> Not Wonderbolts Material After All
>  by Autismo555
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter I
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was only a couple of hours after the disastrous performance with the Wonderbolts.

Globs of pink cotton candy littered the grounds of the Ponyville track as a couple of maintenance stallions worked to clean the entire area from its stick residue.

Nearby, the flap of a magenta medical tent was opened by a plump nurse mare, and out from the opening came the beaten, battered, and utterly humiliated form of Rainbow Dash. Her cyan body was patched with some smaller bandages, and her rainbow-colored mane was kept up by one long bandage running around her head for a few laps. To the nurse mare, she was a Wonderbolt who suffered from minor injuries from a botched performance. To Rainbow Dash, she was the living proof of complete and utter failure.

She knew she messed up her performance. She knew she let her friends down. She knew she let down her team down in front of everypony in Ponyville. She knew her dreams of becoming a Wonderbolt would end soon. She knew she would once again become the laughingstock of Ponyville, Cloudsdale, and beyond. It was all thanks to that disastrous first impression, and the horrible nickname she was labeled from her fillyhood resurfacing to reopen old wounds.

When she stepped out of the tent and into the spotlight of Celestia's setting sun, she found herself facing the last ponies she wanted to see: the Wonderbolts. Each member of the Wonderbolts wore faces with mixed reactions of disapproval and disappointment. The one who wore that face the best was Spitfire, the leader of her team, and one of the ponies to rub the salt in her reopened wound.

"You gonna tell us what just happened, newbie?" Spitfire asked with her firm, authoritative voice.

Rainbow Dash sighed. "I'm sorry."

"I should hope so," Spitfire snapped. "You changed the routine without consulting me and put other ponies at risk. I've drummed flyers out of the 'Bolts for less."

"I know, and I'm ready for whatever punishment you want," Rainbow Dash submitted herself. "You guys were right to call me 'Rainbow Crash'. I've always been a standout flyer, but since I joined the Wonderbolts, I've only stood out for making mistakes."

Rainbow Dash sighed as she hung her head in shame. "It's been my dream my whole life, but... I guess maybe I'm not Wonderbolt material after all."

Suddenly, Rainbow Dash's teammate Soarin's came up to her and nudged her on her wing, surprising the crestfallen pegasus. "Are you serious?! You're the most talented flyer we've ever had!" Soarin' exclaimed as he and the other Wonderbolt members grew a smile.

"And you've saved all of Equestria like, a dozen times!" Fleetfoot added as she sided with Soarin'.

Rainbow Dash was completely perplexed and speechless. "Uh, I..."

"Of course you're supposed to be a Wonderbolt," Spitfire assured as she pressed her wingtip on Rainbow Dash's chest. "We've been waiting for a spot to open up ever since you joined the Reserves!"

"But... you guys all called me Rainbow Crash," the disheartened Rainbow Dash said.

Soarin' came up to Rainbow Dash's side again. "Yeah, so? My nickname's 'Clipper'. You know why they call me that?"

"Uh... 'cause you're as fast as a ship?" Rainbow Dash guessed.

"Because I clipped my wing on a flagpole as I was landing on my first day," Soarin' told her with a single chuckle.

Something inside of Rainbow Dash began to click. "Huh?"

It was Fleetfoot's turn to take the stage. "'Flatfoot'. My first day, I misjudged my landing and came down right on Spitfire's hoof," she said, waving her wing down for effect, making Misty Fly next to her giggle.

"'Dizzy'," the latter said.

"'Slowpoke'," Surprise spoke up.

"'Hoof-in-Mouth'," said High Winds.

Rainbow Dash felt something inside her stir as each of the Wonderbolts listed off their own nicknames. She didn't know what it was, but she knew exactly what she was feeling from it. Anger. Perplexity. Exasperation. These feelings were slowly mixing into a concoction that was similar to a chemical bomb, a feeling in the form of pressure in her chest.

How come they didn't tell her before about these things and chose now of all times to do so?

That's what bothered Rainbow Dash the most.

With a satisfied look on her face as she heard her teammates' nicknames, Spitfire turned to Rainbow Dash. "You don't wanna know what they call me," the leader of the Wonderbolts said, whispering it softly into the rainbow pegasus's ear. The mere mention of Spitfire's unheard nickname did nothing to quell the pressure rising in Rainbow Dash's chest. Instead, she backed up and placed a hoof out to stop everypony from getting a word in before she did.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, time out. So, we each get nicknames based on mistakes we made on the first day?" she asked for clarification.

"Yep," Spitfire answered.

"And everypony here calls each other those nicknames all the time?"

"Uh-huh," Fleetfoot nodded.

"And this is normal in the Wonderbolts?"

"You bet," Soarin' said.

The cyan pegasus felt her body become as still as a stone statue in the Canterlot Gardens. Her eyes went wide and her expression fell into a state of catatonia, utterly devoid of any life or emotion. The bottom lid of her left eye twitched a couple of times as she stared out into a distance, soaking up the facts she should've been learned about a long time ago. 





Walking across the pink-splattered grass were a group of five mares, three fillies, and a baby dragon. Their faces were a spread of concern and worry for Rainbow Dash, having witnessing her second humiliating performance with her ending on the ground, covered in Pinkie Pie's oversized serving of cotton candy and reprimanded by Spitfire for it. Out of the nine ponies and dragon to be highly concerned for Rainbow Dash's wellbeing, there was the buttercream pegasus named Fluttershy, the orange earth mare named Applejack, and the little pegasus filly named Scootaloo, the closest ponies that Rainbow Dash had ever grown close to.

"Twilight? Do you think Rainbow Dash is going to be alright?" the pegasus filly Scootaloo asked the alicorn leading the group.

"Given her physical condition, I think she's going to recover in no time at all," Twilight, the Princess of Friendship answered the young pegasus. "The one thing I'm more worried about is how this ordeal has affected her mentally."

"After beatin' herself somethin' bad by that last performance, I'd be just as worried about how much it's eatin' her right now," Applejack said.

"Me too," Fluttershy concurred with the apple farmer. "Rainbow Dash could never stand being called 'Rainbow Crash', especially since the Wonderbolts started calling her that for the past couple days."

"Knowing Rainbow Dash and her... uh... cavalier actions, her pride as a Wonderbolt has been damaged to pieces, the poor dear," Rarity assumed based on her observations of her pegasus friend's daredevil stunts. "I'd be as devastated as her if my finesse as a fashion designer was suddenly shattered in two days."

"Well, at least she's not hurt too much. My cotton candy helped soften her crash landing," Pinkie Pie piped up, earning the deadpan looks from her faces. "What? She could've been super, super, SUPER hurt if she hadn't covered with a coating of my cotton candy."

"Well, whatever Rainbow Dash is feeling right now, it's probably a good idea to check to see how she's doing," Twilight told her friends. "Seeing her friends being there for her might be the best thing she needs."

"I wouldn't count on that, Twilight. Look," Spike called, pointing his finger in the distance at a bandaged rainbow-maned cyan pegasus, surrounded by a team of a several dissatisfied pegasus ponies in tight suits and goggles with only their manes, tails, and mouths sticking out from the holes. 

Twilight squinted her eyes to get a better look at what she was seeing. From her distance, she saw a smile on the faces of each member of the Wonderbolts as they said something simple that bemused the bandaged pegasus. Applejack trotted up next to Twilight, took a good look at what the Princess of Friendship was looking at and gasped. "Hoo boy. It looks like Dash is already in the middle of gettin' chewed out."

"I don't think so, Applejack. They seem to be encouraging for... wait, hold on a minute," Twilight said as she saw the Wonderbolt leader, Spitfire whispered something in Rainbow Dash's ear which in turn surprised her. For a moment, the only thing that Rainbow Dash did was stand like a stone statue in Celestia's Garden, eyes widened and devoid of emotions with her left eye twitching, her mouth slightly opened in a small frown.

Scootaloo came out in front of Twilight as she held a hoof over her eyes to what was going on. When she saw her favorite idol and older sister figure stand at a catatonic state, her concerns had increased into a level of worry as she gently nudged her tutor. "Twilight, what's happening? What are they telling Rainbow Dash?"

"I don't know, Scootaloo, but it doesn't look good," Twilight answered.

All of a sudden, from afar, Twilight saw the expression on Rainbow Dash's face twist, one from emotionless and shocked to a teeth-grinding rage. The alicorn had only a brief time to sharply inhale air as a cyan blur suddenly shot into the air, hollering the loudest profanity heard from twenty yards away.

"ARE YOU BUCKING KIDDING ME!?"

The Elements of Harmony and their younger siblings all gasped to the sound of Equestria's biggest swear word, big and loud enough to make Rarity fall over backwards and faint. Spike quickly covered his ear flaps, Fluttershy quickly gathered up both Scootaloo and Rarity's little sister Sweetie Belle, and Applejack quickly held her little sister Apple Bloom, both holding the fillies' heads tight into their chests to muffle out any more colorful words coming from the colorful-haired pegasus's mouth.

"Uh...? Did Rainbow Dash just say what I think she just said?" Spike asked, turning to Twilight.

"Yes, she did," the alicorn answered her young dragon assistant.

"Just what in tarnation was that about!?" Applejack demanded to know.

"I don't know, but it doesn't look too good," Twilight said with a little shake of her head. "Girls, you stay here. I need to check this out for myself."

Twilight reluctantly cantered over to the crowd as she saw Rainbow Dash hovering above the ground, her hoarse voice cracking from anger and exasperation from the distance. The alicorn watched her mad tomboyish friend throw her face close into the faces of some of the members in her team as her voice became clearer as she approached the scene.





The Wonderbolts stepped back to the sudden scream and profanity of their team's most talented flyer. While speaking those loud five words, Rainbow Dash flew up in the air and looked down at her teammates with the most irate expression she never conjured up since the beginning of Tank's hibernation. Every suit-clad pegasus looked up at her with gaping mouths and wide eyes, shocked from their fellow teammate's outburst.

"I can't believe you guys! I can't believe that after all this time, letting me stew in my own bucking Tartarus, you all held out on me!" Rainbow Dash screamed with all of her fury.

The steadfast leader of the Wonderbolts looked up to the furious newnewest member. "What's the deal, 'Crash?' What's gotten your feathers in a twist all of a sudden?"

"That, Spitfire! That name is what's been twisting my feathers for the past two days!" Rainbow Dash screamed loudly. "Ever since I had that accident during my first show, you guys have kept calling me 'Crash' left and right! 'Oh, you're breaking formation, 'Crash'!' 'Check your nine, 'Crash'!' 'Worst flyer of the day has to clean up the entire compound, 'Crash'!' 'Crash!' 'Crash!' 'Crash!' 'Crash!' Bucking 'Rainbow Crash!'"

Soarin' reluctantly spoke up with a scared voice. "Calm down, Rainbow, what's the big deal? It's just a nickname, isn't it?"

Rainbow Dash shot herself in front of the stallion's face, their noses pressed together tightly while her angry eyes pierced into his. "No, it is not just a nickname, Soarin'! That name is the worst thing that happened to me when I was a filly, and it's been haunting me while I was stuck in that Celestia-damned flight camp at that age! I thought... I really thought... that I was finally rid of that name and every horrible memory that followed with it until by some divine joke and an accident crash landing, my life has once again become a living Tartarus by you guys!"

The enraged pegasus flew back to the middle of the gathering and hovered while she berated her teammates. "You kept calling 'Crash' while I tried hard to fly along with you guys! But every time you called me by that name, I kept messing up with my flying! And because of that, you guys called me the worst flyer this week, laughed about it while I had to clean your disgusting toilets until it got dark out and just when I had barely an inch of dignity left, you guys pinned that nickname on my bucking jacket!" 

"Now hold on a moment!" Spitfire said, forcing Rainbow Dash away from Soarin' by spreading her wings out to their full span. "You can't get so worked up over some dumb old nickname you had when you were only a filly!"

"Yeah, that's right! The 'Bolts always accept our nicknames like they were our own!" one Wonderbolt stallion spoke up, followed with a series of agreeing murmurs and nodding heads.

Spitfire was one of those ponies who nodded her head. "Like it or not, Dash, each member of the Wonderbolts are given a nickname based on our appearance, actions, or mistakes on the first day. Those names are our own personal lessons on how we overcome them as an individual and that's how we become that strong of a team," the fire-maned pony explained, shooting her hoof out to Rainbow Dash, "and frankly, Rainbow, you haven't learned from those mistakes and you haven't learned how to overcome them!"

Rainbow Dash looked around as she saw the crowd of Wonderbolts nodded and concurred amongst themselves, angering her even further. She flew up to Spitfire's face, her furious expression clashing with Spitfire's disapproving half-lidded frown. "So you say I haven't leaned anything, huh? You're saying I haven't learned how to overcome the name 'Rainbow Crash' and become a tougher mare than I was before, huh? This coming from the mare who wanted to replace Soarin' with me after that little incident at Rainbow Falls!?"

Spitfire said nothing, but her eyebrows narrowed as Rainbow Dash pulled away and hovered in the center of the gathering. "Okay, fine, I understand completely. Why don't I tell you all a little fairy tale about a little pegasus pony and how she was stuck with the name, 'Rainbow Crash'?" she calmly said on the outside, masking the rage she felt on the inside. "Once upon a freakin' time, in the magical land of Equestria, there was a little filly named Rainbow Dash who wanted to become part of the greatest flying team in the world. She had the vintage posters from the previous Wonderbolts generations, she knew the names of every great flyer from the first generation to today, and she dreamed that she would become the greatest Wonderbolt to hit the skies."

Twilight approached the scene, but kept her distance as the rage and venom was bubbling up in Rainbow Dash's voice. "One day, her daddy decided to send her to flight camp to improve on her ability to fly. When she wanted to show how she was going to be the greatest flyer in Equestria, she gets into an accident and ends up in the trash! That's when one of three mentally underdeveloped colts gave her the name 'Rainbow Crash' and everypony was laughing with them, including that useless, no-good, do-nothing nag they called the flight instructor who never raised a hoof or a voice to stop them and help me in my time of need!"

"Rainbow!" Twilight called, drawing the attention of the Wonderbolts and the mad cyan pegasus.

"Not now, Twilight, I'm almost finished with my story!" Rainbow Dash growled at the alicorn. "Now, we jump ahead to not too long ago, the filly has grown up to be a full-grown pegasus pony who worked brain and body to finally get herself into the Wonderbolts, but she had to make a good first impression at her first performance. That's when just one teeny tiny little accident in her first performance caused her to crash and she was officially relabeled as 'Rainbow Crash'! She tried to fit in with her fellow Wonderbolts, but they kept calling her 'Crash'! She tried so hard to focus on her performance practices, but the mere mention of the name 'Crash' distracted her, and caused her to fall into a bucking trashcan, where she was called the worst flyer of the day by her ungrateful, insensitive teammates!"

"Rainbow Dash, that's enough!" Twilight called out as she quickly flew up and hovered towards Rainbow Dash to stop her.

"I'm not finished, Twilight!" Rainbow Dash barked, causing Twilight to jump back a couple of steps. "Then as an insult, her teammates sewed a badge on her jacket that depicted the name 'Crash' and every time she looked at it, she could even feel that badge calling her 'Crash'! No matter how much she tried to fit in, no matter how much she tried to overcome that bucking nickname, she was still remembered as the pegasus who could never fit in with her team!

"And that's when an idea popped into her head! It was a risky idea that would've finally wiped her hooves from the name 'Crash' for good during her second Wonderbolts performance, but that completely backfired and she ended up landing in an oversized serving of cotton candy! And now, as she was walking away from the medical tent with what's left of her dignity, and just when she was finally ready to throw in the towel on her lifelong dream, her teammates came up to her and they had the nerve... the absolute nerve... to tell her that she was the most talented flyer you guys have ever seen, and you tell on the worst possible times that calling each other nicknames was completely normal in that stupid team!"

"RAINBOW DASH!"

"Now hold on!" Soarin' interjected before the princess could do anything. "We meant every word when we said you were the most talented flyer! You've saved our skins in more ways than one!"

"Oh really, Soarin'!?" Rainbow Dash snapped, thrusting herself into his face. "Then tell me, 'Clipper', have you gotten over the fact that Spitfire and her little partner 'Flatfoot'," she sharply moved her hoof towards the two aforementioned mares, "tried to replace you with me at Rainbow Falls at the instant you got your wing clipped by accident!?"

Soarin' looked to the wing he clipped at Rainbow Falls and tried to stammer out a mumble when Rainbow Dash shot herself to one member of the 'Bolts. "Or what about you guys, during that time in Canterlot when you all threatened to kick me out of the Reserves for a crime that I didn't commit because you thought I'd get a spot on the Reserves by letting Spitfire go missing and nopony but my friend believed that I didn't do it!"

"But a bit of your mane was in Spitfire's room! We couldn't have known it wasn't you at the time!" High Winds argued.

Rainbow Dash flew up to her face. "That doesn't matter because none of you guys trusted the one pony who saved the lives of other ponies more times than any of you guys combined!" she screamed, motioning harshly in Spitfire, Soarin, and Fleefoot's direction. "And those ponies happen to be three of those lives that I've saved! If I hadn't come along, the Wonderbolts would've taken a huge nosedive without a leader within a month's time, and this is how you repay me! Way to go! Way to make me almost lose faith in the heroes I looked up to!"

Having enough of this, Spitfire spread her wings and thrusted herself at Rainbow Dash. "Now wait just a minute, Dash! You were as much fault for this like you say we were!"

Rainbow Dash pushed her snout against Spitfire's, pushing her back. "Really!? How was this my fault as well!?"

Spitfire pushed back against the rainbow pegasus's snout, pushing her back further. "You were so caught up in trying to change your nickname that you had to showboat yourself to the entire team and make a complete fool of yourself each time! Not to mention that you put a little filly in danger so she could help you hog our show!"

It was Rainbow Dash's turn to push back even further. "I'm a complete fool!? That's funny coming from the same mare who was knocked out by a flailing hoof in midair!"

Spitfire pushed back harder. "You see!? You're making a complete fool of yourself now! You know, this could've all been prevented if you just told me about your nickname in the first place!"

Rainbow Dash pushed back even harder. "Yeah, well, there are things in my life that I've tried desperately to move past from, and look at where we are right now!"

"Yes, I see perfectly where we are! We're stuck in a conflict between a headstrong leader and a newbie who has too much pride for herself!"

"Hey! My pride was all I had left until you guys started calling me 'Crash'!"

"You know, I'm thinking that recruiting you for the Wonderbolts was a big mistake, 'Crash'!"

"The feelings mutual, 'Spitfu--'!"

"ENOUGH!"

With her outburst, Twilight unfurled her wings out, drawing the two arguing pegasus mares apart from each other. With a few heavy breaths, Twilight turned to both Spitfire and Rainbow Dash with a discouraged face formed on her muzzle. "Both of you, stop this fighting right now! You two are fighting over something important that both of you should have told each other, but for whatever reason you didn't! Things have gotten way out of hoof today, and there's nopony to blame but yourselves for this!"

Twilight turned to the fiery-maned leader of the Wonderbolts. "Spitfire, while your team has a tradition of using nicknames for your teammates, there are some nicknames that can seriously upset a pony. Next time, you and your team need to let any new recruits about this ahead of time so you could avoid another incident like this."

When she was finished scolding Spitfire for her mistake, Twilight turned to Rainbow Dash to repeat the same process. "And you, Rainbow Dash! I know you don't like to talk about your fillyhood or anything that you would find to be a sensitive topic, but you should've let Spitfire know how you were feeling, and she would've completely understood! It's not a weakness to tell anypony what's hurting you personally."

Rainbow Dash and Spitfire exchanged hard glances at each other and turned away while Twilight continued. "Furthermore, you two belong in a team made of the greatest flyers in Equestria, a group that's dedicated to teamwork and pride amongst the pegasus ponies! And this squabbling over nicknames or somepony's personal pride is already bringing the Wonderbolts down by its wings! Don't you realize how much damage you're doing to your team right now, much less yourselves!?"

The rainbow-haired pony scoffed at the question. "It's too late for that, Twilight, because from where I'm standing, the damage has already been done."

"Rainbow!" Twilight gasped.

"What are you saying, newbie?" Spitfire inquired with her hard glare.

"I'm saying that I've had enough of this, Spitfire! I'm done trying to get myself on this team! I'm done trying to prove myself to you! And I am most certainly done trying to fit in with you guys!" Rainbow Dash emphasized with the wave of her hooves outward. "You guys were my future! You guys were my life! You guys were my dream I worked so hard to make come true! You all gave me the reason to fly freely and try my best to get where I wanted to be, and I worked so hard to be a proud member of the Wonderbolts!

"But ever since you guys started calling me 'Crash'..." Rainbow paused for a moment as she let out a depressed sigh. "I feel like my entire life's work had been for nothing. I saved your lives many times before, I brought your attention to how being the best would never be at the expense of your fellow ponies, and I passed the entrance exam with flying colors. My blood, sweat, and tears went into making my dream come true, and all of came down to you guys to call me that name and laugh at my expense while I struggled to fit in with the team. 

"And now... now you guys try to make me feel better by telling me that's how it was done in the Wonderbolts? By sweet-talking me to believe I was one of the most talented flyers you had?" Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes, but stopped herself when she felt some moisture start to fill over the brim of her bottom eyelids. She turned away to wipe the tears away and sniffled while the other Wonderbolts watched in worry and guilt, but then she turned back to Spitfire with a hard look in her eye.

"Well forget it. Forget even trying to talk me back into coming into the Wonderbolts, Spits, because from this moment on, I quit." The gathering of winged ponies all gasped in a cacophony while Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes. "For good this time."

Rainbow Dash bent her knees and unfurled her wings, prepared to take off as a lavender hoof tapped her shoulder. "Rainbow Dash, please don't do this," Twilight begged. "The Wonderbolts have been your biggest dream since you were a filly. If you fly away from this, then your entire future will be all for nothing." 

Rainbow Dash gently brushed the hoof away. "Sorry, Twilight, but I've made up my mind. I don't belong here; not with a bunch of ponies I once called my greatest heroes. I just can't go through all of this again. I just can't."

Soarin' quickly stepped in, hoping to stop the resigning pegasus from flying away. "But you can't just leave us! Who are we supposed to recruit somepony who's as great and talented as you are!?"

"I don't care. Maybe you can find someone else who wants to become the best at anypony's expense, just like you guys," Rainbow Dash said, her words pounding into the heads of the Wonderbolts like a steel hammer. "How about you have Lightning Dust rejoin? She may be impulsive and reckless, but at least she's as good of a flyer like I am. Heck, she could be the best flyer the Wonderbolts had for a long time, far better than I could ever do trying to fly with you guys."

With a gentle thrust, the humbled Rainbow Dash flew straight up in the air and hovered in place, but not before giving her farewell to her former idols. "Now if you guys don't mind, I need to be alone so I can reconsider my life's choices. I'm wiping my life with looking up to guys clean, and that means I never want to see any of you guys ever again. So with that, I wish you guys a good life."

Rainbow Dash turned away, giving one more sideways glance to the appalled top-ranking members of the team. "The most talented flyers in all of Equestria," she huffed. "Guess my dad was right. Hero worship is unhealthy."

Twilight abruptly flew up to her and held a hoof out to stop her. "Rainbow Dash! Wait!"

It was too late. Rainbow Dash took off in a flash, leaving behind a rainbow contrail of her mane and tail behind as she disappeared as a dot into the distance. None of them could've ever guessed that while she flew, little drops of her tears dripped from her eyes and sprinkled onto the ground. Twilight retracted her hoof back, an open-mouthed hurt shown on her face as the Wonderbolts saw the departure of their most talented flyer vanish in the night.

With a deep sigh, Spitfire lowered her head down, reinforcing herself to hide the shame behind her toughness. "Looks like we lost another talented flyer, and this time, it's on us," the disgraced pegasus sighed to her teammates. "Rainbow Dash was the greatest flyer we've ever had for a long time, but I guess that we as a team should've taught her how everything worked in the 'Bolts first. I guess it goes to show how even the toughest pegasus pony can be brought down so easily because of one little thing, and we were the ones who helped her fall. It seems that we have more to learn about how we welcome our newer members than how we let them learn our ways.

"Come on, everypony. Let's move back to base," Spitfire said as she trotted ahead of her group. "There's no more reason to stick around here unless you're all willing to collect the dew in the morning."

Spitfire unfurled her wings, but she looked back to her team and saw them only standing in their spots, staring at her with a collection of worry, uncertainty, and shock. "Didn't you guys hear what I just said!? Let's move, now!" she barked. "That was an order, not a suggestion!"

All of the Wonderbolts were brought back to reality from the raise in their leader's tone. With thrusted wings, every Wonderbolt member present all took off in the air and flew for the direction of Cloudsdale. All but one Wonderbolt remained at the scene, standing by while her team flew for the barracks and looked back at the sky where her fellow Wonderbolt... her former fellow Wonderbolt, to be precise... had flown away with her pride shattered and her dreams broken. She even managed to catch Twilight's attention for a moment as the two looked at each other for a spell.

Heaving a sigh, Spitfire flew after her team at the barracks, Twilight watching her become a silhouette in the light of the starry night while her friends, the baby dragon, and the three fillies caught up with her. "So what happened, Twilight? Why did Rainbow Dash leave all of a sudden?" Applejack asked.

Twilight knew there was no way to break the news out to the group. She turned to the group reluctantly and said in three simple words, "Rainbow Dash quit."

Another cacophony of gasps came from the group. "She did what!?" Applejack replied.

"But... but she was just recruited into the Wonderbolts! What happened to her that made her fly away from the same team that she practically worshipped!?" Rarity asked.

"Well, it turns out that the nickname the Wonderbolts gave Rainbow Dash was their own intimate way of identifying each other," Twilight explained. "When she found out about this only now, she became furious with them and quit the team before she flew away. I've never seen her so angry like that."

"Wait," young Scootaloo trotted to the front of the group. "You mean that Rainbow Dash isn't going to be a Wonderbolt again? Like never ever again?"

Twilight wrapped a hoof around the little pegasus's shoulder. "Never ever again."

This was just enough to break Scootaloo's small heart. Scrunching her face, and forming tears in her eyes, Scootaloo buried her face in her hooves as Twilight brought the filly closer into her chest, allowing the young one to weep into her fur at a muffle while her tears soaked her lavender coat down to the skin. The others looked at each other concernedly as they tried to process what Twilight's summary of Rainbow Dash's resignation.





After her flight home took a few minutes what to her seemed like forever, Rainbow Dash had finally reached her cloudominium, a place she needed to be alone for a day or two, she didn't really care. She didn't want anypony, not even her friends to see her like this. When she went inside her dark home, she did not stop for a swig of apple cider or for a bite of apple pie like she did the first thing she did when she got home. The first thing she did was march up to her room and turned the lights on.

In her room, sitting on her cloud bed was her loyal pet tortoise, Tank, already in the midst of having a wonderful dream when the arrival of his owner woke him up. The tortoise yawned once and looked up to the forlorn face of his friend, the pegasus collapsing on her bed with her back turned away from him. Slowly, Tank stood up on his legs, walked over to Rainbow Dash and gave her a slow, rubbed his scaly head on the back of her nape. 

Rainbow Dash felt her pet nuzzle her on her nape. With it, she turned her head up and cast a glimpse of her shelled reptilian friend show his love and affection to her, right before he looked at her with a slow smile. Sighing, Rainbow Dash turned over in her bed, curled up on her bed and gently brought Tank in for a highly needed hug. Something on her wall caught her eye as she hugged her pet tortoise, and when she looked up, she saw the sight of her favorite Wonderbolts poster nailed to the cloudy wall.

Releasing her embrace from Tank, Rainbow Dash gently got up and trotted up to the poster, taking a prolonged gaze at the gigantic paper that held her room together. She stared at the images of three of the goggled, uniformed upper bodies of the Wonderbolts, above them, five rays of light with a dimly light form of a uniformed pegasus flying with the vectors. All that art and illustration placed precariously above the symbol of the Wonderbolts centered in between two lightning bolt. 

The symbol of the ponies she once called heroes, now the same ponies that shattered her pride as a Wonderbolt.

The same ponies who brought that awful nickname back from her past.

The same ponies who sweet talked her into joining their team despite the troubles they have caused.

The same ponies who made her feel worthless as a pegasus.

The same ponies who mocked her... called her "Crash"... made her the worst flyer of the team... laughed at her expense...

The same ponies who held out on her... held her back from becoming something greater...

The lousy, no-good, manipulative, condescending, good-for-nothing, worthless...

With that thought in mind, Rainbow Dash screamed as she tore that poster off the wall with a loud rip, splitting the poster in two and two repeatedly until they couldn't be ripped any further than sixteen pieces. Tank witnessed the meltdown in terror and shrank back into his shell all while Rainbow Dash moved to a group photo of her and the Wonderbolts moments after she had won Equestria's Best Young Flyer competition. With a grunt, she threw the picture down on the tiled floor near her door and smashed the frame until the wood and the glass were shattered. After she was done disposing her picture, she quickly moved to her closet, Tank taking a peek from his shell while he witnessed Rainbow Dash take out a box of Wonderbolt memorabilia from the top shelf and throw it down to the floor. The impact was so hard, that it spilled old Wonderbolt posters, Wonderbolt pennants, the tiara she won from the Best Young Flyer, the lead pony badge from her days at the Academy, and other Wonderbolts merchandise such as cups, caps, and history books.

Like an angry tiger against a defenseless bunny, Rainbow Dash snarled and dove right into the spilled items to ravage it piece by piece. Posters and pennants were ripped and broken. Caps, cups, and badges were destroyed under her hooves. Pages from the books were ripped out by the teeth and their spines broken beyond repair. Tank once again retreated in his shell to avoid the horrifying spectacle and listened to the sounds of angry roars, ripping paper, and little crunches from outside.

When the noise of personal property destruction settled, Tank heard the blue pegasus whimper and then cry, bawling from the top of her lungs. The tortoise looked out and was saddened to see his friend had fallen on her belly in the middle of the mess, forearms covering her eyes doing nothing to hold back the tears puddlingon the cloud floor.

While Tank got up to go to his owner, Rainbow Dash realized how far she had fallen in one day.

Her dream was gone.

Her planned future was wiped away.

Her self-esteem had been crushed into dust.

It was like back at flight camp, when she had broken down in private because she felt truly alone in this cruel, unforgiving world.

After minutes of wailing, Rainbow Dash felt Tank nuzzle her shoulder. At the moment she lifted forearm away from her tearing eyes and looked at her only friend she had tonight, Rainbow Dash snatched up Tank and brought him in for a tight hug, needing the support and love from her saddened pet as she cried the entire night away.
> Chapter II
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The knocking at the front door woke Rainbow Dash up from her short-lived slumber.

The noise jolted the exhausted pegasus from her four-hour slumber with a gasp, lying amongst a bed of shattered Wonderbolts merchandise with Tank fit snugly under her arm. It was seven o'clock in the morning, and Celestia's sun slowly moved a short distance above the horizon. The sunlight shone through Rainbow Dash's bedroom window and blessed her room with its light, but Rainbow Dash covered her eyes to shield them away from being blinded by the light. Her corneas burned from lack of sleep, her eyelids felt like a ton of lead weights each, her belly and sides ached from lying in the broken remnants of her lifelong dream, and her wings felt messy and out of place. 

Once her eyes didn't feel so sore, Rainbow Dash moved her hoof down her muzzle and moaned. Doing so had woken Tank from under her hoof, who blinked a couple of times before he emitted a yawn. Another knock sounded from the front door, prompting Rainbow Dash to groan as she slowly stood up to walk to the door. Her head swam with vertigo and her hooves slipped from underneath her, but she was still able to stand, if not still.

"I'm coming," she moaned in a hoarse voice as she walked outside of her room.

Rainbow Dash struggled to keep a firm step in her hooves while they slipped from underneath her step, but she quickly recovered and continued onwards. Tank witnessed his owner's sluggish movement when she tried to leave her own bedroom like she consumed too much cider the night before. When Rainbow Dash made her way into the hallway, Tank once again yawned and fell back to sleep.

Rainbow Dash's walk steadily improved as she made down the hallway. The door knocked once more, and the tired pegasus called out "I'm coming!" in a slightly impatient tone in response. When Rainbow Dash finally made it to the front door, she opened it up to reveal Twilight and her friends at the door, all of them bearing a worried expression on their faces.

"Oh... hey, guys," Rainbow Dash greeted hoarsely. "What's going on?"

"Rainbow Dash?" Twilight inquired. "What happened to you? You look like you haven't got a good night's sleep."

"Yeah, well, you get enough sleep yourself if you've been up all night crying your eyes out. That's basically how Tank and I spent the entire evening together." Rainbow Dash paused for a moment, giving her friends time to absorb what she said. "But enough about me. What are you all doing here, anyway?"

"We came to check up on you," Twilight explained. "We were worried about what happened to you last night, so we decided to pay you a visit to see if you were alright."

Rainbow Dash found herself subconsciously gasping lightly, but she instead looked away, crestfallen. "Oh, yeah... that..." she sighed. "Listen girls, I appreciate you guys being concerned for me and all, but I really don't wanna talk about it right now. I just need some time to be alone is all."

Before Rainbow Dash could even close the front door, Applejack's strong hoof suddenly shot out and held the door open. "Oh no you don't, Rainbow Dash. We've already let you have all night to have some time alone," Applejack said firmly. "Now I think this is the best time that we help you out with your problem."

"I told you guys, I don't wanna talk about it," Rainbow Dash insisted, trying to close the door against the strength of the country mare's with her weakened strength. "Now could you please leave so I can get back to sleep?"

Applejack pushed the door back with another ounce of added strength. "Nope. We're not leaving until we've talked this problem over."

Rainbow Dash tired to resist Applejack's strength against the door, but her fatigue had gradually weakened her ability to push back, and was defeated when Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy took advantage of the pitiful struggle by walking through the front door. When Applejack was the last pony to enter, Rainbow Dash grumbled and pushed the door to let it slam shut by itself.

"Fine. I guess that ponies wishing to be alone is as dead as my dream, isn't it?" Rainbow Dash grumbled, planting herself on her flank in the middle of the floor and crossing her front hooves.

Twilight was the first of the five ponies to step up to the miserable pegasus, having much experience with trying to reconcile two opposing ponies through diplomatic means. "Rainbow Dash, please listen to me. We're not here to antagonize you by discussing what happened with the Wonderbolts, we're here to help you. We're here because we want to be here for you."

Fluttershy was the next pony to step forward. "We're your friends, Rainbow Dash, and as your friend, I have to be there when my friend is in desperate need of a helping hoof."

Pinkie Pie stepped forward to support Fluttershy's statement. "Yeah! We're always here to help our friends, even if they turn out to be so cranky and miserable that they pretend they don't need any help from anypony else, but everything goes wrong for them and it turns out that they did need somepony to help them out more than ever!"

"I don't need a helping hoof," Rainbow Dash huffed, turning her head away. "I'm fine."

"No, you aren't, Rainbow Dash. In fact, you don't even look remotely fine to me," Twilight protested.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, have you looked in a mirror lately?" Twilight questioned. She lit up her horn, and a little hand mirror materialized in her aura. "Your eyes are bloodshot and dry, you have bags growing under your eyelids, your mane is messier than before, your feathers are out of shape, and..." Twilight spotted a few flecks tangled in her friend's chest fur. "Rainbow Dash, what is that in your fur?"

Rainbow Dash looked down at her chest and swiped the material away. "Those would be from the pile of smashed-up Wonderbolts merchandise that I slept on last night."

The five mares gasped, Pinkie Pie having the most expressive shock. "WHAT!? Rainbow Dash! Please tell me you didn't actually smash your Wonderbolts collection last night!? Not the Wonderbolts souvenir collection that you spent your life collecting since you were a little filly! Not your books! Not your posters! Not your everything that you smashed that was described in the last chapter!"

"Everything," Rainbow Dash confirmed. "Everything including the souvenirs that reminds me of the Wonderbolts, and that includes my Wonderbolts Reserves entrance exam and the Best Young Fliers tiara."

"What!?" Twilight Sparkled shrieked. "But Princess Celestia awarded you that tiara herself! We've spent every bit we had trying to help you study for the exam! How could you just smash it all up and throw it all away!?"

Rainbow Dash shot back with a very stern look. "Maybe you haven't remembered what I said last night, Twilight, but I'm done with the Wonderbolts! And when I say that I'm done, that means I'm done!" she barked. "I tried so hard to fit in with them, I tried so hard to be the mare who was capable of flying like the Wonderbolts! But every time they called me 'Crash', I kept losing my focus, my confidence, and my faith in my own team!"

"Oh, come now, Dashie. It couldn't have been that bad?" Applejack said with a slight smile, but reconsidered her facial expression after staring into the eyes of the enraged pegasus. "Right?"

"Not that bad, Applejack? Not thaaat bad!?" Rainbow Dash gave her country friend the biggest, freakiest angry face since her situation regarding Tank's hibernation. "Well, let me tell you how bad it was Applejack! I was called 'Crash' left and right by my own team! Every time I heard the name 'Crash' come up, I lost my focus with my flight practices and failed, I kept crashing into the trash cans, and I was called the worst flyer of the day, every day where I had to clean the entire compound by myself until late in the evening! 

"On top of all that, I kept losing confidence and faith in both myself and mostly in my team!" Rainbow Dash continued her rant, "If that wasn't enough, they even put a badge on my Wonderbolts jacket with a picture of my Cutie Mark crashing into a stop sign and breaking it in half! I tried to prove I wasn't the pony that they kept calling me through my last performance, but we all saw how that turned out, didn't we!?"

The five mares had mixed reactions, some cringing, others nodding vehemently. "After I got bandaged up in the medical tent, they met me outside and wanted to know why in Celestia's name I did what I did! I told them what I felt, and then I said I wasn't Wonderbolts material after all! Then, everypony told me it was normal to call the member of every Wonderbolt their nicknames based on the mistake they made on their first day! They even had the gall to tell me I was the best flyer they saw and tried to make me feel better by telling me their nicknames! After all the Tartarus they put me through, I just couldn't help myself! I felt so much anger building up inside of me, that I just exploded at my team!"

"And that was when we heard you screaming from a distance when we came up to check on you," Fluttershy said. "I must admit, I'm still a little bit shocked when we heard you use vulgar language."

"You'd use vulgar language too, if your team of so-called friends called a horrible name and found out too little too late," Rainbow Dash said. 

"But did that justify yelling at your own teammates and then calling them out on their own mistakes?" asked Twilight.

"Why wouldn't it be justified!?" Rainbow Dash asked, throwing her hooves up. "Before they started calling me 'Rainbow Crash', I've overlooked every mistake they made in the past! When they threatened to kick me out of the Wonderbolts because I was framed for a crime that I didn't commit, I still held on! When they asked me to replace Soarin' when he got injured at Rainbow Falls, I found out what true loyalty was for me then! When they thought that being the best was important in the Wonderbolts was what the team was all about, I gave them all a second opinion about how teamwork was important. I was happy to be a part of the team and despite what mistakes they made, I looked the other way and forgot all about it!

"But then the accident at my first show happened, and they started calling me that name..." Rainbow Dash continued, a growl in her voice. The very thought of her former team made her tense up in frustration, pushing her hooves into her kitchen floor until they trembled. "That was the biggest mistake they've ever made in their lives! They were supposed to be my teammates, my friends away from my friends! But now I realize that my teammates would never be my friends! Friends don't gang up on you, call you a bad name, and laugh at you while you're hurting!"

"But Rainbow Dash, you called me an 'Egghead' many times before, and I always thought it was hurtful because it was implied that I was smarter than you" Twilight said. "How is this any different from when you called me 'Egghead?'"

"Because I had the accident!" Rainbow Dash responded angrily. "When ponies have an accident, they don't need to be called names for screwing up all the time! Especially when that name happens to be the same name your fillyhood bullies called you when you started out at flight camp! Do you have any idea how much it hurt me to be called that same name by your own friends or teammates!?"

"Well... no, I guess," Twilight responded.

"Nuh-uh!" Pinkie Pie energetically shook her head a couple of times.

"Eeenope," Applejack answered.

"Me neither," Fluttershy softly spoke up.

"I can't say that I have," Rarity replied.

"Exactly! You didn't have friends who called you horrible names like that and not think about how much it hurt! But those birdbrains were too pigheaded to realize that, and that really made me feel low! It's that kind of low that just pins you down to the ground so hard that you can't fly, think straight, or even stand up on your own four hooves, you know!? I never asked to be called 'Rainbow Crash' by my own team, but it doesn't matter now! What's done is done, and there's no going back now! I'm cleaning my hooves and my entire life of the Wonderbolts!"

Suddenly, Rainbow Dash flew out of her front door, and within seconds came back with an empty trash can. "Now if you will all excuse me, I'm going upstairs to clean my room from any of that Wonderbolt junk out of my room and then I'm going back to sleep."

Before Rainbow Dash could fly to her room, she was pulled back by a magical yank on the handles of the trash can while Twilight (casting said magic) looked up to her with a firm look of her own. "No way, Rainbow Dash! That 'Wonderbolt junk' is your entire life and goals you've dedicated so work hard for, and now you're willing to throw it all away because of some bad nickname!?"

"It's not about that nickname, Twilight, it's how the Wonderbolts treated me when I was a part of their team!" Rainbow Dash explained, pulling back on the handles. "When they treated me like I was the worst flyer that they made me, I realized that there are some dreams that aren't worth reaching for! That's why I quit the Wonderbolts! Because it was all a big, fat, stinking, lie!"

Twilight pulled on the handles. "I understand how angry you are with the Wonderbolts, but smashing up your collection in a fit of rage!?"

Rainbow Dash pulled back. "They treated me like trash, so it's only right that I throw away everything that reminds me of them!"

Twilight yanked the handles back. "No! I'm not going to let you throw your dream away like that, Rainbow Dash! Nothing good ever comes from throwing away your dreams!"

Then Rainbow Dash yanked again. "So what!? My dream of joining the Wonderbolts was the biggest lie that I've blindly believed in since I was a filly! If the Wonderbolts are supposed to be the greatest flyers in Equestria, then I'm the next princess of Equestria! So I'm going upstairs and throwing away what's left of that lie and you can't stop me!"

"That's where you're wrong, Rainbow Dash! With the state you're in now, you're bound to so something completely stupid, and we're trying to keep you from going through with it!"

"Since when is taking out the trash completely stupid!?"

"Since it represents everything you stand for!"

"I only stand for my friends, and the Wonderbolts are not my friends!"

"Rainbow Dash, you're blowing this way out of proportion!"

"Do you think I don't know that!?!" Rainbow Dash shrieked, making the ponies jump. "Do you think that after all I've been through, I wouldn't flip out over this!? I've worked hard to get where I got, but when they started calling me 'Crash' in every waking moment of my already miserable life, I knew my dreams as a Wonderbolt was numbered! I tried so hard to fit in with them like I would with you guys, I tried so hard to ignore that name, but every time I tried it ended up with me becoming more and more miserable! 

"I never deserved to be called 'Crash' by my own team! I never deserved to be pushed around like that by my own heroes! But when they told me how the nicknames worked at the worst possible time, that was the straw that broke the camel's back! I had enough of them treating me like a slave they can push around, so I pushed back at them and quit the team on the spot!" 

Rainbow Dash turned to the lavender alicorn. "I know I'm blowing it out of proportion, Twilight! I know I should've found another way to convince the Wonderbolts to stop calling me 'Crash'! I know I shouldn't have damaged all of my Wonderbolts possessions! I know I shouldn't have quit the Wonderbolts! But what's done is done and there's nothing any of us can do to make me go back! So why don't you just get off of my back already and leave me the buck alone!?"

Rainbow Dash threw the garbage across the room and landed with a few ear-piercing metallic clanks. The pegasus suddenly found her sadness and stress taking its toll as she fell to the floor and collapsed into a big, sobbing pile. Her five friends all quickly surrounded her, Fluttershy drawing close and quickly bringing Rainbow Dash into a bear hug that she quickly accepted while she cried out into her yellow fur. 

"Shh, shh, shh, there, there... it's okay. It's okay," Fluttershy quickly shushed, patting a comforting hoof on her back. Her fur was soaked to her skin with her friend's deluge of tears while her voice was muffled into her shoulder but loud enough for every pony to hear.

"I was so happy to be a Wonderbolt!" she bellowed in Fluttershy's shoulder. "I w-w-worked so hard to get where I was! I put everything I had into joining the Wonderbolts Reserves... a-a-and when Spitfire told me that I was a full-fledged Wonderbolt, I was so ha-ha-ha-happy-hee-hee! Buh-Buh-But then they started calling me 'Rainbow Crash' and... and... and I was made the worst flyer on the team! I tried to fit in, but they kept calling me 'Cra-a-assshhh'... and... and when they confronted me after my last performance... I told them I wasn't Wonderbolts material after what I've been through... but then they told me I was the best flyer they've ever seen... and when.. and when they told me that... that calling me that nickname was how it was done in the Wonderbolts, I... I... I... I just couldn't take it anymore!"

Eventually, Rainbow Dash ran out of carbon dioxide to help her cry out anymore. Her breathing suddenly labored trying to retrieve its oxygen as Fluttershy cooed her crying friend, gently stroking her back and patting her shoulder. "Shh... it's okay, Rainbow Dash. We're here for you. We're all here for you."

Rainbow Dash's crying seemed to have calmed down, but her lamenting was far from finished. "I couldn't help it! I... I... I yelled at them in their faces, I called them out on what they did to me during those times at Rainbow Falls and Canterlot, and... and... and I yelled at them about how they treated me the past few days! I told I quit and that... that I never wanted to see them again! And I really... really... meant it! I can't go back to them... not after everything I said to them... and not after everything they put me through...!"

Fluttershy felt a pang of sympathy for her friend and squeezed her embrace tighter than before. "Oh, Rainbow Dash, I'm so sorry that you've been through so much. I know it must have been hard for you when you quit," the pegasus said, her voice cracking. "But don't worry, Dashie, we're going to get through this ordeal together. I promise."

Rainbow Dash stifled another sob and rubbed her eye free of her tears. "Yeah, but... how? How am I supposed to do that when I've already quit the Wonderbolts? I disowned my entire team, I smashed everything in my room related to them, left them all in a pile, and now I have nothing. Nothing but my house, my Daring Do stuff, and Tank. I can't go back to them, Twilight. I can't even find it in myself to forgive them for what they did. Even if I did, they won't let me back on the team. I deserted them, and deserters can't rejoin the same teammates they abandoned by choice."

Twilight trotted over and laid a hoof on Rainbow Dash's shoulder. "That's not true, Rainbow Dash. I know deep down that the Wonderbolts have realized that treating you this way was a huge mistake on their part, and they would want to have you back on their team. After all, they didn't recruit you to the Wonderbolts because they pulled your name out of a lottery machine, you know. They recognized your talent and they were thrilled to have you on board with them."

But Rainbow Dash could only look away as her mood dropped down to discontent. "That was nearly the same thing they tried to use to keep me on the team. I am never going back to a team where they pick on you all they want and try to suck up to you by calling the worst flyer, 'the most talented flyer they had ever seen.'"

"But what if they really meant it, Rainbow Dash?" Twilight asked. "What if they did want you back on the team because you were the most talented flyer."

The cyan pegasus huffed. "It doesn't matter. I'm never going back to them again, and that's that."

Rainbow Dash turned to move, but the exhaustion had finally taken its toll. Her hoof lost the meaning of support when she suddenly fell headfirst on her floor (only to be caught by Fluttershy's quick reflexes in her hooves) and felt her bones ache. "Rainbow Dash, are you okay!?" Fluttershy asked.

"I'm fine," Rainbow Dash tiredly insisted. "I just... I just need to get something to eat is all..."

"Eat? Why darling, I'm more concerned about how you neglected your beauty rest over neglecting your own meals," Rarity said, trotting over to help Rainbow Dash by wrapping one her cyan hooves over her back. "Now we're taking you upstairs and you're going back to your bed. We'll have some food waiting for you by the time you wake up."

"But, Rarity..."

"Tut tut, Rainbow Dash. You've been through too much to let you wear yourself out. Celestia knows you need to rest given how hard the past few days have been," Rarity insisted. "Now you're going to get some extra sleep, and you and I will have no fighting at this point."

Rainbow Dash growled, but Fluttershy stopped her from saying anything else. "Please, Rainbow Dash, listen to us. You need our help more than ever on this one not because you're in need, but because you're our friend, and we've always looked out for our friends, whether they wanted it or not. So please, Rainbow Dash, let us help you this one time. Please?" 

Rainbow Dash couldn't help but groan at this, but she couldn't fight back. She literally did not have the strength to push against her friends' helping hooves, and given how heavy her entire body felt, she had no choice but to accept this defeat. "Fine, let's just get this over with," she sighed dejectedly.

"Now don't you fret, darling," Rarity told her crestfallen comrade. "Soon, you'll wake up as fresh as a blossom and you'll have a healthy appetite to satiate."

The two mares escorted Rainbow Dash up the stairs to her room, their voices muffling for each step taken up to the second floor. While the three ponies were upstairs, the other three mares who remained behind gathered around. "This situation is worse than we thought," Twilight asked Applejack and Pinkie Pie. "Now that Rainbow Dash has given up on her dream, it's already beginning to affect her, physically and mentally." 

"I can't believe that Rainbow Dash would destroy her own Wonderbolts possessions just because she was angry at them," Applejack said. "I've seen her beg, plead, and take humiliatin' dares just to get a rare Wonderbolts badge, but now she's gone and smashed them all to pieces."

"What a bunch of meanie bo-beanies they were to Rainbow Dash!" Pinkie Pie said, stomping her hoof. "I should go up there, give them a piece of my mind, and bake them a cake they'll never forget!"

Applejack raised an eyebrow. "How exactly do you plan on gettin' revenge on the Wonderbolts by bakin' a cake for them?"

Pinkie Pie giggled. "Oh that's easy," she said, her suddenly gleaming with a manic spark. "By baking them a three-bean cake covered with salty frosting. Yucky!"

Twilight suddenly clamped her hoof on Pinkie Pie's shoulder, and that stopped her from switching to her alternate personality. "No, Pinkie. That will only make things worse between Rainbow Dash and the Wonderbolts. In order to put the differences between them aside, I need to go up to the Wonderbolts Academy and talk to Spitfire so I can get a better understanding of what went on in the past few days."

"You really think this is gonna convince the two to shake hooves and be friends again?" Applejack asked.

"I'm not sure, Applejack, but it's well worth a shot," Twilight answered. "After all, I was given the title as Princess of Friendship because I've shown how the magic of friendship can change the hearts of ponies, zebras, griffins, and yaks for the better. This time won't be different, but it'll be far from easy."

Applejack tilted her Stetson hat. "I agree with you there, partner. If there's anypony who can settle a disagreement between two ponies, it's you."

Twilight trotted to the door and spread her wings in preparation to fly. "I'm going to the Wonderbolts Academy now. Applejack, you and Pinkie Pie stay here and cook up something special for Rainbow Dash once she wakes up."

"You can count on me, Twilight."

"Pinkie Pie?" Twilight and Applejack looked over and saw the Pinkie Pie inside one of the overhead cupboards, pulling out nine cans of three different beans, and a box of salt in her mouth. She closed the door and looked at the two with wondering eyes. "Pinkie Pie, no! You're not baking that cake! You're going to work with Applejack to cook for Rainbow Dash!"

"Nngo efen a cukake?" 

"Not even a cupcake!"

Pinkie Pie spat out the salt box and then whined. Applejack trotted over to her distant cousin and hugged her close all while looking at her alicorn friend. "Don't worry, Twilight. I'll keep Pinkie Pie on the straight and narrow while you're gone. If she's gonna be cookin' up trouble, you'd better believe I'll smell it comin' from a mile away."

"Good." Twilight spread her wings again. "Now I'm leaving everything to you and the girls. I'll be back as soon as I can."

A quick thrust of the wings, and the Princess of Friendship was well on her way to the Wonderbolts Academy, leaving Pinkie Pie and Applejack to watch as their friend became a tiny lavender dot in the horizon. By the time that Twilight flew off into the distance, Rainbow Dash was already fast asleep with Tank cuddled next to her in her soft cloud bed.
> Chapter III
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spitfire had been sitting all morning in her office, looking over the paperwork that she had begrudgingly assigned herself to look over. She was wearing her sergeant attire, a customary costume that symbolized her rank and superiority over the Wonderbolts cadets that she had an obligation to train and discipline, complete with a pair of sunglasses over her eyes. On the outside, her face was one of a stoic expression, calm, cool and collected with no crack in her facial features. On the inside, however, her mind was all a-buzzing while she inwardly thought about the recent events that took place last night.

No matter how much she tried, she couldn't sway the scene of Rainbow Dash's harsh resignation from the Wonderbolts. She couldn't block out the intense anger on Rainbow Dash's face, nor could she try to turn her mind off to her angry voice verbally thrashing her and her team. She couldn't begin to feel how disgraced she was when she, too knew which party most of the blame went to. Spitfire thought that she could sleep it off that night and wake up earlier this morning just like any other ordinary day, but these recollections stuck with her like a growth on her chest. It would take some miracle just to pry it off.

A knock on her door was enough to bring her out of her thoughts; she needed the distraction. 

"Come in," Spitfire called, not looking up from her paperwork.

The door opened, and Soarin' gradually walked into her office with a manilla folder tucked into his left wing. He trotted up to her desk, reached to his wing pull the folder out of his wing, and placed it onto her desk. 

"Here's the incident report from last night that you requested, ma'am," Soarin' said. "I also have the bills for the cleaning crew's service for cleaning up the cotton candy mess, the cost for the medical care provided by Nurse Bigheart, and an angry note from the proprietor of the cotton candy stand complaining how one of her own wasted hundreds of bits of cotton candy with that last stunt."

Spitfire eyed the folder, then back to her paperwork. "Good work, Soarin'. I'll be sure to read over this report shortly. You are dismissed."

Spitfire continued to read over her paperwork down to the second-to-last paragraphs on the page and somehow, she felt like she was being watched. She looked back up to see Soarin' was still standing at her desk, not only disregarding her dismissal, but looking at her with an uncertain look. "Is there something wrong, Soarin'? You look like you just clipped your wing again and you're afraid to tell me."

That seemed to break Soarin' out of whatever trance he was in. 

"What!?" Soarin' unfurled his wings and quickly inspected them. "Oh no, my wings are fine, really. It's just that I'm here to talk about last night. You know, after..."

Spitfire heaved a stressful sigh, crossed her hooves over her paperwork, and looked up at Soarin' straight in his eyes. "Look, Soarin', I appreciate you trying to make me feel better by making me talk about what happened last night," she started by the assumption of the stallion's arrival, "but what happened has happened, and there's nothing we can do about it now. Rainbow Dash has resigned from the team and she's never coming back. We have to accept that." 

"No, it's something related to that, actually," Soarin' assured. "Lately, I've been hearing a lot of chit-chat about Rainbow Dash going around the academy. Her quitting has become the biggest gossip story since Wind Rider was dishonorably discharged."

This latest update brought Spitfire to her full attention. "Really? Please elaborate on what they're saying, Soarin'."

The stallion gulped. "Well, these are just rumors that are just floating around the academy, but they're spreading like wildfire. Last night in the lockers, I heard some ponies talk about what happened between us and Rainbow Dash, how it happened, and what should've been done differently. But earlier this morning, I heard some of the ponies in the mess hall question your leadership skills on account of the incident. Then when I was changing in the locker room changing into my Wonderbolts uniform, I heard some ponies say we might consider the possibility of having Lightning Dust back into our ranks because her speed closely rivals that of Rainbow Dash's. While I was doing my morning exercises before my flying practice, I overheard a few ponies say that the credibility of the Wonderbolts has been destroyed overnight; and just when I was on my way here, I heard a couple of ponies say that you should be replaced with someone more, uh... knowledgable about our traditions."

The last one gave Spitfire a bunch of ticklish shocks on the insight, though her demeanor didn't change. Sighing through her nostrils, she took off her sunglasses, placed them on her desk, and looked back at her wingpony with a firm look in her eyes. "Okay, Soarin', you'd better listen closely, because I want to say this once, and I want to make it clear to the rest of the team," she said, pointing her hoof as Soarin'.

"One, we are not going to have Lightning Dust back into our academy. She was too proud, too reckless, and too dangerous with her flying, even putting the lives of innocent ponies in grave risk. That rumor needs to be debunked as soon as it can, you understand?"

"Yes, ma'am," Soarin' acknowledged.

"Two, I can't speak for the current credibility of the Wonderbolts after Rainbow Dash quit," Spitfire continued. "I can tell you that while the resignation has come as a shock to the Wonderbolts, we can't let it falter us. We as a team have to remain strong and learn how to move on from these sorts of incidents.

"Three, I will never, ever, ever consider a replacement for my position unless I was ordered by General Clear Wing to step down and let somepony else with as much leadership skills as I take over. On that day, I am going to walk out of this place with my head held up high. Anyone who has a problem with that or had a problem with how I run the Wonderbolts can tell it to me in my face. Is that understood?"

"Loud and clear, ma'am," Soarin' acknowledged.

Spitfire placed herself back on her seat, looking back down on her paperwork. "Good. That'll be all for now. You're dismissed."

Once again, Soarin' broke off from his salute, turned and walked out of the office. Just as the stallion walked out of the office, Fleetfoot walked into the doorway, knocking on the inside of the frame, heard by Spitfire but not seen. "Come in."

Fleetfoot entered the office and saluted. "Ma'am, Princess Twilight Sparkle is here to see you."

This unprecedented information had caught Spitfire's undivided attention. Knowing of the reason for the surprise visit from the Princess of Friendship, Spitfire placed her paperwork and the folder into one the desk drawers, and placed her hooves together, supported by the elbows on the surface of the desktop.

"Okay. Send her in."

Fleetfoot glanced down the hallway, nodded once, and marched inside the office, standing aside to allow Twilight Sparkle inside. The first thing Spitfire noticed on the Princess of Friendship's face was how calm she was, but she knew well from first glance and personal experience that she was putting on that face to mask what she really felt inside. She could tell that this meeting would go so well ending with a sarcastic remark.

"Thank you, Fleetfoot. You're dismissed," Spitfire told her wingpony, the mare giving a firm salute before she walked out of the office. When Fleetfoot closed the door behind her to give the other two mares some privacy, the two mares looked at each other with a short but prolonged silence. "So, I assume you're here to talk about Rainbow Dash."

"You assume right," Twilight replied curtly. "Would you care to give me your side of the story about everything that happened before last night? When you started calling her 'Rainbow Crash'?"

Spitfire sighed. "It was just after Rainbow Dash messed up her first performance. We started training her to fly and perform just like the rest of us, but things just kept going downhill. Every time we called Rainbow Dash 'Crash', she kept getting distracted for a split second which caused her to underperform or, as you may as well guess, crash into the other flyers. That earned her the duty to clean up the entire compound at the end of the day because she was the worst flyer of the day. I thought at first that Rainbow Dash's mishaps was because of those first-day jitters, but something seemed a bit off with her the next day."

"A bit off?" Twilight's curiosity peaked. "What happened with Rainbow Dash that seemed a bit off to you?"

"It wasn't just me, it was the entire Wonderbolts team," Spitfire clarified. "First she started acting all goofy to everypony when we were waking up, up to the point where she put up balloons, flown around like crazy, and acted like some kind of hyperactive puppy; then she was talking in this weird, goofy country accent and acted like such; then she started to talk like some egghead, giving out checklists and telling us all about how wings work when we've already long known how they worked; then she starting acting like she was shy and timid; then she started talking like some fancy Canterlot pony, and she even made Soarin' very unconfortable when she was talking to him because he was under the impression that she was seducing him."

Twilight pondered the key points of the story to herself; why did those actions seem so familiar? "Crazy and hyperactive, country accent, talked like an egghead, acted so shy, and speaking like a pony from Canterlot?"

Then it hit Twilight so suddenly, like a brick thrown to the head. "Ohhh... I see now. She must've taken my advice the wrong way."

"What advice?" Spitfire inquired.

"After she came home from her first day with you guys and told us how rough her first day was, I told her to think of the Wonderbolts like her friends," Twilight explained, mildly sheepish. "She must've thought that by acting like her friends, she would make more friends with the Wonderbolts, and I guess that turned out bad."

"Taking your advice in her way was the least of our worries," Spitfire said. "Do you even know what she tried to do in our last performance?"

Twilight raised an eyebrow; this was going to be news to her. "No."

"She tried to showboat us," Spitfire told the princess. "She was so determined and ambitious to prove herself that she tried to perform a dangerous stunt using that storm cloud to make a grand entrance, and you've probably seen how badly that turned out. With poor planning and timing, Rainbow Dash ruined the show with that crash, leaving us to pay the cleaning crew for their troubles, and give everypony in the audience refunds for their disappointment. After the show, we confronted Rainbow Dash about her major slip-up. She told us that the only thing she was ever good for in the Wonderbolts was for making mistakes, and we tried to assure her that the nickname 'Rainbow Crash' wasn't a big deal."

"And then the rest is history," Twilight finished for the Wonderbolt captain, "but there's something I don't understand, Spitfire. If you knew something was off with Rainbow Dash, then why didn't you talk with her about it?"

"Being in the Wonderbolts isn't like the friendship problems you're accustomed to solving, Princess Twilight," Spitfire put it bluntly. "In the Wonderbolts, we have to toughen up and straighten out. That's the way it's been. When the Wonderbolt rookies make their first rookie mistakes, we accept those mistakes by accepting it as our name in the 'Bolts. But with Rainbow Dash, this is a completely different story. With Rainbow Dash, she was seriously messed up by that nickname and she never explained why before last night. If we knew ahead of time that being called 'Rainbow Crash' hurt her so badly, we wouldn't lost our team player this way."

"But you do know that part of the responsibility falls on Rainbow Dash's shoulders, don't you?" Twilight asked.

"I do. Rainbow Dash is proud, but she can be too proud at times, and that is what instigated the tension between her and us." Spitfire sighed. "You know, if I'm being honest here, I'd say this is the first time that a high-flying Wonderbolt quit out team on account of our own actions, let alone one of the ponies that saved Equestria over and over. We had to expel our other high-flyers because of their own greedy gain and we had to let go of our other high-flyers because of their own personal reasons, but to quit on us for something we had a hoof in playing is something else entirely." 

"Spitfire, I know you feel responsible for Rainbow Dash quitting the team, but it doesn't have to be that way," said Twilight. "As the Princess of Friendship, I have a solemn duty to help rebuild the broken friendship between two friends. I don't care if Rainbow Dash decides to rejoin your team or not in the end, but if you two can't patch things up, then things will only get worse before they can get better."

Spitfire sighed dejectedly, and turned away in her seat. "I hate to say this, Princess, but I think it's already starting to look that way."

"And how's that?"

Suddenly, the door slammed open, and the two conversing mares turned to a Wonderbolt stallion rushing in the office as if he was in a hurry. He stopped and gave a quick but formal salute to his captain, letting his body go stiff as a wooden board. "Pardon the interruption, Captain Spitfire, but I've got something here that you might need to see!"

"What is it, Feather Squall?" Spitfire asked.

The stallion named Squall Feather unfurled his left wing, and reached for the latest newspaper delivered to the Wonderbolts newsstands with his teeth. Twilight levitated the paper in front of her face, and read the article with squinting eyes as Spitfire dismissed the stallion from her office. 

"'Where Do Loyalties Lie?' by Type Writer," she first read the bigger headline aloud. "'Equestrian hero and former Element of Loyalty Rainbow Dash quits the Wonderbolts the night that took placed after their last disastrous performance at Heigh-Ho Hills. After receiving medical treatment for her injuries, Rainbow Dash was confronted by the Wonderbolts regarding their performance which led to an argument between her and the Wonderbolts team captain, Spitfire, claiming that they repeatedly harassed her with a demeaning nickname after making a failed good first impression as the newest member of the Wonderbolts a few days prior. During the skirmish, Rainbow Dash claimed that despite the harassment she endured from her teammates, they tried to sweet talk her back into rejoining the team. Despite interventions from Princess Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash resigned from the team and has yet to comment on...Continued on page 2a'."

After the article was cut off on the front page, Twilight's lavender coat faded into marble white from all the shock her body reacted to. She couldn't bring herself to finish the article; it was making her stomach sick. "Oh, this is bad. I don't know how they managed to get the scoop, but if Rainbow Dash sees this, she's gonna feel worse than ever! Spitfire, we've got to do something about this and quick!"

"I wish I could, Princess Twilight, but Rainbow Dash made it clear that she didn't want to see or talk to any of the Wonderbolts again," Spitfire said. "Even if I could walk up to her front door without my uniform on and convince her how sorry we were, she's just going to slam it in my face and not listen to a word I have to say."

"She'll listen to me," Twilight said. "After all, she may not have her team, but at least she still has her best friends to listen to."

"I'm not sure she'll listen to what the Wonderbolts have to say to her, even if our apology is relayed to her through her."

"That's why I have to try. I know it won't be easy, given how stubborn Rainbow Dash can be at times, but I'll at least try," Twilight assured. "What are you going to do about this?"

"Me? I'm gonna try and keep the Wonderbolts together," Spitfire answered. "I'm gonna be up to my shoulders juggling the upcoming Wonderbolts shows, the rumors going around the team, rebuilding the trust with our teammates, and training the newbies at the academy. If Rainbow Dash's resignation somehow brings our team's morale to an all-time low, then we're going to have a hard time trying to boost it back up. Once everypony in Equestria reads the article, then our relations with the public will be, shall we say, less-than-trustworthy."

"You focus on your team, Spitfire. I'll worry about Rainbow Dash."

"You know, she's lucky to have a friend like you," Spitfire said solemnly. "At least you're more considerate about her feelings than we are."

Not all the time, Twilight figured. She could recall a few times when a wedge was driven in her friendship with her friends, a couple of them involving Rainbow Dash in it, but that was a story for another time. "Spitfire, try not to beat yourself about this either. Rainbow Dash is beating herself up because she realized she could've done more to prevent this from happening."

"How is she doing?"

Twilight shook her head. "Not good. She was so distraught by what happened last night that she smashed every Wonderbolt collection she had and left them all in a messy pile in her room. On top of that, she hadn't slept well, and she's beginning to show signs of clinical depression."

It wasn't much, but Twilight spotted a micro expression of surprise change on Spitfire's face. "So, she's got it worse than the whole of the Wonderbolts combined, huh?" 

"It would seem that way."

Spitfire hummed, a little dejected sigh somewhere mixed in. "Well, when you see her again, could you tell her on my behalf that the Wonderbolts must apologize for putting her through so much? If she won't accept it, then could you tell her that I apologized as well? Not as a captain or as a member of the Wonderbolts. Just me as a pony and nopony else. "

"I'll try, but it's just like you said, it won't be easy trying to get her listen," Twilight said. "Although, once she wakes up from her nap, I'll tell her what you told me."

"You telling her is more than what I can do for her at this point."

There was a knock on the door that interrupted their conversation. After Spitfire yelled the visitor to enter, the door opened to reveal Misty Skies, or as her fellow teammates called her, Hoof-in-Mouth. "Captain, theresth a sthatllion in a sthuit who wantsth to sthee you."

"Oh, that must be Publicity Stunt," Spitfire deduced. "Listen, Princess, I hate to end our discussion short, but I need to meet with my PR guy about this situation. If you want to schedule an appointment to meet with me next time, you can always check in with my receptionist on the way out."

"I will," Twilight responded with a nod, "and if you ever need help with your situation or with your friendship problem, you can always find me at the Castle of Friendship."

"I'll take you up on that offer when it comes to it," Spitfire responded, standing up to shake hooves with Twilight. "Oh, and before you go, Princess, I have one more thing to say for Rainbow Dash. I hope things work out for her. I really do."

"I'll be sure to mention that to Rainbow Dash later," Twilight said. "Goodbye, Spitfire, and good luck."

"You too, Princess."

With it, the Princess of Friendship turned and trotted out the door, allowing a stoic, hard-faced pegasus stallion carrying a black briefcase in his feathers. He had a beige coat, a pair of big thick-rimmed glasses, a black mane styled to the left of his head, and a beige tuxedo complete with a vest and a tie. The pegasus stallion was renowned through Equestria as one of the best lawyers anypony could hire, as well as the public relations stallion for the Wonderbolts, and a good friend of Spitfire's. 

While Twilight was walking out of the premises of the Wonderbolts Academy with the intent of returning to the cloud house, Publicity Stunt, Spitfire's faithful lawyer, public relations manager and friend was invited inside of her office. "It's good to see you again, Spitfire," Publicity Stunt greeted with a smile.

"Believe me, I wouldn't have called you in here unless it was important," Spitfire said.

"I knew it had something to do with your team when I read the headline this morning," Publicity Stunt replied, his smile fading back into seriousness. "I've seen the public's reaction to the story on the way here. From what I've seen so far, it's not starting to look good."

"I've been hearing that a lot for the past hour," Spitfire said. "Even the team's morale is starting to lower. Soarin' told me that the other team members are questioning my worth as a leader, starting rumors of me bringing back a former Wonderbolt who we kicked out months back to fill in for Rainbow Dash, and me resigning my position as captain and replacing myself with somepony better."

"And are you going to resign?" Publicity Stunt asked.

"Not unless I was given orders to. You know that rule perfectly well," Spitfire said.

"I do, considering that I also serve as General Clear Wing's public relations stallion as well." The pegasus stallion adjusted his glasses and firmly rested his briefcase in his lap. "Now then, before I can give you my sage advice as to how to wave off the bad publicity, I need to know your side of the story first. Tell me about what happened between you and Rainbow Dash."

Spitfire sighed; she'd have to tell him the entire story again. "Okay, then, I will. So it started off when we hired Rainbow Dash into our reserves..."





Rainbow Dash could feel her eyes slowly open from her brief sleep, her eyelids fluttering to get to sleep out. The first thing she saw when opening her eyes was her ceiling, the cloudy texture a blur at first. Her eyes were burning and watery, so she blinked a couple of times and sniffed deeply through her nose. She turned over, hoping to expect the pile of destroyed Wonderbolts memorabilia she left on her floor. Instead, there was only a clean, barren cloud floor with only a few scraps left behind.

She turned herself back up and faced the ceiling. She began to mull over the events that happened to her in the last few days, thought back to how it could happen, and why it had happened. To be honest, she felt a bit indifferent about quitting from the Wonderbolts. She didn't need those traitors. She did better on her own flying solo than with some other cockamamie pegasus in a skin-tight suit. Rainbow Dash had friends she could depend not to call her that nickname. They were more like family to her than the Wonderbolts could ever be.

For the first time in her life, Rainbow Dash felt free. She was free to do what she liked, and there would be no condescending bullies, no upstart Wonderbolts, and no Spitfires to hold her back. She was gonna fly free from her past torments, and she was never going to look back again.

The sound of door hinges squeaking drew Rainbow Dash out of her tired reverie. She turned her attention to the door, and there at the doorway was a familiar pegasus filly with an orange coat and a violet mane that was similarly styled to her tomboyish punk-styled mane. She was looking at her Number One Fan, and she looked at her back with the biggest look of concern she has ever seen.

"Rainbow Dash? Are you feeling okay?"
> Chapter IV
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Scootaloo couldn’t wait any longer to check up on her idol, her hero, and her older sister figure. With special permission from her aunts, Scootaloo was allowed to have breakfast and took off immediately to Rainbow Dash’s house.

After a quick buzzing on her scooter across town, Scootaloo made it to Rainbow Dash’s cloudimonium, setting her scooter aside and knocked on the door. A moment later, the door opened, and instead of Rainbow Dash answering the door to her surprise, there was only Applejack standing in the doorframe.

"Applejack?"

"Howdy, Scootaloo. You here ta check up on Rainbow Dash too?"

"I am, but I never expected you to be here," Scootaloo confessed.

"It ain't just me," the cow pony said before she was suddenly obscured by a certain pink pony.

"Hiya, Scootaloo! Glad you could make it!" Pinkie Pie excitingly greeted the filly.

"Make it? Make it to what?"

"For Rainbow Dash's 'We're-sorry-for-what-happened-between-you-and-the-Wonderbolts-so-we're-here-to-show-you-we're-behind-you-all-the-way' brunch! We're making Rainbow Dash a big feast because she hadn't eaten or slept since her big blowout with the Wonderbolts team and it made me so sad to see her cry again, so we decided to make her a special meal and show her that we're by her side, no matter what happens to her!"

"Okayyyy," Scootaloo emphasized her uncertainty, "but is she doing okay? I've been up all night tossing and turning because I was worried about her."

Applejack gently nudged Pinkie out of the way to meet the filly's concerned eyes. "Honey, Ah don't know how ta tell ya this, but she ain't as alright as ya want her ta be. She destroyed all of her Wonderbolts possessions shortly after she came home last night, and spent most of the night cryin' her eyes out."

Scootaloo's heart fell to her stomach. "Is it really that bad?"

"Not as bad as that emotional breakdown she had earlier," Applejack answered. "Fortunately, Fluttershy and Rarity helped upstairs and she's sound asleep. She has been for the last couple of hours now."

Scootaloo gulped. "C-Can I see her?"

Applejack laid a hoof on her shoulder. "Ah don't know, sugarcube. Ah wouldn't wanna wake her now. She barely got any sleep from cryin' her eyes out."

Scootaloo pouted at the farm mare. "Please, Applejack? I can't stand another minute of standing by doing nothing while Rainbow Dash is going through a hard time. I'm her friend, too, you know? I should at least go upstairs and see if she's okay."

Applejack couldn't really argue with that. "Well, alright, but you jes' be quiet-like, alright?" she said, opening the door up wider and allowing Scootaloo inside. "Ah'm not sure how long she's been asleep, though. It ain't good ta wake somepony up while they're sleepin', whether they meant to or not."

"Thanks, Applejack," the pegasus said graciously as she passed through the kitchen.

Before she climbed up the stairs, Scootaloo passed the doorway into the living room where she spotted Fluttershy and Rarity crafting with a pile of scraps, holding them together with sticky paste or sticky tape. She couldn't make out what it was from where she was, so her curiosity peaked before she entered the living room with two eyebrows tilted upwards in interest.

"Fluttershy? Rarity?"

The two mares looked up from their work and met the pegasus's gaze.

"Oh, Scootaloo, hello dear. I didn't hear you come in," Rarity said.

"What are you two doing?" Scootaloo asked the mares.

"Nothing much, dear. Fluttershy are just trying to make some repairs."

"Repairs? Repairs to what?"

"Rainbow Dash's Wonderbolts collection," Fluttershy answered. "She smashed them all into pieces and left them in a pile in her room, so we swept them up and we're trying to put them back together for her."

"In the event that Rainbow Dash does change her mind and wants to rejoin the Wonderbolts, of course," Rarity added.

"How long ago did you put her to bed?" Scootaloo asked them.

"Only a couple of hours ago," Rarity said, applying the paste to a few pieces of her Wonderbolts action figures. "Poor thing was so exhausted physically and emotionally that she fell right to sleep in her bed. I suppose that's what happens when you sleep on top of a pile of scraps."

"Are you going to check on her?" Fluttershy inquired the filly.

"Yeah, I just dropped by to see how she was doing," Scootaloo said, gesturing towards the staircase.

"Okay, well try to be a little quiet, alright? I'm sure that she's still tired from everything that's happened to her."

"I'll try."

With that, Scootaloo quietly pitter-pattered up the stairs and to the second floor where Rainbow Dash's bedroom was situated to her right, the door closed all the way. As quietly as she could, Scootaloo turned the handle and slowly opened the door. The hinges creaked which made her cringe, so decided that the only way for this to go any quieter was to open the door a little faster. Scootaloo did so, and inside, she spotted the sad lump lying underneath the blankets. The sad lump, taking the form of her fallen-from-grace hero turned to her with tired eyes as Scootaloo entered the bedroom with the most concern she's never shown before.

"Rainbow Dash, are you okay?"

Scootaloo looked up to her idol and older sister figure with sad puppy dog eyes. Rainbow Dash, her eyes showing less exhaust and sleep deprivation than before, slowly registered her Number One Fan's concern. A little smile broke from the corner of her lips, but in reality, it was forced to look that way just to vainly show Scootaloo how relieved she was to see her again. Tank had just been woken up from his sleep by Scootaloo's arrival and let out a yawn, changing his glance to Rainbow Dash with as much concern as a pet turtle would show his master.

"Oh, hey, squirt. When did you get here?" Rainbow Dash asked the little pegasus filly.

"I just got here five minutes ago. My aunts wouldn't allow to get me out of bed until I got up at seven and had my breakfast, but that doesn't matter." Scootaloo said, suddenly shaking her head. "Wait a minute, that's not what I wanted to talk to you about at all. What's happened to you, Rainbow Dash? Your friends are here, and they're cooking you brunch downstairs because Pinkie Pie said they were behind you all the way. If that wasn't enough, I just passed by Fluttershy and Rarity who are trying to fix everything in your Wonderbolt that you smashed up and left in a pile in your bedroom!

Scootaloo's eyes were brimming with moisture at this point, to which she wiped away with her hoof. "What happened to you, Rainbow Dash? You used to look up to the Wonderbolts, but now you've gone and smashed everything you loved about them and you're letting your friends put them back together for you. I know the Wonderbolts haven't treated you nicely, but if that were me, even I wouldn't have broken them down."

Rainbow Dash stretched her limbs in her bed, careful not to let the blankets slip off of her and sighed, flopping back into her mattress. "Last night, Scootaloo, was one of the worst nights I've had in my life. You're right, I used to look up to those guys because they were as cool as my friends are, like you. But when they started calling me 'Crash,' I felt like I was back in flight camp as a filly, when the bullies started picking on me because I was so determined to make a name for myself as a Wonderbolts. Just to show them what I was made of.

"But they told me too late that calling each other names was just a nickname for them to remind you of the first mistake you make on your first day of the Wonderbolts. They teased me for it, I lost my concentration every time they called me 'Crash', and I was forced to clean after them because I was the worst flyer in the group. You remember how exhausted I was after I came home the first day after spending all afternoon cleaning the lockers and how I told you guys about them calling me 'Crash.' How Twilight told me to treat the Wonderbolts like my friends?"

Scootaloo nodded. "I tried just that, but I guess I took it in a wrong direction. After my second day of training flopped, they stuck a pin on my jacket that had my Cutie Mark crash into a stop sign. I was so peeved at them, I tried to show them that my name wasn't 'Crash'. That was the day before yesterday's performance, and you know that turned out, and before you say anything else, I am sorry for getting you involved in my problem, Scoots."

"It's not your fault, Rainbow Dash," Scootaloo assured. "You remember how I almost tossed my scooter out because Diamond Tiara picked on me for not being able to fly and I dragged Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle with me, right? If I were in your shoes, I would've gotten out of the way to have ponies show me my name wasn't 'Flightless' or 'Chicken' or something like that."

Rainbow Dash chuckled lightly at that. "Yeah, I can somehow see that happening." Her smile faded away almost instantaneously. "But not me, Scoots. This was different. After I got out of the medical tent, the Wonderbolts confronted me about my performance. I told them I wasn't meant to be a Wonderbolt, but suddenly, they tried to sucker up to me just because I was a 'hero' and 'Equestria's Best Young Flier' and all. That's also when they told me about the nicknames, and I just lost it completely. I quit on the spot, came back home, and smashed everything in my house related to the Wonderbolts. That's when I remembered something important that my dad told me as a filly."

Scootaloo was almost afraid to ask. "And what's that?"

"Hero worship is unhealthy," Rainbow Dash answered. "You try to be your greatest so you could measure up to be like your heroes, but when you do, they just let you down. I trained hard all my life, I met my heroes, and look at what it did to me. I'm sorry to say, but I think I just wasted my entire fillyhood over a group of plot-kissers that doesn't even feel for the lives of their fellow teammates, let alone me. I guess this is the price I have to pay for my pride as a Wonderbolt."

Scootaloo climbed at the edge of the bed, looking into her "big sister's" gaze with big pleading eyes. "But it doesn't have to end like this, Rainbow Dash! You've saved more lives than anypony I know! You became my sister, even when I was afraid to admit I was scared of your stories! You gave me the much-needed morale boost when I felt I wasn't even worth riding my scooter around! You're not afraid to take risks to prove how loyal you are to your friends or your sister! That's the kind of thing that a hero does for her fellow Ponyville ponies more than what a group of high-flying entertainers can do for the entire nation of Equestria!"

Rainbow Dash turned over in her covers and sighed. "I'm sorry, Scoots, but I've already made up my mind. I'm not going back to the Wonderbolts, and that's final."

Exasperated by this, Scootaloo stepped back from the bed and looked at her idol with disapproving eyes. "So that's it, then? You're just going to give up after everything you've done to get this far?"

"Yeah. That pretty much sums it all up."

Scootaloo's once pitying gaze turned into exasperation, and now that exasperation turned into frustration. She was so frustrated that she had trouble keeping her emotions in check, and the physical signs of such included her scrunching muzzle and more tears leaking from her eyes. She sniffled when she tried to find the right words.

"Well, then... if that's what you think then maybe... maybe your dad was right! Worshipping your heroes is unhealthy!" Scootaloo yelled, making Rainbow Dash turn to her, gaping in complete shock. "I guess that means I've wasted my entire fillyhood worshipping a quitter and a loser as well! I've looked up to you ever since I was still in my diapers! I thought you were the greatest pony who ever lived, Rainbow Dash! I thought I could look up to you as a big sister that I've never had! But now... now you just proved me how wrong I was about you!"

"But, Scoots, I..."

"Don't even say it, Rainbow Dash! I don't wanna hear anything from you right now!" Scootaloo barked, stamping her hoof. "You're not the greatest pony in Equestria, Rainbow Dash, not especially since you've given up being the pony I once knew! You were my hero! My idol! The only reason why the Rainbow Dash Appreciation Club was formed in the first place was because we appreciated you and what you've done as the most awesome pony in Ponyville! And now you're just going to give up on yourself and your friends, and that just makes me bad because I was the one who formed the club in the first place. Do you have any idea how that makes me feel!?'

"But... I..."

"Oh, just forget it, Dash! You're only half the pony I knew once upon a time!" Scootaloo marched towards the door, and stopped for only a moment before she could exit the doorframe. "Oh, and in case you were wondering, apology not accepted for having me pull off that stunt that got you quitting the team and stewing in your own juices like a sad little pony in the first place!"

Scootaloo slammed the door behind her so hard, the force reverberated throughout the house.

The force knocked over a picture frame from Rainbow Dash's dresser, and fell onto the cloudy floor.

Rainbow Dash couldn't help but turn to it and pick it up, only to see a photograph of her and Scootaloo together, smiling when they attended their first Wonderbolts show together in Cloudsdale.

She sighed, her ears folding back at yet another loss as she placed the photograph back and turned back in her covers. She pulled Tank in closer, nuzzling the top of his shell. "Well, Tank, I just lost my biggest fan and my little sister. Is there anything else that I'm gonna lose sometime soon?"

Tank yawned and laid his head down, closing his eyes.

"Yeah, that's what I thought."





Twilight fluttered her wings as she touched down at Rainbow Dash's cloudominium.

She noticed Scootaloo's scooter and helmet was just parked near the front door.

She must've dropped by sometime after Twilight left for the Wonderbolts Academy.

Just as Twilight reached the door, it suddenly flung open, scaring her a couple of hooves back when she spotted Scootaloo standing at the front door, her face twisted in a new kind of anger and betrayal. Stamping her hooves into the ground hard enough to make a few holes where she forcefully stepped, Scootaloo got on her scooter, slapped her helmet on, and buzzed her wings with the sound of a motorboat engine running.

"Scootaloo? What's..."

"Not now, Princess," Scootaloo curtly said. "I don't even feel like talking right now."

With a push from her hind hoof, Scootaloo immediately took off with her buzzing wings providing the speed needed to get away from the cloud house and quick. Twilight flapped her wings into the air and watched as Scootaloo disappeared into the distance.

"Scootaloo! Wait!"

Of course, Scootaloo couldn't wait.

She simply sped off into the distance and disappeared from sight.

Now beginning to worry for the situation, Twilight touched down and went inside the house where her friends were gaping in shock after they heard the commotion between Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash from all the way downstairs, not to mention how peeved the filly seemed when she stormed downstairs.

"Does anypony wanna tell me what just happened?" Twilight asked.

"Your guess is as good as mine, darling," Rarity said. "I'm so shocked by what Scootaloo said that I'm frozen in my spot."

"Maybe we should go up and see what happened," Applejack suggested.

Twilight shook her head. "No, Applejack. You and everyone else keep doing what you're doing. I'll go see to Rainbow Dash."

With that, Twilight went up the stairs and Applejack and Pinkie Pie resumed their cooking while Fluttershy and Rarity continued to repair the shattered memorabilia, albeit all reluctantly. When Twilight made it up to Rainbow Dash's room, she gently rapped on the door, careful not to disturb the pegasus even further.

"Rainbow Dash? You okay?"

"Go away!"

That never stopped Twilight before.

Opening the door, Twilight saw Rainbow Dash lying in her bed, curled up under her covers, a despondent frown matching her half-lidded eyes. When those raspberry eyes met up with Twilight's form at her door, she quickly turned herself over to avert that gaze. That still didn't stop Twilight from entering and approaching the mare.

Twilight laid a hoof on Rainbow Dash's shoulder. "Hey, I just saw Scootaloo ride away from here as quickly as she could. Is there something that I should know about?"

"What difference will it make? I quit the Wonderbolts, my biggest fan and little sister lost her faith in me and bailed out, but not before showing me how much of a loser I really am." Rainbow Dash released an elongated dejected sigh. "Let's face it, Twilight, I'm about as loyal as a praying mantis. All of Ponyville and beyond is probably reading how I quit the team, and now I can't show my face anywhere."

"But you haven't been outside yet."

"Exactly, because everypony will take one look at me and think I'm a loser."

"Oh, Rainbow Dash, you know that's not true. You're far from a loser and you know it."

"Oh yeah? Then please tell me why Scootaloo had to run out on me because I told her about unhealthy hero worship?"

"Scootaloo's just upset because her big sister is beating herself up over this, and she feels like you've been fighting a battle that you're always losing at," Twilight deduced. "She just needs to realize that it's not about worshipping your heroes. It's about looking up to the pony they mean the world more than everything else because that pony does the right thing and only they can teach them about doing the right thing. Do you understand?"

Rainbow Dash shrugged. "Meh, I don't care either way, Twilight. What else do I have to lose?"

"Only the love of your friends and family. Without both, you wouldn't have come this far in life."

"Yeah, only to throw it all the way just because some ponies don't lay the groundwork of their nicknaming."

"Rainbow Dash, you can't go on blaming the Wonderbolts in part for what happened," Twilight said firmly. "If you only swallowed your pride and told them how you felt about being called 'Rainbow Crash,' then things may have been different. It would have set a positive message to every Wonderbolt, cadet, and trainee at the academy about how to establish teamwork and friendship better amongst themselves. They're already starting feel that the negative message you sent across the other Wonderbolts would be that way with the academy, and all the newspapers are sending that story across Equestria even as we speak."

Rainbow Dash huffed. "I knew it would be a matter of time before that happened."

"Look, I know we can't force you to go back to the Wonderbolts and have you and Spitfire make up with each other, but we have to find a way for you two to rebuild that bridge. If you don't, then, well..." Twilight leaned forward into Rainbow's ear. "...then maybe Equestria will feel the same way that Scootaloo feels about you right now."

The same way...

That did give Rainbow Dash a bit of thought to that.

After all, she had done more for Equestria than she could have imagined, and this was her repayment to them.

A big slap across the face.

She thought about how Scootaloo acted out towards her.

If that was how she reacted to how easily she gave up, then think of how the other ponies might react.

With a reluctant sigh, Rainbow Dash turned over in her sheets. She stretched her hooves out, one by one, and used them to center herself onto her cloudy floor.

"Okay, Twilight, I'll play it your way," she said finally.

"That's just what I wanted to hear!" Twilight said, beaming with pride and triumph.

"But," Rainbow Dash interrupted as she poked Twilight's muzzle, "if something goes wrong, then it's on you, capiche?"

"No, I've only encouraged you to try and patch things up. What you do next is on you, capiche?"

"Yeah, yeah. So what's Applejack and Pinkie cooking up downstairs?"

"I don't know, but I'm not sure if they're done with the food."

"Oh we're done with the food, alright!" Pinkie Pie said, suddenly popping from behind the doorframe. "Time for some midmorning munchies!"

Pinkie Pie retracted her head out of sight while the two winged ponies followed her downstairs.

For once, Rainbow Dash accepted the fact she needed some food.

The only thing that would keep her from eating much or tasting the food was the absence of her little sister.