Lesson Earned

by Just Some Horse Guy

Rating: everyone
Tags: Thriller, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Spa Ponies
Length: 3756

Rainbow Dash has a bad day, but she kinda deserves it.

Rainbow Dash gets a fortune cookie that says she will a get what's coming to her. She doesn't believe it but as the day goes on, the worse things get.

Published 2023-12-26 22:40:00 UTC
Last updated 2023-12-26 22:40:00 UTC

Worst Day Ever

The door of the Carousel Boutique swung open and Rarity stepped in with a look of distress, defeat, annoyance, and a little hint of sadness. She was covered head to hoof in whipped cream, chunks of apple pie cemented in her mane and to top it all off, she was soaked from multiple water balloons being thrown and launched at her all day.

“You are so going to get it, Rainbow Dash.” She huffed as she used her horn to levitate a towel to dry herself off.

This was probably her worst da...no, her second worst day in her life so far. It was between this and the day she got left behind with Pinkie Pie trying to get back to Ponyville. She couldn’t dwell on the subject too much right now because she needed to get cleaned up to open her Boutique in an hour.

She trotted upstairs to her bathroom to take a nice and relaxing bath; a bath always calmed her nerves and helped release her pent-up stress.

When she reached her destination she turned the water from the tub on and fiddled with the nozzle until she found her desired temperature. She then put a plug in the tub to fill it up, used her magic to open the cabinet doors below the sink, and pulled out two scented candles to set the mood. She lit them up and climbed into the now-filled bathtub, dimmed the bathroom lights, and seeped into the warm water.

’I feel much better already,’ Rarity thought to herself. “Now how can I teach Rainbow Dash a lesson for what she put me through today?”

She wondered, she wondered why she had to be the one for Rainbow to try and break the “Equestrian Record for the Most Pranks done in a Day.” Rainbow not only ruined Rarity’s appearance but also scared her half to death a dozen times using fake rubber bugs and spiders. At that moment, Rarity had an epiphany on how she could get back on Rainbow Dash.

* * *

The Next Morning

The Mane 6 were all gathered around a table at the fanciest restaurant in Ponyville. They always go and hang out at a place, once a day, to catch up on all the latest scoop of their lives. When they took their seats, they could all feel the tension that two of their friends had.

Twilight Sparkle sat on one side of the circle table while Applejack was across from her; not that she wanted to but they always try to keep the knowing each other equally. Rarity and Rainbow Dash sat on each side of AJ because they both loved to talk to her about different topics.

RD and AJ always made everything into a competition to see who is better at what, while Rarity and her would try and plan when they could do another relaxation spa day so they could talk about how work is going for them.

Fluttershy sat in between Twilight and Rarity because she didn’t want to stand out, she wanted to blend in and not be seen. Pinkie Pie sat adjacent to her and next to Rainbow Dash because the two of them always seem to have common interests and always got along in more ways than one.

When Rainbow Dash sat down she felt like a set of eyes were intensely glaring at her. She didn’t pay too much attention to it and promptly change her focus to something else.

“So, what have all you girls been up to since our last meet-up?!” Twilight (now and then) always liked to start a discussion with her peers about each other’s lives.

“Twilight. You ask us the same question almost every other day we’re here. And almost every time we all say that nothing much has changed.”

“That’s not true Rainbow,” Rarity interjected. “Like just yesterday I had to clean my mane out from pieces of pie, that were smashed in my face from your silly so-called jokes.”

“Huh, oh come on Rares, they weren’t harmful pranks or anything.”

“Uh, girls?” Twilight tried to interject.

“Yes, that may be true, but they were pranks nonetheless and you ruined my entire day.” Rarity started. “And to top it all off,”

“Like the topping of the pie?” Rainbow jokingly added.

“To top it all off, you never made it known to me that you were gonna do this!”

“Girls, enough,” Twilight said trying to defuse the bickering going on before it escalates any further.

“That would beat the whole purpose of a prank and c’mon you have to admit, some of them were pretty funny; like the one with the water balloons.”

“I think I finally found one thing that AJ is better at than you, being empathetic!” “AJ is also not so immature, not so arrogant, and most certainly not a Big B-”

“GIRLS, STOP THIS RIGHT NOW!” Twilight shouted across the table, having been fed up with the continuing arguing going back and forth. “Now,” Clearing her throat, “Can one of you explain to me and the rest of us, what is going on with you two?”

“Yeah, you two are arguing worse than me and ma siblings would do on our family game nights.” Applejack said, supporting Twilight.

But before their conversation could continue, a stallion appeared balancing a silver tray on his hoof. He wasn’t a very tall stallion, he was only a mere few inches taller than the Alicorn princess herself.

He had black fur and his mane was short and curly. His hair was dark blue and his eyes were shining green color. He set the tray down, revealing six fortune cookies on it, set in the shape of a circle.

He was wearing a little red clip-on bowtie and her started to clear his voice to speak. “Here is a gift for dining at V... Variety Restaurant.” His voice was a little low-pitched and had little to none enthusiasm to it.

As the stallion begins to walk away from them, he turns around to say something. “Ohh almost forget, if you girls wouldn’t mind if you kept the volume down, ponies here are getting a little annoyed by it.” Without waiting for a response he walks away trying to hold back a little smile.

“Well, that was weird.” Rainbow said trying to break the awkwardness. She then used her wing to pick up one of the fortune cookies and put it in her mane.

“Okay back to the problem at hoof, Rainbow, how ‘bout you tell us your side of the story first and then Rarity will tell us hers.” Twilight sat up straight to show that she was all ears to hear it.

“Well, I wanted to try a break the prank record, and all of you girls were busy except for Rarity, so I decided to try it on her.” “I was three pranks away from a tiein’ it.”

“Ooh, Dashie, how many pranks did you do and what was the number of pranks you had to beat? I betcha it was like a hundred and-”

“Pinkie, please, now Rarity, what’s your side of the story?”

“Thank you, Twilight, Now I think you Rainbow Dash should have at least let me know that you were gonna pull multiple pranks on me in a span of a few hours.”

“How many pranks did she pull on you?” Fluttershy asked curiously.

“It was about 48,” Rainbow answered back.

“Anyway, I think you should apologize to me.” Rarity pointed her hoof at Rainbow Dash.

“I agree.” Twilight looked at her three other friends, who were nodding in agreement.

“Are you serious?!” “They were just harmless pranks,” “I didn’t do anything bad,” Rainbow argued.

“Yes they weren’t harmful physically, but they were stressful to deal with and kinda hurt my feelings.”

I don’t need to apologize for anything,” Rainbow argued back, “I’m outta here.” She then took flight and flew out the doors of the restaurant in a huff.

’Well, you had your chance, Rainbow Dash.’ Rarity said in her head and then turned to Twilight. “By the way Twilight, do you happen to have a book on make-up that I could go and borrow from your castle?”

“Um I think so, why do you ask?” Having a puzzled look on her face.

“Oh, asking for a friend of mine.” Rarity giving a little smirk on her face.

•••

Tch! “Apologies for that, come on.” Rainbow Dash found it very calming and relaxing to fly around Ponyville, for blowing off steam. She already had been doing this for ten minutes straight.

’I know Rarity, she’ll get over eventually.’ Rainbow Dash in her mind didn’t see anything wrong with what she did. “Well it’s time for my one-hour nap of the day.”

As the blue pegasus flew to her napping spot, she remembered the fortune cookie that she had in her mane. She took it and crushed it to see what was said on the piece of paper.

Karma is something that is earned, most deserve it when it comes

Rainbow read her fortune, instantly groaned and tossed it. ’Huh, even the cookie is giving advice, I thought these things were supposed to give you a fortune.’ A mere moment later she starts to lose her flight balance.

“What’s going on?” She tries to regain her balance but to no avail. As she continues to descend, Rainbow Dash starts to use what little control of her wings she has, to curve down so she can have more time and soften the landing.

She was able to gain some control, only a few inches above the ground. She tries to slow to a complete, but her wings wouldn’t judge; it’s like something is controlling them with force.

There she was, zooming through Ponyville; no way to stop her wings. She was moving so fast that she didn’t have time to see the giant caramel apple cake being carried by a stallion and a pegasus, that she was about to go through. You would think a cake that big and thick would cause her to crash and stop but to her surprise, she easily flew through it; emerging out of the other end covered in the sticky substance of Caramel.

Rainbow tried to get the taste out of her mouth by spitting and gagging; it was not like she hated it or anything but she just didn’t want to be covered to hoof in it. “Uhh, this can’t possibly get any worse,” she said aloud to no one in particular.

She then noticed that she was flying straight toward the door of the clothes store. Rainbow Dash tried to steer away from it, using all the strength she had left. But it was no use, she held her two front hoofs in front of her face to try and cushion the soon-to-be disaster.

But before the impact could happen, a unicorn open the door from inside, having a satisfied look on her face from her purchase; using her magic to hold the bag right next to her. When she saw Rainbow charging straight at her, she shrieked and quickly went down on all fours, hoping to dodge her.

Rainbow went right passed and above the unicorn and instead crashed into a rack of hanging dresses pulling them down and onto her. She felt the sleeves of the fabric of one of the outfits wrapping around each one of her hoofs; she could feel the piece of clothing putting itself on her. As she started to get up, she could feel the piece of clothing on her back. When she moved her head up, she felt as if it just popped out of something.

When Rainbow Dash arose from the pile of clothes, she looked down at her body to see that she was now wearing a bright dark pink V-neck dress. She tried to remove it, but due to the caramel, it was almost impossible to remove it in this state. Though, she continued to tug and try to rip it off her using her teeth; bouncing backward while doing

She somehow failed to keep her balance and fell backward, shaking a shelf full of jewelry, and knocking the items off it. Somehow, in some miracle only a white pearl necklace fell on her, landing and loosely hugging her neck. Unfortunately for her, before she could act on getting up, a box of glitter glue on the top of the shelf fell on her, exploding open on impact. The glitter covered most of her eyes, enough to close them shut (temporarily).

Now she was even more panicky and without a second thought, she dashed out of the store (not using her wings, so to not repeat the same type of incident ). Seconds later, a stallion employee came back from the backroom, finishing checking supplies to see the mess that was made while he was gone. He looked around before he asked no one in particular, “What the hay happened here?!”

•••

Rainbow Dash was at the point where you would just fall to the ground and give up on everything, but she was better than this, she was Rainbow Dash, if anypony could do it, it was her. She wasn’t gonna give up, even if the odds were against her. Sure she couldn’t see but she lived in Ponyville for almost her entire life; she knew her way around.

‘Okay, let’s stop and go through all our options’ she said to herself, stopping dead in her tracks. ’We can’t use our wings, and we need to get this glitter out and ditch this lame dress.’ ‘We also need to know where we are.’

“You need help miss?” Just then she heard a familiar voice call out, then heard hoofsteps approaching her. She tried to face the stallion talking but just decided to ask and worry later.

“Thank Celestia, you have to help me!” “Ibeenhavingaterribleday, I’mcoveredincaramel, I’vegotglitterinmyeye, and I’mwearingthisuglydress!” “Please, can you lead me to a store with a washroom or something!” Rainbow Dash sounded distressed and desperate to clean herself up. She heard a long pause of silence before the stallion finally spoke up.

“Ok, just try and stay calm, I know exactly where you can go.” “Keep going straight for two blocks, then make a right, and at the next turn make a left, and go into the building straight ahead from there.” “They can help clean you up.”

“Thanks,” Not waiting another second she ran as fast as she could, not even sure if she was heading the right way.

•••

The spa seemed like an abandoned place when nopony was there, except for the two mares runnin’ the place, Aloe and Lotus. “Aloe, you know I don’t question your sources for dis things, but... But are you sure their coming?”

“Well, we need them to, ‘cause if they don’t, then we wasted all this time getting things ready for nothing.”

“Whoever gave this tip-off?” A puzzled face was now prominent on Lotuss’ face.

“I don’t know, they wouldn’t reveal their name, but I think-” The Spa doors swung open and Rainbow Dash leaned trying to hear if anypony was in there.

“I was told that this place, whatever this place is could help with my “problem.”

“Rainbow Dash, I didn’t know you got into modeling?” Aloe and her sister approached her, getting ready to clean her up to be prepared.

“I just need to get cleaned up, I’m not here for-” Lotus put her hoof over RD’s mouth.

“Shhshhshh, it alright darlin’, just let us get you ready then you can explain. Rainbow Dash tried to protest.

“But I-”

“Nonsense,” Aloe interrupted “We won’t tell you friends or anypony about this. Just follow us thus way.” The rest was a blur, Rainbow Dash remembered the twins getting her dress off and the necklace off. Cleansing her, she remembered having them clean her dress and them being impressed with her dress design. Then they started to curl and braid her hair.

Lastly, was the make-up, she never wore any because she felt as if it was too girly for her liking. As they were applying the eye shadow, Rainbow Dash’s mind wondered. She was wondering how she ended up flying one second and the next she was having ponies putting mascara on her.

’Why was she at the spa? Why did Aloe and Lotus think she was a model? Why did the station that sent her here and why did he sound familiar? Did he know, did the twins know? Were they all in on something?

“There you are, You’re all set,” Lotus announced. Rainbow Dash looked down to see that they had put the dress back on her and looked in the mirror.

She looked like she going to one of those fancy-nancy parties like the ponies who go to the Gala dressed in those “dressed to impressed” clothing. She also noticed that she now had pink eyeliner on, and her mane (in her mind) was “ruined.”

She looked up at her mane, they had curled up her hair into bangs. She looked as if she was ready to go to The Grand Galloping Gala. “OK, now it’s time for the earnings,” Lotus announced. But before they go and get the piercing gun, Rainbow Dash now able to move freely, flew out of the spa not even looking back when the twins call her name to come back.

Rainbow Dash now finally being able to move and see her surroundings, could now go home, get this dress off, fix her hair, and put this whole day behind her. But before she could do any of that, a familiar voice called out to her. “Care for some perfume, darling?” Rainbow Dash turned her head to see who the mare was but when she did, the unknown assailant sprayed her, thus blinding her again.

She started to stumble, bumped, and fell muzzle to muzzle with another pony. (The odds of all that’s happened today seemed to be planned rather than coincidental.) She got up from the stallion and started to apologize, but was cut off by him.

“Wow, Rainbow, I knew you liked me but I didn’t know, you couldn’t keep your hooves off me,” Zephyr stated, trying to hold laughter and smug face back. When Rainbow Dash recognized who she accidentally just kissed, she was almost sick to her core. She rubbed her eyes to get a better view of her surroundings. “So what with the get-up? Though I would like to think it was for me, I know you better than that.”

She was too stunned to speak and was like that for almost a whole minute. When she finally spoke up, her tone came out as serious as she was angry to be in this situation. “It’s a long story that I don’t want to get into right now.” A few more moments of silence went by until it was broken again by Rainbow Dash. Listen to me Zephr, and listen carefully. If you ever tell anypony about this I swear to Celestia that I will-”

“Ok, ok, okay, I get it, I won’t a soul. Well, I got to get going so hope I see ya around.”

Rainbow Dash watched as Zephr left her sight, hoping that she wouldn’t see him again anytime soon. Her attention was soon pointed at the mare who had maced her with the perfume. She couldn’t believe it, it was Rarity.

She was laughing crazily at the whole conversation that was just had between the two ponies in front of her. “Oh my, you must have had quite a day huh Rainbow Dash.”

“How do you how my day has been, Rarity and why did you try to blind me with that perfume?!”

“Relax, I only sprayed you with water and I have been messing with your life today as payback for what you did to me.”

“How in Equestria did you do all of it?!”

Well it was quite simple really, I had the waiter make your fortune personally and asked you for an apology but you didn’t seem too inclined to. So I asked Twilight if I could go to her library to “borrow” some books and convinced Spike to show me where the heavier magic-based books were. From there I found a book where I could manipulate how you flew and caused you to crash.”

“I then had to make an anonymous alias and convince Aloe to close up early because I said that you needed help to get into modeling. When I made sure everything was going to plan, I had the waiter go and give you directions to the spa. He was more than willing to help, he told me that he was always up for a good little prank.”

“And finally I sent a letter to Zephyr to come here at an approximate time to meet you, and the timing couldn’t have been more perfect.”

“You see Rainbow Dash, if you just apologized and saw the wrongness in your actions, I would’ve not had to do all this, though I can’t lie and say that I didn’t have all this planned the day before.”

’Wow Raity, remind me later to ask you how you came up with all and maybe sit down and come up with some ideas together.’ Rainbow Dash thought to herself, amazed at how Rarity of all ponies put this together.
“So Rainbow Dash, what did you learn today?”

“Not to ever prank you, ever again.?”

Rarity let out a little chuckle “Well yes that, but also have some empathy for when you do your pranks on ponies.”

“You’re right Rarity, I should’ve listened to the cookie. And I see now I might have taken my pranks a little too far on you.” Rainbow Dash sat there in agreement, but then a puzzled look appeared on her face. “Hey wait a minute, how’d you know I was gonna grab that fortune cookie instead of the other ones?”

“Oh well, I had him put that in all of them .”

Author's Note

This was a request from someone and I decided to do it and it way longer than expected. I procrastinated so much and ended up speeding through some parts but, I'm happy with the result. I probably now focus on my own story I want to make and make sure to give it as much time as needed.