Training started up again a few days after the incident with the thestrals. Stratus had been adamant that - besides some basic drills - Soarin gave his body some recovery time. On the first day back from rest, as Soarin was making breakfast for everyone as usual, Nightshade came into the kitchen. With a thump, she tossed a brown package onto the table.
Soarin finished scraping eggs onto a serving dish as he glanced over at Nightshade. “Is that what I think it is?” He grinned, barely able to contain his excitement. Nightshade responded by coyly motioning to the package. Putting down the egg pan, Soarin came over and ripped apart the string that held the package together. As he thought, the first thing he noticed inside was the familiar gleam of the Shadowbolt goggles. He picked them up gingerly. “Am I allowed to put this on now?” He asked Nightshade.
“Don’t see why not.” Nightshade nodded. “You’ll need it for training, after all.”
Soarin put the goggles to the side, pulling out the suit that had been folded neatly under them.
He pulled it from the box, looking it over with interest. He’d never held one of the Shadowbolts suits before, but he noticed that it was slightly heavier than he expected. The Wonderbolts’ suits were always thin and light, almost like a diving suit. This, in comparison, had more layers to it, while still giving off the smooth appearance of a flight suit. Soarin imagined that it was for safety, considering that the Shadowbolts seemed to deal with arrows and bolts so often.
It was really and truly his, though, which made the stallion feel light on his hooves.
“Would you stop looking like you’re going to cry and get to training with Blitz already? Time for weapons training.” Stratus huffed as he headed into the kitchen. However, he noticed the suit in Soarin’s grasp and nodded to himself, “Ah, I see that you have your suit. Perfect. You’re a skilled enough flier on your own to come with us to low intensity training in the mornings, but I couldn’t have you come along in good faith until you had the right protection. Pass along the message that Blitz should test your balance with that thing on.”
Soarin nodded, quickly folding the suit and goggles back into the box before heading to he and Nightshade’s bunk to change.
As he left, Stratus turned to Nightshade, “You must be proud.” He told her with the smallest hint of a smile, “I think he actually might make the cut.”
Nightshade smiled back, “What happened to ‘waiting to see’?”
“Well, we’ve waited. And I’ve certainly seen what he has to offer us. Not that it’s our decision, but I wouldn’t object from what I’ve seen so far.”
Nightshade closed her eyes with a happy hum, “Yes, well. What else could we expect? He’s my brother, after all.”
“He’s also a bumbling imbecile, but he has spunk and is fairly obedient.” Stratus said, “He’ll fit into our ranks just fine.” With that, Stratus turned away and headed to fix himself some breakfast.
Nightshade smiled to herself as Stratus passed her by. “Yes,” She agreed softly, “Yes, he will.”
Soarin made his way over to the training room, immediately flinching on instinct. This is where Stratus had shot him with the hydra venom and paralyzed him for a few hours a few days ago. His body had clearly not forgotten about that. She stood in the doorway, frozen for only a moment, before he caught sight of Blitz waving at him. She had the same crossbow latched onto her hoof, but this time with a bolt loaded.
Soarin knew that Nightshade and Stratus had called Blitz their weapons expert, but he wasn’t sure that he wanted to trust her with anything loaded and pointed at his face. The mare was already known for being rather out there with the electricity that was always actively bouncing around her mane. Not to mention how hyper she was.
Nonetheless, Soarin’s legs carried him to Blitz’s side.
“Alrighty there, Soarin! Mornin!” Blitz bounced precariously. “Ready to learn to really aim a crossbow good?!”
“Err, yeah.” Soarin nodded. If Blitz noticed his weariness around her, she didn’t let it show on her face.
“Great! Okay, let’s start by getting you to fasten the belts! Use your wing to tie it up.” She gestured to the empty crossbow sitting next to her on a table. Soarin went over to pick it up, and cautiously began to slip it onto his hoof. “Is that your leading hoof? You want it on your leading hoof. You’ll keep it straighter that way.” Soarin nodded, belting it onto his right. “Now! Let’s get you some target practice! And from now on, Stratus wants you to add this to your morning routine, even on days off! This doesn’t take much of your body’s strength, and it’s highly, highly important!”
“Speaking of Stratus…” Soarin grunted as he pulled the belts on tightly, “...he said that he wanted you to test my flying ability with all of the gear on.”
“Of course!” Blitz giggled, “Totally makes sense. But first, let’s see that aim!” She pushed him into the starting position, “Now, remember this stance! Veeeeerry important stance! Hold it there, and load your bolt with your wing.”
Soarin took her advice, taking out a bolt and tucking it into the crossbow.
“So! Your aim is gonna be suuuper important in any type of mission that we do. Not only because you have a limited number of crossbow bolts, but because a badly missed bolt alerts everything within its radius! Miss too terribly, and you throw the whooooole mission into jeopardy!” Blitz explained as Soarin aimed the bow toward the target in front of him. “Now, just aim and pluck!”
Soarin’s first shot whizzed by, striking the second ring to the middle.
Blitz let out an excited gasp, “Do it again! This time focus on positioning your body square to the target you’re aiming at!”
“...square,” Soarin muttered, shuffling around for a moment before firing again. This time, the bolt struck the fourth ring to the middle.
“Hmm. Don’t overthink it, trust your gut this time,” Blitz said.
Soarin let out a breath, looking over the target and letting the bolt fly again. Again, it struck the second ring from the middle, but to the left.
“Just like that.” Blitz nodded. “Just keep practicing, you’ll get there!” She crept up behind him, sliding his back hooves to the correct stance. “And keep your leading hoof as straight as you can. There you go!”
It went on like this, Blitz edging every little piece of Soarin’s body into what she considered to be a perfect stance and Soarin attempting to fire off shots, for at least an hour. Finally, Blitz called for him to stop once his arrows had run out.
Blitz nodded to herself, pleased with the results. “Okay! Go retrieve ‘em now.”
Soarin had his back to her as he went about the time-consuming task of plucking each arrow from the target.
“Hey Soarin.” Blitz said to him, “You feel pretty comfortable here, right?”
“In the base?” Soarin still didn’t look at her, “Yeah, it gets better with each day. I don’t see it as a tomb anymore, at least.”
“I mean with me.”
“Oh.” Soarin flinched. He’d been hoping that this conversation wouldn’t come up.
“There you go again. I don’t bite, Soarin!” Blitz giggled, “Why do you act like I’m gonna?”
“It has less to do with you and more to do with the last time I was in this room.” Soarin said, “Getting pricked by hydra venom isn’t the best way to make a first impression of a place.”
Blitz tilted her head from side to side, trying to figure out how to phrase her next choice of words. “So… It isn’t because of Spitfire?” She asked hesitantly.
Soarin froze mid-pluck. Was that it? He hadn’t thought about it that way, but being around Blitz had caused some hesitance. He’d figured that it was because she was a hyper little mare around a bunch of weapons. Could he have associated her with Spitfire, somehow?
“Listen, I don’t want to beat around the bush here, Soarin…” Blitz said, “I visited Spitfire during my little break, and I just wanna say… I don’t blame you if you don’t want to forgive her.”
Soarin had tensed up at first, but relaxed slightly as Blitz said her piece. “Really? I would’ve thought that you would’ve been adamant that we kiss and make up.”
Blitz shook her head, “Nah. But I did want you to know that I’m going to be her friend still. I don’t want that to get in the way of you and I being friends. Figured that if I told you now, it wouldn’t come up awkwardly some other way like I was hiding it.”
“I don’t care, Blitz.” Soarin sighed, pulling the last arrow from its place. “I’m not even mad about it anymore. Be friends with her if you want, that won’t get in the way of anything.” For once, he actually meant that. Thinking about Spitfire nowadays simply made him feel drained; the anger had subsided.
“Well! That’s good.” Blitz smiled at him, “And kind of a relief, honestly. With Spitfire retiring and all that, Iwasgonnaendupseeinghermore often!”
“...Excuse me?” Soarin’s eyes widened.
“Oh, yeah, forgot to mention. She’s preparing to step down as captain.” Blitz said casually.
“Because of me?” Soarin felt a little dread creep up, “Sh-She can’t! She’s so young still!”
Even Blitz seemed a little surprised at that. “She said that she’s already made up her mind.”
“I… I need to process that,” Soarin admitted. “...Can we get to the flight training?”
“Oh yeah! Of course! Get your suit on, and I’ll prepare your weapons and stuff!”
Soarin rose with the Shadowbolts the next day, as per usual, and almost forgot that he was supposed to be training with them. Luckily, Nightshade was there to set him straight with another pillow to the face.
“Come on, sleepyhead! Get your suit on! Time to go!” She teased him as she pulled on her own suit.
Soarin’s eyes widened as he suddenly jolted awake. He wasn’t even mad at Nightshade this morning for her usual antics. He shot up at once, grabbing his suit from where he had hung it up the night before, and slipped on his goggles. Looking in the mirror with Nightshade, they nearly looked like twins. Their coats and eyes were their main differences, and with the suits and goggles obscuring that, only their dark blue manes were left showing. It was kind of ironic, almost like Soarin was becoming Nightshade.
This irony wasn’t lost on Nightshade, either. After being told her whole life to be more like her older brother, it was almost ego swelling to see him becoming more like her. In reality, Nightshade knew it was more akin to the two of them meeting in the middle, but it didn’t stop her from thinking highly of herself in return.
“Let’s get to the others.” Nightshade said with a smile.
As they headed out, Blitz was already there waiting for them.
“WOW!” She nearly screamed, “Which one of you is which?! I can’t even tell!” She giggled.
The sudden outburst drew Stratus out of his bunk. He wasn’t completely ready yet, but it was obvious from his disheveled mane that the loud noise had startled him awake. “No, it’s very easy to-” He yawned, “tell them apart. Soarin’s a stallion. It shows.”
Blitz giggled, “I know! But other than that!”
Soarin blinked a few times at Stratus. He was usually so uniform, blunt, and emotionless; it felt weird to see him disheveled and tired like this. Then again, it was a nice reminder that Stratus was, in fact, a living being with his own flaws and not a machine that continued to push Soarin to his limit for his own cruel enjoyment.
“You’re all early,” Stratus grunted, “I’ll be out in ten minutes.”
As Stratus ducked his head back into his bunk, Soarin briefly considered telling Nightshade what Blitz had told him in the training room. However, he could almost hear her response from a mile away. And currently, he was in too good a mood to hear the cutting and blunt “Good.” from her. Instead, he focused on this morning’s flight.
“So… Do we have a formation?” Soarin asked Nightshade. He ignored the dumb grin that Blitz was giving him.
“Just the traditional V.” Nightshade responded simply, “You’ll be on the end with Starry, and I don’t expect you to be perfectly in place.” Soarin nodded and watched as Charger backed out of his bunk. “Speaking of, Charger will be the other end. Just glance at what he’s doing every now and again.” With that, Starry and Stratus came from their bunks as well.
“Alright. Let’s get going.” Stratus said, leading the charge out of the base.
Soarin followed, feeling more prepared than he’d ever been with any of his other Shadowbolt tests. Flying had always been his thing, and he knew it.
This was almost immediately apparent as the group lifted off from the floor of the dark forest. Soarin fell right in line with the others as soon as they were aloft. He’d been practicing every nuance of flying since he had been a little colt, and the extra weight on his back felt like nothing. Once or twice, Soarin felt Starry or Blitz’s eyes settle on him to check his progress. No words were exchanged, but Soarin could almost feel Blitz’s pride.
“Holy moley! You’re a natural!” Her words from yesterday flashed through his mind, “Here, let me teach you about our formation; you’re going to blow everyone away!”
As they rose into a higher and higher altitude, Soarin felt panic flare in his chest as it became harder to breathe in the strangling cold air. He did his best to focus on slowing his breathing and not focus on the frost nipping at the tips of his wings. He felt as if he were gliding through an ocean of dark ice.
At the least, the moon hung in the sky, illuminating the ground below them. It truly was breathtaking to see the quiet cities below them, completely dark and serene. Even as they passed over a clump of clouds, Soarin felt entranced by the swirling of the vapor as it rode the winds naturally. He followed every wing flap of Starry in front of him as they banked in sync. The weight and cold aside, it was nothing he didn’t already know from his many years in the Wonderbolts, and it came to him without thinking.
His thoughts drifted to Spitfire naturally. She was going to step down as Captain of the Wonderbolts early, and for some reason, it made Soarin feel a small twinge of guilt. In the end, he could only really blame her for trying to replace him. It stung, sure, but he couldn’t help but feel like he had blown things out of proportion by breaking their engagement. He could’ve stayed and listened, but the adrenaline from nearly dying had blinded him. It was his fault that he’d started to nosedive anyways, and Spitfire had been looking on in terror. He’d never stopped to consider how that would’ve felt for her.
It didn’t matter now, though.
He pulled his thoughts back to the flight, watching as Nightshade banked again at the head of the formation. When they finally looped around and came to land back on the forest floor, Soarin came into the realization that his teeth had been chattering quietly for the entire flight.
“Soarin, you were absolutely amazing for your first high-altitude flight!” Starry announced once they had all shuffled into the base.
“Th-thanks.” Soarin stuttered as he physically shook, “H-How do you guys n-not get cold?”
“Your body will adjust to it after a week or two.” Nightshade smiled at him, tucking a wing around his shoulders and pulling him in for a hug. “It’s completely normal.” Soarin hummed happily as Nightshade’s hug warmed him up.
“I have to say, this is the best you’ve done so far on any of the tests.” Stratus said curtly. “But don’t get excited yet. I want you to go through more training while we wait for your next step. Your first true mission. In that time, we’ll be focusing on your stealth and evasion. And when that mission comes… It will truly be the definition of whether or not you’ll be right for this team.”
“I understand.” Soarin nodded, “I’ll do my best.”
“Good, now, go fix us some food, would you?” Stratus grunted. “I’m hungry.”
Soarin chuckled and saluted, “I-I’ll get right on i-it!” He was eager to be near the heat of the stove anyways.
The threat of a mission loomed over Soarin’s head a little, as did his shifting thoughts about how he felt about Spitfire. But for now, all that mattered was warming his sore body and feeding the team. His team.