Rainbow Dash was released from the hospital two days later. The doctors were still not entirely sure what had happened, so they had told her to eat light and not fly faster than twenty miles an hour for the first day. She was willing to accept both of those restrictions, just as long as she was out of the hospital and away from the rock that had started this whole thing.

It seemed like everypony in Ponyville knew about Rainbow’s condition, and for the next two days everypony from Derpy to the mayor stopped by to make sure Rainbow was okay. Scootaloo in particular had followed Rainbow Dash everywhere for the first day, the little Pegasus terrified of the idea that her idol could have been killed. Rainbow Dash saw no problem with this, and even gave Scootaloo a few pointers on flying as reward for her concern.

Soon, the buzz died down, and everything returned to normal. Had circumstances been different, Rainbow Dash probably would have tried to keep the buzz going, but for once she was glad to have a bit of peace. Normalcy sounded like the best thing in the world right now, and she intended to let it last until she could get her strength back up and go back to being awesome.

Rainbow Dash slowed down as she neared Sweet Apple Acres. She would have kept going at her normal speed, but the last time she had tried that she had accidentally woke Granny Smith up from her afternoon nap, and Rainbow Dash had found that a cranky Granny Smith could be scarier than facing off against a dragon. She shuddered at the thought and landed near one of the fields.

“Howdy Miss Dash.” Rainbow turned and saw Applejack’s older brother, Big Macintosh, walking up the path with a large cart of apples in tow. Rainbow Dash gave him a smile and a nod.

“Hey Big Mac." she called. "Harvesting going good today?”

“Eeyup," Big Mac replied. "We should be finishin’ up by tomorrow mornin’. If you’re lookin’ for Applejack, she’s over in the south field.”

“Okay, thanks Big Mac.” Rainbow Dash spread her wings and took off towards the south field. Although she often took naps in and around Sweet Apple Acres, she never liked the south field due to its proximity to the Everfree Forest. Despite being told by Applejack that it was perfectly safe, the idea that a manticore or a pack of Timberwolves could be watching her at any given moment was not very appealing to Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash spotted Applejack, the orange farm pony busy setting out large buckets under some of the larger apple trees. The Pegasus altered her trajectory and swooped down through the trees, coming to a stop near one of the biggest apple trees on this part of the farm

“Well, good to see yer up'n about.” Applejack said, picking up another bucket.

“Hey, like I'd let getting sick keep me from helping my friends.” Rainbow Dash replied.

“I know, jus' don't overwork yerself.” Applejack placed the bucket down. “Now, I want ya to harvest these here apple trees while I go’n get more buckets. If ya get hungry, try not to eat too many apples, okay?”

“I’ll try not.” Applejack nodded and walked off. Rainbow Dash turned and faced the nearest tree, looking for any worn spots where Applejack or Big Macintosh had beaten into the trunk. When she did find the worn spots, she backed up a bit, planted her forehooves, and kicked back it all the strength she could muster.

There was a loud crack and Rainbow Dash found her hind legs flailing in the air. To prevent herself from falling over, she quickly flapped her wings and righted herself. Confused, and more than a bit spooked, Rainbow Dash turned to see what exactly had happened.

The good news was that she had successfully knocked all the apples from the tree. The bad news was she had also knocked all the leaves and branches from the tree as well, and she had splintered the tree into eight large chunks and countless smaller ones, and several apples had been knocked into the air and were now raining down on the Pegasus.

“... How’d that happen?” she asked herself. She looked to her hind legs, then back to the tree. “Applejack is not going to be happy when she comes back.... there’s gotta be a way to fix this.” Rainbow looked over the bits of tree that were scattered around. She gathered the biggest pieces she could find and tried to fit them back in place, but there had been so much damage that her attempts to fix things only broke the larger chunks into smaller and smaller pieces.

“Gah! Where’s Twilight when you need her?” Rainbow Dash screamed after several minutes of failure.

“What do ya need Twilight for?” Rainbow Dash froze. Her irises shrunk to pinpoints and her face dropped significantly. With a gulp, she slowly turned to face Applejack.

“Heh, um, stuff...” she squeaked. Applejack raised an eyebrow until she saw the remains of the tree, her eyes widening in shock.

“Rainbow Dash, What the hay happened to my tree?!” the farmpony cried.

“Um, well, you see, I was just... I mean, I got all the apples down, but... I didn’t mean to... your tree exploded.” Applejack did not look amused.

“Exploded?” she deadpanned.

“Um, yeah!" Rainbow stood up straighter. "I bucked it as hard as I could and it... well, exploded.”

“Just exploded?”

“Yeah!” Rainbow Dash smiled, trying to convince Applejack that she was being honest. Applejack sighed and placed a hoof against her forehead.

“Why is it that whenever ya come’n help us out, ya get lazy’n break somethin’.” Rainbow scoffed at this.

“I wasn’t being lazy!”

“Rainbow Dash, ya can’t kick nearly as hard as me or Bic Mac, ‘n I know for a fact he can’t make trees explode." Applejack raised an eyebrow. "So what happened? Did ya try to get fancy with your weatherpony skills’n try usin’ lightnin’?”

“No, I kicked the tree and it exploded.” this seemed to annoy Applejack further.

“Don’t lie to me!” she snapped.

“I’m not lying! Would I ever lie to you?”

“Yes.” Rainbow frowned again.

“Okay, maybe that wasn’t the best way to convince you I’m not lying, but you have to believe me when I say I kicked your tree and it exploded.” this drew a snort from Applejack.

“Yeah, ‘n I suppose Twilight summons demons from Tartarus to do her laundry.”

“She does?”

“Of course not! Now tell me, what did ya do to my tree?” Rainbow Dash’s mouth twitched as she tried to come up with the best explanation possible, but she merely sighed and slumped over.

“Look, I’m sorry I destroyed your tree. It was just an accident and... yeah, I did get a little lazy, I guess.” Applejack looked at Rainbow Dash for a moment.

“Don’t do any more stunts like that, okay Rainbow? Just finish up here’n we’ll move on to the next grove.”

“Okay.” Rainbow Dash dropped the bits of tree she was still carrying and walked to the next tree. After finding where she was supposed to kick, she planted her hooves once again and reared back for a kick, her body subconsciously trying to limit the amount of force she placed in her kick. There was a satisfying thud as her kick connected, and most of the apples in the tree dropped into the nearby buckets.

That’s better... Maybe Twilight would know something about what happened.

After she finished harvesting with Applejack, Rainbow Dash flew over to the library. When she landed, she made note that all the curtains had been pulled, meaning Twilight was busy with some magic experiment... or reading one of those romance novels Rarity was always raving about. As if Twilight needs anything more to confuse her. She shrugged and pushed open the door.

Twilight was standing in the center of the room, a pair of heavy duty goggles over her eyes and a notepad clutched in her magic. Her mane was slightly frizzled, but Rainbow guessed it was from the numerous pieces of equipment she had set up rather than stress. Twilight had not noticed Rainbow Dash coming in, all of her attention being focused on the equipment surrounding her and her notepad.

And sitting in a claw-like contraption was a very familiar green rock.

“Twilight! Are you insane?!” Rainbow cried. The purple unicorn paused her studies and looked at Rainbow Dash.

“What?” Twilight pulled her goggles off. “Is there something wrong?”

“‘Is there something wrong’? That’s what’s wrong!” Rainbow Dash jabbed a hoof at the rock.

“Don’t worry, Rainbow," Twilight turned back to the rock for a moment. "I cast enough dampening spells that we shouldn’t be in danger.” Rainbow was unconvinced, but decided against arguing further.

“Well, okay, but still why do you have that thing here?” she asked.

“The hospital doesn’t have the right staff or equipment to study this rock, so they gave it to me." Twilight looked back at Rainbow Dash. "It’s actually quite amazing.”

“The thing that almost killed me is ‘amazing’?” Rainbow asked, scowling.

“I mean scientifically." Twilight pulled out a small collection of documents. "It’s structure is... odd. It’s more crystalline than it looks, but it doesn’t refract light like your standard crystal; if anything, it actually absorbs it. And it glows green every five minutes, but I can’t figure out how or why.”

“Because it’s evil.” Rainbow glared at the rock, watching as it flared green for a brief instance.

“Evil doesn’t have anything to do with this.” Twilight replied.

“Why not?" Rainbow looked back to Twilight. "The changelings used green magic. Flim and Flam used green magic. That thing glows green. It has to be evil!” Twilight looked at Rainbow Dash with a blank stare.

“That violated so many laws of logic I think you deserve an award.”

“Are you calling me stupid?”

“Not stupid, just confused.” Twilight turned back to the rock. “Was there anything else you wanted to talk to me about?” Rainbow stopped, massaging her foreleg for a moment. It was just Twilight, she was more than trustworthy with this sort of thing... right?

“Well, sort of..." Rainbow started. "I kinda broke one of Applejack’s trees today.” Twilight set her notepad aside and looked at Rainbow Dash.

“Were you misusing lightning again?” she asked.

“No, of course not." Rainbow shook her head. "I just tried kicking it to harvest the apples, and it exploded, sort of.” Twilight looked at Rainbow Dash for a moment before pulling a book off a nearby shelf.

“Well, it’s not an unusual phenomenon for somepony to hit a tree wrong and cause damage, but causing a tree to explode? That would take a kind of force that very few ponies can muster without hurting themselves.” Twilight said as she flipped through the book.

“What’s in the book?”

“Oh this is Minerals and Their Effect on the Common Pony." Twilight raised it up so Rainbow could see the cover. "See, there are a few types of rocks and metals that can supercharge a pony’s internal magic, increasing their strength and magical abilities significantly. What I think is that the rock might be one of those types of materials, and you kicking the tree released all that pent up energy.”

“Is that bad?” Rainbow asked.

“Supposedly your internal magic should have gone back to it’s normal levels, but if it doesn’t then...” there was a lengthy pause, Rainbow's nervousness increasing.

“Then what?” she asked.

“... Then the magic will tear you apart from the inside out.” Twilight finished, setting the book down. Rainbow Dash’s face and emotions dropped.

“So, I am going to die?” she asked.

“Don’t say that." Twilight said. "I said your internal magic should be back to normal and you don’t have to worry about it.”

“But what if you’re wrong and it’s still supercharged?" Rainbow Dash could feel sweat forming on her brow as she continued. "What’s going to happen to me?”

“I don’t know. It happens so rarely in Pegasi and earth ponies. If you were a unicorn this would make more sense, and you’d... well, most likely explode.”

“Explode?!” Rainbow cried.

“Yes. All that magic has to go somewhere, and the only way is out. Given how much energy you have stored up, it could be anything from a balloon popping to a Sonic Rainboom sized explosion.” Rainbow Dash started sweating more and pawing at the ground.

“C-can you do something to stop it?”

“It’s beyond my casting range.”

“But you’re the most powerful unicorn I know! Can’t you find some kind of spell that will help?”

“I’m sorry, Rainbow, but I don’t think I could perform a spell like-” Twilight was interrupted by Rainbow Dash grabbing her and pulling her closer.

“Please Twilight! You have to do something! I don’t want to die!”

“Rainbow Dash! Calm down before you hurt yourself.” Rainbow Dash let go of Twilight and backed up. “I’m sorry, but I just don’t know any spells to siphon magic off of somepony. If anyone would know, it would probably be Princess Celestia. But this was only a one-time event; like I said, maybe the magic has depleted itself and you’re back to normal.”

“But if you’re wrong?”

“Then you should go see Princess Celestia and she may be able to help you. But if you do go, make sure to bring this,” Twilight nodded towards the rock “with you.”

“What, so the Princess can blow up too?”

“Princess Celestia is immune to that sort of thing. Now, go home and get some rest; you’ve gotten yourself worked up over this and you may only make things worse.”

“Okay... But when should I go to see the Princess?”

“If anything else happens to you that you think is not normal, come see me and I’ll tell her you’re coming.”

Rainbow Dash woke from her afternoon nap and stretched. Her conversation with Twilight the previous day was still rattling around in her mind, the idea of her body overloading and exploding a haunting shadow she did not want to face. She had tried to ignore it, but it still crept into her thoughts whenever she least expected it. She shook her head and looked around.

Not wanting to break any more trees, Rainbow Dash had flown back to her house to take her nap. The room was fairly dark, even for the afternoon, and she flipped on a few lights in order to see better. Tank was napping in his favorite corner, a few half eaten leaves sitting in front of him. Rainbow Dash sighed, got out of bed and picked up the smaller bits of plant matter, treading carefully so as to not awaken the sleeping tortoise. Once that was done, she walked outside and looked towards Ponyville.

Rarity and Fluttershy should be on their way back from their spa trip... Maybe I should go and see what they’re up to. Rainbow Dash took a few moments before takeoff to check the weather. There was a breeze coming in from Canterlot, and Rainbow Dash prepared herself in case he had to fight against crosswinds.

Rainbow Dash spread her wings and shot forward, the Pegasus racing across the sky with unprecedented speed. While she enjoyed the speed boost, she noticed a few things that were off; normally when she reached speeds like this, her eyes would start watering and her forelegs would become stiff and unresponsive, and she only ever achieved speeds like this when diving. Now, she was flying straight, her arms felt fine, and she could see clearly.

Twilight was wrong; I’m still getting affected by whatever that rock did to me. Rainbow Dash pulled up and stopped flying in order to prevent herself from panicking. She was in the center of Ponyville, and several other ponies had noted her sudden arrival and were looking at her. She grinned and continued walking, keeping her head down so she did not look directly at anypony. She continued like this until she heard a familiar buzzing sound, a buzzing sound drawing closer.

“Hey, Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo said as she pulled up next to her idol.

“Hey Scoots.” thoughts of death by magical overload receded back into Rainbow Dash’s mind and she gave the younger pony a smile “What’s up?”

“Well, me and Applebloom wanted to do Cutie Mark Crusader Cliff Divers, but then Sweetie Belle got hungry and they sent me to Sugarcube Corner to get some snacks. Then I saw you coming into town and I wanted to see what you were up to and here I am. So,” Scootaloo leaned in a little closer to Rainbow Dash “What are you up to?”

“Not much of anything, really; I was going to see what Rarity and Fluttershy were doing, but since you're here I don’t see why I can’t hang out with you and help you out with some of those snacks.” Scootaloo’s face lit up with excitement.

“Really? You’d do that?”

“Would I ever leave my biggest fan waiting?” Best spend some quality time with her before I die. Her thoughts were interrupted by two orange hooves wrapping around her neck.

“This is awesome! I get to hang out with Rainbow Dash!” Rainbow Dash chuckled and the two began walking (or in Scootaloo’s case, riding) towards Sugarcube Corner.

“You know, you kind of remind me of myself when I was a filly.” Rainbow Dash said.

“I do?”

“Yeah. Have you ever heard of Rolling Thunder?”

“Uh, a little. He was a Wonderbolt, right?”

“The Founder of the Wonderbolts, actually. My mom lived next door to him when she was young, and she used to tell me all these stories of all the cool things he did. That’s actually what got me into trying out for the Wonderbolts.”

“Wow. Did you ever, y’know, meet him?”

“Well, once, just after I got my cutie mark. My mom thought it’d be a good idea to introduce me to some of the Wonderbolts and maybe pick up a couple of pointers from them, and then there was Rolling Thunder. He’d retired by then, but he was still, well, Rolling Thunder.”

“Was he cool?”

“Actually, I don’t remember; I fainted when he asked me what my name was.” Scootaloo stopped and looked at Rainbow Dash.

“You fainted?”

“Hey, it wasn’t my fault! The guy was like me and Princess Celestia combined, and I was eight at the time. I guess I got so excited that my brain got fried or something... kind of like when we first met.”

“Oh, yeah...” there was a pause “Sorry if you thought I was lame when I fainted.”

“Lame? You’re the second coolest pony in Ponyville, after me. I’d never think you’re lame.” This got a smile from the younger pony.

“Thanks.”

“No problem.” The two continued on “So, after cliff diving what are you going to try next for your cutie marks?”

“Well, Applebloom said something about sprinting...”

“Hey, sprinting’s actually kind of fun. I don’t do it that much since I fly all the time, but I think you three could be good at it.”

“We were going to ask Applejack if we could use that rodeo track she has, but with that big storm I don’t think we’ll-” Scootaloo stopped talking and pulled her scooter to a stop “Aw, why to they always have to show up whenever I go to Sugarcube Corner?”

“Who?” Rainbow Dash looked towards the bakery and saw two fillies standing near the entrance. The first one, who was wearing a pair of saddlebags, was a magenta pony with a purple and white mane, complete with a small tiara, and the second was a gray pony with pigtails and blue rimmed glasses. “Don’t tell me you’re scared of them.”

“No of course not! It just... every time I come here, it seems like Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon are waiting for me just so they can mock me and call me ‘Blank Flank’.”

“I know what that’s like. Everypony used to call me Rainbow Crash. Just try to ignore them and they’ll... wait.” Rainbow Dash squinted. There seemed to be something wrong with Diamond Tiara’s saddlebags, so Rainbow Dash squinted harder to see what exactly the problem was. She saw a notebook, but that was not what was wrong. “Wait here.”

“You’re not going to-”

“I said wait here.” Scootaloo merely nodded while Rainbow Dash walked over to the two fillies “Hey! Diamond Tiara!”

“Oh look Silver Spoon, it’s Rainbow Dash the Blank Flank Lover.” Diamond Tiara smiled smugly “Come to protect your precious little Blank Flank?”

“That doesn’t matter right now. How did you get ahold of Cheerilee’s notebook?” Diamond Tiara’s gaze shifted to one of surprise, while Silver Spoon eyed her friend nervously.

“Diamond, you didn’t... did you?” the gray pony asked. Diamond Tiara ignored her.

“I... I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

“I’m not. What, is this, like, some stupid plan to try and get me in trouble?”

“No, now give me the book.”

“Or what? You’ll go tell? Because I’m sure that will go over well. Who do you think my dad will believe: you, the
mare who almost flooded our house with that storm last month, or me?” Diamond Tiara’s smug look returned, and Rainbow Dash had to suppress the urge to tackle the filly and forcibly remove that smile.

That wouldn’t solve anything... But finding Cheerilee might. Smiling, Rainbow Dash lunged forward, grabbed Diamond Tiara by her forelegs and took off, leaving a shocked Scootaloo and Silver Spoon behind. Once airborne, she turned south and flew towards Cheerilee’s house, while Diamond Tiara struggled to free herself.

“Let me go! Are you insane?” the filly screamed over the wind.

“No, just doing what’s right.”

“My dad will hear about this, and he’ll see that you get fired from the weather team!”

“I’d like to see him try.” Cheerilee’s house was close to the school, and its lavender paint job made it a bit easier to spot from above. Cheerilee herself was outside tending to a small collection of daisies, her back turned to the approaching ponies. Rainbow Dash dropped out of the sky and landed outside the fence before dropping Diamond Tiara unceremoniously on the ground. “Hey, Cheerilee!”

“Oh, hello Rainbow Dash.” the schoolteacher said, turning to face Rainbow “How nice of you to drop in...” she frowned when she saw Diamond Tiara “Rainbow Dash, what are you doing with one of my students?”

“It was terrible!” Diamond Tiara began “I was just walking home from Sugarcube Corner when this madmare came and dragged me over here! She didn’t even tell me why-”

“Quiet you.” Rainbow Dash looked at Cheerilee “She stole your notebook and I brought her here so she’d give it back.”

“I didn’t steal any notebook. Miss Cheerilee, she’s trying to get me in trouble!”

“Rainbow Dash, my notebook is back in my desk at the school; there’s no way she could have taken it.”

“Really?” Rainbow Dash pulled Diamond Tiara’s saddlebags off and turned them over, spilling their contents on the ground. The last thing to fall out was a dark colored book with three smiling flowers on the cover “Then I suppose she just happens to have a book that has your cutie mark on it.” Cheerilee and Diamond Tiara stared in shock at the book while Rainbow Dash struggled to not smile.

“Diamond Tiara...” Cheerilee said “What do you have to say for yourself?”

“I, err, uh... How do you know she didn’t just plant this on me, huh? She could be trying to frame me.”

“Why would she frame you?”

“Because... well, because...”

“Diamond Tiara, you, your father and I are going to have a long discussion about stealing things, after which you’ll have detention for the next month.”

“But Miss Cheerilee-”

“No buts. Now go gather your things; you and I are going to find your father.” Diamond Tiara looked like she would continue complaining, but merely grumbled and began to pick up her things. Cheerilee looked at Rainbow Dash “Thanks for that, Rainbow Dash. How did you know she had my notebook?”

“It was nothing really. I just looked through the bag and saw it... wait, I looked through the bag?”

“Is something the matter?” Rainbow Dash backed up.

“Yes... something is wrong with me.” Rainbow Dash turned and took off, changing direction towards Twilight’s library.

I’ve got to see Princess Celestia now or else everypony will get hurt.

Author's Notes:

I imagine if Superman punched a tree, it would have the same results as Rainbow Dash kicking a tree (at least, as shown here).
I don't own My Little Pony or Superman; they belong to Hasbro and DC. Likes and comments are appreciated, and if I screwed something up please let me know