Rainbow dash woke up to another day in the Wonderbolts Academy. Luckily, today Spitfire wasn’t waking them up for an early practice, so the team could sleep well before a full-time rehearsal. At these days she used to awake everypony early, and by "awake" it means shouting at them at 05:00 AM. At least this is how the week went for Rainbow Dash, and she was very pleased about having more time to sleep. She really missed her naps.
Anyways, there was a performance ahead. A big and important performance! This show was very important, especially for Rainbow Dash. This time she is going to pull her first sonic rainboom as a Wonderbolt! This event will mean a lot to her and every time she imagined this day, she was filled with excitement.
This day will be the best DAY EVER!! She always thought to herself.
Rainbow Dash knew that Spitfire counted on her to perform her best at it, and she is not going to let her captain down! After all, to become a Wonderbolt was a dream come true to her. Flying and performing her best, feeling the breeze and the cold wind while soaring through the sky, brought her happiness. Rainbow was completely certain about one thing: she is not going to give up on this opportunity so soon.
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At practice, everypony were standing in line listening to Spitfire, while the latter was talking about the daily schedule.
"Good morning everypony! Hope you slept well after yesterdays' training. I need you focused for todays' rehearsal. The big event is 2 weeks from here and I want to see academy records – I mean RESULTS! Results…today. Anyway, start your warm ups. Crash!" Spitfire turned to Rainbow Dash: "You come here!"
"Yes ma'am!" Rainbow obeyed and came closer to her captain.
"Listen here, I know they say that you need to save the best for the last, but I want you to do your sonic rainboom at today's rehearsal. Can you handle it?"
Rainbow Dash puffed her chest and exclaimed: "Yes ma'am! I can!" with all her confidence.
"Good, go and warm up. HEY!! LISTEN HERE YOU ALL! I WANT YOU READY FOR THE REHEARSAL HERE IN 30 MINUTES!! UNDERSTAND?!" Spitfire returned back to the rest of the team. Everypony nodded in respond to her and Rainbow got back to her warm up.
"I see Spitfire has high expectations from you Crash."
Rainbow turned and saw Soarin talking to her.
"Sure, she does! I'm awesome!" Rainbow responded with an answer she thought was obvious: "But she surely has high expectations from all of us, including herself." She added.
"Yeah…you're right." Soarin said with a small smile.
"She seems very stressed about this show, don't you think?" Rainbow asked him.
"Well she is not THAT stressed usually, but this is just because the big event. But between us, you HAD to see her face when she got the news about us performing in Princess Flurry Heart's first birthday. It was hilarious!" He chuckled when he remembered it.
"Haha! I hope to see it sometime." Rainbow said.
"Maybe after the show." He replied. Then his face got more serious: "Honestly this is the first time that she is so excited about performing. At our first performance she was excited as well, but less…demanding. Get it?"
"I guess…although she is always demanding before shows." Rainbow said.
"You're right, but it was the first time I saw her stressing about it, back in the office after ending the call." Soarin explained.
Rainbow smiled a bit and said: "I bet she can't freak out as twilight freaks out!" They both laughed at that, but were cut by Spitfire. She called all the 'bolts again, to remind some things before rehearsing.
"Surprise, you're a fast flyer, but here I want you to stay in group. Crash, after Misty Fly and High Winds, you fly straight to your position. Everypony ready?!" Spitfire called when everyone took their positions and nodded in respond.
When Spitfire called "Go!" everyone took off.
The rehearsal went well, and eventually, Rainbow's part came. Spitfire, Soarin and Fleetfoot soared high, and Rainbow after them. They flew down in front of the imaginary audience while Rainbow Dash continued to take height. When she reached enough height, she dived down in high speed to create the sonic rainboom, and the others looked at her performing the grand finale. Rainbow was so close to pass the speed of sound, when suddenly she heard a crack from her right wing. It was so unexpected that she almost forgot about the rainboom and about the amount of speed she took. It distracted her and caused her to stop her flying.
While looking at her, High Winds asked Spitfire: "Is she alright up there?"
Because of the instant stop, Rainbow Dash couldn't handle the amount of speed and couldn't control her wing – she screamed.
Spitfire responded to High Winds: "I don’t think so, let's go!" and they both took off to catch the falling Rainbow Dash. Before they got to her, she already crash-landed on a nearby tree. All the members of the team came to see what happened.
"Rainbow Dash! Are you OK?!" Spitfire asked in rush.
"Y... yeah...I guess!" Rainbow was about to get down from the tree but when she tried to move her wing, she hunched in pain.
"Do you need help?" Fleetfoot asked and Rainbow responded with: "No thanks! I am fin – UGHH!!" she screamed in pain.
"We're coming!" before Rainbow Dash refused again, Misty Fly and Fleetfoot took her hooves and helped her get down to the ground.
"Dash! What happened there??" Spitfire asked. Rainbow looked at her and said: "it's nothing really, just a small crack in my right wing that distracted me –" "Your wing CRACKED?!" Spitfire cut her.
"Yes, but everything is good now. See? I can move it like nothing hap – UGHHH!!" Rainbow hunched in pain again.
"It doesn't look good… you should go and check it now." Spitfire said.
"But ma'am – "
"No "buts"! If you are injured, I can't let you fly in the routine. You know we both can't risk it. Go and check yourself now." Spitfire ordered. Rainbow Dash sighed and took her way towards the clinic.
She is right… She thought to herself. I can't risk myself until I check it.
"8 minutes break guys!" Spitfire commanded.