The offices of the Wonderbolts Academy were barren, everypony from recruits, visitors, to even the Wonderbolts themselves had left. Save one... Rainbow Dash. She was behind on her weekly reports and was the last one to leave. This was always the most boring part of the week for her. She wanted to be out there flying, not cooped up in an office with paperwork. She had never thought this is what her dream would become. She thought back to nearly a month ago, when she became a Wonderbolt; she had never been so happy. When it finally happened, she had bounced up and down with excitement and wouldn't stop saying, "Oh my gosh!" Now, she was starting to have doubts. Sitting at a desk filling out weekly reports about nothing other than flight practices with Soarin was hardly as glamorous as she had imagined. She was barely staying awake from the boredom this caused her.
"S'up, Dash?" a voice called. She looked up to see Soarin standing in front of her desk with a grin on his face.
"Oh, just filling out these reports," she replied in an uninterested tone.
"Ah, well Spitfire and I have something we'd like you to do when you’re finished."
"What's that?" she replied with a confused tone. Soarin laughed, which just made her more befuddled.
"Just hurry your flank with those reports, OK? Oh, and bring your flight suit, you'll need it," he said with a smile.
Rainbow's boredom was quickly replaced by boundless energy and excitement. Whatever this was, it beat reports by a mile!
"Sure thing, Soarin!" she exclaimed.
After about a minute, she slammed the report into the mail tray to Canterlot, ran as fast as she could to the locker room, slipped on her Wonderbolts flight suit, and dashed for the front door. Outside, Soarin and Spitfire were talking amongst themselves but ceased as they saw Rainbow dart out through the door and towards them.
"Glad you managed to survive those reports, Dash," Spitfire said with a laugh.
"Nothing a Wonderbolt can't handle," Dash replied. Spitfire smiled, obviously pleased to hear Dash's reply.
"Oh yeah? Well, follow us, and try to keep up," Spitfire said confidently. Dash gave her a confident grin back and opened her wings.
Spitfire flew off into the night sky with Soarin and Rainbow Dash close behind her. It was near pitch black, the moon was nowhere to be found, but Dash wasn't about to show weakness in front of these two. They flew for about 30 minutes and covered miles upon miles until finally Dash asked…
"Where are we going?"
Silence fell upon them as nopony said a word.
"Should we tell her, Spitfire?" Soarin finally asked.
"It's a surprise, Dash," Spitfire said as if the question annoyed her. Soarin just laughed.
"Perhaps we could, you know, surprise her now and not next week," he blurted out. Dash was confused but she just kept her mouth shut and followed Spitfire. The captain of the Wonderbolts seems irritated about something, but Dash couldn't put her hoof on what it might be or why. Furthermore, if she was irritated, why was she going to surprise her? Rainbow's confusion only grew as the trio continued flying.
"What?" Soarin said slowing a little bit, now even with Rainbow Dash.
"What's wrong?" Rainbow asked. Soarin wiped his face with his hoof.
"Is it raining?" Soarin asked confused.
"No, can't be. The pegasus ponies had a clear sky scheduled for tonight," Spitfire interjected.
Then, as if Spitfire's words provoked it, a bolt of lightning shot down in front of her. She panicked and dove out of the way. Dash, nearly losing sight of Spitfire in the confusion, tried to keep up with her captain. The rain had picked up tremendously now and was pelting her wings, making it not only hard to fly but hard to stay in the sky at all. She tried to stay calm and find a trace of her fellow Wonderbolts when Soarin appeared in front of her as if he teleported there.
"Rainbow, Come on!" he yelled, trying his hardest not to be tuned out by the rain and thunder.
He didn't wait for an answer, grabbing her hoof and flying as fast as he could. Rainbow kept her eyes closed, even if she opened them, it was near impossible to see anything more than simply her hooves in front on her face.
Then, a huge, ear-ringing clap of thunder sounded.
Dash’s hoof slipped free from Soarin's... he was gone. She had never been afraid of storms before, but now was an exception. As a weather pony, it was her duty to schedule them, but this storm was different. It was pitch black, too loud to even think and, to top it all off, she was alone. Rainbow did the only thing that she could do and sped ahead in the direction Soarin was headed. She flew as fast as she could in this kind of condition. Then she saw it, a flash of light as bright as lightning itself, and it was heading right at her.
Everything happened so fast that one moment she was flying, the next she was out cold... falling to the earth below.