<b>Note: This happens about the same time during Soldier and Rainbow Dash's training. part 2 and made from the episode "Wonderbolt Academy"</b>
**Ponyville**
Before the Sugar Cupe Corner, two things are happening to the bearers of the Element of Laugher. Pinkie Pie has for the last week been standing before her mailbox, waiting for Rainbow Dash and Soldier to send her a letter and refuses to leave her spot before she got one. Her partner, Scout has been keeping her company, been kind enough to do a small picnic with her before the mailbox and that’s where Zecora, along with her two foals found them.
Sauda and Lavernia jump off their mother and giggling run over to one they know is very fun to be around: Pinkie Pie. Said pink pony does snap her attention away from the mailbox and smiles down to the equally smiling fillies. “Hia!” She leaps up and jumps around the giggling fillies. “Whatcha doing?” But the two are yet not old enough to speak other than doing a few incoherent sounds.
So their mother answers for them. “I am searching for a certain herb, so I can help a none singing bird.” Zecora smiles on how much the two girls like to hang around Pinkie and is also quite amused by the funny look Scout has on his face as this is the first time he meets his two sisters personally. That does give her an idea. “I still have a lot of things yet obtained so could the two of you keep the girls entertained?” Pinkie Pie does seem a bit split for a moment but one look at Sauda and Lavernia. “Alright, I can keep an eye out on them.” She agrees and starts playing with the two fillies.
Zecora nods and turns to Scout, He stares at his younger siblings as if he has no idea what to do with them. The girls notice it and turn to him, staring at him equally confused. “Scout.” She gets his attention. “You can look after your sister, right?” and takes a step back when Pinkie Pie gasps loudly and before she can blink, said pink pony is right at her face, crying in utter surprise. “Sauda and Lavernia are Scout’s sisters?!” and Pinkie topples down Scout into a tight hug. “This is great! I am so happy for you Scout!”
“Uh... thanks.” Scout replies, yet not really sure what to do with those two girls currently giggling at Pinkie's antics. When he gets Pinkie off, he figures he might as well see what he is dealing with. “Sure, I guess I can look after them.” How hard can it be, anyway? Zecora nods and heads out to finish her shopping. Scout eyes his younger sisters, both staring at him in wonder, the one with the horn titles her head, reminding him of a confused cat and he must admit; that raises the cute factor.
“Um... hi.” He greets the two, they, of course, do not answer, only the one looking mostly zebra now also titles her head at him. They do snap their attention away when Pinkie jumps excited past them while doing a small song of how great it is that they are his siblings. “-You are going to teach them all the fun stuff! Have a tradition as I have with my older sister Maud!”
“Uh sure.” Scout replies and does highly doubt that is going to happen, these two are girls and no way in hell is he doing girl things with— “Auch!” He yelps and jumps from the sudden pain from the tail, checking he realizes that the zebra looking- Sauda he thinks- has somehow gotten behind and now chewing his tail. He tries to make her let go by moving his tail away but this girl is like a dog refusing to let go of a toy and she gets dragged along. Sauda only let's go when she starts giggling too much but is quick to try this again. He’s not, this one has a strong bite, he trots away and both girls follows, turning into a weird chase.
“um, little help here?” He asks Pinkie Pie, not wanting to get his tail chewed on again.
Pinkie finds a baseball and throws it over to the girls, both forget about him and instead chases the ball. The one with the horn- Lavernia he thinks, gets the ball and starts runing off. Scout quickly catches her as he is pretty sure both his father and Zecora will kill him if he lets any baby run away on his watch. “You have to stick close.” Still ball in mouth Lavernia looks up to him and Scout can’t help but laugh on how silly she looks. “Gees, you look a frog with that—” she spits it out and the baseball hits him square in the face. “ball...” He finishes, eyeing the babies and Pinkie laugh at that trick Lavernia did on him.
“I was starting to get worried about you, Pinkie.” Twilight Sparkle voices as she approaches the small group. She stops and stares a bit off guard when Sauda suddenly starts growling at her before running over to hide behind Scout and Pinkie. “Um… why did she growl at me?” She asks Scout confused about this sudden hostility from an otherwise cute baby. “Sauda already knows me.”
Scout must admit that one of his new sisters knows how to show teeth even in such a young age is quite surprising yet somewhat also appealing as that means at least one of them might know how to put up a fight when they get older. Anyway, back to why Sauda growled at Twilight and must say “Your emotions are a mess.” He points out and does wonder what is causing that to the newly made alicorn. "Maybe she doesn't like your wings?" He jokes, but it's clear Twilight did not appreciate it.
Twilight shoots Scout an annoyed stare, then drops her gaze with a sigh and makes a nervous smile. “Well, you know me. Got a lot of new princess stuff to do.” The half changeling nods with a: “Yeah, but you’re still the nerd of all nerds.” and he starts munching on a muffin. She gives him a small glare for that remark. “I am not! I just like having everything organized.” But must say she does appreciate that he does not take her new title that seriously. He sends her a ‘yeah right’ look which she decides to ignore and turns to Pinkie Pie. Like the rest, she is worried about how their pink friend has been glued to the mailbox ever since Rainbow Dash and Soldier left for their training. “Still waiting for the letter?”
Pinkie Pie nods. “Yuep,” and voices her worries to Twilight. “It's been fourteen days already. By now, Rainbow Dash and Soldier probably doesn't even know our names anymore!” She cries up to the sky and steps past the worried looking fillies as she continues. “They probably can't remember our faces! "Pinkie Pie? I never heard of a Pinkie Pie! Who is Pinkie Pie?”" and checks the mailbox again for this letter that will prove to her that Rainbow Dash and Soldier still remembers them. So glad that Scout did not leave to train as well. Which reminds her: “Hey, why didn’t you sign up to become a Wonderbolt?” She asks Scout, quickly adding. “Of course I am really happy you haven’t left as well. It would be the worst if my own partner would forget about me...”
They have been separated for almost a whole year and he still remembered her, does make sense to why Pinkie was so happy to see him again. “There’s no way I’m going to forget about you.” He tells his partner and after have swallowed another muffin, he answers her question to why he didn’t sign up to train to become a Wonderbolt. “I was thinking about it, but being in the army sounds freaking boring.” The closest he will ever come to work in the military is being a mercenary. “So no thank you, I would much rather be something more entertaining than standing guard on the same spot all day, long and listen to someone like Soldier.” He much rather wants to be a baseball player, although he highly doubts he can become that with this path he chose or the world he is currently in. Maybe he should check out what this world has to offer of sports games. Turning to his partner, Scout suggests. “If you are so worried about them forgetting you-“ he snaps his head to his tail when Sauda again bites it. He tries to get her off, still speaking to Pinkie Pie “- then why don’t you send them a letter?”
“Of course! That's a great idea!” Pinkie Pie cries in joy and Twilight lets out a sigh of relief, to then jerk back when Pinkie suddenly crawls out from the mailbox with an even better idea of what they could send their lost friends. “How about we send Rainbow Dash and Soldier a care package? You know, before they forget all about us?” Leaving the mailbox, Pinkie muses as she highly doubts they do still remember them from how long they have been gone. “Although, come on, let's face it. It's probably too late for that. But, uh, maybe it'll jog their memory somehow.” Twilight taps her lightly on her shoulder, assuring her. “Pinkie Pie, I'm sure Rainbow Dash and Soldier still remember our faces and who we are. But I think sending them a care package is a great idea.” And that’s what Pinkie needed to hear and she jumps over to Sugar Cube Corner but stops when realizing. “What if the package gets lost in the mail? What if somepony else gets the package by accident and then she remembers us instead of Rainbow Dash and Soldier and then she becomes our new friend? And then—“ her partner puts a hoof on her mouth
Is this how the other feels when he first starts talking? If that’s the case then he can see why they find it sometimes annoying, but at least his river of words is not about something one shouldn’t even worry about. It usually on how awesome he is. “What about we just give them the package in person?” Pinkie mumbles something he can’t understand as he still keeps her from talking, but he has a pretty good guess what it is from the confused emotion she gives out. “I mean ponyson.” He corrects himself, and finds this whole pony figure of speech quite silly but he is in a land filled with sentient and brightly colored ponies.
“I’ll ask the others if they would like to join.” Twilight Sparkle smiles and trots off.
Scout removes his hoof from Pinkie and pulls his tail out from Sauda’s mouth, at least she got the hint from his emotions and instead went to use the baseball as chew toy before taking the run for it when Lavernia wants it.
He watches them play around but just has to roll his eyes when Pinkie Pie points out seriously. “When we give them the package, don't be upset if they don't recognize you at first. It may take a while before they get their memory back.” Even his sisters stare at her as if they too have realized how silly it is to worry about something like that. Something Scout finds very amusing and thinks having them as his sisters won’t be as bad as he thought. Probably going change his mind when they start chewing on him again.
**At Wonderbolt Academy**
Rainbow Dash finds herself annoyed, she and Soldier didn’t win the capture the flag they did yesterday but Thunderlane and Lightning Dust did as they dared to push themselves harder, sure they did both got quite beaten up but as Lightning Dust said: only the best of the best becomes a Wonderbolt and those unable to keep up will be thrown out. Soldier is willing to take risks, he truly does but his lack of speed and him having the command is really getting annoying. “Today we gotta win, otherwise Spitfire might think I’m not good enough to be a Wonderbolt.” Rainbow Dash muses to herself while dressing up for today's obstacle race.
She joins Soldier, who is always is up and ready an hour before anyone else, must give him props for that.
“You ready for today?” She asks him and he replies back with a wide grin. “I am born ready! Move out!” and they fly over to where the training exercise will happen. When the others have joined. Spitfire tells them. “Today we'll be doing our famous air obstacle course.” Rainbow Dash looks up and sees that the trainers have machines there creates highly charged thunderclouds and making a powerful wind. Others are gathering heavy rain clouds and ready normal clouds for the rings they are supposed to fly through.
“The object of this exercise is to work on your precision flying under extreme circumstances. I will time you, but this is not a race.” Spitfire reminds them. Rainbow eyes meet Lightning Dust and the other pegasus winks in the sign she highly doubts this is not a race. Spitfire sends them off and Rainbow keeps close to Soldier, but can’t help and want to hurry on him when she spots Thunderlane and Lightning Dust pass by them.
The two reaches the highly charged thunderclouds, Lightning Dust easily dodges them but Rainbow notices that she is ignoring that Thunderlane is supposed to be the leadpony and help him—which she doesn’t— when he got caught by one of the thunderclouds. She and Soldier are too far off to hear them, but Rainbow Dash can see that Lightning Dust is calling at Thunderlane to hurry up, he does but is quite ruffled up thanks to the thunder strike he took.
Eyeing Soldier, Rainbow Dash wonders if she can take the lead as well but knows this stallion is not one should argue with, he's stubborn like Applejack.
They reach the thunderclouds and Rainbow dodges the clouds, Soldier does get caught in them and for a moment she is split from helping him or just push him to keep up. Eyeing Lightning Dust and Thunderlane who are way ahead, she decides the latter. “Hurry up Soldier!”
He gets out and joins her with the question: “Has the enemy captured a point?” No idea what that means but Rainbow figure he’s trying to speak code and if that’s what it means to get him to move it. “Yeah, and way ahead.” She answers.
In that case. “Chaaaarge!!” Soldier does a head-dive and completely ignores the thunderclouds, in fact, he is destroying them, making a free pass to Rainbow Dash to get up ahead. “Get up there and take that point!”
“Yes sir!” and Rainbow flies up ahead, Soldier does eventually catch up to her and the leading pair. She eyes the stallion and does think she can work with this.
They reach the area with the rainclouds, the wind and rain are stronger than Rainbow expected and almost get thrown off course but Soldier catches her and pretty much makes her use him as cover while he plows through the harsh weather. The bit strange aid allows them to pass Lightning Dust and Thunderlane with the latter unable to keep up thanks to his encounter with the thundercloud and Lightning Dust is not really helping as she keeps verbally pushing him. “Come on! What kind of lead pony can’t even handle a bit of weather?! I have seen snail fly faster than this!” Rainbow Dash feels a bit sorry for the fellow Ponyville residents but there is nothing she can do about it.
When out from the storm clouds, Soldier lets go of her and slow down at what is before them: machines blowing a wind strong enough to even push him off course. Rainbow eyes him and suggests. “We should avoid the winds, fly full speed and we can get past them.” Soldier frowns at her suggestion but before he can speak his mind of what he is thinking. Thunderlane and Lightning Dust tackle into them in their speed to get past. Rainbow recovers quickly while Soldier takes a bit longer, he accidentally hit some of the others recruits but does recover. “Move out!” He commands and they fly towards the machines. Rainbow Dash is forced to stay beside him so there are more close calls as she would like getting past the machines. Landing Rainbow is annoyed that the other team won once again and her mood did not improve when she heard Spitfire praise Thunderlane and Lightning Dust. “Definitely made the right decision making you two a team.”
The two smiles, although Thunderlane in more a nervous manner.
Spitfire turns to Rainbow Dash and Soldier, saying pretty much the same thing but of a different reason. “Been a while I last saw this well-oiled team-up, keep at it.” and dismisses them. Soldier and Rainbow Dash both salutes with the stallion cheering of the good teamwork they did today. “You deserve a medal!”
Rainbow Dash beams, it does make her feel a bit better for not have won the race.
“Um, Lightning Dust, I appreciate you push me to get better and all but, you are supposed to be my wingpony!” Thunderlane points out, tapping at the golden pin on his chest. “That means you have to follow my lead.”
Rainbow Dash and Soldier eyes the supposedly best team but for now decides to let this play out.
Lightning Dust rolls her eyes, as she still hasn’t gotten over the fact she has to listen to somepony slower and less skilled than her. “Hey, you snooze, you lose! Besides, Wonderbolts wants best of the best and with how I helped you out, you should be thankful! I mean-” she steps towards the stallion trying to pretend he is Wonderbolt material. “- if it wasn’t for my leadership, you would’ve been thrown off the team ages ago.”
Thunderlane scowl deepens. “But I am the lead pony!” and she retorts back. “The moment you can keep up with me, then I will follow your lead.” and with that, she turns around and leaves for the mess hall. “Not every pony is destined to become a Wonderbolt, so you have to kick down a few doors to show you are the best, right.”
Thunderlane lowers his head in defeat, he guesses she has a point… Lightning Dust has after all made them the leading team. “Yeah… I guess you’re right…” and he follows her.
Rainbow Dash frowns of what Lightning Dust have said and like Thunderlane she can see the point. Its clear Soldier is slowing her down but… well, he seems to have experience in something she wasn’t aware of, it has helped them get through the obstacle courses with only minor injuries. But is that really better than being best on the list? She is not sure.
**the next day**
Checking the wall for what today’s training will be, Rainbow Dash blinks in surprise that the teams have been teamed up, so now she and Lightning Dust are on the same team. Much to the fellow speedster’s joy. “This is going to be so awesome! With the two of us, we are sure to wipe the floor with the others.”
Rainbow nods in agreement. “Oh yeah.” It will be nice to win again for a chance. They head over to get something to eat before practice, at the table, Lightning Dust starts complaining how Thudnerlane is holding her back and asks Rainbow. “Don’t you feel the same with your partner? What I have seen, he’s even slower than mine!”
Rainbow Dash does not fancy back talking a friend, even though she and Soldier rarely spoke to one another, she must admit the time at the academy has made her come to see the stallion in a different light. “I admit he’s slow but—“
“You shouldn’t let that stop you.” Lightning Dust interrupts her, putting a hoof over her shoulder. “Do what I do and sooner or later, Spitfire will realize that we are the best.” She winks as encouragement. Rainbow Dash does not answers, she feels split. She blames this mindset on her partner, but Rainbow Dash wants to do this fairly, she wants to show she can do her best and obey orders as the same time, even if she does not like it. But she is starting to doubt if this mindset counts with these ponies such as the Wonderbolts. It’s clear Spitfire wants strong flyers, why else would she keep praising Lightning Dust?
After breakfast and the recruits standing in line, Spitfire explains them today’s practice. “Today the task is who of the two teams can remove the most clouds in a matter of two hours.” The trainers have spent all morning filling the sky with clouds for this very thing. “I want all of the clouds gone, and if you fail, we will repeat the exercise until you do!“ It is an impossible task but this practice is meant to push the recruits past their limit even if the odds are against them. Spitfire nods to the trainer, he blows the whistle and the two teams are off.
Soldier is quick to give out commands. “Take the small clouds! I take the big ones!” Rainbow Dash nods and speeds off to handle the smaller ones while he destroys the bigger ones that need a bit more work.
Thunderlane is about to do his own command but Lightning Dust has already taken off, forcing him to take the clouds he encounters on the way.
Lightning Dust joins Rainbow Dash and sees a good opportunity to show she has what it takes to be a leadpony. “Follow my lead!” Rainbow Dash eyes her surprised. “But—“ she rolls her eyes. “Come on, the rule is to take out as many clouds as possible, doesn't matter how we do it.” Rainbow Dash hesitates but does follow her lead and they take out any cloud in their path.
When they take out a bigger cloud Rainbow Dash’s leadpony is trying to take, the stallion starts shouting at them. “I told you only take the small ones! Stick to the program!” Lightning Dust stops to remind him. “Relax, we are doing your job easier.” But this one does not get it. “Stick to the smaller clouds! That’s an order!” Which she promptly ignores and flies off to destroy more clouds.
Rainbow Dash hesitates but does what Soldier told her and sticks to the smaller and easier clouds. Lightning Dust appears again, having a smirk she's up to something once again. “I have an idea about how we can literally blow away our competition.” Checking on the other team, Rainbow Dash can easily see that they have the lead. “But we are way ahead.” She argues and points out as this is starting to get a tad too close of disobedience Spitfire. “Look, I know you don’t like being a wingpony but Spitfire—“
“Spitfire is wrong.” Lightning Dust retorts back, she flies over the other side of Rainbow's view. “And if we are going to prove to her that we are made to be Wonderbolts, then we have to take chances. Rules are meant to be broken after all.” She offers Rainbow Dash a hoof. “Are you in or not?”
Rainbow Dash hesitates, thinking on what Spitfire said on they became wingpony so they can be tested if they can obey but Spitfire has as well praised Lightning Dust in her reckless behavior, so is she pushing the recruits to go and ignore the fellow team? Is that what it takes to become a Wonderbolt? Rainbow Dash makes her decision. “I’m in!” Much to Lightning Dust satisfaction. “Then follow my lead!” She does and they fly in a tight circle, creating a tornado there suck in all the nearby clouds. But they went too fast and both lose control, sending the tornado lose on the base. Rainbow crashes onto the ground, recovering she notices, much to her horror that an air balloon- having her friends inside has been caught by the tornado. The robes breaks and her friends fall down to the ground far below the academy. Rainbow Dash cries in horror and swiftly take action, on her way to save her friends, she calls for the only pony she trusts at this moment. “Soldier, follow me!” He does and both throw themselves over the cliff and lets gravity help them pass their falling friend. She takes the lead and begins to speed around a large patch of clouds, Soldier joins her and they make the clouds so compacted that it can hold even unicorns and earth ponies. The compacted cloud bursts, sending the group back up in their air but are saved thanks to Thunderlane has rallied the other recruits, catching and bringing them to safety.
The two flies back up with Rainbow asking her friends worried. “Are you guys okay?” They all nod.
Soldier lands and gets tackled into a hug by Derpy, he claps her friendly on the hoof.
Zhanna walks over to them, taps Derpy on the shoulder and the grey mare steps away. Allowing the slightly bigger than normal earth pony to give Soldier a big kiss. “My hero of the day.” Soldier grins and must say: “Rainbow is a really good team member. It was her idea.”
Said rainbow-haired pegasus smiles weakly of the praise before turning to Pinkie Pie who hasn’t fully recovered from the free-fall. Worried she got hurt, Rainbow Dash asks if she is alright. Pinkie Pie gets all teary and jumps up to glomp her. “You remember me!” Confused about why Pinkie thought she would forget her- she is really hard to forget. “Well... yeah, of course, I remember you. But…” Getting Pinkie off, she asks her friends confused. “What are you all doing here?”
“We wanted to bring you a care package.” Applejack replies, showing her said package that got quite the beating from the tornado. “Didn't realize you'd be in the middle of some crazy tornado drill.”
“We wasn’t.” Soldier tells them, not aware Rainbow Dash made said tornado. “Thing appeared out of nowhere, must be a crazy weather wizard around somewhere.” He grumbles the last, scanning the now clear sky for said wizard.
Lightning Dust flies over and rudely pushes herself past the other recruits “That... was... awesome!” She cheers on how well that plan worked. Rainbow Dash isn’t as thrilled as hoped, quite the contrary. “Awesome? My friends could have been smashed to pieces!” She shouts angrily but such small things do not bother a winner like Lightning Dust. “Yeah, but they weren't, right?” She flies up to the sky, scanning it for any remaining clouds. “Can't say the same for the clouds. We totally wiped them out with that tornado.” She flies back, doing a confident resting position while still flying. “The other cadets will have to be up there for days to bust as many as we did.” She did not see nor care of the angry frowns she got from the others recruits. Lightning Dust offers her hoof to Rainbow to bump it. “Proves we’re the best.”
But Rainbow Dash does not care about that anymore, she has seen what this behavior will bring and that is something she does not want to lose. “A hoof bump? Seriously?” She pushes the hoof away and must admit to her fellow flyer. “I get that you want to be the best. So do I! But you're going about it in the wrong way. You have pushed Thunderlane to exhausting and more than once endangered him.” Nodding to said stallion who is still missing several wing feathers from the last time Lightning Dust pushed him too hard. “You unleashed a tornado that nearly demolished my friends! Don’t you care about others than yourself?” She asks this other pony, startled on how little Lightning Dust seems to care about her words.
Lightning Dust snorts and rolls her eyes. “Oh I do care about others, but unlike you, I am not afraid to push myself and if it means a few has to get hurt, then so be it.” She takes to the air again, reminding everyone. “And from the looks of it, that’s exactly what the Wonderbolts wants. The weak have to go and the strong will stay, it’s been like this since day one.”
As much she hates to admit it... “Yeah… it has.” She agrees but if Lightning Dust way is what the Wonderbolt wants… then... she leaves and heads to the captain’s office, knocks and when getting the permission to enter, Rainbow Dash walks inside. Spitfire is not happy to see her. “This better be important. You're supposed to be up there busting clouds with your team.” Rainbow salutes, stating out “We're done with that, ma'am.”
This catches Spitfire by surprise. “You have?” She takes off her sunglasses and checks the clock, it’s only nine which means. “Nopony has done it this fast. That's an academy record! Explain your methods.” She commands the recruit and Rainbow Dash does; she and Lightning Dust created a tornado. “A bit excessive for cloud-busting.” Spitfire admits but must say “But judging from your time, it was obviously an effective tactic.”
And that’s the problem. “Yeah, well that "effective tactic" nearly took out my friends!” Rainbow Dash retorts, it takes Spitfire a bit off guard. “No disrespect, ma'am, but there's a big difference between pushing yourself as hard as you can and just being reckless. And if being reckless is what gets rewarded around here, if that's what it means to be a Wonderbolt, then I don't want any part of it.”
Spitfire frowns of what this recruit is saying. “What are you saying Newbie?” She asks and gets it when Rainbow Dash puts down her wingpony pin with: “I quit.” This catches her really off guard, more so when this mare is one of the best recruits. Rainbow Dash leaves, and it takes her a moment to recover. When does she leaves the office and commands the stallion who kept track on the cloudbusting on details of what has been happening?
“From the looks of it, Lightning Dust didn’t bother to hear what her leadpony had to say and went on her own. Later she dragged Rainbow Dash away from her leadpony and not long after they created the tornado.” He explains Spitfire.
So, it all comes down to disobedience and that cheeky Lightning Dust. She hid it well and although she is the best of the recruits, Spitfire won’t allow a pony with no regards to the higher command to become a Wonderbolt. She swiftly heads out, find the perpetrator and demands for an explanation, at first Lightning Dust brags about her record-breaking deeds which are impressive but: “How many lives did you endanger doing your record breaks?” Lightning Dust blinks but she does not have time for this. “Answer me!”
“Uh… a couple of ponies but does that really matter?” Lightning Dust retorts back; reminding the captain. “You want the best and I am the best! I can’t help if somepony gets hurt when I fly past them. If I have to slow down every single time, nothing will get done. That’s what you want, right?”
Spitfire can now see that all this record timing and competition in training has damaged the recruiting, makes her wonder if she is really as good a captain as she thinks… that she can take up later. Now she has to correct things. “Come with me.” She commands Lightning Dust and trots over to catch Rainbow Dash before she leaves. She finds the pony about to take off. “Rainbow Dash!” Said recruit turns around to her and Spitfire does not blame her for being all angry, well she is pretty angry too. “How dare you storm out of my office without giving me a chance to respond!” Calming herself and reigning in her pride, Spitfire explains this recruit that has reminded her what it means to be a captain of the royal army. “The Wonderbolts are looking for the best flyers in Equestria, but you were right.” She turns to where Lightning Dust is standing and Spitfire steps towards her and speaks what Rainbow Dash taught her. “Being the best should never come at the expense of our fellow ponies. It's not just about pushing ourselves. It's about pushing ourselves in the right direction. I hate to do this since you are the best if we look at the records but if it comes to what it truly means to be a Wonderbolt:” She tears off the wingpony pin from Lightning Dust. “You are the worst of the recruits, and you know what that means.” Lightning Dust flinches away, for a moment she looks she wants to argue but stops from the glare Spitfire sends her so the broken mare leaves. Spitfire then turns to Rainbow Dash with a smirk. “I’m not allowing my best recruit to leave.”
This is the best day ever! Rainbow Dash is beaming of the greatest praise she has ever gotten and from the captain of the Wonderbolts no less! Spitfire puts back on her sunglasses and is back to be her captain persona. “Now get out there and give me twenty!” Which she is more than ready to do. “Yes, ma'am!” She joins the other recruits and is more than happy to stay as Soldier’s wingpony for she still has a lot to learn when it comes to obeying orders.