Overshadowed
The Everfree forest. Home to manticores, hydras, and timber wolves. Nopony usually went in, much less ever thought to live there. One would have to be crazy to live in the Everfree forest. That is where the Shadowbolts come in.
The Shadowbolts lived deep in the forest. Some said they were weren't real; some said they were phantoms. They said they were the best aerial team in Equestria.
They trained hard all the time so that one day Equestria would know their greatness. Each member of the team came from a different walk of life, but they all had one thing in common: Love of flying.
This chapter of their lives took place on a summer’s day. The sky had only a few puffy clouds floating on the wind, and the day was perfect for the team’s training. Above the forest sped a white blur. Somepony could only ever see the blur out of the corner of their eye, but by the time they turned their head the blur was gone. Nopony would have been able to tell that this blur was a pegasus.
Almost there... Come on Slush, the pegasus thought as she approached her target, a clearing in the forest where stones had been arranged to make a makeshift landing strip.
Today three pegasi were beginning their usual training. All along the sky were small clouds with flags planted in them to mark their course; the course stretched over much of the forest and finished back at the landing strip.
Slush loved the rush of racing, the wind in her mane and the beating of her heart was enough to bring her joy. A crack in her goggles let air in and fogged up her view, she didn't care it only added to her adrenaline rush.
When Slush had told herself that she was almost there, she had not been talking about her distance to the runway. What she had meant was that she was almost at her height. The wind, her heart racing,and the added reduction of eyesight added to the experience and was helped her to reach a stage of euphoria.
She had to stay focused, if she got distracted now, she would miss the finish line and lose precious time. Through the fog of her goggles she made out the forest clearing where her team was waiting for her. Folding her white feathered wings, she went into a spiraling dive that finally released her pent up excitement.
Time went in slow motion as she was in freefall. Breathing in deeply she extended her wings right before she neared the tree branches. She caught the wind to glide down to the ground.
She hit the ground running, stopping just at the edge of the trees.
Once she had come to a stop, she tried to catch her breath. “How did I do? She panted.”
“Uh, ten minutes and forty-seven seconds.” A grey pegasus with a dark blue mane a few yards to her right holding a stopwatch answered
Slush beat the ground angrily. “That’s a whole minute longer than my last time.”
Ever since she could remember, she had always been watching her own progress. If she wasn't improving, something had to be wrong. They couldn't afford any setbacks. They had to constantly get better no matter what.
On the sidelines, Twister and Hail both waited patiently while Slush grumbled to herself and continued her fit. Hail rolled the stopwatch in his hoof. None of them were wearing their uniforms. They never wore their uniforms when they were training. If something were to happen to them they would not be able to afford to have the uniforms repaired.
When Slush had finally stopped, she sighed, and brushed the dirt off of her hooves before approaching her teammates. “Okay, who’s next? Hail?”
Hail tossed the stopwatch to Twister casually. He cracked his neck, popping his joints back into place. “Right, okay. What’s my time?”
Twister brought up a clipboard he had been holding in his wing and scanned over it. “Fourteen minutes and thirteen seconds. But that was an improvement from the last time where you had fourteen minutes and thirty-seven seconds,” Twister added reassuringly.
“Thanks.” Hail grunted. “Just let me finish stretching.”
Twister resetting the stopwatch, suddenly raised his head and perked an ear. “Hey, did you guys hear that?”
Slush turned her head towards him “What?”
“There it is again.” Twister put a hoof to his ear and motioned for the other two to be quiet.
From not too far away, the trio heard a thud, as if something had crashed into a tree.
Hail, cocking an eyebrow said, “Yeah I hear it now, Twist, but what is it?”
Almost as if in answer to Hail’s question, a grey blur flew out of the brush and crashed into a tree near Twister. Now immobile the three saw that it had been a pegasus, grey with a blonde mane and a cutie mark of bubbles; along her shoulder was a bag with a muffin stitched on the front. Letters were fluttering out and a package poked out the top. She also had her head stuck in a knothole.
“Heph meh!” She shouted from within the tree. Twister approached her and grabbed hold of her hind legs. After a few tugs she came loose from the tree and fell onto her back, her eyes rolling in her head.
Twister held out his hoof. “Uhm, are you alright?”
The pegasus grabbed hold of his hoof and pulled herself up “Oh yeah. That happens all the time, it’s an occupational hazard.”
“What exactly is your occupation?” Hail asked scratching his head.
“I’m a mailmare.”
“And getting stuck in trees is an occupational hazard for mailmares?” Twister asked holding back a laugh.
“It happens more than you would think.”
“Right, hey are you sure you're ok? I mean your eyes are kinda screwy.”
The mailmare blinked a few times in confusion before realizing what Twister had meant. “Oh, no. My eyes are always like that. It’s a condition.”
“Alright then miss...?”
“Derpy.”
Twister accidently let out a snort but Derpy didn't show signs of noticing. “Miss Derpy, is there any reason that you're out here in the Everfree forest today?”
“Yeah do any of you know a—” She paused and searched her bag for a letter and read off of it “Slush Ball.”
“Yeah,” Slush answered. “That’s me.”
“Oh good this is for you.”
Derpy dropped the letter into Slush’s hoof “Oh good this is for you, Well gotta go now. See you later.”
With that Derpy flew off the way she came. As she left sight the sound of her crashing started once more until it faded into the distance.
“Well, that was...” Hail paused searching for the right word” “Interesting. So who’s the letter from Slush?”
Slush stared at the envelope with wide eyes “I-It’s from the Canterlot air show society.” Her hoof was near trembling.
Both of her teammates stared at their captain expectantly.
“Well?” said Twister “Open it! Come on what do they have to say?”
Slush took a deep breath and slowly split open the envelope and pulled out the paper inside. Slush’s eyes scanned down the letter as she read aloud.
“Dear members of aerial team ‘Shadowbolts’,
We are sending this notification to let you know that we have received your career portfolio.”
“Whoa, that was fast. We sent that in, when? Three days ago?”
“Quit it and let her finish, Twist.”
Slush continued. “Your aerial team has shown improvement since your last attempt to apply for a slot in an air show. However...”
Slush trailed off and continued reading silently her eyes going back and forth quickly.
“H-however we regret to inform you that your team has not been accepted for a slot in any upcoming airshows.”
Hail growled nastily under his breath and turned away kicking the nearest tree.
“So close...” Twister sighed.
“Wait There’s more.” Slush said quietly still staring at the paper. “We also regret to inform you that as this is your third consecutive failed attempt-”
Hail kicked the tree even harder.
“That we will no longer be accepting any requests to join the Canterlot Air Show Society from your team again. We wish you luck in your future endeavors and wish you a good day. Sincerely, Terminal Velocity of the Canterlot Air Show Society.”
Even though the letter ended Slush’s eyes kept going back in forth as if desperately looking for a mistake or another sentence. But their was none.
Hail kicked the tree repeatedly, stopped to walk away but kicked it once more for good measure before tearing off the goggles around his neck and throwing them on the ground.
“That’s it.” He shouted “I’m done, I’m out of here, i’m through. See you guys later.”
With that Hail spread his wings and flew into the forest breaking branches in his way but not slowing at all.
“Hail, Hail wait.” Slush shouted after him but he was already lost from sight in the the brush.
*****************************************************************************************
“Hail. Hail where are you?” Slush called fruitlessly.
It hadn't been hard to follow their companion as he had left a clear trail of snapped branches behind him but somewhere along the way he had flown above the trees and so the trail had ended.
Twister was patrolling the skies for Hail while Slush stuck to the ground. It was dangerous to go out alone deep into the Everfree forest especially at night and it would be dusk in just a few hours.
“Haaaaaaaail, Hail.”
Slush finally stopped to catch her breath, it wasn't the running that took the air out of her but the yelling.
“Gotta play smarter.” She thought aloud. “Where would he go? Where would he go?”
After a moment of thinking an idea came to her. She spread out her wings and flew to just above the trees. She then got her bearings from the sun and headed south-east.
Flying with a destination in mind gave Slush a bit more confidence, it also helped that it was a landmark that she was headed to. The forest did not have many landmarks besides Froggy Bottom Bog, the road to Ponyville, a plateau and the ancient ruins where Slush was going.
After a good fifteen minutes of flying she finally saw the ruins. Slush knew that the ruins had once been a kind of shrine in medieval times and that they had been abandoned because of some sort of tragedy long ago. But to her and her teammates it had a much deeper meaning.
Slush found a place to land outside the main door. As she landed she noticed that dust on the ground was spread out on the ground as if somepony else had landed there.
“Gotcha.”
Slush knew that it couldn't have been any other animal because they would never come near the ruins. Slush could understand, something about it seemed unnatural to her.
Pushing into the door revealed the main hall, in the middle of the hall was a large chandelier like set of pedestals. Shattered windows allowed chilling drafts in and broken-in-half pedestals showed evidence of a second floor once existing.
All was silent but peeking around the pedestals she found Hail laying down staring up into the sky. He did not notice Slush so she quietly crept over and laid herself next to him. They both remained there in silence just staring up at the sky watching clouds drift by. The sun slowly made its way across the sky. Slush wasn't sure how long they laid there in silence, she was just as content to lay there and watch the clouds and stars.
“Do you remember when we all first met?”
Slush still absorbed in her sky watching answered automatically without looking away. “Yes.”
“Junior Speedsters Flight camp.”
To these words Slush finally broke out of her trance. “Heh, yeah. Do you remember the chant?”
Hail rolled his eyes. “I would sooner not. But yeah first day I got there I was extremely nervous.”
“Fourteen colts, seventeen mares and three griffons.”
“My dad told me just to try to be friends with the first pony I saw. That’s when I saw this beautiful mare.”
“What did you do?”
Hail snorted “Well I was about to go over and try talking to her but then I was tackled by this spastic albino with blue dyed hair.”
“Ah, memoirs.”
“After that you would not leave me alone so I decided to roll with it. had no But I suppose I never really regretted it. We did everything together pretty much. I had to watch after you or else I bet you would have fallen off the clouds or something. After a week of training the entire class went out to their first official race.”
Slush shifted from her back to her side to be able to look at Hail. “Ooh, the good part.” She said smiling.
“We all lined up and went at the cue of the instructors. I was almost dead last and you were lagging behind with me even though you could have easily been in the top ten.”
Slush shrugged, “What can I say? If I had won the race they would have made me be with the faster kids for sure instead of my faithful grunt.”
Hail continued, “So I’m struggling in back and this one colt keeps circling the group in the back over and over again singing the camp chant the entire time. Finally one of the griffins got so annoyed of him that when the instructors weren't watching she swiped at him and scratched his wing.”
Slush in a very dramatic tone told the next segment of the story. “He fell spiralling into the forest below but nobody but us saw him. The griffin kept flying laughing under her breath. So what do two young cocksure kids do? We flew straight into the unknown willingly to rescue our fellow camper.”
Hail shook his head holding back a laugh. “No you did it willingly. I was grabbed and forced into a nose dive.”
“Such trivial details.”
Hail sighed, “Anyway we fell into the freaky forest below and found that he had landed in some weird ruins. We made sure little Twister was ok, he had a sprained wing so he wasn't flying anywhere. So we all sat and talked for awhile.”
“What about?”
Hail shrugged “I don't remember, but eventually we got to what we wanted to do when we're grown up. It was unanimous we all wanted to be a part of the best aerial team in Equestria. So we all took an oath their that we would, together. And thus the Shadowbolts were born.”
Slush brought her hoof to her face and pretended to wipe tears. “That story gets to me every time. *Sniff* But whatever happened to the cute young filly and her rapscallion cohorts? Did they get out of the forest alive?”
Hail chuckled. “Of course they did. The instructors found them and the young ponies told their story of the griffin lashing out like that. The griffin denied the fact and since nopony else saw the events the matter was dropped. But Twister didn't care he had met his two best friends.”
“Yeah...”
“Hey Slush?”
“Yeah?”
“Where did we go wrong?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean at what time did we become second rate carnival performers?”
“Hm, that would be our first gig.”
“Oh yeah. The Fillydelphia state fair. We performed, got decent applause. That was a good day.”
“Yeah.” Slush said wistfully “But it was too good a day. We got way too cocky and sent in a request to perform in Canterlot. A few weeks later we got our very first rejection letter.”
“That was a memorable day.”
“We learned our lesson and kept building a reputation. We performed at carnivals, birthday parties even competing in the Best young Flyer competition.”
Hail let out another heavy sigh. “But when we sent in our second request we got rejected again. We were always considered second rate compared to those big celebrities in Canterlot. Times were tough, now everypony is expecting sonic rainbooms since what happened at the young flyer competition last year.”
Both Slush Ball and Hail were silent. Crickets outside the ruins began to chirp and an owl hooted in the distance as the sun fell.
Slush broke the silence “And then there was the time we met her.”
Hail gave a heavy sigh before Slush went on. “Nightmare Moon, she promised us so much. Fame, power, wealth, offers that would make anypony willing to work for her. Which we did, we were so desperate we would take any offer that came along. Seemed simple enough just convince this pegasus to join us and leave her friends and afterwards fly in Canterlot. We get our dream and a new talented member. But it wasn't that easy.”
Hail shook his head. “She declined and Nightmare wasn't happy. But in retrospect I guess we should have known it wouldn't be that easy. I mean if one of us got an offer to join another team do you think they would leave? Even if we weren't going anywhere?”
“Yeah your right. I would never ditch you guys for another team. Your my friends, my family.”
“Yeah, family...” Hail sat up and stared into the distance.
Slush could tell when something was wrong with Hail. “Ok out with it. What's the matter?”
Hail gulped turned his head to Slush fighting back tears and managed to croak out “I’m leaving.”
Slush stunned from shock shook her head to clear it. “Aha aha, funny now what is really the matter?”
Hail just kept staring off into the distance.
Slush was exasperated “What? After all that about not leaving? Bu-but why?”
Hail no longer fighting back the tears now letting them flow down his face sniffed and gulped for air. “I made a *sniff* promise to my family.”
“What was it?”
“That if we got rejected from Canterlot permanently I would come home and join the family business.”
“What leave your passion for working in an old ice factory? That’s insane.”
Hail collected himself “I know but, I mean they’re right. I’m a failure. No don't say anything I am. I’m the slowest of the three of us, I have slow reaction time and I always end up nervous before a gig. You guys would probably be better off without me.”
Slush looked sorrowfully into Hail’s eyes. The two stared into each other’s faces for what seemed like forever. Then Slush slowly raised her hoof to Hail’s face. She held his face in her hoof tenderly, and then she slapped him
Hail recoiled from this and rubbed his cheek. Before he could blubber off about it Slush had already taken control of the situation.
“Better off without? Why would you ever think that?”
Slush now sniffing did her best to hold a tear back. “ We need you, without you we lose our big brother. Without you... We’re nothing. So what if you aren't the fastest? So what if you have the highest crash record of the three of us? So what if you're nervous? You don't think I don't get nervous with all those ponies out there in the crowd watching for me to make the slightest mistake?”
Slush paused a moment and shuddered at the thought of the judging stares that she was so familiar with. “Yes I am. But you have to get over mistakes and accidents happen. There will always be ponies that think you aren't good enough, but it is good enough for you, good enough for me. So why shouldn't it be good enough for everypony else?”
Slush was now o her hooves standing above Hail, “You know what we are going to do? I’ll tell you; we are going to become the best aerial team in Equestria, to the point that Canterlot will be begging us to perform. And as for your family don't tell them that Canterlot rejected you, no you rejected Canterlot.”
Hail stared at Slush in utter amazement his jaw hanging open. When he found it in himself to speak he asked “Do you really think we can do it?”
Slush laughed “Of course we can. We are the Shadowbolts, We’re the greatest aerial team in the Everfree forest and soon we will be the greatest in all Equestria.”
Slush Ball laughed maniacally, Hail couldn't help but chuckle as well. Taking a deep breath he stood up with her. “Ok, then if we are going to be the best then I suppose we need to get to work. First order of business, I think we should find Twister before something decides to eat him.
“I suppose you're right. Oh and Hail?”
Before Hail could ask what Slush had already put her front legs around him in an embrace. She let go after a moment and flew into the air to begin searching for their third teammate. Hail stood stunned in the ruins for a moment before smiling and shaking his head. He then followed Slush into the night sky.