//------------------------------//
// Chapter 182: Breakthrough 
// Story: Piercing the Heavens 
// by Calm Wind 
//------------------------------//

MLP: FiM
Piercing the Heavens
By: Calm Wind

Chapter 182: Breakthrough





Another two weeks came and went, and while not much changed regarding the Wonderbolts, the Renegades felt whole again with Starry Skies back among their ranks. Though she still did her best to remain out of sight and wore a hooded cloak whenever others were around, she was at least present and Descent felt a large burden eased off his shoulders. Her return had no effect on their luck gathering any information on the Shadowbolts, and word sent to other cities gave them nothing either, but… at least all their scouting work was easier to manage now.

Yet with all this time passing, the Wonderbolts were becoming a bit restless. They had been put on a regular training routine again as soon as they had returned from their little vacation a month back, but they had gotten little to nothing in terms of direction from Spitfire since. They went about their daily routines, got their daily workouts in and faffed about the empire otherwise, but when were they going to figure out what to do next?

The Shadowbolts had been gone for a month, Spitfire had focused all of her attention on something none of them could see save for a glance or two from time to time of her with Fleetfoot, and Wave… but most of all? Despite all the time spent surveying and even employing the help of the rest of the elements of harmony… Princess Celestia and Princess Luna still could not make heads or tails of what to do next with Soarin.

And they were beginning to run out of ways to assure Rainbow Dash, whose patience grew thinner by the day despite the clear calming effect it had on Soarin. Making him feel better was all well and good, but… it would be nice to know they were getting somewhere.





“Nnnnggg… hhhnnnggg…” Soarin grunted, the glowing form of his soul flickering slightly as Celestia looked him over, the quiet white expanse within Soarin’s mind echoing quietly as Celestia’s magic hummed. There was nothing around aside from her, Soarin’s soul, and the resting form of Rainbow Dash’s soul lying close to him.

Celestia sighed to herself as she glanced back and forth over him, a yawn escaping her lips as she slowly lifted a hoof to hover in front of her mouth when—

“Well?”

Celestia squeaked and jumped in surprise.

“Oh, for the…” she spun around to angrily pout at the newly arrived Sombra, standing behind her as if he didn’t just appear abruptly when she wasn’t looking. “How many times do I have to ask you not to sneak up on me?”

Sombra furrowed his brow.

“Perhaps you shouldn’t be so high strung,” he snorted. “All I did was rematerialize here, it’s not my fault you were standing right in front of me.”

“Hrmph…” Celestia huffed and returned her attention to Soarin. Sombra stared at the back of her head for a moment.

“So are you going to tell me how it’s coming along or are you going to jump again if I so much as twitch near you?” he asked sarcastically.

“Nothing,” she quickly answered with a slight hint of frustration in her voice.

“Nothing?”

“He’s still…” Celestia paused. “Struggling.”

Sombra cocked an eyebrow, stealing a glance at Soarin. 

“Struggling? Or just stirring like he has been for who knows how many weeks now?” Sombra asked with a grunt.

“At this point does it really make a difference?” Celestia suddenly blurted out, shooting a slight glare at him over her shoulder. “I don’t know! I was of the thought that we’d at least get a conscious response out of him by now, but…” she exhaled sharply through her nostrils, turning her eyes back to Soarin at her hooves. “Perhaps his soul being that of a mortal is making this process more difficult to adjust to than I could ever gauge or imagine.”

Sombra’s eyelids twitched and his ears flattened out as he heard the words leave her lips. He scoffed loudly and gritted his teeth.

“Alright, that’s enough of this…” he grumbled as he moved towards her.

“Hm?” she blinked. “What are you—HEY!” she yelped as Sombra grabbed her by the shoulder and forcibly pushed her aside.

“I grow tired of your insistent gentle approach,” he started reaching for Soarin. “I’m going to wake him up, even if I have to shake him by the neck.”

“SOMBRA!” Celestia growled, her magic flaring up on her horn and grabbing his arm with her telekinesis. “No. We’ve been OVER this!”

“Oh we have, but I tire of it. It’s been nearly a month since we started this whole process and we’ve made little progress to speak of. Now let go of me so I can wake him up.”

“I said no!” Celestia turned her head, her magic tugging at Sombra and shifting him slightly away from Soarin. “And unless you want ‘YOUR’ castle damaged and the Crystal Empire citizens put in danger, you’ll do nothing of the sort.”

Sombra snarled, bracing the arm that Celestia had her magic hooked onto. His muscles tensed and he gave it a hard yank, pulling his hoof to his chest.

“Ah!” Celestia yelped as she was tugged by her own magic and stumbled towards him. She came to an abrupt halt as her chest crashed into his. She barely had enough time to lift her head before he was right in her face and glaring one of his hardest glares barely an inch from her.

“Then WHAT do you suggest?! If you have a better idea then ENLIGHTEN me, Celes!” he roared loudly, her body shuddering as his voice boomed into her ears. “I grow weary of sitting around and wasting time with nothing to show for it!”

Celestia released her magic and tried to pull herself back, but he gripped her by the shoulder and forced her back towards him, keeping his chest pressed to hers as he leaned his head forward. She tilted her neck back as far as she could, his assertive positioning allowing him to loom over her despite her slight size advantage on him.

“You continue to treat Soarin like a delicate object! If he were so fragile, he would have never survived absorbing your power in the first place! Staring at him and prodding him with a long stick from time to time is no way to solve this conundrum and you KNOW IT!”

Celesita’s pupils shook as Sombra snarled right into her face. The strength of his grip digging into her shoulder so hard she felt as if she had no strength to move. 

“What’s the one discovery we’ve made thus far? Hm? Tell me!” he demanded. 

“Ah…” Celestia exhaled, but her voice cracked.

“The way Rainbow Dash calms him!” Sombra answered for her. “And how did we find that out?! Because one of us here decided to think outside the box!” he reminded her. “Stop thinking like Discord! You’re better than that! I expect better from you! So do it!”





He held her in place, his glare refusing to yield to make sure that he got his point across to her.

Celestia was frozen, staring directly into his hard gaze. His grip was so strong, his chest was still pressing to hers, and the power in his voice refused to fade from her mind.

“I…” she stuttered, her ears began to twitch and her face felt hot. “I…” she swallowed as her face began to gain a rosy hue.

Sombra’s eyes twitched and he flinched as he saw the sudden change of color in Celestia’s face. 

“FEH!” Sombra scoffed, quickly releasing her and taking a step back. As soon as she was free, Celestia turned her side to him and placed her opposite hoof to her cheek, stealing quick nervous and somewhat awkward glances at Sombra as her face turned redder. “Of all the… blasted…” Sombra grumbled, rolling his eyes and gritting his teeth. He shot a sharp glance in her direction. “Really, Celes?”

Celestia released a long breath as she moved a wing in front of her face and peeked over the top of it.

“Sorry… I… well,” she struggled. “You’re… you know…”

“Enough,” Sombra huffed. “I’ve made my point.” He turned and took a couple of steps before his image flickered and dematerialized.

“Oh GOD…!” Celestia blurted out the moment Sombra was gone, shuddering and wing feathers fluffing up as she lowered herself and sat down. “He… hasn’t changed one bit…” She took a long deep breath and stuffed both hooves over her face, puffing her cheeks as she let the air out slowly and made several high pitch mumbling squeaks.





“AIE!!!” Luna yelped as Sombra’s image appeared outside of Soarin, directly in front of her and walked through her, snorting and grumbling to himself.

“Don’t you start with me too,” Sombra growled at her as she stumbled back and watched him stomp along.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa there…” Discord slithered around and popped up in front of him. Sombra could have kept going, but he stopped and hardened his glare even further as he locked eyes with Discord. “Where are you off to in such a hurry?” he asked, but Sombra said nothing. Discord glanced towards Soarin as Luna held a hoof to her chest and caught her breath. He lifted an eyebrow and looked back down at Sombra. “You were in there for all of a minute or two, did Tia kick you out?” he asked with a smirk he couldn’t quite hide.

“I go where I please,” Sombra growled, only answering the first question as he walked through Discord. Discord flashed, teleporting himself back into Sombra’s path and sticking a hand out, wagging a finger back and forth.

“Oh no no no, you didn’t answer me,” he sneered. “You’re not going anywhere until you tell me why she threw you out.”

“I left on my own,” Sombra snorted and took a step forward. “And you have no power to deter me,” he said firmly as he walked through Discord again. 

“DID YOU leave on your own?” Discord crossed his arms and curled his upper body around without moving his waist or legs. “Hmmmmm?” he smarmily hummed. Sombra stopped in his tracks, furrowing his brow as he realized what Discord was trying to do.

“If you simply can't go without knowing all the tidbits of my business,” Sombra started sarcastically while glancing over his shoulder. “I left before my presence could overwhelm her… not that you’d know what that’s like.”

“Pbthpbtpbptb…” Discord blew a raspberry and rolled his eyes as he turned the rest of his body around to face him. “Oh I’m sure that’s exactly what happened, Mr. Big Talker.”

“I only speak in truths, you uncoiled saddle-goose,” Sombra grunted, but then smirked and slowly turned halfway around. “Unless you require even more details.”

“Pfft, save your breath,” Discord shook his head. “I know you can’t help swinging your self-proclaimed massive iron bells around every chance you get. Even if she slapped you across the face, you’ll find some absurd way to spin it as some sort of alpha-male victory to everypony who didn’t see it. You didn’t last but a few moments in there with her and were real quick with the storytelling this time, so… I will safely assume she threw you out for not behaving and be satisfied with myself.”

“Whatever polishes thine tiny stones,” Sombra gruffly harrumphed. 

But before he could turn and leave, Celestia suddenly appeared beside Soarin.

“Sister?” Luna spoke up, drawing Discord and Sombra’s eyes to her.

Celestia had her head tilted down, her pupils shifting back and forth slowly. After a moment she looked up and flinched as she saw them all staring at her, but specifically… she was staring at Sombra.

“”Oh… Y…you’re still here...” she stuttered, cheeks flushed and causing a rather interesting effect with her translucent appearance. 

Luna blinked, glancing between Celestia and Sombra while Discord stared blankly at her for several moments.

“A-HEM.” Sombra loudly cleared his throat, causing Discord to twitch. Discord flattened his brow and glanced over his shoulder at Sombra. Sombra lifted an eyebrow and smirked at him.

“Shut up,” Discord snorted.

“Shall I describe how it wasn’t even my intention?” Sombra added with a snicker.

“I said SHUT UP!” Discord snarled, twisting his upper body around to glare and snarl.

“Sister!” Luna spoke up, stepping towards Celestia with a bit of anger and concern. “What did he do to you?!”

Celestia glanced at Luna, quickly averting her eyes while biting her lower lip awkwardly.

“Nothing… he did nothing…” she quickly deflected, earning a confused look from Luna.

“Nothing…?” Luna tipped her head to the side. “Then… why…?” she glanced between them again as Celestia tried to avert her eyes further.

“I yelled at her,” Sombra spoke up, causing Celestia to flinch. “Take of that what you wish,” Sombra turned his side to all of them and tipped a hoof toward her. “Don’t look at me, apparently she enjoyed it.”

“For the LOVE of…” Discord grabbed his ears and pulled on them so hard they popped off. His ears released high pitch screams as he squeezed them in his hands. He spun around to face Sombra, letting go of his ears as they bounced from his hands and attached back to his head. “ENOUGH! If you want to go out there and spook a bunch of ponies, BE MY GUEST. Just GET OUT!”

“As you wish,” Sombra chuckled heartily and turned to leave as Luna stared at Celestia with a flat look that screamed ‘really?’

“Hrgnn… Hrnn…”

All four of them froze.

“Ah… ghraaa…”

All eyes sharply turned to Soarin.

“Hhrgnnnnnnn…” Soarin was grunting and stirring, his eyelids twitching.

Sombra and Celestia’s images began to pulse and flicker, both of them looking down and their eyes widening.

“Is… is he…?” Luna thought out loud.

Discord stood up as straight as his body could manage as he frantically glanced between Sombra and Celestia. 

“Both of you, get back in there!” he yelled as he pointed at Soarin. “NOW!”





“Come on! Up tempo! Up tempo!” Spitfire yelled to Fleetfoot and Wave as she sat up from the leg press machine and motioned to it. “Wave get in there! Fleet! On the incline!”

Wave let his dumbbells down and let them bounce on the rubber floor. He rolled off the incline bench and passed by Spitfire with a nod as he changed the weights on the leg machine and took her place.

“Up, Fleet! Let’s go!” Spitfire yelled as Fleetfoot lay flat on the mat nearby.

“Hrmmmmmm!” Fleetfoot gathered herself and pushed herself up as Spitfire rolled another pair of dumbbells over. 

“Get down, let’s go! Almost done with the warmup rounds!” Spitfire yelled as Fleetfoot jumped onto the thirty-degree bench and Spitfire hoisted the dumbbells up to her. “Last reps, last reps!” she yelled as Fleetfoot began pumping the weights up and down and Wave dug his hooves into the leg machine platform. “Go! Go! Go!” Spitfire yelled as she hooked the stopwatch dangling around her neck with her hoof and looked at it. “Three… Two… One… aaaaaaaand TIME!”

Wave let the machine clang into the safety locks and Fleetfoot let the dumbbells drop to the floor with loud thumps. Spitfire furrowed her brow. 

“Fleet… dropping weights,” she said sternly, but Fleetfoot extended a wing and gave her the middle feather.

“One, the floor and weights are made of rubber. Two… at this point I don’t give a damn,” she said as she sat up and swung her arms back and forth. “Gawd… I’m so glad we’re almost done with this…” she said with a huff.

But Spitfire couldn’t help but smile subtly as the two easily got up and moved around after the usual intense warmup. Did either of them realize that they used to be nearly dead at this point back when they started? Both of them were up, moving around, and looked ready for more.

But this was the last day, and Spitfire was pleased with what she saw. Now the question was… could they see it? It was time to find out.

“You can whine all you want,” Spitfire chuckled. “But…”

Fleetfoot and Wave both perked up as they detected a different tone in Spitfire’s voice.

“That’s a wrap,” Spitfire slung a towel over her shoulder. “We’re done.”

Fleetfoot and Wave stared blankly at her.

“What?” Fleetfoot broke the silence.

“With all due respect, ma’am,” Wave turned back towards the weights and shook his arms out to stay loose. “I didn’t stick with this the whole way to stop short at the very end. Let’s finish the workout.”

“Valiant attempt at being motivational, Wave,” Spitfire chuckled while tossing her towel at him and hitting him in the face. He flinched in surprise, catching the towel before it slid off his face.

“Wait, what?” he looked at her quizzically.

“I didn’t stop us to treat you two, I did it on purpose because…” Spitfire trotted over the barbell bench. “We’re going to do something else during this last workout,” she smiled while leaning her arms against the bar. “Both of you warmed up? Nice and loose? Feeling fresh after our day off yesterday?”

Fleetfoot and Wave glanced at one another briefly before nodding.

“Perfect! We’re going to do an upper body strength test, just like we did at the start. It’s time to see if this was as much worth it as I hoped.”

“As you… hoped?” Fleetfoot picked out, furrowing her brow as they approached the bench. 

“Don’t look at me like that just yet,” Spitfire winked at her as she came around the weight plates and picked up forty-five pounder. “You can throw me down the stairs if this was all for nothing, but we won’t know until we give this a shot, and…” she slapped the first plate on and went for a second. “I’ll go first so I can disappoint myself if it comes to that. Wave, help me out,” she said as she motioned to the other side of the bar. 

“What else do you want on it, twenty-fives?” he asked, but before he could get an answer, Spitfire stacked the second forty five over the first. Wave quickly reached out in case the bar tipped, but the rack was wide enough to even it out. “You’re… double plating? You aren’t going for reps then?”

“You bet your ass I am,” she nodded as she sat down on the bench. “Now load it up.”

Wave looked at the other side of the bar, then looked back at her. She probably couldn’t smirk at him any harder than she was at that moment so he didn’t bother protesting.

“If you say so,” Wave shrugged and grabbed the first plate.

“Um…” Fleetfoot watched as Wave loaded the other two plates on the bar. But before she could voice any concern, Spitfire shot her a wink.

In reality, Spitfire wasn’t sure if it had worked as intended. She sure felt stronger, after all that, but by how much was she really? If they were going to find out by turning up the heat like this, she was going to take the risk herself.

“Now spot me,” Spitfire made a head motion to Wave as she lay flat on her back and hooked her hooves on the bar.

“Lift off?” Wave asked while hovering his hooves over her bar. Spitfire took a moment to brace her arms and tense her chest, she eyes the bar over her head and with a grunt, gave it a nudge. The bar bounced against its rack. Spitfire blinked… then smiled.

“Nah, I can get this up no problem,” she gripped the bar and took a deep breath, arching her back and driving her arms up. “HUP!” 

Wave flinched in surprise as she managed to get the bar off the rack without his help, but stood at the ready with his hooves out just in case.

“Hnng…” Spitfire lowered the bar down, keeping steady until it was an inch over her chest. She halted for a moment, then pushed back up, breathing out as the bar steadily rose and returned to the starting position… and held it there for a moment.

“One,” Wave said out loud, watching her carefully. “You good?” Wave asked.

But Spitfire wasn’t listening to him, she was staring up at the bar over her head. The last time they had done strength testing for the entire force, she had lifted this exact weight, but could only do one rep and if not for Soarin spotting her, the second rep would have landed right on her chest. When they did a quick strength test before this training regimen, she did forty pounds less just to gauge her current strength.

But right here and now, holding this weight over her head with one rep done? She felt like she had barely spent any strength at all. 

A fire of excitement lit up in her eyes.

Without another word, she lowered the bar again, and pushed it up again. When Wave reached out to grab it, he had to pull back because she did a third… then a fourth… 

“Haaaah! One more!” Spitfire ground her teeth together. “I’ve got one more!”

Wave blinked, looking up at Fleetfoot only to see she wore a similar wide eyed look, but he quickly refocused as Spitfire breathed in and let the bar down one more time. She grunted as she reached the bottom, the movement back up halting after an inch. Wave reached his hooves under the bar, but he didn’t grab it.

“HHHNGG!!!!” Spitfire growled, her arms and chest holding steady as she pushed the bar the rest of the way up very slowly. But Wave didn’t need to help her, carefully keeping his hooves under the bar until she made it to the top. “HA! HAHA!” Spitfire laughed to herself as Wave grabbed the bar and helped her clang it back into the rack. She immediately sat up clenching her hooves and shaking them up and down. “YES!!!!” she cheered to herself, happily looking back and forth between Wave and Fleetfoot.

Wave was just staring at the bar with a blank look on his face. Fleetfoot was staring at her with wide eyes and her jaw hanging open.

“That… What…?” Fleetfoot pointed at the bar. “I know you’re like… different when it comes to this stuff, but… How…?”

“Heh…” Spitfire grinned, clasping her hooves together in front of her and tensing her muscles, holding it for a moment before relaxing and swinging her arms back and forth. “Wave!” she turned, slid her plot down the bench, and leaned an arm on the bar. Wave flinched and looked up, his eyes meeting a smug stare as Spitfire took a somewhat sultry position as she got close to his face, whether she meant to or was just feeling too good to think about it otherwise. “You’re next,” she placed a hoof to his chest and traced it up the center of it until she reached the base of his neck. Wave swallowed, caught off-guard by the somewhat uncharacteristic flirtiness.

“Er… okay.” Wave nodded as Spitfire hopped off the bench and patted it with her hoof. She glanced at Fleetfoot as Wave made his way around. She was still staring at Spitfire, her eyes scanning her body over. 

Spitfire said nothing, but smirked to herself. She was aware of her natural physical ability, but even SHE was surprised by what she just pulled off. She was confident there would be an improvement for them too. With how hard they had been working and how focused they were on recovery in between every workout, neither of them seemed to take notice of how their bodies showed visible change. How Fleetfoot hadn’t noticed yet was a mystery, but either way they were both in for a surprise. She called Wave next on purpose, waiting eagerly for him to get in place with the same weight. She had been holding back from saying anything to him over this last week, but… 

“Okay… I haven’t done this weight in a while,” Wave said with slight hesitance.

“None of that,” Spitfire leaned over the bar and poked a hoof to his nose. “You’re going to do more reps than I did.” 

“I seriously doubt that,” Wave snorted with a slight pout. Spitfire knew why he was doubting himself. He had already expressed his disappointment in what he had lost while out of commission and sickly. It appeared that he still harbored some inner doubts about her promise to get him back up to speed with the rest, but little did he realize…

“Come on, up,” Spitfire tapped the bar as he hooked his hooves with it. 

“One… two… three,” Wave counted down, Spitfire helping him get it off the rack, but she let go of it quickly before he could bring it into place. He flinched in surprise… but then stared as he managed to stabilize the bar overhead with little trouble.

“Come on, let’s go!” Spitfire twirled a hoof above him, unable to hide a slight smile on her face.

Wave breathed in… down, and up. The look of surprise on his face the moment he finished his first rep sent a surge of giddiness through Spitfire, but she did her best to contain it. Wave continued, adrenaline taking over as he pumped out another… and another … and another… and kept going. Spitfire glanced at Fleetfoot, now frozen in place as she watched Wave both reach and surpass Spitfire’s rep count by two before he slammed the weight back into the rack.

“Haaaa…” Wave exhaled as he sat up quickly, a look of shock on his face as he panted and stared down at his hooves. “Wh-what…?” he asked out loud, looking down at his body briefly. “That was…”

“More than you could do before?” Spitfire finished for him. Wave glanced back at her.

“A little bit, yeah but… how did I even get back to…” he paused halfway as Spitfire lifted her brow and tipped her head slightly. “You know, you said you were going to do it, but I… admit I didn’t think it would actually work.”

“This is why you don’t doubt your captain, soldier!” Spitfire teased him, sticking her tongue out at him, but quickly looking passed him towards the still frozen Fleetfoot. “It worked on you better than I could have hoped! Which means…”

Fleetfoot’s eyes finally shifted, catching both of them looking at her. 

“Fleet! You’re up!” Spitfire cheerfully pointed to the bench as she nudged Wave off of it. Fleetfoot blinked several times and flattened her brow as she looked at the weight loaded on the bar.

“Spitty, what in our history together makes you think I’m capable of lifting that much weight?” she asked while scrunching up her face. “I dunno what the hell is going on, but… you’re a freak and he’s a stallion. I’m gonna get crushed by that!”

“You’re not lifting this, silly,” Spitfire rolled her eyes as she moved to take one plate off and motioned for Wave to do the same. Fleetfoot watched as one plate was removed from each side, but Spitfire shook her head when Wave went for the second. Fleetfoot stared at the plate left on each side.

“That’s… still a lot. I only did a hundred for one when we—HEY!” she yelped as Spitfire stacked a ten pound weight onto one side and hoofed another over to Wave. “Are you kidding me?”

“Fleet, down,” Spitfire pointed to the bench. 

“I can’t do that!” Fleetfoot huffed in frustration. “That’s fifty more pounds than the most I’ve ever done!”

“Fifty-five,” Spitfire corrected her, pointing to the bench again. “Now get over here. You saw what we just did. It’s time to challenge yourself. Don’t worry, I’ll spot you.”

“Mmmmmmmrrrrrrrrph…” Fleetfoot groaned under her breath. “Fine… You better hang onto it.”

“Just do it,” Spitfire nodded sternly.

“Alright, alright already…” Fleetfoot made her way over and took her sweet time getting down into the bench. 

As she waited, Spitfire glanced over at Wave. He had made his way to the gym mirror and was looking himself over, turning from side to side and staring in disbelief. She smiled at his reaction… and at knowing what she had discovered. It worked for her… it worked for him and got him back to peak shape and more… and now…

“O…okay…” Fleetfoot exhaled as she hooked the bar with her hooves. “Hhhrmmm… Spitty this looks so heavy…”

“One…” Spitfire began the count to get her to focus.

“Whoa, whoa, okay okay… Fleetfoot set her shoulders.

“Two… Three!” Spitfire gripped the bar and Fleetfoot squeaked, shutting her eyes as she scrunched up her face and the bar was hoisted out. 

She waited for Spitfire to release it and give it to her, but… the bar remained floating.

“Spitty, it’s up, let me take it,” she grunted out.

“I already did.”

Fleetfoot’s eyes shot open. She looked up to see Spitfire was hovering her hooves under the bar.

“Come on, down and up! Let’s go!” Spitfire cheered her on.

Fleetfoot stared for another moment before taking a deep breath and lowering the bar as slowly as she could. It was heavy, it was hard, but… she managed to get it to the bottom of the rep all by herself and… she nearly gasped at the realization that she didn’t feel stuck.

“UP!” Spitfire yelled as Wave turned to watch as well.

“Hrmmm!!!” Fleetfoot slammed her eyes shut and pushed. The bar slowly rose, inching upward and pausing once or twice as she moved.

“Come on! Come on!” Spitfire yelled. “You can do it!”

“Hnnnggg…” Fleetfoot gave it one more solid push… “HAH!” she exhaled loudly as she got the weight back up.

“Yeeeeah!” Spitfire yelled triumphantly as she grabbed the bar and moved it back into the rack. “Fleet! You did—whoa!” Spitfire leaned back as Fleetfoot nearly propelled herself off the bench and almost smacked Spitfire in the face with her wings. She skidded to a stop a few yards from the bench and locked her eyes on the bar. Her pupils shifted back and forth as if she was trying to confirm whether or not she was looking at the bar she just lifted.

“Wow…” Wave stepped up, looking towards Fleetfoot with an impressed look. 

“Eureka,” Spitfire tapped a hoof to the bar and nodded with a triumphant look on her face. “Oh it’s so nice to see.”

“Hold up… HOLD UP!” Fleetfoot threw her hooves up and shook her head out. “What the hell is going on? What happened to me?” she sounded somewhat frantic.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa…” Spitfire quickly made her way around and grabbed both of Fleetfoot’s hooves, gently pushing them down. “To US… Fleet. This was exactly what we were trying to do. Just calm down for a second and come over here…” she glanced down at Fleet’s body and arms. “You’ll be loving this in a minute or so,” she said with a wink as she tugged Fleetfoot over towards Wave, telling them both to sit as she went over to her gym bag and began rummaging through it.

Wave and Fleet sat quietly. Wave out of patience, Fleetfoot because… she was very confused. Spitfire removed a clipboard and a measuring tape from the bag. She hummed casually to herself as she wrapped the tape around several parts of her body, occasionally tensing her body, nodding, and jotting something down. 

“Oh that’s neat…” Spitfire suddenly said after several measurements, chuckling to herself as she eagerly turned around and zipped right over to Wave.

“Whoa there!” Wave blinked as Spitfire reached around his body to position the tape in several places. 

“Flex,” she instructed as she pulled the tape tight around his chest. Wave obeyed, and did so again and again as she took the measurements and jotted down on the clipboard.

“I feel like Lightning Streak,” Wave joked as Spitfire took careful note and everything.

“Lightning Streak doesn’t have any mares willingly asking him to flex his muscles,” Spitfire pointed out with a snicker.

She finished jotting everything down.

“Good, good… Fleet, your turn.”

“What is even happening?” Fleetfoot asked in a somewhat hysterical tone as Spitfire lifted the measuring tape towards her. “Answer me dammit.”

“Fleet, RELAX!” Spitfire chuckled, lowering the tap for a moment as she nearly burst out laughing. “Now let me see your arm.”

“You did this before too… are we getting new suits or something?” she asked, sounding somewhat out of it. Spitfire nearly burst out laughing, reaching a hoof up and tapping it to her head.

“You are silly,” Spitfire said plainly while shaking her head. “If you haven’t picked up on it yet, you will in a second. I put you two on this routine for a reason… you know. Now flex your arm.”

“Oh so now you’re gonna tell—” Fleetfoot stopped abruptly as she did as Spitfire asked, her eyes growing wide and nearly choking on her own breath in surprise as she saw the muscles in her arm press to  the measuring tape and force it to slide up the numbers. “ME?!” Fleetfoot pulled back, but not before Spitfire took note and grabbed her clipboard. 

Fleetfoot stared at her arm, keeping her eyes locked on it as if waiting in fear of it being possessed by something. Spitfire reached out, grabbed her arm, and pulled her back over. She took several other measurements, but didn’t need to tell Fleetfoot to tense at all because she was already sitting as stiffly as she could manage.

“Yes, YES!” Spitfire giggled to herself as she finished writing things down and looked over the clipboard.

“Well… I think I understand now,” Wave spoke up as he moved towards them, running a hoof up and down his opposite arm. “But, now you’ve only piqued my curiosity. I see what happened, and it happened just like you said it would but… I wasn’t expecting to be this… fast? How exactly did you make this happen?” he asked as Fleetfoot remained in a state of rather humorous shock.

“Look!” Spitfire eagerly held the clipboard out to Wave. It was a chart divided into columns and rows. Three pairs of columns with their names above them and columns for body measurements or the chest, arms, legs, and shoulder. Wave glanced back and forth between, noticing that the numbers on the left of each column pair were higher than the ones on the left ranging from half an inch to a full inch increase in the value for all three of them. “I took these five weeks ago, FIVE WEEKS!” Spitfire pointed out excitedly. She tipped the board aside, looked down at herself and flexed an arm, tensing up the muscles. “That’s all it took!” she reached out and poked Wave in the chest. “Both Fleet and I have built some noticeable muscle mass and strength and you...” she traces a hoof over his chest muscles. “Not only did we get you back in shape, you got even more from it than expected! Don’t you two understand what this means? An increase like this is usually only possible over the course of a few months of very hard training and strict regimen! We had to put a questionable amount of strain on our bodies, but we made it through without breaking and… it worked! It actually worked!”

Fleetfoot stared blankly as Spitfire started bouncing up and down in place giggling quietly to herself like a filly that just opened the first gift of Hearths Warming.

“Captain…” Wave snickered as he reached out and pressed his hooves down on her shoulders. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you act so much like…” he glanced back at Fleetfoot. 

“Sorry…” Spitfire blushed lightly and shuddered lightly as she shook herself out. “I can’t help it.”

“Could you answer my question now?” Wave asked again with a smirk, but then he blinked. “Wait… unless it has to do with…?”

“It’s all thanks to the Crystal Dew baths!” Spitfire finished for him with a wink. “When they first told me how it worked and could pretty much fix minor injuries. I poked around to find out what defined ‘minor injury’ and asked if the effects would apply to muscle recovery! Technically speaking, working out and training in general breaks down muscle fibers and during recovery they repair themselves, which is how they gain strength and mass. Under the assumption that the effect was one and the same, I decided to test whether or not the baths would work in terms of speeding up the process of muscle recovery and allowing us to basically workout twice to three times as much as we normally would while also yielding twice to three times the results and… it looks like it worked!” she threw her arms out excitedly, then twitched and shuddered. “Oooo…” she swallowed as she grabbed her shoulder and rubbed it. “Though clearly it’s not without its drawbacks… we put a hell of a lot of stress on our bodies and as you both know very well… the fatigue was extreme, even with designated full rest days. But hey!” she nodded happily. “We did it! It worked!”

“Uh…” Wave looked down at himself again. “I really don’t know what to say except… wow.” He looked up at Spitfire with a somewhat awkward smile. “Can’t say I enjoyed the stress but… I never thought something like this would be possible, and technically we did it naturally, right? The magic simply supported and quickened our bodies’ otherwise natural recovery? That makes it even more unbelievable.”

“Believe it, Wave. I found a way to give you your sexy Wonderbolt body back, so no more moping, got it?” Spitfire joked.

“Oh, you’ll hear none from me now!” he chuckled as she poked him in the shoulder.

“But…” Fleetfoot squeaked, still staring straight ahead at Spitfire. “Why did you include me?” Fleetfoot asked, her voice shaking with some lingering disbelief. “I get Wave, but why me?”

Spitfire looked over to her, her eyes shifting down to examine Fleetfoot’s body briefly as she smiled. 

“I needed more than one mare to test it on,” Spitfire explained as she made her way over to her. “Stallions have certain advantages when it comes to this and we all know we can’t trust my body to accurately represent the mare side of things,” she said with a chuckle as she gently placed a hoof on Fleetfoot’s shoulder. “But c’mon, Fleet… think about it,” she flashed a warm smile. “You said you wanted to be stronger, to be more than you were, right?”

Fleetfoot’s eyes opened wide.

“I didn’t forget,” Spitfire winked. “You left an impression on me when you told us everything. You were the first I thought of when putting this together, I didn’t want it any other way.”

“I…” Fleetfoot began to quiver.

“Honestly I’m surprised you didn’t say anything yet. Knowing how much you like mirrors I thought for sure you’d see it,” Spitfire chuckled. “But I guess you were whining all the way through for a reason, you must’ve just been that exhausted.”

Spitfire paused and saw Fleetfoot didn’t react at all to what she had just said. It looked like she was still fixated on Spitfire’s reason for including her. So… Spitfire turned her around and faced her towards the gym mirror.

“Go on,” Spitfire nodded and gave her a nudge. “Have a look.”

Fleetfoot slowly inched towards her reflection in the mirror. She stopped no more than a yard from it, staring with disbelief as her eyes scanned her body. She turned from side to side, tipped her head back and forth. The longer she stared, the more Spitfire’s joke about her not noticing began to finally register in her head… and the more her ability to lift weight she was sure she couldn’t began to make sense. Everywhere she looked over herself… improved muscle tone and a noticeable increase in mass all over. She had always had an extremely sleek physique, so it was impossible to miss the new shapes peeking out from her frame.

“Looking pretty strong there, huh?” Spitfire spoke up as she moved up beside Fleetfoot. “Still feel like whining now?” Spitfire asked jokingly.

But she had no idea how properly timed her approach was. 

Fleetfoot’s eyes immediately shifted to Spitfire, taking in the details of her powerful body and the muscles that all who knew her were all too familiar with. A moment later, Fleetfoot looked at her own again in the mirror. Obviously she was nowhere near the large physical specimen Spitfire was but… now her own body had a similar look. Even if it was much less, there was enough there to hit her on a personal level.

Spitfire, along with Soarin and Dash, had learned everything about her best kept secrets after Nightshade exploited them. Letting it out was hard… knowing they all saw the magazines that she marked up was hard… knowing they saw her emotional self-depreciation upon pages with Spitfire on them was hard.

And Spitfire… did not let it go without doing something about it.

“Mmmmmrph…” Fleetfoot suddenly whimpered, her ears flopping down as she stared at the floor.

“Fleet?” Spitfire tipped her head. “What’s wrong? Whoa!” Spitfire flinched in surprise as Fleetfoot suddenly hugged her REALLY tightly and buried her face into her fur. After a moment, Fleetfoot tilted her head up, tears welling up in her eyes.

“I DON’T DESERVE YOU!!!!!” Fleetfoot wailed, digging her face back into Spitfire’s chest, sniffling.

“Fleet…” Spitfire smiled, pressing a hoof into her mane.

“You’re the goddamn best…” Fleetfoot blubbered as she turned her head and pressed her cheek in. “I’m never complaining ever again.”

“You’ll be complaining again in no time,” Spitfire snickered as she hugged Fleetfoot back. “But really… I had to do this for you after all that, it was never even a question,” she slowly held out the sniffling Fleetfoot at arm’s length. “Now how about we put you and Wave on display for the rest of the force?” she asked with a smirk.

“Display?” Wave chuckled as he approached them. “Dare I ask?”

“Obviously we need to get the rest of the force in on this now,” Spitfire nodded. “But I don’t see why we can’t have a little fun ‘convincing’ them that we’ve got ourselves a breakthrough.”

“Sooo…” Wave tipped his head goofily. “Prance back and forth, swing our flanks towards them and do my best ‘Lightning-Streak-in-the-gym’ impersonation?”

“Might as well,” Spitfire giggled while pushing him away jokingly. “Show off the muscles and you’ll convince well over half of the stallions in seconds. With how much testosterone we’ve got flowing through our male ranks, the promise to ‘get swole’ will be all they need. As for the ladies…” Spitfire gently pressed a hoof into the still sniffling Fleetfoot’s mane. “Fleet here will be all the convincing they need to know it’s worth their effort. Sure they all know me and my body, but the famous sleek and slender Silver Arrow also noticeably built up her body over a short period of time? I’d say that gets their attention. What do you think, Fleet? Ready to show off what you got?”

Fleetfoot stared at her blankly.

“I never thought I’d hear you encourage me to do that,” she said with a somewhat awkward tone. “But…” she swallowed and nodded, wiping her eyes. “Yeah… I… kinda really wanna,” she smiled, confidence creeping back into her tone as she glanced down and ran a hoof over her opposite arm and shoulder again.

“Then it’s settled,” Spitfire nodded. “Both of you cover up with something and go get me the top tier squads first,” she ordered, but paused when she glanced at Wave. “Actually, grab Rainbow Dash and her squad as well. Meet up with me in the palace after you get them, I’m gonna need a lot of the Crystal Dew from the clerics!”





“Wait, you’ve never been to the Crystal Coliseum?” Thunderlane asked.

“No,” Squall answered simply, keeping his eyes forward down the street, walking steadily behind Rainbow Dash and Matteo as Star lay draped over his head. Star tipped her head curiously.

“Aren’t you from here?” she asked, grabbing one of his ears to stop herself from sliding off.

“No, I’m definitely not a crystal pony…” Squall answered sarcastically.

“Oh, don’t be like that,” Star huffed, tugging lightly on his ear.

“I’m not surprised, actually,” Dash called back from in front of them. “It’s not like he’s been living here that long. The Crystal Empire only just reappeared… how long ago again?”

“Uh…” Squall scrunched his face as he failed to remember.

“Almost two years,” Matteo answered without turning to look.

“Really?” Dash blinked and looked up to him.

“I’m estimating, if I recall when the news reached the Griffon Empire correctly,” Matteo shrugged. “Still, likely more than enough time to attend gladiator events.”

“Pffft…” Dash rolled her eyes. “They play sports there, Matteo.” 

Matteo turned to look at her and lifted an eyebrow. 

“In a coliseum? Would that not be a stadium?”

“Practically the same thing here, big guy. We don’t make sport of killing each other in front of crowds around here,” Dash chuckled.

“Yeah we do it behind closed doors instead…” Star joked, recalling some of the ‘training matches’ that got out of hand when they were still just barely new recruits.

“Whatever, it isn’t my thing,” Squall refocused the conversation. 

“Says the Wonderbolt,” Thunderlane said quietly with a snicker as the group turned down the main market street square near the Crystal Palace.

“I bet your dad loved going,” Dash suddenly said while shooting a smarmy look back at him. Squall blinked in surprise.

“How… did you know?”

“Well, it was something you avoided. Not very hard to narrow down the reason,” Dash winked and kept moving.

“Fair enough,” Squall rolled his eyes. But then they all came to a sudden stop as Dash halted in her tracks. She looked back at all of them, then around the area.

“You know I can’t believe it took me this long to notice,” she sighed in frustration. “Anyone see where Twister went?

Not a second after she asked, an extremely loud whistle came from nearby. They all looked over to a cart news stand to see Twister sitting next to a magazine shelf placed beside it. He was holding a magazine up in the air over his head and tilting back and forth while pointing to its cover.

“YA’LL GET OVER HERE RIGHT NOW AND CHECK OUT THIS HOTTIE ON THE COVER!” he yelled as loud as he could. 

“Huh?” Dash blinked and squinted, trying to make out what was on the magazine. “Hottie on the…?”

“SSSSNNNNNRRRRKKKKKK!” Matteo suddenly snorted very loudly while quickly covering his beak and looking away, his body twitched as he chuckled.

“Eh? What?” Star blinked and looked at Matteo. Matteo lifted a talon and pointed at Twister.

“That… it must’ve been those pictures… and the cover is…” Matteo barely managed to say as he tried as hard as he could to keep his composure.

“Pictures? What do you…?” Squall trailed off, his face going blank as his eyes grew wide. “Wait… pictures… oh no…” then he flinched really hard. “WAIT… THE COVER?!”

“Oh! OOOOH!” Star propelled herself into the air off Squall’s head. “OH MY GOSH! LEMME SEE!” She took off towards Twister, much to Squall’s dismay. “LEMME SEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!”

“NO!” Squall yelled desperately as he tried to stop her, but she was long gone.

Twister happily held the magazine out for Star to get a full view as she reached him. She grabbed the edges of it and nearly pressed her face to the cover.

It was the latest issue of Equus Aviation. This particular issue was titled: “Wonderbolt Special”

And plastered right on the cover of the magazine… was a rather spicy headshot of Squall that looked to be one taken while he was trying his hardest to get away from Photo Finish. But it appeared her skill with a camera came through, catching a moment that made him look extremely handsome, further modified by clear touching up and editing. Beneath him was written: “New hot Bolt on the block!”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH HEE HEE HEE!!!!” Star released a high pitched giggly squeal. “Guys! Guys! Come look!” she yelled back to the rest as Twister swept his mane about and struck a head position and expression that perfectly mimicked how Squall looked on the cover.





Matteo and Thunderlane started making their way over, but Dash paused to glance back at the frozen Squall. He had a look that was harshly mixed with shock and mortification.  She couldn’t help but laugh.

“Come on, cover boy!” she chuckled as she grabbed him by the arm and started dragging him over as he groaned with discontent. 

“Wow! Look at all of these!” Star giggled as Dash finally pulled Squall to them. “There are so many pictures of you!” she beamed at Squall as she shifted over and pressed against him while he stared with wide eyes at the pages. Thunderlane and Matteo packed in as well as she paged through them. “This one is great!” she pointed to one of him glaring at the camera. Twister slowly rose up from behind the magazine, making the exact same face. “Oooooo or this one!” Star pointed to one of him looking away and up. Twister mimicked that one as well.

“These were all taken before you got your scar,” Matteo pointed out. 

“Wow, Photo Finish really knows how to catch that sexy side of you, huh?” Dash teased while nudging him in the side.

Squall’s eye twitched.

“I hate this.” Squall said flatly.

“I’ll take twenty!” Star giggled while moving over to the magazine rack and looking for more.

“HEY!” Squall growled, but Dash reached up and pressed a hoof on his shoulder. 

“Let her have this, you,” she chuckled. “I could’ve told you your face sells, Squall!” she added with a smirk. “Are there other pictures in—?”

Dash was cut off as Twister suddenly flipped vigorously through the pages, stopping them right on a picture that featured all the ‘serious squad’ members the Wonderbolts rounded up and forced in front of the camera. Matteo was smack in the middle of the picture and looked like we was just about ready to murder everyone sitting around him with how angry he looked.

Matteo blinked and stared as Dash and Thunderlane burst out laughing. Squall stared for a moment as well before s snort escaped his nose and he couldn’t hold back a chuckle.

“YOU LOOK SO MAD!” Thunderlane blurted out as he tipped over. Twister rose up from behind the magazine with a fake beak, imitating Matteo’s glare in the picture. Without a word, Matteo flattened his brow, grabbed Twister’s fake beak, pulled it back, and let it snap into his face. Twister screamed in such a high pitch that it was almost inaudible as he slowly fell back down behind the magazine.

“Look at all these though!” Dash laughed as she leafed through the pages. “These are great! And… there’s a ten page section here devoted to Fleetfoot…” Dash’s eyes went wide and she leaned her head back. “When did she take THESE?!”

“Whoa there, let me take a closer look,” Thunderlane grabbed the magazine from her and stuffed his head into it. Dash gave him a flat look and pushed the magazine down enough to see his eyes whipping back and forth. 

“I’m sure Applejack would appreciate this,” she said while lifting her brow.

“Do what you will, I have already won,” Thunderlane joked as Dash snorted and pulled the magazine away from him.

“Yeah yeah sure and I… whoa…” Dash puckered her lips and blinked several times as she came across some pictures of Soarin. Obviously the pictures were of him before his recent transformation, but… they were really high quality. “Hold on a second I need a moment here…” Dash said with a loud exhale and using a wing to fan herself. 

“Are there any other pictures of—” Thunderlane tried to grab the magazine from her, but she quickly turned away from him.

“Hold on, I’m… uh… reading…” she said as she bit her lip and her face turned a little red.

“‘Reading,’ right…” Thunderlane snorted as he kept trying to grab it from her. “You can lock yourself in the bathroom later, Dash… come on, give it here.”

“Oh fine, fine…” Dash averted her eyes, subtly giggling to herself as she placed a hoof on her chest and shuddered. “Let’s see what else we have…” she let the rest look in again. “Seriously though, there are so many fun pictures in here!” Dash repeated, paging through several group shots, some funny, some serious, some solo shots taken for profile pages. A lot of photos that were taken after the cameras were stolen appeared to make it into the magazine. They were a bit misaligned at times due to Soarin and Lightning Streak starting a game of hot potato with the camera, but a lot of funny group shots came of it. Lightning Streak, yanking Fire into a picture with him and Air Mach by the neck. Misty Fly peeking into the focus of the lens with Blaze yelling towards her and High Winds dozing off beside her. Soarin hamming it up with Air Mach, the two of them flexing their muscles with Spitfire stuck between them and flattening her brow. One of Dash looking up with wide eyes as Surprise dove in from overhead with her arms spread out. “I could look at these for hours, they’re…”

Dash trailed off as she turned the page and suddenly came upon a picture that made her freeze. Thunderlane, Squall, and Matteo all leaned in.

“Uh…” Dash’s face went bright red. 

“Oh, it’s you and commander Fleetfoot,” Matteo pointed out quite casually as Squall’s pupils shrunk and Thunderlane puffed his cheeks out. 

“WHOA THERE…” Thunderlane exclaimed. “WHOOOOAAAAAA HO HO HO THERE!” 

Dash slammed the magazine shut as her face turned redder than a tomato. She remembered the shoot started with her and Fleetfoot, but… she had no idea how the pictures would turn out. She recalled loosening up a bit, working the weights, showing off and all but… they looked WAY more risqué and body focused than she was expecting. It didn’t help that it was an entire exclusive section, with at least ten photos, and the first page was titled “Meet Fleetfoot’s new friend, Rainbow Dash!” 

“I… don’t remember… doing that… or that… or…. DID I ACTUALLY POSE LIKE THAT?!” Dash stuttered. “HEY!” She yelped as Twister whisked the magazine out of her hooves, positioned himself in front of the guys, and opened it. “HEY! HEY!” she yelped, glancing over to see Star still ruffling through the magazine rack. “GUYYYYSSSSS!!!!”

“Yowza…” Thunderlane blinked. 

“That’s an impressive position…” Matteo commented.

“I’m definitely not that flexible…” Squall commented.

“AS I WAS SAYING…!” Dash grabbed the magazine away from them, red in the face and grinding her teeth together. “There sure are a lot of fun pictures in here!” she repeated, albeit a bit sarcastically.

“That’s why I’m buying a bunch!” Little Star giggled as she heaved a stack of at least twelve of them out of the rack, swaying as she fluttered over to the counter.

“Kill me…” Dash groaned, realizing there was no hiding this from the force… or anypony for that matter. She was in sexy magazine pictures with Fleetfoot, every stallion in Equestria would know who she is now.

“Does anypony have any bits?!” she asked as she held several of the magazines against her face, pressing her cheek to the cover of Squall. “I wanna buy all of these!” Star giggled, absolutely oblivious to Dash’s new ‘plight’.

“GOT YA COVERED!” Twister held up a big brown bag labeled ‘Squattle funds’ and slammed it on the counter, startling the stallion sitting behind the register.

“Whoa! With that we can buy even more!” Star giggled as she went over to grab more of them, never once questioning where Twister got the bits from. “Come help me carry these guys!” she asked, smiling from ear to ear as Dash, Thunderlane, and Matteo came over to grab the cheap plastic bags the cashier was fitting them into. 

“Why are we buying so many?” Squall asked with a huff as he stepped up beside Star. 

“We gotta hand them out to the rest of the Wonderbolts!” she beamed before her face slid into a smarmy smirk and she grabbed one of the magazines off the pile and held it up next to her head. “And the guy on the cover is a real looker, eh?” she said as she tapped the cover and bounced her eyebrows. Squall furrowed his brow. “Ahhhh I could just look at him all day!” Star held the magazine out in front of her as she acted like a fan girl.

“Please stop…” Squall rolled his eyes and stared up and away from her. Dash snorted and started chuckling at Squall. His displeasure made her own seem more comical and she got over it rather quickly.

“I just want to…” Star suddenly leaned in and pressed her lips to the cover. “MMMMMMMWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAH!” she dramatically kissed it.

“Oh, come on!” Squall scoffed as he turned around and stared at the ground.

“Sheesh Squall, she’ll eat you alive if you let her keep that up,” Dash chuckled as they gathered up the bags of magazines, watching as Star kept trying to get the cover in front of his face and he turned in circles to avoid her.

“Here, me next!” Twister popped up next to Star, copying Squall’s face on the magazine again and pointing to his cheek. Star instantly flattened her brow.

“Okay, close your eyes,” she said as she tucked the magazine under her arm.

“AW YEAH! HERE IT COMES BOYS! I MADE IT!” Twister yelled out as he closed his eyes.

“Yeah, just hooooooold still now,” Star cracked her hooves and pulled back a hoof.

But before she could punch him, Squall moved by her and drove a hoof directly into Twister’s face. Twister’s face made a loud sucking noise that sounded like a smooch before catapulting backwards at what was most certainly not the angle he should have flown backwards at that conveniently sent him flying directly at Matteo. Matteo looked just in time to see Twister stuff into his thick fur and vanish into it. Matteo snorted in frustration.

“What is it with him and my fur?” Matteo grunted as he went about gathering up the bags without even bothering to fish Twister out.

“Sorry,” Squall apologized, turning away from Star as she tried not to burst out laughing. “It was too tempting.”

“Why are you staring at me?” Matteo asked Thunderlane as he saw him looking at his fur. Thunderlane shook his head without averting his eyes. 

“He’s going to fly out of there right at me. I may have been gone for a while, but I was around him enough during recruit training to know he’ll—”

He was cut off as Twister suddenly fell from above, crashed into him, and forced them both to the ground as an overly dramatic crashing noise filled with rumbling and glass breaking echoed from nowhere.

“You probably shouldn’t have said anything,” Dash pointed out as Twister started screaming and rolling in circles around them all while holding one of his legs.

“OW MY KNEE! OH GOD MY KNEE!”

“Well I was half right,” Thunderlane sighed as he slowly stood up and rubbed the back of his neck.

“We have all the magazines?” Dash asked as Matteo hoisted the majority of the bags into his talons and around his arm. “Good, let’s—”

“Rainbow Dash! There you are!”

Dash perked up, turning to look in the direction of the familiar voice. She smiled when she saw Wave Chill’s head poking out from the crowd and making his way down the street towards them.

“I’ve been looking all over for you and your squad!”  He said as he drew near.

“Commander!” Dash said in a happy tone, unable to keep her smile from growing. But when he finally got close enough to pull away from the busy ponies moving about, Dash was momentarily distracted by a light blue cloak he wore that covered his entire body down to the top of his hooves. 

“If not for Matteo it would be impossible to find you in a crowd like this,” he chuckled as Dash returned her eyes to his and smiled again. Wave noticed and tipped his head to the side. “What?”

“Sorry,” Dash shook her head and waved a hoof. “It’s still just nice to… you know… see you up and about,” she explained as the others moved up behind her. 

“Heh, I wasn’t down for that long, was I?” Wave shrugged.

“It sure felt like an eternity,” Dash added before glancing at his attire again.

“I hate to interrupt your fun here,” Wave began before she could ask. “But Spitfire wants you and your squad to report to the palace clerical hall immediately.”

“The clerical hall?” Dash blinked. “Right, we’ll be right on our…” she trailed off, looking at his cloak again. She also couldn’t help but notice that he was unusually upbeat, and that he relayed Spitfire’s orders within that tone. Whenever it came to orders, Wave always turned back into the sharp soldier type. “Okay… this is killing me.”

“Hm?” Wave blinked as Dash motioned a hoof to his cloak.

“Why are you wearing this? The weather is literally perfect here at all times, but you’re dressed like it’s about to rain,” she asked while lifting an eyebrow. 

“Oh, heh…” Wave smiled. “Well… I think I’d best let Spitfire meet with you first. Then it will make sense,” he said with a wink. “Come on, let’s not keep her waiting.”

“If you say so…” Dash huffed before waving to her squad. “Let’s head on over, guys.”

“Wait a sec… are those…?” Wave glanced at the magazines in the bags as they started moving. 

“The photoshoot magazines!” Star chimed in cheerfully.

“Oh great…” Wave sighed, chuckling along with (most) of them as they turned towards the main palace road.





“You’re staring at me again…” Wave pointed out as he led Dash and her crew through the palace halls.

“Sorry I can’t help it!” Dash chuckled. “Funny looking cloak aside, something’s different and I’m about to yank at least three of the six colors out of my mane if I don’t figure it out. Did you change your mane or something?” she asked as they veered towards the cleric hall. 

“Noooooooo,” Wave rolled his eyes and laughed. “Stop driving yourself nuts,” he suggested as they approached the hall. Dash noticed that the rest of the top tier Wonderbolts were there or arriving. Those arriving were being led by Fleetfoot… who ALSO wore a cloak. “Just be patient and Spitfire will explain everything, including this,” he assured her while patting his chest and the cloak. 

“That’s everypony!” Fleetfoot nodded triumphantly as the groups met up. 

“You too…? Okay, spill it!” Dash demanded while throwing her hooves out towards Fleet. The rest of the Wonderbolts looked towards her, then eagerly at Wave and Fleetfoot as if Dash had conveniently asked what they were all wondering aloud. 

“Hey… hey…” Fleetfoot pressed a hoof to Dash’s nose. “Relax, Dashie. I’ve gotten enough about it from these jokers behind me already. We’re not ruining the surprise.”

“Surprise?” Dash blinked.

“What?” Surprise leaned over to look at Dash.

“No not…” Dash flattened her brow, scrunched up her mouth, and blew a full breath out of her nostrils. “This is killing me you two…”

“Well we’re all here, shall we?” Wave suggested.

“Yep!” Fleet nodded vigorously as she grabbed the door to the cleric hall and pulled. “Let’s do th—”

“WHAT?!”

Fleetfoot froze with the door halfway open as Spitfire’s voice angrily boomed from within. They all flinched in surprise and glanced between one another for a moment before gathering up and peeking in through the door. 

Spitfire was locked in an angry glaring match with one of the head clerics. The middle aged unicorn stallion wearing a white cape with a red patterned hood was defiantly holding his ground and looking right back into the hard gaze of Spitfire.

“What do you mean you can’t?!” Spitfire added, her face scrunching up.

“If I must repeat myself…” the stallion huffed. “We cannot possibly hoof over such a large quantity of it… I doubt we even have that much available. It’s out of the question!”

“You’re kidding me, right?” Spitfire looked over to a window and motioned to it. “The whole damn Empire is made of Crystal. How could you possibly not have enough?!”

“We can’t just grab a crystal and squeeze it like a towel!” the Cleric angrily shot back. “The formation, collection, and refinement of crystal dew is a long and delicate process and what we have in storage right now is the result of several years of work spanning back to before our realm was sealed away a thousand years ago.”

“You didn’t seem to give a damn about it these past five weeks,” Spitfire pointed out while lifting an eyebrow. 

“What you asked for was but a small amount and it was approved by Princess Cadence. Now you ask the same for nearly a hundred ponies? The reserves would run dry within weeks!” The cleric explained harshly.

“I’m afraid I must agree with Minhoof, Spitfire…” 

All the Wonderbolts watching from the door flinched as Princess Cadence strode up behind them. They parted to let her through and approach. Spitfire shifted her glare to Cadence, her eyes catching a glimpse of all the Wonderbolts in the doorway as well. Upon seeing their captain lay eyes on them, Dash and the rest of the top tier Wonderbolts made their way in behind Cadence.

“A messenger told me everything… and what you are asking for is not something I can approve of.” She said with a nod as she stopped before Spitfire.

“So you’re just gonna fill me with the same crap as this moron?” Spitfire motioned to the stallion.

“Spitfire, that ‘moron’ you are speaking to is Minhoof. The only surviving Cleric from the age of Sombra’s rule. Without him, the art of collecting and refining the crystal dew to create the healing baths would have been lost to history. You ought to show him some respect for what you’ve been able to do already… and to heed his concerns about asking for so much.” Cadence motioned a hoof to Minhoof. Spitfire shot him a look, but he did not show any sign of smugness or condescension, so she only grunted and averted her eyes.

“It would be both impractical and unwise of us to simply let you burn through our entire stock of dew,” Minhoof began, not a trace of hostility in his voice. “You have made your case clear, but we also rely on the dew to help treat the old, the wounded and the sick. Surely you cannot expect us to abandon the medical boons our citizens have access to for the sake of foreigners who only just showed up recently and caused enough commotion to last a lifetime.”

“Now you listen here, we…” Spitfire trailed off as she poked Minhoof in the chest. But she went no further, stuck at that exact point. She was about to express her belief that what they were up against was a danger to Equestria as a whole, but she couldn’t think of a way to say it without claiming Minhoof was being selfish. The irony of saying that was not lost on her. Her reasons for partaking in her experiment were to give the physical abilities of the force a boost. The threat of the Shadowbolts and the powers pulling their strings loomed over them all, but she was not willing to force measures that would drastically affect the livelihood of others, particularly civilians. Taking the ‘at any cost’ approach would make her no better than Nightshade.

She pulled back and turned around, looking at the floor for a moment as she pondered.

“I trust you understand where we’re coming from?” Minhoof spoke up. “It is not out of greed that we deny you your request. You are merely asking for more than we can possibly provide or allow.”

“Which is why I’m going to alter my request,” Spitfire turned around and pointed at him, stealing a glance at Cadence as well. “I asked for enough to handle a cycle of four days, four baths for three of those days and two baths for the fourth… over the period of a month. You can recall how much that was in total?”

“I still have it written down, yes,” Minhoof nodded.

“Taking that into account… what is the maximum number of ponies I could put into the program with the amount you would be willing to provide me?” Spitfire asked, earning a flat look from Minhoof, but before he could say anything, Spitfire shook her head. “Don’t give me that look. I’m respecting your position… so I ask that you also respect mine. I’m not doing this for personal gain, this is for a much greater purpose, helping us take on a foe that poses a threat to Equestria. I want to get the most I possibly can out of this without causing a shortage of a very important resource from the Crystal Empire.”

Minhoof listened to her every word, the two keeping their eyes locked as everypony else looked on including the rest of the clerics present. He put a hoof to his chin, a smile appearing on Spitfire’s face as he appeared to ponder her request.

“Fifteen,” Minhoof said as he looked up and nodded. “Based on the last recorded numbers of our dew stores, it’s safe to assume that that would equate to roughly half of our stores. I’m not willing to go beyond that, especially if you plan on descending another dogfight onto the Empire’s military. We used quite a bit to treat the wounded after the last amount of cacophony you caused.”

“Fifteen…” Spitfire blinked, ignoring his comment about the prior out of control battle that transpired. She unfolded a wing and held it out in front of her, counting on her feathers as she whispered names to herself. “Air Mach, Blaze, Winds, Fire, Lightning, Misty, Surprise… With the three of us doing more, that’s ten…” 

Her ears wiggled as she looked over to Dash and her squad standing among the top tiers. She went back to counting. 

“Right, them too so… Dash, Matteo, Little Star, Squall… Twis—” she paused, looking over at Twister. He was currently inching upward off the ground. No wings were involved, and he was standing still like the rest, just… slowly rising upward and nopony else seemed to notice. “Twister…” Spitfire sighed. “Hrm…” she hummed. 

She personally felt like it wasn’t enough and it would be a wasted opportunity for some. While she had thought about maybe letting Descent and a few of his Renegades in on it, but they already had some advantages they didn’t and she’d rather they focused on their scouting work. She wouldn’t mind having a slight leg up on him anyway. Which ultimately shifted her attention to elsewhere… namely, who among the Wonderbolts currently had the most potential for results?

It didn’t take long for her to look over at Dash again… and recall how impressed she was with their recruit class. One particular new Wonderbolt came to mind.

“Give me sixteen,” Spitfire said to Minhoof with a nod. Minhoof’s eye twitched.

“You’re kidding me, right?” he grunted.

“No I’m…” Spitfire trailed off as she looked in the direction of Dash again, her eyes shifting a little bit to her right. “Hmmm… you know what? Make it seventeen.”

“I said FIFTEEN…” Minhoof growled. “And I’m not sparing more than that.”

Spitfire suddenly stepped forward and grabbed him by the collar of his cape, yanking him towards her. Several clerics and Princess Cadence gasped as Spitfire glared into his face. But despite the sudden use of force, Minhoof didn’t flinch, nor show any surprise.

“Give. Me. Seventeen.”

“I said no!” Minhoof refused to be intimidated.

“Look, I’m being NICE, right now,” Spitfire huffed. “If you want me to express how angry I am that I can’t do this for my entire force, I can, but I’m compromising to respect your own needs. You said fifteen would be about half the stores, so seventeen shouldn’t make that much more of a dent into it. Give me that much, and it will be the last you hear from me about it.”

The two kept their glares locked, neither giving an inch in silence for several moments. Minhoof sighed in frustration, turning his head to look at Cadence.

“What say you, Princess?” Minhoof asked, sounding just about done with the situation.

“That’s fine! That’s fine!” Princess Cadence frantically waved a hoof out as she came forward and used her magic to pull them both apart. “You can have enough for seventeen,” she agreed while giving Spitfire a perturbed look. “Now stop disturbing the clerics, they have work to do!”

“I’m glad we understand one another,” Spitfire nodded, brushing aside Cadence’s annoyance. Minhoof only grunted and shook his head as Spitfire made her way over to the now ever more curious Wonderbolts. “Alright, everypony follow me, let’s get out of this stuffy room,” she ordered while twirling a hoof in the air.

Everypony watched her walk by them, a look on her face that didn’t quite look satisfied. Though it appeared she only got a fraction of what she originally came here for, so they didn’t question it. They did as they were told and followed her out into the hallway, the group gathering by the wall a few paces down the hall.

“Okay Sis…” Blaze spoke up as they all settled in place. “I dunno what the fuck was going on in there, but it clearly has to do with whatever secret thing you’ve been up to the past weeks. Are ya finally gonna tell us?” Her words resonated, the rest of the top tiers nodding in agreement, and Misty nodding as well as soon as Fire finished translating for her.

“Yes, Blaze, I am,” Spitfire nodded to all of them, waving to Fleetfoot and Wave chill to come towards her. “And I appreciate you saying that part for me,” she said with a smirk as Wave and Fleetfoot took their place beside her. “So…” she clapped her hooves together once. “I’m sure all of you have noticed, that on the rare occasion you’ve spotted Wave, Fleet, and I, we’ve been shambling around looking like we can barely walk straight the past month… there is a reason for that.”

Dash perked up, recalling Spitfire bringing up some special training routine in the past… and recalled Fleetfoot bringing it up off-hoof once or twice.

“Yeah I assumed you were all drunk,” Lightning spoke up with a chuckle. “Thought Chiller was letting go a bit after what he was put through.”

“We were not drunk,” Spitfire flattened her brow as the rest chuckled at Lightning. “Unless you count the amount of endorphins forced through our brains after some of the things I put us through. BUT, ANYWAY… Ahem!” Spitfire stepped aside. “I am pleased to say… that my little experiment was a success.”

The Wonderbolts glanced among themselves as Spitfire held an arm out to her side and stood there for a moment. She eventually flattened her mouth and opened her eyes narrowly. 

“Fleet, Wave, that was your cue,” she said without opening her mouth much.

“Huh? Oh, right right,” Wave chuckled as he came forward.

“What? Was this rehearsed?” Fleetfoot huffed as she followed behind him. “Would’ve been nice to see the script first, Spitty.”

“Just get over here,” Spitfire snorted and rolled her eyes, putting a smile back on as the two now stood beside her, cloaks still covering them completely below the neck. “As I was saying… my little experiment was a—”

“Whiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiile weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee’re yooooooooooooooooooooung…!” High Winds, voice came from behind Fire.

“Boooooooooooooo! Get to the pooooooooint!” Blaze’s voice also came from behind Fire.

Fire Streak furrowed his brow and tipped back, sitting down right on top of both of them.

“OW! FUCK!” Blaze yelped as she and Winds got sandwiched between Fire’s plot and the floor.

“Thank you, Fire,” Spitfire huffed. “If you’re all going to be difficult about this I’ll skip to the part that matters. The three of us just did nearly a years-worth of hard training in a matter of five weeks!”

There was a brief silence.

“Yay?” Surprise tipped her head curiously. Spitfire’s face went blank. Fleetfoot giggled and leaned over to her.

“Remind me again why you let me handle the planning for all our air shows?” she whispered.

“Hush, you…” Spitfire pressed a hoof over her head. “Okay fine, I was trying to be grandiose and suspenseful about it, but that’s clearly not working. I’m trying my best to still be excited about this despite what just went down in there with Cadence and the cape-wearing old fart, so listen up!” Spitfire took a step towards the group. “Want to get strong as hell in a short time? Want to really kick the Shadowbolts in the teeth so hard their heads spin next time we meet them? We now have a way.”

She was met with stares, and mostly confusion, particularly those who had little to no idea what she had been up to. 

“Um… that sounds nice, but… unrealistic?” Fire chimed in.

“I liked the part about kicking teeth, but… what?” Blaze added.

“I’m sold, Captain! Let’s kick some teeth!” Air Mach chimed in, slinging his arm onto Blaze’s head and leaning so far that they would have ended on the ground had High Winds not extended her wing out for support. “Wait, you said something about getting strong too?” he asked, tipping his glasses down, seemingly unaware of Blaze growling and trying to bite his arm.

“We found a way,” Spitfire repeated. “And you’re probably wondering why Fleet and Wave over here are wearing these stupid cloaks.” Spitfire paused and smiled as she got several nods in response. “Well… because I knew none of you would take notice of me since I look like this all the time,” she motioned to her body. “And you can thank Descent for confirming that… but even if it worked for me, you all also know that my body tends to be a bit more… reactive than most when it comes to training. But that’s precisely why I had these two join me, because if I couldn’t convince you…” She turned and nodded to Fleetfoot and Wave. “I knew these two would!”

All eyes moved to Wave and Fleet.

“Alright stallions, and fillies…” Fleetfoot grabbed the string that tied the cloak around her neck and slowly tugged on it while leaning heavier to one side and sticking her flank outward. “I wanna make this last so I’m gonna do it niiiiiiiiiice and sloooooooooooow.”

Wave held still after grabbing the string on his cloak and gave Fleetfoot an awkward look.

“I suddenly feel very dirty…” Wave said jokingly.

“Okay, stop,” Spitfire growled at her. “If you’re going to be lewd about it, then let Wave go first.”

“Awww fine…” she pouted. Without any more distraction, Wave untied the strings… and cast the cloak aside.

Dash blinked twice before her eyes grew wide. Loud gasps came from around her as looks of shock and surprise washed over the whole group. Spitfire grinned from ear to ear as she saw the reactions from all of them, even Lightning Streak stopped jokingly acting like he was watching a striptease the moment the cloaks came off.

“Holy… shit…” Dash was the only one to speak as her eyes scanned up and down. “He… He’s…” 

Wave Chill smiled, turned a little to the side, and stood proudly. Suddenly, Wave’s happy mood suddenly made a lot more sense. Dash had seen him several times since he had been cured from the crystal sickness. There was one thing that had been pretty clear to her and everypony else, his time stuck in bed, sick and drained while barely able to nourish himself had caused a noticeable amount of atrophy. None of them doubted he’d be able to get himself back into shape but… right here, in front of them now after disappearing into an experimental routine for five weeks, stood the Wave they all knew from before his affliction. He looked strong, his body looked great. All his lost muscle mass was back… and maybe even then some. 

“Um…” Blaze stared blankly.

“Wow…” Winds added, her eyes open uncharacteristically wide. 

“BROOOOOOOOOOOOOO…!” Lightning Streak and Air Mach shouted in unison as they leaned their necks way back. Fire was speechless beside him as Surprise and Misty both stared with wide sparkly eyes. 

“PRESENTING…!” Spitfire slid over to Wave. “Exhibit A! Wave Chill! Our crystal afflicted commander who was down and out for so long it was a detriment to his physical conditioning…” she trailed off and hooked a hoof into Wave’s arm, catching him off guard as she hoisted it up and tapped her hoof against it in several spots all the way up to his chest. “But just five weeks on this breakthrough training routine and he’s gained it all back!” she let go of him and nodded vigorously. “I have the stallions’ attention now, don’t I?” she chuckled while pointing to them specifically. 

“Me? I guess, I…” Fire blinked and turned to see both Lightning and Air Mach staring with wide eyes from behind him. “Oh.”

“Picture it, boys,” Spitfire put her hooves out in front of her, making sure to look towards Matteo and Squall behind Dash as well. She paused as she noticed Thunderlane, but it didn’t derail her train of thought. “If Wave went from weakened back to his old self this fast and built himself back up THIS well… just imagine what he could gain from doing it again from here? Now think of what you would all gain if you did it too!” She snickered as she leaned against Wave. “What’s the wording you guys like to use? Wanna ‘get swole?’”

“Damn captain, you don’t have to ask me twice!” Lightning Streak pounded a hoof to his chest. “Bro! Bro!” he grabbed Fire Streak’s shoulder and shook him. “Dude, we’re gonna get jacked!”

“Apparently…” Fire sighed and rolled his eyes.

Dash glanced behind her, looking at Squall and Matteo sitting quietly. Neither of them were ones to be silly or rambunctious, but both of them were staring in awe at Wave. Dash didn’t know what was going through their heads right now, but they were definitely impressed, and she was doing her best to not say anything and let Spitfire be the one to eventually mention their involvement.

“Of course though…” Spitfire pushed off of Wave, some showmanship starting to bleed into her presentation. “I can see it in your eyes, ladies… It’s impressive, but… ‘Wave is a stallion and Captain Spitfire is a freak.’ And I don’t blame you for thinking so. After all… Stallions have it easier when it comes to strength and muscle building, but…” she stopped by Fleetfoot, who was smiling extremely wide. “If you want proof that this will be worth your time… I made sure to have something to show you all as well!” she made a hoof motion to Fleetfoot.

“Can I strip now?” she asked coyly. Spitfire sighed, knowing Fleetfoot just wanted to hear her say it.

“Yes, Fleet, you can strip…”

“Woo!” she went right back into character, biting her lip and sliding her hoof against the top of her cloak as she bounced her eyebrows up and down. She glanced at Spitfire and nearly burst out laughing when she saw her looking flatly at her again. “Relax, I’m joking,” she giggled. “Trust me… I REALLY want them to see!” 

Fleetfoot undid the string, grabbed the cloak, and tossed it aside.

The reaction was not filled with quite as much shock as with Wave, perhaps because they expected something different, but instead… the air was filled with quieter wondrous reactions. 

Dash’s eyes darted over and along Fleetfoot’s body as she stood confidently with herself on display, turning around and around for all of them to see. Fleetfoot’s physique was sporting some noticeable new mass, the once smoother and softer surfaces of her body now sporting impressive sharpened muscles. There was so much new tone and new shapes adorning her figure that it was hard to believe they were looking at the same super slender mare they all knew too well.

“Just look…” Spitfire motioned to Fleetfoot while looking at the rest. “Seriously… LOOK. This is FLEETFOOT… one of the smallest and thinnest mares in the entire force. Five weeks on this routine proved she actually does have some muscles hidden in there somewhere!”

“Hey!” Fleetfoot pouted, turning a glare to Spitfire as some chuckles came from the group. 

But the chortles and snickers quickly ceased as the rest, especially the mares, returned their attention to Fleetfoot. 

Spitfire was joking, but… what she was saying wasn’t wrong. If this routine put some muscle on Fleetfoot of all ponies… then it would work for any of them.

“And I should mention that it’s not all just for show,” Spitfire slung an arm over Fleetfoot’s shoulder. “She also bench pressed one-fifty-five when I put them to the test.”

High Winds flinched as Blaze suddenly sputtered and nearly tripped forward beside her.

“WHHHHAT?” Blaze blinked. “How much?!”

“One, five, five,” Spitfire simplified it. “Fifty five pound more than her previous max out. And I’ll spare you the numbers, but Wave and I did a lot more too.”

“See something ya like, eh Blazey?” Fleetfoot cooed, turning to one side and flexing her arms, shoulders while squeezing her chest in front.

“Okay, one…” Blaze pointed at Fleetfoot. “Fuck you. And two…” she turned to Spitfire. “When in the fuck do we start?! Holy shit, I want that!”

“Finally something we have in common babe!” Lightning chuckled as he tried to drape an arm over Blaze, but she furiously avoided it. “Sign us the hell up captain!”

“Whoa, whoa… hahaha...” Spitfire held out her hooves as all the top tier moved up to express their intense interest, even Fire looked like he couldn’t contain himself. “Let me explain how it works first…”

“Wow…” Dash said to herself as Spitfire broke into a long word salad about dew baths, recovery time, and dieting. She could get the gist of what she was saying, but something else had a majority of her curiosity at that moment. If she were to go on this routine… with how much her body was already being ‘supercharged’ by her soul connection with Soarin… Suddenly Spitfire’s previous mention of her possibly being a ‘secret weapon’ made sense. Who knew what her potential could be… assuming she could keep control of herself.

“And that’s pretty much it,” Spitfire ended as Dash returned her attention to the group. 

“Pretty much it?” Surprise scratched her head. “That was extremely complicated.”

“Made sense to me,” Fire tipped his head slightly.

“NOPONY ASKED YOU!” Surprise leapt up on his back and tugged his ears with her hooves as he shrugged.

“Look, the short of it is… we work hard, we eat well, we rest and recover using the dew baths,” Spitfire chuckled as she gently removed Surprise from Fire’s back and looked around at the rest of the group. “And if you do all that, we’ll be packing on some serious new strength. I plan to mix in some of our usual training routines in terms of combat and flight drills as well to give us an all-around increase in effectiveness. If it works for the muscles, it should work for the skills too…” Spitfire trailed off slightly and sighed, puttering her lips and furrowing her brow. “Now if only we could’ve gotten the enitre force to partake.”

“Oooooh, so that’s what that was all about in there,” High Winds put together as the rest caught on.

“Spot on,” Spitfire grumbled. “But if we can’t do it for everypony, we can at least do it for a select group while the rest continue with their usual training. We may not be able to get the whole force charged up, but I think seventeen of us will be more than enough to really punch the Shadowbolts in the mouth the next time they show their ugly mugs.”

“Seventeen…” Fire bobbed his head up and down, counting out how many top tier Wonderbolts they had in action. “But with us it’s only…” he trailed off as Spitfire made a hoof motion towards Dash and her friends. “Oh?”

All eyes went to Dash and the reactions of the rest sitting behind her were mixed. Dash already knew of Spitfire’s intentions, but aside from her, the only one who seemed to catch on was Matteo, sporting a rather eager grin at the edges of his beak. Squall wasn’t paying much attention, Star looked very confused, Thunderlane had spent most of the meeting wondering if he was even supposed to be there, and Twister couldn’t enjoy his sandwich. 

“That’s because Rainbow Dash’s squad… will be joining us,” Spitfire confirmed.

“Whoa, hold on… WHAT?” Star reacted as Squall’s eyes snapped forward as well. “We… are going to…?”

“That’s right, isn’t it Dash?” Spitfire smiled towards Dash. All of them looked to Dash, who gave a wink to her squad. 

“She mentioned something about this to me before,” Dash explained. “But I wasn’t sure what it was all about.”

“Uh… I mean…” Star’s eyes darted between Dash and Spitfire. “Captain, I don’t want to sound like I’m not chomping at the bit, but… why us instead of more experienced veterans?”

“A question worth asking that I was hoping you’d ask,” Spitfire nodded. “I’ll give you two reasons. First, you are all from the most exceptional class of recruits we’ve had in my time as captain, something everypony here would agree on.” She paused as the rest nodded. “Second… You all stood with Rainbow Dash and rightly challenged my misguided orders during the battle for Soarin. I’d say you’ve earned the right to partake, and knowing your potential, I’m excited to see the results.” She moved towards them as they continued to give varying looks in response. “Now Dash…” she placed a hoof on Dash’s shoulder. “That means I expect you to keep them all on task. As captain of your squad, you need to make sure they give me their best and stay focused.”

“Yes ma’am,” Dash nodded, but then Spitfire flattened her brow and pointed over her shoulder. 

“SPECIFICALLY… I want you to make sure HE takes it seriously,” she said flatly. Dash glanced over her shoulder to see Twister still trying to take the first bite out of a sandwich, but the sandwich appeared to be a plastic prop. “Or at least do your best,” Spitfire added. “I don’t want to have wasted a tub on him.”

Dash rolled her eyes as Twister started spinning violently in midair while grappling with the fake sandwich, turning back to Spitfire.

“You might as well ask him to lay an egg,” Dash said sarcastically as Spitfire stepped back.

As soon as she said it, Twister casually strolled up to Spitfire, handed her an egg, and casually strolled back the way he came.

“Look, the point is…” Spitfire began as she tossed the egg aside. “I want to make sure they get as much as possible out of this. While I meant everything I said, Star is right… I could use more seasoned Wonderbolts, but I decided not to. Initially only you were under consideration, but I don’t want to take you away from your squad and what you’ve built with them,” Spitfire stopped for a moment and blinked. “Which is ironic, considering that’s exactly what I’m doing to Storm Front, but that’s beside the point.”

A jolt went right through Dash as she heard the name. She scrunched her brow considerably. Spitfire saw it and quickly shook her head. 

“Save it, Dash… and before you say anything, I’ve heard from Descent. I’m bringing him in because he’s also a member of your recruit class, and in case you forgot, was vaulted into the elites for being top of the class.”

“Trust me… I remember,” Dash huffed and looked away.

“I’m going to say this now, don’t let your personal quarrels with him distract you,” Spitfire ordered. 

“Fine, fine…” Dash grumbled, but it only made Spitfire glare harder. Dash quickly realized what she did and quickly cleared her throat. “I mean… yes, ma’am.”

“Good, now then…” Spitfire began to turn.

“Wait a second…” Dash spoke up again as she tipped her head and bobbed it up and down, mouthing numbers as she counted. “That brings the total to sixteen… didn’t you say seventeen.”

“Yes I did,” Spitfire pointed. Dash followed her hoof, but her eyes landed on Matteo. She cocked an eyebrow. 

“Uh, Captain… I know he’s fat, but he’s not that fat. I think he’ll fit in just one.” Several fits of laughter broke out as Matteo narrowed his eyes at her.

“No, Dash…” Spitfire said in between chuckles. “You, hiding behind him there. Thunderlane, right?”

Dash perked up, quickly looking back to see Thunderlane poke his head out from around Matteo so fast he nearly fell over.

“Wh… wait, WHAT?” Thunderlane exclaimed as Matteo shifted aside. “Wait, wait, whoa, whoa, Captain…” he held his hooves out frantically. “I’m only a reserve.”

“You’re being promoted, effective immediately,” Spitfire quickly shot back with a smile. “You did hear me say that your class was one of the best I’ve seen, right? I brought Silver Lining in to be the senior flight instructor of your class for a reason. Any recruit who trained under his watch is one worth recognition.”

“Uh…” Thunderlane sputtered as Dash made her way over to him and nudged him in the side.

“You’ve stuck around after all the other reserves left, so consider yourself in the right place at the right time,” she nodded at Dash. “You hung around with this motley crew a lot before the recruit squad selection. I don’t see any reason not to include you knowing that kind of support will help not only you, but the rest of them perform at the best of their ability. You also just missed out on being part of Foxtrot. If any one of these five had not been in the program, you would have made it no question.”

Thunderlane stared blankly, looking half astonished, half embarrassed as if he never expected any sort of praise. Dash nudged him while smirking at Spitfire. 

“He was also part of the group we employed to throw Derpy Hooves at you,” she added. Spitfire kept her smile on as one of eyes twitched, several chuckles coming from behind her.

“Yes… that too…” she said while faking a smile with twitching lips. 

“I… gosh…” Thunderlane rubbed the back of his head and looked down, averting his eyes from the entire group as none of them, not even any top tiers, gave words of protest. “To think I was probably heading back home in a day or two…”

“Welcome back to the team, Thunder,” Dash smacked him on the back hard enough to make him lurch and teeter. He looked over his shoulder at Dash and the rest of Foxtrot. Matteo and Star looked happy to hear it. Even Squall, while not showing it much, seemed to be pleased. Twister was grinning mischievously while rubbing his hooves together. 

“Well… just like old times I guess,” he chuckled nervously. “Uh, thank you ma’am,” Thunderlane swallowed and nodded to Spitfire, saluting. “I’m… not sure what to say.”

“Give me your best effort and you won’t have to say anything,” Spitfire nodded and winked to him. “Okay, everyone…” Spitfire turned back to address them all at once. “I want to give Fleetfoot and Wave a few days to rest. So take a few days to loosen up, get a few workouts in, and make sure you’re ready for some extra hard work. One of the drawbacks of this training has been the buildup of mental and physical stress. We have an idea of how many days of work and rest balance are needed, but I don’t want anypony hurting themselves, so be prepared to keep a close eye on yourselves and don’t be afraid to let me know when you need extra time to recover, but at the same time remember that we will be pushing our limits fiercely, so be sure it’s only when needed, though I know none of you to be lazy. We have a full gym with facilities rented out for the next month or so a few doors down from the main palace road. I’ll send word when we’re ready to begin and we’ll all meet there to go through our routine. Until then—”

“RAINBOW DASH! WHERE IS RAINBOW DASH?!”

Everypony nearly jumped out of their skin as an extremely loud voice boomed through the hallways and made the windows shake. Dash covered her ears and twitched as she shook her head out. There was only one pony who could yell that loud.

They all turned to see Luna galloping down the hall, her eyes locked on Dash as she inadvertently knocked aside several crystal guards who couldn’t get out of her way in time.

“Luna…?” Dash blinked, barely able to say or think anything else before Luna screeched to a halt right in front of her.

“Rainbow Dash, you must come with us! Hurry!” she managed to yell without lifting to Royal Canterlot Voice levels.

“Huh…?” Dash blinked. “What’s…?”

“Now! We must go!” Luna tapped her hooves on the floor vigorously.

“What the hell?” Spitfire spoke up, taking a step towards them. “Is something wrong with Soarin?”

“Nay!” Luna shook her head. “But we need Rainbow Dash now!”

Dash glanced at Spitfire. Spitfire shrugged.

“Well, you heard everything so go a—”

“YIKES!” Dash yelped as Luna grabbed her by the arm, lifted into the air and started flying down the hall back towards the inner chambers before Spitfire could finish.

“—head…” Spitfire furrowed her brow as she rolled her eyes and turned back to the rest of them. “Wonder what that was all about?”

Everypony else either shrugged or shook their heads, but then Fleetfoot spied the bags Matteo was holding.

“Huh?” she blinked. “Oh! Is that the Wonderbolt issue of Equus Aviation?!”

“Oh my god…” Squall instantly turned his back.





“Luna!” Dash yelled as she flapped her wings, trying to pull her arm free. “LUNA!” Dash yelled again, finally getting a nice even flap that pulled herself free, only to send her tumbling on the ground and stopping on her back. “Ow…” she said with a sigh. But in an instant Luna was standing over her with her face all the way into hers.

“Please! We must go!” Luna yelled, while trying to grab Dash again. 

“Hey! Enough!” Dash pushed Luna’s hoof away. “If you’re going to yank me around, tell me what’s going on!? Why are you doing this if there’s nothing wrong with Soarin?!”

“Soarin is AWAKE!" Luna yelled.

Dash’s eyes widened to their limit.

“WHAT?!?!?!”

---To Be Continued---