The 'Original' Pony Dilemma

“He’s coming any minute now,” Rainbow Dash said as she stood on the outskirts of Ponyville. Her light blue wings spread wide with a smile on her face. The sky was as blue as she was with the clouds cleared well in advance, thanks to her.

Twilight, the purple unicorn, stood near her as she watched the sky. “You haven’t told me anything about this pony,” she said with an annoyed tone. “Now, suddenly, your cousin, who I haven’t heard any thing about, anywhere, is coming to visit?”

“Twilight, as I recall, SOMEONE had a brother that was never mentioned until he was getting married. You would think that someone in Ponyville would have heard of him, but no; suddenly out of the blue this big huge wedding is placed in Canterlot. Does this make any less sense?”

“I suppose not.” Twilight admitted. “Shining Armor and Cadence, but it’s not like they were suddenly made up on the spot as if to give a reason to a company to make more toys to sell to kids.”

Rainbow Dash tilted her head in confusion. Her confusion quickly vanished though as she saw a trail of rainbow. “He’s here!” she shouted at the top of her lungs. The streak of rainbow left a trail as it performed a loop before it landed. The pony had spiky white hair and a gray hide. His eyes were gray like his hide and he had a cloud with a lightning bolt for a cutie mark on his flank. His mane, for some odd reason, was shaped perfectly like Rainbow Dash's own but colored white instead of a variety of colors. “Hey there Rainbow,” He said with a casual voice, his tone only a bit manlier version of her.

“What’s your name?” Twilight had to ask. It was rude to introduce her in such a way, but this pony struck her as a strange type. He had a lightning bolt cutie mark, yet he performed rainbows in his trail of flying? What sense did THAT make?

“Lightning Dash!” The pony said with a hoof to his chest and his head held proudly. He suddenly lowered his front half and placed his hooves on the ground. One of his hooves dug up dirt as smoke came out of his nose. “All time speed champion of the world!”

“You’re…Lightning Dash. Your name is LIGHTNING Dash?” Twilight asked, again and again. “And you decided that the first thing you should do in the sky is RAINBOWS?”

“Oh I can do lightning too. I can even make the boom sound. ‘Lightning boom’ I call it.” Just as quickly as he changed postures, he changed again and held his chest happily.

“Excuse me a moment.” Twilight gave a huge smile, barring her flat teeth. She suddenly grabbed Rainbow Dash and pulled her away. “How do you know this pony again?” she said, her whisper was clearly aggravated and it was difficult to keep her tone down.

“Like I said, Twilight, he’s my cousin.” Rainbow replied, perplexed at the way she was behaving.

“That doesn’t shed any more light! What kind of cousin? First? Second? Third? Removed? What?”

“That’s easy. He’s…” Rainbow Dash paused. She raised her eyes up to the sky and her wings fluttered. “Um…honestly, I don’t really know. All I know is that he’s related.” She had never really given it more serious thought than that. "Have you seen his mane?"

"There are tons of ponies with similar manes. Lovestruck is one of them. Do you think that the two of US are related?"

Rainbow Dash gave a shoulder shrug. "It's possible. It's not like someone just copy and pasted a blank version of you, recolored you, and released you to kids to think that Lovestruck was a completely different pony." Rainbow Dash paused and looked away from her for a brief moment, as if she were looking towards someone else that wasn't in Ponyville. "Seriously. Look Lovestruck up on the 'My Little Pony App.' Tell me she doesn't look EXACTLY like Twilight, except recolored," she said, as if she were talking to someone else.

“Anyways." Twilight coughed. "Have you checked your family tree? Do you even know if this pony is in it? I know Lovestruck isn't in mine.” Twilight raised a brow at her.

Suddenly, Lightning Dash gave a loud cough from behind. “It’s rude to talk behind one’s back you know.” One of his hooves raised and twirled around in the air. “Come on, if it’s about me, you can tell me. I have nothing to hide from Rainbow.”

“Alright.” Twilight suddenly moved away from Rainbow Dash and made her way to the other pegasus. “Lightning Dash, my first question is why do you make rainbows and not something like clouds?”

“I blame Rainbow for that one.” Lightning Dash smiled innocently. “You hear of my brother, Purple Rain? He makes rainbows too.”

“Purple Rain?” Twilight groaned. “Being named after an 80’s album does original NOT make.” She shook her head for a moment to try to change the subject. “What cousin are you? I mean, how EXACTLY are you related to Rainbow?”

Lightning Dash flashed a smile. “Oh that’s easy! You see it’s…uh…” his smile vanished just as quickly as it came on his face. He put his hoof to his chin and looked at the ground. “Um…how exactly are we related…” he mulled over the question. After a minute, he raised his head with a softer smile than before. “You don’t need to hear about any boring stuff like that.”

“But I do.” Twilight suddenly stepped closer to Lightning Dash, causing the pegasus to step back in response. “I want to know how you are related to Rainbow Dash, and what kind of proof you have.”

“I can perform a sonic rainboom.” Lightning Dash suddenly replied, thinking of something to get this pony off of his back.

“A sonic rainboom?” Twilight raised a brow again.

“Yep!”

“The kind that Rainbow Dash is kind of famous for?” Twilight asked, question after question.

“Yep!”

“The kind that, to this day, no pony has ever been able to perform but her, and suddenly a pony from nowhere can do the EXACT same thing, the thing that makes her unique and stand out from others to give her the cutie mark she now has?”

“Uh…I’m not following.” Lightning Dash tilted his head. What was she talking about?

“Cutie marks are what separate ponies from others. They’re obtained when a pony discovers a unique characteristic about themselves that separate them from other ponies. Rainbow Dash got hers upon performing a sonic rainboom. It generally means SHE is the only one that can perform a sonic rainboom, and nopony else!” Twilight suddenly shouted at the end. Lightning Dash had a hole in his story that she was widening by the second.

“Wait.” Rainbow Dash suddenly cut in. “How do you know about that? I don’t remember…”

“Just go with it.” Twilight snapped at Rainbow suddenly before looking back at Lightning Dash. “So, what can you REALLY do?”

Lightning Dash was speechless. What could he do? “Um…but I can do a sonic rainboom…”

“No, you can’t,” Twilight said. “You can’t do a sonic rainboom. Let me tell you, if you could move so fast that you could create a sonic boom, one that sounded like lightning, then THAT would be more believable.”

“I-I can do that.” Lightning Dash’s smile was long gone from his face. He was nodding eagerly at her though. He had to think of something he could do.

“Are you saying that because you CAN, or are you saying that because you WANT?” Twilight glared at the pony. “I’m starting to think you aren’t related to Rainbow Dash at all. You don’t know her family tree, you’re trying to take the one thing about her that makes her unique from other ponies, and you’re making up stuff on the spot.” Twilight suddenly turned her head at Rainbow Dash. “And I want to know Rainbow, how many ponies visit you that claim to be your cousin?”

Rainbow Dash shrugged. “I don’t keep count, honestly…” she admitted. “Many of them look a lot like me though.”

“I keep track of nearly every pony. Pinkie Pie helps tremendously with that.” Twilight boasted, though it was likely something that wasn’t worthy of ‘bragging’ rights to say the least. “I know that you get a LOT of cousins, Rainbow Dash. A lot of them look like you, claim to do the same stuff as you, and so on. Pinkie Pie gets a lot too. They claim to be like her…they act like her…it’s so irritating. You know who I haven’t seen a lot of? MY cousins. Or Applejack’s cousins. Honestly, Applejack has an unquestionably huge family tree. If we had a pony come to us saying that they were her cousin, it would shut us up and make us nod our head because her family tree is more confusing than a maze made by Discord.” Twilight knew something was wrong with this pony, and she wasn’t going to take it. “You’re not related to Rainbow Dash are you? ADMIT IT!”

Lightning Dash bit his lower lip and glanced to the ground. “Um…I mean…I can do…twenty percent…”

“You know who also knows about her twenty percent reference?” Twilight suddenly asked, giving a huge, fake, smile on her face.

“Who?”

“EVERYPONY IN EQUESTRIA!” Suddenly Twilight turned around and faced her rear to the pony. She raised her hind legs and kicked the pony as hard as she could right in his rear, sending him flying and leaving nothing but a rainbow streak behind him, forming a rainbow arch perfectly over Ponyville as he raised in the air and crashed, miles away from Twilight on the other side of the village.

Rainbow Dash’s jaw dropped at Twilight’s kick. “Um…thanks…Twilight, I think.” She stammered. “Where did you get that kind of strength from? That kick was awesome.”

Twilight closed her eyes and trotted away from Rainbow Dash. “Not important.” She said in a happy voice. “And I’m always happy to get rid of any sort of fake cousin for anyone.”