Fool's Gold

by James Pwyll

Rating: everyone
Tags: Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Main 6, Spike
Length: 2054

Rainbow gets a lecture after making some dubious financial choices

Shortly after her and her friends' victory over the smog-spewing dragon that threatened Ponyville, Rainbow Dash arrives at the Golden Oak to show off some new Wonderbolt Memorabilia she got recently. But when asked where she got the money for it, that leads to a somewhat lengthy chat with her friends.

Published 2020-06-27 04:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2020-06-27 04:00:00 UTC

Fool's Gold

"Hmmmmmm! I don't know about the rest of you, but this tea is simply delightful!" Rarity exclaimed, a look of pure enjoyment upon he face as she took her next sip. "Fluttershy, darling, you truly outdid yourself today."

As expected, the usually-timid peagsus blushed to her friend's remark. "Oh, I don't know about that."

Spike, who was sitting between her and Rarity, took a few massive gulps of said tea before before licking his lips and looking similarly impressed. "You don't give yourself enough credit. This stuff is delicious!"

"Honestly, Fluttershy, after doing what you did the other day, you'd think you'd learn to accept a little praise," Twilight added.

Applejack, setting her own cup down on the table, tipped her hat. "They ain't wrong, Flutters. Ya made somethin' pretty sweet ere. An' besides, we should really be makin' this fer you, since yer the hero o' the hour an' all."

Another blush on Fluttershy's part. "I mean...all I did was talk a dragon into leaving."

Rarity rolled her eyes, then reached over and patted her on the shoulder. "Fluttershy, you outright intimidated that beast. That's no mean feat. And you saved Equestria as a result. If that's not cause to feel good about yourself, I don't know what is!"

Pinkie, as usual, grinned widely. "I'll say! It was the most super-awesome-spectacular thing I've ever seen!" she declared with a big giggle.

Fluttershy, taking hold of her own teacup, took a gentle sip, then smiled to all of her assembled friends. "It was nice to know I was able to help. I'm just glad that things ended as they did. I wouldn't have wanted things to have become violent."

To that, Applejack gave a hearty chuckle, rubbing the back of her head slightly. "Speak fer yerself. Ah can still feel where that big varmint threw us against the rock." The group all laughed together, ending when Applejack spoke up again. "Ah bet Rainbow would probably jus' brag about havin' gone an' kicked the fella. That girl really needs ta cool her head from time to time."

Looking around, Spike suddenly took on a look of realisation. "Hey...where is Rainbow anyway? I haven't seen her this morning."

Twilight looked down to him. "She said she had something to do. But I'm sure she'll be here soon." No sooner had Twilight said that when, all of a sudden, there was a knocking upon her door, prompting a smile on her part. "Ah, speaking of which, that's probably her now." Getting up, Celestia's student trotted over to the aforementioned door, with her friends all watching her go. With her horn lighting up, Twilight turned the knob, opening her door and smiling once she saw who was on the other side. "Good to see you, Rainbow."

Her pegasus friend smirked right back to her. "Same to you, Twilight." Looking past her, Ponyville's most notorious athlete let her ears droop as her eyes found Fluttershy. "Er, sorry for being late, Fluttershy."

But Fluttershy simply smiled. "Oh, it's no trouble. You're here now, and that's what matters."

Rainbow smiled back, entering the Golden Oak in earnest, with Twilight closing the door behind her. And it was here when the gathered friends all noticed that Rainbow had a saddle-bag over her back, causing some understandable curiosity on their part. "Ooooooh! Watcha got there, Rainbow?" Pinkie asked.

Looking as confident as ever, Rainbow slid her bags off her back, opening them up and reaching in. After rummaging around for a bit, she pulled out what appeared to be a shirt of some sort. Instantly, her friends recognised the logo as that of the Wonderbolts, Rainbow's idols. "Feast your eyes on this, friends!" Rainbow declared happily.

Applejack arched an eyebrow. "Y'all...bought a shirt? kind o' a waste o' bits, right?"

Rainbow snorted. "Pfft! Not when it's this shirt, AJ! Take a look!" She tossed it over, with Applejack catching it in her hooves. Though uninterested, the farmer gave it a look over, until her eyes started to widen, much to Rainbow's amusement. "Yeah, told ya."

Applejack's gaze had, in fact, been drawn to what, at first, looked like just a scribble. Instead, it turned out to be a signed signature, right beneath the Wonderbolt logo. "Is...is that?"

Folding her forelegs, Rainbow gave a smug nod. "Oh yeah, read it and weep!"

Applejack showed it to her friends, pointing to the name. "This ere's a signed shirt from none other than Wind Rider!"

A gasp was heard from all of them, with the one exception of Pinkie Pie, who nervously smiled after sipping her tea again. "Oh yeah! Wind Rider! Totally! I mean, wow, what a great...what a great individual that is!"

Spike looked to her with incredulity. "You have no idea who that is, do you?"

A quick shrug from Pinkie. "Haven't the foggiest."

Rainbow frowned. "Only the most decorated and awesome Wonderbolt who ever has or even will live! And I just so happen to have his autograph! They've had this on display at the Wonderbolts memorabilia store for ages, and nopony has gotten it before now!"

Taking the shirt herself, Twilight smiled at it. "I can see why you're happy, Rainbow. If ever there was a piece of Wonderbolt history to take as your own, this right here is it." Then, confusion came to her. "But...how could you afford it? I mean, not to sound insulting or anything, but an autograph like this would probably go for hundreds of bits, at least."

Rarity looked to Rainbow suspiciously. "Indeed. And I don't think a weather-mare's salary would be anywhere close to covering this."

Rainbow chuckled. "Oh, don't worry. I got myself plenty to splurge on this bad boy." She looked left and right, just to make sure nopony else was listening in on them, before leaning in to her friends. "I bought it using some of the gold from that dragon!"

Her friends all stared at her, mouths agape, until finally, Spike leapt to his seat, looking to her with clear dismay. "You...you took a dragon's gold?!"

Slowly, Rainbow came to feel that her confession might not have been as well received as she would have liked, and so gave a shrug. "Well...yeah?"

There were few things that truly irritated Fluttershy and this, apparently, was one of them. "Rainbow Dash!" she yelled in as accusing a manner as possible. "How could you simply take something that didn't belong to you?!"

Rainbow frowned. "Come on, girls! This is the same dragon that tried to eat us, remember? The guy who would have been perfectly fine covering all of Equestria in a blanket of smoke for a hundred years?"

Pinkie took seemed unhappy right now. "Yeah...but it's still stealing!"

As before, Rainbow seemed unworried. "Given what we've heard about dragons and their gold, I think we can safely assume that this stuff wasn't his to being with. He probably took it from a whole bunch of others before we even saw it."

Here, Spike faltered somewhat. "Okay...she's kinda got a point on that one."

Rainbow pointed to him, smirking triumphantly. "There! See? So it's open season on gold."

Sighing, Twilight rubbed her temples. "No, Rainbow, it's not. Putting aside the argument on whether it's okay to take from our enemies, there's also the economic repercussions to consider."

Rainbow, and everypony else for that matter, groaned. "Uuuuuuuuugh! Is this gonna be a long-winded talk about money and finances, Twilight?" she asked.

Sitting down in her chair again, Twilight nodded. "I didn't want to do so, but yes. You've just introduced hundreds of new bits into the economy. That'll cause no end of problems for people whose job it is to keep inflation down and the value of the bit stable."

Rainbow, who struggled to even pretend like she understood that, gave another shrug. "Well...I guess," she said unconvincingly. "But there's people who can fix that, right? You know, smudge the numbers and stuff?"

Twilight looked to her, aghast. "If you want a financial crisis, sure, we could do that!"

Rainbow slapped her own forehead. "Why can't things be easy for us? We beat a dragon!"

"Um, technically, Fluttershy beat the dragon," Pinkie pointed out.

Rainbow smiled to her childhood friend. "And awesomely too!" But, one look at Fluttershy's unimpressed face caused her to back down slightly. "So...flattery won't get me anywhere?" She saw Fluttershy shake her head, causing her to slump her shoulders. "Right, didn't think so." Again, she looked to Twilight. "Okay, so maybe I was wrong to take something that wasn't mine. But...it was just sitting there! We're talking thousands of bits and jewels just lying there, gathering dust, not doing anything! Think of all the awesome stuff we could buy!"

Rarity gave a little cough to draw everypony's attention towards her. "I realise I probably don't have a hoof to stand on given my own attempts to take some of that treasure for myself, but I simply must concur with the rest of our friends. That much wealth dumped into pony hooves all at once would no doubt create problems, as Twilight said."

Grabbing both of her lower eyelids, Rainbow dragged them down, letting out a groan as tired-sounding as the last one she unleashed. "Uuuuuuuuuugh! You know, I try to get something sweet and shiny for free, and all it gets me is a headache!" She grumbled for a bit before casting her eyes to her shirt, which she now looked to with sadness. "I guess I'm gonna have to send that back to the store?"

A dutiful nod from Twilight. "You will. And make sure too to get back exactly the gold you gave them. Not just whatever bits they might have."

Confusion came to her flying friend over that. "Er...why does it matter? Gold's gold, right?"

Twilight solemnly shook her head. "But this is dragon gold we're talking about. It's...different."

Naturally, all eyes were upon her now, and Rainbow's tone betrayed her concerns. "Different how exactly?"

Looking around, Twilight brought her voice to a hushed whisper. "They say gold hoarded by a dragon, kept beneath its scales and never allowed to see the light of another day, will become...cursed."

Slowly, color started to drain from Rainbow's face. "Er...cursed?"

Another nod from Twilight. "Legends tell that those who take dragon gold, be it through trickery or force, live cursed lives. Their many endeavors turning sour and unsuccessful. Their friendships strained, even their very minds turned to madness and greed." Her eyes drifted to the shirt. "Mark my words, Rainbow...the gold of a dragon is best left alone...unless you wish nothing but a forsaken life upon yourself and all you hold dear."

Silence fell, and everypony looked to one another, not only surprised that the conversation had taken such a dark turn, but also that Twilight could speak in such a terrifying way. Rainbow, gulping, felt her heart in her chest now, beating rapidly as she thought back to her trek up the mountain and the massive buckets of gold she took from the place. Then, at the end of it all, Spike stepped forward, clearing his throat to gain her attention. "Also, and I kinda feel like this goes without saying, but that dragon might wanna come back and get his stuff at some point, so..." He scratched the back of his head. "It's probably not a good idea to have just taken some of it. You know, just in case he decided to find the one who stole it so he can enact his deadly revenge?"

And that right there was the clincher, as Rainbow's pupils shrank to pinpoints, and she charged forward, swooping the shirt out from Pinkie, who had finally started becoming interested in it, and holding it tight, making absolutely sure that no damage had come to the thing since she brought it here. "So, er...I think I'll just take this back to the store now...and also pray it's still open."

She rushed out, a massive gust of wind in her wake, and her friends, looking to one another yet again, simply smirked together, satisfied in the knowledge that the problem was resolved. "So..." Fluttershy started. "More tea, anypony?"

Author's Note

Admit it, we've all wondered why none of the ponies ever went back for that treasure at some point :raritywink: