The next day….
Maretime Bay Elementary School was a small white schoolhouse on the outskirts of the town, adorned with decorations and art projects on the walls. The campus was huge with a large playground and swing set to accommodate the many foals who went there to learn and have fun.
The sign that stood in front of the schoolhouse was painted in big rainbow letters that symbolized the warm and inviting atmosphere:
WELCOME TO MARETIME BAY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Where Anything Is Possible
With a ring of the school bell, fillies and colts of all races came stampeding out of the main building towards the playground, some of them accidentally trampling on others in the mad rush. It was Lunchtime and with it came a longer break than the normal Recess.
It was at this time that Sunny and Zipp arrived with an extremely tired Hitch in tow. The two of them had volunteered to help their pegasus friend train the Junior Wonderbolts Club. As they arrived, they skidded to a halt in front of Ms. Daisy, who was watching the foals with a warm smile on her face.
Hearing them, Ms. Daisy turned around to face them. “Ah, Zipp! There you are! Brought some friends, I see.”
“You know it,” Zipp replied, “So, when do I meet my class, ma’am?”
Ms. Daisy was impressed. “Mm, show of respect too. I think I’m gonna like this one as part of our staff…” she said to herself, “The kids could use that example…”
“Pardon, Ms. Daisy?” Sunny asked.
“Nothing, nothing,” Ms. Daisy cleared her throat, regaining her professionalism. “Anywho, you meet them right after Lunch, which ends in 15 minutes. It would be borderline criminal to interrupt the poor dears’ well-deserved playtime.”
“I agree with that,” Zipp replied, “I guess we could just hang out here until it’s time. Do I need to register, ma’am?”
“Already done that for you,” Ms. Daisy told her, “My class could use a well-disciplined example like you. They’re excellent students, just…not so much respectful ones.”
“Well in the meantime, I’ll just put the hay in the apple and eat the candle…” Hitch murmured before collapsing onto the ground, snoring. Sunny was trying her best to wake him up.
The three ponies somehow managed to drag Hitch into the nurse’s room in the front office and lay him down onto the small bed, letting him sleep the day away.
As they were discussing what to do, the bell rang once more. Zipp and Sunny headed down to one of the jogging fields where a bunch of pegasus foals were waiting. They seemed to be bickering with one another over something trivial.
Zipp cleared her throat. “Flyers!!”
All of the other students snapped to attention, all of them pointing at a pale yellow filly with a light blue mane and tail and green eyes in the middle of them. “She started it!!”
Ms. Daisy facehoofed.
Zipp approached the filly in the middle, who was staring at her in awe. They seemed to recognize each other. “Sunshine, it’s me.”
The filly named Sunshine Wings nodded slowly. “Are you here to teach us how to become Wonderbolts, Princess Zipp?”
“Just Zipp,” Zipp corrected her gently, “And yes, yes I am.”
Sunshine stepped forward timidly. “We’re ready to learn, Pri-I mean, Zipp. I hope we don’t let you down.”
“You won’t,” Zipp promised her.
“Well, isn’t that a tall order?” Ms. Daisy said in bewilderment, “The Wonderbolts were thought to have vanished years ago in a storm, all their knowledge lost.”
“My Dad wrote a book on them,” Sunny told her, “Zipp thinks that she can help train the next generation of ‘Bolts as we discussed yesterday. But she needs your approval.”
Ms. Daisy nodded. “That can be incorporated. But, Zipp dear, don’t get your hopes up. They’re very passionate but…” She came up and whispered in the pegasus’s ear, “Not the best at following directions…”
“I got this, Ms. Daisy,” Zipp assured her. “I know quite a few of them myself personally, including Sunshine. They’ll listen.”
Ms. Daisy still looked uncertain. “Well, if you’re sure.” She walked back to where Sunny was. “I’ll expect a full report at the end of the week.”
Zipp nodded as Ms. Daisy walked in the other direction, towards the front office and out of sight, leaving the two of them with the 20 foals eagerly waiting their instruction.
“You got this, Zipp,” Sunny reassured her. She hoped desperately that the whole plan wasn’t about to go south as soon as it started.
Zipp glanced at her briefly and then began pacing back and forth in front of them. “Listen up, cadets! The Wonderbolts were an elite group of the strongest and most agile pegasi in existence! For generations, they provided entertainment and military prowess when the time demanded it. Only the toughest are going to get out of this course alive! I’m gonna make ‘Bolts out of every single one of you.”
The foals whispered to each other in wonder and amazement. Only one colt in the back was groaning loudly.
Picking up a stray soccer ball, she flew up and placed it on the top of a tall tree. “You’ve seen me place the ball on the top of that tree. The objective is to fly to get it. Go!!”
Unfolding their wings, the foals all took off into the air towards the pine tree. They were almost there when their wings tired out and they started dropping like dead flies.
Each one of them hit the ground with a thud in front of the tree bark. Even Sunshine Wings who was the only one really putting her all into it, managed to be in one inch of grabbing the ball before dropping to the ground with her classmates, the strain too much for her.
Zipp sighed deeply. “We have a long way to go.” She picked up a coach’s whistle from a blue basket and signaled for them all to return.
This was going to be a long week.
She stood in front of all of them and began singing, “Let’s get down to business, to defend the throne! You think you will last here, when you’re on your own? You’re the weakest flyers I’ve ever met, but you can BET before we’re through…” She looked all of them square in the eyes, “Filly, I’ll…make a ‘Bolt out of you…”
———————————————————————————————————————————————
Every morning for the next three days, Sunny and Zipp would show up as early as possible to the schoolhouse in order to teach the students.
They had gone through as many stunts and tricks as possible in Argyle’s book and Zipp used each trick that they learned to teach the foals. She taught them all the forms of flying there was, the various aerial stunt performances ranging from spins to even fireworks stunts. Since using real fireworks was not allowed, Zipp asked the students to imagine them there.
But even as she tried to motivate them, it was clear to her that the students were not making much progress at all. Every time they would try the fireworks stunts, they would bump into each other and fall over. The spins managed to get their tails tangled. They could barely even fly the required amount during the makeshift fast flying competitions.
It was obvious that not a good amount of them were motivated to do the rigorous exercises. Sunshine Wings and her friend Rainbow Tails (a pink pegasus filly with a rainbow mane and tail) certainly were, and that was the only thing stopping Zipp from just giving up, but the others weren’t.
For the other foals, they were fine fantasizing about being the next Wonderbolts, but when it came to the actual work, they did not want to do it at all. It got so bad that Zipp had to discharge three of the 20 foals from her class because of their absolute refusal to do anything.
All throughout the training process, Sunny was extremely worried about Zipp. The poor pegasus barely slept and was obsessing day and night about how to reach her students. The stress was clearly getting to her and she couldn’t do anything to help.
Every time she would try to convince her to dial it back, Zipp would get angry and insist that she had to do this. This was her dream. As a supportive friend, Sunny never said anything afterwards. But she wished that she could convince her to let go of the stress.
She could hear Zipp and the remaining 17 students singing from where she was as they practiced the night away, towards a common goal and a common destiny.
“BE A BOLT! We must be swift as the coursing river…BE A BOLT! With all the force of a Sonic Rainboom…BE A BOLT! With all the strength of a million stallions…mysterious as the Mare Inside The Moon…!!!!!!”
———————————————————————————————————————————————
Thursday night….
Sunny walked through the schoolhouse campus aimlessly, waiting for Zipp to be finished with her talk with Ms. Daisy in the front office. She knew how important this was to her pegasus friend and she was happy to help, yet she couldn’t shake the feeling that the training was consuming her life.
Zipp had become increasingly irritated all day and was going harder on the foals. Whenever Sunny tried to get her to talk about it, Zipp would harshly brush it off. She had gone from obsessed to downright crazy in her methods. To say that Sunny was extremely worried about her was an understatement.
She hoped that her resolve to help wasn’t about to cost her friendship.
Finally, she couldn’t take it anymore. Running back to the front office, she carefully opened the doors with her hooves as the sound of their voices could be heard more clearly.
“…You think your students are ready to be Wonderbolts?! You couldn’t even teach them to grab a dang soccer ball out of a tree!!”
“…not finished! They will excel! I know they will! Sunshine is extremely passionate-“
“Passionate, my flank! That doesn’t matter!! She’s a diligent and kind student, but she lacks the flight capabilities. You can’t teach a girl with stunted wing growth to fly!”
The discussion was becoming increasingly more heated and Sunny felt like she was intruding. She wanted to see the outcome of the argument, but she knew that eavesdropping would be wrong and she didn’t know what Zipp would think.
As she began to walk out the doors, she barely managed to dodge a frantic Zipp flying at top speed out the doors.
“Sunny!” Zipp realized her friend was there after regaining her composure, “How much did you hear?”
“Some of it,” Sunny answered, “More like the end. Where are you going now?”
“To grab the JWs for a late night training session!” Zipp said frantically, “We don’t have much time! If Sunshine and her friends don’t put on a stunning performance in front of all of Maretime Bay tomorrow afternoon, I’m going to be fired! I gotta go.”
“Whoa whoa whoa,” Sunny held out a hoof to stop her. “Let’s dial it back a bit. You want to yank them out of their homes now?! Zipp, they’re probably sleeping soundly!”
“I don’t care!” Zipp shouted. “I need to show Ms. Daisy that I’m worthy of being on the staff! To hay if the students sleep well or not!”
“They won’t perform well tomorrow if you don’t let them sleep!”
“I have no time left! You care about our friendship, don’t you, Sunny?!”
Sunny stopped cold in her tracks at that last sentence. She had never imagined that Zipp would ever say something like that. “I do care, Zipp. But you’re letting this consume your life.”
“So what?! You never gave up when it came to bringing magic back! Why should this be any different?!” Zipp demanded.
“Because it doesn’t matter if the Wonderbolts come back!” Sunny shot back, “With magic, it did! That was the key to reuniting the tribes! It doesn’t matter if you bring the Wonderbolts back because they’re too young to fly internationally anyway!”
Zipp’s brows furrowed in anger. “You gave me this idea, Sunny. You gave me the idea of actually bringing them back! At first, it was just a fantasy! But you gave me the hope of actually doing it! Which reminds me…were you on my side at all or did you just want to crush my dreams like Mom tried to?!” Tears began forming in her eyes.
“Zipp,” Sunny blinked back tears in her own eyes as she tried to comfort her, “I’d never want to crush your dreams. But this isn’t healthy for you! You can’t let this consume your life-“
“This was your idea.”
“Or get you this upset-“
“I’M ONLY DOING THIS BECAUSE YOU CONVINCED ME IT WAS POSSIBLE!!”
“Or make you lash out at your friends!!” Sunny screamed, tears pouring down from her eyes. “I value your friendship, Zipp!!!!”
Zipp glared daggers at her. “Clearly you don’t.”
Unfolding her wings, Zipp rocketed off into the night sky, disappearing into the thick cloud bed above.
“ZIPP!!” Sunny shrieked as she helplessly watched her friend leave. The dam broke and she sobbed on the ground, letting the tears flow. She hadn’t cried this much since Argyle died. The pain of losing one of her friends because of her own mistakes was too much to bear.
An hour passed and Sunny was still crying. By now, the Moon was beginning to move lower across the sky. She didn’t care if she died outside alone. She had failed Zipp and crushed her dreams forever.
In her mind, death was more than she deserved.
Through blurry vision, she could see the image of a pale yellow filly approaching her. It was Sunshine! What was she doing here? The sound of hoofsteps sounded and Hitch came out close behind her.
“Sunshine…Hitch…” Sunny choked out through tears. “What are you two doing here…?”
“Sunshine was going to school in order to get some midnight practice done,” Hitch explained. “She saw you crying on the floor and went to get me.”
Sunny lifted her head up. “Go away. I don’t need anyone right now.”
“That’s not true,” Sunshine spoke shyly, sitting beside her. “Ms. Sunny…I’m sorry we couldn’t do it…It’s not your fault…”
“Yes it is,” Sunny answered glumly, “I was the one who told Zipp it was possible to bring back the Wonderbolts. I’m the one that caused you to bite off more than you could chew.“
Sunshine shook her head. “No…you’re not. You’re an inspiration to us all, Ms. Sunny…You allowed me to come here after the magic returned…Without you, I still would’ve been homeschooled, too afraid to go out into the world and meet other ponies…You were what allowed me to come out of my shell and say to my mommy, ‘No, mommy. I can do this. If Ms. Sunny could risk everything to fight for something she believes in…then why can’t I?’”
Hitch sighed. “Without you…I never would’ve seen the error of my thinking. For the longest time, I believed that unicorns and pegasi were evil…You showed me that I was wrong. You brought us all together! You helped save Maretime Bay twice! One from my rogue former deputy and the second time from magic’s disappearance.”
“Without you,” sounded a familiar voice, “I never would’ve met all you guys and discover my love for sharing my passions with others. I don’t regret a minute of our first adventure. Not one bit.” It was Izzy, walking over to them with Pipp in tow.
“Without you,” Pipp admitted, “I…never would’ve discovered what life outside Zephyr Heights was like. And it’s great. Meeting you was an amazing experience. I wouldn’t trade it for anything in Equestria. Not even my fans.”
“You’ve been an inspiration to Equestria just by being you,” Hitch told her. “The kind, thoughtful, passionate you. Never giving up on her friends even when they gave up on themselves. Never giving up on Equestria even when it gave up on itself!”
“I guess what we all want to say to you is,” Sunshine told her with a shy smile, “Is that none of us would be the same today without you. We’re all your friends, Ms. Sunny. And we love you.”
Sunny felt tears come to her eyes again. But this time, they weren’t tears of sadness, but of joy. Her friends really did care about her. They all loved her. She wasn’t alone anymore. All of her fears about them being there with her only just because she had saved Equestria evaporated instantly. Wasting no time, she opened her hooves out wide and all four of them came in for a big warm hug. The embrace filled her with warmth that washed away her doubts like a grand tidal wave cleaning the shore.
As everyone let go, Sunshine was the first to ask, “So…what’s the plan?”
Sunny took a deep breath. “We only have a limited time until morning. Sunshine, I need you to grab Rainbow Tails and the rest of your classmates.”
Sunshine saluted her. “Aye aye, captain!”
“And…what are we going to do?” Pipp asked.
“Pipp, go find Zipp,” Sunny instructed her, “Izzy, Hitch, you go assist Sunshine in the gathering of the students. I’m going to clean up the field completely. I intend to teach a class!”
“Oh dear.” Pipp remarked.
———————————————————————————————————————————————
It didn’t take long for them to round up the rest of the foals and call them all the way back to the schoolhouse for some late night practice.
Once they had all assembled, Sunny trained them all for the rest of the night. With the help of Hitch and Izzy, she was able to use different tactics to motivate the students for each trick they tried.
Hitch was able to retrieve the book on the Wonderbolts from the Brighthouse, allowing Sunny to go through each of the stunts in detail. With each passing hour, the fillies became better at flying, eventually able to grab the ball from the tree and all bring it back together.
Sunny nodded approvingly, knowing that they were ready.
As the Sun came up across the horizon, Pipp came to the field with a very tired Zipp. They arrived right on time for Zipp to see the students drop the ball in front of them both.
Zipp looked shocked. “Whoa. You guys were actually able to grab the ball? But how?”
“I trained them,” Sunny trotted out from behind a corner with Sunshine and Rainbow Tails, both fillies staring at Zipp expectantly.
“Sunny, what did you do?” Zipp asked her skeptically.
“Zipp, I know you’re mad at me and I don’t blame you,” Sunny told her. “But we can sort it out later. They’re ready to put on the show.”
Zipp sighed. “Well, I guess this will be the last time I show my face around this town. Alright then. Come on, ‘Bolts. To the town square!”
The students all followed her, all flying in a single file formation behind their captain in anticipation for the big event.
———————————————————————————————————————————————
Maretime Bay Town Square
All activity in Maretime Bay was halted for the Junior Wonderbolts’ performance. The trucks stopped driving. The leisure walks ceased. The pegasi in the sky stopped flying and headed back toward the ground.
Word spread around quickly that Zipp was trying to bring back the ‘mythical’ Wonderbolts team and that Sunny was helping her to do so. The fact that Sunny was trying to do something radical again was nothing new to anyone who knew her, though the performance itself was the main talking point of the town.
All the ponies had gathered in a big crowd to watch the fillies perform, whispering excitedly and nervously to one another about whether the show would be any good. Ms. Daisy was also in the crowd, watching expectantly.
As the crowd gradually quieted down, there came the sound of horns and Sunny stepped on to the stage. She took a deep breath, praying to the heavens that this would work out. “Alright, ponies of Maretime Bay! Put your hooves together for our very own Junior Wonderbolts!”
The crowd held their breath as Zipp came on to the stage as well. “Alright. Let’s get this over with. One…two…three…four…”
With that, Sunshine and Rainbow Tails flew on to the stage, landing on all four hooves with a resounding boom.
Sunshine glanced at Zipp momentarily for the ok before turning to Rainbow. “Come on, Tails. Let’s show these ponies how it’s done!”
“Wonderbolts, roll out!” Rainbow Tails ordered.
Almost immediately, Sunshine and Rainbow rocketed off the stage, 18 other fillies following in side-by-side formation. The crowd gasped in awe.
The fillies took to the skies, flying with a speed unseen in a long time. Their wings beat quickly as they let the wind guide their movements, flying through clouds and busting through all of them in record time. As if on cue, they swooped down low and flew straight back up, the act culminating in two subsequent forward and reverse spins.
Once they had reached a certain high altitude, they separated into five groups of four and flew in different directions across the sky, forming the shape of Zipp’s cutie mark with their trails of smoke.
Zipp’s mouth dropped open in shock. How had they learned that move so fast? That was a move reserved for the advanced fliers.
“‘Told ya.” Sunny smirked.
“How did you do that-“ Zipp asked her before she was cut off by Sunny shouting:
“Fireworks now!!”
“On it!” Hitch confirmed from the back of the stage. Instantly, small rockets shot into the air, exploding into many different fireworks as the fillies flew through it, showering the now cheering crowd with magical lightning below.
The fillies dove down low again, regrouping in formation as they did so, and lifted off once more, diving through an exploding firework and emerging on the other side. The crowd began cheering louder as they each touched hooves with one another, flying off in different directions afterwards for one full minute before regrouping one final time for the final plunge.
They headed up high into the atmosphere until the air became extremely thin. Then, they began descending downwards towards the stage. The wind blew harshly across their faces as they reentered the atmosphere, fire encasing their entire beings as they flew right through the crowd, a trail of flames being left in their wake as they touched down with a massive thud on all four hooves.
The crowd at this point was roaring with a standard ovation, all throwing flowers at the stage, including Ms. Daisy, who seemed the most excited.
“Those are my students! Those super awesome flyers, they’re mine!” Ms. Daisy boasted to the surrounding ponies.
“Way to go, guys!” Zipp congratulated all of them.
Once all of them were backstage, Sunshine Wings was the first to ask the burning question on she and her classmates’ minds: “Were we okay, Pr-Zipp?”
“Okay? You were awesome!” Zipp praised them. “You were like ‘whoosh!’ And then, ‘boom!’ And then the fire came and-“
Pipp laughed. “Yeah. We all just lived it. It was the right call pulling out the fireworks, Sunny.”
“Apparently it was standard procedure in a Wonderbolts performance back in the day,” Sunny explained. She faced the fillies, “You all are going to grow up to be great flyers someday.”
Zipp approached Sunny. “Um, Sunny? I just wanted to say that I’m sorry for how I yelled at you last night. You didn’t deserve that. Especially after you busted your flank pulling together a last minute training session. Why? I don’t deserve your help.”
“Zipp,” Sunny explained to her, “It’s what friends do. I feared for the longest time that you all would leave me the moment I stopped being useful.”
“Why would you ever think that?” Izzy asked in shock.
Sunny sighed deeply. “I’ve had this deep-seated fear that you were all only with me because I saved Equestria and you stuck around with me because I was the one telling everyone not to fear you guys anymore.”
“That’s not true,” Pipp shook her head. “We love you because you’re you, Sunny. You never stop trying to do the right thing. When you get an idea in your head, you see it through. You care about others, Sunny. The world needs more ponies like you.”
Sunny nodded slowly. “Thanks. I realize now that you guys always cared about me. I was just so afraid of being alone after my father died that…I didn’t think there was anypony capable of loving me like that again.”
“Well you have us, Sunny,” Hitch assured her. “We may not ever be Argyle, but we can still be there for you whenever you need us.”
“Whenever you need someone to play with,” Izzy imputed.
“Or share your feelings with,” Pipp added.
“Or someone to bring out that sense of adventure in you,” Zipp finished for them. “We’ll always be there. Right, everypony?”
All the fillies clamored in agreement.
“About that,” came the voice of Ms. Daisy. She peeked through the curtain. “Excuse me, but may I come in here? I need to give something to Zipp.”
“Certainly.” Sunny allowed her in, opening the curtains wider.
“Ms. Daisy?”
“Zipp,” Ms. Daisy told her, “You have shown that you are ready to lead the next generation of Wonderbolts as you wanted. For that, I’d like to give you this,” She held out a Maretime Bay Elementary School badge, which Zipp accepted. “Welcome to our staff, Captain Zipp.”
“Thank you, ma’am.” Zipp thanked her respectfully. As soon as she was gone, Zipp leapt up in the air, shouting and dancing with unbridled joy.
“You think we should calm her down?” Hitch asked.
“Let Zipp have her moment, Hitch,” Sunny advised him. “She’s more than earned this moment to be happy.”
As she watched Zipp celebrate the beginning of a new generation, Sunny knew in her mind that no matter what troubles came their way, everything would be alright. They would get through them together as friends.
After all, friendship was magic.