The Fashion Folly

The following morning, after a well-earned sleep, Twilight got up and noticed that Spike was walking out of his bed and down the stairs. She couldn't help but ask,

"Hey Spike, where are you going?"

"Oh hey Twilight, I'm just heading over to the boutique to clean it up, Rarity's coming back tomorrow", Spike replied.

Tomorrow? Already? Well she had been out for the week which was drawing to a close. Something inside her felt it was great to see Rarity again, but on the other hoof, she'd just be the same old Rarity she always knew. Not that new, not that interesting, and simply not as "darling" as before. Billy's gang seemed like the right place for Twilight deep down. It's almost as if the longer she thought about her friends, the more she wanted to see Filly Billy, Sal and Lee again.

Nevertheless, she decided to head out and see Rainbow Dash. She had no idea why she only had time to see 2 of her friends the previous day, but she supposed that it was because of her extensive studying later in the day. She told Spike that she was heading off to see Rainbow Dash, put her shoes on and headed out the door. Spike didn't have enough time to see how painful it was for Twilight in those shoes, but did notice her heading out.

When she was almost at Cloudsdale, Twilight stumbled into Billy and her gang again.

"Oh hey girls, what's up?", Twilight asked, willing to strike up a conversation.

"Oh nothing. Say do you notice our manestyles?", Billy replied with.

Twilight noticed those pigtails and felt like she needed them immediately.

"Oh I do", Twilight answered, "I really really do. Say, do you mind if I-"

"-get a maneover?", Billy finished Twilight's sentence. "Sure, why not?"

Sal and Lee quickly got to work pulling at Twilight's hair and spray painting her notable pink streak of hair white, but Twilight didn't really feel any pain. Quite a shock, considering how fidgety she usually was with Rarity's clothing. She also felt a sharp pain around her legs, which didn't last long, but it did force out a little wipe. Once they were done, she turned back at her hind and saw that her tail not only had its pink streak replaced with a white one, but was standing all on its own.

"What did you do to my tail?", Twilight asked.

"Oh, we're just utilising a tail-straightener", Sal replied.

Lee continued with, "Yeah, we don't have it yet but we're sure it'll be the new big hit, so we're accessorising you with it first!"

Twilight couldn't help but question this, but stopped herself. After all, a tail-straightener, whatever it looked like, hadn't been tested yet. Maybe this would become a massive hit with the colts. She thanked Billy's gang, ignored their laughter once more and headed onwards to Cloudsdale to get Rainbow Dash's attention. When she parked her hooves down below Rainbow Dash's house, she called out her name.

"Hey Rainbow Dash!"

Rainbow Dash got out of bed ready to seize the day with her old pal…with a surprisingly new look, Twilight Sparkle. Seeing (one of) her best friend(s) change herself so drastically rather confused Rainbow Dash. I mean, she really only knew a couple ways of styling one's mane, but pigtails? Not only were they not aerodynamic, but they just didn't appeal to her. The closer she got flying down to Twilight's level, the more she saw just how bizzare it looked.

"Ugh", Twilight grunted, "Let me guess, you don't like this either, do you?"

"He heh, no", Rainbow Dash replied, not wanting to upset her friend, "After all, what would I ever know about style?"

"How did you know this was intentional?", Twilight asked. Something sparked inside her as she remembered that Rainbow Dash would usually make a snarky comment about her mane at this point, but due to Filly Billy and her gang messing it up…no…making look much better, Rainbow Dash couldn't spit out anything rude to say about Twilight's manedo.

"Oh don't worry", Twilight said, "I already formulated the answer in my head. I think…"

"Forumla schmormula", Rainbow Dash said, hoping to start a new conversation, "the only formula you should be thinking about is my new "Formula 1 Dash Ribbon!"

With that, she shot up into the air and did various möbius strips in the sky with her rainbow trail, gradually building up in speed until exploding and eradicating all the clouds from the area.

Though gazing at the wonderful rainbow in awe, Twilight simply couldn't take her mind off Billy's gang. She really wanted to pay attention to her rainbow-coloured pal in the sky, but as she sat there marvelling at Rainbow Dash's impressive light-bending tricks throughout the morning, she just felt that Rainbow Dash was…boring and tasteless.

By lunchtime, various other ponies had gathered and some even started giving Twilight funny looks. Imagine that, she was the spectacle to a few select ponies under a technicolour wonderland hundreds of hooves above them. She didn't feel this comfortable being this close to ponies that didn't appreciate her style.

"Now honey, don't stare at that one", said by a middle-aged mare taking her son over to town, was the last straw for Twilight, and she headed into the forest whimpering.