“Aaaannnd that’s a check!” Twilight Sparkle said as she levitated a scroll in front of her. Everything, so far, had gone just as planned; Princess Celestia would soon pay a visit. Twilight had personally designed the schedule for the day, booking Octavia Melody, a renowned musician, for Celestia’s grand arrival. She had hired the best catering service around. Hiring the staff of Sugarcube Corner, Pinkie Pie and the Cakes themselves had prepared a delightful feast of tasty treats for Celestia to try—and then an entirely separate set of treats for when Pinkie would undoubtedly eat first.

Twilight had even enlisted the rest of her friends to help out. Rarity had, of course, been put in charge of decorating town hall. Applejack built the stage and necessities for the princess to give a last minute speech, should she so choose. Rainbow was asked to keep the sky clear, and even Fluttershy went out of her way to make sure all her cute critters were in matching, adorable suits.

“Princess Twilight, how are the preparations going?” A gray maned mare walked up to the newest princess.

Twilight put away her scroll. “Great. It looks like everything is just about ready, Mayor Mare. We have the banquet ready, the decorations are in place, the red carpet has—quite literally—been rolled out.” Twilight smiled as she looked at the red carpet going from the designated landing spot to the town hall. “The ponies and animals are all nicely lined up, and the music’s ready. It should be a perfect day.”

“Should be?” Mayor Mare asked.

“Well, we’re just waiting on Rainbow Dash to clear the sky,” Twilight replied, looking up.

The mayor’s eyes followed Twilight’s. “The sky looks fine, princess.”

“See, there’s a small group of clouds over there, and there.” Twilight pointed them out to the mayor.

“Well, if she’s going to get to them, she better make it fast,” the mayor said, shrugging.

“It’s Rainbow Dash. She’d never turn her back on Ponyville,” Twilight said, chipperly. “She can clear these skies in ten seconds flat. Heck, five seconds.”

The mayor walked away. “I still say it’s fine, but if she’s going to do it she better get it done soon. There’s Princess Celestia’s chariot now.”

“Any second now,” Twilight said, keeping a faux smile on her muzzle as her eyes darted from Celestia’s chariot in the distance to the small group of clouds ruining a perfect visit. “Aaaaannnny second now…” The chuckle that left her throat did little to help convey the assurance of her words.

“Twilight, I must say, I had a wonderful time on my visit. The food was simply divine, the critters and decorations, so cute!” Celestia said with a shimmering smile as she boarded her chariot.

Twilight’s eyes twitched as they automatically fell upon the group of clouds still in the sky. Of her brash friend, there had been no sign. She faked a laugh. “Heh heh, thank you, princess. I’m so happy that your visit went almost perfect.”

“Oh it was more than great, Twilight. I’m so happy I got to come see you, we simply must do this again soon!”

Twilight put on a fake smile as Celestia sat down and nodded to her personal guard to take flight. “Have a great rest of the day, Twilight,” Celestia said as she smiled once more when the chariot took off.

Twilight smiled and waved at Celestia; a well-practiced maneuver for sure. She kept it up until she was one hundred percent sure that the white alicorn was completely out of sight. Then, and only then, did she allow her veneer to fall.

Gone was the forced smile, the bright lavender eyes, and the peaceful mask she wore. Twilight had gone out of her way and planned out every part of Princess Celestia’s visit to Ponyville in meticulous detail, and Rainbow Dash had all but spat on those plans for... whatever reason. Rainbow Dash, the pony that swore she’d never leave Ponyville hanging, or be disloyal to the princesses, had done just that.

The look of pure, unadulterated anger on her face would have frightened a timberwolf. Twilight shot straight up into the air and through the offending clouds herself.

A more rational pony would have just done it themselves; but, at that moment, Twilight was anything but rational. Besides it was the principle of the thing.

Rainbow Dash, you better have one darn good explanation for leaving us high and dry.

The Princess of Friendship was severely enraged. She had spent weeks planning out each and every detail of Celestia’s visit, all the way down from her friends eccentricities to exactly how many steps the princess would take from location A to location B. She had counted on all of her friends to do what they promised her, to do what they agreed to do, and Rainbow Dash of all ponies had fallen short.

Worse, she had betrayed her. Or at least, that’s how it felt.

The skies of Ponyville were filled with a lavender stripe, zipping across the sky as far as the eye could see. Twilight zoomed from location to location, trying to find out exactly what happened to her brash friend, where she was, and why she hadn’t shown up to do the one simple, easy thing that she had promised Twilight she’d do.

Her first stop was Rainbow Dash’s cloud home. She landed at the front door and pounded on it as hard as she could, so hard that had she been in a different mindset, she would have been worried that she’d break it down.

“Rainbow Dash! Wake up!” Twilight shouted angrily.

When no reply came, she shouted again. “Rainbow Dash!”

Annoyed, Twilight powered her horn and teleported inside. She looked around the unkempt living room before running upstairs to see if her friend was passed out in her bedroom. Of Rainbow, there was no sign. She checked each room in turn before ending up in the mare’s kitchen, fuming. “Where are you, Rainbow‽”

Ugh, she’s not here, where could she be? Twilight thought. The options were… limited. Let’s see, she loves practicing, pranks, and napping. She’s not practicing, otherwise I’d have seen her when I looked around town. That leaves pranks. But everypony was at Celestia's visit, so she’d have had to prank one of them all by herself without it being obvious to me. So that’s out. That just leaves napping, but she’s not here…

Where else does Rainbow like to nap? Clouds of course, but I destroyed the only ones above Ponyville. So that just leaves… TREES!

Immediately turning back to the front door, Twilight stomped outside, slamming the door closed behind her. Casting her gaze out on Ponyville below her, she could still where the offending clouds were that that ruined her day and started all this mess, but no cyan pegasus dreaming away the day. Shifting her gaze, she settled upon Sweet Apple Acres. Far in the distance, she could see a few low hanging clouds scattered over the farm, but from the distance she was at she couldn’t see much about them. Charging her horn once more she teleported outside and flew to the apple farm.

Before her hooves even touched the ground, she flapped her wings to fly up to one of the nearest clouds over the border to the forest, just to double check. In a disgusted huff, she saw no sign on the rainbow maned pest she had been searching for.

Twilight landed and began to scan the trees. Sure as apple pie is tasty, after a minute of searching, she saw a white blanket hanging down from one tree branch. She frowned and flew up to the offending pegasus.

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight basically screamed in Rainbow’s ear; the princess’s glare settled hard and cold on her friend.

With a yawn and a smack of her lips, Rainbow just rolled over on the tree branch, a hoof trying to wave the princess away, almost like she was an offending gnat.

Twilight scrunched her eyes in displeasure. “WAKE UP!”

That got the cyan mare moving; she jerked her head up and rolled right out of the tree. “Ahh!”

Twilight couldn’t even bring herself to feel bad about Rainbow hitting the ground. She was simply too mad.

“Ouch, Twilight, what the hay?” Rainbow asked as she sat up and rubbed the top of her head as she sought to untangle herself from the blanket.

In a rage, Twi flew down to the ground; however, she didn’t land. She was too angry for that. “What the hay? What the hay? YOU MISSED CELESTIA’S VISIT!”

“Calm down Twi, It’s not like I miss—” Rainbow’s eyes widened and she finally looked up at the princess. “That was today?”

Twi’s right eye started to twitch, angrily. “YES IT WAS TODAY!” She flew around her friend, almost as if she were attacking her from different angles with her words alone. “YOU promised you’d be there, YOU agreed you’d have the skies clear by two p.m. YOU COMPLETELY ruined everything!”

“Come on Twilight, it was just some clouds. I’m sure Celestia didn’t even notice, and if she did big whoop. It’s the sky, clouds are supposed to be in the sky.” Rainbow waved it off with a hoof,

“BIG WHOOP‽” Twilight facehoofed. “It’s a visit from PRINCESS CELESTIA! It’s a BIG WHOOP, RAINBOW!”

“Sheesh Twilight, if it was such a big deal why didn’t you remind me about it.”

“I DID!” I told you last week, I told you Friday, I told you Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and yesterday! I even sent a reminder to your house this morning to have the skies clear! I counted on you, Rainbow!”

“Okay, okay, Egghead. I screwed up. But you don’t have to be so explosive about it. The princess’s visit went fine didn’t it? I mean you are here yelling at me instead of well… still dealing with that.”

“We all had our part to play, Rainbow! Had I dealt with it myself, who would have organized the whole visit? Each and every pony had an exact spot to be and knew when they were supposed to be there. I counted on you and you… you… ugh.” Twilight landed on the ground with her eyes shut. “You let me down, you let the princess down.”

“Twilight… I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to forget.”

“You always say that, and you always forget! Why can’t you be dependable? Why can’t you just do what you’re supposed to do!”

“Because everything you think I’m supposed to do is boring! Rainbow Dash do this, Rainbow Dash do that. Come on, Twilight. Just because you think organizing your life down to every second is fun, doesn’t mean it works for the rest of us normal ponies.”

“Normal Ponies? Everypony else did exactly what they were supposed to do. Everypony else understands you can’t just goof off all day! You’re the only one not normal!”

“Well maybe I’m just too awesome to be normal. Are we done here? I got some boring stuff to go do”

“No, we're NOT done here! You need to straighten up, Rainbow Dash!”

“Straighten up? What are you talking about, princess?” Rainbow growled, glaring at her friend.

“You can’t just goof off all the time, you have duties and responsibilities,” Twilight shouted in Rainbow’s face.

“I don’t goof off all the time! I work hard on my routines; I think I’m entitled to a little fun now and again. Unlike you apparently.”

“A little fun? A little? All you do is have fun, all you do is goof off and do dar—” Twilight paused as her eyes went wide. She got an idea, a wonderful idea.

Rolling her eyes, the pegasus just huffed. “Whatever you say, Twilight.”

Twilight grinned. “Hey, you like dares, right?”

“Dares? What are you going on about now, Egghead? I thought you were mad at me. Now you want to play a game?” Rainbow raised an eyebrow at her friend.

“What, is the great Rainbow Dash afraid of a little wager?” Twilight asked nonchalantly as she started to turn and walk away. “Oh well, I guess she is.”

Rainbow quickly flew in front of Twilight and blocked her path. “Wait-wait-wait, I didn’t say I wasn’t interested. I just was curious about your change in attitude. Two seconds ago you were ready to tear my throat out. Now we actually get to do something fun? Count me in, princess.”

Twilight tried to keep her grin internal, to not show the enjoyment she had from her plan working. It didn’t really work. She couldn’t help but smile. “I dare you, Rainbow Dash, to fully straighten up for one whole day. You have to not take breaks, not goof off, and do everything expected of you on time and without complaint.”

“You’ve got to be joking,” Rainbow said. “That is the lamest dare I’ve ever heard of, and I’ve played truth or dare with Applejack.”

“If you can do it for one day, then I’ll leave you alone about your behavior, if you can’t, you gotta start taking your responsibilities seriously.” Twilight poked her in the chest with a hoof. “What’s wrong, Rainbow, you chicken?”

Rainbows eyes dropped down to the hoof pressed against her chest. There is no way Twilight Sparkle is going to call me chicken. But this dare is soooo… lame. Ugh. Why can’t SHE be the one to do something? Ha, Like Twilight could give up her lists for one day, or her precious books. Actually… hmm...

Rainbow looked back up at her friend, her expression dropping from internal questioning to smug.

“We got a deal?” Twilight asked. She knew there was no way Rainbow could manage it for a whole day.

“I got a better idea, and if you agree to it and you win, I’ll change.”

Twilight jerked her head back, caught of guard by this change in circumstances. “Come again?”

“Come on Twi, I do dares all the time. This is just too easy. Instead, here’s my counter dare. If YOU can act completely different than how you normally do with all your books and eggheadishness for a day, then I’ll do whatever you say. Otherwise, you leave me alone about it.”

“So… I just have to act different?” Twi asked.

“For one whole day!”

“And you’ll do whatever I say? No fighting, no nothing? You’ll just do it, and you will not go back on it?”

“Uh-huh. But you have to win the dare, and to do that you’re gonna have to give up being so uptight. After all, if you think it’s so simple to change things about yourself, why don’t you try it?” Rainbow’s grin grew wider.

What’s she playing at? All I have to do is act exactly like I used to before I met my friends? This’ll be a piece of cake? No… that smile on her face, she’s gotta… wait, this is Rainbow I’m thinking of, I can outsmart her. After all, it’s just one day. How much can really happen in one day?

Twilight’s frown became a smile, and then a grin. “You know what Rainbow? I accept your dare. I’ll send Spike to stay at Rarity’s for a day, and starting tomorrow morning, you’re on.”

“You think this is going to be easy, huh?” Rainbow just chuckled.

“The easiest thing in the world,” Twilight said with a matching smile.

Author's Notes:

Note: this story will be posted in five chapters over five days, with the last chapter posted on Christmas Day.

Enjoy!