainbow Dash seemed to remain oblivious of the erupting inferno building within the jasmine pegasus. Gilda, however, seemed to have a better clue of what was just about to go down. Her eyes locked briefly with Raindrops' own. The two glared defiantly, as if each were daring the other to make the first move until, "Uh, Dash," the griffin squeaked as she tapped her cohort's shoulder, "I think we best beat wing before things get ugly."

The pegasus speedster seemed to only stare confusedly at her griffin friend, until finally turning to take note of the expression chiseled into Raindrops face. She gulped, "Well then, guess we'll just um... bye."

The pair of pranksters were off in a flash, barely more than a brown blur and a chromatic streak, as they darted rapidly about the sky. They probably thought themselves to be cleverly shaking off any would-be pursuit. They clearly did not understand the nature of the fury they had brought upon themselves.

With a force that seemed to make the very earth tremble, Raindrops leapt into air. She knew she could never keep pace with the rapidly fleeing speedsters, but she also knew she didn't have to. Sooner or later they'd get tired, or bored, then they would set down to rest, probably start planning their next act of vandalism disguised as humor, and that would be when Raindrops would pounce. No, she didn't need to keep pace, just fly true and steady, never letting the zigzagging pair out of sight. So let them run; it will only make them all the easier to handle when I catch them, she thought as visions of violence danced in her head.

"Wait!" she heard Carrot Top call out from below.

The now embodiment of righteous fury slowed her ascent, but kept her eyes sharply focused on the rapidly fleeing pranksters, "No! Don't you dare try and talk me out of this," she shouted, "those two have been asking for this and it's about time someone taught them a lesson."

"It's not that," came the reply, "I need your help right now. If we don't get this mess dried out fast my whole stock will be ruined."

Raindrops was torn. If she left now, she could keep sight of her quarry until the pair eventually set down for a breather, but was any pay back, no matter how deserved, worth her friend's livelihood? True, it was the thoughtless prank that had caused this particular crisis in the first place, but what kind of friend would Raindrops be if she left while there was still a chance to salvage the situation?

"Fine!" she let out with an exasperated sigh, as she turned and descended back to the ground. She gave one last glance over her shoulder as the paired streaks vanished into distant specks. Raindrops whispered to herself in a muttered growl, "You can run Rainbow Dash, but you can't hide."

Chapter 3: "The Inconsiderate Jerk"

The office of the official representative of the Night Court, wherein resided the official representative of the Night Court and personal portage of Princess Luna herself. Trixie was a very important pony who spent each and every day making very important decisions that affected the lives of each and every citizen of Ponyville, or at least that was how it was supposed to work. In reality most of her job involved being little more than a glorified paper pusher. Trixie despised paperwork, as could be attested by the rather large pile sitting to the side of her desk that she was trying very hard to ignore.

The very, very bored mare sat slouched over her desk, azure coat laid bereft of its usual garb, her head resting lazily sideways against the cool wooden surface and horn aglow in an equally lazy aura as she levitated a paddleball. One-by-one she counted off the steady rhythmic beats, her glassy gaze barely alert enough to track the ball as it stretched to the limits of its tether and rebounded only to be sent sailing forth again by the next strike of the paddle.

She supposed that if she was going to neglect her official duties for the afternoon she should at least be using this time to prepare for her upcoming performance, but she found herself far too bored to work up the motivation. Besides, without so much as an audience of one to amaze, what would be the point?

It was at that moment that she saw ripples spread rhythmically from the center of the glass of water on her desk. Then just as she lifted her head to ponder the meaning of this she heard it, the heavy thud, thud, thud as though some great beast from the depths of the Everfree Forest approached. Finally, with a resounding crash her office door was flung open revealing not some hideous monster, though Trixie might well have preferred such. No, instead her eyes beheld a sight of abject terror second only to the Blazing Queen of the Sun herself, or perhaps just maybe that should be the other way around. Before Trixie stood her good friend and fellow Element of Harmony, Raindrops, eyes full of cold murderous fury.

"Trixie, we need to have a serious talk!"

"What!? I've been in my office all day. Whoever you thought you saw, it wasn't Trixie!" blurted the unicorn in a barely coherent panic.

With that the pegasus's seething rage seemed to abate, replaced by puzzled confusion, "Huh?"

Trixie let out a sigh of relief as she wiped her brow, "Oh thank merciful Luna, you're not here for me."

Raindrops cocked her head slightly with a raised eyebrow before pressing, "Why would I be?"

"Uh, no reason," Trixie stammered while purposely averting her gaze, "Forget I even brought it up."

"Right, I think I will, this time," said the pegasus with the barest edge of an underlying threat, "You're lucky I have bigger cakes to bake."

"So what exactly is this about then?"

"Oh come on!" Raindrops vented, "You've got to have heard about all the chaos Rainbow Dash and that griffin friend of hers have been causing."

"Of course I've heard, but I don't see why you're storming in here like you expect me to do anything about it," Trixe then made a point of using her magic to shuffle through some of the paperwork on her desk as though to remind her friend that she had proper official duties to attend. Letting her eyes read, or at least skim, over a random document she then continued in an officiary tone "Pranks and a bit of petty vandalism are rather beneath the Night Court's jurisdictional interests. Just leave it to the mayor or such."

"Only problem with that is that, as usual, the mayor doesn't seem to want to do a damn thing about it," fumed the pegasus as she rolled her eyes, "I swear, Rainbow Dash isn't the only pony whose continuing job security I don't understand."

Never taking her eyes off the document, though still not having much clue what it said, Trixie tried to again make her position in the matter clear, "I still don't see what you expect me to do about it? My job only lets me break ties in the city council and such, not overrule mayoral decisions."

"Well, Gilda is a griffin, surely that's got to make this a big enough concern to the Night Court."

"So what," Trixie asked as she set down her papers and raised an eyebrow, "you just expect me to contact the griffin ambassador and have her kicked out of Equestria?"

"Sounds like a good plan to me, especially if I get to do the kicking," Raindrops punctuated this by making a bucking motion.

"Unfortunately it's not so simple," the unicorn sighed as she shook her head, "Short of a capital offence it would take weeks for that kind of paper work to go through, and from what I've heard this Gilda is only staying through until the end of tomorrow. Besides, the griffins would only laugh off such a request made over only what little she seems to have actually done"

"LITTLE! They almost ruined all of Carrot Top's leftover winter surplus and it's still weeks until the first of her early spring harvests will be ready for market."

Trixie gave a deep frown at that revelation, "Be that as it may, it is still nothing the griffins would make a fuss over."

"WHY IN THE GATES OF TARTARUS NOT?"

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"The horror, the horror!" cried a pale earth pony with a rose colored mane and matching cutie mark.

"This is awful!" wailed a pink earth pony whose blond mane was held in place by a lily that matched her own cutie mark.

"A disaster, a horrible, horrible disaster!" concluded a third earth pony with a lime colored mane and sporting another flower themed cutie mark.

The object of the trio's distress was a fenced in and immaculately maintained flower garden. More specifically it was one particular flower in that garden, or to be even more precise it was what currently sat perched atop that flower. A single solitary caterpillar that was munching on the petals, blissfully unaware of the panic it was inciting.

"Quick, get it off before it lays any eggs!"

"Wait, aren't caterpillars too young to lay eggs!"

"That's not important, it might still have brothers and sisters waiting to hatch!"

"We have to check each and every flower, stat!"

As the three mares began to run about in ever mounting panic, they were observed by a pair of watchful eyes from a nearby rooftop.

Gilda scratched her head, "So that's it?"

Sitting next to her, Rainbow Dash shrugged, "Yeah, I guess those three are a little on the easy side. Maybe we should try something a bit more exciting," she than smiled and pointed to the sky, "Last one to that cloud is a rotten egg."

The griffin's response was little more than to take a readied stance before Dash gave a quick three count and they were off.

As the pair of speedsters rocketed through the base to emerge on the other side, Rainbow struck a dramatic pose and gave a celebratory cry, "Yes! Rainbow Dash wins again, and the crowd goes wild!" she gloated, then proceeded to cup her hooves to the side of her mouth as she imitated the roar of an applauding audience "Woo-hoo … Way to go Dash … We love you Rainbow!"

Gilda gave a dismissive wave, "Cha' right, I was way ahead!"

"No way! I'm the fastest pegasus in all Equestria." insisted Rainbow with a pointed stare as she swished a hoof through the air as though holding an imaginary action figure of herself in flight.

"Too bad for you I ain't no pegasus," came the griffin's reply as she sat herself down atop the cloud, "You might be the fastest flier in this little nowheresville, but compared to me you might as well be in ssllooww mmmoootttiiiooonnn," and further emphasized her point by imitating Dash's gesture, only far more slowly.

The pegasus sat down directly opposite her rival and made fierce eye contact, "You're the one who's the slo'mo and if there was somepony else here to keep you honest I could prove it."

"Hey, I'm the most honest griffin in town"

"Gilda?" Rainbow began in slight questioning tone as she tilted her head, "you're the only griffin in town."

"My point exactly," she said with a wide grin.

The two then reclined on the cloud and laughed off the aftermath of their friendly quarrel.

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"Alright, I get it, no help from the Griffin Empires," Raindrops rubbed her temples, trying to make sure her head wouldn't explode from all the sociopolitical inanities Trixie had been going over for what felt like the past few days, "There's still got to be something to do about this. We can't just let them get away this. If I hadn't been there to help fast dry everything, Carrot Top could have gone bankrupt."

Trixie sighed, "Is it really all that bad? First off, unless she let her Element get the better of her, Carrot Top should still have plenty of reward money left over from our mutual heroics to tide her over the worst of this."

"Well yeah, but she shouldn't have to use that to clean up Rainbow Dash's mess."

"You didn't wait for me to finish," scolded the unicorn, "Second, it seems one of the better things my predecessor did with his time in this office was to have Rainbow Dash officially classified as an untamable force of nature. So as it turns out any and all damages she causes whether intentionally from pranks, or accidental while training qualify for disaster relief funding as per the Equestrian Environmental Defense Act of 174." Trixie was quite proud of her ability to convey a degree of expertise on the subject, even if technically she hadn't known that little detail until Cheerilee had come in to file a claim for the cleanup costs at the schoolhouse. She wasn't sure where the school teacher picked up such freaky encyclopedic knowledge of the Equestrian legal code, but it certainly came in handy some times.

Raindrops though was merely flabbergasted, "What really? How does that even — never mind, I think I've heard enough legal and political technicalities for one day. Still this has got to be a pretty serious level of damage. I mean, it's not just Carrot Top, Rainbow Dash and Gilda have practically been turning the whole town upside down."

"Actually, I've been over the books, and apparently Rainbow Dash caused quite a bit more property damage that time she volunteered to help Buttercry with the annual bunny census." This bit of info Trixie could actually take full credit for. The event had happened before she ever came to ponyville, but she'd run across it in the files while compiling her report to the Bureau of Animal Affairs in regards to all the burrows that got flooded during Winter Wrap-Up.

"Fluttershy."

"Beg pardon." Trixie queried as she was shaken out her prideful reverie.

"Her name," Raindrops stressed, "the pegasus that normally handles all those overly time consuming animal surveys, it's Fluttershy."

"Whatever," intoned the unicorn in a dismissive rasp, "My point is that all of this is nothing, just one more crazy week in the craziness capital of Equestria. Come next week there will be some other catastrophe or zany antics and everypony will forget about all this like it never even happened."

Raindrops was now thoroughly incensed and completely fed up with Trixie's continued unwillingness to take this matter seriously, "You know what, fine! I knew it would be a mistake coming here. If you aren't going to help then I'll just do what I should have done in the first place and handle things personally," with that the pegasus stormed out of Trixie's office, nearly slamming her hooves through the floor boards as she marched. She paused on her way out only long enough to slam the door behind her, so hard it rattled in its hinges.

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Rainbow Dash yawned while reclining on the cloud, then snapped her eyes open as she leapt to her hooves, "Hey, think you can follow this trick?"

The lounging griffin raised her head from her folded arms, "In my sleep," she declared with a somewhat lazy boast, "but how 'bout we try another prank first before I embarrass you again?"

"I dunno know 'G'," replied Rainbow as she scratched the back of her mane, "I think the town might be just about pranked out by now."

"So we go out'a town. I saw this timid little thing at a cottage over by the Everfree," the griffin smiled with conspiratorial anticipation as she rubbed the palms of her talons together, "Bet'cha we could scare her real good."

"Hey yeah we could — wait," Dash's enthusiasm quickly drained as she realized, "you don't mean Fluttershy?"

"How should I know? All ponies look the same to me, each as lame as the next," then catching herself, she hastily added with a clenched grin, "except you Dash. You're special."

"Don't I know it!" beamed the ego stroked pegasus as she struck a confident pose, a single hoof pointed to her own chest, seemingly to have focused solely on the flattery and oblivious to Gilda's carelessly aimed insult.

"Right, so about the prank?"

The pride seemed to drain from Rainbow's face as uncertainty filled the pegasus's eyes "I don't know. Fluttershy's a pretty fragile thing under the best of circumstances. Besides, I thought we were done with easy."

"Nothing wrong with easy, long as it ain't boring,"

"I don't really think it'd be such a good —"

"Aw, come on Dash! I swear that butterball looked like she'd be scared of her own shadow. We could probably get her to literally jump out'a her own skin. Just imagine the —"

"I said no! Fluttershy is off limits, and that's final!"

Silence hung in there air from the outburst's aftermath before finally, "Oh, I get it. You're sweet on her," the griffin batted her eyelashes as she made the closest approximation her beak could to a pucker. She then proceeded to lightly elbow her companion in the ribs while waggling her brows as she added, "Never new ya swung that way Dash."

"Wait, what, no, It's not like that, I …" Dash stammered defensively, anger rising to her cheeks as she shoved Gilda away, "We just go back a long way and, and …" Rainbow struggled to find the words to explain to her coolest friend why she was being so protective of such a decidedly uncool pony.

Gilda's eyes went wide just before a baleful grin spread across her face, "Wow, I was only joking there, but you really are like so totally crushing on her."

"Just drop it," groaned the pegasus as she looked away in a huff.

The griffin took in a purposely deep breath before proceeding to mockingly sing, "Dashie and her girlfriend sitin' in a tree, K-I-S-S-I — OW!" The foalish tease was cut off abruptly by a lightning fast hoof jab in the arm.

"I said DROP IT!"

As Gilda tried to rub the pain out of her now aching bicep she gave Dash an appraising stare. A brief tension hung in the air, but then the griffin relaxed as she sighed, "Fine, it's dropped. But what now?"

Rainbow rubbed her chin in thought, then, "I got it! There's still at least one good prank left in this, and boy does she ever deserve it."

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Raindrops glowered as she trudged down the street, kicking at the occasional pebble along her path. Normally at least one of the genial residents of Ponyville might try to console a pony in such a foul mood, but all seemed to give Raindrops a wide berth, even Pinkie Pie. She wasn't happy that she'd earned something of a reputation that rightly deserved such distancing, but right now she appreciated it.

When she had left the representative's residency she had been ready to rush off, to bring all of her pent up frustrations out on Rainbow Dash and that so-called griffin friend of hers. As her search for the pranksters had dragged on though, she had taken time to think. Were her friends right? Was she really just taking the matter too personally? Sure Trixie might just be dismissing it all because she hadn't been victimized, but even Carrot Top had told Raindrops not to act too rashly.

And Trixie had been somewhat correct; antics like this were regrettably all too common in Ponyville. Raindrops had lived through worse before, and would probably see worse still in the future. So why should she treat this time any different? Besides, it was only one more day. Still …

She came to a halt, looked to the sky, and let out a roar of pure frustration. The citizens around her paused in their daily routines to take note, but quickly enough resumed minding their own business.

Raindrops was about to continue with her brooding march when she heard a shout calling to her. Turning to find the source she saw Trixie rushing down the street towards her, a box levitated alongside the unicorn.

The unicorn slowed to a halt as she approached, then pantingly spoke "Raindrops … there you are … this is awful … simply dreadful … I don't know how she did it … but —" Trixie was cut off by her own need to hack and wheeze as she fought to catch her breath.

"What happened, are you okay? What's with that box?"

"No, I most certainly am not okay! As for the box? Well, just see for yourself."

As Trixie used her magic to open the box and levitate out its contents, Raindrops had to suppress a fit of laughter. There hanging in the air in front of her was The Great & Powerful Trixie's hat and cape, except instead of their usual violet shade, they were now each a tie-dyed rainbow of colors.

"I don't know how she got ahold of them, but when my hat and cape were delivered from the cleaners they were like, like this."

"Well that certainly looks like about as blatant a calling card as I can imagine. Funny though, I didn't even know the cleaners did delivery."

"Nor did I. When I discovered this heinous act, my first suspicion was that Rainbow Dash had simply tricked the cleaners into handing over my garments before delivering them herself, but unless she has ability to change her mane purple, coat orange, and magically shrink to about half her size it certainly wasn't her who came knocking at my door."

"Well that explains everything, this is definitely Dash's hoofwork."

"What, you mean she really can …?" Trixie trailed off as she tried to process the half-interpreted revelation, then rapidly shook her head as if to manually clear her mind and restore focus, "Never mind, not important. What matters now is that I'm finally convinced that something must be done about this situation."

"What ever happened to just waiting it all out? Besides, can't you just magic your cloths back to normal?"

"That was before those hooligans made this personal, and it doesn't matter how easily rectified the situation is. This has become a matter of principle. No one pulls a fast one on The Great & Powerful Trixie and gets away with it. Now then, my dear Raindrops, I need your help. Trixie has a plan."

Chapter 4: "The Vengeful Jerk"

"No!"

Trixie gave a pleading look, "But this plan is perfect."

Raindrops had been sitting in Trixie's office for the past… well she didn't even want to think about how long it had been. The point was that she'd been trying her best to keep a level head, but this insanity had to stop. Now. "I said no," she persisted with stern reproach as she refused to budge on the matter.

The still bare coated azure unicorn crossed her forehooves in front of her chest as she pouted, "Why not?"

"Look, I hate everything they've been doing, but we are not tricking them into hating each other just so Gilda never comes back to Ponyville." Raindrops paused as if trying to check her own churning emotions regarding the issue. "That's just plain… low, and I oughta' knock you one for even suggesting it," she punctuated that statement by raising a single hoof, causing Trixie to shrink back from the implied menace.

Dropping the threatening appendage back to the floor, Raindrops then walked up to the portable blackboard that had been set up in the center of Trixie's office. Its surface had been covered in clipped notations and simplistically scrawled illustrations. "Besides, this so-call plan of yours is way too complicated anyway. There have gotta be at least a dozen ways it could go wrong at step #1," she then swept a hoof about in a pattern that vaguely followed the seemingly random scatter of bullet points as she continued, "Let alone the countless other ways things could go wrong by the time we'd even get to step…" she stopped to stare closely in an attempt decipher the writing, "#23." The exasperated pegasus then shifted her glance to an earlier spot on the tangled diagram before adding, "Plus I'm pretty sure you skipped step #17 completely."

Trixie shooed her friend away in a disgruntled huff, "Nonsense, Trixie's plan is flawless," a fact she seemed to try making clear by pointing to the title scrawled in large thick letters across the top of the board, The Great & Powerful Trixie's Masterfully Perfect Plan to Get Revenge on Those Flying Hooligans!!! It was actually the most legible set of words on the entire board, though the fact that she had chosen to write that part using every variety of multi-colored chalk available was distracting in its own right.

Raindrops didn't look the least bit impressed. In fact, it only reminded her, "And another thing. Would you stop it with all the 'Trixie' stuff? You're not putting on a show, so please talk like a normal pony."

The unicorn fumed silently, attempting to stare down her pegasus compatriot, but she might as well have been trying to chisel granite with her bare eyes. "Fine…" she relented with a groan. Scarcely a moment passed though before her eyes came alight, "I have a better plan anyway," she beamed with a conspiratorial grin.

Raindrops raised a hoof, but the only thing it struck was her own face as she let out a moan of aggravation.

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The sound of frolicking and laughter filled the air as fillies and colts ran about the schoolyard of Ponyville Elementary.

Scootaloo buzzed towards the building on her scooter, vibrant fuchsia tail whipping in the wind and a grin of exhilaration plastered across her bright orange face. An errant root stood in her path, and when the leading wheel of the scooter struck both it and rider were sent tumbling through the air.

Stunned silence claimed the scene, as every young eye darted to the impending disaster, but with a quick flared twitch of her tiny wings Scootaloo righted. The scooter came down with a crash, but safe and intact as the pegasus filly brought the vehicle into a sideways skidding halt.

As she dismounted and began removing her helmet and pads, a squat greyish-green unicorn colt came over to her. "Woah, smooth moves as always," cheered Snips.

"That? Nah, that was nothing," the filly grinned, "Just wait 'til you see what I've got planned for after class."

A rising shout could be heard approaching the pair from just past the schoolyard, "… hey!… hey!" A lanky amber coated unicorn colt came running up to them, panting as he slowed to a stop, "Hey Snips… you're never going to… oh, hey Scootaloo," he added slowly as though only just noticing the filly, "Anyway, I've got the most amazing news ever!"

"Well go on," Snips pressed his friend.

"Yeah! Don't leave us hanging," added Scootaloo.

Snails beamed with pride as he declared, "My sister is putting on a show in the park this afternoon!"

A moment passed in silence as Scootaloo and Snips shared an awkwardly questioning between each other. Finally the young unicorn turned back to his friend with a flat, "Huh?"

"Yeah, I don't get it," Scootaloo elaborated, "I mean, if it was Rainbow Dash that would be pretty amazing, but isn't your sister… I don't know… kinda ordinary?"

Snails stared blankly as though trying to figure out why his friends weren't more excited, then, "Oh wait, I forgot the best part. She's putting the show on with the help of none other than The Great & Powerful TRIXIE!"

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Purple curtains had been hung in front of a gazebo in Ponyville Park, forming an impromptu stage. Backstage, Trixie was checking through boxes of equipment.

The azure unicorn was now once again garbed in her typical attire. She'd had to leave them soaking in a special solution all night, but the rainbow colors were almost completely gone. It would still take another few days of spot treatments to return her hat and cape completely back to normal though. She might have been able to get it all in one shot, but hadn't wanted to risk bleaching the apparel completely white. As it was, the underlying purple was a little faded. Still though, the little bits of rainbow stains that remained would be fitting enough for the particulars of this performance.

A voice called out to her from the other side of a changing screen, "And this is really to going work?" asked Raindrops.

"It's like I told you before," Trixie declared, as she proceeded in repeating their goal, "When you got Gilda to back down while defending Carrot Top's farm, you ensured that her griffin's honor would prevent her from ever bothering either of you again. So, as official liaison to the Night Court, all I have to do is goad Gilda into a competition in the name of the whole town. Then, after I show her up, she'll have no choice but treat everypony in Ponyville with appropriate respect and deference."

"And the show?"

An aura wrapped around a few ropes as Trixie secured a rigging, before answering, "Window dressing." Then after she tested to make sure everything was secure, she continued, "We must set an appropriate pretense to lure her into a sense of secured superiority before we spring the trap." The unicorn took a moment to glance over several small fireworks, then concluded, "Besides, this will be so much easier than wasting half the afternoon searching the whole town to find them."

"Right, and the—"

"Tut-tut, that's enough questions." Trixie chided. She then walked over to peek through the curtain, "Now if you'll excuse me I have audience to wow. Just keep your position and wait for the cue."

"Fine, but do I really have to wear this?" the pegasus asked as she stepped out from behind the screen.

Trixie turned to face her friend, and immediately stuffed a hoof in her mouth to suppress a sudden fit of giggles. She quickly let out a cough to cover the slip. "Oh yes," she said with an unrestrainable smile, "It's absolutely essential."

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Gilda reclined on a large cloud, tossing a bit of compacted cloud from one talon to the other. "Well this is boring. There's gotta be one last exciting thing we can do. " She sat up and held the ball of cloud high, "How 'bout another cloudball fight?"

Rainbow Dash yawned as she lay on her belly, "If it's all the same with you, I think we should just chill the rest of day."

The griffin frowned as she tossed the ball over her shoulder, "Your call, I guess."

Just then, she caught a flash out of the corner of her eyes. Gilda turned and saw a ring of multicolored light exploding in the air somewhere over the town's park. From the center of the spectacle streamed forth a rainbow trail. It twisted slackly in an idle spiral, making a wide looping arch over the park.

Staring wide eyed, Gilda rubbed the backs of her talons against her eyes and blinked. She slowly turned her head to the pegasus that had just walked up beside her, "Uh, Dash? Is that…?"

The self-proclaimed greatest flier in all of Equestria frowned as she also stared, though less in stunned surprise and more in barely restrained outrage, "No, it isn't, but somepony's got some explaining to do."

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"And that, fillies and colts, is the story of how Pauli Chromia became the first and only pegasus to ever perform the legendary Sonic Rainboom."

The eyes of every nearly young pony in town, plus a few adults that had accompanied them, stood transfixed at the sky as the illusory spectacle faded. Then came a stomp, then two, five, twelve, until the entire audience became a united cacophony of thunderous applause.

Trixie glistened in the adoration, taking a bow first to her left and then to her right. "Yes thank you, thank you. You are all too kind, but let's not forget to give a cheer to my aptly capable assistant."

Just as the noise had started to die down, it picked up again as Raindrops descended to the stage. Her jasmine coat was blushing a faint red; partly because she wasn't used to being the center of so much attention, but mostly because she was receiving it while dressed in a leotard that looked to be practically made of silvery sequins, with pastel ribbons of every imaginable hue woven into her tail, and yet more still hanging from a headband.

Though her eyes shifted nervously, she forced a wide grin for the children's benefit. It became far more genuine though as she heard one distinct cry above the rest, "Woo-hoo, I've got the greatest sis ever!" As she looked out across the audience, she saw several colts and a few fillies exchange high hooves with her younger brother. Okay, so maybe all the embarrassment was worth it.

"ALL RIGHT!" came a sudden shout that brought all of the applause to a swift close. All eyes turned skyward where a griffin and a rather irate polychromatic pegasus hovered. "So what was meaning of that poorly faked stunt?"

"Well, well, well, it seems we have some neighsayers in the audience," retorted Trixie. "What's the matter, little Dashie? Is your ego really so superficial that it can't take a little competition from a simple foals-tale?"

"No, but if you needed a pegasus to pull stunts in your lame show, you shoulda asked me. Least then nopony would have had to put up with your shoddy looking illusions"

"As if you could do any better. The Great & Powerful Trixe trained at the hoof of the Princess herself. My illusions are second to none, and certainly beyond your meager limitations; that is, unless you're hiding a horn under that garish tangle you call a mane."

"I don't need any fancy magic, but if you think you're such hot stuff, fine! We'll see how great & powerful you are after I show everypony a real sonic rainboom."

Rainbow Dash shot up high into the air, or at least she would have if a talon hadn't grabbed her by the tail.

"Don't fall for it Dash, it's a shill, a con. We show off our best moves then this shyster turns it all around to make us look like fools. Seen it done a thousand times before by as many talentless hacks."

Trixie tittered a laugh, "Please, The Great & Powerful Trixie need not resort to such charlatan like shenanigans just to upstage the likes of you two. I assure you, Trixie's powers of prestidigitation are more than sufficient to any and all challenges you could possibly pose."

"Sorry, we ain't playin' your games. Let's go, Dash."

As the pair started to turn away they were stopped by a final taunt, "My mistake. I thought griffins were half eagle, but you appear to be all chicken."

"Oh yeah, fine!" Gilda stroked a talon across the bottom of her beak, then gave a sly grin. "Let's keep it plain and simple then. Fly."

The stagemare tilted her head a bit as she raised an eyebrow, "Like some kind of race or acrobatics contest?" she asked with a bit of hesitant confusion.

Gilda dropped down to eyelevel in a low hover so as to stare the unicorn directly in the face, "No, just fly."

"Really, that's it?" Trixie chuckled as she pushed the griffin away with a single hoof. "With all her command of the mystic arts your challenge against The Great & Powerful Trixie is something so mundane as mere flight?"

The griffin leapt high in the air, "Ha!" She pointed an accusatory talon towards the magician bellow her, "See, just like I said, this two bit fraud is all flash in the pan, but she ain't got a practical bone in that plush blue pillow of a body. Long as we keep things nice and simple there's no way she can show us up."

"Hardly," the unicorn drawled, "Trixie accepts your challenge, no matter how boring and beneath her great & powerful abilities it is."

The unicorn's horn glowed with an ever escalating intensity, becoming steadily as blinding as though it were a small sun. She made a big show of concentrating as hard as she could, never letting on that the whole act was just glamour, something to make it look as though she were working a difficult spell so she could distract the audience from her real actions. Finally the light reached a peak of intensity, coalesced into a single pinpoint, and then exploded outwards, blinding all watching eyes.

The stage stood empty, Trixie nowhere to be seen.

Gilda hovered upright and arms crossed, clearly not impressed, "So what? Let me guess. You're flying now, but the spell makes you invisible, or did you just run away in shame?"

It was then that trilling laughter echoed as a voice called out, "You may have taken Trixie for the fool, but rest assured," all eyes were drawn high up in the sky, where ,atop a thin sheet of red that was trimmed with intricately woven golden designs, stood Trixie, "for as promised the magical prowess of The Great & Powerful Trixie was more than up to your mediocre challenge!"

She glided about lazily in the air atop her magic carpet. To complete the effect, she had even cast a glamor upon her hat, temporarily giving it the form of a turban, though still with its usual colors and patterning.

"That doesn't count," Gilda protested. "The carpet is flying, not you."

"Anypony, or griffin, can fly with boring old wings, but only The Great & Powerful Trixie can travel in such fashionable style. Now then, perhaps you can come up with a worthy challenge for Trixie to best you at."

"Oh I got a challenge for you," Gilda roughly took hold of one edge of the carpet, "Land!" and with that she yanked it from under Trixie.

The unicorn stared, wide eyed, seeming to hang suspended in midair for just a second, before gravity asserted itself. She plummeted toward the ground, panic racing through every fiber of her being.

Raindrops —who had up until now been largely struggling to remove her costume— watched, a mixture of fear and anger twisting her face. Trixie was too far away. A speedster like Rainbow Dash could surely catch her, but instead the polychromatic pegasus only hovered dumbly as though failing to comprehend what had just happened. Raindrops, though, would never make it —worst of all she knew it— but she had to try. She took off, rocketing towards her falling friend, her charge shedding what costume she had yet to remove. Adrenaline surged through her system as her wings beat with more raw speed than she had ever thought herself to possess.

It still wasn't enough.

Impending doom rapidly filled Trixie's terrified vision, yet through the panic she somehow found a glimmer of wit, just enough to save herself. Maybe? Acting more on instinct than thought, she cast a rudimentary bubble shield spell at the ground, then with one final tweak added an elasticity charm, before her plummet final reached its inevitable conclusion.

The transparent dome caved in like a balloon, holding just long enough to break her fall, before popping and dumping her roughly, but more or less intact onto the ground. Trixie wiped a hoof across her forehead as she breathed a sigh of relief, counting her blessings. The fall had been just long enough to give her time to react, but she knew had it been much further that the improvised airbag likely would have never held.

Raindrops let out a short sigh, as she saw her friend safe, but rather than land to confirm that, she turned her gaze and ire to the griffin that had caused nothing but mayhem. The enraged pegasus made a tight turn, converting all of her forward momentum into a sharp angled ascent. Had she not been so consumed by a single minded fervor, she would have been impressed with her unusually nimble aerobatic maneuver.

As she reached her target, Raindrops flared her wings coming to an almost instantaneous hovering stop next to the griffin, who was just now crumpling Trixie's carpet into a ball as she laughed like the whole scenario was one giant joke.

"GILDA!!!"

Whether Gilda failed to notice the pegasus's obvious rage or was simply trying to be calm in the face of danger was hard to say a she impassively replied, "Oh, hey their Dropsy," before she tossed the balled carpet over her shoulder.

"Just, just shut up before I dropsy you!" raged Raindrops as she loomed towards the griffin, letting loose a short angry snort.

Gilda backed up a bit nervously, eyes shifting left and right, "Woah there. What's the problem?"

Raindrops would have sworn that a blood vessel burst, filling her eyes with red, that is if she were coherent enough to be paying attention to such trivial details. "Problem? Problem! You just about killed one of my friends."

"Kill?! No way! From this height she'd have broken a leg, maybe two. 'Sides, I didn't know that loser was one of yours too." The griffin shrugged, "My bad. Didn't mean to cause you any more trouble."

The pegasus gnashed her teeth as she struggled with the violent urges that were fast consuming her entire being. "Trouble? You've been nothing but trouble since the day you got here, and it's about time somepony put you in your place."

"Woah! Just settle down. Look, we've already been through this. I don't want no trouble with you, so I'll just be on my—"

The griffin was cut off as Raindrops plowed into her midsection. The only thought left in the pegasus's mind being a resounding, NO! Gilda didn't just get to fly away from all this like nothing had ever happened. Things had gone too far for that.

Gilda grit her teeth as she glared down at the pony, "Oh, you wanna do this the hard way!" She grabbed the pegasus round the midsection, "Fine, we'll do this the hard way!" and with a great heave, tossed Raindrops tumbling upwards.

Raindrops spun through the air for several dozen feet before righting herself. Dizzily she glanced down to where she last saw the griffin, but Gilda was gone. Then she heard a raptor's cry from above, glancing up she was blinded by the glare of sun that the griffin had put to her back, leaving the pegasus completely off guard as the she was tackled.

The two rolled about in the air, momentum carrying them away from the park, before they finally tumbled to ground in a heap on the streets below.

Separating, the two combatants circled each other. Gilda stood tall, let out brief roar and then leapt forward in a pounce. At the last moment though, Raindrops ducked and as the griffin soared overtop the pegasus reared, tossing her opponent into a passing fruit cart.

Rainbow Dash landed nearby as Gilda hauled herself out of the splintered pile. A banana peel sat atop the griffin's head with one side hanging over her face like a bright yellow eye-patch.

"Cut it out 'G', you promised you—"

"Back off, Dash!" the griffin growled. "This bit-muncher's got it comin'!"

As Gilda leapt back into the fray, Raindrops charged, only for Gilda to sidestep, grabbing the pegasus by the tail before spinning about and tossing her through the large office window of the representative's residency.

Letting out a fierce roar Gilda gave a single powerful flap of her wings and charged forward into the building. There was resounding crack and the griffin came flying back out the window twice as fast, colliding with a street lamp that buckled under the impact.

Raindrops charged out after her, but was cut short in the middle of the street as Rainbow Dash dropped down in front of her.

"That's enough! Just, stop this now, or… or I'll fire you!"

"Shove it, Dash!" the enraged pegasus bellowed, "I got a score to settle here, so I quit!" and with that she pressed her way past her ex-boss to resume her charge at the recovering griffin.

This time Gilda stood her ground catching the pegasus's outstretched hooves in her talons. The two stood upright, forelimbs locked like a pair of Hippopotamian wrestlers. The two brought their foreheads together, glaring directly into each other's eyes.

Rainbow Dash came beside them both, "Come on! This is way out of hoof! Now just listen to me and—"

"Just stay out of this, Dash!!" came the dual voiced reply. The grappling pair had broken eye contact to look at the intervening pegasus, but now returned to each other's gaze before, "She started it!!"

Finally, the stalemate was broken as Raindrops pulled back ever so slightly before slamming forward again, staggering the griffin with a massive head-butt before tackling Gilda sending both brawlers tumbling down the street in a flurry of motion and dust.

Hooves bucked, talons tore, teeth bit, a beak pecked. Boards splintered, stone cracked, metal was bent, and glass shattered.

As the dust settled, the two combatants stood, heaving ragged breaths. Their bodies battered and bruised, with bits of turquoise mane as well as brown, white, and a few jasmine feathers littering the ground all about the field of battle. Tension mounted as each looked ready to engage again, then finally it all broke, not as one or the other charged anew, but as Gilda began laughing.

"Wow, that was intense. I ain't never heard of a pony that could fight so rough'n'tumble. You're okay in my book, Dropsy."

Raindrops stance slackened as she cocked her head trying to figure out the griffin's game.

"Anyway, it's gettin' late. Think I'll just head over to Dash's and clean up before hittin' the skies. This vacay's been a blast though. Think I'll have to hang with you some more next time I 'dropsy' through these parts. Ciao."

As the griffin flapped away into the distance, Raindrops let her hindquarters fall to the ground and simply sat, starring in puzzled bewilderment, "What just happened?" she said to know no one in particular.

Trixie walked up beside her, "I'm not quite sure, but I think you just made a new friend,"

The battle worn pegasas moved barely a muscle, seeming unable to do any more than mouth the word friend.

While Raindrops struggled to process the unexpected revelation, Trixie gazed about, surveying the damage to the surrounding townscape. She let out an extra-large sigh at the sight of her broken window. "If you'd excuse me, I think I'll go see about finding that paperwork my predecessor came up with and see if I can't get you added to the disaster list next to Rainbow Dash. I really don't feel like paying for another window out of my own purse."

Raindrops barely heard any of that, and certainly didn't notice as Trixie didn't even bother opening her front door, instead taking advantage of the broken window as a shortcut. Once again the pegasus mouthed, friend. She also failed to notice as she was joined by a second pony.

"So, um…" Rainbow dash struggled to figure out what to say, "guess it's back to the ol' grind tomorrow."

A blink, then two. Somewhere in the back of her mind Raindrops recalled something about firing and/or quitting, but the whole ordeal was fast becoming little more than a blur. Finally, Raindrops seemed to find some semblance of voice, "Uh, yeah. I guess so," she said in a hushed tone as the weariness of everything that had just happened started to settle in. She had to ask though, "Rainbow? I… about Gilda… did she…?"

"What, 'G'? Don't sweat that. I know she can be a little rough around the edges, but she's a good gal pal to have at your back." Dash chuckled a bit awkwardly, "I guess you'll get to find that out first hoof though. Well, I better go see her off. See you tomorrow."

Rainbow Dash took to the air, but then paused and glanced back at Raindrops, "Actually, maybe you should to take the day off. You've probably earned it," and with that she departed.

Raindrops sighed, finally taking stock. Some ponies had already started cleaning up, but most just stared in silence. The pegasus gave herself a mental hoof across the face; She was usually better than this. It had been years since she'd let her temper flare like out of control and just like before it was the ponies around her that suffered unduly for it. She turned to limp home, having neither the strength nor the will to fly.

The loosely assembled crowd parted to let her pass and nopony made to accost her over the incident. That would change. Dash may have given her the next day off, but Raindrops already knew what she'd be doing with that time instead, and it would be more work than her usual weather duties. She'd have her hooves full helping rebuild where she could and paying with her own bits where she couldn't, but right now…? Right now she just wanted to get some sleep.

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My little pony

Lunaverse By
RainbowDoubleDash

Contributions By
Alecza1234 of deviantART (art elements)
BananaMonsterrr of deviantART (art elementst)
Blackbelt (inspiration)
Fizzy Orange (inspiration and minor proofing)
LDLUYAB (major proofing)
Mally (major proofing)

My little pony

Special Thanks To Everyone Who Tracked This Story
ADemonicPresence; AlgaeNymph; arcum42; Badwolfwho; banjo2E; Blackbelt; bright_mind; ChaosStar; Chocolate; choriamb; Cloudburst; Curious; Dark Seraph; Dart Gryphon; Dashole; Demose; Dess; djthomp; DPV111; drakesdrum; dramatic_spoon; Dynamic Dragon; EternallyLost; Fizzy Orange; Fzzr; G S tol Kriaal; G-man64; GrassAndClouds2; GrimWolf; HashMark111; Hilltopper; HiveLordLusa; HopeFox; JJ Malcolm; Kitsuja; knightwolf; Kurama_21; LDLUYAB; Logic Curve; Mally; MikeyJC; Mister Tulip; Moelogroc; moguera; moocow1452; Moonstone; nemryn; Nygumi; Pieloverz1; Radoxeald; RainbowDoubleDash; RK_Striker_JK_5; Sereg; Shade; shardfff; shutaro; Siana; Syn the Mystic; tanglemane; Terrag; terrycloth; TheGigaByte; TheLordofHam; ThePhantom; TwilightMoon; Wyld Cat; yobbin2000

Extra Special Thanks To All My Watchers
MC Hesher; yobbin2000; Sereg; LDLUYAB; GrassAndClouds2; Blackbelt; Kapodanavaprime; DPV111; Mally; monsterlord18

And Most Importantly, Thank You To Everyone Who Posted Feedback And Comments.
You're the ones who truly made writing this worth all the effort.

My little pony
Friends

My Little Pony Friendship: Friendship is Magic and all characters originating from the show, toy-line, and related products are property of Hasbro Inc.

This story has been a non-profit fanwork.

Final thanks go out to all the wonderful cast and crew at DHX Media that work so hard to bring us this show, and of course to Lauren Faust. None of us would be here without you.

Chapter 5: "The Hidden Jerk" (epilogue)

Rainbow Dash walked into the weather patrol station, nodding polite greetings to her fellow Pegasi. Hanging with Gilda for the past four days had been a blast, well except for that last part, but Rainbow didn't like to be the type of pony that dwelled on the past. Nope, she preferred to live for the moment.

Too bad that right now the moment likely included catching up on four days of paperwork. Dash hated paperwork, but like it or not, she had a whole town depending on her, and she could hardly consider herself the most amazing pegasus in all Equestria if she didn't at least try to live up to that responsibility.

As she flew up to the terrace outside her office, a rather frazzled Cloudkicker, who looked like she hadn't combed her mane since the last time Dash saw her, hovered down to greet her. "Rainbow Dash, am I ever glad to see you. You would not believe what the past four days have been like. First the delivery from Fillydelphia was late; then-there-was-that-heat-wave-coming-off-of-the-Everfree; thenThunderlanehadtoleadateamdowntoHoofingtontohelpthemdealwith —"

Dash stuck a single hoof into the babbling mare's mouth to cut off her gibberish attempt to convey every crisis of the past four days in a single breath. It wouldn't do to have Cloudkicker passing out from lack of air, and Rainbow was in no mood to have to resuscitate her assistant manager, mouth-to-mouth, again. "Okay, I get it! I'll read the reports and get back to you in the hour." Dash then pulled her hoof back and tried to offer up a reassuring smile, "Uh, good job holding down the fort. With you around, Kickster, I ... um ... I always know what to expect around here."

If Cloudkicker noticed any lack of sincerity or backhoofedness from her captain's praise, it didn't show. She beamed with pride, as all the tension seemed to melt out of her; even her mane seemed to relax into its more natural style. Then there was a shout of commotion from one of the overhead station perches. Cloudkicker gave a single glance to Dash for leave and then she was off to deal with the situation.

Rainbow shook her head with a sigh, That girl has real talent, if only she learned to manage her stress better. Then again, not every pony can be as chill as me. Dash shrugged and turned to open her office door.

As she stepped though, she heard a peculiar whirring sound. Rainbow looked to her left and saw a small tray attached to a vertical conveyor ratchet its way up the wall. At the top of its ascent the tray tipped over allowing the cup affixed to it to dispense a ball into a half pipe.

Dash watched in curious confusion as the ball wound its way along the track, striking a stick which lowered a small bag to the shelf bellow. As it landed the loose sting tying the bag shut came open revealing a small pile of sunflower seeds which caused a nearby hamster in a caged wheel to begin franticly running. The wheel was attached to a crank that swiveled a small cannon into place. Finally, with a click, a dart was launched and struck an unseen target above the doorframe. Dash looked up just in time to get a face full of water as a bucket came crashing down over her head.

The pegasus stood there for a moment in her unintended new head gear, trying to process just what had happened. Finally her brain caught up to it all, she turned her head and leaned back out the doorway, bucket helmet still covering her eyes, "Alright! Whoever's bright idea this was had better be in my office in fifteen or else it's double shifts for EVERYPONY!" then she retreated back into the office, slamming the door shut behind her with one swift kick from a back hoof.

Dash trudged over to the corner of the office where she kept towels for after rain duty, tracking water along the way. Tossing the bucket off to another corner, she took a towel and began to dry herself. Because it was already a tie-dyed swirl of colors though, she didn't notice as the not-quite-water took with it all the hues of her mane, leaving the hair atop her head and down her neck white as a fluffy cloud.

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The outer offices of the weather station was abuzz with whispers, as pegasi chatted amongst themselves, each trying to figure out what exactly had just happened. Without warning a stallion stumbled, knocking over a stack of forms on a desk corner. "Hey! Watch where you..." he turned to yell at the fool who had bumped into him, then trailed off as he saw only empty air, not a single soul nearby. He reached up to scratch his head.

The Great & Powerful Trixie smirked, not that anypony could see it, or the face that it was attached to, or any of the rest of her. She'd been a bit careless in her retreat as she'd been unable to take her eyes off the weather captain's door, visions of the no longer polychromatic mare discovering her true humiliation dancing through Trixies imagination. She hadn't meant to make that poor stallion look the clumsy fool, but ... well, every war had its peripheral casualties, and most importantly nopony seemed to suspect it might have been the result of a lurking invisible intruder.

As she continued her way out of the patrol station, now vigilant to avoid bumping into any more ponies, Trixie briefly considered whether Rainbow Dash could actually double everypony's shifts, though just as quickly she shrugged away that concern. At least Raindrops had the day off and so shouldn't have to suffer any unintended ramifications. Besides, with the Everfree right next door, Ponyville could always use the extra labor.

As the unseen unicorn turned a corner to take the rarely used stairs, Cloudkicker fluttered down to Rainbow Dash's office and knocked on the door.

On the streets outside the weather patrol station, Trixie started looking for a good spot to decloak without being noticed, then she heard it, that sweetest of sounds: a moaning wail of shocked despair that surely must have echoed halfway to Canterlot.