by neorenamon
The lead mare lined up with the other six pegasus as well as Rainbow Dash. Dash found that she was struggling under the incredibly heavy weight of the metal saddlebags. She wondered what could be inside them. Lead bars?
Dirge walked over and offered Dash her tinted flight goggles.
"Thanks," said Dash as they were slipped over her head.
"You're still gonna lose," she replied glumly.
"I don't think so!" Dash replied confidently.
So she moved ahead to stand in the middle of them, and raised her leg to signal the start of the race. They all quivered with anticipation as they waited for the race to start, and Dash lived for such competition since her days in Junior Flight School. Then her legged dropped, and they all started running. The others were airborne after taking a dozen running steps, but Dash was still struggling to get off the ground. She never tried to fly under such a load, even counting the times she had another pony across her back.
But none of the others even bothered to look back as they moved ahead. They didn't even look at each other directly. Shadowbolts were pros after all.
Dash barely cleared the end of the runway before she was off, and the others were almost a sixth of a lap ahead of her. But she was no quitter. Her motto was do or die always. Her wings flapped furiously as she tried to catch up.
"Gotta dig deeper!" she moaned, "Gotta give it my ALL!"
She could feel a warmth spread out from her chest. Perhaps even from her heart. It spread out into her wings and flight muscles, and she suddenly felt like they had become much stronger. The air moved faster around her as she began to gain on the others, but they had already gone into their sixth lap before she could see the one behind all the others at last. Looking over her shoulder, she realized that she was being followed by the lead pegasus. That they even might lap her.
"NO WAY I'M LOSING TO ANYPONY!!" she screamed as her wings beat like never before. The wind became like a gale in her face as her speed increased. The next to last place flyer was coming ever closer. But as Dash tried to pass, she was slammed into the side of the hill by the metal saddlebags of the other pegasus. She tumbled down the hill before she came to a stop, and saw the lead fly over her.
"NO BUCKING WAY!!" she yelled as she shot into the air again. Now her wings beat even harder as she climbed back onto the circuit just behind the lead. She let out a beastial scream that seemed to phase all of the ponies around her as she suddenly shot ahead. As she stuck her hooves ahead, the mach cone began to build just in front. The lead was falling behind as she went faster and faster. Then the Sonic Rainboom happened just as she passed the one that knocked her out of the sky, and she smirked as she watched the shockwave throw them into a loop.
She doubled her speed as she left her trademark rainbow trail behind her. Travelling around at super speed, she soon began lapping all of the fliers as they looked at her fly by. Even professionals like them were dumbfounded. She won the race before she knew it and even then continued to lap the hill as she overtook even her own rainbow trail more than once. The wind increased as it threatened to spawn a megatornado around the hill.
"STOP!!" called the lead from the ground, "YOU WON!!"
Dash snapped out of her super speed trance as she glided around the hill one more time, and landed by the other pegasus.
"Congratulations," said the lead, "That's the most amazing race I've ever seen."
But Dash stomped over to the last place flier and snorted fire in their face as she yelled, "YOU!! IF YOU EVER CHEAT LIKE THAT AGAIN, I'M GOING TO DESTROY YOU!!"
The lead came over and asked, "What is she talking about?!"
"She body checked me when I tried to pass! That's why I was on the ground the first time you lapped me!"
"Is that true?!"
The flier nodded without speaking.
"YOU ARE GROUNDED FOR A MONTH!!" screamed the lead as their voice sounded more feminine, "If I ever hear a word of you cheating like that again, YOU'RE OFF THE SQUAD FOREVER!! REPORT FOR KP DUTY AT ONCE!!"
The shamed pony turned at trotted off head down towards the base hangar doors.
"The squad is very... competitive..." she said, "My name is Captain Slipstream, and I'm very sorry for Thundercracker's shameful behavior just now. If you don't want to continue the tests..."
"Oh, you can't get rid of me that easily!"
She paused as her head came up, and said, "Very well! The next competition is marksmanship! You have to place third or better against the rest of us if you want to move to the next test!"
"No problems, sistah," said Dash with a confident grin.
"Follow me," she said as they trotted down a path through the woods.
'I hope the others are keeping an eye on me,' thought Dash as she followed.
"These weapons systems are very secret," said Slipstream, "You have to promise that even if you fail the test, you will never speak to anypony anywhere about what you're about to see and use."
"I am totally cool with that," she replied.
"Excellent!" The group approached a white line made of small stones that led down a long trench backed up against a hillside. At the end of the line were a dozen or so targets. There was also lines of standing targets every hundred yards or so. Dash figured there was twelve lines of targets all told. "Master command! Deploy weapons systems!" Dash watched in surprise as a small cannon barrel popped from the from of the bag, a quad rocket launcher popped from the side, and she could feel a couple of small bombs lower from the bottom and swing out to rails on the outside edge of the packs. The other pack deployed in reflection to the first.
"Whoa!" cried Dash, "That's some heavy metal arms!"
"Indeed," she relied, "Each pack carries 200 round of small incendiary autocannon rounds, four anti-armor rockets and two small anti-pony anti-material high explosive bombs. That's the standard loadout for most of our missions."
"Wow, you ponies sure are serious."
"As serious as gold and death," replied Slipstream somberly.
Then a helmet deployed from the packs as they settled down over their heads, including Dash. Then translucent yellow visors dropped down over their eyes. Slipstream stepped up and opened a panel in the side of the helmet. She fiddled with something that made her whole head buzz. A pair of mics slipped down from the helmet to the sides of her mouth.
"What da what?" she asked in surprise.
"Just calm down," replied Slipstream, "I'm just setting the helmet to temporarily obey your voice commands. The visor shows what you're supposed to shoot at, and your voice commands tell which weapon to fire and how many rounds you wish to release in each controlled burst or volley." She turned to one of the others under her command and said, "Demonstrate for us, Thrust."
They nodded as they stepped up to the line. Looking at the 300 yard target down the middle, a mare's voice commanded, "Autocannons: 5 round burst on my mark. Mark!" The cannons quickly spat out their ten rounds as about six hits registered against the target. Brass shell casings were ejected from slots that opened up in the sides of the saddlebags.
"Oh, I can so do this," said Dash.
"We'll see about that, hotshot."