Two Years After Dreamfall (Shorts)

by hujan86

NOPONY GETS LEFT BEHIND - revised

Spitfire is really pissed right now. “You went AWOL for like, what? Two years? Then there’re rumors about you, messing with Dark Magic and later nosedived into Ghastly Gorge, while galloping away from an angry mob for stealing candies from a bunch of foals on Nightmare Night!”

Rainbow Dash felt mortified by the Wonderbolt captain's harsh words. “That last part was a bit exaggerate-”

“Did I say you can interrupt me!?” Spitfire scolded.

“N-no…Ma’am,” Rainbow Dash said weakly, her gaze down on the floor.

Spitfire contemplated whether Rainbow Dash should be allowed another chance in the academy. For her, discipline counts as much as talent and skills. At that point, another pegasus came into her thought. She had been willing to give, or more accurately, at least considered giving Lightning Dust a second chance. Maybe she should not be biased against Rainbow Dash.

Looking over at the pegasus before her, there was a look of hopefulness on Rainbow Dash’s face. Spitfire knows very well that like Lightning Dust, Rainbow Dash’s life was built around the Wonderbolts. With that, a decision was reached.

“I can’t let you get back into the first team just like that. But…” She opened a drawer to her desk and pulled out a few sheets of paper. “This is an application for the Wonderbolts Reserve Unit. You’ll have to start over from the very bottom. That is the best I can offer you.”

That was not exactly what Rainbow Dash wanted yet she took the papers anyway.

“Fill it out,” Spitfire told her, “take a short physical, pass a written test, then you’re good to go.”

“Thank you, Ma'am,” Rainbow Dash said.

Several months later...

“Unlike last time, this is not a derby!” Gilda began briefing the reserve cadets on the upcoming drill on the air obstacle course. “The stormy weather setting will challenge your precision and ability to adapt in different weather environments as a team! Remember! There is no ‘I’ in team! Nopony gets left behind!

“Before we begin, there are rules you need follow. So listen carefully. One, deliberate obstruction of the other teams is forbidden. Two, if your partner fails to recover from a spinout, it’s your responsibility to help him or her out…”

While Gilda laid out the next rules, Rainbow Dash tactfully whispered to her partner, Wildflower, “Don’t worry. With me by your side, we’re gonna make this look easy peasy.”

One week before Hearth’s Warming Eve…

In the horizon, strong winds and build-up of stormy clouds are clear indications that the blizzard’s arrival is imminent. Probably in a few hours’ time it will hit the Wonderbolts Academy.

“Say whaaaaat?” Rainbow Dash moaned.

Not just her, all the Wonderbolts who had gathered in the mess hall expressed their disappointment when Spitfire announced that they need to delay their trip back home for Hearth’s Warming.

“I know you all are eager to go back to your friends and family,” the captain said understandably. “But the weather service had issued a blizzard warning for a 250-mile swath of this region, meaning heavy, blowing snow and potential whiteout conditions. For safety reasons, all of you are to remain grounded here until further notice.”

After that, she instructed her two officers, Gilda and Soarin to make sure everypony is accounted for.

Later in the barracks, Rainbow Dash flopped onto her bed in frustration.

“Can’t believe this!” she complained. “Over the last minute! And I promised Scoot I’ll be back early to help her decorate her home!”

“Relax, Rainbow Dash,” Wildflower said calmly from her bed. “It’s only for a few days.”

That’s what I’m hoping for, Rainbow Dash thought, but still this is weather production we’re talking about. “What if they’re wrong?”

“At least it can’t be any worse than the storm two years ago,” Wildflower remarked.

“How bad was it?” Rainbow Dash was curious.

“You didn’t know?” Wildflower asked in surprise.

Rainbow Dash just shrugged. How could she tell Wildflower that while under the influence of Dark Magic, she spent a whole year deep in the caverns somewhere in the Ghastly Gorge helping Twilight Sparkle in her crazy experiments on Quarray eels in the quest to overthrow Princess Celestia?

Seeing that Rainbow Dash just kept quiet, Wildflower explained to her, “It was one of the largest snow storms in the history of Equestria! Actually not just Equestria. It swept from Frozen North all the way to the South within days and lasted for weeks.”

“There were rumors in its wake,” she added. “I heard Gilda braved the superstorm during a short stint with the royal guards.”

Rainbow Dash felt doubtful about that. “You sure about this?”

“Gilda wasn’t inclined to talk about it so I never asked again,” Wildflower replied. “But imagine if she did make it through the storm, maybe…we can too, since this one is localized.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash said with a smug. “We did ace that obstacle course, didn’t we?”

Suddenly she looked thoughtful. And so did Wildflower.

Gilda repeatedly called Rainbow Dash and Wildflower’s name, rapping the door but no one answered.

“Here!” Rainbow Dash came in from the end of corridor. “Sorry. I had to go to the bathroom.”

“Where is Wildflower?” Gilda asked sternly.

“She was in the room when I left.” Rainbow Dash tried the door but it was locked. “Huh...”

Gilda had no choice but to get the spare keys. When she came back and unlocked the door, they find no one in the room. Rainbow Dash went to check Wildflower’s bed.

“Uh, I think she packed her things and left just now,” she said.

Gilda shook her head in dismay. “Oh Faust, no...”

Spitfire tried to stop Gilda from going on a suicidal search for Wildflower.

“It’s too risky,” she sternly warned the griffon.

“Someone has to do it,” Gilda insisted, after getting her winter coat and flare stick from the locker. “Given her top speed, she won’t make it through halfway.”

Wildflower was experiencing trouble in maintaining her flight through the strong snowy wind. She began to regret her decision of comparing herself to the experienced and much stronger Gilda. Unlike the simulated weather in the obstacle trainings, this blizzard was way more severe and her visibility is totally restricted.

Deciding that facing Spitfire’s fury is a saner option than risk getting frozen to death, she tried to turn back. But then a gust tossed her aside in a spin-out. The high winds made it difficult for her to recover. The ground and the sky looking almost the same during the spin worsened her predicament.

It seemed that the pegasus is fated to fall to her death, that is until Gilda appeared. But it was a little too late. By the time she caught Wildflower, they were about to hit a treetop. Gilda twisted around so that Wildflower is facing away from the tree and it was the griffon who ended up bearing the brunt of the crash onto the branches.

Back at the academy, Spitfire and Soarin scanned the snowy plains with their binoculars from the rooftop.

The latter spotted a dim reddish glow, hardly visible through the heavy blowing snow.

“Ma’am! I see them!” he announced after deducing the glow was from a flare stick.

Gilda dropped her flare stick upon the arrival of Spitfire and Soarin.

“We crashed into a tree,” Gilda notified them.

The griffon motioned at the unconscious Wildflower whom she carried on her back. “She was knocked on the head but I think it’s not that serious.”

Gilda crouched down to pass Wildflower to Soarin. As she did so, she winced and let out a pained groan.

From that reaction, Spitfire knew immediately that the griffon was also injured. She came closer to take a better look at Gilda. There in the underside of the belly, a twig was protruding from the wound. Spitfire could only guess how deep it is embedded inside her.

“Can you still move?” she asked Gilda.

“I think so… Yeah.” Though her response did not sound convincing, Gilda was not ready to give up.

The academy is still farther ahead. But she has already gotten so far after walking for miles with the wound.

She rose and moved forward with Spitfire by her side. It was not long before her eyes became dazed.

“No, no, Gilda!” Spitfire said alarmingly when she saw Gilda started tottering. “Get hold of yourself!”

After Gilda dropped writhing on the snow, Spitfire urgently called out to Soarin up ahead to get help.

Soarin burst in through the door and after Fleetfoot took Wildflower off his hooves, he called out to the other Wonderbolts. “Everypony! We need volunteers!”

“Where’s Spitfire?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Gilda passed out,” Soarin informed her. “If we don’t help move her fast, she’ll bleed to death.”

Rainbow Dash did not actually like Gilda. But it was not like before where some disgruntled Wonderbolts thought a griffon did not belong to the Wonderbolts. Her reason was a personal one. Any friend to that boastful Lightning Dust is an enemy to her. That is why when Rainbow Dash found out Gilda is the reserve unit’s instructor, she felt low.

At that thought, she remembered the words uttered by the griffon during one of the trainings- nopony gets left behind.

Her perspective quickly changed. Gilda is a Wonderbolt and she risked her life to get another Wonderbolt back from trouble. The Wonderbolts stick together as one team.

“I know a faster way!” Rainbow Dash declared. “Somepony get me a mattress and some ropes.”

She rushed to flip the lounge’s table upside down.

“What’re you doing?” Soarin asked, puzzled by her actions.

“Improvise!” Rainbow Dash replied.

To get Gilda here fast, she would use the method she taught the CMC for cheap fun when they did not have a sled on winter.

Rainbow Dash and Soarin pulled over their improvised sled, made up of an upturned table with the mattress attached with ropes at the bottom, right before where Spitfire. Without wasting time, they along with Rapidfire assisted Spitfire in carrying Gilda to the sled.

Rainbow Dash was taken by surprise of how the griffon weighs a ton.

How’s that she could fly??? she thought.

Care was given so they do not worsen the wound while securing Gilda on the sled. Using all their available strength, Rainbow Dash and Soarin pulled the sled with Spitfire and Rapidfire pushing from behind.

They pressed forward against the ever increasing tense weather. Along the way, they went so fast the sled almost veered off course dangerously. But Spitfire and Rapidfire’s reactions were quick enough to rectify it.

Spitfire cast a quick glance on Gilda moaning and writhing in discomfort of the ride. “Hold on, Gilda!”

Up ahead, the plateau where the academy stood came into their view. But soon it started to fade as the snowfall gets heavier by every minute. They have to be quick, for a whiteout could occur at any time.

“Move faster!” Spitfire barked.

As they picked up their paces, a gust of wind blew off the ground snow. A white cloud wave washed the over area where they are at…

***

Gilda was experiencing possibly the worst Hearth Warming’s Eve ever. She still felt weak after the six-inch sharp twig was removed through surgery. She did not get break very often in a year and Hearth Warming holiday is one of those rare times where she gets to spend time with her friends in Canterlot. But this year it looks like she will be spending the holidays in the academy’s hospital wing. Bummer...

She lay on the bed, sadly looking at her bracelet. It was given to her as a birthday gift long ago by Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. How she was so looking forward to Hearth Warming’s Eve dinner at their place tonight. Yet she did not regret her action. She did what she had to do as a responsible officer.

But soon her sadness turned to smile. At the door, her friends unexpectedly showed up. All five of them- Princess Sunset Shimmer, Trixie, Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon and Lightning Dust, have come all the way from Canterlot to bring gift baskets and treats for Gilda so she will not miss out the celebration.

Spitfire slammed her hoof on the table to express her anger at the fully recovered Wildflower.

“I’ve made this clear so many times!” she barked angrily. “Discipline counts as much as skills! Your utter disregard for command and your own safety put everypony in this academy at risk, you know that!? Two lives could’ve been lost!”

“Ma’am,” Rainbow Dash decided to speak for Wildflower, “it’s not entirely her fault.”

Wildflower looked at her friend in surprise. “Rainbow Dash?”

“Right before she left, I did kinda encouraged her, incidentally,” Rainbow Dash admitted...sort of. “So, if you want to punish Wildflower, you should punish me as well.”

Hearing that, Spitfire hoofed her face in disbelief. “Urgh! Fine!”

She pointed towards the mops and buckets at a corner. “See that over there? I want you two have all the toilets around the academy sparkly clean by the end of the day. Only then you can leave for your holidays. Oh, and don’t think that’s that. When you get back after New Year, more will be waiting. Now, dismiss!!!”

“Yes, ma’am!” They took their respective cleaning tools then sulkily left through the door.

After they close the door behind them, Spitfire started grumbling to herself. “Never for once in my career’s history where I have to stay back on Hearth Warming’s Eve merely to oversee the cadet’s discipline.”

The two pegasus decided to start with the office block’s bathroom. Rainbow Dash almost reached for the knob when it turned by itself. After the door opened, she found herself standing face-to-face with Lighting Dust. Clearly they did not expect to see each other again.

It was no longer secret to anypony that it was Rainbow Dash who had spread exaggerated rumors about the tornado incident in order to further discredit Lightning Dust’s reputation. She would not be surprised if the former Wonderbolt wants to berate her for that, like right here, right now.

“I heard what you did,” Lighting Dust said earnestly, ultimately dashing the blue pegasus’ expectation. “Thanks.”

She gave Rainbow Dash a gentle pat on the back then moved past her without looking.

Rainbow Dash was taken aback by her reaction. Maybe Lightning Dust still hates her but decided not to pick a fight because it is the holidays or maybe she did move on like Spitfire said. Either way, she was being gracious.

“Wildflower,” Rainbow Dash said, “when we’re done, we need to see Gilda.”

Wildflower nodded her agreement although she did not know exactly what Rainbow Dash has in her mind.

Without saying another word, they both entered the bathroom to get their work started.