A/N: I find it extremely amusing that I’m already technically four chapters into this mess, and yet I’ve only written one of them myself. How quickly this has all devolved into pure crack.

"THE GAMES WE PLAY”

ALTERNATE ENDING #4

Guest Submission from Shrinky Frod

Rainbow Dash's jaw dropped. Her eyes were wide, her voice disappearing somewhere on its way to her mouth. Utterly lost for words.

"No," was all Rainbow could think to say; and a flicker of pain flashed in those eyes, those big and beautiful eyes. "No. No. That doesn't make sense."

And still she had nothing to say for herself, only watching as Rainbow Dash shook her head, wings fluttering anxiously.

"That doesn't make sense," Rainbow Dash repeated. Her hooves had found their way to the mare's shoulders, gripping her as tightly as she could without even meaning to. The mare winced, and then gave Rainbow a weak smile.

"Well, come on, Rainbow... who else could I ever have a hard time admitting my feelings for... but me?"  Rainbow Dash grinned meekly up from where she was laying under herself, pinned against the roof.

"How could you possibly be me!"  Rainbow shouted down at herself.  "What is this, My Little Pony, Fight Club is Mindbuck?!?"

"Nah," Rainbow shrugged, working her way onto her hooves and dusting herself off.  "I mean, it makes perfect sense, right?"

"No, no it doesn't!  You don't have any wings!"  Rainbow protested.

"Well, that's the thing.  This whole thing was about you coming to grips with losing your wings after that tragic accident with the cider press, when you went to try and lick some cider off the stone."

"I don't see how that would make me lose -"

"While Big Mac was running on the platform."

"Eww."

"Very eww.  That whole batch had to be thrown out," Rainbow sighed wistfully.  "But you see, since you never saw me when anypony else was around -"

"Yes I did!"  Rainbow interrupted again.  "Twilight saw you... me... us!  I know that much!  And I thought Fluttershy did too... didn't she?"

"Well, okay, so there is that.  You see though... you're forgetting one very important thing I told you earlier.  We're all wearing masks, Rainbow Dash.  Even you," Rainbow said solemnly.  "I'm surprised you didn't figure it out earlier.  After all... would Rainbow Dash really be afraid of somepony being in love with her?  Even herself?"  She gave a scoffing snort.

"Wait... you mean...?"

"I mean you're not really Rainbow Dash!  You're really...."  Rainbow Dash leaned forward, kissing herself, biting down on her lower lip - and then ripped her head back, yanking the rainbow-maned mask off of her doppleganger only to reveal....

~~~===~~~

Rainbow Dash's jaw dropped. Her eyes were wide, her voice disappearing somewhere on its way to her mouth. Utterly lost for words.

"No," was all Rainbow could think to say; and a flicker of pain flashed in those eyes, those big and beautiful eyes. "No. No. That doesn't make sense."

And still she had nothing to say for herself, only watching as Rainbow Dash shook her head, wings fluttering anxiously.

"That really doesn't make sense!"  Rainbow Dash repeated. Her hooves had found their way to the mare's shoulders, gripping her as tightly as she could without even meaning to. The mare winced, and then gave Rainbow a weak smile.

"Yeah... it really doesn't, does it?"  Mare Do Well asked sheepishly, her mask and hat having somehow miraculously fit perfectly beneath the Rainbow Dash mask.  "So... what do we do now?"

"I dunno," Rainbow Dash admitted, scratching her head with a hoof.  "Make out again?"

"I guess that works!"  Mare-Do-Well admitted.  "At least then we'd have an ending more satisfying than this all turning out to be a dream!"  Suddenly, the world around them began to become hazy, wavering and fading out of the snowlit scenery of Canterlot on Hearth's Warming.

"Oh, you just had to say that, didn't you?"  Rainbow Dash groaned, smacking herself in the head with a hoof and falling backwards.....

~~~===~~~

"Son of a bitch!”  Rainbow snarled as she woke up in her cloud bed.  "Damn it, I have one cherrychanga and a pitcher of cider before bedtime, and I dream up twenty goddamn chapters only for it all to turn out to be a dream?  I didn't even get any!  Now what am I supposed... to... do?"  Rainbow reached over, poking a lump in the cloud blankets next to her, curious about the distinctly solid form beneath them.  She lifted them up and looked underneath, only to see Mare-Do-Well's curled up beneath the covers, snoring contentedly.

Rainbow threw back the blankets.  Indeed, Mare Do Well was sleeping next to her in bed, in full costume, apparently oblivious to Rainbow's outburst.  The weird thing was, Rainbow Dash couldn't remember how she'd gotten there... well, okay, she couldn't remember much of anything besides a vague impression that AJ's infamous six-week cider and cherrychangas shouldn't be consumed at the same time ever, ever, ever, ever again.

She reached down, fastening her teeth around the base of Mare-Do-Well's mask, and pulled it up, peeling it off with some attempt not to disturb the pony wearing it.  When it came off, and she saw who was wearing it, she gasped.

The costume was completely empty... just lying there, like some invisible pony was wearing it, with no physical body inside.

"Three A.M. in the morning with the start of a hangover is way too bucking early to deal with this," Rainbow decided, pulling the blankets back up and tugging the mask onto her own face to have somewhere to keep it.  She'd figure it all out in the morning....

End Next Chapter: Alternate Ending: None of This Makes Sense (Guest submission from Cookies Need Love) Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 34 Minutes