The next morning Light Crash is found by himself, happy in his solitude. He is having a smoke outside the mess hall, while the rest are inside, either eating breakfast or seeing who they've been partnered with. The hall was just missing four ponies: Light Crash, Rainbow Dash, who apparently refused to get out of bed according to Cloudchaser, Thunderlane, and Snowflake. Light Crash chuckles to himself, waiting for the grand appearance of the two missing stallions. The only thing that is screwing up his morning is how annoyed he is that he has to cut back on smoking. He only has two left now.
His mood instantly perks up as he hears the sounds of stifled laughter and sees two familiar stallions walk up, both extremely embarrassed to be seen in public. One was scrawny with a charcoal black coat, while the other is quite his counterpart with a white coat bulging with muscles. But they had one incredible new change to them. Thunderlane's mohawk was once a sky blue color with near white streaks, and Snowflake's short cut was a light brown. Now, both are a bright and very noticeable deep pink.
Light Crash snickers as the two approach, soon growing into a deep, booming laughter. "Hey guys," He says in between breathes. "Change of style?"
"Apparently while we weren't looking, somepony switched our shampoo bottles with dye coloring in the shower room." Thunderlane says putting emphasis on 'somepony' while giving Light Crash the stink eye.
"Yeah." Snowflake growls.
"Well I wonder who that could have been." He stops laughing at his new friends, and their new choice of hair styling. "Here's some advice for the both of you in the future: Tartarus' flames are cold, and Celestia's pity is everlasting, but only for the stallions scorned by a mare."
"We'll keep that in mind." Thunderlane says miserably and pushes past Crash. Soon a bellow of laughter is heard from inside the mess hall after the stallions’ grand appearance. Light Crash shares one more chuckle as he hears the uproar. A shadow passes overhead of him, and he looks up to see a rainbow maned mare fly towards the mess hall. She lands just catching the last of the laughter from inside.
"Hey, what's with all the laughter from inside?"
"Heh-heh-heh. Come see for yourself." Light Crash ushers Rainbow Dash inside, and inside everypony is laughing and pointing at two objects. Rainbow Dash joins in with the laughing and pointing as she relives the targets, gripping her side in painful pleasure.
"Oh Celestia, what happened to those two?" She asks Cloudchaser and the pink mare who was first on the Dizzatron, both of whom were still getting over their fits of laughter.
"Let's just say that they've learned what happens when you get caught spying on ponies." Cloudchaser answers.
"How sorry I feel for those two. On a latter note, which of you ponies gets to be my wing pony?" The two mares stop laughing and look at each other with serious looks. They start a series of giggles afterwards; not as strong as the laughter Thunderlane and Snowflake were subjected to, but enough to reveal that something wasn't right.
"You might want to check the board. But what I will say about who's paired with who, we're not Crash." A wave of disappointment comes over him. He wasn't angry though; there were another six ponies who could have been nominated to be his partner, so it was a fairly slim chance he'd be with his marefriend.
"Damn, well I'm going to check it out. You coming Dash?"
"Actually that may not be necessary," The pink mare pipes up. "I'm your wing pony." She extends her hand for Light Crash to shake it. "We also haven't been properly introduced, and Cloud said she knew you so she was going to introduce us to each other. I'm Sungrowth."
"Light Crash." He says with a smile while shaking her hand. "I'll join you girls in a minute. I want to grab something to eat first. And marvel at Thunderlane’s and Snowflake’s new mane styles." He announced the last part a little louder than most would. He's met with a response of a growl from the big one. A very threatening death growl.
"Maybe I shouldn't tell my partner that it was me who came up with the prank. He looks rather pissed." Cloudchaser says looking at Snowflake.
"Maybe you shouldn't." Crash agrees. He, his love, and wing pony all share a quiet chuckle without Dash. "Something wrong?" Crash asks taking in her absence of laughter.
"Maybe..." She walks over to wall with the list of who was wing pony and who was lead pony.
"Don't take too long eating, there's not much time left for breakfast." Cloudchaser gives him a playful wink and the two leave. Crash grabs an orange, coffee, and the standard bowl of oatmeal everypony's given. He happily enjoys his breakfast when his two new favorite stylists sit opposite of him on the same table.
"'Sup?" He asks eating a wedge from his orange.
"Okay, we get it. We're sorry for spying on you guys." Thunderlane starts. "But can you blame us? We've known Cloudchaser for the past six years, and we’ve never seen her like this. She's usually rowdy and always going to clubs, plus she spends most of her time with Flitter. We just found it strange is all."
"Yeah."
"So what did happen with you two? Before we knew her. Was she always like that? Or more like she is now?" Thunderlane asks, taking a bite from an apple he grabbed for himself.
Light Crash leans back a little, sifting through past memories of her. "Well, going to clubs and being with Flitter certainly sounds like her from what I remember. But no, singing and slow dancing has never been her thing. She hasn't changed a lot through the years from what I've seen."
"Well, I'm glad for that. But listen, if you're taking things serious with her I want you to know one thing." Thunderlane's eyes go cold and narrowed while Snowflake's muscles look like they are getting bigger. "She's a very good friend to us. And I don't care what kind of past you two had or have. If you end up hurting her, we promise we'll make sure you'll live to regret it." An ominous silence passes over them for a short time.
"Trust me," Light Crash says in just as serious a tone. "If I hurt her, I promise I'll make myself live to regret it. And then some. Now if you excuse me, today’s training is soon to start." Light Crash leaves, hiding his fury that they would even suggest that he would do something like that to her. He'd prefer death first.
The eight mares and stallions are all lined up and being given a gold pin if they are lead pony, while their partner is given a silver one, indicating them to be wing pony. He notices that Rainbow Dash has a silver pin. Shocked that she is a wing pony, he wondered why Spitfire made her one. The when he saw that she was standing with Lightning Dust, who wore a gold pin, it clicked for him. Those two are the perfect team. If they were both lead ponies, they'd be slowed down by their wing pony. They were the best two, only they could keep up with each other; the others would be left behind in the dust.
Spitfire arrives and doesn't waste any time. "Today we'll be having a flag hunt. We'll divide you into two teams: red," One of her escorts appears in between Light Crash, Sungrowth, Snowflake, and Cloudchaser holding a red flag, indicating them to be one team. "And blue." The other stallion appears in between Lightning Dust, Rainbow Dash, Thunderlane, and Raindrops, indicating them to be blue team holding a blue flag. "Whoever finds the most flags of the opposing team's color wins." Her announcement was ended with a cheer from some of the ponies.
"Oh, this is going to be so much fun." Light Crash's partner says to him. Spitfire overhears her remark and bolts over to her.
"If you think this is going to be fun, you're sadly mistaken! This is for training purposes. This is not recess. Lead ponies and wing ponies must fly together. If any pair is split apart you will be immediately disqualified!" She stares at Snowflake and Cloudchaser when adding that last part. The two get closer to show that they don't want for that to happen. This causes Light Crash to become a trifle bit jealous.
"Do you understand?" Everypony confirms their understanding of this training session and its penalties. "Then let's go!" Spitfire blows her whistle and the two teams fly off.
Light Crash and Sungrowth split off from Snowflake and Cloudchaser; the two separate divisions of their team would be able to cover more area if they split up. "Looks like blue team has the same idea." Sungrowth points to Lightning Dust and Rainbow Dash, who split off from Thunderlane and Raindrops.
"We better pick up the pace. At the speed those two are going, they'll have found every one of our flags before we're able to find one of theirs."
"Right!" The team flies in every given direction, looking for an indicated flag. "Over there." Sungrowth points to the mountain side; a small gap has been cut in it over the years, letting nature take its course.
"Good spotting." The pair fly to the flag. Light crash tries grabbing it. "It's too narrow, you try." Sungrowth grabs the flag with success thanks to her slimmer arms. They high-five and fly to back to the start to gain a point.
"Red has found their first flag thanks to Light Crash and Sungrowth." Spitfire announces. Light Crash's grin soon slips away as he sees blue team has already found three of their flags. It may not be a game, but with how their training exercise was going, it certainly felt like one.
By the end of the exercise, blue team found all twenty flags in under two hours thanks to Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust, declaring to be a new academy record, while red team only found thirteen. Light Crash couldn't complain much, it was fun.
Light Crash headed off to the infirmary. One of the flags got stuck under some boulders, and he had to pull it out, causing a small rock slide. A small, sharp rock cut him and opened a wound. It was no more than a scratch, but Spitfire ordered him to get it checked. She knew many flyers that had been in the same situation and left their wounds to mend for themselves, only to end up getting infected. She would have none of that.
He waits for the doctor while she is attending to another patient. "Ah, Mr. Crash, what seems to be the problem this time?" The mare returns, a few bandages nestled in her arm.
"Hey doc, got cut by a sharp stone. Spitfire insisted that I come see you to check for infections. And that's me using the term 'insisted' loosely."
"You were right to come. It happens more times than you'd think. Let me get you some antibiotics, fresh bandages, and something to clean that wound." She points to the wound under his hand to suppress the blood from dripping out. She walks into a room and closes the door, not that long after a familiar mare comes out of the same room that the doctor came out from.
"Oh, uh, hey." Rainbow Dash says sheepishly.
"'Sup. Congratulations on today's practice. What are you doing here?"
"Uh, I clipped my wing when we found the first flag. Had to make sure nothing was wrong." She unfurls her bruised wing, bandages wrapped around marginal covert. "Doc says it's only some bruising and will be fine tomorrow, but she also says I shouldn't try pushing myself too hard for a little while." She tries to hide her look of disappointment, but Light Crash catches it. "What about you?" She asks, trying to divert the conversation. Crash removes his hand to show the open cut, blood smeared over his palm.
"Rock cut it open. Spitfire says there's a possibility that there could be an infection. So I'm just getting that checked." He shares an uneasy silence for a while; something was definitely wrong. "Are you... feeling okay?"
"Uh, yeah, I just-- Look I have to go." She shoves past Light Crash and throws open the door, leaving in hurry. The doctor returns, not having a clue as to what happened from her brief absence. She happily applies the antibiotics over Light Crash's arm, wraps it in bandages, and sends him off.
He walks off in a gloom, stumped as to what was bothering Rainbow Dash. He didn't know her well, much like Lightning Dust, but he was concerned. Since day one she's been determined and has been giving her all, so what was bothering her?
"Hey," Cloudchaser comes up beside him without him noticing.
"Hm? Oh hey Cloud."
"Something wrong?" She asks seeing the expression of puzzlement on his face.
"Maybe, I just met Dash at the infirmary. She seemed kind of upset."
"Why was she in the infirmary?"
"Bashed her wing. It'll heal up no problem, but if she pushes herself things will only get worse. My guess is that she feels she can't work at her full potential now, and if Spitfire thinks she's slacking she'll probably think that she won't become a Wonderbolt, and if she does push herself she'll damage her wing and still won't become a Wonderbolt."
"So she's in a lose-lose situation?" Light Crash nods his head. "Makes sense, even before she got her cutie mark she's wanted to become a Wonderbolt. The thought of her coming so close to achieving her goal, only for it to be taken away." She's quiet for a while as the two walk side by side. "What happens if one of us fails?"
Crash looks at her precariously. "Don't worry about that. Whatever happens, whether one of us, neither of us, or both of us makes it, we'll be together. We can make it work." He slides his hand into hers, interlocking their fingers. They gaze into each other's eyes, not sure what the future holds. But they hope, they know, that whatever will happen, they'll have each other.