Dressing in Style

Chapters

Machines
Hospitals
Expectations
Butterflies
Challenges
Books
Reminders

Machines

Daring Do stepped out onto the swaying dock, feeling it sway crookedly beneath her hooves. She waved her thanks to the captain of the little boat, then turned and trotted down towards the small collection of flickering lights, hoping that the sea village would have a free room somewhere. It wasn’t that she got seasick, but it was rather easy to feel tired when a pony had nothing to do but study a hoofful of old papers for hours at a time.

She remembered wryly how her friend, Professor Tabula Rasa, had stressed just how important this expedition was. The treasure was supposed to have some mysterious power, and the last thing anypony needed was for Ahuizotl to get his hands on it. When she had asked why this needed more importance attached to it than other missions, the good professor had swelled up and stated some of the most striking words she had ever heard: “Are you even pretending to listen to me, Rainbow Dash?!”

The blue pegasus blinked. That didn’t seem right, somehow. “Huh?”

There was a short sigh, and the pegasus’ attention was drawn upwards to the exasperated purple unicorn standing before her. “Rainbow, everything’s all ready with the machine. It’s been all ready for the past five minutes.”

“Yeah, yeah, that’s great,” Rainbow Dash said, waving an idle hoof. “Give me a moment, will ya? It’s just getting into the action here. Well, more like the setup I guess, but it’s an action setup.”

“Rainbow, please! Rarity’s going to be here any moment now, and she’ll be very disappointed if she can’t get a Downspiral Diamond quickly enough for her to complete her headpiece in time!”

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. “Uh, hello? Fastest pegasus in Ponyville here? I can get hooked up to that thing before you know it. Chill out, Twilight.”

Twilight Sparkle glanced over her shoulder at the rickety-looking machine looming behind her. The strange contraption’s gnarled bent-over shape made it resemble an aging tree, yet it was tall enough and broad enough to blot out most of the view of the library’s interior. “Do you know where you’re supposed to go?”

“Where I’m supposed to go?” Rainbow repeated. Her eyes darted over its various components; aside from the rollercoaster-like track darting through the large holes in its structure, she had to admit that none of it looked even the faintest bit familiar to her. She yawned and tapped her chin almost thoughtfully, deciding that it was too weird to make any sense. “Nope, can’t say that I do.”

Twilight’s horn flared up with violet magic. “Well then, I guess I’d better show you.”

“What? Oh, come on!” Rainbow squirmed as a similarly-colored glow lifted her up into the air, depositing her onto the track’s highest point before dissipating. “I could’ve totally flown up here by myself!”

“Well, I’m sure you could have if you weren’t so into your book,” the unicorn replied wryly. With a bit more concentration, she readjusted her friend’s hooves so that she could strap them securely onto the miniature wheeled platform attached to the track.

“Hey, that wasn’t just any book! That was Daring Do and the Cove of Candles! Seriously Twilight, I’m already on book eight!” Settling down onto her stomach, Rainbow looked down wistfully at the desired book, which was still tantalizingly opened to the page she had left it at. “I’m only a couple pages into it, and it’s still way more interesting than this gigantic doohickey.”

“It’s not a doohickey—” Twilight began, only to be interrupted by a sudden knock at the door. “Huh? Oh, yes, come in!” she called, trotting about hastily as she made another last-minute check-over on the random assortment of levers and blinking lights. “That’s probably Rarity.”

Rainbow cast her eyes up towards the top of the machine, which unhelpfully blocked her view of the ceiling with its intermittent puffs of steam. “Gee, really?”

Seconds later, a white unicorn stepped inside, her elegant violet mane and smooth velvet saddlebags bouncing slightly with each hooffall into the library. She soon skidded to a halt, however, and her eyes widened at the sight of the mechanical monstrosity. Rainbow couldn’t help but snicker at her astounded expression.

“My goodness,” the newcomer said once she had found her voice. She poked at its unmoving side with a tentative hoof, while looking up at it warily as if fearing it might suddenly collapse. “This is … did you really build this in two hours, Twilight?”

“I sure did!” Twilight exclaimed, beaming proudly. “It would have been an hour and a half, but then somedragon thought it would be a good idea to go on an ice cream splurge. Again.”

A pained groan floated from the direction of the kitchen.

“Oh dear,” Rarity said, stifling a sympathetic giggle. “I do hope poor Spike is all right. He’s done a marvelous job with the metalwork over here.”

“Hey, I helped too!” Rainbow remarked, trying to dart down and grab some recognition for herself. She failed to do so, however, since the machine hadn’t been set in motion yet. “I put all these holes in it, and that’s definitely the most important part!”

“Yes, I can see that,” Rarity agreed, and Rainbow scowled at the hint of amusement in her voice. “Oh, this is just marvelous, Twilight! Positively stunning! But you really didn’t have to go to such lengths to set this up for me. When I said I needed a Downspiral Diamond, I was thinking more along the lines of heading down to Tartarus and finding one on my own. I didn’t mean to trouble anypony to go to the lengths of creating … this.”

“I know, but I took the liberty of doing some research of my own on them,” Twilight replied, levitating a pair of goggles and stretching them over a somewhat irritated Rainbow’s eyes. “It turns out they can’t survive long in the sunlight without being properly cut and processed, and they can’t be cut or processed without being cured in distilled ectoplasm first, and since ectoplasm would draw all the monsters toward you, it would be way too dangerous in general.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow added with a smirk, “and you wouldn’t last very long down there anyway! I mean, how long do you think you could trek through all that mud and ash or whatever without fainting?”

“What Rainbow means to say,” Twilight cut in with an exasperated glare, “is that we understand how important it is that you get the Diamond as soon as possible. Besides, what are friends for? You’ve gone out of your way for us more times than even I can remember, so it’s the least we can do to return the favor, right?”

“I …” Rarity seemed to be at a loss for words. Putting a hoof to her chest somewhat dramatically, she smiled at Twilight. “I … Well, thank you. Both of you.” She turned her gaze up towards Rainbow, who was astonished to see a hint of wetness in her eyes. Then the moment was gone as she seemed to recollect herself, and she called out towards the kitchen, “Thanks to all three of you!”

“Mmmuh … no problem, Rarity,” Spike called weakly back.

“Well, I suppose that since you insist on doing this, I might as well avoid Tartarus,” Rarity went on with a light laugh. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“I don’t think so.” Twilight was staring up at her creation with a rather unnecessary level of fondness. “All we need to do is flip the master switch. Rainbow Dash will provide the necessary energy, and then I can take it from there.”

“You’re welcome,” Rainbow said to nobody in particular.

“Very well.”

There was a long moment of silence. A fly buzzed somewhere unseen, and Twilight awkwardly began to telekinetically draw the curtains, cutting off the dusty rays of sunlight one by one.

“… Twilight,” Rarity finally said hesitantly, “is this, er, project … is it safe?”

“Most likely,” was Twilight’s response. “From my research it doesn’t look as though this has actually been done before, but I’ve done the calculations and there’s only a four-point-three percent chance of spontaneous combustion—”

“Wait, this hasn’t been done before? Ever?” Rainbow’s eyes darted from one section of the suddenly terrifying machine to the next, not quite able to hide her sudden surge of panic.

“Technically this has never been before successfully,” Twilight corrected herself. Once the room was perfectly dark, she turned to the control panel nestled comfortably at the machine’s base. “But there’s really no need to worry about it, Rainbow. I’ve done extensive study into past attempts, and it seems that their main flaw was their insistence on adding three drops of nitroglycerin to the reaction chamber mix instead of two. If we can avoid tearing too many gaping holes through other dimensions, this should work perfectly.”

Rainbow bit her lip. “Tearing holes …?”

“Twilight, dear, this might not be such a good—”

“Oh, it’ll be perfectly fine. Would I really put any of my good friends through something dangerous?”

Rarity and Rainbow exchanged a look at that.

“Okay, let’s do this.” Twilight pressed a few buttons excitedly. A low whine emanated from the depths of the contraption, and she hastily pulled on a pair of nearby goggles for herself. A few lights began to flash from random sections, eliciting a satisfied nod from the purple unicorn. “Get ready to fly, Rainbow Dash! Oh, and Rarity, you might want to find some cover.”

“Why would I—”

Twilight flipped the master switch.

The whining noise abruptly turned very shrill, echoing off of the library walls and causing everypony to cringe. The wheeled platform began to move, rolling down the steep track with quickly increasing speed, and with gritted teeth Rainbow Dash unfolded her wings and began to flap them as if she were actually flying rather than strapped tightly down.

As she took a nosedive through a wide hole and into the depths of the machine, she was surrounded by total darkness — she felt herself abruptly pull out of the drop, swinging around into a tight loop with a gradual upward incline. She pulled more deeply with each wing-beat, fighting the tug of gravity as she spiraled up and up and up, and each loop grew wider and wider until she suddenly shot out through another hole, emerging near the top of the machine. For a couple of seconds she took in the blurred sight of Rarity and Twilight watching intently from a makeshift shelter behind a bookcase, with Twilight’s goggles reflecting the machine’s glow; then she plummeted into the blackness again, and they were gone.

Heh, that wasn’t so dangerous, she thought, narrowing her eyes in pride. Fifteen seconds for one lap? I can do better than that. Let’s see how fast this thing can go …

Spinning in another tight spiral, the blue pegasus lowered her head down to the platform, letting the track lead her up and around again. The rustling of her wings echoed off the machine’s interior, and she could feel a cool breeze being left in her wake. The machine’s whining, she realized, couldn’t be heard in there at all. Weird.

Flying out from the top again, she found herself grinning at the dizzying rush. “Faster?” she called out.

“Faster!” Twilight agreed gleefully, and then she was lost to Rainbow again.

On the third lap she noticed a bit of light within the machine for the first time: a bluish spark dancing in place in midair, right at the center of the spiraling track. Normally it would have been unimpressively dim, but in that darkness it cast strange shadows that shifted and swayed as Rainbow darted around again. Its glow grew a bit stronger on the fourth lap though, and on the fifth lap it was nearly as bright as the library’s lighting, forming a pale streak that danced before her eyes every time she looped around it.

“Ectoplasm!” Twilight announced as Rainbow began the sixth loop.

“Wait, what—?”

What she saw upon plunging in again nearly made her wings lock up in surprise: a vent had opened up beneath the spark, and a thick jet of greenish steam was beginning to shoot out of it. Her mouth hung open for a few seconds, catching the air and making her cheeks billow out; but then she quickly snapped it shut, hoping that it wasn’t going to plug up her airway or something.

“Rainbow!” Twilight said when she next emerged.

The pegasus gasped for air. “What?”

But Twilight’s words were swallowed up the hissing steam as Rainbow dove into its depths again. The spark was now a long brilliant sliver of light, and it seemed to be greedily soaking up the distilled ectoplasm. It looked rather distorted through her goggles, but the sight wasn’t quite so important right now.

When she shot out again and used the opportunity to catch her breath, she heard Twilight shout her name again. “What?” was her irritable response, but again she missed the reply.

Oh, I’m so gonna lay it on somepony for this.

By now the light was practically blinding, and she had to squint in order to see the rainbow trail that was now being left in her wake. She allowed herself a little smirk, but it quickly melted into a look of shock as a contingent of knives supported by mechanical arms burst into view, weaving in and out to cut easily into the shiny thing emerging from within the light. She yelped as one was pulled out of her way just in front of her, missing her muzzle by inches.

The outside flashed by again in a blur, and she used the opportunity to roar, “Twilight Sparkle—!”

“Rainbow, don’t—!”

By now she was going so fast that shapes were swimming in her vision, distorted and unrecognizable even from anything in her dreams. The light was like a miniature sun blazing with the colors of her own rainbow, glinting cruelly off of the dancing blades, and she was forced to squeeze her eyes shut; but the shapes still twisted around against the backdrop against her eyelids. The now-shrieking steam drowned out the familiar whistling of wind in her ears.

Dizziness gripped her; gravity pulled on her from all directions at once; the shapes darted around her and through her. Trying to shake herself, she urged her wings to flap faster, faster. She had to end this. She had to end this.

“Don’t hold your breath!”

Her body seemed to have been waiting for that senseless command; she gulped for air as she pulled out of the dive yet again, in spite of the ectoplasm still jetting up within the spiraling track.

It was then that a dazzling chromatic flash, brighter than anything yet, exploded outwards with a force strong enough to push the speeding pegasus right off the track, smashing her through the machine’s wall and into the library’s. Feeling as if she were still spinning around, she heard herself groan as she slid down to the floor, crumpling up in an exhaustive heap.

The machine’s whine was beginning to die down, allowing panicked voices to reach her ringing eardrums:

“—bow Dash, are you all right—”

“—no, no, this wasn’t supposed to happen—”

“—fire extinguisher right here, Twilight—”

“—I’m sorry, oh my gosh, I’m sorry—”

“Rainbow! Can you hear us, Rainbow, are you all right?”

She looked up dizzily into a trio of blurring Raritys, all leaning down toward her with horrified concern. They all reached out and touched her forehead with three white hooves, but she could only feel one. Weird. She must have hit something pretty hard.

“’m all right, Rarity,” she assured her, grinning weakly. “Chill out, all three of ya. ‘m fine. I dunno if your diamond thingy’s okay though. You might wanna check that out, darling.”

With that she spiraled into unconsciousness, barely registering the unicorn's shocked exclamation.

Hospitals

When Rainbow Dash regained consciousness, she was aware of a steady beeping sound ringing insistently against her eardrums. Her eyelids parted slowly, and as her vision came back into focus she noted that a familiar caramel-colored unicorn was standing nearby examining a clipboard. The scents of cleaners and fresh linen sheets stung her nose, and suddenly it became glaringly obvious where she was.

“Aw, not this again,” she groaned.

“Welcome back, Rainbow Dash,” the doctor said wryly. “How are you feeling?”

She cautiously poked the top of her head, which seemed to be swathed in light bandages. She could feel an itch starting to come on, but he would probably get annoyed if she tried to adjust it in any way. “I feel fine, I guess,” she said after a moment’s thought. “Well, maybe a little dizzy, but it’s not too bad. Did my friends come by?”

“They should be waiting just outsi—”

A pink blur smashed through the door, barreling into him and sending him spinning wildly. “Dashiiiieeee!”

Rainbow’s eyes widened just before her favorite party pony tackled her with a hug forceful enough to smash her into the thin mattress and disorient her completely. “Pinkie Pie—”

“Omigosh, Rainbow Dash I heard you got hurt again and so of course I came, well actually everypony came, and I even left Gummy in the bathtub and everything, I mean he’ll be fine as long as he doesn’t drink too much of the shampoo, I remember last time that happened when we all ended up in that balloon and flew all over Ponyville! I mean strawberry flavor really isn’t his favorite, even though it’s one of my favorites but we can all have different favorite flavors right? I mean I have eighty favorite flavors and only seventy-five of them are fully compatible with desserts and—”

“Pinkie Pie, I don’t think Rainbow Dash appreciates being harassed right now,” Rarity’s voice cut in, and the bright pink pony was telekinetically tugged off of Rainbow.

“Sure she does!” Pinkie chirped, bouncing in place beside the bed as if nothing had happened. “I mean I don’t know a whole lot about what ‘harassed’ is, but I bet she just loves it!”

The pegasus blinked and sat up, rubbing her head as she watched her other friends swarm in around her. “Uh, hey guys. This hospital stuff is starting to happen way too often, huh?”

“Eh, let’s be fair,” Applejack said, shaking her head with a smile. “It was only your fault that one time. ‘Sides, a pony’s gotta live dangerously every now and then, am I right?”

“Heh, for sure!” Rainbow grinned proudly, but that grin faded as she glanced from pony to pony. “Wait a minute … where’s Twilight?”

The other mares exchanged knowing looks. Behind them, the doctor continued to spin out of control.

“Well, Twilight is … She’s in the library,” Rarity said at length. “Since yesterday I’m afraid. The poor girl’s been rather shaken up from that little incident—”

“I thought it was me who got all shaken up,” Rainbow remarked. “Ha, don’t tell me she’s smacked her head against something too! But seriously, I thought she was the one who caused all of this with her wacko machine and everything. I mean, otherwise why would you guys even bother to—”

“Rainbow Dash, that’s certainly not what I meant. Do you honestly think you’re the only one affected by all this? She’s blaming herself for all of this, she won’t even come out of her room and she seems certain that you won’t forgive her for this!”

“I … oh.” Rainbow bit her lip. She knew that Twilight could be awkward sometimes, but she also knew that she hadn’t been a completely introverted nerd since she’d first arrived in Ponyville. Could that side of the lavender unicorn be catching up to her again? That would sure explain why she was suddenly even more shut-in than during her usual research binges. Nerds didn’t have a whole lot of ways to deal with their feelings, especially when they were unicorn nerds. That was one of the obvious things in life, Rainbow knew, and she wondered how she could have forgotten it. Aw hay, now she felt like a silly pony.

Stewing in her thoughts, she looked off to the side awkwardly. There she caught sight of her mint-green roommate, a unicorn who seemed to be only vaguely familiar. The roommate was currently staring down at her own awkwardly bandaged hooves with a rather disturbing expression of glee. With an automatic gulp the pegasus redirected her attention to her friends, suddenly feeling even more uncomfortable.

“We’re not sayin’ that we ain’t feelin’ for you,” Applejack added, as Fluttershy tentatively placed a yellow hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder. “But Twilight worked hard on her mechanical doohickey, and the last thing she wanted was for you to get hurt while helpin’ her out. I’d reckon she’s feelin’ like she smashed you against the wall with her own magic an’—”

“Yeah, she’s all broken up with guilt, I know.” Rainbow inhaled deeply before releasing an impressive sigh. “I’m gonna have to tell her it was just an accident, aren’t I? Even though I could’ve crashed way harder than this?”

The others nodded.

“And even though she technically didn’t need to do that at all?”

The others nodded again.

“And even though she had about a thousand knives in there to cut up that diamond?”

This time their automatic nodding was abruptly paused as they realized what she had just said. Their reactions were instantaneous: Rarity’s irises seemed to shrink even as her eyes bugged out, Applejack gaped wider than had been thought possible, Fluttershy bleated and toppled over stiffly, and even Pinkie Pie seemed lost for words.

“Ahem.” The doctor, who had finally managed to right himself, stumbled dizzily as he approached them. “Well, to put some, ah, sanity back into this conversation, it doesn’t seem like you have a concussion. We may need to take a couple more minutes just to make sure you’re entirely fine, though.”

“As long as it doesn’t take a couple of weeks,” Rainbow said offhandedly, beginning to snicker at her friends’ reactions. “Pfft … Hey! Hey AJ, catching many flies over there?”

Applejack blinked, shaking herself back to reality. “Real funny, Rainbow.”

“Funny? It’s hardly funny at all!” Rarity exclaimed. “Why, if I’d known there would be knives involved I’d have simply turned around and made the long and dismal trek to Tartarus anyway. My goodness, I … I’m sorry for having put you through all this, Rainbow Dash. This is simply a terrible thing for me to have done. I’m just ashamed of myself.”

The blue pegasus raised an eyebrow. “Well, uh, thanks. But I thought it was a terrible thing for Twilight to have done.”

Rarity blinked, quickly snapping out of her self-blame. “Oh yes. She did build that machine, didn’t she … Well then.” She swept her elegant mane to the side and narrowed her eyes, suddenly all business. “Once we are finished here, we shall storm the library with our combined ladylike forces. And we shall proceed to confront Twilight for her gross misconduct and miscalculations. And she. Will. Apologize.”

Noticing the look on her face, Applejack scuttled backwards as fast as she could, nearly tripping over Fluttershy in the process. “We, uh, we probably should do that, yep …”

“Yeah,” Rainbow agreed absently. She had suddenly found herself mesmerized at the way Rarity’s violet mane was still bouncing slightly, maintaining its perfectly curled shape. It caught the light streaming through the window, seeming to glow almost supernaturally … unless that had something to do with her white coat. White and violet complemented each other just perfectly; now it looked fine enough on its own, but if there was an accessory or two to—

Wait. What?

“Rainbow?” Rarity’s terrifying expression had thawed into one of confusion. “Are you feeling all right? You look just a bit … er, cross-eyed. I seem to have lost you upon mentioning ladies … I understand how little you enjoy such things, but if—”

“Nah, I’m good,” Rainbow said, hastily shaking herself back to reality. She really, really hoped she hadn’t been staring. “Just spaced out for a sec, that’s all.”

The white unicorn nodded uncertainly, stepping back to finally allow the doctor through.

Fiddling with her thin blanket, Rainbow’s brow furrowed as she waited for him to begin his checkup. Where the hay had that mane thought come from? It was way too girly for a pony of her coolness caliber to whip up. Besides, it was the same hairstyle Rarity always wore, so why would she suddenly get all excited about it? None of it added up. Now, if the unicorn would just change it around slightly, trying something different and maybe even a little more delicate—

Shut up, she told herself, quickly cutting off that train of thought. Don’t you dare think about that anymore, it doesn’t even make sense. Next thing you know I’ll be calling everypony by stupid pet names and whatever …

Half an hour later, the five mares made their way through the streets of Ponyville. The sun shone cheerfully overhead, the way it usually did, and several other ponies were enjoying the weather by strolling along, chattering about their plans for the weekend and the latest school production and what they would do if they were suddenly forced to survive through the parasprite apocalypse.

In short, nothing much seemed to be going on, which made Rainbow Dash feel rather grateful that she hadn’t needed to keep wearing all those bandages. It wasn’t that she didn’t like the idea of all that attention, or of having a cast for everypony to scribble on and gush over; in fact, it probably would have made her almost glad to follow the doctor’s orders of taking it easy for a couple of days. But she had a feeling that when she’d finally give into her sudden flock of wide-eyed fans’ demands to know how she’d gotten such an impressive souvenir, “I flew in circles through Twilight’s giant doohickey and kinda broke it” wouldn’t be an epic enough reason to give.

Besides, she didn’t want to randomly have an unwelcome thought about how unstylish she’d be looking with strips of white concealing her colorful mane. And no, she was not going to let herself go on a mental tangent about what color ink would look best on it or how it would have best looked if she’d been able to wrap it on herself and …

“Heavens, Rainbow Dash! You look like you’re about to rip something to pieces!”

The pegasus blinked, wondering where that weird mad growling sound was coming from. Then she turned bright red upon realizing that she had been making it, and quickly morphed it into a coughing laugh. “What? No way, Rarity. I’m not even wearing bandages or anything! I’m feeling great, seriously.”

Rarity still looked somewhat concerned. “Well, if you say so …”

They walked on for several moments without saying anything, watching the other three ponies trot on up ahead. Fluttershy shifted her wings awkwardly and murmured something that was just inaudible at that distance, but it seemed to set Pinkie Pie into a sudden fit of giggles; the pink pony’s bouncing began to form a zigzag pattern, apparently from not paying much attention to where she was going from laughing so hard. Applejack just stared after them and shook her head with a smile.

“Say, Rainbow—”

“I know, I know,” Rainbow said lazily. “You want to thank me for the Diamond thing again. Well, here you go: you’re welcome. Again.”

“It’s not that, it’s …” Rarity glanced off to the side for a moment, watching a gray wall-eyed pony flutter erratically past. “Well, you didn’t seem quite yourself when you got hurt.”

“Yeah, you got that right. Faceplanting right onto the wall? Totally not cool.”

“No, dear. You …” Rarity made a face, chewing on what exactly to say. Apparently the option of truth won out, since after a few seconds she said, “You called me ‘darling,’ in the library. Just before you fainted.”

The airy grin melted off of Rainbow’s face. “What the … oh, for crying out loud. You mean that wasn’t just a hallucination?”

“I’m afraid not.”

“Ponyfeathers.” She wracked her brain hastily, trying to dredge up a convincing explanation. “Well, I, uh. Well. I must’ve hit my head pretty hard then, huh?”

“I suppose so. Though I can’t help but wonder if there isn’t something else to do with it …”

“Aw, come on, Rarity!” She made a wide, disarming gesture with her wings, nearly knocking the unicorn over in the process. “You don’t need to get all uppity about something random that happened for, like, a second. If it helps make you get it, I’ve never actually felt like calling you a darling before.”

Rarity laughed lightly. “Thank you for making that clear, dear.”

“I’ve never wanted to call you a deer, either.”

“That’s quite enough, Rainbow. Anyway, I just want you to know that if you need help in any way, shape, or form, I shall be quite happy to assist you.”

“Hey, I’m not a foal—!”

“We’re here!” Pinkie shouted happily, popping up suddenly from between the two of them. “Twilight’s house! Or should I call it Twilight’s tree? Ooh, maybe we should call it a treehouse! Or maybe it’d be a housetree? Wait, have I already thought about this before?” She peered up at the towering tree with narrowed eyes, tapping her chin thoughtfully. Then she shrugged and shifted right back into bouncing mode. “Oh well, who cares? It’s still fun the second time!”

They all slowed as they approached the library, which stood proudly in its own little section of land at the edge of town. Its leafy branches rustled gently in the breeze, and a random squirrel scurried up its thick trunk. A shadowy pony-shaped figure paced back and forth across a window near the top, but as they watched it froze in place, then scampered out of view. When that was followed by a sudden series of clattering and thumping, everypony exchanged glances.

“I hope she isn’t tryin’ to hide up there …” Applejack muttered.

Rarity cleared her throat. “Perhaps she needs to hear a compassionate voice. Oh Twiiiilight—”

“Look, I’ll just go in there and talk to her,” Rainbow cut in, walking resolutely towards the door. “And that isn’t really a compassionate voice, by the way.”

“Hmph! Well, I never!”

Before Rainbow could open the door, however, it slammed outwards with enough force to smash her against the trunk, flattening her and making her head spin. As the door eased back, she did her best to get back onto her wobbly hooves, but something seized her by the tail and dragged her in unceremoniously into the library, slamming the door afterwards.

“Bluh.” She tried to take a step, but her dizziness made that a difficult task. There was also the inconvenient fact that there was a massive sea of books in her way. “Uh, what is this …?”

“Oh, Rainbow Dash, I’m so sorry about all of this!” Twilight’s slightly panicked voice seemed to dart before her, trailing just behind the familiar lavender blur currently zigzagging from one angular pile of books to the next.

Feeling confusion threatening to overwhelm her, Rainbow smacked her own cheek until the world had righted itself. “What’re you talking about, Twilight? I mean, I know it’s your fault, but it’s kinda mine too for agreeing to it, and—”

“Uh-huh. Listen, there’s something very important I need to tell you and it could affect your entire life, possibly even your unlife if it turns out that zombie ponies do exist (but don’t tell Spike I said that, he still needs rest), and in the meantime if we can’t figure this out soon then the entirety of Ponyville might be put in jeopardy, if not the entirety of Equestria itself—”

“Twilight!”

The panting unicorn skidded to a halt, still levitating five or so books at once. Her pink-striped mane looked frazzled, Rainbow realized, and she noticed that the library definitely wasn’t the only messy thing around here. Compared to her, the pegasus felt positively well groomed—

“Nope,” Rainbow said decisively, and quickly mussed up her own mane until it was nearly standing on end. “I’m not gonna be well groomed.”

Twilight blinked.

“So what’d you want to talk to me about again?” Rainbow asked, looking around the library awkwardly. There was still a small charred crater where she had hit the wall yesterday, and she only barely managed to repress a gleeful grin at remembering how fast she had gone. This was serious, after all. Probably.

“Oh Rainbow Dash, that’s part of it right there.” Noting her friend’s puzzled look, Twilight sighed deeply and collapsed into a sad sitting position. “I’m so, so, so sorry for this, I didn’t think it was even possible, I even readjusted the concentration of the ectoplasm to avoid this and that shouldn’t have been necessary anyway … but … but it just …”

“C’mon, spit it out!”

Twilight swallowed. “Well, there might be a bit of a demon inside you.”

Expectations

Rainbow Dash blinked, trying to process what Twilight had just told her. A demon? Demons didn’t exist. Then again, she hadn’t thought Nightmare Moon had existed either. It didn’t seem like Twilight to lie about this. But if it was true …

“A demon?” Rainbow echoed in disbelief. “That’s so … so …”

Twilight cringed, waiting for the pegasus to completely lose her cool.

“So AWESOME!”

“… What.”

“Well it’s a demon, Twilight,” Rainbow said, as if it were painfully obvious. “Demons are fiery spirits of hatred and power that do all kinds of weird stuff. They’re awesome. And sometimes they possess ponies, yeah, but they’re not impossible to fight back against.”

“Rainbow, I don’t think—”

“Hush, Twilight. I haven’t been feeling any urges to set anything on fire all day, so clearly I have control over the demon. Which means that soon I’ll be able to use all their powers and stuff.” She grinned and stared unseeingly through her friend, eyes widening as she considered the possibilities. “And then … I’ll be … I’ll be the hero Ponyville needs.”

Suddenly she unfurled her wings and rocketed upwards, smashing through the top of the library with unnatural force – she paused in midair, hovering over the massive hole in the tree, as she took in the sight of Ponyville unexpectedly being on fire. “Time to save some ponies,” she growled eagerly, and her head burst into flames itself as she soared into the catastrophe. Something metallic began to form underneath her, and she grasped at it eagerly with her claw-sprouting hooves. Somewhere in the far distance a guitar riff began to play, echoing epically across the clouded crimson sky.

Catching sight of a figure in the wreckage of a shop, she dived through the clouds of smoke puffing upwards from the burning building. She parked neatly in the midst of the shattered remains of a display case, leaped from her new machine, and landed squarely in front of the purple-pink unicorn trapped beneath a pile of heavy wooden beams.

Sparkler gazed up at the newcomer with streaming eyes, hardly believing what she was seeing. Looming above her was the impossible shape of a sky-blue, bat-winged, almost skeletal pegasus, with her head and tail swathed in multicolored fire; the tips of pointed ears were just barely visible above the flames, but two red pupil-less eyes glowed eerily in the dancing light. Behind the pegasus stood a spiky black motorcycle, also sporting rainbow fire.

“Rainbow … Dash?” she asked weakly, breaking into a hacking cough.

The pegasus smirked, and her unsettling eyes glinted as a sudden burst of fire erupted from her mane, lashing out and destroying the rubble on top of the victim without so much as brushing against her body. “Not quite,” she said in a rattling growl. “I am the pony sworn against evil! I am the spirit unbroken by civilization! I am the one who decides who lives and who dies, and whether the train arrives on time or not!”

Behind her, the motorcycle suddenly revved to life and shot forward; without missing a beat she jumped up, caught the passing handlebars with one clawed hoof, swung herself back into the seat, and seized the terrified Sparkler with the other hoof all before the vehicle soared upwards. Sparkler clung to her as they cleared the gaping hole in the roof, and her ears were pressed flat against her head when they emerged back out into the apocalyptic ghost town.

A sudden explosion beneath them roared outwards, tossing the motorcycle upwards with enough speed to make the wind shriek in their ears. The guitar riff rose to a crescendo as the pegasus threw back her fiery head and cackled triumphantly. “I’m Demon Dash now!”

“Rainbow.”

“No, I’m Demon!” she corrected, scowling down at Sparkler. “And stop screaming already, would ya? We’re just getting to the good part here, and you’re giving me a headache!”

“Rainbow.”

“Demon!”

“Rainbow!”

"Demon!"

"Rainbow!"

A loud popping noise accompanied the scene’s abrupt collapse. The pegasus’ vision snapped back into focus, and to her faint dismay she was still standing in the messy library, with her wings outstretched. As she sheepishly refolded them she glanced upward, vaguely hoping there was a gaping hole in the ceiling. When no such sight met her eyes, she looked back down to see a familiar purple dragon standing beside her, wielding a pin before him like a sword.

She blinked at this sight.

“You have the weirdest imagination,” he said, lowering the pin somewhat uncertainly.

“Thanks for that, Spike,” Twilight said, pulling her hooves back from her ears. “I’m not sure what you did exactly, but thanks. Did you need something?”

“Probably, but I guess I forgot it on the way downstairs. What with the noise and everything.” He shrugged and glanced around sleepily. “What’s with all the books?”

“Twilight says there’s a demon in me,” Rainbow said happily. “She’s tryin’ to see how it works or something.”

Spike’s eyes lit up. “A demon? Whoa, like in Spirit Rider?”

“Yeah, that’s exactly what I was thinkin’!” she said with a laugh. “Fire powers, motorcycle powers, other demonic powers too, I guess. It’s gonna be so awesome!”

She extended a hoof, and the dragon tapped his knuckles against it with gusto.

“Ugh.” Twilight rubbed her forehead, briefly closing her eyes in disbelief. “No, no, no! This isn’t Spirit Rider, Rainbow Dash, this is real life! Most demons don’t work that way at all in real life!”

“Sure, most demons don’t,” Rainbow agreed. “But my demon … well, let’s just say it’s the most awesome demon in history. I mean, why else would it be hanging around me?”

The unicorn sighed deeply and shook her head. “Rainbow, will you please listen to me when I tell you that you really don’t want to have this demon?”

“Pfft, I guess,” Rainbow said dismissively, rolling her eyes. “See if you convince me that the demon isn’t cool enough for me.”

“It made you call Rarity a darling,” Twilight stated bluntly.

Rainbow froze. Her eyes widened, and her mouth slowly fell open as the meaning sank in.

“Well, it might’ve done that, anyway,” the unicorn amended hastily. “I still can’t figure out if it did for sure, but it seems pretty obvious from the fact that you’d never call anypony a darling yourself. I mean, if it were Rarity or maybe even Applejack I could attribute it to just a hard knock on the head, but since it goes so sharply against your usual terms of affection I have to attach this hypothesis to the case instead. Anyway, it seems extremely likely that since we summoned the Downspiral Diamond from Tartarus we might have summoned a demon from there as well, even though it wasn’t supposed to be likely. I couldn’t remember seeing a case like this in any of my previous research, which is why I decided to look for a more specific answer … Rainbow? What are you doing?”

“Where’s the cure?” Rainbow muttered anxiously, hoofing rapidly through a large book before tossing it to the side and replacing it with another one. “Where’s the cure? There’s gotta be something on exorcism, oh ponyfeathers, please let there be something in here …”

“Uh, Rainbow? I already looked through those.”

“But did you look hard enough, Twilight?” Rainbow demanded, suddenly right in the unicorn’s face. “Surely there’s something you missed in there, right?”

“I’m positive I looked hard enough,” was the rather irritable reply. Noticing Rainbow’s ears flatten to her head, she quickly added, “But, uh, if it makes you feel better I can look through them again?”

“Please do that, Twilight!” Rainbow begged, grabbing at her friend’s forelegs. “Read them all again for me, please, please, please! I can’t have some sissy girly demon lounging around in me!”

“It’s not like it’s going to hurt you!” Twilight said with a nervous laugh. “At least, not immediately. But what I’ve been considering is, if we try to draw it out then it might be easier to … deal with … right?”

“Sure,” the pegasus huffed, lying prostrate on the floor and clutching her head in anxiety. “That’s not going to hurt me or anything. It’s just going to turn me into the most uncool, weakling, pansy-ish pegasus in all of Equestria! Ugh, my life is utterly ruined!” Sweat beaded on her forehead, and she gulped as more horrible ideas flooded through her mind. “I’ll probably walk everywhere like Fluttershy does, if I don’t skip or bounce like Pinkie Pie! I won’t be able to do any moves or buck any clouds or compete in any flying races or do anything cool ever! And worst of all …”

There was a moment of silence. Twilight stepped tentatively forward, but paused as she realized that she had no idea how to comfort her friend.

Rainbow shivered, staring blankly into space. “I won’t be Rainbow Dash anymore.”

Twilight and Spike exchanged a look.

Shaking herself half-heartedly, Rainbow fluttered back onto her hooves. “I’ve … I’ve gotta go,” she said, turning to head back out the door. “Need to have one last flight as myself.”

“What?”

“You heard me, Twilight.” She spread her wings, looking from one to the other as if they might disappear suddenly. “I just need some time to be alone. You understand, right?”

“Well, yes, but—”

“See you later then.” She tensed slightly, ready to take off, but something made her pause. With a sigh, she glanced backward and hesitantly decided to voice the nagging thought that had been hanging at the back of her mind since she had walked into the library. “And Twilight?”

“Yes, Rainbow Dash?”

“You really need to fix your mane.”

Her wings came down with a rush of air, and she zoomed through the door. She was gone before her friends outside could react.

Rainbow stared up at the sky, wishing she could just lose herself in that vast blueness. Unfortunately she kept comparing it to her own fur and admiring it for its beauty, so even the sky itself failed to distract her from her horrible problem.

She was currently lounging on her favorite sulking cloud: a small nimbus, black and gloomy like her thoughts. Laying on her back with her wings sprawled out to either side, resting her head on her forehooves, occasionally following the progress of a bird fluttering overhead … it was the perfect method of cooling down after some shocking event. Granted, it didn’t always work, but that wasn’t the point. It was the principle of the thing.

It wasn’t fair. Why should she be the one to get a demon, out of all the ponies in Equestria? Not just that, why should she get the girliest demon out of all the ones in Tartarus? It was going to turn her into a sissy acrophobic pegasus, and then she’d turn into some demure gentle giggling pony like Rarity or Fluttershy. It just wasn’t fair! Why did her life have to be so weird? And now it wasn’t just weird, it was also utterly ruined and destroyed and a complete train wreck and …

This really wasn’t working.

With a grunt she sat up. Ponyville lay some half a mile or so before her, with Everfree Forest looming nearby. She was fairly sure she could see Fluttershy’s cottage at this distance, nestled on its tiny hill not far from the menacing shadows of the gnarled trees. Perfectly peaceful and ordinary, the same way she wasn’t. Now that she was housing a terrible monster … a fashion demon …

She wondered what would happen if she flew away from this place. Maybe she could move to Canterlot, where all the fancy fashion ponies were. If she just gave up and embraced the evil growing inside her, she could start a new life where nopony knew her or could mock her for having turned into a girly pony. She might even become the top designer in the city. Even if she had to exchange flying for frolicking, danger for dresses, skies for sparkles. The cost might be too much to bear, but she supposed she could get used to it eventually, even if it meant she’d never have a shot at being in the Wonderbolts again …

Was she seriously considering this? Come on.

“This is stupid,” she said flatly, shaking her head to toss her mane out of the emo curtain that was obscuring her face.

With a grunt she took off into the air, soaring back in the direction of Ponyville. I’m not gonna let some stupid demon mess me up, she assured herself. I’ll get rid of it if it’s the last thing I do. And if what Twilight said is right, and drawing it out might make it easier to deal with, I’d better go hang around some clothes-making pony or whatever. Let it think it’s winning in its own element, and then BAM! Back to Tartarus for the trendy troublemaker.

And it’s pretty obvious where I need to go.

Rainbow rapped at the door with a tentative hoof, then stepped back and waited for it to be answered. She glanced around nervously, hoping that nopony else was around. If somepony started rumors that Rainbow Danger Dash was taking sewing lessons, she didn’t think she’d be able to stand the humiliation. Hopefully that pony wouldn’t be her friend; she wasn’t ordinarily the type to do such an awful thing, but with a piece of gossip this juicy it wasn’t easy to say for sure.

A light humming reached her ears from within, growing steadily louder as hoofsteps drew close. She swallowed and rustled her wings nervously. Just keep calm, Rainbow Dash, she told herself, doing her best to put on her most casual expression even as she fidgeted. Don’t lose your cool on me now.

The door opened, and before her friend could greet her Rainbow plunged ahead with what she’d been practicing saying the whole flight over here.

“Hey Fluttershy. I was, uh, wondering what you knew about sewing …”

Butterflies

Fluttershy looked rather taken aback at her unexpected visitor’s words. True, Rainbow Dash dropped by her cottage fairly often, but she’d never asked for a sewing lesson before. The butter-yellow pegasus scuffed at the ground as she made a cute thoughtful little frown, and her cyan friend couldn’t help but wonder whether she was considering the possibility of a highly elaborate costume. Celestia, she hoped not.

Her saddlebags were thrown over her back, Rainbow noticed, and they looked rather rumpled. She resisted the urge to barge in and find an iron to fix the problem.

“Oh, hi Rainbow,” Fluttershy finally said. She shifted her long pink mane slightly, and a bit of metal poked out from within the tresses. “I’m glad to see you’re okay. If you don’t mind me asking, why are you so interested?”

“It’s a, uh, pretty long story.” Rainbow brushed the question aside with a dismissive hoof. “But I’d reeeeally appreciate it if you’d keep it on the down low, you know? Fashion isn’t my thing usually. No, wait, I mean it isn’t my thing ever. Except I was just thinking about it, and on the off chance that it actually was my thing – I mean, not me specifically, but out of morbid curiosity and stuff. For a friend. And for exorcism. And I just … yeah.”

Fluttershy blinked.

“So anyway … do you think you could do that for me?”

“Um, well, I’d love to tell you about what I know, but I was just going to watch—”

“Whoa, what a mess!” She brushed lightly past Fluttershy, distracted by the unexpected state of her friend’s home. While normally the cottage was kept in pristine condition even considering the animals that lived there, the familiar cleanliness had been hijacked by the classic passerby tornado look. Papers and birdseed carpeted the floor, the rugs were rather sloppily folded into unidentifiable shapes, the couch had been flipped upside down, cushions lay scattered here and there, and the birdhouses dangling from the ceiling seemed lopsided.

The impact of the untidiness suddenly hit her, the way any other natural disaster would. It’s fine, she told herself. Decoration isn’t the same thing as fashion, probably. There’s a reasonable explanation for this. Nevertheless, her eye twitched. She smacked at the movement reflexively, an action that she immediately regretted as half of her vision exploded into colorful stars.

“Oh yes! I’m sorry about all this, Rainbow. I wasn’t expecting anypony to drop by, and I just had to turn everything inside out to find the cellar key! And if I don’t hurry, I might miss it!”

Rainbow resisted the urge to grunt with pain as she gingerly poked at her throbbing eye. “Miss what?”

“The migration! It only happens twice a year, and I’ve just got to be there. Oh, but I need to find my key first, and I just don’t know where it could be—”

Acting quickly before Fluttershy could get a chance to hyperventilate, Rainbow simply pointed at her pink mane, where the glint of metal was almost concealed.

“What?” She followed Rainbow’s hoof uncertainly, but brightened upon understanding. With an embarrassed giggle she pulled the key out of her mane. “Oh, thank you so much," she said, suddenly sounding much calmer about the whole thing. “I’ve been searching for this all morning.”

“No problem.” Rainbow leaned in a cool manner against the upturned couch, trying not to consider how dirty it would look when it was flipped back over. Pale green with thick gray powder would be an awful combination, she knew, and …

She smacked herself with her wing. Nope, she thought decisively. Not even going there.

Luckily Fluttershy had turned around, pushing one of the rugs out of the way to reveal a trapdoor. Eager for any distraction, Rainbow cleared her throat. “Ah, so what’s in the cellar that’s so important?”

“Some jam.” In the space of just a few seconds, Fluttershy unlocked the trapdoor, darted into the tiny cellar below, emerged with a jar filled with rainbow-colored substance, and locked it again. Several birds, mice, and squirrels emerged from various hidey-holes, looking eager at the sound of the trapdoor’s squeak; upon noticing they were too late, though, the animals retreated with looks of utter dejection and defeat. “The migration happens twice a year, so there has to be enough Zap Apple jam for it. That’s all they’ll let me feed them, you know; they’re a bit picky.”

“But what would – never mind.” She watched in mild confusion as Fluttershy deposited the jar of jam into her saddlebags. “Anyway, I’d rather learn about it sooner than later. The sewing thing, I mean. Do you think I could just … tag along or something? You could teach me something there.”

The yellow pegasus glanced off to the side thoughtfully. “Well, I guess I might be doing a few stitches while I’m there. If you really want to come, then—”

“Great!” Rainbow forced herself not to get too excited. “This should be a breeze!”

With extreme effort, Rainbow managed to force her eyelids open again. “Fluttershy, I thought we were rushing to get here.”

“Oh, we were,” Fluttershy agreed, daintily adding a speck of jam to the eight thousand nine hundred and sixtieth crumb of bread. “I had to be sure we were here early, in case the migration had already started. And then I had to prepare their food. Oh, they’ll be so happy!”

Rainbow grunted, casting her eyes across the meadow they had set up camp in. Besides a few bushes dotting the grass here and there, as well as the occasional bird flitting across the sky, there was no living thing in sight. She wished that anything would happen, even a breeze; that way she might get to watch a tumbleweed roll by. As it was, she could only lay sprawled on her stomach and wait for the mice or whatever they were to show up.

“Fluttershy,” she said, “we’ve been here for two hours.”

“Three and a half, actually.” Fluttershy paused in her tedious task to take a sip of tea. Rainbow couldn’t fathom how an entire tea set could fit into those saddlebags, but her experience with Pinkie Pie told her it was probably better not to ask. “But they can be devious. There was one time when I only had to wait forty-five minutes. It was very surprising.”

“Ugh.”

Rainbow knocked her hat over her eyes irritably. She’d insisted that they wear safari hats on this little expedition, as much to suit the expected adventure as to shut her fashion thoughts up. Besides, it made her look like Daring Do, and that was always a plus.

She wondered idly how her idol might react to boredom. It was a thing that happened to everypony; even Daring probably had to wait for a train or something. Rainbow considered what Daring would do in her horseshoes, but all she could think of was discovering some hidden city beneath the meadow, and she wasn’t sure how to do that. There were usually badly-hidden levers involved, or ancient puzzles that spelled out ominous messages, and neither seemed likely on this well-lit day. Of course it was possible there would be a boulder involved, and she might be able to find one in the far-off mountains.

After all, landscaping was sort of a form of fashion, right?

“What the hay does fashion have to do with—”

“They’re coming!” Fluttershy gasped suddenly, abandoning her efforts on beginning the ten-thousandth group of crumbs in favor of seizing a pair of binoculars. “They’re coming, they’re coming! Keep your voice down, Rainbow Dash; we don’t want to scare them off!”

Following her friend’s gaze, Rainbow looked up to the broad blue sky and beheld a massive trail of colors, courtesy of the flapping wings of … a flock of—

“Butterflies?” Rainbow’s voice almost cracked from incredulity. “A butterfly migration?”

“They have to fly north in the springtime,” Fluttershy said helpfully, adjusting one of the knobs on her binoculars. “It’s getting too hot for them in the south. But during autumn—”

“I can guess.”

As they approached, the butterflies floated gently down towards the two pegasi. For one irrational moment Rainbow nearly panicked; but the winged insects merely landed on the jam-covered crumbs, one by one, and proceeded to eat delicately and quickly. When they fluttered away again, the crumbs themselves still remained.

“But they didn’t even eat it all!” Rainbow protested, gesturing at the departing butterflies.

“Well, butterflies can’t actually eat bread,” Fluttershy explained, lowering her binoculars and beaming up at the flock. “But they like their jam with a bit of flavor, and bread gives it the perfect touch. Like I said, they’re very picky.”

Rainbow said nothing as the butterflies flew at their annoyingly slow pace. She knew that under other circumstances she might compare them to wonderful fashion accessories, but right now she was just so bored …

The butterflies continued to arrive. They fluttered down. They ate the jam. They fluttered up. They left. More butterflies arrived. There seemed to be no end to them. Flutter. Pause. Flutter. Pause. Flutter.

Ugh.

“Some of these are really rare,” Fluttershy gushed quietly. “I don’t get to see them all that often. Like the Megido Butterfly there. They tend to rapidly divide themselves into copies when startled, or occasionally hop backwards in time by a minute or so.”

Even with the mental image of an exploding butterfly, Rainbow somehow managed not to test that statement out.

“Oh, and there’s a Quantum Weather Butterfly! Their wings have an infinite perimeter around a finite area, you know. They’re some of the most magical butterflies. That’s how they have their own localized weather.”

A bleary glance above confirmed this. “Huh,” Rainbow grunted, watching how the bug was indeed fluttering in its own microscopic snowstorm. That was kind of interesting, at least.

“And – oh no! A wounded butterfly!”

“Do they limp when they fly?” Rainbow asked, almost interested in what would undoubtedly be a hilarious species.

But Fluttershy, quickly picking up her needle and thread, trotted off toward a grounded butterfly. Its frantic fluttering revealed a small tear in its wing, but the pegasus’ gentle hushes slowed its urgent movement.

“Now hold still,” she said softly, and when it miraculously obeyed she patted it with a hoof that was even more gentle than usual. “This won’t hurt a bit.”

Rolling her eyes, Rainbow turned her attention back to the butterflies swarming down on the crumbs. Was that really all the sewing Fluttershy would be doing today? That sure wouldn’t be getting her anywhere near actual clothes. Then again, she hadn’t realized sewing needed to be done with a needle. You learn something new every day. Too bad it’s not enough for exorcism.

“There you go,” she heard Fluttershy coo, and the newly patched-up butterfly flew energetically over Rainbow’s head. Hoofsteps in the grass alerted her to the yellow pegasus’ return, and her ears pricked up as Fluttershy sat down right beside her. “Rainbow?”

“Hm?”

“Are you bored?”

Surprised by the bluntness of the question, she rolled onto her side to see her friend looking down at her with some concerned sadness. A pang of regret started to gnaw at her, realizing she hadn’t exactly been supportive in any of this. “What? Of course not!” she lied, getting up as she grew a little defensive. “Why else would I come out here with you?”

“Well, normally I wouldn’t ask, but since you wanted to know about sewing I thought maybe you’d be interested in the migration.” Fluttershy bit her lip, looking embarrassed. “I-I mean, we haven’t done anything together for such a long time … you know, I just thought …”

“Hey, it’s okay, Fluttershy,” she said, patting her hoof reassuringly. “I get what you mean. You’re my oldest friend; of course we should hang out more often! Pegasi of a feather stick together, y’know?”

Fluttershy smiled hesitantly. “Not to exclude everypony else, I hope.”

“Of course not! We’ve just gotta change the little fact that we haven’t done anything together lately.” She rubbed her chin, considering another upcoming animal migration. “Hey, I can think of something all six of us can do!”

“Oh, that’s wonderful, Rainbow! I’m sure I’ll be able to come … Maybe we can all sew together—”

“No!”

Fluttershy shrank back.

“I mean, it’s a secret,” Rainbow amended hastily. “I don’t exactly want all of Equestria in on this whole sewing thing. It’s like the reading thing.”

“But I thought you were fine with ponies knowing you could read.”

“Okay, it’s not like the reading thing. It’s the same, but different. With Daring Do I’m acting like Twilight, which is okay if I don’t start making checklists for everything. With fashion I’d act more like Rarity, which is a big threat to my cool credibility.”

“Fashion? … Well, I guess that makes sense.” Fluttershy paused to watch the butterflies for a moment before continuing. “But, well, if it’s fashion you want to learn about, then …”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “Then?”

“Then I-I’m probably not the best pony to ask. I’m sorry, Rainbow, but I don’t know nearly as much as Rarity about clothes or how to make them. I usually just repair things with my sewing … but I bet she could really help you!”

“What? No way!” she exclaimed automatically, even as something foul within her leapt in delight. “I can’t go to Rarity about this! She’s one of those gossipy ponies, the ones that go on about how so-and-so did whatever. If I even tell her the tiniest detail about fashion, she’ll spread it all over Ponyville!” She shuddered, trying not to imagine that horrible possible future.

“I’m sure if you asked her to, she’d keep it a secret,” Fluttershy said reasonably. “She’s your friend too, you know. Oh, and I bet she’d really love teaching you all about fashion!”

“Yeah, if I don’t get laughed right out of town.”

“Please?” Her blue eyes were suddenly big and bright. They were a perfectly lovely color and went with her yellow fur nicely and seriously—?

“Fine,” Rainbow said, rubbing the bridge of her nose. “I’ll do it. I’ll go talk to Rarity about it and hope I don’t get a reputation for being a frou-frou filly.”

“Good.” Fluttershy beamed again, bouncing gently in place in a way that nevertheless was strongly reminiscent of a certain party pony. “It’ll be fun!”

“But secret,” Rainbow reminded her, giving her a knowing look. “Pinkie promise?”

“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” Fluttershy recited, going through the motions without a second thought.

They shared a laugh, and for a moment Rainbow’s worries about a fashionable future vanished. She had friends who loved her, she knew, and that was all that really mattered. Even with the prospect of a girly demon ruining her life … okay, it wasn’t all that mattered. But it came close.

Maybe Fluttershy was right. Nothing would go wrong when she talked to Rarity!

Carousel Boutique was the most imposing building in Ponyville.

Oh sure, there was the brooding form of the library, and the town hall … something else. Did Pinkie’s seasonal gypsy tent count? Okay, maybe there weren’t that many imposing buildings in town, but the Boutique definitely was one of them. It was pretty tall, and pretty wide, with what looked like purple mannequins dancing around its pink-and-blue outside. Things decorated like that tended to be ominous.

Rainbow approached it nervously, glancing around every now and then in case somepony were paying attention to where she was headed. They weren’t. She wasn’t sure whether to be glad that nopony would be wondering about what she was up to, or disappointed that nopony would come up and distract her from her daunting mission.

At the door she paused, realizing what she was about to do. She was willingly barging into the lair of the resident fashion pony. She had done so before, of course, but that was usually because she was in the protection of her other friends or because she was coming to a magnificent crash landing.

This was different. There would be no turning back …

Shaking her head, she rang the doorbell and stepped back expectantly. Soon Rarity would emerge, she knew, and she’d have to come up with some clever way to steer the conversation toward fashion. “So Rarity, how are your designs going?” No, too straightforward. “So did you hear about the dragon migration?” No, we’d probably get into an argument about gems or something stupid. “What do you think of lime green and purple—?” Oh, come on.

She frowned, quickly noticing that the door had failed to open. How odd.

Not one to back down from a challenge so easily, she rang the doorbell again. And again. And again.

“Not right now, if you don’t mind!” a voice called from within. “I’m a bit tied up at the moment!”

Rainbow still refused to back down, however, and put her ear to the door. Something was making a series of dull thuds, like huge footsteps. Was Rarity dragging something around in there? She probably needed help, so what the hay was she doing trying to shoo ponies away?

She took a deep breath, stretched the cricks out of her neck, and flared her wings briefly. “Okay,” she said to nobody in particular. “I’m goin’ in.”

And with that, she barged right into Carousel Boutique – only to find nothing but blackness within.

She stood just inside, staring uncomprehendingly at the apparent lack of a scene before her. Where was Rarity? Surely she was right in the middle of something.

The door creaked closed behind her, narrowing the broad stripe of daylight until she was plunged into total darkness. Feeling a bit of creeping apprehension, she began to walk carefully forward. “Hello?” she called out. “Anypony here?”

A massive thud resounded off to the side. Relieved, Rainbow headed in that direction instead.

But it was at that moment when something monstrous suddenly reached out of the darkness and, with utter indifference, swallowed her whole.

Challenges

In a disappointing twist, the monstrous thing turned out to be a huge swath of fabric hanging from a clothesline. Rainbow Dash was thoroughly embarrassed.

“What is that thing doing in there anyway?” she huffed five minutes afterward, shifting uncomfortably on the kitchen floor. “Is it just hanging around waiting for somepony to walk into it and freak out, or what?”

“Why, Rainbow Dash! Are you implying that I set all of that up for the express purpose of making a foal out of you?”

“Pretty much.”

“Well.” Rarity sniffed haughtily, pausing in her impromptu first-aid to stick her nose toward the ceiling. “At the very least, you could have given me some credit for my own foresight! If I were truly about to play a trick on you, I would not have gone to nearly as much effort as I did in accidentally doing so.”

“Gee, thanks.” Rainbow frowned. “I think.”

“Though I must admit,” the unicorn added thoughtfully, “that if I’d known you could be so easily spooked by some cloth, I might have actually decided to go ahead and—”

“I wasn’t spooked!” Rainbow interrupted quickly. “The Dash doesn’t get spooked. I was just the teeniest bit surprised that it was so dark inside. I mean, you don’t have vision that good, right?”

“Hm. Well, ‘The Dash’ made an awfully convincing argument otherwise. What with your shrieking and flapping around like a wayward bat—”

“I thought that thing was a dragon!”

“How could you possibly make that mistake?”

“I don’t know, it was just big and … and huge, okay?” She hissed as another bandage was telekinetically tightened around her foreleg. Did Rarity have to pull it that hard? “But seriously, what’s up with it?”

“If you must know, it’s Sweetie Belle’s Nightmare Night costume.” Rarity bit her lip, glancing in the direction of the still-dark workroom. “Or rather, it would have been if she hadn’t decided to be a vampire at the last minute. I haven’t been able to make something else out of it.”

As the unicorn levitated the unused bandages away, an idea came to Rainbow’s mind. A wonderful, terrible, awful idea. Seriously, this had to be the worst thing she’d ever thought up—

“So I guess that means you lost your touch?”

Something shifted in Rarity’s posture, tensing up her delicate muscles. “Hm? What do you mean, darling?”

“You haven’t thought of anything to use that thing for? It’s been months since Nightmare Night. I guess you’re not as creative as I thought, even though all you do is dresses and boring stuff.”

Rainbow realized her mistake as she wilted under Rarity’s burning glare. The white unicorn said nothing for a moment, but a close look at her body revealed that she was shaking in partially concealed rage. “Did you come over here just to tell me that, Rainbow Dash?”

“Uh … yeah.” Sweat beaded on her forehead when Rarity’s horn took on a faint glow. “I mean, no! That’s not what I meant!”

“Then what exactly did you mean?”

“… Something else.”

Tense silence hung over the boutique like a heavy blanket. It was so quiet, in fact, that they could easily hear a pin drop. So naturally the terrifying moment was thankfully shattered at the crash of a hundred pins dropping all at once.

“Uh, sorry big sis!” Sweetie Belle’s voice trilled from upstairs. “Can you help me out, please? I’m kinda stuck under these pincushions and things!”

Much to Rainbow’s relief, Rarity broke eye contact and looked in the direction of the ceiling. “Coming, Sweetie Belle! Be careful not to poke yourself before I get there! And you,” she added to Rainbow, “had better stay here until you explain yourself.”

And with that she trotted haughtily up the stairs, with her elegant, violet and beautifully curled … her perfectly normal tail swishing back and forth before vanishing out of sight.

The pegasus stood up awkwardly, wincing at the bandages that were digging into her skin. “Nice going, Rainbow,” she snapped. “What the hay did you even do that for? Now you’ll never get that prissy giggling thing out of you.”

She reached the threshold to the workroom, frowning into the darkness. What was up with this, anyway? Her curiosity got the best of her, and she pawed at the walls nearby for several seconds before catching the light switch.

Something sparkled suddenly on a table at the far side of the room, shining as bright and radiant as the sun. Grunting as the stinging light struck her temporarily blind, she flipped the switch again and cast the thing back into mercifully cool darkness. Bizarre afterimages swam in her vision, and she rubbed her eyes in a futile attempt to clear them. Why was that weird thing familiar?

“That’s the Downspiral Diamond,” Rarity’s voice explained behind her. “It’s still quite sensitive to light. I probably should have warned you.”

“Augh … it’s fine,” Rainbow lied, looking around and squinting at the white Rarity-blob.

“It will be,” the unicorn agreed. “I made a similar mistake only a hour ago, you know.” There was a light scraping sound of a hoof against a tile floor. “So. Explanation?”

Rainbow bit her lip. There had to be something she could say that would both pacify Rarity and keep her own pride intact. If only she could figure it out …

“It came out wrong,” she finally said. “What I meant was, I’m surprised. Usually you just whip stuff up and bam! Clothes. Sorry for the misunderstanding.”

“Hm.” Rarity didn’t sound entirely convinced.

Horsefeathers. How was she supposed to make Rarity teach her about fashion now?

The words slipped out of her mouth before she’d fully thought of them. “The Great Dragon Migration is in sixteen days. I’ll bet that by then I can make something out of that thing so awesome that you couldn’t even imagine it.”

Another moment of silence. She imagined that Rarity was raising an eyebrow at this point.

“Is that a challenge?” the unicorn finally asked. She sounded thoughtful, as if it were actually a good idea.

“Yeah,” Rainbow said. “But I have to know how to do it. Otherwise it would just be a big pile of cloth and stuff, you know, like a mess.”

“I … I don’t know.” There was a brief motion, which might have been a hoof raised to rub a chin. “This is a very sudden bet, even for you.”

“Well …”

“But you know? I don’t even care.” Rarity’s tone suddenly grew gleeful, and the white pony-blob began bouncing up and down in place excitedly. “Ooh, Rainbow Dash, I’m going to teach you how to make clothes! We’re going to do lace and sewing and embroidery and crocheting and knitting and color schemes and weaving and stitching and trims and I think you’ll especially love dyeing—”

“I'm sorry, what?”

“Colors, Rainbow. But this is going to be so much fun, don’t you think? And with you of all ponies. Why, I might make a refined yet spirited mare out of you when all is said and done!”

Rainbow nodded mutely, half wondering if Pinkie had dunked herself in flour again and sneaked into the boutique.

“Oh, but we do need stakes for this to be a proper bet, don’t we? Not that it matters with you ultimately learning the finer arts; that’s easily the best part of this entire deal. Still … if I win, and you fail to impress me relative to your current skills, you must join me on an especially lengthy spa appointment.”

“But if I win,” Rainbow finished, a wry grin curling the corner of her mouth, “you have to wear your showiest lady outfit to the migration. Unless you’re chicken?”

“Chicken? I will prove to you that I am definitely not a chicken!”

“Deal!”

She loudly hawked up an enormous glob of spit, which she slathered over a soon-extended hoof. Rarity hesitated, then seemed to draw up enough resolve to tentatively tap the offered hoof in a deal-sealing shake.

Later on, when Rainbow looked back at this fateful day, she would wonder what had possessed her to make such a bet. Then she would berate herself for asking such a stupid question, especially since she already knew the painful answer. Surely this was the lesser of two evils, wasn’t it?

In the early evening, when the Downspiral Diamond and Rainbow’s embarrassing path of destruction were cleared and the lights in the workroom were returned to their usual brightness, the lessons began.

Rainbow poked at the white box thing on the table in front of her. She knew Rarity used them, having crashed awesomely into the boutique multiple times, but its exact purpose was a mystery. “What’s this for?” she asked, unable to keep the curiosity out of her voice.

“It’s a sewing machine, Rainbow Dash.”

“I knew that.” She eyed the needle sticking out from the overhanging part of the machine. “So what does it do?”

Rarity looked over the top of her red-framed glasses at the pegasus in exasperation. “Well, what do you think it does?”

“No, I get that it sews and stuff. I mean what does this do that normal sewing doesn’t?”

“An excellent question! Manual sewing is useful for some of the more complicated and unusual stitches, and it is far easier to undo if you’ve made a mistake. But a machine like this will make the work go much more quickly and smoothly, which I believe is more your speed. And I suspect that you lack the patience to jump into ordinary sewing right away.”

“That’s true.”

“Now, to use the machine you have to keep a firm grip on the cloth you’re sewing, but not so firm that it can’t do its work. You also have to be very careful to keep your hooves away from the needle, unless you want a set of decidedly unwholesome stitches there. Since I doubt you’ll do a perfect job on your very first try, we’ll use these scraps as practice.”

Rainbow nodded, making the two scraps overlap beneath the needle. “Okay, careful with the pointy thing, got it. How does this go?”

“There’s a pedal beneath the table, which you press when you want to start. The harder you push, the faster the needle works.”

“Fast sounds good.” Rainbow fairly stomped down.

“RAINBOW, WAIT—”

For a brief moment, the pegasus felt the bizarre sensation of flying without wings as the cloth was yanked sharply forward, hard enough to pull her right over the sewing machine in a blaze of colorful confusion. Then she collided with the wall, and experienced an unpleasant sense of déjà vu at the impact.

Rarity sighed. “I’m afraid we have a lot of work ahead of us, Rainbow.”

Books

The afternoon sun was peeking through the window when Rainbow Dash finally awoke. She immediately regretted it as usual, squeezing her eyes shut in protest at the uncomfortable brightness. Grumbling incoherently under her breath, she automatically pulled the blanket over her head and buried her face in her pillow, embracing the sweet darkness again.

Naturally this did not go without consequence; the movement jostled the nearby nightstand, sending a heavy book toppling down directly onto her head.

Making a sound somewhere between a gurgle and a shriek, Rainbow jerked sharply to the side, rolled right off of the bed, and collided messily with the floor in a tangled heap of blanket and feathers. The resulting pain was not particularly affected by the fact that the floor, like the rest of the house, was made up of fluffy white cloud.

Groaning, she pushed herself onto her hooves with enough force to shove the blanket beneath halfway through the floor. Unfortunately she had forgotten that her violent reaction to the book’s unwarranted attack had wrapped her snugly into its cloth embrace, and her entire body was pulled downwards as a result. Her wings flared automatically, flapping as some primal part of her brain urged her to escape, but this only left her even more tangled up in the hideous mess. She toppled forward in what had to be her least graceful moment of all time, falling to the floor again with a loud thump.

She scowled and struggled slightly less forcefully to free herself, twisting her body and limbs this way and that, and gradually pulling herself out of the blanket’s crushing weight. Eventually she managed to emerge and stand on the refreshingly cool cloud, avoiding an embarrassing career as a pony burrito.

With that adventure out of the way, she stepped a bit shakily forward to take revenge on the book. It was lying there innocently enough, but she knew better than to let her guard down. After pausing to rub the sleep out of her eyes, she peered down at it suspiciously.

“What is this … ‘Sewing and You: A Beginner’s Guide’?” Her lip curled in automatic disgust, as if reading the title left a literal bad taste in her mouth.

Now that the haze of sleep was starting to disperse, she began to remember how she had gotten the book in the first place. Rarity had generously loaned it to her late last night, just before she’d left to finally go home for the first time in three days. The gift had been given in the midst of several piles of scraps sewn very messily together, creating a mess of clashing colors that even pre-demon Rainbow would have considered hideous.

“You really must get home,” the unicorn had told her, levitating the imposing tome in her direction a bit anxiously. “I insist you wrap this up, figuratively speaking, darling, and get some rest. While I can hardly call myself an expert in weather operations, I’m fairly certain that your coworkers will be less than pleased if you fail to show up for your work tomorrow.”

“You’re just scared I’ll win the bet,” Rainbow had replied with a sleepy sneer, wrapping a few squares of indigo and lime-green fabric into a ball and tossing it over her shoulder. Rarity had made a noise of disgust at this, but naturally it was ignored. “‘Snot like they’ll care anyway … weather patrol’s pretty cool with it most of the time. Raindrops should still be covering my shift for the next few days anyway; I’ve still got to let them know I’m out of the hospital already.”

“Be that as it may, you should still take a look at what you’ve just knocked over.”

Rainbow had blearily glanced around to take in the sight of a clock resting on a thick pile of fabric, still ticking away insistently despite being abruptly dislodged from its rightful place on the wall above. “What? It’s not broken or anything, it works just fine. Jeez, Rarity, don’t get saddlesore over it.”

“The time, Rainbow.”

“Quarter past midnight, so what?”

“You’re seeing the hands quite the wrong way. It’s almost four in the morning.”

“Already?” She had paused in her automatic reaching for the next doomed fabric scrap, letting the fact of the hour sink in. “Huh.”

“I want you to go home, Rainbow,” Rarity had ordered, gently but firmly. The massive volume in her grasp had nudged the pegasus lightly, blue magic sinking briefly into blue fur. “Go home, and get a decent amount of sleep. And I’d like you to begin reading from this once you’ve woken up; it should be highly informative to a beginner. Not that I believe you need a remedial course in sewing or anything similar,” she’d lied hastily, noticing her friend’s expression. “You’re coming along splendidly, but I’m afraid there’s only a finite amount of fabric in the world to work with, and my finances would greatly prefer a minimal loss. You understand, don’t you?”

Mulling over that conversation in the present, Rainbow Dash found that she did understand that fact. She wasn’t an expert in money management, but she knew that had their positions been reversed, she wouldn’t have wanted to waste money set aside for sun taxes just to fund a little whim project for Rarity. It was a communal understanding throughout Equestria, and actively being a drain on another pony’s resources was frowned on at best. If there was one thing the prismatic pegasus didn’t want, it was the disapproval of other ponies.

Rainbow also understood that if she failed to read a significant amount of that book, Rarity would undoubtedly feel entitled to refuse her entry to the Boutique until that issue was corrected. Obviously such a thing would not do, for various reasons. Letting that demon eat her soul would be a crushing blow to her ego; losing a bet against Rarity of all ponies was simply unacceptable.

Sighing in defeat, Rainbow heaved the book up onto her bed with considerable effort. She considered the prospect of spending the next several hours laying there on her stomach, hind hooves grinding into the pillow behind her from restless boredom, wings folding and unfolding and flapping in a semiconscious longing to return to the sky, eyes constantly shifting up towards the clock to see the seconds tick by with agonizing slowness that would make even Tank shake his head in disbelief, all for the sake of a pretty sparkly suit or whatever that everything in Equestria would scream at for immediate incineration and the destruction a demon that she hadn’t even known existed last week …

Then her gaze drifted back over to Daring Do and the Cove of Candles, resting innocently on the windowsill.

“Nah,” she decided, grabbing the smaller novel in her hooves and flapping out of the room. That hideous manual could wait for an hour or so, and she needed to get some late breakfast in her stomach before even considering undertaking such a monstrous task. And Tank had to be fed, of course. She really had to remember to thank Fluttershy for taking care of him while she’d been gone, as well as bringing Cove of Candles over to her house. She’d been waiting ages for it to come in to the library, to the point that not even the wet puppy-dog eyes of expectant school-age colts could keep her from finally getting her hooves on it. It couldn’t hurt to get a chapter or so read while munching a daffodil sandwich. She’d had the demon for days now, so what was twenty or so more minutes of putting it off?

On the bed behind her, Sewing and You: A Beginner’s Guide remained silently in place, feeling as lonely and underappreciated as a book possibly can. In the distant library a studious unicorn’s ears pricked as some sixth sense alerted her to the aching tragedy of a book unjustly unread. The unicorn paused for a moment, wondering what had mysteriously distracted her, before shrugging to herself and returning her attention to the dozens of open books surrounding her. It was probably nothing, she decided, and thus refocused her intent on assisting her distressed pegasus friend in overcoming her inner demon.

Reminders

"I hope you don't mind me saying this," Starlight was saying, "but I think I'd be rather interested in joining you on your little expedition. The treasures in that cave will surely bring out my fabulous qualities to extents that even I couldn't imagine!"

Daring considered resisting the urge to slam her face against the table, but she decided to indulge herself in her exasperation. "Lady, I think you misunderstood. Going past the first eighth of a mile, the cove hasn't been explored in hundreds of years, meaning there could ... no, there will be all kinds of dangers in there. Not to mention that Ahuizotl and his goons are probably still down there, waiting for me to bust through all the obstacles before swooping in and grabbing the treasure for themselves. And that's assuming Blackmane and the Hide-Taker aren't myths! You've heard of leather, haven't you?"

"Really, Daring Do," the unicorn huffed, "I think you underestimate me. Surely you don't believe a lady like myself can't hold her own in the heat of the moment, do you?"

Daring slapped her.

"Oof!" She led out an unladylike growl. "Why, what in the name of—"

"Did that hurt?" the pegasus asked, drawing back her hoof.

"It certainly did! And why should you be concerned about whether you caused pain when you deliberately attacked me?"

"Because that doesn't even count as an attack. Compared to the stuff I go up against every day, that's practically a tickle."

"Are you implying only thick-skinned brutes like yourself are capable of adventure?"

"I'm saying that you're not used to a rough-and-tumble life like I am. Why should you try to be something you're not? Trying to improve your image isn't a good enough excuse."

"I'll thank you to listen when I'm trying to talk to you, Rainbow Dash!"

Rainbow's blinked. She reread the passage, failed to see any mention of her name there, and set the book down in confusion. A feminine grumbling caught her attention, and with perked ears she made her way over to the window, leaning against the cloud windowsill as she looked down.

She nearly gaped at the sight. The sunlight was an impressive sight by itself, soaking the sky in a rainbow of golds and pinks and purples; yet it couldn't hold a candle to the fashionable pony on the grass below. Her white fur caught the light in a way that made her positively glow, while her sleek mane and tail shone gently in the dying day. Indeed, the entire shape of the unicorn radiated a marvelous aura that drew the eye, but not in an obtrusive way. It was more of a gentle beauty, quietly blooming in a garden of comparatively mundane flowers.

Rainbow stared for a good long while. Rarity stared back.

"No," Rainbow said firmly. She punched herself in the jaw, and the world righted itself in a burst of pain. "Rarity isn't pretty."

"I beg your pardon, Rainbow Dash?"

"Augh!" She blanched. "I didn't mean to say that out loud! I mean ... you are pretty, I guess, but not in a distracting way. But if you were distracting, it'd be the kind of distracting that causes carriage accidents."

Rarity's frown deepened.

"No, the good kind of carriage accidents! It's like where you strut around being all 'look at me, I'm fabulous,' and then ponies all over Equestria look and have to agree that you're fabulous, because Celestia knows what we'd do if you weren't around to be a pony-shaped can and hold all the fabulousness in Equestria. That's when everypony would crash, because you have all your curls and stuff. They'd be too busy watching you to pay attention to anything else."

Rarity was unimpressed.

"I mean ... ugh, forget it. I'm not gonna make it any easier on myself by talking."

"Rainbow," Rarity said uncertainly, "have I come at a bad time?"

"What? Nah, I just talk to myself sometimes." A giggle escaped her throat, and a magenta eye twitched. "Everypony does at some point or another, you know?"

"... Right." Rarity shook herself. "Ah ... how are you coming along with that book?"

Rainbow beamed, relieved that her awkward ramblings had been swept aside. "It's pretty great. Daring's arguing with this Applewood star pony, and she's making it pretty obvious that she has to be herself. I mean, Daring's making it obvious for Starlight. But Starlight's pretty lame, so I don't think it'll stick."

"So you finished reading through the sewing guide already?"

She considered those words for a moment, and her ears drooped. "Huh. That was a thing. I knew I wasn't remembering something."

Rarity buried her face in her hoof. "Surely you can't be serious."

"Hey, if anypony's sure about anything here, it's me being sure that I'm awesome! And don't call me Sirius."

"It's been five days," the unicorn continued, pointedly ignoring that nonsense, "and from what I can tell you haven't even touched the book I lent you. I thought you were actually interested in sewing, but apparently you've simply been pulling my leg for reasons only you can fathom."

"But I am interested in it. Even though it's boring. It's just that Daring Do is pretty much more awesome than sewing in every way. How was I supposed to give that up?"

"Now there's a question I can't answer." She shrugged. "I suppose if you really wish to lose the bet, that's your prerogative. I'll just book that spa appointment, then, if you plan to back out so early."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Rainbow darted from her window and swooped down, landing in front of her friend with a thump. "I didn't say I wasn't going to do it. I'm still making that costume. I just don't have to worry about it since I can get it finished before Applejack can say 'slow down, sugarcube.'"

"If you say so." Rarity smirked. "Though I must admit, I have my doubts."

"Yeah, well, you know what you can do with your doubts. Are you good with me coming over right now? I bet I can come up with an idea before I need to catch up on my beauty sleep ... I mean, my awesome sleep."

Her brow furrowed, but she sighed and let the slip pass. "If you don't mind that Sweetie Belle and her friends are having a game night there, then certainly. But just what are you going to do there if you don't have a plan?"

"Hey, that's easy. I'll do it Rainbow Dash style."

Rainbow wasn't sure why Rarity looked terrified. After all, if she went out of her way to do dumb girly things while doing her best to be her normal self at the same time, the process of getting rid of the demon would be a snap. Then she'd be out of Rarity's gorgeous mane — no, she wouldn't fawn over that giant parrot disguised as a mane — and she could get back to her real life.

It's not like anything could go wrong, right?