Rarity was making the finishing touches on a formal gown she had stayed up all night creating. She did so to keep the idea fresh in her mind as she worked, though she was nearly passing out as the hours wore on.

Another precise stitch there, aaaaaaaaaannnnnnd...done!

There it was: perfection had been achieved. The gown she had painstakingly crafted the night through was now finished. Though now that she looked at it, she realized it may not have been as good as she thought it may be. She wasn't worried though, everypony was sure to love it despite its perceived flaws. Rarity smiled as she left to her bedroom for some much deserved sleep.

A sudden crash on her front door, however, diverted her attention.

She walked to the door, which was still standing from the forceful blow. After all the times that Twilight's door had been broken down, she thought it a necessary precaution to reinforce her own.

Upon opening the door, Rainbow Dash fell inwards right onto her face.

"Rainbow Dash, darling, so good to see you. But what are you doing up so late," she asked in a daze, clearly not aware of the time.

Dash shook the wooziness from her head and shot to her hooves.

"No time for small talk, Rares! Time's a-wastin' and I need a makeover, fast," she declared as she stepped into the fitting area.

"Yes, yes. Welcome to Carousel Boutique. Where everything is chic, unique and...oh, you know the rest," Rarity said dreamily as she walked right past Dash and into one of her mirrors, "Oh my...terribly sorry madam," she said to her own reflection before grabbing her measuring tape for Dash.

"You feeling okay," Dash asked, noticing Rarity's unsure steps, as opposed to her usual refined sachet.

Rarity tried smiling, but it only came off looking like a tired smirk.

"Of course I'm alright. I'll admit I stayed up a little bit past my bedtime, but we shouldn't have any problems. Let's see, collar size: six inches," she said as she tightly wound the measuring tape around Dash's neck, whose face was turning a much deeper shade of blue by the second. "Wait...no, that's not right. That's Opal's collar size," she loosened her stranglehold on Dash, who gasped and heaved for some much needed air, "Much better."

Things weren't much easier for Dash after being measured, since it was followed by a nerve-wracking experience where Rarity cut the material as it was draped over Dash, and then stitched it up when she was finished. Precision is key, after all.

Finally, after the dangers of being fitted for an outfit came the makeup. Dash asked Rarity for the works, but not the eyeliner, stating that she liked her eyes where they were. After almost an hour passed, when the last eyelash had been precisely primped and the last of the hoof polish dried, Rarity was finished.

Dash admired her new look in the mirrors, turning to observe herself from all angles. She had to hoof it to Rarity: even when she was less than half awake, she made one heck of an outfit.

"So, what do we think," Rarity asked as Dash took one last look at a flank shot.

This was sure to be able to compete against Pinkie's frame-hugging uniform. Not only was it going to seriously turn some heads, she knew it was guaranteed to score some serious points with Travis.

"I say: let the games begin," Dash said, admiring how the outfit accentuated her figure. Now came the hard part: paying the bill for this order. "I'm guessing this is going for the usual?"

"Of course," Rarity said with a yawn, "Normally, something like this would be sold for four hundred bits. But for you, darling: four...hundred...bits..."

thump.

Rarity passed out snoring on the floor, leaving Dash to just leave without paying, expecting to get the bill later.

Over in the marketplace, Pinkie and Travis had just bought a package of chocolate squares to make their own homemade chocolate syrup.

"I don't believe this! It's a fucking revelation," Travis said as they made their way to their next stop.

"Well, you'd better believe it! It's the only way that you can get it right," Pinkie answered.

"It's blowing my mind! I never thought it could be done that way!"

"It can be done anyway, anytime. And it's always best in the comfort of home, with somepony you love. Of course, there's always the element of danger when your doing it in public! Just imagine what ponies would think if they saw you doing it behind a hotel curtain. Or in a public bath!"

Some of the ponies nearby entered a mild state of shock and stopped what they were doing to listen to the young couple carry their conversation, while other concerned parents covered their foals' ears.

"That does sound like fun. We should try it sometime."

"Right-o! If we ever feel that brave or stupid, we should make our own homemade chocolate syrup in public!"

And after a collective sigh of relief, everypony went about their business as usual.

"I'm still trying to wrap my head around that: you can make your own chocolate syrup?! I always thought that it came in the bottle, and that was it."

Pinkie smiled as she put her hooves through Travis's mane, "Oh, Travis: you're so sweet and innocent. Just leave it to Pinkie, and I'll show you a side of things you never could have imagined."

Sweet? Innocent? These were words that described anyone but Travis. After his time with the UAA, he barely felt he had any humanity left, so hearing these words from someone like Pinkie was exactly what he needed to lift that weight from his mind. Not all of it could go, since the UAA was always going to be a part of him, but now it didn't matter to him as much. There was something about Pinkie that made everything seem slightly less terrible.

With a smile, Travis moved in to kiss Pinkie for what must have been the fiftieth time that day.

That magic moment was interrupted by a rainbow-colored streak that bolted between them.

Now that Dash had their attention, she made her way high into the sky to begin her work.

She started by darting around and around a cloud, morphing it to a shape of her liking. In a matter of seconds, the large cloud had been changed to a full bodied replica of herself, in intricate detail no less.

Another group of clouds were merged together by her super speed flight into one large mass. She then proceeded to fly around the cloud at an impressive speed until it condensed smaller and smaller into a liquid state.

Once the cloud had become a single, gigantic raindrop, she began to splash her way through it before it even had a chance to fall, thus streaking a trail of water behind her that she arced across the top of her impressive likeness.

The rest of the water was kicked and splashed into a fine mist that was shaped into stars of various sizes that, with the sun in the position it was in, created an array of rainbows across the sky as a finishing touch to her masterpiece.

All of Ponyville applauded the spectacle, but there was only one pony whose adulation really mattered.

Dash floated down from the the sky and landed in front of Travis, posing as she did. "Pretty sweet, huh," she said with a smile.

The look on Travis's face let her know that he thought it was very, very sweet.

The outfit Rarity made for her seemed to be working. It was a black jacket with metal studs on the shoulders, with a striped bikini top underneath. The rest of her upper body was bare, but her lower body was covered by a pair of red trousers, which Dash took the liberty of adding some strategic tears for added style. Her mane had been styled differently, in a way that reminded Travis of one of the characters from the anime he watched back home.

Most striking of all was how heavily made up her face was. This was one of the most un-Rainbow Dash things imaginable, and maybe it was because of this that Travis couldn't take his eyes off of her.

Dash smiled, as she knew she was winning him over. But she couldn't celebrate yet since Pinkie zipped over to her side.

"This is great, Dashie! Now we can match! We could be a couple of super-sexy soul sisters of the femme fatale battalion who wreak their havoc on bad guys and other meanies, but take time out to keep the stallions happy," Pinkie said gleefully as she hugged Dash from behind, her pose and idea clearly taking inspiration from the movies Travis told her about that he used to watch.

Speaking of Travis, his weapons on his belt activated once more as he watched Pinkie reacharound Dash.

Pinkie rectified this with another swat on his belt.

"Honestly, Travis! In public? There are foals here," she admonished him.

"Sorry...They've got minds of their own, you know," Travis apologized as he walked away with Pinkie, leaving Dash behind.

Dash didn't believe what happened. She had given it her best shot, and Travis passed her up. This would never do for her, so she decided to step up her game from that point on.

"Rainbow Dash," asked Fluttershy's quiet voice from Dash's side, "Why are you dressed like...that?"

Dash didn't answer in any discernible way. All she did was look her friend up and down from head to hoof, making the yellow pegasus slightly more confused.

"I-is there something on my face?"

She became more anxious when she saw Dash's sly smile.

"Flutters: how'd you like to be a star?"

Pinkie and Travis merrily continued their shopping, which to Travis took much longer than it should have. This was because every time they found something they needed, Pinkie carefully inspected and appraised everything, looking for that perfect sundae ingredient among a bunch of lesser candidates. Of course this allowed for the two to spend some quality time learning the more personal details about one another.

For instance, Travis learned that Pinkie grew up on a farm that specialized in growing rocks with her family. He also learned how lonely she always felt growing up away from other ponies, and not being able to have any fun at all. To her, it was always like a major part of her was missing, though she was never able find out since she knew nothing but farming. She always felt so sad and grim until she was inspired one day to throw a party for her family. That was the defining moment of her life that led her to be what she was today.

Pinkie learned about Travis's upbringing as well. A perfectly average childhood as an only child with parents who loved him, even though his dad was drunk most of the time, and his mom forgot everything about his personality or likes and dislikes as soon as she learned them. But they were a happy family.

It was Travis's peers that treated him like an outcast. When they weren't shunning him, they mocked him for not being a part of their crappy trends. Travis related that this may have nurtured the part of himself that he kept repressed from sight until he became an assassin for a living, as well as his desire to look after other outcasts in his life. Bishop, for example, along with others he met throughout his life. Despite these details, he left out the part about his first girlfriend, not wanting to scare Pinkie off.

The two shared a sympathetic stare, both of them feeling bad for each other's upbringing before they lovingly embraced.

"Nopony deserves to grow up that way," Pinkie whispered to Travis as she felt his hoof rub her back. "You're going to get a party every day from now on."

Travis smiled at the sentiment, "You don't have to do that for me. I've pretty much gotten over it. Besides, it's not like you had it any easier than I did."

Travis realized how gruesome his story was compared to her's when he felt Pinkie hold him tighter. He decided he should comfort her, and this time not mess it up.

"I wish I was more like you, Pinkie. You ended up so great, making as many people as you can feel the same joy that you do. And me? Well, you know."

"No," Pinkie said in his ear, "You're a pony who wanted to help others any way he could. And you did it with your special talent."

Travis felt his heart sink when she said that, but he tried to remain upbeat, "Well, it doesn't do me a lot of good here. Everyone's encouraged to get along, there's almost no serious crimes, and almost everything can be fixed by relying on your friends." Equestria was pretty awesome now that he thought about it. "I guess I'll have to find a new talent, but I don't know if I can change like that."

Pinkie took her head off her coltfriend's shoulder and looked him in his eyes, "Travis, it's never too late to change."

Travis moved in to kiss her once more, but a sudden blast of sound jerked their attention.

Just what the hell was making that noise?

Looking down the road, they saw Vinyl Scratch's stage set up in the fountain square. She wasn't playing her usual dubstep or big room dance music. It sounded more familiar to Travis. It sounded like the punk bands he listened to back home, but with an electronic twist on it.

Pinkie decided that it might be fun to check it out for a little bit before they got back to their shopping.

When they approached, they saw the show play out before them. First, the lights all converged to a single point on the stage, and a pegasus silhouette appeared within the globe of light that was created. With a burst of pyro fountains and a strike of technicolor lightning, Rainbow Dash appeared onstage, provocatively dancing for the audience. Her tight, gyrating dance moves flowed seamlessly into one another, and captured the audience in a trance of awe and wonder. It even sent many of the teenage colts in the crowd rushing into hidden spots where they could express their appreciation for the show in a more private way.

Once again, Dash could see that Travis's undivided attention was held. Now it was time for the coup de grace. With a raised hoof, she signaled the arrival of crystal ball that levitated from the catwalk onto the stage. The ball had what looked like three small butterflies fluttering around inside of it. Dash began to roll the ball back and forth across her hooves, and then up her foreleg, behind her head and then down her opposite foreleg. She then began her dance once more, now with the ball rolling around her body in tandem with her moves. Then she took the ball between her hooves and smashed it on the ground in a burst of smoke.

The smoke cleared, and Fluttershy appeared in its midst quietly coughing. Then she became aware of where she was and looked nervously at the crowd. That wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as when Dash started dancing around her and touched her in ways that they hadn't done since they went to camp back when they were fillies. Fluttershy almost completely withdrew from the sheer awkwardness and anxiety she felt, especially when Dash grabbed her and began dancing with her in front of everypony. She would have passed out, if not for the sudden splash of water that came raining down on them, which soaked their entire bodies, and received a series of loud cat calls from many of the stallions in the audience.

"You did good, Flutters. You really scored one for the team," Dash congratulated her friend. She looked out into the crowd to welcome Travis into her hooves as he left Pinkie for a mare with some serious flavor like herself. She received a second cold splash when she saw that Travis had already left with Pinkie. "What," she yelled as she dropped Fluttershy to the ground and flew to the back of the crowd to watch them go, "What the hay is wrong with that guy!? I strut my best stuff, and he wanders off with his complete opposite! It's nuts! I shouldn't even bother with a stallion that stupid!" Of course she didn't actually mean that. That would mean that she had lost, and she wasn't about to forfeit this battle.

"You know, I heard that most stallions prefer a mare with substance over style," Fluttershy offered her advice as she walked to Dash's side. "Maybe he sees something in her that doesn't show as much in you?" This only pressed Dash's buttons further, prompting her to hover irritated in Fluttershy's face.

"Everything I have is better than her's! I even make ponies smile more than she does, and that's what she's best at," Dash snapped.

"I don't think you've ever tried to make ponies smile," Fluttershy meekly rebutted. This did nothing to cool Dash's fire.

"He wants a mare with substance? I'll give him substance! I'll give him substance to kingdom come," Dash declared as she flew high into the sky and far over the horizon, leaving Fluttershy to worry about her friend's state of mind.

In a far away land, a notorious band of thugs known as The Galloping Hordes held the populace in a grip of terror. They struck whenever the peaceful ponies began to feel secure with their way of life, swooping like a mass of demons and taking everything from the most valuable antique to the tiniest bric-a-brac. Anypony who was brave enough to stand against them wound up becoming gravely wounded, breaking the courage of others. That is, except for a certain rainbow-maned pegasus.

When Rainbow Dash challenged all one hundred of them at once, they thought it was some kind of joke. It started when a single thug approached her, and was quickly K.O'ed with a masterful combo of punches, kicks, and a topped off by a debilitating suplex. One by one, each member of the band of thieves fell to Dash's fury. In only a matter of minutes, the entire Galloping Hordes had been defeated and sent to prison. Dash was heralded as a hero in their land, and word soon spread via the press. Newspapers headlined her brave deed across all of Equestria.

At a news stand on a certain street in Ponyville, a vendor put out a fresh stack of newspapers and wondered how the hay a completely new headline could be printed, published and marketed in a single day instead of arriving in tomorrow's paper. He decided not to pay any mind to it and just did his job selling papers to his customers. The customers in question being a pink, earth pony mare with a poofy, white mane and her oddly dressed unicorn coltfriend.

"Isn't this great? Dashie's a hero now! It's so cool being her friend! And when ponies ask what's so great about her, we can kick their flanks and say, 'Hey, our friend's a hero! And if you ever need saving, don't count on any of us to help you!' And then we'd walk away, but not really mean what we say, because come on, what kind of ponies would we be if we didn't help out others who need it," Pinkie rambled. When she put the paper down, she saw Rainbow Dash standing there in the same pose as her picture on the front page.

"Don't worry about it Pinkie. When you've got this much cool, ponies are bound to hate on you for it," Dash said confidently. She began to slowly walk to Travis, "Besides, I only did it because it was the right thing to do. I knew that those ponies needed a strong, brave, cunning, bucking awesome mare to look after them. Because if I didn't put those guys in their place, who would? Only a mare of serious substance would have been able to handle it. Don't you think so? Travis?"

"Yeah. What you did was pretty fucking sweet," Travis said to Dash. That brought a smile to Dash's face, as she knew she was now winning him over for sure. And it wasn't like that last times when she was sure she was winning him over. This time it was the real deal, "You're gonna make some dude real happy one day, Dash."

"Ho-lee horse apples," Dash thought, "Did he just reject me?"

Pinkie took Travis's hoof. "Come on, we only have one more stop to make! Then we can go to your place for the sundae buffet," she said giddily, growing more and more excited with every word she spoke.

"Okie-dokie-lokie," Travis answered. This further irritated Dash, now knowing that Travis was picking up on Pinkie's behavior. It only meant that she was losing. Travis used his magic to give the newspaper he and Pinkie had to her, "Here, show that around town to some people here. You might find a guy that'll ask you out."

"You won't have any trouble," Pinkie added, "That headline and that outfit are a winning combination that can't be beat." And she and Travis both hopped away with their groceries.

Though it was very quiet, a storm was brewing inside of Rainbow Dash. It was this storm that made her bite the newspaper she held and furiously tear into it like a timber wolf over a fresh kill. She relented her rabid attack, breathing heavily as she stared blankly ahead, her eyes bloodshot and wide. There was a way to win this! There had to be! She realized that the only way to settle this was the old fashioned way: a direct competition with Pinkie Pie to see who was the better marefriend. She was about to fly over and challenge Pinkie face to face when she felt somepony grab her tail.

"Hold it right there," came Applejack's voice from behind her. Dash struggled hard against the farmpony's grip, flapping her wings as fast as she could.

"Stay out of this, AJ! This is between me and the pink death over there," Dash nearly growled at her friend. A sudden jerk from Applejack, and she was on her flank on the ground. Turning to face Applejack, Dash saw that she was also accompanied by Fluttershy, who was doing her best not to look Dash in the eye.

"You listenin' to yerself? Yer actin' like a dang fool," Applejack admonished Dash, "I been watchin' you all day wonderin' what you were up to! It was only thanks to Fluttershy that I learned what these shenanigans were all about!" At the mentioning of her name, Fluttershy 'eeped' quietly and turned away.

"Maybe you don't really know what this is all about," Dash tried to reason, but it didn't reach Applejack.

"I know exactly what this is about! It's about yer selfish wants an' not even considerin' how others might feel about it. Look at those two over there," Applejack said as she pointed a hoof down the street. What Dash saw was Travis and Pinkie both bouncing merrily with their baskets full of sundae ingredients. "Tell me watcha see, Dash. Look at 'em real careful and tell me what makes that special."

Dash was never much of a romantic, but his was definitely different for her. In all her life, she never felt this way about any stallion, so she was able to let the words come forth to her, "...They're two ponies who are at their happiest when they're with each other. They love each other more than anypony or anything..."

"That's right," Applejack nodded, "Now ask yerself this: Are you really gonna take that away from 'em? Would ya really ruin that kind of happiness that two ponies share, let alone two o' yer friends?"

Dash continued to watch them make their way across her line of vision. With them went everything that she wanted for herself: the happiness, the intimacy, the sheer joy of simply seeing each other. It was something that she nearly held in her hooves and cherished it as she did, but there it went bouncing down the road with its pink parcel. She swallowed hard, and even though it went against every fiber of her being, she conceded to what was already perfectly apparent. She had been beaten. And it only hurt worse since it was her own friend, instead of some powerful face of evil like what she had triumphed over before.

"I guess I can be happy for them," Dash managed to choke out.

"That's mighty big of ya, sugarcube," Applejack said as she released Dash's tail and patted her shoulder. She could see that her comfort did nothing to alleviate the weight Dash felt on her mind. Though it hurt her to do so, she felt that it would be best to leave Dash alone. "It's been a long day for everypony. Why don't y'all call it in an' head home," she said before she left to close down her apple stand.

Meanwhile, Fluttershy remained by Dash's side to offer her own comforts. After that experience on the stage, she was beginning to feel a little more bold. Slowly, nervously, eagerly, she slid her hoof over to Dash's own as she blushed profusely under her mane. "Um, Rainbow Dash," she began with her usual timidness, "I was wondering that if..." She hesitated before speaking her next words, "Since things didn't work out with Travis," her hoof slid on top of Dash's, "Maybe we could..."

"I made myself clear back at camp," Dash said tersely, prompting Fluttershy to quickly retract her hoof.

"I'm sorry. I thought maybe...I don't know," she said as she took a step back. She wanted to help, but there was nothing she could do when Dash was like this. The only option that she had was to allow her friend to work this out on her own. "I'm sorry," she repeated as she gently flew away toward her home.

Dash was left alone, motionless among the crowd of ponies who were all making their ways home from work at the end of the day. She wiped all of the makeup from her face onto her sleeve, and proceeded to take the entire outfit off piece by piece. She hoofed it over to a passing mare, "Here. Take it," she said simply as the mare gratefully took it from her, remarking how her husband would love to see her in it. After sitting for a few more seconds, though they seemed like hours to Dash, she flapped her wings and made her own weary way home.

Back down on the streets, Travis and Pinkie purchased their final ingredients: licorice and raisins, both of which made Travis's gorge rise. Pinkie playfully chastised him as a stranger rapidly approached them from behind.

Author's Notes:

Oy, this was an uncomfortable chapter to write. It just felt so wrong to me writing all the sexy stuff the ponies do, but a lot of this was inspired by the fan art that I've seen some bronies make, and it needed to be enticing for Travis. My brother happens to be a fan of this particular art (double oy). Oh well, I know a crackerjack therapist who can help me repress this. On to business, the next chapter is going to be an assassin chapter, and it will contain an important plot detail or two. The chapter after it may or may not be an assassin chapter, I don't know yet. I'll just have to see how the chapters turn out. Rock on \m/