Rainbow Dash’s capacity to keep secrets depended on a few details, the main one usually being if it was related to her idols the Wonderbolts or not.
Despite being told to keep her entry into the ECRL a secret, she had barely been around her friends for more than five minutes before she told them every single detail she knew. Unsurprisingly, Twilight had given her a mountain of books about the ECRL’s history while Fluttershy surprised everyone by revealing her father had taken her to the race in Cloudsdale a few times. Dash had been to the race too to see the Wonderbolts before tuning the race out, unless one of the local racers was winning.
The whole time, Rarity had been in some sort of trance that included an almost constant amazed gasping. When she snapped out of it, she practically demanded Dash allowed her to sponsor her so she could go to Maneaco. It seemed there was a famous fashion show there every year that coincided with the race.
All that was months ago now before Health’s Warming and Winter Wrap Up and now Rainbow Dash stood with Rarity and Applejack on a chilly train station platform in Ponyville, the former laid out on the sofa she seemingly took everywhere with her while the latter kept an eye on Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo.
Today was the day her team mates were arriving in Ponyville ahead of starting their training. Fleetfoot was accompanying Lightning Dust, Concorde and Maffett, along with two additional ponies who were apparently going to be her’s and Dust’s ‘spotters’
“Remind me, where are these ponys staying?” Applejack asked out of the blue.
“I thought I told you, or did all that cider get to you?” Dash replied, giving her friend a nudge and a cheeky grin.
“I might have asked when you were starting to fall over.” AJ smiled back before quickly glancing over at the fillys. They were asking questions of a couple of ponies in anoraks at the far end of the station. Rarity seemed to come out of whatever ‘fabulous trance’ she seemed to live in and noticed the fillys.
“Oh, there is no way any sister of mine is going to be a train spotter!” She suddenly exclaimed before going to retrieve Sweete Belle. Dash and AJ just laughed as Rarity went on about how horrible anoraks were.
“Come on sugar cube,” AJ continued, wiping a tear from her eye. “Where they staying?”
“The Old Windmill.” Dash replied. “Apparently Concorde’s sponsor bought the place.”
“Wow, that’s a mighty fine place. I was wondering if any pony would buy it out after it was re-done.”
“There it is!” Shouted one of the anorak ponies from down the station, drawing their attention. They could now see in the distance the familiar cloud created by a steam train heading towards them.
For a while, she had thought the train would be late but it seemed, judging by the speed of the cloud of steam approaching, the train was a heck of a lot faster than normal. It seemed to be exciting the anoraks as they leapt up and down and cheered gleefully. Applebloom and Scootaloo joined them, though kept exchanging confused glances.
Soon, the train pulled into the station in a huge cloud of smoke. The mighty blue, streamlined train didn’t have the usual cow catcher or enormous funnel, but the name ‘Mallard’ was written on a plaque on its side. The anoraks started pouring over the engine as Applebloom and Scootaloo glances excitedly at their flanks, their faces turning to disappointment before they joined Sweete Belle with their heads hung.
Rainbow Dash made her way down the platform as the anoraks rushed past to have a closer look at the Engine, looking for the right carriage, which was difficult with all the steam. She couldn’t quite see through the carriage windows and kept glancing down to platform to make sure she wasn’t going to bump into someone. Eventually though, she glanced up and noticed a familiar scarlet mane.
“Looking for someone?” Concorde smiled.
“Maybe. You haven’t seen a weird looking Pegasus with stupid hair, have you?” Rainbow asked sarcastically.
“Fleet’s over there.” Concorde smiled, not realising she was walking up behind him and heard. After a moment he realized she was there and smiled innocently at her.
“Corde, go and get the bags.” Fleetfoot said simply.
“On it, boss mare!” He saluted before disappearing into the smoke.
“Good to see you, Rainbow Dash.” Fleetfoot said, though a note of annoyance was in her voice as she turned to Applejack. “You must be the owner of the Sweet Apple Aches.”
“That’s right, ma’am.” Applejack smiled before shaking Fleetfoot’s hoof. Rainbow Dash had suggested AJ be allowed to sponsor the team as well in exchange for catering. The Apples had very coyly suggested the idea before Applebloom threw subtlety out of the window and begged Dash to let them and Fleet was annoyed Dash had so easily let knowledge of the team slip out, though it had least not travelled any further.
“Ah, finally! I hate being cooped up in trains.” Somepony exclaimed out of the smoke. The source soon appeared, revealing it was Lightning Dust. “Dash.”
“Dust.” Dash nodded. She didn’t like sitting around in train carriages either, but she could at least tolerate it with her friends.
“Before we go anywhere Dash, I have to introduce you to your spotter.” Fleet said, turning to look back down the platform as the last of the steam cleared away.
“My hooves, not my head!” Concorde was exclaiming at an open door, from where a suitcase came flying out and into his not quite ready hooves.
“Don’t worry Corde, that’s the last of them.” Maffett said, hoping off the train as Concorde put the suit case into the overly full cart next to him. She was followed out by two dark unicorns with moustaches who seemed to look the same from where Dash was standing.
“Ratchet, Spanner?” Fleet called over to the unicorns, who turned and walked over. For a moment, Dash thought she was going mad as both the unicorns looked completely identical.
“Ratchet, Spanner, this is Rainbow Dash.” Fleetfoot said, reassuring Dash that she wasn’t the only one seeing double.
“It’s nice to finally meet you.” One of them said as he stepped forwards and offered his hoof. Dash shook it, though she wasn’t sure if he was Ratchet or Spanner.
“Ratchet will be your spotter.” Fleet added, again reassuring Dash. Ratchet’s moustache appeared to flare out slightly, so she made a mental note of the feature.
“Right, awesome to meet you too.” Dash grinned back, not one hundred percent sure what a spotter was though she at least had a vague idea. She hadn’t read the ECRL rules in any detail, but Twilight probably mentioned it about three times while Dash wasn’t paying attention as the unicorn did her usual research.
“Well, if we’re all here…” Fleet started, tailing off as she looked around. Maffett came trotting over with Concorde in slow pursuit as he fought to pull a cart full of suit cases, bags and a couple guitars.
“Don’t look surprised. This whinging mare wouldn’t have pulled it.” Concorde said, Maffett looking amused.
“But it’s always the big, strong stallion that carries the bags.” She smiled back, her voice dripping was sarcasm.
“Well I’d like to know where he is, it would save me the job.”
“You could have split that between a few carts.” Spanner commented, the huge pile of bags looking like it would fall over at any second.
“Couldn’t find anymore, it’s not exactly Princess’ Cross here.”
“I could solve that little problem for you.” Applejack injected.
***
Ten minutes later, the group made its way across Ponyville towards the old Windmill. Applejack had enlisted her brother Big Macintosh to pull the cart and the other ponies were amazed he could so easily pull it, not to mention keep it from bouncing about even on the uneven ground. Concorde still insisted on carrying his two guitars while the fillys had disappeared towards some other caper after AJ encouraged them away from the precarious pile of bags.
The Windmill was a freshly refurbished building with a small adjoined barn giving the whole building plenty of living space. The lights were naturally off as no pony had been in since it was bought by who turned out to be Concorde’s father.
“So what does he do?” Dash asked him as he rummaged around in one of his bags for the key.
“He’s an aeronautic engineer and runs Bristol Aerospace. If you’ve ever seen a powered glider around her, it’s likely one he made.”
“Where is Whitbay, by the way?” Rarity asked as the piles of bags lurched worryingly.
“About 50 miles north of Manehattan. It’s almost like the place is a secondary port for stuff that would take too long to get through the big apple.” Maffett replied.
“Ah ha!” Concorde suddenly remarked as he pulled the key from the bag.
“So what are you expecting, Corde?” Maffett randomly asked as he unlocked the door.
“No pony’s been here in ages, so empty.” He replied as he turned the handle.
He was immediately blasted off his hooves as the door exploded open in a cloud of confetti. A series of party horns blew as Pinkie Pie jumped out of the door, her front hooves in the air and a party hat on her head.
“Welcome wagon!” She practically screamed at the completely bemused ponies, several other ponies inside the house cheering. Rainbow had been wondering where Pinkie was and wasn’t even vaguely surprised she was here.
“Er, thanks?” Concorde offered as he sat confused while Maffett and Lightning Dust just burst out laughing at the bizarre spectacle.
Rainbow Dash smiled. There wasn’t any better way for ponies to be welcomed to Ponyville then with one of Pinkie’s parties. The hyperactive earth pony quickly gathered up the seven new comers and pushed them inside where they found the whole enormous lounge and adjoined kitchen decorated with balloons, party streamers and ribbons while at least half the town had squeezed into the room to greet them.
Pinkie soon got about introducing everypony at high speed as DJ P0N3 started playing some music. Rainbow would have been surprised if they remembered any of the names Pinkie rattled off so quickly even she couldn’t keep up.
“So what do you think of them?” Rarity asked as she squeezed in. Fluttershy joined them as she avoided being pushed in front of the new ponies.
“I don’t know. They’re alright, I guess.” Rainbow replied after a moment’s thought. Lightning Dust seemed to keep trying to sneak out of the middle of the room with no real luck, seemingly more out of impatience than anything else. The others seemed happy to let Pinkie introduce everyone, though it was clear they probably wouldn’t remember a tenth of the names.
“Well, Concorde is certainly cute in a boyish way.” Rarity observed, catching Rainbow and Fluttershy by surprise, though they weren’t entirely sure why they were surprised.
“I wasn’t even considering him that way. I just think he’s a quick Pegasus with a stupid accent.”
“But his accent is so charming! It’s not quite as nice as an Anglican accent but it’s still lovely.”
“Ehm, Rainbow, did you say they were from Whitbay?” Fluttershy asked, a question Rainbow was glad to focus on instead.
“Yeah.”
“I wonder if they’ve ever met a giant whale or a sea turtle as they live on the coast, maybe even dolphins or seals!” Fluttershy said, getting more excited. “I’ve always wanted to meet such beautiful creatures.”
“Well, if you ask, let us know how it goes.” Rainbow replied with a sly smile, knowing her friend likely wouldn’t find the courage to.
The party continued for a few hours before Fleetfoot insisted her team be given time to unpack and get comfortable in their new home ahead of beginning their work in the morning. The Ponyville residence were very understanding and helped them move their stuff in before leave, Concorde replying in kind by helping DJ P0N3 unplug and pack up her equipment before leaving.
Rainbow left after they were settled and headed home. The next day would be the start of her rise to the ranks of the Wonderbolts for sure.