Batmare Begins

"Miss Rainbow." An elderly voice addressed, opening the door to Rainbow Dash's room. "It's 4 P.M. and you're still in bed. Is something bothering you?" Rainbow grunted and sat up.

"No, just some bad dreams last night." She yawned, stretching.

"You seem to be having a lot of those lately. Are you sure there's nothing you want to tell me?" The mare pressed. Rainbow looked away and mumbled something under her breath.

"What's for breakfast?" The young pegasus asked, hopping off her sheets and flexing her hind legs.

"There are pancakes in the kitchen and apple juice in the fridge." The mare 'Apple Rose' informed her. Apparently she shared some relation to Applejack, one of Rainbow's friends but Rainbow became her top priority once she lost her parents.

"And I have to get it myself?" Rainbow gasped in feigned appall.

"Endless charm, Rainbow Dash. That's why I'm still here." The old mare responded.

After breakfast, Rainbow Dash headed into the town market to meet her friends.

"Pinkie Pie! How's it going?" Rainbow called, spotting her friend. She had been able to get off of work but her other friends couldn't. Rainbow Dash didn't work, DashCorp was run by a bunch of suits and that left her with plenty of time to herself.

"Great! The twins got into the flour bags again and-" She started.

"Yeah, yeah cool. Guess what I got a new yacht over by the dock, wanna come see it?" Rainbow interrupted excitedly.

"I can't Rainbow, I have to get back to work soon."

"What about saturday?"

"I'll try to."

"I said protection was double this week, stupid bitch!" A gruff masculine stallion roared at a yellow mare. "Do you want another accident to happen?" Everypony was looking now, waiting to see what would happen. Nopony dared to help her.

"N-no! Please, I have a daughter!" Carrot Top whimpered.

"Oh really? So I guess you'd be real upset if something happened to her." He suggested, moving closer.

"Hey, why don't you pick on somepony your own size?" Rainbow yelled.

"Back off rich girl, this doesn't concern you." He responded, shrugging her off.

"| hate to say this Rainbow but he's right." Pinkie told her. "There's nothing we can do. Let's go." The stallion had gone back to harassing the merchant mare.

"What are you suggesting? Do you want me to just sit back and let him get away with this?" Rainbow asked rhetorically, pointing a hoof to the earth pony trashing the mare's stall.

"I'm suggesting that you don't get yourself killed over somepony you don't even know!" Pinkie snapped.

"This place used to beautiful Pinkie! Look what scum like him have turned it into. There are drug kitchens in every other apartment, there are ponies around every corner with knives and guns ready to kill for a few measly bits and any mare walking on her own at night is apparently free game for rapists!" Rainbow argued. "And worst of all, them." Rainbow growled, pointing a hoof towards two police ponies sitting and doing nothing while the stallion proceeded to steal from the terrified mares and fillies of the market. "The police do nothing to protect ponies anymore. The last good ponies died with the rest of the country."

"And how is this your responsibility Rainbow? Why is it your job to stop ponies like him?" Pinkie practically screamed.

"Because nopony else will!" Rainbow Dash called out, once again gaining the attention of the market ponies.

"Fine, throw your life away. See if I care." Pinkie snarled, trotting away. Rainbow had already began flying to the stallion and was now snout to snout with him.

"Leave. Her. Alone." Rainbow Dash seethed.

"Make me." The stallion laughed.

Rainbow Dash moved behind him to trip him up but received a powerful buck to the face for her efforts. She recovered but the stallion was already in front of her. She managed to kick him in the knee with one of her back legs and knock his front legs from under him. She heard his jaw crack and she stomped on his skull.

"Still feel like terroising mares?" She gloated, not seeing his friends emerging from the crowd until they had already lifted her up and knocked her head first into the gravel. The stallion she had been fighting got up and cantered over.

"You know what? I think I do." He hissed as he motioned for his friends to hold her up. He punched her in the gut and spat in her eye before he set to work. "I think I'll start with you."

He punched her in the stomach again and she lost the battle of not throwing up. One of his friends hoofed him a small baton type weapon that had most likely been stolen from the police. He whacked her across the face and her vision blurred with tears. He made her lick the blood off the weapon and repeat the process.

"As much as I'd like to sit here and watch you suck my stick all day, I really need to be going." He told her, hitting her over the head one last time with more force than any of the previous times as she passed out.

When she awoke, the was immediately aware of two things: a sharp pain whenever she breathed in and a yellow mare watching her slumber.

"Am I dead?" Rainbow asked. Carrot Top frowned and inched forward.

"Why did you do that?" She asked.

"Do what? Talk big and get my flank kicked?" Rainbow joked, then winced from pain.

"Why did you stand up for me? You and your friend could have easily walked away like everypony else."

"And then what? This place needs saving and it's not going to happen on it's own." As she finished the sentence, an old mare burst through the door and rushed to Rainbow's bed.

"Miss Dash, Pinkie Pie told me all about what happened. Once your wounds have healed sufficiently, we're getting you home." Apple Rose told her in almost convincing confidence. Almost.

"I'm not going home, Rose." She told her.

"What? Why?" Rose asked.

"I'll explain later. I just need to rest now." Rainbow defied, drifting out of consciousness.

The next day, Carrot Top wasn't there when she woke up but Apple Rose had been waiting with a bowl of cereal and a concerned look.

"You know, it's not healthy for a mare such as yourself to be getting into street fights." Rose scalded.

"I know." Dash responded dully.

"You really ought to come home and tell me what possessed you to act this way."

"I know."

"Are you even listening to me?"

"I know."

"Rainbow Daring Dash pay attention to me this instant!" Apple Rose snapped, knocking Rainbow Dash from her stupor. "You know that you can tell me anything, what's hurting you?"

"Nothing. Is it so hard to believe that the element of loyalty just wanted to help somepony?"

"This isn't like you Rainbow Dash, you aren't a violent mare."

"You don't know what I'm like. I don't know what I'm like anymore."

"Of course I know you Rainbow Dash, I raised you. I brought you up and held you and fed you when your parents couldn't." Rose argued, not realising how badly that last comment hurt the mare.

"Get. Out!" Rainbow Dash seethed. Apple Rose left her side and exited the room. Rainbow Dash just started to cry.

"What's happening to me?" She asked to nopony in particular. She had snapped at a friend who just wanted to keep her from getting killed, she had attacked a stallion without any plan and she had taken out her frustrations on the mare who raised her for most of her life.

When she had mostly finished sobbing into her pillow, nurse Redheart entered the room.

"Miss Dash, it's time to go. There's a cart outside for when you're ready."

"Thanks." Dash replied automatically.

When she got into the limousine six mares were waiting for her, one of which being Apple Rose. The other five were her best friends Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity and even Pinkie Pie.

"Oh Rainbow Dash, we were so worried!" Fluttershy exclaimed, hugging the pegasus as soon as she was fully into the cart.

"Nah what did ya think you were tryin' to prove by pickin' a fight with a stallion you don't even know?" Applejack asked, either not worried for Rainbow or hiding it very well.

"I don-" Dash started.

"Dashie! I'm super sorry for leaving you, I should've helped you." Pinkie Pie interrupted.

"It's okay Pinkie, it wasn't your fault."

"Did you recognise him? Did anypony say his name?" Twilight asked.

"No, he was just another thug out for money." Dash spat. She hadn't noticed that the cart had been moving at first but now it had caught her attention, seeing every dirty rotten corner of her city close up. Every dark alley and broken window, the ponies out selling and using drugs in broad daylight, the stallions waiting in the dark or behind a dumpster for an unsuspecting mare to trot past. It sickened her.

"Guys, what happened?" Rainbow asked.

"Oh great, she's concussed." Rarity sighed.

"No, no. What happened to Equestria? How did we let this happen to our home?"

"Rainbow there was nothin' we could do. Even the elements of harmony couldn't make everypony good." Applejack assured.

"And we let that stop us? The elements weren't the only thing that made us strong, ponies looked up to us, they relied on us and we didn't hear them."

"Rainbow, you can't think like that. We couldn't have stopped this from happening." Rarity consoled.

"She's right." Twilight sighed. "We stopped Nightmare Moon, King Sombra, the Changelings and Discord. We should have done something."

The rest of the journey was either spent arguing how what happened couldn't have been avoided or how it was all their fault. When they finally arrived at Dash manor, Rainbow and Apple Rose stepped out while the other five mares were driven home.

"I'm sorry. For shouting at you." Rainbow explained.

"I know dear, me too. I should've known you'd be sensitive about your parents."

"I'm still not staying though."

"Why? Where will you go?"

"I don't know where I'll go but I know that somewhere, there's something or somepony who can help me to save this place."

"You're crazy."

"Go speak to Pinkie Pie and tell me that."

"You'll be killed."

"Or die trying."

"Just promise me you'll come back."

"Cross my heart and hope to fly stick a cupcake in my eye." Rainbow assured. Apple Rose sighed and motioned towards the door.

"So what would you recommend as good saving the world attire? Maybe some ninja robes with a cool sword."

"Dress for all weather Rainbow, you never know what to expect. Take some money and as much canned food and water as you can." Apple Rose suggested.

"Since when were you the expert?" Rainbow questioned.

"It's common sense Rainbow, you wouldn't go if you had any." She reasoned. Rainbow Dash chuckled and placed an arm around her former guardian.

"I'll miss you too Rosie."

Rainbow ended up packing a small but warm coat, a few thousand bits and as much preservable food and water as would fit in her saddlebags. She had planned to visit Twilight's library tomorrow to get an idea of where to go and say goodbye to her friends while she was there. She would just tell them she was going on vacation and Apple Rose could have a few weeks to herself with nopony to constantly clean up after. She could visit her favourite cousin while Rainbow was away.

"So, where are you going anyway?" Twilight Sparkle asked.

"Oh you know, here and there." Rainbow replied nonchalantly. "Hey, do you mind if I borrow this for the chariot ride?" Rainbow asked, pulling out a book entitled 'The beginner's guide international to martial arts'.

"Just don't lose it, I only have the one." Twilight told her.

"Thanks. Where do you think the others are?" Rainbow asked just as a pink pony peddled in a large blue object and a cart of cupcakes.

"Farewell party time!" Pinkie yelled as three other ponies and an alligator walked into the room. Obnoxious music started to play and party games seemed to have come out of nowhere. If it had been anypony other than Pinkie, she may have questioned it but, somehow, being around the party pony long enough had desensitised her to some of the craziness everpresent in her world.

They stayed and partied for while and said their goodbyes but eventually Rainbow Dash had to leave to catch her pegasus chariot.

By the time she was there, she had decided on the Hollow Shades, in her book it described the place as 'Famed for it's deadliness, even the most feared creatures in nearby foal mountain choose to avoid this area whether it be for the flora or fauna.'

"Yes! This is the perfect place to toughen me up." Rainbow cheered aloud. The pilots were skeptical at first but there isn't much a little bit of Rainbow Dash's charm couldn't fix.

"What do I pay you for?" Rainbow asked rhetorically.

"To... fly?" One of the pegasi attempted, unsure.

"Good. Now take me to the Hollow Shades or you're fired."

"Yes ma'am." He responded, taking off as Dash retreated back into the rear of the sky chariot.