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The Games We Play

by AbsoluteAnonymous

Chapter 5: Chapter 5: A Proposition

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Mare Do Well was trembling.

The challenge hadn't been planned at all. Rather, it had been a desperate, last-ditch attempt on her part to recapture Rainbow Dash's waning interest in their little back-and-forth. Now, she didn't know what to do. She'd taken this whole thing too far; she was in it too deep. It had been too long.

So what was she supposed to do? If she came clean now, Rainbow Dash would hate her forever, but if Rainbow Dash successfully discovered her true identity, she would hate her forever anyway. Her only chance at salvaging their friendship was if Rainbow Dash never found out at all – if Mare Do Well just quietly disappeared, never to be seen again.

That, or if Mare Do Well actually won somehow.

But for all of her confidence and smooth talk, her Mare Do Well persona was just an act – one that she wasn't even sure she could keep up for very much longer. Not without giving something away. Not without Rainbow Dash figuring everything out.

If she'd confessed to Rainbow Dash as herself, their friendship would've been changed forever, and she hadn't known whether or not she'd be able to take that. So she'd hidden herself, only feeling comfortable acting on her feelings when their friendship wasn't on the line. If she'd confessed and Rainbow Dash had somehow reciprocated her feelings, she would've felt safer revealing herself, since she would've known that she'd be forgiven and they could live happily ever after; but if Dash hadn't, then she knew that she'd be able to fall back on their friendship with none of the awkwardness that a rejection would typically bring.

The whole facade had been a game from the very beginning, in the most literal sense of the term. She'd been like a foal playing pretend, wanting nothing more than to play the part of a hero so that she could feel worthy of her crush.

But she'd made so many mistakes.

The biggest was that she'd treated the pegasus like a friend the other night. When she'd seen how upset Dash was, her first instinct had been to go and offer what little comfort she could – but she'd forgotten that Mare Do Well and Rainbow Dash weren't actually friends, and that Rainbow Dash in fact seemed to really resent her alter ego.

She'd exposed herself. She'd been too honest during their talk, and had ended up telling Rainbow more than she'd intended to. The more Rainbow Dash knew about her, the greater risk there was of the pegasus figuring out who she really was. She'd made herself vulnerable.

Tonight had been a mistake, plain and simple. She hadn't wanted to approach Rainbow Dash again for a day or two, to build suspense and all that, but then she'd seen how forlorn the pegasus had looked, sitting alone outside the party, and all of a sudden, she'd forgotten about being the aloof, mysterious stranger in favor of being the friend that Dash had needed. She'd been too open. She'd almost given herself away right there. She'd fallen out of character, and that almost cost her everything.

Mare Do Well tried to think. What were her options?

She couldn't confess to everything now; Rainbow would hate her. She couldn't let Rainbow Dash solve the mystery herself; Rainbow would hate her. She could give up the act without actually admitting to what she'd done and letting Ponyville know what had happened to their hero, but the guilt would probably gnaw away at her until she'd completely broken down. And then Rainbow would hate her.

Or she could win.

It wasn't just the fear of being discovered. It was the simple fact that she was far too selfish to throw in the towel now, as much as it pained her to know that she was causing Rainbow Dash so much frustration. Especially after the stating of a formal challenge.

So Mare Do Well could either accept Rainbow Dash's seemingly inevitable hatred, or she could find a way to win her love and therefore the game, and the truth was, as uncertain as she felt right then, the possibility of winning something so monumental made any potential risks suddenly seem worth it.

Mare Do Well wanted to win.

Rainbow Dash might hate Mare Do Well at the moment – she wasn't stupid, she knew that – but under the guise of the mare in black was a pony who knew Dash better than anypony else. A pony who wanted the pegasus to be happy. She just needed to find a way of letting Rainbow know that; if only Rainbow Dash could see it – but she couldn't, not as long as Mare Do Well was hidden this way.

How do you make somepony love you when they don't even know who you really are? How do you become brave enough to confess as yourself without needing something to hide behind?

But Mare Do Well, the character, didn't doubt herself, and for the time being, she was Mare Do Well. Mare Do Well was charming and self-assured, and if she was going to impress Rainbow Dash, that was who she needed to be.

Everything's so complicated now.

She cradled her head in her hooves, and tried to ignore the panic she felt fluttering in her stomach.

• • •

Rainbow Dash and Twilight returned to the party only to see that nopony had noticed their absences at all – save for Pinkie, who was utterly distraught, moping in a corner with her hair deflated in a very unPinkie Pie-like way. Applejack and Rarity were talking quietly and rather heatedly about something off to the side, while Fluttershy hovered nervously beside Pinkie. None of the other guests paid any attention at all, despite the party ostensibly being for Dash.

Apparently Pinkie Pie was hurt that she'd walked out on the party, and when Rainbow Dash first approached the pink pony to apologize, she gave Rainbow the cold shoulder. The silent treatment ended up lasting a whole five minutes before Dash was seemingly forgiven, and Pinkie tackled her, mane back to its normal, bouncy self to match her buoyant mood.

"Dashie!" Pinkie cried, burying her face in Rainbow Dash's sky-blue coat in a ferocious hug. "Where did you go? I thought you'd left us for-EV-er because you'd decided you wanted to go make kissy face smoochies with Mare Do Well!"

"Wait, what?" Twilight gasped.

The sounds of the party seemed to drown out the noise of their conversation, and nopony else reacted to Pinkie's statement, although Twilight herself looked shocked.

"Pinkie!" Rainbow Dash hissed furiously, shoving a hoof over Pinkie's mouth, but Pinkie continued to try and talk anyway, despite the way her speech was muffled. "You weren't supposed to tell anypony!"

Pinkie Pie twisted her head away from the hoof covering her mouth. "But I didn't," she said, looking puzzled.

"You just announced it in front of, like, everypony!"

"But nopony's even listening! Besides, you didn't make me Pinkie Swear, so how was I supposed to know?"

Rainbow Dash groaned, bringing a hoof to her now-throbbing temple.

• • •

There was a nip in the air. Since the day of Pinkie Pie's "Hooray It's Winter Now Or Whatever" picnic, the weather had been on a steady decline, the chill growing more pronounced with each passing day. Frost decorated the windowpanes, and the skeletal trees of fall looked decidedly more eerie with their bare branches hung with ice. The grass was slowly freezing and crunched under each step. Fluttershy and the rest of the animal-care team had begun to herd the hibernating animals to their caves in preparation for their seasonal sleep, and the pegasi had begun to guide the birds south.

But the snow itself was yet to fall, even though the first snow had been scheduled for a week ago. A storm had been brewing in the Everfree Forest, a by-product of the wild magic that ran rampant there, causing plants to grow on their own and animals to take care of themselves. It had taken the combined forces of all the pegasi on the weather team to keep it at bay. Unless Ponyville wanted a full-on blizzard, they had no choice but to postpone the initial fall a little longer.

Dealing with the stray weather ended up taking up most of Rainbow Dash's free time for the next few days after Pinkie's party, leaving her no time to investigate any further, despite her newfound zeal. It was frustrating. She had a genuine incentive to unmask Mare Do Well now, not just a personal vendetta. Of course she happened to be too busy to do anything about it.

Apparently something was keeping Mare Do Well occupied, as well, as she was apparently too busy to make any more appearances, expected or otherwise. Rainbow Dash herself hadn't seen her at all since their last encounter, and as far as she knew, despite the townsfolk's initial excitement over Mare Do Well's return, interest in the superhero faded quickly when she made no more thrilling public appearances.

It was almost like life had gotten back to normal.

Almost, but not quite.

Again and again, Rainbow Dash found her thoughts straying back to the game that Mare Do Well had so boldly challenged her to; a bet, almost. Who will give in first?

The day after the party, there had been another note, again in that nondescript writing. Just perfect enough to possibly be from a unicorn, yet flawed enough to have been written by an earth pony or pegasus with plenty of practice. Writing that it was impossible to decipher anything from.

It had been simple, just like before, and had come with another bouquet of those flowers – red carnations, Rainbow Dash remembered. It read only Miss me yet? and bore no signature.

Other than that, there'd been no sign of Mare Do Well at all.

If Mare Do Well wasn't hanging around anymore, did that mean she'd already given up? Had she lost interest? Or perhaps Mare Do Well had suddenly realized that there wasn't any possible way for her to beat a seasoned competitor like Rainbow Dash in any kind of contest at all, so she'd decided to play it safe by backing out before her inevitable defeat – a defeat that would preferably be somewhere very public and humiliating, to maximize the impact.

That particular train of thought never failed to make Rainbow Dash grin. Yet at the same time, she felt almost disappointed. After all, victories only counted when one was faced with seemingly impossible odds. If your rival backed out before you began, then there wasn't really a contest, was there?

Her time was spent sleeping and working, much the way it had always been. But it somehow felt emptier, now.

But even if Mare Do Well had lost interest, Rainbow Dash vowed that she wouldn't give up. A victory of any kind would do wonders towards soothing her oft-bruised ego, as hollow as said victory may be. Even if Dash didn't actually get to rub it in the mare's face afterwards, finding out who Mare Do Well was would at least satisfy her personal curiosity and restore some of her lost pride.

That was how Rainbow Dash ended up making a resolution. First chance she got, she would resume her clue-hunting. This time with renewed vigor. There was more at stake now, after all.

• • •

There was no way to avoid telling Twilight, not after what Pinkie had let slip at the party, but unless Mare Do Well was somehow being played by multiple ponies again, ponies with identical voices, Rainbow Dash was finally reasonably certain that she could phase Twilight out as a suspect. There was no possible way, not unless the unicorn had used some kind of nonexistent duplication spell – which actually wouldn't have surprised Rainbow Dash that much, considering Twilight's magical prowess.

That was why she could only be "reasonably" certain.

But the point was, Twilight had to be told, and Rainbow Dash finally felt comfortable doing so. The bright side was that she now had the smartest unicorn in all of Equestria on her side.

It had been difficult, though. Much, much harder than Rainbow had been expecting. Explaining what was up with the new Mare Do Well had been bad enough with Pinkie, but that was because Rainbow Dash had known that Pinkie Pie probably wouldn't take it very seriously at all. She would've treated it like one big joke, just like she did with everything else. With Twilight, though, it was the exact opposite problem. The unicorn would take every word said completely seriously, offer up some kind of condescending egghead judgment and advice, then write Princess Celestia a letter about it, satisfied, finding a way to spin the whole ordeal into some kind of lesson.

Rainbow Dash hadn't wanted to put up with Twilight's patronizing attitude, and definitely hadn't wanted Twilight to try and wrap up the situation with a tidy little bow to be mailed to Celestia for the princess' perusal. Just thinking about whatever her relationship with Mare Do Well was could be embarrassing enough, but if the princess somehow found out, Rainbow would die.

But the truth was that Twilight was the only pony she could trust implicitly right now. Other than Applejack, at least. So if Rainbow Dash wanted advice on what her next move should be, who better to talk to than Twilight?

Twilight managed to surprise her, though. She made no snarky comments and gave no presumptuous advice, and didn't even attempt to bring up her friendship reports. Instead, she listened. She seemed almost sympathetic as Rainbow Dash stammered the whole story, blushing furiously the entire time, speaking up only once Dash had finished.

"You know, I'm pretty sure you could get the authorities on this if you wanted to," was Twilight's unexpected response. "There has to be something illegal about this. Wouldn't it qualify as stalking?"

"But I don't want to," Rainbow Dash blurted, still fidgeting, wings fluttering anxiously. "I, I mean, what if it is one of our friends? Like, if it had been you, I wouldn't want to get you arrested or anything just because of a dumb joke. And I don't feel threatened or anything, just... awkward. I dunno. I feel..."

"Out of your element?"

"I guess."

"Well..." Twilight Sparkle said slowly. They were talking in the library, and Rainbow Dash had brought the note that she'd received for Twilight to examine, to see if the unicorn could discern anything from the writing. "I'll do what I can to help you, and I promise I won't tell anypony, but only if you promise to let me do something if you start to feel unsafe somehow."

"I don't feel unsafe," Rainbow insisted, but her voice sounded feeble, even to her own ears.

It was true, though. Mare Do Well's behavior seemed risky, somehow, but not outright dangerous. Rainbow Dash hated how helpless the other mare made her feel, but it was a different kind of helpless. It wasn't the kind that could be overcome through pure strength. It was because of how easy it seemed to be for Mare Do Well to toy with her. All it took was a single word or glance and Rainbow Dash lost control, either becoming paralyzed in fear or flaring up in anger. Nopony else she knew could make her lose her cool that easily, and she hated it, but Mare Do Well seemed to enjoy riling her up.

Not that Rainbow Dash explained any of that, because Twilight was already absorbed in examining the note and wouldn't have heard her anyway.

The library was silent as Twilight read it over, but finally she sighed and gave it back to Rainbow Dash with a little shrug, looking discouraged.

"I honestly can't say," she admitted. "It doesn't look like the writing of anypony I know, and it looks like it's been disguised. It's shaky enough to either be an unskilled unicorn or a very skilled earth pony, but mostly it's just kind of bland. It's very... careful. Each letter looks like it took time and intention to pen."

"...There's only nine letters."

"I know. And it looks like it took a lot of time to write them."

"So what does that mean?"

"It means you either need to find an expert on writing analysis, or wait for me to become one. I think I have a few books lying around on the subject somewhere; it shouldn't take me too long to read through them." Twilight gave her an apologetic, yet almost hopeful smile, as if she was secretly hoping that Rainbow Dash would ask her to do this so that she'd have an excuse for further study on yet another obscure topic.

"Never mind," Rainbow Dash sighed, yanking back the letter with her teeth. As she did so, she once again caught sight of the words on the page.

Miss me yet?

No, she thought bitterly.

Before Rainbow left, she turned back to Twilight one last time. The unicorn was already absorbed in another one of her books, and probably wouldn't have wanted to be disturbed, but who better for Dash to ask than a librarian?

"What do red carnations mean?"

"Dianthus caryophyllus, a species of Dianthus –" Twilight immediately began to recite in a mechanical way.

Rainbow Dash cut her off. "No, I meant, like, that whole language of flowers thing. Do they mean something special?"

"Oh. Um... I'm not too sure about that. I don't know a whole lot about flowers that way. Maybe Fluttershy or Rarity would know? Sorry."

With a curt nod, Rainbow Dash swooped towards the door, prepared to go, when her eyes strayed and she once again caught sight of the words on the paper. She could practically feel the smugness emanating from them. With a sudden surge of disgust, she crumpled the paper in her hooves and tossed it into Twilight's fireplace. She stayed a moment to watch it burn before finally leaving.

• • •

As soon as Rainbow Dash left the library she was attacked.

"DASHIE!"

Even though she heard it coming, she wasn't fast enough to escape it: a blur of pink, rocketing straight for her, and suddenly Dash was on the ground in a tangled heap of limbs as the pony who'd lunged at her giggled like a maniac.

"Oh, you should've seen your face, you were so surprised," Pinkie chortled happily, climbing off Rainbow Dash.

"Pinkie Pie, what are you doing here?" Rainbow Dash muttered. I should be used to this by now, she thought unhappily. Pinkie Pie glomped her friends every chance she had; getting tackled should just be second nature to Rainbow by now. And Pinkie's habit of appearing mysteriously out of nowhere was no surprise, so she shouldn't have been startled.

At least, that's what Rainbow Dash kept telling herself. It was the only way she could keep herself from throttling Pinkie Pie right then and there.

"I came to find you, silly!" Pinkie sang, oblivious to Rainbow's heavy sighing as she rose to her hooves and shook herself off. She was dancing a little circle around the pegasus, almost making an audible sproing noise with every happy little hop. If she had made some kind of cartoony sound effect, that probably wouldn't have surprised Rainbow Dash, either. "I came to find you because I had a totally fantastic idea and I really wanted to tell you about it right away so that you can know about it too and then we can have a fantastic idea together!"

"Fantastic idea, huh?" Rainbow Dash asked, only half listening. She was already lazily flying away – slow enough for Pinkie to keep up with her, but fast enough so that it was obvious she didn't really care to stay behind and hear the rest. But Pinkie remained unaware, just picking up the speed of her own trot so that she could keep up with Rainbow.

"Yeah! Totally fantastic! You wanna know who Mare Do Well is, right?"

Rainbow Dash almost froze in midair, but she remained composed enough to continue flying.

Does Pinkie Pie know something? she thought, her mind already racing. Pinkie hadn't been as high on her list of suspects since the party, since she'd seemed almost jealous when Rainbow had told her about Mare Do Well's flirtatious behavior, but her alibi just didn't make sense, so she'd obviously been lying. Why Pinkie was lying was a whole other story – though it could theoretically just be attributed to her being Pinkie Pie. Pinkie Pie did stuff like that sometimes. She was weird. That was her thing.

"Yeah, so?" Rainbow Dash asked, trying to keep her voice steady and her manner casual. She was cool. She was relaxed. No big deal, yeah, who cares about Mare Do Well anymore? That's old news.

"Well, I can help you, you goofball! With Detective Pinkie Pie on the case, silly old Mare Do Well doesn't stand a chance at making kissy –"

"Don't say it!"

With a heavily exaggerated sigh, Rainbow Dash turned around to face Pinkie, who was beaming, looking utterly satisfied with her idea and completely oblivious as to why Rainbow Dash might not be one-hundred percent on board with it.

"Pinkie Pie, that's great and all, but you don't have to, okay?" Rainbow said, trying to sound patient. She knew now that Pinkie Pie's feelings were hurt easily, almost as easily as Fluttershy's were, but in a different way. When Pinkie was hurt, she buried it down deep inside until she finally broke, and somehow, that was worse than the openly sensitive Fluttershy. "This is something I need to do by myself. You don't have to get involved."

"But I want to," Pinkie said sweetly. "Friends help friends, right? And a good friend always wants her friends to be happy! So if Mare Do Well is being a meanie pants and making you a sad-face Dashie, then it's up to your Auntie Pinkie Pie to take care of it. Pinkie Pie style!"

Despite herself, Rainbow Dash smiled. "So you're gonna throw Mare Do Well a party?"

Pinkie's eyes widened, her jaw dropping in surprise, and suddenly she was squealing, practically quivering in delight. "Ooh, that's a great idea, Dashie! We should totally do that! Ohmygosh yes I should do that right now! I didn't even think of that! How did you get so smart?!"

"Just the way I am, I guess. So, yeah, you can go do that, I'll keep doing this. Okay?"

Pinkie seemed prepared to nod her agreement before stopping herself, setting her jaw in a dramatic show of determination. "Nope! No way! No parties for Mare Do Well today! Maybe later, though," she added. "Today is not a Party Pony Pinkie day! Today is a Detective Pony Pinkie day, where I help you solve the case of the costumed... um... the puzzle of the... pony... um... the Mystery of the Masked Mare!" Satisfied with the alliteration, Pinkie Pie struck a serious pose, sitting firmly upright and saluting like a soldier awaiting orders.

Oh, for...

"Listen, Pinks," Rainbow Dash said carefully, flying towards her friend and placing her hooves firmly on her shoulders so that they were facing one another, meeting eye to eye. "I don't want you to help me. You don't have to. Just... go throw a party. That's what you do. That's your thing. Okay? I'm Ponyville's local hero, remember? I don't need any help; I can take her all on my own! Who cares if she's a superhero?"

And as Dash said it, she almost believed it. For all of her posturing, she almost never boasted without meaning it completely. The only reason she was assuring Pinkie now of her confidence was because when Rainbow Dash was with Pinkie, she felt confident.

Pinkie only listened, gazing up at her admiringly. But when Rainbow Dash finished, she blinked, fluttering her eyelashes, all wide-eyed innocence.

"I know I don't have to," she said sweetly. "But you're not very good at judging other ponies."

Rainbow Dash blinked and let go of her shoulders.

"Huh?" she asked.

"Remember meanie-pants Gilda? She was your best friend, even though she was a total bully and was really, really mean to Fluttershy. You didn't even notice. You might think you know how to handle Mare Do Well, but you really don't have any idea what you're doing."

Conversations like these were what often lead Rainbow Dash to suspect that Pinkie Pie was secretly some kind of brilliant mastermind who always knew exactly what she was doing, and that seemingly innocent comments like these were actually expertly veiled barbs that were designed to sting precisely as much as they did.

Even though Pinkie Pie was acting so sweet, Rainbow Dash almost felt a physical pain in her chest at her words and the memory of her old friend.

So instead of answering, Rainbow turned her back on Pinkie, and quietly flew away.

Any other day, Pinkie Pie might've chased after her, but when Rainbow Dash glanced behind her to see what the pink pony was doing, she only saw Pinkie standing alone outside the library, just where Dash had left her, watching her fly away with an inscrutable expression on her face. Or maybe it was just the distance between them that made it unreadable. Either way, it didn't matter. All that mattered was that Rainbow Dash could finally be alone to think.

• • •

That night, Rainbow Dash made no effort to hide what she was doing or disguise it as anything but what it was. She just headed straight for the cul-de-sac where they had first met and waited, certain that Mare Do Well would show up with time if she stayed put long enough.

For a long time Rainbow Dash was alone. No sign of anypony else at all; there was only her, leaning against the dumpster and tapping a hoof in boredom. Then suddenly, she heard the sound of somepony breathing behind her.

With a shriek, Rainbow Dash leapt forward. Heart beating furiously, she whipped around with a growl, only to see Mare Do Well hanging upside down behind her.

"How are you –" she began. Then Dash paused and glanced up. Mare Do Well had hooked her legs over the edge of the dumpster, hanging off the edge the way a foal would hang upside down from monkey bars in a playground. Somehow her hat stayed in place.

"I saw this in a movie once," Mare Do Well explained. "It would be better if it was raining, though."

"I'm not going to kiss you," Rainbow Dash said quickly.

"I never said you had to." With a nimble little somersault, Mare Do Well unhooked her legs and was standing upright, facing Rainbow Dash one-on-one. "But if that's where your mind went, then, well..."

"You –"

"So did you have a nice little chat with your friend today?"

"What friend?" Rainbow Dash asked, then immediately felt stupid for doing so. Mare Do Well obviously meant Twilight. Then, instead of confusion, she found herself feeling annoyed. "It's none of your business who I talk to, and I'm pretty sure whatever method you used to find that out is illegal."

"Did you miss me? I'm sorry I haven't been around much."

"No," Rainbow shot back. She could feel Mare Do Well gradually obtaining the upper hoof in this conversation, and now she was desperately floundering to regain control. There was that sensation of helplessness again. The only reason Rainbow Dash had come to the cul-de-sac in the first place was because she'd figured that if there was anywhere she'd be likely to run into Mare Do Well, it would be there, and now she was the one being interrogated. "I only kept that stupid letter so I could get Twilight to look at it."

"That's nice. But she wasn't the friend I was talking about."

"Then who –" Oh. "Do you mean Pinkie?"

"Of course," Mare Do Well answered lightly, and then Rainbow Dash realized something. Whenever they'd spoken before, Mare Do Well had managed to retain an air of mingled playfulness and casualness, with a smug tone that she seemed to love taunting Rainbow Dash with. Now, though, she sounded tense. Almost angry.

If Rainbow Dash was right, then this would be the first time Dash had ever heard the other mare upset about something – the first time that Mare Do Well had been the one to lose her cool.

"So she's going to help you track me down, huh? Detective Pinkie Pie, and all that? That's cheating, you know. You shouldn't be allowed to get outside help."

"You never said that," Rainbow Dash countered instinctively. Justifying unreasonable behavior to herself and others was a habit by now, since she ended up doing it so often. "It was never in the rules. Besides, I warned you right at the start. I don't play fair."

"Maybe we need to go over the rules sometime, then. Tomorrow, same time, same place?" But Mare Do Well didn't wait for a response, instead continuing in her conversational way. "So you're accepting her offer? Unless I misheard, you two had a little spat, didn't you? Something about how you don't need her help?"

"Why do you even care? It's none of your business." Rainbow was rapidly losing her temper again; and there it was, that loss of control, like she wasn't in charge of her feelings when they spoke.

Mare Do Well didn't answer right away, instead stalking past Rainbow Dash, cape fluttering behind her, and Rainbow Dash realized that she hadn't been mistaken. The tension the mare carried was clear in the quick, furious little stomps of her hooves across the cobblestone as she walked forward, then turned back, pacing.

"She's not stupid, you know. You underestimate her. She did that on purpose. She knows exactly what I'm doing and she's trying to send me a message. She wants me to know that she doesn't like it, so she approached you. Flaunting it."

"Flaunting what?"

"You don't know?" A short, bitter laugh.

Rainbow Dash definitely wasn't imagining it. For the very first time, she was seeing Mare Do Well angry. There was something both hilarious and incredibly disturbing about it. On one hoof, seeing the masked mare finally get just as aggravated as Rainbow so often did was so delicious that she could almost taste it, but on the other hoof, she'd somehow come to the conclusion that Mare Do Well was always supposed to be reserved – if annoyingly conceited. If Mare Do Well was upset – about Pinkie Pie, of all ponies – then it must be because of something important. Only something big would have made the masked mare drop the good-natured formality that had pervaded all of their previous encounters.

But Mare Do Well seemed to catch herself, as if she'd just realized the same thing, and immediately stopped in her tracks. She stood with her back to Rainbow Dash, staring down the alley, and took a deep, steadying breath, as if to calm herself.

"I'm sorry," the other mare said at last. "I would've liked to come see you earlier, but I didn't want you to see me like this. I'm, I'm not supposed to be upset. I'm..." Her voice faltered. "I'm sorry," she finished weakly.

Neither of them spoke. It was so surreal to see Mare Do Well like this that Rainbow Dash wasn't entirely sure what to say, and Mare Do Well herself seemed to be struggling to regain her composure. When the mare finally turned around to look at the pegasus, her mask, so carefully blank, hid any emotion that might have been written on her face right then – an expression that Rainbow Dash might have actually been a little curious to see.

"She doesn't care about helping you. She just wanted me to know how easy it would be for her to get close to you before I could. But you two had an argument, from what I can tell, so it doesn't matter. It's not important."

A sense of realization dawned on Rainbow Dash.

"You're jealous."

"I'm not jealous!"

But Mare Do Well's voice, so even when she'd spoken before, betrayed her true feelings from the way it shook, as if she couldn't restrain herself. It wasn't calm and collected anymore; it was angry and all over the place. For just a moment – on that one word, jealous – she'd dropped the husky tone she normally spoke with, and it cracked into a higher octave. One that immediately sounded familiar, that Rainbow Dash hated herself for not recognizing the moment it sounded.

"I'm not jealous," Mare Do Well repeated, this time sounding more subdued. "She's just intentionally trying to make things difficult for me, and I don't like it. But you turned her down."

"You don't know that," Rainbow Dash said immediately. "I got upset about something completely different and irrational, so maybe I'm planning to go see her tomorrow and tell her I accept, and then we'll figure you out. And we'll beat you, together."

For once, Mare Do Well seemed lost for words.

"We're not working together, you know," Rainbow Dash continued, picking up steam. She felt like she had a handle on the conversation again, like Mare Do Well was the one being overwhelmed, and she liked it. A lot. "I'm not going to make things easy for you, and if you don't want Pinkie helping me, then I'm probably gonna get Pinkie to help me, just to bug you. In case you missed the memo, we're competing against each other. I have no reason to wanna help you. At all."

Mare Do Well almost looked like she was going to respond, but before Rainbow Dash could hear what the other mare had to say, Rainbow whirled around and took off into the night.

The air was crisp and cool and felt amazing to fly against, but not nearly as amazing as the way it felt to know that for once, she was the one doing the leaving, and that Mare Do Well was the one left behind in the empty alley, struggling to find the right words to convey whatever confusion she might have felt.

• • •

When Rainbow Dash had stood before her, spitting out her declaration with magenta eyes blazing in triumph, she'd almost wanted to give up right then and there. To tear off her mask and fall to her knees, to prostrate herself before the pegasus and ask forgiveness and to beg Dash to please, please not hate her.

She hadn't, because Mare Do Well wouldn't do that, and she was starting to find herself resenting Mare Do Well almost as much as Rainbow Dash certainly did.

Next Chapter: Chapter 6: The Language of Flowers Estimated time remaining: 7 Hours, 27 Minutes
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