Rainbow Dash couldn't stand still. Which wasn't all that uncommon for the rainbow manned speedster. Today was different. Dash wasn't pacing because her athletic body had to move. She wasn't warming up for a cool new trick. She was anxious. Like, more anxious than she had been in a long time. This was somewhere between waiting on the new Daring Doo book and the Young Flyers Competition. It was a feeling she didn't get often and the suspense was killing her.
"Come on Twilight!" she groaned.
The purple unicorn didn't even look up from the check list. The sound the pencil made as she checked off each item was starting to rub Dash's ears raw. A creeping sensation had started to make its way into Dash's wings. Trying to dispel it Dash flapped her wings a time or two blowing the list out from Twilight telekinetic grasp plastering itself against the wall. Giving Dash a warning look she walked over and pulled the list from the wall.
A few checks later Twilight glanced over to Dash and gave her a smile,
"I'm ready."
"Finally!" Dash said in relief.
The two left the library behind.
"What do you think she like," asked Dash in excitement.
"I don't know, Block Print never wrote much about herself."
"Oh, come on Twilight. I'm sure you have some idea, you always reading something surely you should have some kind of idea." pleaded Dash.
"Well, she went to the same college as Ditzy so that means she went to Clover University. And if I remember correctly I think Ditzy said that Block was the captain of the school's flight team." answered Twilight.
"I knew it!" gleefully exclaimed Dash, "She's so awesome it just bleeds into her writing and that is why Daring Doo is so good."
"And I think she also played in the Equestrian games" added Twilight.
"See, See I knew you knew something about her!" said the Pegasus as she took flight and doing a low altitude aerial flip.
The soon reached Ditzy's door. Intoxicated with her excitement Dash rushed up and gave the door a rapid knock. Turning to Twilight she was wearing a nervous smile,
"I went out and bought all of the Daring Doo books and a couple posters just so she could sign them," she squeed.
The door slowly opened and they were greeted by the warm smile of a gray walleyed pegasus,
"Hello, girls! I'm glad you came."
"Yeah sure!" said Dash as she rushed past Ditzy and began looking for the author.
"Wait Dash!" yelled out Twilight as she watched the mare disappear into the house. Ditzy gestured for Twilight to enter and the two walked in.
"I'm sorry Ditzy. Dash is just really excited," she explained.
"It's alright, Twilight. I'm well aware of how crazy she can be when she is exited."
"Ok, where are you Ms. Block Print," growled Dash in frustration.
"Oh, I'll be out in a moment!" came a mellow voice from somewhere in the back. "I've waited long enough," thought Dash as he headed for the more private area's of the house. She quickly discovered that somepony was in the bathroom. The sound of a flushing told Dash that she needed to go back to the living room and wait. She would hate one of her fans if they camped out side of her bathroom waiting eagerly to see her, that would be creepy.
She found Twilight and Ditzy sitting on the couch chatting back and forth about the weather and current events. Both were topics that she had no interest in. She was a weather pony so weather was something she didn't want to talk about if she didn't have too. Current events were just stupid. The only thing she would even pay attention too was if the Apple's were hosting a cider tasting or if the Wonderbolts were coming to town. Removing her saddle bags she sat on the end of the couch and waited. And waited. And waited.
Her wings started to twitch again this time not in because of anxiety but because she was starting to become annoyed. Her ears perked up as she heard the door open down the hall. Something was squeaking and it was coming closer. Her mind went crazy trying to figure out what that squeaking could be. After thinking about a dozen or so possibilities she settled on the best one, and that one was the thought of Daring Doo walking into the living room wearing faux leather chaps and a corset. She was not expecting what she saw.
The dark khaki mare floated into the room. No she wasn't floating, she was rolling. The mare offered Dash a wide confident smile from the seat of her shiny chrome and black wheelchair. A black pair of wire framed glasses balanced ever so slightly on the pegasus nose. Placing her hooves on her wheels she rolled forward and offered Dash a hoof in greeting,
"My name is Block Print, and I'm-"
Before she could even introduce herself several expressions crossed Dash's face in rapid succession. First was Awe, that one Block had been expecting but each subsequent expression took away from the first impression. Dash's face twisted into a look of confusion, then her mouth fell open in shock, then after closing her mouth she wore a slight frown, and lastly, a brandishing of teeth in absolute rage. Dash didn't give the author the time to say anything she just rushed to the door and flew out into the open air.
Dropping her hoof, Block watched the rainbow manned mare fly off into the distance. This was why she didn't do public signings. Watching the pony that Ditzy had called Block's biggest fan fly off without even introducing herself her heart felt heavy. It hurt, it was like reliving the worst moment of her life over and over again. And frankly she would have chosen the crash over this, all the crash did was break her body. This was like the of breaking her soul.
"I'm so sorry, Blocky." said Ditzy and she walked over and rested a hoof on the author shoulder trying to comfort the mare. Block didn't even turn to acknowledge her friends attempt to comfort her. Raising a hoof to her face she discovered that she had been crying. Holding the hoof out she could see the dampness glistening on it like the moon's reflection.
The purple unicorn left her spot on the couch and walked over,
"I can't... I can't believe she-"
"Don't say anything. Don't say a bucking thing, lady!" croaked Block as she held her hoof up like she was going to silence the mare if she said another word. She watched as the unicorn slunk back and turned away as if she didn't want to even look at her.
"I don't have to deal with this manure," spat the khaki mare as she rolled back toward Ditzy's bedroom.
Twilight started to stop her but Ditzy held her back,
"Let her go Twilight, you can't help her."
After a few minuets they could hear sobbing echo its way up the hall. Ditzy wanted to walk back there and comfort her friend. But, she knew there was nothing she could do. No amount of baked treats or tubs of ice cream could cure Blocks sadness. Once she started crying there was nothing that could be done, except let her cry it out. She watched Twilight pick up her saddle bags and place them on her back after hers were fastened to he back she went for Dash's.
"Hold on Twilight. I'll carry Dash's." Ditzy as she walked from her kitchen to the living room.
"I can get it," replied Twilight lowly.
"No, I'll get it and we can take them back to the library,"
"You don't need to leave her."
Sighing Ditzy strapped on the saddle bags and headed for the still open door,
"There is nothing I can do and if I stay here I'll start to beat myself up about this whole mess. This was my idea and now I think I need to take a walk. I need a chance to get some perspective."
"That was the lowest thing Ditzy has ever done to me," said Dash as she looked out from her cloud at the setting sun. "Some birthday present. I know Dash likes pranks so I'll go and find a mare that sorta looks like Daring Doo and I'll get her plot down in a wheelchair and get her to pretend to be Block Print. I'll get one of my best friends hopes up and then I'll smash them with a hammer." she thought.
Laying down Dash watched the sun slowly sink below the horizon. Ditzy had pranked her big time and Dash couldn't even laugh about it. It was all Dash could do to keep from crying. "I bet Twilight was in on it. That's why she was taking so bucking long. She had to give Ditzy plenty of time to help the imposter get her lines down right. Like I was stupid enough to believe it for even a second."
Dash tried to be mad. She tried to convince herself that her friends had pulled the cruelest prank ever but it didn't add up. Ditzy was one of the kindest mares she knew, second only to Fluttershy. And Twilight wasn't mean, not to mention she couldn't pull a prank with a straight face in joke shop. The truth hurt.
With nothing else to think about she started to think about the wheelchair bound mare. Nothing really stood out as awesome. She looked like any other pegasus mare. Her coat was drab and her monochromatic mane was plain uncool even if she did look like Daring Doo. She wasn't Daring Doo. More and more started to come back to her the longer she thought about it.
"Her legs, they were so thin. I've never saw a pony with such gangly looking legs." She said to herself, "except?"
Her mind flashed back to her time in the hospital. The very time she discovered that she actually enjoyed reading for the fun of it. She had seen a colt with legs just like the Daring Doo imposter. A nurse would roll him pass her room ever so often and he never once looked sad. He wasn't whole but it didn't seem to bother him. It slowly dawned on her that the imposter might not have been a imposter at all. And even if she was Dash wasn't going to get to let her live it down. If this was a prank she would need her wing-pony Pinkie and if the mare was the real deal she had to make it up to her. The best way to make up for doing something was to say you were sorry and to throw the pony a party. And you can't have a party without Pinkie.
"Thanks Ditzy, for helping with the saddle bags. And I'm sorry for how everything turned out." said Twilight.
If Ditzy had heard her she didn't act like it. She just gazed off into space like she was going to find the answerer she needed. Her jaw was slack and she seemed to be on the verge of tears herself. Twilight couldn't tear her eyes away from the gray mare. She wasn't one of her closest friends but she was a friend nonetheless.
"Would you like to come in? I think I may have a few muffins left over from breakfast," said Twilight trying to cheer Ditzy up. Even the promise of muffins didn't phase the mare and Ditzy never turned down muffins.
"If something happened and you lost what made you special how would that make you feel?" asked Ditzy lowly.
"I don't know," said Twilight, "I guess I would feel worthless or I would feel like I had been cheated."
On her way to Sugarcube Corner Dash sailed over the library. She noticed the door was open and she could see two forms standing in the light of the door. Making a U-turn Dash swung back to get a better look. She could barely make out Twilight standing just outside the door and Ditzy was a few feet from her. Neither seemed to be very happy. They didn't look like ponies who had pulled a prank so Dash slowly descended. Landing gently among the higher branches of the library tree, she creped closer to the door way. Knowing it was wrong, she decided to eavesdrop on their conversation.
"Cheated? Doesn't even begin to describe it," muttered Ditzy.
The gray mare took on a different look entirely, she wasn't the bubbly mare that she knew and loved. The mare standing before Twilight wore a mask that hid deep emotional scars. As the mare turned to look at Twilight her bright golden eyes had dimed as if her twin suns were being eclipsed.
"Me and Block were foals together and she was my only friend. She was the only pony other than my parents that loved me for me. When Block looked at me she didn't see a handicapped pony with weird wandering eyes she just saw a pony. We were inseparable until fist grade and then we were only separated because her and her parents moved away." Said Ditzy.
"Come on in and tell me the rest," said Twilight with a polite smile. Ditzy hung her head and then walked it. The two mares got comfortable on Twilight's couch. After a few moments Ditzy turned to Twilight and started to finish her story,
"It was a hard time for me but I managed to get through school but I still didn't make any friends. In the third grade I met Dash. In hindsight I think the reason I was drawn to Dash was because she reminded me of Blocky. They were both cocky and brash. They both were jerks with hearts of gold. Dash latter introduced me to Fluttershy and things looked up.
High school came and went. I got a letter from Block saying that she had gotten a scholarship to Clover University. I wanted to go there so bad. I thought it would be nice to go hang out and go to school with Blocky again. So, I studied hard and managed to pass the entrance exam. I did have really good grades in school. I'm not as dumb as ponies make me out to be.
So there I was a college student and It was the beginning of some of the happiest years of my life. Blocky told me that she had played in the Equestrian games her junior year of high school and I remembered scolding her for letting me miss it. I would have loved to watch her.
We became really close again. Junior year she got a letter in the mail. It was just like so many others that she had received. She had sent a letter to the Wonderbolts every week from her twentieth birthday on. She handed me the letter and told me to open it up and read it. I really didn't want to. The Wonderbolts would never say more than they had their eye on her and that soon as she really came into her wings they wanted to give her a trial period. This time was different. The letter was an acceptance letter and as I read it Blocky's eyes tried to pop out of her head."
"So, she really is like Dash. She wanted to be a Wonderbolt," said Twilight.
"Yep! Performing was her favorite thing in the world. She learned she like it while in the fillyscouts. She also earner her Cutie Mark while orienteering. She was so good that they couldn't just let her compete against kids her age so they allowed her to enter in adult completions and she still won more than her fair share of them. But, back to my story.
So she had been accepted into the Wonderbolts and she was so happy. She only had a few more flight team races before the end of Junior year, so she stayed to finish up. In the second to last race of junior year she flew against a filly who was considered the number one colligate flyer at the time, and her name was Fleetfoot.
Fleetfoot was fast and in the first leg of the race she was ahead of Block by three body lengths but Block hated loosing so she started to try harder. Soon she had caught up with the filly but that wasn't enough. She pumped her wings faster and harder than I have ever seen. She went so fast that a cone started to form around her and just before she broke the sound barrier it snapped back like a big rubber band plowing her into the ground.
Paraponies ran out to check on her and they found her really messed up. She had broken both back legs, a wing, and three vertebrae. It knocked her silly and she was in a coma for three weeks. When she woke up the doctors told her she would never walk again. It bothered her but she could still fly or so she thought. She tried but the pain was so unbearable that every time she tried she would end up squalling."
"So that's how she became a paraplegic." stated Twilight.
"Yes, and it broke her," added Ditzy, "I tried every thing. Nothing could make her happy. The Wonderbolts even tried to make her an honorary member but she wouldn't have it. As soon as she was able to leave the intensive care unit she was moved to the psych unit and she stayed there for a couple months. Me and her psychologist got her to start writing and in her writing she found her wings again."
Perched on a limb Dash had heard everything. Her hero was just like her. The mare had even went as far as to almost achieve the sonic rainboom. Only to have it blow up in her face and cripple her for life. Wet from her tears Dash looked back towards Ditzy's house. She took off from the branch knowing what she had to do.
She slowly approached Ditzy's house landing just a few feet away. She made her way around the building a peeped inside Ditzy's bedroom window. On the bed lay the khaki mare. Her rhythmic breathing alerted Dash that she was a sleep. Placing her hooves on the closed window Dash slowly wiggled it open. A draft blew in across her back side as the night air rushed into the room. It danced across Block's coat and mane. The air rustled through her feathers. The sudden coolness caused the mare to draw up trying to get warm.
Looking down on the mare Dash mentally kicked herself as she slipped into the room. She watched as Block took in another breath as her breast rose and fell. Her eyes were puffy and matted. "She must have been crying," thought Dash. Raising a hoof she started to poke Block in the side but just before she started inching forward to do it she decided on a different approach, although it was a bit sappy. With her hoof she brushed the monochromatic mane out from over Block's eyes and gently moved it behind her ear. She then traced her hoof from the mares ear down her neck. Block shuttered at the touch and lazily opened an eye.
"Ditzy?" she muttered still half asleep.
Dash smile,
"No, I'm not Ditzy."
Block bolted up right and the bed now wide awake with wide eyes and a fierce scrawl,
"What are you doing here!" she barked.
"I'm... I'm here to say I'm sorry," replied Dash with lowered ears.
"I don't need your piety," snapped Block.
"Just shut up blockhead and listen," barked back Dash.
Opening her mouth to yell again she immediately closed it as Dash shot her a hard look,
"Ok, I'll listen."
"You were there for me when I was down, and I want to return the favor."
"What? I've never even met you, how could I have helped you," replied Block as she looked Dash over.
"Lets fix that," said Dash as she held out her hoof in greeting, "My name is Rainbow Dash and I've waited along time to meet you. Other than the Wonderbolts you are my hero."
Cringing at the mention of the Wonderbolts she looked first at Dash's hoof and then at her face. She quickly bumped hooves with Dash and then said hurriedly,
"mynameisblockprintnicetomeetyounowwillyouleavemealone, please."
Dash gave her a wide grin,
"When I was in the hospital a while back after getting hurt while practicing some of my sweet moves I was board out of my mind. So Twilight brought me a book."
Crossing her hooves across her chest Block glared at Dash and thought, "I'm not getting out of this, am I."
"To be honest I've never really enjoyed reading but I didn't have anything else to do so I started to read the book. It was your first book, Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone. It was so good I couldn't put it down. And before I knew it they were discharging me from the hospital. I didn't want my friends thinking that I liked something as egg headed as reading so instead of going to the library I snuck back into the hospital to finish reading. Long story short I ended up being chased from the hospital by the night guards and everypony learned that I thought reading was kinda cool."
"How did it help you besides helping you to find that you liked reading?" asked Block sardonically.
"Daring couldn't fly through most of the book and at the moment neither could I. It was like I had a buddy who was going through the same thing as me. Flying is my life but Daring helped me realize that flying is just what I enjoy. Flying isn't all I am. I am more than just my feathers." answered Dash.
Dropping her hooves to her sides Block's mouth hung open as she realized something about her own writing she hadn't even considered. That a pony may actually relate to her character.
"I don't know what to say, Rainbow Dash."
Reaching over Dash pulled Block into a hug,
"You don't have to say anything, just let me make up for how I treated you earlier."
Pulling away Block gave Dash a questioning look,
"Why did you treat me that way?"
Scratching the back of her head Dash thought for a moment and then answered,
"I have this problem where I put my heroes on a pedestal. Sometimes I forget they are ponies too."
Laughing Block replied,
"I do that too." A moment past and Block asked,
"So how are you going to make it up too me?"
Stepping up on the bed Dash laid belly down and turned to the window,
"Hop on!"
"What?"
"Hop on, I'm taking you flying."
Block hesitated at first but eventually complied. She crawled up on Dash's back and wraping her forelegs around her neck,
"Others have taken me flying before, now how is this going to be different?"
"That's easy blockhead, no one has taken you as fast as I'm about too," yelled Dash as the pair zoomed out the window into the night air. The quickly gained altitude and were now flying hundreds of feet from the town bellow,
"Are you ready?"
"Ready for for whaaaaaa!" screamed Block as Dash dived. The plummeted to the earth. Clouds whizzed by as the ground reached up to meet them. Block could feel her lips start to peal back as the g forces started to build. The wind whistling through Dash's wings screamed like an orchestra of wood winds. And a cone of energy started to build around them. Panic set in as Block realized what Dash was doing,
"NO! You can't do this!" screamed Block. Turning her head Dash Smiled,
"What this!' she answered as the cone shattered just before the duo touched the ground. Arcing the two rocketed upwards leaving a rainbow in their wake. Block had never imagined a pony could fly this fast as buildings and trees passed underneath them. Their momentum eventually gave out and Dash landed on a big fluff cloud.
"OHMYGOSHOMYGOSHOMYGOSHOHMYGOSH," shrieked Block as she rolled off of Dash's back falling to the fluff below.
"Awsome, huh!" beamed Dash.
Shooting out her wings in excitement Block looked like one of Dash's fanfillies,
"I don't know what to say," said Block between giggles.
"You don't have to-" said Dash before being cut off by the feeling of warm lips hitting her cheek. Block didn't pull away quickly but when she did she saw that Dash was the cutest shade of red she had ever seen,
"That was letting me relive one of my life's greatest joys. Thank you Rainbow Dash."
"I..er...your welcome," squeaked Dash as she willed her blush to go away.
Letting out a melodious laugh she punched Dash in the shoulder as hard as she could. Dash finished and backed away rubbing her now sore shoulder,
"What was that for?"
Giving Dash a mischievous grin she answered,
"That was for calling me a blockhead!"