The Awesome Spider-Dash: Origins

by Flufux

2) A lecture in Heroism, Part 2

Episode 2
A lecture in Heroism, Part 2
How to not use your powers responsibly

Rainbow Dash had always been a very athletic person. Even as a child she couldn't sit down and relax without falling asleep out of boredom. She needed to move, she needed to run, she needed to make the impossible possible. For a long time, there were none who could even hope to match her speed and determination...until she went to High School.

While Rainbow was still one of the best, there were at least three others who could challenge her there.

While they may be best friends, the rivalry between Applejack and Rainbow Dash was legendary. Having grown up on a farm, Applejack had spent most of her days doing hard labour, often while working in the harsh summer sun. This left her with an excellent physique and a very well-trained body. While she may not be able to run as fast as Dash could, she made up for it in strength and endurance. There was probably not a single student at Canterlot High who had ever beaten her in an arm wrestle. Her determination to win against Rainbow Dash in whatever they competed in was unrelenting, even if they were competing in marathon running, soccer, basketball, swimming contests, martial arts or even video games.

Her other two rivalries were not so friendly though, especially considering one of them just so happened to be Gilda. Rainbow and Gilda used to compete in a similar manner to how Dash did with Applejack, with all of it ultimately being in good fun. Growing up in a pretty bad neighbourhood with a family of gangsters, Gilda had learned long ago to fend for herself. From years of harsh training, she became proficient in all manner of physical activities, including street fighting and many types of sports. Suffice to say, she was not someone to have on your bad side...as a couple unfortunate would-be-muggers found out the hard way. And while her rivalry with Rainbow Dash may have started out friendly, after their breakup, it was anything but.

Rainbow's greatest challenge though was Lightning Dust. A daredevil with an obsession with testing her absolute limits and proving to the world that she was the best at everything it could throw at her with no consideration or empathy for anybody in her way. She was one of the few who could easily outrun Rainbow Dash and didn't get winded nearly as often as she did...curtesy of her slightly longer legs. Her greatest weakness though was that she was extremely reckless and didn't fully grasp the concept of teamwork. During Rainbow's first year at CHS, Lightning reached out to her and they quickly became fast friends. That friendship, however, was short lived. It didn't take Rainbow long before she began to realise how selfish and manipulative Lightning was, especially with how she didn't seem to bat an eye when she tried to win a race by deliberately cutting the other players off...seriously injuring one of them in the process. Even worse: when Rainbow confronted her about that, she simply asked 'so what?' in the most nonchalant manner possible and shrugged it off. After that, Dash chose to never trust Lightning Dust again.

However, despite all of their strengths and achievements, they were still bound by the limitations of the human body...Rainbow Dash wasn't...not anymore.

---

The halls of Canterlot High were, as always, filled with people coming and going all over the place. Some moved about in a calm and orderly fashion, and some others...not so much.

Most students and teachers in those hallways probably would have had a hard time describing the prismatic blur that suddenly zipped past them without any warnings given aside from a few "Coming through!"s, "Sorry!"s or "Move out of the way!"s...which all came by so fast that none of them were really able to react properly anyway.

The blur was, of course, Rainbow Dash in a hurry to get from one end of the school to the other. Since she had lost track of time during her, admittedly relaxing, visit to the garden with Fluttershy, she was running a bit late to soccer practice, and that was something that she couldn't afford considering her reputation as one of CHS's best athletes. So to make up for lost time, she decided to get there by running as fast as she could...which was pretty damn fast (especially with her new abilities). Her spider-sense was also a good help since it warned her of the many obstacles in her path, whether they be people, lockers or opening doors.

Eventually though, Rainbow reached the girls' locker room. While this might have seemed like a good time to take a quick breather, the fact that nobody else was in here only made it more obvious how late she was. Most likely, the other players had already changed and were out in the field waiting for her...or worse yet, having started without her.

Not wasting any time, she quickly opened her bag and pulled out her sportswear before she began to remove most of the clothes she was currently wearing.

After she had slipped off her jacket and t-shirt, leaving her upper body only covered by her bra, she heard a familiar voice behind her remark, "Late again, Dash."

Rainbow didn't need to turn around to know who just spoke to her and continued to unzip her jeans while replying, "Yeah, tell me something I don't know, Gilda."

Close to the door leading to the soccer field, Gilda was casually leaning against the wall while keeping her eyes squarely on Rainbow Dash with her arms crossed...though not in a suggestive way, as one might expect from someone watching another changing clothes, but with clear disdain and anger.

"How about this one? Get your lazy butt over to practice already. We're all waiting on you!" Gilda complained, her patience running thin

While she slipped on a white top with a rainbow lightning bolt printed on it, Rainbow repeated, "Like I said: tell me something I don't know."

Gilda rolled her eyes, "You really want me to go down that road, Dash? Because there's a lot of things your simple brain doesn't seem to know..."

Rainbow suddenly turned around to look Gilda in the eyes and asked, "What the hell is your problem?! Why can't you stop acting like some stupid psycho ex-girlfriend for five minutes and leave me alone?!"

"Oh, you know exactly what my problem is." Gilda rebuked with venom in her tone.

"What? You're still mad because I broke up with you?" Rainbow asked as she put on a pair of blue training shorts.

Gilda answered that by menacingly approaching her former lover with her fists clenched. "Of course I am! Did you think I dated you just because you had a nice ass? No! I loved you! I freaking loved you! You were the only damn thing I had in my life that wasn't a complete mess! You were everything I had! And then you decided to throw all that away, and for what?!"

Rainbow got right in Gilda's face and shouted, "Because you turned into a complete psycho! You know how much my friends means to me, and the way you treated them was so not cool. I could never date someone who is willing to insult and even threaten the people I care about!"

"Trust me, I know how much your 'friends' means to you...especially that one little pink-haired dormouse you keep making goo goo eyes at."

Dash was starting to realise where this was going, and she didn't like it. "Hold on a minute, are you saying this is all because you were a little jealous? Is that it!?"

"Well, how would you feel if the love of your life cared more for some lame hippy who's afraid of her own shadow than you?"

"Fluttershy! Is not! LAME!"

"So you admit it then? You were planning on dumping me anyway, weren't you? To be with your little sweetheart and leave me living miserable and alone in the dumps you found me in? Some perfect girlfriend you were..."

Rainbow's rage was about to explode any second now. "Well, maybe I should have done that! Fluttershy is a much better person than you'll ever be, and this stupid obsession you have just proves it! Do you think I could ever love someone as selfish and possessive as you are?"

"That didn't seem to stop you from being friends with that criminal fashionista."

"Are you seriously pulling that one on me?! It's not like you haven't done a lot of illegal crap in your life!"

"I did what I had to do to survive in this stinking town, get that through your thick skull already! You don't have any idea what it's like to be me. You don't know what it's like to have a dad who kicked you out onto the streets just because having a gay daughter would 'ruin his image', or having a mom who cares more about whisky than your life, or a grandpa who's a freaking super-villain! No, you, miss Rainbow 'Awesome' Dash, has a mom who's a fighter pilot and a dad who was once a world-class athlete, and they support you and all of your stupid life choices like there's no tomorrow. And you think that you're somehow the victim here?"

For just a moment, Rainbow was almost feeling bad for her. There was a small part of her deep within that still missed Gilda...but she did not let that part of her control her actions, not anymore.

"Well, boo-ho-ho, that doesn't excuse all the stuff you did, jerk!"

Gilda's eyes narrowed, all common sense, reason or compassion were gone in them, with her sharp black eyebrows only enhancing that effect. All that was left was anger...anger and hatred. Rainbow Dash responded in kind with a similar type of expression, thus showing that she too was beyond reason.

This argument had only one possible conclusion, one possible outcome, there were no parallel universes were this argument didn't lead to someone ending up with bruises and bandages by the end of the day. Gilda and Rainbow Dash had reached the point where physical violence was the only answer.

However, that confrontation would have to be put on hold.

"Are you two done already?" A third voice interrupted.

The person who spoke was a girl dressed in sharp black and greens with windswept blonde hair that slightly, if not quite, formed a Mohawk, her lips took the form of a bemused and very smug smile with a glint in her eyes that betrayed a cockiness even worse than Rainbow Dash's. It was Lightning Dust, and she had just come over to see what was taking so long when she ended up paying witness to the argument between the two former girlfriends.

Gilda sharply turned to her and declared, "None of your business, dweeb!"

Lightning rolled her eyes, "Uh, yeah it is! I've been waiting for you slowpokes to get to the field for close to..." she checked her watch"...little more than half-an-hour already, and as entertaining as watching you two bicker like an old married couple is, I have a match to win, and there are no winners without losers, are there?"

With a sliver of her competitive spirit back, Rainbow asked, "Is that a challenge?"

"Absolutely. Now are you two coming or not?"

Gilda gave Dash one last look before warning, "This isn't over."

With a tense tone in her voice, Rainbow replied, "No...it isn't."

---

While Dash had quite a few rivals, she also had some fans...

...or at least one.

Over a dozen students had gathered on Canterlot High's soccer field, most of them having already changed into their sportswear. However, none of them were playing at the moment. Instead, most of them were impatiently slouching on the grass or on the bleachers, wondering what on earth was taking their 'star player' so long.

There was one among the lot though who was practically brimming with excitement. Her name was Scootaloo: a 14 year old girl who was without a doubt Rainbow Dash's biggest fan. In fact, Rainbow had even gone so far as to accept Scootaloo as her honorary little sister.

One would be forgiven for believing that she was a boy given her short purple hair and tomboyish clothing consisting of a black hoodie and a pair of green cargo pants, but she was actually a girl...even though she didn't always act like one. There was a part of her appearance that stuck out though, and that was that the lower part of her left leg was replaced by a mechanical prosthetic, curtsy of a certain Dr Glimmer of CelestiaCorp.

Her leg had been amputated about a year ago after an accident involving an ice cream truck and her scooter, but she didn't let that crush her spirit or stop her dream of one day becoming as fast and strong as Rainbow Dash.

She was sitting on the bleachers with her best friends Sweetie Belle and Applebloom, the younger sisters of Rarity and Applejack respectively. Sweetie was the more feminine of the two, as her name might suggest, and could be recognised by her slightly curly pink and lavender hair as well as her pink jacket and yellow skirt. Applebloom was far more rustic in appearance, hailing from the same farm her big sister Applejack came from, and that was evident by her simple green shirt and jeans shorts. However, she had a very feminine bow in her red hair to make up for it.

While Scootaloo could barely contain her excitement at watching her idol quote on quote 'be awesome', her friends didn't really share the same enthusiasm.

"So...what are we waiting for again?" Sweetie Belle asked, her voice cracking a little as she spoke.

Scootaloo proudly answered, "Rainbow Dash of course! She has been training for this all summer and she's going to totally rock it!"

"Yeah, but she's sure takin' her sweeeet time..." Applebloom noted, speaking in an accent similar that of her big sister Applejack. "Seriously, what's takin' her so long?"

"Well...I'm not sure, but she promised me she would show up sooner or later."

"Did she say how much later?"

"Not really, but I bet it'll be any second now."

"I hope you're right about that."

Sweetie suggested, "Maybe she's getting prepared or something. You won't believe how much time Rarity spends prettifying herself before she leaves the house."

"Sure, but she's...well...Rarity." Applebloom noted, "I doubt Rainbow would care about that kind of stuff..." then she looked at Scootaloo "Would she?"

Scootaloo grimaced a little and revealed, "Actually...you'd be surprised." making both of her friends look at her curiously.

Scootaloo lowered her voice to a whisper, "This is kind of a secret, but..." Applebloom and Sweetie Belle leaned in closer to hear her, "...she goes to the spa, like, every week, but not when any of her friends does it, and she likes to wear vanilla perfume all the time...but mostly when she's going to meet Fluttershy. No idea why though. However, she made me 'Pinkie Promise' not to tell it to anyone, so this stays-"

"Ahem!" A voice suddenly announced behind her, causing Scootaloo's eyes to widen in dread before she slowly turned around.

Staring at her with a disapproving glare was none other than Pinkie Pie, and she was not pleased. Scootaloo was so terrified that she didn't even bother noting the strangeness of how she literally appeared out of nowhere and how she was poking her head through the bleachers. "Uh...hi, Pinkie Pie."

"Scootaloo, did you just...break a 'Pinkie Promise'?"

Scootaloo's eyes darted back and forth nervously for a moment, then she answered, "Actually...well...Rainbow sort of implied that when she said 'tell nobody about it', she meant 'nobody but Sweetie Belle and Applebloom'...I guess."

Suddenly, Pinkie Pie's mood did a complete 180 and she flashed a cheerful smile and conceded with a, "Okey dokey lokey!" before she disappeared in the same mysterious way she appeared.

The three girls let out a collective sigh of relief after she was gone. While Pinkie Pie might be one of the friendliest girls on the planet, god help you if you ever break a 'Pinkie Promise'. She happened to be very serious about those.

"Phew...good thing you managed to get out of that bag of molasses..." Applebloom noted.

Scootaloo shrugged, "Lucky me. Still, I guess it might actually be true. As long as we don't tell anyone else I suppose we're off the hook for now."

"Who am I supposed to tell anyway?" Sweetie Belle asked with just a dash of bitterness, "Rarity always did like to hear gossip like that, but...well...you know."

Noticing the mood Sweetie was starting to get in, Applebloom put an arm around her shoulders and said, "Come now, Sweetie Belle, she won't be in there forever or anythin'. It's all goin' to be fine."

"Besides, you can visit her any time you want." Scootaloo provided.

Sweetie looked down at her feet, "Yeah...through a bullet-proof glass window, with those scary guards watching me all the time." she then gave Scootaloo an angry look, "I even have to speak through a phone just to hear her, a PHONE! It just looks silly when she's sitting right in front of me."

Applebloom patted her on the back, "There, there, Sweetie, it's okay. I mean, it could be worse...right? That Storm guy is tryin' to take my family's farm away from us and I'm still in mighty good spirits, yeah...he he he..." However, her tone and nervous laughter at the end hinted that she wasn't in such 'good spirits' as she claimed.

Scootaloo added, "...And I...lost my leg." albeit with a bit more bitterness than she intended, "Yeah, that didn't really help, did it?"

"No, it probably didn't." Applebloom concurred.

Sweetie Belle sombrely noted, "Well...at least you tried."

Before the mood got too depressing for the dynamic trio though, Scootaloo spotted something that immediately got her excited. "Look girls, it's Rainbow Dash!"

---

After a lot of waiting for everyone involved, Rainbow Dash, along with Gilda and Lightning Dust, finally stepped out onto the soccer field all prepared and ready to start playing.

The first one to notice them aside from Scootaloo was the PE teacher, Miss Harshwhinny, a stern middle-aged no-nonsense woman with a Brittish accent. And as soon as she saw Dash step out in the field, she scolded, "Miss Dash! How many times do I have to remind you of punctuality? If not for the fact that your team refused to begin until you arrived, we would have already started playing half an hour ago."

One of the players, a girl with the very fitting name: Sour Sweet, used a sickeningly sweet tone to say, "Yeah, we didn't want you to miss out on anything, honey..." then she suddenly changed her whole demeanour and took on an angry, bordering on hysterical, tone, "...WHEN YOU DIDN'T SHOW UP FOR OVER TWENTY MINUTES!"

When Rainbow saw the other players' disapproving glares directed at her, as well as Lightning Dust's haughty smile, she clenched her teeth a little and nervously tried to come up with a good enough excuse. However, when she caught a glimpse of Scootaloo looking at her with an expression of joy and anticipation, her heart melted a little and Rainbow managed to gain a small smile. Her honorary younger sister tended to have that effect on her. Just knowing that she had such a devoted fan made her instantly forget how cross she was with Gilda and got her squarely in 'the zone' as it were.

With her fighting spirit back, Dash said, "Sorry teach, got held up. Now are we gonna play or just stand around talking about how bad it is that I'm late?"

Miss Harshwhinny crossed her arms, "You're not quite off the hook yet, Miss Dash, but you do have a point." then she raised her voice, "Students, you know your teams, get ready!"

Keeping her eyes on Rainbow though, Harshwhinny quietly added, "I'll have some words with you later though..."

With those words said, the players immediately scrambled to their feet and began to get to their respective positions. Some were making an effort to move as much as possible to get back the warm-ups that they lost because of the delay. Still, they were quite eager that something was finally happening.

---

There were two teams, the Wondercolts and the Shadowbolts, Rainbow's and Lightning's teams respectively.

The Shadowbolts consisted of Lightning Dust, her sister Indigo Zap, Gilda, Sugarcoat, Sour Sweet and two other girls named Lemon Zest and Sunny Flare.

The Wondercolts (named after the Wonderbolts Squad Dash's mom was once a part of) consisted of Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Lyra Heartstrings, Bon Bon and Vinyl Scratch. At one point, Zephyr Breeze wanted to join them (probably in an attempt to impress Rainbow Dash), but got kicked out after a terrible performance. Ditzy Do got his spot on the team instead.

While Rainbow Dash had a lot of faith in her team, she knew they had little to no chance of beating the Shadowbolts. The members of the rival team were just way more disciplined, with a clear cut goal of winning above all else. Also, with Lightning Dust, Gilda and Indigo Zap, some of the school's best athletes, on their side, they held a clear advantage. The Wondercolts were mostly playing for fun, and some of them joined just because nobody else would take them. Rainbow Dash, Applejack and interestingly enough Pinkie Pie were about the only ones on the team who were even that good at these kinds of sports. They had tried to score a win against the Shadowbolts for close to a year now, but so far, it simply hadn't happened.

However, as Rainbow Dash stared into Lightning Dust's eyes in the middle of the soccer field, she knew that was about to change. While she had promised Twilight that she wouldn't show off her spider-powers in public, she decided that she was going to use at least some of it today. No wall-crawling or web-shooting of course, but that was not all that was new with her.

With her spider-sense she knew exactly where every single player on the field was, and that was an advantage that none on the opposing team had. And with her increased speed, agility and reflexes, she was pretty sure that not even Lightning Dust would be able to keep up with her. However, the cocky daredevil didn't seem to be aware of that yet.

All her muscles properly warmed up and ready, a small line of sweat coming from her forehead, Rainbow could see that Lightning was prepared to score the next win. The slightly sociopathic grin on her face only made that more apparent. "So, Dash, ready for another defeat?"

Rainbow Dash, by contrast, was far more relaxed. She held a slightly nonchalant pose, and while her grin was just as smug as her rival, her expression was far less aggressive. Her demeanour spoke of someone who knew, not just thought, that she was going to win...even without much effort given. "I don't know...are you?"

"Me? Lose? HA! Don't you remember what happened last year? Because if I remember correctly, your stupid team couldn't get a single point. I mean, I can take losing a match, but that was just embarrassing."

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that. I promise you though, this time, things are gonna be different."

"As if."

"Don't say I didn't warn you."

Miss Harshwhinny came up between them, a soccer ball in her hands. "Alright then, students. I want to see a clear and fair match. Anybody who is caught breaking the rules or sabotaging for the other players will be immediately sent off their team with a dire warning." with a bitter look directed at Lightning, she added, "That goes double for you, Miss Dust. Understood?"

After letting out a small groan while rolling her eyes, Lightning reluctantly answered, "Yes, ma'am."

Seemingly satisfied with her answer, Miss Harshwhinny placed the ball on the ground between the two star athletes and stepped away from the field. "Alright then, begin on my signal."

Anticipation filled the air as everyone waited for said signal. Scootaloo was sitting at the edge of her seat trying to get the best view possible, Gilda was keeping an eye on her ex-girlfriend like a hawk, Lightning Dust was waiting like a bear trap ready to go off at any moment, Applejack licked her lips once in anticipation, Pinkie Pie was jumping up and down happily (like she always did), Lyra and Vinyl appeared to be communicating something via hand gestures while Bon Bon looked between the two confusingly, Zephyr Breeze turned out to be sitting on the bleachers while trying to get a good view of Rainbow's backside (pervert), and Rainbow Dash herself was sensing all of this with her Spider-sense.

Just before the game started, Rainbow commanded, "Derpy, catch!"

Then the signal came in the form of Miss Harshwhinny's whistle, letting everybody know that the game was officially on.

Lightning Dust reacted as fast as any ordinary human being possibly could when she moved her foot to kick the ball, but Rainbow Dash was way faster than her, and managed to use her foot to send it flying back to her team member Ditzy Doo, who somehow managed to react quickly enough to kick it straight across the field over to where Applejack was waiting for it.

Once Applejack got the ball, she started to charge towards the opposing team's goal with the determination of a raging bull. Indigo Zap tried to cut her off and take it from her, but Applejack would have none of it, and managed to keep the ball well out of Indigo's reach. However, when Gilda also ran at her, she knew she was about to be outmatched. So as a last ditch resort, she tried to kick the ball over to one of her teammates on the other side of the field...only to severely miss, sending it towards Lightning Dust instead.

Seeing the opportunity, Lightning lined up the next shot perfectly and kicked it with enough force to send it flying directly towards the other team's goal. As usual, she had managed to use her quick thinking to score her team an easy point without much of a hassle at all. Or...at least that was what she thought she had done.

What she didn't expect was for Rainbow Dash to jump a metre up into the air, intercept the ball, and kick it with enough force to send it straight into the Shadowbolts' goal so fast that their goalie Lemon Zest didn't have a chance of reacting quickly enough to do anything to stop it.

It had all happened so fast that it took a few seconds for everyone to comprehend what had just transpired. While Rainbow Dash was known for pulling off some very impressive feats, none of the other players had ever seen her do anything quite like that.

Scootaloo, in fact, was so amazed by the what she had just witnessed that all she could say was, "Wow..."

Lightning Dust was speechless, her jaw was dropped, and she kept frantically looking between her goal and a very smug-looking Rainbow Dash. She wasn't just surprised by Dash's gravity-defying jump kick, but also the fact that she managed to instantly turn what would have been a guaranteed goal for the Shadowbolts into a win for the Wondercolts.

Seeing her expression, Rainbow put her hands on her hips and boasted, "How's that for never losing, Dusty?!"

While the outcome was certainly unexpected, it was in the end just one goal, and Dust was not one to give up easily. "Eh, you were lucky, I guess. I doubt you'll get any more than that though."

"Wanna bet?" Rainbow offered with probably the most arrogant smile Lightning had ever seen...when she wasn't looking into a mirror.

With a small chuckle, Lightning assured, "You bet I do."

She would soon come to regret that decision.

As soon as Lemon Zest had kicked the ball out of her goal and back onto the field, Rainbow was on to it in seconds.

With a velocity unlike anything she had displayed before, it didn't take long before she practically owned the field. While the other players were struggling just to keep up with her, Dash was running circles around them. She knew exactly where the ball was at all times, she knew exactly where all the other players were at all times, she knew just who to pass it to whenever the situation called for it, and she knew just how to stop any and all attempts by the Shadowbolts at getting the ball anywhere near the Wondercolts' goal.

Whenever anyone on team Shadowbolt tried to pull something off that could give them at least a single point, Rainbow Dash was able to find some miraculous way to turn the whole thing around. With the Shadowbolts nearly spotless track record when it came to winning these kinds of games, they were completely baffled by the fact that a single student was effectively making the whole team look like a bunch of amateurs.

Even the others on Rainbow's team were growing frustrated with her sudden success-rate. While they were happy that the Wondercolts were scoring more points against their biggest rivals than ever before, it was also clear that Dash was outshining all of the other players' efforts. Every single goal had been done by Rainbow Dash, and the most the other players could contribute was merely to stall or pass it around for their team leader to play the whole game for them.

Applejack in particular was getting increasingly frustrated by how much Rainbow Dash kept showing off. Best friends they may be, but there were few things that could rile her up as much as when Rainbow's ego got out of hand, especially when she didn't even realise that that ego was hurting others. Pinkie, Lyra and Bon Bon were no happier about this either, and Vinyl Scratch, the Wondercolts' goalie, was starting to get seriously bored by the fact that Rainbow kept making sure that no soccer ball was getting anywhere near her, thus making her job essentially pointless. The only one who wasn't particularly angry at Rainbow Dash right now was Ditzy Doo, who was most of the time indifferent about pretty much everything.

The Shadowbolts though...they were getting more and more infuriated by the minute. Lightning Dust was in complete disbelief. None of this made any sense to her. She had trained for years to be the best athlete in Canterlot, and she could for some reason beyond her understanding suddenly not amount to anything in this match. Lemon Zest was starting to wish she could switch places with Vinyl Scratch right about now, as for every time the ball flew past her, she was worried it would hit her hard enough to hurt. Indigo Zap, who happened to be one of the best runners in the school, was desperately panting for breath while her knees were practically begging her to slow down. Gilda was already angry at Rainbow Dash when the game started, and was by now practically fuming with barely controlled anger.

After managing to secure nine points for her team, Rainbow Dash was still keeping a firm grasp on the soccer ball. This time, she went one step further and bounced it on her knees while keeping her eyes closed.

Lightning Dust and Gilda were once again trying to catch up with her, but it was no use. With her spider-sense, super strength, increased speed and reflexes, she had no problem keeping them at bay. A fact she made sure to rub in their faces as much as possible.

Rainbow knew she could go a bit easier on them, or at least not taunt them with her smile of superiority, but...she really enjoyed showing them up. Having the once unbeatable Lightning Dust drive herself to exhaustion just trying to keep up with her gave Rainbow a small amount of sadistic glee, and after all the things Gilda just said to her, she wanted to make her feel every bit how much that hurt...forgetting the fact that Gilda said those things because her life was already miserable enough.

Driven to near desperation, Lightning Dust finally had enough with playing fair. Losing now without a single win to her name was a humiliation she could not even stand the thought of. The words spoken to her by her uncle Wind Rider came to mind: "Sometimes you must play dirty to be the best", a lesson she had taken in stride. It was time to take the gloves off.

The one odd ring Lightning had on her right hand was not just for decoration: it was, in fact, her secret weapon. If activated, the ring could discharge a painful electric jolt to anyone she put her hand on. While it may not be strong enough to seriously hurt someone, it had just enough kick to disorient them for short periods of time.

Gilda was also growing frustrated with how things were going, and the urge to cause Dash physical pain was starting to take over her common sense. Unlike Dust's idea however, Gilda preferred the more blunt approach.

At that moment, Rainbow's spider-sense went off like crazy, telling her that danger was approaching from two directions at once. She could sense that there was something dangerous about Lightning Dust's approaching hand, and also that Gilda was running straight at her, probably with the intention of tackling her.

Rainbow's eyes suddenly snapped open, then she twisted her whole body around so that Gilda narrowly missed her, but since she was in full motion, she couldn't stop herself fast enough before she ended up tackling Lightning Dust instead. In a panic, Lightning grabbed onto Gilda for dear life, but as she had already activated her electric ring, she ended up sending a painful buzz of electricity into Gilda's shoulder...while unintentionally dragging both of them down to the ground.

And with her two biggest rivals down for the count, there was nothing to stop Rainbow Dash from kicking the ball into the net one last time, scoring the last point needed for the Wondercolts' first victory against the Shadowbolts in years.

After taking a quick look at the scoreboard, Miss Harshwhinny announced, "And the winner is...the Wondercolts!"

Scootaloo immediately stood up on the bleacher and hollered, "That. Was. SO AWESOME! You rock, Rainbow Dash!"

She was not the only one though. Soon enough, everyone else on the bleachers except for Applebloom began to cheer as well. That was...all five of them. Still, that was more than enough for Rainbow Dash though. And with their cheering fuelling her ego to maximum, Rainbow began to perform an extremely silly victory dance to celebrate it.

"This is the best thing ever!" she enthusiastically declared, "I won, I won, I won, because I'm the bestest, and I'm awesome, and they know it, ah-ah ah-ah ah-ah!"

Lightning Dust was at a complete loss for words when she slowly got back on her feet while stealthily hiding her electric ring in her pocket. With not a single point to their name, the Shadowbolts had just suffered the most humiliating defeat in Canterlot High's history. As a team with a reputation for never losing...ever, it struck them hard...and it struck Lightning Dust the hardest.

In utter disbelief, Lightning sputtered out, "What, what...how? What the hell was that, Rainbow Dash?!"

Still keeping her arrogance, Rainbow gave her a slightly pitiful look, "You said it yourself, Dust, you snooze, you lose."

"But I never lose! I've faced you and your team many times before and you were never this good back then." She then raised an eyebrow, "There's something fishy going on here, isn't there?"

Rainbow just waved her off, "Heh, puh-lease, as if!"

However, Lightning Dust's concerns caught the attention of Applejack, who approached her and noted, "Like it or not, Rainbow, she's got a point. I have never in my life seen you move like that before."

Pinkie Pie popped up right next to her, "Yeah, what have you've been taking? Chemical X?"

Dash's eyes widened upon hearing that suggestion, "Wait, what?"

"Dash..." Applejack began with a sigh, "...I know you want our team to win and all, and would probably do anythin' to make that happen, but please tell me you didn't resort to doin' anything unsportsmanlike."

"Actually, please do tell us that," Lightning urged, "because if you did, then I can at least have an excuse for losing."

Rainbow only now noticed that nearly everyone was staring at her. Most of those weren't the good kind of stares either. While she was fully expecting the Shadowbolts to glare at her after suffering such a humiliating defeat, she was a bit more surprised to see her own team look at her like she had done something wrong.

Having a suspicion of what they were accusing her of, Rainbow defended, "If you're saying that I would ever cheat just to win a game then you clearly don't know me at all."

"Then why are you suddenly so much better than you usually are?" Pinkie asked while narrowing her eyes suspiciously.

"Maybe I was just lucky or something."

Lightning Dust didn't buy it, "As if? No one is that lucky! Face it, Dash, you're a cheater, so why don't you just man up and admit it?"

With an accusatory tone in her voice, Rainbow sarcastically answered, "Yeah, just like you did when you gave me food poisoning just to get first place in the Canterlot High Marathon?"

Lightning's eyes suddenly widened and zipped back and forth while she nervously rebuked, "Well...that's...that's...you have no proof that I did that!"

Her response did not exactly help her situation and served to only dig herself deeper. It got even worse when Gilda put a painfully firm grip on her shoulder and whispered, "Or that little joy-buzzer of yours..." into her ear with a menacing tone. "Now do us all a favour and walk away before you make this whole situation even worse. I'll deal with her."

Lightning gave an arrogant snort at that, but ultimately decided to take her advice. She gave Rainbow Dash one last glare before she turned around and began to leave. Though as soon as her back was turned, she quietly muttered, "...I'll get you next time, Rainbow Dash...next time..."

Gilda then looked at Rainbow Dash with a fair bit of tranquil fury in her eyes but didn't say a word. This time, she didn't really need to say anything to get her point across.

"Look," Rainbow said while looking at Gilda and the other Shadowbolts, "I get that you guys are upset that you lost, but come on, everyone does eventually."

"I guess that is true..." Sour Sweet (who was standing next to Gilda) noted in a sad, sombre tone...then she abruptly changed it to an angry and bitter one, "...for anybody but us!"

"Rainbow..." Applejack said, speaking in a clear and steady voice, "Did you, or did you not cheat to win this match? And I want you to look me in the eye and tell me the absolute truth, nothing more, not a darn thing less."

Rainbow turned to Applejack and looked her friend in the eyes. She saw no anger in them, just determination. So after releasing a meaningful sigh, she answered, "I did not cheat. I just...I wanted us to win. I mean, the Wondercolts have never beaten the Shadowbolts before and...I chose to not hold back anymore."

Seeing that at least most of what Dash was saying seemed to be true, Applejack said, "Alright then, at least that's cleared up. But Rainbow, you may not have realised it, but you made the rest of us feel mighty bad about ourselves. We're supposed to play as a team, but its hard for us to do that when you keep showin' off like that."

"Besides," Pinkie added, "It's not really that fun to play when you're so much better than the rest us. I mean, look at Vinyl, she didn't even get to do anything during the whole game!"

Upon hearing her name being uttered, the blue-haired girl nodded absentmindedly while her magenta eyes were showing a very bored expression. (She weren't wearing her shades during soccer games for safety reasons)

Sugarcoat (who was just standing in background) bluntly commented, "You could have also have been a bit less smug about it and not make the rest of us feel like we were middle-school children." in her usual fast-talking way.

Rainbow looked at the silver-haired Shadowbolt with a raised eyebrow, "Okay, first off: you guys have no right calling me smug, second:" she turned back to her own team, "Chillax people, I scored our team the first win against the Shadowbolts in years, so...you're welcome!"

"Thanks...I guess?" Pinkie answered uncertainly.

"Yeah right." Gilda said with quite a bit of venom in her tone, "Like this was about them in any way. You could care less about your little team of losers. This was about you, and you alone! You wanted to win, you wanted to humiliate the rest of us, you wanted to humiliate ME! Well, guess what, girlfriend, I am sick of your crap!"

Rainbow narrowed her eyes at Gilda, a clear and unmistakable expression of fury evident in them. "Funny thing you brought that up, Gilda, because the feeling is mutual."

"Good! Finally we can agree on something. I may have grown up in a family of gangsters, but you're the most evil person I've ever met! At least they didn't pretend to love me before stabbing me in the back! And now that you don't have to play nice for me anymore you showed everyone who you really are: a self-centred braggart who doesn't care who she hurts as long as she's 'cool' while doing it!"

"SHUT UP!" Dash screamed at the top of her lungs, silencing everyone on the soccer field. Gilda's words really struck a cord with her, as was evident with how her face had turned red out of anger. Her cockiness was gone, replaced with her overwhelming hatred for her ex. "You're calling me self-centred, bitch?! I'm not the one who threatened to hurt an innocent girl just because of petty jealousy! I'm not the one who made Fluttershy think you were going to literally murder her on her way home every day! And I'm definitively not the one that would whine about her sad pathetic life to the whole school like a little crybaby!"

That was it, that was the threshold, the point of no return.

Gilda steeled her facial expression into a cold merciless glare, a sign that she was far beyond reasoning, right now she was an eagle ready to pounce on its prey. She turned around, took a few hasty steps over to where the soccer ball was and picked it up. She hesitated only for a second before she she sharply turned back around and threw the ball as hard as she possibly could directly towards Dash's face.

The sharp buzzing of the spider sense blared like a fire alarm in Rainbow's head, and she reacted fast enough to move her face away from the incoming projectile. However...the one standing behind her did not have a spider sense.

As soon as the argument between Rainbow and Gilda began to escalate, Scootaloo had made her way down from the bleachers in order to try putting a stop to it. Being the supporting sister that she was, she couldn't just sit still and do nothing. Unfortunately, she did not expect the ball flying at her before it was far too late. Scootaloo could barely grasp what was even happening when it hit her in the face so hard that it knocked her off her feet and sent her falling to the ground.

Time seemed to slow down for Rainbow as she shouted, "Scootaloo!" and ran over to her little sister's side. Her concerns only worsened when she saw Scootaloo whimper in pain while her nose was bleeding. She was also not the only one to come to the young girl's aid, as Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were at her side in seconds, their faces showing much concern over the well-being of their best friend.

Frantically, Rainbow Dash got on her knees next to the downed Scootaloo and rambled, "Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, please be okay, please be okay, please be okay..."

Scootaloo sputtered out, "AAaaghhh...it hurts...aaahhh..."

With the authority of a military officer, Dash looked at Pinkie and ordered, "Pinkie, get her to the nurse, NOW!"

Too panicked to object to that, Pinkie ran over to the injured girl and picked her up, fast but gentle. By this point, Scootaloo had begun crying, evident by the tears that were pouring from her eyes. Pinkie didn't waste any time before she carried her away towards the school nurse.

Rainbow Dash could have taken her there herself, but she had something else to do first. After all, it would be a cold day in hell before she would allow someone to hurt her little sister and get away with it.

Gilda however, was in a state of shock. She had no intention of hurting Scootaloo, or anyone other than Rainbow Dash for that manner, and it was only now she realised that her rage had once again erupted out of control. However, she came to that realisation a bit too late for her sake and before she could snap out of her trance, Rainbow had managed to make it over to her and punch her in the jaw with enough force to nearly dislocate it. Gilda had no time to recover from that impact though, as another punch to the other side of her face was not far behind, making her spit blood out of her mouth in the process. The final impact was a kick to her gut that hit with enough force to send her flying two metres back before crashing onto the ground, making her roll on the rough grass a little before she eventually stopped.

Rainbow was about to follow up her assault, but was stopped when Applejack stepped between the two and sternly declared, "That's enough!"

Dash stared at Applejack with an angry expression while breathing heavily through her nose. Applejack was not budging though, and managed to keep her cool despite her friend's glare. That determination gave Rainbow pause though, and she soon began to realise just how far things had almost gone.

She saw everyone around her look at her fearfully, almost like it would only be a matter of time until she attacked them too. However, it was not the sight of their frightened eyes that got to her the most, it was the sight of Gilda lying helplessly on the ground, quivering in agony. The once terrifying girl's face was filled with bruises, she had a black eye, severely damaged lips, and blood was leaking out of her mouth and nose. The sight of Gilda in that state made Rainbow Dash afraid...afraid of what she could do. She hadn't considered just how strong she was now, and how easily she could hurt someone.

"I'm sorry..." Was all Rainbow Dash could say. Though to who exactly, it wasn't clear.

Author's Note:

This chapter was painful to write. Why? Because of football...or soccer or whatever you Americans out there call it. Seriously, why the hell is American Football called that, it makes no sense whatsoever! You use your hands, not your feet, so why is it...(breathe in...breathe out...relax...)...sorry about that, got a little carried away there. We live in a world that makes no sense, what else is new?

Now, I am not a sports fan. I don't like to play sports, and I can hardly think of anything more boring than to watch sports (granted, I love watching people perform weird and absurd sports, but that's mostly because I find it hilarious). So writing a chapter about some teenagers playing footba...I mean soccer isn't really my idea of fun.

Also, things got a bit violent there, didn't it? That's High School for ya...I think. We don't really have High School in my country, or if we do, it isn't really called anything like that.

Anyway, I always felt that the fight with Flash Thompson in the first Spiderman film was a bit poorly handled. The scene itself wasn't that bad, but I personally would have preferred that it showed more fault on Peter's side of things. I mean, the whole point of the scene was so Uncle Ben could give him a lesson in responsibility, but Peter only acted in self-defence and didn't do anything wrong, so what was he supposed to learn about it anyway?

Here I tried to make it clear that Rainbow was acting irresponsibly, but also understandingly...which is a very hard balance to maintain.

Also, yes, Scootaloo has a prosthetic leg. I got the idea from a picture I saw on Deviantart, and it seemed to fit her in a world where people don't normally have wings.

Now Miss Harshwhinny may seem like an odd choice for a PE teacher, and I personally think Spitfire would be a better choice, but since the Wonderbolts are a thing in this story, that wouldn't really work. Also, who's to say Harshwhinny isn't good at athletics? Especially considering how involved she is with the Equestria Games?

Comments

[ElCazadorDeHistorias]

Uh-oh, Dash has bitten in the dark portion of the superpowers.

[Flufux]

7593848 Absolute power corrupts absolutely...

[ponylover2]

I know how that feels I would do the same thing too

[Fluffy-Boi]

You hurt Scootaloo..... YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!!! Just kidding. Love the chapter by the way. I like how Gilda isn't a super bitch. I mean she didn't want anyone else to get hurt but Dashie. So there is saving her from the bitch side.

[Flufux]

7601649 Yeah, I don't really like writing one-dimensional characters all that much, so I gave Gilda some sympathetic parts to balance out how angry and cranky she is otherwise. Also, when it comes to the 'jerk' characters in MLP, Gilda always seemed to me more like someone lashing out at people to hide her own insecurities rather than a sociopath like Garble. Also, with how 'the Lost Treasure of Griffonstone' went, it would feel wrong to write her as too much of a bitch.

However, I doubt someone's attitude would improve by beating them up. In fact, it might just make it a whole lot worse.

[Fluffy-Boi]

7601783 Yeah. I hear what your saying. Also I agree with you on the last bit. Well I can't for more. Plus Spiderman is one of my fave Marvel hero's.

[lolnewsPegasus]

about the football bit, the word football was used to call any ball sport not involving horse riding, basically a ball sport where you walk or run instead, or 'on foot'
rugby, association football, and all else were chucked in there back in a time where said sports weren't fully standardized
and since american football takes elements from rugby, it falls under that shoddy wastebasket classification

i have too much free time, someone pls kek me

[Flufux]

8119232 Huh? I guess you learn something new every day. Thanks for the info.

[LuckyBird]

I think there is a picture missing in this chapter.

[Flufux]

11486628
Oh, I hadn't really gotten checked in a while. I think I might have deleted it at the source (AKA my Deviantart stash). Sorry.