Hitmare

As the sun began to set over the Equestrian landscape, casting streamers of brilliant gold and deep pink across the sky, a little pony stood atop Rainbow Dash's house, painting feverishly. She held a can of whitewash in her hoof...it was important that all of the exterior be bright white.

Her ear twitched at the telltale jet-engine roar of an approaching pegasus. She looked around to see one particular blue rainbow pony zooming back towards her home, clearly exhausted by all of the charging around and interrogating that she had done that day.

The Hitmare grinned. There was no way that she would uncover the identity of The Employer by simply zooming around and accusing ponies randomly. There was a finesse to interrogation, something that that poor mare would likely never understand.

As Rainbow Dash passed a cloud bank, she could have sworn that she saw a pony atop her house. It was staring right at her, silhouetted against the sunset. It was impossible to tell who it was.

She shook her head and looked again. The mare was gone.

Must've been my imagination... Dash thought to herself. At this time of the day, she couldn't seem to bring herself to care about those pranks or who was behind them. Right now she just wanted sleep.

As she touched down on her front porch, Rainbow could already tell that something was wrong. The clouds felt harder and less fluffy than before. The pegasus paid it no heed.

I'll find out who did it tomorrow... she thought to herself, as she gave a single flap of her wings, launching herself skyward in order to properly crash on her bed.

Rainbow could tell that this was a mistake as she was in mid-descent. There was something about how the clouds in her room were starting to spark that tipped her off. She wanted to flap her wings, wanted to stop before she hit her bed, but sheer fright kept her wings firmly stuck to her flanks.

This must be what Fluttershy's like all the time... Rainbow thought dully, accepting her stormy fate.

* *   *

Down in the shadows below, a pony peered over her sunglasses at her target's house. She straightened her tie and popped in a pair of earplugs in preparation for what was to come.  It hadn't been easy, replacing all of the clouds with stormclouds and painting everything white, but by Celestia it was worth it. She'd fallen for it!

There had been a tense moment where Rainbow had almost spotted her, but no matter. She had clearly either not truly seen her, or she simply didn't care by now. Either way, it was going to cost her.

The Hitmare pushed her shades back up her muzzle and pulled out a stopwatch. She glanced for a moment at Rainbow's new and improved house, and then at the countdown...any moment now.

There came a muffled squeak from its interior, before the entire house lit up. Every window, doorway and skylight was a brilliant white, the interior a mass of lightning. The whitewash melted off of the house in only a few seconds, revealing a vaguely house-shaped collection of stormclouds. Any pegasus with her senses about her could have told the difference, but Rainbow Dash had been completely exhausted from chasing pink and purple herrings all day. She could never have forseen this.

A second later, the thunder followed, and the low rumble echoed across the valley like the final note of an orchestra. All that was left was a smoking, gently sizzling house of clouds.

* *   *

Rainbow lifted a shaky hoof, and pushed open her front door. It fell off its hinges.

The little pegasus pony groaned as she struggled out onto her front porch. There was a dull buzz of static in her ears, and a tingling sensation all over her body. Only when Dash had crawled outside and looked down into the pond below her house did she see what she had become.

"YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!" she shouted to Equestria in general.

Her mane, tail and coat were all standing on end, creating the illusion of a little blue ball of spiky fluff with rainbow highlights and two fluffed-up wings.

"Great! I look ridiculous!" Rainbow said to herself. "What's everypony gonna think if I walk into Ponyville looking like this?"

There came a muffled giggling from behind a nearby bush. Dash peered carefully, and spied a pony behind a pair of shades looking straight back at her.

The pony began galloping away back to town, clearly startled.

"HEY! COME BACK HERE YOU LITTLE..." Dash began, but as she tried to take off, her fluffy wings failed to support her, sending her plummeting down into the pond with a big splash.

A few bubbles appeared on the water's surface. A little reed popped up, leaving a little wake in the pond as it zoomed towards the shore. A moment later, Rainbow Dash pulled herself out of the muddy pond and spat out her makeshift snorkel out.

She looked around, trying to find where her assailant had galloped off to. She was gone. Of course she was.

Rainbow groaned again. Her mane, coat and wings were all soaked through. She tried shaking the water off experimentally, and ended up just as fluffy as before for her efforts. She knew that she had to go and find somewhere to stay for the night, and that she also needed help looking like her awesome self again. There was only one pony in all of Ponyville who could help her on both counts at such short notice...

"I guess this means a sleepover at Rarity's." she sighed.

This had really not been her day.