Chapters Why is there a wagon full of ponies hurtling down this stupidly dangerous path? Was all that Rainbow Dash could think. For that matter, why had there been so many accidents lately? Who is stupid enough to play in a well? So many answers eluded her. Dash caught herself clearing her throat to ask the stallion why they were hurtling down the path, but instead burst out into some weird super hero speech. The brown stallion in the back calmed down near instantly.
"Never fear! Your friendly neighborhood Rainbow is-" Woah... Should probably cut down on the books. Does weird things to your mind. The brown stallion had interrupted her mid stupid super hero speech, making her feel like a complete moron. Well, she was used to it so it didn't matter in the long run.
"Do you think you could just skip your stupid catchphrase and hurry up and save us?" The nerve of some stallions! How totally uncool of the town to forget her so easily! She could stop this. Dash flew in front of the runaway wagon and dug her hooves deep into the ground. She instantly felt the earth give out from under her, and for one death defying second everything became clear. The wagon barely cleared her, and her life flashed before her eyes as the wheels barely missed her head.
"Wow, that was pathetic." Her life only took about 3 seconds to go through? She had so much to improve on. The wagon was far too close to the edge of the cliff for her to even dream of stopping. The occupants inside were heading for an untimely death and it was all her fault. A million thoughts of what she should've done better flashed through her mind as she realized that the townspeople might blame this on her. She had planned out how to pack her bags and clouds in the middle of the night where nopony would see her, when all of the sudden the screams from the wagon stopped. Had she misjudged how far the cliff was away? Was the wagon already plunging beyond what she could hear to meet it's splintered demise? Dash roused herself from her thoughts in time to see that the mysterious cloaked mare had successfully stopped the wagon. The previous hostages of the wagon hopped out and began celebrating. Immediately, Dash flew after the wagon halting courageous crusader, stopping only to make sure the wagon was completely stopped and that she hadn't hallucinated the entire thing while her life had been crumbling before her eyes.
"Stop! Wait up!." The herculean heroine was stronger than Dash? Far more importantly, Dash wanted to thank the pony for saving those innocents from their untimely demise. The pony of the hour did not stop for poor, confused Dash. Instead the mare merely looked at something behind Dash, and 'The coolest and most awesome of all pegasi in Equestria' could barely hear a quiet whistling noise. Dash looked up and saw Pinkie's Flying machine. She looked back and the one pony that might've been cooler than she was for a brief moment was gone.
"Did you see that! You were like Woosh and then you were like SSSSKKIIIIIIDDDD and then the wagon was like all over you and then that other totally AMAZING hero, like, came out of NOWHERE AT ALL! Then she stopped the wagon!" Pinkie Pie had apparently not pondered what Dash had been desiring before she had appeared.
Dash could barely believe just how horribly horrendous her life might've been if Mare-do-well hadn't stopped that wagon. As Pinkie talked, Dash found herself imagining what might have been. Those ponies might've had families to take care of! Dash would've been responsible for the severing of familial bonds! Dash immediately thought of her late parents and cringed. If she had only been there, if she had only put family over her flight school, they would still be alive! She had to stop that from ever happening to any other pony!
The easiest way to do that would be to figure out just why so many accidents were happening. This would require research! The word research filled her with no amount of joy at the strife she might be able to spare other ponies. And who knows, maybe she'll find sometime to learn more about applied aerodynamics! She sure did love to fly.
The library was a bust.
"What do you mean Twilight is gone?! I need her to help me with something!" The local librarian being a friend of hers would have been an invaluable resource in her quest to gain greater insight into the greater issue at hand. Instead, she had to deal with Spike, who she had asked to shadow her in case she said something that she forgot. She used to excuse of it being an autobiography, a term that she knew would drive Twilight up the wall with her incorrect use. The library was lined with all assortment of things such as magazines, letters, and of course books. Dash didn't want letters she wanted statistics, cold hard numbers. Spike finally told her where she would go next.
"Well, Twilight said that the most records were held at city hall and tha-" Dash toned him out of his needless monolog on what Twilight had told him regarding the information she sought. Spike had though, handed her the aerodynamic for astounding pegasi book she had requested. It was volume 15, the one book that she did not have in her impressive literary collection already. Dash, now knowing her probable destination marched out the door. She didn't make it more than a single step because Twilight happened to be there, furious.
"Where were You! There was an accident at a construction site and Ra-" She cut herself off rather abruptly, and also suspiciously. Twilight looked like she was holding back tears behind the orbs of anger which made up her eyes. "Mare-Do-Well couldn't save everyone in time..." She seemed to run out of steam and Dash knew that whatever had happened had been bad. "Somepony died." She finished solemnly.
What? Her slight break from vigilance for her peers had resulted in the death of a pony? Dash was shocked beyond words. Twilight grew angry again. "And it's all your fault! You weren't there to save him! Why am I friends with you, you selfish egotistical little sniveling brat! Get out of my sight!."
Dash was unceremoniously lifted out of Twilight's way by magic, then thrown as far away as she imagined Twilight would have control for. It was all she could do to stop herself from breaking down into tears. Did everypony believe that it was her fault that somepony was dead? She had probably lost a friend forever back there. She took control of her flight through the air and spiraled down into her cloud castle. It's normally warm and cheery atmosphere instead filled her with nothing but dread, from a source she could not identify. A thought flashed through her head. Twilight was easily the most rational pony that she knew. If Twilight thought that, then it was most likely actually Dash's fault.
Dash still had a mission to complete. City hall was actually just a few blocks away from her stratos safe house. Getting there was no problem for one as possibly unsurpassed as Dash was. The mayor was standing there watching her. She didn't look to happy to be seeing Dash.
"What do you want?" The voice that issued from her beloved mayor's mouth seemed to carry venom within it.
"I would like to see the records for the amount of accidents involving ponies over the last two years?" That wasn't supposed to be a question. To see a figure who had congratulated her countless times for her heroic deeds speak to her with such undeniable disgust had shaken her resolve. Dash could only hope that the small waver in her voice would go mostly unnoticed.
"You know that I can't deny anypony their request, no matter how much I may wish to." The mayor wanted to be noncompliant, and Dash didn't blame her one bit. She probably wouldn't have wanted to help a virtual murderer either.
The mayor passed the papers over after shuffling away to some dusty file cabinet on the walls. Dash had a question on her criteria.
"So what passes as an accident in these statistics?" The mayor no matter how reluctant to help she was gave her the necessary information.
"Anything that caused or could have caused a casualty in the local population, or caused damages exceeding over 50 bits." That made the information far clearer. The graph read as clear as the skies after she finished with them.
There was a drastic increase in the amount of 'accidents' starting one month ago. There was only one logical explanation for this.
Something, or Somepony, is causing these accidents. She smiled and walked out.
Twilight sent Rainbow flying as far as she could, the despicable pony soaring through the skies in a parabola that would probably lead her to her nimbus nightmare of a house. She, and the rest of her friends were going to have a meeting tonight regarding Rainbow's odd behavior. Twilight quickly interrogated Spike, and to her surprise all that Dash had taken was a book on advanced aerodynamics. Dash doesn't read! What is wrong with her! Why couldn't she have been there, just like they had planned. But no, Dash was in her library! Somepony was dead!
"Um Twilight?" Spike tried to get her attention. "Twilight!" The unicorn looked incredibly angry about something.
"WHAT!" Twilight screamed at him. Twilight was immediately taken aback by how loud her response had been. It echoed around the room for a bit before spike responded.
"Dash wanted to know something about accident statistidoos or something. I sent her to city hall to see if they had what she was looking for." Twilight apologized.
"I'm sorry Spike, it's just that, someone died today and it could have been prevented if Ponyville's hero had been there. Dash let us down." Twilight looked t around in silent contemplation of the events that had befallen their poor place of residence. She decided to meet with the mayor before the others arrived.
City hall looked even more useless than normal. Twilight knew that the mayor actually didn't do much of anything of importance, and really was just a glorified keeper of records. She had tried several times to convince the mayor to keep some of the more public documents at the library but the stubborn old foal refused her kind offers. Twilight didn't really like the mayor.
"Was Rainbow Dash here?" She almost spat at the mare, convinced that she had been helping Rainbow to skirt her duties. It was despicable really just how much the town loved Dash. She could see how they liked her a year or so ago, when she had stopped an evil homicidal Alicorn from blanketing the world in eternal night. But lately, the arrogant equine was getting entirely too much praise for her actions. Twilight decided that tomorrow she would don the Mare-do-well costume.
" As much as I hate to say it Twilight, she was here." The Mayor disliked Dash? What an entirely welcome surprise.
"What did she want?" She said far more cordially than her previous attempt.
"She asked me for records regarding the amount of accidents over the past 2 years. I was duty bound to give it to her, otherwise I would've refused." Accident records? Interesting.Twilight asked for the information herself.
"Can I see the same records?" She said already predicting the evident answer.
"Of course." Quicker than she thought the aging mare could move, the Mayor was back again carrying with her a sheet covered in numbers.
"What did she do after she saw this, Mayor?" There was a large disturbing trend being shown here.
"She smiled and left." Now that Twilight thought about it, it was a rather odd set of coincidences that led Dash to being present at every accident except for the construction accident. Twilight knew that she had stumbled upon something rather significant here, and what it implied about Dash was worrying.
"Thank you for your time, Ms. Mayor." Twilight tried to make up for how rude she must have been earlier.
"It was a pleasure dear."
The thoughts and ideas that buzzed through out Twilight's skull were so intense she could almost see them. The meeting was short, sweet and to the point, mainly consisting of how each of the five regarded Dash at that moment.
"Ah think that she should be pardoned, she shouldn't have to be everywhere at once." Applejack stated.
"I think that she is a meanie head! She isn't any better than Gilda!" Pinkie yelled, surprising everypony.
"I think that my own inadequacies should be taken into account, but I think that Dash is up to something." Rarity had been on Mare duty when the construction site fell. she took it rather hard, but she thought that it wasn't all her fault.
"I think that we shouldn't be passing judgement on Dash at all." That was of course Fluttershy, one of Dash's best friends.
"I think that I should be mare-do-well tomorrow." Twilight finished simply.
Sleeping, was very hard for Twilight that night. Every time she did get some sleep it was filled with nightmares about Dash. They all portrayed her as villainous, willingly causing all the disasters just so the town's people would love her all the more. She finally slipped into a dreamless sleep slightly after 3. She woke up at 6 and got to work on the day's preparation.
She revoked Dash's library card, and charged her for the theft of the book. She had taken it without checking it out, so she felt sufficiently justified in charging her. She made sure to let Spike know that he could not let Dash in at all for awhile.
Walking around town, she tried to locate Dash so she could talk to her about what Twilight suspected to be true about her. If it was true, and the high probabillity of it being true upset Twilight, then Twilight had made the biggest mistake in her life about being friends with the Rainbow maned flier. It upset her, knowing that Dash could ever be that far away from what her expectations of her had been. What else in life had she been wrong about? Should she have never accepted Celestia's invitation? Or what if Twilight being here had made Rainbow this way? She found herself marveling at the complexities in the creation of the fifth hydroelectric Dam to take her mind off things.
The Dam was a masterpiece of Technology, incorporating the spinning of wheels to convert kinetic power into electric power. It was huge! It spanned the entire river and prevented said river from flooding Ponyville far below.
She could just barely make out someone talking over the roaring of the river.
"If the dam breaks, the whole town will be flooded! Looks like Ponyville needs a hero!" The voice said with glee.
The Dam was breaking? Was that Rainbow dash? Did she just break the Dam? Twilight almost folded into herself as she realized that she had been right about Rainbow Dash. She was behind all the accidents.
"HELLLLPPPPP! ANYONE!" Was that also Rainbow Dash? Twilight changed into the costume with a spell and a flourish and was faced with a choice, should she save Rainbow or shouldn't she? That wasn't much of a choice. Utilizing a log she managed to pull Dash out of the river.
"You? How do you know when these things are going to happen?" Dash looked completely shocked at the sight of her. There were so many things that Twilight wanted to yell at her, but using some unknown strength managed to stop herself from saying. She dropped Dash away from the river and forced the dam back together. She was unaware of Dash smirking to herself about something.
The crisis with the dam having been heroically averted thanks to her magical skill, Twilight turned her attention to debating what sort of mental disorder would allow Dash to ask with such a rampant disregard for ponies.
"I'm onto you!" Dash yelled at her and dashed off.
What was that supposed to mean?
"Dash? Can I talk to you for a minute?" Twilight's soft voice, ringed with steel, cut through the many layers of thought that were being analyzed in Dash's brain. Dash was up in a tree contemplating just who Mare-do-well could be, and when Twilight's voice cut through her thoughts she replied like a grouch.
"What?!" Twilight almost looked taken aback.
"I wanted to talk to you about the frequencies of accidents that have been occurring lately. I think we both know who it is..." Twilight drifted off. Dash sat up in the tree her eyes aglow with the spread of information.
"Yeah! I know who it is as well, I just can't figure out how to prove it."
"Why don't you just tell ponies?"
"Because nopony would believe me! I have no evidence but if my theory is right it seems rather coincidental."
"I don't think we are talking about the same pony."
"Well who are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about you! You made all those accidents happen so that you could swoop in and get all the attention you crave! There's something wrong with you Dash and I want to help fix you."
"I haven't been starting the accidents!"
"If not you then who?!"
"Mare-do-well! Right when she appeared the accidents started happening more!"
"Yeah, because you wanted more attention! Mare-do-well is hogging your spotlight isn't she! That's why you've been acting funny! It's ok Dash, we are going to get you help. We know you didn't mean to kill somepony."
"What? You think I'm a murderer? I thought we went over this! That was not my fault! I didn't cause the accident."
"Stop lying to yourself! I know you are doing it! I saw you by the dam."
"Doing what? Plugging it with my hoof?"
"No! You were saying stuff about how if the dam broke it would flood ponyville! and you sounded so happy about it."
"That's not what happened at all!"
Dash was beyond shocked at this point. The one mare she had expected to take her seriously about her theory was treating her like some kinda scum on the bottom of her hoof.
"I told you that we weren't friends, but I think i should warn you anyway. The police are coming here to take you away to jail and to take you to a psychiatrist. I can't believe I let a sociopath fool me for so long..."
Dash flew off wanting to go talk to her other friends.
"No Dash! You really aren't invited this time!" Applejack was being extremely insistent on not letting Dash into Sugar Cube corner.
"Are you kidding me? You wouldn't let the coolest of the cool in?" Never let it be said that Dash didn't have an ego. Or that she was modest.
"I don't see mare-do-well around here." Ouch, that would've hurt if Dash hadn't been looking for the gal.
"Fine, but I know you'll regret not letting me in! You'll miss my company." Dash huffed and flew away. How dare them not let Dash in! '
"This is probably over the construction site accident again..." Dash mumbled to herself from her perch on a stormy black raincloud. Dash pondered her situation. Mare-do-well was behind everything! It made sense, The accidents increasing when the excellent equine showed up, the way the marvelous mare knew where to be when something happened. If she had caused everything, all she had to do to get her friends to stop blaming her would be to prove that Mare-do-well was behind all of the random events. That was certainly easier said than done, the masked marauder seemed to know everything about the accidents. How likely is it that Mare-do-well just happened to know the fairly complex spell of putting the dam back together? Not likely to be certain. Pondering her thoughts on just how Mare-do-well could pull off the accidents, Dash returned to her house.
Her house was covered in Pegasi in blue uniforms. Flocks of them were flying in and out of her windows in tight formation. They were police pegasi.
"Land on the cloud, Dash!" Was that Twilight? Twilight had a megaphone out and was shouting through it.
Dash was terrified.
"You are under arrest for connections to the stallion slaughter of Brick Baker. If you go easily enough we will not be forced to take measures against you." That was from another source, that source being below her. It was one of the faster looking pegasi she had seen. He had long wings, and he was armored. It had to be the head of police. Dash had only a few seconds to decide on a choice that would probably change her life forever. Go to jail on trumped up charges from one of her friends who had a personal line to the princess? Or make a break for it and be free until she was caught. As she pondered her decision, she saw a police pegasi holding her element in her hoofs, the red bolt catching the last gleam of the sunset behind her.
At that very second Dash made her decision. With a sudden burst of movement, her mind in overdrive, Dash saw the path she needed to take if she wanted to get out.
Flying between two of the pegasi wanting to capture her, she rammed into the carrying her element, causing her to drop it in shock. Dash did a perfect frontflip in the air as the head of police began his chase of her. He was almost as fast as she was, but he had an entire squad with him, all focused on making sure that Dash was not going to escape easily.
As stupid as she was reputed to be, tired and confused Dash knew there were very few ways out of this. For a few awkward moments, she looked back on her failed career as a stunt flier. She flew faster. A solid cone of air surrounded her.
The police knew that she was about to do something special. She pushed against the barrier. The police had almost caught up with her as she pushed. And then it snapped back at her.
BOING!!!
Dash went flying backwards over all of the police ponies.
"Haha suckers!" She cried out in joy at her escape.
Dash regained control of her flight and flew almost as fast as she could, her form little more than a tiny multi colored pinprick in the sky, directly over the everfree.
She was going to see Gilda. She was going to stop mare-do-well from causing anymore trouble.
She was going to clear her name.