“You know, I kinda feel bad for what Rainbow had to go through,” Raindrops mentioned at the mess hall in the aftermath of Lightning Dust’s tornado fallout. The only talk at lunch that day centered upon those actions, and it seemed the overconfident pegasus of the day was the only one content with her actions.
“At least I know what you mean,” commented Thunderlane, “Lightning Dust causes the chaos, and Rainbow is the one who’s run from the academy.”
“Technically, she quit,” Cloudchaser interrupted, “Still, I would have thought that little storm would have some dignity in her. Granted, she couldn’t have known Dash’s friends would come to visit, but I would have owned up to it if I had been the culprit.”
Thunderlane agreed, “She’s been madness since the start.”
“But you can’t argue that she impressed us in the trials.”
“True, but clearly a selfish attitude shouldn’t be rewarded. I saw Rainbow’s bruised wing from the flag chasing exercise. If L.D. was really as fast as the dizzitron, then nopony could have caught her at normal speed.”
“That’s right,” interrupted the focused star, “and I just know the Wonderbolts will want me now.”
“Want you to leave,” mulled Raindrops.
“Huh?”
“You thought I said something?” she asked, “Nothing directed toward you.”
“Anyway, you saw those skills, right? Best skills this side of Cloudsdale…. You know what, in all of Cloudsdale.”
“I’m surprised she didn’t go as far as Equestria,” whispered Cloudchaser.
“Alright, now I know you’re all disowning me, what about?” Lightning Dust snapped.
Cloudchaser took the opportunity, “you know, that’s the type of two-dimensional foolishness that should have had you ousted from this academy.”
Lightning was taken aback, but to her, that only gave a notion of mock shock, “Really, now? I can’t believe you’re saying that my initiative is what made Rainbow quit the academy. Are you trying to say I can’t chase my dreams?”
“Your ‘initiative’ only initiated problems!” shot the mohawked stallion, “Think about how many ponies were harmed.”
“Oh, p-shah. You make it sound like somepony got hurt.”
“SOMEPONY DID!!! And somepony else….and somepony else…”
Although Thunderlane directed his gestures to the other members at the table, Raindrops cut him off before her companion carried on too long, “Point being, why do you feel being the most overpowering makes you the best?”
“The moment you shun somepony’s emotions in order to take control of your dream, let me know, then we can talk,” and with that, Lightning Dust trotted off to a lonely table across the mess hall to eat her lunch.
Thunderlane would not leave it at that. He stood up from his seat and stormed toward the solo table. Neither of the other mares dared stop him, despite Cloudchaser making a few steps toward the rageful pegasus. He went off on the solo diner, “Listen here! Maybe you know it, maybe you don’t, but Rainbow Dash is THE Element of Loyalty!”
“Yeah, yeah, Elements of Harmony and the such,” Lightning deadpanned, “Not very loyal of her though to quit on what was apparently her dream.”
The bolted mare took shock at a stomped hoof on the table with enough force to flip the daffodil sandwich and spill a smidgen of tomato soup, “Unlike you, at least she knows that living a dream shouldn’t mean any near-, close-, or actual death experiences.”
A sudden interruption forced the two to a standstill of words, “Well, well. Any reason for the skirmish?” Dressed in his full Wonderbolt attire, minus the goggles, Soarin caught hold of what was about to begin and took calm action to stop it.
Lightning saw the opportunity, “Glad you came here, Soarin, Thunderlane was about to clobber me for no good reason.”
“Clobber Rainbow Dash with your recklessness and I say that’s a good enough reason.” He by no means meant what he was saying, but his mind was too bent on cutting a piece especially for the pompous pilot.
Soarin heard of Lightning Dust’s attitude from Spitfire, not to mention the discord which resulted over the last few sessions, so anypony else would not have the blame put upon them, “Either way,” he intervened, “the captain would like to see you immediately, Lightning Dust. The events over the last few days have warranted the visit.”
“Be there in a bit,” and with Dust’s words, Soarin went back behind the entry doors. The tinted mare then snarked at Thunderlane, “you hear that? Spitfire wants to see me. Probably wants to promote me to the main squad.”
That’ll never happen, he thought rightfully to himself, they never promote anyone from the academy to the flight squad.
“Best be off now,” Lightning Dust cooed, despite not having taken a single bite of her lunch, “I can tell this is going to be a day for my memory book.”
“Hope so,” mumbled Thunderlane.
“Aw, thanks, I knew you’d come around,” and the Thunder was left to bite Lightning’s dust as she skipped out toward the captain’s quarters.
At this point, the other mares felt it was warranted to survey the emotional wreckage of the situation, “What did Soarin need Dust for?” asked Raindrops.
“Apparently, Spitfire wanted to see the charm of a rainy day.”
“What for?”
“With any luck,” Thunderlane pondered, “for clearing the skies.”
In the office, Spitfire was nearing the end of stamping her hoof-signature on the final photos, as she pondered the actions. Granted, Lightning Dust performed the strongest out of the group, but that didn’t mean the Cyan pegasus wasn’t as strong. If it had been any other session, Rainbow Dash would have been lead pony, no doubt. What Spitfire had planned was to see how Dash could handle second-rate, as Raindrops reminded her; both were fully aware not even the captain herself was immune to having to follow instead of leading the way. Disappointed to see what was, in her eyes, a top recruit who only left because of the torment, she faded into thoughts on the loyal pegasus, loyalty means nothing if there’s no passion behind it.
Spitfire narrowed her thoughts on how to sort it out before Rainbow dashed away, but how? Her stomps became less fortified as she pondered how to handle it. In a lull of thought, she realized the last signature barely touched the propaganda-style photo, Spitfire snapped back to the present, and stomped it back twice to create a more distinct mark than she had done.
Thankfully, she snapped out of it before the certain sea-green monster plowed her way in, “Hey, Spitfire. Doin’ well I presume?”
“Protocol, Lightning Dust!” Spitfire shot back.
Oblivious to the retort, Lightning Dust shrugged it off, “Oh come on, Spits, there’s no need to be formal with me.”
“But you need to be formal with her,” one of the door guards expanded.
“Huh?”
The other one was more blunt with his explanation, “You need to formally ask her to enter the office first.”
“It’s not like I have to ask her out or anything.”
“It’s how we do these things, Miss Dust,” continued the second guard, “Protocol or not, we’re the ones who enforce the law, not make it.”
Lightning Dust surrendered on any friendship attempts for the time being, “oh, fine. Permission to enter, Captain Spitfire.”
The captain herself was equally forward in her response, “Normally, talk like that would be trouble for you, but I’ve got other dilemmas to talk about before vocal retorts.” She then motioned toward the door, “Guard the outside if you two don’t mind, this is going to be a private conversation for now.”
As the guards departed their quarters, Lightning Dust waved farewell, but the guards weren’t as keen toward her, “Hey,” asked the first guard, “isn’t that the one Spitfire was…”
“Wait til we close the door,” whispered the second. As the action completed with a silent shut, he continued, “Remember of the stories of Lightning Strike’s dismissal from the Wonderbolts. That’s what got me this position, they fired the last one for giving the notice before the captain.”
“True. I just hope Spitfire can ease this situation on Strike’s daughter. That little bolt appears to have a similar fire to her.”
“Well, lightning is known to start fires, after all,” it was a small joke, but at least they could amuse themselves under the tense situations.
Lightning Dust intended to continue the notion of informality, “So what did you want to call me in for?”
“A bit of formal procedure,” she continued.
Again, Lightning cut off her superior, “Formalities again? I don’t think we need to go over stuff like that.”
Spitfire attempted to remain calm, but she began to grow tired of the antics being put forth, “We need to go over this. Tell me, Lightning Dust, what made you want to join the Wonderbolts in the first place?”
The opposing storm sounded rather diplomatic in her answer to this question, “Well, I wanted to fly among the best of the pegasai, seeing that I feel I would rise among the ranks.”
Spitfire knew such praise, whether upon a cadet or the Wonderbolts themselves, would not be as useful asker would prefer to believe. She thought about how to bring up the consequences of the actions which had taken place. On the written test for the academy, while Lightning Dust got one of the highest scores, she knew the test focused upon the history of the Wonderbolts and had only one perfect score. It wasn’t Dust, so Spitfire felt she could get away with how to raise the issue, “You mind if I ask you a few questions about the Wonderbolts?”
“Why?” she asked quizzically, “didn’t I already answer them on the written exam?”
“Trust me,” Spitfire proceeded, “you may need to understand a few things about us before I continue on my point.”
With a fortified hesitation to continue the childish hold on destiny, Lightning Dust seceded, “Alright, try me.”
An easy question started the vocal quiz, “Who held the academy record for dizzitron speed, among seven others, before Rainbow Dash broke three of them?” careful to add in the last segment, seeing how the test was taken before the physical portions.
“I see, give me an easy one to settle me in,” and Lightning Dust grew evermore confident, “Firefly had the record 24 Before Luna, 976 of the Celestial Rule if you prefer.”
“Fair disclaimer,” admitted the calm flame, “any idea how long ago I became captain?
“Ten years. Come on, Spits, you can do better?”
Having heard that, Spitfire knew she could skip to the question to focus the rest of the conversation, “Alright,” and then followed up by turning her chair half way around, pointing up at a picture of a regal-standing member of the squad, the picture was only faded by twenty-five or thirty years, but the resulting color fade made the photo all the more important. With a swift point of her left hoof, Spitfire asked “Any idea who this member is?”
Lightning Dust heard the question, but grew a true shade of shock at the question. She attempted to catch Spitfire’s bluff, “hehe, this wasn’t on the test.”
But she wouldn’t fall for the balk, “I never said any of the questions would be on the test, you were able to answer the last question well?”
“But every fan of the squad knows the captains.”
“And every true fan knows every facet of the squad.”
Spitfire threw it right down the middle, and Lightning Dust saw strike three rush by, but she would at least hazard a guess, “uh…Posey?”
“Not a bad guess,” which was more of the traditional way of expressing, I appreciate the attempt, but you got it wrong. Moving forward with the solo lecture, Spitfire gave the answer, “The pony right there goes by the name of Meadow Sky.”
“Meadow Sky?” inquired Dust with a hint of disgust, “She was never in the Wonderbolts!”
“Thus we come to one of the questions you missed on the test, how many divisions are there in the Wonderbolts?”
“How can it be anything more than one?” demanded the quizzed.
“That explains why you got it wrong, there’s more than one division of the Wonderbolts.”
“More than one?!”
“It’s only two, now if you’ll calm down,” the collective yellow pegasus soothed, “I’ll give you the reasons why that is the case.”
Without a word, she took a seat in front of the desk, realizing for once in all the academy training, she may have gone a step too far. After a few moments to take in the silence, Lightning Dust spoke just a few words, “So… Meadow Sky, huh?”
“That’s right, it was about thirty-five years ago, having completed the Wonderbolts Academy, Meadow Sky sent her application to become an official member of the team. They rejected her because she lacked the speed and agility of a member we traditionally seek out.”
“Then why have you not hired me?” interrupted Lightning Dust, “it appears that I would have the skills.”
Frustrated at the unintended intermission, Spitfire injected some dry humor, “I’m surprised you haven’t asked why she’s up there if she was so horrible.”
The sense to pick up that humor was equally dry, “Thanks for asking that for me.”
Resisting the urge to conk herself upside the head, the story continued, “Normally, rejected candidates will just send in another application, you know, make sure their name stays in our system one way or another. Every now and again, we’ll get a letter or two asking for a specific reason why they got rejected. An earth pony had the nerve to write a swear-filled rant about how he was being discriminated against because of his species. I tried telling him that it was a team of pegasai, but I ended up just telling him ‘if you ever grow wings, come by and then we’ll discuss this topic again’. He didn’t even take the academy first, just sent it in one day, and expected to make the team. Don’t worry, just a personal experience of the current time. Anyway, the captain at the time received a letter of similar content, but Meadow Sky sent in a letter of a different demeanor.
“It mentioned how she knew the Wonderbolts had been a rigorous group, and knew her finesse would not be good for the traditional division, but she proposed a new division. Pointing to our lack of publicity and public appearances, she suggested a stunt team to show off the Wonderbolts’ style. They brought her in and made her show some of the planned stunts. I’ve heard it praised many ways, but I tend to like ‘heavenly majestic’ the best. She performed the basic tricks at basic speeds, but she put a mesmerizing spin on it, and she was given control of that fresh section; she was given a month to prepare, and that five-pony team held what was arguably the best non-combat flight scheme in the academy’s history. It became more competitive after that day, and eventually, the talent would overlap between the two divisions, only making it seem they are one team, but Meadow Sky still held her ground as its captain of that division until she retired the year before Luna’s return.
“Yeah, some of us pull double-duty, especially since there’s still little doom that either Princess is willing to put us through, and it can grow tiresome at times. My point in that is how Meadow Sky was important to the team’s history.”
More than likely, Lightning Dust misinterpreted the message, “If you think I’m gonna join the finesse team, fat chance. I want to join the skill and danger.”
“You missed what I was trying to tell you!” Spitfire raged, taking the chance to rise from her chair to accompany her tone, “Danger is NOT the major factor of the Wonderbolts! Join the military if you want to injure somepony without consequences, but here, we play safe with every individual!”
“Hey!” Lightning defended, “everypony was safe.”
“You call ‘safe’ having your wingpony’s wing clipped and injured? You call ‘safe’ causing the crash of the competitors into the clouds? You call ‘safe’ a tornado which launched the Elements of Harmony toward the ground?”
“Well, I doubt you even knew they would be coming to visit-”
“‘Prepare for anything’ the axiom goes,” reminded Spitfire, “I had to check tornado protocol, and basic cloudbusting, our skillset, was not on the list of approved uses. Two of those balloon riders were earth ponies, and the other Pegasus might as well have been included as another. What would have happened if Rainbow was a reckless as you? They would have been-”
“No need, no need, I get it!” Lightning Dust broke down in anger, this time directed only at herself, “I get it. I should have been more cautious to those ponies around me,” it took her a while to muster up the next sentence, “It’s just … I remembered when, during an interview last year, you said that you need to be forward thinking, and to not think about others.”
In the tears of the cadet, Spitfire stood silent to collect her following statement as swiftly as she could. After forming those thoughts, the captain sought to calm her down, “Look, I’m not perfect myself. Did you catch anything after that?” Once Lightning Dust shook her head, Spitfire knew she could continue, “I misspoke. The media hammered me for days after that, saying how I had grown the personality of…I guess it may be more relevant to say you. I went straight to Equestria Nightly to clarify what I meant. When I said you ‘shoulnd’t think about others’, I meant that you shouldn’t think about what they have to say.”
It grew clear to Lightning as she began to clear away her tears, “that’s why Rainbow Dash left, because she knew listening to someone who was pushing them too far would have gone against your beliefs.”
“As long as you feel that’s the case,” even the leader knew it was an appropriate time to joke around. At least now she could earn a smile from the counterpart.
“I’ve got to stop taking on my dad’s personality, that’s gotten me into trouble too many times,” Lightning Dust admitted.
“‘Struck’ us all with his fiery attitude, that little bolt.”
The aquamarine mare couldn’t help but giggle at the pun on his name; from the name, Lightning Strike, and the organization itself. “Listen,” Dust motioned, “I might as well apologize for…”
“Hey, remember who you’re talking to,” Spitfire commented, “The one who had to deal with an earth pony’s rage. I may not be familiar with their anger, but I've seen a pegasus or two with similar frustration. At least I knew where he was coming from.”
Although Lightning felt the talk was more likely given to calm her down, there was a sense of pride that fluttered back to her, “Spitfire, if there’s anything I can do before I depart, let me know.”
It came too abrupt for comprehension at first, “We’re going to give Rainbow Dash your lead pony badge.”
“Fine by me.”
She was about to place the golden clouded bolt on the desk, but Spitfire held out her hoof to hold back the blank gesture, “I said we are going to do it. Leave it on the uniform; I’ll need it when we confront her about your actions.”
“Why couldn’t I just hand it to you? Wouldn’t it be easier?” the words weren’t given in frustration, the once determined soul would now witness her pride being shot execution style. While she accepted her fate, she still felt disappointed at how it had to happen.
A head swish followed suit, “As credible as it could be to just give the badge, it would be of no use too just hand it to Rainbow Dash. In theory, I could have given her a new one instead.”
Lightning Dust understood, “I follow, ma’am. Shall we get going?”
“Might as well,” replied Spitfire as she rose from the desk, “we should get going if we want to catch Rainbow before she leaves, I wanted to talk to her before she left my office, but she had already been in that stubborn frame of mind and closed the door before I could get to her.”
“Then, why’d you wait this long?”
“Do you seriously think she came here with nothing? A little gross if you ask me. I’d prefer a cadet who at least brushes their teeth.”
Lightning Dust was enjoying the time with Spitfire; it was a mutual agreement of departure as opposed to a straight-up firing of her previous generation. She could only muster two words, meek in tone, but strong in meaning, “Thanks, Spitfire.”
“Don’t sweat it, kid,” breaking her formal tone for the first time in the conversation, “I think since us pegasai are up in the clouds so often, we’ve kind of developed airheads of our own.”
“Some denser than others,” and Lightning Dust had finally made a joke she knew Spitfire had no choice but to give an audible snort at, oh, how it was so relatable to both sides.
“True that,” and with that, she opened the door and began to walk into the hallway. She could see her companion’s head drooped down, with her downward ears emphasizing the action, “Dust,” she called out, perking up the ears, and slightly the head as well, “you understand you can take the academy training again at a later date, right.”
Shocked to new levels, all Lightning Dust could do was shake her head from side to side once more.
“May want to wait a year, though. Aside from the fact that’s your probation period from the academy, I see potential. My only suggestion is that, and this is rare advice, you may want to dim down your training. You saw what over preparing did for you.”
“Yes ma’am,” she saluted.
“Alright then. Now let’s get going, you have some dignity that you need to surrender.”
With that, Lightning Dust nodded and took one last look at the badge on her chest. In just a few moments, it would be torn from her uniform. What she had worked for the longest time on would disappear right within her forced view, but at least some pride, she felt, could be redeemed. While she would be stripped of her status, she heard from Spitfire herself that a return would be possible in the long run. For now, however, she had to face the firing squad of dignity. There would be no deaths from the shots, but the recovery would result in a longer timeline of pain. To follow, she hoped it would all lead to an infinitely longer period of serenity. It might require attending another academy session, but she knew Lightning Dust would appear in the program of a future show if she worked hard enough – or rather, soft enough – to reach the goal.