Breaking Bad

“Yo, Twilight!”

“Oh, hey Rainbow! How are you today?” Twilight beamed, her horn alit and enveloping the door’s golden handle, “Come in, come in!”

Waving the pegasus into her abode, Twilight closed the door and turned around, watching as her friend reached to her head and yanked the yellow and black beanie atop it, throwing it onto the nearby couch to her right and proceeding toward the dusted furniture with a bored expression.

Practically collapsing onto the lounge, she crossed her hooves behind her head and shut her eyes, wriggling in discomfort before settling down and reclining idly in the library.

She remained like this for what she felt to be minutes, before she heard a voice call her name, “So, uh, Rainbow Dash?”

Her mind groaned loudly, but she was able to respond begrudgingly, “Yeah, Twi?”

“What, uh, what did you need?”

Suddenly snapping her eyes open in realization, she stammered, “Ah shit, that’s right-”

“Language, Rainbow!” Twilight hissed, motioning her head towards the purple drake currently sweeping the floor across the room.

“Heh, my bad,” she apologized, tilting her head to the side and giving a cheeky grin. Twilight looked at her, unimpressed with her cursing, but let her continue.

“I, uh, I need a favor," the pegasus admitted, getting up from the couch with a hurried expression on her face.

"Uh, what is it?" Twilight inquired, taken aback by Rainbow's sudden mood change. Lighting her horn, she retrieved a notebook and a freshly-inked quill, ready to write down whatever wacky thing her friend needed so she could remember it for later.

"I need a Winnemango."

"A Winnemango-"

"You know," Rainbow started, splaying her hooves out to emphasize her explanation, "like one of those big RV things-"

"Okay, first off, why do you need one?"

Rainbow sat on her haunches obediently, responding with a simple, "I want to go camping."

"And who would you even go camping with?"

"Uh, Pinkie Pie, of course. Maybe Rarity if she decides to stop bein' such a clean freak-"

Twilight raised a hoof, signifying her turn to speak abruptly, "Another problem. You know how much a Winnemango can cost? That's a lot of bits..."

"But!" Rainbow interrupted, raising her own hoof and brandishing a smile, "you're tight with the Princess!"

Twilight rolled her eyes at this.

"You got tickets to the Gala, one of the hardest things to even get tickets for, you got a book full of forbidden spells, hell, you got your own gun a couple weeks ago-"

"Which is only for researching purposes."

"-so why couldn't you get a clunky old RV?" Rainbow pondered loudly, giving a small shrug of her shoulders to further emphasize her confusion.

"Why do you suddenly want to camp in the first place? You don't even have a place to put it!"

"I could ask Applejack. I mean, she brought it up in the first place."

Twilight threw her hoof into her face, dragging her nose and mouth down with the appendage as she groaned, "Alright, I'll see what I can do, Rainbow."

"Thanks, Twi!" she exclaimed, hugging her friend for a brief moment before trotting toward the door in a hurry, "oh, and tell her not to do the license plate, I can manage it by myself!"

And with that, the mare was out the door, leaving behind a blinking purple alicorn and a confused drake, who raised a claw to speak, only for his caretaker to quiet him with a defeated, "Don't ask, Spike."

He could only give a confirming, "Well, alright then Twilight," before returning to his mop and inserting it into the cold bucket of water nearby.

Flam withdrew his hooves from the steel kettle standing in front of him, rubbing the ice cold water over his face and looking at himself in the fogged mirror staring back at the stallion expectantly. Figuring out what it wanted, he wiped the condensation off the glass and shivered at his reflection. His red and white mane was frazzled, as if he had just gotten up from rolling around on a blanket. Breathing in a single, long breath, he quickly turned around and trotted toward the crate he had returned to this cursed tent for.

Stenciled across its side were the words, Tonic Supplies. Lighting his horn and cracking it open, he looked inside to reassure himself that everything he needed was inside, before replacing the lid and walking out in a hurry, he stopped at the front entrance.

Turning his head, he noted the large tarp previously hung over their Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 now sat quietly on the grass floor. His mind immediately went to the outcome he knew would happen at some point from the very start.

His brother was long gone.

And with him, the large sum of bits they had successfully swindled from countless ponies in Equestria.

Knitting his brow in dawning realization, he cast one last glance at the tent before he quickly stepped out into the fresh Equis air, closing the flap behind him angrily without a second look. Crate levitating idly beside him, he took in a deep breath and turned his head to the left, watching as Celestia's sun slowly disappeared over the horizon, leaving behind a waning light that gradually grew smaller and smaller as he walked to Ponyville's local confection shop.

Walking right past the gingerbread-looking settlement, he prayed silently that what he had told the mare to do was actually done. The crate of supplies next to him, he turned the corner and raised a surprised brow at what he saw.

A large, long, white RV sped up to him, stopping just mere inches from invading his personal space. The slim rectangular grille puffed out slightly darkened white smoke, almost in a mock impression of the cyan mare currently sitting in the driver's seat, her head poking out the window, "We ain't got all night, yo. Get in."

"Keep your damn voice down, you almost hit me!" Flam hissed in response, looking around their environment to make sure that no one was witnessing this spectacle. Taking a slight step back, he adjusted his blue and white shirt, glaring daggers at the pegasus currently groaning at him, "took you long enough, by the way."

"Was only a couple o' days, yo. Told ya I'd get it."

Walking toward the right side, he magicked the door and threw it open, placing the crate on the carpeted floor of the RV before jumping into it himself. Not even waiting for him to strap in, the mare threw her hoof into the stick, speeding off from behind Sugarcube Corner and into the night. The olive stallion in the back carefully magicked the crate of glassware into the sink and secured it, before casting an annoyed glance toward the pegasus mare and falling into the passenger seat.

As if hesitantly, she turned her head and looked him up and down, as if in thought.

As they veered out of Ponyville, heading south, she broke the verbal silence with a grumbling sentence.

"Can't believe I'm actually doin' this shit...."

"And just what is this... 'bitch'?"

Rainbow suddenly lunged for the plastic bag, reaching out and attempting to rip it from the stallion's hooves. He sidestepped without the slightest amount of attempt, watching as the mare fell to the floor in a heap, her hoof still outstretched in preparation. Swiftly getting up as if it hadn't happened, she seethed at Flam, who examined the crystalline rocks like an observant scientist.

The pegasus licked her lips before stuttering, "It uh, it's just some candy..."

"Candy that almost got you killed, huh?"

Flam raised a brow. Hovering the rocks next to him, he slowly paced around the room in front of the cyan mare, "Candy that you wanted nine hundred bits for?"

Rainbow could only watch as he suddenly turned toward her, the darkness of the house shadowing everything but his eyes, "I find that hard to believe."

"Look, whaddyou want man?"

"These are Rocks. I know them when I see them."

"I-"

"I've traveled all around Equestria. You think I don't know what Rocks look like?"

He looked at the mare, her hoof tapping lightly against the floor and her teeth biting her bottom lip tightly, as if she was attempting to bleed herself.

"How'd you find me-"

"I followed you."

"Well, why are you here?"

"I was curious," Flam replied simply, as if it was the easiest thing he could've said, "Honestly, I never expected you to amount to much, but....Rocks?"

"Eh..."

"I never pictured that," he said, throwing the baggie over to the mare, who caught it in mid-air and held it delicately in a hoof. Looking back up at him, the stallion continued, "There's a lot of bits in it, huh?"

"I dunno what you're talking about."

"No...?"

"Not a clue."

Flam leaned toward her menacingly, knowing full well how much he was intimidating her. Rainbow couldn't help but shrink in size and stare right back at him as he said, "I don't believe you."

"Look, I don't know what you're doing here, yo, I mean, if you're planning on giving me some bull-winder about getting myself right with Lord Faust or turning myself in-"

"No. The cider competition was years ago. Lemme tell you," Flam said, lighting his horn and sliding a chair toward his flank, he sat down nonchalantly and explained, "your 'friends' just ran off in quite the hurry. And with the ruckus they made, someone's bound to get here and inform the Guard."

Rainbow twiddled her hooves, looking every which way to look as innocent as possible.

"You don't have a lot of time left, so you see. You lost your dealers, they ran off with your bits, and you have low supply. You," he addressed the mare, poking a hoof in her direction to emphasize the notion, "have nothing. You're at square one, young filly. But, you know the business, and I know the chemistry. I'm thinking....you and I could partner up."

Flam reclined in his seat, a normal expression plastered onto his face. Rainbow looked to the left, and then to the right, and then stared at the mustached stallion in front of her, gulped, "You, uh, you wanna cook Zap Rocks?"

Flam nodded simply.

"You," she pointed at him worriedly, "you, and uh, me..."

Rainbow considered what she could be getting into. The stallion in front of her could very well become the stallion who uncovered her for who she truly was, showing the ponies she's loved her darkest secret, and incarcerating her for Faust knows how long. He could be the one pony who killed the famous Rainbow Dash, future leader of the Wonderbolts and the Element of Loyalty. He could be the thief of all the money she had ever collected.

He could be her partner.

Looking back at the olive stallion expectantly, he broke the silence with two lingering words.

"That's right."