A Bother Like No Other
By: Nicole Sunstone
“Thanks for taking me out to Sugarcube Corner today, Pinkie!” Rainbow Dash said happily as she fit an entire cupcake into her mouth.
“No problem Dashie! I know how you always like sweets, and who better to share them with than you!” Pinkie Pie said cheerfully as she reached over and hugged Rainbow Dash. The Pegasus winced slightly before chuckling nervously. “Is something wrong?”
“Huh? Oh, it’s nothing.” Rainbow Dash rubbed her hoof behind her head before trying to reach the spot on her back between her wings. “Do you remember when we were fighting the bugbear that day in Ponyville?”
“Do I ever! It was so exciting! I mean, everypony should have been there to see it!” she replied, chowing down on another cupcake.
“Yeah, well that big monster managed to bite me in a very uncomfortable area.” Rainbow Dash continued, barely scratching the spot that she was trying to reach. Chewing on the sweet cupcake, Pinkie Pie pulled a scratching device out of her mane and reached it over to scratch at Rainbow Dash’s back.
“Ohh yeah. That’s it Pinkie.”
Her leg kicked out as she leaned into the scratching, before Pinkie Pie gasped from behind her. “Umm, Dashie?”
“Hey, why did you stop?” Rainbow Dash asked, looking over her shoulder. Pinkie Pie reached into her mane and pulled out a small personal mirror that was reflecting Rainbow Dash’s back with a dark black spot that was covered in fur.
“Did you dye your coat recently?” Pinkie Pie asked.
“No, Pinkie.”
“Fall into a vat of tar?” she continued.
“No, Pinkie.”
She jumped around to in front of Rainbow Dash and looked her right in the eye. Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened as Pinkie Pie moved closer to her face.
“Are you really Rainbow Dash? Or are you wearing a Rainbow Dash costume?”
“Yes, Pinkie! It’s really me!” Rainbow Dash lightly shoved her away, respecting her need for personal space. Pinkie Pie crawled around to Rainbow Dash’s back with a magnifying glass and examined the spot.
“Hmm, well if anyone should know about animal bites, it’s Fluttershy!” Pinkie Pie explained, putting the magnifying glass back in her mane. “You should go and see her.”
Rainbow Dash sipped the rest of her drink on the table and sighed. “It’s probably nothing Pinkie! It just, you know, itches every now and then.”
“I dunno, when dealing with the mysterious creatures of our day-to-day Ponyville, you can never be too careful!” Pinkie Pie warned as she hopped back over to behind the kitchen door. Rainbow Dash thought hard about what she had said as she fruitlessly tried to scratch the spot on her back, flapping her wings. Groaning in defeat, she trotted outside and flew towards Fluttershy’s cottage.
“Fluttershy! Are you home?” Rainbow Dash asked, contorting to many different positions as she sat on the front porch of Fluttershy’s cottage. The door swung open as the yellow Pegasus stood happily in the doorway.
“Oh! Rainbow Dash! I wasn’t expecting you to come by today.” she said quietly, remembering that Rainbow Dash hardly ever visited her at her cottage.
“Yeah, hey Fluttershy.” Rainbow Dash replied, looking around the room for something to rub her back on. She decided to go with the side of the couch, stretching out over the cushion.
“Can I help you with something?” Fluttershy asked happily, even though she was a little confused at the motions that Rainbow Dash was making on her couch. “Maybe a nice cup of tea or-”
“Actually, I have a bit of a problem.” Rainbow Dash explained between flaring out her wings and rubbing her back against the hard couch cushion. “You remember when we fought that half-bug, half-bear monster in Ponyville?”
“Oh yes. While I usually like bugs and bears, he was a bit scarier than either one. I can’t believe that Twilight finished him off like that.” Fluttershy thought, remembering the scene vividly in her mind.
“Yeah, that was not something for anypony to miss. But I’m more concerned about when I got bitten by the bugbear.”
Fluttershy gasped, causing Rainbow Dash to freeze in her awkward position on the couch. “What? What is it?”
“The bugbear bit you?”
“Yes!” Rainbow Dash explained, turning over to look at Fluttershy.
“Oh no!”
“What? Do you have experience with bugbear bites?” she asked, starting to look worried at how Fluttershy was acting.
“Not particularly.” Rainbow Dash groaned as she fell on her back, rubbing and scratching on the floor. “I’ve dealt with bug bites and I know Harry is behaved enough to not bite anypony, but never bugbear bites.”
“Please Fluttershy! This itching is becoming unbearable!” she pleaded as she turned over on her hooves, her wings twitching as she felt the need to itch.
“Oh, that must be quite a bother.” Fluttershy said quietly.
“Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash groaned, biting her lip. “Can you just look at it? Pinkie didn’t say what it looked like.”
Fluttershy nodded and walked around to Rainbow Dash’s back where she saw a thick black and white stripe stretching from the back of her neck to the top of her tail. She gasped quietly, but just enough for Rainbow Dash to hear her, like she heard Pinkie Pie earlier that day.
“Will somepony please explain what is back there? It looked like a black spot last time!” Rainbow Dash fidgeted, her wings flared and twitching as she bit harder on her lip.
“Umm, how long have you been scratching?” Fluttershy asked, looking closer at the stripe.
“All day!” she cried, rolling over to rub against the floor. “Do you have a way to stop it?”
Fluttershy shook her head. “It’s not like any bug bite.”
“Come on, Fluttershy! There has to be some way.” Rainbow Dash pleaded as she instinctively rubbed against the floor. Fluttershy thought for a second before going over to her table with a pencil and a piece of paper, scribbling on it. “What are you doing?”
Spitting the pencil out, Fluttershy whistled to one of her birds and tied the paper to it’s leg before sending it off out the window. “I’m sending a letter to Treehugger. She’s dealt with all sorts of rare and dangerous creatures so maybe she knows what to do for a bugbear bite.”
“That’s great! When can she get here?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“The earliest would be tomorrow. Have you seen Twilight yet?” Fluttershy suggested, leaning over to look at Rainbow Dash’s back. A gasp of realization escaped Rainbow Dash’s mouth as she snapped her wing.
“Of course! Twilight has the library! She knows how to fix this!” she announced before hugging Fluttershy. “I’ll go and see her!”
Without as much as another second, Rainbow Dash flew out the door and towards Twilight’s castle on the edge of Ponyville. Fluttershy held her hoof to her chin as she thought about the strange mark and closed the door to her cottage.
Landing at the front door, Rainbow Dash knocked on the door before feeling the urge to scratch again.
“Hello?” Spike said as he opened the door to find Rainbow Dash rubbing her back against the sharp crystal wall that formed part of the castle. “Rainbow Dash? What are you doing?”
“Oh, hey Spike!” Rainbow Dash said, flying back over to the door. “I need to see Twilight about something.”
“Umm, sure! She’s not busy right now.” Spike said as he opened the door for her. Watching her trot by, Spike couldn’t help but notice the big black and white stripe that was going down Rainbow Dash’s back. Trying to hold back, he snickered before flat-out laughing.
“What’s so funny?” Rainbow Dash asked, turning to the dragon that was holding his sides.
“Hey Rainbow Dash! Did you run into a skunk or something?” Spike asked as a joke before falling back over.
“It’s not funny!” she shot back before an idea came to her. Trotting over to the laughing dragon, Rainbow Dash picked up Spike on her back and held up a gem that she had been looking after in front of him. Spike’s mouth watered as he looked on at the precious jewel.
“I’ll give you this gem if you scratch my back for the rest of the night. Applejack said that you give pretty awesome back scratches.” Rainbow Dash offered as Spike grabbed the gem in his claws and put it away for safe keeping.
“Your own personal backscratcher at your service!” Spike announced as he cracked the joints in his claws. Holding them out with their sharp tips, Spike dug deep into black and white parts of Rainbow Dash’s coat and starting his scratching.
Rainbow Dash shivered at the contact and kicked her leg out before walking to the main table room. “Huh, she’s not here, Spike!”
Spike stopped scratching to see the thrones empty around the inactive table. “Oh yeah! She’s in the library!”
“Of course, that egghead.” Rainbow Dash teased as she coughed to signal Spike to keep scratching. Spike began to worry as the black and white patches were starting to grow all across her coat but focused on the job at his claws.
“And then, when the cadet meets her long-lost mother the night before the big Wonderbolts event, she forgives her for leaving to pursue her dream and they share a warm family embrace as the mother gets the courage to leave her abusive husband’s cloudhome and move away to Rainbow Falls where they could live happily ever after! Oh yeah, and the cadet does such an awesome job at the event that she becomes captain of the Wonderbolts!” Rainbow Dash continued as she finally reached the doors to the castle library after walking around for hours. “So what did you think?”
Spike shook his head, keeping his claws on auto-pilot as he daydreamed about scratching Rarity’s back. “Uhh! Yeah! It was great! Oh hey, we’re here!”
Walking through the doors, Twilight was surprised to see Rainbow Dash trot through, along with Spike sitting on her back as he scratched at her coat.
“Rainbow Dash, what a surprise!” Twilight put down her book as she noticed the black and white patches that were no longer just on her back but the sides of her body and down her hooves as well. “Whoa, what happened to you?”
“What do you mean, you haven’t-” Rainbow Dash began as she held her hoof up to see the black and white patches covering it. She gasped and jumped back two feet in horror. “Stop scratching!”
Spike stopped his claw and looked over Rainbow Dash’s shoulder. “Oh yeah, I meant to tell you about that.”
“What’s happening?” Rainbow Dash asked, starting to hyperventilate as she looked at her hoof. Suddenly a jolt of discomfort struck her as she bucked off Spike and started to shake on the floor.
“The bugbear bite…” Twilight said, looking over the patterns consistent to those of a panda on the cyan Pegasus. “What have you been doing, Rainbow? You shouldn’t scratch at that!”
“I didn’t know that!” Rainbow Dash groaned, twisting and kicking all four of her legs while she writhed on the ground. “But scratching is the only way to soothe this!”
Twilight shook her head as she prepared a spell in her horn and washed its aura over Rainbow Dash as she stopped shaking and rolling around on the floor. She shakily stood up and caught her breath.
“Thanks Twilight.” Rainbow Dash panted and coughed.
“The bugbear has very mysterious origins, Rainbow Dash. You should have came to me first! And you definitely shouldn’t have been scratching at it non-stop!” Twilight scolded as Spike ran back over.
“Does this mean that I have to stop for the night?” he asked, stretching his claws out.
Twilight shot him a nasty look. Rainbow Dash waved her off. “I have you for the rest of the night, so don’t worry about Twilight here.”
“Anyway,” Twilight interrupted, bringing over her own quill and parchment to write. “I’ve put a sedation spell on your body for the time being. You won’t feel the need to scratch for at least the next 12 hours.”
“Well, what about after that?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Hopefully we reverse whatever this is that’s happening to you. I’ve never seen this kind of response to any monster bite, but very little is actually known about the elusive bugbear.”
“This whole bugbear thing is really a bit of a bother, isn’t it?” she asked, flapping her wings as she discovered the black and white patches on the edges of it.
“Indeed. It was lucky for me to have remembered it’s weakness, but only because Fluttershy had a passing knowledge of pandas.” Twilight wrote down some notes as she observed Rainbow Dash closely. “I want you to stay the night. But you have to promise me two things.”
“Sure thing, Twilight! What are they?”
“One, you don’t scratch any of the patches. The spell may have sedated the itching sensation, but the patches could still be active. In what way is to be determined.” Twilight began, writing down the instructions. “Two, you immediately come to me in the morning if anything changes.”
“Got it!”
“Spike! Take a letter!” Twilight ordered, floating over the quill and parchment to him. “We need to send a letter to Princess Celestia about the bugbear encounter. The last time the creature was seen was in Canterlot. Perhaps this affliction has been dealt with before.”
Spike wrote the final pieces to the letter and sent it off with his dragon’s breath. “Done and done!”
“Rainbow Dash, get some sleep. The spell I placed on you should give you a good night’s rest.”
“No problem!” Rainbow Dash said with a slight yawn. Trotting out the door, she waved with her wing and made her way to a spare bedroom. Spike tiptoed towards the door before Twilight loudly cleared her throat.
“And just where do you think you’re going?” Twilight asked, giving a sharp look.
“She paid me to be a backscratcher for the whole night! I can’t go back on that or she’ll want the gem back!” Spike said, pulling the gem out to show Twilight.
“Spike! Didn’t you listen to what I said? No scratching!” she shot back.
“What about massages?”
Twilight sighed and used her magic to pick up Spike and bring him over to her. “You need to keep me company, in case Princess Celestia replies.”
“Oh yeah, right.” Spike said, crossing his claws across his chest.
Rainbow Dash slept soundly in one of the guest beds as she spread out on the covers. Her dreams seemed strange as she dreamt of golden scepters, kissing mares and a dark DJ club scene, but they were all pleasant for the most part. Of course, her hoof couldn’t help to scratch at herself in the middle of the night.
Waking up, Rainbow Dash yawned and got out of the bed. Shaking her body all over, she was expecting to feel the swish of her rainbow tail behind her but she never did. Looking behind at her back, she screamed and galloped out of the room.
Spike was peacefully eating breakfast at the main table when he saw a blue, black and white figure dart down the stairs.
“Where’s Twilight?!”
He peered closer to realize it was Rainbow Dash who had been covered in black and white with her wings no longer appearing against her back. Twilight yawned at the top of the stairs as she looked down to see Rainbow Dash and Spike.
“Uh oh.” Twilight said, trotting down the stairs a bit faster. “What happened last night?”
“I don’t know!” Rainbow Dash replied, feeling her face becoming a bit flushed. “I was asleep!”
“Spike! Take care of the castle! Come on Rainbow Dash, we need to take you to a professional!” Twilight exclaimed as she took Rainbow Dash in her wing to lead her out of the castle.
“Well, I’ve never seen anything like it!” the doctor said as he examined Rainbow Dash closely in his office. “She appears to be a pony but the markings suggest a bear of some kind.”
“I am a pony!” Rainbow Dash said as she started scratching at her ears. Almost instantly, her pony ears started to round out to fuzzy bear ears. “You gotta help me, Doc!”
“I’m afraid there’s nothing I can do. Have you tried performing a reversal, Princess?”
“It wouldn’t work. The bug- err… the magic that’s over her is too strange to reverse or use a failsafe on and I can’t simply just poof her back to normal.” Twilight explained, seeing as her spell had just worn off.
“Well with all of her tests, we’ve concluded that the patches now covering her body are very sensitive. I can’t explain the loss of her wings but I’d say you have about a few more hours before she’s completely covered with fuzz.” the doctor explained, looking over his notes.
“Is there anything we can do?” Twilight asked as Rainbow Dash bit down on her lip behind her.
“I can recommend you to colleague. She has more experience in this field.”
“A panda problem certainly is perplexing.” The veterinarian commented as she pulled back the penlight from Rainbow Dash’s mouth, which was slowly starting to shrink in. “And you say she was a pony before all of this?”
“Yes! She still has her mane and hooves!” Twilight explained, holding up one of Rainbow Dash’s hooves.
“Not for long, I would imagine. With the way that the fur is spreading, she’ll be a panda in no time.” the veterinarian said as she looked over her notes. “Have you bought any bamboo for the occasion?”
“We don’t want her as a panda!” Twilight shot back, “By the royal order of Equestria, you work with animals, you need to find a way to fix this!”
“Sorry Princess, but I work with natural animals. Your friend here is the victim of a bothersome transformation.”
Twilight groaned as Rainbow Dash let out a bear-like roar. She quickly held up her hooves to her mouth after, looking embarrassed.
“There’s still one place we can try.”, Twilight muttered.
“Hello, welcom- oh my goodness!” Fluttershy cried out as Twilight pushed the Rainbow Dash sized panda into the cottage. “Is that-?”
“Fluttershy… we need your help.” Twilight pleaded as Rainbow Dash roared softly in her bear-like state. The only thing that still identified her was the rainbow patch of fur around her head.
“Treehugger?” Fluttershy said loudly enough for it be heard in the room across the cottage. “Can you come over here?”
A soft-green mare trotted down the stairs and smiled. “What’s your vibe, Shy?”
“This is what I was talking about in the letter, Treezy. Although, she was a lot less bearish yesterday.” she explained, rubbing her hoof under Rainbow Dash’s chin.
“Like, totally exotic. What beautiful creature did you run into for her to blossom like this?” Treehugger asked, walking closer to the bear.
“Well, I wouldn’t exactly call it beautiful.” Twilight added, rubbing the back of her head.
“Have you ever heard of a bugbear?” Fluttershy asked, looking over at Treehugger.
“Oh yeah, totally. I have those like all the time.” she replied, waving her hoof out on the gentle vibes.
“Really? I had no idea.”
“I mean, when somepony harshes my flow, that just gives my chakra a bad aura, you know?” Treehugger explained.
“No, she means the half-bug, half-bear monster that tries to destroy cities in under half an hour.” Twilight corrected.
“Half-bug, half-bear? Righteous. I think I know a guy that saw that when he was lost in the Whitetail Woods after our desert retreat.”
“So, that’s a no.” Twilight looked at Fluttershy, who was slightly embarrassed. Rainbow Dash roared in sadness, holding her face in her bear paws.
“Oh Fluttershy, why didn’t you just ask me for help?”
The ponies all looked around while Treehugger was lost in a trance-like state, looking at her hoof. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.
“Hello?” Fluttershy asked as she opened the door, letting Discord appear on the couch behind everypony.
“Discord! Are you behind this?” Twilight asked, pointing an accusatory hoof.
“Why of course not! Pandas are so last season. I mean, who wants to deal with a big furry bear. Now turning a pony into slime, that’s something I could get behind.” Discord explained as he cracked his back, stretching his mis-matched wings as he stood up.
“How long have you been listening in on us?” Fluttershy asked, giving a soft smile to her friend.
“Oh, long enough Fluttershy.” he replied with a brush of his lion’s paw. “But back to the issue of poor Rainbow Dash and her beary fate.”
“If you know how to fix this...” Twilight began, still pointing her hoof at Discord. Although, now Treehugger was looking at Twilight’s hoof as it stood in the air.
“I don’t know how, but I will try my best.” Discord suggest, opening a small portal as he pulled out a young colt. “First thing’s first, we need a volunteer.”
Placing the pony down, he cowered in front of the reformed spirit of chaos. “Good! Now, this won’t hurt but you might be hungry for tree sap afterwards.”
“Whoa, you don’t need to drop harsh names.” Treehugger commented, giving what appeared to be a half-sleepy-eyed, half-sharp look. Discord rolled his eyes as he snapped his eagle’s claw, using his magic to instantly turn the pony in front of him into a panda.
“Okay, so you can change a pony into a panda. What about changing them back?” Twilight asked as the smaller bear roared. Rainbow Dash replied in a soft roar, patting his back. Discord reversed his snap as the aura washed over the panda, not having any changes.
“Well, I guess my magic can’t. Sorry, Princess.” Discord shrugged as he picked up the panda and opened the portal, throwing him back to where he came.
Twilight ground her teeth as Fluttershy patted her back. “Well, I guess Rainbow Dash will just stay as a panda from now on.”
“I can take her to the rare creatures reserve back home.” Treehugger suggested. Discord clicked his tongue and wrapped his lion’s paw around her shoulders.
“Treehugger, my friend. Why don’t you and I go back upstairs while the ponies say their goodbyes. I think I can get you some excellent herbs from a dimension that I know.”
“Outta-sight.” she replied as her and Discord left the room.
“I’m sorry, Twilight.” Fluttershy said softly, leading the bear Rainbow Dash to the door.
“It’s okay, Fluttershy. I guess there’s no hope to change her back.” Twilight sighed and trotted out of the door, hanging her head.
“I heard you ran across the bugbear?”
Twilight looked up and found herself with a bag over her head. “Wah! What’s the meaning of this? Fluttershy?”
“Close the door.” the voice commanded. Fluttershy squeaked and locked the door after Rainbow Dash walked out. “Oh yeah, this is definitely a bugbear bite.”
“Who are you?” Twilight asked, trying to pull the bag off of her head.
“You don’t need to know, Princess. I’ll have Rainbow Dash back to normal by tonight. Come over here, girl.”
Rainbow Dash roared excitedly as Twilight teleported a few feet and shook her head to try to get out of the bag. By the time she could look around, the mysterious voice and Rainbow Dash were gone.
Closing the door and locking it behind her, the mare pulled off the mask around her muzzle and took off her hood. Rainbow Dash’s eyes grew wide as a candy-colored mane rested softly on the mare’s head.
“Silly ponies, thinking that this can be solved with magic.” Bon-Bon told herself as she pet Rainbow Dash’s bear paws softly. “The bugbear can’t be held to any bothersome restrictions of magic. Ever since its disappearance, it's been impossible to track.”
Rainbow Dash roared softly as Bon-Bon reached into her sack for a closed jar. “Twilight Sparkle was lucky to have defeated it. But now, it seems that one of her friends is in the incubation period to create a new bugbear to terrorize Ponyville.”
Opening the jar, Rainbow Dash’s nose was immediately hit with a sweet smelling aroma that made her mouth water. Bon-Bon waved the jar in front of Rainbow Dash’s face as the bear moaned at the scent.
“Honey bamboo scented spread. A growing panda’s weakness.” She took off her jacket as she jabbed a special serum into one of Rainbow Dash’s paws. Roaring out as the serum was administered, Rainbow Dash felt herself shrinking, getting closer to her pony size.
“A little shrinking solution mixed with the natural ingredients of a honeybee.” Bon-Bon explained as she jumped on top of the smaller Pegasus-turned-panda. The panda roared in confusion as the mare’s hoof began to softly caress her chest.
“And of course, the strongest sensation of panda-ification is sensitivity.” She kissed at Rainbow Dash’s neck as the panda moaned in pleasure. Smiling to herself, Bon-Bon lowered her hoof to Rainbow Dash’s waiting marehood covered in fur. Licking her lips, she began teasing the panda as Rainbow Dash squirmed in pleasure.
“If I get your heart beating fast enough, the transformation will reverse almost instantly.” Bon-Bon explained, slipping the tip of her hoof into Rainbow Dash’s slit. The panda roared as she clawed on the ground with her sharp paws. Rubbing gently, Bon-Bon continued to kiss at the bear’s chest and neck.
“You like that, don’t you girl?” she said to Rainbow Dash. Lifting her tail, she turned around to present her marehood in front of the bear’s face. Rainbow Dash turned away, not interested.
“You’re not fooling anyone, Rainbow.” Bon-Bon commented, panting slightly. Pulling out the jar of honey spread, she grabbed a spoonful and slathered it against her slit. Waving it in front of her face, Rainbow Dash’s eyes lit up as she plunged her mouth into Bon-Bon’s sensitive opening.
She moaned loudly as Rainbow Dash’s tongue licked deep inside of her. Tossing the jar aside, Bon-Bon lapped and sucked on the bear’s slit, tasting the sweet nectar inside of her. Rainbow Dash roared as she panted and moaned, holding her paws gently on the pony’s rear.
“Mmm, that’s it… roar for momma…” Bon-Bon moaned, feeling herself reaching her limit. Rainbow Dash twisted under her hooves as she roared loudly, feeling her nectar spill out of her during her wave of pleasure, covering Bon-Bon’s muzzle. The mare moaned in response as her sweet juices spilled out against Rainbow Dash’s face, feeling her own sense of pleasure.
Getting off of straddling her, Bon-Bon turned around to see that Rainbow Dash was already starting to turn back to normal as she panted with her chest rising and falling. Putting on a pair of sunglasses, Bon-Bon turned back to towards the door and left the room.
“Hey Bon-Bon! I’m home!” Lyra announced as she turned on the light to the room before seeing an unconscious Rainbow Dash lying next to a half-full jar of honey. Looking around, Bon-Bon was nowhere to be found.
“We really need to talk about what’s acceptable in the living room.” she told herself as she trotted to the kitchen.
