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The Games We Play

by AbsoluteAnonymous

Chapter 19: Chapter 19: Game Over

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Maybe it was the heavy weight of the armor that encased her body in a thick shell of heat, or maybe it was those glaring lights that caused her to sweat so profusely. All Rainbow Dash knew was that she felt caged in. She had never felt trapped before a crowd before; usually, she lived for an audience. Now, though, she stood before over a thousand ponies, all of whom were waiting for her to be somepony else as soon as she walked out to the stage.

"Are you nervous?" Fluttershy asked softly, coming up from somewhere behind her.

"No," Rainbow Dash lied in a hissing whisper, ignoring the fresh wave of cold terror washing over her, but the stare Fluttershy gave her right then demanded further explanation, so she quickly added, "My costume's just really uncomfortable."

"Oh," Fluttershy said with a knowing gleam in her eye. "My costume's uncomfortable, too."

She ignored the glower that darkened Rainbow's face right then, instead offering a comforting wing around her shoulders in a feather embrace, and Dash sighed. Fluttershy always managed to be so good and make her look terrible in comparison. It wasn't fair.

There had been no more notes from Mare Do Well. This was both a relief and a disappointment, paradoxically. A part of her had wanted Mare Do Well to prove more persistent, but at the same time, it was nice to know that the mare respected her wishes at least some of the time. It was difficult to fully relax, though; Rainbow kept expecting something to happen the moment she finally let her guard down. It was just a matter of time.

Pinkie hadn't brought up the note she found, and she didn't seem to be avoiding Rainbow Dash or acting resentful, either. For all intents and purposes, it seemed that she honestly bore no grudge, but that didn't explain her eerie behavior when she'd first read Mare Do Well's letter. It didn't make sense.

Nopony else even seemed to notice that anything was wrong, but that was Rainbow's fault. If she hadn't been so determined to keep everything private, maybe her friends could have helped her and the situation wouldn't have become so bad. Only Fluttershy could tell anything was up, and she thought Dash had stage fright.

"You'll do really well," she was no saying, in an encouraging, hopeful way. "You're very good, and you've been rehearsing very hard."

Rainbow Dash wasn't listening. She was staring at Pinkie, who was happily whispering to Rarity off to the side. They were waiting for their cues, and for the time being, all they could hear, aside from their own whispers backstage, was Spike's pompous narration, slightly muffled by the curtain.

"Each tribe sent their leaders: daughter of the unicorn king, Princess Platinum..."

With a haughty toss of her mane and a magical adjustment of the crown she wore for her costume, Rarity trotted through the door that was part of the set and out onto the stage. Pinkie was wriggling about in obvious excitement, the way a filly would.

"Ruler of the pegasi, Commander Hurricane..."

And that was her cue. Rainbow Dash put on her Hurricane face – her meanest grimace – and without a single backwards glance, she walked through the door as well, this time as Commander Hurricane. Becoming somepony else, if only for a little while.

"All I wanna know is, why the earth ponies are hogging all the food!" Rainbow bellowed, slamming her forehooves on the table. Her voice had never been especially soft or delicate, but tonight she pitched it deeper and coarser than usual, trying to make it ring with the authority it rarely carried. Behind her, the extras playing the parts of the other pegasi all began to shout on cue, roaring angry sentiments. At least, that's what it must have sounded like to the audience; onstage, Rainbow Dash could hear them well enough to suspect that at least a few of them were literally shouting rabble rabble rabble.

"Us?" Pinkie Pie cried. "We're not hogging all the food, you are! Oh, wait, you're right. It's us," she corrected as an afterthought. "Well, it's only 'cause you mean old pegasusususes are making it snow like crazy!"

That was such a Pinkie thing to say, and Rainbow Dash had to fight the urge to grin. Twilight had explained before that the play had been rewritten many times over the decades to be better suited for current audiences, but the part of Chancellor Puddinghead in this edition seemed specifically written with Pinkie Pie in mind. All of her lines were of the whimsical, nonsensical variety, and she delivered them so easily, as if they were the kinds of things she might have said on her own without any prompting in these situations.

As the sets were changed and the play continued, Spike narrating the events with that silly, affected accent of his, over and over again Dash found herself having to suppress a goofy smile whenever it was Pinkie Pie's turn to speak.

"Heaven forbid that should happen, your chancellorship," Applejack said as Smart Cookie. "It's just that, the map is also upside down."

"I got a newsflash for you, Cookie," Pinkie Pie retorted, the map still taped to her face. "The Earth is round. There is no up or down."

Laughter drifted up from the audience; chuckles of appreciation from the older ponies, while the little fillies and colts watched the spectacle with rapt attention, giggling only because everypony else was and not necessarily understanding the joke.

It was difficult to pay attention to the play when Pinkie Pie's antics seemed to hold Rainbow Dash's attention so thoroughly. Dash had been expecting Pinkie's heart to not really be in her performance that night; she'd expected some kind of aftermath to deal with upon her finding the note – but Pinkie was being her usual ridiculous self.

In the final act, when the three leaders were meant to be frozen solid while the others discovered friendship, Rainbow Dash had trouble staying still and found her gaze constantly flickering to Pinkie – who responded by making faces at her, so quick as to almost be unnoticeable, sticking out her tongue and crossing her eyes. This got them both giggling silently, shoulders trembling with repressed laughter until Rarity's scowl made them go still, becoming serious once more.

At the end of the play, the six of them stood in a semicircle, all gathered around the banner of the new Equestria. Voices rose not only from the actors onstage, but from the audience as well as all those present joined together to sing the words of a song they all knew.

"Though quarrels arise, their numbers are few; laughter and singing will see us through..."

Their eyes met, and Rainbow Dash gave her an uneasy smile. Pinkie Pie beamed back.

It was so easy for Pinkie to switch back to normal. She could adapt to anything. Maybe that wasn't something Rainbow Dash should've envied about her, but right then, Rainbow would've given anything to be the same way.

• • •

Immediately after the play was done, the six of them were herded back by Rarity so that they could begin to get ready, having transformed her room into a dressing room where she could oversee their preparations.

"Oh, Applejack," Rarity sighed as she did something to Applejack's mane that involved a lot of pins, grumbling, and various sounds of exertion from both parties. "I've told you so many times! You could be so pretty if you'd just do something with yourself every once in a while. Maybe wash your face, or comb your mane, or apply just the teensiest bit of makeup..."

Applejack's expression darkened, and Rainbow Dash couldn't help but give her a mean grin, recalling the brush incident.

"I don't got time for that kinda nonsense," the farmer retorted. but she sat perfectly still while the unicorn fussed with her hair. Rainbow opened her mouth to say something, but Applejack shot her a nasty look that seemed to say breathe one word about that and I'll buck you into next week, so she thought better of it.

As Rainbow Dash put on her own dress – that stormy sea of grays and blues – she tried to look only at herself in the mirror. Her eyes wandered, though, as she struggled with the clasps and ties, settling on each of her friends in turn. Twilight in her dress of shimmering, ethereal violet. Rarity, looking regal and cold in her silver and blue. Fluttershy looking more like an angel than ever. Pinkie giggling and shimmying about, sending her ruffles and flounces bouncing. Applejack looked as sophisticated as Rainbow had ever seen her, thanks to Rarity's dexterity when it came to magic; her hair had been set in a lovely, elaborate mass of soft waves that somehow softened her normally hard features – and her dress, though simple in comparison to the others, was the exact same shade of green as her eyes, now that Rainbow Dash truly looked.

Rarity watched them change with the air of an artist appraising a painting, flitting about and offering words of advice or making minute corrections when needed, before finally pronouncing them ready and fit to be seen in public.

There was no carriage to take them this time, as they were staying in the palace itself. Instead of entering through the front gates like the other guests, they were led by a servant down the hall, to the gallery that overlooked the ballroom, where they stopped at the landing at the top of the grand stairway where the two princesses were waiting. Celestia beamed at them like the sun while Luna remained stiff and uncomfortable-looking.

"Twilight Sparkle, my faithful student!" Princess Celestia said brightly, leaning close to nuzzle Twilight with all the warmth and affection of a mother and her daughter. "I dearly hope that you and your friends will enjoy yourselves tonight. You all look wonderful."

"Thank you, Princess!" Twilight said proudly, returning the nuzzle. "And Luna, it's so nice to see you!"

"Likewise, Twilight Sparkle," Luna answered in a clipped tone. Still a little too loudly, but better than it had once been. "We hope that you and your companions find tonight to be –"

"Now, Luna," Princess Celestia chided gently, and Luna seemed to grow even stiffer.

"My apologies. I hope that you and your companions find tonight to be, ah... fun."

"I'm sure we will," Twilight said with a gracious nod.

"Hopefully there won't be any grand disasters this time," Princess Celestia said cheerfully. "But I can't say I'll be too disappointed if you do manage to liven things up again," she added in a conspiratorial whisper.

"Grand disasters? This time? Sister, of what do you speak?" Luna asked, sounding puzzled.

"If you had come to the Grand Galloping Gala like I'd suggested instead of spending the night hiding in the library, dear sister, you would know," Celestia teased.

"I'll tell you about it later if you want. It's a long story," Twilight offered with a wry grin, and Luna rewarded her with a very small smile of her own.

Some invisible servant must have given a signal, for right then, the music started, an orchestra filling the vaulted room with the gentle strains of a promenade.

The two princesses descended first, and Rarity moved to go next before flashing an expectant glare behind her. After a moment of exchanging confused glances, Applejack seemed to realize what she was waiting for, jumping up and rushing forward to her side. They went down together, Rarity looking satisfied that she was being taken in to the ball properly, and Applejack scowling at nothing in particular.

Before they could have another silent debate over who went into the ball with who, Rainbow Dash took the space beside Twilight, leaving Fluttershy to go in with Pinkie. Rainbow was sure her face must have been on fire as she entered with the unicorn, but Twilight, to her credit, didn't look embarrassed at all, albeit a little startled.

When they were safely down the steps and halfway along the huge room, they drifted apart, Twilight giving Rainbow Dash an apologetic look before going to join Luna as promised. The moon princess looked grateful for the company, and visibly relaxed once they began to talk.

Now that the princesses were present, the band picked up the pace, changing from the promenade to a quicker, more light-hearted step. Even though the music was growing more festive, the cellist looked deathly serious and utterly focused on her instrument, almost grimacing as she played. It was a strange contrast between the mood of the piece and the mood of the musicians, but nopony else seemed to notice, too focused on the music itself to care.

Rainbow Dash slipped through the crowd, maneuvering her way across the dance floor. Ponies all around her were already all coupled up, moving through the complicated steps with sureness she would never be able to match, even if she tried. She would have just flown over them all if she could have, but that would likely be seen as rude, somehow. Besides, her wings were restricted by the tight fabric of her gown, and she wouldn't be able to spread them without tearing it. Rarity probably did that on purpose.

At last she made her way to a wall where she could breathe, far at the edge of the crowd. There was a nearby buffet table, loaded with food and drinks of the dainty, rich sort. Tables for ponies wishing for a place to rest or even just a place to sit and eat in peace were scattered about; for the most part they were unoccupied, except for one where a familiar orange earth pony was slinging back drinks.

She would never admit to it, but Rainbow Dash couldn't help but feel relieved upon finally spotting a familiar face who wasn't too busy for her to hang with. Twilight was with Luna, Rarity was dancing, Pinkie was harassing the band for some reason – probably trying to request a song – and Fluttershy was nowhere to be seen. Probably hiding. That, or trying to love the animals again.

Without asking, Rainbow Dash bounded forward to join Applejack, who took another swig from her glass before giving Rainbow a bitter grin and small wave of her hoof.

"Can you believe how boring this is?" Dash asked loudly. "It's exactly like the Gala, only not as fun, because nopony in our group is messing around. The Wonderbolts aren't even here! If they are, I can't find them!"

"Eyup."

Applejack had a glazed look in her eyes.

"You okay?"

"Just dandy," she muttered, then stood up, wobbling slightly. "'Scuse me, I'm gettin' more."

As Applejack took her cup back for a refill, Rainbow Dash eyed it suspiciously, then noticed the scent in the air. "Is that booze?" she blurted. "Are you getting smashed?"

"It ain't gettin' smashed when it's as weak as this punch is," Applejack replied. "Why're you here, anyway? Everypony's out there havin' a good time. Lookit 'em. Go join 'em, an' have fun, an' leave me alone to have fun my way."

"What're you so worked up about, AJ?"

"I told you. Lookit 'em."

Rainbow looked, and saw the same things she saw when she'd first found her way to this break in the crowd. Twilight and Luna. Rarity dancing with some random stallion. Pinkie being Pinkie. Invisible Fluttershy.

It kind of made her heart hurt to know that they were all having their own kind of fun when she felt so lost and out of place.

Maybe Rainbow Dash would've felt better if Pinkie had held a grudge against her about the note, because at least that would've been expected. Dash didn't know how to handle this.

Maybe it was dumb of her, but she'd kind of wanted Mare Do Well to keep bothering her. She'd wanted somepony to still want her, since she was so good at alienating her peers lately. But what had she expected? Had she been secretly hoping that Mare Do Well would somehow pull an appearance at the ball? That was stupid. Mare Do Well wasn't dumb enough to make a mistake like that. All Rainbow Dash would've had to do to figure out who she was would be to see which of her friends wasn't there when the mare showed up.

Still, it might have been cool to see her. It had been a while. And Rainbow Dash had never especially enjoyed dancing – she fell over and banged into stuff too much to be very good at it, except for when it was in the air – but it might have been nice to dance with somepony who liked her, rather than with one of her friends or a total stranger. It might have been different. Fun.

If Mare Do Well had been there, Rainbow Dash might have danced with her. But she wasn't there. What had Dash expected?

Applejack returned to the table, this time with two cups of the punch, sliding one over to Rainbow.

"You look like you need it, too," she explained with a sigh.

Rainbow Dash, contrary to popular belief, didn't like to drink very often. On occasion, sure, but you couldn't fly if you were wasted. Not well, at least. But she was at a stupid party and her friends were all jerks and she felt incredibly uncomfortable in this dress and she felt almost unspeakably lonely right then; so without a second thought, she took the punch, and took a sip.

• • •

It felt like maybe fifty billion years had passed, and Rainbow Dash still wanted more. Her mouth tasted like cotton and she felt bleary-eyed and sleepy; her words seemed to take an unusually long time to travel from her brain to her mouth, and when they finally came, they sounded funny. All thick and slurred.

"Y'know what?" she managed to mumble through the wood of the table that she was currently resting her face on. "Thish ish much more fun."

"Heh. Yeah," Applejack mumbled in agreement. She was still upright, but obviously tipsy, even though she wasn't on the verge of passing out the way the pegasus was. Lightweight, Applejack had called her earlier. That totally wasn't Rainbow Dash's fault, though. All pegasi were like that.

Rainbow lifted her head, still slumped in her seat. Her cheeks were sore now. "Everypony sucks," she repeated for the umpteenth time.

"Eyup."

"Just... just... why, y'know? S'not that hard."

Applejack didn't know what she was talking about, but still nodded her solemn agreement before taking another shot.

"I bet Mare Do Well's hot," Rainbow Dash mumbled. "She sounds hot. She has a really sexy voice. Geez, you should listen to her. I bet... I bet she'd be really good at making out."

Applejack just chuckled darkly, saying, "It don't matter if she's hot or not. Love never works right."

"Like you'd know."

"I should just go back to stallions."

That made Rainbow look up, and she deeply regretted it the moment she did so, wincing in the glare of the lights, and she slammed her head back down on the table. "You're a fillyfooler?" Rainbow Dash slurred through the counter. It came out sounding like "Yer a feefoo?"

"Yeah."

"Me too," the pegasus announced loudly. Louder than the situation called for, but it suddenly seemed very, very important that Applejack knew this about her, since they'd never really discussed it before and honesty was a vital factor in any friendship. "Since I was little. All... all the foals in my class bugged me about it. I had a crush on some teacher, and they found out, and all the colts made fun of me and all the fillies stayed away. Cuz they thought I'd attack 'em I guess. They weren't even my type. 'Cept Fluttershy."

"Fluttershy?" Applejack slurred back, sounding mildly amused.

"Yeah. She was always nice to me, even when everypony else was being stupid. And she was older and sooo pretty. Not anymore, though. I mean, she's still pretty, I just don't like her that way anymore."

"Does she know?"

"Yeah. I told her once and she told me she liked stallions. But she was sooooo nice about it."

"Fluttershy's too pretty," Applejack said decisively, slamming her cup on the table with a hard clack. "She's all fragile and breakable-like. I don't wanna mare who I'm scared to touch, y'know? I want somepony that can take care o' herself."

At that, Rainbow Dash lifted her head again, looking Applejack straight in those green eyes of hers.

"You're hot," she said loudly.

"Sorry. You ain't my type neither, sugarcube."

"Aw."

Slamming her head back down on the table. Her neck felt too weak to support it any longer. How was she going to get back to her room if she couldn't even sit up?

"That doesn't matter," Rainbow whined. "Me'n Gilda used to mess around and she wasn't my type."

"Bad move."

"Hey. Yeah. She wanted more and I was all, you're a griffon and I'm a pony. How?"

"I reckon that don't matter much when you're both girls."

Rainbow Dash laughed. Then sniffed.

"Aw, sugar, don't be gettin' all weepy on me," Applejack groaned. "You ain't a cryin' drunk, are ya?"

"No," Rainbow Dash whimpered, but from the way her eyes were misting over, she found herself questioning the truth of that statement. She hadn't been simultaneously drunk and conscious enough times in the past to have a very good idea of what she was like when she wasn't sober.

"You okay?" Applejack asked.

"No. I think I'm gonna puke."

"RD, I'm sorry to say this, but I can't very well stand up right now. You gonna throw up, you'd better find somepony else to take care o' you."

They both started to chuckle. "Seriously, I'm totally gonna –" Rainbow Dash began to say, when a pink blur rocketed to the table out of nowhere, crashing between Applejack and Rainbow and sending the glasses clattering.

"Hi, guys!" Pinkie chirped, grinning widely. "I was feeling snacky so I was getting something to eat, when I saw you two sitting here all aloney on your owney!"

Dash made a sound that sounded like "Mmmnnnggh" in response.

"C'mon, Dashie!" Pinkie said, taking one of Rainbow's hooves and yanking her upright. "Let's go somewhere else, okay?"

Rainbow Dash looked up, and saw Pinkie gazing at her with such concern, like some kind of bright pink guardian angel. "Thanks, Pinks," she managed to slur, leaning against Pinkie Pie, who was surprisingly somehow able to support all of Rainbow's weight on her own. "What... where are we going?"

"We're just going somewhere quiet and private for a teeny-tiny bit," Pinkie explained gently. "I throw a lot of parties. I know what to do. I'll make you feel better."

Dash was starting to feel weepy again, the desire to cry competing viciously with the nausea and dizziness gradually overtaking her. "Pinkie, you're my best friend, y'know that?" she declared, because Pinkie really, truly needed to hear that right then. Rainbow Dash wanted everypony in the world to hear this, frankly.

"You're my best friend too, Dashie," Pinkie answered warmly.

"Yeah. Yeah. And you know what? I should've kissed you."

Rainbow Dash was still being supported by Pinkie, who she could feel grow rigid under the pegasus' weight. "It's okay," she said quickly as she led Dash through the crowd, presumably to some powder room where she could be sick and pass out all she wanted to. "I understood about that, remember? You don't –"

"No, I mean... I mean yesterday. At the café. I wanted to kiss you and I should have, I totally should have." The words were spilling out at an uncontrollable rate, and Rainbow Dash no longer had any hope of quelling the flow, even if she had been sober. "Because you're so cute and sweet and really funny..."

"Dashie –"

Before Pinkie could say anything more, Rainbow Dash lifted her head so that she was facing the pink pony, whose eyes were wide open in alarm, and kissed her.

It was a Hearth's Warming Miracle that Rainbow Dash managed not to be sick right then. Instead, Pinkie seemed to melt beneath her, and a rush of warmth and softness from somewhere deep inside her threatened to cause her wings to burst from the restraints of her dress. At last she broke away – not because she wanted to, but because she needed to come up for air.

Her breathing was heavy and shallow as she panted, gasping, and her mouth curved into a satisfied smile. Pinkie looked torn between delight and horror.

"That was good," Rainbow Dash said softly, slumping against her friend even more. Pinkie Pie was the only force keeping her from sinking to the floor right then. "I like you."

It might've been appropriate for a silence to have fallen over the crowd right then as all eyes fell on the couple, but nopony else seemed to notice or care. It was Hearth's Warming Eve, after all, and ponies everywhere were kissing and getting drunk. That's the kind of party it was turning into.

"Dashie?" Pinkie squeaked. Before, she had been perfectly capable of carrying Rainbow Dash, but now she seemed weaker, as if Dash was threatening to topple her over from the way the pegasus leaned so heavily against her.

"I bet she'll be mad," Dash mumbled with a mean snicker; and for the second time, she felt Pinkie Pie utterly freeze beneath her.

"Who'll be mad?" she asked, her voice all ice and sharpness.

"She doesn't like you. I dunno why. You're so nice," Rainbow Dash continued, oblivious, not really listening to Pinkie, and then she felt hooves, harder than she would've expected, roughly shoving her away. Dash stumbled backwards, struggling to maintain her balance. The nausea threatened to rise in her throat once again, but she managed to keep steady, and she looked at Pinkie, bewildered.

Those big beautiful blue eyes of Pinkie were huge and angry and brimming with tears, and she made a strange, painful sound in her throat, like a suppressed sob or a strangled cry of pain. Without another word she whirled around and ran away, pushing through the crowd until she was gone.

Suddenly, Rainbow Dash couldn't stand up anymore, and felt with a new sense of certainty, that she was very, extremely drunk and was in all likelihood going to pass out.

• • •

When Rainbow Dash woke up, she expected her mouth to be dry and her head pounding. Instead, her mind was surprisingly clear, no trace of a hangover or even a headache. The scent of mint lingered in the air, and although it was dark, a slant of moonlight poured through the window and stretched across the room, falling right across the end of the bed she was now lying in. She sat up quickly, but her head didn't spin, and then she found herself staring into the furious eyes of Twilight Sparkle, still all dressed in her winter finery.

"W-what happened?" Rainbow stammered, seeing the anger flashing in Twilight's eyes, but before the unicorn could speak, she cut her off, saying, "Wait, no, don't say it. I remember."

"I can't believe you," Twilight snapped, looking so upset that she was practically on the verge of tears.

"Twi, I'm so, so sorry. I must've looked like a total idiot and made some kind of huge scene, but I almost never drink, and –" Dash began to babble, but Twilight interrupted her by raising a silencing hoof.

"That's not what I'm talking about. Nopony even noticed you. I saw you drinking and teleported us out of there, and used a spell to get rid of your hangover. It's fine. I'm talking about what you did to Pinkie Pie."

For a moment, Rainbow Dash was lost, and then she remembered.

"Oh, no," she whispered, closing her eyes.

"Oh no is right. What kind of friend would intentionally use somepony's feelings for them just to hurt somepony else?"

"That's not –"

"Pinkie told me what happened, Rainbow Dash! It's one thing for her to confess to you and you turn her down. Nopony blames you for that. It's something else to have you use her like that! You broke her heart! What kind of friend are you?"

And Rainbow Dash listened to Twilight's lecture in silence. She couldn't think of any snarky comments or clever retorts to make. All she could do was listen as Twilight told her every single thing that was wrong with her, and know that she was absolutely right about every single one of them.

I don't know how to fix this, she thought. I don't know what's wrong with me.

I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know.

• • •

Twilight eventually left. Thanks to her magical hangover cure – some kind of green light that caused that minty smell Dash had noticed – there was no residual nausea or unsteadiness to slow the pegasus down, so as soon as the unicorn left, so did Rainbow Dash.

There was no way she was going to stay here for Hearth's Warming. Not after what she'd done to Pinkie, and not after she'd acted like an idiot and embarrassed herself in front of everypony. There was no way she could face this. This was too huge; it wasn't just huge, it was huger than huge, and there was no way for Rainbow Dash to make it better.

It was easier than she initially expected to get out of the palace unnoticed. As she snuck out, silently floating past guards and down hallways, Rainbow hoped that Applejack was just as miserable as she was; that would probably make her feel slightly better, if the farmer was suffering somehow, too. Stupid Applejack. All her fault.

Where would Dash go? Cloudsdale, she guessed. Back home. To her parents. She shuddered. She didn't want to go home, but she couldn't face Pinkie, and it would be safer to just stay out of Ponyville completely than to risk accidentally running into her.

You couldn't ignore it because it wouldn't go away. Nothing went away. All you could do was run and pray it didn't find you.

The streets of Canterlot were surprisingly empty at night, but Rainbow Dash stuck to the shadowy corners and back alleys anyway. If anypony decided to look for her when they noticed she was gone, they'd likely ask around, and she didn't want anypony to be able to say they'd seen where she'd gone.

At last she stopped, by the café where she and Pinkie had almost kissed. No, not almost kissed. Rainbow Dash had wanted to, but she'd chickened out.

She needed to stop. Needed a place to think, a place to plan. What was going to happen?

Rainbow Dash was the biggest idiot who'd ever lived and the worst possible friend a pony could have, but she hadn't meant any harm. She'd been drunk. She hadn't been thinking. It wasn't her fault. And was it her imagination that she could hear the crunch of hoofsteps through snow in the distance somewhere? Or –

"Look at brave Rainbow Dash, heroically running away. Such loyalty."

"No," Rainbow Dash said automatically.

Not here. Not now. NOT. POSSIBLE.

"How are you here?!" she screamed, wild-eyed.

"Sorry. Do you want me to leave?" Mare Do Well asked coolly.

"N-no. Wait," Rainbow Dash stammered, struggling to rise back up on all fours before taking a step closer to the mare. "But how? Why?"

"I can't believe you didn't think to just search one of your friends' suitcases."

"You brought the costume?!"

"Obviously," Mare Do Well said, still calm and unaffected, even as Rainbow Dash screeched like a banshee. "Otherwise, how would I be wearing it now?"

"Why are you here?" Dash asked weakly.

The snow fell all around them, glimmering in the soft glow of the street lamps and moonlight. The sound of the snow was like a whisper, overlaid by the faint sound of festive carols playing in the distance, maybe coming from some shop down the road.

"I'm here because I knew you'd try and run away, and I wanted to catch you first. I need to tell you something."

"Hurry up then."

"I'm telling you that I'm done."

Her words were like a swift punch in the gut. It took a moment for Rainbow Dash to recover enough to squeak out a single, "What?"

"I'm done," Mare Do Well repeated, her voice still frosty and disdainful. "I'm going away. I'm leaving you alone. I'm saying goodbye. Do you understand now?"

"You can't do that," the pegasus managed to choke. "W-why?"

"You need a reason?" she snapped. "I thought you'd be happy to see the last of me, given how much you hate me."

"I don't – what are you talking about?"

"You kissed Pinkie tonight just to hurt me!" Mare Do Well shouted, and her voice came dangerously close to cracking into the higher register it had only ever broken into once before. "Well, guess what? it worked, okay? I'm hurt, and I'm angry, and you got me upset, just like you wanted to, and –"

"It wasn't about you," Rainbow Dash whispered. She was shaking now, legs trembling uncontrollably, almost so much that she couldn't even stand, but somehow, she didn't fall. She shouldn't feel so shocked. She shouldn't feel so panicky. "It wasn't about you. I only said that about you being bad because I was being drunk and stupid. It had nothing to do with you."

"Well, you either kissed her because you wanted to or because you wanted to hurt me, one or the other, and either way, it would be better for both of us if I just left now," Mare Do Well retorted, and her voice quavered as though she was fighting back tears. "You either hate me so much that you're willing to utterly destroy your so-called best friend, or you've finally decided that you like her more, so why should I waste any more of my time?"

"Are you..." Rainbow began, then stopped. It was such a ridiculous question, yet she couldn't think of a better way to phrase it. "Are you breaking up with me?"

The masked mare gave a short, brittle laugh. "That would imply we'd had some sort of romance, wouldn't it?" she asked bitterly. "We never even got around to establishing a friendship."

"What about the game?" Rainbow Dash tried, desperate and floundering now, grasping for reasons that she didn't understand. "Don't you want to keep playing?"

"You weren't even trying anymore!" Mare Do Well shouted, jamming an accusing hoof through the air at the pegasus, who flinched, almost as if she expected the mare to smack her for some reason. "There was so much you could've done that you didn't even try! It's like you just stopped caring! Why didn't you even think to search our bags? Why didn't you try following the messenger once? Why did you stop trying to figure out where I got the costume from?"

"So, what, you wanted me to find out who you are?" Rainbow snapped back, fighting to keep the anger and fear from seeping into her voice and failing miserably.

"Yes! Because I'm sick of this, and I'm sick of trying to act like I don't love you, and I'm sick of torturing myself by seeing you like this when you're never, ever going to love me back!"

A silence fell over the two of them; Rainbow Dash too stunned to speak and Mare Do Well trembling, breathing shallow and uneven.

"I really, really thought I could do it," she whispered, bringing a hoof to her face as if to wipe away tears, even though the mask covered them. "I know I made mistakes, but I thought that if I was likable and charming, you might forgive me. I tried so hard to be what you wanted, but none of it worked. I tried to be heroic and romantic and funny, and every time something didn't work, I tried something else. But none of it was enough, so I'm giving up. I'm quitting. Game over."

"Game over?" Rainbow Dash repeated.

Her voice sounded so tiny and far away.

"Game over. A draw. We both lose, and I'm calling it off completely. Goodbye."

Mare Do Well turned with one final dramatic flourish of her cape, then paused for a moment, as if to give Rainbow Dash a chance to stop her or beg her not to go. When the pegasus didn't speak, she silently began to walk away, down the shadowy alley she came from, leaving Rainbow to watch her go.

Rainbow Dash wanted to say something, but her words were getting caught in her throat, blocked by the sudden lump that was now choking her into silence.

Her need was as huge and as all-encompassing as the beautiful midnight sky above, and Dash felt so incredibly small and useless, like she could scream and fight all she wanted against this crushing hopelessness and desperation, but nopony would ever hear her.

She was losing everything. Just like she'd feared for so long.

But...

But once everything was taken from you, there was nothing else you could lose. Nothing else could hurt you.

And that was where true fearlessness came from.

"No," Rainbow Dash managed to rasp when she at last found her voice. It was little more than a whisper, but Mare Do Well still seemed to hear her, pausing in her tracks and turning to glance back at Rainbow.

"No what?" she spat.

"No," Dash repeated, her voice growing stronger.

She took a step forward.

"No, you can't do this. You can't come into my life and change everything and run away once it stops working for you. You can't totally buck with my head and turn everything upside down, then vanish."

With every word spoke and every step taken, her voice grew clearer and her resolve firmer.

"You're not allowed!" Rainbow Dash barked. "You're not allowed to just disappear without giving me any answers! You can't do that!"

"And why not?" Mare Do Well cooed in a voice like silk. "Who's going to stop me?"

Rainbow Dash stopped. And grinned.

The evillest grin she could muster.

"You said the game was called off. I guess that means the rules no longer apply," she said softly.

Rainbow Dash liked to imagine that Mare Do Well's expression right about then would've been one of dawning comprehension, but all the mare said was, "You wouldn't."

So calm and reassured, like she knew for a fact that Rainbow Dash didn't have the guts to do what she threatened.

The rules they'd agreed on stated that Rainbow Dash wasn't allowed to tackle and unmask Mare Do Well by force, but if there was no game, there were no rules.

Her wings flared, snapping open in preparation of imminent flight, and Mare Do Well took a step back.

"You'd better start running," Dash said sweetly.

Another beat of silence, the two of them staring at each other, the air between them almost electrically charged with their tension. And then Mare Do Well bolted, taking off in a run down the alley.

With an almost gleeful cackle, Rainbow Dash shot after her, and into the labyrinth that was the city of Canterlot at night.

Next Chapter: Chapter 20: Climax Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 9 Minutes
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