# 4. #
It was humbling to think about the day I joined. Spitfire was saying, "Earth to Soarin. You still there?"
I nodded. "Just thinking. Our candidate seems more like you than like me. She's been trying to show off and get our attention, to the point of landing herself in the hospital at least once. How about if we grab her for a day, and let her get the 'ohmygoshohmygosh' out of her system?"
"Already did, at the flying contest. That was quite a morning."
Almost a really bad morning. Rainbow Dash had started it by flubbing all her moves, getting upstaged by that unicorn friend of hers, and having to save me and Spitfire. From falling, of all fates. Dusty would've called that disaster a royal cluster-buck. And then Dash had acted like we were doing her a huge favor by hanging out with her.
I shook my head. "For Celestia's sake. She's already a national hero, twice over, and she saved our lives. And she still couldn't quit grinning the whole rest of the day, just because she got to fly in private with us. She's got to get over being a fangirl."
"I'm still a Wonderbolts fangirl," Spitfire said. "Hasn't hurt me any."
"I say we bring her in, show her the base, and schedule a few training sessions. It's the only way to start getting her comfortable around us."
Spitfire frowned. "She'll still be terrified of doing something wrong in front of us." And then her expression changed.
"Why have you suddenly got an evil grin, captain?"
"I have an idea."
# 5. #
"Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh..."
I put one hoof to my face. "I haven't even talked yet."
"But you're here! And that means..." Her grin was bigger than I thought was possible.
We were standing at the door of Rainbow Dash's... castle, I should call it. I got the sense that she made the place this big and fancy just to show off, since she lived alone. She'd hardly used anything but clouds for building the patio and the tower. It would've been dull but for the rainbow spilling perpetually from the top like a waterfall. I said, "Cool it. This isn't the day you're probably thinking it is. Spitfire wanted to talk to you, but I thought you might explode with glee. We'd have feathers scattered everywhere."
Those violet eyes stared at me. Dash scuffed a forehoof against the cloud patio. "So, uh, what can I do for you?" She was trying to look nonchalant now, and failing completely.
"If you've got time, we'd like to have you do some training with us. See if you fit in, give you a tour of --"
"Epona Two!?" She was instantly up in my muzzle in full fangirl mode again. "Yeah, definitely, anytime! How's right now?"
I hated having to do this, but I said "No" to an overexcited Rainbow Dash. "You need to calm down. So, a bit later. How's this afternoon?"
"You mean this afternoon this afternoon? Yeah, sure!" Her eyes flicked back and forth and she seemed as shy as that other pegasus she hangs out with. "But what's going on? Am I joining up with you or what?"
"All I can say is, maybe. Think of it as one step closer. But please, don't drop everything for our sake."
She wasn't listening. "Right! I'll be there! Where? Here?"
I nodded. The poor mare wasn't going to get anything done between now and then. I made a note to come back as close to noon as possible, and took to the air. "See you."
As I flew off I could hear her whooping for joy.
# 6. #
The base's shadow happened to fall on Dash's castle. She was standing there right at noon, of course, and she rocketed up in a spiral to look at it. Epona Two is less military than the original, but it still looks more like some kind of flying vehicle than like a typical cloud building. We've got our wings-and-lightning banners hanging from the walls, and there's wood and even metal worked into it. Magic too. You only get a hint of how sturdy the thing is from looking at the exposed beams.
Rainbow Dash was fluttering around outside, rattling off all the statistics she'd memorized about it. "Eighty wingpower just to move it when the stabilizers are on, six levitation boosters tweaked by Celestia herself, fireless heating system... oh wow. Can we go in? Can I see inside?" Her mane was flopping over her face and it seemed like she hadn't stopped jittering since I last saw her.
The door glittered; it was made of rainbow matter with a locking spell. I pushed it open for her, and we all just let her look around for a minute. Two floors of hardwood, clouds, sleeping stalls, rainbows, exercise machines and other stuff I take for granted. And two other rooms.
"So anyway," I said, "You know me and Spitfire already. And meet Rapidfire and Fleetfoot. Mustang, Concorde, Challenger..." All us pegasi were there, slapping hooves with the newcomer. "And Stardream and and Boilerplate."
Dash was peering at the last two, unicorn and earth pony, with a confused expression. Spitfire said, "We need Stardream on hand for her magic, and Boilerplate works the machinery and does some of the legal and financial stuff."
"Hi. I, uh, admit I didn't know about you two."
The unicorn waved off the slight. I said, "We're about more than flying, and the non-pegasi are part of the team."
Fleetfoot snorted. "They are doing the things that are letting us to the flying, keep." I kind of admired Fleetfoot, a pure-white-maned speedster from Germaney. She was totally focused on perfecting her skill and didn't care about anything else. She was on her way out to pasture, though. That left an opening for someone more colorful. She had her goggles on, hiding her eyes. "Miss Dash, you should always everypony's contribution remember."
Rainbow Dash drooped. "I'm sorry."
Our technology horse, Boilerplate, tapped her on the shoulder to make her look up. "Seriously, it's all right. Want to see the stabilizers and everything?"
"Would I!"
Spitfire added, "Almost everything." Boilerplate nodded.
We gave her the rest of the tour. I'm proud to understand half of what that stallion's talking about when he goes on about laminar airflow and magitechnological vapor density control. That is, how Epona Two doesn't drop out of the sky and why our non-pegasi don't fall through the floor. Rainbow Dash didn't seem to grasp much of the jargon, but the mare was no dodo. I figured I could lend her my old textbooks.
"And what's that room there?" she asked. She looked like she was coming up for air, after listening to a long-winded explanation about inertial stabilizers. (The exact way they work is scary, but fun.)
Spitfire opened the wooden door. "This is his room." Just a little sleeping stall, unused these days. It was full of Dusty Roads' things. We kept all the medals, trophies and photos shiny. Something seemed wrong when I looked in, though.
"Oh, wow!" said Dash. "That's where the goggles came from?"
I froze. "What."
Spitfire turned back to look at me. "They were my property. I bet them on that race with Dash."
I said, "Yeah, they're yours, but they belong in the shrine." There was an empty space on the wall of clouds, above a picture of the old stallion. In that photo he was posing, wings spread, with two bright-eyed recruits. Me in icy blue, Spitfire in flame orange, on either side of the tan man. Dusty's goggles weren't so beat-up then.
Spitfire said, "They're not mine anymore. They're Dash's. Okay?"
I looked away, ears low. "Yeah, all right. It doesn't matter."
Our candidate realized she was hearing an argument, and tried to defuse it. "So anyway, what's this other room off to the side?" That was the only one she hadn't seen yet.
Boilerplate said, "Sorry, but that's the skunk room. Pretend it stinks and leave it alone."
I changed the subject too. "Let's hit the weight room. Are you up for a workout?"
Dash looked relieved that she hadn't stepped in anything too badly. "Anytime."
And... wow. She had wing muscles like you wouldn't believe. Even Fleetfoot looked envious. Needed to work on her legs, but she was a ground runner too. Her weakness was that she wouldn't shut up. I could tell she wasn't putting full effort into the weight machines, because she kept peppering us with questions. Even we didn't know some of the trivia she brought up about our own shows!
We were tired after the training session and all that conversation. Spitfire said, "I think we're done for today. Thanks for..." She avoided saying 'joining us'. "For being here today. We're still not committing to anything, and we've got a couple of shows coming up. So take some time and think about how some regular practice with us would fit into your schedule."
Dash nodded, trying not to look like we'd kept her wound up tight for hours. "Right! It works just fine, so whenever you're available just say the word and I'll be there... for... oh no." Her wings shuddered. "There's somewhere I've gotta be. I promised Rarity I'd do lunch and model some kind of dress for her."
"It's way past lunch," Spitfire said.
Dash was backing toward the exit. "Yeah. I'm really sorry, but I've gotta go. You know where I live! It was great!" She pushed open the door and threw herself at the ground, wings readied.
It felt like the whole base had suddenly gotten a lot quieter. Less colorful, certainly. Spitfire sighed. "It begins."
# 7. #
I don't think she recognized me without the flight suit. I don't look that boring, do I? Finding Rainbow Dash took a team effort, me and Challenger. He spotted her from the sky, and I moved in so that I could show up casually instead of saying "Hi, I'm a Wonderbolt!"
She was hopping impatiently in line at a market stall. I trotted up beside her and looked at what they were selling. "Oatmeal? Are you crazy?"
"Special training diet," she said. She hardly gave me a second look.
"Oh, nice. Going to join the postal service or something?"
"Heck no! I'm gonna... uh..." She finally looked again. "Soarin! What're you doing here?"
Spitfire had captured me and explained her evil plan over breakfast. "Our fearless leader thought I should spend some time with you outside of training. I mean, if that's okay with you."
"Sure it is!" Her wings fluttered uncertainly. "Just hanging out, right?"
We ended up at a cafe, where she seemed proud of the dessert menu. "My friend Pinkie Pie works in the bakery that caters to this place, and Applejack provides the apples."
"Apple pie, huh?"
She said, "Yeah, I figured you'd want some."
"I'm never going to live that down, am I? At the Gala, I wasn't exactly at my best. I'd had a few drinks of Tres Equis between ending the show and the time you saw me. Sorry about that. It's just so boring there."
Dash looked sheepishly off to one side. "At least you didn't end up damaging everypony's clothes. And the furniture. And the castle itself."
"That was the highlight of the night! And considering you didn't get banished to the moon, the Princess apparently didn't mind. What's Celestia like in person, anyway? I've hardly seen her outside a formal occasion."
She perked up. "She's generous, and kind, and honest..."
"...Loyal, joyous and magical, yeah yeah. But what's she like without the platitudes?"
"Busy. Seems like she's always working, between the whole raising-the-sun thing and her royal duties. Twilight wishes they could spend more time together. But Twi's also terrified she'll make Celestia mad. This one time, she started a town-wide riot..."
I spotted the waiter and gave in, ordering some pie. "How could Celestia get mad at somepony who's a national hero twice over?" I blinked. "A riot?"
"Oh man, that was the maddest I've ever seen the Princess. Except when she was talking to Discord."
"You've got to tell me about that. You and your friends personally took down an evil chaos god, yet I don't see you getting mobbed for autographs."
The rainbow pegasus slumped. "I don't like to talk about that one. It wasn't the fun kind of adventure, for any of us. Except for the last part, where we wiped the grin off Discord's face."
"What exactly happened? We were way out in Baltimare." When we got the emergency signal and hurried back, we only showed up in time to see the aftermath. There were houses rearranged, patches of ground transformed into weird checkerboards, piles of cooked popcorn in the corn fields, and doctors dispensing psych counseling and cake to a hysterical population. "The news stories quoted him saying he was just getting started."
"What happened to the town was bad enough. But the clouds... He was looming over me, made of all these mismatched body parts. He took my wings somehow. And then he showed me Cloudsdale, shattering, and then he said to look inside this box..."
"Something happened to Cloudsdale?" As far as I knew, only the Ponyville area and Canterlot were affected by the brief storm of sadistic chaos.
"N-no," she said, subtly rocking in her seat. "He was lying. But it looked like the clouds were suddenly breaking up, and there were these kids who hadn't learned to fly..."
Now I shuddered too. "Let's talk about something else. You beat up Nightmare Moon the year before, right? Was that any better?"
"Yeah. Better. She tried playing mind games with us too, but wasn't nearly as good at it." Dash started to recover by attacking a sandwich. "She knew something about me. Caught me alone in the forest and made an illusion of some guys called the Shadowbolts, asking me to abandon my friends and join them."
"Wait a minute. How was that supposed to convince you? Evil Wonderbolts hanging out in the haunted forest at night for no reason, while the nightmare goddess was after you?"
"Well, uh, it was a magic thing. It was hard to think straight for a minute about how stupid the illusion was. I just saw these pegasi in cool costumes bragging about being the greatest flying team, and, uh, it was tempting."
I hid a grin. "Cooler than our costumes?"
"You said our!" Her face lit up. "Do I get a Wonderbolts outfit? I can get Rarity to give you my sizes. Ooh, ooh, and she wanted me to ask if you're commissioning new ones. But the regular ones are great too. Do I get a regular lightning bolt like Spitfire or my own thundercloud mark?"
I sighed and sipped my carrot juice. "It's always either/or with you, isn't it? You've got to learn to calm down about us or you'll be constantly hyper or depressed."
"But it's just so amazing this is finally happening!"
I pointed a wing at her. "Look. You helped save the world twice. Rainbow Dash two, Wonderbolts zero. We didn't even look good when we got called in to stop that rampaging dragon. So you should totally not care what we think of you."
"Not care? But I mean, I'm trying out so I have to care."
She was back in fangirl mode. Too bad; I'd been starting to have some fun being something besides her hero. "And if it doesn't work out, you still have a great life ahead doing other things with your skills. So lighten up. Ever hear about when Dusty Roads gave me my first flying lesson?"
She seemed lost in thought for a moment, and then smacked her forehead with a hoof. "And... I'm late again."
"What is it this time?"
Dash finished off her sandwich in one gulp. "Scoots. Uh, a kid who wanted some flying lessons."
I frowned. "Scootaloo, huh? Is she waiting for you?"
"How do you know -- oh, right. Spitfire knew the kid's been following me around. But I can put that off till tomorrow." Dash looked over her shoulder, with her ears hanging low. "Except she doesn't know where I am."
"Then let's go find her."
"Both of us?"
"We give talks at schools and hospitals, remember? Outreach is part of the job. So long as we're responsible about it."
Missing the hint, Dash perked up. "This is gonna be so cool for her, getting to meet you!"
I pulled some bits out of my saddlebags and paid the bill. "Dash, maybe we need to work out a regular practice schedule for you. Something to give you more structure so that you don't have to keep running off."
She was already hovering, ready to fly off to go meet the kid. "I'm sorry about all the distractions. I'm just not used to having this kind of commitment. I mean I really want to spend more time with you. I mean for the scheduling and the practice sessions and --"
"Yeah." I was thinking, Spitfire was right. Rainbow Dash, are we just more Shadowbolts to you? Some cool abstraction trying to take you away from your friends?