“We are pleased to announce the result of our search for the newest Wonderbolt!”
A cheer followed Spitfire’s words, the crowded Cloudsdale Colosseum loud enough to almost be deafening even back stage, and the pegasus felt a twinge of that fear she had lived with for so long. It wasn’t nearly as bad as it had once been – she had once been almost crippled by it – but it was still there, lurking underneath her fresh new Wonderbolts uniform. She swallowed nervously, trying to remember what she had learned about fighting her anxiety, and it worked. Mostly.
“This proud young pegasus, a graduate of our own Wonderbolts-sponsor Summer Flight Camp, proved her wings’ worth in our latest open recruitment call, beating out over a hundred other applicants for the position!”
She stepped closer to the curtain, hearing Spitfire approach her cue to fly out. She quickly did a once over of her uniform, making sure everything was in place and looking good. Her friends were out there, after all, courtesy of Twilight’s magic, and she wanted to make sure she impressed all of them, especially Rarity. Rarity had insisted that she was so proud of her anyway, just for making it so far, but the new Wonderbolt wanted to especially dazzle her fashionable friend.
“Please join me in welcoming our newest Wonderbolt…”
She took a deep breath. After everything she had gone through to get here, she wasn’t going to have performance anxiety for a simple announcement, was she?
“Fluttershy!”
Fluttershy flew through the curtain, glee filling her as the massive cheering crowd before her only produced mild nervousness instead of an overwhelming need to hide. As she flew over to the stage to stand next to her captain, the pegasus reflected back on just how she ended up in this position.
“I turned them down.”
“What!?” Fluttershy could count on her hooves the number of times she had raised her voice to her marefriend in all the years she had known her, and this was one of them. The news had just shocked the loudmouth within her right out. Calming herself a bit, she asked, “Why would you turn down the Wonderbolts? This has been your dream since before I met you. You worked so hard for it.”
“I know that, ‘Shy. I was kinda there for it.” Rainbow Dash stepped forward and placed her forehead again Fluttershy’s, sighing deeply as her magenta irises locked with aquamarine. “But when I was a little filly, I didn’t have you. Well, I did, but just as a friend, not as we are now. You’re my dream now, ‘Shy; I wouldn’t leave you behind for the world.” She chuckled. “They said they’d leave room for me if I change my mind – guess saving them that one time did mean something – but I’m not going to.”
Dash’s words filled Fluttershy with both joy and dread, and as she often did, she focused on the dread. “No, no, I can’t be the reason you give up on the Wonderbolts. You don’t have to leave me, Rainbow Dash; I’m fine with you being off all the time. It will just make our time together all the more special.”
Dash was tearing up at Fluttershy’s words, shaking her head slowly. “No, Fluttershy, it doesn’t work like that. It wouldn’t be a week here or there without me. I’d be gone for months at a time! Training, shows, appearances. I’ve been following the Wonderbolts my whole life, I know what their schedules are like. And you don’t deserve that.” She lifted up her face and kissed Fluttershy on the forehead. “It’s alright. It’s not your fault. It’s not anypony’s fault. I just changed. I found something better, somepony better.”
“But…” Fluttershy sighed. “Alright, Dash. I can accept that.”
But Fluttershy wasn’t the Element of Honesty. She had lied. She could not accept that, could not accept Dash giving up her dream. But she couldn’t break Dash’s heart either… or her own, if she was being truthful with herself.
There had been only one course of action.
She had known her marefriend’s training regimen by heart, and she had pushed herself to meet it. This wasn’t trying to get up to some minimum wingpower to fuel a tornado; this was joining the most elite flyers in all of Equestria. Night after night, under the watchful gaze of Luna’s charge, she had pushed herself further and further, trying to go faster, trying to be more agile, and trying all the while to keep Rainbow Dash in the dark about it; she knew that if Dash learned about what she was doing, she would put a stop to it.
One by one, her other friends had been recruited to help her. Twilight had lent her her planning expertise, as well as the means to measure her progress. Pinkie may have specialized in cakes and pies, but the pink pony understood proper nutrition as well, making her meals that would fuel her flight but not weigh her down. Rarity had always supported Fluttershy in everything, and she had insisted to Rainbow Dash that it was her idea to move their spa visits, so important in taking care of Fluttershy’s aching muscles, from weekly to every other day. Even Applejack had eventually caught wind of the plan, and though she had nothing to offer, the fact that she had chosen to keep quiet about it for Fluttershy’s sake had meant the world to her.
Eventually, the Wonderbolts had put out their call for new recruits, and there had been no way to hide it from Dash any longer. Her friends had offered to be there, but Fluttershy had chosen to break the news alone to her marefriend. Rainbow Dash had been angry at first, so angry that she had yelled at Fluttershy, but the older pegasus had known that was coming and had been ready for it.
When Dash had exhausted her anger, she had admitted that she was touched that Fluttershy would do this for her, but she had demanded that this would be it, this one shot. Either Fluttershy made it in and they’d both be Wonderbolts, or she wouldn’t and they’d live a life without them, and they would be content either way.
“We also have a special announcement to make!” Spitfire announced to the gathered pegasi after they had finally quieted down enough for her magically-amplified voice to be heard. “Fluttershy is not the only one joining the Wonderbolts today!”
Fluttershy saw the confusion ripple throughout the crowd; only one opening in the Wonderbolts had been posted, so a second new recruit was unexpected. The only ones not looking confused were the four normally earthbound ponies near the centre; they knew exactly what was going on.
“Our second new addition needs no introduction! Many of you were here in this very stadium when she both won the Best Young Fliers Competition of 1000 and saved the lives of four ponies simultaneously!” The crowd began to grow louder again as realization spread through them. “I was one of those ponies, and since that day, I have looked forward to the moment I would get to say the following words: please join me in welcoming our other new Wonderbolt… Rainbow Dash!”
As they had planned it, Rainbow Dash’s arrival was much flashier than Fluttershy’s, a Sonic Rainboom exploding right over Cloudsdale Colosseum. The prismatic-maned pegasus landed in a flash to the other side of Spitfire, waving to the crowd, who was now cheering far louder for Dash than they had for Fluttershy.
Fluttershy didn’t mind however; the only pony she wanted the attention of turned to her even as she continued waving to the assembled pegasi, tears in her eyes as she mouthed, “Thank you,” to her marefriend. Fluttershy simply nodded to Dash, even as she felt her own tears hit her.