The next day Rainbow Dash flew straight to Twilight's library and explained her suspicions. “And that's why I need you to look into it for me.”
Twilight cocked her head. “I don't know Rainbow, you are asking me to spy on somepony for you.”
“Not FOR me, WITH me.”
Twilight shook her head a little and sighed. “OK Dash, I'll help, but only because if this guy is cheating he needs to be stopped.”
“OK good, now we just got to track him down and follow him to see him do his so called training.”
“That's good and all, but I'm not going to be able to keep up with you in the clouds. How about you come find me when you think you know where to go?”
Rainbow Dash smirked a little. “OK, but be prepared, who knows when this cheater will... do whatever it is he is doing to cheat.”
“I'll be anxiously awaiting your return.” Twilight said as she opened up a nearby book and began reading.
Rainbow Dash took off to Cloudsdale to begin her search for Streaky. She stopped by the race track's information center and looked through some of the papers on him. They revealed that he was currently living on the North end of Cloudsdale. She quickly made her way to his house, where she began to sit and wait for him at a safe distance away.
After a few hours, Rainbow Dash was about ready to give up, when she saw him come out of his house stretching his forelegs into the air.
“That jerk has been asleep this whole time?!”
Streaky took off in the direction of Ponyville, with Rainbow Dash following in his blind spot. When they arrived, he went straight to the local diner where he ordered breakfast. Rainbow Dash sat across the street watching him closely. His breakfast was big, he was eating a lot. She didn't see anything suspicious about his food, or the waiter.
She continued to follow him as he made his way to the market. He bought several fruits and vegetables along the way, but still nothing suspicious. Trying not to look conspicuous, Rainbow Dash bought a few things along the way.
After that, Streaky took to the air, and headed back to Cloudsdale. Once there, he went straight to his apartment and closed the door behind him. Rainbow Dash took up the position she had before, and waited for him to emerge.
Eight hours passed and he had not come out. Rainbow Dash had eaten all the food she had bought at the market and was starting to get hungry and bored. “Oh come on! What is taking you so long in there?” A few more minutes Streaky came out again. It was nearly sundown by this point. He flew off towards Ponyville again. Following close behind once more, Rainbow Dash mentally noted how fast he was flying. He hadn't seemed to be going any faster than before, whatever he has been doing wasn't his 'training'.
When Streaky got over Ponyville, instead of landing, he flew a bit farther. He was over the Everfree Forest. His pace slowed, as he began to scan the forest below. After a minute, he flew down into a thick bunch of trees.
Rainbow Dash carefully landed behind him, making sure not to make a sound. She hid in a bush nearby and watched him as he looked around. He made his way over to a small clump of rocks stuck between two trees. He pushed some of the rocks aside, to reveal a small hole in the ground. He looked around for a moment, then dove in. Rainbow Dash walked over and looked down after him. The hole was long and narrow. There would be no way to follow without him seeing her. She instead went back to hiding in the bush.
After thirty minutes, he came back out of the hole, looking very happy with himself. He carefully moved the rocks back into place, and then he took off at a blinding pace towards Cloudsdale.
After a few seconds, Rainbow Dash emerged from her hiding place and made her way to the pile of rocks blocking the hole. She quickly kicked them to the side and jumped down the whole. After ten seconds of falling she came out into a wide cavern. There was a faint purple glow from the rocks that lined the walls, and was imbedded in the floor. Otherwise, the cavern seemed empty.
Rainbow Dash began to look around, trying to find something, anything that Streaky could be using to cheat. She moved rock piles, looked at the dirt to see if something was buried. After ten minutes she gave up. She went back to the tunnel out and looked up. She jumped up and began to fly out. She found herself moving quickly, without meaning to. She stopped mid way and hovered in place. She shot back down into the caves and looked around.
The light purple glowing rocks in the caves shown faintly all around her. She looked around and found the brightest glowing rock. She went to it and dug it out of the wall.
She quickly left the cave, covered the hole, then sped towards Twilight's library.
Twilight was just about to go to bed when a knock came at her door. She went to answer it and found Rainbow Dash holding the glowing purple rock. “Rainbow, what in Equestria is that?”
“That's what I want to know egg head. Streaky was in a cave full of these rocks for a while, and after I went in there to investigate, I felt faster. I think these rock have something to do with it.”
Twilight sighed. “Come on then.” She led Rainbow Dash down into the library's basement, where Twilight had set up a lab.
Twilight took the rock from Rainbow Dash and set it on the table. She levitated a small pick over and chipped off a small piece of the rock. Holding the piece in the air, she cast a spell on it. The piece shattered into dust.
Rainbow Dash was impatient. “What are you doing?”
“Look Dash, I have to break it down into it's components to see what it is made out of. Then I can see if any of it was enchanted in any way.”
“How long is that going to take?”
Twilight got an irritated look. “All night if you keep asking me questions.”
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Fine, I'll come back tomorrow.”
The next day Rainbow Dash came back to the library and knocked. Spike answered the door. “Oh, Rainbow Dash, yeah Twilight is still downstairs, I think she has been up all night. She told me to send you down when you got here. What are you two doing?”
“It's kinda complicated, Spike. Maybe when we're done I'll explain.”
Downstairs Twilight was still hard at work trying to figure out the mysterious glowing rock. She heard the door open and quickly began to ramble. “Oh good Spike, your back. I need five millimeters of ten molar sulfuric acid, and the same of sodium hydroxide.”
“Uh what are you talking about?”
Twilight turned to look at Rainbow Dash in surprise. “Oh, it's you Dash. I've been working on that sample you brought me all night. So far nothing I have tried seems to affect it. I have distilled it to its base components and all I can find is that the water in it seems to be what gives it its purple glow. I have run the water through multiple processes, but no matter what I do. it keeps that glow. When I try to test it for magic it always comes up negative!”
“So, what you're saying is, he's not cheating with these rocks?”
“I don't know, I can't tell if it is doing anything or not! For whatever reason, I can't get any readings from this stupid water!” Twilight held a small vile of purple glowing water up to emphasize her point.
Rainbow Dash grabbed it and looked at it closely. “So we can't test it at all? There isn't a way at all? Come on Twilight, I need to know.”
Twilight looked a little frantic. She hated this. She wanted to figure out what was causing the water to glow. She had almost forgotten during the night that the rocks were supposed to be used for making a pegasus go faster. After a few seconds Twilight got a sly smile. “Well actually Dash, there is one thing we can do to see.”
Rainbow Dash got a nervous look. “What?”
“If you tried some of the distilled water, we might be able to see if it made you any faster.”
“Then I would be a cheater too!”
“Not if you told the race committee what happened, and that you only did it to expose Streaky.”
Rainbow Dash shook her head. “No way Twilight, they would still disqualify me from this year's competition.”
“There is always next year, Dash! Besides I need to know!”
“There has to be another way!”
Twilight shook her head. “I have tried everything. Please Dash, I need to know if this stuff causes pegasus to go faster. There is no other way!”
Rainbow Dash sighed. “OK.”
“Good, let me get my timer.”
“What for?”
“To see how fast you are before and after you drink it.”
Twilight grabbed her timer and she and Rainbow Dash went outside for the test. Twilight held up the watch. “OK Dash, from here to the market and back, ready?”
“Ready.”
“GO!”
Rainbow Dash shot to the market, stopped, turned around, and bolted back to the front of the library.
Twilight shook her head in approval. “OK good, it looks about ten seconds. Now drink the water.”
Twilight levitated the vile over to Rainbow Dash. She took it from the air and looked at it. She knew she was probably giving up the Finals, but she couldn't let that cheater Streaky win. She popped the cork of the vile, looked at it for a second longer, then drank the entire thing. She looked over at Twilight. “OK, I'm ready.”
Twilight shook her head. “Give it a moment to begin working. I want to make sure of this.”
Rainbow Dash impatiently waited for what felt like an hour. She looked over at Twilight, who was still staring at the timer. “How much longer?”
Twilight looked up. “OK ten minutes should do, ready?”
“Ready!”
“GO!”
Once again Rainbow Dash shot to the market, stopped, turned around, and bolted back to the front of the library.
When she got there, Twilight was staring, dumbfounded. Rainbow Dash cocked her head. “Well what was the time?”
Twilight shook her head a little. “I... I don't know, you were... to fast for me to time.”
Rainbow Dash laughed. “Yeah right, no really, what was the time?”
Twilight shook her head harder. “No, really Rainbow, I didn't have time to press the button, that took less than a second.”
“It couldn't have been that fast. It felt like it took at least ten seconds.”
“Maybe you should get some sleep. I'm going to send a letter to the Princess. I'm sure she would be able to help me figure these rocks out. In the meantime, you be careful. You are going awfully fast.”
Not knowing what else to do, Rainbow Dash went home and got some sleep.
The next day she went to Twilight's to see what the Princess had said. To her surprise the Celestia was there waiting for her when she arrived. “Oh Princess.” Rainbow Dash gave a bow.
“Hello Rainbow Dash. Twilight here has been filling me in on your situation.” Twilight looked embarrassed, sitting on the far side of the room. Celestia continued, “how are you feeling this morning?”
“Uh, pretty good I guess. Why, is there a problem?”
Celestia shook her head. “No, not at all, I was simply checking to make sure that the substance Twilight gave you wasn't having any negative side effects.”
“No, I feel fine.”
“Good, how about we go outside so you can demonstrate how fast you can go with it?”
“OK...”
They all three made their way outside. Once there, Celestia looked over. “Twilight told me you were going to the market and back yesterday very quickly, can you show me?”
“OK. Here I go!”
Dash repeated her quick trip to the market and back again, and looked over at Celestia and Twilight. They stared at her for several seconds. Rainbow Dash got nervous. “Uh.... was that OK?”
Celestia blinked. “What do you mean?”
“Was my run OK, did you get a good look?”
Celestia was stunned for a moment. “You... you finished?”
“Yeah, didn't you see?”
“I didn't see you move.”
“Do you want me to go farther?”
“Yes, that might help. Please go to the edge of the Everfree Forest and back.”
“OK.”
Rainbow Dash took off as fast as she could go to the edge of the Everfree Forest and back.
When she landed again she was panting. She was giving it her all to give them a good idea of what the stuff could do. She looked back at Celestia and Twilight. “Well?”
Celestia nodded. “That was indeed faster than I had anticipated. You are moving at an incredible speed Rainbow Dash. I need you to be careful, there is no telling what you could do at that speed.”
“Wait a minute, shouldn't I be causing a Rainboom, if I'm going as fast as you say I am?”
Twilight's eyes went wide. “Yes, yes you should. Why would you not... unless....” Twilight sat there for a moment deep in thought, with both Celestia and Rainbow Dash staring at her, waiting for the answer to come to her. “I've got it! Princess, she isn't going any faster, we are going slower!”
“I'm afraid I don't understand Twilight.”
Twilight shook her head. “I've been so busy testing the substance, and all the things I have applied it to, but not thinking about another possibility. What if the substance is not in sync with our time? Rainbow Dash has been fused with the substance, and is slowly getting faster, or to be more precise, is slowly slipping out of sync with our flow of time. It's not magic that's causing her to go faster, its an extra dimensional substance that is changing the way time flows!”
Twilight finished breathless. Both Celestia and Rainbow Dash stared at her for several seconds as she breathed in to catch her breath. After a few moments, Celestia, hesitantly spoke. “I believe that explanation would seem the most logical, given the evidence. Twilight, is there anything you can think of to slow down this process?”
“I would need some of the substance to see if I can use my new theories to reverse engineer the way it actually works.”
Rainbow Dash shook her head confidently. “I'm on it.” She shot off towards the Everfree Forest once again. It didn't take her long to find the hole, shoot down it, and come up with a dozen or so of the glowing rocks. When she arrived back at the library, Twilight and Celestia had gone. Rainbow Dash knocked on the door with her hind leg, while still hovering in air, trying not to drop any of the rocks she had procured. Twilight answered the door after a few seconds and looked curiously at Rainbow Dash.
“Dash? What are you doing with more of those rocks?”
“You said you would need more of them, so I got them, duh.”
Twilight shook her head sleepily. “I told you to come back today, and that I would send word to Celestia, not to bring more of the rocks.”
Rainbow Dash was utterly confused. “What are you talking abou,t we just...”
Just then, Celestia flew down, startling them both. “Ah Rainbow Dash, I didn’t expect you here so early, but I'm glad you came. Are those the rocks in question?”
Rainbow Dash shook her head. “Yes, these are what that cheater has been using to win the races.”
“Let us go inside so I can have a look at them.”
Confused, Rainbow Dash followed them inside, and set the rocks down on a table. Celestia looked at the rocks carefully, saying “hmm,” several times. Finally, after several minutes she looked at Twilight. “Twilight, can you describe the process you used to distill these down to the water you let Rainbow Dash drink?”
Twilight smiled sheepishly. “Uh yes, I broke them down by grinding it to powder. Then I heated the dust to extract the liquid. I then used a compensator and a small vile to collect the liquid.”
“And you say that the liquid maintained the glowing property you observed in the rocks, but was unable to explain?”
“That is correct.”
“Hmm, Rainbow Dash, please wait outside while I talk with Twilight.”
“Yes Princess.” Rainbow Dash went outside as she was told. She sat there for several minutes, before she began to felt tired. She had been doing so much the last three days she hadn't gotten very much sleep. Surly a nap couldn't hurt, at least while the Princess talked with Twilight about whatever it was they were talking about. She slowly let her eyes shut, then slipped off to sleep.