“I don’t understand!” Rainbow Dash cried. “Why am I being fired?”
Rainbow stood in Spitfire’s office and glared down at the mare behind her desk. She had worked her flank off to get recognized by her idols, the young flyer competition, the Friendship Games, passing the written exam. Sure she had a few slip ups, like with the whole nickname fiasco, but after she had finally gotten in they were telling her she was fired. If Rainbow had to put this on the awesome scale this would rate a solid ‘not awesome’… now that she thought about it, she should really add more things to that scale than ‘awesome’ and ‘not awesome’.
Spitfire held both her hooves in front of her mouth as she spoke, “It’s because you’re never here! When we brought you on I knew we would need to make allowances for your work with Princess Twilight, the royalty comes first after all,” Spitfire picked up a single document on her desk and showed it to Rainbow. “Do you know what this is?”
“Umm,a sheet of paper?”
Spitfire wasn’t even phased by the smart aleck remark. She was far past caring about those little things. “Oh no, this is a list of reasons you gave for either not showing up to practice or being late,” she cleared her throat and read off the list. “15 counts of missing work due to fixing ‘friendship problems’. 8 counts of being late due to grading school work. 1 counts of missing work to ‘escort the elderly’. Teaching at a school, oversleeping from making lessen plans, fieldtrips, and more friendship problems… are you seeing the issue here Rainbow?”
Rainbow Dash’s anger felt like a rain was slowly putting it out, leaving only the damp wet leafs behind. She knew she had been focusing a lot on the school lately, but she didn’t think it was that bad. “Ok look, I’ll admit I bucked up. I overloaded my schedule by helping with the Friendship School, but you are making it look like I never show up to practice. What about the show in Canterlot last week? Sure I was a little late, but I made it and the show was great like always,”
Spitfire nodded her head in confirmation. “Yes, you did make it, and yes, the show was great. However, because you had only managed the show up to a halve of the rehearsals, I was forced to scrap our new routine because you didn’t know it,” she rose from her chair with the look of someone who just wanted to get this over with. “Honestly, Rainbow, this isn’t even about how much you miss work,”
“It’s not?” Rainbow asked. She was racking her brain to think of what she could have done that was worse than missing work. She had followed all of the flight routine to the letter and got along great with everyone. She was stumped. “Is it about who stole your lunch from the fridge? Because if so, I can go buy you a new one… not that it was me,”
Spitfire just let out a deep sigh. “Just follow me Dash,”
Wordlessly Spitfire led Rainbow out of the room. As Rainbow followed, she tried to come up with some angle she could employ to convince Spitfire to change her mind. She was Rainbow Awesome Dash; the Wonderbolts would be crazy to lose her. She was currently considering bringing up that she was the only pony that could do a sonic rainboom, though they had yet to implement it into the show. It made Rainbow wonder if it was because of what Spitfire said, but that was even more reason for them to keep her. All she had to do was rearrange her schedule some, maybe cut down on the number of classes she taught a week, and once news got out that the Wonderbolts added the legendary Sonic Rainboom to the show tickle sells would go through the roof.
Spitfire stopped at the edge of the long strip of road in the training yard. In the Distance Rainbow could see Soarin and Fleetfoot doing drills with the newest batch of reserve flyers. Until that moment Rainbow wasn’t even aware they had a new group of flyers… how much had she missed? Spitfire pointed out the team doing loops in the air. “Do you recognize the mare? The blue one,”
Rainbow had to squint her eyes but she could see her. Her fur was just a shade lighter than the Wonderbolt jumpsuits, and her mane and tail were a dual shade of yellow. “Yeah, I think her name is Lighting Dust, but I thought she was kicked out after she nearly killed my friends with a tornado,”
Spitfire nodded. “She was, after a screw up like that I had no choice but to kick her out. But before she left that day I told her of the potential I saw in her, that I thought she could make a great Wonderbolt if she put her all into it, but if she wanted another shot she would have to start at the bottom like everyone else,” Spitfire rose her hoof up to block the sun from her eyes, as she continued to watch Lighting Dust soared higher with her wingmate. Both of them circling and danced around each other as they passed through one cloud ring after another. “She didn’t make the cut last year, and I thought that would be the last I ever saw of her. There are not many who can stand to fail so close to their dreams yet still have the strength to try again from the bottom, but she did. She came back more confident and determined then I’ve ever seen her, and now she’s back where she belongs,”
Rainbow looked away from the ponies in the sky and to Spitfire. “I don’t understand, what does this have to do with anything?” she could feel her heartbeat in her ears and her mouth going dry. She didn’t like were this was going.
Spitfire lowered her hoof and looked Rainbow in the eyes as she spoke, “Rainbow, I believe there are two types of ponies in this world. The type who goes after their dreams and clings to it like a life raft when they catch it. Then you have the type who chases a dream for the sake of chasing it, yet when they catch it they soon grow born and look for something else to chase. Lighting Dust is the former… and I’m sorry to say but you are the latter,”
“T-that’s not true! I’ve always wanted to be a Wonderbolt and nothing else!” Rainbow felt an emptiness in her chest that she had never felt before. This was all going so wrong. She didn’t even get to tell her five point plan for why she should stay or have time to come up with a five point plan.
“Then tell me, if I had not called you in today, would you have shown?”
“There was a teacher conference planned and Twilight wanted to…” Rainbow’s eyes fell to the ground. “I don’t know,” the two stood there for a long moment just letting the winds blow their mane to the side. “What am I going to do now?”
“You still have your job as a teacher, so you can think of that as a silver lining,” Spitfire turned to make her way back inside, but stopped as she remembered one more thing she wanted to say. “You have the potential to be one of the best, but not as you are now. When the time comes that you are no longer teaching, when you are no longer obligated to help Princess Twilight every time someone scrapes their knees, when you can be Rainbow Dash the pony, than you will be ready. When that time comes enlist once more. You’ll have to start at the bottom, but we’ll welcome you back without a moment of hesitation,” Rainbow said nothing, so Spitfire returned the way she had come. She had some paperwork to do.
It was several minutes before Rainbow Dash realized she was alone. Her mind was stuck on the simple realization that she was going to have to start over. She would need to pass the reserves entrance exam once more, be accepted as a reserve flyer, and once a spot opens up prove herself the best out of all of the recruits to become a full-fledged Wonderbolt again. Could she really start over after everything she did to get here? She felt a fire in her chest wash away the emptiness. She was Rainbow Flank-kicking Dash! Of cause she could do it.
But this time there could be no distraction, no teaching, no cutie map, just the goal. And when she got back to where she belonged she would hold onto it, not like a life raft, but like air. It would be the very thing she needed to live. Her eyes moved back to where Lighting Dust was making her landing, and groups of ponies were congratulating Lighting and her partner on a job well done. “It took you two tries to get back,” Rainbow smirked. “I’ll do it in one,”