Grounded: The Ballad of Greased Lightning

by Green Akers

The Road To Baltimare

Upon returning to the library, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo scurried down to the basement, where they found Apple Bloom sifting through a sea of newsprint that came up to her stomach, still digging for more clues as to where Greased Lightning had gone after his accident. "Any luck?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Not really," Apple Bloom admitted. "I've been reorganizin' these darn stacks more than anythin' else." She fought her way through the papers to a table on the far side of the room, where she had set aside a paper she had stumbled upon while haphazardly digging through the stacks. "I did find this, though," she offered, bringing the paper over to her friends. "It's from the day after the race. The accident made the front page, with a huge picture and everythin'."

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle gazed down at the image, which depicted Greased Lightning lying on a stretcher, partially covered by a white sheet, as four paramedic ponies loaded him into an ambulance wagon. While it was the same pony the fillies had seen on the pegasus card, he no longer looked as strong and confident as before, and the smirk he wore earlier had been replaced by a look of sheer agony that sent chills down the crusaders' spines.

Scootaloo turned away quickly, unable to stand the sight of the image. "Gosh," she whispered, "that must have been awful."

"Yeah," Apple Bloom agreed. "Just lookin' at that thing made me sore." She made her way over to another stack of papers that she had yet to examine. "So how did things go with Rainbow Dash?" she asked. "Did she know where we could find Turbo Jet?"

"No," Sweetie Belle explained, "but she thought she might know somepony who did, and said she would get back to us."

"Awww..." Apple Bloom groaned. "That could take forever!"

"No way!" Scootaloo said. "Rainbow's the fastest pony who ever lived—she'll come through for us!" She looked down at the sea of paper that Apple Bloom was standing in. "Besides," she added, "it'll take us two forevers to go through all this."

Disheartened by the thought, Apple Bloom swung her hoof in frustration, knocking over another stack of papers in the process, then buried her head in her hooves. "What are we gonna do?" she wailed. "We've only got a few days before the paper goes to press!"

"We can't give up now," Sweetie Belle insisted. "The key to this mystery could be somewhere in this room, and if it is, we're going to find it!"

"But how?" Apple Bloom wondered, sweeping her hoof across the room in a grand gesture. The papers had no semblance of order to start with, and despite Apple Bloom's efforts (or perhaps because of them) they had even less now. "It'll be like lookin' for a needle in a haystack!"

Sweetie Belle took a deep breath. "If this is what it takes to earn our cutie marks," she declared, "then we've got no choice." With that, the unicorn dove headfirst into the newspapers. "Come on, Scootaloo!" she urged. "We've got a zillion papers to go through, and we can't let a perfect night like this go to waste! We'll be Cutie Mark Crusader... Um... Er... Copy... Uh... Comber-Throughers!"

"Yay!" The three ponies cheered in unison, as they began digging through their treasure trove of information.

---

Nothing could stop the Cutie Mark Crusaders when they thought their cutie marks were within reach, and the trio ended up spending the entire night carefully combing through the papers in the library basement. Twilight, for her part, incorrectly assumed that the crusaders had given up long ago, and went to bed completely oblivious to the work being done a few floors below.

The next morning, Twilight woke up to the sound of somepony frantically banging on her door. "Who in the world could that be at this hour?" she mumbled as she dragged herself out of bed. "Go see who that is, will you, Spike?" she asked her assistant, who was sleeping in a basket at the foot of her bed

"Zzzzz... Sorry... Spike's not... Zzzzz... In right now... Zzzzz..." Spike half-whispered, half-snored in reply. "Please leave... Zzzzz... A message... Zzzzz.... After the tone..."

"Ugh," Twilight grumbled, stumbling downstairs to open the library's front door.

Standing on Twilight's doorstep was a slightly-disheveled-and-edgy Applejack. "Howdy, Twilight," she greeted the unicorn. "I'm awful sorry to be botherin' you like this, but Apple Bloom wasn't in her bed this mornin', and Rarity just came by my place lookin' for Sweetie Belle and sayin' she didn't come back to her shop last night. I was wonderin' if you knew where those fillies went after they left your place yesterday."

"Gosh... No, I'm not sure where they went," Twilight admitted. "In fact, I was so wrapped up in my latest experiment that I never even saw them go."

Suddenly, a loud crashing sound from inside the library caused both ponies to leap three feet into the air in shock. "Land sakes!" Applejack shouted. "What was that?"

"It sounded like it came from... The basement?" Twilight realized that she may have made the same faulty assumption two days in a row. "Come with me," she said. "There's a good chance those fillies never actually left at all."

Twilight and Applejack headed for the library basement, eventually finding Apple Bloom poring over a pile of papers in a sleep-deprived stupor. "Apple Bloom!" Twilight cried out. "Did you even go home last night? How long have you been down here?"

"Not... Long... Enough..." Apple Bloom whispered, as her legs began to weaken.

"Heavens to Betsy!" Applejack exclaimed, rushing over and catching Apple Bloom before she collapsed. "All right, young'un," she decreed, throwing the filly over her back, "it's off to bed with you. You can work on your story later."

"No!" Apple Bloom insisted, trying to put up a struggle but finding herself too weak to fight. "I gotta keep looking... I gotta find out what happened..."

"Applejack's right," Twilight concurred. "Studies show that ponies need at least eight hours of sleep each night to perform at their peak. Getting the proper amount of rest will make you a better and more productive researcher."

"But I... I don't... Don't have... Time..." Apple Bloom protested, her voice weakening as her strength started to fail.

"Now listen here," Applejack instructed. "You're in no shape to do much of anythin' right now. I promise you, little sis: Take a good rest and eat a good meal, and when you come back, you'll be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and you'll find what you're lookin' for in no time at all."

Apple Bloom sighed, her will to fight sapped by fatigue. "All right," she agreed.

"Great!" Twilight said. "Now, for my next question: What happened to Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo? Did they already leave?"

"Well... I'm not really sure," Apple Bloom admitted, "but I think Sweetie Belle's over there." She pointed to a pile of papers in a corner of the room, which appeared to be moving slightly.

Twilight walked over and pressed her ear against the pile. "Do I hear... Snoring?" She brushed a few of the papers off the top of the pile, revealing a white unicorn horn and a tuft a purple hair. "Phew!" Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. "That's two fillies accounted for. Now we just need to—"

"I see her!" Applejack interrupted, answering Twilight's question by pointing to Scootaloo's fuchsia-colored tail sticking out from underneath a desk. "Well then, I'd better run along and tell Rarity we found everypony."

Twilight looked over at Apple Bloom, whose strength had given out completely and had drifted off to sleep. "Er... Maybe I should do that," Twilight suggested, pointing at the limp filly on Applejack's back. "You've probably got other things to do."

Applejack chuckled at the sight of her sleeping sister. "I suppose I do," she agreed.

"Hey! Anypony here?" Rainbow Dash's voice suddenly called down from the top of the basement stairs.

The sound of the rainbow-maned pony's voice quickly snapped her number one fan back to her senses. "Yes!" Scootaloo shouted back, bounding out from underneath the desk, zooming past Applejack and Twilight, and racing up the stairs. "I'm here! I'm here!"

"Hey, Scoot," Rainbow greeted the filly, as Scootaloo burst through the basement doorway and skidded to a stop at the blue pegasus's hooves. "You're just the pony I was looking for."

"Really?" Scootaloo's eyes widened. "Did you find out where Turbo Jet is?"

"Yep!" Rainbow Dash reached into her saddlebag and pulled out a piece of paper with an address written on it. "Turns out the stupid foal went back to Baltimare after all. He's living five blocks from his parents!" She laughed at the thought. "I always knew he was a momma's boy."

"This is great!" Scootaloo proclaimed. "Now we can grill this guy and get him to confess to his crimes!" She stood up on her hind legs and hugged Rainbow. "Thanks, Rainbow! You're the best ever!"

"Yeah, I know, but—wait, crimes?" Rainbow scratched her head with her hoof as Scootaloo hurried back over to the basement stairs. "Okay, now I'm really confused," she admitted.

Scootaloo raced back down into the basement, nearly bowling over Applejack and Twilight as the duo were climbing the stairs. "Whoa Nellie!" Applejack yelped, nearly losing her balance as the orange pegasus shot past her. "Be careful!"

Rainbow Dash shook her head as Applejack and Twilight reached the first floor. "I don't get it," she conceded. "What's so interesting about a bunch of noponies like Turbo and Greased Lightning? I mean, I'm twice as awesome as those two put together."

"Oh, you know them," Applejack replied. "If those three think they can get a cutie mark out of it, they jump in with all four hooves, no matter what they're doin'."

"Where's Apple Bloom?" The sound of Scootaloo's voice caused Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash to turn towards the basement door, where Scootaloo and a revived Sweetie Belle stood looking around frantically. "Did she come up here?" Scootaloo asked.

"We've got to find her quick," Sweetie Belle added, "so we can start packing!"

"Packing?" Rainbow Dash arched an eyebrow. "You're not actually thinking of—"

"Baltimare, here we come!" Sweetie Belle finished Rainbow's thought while exchanging a high-hoof with Scootaloo.

"Now hold on just a minute!" Applejack insisted. "First of all, Apple Bloom ain't in no shape for travelin' right now, and second, y'all are just too young to just go galavantin' over to Baltimare by yourselves."

Now it was Sweetie Belle's turn to arch an eyebrow. "Um... Didn't you travel to Manehattan by yourself when you were even younger than us?" She reminded Applejack.

"Well, I... I mean... I... Uh... That was... Er..." Applejack stammered, stymied by Sweetie Belle's argument.

"Seriously, you two, do you have any idea how far we are from Baltimare? It's a good four hours away, and that's if you're going by flight!" Rainbow said, flicking out both her wings for the fillies to see.

"It's true," Twilight revealed. "Taking the train would route you through Canterlot and San Anponio, which is about as roundabout a route as you can get. It'd take you all day to get there."

"No matter!" Scootaloo proclaimed. "Neither rain, nor wind, nor snow, nor long distances will stop the Cutie Mark Crusaders! We laugh in the face of all-day train rides!"

Scootaloo's line brought a spark of inspiration to her fellow crusader. "I've got it!" Sweetie Belle announced. "We could mail ourselves to Baltimare! My sister has a bunch of boxes at her shop that we could use, and I'm sure it wouldn't take that many stamps."

"Girls, just... No," Rainbow Dash argued. "It's way too far, especially if you're going alone."

Suddenly, a light went on in Twilight's mind. "Why don't you take them, Rainbow?" she proposed.

"Me?" Rainbow Dash sputtered.

"Yeah!" Scootaloo shouted, quickly jumping on the bandwagon. "If Rainbow took us, we'd be there and back in no time flat!"

"B-B-But I can't go!" Rainbow Dash objected. "I've got, like, a hundred zillion other things to do today!"

"Most of which involve relaxing, resting, napping, sleeping, and catchin' some shut-eye, I reckon," Applejack predicted, rolling her eyes.

"Come on, Rainbow," Twilight encouraged her friend. "If you took them, you could make the whole trip in just one day, and I'm sure we could find somepony to cover your weather chores."

Rainbow Dash scowled, and motioned for Twilight to follow her outside, where they would be out of earshot of the fillies. "What are you doing?" she demanded as the pair reached the library's welcome mat. "Do you actually want those girls to go traipsing across Equestria after this guy?"

"Absolutely!" Twilight said. "A true scholar goes wherever he or she has to go to find the truth, and besides, it would be a great experience for them."

Rainbow Dash slapped her hoof against her face. "I do not want to waste my day going on a wild goose chase just to ask a loser nopony like Turbo Jet about a royal jerk like Greased Lightning," she stated flatly.

"Fine," Twilight agreed, "but you're the one who'll have to explain that to Scootaloo."

"Okay, then." Rainbow followed Twilight back into the library. "Listen, girls," she began, "I know you've got your hearts set on this trip and all, but it's just not gonna work out. I've got a busy schedule today, and I just can't leave Ponyville hanging."

"Awww..." Scootaloo pouted for a moment, then broke out her best puppy-dog face. "Pleeeeeeease?" she pleaded.

Sweetie Belle's reaction, however, was more measured. "Meh," she said, "it's just as well. Rainbow Dash couldn't have got us there and back in one day anyway."

"Excuse me?" Rainbow Dash gave Sweetie Belle an annoyed look. "What do you mean, I couldn't do it?"

"Yeah, really!" Scootaloo exclaimed, similarly aghast at Sweetie Belle's statement. "She could do it! She could probably do it twice in one day!"

Sweetie Belle draped one of her front legs across Scootaloo's shoulders. "Come on, Scoot," she explained, "you heard what Rainbow Dash said. Baltimare's just too far away. No pegasus could make that trip in one day. Even Rainbow Dash would need five hours to—"

"Hey, I said four!" Rainbow Dash corrected Sweetie Belle, her hackles raised by the filly's poor assessment of her skills. "And I could do it in three if I really wanted to!" She boasted.

"But you'd be carrying two fillies," Sweetie Belle pointed, winking at Scootaloo as she spoke. "Plus, with all those pencils and papers, we'd just slow you down."

Scootaloo started to smile, but quickly suppressed it and put on her best sad face. "Aw, shucks," she groaned, scuffing at the floor with her hoof. "You're right, Sweetie Belle—nopony could ever make a trip like that."

"Oh yeah?" Rainbow snapped. "Well, let me introduce you to nopony then!" She struck a confident pose. "I could carry both of you to Baltimare and back without breaking a sweat!"

Sweetie Belle smirked. "Prove it," she challenged the pegasus.

Rainbow Dash glared at Sweetie Belle, her temper boiling over at the audacity of the unicorn filly. "Meet me outside in ten minutes," she dictated, "and we'll just see how long it takes me to drag you two to Baltimare!"

"Yay!" Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle shouted, exchanging another high-hoof. "Thanks, Rainbow Dash!" the pair shouted as they rushed out the front door to pack for the trip.

"Geez Louise!" Rainbow muttered, staring out the front door as the fillies disappeared. "Can you believe those two? Thinking I wasn't good enough to take them to—hey, what's with you two?" she suddenly demanded, as Applejack and Twilight tried in vain to suppress their own smiles.

"As the kids might say," Applejack laughed, "I reckon you just got played... And I'd best get along home before they try the same trick on me to get Apple Bloom to go. Be seein' you, Twilight."

"Played?" Rainbow Dash scratched her head as Applejack carried her still-dozing sister out the door. "What is she talking about? I don't get played! I'm the player, not the playee!"

Twilight could only shake her head and grin.

---

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo only needed five of their allotted minutes to collect their gear (spending the rest on an ultimately-futile attempt to convince Applejack to let Apple Bloom go, just as the orange pony predicted), and were waiting excitedly as Rainbow Dash re-appeared to take the fillies to their destination. As bad as it made them feel to leave their fellow crusader behind, the pair knew that they had to take advantage of their good fortune before Rainbow Dash changed her mind.

For her part, Rainbow Dash had needed to rush over and borrow a wooden cart from her friend Fluttershy, having no way to carry the two fillies by herself. Although the cart was a bit heavy and not built for speed, when Rainbow Dash's pride was inflamed, a cumbersome cart and two petite ponies were not going to slow her down. "Hang on tight," she instructed, as Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle piled into the cart, "and prepare to be amazed!"

Rainbow Dash leaped into the air with a powerful burst, flinging her two passengers against the back of the cart as she dashed into the sky. The trio quickly cleared the library, raced to the edge of town, and began their long journey across the countryside. Peering over the side of the cart, Sweetie Belle couldn't help but marvel at the rustic scene below them. "Talk about a view!" she said.

"View, nothing!" Scootaloo replied, standing up on her hind legs to let the wind blow her mane. "Do you have any idea how fast we're going? This is so awesome!"

Sweetie Belle nodded in agreement. "At this rate," she posited, "we'll be in Baltimare in no time!"

A victorious smile spread across Rainbow Dash's face. "I hope you're enjoying all that crow you're eating!" she called back.

The conversation eventually lapsed into silence, as the fillies soaked up the scenery while Rainbow Dash worked to maintain her speed. After a while, however, Sweetie Belle realized that with Rainbow Dash as a captive audience, the crusaders had a chance to score their first interview. "Hey, Rainbow," Sweetie asked, reaching for her notepad, "can I ask you a question?"

"Better make it fast!" Rainbow advised Sweetie Belle. "We'll be in Baltimare before you can blink!"

Sweetie Belle took a deep breath. "Why does it bother you so much that Greased Lightning never raced against you?"

Rainbow Dash scrunched up her face at the question. "It doesn't bother me," she insisted. "It just kinda-sorta annoys me, that's all."

"But you're the best ever!" Scootaloo interjected. "Who cares if you didn't race a jerk like Lightning?"

Rainbow Dash groaned. "Try everypony in the freaking universe," she grumbled. Looking out at the landscape that stretched out before her, the rainbow-maned pegasus sighed. "I am the best ever," she reiterated, "but that crab apple Greased Lightning never let me prove it."

As the crusaders looked on, Rainbow Dash began telling the story of her relationship with Greased Lightning. "Ever since I was born, it's been 'Greased Lightning this,' or 'Greased Lightning that,'" she lamented. "Even when I was a little filly like you, ponies would always say, 'Oh, you fly like Greased Lightning,' or 'Keep it up, and you'll be as fast as Greased Lightning someday.'"

"That doesn't sound too bad," Sweetie Belle commented. "They were just being nice."

"Maybe," Rainbow continued, "but it all changed once I really started racing. I was kicking flanks and taking names faster than anypony had ever seen, but all I ever heard was 'Who do you think you are, Greased Lightning?' 'You think you're all that, but you'll never be as fast as Lightning.' 'Get real, Crash, Greased Lightning is, like, a billion times faster than you.' It just made me so... So mad... I just wanted to punch somepony in the face."

"Well, they didn't know what they were talking about!" Scootaloo said.

"I know, but it still burned me up," Rainbow Dash admitted. "I tried to ignore them at first, and just focus on realizing my dream. I trained even harder, flew even faster, and made everypony else look even worse. I even started breaking some of Lightning's old speed records! But the better I did, the more people talked." Rainbow Dash shook her head at the memory. "Nopony believed that I could ever be as good as their so-called 'hero,'" she muttered.

"So what did you do then?" Sweetie Belle asked, as Scootaloo was too captivated by the story to do anything but listen.

"I knew that the only way to shut those ponies' mouths once and for all was to beat Greased Lightning at his own game," Rainbow Dash revealed. "I tried to get into the official pegasus racing circuit, but the ponies who ran it never let me into a real race. They told me I was 'too young,' and that 'a Junior Speedster would just get beat up by the big boys.' After about the fifteenth time I got that answer, I started trying to contact Greased Lightning directly. I probably wrote a thousand letters to the guy, telling him that I was the fastest pony alive and that I would race him anywhere and anytime he wanted to prove it. All that ever got me was a bunch of 'Thanks for writing!' form letters and a couple of autographed pictures."

"Did you ever get to meet Lightning in person?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Once," the blue pegasus answered. "I was at the end of my wit by then, and still about a year away from the racing circuit's minimum age limit. When the Cloudsdale Derby came to town that year, I decided to confront him and issue my challenge face-to-face, so that he couldn't ignore me anymore. I bought a ticket to watch the racers practice the day before the race, then waited until Greased Lightning came out to train, determined to give him a piece of my mind."

"What happened next?" Sweetie Belle pressed.

"Nothing," Rainbow grumbled, "because the bum never came out to practice! After four hours of waiting, I was so frustrated that I jumped out of the bleachers and stormed the race's staging area, shouting for Lightning to show his ugly face."

"Whoa! You went into the racer's quarters?" Scootaloo exclaimed, amazed at her hero's brazen act. "Weren't you afraid of getting caught by security?"

"Please." Rainbow Dash dismissed the fear with a wave of her hoof. "They're all out-of-shape old fogies that even Turbo Jet could outrun. Anyway, I searched that place high and low, and finally found that bum Lightning taking a nap in one of the training rooms."

"What did you say to him?" Scootaloo asked. "Did you give him a piece of your mind?"

"Oh yeah," Rainbow Dash confirmed, "I really let him have it! I called him a coward for ignoring my challenges, and told him that I would fly circles around him if he ever stepped up to the line against me. I threw in a few more unflattering words before security grabbed me, but before they dragged me off, I made sure to tell him I'd be back."

"Did he say anything back?" Sweetie Belle wondered.

"Not until the end," Rainbow responded. "He kinda looked at me funny, and then he asked how old I was. When I told him, he just turned away and stared off into space like a dork. Before security hauled me away, though, I heard him say one last thing under his breath: 'She'll be here next year.'"

"What happened after that?" Scootaloo inquired.

"Aw, I got tossed in the cooler for the rest of the day," Rainbow explained. "They rung me up for trespassing, harassment, failing to obey a police officer, resisting arrest, yada yada yada... Man, my parents were livid when they found out what happened," she added with a chuckle.

"And that was the last time you saw Greased Lightning?" Sweetie Belle presumed.

"Before he lost his wing, at least," Rainbow clarified. "After I realized that he was right and that I'd be old enough to race in the next Cloudsdale Derby, I spent the next year training my tail off for my chance to beat him, only to lose it anyway after he got busted up in Fillydelphia." Rainbow sighed as she navigated her way through a rocky mountain pass. "I went to see him the day he was released from the hospital, and told him that he wasn't off the hook just because of a lost wing, and that my offer to race anywhere and anytime still stood. He gave me some blather about racing me across the sky someday, but that Canterlot marathon thing we scheduled was the closest I ever got to taking him on."

"Would it really have been the same if you'd beat him after the accident?" Sweetie Belle posed.

"Good point," Scootaloo seconded her fellow filly's sentiment. "Nothing could ever replace flying!"

"It doesn't matter!" Rainbow Dash snapped. "Do you know that to this day, ponies still debate which one of us was the better flyer? That's the thing that still burns me up."

"Why is there a debate?" Scootaloo asked. "Greased Lightning couldn't touch you in a race!"

"I know!" Rainbow shouted angrily. "There shouldn't be any debate! The answer is me! I am the greatest flyer ever! But because that jerk Lightning wasn't stallion enough to actually race me, I'm stuck hearing ponies argue that he was the better flyer until the day I die!" A single tear of passion escaped the blue pegasus and ran down her cheek. "Greased Lighting never gave me the chance to show that I measured up," she concluded, "and I will never, ever forgive him for it."

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle looked on in silence as Rainbow turned her focus back to her flight. "Did Rainbow just... Cry?" Scootaloo whispered to Sweetie Belle. "I've never heard of her crying before. I didn't think it was possible!"

"Maybe we should leave her alone for a while," Sweetie Belle suggested, looking down at her now-half-full notepad. "This should be enough quotes for our story anyway."

With that, the two fillies went back to staring at the greenery below, waiting as Baltimare drew ever closer and hoping that Apple Bloom wouldn't be mad at them for leaving her behind when they got back.

Comments

[-Brutus]

Ah now that is kinda...good reason why Raindow doesn't favor Greased Lighting.