//------------------------------//
// Unmarked Bits and Violin Cases 
// Story: Grounded: The Ballad of Greased Lightning 
// by Green Akers 
//------------------------------//

	The next morning, Apple Bloom raced over to the Cutie Mark Crusaders' clubhouse, which sat nestled among the branches of a giant tree on a remote part of her family's farm. Once there, she met up with her fellow crusaders and proceeded to recount the sad story her big brother had told her the night before.

Scootaloo's face turned white as Apple Bloom described the loss of Greased Lightning's wing. "You mean, like, completely gone? Not even a little nub?"

"I dunno for sure," Apple Bloom conceded, "but it did put an end to Lightnin's racin' career. He probably couldn't even fly after that."

"Couldn't fly?!" Scootaloo's knees weakened at the thought, and she fainted onto the floor.

"Can you imagine?" Apple Bloom pondered, turning to Sweetie Belle. "Spendin' your whole entire life findin' your special talent and becomin' the best there ever was at it... And then losin' it forever?"

A cold chill ran up Sweetie Belle's spine. "I'd rather not think about that," she replied.

Apple Bloom turned and began pacing back and forth across the clubhouse. "We've got to find this guy," she declared. "Where did he go? What did he do? Nopony even knows if he's dead or alive!" She stopped and turned back towards her friends. "There's a story here that needs to be told," she proclaimed, "and by golly, we're just the ponies to tell it!"

"Yeah!" Sweetie Belle agreed. "We'll be investigative journalists, hot on the trail of a real-live mystery! Plus, if we could crack a case like this... We'd earn our cutie marks for sure!"

"Yay! Cutie Mark Crusader Famous Flyer Finders!" Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle shouted in unison, giving each other a high-hoof.

"But it ain't gonna be easy," Apple Bloom cautioned. "We're gonna need all hooves on deck for this one." She sighed as she looked over at a still-unconscious Scootaloo. "Hey, Scoot," she called over, "Rainbow Dash is lookin' for you!"

"What?" Scootaloo sprang back to life at the mention of her hero. "Rainbow Dash? Where?" Noticing the smirks on her friends' faces, Scootaloo could only shake her head. "All right, you guys, what are you up to?"

Sweetie Belle giggled. "We're gonna solve the case of 'The Disappearing Pegasus'!" she explained. "We're gonna find out what happened to Greased Lightning, and write a big cover story about it for the Foal Free Press, and finally earn our cutie marks!"

"Cool beans!" Scootaloo replied. "So, uh, how are we gonna do that?"

"Um, well..." Sweetie Belle quickly realized that she had absolutely no idea. "You tell her, Apple Bloom."

"Well..." Apple Bloom pondered the question for a moment. "First, I think we need more information about this Lightnin' feller—I don't even what he looks like!"

"Let's try the library!" Sweetie Belle suggested. "That's the first place I always go to find out about things."

"Great idea!" Scootaloo seconded. "Maybe Twilight can help us out!"

"Yeah, maybe..." Apple Bloom offered, hoping that Twilight hadn't found out what happened to her superbly-organized newspaper stacks.

"So what are we waiting for?" Scootaloo asked rhetorically. "Let's get this show on the road already!"

With that, the three fillies dashed out of their clubhouse, where Scootaloo's scooter and their trusty red wagon awaited. Scootaloo hopped on the scooter while her friends piled into the wagon behind her, and with a few flicks of her wings, the trio was on their way.



As it turns out, Twilight was just stepping out of the library's front door as the crusaders approached. "Uh oh..." Apple Bloom whimpered, preparing to get the third degree for the mess she had made the day before.

Instead, however, Twilight smiled as the crusaders pulled up to the tree. "Hi, girls!" she greeted the fillies. "Talk about perfect timing, Apple Bloom. I was just on my way to the farm to see you!"

Apple Bloom hung her head. "Look, I can explain—"

"You stumped me with your question about Greased Lightning yesterday," Twilight interrupted, "and as a true scholar, it is my duty to help you find the answer!" Using her magic, she levitated an envelope out of her saddlebag and over to the crusaders. "I sent a letter to my brother last night asking about Mr. Lightning's accident, and he just sent back a response!"

"Really? Wow!" Apple Bloom smiled as she accepted the letter. "That was fast!"

Twilight gave the fillies a wink. "Having a dragon around with a direct link to Canterlot does have its advantages."

"So what are you waiting for, Apple Bloom?" Sweetie Belle pressed. "Open it and see what it says!"

"I was just gettin' to that!" Apple Bloom insisted, breaking the seal on the envelope and pulling out the letter.

The first thing that popped out at the crusaders was a small, thin cardboard square tucked inside the letter, featuring a picture of a pony holding a large, gem-laden golden trophy over its head and the caption "Speedster Showcase: Haytona" along the bottom. "Is that a pegasus card?" Scootaloo squealed. "Awesome! This thing is, like, super-old!"

Apple Bloom looked closely at the trophy-toting pony, a dark-blue stallion about Twilight's age that sported a spiky mop of brown hair, a powerful set of legs, and a confident smirk. "Is that him?" Apple Bloom wondered. "Is that Greased Lightnin'?"

Scootaloo flipped the card over and began reading the text printed on the back. "On a dazzling day in April," she narrated, "the greatest flyers in Equestria made their way to Haytona Beach for the first pegasus derby of the year! With ten laps to go, rising star Greased Lightning grabbed the lead from Cherry Bomb and cruised on home to claim his second straight Haytona victory, dispelling the old adage that lightning never strikes in the same place twice." Scootaloo clutched the card to her chest as she finished, momentarily overcome with emotion. "I hope I get to race at Haytona someday."

"So that must be Greased Lightnin', then," Apple Bloom reasoned. "I doubt they give out that kind of hardware for second place."

"Talk about hardware," Sweetie Belle commented, marveling at the gems on the trophy. "If my sister were here, she'd probably start drooling."

Twilight could only laugh as the three crusaders examined the pegasus card. "Don't forget the letter, girls," she reminded them.

"Right, the letter!" Apple Bloom unfolded the paper and laid it on the ground as her fellow fillies gathered around:



Dear Twily,

Pegasus racing, huh? Gosh, that takes me back... Between my duties for the royal guard and our ongoing real estate saga—do you have any idea how hard it is to find a decent house for sale in Canterlot?—I haven't had much time to follow the derbies lately.

Anyway, on to your question: Greased Lightning's accident occurred roughly 12-13 years ago, during the Fillydelphia Preakness Stakes. The story goes that about halfway through the race, Lightning was driven off the course and into the forest by another pony named Turbo Jet. Turbo always maintained that he had lost control going around a corner while Lightning was trying pass him on the outside, but some ponies claim to this day the move was intentional and that Turbo had been paid off by gamblers who were betting against Lightning.

The accident basically broke everything Greased Lightning had to break. He suffered cuts, bruises, sprains, fractures, contusions, dislocations, a nasty concussion... Plus the wing, of course. He was laid up for a long time, and I remember bawling my eyes out they day they reported the amputation. He put on a brave face and claimed it wouldn't be the end of the world, and that he would one day race again... But in the end, his mouth was bigger than his heart.

I kind of lost track of him after that. He would pop up on the news from time to time, but it was always for the wrong reasons—public drunkenness, arrests for disturbing the peace, etc., etc. The previous captain of the guard told a story about how they got called to lock up Lightning for inciting a barroom brawl, and it took eight ponies to subdue him.

That's all I've got, but hopefully it's enough to get your filly friend started. Tell everypony I said hello, and that if all goes well, we should be able to break away and come visit you all soon. (Tell Rarity to keep the shop closed while we're there, though—I don't think my salary could support another one of Cadance's dress-buying binges!)

Sincerely,
Shining Armor



The sad story put lumps in the throats of the fillies who were reading it... Well, two of them, at least. "Whoa..." Scootaloo whispered, as she finished reading the letter. "So the 'accident' might not have been an accident at all, and might be part of some widespread race-fixing scandal? That's crazy!"

"It's also just a rumor," Sweetie Belle pointed out.

"Rumor schmumor!" Scootaloo shot back. "I'll bet it's all part of an international gambling ring, complete with gangsters and payoffs and smoke-filled rooms and unmarked bits and violin cases! This is gonna be the best story ever!"

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle exchanged eye rolls. "Either way," Apple Bloom declared, "as investigative reporters, it's our job to find out the truth, no matter what it might be."

"So what's our next move?" Scootaloo asked. "Should we get martial-arts training so we can take on all the bad guys that try to stop us from finding out the real story?"

"Er... Maybe later," Apple Bloom said. "Right now, we've got two things to figure out: What happened durin' the accident, and where Lightnin' ran off to afterwards."

"I think we should talk to this Turbo guy," Sweetie Belle suggested. "Maybe he knows something about where Greased Lightning went."

"Yeah!" Scootaloo agreed. "Let's see how good his alibi is!"

"Sounds good," Apple Bloom said, "but we don't know any more about where this Turbo feller is than we do about where Lightnin' is."

"Maybe Rainbow Dash knows!" Scootaloo posited. "She must have raced against this guy at some point—maybe they talked to each other while they were out on the racing circuit."

"That makes sense," Sweetie Belle concurred. "What do you think, Apple Bloom?"

Apple Bloom pondered the idea for a moment. "You girls go on ahead," she finally responded. "I think I'm gonna stay here and take another look at the newspapers in the library." (She was motivated partially by the hope of finding more information about Greased Lightning, and partially by the hope of avoiding Twilight's wrath by straightening out the mess she had made previously.) "Would that be okay, Twilight?"

"Of course!" Twilight answered. "You're welcome to look down there as much as you like."

"Then it's settled!" Sweetie Belle said. "Come on, Scootaloo, let's go find Rainbow Dash!" Sweetie Belle hopped back into the crusaders' wagon, and the two fillies were quickly off and rolling in search of Scootaloo's idol.

"Thanks for everythin', Twilight!" Apple Bloom called out, as she pushed past the unicorn and rushed into the library. "Now stand aside—I got some investigatin' to do!"

Twilight smiled and shook her head as she watched Apple Bloom make a beeline for the basement. "Those three are starting to remind me of... Well, me, back when I was their age," she observed. "That story must have really struck a nerve with them."



Rainbow Dash wasn't home when Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo arrived, but around Ponyville, if you keep your eyes on the sky long enough, you'll eventually catch a glimpse of the town's resident speed demon. After a good twenty minutes of doing just that, Sweetie Belle spotted Rainbow's telltale rainbow mane and tail as the blue pegasus was heading east en route to some suspicious-looking gray clouds that needed clearing. "There she is!" Sweetie Belle shouted. "Step on it, Scoot!"

The filly duo tailed Rainbow Dash all the way to her destination, trying unsuccessfully to catch her attention the entire way. Rainbow, however, was too locked in on her weather chores to hear the crusaders' cries. Spotting her prey up ahead, Rainbow kicked herself into another gear and charted a course straight for the offending clouds. "And boom goes the dynamite!" she shouted, smashing through the middle cloud of the cluster with such force that the shockwave caused the surrounding clouds to dissipate as well. "Another day officially de-clouded, thanks to my incredible awesomeness!"

"Rainbow! Rainbow Dash!" With Rainbow's work done, the shouts of the fillies from the ground finally reached her ears, and the pegasus looked down to see Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle approaching as fast as Scootaloo's wings could carry them. 

"Hey there, squirts!" Rainbow greeted the fillies, swooping down to meet them on the ground. "What are you two up to today? Do you want me to take you up so you can take another shot at getting your skydiving cutie marks?"

The two fillies winced at the memory. "Er... No thanks," Sweetie Belle declined. "Actually, we had a question for you: Did you ever meet a pony named 'Turbo Jet' while you were racing?"

"Turbo Jet?" The sudden reference to a pony from her past caught Rainbow Dash off guard. "Yeah, I know Turbo. Why do you ask?"

"We've got some questions to ask him!" Scootaloo chimed in. "Do you know where he lives?"

"Geez... I dunno, maybe," Rainbow Dash offered, combing the dusty corners of her mind to see if she could remember anything. "I think he was out of Baltimare originally, but who knows if he's there now." She shook her head sadly. "Sorry, girls," she apologized, "I don't think I can help you there."

"Awwww..." The two fillies sighed in unison.

"Well, thanks anyway, Rainbow Dash," Scootaloo sighed, turned her scooter around, and began the long journey back to the library. "Rats!" she said. "I thought for sure Rainbow would know!"

"We'll just have to keep looking, I guess," Sweetie Belle said with a sigh.

Rainbow Dash stood and watched the fillies as they departed, feeling bad that she hadn't been able to help, when suddenly an idea popped into her head. "Now hold on just an apple-picking minute!" she shouted, flying over and landing just in front of the two fillies. "Just because I don't know where Turbo Jet is doesn't mean I don't know somepony who does know where he is!"

"Really?" Scootaloo's eyes widened with excitement. "You think you can find out where he is?"

"I've still got a few connections in the derby-racing business," Rainbow Dash said. "I bet I can find somepony who knows where that dim bulb Turbo wound up."

"Would you?" Sweetie Belle squealed. "Oh, thank you, Rainbow Dash!"

"Yeah, you're the best!" Scootaloo added. "I knew you'd come through for us, I just knew it!"

"I'll do it on one condition," Rainbow said. "Answer me this: Why in the world would you want to talk to a washed-up nopony like Turbo Jet? I mean, the guy wasn't any good when I raced against him, and he wasn't any good before then either! What could a colt like him ever have to say that was worth listening to?"

"We're investigating a story for the Foal Free Press about Greased Lightning!" Sweetie Belle replied, not noticing the subtle flinch Rainbow made at the sound of Lightning's name.

"We wanna know the truth about the crash at the Preakness!" Scootaloo revealed. "Was it really an accident, or was it a setup ordered by a super-scary crime boss running a gambling ring?"

Rainbow Dash scrunched up her face, apparently unsatisfied with the explanation. "Okay then," she continued, "question two: Why in the world would you want to write a story about a no-good coward like Greased Lightning?"

"Coward?" Sweetie Belle gave Rainbow Dash a puzzled look. "What do you mean, coward?"

"I don't get it," Scootaloo admitted. "I thought he was supposed to be some super-fast superstar."

"Pfft... Yeah, right," Rainbow muttered. "All I know is, whenever we were supposed to race and find out which one of us was really the best flyer ever... He was always a no show."

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo exchanged confused glances. "Um, didn't Lightning lose a wing in his accident?" Sweetie Belle pointed out. "How could he race you without that?"

"He had plenty of chances to race me before then," Rainbow huffed. "Besides, I told that bum the day he walked out of the hospital that I would race him anytime, anywhere—in the air, on the ground, underwater, whatever. He never had the guts to face me. We even scheduled a meeting during the Canterlot marathon, but the loser didn't show up." She spit onto the ground and rubbed it into the dirt with her hoof. "I don't know whatever happened to him, and frankly, I don't care."

"Really..." Sweetie Belle looked over at the pencil and paper sitting next to her in the wagon. "You wouldn't happen to have time for an interview, would you?"

"Sorry, sport," Rainbow declined. "I gotta go rest up, if I'm going to hunt up some of my old racing contacts."

"Well, can we at least quote you for the story?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Go right ahead," Rainbow agreed. "If the guy is still alive, I don't mind letting him know exactly how I feel." With that, the blue pegasus leaped into the air and headed home to rest. "I'll let you know what I find out about Turbo!" she yelled back to the fillies as she flew away.

"Thanks, Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo called out after her hero. She watched until Rainbow had disappeared out of sight, then turned back to Sweetie Belle. "This is gonna be a totally awesome story!" she proclaimed. "I mean, this Lightning guy must have been bad news if Rainbow didn't like him! I'll bet he was the one who was in with the gamblers, and they had the guy whacked because he cheated them and they wanted to send a message!"

Sweetie Belle facehooved. "You've been reading too many of those crazy crime novels from the library," she grumbled. "Speaking of which, we should probably go back and see if Apple Bloom has dug anything up."

"Right on!" Scootaloo concurred, kicking her wings into gear and speeding off towards the library with Sweetie Belle and the wagon in tow.