The next morning, the sun shone warmly down on the city of Cloudsdale, the light making the cloud-based city shine like polished silver. The Cloudiseum was filling up quickly, the noise of the crowd increasing as the anticipation rose.

Scootaloo followed Rainbow Dash up the steps to the VIP box near the very top of the stadium. The little filly bounced with every step, her wings buzzing with excitement. "I can't believe you managed to get me VIP tickets!" she squealed to Rainbow.

"Being an official Wonderbolt has its perks," Rainbow said, tussling Scootaloo's mane. "C'mon, here's your seat." Rainbow gestured to a royal purple cushion with golden gilding.

"Awesome!" Scootaloo shouted, jumping up onto the cushion excitedly and looking over the Cloudiseum like a queen surveying their kingdom from their palace balcony.

"Best seat in the house, squirt," Rainbow said, giving her a few bits so she could purchase some snacks. "You'll be able to see the whole show from here. Speaking of which," Rainbow added. "I'd better get over to the other Wonderbolts and get ready!"

"Good luck, Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo called as Rainbow flew off towards the Cloudiseum's locker rooms through a tunnel located at the opposite side of the Cloudiseum. Zipping around the corner at high speed, Rainbow burst through the doors into the packed lockers and landed right in front of Spitfire, who was already suited up in her Wonderbolts flight suit. "Reporting for duty, ma'am!" she saluted.

"Good to see you, Crash," Spitfire grinned. "Ready to give us your A-game today?"

"So long as you remembered your allergy medicine today, Snotfire," Rainbow teased in reply, hoofbumping Spitfire. Rainbow trotted over to the locker that she had stored her gear in last night after practice, greeting the other Wonderbolts as she did so.

"How's the wing, Fire Streak?" she greeted her fiery-maned colleague as she changed into her flight suit.

"Fully recovered!" Fire grinned, extending the wing that he had strained last month in practice when he pulled out of a dive too early and collided with a flagpole. "Nothing's gonna go wrong with me today!"

"It'd better not," Misty Fly muttered, zipping up her flight suit.

"Eh, don't worry, Mist," Fire replied, putting a foreleg around her with a confident grin. "Hey, you do something different with your mane today? It looks great!"

"Er...thanks, I guess?" Misty said, staring at her wingpony in confusion. Rainbow studied Fire Streak as she put on her own flight suit. The fiery-maned pony was as good as any of the flyers on the team, he normally wasn't this...bold. In fact, he was usually rather reserved and cautious, always slowing down too early or pulling out of a dive too soon, and whenever he tried to speak to Misty about anything other than flying, his speech usually reduced itself to stammering in seconds.

"You sure he didn't hit his head when he crashed into that flagpole?" Rainbow whispered to Misty.

Misty shrugged. "He's been acting weird ever since he went to that convention after the accident."

"What conven—?"

"All right, listen up, everypony!" Spitfire shouted. Every head turned towards her, the Wonderbolts snapping to attention as one.

"You've all practiced, you've got this routine down pat," Spitfire announced, pacing up and down the lines. "This might be just another show, but I still want you all to go out there and give 'em your best! Clear?!"

"Yes, ma'am!" the team barked back. The pep speech delivered, the Wonderbolts exited the lockers and filed into line in front of the tunnel, preparing to zip out into the warm skies of their home city to greet the roars of the crowd. Rainbow fell in next to her flight partner, Fleetfoot, right behind Spitfire and Soarin. Each of the lead ponies had a bright blue flare strapped around their shoulder. The cheering from crowd filtered down to their anticipating ears, along with the amplified voice of the announcer and the beginning strains of the rock music:

"And here they are, folks: the Wonderbolts!"

"Let's go!" Spitfire and Soarin shouted simultaneously, spreading their wings and taking off with a blur, immediately banking sharply to the left and rising straight up into the air. Rainbow Dash and Fleetfoot zipped out after them, banking hard to the left and shooting upwards, with the rest of the Wonderbolts racing out after them. As she flew upwards, Rainbow glanced down and saw Scootaloo waving at her from her seat, cheering at the top of her lungs. The sight made her grin proudly.

"Now, Rainbow!" Fleetfoot shouted from above her, unhooking the flare from around her shoulder and yanking off the cap. The end came to life, spitting out bright yellow sparks. Flying upside down, Fleetfoot dropped the flare to Rainbow Dash, who caught the flare and twirled it in a circle. Simultaneously, the other Wonderbolt pairs tossed their flares to one another, sending a shower of sparks cascading throughout the Cloudiseum and drawing admiring "oohs" and "aahs" from the crowd.

Dipping down, Rainbow and the other flare-bearing Wonderbolts dived towards the ground, accelerating ever faster as the wind rushed in their ears. Soarin was at her right, matching her speed; Fire Streak was at her left, a thin-lined grin on his face as he pushed himself harder and harder, trying to dive faster. The bottom of the stadium raced towards their faces, providing them a framed view of the solid ground far beneath them. Now! Flaring her wings, Rainbow pulled out of the dive, pushing herself to rise back into the air. Soarin flew up with her, but Fire Streak didn't pull up: he waited until he was almost beneath the Cloudiseum before pulling up sharply, his body almost brushing against the walls of the stadium as he rose back into the air.

That definitely wasn't in the flight plans! Rainbow thought, tossing the flare to Fleetfoot as they flew past each other. In fact, that had been downright dangerous: he could have crashed into the crowd. Out of the corner of her eye, Rainbow saw Fire Streak pass the flare to Misty, speeding so close to her that their wings touched. What was going on? Rainbow had always prided herself on pushing the limits, but she knew that there were lines you didn't cross: Fire was putting himself and his partner in danger with this recklessness. She'd definitely be talking to Spitfire about this after the show.

The group continued the performance without any further hitches, although Fire Streak still caused several near misses, once diving far too close to the crowd and sending a shower of sparks directly onto the ponies in the front row. The spectators didn't seem to mind, however, continuing to watch in awe, cheering with every successful trick that sent fresh colors dancing across the sky.

Finally, it was time for the final trick. The Wonderbolts swooped low to the ground, then started to spiral upwards, each set of partners circling around one another in opposing directions, tossing the flares back and forth. Up and up, they rose into the air, flying in ever tighter circles. The crowd watched in awed silence at their daring as the music swelled.

But out of the corner of her eye, Rainbow watched Fire Streak and Misty Fly. Fire Streak was flying up and up at an increasing speed, moving past the others, forcing Misty to push herself to keep up. He began to fly in tighter circles, buzzing Misty closely several times. Misty had her teeth gritted in determination for the show to go on, but Blaze, instead of working with her, continued to fly faster and faster, higher and higher, tighter and tighter. Rainbow instinctively slowed down to watch, causing Fleetfoot to slow as well.

Down below, some of the audience began to figure out that something was going wrong, pointing up at Streak and Misty, gasping as the orange-maned pegasus grazed his partner.

"They're going to crash!" Scootaloo shouted from her seat.

A moment later, she was proven correct: with a sickening WHAM that echoed throughout the entire stadium, Streak and Misty collided headfirst with one another. The flare tumbled from Misty's grip, spinning towards the ground: the two ponies followed, both having been knocked unconscious by the impact.

Immediately reacting, Rainbow and Fleetfoot dived down after their colleagues, their own flare and the rest of the show forgotten. Rainbow snatched Streak up onto her back while Fleetfoot rescued Misty, both of them immediately flying down to the medical station at the stadium floor. The other Wonderbolts flew down after them as the music abruptly cut out. After a moment of shocked silence, some of the crowd began to cheer, apparently choosing to believe that the whole thing had been part of the show.

Four pegasus paramedics raced out to the unconscious ponies, tenderly lifting them up onto stretchers. "Are they okay?" Rainbow asked, bending over Misty in concern. Misty groaned feebly; a small trickle of blood ran down her face from underneath her mask.

"They're both just unconscious," one of the paramedics reassured her. "We'll take care of them." The medics hurriedly rushed Streak and Misty off to the medical ward, leaving the other Wonderbolts to trot back to the lockers and change out of their flight suits, accepting the underserved applause of the crowd as they did so.

"What was that?" Spitfire snapped as soon as they were back in the service tunnel, out of sight of the crowd. "What was Fire Streak thinking? He could've gotten them both killed out there!"

"Yeah, that was weird," Soarin agreed, taking off his flight goggles. "He's been acting kind of off for a while now, but he's never done anything like that."

"Was he trying to kill himself?" Fleetfoot said. "There's better ways to do it!"

"I was watching him during the whole thing," Rainbow reported. "It was like he...wasn't being careful, like he just didn't care that he was acting dangerously." She thought for a moment. "Misty mentioned that he went to some kind of convention after he had that accident. That was when he started acting weird."

"Yeah, it was some kind of self-help thing for ponies with phobias and anxiety disorders," Soarin said, opening up Fire Streak's locker and rummaging through it. "I think he showed me a flyer for it...yeah, here it is." He pulled out a flyer that showed the image of a pony shaking off a set of black shackles and jumping up into the air with a wide smile. Beneath the pony was the image of an open book with the purple psi symbol on both pages.

"Dr. Miraculous Cure's Seminar for Phobias and Anxiety!" the flyer declared in bold letters. "Free yourself from the shackles of fear and doubt! Live your life the way you want it!" Beneath the title was a list of places and dates of the convention's tour of Equestria. Scanning the list, Rainbow Dash saw that the convention was due in Ponyville tomorrow.

"I'd better get out of here, guys," Rainbow declared, quickly unzipping her flight suit. "I've gotta take Scootaloo home, and then I'm gonna check this convention out. Something's not right about this."

Meanwhile, back in Ponyville, Zipline entered his home through the back door, mopping sweat from his workout off his forehead. Rain Breeze was in the kitchen, sipping a cup of tea while she reviewed notes on some of her patients.

"Honey, have you seen this?" Rain called to Zipline as he pulled a bottled water from the fridge and started to chug it down. Turning, Zipline saw Rain holding up a flyer in her magic.

"'Seminar for Phobias and Anxiety?'" he read out loud. "Sweetie, I don't need to go to some fraud's self-help meeting to help me get over my fear of heights."

"Zipline, I've heard a lot about Miraculous Cure," Rain explained. "He's one of the best at helping ponies get over their fears. This could really help you." When Zipline still looked uncertain, Rain put a hoof on his shoulders. "I know it's hard to be a pegasus who's afraid to fly, and it's something that's embarrassing for you. But if you really want to move past this, you should be looking to get some help. And Dr. Cure is somepony who can definitely help you."

Zipline frowned, studying the poster. For a moment, he thought of flying through the air, completely free of the nausea and dizziness that had always plagued him, his daughter laughing as she rode on his shoulders, or even better, flew alongside him as he tutored her in flight.

The vision proved too tempting for him to resist. "All right, I'll go," he nodded.

Phillip Finder sat back on a bench in the Ponyville Park, his eyes closed and his saxophone reed held in his mouth. Music floated out of his instrument, joining the songs of the birds and the wind blowing through the trees. His trilby lay on the bench beside him, eagerly awaiting the occasional bit from a generous passerby.

Fluttershy walked past, her saddlebags loaded with food and other necessities for her animal friends. "Hello, Phillip," she greeted him as she approached.

"G'day," Phillip nodded.

Fluttershy paused for a moment, frowning in thought. "May I speak to you about something?" she asked.

"Shoot," Phillip said, setting his sax down.

"I heard about what you did to those drug dealers yesterday," Fluttershy said. "You sent all three of them to the hospital."

"So?" Phil shrugged.

"So they're ponies!" Fluttershy replied. "Living ponies! The kind you're supposed to be protecting!" When Phillip's only answer was to glare at her, she sighed. "Phil, you've been acting very...aggressively recently. It's starting to get me worried."

"I don't need your concern," Phillip grunted. "I need that scum to get out and stay out of my town."

"That's beside the point," Fluttershy said. "The point is, you're starting to scare ponies." She gestured over to a young couple of unicorns nearby. They eyed Phillip nervously, then quickly trotted out of sight.

"Good," Phil answered, standing up and glowering at Fluttershy. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm supposed to be scary. I—"

He stopped suddenly, his head turning towards a grouping of trees in the distance. A stallion was standing in the shadow of the trees, staring directly at him, a small grin playing about his lips. A spark of recognition flashed in Phillip's mind: he knew that stallion...

"What is it?"

Phillip turned to Fluttershy, who was looking at him in concern. "I saw—" He turned back to see that the stallion had vanished. He stared in silence for a moment, then grunted. "I thought I saw somepony over there."

Fluttershy glanced over, then turned back to Phillip. "Listen, Phillip. I know this is how you've been doing things for a long time, but you're better than this. You're not the monster you think you are."

"And what makes you so sure of that?" he grunted, looking sideways at her.

"Because I'm your friend," Fluttershy said. She paused for a moment, then sighed. "Whatever you've got inside of you...I hope you make your peace with it, because the way you're acting...it's not going to end well."

Phillip did not reply, stonily staring straight ahead. After a moment of silence, Fluttershy walked away, returning home. Once she had left, Phillip finally shook himself out of his reverie with a frustrated grunt. He packed up his saxophone, gathered up the bits he had earned and started off for home. The major drug supplier for the Ponyville region would be coming tomorrow night and he had to get ready.

He glanced back towards the clump of trees where he had seen the stallion watching him. The shadowed face remained fixed in his mind. Even though he knew it was impossible—even though he knew that it couldn't be him—he could swear he knew that face.

It looked like the stallion who had murdered his father.

Author's Notes:

Quite a bit happening in this chapter. But what does it all mean?

I'm not really sure about how this is starting off. What do you guys think? I'd love to hear some constructive criticism about this story.