WonderBolt, the hero of Justice

Nothing was more freeing than being in the sky. Even after ten years of being able to do it there was nothing else that could give Rainbow the rush that speeding through the sky did. The wings on her back pumped with magical force that was far stronger than the size of them would suggest, and her freshly grown pair of pony ears enhanced her sense of hearing several times over. She had her ears trained on the sounds of the police talking on their intercoms about the criminals they were perusing. The vehicle they were perusing was going ridiculously fast, to the point where they were barely keeping the several ton metal beast in check as they recklessly weaved through traffic.

If Applejack were still a hero, she would have sped up towards their vehicle in her low riding motorcycle, soundly stopping their momentum with a single downward punch from her powerful fist. Rarity would have been able to just trap the vehicle in her Hologems, probably stopping them with minimal damage to the car with how good she was with those things. Flutters could just send a swarm of insects in there and sting and bite them into submission, and even twilight could have lifted the whole thing up into the air with her telekinesis. And Pinkie...

She shook her head back into the moment and peered through her goggles toward the car. A news chopper had pulled up beside her to catch a shot of their local hero in full costume flying to the rescue. Dash snapped back into the moment and took on an exaggerated salute that The Wonderbolt was known for. The forums that talked about her antics had called her persona cheesy and lame, but she got the job done.

That action had got her into the mood of a super hero once again. She looked down at the car chase with adrenaline pumping through her veins, pushing her forward with a near giddy excitement as she reached for her power.

She loved the feeling of time dilation. It felt like a warm cup of cocoa on a cold winter day and a chilled glass of lemonade on a hot summers day at the same time. That satisfying feeling filled her body as her perception of reality slowed to a crawl. Sounds grew longer and deeper in pitch, details began to seemingly freeze in time and grow more pronounced, and her alertness of the world around her seemed to grow a thousand fold. In this state, she was the only one in her perception that was moving normally, though to the rest of the world it seemed like she was now a rainbow colored blur in the sky streaking through the air at beyond super sonic speeds.

It was a power development that had happened five years ago. It had changed her from crashing into everything with how fast she was going to be able to have perfect maneuverability while outpacing nearly everything that moved on the planet. It was Twilight who had told her that this power was a type of "time dilation" , and she had helped Dash through the new growing pains such an ability brought.

Dash, The Wonderbolt was now ready to deal with the car chase swiftly and decisively. The vehicle was now nearly standing still in her eyes, making aiming her attack all the easier. She crossed her arms across her near flat chest and performed a front flip in the air before sticking her armored legs straight out and locked together. As her body came down on top of the hood, it bent and crumpled like she weighed thousands of tons. In a sense she did, as the relative kinetic energy she was putting out was more than enough to flatten a car. The force her slow decent had cause had ripped the engine right out of its foundations and punched it slowly through the concrete of the street. Large chunks of rubber from the front tires was already slowly ripping from the vehicle as the warping metal shredded into them. The two goons were not wearing seat belts. She watched them with a smirk as they slowly crashed through the windshield, enjoying the warped expressions of surprise on their faces that one could only see with an extreme slow motion camera without her powers.

She had to be careful touching them. If she tried to hit them or even pat them lightly, they would feel it as if it was smacking them at near mach speeds. She had to treat them like they were made of the most fragile things in existence while she was in this temporary state. it had taken her months to learn her own strength like this, and it was not without their accidents.

Ever so lightly, rainbow placed her palms on their chests, following their momentum and slowly bringing it to a stop to make sure she didn't break too many bones in the process. When she had come out of the state she was holding two unconscious men in her arms and watching the speeding police cars screech to a halt at the sudden intervention that had just transpired. To the rest of the world her little stunt had been so fast that it almost seemed like she had teleported into the car instead of flew into it.

"I believe these belong to you officers" She said in her cheesy heroic voice, beaming from ear to ear at a job well done in her book.

"Thanks WonderBolt, we'll take them from here."

Rainbows face lit up when she heard that familiar lightly raspy voice of the purple haired police officer. Dash had to fight every instinct in her body to stop herself from rushing the adorable squirt whom wore her police uniform so well. Scoots had grown up so fast over the years, turning from her adoring fan into the model of law enforcement that she embodied as she quietly talked into her radio. She had developed quite the sporty physique in the academy, and she was known to turn a number of heads from both sides of the fence now a days. Too Dash however, she might as well have still have been a kid playing dress up.

While dash was near squeeing from seeing her young protegee in a police uniform, the young cop was looking far from amused. Exasperated would have been a far better word to describe the kind of mood she was in as she walked forward, listening to the ranting and raving of her police chief in her ear about the super heroes meddling in their chase.

Officer Scootaloo breathed in and out slowly, trying to quell her irritation at the amount of paperwork Dash had just made.

"Look, Rai-er- Wonderbolt, my boss is kinda getting irritated with all of your vigilante stuff, you know you don't have any problems with me," her tone suggested otherwise, but she tried to keep those opinions to herself, "... but you might want to get out of here before the others move in."

"Whaaaat?"

Scootaloo's irritation increased tenfold as the hero persona Dash put on shattered and was replace with a whining "Whaaaat?"

The younger woman pinched the bridge of her nose in fustration and embarrassment as her idol complained loudly, immaturity lacing every one of her syllables.

"come on, I thought we just got over this whole 'demonize the vigilante' thing, I got a key to the city for goodness sakes! FROM THE MAYOR!"

"HALT! I demand some answers as to why you are interfering with police activity!" The rotund police chief made his way out of his vehicle, jabbing his finger towards The Wonderbolt as he nearly waddled over. Dash groaned and rolled her eyes behind her goggles before going into the dilated state again, flying off before the man could even take another step. From the pedestrian perspective the only thing left of her was a fast disappearing rainbow trail. Officer Scootaloo's embarrassment and frustration lingered far longer than the rainbow streak had.

//////////////*Later that day*///////////////////

Applejack's face was bordering on the lines of irritation and concentration as Rainbow complained on about her day. The farm woman was having such a nice time with Rarity before their seemingly permanent house guest had arrived back from her patrol. Apparently she was upset about the police force being on her neck again for being a super hero for the millionth time and Applejack just could not be bothered with paying any more attention than that.

No, Applejack was focused on the task at hand, which was figuring out what was going on with her truck. Her arm held up the front of the vehicle casually at an angle, thousands of pounds of rusted metal doing nothing to make her arm shake with strain. She barely felt the weight of the vehicle, but she made sure to be mindful of it regardless as her Rarity was kneeling underneath it. Aj's eyes were freely looking over the woman dressed in a lightly baggy pair of overalls and a tight undershirt that just looked too good on the fashionista. The blotches of oil on her clothing and on her cheeks as she looked studiously at the under carriage made Applejacks heart thump and face flush in a way that even her girls most stylish outfits didn't. Even the tasteful little ponytail she had donned for their mechanic work was enough to get her mind into fuzzy and warm fantasies, so much show that the farm girl nearly jumped at Dash yelling at her.

"APPLEJACK! ARE YOU LISTENING?"

"Whu huh?" Applejack snapped to reality and adjusted her hold on her truck as she looked at the pouty rainbow haired woman in front of her.
For the second time today Dash saw someone pinch the bridge of their nose before talking to her.

"Sugarcube I'm sorry, but y'all already know how ah feel about this super hero nonsense y'all keep wanting to do. It was fun when we were teenagers and maybe when we were in college but its time to move on gurl."

Rainbow ran her fingers through her hair in frustration before gesturing to the display of strength that Applejack was doing. It was like she was watching Applejack refusing to say two plus two equaled four.

"COME ON AJ, look at what you are doing and TELL me you were only meant to do farm work."

"What do y'all mean by 'only'? Ah'll have you know..."

"Applejack darling, this frame is entirely too rusty, its no wonder you are having trouble driving it. There are a few places where it looks like its going to simply split in two..."

Applejack snapped her attention back to the smooth voice of Rarity and knelt in a bit to where she was, still holding up the truck without so much as a tremble in her arm even in this new position. Their shoulders brushed together as she looked to the areas her girl pointed to elegantly with her wrench. Sure enough her assessment of the wear and tear on the old girl was distressingly accurate.

"Ahh geeze.... That's gonna take some doin ta fix..."

"Well at least we are starting to see some of the issue down there..." Rarity gave her a playful nudge with her shoulder saying this. Their eyes locked, and Aj couldn't help but bite her lip at the twinkle in Rarity's eyes. It just made Rainbows presence all the more intrusive.

Dash meanwhile was watching the hearts practically flying between the two of them as they ignored her, and it made her tap her foot in frustration, as well as a slowly growing pang of loneliness that hit her for the second time today.

"Ugh! Fine, I guess you don't care about my problems..."

"Rainbow Dash" Rarity chided sharply as she got up and waved a wrench in her direction. Even dressed as she was she held an air of a fashionista about to have her latest line of clothing walk a runway. "You know we love you dearly, but we've heard this song and dance before. It would be wise for you to start thinking about more... reasonable lines of employment. You know..."

"One that actually PAYS," AJ added through gritted teeth.

"Yes, that. Why not join the police force instead of running away from them? You'd still be fighting crime that way. Scootaloo absolutely adores it."

"I can't use my powers on the force Rarity." Rainbow Dash groaned out, "They practically want to lock me up for helping them out for crying out loud."

"And one of these days they are going to figure out how to do it, and when they do that'll cause problems for us too. That's a best case scenario. Worst case..." Applejack slowly brought her vehicle down to the ground as Rarity maneuvered out from under it as she continued talking, "Worst case is that some thug out there gets a lucky pot shot on you and we lose our best friend. You know how much Rarity would cry if you got killed on us?"

"Oh PuLEASE Applejack, you'd be blubbering way worse than I would be."

"Ah would be crying on the inside thank you very much." Applejack held her head up high upon saying this, only for Rarity to wave her hand flamboyantly and do her signature series of dismissive sounds. Aj had to fight back a smile at that as she tried to look solemn.

"If you guys had my back like the old days you wouldn't have to worry about things like that." Dash had the tone of a petulant child as she said this " I know for a fact that Rarity's hologems or whatever can stop a bullet, and Fluttershy and Sunset were so good at gathering intel we were able to stop crimes before they even happened! We were such a good team."

"Fluttershy left the country years ago Dash, and Sunset Shimmer is an Attorney now. Poor Twilight is still in no shape for any of that after... what happened."

Silence fell between them all as memories of that day began to flood their minds. Each of them reacted to the memories differently. Applejack's face grew just a little more stony. Rarity on the other hand looked just a hint more vulnerable than before, rubbing her shoulder reflexively as she got closer to AJ. Dash on the other hand was staring at the ground, her bangs covering her eyes as she tried to keep the emotions from flooding out.

"Pinkie didn't mean any of it." Dash's voice sounded broken and hollow. It sounded more like she needed reassurance than anything else. Applejack and Rarity moved in swiftly, hugging their friend with as much gentleness as they had for each other. They didn't dare speak what had happened. The memories of it was still far to raw years after the fact .

It was five years ago. Pinkie Pie had had an accident with her powers. She was a party clown for childrens parties. She was quite popular, known for going above and beyond for really reasonable rates. Parties she worked were the life of the town, even when they were just for little kids, like her last one had been. They couldn't be more than grade schoolers with doting yet lightly annoyed parents. Pinkie had had more than enough energy for all of them, setting up decorations and even baking their cake with all the flair she was known to have. She had been so excited that day that she hadn't realized she was charging the party supplies with her magic.

Kinetic explosives

It had happened so fast, and once it had begun she could not stop it because of the shock she was in. The first thing to explode was the birthday cake. The soft and happy boy that blew out the candle had disturbed the charged cake just enough to set off the magic. Batter went everywhere. The explosion had rended his tiny arms too shreds, flecks of meat and bone flying through the air as now acidic cake batter clung to the pieces of him that didn't fly off in the blast. His mother desperately tried to get to him from the thick pink smoke that eerily glistened with sparkles, trying in vain to get the corrosive material off of her already dead son's face, screaming louder and louder with each attempt.

Kids and parents lost their legs as the confetti that had settled on the ground ripped into them like land mines. Within seconds the brightly colored had turned into pink fog of hell and screaming, and then all at once in had grown silent. The only one who had been left alive was a kneeling Pinkie Pie who could only stare at the carnage before her in stunned silence. She had not moved from that position until the police had long since arrived onto the scene in response to the loud explosion and noise complaints. She was entirely unresponsive, not speaking a word to anyone or even acknowledged their existence as her dilated eyes stared forward in a state of shock. The only reason anyone had known what had happened in such detail is because Sunset had read her mind, and she had to recover from what she had seen as well.

Pinkie's mind couldn't take what she had seen. No matter how loudly the police had questioned her from her monitored bed in the hospital, they could not get her to react. They had police stationed where she was and she was cuffed, but it was looking like Pinkie was going to be trapped in that shocked state for the rest of her life.

If it had ended there, that would have been enough of a tragedy, but unfortunately fate had decided that it wasn't done. Though her friends had taken away the geode from Pinkie in secret, she was so attuned to it that she still had access to its powers miles away from where it was. For all they know, the geodes power eventually just becomes part of them after awhile. It was in that hospital in the dead of night, cuffed to the bed and staring unblinkingly at the ceiling that she started to laugh. It was small at first, a weak chuckle that slowly grew to a louder laugh, till it was a strained staccato that threatened to suffocate her from the lack of oxygen she was getting.

Police and Nurses alike rushed in to subdue her as she thrashed around, her maniacal laughter causing the more religious people on the floor to make symbols and prayers warding against the evil they felt emanating from that room. That fear was validated as an explosion issued out from her room, and blood and body parts splattered from out of her open door, followed by eerily sparkly pink smoke. There had been a moment of hushed silence until Pinkie had staggered out of the room, blood drenching her nightgown and face as she grinned at her prey. Everyone that was in her line of sight was methodically killed in blasts of pink smoke, and those that were hiding were caught in the blast radius and the flying debris. By the time their super hero team had responded the Hospital had turned into a war-zone. Helicopters and police vehicles were burning along with the hospital as Pinkie walked unsteadily through the pink mist that covered the area. She had been labeled a super villain by the media that had lived long enough to report from the scene.

It had taken everything they could to beat her, and by the time they had, they had lost Pinkie's body in the rubble of the hospital that had imploded from the altercation. Thousands of people died that day in one of the most tragic events the country had ever seen, and it had involved one of their best friends who had just snapped.

The fight had broken the will of many of them. Fluttershy left the country without saying a word, and they could not even begin to guess where she had went too. Twilight, who had still feared her alter ego Midnight too that day had smashed her geode in a fit of panic and attempted suicide. She had only been stopped because Rainbow had found her. The broken girl, who was so smart and had such a promising future begged Dash to let her go, to let her die so she didn't kill anyone like Pinkie did. Twilight was still heavily monitored to this day in a psychiatric facility. The others each hung up the playful super hero costumes they had made for themselves and sworn off ever doing it again and moved on with their lives in different careers. The WonderBolt; Rainbow Dash was the only active super hero out of the whole group, and it had remained that way ever since.