Note: A lot of you have asked for this, so finally here is it!
This happens a week after the last chapter and part 1 of the episode "Wonderbolt Academy"d made from the episode "Wonderbolt Academy"
*Ponyville*
Derpy is usually very happy on doing her job as mail pony, but today she is a bobble of cheer as she will be giving her partner the letter if his application to train at the Wonderbolt academy has been accepted or not. He will be the first she will do a mail delivery and finds him at the small apartment he now has since her room is too small for both him and his special somepony. She is happy on his terms but this Zhanna kind of scares her, that earth pony does not like having her near Soldier. Derpy can’t really understand why, though. Whatever it is, Derpy still will do her job and deliver this letter. She finds Soldier doing his morning excise. “Hi Soldier, I got a letter for you.” She greets him and Soldier is kind enough to stop his trotting so she can give him the letter. But when it’s clear he has forgotten how to use his hooves, she helps him opening the letter and holds it so he can read the reply from the academy. “What does it say?”
“I got in!” Soldier declares proudly and Derpy cheers, does turn into a giggle when he cannot recall what these Wonderbolts are. “Who are those Wonderbolts again?” He asks a bit confused, he knows they are part of the army, but that's it. Good thing his partner is so good at explaining things. “They are the air force of the pr- I mean presidents army. And now you have been allowed to train with them!” Derpy cheers excited on his behalf.
Ohh, that’s is really good news! He will train with the air force! “Today is a good day!" Soldier agrees, his dream of being part of the army has been fulfilled and now he is allowed to train with the Air Force! "When do they expect me to stand in line?”
Derpy checks the letter. “Precise midday.” Which means he better get packing. “Remember to pack, you will be training with them for quite some time.” Soldier salutes. “Good idea, I will be going now!” and trots into the apartment.
Derpy giggles and is about to head out to deliver the rest of her letters but stop midflight when Zhanna’s voice suddenly asks her. “What do you see in Soldier?” Derpy turns around, not entirely sure what this rather big earth pony is asking. “Um, well he’s my partner and a good friend” She replies Zhanna hesitant.
“Only friend?” Zhanna asks as she does feel quite threatened by this Derpy. Her boyfriend clearly cares about this grey pony and if this Derpy has any romantic feelings then she better be prepared to fight. But it turns out she does not have to as Derpy nods and says with a small smile. “He is a good pony but not my type and…” She lowers her gaze and in a sad manner touches her left hoof. “I am not ready to find my new special somepony.”
Zhanna is relieved that Derpy and her Soldier are simply friends, that does make things easier. “You good pony, will find romantic partner one day.”
That’s the sweetest thing Zhanna has said to her ever since they met, so Derpy is certain they might get along in the near future. “Thanks.” She giggles and flies off to do her job as mail pony.
After have delivered to everyone in town, Derpy checks her last letter … it says Rainbow Dash, she gasps when noticing that Rainbow Dash has as well gotten a letter from the Wonderbolts and that is quite exciting. Maybe she and Soldier will train together!
Derpy flies over to where Rainbow Dash lives and find not only Rainbow but her five friends waiting at the mailbox. “Hi girls!” Derpy greets them, lands before their small picnic and pulls out the letter they are probably waiting for. “Got you a letter from the Wonderbolts.” Rainbow Dash snatches it from her hoof, opens and reads it. Her excited face fades as she reads it and tells the others in disbelief. “I… didn’t get in...”
Everyone are in shock to hear this, Pinkie Pie mostly. Derpy does title her head in confusion why Rainbow Dash didn’t get in, and just as she is about to voice her thoughts. Rainbow reveals she was just messing with them.
“Gotcha! Ha, you guys are so gullible. Like I wasn't gonna get in!” and she gets super tackled down by an excited Pinkie Pie, “I'm just sooooooooooo happy for you!” the pink pony cheers as she hugs Rainbow Dash tightly. Derpy smiles but is a bit worried if Rainbow Dash can breathe in that hug.
“Uh… thanks?” and after a moment, Rainbow Dash got enough and asks Pinkie to let go. “I kinda need to get going.” Pinkie Pie hugs her extra tightly before she lets go. Rainbow caress her sour back from the hug, even a pony like Pinkie, her earth pony magic does make her quite strong and it sure can be felt when she gives out these hugs. Anyway, now it’s time to show the Wondebolts what she is made of! “The sooner I get there.” Rainbow Dash takes to the sky and show of her speed and agility to her friends. “The sooner I get to show them my stuff! See you guys in two months!” She grabs the bag Rarity and Applejack have ready for her and is off to join the other students at the Wonderbolt academy. She hears Applejack wish her luck, but an awesome pony like her: “Don’t need it!”
Pinkie runs a bit ahead and out from her magic saddlebag she pulls out a megaphone, shouting through it: “DON'T FORGET TO WRITE!!!” Which made the whole area bend to the shout. She turns to her pretty knocked out friends from the shockwave she made, asking worriedly. “Do you think she heard me?”
She didn’t get an answer.
*Hours later, at the Wonderbolt Academy.”
Rainbow Dash arrives at the Academy and as she flies over to the spot where all new recruits were told to stand, she watches the trainees do their training and she can’t wait to be the one doing it! “This is gotta be sweet!” She spots a group of ponies not in the trainee uniform and knows she found the new recruits, to her surprise she recognizes a few and especially one of them. She decides to land beside him. “So, you got in too?” Soldier nods and it amuses her how excited he looks, can’t blame him, she is quite excited as well.
“Well, lookie what we got here.”
The captain of the Wonderbolt, a yellow mare with wild in the fire color of orange mane and hair walks over to the new group of recruits, her name is Spitfire and it’s her duty to make sure only the best flyers will become a Wonderbolt. The new recruits do the wise choice to stand in line but they need more than this to impress her. “Bet you all think you're Wonderbolt material, don't ya?”
“Yes, ma’am!” They all shout.
Spitfire walks back and forwards these new wannabe recruits. “Think you got what it takes to be an elite flyer?”
Again they all shout. “Yes, ma’am!”
So she reminds them what it means to be a Wonderbolt. “Well then. Let me be the first to tell you...” She stops abruptly and shouts to the recruit. “If you think being a Wonderbolt is a fancy weather manager or group of ponies showing off now and then; you are GREATLY mistaken!! To be a Wonderbolt; one needs top of the line endurance and nerves of steel in heat of battle!” Noticing one showing signs of weakness, Spitfire steps over to the shaking pony, asking her. “Will you be willing to fly into a fully charged thundercloud? One I must remind; can kill you.” The mare, now trembling in fear up shakes her head. “I thought so.” and Spitfire has no use for a such a pony. “You’re out, go home.” The mare stares at her in shock and Spitfire tells her. “I’m not repeating myself.” So with head down, the mare leaves. Spitfire then turns to another she has noticed is looking doubtful, asking him. “Are your wings strong enough to create a tornado? And I am not talking about a flimsy one able to lift leaves. I am talking about one that can suck up rocks in size of your head.”
He winches and shakes his head, but do says. "I will train myself to be able ma'am." That's what she likes to hear. "And I will train you newbie, but don't expect me to hold your hoof." She turns to the rest, checking and is happy to see none of them are shaking, so they have so far the nerves and confidence in their flying skills. “These eight weeks I will put you through hell! And I promise you will ache every night and be exhausted!” She eyes every member of these new recruits, walking over to a rainbow-haired pegasus she has seen before and know is a strong flyer, but she ignores her to instead address the whole group. “If you cannot keep up, if you do not have the mindset, then you are out! Do I make myself clear?!”
“Yes ma’am!” They all shout and one of them has the cheek to speak. “Try me so I can show my stuff.”
Spitfire turns to this cheeky pony. “Oh I will try you recruit, but let me make something perfectly clear:” and she is right up at this pony’s face. “You do not speak unless I permit you! All of you five hundred laps!” They moan and she shouts again at them. “If you cannot handle that then I have no use of you! GO!!” She whistles and they take to the sky, the cheeky one is about to but she stops her. “You will do five hundred extra for the cheek.” It does take the mare off guard but she does recover quickly and takes to the sky.
Rainbow Dash is a bit caught off guard by how strict the captain is and being a Wonderbolt is way more serious than she thought, but she is determent to prove she is Wonderbolt material and flies the laps as fast as she can. The other recruits are far from being as fast as her or this other one Spitfire shouted at, this other mare does not look bothered and like her enjoying herself.
On her count, this is her last lap. “One more lap to go!” she grins and eyes the equally fast mare who returns the grin. “You’re on!” and they speed the last round. Both land on the ground and Spitfire walks over to them. “Not bad… for a newbie.” Before pointing out to the other mare. “You’re not done, get up there!”
The other mare smirks and turns to get up flying again, but she does stop for long enough to introduce herself to Rainbow Dash. “Name’s Lighting Dust.” and Rainbow introduce herself before Lighting Dust does her extra rounds.
Rainbow Dash decides to get something to eat while the others finish up, she does stop when one of the recruits collapses from exhausting onto a cloud. Spitfire flies up to her and tells her something. “Guess she’s out too.” Rainbow Dash muses and for a moment eyes Soldier worried but although he’s not the fastest, he is keeping up no problem. So the danger of him being thrown out is unlikely. Happy about this, Rainbow trots into the mess hall.
**Two weeks later**
Half of the recruits have been sent home from failing the basic endurance tests, now to see if any of these wannabe recruits has the skills to become a Wonderbolt. Spitfire brings them to a machine to test them in such a thing. “The Wonderbolts are the fastest, best precision flyers in the world. But spin-outs can still happen. And when they do, a Wonderbolt must be able to recover quickly. This...” One of her fellow trainers turns on the machine. “is the Dizzitron. It's gonna make you very – I repeat – very dizzy.” Spitfire eyes the recruits, now all dressed in the Wonder Bolt recruit uniform. “Your task is to try and recover and fly straight again, as soon as possible. Once you have recovered you must come in for a smooth landing. Now, who's first?” Of course two of them are more than happy to try it out and no wonder, so far they have been on top on the training.
Spitfire on purpose ignores them, instead walks over to the most unsure looking pegasus. “You, you’re up.” She tells her and is sensing a soon to be home sending when this mare asks nervously. “M-Me?” The mare eyes the Dissytron and gulps. Spitfire narrow her eyes, pointing out this mare’s two options. “Either you get in there or go home.” The mare eyes the machine again, then drops her head. That's enough for her, so Spitfire tells her hard. “You’re out, go home.” The recruits have learned that when she says that, there is no second chances. So the mare walks in a defeated manner away. Spitfire turns to another, again ignoring the best flyers. “You, get up there.” She tells a stallion. He nods and flies up to the machine.
When secured, Spitfire commands her fellow trainer to start the machine, when sure he is dizzy enough. “Release!” and the stallion gets thrown out, up into the air. He recovers but the landing needs some working on. “Decent, nothing to write home about, you will see more to the Dizzitron in the future.” She tells the still very dizzy stallion, will admit he might be Wonderbolt material if he continues like this. She sends two more, one of them wasn’t able to recover, so she gave him a choice to keep doing this until he got it or go home. He chose the latter. With that stallion out of the way, Spitfire commands Rainbow Dash’s to get up in the machine.
Rainbow Dash is not worried at all about this machine, she has tried to get spun around by a tornado and recover so she is confident she can do the same here. Must admit she does get dizzy and when thrown into the air, she needs a moment to figure out what is up and down but when she does, it’s all in matter of flapping the wings, turn the right way and Rainbow Dash speeds back to the ground, landing with only minor troubles as she is still a bit dizzy.
Spitfire does not voice it, but Rainbow Dash is confident she impressed the captain. She lands beside her fellow recruits, one of them whispers. “You made it look so easy.” And she replies proudly of her own skills. “I make everything look easy.” After another mare, Soldier is called up. Rainbow Dash watches him get spun around and thrown into the air, for a painful second it looks as if he won’t recover but he does and Rainbow has to bite her lip so she won’t laugh out loud when this not smartest pegasus decides to let gravity do most of the work and he crashes like a stone down onto the ground, fortunately, he is one of the few ponies allowed to do it as he strong enough to handle the tough landing and walk away from it with only minor bruising.
Rainbow Dash notices that Spitfire raised a brow of this before reminding Soldier. “Next time, I want you to fly down in your landing.” and Soldier salutes. “I try to remember it next time, ma’am!” and he trots over to join the others. He looks really happy to be here and Rainbow Dash has the feeling that the training is what makes him happy, not the whole Wonderbolt thing. Sounds like Soldier.
“Okay, Lightning Dust. You're up.” Spitfire calls and Lightning Dust flies over to the machine, doing a rather odd request. “Ma'am, can you put the Dizzitron at maximum speed?” She seats herself and pulls down the flying goggles. “I wanna push my limits.” Spitfire exchanges a look with her fellow trainer, both getting bit the warning signs but this training is to test the limits of the recruits. So Spitfire allows this request. “Okay. You asked for it.” She signs the stallion controlling the Dizzitron to put it up to its full speed, the machine spins rapidly and by her command, it hurls Lighting Dust up into the air.
She recovers surprisingly quickly and Spitfire must admit she is impressed. “Not bad.” This pony does have skills so now she simply has to drop the cheek and they might have a Wonderbolt here.
As more recruits get flung into the air by the Dizzytron, Rainbow Dash notices that none of them ever came close to her and Lightning Dust fast recovery, she voices this to her fellow fast flyer and Lightning Dust makes a good point by saying. “They should make us Wonderbolts right now.” She nods in agreement. “Yeah, they should.” She and everypony else turn when Spitfire calls for their attention and explains what’s going to happen the next weeks of the Academy.
“For the next weeks, you'll be working in pairs. Tomorrow morning, I'll post the teams, including who'll be lead pony and who'll be wingpony.” And she leaves the recruits. “Dismissed!”
**next day**
Confident she will make the lead pony, Rainbow Dash walks into the mess hall and asks the two first recruits she meet “So, which one of you lucky gals gets to be my wingpony?” But when they start snickering, Rainbow asks them confused. “What?”
“You might want to check the wall.” One of them says and leaves, still with a big smile of amusement of what Rainbow Dash thought she would be.
Rainbow Dash hurries over to the wall and is in disbelief of what Spitfire has decided she should be: “A wingpony?” Why in Celestia's name would she be picked as a wingpony?! She has the best record of the entire team!
Checking who will be her lead pony, Rainbow Dash is in shock to see that Soldier has gotten that role. This is going to be a disaster! And something she is intending to do something about!
Rainbow Dash heads over to the captain’s office to speak her mind about the role she has been put in but stops when she notices Lighting Dust tail disappears into the room, saying pretty much the same words Rainbow Dash would have if she had gotten inside the office first. “Why did you make me a wingpony? I am the best flyer in this entire team!” She would have said it a bit more respectful though, it is the captain of the Wonderbolt she would've been talking to.
Rainbow Dash sneaks up closer and hears what Spitfire’s response is to this.
“First: five hundred rounds for entering and speaking without permission. Secondly: the reason I made you a wingpony is to see if you can obey orders. It does not matter how great you are if you compromise the entire team by disobeying your commanding officer.”
“I will obey if my leadpony wasn’t one of the worst of the entire group.” Lightning Dust retorts. “Thunderlane will only slow me down!”
There is silence for a moment, then Spitfire speaks again, her tone harder. “You better drop that one-show attitude you have going Lightning Dust. If you cannot accept this decision and follow your leadpony’s command, then get out of my sight! I have better things than hear some wannabe pony’s whining! You are dismissed.”
“But—“
“That’s a command Newbie.”
Rainbow Dash swiftly gets out of the way, just in time before a very miffed Lighting Dust leaves the office. Leaving he hiding spot, Rainbow Dash replays the reason to why Spitfire put both her and Lighting Dust as wingponies; to see if they can obey commands. She does not like it but if this what’s it takes to become a Wonderbolt, then so be it.
Rainbow Dash leaves to get her badge as wingpony from one of the other trainers. With it on, she joins the others outside and her leadpony.
Soldier is quite happy with the role he got, she gives him a weak smile but really has to bite down her own hurt pride from not have gotten the lead role.
Checking the other teams, she notices that all have been teamed up so one with a strong personality or wings got the role as wingpony while those a bit unsure on themselves has become the leadpony. Eyeing Lighting Dust she feels a sympathy for her fellow strong flyer.
“Fall in line!” Spitfire shouts and the recruits do just that, with them standing properly and attention on her, Spitfire reveals what today’s training will be about. “Today you will all be participating in a flag hunt. We'll divide you into two teams, red...” A trainer pony shows the red flag to the team having Lighting Dust. “and blue.” The team with Rainbow Dash and Soldier. “Whoever finds the most flags of the opposing team's color wins.” The recruits cheers and Spitfire overhear one of them saying like an excited cheerleader. “Oh, this is gonna be so much fun!” Spitfire is immediately on this pony and reminds both her and the rest of the recruits. “If you think this is gonna to be fun, you are sadly mistaken. This is not recess, this is for training purposes. Lead ponies will have the command and wingponies must obey their leadpony. Do you understand?”
“Yes, ma'am!”
“Then let's go!” Spitfire shouts and blows the whistle, sending the two team off on the hunt.
“Let’s show those RED maggots who is the best team!” Soldier shouts, eyeing Rainbow Dash who nods but not as enthusiastic as he thought. “This is not a funeral, this is war! Now move out and catch those flags!”
“Alright.” Rainbow Dash replies, still not very eager about this. She follows him throughout the area, trying not to get in front- which is hard as Soldier is really slow compared to her.
Even with his limited brain capacity, Soldier is good at one thing and that knowing the team's strength. He is aware of Rainbow's speed, in fact, he fully believes her to be a scout and thus treat her as such. “Fly ahead and check the area, I’ll make sure no RED will attack from behind!” Rainbow Dash gives him a confused look, which does annoy him. “Why are you stalling?! Move out maggot!” and Rainbow Dash flies ahead, scanning the area while Soldier keeps an eye out on the RED team.
He does snap his attention away from the enemy team when Rainbow Dash calls. “There’s one!” He nods and both speeds down.
Noticing that the crack where the flag is, the two fallen trees covering the flag is smaller than she expected, Rainbow Dash suggests Soldier worried. “We should slow down. It doesn't look like both of us can make it at this speed!” and is again caught off guard when Soldier commands her to stop, she hesitates but does as told. Soldier does not slow down and crashes into one of the trees, breaking on impact. Moments later he calls. “No enemy in sight! Get down here and grab the flag!”
She does and together they leave the now larger opening and flies over to where Spitfire stands.
“Soldier and Rainbow Dash have found the first flag!” Spitfire calls to the rest.
With that intelligent secured, Soldier takes to the sky and is glad he did not have to tell a scout like Rainbow Dash to keep up with him. Would make her a lousy scout if he had to. Again he commands her to scout ahead and this time she does it without giving him stupid looks.
While scanning the area for more flags, Rainbow Dash decides that being Soldier’s wingpony is not that bad, he sounds to know what he is doing and is letting her use her speed to find the flags. Checking on the others she notices that Lightning Dust is still looking very miffed, maybe it’s because Thunderlane is not that great of a leader? That or Lighting Dust really does not like being a wingpony.