"Soarin~~~~ explain this!" Misty Fly slammed the table to get everyone's attention. She held up a photo high which showed the photo of the two on the train.
Rainbow Dash's jaw dropped to the table. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. Soarin was shocked, how did she get that photo!? Or even how did someone see them!? He thought no one noticed them at all. He gulped wondering how he was going to explain this to every pony. When everyone noticed Spitfire walking towards the table, Misty kept the photo under her wing. While doing so she fumbled a few times before successfully hiding it due to her being in a rush. Every pony pretended that it was a normal day at the table.
"Gooooood morning everyone!" Spitfire said with her usual greeting voice and sat at the end of the table.
She waited for a response from at least one pony. Everyone had shifty eyes and made excuses to leave the table early. Including Soarin who gave Misty Fly the stare to have a private talk with her.
"How did you get that photo!?" Soarin demanded with his eyes narrowed and nostrils flared as he stomped the ground.
"I somehow got my hands on it. Even if you get rid of this one I still have DOZEN copies in my house," Misty said with pride.
"If Spitfire gets her hooves on those she will put Dash AND I on probation! You know how important being a Wonderbolt is to her!" Soarin warned Misty with his stern voice.
He couldn't tell why but whoever gets in the way of Rainbow Dash's dream makes him furious. It could be just him being angry for her as he is her teacher.
"Oh wow, you sure do know a lot about Dash!" Misty said sarcastically.
"I know because I'm her mentor and her friend! I can see it in her eyes!" Soarin exclaimed with fury. He doesn't even know why he's getting heated up over this small thing.
Little did they know someone was listening to their conversation. That pony made a mistake with their large footsteps. Misty and Soarin rushed to see the pony but they were too late. No one was there. Soarin sighed and slowly made his way to the training ground. He hoped no one heard the conversation between him and Misty.
Rainbow Dash was already warmed up for the lesson. She greeted Soarin as per usual with glee. She was ready for today's lesson. Unexpectedly it was a surprise test for her. He brought out the clipboard and pencil ready. It was a mock test for her that was unannounced. She was shocked at first, but as she knows herself, nothing can bring down the awesome Rainbow Dash.
Soarin sets up an obstacle course that he knows is much more challenging and complex than the actual test. He lied to her saying that is 75% of the difficulty of the actual test. Rainbow Dash gulped seeing the daunting course. She took a deep breath, saluted to Soarin, and said, "I won't let you down, Sir Soarin!"
She put on her goggles and was ready to take off, as soon as Soarin blew the whistle, She flew off immediately from the ground. She flew past ten linear poles that were spaced out within an average pony length. She then dodged rapid incoming storm clouds by angling her body 90 degrees to the right and 180 degrees to the left. Next, she had to fly up and close her wing to do the drop that was always seen in the Wonderbolts' shows. When she nearly reaches the ground she has to glide ten centimeters before shooting straight back up with at least twenty wing power or more. She then had to put herself into the spinner as Soarin cranked it to the highest level. It spun many rounds until he was sure she would be dizzy and fired her off into the sky. Rainbow Dash spun around like crazy for a certain distance before regaining her consciousness and flew swiftly to get grab a flag that Soarin had placed before the mock test. Soarin stopped the timer and quickly wrote it down on his dashboard.
He wrote the grade and circled 'B-'. Rainbow Dash's jaw dropped. B-!? Her!? She thought she would at least get an A- at the very LEAST.
"There are some things I would like you to work on," Soaring started his speech and looked at his clipboard before continuing. "First, when you turn away from incoming storm clouds, it's too slow. Second, the amount of time you take to recover..."
Soarin went on about her faults in the mock tests and made her redo the test over and over again until she reached perfect ideal results. All the spinning made Rainbow Dash nauseous and they had to take a twenty-minute break to let her recover before they continued. The day was over in a flash and oh boy was she beat. During dinner, her mind wandered off to the photo she saw in the morning. She thought to herself that it looked cute but countered herself saying how she was getting sappy and disgusting so she dismissed the idea of the photo.
The next few months passed by swiftly and it was time for the big test! Rainbow Dash was nervous because she REALLY wanted to get into A team very badly!
"LISTEN UP RECRUITS! TODAY IS A BIG DAY FOR ALL OF YOU! IT IS THE DAY WHEN YOU GET INTO TEAM A..." Spitfire yelled as she raised a blue flag for team A, followed by a green flag, and continued. "...OR TEAM B. OR REPEAT THE WHOLE YEAR! BECAUSE YOU PUNKS CAN'T DO IT! SO YOU BETTER PASS AND I HOPE TO NOT SEE YOUR FACES HERE NEXT YEAR! DO YOU HEAR ME?"
Every pegasus in Team C saluted and yelled in unison, "YES MA'AM!"
"I WILL CALL OUT NAMES INDIVIDUALLY AND HAVE ALL OF YOU TESTED. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?" Spitfire yelled.
"YES MA'AM!" Every pegasi yelled in unison again.
Rainbow Dash spotted Astatine at the side shaking a little. She trotted to him and asked him what was wrong. His reply was shaky and Rainbow Dash could tell he was nervous as hell. She comforted him by encouraging him that he could do it. As much as Rainbow Dash would love to have less competition to be the BEST. She can't have her best buddy, Astatine, behind. He was practically the reason why she went to those boring Team C classes. They always had fun together secretly while paying attention to class. Soon Spitfire called out individual names one by one. All Team A and B members were on site hiding in one corner, secretly rating each of their flights that would be brought back to headquarters to discuss for placement.
The day was over and all Team C members finished the test, either feeling nervous or proud. Even if they felt all those sorts of emotions, they all could agree on one thing. The test was very tiring and hard. They laid their heads on the mess hall's table, practically dead. If some pony were to walk into the mess hall, they would think zombies have taken over the Wonderbolts' academy!
After careful calibration of each member from Team C. The board of instructors arranged every pegasi that could advance or stay in a folder. The results were posted and every pony gathered around in anticipation. Soarin was outside the door of the announcement room. He paced back and forth as he hoped Rainbow Dash's dream would come true. He hoped to see her in team A. No, he WANTS to see her every day. When Rainbow Dash came out with a disappointed face his heart nearly dropped.
"Haha! Played you! I got in! Woohoo!" Rainbow Dash said in excitement and hugged Soarin in a rush manner, causing them to topple to the ground.
"Now this is going to go down in history!" Surprise grinned as she snapped a photo of the two. She looked at the photo she snapped and smiled uncontrollably.
"Classical you. I might give the two a little push," Spitfire joked seeing Surprise smiling like an idiot.
Surprise jumped from Spitfire's sudden presence. She gave her a shifty look, eyeing her up and down before smiling widely. Spitfire laughed at Surprise.
"You know, Soarin is like a little brother to me and one of my best friends. And seeing how he can fall in love without realizing might just break Soarin's fear of dating. I might just give them a little push. That is for now they're just friends," Spitfire said with a slight smile.
"So you're going to join our secret Soarindash fan club?" Surprise smiled with her wings flapping rapidly out of excitement.
"Wait, when did you guys—"
"SINCE THE DAY HE WAS MENTORING HER!" Surprise fangirled.
Surprise went into fangirl mode and bounced like a ball around the corners. Spitfire shook her head and sighed. This is the Wonderbolts after all. Not strict but plain fun most of the time. The weekend finally came and Rainbow Dash just arrived at her home. She noticed her mailbox was usually filled with letters to the brim. One caught her attention immediately as she could recognize it was from her friends! She couldn't wait to meet her friends again. The classic confetti spray from Pinkie Pie always made her laugh.
"Dear Rainbow Dash,
We all miss you dearly and hope you can come down to the castle this weekend to have a chillaxin' day with us.
Yours sincerely,
Twilight."
Rainbow Dash dashed to the castle and party cannons were shot. She immediately hugged her friends as she missed them so dearly while she was training hard in the Wonderbolts.
"We prepared this just for you!" Pinkie Pie said in her usual hyper voice.
"Aww thank you guys," Rainbow Dash said with little tears forming in her eyes.
"What's wrong? You normally don't tear up at parties," Fluttershy asked with a worried tone as she stroked her back.
"I don't know, sniff I just really missed y'all!" Rainbow Dash said with her tears streaming down her cheeks.
"Oh come on now sugar cube, we always missed you no matter how far you are, we always love you," Applejack comforted her.
"That's right Darling, we love you to the moon and back," Rarity said, wrapping her arm around her neck.
"Thank you guys! I don't know what to do sometimes without y'all," Rainbow Dash wiped her tears and everyone pulled in for a hug.
"C'mon let's party!" Pinkie yelled.
The day ended with everyone happy and exhausted. The next day Rainbow was off to meet her Wonderbolt friends: Misty, Fleetfoot, Surprise, and Blaze were waiting for her at the academy entrance.
There was a fair ongoing and it was big. There were so many games to be played! Rainbow Dash and Misty were acting like little fillies. Running around playing games.
"Hey Misty! This looks fun! C'mon, let's go!" Rainbow Dash flew to a stall. Misty swiftly followed behind and said, "Let's try that one afterward!"
"Wait, guys! Don't go too far!"
"Just follow them behind fleet!"
"Dash! Misty! Wait!"
The other three were following them around like they were babysitting. In the end, all of them bonded closer than ever.
"Alright everyone, today we're going to try out a new formation. Soarin you will be in the middle. On your left will be Rainbow Dash and on your right will be Misty!" Spitfire started her introduction.
She gave the rest their instructions. And used a board to show how and what to do. This was for a duke's anniversary surprise for his duchess. Everyone cooed for the cute surprise. Spitfire had to settle them down before everyone started practicing. Spitfire using a speaker and was shouting at them about their formation.
"Soarin fly faster! My grandma can fly faster than you!"
"Fleetfoot you're too far right!"
Spitfire continued to yell as she watched the formation. They redid the performance many times. Sometimes they crash into another pony. Some stray too far. Spitfire finally called off the training and every pony lay on the ground. Except for one pony that was feeling alright like he just had warm up.
"How does Soarin still have so much stamina left?" Rainbow Dash asked as the others and she was on the floor while he acted like he hadn't been through any training.
"He's co-captain! Besides, since he never picked a student he was forced to train. So he's naturally going to be okay," Misty replied still panting.
"You know what else that good stamina can be used for?" Fleetfoot jokingly asked.
"C'mon Fleetfoot, they will do it later sooner or later," Surprise replied.
Rainbow Dash gave them a confused look. Surprise looked at Fleetfoot and giggled.
"You will understand, a few years down the line," Surprise said and chuckled at the end. Everyone else laughed while Rainbow Dash lay there confused.
"Hey guys, anyone needs help walking? Today's training is quite brutal!" Soarin asked looking at the lot of pegasus on the ground.
"Dash needs help walking!" Misty yelled.
"What!? No, I can walk perfectly fine—" Rainbow Dash immediately fell after she got up.
"Are you okay Dash!?" Astatine flew beside Rainbow Dash out of nowhere.
"Must be the training, haha I'm fine," Rainbow Dash said to him with an awkward smile.
Astatine reached his hoof out and pulled her up. He supported her to the infirmary. On the way there, they were talking and laughing together.
"OooOo Soarin has competition ~" Misty nudged Surprise and Fleetfoot.
The three mares giggled among themselves as they got up and walked to the locker room. Soarin stared at the two ponies heading to the lockers. He felt his heart sank into a deep void, at the same time angry. He wanted to push that stallion away. He asked himself, " Am I feeling jealous that Dash has another stallion friend?"
Soarin POV
Am I jealous? It can't be, when surprise had stallion friends I never felt this way. I feel so sad and betrayed. I am so confused. Dash never did anything wrong but I feel so hurt and betrayed...