Twilight looked on in wonder, first at the Wonderbolts, who seemed as confused as she was, and then at the pegasus she thought she knew.
“W-what?” asked Surprise in shock.
“I QUIT!!!!!! I QUIT!!!!!! I QUIT!!!!!!” screamed Rainbow Dash as she tore off her Wonderbolt mask, threw it in the mud and stomped on it. “I'M NOT GOING TO DO IT ANYMORE! I DON'T WANT TO BE A WONDERBOLT!” Twilight cast a revealment spell on the enraged pegasus, to be sure she wasn't really a changeling, but the spell only confirmed her persona. That really was Rainbow Dash, tears streaming down her face, tearing at what remained of her uniform, quitting the Wonderbolts.
“Why?” asked Misty in confusion.
Dash ripped off her uniforms leggings with her teeth and spat them onto the ground. “I'm going further into the forest. The rest of you, GO HOME! Tell Spitfire she's in charge again!”
“But... Dash,” warned Silver Lining, “You were wrong. It is dangerous in the forest. If you keep going, you could die!”
“Better than going back with you!” yelled Dash, who had so many tears streaming down her face Twilight wondered how she was able to speak at all, let alone clearly.
The Wonderbolts looked at each other in confusion then at Dash. After a painfully silent minute High Winds asked what the other Wonderbolts were thinking “What do you want us to tell the press?”
“I DON'T CARE!!! Wait a second, scratch that; I do care. Tell them I'm dead!”
The Wonderbolts stared at each other in total confusion, until Lightning Streak broke out in a grin and a hearty chuckle, “I get it!” he called, "Brilliant! We all say you’re dead, and then you rock up to your own funeral with the rescued Princess! You'll be a true hero! Your ratings will skyrock-” WHACK! A rock the size of a stallion’s hoof nailed Lightning Streak's forehead, knocking him unconscious as he fell ten feet into the mud.
“GET OUT!!!” screamed Rainbow Dash, as she picked up another stone and hurled it at Fleet Foot, grazing her ear, “GET OUT OF THE FOREST, BEFORE I BEAT YOU ALL OUT!!!!” Dash ignored Silver Lining and Rapidfire as they returned to collect Lightning Streak from the mud, but went after the rest of the team, pelting stone after stone like a mad mare as they made their headlong retreat down the hill. For a brief moment Twilight wondered, (along with twenty other questions), if Dash intended to chase them all the way Canterlot, but after reaching the foot of the hill, Dash abandoned the chase, collapsed in a pile of mud, and lay perfectly still as though she were dead.
Shining Armor stepped beside Twilight, eyes on the muddy, comatose mare beneath them. “She used to be your friend, right?” He asked, sounding as confused as she felt.
“Yeah.”
“Could you go talk to her and try and figure out what just happened?”
Twilight teleported to Rainbow Dash; she still hadn't moved, but Twilight was relieved to see that she was breathing steadily. “I'm alright Twilight” said Rainbow, eventually without looking or Twilight or opening her eyes.
“Did you just kill Lightning Streak with that rock?”
“Trust me, he has a thick skull, he'll be fine.” Twilight waited, unsure of what to say, until Rainbow broke the silence “...I'm sorry”.
“… For what?”
“I lied. I knew the Wonderbolts weren’t up to something like this, but I brought them anyway. I lied to Shining Armor; saying bringing them was a good idea and I lied to them; saying there was nothing dangerous in the forest, and we were going to pick up the Princess from a secret royal holiday retreat. Now Applejack is dying because I was too stupid to do what I should have done eleven months ago.”
“Which is…?”
“Quit.”
“But... you loved being a Wonderbolt. You kept on saying how happy you were in all your letters.”
“I stopped sending those letters ages ago Twilight, and even at the start, most of what I said wasn't true. They're cowards. Spitfire aside, they have the combined intelligence of a jar of mustard and the only ponies they care about are themselves. When I quit, they thought that I was probably going to die soon, and their biggest concern was still how this would affect their ratings.”
“It can't have been that bad;” said Twilight sitting down, “What about the magazine article you sent me about the Wonderbolts doing the charity show at the orphanage? You all looked so happy in the pictures, or was that article a fake?”
Rainbow groaned and rolled onto her side to look at Twilight for the first time. “No. That was real. They were more than happy to do a free performance, give the kids rides, let the kids give them face paints, and all the rest of it. But then the cameras left and so did the Wonderbolts, even though half the kids hadn't had a chance to meet us yet. I'd only been a Wonderbolt for a month so I assumed there must be a good reason, but there wasn't; they just wanted to take the evening off and get drunk.”
Twilight took several moments for the implications of what her friend was telling her to sink in. “But if you hated being with the Wonderbolts so much, why didn't you come back to Ponyville?”
“Because I didn’t want to be a weather pegasus for the rest of my life; that was just filling in time while I waited for something worthwhile. I thought that job was being a Wonderbolt, but even after I knew the Wonderbolts weren’t what I wanted, it was better than consigning myself to a normal job for the rest of my life.”
“So what are you going to do now?”
“I don’t know Twilight. I just don't know.”
“Do you still want to try and help reach Cadance and Storm?”
Rainbow looked surprised, “You still want me?”
“Of course.”
“What about Shining Armor? He seems to be the one calling the shots, and I don't think he likes me that much.”
“Come on” said Twilight offering a hoof to help Rainbow Dash off the ground, “Let's go talk to him.”
Rainbow accepted Twilight's hoof, and rolled to her hooves, but realized her wings were too muddy to fly. With a small grunt of disgust, she began climbing the hill beside Twilight. The gradient was steep and tiring, but as they climbed so did Rainbow's fragile spirits and by the time they finished their ascent, Rainbow had almost began hoping that there might still be a life for her after the Wonderbolts. The sun was setting by the time they rejoined Shining Armor, who had reorganized the Wonderbolts’ discarded supplies, and was now trotting around the trees peering into their upper branches.
“What are you doing?” asked Twilight.
Shining Armor glanced at her, glared at Rainbow, and then returned his focus on the labyrinth crown of a sycamore tree. “I'm looking for Pyromite, he's disappeared.”
Rainbow Dash dropped back to her knees when she heard the name, and for a moment Twilight thought she was on the verge of another breakdown. “I'm sorry Twilight. He's dead.”
“What!? How!?”
“He...he flew into a changeling and blew himself up.”
Twilight's horror lingered a brief moment and was then replaced by a soft smile “That's OK; he does that. Part of a phoenix’s life cycle is to burn themselves out and then be reborn from the ashes.” Twilight put her hoof to her mouth, gave a sharp whistle, and Pyromite popped out of a pile of nearby ash.