Spike was walking through Ponyville with a few sparkles on his lips. He had just gotten back from Sugarcube Corner where Pinkie Pie had made him a nice new jewel encrusted cupcake, which he gobbled up in less than a second.
He had just licked the sparkles off his lips when he noticed Rainbow Dash walking by with a saddlebag on which contained a few rolled up posters that were sticking out.
“Hey Rainbow,” Spike said as he walked up to the rainbow mane Pegasus. “What you got there? A few more Wonderbolt posters to hang up on your wall?”
“Actually, I’m going to the dump,” said Rainbow Dash. “It’s where these things actually belong.”
Spike noticed Rainbow Dash had a bit of an angry look on her face when she said that. He wondered what she meant by that, so he took out one of the posters from the bag and unrolled it. On the poster was a picture of a grey stallion wearing an aviator jacket and a white scarf around his neck. Spike recognized him as Wind Rider. He remembered Rainbow Dash talking about how Wind Rider was one of the greatest Wonderbolts of all time and how he held the flight speed record at the Mustang Marathon.
“Why are you throwing these out?” he asked. “I thought you liked Wind Rider.”
“I use to,” said Rainbow Dash. “But that was until I realized what an egotistical jerk he was. “
Rainbow Dash then explained to Spike about how she was at Canterlot as a reserve for the Wonderbolts at their latest air show. She got the chance to fly with them when Spitfire left after receiving a note saying that her mother was sick. But everyone knew something was up when Spitfire’s mother appeared at the show and had no idea where her daughter was. The Wonderbolts then accused Rainbow Dash for sending Spitfire away so she could take her place and gave her 24 hours to prove she was innocent or else she would be kicked off the Wonderbolts reserves for good.
Rarity decided to help Rainbow Dash with the investigation, but even with her help, Rainbow Dash started to believe she really was the culprit due to the clues they found, including a chunk of her hair that was found in Spitfire’s room. Also, they interviewed the owner of a bakery who made a cake the culprit had bought to distract the guards, and she said that whoever bought it had a gruff voice, just like Rainbow Dash. But thanks to Rarity, they were able to find out that Wind Rider was behind the whole thing after seeing the chocolate stain he got on his scarf from the cake.
“Wow, I can’t believe Wind Rider would do something like that,” said Spike when Rainbow Dash finished her story. “Why did he go through all that trouble just to frame you?”
“Because he was afraid I was going to break his flight speed record,” said Rainbow Dash. “He figured that with me out of the way, his record would be preserved.”
“And it would have worked too, if not for your friend,” said a gruff voice.
Rainbow Dash looked up to see Wind Rider walking towards her with an angry glare on his face.
“What are you doing here?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“I want to talk to you,” said Wind Rider. “Thanks to you, I’m the biggest pariah is Canterlot. Everywhere I go, ponies are booing me and saying how terrible I am and it’s all your fault. “
“How is it my fault?” demanded Rainbow Dash.
“You were the reason I got kicked off the Wonderbolts, that’s how,” said Wind Rider.
“You have no one to blame but yourself,” said Spike.
Wind Rider was shocked when he heard Spike say that. Spike then walked up to him and glared at him right in the eye.
“This all wouldn’t have happened if you weren’t so selfish and petty,” said Spike. “Rainbow told me how you tried to frame her and get her kicked off the Wonderbolts all because you didn’t want your precious record broken.”
“Hey! That record is very important to me,” snapped Wind Rider.
“It that all you care about,” Spike snapped back. “Don’t you care that you almost destroyed Rainbow’s future? Becoming a Wonderbolt has been her lifelong dream and you almost shattered it.”
Wind Rider tried to retort, but Spike held up his claw to shush him so he could continue talking.
“Not only that, Rainbow Dash looked up to you. She would tell me that she thought you were the greatest. How do you think she feels now that one of her idols tried to destroy her?”
“I never asked to be her idol,” Wind Rider blurted out.
Rainbow Dash let out a small gasp at what he just said. Spike just continued to glare at Wind Rider.
“Yeah, well you’re not her idol anymore. Not after what you did,” he said. “And now you have the nerve to come here and blame Rainbow for something that was entirely your fault. You are nothing but a selfish, egotistical jerk.”
“I don’t have to take this,” said Wind Rider.
“If you don’t want to hear anymore, then just leave,” Spike snapped back.
Wind Rider just snarled at Spike for a few seconds before spreading out his wings and flying off.
“Wow Spike. That was awesome,” said Rainbow Dash as she walked up to her little dragon pal. “I didn’t know you had it in you.”
“Aw, it was nothing,” Spike blushed before he and Rainbow Dash shared a hoof bump (or a hoof/claw bump in this case). “Besides, I knew what it’s like for someone you look up to let you down.”
“You do?” asked Rainbow Dash.
Spike simply nodded his head yes before he explained.
“You know that I’m a huge fan of the Power Ponies right? Well, one time Twilight took me to a huge comic convention in Canterlot, where the one who drew the Power Ponies comics was going to be signing autographs. I was so excited to meet him, but when I did, he was a real jerk. He saw that I was a dragon and treated me like I was a menace. He thought I was going to burn down the whole convention with my fire breath and actually ordered me to leave.”
“What? That creep,” said Rainbow Dash. “I’m surprise you still read those comics after what he did.”
“Well, I was thinking about burning all of my comics,” said Spike. “But at the convention I met someone else there. The pony that actually created the comics. That jerk may have drawn Power Ponies, but this one came up with the idea. He came to the convention as a surprise to all the fans and he turned out to be a really nice guy. He was actually happy to see me because he never met a real live dragon before and he gave me an amazing autograph. I still have it framed and hanging on my bedroom wall back at the castle. I learned something that day. There will be ponies out there that you look up to who may be let you down, but there are others you can still see as heroes.”
Rainbow Dash thought of what Spike just said and realized he was right. Even though Wind Rider turned out to be a jerk, she still idolized the Wonderbolts and was still looking forward to the day where she would join them.
“Thanks Spike,” she said. “I really needed to hear that.”
Rainbow Dash then picked up Spike and placed him on her back.
“How would you like to go for a little ride?” she asked.
“That would be awesome,” said Spike.
Rainbow Dash then spread out her wings and took off into the air.