//------------------------------// // Incoming Storm // Story: Light Crash's Last Flight // by Redwolf15 //------------------------------// "Wonderbolts are the fastest, best precision fliers in the world! But spin outs can still happen, a Wonderbolt must learn to recover quick." Spitfire stands in front of something huge hidden under a purple sheet. She adresses the new recruits who were all given their own uniforms. They were skin tight and in the usual Wonderbolt pattern. Light Crash felt a little uncomfortable wearing one, but then he wondered how Snowflake felt. He went through four other uniforms before they could hind something that could actually fit him. "This, is the Dizzatron," one of the coaches pulled back the purple sheet and revealed what it hid. What was revealed was most certainly something that the name 'Dizzatron' would fit. It was a spiralling wheel with a small gear at the center and a bigger gear on the edge of the wheel that held a seat. If Light Crash had to guess, not only would the wheel be spinning, but so would their seat. "It will make you very, I repeat very dizzy. Your task is to try and recover and fly straight again, as soon as possible." Spitfire adresses the class once more. "Once you have recovered you must come in for a smooth landing. Now, who's first?" Rainbow Dash and the mare Lightning Dust raised their hands instantly, both eager to prove themselves. "You," Rainbow Dash silently pointed to herself wondering if Spitfire meant her. She didn't. "You're up." She looks at the pink mare beside her. "Me?" She asks sounding a little fearful. She looks at the Dizzatron and gulps harshly, fear gradually growing. "NOW!" Spitfire yells. And within a less than two seconds she's at the Dizzatron leaving behind a dust cloud. "Ready?" Spitire asks as she's seated in. The mare looks around nervously. "Yes ma'am." She finally says gets around to saying seeing that there's nothing around to get her out of this situation. She pulls down her goggles as one of the stallions pulls a lever forward, starting the Dizzatron. As Light Crash was proven right, both the seat and wheel began to spin, quickly increasing speed. Everypony began to follower her as she went round and round, just watching her made the others feel a bit dizzy. "Release!" Spitfire orders. The stallion pulls the lever back, releasing the mare from her seat. She tumbles though the air, twirling around. She eventually stops herself from spinning and flies back to the ground in a not so straight line. Her landing was less than elegant, the dizziness gets the better of her and she falls over in front, sliding to Spitfire's feet on her stomach. "Huh, fifteen seconds. Decent." She says to the pink mare after recording her time. "But I wouln't go riding home about it. Who next?" The ambitious mares once again lifted their hands the very instant they were asked. "Alright, Rainbow Dash, let's see what you've got." She says noticing that Dash was the quicker of the two to raise her hand. All the while, Light Crash quietly observed as one of the two best mares flew into the Dizzatron's seat. She starts the timer and the Dizzatron is started. Spitfire calls release after an appropriate time has passed, flinging Rainbow Dash into the air. She's quick to stop herself spinning through the air, making half a second's pause then flying at max speed past everypony else. "Six seconds?" Spitfire announces as she sees the timer, surprised that somepony was able to be that fast. "That's an accademy record!" "You made it look so easy." The mare that went first whispers to her as she proudly floats back to her spot. "I make everything look easy." She brags. "Okay, Lightning Dust, you're up." The called mare flies to her seat, eager for her time to shine. "Ma'am, can you push the Dizzatron at max speed? I wanna test my limits." She say as she comfortably squeezes into the seat. Light Crash wasn't too surprised by her question. He knew that she or Dash being the two most determined would try to push themselves farther than the rest. But to go max speed, she was pushing too hard. "You sure about that?" Spitfire asks her after sharing a glance with the partner. "Yes ma'am." "Okay, you aked for it." She nods to the other stallion. He pushes the lever to start the machine. He then pulled the second lever beside it back. The dial on the engine went from the picture of a turtle which was standard to a picture of a skull and wings with lightning bolts, indicating the danger and speed level. The Dizzatron spins faster and faster until the mare inside it becomes a opal blur. Spitfire calls for her tobe released. Lightning Dust is shot faster and farther than the two before her, leaving behind a streak the same color as her coat with a zig zaging line going down the center. She flies up and gains controle, holds her wings in and lets herself drop like a rock. She the unfolds her wings and bolts past everypony just like how Rainbow Dash did. "Six point five seconds. Not bad." Spitfire announces. But behind her large aviator sunglasses her eyes wide open in disbelief. Light Crash was shocked from her performance too. Not only could she prove to succesfully land after going from the fastest speed, but her technique and form were spectacular. All under seven seconds too! "NEXT!" Spitfire out. Light Crash was the final one to be called up. His new friends were all looking rather dizzy. Cloudchaser's landing was just as bad as the first mare's but had a better time. Thunderlane finished at thirteen seconds, apparently a better than average time. He'd be so proud of himself if he hadn't landed on his head and was out cold. And finally there was Snowflake, who simply barreled through the air and then fell like a ball of white lead, yelling 'YEAH' the entire time through. He finished with time of eighteen seconds. So far nopoy's come anywhere close to either of Dash of Dust. Light Crash sits into the seat of the Dizzatron and pulls his gogles over his eyes. He nods to Spitfire and she calls out for it to start. It starts out slow just like for everypony else and quickly speeds up. He hears the something that sounded like 'release' but was unsure because it was broken up do to the rushing wind. It was the moment he realized that he was right when he was no longer in the machines seat. He saw everypony's method to be the same, quickly stop yourself from spinning and bolt to the end. But due to a prank gone horribly wrong several years ago, he knew of a better method that could only work for him. He starts moving with the momentum, spinning around faster. He activates his adreanline and time seems to slow down for him, he shifts his body to point towards the ground and with one powerful flap he shoots straight down. He stops his adrenaline, using it for more than four seconds will causes him side effects. He spins straight to the ground and pulls up, slowly due to the velocity. He passes by Spitfire and breaks the spin, spreading his hooves and hands and slamming them to the ground to slow himself down. The paved stretch tears his hands as he slowly comes to a stop. "Eleven seconds. Impressive." Spitfire announces to him. He covers his hands in his arms, subsiding the pain. He looks back and sees how red they are, but thankfully no tearing. "Listen up!" Spitfire announces to everypony now that the last one has finished the exercise. "For the rest of the camp you'll be working in pairs. Tomorrow morning I'll post the teams along with who will be lead pony and who will be wing pony. Good luck." She and the other two stallions leave after giving their news, freeing the recruits for the day. "That was pretty nifty," Cloudchaser, Snowflake, and Thunderlane -- who was still unconscious and being carried by Snowflake -- came up to him. "How'd you figure that out?" Cloudchaser asks. "Remember that time I singed my mane when Bright Shine and I attempted that false fire alarm prank on our school?" He answers in the form of a question. It took her a while to piece it together, then her eyes go wide and starts laughing out loud, recalling how their plan backfired. Actually it wasn't all that funny, they started an actual fire, but she was more laughing at the apperance of the two after all of it. "Hey Snow," She turns to her muscle bound friend, finally coming out of her laughing fit. "Think you can take Thunderlane to the infermary by yourself? I've got plans with Crash here." She grips his arm, pulling herself towards him and closing distance. He looks at Cloudchaser and the Light Crash, then back to Cloud then Crash again. He shrugs his shoulders and heads off to get Thunderlane patched up. "We've got plans?" Light Crash asks her once Snowflake was out of ear shot. "We do now." She lets go of him and flies away, motioning for him to follow. He does so and is on her tail. They don't leave the academy this time, they had no reason to. Although they had no reason to not too either. She leads him to a more open area in the academy with plenty of flying room. "Okay, so I'll ask the question: why are we here?" Crash asks flying up to eye level with her. Cloudchasers face went a little red and held her hands behind her back. "Well, you remember how before I left, you asked me out to the dance? Only we were never able to get around to doing that? Well, I..." Her face goes red as she mumbles something inaudible under her breath, like she was embarassed to ask. But Light Crash had a pretty good idea as to what she wanted to ask. "I'm sorry? What was that?" He may have known what she was going to ask, but he wanted her to say it out loud just for his amusement. "I'd... like you to dance with me." She mummbles a little louder. "Didn't quite catch that.." "I'd... like you to dance with me. "No, still too quiet. Once more maybe." "Oh for the love of -- I want you to dance with me!" She yells in his ear. Light Crash was left with a ringing in his ear but satisfied that he'd been able to get her to say it. For Cloudchaser to ask for something like that was a rare occasion indeed. She'd never been one to act like an actual girl, unlike her sister Flitter. So somethig like dancing didn't amuse her. "Well why didn't you just say so?" He asks with a cheap smile. She growls at him, clear frustaration in her face. Her expression quickly changed as he slides in close to her, one hand going around her back and the other holding her own. She holds his hand more firmly with her own and places her free one on his shoulder. All the while they gently flapped their wings to keep themselves suspended in the air. "Hang on, it's just not the same without anything to dance to." Crash says, not breaking their connection. "We could think of something to sing to." Cloudchaser suggests. "But what?" They thought about that for a while. "I might have something," Crash starts humming something familiar. From a film they saw together years back. "Far over the misty mountains cold. To dungeons deep, and caverns old. We must away, at break of day." Cloudchaser joins in, remember the song. "To find our long forgotten gold. The pines were roaring on the height. The winds were moaning in the night. The fire was red, it flaming spread. The trees like torches blazed with light." That night they saw a film was also the night that they shared their first kiss. It wasn't a very romantic song, but it was a beautiful one that they loved to listen to. They slowly spun around, as they continue to sing together they ascended higher into the sky. Soon reaching cloud level. They stopped using their wings and started using the clouds to support themselves. As Crash finishes the song with the same humming tune that he started with, he gently pulled her forward, and once more they kissed. But not a forsed one like before. A true kiss. A lovers kiss. They pulled back and Crash put both his arms around Cloud. The two embrase each other for a good period of time. "Do you think we'll be partnered?" Cloudchaser asks him into his chest. "Because I hope we will be." "So do I." He says sharing her thoughts. They begin to hear somethingt hat sounded like snickering, they looked around to hind the source of the noise. hey look down to the cloud, pinpointing the source of the noise. Light Crash opens parts the cloud to find Thunderlane and Snowflake, now outright laughing that they've been caught. "Oh dear Snow, it seems we've been caught. Did we interupt your dance?" Thunderlane asks only to cause himself and Snowflake to laugh even more. "How long have have you two been watching us? And how long have you been conscious Thunderlane?" Cloudchaser asks pushing away from Light Crash who was just as embarassed by this. "Oh, I woke up when Snowflake was about half way to the infermary." He calms down, enough to talk without giggling. "He told me that you two had 'plans.' Seemed fishy to me so we scoped around trying to find you just in time to make kissy face." "Yeah!" This only ended with the two laughing uncontrolably once more. "You assholes!" She yells at the. Pure anger dispayed on her face. "Uh oh Snowflake, I think she's about to kill us. Maybe we should leave?" "Yeah!" The two flew away as fast as they possibly could, the sound of their laughter getting quieter as they got farther away. Cloudchaser growled in frusteration, hating the fact that he'd been caught slowdancing. But what she really hated was that her friends were the once to catch her. "Crash," She says facing away from him. "Yeah?" He asks not liking the tone in her voice. She turns back to face him with a devilish grin on her face. "Have you lost your touch at pranks?" Suddenly Light Crash liked the tone in her voice a lot now as he shared the same devilsh grin as her.