Ambition and Curiosity

by PinkamenaPictures

Chapter II

Surprise was a strangely difficult mare to talk to privately, Rainbow Dash was learning. Her first thought had been to talk to Surprise in the Academy, while she was not wearing her flight suit and would be in a cheerful mood. What she had not considered was that Surprise spent most days training or helping with another pony’s training, and tended to return to the Academy alongside the ponies she was training with.

Trying to talk to her while she was wearing her flight suit did not work for Rainbow either. As, although she was still cheerful, Surprise had a serious air to her when training. Whatever the problem in front of her was that needed to be solved, it was the priority.

With a big flight show coming up in two weeks, Rainbow Dash decided to put her questions about Surprise to the side and focus on preparing for her part in the show. Rainbow did not have a lead role in the show, but every performer had to get everything right or risk ruining the show. To that end, Rainbow was practising each move that she was supposed to perform to make sure that she could do them all flawlessly.

All in all, her practise was going very well. Flight school or no, Rainbow Dash was one of the most versatile flyers in the Wonderbolts. Breakneck speeds and death-defying stunts were some of her favourite things in life, and ever since she joined the Wonderbolts she had been getting better at coordinating with others and being part of a team. She was not the most precise flyer, but her ambition to improve was matched only by her ability to do so.

After completing a series of maneuvers, Rainbow Dash, Midnight Strike, Blaze, and Misty Fly landed on the runway. They had been training all morning, breaking only briefly for lunch.

“Well done, everypony!” Blaze said as they stepped to the side of the runway. “I’d say we’ll be ready for Applewood, and with plenty of time to spare. But that's no reason to get lazy. Do we all know where we can improve?”

“I could use some work on the Abyssinian Eights,” Misty Fly often spoke with a soft voice, which mostly just meant that everypony paid attention when she didn't.

Misty Fly’s callsign was Dizzy, because she tended to lose her ability to fly straight for a moment after performing a spin. Rainbow had never asked if it represented a more specific event. As the issue was, at least to a degree, a physical problem, Misty was rarely made to do many spins or loops in shows. When she was, she always put her all into making sure she did not mess anything up and generally never showed any sign of weakness in shows.

“I’m still having some trouble with the nosedive section,” Midnight admitted.

“My issue is flying right next to another pony,” Rainbow said, then turned to Misty. “Sorry again.”

Misty smiled. “It’s alright, I’ve done worse than brushing another pony’s wings. Nopony crashed, and the routine was barely affected.”

“Alright,” Blaze said. “I’ll help Misty with the Abyssinian Eight. Dash, work with Midnight on the nosedive. Midnight, work with Dash on flying in proximity. That sound good to everypony?” The other three Wonderbolts nodded. “Then let’s get going.”

After checking the runway, Blaze and Misty flew to an empty patch of sky. Rainbow and Midnight followed them into the air, but turned the other direction so as to not interfere with their training.

In order to safely practise nosediving, they flew up well beyond the standard training altitude. Normal dives were fairly common in flight shows due to being a relatively easy trick that many pegasi could not safely perform, being simply flying with a steep downward angle. A nosedive, by contrast, required flying straight down, something very few pegasi ever do because of how hard it was to regain control and pull up. Midnight’s issue with the nosedive was pulling out of it while retaining any significant speed. Something that Rainbow Dash was skilled in both because she had been told not to attempt nosedives by her flight school teacher, and because they were a main part of her attempts to recreate a Sonic Rainboom.

“You ready, Crash?” Midnight asked, wincing as she immediately regretted using Rainbow’s callsign.

“Let’s get to it,” Rainbow said without showing how she also wished Midnight had not used her callsign.

Rainbow Dash and Midnight began their dives slightly off unison, but soon corrected and were quickly diving side by side. Midnight was focused on trying to plan for the end of the nosedive, how to angle herself to lose as little momentum as possible. For Rainbow’s part, she was just trying to keep herself in time with Midnight. Not too close nor too far, and always on pace with her.

The wind pressed Rainbow’s goggles against her face, making her half wish that they weren't there. Goggles were mandatory for a number of stunts in the Wonderbolts, and it was generally accepted that every Wonderbolt wore them during practise and in shows. Rainbow had spent most of her life training without goggles out of preference, and was still not used to wearing them for long stretches of time.

Because they were trying to improve different flight skills, Rainbow put her focus fully on keeping pace with Midnight and let Midnight make that pace. The nosedive went fairly well, Midnight still lost too much speed out of the dive and Rainbow still had trouble staying next to another flyer, but it was an improvement.

They continued training for sometime, performing dive after dive until they were at the end of their endurance. Midnight especially could tell that she would not be able to do her best any longer, and she told Rainbow as much.

“Yeah, not sure how much more I could do either,” Rainbow Dash agreed. She glanced at the sun and saw that it was about to set. “We should meet up with Blaze before calling it a day though.”

They flew across the sky above the Wonderbolt Academy at a slow pace, neither pony wanting to overexert themselves. Although there were still a few groups, most of the Wonderbolts had already gone inside the Academy and the emptiness of the usually crowded skies felt weird to Rainbow. It was not her first time being one of the last to be training, but it never stopped seeming strange to her.

When they flew up to her, Blaze was watching a small group of Wonderbolts -cadets based on their outfits -laughing and performing stunts that would likely never make it into a show.

“Hey, Blaze,” Midnight called as they got close. “We’re gonna head back if you don’t mind.”

“No problem at all. I’ll join you, I sent Misty back a few minutes ago and was about to meet with you two anyway.” Blaze flew over to them and they began back towards the Academy.

The three Wonderbolts flew towards the Academy at a leisurely pace, not wanting to wear themselves off more than they already had. Rainbow Dash was eager to get back, and was a bit ahead of the other two.

As they approached the runway, Rainbow Dash reached up to push her goggles onto her forehead and out of her way. In that moment of distraction, she felt something hit her wing. Rainbow lost control and began losing altitude while gaining speed as she spun downward. She heard somepony -probably Midnight -yell something to her, but she ignored the sound as she attempted to regain control of her flight. Realising that she could not get full motion with her left wing, Rainbow switched focus to losing speed as effectively as possible.

With her goggles half in place they served only to limit her sight, so Rainbow had no idea if she was going to land on the runway or the solid clouds around it. She was confident that she was going to land on one of those things due to where she was when she started falling, but she could not guess which.

One of the first things that Rainbow taught herself after leaving flight school was how to crash. If there was no option but to crash into the ground when something went wrong, then she needed to know how to do so without getting herself killed. If she hit either the runway or the clouds while preparing for the other, it would not go well. Tumbling through the sky and knowing that she did not have long to decide, she prepared to hit the runway.

Rainbow Dash crashed into the runway with a cry of pain through clenched teeth that cut off as her muzzle struck the runway. She hit the pavement at an angle and after her initial roll began to slide along it. Rainbow felt her wing drag against the runway, leaving behind more than just a couple feathers.

Midnight Strike landed near Rainbow Dash’s fallen body soon after she stopped moving, and rushed over to her. Midnight pulled Rainbow’s damaged and bloody goggles off her head and sighed in relief when she saw that Rainbow’s eyes appeared intact. “Rainbow Dash, can you hear me?”

“Ugh, Midnight?” Rainbow managed with another groan of pain.

“Good. It’s me, but don’t try to talk anymore. You’ll be alright,” Midnight said as calmly as she could before turning her head to look behind her. “Blaze! Where’s the medic?”

Blaze landed near them. “I sent Cadet Meadow Flower to get him. How’s Dash?”

Midnight turned back to Rainbow before responding. “You’ll be alright, you’ll get through this like you always have. What’s a little crash to an Element of Harmony?”

Although Midnight’s assurances were delivered with confidence and in a strong voice, it was impossible for Rainbow to miss the fear in her eyes. Somepony landed beside them, and Rainbow Dash heard Blaze say something about a medical kit, but fell unconscious before she could hear Midnight’s response.