Why is there a wagon full of ponies hurtling down this stupidly dangerous path? Was all that Rainbow Dash could think. For that matter, why had there been so many accidents lately? Who is stupid enough to play in a well? So many answers eluded her. Dash caught herself clearing her throat to ask the stallion why they were hurtling down the path, but instead burst out into some weird super hero speech. The brown stallion in the back calmed down near instantly.

"Never fear! Your friendly neighborhood Rainbow is-" Woah... Should probably cut down on the books. Does weird things to your mind. The brown stallion had interrupted her mid stupid super hero speech, making her feel like a complete moron. Well, she was used to it so it didn't matter in the long run.

"Do you think you could just skip your stupid catchphrase and hurry up and save us?" The nerve of some stallions! How totally uncool of the town to forget her so easily! She could stop this. Dash flew in front of the runaway wagon and dug her hooves deep into the ground. She instantly felt the earth give out from under her, and for one death defying second everything became clear. The wagon barely cleared her, and her life flashed before her eyes as the wheels barely missed her head.

"Wow, that was pathetic." Her life only took about 3 seconds to go through? She had so much to improve on. The wagon was far too close to the edge of the cliff for her to even dream of stopping. The occupants inside were heading for an untimely death and it was all her fault. A million thoughts of what she should've done better flashed through her mind as she realized that the townspeople might blame this on her. She had planned out how to pack her bags and clouds in the middle of the night where nopony would see her, when all of the sudden the screams from the wagon stopped. Had she misjudged how far the cliff was away? Was the wagon already plunging beyond what she could hear to meet it's splintered demise? Dash roused herself from her thoughts in time to see that the mysterious cloaked mare had successfully stopped the wagon. The previous hostages of the wagon hopped out and began celebrating. Immediately, Dash flew after the wagon halting courageous crusader, stopping only to make sure the wagon was completely stopped and that she hadn't hallucinated the entire thing while her life had been crumbling before her eyes.

"Stop! Wait up!." The herculean heroine was stronger than Dash? Far more importantly, Dash wanted to thank the pony for saving those innocents from their untimely demise. The pony of the hour did not stop for poor, confused Dash. Instead the mare merely looked at something behind Dash, and 'The coolest and most awesome of all pegasi in Equestria'  could barely hear a quiet whistling noise. Dash looked up and saw Pinkie's Flying machine. She looked back and the one pony that might've been cooler than she was for a brief moment was gone.

"Did you see that! You were like Woosh and then you were like SSSSKKIIIIIIDDDD and then the wagon was like all over you and then that other totally AMAZING hero, like, came out of NOWHERE AT ALL! Then she stopped the wagon!" Pinkie Pie had apparently not pondered what Dash had been desiring before she had appeared.

Dash could barely believe just how horribly horrendous her life might've been if Mare-do-well hadn't stopped that wagon. As Pinkie talked, Dash found herself imagining what might have been. Those ponies might've had families to take care of! Dash would've been responsible for the severing of familial bonds! Dash immediately thought of her late parents and cringed. If she had only been there, if she had only put family over her flight school, they would still be alive!  She had to stop that from ever happening to any other pony!

The easiest way to do that would be to figure out just why so many accidents were happening. This would require research! The word research filled her with no amount of joy at the strife she might be able to spare other ponies. And who knows, maybe she'll find sometime to learn more about applied aerodynamics! She sure did love to fly.

The library was a bust.

"What do you mean Twilight is gone?! I need her to help me with something!" The local librarian being a friend of hers would have been an invaluable resource in her quest to gain greater insight into the greater issue at hand. Instead, she had to deal with Spike, who she had asked to shadow her in case she said something that she forgot. She used to excuse of it being an autobiography, a term that she knew would drive Twilight up the wall with her incorrect use. The library was lined with all assortment of things such as magazines, letters, and of course books. Dash didn't want letters she wanted statistics, cold hard numbers. Spike finally told her where she would go next.

"Well, Twilight said that the most records were held at city hall and tha-" Dash toned him out of his needless monolog on what Twilight had told him regarding the information she sought. Spike had though, handed her the aerodynamic for astounding pegasi book she had requested. It was volume 15, the one book that she did not have in her impressive literary collection already. Dash, now knowing her probable destination marched out the door. She didn't make it more than a single step because Twilight happened to be there, furious.

"Where were You! There was an accident at a construction site and Ra-" She cut herself off rather abruptly, and also suspiciously. Twilight looked like she was holding back tears behind the orbs of anger which made up her eyes. "Mare-Do-Well couldn't save everyone in time..." She seemed to run out of steam and Dash knew that whatever had happened had been bad. "Somepony died." She finished solemnly.

What? Her slight break from vigilance for her peers had resulted in the death of a pony? Dash was shocked beyond words. Twilight grew angry again. "And it's all your fault! You weren't there to save him! Why am I friends with you, you selfish egotistical little sniveling brat! Get out of my sight!."

Dash was unceremoniously lifted out of Twilight's way by magic, then thrown as far away as she imagined Twilight would have control for. It was all she could do to stop herself from breaking down into tears. Did everypony believe that it was her fault that somepony was dead? She had probably lost a friend forever back there. She took control of her flight through the air and spiraled down into her cloud castle. It's normally warm and cheery atmosphere instead filled her with nothing but dread, from a source she could not identify. A thought flashed through her head. Twilight was easily the most rational pony that she knew. If Twilight thought that, then it was most likely actually Dash's fault.

Dash still had a mission to complete. City hall was actually just a few blocks away from her stratos safe house. Getting there was no problem for one as possibly unsurpassed as Dash was. The mayor was standing there watching her. She didn't look to happy to be seeing Dash.

"What do you want?" The voice that issued from her beloved mayor's mouth seemed to carry venom within it.

"I would like to see the records for the amount of accidents involving ponies over the last two years?" That wasn't supposed to be a question. To see a figure who had congratulated her countless times for her heroic deeds speak to her with such undeniable disgust had shaken her resolve. Dash could only hope that the small waver in her voice would go mostly unnoticed.

"You know that I can't deny anypony their request, no matter how much I may wish to." The mayor wanted to be noncompliant, and Dash didn't blame her one bit. She probably wouldn't have wanted to help a virtual murderer either.

The mayor passed the papers over after shuffling away to some dusty file cabinet on the walls. Dash had a question on her criteria.

"So what passes as an accident in these statistics?" The mayor no matter how reluctant to help she was gave her the necessary information.

"Anything that caused or could have caused a casualty in the local population, or caused damages exceeding over 50 bits." That made the information far clearer. The graph read as clear as the skies after she finished with them.

There was a drastic increase in the amount of 'accidents' starting one month ago. There was only one logical explanation for this.

Something, or Somepony, is causing these accidents. She smiled and walked out.